Your very own Jack Of All Blogs won the Bloggy Award yesterday. You can read the review- here.

You’d think that Mr Bloggy would show some unbiased commentary, no? Nothing like sucking up to oneself. Well…there you go. All that time I was think Mr Bloggy was fair-minded and neutral, when in fact he’s been pushing his own petty, selfish little agenda. Damned snake! We don’t buy it for a minute here at JOAB. Insider trading, backslapping corruption at its blogobubble worst. Here’s a little taste of the greasy, slurping twaddle-:

If you know the history of Jack Of All Blogs, you would be aware of the controversies it had been involved in the past. The opinions posted are quite strong, and it’s either you’re for “JOAB” (as Jack Of All Blogs is fondly called) or against it.

Go back to your doghouse Bloggy!![tags]bloggy,bloggy award,joab,bloggy winner,corrupt,insider trading[/tags]

Our latest purchase, under the Bloggy Network group of blogs and sites, has been Gadzooki.com. It was a private sale for an undiscosed sum. Gadzooki is perhaps most famous for it’s unforgettable tagline “I want one!”. It’s a truly excellent site that shines out in the extremely competitive area of gadget-related blogs. This is largely due to the insightful, cutting-edge content of its writers: “Quimby”, “Mr Butterscotch” and “Jackoozi”- all of whom have agreed to stay on.

Gadzooki was formerly in the portfolio of Blog Media, and one of the sites that David Krug, former owner of this blog, took away with him when he parted company with BM. It was sold privately via a sitepoint auction for an undiscosed sum last May. Despite slipping to a PR5 since then (expect that to go back up pronto!)- it only had about 80 visitors per day in those days. Now it has over 500 per day, on average, and it’s starting to generate significant search results.

This purchase comes hot on the heels of our acquisition of Biziki, as reported in a previous post. Given our intended design plans to use Chris Pearson‘s eratizine theme as the design “makeover” for all our blogs- we really had no choice but to buy Gadzooki! As mentioned before, the only other blogs in blogosphere that currently have this erazatine theme by Chris are yours truly (JOAB), Biziki and Gadzooki. We happen to think that Chris is the best WP theme designer out there and that erazatine is one of his most memorable and unique designs, although he has done excellent ones since. We are thrilled (with a caveat) to have exclusively captured the erazatine theme- especially as we feel that it will stand the test of time.

The caveat is, that although we have assurances from the previous blog owners of Gadzooki, etc- we’re pretty sure that, as with all “artistic” creations, the ultimate copyright reverts to the creator. As respect to Chris, we will be putting at the footer of all blogs: “A uniquely designed theme by Chris Pearson“. And we are encouraged (although saddened by the context of the thread: that someone had stolen Chris’ design; see Blog Herald’s take on it) by Chris’ (in not mentioning erazitine) comments when he says in his post:

“There are only three “living” projects in which I retain ownership — Pearsonified, Tubetorial, and Cutline.”

In his post “How Much Should A Design Cost?”- Chris says (dated last June)-:

At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design. In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000. Rest assured, though, that it would be totally badass, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.

When I emailed Chris, I told him that we weren’t put off by his prices and wanted to be “pimped out”! Anyway, it didn’t end up happening as I explained in my previous post.

So what an expensive way for us to have gone about this plan! Even after spending the dosh on Biziki and Gadzooki, we still need to convert and customize all our other blogs. Currently we have 26 blogs in our network (which we own 100%) and a further 14 related Bloggy “service sites”.

I think all of this is a result of the fact that I am, on a personal level, completely obsessive-compulsive. If I want something, I have to get it- no matter the cost. I totally understood why Chris couldn’t help us out, so no hard feelings there. But I then had to find another way, by hook or crook.

Anyway, Gadzooki is a great site, as I said. So no regrets there….!!

[tags]gadgets blog, gadzooki,chris pearson,cutline,tubetorial,biziki,erazatine,blog design,blog skins,WP themes[/tags]

We’ve been busy again!! Our lastest acquistion is Biziki.com, bought from Blog Media via a recent sitepoint auction. It’s a blog we’ve had our eye on for a while- not least because it shares the superb, and exclusive eratizine WP theme design by Chris Pearson. We contacted Chris earlier this year to try and get him to do a design overhaul of our whole network and it was tentatively set for this November. Unfortunately, Chris wrote to us to say that tubetorial was just taking up too much of his time and he couldn’t do it. I recall rather a witty comment about fortunes not being made by “icasso” unless there was a “p” in front of it, to which I recommended a more Warholesque approach! So…failing that, we decided to stay with the eratizine theme, which Biziki, Gadzooki and this blog- JOAB- uses. Our thanks to Matt Craven of Blog Media for handling the transaction/transfer in a polite, efficient and professional manner. However, we would like to mention something in regards to this purchase in the spirit of clearing some seeming bad blood (that we were previously unaware of). The previous main blogger of Biziki, Brian Yalung, aka “bryboy”, has posted several things around the net, including at the Blog Herald and on personal blogs- indicating that there was a “misunderstanding” with ourselves (partner site: Word Content) and that somehow the parting of the ways was not good, insinuating in some way that we were at fault. To quote Brian-:

I think I will not be considered by these people since I have some issues with them in the past. I have worked for them in the past and our parting was not so good. While they gave me a good break in the past, I wouldnt be surprised if I will run into trouble with them. This is precisely why I looked to freelance to avoid them.

Ahem…to say nothing of another classic piece of Brian waffle…I don’t want to get into mud-slinging here (actually, maybe I do?), but Brian knows the truth of the matter very well- that he acted unethically and dishonestly. We gave Brian every opportunity in many areas- writing for Word Content, linkbuilding for Link Lander and submitting articles for ArticleSubmission.net. What happened was that Brian was found to be using our software and concepts to promote his own personal agendas. Having confronted Brian with this- it was just a matter of a “ticking off” and he was not fired. He chose to diappear on us instead (probably in shame!) and turned up as the blogger on Biziki. He was fully paid for all his work for us and was at no time mistreated in any way and we take issue with his subsequent insinuations against us. Online reputations are fragile and this is why we write this now. All that is said here is fact and can be backed up by a variety of independent sources. Having said all this, from our end, water under the bridge.

Anyway, we are very pleased to have acquired this blog. A PR6 with some good earnings from Adsense and TLA made financial sense in its own right. But it also fits into our portfolio- with our plan to turn it into a Political Blog. While this may seem a drastic change, politics is a business and a rather dirty one at that. We have already initiated a Business Blog of our own: BizCrunch.net and with the Senate and Congress elections now over in the US, it’s all going to be fun and games with the fight for the White House!

On a personal level, even though I am from the UK, I love US politics. As partisan and media-driven as it may be, it is far more engaging and combative than the rather sedate, irrelevant discussions we have in the UK, or obscene, open corruption in Asia.

What happens in the US matters to all of us and impacts our lives in a very real, tangible way. That makes it exciting.

[tags] biziki,gadzooki,bloggy network,sitepoint,matt craven, chris pearson,brian yalung, political blog [/tags]

Of Ukranian descent, Palance was born in Pennsylvania, the son of a coal miner. In the late 1930s he started a professional boxing career. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before losing a decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi.

With the outbreak of World War II, Palance’s boxing career ended and his military career began. Palance’s rugged face, which took many beatings in the boxing ring, was disfigured when he bailed out of his burning B-24. Plastic surgeons repaired the obvious damage but left him with a distinctive, somewhat gaunt look. After much reconstructive surgery, he was discharged in 1944.

Palance graduated from Stanford and made his Broadway debut in 1947, followed three years later by his screen debut. He was quickly recognized for his skill as a character actor, receiving a nomination for only his third film role, as Lester Blaine. The following year, Palance was nominated again, for his role as the evil gunfighter Wilson. Several other Western roles followed, but he would also play such varied roles as Dracual and Attila The Hun.

Palance’s first wife was Virginia Baker (1949-1966). They had three children: Holly (born 1950), Brooke (born 1952) and Cody (1955-1998). An actor in his own right, Cody Palance appeared alongside his father in the film Young Guns, and was 42 when he died from melanoma in 1998. His father now hosts The Cody Palance Memorial Golf Classic to raise awareness, and funds, for a cancer center.

Since May 1987, he has been married to Elaine Rogers.

Palance paints and sells landscape art, with a poem included on the back of each picture. He is also the author of The Forest of Love, a book of poems, published October 1, 1996, by Summerhouse Press.

Palance quotes:

On tabloid stories: “I’m amazed people read this crap about us – about me most of all.”

“The only two things you can truly depend upon are gravity and greed.”

[tags]jack palance,westerns,melanomas,young guns,dracula,movie greats, obituary[/tags]

You know the machines are about to take over the world when the people are living their lives in cyberspace, interacting with the people they meet there and even buying and consuming goods in the virtual world. I know it’s kind of like how many of us spend all of our waking hours in front of the computer, but it’s even scarier when you actually do have a second life in cyberspace.

I have been playing this online game called Second Life for the past three months and I can say it’s quite addicting. If you don’t know how to control yourself, you would tend to think your real life is what actually happens in the virtual world. And why won’t you? You can do all sorts of things on Second Life that simulate the real world. You can get a job, run a business, buy land, build structures, have romantic relationships, and even have sex!

I realized things were getting big when companies signed on for placements online. Reuters has recently opened a news bureau for the Second Life world, where real reporters would publish news stories on what happens in the virtual realm. I hear Sony BMG, Toyota, Sun, and Adidas are joining in. Even Starwood is setting up its hotel chain inside the Second Life world soon.

Oh I can’t wait to be plugged in.

Quick– in a half hour, with commercial breaks, produce a daily show that pulls together information from all corners of the globe to tell everyone watching what’s really going on.

Can you do this? No, probably not. Can I? Heck, no. But we assume a news agency, with a producer, team of fact checkers, and reporters can be counted upon to do this very complex job.

Can I say, you’re nuts? Network news is run by human beings. People who bleed blood (I should know! Arrrr. . . ) and eat and eliminate exactly the same way you do. They may be a team, but the amount of work involved to produce a truly good show is immense.

With a large enough team, they could do it. But today, we live in a world of news corporations, bottom lines, and satisfying the shareholders. This means two things for the news: first, you must minimize costs. The most effective way to minimize costs is to eliminate personnel. Second, you must sell advertising – your bread and butter – at the highest possible price. This means you need a high viewership.

So here’s what the structure of a network news team looks like.

• News anchors whose best skills are primping and reading a teleprompter in an authoritative voice.
• Reporters who rise in the ranks according to the juicy stories they bring in. This means no unsexy stuff like junk bond exposes (at least not until the crap hits the fan and the feds are called) and more sexy stuff like Tom Cruise’s baby.
• Producers who fill out scant news with canned stories – films done in a newsy style – sent in by advertisers, pharmaceutical companies, and others with veiled interests – you’ll see at least one of these every night. Can you spot it? Bet not. They are disguised as news.
• Fact checkers who – oh, wait, most of them are gone. At best, your news show will share a fact checker with another show or three, or your producer will check a few facts. Mostly, reporters do this themselves today.

Do you get the idea? All the things we think the news should be doing – do not get done. And things we think they should not do are done routinely.

Watch CNN, Headline News, Fox, C-Span, BBC – anyone besides the regular networks. You’ll be better informed for it.

Seems that the much awaited Google pagerank update may be underway. Check out your website, especially if it is new at the various datacenters-: here.

A good example includes WebmasterWorld.com, which is moving from a PR7 to a PR8. Many sites, although unstable and unpredictable at this time, appear to be holding onto current rankings. JOAB, for instance, is still a solid PR6. Amongst the early losers, there appears to be some downgrades on some well known, recently sold blogs from PR6s to PR5s, but nothing too drastic as of yet.

Bloggy Network can be pretty satisfied with the first glimpses of this update. For its homepage, an out of the box PR5, as well as for some its related sites, like Bloggy Hosting. And out of the box PR4s for its newest additions, like: Charities Blog, Travel Blog and Hollywood Blog.

So hang on to your undies and watch those toolbars and SERPs!

I told you I’d keep up with this one, and I have. Interesting to see what’s happened.

The New Orleans Truth website is authored today primarily by Easton Ellsworth, the editor of Know More Media, the company that’s sponsoring the website. He has been wise enough to not only write some very good blogs about what people in New Orleans have written or have told him personally, but also to cross-link with lots of the NOLA bloggers as well, giving them the press that I was griping about their needing. There is no sight of Chartreuse, Loren Feldman, or Team New Orleans here on the site. Also no explanation of this, though I think I can guess.

Chartreuse, 1938 Media, et al finally, a month or so after they had planned, made it down to New Orleans – I think. Anyway, Chartreuse is posting New Orleans entries on his own blog. Moreover, he’s been wise enough to invite several NOLA folks into his private space. Kudos for that. This is the way it should have been done to begin with.

The NOLA bloggers aren’t getting much more attention than they were at first, as far as I can tell. And Team New Orleans seems to be just Chartreuse and 1938, which is what I thought would happen.

So did my point get across? I think it did. At least the New Orleans folks are being treated as people, not as victims who don’t have a voice. I wish the blogosphere would pay more attention to the NOLA bloggers down there; they’re great, talented people. And it’s certain the media, with its Certain Attitude about bloggers, will not.

I guess the best thing we can do is not forget. I’m going to do the little bit I can, by writing about it and donating and raising awareness in my area and by volunteering for a day when I travel down there (all I can spare, alas). I’m not going to forget that bloggers live by different rules from the media, either. While the ideal for reporting is to remain objective and separate from the news, a blogger often IS the news. Bloggers are allowed to get passionate, lose objectivity, and even pitch in when things need to be done.

All in all, I like blogging better than I like reporting.

I’ve got to stop watching the news. It’s terrible. Another bunch of U.S., British, Italian troops killed. Another bunch of Iraqis, Lebanese, Israelis, fill-in-the-blank murdered by suicide bombers. People ticked at the Pope because he exercises freedom of speech. People exercising freedom of speech to protest others’ freedom of speech (and doesn’t that make sense?)

It’s gotten to where I can’t quit looking at it. I can’t tell what’s true and what’s not. I find it all depressing. And then, there’s the stuff that just isn’t true at all – some of which I know from my own bloody sources and resources.

How can we have a free society when the news is so dependent upon the capitalistic system that they have to sell to the least common denominator to satisfy their shareholders? Or when the news is beholden to government officials? Or when the news is a tool of the government? In these situations, no wonder the news agencies protest like murder when they’re accused of inaccuracies, spins, or flat-out lies.

So I make this pledge: to cut down on the news I get directly from the local papers, or Reuters, or the New York Times. Instead, I will read a lot of blogs. These guys bring a sanity to an otherwise nuts media world. They – we – are getting a bad rap from the mainstream media. But then, we are direct competitors to their bottom lines. Bloggers can make decent money doing what they do if they’re good and subscribe to a network. And because today they are attacking the single most important asset of a news agency – their perceived integrity – the news agencies are not terribly happy with them.

I say nuts. I don’t much care about their opinions. I do care about the news stories I dig up myself. Or read about from dedicated bloggers who still understand what investigative journalism is. To be honest, I think bloggers may just save the world.

But then, I may be a trifle biased.

Remember William Hung? He was the contestant on American Idol in the second or third year who was so bad he became famous for it. His incredibly atrocious karaoke was juggled into an album – that subsequently sold more CDs than almost any Idol contestant outside of the top two finalists – 195,000 copies. He’s made a movie, done talk shows, and become a real celebrity. For singing badly.

This, folks, is like lightning. It hits once in about a hundred years. For most people, celebrity is something they’re born into, have enough talent and work ethic to gain, or work their butts off to get.

There’s a surprisingly large contingent, however, who think that their paths to celebrity should be along the lines of William Hung. No offense to Mr. Hung, who seems like a nice guy, but it seems that they are so self-centered as to believe everyone is fascinated by their latest navel-gazing, whether it’s on world events or how to succeed they wish to opine upon.

A recent example that has ticked me off: the NewOrleansTruth debacle. Associated Press’s desperate attempts to convince the world that their photos are complete and unbiased truth (I Photoshop, too, and recognize fakery pretty quickly).

I think what’s going on is people are somehow getting the idea that the written word is gold – that their optimization talents or the love that their friends and mothers have for their writing is going to catapult them into Pulitzerdom – that somehow, they too can be Truman Capote and hang out with rich celebrity women.

It’s nonsense. Except for truly anomalous cases like William Hung, celebrity does not happen – it is earned. Your hard work and genuine talent will gain your fame, not your untried insights into how to make a fortune. Don’t invest in fools gold – instead, work hard and learn everything you can about everything you can. And learn how to market online. That’s going to be your key to success.