Previously this conference was $1000+ to attend – the organizers were going to donate the profits to charity. However they’ve rethought things and have decided to go with a new approach. It’s now FREE – on the condition that you make a $100 donation to charity.

The speaker list is pretty cool and the agenda is one that I think many will find useful.

I think it’s going to be a great couple of days and am really looking forward to being a part of it. I’m also excited that it’s now much more accessible pricing wise and that from what I can see on Twitter the numbers are going to be quite large as a result.

I also think that it’s great that this conference is all about raising money for charity – I’m donating my time to speak and am excited to see the local blogosphere and social media networks joining together to make a difference – whilst also learning from one another.

I hope you can join me!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Aussies! Join Me at MarketingNow Conference in Melbourne [Now FREE]

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• Professional Bloggers Group on LinkedIn – for people who are or who are becoming Pro bloggers (i’ll let you decide whether that’s you or not).
• Blog World Expo is on again mid October – I’ll be going and would love to meet you. Use ‘PROBLOGVIP’ when signing up to get a further 20% off the price!
• An interview that I did recently with Australia’s MarketingMag – describes a typical day for me (and more)
• David Risley has released tw0 free reports – Six Figure Blogger Blueprint and Blog Wealth Gap – both have some useful information for bloggers wanting to monetize – particularly those at the start of that journey.
• 13 new blogging jobs in the last week – once again we’re seeing lots of new blogging opportunities arising – good luck if you apply!

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Speedlinking – Discount Deal, Jobs, Blogger Group, Free Reports and Interview

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A few readers have asked me whether I’m upset by the final paragraph that reads:

“One blogger, who did not want to be named, told The Age that the top blog, Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger site, was outperformed by a lot of other top Australian blogs in terms of visitor numbers. He said Ms Tsiamis’ methodology would skew the results towards “extremely geeky” blogs, or blogs with an unusually strong overseas readership.”

I’m not disturbed by it at all. I’m not really sure why the blogger wanted anonymity – I mentioned something similar to the reporter myself – but that’s up to them.

When asked about the list and whether I think I’m ‘the most read blog in the country’ I responded by saying that I didn’t really know. While on any given day ProBlogger is read by between 5000 and 15000 unique visitors (that’s been the range over the last month according to my sitemeter stats – my AW stats are higher) and my RSS feed is subscribed to by around 22000 readers I’m never going to claim to be the most visited blog going around. In fact from day to day my other blogs do more traffic than that and I’m sure others are at that type of level too.

A ‘Top blog’ is a pretty difficult thing to define – some would say it’s about traffic, others about incoming links, some might consider it about earnings, others would talk about profile or influence, others might consider how many posts you’ve written, while others would talk about who was ‘first’ and had sustained their blog the longest.

Ultimately – there’s no definitive way to declare any give blog ‘the best’ and to do so when blogs are written on different topics to different audiences is not really fair anyway.

Do I care that I’m listed as #1 on the list?

It’s a nice feeling – it’ll be a nice article to show my parents – it’s always nice to be written about – but in the scheme of things it doesn’t really matter who is at the top of the list. The fact that a list of Australian blogs made it into the paper at all makes me smile – but looking at the numbers of referrals coming in from the online version of the article it’s not that big a deal.

update: Duncan responds to the article here.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

More on Top Aussie Blogs

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Spending online is up 24% (with last month totaling $11.75 billion) on last year and traffic is up 13% (it seems people are buying more per visit this year).

Obviously those taking the majority of this income are the big online retailers – but I’m wondering how many entrepreneurial bloggers are enjoying an increase in traffic and earnings?

As I analyze my own earnings for the last couple of weeks I’d estimate that they are up about 50% on two months ago. Particularly performing for me are Amazon Affiliates (up by about 70%) and Chitika’s eMinimalls and Shoplinc (up by as much as double across Chitika’s different ad types) (aff) and to a lesser extent AdSense (up around 20%).

How have others earnings been going in the last few weeks of this holiday period? What’s working for you? What’s not?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Online Consumers Spending Up these Holidays – How are Your Earnings?

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This graph was posted on the Qumana blog today (originally from Read/Write Web) charting Yahoo Video (Green), Google Video (Blue) and YouTube (Red) visitors.

My question is how much more can YouTube grow without self-imploding.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

YouTube Comes of Age

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This really is a gem of a website and if I had the cash I’d make him the offer he can’t refuse. Hopefully, someone else will find the value in this site and give him the offer he can’t refuse.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

College-Startup for Sale!

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It might surprise some to know that it’s not English but Japanese according to David Sifry. English comes in second with Chinese third.

The interesting thing is that Japanese is on the rise in the last six or so months. In November 05 it made up 31% of posts, in January 06 it made up 32% and now it’s up to 37%. English makes up under a third of total posts.

Of course this measures total numbers of posts in these languages and not numbers of bloggers – perhaps Japanese write a lot more posts per day than English speaking bloggers but I suspect it says more about the international state of the blogosphere – something that doesn’t get a whole heap of attention.

Anyone want to translate ProBlogger into Japanese?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Non English Posts make up over Two Thirds of Total Blog Posting

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‘The BBC today unveiled radical plans to rebuild its website around user-generated content, including blogs and home videos, with the aim of creating a public service version of MySpace.com.’

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

BBC Continues to Explore New Media

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His topic:

‘Offering a remarkable global perspective on the future, Cory will discuss his view that technologies which seek to restrict the copying and use of digital works suppress creativity and treat honest users like crooks. The session will cover the tension between corporate imperatives and end-user experience, the current state of Digital Rights Management, online book publishing and more.’

The focus wasn’t directly about blogging and the written media but he’s an interesting guy and it was well worth the $15 to go along and hear him present.

Perhaps the quote of the evening (or at least the one that connected with some of my own thinking over the past few months) was along the lines of:

‘Content isn’t King – Conversation is King’

Cory is also presenting tomorrow night in Sydney.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Cory Doctorow Speaks

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Hat Tip: Blog Herald

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Mark Pilgrim Gets Back in the Game

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The last few days I’ve had the one below quite a few times. Large fonts, rounded corners, shiny icons…. Almost (not quite) looks like something from a collection of Web 2.0 logos.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Web 2.0 Spam

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“No one kept their head – the knives and guns just came out in this street fight. No one called both sides and did some real reporting. No one added any value. Built anyone up. No, all I read was “Dave’s an a++hole” kind of comments…. Ever notice that the new A list only tears down people and ideas but never puts new ideas, new products, new tools, out there to attack?”

My reaction to Robert’s post is mixed:

On the one hand I disagree that the new A-list never puts new ideas, products, tools out there. I see a lot of new bloggers developing interesting ideas and products. This is one of the things that excites me about the space we’re in at present – a new wave of fresh and creative sorts pushing into new space (not just in blogging but in it’s surrounding space also).

On the other hand I connect with the main thrust of Robert’s post.

I’ve noticed a change in the ‘vibe’ of the blogosphere over the last 12 months.

While there has always been arguments, fights, flame wars and snarkyness in the wider blogging community I wonder if it’s gone to new levels in the last year. Perhaps it is just me or the types of bloggers that I’ve been reading lately (and it could well be) – but I’ve noticed a significant increase in the mob mentality among some bloggers of late. Link baiting with ‘attack’ and/or ’shock’ tactics has been used quite successfully by some bloggers to build their own profile with little (if no) regard for the impact that these strategies have upon those around them.

Some of this happened in the blog network space late last year but by no means is it contained in those circles.

We could probably spend a lot of time asking why this is happening (I’m not going to – although here’s a few possibilities):

• is it a generational thing?
• has it always been this way?
• is it just about a new group attempting to establish themselves and/or an older group attempting to hold onto a space they’ve been in for a while?
• do ‘new’ bloggers tend to be a bit more aggressive than more experienced ones? (an untested theory that I have from my own experience)
• is this a symptom of a more crowded and competitive blogosphere?

I’m not completely sure on the answer but think it’s something worth exploring because it has the potential to impact us all in a number of ways:

• Blogging’s Reputation – one of the regular things I hear from non bloggers about blogging is that it’s just something for angry, egotistical and opinionated people. I personally don’t feel that this is the case as I know a lot of bloggers who are anything but this – however there is an element within blogging that do fit this description to some extent. While I’ve got nothing against different styles of blogging – I do worry that if viciousness and pointless personal attack does creep into the blogging styles of many high profiled bloggers that this just buys into the public perception. This does nothing to grow the numbers or quality of the blogosphere.
• Damaged People – I just don’t see the point of bringing others down for no good reason. I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life caring for and helping damaged people and don’t have much patience for those that inflict pain on others. Of course I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be allowed to critique each other (this is important in life – its how we grow) but the way we critique each other impacts not only the other person but those who witness it and ourselves. I’m speaking out of the consequences of critique upon myself here. We need to take responsibility for this.
• Culture of Attack – while I do not agree with Robert that the new bloggers coming through never put anything forward in the way of new ideas, products etc I do think that some bloggers get so sucked into the buzz of attacking others that they begin to lose perspective and buy into blogging that adds nothing of real worth. It’s all very well to critique someone or an idea – but it takes skill and insight to be able to give a positive alternative. I want to be a part of a blogosphere that moves beyond a culture of just tearing things down and that breaks new ground.
• individual’s rep - bloggers wanting to build a reputation on the back of attack need to be ready for the consequences of their own actions. For starters – ‘what comes around goes around’ and an attacking blogger can expect those they target (and their friends) to fight back and for their own blogging to come under intense scrutiny. Secondly blogs tend to attract readers that are like their bloggers and an attack blog can become a pretty negative and cynical place. Lastly – the web has a very long memory. Your written word becomes a permanent part of the web and can (and will) be used against you at a later time if you are not careful.

I don’t believe that we’ll ever take cynicism, negativity or critique out of the blogosphere (and nor would we want to) but I do hope that we find a more healthy way forward.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

A Negative Blogosphere?

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Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

WeSmirch launched by Memeorandum

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There’s a lot of quality blogs in the list as usual, I always enjoy these awards for finding new blogs that I’d not stumbled upon before.

Diverting to a local interest comment now – It will be interesting to see how their Australian and New Zealand list compares with the Best Australian (and NZ) Blog Award finalist list that is supposed to be announced today. I wonder how many will feature in both.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

The 2005 Weblog Awards Finalists Announced

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You have to buy them in 100 pixel blocks ($100 a pop) but people are buying them and he reported on his blog yesterday that he’s already paid for his 3 years of college fees completely.

Of course – a lot of those buying pixel are poker pages and affiliate programs by the looks of things – but he’s doing ok out of it and is reporting that each advertisers is getting good click-throughs for their money.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

The Million Dollar Homepage

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“Are there food blogs out there?” they asked.

“Oh yeah… I’ve seen a few” said I (hoping I was right and making a mental note to check when I get home.

So I’m home – and I’ve checked – and WOW – there sure are some food blogs out there.

Check out Kiplog’s Foodblog links page if you doubt me.

Wow – what a list – it is massive!

The interesting thing is that quite a few of these foodie bloggers are experimenting with advertising and affiliate programs so it’s not only an active part of the wider blogging community – but it’s also a commercial segment.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Food Blogs

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The Travelator is a wonderful invention. There is nothing better than rushing for a flight at an airport and seeing that the long walk to the departure gate is going to be cut down by jumping upon one of these moving sidewalks.

On a recent trip overseas we were lucky enough to find ourselves with the use of a Travelator on our way to passport control at Singapore’s airport – as I used it I realized that different people used it in a variety of ways. There were basically three types of approaches that I observed:

Self Powered – The first group completely ignored the Travelator. For whatever reason – they decided that they wanted to get where they were going under their own steam. Perhaps they wanted the exercise, perhaps their destination was halfway along the travelator or perhaps they were too proud or even scared to use it.

Free Loaders – The second group saw the Travelator as a chance to take a break from walking. They rested their luggage on the ground, stopped walking and let the travelator do all the work. While I didn’t join them – I could understand why they did it – after hours on a plane the last thing you want to do is go for a long walk while weighed down by luggage.

Power Walkers – The last group of people was the group I belonged to, we got on the Travelator and walked as fast as we could. The travelator was simply a tool to double our speed and get where we were going faster than would be possible under our own power. This group not only use the power of the travelator but they utilized their own ability to propel themselves forward.

Ok – so what do travelators have to do with blogging for money?

As I’ve worked with a variety of bloggers over the years I realize that many of them fall into these same three categories. This analogy is still forming in my mind so be gentle with me – but let me explain:

Self Powered – These bloggers are probably not as common these days as they were a year or so ago – but I still from time to time come across bloggers who do virtually all the work themselves. I chatted to one blogger a few weeks ago who answered my question of ‘which blogging platform do you use?’ by saying that he codes his blog completely by hand. There is virtually no automation to his system. While some of these blogs provide great quality content – the effort to get them running can be significant.

Free Loaders – There are an ever growing array of blogging tools and services at the finger tips of bloggers wanting to automate their blogs and improve the efficiency of what they do. These tools range from blogging platforms, to offline blog editors, to RSS aggregation etc. The temptation with many of these tools is to set them up and let them do all the hard work. This is the concept behind some of the site scraping software that is going around at the moment – in essence it lifts content from other bloggers and puts it on your own blog. While I’ve got nothing against quoting other bloggers and collating the information of others with due credit – many of these tools are being used by free loaders. I’m yet to see many successful examples of freeloaders making it too big.

In addition to the automated Scraper Blogs in this category are those who see ‘blogging’ as having all the answers. I meet these bloggers all the time – they think that all they need is a blog and all their problems will be answered. They set up their blog and realize that while they have a great tool they could be going forward a lot faster if they’re willing to do a little work themselves.

Power Walkers - The third group of bloggers are those who have their fingers on the pulse of and use some of the blogging tools available to them – but who also work their blogging butts off. They work on providing original, quality content and presenting it in effective and useful ways to their readers. They are no content to just sit back and let some automated system do all the work because they realize readers want originality, expertise and useful information. They use and are even willing to pay for the best tools and advice possible to make their blogging system efficient but are also willing to put in the hard yards to propel their blogs above the clutter being created by the free loaders.

Most of you know where I try and position myself with my blogging. While I do use blogging tools to increase the efficiency of my blogging I’m a big believer of putting in the hours and effort to take it to the next level.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Travelator Blogging

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I’m fascinated by this story for a number of reasons – firstly because his content is very good and gives a real insight into the life of someone who is going through something I can’t even begin to imagine. Secondly on a purely blogging level I’m fascinated by any blog that gets that type of traffic and how it impacts the blogger.

And lastly I’m fascinated because I’ve long thought that blogging has the potential to give people going through incredible hardship hope. I’ve been toying with some ideas around this for a while now and Kenny’s story has again got me thinking.

A couple of years ago in the early days of my ProBlogging I saw a report on TV which featured a young guy (in his late teens) who had had an accident that left him a quadriplegic or paraplegic (I’m fuzzy on this detail). They talked about the weeks and months that followed the accident and how he’d been to some pretty dark places. At some point along his journey someone had put a computer in front of him and helped him to set up a website (it looked like a blog but the report didn’t call it one).

The young guy began to write about his experiences. His posts were open, raw and filled with emotion. A similar thing happened with him as what I see happening over at Kenny’s blog. He got a lot of attention and ended up with thousands readers – many of whom were in similar situations. His writing connected with many and gave them hope. It also gave him hope and purpose as he realized that he could make a difference through his writing. He found a voice that he’d never have had if it wasn’t for his site. He also found something he could actually do with his time – something that defeated the boredom that he’d been struggling with.

As I watched the report I was quite moved as I saw the potential of the humble blog to give hope to both writers and readers. I also began to wonder if blogs might actually have the potential to help this young guy on another level. What if he put ads on his blog? What if he started more blogs on commercially viable subjects? What if blogs could give him a means of income in addition to the voice he’d found?

I’m not sure where my stream of thoughts will end up – so far it hasn’t gone much beyond suggesting that people start blogs (Cary did - and he’s done an amazing job at building a wonderful site) but every time I think about it – and talk about it with others – I find myself getting excited by the ideas that come. Maybe it’s time I did something about it rather than just talking, thinking and admiring the work of others.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Blogging that Gives Hope

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Nellie has had a bit of a rough time of late and could do with a leg up so if you want to invest into the life of a young person who I’m told has a great heart and real potential please visit her at HELP! Nellie’s Fundraising Blog. She’s also willing to do some graphic design work in return for your donation.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Helping Nellie

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Cary answered with the following email (I’ve got his permission to post it and have edited it slightly to delete a few personal things. I’m posting it because I think it’s an amazing story of how blogging can make a serious difference in the lives of both bloggers and their readers. Check out how other bloggers are rallying around Cary and Lori at this time.

‘Hi Darren, welcome back : D

And thanks for asking… things are going really well, I’m slowly getting the hang of what I want to post, and how often, and more importantly I’ve already made some great new friends, via Cancer NewsWatch and ironically, via all those great guest bloggers you had, and all the great commenters too. I’ve had some great, and rather heart-felt talks…. I really appreciate everyone supporting my efforts.

Oh! perhaps the biggest thing you missed, as far as my site is concerned, was that after reading about our story via ProBlogger, Scott Randolph and his friends over at Triathlon Training Blog decided they wanted to run their triathlon in the name of Lori & I, and help raise some money for both cancer research, and also to help us out personally, as we are struggling with ever-deepening debt due to our situation. Anyways, I don’t know how much they’ll raise, but of course it’s the thought and support that really count. Scott had wanted to see if you’d mind writing a post about it, but you had just gone on your trip, and I thought it best not to bother you. Oh yeah, and then seeing that, Allen Heat, who is one of your loyal readers and is only 15, decided to dedicate a week’s worth of his graphic design downloads to Lori, too. What a sweet, sweet kid. He’s going to grow up to be something incredible, I’m sure.

The most exciting thing for me is all the cancer patients and caregivers I’ve made contact with through the blog, and I have to say that when someone writes something like “hey, I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your story, and all of your great research” it really touches me, and lets me know I am actually helping someone, and that is the greatest reward i could ever imagine.

Oh yeah, and it’s got my wife Lori a lot more into her own blog, which is starting to get a really great readership, and has helped her to really reach out and connect with people, which until recently she has had a hard time doing. That alone is priceless.’

I’m really amazed and excited by the way that blogging has helped Cary and Lori find something positive in the midst of a devastating time. I’ve long been a believer that blogging can make a difference, that it gives a voice not only to those seeking fame or fortune but those who have something profound to share with the rest of us about their lives. This is one of those times.

As the ProBlogger community can I urge you all to stop by Cary and Lori’s blogs to give some encouragement but also to help out financially either directly or through the Triathlon Training Blog’s challenge if you’re able.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

When Blogging Means More than Money

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