There’s a Blog in my Soup

IF you’re not aware - my wife and I just bought our first home. This is huge since we’ve had months in the past two years where it has been hard to come up with our rent, without borrowing from relatives. Due to hard times our credit was shot, but thanks to the housing crisis - foreclosures are plentiful.

We bought a triplex about 1 mile from Case Western Reserve College. It only cost us $3,000 - yes it needs about 5-10,000 in repairs but it appraises over 100,000 and is in ok shape all things considered.

Needs some drainage pipes fixed, fireplaces need repaired, porch and flooring need fixed, but can’t complain for $3000. I’ve never bought a car cheaper than $3,000. My rent for 1 year was around $8000.

Now that we don’t have a rent payment we can afford to put money into fixing up this house. I’m hoping to eventually use it for college housing, or sell it and upgrade to a nicer home for my wife and me. Either way it’s nice to know we went from renting to owning a home - outright in a month’s time.

There’s a huge piece of mind that comes from owning your own place - especially when you don’t even have to pay for a mortgage. I highly recommend it to anyone out there. If you’d like to find a foreclosure you should check out homesteps by freddie mac. It’s a free listing of homes in forclosure anywhere from $700 - $200,000.

I’m glad we made it here - we moved from Utah - we went through Denver on Monday - and just heard on the news that there’s a big Tornado rolling through Denver, CO. That’s just crazy. Kinda hard to believe we were just there. I tell ya, moving from Cedar City, UT to Cleveland, OH has been a huge ordeal - I’m glad it’s almost over, and will be extra glad when the house is fixed up a bit and fit for living.

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TNX - pronounced ‘thanx’, as in sms texting language is an up and coming Text-Link Exchange marketplace.

The premise behind TNX is that by increasing the amount of ‘quality’ links coming into your website, you will also increase your search engine rankings, and thus get more traffic.

It’s a good practice when using services like these not to disclose the fact that you are using them as google frowns at the practice. As a rebellious blogger though and not a fan of being told what I can / can’t do - I recommend giving them a try - both as a monetary source as well as a source for more traffic.

One thing I like is that they have a market where you can buy / sell / trade TNX points - you could also give them away in contests and what not. It’s like a liquid commodity, and personally I like them a lot better than Text-Link-Ads.

They do offer full-control over what kind of links are placed on your site, as well as what kind of sites your links show up on.

If you’re looking for an affordable method of ranking higher in google and a new way to make some money online go ahead and give TNX links a try - and when you’re done swing on over and let me know how well they’re working for you - I would also like some tips to share here on how to use them more effectively if you have any - feel free to leave a comment.

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I’ve chosen the cities that we will be stopping in. We will take any blogger in the state as long as they are able to meet us at the chosen city.

I do apologize for any who would like to be interviewed but cannot meet us in these destinations, but we have picked them as they are logistically the best cities to visit in order to save as much gas as we can.

I’ve already calculated the trip being around 15,000 miles, and costing at least $3,500 just in gas alone.

As such  - Donations are GREATLY welcomed. Just send money via paypal to:
yourstruly AT patrickcurl DOT com

We are splitting the trip up into two blocks to take a small break /  breather.

Without further adieu here are the cities that we’ve picked:

First Leg:
Starting in Cleveland, OH.
1. Erie, PA
2. Buffalo, NY - We’d like to do the interview @ Niagra Falls if possible.
3. Toronto, ON
4. Montreal, QC
5. Montpelier, VT
6. Manchester, NH
7. Portland, ME
8. Boston, MA
9. Providence, RI
10. Hartford, CT
11. Trenton, NJ
12. Wilmington, DE
13. Baltimore, MD
14. Washington, DC
15. Richmond, VA
16. Raleigh, NC
17. Columbia, SC
18. Atlanta, GA
19. Tallahassee, Fl
20. Mobile, AL
21. New Orleans, LA
22. Jackson, MS
23. Little Rock, AR
24. Memphis, TN
25. Lexington, KY
26. Huntington, WV

Ending in Cleveland, OH

Second Leg:
Starting from Cleveland, OH.
1. Lansing, MI
2. Fort Wayne, IN
3. Chicago, IL
4. Milwaukee, WI
5. Minneapolis, MN
6. Sioux Falls, Sd
7. Omaha
8. Kansas City, MO
9. Wichita, KS
10. Oklahoma City, OK
11. Amarillo, Tx
12. Albuquerque, NM
13. Denver, CO
14. Cheyenne, Wy
15. Pocatello, ID
16. Salt Lake City
17. Cedar City - Camping w/ Relatives
18. Flagstaff, AZ
19. San Francisco, CA
20. Portland, OR
21. Seattle, WA
22. Vancouver, BC
23. Calgary, AB
24. Billings, MT
25. Bismark, ND
26. Winnipeg, MB

Ending in Cleveland, OH.

We are also selling small vinyl stickers on our car - they are going to be just a little bigger than a standard mouse, and will take up any free space on our car that isn’t covered by our sponsor(which we are announcing soon - this company is an awesome new company with great potential).

If interested send us a graphic / logo you would like to use - Each vinyl sticker will cost approximately $50 and will also include free 125×125 ads.

I’d also like to thank everyone who’s still following this trip - believe it or not - not only are we planning this cross country voyage but we’re moving cross country in the process - we just bought a house in Cleveland and are moving from Utah this coming week. So please bare with me if I’m not updating daily, as we will be unable to really update while on the road (getting our laptop soon).

We are totally excited to get this trip launched - if our sponsor agrees to the expenses I sent in - we will be on the road most likely June 2nd.

Best way to stay updated is of course to follow me on twitter: user = patrickcurl

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As you may or may not be aware(if this is your first time to my blog) - I’m embarking on a journey of a lifetime. Perhaps the first of many such journeys.

I am going to be interviewing 1 blogger in EACH of the 50 states.
(Now the 10 major provinces of Canada too!)

Recently, I’ve put out calls for sponsors, and I’m very close to closing a contract with an awesome sponsor - I don’t want to layout all the details just yet - you’ll have to stay tuned to learn more about this great web2.0 company and what they have to offer.

The exciting thing is with their support we will be able to get this launched a lot quicker.

Which means I need your help - at our sponsor’s suggestion we’ve decided to not only hit ALL 50 states, but ALSO all the Provinces of Canada as well.

Each blog will be featured on video sharing sites across the internet, podcasting directories, etc… This is truly the power of synergy - each blog accepted will also be linking back to the project and it will snowball.

We need more bloggers - it’s easy as pie to enter and you will get a ton of exposure for your blog.

Step 1 - Go to: http://www.thereseabloginmysoup.com/directory/

Step 2 - Click on the state / or province that you live in.

Step 3 - Click the link that says “Insert your link here”

Submit your link to our directory  - we will be choosing blogs when we have at least 2 blogs per state / province - Show your State / Provincial Pride Today!

We are also going to be collecting some cool ’swag’ from the bloggers we interview - as well as other souvenirs that we pick along the way - and will be holding some tight contests to give away our road-trip swag, after we return.

You know the beauty of this is it all started because of Twitter. Twitter truly is an amazing tool.

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Extreme-gamer.info is a new website for extreme gamers. Currently it features a sample of feeds from all of the best gaming blogs on the internet.

There’s also a lot of free downloads of games that you can play on your pc. Plus some mobile games that you can load to your cellphone, and an ebay feed showing you only the hottest video game related items from ebay.

Other features will be released as I see a need.

This is basically a prototype - please let me know your suggestions on things I can add or change, and as this blog is about making money - let me know your opinions on the advertising I have setup.

Extreme gamer features only the best wii news, xbox 360 news, and ps3 news on the block.

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I’ve been working on a Niche Site - I’ve tried joomla, wordpress and moveable type in an effort to basically create a conglomeration of info plus add an ebay store.

I’ve basically been testing and trying different methods. Nothing was looking the way I wanted it.

So I found a method using rss to simply create a portal related to my Niche, and that’s what I’ve done.

It is a little ad heavy - and afterall the point is to make money. However it also delivers up to the minute rss feeds, related videos, etc…

I would definitely like some creative criticism as this small Niche site is actually part of a much bigger plan to come that is going to be pretty huge. Let me know your thoughts.

I appreciate your time checking it out. The website is: UsedPalmPdas.com

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Cashquests by Kumiko used to be a wonderful asset for marketers. Kumiko had ton of great insights. But alas she has become just another sell out.

You know you’ve hit rock bottom when you’re recommending people to go to “Get Paid Survey Sites“.

Seriously - I’ve tried that and I’m sure most of us have, and they are not worth your time or money. Get Paid Survey Sites are a total waist of money.

I think it’s disgusting that the person who took over Cashquests is recommending Get Paid Survey Sites, obviously they aren’t making money or they wouldn’t be suggesting Get Paid Survey Sites as a viable way to make money.

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Yeah - I’ll say it. I’m an Obama backer - after the whole war and 9-11 fiasco I’d go base-jumping with out a parachute before voting for a republican, or Hillary Clinton.

Listen to what Hillary told O’Reilly, about how the rich deserve to be more blessed than the poor.

Here’s what Mccain says about the Iraq war being a war for Oil.

So who do we vote for?
My vote is for Obama - but even he doesn’t have a good answer about the economic situation we’re getting into.

I think America as a whole is one large titanic and the iceberg is just around the bend. Call me pessimistic but something big is coming and it’s not going to be fun.

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