Just across the Tasman from the east coast of Australia is New Zealand who will be holding their first international blog conference in 2006. It’s called Blog Hui 2006. It’s being held in Wellington between 16-17 March and they’re lining up some interesting speakers including Torill Mortensen, Trevor Romain and Mark Bernstein. Looks like an interesting get together.
Written on 12/1/2005 at 5:22 pm by
I’ll Show you Mine if You Show me Yours (WP Plugins)
Here’s a little survey/question for WordPress users out there. What are your favorite plugins? I’m regularly asked how I do certian aspects of this site and the answers are usually pointing at a plugin of one kind or another – so I thought I’d let you know what I’m using – but only on the condition that you show me yours (I feel a little dirty saying that). Here are my active plugins:
- Spam Karma 2 – Reloaded – picks up 99% of comment spam
- Page Navigation 1.5 – puts the page numbers at the bottom of the main and category pages to help with navigation
- Related Posts 1.3.3 – at the bottom of each individual post page are 5 related article to encourage readers to stick around
- Subscribe To Comments 2.0.2 – a recent feature to help readers keep track of older conversations (not sure if anyone’s using it?)
- WP-ContactForm 1.1 – Contact form plugin
- WordPress Email Notification Plugin v2.1 - the plugin behind my weekly newsletter – basic but good
Now I’ve shown you mine – time to show me yours.
Update – I’ve collated the list so far here.
Written on 12/1/2005 at 4:40 pm by
Threadwatch Sold
There’s a lot of sadness over at Threadwatch today with Nick Wilson announcing it’s sale and him leaving the site. He’s doing so to give more time to the new company that he’s a part of starting, Performancing. The new owner of Threadwatch is Aaron Wall from SEOBook.
There was no mention of what the sale went for in terms of dollar value – but I suspect this is less about the money and more about freeing up time for the Performancing start up.
Best of luck Nick and Aaron.
Written on 12/1/2005 at 2:48 pm by
Side Stepping your Bloggers Block
Blog Tip 21. Side step Blogging Blockages
Sometimes bloggers block can get completely on top of you and start to get you down – I often get to this point midway through posts. You might known the scenario too – you start off so well and then you get to this midway point where you begin to lose your way. Clarity goes out the window and you start to meander around that succinct and profound point you had so clear in your mind when you started.
While persisting and pushing through can be an option at this point – sometimes I find it best to simply save the post as a draft to come back to at a later point in time.
I quite often sit on posts like this for a few days (and sometimes quite a bit more) before coming back to them. Of course this all depends how time dependent the topic at hand is. If you’re breaking a story you might want to try the ‘pushing through it’ option!
Putting posts aside enables me to clear my mind and work on something else (or have a sleep) before coming back to it with a fresh approach.
The metaphor that comes to mind as I write this is that a good post can be like a good wine that gets put away in a cool dark place for a while once the elements of the post are mixed together to ferment. Some of my best posts went through a very similar process and I suspect are much the better for it.
Take home lessons – don’t rush your posts, give them time to develop and consider taking a break mid post.
Read more of the Bloggers Block Series.
Written on 12/1/2005 at 12:50 pm by
Chitika adds ‘Alternate URL’ feature
Chitika just added an ‘alternate URL’ feature to their eMiniMalls which allow you to run other ads in their space when they don’t have any product to serve. This will be very useful for any publishers with a lot of traffic from countries not accepted by the program. Here’s how they describe it in their eSupport area.
What is “Alternate URL”?
The alternate URL feature allows you to make use of your ad space in the event that Chitika is not able to show a paying eMiniMall ad (for example: traffic from non-accepted countries). In such an event, the Chitika system will redirect to the url you specify.How to specify an “alternate URL”?
There are two ways of specifying an “alternate URL”:
1) Code Panel: You can login to your account, click on “eMiniMalls Code” and then specify an “Alternate URL” (in the “Set Options” section)
2) Code Hacking: For existing users who have already deployed code, you can add this line to the code (anywhere after the line with ch_client but before the line with /script). You need to replace the XXXX below with a valid URL like “http://yourdomain.com/chitika.html”.
ch_alternate_ad_url = “XXXX”;
I know a few bloggers who will be jumping up and down with excitement at this news.
Also in Chitika News – the’ve just posted the audited figures for October – which means their next payment must be close to being made! This will be my biggest ever payment from any one source! Just in time for Christmas.
Written on 12/1/2005 at 9:06 am by
Blog Business
Vaughan has just let me know of a new blog he’s running called Blog Business which is on the topic of ‘Building Business Models from Blogs. Or Not.’ Sounds like one to watch if you’re into the ProBlogging thing.
Vaughan is doing his MBA dissertation on the topic of Blog Business Models.
Written on 12/1/2005 at 12:30 am by
Short Posts – Battling Bloggers Block
Blog Tip 20. Short Posts
If you don’t have much to say, don’t say much.
Resist the pressure to have to fully unpack every aspect of every topic – instead let your readers unpack a topic for you with an invitation at the end of your post.
Web readers are notorious for having short attention spans and staying on websites for very short periods of time – so a short post can be just as effective (if not more so) than a longer one.
They can also give bloggers block a good hiding also as they take the pressure of having to have massive depth in every post you write off a little.
My name is Darren Rowse and I’m a full time Blogger making a living from blogs like 
