Riding and Denali. And I got gold for my birthday

Took my ATV out the other day, but I forgot to take my camera. Trail was real nice with wild roses in bloom and everything too. ::sigh:: Aww well, today looks like it is shaping up to be a nice one and I have plans to go up to Big Lake later, might be able to get a good shot of Denali. There's a point on the Big Lake road where the bike trail is up at the top of a ridge and overlooks the road with a beautiful view out over to Denali on a clear day.

I also want to some time take my ATV North and up into the back side of Hatcher Pass. Went up to Hatcher Pass the other day for my birthday into the public gold mining area for a few minutes and played around but was chased off by the thunderstorms and the fact that my sister's dog came back with porcupine quills in him. Poor pup, but he's a repeat offender so he knew what he was doing.

I did manage to find a tiny bit of gold dust and flour gold - need a microscope to see most of it though. Hey, at least I got gold for my birthday, even if I did have to go out and pan it out of the stream myself.

PayPerPost has raised another $7 million in funding

What would you do with $7 million? Aside from putting in wicked trails open only to ATVers (no dog sledders or snowmachiners allowed). How about if you had $7 million to play with for your business? That would be sweet, huh? That's what my favorite blog marketing company PayPerPost is looking at. They just got a cool $7 million investment from Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

This is totally awesome when you take into account that PayPerPost is just about one year old now. Founded in June of 2006 they are easily the best marketplace for bloggers and I have heard a lot of good from advertisers as well. To the best of my knowledge they are the only advertising marketplace that allows (encourages even) the advertisers and bloggers to interact in a one on one setting.

I have been writing advertisements on my blogs for advertisers that I have met through PayPerPost almost since their inception, the company forming in June 2006 and my first ad through them being written at the beginning of July 2006. In that time I have been totally blown away by the quality of advertisers that I have had the opportunity to work with and have met some amazing bloggers. It has been a bumpy ride, with a lot of stumbling, but time after time things have come out better than before and I can see PayPerPost leading the way in blog advertising for years to come. If you have something to advertise on blogs, or would like to make money deciding what advertising fits best on your blog, then I encourage you to check out PayPerPost and find out why they are such a great company.

With their new investment of $7 million by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who has invested in PayPerPost before as well as having invested in such companies as Meetup, Skype, and Feedburner (just to name a very few), PayPerPost is sure to continue to set the standard that all other blog advertising companies only wish they could meet. IN announcing the investment PayPerPost released the following press release:

The PayPerPost Revolution Accelerates, Sponsored
Blogging Marketplace Secures $7 Million Series B

Draper Fisher Jurvetson leads round and joins Board of Directors

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.

Possible Mod: CDI Ignition Control Unit

I am contemplating a mod for my ATV that my brother suggested. Me and him were looking over my ATV and he pointed out that the CDI Ignition Control Unit is sitting just behind the rear tire in what he says is a bad location. I don't know much about the mechanical sides of them machines so I'll just have to take his word for it that the thing is not very well situated for mud bogging. He also had a problem with some wiring up front, said that needs to be dealt with ASAP and got wrapped up and tucked up under the bike where it won't get wet or I'll fry my entire ignition system. Dats not good.

So, I am working on plots based on his suggestions and doing a bit of research on the possibilities. He showed me a couple of places that I could relocate the CDI dealie to where it would be more resistant to being soaked repeatedly when out riding on the trails. When I decide what to do with it I'll post the mod here and show you all what it was that I did.

I'm also taking suggestions from anyone that might have an idea on this problem. The little CDI box thing is mounted to the frame just inside the back wheel on the right side of the bike, my brother pointed out a few areas back up under the seat that I might consider moving it to.

Great deals on ATV stuff from the Motorcycle Superstore and Coupon Chief

Do you like shopping online? Ever considered shopping for your ATV accessories online? The Motorcycle Superstore has all of the parts and accessories you could want, from helmets to plow blades and everything in between. Going fishing or hunting? Check out the ATV coolers and other ATV luggage they have available. You can find anything you want for your ATV: helmet cams, racing numbers, even ATV tires.

And no, they are not just for ATV's, look for stuff for motorcycles too of course, they have stuff no matter what you're into street bikes, dirt bikes or even racing bikes.

Be sure that you check for any good Motorcycle Superstore coupons at Coupon Chief before you place your orders, there are always great deals showing up at Coupon Chief for sites like the Motorcycle Superstore.

And be sure to check out all of the great sporting and outdoor recreation stores at their website for great coupon codes on anything you need for outdoor fun this summer and any parts or tools you might need to keep your bike in shape.

This post sponsored by Coupon Chief, Inc

Helmet

I was talking to my brother last night about my helmet. You remember that, right? The one he was to put a sleeping dragon on for me. I got the shell and insert back, but he has the stuff that goes to it all put away over at his place in a box. ::sigh:: I need to get the rest of it back from him, then I plan to try painting it myself. He's just too busy with cars right now to get the helmet into his schedule so I am going to try and paint it myself. Won't be anywhere near as kewl as if he did it, but I want my dragon helmet. lol

The Alaska Highway

It's summertime in Alaska, which means that you see more and more cars from the lower 48 in the store parking lots and traveling the roads up here.

The Alaskan highway is a great way to get to Alaska, but it can be rough on a car when it is under construction. Years ago you would see vehicles pulling into town up here and you knew they came over the Alaskan highway by the thick layers of mud and dirt, now days there is not so much open dirt and gravel roads as there were years ago. (Either that or the tourists are stopping at the car washes more and more.)

I still recall the road as it was under perpetual destruction and can not think of it without thinking of a bumper sticker with Bill The cat and Garfield showing Garfield as the before the Highway look and Bill The Cat as the after the Highway appearances.

Credited to Sergeant Troy Hise, while stationed at Summit Lake, historical mile 392, the following perspective on the Alaska Highway pretty much summed the AlCan up through the years I traveled between Alaska and Washington with my parents:

"The Alaska Highway
winding in and winding out,
fills my mind with serious doubt,
as to whether "the lout",
who planned this route,
was going to hell or coming out!"

Even with all of the construction, which may or may not still be taking place, check that before you head out, the trip is a lovely one that is filled with beautiful scenery and wildlife encounters.

Used Cars in Chicago

Whether you are a snowbird or a summer visitor to Alaska, chances are you find yourself in the lower 48 on occasion. If you find yourself in the Chicago area looking for a cheap used car you should check out North Shore Auto Auction.

Opening bids on used cars start at a mere $200, and most of the cars sold by North Shore Auto Auction sell for between $500 and $5,000. These auto auction chicago cars are a great deal when you can find pretties like (current cars I found on the first page of autos) both a 1989 and a 1994 Pontiac Firebird, The '89 even has the classic Firebird T-Tops in it. And how about a 2001 Jaguar Xk8 convertible? Want to go big? What about a 2002 Gmc 3500 Savana cutaway commercial truck? Some of these vehicles are selling low enough to even make it tempting to fly down to the lower 48 and buy a nice one to drive back to Alaska for resale.

This post is sponsored by North Shore Auto Auction. A portion of the proceeds from used car public auto auction sales at North Shore Auto Auction goes to charity.

Long silence broken

Whew! It has been a while since I was able to get this blog updated, sorry about that. I have been busy as can be and have not even had a chance to go out on my ATV other than a run about two weeks ago I think it was (totally losing track of time) where I took my ATV and my brother's trailer down to get some diesel fuel. Don't even recall if I mentioned that here or not, lost the wheel on the trailer and ended up MacGyvering the wheel back on using a link from a length of dog chain I use to keep my tool box from walking away.

With the straightened dog chain link acting as a new cotter pin I got the trailer on down to the station then back home. Since then it's been fairly hectic around here getting things done and plants planted and so forth. Only other time I made it out on my ATV was a couple trips to my brother's place and back. Need to make a run up to the library in a few days here though, got some books coming up due.