Article Syndication

Sometimes I write to my blog and sometimes I write to gooruze and sometimes I write to forums. The problem I have is that there ends up being three separate instances of the same article floating around the net. I was wondering if you guys post articles to your blogs first or post articles to gooruze, or whatever other network/community you’re a part of first? Do you even cross syndicate at all? It would be interesting to have a standardized article format that would, ideally, be compatible to all major publishing mediums (e.g. blogs, social networking sites, etc.) For example take an imaginary article I have written with a URL similar to http://whateverarticlehost.com/articlename. I could then go to a website that’s compatible with that format and just enter the address to that article and it would automagically be displayed on the site so I wouldn’t have to rewrite it. Another feature would be that if I need to edit the article, it updates the article on all the sites that link to it. Does anyone see any inherent errors with this system? What are your thoughts? Is it the way of the future; or simply the ramblings of an obsessed mind?

Google Checkout Blues

I recently ordered a Wacom tablet for my girlfriend's son's birthday off of Google Checkout. The seller was "The Deal Specialist". Google Checkout processed my credit card and sent the request to the seller. The problem is, the seller never got back to me. I tried sending the seller two emails but they never responded. I checked out the Google Checkout Forums, and found a link to a customer support response page. I filled out the information, and Google replied within hours saying that they will try and contact the seller. Google Checkout policy says that if a seller does not respond, Google Checkout will refund the money back to the buyer. The email stated that either the seller or Google will contact me within 5 business days. I have mixed feelings about this experience. I am disappointed that I will probably not get the product for my girlfriend's son's birthday, although I am happy that Google responded personally saying that they will contact the seller and get back to me. I am unsure at this time whether or not I will use Google Checkout in the future. What are your experiences with Google Checkout? Have you ever been ripped off by an online purchase?

Topicks.info

TOPicks.info is an awesome site that features feed customization. You can enter a RSS feed and then select the topics you want displayed from that feed. It will consolidate all the feeds into a single feed displaying only your selected topics. The site is still in beta so it's a little buggy. But its an open invitation so feel free to check it out!

Adventures of a pseudo advertiser

So recently--within the last couple of days--I was checking my email and I noticed that I had received an email from payperpost.com telling me that they had added 100 dollars to my account to try out their service. I had been an advertiser for awhile, but never actually posted an Opportunity. I decided to check it out. I created an Opportunity for approx. $23 (I know, I'm generous, but it wasn't my money so what the heck!) I promptly had someone post an article about my website topicks.info I then posted another Opportunity for $5 and allowed 5 people to post an advertisement. (5 dollars per person) This result was much less satisfying. One person even wrote that my web application was "ad-ware" and that it was "advertisement" based. Neither of which are true and I don't know how he/she would even come to that conclusion unless they never even visited the site in the first place, which is highly possible/probable. So my advice to you, if you are advertising, would be to pick blogs with higher ranking, (even though you pay a little bit more money per post) because the people who write for the minimum 5 dollars do a pretty crappy job in general.

What are your experiences with PayPerPost and the like?
Are there any other pay-to-blog/get-paid-to-blog sites out there that you recommend?

Discontent with social networking sites

There is one aspect of social networking that I'm frustrated with. It is that people always add other people to their "friends list" (or whatever that particular platform calls it) when they don't even know who they are actually adding. On a regular basis, I look at people's listing and see that they have a large number (in the thousands) of friends. I don't even know how it's possible to keep up with that many "friends". Personally, I only want to add people that I care about and that can help me succeed. I believe that adding only people you know will increase the amount of "relational experience", and minimize the amount of "comment spam" and other random things that you are probably better off without. Recently, I have ventured into the contact management arena with sites such as 37 signal's Highrise. This is due to my lack of faith in social networking sites. CRM (customer relationship management), or "contact management" sites are helpful because they provide a user space for each person, instead of just a generic "guest book" type framework found on most social networking sites.What are your thoughts on this? Do you think adding people randomly is good for your "networking"?

Personal Identity Branding / Reputation Management

A lot of people are currently talking about product branding. You know, giving your product that irresistible image that gives everyone the urge to try and use it/buy it/talk about it, etc. Well today, I want to talk about personal personal identity branding (if there is a better name for this, please let me know). I was stumbling across the web awhile ago and I found a site called Ziki. They are a social networking-esque site that will sponsor your name on google for free. Skeptic at first, I registered for their service. Low and behold, a few days later, my name had its own link on google aligned to the right of the rest of the search results. I believe that having your name appear first on search engines is vital to your success as a blogger/designer/freelancer/whatever, as people quickly associate your name with your personality. Another concept I have been pondering is that of linking sites together, in weblike fashion, that have any personal information contained on them. Lets say I have my Ziki page, and then I have my myspace page, and then I have my facebook page, and then I have my Gooruze page, and then there's my blog. I should have a link to all of these pages on each of these pages. That way, a person has one click access to anything pertaining to what I might be doing. I believe this will highly increase the amount of clients I get and the amount of traffic to my sites. What do you guys think?Does linking all your sites together help to better promote yourself or do you think that it just creates more "link spam" for people to sift through?

Gooruze

Check out gooruze.com (pronounced Gurus). It's a blog network for Online Marketers, their definition of online marketer is expanded to include all things online/digital so most readers will probably get something good out of it. Check out my personal gooruze page at tjgillies.gooruze.com