Weekly Blogistan Round-Up no. 01/2009
How you're doing? I hope you had a great start into the new year, and believe me: 2k9 is gonna be a wicked year for web 2.0 folks, and I mean “wicked” in the good, old-school jungle way. I do have the impression that the European commercial community is just waking up, and I'm seriously looking forward to bigger budgets being spent on web 2.0 advertising as this will boost the whole scene. My personal 1st of January had a very nice surprise in stall for me: datadirt received a Pagerank update and is now proudly sporting a 5.
My German blog datenschmutz is now a member of the quite exclusive PR6 blogs club – this did not come totally unexpected though, yet I'm still really happy about it. Now I know that good ole PR neither reflects a real-time value nor is it the most relevant SEO factor: but I like to think like some kind of nice, expensive watch: no added value, but it looks nice and gives a great first impression :mrgreen:
So, what's a super-affiliate again?
Super Affiliate is a stupid buzzword used in the affiliate marketing blogging community by bloggers who want to make you think they make more money or are somehow better than you. When I had my first $1000 week at one of the very well known affiliate networks, they said I was now a “Super Affiliate,” which showed me that it means absolutely nothing. Anyone using the term “Super Affiliate” in a non-joking manner, especially when referring to themselves, has no credibility, and is an idiot.
Says NickyCakes of Reformed Blackhat on Jeremy's Blog That's a short yet very concise way to put it – I have nothing to add :mrgreen:
Look back (in no anger)
Jeremy took the time to do a proper all-year review which is also a very smart idea in terms of internal pagerank distribution by the way.
TechCrunch und Twitter
TechCrunch publishes an article on a mash-up that forwards tweets to e-mail adresses. Asks Babou:
I really enjoy your blog for your insights and the posts of your team of writers but there is one thing: you really speak a lot about twitter.
Now I understand Twitter has become an important medium of communication but does it really deserve so much attention?
Well… that depends: I guess that twitter deserves all the attention that fits into 140 characters – a couple of times per day.
Video of the week
You don't want to get that job? By all means, watch and learn from this brilliant job interview video by Ben Schwartz:
So much for the first weekly blogosphere review of the new year – as always, comments and feedback are highly appreciated. See you next week!
Got any news you'd like to read about in my weekly round-up of current blogosphere events?Don't hesitate to contact me! Of course I'll include a backlink to your original story.
So don't hesitate – just click here for the contact form and give me an update on your issues: Give me input!.
Happy 2k9!
All the best – have a great jump-start into the new year, thanks a lot for your support! I'm looking forward to the next 12 months of blogging – and I have the feeling that this is gonna be a even greater year :mrgreen:
Happy Christmas to you all!
“May the good luck / shine a light on you / may every song you sing / be ever with you!” Thanks a lot for constantly stopping by at my blog – I just started datadirt this year and I'm pretty amazed by all the feedback I got so far. I promise that I'll keep things fresh and keep you folks updated about the latest in web 2.0 and online marketing. Thanks for your support, have great holidays! (And treat elks gently!)
Weekly Blogistan Round-Up no. 52/2008
Ready from some good ole fun after the dreadful distress of buying all your X-Mas presents? Word your way through Dan's list of Friday Funnies and meet the Tiddy bear! He'll make you feel more comfortable than a pint of pure Christmas spirit or this weekly round-up. So sit back, relax and keep wondering about the miracles of modern web society.
Vote for your PPC, America
TechCrunch heard an interesting rumor: supposedly Digg is working on their own ad system by adding a social mechanism to determine the click price:
One experiment Digg is working on, says one source close to the company, is a self service advertising product that will be somewhat similar to Google AdWords, but with a twist. The product would insert advertisements into the Digg news stream (presumably clearly marked). Where those ads end up, and how much an advertiser pays per click, would be based on user feedback.
Sounds like a pretty smart plan – theoretically it might improve overall ad quality a lot. On the other hand I highly doubt that user are willing to cast their votes on ads. It's much more likely that Digg-mobs embrace a more profitable kind of business model.
The key factors of success
If you want to become a millionaire, try to serve others first. If you offer them something of true value, the will appreciate your work and eventually pay your really good. Work through Crap:
C riticism
R ejection
A ssholes
P ressure
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vldjedAashA[/youtube]
It's all simple truths, cut down to a 3-minute TED presentation without any unnecessary bells and whistles. And there's good news, too: try to have fun, will you? [via Blogpiloten]
In the mood for charity?
People usually are around this time of year and Seth has picked out some ideas like collecting money via twitter or getting peeps to sign up for some new service. That's the true spirit of X-Mas: during other seasons you could never directly buy attention without looking like a complete loser, but hey, it's Christmas: that seems to render any kind of begging and buying the G-love absolutely acceptable! Don't worry though: I'll just give some of my yearly income to charity, but I won't ask you, my readers, to send me money or to sign up anywhere. If it was a successful year for you, pick some humanitarian cause that appeals to you. Give them some of money directly: finding a proper project is easier than ever before – there are literally millions of Facebook groups trying to improve the world, Africa, animal rights, human rights etc. I won't and can't tell you what good deed you should spend your hard-earned bucks on.
Video(s) of the week: tangible interaction
Tangible Interaction's graffiti wall takes the illegal part out of spraying house-walls. The only problem is that these interfaces are probably far too expensive to be put up on every city wall. Still, using them looks like a lot of fun:
And there's more greatness on Vimeo: Scott Beale of Laughing Squid test-drove his brand-new Canon 5D Mark II against mighty Doc Popular's Yoyo tricks: the sequence is short, but watch it in HD on Vimeo and behold the incredible video quality:
So much for this week – one more round-up to go, and we're done with 2008 or “the year of 140 letters” as some like to call it. So good luck with grabbing your last-minute X-mas presents, have a nice Sunday and great holidays, see you next week.
Got any news you'd like to read about in my weekly round-up of current blogosphere events?Don't hesitate to contact me! Of course I'll include a backlink to your original story.
So don't hesitate – just click here for the contact form and give me an update on your issues: Give me input!.
Welcome, dear new follower!
I recorded this 1-minute introduction video for all my fellow tweet-geeks: micro blogging is great, and it's even more fun if you can put a face to the name. So this is how datadirt (that would be me) rolls:
My German blog ranks #44 in Twingly’s charts
This week, Swedish Start-up Company Twingly launched its very own top-blog lists in twelve different languages. Their blog search is delivering really good results, so it seems that the near future might look rather bleak for Technorati – and the best part is that my main blog datenschmutz ranks #44 in the German-language list!
The overall winner of the new rating is – what a surprise – Technorati. And this is what Michael, or in this case Robin, thinks about the new charts:
Twingly, the social blog search engine that prides itself in being completely spam-free, has launched BlogRank as a way to identify the 100 most important blogs in 12 different languages based on a proprietary ranking system. It
Weekly Blogistan Round-Up no. 50/2008
Main bloggerilla topic of the week: the new WordPress aka 2.7. Matt and his team change a lot in the backend – it's like Obama said: “Change, we can do it!” What O did not mention though was the fact that change makes most folks rather uncomfortable. In that respect, it's more like TLC sang-rapped: “Don't go chasin' waterfalls / listen to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.” In other words, I've heard a lot of user complaining about a so-called uglification of the CMS. My five cents: so far I've only updated half of my blogs, and I really dig the new look and all the new features.
The new WordPress 2.7
A lot of hard programming work has gone into this release: every backend-screen is customizable, so it should be easier than ever to fit WP to your needs. Furthermore, this updating-round is the last manual one: from 2.7 or “Coltrane”, WP updates do happen on the fly without any ftp-uploads (just like the current plug-in update function). This new release is so full of features that you might want to take a look at the official WordPress Blog. This screencast sums up all the new blogging-goodness:
Jerry nails it again
I really dig this guy, not just because he's funny and a good writer – I also learned a great deal from him. And I can only fully endorse this quote from an article about blogging and not selling out:
I get probably 10-20 solicitations a day to write about someone
Leon, take that break at two
“I got one line on the Sopranos…that makes me more gangster than you!” So Leon take that freaking break. And can anybody please tell why it's exactly two? This man did thorough research for his one-line appearance, and then he turned his hard work into one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCx8xjHMt_M[/youtube] Read more
Weekly Blogistan Round-Up no. 49/2008
It's been a week full of surprises: Pownce closed pretty unexpectedly, while Twitter is still growing at an amazing rate. And a new trend finally has been turned into an API, or rather two APIs: Google as well as Facebook try to decentralize social networking and at the same time establish their own platforms as the central social hub. I am really looking forward to buddypress – in my opinion, “hosted” services are fine as additional traffic streams, but no online professional should put his main assets into third-party hands.
Google friend connect is opening
Last week, Google started the public beta phase for its new service friend connect: Basically, we're talking about a social API here: there's a unified login via Big G and Open ID. The implementation is simple, there's a couple of ready-made widgets, but actually it's all about the community now, who is expected to build their own apps. Is this going to be a threat for Facebook? The future will show.
…and Facebook launches Connect
The new service is FB's version of a portable single-sign on. While OpenID is great in theory, I totally agree with Dan:
Truth be told, I
Kiki and Bubu part 5: Christmas and the system
“The answer is the same as always: the system!” Furthermore there is, as we all know, no right life in the wrong one. So actually it's not a big surprise that Kiki and Bubu, monochroms ever-motivated fighters against capitalism, crave some Christmas carol spirit:
[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBP5OPLzlq8[/youtube]
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