"If you don't know what blogging is by now and you're reading this in a newspaper, please fold it up and boot up your computer. You're missing a revolution."
Rocky Mountain News: Technology:
Friday
How To Destroy Your Blog
This article is well done and uncovers many key points on how you can build traffic for your blog!
"There are several ways that you can destroy your own blog. It might be a slow and gradual demise; or perhaps sudden and decisive."
How To Destroy Your Blog:
"There are several ways that you can destroy your own blog. It might be a slow and gradual demise; or perhaps sudden and decisive."
How To Destroy Your Blog:
ABC News: March 8, 2005: Bloggers
WASHINGTON, March 8, 2005 — To their credit, the bloggers have given us in the traditional news business a swift kick in the pants.
Knowing that a vibrant electronic community can galvanize at the drop of a dangling modifier forces all of us to be more careful, accurate and thorough. It's also true that the collective effort — and expertise — of the blogging community is invaluable for bringing new information to light on almost any subject.
That said, the blinding speed of the blogging world — and a tendency of some bloggers to shoot first and ask questions later — should raise a yellow flag.
Good journalism is tedious; it requires legwork, research and editing. Even that does not preclude big mistakes — as the bloggers themselves have so clearly exposed.
But, over time, such tedious work is the price of credibility.
And the new media kids on the block will have to earn that.
One blogger at a time.
From the recent Nightline Episode on Blogging:
ABC News: March 8, 2005: Bloggers
Another story about this episode:
http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/acarvin/view?PostID=2326
Knowing that a vibrant electronic community can galvanize at the drop of a dangling modifier forces all of us to be more careful, accurate and thorough. It's also true that the collective effort — and expertise — of the blogging community is invaluable for bringing new information to light on almost any subject.
That said, the blinding speed of the blogging world — and a tendency of some bloggers to shoot first and ask questions later — should raise a yellow flag.
Good journalism is tedious; it requires legwork, research and editing. Even that does not preclude big mistakes — as the bloggers themselves have so clearly exposed.
But, over time, such tedious work is the price of credibility.
And the new media kids on the block will have to earn that.
One blogger at a time.
From the recent Nightline Episode on Blogging:
ABC News: March 8, 2005: Bloggers
Another story about this episode:
http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/acarvin/view?PostID=2326
Tuesday
Pick A Niche and Own It
In this article, Jennifer Rice talks about owning a niche. I found it interesting because that's the whole idea behind AnswerBlogs, to find your niche and own it. I've had a difficult time getting people to understand the difference between a niche and an industry or category, but it seems we are making progress.
"What is your 'how?' Are you faster, better, cooler, more innovative? More connected with your customers? Or, asked another way, how do you inspire emotion in your customers? Do they feel liberated? Hip? Special? In control? Connected?
Own a 'how' in your industry, and you'll have a path for future growth as the market and competitive set changes."
Pick A Niche and Own It
"What is your 'how?' Are you faster, better, cooler, more innovative? More connected with your customers? Or, asked another way, how do you inspire emotion in your customers? Do they feel liberated? Hip? Special? In control? Connected?
Own a 'how' in your industry, and you'll have a path for future growth as the market and competitive set changes."
Pick A Niche and Own It
Sunday
How Often To Post To A Blog?
I found this article interesting. It talks about 3 times per week being a minimum number of new posts. Many of us have busy lives and are multi-taskers, but I agree with this. I'm going to set aside 15-20 minutes 3 times per week for each of my blogs making it a regular routine. If I'm too busy, I'll abandon my least favorite topics!
"Being reliable to post at least three posts per week is more important.
What a blogger is attempting to do, by posting fairly often, is develop a regular readership base. Those usual visitors might not be large in number, or ever intended to be all that many. What is more important is to have your blog updated fairly often, so there is something new for the visitors to read.
There are few things that cause your regular visitors to drift away more than not updating your blog.
Nothing new to read means nothing in terms of visitor traffic.
Keep in mind that a week in blog time is almost an eternity.
Most blogs are set to scroll all of the posts off in one week's time. That's not very long, before archives are the home of all of your best posts. "
Blog Posting Frequency How Often:
"Being reliable to post at least three posts per week is more important.
What a blogger is attempting to do, by posting fairly often, is develop a regular readership base. Those usual visitors might not be large in number, or ever intended to be all that many. What is more important is to have your blog updated fairly often, so there is something new for the visitors to read.
There are few things that cause your regular visitors to drift away more than not updating your blog.
Nothing new to read means nothing in terms of visitor traffic.
Keep in mind that a week in blog time is almost an eternity.
Most blogs are set to scroll all of the posts off in one week's time. That's not very long, before archives are the home of all of your best posts. "
Blog Posting Frequency How Often:
Blockbusters in blogging
Here is an interesting story about how the founders of SixApart (Typepad and Movable Type) got into the business of blogging after the burst of the internet bubble earlier this decade.
"As Mena blogged, Ben became frustrated in his search for a decent computer programming job. While unemployed, Ben began to work on the computer code that became Movable Type.
When 100 people downloaded Movable Type during the first hour of its release in September 2001, the Trotts decided to run their own business from their bedroom, drawing the inspiration for the company name from their nearly identical age -- Ben and Mena were born six days apart in 1977.
The Trotts benefited from being at the right place at the right time.
Venture capitalist Joi Ito stumbled upon TypePad and began exploring an investment in Six Apart, but had trouble convincing the Trotts that they should think big.
'They weren't getting out much back then, so they didn't realize how popular this thing was becoming,' Ito said.
Ito arranged a meeting with a veteran executive, Barak Berkowitz, who listened to the Trotts' initial, modest business plan and told them that it sounded fine if they wanted to run the equivalent of a small corner store. The condescension infuriated Mena at first, but ultimately made her realize the company needed outside help to realize her dreams.
'We realized pretty quickly that we wanted to influence the future of blogging,' Mena said. 'We would have felt terrible if blogging became something big and we ended up only being a footnote.'"
Blockbusters in blogging: South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
"As Mena blogged, Ben became frustrated in his search for a decent computer programming job. While unemployed, Ben began to work on the computer code that became Movable Type.
When 100 people downloaded Movable Type during the first hour of its release in September 2001, the Trotts decided to run their own business from their bedroom, drawing the inspiration for the company name from their nearly identical age -- Ben and Mena were born six days apart in 1977.
The Trotts benefited from being at the right place at the right time.
Venture capitalist Joi Ito stumbled upon TypePad and began exploring an investment in Six Apart, but had trouble convincing the Trotts that they should think big.
'They weren't getting out much back then, so they didn't realize how popular this thing was becoming,' Ito said.
Ito arranged a meeting with a veteran executive, Barak Berkowitz, who listened to the Trotts' initial, modest business plan and told them that it sounded fine if they wanted to run the equivalent of a small corner store. The condescension infuriated Mena at first, but ultimately made her realize the company needed outside help to realize her dreams.
'We realized pretty quickly that we wanted to influence the future of blogging,' Mena said. 'We would have felt terrible if blogging became something big and we ended up only being a footnote.'"
Blockbusters in blogging: South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
Tuesday
Ask Jeeves Acquires Bloglines
Blogging properties are becoming attractive assets for search engine and other internet portals. This is due to the tremendous growth and interest in blogging, which is a trend that will persist in the coming years!
"Oakland, CA -- February 8, 2005 -- Ask Jeeves®, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ), a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today announced it has acquired Trustic, Inc., the company that owns and operates Bloglines (www.bloglines.com). Bloglines is the world’s most popular free online service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing RSS feeds, blogs and rich web content. Bloglines will continue to operate as an independent brand in the Ask Jeeves portfolio and retain its name and unique URL: www.bloglines.com.
“Bloglines is not only a market leader in feed aggregation and blog search, but it is truly one of the most useful and addictive services on the entire Web. We are excited about providing Bloglines with the resources to grow its service and help it reach a broader audience,” said Jim Lanzone, Ask Jeeves’ senior vice president of search properties. “Bloglines is a natural fit for our multi-brand portfolio, as we extend our information retrieval services to encompass the rapidly growing amount of dynamic content and information available in the blogosphere.”
Founded in 2003, Bloglines is a pioneer in bringing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and rich content to mainstream Internet users. Recognized as the leader in its category in terms of traffic, feature richness and ease of use, Bloglines indexes more than 280 million live web content elements—news feed and blog articles, images, audio and video—and is available in English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Bloglines has been touted for excellence around the world with many awards and accolades, including Time Magazine’s 50 Coolest Websites for 2004.
“Bloglines became so popular because it was one of the first Web services to make blog and RSS feed reading free and easy to understand for average Internet users. We want to continue this quest to bring our exciting capabilities into the mainstream,” said Mark Fletcher, CEO of Bloglines. “By joining forces with Ask Jeeves, we will be able to accelerate our growth with access to the millions of unique visitors to Ask Jeeves’ properties. And we are eager to take advantage of Ask Jeeves’ support, extensive resources, operational scale and innovative technologies to expand and improve the services we deliver to users.” Fletcher will join Ask Jeeves as vice president and general manager of Bloglines.
The acquisition brings together complementary technology assets, including Bloglines’ leading RSS aggregation capabilities and Ask Jeeves’ world-class Teoma algorithmic search technology. Ask Jeeves plans to leverage these technologies across its search and portal brands, and as of today, Bloglines Web search capability will be powered by Ask Jeeves search technology.
“The Ask Jeeves search advantage is based on world-class technical innovation and a user-centric approach,” continued Lanzone. “It is exciting to have the opportunity to connect Bloglines’ live information flow and blog search capabilities with our unique indexing technology to provide consumers with one of the most comprehensive and personal web experiences across all sources—from the desktop to the Internet and, now, into the blogosphere.”
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Bloglines | Ask Jeeves Acquires Bloglines:
"Oakland, CA -- February 8, 2005 -- Ask Jeeves®, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASKJ), a leading provider of information retrieval technologies, brands and Internet advertising services, today announced it has acquired Trustic, Inc., the company that owns and operates Bloglines (www.bloglines.com). Bloglines is the world’s most popular free online service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing RSS feeds, blogs and rich web content. Bloglines will continue to operate as an independent brand in the Ask Jeeves portfolio and retain its name and unique URL: www.bloglines.com.
“Bloglines is not only a market leader in feed aggregation and blog search, but it is truly one of the most useful and addictive services on the entire Web. We are excited about providing Bloglines with the resources to grow its service and help it reach a broader audience,” said Jim Lanzone, Ask Jeeves’ senior vice president of search properties. “Bloglines is a natural fit for our multi-brand portfolio, as we extend our information retrieval services to encompass the rapidly growing amount of dynamic content and information available in the blogosphere.”
Founded in 2003, Bloglines is a pioneer in bringing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and rich content to mainstream Internet users. Recognized as the leader in its category in terms of traffic, feature richness and ease of use, Bloglines indexes more than 280 million live web content elements—news feed and blog articles, images, audio and video—and is available in English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Bloglines has been touted for excellence around the world with many awards and accolades, including Time Magazine’s 50 Coolest Websites for 2004.
“Bloglines became so popular because it was one of the first Web services to make blog and RSS feed reading free and easy to understand for average Internet users. We want to continue this quest to bring our exciting capabilities into the mainstream,” said Mark Fletcher, CEO of Bloglines. “By joining forces with Ask Jeeves, we will be able to accelerate our growth with access to the millions of unique visitors to Ask Jeeves’ properties. And we are eager to take advantage of Ask Jeeves’ support, extensive resources, operational scale and innovative technologies to expand and improve the services we deliver to users.” Fletcher will join Ask Jeeves as vice president and general manager of Bloglines.
The acquisition brings together complementary technology assets, including Bloglines’ leading RSS aggregation capabilities and Ask Jeeves’ world-class Teoma algorithmic search technology. Ask Jeeves plans to leverage these technologies across its search and portal brands, and as of today, Bloglines Web search capability will be powered by Ask Jeeves search technology.
“The Ask Jeeves search advantage is based on world-class technical innovation and a user-centric approach,” continued Lanzone. “It is exciting to have the opportunity to connect Bloglines’ live information flow and blog search capabilities with our unique indexing technology to provide consumers with one of the most comprehensive and personal web experiences across all sources—from the desktop to the Internet and, now, into the blogosphere.”
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Bloglines | Ask Jeeves Acquires Bloglines:
Wednesday
Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites
I'm going to doing several lessons for SuccessBlog.com that deal with submitting to Blog Directories and RSS feeds, but for those of you who can't wait or like to read Robin Good has put together a fantastic resource page on the topic.
I wish I would've found it back when I did all my initial research on the topic. It's an overwelming amount of material to digest, but it's very well organized and laid out.
RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings
I wish I would've found it back when I did all my initial research on the topic. It's an overwelming amount of material to digest, but it's very well organized and laid out.
RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings
Sunday
AnswerBlog Off To A Great Start
Anytime you start something from scratch, it takes awhile before you begin to see any progress. But I must say, the http://successblog.biz bloggers are doing a great job of organizing their content and getting their blogs put together. We are in the process of adding all new blogs to the http://answerblogs.com site and it's starting to look like a real network!
Focusing on a Niche.....
The bloggers who make real money ( $5,000+ per month ) will be the ones who choose a niche and totally exploit it with great content. A niche, by definition, is a small detailed topic. For example, if you have an interest in Crafts and would like to do a blog in that area you would not choose to name your blog "CraftsBlog" and do it on crafts in general. Why not? Because there would be intense competition and you would never stand a chance of obtaining a decent ranking in the search engines ( which is the key ). Crafts is an industry ( an entire category ), not a niche.
Instead, you would find a niche such as "wedding crafts" which had 5907 searches last month. By focusing all your content on wedding crafts you would have a much better chance of exploiting that category and making good money! Granted, it probably wouldn't be an out-of-the-park home run, but it's much better to go for singles and doubles because the rate of success if much higher. I'm reminded of a commentator who once said "many of the batters ( in professional baseball) who go for the home runs also have the highest strike out percentages".
Now before you went ahead and did your blog on "wedding crafts" you would want to make sure that there is actually advertising demand for that category. I show you how to do that in Lesson #5.
Summary: Find your niche and exploit it! Focus on creating as much content as possible that is targeted directly around that niche.
Focusing on a Niche.....
The bloggers who make real money ( $5,000+ per month ) will be the ones who choose a niche and totally exploit it with great content. A niche, by definition, is a small detailed topic. For example, if you have an interest in Crafts and would like to do a blog in that area you would not choose to name your blog "CraftsBlog" and do it on crafts in general. Why not? Because there would be intense competition and you would never stand a chance of obtaining a decent ranking in the search engines ( which is the key ). Crafts is an industry ( an entire category ), not a niche.
Instead, you would find a niche such as "wedding crafts" which had 5907 searches last month. By focusing all your content on wedding crafts you would have a much better chance of exploiting that category and making good money! Granted, it probably wouldn't be an out-of-the-park home run, but it's much better to go for singles and doubles because the rate of success if much higher. I'm reminded of a commentator who once said "many of the batters ( in professional baseball) who go for the home runs also have the highest strike out percentages".
Now before you went ahead and did your blog on "wedding crafts" you would want to make sure that there is actually advertising demand for that category. I show you how to do that in Lesson #5.
Summary: Find your niche and exploit it! Focus on creating as much content as possible that is targeted directly around that niche.
Saturday
Register Your Blog With GlobeOfBlogs
Once you have some content in your blog, make sure you register it with GlobeOfBlogs. They have a very detailed listing of categories so you should be able to find the one that matches your blog (although it might take some time to find it).
Globe Of Blogs Registration
Globe Of Blogs Registration
Blogging: An insider's view
"I put off starting a blog for several months because I was convinced a) the technology would be beyond my handling and b) I wouldn't have anything of interest to say.
Now that I've started, I realise how silly I was.
Even with a slow Net connection, this is ridiculously easy. And yesterday, just as I'd posted a few scattered thoughts on a movie I'd seen, I got an appreciative comment from this amateur filmmaker based in Los Angeles -- his name's even listed on the Internet Movie Database!
Welcome to the global village, Jabberwock.
Sites like the Google-owned blogspot.com (also known as blogger.com) or Rediff have the simplest, most user-friendly interfaces.
All you have to do is choose a username and password, enter a few basic things about yourself, choose from the template options (this defines the look of your site) and start posting."
Blogging: An insider's view
Now that I've started, I realise how silly I was.
Even with a slow Net connection, this is ridiculously easy. And yesterday, just as I'd posted a few scattered thoughts on a movie I'd seen, I got an appreciative comment from this amateur filmmaker based in Los Angeles -- his name's even listed on the Internet Movie Database!
Welcome to the global village, Jabberwock.
Sites like the Google-owned blogspot.com (also known as blogger.com) or Rediff have the simplest, most user-friendly interfaces.
All you have to do is choose a username and password, enter a few basic things about yourself, choose from the template options (this defines the look of your site) and start posting."
Blogging: An insider's view
Thursday
TrackBack Explanation from the creators
In an effort to learn more about TrackBack, I went to the creators (Movable Type) to search their website. Here is a brief explanation of the feature and the link below contains more information than anyone would ever have to know!
"In a nutshell, TrackBack was designed to provide a method of notification between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, 'This is something you may be interested in.' To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B.
TrackBack ping: a ping in this context means a small message sent from one webserver to another.
And why would person B be interested in what person A has to say?
Person A has written a post on his own weblog that comments on a post in Person B's weblog. This is a form of remote comments--rather than posting the comment directly on Person B's weblog, Person A posts it on his own weblog, then sends a TrackBack ping to notify Person B.
Person A has written a post on a topic that a group of people are interested in. This is a form of content aggregation--by sending a TrackBack ping to a central server, visitors can read all posts about that topic. For example, imagine a site which collects weblog posts about Justin Timberlake. Anyone interested in reading about JT could look at this site to keep updated on what other webloggers were saying about his new album, a photo shoot in a magazine, etc. "
movabletype.org : TrackBack Explanation:
"In a nutshell, TrackBack was designed to provide a method of notification between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, 'This is something you may be interested in.' To do that, person A sends a TrackBack ping to person B.
TrackBack ping: a ping in this context means a small message sent from one webserver to another.
And why would person B be interested in what person A has to say?
Person A has written a post on his own weblog that comments on a post in Person B's weblog. This is a form of remote comments--rather than posting the comment directly on Person B's weblog, Person A posts it on his own weblog, then sends a TrackBack ping to notify Person B.
Person A has written a post on a topic that a group of people are interested in. This is a form of content aggregation--by sending a TrackBack ping to a central server, visitors can read all posts about that topic. For example, imagine a site which collects weblog posts about Justin Timberlake. Anyone interested in reading about JT could look at this site to keep updated on what other webloggers were saying about his new album, a photo shoot in a magazine, etc. "
movabletype.org : TrackBack Explanation:
With TrackBack your blog can communicate with other blogs.
"TrackBack is an emerging protocol that allows Web sites to automatically store records of any links which occur between them. For example, for each article produced by CNET News.com, TrackBack automatically creates and posts records of any blogs that link to that article. As a result, readers can easily find the blogs that discuss the story, gaining multi-faceted insight on the issues that interest them. In turn, bloggers using TrackBack gain visibility before the audience of one of the most popular news sources on the Web when they link to a CNET News.com story, and the CNET News.com editorial team gains valuable feedback to their stories and insight on which topics are generating the most buzz, so they can expand their coverage of those topics. "
CNET News.com Introduces TrackBack, Linking Blog Commentary to CNET News.com Stories:
CNET News.com Introduces TrackBack, Linking Blog Commentary to CNET News.com Stories:
Wednesday
Internal Blog Links Increase Search Engine Rankings.
- Search Engine News Journal:
"When website owners and bloggers think of linking, they are usually referring to inbound links from external websites and blogs. While adding more incoming links from pages in external sites is very important, it's very easy to forget the internal linkage factors at work in your own blog.
The blog's incoming links provide Google PageRank to the receiving web page. The inbound links boost both the page itself, and help the blog overall, receive additional link popularity boost. The links received from external sources are only part of the overall linking program for a website or blog.
Some very important link popularity increases will arise directly from a website's internal linkage system. In fact, some improvements in the site linking and navigation can give a site a major boost in the search engines. This very important optimization technique is often ignored by link seeking website owners."
"When website owners and bloggers think of linking, they are usually referring to inbound links from external websites and blogs. While adding more incoming links from pages in external sites is very important, it's very easy to forget the internal linkage factors at work in your own blog.
The blog's incoming links provide Google PageRank to the receiving web page. The inbound links boost both the page itself, and help the blog overall, receive additional link popularity boost. The links received from external sources are only part of the overall linking program for a website or blog.
Some very important link popularity increases will arise directly from a website's internal linkage system. In fact, some improvements in the site linking and navigation can give a site a major boost in the search engines. This very important optimization technique is often ignored by link seeking website owners."
Getting Better Search Engine Ranking For Your Blog!
First of all, blogs have a natural tendency to rank higher in search engines because they
* Have well-structured site architecture
* Make use of anchor text linking
* Are well linked,
* Are frequently updated, and,
* Are focused tightly around a narrow theme, among other things.
Couple this with the ease of being able to get one-way links from several sites favored by the search engines, and you have two-thirds of the formula for a well-ranked blog.
However, just because these sites appear on publicly displayed ping notification lists and other sites that keep abreast of blog updates, this doesn’t mean that you can get away with pinging them without updating your site.
It also doesn’t mean that sites that have authentically updated and sent pings will appear in Google, Yahoo or MSN simply from being frequently updated.
The good news is, you don’t need to deluge the ping sites to get noticed. Doing so is often a waste of time, and may be a harmful one.
Your best bet for now is to continue to achieve your natural search engine position through blogging, basic search engine optimization, and a common sense approach to frequent updates.
And yes, by the way, there IS an ethical way to get into search engines and achieve high rankings with a blog, but it’s not a matter of volume. It’s more a matter of timing, supply and demand. But explaining that process takes a level of detail and an amount of space not available here.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=1243
* Have well-structured site architecture
* Make use of anchor text linking
* Are well linked,
* Are frequently updated, and,
* Are focused tightly around a narrow theme, among other things.
Couple this with the ease of being able to get one-way links from several sites favored by the search engines, and you have two-thirds of the formula for a well-ranked blog.
However, just because these sites appear on publicly displayed ping notification lists and other sites that keep abreast of blog updates, this doesn’t mean that you can get away with pinging them without updating your site.
It also doesn’t mean that sites that have authentically updated and sent pings will appear in Google, Yahoo or MSN simply from being frequently updated.
The good news is, you don’t need to deluge the ping sites to get noticed. Doing so is often a waste of time, and may be a harmful one.
Your best bet for now is to continue to achieve your natural search engine position through blogging, basic search engine optimization, and a common sense approach to frequent updates.
And yes, by the way, there IS an ethical way to get into search engines and achieve high rankings with a blog, but it’s not a matter of volume. It’s more a matter of timing, supply and demand. But explaining that process takes a level of detail and an amount of space not available here.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=1243
Friday
Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal
Six Apart: Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal:
"Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal
LiveJournal Acquisition Solidifies Six Apart's Leadership in Blogging Software, Now Powering Over 6.5 Million Weblogs for Individuals, Corporations and Institutions
San Francisco, CA -- January 6, 2005 -- Six Apart, makers of the highly acclaimed Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service, today announced that it has acquired Danga Interactive, Inc., the operators of the popular service LiveJournal, for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash. With the acquisition, Six Apart solidifies its position as the industry's recognized leader in weblogging software across all markets, and LiveJournal can continue its rapid growth trajectory under Six Apart's umbrella. As of today, the combined user base of both companies exceeds 6.5 million users, with thousands more added daily.
LiveJournal, an online community organized around personal journals, is run by Danga, a Portland, Oregon-based company founded by Brad Fitzpatrick in 1999. LiveJournal has helped fuel the rapid growth of weblogging by offering consumers both free and paid subscriptions to its easy to use personal publishing blogging tool, built on open source software. Every week, over 860,000 users update their blogs. LiveJournal's users are predominately in their teens and twenties, younger than users of Six Apart's other products.
As part of Six Apart, LiveJournal will continue to operate as a separate division and will continue to foster an active community around the globe. Brad Fitzpatrick, Danga's founder, president and lead developer, will join Six Apart as the company's chief architect, extending his proven skills in scaling large services to the rest of Six Apart's products. The Danga staff will remain dedicated to LiveJournal and Six Apart expects the staff to grow as it invests in the service. LiveJournal will continue to distribute a large portion of its software under various open source licenses. Six Apart intends to invest in the LiveJournal software, which will remain separate from Six Apart's Movable Type and TypePad products, with dedicated engineering and support teams for each product.
"Six Apart's business -- and only business -- is weblogging software and services," said Barak Berkowitz, Six Apart's chief executive officer. "We are driven to provide the best quality weblogging tools on the planet, to the broadest number of users, and our acquisition of LiveJournal reflects this passion.
"We are now the only company to offer the full range of weblogging tools to the market," he said. "We have a service intended for individuals to interact with family and friends through LiveJournal; a hosted service for avid webloggers who want more flexibility and power with TypePad; and the leading server-based solution for power users, corporations and institutions through Movable Type. We welcome LiveJournal users to the Six Apart family, and promise to keep the LiveJournal culture and quality which has earned their devotion."
Berkowitz said the acquisition of LiveJournal makes Six Apart the industry's largest independent provider of weblogging tools and that the company is committed to continued innovation on each of its product lines to meet the needs of a growing number of webloggers. According to a survey released this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, over 8 million U.S adults now have weblogs and blog readership jumped by 58% in 2004.
"We're extremely pleased to have Brad and his team join Six Apart," said Mena Trott, Six Apart's co-founder and president. "Not only does LiveJournal have roots similar to Six Apart's -- both companies founded by young hobbyists with a passion for weblogging -- but Danga also understood the importance of community and communication before anyone else. LiveJournal has been one of the most innovative services for many years and we're proud to be able to join forces."
"It's a natural fit for LiveJournal to become part of Six Apart," said Brad Fitzpatrick. "Both companies are fanatics about weblogging, both have great relationships with their users and both have cultures driven to create the very best products. I'm excited that the acquisition will let us keep growing at an incredible speed -- backed by an experienced management team and the international reach of Six Apart."
About Six Apart Ltd.
Six Apart Ltd., based in San Francisco, CA, is the company behind the Movable Type publishing platform and the TypePad personal weblogging service. Founded by husband and wife team Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott in 2002 and funded by Neoteny Co., Ltd. and August Capital, Six Apart's sole focus is to create tools that enable millions of individuals, organizations and corporations to participate in the Web's full potential by publishing their ideas on the Internet with simple, yet powerful software and services. For more information about Six Apart, TypePad, Movable Type and LiveJournal visit the Six Apart corporate weblog at www.sixapart.com.
Contact:
Krause Taylor Associates for Six Apart
Jane Anderson
650.854.3883 direct
650.440.0450 cell
408.918.9080 main
jane@krause-taylor.com
"Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal
LiveJournal Acquisition Solidifies Six Apart's Leadership in Blogging Software, Now Powering Over 6.5 Million Weblogs for Individuals, Corporations and Institutions
San Francisco, CA -- January 6, 2005 -- Six Apart, makers of the highly acclaimed Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service, today announced that it has acquired Danga Interactive, Inc., the operators of the popular service LiveJournal, for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash. With the acquisition, Six Apart solidifies its position as the industry's recognized leader in weblogging software across all markets, and LiveJournal can continue its rapid growth trajectory under Six Apart's umbrella. As of today, the combined user base of both companies exceeds 6.5 million users, with thousands more added daily.
LiveJournal, an online community organized around personal journals, is run by Danga, a Portland, Oregon-based company founded by Brad Fitzpatrick in 1999. LiveJournal has helped fuel the rapid growth of weblogging by offering consumers both free and paid subscriptions to its easy to use personal publishing blogging tool, built on open source software. Every week, over 860,000 users update their blogs. LiveJournal's users are predominately in their teens and twenties, younger than users of Six Apart's other products.
As part of Six Apart, LiveJournal will continue to operate as a separate division and will continue to foster an active community around the globe. Brad Fitzpatrick, Danga's founder, president and lead developer, will join Six Apart as the company's chief architect, extending his proven skills in scaling large services to the rest of Six Apart's products. The Danga staff will remain dedicated to LiveJournal and Six Apart expects the staff to grow as it invests in the service. LiveJournal will continue to distribute a large portion of its software under various open source licenses. Six Apart intends to invest in the LiveJournal software, which will remain separate from Six Apart's Movable Type and TypePad products, with dedicated engineering and support teams for each product.
"Six Apart's business -- and only business -- is weblogging software and services," said Barak Berkowitz, Six Apart's chief executive officer. "We are driven to provide the best quality weblogging tools on the planet, to the broadest number of users, and our acquisition of LiveJournal reflects this passion.
"We are now the only company to offer the full range of weblogging tools to the market," he said. "We have a service intended for individuals to interact with family and friends through LiveJournal; a hosted service for avid webloggers who want more flexibility and power with TypePad; and the leading server-based solution for power users, corporations and institutions through Movable Type. We welcome LiveJournal users to the Six Apart family, and promise to keep the LiveJournal culture and quality which has earned their devotion."
Berkowitz said the acquisition of LiveJournal makes Six Apart the industry's largest independent provider of weblogging tools and that the company is committed to continued innovation on each of its product lines to meet the needs of a growing number of webloggers. According to a survey released this week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, over 8 million U.S adults now have weblogs and blog readership jumped by 58% in 2004.
"We're extremely pleased to have Brad and his team join Six Apart," said Mena Trott, Six Apart's co-founder and president. "Not only does LiveJournal have roots similar to Six Apart's -- both companies founded by young hobbyists with a passion for weblogging -- but Danga also understood the importance of community and communication before anyone else. LiveJournal has been one of the most innovative services for many years and we're proud to be able to join forces."
"It's a natural fit for LiveJournal to become part of Six Apart," said Brad Fitzpatrick. "Both companies are fanatics about weblogging, both have great relationships with their users and both have cultures driven to create the very best products. I'm excited that the acquisition will let us keep growing at an incredible speed -- backed by an experienced management team and the international reach of Six Apart."
About Six Apart Ltd.
Six Apart Ltd., based in San Francisco, CA, is the company behind the Movable Type publishing platform and the TypePad personal weblogging service. Founded by husband and wife team Ben Trott and Mena G. Trott in 2002 and funded by Neoteny Co., Ltd. and August Capital, Six Apart's sole focus is to create tools that enable millions of individuals, organizations and corporations to participate in the Web's full potential by publishing their ideas on the Internet with simple, yet powerful software and services. For more information about Six Apart, TypePad, Movable Type and LiveJournal visit the Six Apart corporate weblog at www.sixapart.com.
Contact:
Krause Taylor Associates for Six Apart
Jane Anderson
650.854.3883 direct
650.440.0450 cell
408.918.9080 main
jane@krause-taylor.com
Sunday
Red Cross Tsunami Donations Via Amazon
The other day I gave $100 to the Red Cross through the Amazon site. At that time I saw they had collected about $1.6 Million for the Red Cross, today it's over $12 million which I think is fantastic! Many of the victims were living in poverty before the distaster and now they have lost what little they had. Please give what you can if you haven't already.
Thursday
Bloggers offer witness accounts, ways to help quake and tsunami victims
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. "
"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. "
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.' "
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