The world has, evidently, gone widget crazy, as Six Apart unveils Type Pad Widgets. Functioning much like WordPress widgets, TypePad Widgets are sidebar utilities that perform a variety of tasks, and offer numerous features.
TypePad is offering more widgets than WordPress, by far. A total of 32 widgets, thus far, and they plan on adding more as time goes by.
According to Fox News, the NY Times, and many others, a company (owned by former beatles Sir Ringo Starr, and Sir Paul McCartney, as well as Yoko Ono (John Lennon’s widow), and the estate of George Harrison) called Apple Corps, has filed a lawsuit against Apple Computers, in a London court.
In the 1970’s, when Apple Computer was first formed, the Beatles’ company sued the fledgling computer company, and won quite a bit of money, as well as the following judgement: Apple Computer’s name and logo would be used to sell computers only, and not be used as a music company.
Automattic, the folks behind WordPress, WordPress.com, Askimet, and a couple of other things, have released WordPress Widgets.
Much like the widgets availible for WordPress.com users, the WP Widgets system is designed to integrate with your blog, allowing WordPress users an easy customization of their sidebar. The draw back? It only works on certain themes (out of the box), and it can be a bit difficult to implement on others.
Welcome back! Last time, we discussed targetting your entries to your ads, and using keywords to generate specific ads. This time, we’ll talk about tracking your earnings, and why it’s important. Let’s get started!
If you don’t know why you should track your earnings, then perhaps you need to reconsider reading this series. Seriously. Tracking your earnings not only tells you where you’re making your money (which ad systems are performing best), but also how you’re making your money (which ad units and placements perform best). Every single ad system out there allows you to track your earnings. Some are as simply as listing the amount you’ve made per month/quarter. Some let you track ads by channels. This discussion will concentrate on ad systems with channels. Ad systems without channels are only going to give you certain information. You should already know what to do with that. Channels on the other hand…
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I’m sure most of you have heard of the Official Google Blog SNAFU. On the 27th, the Google Blog went offline for a while. Google reported the following, once they brought it back online:
Welcome back! Last time, we discussed how to convince readers to click on ads, without outright asking them to (and thereby, violating the terms of service). This time, we’ll talk about targetting your entries for specific ads, and targetting your entries to get the ads you want. Let’s get started!!
This particular section is especially important if you write a product-oriented blog, but it is also important to you if you write a regular blog. Anyone can stick in a product entry, every now and then. If you’re talking about the latest book you’ve read, or the laptop you recently purchased.
If you write a gadget, or product-specific niche blog, then adding an advertisement (via Chitika eMiniMalls, or Amazon Associates) for an individual product is simple. Just make certian your ad matches to the product you’re writing about. As a matter of fact, if you do write product-specific entries, regularly, you should probably be using Chitika or Amazon Associates links, judiciously.
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This post especially goes out to you folks who use Blogger and blogspot.com blogs.
Please, for the love of all that is bloggy, have an RSS feed link on your blog. You blogger users are especially bad about not placing your feed info in your template. Nothing irks me more than going to a blog, and not being able to figure out how to access the feed, so I can slap it into my feed reader.
No, I take that back. One thing irks me more, and that’s seeing subscription buttons for things like Bloglines, MyYahoo, MyGoogle, NewsGator, and other online services, and yet not seeing a single, solitary link for the pure freaking feed.
My continuation post on blogger’s apathy will soon be forthcoming, but for now I’ve realized that one of the reasons for my apathy is that I just don’t know what to write about. So, I ask you:
What should I write about?
Users of Firefox 1.5+ will understand my frustration with its unresponsive script warning dialog. It tends to pop up every so often. Usually, the script isn’t unresponsive, it’s just taking a while. In order to stop that annoying message from popping up all the freaking time, you need to adjust a setting.
So you’ve got blogger’s block, again? Well, it’s time to slack off.
What? Think I’m joking? I’m not. By slacking off, you’re giving your mind a break from the same-old, same-old. You’re opening your mind by not concentrating on work. You’re opening your mind by letting it pig out on other things (TV, books, radio, that lizard on that tree over there).
The next time you’re blocked – or even the next time you’re tired and frustrated – spend an hour or so, slacking off. Go watch TV, or read a book. Go have some personal time (*wink**wink*, *nudge**nudge*) with your significant other. Go take a walk. Heck, you could even go stare into the fridge for a while. The trick is, get your mind on something else that doesn’t take intense concentration.
