Time tackles technology with Techland
It's a blogger's world and print publications just live in it. Thanks to the power of internet self-publishing, mini media empires have been built by small companies and passionate individuals working from their homes. Increasingly, these online mini media empires have complicated the picture for print publications whose online presences have been forced to compete on less favorable terms for a more fragmented online audience.
In an effort to stay relevant, print publications are trying to sup up their internet efforts. The latest example of that: Time's new tech/geek blog, Techland.
Is Google really capable of detecting paid links and webspam?
Paid links are something I've written about lately as the possibility of Twitter data being incorporated into the Google and Bing search indexes has raised the spectre of a much more complicated situation vis-à-vis paid links.
In the case of Google, the rules are clear: paid links are bad. If you get caught buying or selling them, you could find yourself in a world of hurt. But just how good is Google at detecting paid links? If the example I'm about to give is any indication, it's not good at all.
If '25% of bloggers' post paid content, who can you trust?
I received an email the other day, which caused me some significant concern. It was a request, which came out of the blue, asking me to consider to be paid for featuring certain content on my personal blog.
For me, this is a very unwanted and somewhat scandalous approach and I sincerely hope other bloggers feel the same way. If you think about it, it is a very seedy means to encourage independent people who take the time to blog about subjects they care about, to succumb to the incentive of money.
Q&A: Dane Atkinson, CEO of Squarespace
Before the company's Twitter marketing campaign went viral, Squarespace wasn't a brand known to many. But the company has experienced rapid growth building a niche in the competitive market for content management solutions/publishing platforms. And it has done it by doing something many others have avoided: charging users.
I spoke with Squarespace CEO Dane Atkinson about the company, its success with a paid business model and what ROI the company's viral Twitter marketing campaign produced.
Another popular tech blog embraces paid content
There's a lot of talk about newspapers charging for their content
online but quietly, something interesting is happening: the very blogs
that are usually associated with 'free' are dipping their toes in the
waters of paid content.
In the tech blogosphere, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb sell reports. GigaOm has a subscription service. Add to that list Ars Technica, which has launched a new subscription service dubbed Ars Premier 2.0.
Q&A: Duncan Riley on the evolution of blogging
Duncan Riley is founder and editor of The Inquisitr, a popular blog that has grown to around 3m page impressions in little more than a year. He also founded The Blog Herald back in 2002, and was a co-founder of the b5media blog network. He has also written for Techcrunch.
As such he knows a thing or two about blogging and I thought I'd catch up with him to find out how he thinks the blogosphere has evolved in the past few years, and where things might be heading in the future.
What can email marketing learn from Twitter, blogs and other social media channels?
Just had a “conversation” with our shiny new marketing manager of the benefits of social vs email marketing. Wish I had a tape recorder (doesn’t that sound dated, hmm iPhone anyone?) to hand as I think it encapsulates the position a lot of marketing managers find themselves in...
Five easy ways to make your business website more social
Social media is an increasingly important part of the internet. But many businesses are still trying to decipher what it's really all about and how it can relate to their bottom lines. Naturally, not everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and throwing all their resources at Twitter, Facebook, et. al.
The truth is that for many businesses social media makes sense -- in moderate doses. If you're a small business owner, chances are you don't need to hire a full-time social media manager and the only thing social you're likely to get from social media experts is a lot of smooth-talk.
Perez Hilton launches new blog: CocoPerez
Blog queen Perez Hilton has unveiled a new fashion-orientated blog that “gives you the scoop on the finer things of celebrity style”.
The Gap-sponsored site so far contains lots of images, and little in the way of text, but should quickly attract a following due to Hilton's popularity and reach.
Blogging is back, thanks to Posterous
We’ve heard lots of talk about the death of blogs and blogging, with fingers invariably pointed at the likes of Twitter and Facebook. The truth is a bit more straightforward. Blogging was never really as big as everybody said it was.
Well, here’s the good news: blogging is back. Except now it’s called microblogging. And it’s great.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
