Written on March 8th, 2007 at 12:03 pm by Darren Rowse

Skype Prime - Online Consultants Tool

Blogging Tools and Services 15 comments

Skype today announced a new beta version of their Windows offering (v3.1.0.134 beta). It’s main new feature is Skype Prime (beta) - something that will appeal to many entrepreneurial bloggers.

“In short, it enables paid Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls. You can charge other people for calling you either a one-off fee or by the minute. Conversely, if you are the caller, you can call experts who charge for their services, and you can then pay the fee and access the expertise that the other call party provides.”

That’s how Skype describes it and I’m sure many of you can see applications that you could use it with.

Payment is made to the one charging for the call via PayPal with Skype keeping 30% of the fee that you charge for giving you the service.

The service has been a long time coming and for those of us on Macs the wait continues. It is in direct competition to Ether - a similar service for web consultants - but with the millions of users of skype already on the system I think the potential is quite massive.

At this stage both the caller and receiver need to be on the new version of Skype for Skype Prime to work. Once the connection is established between callers the paid process can be started and charging (either per minute or as a fixed rate per call) can begin. The charge is deducted from the caller’s Skype credit that is footing the bill.

My initial feeling is that 30% is reasonably high considering if you have any clues you could simply plan a call after someone’s put money in your PayPal account anyway - however I’m sure they’ll continue to add features to this service and for ease of use many will pay the premium.

Looks like a product with real potential for bloggers wanting to offer consulting in their area of expertise - for more information on Skype Prime see their FAQ page.

For those of you who give it a go - I’d love to hear about your experience!

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Written on March 8th, 2007 at 12:03 am by Darren Rowse

Gawker Introduces Job Boards

Blogging for Dollars 11 comments

Another blog to go the job board route is the Gawker blog Lifehacker who today announced theirs. It runs in conjunction with Gizmodo’s (also announced this week).

Quite a few bloggers have gone this route and looking at the number of jobs being advertised on them it seems that they’ve had some success (see TechCrunch, GigaOm’s, ReadWriteWeb’s etc).

Job boards on blogs won’t work for everyone but they can be both a good income earner and something that adds value in it’s own right to a blog.

They seem to work best on sites with a technology edge at present but I could see other sites with jobs that relate to their topic being possibilities also.

Traffic is a key however both in attracting advertisers as well as attracting readers to apply for jobs.

My own experience with enternetusers’s job boards has been worthwhile. It continues to tick over with new jobs for bloggers. We don’t do quite the quantities of jobs that other boards are doing but focus in on a narrower niche and have still managed 9 new jobs across a number of topics in the last week.

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Written on March 7th, 2007 at 08:03 am by Darren Rowse

Auction Ads - eBay Auction Ads

Advertising 27 comments

ShoeMoney and MediaWhiz (the owners of Text Link Ads) have today launched a new ad service - Auction Ads (aff). I’ve been lucky enough to dig around the back end of Auction Ads this last few days and it’s a professionally designed ad service that I think will suit some bloggers down to the ground - particularly those who have a blog which is product related (as always - ads that are product related perform best on blogs that are on those same products).

Here’s how the ads look:

• Auction Ads display live eBay auctions to visitors to your blog which are based upon your keyword selection.
• The payment is CPA (ie you get paid if a reader registers on eBay or if they make a purchase).
• Auction Ads uses eBay’s built in affiliate program - you could actually run these ads yourself as an affiliate - but Auction Ads cuts down the work involved considerably
• There’s also a built in affiliate/referral program built into the system - if another publisher clicks your ad and signs up as a result you get 2% of their earnings for 6 months (not the most generous aff program going around - but I suspect the margins are tighter on this program).
• Set up is very similar to other ad networks (AdSense, Chitika etc) in that you put in the parameters that you want the ad to operate under (ad size, colors etc) and then are given some code to put into your blog.
• Ads are geo-targetted to your reader’s local ebay store - ie my Aussie readers will see an ebay auction to eBay Australia while my US readers see eBay US auctions.
• Payment is via PayPal each month when you hit a minimum $10 threshold.

Revenue Share - Auction Ads are initially passing on 100% of earnings from your blog onto you as the publisher.

What’s in it for them? Well how they’re running this is that all publishers in their system are coming in under one affiliate at eBay which means the earnings for everyone will be a lot higher than if any one individual became an affiliate (see eBay’s sliding pay out scale here). Once they rise to the top of the pay out scale you can expect them to take a cut of your earnings.

It’s a little complicated but from what I can see the pay-outs of going with AA will be significantly higher than signing up as an individual eBay affiliate - even if AA decide to increase their share of what they’re going to take at a later time (although I hope they’re not setting their publishers up with false expectations here).

Can Auction Ads be used with AdSense?

The answer to this commonly asked question is yes - IF you ensure that they look different to AdSense ads run on your page. AdSense allow other ad programs on the same site/page as them if they don’t confuse your reader and look the same. So make your designs different and you won’t have a problem.

The Inner Workings

The publisher interface of Auction Ads is easy to use. Instead of ‘channels’ they have ‘campaigns’. The set up of ads is easy and reasonably quick - with color selection, keyword selection and then being given code to paste in to your blog.

Earnings

A system like this will only succeed if publishers actually make money. The jury is still out on whether they do - but I can’t see why we won’t. One of the weaknesses of other ad networks is an over supply of publishers and an under supply of advertisers - the beauty of this model is that eBay have millions of auctions each year.

Initially I suspect earnings won’t be massive for publishers but as the sliding scale kicks in and more publishers come on board the power of the system will begin to kick in.

Who will it Work For?

As I’ve said in my intro any ad works best when there is relevancy between the site the ad appears on and the ad that is appearing. As a result blogs with a product focus where people are Actively seeking information on the type of products that eBay holds auctions on will work best with this.

Traffic is going to be a consideration too. CPC programs like AdSense pay out each time there’s a click on an ad so there will be income even with small traffic. CPA ads like Auction Ads will payout less often because they require the reader to DO something (buy, register etc). As a result I’d expect to see less conversions with these ads - a lower percent of your readers will actually convert to dollars.

So if you have decent traffic on a product related site this might be a program to try. It could also be worth setting it up as the ‘alternate ad’ for your current AdSense and/or Chitika ads.

Conclusion

As Auction Ads are brand new it’s very early days and as with any new program that you test - I’d advise to test test test. Give it a little time to see how it goes - but don’t throw all your eggs into one basket too quickly.

I’m keen to hear the results you get with Auction Ads - let me know what you find.

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Written on March 7th, 2007 at 01:03 am by Darren Rowse

Seasonal Blogging

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 25 comments

Ben Yoskovitz’s 6 Steps To Getting Back Into The Blog Saddle reminded me today of some of the tougher times in my own blogging journey when I found it difficult to keep things going.

• The month I had Bells Palsy (facial paralysis and loss of all balance)
• The two weeks that I virtually lost my sight and couldn’t look at a computer screen
• The numerous times I took vacations and found motivating myself to start again a real challenge
• The many ‘critiques’ from others that took the wind out of my sails to the point where giving up seemed attrActive

The list could go on (sickness, holidays, disillusionment, boredom, inability to think of fresh ideas etc) - it’s no wonder I’ve written so many posts on the topic of keeping your blog running (see below for a few).

Seasonal Blogging

Since reading Ben’s post I’ve also been considering the idea that blogs will go through different seasons over time.

Winter

I think it’s natural for the tough times (Winter?) to hit periodically. Times like I’ve described above where it is easy to get down in the dumps and consider giving up.

The task during a Blog’s Winter is to keep things going. You might not launch any new projects or add too many new features to your blog in these times - but if you can keep things ticking over until Spring time you’ll see the benefits of sticking at it.

Winter is a time where character and discipline is tested - it’s a time when many bloggers give up - but where those who stick at it can build foundations for a strong blgo that lasts.

Spring

But it’s not all the doom and gloom of Winter when you blog. Spring can be just around the corner at any moment with a period of renewed energy and life for your blog.

Perhaps it is triggered by a fresh idea for a series, the search engines tweaking their algorithm to sending loads or traffic or even by another site linking up.

The key in Spring is to go with the new life and let your blog grow to the next level. This might be a time to harness energy and launch a new feature - or even a time to do a little cross pollination with others in your niche to see what new partnerships might emerge. You might even have a little time to do a little spring cleaning up of your blog while you have renewed energy.

Summer

Then there are other times in the life cycle of a blog where things seem to coast along.

The content is flowing, readers are interacting with what you’ve been writing and you feel like you hardly need to put any effort in at all - it’s like a Summer vacation.

You might even take a little holiday at this time and bring in someone to help you keep things running while you take a little rest and relaxation.

Autumn

Lastly - there are seasons in every blog where change is needed. Dead wood needs to be cut off and swept away - like the sweeping away of the leaves on a deciduous tree in Autumn (Fall). Other areas will need a little fertilizing (extra compost to get them growing to their potential).

This is a time for refining and consolidation of what you do, perhaps with a little pruning and thinking a little strategically about where your blog is headed. This might also be a time for storing up supplies (write some extra content for that rainy day).

The decisions you make and the work you do in these times can help you to get through the Winter that might be ahead.

The Seasons Each Have Their Place

None of the seasons are ‘bad’ - all have their purpose and all have their tasks that blogger might need to be working on.

The trick is not to give up in those Winter months that so many of us have - but to keep working through them so that the blog is able to still be there at the next change of season.

What Season is your blog in at present?

PS: If you’re in a Winter season at the moment you might like to check out a few older posts that I’ve written for bloggers just like you:

• Declaring War on Blog Apathy
• Maintaining Momentum in Blogging
• Battling Bloggers Block

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Written on March 6th, 2007 at 11:03 am by Darren Rowse

Post Frequency - How Many Blog Posts are Too Many?

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 82 comments

Last week I published the results of an informal survey that asked for Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe from Blogs.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the results - particularly the almost contrasting most common reasons:

• Too many posts
• Infrequent Posting

The above responses are fairly general and unquantifiable - so two further logical followup questions come to mind:

• how many posts per day are too many?
• how many posts per day are too few?

What is the range of daily posts that you personally prefer from a blog? What would the tipping point be for you at either end for you to unsubscribe?

In some ways this is a difficult question to answer as I suspect it’ll vary form blog to blog and what type of content that they’re producing (ie I suspect blogs with shorter posts would get away with more posts per day).

I’ll also make two more comment on the results of the previous post:

1. These results were not my opinions but those expressed by readership of this blog - a blog for bloggers. I suspect that this skews the results somewhat (although perhaps they give some hints as to what our readers also think).
2. If you look at a lot top blogs going around, they do break many of the reasons that were given for people unsubscribing. This particularly is so for ‘too many posts’. For example - if you look at Technorati’s top 100 list you’ll find that the top 10 post an average of 20+ times per day (I’m taking those averages on what they’ve done so far today - so it’s probably higher). So obviously there’s some disconnect between the reasons that enternetusers give as a reason to unsubscribe and what’s going on in the blogosphere.

But enough of my thoughts - what’s an acceptable daily post frequency for you from a blog?

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Written on March 6th, 2007 at 04:03 am by Darren Rowse

Speedlinking - 6 March 2007

Pro Blogging News 8 comments

• Lorelle’s put together another WP plugin round up - this time it’s WP Plugins for Multiple Blogger Blogs
• A little fun here at dfinitive with blogger look-a-likes - check out who Julian thinks I look like (I’ve been told that before - although not usually when I’m wearing that outfit).
• Aaron interviews Rick from Feedburner in a podcast
• Brian shares 5 Common Mistakes that make you look dumb
• Rand has posted about blogging in an over-saturated market being a poor decision and suggests a few markets to avoid.
• Rusty Lime writes 3 ways to get more from your writers - for those of you experimenting with user generated content and multi author blogs.
• Read Write Web has a useful review of Feedblendr - a feed remix service that looks pretty useful

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Written on March 6th, 2007 at 12:03 am by Darren Rowse

Blogs Charging for Content - Can it Work?

Miscellaneous Blog Tips 34 comments

Scott at Blog Herald asks Could Blogging Adopt A Paid Content Business Model? and points out a number of blogs (including enternetusers) that could conceivably charge readers for content.

It’s an interesting topic and one that has popped up as a discussion point a couple of times a year since I started blogging on an entrepreneurial level. It’s also a question I get asked quite a lot from bloggers looking at their options for monetizing their sites.

On one level I can understand why bloggers would see this as an option. Other publishing businesses do it (magazines, newspapers, pay TV and industry reports/publications) and even other types of web sites do it (membership sites) - so why can’t blogs?

My response to those exploring this monetization model is generally something along the lines of this (beware - the following is messy and a somewhat random collection of thoughts):

It’s possible - a certain percentage of people will pay a subscription for online content for one or a combination of the following reasons:

• it saves them time
• it is unique and can’t be found elsewhere for free
• it comes from someone they perceive as having expertise
• it is very useful and helps them in some area of their life (I have a pretty wide definition of ‘useful’ which includes things like being enterained.
• it comes from someone who they are loyal to

If a blog were able to produce content that tapped into these things (unique, useful, exclusive content provided by an expert or someone that readers are loyal to) than guess they might have a case for charging for content.

However - there are certain obstacles to this:

• competition - on most (if not all) topics that I can think of there is an oversupply of information already available for free online. Coming up with something unique and exclusive will be difficult in most niches.
• critical mass - I said above that a ‘certain percentage of people’ would be willing to pay for a subscription to a blog in some circumstances. I don’t know if anyone has done any study on that ‘certain percentage’ would be but I suspect it would be low. As a result you’d need to have a fairly large readership to start with to find enough paid subscribers.
• a culture of ‘free’ - ‘free’ is something that is central to blogging culture. While I think in wider culture there would be more likelihood of finding paying customers - bloggers themselves tend to be into ‘free’ and many can be almost anti anything that charges for information.
• established expectations - the problem with suddenly turning a blog (or some part of it) into a paid service is that it works against the expectations that it’s loyal readers have already built up of it. For example - here at enternetusers I’ve given away free information on making money online for 2.5 years. If I were to suddenly start holding back part of that information for those willing to pay I can imagine the outcry).
• blogging without the link - the interlinking nature of blogging is something that blogging as a medium has been built on. If I write something of worth it’s likely to be linked to by others and their readers will come to see what it’s about. The problem with locked areas of blogs is that when people connect with what you write in them that they don’t have a way to pass it on to friends.

So how might paid subscriptions work when it comes to blogging?

If I knew the answer to this I’d probably be doing it myself - but here are a few more random thoughts which might stimulate some discussion:

• &Free AND Paid - unless you’re lucky enough to have a very high profile that magnetically draws people to you I suspect that you’ll need to offer those who you’d like to subscribe to your paid service something for free. This might mean you have a lower level free blog that is valuable yet holds something back or a blog on a related topic or an industry news blog etc. Getting this balance right between paid and free will be crucial. Give too much away and people may not feel the need to pay - don’t give enough away and people won’t see the point in paying.
• Paid Content and Value - the paid component of a blog needs to enhance the life of those who pay for it in some way. You need to give something that is truly valuable. This might include exclusive information, personal attention or coaching, the ability to connect with other high level people etc.
• Entertainment - one of the areas that I suspect might do better with paid subscriptions is entertainment. While you can be entertained for free in many places today, entertainment taps into something different than presenting people with information. I need to think this one through a little more.
• Status - another half baked idea that I have is that people like to be seen to be on ‘the inside’ of certain communities. I know people who pay a yearly fee to be a part of certain clubs that they rarely use simply to flash the cards that come with membership. They also are able to list of others who are members - even if they’ve not met them.
• Filters - while I’ve said above that a barrier to paid subscriptions is competition and the large volumes of free information online - I wonder whether this might actually be something that we’ll see people reversing and using as a sales pitch - ie they offer their services as a personal filtering service. Of course the barrier to this is the increasing amount of Web 2.0 tools that are getting better at filtering information - but perhaps there’s something to be said for a human filter.
• Personal Coaching - one obvious extension for blogs that could be worthy of adding a paid subscription to is areas for more personal coaching and interaction. This is what many internet marketers are doing with their sites - having different levels of membership that offer different services and tools. Usually at the top of the membership levels is the opportunity for one on one coaching with the site owner. Along the way up the membership levels are opportunities for small group coaching and learning. I could see bloggers adding these types of membership levels to blogs - but they’d need to have a fairly sizable readership and to ensure that the free areas maintained a good quality.

As I’ve emphasized numerous times above - I’m no expert in this area and would love to hear what others have to say.

• Would you pay for content (or services) from some blogs? Which ones? What would you pay for?
• Do you know of bloggers who already do this successfully? (ScrivsTyme is one that I know of - although it’s podcasting not blogging).
• Anything else to add? I’m sure there is plenty more that could be said on the topic both in terms of ways forward and barriers to paid areas on blogs. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Written on March 5th, 2007 at 02:03 pm by Darren Rowse

Talking to Internet Marketers about Blogging

Pro Blogging News 32 comments

In two weeks time I’m heading to Washington DC to speak to 400 internet marketers about blogging and I’m both excited and a little daunted by the prospect.

The excitement is largely around the opportunity to meet new people doing things in related fields to mine (both co-speakers and attendees). I expect to learn a lot.

The ‘daunting’ feelings don’t come from being afraid of public speaking (I’ve been doing that for years) but more because to this point I’ve always found internet marketing ‘types’ to be slightly different (or extremely different) to blogging ‘types’.

While I know that internet marketers are a great bunch - I’ve always found many that I’ve had something to do with a little over the top and hype oriented.

I don’t respond well to spin (especially when it hits my inbox 20 times a week in the lead up to a product launch), I don’t take well to being told something is the answer to all my problems if it just answers one of them and I would rather get to know the person on the end of the sales letters and emails first before being asked to buy their latest product - no matter how rich that product might make me.

I know I’m generalizing a lot here - but I guess what I’ve been grappling with today is what should be the main thrust of my one hour slot in Washington DC?

If you had the attention of 400 internet marketers for an hour and were given the brief to talk to them about blogging - where would you take the session?

Am I asking you to write my presentation for me? Well no… and yes.

I’ve already got my outline - but the beauty of a blog is it’s interactivity and the learning that goes back and forth between blogger and readership (point #3 of my presentation).

I’ll happily share my presentation with you - but without swaying where the conversation might go I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’m also well aware that many enternetusers readers are much more a part of the internet marketing community than I am and I’d love to hear a little of how you’re using blogs to support you in your entrepreneurial activities.

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Written on March 4th, 2007 at 01:03 am by Darren Rowse

Speedlinking - 4 March 2007

Pro Blogging News 16 comments

• Richard at Read Write Web posts of his decision to let his blog be translated into Chinese by YeeYan. I’ve been getting quite a few emails lately from bloggers wanting to translate enternetusers in similar deals - I’m sure we’ll see more and more of this in the year ahead.
• Modern Life is Rubbish takes a stab a a topic that pops up every now and again - Ethical Blogging 101.
• Kevin writes about the legal right to use a photo of a person on a blog.
• Bill’s trying to compile a list of the most prolific bloggers - you need to have written over 1000 posts on your blog to participate.

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Written on March 3rd, 2007 at 08:03 am by Darren Rowse

WordPress 2.1.1 Users - Important Update

Blogging Tools and Services 24 comments

If you’re a WordPress user and are using version 2.1.1 it is crucial that you upgrade to the latest version (2.1.2) - particularly if you upgraded in the last 3-4 days. The reason is that there has been a hacker compromise that version and add/change code.

For further details see the WordPress Blog

PS: Thanks to the many people who emailed me about this. I did see it first on the WP blog before checking email this morning.

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