The new Speed Racer movie will be in theaters May 9th 2008. I was a huge fan of Speed Racer when I was a young boy back in the 60’s. Do you remember the steering wheel? Do you remember what each button was for?

The Mach 5 Steering Wheel:

Button A (Auto Jacks): “Releases powerful jacks to boost the car so anyone can quickly make any necessary repairs or adjustments.” Although it was used for short jumps at high speeds. The “choink choink” sound effect played whenever the car jumped through the air was a well known sound remembered by fans.

Button B (Belt Tires): Toggles special grip tires for traction over rough terrain (firm, icy, or unsteady ground, ocean floor, vertical mountainsides etc.).

Button C (Cutters): For use traveling over heavily wooded terrain. A matched pair of powerful rotary saws would come out from the front of the Mach 5 to cut away many obstacles.

Button D (Deflector): Releases a powerful transparent cover which seals the cockpit into an air-tight chamber. The cover is bullet- and crash-proof. The cockpit becomes a water-tight chamber which then allows the car to be completely submerged under water.

Button E (”Evening Eye”): Controls special illumination lights “which can be controlled singularly or in tandem”, allowing the driver to see more clearly than with ordinary headlights. When used with the “night shades” attached to Speed’s helmet, his vision is enhanced with infrared light. The original Japanese version strictly translates this as “illuminating eyes”.

Button E was later modified to activate mini-wings that would slide out from under the car to assist Speed in long jumps.

Button F (Frogger mode): Used when the Mach 5 is submerged. An oxygen canister supplies the cockpit with breathable air. A periscope can then be raised to scan the surface of the water. Everything viewed is relayed to a video screen inside the Mach 5’s cockpit.

Button G (Gizmo Rocket): Releases a flying, gull-shaped “homing robot” from under the hood of the car.

Button H (Home): Mounted in the center console with the rest of the controls for the homing robot, this button sends the homing robot back to the Racer house.

The Mach 5 in 1967 and 2008:

2008 version of the Mach 5.

I wonder if the new Mach 5 has air bags and GPS.

I normally write about tips on web traffic, advertising, seo, etc. This blog will be more of a rant and a little bit of a rave, but hopefully educational.

I recently wrote a blog on running Multiple Campaigns and received many comments, all positive. However, in my last 7 days I have reviewed many blog sites on Entrecard and many of them run contests to gain traffic. If you’re depending on one niche for all your traffic needs, you will fall short eventually. You need to be unique, add value for your visitors, and most importantly establish your own fan base from multiple channels.

Yes, a little rave. My traffic has gone up over 400% with only 29% of that traffic coming from Entrecard. The good thing is, I utilize other alternatives and they’re working well.
My traffic ranking according to Alexa is at 141,033 from 12 million back on January 23rd 2008. This is a significant improvement in only 6 weeks, but it was not easy.

There are quality blogs on Entrecard and I will name a few in a moment. I enjoy reading these blogs daily and at times will leave a comment. You can say I am a fan and I like the niche they have created.

I can give away 5000 credits for this and that, but for what? One or two days of steady traffic, no thank you. I am not going to a site for Entrecard credits if I have to drop, comment, and register for this or that to win 100 EC’s or a 1000 EC’s. I have to embrace and enjoy what you write, not what you’re giving away. The likelihood of me coming back to a site that only offers contests is slim to none.

I noticed that a few sites are encouraging members to add their link to get more Entrecard members to drop cards on them. There are now 3 new sites that are creating what I call a link wall. This is not bad, if everyone plays by the rules, but that’s not the case. I have dropped 300+ cards per day for 30 days straight and I receive about 60% drop backs. This is not bad, but could be better.

I am not close to being done! The worst form of traffic is temporary traffic. It really does no good as your overall traffic average for the month will not improve drastically. If you have 4 good traffic spikes out of 30 days you’re not making any gains. Those traffic spikes usually have a high bounce rate percentage. I call this drop and run.

Conclusion:

If you’re going to run a contest follow these two important suggestions.

1. Be creative, unique, and make it fun.

2. The life of the contest should be at least one week in duration. You may have visitors who like your niche, and may return again. This is called a fan.

Blogs that rule:

Joe Tech: Great content, informative and technology driven.

Soul-To-Soul: A sketch art master. I am the groupie of this blogger!

Turnip of Power: A great mixer of articles on internet marketing, computer games, etc.

Ben Barden: Ben provides web tips and so much more. I am a fan!

There are more and I will include them in our next “MBR” on April 2, 2008.

Monthly Blog Review Series II

Overview:

Great news to all you dedicated bloggers! We are launching our first “Monthly Blog Review” or (MBR) which will be featured the first week of every month. I am not interested in writing a review that a blog owner requests in order to receive some compensation. The blog sites we are reviewing are what we consider true to their name.

We will review 3 blog sites each month. Each blog will get a short review along with ratings on design, content, freshness, and Alexa ranking. The ratings will be scored 1 to 5 with an overall rating.

Monthly Blog Review:

#1 Blog Site: Turnip of Power
URL: http://turnipofpower.com

How can you not love the Turnip of Power besides Turnips are high in fiber and Vitamin C? This site has its own energy that really puts it in perspective. A well written blog about internet marketing is the weighted content on this blog. The author has a lot of blog experience dating back 10 years ago. I guess you can say he is a season veteran! Nice blog and a must visit.

Design: 4.2
Content: 4.3
Freshness: 4.6
Alexa: 84,284
Overall: 4.36

Ben Barden dot com really puts it together nicely with emphases on the subject in hand. Ben doesn’t run contests to create temporary traffic spikes. His blogs are content driven, informative to the reader, and easy to follow. There’s no reading between the lines, Ben delivers it with ease and with passion. This is how a blog site should be. Way to go Ben!

Design: 3.6
Content: 4.2
Freshness: 4.9
Alexa: 110,636
Overall: 4.23

Tim provides some of the best techniques about affiliate marketing strategies, beliefs and insight. He certainly shows a lot of passion and strong conviction in his writing. Tim is a young blogger with a hint of entrepreneur vision, I am being sarcastic. He is looking to escape the grips of the cubicle. Way to set the reader straight!

Design: 3.5
Content: 4.3
Freshness: 4.1
Alexa: 94,558
Overall: 3.96

I was in Queens, New York and in the 3rd grade. Time really does go by fast even when your not having fun.

The debut of the Mary Tyler Moore Show was launched in 1970

The debut of the The Partridge Family was launched in 1970

Some facts and events that occurred in 1970:

• Average Cost of new house $23,450.00
• Average Income per year $9,400.00
• Average Monthly Rent $140.00
• Cost of a gallon of Gas 36 cents
• United States postage Stamp 6 cents

Technology 1970

• First Jumbo Jet goes into service
• Concorde makes its first supersonic flight (700 mph/1127 km/h).
• The First Computer Chess Tournament takes Place
• Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use ) LCD England by George Gray - Liquid Crystal Display

Popular Culture

• The Isle of Wight Festival takes place . 600,000 people attend the largest rock festival of all time. Artists include Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Doors, Chicago, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Joan Baez, Ten Years After, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Jethro Tull.
• Jimi Hendrix dies of barbiturate overdose in London
• Simon and Garfunkel release their final album together, Bridge Over Troubled Water.

It’s amazing how fast time goes. It really hits you when you can remember some of these facts and events and they occurred 38 years ago. It really feels like 20 years at most.

Hope this brought back some memories for you.

I am sure we all experience some sort of writers block or bloggers block. Have you ever found yourself reading online news to get an idea on how to start your next blog? We all have, and the problem with reading news or topics of interest online is that you fall victim in re-writing what has already been published. Most readers will skim through your blog if they see something they already read ie; “Microsoft offers bid of 44.6 Billion for Yahoo”. Why write a blog about something that has been already published?

How do you find your next niche?

I would think of something that might be historic that I have witnessed or was a part of. Example: If I am a technology blog, I would write about the evolution of how we connected to the internet say back from 1987 to current. I would write about various modem technology and work my way up to broadband.

How about something funny or embarrassing that happened to you and you feel confident enough to share it. I come across many blog sites where the author writes about themselves. In most cases I find it interesting or amusing. The point is, it kept me reading.

Try to avoid what others have already published unless you can add something different to the original content. That’s what many bloggers do and that’s perfectly fine. We write because we hope that others will enjoy what we publish.

Enjoy!