BuzzMyBlog

Someone Figured Out How To Beat Akismet Spam Filter

Jeff — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:21:00 -0700

Ok, this is getting annoying. It looks like someone from Amsterdam figured out how to get around WordPress's Akismet spam filter. I have a number of blogs and within the last few hours, every one of them got a number of comments on many different posts all from the same three IP addresses:

94.102.60.151
94.102.60.152
94.102.60.153

They all appear to be from a normal user name, but the email address and comment body are just jiberish. Normal spam usually has a link, but this has none. What is this spammer trying to accomplish?

Yes, I went ahead and marked the comment as spam and now its all getting caught by the filter. So what's the big deal, you might be wondering? Well here is the strange thing. I saw these same type of comments come in on 5 different completely unrelated blogs, hosted on completely different servers, on completely different ISPs, all within about 20 minutes. There is no way whatsoever to link these blogs together. So if all of my blogs are getting these comments, how many other WordPress blogs are getting them too? Are you seeing these comments also?

I have no idea what this person is up to. Like I said, they are not including any links, which is common for spam. Maybe they are just testing their new spam engine by blasting as many WP blogs as they can. Whatever they are doing, it appears to be working...unfortunately.

Who else is getting these comments? Any ideas what's going on?

Jeff

EntreCard Changing the Rules - Too Little Too Late?

Jeff — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:56:00 -0700

I haven't been using EntreCard much lately. I believe its glory days are over. I thought it was a great idea in the beginning. There was once a time when I met a lot of new people and got some decent traffic from EntreCard. Unfortunately, that didn't last very long. Now, EntreCard seems filled with spammy sites and people trying to abuse the system. It is too hard to weed through the junk to find anything of value or worth reading. In an effort to correct this, it appears that EntreCard has changed the rules (again) - which I thought they should have done a long time ago. Now, I fear it is too little too late.

The Decline of EntreCard

In the beginning, EntreCard was a good service. I thought the concept was great on a small scale, but questioned its viability as a long term, scalable model. Six months ago, I wrote a post explaining why I thought EntreCard was doomed. I thought that there were simply TOO MANY EntreCard credits getting created, which threatened the value of a single credit. Graham Langdon, EntreCard's founder, responded to my post explaining why their model will work for the long run. A few months later, they changed the rules to make blog advertising prices increase by a power of 2 for each person waiting to advertise on a site. Now, a few months later, they are changing the rules again. Clearly something is not working, and to anyone who has been using the service for a while, this has been quite obvious.

The New Rules

So here are the new rules, as delivered to the inbox of all EntreCard users a few minutes ago.

Buy credits for less: Entrecard is now selling 1,000 credits for $6.00. You can buy them here: http://entrecard.com/r/buy_credits
More pricing increments: Instead of prices doubling every time, there are now a few more steps. The new price points can be found on the Advertising page in the wiki, here: http://entrecard.com/docs/doku.php?id=advertising
Members are not allowed to sell credits: This goes for ebay sales, posts in the Marketing forum, and posts on other forums. If you have references on your site to the sale of credits, please remove them immediately, as it is now against our terms.
Credit transfer limits: Members are allowed to make a maximum of 14 credit transfers a week, up to a maximum of 1,000 credits, whichever comes first. This means you can still run contests where you give credits away for free, and under 1k per week. Note: This does not affect linked blogs, you can transfer unlimited credits between linked blogs.
Transfer tax: From now on, all transfers, including transfers made with our new payments API, will be taxed at a rate of 12.5%. The taxed credits will be sold to members (see #1).
Blogs cannot be unlinked: Once you link a blog, it's there for good unless you ask us to delete the blog from your account. This prevents linking/unlinking to get around the credit transfer limits, and it also stops you losing access to a blog if you unlink it in error, which happens a lot.
No more coupons: You are no longer allowed to send coupons.
Shop closed: Except for Entrecard upgrades (Featured Status, Fast Pass) the Entrecard Shop is now offline until further notice. Please do not request a seller token until the shop returns. When it comes back, it will be bigger and better. We'll communicate more details nearer the time.

According to EntreCard, the above changes are being made due to their declining financial situation. Their email continues to say:

We hope that, by taking the steps we have, we will be able to reach a good balance between maximizing the overall benefits for our users and getting the revenue we need to pay the bills and expand the service.

The Only True Fix

These changes are clearly trying to make the value of an EntreCard credit more valuable. Why? So they can be sold to make the company money. As I mentioned earlier, I think these changes are too little too late. However, there is one thing that I think can save the declining service. Instead of using rules to affect the value of a credit, let the users decide how valuable a credit should be on a given site. EntreCard should take a note from Digg and other successful social media sites that use community voting to decide on the popularity of blog. If EntreCard allowed the users to "vote" on the value of a blog, which in turn determined the price to advertise on that blog - irregardless of the number of "drops" that blog gets - I believe a lot of spammy, junky, blogs that are clogging up the service will be pushed to the backseat. Perhaps drops from blog owners with a High Rating become more valuable than from crappy blogs that are just trying to game the system. EntreCard needs to decouple the quality of the site with the act of "dropping cards". It is the only way to ensure that high quality content is being judged for that reason and that reason alone.

I am not trying to suggest a new business model for EntreCard. All I know is that, in my opinion, the biggest problem with EntreCard is the number of worthless, annoying sites that have flooded its system. If the service implemented some type of community approval and ratings system for the quality of the content, I believe the service would do much, much better.

What do you guys think? How many of you out there still like EntreCard the way it is? Would you enjoy it more if you able to intereact with higher quality blogs with better content?

Jeff

ps - EntreCard, feel free to send me a check for my consulting services.

Thank You For Your Help

Jeff — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:51:00 -0700

Hello friends. I wanted to take a quick second and let you know what's been going on here in Buzzland and to thank you for your help.

Things have been extremely busy, so I apologize for not being able to post as much. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am currently in the process of transitioning from my full time job to becoming self employed. I had asked you to let me know if you or any of your friends needed help with software or blog/web related projects. The response has been tremendous! Thank you very much.

I'm still a month or two away from leaving the full time job, but I am in the process of handling all the "red tape" of starting my own business. I am making sure my wife and I have adequate health insurance, I am forming my own corporation, and I am starting to build a pipeline of work for when the faucet runs dry (ie - I no longer get a regular paycheck). I am doing all that while working full time, running two blogs, and oh yeah...preparing for the arrival of Buzz Jr! I stop and wonder sometimes if I must be crazy trying to do all this. But I know it will be worth it in the long run. Come January 1st, I will be cruising at full speed and look back at this time and say "Pffff...it wasn't so bad".

My good friend Bryan at GrandmasterB and I have starting working on some of the projects you've helped bring in. Thanks to Cuzzy and a few others for sending in the referrals. We're off to a great start, but we need many more to keep our families fed. So please, continue to let us know if you or anyone you know needs some help with custom software, a website, a widget, a plugin, a gadget, an app, a blog, or even an enterprise scale Content Management System. We can do it all. And we are happy to pay referral fees.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be making some changes here at BuzzMyBlog. I will be including a lot more information about my capabilities, experience, and education, as well as the way I run projects and how you can hire me. I will also be posting some examples of the work we've been doing. So stay tuned to learn more about the exciting things available from Buzz Software (the tentative name of my company - let me know what you think).

Unfortunately, I am sad to say that the Weekly Buzz will be going away. It is just too difficult to keep up with and people have been trying to abuse it. It was fun while it lasted and I hope some of you were able to benefit from it.

I will continue to provide regular content here on BuzzMyBlog as much as I can. The next few months are going to be crazy, but once I get past the madness, things should settle back down and I will return to a regular posting schedule.

So stay tuned, thank you for your help, and thank you for continuing to visit BuzzMyBlog.

Jeff

ps - So what are you waiting for? Quit being disappointed with that crappy Blogger blog and hire Bryan and me to build and design a custom WordPress blog for you!

Digg Puts the Kibosh on Rapid Digging - Good For You Digg!

Jeff — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:55:00 -0700

If anyone has been using Digg much lately, I am sure they must have noticed the recent saga regarding Digg user MrBabyMan. Some of the highest Dugg stories over the last couple days were simple images and Twitter posts (tweets) asking for MrBabyMan to be banned for his excessive digging.

Well it looks like Digg actually listened to their users and reacted quickly. In an effort to put the kibosh on massive rapid Digging, Digg has put in place controls to make sure you're not Digging too fast.

I would like to thank my anonymous, mysterious friend for submitting the above image. How he came across it, I have no clue.

Looks like everyone will have to go back to making friends the old fashioned way...by actually reading each other's content and getting know one and other.

Jeff

What Can I Help You With?

Jeff — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:44:00 -0700

My journey toward self employment is well on its way. As I mentioned in my last post, I am ditching the 9-5 job and starting my own company. I will work as a software development consultant a few days a week and devote the remainder of the week to writing, blogging, and working on my own projects. Eventually, my plan is to spend less time consulting and focus more on my own brand of products (blogs, software tools, etc.). With your help, I am sure I can make that happen.

While all the paper work is going through, there is plenty of "prep work" that needs to be done. At the top of that list is networking and building contacts. I am a firm believer that behind every successful entrepreneur is a huge network of contacts and people who can be a great help. Building a strong network of contacts is a great way to earn potential clients, future business partners, and most importantly - good friends.

I have always enjoyed helping people here at BuzzMyBlog. As I prepare to take embark on this (somewhat scary) journey of self employment, I will continue to help out however I can. So keep sending me questions, comments, ideas, & requests. Feel free to hit me up on Google Talk (username: jeffbuzz13). If I can help with anything, I'd be happy to so. Even if you just want to chat, that's cool too. I know a lot about computers, software, the Internet, and technology in general. Think of me as your online concierge.

But I also want to get know many more of you. If you know anyone that needs some help with their blog, has questions about computers, or even needs some custom software, send them my way. I'll be happy to return the favor however I can.

Networking is a powerful tool. I am looking forward to getting know you all a little better, and some of your contacts as well.

Jeff

Following Your Dreams To Personal Independence

Jeff — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:23:00 -0700

Hello my friends. It has been some time since I've been able to share some buzz with you. I have some very exciting things going on right now, so I wanted to give you a quick update and let you know what I've been up to.

Personal Reflection

I had an amazing vacation, as you might know from reading my last post more than two weeks ago. The time off really gave me an opportunity to reflect upon my career and my dreams for the future. I love blogging, social media, and networking with people online. For the past year or so, I have been enjoying these online activities while maintaining a full job as a software developer. In April, I even started another blog, BuzzPirates.com, which has had tremendous success so far. But it has been a lot of work. I don't know how I've done it, but so far I've been able to run two blogs, stay active on a number of social media sites (I'm still addicted to Digg), network with people online, and help my friends with technical matters - all while working full time developing custom software. Upon my reflection, I realized that with a baby on the way, it will not possible to maintain this frantic pace. Something has to change. I can either give up blogging or give up working.

Making a Choice

I am a firm believer that if you follow your dreams, you can make anything happen. So instead of taking the conservative path of stability by slaving away working for The Man, I have decided to walk away from my job and focus my skills and attention toward earning a living online. This is a big step, but I can make it happen. It won't be an overnight change, but I have a plan that I will be implementing over the next few months. I hope to have it fully in place by the time Buzz Jr. is born, but I can really use some help from all of you.

Stop Earning Money and Start Earning a Living

We've talked about earning money quit a bit here at BuzzMyBlog. Now I need to take it to a whole new level and focus on earning a living. The best way to do that is to capitalize on your talents and make use of your best skills. For some people it may be graphic design or writing. Other people are natural sales men or women who have a knack for Internet Marketing. As for me, well...I am a damn good software engineer. Internet Marking is fun and all, but I'd be foolish not to utilize the multiple degrees I have earned in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from some of the best universities in the U.S. So if I could somehow combine my development expertise with my love of blogging and social media, I'd be a very happy camper...

The Plan To Personal Independence

So my plan is to become an Independent Software Developer. I am in the process of lining up a few gigs that will allow me to develop software for clients a few days a week and will bring in enough money to support my family. The remaining days of the week, I can focus on my blogs and social media software projects of my own. I have some very exciting ideas and believe that eventually, I can do less software work for clients and earn more from my own online endeavors.

Cha-Cha-Changes

So over the next few weeks, you might notice a few changes here at BuzzMyBlog. Don't worry, its not going away. This blog is still my baby and you can count on finding good information and advice here for a long time to come. However, I will also be using it as a tool to promote myself and my services. I have met some wonderful people here at BuzzMyBlog and I hope to continue to get to know many more of you. I will continue to write articles and share some of my online experiences with you. But in addition, I hope that some of you can also become clients or might know someone who has a special need for custom software. So in the weeks and months to come, you might see some new features here outlining my development skills and my professional experience. I will still post regularly, but during this transition, my posts may be a little less frequent.

I Need Your Help

As I make this big move, I will be relying quite a bit on my friends and the people that I network with. I hope that you can become one of them. Here is what I need your help with.

If you need help with ANYTHING, let me know. I will continue to respond to emails and am happy answer questions. But if you have a technical emergency or a simple need that you'd rather bang out for $20 bucks or so, then I am your man. Whether its a quick banner design or some help getting your new WordPress blog working properly, I am teaming up with my friend GrandmasterB to offer technical support services. Not everything will be $20, but we'll give you a fair and reasonable price on anything you need help with.
If you need custom software, whether its an AJAX web application, a desktop utility, or even an mobile app, then let me know. I have been developing software for more than 12 years for organizations like Honeywell International, Prudential Financial, the U.S. Navy, even NASA. I will be happy to work with you do understand your need and negotiate an accommodating hourly rate. I will also be happy to pay a referral fee to anyone who is able to send clients my way.
If you have an idea for the next great social media application, blogging tool, or any other software that can be sold online, let me know. I am happy to discuss potential partnership opportunities. If you've got an idea, I can make it a reality, and we both can make a lot of money.
Finally, I will be making some changes to BuzzPirates.com to offer more online advertising. If you have a desire to advertise on an entertainment blog that gets between 50,000 and 70,000 unique visitors a month, please let me now.

Its going to be an exciting couple months. I thank you all for your continued support and assistance. Its going to be busy, but in the long run, this is the best move for me and my family. Feel free to contact me anytime to chat about anything. My Google Talk user name is jeffbuzz13. And, of course, you can always find me on Digg.

Wish me luck!

Jeff

Duck, NC - Beautiful Beaches Await!

Jeff — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:46:00 -0700

This day could not have come any sooner. My wife, Bailey (the dog), and I are off to Duck, NC for a weeks vacation. If you've never been to Duck or the Outer Banks of North Carolina, let me tell you, its a real treat. You cannot find a more relaxing vacation. It is not built up or commercialized at all. Its just tall dunes, long beaches, and beautiful homes that are affordable to rent. Duck is a cute little town with a few small restaurants and quaint shops. The Outer Banks, in general, is the perfect spot to get away and completely relax. With all we have going on right now, we sure can use it!

So have a wonderful week everyone. I probably won't be on the computer much while I am gone...hopefully not at all. Instead, I'll be lying on the beach reading a good book or drinking a beer by the pool as I grill up some local fish. Yup...there's not much else to do in Duck, North Caronlina. And that is exactly why we are looking forward to it.

I'll be back in a week with lots more exciting stuff to blog about.

Have a great week,

Jeff

Duck, NC waterfront shops at sunset. Photo by asmythie.

Stop Wasting Time Searching for Images, Create Your Own!

Jeff — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:02:00 -0700

image courtesy of dbang

I am a firm believer that the right image can take your post to a whole new level. It can add a little flare, humor, or the eye-catching stickiness that is crucial in this medium where someone will decide whether to read your post in 2 seconds or less. I have been asked a number of times where I find images for my articles. In this post, I will not only give you a few good tips on where to find them, I will also show you were to go to learn how to make your own. Who wants to learn how to fish?

Finding Relevant Images

Writing a post for me is an incremental process. I figure out the topic first, I come up with the main headings as an outline next, and then I start writing each section. It is not until I am half way through the article that I start thinking about what graphic might be a good match for what I am writing. Once I am done with the article, I have a pretty good picture in my mind of the image I want to attach to the post. I visit the following resources in this order to begin my search.

iStockPhoto or any other affordable stock photo site. There are a ton out there, but I think iStockPhoto is the best. Most of the time, I can find exactly the image I am looking for and pay $1 for the rights to use it legally.
Flickr.com. There are millions of images on Flickr.com, many of which have been given a Creative Commons license. This allows you the legal right to use the image as long as you give proper credit to the original source. If you see a link under an image on a blog, it is usually because it is being used under the Creative Commons license. The only reason I don't go to Flickr first is because there are SO many images that it takes longer to find the one that might be best for you.
Google Image Search. If my first two searches fail (which is rare), I then hit old faithful - Google Image search. Most often, the image I am looking for already exists on some other blog. I don't just rip it off and post it as my own. I usually reach out to the blog owner first and ask if I can repost the image. You'll be surprised how often someone says "sure".

Time To Learn PhotoShop?

Lately, I have been taking a different tactic whenever possible. Instead of paying for images, if I can, I will create my own. All it takes is some practice with PhotoShop (or...(keep reading)), an occasional digital camera, and a few minutes to go through a couple tutorials. My good friend Bryan over at GrandMasterB has made a name for himself by providing some amazing PhotoShop tutorials. Take one look at his site and you'll know he is a very talented graphic artist. He has a whole section of his blog that is dedicated to PhotoShop tutorials that teach you how to create awesome RSS logos, eye catching banners, and killer text images. Spend some time reading Bryan's tutorials and I guarantee...you will quickly realize that when you have a vision for an image in your head, you don't have to search hours to find it. You can probably just create it yourself.

Bryan is also one of the nicest guys I have met in my blogging lifetime. If you aren't sure about how to use that Pen tool, or need any other help with PhotoShop, just shoot him a quick note. I'm sure he'd be happy to help however he can.

But I Don't Want to Pay for PhotoShop

Guess what...neither do I! In fact, I don't use PhotoShop at all. I can honestly say that GIMP has become my favorite program of all time. It is a FREE Open Source alternative to PhotoShop. Anything you can do with PhotoShop, you can do with GIMP. You can even follow tutorials that were written specifically for PhotoShop and accomplish the exact same results very easily with GIMP. Check it out. It takes a little practice, but it will be worth it. Pretty soon you'll be PhotoShopping (or Gimping) anything you can get your hands on. :)

Jeff

Do You Approve Negative Comments?

Jeff — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:19:00 -0700

One thing you will find as your blog becomes more popular is that you will need to learn to deal with negative criticism. This is unavoidable. You might spend weeks perfecting the most brilliant post. Your blood, sweat, and tears go into something that you swear will be the greatest thing Digg ever saw. But no matter how great your work of art might be, rest assured...there are cretins out there that are just dying to rip it apart (seriously, check that dude out, he doesn't like a single thing). It sucks and it can be extremely disheartening. But unfortunately, some people just love hitting that "bury" or "thumbs down" button no matter how good the content may be.

For some reason, its seem the old saying of "if you don't have something nice to say, do say it at all" is completely opposite in blogland. I have had posts that received thousands of hits, hundreds of Diggs, and tons of Stumbles. Yet, the only comments left on the post are people telling me how bad the post sucked. At first, it can be really upsetting. But eventually you learn that the ones leaving the comments are the minority. If thousands of people are seeing your post, you obviously did something right. Just because 6 jerks leave negative comments, doesn't mean the 3,000 other people who read your article didn't like it. It never would have gotten so popular if most of the people reading it didn't enjoy it.

So the question remains...what do you do with comments left on your blog that are negative and critical of you or your content? Do you approve them or do you delete them? It can be a tough call. On one hand, its your blog. Why would you let anyone say anything negative about you on your own blog? But on the other hand, you want to respect peoples' opinions. Your readers have a right to say what they think, good or bad. So what do you do?

It's a tough question. Personally, I do approve the negative comments. I think people have a right to their opinion and if they have something to say, they should be allowed to say it. I do admit, sometimes I have a hard time biting my tongue. But I am curious about what everyone else does. Do you approve negative comments on your blog? How about a quick survey? But don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments as well.

Thanks for participating!

Jeff

What Do You Expect From Your Blog?

Jeff — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:25:00 -0700

Why do you blog? Is it because you enjoy expressing yourself through writing? Maybe its to promote a business or service? Are you just trying to make a quick buck? Whatever the reason, it is important to have realistic expectations for what you plan to get out of your blog. In this post I will break down a number of different types of blogs and give my honest opinion about what you can expect from each type.

Different Types of Blogs

There are a million different types of blogs and it would be impossible to classify them all. So in the post, I am not going to try and group them by niche or by topic. Instead, I will list them by purpose. Keep in mind that this will be an extreme generalization. Certainly there are plenty of blogs that fall into more than one of these categories, or none of these categories at all. However, my hope is that this post will help you take a good look at your blog, see what its purpose is, and check if your expectations are realistic.

Personal Diary

This is the type of blog that 90% of the people who first start blogging begin with. Usually it is some type of free blogging platform, like Blogger (see this post for why you should move to WordPress). Sometimes these blogs have specific point, whether it is political opinion, a blog about an up and coming band, etc., etc. Most of the time, however, it is nothing more that Jack's Daily Musings or Jill's Random Thoughts. Usually there is nothing extraordinary about these blogs that make them stand out.

Expectation: If you are blogging for pure enjoyment, this is right up your alley. Link to your friends, write about stuff that that interests you. Over time, you may make friends with people with similar interest. Eventually, you might get a pretty decent following. You might even make a little coin. For the most part, however, this blog is supposed to be fun.

Reality: If you are blogging just as a hobby and enjoy what you are doing, then good for you! Keep doing it as long as you continue to get joy from it. It's your hobby, so you can do what you want. It can be extremely exhilarating when you publish something that strikes a cord with people and generates some buzz in the blogosphere. You might get momentary spikes, but for the most part, these blogs don't generate tons of traffic. These blogs usually display AdSense or some form of advertising, but don't have the traffic to make more than a few cents a day (if that). Of course, there are exceptions. The rare birds that have a huge following or make a lot of money usually are very gifted writers, offer truly original (and interesting) content, or promote the heck out of their blog. If you are getting frustrated that you are not making money or can't think of anything to write about, you may need to rethink your game plan (keep reading).

Making Money Online

If you've never run into one of these blogs, you obviously haven't been blogging very long. They are blogs that talk primarily of one thing - making money online. Thanks to a few successful pioneers in this area (John Chow, Shoemoney, ProBlogger, etc.), a million other blogs have popped up trying to copy the original blueprint, sometimes almost word for word. They talk about things like advertising on your blog, internet marketing, link-baiting, and SEO. Their purpose is to make money by talking about ways to make money. Yeah, I suppose my blog can be grouped in this category to some degree. However, I am making a concerted effort to shift my blog away from the MMO niche and focus more on "blog improvement" in general (so please take note!).

Expectation: For some reason, a lot of people think that in order to make money, they need to have a blog about making money. They run out, find a catchy domain name, copy a famous blogger's template, start a blog, and talk about the same stuff everyone else has already written about (which is the same stuff people before them wrote about). It doesn't matter, people are making millions of dollars doing this, so new people jump on board everyday. All they need to do is spend $97 on the latest and greatest eBook and they will have all they need to make a $50,000 in one month.

Reality: Wake up. No matter what people tell you it is not this easy to make money online. The reality of the Make Money Online niche is that they are, for the most part, a bunch of really good salesmen (and women). You know...the kind that can sell an Eskimo ice. Or in this case, a PDF that promises you fame and fortune. Am I saying that every single MMO blog is a con artist? Of course not. But the MMO niche is thriving because people keep believing the hype and paying for information that can be found online for free pretty easily. You don't need to buy an eBook or a training course to make money online.

What you do need is a solid business plan. It is DEFINITELY possible to make money online, but it is no different than any other business. With the proper planning and execution, you can have a successful online business. However, an overwhelming majority of online businesses DON'T make money directly from their blog. Their blog is merely a platform for their business. Their real money comes from hours and hours of digging through keywords, searching for affiliate program "gems" that pay well, and lots and lots of trial and error. What you don't see behind the successful MMO bloggers' blog, are the hundreds of domain names they own, the thousands of landing pages they have created, and millions of hours they have spent trying to find the right keywords to match them. If you want to make money online, you can certainly do so. Just be prepared, it takes a lot of work. Most importantly, your blog doesn't have to be about making money to make the most money online! I honestly believe it is much easier to make money in other niches.

Traditional Business

Blogging is becoming a critical marketing tool for traditional businesses. As I mentioned above, the blog itself is not usually what makes the most money for MMO bloggers. The same is true of normal everyday companies. Blogs are becoming a medium through which companies can connect with their customers and offer a more personal level of interaction.

Expectation: The days of a static web page are gone. Companies today what flash and glamor. A blog is a very simple way to provide regular updates to customers and can be an inexpensive form of marketing. Business Week has an excellent article on why you should use blogging for your business. It was originally written in 2005 and has proven so true that they have updated the article for 2008 to include other forms of Social Media.

Reality: In this case, the expectation is not far at all from the reality. Businesses really are starting to not only want blogs, but need blogs. If you are a business owner and don't have a blog, you might be overlooking an easy and extremely effective way to connect with your customers.

Journalism

The last group of blogs that I am going talk about I lump together in the Journalism category. This includes all blogs that update regularly and frequently. Obviously, it includes things like news and sports. But these types of blogs can really be about anything. For example, Gizmodo.com is one of my favorite tech/gadget blogs. The important characteristic is that they report on the latest information about whatever their niche is about. It is not uncommon for these blogs to have 5, 10, or even 20 posts a day.

Expectation: These are the types of blogs that expect to attract hundreds of thousands of readers a month. The biggest goal for this blog is to increase subscribers. More readers means more advertising revenue and eventually a higher valuation if the blog is ever sold.

Reality: These types of blogs that can really make good money from AdSense an other types of advertising. In many cases, popular blogs make quite a bit of money in private advertising as well. Be prepared though, this type of blog takes a lot of work. Usually it is more than a single person can handle. The more successful blogs have a team of writers that are able to produce regular content like clockwork. It is basically a full time job, but it can really pay off. These types of blogs can attract huge numbers and can be sold for a lot of money.

Conclusion

So what about my blogs - where do they fall? This blog, BuzzMyBlog, is my personal blog. As I mentioned earlier, it has a touch of MMO content to it, but that is not my primary focus. I don't ever try to scam anyone into buying anything and I don't really care if it makes money. I like writing about topics that help people with their blogs and this is my personal platform to so. Eventually, I plan to use it to promote myself and my software development expertise. Until then, it is really just a form of networking for me. My other blog, however, is more of a Journalism blog (although it can hardly be considered serious journalism - it just makes fun of stuff). Buzz Pirates has passed over 50,000 visitors for the month of July and is off to a great start. I'll be sharing more lessons from that experience in the coming weeks and months.

What about your blog? Is it turning out they way you expect? I encourage you to take a look at your blog and make sure its becoming the type of platform you want it to be.

Best of luck,

Jeff

Be a Tightwad

Jeff — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:22:00 -0700

Learn the art of penny pinching and save yourself a little money with the winner of this week's Weekly Buzz. Congratulations to Forest over at FrugalZeitgeist.com for being selected as this week's blog spotlight. Forest has won 500 EntreCard credits as this week's reward!

FrugalZeitgeist.com is a pretty new blog but is already full of interesting content. Articles there touch on topics ranging from money saving tips and freebies to alternative health products, saving gas and articles discussing the impact on the environment. The site made a HUGE initial splash into the blogosphere by showing readers ways to get TONS of free stuff. This is definitely worth checking out folks!

Just in case you were wondering what on earth Zeitgeist means, well the dictionary definition is:

"the spirit of the time".

I think you will agree the name is quite fitting. I have a strong feeling this site will grow into a big community in the coming months.

Forest offered up these words in his Acceptance Speech:

Wow, I won the weekly "Buzz My Blog Contest" and I didn't even have to pay anybody, I love FREEBIES (which reminds me you can find loads on my site)! Thanks a bunch. I hope some of your readers find a moment to swing by and let me know what they think. A couple of Stumbles and Diggs would be appreciated too..... thanks a million (oops I'm a penny pincher, that should be... Thanks a dime :) ).

Let's all give Forest a hand and give his site a good BUZZ!

Another great blog will be selected next week and will receive another exciting reward! If you haven't already signed up for the Weekly Buzz, what are you waiting for! Sign up now!

Jeff

Don't Be Embarrassed By Your Google Ads

Jeff — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:34:00 -0700

I'm sure its happened to all of us at one time or another. You're checking out your blog, reviewing comments or editing an article. Then you see it...the Google ad that is sticking out like the drunk guy with the tie around his head at your sister's wedding. Not that you have anything against the lifestyle of course, but let's be honest...it can be a little embarrassing when you're blog about cute little puppies starts displaying ads for "Hot Lesbian Lovers".

This happened to me very recently on my entertainment blog, Buzz Pirates. I made a bad joke about Hilary Swank being the object of affection for a certain lifestyle. And wouldn't you know it...the Google AdSense script picked those few words out of the crowd and decided to use that single phrase as the focus of their ads. So I decided to do a little digging to figure if there was a way to block certain words from being used by popular ad services. It turned out to be easier than I thought, but may not be something everyone is aware of. So I hope this little tip will help you to ensure that ads displayed on your blog remain relevant to your actual content.

The two primary ad services I use on BuzzMyBlog.com are Google AdSense and Kontera ads. It turns out that both of them have simple tags that you can place around words that you don't want to be used for generating contextual ads.

Google AdSense

In order to block certain phrases from being considered for AdSense ad generation, simply enclose the undesired text between HTML comments labeled "google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore)" and "google_ad_section_end". Like so...

Every lesbians fantasy, Hilary Swank

Kontera ContentLink

Kontera has a similar approach for filtering unwanted phrases from being labeled with their in-text ContentLink advertising. Simply enclose the text with <span></span> tags that have the attribute "name='KonaFilter'", like so...

<span name="KonaFilter">
Every lesbians fantasy, Hilary Swank
</span> >

Using these simple tips, you can ensure the advertising on your page remains relevant to the topic of your niche. I will be sure to update this post with any tips for other ad services as I learn them. Let me know if you have any requests or questions by leaving a comment.

Jeff

Plurk Is Like Twitter's Outgoing Little Sister

Jeff — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:03:00 -0700

I spent a little time getting familiar with Plurk the other night. I have to admit, it is amazingly addicting. Its a lot like Twitter, but much more social. In my opinion, Plurk can be described as the younger, gabby, outgoing sibling of Twitter.

How Plurk Works

In my book, what makes a good Web 2.0 application is one that has figured out how to manage tons of information in an easy to use interface. In this regard, Plurk has done an amazing job. Plurk's "About" page defines Plurk as:

A really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life in deliciously digestible chunks. Low in fat, 5 calories per serving, yet chock full of goodness.

In the simplest form, it is a lot like Twitter in that you've got 140 characters in which to Microblog something. Unlike Twitter, you can choose up to 16 different verbs. Where Twitter always answers the question "What are you doing?", Plurk allows you to change the question to "JeffBuzz [says, is, loves, wants, hates, has,...etc.]". Plurk also allows you to post smiley faces or even images from Flickr (very scaled down, of course).

Instead of your Plurks (as opposed to your Tweets) coming in vertically, as they do on Twitter, they come in horizontally along a scrollable timeline. This takes a little getting used to at first. For some reason the timeline reads right to left which, to me, seems unnatural. I guess my Westernized mind is more comfortable reading it left to right. Its very cool how you can just click and pull the timeline to the left to view Plurks back in time.

Except for a few minor nuances, Plurk sounds pretty much the same as Twitter so far, right? Here is where Plurk gets real crazy...on each individual Plurk you can leave a response and form a discussion. See what I mean about managing tons of data? Not only are you seeing all of your friends' Plurks, but you can also see the discussion on each one! The result is an application that is a lot like Twitter, but much more social. Check out the screenshot below.

There really isn't much to dislike about Plurk. My biggest complaint is that it is another time-suck that will distract me from focusing on what I should be doing! The payoff could be worth it though. Because of the social nature of the service, I find it much easier to meet people and establish friendships than Twitter. Because its so easy to exchange messages with people, the friendships actually mean something, unlike many other social media apps where you have no clue who you are adding as a "friend".

Within 5 minutes of using Plurk, I had my first friend. When I saw who it was, I must say...I immediately became hooked.

I still like Twitter for its simplicity. But when I have time to kill, there's a good bet you can find me on Plurk.

You can follow me on both Twitter and Plurk:

http://twitter.com/JeffBuzz
http://plurk.com/user/JeffBuzz

Jeff

KristensGuide.com Is A Practical Guide to a Happy Life

Jeff — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:16:00 -0700

Sorry for the delay in announcing this week's Weekly Buzz winner. I just got back from a long weekend in Cape May, NJ. If you ever visit the north east U.S., I highly recommend this amazing beach resort town. Cape May is full of old Victorian bed and breakfasts, awesome restaurants, and great piano and jazz bars. It is not commercialized one bit and has the feel of 1920's upper class luxury.

Well I hope Cape May enjoys their free plug. Now onto the important stuff...congratulations to Kristen over at KristensGuide.com for being the winner of this week's Weekly Buzz!!! Kristen has 500 EntreCard credits coming her way!

Kristen's Guide is a practical guide to a happy life. Her blog includes articles, worksheets, checklists, calculators, printables, and helpful products all designed to help you take charge of your life, follow your dreams, and influence the world. Topics focus on the most important aspects of life (e.g. family, relationships, outlook on life, health, achieving goals, creating a better world, personal development, etc.) as well as the little things that make life easier (e.g. cleaning your house, working from home, tech support, how-to guides for projects, etc.). It is a one stop shop for everything you need to simplify your life (a shop where everything happens to be free). If you have a family, work from home, or need to improve you mental and/or physical health, this is a website for you.

Kristen Brooke Beck's Acceptance Speech offered up these words of wisdom for her fellow bloggers:

Thanks Jeff, for buzzing my blog. I feel very honored to be randomly chosen for recognition. Awesome! When I first started Kristen's Guide, my goal was to create a handy way for me to organize and share all the ideas I had collected in notebooks and diaries throughout my life. The more I worked on the site, though, the more I realized that it wasn't just about household tips and parenting theories; it was about trying to make life better, to be happier. My passion is to help people be happier, whether through comedy or philosophy or even by reducing the stress of keeping up on cleaning the bathroom. It has been quite the ego-boost to hear from people who have been helped from my little site. Thanks in advance to everyone who visits it.

Kristen clearly enjoys helping other people. Let's return the favor and give her site a good BUZZ!

Want your blog to be considered for the Weekly Buzz? Sign up now!

Jeff