Geeks’s Corner

It’s been a tiring fortnight with the end of the HALAL SHOW last week and well, I’m plain dead tired from exploring the 4 expo halls and testing and covering the products.Many things are being promoted, destinations, food and beverages and many more. It’s a tiring but fruitful week with travel agencies promoting their tour packages to LONDON with full Islamic and Halal meals,and some of them even dare to bring people to United States of America, on the scenic I60 road tours and mainly, I for one, NEED A FRIGGING BREAK.

Now, that is out of the way from me, I have to concentrate on the attack with my promotional plans with the guys at the HALAL ROADSHOW.The Australia Advertisers are very aggressive with their marketing plans, not to mention that some of the Hotel Operator Associations are even pushing out HALAL packages and food at their outlets.

It’s funny to think of it though, but I guess HALAL is the business forward.

I understand that many companies have issues with their adversaries and the need to have exclusivity is somewhat needed to ensure that competitor’s ads are not showing, but I was in advertising and it’s nice to see some sort of competition of the sort and as long as they don’t show conflicting ads, I am quite sure it’s good business.

One thing though, NUFFNANG is about to run foul of the Anti-Competition Laws in Singapore by their Glitterati. They started it off to kill Advertlets but now since Advertlets,GrabmyAds and GoKita is dead, they started targetting Aductions, a US BASED Company giving the similar excuse that Aductions have an office in KL. However, given that fact,their terms say, servers in the SEA and by doing so, means even GOOGLE ADSENSE is also out of the question as they already have an office here, along side with Yahoo! Publisher for more than 6 months.

It’s the people crying their heart off because of this small issue, and Nuffnang is becoming too bold , IMHO, by stipulating situations which they are going to run foul of, especially since NUFFNANG.COM is actually subjected to the laws of the EU and the US.

This issue was pointed out to me by BLOGMAS and other Publication Networks whom quoted that even BLOG4U is not allowed. But issn’t BLOG4U US BASED like PayPerPost and the sort? So, in doing so, they MUST NON-EXCLUSIVE anyone using PAYPERPOST,BLOG4U, GOOGLE,ADBRITE and YAHOO as they have servers in SINGAPORE and CYBERJAYA. Heck,BLOG4U is in KOREA for heaven sake.

Dear Azrin,

Here’s the list of advertisers that will compromise your Glitterati status.

The list is
1. Advertlets
2. Gokita
3. Nufflets
4. Grabmyads
5. Aductions
6. Blog2u

My colleague informs me that you had aductions on your site, as such your Glitterati status would be compromised.

Have a nice day1

Regards,
Tan Yee Hou
Nuffnang Sdn Bhd
www.nuffnang.com.my

Doesn’t it feel that the agreement is LOPSIDED to their own benefit and for your information, NUFFNANG charges about RM12 PER CPM (thousand impressions) and pays you RM0.88 for Glitterati and RM0.11 for non-exclusive. So imagine that in itself, and that is a price quoted by not one, but many advertisers across the board. At least some charge US$2.00 for the leaderboard because it’s GOOD BRANDING, and even Liew CF charges USD10 for his buttons on Aductions.

Given the fact that Nuffnang had not received ANY PAYMENT for the TELEKOM and CELCOM media ad runs that was on LAST YEAR OCTOBER,because their paymaster, a media buyer was delaying the funds as much as they can, causes them more grief that it was purported that Tim had his eye injury because he had to scratch it so much thinking of means to raise funds for their contractors (bloggers) compared to the new boy in town (Aductions) whom had a paid up capital of RM100,000 with a financial security of almost US$20,000,000 in their bank account.

What is more, Aductions set up office in Malaysia just to test the market so they can jump into CHINA and ARAB Markets which is happening right now, so if you have an ARAB Lingual page,site,blog.. let them know as you can get better rates. These Arabs pay CASH UPFRONT as opposed to Malaysian Agencies loving to go on 120 day credit terms after the end of the campaign.

I do understand the facts behind Tim’s dilemma, but at the end of the day, some business technique will kill the business and especially Anti-Competition Laws in place now.

Timmy: My Advise…stay away from those Ah-Longs (Banks, Venture Capitalists alike especially). The money you get can roll into FOREX and pay off the bloggers better.

It’s a sad thing for me, but at the end of the day , bugs like the Nuffnang Spiders giving me a lot of headache. They took off my Glitterati AGAIN for some technical error, and now I feel that my lowly paid blogs are not the place for NUFFNANG and I feel that I should let the spaces be utilised to people who needs my help and I’m even giving them away for next to nothing.

As some of you heard, Aductions is getting VERY AGRESSIVE and they seem to have secured a deal with a project funded by UNICEF for the sake of children’s welfare.And that their own internal ads are quite expensive, about $10 for CPM which equates to about 10c per view. Which , if blogs and network sites that are heavy traffic, stand to earn as much as $2000 a day and no wonder they can pay my commission out so fast, just as BLOGMAS did last week, and I know it was a nice sum.

So, it’s no use of me holding on to inventory I can’t sell when I can make better somewhat elsewhere.

Sorry Tim.Convince me otherwise.

I just got my first Aductions Publisher Payout…and well, it is a well deserved $250, which they paid out in RINGGIT MALAYSIA.

Yes, they have paid out, and it’s a nice start. Better than me having to wait for 2 months to get paid for a mere RM50. Just because I started with a similar competitor, they took off my Glitterati immediately so they can forgo my earnings. Which reminds me of what Advertlets did to many of the Bloggers.

Anyway, it’s not a biggie for me, but if they can pay their contractors proper and prompt, they will grow fast and great…

And Yeah..they let me CASH THE CHEQUE. I rushed over to Al-Rajhi Bank TTDI Branch for my moolah.

Guys,what are you waiting for??

I’ll put the check up for you to see in a bit.

Actually, this is a thing that has been bugging me very much lately since blogsvertise itself have advocated themselves to be ANTI DISCLOSURE POLICY all because of Ted Murphy’s own ideals and now look at the blogging community, all famished because of his ideas.

Well, basically, it means you CANNOT put disclosure badges, saying you get paid by so and so etc.

Plus many other things.

I don’t go into detail, but you get the drift.

Hands up. I am a real tosser and kind of a wanker at times especially when I am with my Irish buddies. Point Blank. I must always carry 300 Euros with me so I can pay my on the spot fine of about 200 Punts (Irish Pounds) when it’s the guys night out, without anything to tell or remember, especially down the river in Dublin, Eireann. In itself, Ireland is a country full of culture and florishing with so much to do and so little time to explore if you take the time to do so.

Take Galway for instance. Notorious for the lousy hospital but it’s a place where they have their best college of medicine in the Republic.Literally, at times, the Atlantic Winds are merciless towards the residents of Galway,battering them with all sorts tests of life, with winds and gusts of over 80 miles an hour and sub freezing winters, yet Galway is so rich in it’s own culture, seafood, luxury scenic views and of course, of the best places to have a pint of stout. Heck, even the bootleg whisky is far better than their cousins, the Scottish as I am always drunk as an Irish Lad.

Come to think of it, since I am still sober, I should have removed the Nuffnang Ads totally since they are not paying me as promised.

Boy it’s been a rough week.KL is not that a nice place to be after all, busy and so expensive.

Weekend without the family means a transit commuter weekend for me. Hopping on and hopping off the Kommuter, LRT, ERL, Rapid, Star, Putra ..you name it, exploring places where you can’t get much in KL.

Last weekend was Book Weekend and PC Fair at the PWTC and KLCC respectively. PC Fair to me, was kind of overwhelming with rude Malaysians, and the place was freaking hot. Rude Men and Women, without much regards to their courtesy or what not, pushing people here and there and despite that, I walked about with my steel toe cappers, means, if I step on you, too bad lah, you will hurt and call your mama.

Deals in the KLCC PC Fair was same all about, nothing to say much other than the cheap lelong cameras by Nikon and Canon which I won’t want to part my money with despite a 7.1Megapixel 3x zoom etc for RM499 since I am already into the Canon EOS 400D, which I am targeting the EOS 40D which had no special offers. Durgh!

Laptops too, were not any cheaper either. Not worth my time and APPLE WAS NOT IN IT! Somehow or rather, I can’t find anyone showing off the Mac Book Air. Which would be nice, as I wanted the 160GB version, unless I go and fiddle the system and install the iPod Video hard disk in it.

As for the traffic, it was mad. RM4.20 for a can of 100Plus!? Bloody Farker! And I don’t cuss and swear I tell you. Normally for RM1.20, now at that rate, 4 times over. Darn it! Plus traffic was bad, human or vehicular.

The PWTC Book fair was ok, but full of books written in Bahasa Malaysia. So I thought , how on earth can our graduands excel in the society when everything is in Bahasa Melayu? Heck , the Local Universities need to wake up. They are actually bringing grief to all these students whom, after finishing with a 4.0 CGPA Honors Degree, have no work and resort to selling Krabby Patty Burgers for a living or to service their 4% PTPTN loan. Yikes!

It’s so sad, that 10 year on after I published my paper about the education system in Malaysia, things are just…as crappy, or even worse, with over 10 universities now, and the QoS is rock bottom, full of scandals. And despite me having job offers with some universities, I decline them as I know I won’t be able to discharge my duties as an Educator when the board itself, are already infested and minds full of feces.

I’ll be taking down this site soon enough when I see a template be suits the function. So, those whom wish to meet me while I am still in KL, please buzz me.
take care