Giving away Joost invites

// June 30th, 2007 // 5 Comments » // fun

Since my first post about Joost invites I have had 146 requests for invitations. I still get requests almost every day to invite people and most of them come from google. I’m on the first page of the dutch version of google if you search for kewords like “joost invites“, “joost please invite me” and “invitation joost blog“.

I like the traffic to my website and I don’t mind helping people to get an invite. The last few weeks the traffic on these keywords is getting less and that’s why I’m making a new post. Are there still people left that need an invite? Just leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll get you one.

If this doesn’t work to get more traffic, I’ll have to find myself a new topic to write about to keep those numbers up.

Going back to Spain in September

// June 25th, 2007 // No Comments » // barcelona

I just booked another language course in Spain, this time I will go to Barcelona for 3 weeks. I have booked with the same organization I went last time (plustaalreizen/sprachcaffe) and asked if I could get a room in the Portaferrissa apartment. Three weeks ago I was in this apartment for one weekend and it was a lot of fun, it’s perfectly located close to the ramblas and there are always living a lot of people.

I didn’t pass all my tests here in the Netherlands so I have to study a bit more. It’s bad I can’t start my final internship at Mark van Werven yet, but I’m not in a hurry.

I leave on Sunday 16 September and fly back on Sunday 7 October. I hope this will be enough to pass my tests and see a bit more of Barcelona.

Game playing, social networking and social marketing

// June 20th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // photolog

I got invited by a friend to look at a network marketing concept called project E-play (by Virtual World Direct). The project is about a yet to launch platform where people can play games to each other for real money. There are a lot of different games like checkers, backgammon and card games. You can invite friends or play to people you don’t know for small amounts of money. It’s possible to use your AIM, MSN, Jabber or other chatting protocols to see who is online and wants to play. I have seen some screenshots of the website and it looked really professional. I really like the combination of gaming and social networking and the fact that you are able to play for real money.

Behind this all is a multi level marketing concept where you’re able to organize your own tournaments or host your own gaming platform. You pay a little bit of money to use this service and you are able to make a lot. But this scares me a bit because I’m not a fan of MLM. I was really enthusiastic until I read the MLM part of the marketingplan. I have heard to many bad stories about MLM and I just don’t believe one can make $20.000 in just a few weeks.

But I am still interested because the concept really fits todays web 2.0 standards. It’s a combination of all the things that are hot on this moment: playing games, social networking and social marketing! On July 15th the website will go live for those who pre-registered (including me) and you can take a look at the user interface. Virtual world direct calls it evolution day, for me its just another Sunday. Or maybe if you all register via this link to my eVo page I will be a millionaire.

Maybe someone else wants to take a look at this concept and give his/her opinion? If you are interested in getting more information feel free to contact me. I can send you some presentations and screenshots of the website.

Help Marcel in het bestuur van BNN

// June 19th, 2007 // No Comments » // photolog

Zojuist ontving ik onderstaande mail en omdat ik Marcel graag help plaats ik hem hier even door. Ben je lid van BNN stem dan op Marcel van der Heijden als nieuw lid van het rayonbestuur! 

Beste vrienden, familie, (oud)collega’s, klasgenoten, kennissen,

Deze mail is even wat schaamteloze zelfpromotie voor mijn persoon, maar ik heb jullie steun hard nodig! Jullie kennen allemaal natuurlijk BNN. Die onwijs leuke omroep die spraakmakende televisie maakt voor jongeren en jong volwassen. Spuiten & Slikken, de Grote Dondershow, De Lama’s,  Kebab TV, Afkicken en op 3 FM zijn ze natuurlijk ook niet meer weg te denken. Ze houden altijd wel van een geintje maar ook de meer serieuze zaken komen altijd aan bod. Maar BNN is net zoals alle andere publieke omroepen een omroepvereniging. En een omroepvereniging kan alleen bestaan dankzij de leden. Tussen die leden en de directie van BNN zit het rayonbestuur. 18 vrijwillige jongeren in de leeftijd van 18 t/m 30 jaar die de directie van BNN gevraagd en ongevraagd adviseren over de zaken die spelen bij BNN en over de toekomst van de legacy van Bart de Graaff.

Elke drie jaar wisselt het bestuur van BNN. Nu is het zo dat ik kandidaat ben om een van de twee vertrekkende bestuurders op te volgen. Maar helaas, er zijn nog 4 andere kandidaten die graag hetzelfde willen (zie de bijlage) maar er zijn dus helaas maar twee plekken. Er moet dus gestemd worden! Ben jij dus lid van BNN en denk jij van “die Marcel is wel een goede voor dat BNN bestuur” log dan hier in en stem op mij! Bij deze alvast mijn eeuwige dank en waardering.

Ben je nog geen lid van BNN? Echt niet? Dan kun je je natuurlijk gewoon even lid worden. Voor 5, 73 per jaar ben je al lid. Je steunt natuurlijk de leukste omroep van Nederland en in september ontvang je BNN’s Grote scheurkalender. Daarnaast kun je meedoen aan de BNN leden dagen en allerlei BNN-workshops en activiteiten special voor leden. Plus je krijgt nog een DVD van de lama’s cadeau. Lijkt mij een goede deal dus! En als je lid bent kun je natuurlijk gelijk even op mij stemmen! En ook jullie ontvangen natuurlijk mijn eeuwige dank en waardering!

Alvast bedankt voor jullie hulp!

Greetz,

Marcel

How to make your own blog; the software

// June 18th, 2007 // No Comments » // wordpress

I am writing a manual on how to start your own blog because of the requests I got in the last few months. The first step was to get a domain and hosting. After this we are now going to run the (open source) blogging software on the domain.

There are a lot of different free tools you can use to build a blog. The most popular ones are Pivot and WordPress (Movable Type has an open source beta release now). I prefer WordPress because of the large active community and the number of plugins that are available. I never used other open source blogging software, but I would recommend WordPress to everyone.

Setting up a WordPress blog is really easy, even if you don’t know much about Internet/PHP/MySQL and all the things you are going to use. The installation guide basically tells you everything. Here is a short summary to see how easy it is:

1. Install an FTP program like Filezilla (windows) or Cyberduck (mac).
2. Make sure you have a text editor (even better would be a HTML editor like Nvu).
3. Download and unzip the WordPress package.
4. Create a database (MySQL) for WordPress on your server, if you use direct admin this can be done wih only one click.
5. Open wp-config-sample.php in your text editor and fill in the database details.
6. Safe this file with the name wp-config.php.
7. Upload the WordPress files with your FTP client.
8. Run the WordPress installation script by typing www.thedomain.com/wp-admin/install.php in your web browser.
9. That’s it! WordPress should now be installed.

You can choose to install WordPress in your root directory but it’s also possible to use a subdirectory (pietervangils.com/weblog/) or subdomain (blog.pietervangils.com). If you have questions about this leave a reply on this post or send me an email.