May 16th, 2008
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If you have a blog with a music focus the Amazon Associates program have today announced a widget that you’ll want to check out - it’s an MP3 Clips Widget that lets your readers listen to clips of music live on your site.
You can hand select songs to be included on the widget or pick categories of songs. Any sales generated by the widget earn you 10% of the sale as an associate. Just be aware that only those in the US can buy music from Amazon (or at least they seem to need a US credit card). All of your readers will be able to see the widget - just not actually convert with a sale of an MP3.
Amazon.com Widgets
Let me know how it goes if you decide to give it a go!
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Written by Darren Rowse on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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We are early adopters. We use. We try. We evangelize. We bury. We filter.
That’s what we think anyway.
In reality, we are pretty useless.
Late last year, Amazon released the Kindle to the joy and enthusiasm of many early adopters. Robert Scoble, the poster child for early adopters, gleefully got his Kindle on the first day and wrote about how beautiful it was and how it brought him great pleasure. One week later, he hated the Kindle listing a laundry list of problems from usability to the inability to send gifts to other Kindle owners.
Increasingly, I’m seeing common people (read: non-tech early adopters) who own and love the Kindle. And the numbers bear that out, if we’re to believe TechCrunch’s statement that by 2010, Amazon will have sold $750M in Kindles or 1-3% of the company’s total revenue. (Update: For clarity, the TechCrunch article cites a CitiGroup analyst and is not the authoritative assessment of TechCrunch. My point is, that’s where I heard the number in the first place - regardless of the original source.)
Brad Feld, a few years ago, wrote an amazing article titled The First 25,000 Users are Irrelevant which talks about the effect of early adopters on companies and products. As the oh-too-typical scenario goes, TechCrunch or Mashable covers a new product, there is a surge of traffic, registration or sign-ups for private beta invites from early adopters, or “tire kickers” then they go away. Some remain and become “evangelists” for the company or product, but most people don’t even care. Later on, if the company has mainstream staying power, the real buy-in will happen organically and without the say-so of the early adopters who largely came and went.
See, we like to tell people we are filters. We like to think we are influencers and powerful. We like to think we have an inside angle on what works and what doesn’t work, but we are just small insignificant people in the grand scheme of things, and largely irrelevant.
Amazon knows this. They don’t really care about us. And that’s why they might hit the $750M mark by 2010 and completely bypass the early adopters, placing their Kindle directly in the hands of mainstream commuters and book lovers.
Update: Corvida at SheGeeks thinks this is generational and writes a thoughtful and intelligent argument about this. However, I’m not convinced that everything is generational. I think early adoption is also a result of personalities.
Written by Aaron Brazell on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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My Condo’s almost empty, mover are here right now clearing it out.
My wife and I are moving to Coral Gables in Miami, Florida! For the next 6 months I’m going to be soaking in some sun in South Florida. 
We’re renting out a luxury penthouse apartment, it’s about 1400 sq ft and on the 17th floor.
Miami is VERY different than Boston, it’s more than just a change in scenery, it’s a whole different culture down there. Will be fun!
Now if I was a high level corporate stiff neck I could possibly make as much as I’m making now as super affiliate. However, not only would I be working 80 hrs a week, I’d be stuck living in ONE place. I wouldn’t be going to Miami, or anywhere else for that matter, unless the company decided to relocate me.
You see, there’s a lot more to this business than making a boat load of money (although I have to admit that’s a nice perk!) I don’t care how much money you make in your job, there’s nothing in the world better than having the freedom to do what you want, where you want, with whom you want.
Since I’ve been a full time super affiliate it seems that my wife and I have been traveling non stop and loving every minute of it! Paris, Alaska, Bermuda, London, Austin, India, Monoco, Miami,etc, etc… We spend 4 months in 2007 traveling.
Our travel schedule is actually light compared to several members of my super affiliate mastermind, who take frequent 2-4 month vacations!
I really don’t like using the term ‘vacation’, my wife and I don’t take vacations in the normal sense of the word, we’re just living & enjoying life in a different location. Vacations are what job people use to recover from the daily stress of being in the rat race.
Have you ever thought where you would live if you had NO restrictions? If you could run your whole business off your laptop, where would you live and what parts of the world would you travel to?
PS While I’m busy moving I’ll have several guest bloggers who will be filling in for me, including Anik Singal, founder of Affiliate Classroom and big time super affiliate. So stay tuned!
Written by Amit on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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“When Should You Give Up On a Blog?” - question from the Q&A sidebar widget.
While they won’t all apply to every blog - here’s a list of questions to consider when working out whether you should give up on a blog.
- What goals do I have for this blog? Are they being met? Am I getting closer to meeting them?
- Am I Interested in the Topic?
- Am I getting personal satisfaction from posting?
- How Many Posts Did I write in the Last Month?
- Do I have time to keep the blog running?
- Is anyone reading my blog?
- Have I given it enough time?
- Do I still see myself writing on this blog in 18 months time?
- Is the niche growing or dying?
- Is the blog earning anything?
- Is the blog growing my profile and perceived expertise?
- Are there any other benefits from this blog?
- Is the blog giving energy to or taking energy away from me?
- Is the Blog’s traffic and income growing or shrinking?
- Are readers engaging with the content?
- If readers are commenting - what are they saying?
- What are other bloggers writing about my blog?
- Do I have anything original and useful to say on my topic?
- What else could I do with the time that I spend on this blog
- What would the impact be of me not blogging? (on readers and me)
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Written by Darren Rowse on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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Today Brian Clark from CopyBlogger shares his Blog’s Tipping Point
I think the tipping point for Copyblogger was the beginning of 2007. I had a good first year, attracting 10,000 subscribers, and as the new year began I decided I wanted Copyblogger to be one of the top blogs.
That hadn’t been my initial goal; I had just wanted to join in and let people know what I could do for other projects. But then I thought, “If you want to be viewed as an expert at social media and content marketing, what better proof than by growing the blog bigger right out in front of everyone?”
In 2007 Copyblogger tripled in traffic and subscribers, and it was all because I changed my mindset and decided to just do it. It was a lot of fun, and it demonstrates that more than half the battle goes on inside our own heads.
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Written by Darren Rowse on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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Google today announced that it has launched YouTube Insight - a tool for giving insight into who is watching your videos.
So today I logged into YouTube to see what information I could glean about the viewers of my videos. from the new stats. Here’s what I learned about who is watching my videos:
Across my Channel they are predominately male (64%) and in the 45-55 year old bracket (36%):
Of Male viewers - the biggest group is actually aged 35-45.
Of the Female audience the largest group is 45-55.
Viewers are predominantly in the USA. Smaller audiences are in Canada, Australia, and India.
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Written by Darren Rowse on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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Today was Director of Technology Aaron Brazell’s last day at b5media. Well, tomorrow is his official last day, but he’s flying home to Baltimore from Toronto then. Some of us are sad that he is going. Ok, well, no one has said that, but I can only assume that someone in the company likes him.
No, seriously, we will miss him. Things we know about Aaron:
1) He does very poor imitations of himself
2) He speaks clearly, yet doesn’t make sense
3) We are always shocked that his wife hasn’t left him
4) He’ll attend any chili cook off, anywhere
5) He can’t handle the spice in jerk chicken
6) He is banned from eating bok choy around Darcie for eternity
We would like to take this time to remind Aaron, that once he leaves, anything negative from b5’s inception to now is your fault.
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Aaron Brazell
Written by Ed on May 16th, 2008 with no comments.
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