Written on October 5th, 2007 at 04:10 pm by David Shawver
How Old Are You? POLL
Time for this week’s poll. This week I’m asking a pretty basic demographic question:
How Old Are You?
I’m asking this because I’ve heard a number of people recently speak about blogging as a young person’s thing - however in talking to many enternetusers readers I’ve found that the age range is quite broad.
How spread are the ages of enternetusers readers? We’ll soon find out.
If you’re reading this in RSS you’ll need to come on over and vote here.
Looking forward to seeing the results on this one!
Written on October 5th, 2007 at 12:10 pm by David Shawver
How to Know When A Post from Your Blog is Submitted to Digg
Amit has a great tip to help you keep on top of whether a post from your blog might have been submitted by one of your readers on Digg.
It basically entails searching for your URL on Digg and then subscribing to the RSS feed of that search. Sometimes it’s the simplest tips that are the best ones.
Why would you want to know if your post has been submitted? Well for starters it’s interesting to know what your readers think is Diggable - but it can also help you to give the Digging a little extra help by adding a digg button or link to the Digg page in question so that your readers can give it a kick along.
Written on October 5th, 2007 at 02:10 am by Lara Kulpa
Another 24 hour giveaway - Where are the poets?
Calling all wannabe (or professional) poets!!
This one closes out at noon (EST - New York, USA) on Friday, October 5.
Prizes at stake:
- iPod Nano (8GB) - Back in Skinny Jeans - won by Deb - Mom of 3 Girls
- iPod Touch (8GB) - Help Desk Geek - won by Tanner Christensen -
- iPod Shuffle (1GB) - I Hate Bad Service - won by Federico Bertolini
- iPod Nano (8GB) - It’s Write Now - won by Mike
- iPod Extreme Makeover (new LCD, front plate, rear plate & battery for iPod Nano or Video) - iPod Repair of Memphis - won by Kabitzin
How to Enter:
It’s “Ode to enternetusers” time! All you have to do to have a qualifying entry to win one of the above 5 prizes is to leave a comment below with a poem about enternetusers. It doesn’t have to be a “love poem” or written in any particular style (though yes, rhyming would be nice). You don’t have to link to anything or write anything on your own blog - you simply have to write a poem about enternetusers the website or Darren, the man behind the site, right there in the comments section (of course if you really want to share your Ode with your readers you can post it on your blog - but we’d also ask you to share it here in comments so we’ve got them all in the one place).
Please include the word enternetusers or Darren in your Ode to help us catch all of these comments in Akismet.
There will be no judging, so please feel free to write BAD poetry!
The random number generator will choose 5 winners who will be notified by email.
Here comes the rub: If you have already won something, we’re sorry but you’re not eligible. If you win one of the iPods, you will then not be eligible to win anything else. Entering is not a guarantee of winning anything, and this whole thing is just for fun so if you think you’re a bad poet, write something anyway that somewhat resembles poetry. We seriously don’t care if it’s good or not!
Check out the full prize list (now updated to show which prizes have already been awarded or are in progress!) and if you’re not subscribed to the RSS feed by now, you’ve likely missed your chances to win a whole bunch of cool stuff already!
PS: If you’re looking for a little ‘inspiration’ - here’s an Ode that ProPoet Robert Bruce did for enternetusers a while back:
Sorry, had to remove the video because it was acting all wonky… if you like, you can view it here.
Update
This giveaway is closed, and all winners have been selected and notified. Thanks for all the really fantastic stuff (yes, even the “bad” stuff) - You all amazed both Darren and myself with your creativity!
Written on October 5th, 2007 at 12:10 am by David Shawver
Make a Donation to Lit Liberation
Here’s a quick shout out for a charity project that I’ve been supporting lately. Along with a number of other bloggers we’re trying to raise money for public education projects via LitLiberation.
It’s also a bit of a competition between those participating - we’re up against the communities of other blogs - but already the enternetusers reader community has donated over $1000 and impacted the lives of over 60 students.
To donate head over to the DonorsChoose.org: enternetusers page - we need another $8796 in donations to reach our $10,000 goal!
Ultimately I don’t care if you do it via the enternetusers page or another blogs - I just hope that as bloggers we’re able to give a little something back and make a difference.
Written on October 4th, 2007 at 05:10 pm by David Shawver
Speedlinking - 4 October 2007
Here’s a few links that caught my attention over the last few days:
- I wrote a number of months ago about getting unconfirmed subscribers to your RSS feed to confirm their subscription - Techie Buzz has developed a plugin to help you do this.
- ReadWriteWeb profiles 10 Chat Widgets that you might want to consider adding to your blog if you’re looking to add live chat as a feature for readers.
- SEOmoz shares 5 reasons why it’s better to be Big and Popular than Small and Niche
- BlogHerald shares 12 Ways to Make Better Use of Your Footer - more and more blogs are using this space not only to add stuff that they don’t want to show readers - but as a key area. Seems bizarre that someone at the bottom and out of sight would convert - but strangely I’ve found that it’s actually a hot area - I guess people scroll after all!
- Over at b5media we just relaunched our Sports Channel with a competition with some pretty cool prizes - good luck!
- Life Training Online shares The 7 Habits of Highly Defective Bloggers.
- Success from the Nest has decided to ditch the Top Commenters plugin and start highlighting Top Contributers - great call!
- Ben Cook has generated some great discussion on his post - Be Careful What you Promote? It explores some of the issues around making recommendations on a blog - particularly of new untested products. I left a couple of long comments on it and value it as a discussion. It’s not only relevant to the ‘make money blogging’ type blogger but all who use affiliate links.
- Michel Fortin shares 7 Deadly Sins of Website Copy - some of which are relevant for bloggers
Written on October 4th, 2007 at 09:10 am by David Shawver
WidgetBucks Update on Reporting Delays
Earlier in the week the WidgetBucks launched (read our first impression review here) with a fair bit of fanfare around the blogosphere.
Since it was announced I’ve had a number of readers ask me why they are not seeing any income in their reports despite there being clicks on the ads (it is a pay per click ad system). I shot WidgetBucks an email on this and the response was as I’d expected - they have an auditing process in place that means there is a 48-72 hour delay in seeing the actual income figure reported.
Why does it take so long? - The reason given is that it takes time to get reports back from their advertisers.
This is the same problem that most similar advertising programs have in one way or another. Chitika only updates all figures once every 24 hours and then audits them at the end of a month (reducing the earnings), AuctionAds have a delayed system too (where you see clicks on ads immediately but it can be days to see what you’ve earned on a given day as a result of it being based upon Auctions that happen over time).
As a blogger I find this frustrating. We’ve become used to systems like AdSense which show us not only impressions and clicks very quickly after they happen - but also the income earned. Of course AdSense is run by Google who have some serious resources to throw at the problem.
As someone who has talked with a lot of these advertising networks personally I also understand the challenge that they have. They need to balance the needs with publishers and the relationships that they have with advertisers (and the systems that the advertisers need to work with). After all - if the advertisers don’t get looked after then the whole system falls down.
I’m not sure what the solution is - but hopefully WidgetBucks can shorten the waiting time in conjunction with their advertising partners - or develop a predictive system that gives publishers an indication of how much they’ve earned to speed up the process. Otherwise I suspect that some publishers will become frustrated with it and give up.
How is WidgetBucks Performing?
I’ve been testing WidgetBucks on one of my blogs and while I’m yet to see any earnings reports I’m pleased to see that their CTR is very similar than other ads in the same position. I’ve rotated it through a split test with Chitika and AdSense in the same position and see both Chitika and WidgetBucks outperforming AdSense on a CTR basis in that position. The real test will be to compare earnings figures. I suspect these results will vary considerably from blog to blog and even based upon ad positioning.
Written on October 4th, 2007 at 05:10 am by David Shawver
Google’s Speedy Indexing of Blogs
Just minutes after my post about WidgetBucks went live it was indexed by Google. Readers reported seeing it ranked #1 for ‘widgetbucks’ just a few minutes after the post went up. I checked after 20 minutes and saw this - note the time reference ‘23 minutes ago’.
Lara noticed the same thing during the first prize giveaway yesterday on enternetusers. That post ranked highly in Google within minutes of being posted.
I’m not sure how wide spread it is, but I’ve tested it with 10 or so other well known blogs and see the same thing and have heard a few bloggers reporting similar things in the past few days.
It looks like Google could be using Google Blog Search results in their main search queries to give Google users a more up to date search result - something that puts bloggers at a distinct advantage over other kinds of more static sites.
Written on October 4th, 2007 at 02:10 am by Lara Kulpa
24 hour giveaway - Blogging tips get 24 prizes!
This giveaway will run from noon Wednesday to noon Thursday (EST - New York, USA).
We’ve got a really great list of business/blogging related stuff to give away, and since we just love really great “blogging tips”, we thought it would be great to combine the two into one related giveaway!
First, the prizes up for grabs:
- New blog installation & customized template package - Angela Wills
- Media Interview Training - Author Media Training
- blog analysis + 125×125 ad - Blog About Your Blog
- one hour blog consulting - Blog Louder
- 400 word review of your site & feedhost PRO (1 yr) token - Blogging Fingers
- design and color analysis - office design - Color Themes
- Complete Blog Contest development package - Contest Blogger
- blog header design - Cory Miller
- custom logo design - David Airey
- How to make PR work online ebook - distilled: pure website expertise
- ebook, book for entrepreneurs, and press release & dist. on PRweb.com - Egg Marketing Blog
- 3 domain names from namecheap.com - Groovy Vegetarian
- custom logo design - Holiday for Every Day
- 10 articles of 500 words each custom-written to the winner’s specifications - JCM Enterprises
- 2 entrepreneurial books by Kirsty -Kirsty Dunphey - speaker, author, entrepreneur, retired at 27
- premium design/dev WordPress package - Nathan Rice
- Home Office Virtual Organization Package - Organize & Simplify
- Organized Outcomes Remote Stylist Prize Pack - Organized Outcomes
- custom WordPress theme - Milo
- linkbait boot camp - Remarkable Communication
- Internet Radio directory and mp3 -Street Smart Marketing
- 30-45 second theme song for use in a blog site or website - Tamra Engle
- Pro voice production package (theme, voice, music) for use on a site or in video blogs- Tim “Gonzo” Gordon
- 5 hours writing/editing services - Zach Everson
Yes, you counted right - there are 24 great prizes available for this giveaway! All of which are suited toward entrepreneurs, professional bloggers, and anyone who has a website of some kind!
How to enter:
All you need to do in order to win one of the great prizes above is to write a brand new (sorry, no archives allowed) post on your site that gives blogging tips. You may feel free to adapt it to the topic and style of your blog in any way you see fit, as long as it’s some kind of “tip” about “blogging”.
Some examples:
Are you a “mommy blogger”? Write a post tip about how to Actively blog and deal with the bubblegum in your child’s hair at the same time.
Are you a “travel blogger”? Write a post tip about what someone traveling abroad might need to bring with them in order to”keep up the flow” of their writing/posting while away.
Are you a “foodie blogger”? Write a post tip about the best snacks to have at your desk for maximum food-to-brain flavor and power.
See? You don’t have to have a blog about blogging in order to enter! ;)
When you’re done, put the link to your entry in the comments below. Feel free to suggest what prize you’d most be interested in, and if the random generator chooses you, we’ll do our best to get you either that prize or one of the ones close to it. There’s no guarantee you’ll get the one you ask for - but we will do our best.
If you want your readers to know that you’re participating in this then please do feel free to link up so they can participate too - but it is NOT a requirement to link back to enternetusers in any way.
Remember, this activity closes at noon on Thursday (EST) so get writing!
Notes: One entry per person (NOT per blog), and if you are chosen to win one of the above prizes, you will not be chosen to win anything else for the duration of the giveaway week.
These prizes not your cup of tea? Check out the other great prizes up for grabs during the giveaway!
Make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date on what’s going on!
Update!
All winners and sponsors have been notified by email! Go check your inboxes for an email titled “enternetusers Winner!” (Make sure you check your spam boxes too, just in case.)
If you haven’t heard from me, please feel free to continue entering the giveaways!
Written on October 3rd, 2007 at 10:10 pm by Lara Kulpa
Win two 20″ LG USB monitors from DisplayLink in the Birthday Bash Giveaway!
This one’s going to be open until 8am (EST) Friday, so you have PLENTY of time to enter, and it’s easy!
Prize Description:
Be one of the FIRST consumers to own not one, but TWO 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitors provided by DisplayLink!
These LG monitors are one of the first USB monitors out in the market powered by DisplayLink technology. DisplayLink believes professional bloggers and web users would really appreciate the ease and convenience of lots of screen real estate so you can spread yourself out and accomplish more and enjoy more. Because these LG monitors use USB, you simply plug the monitors into your laptop or desktop, and start blogging away!
How To Enter:
This one’s super simple… Spread the word about our little birthday celebration and just write up a post about the enternetusers Birthday Bash and link to it. Then, come back to THIS post, and leave a comment below with the link to your blog post about the Birthday Bash, and after that link, the word “DisplayLink” (yes, it’s case sensitive, and once again is to help us choose qualifying entries as well as to help us get the valid comments out of Akismet easier).
Example comment:
http://www.yoursite.com/archives/the-post-you-wrote/
DisplayLink
And for those of you who have already linked to the competition, simply place the link where you did it in comments below THIS post like outlined above and you still qualify!
Hopefully this competition will generate a little buzz and add a little value to our sponsors by bringing attention to the competition. Don’t worry - it’s the only giveaway that we’ll ask for a link back to enternetusers - the rest will be different.
We will once again close off comments and choose one winner at random on Friday at 8am (EST). Winner will be notified by email, and will receive their monitors in 4-6 weeks.
Please note: If you enter for this prize and are chosen as the winner, you will not be eligible to enter for any future giveaways throughout the end of the Birthday Bash (with the exception of the final giveaway on Monday that everyone will be eligible for), so please make sure that you’re either willing to risk missing out on something else or that this was “the big one” you’ve been waiting for (keep in mind that over 700 people entered the first giveaway - so you’re not guaranteed of winning anything - it might be best to enter everything you have some interest in winning). You can always enter on the other posts between now and Friday morning, however if you are chosen for one, you will not be chosen for this one or any others.
Check out the full prize list and our previous giveaways thus far, here, here, and here.
And remember to subscribe to the RSS feed if you haven’t already! Coming this Friday will be several posts that are very time sensitive!
Update
We’ve closed off new entries and the winner of the monitors is Vincent Sparreboom!
Written on October 3rd, 2007 at 10:10 am by Lara Kulpa
Today’s third (and final for today) giveaway in the enternetusers Birthday Bash!
Alright - this is today’s final giveaway, but don’t despair! We’ve got something super special in store for tomorrow morning that’s going to carry us through until Friday morning (”morning” = 8am EST), and we’re expecting even MORE response on that one than our first and second giveaways today!
Okay, enough chatter, on with the giving!
Mederma for Scars has graciously donated 25 tubes of the new and improved Mederma scar treatment to the first 25 people who send an email to [email removed - they have reached 25 winners!] with the subject line “enternetusers Birthday Bash - Mederma for Scars” (Remember the first giveaway today when it comes to “case” of letters? Make sure you are paying attention here!) and include your full name and complete mailing address.
I will be updating this post once I’ve been notified that all 25 winners have been collected, so please don’t email a submission once I’ve done that.
In answer to some questions I received about who can enter and further rules about eligibility: Please keep in mind that the winners of today’s first and third prizes will not be eligible for any other prizes during the duration of the giveaway, and it’s going to be like that for the entire event, so if you’re not really interested in a particular prize, it’s probably best not to enter for it. The reason we do this is to give the greatest number of individuals a chance to win something. By all means, if you’re interested in more than one prize, enter for more than one, but know that if you win anything, that will be the only item you win.
There are two exceptions, and one of those is the SeekZap prize we gave away earlier today, the other will happen at the end of the giveaway and we will let you know specifically in that post that even if you’ve already won something, as long as you’re eligible for the prize, you may apply for it.
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