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e_Marketing Blog Free Blog or Your Own Domain? Once you've decided to create your own blog, the first question you have to address is whether you want your blog to be hosted on your own web hosting account or be part of an already established site like wordpress.com, blogger.com, or one of the many other free blogging sites. If you use one of the free "hosted" blogging sites (Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, Blog.com, and many more) you can create a brand new blog in about 15 minutes. When you choose this option you become part of a larger site such as wordpress.com and your address will be something like http://yourtownrealestate.wordpress.com or http://yourtownmoneymanager.blogspot.com The advantage of this approach is that it is fast and cheap. Plus you will get some traction and search engine exposure for your blog because it will be part of a much larger network that gets crawled by the search engines on a regular basis. But in my estimation, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Upgrading to Wordpress 2.7 Just finished upgrading one of my many Wordpress blogs to v 2.7 - the newest upgrade which was released on Dec. 10 makes several attractive improvements to the interface. This upgrade is not so concerned with functionality as it is with improving the user interface. I was able to upgrade my Article Marketing blog in about 15 minutes when all was said and done. There were no suprises and no hitches along the way. I'm sure subsequent upgrades on other sites will go faster. What Makes A Good Blog? Since I'm writing a series on "Creating A Successful Blog" I've been looking (not very diligently) for other opinions on what makes for a successful blog. One thing I've discovered is that there is no magic answer to this question. First of all, every blog speaks to a different audience in a different tone of voice. So what one group likes another group will find boring or maybe even overtly aggravating. I stumbled on an instance of this today when I followed a link from Lisa Barone's post called "Six Kickass Writing Resources for Bloggers". First on her list was "What Makes a Good Blog?" by Merlin Mann. Now I must admit there are several things in Merlin's list which I agree with, but I find the overall tone fairly aggravating. For instance, he says, "People start real blogs because they think about something a lot...They make and consume smart forebrain porn. So: where do this person's obsessions take them." Frankly I don't see why "obsession" is a necessary part of blogging. Is it because in order to do real blogging we must express our personality; and expressing our personality necessarily involves creativity; and because creativity is so relatively scarce and difficult that it will not happen without an obsessive focus on something? Or is this just the way an obsessive person looks at it? Of course it takes all types. But there is a certain arrogance and air of superiority about talk of obsession and creativity that I can do without. |
Ezine-Network.com - This site contains information about getting published — submission of articles, photographs, ebooks, and other special features for a growing number of online publications. It also contains significant amounts of information, resources dealing with, and examples of blogs and blogging. Ezine-Network.com is a member of the sbo-linknet.com network of websites. Congress Taking a Fresh Look at Online Sales Taxes Linknet News Daily Digest December 22, 2005 - According to a 1992, U.S. Supreme Court ruling, states can only require sellers that have a physical presence or "nexus" in the same state as the consumer to collect sales taxes. The Supreme Court also ruled that while buyers essentially owe the tax on purchases, the mishmash of taxing jurisdictions is too complex and burdensome for online retailers to charge and try to collect sales taxes. Imposing a tax requirement would have a serious negative impact on online retailers, so the court ruled that states would have to create a much more streamlined system across jurisdictions. But now Congress is taking another look at the situation. The objective is to create a "level playing field" for all retailers - to take the tax advantage away from online sellers. Two bills are currently before Congress. One of them proposes giving congressional approval to a agreement hammered out by various state governments. That agreement attempts to simplify more than 7,500 sales tax laws within the state and local governments involved. The second bill is similar, but with the addition of an exemption for smaller retailers based on total sales volumes. Advocates claim the current regime is unfair, and will inevitably lead to higher taxes in other areas because local governments are not getting their share of tax revenue. RIM weathers the patent battle, subscriptions continue growth Confronted with the ongoing patent battle with NTP, RIM (Research in Motion) continues to perform well, in spite of recent reservations expressed by some investment experts. RIM continues to perform strongly, reporting earnings of 71 cents a share on a 53% jump in sales. This exceeded previous estimates. RIM's total subscribers now stand at 4.3 million, after adding 645,000 in the past quarter. RIM CEO Jim Balsillie recently announced that the company is close to completing a "workaround" that would allow them to carry on business even if a threatened injunction shuts their core service down in the U.S. The "workaround" announcement was greeted with considerable scepticism and was seen by some as a negotiating tactic.
Google goes after the enterprise with Google Search Appliance The last year has seen Google attempt to expand its search expertise into the "enterprise" arena. The release of its Google Search Appliance (GSA) in 2004 was meant to help customers simplify search on their intranets and Web sites. Google sees this as an opportunity to broaden its product offerings. According to Google Enterprise general manager Dave Girouard, "You can easily find all the information you want about the migration habits of peacocks, but finding a document or piece of information that resides within your own company has become more difficult." Google is targeting small and medium-sized businesses with the release of its upgraded $5,000 appliance. More than 2,000 businesses worldwide use Google's integrated hardware and software search solution. Bloggers can make ad revenue with video ads Vive Network puts rich-media advertising on blogs. Ted Land, a Vive spokesperson said the company is primarily interested in blogs targeting entertainment, TV, sports and automobiles. In order to carry Vive's content, a blog must meet quality and content standards and have sufficient traffic to make it worthwhile. When approved, bloggers can add the rich-media content by copying and pasting a few lines of code. |
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