Often seen as the chief feed service online, FeedBurner has apparently finished moving all of their data upon Google’s servers.

So what does that mean for bloggers? It means that your “handy dandy” FeedBurner account will now be able to meld with the “Google collective.”
read more

WordPress fans associated with the Tazzu Networking community and The Vancouver Blogger Meetup Group have put together a WordPress Camp in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on April 30, 2008, from 5:30 to 8:30 PM at the The Network Hub.

This is not a WordCamp. They are calling this the Tazzu WordPress Camp.

Tazzu is a networking community covering specialists in online business, technology, and knowledge with an active Community Forum and Blog that supports live events as well as online events within British Columbia and the west coast.

read more

Yesterday, I wrote about how bloggers can lose their blogging path, often without noticing. I offered some clues I use to detect when I’m straying from my own bloggy path to help you determine when you may be going astray.

Everyone has their own clues, the symptoms that speak loudly, even if they aren’t listening, that say, you’ve lost your way. I’ve been watching the DVDs for the popular television show, House. Basically it’s about a brilliant doctor who can look at a patient and diagnose them – at least for the typical ills – with nary a word from the patient nor test. While assumptions like these don’t often work in the real world, nor on the television show, the idea of noticing the small clues to help with the diagnosis rather than only relying upon big open wounds and obvious ills, or even what the patient says, is fascinating, and keeps me slipping in the discs, one after one.

The truth is, we are often clueless when things are starting to fall apart. We live in denial, assumptions, and the believe that if we ignore it, it will either fix itself or go away. Some things don’t. Some things do.

We also think this is natural, which it is, so we continue to go down the wrong path, just going with the flow.

Want to know the biggest clue that you are going down the wrong path with your blog?

Your readership changes.

Numbers drop. The audience shifts. The responses shift. Instead of attracting positive, insightful readers and commenters, you start to find negative whiners and more time waster commenters. Your readers notice the downhill slide and respond accordingly, consciously and unconsciously, following the tone you set.

When your blog goes off track, there are things you can do to get it on the right course, but you have to notice that it has left the tracks first.

When you have noticed, what do you do about it?
read more

Reuters is reporting that U.S. newspaper circulation has dropped by 3.6% over the past six months, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The majority of the top 25 American papers suffered a reduction. And according to some sources, sales are at their lowest level since 1949.

Sunday papers, which have generally weathered the storm better, (maybe it’s all those comics and coupons), experienced the steepest drop, declining 4.5%.

More and more people are turning online for their news.

It’s not a new question, but one that I always find interesting.

Would you, dear blogger, miss newspapers if they went extinct?

I believe there will always be a place for paper, albeit a more limited role. I wouldn’t get the tombstone ready just yet…

Here lies the newspaper; 1605 – 2008

Yeah, I know, it’s a duh moment, but since Google’s chief economist says so, then it must be true and news! Then again, what would they say, Google, since they’re pimping search based advertising as the driving force in the trend that defies the sluggish economy. And yes, we’re talking the USA here, with a currency valuation that make my bank account cry.

Anyway, it’s not only Google that figurates in the Mercury News story about the internet money train. There’s actually a lot of predictions from various parties, which makes it interesting I guess.

read more

Tris Hussey over at b5media lets us know that Rachel Segal is the new marketing manager at the blog network. Maybe you’ve heard of her, her blog Debanter is pretty good, and she’s on Twitter as well.

This from Tris’ welcoming post:

As a blogger and wine lover, Rachel is going to certainly bring fresh ideas and perspectives to b5media. From chatting with her, I think she is just kooky enough to fit in just fine with the folks in the Toronto office.

Hmm, kooky eh? And then Tris writes on Maple Leaf 2.0:

Boy, I hope she knows what she’s in for, we’re a pretty crazy bunch!

What’s going on at the b5media headquarters?!

Seriously, congratulations to Rachel on the gig.

Adify is a pretty cool advertising tool for publishers, giving you a hosted ad platform to manage your ads. I’ve been looking into it for clients and own projects, but never used it. This is how they pimp their service to publishers:

Publishers have full editorial control over the entire process. That means more revenue for your business with none of the usual compromises. You can set the prices. You can review every single ad placement. You can even support CPM, CPC, CPA and Sponsorship pricing with no additional technical implementation.

Not so different from the hosted solution from OpenX or Google in other words.

Well, now Cox Enterprises open their wallet and dish out $300 million for the ad network (press release), which is a lot of money. This isn’t the average “let’s buy something hot web 2.0-ish today people” deal though, with Adify reportedly making $7m last year, and is on track for $35m this year. Still, if you can’t this year’s prognosis in earnings as a basis for the deal (which is mad, I like madness), that means that Cos paid 8.57 years of revenue.

Of course, they didn’t calculate like that. Most likely they want to strengthen their presence in the online advertising sphere, being a player in cable networks.

More: TechCrunch, CNET, Techmeme

When writing last week’s Movable Type Monday, I decided to save a few items for this week to prevent them from getting overshadowed by Six Apart’s announcement of their new Services and Media divisions. This week, I’ll be looking at a number of exciting plugins that have released, the announcement of MT Day as well as some of the new features in the latest MT 4.15 beta.

Welcome to another Movable Type Monday!
read more

Today’s interview is with Wendy Piersall, a blogger & CEO based near Chicago, Illinois. Wendy is the founder & CEO of Sparkplugging, formerly known as eMoms at Home.

In this interview, Wendy shares her experiences building a business from a spare room in her home, some tips on building a strong online community, and the tough decision to change the name and direction of her company.

read more

Over at Web Worker Daily, they’re asking how to explain web working to the uninitiated. Or, in other words, how do you explain to others what it is that you do when you sit and blog (or write) away…

The post goes on to highlight some examples and suggestions on what to say:

Have a ready answer to the most common questions. After you’ve established the basics, some people are keen to know more – especially after you mention the fact that you work from home. Freelancers are commonly asked, “Where do you find work?” and “How do you get paid?” As for teleworking employees, they usually get “How can your boss monitor you?” Answer these questions well, and people will be a step closer to understanding your work.

Interesting…

I prefer a more direct approach – when folks ask me what I do I tell them that “I’m one of the principals of a small boutique consulting firm”.

From there I can go on and explain in more detail the things that I do.. I talk about blogging, about helping companies with their internal knowledge management, about managing programs and projects in the IT world, and the other things that we do.

Although some are quite impressed when I talk about working from home – or a client’s site – almost 100% of the time – there are still some that are quite convinced that I’m living off of their taxes by claiming unemployment – and surely I must be up to no good in that basement home office of mine all of the time..

How do you explain what you do?