Logical Expressions Blog

It’s almost Thanksgiving and I was thinking about all the things I’m thankful for this year. In the spirit of the Facebook “25 Random Things” genre, I thought I’d post mine here. Sure none of it is earth-shattering stuff, but it’s all true.

1. My husband. The most supportive, smart, and wonderful person I have ever met.

2. My sister. Who puts up with almost daily rants and whines via email and even usually understands because of our shared history.

3. The Internet. Which makes it possible for me to earn a living from the middle of nowhere.

4. My critters. The five dogs and two cats who make me laugh and offer unconditional love, even when I probably don’t deserve it.

5. The Monday Mastermind Ladies. Who offer accountability, support, and make me smile every week.

6. My business coaches and mentors. You know who you are and you rock.

7. My clients. Who entrust me with one of their most important creative works: a book.

8. My veterinarian. The best in North Idaho. (If only I could find a doctor I like as much.)

9. My local friends who get me out of the house every once in a while.

10. My online buddies, some of whom I’ve been emailing since I first got online in 1995.

12. My health. Yeah, eating right and exercising helps, but I don’t discount the “luck” factor either.

13. My teeth. I like food and I’m flossing the teeth I want to keep.

14. My parents and family, who mostly get what I do and why I do it.

15. My house and property. Our log home and 40 acres of forest remain a sanctuary.

16. People saving homeless pets like the members of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals. There are a lot of unsung heroes out there helping animals.

17. Our productive garden and all the great food we preserved from it.

18. James taking up artisan bread baking and homemade tofu making. (I can seriously support my husband’s food-related hobbies.)

19. My computer and automobile for lasting longer than they probably should without any major problems.

20. The ability to pay our bills on time, even during one of the worst economic down-turns ever.

21. Chocolate. What if chocolate had never been invented?! A world without chocolate would be a less happy place for me.

22. The people who read our books, blogs, articles and newsletters and take the time to contact us and say nice things.

23. Sandpoint/North Idaho. I’m grateful to live in such an amazingly beautiful place.

24. Information access. It’s so easy to research anything online or at a library. I’m thankful that knowledge is at my fingertips and I have the ability to read it.

25. Clean water, indoor plumbing, and electricity. Every time we lose power, I remember how much I love modern conveniences.

There you have it, my 25 Thankful Things.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Like a lot of people I’ve submitted my articles to free article sites in an effort to drive traffic. I’ve never thought it was a particularly good idea for a number of reasons, so only about 10 of my articles are out there on these free sites.

Now I’m even MORE glad I never really bought into article marketing.

The other day I looked through my spam filter and discovered a PayPal invoice. I retrieved it from spam land and discovered that one free article site has decided that he’s paying too much for bandwidth so now he’s going to BILL people for the privilege of having their articles on his site.

Here’s what the invoice said. I’m changing the name of the site, since I don’t want to give this loser any traffic. The typos are his:

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Thank you for posting your articles and your use of our website [ScumArticleSite.com] Because of you we are growing a LOT and our server useage and the benefits you gain by using our service are benefiting you. So much so that we are forced to ask you to donate for a lifetime membership to keep using our site for free and submitting all of the great articles that you do. Please find a paypal bill for the small amount of $7.99 for your lifetime fee for using [ScumArticleSite.com] - thank you. This will help offset the increased server costs and keep advertising off the site. Thanks so much in advance for your support. Sincerely [ScumArticleSite.com]

****

I went into PayPal and cancelled the invoice and sent him a message saying that he had a lot of nerve billing ME when I was letting him use my content for free.

(As an aside, the part about “keeping advertising off the site” is a huge lie; it’s riddled with banner ads.)

He actually wrote back and said (again the English problems are his):

I don't use your article - I provide you a service where you benefit by posting your articles.

Give me a gigantic break! Without the articles, this guy HAS NO SITE. I’ve certainly seen no benefit from having my articles there and I told him to take them off. I don’t deal with lying scum.

I encourage you to pay close attention to your PayPal statements. If you see invoices you don’t recognize, be sure to cancel them.

Please pass this on to anyone you know who has articles posted on second- and third-tier kinda cruddy free article sites. When you use services like Article Marketer that distribute articles for you, they can end up in questionable cyber-neighborhoods.