But actually everything got delayed since I am stuck with the re-design. Kinda Catch 22 - upgraded to current release candidate of Wordpress 2.7, which has odd effects on the themes from themehybrid.com (which I have chosen now instead of the ones from elegantthemes.com), so I have to iron out that first and worst case wait for the WP 2.7 final release, which is due next week. I’ll keep you posted.

I got some very nice themes from elegantthemes.com and will play with them during the next day - so do not be puzzled if the site design changes every couple of minutes and sometimes is broken…

After the new design is up, I have a special for you: I recently got my hands on Wendi Friesen’s “Financial Abundance” course, will work through it, and will take you with me on that journey… take-off next week!

So check back or subscribe to the RSS feed so you do not miss the updates!

Many of you will know Clickbank. They still are one of the biggest payment processors on the net and spezialized in affiliate products. Their system is old and simple to use and one of THE standards if you want to sell digital products or earn some cash as an affiliate by recommending other folks’ products on your website.

I had some “hoplinks” (as the affiliate links for clickbank products are called) on my sites (many of the products there are crap and heavily overprized, but there are some good ones as well) and made a sale here and there. Nothing much.

The last months I had different things to do, real life, cleared out some obstacles, came clear with a few decisions (like leaving Germany for good and making my eco-village project happen in Paraguay) - so I did not bother much about my websites and sales or clickbank and had left my small commissions sitting in my account there.

They have certain requirements for your first payout, and they only pay by check - so if you are not from the US its a good idea to wait until your commissions sum up a bit so that the banking fees for cashing the check do not eat up all of the check… …or so I thought.

Today I wanted to recommend “Money beyond Belief“ to my readers, a great course by Joe Vitale and Brad Yates, that combines reality creation, EFT and our all greed for money&success into a unique blend… cool program, …and sold via Clickbank.

So I logged into my CB account to set up my affiliate link - and found the account empty. Zero.

After I sifted through their FAQs and the not-so-self-explanatory “codes” for the charges in my account history (five bucks here, one buck there…) I found they have “fees” for “dormant accounts” which heavily ramp up over time. So if your account is inactive for some time, they start stealing your money until it is gone. Without warning or notice.

OK - I lost about 30 bucks, so no big drama - but this way of doing business is something I still do not understand and something I strongly dislike. You prevent someone from withdrawing his money by imposing strange regulations and limiting payment options (hey, checks are from the stoneages…) - and then, after it has earned you (CB, of course) some interest, you just take it away completely.

I found MANY similar reports all over the net - I am not the only one. How many millions has Clickbank made by stealing the commissions of their small and not-so-successful affiliates? Don’t ask.

So - if you are a blogger like me or any other kind of affiliate marketer: have an eye or two on your CB account.

Or even better: do not open one.

STAY AWAY FROM CLICKBANK.

As reported yesterday, the current “theme”/template somehow has the tendency to cause problems with the latest releases of WordPress and some of the plugins that I need for advanced features (like Lenky’s related links, which are obviously gone at the moment, because my site shows up blank as soon as I activate them…)

So the hunt for “the” theme is on again… currently I am looking into the free “Options” theme from Justin Tadlock - very flexible, cool features, but lots of work to customize if you are a bit weak at graphics design (which I am…). I would like to retain something like the slideshow in the upper left, while having a more stable layout (this one tends to break in the lower third) and better compatibility with a wide range of plugins. And more vivid colors, this one looks a bit tooo washed out, worst on low-contrast TFTs…

BUT what am I talking - YOU are the ones who actually have to look at my site in the end.

So speak up - what would you like to see here? What NOT? Do you have a specific design that you like and would love to see here in a modified version?

Have your say. Just post a comment. No promise that I will do as you say, but I will listen… ;-)

P.S.:Promised, we will be back to “regular” posting during the next days. Expect more brainwave-related content in the future… its just that after relaunching a site at a new server and domain you sometimes have to do some tweaking… and it always takes longer than you expect. *lol*

Sorry incase you got a lot of “404″s lately…

Update: done. No, not solved… But at least the links work again. As usual, two of my plugins did cause problems with the latest WP update, so right now the ratings for posts are off, and the external links are not cloaked. Well, probably won’t disturb anyone’s peace except mine… ;-)

Or you try the usual suspects. Like adding a “minus” in between. Thats what I did.

Later on I checked the site without the minus. And actually it is on a related topic. But it is neither me (my name is Martin, not Enoch…), nor do I really endorse the content over there, although it seems to be interesting and valid material.

As a German, a writer (my German is slightly better than my English, *lol*), a brainwaver and a spiritual being I love “playing” with words and their sound, their melody, their meaning, their connotations.

That was the path that led to mind-reality.com - exploring the knots and ties between the two, while at the same time have a slight connotation of “mind the gap, please”, and keep in mind that there actually is something we have agreed to call “reality”. What some brainwavers and some spiritual folks tend to forget…

So thats just to make clear: mindreality.com and mind-reality.com are different people, different sites, different approaches and slightly different believes.

In no way my site was derived from his, and apart from the fact that we and our websites are all more or less colorful threads in the big carpet of the universe, there is no connection. Well, now there is, because I linked them… ;-)

‘kay - that was just to vent the air because someone mailed me and complained because he mistyped the url and ended up here whilst he wanted to go to Enoch’s site… not my fault, buddy.

I will tweak the layout a bit further (YES, I heard you - the font color for the articles will change to something with more contrast… edit: DONE. boring black now…), but basically thats what Mind Reality will look for the next couple of months.

I also have the new newsletter system in place - so if you would like to have free fractal images like the ones at the top left, screensavers, brainwave sessions and of course interesting articles and product reviews once or twice a month - go ahead and sign up.

Regular posting will resume the next days - so stay tuned!
- and keep syncing ;-)

This blog just moved to it’s new home from the previous location at brainwaver.wordpress.com

It will take a couple of days ’til I get layout and everything else sorted…

Anyways: all the previous articles have survived the move, so browse around and enjoy your stay!