Andy Merrett, Author at The Blog Herald The leading source of news covering social media and the blogosphere. Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:43:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.9 https://www.blogherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/favicon.ico Andy Merrett, Author at The Blog Herald 32 32 CSS tips and tricks https://www.blogherald.com/news/css-tips-and-tricks/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/css-tips-and-tricks/#comments Mon, 09 May 2022 01:18:10 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2006/09/08/css-tips-and-tricks/ Welcome visitors from Digg. The Blog Herald is one of the largest sites covering the blogosphere – and has been so for more than four years. You can subscribe to our feed and visit our archives for more stories. I’ve been writing CSS for about 2 years now and I still feel like every time…

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Welcome visitors from Digg. The Blog Herald is one of the largest sites covering the blogosphere – and has been so for more than four years.

You can subscribe to our feed and visit our archives for more stories.

I’ve been writing CSS for about 2 years now and I still feel like every time I open up a blank file and begin writing CSS for a new design I learn something new.

For those of you that are new to CSS or experts always looking for a new trick, here are some of things I do on a regular basis to keep my code organized (kind of).

1. Size text without using pixels

If you’re wondering how some designers get font sizes to work using em as a unit rather than px, it’s easy. There is a trick that was written about a while ago (maybe on ALA) that resets the font sizes for the entire site so that 1.0em is the same as 10px.

body { font-size: 62.5% }

Simply throw the font-size: 62.5% bit into your body styling and you’re done. Now you can use ems to sizes your fonts rather than pixels.

So your paragraph styles might look something like this:

p { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; }

You might be wondering why it matters how you size fonts? Bulletproof design. Any major site needs to be able to withstand a user enlarging text (old people use the web too!), and setting absolute sizes is not good practice.

2. Make your code easy to read

When I was looking at some of the CSS coded by Rundle I noticed that he separated his heading tags nicely. It looked something like this:

h1 {}
h1#logo { font-size: 2em; color: #000; }
h2 {}
h2.title { font-size: 1.8em; font-weight: normal; }

Quickly scanning the CSS for the different heading tags is a breeze if you use this technique. It is also helpful if you’re sharing code or working on a large site where you are using the same heading tags (say, h2) in multiple places since you’ll be able to style each one independently and not worry about child classes inheriting attributes from the parent class.

I also use similar techniques for paragraph tags, anchor tags, and any other tag that requires multiple classes to look correct in every instance.

3. Separate code into blocks

This might be common sense to some of you but sometimes I look at CSS and it’s not broken down into “sections.” It’s easy to do an it makes working with code weeks, months, or years later much easier. You’ll have an easier time finding classes and elements that you need to change.

This is how I usuall break down my site:

/* Structure */

This is where I’d put the primary site structure divs and classes.

/* Typography */

This is where I would list things like paragraphs, headings, and other miscellaneous font styles such as small and strong tags.

/* Links */

This one is simple – all the styling for anchor tags.

/* Lists, images, etc. */

This is where I would style images, lists, and any other elements that didn’t fit into the rest of the section. If I have an unordered list for the navigation I might setup a new section for navigation and setup all the styles for the navigation, including the list and link styles, in this section – it makes editing the navigation much easier.

4. Stop using so many divs!

This has been echoed by a lot of coders and standards nuts, and while I don’t think there is anything wrong with using a lot of block level elements, I laugh a little when I see someone style their article headlines using a div rather than a heading tag. Some people even style their bylines using a div! Try using the small tag or the a span for goodness sake.

5. Style everything at once

I noticed that I was typing “margin: 0; padding: 0;” in just about every element. I remembered seeing someone use “*” to style everything on a page at once. I decided it didn’t make much sense to define margin and padding over and over when I always gave them the same parameters.

It’s easy to do:

* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

Now you only have to define margin and padding on elements where you actually want some.

Know of any other tips or tricks? Let me know :)

In this moving age of internet many internet providers have also come into the field of web hosting. Some of these companies are working as domain reseller while others are offering complete hosting services along with the basic internet marketing program. Most of these companies offer free wireless internet connection along with their hosting packages. Some internet phone service providers are also offering ppc search engines to their clients. Along with basic hosting and SEO services some of these companies also offer the services of online training. Above all webmasters should not go after the freebies init as these are not considered as recommended servers by most of the experienced webmasters.

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UK regional paper publisher to charge for web access https://www.blogherald.com/news/uk-regional-paper-publisher-to-charge-for-web-access/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/uk-regional-paper-publisher-to-charge-for-web-access/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:24:30 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2009/11/30/uk-regional-paper-publisher-to-charge-for-web-access/ Local news publishers in the UK have had a fairly hard time of it recently, hit by falling readership and reduced advertising revenue, but now one of Britain’s largest regional newspaper publishers is to begin charging users to read full stories on six of its titles’ websites. Johnston Press will charge £5 (about $8) for…

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Local news publishers in the UK have had a fairly hard time of it recently, hit by falling readership and reduced advertising revenue, but now one of Britain’s largest regional newspaper publishers is to begin charging users to read full stories on six of its titles’ websites.

Johnston Press will charge £5 (about $8) for three months full access to content on the Worksop Guardian, Ripley & Heanor News, Whitby Gazette, Northumberland Gazette, Carrick Gazette and Southern Reporter.

Readers who don’t wish to subscribe will be given access to excerpts and then encouraged to buy the paper copy to read the full stories.

Given that the publisher owns some 300 titles across the UK, this is a fairly small experiment, although some of its other titles, such as The Scotsman, already offer this sort of subscription model.

It’s another move from traditional media companies seeking to monetise content in an increasingly online world. Time will tell whether it works.

Via

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TweetBookz: Would you turn 200 tweets into a book? https://www.blogherald.com/news/tweetbookz-would-you-turn-200-tweets-into-a-book/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/tweetbookz-would-you-turn-200-tweets-into-a-book/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:02:30 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15208 I’ve written just over 4,000 tweets since I signed up for Twitter several years ago, but I think I’d be hard-pressed to choose 200 of a high enough quality to turn into a book. However, new startup TweetBookz has decided there must be enough Twitter fanatics who would like to do just that. Cofounders Jacob…

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tweetbookz-logoI’ve written just over 4,000 tweets since I signed up for Twitter several years ago, but I think I’d be hard-pressed to choose 200 of a high enough quality to turn into a book.

However, new startup TweetBookz has decided there must be enough Twitter fanatics who would like to do just that.

Cofounders Jacob Schwirtz and Asael Kahana said that the service offered a “fun way to look back on your favourite tweets and capture all the emotion of those moments to keep forever.”

For $20 (softback) or $30 (hardback), a 5.5×8.5-inch 200 page book can be printed in one of four customisable designs in either English, Spanish, French or Hebrew.

Of course, if you really want to print your tweets, and maybe make them even more visually appealing, you could use other book publishers and design the book yourself, but TweetBookz is another interesting third-party application potentially making money from Twitter.

Would you put 200 of your tweets in a book? Would you give it as a gift to someone else? Are your archived tweets that scintillating?

Via

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Google turns to algorithms to create better-looking ads https://www.blogherald.com/news/google-turns-to-algorithms-to-create-better-looking-ads/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/google-turns-to-algorithms-to-create-better-looking-ads/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:10 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15183 The constant push to make ads more visually appealing — reducing the effects of ‘ad blindness’ and helping them to convert better for advertisers and pay more to publishers — continues, as Google announces a pending deal with the Californian startup company Teracent. Teracent specialises in machine-learning algorithms which have been put to use on…

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The constant push to make ads more visually appealing — reducing the effects of ‘ad blindness’ and helping them to convert better for advertisers and pay more to publishers — continues, as Google announces a pending deal with the Californian startup company Teracent.

Teracent specialises in machine-learning algorithms which have been put to use on the image ads of Google and its partners.

The example given in the announcement shows a standard, human created ad (left) and a similar ad that’s been picked in real time from thousands of different creative elements by these algorithms.

google-teracent-ads

Exact details aren’t given (not only are they proprietary but also likely to be highly complex) but the desired end result is clear: advertisers get to show better converting ads, and the publishers (including bloggers) who display them can earn more.

The algorithm uses a range of selectable factors such as geographic location, language, website content, time of day and past performance of previous ads.

Google already attempts to optimise the ads displayed based on the visitor and the website content, but has had little control over the ad itself. If this goes through, presumably as an opt-in for AdWords and other Google-affiliated ad networks, it could allow for even greater variation.

Via

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Twitter finally ready to roll out pay-for business accounts https://www.blogherald.com/news/twitter-finally-ready-to-roll-out-pay-for-business-accounts/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:01:39 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15168 It’s been a very long time coming, but Twitter could roll out a commercial service before the end of the year, according to founder Biz Stone. Though precise details haven’t been announced yet, Stone’s interview with the BBC suggested that additional pay-for features could include advanced analytics and information about their accounts and who is…

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It’s been a very long time coming, but Twitter could roll out a commercial service before the end of the year, according to founder Biz Stone.

Though precise details haven’t been announced yet, Stone’s interview with the BBC suggested that additional pay-for features could include advanced analytics and information about their accounts and who is visiting them.

There may also be the possibility of Twitter striking revenue deals with a number of media companies, claiming a “wonderful partnership” could be struck between the wider context and expertise that news outlets provide with the real-time, user-generated nature of Twitter updates.

Biz Stone was also critical of News Corporation’s plans to add a paywall to a large proportion of its online properties, suggesting that “they should be looking at this as an opportunity to try something radically different and find out a way to make a ton of money from being radically open rather than some money from being ridiculously closed.”

Via

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Twitter adds geotagging to its API https://www.blogherald.com/news/twitter-adds-geotagging-to-its-api/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:48:13 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15166 Though a number of mobile Twitter clients have been able to add their own level of geographical information to tweets, Twitter has now officially added geotagging capability to its API (Application Programming Interface). It doesn’t change how the web interface works, but given that many mobile users (where geotagging is most useful) will use third-party…

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Though a number of mobile Twitter clients have been able to add their own level of geographical information to tweets, Twitter has now officially added geotagging capability to its API (Application Programming Interface).

It doesn’t change how the web interface works, but given that many mobile users (where geotagging is most useful) will use third-party clients, this isn’t much of a problem.

A number of Twitter apps are already using the system (such as Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro).

Thankfully, for those wary about privacy issues associated with sharing real-time location information, geotagging is disabled by default, but it’s an easy enough task to turn it on — simply visit the Twitter settings page.

Via

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New mobile small payments service launches: ideal for selling content? https://www.blogherald.com/news/new-mobile-small-payments-service-launches-ideal-for-selling-content/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/new-mobile-small-payments-service-launches-ideal-for-selling-content/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:57:30 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15115 While the big boys of publishing are looking at methods of walling their content and then charging for it, smaller publishers such as bloggers will often look to making money from at least some of their content. With this in mind, GoPayforit has launched its mobile small payments service in the UK, which allows content…

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gopayforit-logoWhile the big boys of publishing are looking at methods of walling their content and then charging for it, smaller publishers such as bloggers will often look to making money from at least some of their content.

With this in mind, GoPayforit has launched its mobile small payments service in the UK, which allows content owners to sell content online and charge very small amounts (micropayments) for it.

It’s simple to set up – site owners add some code to their blog template – and then both pay-as-you-go and contract mobile phone users can purchase the right to view protected content via their mobile phone credit.

Purchasers enter their mobile phone number online, receive a PIN via SMS, then enter the code online in order to read the content. It’s supposed to be much quicker, and more secure, than messing around with credit card payments, even via a service such as PayPal.

A case in point, the company conducted a short test to see how many keystrokes it took to purchase something on a few popular sites, with the following results:

  • Sainsbury’s – 122 keystrokes
  • Play.com – 120
  • Just Giving – 120
  • PayPal – 80 (using address capture software)
  • Marks & Spencer – 80 (also using address capture software)
  • GoPayforit – 16

GoPayforit’s CEO, Chris Newell, said that, particularly for making small donations, entering credit card details can be a long and tedious process.

He said it’s also much easier for publishers because they don’t have to mess around setting up merchant accounts or paying hefty fees.

The only issue for publishers with a large international audience is that the system is likely to only work in the UK. However, if you have a strong UK audience, it’s an additional method of charging for content, selling e-products, or just having a virtual tip jar.

With many charities and TV programmes using mobile phone short codes to ask for donations or to allow voting, and so on, the public is getting much more used to the concept of donating or purchasing via mobile phone credit.

GoPayforit.com

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Six Apart launches TypePad Micro and official AVATAR online community https://www.blogherald.com/news/six-apart-launches-typepad-micro-and-official-avatar-online-community/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/six-apart-launches-typepad-micro-and-official-avatar-online-community/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:10:44 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15100 The company behind TypePad today announced the launch of an official AVATAR online community, in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox, a month ahead of the release of James Cameron’s film on 18 December. avatar.typepad.com offers fans a central place to read AVATAR-themed microblogs, other content from around the web, behind-the-scenes video, and integration with Twitter,…

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typepad-avatarThe company behind TypePad today announced the launch of an official AVATAR online community, in collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox, a month ahead of the release of James Cameron’s film on 18 December.

avatar.typepad.com offers fans a central place to read AVATAR-themed microblogs, other content from around the web, behind-the-scenes video, and integration with Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and other social sites.

Simulating Twitter and Facebook, but in an AVATAR themed environment, users can sign up and then follow other members, share notes, photos and videos. They can also create AVATAR blogs.

In a suitably cheesy marketing statement, Twentieth Century Fox’s VP of marketing, Jeffrey Godsick, spoke of the “perfect match” adding “Just as AVATAR is a revolutionary moviegoing experience, Typepad is revolutionizing social media.”

typepad-micro-banner

This themed experience is all thanks to TypePad Micro, which was announced yesterday. It’s designed to allow easy sharing of text, photos and videos, and at least at a simplistic level does a similar job to the likes of Posterous and Tumblr.

typepad-microSix Apart is keen to point out, however, that these services can be easily integrated into the full-featured TypePad.

It marks Six Apart’s continued push to move TypePad from a simple blogging platform to one that fully integrates with popular social networks. In particular, it feels like an extension of moves towards microblogging announced in August.

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Orange UK mobile customers get Twitter picture messaging https://www.blogherald.com/news/orange-uk-mobile-customers-get-twitter-picture-messaging/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:58:16 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15096 After the disappointment surrounding the withdrawal of many international Twitter SMS services due to exorbitant costs, it seems that UK mobile operators are helping them to bounce back. Both Vodafone and O2 have offered SMS-to-Twitter services to their UK users in the past year, and now Orange is introducing MMS-to-Twitter. MMS, or picture messaging as…

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twitter-orange-mmsAfter the disappointment surrounding the withdrawal of many international Twitter SMS services due to exorbitant costs, it seems that UK mobile operators are helping them to bounce back.

Both Vodafone and O2 have offered SMS-to-Twitter services to their UK users in the past year, and now Orange is introducing MMS-to-Twitter.

MMS, or picture messaging as it’s colloquially called, will allow Orange users to send images directly to the Twitter service, via the newly-created Snapshot web site.

It works in a similar way to other Twitter-linked picture services, and of course it provides additional branding for Orange — not a bad marketing ploy.

Orange customers simply have to send photos taken on their cellphone cameras to the shortcode 86444. It’s also possible to send text updates this way as well.

It’s a quick way of sending photo updates to Twitter if you’ve not got a smartphone with Internet access, or can’t be bothered to log on to a separate web site to upload a picture.

Via

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Interview: Tom Rusling, Text Link Ads https://www.blogherald.com/interviews/interview-tom-rusling-text-link-ads/ https://www.blogherald.com/interviews/interview-tom-rusling-text-link-ads/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:07:43 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15047 We find out more about Text Link Ads and the advantages of buying and selling links.

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text-link-ads-logoHere, Thord interviews Tom Rusling at Text Link Ads.

Let’s start with you. Who are you and what do you do at Text Link Ads?

I am the Senior SEO Strategist. In that role, I offer resources to Text Link Ads clients that are looking to add a layer of strategy and/or on-page site optimization to their link building campaigns. TLA is by design a self serve network: clients can enter our system and find a huge array of links to choose from. However, often clients are looking for guidance around things like:

  • Which keywords should I be targeting?
  • How many links should I be buying?
  • How fast should I be purchasing links, and how much should I vary my anchor text?

And of course, many clients feel like the links they have acquired with us are not working effectively for them. Often my most important role is to help clients identify technical problems on their site which are impeding the benefit of their link building. Such examples could be incorrect use of redirects, duplicate content issues in all its many vast and wonderful forms, lack of page targeting and keyword dilution, etc. They always come into the conversation blaming the links, but invariably the client and I are able to analyze the problem and identify the source of the problem is something on-page.

So how are things in the link selling business these days?

I was at a small seminar on natural link building at SMX East last month. I sat there in room full of marketers asking the two panelists about solving their challenges to acquire sufficient quality, thematically relevant links. The audience members seemed to earnestly be conveying that they were trying to build links while absolutely avoiding purchased links. One of the audience members asking the most questions in the seminar was trying to compete in one of the most competitive financial segments possible. He seemed a bit exasperated in trying to compete with all these other sites that were buying links, while he was choosing to not partake in link buying.

I approached him later that day to see if he might consider looking at our network. “Oh yeah, I know you guys, I’ve been one of your biggest clients for the last five years”. He then managed to rattle off the names of about seven different TLA team members.

I’ll go out on a bit of limb here: maybe buying links is a lot like pornography viewing: there’s a lot more people doing it and a lot less people acknowledging such behavior. These conference sessions can sometimes turn into church: wear your Sunday best and definitely do not admit to what you were doing in the late hours of Saturday night.

A lot of sites running Text Link Ads have been hit with lowered PageRank from Google. What’s your take on that?

Hah! That’s a loaded question….and a common one. First, let’s make sure to make a key distinction between Toolbar PR and Google internal PR. A lot of sites have had their Toolbar PR lowered on Google for a lot of reasons. Yes certainly publishers in our network have had their PR lowered. We have also seen publishers have their PR go up. Simply put, there’s a lot of variables in play that affect PR.

But this actually addresses a couple issues:

One, that TOOLBAR page rank is somewhat arbitrary, and often acts as a red herring put out there by Google. I’ve seen enough examples of a toolbar PR drop where all the rankings held up just fine.

This phenomena actually is a huge opportunity for people who are smart about their link buying: there are links from a lot of good sites which have low toolbar PR, but rank for competitive terms. Since the link buying/selling market is systematically flawed on its dependency of toolbar PR, the lower toolbar PR sites are often available at exceptional value.

Is there a business model for selling links when Google retires PageRank?

Yes, absolutely. The training wheels will come off, and serious SEO programs will need experts to conduct their link buying efforts. It’s really just like any other more time tested media: anyone can buy advertising, but the value of a true media buying expert can create tremendous value. In this case, it’s a such a niche and valuable skill, I think the loss of toolbar PR would be a serious benefit to SEO practitioners.

Who is the ideal link buyer today?

First and foremost, someone who understands the timeline of the process, and the rules of engagement to be effective. From there, having a specific set of target keywords, targeting pages that are crafted around each of these target keywords, and hosted on an SEO compliant site, round out the package for an ‘ideal’ buyer.

So many times we speak to people who want to rush into SEO and want results as fast and aggressively as possible. You have to trust the process, and be in it for the long haul. If you want the quick fix, go ahead and keep yourself hooked on PPC.

And who should be selling links really?

It’s a great way for sites with unique content and some domain age and trust to monetize the below the fold, non-monetizable part of the page. What’s great for the publishers is that the revenue is consistent and predictable, it is not predicated on click through rate, traffic to the page, nor outbounding visitors as a necessary tradeoff to make money.

Smaller more niche sites and blogs will find that they can earn a lot more money potentially as a TLA publisher than with adsense or similar programs, and they can publish both types of ads on their pages. Larger more established sites may qualify for our Premium Publisher program: we work to accommodate the needs of larger organizations looking to enter our publishing network.

What’s next for Text Link Ads?

We work with over 120 Search Marketing agencies to power their link building programs, as well as 3,000 independent advertisers. We recognize the need for many of our clients to have a better understanding of targeting choices, appropriate budget and allocation choices, and identifying and solving on-page site issues which mitigate the effectiveness of link building programs. With that said, we are moving towards a more consultative process with our clients, and encourage them to call in and speak with us.

Beyond more strategic servicing, we are putting forward many new initiatives, including premium publisher offerings available to clients who work with our sales consultants hands on. Additionally, we are starting to offer full service link building for clients. This includes both paid link acquisition as well as natural link building tactics such as social profile creation, direct webmaster outreach, sponsored blogging and blog postings, and targeted directory link building.

You can sign up for Text Link Ads here.

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Fwix launches local news revenue-sharing service: AdWire https://www.blogherald.com/news/fwix-launches-local-news-revenue-sharing-service-adwire/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:32:34 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15022 With the increasing number of publishers creating hyper-local sites, it’s no surprise that services such as AdWire are springing up to allow them to add a new stream of relevant advertising and earn revenue. AdWire, from Fwix, is a local news distribution system which allows web publishers to add widgets to their sites that will…

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adwire-logoWith the increasing number of publishers creating hyper-local sites, it’s no surprise that services such as AdWire are springing up to allow them to add a new stream of relevant advertising and earn revenue.

AdWire, from Fwix, is a local news distribution system which allows web publishers to add widgets to their sites that will provide local news and ads.

AdWire serves up news based on particular categories that a publisher sets, but it also takes visitors’ geography into consideration when serving content, hopefully keeping stories relevant.

Ads are served in between main content.

It’s also possible for content creators to make money by allowing their content to be syndicated by Fwix.

“Our vision is to bring local news content together and reward the major parties involved with the revenue and audience they deserve,” said CEO of Fwix, Darian Shirazi. “With AdWire, we have developed an intelligent and efficient revenue model that now supports both content creators and publishers.”

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Get Facebook on your PS3 https://www.blogherald.com/news/get-facebook-on-your-ps3/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:32:28 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15009 Facebook is near ubiquitous now. Gone are the days when you had to be sat at your desktop or notebook PC in order to access it. It’s now on mobile devices and gaming consoles too. Microsoft recently added the ability to tweet and Facebook from the Xbox 360, and now it seems that the PlayStation…

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Facebook is near ubiquitous now. Gone are the days when you had to be sat at your desktop or notebook PC in order to access it. It’s now on mobile devices and gaming consoles too.

Microsoft recently added the ability to tweet and Facebook from the Xbox 360, and now it seems that the PlayStation 3 console will get the social network treatment, too.

There hasn’t been an official announcement from Sony, but this is based on a leaked screenshot of the latest firmware update.

Seems there’s nowhere you can go to get away from the Book.

Via

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Posterous chooses Rackspace Cloud for blog hosting https://www.blogherald.com/news/posterous-chooses-rackspace-cloud-for-blog-hosting/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/posterous-chooses-rackspace-cloud-for-blog-hosting/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:32:06 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=15006 When you’re an up-and-coming free blog service like Posterous, with some big name users on your books, then you need to ensure your web hosting is up to scratch. To that end, Posterous has chosen The Rackspace Cloud to handle its hosting requirements. The move means that the multimedia files users send to the Posterous…

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posterous_logoWhen you’re an up-and-coming free blog service like Posterous, with some big name users on your books, then you need to ensure your web hosting is up to scratch.

To that end, Posterous has chosen The Rackspace Cloud to handle its hosting requirements.

The move means that the multimedia files users send to the Posterous service, for publication and dissemination via a number of other online services, will be stored on Rackspace’s Cloud Files.

Also being handled is company email and a range of application servers.

Posterous co-founder Sachin Agrawal said that the new deal means that the company can add new servers on the fly to cope with spikes in demand.

Who is Posterous good for?

Via

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Murdoch wants to remove News Corporation content from Google https://www.blogherald.com/news/murdoch-wants-to-remove-news-corporation-content-from-google/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:44:59 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14996 It’s not the first time that a news organisation has called for Google’s index to be purged of its stories, but Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, has a definite financial motive for his recently publicised stance. Calling Google a “parasite”, and questioning whether its use of excerpts constitutes fair use, he said…

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It’s not the first time that a news organisation has called for Google’s index to be purged of its stories, but Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, has a definite financial motive for his recently publicised stance.

Calling Google a “parasite”, and questioning whether its use of excerpts constitutes fair use, he said that when News Corporation had found a way of making money from its arsenal of news sites.

In his tirade against other established corporations, he said that they merely “stole” stories from newspapers and that News Corporation would be suing them for copyright.

I’m sure the BBC will be glad to hear that they’ll actually have to “spend a lot more money on a lot more reporters to cover the world” when in fact they already do.

One positive side-effect of newspapers such as the UK tabloid “The Sun” going behind a pay wall is that we won’t accidentally be subjected to its tirade of hateful “journalism”, because it will no longer show up in search results. Only those that actually want to pay to read such a sorry excuse for news reporting will have access.

Google, on the other hand, said that it merely took a couple of lines of code added to the robots.txt file of any web site to de-index content.

Google delivers more than a billion consumer visits to newspaper websites each month. These visits offer the publishers a business opportunity, the chance to hook a reader with compelling content, to make money with advertisements or to offer online subscriptions,” wrote Google’s senior business product manager Josh Cohen back in July.

If News Corporation doesn’t want that free publicity, that’s fine by me.

Via

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Hostel company seeking 2010 Winter Olympics video blogger https://www.blogherald.com/news/hostel-company-seeking-2010-winter-olympics-video-blogger/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/hostel-company-seeking-2010-winter-olympics-video-blogger/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:37:56 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14977 We’ve seen a fair number of blogging competitions over the past couple of years, where one lucky entrant gets an all-expenses-paid trip somewhere to blog about an event or location. The latest one to catch my eye is being run by Hosteling International Canada. They’re looking for a video blogger to report from Vancouver during…

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We’ve seen a fair number of blogging competitions over the past couple of years, where one lucky entrant gets an all-expenses-paid trip somewhere to blog about an event or location.

The latest one to catch my eye is being run by Hosteling International Canada.

They’re looking for a video blogger to report from Vancouver during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (12-28 February 2010).

To be in with a chance of winning, bloggers need to submit a one-minute video explaining why they would be the best person for the job.

The prize? A return airfare from home country to Vancouver, five nights accommodation in a Vancouver Central hostel, a digital camera and 500 Canadian dollars spending money, plus a five day break in Banff.

The “hard work” involves posting short video reports each day on the BackPackerBuzz.ca web site. Presumably, as reports are happening from the streets and not from within the Olympic venues and village, there’ll be no problems with media rights from the IOC.

Competition entries must be received by 21st November.

Via

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Royal British Legion calls for two-minute Twitter silence 11am 11/11 https://www.blogherald.com/news/royal-british-legion-calls-for-two-minute-twitter-silence-11am-1111/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:06:11 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14930 Observing a two-minute silence at 11am on Armistice Day, 11th November, is generally well accepted, at least in countries that were directly affected by the two World Wars, but now the Royal British Legion is calling for a similar observance on Twitter. The #2minutesilence hashtag is gaining traction since it was introduced by @PoppySupport. The…

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Observing a two-minute silence at 11am on Armistice Day, 11th November, is generally well accepted, at least in countries that were directly affected by the two World Wars, but now the Royal British Legion is calling for a similar observance on Twitter.

The #2minutesilence hashtag is gaining traction since it was introduced by @PoppySupport.

The Royal British Legion is hoping to appeal to the “Afghanistan generation” who use Facebook and Twitter.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said that it will actively sponsor soldiers who are willing to tweet or blog about life in the military. Twitter is a good way for troops to stay in touch with loved ones back home.

Via

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Microsoft shows off overhauled MSN home page https://www.blogherald.com/news/microsoft-shows-off-overhauled-msn-home-page/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:21:55 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14925 Do you use some kind of information portal as your regular launchpad onto the web? There are certainly plenty of dedicated ones to choose from, as well as being able to choose any web page as your start page, of course. Microsoft is hoping that it can increase the popularity of its MSN home page…

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Do you use some kind of information portal as your regular launchpad onto the web? There are certainly plenty of dedicated ones to choose from, as well as being able to choose any web page as your start page, of course.

Microsoft is hoping that it can increase the popularity of its MSN home page with a preview version of the new look just announced.

preview-msn

As you’d expect, the Bing search engine features prominently on the new site which, based on user feedback, is supposed to be less cluttered and easier to use than the current one.

Main features include:

  • Deeper integration with Bing
  • Improved news and entertainment sources
  • Better integration with social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Windows Live aggregator

Corporate VP of Microsoft, Erik Jorgensen, said that Microsoft was committed to “clean up the mess on the Web”, with the company “uniquely invested in search, media experiences and technical innovation”.

The new home page begins rolling out today and is expected to be available across the US in early 2010.

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Facebook spammer gets $711m damages bill, may face jail https://www.blogherald.com/news/facebook-spammer-gets-711m-damages-bill-may-face-jail/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:28:21 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14913 In a ruling that’s more about a point of principle than money, a California judge has ordered “Spam King” Sanford Wallace to pay Facebook $711m in damages for the reams of spam messages sent via the service. What made these messages particularly insidious is that they were sent from hacked accounts, attaching a superficial level…

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In a ruling that’s more about a point of principle than money, a California judge has ordered “Spam King” Sanford Wallace to pay Facebook $711m in damages for the reams of spam messages sent via the service.

What made these messages particularly insidious is that they were sent from hacked accounts, attaching a superficial level of trust because they appeared to come from friends.

Wallace and his associates were also banned from accessing Facebook, though given how devious spammers and hackers can be, this would seem to be a difficult ruling to enforce.

Wallace has declared himself bankrupt, probably due to previous lawsuits filed against him, which means Facebook is unlikely to see much, if any, money. However, he could also be prosecuted for criminal contempt, in which case he could spend a term in jail.

An official statement from Facebook said that the company intended to “continue to pursue damages against other spammers”.

Will it deter other spammers from their nefarious tactics? Probably not, but at least it’s a small victory for the social network.

Via

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Virtual world workers need avatar dress code policy https://www.blogherald.com/news/virtual-world-workers-need-avatar-dress-code-policy/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/virtual-world-workers-need-avatar-dress-code-policy/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:46:16 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14906 Employers who encourage their staff to conduct business in virtual worlds such as Second Life are being advised that a dress code policy should be enforced before employees are let loose in cyberspace. According to analysts at Gartner, 70% of companies will have set behaviour and dress code guidelines within the next five years. The…

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linden-labs-second-life-avatarsEmployers who encourage their staff to conduct business in virtual worlds such as Second Life are being advised that a dress code policy should be enforced before employees are let loose in cyberspace.

According to analysts at Gartner, 70% of companies will have set behaviour and dress code guidelines within the next five years.

The concept isn’t surprising, as you’d expect any employee representing a company to be issued with ground rules. However, the introduction of virtual world working brings with it a new set of challenges for managers, many of whom have already shown a lack of understanding and slowness to react to trends such as blogging and acceptable Internet use.

Having said that, if companies are official sanctioning their workers to form business relationships online, they are presumably forward thinking companies with an understanding of the risks and potential pitfalls.

If employees are acting unofficially, that’s a different matter. Many companies wouldn’t have the time or knowledge to monitor virtual worlds, particularly if employees are doing things in their own time at home.

Back to official presence, though. Gartner recommends that employees maintain two separate avatars — one for personal, non-work use and another for professional, company-related use.

Makes sense. After all, we generally have separate email addresses for personal and work purposes, and usually dress differently for work and leisure time.

Head of enterprise marketing at Linden Labs (creators of Second Life), Amanda Van Nuys, agrees.

If virtual work is to be taken seriously, then our avatars need to look — and act — as professional as we do in a physical workplace,” she blogged.

Via

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Niche editorial more important than ever to counter information overload https://www.blogherald.com/news/niche-editorial-more-important-than-even-to-counter-information-overload/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/niche-editorial-more-important-than-even-to-counter-information-overload/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:02:27 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14892 Listening to some people talk, editors are a dying breed because we’re in the age of user-generated, crowdsourced content. Yet consumers are relying on the human touch to help them find the best information and resources online, according to a number of speakers at the Digital Media Conference in San Francisco earlier this week. We…

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Listening to some people talk, editors are a dying breed because we’re in the age of user-generated, crowdsourced content.

Yet consumers are relying on the human touch to help them find the best information and resources online, according to a number of speakers at the Digital Media Conference in San Francisco earlier this week.

We have access to unprecedented levels of information, but not all of it is useful, and the sheer volume leads to a complete overload of the senses.

What web users increasingly want are specialised sites that either create or aggregate quality content in one place.

Sometimes, the likes of Digg and Delicious cut it, but not always. Relying purely on algorithms and user voting (which is often biased by power users) doesn’t always cause the cream to rise to the top.

This is surely good news for bloggers and traditional media outlets (presuming that they find the best medium to publish in).

Simply aggregating content is unlikely to cut it any more, but intelligent commentary and linking on niche sites will still draw an audience.

Yes, some niches are highly crowded and unfortunately quantity often reigns over quality, favouring larger media organisations, but that isn’t to say that independent bloggers can’t carve a niche for themselves with original content.

In a world of Twitter’s short messages and a preference for posting short blog posts on the go, it’s easy to believe that longer, well crafted editorial is on its way out, but I don’t think that’s the case.

If you have the passion and expertise in a niche subject, you can still build up an audience, if you continue to post authentic, compelling content. You don’t necessarily need all the bells and whistles that many people add these days, either, though a healthy social media presence isn’t a bad thing.

Even more so than when blogging first became popular, anyone and everyone can publish anything and everything.

That creates a lot of noise.

Not everyone can write compelling content, and not everyone can sift through the flood of information and then publish only the really good bits.

Can you?

Via

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Manchester Blog Awards sees female dominance https://www.blogherald.com/news/manchester-blog-awards-sees-female-dominance/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:30:39 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14874 The fourth annual Manchester Blog Awards, launched in August, had their winners announced last week, and the list is dominated by women. Organiser Kate Feld said that she sensed women had not been participating in blogging a few years ago, and hence it was dominated by men, but now there were many more blogs written…

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manchester-blog-awards-webThe fourth annual Manchester Blog Awards, launched in August, had their winners announced last week, and the list is dominated by women.

Organiser Kate Feld said that she sensed women had not been participating in blogging a few years ago, and hence it was dominated by men, but now there were many more blogs written by females.

This year’s blog winners were:

Manchester Blog Awards

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Second Orwell blogging award to be judged by “Night Jack” https://www.blogherald.com/news/second-orwell-blogging-award-to-be-judged-by-night-jack/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:50:50 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14870 The second annual Orwell Prize for political writing to include a blogging category will include on its judging panel the surprise winner of last year’s prize, Night Jack, aka Detective Constable Richard Horton. You may remember that the anonymous police blogger was outed by The Times newspaper and subsequently got into trouble with his superior…

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The second annual Orwell Prize for political writing to include a blogging category will include on its judging panel the surprise winner of last year’s prize, Night Jack, aka Detective Constable Richard Horton.

You may remember that the anonymous police blogger was outed by The Times newspaper and subsequently got into trouble with his superior officers.

Both he and former Labour MP Oona King will judge the political blog shortlist.

Orwell Prize executive director Jean Seaton said, “We unexpectedly ended up in the middle of a high court battle after the Times sought to unmask Night Jack, and we are thrilled that amongst our distinguished judges, Richard Horton will be bringing his arresting and Orwell prize-winning common sense and wit to judging the blog prize.”

Though Horton still reads blogs, he says that his appetite for writing has been dampened after his brush with the media. He no longer blogs and has shelved the novel he was writing.

“Once I get the taste of hubris out of my mouth, I may get back to writing but I’m not doing anything at the moment,” he said.

Via

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LinkShare affiliate network launches #tweetshop Twitter tool https://www.blogherald.com/news/linkshare-affiliate-network-launches-tweetshop-twitter-tool/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/linkshare-affiliate-network-launches-tweetshop-twitter-tool/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:33:13 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14859 Here goes with another company looking to help Twitter users (and itself) make money from the service. Affiliate network LinkShare has introduced its #tweetshop service (yes, the service name is a hashtag) which allows users to easily link to affiliate products from a central interface rather than having to visit individual merchants, find and shorten…

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Here goes with another company looking to help Twitter users (and itself) make money from the service.

Affiliate network LinkShare has introduced its #tweetshop service (yes, the service name is a hashtag) which allows users to easily link to affiliate products from a central interface rather than having to visit individual merchants, find and shorten URLs and then manually create the tweet.

LinkShare is keen to point out some “best practice” tips so that the service isn’t abused — you can bet it will be though:

  • Avoid tweeting false or unsubstantiated product claims
  • Never create a fake/spam twitter account just to post new advertisements
  • Clearly and conspicuously disclose any connections with the advertiser and/or the affiliate network
  • Be creative! If it is an ad, it should sound like one, but go beyond a product pitch
  • Don’t abuse it. Daunted followers will stop following you and this will undermine your credibility you have built up in your online community

Will we become inundated with affiliate links on Twitter? I expect there’ll be plenty of spam accounts, but then what’s new?

I’m not against seeing valuable/useful product links now and again from people I follow on Twitter, but there’s always unfollow/block for those who overdo it.

Here’s a demonstration video of the service:

What do you think?

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Entrepreneur seeking love, creates infomercial https://www.blogherald.com/news/entrepreneur-seeking-love-creates-infomercial/ https://www.blogherald.com/news/entrepreneur-seeking-love-creates-infomercial/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:41:09 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14857 If you’re looking to find love online, perhaps you could take a leaf out of Tim Goggin’s book. 32-year-old San Diego resident Tim is an online entrepreneur who, frustrated with not being able to find true love in more traditional ways, created his own infomercial and web site to help him find the perfect woman.…

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If you’re looking to find love online, perhaps you could take a leaf out of Tim Goggin’s book.

32-year-old San Diego resident Tim is an online entrepreneur who, frustrated with not being able to find true love in more traditional ways, created his own infomercial and web site to help him find the perfect woman.

TimWow.com hopes to attract potential dates by showcasing his talents and interviewing his friends on the video, as well as offering a free meal date to successful applicants.

Tim said, “Regardless of who you are – finding the love of our life is never easy. Dating is a crazy, bizarre, and wild
adventure. That’s why I created TimWow.com – it’s my way to find the love of my life.”

“I’ve loved infomercials for as long as I can remember. And this seemed the best, most unique medium to reach the right woman.”

Will it work? Only time will tell, but if you like the idea, why not spread the word and help Tim’s quest go viral?

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Social network contact management a pain, survey finds https://www.blogherald.com/news/social-network-contact-management-a-pain-survey-finds/ Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/?p=14853 A recent survey of European consumers has found that current social networks aren’t living up to expectations, either being too complicated to use or lacking features such as synchronisation. 3,000 consumers were questioned, with key findings: 75% said that updating their contacts across social networks was frustrating 82% wanted a solution to synchronise separate address…

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A recent survey of European consumers has found that current social networks aren’t living up to expectations, either being too complicated to use or lacking features such as synchronisation.

3,000 consumers were questioned, with key findings:

  • 75% said that updating their contacts across social networks was frustrating
  • 82% wanted a solution to synchronise separate address books
  • 78% wanted a simple, easy-to-use solution
  • Most people wanted automatic updates from the friends on social networks, as well as being able to control over what updates they receive.

It’s clear to see some of these frustrations vented every time Facebook decides to change the way it displays information, albeit generally for the better.

The survey was conducted for Critical Path, who are pushing their Social Address Book system that is supposed to help synchronise contact data across popular services include Facebook, Twitter and MSN.

The service is aimed primarily at mobile operators wanting to keep hold of subscribers by providing a central contacts repository and notification system. It’s only going to make life easier for consumers if their mobile network operator introduces the system.

Social Address Book

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