Here’s an evil plan… Tubes is a file sharing software program (WinXP, Vista Only) that is pretty slick for sharing all your digital stuff with your friends. Tubes is desparate to get the word out about their new product and they don’t want to blow money on advertising that doesn’t convert new users. They have setup a contest for their beta-testers (me included) to give away an iPhone, yes you read correctly, to any and all who sign up 50 new users. It’s free, it’s easy it’s fun!

1) Download and install Tubes. It’s free.
2) Create a tube and drag and drop any digital content you want to
share - photos, videos, music…etc. into this tube.
3) Invite as many friends as you have to this tube (or any other tube
you create)
4) If you get at least 50 people to accept your invitation and
download and install Tubes you get an iPhone.

Yes, you heard us correctly! Just 50 acceptances will get you the
iPhone. That’s it, no gimmicks.

The contest will end at Midnight March 30th so good luck!

Happy Tubing,

The Tubes Team

So here’s my evil plan…

• Leave a comment on this blog.
• Make sure to fill in your email address so I can invite you. Don’t worry I won’t publish/share/sell it.
• Await invitation from me to download and install tubes. I have shared an example of my own Tube.
• Help me win an iphone :)
• Get a free linkback from my blog to yours as a reward. I’ll write a post with the urls of all those who helped once I hit 50!

Leave your comment and help a poor graduate student get a sweet iPhone!

Thanks!

I wanted to let you all know that I have made some improvements here that I’m excited about. Thanks to all who have given me suggestions for my Everyone’s a critic project. The suggestions were very valuable. For those who haven’t, I challenge you to check it out for your own blog. I will help in any way I can.
For you subscribers out there, now’s the time to click on over to the site and check out the following improvements:

• Added a Google Custom Search tool at the upper right. I now have the power of Google on my blog. Woo hoo!
• Added a photo to the About me page. In case you’re wondering, I’m standing outside the Frank Lloyd Wright Studio in Scottsdale, AZ. This was taken the day before my first marathon
• Added a TOP POSTS section to give new readers a chance to see the democratic consensus of my most popular content. This is one of my favorite additions and if you mouse-over each link, you will see the number of visits to each page.
• Expanded the sponsors list and deleted the graphical ads on the sidebar. I think this was the biggest improvement in terms of cleaning things up. I may add graphical ads later on down the road, but for now this is how it will stay. Be sure to have a look at the SPONSORS list to the right as well as this one for great blogging tips. I personally use all of these services and will only put a link up here in which I believe to be worthy.

There you have it. It’s not perfect by any means but I’m very happy with the results. There are a few things I want to clean up, most notably the CATEGORY CLOUD. I just have too many categories to list, so I may end up moving it to a separate page and just featuring the top 20 or so.

I owe a million thanks to all who contributed their feedback. If you have your own blog, check out Everyone’s a critic and I’ll be happy to help out.

Advertisement: Learn Search Engine Optimization Today

A linkback experiment: So here’s a cool (shameless) way to potentially get loads of linkbacks to your site or blog. This one was sent to me by John Chow. It’s a list of tech sites/blogs that anyone can add to. You reproduce the original list and then add up to five other tech, science or consumer electronics blogs that you enjoy reading. Then let those added blogs know and tell them to do the same thing. Soon, the list will a mile long and you’ll have all kinds of linkbacks. If you want to copy this and “pay it forward” so to speak, just copy the code below and make sure you follow the instructions carefully. Also, don’t forget to add your own site to The Originals list and add me to the paragraph above the “Start copy here.” This list will soon be be miles long and you’ll have loads of linkbacks from subsequent sites. It can’t hurt and will certainly help increase your traffic from search results.

***Start copy here***

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content string. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra linkback.
2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.
3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.
4. Add no more than 5 new TECH, SCIENCE, or CONSUMER ELECTRONICS blogs to the list in the “My Adds” section.

My Adds:
Greg Mankiw’s Blog
IrishEyes
fleshyorgans
A chuisle mo chroí…
kev/null

The Originals:

britton blog - an american student in galway, ireland
John Chow dot Com
Ted Leung on the Air
Geek is a chic.
you’ve been HACKED
IDIOT TOYS
JMH Techtronics
Web Services
UtterlyGeek
Tech It Like A Man!
Ugh!!’s Greymatter Honeypot
techboyardee
The Tech Inspector
***End Copying Here***