Chitika’s Response to CPM Ads Concerns

ProBlogger Blog Tips:
Ryan Travis from Chitika was kind enough to respond to some of the concerns mentioned in my previous post (and it’s comments) about their CPM ads:

“We have seen that there are a LOT of times and situations where a publisher’s ads simply will not get clicked on. In these situations, it makes the most sense to show graphic ads in order to bring in the most revenue possible.
Right now we have rolled out graphic ads to countries where our publishers are currently NOT making revenue. We have done this because we want to ensure that when we fully launch this in the US (and other revenue-generating countries), that we are bringing in the highest-quality ads that are paying the highest rates.
Our only goal here is to make our publishers the maximum amount of revenue possible. As we move forward, we are fully-focuesed on working out the kinks (and filtering out all of the low-quality, “spammy” ads) in order for this program to be a major success and at the end of the day, our publishers will be receiving bigger checks because of this.”

I’ve already seen a few improvements in the CPM ads. It seems that they have a system in place to weed out the lower quality flashing ringtone ads. I’m hoping it’ll continue to improve to the point where we’ll start seeing brand ads that will not only earn more but ‘fit’ more on most blogs.
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Chitika Roll Out CPM Filler Ads for Unsupported Countries

ProBlogger Blog Tips: Chitika have been rolling out their new CPM ads over the last few days. These impression based ads will appear mainly on sites with a lot of traffic from non supported countries (they only serve their own ads to traffic from USA, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, UK).
In a sense these CPM ads are ‘alternative ads’ - so if a reader comes from Japan for instance they see the new CPM ad instead of a default ad or a Public Service Announcement. The theory is that at least you’ll earn something from the ad.
I can understand why Chitika are doing this and why it’d be attractive to many publishers. Most sites get at least some decent traffic from the countries that Chitika (and other ad networks) don’t support and to not monetize it is a pity. However….
What concerns me a little about these ads is that the announcement post says that it’s not just when someone from a non supported country visits your site but rather they say they serve them ‘when it makes sense’ to do so and give this example:
“if you are in Canada, and viewing a page with a Chitika ad on it, we will most likely show you a CPM Graphic banner because we are seeing more revenue from graphic ads for Canadian traffic.”
This is all well and good if you’re just looking at the bottom line (who wouldn’t want the…

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: May 2008

Smashing Magazine:
Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why since April 2008 we supply you with fresh desktop wallpapers. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?
This post features 17 18 free desktop wallpapers with calendars, created by designers across the globe for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded and used for free.
Please notice:

all images can be clicked and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?
Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: April 2008 features desktop wallpapers from the last month.

So what wallpapers have we received for May?
The Model
“The model? She’s my cousin, she’s a model here in Mexico City. I was updating some of her pictures (for her site), and suddenly decided to do the may calendar with her.” Designed by Patricia Villanueva from Mexico.

preview (0.3 Mb,…

What Time of the Day is Best to Post to Your Blog

ProBlogger Blog Tips:
LeftTheBox asks “Hey Darren I know you post daily but do you try to post at a certain time each day?”
I certainly do! I not only set myself minimum post numbers each day but I’ve taken it a little further and narrowed down some daily posting windows that I aim for.

Really it comes down to a bit of research and experimentation to work out when the best time to post is (and I suspect it’ll vary from blog to blog depending upon where their audience is situation and even depending upon topic).

For me I attempt to have a fresh post go up on my blog in the morning US time. Here at ProBlogger my audience is fairly global but the majority of readers are in the Americas so I attempt to have something fresh for them for when they get to work, check their feeds over a morning coffee etc. I then also attempt to post something for the end of the day (US time). Then on days that I post a 3rd post per day (it’s usually more of a ‘newsy’ post) I attempt to put that up about 8 hours after the 2nd one just so that posts are evenly spread through the day.

This the frequency that seems to work best for ProBlogger in my testing however it wouldn’t work for everyone. For example I have one friend who runs a sporting blog who posts once per day (around midday for…

Should Bloggers Have Limits On How They Cover Sports?

Business and Blogging:
Should bloggers have limits on how they cover sports?
Apparently, many sport organizations think so. The New York Times has posted a piece today on the Tension Over Sports Blogging.
Sports franchises are beginning to recognize blogging as a form of legitimate media. The New York Times piece includes the rules pertaining to bloggers (and other forms of media) from the following sports organizations:

National Basketball Association - Bloggers from credentialed news organizations must be admitted to locker rooms.
Major League Baseball - Limits the number of photographs, audio, and video clips to a reasonable number.
National Football League - Limits audio and video clips to 45 seconds.

According to The New York Times piece, The National Collegiate Athletic Association also has publication limits for various sports. (Personally, I couldn’t find the limitations - but I also didn’t spend a lot of time on the site.)
Here at Business and Blogging, we’ve posted about sports blogging before. In that post, we discussed the fact that many football teams have their own official blog.
The issues raised by The New York Times post are a little bit different. They don’t deal with whether or not a sports team should have a blog, but rather with the very nature of blogging itself.
Some of the questions the post raises include:

What is a blog? Is it a news source? Is it editorial in nature?
Should blogs in the U.S. be subject to first amendment protection?
Should sports organizations be…

Obopay: Mobile Payment System

Just Make Money Online: Since getting my new mobile phone, I’ve been learning more and more about handling work and increasing productivity using mobile phone applications and services. One of the services that I’ve discovered recently is Obopay.
From what I’ve learned so far, Obopay seems to offer a service where you can send and receive money using your mobile phone. That is, if: a) You have an Obopay account, b) you link your bank account and/or credit card to your Obopay account, and c) You’re in the U.S. Apparently, Obopay works with all mobile phones and carriers.
You can send money via: Text message, Obopay phone application and/or your phone’s web browser. It costs 10 cents to send money. It’s free to receive and withdraw money.
Learn more about how Obopay works.
If you’ve used (or still use) Obopay, please share some feedback about this service. It’ll be interesting to know what you think of it.
Since I’m based in Australia, I’m unable to test this service. And, at this time, I haven’t heard any other similar services available in non-US countries.
Tags: mobile office, obopay, payment systemShare This

Open Mic Monday: National Small Business Week

Just Make Money Online:
In the U.S., it’s National Small Business Week between 21st to 25th of April 2008. The event is meant to acknowledge the contribution of small businesses in American economy. If you’re in the U.S., what are you doing to celebrate/observe this occasion? It’ll be interesting to know what small online business people are planning to do for this event.
Since I’m in Australia, we don’t really have events here to go to. However, I recognise that there are many U.S.-based JMMO readers and friends. So, I would just like to encourage folks to check out blogs like Small Business Boomers, Biz Chicks Rule, and the rest of the Business blogs here at b5media.
Image: Based on Microsoft Stock Photo. Edits, Shai Coggins.
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Inspirational Hyperreal Vector Artists and Images

Smashing Magazine:
by Sean Hodge
Hyperrealism is an art movement,which requires the same level of technical ability as photorealistic illustration. To get an idea what is actually meant by that, you can take a look at some excellent examples in the post The World’s Most Photorealistic Vector Art. While Hyperrealism brings a similar level of skill to images, this style allows the artist to creatively interpret an image. In Hyperrealism artists utilize ethereal lighting effects, depth of field techniques, and camera style perspective to depict the images. They create images that are imaginatively realistic.
Often artists that work in Hyperrealism have other interests as well. These vary by subject matter and style. Some of the artists listed below are interested in Vexel styles, Digitalization, Classic Airbrush Painting, and have been influenced by a myriad of other styles. We’ve included work that ranges from strong Hyperrealism to work that is more a stylization of reality.
This kind of artwork is often created using Illustrator’s Gradient Mesh Tool, though not always. You’ll see that some of the artists create artwork with a fantastic level of detail, using many flat shapes. Illustrator is the most popular program for creating Hyperreal Vector art. Artists also use Flash and other vector programs as well.
Hyperreal Vector Artists
Cristiano Siqueira
Chistiano is an accomplished illustrator from Brazil. He has multiple vector stylistic influences. He has some works in vexel styles, cartoon styles, realistic styles, hyperrealistic styles, and various mixtures of these. The work depicted below has a…