The Random Blogger

(See my previous post, My Internal Jukebox for what this category is all about.)

I just came across one of the neatest ways to create really professional banner ads today, and thought I’d share it with you.

Basically, Quick Banner Ads is a membership website where you can create Flash banner ads using a very simple, point-and-click, four-step process:

1. Enter the URL to go to when people click your banner, and four pairs of heading / sub-heading.
2. Choose the banner size, background colour, button style and pattern.
3. Add more optional special effects, such as texture and overlays.
4. Add optional background animation.

Even though it’s really simple, there are plenty of features, and in case you get stuck, they’ve created a load of tutorial videos so there’s always help at hand should you need it.

To give you an idea of what you can achieve, in literally a minute or two, check out this banner, which they created using their own Quick Banner Ads system:

And here’s one that I created, just to test it out, and again, it took me no more than two minutes to produce:

Now, in terms of pricing, they have two membership levels:

1. Basic membership has some limitations, and is $9.95 USD per month.
2. Premium membership has no limitations, and is $19.95 USD per month.

However, if you get in quickly (and I genuinely don’t know when this special offer will end), you can get a 21-day free trial, and Premium membership for the price of the Basic membership.

What have you got to lose?

Try Quick Banner Ads now - I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!

(See my previous post, My Internal Jukebox for what this category is all about.)

(See my previous post, My Internal Jukebox for what this category is all about.)

I started watching Entourage almost by accident, probably some time during the middle of Season 4, and I was immediately captivated by it.

The series essentially revolves around an actor, Vincent Chase (played by Adrian Grenier) who’s got one good movie behind him, and his entourage, which consists of his brother, Johnny “Drama” Chase (played by Kevin Dillon), who is also an actor, his manager, Eric Murphy (played by Kevin Connolly), and a hanger-on, Turtle (played by Jerry Ferrara), all of whom grew up together on the East Coast before moving cross-country to LA.

Completing the main cast is his agent, Ari Gold (played by Jeremy Piven), and his assistant, Lloyd (played by Rex Lee).

There are others, of course, but that covers the main characters.

So, what makes it entertaining?

Well, for me, the character of Ari Gold has some of the best lines on TV today, and Jeremy Piven plays the role to perfection.

The interaction between the brusque and often rude professionalism of Ari Gold and the amateurish behaviour of Vince’s friends is also a constant source of both strife and comedy.

Ari’s treatment of his assistant , Lloyd (who is the token gay in this series), is also priceless, although it looks as though this working relationship may be changing in Season 6.

Eric, Vince’s manager and best friend, doesn’t seem to do much to earn his living, and it’s not exactly clear where his money comes from.

One thing is for sure, however, and that is that he’s somewhat out of his depth, and if it weren’t for his enthusiasm and determination, he’d probably be out on his ear.

Johnny, Vince’s brother, is, as his nickname suggests, a real drama queen, and sort of epitomises the stereotyped Hollywood “luvvie”, who I’m sure exists.

Turtle is an odd character - no real job (other than driving Vince around), no apparent skills, and yet he’s one of the better characters, to my mind.

The character that seems more out of place than any other is, IMHO, Vince himself.

While he’s apparently made a big name for himself in a movie called Aquaman, you rarely get to see him doing any acting, and when he does, it fails to convince me.

The lifestyle of Vince and his friends seems vacuous and far from driven, and to me, it highlights the role of luck and being in the right place in the world of entertainment - many so-called stars lack anything special, but they happen to appear in a high-grossing movie, and suddenly they seem to be able to command millions, for no real reason at all.

Anyway, rant over.

If it weren’t for Ari Gold’s character, I would probably skip Entourage, but he more than makes up for any deficiencies in this great show, which I highly recommend you check out.

Check out the best Youtube scheduler and player on the planet!

VideoTube Scheduler Pro offers some really cool features in a super-easy-to-use piece of software, as you can see in this short video:

You too could be keeping yourself entertained at your PC in just a few minutes, so download VideoTube Scheduler Pro today and make using your computer (even more) fun!

Justin Michie is currently offering you a FREE download of his amazing 65-page ebook, called Unstoppable List Building.

Now, I can’t go into too much detail about what this technique is, but what I can tell you is that, having seen others use this tactic to help build their list, then this manual contains pretty much everything you’d need to know to use this strategy yourself.

It seems to me that it’s better suited to people with their own product to sell, but I suspect it could be used to promote affiliate products too, although the profit would be lower.

Anyway, it’s free, and it’s great content, so grab a copy now before Justin decides to come to his senses and starts charging for this unique report.

I have to confess to being a chocoholic.

There, I said it - in public!

Actually, this will come as no surprise to those who know me well.

I even used to belong to a luxury chocolate tasting club, but moving to the US meant I had to cancel that - I’m not sure those chocolates would have survived being mailed internationally.

So, although it’s possible to order chocolate online over here in the US, the extreme heat in summer means that most companies won’t ship it - not even an overnight service with ice packs is enough, and high quality chocolate is far too good to let it melt and go to waste.

Well, you can probably imagine that I was more than excited to learn about (more…)

I just picked up this cool tip from Jo Han Mok, who’s truly a Master Wordsmith.

Apparently, certain words that end with (more…)