Yahoo! News - Bloggers offer witness accounts, ways to help quake and tsunami victims:
"NEW YORK (AFP) - Blogs from around the world are offering instant witness reports from the region affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that the traditional media cannot match, as well as links to relief groups for readers seeking to provide immediate help. "
Thursday
What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists
Poynter Online - What Bloggers Can Learn From Journalists
Steve Outing makes a somve very good points in this article discussing how bloggers must be careful what they say on their blogs. Copyright violations and libel will be two things that every blogger will have to be careful to avoid.
Here is a quote from Steve's piece:
"But having an editor involved -- even if it's immediately after hitting the Publish button, a.k.a. back-editing -- is a brilliant idea, even for solo bloggers. An extra pair of eyes can certainly help to catch spelling, grammar, and factual errors, but more importantly they can catch really dangerous issues -- such as when you're about to libel someone.
With so many new people involved in blogging, most of them having no training in journalism practices, ethics, and media law, personal legal liability is a big deal. Bloggers publishing without the protection of an employer to pay for their libel defense are on their own should they make a mistake. In the years ahead, I expect to see some solo bloggers get in trouble -- and some get driven to personal ruin when they lose libel lawsuits. It's a wonder it hasn't happened yet.
Ah, but some bloggers say, audience members are our editors. Mistakes are pointed out quickly and bloggers readily acknowledge and correct their errors in plain sight. Good point, but a blog item that libels someone will remain on the record, likely archived for a good long time, and a libelous statement left online for even a day puts a blogger at tremendous risk. So bloggers, take a tip from traditional journalists and find yourself some form of editing safety net."
Steve Outing makes a somve very good points in this article discussing how bloggers must be careful what they say on their blogs. Copyright violations and libel will be two things that every blogger will have to be careful to avoid.
Here is a quote from Steve's piece:
"But having an editor involved -- even if it's immediately after hitting the Publish button, a.k.a. back-editing -- is a brilliant idea, even for solo bloggers. An extra pair of eyes can certainly help to catch spelling, grammar, and factual errors, but more importantly they can catch really dangerous issues -- such as when you're about to libel someone.
With so many new people involved in blogging, most of them having no training in journalism practices, ethics, and media law, personal legal liability is a big deal. Bloggers publishing without the protection of an employer to pay for their libel defense are on their own should they make a mistake. In the years ahead, I expect to see some solo bloggers get in trouble -- and some get driven to personal ruin when they lose libel lawsuits. It's a wonder it hasn't happened yet.
Ah, but some bloggers say, audience members are our editors. Mistakes are pointed out quickly and bloggers readily acknowledge and correct their errors in plain sight. Good point, but a blog item that libels someone will remain on the record, likely archived for a good long time, and a libelous statement left online for even a day puts a blogger at tremendous risk. So bloggers, take a tip from traditional journalists and find yourself some form of editing safety net."
Tuesday
19 yr old makes $5000/mo blogging - Fortune Article
Is Google Worth $165 a Share? :
This is what I'm teaching in my Blogging Course @ http://successblog.biz. My goal is to help hundreds of people do what Jon is doing. Making a great living doing something that they enjoy!
"Jon Gales loves Google, but not for the reason you might think. It's a terrific search engine, sure, but what Gales really likes is that Google is making him money. Gales's website, Mobiletracker.net, is a compendium of news and reviews about cellphones that after a year and a half attracts about 200,000 users a month. Google supplies the ads for the site, visitors click on the ads, and because of the site's popularity, Google sends Gales monthly checks of $5,000 or more.
That's a decent chunk of change for any sole proprietor. But for Gales, the numbers are eye-popping. He's only 19 and lives expense-free at home with his parents in Tampa, posting four or five items in the course of the day while parked on the living room couch with his laptop. Says Gales: 'If things keep going the way they are going, I'll be making more money than my dad next year.' "
This is what I'm teaching in my Blogging Course @ http://successblog.biz. My goal is to help hundreds of people do what Jon is doing. Making a great living doing something that they enjoy!
"Jon Gales loves Google, but not for the reason you might think. It's a terrific search engine, sure, but what Gales really likes is that Google is making him money. Gales's website, Mobiletracker.net, is a compendium of news and reviews about cellphones that after a year and a half attracts about 200,000 users a month. Google supplies the ads for the site, visitors click on the ads, and because of the site's popularity, Google sends Gales monthly checks of $5,000 or more.
That's a decent chunk of change for any sole proprietor. But for Gales, the numbers are eye-popping. He's only 19 and lives expense-free at home with his parents in Tampa, posting four or five items in the course of the day while parked on the living room couch with his laptop. Says Gales: 'If things keep going the way they are going, I'll be making more money than my dad next year.' "
Local site a top dog in Web logs
Local site a top dog in Web logs:
"A fraudulent document and a fallen television icon propelled a trio of online writers to Internet stardom earlier this year when they used their Web site, Power Line, to help uncover the truth of a fake story shown on CBS' '60 Minutes.'
The rise to celebrity status was validated Sunday when Time magazine named Twin Cities-based Power Line the 'Blog of the Year,' the first such award from the magazine.
'It's so gratifying,' said Scott Johnson, a Minneapolis banker and one of three authors at the site (www.powerlineblog.com). 'It's totally unexpected.'"
"A fraudulent document and a fallen television icon propelled a trio of online writers to Internet stardom earlier this year when they used their Web site, Power Line, to help uncover the truth of a fake story shown on CBS' '60 Minutes.'
The rise to celebrity status was validated Sunday when Time magazine named Twin Cities-based Power Line the 'Blog of the Year,' the first such award from the magazine.
'It's so gratifying,' said Scott Johnson, a Minneapolis banker and one of three authors at the site (www.powerlineblog.com). 'It's totally unexpected.'"
Time: Powerline.com Blog Of The Year
kare11.com : Minneapolis, St. Paul:
Time Magazine has picked a Twin Cities-produced Web site as its 2004 'Blog of the Year.'
The site, Power Line, is produced by Minneapolis lawyers John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, along with Washington-based lawyer Paul Mirengoff. The site gained attention this election year for challenging mainstream media reporting from a conservative perspective, including a story by '60 Minutes' relating to President Bush's service in the National Guard.
'Blog' is short for Web log, and Time Magazine says the medium vaulted to newfound prominence in 2004, alongside TV, radio and magazines.
Johnson tells the magazine that the mainstream media acts as a 'filter' that makes it difficult to understand what's going on in reality. He says Power Line tries to, quote, 'bring people closer to reality.'
Johnson is an attorney and senior vice president at TCF Bank in Minneapolis. Hinderaker is with the Minneapolis law firm Faegre and Benson.
http://powerlineblog.com
Time Magazine has picked a Twin Cities-produced Web site as its 2004 'Blog of the Year.'
The site, Power Line, is produced by Minneapolis lawyers John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson, along with Washington-based lawyer Paul Mirengoff. The site gained attention this election year for challenging mainstream media reporting from a conservative perspective, including a story by '60 Minutes' relating to President Bush's service in the National Guard.
'Blog' is short for Web log, and Time Magazine says the medium vaulted to newfound prominence in 2004, alongside TV, radio and magazines.
Johnson tells the magazine that the mainstream media acts as a 'filter' that makes it difficult to understand what's going on in reality. He says Power Line tries to, quote, 'bring people closer to reality.'
Johnson is an attorney and senior vice president at TCF Bank in Minneapolis. Hinderaker is with the Minneapolis law firm Faegre and Benson.
http://powerlineblog.com
Sunday
Several Hosts Disable Movable Type as Comment Spam Slows Servers
Comment spam attacks on Movable Type weblogs are straining servers at web hosting companies, leading some providers to disable comments on the popular blogging tool. The issues are caused by bugs in MT, forcing publisher Six Apart to recommend configuration changes while it prepares fixes.
The server load issues have affected "a number of web hosts," according to Six Apart's Jay Allen, and are "especially evident in shared hosting environments." Allen said the problems are tied to two bugs that cause Movable Type to rebuild posts even when no pages are being changed, allowing comment spam attacks to tie up server resources. Six Apart is promising a fix within 48 hours.
Comment spam, also known as link spam, is believed to boost a site's ranking in Google, which uses inbound links as a measure of a site's popularity. Spammers are using automated scripts to bombard weblogs with comments that include links to sites offering prescription drugs or porn. While weblogs on all platforms have been affected, Movable Type and its mt-comments.cgi script have become a particular target.
"Over the past two weeks, five hosts have in some way disabled MT or MT comments because of the server load they were creating," writes MT blogger Reid Stott. "Not five little Mom & Pop hosts - at least three of them I’d consider serious to top-notch hosts." Other bloggers also reported web hosts disabling MT scripts. One said their host, XO Communications, disabled MT after seeing 100 active connections to mt-comments.cgi, suspecting a denial of service attack was underway.
In shared hosting, dozens and even hundreds of sites can share the same web server, meaning that overactive scripts on a single site can impact many other customers. As a result, hosts will disable resource-hogging scripts, usually by changing their permissions so they can't be executed. Repeated problems can prompt a hosting company to ban a script or application from its servers. Movable Type users fear continuing comment spam problems could prompt such a "death sentence" from more hosts.
Six Apart, which also operates the TypePad blog hosting service, says it is working with web hosts on a resolution. "We have learned a lot from running TypePad, and we're working on a way to share that information out with the hosting community at large," says Anil Dash of Six Apart.
While they await a fix, some bloggers are collecting tips and strategies to help reduce comment spam and server load. Six Apart says it is determined to fix the software, and develop broader solutions to the comment spam problem. "There is no higher priority to us than making sure that our customers and their websites are protected from the effects of these malicious attacks," said Allen.
The server load issues have affected "a number of web hosts," according to Six Apart's Jay Allen, and are "especially evident in shared hosting environments." Allen said the problems are tied to two bugs that cause Movable Type to rebuild posts even when no pages are being changed, allowing comment spam attacks to tie up server resources. Six Apart is promising a fix within 48 hours.
Comment spam, also known as link spam, is believed to boost a site's ranking in Google, which uses inbound links as a measure of a site's popularity. Spammers are using automated scripts to bombard weblogs with comments that include links to sites offering prescription drugs or porn. While weblogs on all platforms have been affected, Movable Type and its mt-comments.cgi script have become a particular target.
"Over the past two weeks, five hosts have in some way disabled MT or MT comments because of the server load they were creating," writes MT blogger Reid Stott. "Not five little Mom & Pop hosts - at least three of them I’d consider serious to top-notch hosts." Other bloggers also reported web hosts disabling MT scripts. One said their host, XO Communications, disabled MT after seeing 100 active connections to mt-comments.cgi, suspecting a denial of service attack was underway.
In shared hosting, dozens and even hundreds of sites can share the same web server, meaning that overactive scripts on a single site can impact many other customers. As a result, hosts will disable resource-hogging scripts, usually by changing their permissions so they can't be executed. Repeated problems can prompt a hosting company to ban a script or application from its servers. Movable Type users fear continuing comment spam problems could prompt such a "death sentence" from more hosts.
Six Apart, which also operates the TypePad blog hosting service, says it is working with web hosts on a resolution. "We have learned a lot from running TypePad, and we're working on a way to share that information out with the hosting community at large," says Anil Dash of Six Apart.
While they await a fix, some bloggers are collecting tips and strategies to help reduce comment spam and server load. Six Apart says it is determined to fix the software, and develop broader solutions to the comment spam problem. "There is no higher priority to us than making sure that our customers and their websites are protected from the effects of these malicious attacks," said Allen.
TIME: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs
TIME Person of the Year 2004: 10 Things We Learned About Blogs:
"Radio had its golden age in the 1930s. In the 1950s, it was television's turn. Historians may well date the golden age of the blog from 2004�when Merriam-Webster.com's most searched-for definition was blog. How long can it last? Who knows? Here's what we discovered about the new medium this year"
Bloggers Make Money (Most important item)
Earn a living in your pajamas! Online ads (along with Google's automated ad server) allow popular bloggers to go pro. Joshua Micah Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.com, a political blog, says he makes $5,000 a month from banner ads—enough to hire a research assistant.
"Radio had its golden age in the 1930s. In the 1950s, it was television's turn. Historians may well date the golden age of the blog from 2004�when Merriam-Webster.com's most searched-for definition was blog. How long can it last? Who knows? Here's what we discovered about the new medium this year"
Bloggers Make Money (Most important item)
Earn a living in your pajamas! Online ads (along with Google's automated ad server) allow popular bloggers to go pro. Joshua Micah Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.com, a political blog, says he makes $5,000 a month from banner ads—enough to hire a research assistant.
Thursday
Fired for blogging
Moral of the story: Bloggers have to be careful not to offend those they work for or work with. Unlike a personal journal, a blog can be read by anyone including your boss and co-workers. The best solution is to become a Full Time Blogger!
By Ellen Simonetti
My name is Ellen Simonetti, but I am better known to Web surfers as the Queen of Sky.
I had been a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines for almost eight years when I started my blog, or online diary, in January of this year. I entitled it "Diary of a Flight Attendant."
On Saturday, Sept. 25, I came home to flashing messages on my answering machine.
"Ellen, I need you to call me back. It's about your trip tomorrow," repeated the urgent-sounding voice on the tape.
The voice was that of a Delta Air Lines in-flight supervisor. I immediately dialed the number on the messages, thinking perhaps my Rome flight the next day had been cancelled. What the supervisor told me, however, left me shocked and sick to my stomach.
The reason I started my blog in the first place was as a form of therapy. "You won't be able to fly your trip tomorrow...it's about some pictures on the Web."
I had to wait more than a week after that phone call to meet with Delta management and find out exactly what was going on. During that very long week, I lived in suspense in my humble Austin, Texas, apartment and prepared for the worst. I assumed I would be fired, so I started consulting with lawyers and other people.
That was when I began to hear stories about people like Heather B. Armstrong, of dooce.com, who was fired because of her blog in 2002. Then there was "the Washingtonienne," who was fired earlier this year because of comments she entered in her blog.
As my story spread on the Web, I started receiving all kinds of e-mails from people on both sides of the Atlantic that employer blog backlash had gotten to. One, a comedian who wished to remain anonymous, told me she was fired from her day job after making a joke about co-workers on her blog.
I have decided to continue to blog and spread my story about employer blog backlash. The very first thing I did after the phone call from Delta was delete all of the photographs from my blog that I thought my employer could possibly have a problem with. That included all of the pictures of me and fellow crew members posing in Delta Air Lines uniforms.
It was not until the meeting with human resources and my supervisor on Wednesday, Oct. 6, that I learned the official reason for my suspension: "inappropriate" pictures. The unofficial reason (implied through an intimidating interrogation): blogging.
The reason I started my blog in the first place was as a form of therapy. I had lost my mother in September 2003 to cancer and that hit me hard. It was much easier to write about my feelings than talk about them. Now, my employer was telling me that the very thing that had gotten me through those tough times, my blog, could cost me my career. I felt my rights were being infringed upon. And I decided to fight back.
After that meeting, I went home and got online and found plenty of pictures of male Delta Air Lines employees in uniform on the Web. I then searched for a specific company policy prohibiting posting pictures on the Web or blogging, which I could not find.
I had an excellent employment record with Delta Air Lines and had never been previously disciplined. Therefore, I find it odd that I was not at least given a warning before my suspension. I am still trying to figure out why I was singled out. In fact, two days after that meeting with Delta Air Lines management, I filed a sex discrimination complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Delta Air Lines.
Then, on Oct. 29, 2004, three weeks after I filed that discrimination complaint, I received a call from my supervisor. He advised me over the phone that my employment with Delta Air Lines had been terminated due to "inappropriate pictures in uniform on the Web."
I have decided to continue to blog and spread my story about employer blog backlash. If it is to be defeated, we all have to stand up to this silent and arbitrary foe, one that should never again be allowed to rear its ugly head.
I was fired for blogging
By Ellen Simonetti
My name is Ellen Simonetti, but I am better known to Web surfers as the Queen of Sky.
I had been a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines for almost eight years when I started my blog, or online diary, in January of this year. I entitled it "Diary of a Flight Attendant."
On Saturday, Sept. 25, I came home to flashing messages on my answering machine.
"Ellen, I need you to call me back. It's about your trip tomorrow," repeated the urgent-sounding voice on the tape.
The voice was that of a Delta Air Lines in-flight supervisor. I immediately dialed the number on the messages, thinking perhaps my Rome flight the next day had been cancelled. What the supervisor told me, however, left me shocked and sick to my stomach.
The reason I started my blog in the first place was as a form of therapy. "You won't be able to fly your trip tomorrow...it's about some pictures on the Web."
I had to wait more than a week after that phone call to meet with Delta management and find out exactly what was going on. During that very long week, I lived in suspense in my humble Austin, Texas, apartment and prepared for the worst. I assumed I would be fired, so I started consulting with lawyers and other people.
That was when I began to hear stories about people like Heather B. Armstrong, of dooce.com, who was fired because of her blog in 2002. Then there was "the Washingtonienne," who was fired earlier this year because of comments she entered in her blog.
As my story spread on the Web, I started receiving all kinds of e-mails from people on both sides of the Atlantic that employer blog backlash had gotten to. One, a comedian who wished to remain anonymous, told me she was fired from her day job after making a joke about co-workers on her blog.
I have decided to continue to blog and spread my story about employer blog backlash. The very first thing I did after the phone call from Delta was delete all of the photographs from my blog that I thought my employer could possibly have a problem with. That included all of the pictures of me and fellow crew members posing in Delta Air Lines uniforms.
It was not until the meeting with human resources and my supervisor on Wednesday, Oct. 6, that I learned the official reason for my suspension: "inappropriate" pictures. The unofficial reason (implied through an intimidating interrogation): blogging.
The reason I started my blog in the first place was as a form of therapy. I had lost my mother in September 2003 to cancer and that hit me hard. It was much easier to write about my feelings than talk about them. Now, my employer was telling me that the very thing that had gotten me through those tough times, my blog, could cost me my career. I felt my rights were being infringed upon. And I decided to fight back.
After that meeting, I went home and got online and found plenty of pictures of male Delta Air Lines employees in uniform on the Web. I then searched for a specific company policy prohibiting posting pictures on the Web or blogging, which I could not find.
I had an excellent employment record with Delta Air Lines and had never been previously disciplined. Therefore, I find it odd that I was not at least given a warning before my suspension. I am still trying to figure out why I was singled out. In fact, two days after that meeting with Delta Air Lines management, I filed a sex discrimination complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Delta Air Lines.
Then, on Oct. 29, 2004, three weeks after I filed that discrimination complaint, I received a call from my supervisor. He advised me over the phone that my employment with Delta Air Lines had been terminated due to "inappropriate pictures in uniform on the Web."
I have decided to continue to blog and spread my story about employer blog backlash. If it is to be defeated, we all have to stand up to this silent and arbitrary foe, one that should never again be allowed to rear its ugly head.
I was fired for blogging
Tuesday
Bloggers are the stars of the Internet in 2004
Yahoo! News: Bloggers are the stars of the Internet in 2004:
An amazing statistic from the article: 52% of bloggers under 20 yrs old!
"According to Perseus Development, a company that specializes in tracking and analyzing the 'blogosphere,' there should be more than 10 million blogs in the United States by the end of the year, including 52 percent created by people younger than 20. "
An amazing statistic from the article: 52% of bloggers under 20 yrs old!
"According to Perseus Development, a company that specializes in tracking and analyzing the 'blogosphere,' there should be more than 10 million blogs in the United States by the end of the year, including 52 percent created by people younger than 20. "
Saturday
Wired 10.05: Must Read
Wired 10.05: The Blogging Revolution
Here is another story I ran across that discusses how Blogging is changing the way media works. I agree that the personal touch and personality that is infused is one of the reasons so many people like the format.
It is my belief that blogs will change online sales as much in the next 2-3 years as they have changed media in the last 2. We are on the cusp of a full blown information revolution and we at http://successblog.biz will be in the thick of things.
Here is another story I ran across that discusses how Blogging is changing the way media works. I agree that the personal touch and personality that is infused is one of the reasons so many people like the format.
It is my belief that blogs will change online sales as much in the next 2-3 years as they have changed media in the last 2. We are on the cusp of a full blown information revolution and we at http://successblog.biz will be in the thick of things.
Friday
Search Engine Optimization For Blogs - Search Engine News Journal
Search Engine Optimization For Blogs - Search Engine News Journal
( Link To Complete Article )
Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS) that easily adds new pages and integrates them into your site's navigational structure and linkage. Blogs and blog posts are naturally search engine friendly because they are text-rich, link-rich, frequently-updated webpages that use stylesheets or CSS, and have very little extraneous HTML.
Optimizing a blog is very similar to optimizing a website, and optimizing a blog post similar to optimizing a web page. But depending on the blogging service or software you use, the results may look somewhat different. If you follow some simple rules for search engine optimization, your blog can rank much higher than static website pages in the search engine results pages.
( Link To Complete Article )
Blogging software is really a simple Content Management System (CMS) that easily adds new pages and integrates them into your site's navigational structure and linkage. Blogs and blog posts are naturally search engine friendly because they are text-rich, link-rich, frequently-updated webpages that use stylesheets or CSS, and have very little extraneous HTML.
Optimizing a blog is very similar to optimizing a website, and optimizing a blog post similar to optimizing a web page. But depending on the blogging service or software you use, the results may look somewhat different. If you follow some simple rules for search engine optimization, your blog can rank much higher than static website pages in the search engine results pages.
Monday
The Business Of Blogging
Blogging is not only becoming popular, but it's also becoming big business. Whether you are selling a product or service, doing it with a blog is the easiest way to go.
The Business Of Blogging
The Business Of Blogging
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