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Reviews for services: My opinion May 17, 2007

Posted by JamesVinzer in Internet, Reviewing, Social Engineering, blogging.
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In 2004, Google released its awesome mail Client: Gmail. OF course, Google made it invitation only, so thousands of users flocked to sites where they could receive an invite. Many even offered to pay people upwards of $200 for an invite to use Gmail, among other things. It was incredible, back in the day. Wouldn’t surprise me if a few souls were traded in the process.

Of course, being a young dashing eSheep, I wanted one too! Of course, I got directed to the back of the Gmail invite line. But, then I looked at a blog where someone was saying how they got a Gmail account on account of being a journalist for a blog, and I got an idea.

See, at the time I wrote for a website under a different name that was based on political opinions, but we could occasionally let a tech article slip by. Having written about Gmail before, I decided to email Google saying that I was a writer for this website, and I wanted to check out their email program, and in exchange, I would write a review for them.

A few days later, I got an invitation from Google’s PR department to use Gmail! It was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me in my time as a blogger/writer. Something that people were desperate to buy had been given to me by the Google Gods in exchange for 300 words.

So I wrote the article, emailed Google and told them thanks again. But now it brings an odd question up: Was I ethical in doing that? If I write a review for a service in exchange for a chance to use it, is it a violation of a blogger’s ethics? With sites like PayPerPost, where bloggers can be paid to review a service (Provided they state that they were paid to do so,) I wonder if what I did was OK.

I personally believe that I am offering a service to sites like Gmail when I do this. It’s a small sacrifice on both sides: They give me an account, I write a blog entry about it. They get a little publicity, and I get the chance to do an interesting program.

When the next big thing comes out, I’ll be sure to try to do it again. Whether you will or not is completely up to you. Also, I would like a little briefing on the ethics on doing this? Got an opinion? Hit the comments.

Finding your niche 2: Got too many niches? May 17, 2007

Posted by JamesVinzer in blogging, niche.
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In my last post regarding niches, I wrote that to be a successful blogger, you need a specialty. Well, let’s say you got a specialty…then another specialty…and another…you get the point.

Your problem is that you have so many things you want to write about, but so little time. There are indeed a few things you can do to help yourself out.

1. Try to combine your blog niche

One thing you can attempt to try is to find a way as to how your niches combine together. For instance, though I decided to keep mine separate, you could combine a blog based on the different things you freelance: Programming, writing, resumes, etc. The advantage to this is that you don’t have to do much to update your blog. Disadvantage: Your blog gets really cluttered.

2. Multiple blogs

The advantage to this is that your blogs remain separate, so you attract separate audiences if you want them. The disadvantage to this would be that you’ve got upwards of two, three or more blogs to update on a regular basis.

3. An all-in-one blog with tagging
This attempts to combine the best of 1 and 2. Basically, you would be blogging on your one blog, and tagging each for easier reference. This is advantageous when using something like WordPress, because you could create pages on your blog dedicated solely to those tagged entries. However, it’s bad because it’s more work for your reader to look at your content. Plus, it also makes your blog look like it’s confused about where its place in the Blogosphere is.

Again, all three options have their ads and disads. If you tried one of these things, how did it go? Do you have another suggestion? Please reply!

Just because nobody’s talking doesn’t mean nobody’s listening! May 16, 2007

Posted by JamesVinzer in Blog networks, RSS, networks, readers.
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If your blog isn’t getting a lot of comments, it doesn’t necessarily mean that nobody is looking at your blog! Remember, just keep having good posts, and you’ll get people to look at your blog.

Also, try to promote your blog any way you can short of spamming. Remember, it’s a community, so post on other people’s sites, and link your blog!

Always remember, it’s not the comments, it’s the reader stats that count!