May you enjoy family, frends and lots of laughter now and throughout the New Year!

As of November 30, 2006, the AlphaProfit Focus and Core Model Portfolios have
gained 114.6% and 71.4%, respectively since inception on September 30, 2003. In comparison, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index is up 48.9%.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to my readers. Am off to Laguna Beach for the week, returning Fri, Dec 29th. Enjoy and see you in the New Year.

Jeremy Palmer, from QuitYourDayJob.com put together a great online tutorial on how to use PHP to cloak your affiliate links. I highly recommend taking the time to watch and learn.

Jeremy does a great job of explaining this in their simplest forms, thanks Jeremy keep up the great work!

Also, if you haven’t read his book, be sure to check out High Performance Affiliate Marketing. (Maybe I should have cloaked that one? )

The OverEx.net discussion forum is open to the general public, but you will need to register first before you are able to post.

In the event you want to register for a free dating profile account, you won’t need to worry about registering for the discussion forum. You will be automatically registered.

Hitwise reported today that the share of US Internet searches for “gift cards” surged 109% for the week ending December 16th, 2006 vs the previous week as online shoppers looked for last minute gift ideas. Some of the fastest growing Gift card searches include “american express gift cards” up 184%, “itunes gift card” up 69%, and “visa gift cards” up 19%.

“For the second year now, we’ve seen a pattern of increased searches on gift cards as Christmas day approaches,” said Bill Tancer general manager of global research at Hitwise. “This year branded credit and charge gift cards dominated top searches as gift givers opted for the most flexibility for their gift recipients.”

Now that shipping deadlines have mostly passed, online shoppers will probably start looking at digital / email-able gift certificates that can be purchased right up until the last minute.

Happy Holidays!

If you need information about Google’s ranking algorithm and if you want to know how to get high rankings on Google, then our newsletter archive offers valuable information for you.

Q&A With Dr. Clifford A. Hudis

Ok, I saw it coming, the new chain letter 2.0 has arrived and it’s called Blog Tag. It’s a little more fun and informative. On December 10th, Jeff Pulver started a little game of Blog Tag. The concept was to tell 5 interesting things about yourself and then “tag” 5 friends and see how fast it can spread. It has quickly spread across the Internet, and I am honored to have been pinged in just 6 days. Thanks Vinny! I’m not sure I can compete with Rock bands and 8-ball and chess championships, but here are 5 things you may or may not know about me.

1. In July of 2001 I was diagnosed with Leukemia, and I have just past a big milestone of being in remission for 5 years this November.
2. When my first son, Addison, was born in 1996 I setup a camera on his crib so his grandfather could check in on the crib over the internet. Addison’s Cribcam was the first of it’s kind and was covered by tv stations, newspapers, and radio stations around the country. It was even covered by Tom Brokaw!
3. I love to play Poker! I’m not as good as I would like to be, but I’m always up for a game. In fact one time I went to a business meeting where some of the attendees were late flying in, and we stuck up a poker game using a deck of cards from the Hotel and M&M’s as the Poker chips!
4. I’m an early Internet entrepreneur. In 1993 I started York Pennsylvania’s first for profit dial-up BBS that evolved into York PA’s first commercial ISP. After several acquisitions starting in 1998 Cyberia is now part of Earthlink
5. Finally, like Vinny I too have had my likeness manipulated by bored designers! Vinny I really do like your Vinny the Poo:
   

   Here are a couple they did of me when I worked at Network Solutions:
   
   The “Viener” Donald

   
   Yes, Potse is me!

   
   Can you Sing - YMCA!

   
   Mini V

   
   Busta V

   So, Vinny, sorry to say, Vinny the Poo might be only the beginning.
   

So I guess it’s my turn to tag some others to keep the party going. So, David Lewis, Beth Kirsch, Stowe Boyd, Chris Abraham, and Bob Parsons, your it!

As I slowly build a list of clients I keep encountering something that I never expected: A widespread suspicion — or at least lack of trust. It’s a tricky one to deal with,…