Sunday, October 30
Forbes blogging article ... Dave has a great point.
by
Tris Hussey
on October 30, 2005 06:44AM (PST)
The discussion continues on the Forbes " Attack of the Blogs" article (free registration required). The intro below, now probably one of the most oft-quoted bits online right now, I think set bloggers off from the start. Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo. But Dave Taylor, true to form—thank you Dave—has a post looking at the other side of the story, essentially, umm he does have a point. Granted, this article is truly more about fear-mongering than really investigating both sides of the issue, it does cite some examples of the Blogosphere gone wrong. Libel, slander, lies, character assassination. Yep, the Blogosphere has those. &Keywords=forbes&BANNER_STYLE=1&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0) Hmm, wait so does the real world. Insightful commentary, breaking news, scoops, opinion, thoughtful reviews and analysis. Check, the Blogosphere has those too ... oh and the real world too. See a pattern here? The Blogosphere is a microcosm of the world at large. The difference is that news on the Blogosphere travels infinitely faster than in the "real" world. The Mr Lyons article could be dismissed as just over-simplified invective, but that is as much of an over-simplified generalization as his article. I think the true understand comes from the lessons to be learned. Perhaps we should be a little more careful in what we quote and blog. Perhaps we should be more open about our biases. Perhaps we should be careful to check our facts a bit. All without changing the fast-paced, open, and honest discussion that makes the Blogosphere a truly valuable place. Thanks Dave.
Panasonic ... great products, bad blog
by
Tris Hussey
on October 30, 2005 05:44AM (PST)
While I've defended character blogs in the past, no dice on this one. This isn't a character blog (e.g. the Moose Tracks blog) where it's clear that the author isn't a real person, this blog is supposed to be written by a real person, Tosh Bilowski. The problem is that it doesn't look like Tosh exists. &Keywords=dvd&BANNER_STYLE=1&WIDTH=300&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0) Amy and I Googled him and came up with bubkus. Sorry, if you've been using the Internet at all in the past, you're going to leave a trace. It's pretty much inevitable. Check out these Google searches on my name ( short and long forms). You will find references to my life as an academic (co-authored papers and book chapters), lab manager (how to get imaging software to work), tech support person, webmaster, and blogger. The record goes back well over a decade. What's my point? Look if Tosh is about my age (looks like it) and he's a true vid geek, he should be pinging up on e-mail lists, newsgroups, websites, etc. Panasonic blew it here. Yes, they are going to earn a lot of Google juice with our gabbing, but in the end, this is a bad thing. There are plenty of experienced bloggers and video geeks out there who would be more than happy to blog on Panasonic's dime. Creating a character like Vid Geek or something would have been better than out-right lying. So, I hope whatever ad agency suggested that they start a blog with person who doesn't appear to exist, is also tracking the blogosphere and reading our commentary. It's never too late to change course.
Friday, October 28
Blogging gets profitable with Qumana’s advertising program for blogs and RSS
by
arieanna
on October 28, 2005 02:20PM (PDT)
Bloggers tap $12 billion online advertising market with Qumana’s blog publishing software
NEW YORK, NY – October 27, 2005 – Vancouver-based Qumana Software Inc. launches an innovative upgrade to its program, Qumana, which combines Qumana’s powerful blog publishing tool with a keyword advertising program, today at Oxford & York’s conference, “Media, Communications & Technology - In the Age of the Blogger.” Qumana now gives bloggers direct access to the multi-billion dollar keyword ad revenue market, and a more powerful way to tap it.
“Online advertising grew 26 percent in the first half of this year to reach $5.8 billion, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). By the end of 2008, this market is expected to reach over $20 billion,” said Qumana CEO Fred Fabro. “Pair this with 20 million blogs, and 70 million readers of RSS feeds, and the market becomes attractive,” he added.
“With Qumana, a blogger can choose which keywords best represent the editorial message of the blog post, or the target audience. With one click they can embed an ad from our network that best relates to that content – these ads flow from blog post to RSS to email. With tight relevancy of advertisement to content and audience, and expanded audience, the result is higher click-throughs and happier advertisers,” said Fabro.
“We call this "post-centric" advertising, where ads focus on each blog post content and audience, and we believe this is a major improvement over the machine-based algorithm contextual ad programs that are out there,” said Fabro. “Blogging is about people, not machines, and we think Qumana stays true to this principle,” added Fabro.
Qumana offers a unique, open advertising policy that not only gives a 50/50 split on each ad, but also gives bloggers the freedom to use other advertising programs.
Today’s release adds one-click ad insertion to Qumana’s existing powerful blog publishing tool. Qumana targets experienced bloggers with an easy way to create and publish content to one or more blogs, removing the common restrictions associated with blogging, such as the need to be online, to know HTML, or to be tied to one blog platform or Web browser.
“Qumana is an excellent tool to use if you don't want to monkey around with HTML. It provides a 'drop pad' that lets you drag content and from the web or your email even other text editors and then build your posts. Couldn't get much easier,” says Scott Kingery of Tech.Life.Blogged (http://techlifeblogged.blogspot.com).
For a complete list of Qumana’s features, visit
http://www.qumana.com/overview.htm.
About Qumana
Qumana’s mission is to make blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers globally. Qumana is run by Internet industry veterans, hardcore bloggers, software purists, and world-class designers committed to keeping things simple.
Qumana Software is complemented by Qumana Services, a consulting company specializing in helping companies communicate better using blogs and other social networking tools. Qumana Software is based in Vancouver, BC. For more information visit www.qumana.com.
Wednesday, October 26
Hosted blog platforms need to move to "business class"
by
Tris Hussey
on October 26, 2005 01:34PM (PDT)
I'm not going to bash SA here. There's no point. The blog hosts are all having the same problems scaling. Think about it realistically, how many blogs are created per day? How many posts? Top it off with occasional deluges of comment and trackback spam, and you have a real infrastructure issue to handle. My hat is off to them for working hard to fix and prevent problems. That being said, blog hosts are only slowly becoming aware that for many of us our blogs are mission critical parts of our marketing, communications, and daily life. When Blogware has been sluggish and I can't update the Qumana blog ... man you don't want to have sensitive ears in my presense for sure. What is needed are improved  SLAs and hosting for business users. Squarespace is trying to reach this market, but they built a whole new platform (Qumana supports Squarespace, btw)-which means porting things over. Painful at best, terrible failure at worst. I think TP and Blogware need to both improve their architecture and start to offer a higher level of service for business users. Think about the opportunity here ... business users, is your blog critical? Keep everything the same, but pay a small increase in monthly cost for ... benefits. The other side of it is that many folks are going to start moving to install your own set ups. At Business Blog Consulting we're talking about moving to WP. Seriously. The move wouldn't be that hard ... lord knows we have enough geeks capable of doing it. There is both a threat and opportunity here. Let's see how it all shakes out.
Monday, October 24
Splogs, Is Google complicit?
by
Tris Hussey
on October 24, 2005 02:02PM (PDT)
Jim Turner posed an interesting idea to me today, is Google complicit in the whole splog problem? This question turned into a great blog post. Jim isn't pointing fingers per se, but let's lay out the premise here. Google owns both Blogger and AdSense. A splog can put AdSense on their blog pretty easily and quickly. Then the splogger scrapes content from legit folks like us, then people visit the splog and click an AdSense ad. Google makes money. &Keywords=blogger&BANNER_STYLE=1&WIDTH=300&HEIGHT=75&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0) Hmm. Personally I don't think Google is complicit in all this. Granted they are probably reaping some significant monetary benefits from ads on splogs, but I think Google is just as pissed as we are at this. Google is trying to be a big, yet cool, company and being labeled a purveyor of online vermin doesn't help one's bottom in the long run. As Jim points out, splogs are a big problem. Hopefully the recent changes to Blogger will make it harder for sploggers to get their work done. Now if we could only smite the trackback spammers.
Another blog network in town ... it's the power of aggregation
by
Tris Hussey
on October 24, 2005 10:45AM (PDT)
Are blog networks the next hot thing? I'm a part of several blog networks/group blogs. It's reminiscent of the 70's "super group" phenomenon. Get a group of super stars together and see what shakes out. For Business Blog Consulting (BBC), it's working out pretty well. I've been on a few that didn't fair so well. You have to have a mix of keeners and those folks who can only post once and a while to make it work. A group of bloggers including mainstream journalists from outlets such as CNBC, The Nation and The New York Times are banding together to strike a blow at established media and pick up some ad dollars in the process. Pajamas Media, alluding to the belief that bloggers (pros especially) work in our jammies (I don't BTW ... I have to get dressed like everybody else in the morning). The founders are clearly hoping leverage what I was writing about this weekend for Bloggers for Hire (B4H, which I am a part of with fellow BBC-er Jim Turner) that bloggers can leverage their skills and the ease of publishing to blogs into more exposure, etc. PJ is clearly going for the all-star cast model. What will come out of it? We'll have to see, but I think the trend is a good one. Blog networks will give bloggers more destinations to publish their work and therefore the potential to make more money in the process. Jeremy Wright told me this during a Skype IM conversation regarding PJ: "It's always nice to see the big players finally waking up to the power of blog networks. Obviously everyone's keen to see what the incredibly creative people who are involved with PJ Media come up with but, until we see what they actually have up their sleeves it's a little hard to get too nervous. Even in just the 1 short month b5media has been around, we've already seen 3 networks promise big launches, only to tone back their expectations (one launched with 50 and now only has 35, for example). We look forward to the competition and new ideas PJ Media will bring. It's always nice to be challenged, after all." The competition aspect, IMHO can only be good for the Blogosphere and bloggers. Think about it, if you're good (and I certainly don't claim to be), you could entertain offers from several networks and take the best offer. Or you can just publish to them all and reap the benefits, and chronic sleep deprivation. Where does Qumana fit into all of this? Qumana, we think, is the tool that can help empower bloggers to be able to write for multiple networks. With the multi-blog capabilities you can write post, select another blog, post, and so on. That is exactly what I'm going to do with this post.  This post is going to appear on BBC and Qumana. The BBC version will be shorter and point to the post on Qumana. The Qumana post will also have an ad in it, which is the second part of what Qumana adds to this equation, the ability for bloggers to monetize their content easily. Imagine how the networks would operate if each blogger got a portion of the overall site's revenue plus the revenue from an ad placed in their own post. Write a super popular post, reap the rewards. Not bad, eh? So Qumana loves blogging networks. We'd like to encourage them to contact us to let us help them make their bloggers more productive (and prolific!). Ping me. You know where I am.
Monday, October 17
Sifry's State of the Blogosphere: Splogs
by
Tris Hussey
on October 17, 2005 03:01PM (PDT)
Let's just start with the top-line summary: - As of October 2005, Technorati is now tracking 19.6 Million weblogs
- The total number of weblogs tracked continues to double about every 5 months
- The blogosphere is now over 30 times as big as it was 3 years ago, with no signs of letup in growth
- About 70,000 new weblogs are created every day
- About a new weblog is created each second
- 2% - 8% of new weblogs per day are fake or spam weblogs
- Between 700,000 and 1.3 Million posts are made each day
- About 33,000 posts are created per hour, or 9.2 posts per second
- An additional 5.8% of posts (or about 50,000 posts/day) seen each day are from spam or fake blogs, on average
Note the red sections of the next two charts. I'm going to keep them full-size so you can see the detail: 
According to Technorati, then, splogs are the huge plague that they seem to be. I disagree, to a degree. I agree that the majority of blogs and blog posts out there aren't splogs and don't generate comment spam or trackback spam, etc. Fine. But I also think Technorati is under counting,  David to his credit acknowledges this, and I am more concerned with the fact that the red portions started recently and don't seem to be slowing. Of course it is hard to quantify the rate of splogs and splog posts because a big news item will swamp them out (which is a good thing). I am also concerned that sploggers will use available tool to see that something on is hot on the blogosphere and spam targeted to that. What if all our efforts for Katrina were matched 2 for 1 with splog? These are bots, they can be switched on and off. Cranked up and down. That worries me. Splogs are like crime stats. People read about them and get scared to go out at night. The chances of them actually becoming a victim of crime might be low, but the perception that they will be is enough. Same goes for splogs. The perception that they are gaining a foothold threatens this nascent phenomenon. The perception might be enough to cool things. I'm glad that Blogger, TuCows, Six Apart, WP, and other are working towards real solutions. Because we don't want to be reading in a few months how ineffective blog search is because it's filled with spam like our e-mail inboxes are now. Because that would be a shame.
Are the days of Blogspot numbered? Blogger and the spam blog.
by
Tris Hussey
on October 17, 2005 10:43AM (PDT)
Chris has a post (and a movie! pass the popcorn!) that really throws down the Gauntlet to Blogger (BTW I got this off Memorandum ... since I didn't check RSS all day yesterday). What happened? Chris had something like 400+ results from PubSub on Lockergnome and Pirillo from spam Blogger blogs. I've been accused of hating Blogger, which isn't true. Okay I really hate the templating system ... in fact I moved a recent client from Blogger to  WP for that very reason. Regardless, what's the issue that Chris is talking about? The thousands maybe millions of spam blogs set up on blogspot.com. Now, I know that humans have to be involved in this process somehow because there is a captcha submission required to create the blog. So new blogs need human intervention, but after that ... well no. But ... it sounds like this morning things are about to change. Now, how is this going to effect users? How is this going to effect offline posting tools like Qumana? Who knows, but we support Google in working to fix this problem. If the blogosphere collapses under the weight of splogs, we all suffer.
Friday, October 14
Just WHAT are those buttons?
by
Tris Hussey
on October 14, 2005 10:57PM (PDT)
We added a lot of new features to Qumana, as you know, but you might be wondering how to get to these great new features? Okay so here's a look at the Qumana toolbar and I'm going to run through the buttons that match the new features ... 
Let's start from the left ... The envelope is the post to e-mail feature. The first time you click it you're going to be prompted for your SMTP server and e-mail address (your outgoing server), but the next time it will let you e-mail your post out. Great idea for from within companies where RSS and blogs are a little beyond the curve. Okay, the funnel. What's with the funnel? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the insert HTML feature. Click that and you can insert raw HTML into your post. The only limit is, right now, that it has to be in one line, not carridge returns. Besides using it for the banner desginer (that's coming), I use it for inserting Flickr pictures into my posts. The bill and pile of coins? That's the one-click insert ad banner button. Again, the first, time you click it you're going to need to insert your AdGenta client ID. The next time you'll be prompted for the keyword and the banner will be inserted. The banner is an image, so wrap text around it, what ever you want (psst, the image properties button looks like a landscape).  The little grey rectangle. Okay that one is a bit tough to guess. That is the link to the online banner designer. This is where you can seriously tweak your banners. The size, the colours, the text colours, etc. Have fun. Now how, pray tell, do get the banner from the banner designer into Qumana? Drag and drop. Just drag the banner from the preview pane into Q. Or you can select the code in the preview area copy it and ... yeah you guessed it, the funnel.  The button with the Technorati icon well, yeah ... inserts you Technorati tags from what's in your tags box. The Q? It inserts an little banner promoting Qumana... So that's it ... any questions?
New version of of Qumana ... we're never done
by
Tris Hussey
on October 14, 2005 09:06PM (PDT)
What's a launch week at Qumana without an immediate improvement? Business as usual. Behind the scenes, you have to know, we've had stable builds of this ad-enabled version of Qumana for months. Graham, our uber-programmer, keeps taking the feedback we get from you and cranking out more tweaks, more improvements. We've had several improvements we've been testing since launch day alone! Now it's time to release them. What's new? First the DropPad. We've gone back to DropPad Classic in a way. Qumana logo and a close box that hides the DropPad to the status bar. We like it. For now ... the DropPad is one thing that we've always tweaking. Second, we've really improved how our one-click ads are working. In the first release the one-click ad button (that's the one with the money on it) would use what you put in the Tags box for keywords, then return a place-holder ad. That works okay, but could be better. Now it is. Now when you click the button you're asked for keywords (we've found that a max of two works best) and when you click OK, you get your real, actual ad. Don't like it? Delete it and try again. Not bad, eh?  Why not in the first release? Well, we thought it worked pretty well, but we noticed a lot of "default" ads out there and picked up on some feedback too. It's all about the feedback. It's all about you as the blogger. Hey, come on I use Q every single day, you can be sure that I'm going to have feedback of my own. You can also be sure that I'm going to listen too.
Thursday, October 13
New Websites for Qumana and AdGenta
by
arieanna
on October 13, 2005 05:03PM (PDT)
 A big thanks is due for our fabulous web designers and programmers who helped us pull together two really amazing websites for yesterday's launch.
If you are a previous Qumana user, you may have been through one - or even two - websites before this one. I think we've hit it right this time. It provides the information where you need it and when you need it. From our survey, we found out that 20% of our users couldn't find the information they needed - so, we rewrote everything. Cut out the technical language. Reorganized. Took all the suggestions we received and tried to improve. Then applied a design to make it all easier.
The new website is visually amazing - I really really love it. And it's just so smooth. We're going to be adding in some more content early next week - some visual how-to information, and a little tweak here and there to our tour. Thanks to Simon for the great work.
Not to overlook it, we've also built up the AdGenta site. From scratch. Since AdGenta technically didn't exist before now, it had to be fully conceptualized - coding the server (hats off to our developer, Graham), making agreements, and trying to get our heads around all the information that someone may want, or the questions they may have.
So, what do you think? Do the new websites meet your needs?
&Keywords=web%20design&BANNER_STYLE=1&HEIGHT=75&FOOTER_COLOR=FFFFFF&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0)
Wednesday, October 12
Qumana has a great team
by
Tris Hussey
on October 12, 2005 08:43PM (PDT)
Yeah the last, what, 36 hours have been nuts around here. Here's a tip, launching two websites and a new version of your software on the same day, will cause stress. How did we pull it off? The Team. Ianiv, Fred, Fred, Jon, Eric, Arieanna, and Graham—Our core team—and a little last minute help from Shylah too. We have an awesome team. The best. Everyone is top class in their field. Yeah, we bicker, like siblings (Mom said it's not okay to hit ... Mom's not here ... ), but in the end, the job gets done. And it did. Two sites. Whole new version of Qumana. &Keywords=teamwork&BANNER_STYLE=1&WIDTH=300&HEIGHT=150&FOOTER_COLOR=FFFFFF&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0) So I am publicly thanking our whole team for their awesome work. Up until the wee hours until we saw double. Checking for bugs. Coding. And we got the job done.
It's been a long time coming. Qumana 2.0 is live, and the secret is out
by
Tris Hussey
on October 12, 2005 10:24AM (PDT)
 After months and months of testing and lots of not-so-subtle hints (come on the ads have been in my posts for months so you knew something was up) it's out. It's live. We're calling it Qumana 2.0. What's the big deal? Come on you just launched 1.0 at Gnomedex. Well with this version we're trying to revolutionize blogging. We're enabling bloggers to insert keyword-driven, image-based ads (meaning you can use our ads and AdSense too ... I do!) into their posts. So wherever you can post, you can have an ad ... if you want. Or not. Our new slogan/tagline is "blogging freedom" ... we want to set bloggers free from working in their web browser, from having to be online, from needing to know HTML, from even caring what blog host they are publishing to, and to be able to earn money from the fruits of their labours ... their writing. How have we done this. First we've been working on it for months. Trying to insert an ad into a post easily isn't as easy as you'd think. Boy did we work on that one.
Next, we started our own ad network called AdGenta. This gives us the ability to ensure that you, the blogger gets the best deal. Yes, this is our business model. Yes, we earn more through the revenues. But we don't earn money, unless you earn money. We're in this together. We're here to help to leverage and monetize your content. I guess it comes down to ... money? I think people are going to think it is all about money, but it isn't. No, it is about this freedom. Sure money is great. But we know that not everyone even wants to put an ad in their post. That's cool. What about being able to start a career as a professional blogger and having a tool that lets you publish your content to multiple blogs quickly? Ever wonder how I do it? This is how. Qumana let me become a professional blogger. Okay, inserting ads is nice. Anything else? Yep. As with every release of Qumana we fix stuff. This go round the much requested support for uploading images in the newer versions of WP (which is great because I even have two WP blogs of my own!) and we've cleaned up the drag-and-drop from Firefox. Yes, there is lots to do. Yes, a Mac version is coming. &Keywords=online%20advertising&BANNER_STYLE=1&FOOTER_COLOR=FFFFFF&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0) Yes, we want all your feedback, comments, and feature requests. We're working to make Qumana better and better all the time, and we rely on your ideas to help us. Okay ... now let's get blogging! Download Qumana Sign up at AdGenta Technorati Tags : Qumana, AdGenta, online+advertising
Qumana 2.0 - Serious Blogging Freedom
by
arieanna
on October 12, 2005 09:15AM (PDT)
It's been a not-so-secret secret for a couple of months now - the new-and-improved Qumana. It's finally here.
This version of Qumana is not just about easy blogging anymore - it's about making money. For you. This new Qumana lets you insert post-centric, keyword-driven ads into your post with one click.
We're extremely excited about this. We've been testing the process for months, you've seen the ads in our posts for sure. We've got it down.
Qumana 2.0 brings together advertising and blogs in a new way:
- The ads are images, so they flow from blog to RSS to e-mail seamlessly.
- The ads are keyword-driven, so they don't conflict with contextual ad programs.
- You choose the keywords, so you can decide which ads are best for your readers - not some computer algorithm.
- You can track the clicks by ad - that's right, you can watch to see which keywords are working out for you simply by tagging your ads with a title you can then see in your stats.
- You can change the look of your ad: the colours, the text, the size. Each time - or save your preferences.
- You can preview your ad before you insert it - and we tell you if your keyword does not match any ads.
- You don't have to insert ads in every post. You decide. You can even put in more than one, if you wanted.
- You can move the ad, just like an image, anywhere inside your post.
Inserting an ad with Qumana is as simple as one click.
This is one ad, for "mp3" and one on "dogs" - see how I've changed the look of the ad? You can go from simple to detailed, depending on how your blog looks. The control is in your court - each and every time.
&Keywords=mp3&BANNER_STYLE=1&HEIGHT=75&FOOTER_COLOR=FFFFFF&FOOTER_GRADIENT=0) &Keywords=dogs&BANNER_STYLE=1&WIDTH=120&HEIGHT=150&BGCOLOR=339966&FOOTER_COLOR=99FF66&TF_C=FF6633)
New Features in Qumana v 2.0
Qumana has stayed simple, elegant, and easy to use - it's just more powerful now.
We've also listened to what you want, and offer:
- post-centric keyword-based ad insertion
- ability to insert HTML
- better functionality with WordPress and Blogger platforms
- improved old post editing
- a new-and-improved website with more information, and easier to find Help
- a new DropPad design
- better drag & drop from Firefox
- post to email (ads & images too!) with our integrated SMTP server
Check out our new website - it's full of all the info you need, a great tour, and easy-to-use help information to get you started with Qumana - and to start earning money!
So, here's your chance to start using Qumana - to set yourself free from blog platfrom restrictions, from web browsers, and from restrictive ad programs.
Download and install Qumana. Sign up for an account at AdGenta.com, Qumana's own ad network. Approval is automatic, so you can be putting ads into your posts in minutes. We want to see you make money - you can blog about it. Say what you want. No restrictions.
Thanks to everyone for continued support and encouragement! We listened - try it yourself and see the difference!
The Full Qumana Survey
by
arieanna
on October 12, 2005 09:14AM (PDT)
We've written a lot about the Qumana Survey. Yes, a lot. But it was great information, valuable to us and to others, and we wanted to share every last bit of it - plus add what insight we could, of course.
So, to tie it all back up, here is the full survey, and all related posts:
On Bloggers - what do Qumana bloggers look like? How long have they been blogging, for how many blogs, and for what time per week?
The Use of RSS - which RSS reader is most popular and how many feeds do our users follow.
Use of Advertising by Bloggers - do bloggers use advertising programs, which ones, and if not, why?
Blog Advertising Earnings - how much do bloggers earn, are they happy, and what are their earnings goals?
Opinions on Blog Advertising - do bloggers care if blogs have ads and does it affect their reading habits?
Advertising Types - do bloggers want contextual or keyword-based ads for their blogs, and what issues are at hand in blog-vertising?
On Qumana - what do our users have to say about Qumana... what they like, don't like, and where we're going.
Customer Testimonials - some feedback from our users. More to come!
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