Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:05 pm by Darren Rowse

AdSense changes default Ads to Borderless Ads

Adsense 13 comments

AdSense have emailed publishers today telling them that they’ve changed their default ad design to be a borderless ones. Their email reads:

“We’re writing to let you know about a coming change to the appearance of your Google ads. Your ads currently display the default Google color palette, Seaside (formerly known as Mother Earth). In the near future, we plan to update the default palette to Open Air, a new palette containing the same set of colors, but without the blue border. We’ve found that many publishers prefer the cleaner look of this palette and have also seen that a blended color palette performs better for them — attracting user interest while still maintaining the distinction between ads and content with the ‘Ads by Google’ label.

Please note that this change will only affect your ad units where your ad code does not specify colors. For all other units, your color selections will be retained.”

They then went on to outline the steps of logging into AdSense palettes to make the changes.

I’ve not considered this before but now that they mention it I’m surprised they didn’t do this earlier.

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 01:05 pm by Darren Rowse

Idol Blogger Crashes Server and Teaches us a Lesson about Hosting

Pro Blogging News 61 comments

I just came across a story that makes me quite angry but also has an important lesson in it for bloggers on shared servers. It concerns the story of idolbloglive.com - a blog about Amercian Idol.

As you’d expect with a blog on the topic of American Idol it’s a blog that has had a bit of traffic in the last week or so (the grand final is tomorrow).

Unfortunately for it’s owner (djslim) his hosting provider suspended his account saying that he had crashed their server and is virtually holding his content ransom. He writes, “The only way to come back online or to retrieve the files is to upgrade my account which costs $110.00 a month.”

From what I can discern having spoken with one of djslim’s associates - the server apparently ‘crashed’ when it peaked at about 3500 page views in an hour from about 500 visitors (see graph below). I’m not sure what server from a professional hosting company crashes with a load of 500 visitors but thats what the host reported.

At that point the host (Surpass Hosting) of the site switched the hosting off without any warning and is refusing to allow access even to retrieve files. Obviously this blog had ’surpassed’ what it’s host would allow (sorry - couldn’t resist).

I get angry when I hear of hosts switching off account without warning and holding content ransom in this way.

Having said that this is a good warning for bloggers to check into their hosts before signing up both to read their contract see what the limits are in terms of bandwidth but also what the host does when those limits are reached. It’s also a pretty good argument for dedicated hosting instead of shared hosting and for backing up your files along the way.

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 01:05 pm by Darren Rowse

Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers - Reader Submissions - Part 1

Pro Blogging News 5 comments

Thanks to the many bloggers who have been responding to my group writing project on the topic of ‘habits of highly effective bloggers’.

I’ve created a central page for linking to all of the submissions from readers here and started the list off with the submissions below. It’s not too late to join in - I’d love to get your reflections on the topic whether as a longer list type post or a shorter single ‘habit’ post. Just follow the instructions outlined here and get your submission in by Friday.

Here are the submissions so far:

• My Blogging Habits - by Hsien Lei
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Blogs - by Kami Huyse
• Effective Blogging Habits - by Rhonda Bell
• 10 Principles of Highly Effective Blogging - by Darren McLaughlin
• Finding My Stride - by Ricemutt
• Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers - by Duncan Riley
• Characteristics of an Effective Blogger - by Steven Remington
• One Habit of Highly Effective Bloggers - by Remy
• 7 Traits of Highly effective Bloggers - by Aaron Brazell
• Blogging - by Bonnie Erickson
• Networking and Community in the Blogosphere - by John
• Seven Habits of Effective Bloggers - by Rodrigo Flores
• Four Habits of Success - by Rick Coolrum
• Habit of Highly Effective Blogging - by Dominic Foster
• Habits? What Habits? - by Melly
• 10 Habits of Highly Effective enternetuserss - by Darren Rowse

Thanks to all who are participating - there is some good ideas in the above mix of posts.

If you’ve written a post on the topic and it’s not here yet please make sure you email me with a notification of where it is and I’ll add it in the next batch.

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:05 pm by Darren Rowse

AdSense tell Publishers about Video Ads

Adsense 5 comments

The official AdSense blog has just put up a post announcing the Introduction of video ads to publishers (they announced it to advertisers yesterday - why they don’t do simultaneous announcements I’m unsure).

They clarify a few points (most of which we’d guessed to be true):

“Video ads will compete in the same auction as text and image ads for placement on your site, and as we’ve mentioned before, increased competition in the ad auction means increased revenue potential for you. Video ads open your site up to a whole new type of advertising that is engaging and highly relevant for your users.”

They go on to write that there are no ways to make these ads appear but that you can increase your chances by opting into image ads and using one of the rectangle formats (300×250, 336×280, or 250×250) which are the only ones that video will show on.

I am disappointed that there is no apparent way to opt out of video ads without also opting out of image ads. While in many ways they are similar in appearance (remember the videos don’t play until your reader clicks them) I think the video ads will be more distracting and disruptive to a site than a static image ad and as a result they won’t suit all sites.

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 10:05 am by Darren Rowse

Cooking Up a Storm Over Blog Copyright

Pro Blogging News 16 comments

I’ve just stumbled across and interesting discussion on a cooking blog that seems to have overstepped the mark when it comes to using another cooking blog’s content.

Head over the Culinary Arts Simple Shepards Pie recipe and then to Simple Recipes Easy Shepherd’s Pie recipe.

The Culinary Arts version gives a credit link to the Simple Recipes page as it’s source but the writer of the original post (Elise) takes exception with the way in which the post has been reproduced. Elise doesn’t seen to mind that the recipe has been reproduced but takes exception to the introductory passage being virtually identical and the use of her original photos all being used.

I’m interested in the conflict that is happening in the comments of Culinary Arts because it’s an example of a conflict that I’m seeing happen more and more as bloggers clash over different standards of what is and isn’t acceptable with using the content of others.

From what I know of copyright around recipes - recipes themselves are not copyrightable but unique descriptions or highly personalized instructions are projectable - as are photos.

My own approach to using other people’s content (whether recipes or any kind) is that to simply cut and paste (even if you change a couple of words) a full post including images into your blog then you’re probably overstepping what might be considered to be fair use - particularly when your blog contains advertising and is obviously a commercial venture (to some degree). The exception to this in my mind is when you have permission to do so from the author or copyright holder.

I don’t have issue with using quote from other sites as long as they are not full articles. I generally would stick to a paragraph or two (unless the article I was quoting was a very long one), make it obvious which bits are mind and which bits are the quotes (using blockquotes, quotation marks etc).

My other practice is that if I’m asked by another site to remove content (whether I think I should or not) I always try to come to some agreement with that person. This might ultimately mean the removal of content (I’ve only once been asked to remove content - a quote that an author didn’t want reproduced) or a revision of the use of that content. Perhaps this is not a legal thing but to me it comes out of my own ethical standards (not something I’d push on anyone).

I’m interested in the thoughts of others on this. Obviously the example I’ve used has gotten people’s blood boiling a little looking at the comment thread - I don’t think we need to add to the conflict but lets see it as an example and lets talk about the issues at hand.

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 07:05 am by Darren Rowse

A Guide to writing good email…. and blog posts?

Writing Content 17 comments

There’s a nice post over at blue flavor on how to write good email - an author’s guide which as someone who gets a lot of email I wish everyone would read. It’s got some great common sense tips.

I wonder if there are a few good tips for bloggers writing blog posts buried away within it also? Here’s a few that I’ve tweaked to see if they might apply:

On Brevity

“Short emails blog posts rule. When I get come across an email a blog post that’s several pages long, I have to make some decisions: do I have time to handle this now? Is it important enough to come back to? Can I pass it on to someone else? If I can’t say yes to any of these, I will probably never get back to read it.”

On Context

“And for god’s sake, have a subject line good title. One that makes sense. Some of the most important emails blog posts I’ve received seen didn’t have a subject good title, and they almost fell through as a result…. Remember that on recipients’ screens, your subject title competes with a large number of others for their attention.”

On Giving Recipients Something to Act On

“Don’t give people an excuse to misread you. If you’ve written a request at the end of a long paragraph, or been passive (”it’d be nice if somebody could…”), it’s likely to have been missed on the receiver’s end. If you sent an email, you have a point. Get to it.”

Perhaps I’m stretching things a little far - if nothing else it’s a good post on writing emails which just might contain some helpful hints for blog writing also.

Found via Lifehacker

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 02:05 am by Darren Rowse

Chitika announces CNET Co-branded eMiniMalls Units

Chitika eMiniMalls 6 comments

The Chitika blog today is announcing CNET Co-branded eMiniMalls Units.

Maybe it’s a little late at night for me but I don’t quite get it. They write:

“We are thrilled to announce the release of Chitika| CNET co-branded eMiniMalls units featuring best deals, promotions, offers and paid listings from hundreds of name brand merchants along with expert product reviews from CNET editors.” It will apparently mean “More deals, offers, and promotions for website visitors and increased revenue for our publisher clients!”

Ok I see the CNET logo but I don’t seen any reviews on the ad and I’m not sure if I’d really want them on ads on my blogs anyway as I doubt there’d be any payment for a click on them.

They finish their announcement post with:

“We are selectively integrating offers and promotions from CNET across the eMiniMalls network mainly on technology and consumer electronics related content pages.”

I’d be interested if anyone else can discern what that actually means for publishers? Hopefully someone from Chitika will clarify how publishers will benefit from it. For all I know it could be a great move for us but at a first glance it just seems ‘odd’.

I’m also interested to know if publishers have the option to switch the cobranded ads on and off or if whether they appear is determined solely by Chitika. While I’ve got nothing against CNET I know of some bloggers who would be dead against promoting them after dealings with them and I wonder how many content providers will be wanting to promote a competing content provider on their blogs? I guess it will depends upon what the rewards are.

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Written on May 24th, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse

10 Habits of Highly Effective enternetuserss

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 38 comments

For weekly information on Blogging for Money Subscribe to my Free Weekly Newsletter.

I was speaking via email this week with a professional tennis player about blogging and they asked me the question:

‘how do I become a more successful blogger?’

I like to answer questions with question and shot back one of my own:

‘how do I become a more successful tennis player?’

The conversation that ensued was quite insightful. Not only did I learn how to improve my tennis but I learned a thing or two about blogging.

One of the things that I noticed about how this tennis player spoke was that he used the word ‘habits’ quite a bit. His philosophy was that one of the keys to his success was that he’d taught himself a series of habits that had become a part of his ‘tennis life’. He practised these habits consistently over time (most of them did not come naturally to him at first) until they became automatic reflexes.

Over time as the habits became second nature he found they combined together in ways that began to lead to increased success.

We unpacked some of the habits he’d learnt over the next half an hour and I was interested to find that some of them were ‘skills‘ based habits (ie hitting a top spin serve) and some were ‘attitude’ based habits (ie always looking for opportunities no matter how desperate or hopeless the situation).

As I listened to my tennis playing friend I found myself reflecting upon the similarities of my experience of blogging.

Good bloggers don’t just happen.

Most emerge over time as they develop skills and attitudes that combine in ways that improve their blogging. Some of these habits seem to come pretty naturally but many need to be practised and intentionally worked upon.

So what are the habits that lead to effective or successful blogging?

I’ll start by saying that each successful blogger will have their own list of habits and rhythms that increase their success depending upon factors like personality type, style of blogging, topic of blogs, goals of blogs etc. For this reason I’m looking forward to reading the habits that others are working on in the rest of this group writing project.

But in the mean time here are some blogging ‘habits’ or attitudes that I’ve been working on and have seen in other bloggers that I admire:

1. ProActive

successful bloggers self starters.

One of the things I’ve noticed about blogging is that there are a lot of bloggers who talk a lot about the things that they are going to do with their blogging who never do much (if anything) of it and then there are a smaller group of bloggers who actually do what they say they’ll do.

The first group habitually have lots of dreams and little follow through and the second group habitually take initiative and actually put their money where their mouth is to see where their dreams lead them.

It’s these proActive bloggers who tend to find success more often than the habitual dreamers. I guess it makes sense really - if you actually do something you’ve got more chance of succeeding at it than if you just dream of it. I don’t know of anyone who’s ever succeeded just by the dreams that they have without taking action.

Successful bloggers are action oriented, they’re self starters and they’re willing to take their dreams into reality.

2. Strategic

successful bloggers don’t become successful by accident.

Actually I should qualify that statement. I know of some bloggers who have become quite successful by accident - but very few have sustained their success over time without putting some thought into how to keep things going it.

Perhaps a better statement would be ‘Bloggers who have ongoing success generally know where they are headed and have a way to get there‘.

Of course strategy might be a formal well thought out long term strategic plan - or it could just be an informal set of ‘next steps’ in their mind. Whether or not it’s formal or informal there is some level of planning going on in the lives of most effective bloggers.

This is increasingly the case as the numbers of blogs continue to increase dramatically and the competition for attention of web uses increases. Planning on how to stand out from the crowd, how to find readers, how to sustain the writing of content over the long haul etc are all factors worth doing some planning around.

3. Anticipators

successful bloggers look forward and let what they see determine their present activities.

A habit that I work hard at consciously building into my blogging activities is to intentionally keep an eye on the niches that I’m involved in and anticipate where they are headed next.

I find that there are constant opportunities and possibilities within most niches for those that look for them. This happens on both a small picture and big picture level and can range from writing posts a few weeks ahead of events to capitalise on search engine traffic to anticipating new trends that might be ideal topics for new blogs.

It is also worth keeping an eye on emerging trends in blogging and new media as there are plenty of opportunities to take in terms of how you communicate that are worth being ready for also.

Lastly successful bloggers have a knack for seeing things outside of their sphere of interest that they draw on to improve their blogs. They are often veracious consumers of information in many forms and have the ability to keep their minds across many different fields at once.

The world we live in is in a state of constant change and unless you’re on top of the changes happening around you a blogger can be quickly left behind.

4. Communicators

successful bloggers are effective communicators

Perhaps I should have started with this one but it almost goes without saying (almost but not quite).

While blogs are used for many different things blogging is at its heart essentially a communication tool (and predominantly is a written communication tool at present - although this is changing).

As a result of this most successful bloggers have some level of communication skills. They know how to write and more importantly know (either instinctively of by going out of their way to learn) some of the basics principles of how people learn, read and receive information online.

There are of course many different styles of communication and I’m not advocating any one of them but successful bloggers tend to have a knack of putting across their message in a way that is received well.

5. Creators of Useful Content

successful bloggers give their readers something that they need

The blogosphere is filled with millions of blogs, many of which that talk almost aimlessly about anything and everything associated with a given topic. They often are very reactionary to what others are writing and in many instances aimlessly recycle other people’s content in a way that adds no real value to readers.

Effectively bloggers attract readers because they offer them content that is useful and they meet a need of their readers. This need can be a need for information, a need for someone else’s opinion, a need for entertainment, a need for instruction, a need for community etc.

Good bloggers tap into one or more of their readers needs and work hard at being a part of a solution.

Not only is their content useful but in many cases it is looked at by others as being original and something that makes them a ‘thought leader’ in their niche rather than just a recycler of what others are saying.

I’m not saying that reacting to or recycling what others say and write is always bad or second class - but unless a blogger adds some value to what others are saying then they are less likely to give their readers anything unique or useful that they can’t get elsewhere.

6. Persistence, Consistency and Discipline

successful bloggers work hard and are in it for the long haul

I’ve said it once and I’ll continue to say it - blogs rarely become successful without hard work over a sustained period of time.

In the same way that my Pro Tennis player friend has worked daily on his game for many years, most successful bloggers put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes over significant time. Much of the work is behind the scenes in reading, networking, researching and looking after readers in a similar way to the many hours of practice a tennis player puts in before the few hours they play in a public forum.

This calls for self discipline and the ability to put aside regular time. As we all know in the busy world we live in, this doesn’t just happen. It’s a habit that most of us need to practice.

7. Optimists

successful bloggers turn threats and weaknesses into opportunities and strengths

From my study of marketing a decade or more ago I remember very little but one of the things that’s stuck is the lesson one lecturer gave of SWOT analysis (the analysis of a business or venture by looking at Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). The line that sticks out from these lessons is that good marketers learn to see ‘weaknesses and threats as possible strengths and opportunities’.

Many bloggers give up when blogging gets tough - but successful bloggers tend to go forward in leaps and bounds in these times as they find creative ways to flip those things that could crush them into things that bring life.

8. Conversation Conductors

successful bloggers initiate and facilitate conversations

One of the metaphors for blogging that I’ve been pondering lately is bloggers as conductors of a symphony (bear with me - I’m not sure where the image came from - but it’s stuck in my mind for some reason). Good conductors have the ability to draw together many musicians of different varieties and blend them together in a way that produces something wonderful.

Good bloggers take the ideas, experiences and voices of their readers (and other bloggers) and create spaces where these ideas come together in a way to makes ‘music’.

They have the ability to draw others into their conversations and guide those conversations in useful directions. In the same way that musical instruments all played out of time can be chaotic and noisy so too can poorly held blog conversations - but an effective blogger often has the ability to bring something of worth out of the babble of noice happening in their niche.

9. Networked

successful bloggers often intentionally work collaboratively with others

Extending upon the metaphor of a blogger as a conductor comes the observation that many successful seem to go out of their way to work with other bloggers. This happens on a variety of levels ranging from the informal and unorganised linking that bloggers do among themselves through to formal networks and partnerships that many bloggers are now arranging amongst themselves.

One of the reasons blogging has taken off as it has is as a result of it’s relational nature - bloggers who work with this strength of blogging stand to gain a lot as a result.

10. Good Boundaries

successful bloggers know what they blog about and don’t stray outside of these boundaries

Associated with this strategic nature of many successful bloggers is that they know not only what they do blog about but also what they do not blog about. Most successful blogs that I’m aware of have a range of ‘boundaries’ which associate both with the topic or niche that they cover but also boundaries around how personal they’ll get and what ethics they operate within as they blog.

With such boundaries established (and it’s rarely a formal set of boundaries) a blogger has a framework to move forward with.

The list goes on:

As I’ve pondered the above 10 habits I’ve come to the realization that it’s not a complete list (I could go on for another 10 or so habits quite easily) and that it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ sort of list either. Some of the habits I’ve identified above will be common to many successful bloggers but there are always examples that come to mind of bloggers who’ve broken one or more of the above and who have been incredibly successful and effective either despite it or because of it.

This is what led me to the desire to conduct the Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers Group Writing Project this week because the only hope to make some sense of what makes a blogger effective is to open the conversation up and put our ideas together in some way to see what commonalities appear and also to celebrate the diversity that the wider blogging community has.

I’d love to hear your thought on what habits you’re working on as a blogger or what you see in other effective bloggers. Write it up as a post as I say in my introductory post and I’ll highlight it here at enternetusers. Otherwise I’d love to hear your reactions to my list in comments below. Which of these habits do you agree or disagree with? What habits do you need to work more on in the coming months?

This is my submission for the Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers Group Writing Project

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Written on May 23rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 04:05 pm by Darren Rowse

Google Announces ‘Click to Play’ Video Ads

Adsense 20 comments

Hot news emerging out of the AdWords blog today that they are releasing ‘click to play video ads‘. Here’s an example of what they will look like.

The ads will begin to appear this week. They will not be shown on Google’s own pages but rather on their publisher network (ie sites showing AdSense ads).

“In the coming days, we will be adding click-to-play video ads to the line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats currently supported by the Google content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan - but we plan to roll them out to other regions shortly.”

Advertisers can build video ads on a CPC or a CPM basis and they can either target specific sites with these ads or let them be keyword targeted (like their other ads).

Videos do not automatically play when a user comes to a site where they are showing. Instead they ‘click to play’.

There’s no word yet on the AdSense blog as to what the details are from publishers perspectives. One would pressume that video ads would be worth more than normal image ads or text ads and that publishers would have the chance to opt in or out of having such ads show on their sites in a similar way to them being able to select text and/or image ads.

I would also presume that these ads would predominantly be rectangle box ads and that CTR on these ads would be quite good at least initially due to the novelty factor of them.

Read more about Click to Play Ads at:

• Yahoo News
• Search Engine Journal
• Screenwerk
• Scotsman.com
• Tech Crunch bets Against Google Video Ads
• Google and that elusive diversification

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Written on May 23rd, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.at 12:05 pm by Darren Rowse

A Question about Comments and Permission

General 37 comments

Amy (a enternetusers reader) sent me a question this morning that I thought might make an interesting discussion question:

“A writer for a newspaper would like to quote some of the comments my readers have left on my blog. As the blogger, I’m not sure what’s appropriate–to give her my permission to use whatever comments she wants OR to insist she first tell me the comments she wants to use so I can contact each commenter and get their permission.”

What do you think? Do you (or anyone else) need to get the permission of those who leave comments on your blog if you’re using their comments for any other purpose than where they’ve left the comment?

I’m interested in your opinion.

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