In the beginning, the word already existed.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.

Do you remember 'way back when' (lol), when the Internet was just a library of code zipping back-and-forth over telephone-wire between a bunch of nerds' computers?< p>

And when our provider started to commercialize it, many people stayed away because 'you had to be a computer-geek to get past the nerdiness and -into the neato!'

And to combat that, the commercials-etc. for the network had to be sure that they referred to the Internet as the '[provider's name]-Net.' The 'Internet' was still reams-and-reams of green computer-text, but you could get past that if you just managed to download the provider's program and to access it throug the little avatar they gave you to put on your 'desktop.'

True; people are 'smarter' now, providing their own paths to the fun side of the Internet.

But that just means we at Xomba have to be even smarter—covering the fun out there with the mark of the Xombies (i.e. not changing anything out there, but rather pointing to everything from here and passing the judgement of how fun can there be had).

So we are now working to point to everything—not just in a 'dig this'-way, but more in a 'jungle-guide'-way.

That's all that 'advertising' really is: friends networking. (Some of these friend-networks claim to give you money, but the money really comes to the ones who make sure the members have fun; so we don't care too much about the networks' money-handling, as long as it doesn't mess with our friend-making fun!)

First, of course, is Yuwie.com, the first network we ever heard of that actually pays its free members. (The average pay-out is something like a-dollar-a-month, paid after you accumulate $25, so don't quit when you realize it'll be eons before you see any green.)

And there are many others–some paying money, some paying 'network-presence,' etc.–including Facebook, MySpace, Zion5, ZuuZuu, ApSense, YouTube and newer ones every day it seems!

I'm sure that each of these programs will be full of people trying to convince you to make money with them-&-only-them, and that's where you have to remember the Scripture about 'man's ability to serve no more than one master' and be sure to remind yourself "why you went there" (from here, to invite friends to the Xomba Kingdom).

A couple of the programs we use are similar to Eve's "Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of the Good-and-Evil." That is, they offer good things, but the program's salesmen (knowingly or unknowingly) aren't necessarily upfront about the hidden price of their use.

ScreenBlaze will let you earn displays of your webpage in exchange for use of an auto-surfing screensaver. LinkBrander will let you earn link-displays in exchange for your application of link-displaying frames to pages you surf.

But naturally, neither one will tell you what the search-engines (providing us with %60+ of the web's readers) think of those programs. We've never seen them feature a search-engine owner's testimony ... we wonder why ...

Regardless of the reasons "they" tell you, here's why surfing-credit is held less-than-worthy: Because–according to a prime facet of Chaos Theory–the majority of 'clicks' from those programs are 'credit-clicks,' not 'curiosity-clicks'—the people click to add to their own click-counts, not to cure their curious wonderings.

And 'curiosity-clicks' are the kind that advertisers pay money for, because they're the kind that lead to a buy!

So–while those two programs are efficiency-increasers (one allows you to earn while taking a break, one allows you to hold more control over the content you find)–they both have to be used carefully!

And if the Xomba-work (with YouTUBE) is too heavy a load, LinkBrander and ScreenBlazer would be the first to go overboard if they weren't so convenient after you start them—like a mustard-seed, 'so small that it gets into places you would never expect' and yet 'so fertile it grows almost anywhere!'

What is your job? To all of us here, you are a Friend-of-Abmox (or just a Xombie, if the 'friend'-bit feels too cheesy). But in secret–whether in the midst of a pre-write for Xomba or surfing a friend-network linking all your friends-and-connections to Xomba–you are a Xombie-Ninja!

A ninja is well-educated and proves it by action. The Xombie-Ninja knows how important comments are to Xomba.com's content-library, so`e spends a massive amount of time (say three-out-of-five days) commenting- and responding to other comments-on others' Xombytes and Xomblurbs.

And the Xombie-Ninja knows that`e needs Xombytes and Xomblurbs to claim as`r own, so`e spends a less-massive amount of time (two-out-of-five days) writing Xombytes and linking to the wild-wild web from the safety of`r Xomblurbs.

The Xombie-Ninja throws in a weekend (in which`e does whatever`e deems appropriate) every so-often and calls it a plan!

He also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.