Based in Ontario, harness racing is not only fun and exciting to watch but it is very interactive. Being able to sit back and pick your favorite team and watch them race is a fun way to really get your heart pumping. The Ontario Horse Harness Association is an interested group of owners, trainers, and drivers of Standardbred horses. They have an intriguing website called Get Sulky with an animated harness racing flash game that simulates the thrill of sports betting, and building big stakes at the racetrack. Go there to let it ride!

The Ontario Harness Horse Association was formed on the first day of February 1961 to represent Ontario harness horsemen and horsewomen in negotiations of purses and racing conditions and to handle all matters affecting the racing industry with the tracks, Standardbred Canada, the Ontario Racing Commission, and the Provincial and Federal governments.

There is also a sweet contest going on right now where you could win a $10,000.00 experience at the track for you and three of your closest friends. Make sure you go and check that out!

This past week started off like most others but there was a unexpected addition that I was very happy to do and the results were awesome. Like most of you know I started blogging for B5media at the beginning of the month with a site called Toolbelt Tips which is a home renovation blog. What I am getting paid as a new blogger to there company is nothing to write home about, yet! So why do it? Well I knew there was going to be some tricks I was going to learn working with that firm and I was right. Over the past week there was a blog carnival of sorts where I entered Feed Flare into and offered to give away a prize of one years worth of blogroll advertising here to the winner. Well the results of that contest were amazing. I have over 70 comments on that post and from what I can tell most of them are all new visitors. My daily traffic numbers are up by almost one hundred new visitors per day. RSS subscribers stayed about the same which is ok with me. Back links climbed as well. So for the most part everything worked out well. It is these kind of things I was hoping to learn from B5media and being one of there bloggers, so mission accomplished. In the future though when something like this comes up I will post on what I am doing so you guys, if you want can get into it as well.

I have also been excepted by a very large affiliate network called Hydra. To get approved, I went through 2 phone call conversations with them. So that kind of feels nice especially when I consider myself to be a small guy. I guess they like what my plans are and how I want to work with them. I will say this though about what I have seen with them so far. They are a huge player in the affiliate networking business and I have the potential of making a lot of money with them. I am going to be completing a review of there services and offers very soon so stay tuned for that.

Use this link to check them out!

Well that is pretty much it I think. How was your week, did you get anything done or just spin your wheels?

TNX is a fairly new company offering a new way to increase back links and to advertise your site. One thing I like about them is the fact that for $12.00 a month you can get 10,000 incoming links saying what ever it is you want the ad or link to say. With a company like Text Link Ad’s you get one link for $15.00, something looks wrong with that picture don’t it? Someone is really making some money aren’t they?

TNX.net: Sell links on every page of your site to thousands of advertisers!

Being able to display your ad on 10,000 websites a month which link back to you and have that link count as a external link back to your site is quite the concept, and it is for sure one of the cheapest ways to gain a large amount of exposure I have seen in a long time. There are many different programs out there you can buy that will submit your blogs to different directories but none of them hit close to the number that TNX is offering for the dollar they are doing it for. $12.00 is dame cheap, too cheap if you ask me. I spent at least an hour reading over the sites info and could not find one catch. Maybe if one of you are really good at detecting the bogus crap that is often found here on the net go and have a look and let me know if I am blind. As it stands right now, I think TNX is one of my best ways to promote my March contest.

As you can tell by the above picture, navigating this site is very simple. There are basically 2 options you can chose from once you sign up. You can be a publisher or an advertiser. If you want to be a publisher, you can place the ad code they give you on any of your pages and start selling links,(thats right, you can sell links from everyone one of your pages and I can not stress that enough) and then for every link that gets displayed on your site you earn points which can be converted into cash or used for advertising your site. If you chose to be an advertiser, well like I said above, $12.00 bucks gets you 10,000 text link ads.The main advantage for advertisers is the price of links (it is very reasonable!) and the ability to promote hundreds of keywords with just few clicks.What is nice is that all your ads appear in a natural way on sites that are relevant to yours. There is not much of a point advertising a make money online blog on a dog grooming site now is there.

So my suggestion at this point would be to head over to TNX and see if it is something you might be interested in trying out. Myself, I have to think about where I can place the code to sell links on this site as I don’t just want to throw ads everywhere but I am however going to give the advertising a shot and see what comes of it. With Feed Flare having a huge contest live this month $12.00 is a cheap way to promote it.

Unfortunately I do not know much about Firewalker personally but what I do know is for a guy who’s first language is not English he did a amazing job interpreting my requests for design work.

Here is a picture of Firewalker’s site and by looking at it you will be able to tell that he is no stranger to colors and how to make a website stand out the second it loads.

When you want a site to stand out, and have people say WOW the second they load your site, to be honest with you, graphic designers are the only ones who can pull that off your you. There are a lot of people who build themes, but they are built with out an artists eye so they tend to be very plan. One of the nicest things I found with dealing with Firewalker is his knowledge of the Wordpress platform. Once he was done building me my header I had no clue how to get it onto this theme. I gave him admin rights and with in minutes the header was on the site right where I wanted it to be. That truly is the sign of a professional, one who knows how to meet the needs of his clients and understands that not everyone knows about codes and how to work with them.

Not only can Firewalker build Wordpress themes (which he has) or install logo’s and headers onto any type of website (which he can) he can also draw like a seasoned artist and turn those pictures into amazing Vector images. Here is a picture of his first Vector image that he completed of a personal friend of his.

A vector image

Now how is that for a picture!

I would like to personally thank Firewalker for rushing my requests though as fast as he has for anything I have needed to get done. With out your speed and your knowledge I might still be searching for a logo or header.

Now onto his contest prize he has donated to our grand opening March contest. Firewalker has donated a very nice some of Entrecard credits for us to give away. And just to give you a heads up we are sitting close to 15,000 at this point. They are sitting nicely in my Entrecard bank account waiting to go to some lucky winner.

I hope you have enjoyed this featured contest sponsor review for Firewalker Designs and we look forward to seeing you all here March 1st for when we release the largest blog contest of this year.

Dat’Money

Jason over at Dat’Money dot com is a blogger who has set out to help fellow bloggers and make him self some money in the process. I am not sure how many of you read his blog but as far as a smaller blog goes, it is packed full of great tips and lots of great information. Just yesterday he posted on “Five reasons why you should include images in every post” and you know what, he hits the nail right on the head with what he tells you.

I truly like blogs like his simply because he is not into blowing smoke up your ass to try and increase his readership. He tells it like it is and what has worked for him. Those bloggers are always the ones who’s posts I enjoy the most, even more so then the top bloggers.

Now lets get into his layout for a second!

You can clearly see that Jason has put a lot of thought into his blog and how it looks to his readers. There is a very easy to read layout, its easy to navigate through pages and his RSS subscription services are super easy to find which is something I look for in a blog

Now we are going to get into what Dat’Money is sponsoring our contest with. Jason is not only a blogger, he is also a banner designer. That’s right folks, a multi talented individual he is. He does not only do simple little banners though, but very complex banners that attract the eyes. Here are a few 468×60 banners that he has done for his site and for others.

I told you they look good, he really knows how to make them stand out and catch your eyes. Here are a few smaller 125 x 125 buttons that he has done that have really impressed me.

I love that fire, it so goes along with my sites theme. Jason is able to bring lots of very bright colors into his work and really make them pop. If you want to see more of his work or even hire him for your project please visit his display page by clicking here.

What he has sponsored our contest with is as follows.

1- banner design of your choice ( what ever size you want or need)

2- Entrecard credits (minimum of 500)

3- He is working on a surprise donation and won’t tell me what it is until later (I can’t wait to see what is is) 

I will say this in closing though, we are very lucky to have the graphic team we have for this contest as sponsors as all three of them so far are really top of there games and have donated some really great prises.

Graphic Identity

Graphic Identity is set to be one of the premiere design blogs that covers a ton of information you may ever want to know about the business. Unlike most bloggers her sidebars are not filled up with ads but with links to other sites and groups you can join to help grow your own business. Audee is truly focused on networking in her own niche and she loves to steer people into the same directions she is going in to try and grow her online business.

Her Work 

Here is a photo I grabbed from her Flickr page and it is just to show you what kind of detail she is capable of putting into her work.

As you can see, she is amazing with colors and getting them to blend together. Combining unique vision and style to bring what ever piece she is working on to life and makes it have its own look and feel. One thing I like the most about here work is it can very easily become a nice piece of art for your home. I was lucky when I hire my designer that I ended up using for my header that he was able to complete it to my vision but I often wander what kind of look I am missing out on because there are so many more great graphic artists out there. I am very positive that Audee would of be able to deliver something very interesting if I had only given her the chance. One day I will be doing just that too with my future graphic designer contest I am going to hold sometime in late spring. Firewalker, my logo designer has also sponsored my March 1st contest and his review will be latter this week.

The site 

Here is a look now at Graphic Identity’s site and by viewing it you will clearly be able to tell that she is focusing on information more then fancy bright images that takes you away from the focus she seems to be driving towards with her content.

As you can see, Audee does not put to much flash into her site. As you scroll down her home page you will see what I mean by there being tons of information and recourses to help you and your Graphic needs. Sometimes it is nice to find a site where the focus is not just on them but more towards the community they are a part of. To me that makes them stand out more then anything else. The only thing I don’t like about this site is the blank space to the right of RSS subscription section and I also feel the header is a bit small. For the most part everything seems to be placed in a very clear spot and the information is easy to navigate which helps out a lot when you hit a site that has tons of it like her’s does.

Graphic Identity has sponsored out March 1st contest with a very cool package which is going to make some blogger very happy. She simply calls it her Blog branding package which includes a Favico, Header, Logo, and a 125 x 125 banner ad. The 125 x 125 banner is a great prise seeings how it can be used on pretty much every site these days including Entrecard. Total cash value of this package is going to be around $150 to $200 dollars.

Once again I want to thank Audee and her great prise offer for our March contest. We look forward to working with you.

Now to tell you a bit about our latest sponsor.

You Can Learn Series has a very informative feel to there site. It is laid out more like a news article then most other blogs I look at. Which to me is a nice change of pace then all the flashy colors that seems to be the norm. Here is a small look at the layout of this site and you will see what I mean.

As you can clearly see this site is laid out to be very informative and from what I have read it delivers just that. The navigation bar across the top of the site has many links to lots of different topics to read on. Your not only going to learn about blogging but Goodhealth as well. A real nice change from our daily reads, well at least for me. As I am sure this is the case for many bloggers, you kind of lose being in shape after sitting at a desk for umpteen hours a day blogging and typing away.

One article that really stood out for me when I was over there checking things out and dropping my Ecard was an article regarding Entrecard. The article is simply called “Why do I drop Entrecards and what is my strategy“. I recommend everyone go and have a look at that post. If everyone did what that post talks about regarding Entrecard we really would have a moving system far greater then it all ready is.

While your on site checking out where your next ad placement may come from have a swing by the You Can Learn Store. One thing your going to find in the store there are some really cool mugs you can buy, now I know that is one thing I can use while I am sitting at my desk working away, sorry but I am one of those heavy coffee drinker types.

Once again I would like to thank Ken Brown and his site called You Can Learn Series for there great donation into our contest that starts March 1st 2008 and I hope you enjoyed our review.

Blogging Cents 

Blogging Cents is one of 45n5’s top 100 blogs for making money online. This is not some make believe title or anything, it is a list of bloggers who submit there sites for getting ranked in the field of making money online and it is a very hard list to try and move up in. To be honest with you it is easier to increase your Alexa rank then it is to increase your 45n5 rank. Trust me on that, I have tired with my other blog and got stuck somewhere around the 200 mark in the list of bloggers and was un able to move.

Lori, the sites owner has a very unique type of blog where her personality surely makes her stand out from the rest. And if you are one of those bloggers who wants to learn while reading a blog this is just another asset of being one of her readers. Lori’s content is right on the money, so to me it makes sense that she calls her self “Blogging Cents“. One of her best posts to me is the one she calls “Get the hell off my porch”, no I’m just kidding, she does not have a post called that the real name is “Blogging tools that build a better blog” which is full of some of the best tips I have ever seen in a post for helping blogger’s with there sites and what plug ins are the best to use.

Lori, also has a nice little contest going on right now over at her site and it is for a grand prise ( Well to be honest it is for 4 grand prises) of the Fruitful Time Task Manager and again like so many other contests that are out there entry is very easy, all you have to do is right a small post about her contest and supply back a few links which is standard practice in contests these days. The value of her prise is $49.00 so it is something thats going to be a great win. At this point you may be saying to yourself ” I don’t want that prise though” and if you are that shouldn’t stop you from entering the contest simply because if you win and ever have your own contest, you could just use it as a prise in your contest. Maybe one of your readers would like to win it.

Here are the links to need to include in your posts in order for your entry to count. 

Contest link 

Lori’s home page 

to do software 

And thats it, then after you do all that just swing by her site and leave a comment with a link to your post and your all done. Now how easy is that?

Contest prises Blogging Cents has sponsored our contest with!

Lori, like I said was one of the first ones to respond when I asked for a few sponsors yesterday, and what she has donated is simply amazing.

125×125 ad spot on her site for one month.  Sorry about my paint writing in the picture, I suck at using a mouse as a pen! Ads should be above the fold, and Lori’s site has some great traffic with over 200 readers so that makes this prise worth a lot to one winner.

She has also been very kind to donate another 3000 Entrecard credits to the contest. Man are we going to be giving away a pile of them next month. Someone is going to be one rich Entrecard credit dude or dudette.

With all that said, this review is concluded. If you would like to receive a review like this one for free all you have to do is sponsor our contest easy eh!

Once again I would like to personally thank Lori for stepping up and helping make our March 1st grand opening contest that much better.