Free Offers– Buyer Beware

These days I get a lot of email from marketing types ‘giving away’ PLR articles for $0.00. PLR or Private Label Rights articles as the name suggests, are write-ups on certain topics that you can put on your website or blogs. Since these PLR’s are very specific articles focusing on a particular niche, these can be very beneficial to a site owner. Moreover, the sheer number of these articles being offered guarantees fresh content for a very long time. And since these are being offered for ‘free’, it becomes a no-brainer for those offered to take advantage of the email sender’s generosity.

Unless you are that naïve, offers like this should ALWAYS be taken with a grain of salt. There are very few people who would give away something for free out of the goodness of their hearts. One has to always be on the lookout for the ‘catch’ or the ‘hidden charges’. Accepting seemingly generous offers blindly may prove disastrous in the long run.

Case in point are the ‘free offers’ I received, the PLR article offer for example. The email usually points to a single page website with a clear instruction to click on the download link and then put in the coupon code found in the email so that instead of the actual value to be paid, you will get the products for $0.00 instead. So far this is ok. You get the 100% discount coupon code and a very clear instruction on how and where to use it.

When you click on the provided link, you are transported to a website extolling the benefits of the product offered and how it will take you to the promised land of milk and honey (in this case, top Google rankings and endless revenue stream). You click on the download link and indeed, there’s the space provided for the coupon code. When you put in the code and hit enter, instead of the actual value, it now displays $0.00. But regardless of the zero amount, the site will still ask for your financial info; most of the time it will ask you whether to pay via PayPal or through your credit card. Since the amount to pay is $0.00, surely there’s no harm in putting in these information, right? Wrong! If you look closely at the new charge amount, there is another notation there. Although the final figure says $0.00, in the previous column, the charge says $xx.xx for every month thereafter unless cancelled.

Now this is something that you have to be on the lookout for. This is the twist in the tale as they say. And if you’re too blinded by the $0.00 and didn’t look at the charge sheet closely, you stand to lose $xx.xx at the very least. So the next time somebody knocks on your door bearing gifts, check under the covers, more often than not, it won’t be little red riding hood that you will see.

Kizuna (Winds) Satellite Internet Update

Looks like the Kizuna Satellite Internet project is moving along as planned. According to Jaxa, they have moved the Kizuna to a regular operation phase. A little more longer and this will become a reality for the entire Southeast Asia. Not sure about the Philippines though.

KIZUNA moved to regular operation phase

JAXA has been carrying out the initial functional verification of the onboard equipment of the “KIZUNA” in cooperation with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology for about three and half months since the KIZUNA was injected into its scheduled geostationary orbit (East longitude of about 143 degrees) on March 14, 2008. After we confirmed that all functions were normal, we completed the checks on all the equipment on June 27. On June 30, a review was held to determine if we should move onto the regular operation phase, and we decided to shift from the initial phase to the regular operation phase.

..full story here..

The Best Free Premium Wordpress Templates

Blogging Fashionista

As a blogger, I am always on the lookout for the latest and the coolest blog template—whether it’s a theme by wordpress or blogger. And when I say cool, I mean those templates that do not only have really awesome premium design; they don’t cost anything as well. As intimated in this blog before, I have an unnatural taste, a passion if you will, for premium blog templates. My blog must change its look at least once a month otherwise I’ll grow tired of it. Does that make me a blog fashionista then? Probably.

This is why purchasing a premium WordPress template is out of the question for me. I will only be wasting my money over something that I’ll grow weary of in no time. I will have to make do with whatever free blogger template I can find on the internet. But that’s too hard a phrase; making do I mean. The internet today is replete with awesome free blogging templates that, depending on your orientation and tastes, you can actually change the look of your blog every week or everyday depending on how much free time you have.

Searching For The One Free Template

The only problem with this approach is, the internet has so much data that if you don’t know what you are looking for, you could end up settling for the first free template that makes sense to you. Or worse, you’ll be so discouraged that you’re forced to dig deep into your pocket and buy a couple of premium wordpress templates. Which is a shame considering the number of hours you must have already spent scouring the alleys and backroads of the world wide web.

If you want good results in your search efforts, you need to wizen up and do your search properly. And proper searching should have an equally (if not more) exhaustive preparation. Ask yourself what it is that you are looking for. If you just think of free templates and type it in directly in google’s search box, the world wide web will throw everything at you including the kitchen sink. Thus it’s very important to be as specific as you can when you do your search. Don’t write a novel in the search box though. This guide may be of help when trying to refine your search.

Here’s a tip for finding great templates.

If you see a great looking blog, check out the footer credits. Chances are the designer’s site (if it’s a free theme) will be down there. Just click on the link and go directly to the designers site. He’ll probably have a couple more of cool blog templates in his site. This is also true for those advertising premium templates. Check out the premium template site and more often than not there will be some free templates there as a come on to would be customers.

The Best Free Wordpress Templates

But why bother? When I have already done the preliminary searches and I’m posting here the shortlist of the things that I’m sure you’d like.

There are three factors that I look for when I decide to change my blog dressing.

1. Simplicity
2. Function
3. Customizability

I don’t like complex designs. More often than not they tend to really mess up my existing structure. I like themes that automatically adapts to whatever content that I already have. When it comes to functionality, I like 3-column templates. It allows me to put in those Adsense banners and also place some affiliate buttons that are potential money earners in any of the sidebars. In terms of customizability, some themes are not widgetized and there are those that have a lot of things in the source code that trying to assert my individuality becomes a pain in the ass.

See part 2 for the actual list.