Blog Idea Factory

Blogging Becomes Mainstream

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:18:12 +0000

In a Technorati-sponsored survey of bloggers (by Decipher) conducted between July and August 2008, results revealed a 2-to-1 male/female ratio among bloggers worldwide. Technorati openly admits that the gender skew could be at least partially attributed to “the type of people that come to Technorati and register.”

It also looks like the lines between blogging and the mainstream media have disappeared. That’s another key-finding of this survey. “Blogs are now mainstream media,” said Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, “We’ve certainly seen that with the number of professional, semiprofessional and passion/enthusiast bloggers who are creating real media experiences. At the same time, you’re also seeing mainstream media come the other direction to add blog content.” Source: eMarketer.

Google : 10 million to help our world

admin — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:15:56 +0000

In celebration of its 10th birthday, Google has announced its newest pet project, bankrolling the improvement and betterment of people’s lives. The project, which is known as Project 10^100, will invoke a panel of judges and choose up to five ideas.

People are encouraged to submit their ideas, in any of 25 languages, at www.project10tothe100.com through October 20. Entrants must briefly describe their idea and answer six questions, including, “If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how?”

50 Online Applications and Sites to Consider

Henk — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:14:41 +0000

Great post on Chris Brogan’s blog. Chris is the cofounder of the PodCamp new media conference series and a social media veteran. In this post “50 Online Applications and Sites to Consider” he created a list of 50 websites and online applications that people itching to experiment or move deeper into social media need to know about.

The list includes everything from the obvious to the obscure and encompasses a diversity of categories, from blogging and microblogging sites to a variety of social networking, bookmarking, and news sites.

Google launches Knol – a wiki with bylines

Henk — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:10:22 +0000

Google’s newly launched social-informational site, Knol, is described as being very similar to Wikipedia’s community intelligence model, but with one major twist: Knol articles are given bylines. The articles, are single-topic, stand alone entries and are not updated chronologically as in the Wikipedia model.

Knol has also publishing tools similar to single blog pages. But unlike blogs, Knol encourages writers to reduce what they know about a topic to a single page that is not chronologically updated.

Google plans to implement a ranking system for articles written on similar topics, which will push relevant articles to the top and encourage competition.

BlogWorld & New Media Expo

Henk — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:06:07 +0000

The 2008 BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place September 20-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, with the exclusive “Executive & Entrepreneur” conference beginning September 19th. BlogWorld is still a unique industry-wide tradeshow, conference, and media event dedicated to promoting the dynamic industry of blogging and new media.

In addition to the only industry-wide exhibition, BlogWorld features the largest blogging conference in the world including more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and internet-savvy business. The conference will be broken down into tracks designed to address specific needs and feature scores of well renowned blogging and new media experts. Topics will include blogging basics, monetizing your blog, podcasting, corporate opportunities in the blogosphere, building readership, RSS, Search Engine Optimization, blogging in the political arena, and other topics vital to serious bloggers who want to solidify their own space, and build their brand in the blogosphere.

DutchCowgirls “Online is niet langer mannenwereld”

Henk — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:56:42 +0000

Sinds enkele minuten geleden is DutchCowgirls.nl live, het eerste Nederlandse marketing- en techblog gemaakt door vrouwen. En daar zijn we best trots op. De site gaat over merken, producten en marketingcampagnes en richt zich op mannen en vrouwen die bovenmatig geïnteresseerd zijn in internet, marketing, gadgets en alle andere mooie dingen.

Mede-oprichter van DutchCowgirls en al jaren bekend blogster op DutchCowboys, Marjolijn Kamphuis: “Af en toe lijkt het alsof de online wereld vooral het domein is van de man. Vrouwen zijn net zo goed geïnteresseerd in technische dingen die mooi en nieuw zijn, en kijken daar vaak net even anders tegenaan. Vandaar dat we meiden met deze interesses een eigen spreekbuis wilden geven die ruimte biedt aan die typische zaken die hen juist opvallen.’

DutchCowgirls is niet zo maar een spin-off van DutchCowboys maar een bewuste keuze om in het veld van van marketing en communicatie blogs een nieuw en ander geluid te laten horen. Door het in het verlengde van DC te plaatsen krijgt het juist extra lading.

We geloven dat de som der delen sterker is dan het orgineel en dat is niet altijd zo.

De DutchCowgirls houden van gadgets, mooie telefoons, auto’s en computers. Maar ook van goede reclame, films, muziek en inspirerende evenementen. Ze reviewen e-shops, testen gadgets, widgets en auto’s, delen verhalen over dating-site horror en volgen het succes van boulevard blogger Perez Hilton. DutchCowgirls kijken net even verder: Naast capaciteit en effect, óók naar functionaliteit en esthetiek.

Sommige dingen zijn bijvoorbeeld gewoon mooi. Daarom heeft DutchCowgirls de rubriek ‘Mooi Gevonden’: een mobiele foto dropbox van alles wat de cowgirls in het dagelijks leven in het oog springt. De nieuwe site valt verder op doordat alles vanuit ‘a woman’s point of view’ wordt geschreven. Informatief, nieuwsgierig, bondig en eigenwijs.

Marjolijn Kamphuis: “Het is tijd dat online media wat sexier worden, er blijven op de bestaande blogs nog zoveel onderwerpen onderbelicht! Er zijn genoeg sites over Search Engine Optimalisatie en de producten en plannen van Microsoft, maar in dat soort kleurloze onderwerpen is slechts een kleine groep mensen geinteresseerd. Gadgets en trends daarentegen, dat interesseert steeds meer mannen én vrouwen. Je merkt het aan het verschijnen van gadgetpagina’s in de Glossy’s, en prominente aanwezigheid van onder meer de iPhone en een site als Bag Borrow or Steal in de succesfilm Sex and the City. DutchCowgirls komt dus net op tijd de hoek om galopperen.”

And the winner is “DutchCowboys.nl”

Henk — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:57:47 +0000

We are all very excited by winning the NextWeb award for Best Weblog.

The other winners in the Next Web Awards, (over 127,000 votes online for all categories) were:

Entertainment: Last.fm (UK)
European Company: Hyves (NL)
Social: StudiVZ (Du)
Webceleb: Loic le Meur (Fr)
Rookie of the Year: Glubble (UK)
On Stage Start-up: Wakoopa (NL)

Robert Scoble is spending less time blogging

Henk — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:47:33 +0000

As people spend more time on a variety of social networking platforms, they are spending less time blogging, and it’s having an effect on the blogosphere. Social networks, according to Robert Scoble, are replacing a lot of the functions that blogs used to perform — and are doing them faster, better, and in a way that’s more targeted.

Scoble “Visit my FriendFeed and you’ll see why I’m blogging less (it shows you what I’ve been generating on other services). When I started this blog in 2000 there wasn’t Twitter. Wasn’t Upcoming.org. Wasn’t Google Reader. Wasn’t Flickr. Wasn’t YouTube. Wasn’t Seesmic“.

Robert did his keynote about this subject at the Next Web Conference in Amsterdam.

Picture by Markies

Keyword research for Bloggers

Henk — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:35:27 +0000

Copyblogger writes : Keyword research can be the difference between a successful blog and one that goes nowhere, but it often seems as if many bloggers think it’s something that doesn’t apply to them, or is “only for SEO.” To the contrary, keyword research goes way beyond search engine optimization, and is all about discovering what real live people are actively interested in.

That means keyword research helps you choose profitable blog subjects, identify content topics that are in high demand, and spot monetization methods that work. With that in mind, Copyblogger associate editor Jonathan Morrow and I have put together a 5-part comprehensive guide to keyword research for bloggers that walks you though the entire process using real-life niche examples.

10 Enterprise Blogging Trends for 2008

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:16:02 +0000

ROI based on Search Engine Optimization (SEO): With organic search becoming a critical channel for customer acquisition, blogs are the perfect way to achieve high rankings on a broad range of targeted keywords. They play up factors that search engines take into consideration when determining how to rank a webpage.
Widespread employee blogging: Search engines look for good, targeted content. For an SEO strategy to work, the organization needs to have a variety of search terms, topics, and voices. The easiest way to create an abundance of this kind of content is by empowering employees to write it.
Control is OK: Despite what most “traditional” bloggers say, it is mandatory for organizations to have control over their content. As an organization, you have an obligation to control the content generated under your brand. Corporate blogging is not a free-for-all, and there are blogging platforms that help organizations find a balance between complete freedom and control.
Conversion goals. Most organizations have conversion goals for web traffic, and need to have the same standards for their blogs. Blog templates must have specific call-to-actions, like any other site. Oftentimes organizations will see higher conversions with blogs than with the company Web site. Fresh content, a conversational tone and clean navigation all play a role.
Social conversion. Social conversion is a theory based on an old Zig Ziglar axiom, “People buy from people.” Customers trust other human beings more than they trust brands. The challenge is to find a way to expose your humanity. The web and blogging gives you that ability.
Marketing democracy. Blogging is the great democratizer. No one can buy their way up to the top of the organic search pages. Blogging technology is cheap, easy to use and doesn’t require IT assistance or equipment. You only pay for consumption.
Localization: Corporate blogging introduces the idea of geo-specificity, which benefits both local businesses and large enterprises that want to “act locally.” Localization leads higher content relevancy and better search engine results.
Spaghetti: A discredited strategy for any kind of marketing has been, “Let’s throw the spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks.” With blogging, here’s your chance. Corporate blogging is largely based on content and volume. By throwing a lot of content at the wall, you get to see what makes the biggest impact. You can also experiment with targeting a wide variety of search terms.
Video: Nothing tells a story like video. As quality goes up and the cost and challenges of production fall, video will be an assumed component of every corporate blog.
Data driven blogging: In the journalism and corporate worlds, blogging consists of disparate content based on individual authors. Collectively, authors within an organization probably have a lot of overlap on all kinds of topics and categories. For readers who care about topics versus individuals, they will read the topical blog regardless of the author. (Source: compendiumblogware.com)