| LED Digest 1947: The Blog Wave |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. March 22, 2005 Issue #1947 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Blogging ==-- ~ Gloria Pan "One could make an analogy to the early days of rap music..." ~ Ian Smith "...the vast majority of online blogs...have nothing to do with making money." --== Google's Toolbar Stealing? ==-- ~ John Smart "Let me first say that I am not a Google basher!" ~ Dave Starr "The entire argument of Google 'stealing' customers fails to hold any water..." --== RSS Feeds, Spam, and The Future of Publishing ==-- ~ Tom Aman "...adding ads to RSS is really contrary to the spirit of RSS." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== BuyDomains.com ==-- ~ Michael Linehan --== PHP, MySQL and Search Engines ==- ~ Reg Charie ~ Veronica Yuill ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Gloria Pan Subject: Blogging > Do you think blogging is here to stay? Or is it just > another internet "phenomenon" that will go the way > of the blinking marquee? ... I'm tired of reading the > hype and would enjoy a down to earth discussion > of blogging. - Ronni Rhodes, LED 1946 I am responding to Ronni Rhodes' post about blogging. Yes, blogging is here to stay, and where it's leading is anyone's guess. My organization, The Media Center, a think tank exploring the intersection of media, technology and society, spends a lot of times looking at blogs and other media issues on our blog, morph. One could make an analogy to the early days of rap music, where critics and detractors predicted that spoken words set to music was just a fad, a flash in the pan, and that audiences would soon get tired of it. But instead, rap opened up a whole new world of creative possibility, not just in music but also, among other things, in activism and youth culture. One reason it was so compelling was that it gave voice to a whole segment of society that wasn't being heard, and that voice was sincere in its intensity and "real." That's what's happening in the blogosphere today. People with things to say are over the Internet are finding interested audiences. People, bombarded and overwhelmed by information, are more and more attracted to what's human in blogs: commentary on subjects and issues that are personally interesting to them and viewpoints expressed with passion, and information unfiltered by corporate marketing departments, stripped of corporate speak and marketing jargon. Because of new communications technologies such as the Internet and wireless, society is going through a cataclysmic change. One-to-one communications is radically altering hierarchical structures in all areas of life. Producer-consumer relationships are being revised by the explosion of choice: What information do consumers want? Where do we get it? How do we get it? And perhaps most importantly, what do we want to do with it? Do we want to be passive consumers or proactive users who put our own mark on it before sending it back into the public ether via the Internet? Blogs are important symbols and conduits for all this stuff, and that's why mainstream media feels so threatened by them. Rather than waiting for blogs to go away -- and they won't -- smart businesses are trying to capture their ability to generate audience connectedness for their own products: newspapers are starting to incorporate modified blogs on their Web sites to interact with readers, and corporations are starting to use blogs as a means of providing customer service. In fact, bloggers have been invited to participate in The Media Center's upcoming executive seminar, Mobile Media: Media Opportunities and Strategies for the Mobile, Broadband Generation. I can understand why leading thinkers in mobile communications and advertising are in the program, but I don't quite yet understand the connection with bloggers. I'm looking forward to finding out. Gloria Pan, Communications Director The Media Center at API www.mediacenter.org ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Ian Smith Subject: Down to Earth Blogging In LED #1946 Ronni Rhodes asked if we might have a down to earth discussion on blogging, which is a lot like asking a group of singers to have a down to earth discussion about Stardom. There are people that are all hype and self promotion, people who are in it mostly to amuse themselves, and people who have little ambition beyond entertaining family and friends. That is blogging. And often the best bloggers are doing it purely for the fun of it. I just recently got into blogging (on my favorite topic of online marketing) and I did so for several reasons: 1. It helps me to practice writing. 2. It provides a handy place to collect the tips and links that I find useful. 3. It gives me an excuse to read all the tech news I read anyway. 4. It allows me to share what I have learned with anyone who passes by. 5. It will let me spotlight and get feedback when I test my own online marketing tactics. But I didn't start the blog to make money. As for as I can see the vast majority of online blogs (like the personal homepages that preceded them) have nothing to do with making money. Most don't even include affiliate links even when relevant products could be found. But some do try to generate income (or at least cover costs). Here are the approaches I've seen: 1. Adsense and Affiliate Links. A good example of this is cookingforengineers.com. It has a quirky topic and includes links to relevant merchants as well as Google's new famous text ad tower. They also highlight special deals at the top of the page. 2. Book (or other product) Promotion. Many people start blogs to help in promoting a new book or product that they helped to create or to distribute. They use the blog to highlight events and activities as well as highlight how the product can be purchased. A great way to use such a tactic would be to create a self-help book or ebook and then use the blog to answer reader questions. 3. Shameless Self Promotion. If there is any real business model for most blogs then this is it. Whether you are a designer, radio talk show host, doctor, or car mechanic there is nothing like walking into an interview and being able to tell your future boss "just google for my name and your problem and you will see that I've written about it extensively." The reality is that if you create a really popular blog then you can make thousands of dollars a month in Advertising. But who can count on that? Blogging is about building a relationship of trust between the reader and author and is a very poor way to make a quick buck. That said, when it comes time to sell my condo I would gladly work with a Real Estate agent who's weekly blogging on the local market I had come to rely on. That's my two cents anyway. I look forward to the discussion and I'm sure I'll learn a lot as I always do. Ian Smith http://dottactics.blogspot.com ian, individualist.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: John Smart Subject: Google toolbar > I think we are going down a slippery slope here. Today > it is book numbers, tomorrow ??? Would Dave feel > different if Google linked his product to competitor.com? - John Barendrecht, LED 1946 John raises an interesting question about how we would feel if Google linked our products to 'competitor.com'. Google has a much more frightening tool, in-house. Let me first say that I am not a Google basher! I love the company history, have many Google toys on my work PC, and install (the last version of) the Google Toolbar on all my clients PC's. But what if Google merges it's technology, and links products in to Froogle? I know that most (if not all) readers here use their web sites to generate income through sales. How many of us are selling the cheapest? I would think that most of of us are not the lowest price, if you look at the item or service on it's own, but normally we are 'bulked up' with other services. An example would be hosting. If you compared our hosting on Froogle, we would probably fair very badly if it was just a list of disk space, mail boxes, etc. But if we are able to talk with our potential client and show them all the extras they receive in quality of service - well we don't lose many customers. One of my clients makes golf clubs - he sells the parts at an inflated price which includes the cost of constructing the club. A Froogle comparison would not make him look good, but word of his work is traveling around and he is doing fantastically well - more happy customers than you would believe. At the moment you can only be listed on Froogle if you chose to be, and if you work to have the files on your server to list you there. But linking in comparable products / services to the Froogle engine shouldn't be that hard to do for the boffins at Google. John Smart InternetDesign.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Dave Starr Subject: Google toolbar > Barnes & Noble had to add links (code) to millions > of their ISBN numbers once the Google toolbar came > out because Google linked the ISBN # to Amazon. - John Barendrecht, LED 1946 Point taken about Barnes and Noble, although this still seems to be unfounded 'fact' repeated continuously in many blogs and discussion groups this past week. However, assuming it's true, it further reinforces my point. If one has ISBN numbers on their site, Google Toolbar does _not_ change the existing links to these ISBN numbers. If one has ISBN numbers on their site _without_ links, the question, with or without Google Toolbar would be, why would the ISBN numbers be there? One would expect that the website publisher took the time to put the numbers on his / her site so that people searching for a book by ISBN would find the book on that site. However, without a link from the number to the desired source for the book, what possible e-commerce could the Google Toolbar take away from that site? The basic principle of any e-commerce site is to enable people looking for your product to find it and then click on some form of 'buy the product now' link. If that form of link exists, Google does not re-direct anyone. If the link does not exist, how was the web site publisher intending to sell the product anyway? The entire argument of Google 'stealing' customers fails to hold any water, if there was any valid way for prospective customers to buy the product via the site in question in the first place. I could put the words "Rolls-Royce" on my home page. But if I had no way to sell Rolls-Royces and no link to a way to buy a Rolls-Royce, what possible business could Google "steal"? Absent a way to order the product, I will sell exactly zero Rolls Royces per year, with or without Google. Perhaps a hidden value of this controversy will be that site owners will take a closer look at how people can order product and make that "funnel" process more streamlined, thus increasing sales, even at the pain of some site editing. Regarding the other good point of Google redirecting people to my competitors, I don't presently have the business model of people buying product directly from my site. My site serves as a brochure for my services and physical products and a means to have potential customers contact me. However, even if Google expands its role to other than ISBN and VIN numbers, how can it hurt me if links to product are already established? "Does not compute, Jim", as Mr. Spock used to say. Thanks for the Butler reference, I wasn't aware of that plug in when I asserted that indeed there are other browsers, toolbars and plug ins that already effectively mimic what Google Toolbar actually does . that is highlighting specific information in a browser for users to search on. Best regards David W. Starr, Customer Solutions SatViz Incorporated www.satviz.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: RSS and more In LED 1945, I said: > We have all complained at one time or another about > some of the annoying ads associated with Web pages. > Looks like they are also coming to an RSS feed near you... In LED 1946, Steve Pronger commented: > To which I say "so what". This very digest is supported by ads, is > it not? But we continue to read it because we find the content > useful. If the ads became intrusive, inappropriate or annoying we > would stop reading it I suspect. and Kathryn Martyn commented: > Ads in RSS are not a bad thing, IMO. My point is that adding ads to RSS is really contrary to the spirit of RSS. RSS was intended to be lightweight (i.e. small size files) to let you know that there was something new on the site. It keeps being expanded and expanded until it is becoming heavyweight (ie. large size files). For example, the intent was that the feed contain a headline and a bit of info on the new item with a link to it. Far too many feeds contain the headline plus the complete new item. Now we add images and ads and ???. Considering the frequency with which aggregators (readers) check for updates (like once an hour), this just adds a lot of traffic to the Internet for no real purpose. Ideally, the RSS file should be as small as possible. The ads belong in the linked Web page, not in the feed. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Michael Linehan Subject: BuyDomains.com > I've have two domain names registered at BuyDomains.com... > Recently... I have been unable to access my accounts... Is anyone > else having this probem? What is going on with this company? - Tom Williamson, LED 1946 BuyDomains is not an accredited registrar. That may be part of the problem. I'm only a sample of one, but I keep finding that clients who have gone the route of apparent economy have trouble that far outweighs the couple of dollars saved. Michael Linehan Marketing Alchemy www.marketing-alchemy.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Reg Charie Subject: PHP search > However, there are a few issues with PHP. For one, > you can't put a TITLE tag on PHP pages that you're > calling up from your main or index page. - Renee Kennedy, LED 1946 Yes you can Renee. It all depends on the software you are using. I use CRELoaded PHP / MySQL If you check my page at http://sundancecrystals.ca/store/product_info.php?products_id=85 you will see from the source below that all the tags including title are entered. <!-- BOF: Generated Meta Tags --> <.title>Sundance Crystals 40mm Clear Bell<./title> <.meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset="iso-8859-1> <.META NAME="Description" Content="40mm Clear Bell Swarvoski Strass Austrian full lead cut crystals tied rainbows Feng Shui chi"> <.META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="40mm Clear Bell crystals Swarovski rainbows Feng Shui chi"> <.META NAME="Reply-to" CONTENT="store//sundancecrystals.ca"> <!-- EOF: Generated Meta Tags --> For those of you that are interested, CRELoaded is open source and available at www.creloaded.com Personally, I think it is the best thing since sliced bread and have a page on my site dedicated to it. (http://www.dotcom-productions.com/creloaded.htm) Thank You, Reg Charie www.dotcom-productions.com ------- new post - same topic -------- From: Veronica Yuill Subject: PHP search What you can do is program for the "title" variable into each link: < A href=" http://www.e-healthcaresolutions.com/main.php? pid=overview&title=health care medical advertising and marketing"> That's not a PHP issue though, it's a design issue. The SE spider problem is just one of the reasons I wouldn't use a single main page to serve the whole site, whether I was using PHP, ASP or anything else. You can equally well create PHP pages that do have individual titles. A common technique is to create a header include file for all your pages, which has all of the <.head> part of your HTML in it. For the title, you'd just have <.title><?=$pagetitle?><./title> Then each page defines the $pagetitle variable (either directly or by pulling it from a database) before pulling in the header include file, and the page title will automatically be substituted. You can use this same technique for the meta description and keyword tags. Much simpler to manage than having to hardcode a page title into each link IMHO. Regards Veronica Yuill Archetype Information Technology Ltd http://www.archetype-it.com/english/ ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains © Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride." - James Halliwell |
