iZachy

Andot just rolled out version 9 of his cool CoolPlayer plugin for WordPress. With this new version, you no longer have to hack the plugin to use a local version of the RPC Server. You can specify the location of the server in the admin area (options -> coolplayer). By default, the plugin points to a RPC Server in China. But you can easily change it now. Not only that, you can also set options and test the plugin from the admin page:

Note: It appears your web server needs to support php mbstring and sockets extension in order for the RPC Server to work locally. So if you can't get the RPC Server to work locally, you will have to use the RPC Server in China.

The new version of CoolPlayer supports both the plain text editor and the rich text editor in WordPress. Now you can insert the coolplayer tag directly from the create/edit post page by clicking on the coolplayer button. This version also fixed the auto play problem in FireFox. Now the video doesn't auto start unless you want it to. The audio player also has a new skin:

The embedded player supports these types of files: rm, rmvb, ra, rv, ram, smil, smi, rtsp, rpm, asf, wm, wma, wmv, wax, wvx, ogg, ape, avi, mid, midi, wav, mms, m3u, asx, mov, qt, mqv, m4v, m4a, m4b, mpeg, mpg, m1s, m1v, m1a, m75, m15, mp2, mpm, mpv, mpa, flc, fli, cel, aiff, aif, aifc, cdda, bwf, rts, 3gp, 3gpp, 3g2, 3gp2, au, snd, ulw, smf, kar, qcp, sdv, gsm, amr, caf, amc, mp4, sdp, pdf, fdf, xfdf, xdp, xfd, gif, jpg, jpeg, bmp, png, xpm, dir, dxr, dcr, cst, cct, cxt, w3d, fgd, swa, swf, spl, mp3, flv, rtmp, rbs, xml, rss, xspf, atom.

It also supports YouTube, Ifilm, VSocial, TuDou Video, Evil Chili, Wildko, Yikers Videos & Games, Red Balcony Videos & Games, Live Video, Odeo Audio, Revver, MetaCafe, MySpace, GoEar, Break, Stupid Videos, DailyMotion and Google Video.

The installation is fairly simple. Just download, extract, upload folder to your plugin directory, and activate. I recommend testing the player plugin first before uploading the RPC Server locally. To install the RPC Server: download, extract, upload the files to your coolplayer folder, and activate. Then change the location in the options -> coolplayer menu.

Here's an example of the video player in action:

Read the rest of this post or your ears will fall off »

I just noticed something new on my personalized Google home page. As you can see in the graphics below, there are now plus marks next to feed items. If you click on the plus mark, you can see a preview of the feed item.

I'm not sure when Google added this new feature, but it's a nice feature. One of the problems previously was that you could only see the title of the feed item on your personalized Google home page. You had to click on the link and leave the page to see more about the feed item. Now you can see a preview without leaving the page.

However, I did encounter a glitch once. No matter which plus mark I clicked on, I only got a preview of a blank page. After I hit the browser refresh button, everything worked fine again.

I'm not sure, but I think the date and time stamp might be new too. They could have been there before, but I don't remember them.

It looks like another pay per post service is launching soon. The new service, SponsoredReviews, has yet to set a launch date and is currently under beta testing. Like ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews does not require positive reviews. And like ReviewMe, they also require you to disclose that the review is a sponsored one.

From what I could read, there appears to be four major differences between ReviewMe and SponsoredReviews. First, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, SponsoredReviews is still in beta while ReviewMe is up and running.

A second major difference is that you can negotiate your own rates with advertisers. SponsoredReviews has a system that will make recommendations based on their automated ratings system, but bloggers will be able to choose their own price. The option to set your own rate would be very appealing to me.

The third major difference is that each advertiser has his or her own requirements for length, link info, etc. With ReviewMe, the minimum length for the post is 200 words and there is no requirement for linking that I know of.

The fourth major difference is that SponsoredReviews' payouts are every two weeks instead of monthly like ReviewMe. In addition, SponsoredReviews does not appear to have a minimum payout amount. Here's a blurb from their site:

Every two weeks, accounts with an outstanding balance are paid instantly via PayPal.

SponsoredReviews indicates they will charge less for being the broker, but I could not find any information on what SponsoredReviews will be charging as the middleman. Note: ReviewMe splits the review fee 50-50.

SponsoredReviews appears to be a service of 360 Enterprises, which also sell text links through its Textlinkbrokers site.

And no, I am not being paid to write up this review and I doubt I will sign up based on my limited experience with ReviewMe.

More info: SponsoredReviews »

It has been almost three months since my first and only ReviewMe review. I was suppose to be paid $20, but I have not received a penny so far. What's the problem? Well, it appears there is a minimum payout of $25, which makes sense and is low compared to Adsense and YPN. However, I was not aware of this minimum when I signed on for a review of ReviewMe. Take a look at their FAQ:

See, no mention of a minimum payout requirement amount. At the bottom of the "Edit Your Account" area, there is a mention of minimum for a check. I don't remember seeing that before. I don't know if it was there when I signed up or if it was added later. If it was there originally, I would have thought the minimum referred to checks. As you can see in the screenshot below, it's listed as "Minimum Check Amount" (my bold).

You can see why I (and probably other people) might think the minimum only applies to checks and not to Paypal. If I had known there was a minimum, I might have used one of my other sites for the review or not reviewed it at all. I certainly would not have mentioned I was being paid for the review, because I didn't actually get paid. Like I said earlier, I am fine with the minimum payout requirement. I just think ReviewMe should have been clearer about it.

I looked at ReviewMe's profile for my site and noticed a problem. The Alexa ranking has not changed since I joined. ReviewMe reports an Alexa ranking of 212,967 even though it's actually 160,188. I thought the data was suppose to be updated monthly. There are also problems with their Technoratic (n/a) and RSS (no star) data. My Technoratic ranking is actually 50,559 and I have 64 RSS subscribers (30-day average).

Just for kicks, I re-added my other sites to see where they stand. My other four sites would now qualify for the $30 payout. I think this is quite interesting because this site (iZachy) is still stuck at $20 even though it ranks higher than EDA Blog and Daddy Forever.