Author Archives: Admin

Google Acquires Jaiku

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Jaiku bought by GoogleSo it looks like the big news of today is the acquisition of Jaiku by Google. Jaiku is a micro-blogging platform in the same vein as Twitter, and Pownce. It allows you to quickly blog about what you are up to or what you are interested in. Even better for some people, it allows you to add your thoughts via your cell phone.

Mark Evans has a few more details on his blog calling it the Blogger-lite acquisition:

More than four years ago, Google bought Pyra Labs (aka Blogger.com), and since that time Google has done a darn job of pretty much ignoring Blogger while WordPress and TypePad have become fast-growing blog platforms.

So, it’s interesting to see Google move aggressively into the micro-blogging market with the acquisition today of Jaiku, which competes against Twitter and Pownce. I assume the move it part of Google’s ambitious wireless plans, which apparently include the much-anticipated GPhone.

It will be interesting to see how large the Google platform grows over the coming year, and with their stocks hitting $600 a share and continuing its upward trend, I don’t think Google plans on slowing down any time soon.

Originally posted on October 9, 2007 @ 8:34 pm

11 Link Usability Tips

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Google Blogoscoped has posted about link usability, and some of their eleven tips could mean the difference between someone clicking on your links, or ignoring them completely.

Here is one of the eleven tips in the post:

The first link should be the most important. As a rule of thumb – and there may be exceptions – the first link in a blog post or article will gain the most attention, and the highest click rates. So make sure it’s also the most relevant one for your article. If you are discussing new website XYZ, then make a link to XYZ the first link in your article – not necessarily within the first sentence, but just the first link – and put links to related material over subsequent words. This allows visitors to be guided best.

I have used this tactic many times to get people to click on affiliate links. Just put it before any other links in your post, and even before reading the whole post, people will click on them.

Originally posted on October 28, 2007 @ 3:18 pm

TechCanuck Podcast: Episode 12

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There is always more of me podcasting, I don’t just do them here, so if you are interested in technology, and what is going on with the web, check out the TechCanuck Podcast, where I am a co-host with James Cogan, owner of Dailypixel, a new media network.

Here is what we talked about in this episode:

a) How do we not talk about Facebook? Microsoft wins the bidding war with Google. How important was this investment for Microsoft? Does this valuation mean Facebook is on a collision course for an IPO? Is Facebook the second coming of Google?

b) Google tweaks their PageRank algorithm and publishers/bloggers everywhere are outraged. What happened here? Does anybody really know? Is Google’s secret sauce too secretive? Do they have too much influence? Was this PageRank correction expected, needed, or totally unfair?

c) Apple is about to release the much anticipated update to OSX – Leopard. Will this live up to the hype? Is Leopard stealing Vista’s thunder?

d) One of Canada’s largest independent digital advertising/creative agencies ‘Blast Radius’ has been bought (offices in Vancouver, Toronto etc.) The same way that mergers and acquisitions are rampant on the web, this is also the case in the advertising world as digital/interactive agencies are being heavily courted by traditional agencies. The CEO of the worldwide company that acquired ‘Blast Radius’ had some interesting/revealing comments on the logic behind the acquisition. Is this more proof that we are ‘not’ in a bubble, but simply experiencing the rise of all things digital and web?

Check it out, and let us know your thoughts.

Originally posted on October 26, 2007 @ 3:38 pm

46 Things To Do Before Launching a Blog Network

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There are so many things that a potential blog network owner should do before actually showing the world their sites, and I think that most people who decide to start a network, are really unaware of the challenges that they will have to surpass.

Thanks to the prodding of Ahmed Bilal, I have come up with this list of forty-six things you should do before launching a blog network.

Money

1.) Building a network costs money, even if you build the sites from scratch. Get together enough capital to keep the whole thing running for six months. It will take at least that long to get really noticed by the world, and especially by search engines.

2.) Create a list of expenses, and add a fifteen percent buffer zone. Things like hosting costs, business supplies, and business cards all add up quickly.

3.) Are you hiring writers? Designers? Developers? Budget properly for each of these expenses. It can be very hard, especially early on to find people willing to work for you at the rates you can afford, but if you cast a wide net, and work hard at selecting the right people for the job at a price you can afford, you will be more successful.

4.) Spending money on advertising to get the word out there? Make sure you budget for each type of advertising separately. Banner advertising, paid posts or reviews, text links, press releases and even some social media attention can cost a fair bit of money. Don’t over extend yourself early on. Continue reading →

Originally posted on October 11, 2007 @ 9:14 am

The Declining US Dollar: Winners And Losers

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Duncan Riley, an amazing writer, has posted an article on TechCrunch that sums up what I, as a problogger not in the USA, has to deal with when it comes to getting paid.

Losers

Anyone with a US Dollar exposure
Affiliates, bloggers and even coders are seeing income reduced as the value of the US Dollar drops. Much (or most) of the content and coding marketplace is run in US Dollars, which exposes bloggers who rely on programs such as Adsense, through to people writing for blog networks and similar writing positions.

Over the past ten months, I have lost a fair bit of my revenue, and just recently had to pay a few dollars to convert my money over to Canadian dollars. I continue to hope that this will change around, and a new system will be put in place, but this doesn’t show any signs of happening.

Winners

I have thus changed my advertising page, and those willing to pay in Canadian dollars, will find their rates a bit more competitive than their American counterparts. This takes the conversion issue away from me, and puts it in the hands of my advertisers here at Xfep.com. Check out my advertising page for more details.

Originally posted on October 15, 2007 @ 8:12 pm