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Taxable Food Items

So when going through my Costco receipt yesterday, I noticed that I was charged tax for my Poppy Seed Salad and my Made In Mexico Coca Cola. Let me tell you what I’ve always thought about food taxes. I had always assumed that items that are served to you (i.e. in a restaurant) or made ready to consume (i.e. to go sandwiches) are taxable. All other food items generally are not taxable with the exception of special cases like alcohol and etc. I thought maybe that’s how they indicate the CRV for aluminum cans (glass bottles in this case), however it was indeed taxed according to my math.

Anyway, I was shocked to find out my Coca Cola was taxed. I was wondering if it had to do because it was foreign product or maybe it was a mistake. I searched online and found this page: Ready-to-Eat Food:

Flour, sugar, bread, milk, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and similar groceries are not taxable. Candy, soft drinks, and gum are taxable, however.

Food is also taxable when served in restaurants and similar places of business. Listed below are some guidelines to help you determine when food is taxable and when it’s not.
These items are taxable:

  • prepared food sold with eating utensils;
  • food kept hot (ready to eat), such as barbecued chicken (whether whole or pieces), chili, and soups;
  • ready-to-eat sandwiches (but not frozen sandwiches);
  • all ice cream sundries, unless sold prepackaged in boxes;
  • all soft drinks (including powdered drink mixes), diluted juices (50 percent or less vegetable or fruit juice), beer, and wine;
  • tea, coffee, and juices sold in restaurants, lunch counters, cafeterias, vending machines, and hotels, or sold ready for immediate consumption from pushcarts, cars and trucks, or any other vehicle;
  • individual-sized portions (including super-sized servings) or packages of food such as chips and peanuts when they are sold from a lunch counter or snack bar; and
  • ice.

Retailers who mix two or more food ingredients on the premises to sell by weight or volume (for example, salad) as a single item must collect sales tax unless the product is typically reheated prior to eating (e.g., macaroni and cheese).

This rule does not apply to bakery items and food that is only cut, repackaged, or pasteurized.

A business that provides eating facilities, such as tables and chairs or booths, must collect tax on food sold ready to eat.

Bakery products are not taxable unless sold with plates or eating utensils. Bakery products include refrigerated pies, cakes, tarts, and cookies but do not include entrees that are “baked.”

A juice drink (e.g., orange juice, grapefruit juice, tomato juice) that contains more than 50 percent fruit or vegetable juice by volume is not taxable unless sold ready for immediate consumption. “Ready for immediate consumption” means, for example, served in a cup or with a straw. A store that has eating facilities such as tables and chairs must collect tax on sales of individual-sized bottles or cartons even if they contain more than 50 percent fruit or vegetable juice.

Convenience stores and grocery stores that don’t have eating facilities should not collect tax on chips, cookies, crackers, peanuts, and similar snack foods even when sold in individual-sized containers. Items purchased with the Lone Star Card are exempt from sales tax.

Water is not taxable unless it is flavored.

I’m shocked. It appears soda has always been taxed. Even when it’s not sold ready to be consumed. In my case, I don’t consider room temperature soda to be ready to be consumed.

On the same site as above, they have a complete list of which items are taxable and which items aren’t taxable: Grocery and Convenience Stores: Taxable and Nontaxable Sales

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Hecho en México

made in mexico coca cola from costcomade in mexico coca cola from costcomade in mexico coca cola from costco

So a couple weeks back, Ungsunghero mention he was drinking Coca Cola Coke that was made in Mexico and how great it tasted. For those that are unfamiliar with the differences between American coke and coke throughout the rest of the world, you’re definitely missing out. Coke in America is the only coke that is made with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Everywhere else, they are made with sugar cane sugar. The reason being that America grows so much corn that it has no idea what to do with it. Therefore, they invented HFCS as a replacement for sugar. They are able to compete against real sugar because the government subsidizes them so much. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the real Coca Cola Coke when I’ve traveled back to Hong Kong and China and it was definitely better tasting.

There was a couple posts on Digg a few weeks ago talking about Passover Coke and Mexican Coca Cola spotted at Costco and everyone raves about them. The reason why there’s a Passover Coke is because they’re not allowed to eat anything made from corn during Passover, so the only sodas they can drink must be made with sugar or something alternative to corn. I’ve been meaning to check out Costco the last few times I went, but always forgot about it.

While I was entering Costco today… Actually while I was in line for a churro (I purchase a churro before I do my Costco shopping so I can eat while I shop), I noticed the guy next to me had 3 boxes of Coca Cola in glass bottles. Look at it more carefully, on the side, it said: Hecho en México (Made in Mexico). I was like sweet! Costco is still selling Mexican Coca Cola.

So after I picked up my items I was looking for, I went searching for the soda section. I’ve never really purchased soda at Costco as they aren’t usually cheaper than when it’s on sale in supermarkets, plus the fact I’ve never seen soda at the Issaquah Costco felt funny. I mean, I know exactly where the soda is at the Montebello Costco, because they’re all together next to the other beverages. So I searched in the beverage section and then the alcohol section, and neither area had soda. I know they sell soda, so I flagged down someone and asked him where the soda section is.

It turns out that the soda section is actually split along the end of 3 or 4 aisles in the back, right across from the bread section. I had noticed the bread section earlier, but didn’t realize or even think it was possible that soda would be across from it. I was also expecting them to be stuck together and not split across several aisles. The employee asked me what soda I was looking for. I think he found it weird I didn’t know where the soda section is, so he got curious. I told him I was looking for the Coca Cola made in Mexico. He goes, well, you better hurry, we’re almost out. Indeed, there were only like 7 or 8 boxes left (at least on display). Who knows how many they have in the back. It was stacked on top of the regular canned coke.

Anyway, the cost was $17.99 for 24 bottles, coming to 75¢ each. I picked up a case.

When I got home, I really wanted to taste it, but it wasn’t chilled yet, so I tried the old trick where you put it into a bowl of water and ice and add some salt to it and put it into the freezer. I left it in the freezer for 10 minutes and it was mildly chilled, but not really enough for me to enjoy a coke. I guess the trick works to some extent. The coke was still awesome though.

As Ungsunghero pointed out, these glass bottles are 355ml, which is equivalent to 12 fl. oz., the same volume as a can of soda, but not the same volume as a regular bottle of soda.

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Windows Media Center Sound Effects Disappeared

So after a recent crash of Windows Media Center, I noticed all the sound effects disappeared, the startup sound, the clicks when you navigate, and the beep when you tell it to start playing. At first I thought maybe the cable was lose, but sound still worked. Playing a video had audio and Winamp was able to stream music off the internet.

I tried restarting my Windows Vista box hoping that would fix it, but upon launching Windows Media Center, I noticed the startup sound still didn’t play. Launching videos from inside Windows Media Center did in fact have audio. I went into settings to see if I might’ve accidentally unchecked the sound effects box. But nope, it was still checked. I tried unchecking it, saving the settings, and then re-checking it, but that didn’t work either.

So I started searching online for solutions, but there really wasn’t much to work with.

Solution:
Interestingly enough, I was playing with the volume control and mixer and noticed this unlabeled volume control. I wasn’t mute or anything, but was set to pretty much the bottom. Since I’m using digital audio output, the only 2 volume controls I have are main and digital out. I had no idea where this 3rd control is and it didn’t appear to have an icon or name associated. Anyway, I dragged it to the 80% mark like the others and suddenly my Windows Media Center sound effects started working again. I noticed when Windows Media Center is open, my volume control gets an extra column with the green Media Center icon.

I never knew I was so addicted to those beeps. I guess Tivo people have the same problem with the fast forward and rewind beeps, where switching to your local cable provider’s DVR just doesn’t cut it.

Glad it’s fixed now and hopefully if someone out there is hitting this problem where the sound effects are gone, they’ll be able to find this page and quickly fix the problem.

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Credit Card Arsenal

While paying for dinner today, the conversation of credit cards came up and both Tekman and I use our Amex Costco card because it gives us 3% back. I was shocked to hear there were a few in the group that don’t even get 1% back, the bare minimum reward most credit cards come with nowadays. I brought up the fact I have 4 credit cards I use on a daily routine and people were shocked at how many I use. They were curious if I used it to keep track of purchases which I guess is a side effect of what I do, but it was mainly due to the fact different credit cards have different reward levels for different purchases.

My current arsenal includes the following:

– Chase Cash Plus Rewards Card –

chase cash plus rewards card

Your Chase Cash Plus RewardsSM card earns rewards 5 times faster on everyday purchases.

With your Cash Plus Rewards card, you earn 5 points for every eligible dollar spent on gas, grocery and drugstore purchases. Plus, you earn 1 point for every eligible dollar spent on purchases made elsewhere.

You can redeem 5,000 points for:

* $50 check
* $50 gift card from popular stores & restaurants

Buy the things you need and get the rewards you want with your Cash Plus Rewards card!

5 points for every dollar translates to 5% cash back. I’m limited to a maximum of 30,000 points annually, which translates to a max of $300 in cash back. I don’t think I’ve ever reached that amount, probably due to the fact I’m single and no kids. There was even a $50 or $100 bonus when I signed up for this card. However, this card is no longer available to sign up for.

This card came out to compete against the Citi Dividend Platinum Select card which had the similar rewards program with 5% back on the same 3 categories. I also have the Citi Dividend card, but have retired it due to the fact the reward program has dropped to 2% from 5%. You can still sign up for the Citi Dividend card, which now also includes convenience stores and utilities and gives 5% cash back for the first 6 months, but drops to 2% afterwards.

According to this FatWallet thread, it appears that this reward program maybe ending soon. People have been getting letters from Chase stating the program will be changed to 3% cash back on the 3 categories you spend the most money in. I personally haven’t received the letter yet and my online rewards program details still shows what I pasted above.

I basically use this credit card only for gas, supermarket, and drug stores.

– Advanta BusinessCard –

advanta platinum businesscard

Cash Back

Automatically earn 5% Cash Back on gasoline, office supplies, utilities, computer equipment, cell phones and Internet services, and 1% on all other purchases.

This one has a limit of $25 cash back per month, so I don’t use it for gas since I have the other card. There’s already been a couple times where I surpassed the $25 limit, seeing how I purchase a lot of computer equipment. I also stack my cable internet/tv bill and my garbage bill on this card. Any time I make a purchase at Office Depot or Staples, it also goes on this card. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to put my energy bill (electricity and gas) since Puget Sound Energy doesn’t accept credit cards. I don’t have a phone bill and my dad pays for my cell phone bill, so that isn’t applicable to me either, but may to you. They automatically mail you a check when you accrue $50 in cash back and I hit that amount pretty much every 3 months.

You can still apply for this card. There is one caveat for this card, and that’s the fact you do need to provide a business name. The name of your business gets printed on the Credit Card itself in italicized Times New Roman font, but besides that I don’t believe they verify if you’re the real owner of this business or if it even exits. I am not suggesting you lie and provide fake information just to get this card. I’m just providing as much details as possible.

A very similar card is the American Express SimplyCash Business Card which also has 5% cash back on gas, office supplies, and wireless services and 1% cash back on virtually all other purchases. However, the fact the SimplyCash card is an American Express while the Advanta card is a Mastercard means the Advanta card would be accepted in more places.

– American Express TrueEarnings Card –

american express trueearnings card

Eligible Purchases earn a rebate of 1, 2 or 3 percent, as follows: 3% at restaurants, 2% for travel purchases from airline, lodging, car rental, cruise line, travel agency and tour operators; and 1% on all other Eligible Purchases. The rebate is issued annually in your Cardmember billing statement as a coupon redeemable at Costco. See your Cardmember Agreement for eligibility requirements and complete terms and conditions.

This is the card I save for restaurants and of course Costco, since that’s the only credit card they accept. There is no annual or monthly limit like the other cards I’ve mentioned, so you can earn as much cash back as you want with this card.

Unfortunately, to be applicable for this card, you need to be a Costco member, which automatically means the $50 membership fee.

Another thing about this card is that they mail you the cash back in the form of a Costco check. Don’t be fool that this is a gift certificate that has to be fully used at Costco. You are always allowed to opt to get the entire check in cash at any Costco register. However, if I’m at Costco already, I don’t really see myself ever walking out of there empty handed, though I have done that before.

– Discover Cashback Bonus Card –

discover cashback bonus card

Sign up to get 5% Cashback Bonus on gas, hotels and summer fun with the Get More program.
Only Discover Card offers 5% Cashback Bonus on Get More purchases in categories like travel, home, gas, restaurants, movies and more. Watch your e-mail alerts and Account statements to see which categories will give 5% Cashback Bonus next.
5% to 20% Cashback Bonus at top online retailers through ShopDiscover
Get up to 1% Cashback Bonus on all your other purchases automatically.

The Discover card has always been a toss up. Their 5% cash back program changes every quarter (3 months) and some times you get really good categories like restaurants and movies, but other times you get stuck with home and apparel which I hardly make purchases in. The worst part of the program is they make you click the sign up link in order to activate the new quarter’s 5% bonus program. Therefore if you forget to do so every quarter, you won’t be getting the benefits of the program. Plus the fact that about half the places I go don’t accept Discover really limits its usage. It appears this card also doesn’t have any cap on the amount of cash back you can get back.

They also often have specific stores which give you 5% cash back. I took advantage of it when they had Amazon.com, Circuit City, Lowes, and Linen ‘n Things.

This card is available for anyone to sign up for.

– Fidelity Investments Rewards Card –

fidelity investment rewards card

Unlimited rewards; earn one point for every dollar in net retail purchases

Every time you accumulate 5,000 points, convert them to a $75 deposit into your eligible Fidelity Account2, a 1.5% redemption rate

Redeem points for travel on major U.S. airlines with no blackout dates or for brand-name merchandise, gift certificates, and more

MyConciergeSM Personal Concierge Service offers customized services 24/7, including dining arrangements and reservations, gifts and personal shopping, tickets for sporting events, concerts and shows, unique transportation, and more

This is the newest card in my arsenal and is what I consider to be my fall back card. Why settle for 1% cash back which all these other cards are already providing, when you can settle for 1.5% cash back. If something doesn’t fall into any of the categories that gives me over 1.5% cash back with the credit cards above, I’ll end up using this card. This latest statement shows that I’m currently at 4500 points. So $500 more, and they’ll be depositing $75 into my Fidelity account.

Unfortunately, to benefit from this credit card, you’ll need a Fidelity investment account. As a Microsoft employee, I have one by default, but not many people do and Fidelity isn’t the cheapest stock broker out there. However, it probably is one of most reliable stock brokers around, having great customer service and research information available. After you deposit the $75 into your Fidelity account, I’m pretty sure you can immediately withdraw if you want, but I’m guessing they’re hoping you’ll be investing that amount.

For more information, you can visit Fidelity’s site.

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Detective Conan – Childhood Ending

While watching Detective Conan around episode 400 (yes, I’ve reached episode 400+ on Detective Conan), there was this really cute ending I wanted to share:

640×480 version:
detective conan - childhood ending

320×240 version:
detective conan - childhood ending

The sequences were really cute, so cute that I’ve watched this ending whenever the episode ended with it (I usually skip the endings and openings). You have little Shinichi teaching little Ran how to ride a bicycle, followed by a dog chasing little Shinichi. Then you have a sequence where little Shinichi displays his mad soccer skills and when little Ran wants to play with the soccer ball, she only dribbles it like a basketball. Little Shinichi says to use her feet, but she keeps on dribbling it. Little Shinichi laughs at her and little Ran kicks the soccer ball into his head. Even little Hattori and little Kazuha makes a cameo.

So cute…

They should seriously make an anime about little Shinichi and little Ran, and how Shinichi became an awesome detective and how Ran became an #1 karate champion.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Just watched this movie on Friday night with Stanman and ChemChampion. Actually bumped into Brian at the theaters. I thought the movie overall was generally fun, very imaginative. I definitely thought about starting to read the last 2 books, but after a good night’s sleep, I gave that idea up.

Official Site
IMDb: 7.9/10 (29,599 votes)
Yahoo! Movies: The Critics: B / Yahoo! Users: B+
Rotten Tomatoes: Rating: 77% / Average Rating 6.9/10
Apple Trailer
Amazon.com Showtimes
Amazon.com Soundtrack
Amazon.com Book
MY RATING: 8/10

harry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix posterharry potter and the order of the phoneix poster

Spoilers: (Show)

Anyway, I was at Costco today (only spending $45 there today – I’m proud of myself), and they had stacks and stacks of the new and final Harry Potter book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They even had someone dressed as a wizard or a student from Hogwarts standing there helping distribute the books. Speaking of the final book, I knew a few friends who had lined up for the midnight sale of the Harry Potter books. They’re probably done reading by now.

Ungsunghero points me to Keith Olbermann’s speculation: (Show)

For those who’ve read the final book, I would like to know if Keith Olbermann’s speculation was correct.

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Sleuth – HD Trailer

About a week ago, Apple posted an High Definition trailer for the upcoming movie: Sleuth (IMDb). As I later found out, Sleuth (2007) is actually a remake of the 1972 Sleuth (IMDb). I do have to say, that’s one expensive DVD on where the lowest price on Amazon.com is $59.99. What’s even cooler about this movie is the fact that Michael Caine is in both movies, however his row is switched. Michael Caine plays the wife’s lover in the 1972 version and plays the scheming husband in the 2007 version.

There’s been people saying Jude Law is the new Michael Caine as the Alfie remake where Alfie was played by Michael Caine in the 1966 version, Jude Law played Alfie n the 2004 version.

sleuth trailer poster

Anyway, the reason I’m posting about this movie is that less than a day later that Apple posted the HD trailer, they decided to pull it off their website. Both HD Trailers and HD-Trailers.net had linked to the trailers, but those links are now currently dead.

Fortunately, I had downloaded the 1080p version and with the request from filmomanas, I uploaded the trailer.

Look like Apple decided to completely pull this trailer from their site. I can’t even find the regular movie trailer info page anymore. I still have my copy of the 1080p trailer which I downloaded yesterday and decided to upload it to FileSend: Download Link

I decided to use FileSend because it allow uploads of greater than 100MB (seems to be a limitation on many of the file sharing sites). The 1080p trailer itself is 129MB. However, it does have a wait time of 30 seconds, which is the downside. I took that into account, but the fact it has a really fast download speed, made me choose it over a couple others. I was able to download from FileSend at a sustained 600KB/s. Unfortunately, I don’t have the 480p and the 720p version. Other than that, enjoy!

The trailer makes the movie look quite interesting.

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Speaker Stands – Part 2

Now that my speaker stands can stand on their own, I could continue with my setup.

I started building the rest of my speaker stands:
building speaker stands

Next I needed to measure the speaker cables. I got 300′ of 12AWG speaker cable, and 12AWG was definitely over kill for these tiny speakers. However, given the fact that they’ll be about 50ft in length and the potentiality of me upgrading the speakers to better ones later, these cable would be fine.
300 feet spool of 12AWG speaker cable

I later found out that these cable were so thick, it was actually a bit troublesome sticking it into the back of my rear and side speakers.
speaker cable thickness

With the practically infinite amount of speaker cable, I was now able to go around things to keep it hidden from view.
speaker cable around fireplacespeaker cable around fireplacespeaker cable around fireplace

Despite the fact the speaker stands were no longer falling, the fact the center of gravity is closer to the front and the stands were sitting on top of soft carpet, the front legs of the base would dig a bit deeper into the carpet than the back, still causing some tilt. The slightest push will still tip the whole thing over. I was thinking of sticking some flat pieces of wood underneath it to counter the carpet softness. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any flat pieces of wood just lying around. I did find some MSN poker chips I got at the company meeting almost 2 years ago. That gave me an idea.

speaker stand with poker chipsspeaker stand with poker chipsspeaker stand with poker chipsspeaker stand with poker chips

Here’s my final setup.
speaker final setupspeaker final setupspeaker final setup

I thought I did a pretty good job with hiding the cables.
hiding speaker cablehiding speaker cable

The wire you see on the left of the single seater is actually the power cable for my exercise bike, so that’s normal. All the cables are along the wall or hiding beneath/underneath my couch.
speaker cable hiding behind couch

As for MonoPrice, I updated the product manager with the situation and I’ve requested that he remove the incorrect review that I posted, which he seemed more than happy to obliged. The tech support did get back to me. I told him the problem was resolved, besides some tilting. He said he should be able to help me with it and asked about the what type of floor the speaker stands were on and if I could take some photos of it and let him analyze and determine what could be done to make them more stable.

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Speaker Stands – Part 1

I got my order of speaker stands, speaker cable, and some miscellaneous cables from MonoPrice last week.

The speaker stands I got were these: Speaker Stand – Silver (SS-01) – Set of 2. I actually got 2 sets of them since I had rear speakers and side speakers to elevate. I was contemplating on mounting on the wall, but that didn’t give me as much freedom and my layout is a bit weird. If you don’t recall, this is what my layout looks like:

living room speaker layout

Everything was fine until I finished building my first speaker stand. If I hooked up my speaker to it, it wouldn’t stand on its own. It appears my speakers were too heavy. My rear and side speakers aren’t that big. They measure 4″ x 6″ x 10.5″ and weighed 2.6lbs. I actually found a neat way to measure how heavy items are. My digital scale won’t turn on unless something heavier than 10 or 20lbs stands on it. Therefore, to weigh the speakers, I first weigh myself twice (to guarantee accuracy of my own weight), and then I weigh myself holding the object. Simple subtraction afterwards nets me the objects weight.

I was somewhat pissed at this point. I have 2 sets of these useless speaker stands. I even started browsing Best Buy and Circuit City to see what available options I had. They were all over $50, but I was feeling desperate at this point. I shot an email to MonoPrice support and also left a review (no longer available – which I’ll explain later). There’s one interesting thing about MonoPrice’s “Average User Satisfaction Rate“. When you submit a review, you give it a rating, however the rating is between 4 and 10, where 4 corresponds to 2 stars and 10 corresponds to 5 stars. Meaning, the product’s rating are partially inflated. Somewhat deceiving in my opinion and it guarantees that no product’s rating falls below 2 stars.

The reason it wouldn’t stand is the fact the pole is in the center of the base and by stick a 2.6lb speaker to the front of it, the center of gravity is shifted forward, pulling it forward and down, which inevitably causing it to fall. At this point, I was trying to think of all the possible remedies, such as adding more weight to the base, finding a way to fix the stands to the floor, having wires and strings to hold it back from falling, leaning it against the couch, etc. All ghetto solutions and none that I would’ve been satisfied with.

The following day, the product manager sent me an email back claiming his 3lb speakers work find with these speaker stands, but he forwarded my email to tech support and they would try to assist me in figuring out what’s going on. Ungsunghero and I weren’t exactly sure how “tech” support would be able to help me with a mechanical problem. I decided to take some photos of the stands with speakers on it and Ungsunghero suggested I take a video of it falling (into a pillow).

At this point, I noticed there was an indentation on the top of the base, which I haven’t noticed before. The speaker stand came with 2 sets of screws, nuts, and bolts for the 2 variations of speaker back panel connections. There was this big twist ring (apparently called the twist lock), which I didn’t really know where it went. It fit the bottom of the pole, so I thought it was meant to lock the weight in from sliding out. However, the indentation made me realize that the twist ring was suppose to sandwich the base panel between it and the weight.

After I corrected this, my speaker stands no longer fell. However, they were still tilting forward. I attributed this to user error and bad instructions. The instructions were rather vague and incomplete, as there was no mention of what to do with the twist ring at all.

To be continued…

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Web Ads

Recently, I’ve been playing with different ad sites and applying them to my different websites.

If you haven’t noticed, on my main blog, I’ve decided not to use AdBrite anymore, which for some reason dropped a lot in ad revenue over the past months. I switched to Text Link Ads, which was advertised by dnScoop and so far, I’ve made $19.07 in the past month, which I’m happy about.

They even have their own WordPress plugin. They sell ads for both the overall site and individual blog posts. I currently have 3 blog posts with ads:

At first I had no idea that the plugin actually wrote an extra paragraph on the bottom, followed by Related Link, so I had actually hacked the plugin to add additional entries to the top ad block.

I’ve also been experimenting with different colors and styles to make the ads not look as ugly. I have to say, the default ad block was rather ugly (if you recall seeing it for the past few weeks). I’ve updated it to a new background color and I think the top and bottom borders actually make it look decent.

Of course if you’re registered on this site, you won’t be seeing the ads.

However, Text Link Ads is picky with which sites they use. They only allow ads on certain sites that reach a minimum audience and apparently all my other sites are too new or don’t have enough viewers yet to join the Text Link Ads program. So for those, I’ve stuck with AdBrite for now.

However, I’ve been having a lot of problems with AdBrite recently with it posting semi-adult ads on my sites. For Ad content, the default is “Only clean, family-friendly ads” and I’ve double checked that’s the selection I have for all my ad zones. They have this option “Also include edgier ads (but still no adult ads)”, which I’ve never selected.

I disabled the auto-approval of network ads and these edgier ads stopped appear, since I assume they’re only showing the ads I’ve approved. I contacted AdBrite support and inquire about this and they said this should not have been the case and asked for screenshots so they can investigate the problem. I re-enabled the auto-approval of network ads and 30 minutes, these semi-adult ads started popping up:

adbrite adult adadbrite adult adadbrite adult adadbrite adult ad

I immediately took some screenshots and disabled the auto-approval of network ads again. I’ve sent them the screenshots. We’ll see what their response is.