Thermal

I am reliably informed by Skittles, that De-Lurking week is about to finish. Lurkers are ever welcome people who visit a blog, but never comment.

But why not de-lurk? Go-on, just say hello. Link to your blog or website, or just say hi. Post a comment, don’t make me look silly by having this post with only one comment, and that’s by my wife ‘cos I made her do it to make me feel better….

I’ve had 1,144 visitors in the last 7 days - some of you must have something to say

Be nice to say hello, but even if you don’t, I’d love you to come back. Thanks.

If you’re stopping by to see if I’ve taken part, I have, but I thought I’d put it on my other blog today, so please pop over to Blog-Op and have a read.

Don’t forget to link to yours!

Just a quickie to let you know I have signed up to Blogvertise, and that subject to approval, I will be making the odd paid post provided by them. It runs on similar lines to the other paid schemes, only this time you are emailed opportunities, rather than having to search for them, and that you are given a fair time limit for writing your post. Once written, you contact Blogvertise to let them know and they will then approve your post for payment. Positive posts are not mandatory: you are given an assignment, whereby typically the only requirements are a 100 word minimum, plus 3 links to the site or service being discussed.
Time will tell how many opportunities I am sent, but an advantage to Blogvertise is that they set no minimum requirements for submission such as age, page rank etc. Anyone may submit & your blog will then be reviewed by a human to grant approval or not. Once approved, typical pay-outs range from $4-$25 depending on your rank. This does not mean Thermal will be covered in paid posts, but if I have more to choose from, I can post the same amount, but they will be less jarring than if I start writing about ladies underwear. This post was not paid for, and any future paid posts will be clearly identified.

Earn Income With Blogvertise

For those of you counting the new year calories I don’t know whether this site will be a help or just plain dispiriting: What Does 200 Calories Look Like?

That’s 200 calories of M&M’s for you. Or, ‘the first handful of many’ as far as I’m concerned….

Hello, thanks for visiting, can I ask you a few questions please?

1. Does my blog load fast enough, or are you left waiting? Please indicate your connection if you think it’s slow.
2. Are there too many, or not enough posts on the first page? I’ve chosen 10 for speed, but if everyone thinks its fast enough, I can increase it.
3. Is there anything you don’t like about the design of the blog? Anything that makes it hard to read, or is annoying (leaving aside my posts…)

Any answers & comments that help me improve this blog would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

This is quite a hot topic at the moment, what with Pay-Per-Post, Blogitive and now LoudLaunch.

My thoughts on it are quite simple: It’s a great idea, as long as it doesn’t spoil a blog. As you can see, I’ve joined LoudLaunch, and will join the others when my blog is old enough, to give me a greater choice of review topics. I will NOT turn Thermal into an ad-blog or Splog. I will attempt to maintain my unofficial target rate of around 5 ‘normal’ posts a day, with at most 3 paid posts. I will only post more paid, if I can post more ‘normal’ ones - this will be the maximum ratio. I encourage everyone to do it - we all have bills to pay, internet related or not. Any extra money will benefit my family.

I will steal an idea from Bobby Griffin, and put the following in all of my paid post titles from now on: [P] That way, if you really can’t stand the idea, you can just skip the post onto the next one. I read plenty of blogs with paid posts in, some of the posts I read ‘cos they’re interesting, others I don’t because they’re not. Just like normal posts really…

Comments would be most welcome.

Still 4 hours to go here in Scotland, I do find it bizarre that some people are currently in a different year. Like the ‘upside down’ map I posted the other day, it just goes to show that all of our absolute reality is just a matter of perception.

Anyway, are you in 2007 yet? I’m speaking to you from the past……

These creatures absolutely fascinate me: Cicada Invasion Begins.

Do any of you live in an areas where these guys show up once every 17 or 13 years? What a strange life cycle, to spend so long underground, pop up, mate & die. I would imagine a lot of their colonies have been built on in the past, as people forgot or didn’t care where they were.

Nature is cool.

I’ve been exploring the free services offered by FeedBurner, and this is quite a good one: Subscribe to this blog by email.

This form is now a permanent fixture in my sidebar, though the one in this post should work as well: Simply add your email address, click subscribe & once a day my latest posts will be emailed to you in a single mail for you to read when you want.

An inspirational message for this special time:

Don’t worry, it’ll soon be over

Thanks to everyone who visited & especially those that commented & linked to me. You’re all nice people. Have a great Christmas, however you choose to do it & I’ll look forward to hearing what you found in your stockings…

I won’t be switching my PC for at least 3 days (although I’ll be dreaming of it during Boxing day with the in-laws), so I should be back on the 27th, full of hot air as usual.

Merry Christmas!