ah ok lah

29 December 2006

Performancing acquired by Payperpost

If you take a look at the side bar on the right of my blog, you will notice that on top of the lists of partners is a button saying "Advertise here". Clicking on it will take you to a page telling you how to advertise on my blog. This service is provided by Performancing.com, which I had recently joined.

I couldn't believe it when I read today that PayPerPost has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire certain assets of the company, which owns and operates Performancing.com. This includes the domain name - Performancing.com, Performancing Metrics and Performancing Exchange.

"Performancing Metrics" refer to their completely FREE professional blog statistics service, which is aimed at professional bloggers (am I professional?). It gives detailed statistics about posts and even comments for multiple blogs. I hope Payperpost keeps it free.

I feel that this is a great strategic move on the part of PayPerPost, especially as
Performancing.com has a membership of about 28,000 users, most of whom are bloggers. These are all potential users of PayPerPost.

However, this acquisition does not include the Partners ad network nor PFF, their free blog editor for Firefox. This I read, would be moved to a new brand.

In case you didn't know (where were you hiding under anyway) PayPerpost is a Florida based company that acts as a marketplace for advertisers who are willing to pay bloggers for writing about their products and other stuff in their blogs.

28 December 2006

Is your landlord Pakistani

Every Malaysian family renting a house in Coventry (and Birmingham) that I know of, has a Pakistani landlord. By Pakistani, I mean British citizen of Pakistani descent or ethnicity.

I guess there is a perfectly simple reason for that. It's a symbiotic relationship - their rents are among the lowest here and the Malaysian don't like to make much of a fuss.

Our own landlord's father was born in Pakistani Kashmir (called Pakistan occupied Kashmir by the Indians and Azad (free) Kashmir by the Pakistanis. Every one tells us that we are really lucky to have a nice landlord and I guess we are, after hearing some of the horror stories.

I just wonder whether this is the same in other parts of the UK.

NOTE: In the UK, the term "Paki" is considered derogatory, offensive and racist when spoken by non-Pakistanis. However, this term is commonly used by a lot of whites to refer to anyone from the South-Asia including Indians and Bangladeshis and as one of my friends found out, even Malays are included.

Tags: Coventry Landlord Pakistani

27 December 2006

Boxing day at the Bullring

Haven't gone out in a while and feeling bored, we decided to drive down to Birmingham. We bundled the kids and drove to the Bullring. Located in Birmingham city centre, it has over 160 shops and more than 25 restaurants.

There are 3,100 car parking spaces at the Bullring (900 in Indoor Market car park, 1,000 in Bullring car park and 1,200 in Moor Street car park) but every single space was taken. Had to go round the place a couple of times before we finally got a parking at the Moor Street car park. The building looks like some kind of alien spaceship.

There were a lot of discounts on branded stuff and as expected, the place was packed with people. I had wanted to look for a new pair of jeans but it was so crowded, I gave up. We had coffee at Starbucks (first time since we arrived here in the UK) and watched people go by. Our friend Amrul was there too (all the way from Nottingham) with his friends.

After spending a few hours in the Bullring, we set on our journey back to Coventry. I would have loved to further explore the place but the crowds were getting to us and you had to remember we had kids.

I don't know why but after we got back home, I had a severe headache and a mild fever (probably caused by my sore throat). A paracetamol tablet and a few hours sleep and I am on my feet again ...... and blogging.

Tags: Birmingham Bullring Shopping

25 December 2006

Photography contest

If you love taking photographs as much I do, and fancy yourself as something of a good photographer, I think you might find this piece of news interesting.

PhotographyCorner.com is organising the 2006 Photograph of the Year Contest. With over $14,000 in prizes available to win, anyone who has a camera can join in. Check out the prizes here.

The first prize has an estimated value of $3,639.95. This includes $250 cash, a copy of ImageAlign Pro (including a CD copy) courtesy of ImageAlign (Value: $159) and loads of other stuff.

In case you didn’t know, ImageAlign PRO is the flagship product of Grasshopper (Lead sponsor of the contest). It uses breakthrough technology to correct lens and barrel distortion and covers any natural perspective distortions or special effects distortion, using an intuitive user interface.

View the other sponsors of the contest.

However, before Submitting a Photograph, make sure you read the rules. For example, before you can send in your entry for the competition, You must be a member, in good standing and with at least 5 posts, of the PhotographyCorner.com Forums.

I have never entered a photograph competition. I have to say, I am really tempted to join this one.

The contest began on the 19th of December 2006 and runs until the end of January, 2007. View the Timeline of the contest for more info.

Hurry! The last date for entries is midnight, GMT on Friday, January 12th, 2007.
*Sponsored post*

Tags: Contest Photography photographycorner

Miss Roti Chanai

Sourced from LensaMalaysia.

This morning, we were about to have breakfast and I asked my wife what she wanted. 'Roti Chanai', she replied.

"I love roti chanai," my daughter added.

It used to be on my regular breakfast menu along with a nice glass of 'teh tarik'. Now I don't remember the last time I had one and just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

It seems like we are all having a craving for roti chanai on Christmas day.

Now, where can I get roti chanai in Coventry?

For those who don't know, check out the Wikipedia page.

Tags: Roti chanai

PPP Ich liebe dich

There are a number of reasons I love payperpost (hereafter lovingly referred to as ppp). So given below are some of the reasons...

It is where I see blog marketing in action.
The first time I ever earned money directly from my blog posts was only after I joined ppp. I have been blogging for a long time (more than 3 years now) and never saw a dime come out of it before this. Now everybody can "get paid to blog about the things you love".
If I am not mistaken, they are also the people handing out the big monies. See "Big green" on the dashboard.

Why don't you try it out too (If you haven't)?

This is a sponsored post.