Written on October 3rd, 2007 at 10:10 am by Lara Kulpa

Today’s third (and final for today) giveaway in the enternetusers Birthday Bash!

Birthday Prize Giveaway, enternetusers Site News 30 comments

Alright - this is today’s final giveaway, but don’t despair! We’ve got something super special in store for tomorrow morning that’s going to carry us through until Friday morning (”morning” = 8am EST), and we’re expecting even MORE response on that one than our first and second giveaways today!

Okay, enough chatter, on with the giving!

Mederma for Scars has graciously donated 25 tubes of the new and improved Mederma scar treatment to the first 25 people who send an email to [email removed - they have reached 25 winners!] with the subject line “enternetusers Birthday Bash - Mederma for Scars” (Remember the first giveaway today when it comes to “case” of letters? Make sure you are paying attention here!) and include your full name and complete mailing address.

I will be updating this post once I’ve been notified that all 25 winners have been collected, so please don’t email a submission once I’ve done that.

In answer to some questions I received about who can enter and further rules about eligibility: Please keep in mind that the winners of today’s first and third prizes will not be eligible for any other prizes during the duration of the giveaway, and it’s going to be like that for the entire event, so if you’re not really interested in a particular prize, it’s probably best not to enter for it. The reason we do this is to give the greatest number of individuals a chance to win something. By all means, if you’re interested in more than one prize, enter for more than one, but know that if you win anything, that will be the only item you win.

There are two exceptions, and one of those is the SeekZap prize we gave away earlier today, the other will happen at the end of the giveaway and we will let you know specifically in that post that even if you’ve already won something, as long as you’re eligible for the prize, you may apply for it.

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Written on October 3rd, 2007 at 05:10 am by Lara Kulpa

It’s another enternetusers Birthday Bash giveaway!

Birthday Prize Giveaway, enternetusers Site News 112 comments

Today’s second giveaway is another easy one to enter and something that 500 tons of you can win:

The first 500 people Everyone to go to SeekZap (before midnight EST tonight) at this special enternetusers submission link will receive a free premium directory listing ($50 value) for their site/blog!

Only one listing per person, so if you have multiple blogs, you might want to choose your newest one or the one that needs the most “attention” in terms of garnering traffic from humans and search engines.

There’s no set cutoff time for this in terms of closing off comments or anything, because Jason from SeekZap was gracious enough to keep the page up until it reaches 500 submissions midnight EST tonight! (Don’t worry if you miss it or if this prize isn’t something you want or need - there are plenty more prizes yet to come!)

Edit: This prize is open to ALL readers of enternetusers - regardless of whether you’ve won anything yet, or will win anything in the future!

Update: Submissions are now closed - thanks for reading!

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Written on October 3rd, 2007 at 02:10 am by Darren Rowse

Why I Don’t Use AdSense on enternetusers Anymore

Video Posts, Adsense 115 comments

Click To Play

One question that I’ve been asked regularly since launching of the redesign of enternetusers is ‘why don’t you use AdSense any more?’

AdSense has been used by bloggers almost religiously to monetize their blogs over the last few years. It’s for good reason too - many bloggers make a lot of money from AdSense - however it doesn’t work well on every blog and bloggers should consider their options and experiment with a variety of other income streams to see which works best for them.

Without this experimentation you could be limiting your earning potential.

While AdSense remains my equal highest income earner from blogging on my other blogs (here’s how I make money from blogs) - I decided to remove it here on enternetusers for a number of reasons - this video explains more of why.

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Written on October 2nd, 2007 at 10:10 pm by Lara Kulpa

The First Giveaway Begins!

Birthday Prize Giveaway, enternetusers Site News 764 comments

The very first giveaway is an easy one:

How to Enter

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment below in the next 7 hours that includes the words “I LOVE SEO!”.

One entry per person. We’ll close this off in 7 hours at 5.30am Melbourne time (that’d be 3.30pm in New York and 8.30pm in London). At this time we’ll launch the next giveaway).

Please note that you need to leave a valid email address in the email field of your comment or we can’t notify you.

The Prize

12 of you that leave this comment in the next 7 hours will be randomly selected to win a copy of Aaron Wall’s famous SEO Book ($79 value)! I interviewed Aaron here if you want to learn more about him and the prize.

We’ll notify the winners in the hours after the competition - we won’t be publishing names of all winners as there will be hundreds of you over the week ahead.

(Don’t worry if you miss it - have you seen the prizes yet to come?)

PS: if your comment doesn’t appear straight away - don’t stress. It’ll probably be in our moderation queue which we’ll clear before choosing the winners.

Update from Lara: WOW! That’s the only thing on my mind right at this moment (aside from knowing I need to go through this MASSIVE list and pull the random 12 winners out)! You folks are really impressive, and I know that Darren’s going to be floored when he sees that the final tally on this post is 764!

Someone had asked if posting the phrase verbatim was important, and I’m glad that the majority of you took that thought to heart ahead of time and posted, exactly: I LOVE SEO!

Yep, that was one of the requirements! It didn’t matter what else you had in your comment, as long as you had that phrase exactly. So please keep that in mind for the rest of the giveaway, gang… it’s meant to make sure you’re paying attention!

Don’t forget to check out the next giveaway… it’s for 500 of you!

And the winners are:

Justin
Tyson
Ian Stewart
DarrinW
Karyn
Lori
Kates
JBagley
mariam
Tony E
derek
A. Marques

Congratulations to all, now stop looking here, and go check your email! ;)

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Written on October 2nd, 2007 at 10:10 pm by Lara Kulpa

The $54,000 enternetusers Giveaway - Prizes and Sponsors

Birthday Prize Giveaway, enternetusers Site News 76 comments

Okay folks, it’s what you’ve been waiting for… the official sponsor list, with prizes!

This is just the sponsor/prize list… there will be THREE chances for you all to win within the next 24 hours, so if you haven’t subscribed to our RSS feed yet, you’re going to miss out!

The following list is quite amazing. The total value of the prizes submitted exceeds $54,000 USD (actually it’s probably closer to $60,000 with a couple of late prize additions to the list). You’ll see the variation of prizes is amazing and ranges from the fun and slightly bizarre - to the the very useful!

I hope that this whets your appetite. Stay tuned for the first three opportunities to win in the next 24 hours!

One last thing - as a thank you to all of the sponsors below (listed in alphabetical order for ease) please do visit them - they’ve been generous with us - so please be generous with them!

The Prizes

• $50 cash - [Geeks are Sexy] Technology News
• $300 cash - 1 Cool File
• New blog installation & customized template package - Angela Wills
• $25 Amazon Gift Certificate - Another Old Movie Blog
• $100 Gift Certificate to artisanscup.com - Artisan’s Cup (Teas)
• 2G digital video camera ERV - Associated Content
• Media Interview Training - Author Media Training
• (3) 6 month subscription to both svcs. - Babble Soft
• 1 new 8GB iPod Nano - Back in Skinny Jeans
• Barefoot Bunny Slippers - Barefoot Parties
• $25 Amazon Gift Certificate - Baz
• Hawaii Stretch DVD - Best Hawaii Vacation Blog
• Photo wallpaper measuring 6 foot x 6 foot - Better Wallpaper
• blog analysis + 125×125 ad - Blog About Your Blog
• one hour blog consulting - Blog Louder
• $250 cash - BlogFlux
• 400 word review & feedhost PRO (1 yr) token - Blogging Fingers
• Logitech G15 gaming keyboard - Blogging Tips
• $50 cash or a Amazon Gift Certificate - Blogging With Cents
• 1 year - Access for your (3rd-12th grade student) - Book Test Online
• Caddy - Water bottle holder + carrier - BVT Products
• one month of winner’s choice of business coaching for writers, artists, or entrepreneurs and one month of group business coaching for 8 winners - Center of Muse
• Flickr Pro Upgrade - Cheap Shooter
• $501 cash - Chitika
• 6 art photography prints - 3 each of 2 - Christina Perdue
• design and color analysis - office design - Color Themes
• Complete Blog Contest development package - Contest Blogger
• hand-beaded lucky gemstone necklaces and a bottle of I ALLOW IN WINS Essential Roll-on Oil - Contest Queen
• blog header design - Cory Miller
• custom logo design - David Airey
• Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Set - Derek Beauchemin
• 2 LG 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitors - DisplayLink
• How to make PR work online ebook - distilled: pure website expertise
• ebook, book for entrepreneurs, and press release & dist. on PRweb.com - Egg Marketing Blog
• (3) t-shirts and coaching sessions - Explore Life Blog
• 2yr subscription to Nylon Mag - Fashionista TV
• $1000 donation to charity of winner’s choice - Free Money Finance
• $25 Amazon Gift Certificate - Freelance Writing Jobs
• SEO/Internet Marketing pkg - Freezing Hot
• Kingston 8GB portable USB drive - Geeky Speaky
• $200 cash - Genealogy Reviews Online
• Pampered Pooch Package & Doggie Mommy Pack - Good Doggie
• 3 domain names from namecheap.com - Groovy Vegetarian
• $333.33 Cash - Grown Up Geek
• iPod touch with (8GB) - Help Desk Geek
• custom logo design - Holiday for Every Day
• 1 year subscription to Home Exchange Site - Home Based Holidays
• 1GB iPod Shuffle - I Hate Bad Service
• 6×6 Custom oil painting - One custom full color single pet portrait - Intricate Art
• iPod Video or Nano-Extreme Makeover (new LCD, front plate, rear plate & battery) - iPod Repair of Memphis
• 8 GB video iPod nano - It’s Write Now
• 10 articles of 500 words each custom-written to the winner’s specifications - JCM Enterprises
• It’s Alive Game - Jer Games
• Jewel Caddy, “NO Tangle” Jewelry Organizer - Jewel Caddy
• one year membership - coaching program - Jill Koenig
• Whatever Wall Clock - Kim and Jason
• 2 entrepreneurial books by Kirsty -Kirsty Dunphey - speaker, author, entrepreneur, retired at 27
• CD - Zane Tate - Leisure Lab
• assorted baby and kids items - Lille Punkin’ Reviews
• $100 Gift Certificate - site only (jewelry) - Lisa Marie Dias Designs
• $20 Amazon Gift Certificate - Lulu
• 3 night stay in FL condo near Walt Disney World - Magic Vacation Villas
• one full month unlimited assistance from a virtual lifestyle organizer along with a get-back-on-track basket - Mary Jo Rulnick
• 25 tubes of New & Improved Mederma - Mederma for scars
• 15 x 13 Limited Edition art print - Melissa Roberts
• 3 books of the winner’s choice - Meryl Evans - Content Maven
• 10 coffee mugs - Mighty Mugs
• 16 x 24 poster of one of my photos - Mike Cavaroc
• ad spot for pet-themed site - Million Dollar Pet Pix
• (3) cleaning solution kits (enviro friendly) - Morris Green Clean
• premium design/dev WordPress package - Nathan Rice
• EnSpire Series Stand-By UPS - NetLink Web
• Peppermint Marshmallow Pinwheel Pastries & photo/art - Nika’s Culinaria
• The Google Story (book) + $10 - No Full Stop
• Frescobaldi Laudemio Extra Virgin Olive Oil, surf Active Apparel website Sell Homemade Video zone.Harvest - Olive Oil Passion
• various cd’s and dvd’s and posters (11) - On Target Media Group
• Home Office Virtual Organization Package - Organize & Simplify
• Organized Outcomes Remote Stylist Prize Pack - Organized Outcomes
• custom WordPress theme - Milo
• Child Guard - Personal Self Defense
• $300 cash - Publicity Hound
• A Little Twist of Texas book + postcards from travels - Raven’s Roads
• linkbait boot camp - Remarkable Communication
• 3 nights in Sedona, AZ - Retreat and Heal
• $35 Amazon Gift Certificate - Sea Slugs! Anime Blog
• 5 Secure Delivery Pro subscriptions for free, for life - Secure Delivery
• SeekZap Premium Directory Submissions - SeekZap
• SEO services - SEO Aware
• 12 copies SEO Book - Aaron Wall - SEO Book
• $150 cash - Simple Kind Of Life
• (2) $500 cash and free Premium upgrade subscription for 6 months to SKY.fm radio - SKY FM Radio
• $300 AdWords management package and $300 cash - SmallFuel Marketing
• book and soy coffee - Soy Coffee
• The Logitech G5 laser gaming mouse - StarFeeder
• 20 cigars and starter kit - Stogie Review
• Internet Radio directory and mp3 - Street Smart Marketing
• 30-45 second theme song for use in a blog site or website - Tamra Engle
• tea package (pot, warmer, tea, spoon) - Tea Party Girl
• 2 winners - pick from bargains on site from - The Bargain Queen
• collectibles from Binions Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas, NV - The Collecting Life
• The Essentials of Trading Course DVD - The Essentials of Trading
• two FREE nights at a Bed and Breakfast in Puerto Rico - the Palmetto Guesthouse
• 1 Month of Wellness Coaching (three 45 minute sessions with a certified wellness coach) - The WellCenter Group
• Pro voice production package (theme, voice, music) - Tim “Gonzo” Gordon
• 4 x 1lb bags of Gimme Coffee beans - Time For Coffee and Tea
• Rhinoskin Aluminum HardCase for Treo 700 series smartphones - Treo Today
• 1 truffle tree (first year care & maintenance) - Truffle Tree
• $50 Amazon Gift Certificate - Viral Electronics
• 50 pesos, 2 Jamaican dollars, 5 Canadian dollars, 50 American dollars, and an unused NFL Pro Bowl Ballot from 1994 - Wall Street Fighter
• 5 hours writing/editing services - Zach Everson

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Written on October 2nd, 2007 at 02:10 pm by Darren Rowse

WidgetBucks - A New Advertising Option for Your Blog

Advertising 63 comments

I’ve just heard about a brand new advertising option for bloggers by the name of WidgetBucks that is launching as we speak. I’m yet to test it live on my sites as it is brand new - but from my initial looking over of the service I’d say that it has promise. The nearest thing that I could compare it to would be Chitika eMiniMalls as it is an interActive ad unit that flashes through different purchasing options for readers for different products. Here’s how one of their ad units looks (there’s another at the base of this post):

Widgets come in a range of sizes and can be customized to different colors. They will also let you target 13 different categories (each category has sub categories) if you choose to manually set them - but will let you run it in a ‘contextual’ mode (called ‘MerchSense’).

How Do You Make Money?

You make money on a ‘per click’ (CPC) basis and WidgetBucks claim that those who’ve tested them are getting $3-$6 CPM. Payment is via Check but you need to hit $50 before you trigger your first payment.

$25 SignUp Bonus

In fact this is actually easier than it might seem as they start every publisher off with $25 in their account as a signup bonus so all you need to earn is another $25 to get a $50 check.

WidgetBucks will allow you to run as many ads on a page as you like and you can use this system with AdSense according to their FAQ.

Tracking is on a Widget by Widget basis and the reports page looks pretty good.

What I like about WidgetBucks

Keep in mind that I’m yet to test it out and am writing this as a first impression review

• I like the ad units - they are very clickable
• There is a good range of colors and ad unit sizes to choose from
• Reporting looks good
• Reported CPM is reasonable considering you can run multiple ad units and other ad systems on your page
• This strikes me as being a good system on ‘product related blogs’

What I’d like to see Added

• My experience with these types of ads shows me that the more targeted the ads are to your content the better. If you’re writing about a particular model of MP3 player you want to see an ad for that MP3 player served. When Chitika made this available in their system my earnings skyrocketed - I hope that WidgetBucks has a way to do this shortly.
• Referral system (which I’m using in this post) - it pays $5 when the person you refer earns their first $25. While this is ok - it is nothing in comparison to other referral systems that payout a % of the earnings of those you refer. While there is some incentive to get some sign ups there’s little incentive to help those you sign up to increase their earnings once they are signed up. update - great news, they’ve taken notice of this complaint and have increased this to 10% of earnings for 10% (something I’m proud to say that I suggested to them!).
• The smallest ad unit is 468×60 - while the 5 units are pretty good to choose from it’ll be good to see if they add more later - particularly smaller ones.
• I’ve never really been a fan of ads that have lots of animation. These could be annoying for some blog readers.

I’m sure I’ll discover more that I like and dislike about WidgetBucks as I test it more - but overall it looks like a system worth testing out to see if it works well on your blog or not. I’ll be giving it a go in the coming days and look forward to hearing how you find it too.

What do you think of WidgetBucks?

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Written on October 2nd, 2007 at 08:10 am by Darren Rowse

Techmeme Launches Top 100 Leaderboard

Pro Blogging News 6 comments

Techmeme have announced their Top 100 Leaderboard page in the last 12 hours. It’s being called a something that attack’s Technorati’s Top 100 list by some (of course they are listed #1 on the list - so they would) - however I think that while it’s a great list and concept that it’s far from killing anything. As Gabe says in his launch post - it just tracks Tech sites that are part of the Techmeme system. They tend to track tech blogs with more of a business focus - so really it’s just tracking a small part of the TechSphere. It also isn’t really just a list of blog either - with a variety of types of sites included.

I think that Marshall Kirkpatrick’s analysis of the list is one of the best going around - Techmeme Launching Leaderboard - World Likely to Keep Turning. It’s a great tool - but if this is a Technorati killer then Techrnorati really must be in a sorry state.

PS - Yuvisense does some interesting analysis comparing the Top 100 at Technorati, Techmeme’s leaderboard and top sites on Digg (thanks to Maki for the heads up on this via email).

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Written on October 2nd, 2007 at 05:10 am by Darren Rowse

How to Advertise for a Blogger

Featured Posts, Miscellaneous Blog Tips 11 comments

Having run the enternetusers Job Boards for over a year now and having seen hundreds of jobs advertised in that time - there are a number of tips that I’d give to advertisers looking to fill job positions via our blogger job boards (note - if you’re a blogger looking for a job then I wrote a post previously on How to Apply for a Blog Job).

1. Headlines are Vital

Most bloggers who follow our job boards are tracking new ads via RSS in news aggregators. I find that many of them scan these feeds and therefore your headline needs to stand out and be specific as to what you’re looking for. In a similar way to the way I advise bloggers to carefully consider titles of posts you should do the same for the ads you post on our job boards.

2. Specific Ads Work Best

Ads for specific jobs tend to get a higher quality of applicant. Advertise for a ‘tech blogger’ or ‘entertainment blogger’ and you’ll filter out bloggers who are not interested in these topics. You’ll also attract bloggers who have more experience in these areas. Advertise for something general like ‘bloggers’ or ‘writers’ and you’ll attract a less focussed applicant and possible miss out on exactly what you’re looking for. Be specific in your headline and the body of the ad itself.

3. Advertise Actual Jobs

Some advertisers put up more general ads as they are looking for more than one blogger. While this is ok by us and I find that these advertisers do get results - it is those ads that are for one specific position that tend to be filled fastest and which get higher quality applicants. This enables you to be specific with your ad and the applicant to respond more specifically. Advertise for more than one position in an ad and you risk confusing your potential applicants.

4. Clearly Outline what You’re looking for from a Blogger

The more information you’re able to give potential applicants the better the applications will be and the more targeted they will be to your particular needs. Give information on:

• what the job entails (topic, posting levels, other roles you expect them to perform)
• payment (if applicable share either how much you’ll pay or what type of payment you go with - ie is it revenue share, flat fee per month, payment per post etc)
• how you want bloggers to apply (give information on what you want in an application - ie do you want a resume, examples of previous work, links to other blogs, an answer to a specific question etc)

5. Be Concise

Clearly written ads that don’t overwhelm prospective bloggers tend to do better than longer and more complex ads. Tell people what you want and how you want to be approached in the ad and leave it at that. It doesn’t hurt to proof read your ads also - nothing puts off a potential blogger more than an ad with mistakes. We can edit an ad for you after it goes live - but this can take up to 24 hours on weekends and depending upon what time your request comes in - this can be after bloggers have already seen your ad (ie too late).

6. Acknowledge Job Applications

Jobs advertised on enternetusers get a varying number of applicants. Some advertisers literally get hundreds of applications while others get a handful (often depending upon the above factors). Whether you get a few or a lot of applicants - I’d advise you to have an email response ready for applicants that:

• acts as a receipt for the job application
• outlines the process from here on in (including a time line for the decision)
• gives any follow up information or questions that you want applicants to respond to

Having spoken to many applicants from the job boards - there’s nothing that frustrates them more than putting together a response to an advertisement (which can take some time) and then never hearing anything back from the advertiser. Even just a short an generic email back to applicants can help them a lot and will help your reputation as an employee.

7. If you Fill the Job Email Me to Mark it as ‘Filled’

If you manage to find a blogger to fill your blogging job shoot me an email and I’ll mark it as filled so that bloggers stop sending you applications. This will not only relieve the strain on your inbox but will save bloggers the time of applying for a job that’s not even open. Just email me via my contact form with this request and I’ll close the job off quickly.

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Written on October 2nd, 2007 at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse

$54,000 worth of Prizes on Offer in the enternetusers Birthday Bash Competitions!

Birthday Prize Giveaway, enternetusers Site News 108 comments

Over the next week here at enternetusers I’m planning to give away over $54,000 (USD) of cash and prizes in the enternetusers Birthday Bash! (you can see the full list of prizes here).

You heard me right - over $50,000 in cash and prizes have been donated by generous sponsors to this event and every cent of them will be going to enternetusers readers in the coming 7 days. The prizes will be given out over a number of days through a variety of different competitions.

There are 115 sponsors (give or take a couple that we’re finalizing) - some are offering multiple prizes (one is offering something for up to 500 of you - which pushed up the prize pool value). Prizes range from getting theme songs composed for podcasts/videos (something I wouldn’t mind winning myself), to iPods, to logo designs, to magazine subscriptions, to books, to cash and vouchers and so much more. Prizes values range from just a few dollars in value to thousands of dollars.

Here’s how it’s going to happen….

But first - to increase your chances of taking home some of these prizes you’re going to want to subscribe to my RSS feed so that you’re up to date with the different competitions that will be running (note - this is not a condition of entry - just a way to make sure you get all the updates you’ll need to participate).

The details:

• Prizes will be won given away in a series of different rounds over the next week - mostly between Friday and Sunday (a little weekend fun).
• Tomorrow I’ll be posting a full list of prizes that have been donated. They’ll include both the prizes and who they’ve been donated by.
• We’ll also launch the competition tomorrow with the first round of giveaways - the purpose of this first competition is simply to spread the word of the competition.
• The competitions will have a range of entry criteria. Some will simply be asking you to leave a comment to say that ‘you’re in’. Others will require you to write a post on a particular topic or in a particular style (like my Group Writing Projects).

Lara Kulpa will be helping me to administrate the competition (in fact she’s doing most of it). Lara is from Anubis Marketing - if you’re looking for Web Design, Marketing Advice or SEO you should probably get in touch with Lara - she’s great!

So stay tuned - we’ll post the first competition tomorrow and will continue to update you on all of the opportunities to win in the days that follow.

Subscribe to my RSS feed to keep up to date and put yourself in a position to win!

PS: To see the latest round of giveaways check out the birthday prize giveaway category

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Written on October 1st, 2007 at 07:10 pm by Darren Rowse

Google Reader Suggest ‘Feed Bundles’ to Users

RSS 21 comments

It looks like Google is rolling out suggested prepackaged ‘bundles’ (or is this something that they’re just promoting afresh? - update - seems it is an old feature according to commenters below) of RSS feeds for it’s users to subscribe to.

In categories like news, technology, video, cars and photography (a total of 15 categories) they are bundling popular feeds with between 5 and 9 feeds in each category.

Taking a quick look through the bundled feeds there isn’t too many surprises in the feeds included - although I’d have thought that they probably could have found a few more feeds in most categories.

Being included in one of these bundles would mean a serious increase in subscriber count - I wonder who one has to sleep speak with at Google to get included in one of them! I can think of one useful addition to their photography bundle!

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