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Written on 10/6/2004 at 9:09 pm by

Graphic Design Using Color

Filed Under: Blog Design

by: Kelly Paal

Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don’t realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors “say” in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market.

If you don’t think that color speaks just complete this sentence, “red means —- and green means –“ even a child will know what red means stop and green means go. If such simple ideas work for all of a given culture or market what could it mean to the graphic design of your website, brochure, or product if you know some of this information.

First let’s start with the basics. The color wheel. We’ve all seen it. The color wheel shows the basic colors, each wheel is different in how many shades of each color is shown, but they are essentially the same.

[Read more...]

Written on 10/6/2004 at 11:29 am by

Twelve Business Models for Blog Technologies

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

Online Business Networks Blog has an interesting post on Twelve Business Models for Blog Technologies
They divide it into four categories:

- Traditional Businesses Leveraging Blogs – including Individual virtual presence, Corporate virtual presence and Using blogs to improve existing processes.
- Selling Blog Technology – including Technology sales to the enterprise and Technology sales focused on individuals .
- Media Businesses Using Blogs – including Online communities, Premium Content and Blog-based media.
- Peripheral Services – including Enabling advertising to blog audience, Data about the blogosphere, Consulting and Education.

Its an interesting breakdown – where does your proBlogging fit into this framework? Most of mine to this point focusses upon 6. – Blog-based media.

Written on 10/6/2004 at 11:19 am by

Kanoodle BrightAds Challenges Google AdSense

Filed Under: Advertising

‘Kanoodle, provider of sponsored listings for search results and content pages, today announced the launch of BrightAds™, a self-service tool for small- to medium-sized content publishers that will enable them to run Kanoodle’s content-targeted sponsored links on their sites. With the launch of BrightAds, Kanoodle enters the market of competing against Google AdSense to secure small and medium sized publishers.

A unique benefit of BrightAds is that it maps ads by “topics” rather than keywords, which prevents core keyword mapping challenges and provides publishers with ads that are more relevant to their site’s content. This protects the editorial integrity of publishers’ sites, ensuring that the ads appearing on each page are directly related to the context of the reader and are not dependent on arbitrary keywords.’

Read More at Search Engine News Journal » Kanoodle BrightAds Challenges Google AdSense

Written on 10/5/2004 at 5:08 pm by

Gawker Targets Males with New Blogs

Filed Under: Blog News, Blogging Tools and Services

ProBlogger Nick Denton from Gawker has just announced three new blogs:

- Jalopnik a blog about Cars

- Kotaku a blog about Video Games

- Screehead a blog about “funny shit.”

The blogs unashamedly are targeting a young male readership – a smart strategic move from Gawker who has obviously seen the same research about Young males using the net more and more that the rest of us have seen. The difference between Nick and the rest of us is that he’s done something about it and is positioning himself very well for some successful and profitable blogging.

They’ve also signed a deal with Audi to sponser their Jalopnik blog – another smart move.

Written on 10/5/2004 at 5:01 pm by

Business Blogging – Inc.com

Filed Under: Business Blogging

Inc.com has a good article introducing the concept of Business Blogging.

‘Blogging is not just a gadget for geeks but is a low cost tool that enhances the overall communication of your business, saves you time and money, improves online marketing and more.

A blog provides dynamism and life that a static website often does not have. You should take the time to determine if a blog can benefit your business’ website.’

They list a number of reasons why a business might want to use blogs including:
- More efficient communication
- Easier distribution of your company’s marketing message and content
- Reduction in IT staff workload
- Boost in search engine marketing efforts

They cover a whole lot more ground in the article – well worth the read.

Written on 10/5/2004 at 1:58 pm by

Write a review and win a $100 Amazon Gift Voucher

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

I’m running this competition on my other blogs and thought some of you might like to participate.

Do you own a digital camera, printer, scanner or camera phone? Would you like the chance to win a $100 (US) gift from Amazon simply by writing a short review of your experiences with it?

Digital Photography Blog, in conjunction with Camera Phone Zone and Printer Blog are giving you the chance to win a $100 gift voucher from Amazon for each review of a printer, scanner, digital camera, camera phone or photo editing software package. You get one chance in the draw for each review submitted in the next 30 days. Entries close on 5th November 2004. Please carefully read the following Conditions and Guidelines before submitting entries.

Entries should be submitted via email to Darren at:

darren at livingroom.org.au or by using this contact form (please ensure you leave a contact email address so that we can contact you regarding your prize if drawn on November 5).

Conditions of entry:
[Read more...]

Written on 10/5/2004 at 12:02 am by

Online Advertising Continues to Increase

Filed Under: Advertising

In the finance segment on the ABC (Australian National) News tonight there was mention that the last quarter had seen advertising in Print and TV media have a down turn. Correspondingly there was an increase in Online advertising for the same period which has to be heartening news for those of us exploring online revenue streams.

Written on 10/4/2004 at 10:55 am by

CopyScape – Keeping your Content Secure from Plagiarists

Filed Under: Blogging Tools and Services

CopySafe is an internet infringement Protection tool that helps you to find out of people are stealing your blog’s content. I’ve accidentally stumbled upon a number of sites recently that have copied and pasted articles that I’d written word for word (and link for link) from one of my blogs onto another blog. On every occasion so far it only took an email to the relevant blogmaster for them to remove it (with the threat of further action) but I’ve often wondered how many other articles I’ve written have been stolen. Now with CopySafe I can find out. All it takes is for you to add the URL of the post from your blog and it will suggest possible plagiarism infringements.

Found via Affiliate Tip

Written on 10/3/2004 at 11:39 pm by

Blogs enter mainstream, eye revenue streams

Filed Under: Pro Blogging News

This article in New York Business takes a look at two of the emerging Revenue Raising Blogging Organizations – Gawker and Weblogsinc.

“Shedding their outsider status, blogs are not only entering the political and cultural mainstream, but they are also looking to become moneymaking media businesses. Two of the most aggressive companies, Manhattan-based Weblogs Inc. and Gawker Media, are intent on building profitable, advertising-supported blog networks.

”In the last six months, advertisers have woken up to Web logs,“ says Nick Denton, a British transplant whose Gawker Media publishes three irreverent gossip sites, including Gawker.com for New York and Wonkette.com for Washington, D.C., as well as a porn site, and a blog devoted to technology gadgets. ”They’ve become interested because they see a young, hip demographic that is pretty elusive in other mediums,“ he says.”

Of course, it’s far from certain that these current media darlings will be any more successful than the rash of Web-based magazines that sprouted during the dot-com era. However, these operations have learned an important lesson–keep expenditures to a minimum.

Read more at Blogs Enter Mainstream, Eye Revenue Streams

Written on 10/3/2004 at 3:58 pm by

Web Usage Figures – Digital Future Report

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips

Digital Future Report 2004 (PDF) is a very useful report for anyone working online. Its full of useful research including the following tidbits:

- In the past year of the study numbers of those accessing the web in the US continued to rise (now around 75%).
- The average US web user is online 12.5 hours per week (up from 9.4% in 2000)
- Over 75% of Net users are 55 years or under.
- 66% (approx) have home internet access.
- the number of adults who bought online increased slightly over the previous year; the annual number of purchases continues to increase, and the average dollars spent online by adult buyers dipped slightly.