Liz Strauss, the wonderful blogger who heads up Successful-Blog.com has released her presentation to the public through Slideshare. The gist of the presentation showcases how Alexander The Great would use statistical analysis to inform an online business. The presentation is best viewed in full screen mode.
Would You Still Comment If The URL Comment Field Disappeared?
My Final Word On Adjix
As we near the end of September, I figured it’s time to give you a status update on my usage of Adjix which I reviewed back in August. I also published an article which contained the CEO’s response to criticsm when the service launched. Since then, Adjix has added the ability to shorten a URL with no ads attached, essentially allowing you to use their service as a means of recieveing statistics regarding who clicked your links. Although I did not use Adjix exclusively due to the TinyURL FireFox extension making TinyURL creation so dog gone convenient, I did use it for a number of links. Lets see how much I earned.
Well, based on my usage, it will take forever to reach my first payout. Despite the number of impressions, it is worthy of noting that not all of those impressions were valid or payable as some of the impressions were caused by Google Spiders crawling the link on Twitter.
My conclusion is that using Ajix to monetize your Twitter usage is a pipe dream. Instead, I would use Adjix as a URL shrinking analytics service. Despite all the hell which was raised in the comments when I first profiled Adjix, I still don’t believe the company is filled with ill-will. In fact, once Adjix launched, a number of other services followed suit. When it is all said and done, I highly doubt that any individual will be able to monetize their use of Twitter let alone a company.
Automattic Acquires IntenseDebate – More Than Just Comments
If you haven’t heard by now, Automattic has acquired the third party commenting system, IntenseDebate. IntenseDebate is based out of Boulder, Colorado and is one of a few third party commenting services/systems in the so called "enhanced comment space". IntenseDebate offers features such as replying to comments via email, threaded comments, importing/exporting of comments, etc. While having a conversation with a friend of mine regarding the acquisition, he asked the question, "Why didn’t Automattic just create something in house?". It is worth mentioning that WordPress 2.7 will have threaded comment functionality as part of the core which as far as I can tell, was created in-house. However, threaded comments are just part of the equation.
I think there are a few reasons why they opted to acquire rather than create. The first being that acquisition is faster than creating something from scratch on your own. The second, commenting on WordPress.com or WordPress.org powered blogs out of the box, sucks. Both the front end and the back end of WordPress as it relates to commenting has been in need of a serious overhaul for quite some time now. In fact, I remember Lorelle Van Fossen at WordCamp Dallas telling Matt Mullenweg along with the rest of the crowd that administering comments in WordPress sucks. You should of seen the reaction on the attendees faces. Matt also admitted on his blog post that comments really haven’t changed much within the span of ten years and that it was time to kick it up a notch.
Long-term, I think that comments are the most crucial interaction point for blogs, and an area that deserves a lot of investment and innovation. Comments really haven’t changed in a decade, and it’s time to spice things up a little.
The third reason for the acquisition is the relatively small size of the company in terms of personnel. IntenseDebate is made up of only five individuals. On top of that, they are using PHP and MySQL as their platform which is the same platform WordPress is built upon. This makes it easier than ever to integrate the service into what is already being offered by Automattic.
I’m not sure if the WordPress.org project will have a fully integrated IntenseDebate commenting system but I can certainly see something like this on the WordPress.com side of things. Also, I find it interesting that at the flip of a switch, IntenseDebate pulls into the lead in terms of market share out of the various offerings provided by third party commenting systems. Disqus claims that over 25,000 websites have signed up to use their service. Meanwhile, WordPress.com has over four million blogs registered to the site meaning, IntenseDebate will automatically (pardon the pun) have four million blogs to work with on top of their independent users. While I have seen a number of tech bloggers jump on board the Disqus bandwagon, it will be interesting to see if they will switch to IntenseDebate, knowing that the service is now owned by the folks who develop WordPress. I have never felt comfortable using a third party to replace my comments but knowing that IntenseDebate is owned by Automattic relieves those types of worries.
Last but not least, think about this. Automattic plans on leaving IntenseDebate as a separate entity alongside services such as Akismet, Gravatar, BBpress, etc. When Gravatar was purchased by Automattic, some feared that the service would only be available to WordPress. That has turned out not to be the case and the same can be said for IntenseDebate. With this acquisition, Automattic is finding themselves opening up to not only WordPress powered sites, but owning companies/services that are independent platforms. Talk about versatility! Only time will tell on how IntenseDebate is really integrated into the WordPress.org project and WordPress.com but I know one thing, I am certainly happy to see attention being placed on comments as they are truly the one aspect of blogging that forms interaction between the author and reader.
MSN, Google, Yahoo, Who Will Win?
c4sr who is a prominent member of the Hive Community is responsible for pointing this video series out to us. It’s called the Search Engine Rap battle. (Warning: Video automatically starts playing when you browse to the site and mild language is used. Probably not safe for work.)
Just like the rap battles you may have seen on TV, these search engines battle it out for the dopest lyrics. Upon the completion of the video, users can vote for which they think did the best during the battle. There are three different battles to watch, MSN vs Google, MSN vs Yahoo!, and Google vs Yahoo!. While MSN puts up a decent fight, the real battle is Google vs Yahoo!. I found that one to be the most difficult in terms of voting for a winner.
Here is the video featuring Google going up against Yahoo!.
Google is not only good at search, but they know how to rap as well.
MBA Introduces Blogging Insurance Program
BlogWorldExpo may be over with however, the event has left us with plenty to talk about. One of those things is something called “Bloggers Insurance“. The Media Bloggers Association has announced that they have launched a comprehensive program that will provide bloggers access to the same sort of legal and financial resources that have been available to traditional media.
Bloggers under this plan would gain access to BlogInsure which is a liability insurance program for bloggers that provides coverage for all forms of defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement or similar allegations arising out of blogging activities. A major part of this insurance program is an online Media Law course that has been developed by the MBA along with David Ardia of the Citizen Media Law Project.
There is great news for those of you interested in this course. According to the MBA press release, the course will be made available to all bloggers free of charge. Although the course plays a major role in the membership to the MBA, bloggers are not required to join the MBA solely to take the course.
After completing the exam, bloggers will be asked to take a course assessment; this exam is a prerequisite for individuals interested in joining the Media Bloggers Association so those wishing to join must opt to report their test scores to the MBA. It is also the basis for the significant discount on liability insurance available to bloggers through the BlogInsure program.
You can read the entire press release HERE which provides all of the information you’ll need regarding the insurance program.
Considering that everyday, bloggers are threatened with lawsuits or subpoenas, I think this move to provide a way for bloggers to be insured and have some sort of liability coverage is great. Traditional media has had access to these types of services for a number of years so it is refreshing to see bloggers beginning to receive the same treatment.
What are your thoughts on a blogging insurance program? Do you think such a program is really needed? Will you be joining the MBA to gain access to this program?
As for myself, I think I’ll go ahead and take the course to see what I can learn. Law is not my strong point.
Customized RSS Icons Via Photoshop Shapes
Anidandesign.com has released a pretty cool shape set for Photoshop. These shapes will allow you to create RSS icons with shapes that can be enlarged or shrunken while still maintaining high quality. If you are unsure as to what a Photoshop shape is, be sure to read the About.com shape guide which explains the difference between brushes and shapes while also explaining how to install them.
The format for these shapes are Photoshop CS3. Be sure to check out the terms of use as it relates to these shapes.
P.S. My favorite shape is the light bulb, what is yours?