Wow, what a PR stunt!
British humor at its best.

Paddding lamp posts and draw lines on the pavement

• Pretend to be serious.
• Publish a study and people will jump on that 'scientific' train.

Classical PR linkbait by a classical company on a London road attracts classical media (and me). Kudos for that great and funny approach.

The scientific hook

Britain's first 'Safe Text' street has been created complete with padded lampposts to protect millions of mobile phone users from getting hurt in street accidents while walking and texting.

Around one in ten careless Brits has suffered a "walk 'n text" street injury in the past year through collisions with lampposts, bins and other pedestrians.

The 6.6million accidents have caused injuries ranging from mild knocks and embarrassing cuts and bruises through to broken noses, cheekbones and even a fractured skull.

Here is the full story: Brick Lane made Britain's first 'Safe Text' street with padded lampposts to prevent mobile phone injuries

What is the whole PR stunt good for?

From the about page of 118.com:

Text your question directly to us, you already know the number, its 118118, We’ll text you your answer back, each response only costs a pound.

Only one British pound...

How to track the blogosphere?
How will the PR industry react on those new challenges?

The classical gatekeeper role model must die!

Public Relations is still centered around the old gatekeeper role model because classic media works as a so called 'relevance filter' and like every filter can be manipulated in many ways. Offer free travel, transportation, invitations, etc. and you will most likely get friendly news coverage.

The blogosphere works totally different because of the viral character of hyperlinking information.

Let's see why the gatekeeping theory is old media news only...

Read the rest of this entry

This post was written by Matt Jones, the author of Blogging Fingers

As I'm sure you know it's that amusing time of year when the displayable Google Page Rank is about to be updated and bloggers run about like headless chickens making sure everything is ready. There are always those that mock the bloggers who get over hyped up about the update, but deep down we all know they are exited too. It's like a special Christmas just for bloggers and webmasters to enjoy.

I decided to ask, "What have you done to prepare" over at the BlogLight.ning forum where I received some interesting responses.

"I've done a lot of commenting on high PR 'dofolllow' blogs, and I've made sure to keep posting every possible day, often more than once."

Jeremy Hobbs, who is hoping for a PR3 or above.

"I wrote some good articles that caught some attention links, I did a few link exchanges a while ago and also got mentioned in some high PR websites ."

CristianR, who is hoping for a PR4 or above.

"The only thing that I have really done is participate in a few memes/trains that were making the rounds. To pay the favor back to others, I've continued with my weekly Speedlinking feature to spread the link love out to other blogs as well."

Derek Semmler, who is hoping for a PR5.

What Have I done?

1. Purchased a single PR5 link, but only because it was an absolute bargain. I don't normally buy any links.
2. Taken part in Probloggers group writing project, which is a great opportunity to gain links, traffic share knowledge and discover new blogs.
3. Posting at the Digital Point Forums, with a link to Blogging Fingers and BlogLight.ning in my sig. Forum sigs are worth little in the eyes of Google but it's a good way to spend those idle moments.
4. Continued the same strategy as usual. Guest Blogging has been a key part of this and so has 'networking' and making blogging contacts.

A Note about Page Rank Agreements

It seems that every 3 months when the Page Rank update comes about, people start squawking about how it does not increase traffic and we shouldn't get so obsessed with it. There’s always 1 person who 'cleverly' points out that PR is constantly being updated behind the scenes anyway.

While I agree obsessing over a single statistic (or any statistics) is a bad thing, its a fact that the higher your displayable page rank you have the more you can charge when selling sidebar links, in post links, reviews or even when selling the entire blog. Other than traffic, Page Rank is the most important factor in deciding how much money can be made from your blog.

What have you done to prepare?

I was going to title this article "5 Ways to Use Performancing Selfishly" but decided to avoid the negative connotation. Still, at the end of the day, every one of us is looking for ways to improve our little corner of the webernets, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Performancing exists for the sake of "helping bloggers succeed". Enabling high-octane performance in high-octane bloggers. That's all well and good, but you may be wondering what in particular Performancing has to offer and how you can use Performancing to take your blog to the next level.

1. Performancing as leverage: A free PR 5 user profile and PR 5 blog

My good friend Raj Dash has been a steady contributor to the Performancing community. By staying actively involved, and making regular posts, his user profile has a natural PR 5 as does his Performancing blog. Raj shares useful information with the Performancing community and gets naturally rewarded for doing so.

If you notice, Raj is able to link out to several of his websites from his user profile page, and if relevant, he can also link out from his blog entries.

The key to Raj's success at Performancing is consistent, steady and useful contributions to the community. We all trust what Raj says. We pay attention to his articles. Each one shows up on the front page.

Not everyone will get a free PR 5 profile and blog, but those who consistently contribute useful information should be able to do so quite easily. And I don't know about Raj, but I see traffic flow from my Performancing pages to my other blogs on a regular basis.

2. Establish yourself as an authority

The road to success on the web goes down one road: establishing yourself as an expert/authority. This is no joke. One great thing about the web is that it's an equalizer. If you can perform, you'll be noticed. Whether it's YouTube and MySpace for aspiring musicians and entertainers, or Performancing for aspiring bloggeres, here's your chance to prove that you've got what it takes.

Performancing has an open blog format. If the editors like what you've got to say, you're blog entry gets on the front page. This gets your name in front of thousands of people...people with power...people who could give you the gig you've been looking for.

Oh, and did I mention that if we like your stuff, you get promoted to the front page which has a PR 7, which will boost your Performancing profile's Page Rank.... (see 1. above)

3. Get free blog analysis

The Performancing community can provide you with blog valuations, tips on improving the usability of your blog, suggestions for layout and design and more. Just ask a question in one of our forums and expect an answer within hours, not days (we'll try!).

This coming week we'll be restarting the "reboot your blog" program. Each week we'll pick one blog to provide thorough design, usability and SEO suggestions.

Of course there's also pMetrics for blog stat-analysis. pMetrics will give you the tools for identifying where your traffic is coming from, how to improve your content, and whether your traffic building programs are working.

4. Monetize with Performancing

We currently have 3 primary ways to directly monetize through Performancing. First, you can get AdSense revenue from the blog and forum posts you make on this site. Second, if your article is promoted to the front page, you make $10. Third, receive referral fees for our pMetrics premium package. In addition to these three methods, we'll be offering several new monetization options, including theme and plugin development contests.

5. Use our community resources

Is it time for a new blog design? Check out Performancing's free WordPress themes. New themes will be released on a regular basis. Want to sell a blog? Try out our Blogs for Sale forum. Need help promoting an article? Try out our forum dedicated to free article promotion.

This isn't so much website promoting as it is blog promoting. The trick is to have a blog promoting your website, as your blog becomes popular so does your website. Once you have a blog up and running you can also use your blog to make money, more on that later. Next follows a way of getting links to your blog.

A new way of getting heaps of one way links to point to your blogs. Most bloggers know that the more links they have pointing to their blogs the higher their Googles PR rating will increase. Not many may know that the best links one could get are one way links. Unlike reciprocal links where sites link to each other, one way links are highly prized by Google. I have found a way to get these highly prized links. Not my idea mind you, its actually a flow on effect brought on by one of PPP's campaign!

If you look at my post found on BlogSire you will notice at the end of the post a badge saying "get paid to review my post"! By clicking on this link you will be taken to PPP's user registration. This is a must do for all bloggers as not only do they pay well (they produced 80% of my $140 of blogging income last week) this will boost the amount of people linking to your blog by a huge amount.

How? Easy, as once you are a member you also will be able to display one of those badges. You will then put that badge at the end of all your posts. Now every time someone joins by clicking on your badge they will do a post about your blog. For everyone who does, you get a one way link to your blog, and that is not the only reason for doing it. For every blogger whose post is approved, you earn $7.50.