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This post is not strictly to do with blogging beginners . I think I was Stumbling – I just don’t remember – but I found this post a few days ago and just had to share it.

It’s called 39 Ways To Live And Not Merely Exist and is written by Leo Babauta.

As you know I seldom read complete articles (I bore very easily but also have too much to do!) but I read every word of Leo’s post.

Do you ever get caught with that feeling -”what’s it all about?” or “why am I doing this?”

I’ve been feeling really negative towards financial services of late – I won’t bore you with the reasons – suffice to say I’m sick of “holier than thou” beauracratic heads of psuedo Government departments who are inept, overpaid pipsqueaks! I think you get my point!

Back to Leo. I started reading his post about 39 Ways To Live and it got me thinking that we are all really chasing a dream but most of us get totally caught up in day to day life that we just don’t enjoy the journey.

If you ever feel discouraged, bored with your lot or just need some inspiration take a trip over to Leo’s post. I think you’ll like it.

Come back here and tell me your favourite out of his 39 points.

Mine are points 1 to 39 except 29, 31 & 33  (none of which do I indulge in anyway!)

I heard some really sad news today.

Maggie's Avatar

An online friend, known to Randy too through his Marketing Beginners site, named Maggie sadly passed away.

I didn’t really know Maggie, in fact we never met.

But, she was in her own way an inspiration to me and I know she was to several other people she befriended.

She never actually made it big with her blogging but she never, ever gave up.

She found many of the technicalities a trial but she’d ask the questions, roll up her sleeves and do just what she needed to do.

I convinced her at one stage that she should use WordPress and although this was another big obstacle for her to get around she succeed in getting to grips with the technology and put up several good blogs.

She struggled with her own health and helping others was a joy to her. She would encourage everybody even when she was finding the going tough.

I’m pleased to have known Maggie, albeit from a distance, but I’m really sad she never got her blogs to the place she wanted.

If she was still her I know she would have got there with time.

Peace be with you Maggie.

One of our Blogging Beginner members, David The Coolest Solar Guy, kindly posted this comment to my post about Privacy Statements.

It makes very interesting reading so I thought I should make it a full post so everyone sees it rather than having it hidden away just as a comment.

Thanks David.

I was surprised the other day when I got this email from Google AdSense team asking publishers to update their websites privacy policy and include the use of interest-based advertising.

It took me by surprise, because never in the past have any advertisers asked users to update their privacy policies. Seems that the changes are related to the DoubleClick DART cookies, that will be stored on users computers who visit websites displaying Google AdSense ads. The email asks users to update their privacy policy before April 8th 2009.

Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a users previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “sports enthusiast”). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network.

As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the “sports enthusiast” interest category. To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310

As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your sites privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009.

Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, were unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.”

AdSense publishers will now have to add-in a new policy that tells users about these changes, but is it really the publishers job? What is your take on this? Do you think Google has the right to tell publishers to update their privacy policy?

Hope this is some help. I have another link for a privacy policy I believe it’s weblaw but I think the sources above are adequate. Now I better get busy and add these to my sites right????

So now you know!

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Image by Eduardo Amorim via Flickr

Lately I’ve been hacked off with far too many people – and then I met Joan Hughes.

Well, actually I haven’t met her in the traditional sense – she got in touch with me and we exchanged a few emails.

But I’m jumping the gun.

I said I’ve been getting hacked off with people. As some of you may know my full time “day job” is a business that I run as a financial adviser. Over the past few months my already low opinion of the quality of staff working for banks, insurance companies and investment companies has reached an all time low. It wasn’t hard to reach those depths from where they started but given the perilous state of the economy and those organisations you’d expect them to be going out of their way to provide an outstanding service.

Nothing of the sort. They’ve become less helpful to the point of rudeness. They lie, they cheat and they tell you anything to get you off of the phone!

So, my faith in humanity (present company excepted, of course) has taken a beating.

And then along came Joan Hughes.

If you have a website with a link that doesn’t work would you expect the person who clicked on it to let you know? I wouldn’t. It’s just one of those things.

The internet is littered with broken links. Never mind – let’s move on.

But not Joan. She took the trouble to email me to let me know not one but several links were broken on one of my sites. But not only did she tell me that she also prepared a list of the links that didn’t work AND one where the page has obviously been removed to be replaced by a hosting company “holding” page.

Wow. That’s fantastic. I could have left those links broken forever (OK, I know I should regularly check these things).

What actually happened was I’d transferred the domain to another hosting company and one of the folders didn’t upload properly. And, Mr Do What I Say not What I Do hadn’t bothered to check it was all working OK afterwards.

So my faith in human nature has been restored today and by somebody who could be the other side of the world for all I know and somebody I’ve never met to boot!

A quick visit to Joan Hughes Internet Marketing Tips and a social bookmarking of some sort would be much appreciated to help me thank Joan.

Thanks again Joan.