A German acquaintance once asked me why the UK did not adopt the Euro. I had trouble properly explaining the reason to him.

I hope now he understands.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12014555

I have had a blogger blog for some time now.  I think it is one of the best services I have used.  Of course it is owned and run by Google, so you would expect it to be pretty good.

Whilst the blog system doesn't have that many features, when compared to something like WordPress, the system in general is good and has a lot of features and addons supplied by other people.

It is not database driven like systems such as WordPress or Drupal.  Instead it used plain old flat files, which makes it mega quick.

It's a joy to use and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for an online blog.

With the raised awareness of the environment and the drastically increased costs of homes log cabins and other wooden buildings have become more and more popular.

When considering log cabins, they important factors to consider are planning permission and building regulations.  Planning permission is generally hard to get for any land that is not used for residential use.  Agricultural land in particular is very difficult to get planning permission for.

If you want to build a cabin in an area with existing property then planning permission is generally easier.  If you have an existing wooden building, including some caravans, that have been built with mobile building planning permission it is often possible to replace the building or caravan with a log cabin and still use the existing planning permission.

RT has a great blog system where we can talk about log cabin blog.

LogCabinsEire.ie also has an article about log cabins.

Log Cabins South West have just put together some great log cabin construction guides.

The first is how to build a log cabin.  More guides are to come.

If you're thinking about buying a log cabin, and you weren't sure how they went together, or you weren't sure how easy they were to build, then take a look.  I think you'll be surprised how easy it is.

Reddit.com is a great social bookmarking site.  It's popular and has a huge range of categories.

You can have your own favourites page. 

When link building we are always looking for new link sources.  Here are some sites that DoFollow links from profile pages and the like

Video Sharing Sites

• www.youtube.com - Sometimes you can edit your profile, and agree to a Beta, where you will get a DoFollow link.

Photo Sharing Sites

• www.panoramio.com - Link from your profile page

Real Estate Sites

• www.zillow.com - HTML profiles, where you can have live links.

So someone paid for an advert on www.campervanlife.com .  Great, I have a steady and satisfied series of customers on that website.

But, after paying for the ad, they did not include, and sent to me and advert details.  They didn't even say what their business was, or their website URL.

Obviously nothing I can do. 

So I emailed them, even offering to create a simple text ad for them, which I have done for other advertisers.

What did they do?  Open a dispute on Paypal.com?  WTF? !!!

Yeah, instead of doing the normal thing and sending the ad through, or even responding to my email, they opened a dispute. 

So after a whole week, that's how long it took Paypal to adjudicate, the fee gets reversed, fine of course, but I get stung with a £1.05 fee!

Ridiculous!

So because the advertiser did not understand about sending me an advert, or emails it seems, my time gets wasted, and I get to pay £1,05 in charges.

Thanks.....

Have you heard of Seth Godin?  Have you heard of Squidoo?

Well, did you know that Seth was the brains behind Squidoo?

In case you don't know, Squidoo is one of the best (perhaps the best) user created content website on the internet.  Not only can members publish content, but their content (called lenses) can have a multitude of modules that allow simple and complex functionality to be added.

Modules include Amazon and eBay units, that pull in items for sale on both those sites.  Authors of the lenses actually get a share in the profits from the lenses.  Other modules include guestbook, images, comments and much more.

Squidoo is clever.  It empowers the user to create what they want, and make money from it.  Some internet marketers have given up creating and marketing their own websites, and simply promote their own Squidoo pages for profit.

Because the might Seth Godin is involved obviously signs of quality exist, as as well as a huge marketing push when someone so high profile starts to talk of a new project.

EzineArticles has consistently grown to become not only one of the biggest websites on the internet, but perhaps one of the best methods of promoting your online work and websites.

If you've not used it before:  You can submit articles to Ezine, of more than 250 words, about a topic of your choice.  Obviously only family friendly articles are accepted.

Ezine benefit by you writing new content for their website.  They do not accept duplicate articles, so your work has to be unique.  But you can re-write an existing article of your own, as long as the re-write is good.

Ezine get a lot of visitors, and monetise their site with Google Adsense adverts, and other means.

As the author of the article you benefit in the form of a link in the author biography in the footer of your article.

Gaining links to your own website, especially from established websites such as Ezine, is a great way to boost your search engine position, and subsequently visitors to your website.

Digg continues to be one of the best social media platforms on the internet.  Who would have though it would achieve the success it has?

I love the fact that it is so easy to post whatever compelling stories you find.  It's a great tool for promoting your own content also.

I have just re-visited after an absence, and it was nice to see a wider layout, incorporating more of the browser space.  Last year I read the great "Stop making me think' book, which tackles web usability.  One of the great sections of that book is about website designs should evolve, and not just be completely change every few years.

Digg, as well Amazon, follow this idea, and it's one I like.

Great stuff, thanks guys.