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New Media News Every Morning

Trouble at PayPerPost?

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pppPayPerPost is offering a $5 per post special according to a report at iMedia Connection.

Here’s the thing, it sounds like PayPerPost (PPP) is getting desperate by heavily discounting paid posting by dropping premium pricing. I know spin when I see it, and sampling offers are usually a sign that there’s a lack of advertisers, and hence a lack of liquidity in a business.

Ted Murphy’s spin:

This promotion provides an incredible opportunity for blog marketers to experiment with our system in order to determine what price and segmenting options provide the maximum return and fill rates in our marketplace

Decoded: we are running out of paid advertisers so we want to offer lower rates so potential advertisers can check the product out and hopefully become long term buyers.

Now I’m not even trying to get involved in the PPP/ ethics debate, I don’t use PPP although I did sign up for an account there when they launched so I could check them out. It’s not my thing, but having said that I’m not everyone so I don’t begrudge anyone running paid postings. But I can smell a fish from a mile off, and this one smells a little off color. Whether it’s the first sign of the end of PPP…it’s too early to say, but you don’t run these sort of offers when the advertisers are queuing at the door.

Originally posted on March 30, 2007 @ 1:13 am

Only 5 million US citizens use mobile internet: study

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A study by Media-Screen has found that only 5% of people with broadband connections in the United States, approximately five million people, use the mobile Internet, despite 60% of them having a mobile internet device.

The report also found that mobile internet remains unpopular due to cost and connectivity issues including coverage.

Worse still, if you’re running a Web 2.0 company aimed at mobile users, the report found that those using mobile internet perform an average of 3.3 online activities on their mobile device per session, compared to 13.4 activities on regular computers..essentially those using mobile internet don’t actually do a lot with it.

Full details from the study can be found here.

(via Center for Media Research email)

Originally posted on March 29, 2007 @ 4:53 am

Stupidity Personified: Calls for a Blogging Code of Conduct

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Im with stupidNow I’ve seen everything. According to the Beeb, Tim O’Reilly, amongst others, is calling for the implementation of a blogging code of conduct in response to the whole “OMG someone threatened death against Kathy Sierra meme”, which he describes as

a code of conduct around what is acceptable behavior, I would hope that it doesn’t come through any kind of [legal/government] regulation it would come through self-regulation.

OK, so I’ve been a little negative lately in my analysis of all things blogging, but how do you spin this crap positively? You cant.

It’s complete and utter bollocks (language refrained due to the audience).

A code of conduct is going to stop nutters making death threats on blogs. Yeah, and a f*cking lettuce leaf will bring peace in the Middle East and a carrot will appease North Korea.

Are these people on drugs?

And no, I’m not just talking about the Grade A nutters making death threats against feminist obsessed professional victims, but the Grade A nutters who think that implementing a blogging code of conduct will make even an ounce of difference.

Could there be any other possible explanation?

The world is an amazing place, screwed up, but amazing none the less. :-)

Originally posted on March 29, 2007 @ 12:30 am

Rumors of the death of blogs are greatly exaggerated

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There has got to be some irony in having to post a defense against the meme that blogging is dying two days after posting that newspapers are not dying either, but alas such is the life of Web 2.0 pundit in a world where economics is taught on the back of a packet of cereal instead as a compulsory subject in schools and Universities.

Blogging is not dying, in the same way that newspapers are not.

We are seeing a market correction.

A market correction which I’d note is only being seen in Western/ English speaking markets, mature markets with near universal internet access.

Blogging growth in Asia, particularly China & India will continue to boom.

Blogging has peaked in the English speaking world. No doubt about it.

Some may remember the fruit fly/ population test from their school days, the one where the fruit flies explode with growth, only to hit a peak, then a large decline in numbers followed by a leveling out in population somewhere between the peak and trough, a level that is sustainable over the longer term.

Blogging is just like fruit flies :-)

What I find amazing about the current blogging is dying/ blogging is dead meme is that it’s coming from the mainstream media (examples: here, here and here). It’s nearly enough to want to make me take sides with the likes of Robert Scoble and support the whole concept that newspapers are dying out of spite, and yet my brains don’t seem to fit in the blender currently located 3 feet away from where I write this post on my laptop.

Take a look at the decline in the number of newspapers, looks terminal, doesn’t it?

newspapers

But wait. Lets look at the growth in a sub-section of the newspaper market, morning papers and weekend editions:

paper

Notice the difference? What if I told you newspaper readership is increasing worldwide? Read this.

Same goes for blogs. We are seeing a decline in blogs, no doubt about it, but it’s no where near the end of blogging. The glory days of blog growth are over and after a possibly large decline (they’re talking 200 million abandoned blogs already), the new, leaner, meaner, and more efficient blogosphere will still be there to keep the MSM honest, and to create and break more unique and niche news and reviews, just the way we like it.

Charts made with Journalism.org’s excellent State of the Newsmedia Chart tool.

Originally posted on March 26, 2007 @ 11:41 pm