Breaking radio silence while we rush to get Partners out the door, congratulations to Darren, Jeremy, Duncan and crew for successfully rasing $2M in funding for their growing network!
b5 and performancing started at around the same time and have long been friends so it’s really cool to see them making this kind of progress — im not sure why they’d need the money, but I hope they put it to good use and go on to even greater things!
Congratulatins guys…
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Recently I talked about what’s in store for PFF 1.4, and we got a great response.
As you know, we are working hard to get this release out the door as a solid release.
To make sure things go as smooth as before, we’d like to have a series of Beta’s to get your feedback.
Read More…
Multiple Beta Releases
Specifically we want to make sure Image Uploading and Blogger support are solid, and we mean rock solid!
A new dev build with improved Blogger support will be going out over the next few days, so if you are Blogger user, or even on the latest Blogger beta, send me a PM with your email address, or express your interest in this thread, and I’ll make sure you get a build to test.
Following the Blogger dev build, we would like to have a beta release for a smaller audience to test out the new Image Uploading capabilities (which are going to Rock!).
Translations
Second on the list are Translations.
We have numerous teams working on Translations for PFF 1.3, Nick recently sent out a call for an update, so we can get locales out to the public.
To take this a step further, we are already starting to think about 1.4. If you would like to be a part of the PFF 1.4 translation release, or would like to help out with the current Translation, jump right into to the Translation Forum and lend a hand.
As always, any bug fixes, problems or requests you would like to see in the upcoming PFF 1.4, we are more than happy to discuss. Thanks to you, Performancing for Firefox will get even better.
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If you plan to do freelance work as an artist, writer, graphics designer or whatever you are thinking about … This fine list I found on reddit.com today and all those lies are well known and the list is worth being printed out.
Top 10 Lies told to Naive Artists and Designers (by Painter Creativity)
The classical arguments everybody doing freelance contract work knows or should know.
Beside this simple list the page offers counter arguments for every single point. Very useful and recommended to anybody planning to make freelance deals.
Inhale those counter arguments and find your own friendly standard answers before you hear those arguments!
Technorati Tags: business, money, advice, article, contract, interesting, List
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If you’re on one of our translation teams for performancing firefox, please check in and give us an update on your progress. If you need anything, just let us know of course.
We really appreciate all the offers of help with translations, and Im hoping we can push 1.4 out the door with a few major languages packed in!
Thanks everyone
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And an awesome excuse for annoying alliteration, as well! Heh. But I promise I’ll stop that now, since what I really want to post is a review of the pros and cons of Amazon’s aStore program. Note: Adding an Amazon aStore to your blog requires no template hacks. It’s as easy as cutting and pasting a bit of code into a blog entry!
About a month ago I got an email from Amazon inviting me to try out their new aStore program, but didn’t get a chance to do more than glance at it until today. It’s actually pretty cool… using your Amazon Associates account, you can build an inline store to display and sell items from Amazon within your blog. You don’t need to know how to code, it’s easy to set up, and to a certain degree you control the content in the store. When readers buy items, Amazon pays you through your existing Associates account. If you haven’t got an Amazon Associates account, it’s easy to set one up and earn up to 8.5% in referral fees.
If you’d like to see an example of how a store looks and works within a TypePad blog, take a look at the store I built. It took me about 15 minutes, but that was because I was being picky and trying out every option. If all you want is an easy potential revenue stream for your blog, you can probably set up a store in less time than it takes to read this review.
There are some things I really like about the aStore program, and some that I don’t. I’ll start with the good stuff.
Here’s where aStore gets it right:
What aStore could do to improve:
Almost every single suggestion I was going to make about what could be better in aStores is apparently on the slate for the next revision already! According to a post by Darren Rouse at ProBlogger, he just received an email from Amazon alerting him that the following features are to be included soon:
Darren doesn’t say when these features can be expected, and I can’t find anything on Amazon’s site that includes an actual date but I would give aStores an almost perfect review once these are included. There are only a few things I would change that aren’t already on this list:
Thanks to Darren for the heads up on the new features. I didn’t get the email myself and just happened to notice he had posted about the new features as I was procrastinating typing up this post. It was especially handy ’cause every single thing on the list was something I planned to suggest and thanks to him, my lazy hands didn’t have to type them up. Yeah, there’s a reason I like to provide cut + paste template code… and it’s the same reason it works better to get me on the phone or skype than to IM me.
Darren’s post 101 Ways to Run Out of Things to Blog About got me thinking about the dangers (or not) of running out of things to blog about.
‘I spent days putting together this great list. I wanted it to be big as a way of bringing new readers in and to show how much I comprehended of the topic…’
‘the results were amazing. I got on the front page of Digg and high on Reddit and Delicious…’
‘I had close to 30,000 visitors in 48 hours!.’
‘the next day I sat down to write my next post and realised that every topic I thought of to write about was covered in my mega list…’
Sure we’ve all been there. I mean, how many times have we blogged about content on Performancing? How can I possibly write another post about that!?
I think regurgitating content — with a new spin and/or flavor — is a good thing, for several reasons.
Bottom line, I knew I wouldn’t like that post when there was a complaint about getting 30k visitors (and probably a ton of secondary links) from a good ol’ link bait. Repeat after me: link bait, then regurgitate!! (That has to be the most disgusting slogan ever!)
In a recent comment, Sylvia Forester asked
What can we do to stop Bitacle from stealing our posts and making money off of them?
Rather than responding in the comments, it seemed like a good topic for a full blog post. Copyright and IP law are much too large a topic to cover extensively here, but I can provide a few thoughts on where to start.
I haven’t looked at Bitacle previously, but with a quick scan of a couple pages it appears to me that they do include a link back to the original content when they repost material. This may in fact be a benefit to your blog, as people who use Bitacle for search may find you for the first time and become regular readers… There are a number of sites that I allow to republish content from the TypePad Hacks blog in order to reach a wider audience. They send a fair bit of traffic and I don’t begrudge them a few advertising dollars in exchange. On the other hand, it is possible that your reputation could be harmed by spam blogs harvesting your posts and republishing them on sites that contain offensive or dangerous material.
An important question to ask yourself before taking action is why you object to your content being reused: is it because someone else may be making money from your content or because you don’t want your personal brand to be diluted by appearing in multiple places online? This will help you frame the tone of your response. You should also ask yourself whether your reputation or brand is helped or harmed by broader distribution… If the republishing site contains proper attribution and/or a link back to your site, they may be doing you more good than harm even if they make a buck or two in the process. Remember, Google makes advertising dollars when they list you in their search engine and you wouldn’t want them to stop listing you!
If you prefer to keep your content exclusive to your own site, here are a few options you can exercise.
Step One: Email the site that is republishing your content and politely ask them to remove your content from their site. I find that people respond much better to a request than to a threat, so it is important to start out with an email, phone call or letter that is respectful but firm in tone. This is not a step you want to exercise when you are angry or tired.
As more and more companies and individuals are republishing blog content from RSS feeds, you might want to keep a copy of a stock email that you can send out whenever needed. This will save you a fair amount of time.
Once you have taken this step, give them at least a week or two to comply… In most cases, the response will not be instant. Whoever is using your content is going to have to take the time to look through their feeds, archives etc. and even when happy to comply, it probably won’t be at the top of their priority list. Remember that your blog is probably one of hundreds or thousands being excerpted or republished. In your initial contact, you might want to suggest a deadline and request that they contact you with a followup email when they have acted upon your request.
Step Two: If the first contact does not get results, send a cease and desist letter threatening legal action if the recipient continues to ignore your request. Although such letters are usually draughted by a lawyer, you can find many examples online that could be tailored to your situation. In many cases, the letter itself will get results without having to go to trial, but if it doesn’t you’ll have to decide whether or not a trial is worth it to you. In most cases, it will be expensive to take legal action even if you win.
If your content has been formally registered with the US Copyright Office, you will be entitled to sue for legal fees. Even if you have not formally registered copyright, your content is still protected under copyright law. In fact, you don’t even have to label the work as copyrighted in order to seek protection. The main benefit of formally registering copyright is the ability to sue for legal fees, but it is very important to note that even if you win a judgement against someone, that does not guarantee that they will actually pay you. You must register your content three months prior to bringing suit if you wish to sue for legal fees.
The only exception to automatic protection under copyright law is if you have chosen to license parts of the content through a Creative Commons license, in which case that license will grant specific rights based on your choices.
Step Three: This article on the Learning Moveable Type blog provides a good overview of how to use the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) to protect your content by filing a complaint through Google. You can file a DMCA complaint through the Adsense team if the site uses Adsense, or file a general DMCA complaint if not. You might want to include a reference to filing a DMCA complaint through Google in your cease and desist letter.
Step Four: If all the above fails and you still feel strongly that heads must roll, you’ll have to actually bring suit against the offending party in court. At this point, you’ll want to hire a lawyer to handle the proceedings. Personally, I feel that in most cases an actual law suit is both overkill and a game of diminishing returns… but of course, many feel differently.
Step Five: Most sites which republish content draw from RSS feeds rather than hand-harvesting content from individual posts… The best way to protect against your content migrating to other sites is to provide a partial RSS feed or no RSS feed at all. BUT— to my thinking, this is really cutting off your nose to spite your face. Sure, it prevents most content theft, but it also limits your readership and exposure.
There’s been a great deal of debate as to whether to offer full or partial RSS feeds of sites in order to curtail article harvesting. The basic gist of the discussion is that full feeds are good for readers but bad for security, while partial feeds keep content more secure but can be frustrating for readers. It’s my feeling that blogs should be more about the reader than the author if they wish to succeed.
Some people like partial feeds because they can scan a lot of headlines quickly. Myself, I favor full feeds. If everyone was as good as Brian Clark at writing headlines and starting their post with engaing copy, I might be more into partial feeds. But in most cases, I prefer to see the whole post so I can give the author the benefit of the doubt when a potentially interesting post starts off a bit slow.
When I have to click through to an actual website or blog in my browser, I get annoyed and eventually stop reading the blog altogether. The only time I want to click through is to leave a comment, and I would be way happier if I could comment on a post from within my RSS reader. The whole point of RSS for me is to be able to collect the info I want to read in one place and manage it by saving the articles I found valuable or marking them as something I wish to link to or comment on, etc. Dropping or limiting the RSS feed makes the entire experience of a blog less usefull and less welcoming to me.
When you punish your readers in order to discourage content pirates, you are effectively treating your readers as though they too may be bad people. Partial feeds discourage your reader from getting your full message, from linking to your content appropriately and from joining the discussion in the comments… take a look at this post by Seth Godin about a site that has made doing business with them almost impossible based on a few bad experiences they had with former customers.
Many of the posts here that talk about starting your blog or site mention the following advice…
Find your niche.
Now this always seems to be pretty high up the list, but for me there’s something a bit more important, The Passion of the Writer. With that passion does it really matter if you are in an already crowded market?
For two and a half years I wrote for quite a big film blog, and for reasons better left unwritten I left and began my own site. I entered a marketplace where the most interesting niche areas are covered and the ones that aren’t are either uninteresting, don’t command an audience, or just don’t arouse my passion.
The film blogging community is crowded, there are many smaller film blogging sites and even those that command a larger audience are still standing shoulder to shoulder with others. Pretty quickly I found I was fighting for an audience alongside many other sites, so what was left?
Well the next piece of advice I see a lot is…
Write an exclusive.
There lies another problem. When you’re a small site in the film blogging community none of the Film Studios or Marketing companies care about you since you don’t have a large enough audience for them.
So that takes care of that one, so what is left? Well for me there are
The first is obvious, whatever you’re writing about write about it well and put your passion into every article.
Secondly, make sure that you’re not just lecturing to your audience or reading the news to them, engage them in the discussion, ask their advice, get them to do something and respond back about it. This doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s very gratifying. Oh, and remember to keep the discussions going, don’t just fire and forget your articles.
Next up is to build an informed opinion. This is pretty easy, if you have a passion for your topic then you already have your informed opinion. If you don’t and you’re writing constantly about your chosen topic, then you soon will. Except having the opinion doesn’t count for anything unless you voice it. Don’t just voice it post to post either, make sure that it spreads across your site and follows through articles on the same subjects, it makes for much richer and deeper reading.
Lastly, market. Get the latest tools on your site, but only those that truly help you and your readers connect. Get your stories out on social bookmarking sites, but try and enable your readers to do it rather than you, posting your own stories can cause quite a lot of negativity on these sites.
Doing these things creates quality and a site that your readers can interact with rather than just read. Of course there are a lot more points to it than just these, and a lot more work, but I’m not giving away all the secrets!
So you see, entering an already crowded blogging community is not necessarily a bad thing or something that should be avoided. If you have a passion and a strong voice, and a lot of time in which to build your site slowly, then you can, a niche isn’t necessary.
Beware though, it’s a long process, and a lot of hard work. Sometimes I really wish I had a niche!