Online Biz Roundup 7/20/08: BlogHer Edition

Union Square / Andrew Gunners / Getty Images

The BlogHer '08 conference wrapped up today in San Francisco. Over 1,000 women bloggers (and a few male ones including yours truly) descended on Union Square this weekend to learn and network.

(Lynn Truong, my fellow cofounder and Sales Director of Killer Aces Media, was in the panel discussion on blog monetization (session notes). I'll be posting an interview with Lynn later this week on how you can better monetize your blog.)

(Update: Here's the interview - How Do I Sell Advertising on My Blog?.)

In this week's online biz roundup, eBay reports strong earnings, Google search loses market share to Yahoo and Microsoft, and ICANN introduces ".anything" domain names. Plus we link to a case study on how to hit the Digg front page, a discussion of how much bloggers are/should be paid, and a look behind the technologies that power Google search.

Online Business News

• ICANN: .anything is the next domain craze [BizReport] - The organization that manages the entire domain name system is going to allow users to register arbitrary top level domains (TLDs). That means you can register domain names that don't have the .com/net/org/biz extension. This is a sea change in the domain name system, though it will be two more years before you can actually register your own TLD.
  
  
• Microsoft and Yahoo pick up search market share from Google in June [comScore] - Google's search market share slipped from 61.8% to 61.5% in June. Microsoft and Yahoo gained 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively. Overall, Americans conducted a lot more searches (up 7%) in June versus May.
  
  
• In-line quarter seen for eBay [Forbes] - Despite suing partner site Craigslist and losing a suit brought by LVMH, eBay posted good earnings. (CEO John Donahoe says they're on track to boost growth in the core auction business. [CNN])
  
  
• Google Docs Adds Templates [Web Worker Daily] - I'm a Google Docs user (great for collaboratively editing documents), and appreciate the hundreds of new templates including business cards, letterheads, business plans, invoices, and a bunch of spreadsheets. Browse the gallery.
  
  
• NPR Launches API That Serves Up 13 Years Of Content [TechCrunch] - Nice to see media companies opening up access to their content for fans to develop better ways of delivering it to interested audiences. The API allows developers to access NPR content (videos, images, full text articles) and create mashups.
  
  

Good Reads: Tutorials and Articles That Make You Smarter

• 7 Super Triggers to Get Readers into Action [Build a Better Blog] - "We are pre-programmed to comply with requests when a trigger is activated. Research has identified seven super triggers. Once you know and understand them, you will see them everywhere. In every request you make, in every email you write, and certainly in every commercial on TV, these seven super triggers are present." This article is useful beyond blogging. By recognizing these triggers, you can craft more effective marketing and sales strategies for any (online) business.
  
  
• 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky [Problogger] - These 21 techniques are ways that you can make your blog or website more sticky. A few days later, Darren follows it up with 7 More Ways to Make Your Blog Sticky.
  
  
• Freelancers: It's Not About You - "It is no secret that human beings are pretty self-absorbed creatures, and while that sounds negative, a smart freelancer should actually think of it as a positive -- because in the end people choose to hire you because of what you can do for them."
  
  
• If You Intend To Blog Seriously [Chris Brogan] - From defamation and libel, to disclosure, linking policy, and providing value for your readers, here are 12 things you should consider if you are serious about blogging. (I keep finding great articles from social media consultant Chris Brogan. Subscribe to his feed if you're at all interested in blogging, social media, and social networking for business.)
  
  
• Technologies Behind Google Ranking [Official Google Blog] - Google shares a little bit about the technologies that power their indispensable search platform. "The core technology in our ranking system comes from the academic field of Information Retrieval (IR). The IR community has studied search for almost 50 years. It uses statistical signals of word salience, like word frequency, to rank pages. IR gave us a solid foundation, and we have built a tremendous system on top using links, page structure, and many other such innovations."
  
  
• How Much Are Bloggers Paid to Blog? [Blog Herald] - A look at how much bloggers are getting paid. Rates are compared with print media, and the articles discusses typical blogger rates and requirements. If you're a blogger looking to earn additional income by getting a paid blogging job, this is a good article to help you figure out what your target rates should be.
  
  
• How to Create Digg-Friendly Content: Cracked.com's Template [Dosh Dosh] - Case study of how entertainment website Cracked.com ends up on the front page of social bookmarking website Digg (BIG traffic referrer) everyday. (Despite the cutesy anime pics, Dosh Dosh is an insanely useful blog by social media maven Maki. Well worth subscribing to the feed and/or digging into the archives (click on the Categories tab in the sidebar.)
  
  
• 7 Reasons You Should Be Advertising On Blogs [Advertise Space] - It's a cheap way to reach influential bloggers and Web power users (shoppers).
  
  

New Resources Here at About Online Business

• 6 Copywriting Tips for Customer Conversion - Guest post from Scott Fox (author of Internet Riches) on how to write copy that drives customer action.
  
  
• Top 42 Most Useful Firefox Addons - After a couple of weeks of playing with Firefox addons, here are my picks for the top 42 addons most useful. These extensions were tested with Web power users in mind -- bloggers, ecommerce merchants, Web designers and developers, etc. But there are also over a dozen addons that I think all Web users would find handy.
  
  
• Top 10 Places to Find Paid Blogging Jobs - Bloggers are in hot demand now. If you can publish high quality, SEO friendly, 200-500 word posts on a regular basis, there's a blog network or small business looking for you.
  
  

And the fun link of the week... Top 100 Web Celebrities [Tech Cult].

Every Sunday, we link out to the Web's best new resources, articles, and interesting news that help you run your online business better. Got a tip? Email me at onlinebusiness.guide@about.com. Thanks!