BlogDay 2007

Update 8/31/07 at 2:46 AM: This was the absolutely hardest task that I have ever undertaken in my career as a blogger. I visited 1000+ blogs today. I Stumbled, I searched and I haunted blog rolls of bloggers I do not know. I must have seen 200 SPLOGs. However, I have found five unique and colorful blogs to share with you.


The Laments of a Broken Hearted Silhouette
http://kyels.com/wordpress/

Kyels has a wonderful blog full of thoughtful writing, beautiful photography and soulful poetry.

I’m just another mortal who is trudging along this pathway of life seeking and thriving for all the impossibilities that I believe could be possible if I work hard enough for it to happen.

Riding the Astral Plane
http://ridingtheastralplane.blogspot.com/

Titania Starlight has a beautifully designed blog about dreams. As I Stumbled around looking for new blogs, the video of Universal Angels caught my eye.

I am unique, ever-changing, always evolving. No titles can describe me as I will only change them, enigma that I am. Like attracts like is my motto. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Up in Alaska
http://arcticglass.blogspot.com/

Jill is a journalist, world-class athlete, and she is going for the Iditarod.

Maybe I could ride my first 1,000-mile month. I have 150 miles to go and three days to do it. It's easy to visualize on the last day of summer, with its warm moments surrendering to nearly effortless miles.

Shopgirl's Shanghai Lifestyle Blog
http://siyansblog.blogspot.com/

Siyan Yu is a beautiful young woman who was born in Shanghai, studies at Stockholm University, speaks several languages and will never be a shop girl! Siyan has a separate blog just for her About Me page.

Shopgirl is a real person as you may have realized! Personally I think the "About Me" section on my main blog is way too small! As a narcissistic and self absorbed little silly girl, this is the page just about me!! ME ME ME ME ME!!!

925 Studio blog
http://925studio.blogspot.com/

Pamela is a Florida metalwork artist who has recently been dabbling in random creations. She will try craft; from sock monsters to Altoid shrines, from knitted gifts to resin cast, from jewelry to gourd bird houses.

Below she bids adieu to one of her creations.

He was made out of pantyhose, stuffing and seashells.
He got a run and therefore was considered defective by me and my dog.
So out with the trash he went.
I hope he's keeping the dump happy.

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BlogDay was created by Nir Ofir with the belief that bloggers should have one day a year dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest.

On BlogDay, August 31, 2007, bloggers from all over the world will post five new blogs that they have discovered and recommend for BlogDay. Preferably, these blogs will be totally different from blogs in your own culture, blogs with your point of view and blogs out of your niche.

BlogDay will be one big link fest to new blogs from BlogDay bloggers, to Technorati and to BlogDay.org. As the day progresses, and the discovered bloggers start their BlogDay, you will get the link love back to your blog.

The BlogDay bloggers may be found by the clicking on the Technorati tag (BlogDay2007) on any blog that has this tag or from the Technorati site. Please visit BlogDay.org for links to blogs as as well.

BlogDay posting instructions:

1. Find five new blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the five bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2007
3. Write a short description of the blogs and place a link to the recommended blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
   http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2007 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

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Every week I participate in Click & Comment Monday, so I can attest to how many interesting blogs may be found by clicking from a blog that you know to another blog on their blog roll that you do not know.

So now, I am off to discover my five blogs. I will be back . . . (see update at top of post).

Tags: BlogDay2007, BlogDay.org, find five

Click & Comment Monday

Here is how I use click & comment Monday. Start on a blog. You are here, how about my blog? If you like a post on my blog, leave me a comment.

Visit one of the blogs on my blog rolls. Leave a comment somewhere on that blog. Click a blog on their blogroll and comment on that blog if you like it. Repeat.

You can skip blogs, leave comments on more blogs, follow a blog roll or just Stumble around the Internet. Try to click and comment on at least 5 blogs if you have time. I guarantee you will find some cool blogs and you will increase your readership if you do this on Mondays. Only participate if you want to find new blogs and are willing to comment.

You may view the blogroll here. Please comment before you add your URL in Mr. Linky. Thanks! If you have more than one blog, place the name of your blog in the name slot on Mr. Linky

Click & Comment Monday Participants

1. Shay 2. Pogi has Seoul

3. Scented Soy Candle Making 4. jew

Get the C&C Monday code here
View More C&C Monday Participants

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Tags: Click & Comment, click and comment Monday, visit blogs and leave comments

Carnival of Blogging Chicks is Up

There is a carnival of the blogging chicks is posted. Please visit the metablog of the Blogging Chicks and visit the carnival. There are some really awesome posts from some wonderful women bloggers -- as always! LOL

If you are a woman (sorry, guys) and would like to join the Blogging Chicks, click here and follow the instructions.

Tags: carnival, blogging chicks, join blogroll

Calling all Blog Villagers!

will be hosted here at Advertising For Success
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Submissions will be accepted NOW through
11:59 PM on August 27, 2007.

Round up your best post on blogs and blogging:

Some examples for topics:

• Why do you blog?
• What has been your best or worst blogging experience?
• What do you blog about and why?
• Share your 1st blog post?
• Share your 100th, 200th, 500th or 1000th blog post.
• Share your experiences with carnival hosting on your blog.
• . . . anything you want to share about blogging.
  

E-mail submissions as soon as you wish (with Gonzo Rodeo in subject line) to:
Rodeo Rules:

• One post per blog.
• Only English language posts will be accepted
• Family-safe content ONLY--no sexual or suggestive pictures, no profanity.

Cut and paste the following into your email for each submission:

Name or Nickname shown on post:
Blog Title:
Blog URL:
Post Title:
Post URL:

Please submit complete URLs and check them to make sure they lead to the post you submit.

Tags: Gonzo blog rodeo, blogs, blogging, Blog Villagers

Free Mobile Minutes for Watching Ads

Back in May of 2006, I wrote an article called Engagement and free premium services via Ultramercials on Advertising for Success blog. No one thought that scheme would work.

Today I saw this article: MediaPost Publications - Will Watch Ads For Minutes - 08/23/2007

From the article:

At Virgin Mobile's Sugar Mama program, there is a hard value placed on the time a visitor spends with a sponsor's ad. . . Users of the youth-oriented carrier come to the Virgin Mobile site, view ads from Ultramercial, and get pre-pay credits to their wireless account. . . According to Ultramercial, over 425,000 customers subscribe to the program, which has given away over 10 million free minutes. . . about 1,000 new users sign up a day.

This is incredible. I am going to tell my son about Sugar Mama. When he turns 18, his phone is coming off my bill that day! Let me see, if he receives one minute of air time for each one minute spent viewing an ad, then he would only have to view ads for about 30 minutes per day to get his 1000 minutes each month.

Tags: virgin mobile sugar mama, watch ads for mobile minutes

Blogger Updated Again

Blogger is now owned by Google, the dev team has implemented some updates lately that have helped bring blogspot blogs into the 21st century.

First there were customizable templates, page elements (widgets), categories, separate feeds for comments and posts, and autosaving of posts.

Somewhere around that time, font and text size changes within the post became possible with drop down menus added to compose tool bar.

Then polls, enclosures for podcasts, and the ability to specify a URL to which Blogger will redirect your feed traffic were added. Changing your comment to your blog commenters on the secure page that has, until now, been sacrosanct, is possible.

Now, there is video uploading with the ease of photo uploading with acceptable formats of AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real and Windows Media, and 100 MB maximum size. This will put your video in Blogger-branded video player on your site.

I believe that covers the recent changes. There is a Buzz Blog for updates, but not all the updates are discussed, like the eraser. The eraser is a tool that removes all formatting from the text selected. Anyone who has copied and pasted from Word or a website has experienced the frustration of having to view the HTML and fix it manually.

Now if we could just have trackbacks and Technorati tags without contortions and third-party plugins, I would be so happy. While I am making my wish list, how about a similar posts plugin. As a do-follow blogger, I give away a lot of link juice. I would like to refresh my supply. LOL

Tags: new features, blogger updated, video upload, eraser

Is Google Effecting Your AdWords Campaigns?

It has been two weeks since Google announced it was changing AdWords placement policy. Instead of using the quality score of an advertisement and the average CPC to choose which ad is placed above the natural search results, Google added the maximum CPC into the equation.

It has been said, repeatedly, that Google changed AdWords to increase profit margins. On the other hand, Google claims the change is of benefit to users by presenting better ads and that marketers now have more placement control over their advertisements.

I do not use AdWords. If you do, please drop a short comment about your experiences over the past two weeks. I am curious and I am sure other readers are as well. Thanks!

Tags: AdWords, quality score, average CPC, maximum CPC

Free AMA Webcast: Ten Secrets to Converting Leads to Revenue

Thursday, September 6, 2007 10:00 am Pacific Daylight Time
(GMT -07:00, San Francisco)

Presenters:

Paul R. Petersen, PCM Senior Director, GoldMine Business Unit
Greg Anderson, Senior Director, GoldMine Products
Marla Chupack, Moderator, American Marketing Association

All webinar attendees will receive a Marketing Success Kit, which includes:

• Ten Secrets to Converting Leads to Revenue-Help Sales Crush Their Number,
• Automating Leads to Sales-Prioritize Leads Stop Tracking Dead Leads
• Creating a Customer-Centric Marketing Organization

Free! --) Registration required.

Tags: webcast, AMA, marketing

Michael Vick & Lindsey Lohan Make Content King

Research Brief » Blog Archive » Content Replaces Communications As Primary Web Use- read article

From the article:

According to the Online Publishers Association, Internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content, a 37% increase in share of time from four years ago. The Internet Activity Index, conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings, shows that communications accounted for 46% of consumers' time online in 2003. A dramatic shift has taken place since then, with consumers now spending 47% of their time with content and only 33% with communication.

From the website of Online Publishers Association:

The Internet Activity Index divides Internet use into four distinct activities: content, communications, commerce and search.

In July, increased photo sharing, Michael Vick and Lindsey Lohan contributed to a 2.6% lift in Content’s share of time.

Definitions:

• Content - Web sites and Internet applications that are designed primarily to provide news, information and entertainment. Examples of those included in this segment are CNN.com, ESPN.com, Windows Media Player and MapQuest.
  
  
• Communications - Web sites and Internet applications that are designed to facilitate the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information directly between individuals or groups of individuals. Examples of those included in this segment are Yahoo! Mail, AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Groups.
  
  
• Commerce - Web sites and Internet applications that are designed for shopping online. Examples of those included in this segment are Amazon, eBay, Shopping.com and Dell.com.
  
  
• Search - Web sites and Internet applications that scan the Web to provide prioritized results based on specific criteria from user-generated requests. Examples of those included in this segment are Google Search, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search.

Each of these areas has a distinctly different business model associated with it, leading to a natural and healthy segmentation of the marketplace.

Tags: Online Publishers Association, Nielsen//NetRatings, Research Brief

End of an Age? Ads on YouTube!

Just An Online Minute » Blog Archive » Just An Online Minute… YouTube Ads Get Mixed Reviews - read complete article

From the article:

Some complain that the ads, which appear on the bottom fifth of the page, cut off other viewers’ written comments, while others are asking how to opt out of the ads. Some have simply announced they intend to abandon the site.

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Marketers are paying $20 CPMs to display their advertisements. YouTube is limiting ads to content partners due to copyright issues. So you will not see advertisements on questionable videos.

Free services must be paid for by someone. It was only a matter of time before YouTube videos were monetized in some way. There is a lot of white space on YouTube, so I keep expecting to see Google Ads on the web site. I did see banners for MSN search!? What is next? Paying us for searching on their engine? Hey, now that dog will hunt . . . LOL

What Shopping Gene Do You Have?

AMP Agency recently surveyed over 3K women (age 18-49) to discover how women approach shopping. They determined that how a woman approaches shopping remains the same regardless of changes in age, socio-economic status, number of children at home, geographical location or life stage.

Read the article: Research Brief » Blog Archive » Women’s Mind-Set Defines Shopping Habits

From the article:

The report states that there are distinct approaches to shopping, and identified and segmented women across four distinct mind-sets or "Shopping Genes" :

• The Content Responsibles (Practical, Loyal, Efficient)
• The Natural Hybrids (Confident, Balanced, Classic)
• The Social Catalysts (Social, Smart, Trendy)
• The Cultural Artists (Creative, Impulsive, Adventurous)

Download the PDF of Women Amplified (Unraveling her shopping DNA: AMP Agency Reveals Four Lifelong Shopping Mind-Sets) from AMP Agency.

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This study finds that we are born with shopping behaviors, and they are set in stone. I disagree, but see what you think.

When I was young, I was a Social Catalyst. As I aged and then became a mother, I turned into a Social Hybrid. Now I am a Content Responsible. I have never been a Cultural Artist; mostly, I believe, because I have never had money to burn.

Which reminds me, where do thrift shoppers fall in these categories? We are the women who take atavistic pleasure in finding the designer dress or shoes at Goodwill, and find it extremely relaxing to spend a day fingering the remnants of other people's lives.

What mindset are you?

Tags: AMP Agency, shopping behaviors, content responsible, social hybrid, social catalyst, cultural artists, shopping genes, research brief

Can You Answer These 6 Questions?

Do you have a marketing story? How do you tell it? According to this article, you must ask the following questions:

1. How will your product or service change your customer?
2. Is what you have to say different?
3. Do you know how to tell your story?
4. Can you say it boldly?
5. Who is your target audience?
6. Can you take the heat?

For the answers you must answer read Six Questions to Inspire a Successful Marketing Story, an article by Jerry Bader, senior partner in MRPwebmedia, a Web site design firm that specializes in Web audio and video.

Click the link below to find the answers and some food for thought about marketing.
Six Questions to Inspire a Successful Marketing Story - Articles by Marketing Profs

Tags: 6 questions, marketing, marketing story

Great Ads : Berlitz Ads

Adrants » Berlitz Bounces Back with Homoerotic Hammer-Time

Tags: Berlitz ads, Adrants

Help Me : I have a Poll Up

I have added a poll to my sidebar. I would appreciate if you would look at the comment page (the page that comes up when you want to leave a comment). Read what I have written to spammers and give me your honest opinion.

After voting, please leave a comment here about your thoughts and your blog URL. At the end of the poll (6 days), I will choose one commenter at random for a prize.




The winner may choose their prize from latest Police CD set.

Life Coach Clay Nelson's Getting Started Series

Or a small cash prize as yet to be determined.



I appreciate your taking the time to help me improve my blog.

Tags: poll, contest, comments, comment to spammers

Click and Comment Monday

Here is how I use click & comment Monday. Start on a blog. You are here, how about my blog? If you like a post on my blog, leave me a comment.


Visit one of the blogs on my blog rolls. Leave a comment somewhere on that blog. Click a blog on their blogroll and comment on that blog if you like it. Repeat.

You can skip blogs, leave comments on more blogs, follow a blog roll or just Stumble around the Internet. Try to click and comment on at least 5 blogs if you have time. I guarantee you will find some cool blogs and you will increase your readership if you do this on Mondays (or any day). Only participate if you want to find new blogs and are willing to comment.

You may view the blogroll here. Please comment before you add your URL in Mr. Linky. Thanks! If you have more than one blog, place the name of your blog in the name slot on Mr. Linky.

Tags: Click & Comment, click and comment Monday, visit blogs and leave comments

Yahoo Local Search Updated

Yahoo! Refreshes, Redesigns Local « Screenwerk - read article

From the article:

The site is basically divided into three primary tabbed sections: City Guide, My Local (saved content) and Directory (categories). Indeed, while search remains central to the site, there’s a great deal more category and browse functionality. Overall the product appears to be more elegant and complete than its predecessor. Maps are still featured, but not as a central metaphor or visual element and much more in a functional way.

Visit YahooLocal.

Tags: Yahoo local search

Beware of the Google Cobalts

MediaPost Publications - The GoogleBalt's Great American Road Trip: Five Street-View Optimization Tips - 08/17/2007 - read entire post

From the post:

The Street View feature was added to Google Maps in May, and it shows a full 360-degree view of locations at the street level, captured by one of the many roving Cobalts equipped with rooftop cameras – sort of like Google Earth at the ground level.

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Some surprising items have been captured by the cameras. Marijuana growing on a window sill; people scratching, changing clothes, adjusting body parts and relieving themselves; private moments that should not have been public. In fact, the article refers to shades and blinds as the new robots.txt and as close to noindex/nofollow as you are likely to get.

There is a website for the not ready for publication pictures at StreetViewFun.com.

Tags: Google Maps, Street View, street-level views, day in the life

Massive Marketing Mistake

Did you know that placing a tonneau cover on your pickup truck bed can increase your gas mileage by 7-10 percent? I read this on a biodiesel forum and then went searching to see if it is true. I found numerous references to the gas savings.

Now, I am just baffled. If marketers know that a product will save gasoline, why are they not using it in their advertising for these aftermarket products? Trucks are notorious gas guzzlers and adding three to five miles per gallon is quite a cost savings.

Tags: tonneau cover, increase mpg, truck mpg

AdMob and iPhones

We knew it would not take long for advertisers to tap the iPhone market.



Adrants » AdMob to Mob iPhones Owners With Ads - read the post

From the post:

Mobile phone ad network AdMob just launched a new iPhone-specific ad unit that will help advertisers and content publisher reach iPhone fanatics. Hopefully, a quick flick will lessen the length or their annoyance.

.

Tags: AdMob, iPhones, ads on iPhones

Are we Ready for Imus in the Morning?

Advertising Age - MediaWorks - If Imus Comes Back, Some Advertisers Are Likely to Follow
- read complete article

From the article:

Media reports were buzzing today that the radio host, fired by CBS and MSNBC from his "Imus in the Morning" show in April after he made controversial comments regarding members of the Rutgers University women's basketball team, might be negotiating with WABC-AM. A spokeswoman said she had no comment regarding the reported discussions when contacted by Ad Age.

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I guess I am not adverse to Imus coming back on the air. He has apologized in person to the young women he vilified and, I would hope, he has learned his lesson. I believe lots of people learned the lesson with him. Racial epithets have no place in today's world if we are to teach our children how to get along in the world.

What do you think? Do you think Mr. Imus should return to the air? Do you care? Let me know.

Tags: Imus returns, racist epithets

Click and Comment Monday

Here is how I use click & comment Monday. Start on a blog. You are here, how about my blog? If you like a post on my blog, leave me a comment.

Visit one of the blogs on my blog rolls. Leave a comment somewhere on that blog. Click a blog on their blogroll and comment on that blog if you like it. Repeat.

You can skip blogs, leave comments on more blogs, follow a blog roll or just Stumble around the Internet. Try to click and comment on at least 5 blogs if you have time. I guarantee you will find some cool blogs and you will increase your readership if you do this on Mondays. Only participate if you want to find new blogs and are willing to comment.

You may view the blogroll here. Please comment before you add your URL in Mr. Linky. Thanks! If you have more than one blog, place the name of your blog in the name slot on Mr. Linky

Update: This C&C Monday continues from last Monday. I am out of town so I can see the Perseid meteors, so I took the slacker way out.

Click & Comment Monday Participants

1. Drew 2. Chase 3. drvenom

4. Pogi 5. nose bleeds 6. Eliot

Get the C&C Monday code here
View More C&C Monday Participants

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Tags: Click & Comment, click and comment Monday, visit blogs and leave comments

Behavioral Advertising Targeted by FTC

FTC to Host Town Hall to Examine Privacy Issues and Online Behavioral Advertising

Ehavioral Advertising: Tracking, Targeting, and Technology.

November 1-2, 2007
FTC Conference Center
601 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001

• Request to be a panelist or speaker, or to put submit other related topics for consideration by September 14, 2007 to:
  behavioraladvertising_requests@ftc.gov
  
  
• Submit comments via e-mail October 19, 2007 to:
  behavioraladvertising_comments@ftc.gov.

View a live Webcast of the Town Hall on the FTC’s Web site. Pre-registration is not required. For further information, please consult the FTC Web site at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/ehavioral/index.shtml.

Tags: FTC, behavioral targeting, ehavioral advertising, town meeting, Federal Trade Commission

Does Search Engine Marketing Scare You?

Dorian Birkoil scared the h*ll out of some marketers with his article last week: When Will Programmable and Semantic Search Replace Spiders and Web Crawling? -- Jack Myers Media Village

Google's new system, say the experts, will add layers of context, delve into rich media and make search results increasingly relevant to individual users. Carefully reading five patents Google applied for earlier this year, Bear Stearns analysts identify Google's next step as the Programmable Search Engine (PSE).

This week, Search Insider addresses some of the theories that came out of that report in this post on Search Insider » Blog Archive » Evolving Requirements For SEO.

Requirements for SEO would be anathema to the search engines. It would create a hierarchy of haves and have-nots, and it would also create new headaches for the search engines. Their goal is to index everything on the Web and then organize it by what’s relevant for each query.

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I have a feeling that the truth is betwixt the two. As search engine marketing (SEM) becomes more complex, I see the search engines refining their methods and website owners and search engine optimization (SEO) firms doing more and more to get their content out there.

Until Jill Whalen tells me I need to do something, I will just keep rocking along.

Tags: SEO, SEM, Search Insider, Dorian Burkoil

SPLOGS are as rampant as ever

Today was a good discussion on a marketing forum about a member finding a complete copy of her blog online--name, images, theme, skins, advertisements, and blog posts. To add insult to injury, the images were hot linked to her blog!

I find my content all over the net, sometimes credited and sometimes not. There is not much you can do if you publish your feeds. I have heard of a WordPress plugin for adding copyright information to your feed.

Week in review: Rights and wrongs on copyright | CNET News.com

Meanwhile, many bloggers feel they are being ripped off by automated digital plagiarism, in which software bots copy thousands of blog posts per hour and publish them verbatim onto Web sites on which contextual ads next to them can generate money for the site owner. (read complete article).

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How big a problem is plagiarism to you and your website or blog? What security measures do you take to protect your images, content and design? Do you have an horror stories to relate?

Tags: plagiarism, copyright, SPLOGs

The 10 Types of Bloggers

Ethical bloggers try to annotate our articles, giving credit where due; however, some times we may get something from a newsletter or another blogger with no idea where it originated.

If you publish the work of other writers on your blog, you should remember to ask permission or at least be sure you link back to the original article. Sometimes this is difficult, but try to get to the source.

The following article is reprinted with permission.

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Here are the results of my review and the 10 types of bloggers I found. You'll notice that they range from good to bad to sleazy.

1. Good: People who ask permission to reprint your article and add a bio with links back as requested. These are people who are generally looking to add some content to their own sites. They usually republish the article in full, and are happy to add whatever bio and links you specify.

2. Good: People who republish without asking permission but at least link back to the original article. I don't really have a problem with the folks who haven't asked permission if they at least have the courtesy of linking back to the original article. Sure, it's not as great as controlling what the links say in a bio, but it's generally fine.

3. Good: People who blog about something you wrote and who link to your original article, providing their own unique commentary or spin to go with it. This is the best type of blog post as it isn't a complete dupe of yours, and it gives credit where credit is due. Watch out, however, as sometimes these types of blog posts are critical of what you're written. Personally, I have no problem whether people agree or disagree as that's the foundation for blogging.

4. Okay: People who blog about what some other blogger blogged about, and link to both the original article and the blogger's commentary. I probably should put this one in the "good" category -- as it really is fine -- but it still is irksome when the secondary blogger's post seems to get more credit than the original piece.

5. Bad: People who blog about what some other blogger blogged about it (as in #4 above), but who link back only to the blogger and not the original. I was surprised at how prevalent this one was. I don't think that most people intend to snub the original author, but it happens a lot! Sure, you could say it's okay because the post they DO link to posts that link back to the original, but that's just not good enough. I strongly believe that the original writer should get credit where credit is due in a more direct manner.

6. Bad: People who blog on the topic and then Digg their OWN post instead of the original. I almost put this in the "sleazy" category, but I guess it's sort of borderline. It seems to me if the topic is Digg-worthy, it should be the original article or post that gets Digged. Unfortunately, that's often not the case.

7. Sleazy: People who don't ask to republish but do it anyway, and don't even link back! When they don't even put the original author's name on it, I believe it's copyright infringement. If they do mention the author's name, but never link back to them in some manner, it's pretty sleazy in my book.

8. Sleazy: Scrapers who link or don't link, but add contextual link ads and other crap to the content. Unfortunately, this is extremely prevalent these days. I would guess that a good portion of those 93,000 results in Google fall into this category. I can't imagine those pages actually get any traffic, so I'm not sure what the point is. The next 2 don't quite fit into the good, bad, or sleazy categories, but were additional types I noted:

9. Strange: People who blog but somehow get their facts wrong. One post got the name of the organization (SEMNE) wrong and called it SEMPO. I'm not sure why or how, as it was right there in black and white. I don't believe there was any malicious intent going on, but it was strange nonetheless. (It was corrected immediately upon notification, so that was good!)

10. Dumbasses: People who just blog it cuz everyone else is. Good blog posts are good for a reason. Simply writing about something because everyone else has is not a good blog post. 'Nuff said! And on that note, I implore you to look at your own blogging practices to see if you fit in any of the categories above. If so, here's hoping it's one of the good ones!

CEO and founder of High Rankings®, Jill Whalen has been performing search engine optimization since 1995 and is the host of the free High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter, author of “The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" and founder/administrator of the popular High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum. In 2006, Jill co-founded SEMNE, a local search engine marketing networking organization for people and companies in New England.

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Incorrect linking may affect the author's search engine standing. For more information, you may want to read Do You Know What Google is Doing to Andy Beard on CoolAdzine for Marketers.

Tags: editorial credit, linking back, 10 types of bloggers

AMA Webcast : Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics for Marketing Professionals:
Graphics Breakthroughs for Coaxing Insights from Marketing Data

Thursday, August 16, 2007 10:00 am
Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -07:00, San Francisco)

Presenters:

Kevin Brown, VP Marketing - Tableau Software

Marla Chupack, Moderator, American Marketing Association

• How this technology will help you “ask questions and get answers” using a true graphics breakthrough
  
  
• How visual analysis “snaps into” your present desktop software environment
  
  
• How to tackle marketing data projects that have been on the back-burner for way too long
  

Free, but registration is required

Tags: webcast, AMA, marketing

Whispering Windows Works for Canada

MediaPost Publications - Out to Launch - 08/01/2007


Whispering Windows technology kicks in when a person passes within a certain distance of the display. The Canadian Tourism Commission launched a campaign in New York City to attract passersby to Canada. Listen to what stopped the people above.

Tags: whispering windows, window wraps

Go to YouTube and Watch . . .

. . . the Superbad videos.

Are You Superbad?

Superbad is the new movie by the people that brought you the 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. I just happened to catch the 40-Year-Old Virgin on HBO this weekend. I did not expect to like it, but I did! It was the type of movie where you are at times embarrassed, amused and moved. I was actually cheering for the virgin by the end. From the previews, it looks like Superbad will be the same type of humor.

Superbad is the story of two lifelong friends, Seth and Evan, during their last year of high school. You can image what happens when they discover they will not be attending the same college. All of a sudden, they have to experience everything--in one night.

Seth and Evan adopt Fogell as a friend after they learn he is going to buy a fake ID. How Fogell thinks he can pass as being 21 is beyond me. You will laugh as you watch him try to use his ID in the liquor store. His fake name is McLovin; no first name, no last name, just McLovin. This leads to a classic line that I will not give away here.

The movie will not be released until August 17. In the meantime, visit the Superbad site for links to free downloads like free wall paper, buddy icons and ringtones. You can add a widget to your social networking website, like MySpace and Facebook. Check out the sound track and MySpace profiles for the characters in the movie.

There are some funny people in this movie. You will see people you know, from Saturday Night Live and Reno 911. The only newbie in the group is McLovin and you will never forget him.

Tags: McLovin, YouTube, Are You Superbad?, Superbad