Oh how I love it that Google listens to their audience of publishers! Google has announced that it will now be opening up it’s Adsense network to 3rd party advertisers!

What does this mean? Quite simply, 3rd party advertisers will now be able to bid on advertising space on your website – In other words, where you place your Adsense code, 3rd parties will be able to display their adverts there – booyah!

Who are these ad networks? They’re ad agencies and companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don’t own themselves (much like AdSense). You’ll now be able to allow advertisers from these networks to compete with AdWords advertisers for your ad space. All reporting and payments will still run through AdSense as they always have, and the available ad formats will be the same as those offered for AdWords ads.

And get this,

“We take the quality of ads delivered to your site seriously, so we’ll be certifying all participating ad networks for adherence to our standards for user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You’ll have control over which networks can show ads on your pages — you can choose to opt out of receiving ads from specific networks, or all networks completely. This means you can continue to show ads from only AdWords advertisers if you like.”

That’s awesome. In fact, this is something I suggested to AdGator many months ago, I wish they would do the same!

Here’s a short video you might like to watch:

You can read more here.

If there’s one thing that drives me crazy, it’s spam! Thank heavens for GMail’s spam filtering, because without that, I’d have an extra couple hundred emails to manage daily.

MyBroadBand released, the other day, an article naming and shaming South African spammers and I felt it would be a good idea to carry on the trend so as to keep you all aware of these parties:

1. Abelusi Training Network
2. Dynamic Seminars
3. New Heights 1268
4. PPI Group
5. Bizopp “Make R1million from an investment of R100k” Scam
6. www.we-insure.co.za
7. Vector BUILDERS, PLUMBERS and ELECTRICIANS
8. Media Online
9. Ivan Stander
10. Computer Corporation Marketing
11. mawandi9@gmail.com
12. Goedkoop.co.za
13. Peter Carruthers
14. Beyond Red
15. “Steven”
16. www.ketler.co.za
17. Uvest

So, if you see emails from these places/people, simply click the “report spam” button if there is one, otherwise click that delete button, let’s get rid of these people who refuse to work proper jobs!

Way cool, looks like we’re going to get some sun for the next couple of days, perhaps it’s true – Summer is coming!

Sheesh, over the past week or two, I’ve received a number of various gifts, prizes and promotional goods. Anyway, was looking at them all now and decided that I would share what I’ve got.

Custom Sand Blasted Wine Bottle – A good friend of mine, Mandy, runs a Glass Art studio which does everything from glass carvings, glass splashbacks, carvings, colour application and more. She dropped off my very own bottle, take a look..

Mandy really is a star and her work is incredibly well priced, visit her site, write it down and think of her next time you need anything glass related!

If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I ran a competition for an all expenses paid spa trip from Health Spa Guru at the Lanzerac Spa and Wellness Centre and Erika was the lucky lady who won. For running the competition I also received a complementary visit..

I can’t wait to make my booking and enjoy another lovely weekend away!

Levi’s sent The Forge a few vouchers for free pairs of jeans due to a post I wrote on iMod, so I ventured out and grabbed myself a pair, whilst handing in a few of my old pairs..

Along the way, I was also given a bunch of Vida vouchers..

The peeps over at Getsmarter and Paddocks sent me some complementary wine..

Ooooh ya, don’t forget to check out there new certificate course in eMarketing! Thanks Sam & Hannes!

Last, but definitely not least is my very own copy of Windows 7 (it’s just an RC version, but still!), which Jason Bagley kindly hooked Brendon and I me up with..

I’m looking forward to installing it – Thanks Jason!

Other shoutouts go to my advertisers:

- Wattronics – Surge protection gear
- SilverSands – Have some fun gambling
- Your.co.za – Easy domain registration
- Pescii – Website Hosting

In other news, I have another competition coming up as well as another promotion, both are currently being discussed with the sponsors. If you’re keen on being informed about these two exciting things, be sure to either sign up for my newsletter, follow iMod on Twitter, follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my RSS feed for free!

Now, remember, if I didn’t have iMod, I wouldn’t have ANY of these – you won’t get these from using Twitter, start blogging!

@wezzo pointed out that The Telegraph has published some epic photographs of big wave surfing at Dungeons, Cape Town!

Check these out ..

Insane!!!

Ironic though, I had a post queued with this video that I spotted a couple days ago..

Next Tuesday is the 1st of September, in other words, Spring is here, already! Take a second to think about this, are we going to start seeing Christmas decorations in all the shops?

I received the Woolworths Spring Specials today and decided that I would share them with all of you for a change..

I purchase all my towels from Woolies, I love their huuuge extra soft ones, so I’m sure that their everyday ones are wonderful too. And who can’t do with some extra wine glasses hey?

Grab that wallet, take out your Woolies Card and go treat yourself, you know you want to ;)

Levi’s recently sent The Forge a few vouchers, allowing us to go and grab a free pair of jeans from the Levi’s Waterfront store. This is absolutely brilliant and couldn’t have come at a better time!

So, on Saturday I raced (at the speed limit) down to the Waterfront to explore the options they had. Now, if you know me, you know that when it comes to jeans, I always go for flairs and one of the main reasons I shop at Levi’s is because they offer flairs. On Saturday it was my lucky day, they had 3 different styles of flairs, all of which were in my size – bonus!

I was super stoked to walk out of the shop, after some great service, with two pairs of jeans – Yup, I got one free and bought myself another!

I’m not the only one sm:)ing, justBcoz also says Thank you Levi’s!

The fashion world is one of glitz and glamour, sleek bodies, glossy
hair and gorgeous garments, and it reaches its peak during Cape Town
Fashion Week with a whirlwind of catwalk shows and sophisticated after
parties as designers, models, celebrities and fashionistas celebrate
their beauty and style.

With every new collection, designers strive to deliver something
fresh, exciting and innovative to wow their fans and trend-watchers,
and to present a show which will have the audience gasping with joy.
For this Fashion Week, Craig Port chose the theme Faith Hope Love to
showcase his designs and linked an unusual yet entirely appropriate
element with his Craig Port and Miss Port couture – canine couture.

The relationship we have with our dogs – our most faithful and loving
companions – is in keeping with the theme, and as such Cesar® gourmet cuisine was thrilled to come on board and collaborate with Craig Port at his show at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday, 21 August 2009.

Models sashayed down the catwalk accompanied by four highly pedigreed and meticulously groomed and coiffed Westies, which are the same breed famously featured on the Cesar® packaging. The dogs stepped out in designer gear like collars, coats and accessories to complement the human couture and the theme of the show.

Later, at the exclusive VIP after party held at the Table Bay Hotel in
the V&A Waterfront, the models and dogs greeted guests and posed for
photographs under the glitter of flashbulbs. Celebrity guests
included the likes of Errol Arendz, Jen Su, Nicky Greenwall, Michelle
McLean, Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis, Lindiwe Suttle, Sam Pegg and
Lee-anne Summers.

Dogs are as comfortable in this privileged environment as their
fashionable owners; Port himself shares his life with three pooches –
Reggie the weimeraner, Lulu the wirehaired fox terrier and Rocco the
pug – and approached the concept of designing for dogs for the first
time with enthusiasm.

“Dogs are so beautiful it is very difficult to interfere with that
natural look without looking cheesy so the challenge was to be
functional and stylish at the same time,” says Port. “I’m delighted
with the results, which were inspired by my theme of Faith Hope Love
and tie in perfectly with the 2010 collection.”

Dressing our dogs in the same high quality designer clothes as
ourselves is just one of the ways we can show them how much they mean to us. Another is to feed them only the most superior meals. We
wouldn’t want to eat the same thing every day, so why should we expect our best friends to do so? And as much as we enjoy indulging ourselves with luxurious treats, so do our dogs.

Our dogs favour us with their love, affection and loyalty and what
better way to show them we love them back than by serving Cesar®
gourmet pet food at meal times? Made with human grade ingredients yet
perfectly nutritiously balanced for canine digestive systems, by
choosing Cesar® you are ensuring not only the tastiest but the
healthiest treat for your animal.

Port says he spoils Reggie, Lulu and Rocco with Cesar® treats daily.
“They are definitely indulged with walks every day…they are on the
sofa when I’m not looking, and are allowed on the bed for morning
cuddles,” he smiles. This is what they mean when they say “it’s a
dog’s life…”

Available in three delicious flavours – Chicken Supreme, Lamb Classic
and Gourmet Beef – Cesar® pet food is intended as a special treat for
your pampered pooch, to be served in conjunction with his normal diet.
It will make any Fifi or Rover feel like the Very Important Pup in
your life that they are.

Cesar® is available at all major supermarket chains including
Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay, Spar, Woolworths as well as leading pet shops.

Visit www.cesar.com for more information.

Liverpool started off the game with some great football, but unfortunately this started to slip quite terribly. Torres put in a goal for Liverpool, but three goals by Aston Villa ended the match with a sad loss.

Aston Villa goal scorers were: Lucas, Davies and Young.

Liverpool is now placed at 10 in the league :/