Booted Out of Squidoo But Still on Associated Content.

During the summer I received an email from Squidoo asking me to review my lenses that were apparently too spammy for their standards.

I had a lot of other things going on in my life at that time and just ignored the request so now my lenses have been deleted. I know some of them were set up merely to promote some Clickbank products so I accepted being "fired" without too much damage to my ego. If my lenses have been deleted I guess an awful lot of lensmasters have been given the boot too because my lenses were far from being the most spammy but if Squidoo's owners want to improve their standards, that's up to them. I can set up another account with them but I don't think I will.

One thing I used to find difficult with Squidoo is that if you really want to make money with lenses, you have to build a lot of them: at least 100. Making 100 lenses might not be so hard over a period of time, but when you think that they all need to be updated regularly, 100 is an awful lot, especially if you want to have a life!

I'm finished with Squidoo but I am going to try and write more articles on Associated Content. Not only writing articles are less time-consuming than building Squidoo lenses but the fact that once they have been published you don't need to go back every 5 minutes to update them is a big plus for me; I like to finish something and then being able to forget about it, especially since I am still earning money every month for articles I've written 2 years ago.

Sure I can't promote affiliate links on Associated Content but to tell you the truth I didn't earn as much as I would have liked on Squidoo promoting affiliate links, be it through Squidoo's own affiliate programs or my own links, so I'm thinking of maybe setting up a blog where I could write some reviews and promote some affiliate products (probably not Clickbank either, something more real that the average person would find useful). I'm not going to do this straight away, as I find that I really don't have time for anything more right now, but maybe next year, when both my children have the same school hours (these school pick-ups are really killing me, there is something not quite right about the Irish school system!).

So here's just to let you know what I'm up to. If you're interested in reading my last articles you can read 5 Top Website Resources for Easy to Make and Cheap Halloween Decorations, which came in very handy for my children this week (the house is now full of ghost and pumpkin garlands as well as bats made out of empty toilet rolls), or, if you'd rather cast a money spell (yes there is one about winning the lotto, but remember if it's too good to be true...) read 5 Free Spells Websites for a Spooky Halloween and if you like them, please share them online!

Free TV on the Internet

Oops, didn't realize it was so long since I last posted here. Since I last wrote a blog post I moved house and learned DIY - well I bought myself a cheap drill and phone my ex whenever I need curtain poles or shelves installed; I haven't actually used the drill myself, why should I when someone is willing to do the work for free?

Anyway, enough talk of how to abuse your ex, let's talk about free TV: when I went to see my sister last summer she gave me her Dexter boxset and converted me: so after watching Dexter series 1, I was craving for more, especially since I had read that the series 4 was going to be aired on TV soon. I rented the Dexter series 2 in my local Xtravision but the shop assistant told me that the series 3 had not been released yet (at least not in the region 2, which my DVD player and I live in), so I decided to look around on the World Wide Web and found several websites where I could watch TV for free.

Here's what I found so far: depending on where you live, you can watch shows that have been broadcast on your local TV stations; these are the safest to view, in case you're worried about nasty viruses or the law: in Ireland for example, you can catch up on your favourite soaps and shows on the RTE player or the TV3 catch up website. A useful website for the Irish language lovers (or simply students who have no choice but to learn Irish) is the TG4 website, where most programmes are in Gaeilge. If you live in the UK you should definitely hook up with the 4oD website (from Channel 4): they have a much more exciting selection of series but are unfortunately not accessible from Ireland.

There are a lot of Free TV websites but I must say that I find most have crappy content and I would stay away from others that require you to install a toolbar or download software. For Free Internet TV that won't install spyware or adware on your computer, I recommend the following:
- http://www.freeetv.com;
- http://www.tvchannelsfree.com;
- http://www.worldtvpc.com/;

My personal favourite, despite the fact that there are pop up ads that may discourage you from viewing anything on offer, is Project Free TV: it has everything under the sun from Little House on the Prairie to Weeds and, yes, this is where I have been catching up with my favourite anti-hero Dexter. I am not sure of the legality of the website so I wouldn't advise anyone to download any episodes (it says you can download full HD episodes with Vuze) but I am pretty content with my now bloodshot eyes (some of the episodes are a bit out of sync, funny to hear Rita talk with Dexter's voice and vice-versa sometimes and the episodes are watchable but still not the best if you're a bit fussy about the video quality).

If you don't know what I've been talking about, don't worry: it took me a while to differentiate between Internet TV, catch up TV, streaming, downloading, etc... Here's an interesting article for all Internet TV newbies: read The Definitive Guide to watching Internet TV on PC.

PS 1: Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any crap that might get on your computer if you ever decide to download anything through any of the above links; I am also not responsible for any trouble you may incur with the law. If you're unsure whether any website you visit is legal and don't want to run any risks, just don't go there!

PS 2: To the idiot who put a CPA ad which require visitors to complete a survey in order to access the site (which I haven't listed here by the way): I got the hell out of your site and am not coming back; this kind of thing annoys the crap out me and I guess I'm not the only one who won't be staying on your website (really, how stupid can a webmaster get?).

Update: Project Free TV has unfortunately just disappeared but I have just found the next best thing with Free Online Episodes; not so many oldies there like She-ra, Inspector Gadget or Mac Gyver (sigh!) but still lots of excellent shows (Dexter of course, Damages, Nurse Jackie...) so I think I'll hurry and catch with what I've been missing before this one disappears as well.