Cameron Olthuis

Aw, the joys of running a content site. I’d almost forgotten how bad it gets with people ripping off your content and reposting it on their own sites word-for-word. This last weekend I’ve spent countless hours chasing down these villains and trying to get them to remove our original work. It gets time consuming and because we have a relatively new site that doesn’t have a ton of authority with Google, I actually do worry about it quite a bit. I’ve already noticed a few that show up above us in the SERPs and that is no-bueno.

This is something I’ve never really worried about too much with this blog. Mostly because it’s my personal blog and I don’t monetize it, nor do I have plans to ever do so. So now I have another hat to wear at my company, content police. Although I have to admit, I do slightly enjoy it when I find their phone numbers and I can actually call these people. It’s pretty funny.

I haven’t logged into my Feedburner account for at least a good 6 months, probably more like 12. I just happened to log in and I’m pleasantly surprised to discover I have over 800 people reading my blog, 830 to be exact. I seriously thought the number was going to be around 8, not 800. That number’s high enough that I can be proud of it, so I displayed the little chicklet there on my sidebar. Now I’m kind of fired up to get that number over 1000.

I’m curious, how did you all find my blog? I’d also love to hear your feedback on what you think I should be blogging about. What kind of stuff are you guys/gals into and what would you like to hear from me?

PS - I’m expecting about 826 more comments… ummkay

There’s a lot of drama going down about some FM advertising campaign from Microsoft called ‘People Ready‘. Basically what happened is a bunch of well known bloggers talked about how their businesses became people ready and Microsoft took those quotes, put them on banner ads, and is now running those ads on those same blogs. Apparently this has upset some folks.

I don’t want to get involved in the ethics behind this as there are already plenty of valid arguments from both sides being made. But while the blogosphere bitches back and forth like a couple of newlyweds, Microsoft is laughing all the way to the bank. This campaign has already created more mindshare, discussion and buzz then they ever could of hoped for.

The only real winner here is Microsoft. This is also a huge opportunity for them to take this campaign to the next level. Are they smart enough to figure it out and take the ball and run with it?

Lee Odden posted a great list of must read marketing blogs. I would add one to the list, Eradicate Perplexity, a brand new blog from my friend Scott Orth. I had the chance to get to know Scott at SES Chicago, he’s a very smart SEO and I’m sure you’ll be hearing his name a lot this year.

Update: I didn’t realize Scoreboard Media was missing from Lee’s list. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites. Read a couple posts and you’ll see why, the style of writing is second to none. Lee, if you reading this take a look, you’ll like it.

I’ve met a lot of great people up here at WordCamp and the one thing that I’ve come to realize is that anyone can become an expert on anything. I don’t mean that in a bad way like a know-it-all. Information is so abundant right now that if you pick the right niche you can become an expert, start a blog, and actually make money doing so. You don’t need to go to school and get a degree, all you need is a desire and a passion.

So find something you’re passionate about and start blogging.

I think TheWeblogWire, which launched today, is a brilliant idea. Mashable broke the news….

The idea itself is interesting: The Weblog Wire allows companies to submit press releases, and bloggers to subscribe to these releases via RSS. Submitting a press release costs $99, or $149.99 if you want The Weblog Wire to write it for you.

Two reasons why I think this idea is a good one..

1) Bloggers want to break the news as quickly as possible, they will signup to receive the feeds.

2) Marketers want bloggers blogging about their product, services, etc.

TheWeblogWire’s success will be dependent on their own marketing strategy, unfortunately getting a little buzz from some blogs won’t be enough for them. It’s just not the right channel to reach the people submitting through other news wires, such as PRWeb. I’m excited to see what else, if anything, they have up their sleeves for marketing as I would really like to see them gain traction.

After posting some tips for increasing blog traffic I received quite a few emails asking for recommendations on blog specific tools.

So here’s a list of some tools that I’ve come across that are helpful when blogging. They range from tools that help increase traffic to tools that make life easier as a publisher. Read the rest of this entry »