http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog The Australian Blogosphere's #1 Meeting Place Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:17:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Sick of the unending checkout queues? Shitty with crappy car parking at your local mega-hyper-suburban shopping centre? Then save yourself the hassle: Oxfam Unwrapped World Vision TEAR Australia/Useful Gifts And the best part is, these guys never ask for the receipt so that they can return it for something else! http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/stuff-a-goat-in-your-xmas-stocking/ I've been dabbling with creating websites and online communities as a hobby since 2005. I used to spend the whole day working on other people's IT solutions - counting down the hours until I could flick on my laptop at home after my wife and kids had gone to bed ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/tell-me-you-think-its-cool/ AustralianBlogs.com.au (via BLOG.biz) launches its first WordPress theme! YAY...(it's even XHTML-OK...I checked) I hope it's a stinging blow I strike for fellow untrained, untalented wannabe web designers. Download it here at your peril. http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/its-just-a-bit-casual/ Following on from the Google war on pagerank, this SearchEngineJournal post got my attention. I don't get out much and had never heard of Widgetbucks - so I thougt I'd give it a try - see the new widget in the right-hand sidebar. I'll post our findings in the next few weeks. http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/the-widgetbucks-experiment/ Not quite, but you get the idea. In an increasingly crowded media landscape, bloggers need to use their medium find their own 'voice' and position their offering: to stand out to attract and retain readers personalise their content Here's an interesting case study of a brand that isn't quite using reverse psychology but is more ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/my-blogs-crp-get-into-it/ My partner in slime, Luke Evans went to Podcamp Perth and pointed me to this excellent blog post from Kathryn Greenhill. http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/buggered-if-you-know-what-to-write/ 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 ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/slammed-by-the-pagerank-downgrade-3-ideas-to-combat-google/ The who's who (spoke to on the day): Myles Bronwen Chris Junimun Still Nick H (asked a question from audience) Michael Special mention (shared a group conversation with): Simone Crispin Nick C Others (names unknown) 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 ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/the-whos-who-podcamp-day-1/ 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 If you can't be all things to all people, road test the idea with a few trusted friends. ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/marketingpr-hypothesis-no1-personalise-it/ 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? http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/its-not-easy-being-green-especially-with-out-water/ 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? http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/hide-those-weapons/ 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...) http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/that-slow-cowboy-drawl/ Looks like we're tracking at 80:12:8 (%) with the bulk of our visitors either typing in our URL directly or via bookmark. http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/direct-type-ins-vs-search-vs-links/ 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: ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/clever-climate-clever/ 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 ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/the-linkedin-experience/ This is a great post - I love the distinction between 'Making money by investing time' and 'Making money by investing money'. http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/running-this-blog-business-like-a-business/ 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%! http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/what-do-you-get-for-slacking-off-aka-sep07-traffic-stats/ 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 ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/perth-podcamp/ "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/fave-quote/ When we came up with the idea of blogging our attempts to raise some money for my boy's childcare centre playground refurb, we thought it would be a laugh to see if we could come up with some unconventional marketing campaigns to flog what is well-worn fundraising stock (ie. the ... http://www.australianblogs.com.au/blog/a-blog-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates-lessons-from-the-marketing-challenge/