Only 15 minutes ago, Google sent me an email suggesting I try their new adsense videos. I’d search for advice on how to best use this, but it’s new. So, presumably no one really knows.

I decided to just test, and slapped a video in here.

All I’m seeing in preview is a link to “Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com”. Hhhmmm…. Maybe a video will appear after they search my post? Well, I need to attend my Thursday night knitting group. If something cool appears, I guess I’ll see it when I get back.

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 7 comments

Muhammad Saleem recently gave seven reasons for giving a thumbs-down at stumbleupon.
I thought his list was thorough until I came across this: A page that included a large blinking banner asking Stumblers for a thumbs up! Yes, that big red banner blink, blink, blink, blinks, blinks!

OMG! Talk about giving me a reason to vote thumbsdown!

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 5 comments

Dear Jason Calacanis,

I was thrilled to see referrers from Google Mail’s Mahalo email area indicating that people were visiting my post “Dear Jason, You Have a Problem with Link Rot NOW.” I was even more thrilled to check the revision history for climate change and discove, soon after those hits to my article, Sara removed the link rot that Lon missed during his early morning revisions!

Responsiveness does encourage feedback.

You predicted, the ability of total outsiders to comment on the pesky little problems at Mahalo would encourage us to give you more feedback. So it has!

So about news scarper sites. . .

I will tell you that this morning, I was saddened to see that Mahalo Press Coverage for August 22, 2007 currently includes a link to what appears to be a scraper blog. You know, the sort of blog that just copies the contents of other blog posts?

If you visit Technology News Blog: Jason Calacanis: Fast Company profile raises more questions than it asks, you will find that “news” story seems to simply regurgitate ValleyWags August 21, 2007 story with the somewhat similar title “Technology News Blog: Jason Calacanis: Fast Company profile raises more questions than it asks”.

Might I suggest the duplicate story be removed? Might I also suggest you train the Mahalo guides to compare the titles and content of “new” stories to already posted stories. That habit would help them avoid this sort of embarrassing duplication of content in the results of your human powered - reviewed - massaged or whatever search engine.

Why not replace that slot with Jason Calacanis - Mahalo?

I know deleting the link to that duplicate content article might make it seem the blog-o-sphere is not simply abuzz about Mahalo. So, might I suggest you replace the link to that scraper site with Jason Calacanis - Mahalo?

CyberCelt included a screen shot that shows the absolutely splendid results returned for “advertising”.

Now, I know that because Mahalo is only in beta alpha, the sort of results Cyber Celt shows might not be considered news. But don’t you think the VC’s might want to gauge public reaction to what you’ve released for public perusal? Especially by people outside the Techcrunch 50,000? Even if they just don’t seem to “get it” about Mahalo?

Or maybe the VC’s should be shielded from that story?

Of course, this is just unsolicited advice from a knitter. I’m sure you’ll use your judgment on including these links to these sorts of negative reactions. After all, maybe the Venture Capitalists aren’t sophisticated enough to understand Cyber Celt’s complex story told using screen shots of the results pages.

Alas, my news article is missing too.

Naturally, I would never question why Dear Jason, You Have a Problem with Link Rot NOW was not included in the August 22 news stories. I’m sure the guides got busy responding to emails and making all the changes I suggested, and just forgot to add the story.

Wishing you well!

As always, I admire your gumption in trying to make this thing work. Dealing with enthusiastic underpaid guides and the flurry of volunteers in the Greenhouse must be a bit like herding cats. Still, I’m sure that by 2040, you will manage to put Google out of business.

I hope my feedback helps!

Sincerely, Lucia

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 3 comments

Some will recall that I previously John Chow Effect: Does it Kill Young Blogs? Today, I will discuss the effect of a John Chow Review on a medium sized blog — Gaman’s Sabahan.com.

My conclusion? Based on data I can access, I believe the John Chow ReviewMe for Sabahan.com had a moderate 2-4 day effect; it brought no long term traffic boost. The John Chow review exerted practically no positive effect when used to promote a time critical event like a contest.

It is, of course, up to each individual blogger to decide whether a 2-4 day long modest boost in traffic is worth transferring lots on money into John Chow’s pocket. As for myself: I will not be ordering a John Chow ReviewMe review!

History of the John Chow Review Me Review

On July 10, 2007, John Chow posted a ReviewMe review of Sabahan.com. On July 23, Gaman posted Is it worth spending $400 …; he told his audience that his main goal in buying the review had been to promote a blog contest with a prize of free lifetime hosting for a blog.

Did the John Chow ReviewMe advance that goal? Evidently not. In Sabahan’s words:

I did get a couple of new entries as a result of the review but I am actually quite disappointed it wasn’t more than a handful!

But never mind. Maybe John Chow sent lots of traffic? It appears not. (more…)

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 8 comments

Nielsen has decided to rank site popularity using “time on site” instead of “page views.” Evidently, this will improve accuracy.

My reaction? Whether “page view” or “time on site”, the traffic ranking metric makes little difference: the inaccuracy of nearly all internet traffic ranking systems is due to biased samples of web consumers. Because Nielsen takes some pains to create an unbiased sample of panelists, their ratings will be less deficient than other services. But make no mistake: their results will still be relatively inaccurate.

(And, for what it’s worth, “time on site” may be easy to game than page views. Carnac predicts we’ll see pop-under windows that stay open after a viewer has left a site! )

But forget about stealth pop-unders for now. Let’s assume browser designers figure out how to entirely prevent them. Why will Nielsen rankings be still be biased? How can we devise a good traffic ranking system? I’ll elaborate. (more…)

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 5 comments

I’ve finally made bookmarking easy for my readers by adding an “Add This” book marking button.

I was thrilled to discover this because there are now so very many bookmarking services. I didn’t want to pick one bookmarking service and leave the others out; I also didn’t want to litter the bottom of my post with hundreds of icons. Now, with one bookmark, I give readers a choice. Plus, when they click, “Add This” will add in the title and url, saving them time.

© Lucia for Big Bucks Blogger, 2007. | Visit Post | 5 comments