2008: The Year Social News Dies!
Posted on 14. Jan, 2008 by admin.
Thats right, 2008 will be the death of social news! Ok so a site like Digg isn’t going to vanish but will it grow?
How long will it be before heavyweight Google enters the ring and decides to build a Digg clone but with one major difference - no users. I’m predicting 2008 will be the year of a Digg clone that is completely automated and actually works, therefore removing the social aspect.
Currently Techmeme, seems to be the leader in aggregating whats hot in the blogosphere. Yet, its geared towards tech. What we need is a mainstream Techmeme.
Sure you could include features such as user comments, yet giving the users complete control over content leads to many problems including gaming.
So look out for the next evolution of social news in 2008 that picks up the hottest stories in the blogosphere automatically/.
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Blogitive is Dead!
Posted on 01. Jan, 2008 by admin.
Blogitive, a service similar to PayPerPost which offers you the opportunity to get paid for writing sponsored posts looks dead!
The concept of Blogitive was heavily geared towards SEO and the majority of opportunities available seemed both spammy and of low quality. It was impossible to match an opportunity with your blogs theme (that is unless you wrote about Gold Bullion investment!). However they made payouts on a regular basis and it was a super simple way to monetize a blog that noboddy read.
However, it now looks as though the service is dying and I expect it won’t be too long until it fades into nothing. The sites blogs hasn’t been updated since may and the internal news system hasn’t been updated since November. Furthermore, it seems like they have stopped approving new blogs. I submitted a test blog to the site and it has remained “pending” for weeks now. And it also looks like the offers have dried up with only one available.
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New Logo….
Posted on 01. Jan, 2008 by admin.
Well I had originally got in touch with a designer I found through DigitalPoint but it seems they took my money and ran!
And I was kinda getting a little desperate for a logo as I felt the plain text design was actually hurting this blogs image. And so I was forced into designing the logo myself.
Its not too bad is it?
I’m in the process of designing a resource center full of valuable downloads and supporting content for this blog. It should be done tomorrow so stay tuned!
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New Years is a Time for a Blogging Makeover
Posted on 01. Jan, 2008 by admin.
Here are some quick tasks for the New Year:
New Design
Its amazing just how fast a design can get old! If yours is looking a little on the tired side, you could benefit from a new design. But even just a logo change or swapping some colors could have a dramatic effect.
New Blogroll
I strongly believe a blogroll should be made up of a combination of blogs you read and sites you own. I hate seeing a blog just with paid text links! These blogs lack character and are even being selfish. Giving a link back to your fav reads is the least you can do for all the great content that blogger is producing. So with that said, its now time to update your blogroll wih your current fav reads.
New Backlinks
Hit the New Year running (marketing wise) with some new backlinks. Every blog could benefit with a boost in traffic and Seach Engine rankings and lots of new backlinks will give you this New Years boost. I like to use a combination of blogs and directories to place links on. Sure this may cost a little but its worth it.
New Features
New Years is the time for launching new features! Something as small as installing a new plugin on your blog could create an air of excitement. I’m planning on installing lots of new plugins and will follow it up with a summary post.
New Clean Look
Get rid of all those annoying widgets, badges and affiliate ads. They aren’t making you money/traffic (you have had the entire year to discover that) so bin em! They are only creating clutter and gathering dust.
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Flipping For Fun!
Posted on 22. Dec, 2007 by admin.
As a domainer, I am regularly flipping websites, ie. buying a site, adding value and then selling it on again. A believe me, its a whole lot of fun!
But apart from just being fun, investing in websites can be very profitable. In fact it usually has greater returns than other more traditional options. So its no surprise to see a number of large firms turning there attention towards the net.
But you don’t have to be a large firm or even have a large capital outlay to get started in the flipping game.
Instead of giving you a complete tutorial on how to flip sites (there is plenty of info on this already) I thought I would give you a few tips:
Start Small and Grow
Don’t throw thousands of dollars at the first website you see. Chances are it will be a dud, because it takes a fair bit of practice to buy and sell a winner. Instead, purchase a relatively small site/s and go from there. You would be surprised with what you could buy with a meager $20.
Don’t Waste Domains
I have a huge portfolio of domains and one of the mistakes I made when I first started out was not putting all my domains to good use. Don’t just let your domain stay on the unused parking pages that your registrar provides. I developed my own content rich generic websites and parking pages to monetize and drive traffic to each and every domain.
Go Bargain Hunting
Shop around and get to know market values and then swoop on bargains. Today I managed to buy a number of domains at $5.50 a pop which is less then current registry prices. Look out for bargains in Webmaster forums.
Be Patient
Patience is the big key in this game. If you don’t have patience you will undersell and may even lose money. If you are patient and stick to your plans then you will succeed. I hold onto some sites for years until they have fully matured!!
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Agloco Was Always Doomed
Posted on 22. Dec, 2007 by admin.
I never understood why a number of prominent bloggers and marketers got behind Agloco and preached about how it would make you rich! I was always an scam and any decent marketer new that it would never work. So are these bloggers just plain stupid or did they choose to lie and mislead?
The entire concept of Agloco is flawed and remember, it isn’t possible to make money by doing nothing. Even the incentives were flawed.
I am glad to see Agloco finally closing its doors but im disappointed how the bloggers who so heavily supported and mislead people are trying to downplay the entire saga.
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Blogging First Steps
Posted on 21. Dec, 2007 by admin.
This blog is brand new and is just taking its very first steps and it still has a great deal of work to be done before I will even start promoting it. But luckily I have setup many a blog before. So here are a few quicks tips on what to do with a brand new blog.
Remove the Generic Design
Unfortunately the generic wordpress design is now used on many spam blogs. Therefore, to avoid the splog (spam blog) image find a design that both suits your content and is easy on the eye. There are plenty of really good looking professional designs out there and you can’t go wrong with a free theme from Design Disease.
Update the Blogroll
A new Wordpress Blog will be filled with links to various Worpress related sites. Update these links with your own. I like to use a combination of links to my own sites/blogs and also links to some of my fav reads. But don’t go overboard, a massive Blogroll just creates clutter and looks messy.
Create an About Page
Fill your About page with useful information about who you are, what experience you have and even some contact details.
Monetize or Not?
A new blog won’t make any money right away but nothing is stopping you from putting up some Adsense ads. If you wait until your blog becomes popular before putting up ads you may risk shocking some of your readers and possibly losing them. I like to simply put ads to my own sites up to start with and introduce other advertising over time.
Post Away
No one wants to read your hello world post! Put up some useful content to give your blog the impression of being established. You don’t need to backdate posts, just churn out 15 or so to get things going.
And there you have it, a few quick tips to giving your blog a little boost.
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Welcome to Marketvice
Posted on 20. Dec, 2007 by admin.
Hey Welcome to Marketvice, my new blog all about blogging, marketing and other webmaster stuff. Thats right, this blog will befull of 100% stuff - thats a lot!
I have been working on th Internet for many years now and have gained a great deal of experience in marketing and developing profitable websites. I run a company - Flask Media, that specializes in buying and selling Internet real estate
But I have also gained a great deal of blogging experience as well. I written for a number of fairly prominent blogs and even landed myself in a bit of controversy exposing some of the marketing techniques of the top online marketers.
But all of that aside, I am ready to start fresh with a great new blog and a great new domain. I’m sure this blog is going to be a whole lot of fun so I hope you stick around.