Update: The second email listed below, sent to the Courting Destiny blog, was actually sent by an identified THP employee and not (as I had initially believed) an anonymous member of the public (unlike the email I received). The text of this post has been changed to include this new information. There is still plenty of evidence to support my conclusion that THP was attempting to engage bloggers in a viral marketing campaign using emails from individuals that did not disclose the nature of their relationship to THP.

Marketing — I don’t know too much about it, but I’m learning. Having never actually read a marketing book or taken a course or even really googled the subject, I bet one of the key maxims of marketing is ‘know your audience.’ At MaxPower, I try to keep track of my audience.

This month (June), my audience has shifted. Somehow I have attracted the attention of a ‘predominantly leftist news and commentary outlet’ called the Huffington Post. I don’t really know too much about the post; a little wikipedia research leads me to believe its a blog run by a famous person. It makes money by selling advertisements and is apparently very popular with most of its stories written about politics, ‘big issues,’ and the like.

Anyway, someone (or someones) at The Huffington Post (THP) seems to have a keen interest in MaxPower. Recently, I wrote a post about how I believed THP was “astroturfing” (the use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement [source][wikipedia]) after I received an unsolicited anonymous email that asked me to promote THP’s newest marketing venture with an ad firm called JWT. I label it anonymous because this initial email did not disclose that the sender, an intern, worked at THP. It was only through a series of subsequent follow-up emails where it was disclosed that the intern sent, “a few emails to blogs he likes.” This final piece of information was revealed by THP partner and technology director, Jonah Perretti as sent via a contact form on MaxPower.

Here is where things get interesting: » Read the rest of the entry..

Executive Summary (with updates 23/06/06):

JWT (a marketing firm) and ‘The Huffington Post’ (a popular blog) have teamed up to market and promote a series of advertisments. On June 20th I received an email sugesting the readers of this blog would enjoy one of the JWT advertisements. On June 20th the YesButNoButYes blog received a very similar email suggesting that their readers would enjoy one of the JWT ads promoted at The Huffington Post. The marketing dept at the Huffington Post is run by a well known viral marketing pioneer. All emails came from the same IP. At the same time, comments on the JWT ads are limited to only the positive variety (with the approval rate estimated for some ads at about 3%). In the latest twist, a comment by Val over at the YesButNoButYes blog brags about how much more popular The Huffington Post when compared with YesButNoButYes. This comment originates from the same IP as all the emails sugesting we promote the JWT ads as well as the short reply to this story by Jonah Peretti. All this ads up to viral marketing Foie Gras.
» Read the rest of the entry..

Adsense was the first, and with the addition of the Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) and the promised MSN adCenter, website owners and marketers can now choose between several advertising barons to make their money. Its still up in the air as to which one will be the best however, it is clear that ‘the best’ will be the one that makes people, both advertisers and content owners, the most money. The one that makes the most money for everyone will be the most efficient — only showing ads that are trluy relavant to the content of the page they appear on and making sure that the content owners are not cheating or abusing the advertisers (and vice versa). I’m not aware of advertisers screwing over content oweners, but I sure am aware of the opposite!

Take a look at the ad above (click for full resolution). Do you see anything? The image is a screen grab of an ad from an active webpage. In order to provide the best service, it is incumbent upon YPN, Adsense, and adCenter to weed out the publishers who are stealing from us all by devaluing online marketing through various tricks (such as low contrasting colours shown in the ad above and the tower below).

» Read the rest of the entry..

Besides the spell check provided by the google toolbar, I also use a variety of sources to help me write. Here are a few completely free books from Project Guttenburg that I have found to help me write (at least a little). Not only helpful (grammar and style), they also inspire and instruct and are good for that ‘perfect’ title to attract attention. By using these resources, I have no doubt that anyone can achieve serene triumph through newly found emotive power.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Reprint of the author’s Lexicon balatronicum; a dictionary of buckish slang, university wit, and pickpocket eloquence (and now considerably altered and enlarged, » Read the rest of the entry..

The following post is inspired by the request at problogger.net for articles surounding the theme, “Blogging Goals.” In last weeks episode, I used Frank Lloyd Wright’s quotes as inspiration on the topic ‘effective blogging.’ This week, I’ll use another one of his quotes to start into the topic ‘blogging goals’ where I will argue that an important goal for any blogger is to avoid automation which ensures originality and prevents the loss of precious ‘blogging mojo’. » Read the rest of the entry..

The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between German forces occupying Western Europe and invading Allied forces seeking to land on, and liberate, the European mainland as part of the larger conflict of World War II. The Normandy invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in then German-occupied France.

The Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach faced 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns, as well as machine-gun nests, pillboxes, other concrete fortifications, and a seawall twice the height of the one at Omaha Beach. The first wave suffered 50 percent casualties, the second highest of the five D-Day beachheads.

Despite the obstacles, within hours the Canadians were off the beach and beginning their advance inland. The 6th Canadian Armoured Regiment (1st Hussars) was the only Allied unit to meet its June 6 objectives, when it crossed the Caen–Bayeux highway over nine miles (15 km) inland.

By the end of D-Day, 15,000 Canadians had been successfully landed, and the 3rd Canadian Division had penetrated further into France than any other Allied force, despite having faced such strong resistance at the beachhead. The 21st Panzer division launched the first D-Day counterattack between Sword and Juno beaches, and the Canadians held against several stiff counterattacks by the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend on June 7 and 8.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Battle of Normandy”.

Please ignore this post as I develop my spam refining techniques:

This splog bait has many terms, such as Royal Caribbean Cruise and Aruba Vacation Package, that make the splog bait post likely to be plagiarized by sploggers. Did you ever wonder what happens when a bus full of young girls get into an accident on their way to an online gambling site? They probably hoped to make millions of dollars playing poker, Texas holdem and blackjack. Now they need a personal injury lawyer to sue the bus company! (Yes, this is splog bait.) The poor girls will have to take brand-name, FDA approved medications for their injuries — drugs like ambien, tramadol, lexapro, pehentermine and viagra. Some might even require laser eye surgery. If that doesn’t help, maybe the young girls can recover from the painful illnesses and injuries by making a reservation for a vacation in Orlando, Bermuda, or as a Las Vegas hotel. If their injuries make them bedridden, they will have take classes toward a degree from a distance learning program. Splog bait. It might be for a GED or a high school diploma or a college degree. They will need degrees and have skills to find a good job since good jobs are hard to find in this economy. And the real estate market might go soft if the bank rates are not low for mortgage — maybe mortgage insurance will help. This splog bait has nothing to do with liability insurance, however.

It was original posted at

ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/04/29/splog-bait-young-girls-need-personal-injury-lawyer-to-pay-for-diplomas/

I got a note the other day from Kelli Shaver, a ‘designer and developer.’ She has just released a collection of icons that are super spiffy, perfect for use in your next project. Checkout the screenshot below and head on over to her website to download the icon set. All the icons are in PNG format and are completely free to use as long as you don’t sell the icons standalone (check out her site for the full conditions). Here is the screenshot: » Read the rest of the entry..