Due to popular demand (and give me more time pleas), we've pushed the contest submission deadline off until April 15.  So, take a break from doing your taxes (in the U.S. and Canada, that is), download Qumana, blog about your tax woes (or anything else that comes to mind), then do a post about the tools in your blogi-verse and maybe you'll be spending your tax refund on fruity drinks (surf) or hot cocoa (ski).

Oh and a little bird told me, okay it was our lead developer on v3 of Qumana, that there will be a new version of the beta coming soon.  I wouldn't say this is a "minor" update, lots of bug fixes under the hood, but the coolest features are yet to come.

Stay tuned!  And good luck!

Tags: Qumana, Qumana v3, Qumana beta, Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation

The Qumana Contest is almost over - so don't forget to send in your post.

The winner of the Ski or Surf Ultimate Vacation will be chosen based on a blog post to be written about your “blogging landscape”:

Tell us, as creatively as you can, what makes your blogging experience easier, and perhaps even more profitable. Whether its your digital camera, a set of plugins, or your browsing pattern, tell us what makes you a productive blogger and you could WIN

When you’re done, simply send us your URLs (of your post and of the blogs that qualify you).

Some of you have already qualified and entered for the contest. Aaron just this morning sent in a very long qualifying post about his "blogging landscape", so you've got some good competition out there.

If you are a fast blogger, you still have time to qualify. Check all the details here. The contest will close on March 25th.

After all is done, the winner will be sent on vacation with a guest to Mexico or Whistler. What better incentive?

Qumana has been reviewed by the editors of PC Mag for their "Web 2.0 Addicts" series and has come out with flying colours!

The PC Mag review:

Quote removed as per instructions by the legal department of PC Mag. No portion, aside from the title, of the review may be used in any way, even if properly cited under fair use. That's a company that surely understands blogging!

Thanks for the honor of being a part of the list and for such a great review!

And don't forget, the same great Qumana is also for Mac!

Tags: pc mag, qumana, reviews, web 2.0

Have you seen our new blog?

It's called the Qumana 'how to' blog. And it's the new front line for everything in the Q World.

Qumana 'how to' is all about making your blog kick ass: making it rock, making blogging easier, and making money from it all.

What you can expect:

• ‘how to’ use Qumana to make writing to one or more blogs easy as pie
• ‘how to’ use Lektora to manage your feeds and start some rocking posts
• ‘how to’ use our Ad Program to make money blogging
• ‘how to’ make your posts look great
• ‘how to’ tweak your template and design to keep readers, and get them clicking
• ‘how to’ mix ad programs to make the most money
• ‘how to’ write effectively, and interact in the blogosphere
• all the latest updates to our programs - fixes, new features, and new ways to use them

For industry news, breaking items, and analysis of the goings on in blogging, RSS and advertising, tune in here, our main Qumana blog. Tune in here for industry awareness, pop over there for great tips.

The blog has been up for a few weeks now and the archives are just rich with great tips! Ones I particularly like are: Ad Heat Spots, Setting up MSN Spaces, and Setting up Pinging.

Tags: qumana, how to, qumana how to, productivity, q

When we launched Qumana 3.0, we also started a rebranding effort for Qumana. Although we didn't make a fuss about it at the time, we feel it deserves a little post.

Above are screenshots of the Qumana website the day before and the day of the 3.0 launch. You can see not only did we update the content and messaging surrounding Qumana in order to support the beta launch, we also updated our brand.

The Qumana logo has been given a facelift. In my files it's listed as "Qumana Graphics 2.0", which is quite fitting - not only is it the second set of graphics to represent Qumana, it's also expressive of much of Web 2.0 design aesthetics.

The new logo is very clean. The font is simple and bold. It embraces white space and clean lines. Additionally, the iconic representation of the "Q" is multi-purpose - it's part of our DropPad, it functions as the Mac dock button, mimics the button shapes inside Qumana, and adds graphic punch to our logo when stacked, horizontal or on its own.

More than just the look and feel as a logo, we think this new Qumana brand ties in more with our "simple is better" mantra here at Qumana. It's a mantra that has driven us to constantly redesign the look of our product - to constantly strive for a seamless user experience. People tell us that Qumana is "easy" and "simple", so it befits our graphics to have the same expression.

A big thanks is due to Simon Darby, who designed both the logo and website. Simon has worked closely with us to understand where Qumana is going and has done great work to express that in a powerful visual statement.

What do you think of our new brand?

Tags: qumana, branding