Category: Publishing

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Send the Girls to BlogHer

Registration ends next week!

BlogHer has announced the desire to close registration next week. We’ve had our first contributor! We are a 7 person household and 6 of those people have blogs! (that doesn’t include Facebook and MySpace etc.) With BlogHer coming to Nashville I think Cathy and Sarah should go! I created a ChipIn to see if we could get them sponsored and two days ago we received our first contribution of $5! Awesome! Now if we can get 59 more people to do the same, the girls get to go! I think it will be some good bonding time for mom and daughter. I think they will have some great social networking opportunities with bloggers they only know in print. And I think they will come back excited to try new blogging tools, technologies and writing techniques they discover at BlogHer. Plus Barry will write snarky things about them!

Registration ends next week!

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Cheap Web Traffic

If you want some unqualified cheap hits to your blog right now, blog something that includes "vp milf" make a mention of "cats" and "guns" and for the kicker link to a CNN article.

Update: Apparently there is a distinction between searching google for "vp milf" which shows Reality Me as the 2nd search result on page one and searching google for "milf vp" in which Reality Me doesn’t show up until the 2nd page. Oooh oh S.E.O.

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I read your blogs

More often I am bumping into people who volunteer, "I read your blogs." At first I would blush over, maybe apologize, quickly explain that some writing is fiction or embellished, and ask, "Do you still like me?" Now I perk up, smile, and respond positively and thank them for reading adding that I hope they continue to enjoy the writing.

The statement is "I read your blogs" – plural. So Cathy and I get bunched together (and possibly Tommy, Sarah, Noah, Amy, and a specialty blog or two. Evan cannot spell yet.) Of late, the "I read your blogs" has a followup sentence that is consistently being said by unrelated people, "Cathy writes really well!" It’s subtle, but there’s a message in there! I’ll get better with practice. (Cathy does write really well. Domestic Psychology should be in your feed reader! Links for her: post feed and comment feed)

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Excuse Me?! Bama Fan Badmouths TN

This video is going viral. It needs a rebuttal! For those of you who got your education at Alabama, a rebuttal is when someone replies to your argument and shows the flaws in your statements.

Update (Aug 6, 2008): When I posted this video yesterday, it had just over 100,000 views. In one day nearly 100,000 more people viewed the video. It now shows 201,290 views with 468 comments and 3 video responses.

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Let’s send Sarah and Cathy to Blogher!

I have tried Chipin a couple of times without success. Of course, the vasectomy chipin was a huge failure but did remarkably better than the new dryer chipin. I thought I would give Chipin one more try with a cause that is less about me and more about others, albeit, others close to me. See, we have three female bloggers in the house. Cathy blogs at Domestic Psychology. Sarah blogs on her own website. And Amy blogs on her own website. Granted, Amy and Sarah don’t post very frequently and sometimes their content is lacking a little substance, but they try. Amy’s composition and typing skills are age appropriate and Sarah would rather be on Facebook or MySpace.

Cathy would love to have the opportunity to participate in a convention. Blogher Nashville would be perfect! And I think Sarah would really enjoy it too. So I am giving Chipin one more try. Let’s send the girls to Blogher Nashville! Please consider contributing to their registration fees and hotel. Thanks! (I have also put a widget in the sidebar)

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I understand the Wii fit!

Watch this NSFW video titled Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit and you’ll understand too!

Wii Fit Girl

Now the real reason I linked to the video: Views: 5,362,590 in two months! Holy cow! That’s called "going viral!" If Youtube was paying $5 for every thousand views (as suggested in Business Week) that one minute, nine second video of a girl in her panties swinging her hips would be worth $26,812.95!

How does it get viral? Emailed, social networks, links from sites like Asylum.com (AOL) and Popurls.com. This one in particular is being passed around so much that you almost have to work to not see it. Getting content to go viral is the dream of most content producers such as bloggers, video makers, podcasters, and so forth. But only one viral piece can bring down your servers and net you very little money. Figuring out the secret to getting content to regularly go viral is how people quit their day jobs and make their living blogging. Is it the underwear? Am I wearing the wrong underwear when I type?

Joystick Division interviews Giovanny Gutierrez who works for Tinsley Advertising to see if this one minute video was a marketing stunt.

Now even though the president of the company told me this is just a private video you posted with your Tinsley account, I’m not fooled. Admit it: you’re a part of a clandestine, Nintendo-sponsored viral marketing campaign!
The whole thing was just an idea I had for a spec viral video. I came up with the idea because that really is my girlfriend (not my sister like many have assumed), she loves Wii Fit and even more, looks hot doing it. [Source, Joystick Division, Q&A With the Man Behind "Why every guy should buy their girlfriend Wii Fit"]

So he did pre-meditate it going viral! That’s powerful. The LA Times even picked up the story. Here’s a great spoof video!

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Tweetup was a whale of a time!

Aubrey’s management eyeballed them suspiciously. Fifteen silence people taking broad steps toward the restaurant with heads hung low, each holding a device in one or two hands with their thumbs making rapid movements. One of these characters held a device in each hand. "Quick! Open the patio. These guys look like trouble." The group settled in around the table, and, wordlessly, began pecking on their phones and palm devices. Occasionally one would look up, point and laugh. These are the Knoxville Twitters!

What is Twitter? Probably the most common question asked of anyone who admits to their texting addiction. Followed by: I don’t get it. Twitter is a microblogging platform which you update from your phone and receive updates through your phone. You can also update Twitter with special programs, instant messengers, websites, and email. Basically, people choose to follow your updates and you choose to follow the updates of others. When you send a message, all your followers receive it. It is like shouting into a crowded room. Some people use if for vanity/voyeurism/exhibitionism, some use if for marketing/spam/self-promotion, some for utility, some for news and so forth. The possible uses for Twitter continue to be defined as it is truly a new frontier in the electronic wilderness.

Right now Twitter is known for having frequent outages. People are irritated but the simplicity of Twitter puts it ahead of its competitors. The fact that Twitter has a strong community puts it ahead of the other services too. Twitter is going through growing pains and it will overcome the scaling issues. Twitter is well worth the wait!

Today’s Tweetup (a meeting of people who otherwise may only known each other online by their Twitter nick names, like a blogfest) was a lunch at Aubrey’s off of Papermill. Fifteen people attended and we all had a blast. In attendance: @djuggler, @zane_hagy_z11, @knoxgirl75, @mwoodvols, @whodini, @suzytrotta, @cocoholder, @kmberlylauth, @bballentine, @utfcu, @bobmissy07, @ashleystravel, @alanstevens, @mjstone, and @stuboo. Topics ranged from "what’s up (or down) with Twitter?" to careers to funny antidotes. We managed to stay out of politics I think. It was a lot of fun! I look forward to the next.

Update: Every needs to follow @thecadillacman so that he gets the next announcement.

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WordPress Support on IRC is on Freenode

For those looking, WordPress.com support on IRC is on the Freenode servers at #wordpress.com while WordPress.org support is on the Freenode servers at #wordpress. #wordpress.com is primarily WordPress.com developers/employees and staff of Automattic while #wordpress is the open source community.

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Hillary is going out..why is she following me?

Like The Whispers on LOST, I’ve heard hushed chatter all day long about how Hillary is dropping out of the race tomorrow. Naturally, I raised an eyebrow when my email informed me that @Hillary2008 was started following my Twitter account today. Back before October of last year, I started following presidential candidates wise enough to be using technology to their advantage. Edwards, Thompson, and Obama used it the best.

Now I can’t remember which one but one of the candidates even opened Twitter up for questions while he was on CNN (or some other live show); unfortunately I was walking out the door and didn’t get to fire off any questions nor watch the program.Joe Biden opened Twitter up for questions while he was on a live chat with The Washington Post. What a powerful way to use the Internet! Putting Twitter ahead of the reporters and phones!

Early on, it became evident that @Hillary2008 was not the real Hillary Clinton. Today Hillary2008 follows 787 people and is followed by 829 people. The real Hillary Clinton appears to be @HillaryClinton and follows 0 people with 4,140 people following her which means she doesn’t understand Twitter. (Randy, are you listening? 0/66) Barack Obama at @BarackObama is following 35,777 people and has 34,765 people following him; his updates are frequent and does not read like a staffer is trying to impersonate him. Seems early on in the campaign that @BarackObama even sent @ replies to followers (but I cannot find an example right now).

I personally belief that either the people behind Hillary2008 gave the account over to the campaign or decided to start working it as true Hillary fans that actually understand the technology. What’s to understand about Twitter? It’s bi-directional. We use our feed readers and RSS for push news and headlines. If all you are doing is using Twitter to push your urls and try to get people to your site, then for all practical purposes, you are a spammer. Even news sites like @Knoxnews responds to its followers. If you listen to them, they’ll listen to you! @SantaClaus is a hoot! Not only does he work the Twitter account around the holiday, but he responds to almost everyone that mentions him and he does year round! Interactivity is the key to Twitter. Of course, Leo Laporte breaks this theory by following 441 people and having 39821 people follow him. He’s this anomaly I just haven’t figured out yet. Of course, as much as I can’t figure out why you would want to follow him (and his ego), I find myself that compelled to follow more of him. Long and short of it, if you have a zero in either following or followers, you are using Twitter poorly.