Archive for November, 2006

Increase subscribers by offering a prize draw?

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

So the Marketing Pilgrim blog is offering a prize draw for anyone that subscribes to their blog and as the amount of subscribers increases, the prize gets better. Oddly though there only appear to be 7 blogs linking to the blog post itself. Or maybe 8 now. You’d think there’d be more. This I suppose is very like the old competitions to get people to sign up to newsletters though subscribing and unsubscribing to RSS is much easier and there’s no fear of getting further spammed.

Still I wonder is this a way of getting genuine subscribers? Regular readers who do not sub might sign up but I guess the barrier to entry for RSS subscribers is still high or they would have already signed-up. Maybe IE7 will start changing that along with other common applications that start incorporating RSS reading technology.

How would you try and increase the number of subscribers to your blog? I’m not sold on something gimmicky like winning an iPod. I have an icon or two on the sidebar telling people how they can subscribe. Should there be an option in every post? Or on the most popular posts? But then what is the need to have more RSS subscribers besides the ego boost of seeing x dozen people have to suffer your links to YouTube?

Fluffy Links – November 30th 2006

Thursday, November 30th, 2006

Payback’s a bitch. Undermining 2.0.

Worst Internet Aquisitions ever.

Watch Arrested Development online on MSN.

Circumventing the water-damage stickers hidden in your mobiles.

“We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too”. Where’s Mel Gibson when you need him?

21 James Bond Title Sequences. One after the other.

Cold War Kids – Hospital Beds (live)

Final KLF video – KLF – What time is love?

Harry McGee joins the blogging world

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

Harry McGee, Political Editor for the Irish Examiner has now started his own blog.

A very brief introduction. I am the political editor of the Irish Examiner.
A very brief brief for this blog: Running commentary on politics.
A very brief summary of the choice of day to start it: inauspicious.
It will improve though. There is, despite the general sense of indolence here, an election in six month’s time. And next week’s Budget will provide – as we hacks love to write – the opening volleys etc etc

Fluffy Links – November 29th 2006

Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

Atheists are the new gays says Dilbert creator. Atheists are coming out of their closets ever since 9/11 he says.

Things you may not have known about AIDS in Africa.

Nintendo NES guitar.

Free ad supported mobile phones.

Michael Moore makes some supposed olive branch gesture to Republicans but it reads as totally condescending. Remember Michael, that it was a majority voted in all those Republican senators and congressmen and it was a large chunk of the country that voted in George W. Bush, twice. The Dems will do as they always have and righteously piss off many of those that gave them the chance to do good and alienate those that didn’t give them a chance by questioning their intelligence. It might be best to stick to making almost-factual documentaries and not rubbing the noses of millions into the shitpile they helped create.

Battlestar Galactica Clip set to Soundgarden – Blow up the outside world:

Original song and videof for Soundgarden’s Blow up the outside world:

Lyrics to Blow up the outside world.

BMW Films

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

A good few years back BMW did the BMW Films project. They got some gifted directors to create short films that featured the BMW product range. Each director created some great movies and the cinematography really showed off the BMWs. Below are some of those films. The driver in each film is Clive Owen.

Ambush – Directed by John Frankenheimer, he of Ronin fame and written by Andrew Kevin Walker, he of Se7en fame.

Chosen – Directed by Ang Lee, just before he made the really really awful “The Hulk”.

The Follow – Directed by Wong Kar Wai of “In the mood for love” fame. Possibly the best of the films.

Star – Directed by Guy Richie where he absolutely takes the piss out of his wife. Stars Madonna as a super-egotistical music star.

Powder Keg directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, he of 21 Grams and Babel and Amores Perros fame.

Beat the Devil – directed by Tony Scott and starring James Brown and Gary Oldman

Help promote good blogs that slip under the radar

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

JP Rangaswami is starting the tag idea of newtailblog which suggests that if you want to promote a blogger than isn’t greatly known, you blog about them and use the “newtailblog” tag.

Cool idea. Now speaking of which. The latest new blogs on the block are posted over on the awards site.

Fluffy Links – November 28th 2006

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Charity You’re A Star not to great on the charity.

Niagra falls from space.

What’s the best way to gain the support of a large number of people? Prey on their ignorance. There will always be a large amount of people who will never understand modern technology or consumer devices. Echo their inner feelings and fear of the new and you’ll be their champion. Bill O’Reilly thinks the iPod is a danger to America. Bill Gates did not sponsor him.

On the opposite side you could be like Bill Clinton and try and be everyones friend. Barack Obama plays the sweet card and rings up a journalist and apologises for causing them embarassment. If you want the support of people that like charming characters then you do what Barack does. I’m sure Obama was genuine but I’m sure it was also contemplated that a journo would be a journo and write about it.

Jakob Nielsen on digital divides.

Good article/post on broadband and the public interest.

Fantastic pic of a tower in Russia that reaches above the clouds.

Search engine for law blogs.

Johnny Cash, live in prison:

KLF – Last Train to Trancentral

B to the A to the Arrrr – Bar Camp Ireland – South East

Monday, November 27th, 2006

BarCamp South East Ireland

Well the next episode of BarCamp Ireland will be in Waterford on January 20th. Keep updated with the Bar Camp Ireland South East wiki and Bar Camp Ireland South East blog.

Do go along. I’m going to see can I go. Great idea about displaying the pics of attendees in advance. The last BarCamp was really fun and I’m this next one will be too. Hopefully we might see that halfbaking idea too.

And yes, I am a thief for stealing Ken’s bandwidth by hotlinking to the logo he made.

Fluffy links – November 27th 2006

Monday, November 27th, 2006

Random breath tests, my arse.

How come I heard so little about the Dublin Firefox party? Surely free booze would have gotten more attention in the Blog O’Sphere? How many bloggers were there? How many nerds?

So, we’re meant to believe that a prisoner handcuffed in the back of a police car managed to take out a loaded gun which he hads concealed and shot himself in the head with it?

Another funky use of Amazon EC2.

I don’t have time for naps but they appear useful. What about just not sleeping?

The Google 15. With all the good and free food at Google, lots of people are gaining weight. I think where I work we’ve experienced the same.

Cops in London are getting head mounted vid cams. One step closer to robocop.

This is really too close to comfort. Pilot flies plane through tiny gap between two mountains.

Family Guy taking the piss out of Star Trek:

KLF – Justified and Ancient. Tammy rocks!

Politics in Ireland – Competition Winner

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

The winner of the Barack Obama book is David Doran. Thanks also to Simon and Ken for their very constructive suggestions. Only 3 people gave feedback so the odds were quite good for winning and it was David’s name I picked out of the jiffy bag.

Now it is time for me to shut off the computer and get ready for my trip to Aberdeen in a few hours. Blog is on auto-pilot once again. Back on Thursday evening.