Written on May 5th, 2005 at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse
Podcast Network Sign First Sponsor - LearnDog
The Podcast Network have just announced their first sponsor - an Aussie organization named LearnDog who work with teenagers to help them to make good life choices. LearnDog’s website might be a little on the light side of information about who they are and what they do - but they do have a blog that reveals a little more.
LearnDog product manager is quoted in the Australian Newspaper as saying:
‘”Our goal is to launch LearnDog on a global stage so millions of kids can showcase their talents using new media. We aim to create a positive learning experience that helps kids deal with the great youth dangers of suicide and depression.”
LearnDog will use radio, TV, press, and new media, including web blogging, PodCasting, chat and SMS, to provide assistance to 14 to 18-year-olds and disadvantaged people. An animated character called LearnDog will interact with these people. The company was founded by Mark Keough, who also set up Archer College, a Registered Training Organisation that delivers professional training using the latest in educational technologies. Seyfang, a windsurfing fanatic, says LearnDog will help kids to learn stuff by finding ways to show their talents and link them to training and/or well-being programs.
“We want to reach them through media channels like TV, radio, print media and new media channels like web blogs, PodCasting, internet generally, chat and SMS,” he says.`’
I like this concept - new media has so much potential to be a life giving force to many and LearnDog seems to be one example of someone taking steps to test this theory.
Written on May 4th, 2005 at 12:05 pm by Darren Rowse
New Blogs on the Block
Let me introduce you to some new blogs - 5 of which have been added to the 9 Rules Network in the past 24 hours and 1 that is being developed by a good friend of mine - in fact the person who designed this blog.
Rachel Cunliffe is the author of Designer Blogs - a blog about blog design. Rachel is an experienced blog designer and has done a bit of work for me over the past couple of years. She is based in New Zealand and designs simple, clean and up to date looking blogs. Designer Blogs will feature critiques on blog design, award winning designs and ideas and tips on designing your blog. Knowing Rachel well I suspect this will be a quality blog and one to watch. There isn’t much in archives yet - but no doubt it will fill up quickly as Rachel is dedicated and hardworking blogger.
The 9 Rules Network has added five interesting blogs to their stable in the last day or so. As per usual - these are well designed blogs (most of them are by designers) with interesting content. Some were in existence previously, a couple are brand new (ish). At this stage the only thing that really links them together is the 9Rules logo and incoming links from the 9Rules blog and home page - oh and they almost all share another common feature - a common publisher code on their Adsense ads - going into a common pot I guess to be shared.
- Strange Brand - James Archer has been writing this blog on the topics of marketing, branding, advertising, PR, small business and the entrepreneurial spirit for a month now - each of his articles are spot on - he scratches right where I itch.
- Return of Design - Another blog by James that he’s been writing for a week now on the topic of Design.
- Kartooner - This is an older blog, written by Eric Sagen, that joins the network with a large archive of post on an array of topics. It is a personal blog with lots of depth and the ability to hold one’s interest.
- Mark Boulton - Yet another older blog already brimming with usefulness. Mark’s blog is on my daily reads via RSS and has a wonderful grasp on web design.
- Almost Cool - Peter Flaschner is another amazing web designer who writes about his craft in this very ‘cool’ blog. He’s been at it at Almost Cool since October of 2004 and his archives are well worth the search through.
So there are some new blogs to add to your News Aggregator - they’re all on mine now.
Written on May 4th, 2005 at 09:05 am by Darren Rowse
My Backpack
I’ve decided to test Backpack with their free service. My hope is that it will help me to be a little more organized in my blogging.
I’ve made my front home page public to show you a little of what it can do - I’ve not put anything special on the page so far, but you get the idea.
Of course there are other secret blogging business things lurking behind the scenes in the private areas (insert evil laugh here). Actually the only thing behind the scenes at the moment are a growing list of blog posts that I want to write on enternetusers in the next few days which I emailed to the list as I thought of them. But I can already think of a number of uses for my BackPack which could assist me in my blogging.
The free version has ads on the public pages and doesn’t allow image or file uploads. It also only allows limited numbers of Active reminders and pages - but it definitely gives a feel for the program. I’m really impressed by its simplicity, speed, smooth transitions and many potential applications.
A number of features I’d love to see incorporated would include:
- SMS alerts to my mobile carrier in Australia (Telstra)
- ability to email reminders
- ability to respond to ‘reminder’ emails from within the email. ie if at the bottom of each email it had a link to ’snooze’, ‘delete’, ‘edit’ etc. It does have one link to a page where all this can be done - but a one click option to delete would be cool (I’m lazy).
- public editing of pages (I wouldn’t want this on any page - but I’d love to be able to offer a couple of pages to readers of this blog to be able to edit. Even if there was a ‘register’ option where the public could apply to be a contributer.
- ability to change the look and feel of public pages
Of course these might be features I’ve just not yet found.
I’m particularly interested in how others are planning on using BackPack - especially in your blogging. Do you have any initial reactions on it that you’d like share?
Written on May 4th, 2005 at 05:05 am by Darren Rowse
Blogging - A Job that Never Ends
Driving across the Sydney Harbor Bridge on the way to the airport on a recent trip my taxi driver decided to give me a trivia lesson on the bridge. One of the statistics he recited was about painting the bridge - a job not for the feint hearted. It takes 80,000 litres (21,000 gallons) of grey paint and is an an endless task. As soon as they get to one end of the bridge they start again at the other.
Some days this is how I feel when it comes to blogging. There is an endless source of news, stories, tips and links to post on any given day. My goal each day is to clear my News Aggregator (Bloglines) of unread items. This is no easy task as I’m tracking 391 feeds in the search for quality content for my blogs. I do tend to scan more than I read word for word - however I like to do a pretty comprehensive job which takes time.
I get to the end of most days and have a similar feeling to the bridge painters in Sydney as I click the last ‘unread’ feed or folder - only to refresh the page and find more. A never ending task in a sense - but a satisfying feeling for that split second each day when its a fully read feed list.
A number of readers have expressed to me their frustration with this aspect of blogging - sometimes it can all seem rather overwhelming. I usually respond with some advice that my Dad used to give me when I felt overwhelmed by my studies:
One bite sized step at a time.
It sounds pretty basic advice - in fact it is - however my Dad is a wise man (despite his ignorance about blogging) and knows that a lot can be achieved if you break things down into achievable small tasks. In fact this advice is especially pertinent for bloggers as there are a number of bite sized steps you can take each day (or week - depending upon your schedule).
I recommend you set yourself some goals in some of the following areas:
• posting - whether its one post per week, day or even hour - a posting goal can help you be consistent with your posting. Make it an achievable number of posts per week - if you’re new to blogging start with 3 or 4 posts per week (per blog) - and as you get into the rhythm slowly increase your posting levels.
• sources - following other blogs, websites, newspapers, podcasts, magazines etc is an important part of most blogger’s work flows. News Aggregators are one way to help you achieve these goals.
• comments - its not all about you or your blog/s. One of the keys to successful blogging is interacting with others. One measurable way you can do this is by leaving comments on other blogs. Of course I’m talking here about genuine comments - spam comments are not the go.
• relationships - similarly I think its very important to build relationships with other bloggers. Whilst setting a target for how many other bloggers you want to email or chat with each day might be a bit artificial - I think its worth making an effort with this as such relationships can be very important to longevity in blogging.
• new blogs - whilst having more than blog is not for everyone - its an obvious way to grow your blogging income. If you want to grow via this method - set yourself a goal or deadline for when you want to launch your next blog and set out some achievable strategies for doing that.
Ok - perhaps I’ve just overwhelmed you all again with the vast array of goals that you need to set - but keep in mind that some of these goals might be less formal than others. Start out with a handful of achievable goals and build them as you’re able.
Lastly - don’t give up, inject a bit of fun into your blogging and don’t take it all too seriously.
Written on May 4th, 2005 at 03:05 am by Darren Rowse
Vespa Blogs
Steve Rubel announces that Vespa will start blogging later in the year at VespaBlogs.com. They write:
‘Why is Vespa launching blogs?
Piaggio USA feels blogs are an ideal way to connect with Vespa brand loyalists and encourage them to become online evangelists. It is an extension of the scooter clubs that have existed offline for years. One reason is that U.S. scooter buyers are heavy online users. According to internal Piaggio USA research, a full 65% of prospective motor scooter buyers visited the Vespa USA Web site, while 56% visited other sites when conducting research prior to purchase. Piaggio USA hopes that by hosting a transparent peer-to-peer discussion, it will enable more individuals to embrace scootering for a wide array of daily lifestyle needs. In addition, it will enable Piaggio USA to Actively listen to consumer feedback in real-time.’
This is a very smart move. Vespas are a lovemark (if you haven’t read this book can I recommend you grab a copy from your local bookstore) and the best way that you can tap into the love that owners of your products have for such a product is to provide a space for them to come together to talk, connection, obsess, rave, gush, dream, evangelize and be excited about your product. This is what might just happen with such a blog.
Another smart move in this campaign is that they won’t be paying bloggers to write on Vespablogs - rather the reward will be getting ‘an early look at Vespa products and services, passes to Vespa events as well as Vespa accessory merchandise and online/media exposure.‘
They are not looking for professional bloggers - rather they want obsessed Vespa lovers who will do it for the love of the machine. This will be an interesting blogging project to watch.
Written on May 4th, 2005 at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse
More on Blogging and Farming
Return Customer extends my post on Blogging as Farming and takes it in some interesting directions by looking at an article about small farms. Some of the quotes from the article are excellent and the comparisons to blogging are obvious:
‘One way farmers can draw customers is by growing a crop few others are selling locally….’
‘Small farms also have the ability to develop close ties to regular customers. Farmers should pay attention to what repeat customers are buying and why….’
‘Farmers markets offer a great venue for developing repeat customers … Farmers need to connect with customers and explain the benefits of fresh, locally grown produce to turn the novel experience of visiting the market into a weekly routine’
Read more at Cultivate Your Business and Customers
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 04:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Blogging and the cost of content - A paper by Trevor Cook
Trevor Cook has just had his paper for the upcoming Blogtalk Downunder conference published on the conference website. I’ve only just started to read and digest it (I’m generally not too goo at reading long papers at this time of the day (I’m better at siestas to be honest) but what I’ve read so far is well worth the read. It’s titled Up Against Reality: Blogging and the cost of content and it covers themes of bloggers as journalists, corporate blogging and blogging and advertising - all themes that enternetuserss need to get their heads around.
Reading his paper makes me want to go to Blogtalk Downunder even more - I’m just not sure I can afford the accumulation of conference fees, airfares and hotel costs all on top of a brand new mortgage - cash flow isn’t great.
Are any of my fellow Australian bloggers out there going? Help me decide if I should head up to Sydney for it.
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 03:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Backpack from 37 Signals
37 Signals is launching their latest project - Backpack on Tuesday. Whilst the main site doesn’t seem to have gone live yet a number of previews of this new program have been written which you should check out. I been given a bit of an inside look at it by three readers of enternetusers in the past 24 hours and I must say that I’m really impressed by it and am looking forward to trying it out for myself.
In short Backpack is a web based way of organizing your information that lets you organize it as you like. It lets you keep some private and allows you to share other bits of it. You can access it via email or via the web. It has blog-like characteristics but also reminds me of a wiki - dynamic stuff, yet simple.
I won’t explain it as well the people behind it so check out this Backpack Preview for the inside word. As I say - I don’t yet have my own Backpack but from what I’ve snuck a look at through others free tries it looks pretty nice.
Also check out business logs mini preview of BackPack.
Update: Backpack is now live.
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 03:05 pm by Darren Rowse
The Power of the Passive Link
Eric Ward at Search Engine Guide writes about the power of the passive inbound link. In short - a passive link is a link you don’t buy, ask for or trade links for. His premise is that passive links are a more powerful type of link than others - especially reciprocal ones. Search Engines treat such links as a vote for the authority of your site.
This is one of the strengths of blogging - write something original, clever, witty, powerful, touching, insightful, controversial (linkable) and the links tend to come in. Whilst you can spend all your time emailing people and asking for links with the offer of linking to others, the best strategy for getting passive links is simply to run a quality blog.
If you want an example of this principle currently in progress check out what happens when you land a big story - like the Engadget interview with Bill Gates today. I must have seen at least 15 links to it in the past hour and technorati reveals more.
Written on May 3rd, 2005 at 03:05 pm by Darren Rowse
Adsense - Not for Everyone
Stephen Baker from the new Blogspotting blog has an example of why some blogs are probably not suitable for using contextual ads on them. He refers to a religious blog that he saw an ad for ’sexy black singles’. Not that there is anything wrong with sexy black singles being advertised on a religious blog…. But perhaps not the most relevant of ads.
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