Adriano Gasparri photo
An amazing “business” story is on Forbes: “WordPress Rules the Web.” It’s the story of WordPress; its founder, Matt Mullenweg; and his unusual and counterintuitive approach to software, blogging, and profit.
This humble blog would be more popular by a mile if I changed the name to “Play In Progress.” That’s the thought that occurs to the blogger in me as I look at the blog’s three most recent entries:
Then to make matters worse, all those posts about the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts. Talk about serious! All together now: BORING! What do you think? I’d seriously like your feedback.
Photo by Roo Reynolds via Wikipedia
If I could choose between Playful and Joyful, on one hand, and Serious and Responsible on the other, I wonder which would I choose? Is one better than the other? Can you be both? Is it a matter of your age or role in life? Child, Teenager, Young Adult, Middle-aged, and so on? As I take stock at age 64, which would be the better road for me? Or can you have it all? I believe I’ll be posting some more on this dilemma.
In the words of a great American, Popeye: “I ‘yam what I ‘yam.” But maybe my personality and my blog needs a little tune-up.
Naturally, I can’t write more just this minute, because I’m due at my paying job in an hour.
— John Hayden
A significant development in the world of blogging! WordPress is beta testing a new advertising feature called WordAds. You may have noticed test ads both here on “Work In Progress” and on my other blog, “Ocean City Blog” AKA “Maryland On My Mind.”
The ads are usually sophisticated videos and can be seen at the bottom of the most recent post on my home page, and also at the bottom of specific posts you click on to read. If you have feedback to offer on the new adds, please leave a comment. As with Internet advertising in general, a blog or Web site needs a LOT of traffic to make more than coffee money through advertising, and that’s only if you buy your coffee someplace cheaper than Starbucks.
— John Hayden
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Last November WordPress.com announced the launch of our WordAds program, whereby WordPress.com sites can partner and share revenues on ads sold and managed by WordPress.com. Since its beta launch, WordAds has grown to over ten thousand sites. WordAds has been a success because bloggers can focus on content and building their audiences while handing off the time-consuming role of advertising optimization to the WordAds team.
Today, we’re launching a new homepage for the WordAds program: WordAds.co. Here, you will find our application page as well as FAQs and a discussion forum. Moreover, most WordPress.com sites can now launch WordAds on their site within days of application.
To celebrate the successful launch of WordAds, we sat down to interview one of the program’s first sites at MyNintendoNews.com. Not every WordAds site has the visitor volume to earn significant revenue, but sites that work to develop their audience can now earn good…
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“Bring on the populist battle we have been waiting for. The 1% vs the 99%.”
Jonathan Taplin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The quote is from Jon Taplin. Everyone who’s serious about the 2012 election and the continuing economic crisis would probably appreciate his blog at http://jontaplin.com. I know his savvy essays have helped me understand what a political and economic predicament we’re in.
BLOGGING TIP NO. 101. NO MATTER THE TITLE OR CONTENT OF YOUR BLOG, YOU CAN GET MORE ‘HITS’ BY INCLUDING A PHOTO OF YOUR CAT. HERE SHE IS, LOLA, THE BLACK CAT WITH THE LONGEST WHITE WHISKERS IN THE WORLD. Photo by Lola’s personal staff photographer.
Thanks for reminding me! Yes, besides changing the blog theme (the appearance of the blog), I’ve also fiddled with the name. Again! The old theme, in case you’re wondering, was called “Twenty-Ten,” and the new theme is “Chunk.” Both are great themes, available free on WordPress.com.
When I started this blog back in 2009, I thought I had a great name: “Life After Sixty.” I was going to focus on — you guessed it — the life and times of those of us who’ve passed the big SIX-OH, with special attention to living simply and cheaply frugally after age 60.
Before long, I started writing more and more about dysfunctional politics and economic meltdown. (I know, “Boring”). I had this inspiration for a new name: “Dispatches from ConsterNation” It sounded like a cool name. Catchy. Maybe it was just a phase I was going through. At least it was better than “Boring.”
Now, I’ve shifted the focus again. The revolution in publishing — the surge of Indie publishing and Ebooks — fascinates me. Continue reading
Yep, I’m redesigning the blog in search of a new look. This WordPress theme allows a larger variety of formats for posts. I hope it will be a clean, easy-to-read look. No sidebar, but you can find helpful widgets at the bottom of the page. I’m a work in progress, and so is the blog.
Is this a great time to be a writer, or what?
The title to this repost from David Gaughran’s blog tells exactly what the post is about, and the body of the post gives all the details about direct selling. No need for further comment from me. But I do have a question.
QUESTION: WordPress.com from the beginning has been almost fanatically opposed to advertising by bloggers. (Sorry WordPress, that’s my ONLY criticism of WordPress.com, which is by far the best blogging platform for me.) I believe WordPress.com has probably always made an exception for selling one’s own handmade goods (I might be wrong about that), and I guess handmade goods might include one’s own handwritten books. My question, David, is how is WordPress.com responding to this sudden surge in blogging by Ebook authors? Was WordPress.com OK with your recent sale of 99-cent books? I gather that you and many others are Amazon affiliates, and possibly affiliates of other booksellers as well. Do you think WordPress.com might crack down on this?
BTW, I tried switching my blog over to WordPress.org a few years ago, to gain more freedom, but found the technical hassle not worth the benefit. These days, WordPress will handle all the technical details of the switch for a fee, so it’s much easier now if you want to pay the fee.
— John Hayden
Image via Wikipedia
Greetings, patient readers and friends. Yes, I’ve been neglecting ConsterNation while I work on writing an e-book. Thankfully, the end is in sight.
E-books might be the new blogging. Writers flocked to blogging when it became popular about six years ago, and now writers are flocking to e-books. I’m not suggesting that e-books will replace blogging. I’m sure that won’t happen. However, I think e-books have already affected the evolution of the blogosphere. At the height of the blogging craze, many of the most successful and popular blogs were blogs about blogging. Many gurus offered advice on blogging, and some even suggested that a lot of money could be made in blogging, if one followed their advice.
Something similar is happening now with blogs about e-book publishing. Continue reading
Just discovered a new blog called “Under the Apricot Tree.” It’s a blog “about new life on an old farm.”
The most recent post is here: More on Stillness.
This just in from a blog in London:
If you want to know the latest in the American-European Political-Debt Crisis of 2011, I recommend you read blogs like Penny Red.
If you want a preview of what’s coming to an American city near you, California is no longer the barometer. Look at what’s going on in London, or Dublin, or Greece, Italy, Portugal, and the entire European Union. Europe is now in worse shape than America, but maybe not for long.
Here’s an excerpt from today’s report in Penny Red:
Tonight in London, social order and the rule of law have broken down entirely. The city has been brought to a standstill; it is not safe to go out onto the streets, and where I am in Holloway, the violence is coming closer. As I write, the looting and arson attacks have spread to at least fifty different areas across the UK, including dozens in London, and communities are now turning on each other, with the Guardian reporting on rival gangs forming battle lines. It has become clear to the disenfranchised young people of Britain, who feel that they have no stake in society and nothing to lose, that they can do what they like tonight, and the police are utterly unable to stop them. That is what riots are all about.
And more from Penny Red:
This morning, as the smoke begins to clear, those of us who can sleep will wake up to a country in chaos. We will wake up to fear, and to racism, and to condemnation on left and right, none of which will stop this happening again, as the prospect of a second stock market clash teeters terrifyingly at the bottom of the news reports. Now is the time when we make our choices. Now is the time when we decide whether to descend into hate, or to put prejudice aside and work together. Now is the time when we decide what sort of country it is that we want to live in. Follow the #riotcleanup hashtag on Twitter. And take care of one another.
I also recommend Baroque in Hackney, who can provide other pertinent links in Britain.
And today, in Wisconsin, the people are voting. I wonder if what they decide, one way or another, will be able to slow down, one iota, the spread of the chaos in the Western World.
I have to go to work now.
— John Hayden
Living Simply And Still On The Grid 