Sunday Chatter – 2/7

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feed. Not sure what RSS is? Find out. Thanks for visiting!

Steve Jobs Comes Out Swinging Against Adobe and Google

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is probably wishing he would have locked down the boardroom at his company’s headquarters a little tighter after word got out this week about his comments regarding the competition. Jobs slammed both Adobe and Google during a staff meeting, when word got out to Wired.com. Among the word slinging, Jobs called Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” mantra B.S. and said Adobe was lazy. He said Flash wasn’t put into the iPad because it’s the number one reason Macs end up crashing in the first place. Jobs said the future will use HTML5. Maybe he’s right, as HTML5 players are popping up all over the place. While not supported by Firefox or IE yet, Chrome and Safari have no problem viewing the new video content.

Easing the Pressure of Blogging

Most bloggers complain of the same thing — they can’t think of anything to write about some days. I’ll agree with that. Sometimes I get so caught up in my business and other projects, that when it comes to blogging, I draw a blank. Other days, what I want to write about comes naturally based on what I happen to be doing at the time if it revolves around the Internet marketing field. While I haven’t taken a break from blogging since I began in 2006, some bloggers take several weeks, or months off. This approach doesn’t always work, but some would argue that you should only blog if you have something valuable to say. Others may suggest that abandoning your blog for an extended period of time can hurt you and draw away readership. Whatever the case, there’s a great post this week on ProBlogger that looks at how you can ease the pressure of blogging.

Is the Term ‘Social Media’ Irrelevant These Days?

People tend to use the term ’social media’ to describe something they do separately from their normal business strategy. Over the years, social media has become more than just setting up a Twitter or Facebook page, it’s part of the way a business communicates as a whole. Ryan Anderson debated this earlier in the week and said it should simply be called communication by now. He makes a good point, as it’s quickly turning from media into everyday usage and part of every business’ important set of online tools.

iPad Affiliate Offers — What You Need to Know

Now that the Apple iPad has been unveiled, affiliate networks are jumping on the opportunity to get offers up for their affiliates surrounding the new tablet device. I’ve been bombarded with e-mails from publisher managers last week and this week with details on iPad offers.

Similar to promotions for other Apple products, like the iPod or MacBook, most of these offers are complete duds. The highest payout I’ve seen so far is $2.80 for a two-page submit, where the second page requires a sheet of personal information.

The first one I saw though paid out $1.20 and was a simple zip and e-mail submit to win a free iPad. Another offer promised international traffic, but the landing page couldn’t be viewed from my location, so I scrapped that campaign completely.

Facebook has been pretty careful to approve iPad advertising campaigns since the device isn’t even available to be purchased yet. You can’t use the word “iPad” at all, and have to word your copy around promoting a tablet device, or mobile computer, etc. Using a picture of the iPad doesn’t seem to be getting flagged, so you’re good to go in that area.

As for campaign performance, it’s not that overwhelming. I’m getting more traffic and leads promoting a generic niche I started running a few months ago. Perhaps the fizzle has died down a bit since last week, or maybe more people are just waiting for iPad 2.0 with the camera. Either way, this niche isn’t very lucrative and I’d save my time if I were you.

Manage Projects Better with Mavenlink

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Mavenlink. All opinions are 100% mine.

Communicating with clients in your business is the foundation to a great working relationship for both parties. Sometimes that communication can be broken with the conveniences of technology, but it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be.

Mavenlink is a company with a proven record in providing a comprehensive technological platform that allows you to share your workspace with clients in an intuitive and organized environment.

The application is user-friendly and helps consultants and clients work together more efficiently without jeopardizing productivity in the workplace. Workspaces can easily be shared and viewed with the click of a mouse thousands of miles away. Whether you want to communicate in a private environment one-on-one, or with a group, Mavenlink’s services can cater to what you need to get the job done.

Businesses, consultants, service firms and non-profit organizations all trust Mavenlink to provide the technology they need to streamline the way they communicate with the people who matter the most to them on a daily basis.

The best part is you don’t need a credit card to sign up, and they even offer a free trial, so you can see first hand the change the software will bring to your organization.

Is Foursquare the Next Twitter for Checking-In?

Foursquare has been around for several months now. In fact, it was first introduced at SXSW nearly a year ago, but is only really hitting the mainstream social media spectrum as of lately.

What is Foursquare?

Simply put, Foursquare is a mobile app that allows you to “check-in” at various places you happen to visit. Whether you’re at a bar, restaurant, store, sporting event, or at someone’s home or office, Foursquare allows you to tell people on your contact list you were there. The app uses GPS technology to pinpoint your exact location and give directions to your contacts via mapping services if they want to join you. You can also see who else has visited the location you’ve been to.

For each destination you record, points are earned. “Find a new place in your neighborhood? +5 points. Making multiple stops in a night? +2 points. Dragging friends along with you? +1,” according to their website. You can also earn badges for your work, which are awarded for a number of trips, such as travelling somewhere far, or going to the gym.

The information is shown to your contacts in a Twitter-like stream with your photo attached to the locations you’ve mapped.

Foursquare currently supports the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry and is completely free.

While this isn’t the first GPS-based mobile app to help you keep tabs on your friends, it’s quickly becoming the most popular. Foursquare is prevalent in major U.S. cities right now, such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. A search for my Canadian city only turned up a handful of destinations with just a couple people having visited them. As tech analysts predict 90% of mobile users will have smart phones by 2011, I’m sure we’ll see mobile apps like Foursquare becoming the normal way users communicate and tag future locations.

Sunday Chatter – 1/31

How to Build a More Beautiful Blog

If you think throwing up a quick blog using Blogger is all you need to do to establish yourself in the blogosphere, you would be mistaken. Mashable has a great post this week in a roundup of sources, articles, and services you can utilize to build a better looking blog. Among the top of the list is to learn XHTML, which is the current web standard and most widely used programming element today. If you’re looking for a new theme, 2-column, 3-column, etc., there’s a number of those available, too. You can find some great ones online for free, but if you want to be unique and have your own look, themes can be purchased for about $50 or so.

Adobe Calls Out Apple Over No Flash Support

With the release of the iPad this week, one big feature missing from it, like with Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, is Flash. Over 70% of games and 75% of videos will not be able to be viewed, Adobe said in a blog post. If you were following any of the live blogs during Steve Jobs’ presentation Wednesday, you likely noticed the big white space filled with the blue block to symbolize a missing plugin. That was shown while Jobs surfed over to The New York Times website. It was most likely an ad placement using Flash, but even so, with the lack of Flash support, Apple is taking a step back instead of forward. These two companies need to resolve their differences in the name of what’s best for the user experience.

Does Your ‘Advertise Here’ Button Suck?

According to Zac Johnson it does. The hideous ‘Advertise Here’ buttons you see on some blogs are quite the eyesore and are only there to fill space that a perspective advertiser would occupy. There are a number of reasons why you should consider putting some thought into the button. No one wants to be the first advertiser, so put up some affiliate ads in the meantime and make it look decent. Secondly, if you insist on using a button, make it look professional and blend it in with your blog’s layout. Having a flashy GIF graphic or some hideously coloured blinking box will only turn advertisers away. Think about creating an advertising page with your formats, rates, traffic statistics, etc., and simply link to it in your footer. It’s much more professional that way.