Its really sad. According to Google Webmaster Tools, these are the top results of people reaching my site through the Google search engine and then clicking through (%) to my site. I was hoping for something a bit more uplifting. A bit more . . . well . . you know. . . less disturbing.
Technorati Tags: google
Spring is upon us. Here are a few small Web 2.0 projects that I have managed to get done in the past week.
1. Set up Flock as my default browser. (done). Goodbye Firefox and Safari. Flock has been one of the favourite browsers in my harem but now will become my preferred browser-dashboard, Flickr gallery, RSS reader as well as being another blog editing platform, working alongside Ecto.
2. Collate my many web 2.0 life streams into a single multi-streamed gush. (done).
3 Storm into Google, gather the bots and train them all to search my blog responsively, regularly, respectfully, and await my every command to either find, hide, dismiss or prioritize my thousands of blog posts. The last one is a doozy. This is all possible through Google Webmaster Tools (done) and submitting to Google a site map of my blog (done).
4. Add a new and improved web 2.0 friendly template for the blog (done), including a small dashboard for my web 2.0 addictions.(done)
5. Web 2.0 linked signature for Apple Mail (done)
I like the Typepad blogging platform and have used it since converting from Blogger back in 2003. However, it has lagged woefully behind Wordpress in the aesthetics department. Until now. There's a few new pretty-darn-good-looking typepad themes available as the result of a recent theme making contest. The theme I am using today is called HP Wicked Fun. I will probably leave it up for a few days before hacking into it and making it mine. I think it was made by Gwen Stefani.
update: hacked already. japanese theme continued as a hat tip to gwen.
Google webmaster tools now has a feature that lets you see what google searches people did to find your site FROM EACH COUNTRY! I had no idea they were so different. Its really worth a look. Here are my number one search queries in which my site appeared:
USA - "andrew jones"
UK - "habbohotel uk"
New Zealand - "kiwi nudes"
Germany - "Horst Schafrenek"
France - "sex house"
Turkey - "i dress"
Netherlands - "andrew jones"
No results yet from China, Australia and a few other straggling countries.
And if you don't have Google webmaster tools, then do it. And set up a site map so you can control those Google bots, wild beasts all of them, and point them to the blog posts they need to see.
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, google webmaster
The sandbox for iGoogle opened yesterday. Should be exciting to see new apps for Google's Open Social. I am really interested in the idea of spiritual communities launched natively through phone and web apps and I think this one could be a part of the scheme of things.
Are you also thinking about online spiritual communities? And the potential of Web 2.0 for Church 2.0? Love to hear what you are thinking. Send me an email. I may want to ask you some questions.
Also, any readers out there who are considering attending the Graphing Social Patterns Conference next June or attended the GSP West Coast conference last month?
What about Google's Developer Event in San Francisco in May?
Are you at Web 2.0 Expo right now???? [Lucky sod!]
Come forward please. Come on up to the front. Yes . . . I see that hand . . .
Technorati Tags: web 2.0
I met up for coffee with Problogger Darren Rowse in Melbourne for our first face-to-face. We were talking about doing a blogging event together at next years SXSW in Austin.
The Pope got blogged on his USA tour.
Another badge for my collection from a new portal in town. "Wikio is Europe's number 1 news portal and we have recently launched our Top UK Blog rankings where your blog TallSkinnyKiwi currently stands at number 75"
Godblogcon blogging convention will be held in Las Vegas Sep 19-21. I will be one of the speakers. Details are not up yet but you might want to start planning to be there.
Internet Monk, on behalf of the Asbury Bloggers Society, puts forward a list of top bloggers Leading the list is . . . hey . .wait a minute . . thats ME!!! [sounding surprised] . . . what incredible foresight and impeccable taste has our IM friend.
"1. Tall Skinny Kiwi- Is there a better blog to model everything we all like about blogging? Andrew blogs his life without going into cat pictures. He blogs ministry, important ideas, and contemporary developments in evangelicalism with equal ease. It’s a visually interesting blog that makes all of us consider what a comprehensively interesting blog should be. At Andrew’s blog everything is in balance and familiar, but also constantly changing and fresh." Internet Monk, The Distinquished Faculty of the IM School of Blogging
Thanks Michael. BTW have you seen my cat called Charlie Chaplin? Really, check it out. Charlie Chaplin, now older and bigger, is missing at the moment and we are hoping she [yes, a girl] will make her way back home. Say a prayer for Charlie.
"Other bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet." NY TImes explores the ugly side of professional blogging.
Technorati Tags: blogging
I just accepted an invitation to speak at Godblogcon 2008 in Las Vegas, September 19-21. Having watched Godblogcon pass me by last year and the previous times, I finally get to attend. The conference is associated with the 2008 BlogWorld and New Media Expo which is held at the same time in also in the Las Vegas Convention Center. I will be speaking on ...
The Missional Church in an Internet Age.
Please say hello if you see me there. If you cant hear me in Las Vegas, I will be in Austin, Texas for a day or two in March (around 17th) and in San Antonio (Nov 3-7) for the 2008 Global Christian Internet Alliance meeting. I will also be in the San Francisco area around March 14-15 but am not sure if i will have time for any meetings.
Technorati Tags: blog, godblogcon, godblogcon 2008
Darren Rowse, of the ridiculously popular Problogger.net, owes me a coffee. After discovering my blog in 2002 and starting his own, he went on to make half a million dollars, pay off his mortgage and start one of the world's biggest blogs. I reckon he owes me a coffee.
In this mornings postings, Darren writes about his 6 defining moments as a problogger. Discovering my site was the first and the other 5 don't really matter because my blog put him on the right track. He owes me a coffee!
Problogger is voted Technorati's number 2 favorite blog in the world, coming right next to BoingBoing. I have voted for both blogs in the past, but have a special spot in my heart for Problogger, since its a damn helpful blog but also because there is some lineage to my poor humble tallskinnykiwi blog, producing a familial parental urge to vote for it. Darren bloody well owes me a coffee!
And i will be in Melbourne in a few months at the Forge Grassroots Festival to collect it. I think Darren will also be there. Or so he told me. Make that a latte, Darren . . . extra large!
One of Darren's choices as a blogger was to be vulnerable and honest about how much money he was making, despite the Aussie tendency to hide success and punish it when you see it happen to others (tall poppy syndrome). Quite risky, actually, for Darren to go public but a good choice and thousands of bloggers are grateful. I know a lot of bloggers have been helped along by his advice, including some young people in India who are involved in Christian mission.
Darren also has a blog called The Living Room, which explores his community's journey as a part of a spiritual movement embraced by a lot of young people [but vilified by others] called the Emerging Church. If i lived in Melbourne, I would probably check it out.
Related: More on the Grassroots Festival (Say hello to me if you see me)
Technorati Tags: blog, darren rowse, emerging church, problogger
Finally, I did it!
What: I added a sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools today for my Typepad based blog. I splashed out and bought Rage SiteMap Automator for $30. Its a bit more spendy but its made for Mac, only a week old, works great, and unlike those horrible PC programs for sitemap generation, it doesnt look like an explosion in a light bulb factory. If my site had less than 500 pages, I could have created a sitemap for nothing on one of those cheap and tacky sites, but with over 5000 pages and 135,000 links, I needed something more robust. No regrets!
Why: Because when you have lots of posts, Google doesn't know what to put forward and Google Webmaster Tools allows you to guide the Googlebot around your site and show it the things you are most proud of and the things you want to hide. I talked about this problem and some other workarounds in my blogging tips for 2007. But this is a far better solution. There are other reasons to join Google Webmaster Tools like seeing what people type into the search engine to find you and locating dead links, naughty html, introducing a new site to Google, etc but submitting a sitemap is a big reason to join up.
Thats what the code looks like for each URL. You can change the frequency Google looks at it and the priority. Very cool!
Technorati Tags: sitemap
Tony Whittaker of Internet Evangelism Day has a great parable called A Tale of Two Golf Clubs which explains why you cant drag an old media mind into the new media world without some serious rethinking. They are also offering to help make your church website more effective with some diagnostic tools like this self-assessment questionaire. And in case you have forgotten, Internet Evangelism Day is April 27.
I met Tony in person last year in Berlin at the Global Christian Internet Alliance meeting. Nice guy!
Speaking of golf clubs, Scot McKnight uses a golf club analogy in this book A Community Called Atonement to explain the various atonement theories. The right club (view of atonement) for the right situation. Works for me. OK - thats a totally different use of golf clubs. Sorry.
My Happy Hour is this coming Monday, 12th November at 5pm GMT (London time) on Shapevine.com. That's midday in New York. Come with questions for my very special guests who are turning up through video cam. They include:
Bob Beltz, an author of numerous books and creator of the world's first virtual monastery. He is also the guy behind Walden Media which is releasing the DVD of Amazing Grace the following day with a 5 week course for churches and small groups. I want to ask him about what happened with the blogger/Hollywood partnership that we experienced earlier in the year and if it is a good way forward.
Wolfgang Simson is author of Houses that Change the World (download PDF here) and a new book on the global house church movement that is awaiting release. Wolfgang, in my opinion, is the most knowlegable guy anywhere regarding whats going on with house churches globally. Actually, he will be in my house for a few days so his video cast will be coming from another room in our house. I want him to talk about web, cyberchurch and how it ties in to house church.
Becky Garrison, Senior Editor for The Wittenburg Door, is releasing a book a few days later called "Rising From the Ashes: Rethinking Church". Becky has just done some research looking at emerging church in both UK and USA and is able to draw some interesting comparisons. And she is NEVER lost for words. Believe me! See Becky on Wikipeida. She is also putting out a book on new atheism.
And a special guest to talk about cyberchurch and Church 2.0. I have just asked Paul Teusner from Australia but am awaiting his response. His PhD work on emerging bloggers and cyberspace (read some of it here - "Emerging church bloggers in Australia: Prophets, priests and rulers in God’s virtual world") is really fascinating.
And I will make some special announcements about some changes in our ministry and plans for 2008. You might even meet my wife, Debbie, who is starting an artists cooperative called The Sorting Room, which is paving the way for a new kind of social enterprise in UK
.
Technorati Tags: christian, emergent, emerging church, web 2.0
Godblogcon is starting today in Las Vegas. Its a conference for Christian bloggers that started in California. I have never been but have tried twice to get there. Maybe next year. The cool thing this year is that its happening in the same venue as Blog World Expo. Pajama Party tonight and Weblog Awards. Dang. Wish i was there. Try Evangelical Outpost [who i just voted for yesterday on some award website] for the skinny on the Godblogcon side of the Convention Center - you know - the Christian bloggers who didn't attend the pajama party.
Technorati Tags: godblogcon
Book Review - The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs, by Brian Bailey with Terry Storch
Its a book for big church pastors to encourage them to blog. Leadership Network was behind it and the voices of Andy Stanley, Mark Driscoll and others are the prominent ones encouraging pastors to increase the impact of their ministry through blogging. The suggestion is good. The book itself is OK. Brian reports that many people have started blogs because of this book. But its not a GREAT book. In fact, I didn't really like it, and I was one of the contributors. My little piece comes at the end of the book along with some other bloggers like Guy Kawasaki and David Weinberger and David Winer.
Hello? . . . Did you say Guy Kawa-bloody-Saki?????
Yes I did and thats the big BO-BO of the book - Guy K and the David W's are GURUS in the field of new media and should be at the FRONT of the book, not tacked on as endnotes to the blogging pontifications of big church pastors who may not even know their CSS from their RSS . . and probably don't. The other thing is that there really is a blogging church, described best by Tim Bednar in "We Know More Than Our Pastors" but it has more to do with bloggers aggregating online than with turning up to a large church to hear the pastor, whether he blogs or not.
Having said that, The Blogging Church is a well written book that is helpful and informative for church websites as well as blogs. And the encouragement to pastors and leaders to blog more is commendable.
Book Review - Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation thats Changing Your World, by Hugh Hewitt. Subheading is "Why you must know how the BLOGOSPHERE is smashing the OLD MEDIA MONOPOLY and giving individuals power in the marketplace of ideas.
I bought this book last year and was a little disappointed with it so i have not given a review until now. Hugh Hewitt himself is quite a phenomenal person, having successfully brought his audience from his radio talk show over into the blog world and building his blog to be a real powerhouse for republican blogging. He is speaking today at GodBlogCon in Las Vegas. I almost made it this year but since i was in USA 2 weeks ago and have to be there again in 2 weeks (San Francisco) I decided not to come.
"If your organization has not established itself in the blogosphere, now is the time to move ahead, but quickly!" (front cover)
The book has some excellent thoughts on the similarity and differences between the first Reformation and the current information reformation brought about through the Web. And also the empowerment of individuals and the people who, unlike Hugh, don't usually get much of a hearing. The style of the book doesn't really appeal to me and his peppy enthusiasm for blog journalism will encourage those who appreciate that kind of pep-talk but will probably turn off most of this blog's readers - who will probably not learn anything new. A better book than this is by Shane Hipps - "The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture", which is also not a GREAT book but its not bad either i will it review next.
As you know, this blog was nominated for two awards in the Bloggers Choice Awards. The Best Religion Blog and the Best Blog of All Time.
And the winners were . . . NOT tallskinnykiwi.com. I had a lot of votes for Best Religion Blog and got a few votes for Best Blog of All Time but for some unknown reason, those votes have all disappeared. I have informed the management in case any of you decide to go postal on them.
(UPDATE: they got back to me and told me they have rolled all they results back to zero for 2008 competition. Fair enough)
Hey - It was nice to be nominated and nice to be thought of and it was nice of you to vote for me. But NOT NICE ENOUGH to win an award. Actually, to tell the truth, I took the badges off a while ago when i went through a dark night of the blogging soul and was thinking of stopping this blog. Anyway, enough groveling and grumbling . . .
The finalists for the Top 3 Religion Blogs, who kicked my butt because they have better blogs [and more enthusiastic supporters] than me . . and the envelope please . . .
. . . please note they are all Catholic blogs which gives them the advantage because, as everyone knows, Catholics get along with each other and even VOTE for each other while Protestants have the spiritual gift of seeing why each other does not belong in the room . . . and thus reserving or removing their votes . . .. but here they are . . .
Wdtprs.com -What Does the Prayer Really Say which is an OK blog but not highly original.
The-hermeneutic-of-continuity.Blogspot.com which again is an OK blog, started only last year but has already got over 300k visitors.
Americanpapist.Com/blog.html - Now thats more like it. Dynamic, fun, multi-media blog thats takes on hard issues. Thomas Peters has the better blog of the three Catholic bloggers and probably deserves to take the prize this year.
And the finalists for the Top 3 Best Blogs of All Time are:
Karencheng.Com.au - nice clean sharp and personal. and i like her little header gallery. i need to get me one of those for all my monthly headers.
Dooce.com - also a clean, uncluttered (compared to mine) blog and is also a female blogger.
Keithandthegirl.com - more of a media download and viewing site. I am not sure how this made the cut unless they had a lot of people send in votes for them. Where is the BLOG?
Anyway, lets see how they all do at the final.
Technorati Tags: blog, blogger's choice awards, blogging
BlogRush roll out phase 2 of their system today - the one I told you about in September. Its a nice system and they are doing a great job. I really like the fact that i can view exactly how many people read each post of mine, as well as how many came through BlogRush (very little actually). I am sticking with them to see where it all goes, despite giving prime pixelage to them instead of to Google Ads or something else that could earn me money. All part of the 'attention economy" I guess. Anyway, in phase 2 BlogRush promise . . .
- 42% Increase In Free Traffic
- Widget Performance Monitoring
- All Members Must Be Displaying The Widget
- Closing In On ONE BILLION Blog Headlines
- TrafficJam.com Is Coming
Technorati Tags: blogrush
Mean Dean Peters, of the infamous HealYourChurch and Blogs4God, arrives in Jordan today and starts 'histoblogging' [my word] his way around. He has created a WIKI called the BlogJordan Wiki for images and thoughts and whatever related to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Dean says in an email this morning that I might be interested to know about . . .
* the fact I return 100 lbs lighter (perhaps to find them?-)
* the fact that I'll be YouTube-ing about the Hashemite Kingdom
* the fact that there's alot of Bible history I'll be covering
* the fact that that this time around, I'm also covering culture & cuisine
Technorati Tags: jordan
"Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model - raising money for charities - giving voice to emerging writers and artists - generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created." Wikiklesia Press Release
As a missionary and church planter, I like anything that can self-perpetuate, multiply, reproduce spontaneously and keep on giving itself away until it reaches it goal. That means churches, conferences, training systems, and also this little publishing experiment called WIKIKLESIA that LAUNCHES TOMORROW [now available] on Lulu.
Volume One of the Wikiklesia project gets released July 23rd and its called Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution. BUY THE BOOK! My chapter on blogging is buried in there somewhere but the other chapters will be much more interesting than mine.
I have invited one of the project leaders John La Grou to my Happy Hour video cafe on Wednesday, along with some other geeky guests, and hopefully, if everything works out, John will chat about the uniqueness of this collaborative project.
Technorati Tags: book, collaborative, ecclesial, new media, nomadic, participatory, publishing, wikiklesia
Continue reading "Wikiklesia: The world's first self-perpetuating nomadic business model?" »
I was reading the graffiti on the toilet wall at Frankfurt Hahn airport, where we spent last night on the hard floor, being interrogated all night by bright lights. And as i was reading the graffiti i was thinking how similar to the blogosphere. Someone writes a thought and then people respond underneath with their comments and reactions. And everyone who pays a visit gets to read it. People hang out longer to read good comments. Nothing new under the sun.
Although Cocomment is a wicked cool way to track your comments on one page as well as watching other people's comments. Check my comments out. Now thats different! Just try doing THAT in the public toilets . .. . tracking your comments i mean . . . not watching other people. you know what i mean . . .
I have said this before. Maybe you cant stomach the emerging church but you will still end up using their software. I use it when i can because i like to keep things in the family. Cleave (Adam Cleaveland) has a wicked cool wordpress 2.0 template that i just downloaded for one of my blogs. Its called Cleaker 2.0. More stuff at Cleave Design.
Technorati Tags: blog, emerging church, wordpress, web 2.0
Cory Miller at Church Communications Pro has released the findings of the 2007 Christian Blogger Survey. Full report here. I am re-posting this with the list of participants and some of Cory's findings:
"Here are some snapshots of the survey:
* Total Number of Blogs In Survey: 367 blogs
* Most Popular Blogging Platform: Blogger with 184; WordPress was next with 77
* Length of Blogging Tenure: 122 blogging for one to six months; followed close by 121 who have been blogging one to two years
* Frequency of Posting: 175 indicated “one to 10 times a month”
* Gender: 309 were males
* Age: 136 are between 31 to 40 years old
* Ministry role: 128 respondents were “senior pastors”"
[Original Post] Cory Miller has released the results from a survey of over 360 Christian bloggers, including me. Its called “Blogging Believers: Who's Out There in the Blogosphere?” Interesting to see the largest group was “Senior Pastors”. Cory recommends this list of bloggers.
I remember a time (2001) when I was excited that I had 12 Christian bloggers on my blog roll. By 2002, that number was raging out of control and I realized it wasn't possible to link to all of them. Ahhhh . . . the old days!
Technorati Tags: blog, christianity
Tim Rohrer tells me that he and some friends just created a killer Web 2.0 app called Zpeech (beta) and is wondering if we can experiment with it here. Zpeech means you can comment on my actual site right here at www.zpeech.com/tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi or use the address for commenting on any other website in the same way. This is early days but the app. has a lot of potential. As I said to Tim, this might be the best Web 2.0 innovation this year or . . . it might be the most EVIL! Lets wait and see.
No tools yet for your blog nor decent spam protection but those things are in the pipeline.
Interesting discussion at DAVOS 2007 regarding how MSN and new media [bloggers, etc] can get along or if it is possible to do so. Classic quote:
"A blogging entrepreneur drew a useful distinction between old mainstream media (MSM) which had attention deficit disorder and the best bloggers, who were obsessive compulsive. Newspapers started out on stories or campaigns and then got bored. Bloggers never got bored of their own subjects." Guardian
The discussion reminds me of the old vs. new media conversations at London's WeMedia Fringe that i participated in last year. It also reminds me of the tension between institutional church and emerging church - and the desire to work together to be a 'mixed economy'.
Technorati Tags: davos07, world economic forum
UPDATE 27.1.07: Iranian blogs were a topic of interest at Davos07 yesterday. HT: Buzz Machine
ORIGINAL POST 26.1.07: Persian bloggers. They are our new neighbors. Maybe its time to meet them. PersianBlog.com is a large portal and a good place to start . . . if you speak Persian and Blogs by Iranians if you dont.
I dont speak it, but I have a personal connection to the Persian language. A distant relative of mine, W.A. Clouston, was a well-known translator of Persian fables and the perhaps the guy who introduced much of the poetry of Saadi to the English speaking world back in the 1800's . One of his books is called "Flowers from a Persian Garden". I cant afford a copy of the actual book, but an online version at Gutenburg.org lets me see some of what he wrote and why he loved the Persian language. Its a language I would consider learning if I had the time. And if i was a bit younger and had more time. But in the meantime, I give out a big HELLO to the Persian bloggers.
The country of Iran and the scattered Persian speakers around the globe are on the map at the moment. In the political world, there are threats and potential conflicts. An email this morning seemed to raise the paranoia level to a new height. I think America craves a daily dose of terror just like I need my tea in the morning.
On the radar of Christian missions, there is much interest in the huge number of Persian speakers globally who are returning to their roots as either Zoroastrian or Christian. In fact, the amount of Iranians, in Iran and in the global diaspora, who are turning to Jesus as a result of dreams and miraculous intervention is quite staggering, but not something the MSN want to talk about. There was a meeting in London yesterday for Persian Christian leaders to discuss what to do with all the very recent church growth among them. Apparently, about half of the new Persian Christians are opting for house churches and the other half are plugging into existing church models. I have heard that this kind of distribution is also happening globally. In Iran, believers in Jesus are still persecuted and threatened with the death sentence, as reported last month on WorldNetDaily, but the movement seems to be unstoppable.
But there is another reason why i am very interested in Persian speakers at the moment - The Persian Blogestan
The first Persian blog was born on my birthday - Sep 7, 2001. By 2004, The Times said that Persian was the fourth most widely used language on web logs. Iran now has the 9th rank in the world for the number of blogs. [Source: Persian Weblog, quoted in "Experiments on Persian Weblogs" [PDF]. Add to that the number of English language blogs written by Iranians living abroad and its a LOT of blogs. At least 700,000 although the number of active blogs is much lower - perhaps 40,000 to 110,000 according to Wikipedia
Technorati claims Persian (Farsi) is among the top 10 languages of the blogosphere, as illustrated by this graph. It doesnt show the non-blogging internet, where Persian is a larger contributor than people realize. Iranians are very much at home on the internet and even studying religion involves uploading large quantities of writing online.
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, davos07, iran, persian, world economic forum
Ok - I'm impressed! The theo-blogging crew of A-Team went to visit the crew of the TV show "24". Here is Roger Overton hanging with Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). I cant really compete with that. Once our Young Leaders (pre-Emergent) team got a tour through the MTV studios in New York and we got to see some famous pop stars and talk to some execs. But I don't listen to that pop stuff and didn't have a clue who i was meeting. So that doesnt count. But the A-Team hanging with the 24 actors is definitely KUDOS-WORTHY.
Now if the A-Team had visited the set of LOST . . . then i would be SUPREMELY impressed!
Rex Miller joins the blogosphere. You may have read his excellent book "The Millennium Matrix"
Technorati Tags: blog
The age of blogging innocence appears to be over. We have to be careful with what we say and what we upload. With the legitimacy of the blogosphere comes responsibility. I really hope it stays small-townish and relational . .. . but its also quite possible that 2007 will be the year where lawsuits will add an element of terror to blogging. God forbid we become so paranoid about blogging that we become as hesitant as haemophiliacs IN A RAZOR FACTORY!!. [no insult to haemophiliacs intended - PLEASE dont sue me!!] Nothing is completely clear since the online world is new territory but here are some rules that might save you from doing something stupid and some ways to extinguish the blaze if a fire ignites.
Point to files rather than republish them. YouTube makes this easy for videos by giving you html code for your blog that points to their source - and they take care of the bandwidth and storage issues. When I use a mp3 music file in a viewer, i point to its original location.
Not everyone wants to be outed publicly or have their mug on your video. Ask first and if in doubt, don't publish it.
Articles in .PDF format belong to someone. Give them rights and control over the originals by not republishing them on your own site. Then the author doesnt have to chase down a hundred copies to make an edit.
Creative Commons is still the best way to show everyone your copyright [or in this case, copyleft]. I have been using this one for years and it might no longer be the best but at least it says what i want it to say - and people who want to appropriate my stuff do not have to email me. As for images, the original match that i stole. . . appropriated and edited for this post is found on one of the sites Phil Johnson blogs on called Pyromanics. Such an edit removes copyright, as Phil once said when he gave some good advice on image editing. Thanks Phil!
Don't put other people's phone numbers on your blog. This is taken as an invitation to harrass them. Don't even put their email address on your blog, unless they ask. In which case write it in code [name at hotmail dot com] so the spambots miss it.
Hope that helps a little. We should expect some banter and opposition. Hopefully it wont get our of hand and we will learn to live with each other online. If someone offends you or abuses your rights, go to them in a friendly manner and get it sorted. If they wont listen, add one or two others to the CC on your email. Only then do you start BCC'ing some authority figures. And if you are part of Jesus' family then dont take your brothers or sisters to court. That not the family way.
Related: 15 Blogging Tips for 2007
Technorati Tags: blog
I cant believe I am giving this to an emerging church blogger who doesn't know HTML, never works in images or video, neglects internal linking, and whose individual posts rank poorly on Google. And rather than being a participant in a wildly experimental emerging CandleLighting-VJProjecting-PoetryReading-MonasticPraying . . [ . . let me . . . catch my . . breath . . ] ExpressoSteaming-CouchReclining-type emerging church, this blogger joins the weekly suburban crowds fighting for parking spaces at WillowCreek!
HOWEVER . . . he has managed to overtake me in the number of permanent links for an emerging church blogger, something that no one has ever done. He is also a braver blogger than I, tackling subjects that I steer away from. And he puts out more and better content than me or just about anyone I know. When he starts a series, he pumps out blog-posts like a machine gun and the whole affair is over in a few days. And his content is so well researched and YUMMY that you would assume he is a university professor. Which, btw, he is. Thus the amazing 1000 blogs giving permanent links to his Megablog.
Yes, a THOUSAND blogs link to him. And I know that permanent links are just one of the many [200+] factors that go into search engine optimization but they are a BIG factor, and permanent links rule on Technorati.
So, I applaud blogger Dr. Scot McKnight of JesusCreed.org as emerging church blogger of the year. Read on for a little history:
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, emerging church, scot mcknight
UPDATE: Bob Carlson wants us all to submit our Top 5 blog posts to him. [Remember last year??] A $5 donation for submitting 5 posts will go to a New Orleans charity - check out Give5Now. Here are my Top 5 for 2006. They may not be the highest rating but i enjoyed writing and reading them.
1. Losing my Religion in London Part 1 [Part Two, Three, and Four]
2. The Drama of Domain Mapping My Blog
3. Sometimes I Dress Like a Pagan
4. The Emerging Church is NOT White Middle-Class Males
5. Carrying Your Dad's Dumbbell
I also liked the post for my wife - brain(spirit)storm [top secret] but it was too techie for many readers {clue: you have to SELECT the text to read it . . like invisible ink - i don't think many people got that one}
ORIGINAL: Bill Dahl of Purpoise Diving Life has published his list of "2006 best" and this has inspired me to ask a question that has been on my mind for a w hile:
What was the best single blog post in 2006 regarding the emerging church?
Not the best blog SITE - that is soooo early millenium. But the best blog POST - lets find it . . . it should be recognized because the new blogosphere is more about individual posts and how they perform [their google-ranking, long tail, reach, artistic quality, etc] than it is about how many permanent links or daily visitors or how cool your blog looks.
Another question - what was the BEST post you wrote in 2006? Your Favorite? Your highest Google Ranked? Your most commented on? I think my favorite blog post, out of all i wrote in 2006 is called "The Drama of Domain Mapping My Blog".
Technorati Tags: emerging church, top 5 blogs
I liked the title of this blog post about Tim Berners Lee so much i just had to say it out loud and repost the picture of Sir Tim. i also just found Tim's book for £2 and ordered it. Thanks to Gareth of View From The Potting Shed.
I am reversing my domain mapping and so a few things may not work here until tomorrow. tallskinnykiwi.com will point to tallskinnykiwi,typepad.com very soon. some links will not work and a few recent images. i will fix it soon when i get time.
In the near future, tallskinnykiwi.com will be a place marker for a number of my blogs, not just this one. thanks.
TSK: Honey, I'm home.
Technorati: Oh TSK, do you really think you can just waltz back into my life? Why . .. we'll just see about that.
Technorati never caught on to my dramatic domain map a few weeks ago and sees different blogs - my old one with plenty of links and my new one with only a few - and thus no credibility at all. i have lost visibility and don't even appear on the technorati roll call until many days after i post, rather than ten minutes. so i am going back to tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com as main address, even though it is more cumbersome - seems silly to lose 3 years worth of ranking authority.
Heres how you can help:
- if you have linked to anything i have posted in the past 3 weeks with a tallskinnykiwi.com/tallskinnykiwi address, you may want to change it to make it current if it doesnt work.
- if you list my blog on your blog roll [thank you] please use tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com as the address for this blog and NOT tallskinnykiwi.com. that would really really help me out a lot.
and if anyone needs help with domain mapping under typepad and network solutions, i have figured it out and can do it for you, like i did for GetJoy.com yesterday.
Technorati Tags: blogging
More Godblogcon participants are blogging up: Pajamas Media, Stand to Reason, La Shawn Barber The Right House. Others? Please tag your posts with "godblogcon" and we will find you. More: Skype Puppy, Emu.
The closest thing UK has to this is the yearly gathering of bloggers at Greenbelt Festival and the various teaching sessions that happen there. The Spirituality of Blogging is what I said at Greenbelt last year regarding How Shall We Then Blog?
Original Post: Godblogcon. Its a Conference just for Godbloggers. Wish I was there! John Mark Reynolds was up to bat first and shared some excellent thoughts on new media and tools. More extensive notes on ThinkChristian and Laura's writings.
Hey . . does anyone have a comprehensive list of people blogging from the conference?
Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, godblogcon
Firefox 2.0 release party. 4pm, Oct 26th. My place. Bring your notebook. WIFI provided and tea or coffee. We will dedicate this new browser to the Creator to be used for creativity, justice and happiness. Get invited here.
You can read all the answers on ChurchCommunicationsPro.com. I might be biased . . . but i liked my 5 answers the best.
Technorati Tags: blog
A few years ago I was told by Blogger Forum that my little blogspot blog called Tallskinnykiwi had achieved Number 3 Top Site that week, beating out the Iraqi blogs, John Kerry and more importantly, humiliating the humorist blogger Dave Barry who I am sure never quite got over it. I thanked Blogger Forum for the award and then told them that i had actually closed down the blog a few months earlier when i moved to Typepad. I figured the traffic on my old blog would stop. I was very, very wrong. I had not thought about the long tail effect of my blogging.
About one third of my blog traffic happens in the long tail - in those memes and images and thoughts posted a long time ago that have now got some credibility and have climbed the search engine ladders to appear on front center stage. No longer fresh but suddenly aggregated because of a new-found relevance. You could say that they were LOST, but now are FOUND. Blogging for the long tail is now somewhat of a strategy for me. Let me explain.
Every day, hundreds of people come on my site for a tiny number of old posts. I noticed this recently when i took a month long blog fast. My daily visitors plunged but then levelled off and stayed the same at a certain point. When I looked closer at what posts readers were finding on the search engines [another cool feature on Typepad], there were a few dozen posts with Number One Google ranking and 2 images that by themselves attracted hundreds of daily fans:
This image called “foot foto”, which someone else created, gets number one ranking for “foto” and it has daily visitors from all over the world. At first I thought they were pro-lifers but now I realize they are probably Spanish speakers who are interested in photography. If i had time, I would write a decent blog post on image-editing or photo-touching and have someone translate it into Spanish . . . IF . .
An image search for “Muse” finds this one on Tallskinnykiwi staring at you on the front page, despite only having 4 links. Honestly, if i didnt look, i wouldnt have had any idea. Even more interesting is that number one ranking for Muse image search is my friend at JacobsWellChurch. Neither of us deserve to be elevated to connoisseurs of Muse art but there we are.
There are a few of my favorite memes that have ended up getting Number One Google ranking, at least for now:
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