Advertising on Blogs and spamming

spam comments with hidden ad links

Hello dear fellow bloggers,

this is an open letter to ask about your experience with advertisers and your blog.

I am bogging for eight years now (since end of 2006) and when my blog had started to reach a Google Pager Rank of 3, enquires of advertisers dropped in. It was fun! And rewarding! Some bloggers, the professional ones, who posted 3 posts a week (that was a target back then), could probably almost live from their blogs. I only made little pocket money, but it would have paid the cost of web hosting and some cups of coffee.

Advertising back then was a text link or banner on your blog roll (blog list) for a certain company that paid by month or year in advance via paypal.

Some companies would even send sample products that bloggers could review on their blog. You would get the product for free. Sometimes a partner program was also in place. Bloggers would earn for every click or product sale referred from their blog. I am sure that still works with the top bloggers.

Then the more sneaky offers came. "Can you do a text link somewhere inside a blog post of our choice?" Yeah, hidden advertising for 5 USD a link that remains there for ever. No way!

And with the rise of social media, like Facebook, blogs seemed to have become less interesting for advertisers. (Ok, in my case, I am not the frequent writer and that's of course a reason for advertisers to stop renewing a co-operations. But then, why on earth I get spam comments every single day?)

Why do these people (or robots?) submit constantly different comments with different hidden text links referring to different companies on different posts, every single day?

They prefer older posts, hoping their hidden links get on your blog unrecognized ... But who hasn't 'comment moderation' on? BTW, in comment moderation you do not see the hidden links and they often even have a blogger profile, see photo. But Blogger has a very efficient spam filter in place.

No doubt, that top bloggers are always interesting for advertisers as popular websites always have and always will be. But how about the casual long-time blogger (like me) ?

I think, the explanation for many of these annoying spam comments are spam sending 'robots' that pick blogs and place comments anonymously and just randomly. Not for selling goods, but to boost the page rank of their clients who are mainly small companies. Or they are private people who get referral fees for clicks on their links. All these advertising links try to sell various products: from tiles and furniture to software products, SEO services, to English schools.

Very curious about your experience with advertising on your blog lately. Please share!

Would love to hear from you,
kind regards
Susan

QUICHE

Quiche Lorraine

A quiche has a pastry crust and a filling of eggs, cheese and cream which becomes a custard after baking. Instead of the classical “Lorraine” version from Alsace with bacon and ham, you can do a vegetarian version and add vegetables (cauliflower, spinach, peas, mushrooms, or else). Instead of a frozen short crust / pastry (Mürbeteig) DIY, it’s easy and fast. The following recipe is for an average quiche or tart form (up to 28 cm diameter) and up to 12 servings. It's a fast and ideal vegetarian dish for any Christmas buffet style lunch or dinner. 

Quiche Lorraine (photo via pinterest)

Ingredients:

DIY short crust:

200 gr flour (250 gr, if you need more mass for a higher border)

100 gr butter (120 gr)

1 egg (add 2 spoons of cold water)

Baking soda and salt

 

For custard:

300 gr sour cream (or replace sour cream with liquid whipped cream or mix, see photo)

125 ml milk (equals empty sour cream cup of 150 gr filled with milk)

3 eggs

200-250 gr grated Gruyere (or Emmental) cheese

100-150 gr of bacon and ham for classic quiche (or vegetables of your choice)

1 small red onion (optional)

Seasoning: nutmeg, salt, pepper
 

2/3 sour cream, 1/3 milk
OR 1/3 sour cream, 1/3 cream, 1/3 milk
OR 300 gr cream (liquid whipped cream)

How to:

1) Make your own crust pastry:  Sieve flour and baking soda, add salt, cut cold butter into deices, add the cold egg, work with hands. Make a pastry ball and let it sit for 20min in the fridge.

2) In the meantime cut the onion and fry it with a bit of butter in a hot pan until golden brown.

3) Use a bit of butter for the form, and lay out the pastry flat (I press it in by hand, or you can roll it out first and place the thin layer of pastry), pre-bake blind (with weight of beans on baking paper or aluminium foil) at 180 degree Celsius for 15 min.

blind baking with weight of beans

4) In the meantime: If you use ham or bacon, fry it in the pan. If you use vegetables, clean, cut and blanch or pre-cook them a bit.

5) Take out the quiche form from the oven and remove the weight, let the crust cool.

6) Mix eggs, add nutmeg, pepper and salt. Add sour cream / cream and milk, whisk more. Add onions.

 

top short crust with grated cheese

 

7) Lay on the crust the bacon and ham (for classic version) or vegetables (tip: spread first some mustard on the crust), then top it with the cheese and pour liquid mix of egg and cream over it carefully.

quiche baking: 180 degree Celsius 30-40 min

8) Bake at 180 degree for 30-40 min (check after 30 min.) If it is getting to dark, cover with baking paper or aluminum foil.

Serve at room temperature or re-heat. A quiche can last several days in the fridge.

find more recipes on this blog

 

Christmas time in Pizzo!

 

The photo that Angelo sent me last night is so beautiful that I changed our facebook page cover for the first time to share the Christmas feeling in the South of Italy.

This week the temperatures are from 6 degree (lowest during night) up to 15 degree Celsius during the day. Winter clothes and heating is definitely required as occasional rain and wind make it feel more chilly.

 

This year's festive illumination (luminarie) in Pizzo is especially beautiful. On December 8, with the fiesta of the "immaculate conception", the day Italians traditionally decorate their homes for Christmas, a procession took place in Pizzo's piazza. I shared a photo and a link on Facebook. Click below and read more about this special day in Italy: 

Post by Palazzo Pizzo.

Renovating an external wall - correcting an error of our previous renovation

Renovation reloaded (November 2014)

We are renovating again an external wall, that was beautiful restored during our previous main renovation six years ago in November 2008. See my post about how to renovate the side facade here. It included a voting by readers, and the result is presented here.

It turned out, the decision we made back then was an error, as the bare stone wall was deteriorating over time and soaked in all rain water in some particular areas. With the result of having humidity spots on the inside which dried out during summer, but let the plaster and paint on the inside constantly come off the walls. That was not a problem in the guest residence as the residence has a different surface on the outside walls, but in our living room on the ground floor, and in the master bath and guest room upstairs.

deteriorating stone wall (July 2014)

The picture (above) was taken during the procession of La Madonna del Carmine in July 2014 and shows at least one of the crucial areas.

Why did we wait so long for the correction?

First it was not clear where the water infiltrated. It looked more like a leak on the roof terrace and on one balcony. But then it became more and more visible from the outside.

Second, we lost many months and weeks thanks to our reluctant neighbor who had to give access to our wall.

after applying impregnation paint, foam is added for further insulation

fixing the foam to the wall with these blue pins

foam fixed

The new method of renovating this external wall: applying an impregnation paint on the stone wall. After that a 4 cm thick insulating foam was fixed on the wall (with blue pins, see above). And at the end, a finishing of colored plaster comes on top.

a glimpse of the new look (December 2014)

A large portion of our first year's vacation rental earnings will go into that wall.... But that is the purpose of renting out our guest residence. The income should help to maintain and improve the residence and to pay the running cost of the house. Hopefully, we won't have this kind of major spending on renovation again any time soon, and will be able to build up some reserve funds. Our project remains a project ... but a wonderful one.

See below the side façade over the years. And now, just in time before some rainy days, we finished the insolation and plaster work.

house in 2006 before renovation project started

after renovation in November / December 2008

after 2nd renovation December 2014

Hoaba Datschi - Bavarian Blueberry Cake

Hoaba Datschi (here with blueberries and raspberries)

The Hoaba Datschi is a Bavarian desert. You could translate it into German as "Heidelbeer-Auflauf" which doesn't sounds even half as original (urig), and don't think of it as a "Blueberry Casserole". Its' a Hoaba Datschi.

I was invited to a girls evening at my friends house. She planned on serving Bavarian food and asked me if I could bring a desert. So I googled "bayrische Suessspeisen" and decided on that yummy looking desert which I found via the blog Die Landfrau.

"Hoaba" is Bavarian and translates blueberries (which is Blaubeeren or Heidelbeeren in high German language). But what is a "Datschi"? It's a Southern German word, and stands for the cake (although there are many different recipes for a "Datschi", most famous is the "Zwetschgendatschi", a plum sheet cake). The original meaning might come from the verb "tatschen" (English = to touch) or "hineindatschen" as the fruits are pressed into the dough (in some recipes). In the "Hoaba Datschi" the fruits however sink into a very liquid dough, comparable to a pancake dough.


ingredients:
5 eggs (separated)
200 gr sugar
300 gr flour
350 ml milk
1 pinch of salt
some butter for the mold
500 gr blueberries


how to:
1) pre-heat the oven, add some butter into the mold(s)
2) beat the egg white until stiff
3) mix egg yolk, sugar, flour, salt and milk like a pancake mixture
4) gently fold in the stiff egg white
5) pour the liquid into mold(s) and top it with the blueberries
6) bake it in the oven at 180 degree for 20-25 minutes


tips:
You can use fresh or frozen berries, and you could add raspberries to the blueberries. For serving you could sprinkle a bit of icing sugar. It goes also nicely (when fresh from the oven or warmed up) with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Blueberries added on top
- you can use excess dough to make muffins -

before baking - the berries before sinking

make the wooden stick test after 20 minutes in the oven

Hoaba Datschi with blueberries (Hoaba) and raspberries

to sprinkle with sugar or icing sugar (with or without whipped cream)