The Blog Herald

Flickr Alternatives for Copyright-Conscious Photographers

Jonathan Bailey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:38:00 +0000

Flickr has been in the spotlight a good deal recently, but a lot of it has not been good news. It has been revealed that Flickr, like Facebook, strips out copyright metadata from uploaded images. Combined with a confusing API, licensing scandals, companies selling photos as cell phone backgrounds and more, it is easy to see why some are skittish about keeping their images on the site.

This has some photographers, bloggers and artists uneasy about using Flickr or at least using the site exclusively. Many have begun seeking alternatives to Flickr but alternatives seem to be thin. Though image hosts such as Photobucket exist and are great for embedding images into other sites, they lack the sense of community that Flickr provides and, in the case of Photobucket, can raise copyright issues of their own.

So what other sites are there for photographers and artists that might fulfill some or all of Flickr’s function while providing a slightly better copyright environment? There are actually many, but here are three of the more important ones to watch.

PhoTrade

Photrade is a different kind of image hosting site. Rather than simply being a host for images, Photrade works more like a partnership between the photographer. Photrade offers prints, t-shirts, licenses and other items for sale, but, unlikes Photobucket or Flickr, it shares the revenues with its customers.

Photrade also offers a great deal of protection of the image, including the ability to ad a custom watermark over the image, privacy settings and more. Also, as with Flickr, you can embed the images into your site but, unlike Flickr, you have the option of earning ad revenue off of ads that run next to it (you can switch ads off during the embedding process if you wish).

Though Photrade’s community is nowhere near the size of Flickr, it is growing and is very tight-knit. All in all, Photrade is a logical choice for professional photographers and artists looking for a means to earn revenue from their images and want near-total control about how it is used.

It combines the best of most existing photo sharing sites with CafePress and other print on demand services.

deviantArt

DeviantArt has a reputation of being a less-professional image/art sharing site. However, it has many powerful tools that help to make it a contender for many photographers.

Like Photrade, deviantArt allows artists to sell prints of their work and receive revenue. It also has a watermarking system, though not one as robust as Photrade, and the ability to add additional licensing information, including Creative Commons, and upload information regarding a model release or permissions acquired.

deviantArt has a very robust community that is known to be very rabid about protecting their rights, even organizing groups to help patrol the Web looking for potential rips. The downside of deviantArt is that it has a very limited embedding ability, only working with a small handful of sites (though one could, theoretically, copy and paste the HTML elsewhere).

For the most part, dA is a self-contained, though very robust, community that offers a great deal of protection over one’s work and even preserves the metadata on the full-sized images.

SmugMug

Where Flickr and most photo sharing sites encourage everyone to join and participate, SmugMug is much more exclusive. The accounts on the site are for pay only, though there is a free trial period, andthe accounts can get relatively pricey, up to $150 per year for the highest level.

What SmugMug offers for that price is a clean user experience with beautiful galleries and zero advertisements as well as high levels of customization and usability. Also, at its highest account level, it offers a similar set of sales features as well as watermarking and other image protection tools.

Though metadata does not transfer on many of the embeddable images, which can be quite large, they do carry over on the original images. Likewise, they provide a standard set of privacy functions as well as the ability to limit the size of the embeddable/viewable images.

Though the pricing likely puts SmugMug out of the reach of the amateur photographer, professionals may be drawn to its simplicity, branding and flexibility. For those worried that Flickr may be too “open” and don’t want or need the very large community, it could be a good choice.

Conclusions

For most photographers, even with its flaws, Flickr is just fine. As long as one is careful about how they use Flickr and are aware of the concerns and potential problems, Flickr works great. With some preparation and forethought, it can still be a great service. I use it myself for my personal photos.

Still, there are some photographers, especially professional ones, that are more leery of these issues and want to better protect their work. Though it is almost impossible to beat the community that Flickr has built and the promotion it can provide, some, at least, are uncomfortable with the trade offs.

If you are one of those photographers, there are plenty of other image hosting/sharing sites out there that may be better suited for you. The three above are just a few examples.

Search around the net and, if you know of any others, feel free to leave a comment and let me (and everyone else) know.

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New Affiliate System at Performancing Ads

Chris Garrett — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:13:41 +0000

Performancing Ads has implemented a new affiliate system that will potentially give you a very profitable passive income.

All you need to do is refer people who buy or sell ads. For each person you refer you get a 5% ongoing commission of any ads they sell on their blog or 5% of any ads that they buy.

In the past the system was a flat referral fee, but due to the hidden fraud prevention system people felt cheated when they didn’t get cash for every single referral they added. Also there was no distinction between referring someone who owns an empty blog and referring a technorati 100 a-lister.

This new system should be much more fair all round and way less confusing … we hope!

Get the full story at the Performancing Ads blog post.

Random Posts

Movable Type Monday: Archive Uploader, Action Streams, Disemvoweller, and More

Billy Mabray — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:09:42 +0000

Happy Monday, folks! Before I get into this week’s news, I wanted to mention a blog post written by Chris Alden, Chairman and CEO of Six Apart, a little over a week ago. In it, Chris discusses the effects a US recession will have on blogging. His theory is that a down economy will encourage people to “invest in themselves,” which will mean spending more time blogging.

Whether or not Chris is right remains to be seen, but if he is, it should affect more than just blogging. Most blog theme and plugin creators are independent developers. Investing in themselves means creating more designs and writing more code. If Chris’s theory holds we should see a lot of new blog tools in the coming months.

Speaking of which…

Plugins

Archive Uploader — ToI Planning released ArchiveUploader, which allows you to upload a zip, gzip, or tar archive of files to load into the Asset Manager. This is a great tool when you’ve got several pictures to upload to your blog.

Action Streams — We’ve got two Action Streams plugins this week. First, Yves Luther released Qik Action Streams for pulling your Qik movies into your action stream. The nice thing about this plugin is it pulls enough information to embed the video itself into your stream.

Also for Action Streams, Brendan O’Connor released a plugin for Get Satisfaction that shows new topics and replies. Thanks, Brendan!

EasyWorkflow — Ideal for sites with editors that approve posts before publishing, EasyWorkflow adds an “Unpublished (Review)” status for posts. When selected, an email will be sent to notify the editor that the post is ready.

Auto-Disemvoweller 2.0 — Thomas Hassan created this plugin for “disemvowelling” comments that are rude or vulgar. Whatever it takes to teach commenters to be civil, right?

MT-Notifier — Another week, another new version of MT-Notifier. In all seriousness, it’s great to see Chad Everett continuing to improve this excellent plugin.

Finally, Six Apart’s Anil Dash recently spoke at the Conversational Marketing Summit about business and social networking. You can watch his presentation online.

What have you done with Movable Type lately? Let us know in the comments.

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The Affiliate Networks Need to Get Global

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:06:45 +0000

As a blog publisher not located in the US, I sympathize with Darren Rowse (of ProBlogger.net fame). He’s posted an open letter to Amazon, in regards to their affiliate program, called Amazon Associates. Darren’s making a lot of money on Amazon, around $2,000-3,000 monthly, and he estimates that he’s sent around $1,500,000 in sales over the last 5 years. Impressive.

Problem is, Darren isn’t located in the US, so he can get paid either with gift certificates, which sucks for so many reasons, or by checks. Now, I know nothing about how it is in Australia, and Darren writes about that in his post, but I can tell you, he’s not alone in not wanting checks. Not only do they take time to get and deposit, it’s also costly. My bank want something close $100 to cash in a US check.

International publishers with a big American audience always has this problem. The various affiliate programs need to realize that not all publishers who run ads for US shops and products are actually living in the US themselves. It’s a global world, the internet has no boundaries, you know, that sort of thing that we all learned back in ‘97…

In fact, if it weren’t for services like PayPal, who by no means is free to use either, with their fees and whatnot when you pull money from the account, I probably wouldn’t be doing what I do for a living.

I think it is time for the affiliate networks to wake up. I’m amazed that Amazon is still so far behind on this. After all, a quick look at the statistics should show them how many shoppers they have from around the world, and it’s only natural to assume that the same ratio applies to publishers these days.

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Don’t Be Afraid to Link Out

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:59:14 +0000

Bloggers are generally not afraid to link out, but the web overall suffers from some sort of delusion that if you link someone else, your reader will leave you forever. That’s not the case, in fact, if you can send your readers to a page or service that they really use and enjoy, you’ll be remembered as the source of this, and that’s great goodwill and an incentive to return to your blog or site in the future.

Performancing’s got 9 reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid to link out. Hear hear.

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Blogging Hard or Hardly Blogging

Chris Garrett — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:11:39 +0000

One of the things I love about this “job” is the amount of variety, both in the things I do, the opportunities that come along, and the interesting people I get to hang out with. Strange thing is, I am not sure if the blogging part of my life is starting to shrink.

Perhaps it is just a definition thing, but I seem to do less actual blogging now than I have in about ten years.

I create blogs, I consult about blogs, I used blogs, read blogs, but my actual blogging has gone way down.

Part of that is because of social media, especially Twitter. The “what I ate for lunch” aspect of blogging has moved firmly into the 140 character realm. Pictures of my cat go up on Flickr, not my blog. But that’s not all of it. Years ago when I started I was eager to sit down and write, now it seems just what I do.

OK, back then I was a developer working in mostly Microsoft technologies, and blogging I did on the side. Now I ought to be a full time blogger, and the only code I have put together recently was for a credit cards site I am building with my friend Ryan. Coincidentally built using WordPress, but I would challenge anyone to know just by looking at it :)

I think to get my blogging mojo back I need to get guest posting more, get back out there and work that blog thang!

Do you feel you are blogging less and less? Or have you never blogged more than you do now?

Let me know in the comments ..

Random Posts

World’s Best Blog is from Cuba

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:06:43 +0000

Deutsche Welle’s The BOBs is over, and according to them, the best weblog is Generación Y, a Cuban blog in Spanish authored by Yoani Sanchez. Russian Radio Grinch received the price for best podcast, and 4equality (in Persian) got the Reporters Without Borders price.

Placed under house arrest, Zeng Jinyan describes her life under constant surveillance by the Chinese authorities. The Persian Weblog 4equality is working to gather 1 million signatures on a petition for women’s rights in Iran. The Sunlight Foundation’s Party Blog, which exposes what groups and companies sponsor fundraising events for US politicians, won the Best Weblog English award.

Check out all the winners over at The BOBs site.

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Last Chance to Vote for The BOBs

WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 New Login, WordCamp Australia, WordPress 2.6.5 Security Update, BuddyPress, and More

Lorelle VanFossen — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:38:30 +0000

WordPress 2.7 is at beta version 3 and will be released by the end of the month, so rumors fly. Expect an announcement at WordCamp Australia by Matt Mullenweg this weekend. WordPress 2.6.5 is a security release - update now. WordPressMU also updated. BuddyPress about to release December 15. WordCamps are heating up for January and the first few months - filling up fast so get your registration in now for one near you. Some WordPress 2.7 release parties are forming. And more WordPress news.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.6.5 Released: A security release of WordPress has come out and you are highly recommended to upgrade now, rather than wait for the release of WordPress 2.7. The release version is 2.6.5, not to be confused with the malicious version, WordPress 2.6.4. WordPress 2.6.5 tackles an XSS exploit that impacts only IP-based virtual servers running Apache 2.x and three other fixes. You can upgrade the whole thing, or just the five files which have been changed.

WordPressMU Updated: Donncha reports that WordPressMU 2.6.5 has been released to include the XSS vulnerability fix.

BuddyPress Scheduled for December 15: According to a note in the BuddyPress Forums, the social networking WordPress Theme especially for WordPressMU versions has a feature freeze in preparation for release on December 15, 2008, a much anticipated release.

WordPress 2.7 Development News: While some in the United States took a couple days of rest and family time for the Thanksgiving holiday, work continued on WordPress 2.7 due out the end of November, though it might be a week into December. WordPress 2.7 Beta 3 is the latest testing version released. A newly redesigned login page has been developed with screenshots available around the web.

Other articles and news about WordPress 2.7 include:

FireFox Screen Grab to WordPress Extension: Download Squad has replaced their old screen capture technique with the Screen Grab to WordPress FireFox Extension, an extension that not only grabs screenshots but it sends the images directly to your WordPress blog from within FireFox. It should speed up the process of adding screen captures to your blog tremendously. I’ll be researching and reporting on this soon, so watch my blog.

Will Automatic Upgrade Work With Your Web Host? WordPress 2.7 will feature the new Core Update automatic upgrading for WordPress, but can your server handle it? A article on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, “Core Update Host Compatibility” explores whether or not the new feature will work with a specific web hosting company. NOTE: The upgrade feature may not work when updating to WordPress 2.7, but designed to work after upgrading.

Fake WordPress Malicious Site: Take care when searching for WordPress that you do not end up on a fake WordPress site. Wordpresz.org looks like the WordPress site but isn’t. The version of WordPress you download has malicious code in the download that opens a backdoor to your blog. If you upgraded WordPress to 2.6.4, you are running a fake version. There is no WordPress 2.6.4. The latest version is 2.6.3. This is just the first attempt and Automattic is looking at ways to keep users informed and warned, but pay attention to details and check the URL carefully before downloading WordPress.

Learn the Jargon on WordPress: If you are new to WordPress, check out WordPress Semantics - Learning the Jargon, a great article on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users, that introduces you to the proper names for all those parts and pieces on WordPress. While people may call it the Dashboard, the Dashboard is just one panel within the WordPress Administration Panels. Using the right names for things helps when asking for help on the WordPress Support Forums or writing articles about using WordPress.

Don’t Let WordPress Get in Your Domain Name: A number of WordPress fan and “get-rich-quick-with-WordPress” sites have been starting up lately using “WordPress” in their domain name. This is in violation of the WordPress trademark. Before you do the same, reconsider. If you find a site using WordPress in their domain name, remind them of the trademark rules so they won’t be asked later to remove it.

The WordPress Podcast: Episode 47: WordPress 2.7 Beta 3, WordCamp Australia, bbPress 1.0 also included WordCamp and WordPress.com news with Charles Stricklin and Jonathan Bailey, with guests, Anthony Cole and Sam Bauers, discussing WordCamp Australia.

WordCast Podcast: WordCast 37: Nigerian Indians is the latest episode and includes some politically correct (and not) fun with a variety of WordPress, blogging, and totally unrelated goodies. They talk about how parents can stay connected with their child in Europe, the Sideblog WordPress Plugin versus Tumblr, WordPress spam tools or spam makers, web hosting with WordPress, and Speckyboy’s WordPress video list.

WordPress Weekly Podcast: Weblog Tools Collection: How Many Cans Of Worms? is the latest podcast debating a variety of WordPress topics and news including WordPress 2.7 Beta 3, why WordPress 2.7 is not WordPress 3.0, Project Icons, integrating WordPress Plugins into the core, adding a Twitter ID field to comments, and more.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Beta 3 Released, WordCamp Australia, No WordPress 2.6.4, and More.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar.

Upcoming WordCamps not scheduled or confirmed:

WordCamp Indy (Indianapolis)
WordCamp Augusta
WordCamp Seattle (WordCamp Seattle Twitter)
WordCamp Argentina
WordCamp Perú

Upcoming WordCamp and WordPress Event News

WordCamp Australia News: WordCamp Australia in Sydney is this weekend, November 29-30, 2008. It features Matt Mullenweg and Jane Wells, along with top notch WordPress local folks from all around the country.

WordCamp Las Vegas: If you are heading to WordCamp Las Vegas, the hosting hotel, Palace Station Hotel & Casino, has a discount for lodging if you Book Online or by phone at 800.634.3101 and use the discount code PCIWCLV before December 10, 2008. Hurry before it’s too late and registration for the event is filled. It’s expected to be a very exciting WordCamp with blogging and WordPress stars mingling with the stars of Vegas.

WordCamp Whistler: WordCamp Whistler January 24, 2009, is seeking sponsors for this incredible WordCamp, a mix of skiing, photography, and WordPress. It is set in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world. There is now a Facebook event set for those wanting to sign up, as well as a WordCamp Whistler Barcamp Page.

WordCampNOLA: WordCampNOLA in New Orleans has been announced and a Twitter account set up to generate interest. They are looking at scheduling the event in March 2009.

Past WordCamp Events

WordCamp ED: The first WordCampED for educators was held in Washington DC this past weekend and was a great success. More news, videos, and information will be featured here next week. The next education WordCamp is WordCamp Higher Ed North East in Worcester, Massachusetts, on February 2, 2009.

WordCamp Charlotte: WordCamp Charlotte welcome and Mark Jaquith’s slide shows are up and available for viewing on the WordCamp Charlotte site, along with Promotion Panel - Corey Creed on SEO and Content is King - Sarah Aarthum. An amusing moment was had for many with a man stuck in an elevator during the WordCamp event.

WordCamp Israel: WordCamp Israel 2008 (English) was last week and had more than 500 attendees for a very successful event in Tel Aviv.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere

WordPress Meetup: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress and WordPress Meetups Upcoming Events and tag them “WordPress Events” and “WordPress”, as many track WordPress event announcements there.
WordCamp: A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. Get a Twitter account and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress and WordPress Meetups Upcoming Events and tag them “WordPress Events” and “WordCamp.
WordPress and WordCamp Event News: In addition to our weekly Blog Herald WordPress Wednesday News, you can learn more about the various WordPress and WordCamp Events on the official WordCamp Central site, The WordCamp Report, Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, WordPress Meetups Upcoming Events, and Upcoming: Public events tagged with “WordCamp”.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

YouTube Goes High Quality and So Does Viper Quicktags Plugin: Viper007bond announced that YouTube has added high quality videos and other features, and he has updated the Video Quicktags WordPress Plugin accordingly, which allows quick and easy embedding of a variety of videos in your WordPress blog.

Andy Skelton recommends that you upgrade his Memcached WordPress Plugin before upgrading to WordPress 2.7 as it resolves a bug issue in this cache Plugin.

Designing Your Image Captions: Michael Kubler’s Blog describes how to design the new WordPress image captions within your WordPress Theme.

Understanding WordPress Nounces: Vladimir Prelovac offers “Improving security in WordPress Plugins using Nonces” as a guide to help you understand how WordPress uses nonces (number used once) to protect Plugins against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) hacker-attacks. If you are a WordPress Plugin developer, especially using AJAX, it’s important you understand the security risks involved in using nounces.

Interesting WordPress Plugins:

OfflineMode WordPress Plugin displays a “currently under maintenance” page to your visitors if you are working on your site.
Hide Admin Icons WordPress Plugin works with the new WordPress 2.7 Administration Panels and hides the icons.
Quizzin WordPress Plugin creates quizzes with any number of questions with many answers.
Best Posts Summary WordPress Plugin generates a summary post of your best posts, based upon number of comments or visits, over a specificed time period. Interesting way to promote your most popular posts.
Event Calendar 3 WordPress Plugin displays a dynamic calendar with upcoming events in the sidebar or a Page.

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Here are some interesting WordPress tips I’ve found as I explore the web looking for WordPress resources:

WordPress Tips on Twitter: I’ve started sharing WordPress Tips I’ve collected over the past couple years on Twitter at @lorelleonwp. I’ll be posting one WordPress tip link every morning (PST) covering recent versions of WordPress and WordPress usages and features.

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Community News

Things You Need to Know in the WordPress Community:

WordPress Facebook Community: WordPress on Facebook
WordPress Schwag for Sale: WordPress Shop
WordPress Bugs: Reporting Bugs in WordPress
Online WordPress Manual: WordPress Codex
Have Your Say: WordPress Ideas
WordPress Experts Found: Automattic WordPress Consultants List, WordPress Jobs, and the WP-Pro mailing list
Help Installing WordPress: Installing WordPress for Free
WordPress Logos: The official WordPress logos are available for use on your blogs or WordPress event promotions.
WordPress is Trademarked: You are not allowed to use WordPress in your domain name
WordPress is WordPress: It’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

WordPress News Sources

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.

Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

Random Posts

HP Giving Away Gadgets Through Blog Contests

J. Angelo Racoma — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:53:36 +0000

Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft are giving away $300,000 worth of computers, laptops, netbooks, PDAs, printers, software and accessories through a blog-oriented promotion called the HP Magic Giveaway. HP is not directly raffling off the prizes, though, but has left this task to 50 bloggers, who will run different contests on their blogs to determine the winners.

The prize package includes:

HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC with Windows
HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC with Windows
HP MediaSmart Connect
HP Pavilion dv4-1145go Entertainment Notebooks with Windows
HP Mini 1000 series with Windows
HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO
HP 564 Series Photo Value Pack
Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007
Corel VideoStudio X2
Kung Fu Panda widescreen DVDs

You can visit the list of participating blogs, and readers are eligible to join all 50 contests for better chances of winning.

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Dirty Laundry Tweeting

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:39:06 +0000

It’s dangerous to Twitter, that’s for sure! Not only is it almost as addictive as asides, but you’ll also have to make sure you don’t blurt something personal to the masses. Like Pownce hotshot Leah Culver did, something about a cheating boyfriend or whatever. That hit Valleywag like something did to the fan. Luckily, the tweet’s been deleted, but if it’s online one time, it’s there forever.

Mind you tweets, people.

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Blog Envy

Chris Garrett — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:56:48 +0000

Do you look at other blogs and enjoy the content, or do you envy their comments, traffic or subscriber numbers?

I was reading Michael Martine’s blog when I came across this great guest post by Alex Fayle of Someday Syndrome

In many situations comparisons are good (like a runner dropping in her minutes/per mile ratio – you want to compare such things to know that you’re making progress). Problems arise when we start comparing ourselves to others because we stop comparing apples to apples (our past selves with our present or future selves) and start comparing apples to oranges (ourselves to others).

I agree completely and believe these kinds of comparisons are destructive and counter productive.

It leads to bad feelings in yourself - There will always be someone doing better, attracting a bigger audience, faster, making more money. Relax, learn from others but don’t feel bad about their success.
Comparisons lead to competitiveness - We all do better when we cooperate, partner, and help each other out. Blogs do not need to be a competition, there is enough attention to go round.
Nobody is the same as you - You might disagree but, as in the linked article, I doubt very much there is anyone who is directly in competition with you as we all attract our own unique audience in our own unique way.

Point 2 is an important one. Rather than looking at other blogs as competitors, look to see how you might guest post or partner with them.

For anyone interested in learning more about how a blogger can partner up with others, I have a free ebook on the subject that you can download right now.

Concentrate on serving your audience in the best way you can, forget about comparing yourself to others, but do learn from them.

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Ariel Waldman Launches Spacehack

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:38:21 +0000

Are you a space buff? Then Ariel Waldman’s Spacehack might be for you. She describes it like this:

Spacehack is a directory of ways to participate in space exploration, interact + connect with the space community and encourage citizen science.

There’s a bunch of projects featured on Spacehack already, for the science geeks and space lovers out there.

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ThemeForest Launches, Another Premium Template Marketplace

Slow Blogging? That’s Article Writing, People!

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:57:22 +0000

The Guardian’s Jon Henley writes about Slow Blogging, which apparently was branded by Todd Sieling, some Canadian tech consultant that doesn’t have his own Wikipedia page, although I’m pretty sure he can exist anyway. Henley quotes this Sieling fellow like this: “a rejection of immediacy … an affirmation that not all things worth reading are written quickly” and “speaking like it matters, like the pixels that give your words form are precious and rare”, and more. Obviously there’s a manifesto as well, which I honestly haven’t bothered with finding.

Slow Blogging. Right. It appeals to Henley, who think it is something to applaud.

So let’s hear it for all those who take the time to think, study and reflect before they post; who do not feel the need to slap the first thing that comes out of their head straight onto the web. People who refuse to update five times a day, or even once a week. People who value quality over quantity.

Sure. Hear hear.

Thing is, lots of bloggers and journalists do that, in a high pace, while others just cram out a reflection of something else. Much like this editorial, and, I assume, much like Henley’s piece. Reflection is all well and good, but in the end, it’s the end result that matter. Taking my time with a post doesn’t make me a Slow Blogging blogger, it’s more a matter of taking the traditional article approach to something. There’s no need to differentiate between Slow Bloggers and, let’s say it, Fast Bloggers, because it is all a matter of the end result.

There’s Fast Food and Slow Food, the latter probably being where Sieling got the idea to this whole Slow Blogging nonsense. Difference is, where Fast Food isn’t healthy (in general), fast blogging is a timestamp of today. No one will care about the Big Mac you had yesterday, but the five quick paragraphs that you wrote on the protestors squatting Bangkok airport, before it broke the news, will matter.

Slow Blogging is a term that has no meaning. You can be a slow writer, or a thorough researcher, but making up something like Slow Blogging feels totally redundant to me. We don’t need a Slow Blogging movement, we need good content and quality comments.

It’s all in the end result, whether you’re writing a blog post, or a 10 page piece in a printed magazine. Who cares how you do it, as long as it is good.

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Exploring Social Media: Establishing Your Online Credentials

Lorelle VanFossen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:52:16 +0000

Yesterday, I wrote about how to win at the social media game and how it begins by establishing your online credentials. Basically, it’s how to create a virtual business card and resume that establish your web presence and history. From this information, people can get a glimmer of who you are, what you do, how you do it, and how they can use you to get the job done.

What Are Your Online Credentials?

I talked about the basics you probably already have in place, the social media tools of email, blog, and so on. Don’t have a blog? Get one.

In today’s world, you have to have a blog or social site like Facebook or MySpace. It must include a biography (bio or profile) about who you are, what you do, and how you can help others. Some history, like resume credentials, is appreciated as it sets your qualifications as an expert in your field.

There are a variety of other tidbits of personal information you may want to provide that may or may not be of help to others looking for you as an expert or to establish a personal or professional relationship with.

Age

Many bios and profiles include age information. Generally, I recommend you do not publish this information unless you wish to attract a specific age group or be recognized for your age.

For those proud of their 30 years of experience, then their age says a lot about that experience - if they have been doing the same job for all of those years. If they have two years experience and sixty years of living and working a totally different job, then some questions may arise, arousing curiosity.

For someone proud of what they have accomplished by the time they are 16 years old, then they might also want to promote their age.

For the rest of us, if it isn’t important or relevant, don’t include it.

Sex

Does it matter if you are male or female or other? If it does, then share that information with the world.

If it doesn’t, then why bother.

One of the problems this part of a profile form presents is when you are your business and your social profile is your business, not you personally. If you putting together a profile page on your blog, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., what should you list for the sex?

If the social service offers “other” as an option, then choose that. If not, and they give you the option to hide the sexual identity on the public profile, then choose one and hide it.

If not, in some cultures, it is just part of the language and culture to select “male” as the identity of a business. It’s not male or female, just a masculine noun.

If you want to represent the company as you, then choose your sexual identity.

As more and more businesses join social networks, expect to see “other” to show up on the sexual identity options.

Geographic Location

For many people, identifying their location is very important to them and their business.

Because people want to do business with people they know and trust, they also want to do business with people who live and work near them. If your business requires or could have physical meetings, then it helps to work with people near you.

If someone is searching for a real estate agent, doctor, lawyer, plumber, electrician, trainer, or other personal trade, then their search will be for someone who lives in their area. You could be that someone. By entering your geographic location, you are handing out an invitation to those who live and work near you.

If your geographic location isn’t important to your work nor reputation, then what should you type into the form? I travel extensively and live on the road, so my answer has been “the world” when asked to fill in my location. It isn’t very helpful, but I didn’t have a better answer.

Recently, we just set up a permanent base outside of Portland, Oregon, so I’m changing all my social media tool services to that area, though I’m still traveling extensively. I want to do more business with those who live in my new “home” so I’m hanging out my shingle in my neck of the woods.

Where do you want to hang your shingle?

Professional Experience

The professional experience you share in your bio and profile is the supporting evidence to who you are and what you know.

We live in a culture where you are your job. At the least, you are your training and experience.

And we tend to believe those who have the training and work experience to back what they say and do rather than just someone shooting off their mouth as some know-it-all, don’t we?

I believe that you are a measure of all your life experiences, but if you want your social media efforts to result in income and business referrals, your professional experience better match your qualifications for the job.

What do you include? Like a professional resume, sometimes what you don’t include matters as much as what you include.

A friend of mine, like me, has had a wide and varied career. We call it our “checkered past” but it works for us well in our virtual businesses today. Between the two of us, I think we’ve occupied just about every stereotypical job you can think of from cook to exercise coach to public speaker to ditch digger. Do these job skills make us the experts we claim we are?

When filling out my resume for a client or job, should I include my time in college spent as a bartender and cook in a pizza parlor? Time spent managing clothing stores? Apprenticing as a professional model and fashion photographer? Working as a receptionist? Secretary? Accountant? Teacher? EMT? Tour director and guide? Printer? Advertising and marketing consultant? Graphic artist? Comedian? Producer? Radio and voice personality? Actress? Singer? Web developer and designer? Technical writer? Author? How about the years I’ve spent working as a water aerobics instructor?

Through it all, I’ve always been a writer, photographer, public speaker, consultant, and trainer, teaching what I know to others. The rest were odds and ends jobs that got me through various economic down times and changes in my personal and professional life. Second jobs and in-between jobs.

If my resume featured all of those, and more, it’d be extremely long, a bear to read. Interesting, but overwhelming. And confusing.

What matters is what skills I’ve learned from all of the work and experiences I’ve had over the years and my travels.

As a water aerobics instructor, my medical training as an EMT and nurse’s aid came in handy, working with various medical conditions and physical disabilities. My sales and teach experiences gave me the social skills to not only help train people of all ability levels to get the right exercise for their ability, while uniting the entire class as a single group. My advertising and marketing degree and experienced made me realize that if I wanted them to keep attending the class and program, they had to enjoy the whole process as much as they liked me as a teacher, so I put together social events such as lunches, picnics, walks, dinners, and speakers to give them social time in their clothing, not just in their bathing suits.

The students enjoyed the whole process so much, they brought friends and family, until my water aerobics classes were the most popular of all the classes in the facility.

As a result, my classes increased, the facilities benefited from increased enthusiasm, attendance, and membership.

And I brought all that energy and the lessons I learned into my advertising and marketing business, as well as my writing, training, and public speaking programs. Years later, I still rely upon all these skills in every project I work on.

It isn’t necessarily the traditional resume structure that people can depend upon for understanding my abilities. It’s the skill set I bring to the table based upon my professional experiences and expertise. Maybe your skill set is more important than your job descriptions.

The information you choose to share with the world must support your end goals and desires. It must paint a picture of what you can do, what you know, and what you bring to the table as an expert. Share that information via your social media bio or profile.

Hobbies

While what you do in your professional life is important, especially if you expect revenue from your social media efforts, what you do in your personal time is often a better reflection of who you are as a person as much as who you are as a worker.

When you leave work, what do you do? Do you race home and lump in front of the television? Or do you do something else? What do you do?

Are you a hiker, biker, walker, jogger, skier, or adventurer? Do you read or write stories or poetry? Do you knit, crochet, scrapbook, paint, woodwork, or create things with your hands? Do you volunteer your time and skills for others? What do you do when you clock out of your pay check?

These things speak loudly to others as the type of person you are. Remember, they want to work with people they know, but more importantly, they want to be around people of like minds which means like interests.

You, too, want to work with those of like minds and interests, so letting the world know who you are outside of your job helps define the type of people you want to be around.

Proof and Evidence of Commitment and Perseverance

A blog, be it full blog or microblog, is a commitment. It requires participation. It requires regular feeding.

How long have you been blogging? That’s an important question. As much as people look for your professional and personal experience, they also like to frequent stores that say, “Since 1954.” Aren’t you a little nervous about shopping in a store that says, “In business since 2008.” A marketing expert once told me that no business should add a “Since” clause until they’ve had ten years under their belts. He makes a good point.

If you are proving your worth and value, the historical perspective helps. Over time, a blog is proof of your commitment to a project, your follow-through, your perseverance and conviction. Blogging for one or more years tells the world a lot.

It says:

You have more than three points to make.
You have long term enthusiasm for your subject matter.
You like to look at your subject matter from a variety of perspectives.
You know how to write.
You know how to respond to feedback.
You understanding how an audience and community works.
You understand how to start a conversation.
You understand how blogging and all this “social stuff” works.
You can handle negative feedback, spam and trolls.
You understand copyright and intellectual property issues.
You are keeping your fingers on the pulse of your industry.

While some of these points may or may not be true, if you’ve been blogging for at least two years, they are really good assumptions about your abilities.

If I were hiring someone, I’d want these abilities, wouldn’t you? And if you are looking to build a relationship with someone, these are really good qualities, don’t you think?

Exploring Social Media Series

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Last Chance to Vote for The BOBs

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:51:17 +0000

The BOBs is really “Best of Blogs” and is an award maintained by German newspaper Deutsche Welle, who incidentally has a international editon. There’s a jury that wields its power, but also a People’s Choice Award, and that’s where you come in. 176 finalist blogs all wants to bring in the award, and you can help picking the winner - and a chance to win a HTC Touch Dual mobile phone as well.

You can vote until Midnight CET, November 26, and the award ceremony will begin at 8 pm CET on November 27, streamed live at The BOBs website.

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World’s Best Blog is from Cuba

Android Gets Mini, iPhone Gets Demographics

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:29:43 +0000

The Android powered T-Mobile G1 is getting Opera Mini 4.2 beta, says ZDNet’s Matthew Miller, which is good news since Opera offers nice synchronization options. This is something of a rebuke to Apple who stopped Opera Mini for iPhone since it competes with the built-in Safari browser. Or not, since Apple wants to control the iPhone with the Iron Fist of Jobs.

Speaking of the G1 and iPhone, the former will ship in 1 million by the end of 2008 according to HTC (via), and the latter now knows who uses it. A Compete.com survey tells us more or less what we already anticipated about the iPhone users. Check out The Apple Blog for more, and a nifty little illustration as well.

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Gawker Media Continues to Break Traffic Records

Thord Daniel Hedengren — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:14:52 +0000

Recession or no, people surely won’t stop reading the Gawker Media sites, and as long as Denton & Co. can continue to sell ads on a CPM basis, they should be able to ride this one through. October is another record high, according to the network site, clocking in at 297 million pageviews, and 22 million unique visitors. Crazy.

More at the Gawker Media site, and over at Quantcast.

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Exploring Social Media: Do You Know How to Use the Social Web?

Lorelle VanFossen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:23:30 +0000

As more and more of my clients discover the terms social media and social web, they ask me how to use this new Web 2.0 concept of social. They are surprised when I ask them a few questions and find out they are already a part of the social web.

Here are my questions:

Do you have and use email?
Do you have a blog or website?
Do you allow comments on your blog?
Do you have a forum?
Are you on MySpace and/or Facebook?
Do you Twitter or use a similar interactive, microblog program or service?
Do you bookmark sites through Delicious, StumbleUpon, Digg, or other services?

Then you’re a part of the social web. You’re using social media tools to communicate with others. So you know how to use the social web, right?

As discussed in “Exploring Social Media: Start With the Basics,” the basic social media tools are probably things you are already using. Using the social web means understanding how to use the tools to get your message across.

How to get your message across is part of understanding how to use the social web.

Winning at the Social Media Game

In “One Size Does Not Fit All,” I wrote about how one social media tool may or may not serve your audience. If you are putting all your energy into Twitter and it isn’t giving you an good return on your investment (ROI) of time, energy, and money, then either you are using the wrong tool, or you are using the right tool in the wrong way.

Each social media tool has rules. Etiquette, if you will. If you break those rules, if you aren’t playing the game right, you won’t win at the social media game.

Once you make your social media plan, targeting your appropriate demographics with the right social media tool, you have to learn how that tool or service works, and what the rules are that govern behavior in order to maximize the ROI.

There are a lot of articles out there giving you the breakdown of the rules for specific social media tools, like Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus, How to Know if You Should Fire Your Social Media Consultant, Nine Essential Tactics For Reputation Management In Social Media, 8 Ways to Get the Most From Listening Tools by Liz Strauss, and The Essential Guide to Social Media, but the basics are this:

If you aren’t using social media tools, you don’t know how to use them.
Social means taking time to get to know someone.
Social means respecting each other.
Social means listening.
Social means sharing.
Social means feedback.
Social does not mean “sell.”

In today’s world, we’ve created a global village economy. People want to do business with people they know and trust.

If you want to win at the social media game, you need to know how to build relationships online. It begins by having a virtual business card and resume, proof that you are who you say you are, and know what you know. It begins with a blog and/or Facebook or similar site. It begins after you establish your credentials.

It continues when you start sharing, listening, and creating interactive relationships on the web. As you build relationships on the web, you understand how all this social stuff works. It’s not rocket science. It’s basic relationship stuff.

The problem is that too many are in a hurry to get that relationship right now and be done with it. Unfortunately, as many social media experts will tell you (and you probably won’t listen), the key to making social media work is time.

It takes time to get to know someone, to build a trusting relationship. It takes time to listen, to share, to communicate your thoughts and ideas and get feedback.

In order to play the social media game to win, you have to make the time commitment to develop relationships.

As I continue with my series on Exploring Social Media, I’ll look at some ways you can speed up the process by better understanding how many social media tools work, and give you examples of how they’ve worked for others, but it’s your job right now to start establishing your credentials, which I will cover more tomorrow.