In case you never heard of it: it's a service that allows users to post comments to a web site and, at the same time, get these comments posted to their social profiles, like Facebook or Twitter. There are more features, but the core for me is connecting comments on this blog with social networking sites.

I considered this several times in the past, but never did it. Mostly because I thought I would lose my Disqus comments once I might decide to revert back to wp's comment system. That is not true anymore, since Disqus will synchronize the comments with the wordpress database. Cool!

What made me change my mind …

… was using Disqus today not as webmaster, but as commenter on other sites. Really nice how the comments show up in Facebook, and get interaction that wouldn't happen otherwise.

I did some research about alternatives and finally chose Disqus. It's clearly the most popular, and thus has the best chances for a long live and future improvements. Others might have some bells and whistles, but that means nothing if they go out of business.

I made that mistake back in 2007 when I used a more sophisticated blog software for my Internet Business Blog (the one you're reading right now). It was a great tool, but simply didn't have a chance against the fast and innovative progression of wordpress. So later I switched my blog to wordpress. Lesson learned: go with market leaders!

So, I'm giving the Disqus comment system a try!

Please help testing my new comment system.

I still wonder if there will be any mess with my wp theme. Please help me test the installation by posting a comment, especially also a nested comment, i.e. replying to an existing comment.

http://internetbusinessmastermind.com/free-article-rewriter

I’ll publish a longer post about it Monday, but for now you should be good by just going to the tool, it’s easy to use.

It was the W3 Total Cache plugin. I’m a little bit sorry about deactivating it, because having it was a huge performance boost for wordpress.

Unfortunately it caused several problems that I wasn’t able to fix.

• After submitting the secret password it wasn’t shown to the users that they were actually logged in. Consequently they could not get the free downloads.
• The Javascript that displays related posts and tags in the sidebar stopped working after I minified it using W3 Total Cache.
• Some Javascript in the footer bar also did not work anymore.

Long story short: W3 Total Cache is gone for now, performance is back to its much slower state, you can now easily unlock your free downloads again.

P.S. If you’re familiar with W3 Total Cache and know how to fix these problems, you may chime in here:

My wordpress forum post about this problem.

Actually it is working, but you have to REFRESH the page after login. Click the refresh button in your browser or use the key combination Ctrl + F5 on your keyboard.

This problem is caused by a new plugin that I installed. When it’s enabled, the code that displays the download to the logged in users is only executed when refreshing the page.

I’m working to fix it and update you once the solution is found.

You’ve probably made that mistake yourself.

Excited by unlimited opportunities you take on dozens or (in my case) hundreds of projects…and in the end there’s little chance of creating anything of excellence.

Simply because you’re diverting your resources.

You’re spreading yourself to thin.

That’s what I’ve been doing the past 5 years. While I enjoyed the freedom of the internet lifestyle, I did not build anything to really be proud of.

Because I was falling in love with too many ideas and projects.

But no more…

Last week I said goodbye to 55 domains and 55 web sites.

And now ‘ll focus to make InternetBusinessMastermind.com really good.

Here’s what I’m working on to give you better value.

1. Articles, downloads, and tools for your internet business success.

Internet Business Mastermind has been around for 3 years now, and I’ve published about 150 posts.  Yes, you can call me lazy.

Now, that I’ve freed myself from some unfinished projects, I’ll publish new content much faster.

• We’ll publish new posts more often, covering what you need to make more money using the internet.
• You’ll get free, downlaodable ebooks and software on a weekly basis.
• You’ll also get free online tools, that will help you to get some of your tasks done more efficiently, and save time.

2. More focused on what matters for your success, less clutter.

I’m building a new category structure. It’s more focused on giving you a framework to start or grow your internet business.

There are now 3 main blog categories:

• internet business ideas
• getting more web traffic
• increasing internet sales

Some of the old categories are gone, some will come back, and a few new ones will be introduced.

I’m also removing unnecessary content and items that distracted you from the main content. Lots of redundant stuff and hundreds of links have been removed from posts and the sidebar.

3. Better Newsfeeds for your Feedreader.

From now on the newsfeed will contain the article intro only. That’s easier for you if you don’t check your feeds on a daily basis. You’ll see all new posts with short intro, and can click through to whatever you’re interested in.

I will soon offer category specific feeds. That’s great for readers interested in specific topics. For example you could subscribe to a newsfeed that only notifies you of new posts for the ‘getting more web traffic’ category.

So, that’s the stuff I’m working on to improve the blog, making internet business mastermind more focused on your success.

To get the ball rolling I’ve recently uploaded your first free download, it’s a huge package of 32 free ebooks.

Download disabled. Please enter password.

As I will explain in a more detailed post later today, there’s going to be a lot of new content coming to the internet business mastermind blog.

Up until now I had only 1 post per week. Sending you the full post via news feed was comfortable and a fast way for you to read the whole article.

But with posts coming out much faster now, it’s not so easy to digest anymore. After all, who would want to read a news feed with thousands and thousands of words?

Making the feed show only the summary will make it easier for you to see what’s new and to decide what’s interesting for you.

For those articles that you like to read entirely you can then simply click through to the full post.

You can see how it looks like here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetBusinessMastermind

this is Ralf Skirr, sending you a New Year’s Gift to help you meeting your goals in 2010.

I’ll keep it short and give you the links to your gifts right away:
(right click the link with your mouse and chose ‘save as’)

http://ibmm.com/Achieve_Your_Goals.pdf

http://ibmm.com/Worksheets.pdf

Many people are using this time of the year to think about the old year that has passed, and to make up their dreams and goals for the upcoming year 2010.

I did this yesterday and today, and my major goal for the upcoming year is to help my subscribers and readers (that would be you) succeed.

If you’re in the process of planning your year, and even more if you have not done it yet, you’ll find these 2 e-books helpful in making things easier for you.

http://ibmm.com/Achieve_Your_Goals.pdf

http://ibmm.com/Worksheets.pdf

To Your Success,
Ralf Skirr

P.S. It’s an immediate download, no strings attached.

But the links will go away in 48 hours.

There is, however, a very boring aspect in email marketing: preparing your emails for your autoresponder software.

Formatting your emails is a 3-step process:

1. Re-format your source text so that the lines are no longer than 50 to 60 characters per line. Doing this, you get better readability and thus more people will actually read it till the end.
2. Next you must create 2 different versions of your message, 1 being plain text, and the other one being in HTML format.
3. Finally you have to search for each URL in your source text and turn it into an HTML hyperlink for your HTML email.

Now, keep reading, as you’ll certainly like what you are about to read!

For me, this is probably the most boring task in my daily work. That is of course the reason why I’m outsourcing it now.

It’s also the reason why I asked my programmer to create a tool for me and my assistant that helps making email formatting fast and easy.

Knowing that you are likely to have to do the same boring tasks, I’m giving the email formatting tool to the public, so that you and your staff can use it too.

Whenever you have a series of messages to format for your autoresponder, just click to my free email formatting tool, and it will help you do the job.

These are the features:

1. Formatting short lines for easy reading.
2. Creating 2 versions for text and HTML email.
3. Creating the correct source code for your HMTL hyperlinks automatically.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you will be happy to see that it keeps your affiliate links intact.

Here’s how to use it, it’s so easy, your dog could do it in 3 simple steps:

1. At the top, you will find a box where you paste your original text.
2. Then you click the button ”Click Here to Format Your Email’.
3. Like magic and at the blink of an eye, your email is now formatted and ready to paste into your autoresponder without requiring any tedious work from you! Two text fields are now filled with your nicely formatted text and HTML email.

Check it out for yourself at http://www.InternetBusinessMastermind.com/email-formatting.

After the disaster with Myriadnetwork’s hosting earlier this year many of my sites went offline and I had to transfer them to other hosts. I’m sorry to say that I forgot to update the DNS entries for Turbomembershipreviews.com and the site was unavailable for a while.

Today I re-created the site and fortunately no entries or user-reviews of TurboMembership were lost.

Stay tuned for some exciting updates and freebies at TurboMembershipReviews.com very soon.

So what is the site about? John Delavera’s TurboMembership (TM) is one of the best memberships on the internet. Some even call it: “The Holy Grail of Internet Marketing”

But obviously everyone promoting the TM would say this, right?

That’s why I created Turbomembershipreviews.com.

Customers, friends, and enimies of  TM can post their honest, uncensored review of Turbomembership. All reviews will be published (except maybe when someone would publish below the line, dirty language insults – but that has not happened yet.) So no matter if you like of hate TM , please remain civilized with your review.

To keep in touch with the updates you may subscribe to the RSS Feed, I can’t reveal much yet, but be sure there are some goodies in store for you!

[flv:http://web-templates-online.com/custom-graphic.flv 502 411]

We’re still working on our major site update, I hope I can put it online within 24 hours.

Visit Web-Templates-Online.com.

The first update we integrated is a sales video for new visitors. It’s actually the very first marketing video I’ve ever published on my own sites, despite the fact that I have been creating marketing  vids for clients since 2001.

[flv:http://web-templates-online.com/web-templates.flv 502 411]

What do you think?

So why did my friends warn me?

Because in April the Thai people celebrate the New Year. They call it “Songkran” and funnily it’s not celebrated on the same day in the whole country, but the party moves through the country over the course of several days.

The ‘problem’ with Songkran is that people party several days with THROWING WATER at people. Seriously, you can’t get out of your apartment for 10 minutes without getting soaking wet…

Here are the pictures:

This is Pattaya’s Walking Street at April 18, 2009, a few hours before the official beginning of Songkran. The water is not from rain, but from people partying.

No matter whether you’re pedestrian, riding a motorbike or driving a car, you’ll always get wet.
Ready – Fire – Aim…

Waiting for the next victim…

Well, let’s cool her down a bit…

No mercy. With dedication she pours approximately 1.5 litres right into the poor guy’s face.

Open window in your car?
Bad idea…

Party-time.

Back in my room late at night. The white stuff is something people put in your face wishing you a ‘happy new year’.

Next day, April 19, the party continues on beach road with thousands of people partying.

A closer look at beach road. No cars allowed today.

What? Even the monks throw water…

Woah, Bad Ass Warrior….

One of my German friends and 3 strange strangers under ATTACK!!!

Look closely – the air is filled with water.

We arrived at a save spot.

Making pictures wasn’t easy at Songkran, because I had to watch out for water coming at me (and the camera) all the time.

I’ll be back in Thailand in late June, July and August; I’m sure to post new pictures then.

The moral of this post: if you want to travel or work from the nicest places on earth, make sure to build an internet business. It’ll give you all the freedom you long for.

Well, Jeremy (Jezhunt) suggested I should go for green. It would probably look like this:

Fortunately it’s just a quick Photoshop work.

My hair stylist went for a less dramatic approach and used two colors, one slightly lighter and one slightly darker than my natural color:

This is me sitting in one of the nicer cafés in my hometown Kaiserslautern in Germany.