California based online goods payments processor once popular with affiliate marketers, has shut down many of their vendors, and affiliates, in certain markets.  While that in itself wouldn’t be a problem, Plimus shut down these vendors without warning!  Not even 24 hours notice, so no time to find an alternative payment and affiliate platform to sell their wares.   In addition they are withholding payments owed to vendors for up to 3 months, and plimus affiliates up to 30 days.

In an email to vendors just yesterday, Plimus explains “The credit card associations (including Visa and MasterCard) are increasing their scrutiny of merchants selling products within a number of online segments. Affected market segments include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Online auctions
- Foreign Exchange (FOREX)-related products
- Media
- Poker chips and other virtual currency

Next the complete lack of notice, the second scariest part of the plimus statement above is the “market segments include, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO….” portion.  Basically, if you’re using PLIMUS for products/services  in ANY market, they are saying, “dear valued customer, Plimus may have plans to screw you too, in the near future.”

If you sell affiliate products, either your own as a vendor, or someone else’s as an affiliate, I highly recommend you steer well clear of Plimus, as they clearly DO NOT have their clients best interests in mind.  Any company who would just shut down vendors with no warning after years of problem free service, clearly have another hidden agenda.  It’s rumored Plimus shut down these vendors and affiliates, and suspended outstanding payments owed indefinitely, due to a cash crunch on their part.  That is, Plimus doesn’t have enough cash to meet the payments they owe their vendors and afffiliates.  Is this true?  I certainly have no way of knowing.  Is it possible?  Definitely, as they decided to spring this sudden suspension just 4 days before they were obligated ot make payments to their vendors and affiliates.  Coincidence?  I’ll let you decide.

As an affiliate, this webchicklet only stands to lose $1200.  Vendors, on the other hand, stand to lose much, much more.  In addition, all their recurring payments with existing clients are lost forever!  Shame on you Plimus.  This incident shows a complete lack of any kind of professional conduct on Plimus’ part, as well as a complete lack of business ethics.

Here’s two different letters sent to vendors:

“Dear Vendor,

We are writing at this time to notify you we are exercising our right to suspend your account and payment as your business is in violation of the Plimus Prohibited Items Policy under this section: Financial services and of any type including and not limited to financial advice, all types of trading, insurance, currency exchange, trading signals, payment services.

Should there be any reference to Plimus on your web site, we ask that you remove it at this time.

In order to cover potential refunds and chargeback as well as any legal costs incurred to Plimus any payments due to you from Plimus are held for a period of three months and fifteen days starting from the last day of the month of your account suspension date; after which funds will be released to you per a monthly ongoing review and based on refund and chargeback impacting your account. In case of a negative balance in your Plimus account, Plimus will invoice you for the balance amount and expect payment within 30 business days.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you success for the future and thank you for thinking of Plimus for your business needs.

Please let us know should you have any questions or concerns.”

and the other letter from Plimus:

The credit card associations (including Visa and MasterCard) are increasing their scrutiny of merchants selling products within a number of online segments. Affected market segments include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Online auctions
- Foreign Exchange (FOREX)-related products
- Media
- Poker chips and other virtual currency

As you offer products that fit within one or more of these segments, Plimus must now undertake a detailed and exhaustive review of your account, and its compatibility with the Plimus platform. This review will take approximately 30 days; at its conclusion, we hope to be able to advise you that we can continue to provide e-commerce services to your business.

During the period of this review, we must undertake two steps. First, the payout scheduled for the 15th of this month will be suspended for a period not to exceed 30 days, pending our confirmation that all transactions will be honored by the card associations. Second, your account will be suspended as of Thursday, January 12th, which will mean that no further transactions can take place until further notice.

We recognize that this represents a significant business challenge, and apologize for the inconvenience. If you believe your account should not be considered to be within one of the stated market segments, or if you have any questions of concerns, please contact Vendor Support directly.

And here’s the one sent to Plimus affiliates affected (I got mine at 10:40 ET!!):

Dear Affiliate –

The credit card associations (including Visa and MasterCard) are increasing their scrutiny of merchants selling products within a number of online segments.  Affected market segments include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Online auctions
• Foreign Exchange (FOREX)-related products
• Media
• Poker chips and other virtual currency

As you currently are promoting products that fit within one or more of these segments, Plimus must now undertake a detailed and exhaustive review of your account to assess the stability of the products sold via your efforts.

During the period of this review, we must suspend payments for your account for a period not to exceed 30 days, pending our confirmation that all transactions will be honored by the card associations.

We recognize that this represents a significant business challenge, and apologize for the inconvenience.  If you believe your account should not be considered to be focused on any of the stated market segments, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact Vendor Support directly.

Best Regards

The Plimus Team

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It’s always interesting to see the trends in operating system use, and with Google Analytics on your site, it’s easy to quickly see what the top operation systems are.  Not only can you see what are the most widely used computer operating systems, you can also get an idea as to who is winning the smartphone wars.  You can also see what the top browsers are and more importantly which ones are gaining market share over time.

Top Computer Operating Systems in Use

According to Google Analytics for webchicklet.com, the number one operating system in March 2011 is still Windows, by a very wide margin.  Microsoft Windows accounts for 82.4% of the users visiting this site, compared to Macintosh’s OS at 11.15%, and Linux at only 1.01%.  This is not exactly surprising given that most, if not all, of the PC’s sold are bundled with Microsoft Windows.  Have you ever seen an ad for a new pc or laptop with Linux??

Looking at the numbers for March 2010, Windows accounted for 85.6% of the visitors to webchicklet.com, 11.35% were Macintosh, and Linux was 1.92%.  As you can see, Windows did lose marketshare, but not to Macintosh or Linux.  Rather, mobile smartphones have taken away some of the marketshare from traditional computers.

Smartphone Web Visitors

In March 2010, Iphone operating system accounted for 0.51% of webchicklet visitors, while Android was a measly 0.27%.  Now in March 2011, Iphone accounted for 2.04%  of visitors and Android was 1.79% of visitors.  As you can see Iphone usage on webchicklet has increased four fold in the past year, while Android usage increased almost 7 fold over last year.  Clearly smartphones traffic is increasing exponentially and will continue to do so.  iPad usage is increasing rapidly as well at 0.79% of visitors in March 2011, versus zero in March 2010.

Most Popular Browsers

In the browser arena, Internet Explorer, while not this Webchicklet’s fave, is by far the leading browser, given that it comes preloaded on most if not all new pc’s and laptops.  In March 2011, Internet Explorer accounted for 52.87% of visitors, while Firefox came in at 22.39 %, Safari at 12.01%, and Google Chrome at 11.5%.

In March 2010, Internet Explorer was at 56.03%, Firefox at 28.32%, Safari at 8.39%, and Google Chrome at 5.97%.  As you can see from these numbers Internet Explorers market share is being eroded, particularly by Google Chrome and Safari.  It seems Firefox is losing ground to Google’s Chrome browser, which this Webchicklet has no problem believing, as I have dumped Firefox in favor of Google Chrome myself.

So there you have it, if you’re a webmaster/blogger, have a look at your OS and browser stats in Google Analytics, and see how your numbers compare to webchicklet.com.

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While I love Paypal for it’s ease of use in accepting and making purchases, to this day I don’t understand how an otherwise excellent and efficient company can take SO LONG to transfer funds from my bank account in Canada to my Paypal account.  As far as transfers go, a Paypal bank transfer SUCKS.

I know if they ever actually responded to my emailed questions about this, they would go on about protecting both me the customer as well as themselves. Or maybe about the complexities of dealing with foreign bank regulations, or that they have to wait to ensure the funds have cleared.  That’s all a bunch of poppycock.  That’s right I used the word poppycock in a sentence, and I’m not British.  You see, the reason it makes me so angry is not that it takes 8 to 10 business days to transfer from my Canadian bank account to my paypal account.  Paypal is kind enough to inform me several times before initiating the transfer that it will indeed take this long.  The reason it makes me angry is that the funds are removed from my Canadian bank account the next business day after initiating the transfer.  That’s right one business day.  Now I’m not up to snuff on Canadian banking regulations,but I would think that if the funds have been removed from my bank account, that should be proof enough that the funds were indeed available for transfer.

So Mr. Paypal, why is it that it only takes one business day for you to TAKE my funds from my bank account, and another 7 to 9 business days for you to give it back to me in my Paypal account??  So, again, it is not the length of time of the transfer, but rather the length of time my money is in cyberspace not collecting interest(that’s right, I’m missing out on .01% interest!) for me.  So, my question is, who exactly is collecting interest on that money for 7 to 9 business days?

Here’s some screen shots showing that I’m not losing my mind, just my shirt:

Here’s the Paypal item showing the transfer being requested on August 30, 2010, and the tranfer being completed today on September 8, 2010.   By the way, this is the fastest they’ve EVER done this in the four or five times I’ve had to do this, and that’s with the Labor day holiday in this period!  You’ll have to click on it for full size readability.

Now, here’s the line item debit on my bank account, i.e. the day they took my money from me (August 31, 2010).   Wow! That was fast!

I don’t really know why I felt the need to rant about this today, but I do feel a little bit better.  So if you’re in the same boat, and need to do a Paypal bank transfer from a Canadian bank account or maybe another first world country bank, you may want to think about whether you want to wait that long for your money.  Some times it’s better to just wire transfer the money, as it is not only quicker but also usually cheaper as Paypal likes to rape you on the currency exchange as well.  Rant off.

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This years Black Friday sales at Walmart and Target are shaping up to be the craziest yet.   Hopefully, there will be no stampedes at this years Black Friday sales events!  This Webchicklet will probably venture out to attempt to snag some Black Friday electronics specials at Walmart and Target.

Today, news was leaked that Target will be offering $3 toasters and coffee makers, as well as a 32″ LCD HDTV for $246!  It was also leaked that Target would be offering up to 50% off on clothing!  Sweet!  This appears to be the most aggressive discounting Target has ever done for the annual Black Friday  (day after of Thanksgiving) sale.

And of course, some Walmart black friday sales were leaked as well.  Walmart is rumored to offer spectacular deals on a couple Blackberry smart phones, including the Storm and the Curve.   Thats all I’ve heard on Walmart, they seem to have kept a tighter lid on their Black Friday Sales Event.


Good luck, and stay safe in the crazy lineups of this years Black Friday sales events!

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A little off topic but, it’s Friday, so why not. You had to know it would happen eventually…Snuggies For Dogs! After people threw billions of dollars at the Snuggies for humans, you just had to know that Snuggies for Dogs would not be far behind. As a dog owner and lover (yep, I’m not just a gadget geek), I know we dog owners will spend whatever it costs to keep our dogs happy, healthy, and yes, warm!

So given the amount of money we spend on our dogs, you know Snuggies for Dogs is going to be a home run. In fact, I suspect and predict it will surpass the original Snuggies for humans in sales. At least in unit sales if not in total dollar sales, as I believe the Snuggies for Dogs is actually cheaper than the human version (as it should be given that it takes much less fabric to make the Snuggies for dogs version!). But notice it doesn’t cost much less? Again, us humans will spend any amount of money to spoil our dogs!


So, the Snuggies for Dogs has been announced, and naturally a quick look at Google Trends, show it is number 100 on the most searched terms today. You just have to know this is going to be a homerun. What’s all the fuss about? It’s currently 90 degrees here, but come winter my little Morkie will need a Snuggies for Dogs warmer!

Rosco can't wait for his Snuggies for Dogs

Here’s the specs in case you just have to get one (actually two as they are buy one get one free):

Warm, Ultra Soft Fleece For Indoor / Outdoor Use
Perfect for Every Dog
Adjustable Velcro Tabs For The Perfect Fit
Sizes Range From Extra Small – Large
Available in Blue & Pink
Machine Washable

And you just have to watch the official Snuggies For Dogs video. I think they’ve actually managed to come up with an even more cheesy infomercial than the original Snuggies for humans! LOL.

Now that they have the Snuggies for Dogs out of the way, I can’t wait for their next one, Snuggies for Pythons.  Those pythons don’t like to get cold!

Enjoy your Snuggies for Dogs, time for this webchicklet to get back to more web oriented work.

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This will just be a quick observation because, frankly, I’m not even sure how to express this thought fully. I believe that some time in the future, history books (if books even still exist in their present form) will refer back to this point in time as a very significant turning point. Can’t you just “feel” the history in the making? Can’t you just “see” the changes that are taking place all around us?

The world is changing folks. Much of that change has to do with technology reaching out and allowing us – everyone – the ability to connect with each other on a global basis – just as we might if we all lived next door to each other. I know this seems like a “yeah, so what” kind of observation, but my gut keeps insisting that it’s a big big big thing. And my heart tells me it’s a really really really great thing.

That’s all. Just wanted to get that out. Go back to what you were doing now.

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Last week was one of those weeks where I came across a few things that I read, installed, considered using, or thought was cool. Rather than writing a full-blown post about any of them, I decided to just share my thoughts on each of them in a quick rundown here.

First up: Wubi. I installed Wubi on my little Windows XP laptop yesterday. In case you missed it, I briefly mentioned Wubi in my last post, Ubuntu Newbie Guide: First 24 Hours With Ubuntu, in which I said:

You can install Ubuntu via Windows using Wubi. This is more of a one-click solution where you install it like you would any other Windows application and uninstall it just as easily. Great solution for anyone squeamish about dual-boot installations.

I’d considered doing some screenshots of the installation process, but that would have been ridiculous, because it’s just too easy to install, so screenshots would just be overkill. If you really want to see some screenshots, check out the Wubi FAQ. When they say enter a password and click Install, they mean it. Spend some time watching the system download, reboot a couple times, and you’re all set. The install was flawless for me. The point? Simple, flawless install, with the ability to easily uninstall – just like any other Windows application – except it’s not a Windows app. Run Windows or run Ubuntu on one computer, painless install, no worries. Sweet.

Next up is Calibre. This cool little open source, cross-platform app is a genius at organizing your ebooks and pdfs. But the extra cool bit is that it can also convert them so you can also read them on your portable reader, like the Kindle or the Sony PRS or even your iPhone. Love it. Now I can easily put all those PHP, Linux, Apache and other pdf books on my portable reader and have them with me all the time.

This next lovely open source app, which is also free, is for any of you who have your own web sites. It’s Piwik, and it looks like a great alternative to Google Analytics. I haven’t had a chance to install it on either of my servers yet, so I can only judge it by what I read on the site, and the demo itself. Looks cool. The main advantage? Control, baby. It’s all about control. Control over your data, so that you aren’t just handing it off to the big bad Google wolf (or any other hosted analytics company) who already knows more about you than you’d feel comfortable sharing with your best friend. I’m definitely going to give Piwik a try and I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve used it for a while.

This last one is an ebook that an acquaintance of mine wrote. It’s called Directory Marketing Reborn by IrishWonder, and although it’s not free, it’s a good solid education in using directories as one method of marketing your site. And yes, you’ll hear time and time again that directories are no longer useful for search marketing, but don’t listen to everything you hear. Done RIGHT, it can still be useful. IrishWonder shares some very nice insights into finding the right directories that will make a difference. Not sure you believe me, or someone who is selling an ebook? Ok, fair enough. Would you believe the link queen herself, Debra Mastaler? Here are a few of her articles that mention directories. Check out A Link Building Stimulus Plan, Foundational Links Don’t Split, Crack Or Get Dugg Up, and Link Smart Or Die In 2009. Debra knows the right ways to use directories, but she isn’t sharing all of her secrets, although I do wish she’d put out an ebook. She hasn’t, but IrishWonder has, and he’s got some great insights in his Directory Marketing Reborn.

That’s the roundup of the cool stuff I ran across last week. Hope one or more of those is something you found interesting.

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Get the best deals at Applebees restaurants and save money when you use the special Applebees Coupons. Applebees Restaurants has focused on casual dining with mainstream American dishes along with their signature “riblets” since 1980. Their newst slogan, “It’s a whole new neighborhood” reinforces their friendly, laidback atmosphere. Applebee’s continues to grow, adding many new restaurants each year in the United States. Once again, if you’re looking to get the best deals on an amazing Applebees meal, be sure to take advantage of Applebees coupons.

Applebees started in 1980 when Bill and T.J. Palmer decided to open the very first Applebees restaurant in Atlanta. The original name of the restaurant was T.J. Applebees Rx for Edibles & Elixirs. After 3 years they opened their second Applebees restaurant and then sold the company. In 1986, the name of the concept was changed to Applebees Neighborhood Grill & Bar to reflect the Palmers’ original concept of a place people could call their own.

Applebees is now franchised across the entire United States. The restaurant was a huge hit, and today, the famous and value oriented Applebees meal is served to families in more than 1900 restaurants. Take advantage of the Applebees coupons and experience the wonderful taste of an Applebees dinner today!

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If you are the marketing director of a large company, you probably already know all about the value of running surveys to gauge customer response to various marketing campaigns, products or services. You probably also already spend a fortune with some enterprise level survey company handling all the technical aspects of putting together a survey and collecting responses for you. But if you’re like me, or any one of millions of small or solo-business owners, you may think you don’t have that same access to run professional surveys, but you’d be wrong. The online survey market is hot, and hot services means hot competition. Hot competition means you can find the perfect set of features to go with a great price – even free. Of course, wading through all the different services, price points, and features is a daunting task, so I’ve taken the liberty of easing the pain of finding the perfect online survey service.

It’s impossible to compare apples to apples in all cases, because there are just too many wide-ranging features offered. That means you’ll have to do a little investigating on your own if you want to see all the features offered by the following companies. But I’ve made it as easy as possible to get you started.

I started out by comparing just four basic criteria that must be met for everyone before additional features ever come into play. Those four criteria are:

1. Price
2. Number of Responses Allowed at Each Price Point
3. Overage Fee Charges For Going Over The Allowed Number of Responses
4. Number of Questions Allowed For Each Survey

Everyone will have a different idea about what cool features they want for their online survey (lots of quick start templates, for example), but there’s no disputing the need to compare those four items head to head. The information below gives an overview of each of those four criteria for each of nine (9) online survey sites, with information current as of this post date. Prices and features may change in the future, so keep that in mind.

Below is an embedded spreadsheet of the information (thanks to Zoho) that you can save to your computer if you wish, as well as screenshots of sections of the same spreadsheet. Scroll down after the images for clickable links that lead to additional information on price plan differences and features available for each site.

My favorite is SurveyGizmo, because for my needs all the price points and features listed here come together perfectly, and the extra features you get (which you’ll have to discover when you visit the site), makes it my Editor’s Choice. Still, your needs may work best with one of the others. I hope I’ve helped you get started. Here is the list again, with clickable links for more information. Each link opens in a new window/tab to make comparing each a little easier.

SurveyMonkey – More Info

Zoomerang – More Info

InstantSurvey – More Info

QuestionPro – More Info

ZapSurvey – More Info

ConstantContact – More Info

CreateSurvey – More Info

CheckBox – More Info

SurveyGizmo – More Info

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The title of this post might be a slight exaggeration, since “anything” is a very broad term, but let’s not quibble over semantics, k? I’m a big fan of self-learning. Although I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s of Science, I’ve learned much more on my own since then, and the things I’ve learned are directly useful to me in my everyday life. That’s one of the reasons I tend to point out helpful self-learning resources such as my Learning PHP : Beginner Tutorials post and my Taking The Plunge: Learning CSS post. There is a wealth of free information on the Internet that allows each of us to acquire an amazing education, and I’ll bet you didn’t know about most of it! In fact, much of it comes directly from some of the finest, most elite universities in the world.

The entire University-level free course phenomenon began with the illustrious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) back in 2002, when they began the MIT OpenCourseWare initiative, which was a goal to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate and graduate level courses online, free and openly available to anyone, anywhere, by the end of the year 2007. They now have over 1800 courses online – free. Since then, numerous Universities have joined the initiative, now known as the Open Courseware Consortium. I’ll list those here, as well as a number of other places that may not be a part of the Consortium, but they offer free courses in a similar manner.

Don’t expect to earn a degree by taking these courses. They generally don’t count as credit towards a degree. But if you’d rather not spend tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a higher education, and would love to learn everything you want for free, it’s all at your fingertips. Enjoy!

First, here a list of the United States Open Courseware Consortium members. See the official site for an all-inclusive list, including universities from around the world, in countries such as Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Iran, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, UK, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tufts University
UMass Boston
University of California, Irvine
University of Notre Dame
Utah State University
University of California, Berkeley

Next is a list of non-OCW university-level courses you can take as well.

Stanford University’s Intro Computer Science classes, Artificial Intelligence, and Linear Systems and Optimization courses
UC Berkeley Webcasts of Fall 2008 Courses
Stanford on iTunes – Stanford to go
OpenLearn from The Open University

Finally, you may want to see an even larger list here.

The number of courses available is almost staggering in its scope. Anyone, wanting to learn almost anything, can do so with just an Internet connection. Don’t have one of those? Your public library does and it’s free too. There is literally no excuse, even in these difficult times, to not get an incredible education. Wanna learn? Just do it!

©2012 WebChicklet | Just a Geek Girl. All Rights Reserved.

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