Taking a quick security break…

May 11, 2010 By 3 Comments

There will be a slight lack of posting at the moment as I scurry around updating various security measures due to WordPress exploit currently doing the rounds.

It momentarily affected www.140char.com, but was removed pretty swiftly, and before I continue with normal posting I just want to take some time to make sure that all of my other sites are as secure as they can possibly be.

Here are some details from Godaddy (Who I’ve got various sites hosted with, and who were very helpful in this situation)

Here’s what happens if your site is comprimised, and how you can spot it.

And here’s a handy tool to be able to remove some of the offending script if you’re affected.

And obviously if you’re not affected at the moment, now is a good time to run a back-up of everything, ensure all passwords for your hosting and admin log-ins are secure, and ensure you’re running the latest updates of WordPress and all plug-ins you might be using (And disable any that you aren’t).

Meanwhile all of my sites will resume normal service once they’ve been locked down like Fort Knox…

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: , ,

Not sure how to monetise your eyeballs?

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

While newspaper and magazine owners are still trying to decide whether or not they should aim for eyeballs or paywalls, there are several other companies who are happy to take up the challenge.

For instance, online social media publisher Mashable has signed a deal to syndicate content to Thursday editions of Metro in the U.S. Mashable founder Pete Cashmore is already a regular on CNN in the U.S, and Mashable and CNN. Plus Mashable has partnered with CNN for the Mashable Media Summit 2010.

It’s interesting to see that mainstream publications and online publications are increasingly merging, but the ‘digital natives’ seem less worried and more sure that they’ve already got the monetisation aspect under control.

One reason is that by the time the likes of Mashable and Techcrunch have reached their current scale, they have already had to answer the questions of how to fund an online business. But as they grew from relatively humble beginnings, they’ve tackled it as they’ve grown without having to worry about legacy systems and overheads.

And by the same token, if you look at the staffing levels – Mashable lists 20 staff, and Techcrunch lists 21.

Compare that to the epic lists of staff at most magazines, for example, and you can see a big contrast.  There are print magazines run by smaller teams, but none that have the scale of the leading blogs (Or at least what started out as blogs).

So how do you produce so much content with a small team across all our properties? Simple, count the guest posts and the open offers to submit work to the likes of Mashable and Techcrunch.

Then consider a quote from the 2010 PPA Conference from the Chief Executive of Future Publishing, Stevie Spring:

“Advertisers are scared of the prospect of seeing their ads next to user-generated content. This won’t change. All it takes is one bad example to put brands off.”

That’s why sites which benefit from user-generated content are filtering and curating that content to get value out of it. There’s a reason why there are successful businesses based around user-generated content, but 4Chan isn’t one of them.

Filed Under: Digital Publishing, Magazine Publishing, newspapers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

My new project is now live…

January 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Well, after a few late Christmas nights (But surprisingly few), I now have another digital project.

Having spent years creating content and working for a variety of big and small publishers, it felt odd not having an least one working demonstration of how I’d propose digital publishing can work. Since switching to marketing full time as a career, and the seemingly indefinite hiatus with has afflicted Disposable Media since I left,  I’d had an idea nagging at me for a while for a new site.

It’s a fairly simple idea, hopefully serving an audience which I’m hoping is passionate enough to embrace it and also show how it can become a profitable small scale business.

OnlineRaceDriver.com

It’s called OnlineRaceDriver.com and the plan is to serve the huge group of people out there who put a lot of time and effort into enjoying their online racing on consoles and PCs. Some like videogames, some like cars, and some are even professional racers or keen amateurs who fancy unwinding with some less risky motorsport.

It’s joined 140char.com and this site as part of my miniscule publishing empire. The plan is to overhaul 140char shortly, redesigning and refocussing it. And I’m more motivated than ever, as OnlineRaceDriver has already got two great collaborators involved with potentially another joining us, and meanwhile I’ve also got a great collaborator on 140Char.

So I’m now working hard to balance an incredibly exciting and demanding day job at Absolute Radio, the demans of a young family, and three websites – and once 140char.com is complete, I’m thinking it’s time for a makeover here as well.

That should keep me busy for most of 2010!

Incidentally, if you’re interested in possibly contributing to any of the three sites, whether it’s content, design or development, let me know… Follow the About link above for my contact details…

Oh, and if you happen to like the look and feel of OnlineRaceDriver, then you’ll be please to know it’s based extensively on the Metro Theme from Studiopress (affiliate links). It’s cost effective, really easy to work with, and they’ve got some really nice alternatives on their site. And if I couldn’t break it yet, you know it’s got to be pretty good!

Filed Under: Blogging, Digital Publishing, Videogames, website design Tagged With: , , , ,

Hi Newspapers – can I join the party?

December 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Having spent a long time looking at, reading about, and experiencing firsthand the changes happening to print and digital mainstream media publishing, it’s a bit of a shock to find out I’ve gone down completely the wrong path.

Until now, I was siding with the view that complaining about Google ‘stealing’ the news and sending worthless visitors was more a sign of ineptitude and fear on the part of a traditional business model and industry which hasn’t radically changed in 100 years.

But then it struck me.

I write and publish content on two blogs.

That content is indexed by Google, even if I’m not a major contributor to Google News quite yet.

Google also supplies a lot of the advertising that appears on both my blogs.

Plus most of my blogging time is spent in Google Reader and Googlemail.

So that means if the newspapers can look for concessions from the Government, Google, Microsoft, and anywhere else they can think of, then so can I!

I can’t wait for the campaigning newspaper companies to get in touch and offer to help me as well. I might even get a call from Mr Murdoch himself.

And if cash isn’t forthcoming, I wouldn’t say no to a few links sending some more visitors my way… I don’t mind trying to make money from a much bigger pool of people…

Filed Under: Digital Publishing, newspapers Tagged With: , , , ,
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