G34 Media

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About a month ago, I discovered the domain auction site, Bido.com, and am a big fan of it.

Why?

Because the site is aimed at domain investors, it has neat features built into it, that make buying and selling domain names nice and easy.

How Does Bido Work?

Simple. It only has one domain name up for auction daily, and each one carries no reserve, which means it sells at true market value. The only spotty thing is that when one submits a domain name for inclusion in an upcoming auction, one is not notified whether a name is accepted, or not.

Any Big News @ Bido?

Recently, well as of yesterday July 16th, domain name DebtNews.com, was auctioned off @ the highest bid, which was an impressive $10,628.00

That is alot of money for a domain name. It goes to show that if you learn the art and science of domaining, you can write your own ticket to Disney World. (or wherever you want to go)

What’s So Cool About Bido?

What is totally awesome about Bido, is that each domain name submitted, comes with an expert commentary, and these domainers know what they are talking about.

Each domain name gets an informal verbal appraisal, if you will, and this is by far, a an excellent way to learn how domains are viewed, and which ones are valuable, and which ones are poopie poo.

How Much Does It Cost To Join Bido?

You can join Bido, for the low cost of zero, nada, zip, zilch. It is 100% free to join, and bid. But there is a cost to auction off a name, in the form of a commission to Bido. But it is very reasonable.

Think you know about domain investing? Find out @ Bido.

Wordpress 2.6 is now live and it is (as Matt Mullenweg, the creator calls it)…HAWT!

As i was reading about the NEW! wordpress 2.6, it struck me how i actually understood what Matt was talking about, and pretty much followed most of the new improvements and add ons.

Some of the improvements are listed below, in the order of how i remember reading about them on the wordpress.org blog update post.

Word Count: you can now see and keep track of how many words are in your entry

Theme Preview: Before making a new theme live on your blog, you can now preview it first, in a pop up window

Press This Bookmarklet: A NEW! Firefox an IE extension that allows posting to your blog, from a variety of different web-based sources, such as YouTube and Flickr

Image captions: You can now add captions to images

Bulk management: of wordpress plugins

*Head to the Wordpress blog, for the complete list of NEW! features of Wordpress 2.6

Reader question
Will you be upgrading to Wordpress 2.6, and why or why not? Weigh in below. I have not yet upgraded, i always like to wait a few days or a week to upgrade, as any wacky stuff will come out as others are trying it out. I will upgrade to 2.6, in a few days. If you have already upgraded, do share your experiences with me.

Technorati Tags: wordpress 2.6 release, version, blog, blogging, matt mullenweg, wp

Just read at Weblog Tools that a NEW iPhone Wordpress Mobile Blogging App is about to be released for the new Iphone cell device.

The iPhone app allows for blogging on the go, it is compatible with wordpress.com, and wordpress.org (self hosted blogs) version 2.5.1 and above.

The video above gives you a good screenshot pf the app in play, on a si,ulated iPhone. You can post, edit, and view blog entries right from the iPhone with this app. Very cool and 100% free, brought to you from the groovy guys (and gals) at Automattic.

It is not yet available in the Apple iTunes App Store, but will be very soon!

This is an update on the blog flipping contest over at SiteFlipU. There are 9 contestants in the running, and most of them have their blogs set up and running. Let’s take a look.

I have listed all 9 contestants below, in no particular order. What do you think?

• Blog Fluff
• Act High Brow
• Travel Tips Digest
• Go Green Lifestyle
• Reggae-Artists
• Bloggers Search
• Frugal Zeitgeist
• Professor Prosperity
• Lower Back Tattoos

As you can see, the blogs entering the contest are pretty varied, on one corner we have a green blog, on the other corner a tattoo blog. Everything from a frugal tips blog to a reggae blog. Lots of variety, and some pretty neat ideas!

My entry is bloggers search, a blog that will highlight, profile, and showcase all the top bloggers and their respective blogs.

With my entry blog (Bloggers Search), i have done all of the following:

1. registered domain (at namecheap)
2. hosting is accounted for (from hostgator)
3. installed the #1 blog platform - wordpress
4. downloaded and installed wordpress theme (the new! UBD moneymaker theme)
5. tweaked said wp theme
6. installed my commonly used wordpress plugins, of which i will write a post on
7. installed google analytics
8. installed feedburner
9. added 2 125x 125 blocks of google adsense on the sidebar, as the blog already is getting some search engine traffic
10. installed who is online widget (from amoung us)
11. written introductory post
12. written 1st linkbait/pillar post

There is alot of work involved in setting up a NEW! blog, lots of steps to take to get it popular, profitable, and ranking well in engines.

The contest we are all in is designed to ramp up this curve abit, and to take it from zero to hero in 30 days. Lets see who takes the prize! Win or lose, we will all be better for it. This is as much a learning experience, as it is a contest.

Stay tuned for the next blog flipping contest update, which will be next week.

Top 5 Blog Directories On The Net from Bloggers Search.

Posted using ShareThis

First let me say, Happy July 4th. Hope everyone has a good time, and practices sound fireworking! (do stay safe) For todays post, i want to highlight ProTycoon, a blog created by a young overseas blogger.

The blog is run by a 21 year old from the UK, named David Shaw. He started the blog in February 2008, to teach others what he has learned since he started blogging, years ago. So far, he has some good tips on the blog, including:

• 15 Ways To Increae Traffic To Your Blog
• SEO For Wordpress
• Related Post Wordpress Plugin Can Boost PageViews
• 25 Ways To Increase Your RSS Subscribers

In his own words:
“ProTycoon.com will provide you with blogging tips to help you build, promote and monetize your blog and is usually updated on a daily basis”.

For a limited time, David is also giving away some advertising spots on his blog. The ad spots are in the sidebar, and come in the 125×125 ad size. All you need to do to snag one, is write about David and his blog. (like i have)

If you’re looking for fresh blogging tips, from the perspective of a young blogger, this one belongs in your RSS feed. Head on over to ProTycoon, and leave a comment on his blog, letting him know Missy (from G34 Media) sent you.

Enjoy your July 4th! (see you on Monday)

For July 2008, affiliate marketing network Pepperjam Network, has exciting news.

I joined Pepperjam recently, and one of the things i like about this network, is the accessibility factor. You can easily reach the staff (heck even the CEO, Kris Jones) via multiple communication channels, including: IM, email, (and my personal fave) their company blog.

They have a slew of solid merchants, including: eBay, Webmaster Radio, Text Link Ads (boo! to that one), SEOMoz, PlayBoy Store, and others. eBay is a great money maker. If you’re a blogger and have yet to try and make money with the eBay affiliate program, now is a great time to join Pepperjam and do so. The (exciting news) i mentioned above is that for the month of July, Pepperjam is offering NEW! incentives.

NEW! Incentives from Pepperjam Network

1. )The lead payout has increased to a generous $7. So every blogger you refer to the program (*and gets approved) nets you a $7 referral commission

2.) Spread the word on your blog, (like i have), and earn an easy $10

3.) Join the network, receive a $10 sign on bonus

Pepperjam is an up and coming affiliate marketing network that is growing leaps and bounds. They were recently featured on a report by Marketing Sherpa, which highlights the leaps and the bounds.

Once you have reached $25 in commissions, PepperJam pays you promptly via Paypal. Ready to join? Click the banner below, and sign up today to make money via your site or blog!

The NEW! Notepad Wordpress Theme is quite original, and i can see it being used by a variety of niche bloggers. Take a peek below.

The theme is not like most wp themes, it features a large centered intro box, a stripe at top for announcements, a placeholder at the bottom with split content sections. On the left side of bottom section is a widget area, and on the bottom right, your most recent blog posts. No sidebars.

It also comes in a slew of colors, including light and dark colors. The black one is featured above in the thumbnail.

I really like it, and will be using it on a new blog. The wordpress theme notepad is free, and was created by iThemes.

The theme is aimed at consultants, professionals, such as real estate guys/gals, etc. But as i stated above, i think it has many good uses.

Technorati Tags: wordpress themes, skins, templates, designs, ithemes, notepad wp theme

If you’re reading this post, you’re most likely a fellow blogger. Have you heard of ContestBlogger.com, yet?

ContestBlogger is a forum and a blog that features a slew of cool contests held by bloggers, from around the blog-o-sphere. I have won many good prizes in several contests, most recently a copy of the ProBlogger Book by Darren Rowse, which was held at the Wendy Piersall blog, SparkPlugging.

I have also won:

• $10 Gift Certificate for Amazon
• $30 Cash
• $100 Cash
• Copy of The ProBlogger Book
• Eco Lunch Bag
• and some other goodies….so point is, they do work and winners are plentiful.

Get in on the action, by visiting the ContestBlogger site, you too can be a sweet winner (of something). Do also check out the blog, the guy who runs it, is quite funny.

Remember you can’t win, if you don’t enter. So find one you like, and have at it. Good Luck!

The Blogging Idol Contest from DailyBlogTips.com blog starts today. This one is an RSS feed subscription contest, wherein the blogger with the most improvement in RSS feed subscribers, wins!

There are numerous participants, including myself, with my Groovy Vegetarian blog. I have no idea how to compete, well correction, (i do have a few ideas) to boost my RSS count. Mainly a contest is planned.

Do follow the Blogging Idol Contest here. If you haven’t yet subscribed to my vegetarian blog, do so now.

Contests and/ or group projects are great motivators to get something done, so i’m hoping this contest helps move me to ramp it up.