Listing your site in a directory is a good way to help raise your page rank, alexa, and visitor base. Directories usually break their listings into categories which helps the person looking for a site to find exactly what they’re looking for. Sometimes these directories will be free to list your site, with a link back, and sometimes they will require payment.

Alive Directory, one of the most popular directories, has a section created just for blogs. Their blog directory lists many different kinds of blogs, from business to politics. You can be assured that no matter what your blog topic, they have a category for you. And if they don’t, they’ll add it. They don’t have a large list of blogs yet, which gives you the upper hand. You’ll have less trouble getting noticed when there aren’t other sites around to clutter it up.

You can see this directory is going to be great, they have a wonderful design. They’ve chosen to use the same design as the main site, but substitute the blue for green. Conformity is a great idea when branching off your site, but at the same time you want something to set it apart. They did a wonderful job with this.

Regular listings with Alive start at $29.95 per year, with a link back. Someone feel up to buying me one? And the featured links, which will be shown above all the ‘regulars’ start at $59.95 per year. Alive has put out a lot of effort to make sure their directory is wildly promoted, therefore raising the promotion of your site. It’s a really great idea, one of those where I think “Why didn’t I think of that?”

I’m about to pay off my car soon, I’m pretty excited. It looks like this pro blogging thing is helping me make that extra so I can pay it off in September or October. I really wish I could pay it off in September and maybe get the title for my birthday, wouldn’t that be neat?

I love Volkswagens and I love the Jettas (before the redesign in ‘05). My Jetta is the cutest car in the world. Sure, I’d like it to be grey, but when you buy a car the day they come out you get what colors they have. It’s black, so every scratch and all the dirt shows up really well. So wonderful.

My car has been making some noises ever since I got it. There’s this noise in the front where when you turn the wheel and back up it POPs and it’s kinda scary. But it’s been doing it for years, so I guess it’s nothing. And the tires are expensive, they go fast. It’s like $900 to replace them every 30k miles. The arm rest has fallen apart a couple of times, but now that my short little warranty is over, I have to pay like $160 to fix it and it’s just not worth it. Maybe once it’s paid off.

I totally recommend buying a used Volkswagen. There’s so many perks over buying new. Let someone else pay the price to ship it here. And let them go through the first year of stuff going wrong. I think they put parts on the cars that don’t work so well and then the after market parts are better. Is that backwards? And I love the keys. The laser cut keys with the chip inside help to make sure no one can just make a copy of your key. The new designs are ugly, so you’re better off buying used cars nowadays.

But make sure you go to a Volkswagen dealer, because other dealerships won’t put the care into inspecting the cars like VW will. Their techs are trained on Volkswagens so they know them better than anyone else.

I have a dream that one day the whole world will ride around in VW cars!

I had quite a few problems with the old theme we were using so I changed over to the one you see now. I’m not entirely sure if this one will do what I need it to do, but for now, at least it works. I’ll be looking for something better in the upcoming weeks. I need to change the pages around because, as you can see, they still have all Amanda’s information and it’s slightly outdated.

If you have any WP theme suggestions, let me know!

I wrote previously on EPay as a new Paypal alternative to send and receive money online. I have a lot of trust in Paypal and I’m a very loyal person, but the more I learn about EPay the more interest I gain. One of the big selling points, for me, is the ability to earn $150 per person you refer or $250 if it’s a merchant. With Paypal, you make $1 every time they make $200 if it’s a business account. That’s not too exciting to me, unless I refer some multimillion dollar company selling completely through Paypal.

Another selling point on EPay is their debit card. I love the idea of being able to access my money now, rather than in a week or two when it finally makes it to my bank account. I don’t like my money being stuck in limbo, so it is a definite must for me. Their EPay debit card has the Master Card logo, enabling you to use it any time, any where. The debit card does have a one time fee of $89 and a monthly fee of $4.95. A little much for me, personally.

They also offer pre-paid credit cards for those with less than perfect credit. Or for those out there who have kids and want to give them a card to pay for things without the open limits. I know I prefer to give my kids a reloadable prepaid card to keep with them because if they lose it you can replace it easily and the money isn’t lost forever. Actually, it works well for my mom, too, because every once in a while she needs to borrow some money and I have no way to get it there fast.

Pretty soon I think it will be a new standard for sending money online. Epay will soon be an option like Paypal, Moneybookers, and E-Gold when you get paid for your paid posts, reading emails, and online surveys.