Archive for the “blog” Category
Posted by: buzz in blog, buzz, travel
Team Blogger pulled a clean sweep at CBC’s Test the Nation on Sunday night. Did you watch? Up against a killer football game, and the finale of the Amazing Race was some tough competition, I wouldn’t be surprised if you missed it.
 Most of our afternoon was spent sitting in wait. (At the studio at 3p for a 7p shoot time, *yawn*) With a gaggle of celebrity lookalikes in the room, it made everyone mingle to run and get a picture with Paris, or House, or Kiss. Check out the backstage pics at The Tea Makers.
We had the highest individual score (57/30), highest average team score (50/60) and highest celebrity score (Samantha Bee 49/60).
It wasn’t even close. Personally, I score 52/60. Not bad, had a blast, lost my voice and got to touch the trophy. (see my previous post about the Stanley Cup - you’re not allowed to touch it til you win it!!)
Here’s the rest of the smartest people in the country:
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
3 Comments »
We’re in Toronto for CBC Test the Nation. Good God it is cold.
It’s “only” -6, but man it’s damn cold. It’s a different cold than Vancouver, Toronto is a dry cold, or whatever it is, it just hurts! My ears were burning, that kind of cold. Your nose hairs (yeah, i got em) get crusty, that kind of cold. You scream “Mother of God!” every 20 steps, that kind of cold.
We’re staying at the old SkyDome Hotel, now a Renaissance. I took a flight with Rebecca, Miss 604 and Kerry-Ann, Lip Gloss and Laptops.
Here are some pics from Rebecca’s post about our adventures so far.
That last picture was taken by Duane Storey at the airport. He tagged me as “Tod Maffin” on his Flickr listing, so I will represent our Mother Corp Mentor in spirit.
We met Karen Barnaby from Team Chef and the Fish House in the elevator on the way back from dinner. She doesnt think the chefs stand much of a chance, they spend too much time in the kitchen!
Tomorrow morning it’s breakfast and a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame before kicking some ass on Test the Nation. You can take some practice tests to get ready, if you want.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
2 Comments »
I am a John Chow disciple. I subscribe to his RSS feed, and while his blog trumpets how to make money by creating a blog, often it’s an excuse to blog about a restaurant he’s eating at so it becomes a tax deduction.
Regardless, John offers up many great tips on ads, affiliate networks and other sorts of things you can throw up on your site to make some cake.
Earlier this week I made a post about Google Ads and how I think they’ve become invisible to many blog readers. I was eagerly messaged by many friends, including John, urging me to remove the post since, according to Miss 604, “the first rule of AdSense is you don’t blog about AdSense.”
Maybe my point wasn’t made properly, today I’ve run into 2 separate posts basically saying the same thing I was saying: ads on the internet are becoming invisible.
My readers made it clear via their clicks that they were totally uninterested in Google AdSense sidebar ads. After a few short, unprofitable months with AdSense, I switched my strategy to targeted, in-context advertorial content. [Electrolicious]
John trumpets Kontera as a solution to advertising within a blog post. My cyberbuzz site has Kontera added to it. Links that are double underlined are paid external links. They look a little bit different, but still blend in with the flow of the site and don’t stand out.
In a way, there’s already a trend against ads not working as well as they used to on blogs. PR agencies have been trying to get positive reviews and posts on their products almost from day one, but with PayPerPost, ReviewMe, and whatnot, there are more organized ways to get recognition. You can make a decent amount of money by selling your content this way, and several hotshot bloggers are for sale. [The Blog Herald]
I even read another example of how radio ads and endorsements are starting to fall on deaf ears as well.
I use the example in the book where I listen to Daily Source Code with Adam Curry, and he kept talking about his great experience flying Virgin Atlantic. He was talking about Virgin because, you know, he’s a human being and he loved the experience. Well, guess what? When I was flying to the UK and thinking about which airline I wanted to fly, I ended up flying Virgin - all because of one person - one person’s not even overt recommendation, but endorsement. I’ve never met this person before, but I trusted him. I just felt like I trusted him. I trusted them because I listen to him regularly. Gee, that sounds pretty familiar. [Hear 2.0]
So the blog as personal advisor works far better than the blog as advertiser. Local blogstar, Miss 604 is running into what can only be described as a “tech ceiling.”
… when a Vancouver blogger wants to promote restaurants and businesses in the city, what does it take to get a company to hop on board? For example, I’ve personally been told by at least thirty people that my (unsolicited) blog post recommendation to visit a certain butcher shop/deli turned them into faithful regulars of the establishment - score! Blogging equals links equals customers.[Miss 604]
Endorsements work, but they have to subtle endorsements. The Electrolicious example fully details how she went about monetizing her site, and if you’re thinking about working the money magic, it’s a good read.
John can tell you all about how he makes $450 for a ReviewMe posting, and that might be another option for you to chase down.
Me? This blog is about me bitching about things I find interesting and think you might find interesting as well, I don’t know if selling myself is quite the right way to go about things (yet).
So my original post, which I won’t repost because of the advice of my Google-Fu friends, was basically correct - ads are invisible.
The ones you don’t see aren’t working, the ones you don’t even know were there, are.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.
1 Comment »
I’m off to Toronto tomorrow for the taping of Test the Nation on the CBC (Sunday 8p-10p) and I’ve figured out what I’m NOT wearing. This cool tshirt I got from my brother for Christmas.
It’s a shirt that features an equalizer that lights up and bounces based on sound around you. You have wires going from the front of the shirt to a battery pack and microphone in your pocket. It’s the PERFECT shirt to wear to represent the Blog Nation on Test the Nation, BUT…
Can you imagine the look on the faces of security at the airport as I stroll up to the scanner with a battery powered shirt complete with wires? Yeah, that would go over well. So the cool T-Qualizer T-Shirt will stay at home.
Instead I think it’s all about the boy. The Zizou shirt will be worn. With pyjamas. (they asked us to wear what we normally wear blogging)
The best part about being on Team Blogger is that we’re not really stars, but stars will be there. Andree Lau is excited to meet Surreal Gourmet, Bob Blumer, to chat him up about his Medoc Marathon where he ran 42 kilometres across vineyards and sampled wine along the way. I hadn’t thought about it, but I’m excited to meet him too.
For his show Glutton For Punishment he assaulted a stage of the Le Tour de France that included L’Alpe D’Huez! That’s a dream of mine, I can’t wait to hear about it.
Other celebs on hand will be Debbie Travis, Farley Flex (Canadian Idol), Carlo Rota (24, Little Mosque on the Prairie), Samantha Bee (The Daily Show), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Top Model) and many more chefs that you’d recognize from Food Network Canada.
CBC’s Test the Nation goes Sunday at 8. It will be taped in Toronto. Where they have winter. -9? Ick.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.
No Comments »
PlentyofFish.com is worth $10M a year, according to a recent article in the NY Times.
Markus Frind, the Vancouver based creator, works about 10 hours a week. Nice.
Markus doesnt really have to do much other than maintain the servers and make sure the website is online, all the content is created by the users. The more users, the more the content, the more content, the more users - it’s not a vicious cycle, it’s a brilliant cycle.
That’s what social networking sites crave, they create the place where people congregate, the people create the content that keeps them coming back. Facebook works the same way.
I’m not really wanting to create a social network here, but I am looking for some help. I have hundreds of blogs I read each day, entertainment, food, news, local, tech etc. but I dont have a good photography blog. Something basic. I bought the Panasonic FZ18 as a Christmas present for myself, and I’m still trying to make it work.
So, which photo blogs do you read?
For that matter, which other blogs do you read that you’d like to spread the word about?
No personal pimping here, this is an old fashioned word-of-mouth, tell-two-friends-and-so-on type of post.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.
3 Comments »
Posted by: buzz in blog, buzz
Election fever has gripped the continent.
It’s Romney v Huckabee v McCain v Edwards v Clinton v Obama and even Canadians who can’t hang a chad are glued to CNN/MSNBC/FoxNews trying to understand what the hell a caucus and a primary is.
You may not be able to vote in the American Election, but you can vote for the Canadian Blog Awards.
Some peeps you may wish to support:
Meg Fowler - Best Personal Blog [vote here]
Meg Fowler - Best Blog [vote here]
Meg Fowler - Best Blog Post [vote here]
The Blog According to Buzz - Best New Blog [vote here]
The Blog According to Buzz - Best Media/Celebrity Blog [vote here]
Miss 604 - Best Local Blog [vote here]
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.
1 Comment »
CBC’s Test the Nation goes next Sunday night, January 20 @ 8p.
We received some final instructions today, notably flight times, hotel stuff and the question each one of the 36 members of Team Blogger wanted to know. Can we live blog?
No.
I guess 36 geeks hammering away at a keyboard and taking self portraits with Wendy Mesley would be distracting to the whole show. Actually, they have a legit excuse - Wifi sucks in the studio and Blackberries interfere with the remote devices we’ll be using to answer the questions.
 We did get some good news out of the email, though. Each team will have a celebrity cheerleader joining them, we’re getting Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee! (guess she’s got some free time with the WGA strike and all) Samantha is a good old fashioned maple syrup swigging Canuck and will be a welcomed addition to our squad.
We tape the show at 7p-9p EST, and it will air at 8p-10p in most time zones. This should make for a fun Sunday night. I finish the show at 9 and have to be on a flight home at 10:40.
It’s gonna be tight, but I have to be back home to take Le Grand Zizou to Aquaman class (swimming lessons) on Mondays. Can’t disappoint the kid!
I hope you’ll watch and cheer on Team Blogger. Whoever scores the highest from all the teams scores a $5000 voucher for a vacation. w00t!
We’re encouraged to have our wardrobe on the show match what we wear when we blog at home. I’m usually in pj’s and a tshirt. Can I really wear that on national tv? Hmmm .. might have to do it.
I will need a slogan for a new tshirt, gotta do it up nerd style. Choices so far are:
- I’m Blogging This
- Team Blog
- I’m A Blogebrity
- Bloggable a la Miss 604
- a plain old plug with CYBERBUZZ.COM
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
1 Comment »
I am very excited to be off to the CBC in Toronto in a couple weeks for the next round of Test the Nation.
I’ll be representing the Blogosphere along with other notable locals like Tod Maffin (above) and Miss604 (took the pic).
The teams have been set for this round of Bloggers v Lookalikes v Backpackers v Cab Drivers v Flight Crews v Chefs.
However, there is another round of Test The Nation coming up, and you just might qualify. They’re looking for new Canadians, Olympic medallists, firefighters and more. So drop them a line and get on the next round.
In the meantime, set your PVR for January 20 at 8p and get ready to read a lot about the show.
Give a blogger a bit of love and they’ll write about it for a month.
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
No Comments »
Posted by: buzz in blog, goals, money
John Chow makes money online by telling people how much money he makes online. Last month he made over $25 000 from his blog. In 2007, he made over $180 000 and his estimates have that nearly doubling to $300 000 for 2008.
I’m reading John’s e-Book, I’m using some of his methods and I’m trying to make money off this blog.
It’s early, and I’m micro analyzing stats, traffic and results. After a couple weeks of monetizing the blog, here are the totals:
w00t!
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?
No Comments »
Posted by: buzz in blog, buzz
 I dunno about that, but let’s try just for fun! Late last year, I was selected as the Best Afternoon Drive Announcer in the Georgia Straight Readers’ Poll, now it’s time to stuff the ballot box again as the Canadian Blog Awards are coming down the calendar.
The Canadian Blog Awards have their nominations open until January 11. Simple to throw someone’s name in the hat, just pick the category they belong in and leave a post in the comments section.
My pal Meg is a previous award winner, I’d agree with that. Maybe we can get her another trophy for pageant trophy case. I’d also think Miss604 would be a good nominee, John Chow and Tod Maffin. Maybe *this* blog as “Best New Blog”?
Here are the categories, click where necessary.
General:
* Best Blog
* Best French-Language Blog
* Best New Blog
* Best Group Blog
* Best Blogosphere Citizen
* Best Blog Post
* Best Blog Post Series
Political:
* Best Political Blog
* Best progressive Blog
* Best conservative Blog
* Best Non-Partisan Blog
Interest:
* Best Personal Blog
* Best Photo/Art Blog
* Best Humour Blog
* Best Entertainment/Cultural Blog
* Best Business/Finance Blog
* Best Religious Blog
* Best Sports Blog
* Best Activities Blog
* Best Media/Celebrity Blog
* Best Family Blog
* Best Local Blog
* Best Sci/Tech Blog
* Best GLBT Blog
* Best Podcaster/Vlogger
* Best Military Blog
* Best Education Blog
* Best Activist Blog
The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?.
No Comments »
|
Entries (RSS)