Last weekend I went on a nice 2 day trip to Waco texas, we went for my mothers 46th birthday and it was quite fun. We got to waco in about 3 hours driving the whole way, my mom drove (some bday huh) but that’s only because she would rather drive!

So while at waco we went to the Dr Pepper musem and got to see how Dr Pepper got its start, pretty cool how one small mistake idea can make it big! Perhaps this blog will do the same, either way its was neat to see Dr Pepper and how it all got started.

After that we went to the Heritage Homestead, basically its a secluded group of many families who have there own like community. They are between people like me and the Amish, they still have cellphones and all that kinda stuff but they keep the kids out of public schools and peer pressure type stuff. It was very relaxing there and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The next day we went to the Waco city zoo, all I can say is WOW! I am not a big animal person but the way this zoo was created is simply amazing. If your ever near waco you really need to check it out. I took some pics of animals and such as well which you will find below. The zoo was also very alive, most of the zoo’s I have been to in the past the animals look half dead and so upset but these animals actually looked as if they were glad to be here.

Here are some pics of the trip…

And thats it, my trip to Waco Tx, overall I really enjoyed it and would’nt mind going back again some day just to visit the zoo if nothing else. What do you think of my trip to waco tx?

I normally do not promote unpaid services and contests that are running around the net. But when I read the post about Monopowiki on JohnChows blog I simply could not resist posting about they’re contest.

Monopowiki is giving away $10,000 worth of pages on there website. Basically Monopowiki is like wikipedia in the sense that it is user edited and you can add your own links into each page of the site / create whole new pages.

What makes Monopowiki different from like a wikipedia is the fact that Monopowiki sells wiki pages for $25.00 per year on a first come first serve basis. For instance if you look at the make money online page you will see that you can no longer edit it or add to it. This is because the owner has specified that only he/she can edit the page to contain info to what they want (one link to they’re own site at the moment).

Now that you know how Monopowiki works lets get down to business, Monopowiki is giving away over 400 pages in they’re system. All you have to do is follow some simple rules which are as follows.

• Two submissions per blog max, provided each post is made no less than 24 hours apart.
• You must be the author of the submitted post.
• One person can submit no more than 4 blog posts.
• The blog must be actively updated. As a guideline, it should have a new post each month at a minimum, and there must be a post on a topic besides Monopowiki before and after the submitted post by the time the drawing is held. Final decisions on qualification will be made by the Monopowiki team.
• Once the page is won, the winner has two weeks to contribute to the page in a substantial manner or the winner will lose the right to the page. Final decision on whether contribution is substantial is up to the Monopowiki team, though posts should consist of more than 150 words.
• Drawing will be held on or around May 2, 2008.
• Winners will be notified via email, and winners will be awarded their page on a first come, first served basis.
• Rules subject to change, particularly if perceived loopholes are exploited.
• All decisions rest with the Monopowiki team and are final.

Once you have completed the post all you need to do is submit your Name, Email and the URL of your post to Monopowiki contest page which you can find right here. Get it done quick as you only have 1 day left, be sure and comment below with a link to your post for extra link juice!

The following is a paid review and is completely of my own opinion and is not influenced by being paid. If you’re interested in having me review your site or product, please view my advertising page.

When learning how to improve your own blogging and learn how to make money online they’re are virtually hundreds of resources to turn to for guidance. A awesome new one that I came across is the MonkeyBlogger blog. The owner Mark Cuda is a great guy, I have had the pleasure of speaking with him one on one and he is a very talented easy going yet helpful guy.

He has no secrets he is not willing to share and that alone makes me love him! As you know this is my intent with InfectedByBugs. I like to outline the things others are not willing to share to everyone.

After checking out the MonkeyBlogger blog a few things hit me right off the bat, in this review I am going to show everyone what I personally would do with the blog to encourage making more money. So lets get started and remember these are just my opinions, be sure to check marks blog yourself and comment below with your ideas.

MonkeyBlogger Monetization!

The first thing I want to bring to every ones attention is the fact that Mark is using adsense on his blog. If you have been reading InfectedByBugs for any length of time you will most likely know I am not to keen on adsense as per my adsense hate article.

Though I am against adsense 99.9%  of the time I am actually OK with it on MonkeyBlogger. Mark has taken  time through his skin and web design skills to place the adsense perfectly so its not over barring like on a lot of blogs. Its also pulling up pretty relative ads which again is a nice twist from what I generally see. If you look at how he has placed his adsense…

As you can see the ads are the new google adsense scrolling ads which work very well. The results brought up are also very relative to his content. I would wager he worked on getting this setup for some time?

Another thing I really loved about Marks blog was the fact that he is endorsing a custom built wordpress design! If you remember I am really big on a unique design for each blog. Remember the first impression is everything and Mark pulls this off perfectly!

Mark is also displaying several spots for advertisements to be purchased, he has great pricing and each ad spot is worth every penny IMO. He has placed the ads strategically to keep CTR rate for each of his advertisers up! I find this to be very helpful when deciding when to and where to advertise, I naturally advertise on the sites that show me I will get clicks. Mark does just that through strategic placement and for that I commend him!

MonkeyBlogger Content!

The next part of this review is of Marks content, while his blog is still quite new he has already started pumping it full of unique content. One of my favorite articles he has done to date is his “don’t lose your originality” post. He provides a unique perspective on the article about blogging voice that I wrote a few weeks back.

Mark also does series of posts like his awesome “Networking With DigitalPoint” series. Content as good as this should have a price tag even to read but again like myself Mark loves to help everyone out for free! Be sure and subscribe to his feed so you do not lose a speck of his free info! Its all worth reading and learning from, let him take you to the promise land! (Just Don’t Forget Me)

Well that about sums it up, If I was to offer up a score between 1/10 of overall scoring of the MonkeyBlog I would have to give it a 7/10!