If any of my American readers can be bothered, could you send me a message explaining why (apparently) platform beds are only just becoming popular in the USA? What sort of beds did you normally sleep on in the past? I’m genuinely intrigued by this one. I doubt you all have futons or bunk beds Seriously, I did a little googling, and a few sites claimed that whilst popular over here in Europe and Asia, they were only just hitting the big time in America recently?

Back in Britain, there are only a few well known manufacturers of power tools. However, if you start to search around on the internet for the most popular brands in America, Asia and Continental Europe, you come across makes like festool. I had not previously heard of them, but from the feedback satisfied users have left dotted around the internet, the next time I need to purchase a drill or multi purpose table, I’ll be checking out Festool as well.

I remember many years ago, when phones had to have a little green triangle on the packaging, to show they had been officially approved. You could buy cheaper phones and modems, but if they didn’t have the sticker, you were officially breaking the law! All the interesting hardware was often imported from Asia, with no approval having been paid for. One of the get out clauses used by an ISP I worked at, was that if a customer’s phones and modems did not have the BT approved triangle, that was the reason their internet connection was slow (back in the days of 56k dial up). Obviously some customers actually believed this and went and bought new hardware. Sadly, in the majority of cases, the internet connection did not improve. Having said that, I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone questioning the REN (ringer equivalency number) of a person with telecommunications difficulties. Anyone know if the limit has been raised from 4?

Anyway, since the time of green triangles and grey imports, having a phone actually branded as BT (British Telecom) has often been seen as a mark of quality.
However, thanks to PMC Telecom, you can have the best of both worlds - high quality BT phones, at prices that all can afford.

The site itself is well laid out, with all the major brands/types of telecommunications equipment stocked and linked to.
If there was one thing I would like to be considered, re. the design of the site, it would be sub-categories. Given that PMC have a wide range of phone related hardware for sale, the ability to filter, for example, the BT phones further down into BT cordless phones would save a little time.
Overall, it seems to be worth spending a few minutes checking through the whole list, to see if they have what you need, as the price often beats other retailers.

For those that have not come across them yet, Pay Per Post is a company that helps companies get their products and sites noticed, and improve their search engine rankings. They act as the middleman to enable companies to advertise on blogs by keeping a large database of bloggers who are happy to research their topics, write a piece on the subject and, where required, offer constructive criticism.

PayPerPost have generated the most income for me since I started blogging for money. Since 10 April, I have made just over $2100! The good news is that PPP have had a capital injection of seven million dollars.

So what should they do with it? Other than the obvious choice of of paying me most of it over the next year, I suppose there are some other options…

They could try spending some on a global marketing campaign in the more traditional medias. TV channels on satellite systems that cover Europe, Asia and parts of Africa would be one way to ensure that the new bloggers who join up cover all bases, in terms of knowledge and cultural backgrounds. Similarly, some national newspapers in countries that have English as their first or second language may attract bloggers who have yet to come across the PPP scheme.

I have to admit I don’t know just how much it costs, but sponsorship of a popular TV program is one way to really get the brand well known. In Britain, the coverage from having your name associated with Lost or 24 is serious kudos.

Personally, I’d be interested in checking if Sealand is still for sale, again the publicity generated from buying the independent nation state/data centre would probably at least equal the investment required.

As ever, there have been the ne’er-do-wells who have started proclaiming this new investment round as a bad thing or indicator of things to come. TechCrunch being one example. I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it is
Anyway, here is the official Press Release on the matter…

ORLANDO, FL – (June 12, 2007) – PayPerPost, the leading marketplace for advertisers to reach bloggers and other consumer content creators, today announced it has completed a $7 million second round investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an investor in the company’s Series A and one of the world’s leading high-technology venture capital firms. The financing brings the total amount of capital raised by PayPerPost to over $10 million, giving the company considerable resources for further development as the industry’s leading Consumer Generated Advertising marketplace. Additional participants in the round include existing investors Inflexion Partners and Village Ventures as well as new investor DFJ Gotham. With this investment, DFJ Managing Director Josh Stein also joins PayPerPost’s Board of Directors.

“PayPerPost created this exciting new advertising space and has established itself as the industry leader,” said Ted Murphy, chief executive officer of PayPerPost. “Although we’ve only used a portion of our first round capital, this added support from investors unlocks significant growth potential. Our content creator and advertiser ROI metrics clearly demonstrate the upside for PayPerPost’s model. We intend to use this capital to build the infrastructure, visibility and professional expertise necessary to reach and retain a greater network of advertisers and content creators than ever before.”

Since its founding in June of 2006, PayPerPost has signed more than 6,500 advertisers to its groundbreaking service, which has enabled Consumer Content Creators to be compensated for their efforts discussing specific companies, products or services via blogs, videos or other media. The content creators are required to disclose relationships with advertisers on their blog, providing transparency for the end reader. Over 125,000 Internet postings, most in the form of blogs, have already earned money for their creators through PayPerPost’s innovative marketplace. PayPerPost recently released PayPerPost Direct, a disruptive new service that allows advertisers to contract and negotiate directly with individual bloggers they identify through a safe, managed system.

“PayPerPost has laid a strong foundation for the future,” noted Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “It continues to attract a critical mass of participants from both the advertising and blogging communities. Analogous to Overture’s sponsored search model, we believe PayPerPost’s business model holds disruptive potential and will enable the company to thrive in the evolving paid-content arena.”

To mark the $7 million dollar funding, PayPerPost has launched a new website detailing the company’s service offering at http://www.payperpost.com. Bloggers and advertisers can easily sign up at the site and begin leveraging the self service marketplace.

If you can handle not chewing gum, and don’t plan to graffiti, you might be interested in flights to Singapore. The majority of citizens speak English, as you will have noticed from the blogs I’ve linked to in the past. In the same way that Kazakhstan is sometimes seen as the join between Europe and Asia, Singapore has been called the cosmopolitan gateway between East & West. The bus, train and taxi networks within the country are all able to service both the citizens of the country and tourists. The country is a real melting pot for people from many different religions and countries.

Alternatively, Thailand has a certain allure to many people, with its mountains in the north, and lush forests, helped by the tropical weather. The most comfortable months to visit Thailand are November to March, unless you enjoy the rain. Compared to Singapore, the amount of people able to speak English is lower, but then
So whether you are simply looking for flights to Thailand , or specifically a Bangkok flight, visit the links, and see just how much you could save. One thing you should know, if you see dates posted in public, is that the official calendar is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era; as such you need to subtract 543 years to convert back to the system used in the West.