Written on January 11th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:01 am by Darren Rowse
Photocasting
Kevin Rose is predicting (or seems to have some inside word) that Steve Jobs will announce Photocasting (via iPhoto) in his keynote address in a few hours.
Photocasting - interesting. Note sure how that differs from the Flickr plugins for iPhoto - but time will tell.
Written on January 10th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Help me choose a domain name
As part of a competition I featured in the top 10 of a couple of months ago I’ve won 12 months free hosting and a domain name from an Aussie hosting company. I’ve been pondering what to do with it and while I have ideas on the type of blog I want to run I’m struggling for a domain name.
So I thought I’d run a mini competition. Submit the domain name that I choose and I’ll send your $100 (USD) via PayPal (or a $100US gift voucher at Amazon.com).
Now before you start submitting domains names on any topic here are a few guidelines:
- The domain name must currently be available (not for sale etc) - so check their availability (you can do this here)
- I’d prefer a.com name
- Submit your ideas via this contact form (I’ll not do this in comments because no sooner will you submit your ideas than others will start up blogs on them - comments have been turned off on this post).
In terms of topic - here’s the brief (and a warning that it’s vague at this point):
I want to the blog to be written in a similar tone to enternetusers but to have broader appeal. It won’t be targeted towards bloggers but towards…. well humans. It won’t be helping them earn money…. but is more about helping people get the most from life in a broad range of topics. It will include tips, inspiration, story and discussion. It’ll probably have a slight technical/web bent, but will be broader than that and will tackle emotional, spiritual and relational posts. It might even have a bit of a ‘dad’ focus. Blogs that it might link to and be positioned near might include:
- Life Hacker
- Steve Pavlina
- 43Folders
- Slacker Manger
- Make
It won’t be a clone of these however and will develop it’s own voice on a variety of topics.
Ok - having just bared my soul and at the risk of 5000 blogs starting up on the same topic - I’d love to hear your ideas for domain names.
The prize - $100 USD and I’ll throw in a few links here at enternetusers announcing you as the winner and on the new blog giving you credit for the name. Entries close on Thursday 12th - Midday Melbourne time and will be announced next week once I’ve made my selection.
update: WOW! After just 8 hours 34 people have submitted domains (and North America where most of my readership is has been asleep most of that time). Some people have submitted 10 or so URLs each and have put considerable time. Let me thank you all in advance. Some of the ideas are amazing and I can see this will be a difficult choice. There may just be more than one blog emerge out of all this (more than one $100 prize if that is the case).
Update: Times up friends. You can Stop sending entries.
Thank you for your participation. I’m quite overwhelmed by the numbers of those submitting ideas. While I’m not going to list all the domains submitted (some of those who submitted them said that they’d register them if I don’t) I will say that there were 81 email submissions (a few people sent more than one). Those 81 emails included over 260 URLs for me to consider.
As a result it’s going to take me a little while to sort through them all and make a decision. It’s especially tough as such a large number of them are really great suggestions. At a glance I could go with at least 20 or 30 of them.
Some people sent up to 15 or so suggestions and obviously put a significant amount of time into searching so I want to give this some due consideration and am going to take the list away with me this weekend (we’re doing a mini road trip to yet another wedding I’m conducting) to ponder. I’ll try to make an announcement sometime next week.
Written on January 10th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 05:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Business Blog Resource
Andy Wibbels and Peter Flaschner are two bloggers that I respect and enjoy the company of and so when they announced they were putting their heads together to create a course called Business Blog Basics (aff) I took notice.
The course runs over the next three Wednesday evenings (7:30 PM Eastern -US). It costs $77 US - not bad for three hours of solid teaching.
It’s for businesses and business people wanting to explore the basics of blogging and how it might apply to their particular situation. By the looks of things it’s not really for established business bloggers but those looking to get into it. Here’s what they say it covers:
* What blogs are and how they work.
* How blogs make money for businesses.
* The different writing styles in creating blog entries.
* Examples of what other companies are doing with blogs.
* How to choose the right blog approach for your budget and needs.
Having worked with Andy previously I can highly recommend him as a great teacher and experienced blogger. Peter is one of the most talented blog designers I’ve come across in a long time and has built a business around his own blogging.
Written on January 10th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 09:01 am by Darren Rowse
enternetusers FAQ
One of the things I realized on coming back from my latest break and working through the thousands of emails is that I get asked a lot of questions. I enjoy this interaction with readers but 80% of the time find myself answering the same sorts of questions.
As a result I’ve begun to develop a enternetusers FAQ.
At this point the questions revolved largely around the questions I was asked over the past two weeks on multiple occasions. They focus less upon general questions about blogging and more on the questions I get asked about enternetusers and my own blogging activities. I’ll add to them as I am asked more questions over time.
Written on January 10th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 02:01 am by Darren Rowse
Guidelines for Teen Pro Bloggers
I’ve had a growing number of emails from teenagers in the last couple of months - all asking about how they can get into blogging for an income.
In a general sense I think blogging can be brilliant for teens (and even children) for a number of reasons as I’ll explain below, I also recommend to those that email me that they should proceed with a little caution as well.
Blogging is something that all ages can engage in (young and old). Many teens do it on a personal level (not for profit) and increasingly schools are using blogs in their curriculums as part of their assessment methods. Recent studies showed that 1 in 5 teens had blogs - whether you think it’s a good idea or not for teens (and some people do argue strongly against it) the fact is that they are doing it and perhaps rather than fighting against we should attempt to build awareness about how they can do it more safely and responsibly.
Teen enternetuserss
Over the last year I’ve seen a number of teenagers (and even one or two younger than that) doing blogging with a more professional intent.
There are some really great things about this. Here are a couple that come to mind:
Pocket Money (and more) - when I was 16 I worked in a supermarket stacking shelves (I referred to myself as a ’shelf technician’). While it was nice to have some extra money in my pocket I would have loved to earn the same sort of money while surfing the web (if there had been a ‘web’ back then - gee I’m old). I know of a few teens who are making pocket money levels of income from blogging and think this will become more common. Of course just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can only earn small amounts of money from blogging. The cool thing about the web is that it has the ability to even things out for people on many fronts including that of age. I know of a couple of teens who actually make VERY good money from blogging. It’s taken them time to build up - but they’ll graduate high school with money to go to college (and more) from their micro businesses.
Skills - I love how Napoleon Dynamite (classic movie) was always on about ’skills’. One of the best things about blogging for an income (and blogging in general) is that it helps the blogger develop an array of skills that can be applied in many areas of their life. While Napoleon was into bow hunting, computer hacking and nun-chucking skills etc I think young people can learn a lot from blogging in a variety of areas including:
- Technical - Coding skills, web design skills, graphic design skills etc
- Communication - Writing skills, public speaking skills (if you get into podcasting)
- Business - Accounting skills, Marketing skills, PR skills
- Relational - Networking skills
The list could probably go on.
Proceed with Caution - While blogging for an income can obviously be a good thing for teens for some of the above reasons the responsible (almost) parent in me wants to also stress that teens need to be a little careful with it also. I’m not wanting to be a downer here but while the web can be a fun place that is full of opportunity it’s worth remembering that as with any business there are risks and responsibilities that people need to manage. Here’s a few things to consider:
- Security - I’m sure most teens get lectured about this from teachers/parents etc - but the web is a place to be careful so you don’t want to be revealing too much about yourself personally on it. Even as an adult I’m really careful about revealing too many personal details.
- Legal Implications - Every Business has to be aware of the laws around it - blogging is no different. Communicating in a public setting means you have to be careful about what you say about others (laws of defamation and privacy etc) and the content you have (copyright etc). Also depending upon where you live if you’re earning money from any source you need to think about tax etc. I would strongly recommend that any teen getting into blogging has a parent or guardian help them think through this type of stuff. While there are real opportunities you need to be careful. Blogging could give you a real head start in some of the ways mentioned above, but if you don’t do it legally it could put you behind others too! One quick anecdote - I’ve had content stolen from one of my blogs recently - it turned out to be a 16 year old blogging for money who didn’t understand copyright - luckily for him I’m not the suing type and was willing to talk him through it.
- Addiction - that might be a little too strong a word - but blogging can become something of an addiction for some. Perhaps a more helpful word would be ‘distraction’. Teen bloggers (and bloggers of all ages) need to keep balance in their lives. Homework, social life, family time, exercise etc all can suffer if a blogger becomes obsessed.
- A Blog is not Just for Christmas - The annual campaign has started to find lost dogs homes after many families who got dogs for Christmas realize the effort that it takes to keep them have abandoned them. Blogs are not just a short term thing either. For one it takes a long time to build one up to an income earning level - but secondly bloggers need to remember that what you write on your blog will be available for people to read online for a lifetime. There are implications of this. Even if you delete your blog there are cached copies of it in web archives that people can find and use against you later on. Things you write in anger or gossip today can come back to haunt you later in your life. Many Teen blogs are renowned for their edginess - what worries me about this are the long term implications of blogging for teens.
- Over 18 Requirements of some Ad Networks - Ad networks like AdSense (and Most others that I can think of) require that their publishers be over 18. This means you either have to lie about your age (I’d not recommend this) or that you get a guardian to sign up for you. I’d recommend the second of these two routes.
As a result of this - I’d strongly recommend that anyone under 18 who wants to get into blogging consider doing so with a supervisor/guardian watching over what they do. This is not to stop you having fun - but it’s more about keeping you safe and helping you to develop a business that is legal and responsible. I’d also recommend that teen bloggers (and ALL bloggers) consider developing boundaries about what they will and won’t blog about.
I’ve seen a number of stories in the past 12 months about teen bloggers who’ve gotten in real trouble from blogging about anything and everything. This has lead to stalking, suspensions and expulsions from schools, broken relationships with family and friends etc. Teens should enjoy blogs and use them (even to make money) if they wish - but keep in side that they are not just a toy and have some serious implications.
Written on January 9th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 11:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Holiday Link Dump
I’ve spent time today attempting to catch up on unread email and RSS feeds from my two weeks of holidays (it’s going to take some time). In an attempt to catch up a little, here are some of the things I missed while away from the RSS feed:
- The Sixth Annual Weblog Awards - the Bloggies - are on. Head over and nominate your favorite blogs.
- 5 Reasons Why Blogging is Good For a Writer – 1 Reason Why It May Not Be
- 5 Reasons Why Starting a Digital Camera Blog Is A Stupid Idea - Why one blogger decided a digital camera blog is not for him
- Title Tag Enticements - Stephan Spencer on How to maximize CTR using Titles
- 9Rules Communities - Scrivs announced this new feature their blogs are categorized and clustered. This is partly for readers to find relevant information but is also a big part of their upcoming Advertising Network.
- I’m Interesting - But not as interesting as Rupert Mudoch - damn!
- Launch a New Blog the Easy Way - Chris (the author at Performancing that I always find myself linking to) writes a helpful post on launching blogs
- Make A Great First Impression In 30 Seconds Or Less - Another Chris Garrett post - right up my alley
- Chitika Reporting System and Monthly Audits Update - Chitka delayed the latest round of payments while they upgrade their back end. Disappointing and not good PR for them for the second month running in their auditing.
- 5 big Blogging traps to avoid in 2006 - ‘So you’re gonna turn ‘pro’ in 2006. Join the club. Just make sure you avoid these big, bad traps first…‘
- WordPress.com is out of Beta
- enternetusers won the Blog Category of the Best Adsense Resources of 2005 competition and I won the ‘personality’ section (does that mean I’m a personality or that I have one?)
- Apple’s MacWorld is on in San Francisco this week and there are rumors of a new application called iWeb which is supposedly something to do with getting content online. I’ll be interested to see what this is. Also rumored are announcements about more Apple content creation partnerships (possibly selling feature length movies online).
- Reasons to not upgrade to WordPress 2.0 from 1.5.2
Written on January 9th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:01 pm by Darren Rowse
enternetusers surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.Reader Review
So where is enternetusers.net headed in 2006?
This has been a question I’ve pondered over the past few weeks in those moments between the beach, the restaurants, the pool, the bed, the books, the cafes, the sunsets, the afternoon naps….
Ok I’ve not pondered it as much as I thought I would - but it’s a question I’ve pondered at least twice since leaving for my holiday and it’s a question I’d love to ask you the readers of this blog. After all I’m only writing this blog partially for my own sake - you’re the real focus of it in many ways.
How would YOU like enternetusers to develop over the next 12 months?
Perhaps I should break down the question into a number of areas for those of you who like that type of thing (if you’re not that type of person feel free to just answer the question on a broad level).
1. Community and Interactivity - One of the things I often say I love about enternetusers is the community around it. Of course I’m probably positioned best to see it happening as I get all the emails, I see all the comments and I get all the feedback. While I love the enternetusers community I see what we have here as just the beginning. Since I started this blog I’ve dreamt of finding ways to hand it over to it’s readers (who are collectively wiser than I am) more and more. While I would not want to step away from enternetusers in terms of my own voice and personality (it’s central to my business) I’m interested to find ways of making this a more interActive space. I’ve got a few ideas percolating away in my mind on this - but before sharing them am keen to hear what others think.
2. Content - Are their topics that I cover too much, or not enough? Sometimes a blogger gets sidetracked without knowing it and needs people to tell them about it. Share what you’d like to see enternetusers tackling in terms of topics in 2006. Similarly fell free to share about posting frequency (too many posts? Not enough? Are they too long or too short? etc
3. Design - What do you like and not like about the design of enternetusers. It’s been over a year since this blog was designed and it’s had a few adaptations along the way. Might be time for a make over.
4. Resources - 2005 was the first year that I developed a product to be sold (six figure blogging). I learned a lot through working with Andy on this resource and am keen to explore creating others in 2006. While I will keep enternetusers free and with the same level of helpful content I know some readers are willing to pay for increased personal interaction and focused content. I’m interested in hearing people’s thoughts on what types of products and services people would be interested in investing in (if any).
Anything else you’d like to feedback I’d love to hear. You can do so in comments below or via my contact form if you’d like it to be more private.
Written on January 8th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 05:01 pm by Darren Rowse
Buyings and Selling Blogs
There is a couple of worthwhile podcasts over at SavvysoloCast which are a conversation between Yaro Starak and Michael Pollock talking through the topic of Buying and Selling Blogs. The conversation is based upon the sale of Small Business Branding (bought by Yaro from Michael) where both guys talk through some of the considerations they made on their side of the transaction (including the price paid - towards the end of Part 2). Listen to the conversation in two parts - Part 1 and Part 2.
Written on January 8th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:01 pm by Darren Rowse
The Secret to Becoming a Professional Blogger in Half the Time
The following post has been submitted by Shane Pike from Three: Twenty InterActive.
The secret to becoming a professional blogger in half the time is … doubling your current revenue.
Thank you very much. You guys have been a great audience. Enjoy the rest of the blog.
(Oh. You want to know how to double your revenue? Oh, allllllright.)
What do you think is the fastest way to double the revenue from your blog?
(I’ll give you a minute to think about it.)
(Seriously. Answer the question before you read on.)
(Did you really answer it?)
Alright. Show of hands. How many said a) doubling your traffic or b) finding higher paying advertisers was the fastest way to double your revenue?
If you did, you’re in very good company.
Too often, we get so close to our blogs that we develop tunnel vision. Everything is in place, and we think if we can just keep generating enough content, and growing our readership, and if we can just find some higher paying advertisers, surely, somewhere down the road, we’ll get to the point where we can quit our day jobs and do what we really enjoy. We can see the progress, slowly, day by day, so we know we’ll get there eventually.
Quite likely, though, we’re so close that we can’t see the forest for the trees. Let’s take a big step back for a minute.
What percentage of your readers performs a revenue-generating action? 1%? Half a percent? For the sake of our discussion, let’s suppose that it’s 1%. That’s probably a pretty fair guess.
Now, how easy would it be to raise that 1% to 2%? That’s not a very big jump by any means. Quite likely, you could jump to 2% or even 3% by doing nothing more than tweaking your AdSense colors, ad size and/or placement. Little tweaks. Tiny tweaks. Nothing major at all.
Let’s say you make a few tweaks and get to 2%. What just happened to your revenue? Well, if you go from 1% to 2%, you’ve doubled your revenue—just that easy. Twice the revenue from the same amount of traffic in maybe 30 minutes’ worth of work.
Not bad, huh? In less time than it takes you to go grab some lunch, you’ve suddenly cut the time it will take for you to become a professional blogger in half.
Does it work? Man, yeah. In fact, the last three sites I’ve worked on saw revenues triple or more. And it was never more than just a few minutes’ work.
Better yet, I didn’t lose anything. The users who clicked away were evidently going to leave anyway, because click rates on the rest of the elements of the sites stayed consistent. So, by giving them some options for leaving the site, I actually got paid when they left, rather than just losing them for nothing.
I wish you the best of success in your journey to becoming a Professional Blogger. If you have any questions, please feel free to use the contact form on my site to drop me a line!
Shane is a jack of all trades and master of…well…one or two. He is the founder and principal of Three:Twenty InterActive, a full service Internet consulting firm, and has been providing web development, traffic generation and site effectiveness services since 1995.
Written on January 8th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 03:01 am by Darren Rowse
Bloggers Block
The following post was submitted by Lyndon from Flockblog
A successful Blogger does one thing above all others.
A blogger writes.
A successful Blogger puts fingers to the keyboard and writes quality blog posts often and regularly. Seems obvious, but one of the biggest potential problems successful bloggers can have is procrastination and no one is more guilty than me. Even writing this post has had me thinking that maybe I should do the washing up, or I must just check my email. Sometimes it‚s the hardest thing to sit down and write. Here are some tips that if followed make things a whole lot easier.
- Develop a routine.
- Brainstorm topics
- Free Associate
- Go for a walk.
- Set Achievable Goals
- Reward Yourself
- Minimise Distractions
- Discipline Yourself
- Give yourself a deadline
- Show off your past successes
1. Develop a routine.
If you know that from 2:30pm to 3:30 you must write two posts, it makes things a lot easier. An established routine means you do not have to think what you should be doing, you just do it. Timetable your day, work out a routine that works for you.
2. Brainstorm topics
In a brainstorm there is no bad idea, only ideas. So write out everything you know on the subject. Do not edit or concern about the quality of information, just let it flow. This allows the brain to free up a little and run wild, throwing up all sorts of interesting things you may not have thought of.
3. Free Associate
Before I perform creative writing I dump what ever is in my head onto the keyboard, I let the words just flow without thinking. What I end up with is pretty odd sometimes and delete what I wrote, but it gets the juices flowing, it puts the brain in that mode you need to be in when you write.
4. Go for a walk.
I find that too much time in front of the PC and my mind goes to mush. Put on your walking shoes and go for a brisk work, scientists have proved that walking helps stimulate certain parts of the brain that enables you to think more clearly.
5. Set Achievable Goals
There is no point in thinking you will write 100 quality posts in a couple of hours. Set goals that are easy and have lots of them, you will find when all the small goals are added up, you have arrived at your big goal without even realising it. This is not to say don‚t think big, shoot for the stars. But in your daily goal setting routine it is important to set goals you know you can achieve.
6. Reward Yourself
Have you worked like a dog all day and completed everything you wanted to do? Then reward yourself, I have a bar of chocolate on my desk, which I treat myself to once I have completed my tasks.
7. Minimise Distractions
Like most of us. I work from home and it can be a huge distraction from blogging. I am in a particularly tricky situation, as I have a 1 year old little boy and every time I hear him laugh I need to go and see what’s happening. A big problem can be TV, email, talking on the telephone ect. Roald Dhal would write in a shed at the bottom of the garden. He would make a warm cosy nest away from the distractions of the real world.. Having a partner that is supportive is vital. I have a very supporting wife who puts
up with an awful lot from my chosen career.
8. Discipline Yourself
When you tell yourself you are going to do something make sure you accomplish it. If you find yourself justifying why you haven‚t completed the task then it usually means you are wrong and just didn‚t do it. If you constantly fail to create blog posts and find it impossible to sit down and do it, then perhaps you need to be honest about your real desires and goals.
9. Give yourself a deadline
It helps if you already have a routine, but if you set a time when a blog post should be finished it will help. It‚s not as scary as not handing in homework on time when you were a child, but knowing you have set a deadline can only help. You must keep to your own deadlines, be honest and do not set unrealistic deadlines. Know thyself!
10. Show off your past successes
Print out your successful posts and stick them on a wall, maybe you had great comments from esteemed bloggers, print those up as well. Surround yourself with your success and never forget how fantastic you are.
Just do it.
by Darren: Great list Lyndon - and if people are still stuck check out my recent series on bloggers block which picks up some similar themes and ideas.
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