Written on December 28th, 2004 at 05:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Slacker Manager pitches idea on Blogging for Charity
Slacker Manager has pitched an interesting not for profit idea to the Blogosphere with his post ‘Help me lasso the Long Tail for charity‘. He’s certainly mentioned some great names in this call for help - if he managed to get that sort of team on board Localism could really go places. It’ll be a project worth watching. Here’s part of his pitch:
‘The basic idea behind Localism is the same as with Gawker and Weblogs Inc, but the primary organizational difference is that Localism will organize blogs across two dimensions–geographic location and topic. So you’d find blogs about snowboarding in Canada, in the PNW, and in the alps. Blogs about mountain biking in Hawai’i, Northern California and Vermont. Blogs about surfing in Oregon and blogs about surfing in Asia. Blogs about art in NYC and art in London. Blogs about professional sports teams, since they’re so closely tied to location. You get the idea–place and topic.
Like Gawker and Weblogsinc, Localism will derive its revenue through advertising. Because Localism is non-profit, ad placement purchases will be tax-deductible. Unlike Gawker and Weblogsinc, Localism won’t take the majority of revenue. I’m envisioning a revenue split along these lines: 10% to Localism to cover overhead; 40% to the blogger; 50% to a designated charity. The blogger definitely needs to be paid, but I’m still not sure what the best strategy is…percentage of ad revenue, or flat fee.’
Written on December 28th, 2004 at 04:12 pm by Darren Rowse
enternetusers earns in excess of $5000 a month
Fortune has a fantastic article on Google that features enternetusers Jon Gales from Mobile Tracker (a blog about cell phones) which is a fantastic example of a blog which is being used very effectively to earn its owner/editor a decent income. Jon has recently redesigned his blog, taking it to the next level in terms of professionalism. As the article says - the major income stream for Mobile Tracker is Adsense but runs some private banner/affiliate ads also. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
‘Jon Gales loves Google, but not for the reason you might think. It’s a terrific search engine, sure, but what Gales really likes is that Google is making him money. Gales’s website, Mobiletracker.net, is a compendium of news and reviews about cellphones that after a year and a half attracts about 200,000 users a month. Google supplies the ads for the site, visitors click on the ads, and because of the site’s popularity, Google sends Gales monthly checks of $5,000 or more. That’s a decent chunk of change for any sole proprietor. But for Gales, the numbers are eye-popping. He’s only 19 and lives expense-free at home with his parents in Tampa, posting four or five items in the course of the day while parked on the living room couch with his laptop. Says Gales: “If things keep going the way they are going, I’ll be making more money than my dad next year.”’
Written on December 28th, 2004 at 04:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
Is anyone else really hanging out to get their hands on a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book Blink?
I’ve had my copy on order for a month or so now and can’t wait til the postman brings it. Malcolm’s last book, The Tipping Point, was really worthwhile and so relevant to blogging. It was one of the books that really got me thinking about Problogging (whilst never mentioning it).
Blink is a book about ‘rapid cognition’ - huh? Well on its ‘about page‘ Malcolm explains:
‘When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, “Blink” is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good….
What is going on in inside our heads when we engage in rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better?’
This sounds like a fascinating book - and as a enternetusers I’m very interested to get my hands on it because I’ve long believed that the first few seconds that a new reader arrives on your blog are incredibly crucial in whether they’ll stay, read on and become loyal readers. In fact my very first blog tips (on my other blog) were related to this topic. I did a little study into how long people stay on blogs and found that the average length of stay on a blog was 96 seconds. 96 seconds isn’t long - but its long enough to make an impression that lasts a lifetime.
Anyway - can’t wait to read ‘Blink‘ - its supposed to be released on 11 January!
Written on December 28th, 2004 at 02:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Customize your Error 404 Page for Retaining Readership
SEO Chat has a good article on making your 404 error pages work for you to create increased traffic. Using these methods you can not only retain visitors to your site that have strayed out of your working pages but can also direct them into the areas of your site that you’d like them to head to.
‘Why do you need a 404 custom page? Well, what happens when someone requests a page on your site that does not exist? Have you ever noticed that some sites give you a very nice looking page when you mistype a URL, instead of that nasty 404 File Not Found? It is easy to create a 404 custom page in IIS and Apache.’
This is a technique I’m keen to explore in the new year - let us know in comment below how and if you’ve used these sorts of techniques.
Written on December 27th, 2004 at 05:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Copyright and Blogs - 14 Guidelines
Copyright issues are becoming more and more important for bloggers as blogging is a medium where by it is so easy to borrow, steal, copy or duplicate another person’s content. I’ve blogged on numerous occasions about breaches of copyright that I’ve been on the end of.
So when I saw About.com had published 14 Copyright Tips for Bloggers my ears pricked up a little.
It is pretty basic stuff - but unfortunately ‘the basics’ are being ignored time and time again. The tips include guidelines for not infringing copyright but also tips on dealing with your own copyright being breeched. I’ll leave you with tip 14 from their list….
‘Don’t be overly scared by copyright. Most people do not experience copyright infringement allegations or problems, unless they are putting lots and lots of movies or MP3s on their website. Basic common sense will mostly be sufficient to avoid problems: Don’t copy too much and only copy where it is ‘fair’ - where you’re not competing with the owner’s market.’
Read more at 14 Copyright Tips for Bloggers
Written on December 27th, 2004 at 05:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Should bloggers post a blog disclosure statement? - Survey
Jason Calacanis is conducting a Survey about disclosure statements on blogs and asks:
- ‘Should bloggers post a blog disclosure statement?’
- ‘Should bloggers accept money to blog about a product without disclosing it? (like Buzz Agents)’
- ‘Should bloggers accept money to blog about a product if they disclose they are being paid? (like that Canadian company Marc Canter works for)’
- ‘Would you feel more comfortable reading a blog that had an icon showing they subscribed to a blog ethics standard that said they would not mix editorial and advertising?’
Good questions which hopefully more than the 10 of us who have already answered will consider.
PS - Disclosure - Jason Calacanis is not paying me for this link up.
Written on December 25th, 2004 at 11:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Small Businesses and Blogs
T.L. Pakii Pierce has a good post on Small Businesses and Blogging:
‘Blogs are your tools to creating this type of customer connection through content. You will build relationships that are founded on a great level of trust as you become the authority and source of information on your topic. Blogs promote repeat visits through relevant and frequent updates. You audience will want the latest information from you and the fact that you publish regularly is reason to return. If your content is of high value then your audience will keep returning. Your audience chooses to have relationship with you and your business time and again as they come back to you for solutions to help solve their problems….’
Written on December 25th, 2004 at 08:12 am by Darren Rowse
Christmas Greetings from enternetusers
Well we’re a little ahead of the rest of the world here in Australia so Christmas has already come. Its shaping up to be a nice warm day with a BBQ/Roast lunch ahead and maybe even a swim in the pool (I know that seems all wrong for you northern hemisphere types - but its the way we do things down here).
So let me take a chance to wish you and your families a very happy Christmas.
I also want to thank the many enternetuserss who have been traveling the journey with me over the past couple of months here at enternetusers. Its been nice to get to know many of you better and I’m looking forward to working with more of you in the new year.
I’ve got loads of ideas for enternetusers and am looking forward to sharing more of them in the months ahead.
So have a great Christmas and we’ll get back to the problogging stuff shortly!
Written on December 22nd, 2004 at 06:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Online Advertising to Grow 30 Percent in 2005
ClickZ has another good article with a prediction about Online Advertising that should warm the hearts of enternetuserss everywhere.
‘Online advertising will grow by 30 percent next year from $7.8 billion in 2004 to $10.2 billion in 2005, a rate reminiscent of the late nineties when the medium was in its infancy, according to the Jack Myers 2005 Spending Forecast.
In contrast, Myers projects that overall advertising will grow at a more modest 4.8 percent from $181.5 billion in 2004 to $190.2 billion in 2005.
“Most offline advertising has reached a state of what I would call parity, where the major players are all spending roughly the same amount as their competitors,” Myers said. “Online is seen as the place to seek for a competitive advantage for a comparatively low amount of spending.”’
Read more at Myers: Online Advertising to Grow 30 Percent in ‘05
Written on December 22nd, 2004 at 06:12 pm by Darren Rowse
Moveable Type announce Upgrade to combat Comment Spam
Six Apart have just announced the release of Movable Type 3.14 which they have developed to fix ‘the issue of extreme loads witnessed on servers under the strain of a massive spam attack.
Its a free upgrade for all MT3 users.
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