Written by Mark of MeAndMyDrum | Fave MAMD | Subscribe to MAMD

Last week there was a day in the spotlight that you may not have known about. It was RSS Appreciation Day (May 1), a day to promote the wonder that is RSS and how it has brought so much to enrich our lives by keeping us in touch with content we want to know more about.

Aaron Abber of FullTiltBlogging.com created something based on this appreciation that continues now to May 15. It’s called FeedaPalooza. Not only do you get to know more great blogs out there, but you can also get lots of FREE goodies! For example, I’m currently offering my first free ebook where I share with you my tips on buying domains. It’s called Domain Secrets Revealed. The only way to get it is by subscribing to my feed, which you can do right here.

Want to see the other blogs and what they offering for FREE? Then you can go here and browse the categories and posts…and subscribe!

If you’re wondering who Aaron Abber is, he’s someone I’m glad I’m getting to know because he’s mentoring me and a few others about how to generate leads which can lead to profit. He’s not some fly-by-night guy either. He’s helped at least two people become millionaires. I recommend getting to know him.

It has been WAY too long since I’ve posted here. So I thought I’d get back into the swing of things by posting a collection of April Fool’s jokes that have made their way to the Web today.

I must admit that ever since I saw last year’s April Fool’s jokes by Google, April 1st couldn’t get here fast enough for me so that I could try my hand at a little fun.

Here are just a few that I’ve come across. If you’ve found some, don’t be shy and post them in the comments.

MeAndMyDrum - Google Announces The G-String iPhone Accessory
Darn Good Reviews - Frog Soap That Washes Away Fat?
Google - Virgle: The Adventure of Many Lifetimes
Garry Conn dot com - I Got Banned From Google Adsense!
Chris Pirillo - Chris Pirillo Gets In Fight With Wife and Quits His Job
Google - Gmail Custom Time
John Chow - John Chow Cola - The Official Blogger Drink
Freelance Writing Gigs - Men with Pens Expands with Freelance Writing Gigs

Written by Mark of MeAndMyDrum | Fave MAMD | Subscribe to MAMD

ScratchBack is a method of purchasing links on another person’s blog and do so without being penalized as these links are nofollow.

Specifically, Scratchback is a widget you place in your sidebar that serves as a type of ad placement/blogroll. People who want their link to be included in your list can do so by clicking the link at the bottom of the widget and make the appropriate payment.

The cool thing is, YOU get to set the price. What’s more, you can decide to have every submission to be approved by you before it gets displayed. So while you can allow people to submit their links on your blog without your approval, it’s not something I would recommend.

If you’d like to see what it looks like, then click over to my blog to take a peek. You’ll find it in the far right sidebar near the top.

I’ve never been a fan of the “buy me a beer” thing or some variation of it. But with ScratchBack the purchaser is getting a link in return, which makes me feel better about the transaction.

Get in BAYB’s Top Spots for Only 2$ 

Written by Mark of MeAndMyDrum | Fave MAMD | Subscribe to MAMD

Magazine themes are making a stronger presence on the Internet for bloggers. What’s a magazine theme? It’s one that provides snippets on your blog’s home page for one thing, so readers can see a variety of things going on in your blog, not just a summary of posts you’ve made.

To give you a better idea of what one looks like, I’ve rounded up three magazine themes that I think are pretty cool. Only one of them has to be purchased, but I think you’ll see why when you take a look.

Mimbo Magazine (free)
Very clean and a nice balance between text and images. I also love the drop-down menus in the nav bar at top.

Revolution - Magazine Style (pay)
This is the one that’s pay-for, but honestly, you’ll get no argument from me. It’s a darn good layout that’s well-thought out. There are two other themes that are variations that you’ll find when you work the demo — all equally as nice. Single and mutli-use licenses are available depending on your needs.

Cybercafe Sandbox (free)
A very narrow theme, but still possesses elements that make it a magazine theme.

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Download3000 is an archive of Windows programs, both for free and for pay software. The site loads fast showing you software by categories and alphabetically. It’s also a warehouse for scripts.

Looking for a new text editor? Find it here. Need an MP3 search tool? Yeah, gotcha covered.

If you want to share your finds on your blog, each program has a link provided at the bottom of each post, complete with the title of the program. Writing a review of the programs you’ve tried is sure to help others make a decision before downloading or buying the program.

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Fawnt is not a repository of fonts. Instead, it’s a collections of links to fonts. So you could end up on another site repository or the font owner’s site.

What I like about this site is that it displays the typeface in a readable and fast interface. You view sample fonts 12 at a time. Click on one will take you to the source for downloading. But if you’re not happy with the selection display in that 12, just click the down arrow and you’ll get another set of 12.

Written by Mark MeAndMyDrum | Fave MAMD | Subscribe to MAMD

If you’ve upgraded to WordPress version 2.3.1, you may have noticed that you haven’t been receiving notifications when someone leaves a comment on your blog. For some reason, this doesn’t happen to everyone, but if you insist on getting notified the moment someone leaves a comment on one of your posts, then read on.

Now, I can’t explain the why’s and what’s, but the solution is really very simple. All I had to do was modify my pluggable.php file. This is located in every WP install at: root > wp-includes > pluggable.php.

You’ll want to comment out line 228:

$phpmailer->Sender = apply_filters( 'wp_mail_from', $from_email );

So it should look like this:

//$phpmailer->Sender = apply_filters( 'wp_mail_from', $from_email );

Once I uploaded the file, I made a quick test comment. Seconds later I received the glorious sound of Gmail notifying me I had a gift arrive in my inbox.

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If you’re someone who doesn’t have time to learn cascading style sheets (CSS), then you may be interested in something called CSS Mate.

CSS Mate is a free online CSS editor that I just discovered. I was working on creating a new contact page on another blog of mine, Darn Good Reviews. I didn’t want to fiddle with the CSS, so that’s when I searched and found this editor.

Upon entering the properties in the forms, I could continuously see the results. When I was satisfied with what I had, I copied the code and pasted it into the page. Done!

P.S. I was creating that contact page to let everyone know I was accepting requests to be reviewed on that blog. Hint, hint.