- Jeb McIntyre  [ 2/8/2005 - 08:32 ]   #

Community Building is really what this site is all about. If any of you have further interest, take a look at some of the links below. Tor Hought from Edict.com suggested these links as a good introduction to the web-based community building concepts.

Community Building on the Web http://www.naima.com/community/

Cluetrain http://www.cluetrain.com/

David Wineberger http://www.hyperorg.com/

Doc Searls http://www.searls.com/

Christopher Locke http://www.rageboy.com/, Gonzo Marketing

Derek M. Powazek http://www.powazek.com/zoom/log/, Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places

Web Log Resources http://www.informationweek.com/blog/resources.htm

Why is the blog more important than the web page? It is a log, a journal, it changes more often than a static piece of content.

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 1/20/2005 - 16:30 ]   #

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 1/4/2005 - 10:32 ]   #

- Bill Swenson  [ 10/21/2004 - 11:26 ]   #

Elise.com has a very interesting overview of the weblog tools market and how it is developing... I thought this may be of interest to our friends at EDICT Inc.  It would be nice to see EdictSpaces added to the list! Here's part of what she has to say...

...Weblog Use Index

Since actual share numbers are impossible to come by, I have combined the Google Link To and Contain URL numbers to come up with what I am calling the Weblog Use Index, an index of market influence based solely on Google results. Clearly a problem with this approach is that it weighs more heavily the hosted services where each weblog created contains the URL of the service. Weblogs that use the standalone tools may not cite the tool used and therefore would not get counted with this method. However, when we look at the overall results, they seem to fit what we would expect in general. Blogger, Google’s free service, has the lion’s share, followed by Live Journal, the most active weblog online community.

This view of the blog market is certain to generate criticism. I am very open to suggestions for an improved methodology using publicly available information. I am surprised by Typepad's importance on the Use Index given that it is a fee-based service. However, considering that I know of and read countless Typepad blogs and virtually no Live Journal or Diaryland blogs, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

The Emerging Business Market

As more businesses find valuable uses for weblog technology, there will be increasing demand for professionally-oriented tools, hosted services, and professional support services. Six Apart and pMachine serve this market now with their Movable Type and Expression Engine applications, but they have barely made a dent given what the opportunity is. Expect a whole new wave of products, services, and companies to be created over the next 12 to 18 months to cater specifically to the business market.

Blogging Tools

Here are some links to weblog tools mentioned in this article and a few others as well:

Hosted Blog Services
Free:
Blogger.com
Blogdrive

Fee:
Typepad

Hosted Blog Communities
Live Journal
AOL Journals
DiaryLand
Xanga
AlwaysOn Network

Blog Software
Fee:
Movable Type
Expression Engine
Radio Userland

Open source and free:
Wordpress
b2evolution
Drupal
Greymatter
Textpattern
Blosxom
Nucleuscms
Roller Weblogger
Pivot

Blog Indices and Search Resources
Technorati
Feedster
Blogdex
Blogpulse
Blogwise
Blogstreet

Websites Focused on Blog Market Sizing
Blogcount
bsentinel
BlogCensus

 

- Bill Swenson  [ 10/11/2004 - 13:40 ]   #

Carnival of the Capitalists does a weekly summary of the best business blogs along with some commentary devoted to:

• Economics
• Investing
• Entrepreneurship
• Marketing
• Business Trends
• Management
• Miscellaneous

Here is one of the posts with a heads-up for software developers, like our friends at Edict Inc.

"MicroIsv tells us that the money is in the niche for software
developers.

The biggest opportunities for micro ISV’s today exist in finding a niche that isn’t being filled by one of the big software companies. The best part is that many of these companies are betting that you’ll do exactly that."

Drilling down into the story...

"Because most big software companies design applications to appeal to as many people as possible, many small software companies and micro ISV’s are able to find a niche by adding features that don’t currently exist or by developing a complementary product. A recent Business 2.o article highlights several companies that were purchased because of the success they had in filling such a niche. According to the article, Symantec employs a group whose job is to find companies to acquire. In the past year, they have “been making an acquisition every two months, usually of startups barely out of the garage stage.” By acquiring a small software company, startup costs and risk can be decreased significantly. Especially if the product already has a small but established user base.

As technology grows and matures, niche opportunities are going to become more and more prevalent. Those who recognize these opportunities will be able to become the next success stories in the software industry. The key is simply to get started. Look at what you do on a day to day basis that causes you to say “I wish this software could…". Those are the magic words that should get the ball rolling."

Is this a strategic pathway for EdictSpaces or future Edict projects?
 

 

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 10/6/2004 - 11:54 ]   #

Wired reports today that the Kerry campaign is pumping more advertising dollars into the web channels.

In a related story, Wired also reports that the industry is flying blind! There are still no adequate statistics on who does what, when and where on the web.

- Bill Swenson  [ 10/5/2004 - 15:13 ]   #

"Advertisers Securing ad inventory with Pheedo is like placing ads in targeted newsletters. We made it easy to get started.
Step 1.	Provide keywords or phrases that best match your product.
Step 2.	We take your text, banner or lead aquisition creative and match it to the appropriate RSS feed.
Step 3.	You receive online access to reports to track the performance of each creative/campaign. "

- Bill Swenson  [ 10/4/2004 - 13:56 ]   #

 

I was stunned when I first opened NewsIsFree.  This site compresses and maps the worlds RSS news feeds on one page view, allowing the reader to drill down on a story of interest after seeing its source, popularity and summary of content.

 

Where is this RSS technology taking us and what other sources of information will be mapped...? 

- Bill Swenson  [ 10/1/2004 - 14:00 ]   #

Chris Pirillo is a powerful young voice in the new media...

Putting a Face on Technology

"In the race for digital dominance, what is the key ingredient that many businesses are missing to make themselves truly powerful players in today's economy?

Chris Pirillo, best-selling author and creator of the award-winning Lockergnome series of online publications, has found the answers to harnessing the potential of technology. Profiled by such publications as The New York Times, Fortune, and Inc. Magazine, Pirillo has made the corporate and electronic elite stand up and take notice with the technical tips and trends built into his ventures. Pirillo continues to attract hundreds of thousands of readers and viewers, including some of Silicon Valley's highest profile innovators. He's found advertisers in thought leaders, including Google and Microsoft.

Ranked #1 on Blogrolling, #76 on Daypop, #15 on Feedster, #40 on Popdex, #84 on Technorati, and #39 on Bloglines, Chris, above all else, is full of passion."

- Bill Swenson  [ 9/30/2004 - 15:24 ]   #

A recent proposal at pc4media, explores the concept of "distributed novel writing". 

"...want to explore whether this can be done via weblogs and with multiple authors.

Here's how I think it could work.
1. Someone starts a story on their weblog.
2. A person reads that story and decides to continue it on their weblog.
3. They use trackback and/or leave a comment with something to the effect: "If you'd like to see Joany break up with Johnny, read this. (link)"
4. Original authors can update their post with pointers to the alternative next steps.

Of course, the story would grow in lots of directions, which would be cool. Most likely, the blog posts that took the story in the most 'popular' ways would get the most traffic and would have the most people build off of it.

I know a wiki could accomplish a similar objective of distributed authorship, but I think this proposal is different in the following ways:
- Authors still have ownership of their pieces.
- Unpopular or poorly written excerpts are routed around. (Kind of like a self healing network.)
- People don't have to go to a centralized place to do distributed authorship. (Seems more natural to me.)
- This is a cool way for aspiring authors to show off their talent. (which would be lost in a wiki)"

Jim MacBeth at Blackfrogcreative thinks "this may be a great idea for creating the next "trunk monkey"! Imagine a virtual blog advertising agency using this technique to create a proven, blog tested advertisement...only the most entertaining creative material would prevail.  The blog traffic would point in the direction of the winning storyline."

- Bill Swenson  [ 9/28/2004 - 15:15 ]   #

Over 17,000 respondents to  Blogads  May '04 survey of the Blogsphere reveals the distribution of bloggers by age, sex, income, occupation, political affiliation, country and more.

"...blog readers are more cyber-active than I'd hoped: 54% of their news consumption is online. 21% are themselves bloggers and 46% describe themselves as opinion makers. And, in the last six months:

• 50% have spent more than $50 online on books.
• 47% have spent more than $500 online for plane tickets.
• 50% have contributed more than $50 to a cause or candidate, and 5% have contributed more than $1000. (Only 25% of NYTimes.com readers have contributed anything online in the last year.)

Blog readers are media-mavens: 21% subscribe to the New Yorker magazine, 15% to the Economist, 15% to Newsweek and 14% to the Atlantic Monthly.

They are also far more male -- 79%! -- than I expected, versus 56% of NYTimes.com's readers."

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 9/13/2004 - 09:46 ]   #

My friend Nick Gaydos from http://Edict.com posted this, and I copied it. A great find for those with serious ideas worthy of a wider audience, and those with interest in great ideas. This is an excellent example of Viral "marketing" - this time around thoughts rather than products. Thanks Nick.

Change This

- Nick Gaydos  [ 9/10/2004 - 14:24 ]   #

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 6/14/2004 - 14:37 ]   #

Edict Spaces , used to create this, is an incredibly powerful tool for marketing, work-group communications, and sharing of intellectual capital. The cost is insignificant, especially when compared to the power it brings. Check it out!

- Nick Gaydos  [ 6/10/2004 - 12:15 ]   #

A nice article at Autoweek about how automakers are utilizing viral marketing campaigns to get the word out.

"Get a viral campaign right and the rewards are great. The person who forwards the joke, gossip or video clip effectively promotes the brand.

But there's a catch: If everyone is doing viral marketing, one auto executive warns, none of it will work."

[via Autoweek]

This is also the first article I've seen that has talked about downsides to viral marketing.

Additionally there is some excellent commentary over at Seth Godin's weblog on the honesty and paid success vs. natural sucess of campaigns.

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 5/5/2004 - 18:17 ]   #

The Times of India reports on India's secret army of online ad 'clickers' (by N VIDYASAGAR of the TIMES NEWS NETWORK - MONDAY, MAY 03, 2004 08:20:34 AM )
 
As the web heats up, and the measurement of clicks becomes increasingly important, wouldn’t you know it, clicking has been “off-shored”. The Times of India reports on a growing army of folks paid to click on web site links and banners in order to inflate “hits” on the site.

They report: "Here's how it works: online advertisers in developed markets agree to pay hosting website each time an ad is clicked. With performance-based deals becoming dominant on the Internet, intermediaries have sprung up to "do the needful”.' Why, type in 'earn rupees clicking ads' in Google — you get 25,000 results."

That last "fact" is incorrect. In fact, the number of Google hits is more like 3,500. Worse, you get almost 28,000 Google hits with "earn dollars clicking ads". Point is, click counts are going to come under increasing scrutiny.

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 3/12/2004 - 10:45 ]   #

A recent study reported on the Discovery Health Channel Television and Computer Games: Sleep Saboteurs?

By Andrea Pennington, M.D.

Warns of the effects of television, video games, and computers on children's sleep patterns. I think we are going to turn off all such devices 1/2 hour before bed-time from now on (can you hear the wails?).

 

Might have implications for media as well (time of day messages are received, that sort of thing).

 

From BoingBoing

 

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 3/10/2004 - 08:49 ]   #

Boing Boing  reported this diagram from Stephen VanDyke. Interesting article as well.

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 3/6/2004 - 12:29 ]   #

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 3/5/2004 - 07:31 ]   #

Rebok is presenting a series of short films on the web featuring Terry Tate. This site has gotten quite a buzz on the web. Funny, but weird. They claim over 20 million viewings of the Terry Tate films.

 

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 3/5/2004 - 07:12 ]   #

Trojan Condoms attracted significant traffic to its web site using very clever and humorous short “films”.  Check out the Trojan Games.

Caution, contains adult themes.

- Jeb McIntyre  [ 3/5/2004 - 07:05 ]   #

What happens if you use broadcast to drive traffic to web sites? You get a lot more time to tell your story, with a lot more information about how your consumer is responding. Check out http://www.seewhathappens.com and see how Mitsubishi did it.