Monday, September 05, 2022
For the last six months, Google Analytics has shown the notice illustrated in the following graphic as related to the network of QiSoftware sites.
As related to analytics, all QiSoftware sites (see below) are listed as part of the same network, with Google. QiSoftware sites and subdomains using Google Analytics include:
Since WiredShops and ReginaThomas.studio are sites installed within the last year, the Google Analytics 4 tags were automatically created when I registered the new domains with my Google Analytics account. In both cases, because other services use Google Analytics as the source for their statistical data, however have yet to make the switch to G4, I had to also setup the old universal tags to ensure the new sites were found.
In addition, recent updates to the Google Admanager resource now allow users (you or your organization may use an online ad manager service to perform these tasks) to list all sites and subdomains setup using the Google Analytics 4 (G4) tag for each related Admanager account.
Illustrated in the following graphic, newly listed QiSoftware sites with the Google Admanager account.
Are your sites G4 ready?
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
QiSoftware uses header bidding, Google Adsense, and affiliate marketing to facilitate advertising requests on the many areas and subdomains of the site. Other QiSoftware owned online assets, i.e., reginadenisethomas.com, wired-shops.com, etc. use only Google Adsense or affiliate marketing.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Recently, I downloaded the Google My Business App to my android.
Though I maintain business profiles on sites like LinkedIn and PayPal, I have done little with Google's business resources other than- note my business site and address can be found via their search tools.
After downloading, I updated my business information via both the Google My Business App and using a web browser on one of my PCs. Quite frankly, I did not know Google offered these resources for business owners, even though I use several of their tools, e.g. AdSense, Analytics, Webmasters Tools, etc.
Shown below, both the android app and the web page version where you can also update your business information.
The resource also provides Insights about your online business presence. If you are already using Google Analytics [with your business site], some of the information may overlap that- offered by the Insights. Information about your Google+ [Googleplus] posts, is also provided.
Read more about the "Google My Business" resource here:
Monday, August 12, 2013
I am a software consultant with lots of experience with computer hardware and software. So when I began my business in early 2000, the issues that most have insofar as what to get in terms of hardware and software to help run the business-- were thankfully not mine.
Over the years, I have made some good decisions in terms of computing support and hope to share with others my lessons learned. To that end, I have added a link to an Amazon aStore in this blog's sidebar-- that offers some help with computing and other business solutions for small and home businesses.
For those interested in Amazon's Affiliate program, I have written several articles on Amazon's Listmania feature [which I use on It's Personal]-- however this time I used the aStore feature and added individual products to a category list.
The difference in the two approaches in creating an Amazon aStore?
- I do not need to be logged into my Associates account to update and publish a Listmania list. And when an updated list is published it is immediately reflected in my online store..
- It is actually easier to create an aStore using a category and adding products-- but only because it is a bit confusing on how to setup a Listmania and associate it with an aStore.
My rumor mill suggests Amazon's Listmania feature may soon be obsolete -- and currently there is a problem updating the Listmania powering the It's Personal Store. I have a support email in the pipeline to Amazon on this issue. I will provide more details as I get them.
Monday, July 15, 2013
I belong to some of the largest affiliate programs on the internet- so I have experience with quite a few tools these programs offer to its publishers. Of course, I am a software consultant so I also look into API offerings of these programs.
That said-- a week or two ago, I created my first Listmania and aStore under the Amazon program and I have to say- it is by far the easiest ad publishing tool I have worked with. I like this program so much-- that I wrote a brief article on a community site I have a membership with-- detailing some of the reasons I do.
The article on Skirt--
If you are into affiliate sales for online content-- you really should check out this option. Further details about setting up a Listmania are found here.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Over the weekend I contacted Expedia to inquire about a direct partnership insofar as advertising for WiredPages, specifically the Dining & Travel page.
You will recall, I had an affiliate relationship with Expedia until last Spring when I decided to discontinue my association with Commission Junction, under whose oversight the relationship existed. Because Expedia has its own API, which I used to create the original CJ/Expedia interface- the interface still works -- as illustrated in the graphic on the right, ran standalone from NetBeans just a moment ago, so the deals are in effect as of the date of this blog post.
My goal-- to put some sort of advertising interface on each of the WiredPages-- where there is currently an open area in the lower right corner. To date- many of the pages already have an existing tool in the area I have designated for this purpose-- and those tools will not be replaced-- with the exception of iTunes on the Arts & Entertainment page. The reason, there are currently two iTunes interfaces on the page.
I like the idea of understated advertising-- and since my goal is to also promote my services insofar as implementation of tools and interfaces that provide data or advertising, these interfaces provide example. Understated. Consistent, without being too "in your face".
Also over the weekend-- Friday, I tweaked the new Amazon Web Services interface making it more narrow to fit in the lower right area of the WiredPages. Shorter pages will have a version of the Amazon interface that only returns one result while pages with more dead space in the designated area- will have an interface very similar to the one illustrated on the right.
I have toyed with the idea of limiting the search categories, to only those consistent with the page where the interface will be installed. For instance, the Sports page's interface offering only Fitness, Exercise and Outdoors category searches. I am still thinking about this.
Time frame for all of this? Spring 2012, unless I get news from DOJ/FBI earlier. Oh no.. she has started discussing the FBI over here too? Yes. Not only am I trying to promote neat things that can be done with web sites, but I also need big time fraud--- that cannot be ignored by the FBI. In that my personal blog, at this time is unavailable for this type of discussion-- I am providing the information here.
Why so far out? Currently, I believe there are outside parties who are interested in taking over QiSoftware and the interfaces. The problem? The interfaces only work with my sites. The only way around this is to take it over. FBI- owes a cease and desist to those parties. I have no plans of handing over my hard work to filth I do not owe. I think part of the reason I am having a banking/hosting legal issue at this time. I reported the problem. I have shown the theft. Other than asking the FBI to intervene, not much else I can do. Go to my bank.. then I run the risk of negating what was said would be done in the first place... vicious circle.
If the legal issue I am currently a bit distracted with is not cleared up by this Friday, I will start a new personal blog for posts like this. The blog name-- New Day.. after a song I like by George Benson.
One way or another- I plan to have all understand- I said no. Get out of my business and off of my sites.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Last week, I replaced a graphic on the ".. this justin" InStyle Java Applet I use on the WiredPages Style & Events page.
It took me awhile to come up with something I liked as illustrated by the Microsoft Image Composer file {shown below}.
This is how the image looks as part of the applet-- on the Style & Events page.
I was so pleased with the graphic, that this morning when I started the process of creating a new logo for QiSoftware, I finally ended up using the same graphic I used for the Style & Events applet, except of course-- changing the colors.
That was when I decided-- the new QiSoftware logo for everything would be similar to this:
I still need to create the logo {decide on the colors} for the Hosting-Q site, however that should be relatively easy.
I also created a logo for the QiSoftware customized FlashPlayer I have been playing around with, however changing the alpha channel for purposes of this illustration. In actuality, the graphic is a bit lighter {transparent}.
What prompted my desire to create a new logo for QiSoftware? When I completed the Amazon Web Services interface- I wanted to add my company to those listed on the Amazon site that offer custom software solutions for their web services. The other company logos looked so professional, I decided not to investigate further insofar as what I needed to do to apply to be listed. I put a new logo on my "to do" list and happy to report-- this morning I found something I like.
That said-- I do not offer graphic design work as part of my service offerings, though I would love to find a great design shop to team with.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Annapolis has always held a certain charm for me. Recently, while perusing annapolis.com I found this forum post, about the best time of the year to visit Annapolis.
Anytime of the year is beautiful in Annapolis. The Spring brings May Day with flower baskets dotting the doors and fences of downtown Annapolis' businesses and homes. Sailing is great and you simply can't beat the weather. Summer is HOT, but the breeze off the bay can cool you down. The Neufoundland Club brings their dogs to stroll the streets of Annapolis every Friday night. Locals and visitors crowd the streets and everybody enjoys walking around downtown. My kids and I liked to walk downtown, get an ice cream and then take the Water Taxi to Old Woman's Cove — up Spa Creek. We liked to be the last stop so we could ride the small boat around the harbor picking up and dropping off boaters to different locations in downtown and Eastport. We would enjoy the cooler temperatures on the water and always look for the troll hiding under the Eastport Bridge. Does anybody know if it's still there?
Fall brings Navy football, an influx of midshipmen, and gorgeous weather for absolutely anything you like to do. Stroll through downtown, kayak, canoe, sail, boat, dine outdoors, whatever you like, you can find it in Annapolis in the fall.
Winter brings all kinds of great celebrations. I like the Midnight Madness food and shopping extravaganzas downtown. The Holiday Parade of Lights sponsored by the Eastport Yacht Club is a must-see, and First Night Annapolis provides a great alternative to drinking on New Year's Eve. You can't forget Christmas shopping at many of the stores downtown and in the many large malls — new and old.
The other day, I called one of the sponsors [a large hotel chain] who along with three others, provides the annapolis.com website. I wanted to find out about yearly visitation numbers to the area. Maybe the marketing director misunderstood my query and felt I might give her cause to worry about job security. No, I would love to help promote this beautiful city in Maryland-- and hoped that the large corporations in the area - see my view of things-- more so than others. I think like a corporate executive.
This post? Hoping to remind those who should know better.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Amongst my many interests-- outside of business and technology, is my love of style and fashion. I belong to several social groups in the Washington DC metropolitan area whose main focus is fashion, specifically Washington Fashion.
A group I recently joined, DC FABB with about 70 members is a new group and its members are some of the area's who's who-- but not necessarily because of their fashion exploits. They like me, appear to have a lot going on outside of fashion, however like me-- love fashion.
And I do love fashion. I am currently on a strenuous workout program that has me working to get back into the fashion styles I love. Why? Mostly because I miss my style-- but the other thing-- I want to do more as related to business with Fashion and Style.
I have several ideas about ecommerce, magazine and event promotion as related to fashion in this area and the many who share my love.
- Community ecommerce site where items from members' closets and accessory chests could be sold.
- Community magazine site.
- Community Fashion events promotions [calendars], I have plugins for WordPress as well as ideas about custom interfaces.
That said-- I have been around awhile. I am not a fan of "Bad Girls" nor "Housewives...." shows. Muted-- "Housewives of New York" looks classy and interesting. Unmuted it does not. I work a lot. I love constructive projects. Hard work, good taste, interesting ideas-- sell. Conflict and trash may sell but not in my world. Love to work with all who share my interests... I am smart. I do have good taste. I wrote this post for this blog-- to brag? No, I wrote this post for this blog to send a strong message.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
To date I have not done much with monetization for this blog. The blog has been around since last April [2010] and I have decided that I will offer advertising to individual organizations and sponsors-- under the Sponsors heading in the right sidebar. Perhaps even in the upper heading next to the bright image-- under the date.
That said, since this blog's inception, I have placed a couple of affiliate program ads in the sidebar-- for analysis.
In addition, I recently added Quantcast and Compete scripts to the already existing Google Analytic scripts in the underlying code of this blog's pages.
The sponsor ads I intend to place in the sidebar will be handled through a similar interface to that used by WiredPages-- see here. The WiredPages Ad interface is associated with my PayPal account-- as will the interface for this blog. I might even combine them.
In that I do not wish to use affiliate ads nor pay-per-click ads solely- with this blog, I have asked a major advertising network to look over QiSoftware Blogs and WiredPages in hopes of having them handle prepaid ads for these networks. I have not heard anything yet. I think they are going to suggest, I do not have enough traffic. This one of the reasons, I wanted new analysis measurement tools [Quantcast & Compete] added to the mix.
In the meantime-- to either my putting the new sponsor interface in place or the major advertising network agreeing to handle the advertising for these properties- if you wish to run an ad on this blog, you can make your requests here. Suggest a rate.
Quantcast and Compete both offer public data for review as related to qisoftware sites, however because I only recently added the scripts to the site pages-- the data is not thorough. That said, a "free" rate offer to run your ads-- will be rejected and, it assumed you wanted to test the QiSoftware contact form mechanics. Yes, it works. I wonder in this age of "Green" and super fast computers, if it makes sense to abstain from spamming my server?
Sunday, March 06, 2011
A new service offering of the WiredPages Business Directory allows advertisers to provide videos or screen shows for their products and services.
I came up with this new offering-- while researching tree services in the area. I found a service that had a video of their services- using a video player offered by a popular nationwide directory service. Visitors to the site could also embed the video and player on other sites-- similar to the YouTube offering. Why would you embed someone else's video on your site? Advertisement.
This offering is on a first come basis-- and right now-- the same cost as a non-video advertisement listing in the WiredPages Business Directory. Existing terms and conditions apply.
Contact-- wiredPages@qisoftware.com for more information.
Friday, January 14, 2011
I have been saving up for a fitness elliptical. I have been checking ads and waiting for the one I want to go on sale. Over the weekend-- I noticed Walmart had it on sale for $487.00 but the only way to get free shipping was to have it shipped to the store.
Amazon had the elliptical on sale for $599.00 with free super saver shipping. Then yesterday, it suddenly went on sale for $487.00, too. I emailed family members, whose non-business email addresses I had-- discussing the highly rated elliptical in detail.
By 6:00 p.m. yesterday evening the Amazon offering was back up to $588.00. Why? Walmart was out of stock. By 9:00 p.m. Amazon had reinstated the full $599.00 price tag. Did anyone I emailed click the link to see if it was still available at the price I provided in the email before it went up? Not sure. Though I had two ad links in the email-- neither provided the price from the Amazon site-- so I included it as part of my message. The price I quoted in the emails to family members, is now of course-- wrong.
I am an affiliate with Amazon-- so not only was I hoping to tell them about a great deal-- but also to get the commission for the referrals. I also placed ads for the elliptical on one of my shopping pages. I have one order. If some of you keep up with my personal blog-- you may realize I do not see nor talk to a lot of my family members so anything they may have done as related to the ads-- would not be known to me. Those that I emailed should respond-- if they like.
So the reason for this post? To tell of my recent activities with Affiliate ads, ways to promote, and to discuss the experiment in the sidebar and the reasons for it.
I am a software consultant and like building interfaces for affiliate networks. My experience includes:
- Commission Junction Web Services
- LinkShare Web Services
- Expedia Feeds
- iTunes Feeds
- Amazon Web Services [none in place but have done extensive research].
Demonstrations are integrated within WiredPages.
That said-- the current experiment in the sidebar is not my software. Why? It is too early to tell from yesterday's blitz of emails-- but I feel I have had a lot of problems with re-commissioning [a term like re-gifting] as related to the wrong party. My emails with my affiliate links should have come under different laws. Stronger laws. It would also be harder to change the tracking information in the emails.
This blog is a Thingamablog. What does this mean? The database for the blog sits on my local personal computer. I can republish the entire blog with a click of a button and new html pages will be sent to my server [remix.qisoftware.com] in a matter of seconds [Verizon FiOS key]. It would be harder to maintain someone else's codes on this blog-- when the master version sits offline and easily republished.
I have thought of many different software applications I would like to build for Amazon Associates. I am in an odd position-- so though I think my interfaces are a lot more secure than most-- for me and my situation-- different laws appear to be in place. I am working on having what appear to be temporary measures put in in place for my case-- thrown out or repealed whichever is applicable. As related to email? This should cause several problems if anything is amiss.
The widget in the sidebar is Flash and offered by Amazon to its associates. It should also be secure. Because in my case, it is used in html pages-- that are too easy for me to republish whenever I fee like it-- it should be a deterrent for those that like thinking up new ways to steal proceeds from my sites and revenue streams.
I am always researching on how to make something more secure as related to the internet and e-commerce. I wanted to share some of my research concerns of late-- so that you to, can understand some of the dynamics involved.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Last December, I registered "professional-pros.com" thinking I would move the ProfessionalProfiles service-- to its own domain. It is currently a sub-domain on hosting-q.com. As the name indicates-- the service provides classified listings of professionals and their background information.
The renewal date is fast approaching and I have decided to sell the domain. I am an enom domain reseller and that is where I registered the domain. The $10.00 fee to renew for another year, is not too much of a problem-- and I am hoping to sell the domain within the coming year. If I find a buyer, I will "push" the domain registration to the new owner-- via enom.
According to the Network Solutions Domain Assessment Tool, the current estimated value of "professional-pros.com" is:
The following whois data shows the domain "professional-pros.com"-- is registered under my name and QiSoftware/Hosting-Q.
If I am unable to sell the domain-- I probably will not renew in December 2011, however, I might change my mind [again] and move ProfessionalProfiles to its own domain-- as was the original plan.
If you are interested in this domain-- contact me at thomas@qisoftware.com or use this Contact-- form.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Image ads for WiredPages have the following restrictions:
Along the right side, next to the main menu [specified area shown in the image on the left, showing Apple Store ad] -- Images must be 120px or less in width and 240px or less in height.
The rate is $49.95 per month.
Along the bottom of sidebar [specified area shown in the image on the right, where the Apple ad is located]-- Images must be 234px or less in width and 300px or less in height.
The rate is also $49.95 per month. $500.00 per year.
All ads are subject to prior approval and no other banner ad space is available on WiredPages. Text links and small image ad space is available in the WiredPages Business Directory.
These rates apply to the following WiredPages:Home
Real Estate
Employment
Business
GovernmentStyle & Events
Media
Sports
Shopping
Health & Medicine
Charities
Library
Arts & Entertainment
Dining & Travel
Reference
Technology
WiredPages Text Ads
Textual link ads are $9.95 per month/$100.00 per year-- and must relate to the content on the page where the link is to be placed.
If you would like to run an ad on WiredPages-- email wiredpages@qisoftware.com, call 443.393.6650 or use the form below.
To run ads on any of the QiSoftware blogs-- see the respective Blogads link.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
To each page of my new Business Blog template, I have added a new sidebar element; Sponsors-- as illustrated below using the main page template:
Thingamablog allows users to create "Custom Tags" for use in templates. To create my Sponsors Custom Tag-- I selected the Configure Weblog item as shown:
The dialog forms shown below are presented and enable creation of Custom Tags-- in this case "Sponsors". Note: there are two dialogs here. The one in the foreground is presented when you click on the "Add" button of the form shown in the background:
One only needs to insert the label without the "<$" and "$>" label containers. The program inserts these characters when the "ok" button is clicked to create the tag. After defining your custom tag-- insert "<$Sponpors$>" into each of your template pages as illustrated below using the Thingamablog Template Page Editor.
This will list the information to each template page where the custom tag is inserted. Right now, I have no sponsors -- however the place marker is shown.
