Blog News Watch

I have a confession to make.

I’m writing this to you from a QWERTY keyboard.

No, I haven’t given up on the Dvorak layout since I started three days ago; in fact, at only day 3, I’m loving it. But I have kept one computer on QWERTY while I learn due to the sheer amount of writing I have to do in a day—not to mention that once I switched my other keyboard, I had to take up a mammoth task that requires a lot of typing and has to be done within the next couple of months.

That said, I’ve spent most of my time on the Dvorak keyboard. I elected to modify my iBook’s keys first, and I switched them around in a matter of minutes.

On my Mac mini, though, I’m using a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic, and with some keys quite a different size to the others, due to the unusual shape, it requires labels and can’t be switched around.

I’ll switch it, once I’ve ordered the labels and I’m fully competent on Dvorak.

But as I said, I’m on Dvorak most of the time anyway. This keyboard’s a backup. I spend a lot of time coordinating with colleagues around the world and use my iBook for things like that—Skype, for instance—pretty much exclusively.

Today I spent over an hour coaching a new editor at the Free Articulator. That’s a lot more intensive on the typist than writing blog posts, as it’s real time instant messaging. I did pretty well keeping up with him, though at times it was frustrating.

And that, I believe, is why I’m getting used to it so quickly. People say that it’s near impossible to learn Dvorak while you’re still using QWERTY. I know it’s only day 3, but my experience is suggesting the opposite —maybe those people need to try using heavy instant messaging while they learn

It just challenges and demands more from you, and even though you’ll want to scream at something because your friend is pumping out messages at a ration of ten to your one, it means you improve. Way faster.

I’m faster than most say they are by day 3, and I’m still capable of touch-typing on QWERTY (takes a minute to readjust though). I have found at least one other report of being fully capable to learn and continue using both simultaneously.

My wrist pain is pretty much gone, so long as I keep away from this keyboard as often as I can.

By day three, things are looking great, looking like you can actually keep up two layouts at once, and Dvorak just feels faster and more comfortable (and the spider-stretching sensation when you go back to QWERTY that some people have reported is true).

In short? It’s still looking like the best way to blog if you want to produce heaps of content, much more quickly, with much less pain.

Note: at the time of publication the fantastic site linked to through the picture is down - it exceeded its bandwidth after it got Boing Boinged, but I’ve linked here anyway because once it’s back up it’s a GREAT resource.

Flock 1.0 has been released at last. I blogged a review of the browser’s 0.9 version yesterday, and it turns out 1.0 was already out in the open - so unfortunately, I’ve begun this review of an otherwise excellent browser on a negative point: the automatic check for updates is not as effective as it should be.

In the process of using Flock in the last few days I’ve exited the software and re-opened it many times and not once did it let me know 1.0 was available. I checked my update settings, and they’re all on. It was only when I downloaded and installed Flock on another computer this morning that I noticed some changes!

Update: Evan Hamilton, Flock’s community rep, has informed me that the auto-update roll-out of Flock 1.0 has been deliberately delayed for a couple of weeks, so they can roll out in stages. Good strategy on Flock’s part.

The People Sidebar: True Social Network Integration

Regardless, 1.0 is a great experience. In my review of 0.9, I mentioned that Flock did not come with any integration of true social networks; it focused on blogging sites, photo sites and the like. Well, scrap all that - the social internet browser is now officially social!

As of this revision, Flock integrates Facebook and Twitter quite nicely, under the new “People” sidebar, where the RSS feed reader, account listings, and handy Web Clipboard reside. Twitter and Facebook are joined in the People sidebar by YouTube and Flickr, which have been integrated with Flock for some time but until now did not take advantage of the friends capabilities of these sites.

Facebook works great. You’re one click away from changing your status no matter where you are on the web, and it notifies you of new messages and requests. There are also quick access buttons that allow you to share the currently open web page with your friends and upload media. Media can be uploaded using Flock’s in-built media upload tool. Your friends’ status and avatars are shown in a list below the controls for your own profile.

There’s also a “My Media” button there, and clicking it opens the Media Browser. You can see my massive collection of one photo on Facebook in the Media Browser screenshot.

Twitter integration also works well. You can tweet from the sidebar and the last tweet from other users who you’re following shows up below your own controls. If you don’t have too many friends on Twitter, though, a lot of space is wasted here; maybe in the future Flock will be able to tell if there’s any wasted space and if so, fill it in with previous tweets from the same friends.

My World

Flock’s “My World” concept is fantastic. It shows a list of your favorite sites - most recently viewed favorites from del.icio.us and Magnolia - as well as the latest headlines in your RSS feeds and recent media in libraries you’re subscribed to on Flickr, Photobucket and YouTube. It includes easy access to search and all the social features of Flock; if you want to blog a photo or link you see on your My World page, you’re already a click away.

I know that doesn’t change anything in a browser where those features are pervasive, but it’s nice to see them there. News bloggers in particular will find it a useful hub to peruse the day’s relevant news items, find media and blog about them.

Default Search Engine - Yahoo! v. Google

Flock is automatically set to use Yahoo! search services, which is probably a matter of personal taste for the developers. I think that it’s well known that Google provides much more effective search solutions, but their popularity in the search department is beginning a decline - especially with the bloggers, and especially after they began penalizing those who wanted to make some honest money through paid text links. I wouldn’t have used Yahoo! but no matter; you can change the default search engine to whatever you want in Preferences.

Blog Poster

The Blog Post feature works really well. Bloggers with a discipline problem who don’t post as often as they should may find using Flock remedies this to some extent (though nothing beats self-motivation and discipline!). It lacks text alignment controls, but all you need to know is a little HTML and flick the Source button to remedy this.

It’s a matter of drag n’ drop to add images to your post, but Flock gives you no choice but to upload images to Flickr, Photobucket or Piczo. To become a popular choice amongst more bloggers it NEEDS to be able to upload images to your blog server, much like ecto does. And if ecto can do it, I’m sure it’s not hard to implement.

The Crash

As you can see, there are a few screenshots in this article. When I dragged the My World screenshot to the blog post window, it caused the whole post window to freeze up; nothing worked. The rest of the Flock browser continued to be operational. I poked around for a bit trying to find a way to unfreeze it, until giving up hoping beyond hope there was some kind of auto-save function.

When I logged in again, there was no indication that the post was recovered until I opened the Write Post function again. A dialog box then opened informing it had recovered the post and I wiped the sweat off of my forehead. Phew. The only change I’d make to this life-saving feature is to have it let you know on software start-up to save extraneous panicking!

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Flock didn’t really have any of the ugly, but here’s a recap:

The Good

• Great new social network integration with Facebook and Twitter
• My World - all your online activity, encapsulated at a glance
• Easy to use blog poster with drag n’ drop media
• Easy bookmarking of favorite sites

The Bad

• Facebook integration should depend less on simply opening new tabs within the Facebook site
• Twitter integration doesn’t utilize space effectively
• The choice of default search engine isn’t the best choice, in my own opinion
• Blog Poster absolutely must have the ability to upload files straight to your blog

The Bottom Line

Flock is an excellent browser for the Web 2.0 social-savvy user and for the casual blogger, and, to an extent, the problogger. Once Flock can handle uploading images straight to your blog, it’ll be a much better experience.

If you’re a blogger I suggest you head on over to Flock.com right now and download this browser; it’ll make your life easier, and your blog readers will be happier when their favorite blog receives a sudden and strange upgrade in posting frequency.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: flock, social networking, web browsers

I’ve had Flock on my computer several times. I’ve configured it, used it for half an hour and then fallen back on the sheer habit of using Firefox. It’s a web browser, after all, and kickin’ a browser habit is particularly hard. It was Flock 0.7 (Cardinal) that I had on my computers, sitting there untouched. Now 0.9 is out and I’ve barely left the program since I downloaded and installed it two days ago. In fact, I’m writing to you from Flock right now.

Flock is billed as the social web browser and I think it delivers in a big way. It may not integrate with any of your social networks yet, but it does allow you to post blog entries from the browser as you surf, to add favorites to del.icio.us and other social bookmarking services with the click of a button built-in to the toolbar; even the “Mail this to a friend” feature common on many websites is actually a feature of the browser itself.

Your Flickr, Photobucket and YouTube accounts can also be accessed through Flock and the Media Bar allows you to easily drag photos and videos from your accounts straight into your blog posts. It’s nothing short of amazing.

Flock can also serve as an RSS feed reader, but I found that it wasn’t the best I’d ever used; it’s a bit basic and web-based for my liking. I like to read feeds pretty much the way I read email and NetNewsWire allows me to do that.

Perhaps my favorite feature of Flock is its most simple; the Web Clipboard. The Web Clipboard allows you to drag images and text from the web to a drawer that will hold them until you use them later. So simple, yet so useful.

There are two overarching categories of blog activity; writing and promotion. Flock will help you write more, which is the first step to having something to promote.

If you’re a blogger, Flock will dramatically increase your productivity. If you want to get your posts-per-day rate up, download it immediately; you’ll be posting incessantly as you surf! In a sentence: I don’t know how I lived without it!

Tags: flock, flock review

My name is Joel Falconer, and I’ve never posted a word here. Not one article, not even a comment. I’ve been a part of 451 Press for a while, though - I’m a musician, and I talk to other musicians at Musician’s Notebook.

But that’s enough about me, and more about the blog news! The last post from this blog’s previous writer was on the BlogRush system, which was brand-spankin’ new at the time. Since phase two was just rolled out, I think that’s a great place to pick up.

Getting Traffic from BlogRush

Every time I see something written about BlogRush, I notice the question is:

“How much traffic is this thing going to get me?”

That’s a perfectly valid question, too, seeing as the purpose of this widget is to drive traffic. In fact, if you haven’t asked that question to yourself at least once, please proceed to slap yourself over the head and then ask. If you’re not asking those kind of questions and just signing up for every new service that comes out for bloggers, you lacking clear focus and direction in your plan for promoting and marketing your blog.

I checked my stats on Musician’s Notebook. BlogRush brought in 52 hits there throughout October, which is the same amount as Google Reader. It’s not a massive amount by any stretch, but if it’s bringing just as many people to my site as those who’ve subscribed and read it in the most popular RSS reader on Earth, I won’t complain. At those traffic levels, it’s worth keeping around while that blog finds its audience.

I checked the stats here, too. October yielded nothing, but since the previous writer left near the end of September, I checked that month’s stats too. Nothing. There were more referrals from sites with wonderful permalinks such as “free-pantie-hose-movie” - and that certainly didn’t seem like something that’d fit under the Computers & Internet category at BlogRush. Since the traffic at Blog News Watch is three times that of Musician’s Notebook, I’m going to assume it was never installed.

The only other blog I have with BlogRush on it is Alfadir’s Piercing, my band’s blog. It has had one referral from the service.

Obviously there are differences in results between blogs, and many factors that affect click-through. Crafting great headlines is just absolutely vital to having any success on BlogRush. If this blog were on BlogRush I’m also sure that there’d be very few referrals coming through, seeing as this kind of site would be the most common type of site in their database.

Bottom Line: the BlogRush service might help you, if you are just starting out and building an audience. If you do decide to use it, hone up on headline writing skills. Otherwise, it’s just slowing down your visitor’s loading times.

Basic Functions That Never Made It Into 1.0

There was one feature that was absolutely necessary in BlogRush 1.0. There was no way to delete any of your own blogs from the database. I didn’t want to delete my blogs because I was unhappy, but because there was an error in the system when I signed up. The Musician’s Notebook sign up page didn’t work properly and constantly refreshed, thereby sending the wrong information repeatedly to the service.

When I logged in to BlogRush for the first time, there was one listing for Alfadir’s Piercing and way too many for Musician’s Notebook. I randomly chose one and used it.

My list was disgustingly ugly with clones that should never have existed, but I had no way to get rid of them. Now, in 2.0, I do. Thank grok.

New Features - Shiny, like the blinding light that occurs when a blogger finally washes the dishes.

Everyone always starts with the new features because they aren’t as boring as everything else. It’s like journalism school in universities… “If it bleeds, it leads!” In this case, only if it bleeds on the edge of new technology.

It was about time.

BlogRush finally got better statistics reporting. Better yet, it also received a cool little at-a-glance feature that lets you find out quickly which of your posts are going well and which are being ignored by the masses.

Well, I always feel ignored. I have abandonment issues, from the time when I was two and my sister threw my teddy bear out the car window at 110km/h on the highway.

BlogRush 2.0’s fancy stats system allows me to recoup some small amount of self-esteem after that shattering event, by seeing how many people will click on a headline I write.

It also seems to depend what you’re writing about: my music blog gets very little BlogRush traffic, yet Musician’s Notebook gets a fair bit. It may be that the structure of titles on the other blog is very different.

But still, stats! Beautiful, beautiful stats. I’ve always been a stats whore. Better still are the custom reports with user-defined date ranges.

Fair’s fair; helping the poor is better than helping the rich

Those of you considering giving up your BlogRush widget may do well to give it a bit more time. Low traffic members are now getting most of the bonus traffic BlogRush awards, and the radio airplay that comes with it. If you want to use BlogRush to promote your small and unloved blog, you’ve got the right strategy.

OVERALL: I say bloggers who are starting out should keep the widget on for a few weeks or months until they start finding their own audience. Once that happens, BlogRush’s benefits will be negligible and you can save the space and processor energy for other things.

Enjoy BlogRush 2.0!

Tags: blogrush, blogrush phase two, john reese

John Reese announced today that BlogRush will soon be available in new “flavors” - different color schemes that will help bloggers integrate the widget into their blog design more seamlessly.

He also takes on the “pyramid scheme”rs. One thing I never understood about this complaint - how can it be a scheme when no one’s out any money? This is a free tool, and as one of John’s commenters pointed out, either it works or it doesn’t. If it works, you keep it and so much the better. If it doesn’t, you aren’t out anything. You just take it off. What’s the problem? (And “you lose integrity” is soooo not an answer. I’m sorry - if a potential reader thinks I have less integrity for trying to offer my readers something extra, then that’s a reader I can do without.)

I’m not yet ready to call myself a BlogRush cheerleader yet but I’m certainly failing to see the support behind the complaints, at least so far.

I’ve delayed writing about BlogRush here, though I installed it on my Inspired Solo blog last weekend, because I wanted to give the blogosphere a few days to suss it out and see what the reaction was going to be, so I could sum it up.

What’s BlogRush?

BlogRush is the brainchild of John Reese, who blogs at Income.com . It debuted last weekend to much fanfare, and mixed reactions (see next heading). BlogRush is part sidebar widget, part affiliate/referral program. The widget is created by free code, generated by the BlogRush site upon completion of the sign-up process, which you insert into your sidebar. Then, it displays headlines from other blogs in your BlogRush category (Inspired Solo’s is law and legal.)

Of course, the other side to the value equation (besides the value to your readers of seeing other interesting headlines) is that your headlines get syndicated likewise on other blogs. How much exposure your headlines get depends on an impressions-based formula. You’re rewarded for traffic, clicks, and referrals to the program; the more exposure you give BlogRush, the more exposure it gives you in return.

Summing Up The Blogosphere’s Reaction

There have been several less-than-positive reviews of the service. The main complaints seem to be:

• Repeated headlines that don’t rotate in the widget window (this seems to have been fixed);
• Poor “match up” between and among some categories (BlogRush indicates it’s working on this problem by carving up too-broad categories even further);
• Low quality traffic;
• Low quantity traffic.

The last two problems depend partially on user behavior, as several commenters have pointed out. Many articles lately have focused on headline crafting. This makes ultimate sense, of course - it’s the headline that’s going to draw the attention of your would-be reader on some other BlogRush-enabled blog. You want to make sure that it meets several criteria, as I mention in this article at TIS.

A Note to Michael Martine

Here’s why I think BlogRush isn’t working, and most of the marketing category headlines on it are crap: Nearly all of the people who have signed up for it are too lazy to do what it takes to build their traffic the correct way. And that means that they’re also too lazy to create quality content that would result in getting clicked in the widget and that would benefit a blog’s readership. This lazy get something for nothing mentality compounds itself and the result is that the headlines that appear in the widget are crap. Given more time, more lazy people will sign up and there will be more… crap! So I don’t see how more time will help anything. There are so very few excellent blogs using BlogRush that it’s basically just a rush of crap.

No. I am not lazy. I do not skimp on creating good content for my readers. I also do not find “paid links” and “crap” in my widget. Finally, you really goofed by insinuating that if you’re not Problogger, DoshDosh, or - I guess - you, then your posts are “crap.” That might have been far from what you meant to say but that’s what it sounds like. And you know better. (You also don’t need to resort to some manufactured controversy to gen up your own traffic - you’re too good for that.)

Where I Stand

At TIS, I have experienced about a 10% uptick in traffic since installing BlogRush. While not all of that is due to the service, some of it is. I’m still monitoring the impact. I don’t know whether I’ll keep it up there, or take it down but right now, I don’t see a downside. The posts that are coming through seem to be of interest to my readers, even if tangential at best to my content (frankly, that’s a good thing - I wouldn’t want anything too directly competitive).

Anything that offers my readers more value that they might enjoy is fine with me. I don’t have the all-too-common fear (usually found in beginner bloggers - and it’s understandable because it all goes so contrary to our intuition) of sending readers away. I know they come back when I give them something of value. Although I took Michael to task earlier for some of his post on this subject, I do agree with him that the real value for bloggers is dependent on the quality of the posts featured in their widgets. If that changes for me, then it will definitely be hard to justify cluttering up the sidebar real estate with it on an ongoing basis.

As for “How To Geek”’s comment about “writing for a widget” - well, yeah, that would be stupid. I would hope my readers see the difference between being aware of a fact and chucking all previously held wisdom over in favor of said fact? My practice is quite simple: I write (or try to) good headlines. Then again, good headlines ARE short and contain no extraneous words. They also contain strong, active words; aren’t cute or gimmicky; accurately lead into the post; and have strong emotional impact. I just don’t see the difference between writing good headlines so you get noticed in a feed and writing good headlines so you get noticed in the BlogRush widget.

So, I am still going to maintain BlogRush on TIS, and see what the long-term impact is - whether the rise in traffic sticks around, and whether it leads to better conversions.

If you want to sign up for BlogRush, just click here and follow the simple instructions (note: not an affiliate link; if you want to throw some love my way, you can find the affiliate link in this post).

According to King Ramon and Problogger, Google’s webmaster tools have added the ability to track how many subscribers your site has through the Google readers (Google, Google Reader and Orkut). From King Nomar:

If you want to check how many of your RSS Readers are Google subscribers go to subscriber stats, select the site from which you want to check the number, click statistics and than click on Google subscribers. There you have it, the number of RSS readers that are subscribed through Google on your site.

Yep, I tried it and yep, it works!

Can’t get enough stats? Performancing released a new WordPress plugin for your Dashboard last week. Called pMetrics, the plugin was deemed a “major step forward in WordPress plugin technology” by  Ryan Caldwell in the post at Performancing.com’s blog announcing the development.

The new plugin features automatic updates (which can be turned on and off), one-click installation and removal, display of recent searches, ranking, and automatic installation of the javascript code. Future goals include affiliate banners in the sidebar, a blog sales page with detailed stats, and Feedburner integration.

To download the plugin, visit the Performancing.com post. Let us know how you like it, or don’t, in the comments below!

Thanks to 9:01AM for the tip.

Technorati Tags: performancing, pmetrics, wordpress plugins

Want some free goodies? Who doesn’t, right? If you’re a Mac user, as I am, I’ve got a treat for you. Free Mac Ware is just that - a beautiful RSS-able collection of free Mac apps of several flavors. Click here for the category of “Free Blogging Software” for the Mac.  Sign up for free daily updates right into your email inbox.

Powered by ScribeFire.

For your blog design and all-’round-fun needs, Lifehacker’s got a list of what it considers the top 10 free wallpaper, fonts, and icon sources available. Last time I went in search of a particular font - admittedly, not something I do often - I was shocked by the prices. So free’s definitely a good thing in my book!

Check it out here.