Archive for October, 2007

Slammed by the PageRank downgrade? 3 ideas to combat Google

Published on October 31, 2007 in Case studies and Domains. 1 Comment

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With Google’s recent crackdown on paid links, some say in an attempt to increase their takings from the advertising pie, a number of blogs that rely on Google for search engine traffic have been hit hard. If your blog falls into this category, then your choices are as follows:

  • Comply with Google - stop selling sponsored links + replace it with AdSense
  • Make your blog less Google-dependent for traffic

If you’re leaning towards the latter, here are three ideas to help Google do less evil:

  • Retain your audience by promoting your RSS feeds to them - people who subscribe will bypass the Google intermediary layer
  • Use your blog as the sharing mechanism it’s designed to be - through comments on other peoples’ blogs, trackbacks, pings, social bookmarking and blog communities like mybloglog, twitter etc
  • Get a good domain name that is generic enough that web users will naturally type-in the address e.g. realestate.com.au or podcast.com

the who’s who @ podcamp day 1

Published on October 28, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au. 7 Comments

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The who’s who (spoke to on the day):

Special mention (shared a group conversation with):

These are just a few of the bloggers/web2.0′ers/beer’ers and Interweb’ers that I had the pleasure of seeing/meeting at podcamp perth day 1 2007.

Credit goes out to Chris Quinn for the sweet shot of a podcamp sign.

Marketing/PR hypothesis No.1: Personalise it

Published on October 27, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au and Case studies. 3 Comments

You have a new idea or product or service.

It’s cool but in its early form - a little edgy and raw.

But it’s got potential.

How do you get the word out?

Hypothesis No.1: Personalise it

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If you can’t be all things to all people, road test the idea with a few trusted friends. Cut it down to its raw elements and put it to them for comment.

Put a little spin on it to initiate eyeball engagement. Think of it this way: if your product was a book, what would the cover/title/book need to look like so that the potential reader grabs it off the shelf. Whether he/she ends up buying it will depend on the merits of the transaction - does the book give the reader what he/she needs/wants, but the point is you need to gather the audience before you can even start that spiel.

The AustralianBlogs experience
We thought we’d try our new idea on the inmates/housemates at the Silicon Beach House by individually labelling some beers we brought for Freelancer Friday. Small and hopefully unobtrusive but enough for Bronwen, Myles and Dave to ask the question we wanted them to: “So what’s BLOG.biz?”

Whether or not the new idea meets their needs will depend on how well we do our job in structuring our offering + whether they actually need what we offer….but last things first - let’s make them grab this little idea off the shelf for a closer look.

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The Concept

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The Yakka

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The Execution

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Myles Eftos (MadPilot Productions and PerthNorg) and Luke Evans (AustralianBlogs)

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Dave Gardner (Intilecta Corporation)

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Bronwen Clune (PerthNorg) and Luke Evans

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Bronwen Clune and Bronwen’s beer

Beered in absentia: Richard Giles (Scouta) and Jordan Brock (Five Senses Coffee)

It’s not easy being green (especially without water)

Published on October 26, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au. 1 Comment

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Excerpt from Water Corporation’s (WA) latest marketing push.

“water for ALL, forever”.

What I want to know is… what are the WA frogs doing to conserve our water?

hide those weapons

Published on October 26, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au and Fluff. 2 Comments

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Found this sign on the entrance to the main arena at Challenge Stadium, taking a ’state the obvious’ marketing approach.

I wonder what they class as a weapon (Scissors, toothpick, grenade launcher) and who decides?

    That slow cowboy drawl

    Published on October 25, 2007 in Fluff. 0 Comments

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    I love this story - up there with asking a woman whether she’s pregnant only to find out that she’s not (believe me, I know…)

    Direct type-ins vs Search vs Links

    Published on October 15, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au and Transactions. 2 Comments

    Looks like we’re tracking at 80:12:8 (%) with the bulk of our visitors either typing in our URL directly or via bookmark.

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    Clever Climate Clever

    Published on October 15, 2007 in Fluff. 0 Comments

    I saw the recent Australian Government ‘Climate Clever’ ads recently and loved it.

    A concise, everyday tag line ‘I can do that’ linked with common energy-savings examples eg. no standby power, all against the context of doing your bit to save the planet (for the next generation).

    WHAT IT’S SAYING TO YOU: Ultimately, you know it’s good for you so why not try some simple everyday things (like switching the lights off when you’re not using it)? A nice call-to-action with a catchy phrase.

    The LinkedIn experience

    Published on October 11, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au and Case studies. 1 Comment

    I’ve been avoiding the Facebook and MySpace crowd since its inception - I didn’t want to be the thirty-something, dirty old man on the barstool of a teenie/twenty-sonething nightclub. However, about the time of the relaunch of AustralianBlogs (or thereabouts) Simone sent me a LinkedIn invitation. I must have signed up a little while ago as it’s fallen by the wayside like my hotmail account. So I gave i a whirl - accepted Simone’s kind invitation to link up and dusted off the resume. This time around, I pasted a link on this blog (as you can see on the top right-hand corner).

    It’s terribly uncool to the digerati, I’m sure. LinkedIn’s up there with Amazon, eBay and Yahoo as the giants of the first go-around of the internet boom.

    So I thought…PERFECT.

    Positives

    • good for finding long lost friends
    • acts as an online business card or whitepages listing
    • might help personal ‘trustrank’
    • nice to see the track record

    Negatives

    • a bit narcissistic - and you do feel like a tosser
    • privacy - you can’t control who sees your profile and what they do with it
    • can’t hide the bad bits - think of it as web cellulite

    Overall, I’ve added 30-odd friends (real friends) and a couple of acquaintances from the blog world. Not bad. The greatest tangible benefit has really been hooking up with long-lost friends but I guess it’s been some help with any interested surfers looking to get involved with AustralianBlogs.

    Running this blog business like a business

    Published on October 9, 2007 in Case studies. 6 Comments

    This is a great post - I love the distinction between ‘Making money by investing time’ and ‘Making money by investing money’.

    What do you get for slacking off? (aka Sep07 traffic stats)

    Published on October 9, 2007 in Stats. 0 Comments

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    Instead of blogging, Sep was spent:

    • looking for a new home
    • sick in bed
    • looking after sick kids
    • coping with the spike in workload on the day job
    • nagging Luke (but that happens every month - that bludger)

    ….and didn’t we pay for it - Uniques dropped by a whopping 20%!

    Perth PodCamp

    Published on October 8, 2007 in AustralianBlogs.com.au. 4 Comments

    I’m such a lousy unconference unattendee having missed out on the fabulous Perth Barcamp organised by Myles and mates. But my wife seems to think the newborn is much more important (plus we’re in the middle of moving house), go figure.

    But this upcoming event might just be in the right timezone where I could sneak out for a few hours (just quietly):

    PodCamp is a FREE new media UnConference. It’s for anyone with an interest in media and technology and covers topics such as:

    * social networking
    * emerging technologies
    * podcasting and blogging
    * creative media (music and art)

    * new media development and startups
    * business newmedia marketing

    Below are the vitals for PodCamp Perth:

    WHEN: October 27 & 28
    WHERE: Central TAFE (140 Royal St, East Perth WA 6004)
    COST: FREE!
    REGISTER: at the PodCamp Perth wiki or email perth@podcamp.info (include your full name, website/blog address, and suburb)

    The best part of PodCamp is that “you” help make it happen. Whether you want to give a presentation, volunteer to help bring it together, sponsor the event or simply want to listen and learn, it’s about you getting what you want out of the conference. Everyone is encouraged to get involved in their own way.

    If you have any questions or want to get involved – email: perth@podcamp.info.

    UPDATE:
    Look who else is coming!

    Attendees:

    1. Jared Madden, Emersive / Blog, Hunter Valley NSW
    2. Adam Purcell, redPixel / Blog, Newcastle NSW
    3. Nick Cowie, State Library / Blog, Kwinana WA
    4. Constance Wiebrands, Curtin University Library / Blog, North Perth, WA
    5. Tama Leaver, The University of Western Australia / Blog, Subiaco, WA
    6. Graeme Watson, The Film and Television Institute WA / Blog, Fremantle, WA
    7. Lloyd Johnson, Student @ Murdoch Uni / Blog, South Perth, WA
    8. Kim Flintoff, Student @ QUT/Lecturer-Tutor @ ECU / Blog, Joondanna, WA
    9. Kay Smoljak, Clever Starfish / Blog, Madeley WA
    10. Kate Quinn, LMS Systems Administrator, Blog, Dianella, WA
    11. Chris Quinn, Programmer/Analyst, Dianella, WA
    12. Simon Wittber, Blog, WA
    13. Trevor Bennett, Podcasting@ECU, Mount Lawley, WA
    14. Eran Malloch, TalkWeb TV / Blog, Bedford, WA
    15. Bob Cooper Swan Tafe Bateman WA
    16. Gary Barber, radharc / Blog, Ballajura, WA
    17. Jodi Linto, ECU, Lecturer, Scarborough, WA
    18. Lisa Billingham, ECU, Systems Librarian, Joondalup, WA
    19. Bronwen Clune, Norg Media / Norg
    20. Liam Casey, Curtin University Library / Bentley, WA
    21. Julia Gross, ECU Library, Mt Lawley, WA
    22. Mike Nodding, ECU, Project Officer, Centre for Learning and Teaching, Mt Lawley, WA
    23. Cat Hope, WAAPA COmposers Blog, ECU, lecturer in music, WAAPA, Mt Lawley, WA
    24. Eva Dobozy, ECU, Lecturer, K-7 Program, School of Education, Joondalup Campus, Perth,WA
    25. Chantal Morin, TV Producer www.goodenoughtoeat.net , WA
    26. Michael Newby, Blog, Bentley, WA
    27. Shane Henderson, ECU, Lecturer, Game Design, Mt Lawley Campus, Perth,WA
    28. Kim Tran, Blog, Marketing and the Media, Bedford, WA
    29. Simone van Hattem, Enjoy Perth / Blog, Perth, WA
    30. Pascal Wijnberg, Enjoy Perth, Perth, WA
    31. Duncan Riley, TechCrunch / Blog, Australind WA
    32. Rene LeMerle, ineedhits.com / Blog, Inglewood WA
    33. Mike Minutillo, Fujitsu Australia New Zealand / Blog, Stratton WA
    34. Jackie Pedley, West Coast TAFE, Lecturer, Joondalup WA.
    35. Jenny Lane, ECU, Course Co-ordinator, Lecturer Graduate Diploma in Primary Education, Mount Lawley & Joondalup
    36. Lutie Sheridan ECU Library, Perth WA.
    37. yovita Winarto ecu student Perth WA.
    38. skribe Forti skribe’s Second Life porn emporium, South Perth WA
    39. Kristy Haines Market United, West Perth, WA
    40. Tammy Cooksey Market United, West Perth, WA
    41. Shadi Moqarrabin, ineedhits.com, Yokine, WA
    42. Angela Han, ineedhits.com, Nedlands, WA
    43. Kathryn Greenhill Murdoch University Library , WA / Blog
    44. Stewart Greenhill Curtin University, WA / Blog
    45. Bruce Paulik, InsideScreen, Claremont, WA
    46. Dihan Wijewickrama, wellnet, The Carriage WA
    47. Nicholas Tan, ECU, International Student Adviser, Joondalup, WA
    48. Kat Black and Jasper Cook, Byte Me! Festival / VJzoo, North Perth WA
    49. Nick Hodge, Nick Hodge, Sydney, NSW
    50. Paul Montgomery, FanFooty (including Coaches Box podcast) & Tinfinger / Blog, Geelong, Victoria
    51. Richard Giles, Scouta / Blog, Perth WA
    52. Cassandra Colvin, ECU, International Student Coordinator, Churchlands
    53. Michael Corry, iiNet, Perth
    54. Sue Waters, Mobile Technology in TAFE / Podcast, Perth WA
    55. Penelope Coutas, EdD Candidate, Murdoch University, Fremantle WA
    56. Chris McCormick, Hello, Perth WA
    57. David Koh, Positive Gold, Karrinyup,Perth WA
    58. Crispin Harris, Blog, Perth WA
    59. Natalija Brunovs, Seedpod / Blog, Mt Lawley WA
    60. Nikki Haseldine, ECU, Library, Perth WA
    61. Kerry Johnson, Education Officer, educationau, Work: edna’s E-learning Insights  Personal: Neotenous Tech, Adelaide, SA
    62. Nicole David, Curtin University of Technology, Web Multimedia Designer, Bentley, WA
    63. Ross Buncle, Perthpunk / Blog, Mount Hawthorn, Perth
    64. Teresha Aird, Infoactive Media / Blog, Iluka, Perth
    65. Michael Smith, Leeming WA
    66. Alessandra Morrone, Darch WA
    67. Matt Aird, Infoactive Media / Blog, Iluka, Perth
    68. Caine John, ECU Student, Perth WA
    69. Marziya Mohammedali, kikei.dot.net, MInT Student - ECU, Projects Assistant - UWA, Mt Lawley WA