I hope everyone is enjoying their Good Friday and looking forward to a relaxing long weekend. Some of us are still working over the weekend, but it’s nice to take a slightly more relaxed pace. Here are a few posts to keep you entertained as we approach Easter this weekend.

Kenneth Dickson of InvestorBlogger has given it some thought and has finally decided to abandon PayPerPost, publishing an open letter to PayPerPost describing why he came to this decision. Are you still on PPP? Why or why not?

King Nomar has some shocking news for the more tech-savvy among us. It turns out that only 76% of people know how to perform a Google search. As such, recommends that we keep it simple for the stupid. Make sure that your website or blog is as user-friendly as possible!

Super affiliate Zac Johnson talks a bit about Mozilla Firefox and how it’s Google’s super affiliate. In fact, he found a financial statement saying that “Google provides 85% of the revenue for the Mozilla Corp. subsidiary.” Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket!

Etienne Teo realizes some of the hurdles that we need to overcome as budding dot com moguls, writing a post on how to be efficient and productive working at home. Perhaps the best tip that he provides is to cut out the distractions. Instant messengers can seriously detract from your productivity.

Michael Dunlop of Retire At 21 has compiled a list of the top 30 young bloggers under 21. It’s amazing what these young people are accomplishing these days, especially when the guy that tops the list — Carl Ocab — is just 14 years old! What did you accomplish before the age of 21?

Up until today I really never understood why anyone would use twitter. For those that have never used twitter, it is a micro blogging site. Unlike a full blown blog you can make mini 140 characters posts about where you are, what you are doing or anything that comes across your mind.

So today I was reading Miss 604‘s blog and she was talking about some fun stuff going on at twitter. So I did a little research on how I should be using twitter by reading various blogs. If you do have a twitter account then it is an absolute must to have a notifier. I went out and started downloading and testing various twitter notifier software’s. I was really disappointed that most of them did not work. Frustrated I posted on my twitter asking what should I be using. A few minutes passed and a local Vancouver designer posted that I should try twhirl. I quickly downloaded it and have been using it all afternoon.

I am extremely happy with twhirl and now see how useful twitter can be. Like a blog you can join or create a community. You can network with people in your niche, local area or interests. Twhirl notifies you when someone posts that you are following, makes it easy to message people and faster to make posts (tweets). If you are not using twitter then I suggest you do. After you sign-up download twhirl and then add me to your twitter.

Online advertising can take on several forms and companies have multiple opportunities to direct customers their way. Some of the most popular advertising networks operate on the CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) system, but there is one fatal flaw with both of these systems for the advertiser. When an Internet user views an ad (CPM), they may not necessarily click through to your website. If this user clicks on the ad (CPC), it’s still not guaranteed that they will follow through with a purchase.

A particularly effective method of advertising for online stores would be the CPA model, which stands for cost-per-action. This action could be the filling out of a registration form or it could be completing a purchase. This is up to you as the advertiser to decide. The reason why this may be a good option is that you don’t have to pay for the advertising until you actually get something out of it: a paying customer, for example.

By offering an affiliate program, you can leave it up to the master advertisers of the Internet to drive traffic your way. There are countless people who specialize in minimizing their costs in a CPC-based campaign while maximizing their profits through the CPA offer on the other end. You can take advantage of their skills and expertise in this way; they bring the paying customers and you reward them accordingly.

Offering an in-house affiliate program may not be the best solution. It is perhaps better to offer your affiliate campaign through an advertising network like ShareASale, PepperJam, and NeverBlueAds. This increases your exposure and can ultimately result in more sales sent your way.

Last week we asked what web design webinars would you like to see and 77% of you said PHP and MySQL webinars should be added. These courses are added and you can register now. This weeks question is…

Some of the most popular posts in the blogosphere are those that include video. Just about everyone has a broadband Internet connection these days, so watching videos online — through Google Video, YouTube, Revver, and so on — is pretty accessible. As such, you’ll notice that many bloggers embed videos in their posts. These could be in form of video reviews or maybe it’s just to highlight a funny clip that they found on YouTube.

The trouble with embedded video is that these videos are typically not viewable within the confines of an RSS aggregator and most definitely not within the confines of an email subscription. Worst still, because the video is not displayed at all, it can be a little confusing for the reader when they see the post making mention of “the video above” when there doesn’t appear to be anything there!

This is why it’s important that every video post that you make, you include a brief note to remind RSS subscribers and email subscribers that they need to go to your site to watch the video. At the same time, this brief note probably shouldn’t appear on the website itself. How do you do this? Simple. Just make use of the noscript tag. Here’s an example:

<noscript> Javascript required. Please visit the BlueFur Blog directly to view the embedded video. </noscript>

Of course, you can customize that message as you see fit. You can even replace it with a hyperlinked image if you prefer. Anything contained within the noscript tags will only appear when Javascript is not enabled (like inside an RSS aggregator).

When you are prepared to run your own business, one question that you’ll have to ask yourself is whether you want to start an independent business or run a franchise. While this is largely an issue for brick-and-mortar businesses, it can also come into play when it comes to online businesses as well. In either case, there are both pros and cons to running an independent business, just as there are pros and cons to running a franchised business.

With a franchise, you are bound to the rules of the larger company. Your pricing and branding must adhere to the parent company’s standards and you do not have nearly as much flexibility when it comes to marketing and releasing new products. At the same time, this means that you don’t need to rack your brain for innovative and new ideas; this is done for you.

You also get to take advantage of pre-existing brand recognition in the marketplace. It could be easier to attract customers to a known name than it is to a new name. Good franchises have proven formulas and they have already moved beyond their growing pains. It’s a ready-made business and the key to your success will be in your management. It’s also notable, however, that you will have to pay a franchise fee each month for the privilege of using the name and the brand. Most aspects of the franchise agreement are non-negotiable.

By contrast, an independent business lets you run the company however you see fit. Adjust those prices, launch new products, set out with your own marketing plans. It is completely up to you. You are also free of any franchise fees, meaning all the profits belong to you and you alone. You are also able to source your products from whatever supplier you’d like. The potential success comes from your own creativity, innovation, and management.

On the down side, you will likely not have a pre-existing brand in the marketplace unless you are buying an established business. Businesses that already have a large customer base will cost considerably more and this is an up-front cost that some may not want to absorb. By contrast, it can take a lot of work to turnaround a cheaper (failing) business. Starting fresh is another alternative.

In the end, the ultimate decision lies solely on your shoulders. There are advantages and disadvantages to either choice, so weigh your options before hurling yourself into the world of business ownership.