June 12, 2009
Posted by Ryan Graves
Actions/Thoughts From TDIA
This post is a bit less focused than most, but there have been a myriad of thoughts that I wanted to share with you guys. I’ve added a new widget to the blog that will help promote other blogs that I read and am inspired by, I’ve started using a new URL shortening tool that provide awesome analytics, and I share a Twitter business model that in my mind is genius and could really change the game.
I would love any thoughts or reactions to these musing in the comments below! I hope all is well with you and that your actions are getting you closer and closer to living your dreams.
The BlogRollr Widget
If video isn’t your thing, here’s the deal, I’ve added the BlogRollr widget in the sidebar of THE DREAM IN ACTION. A blog roll is a list of blogs that I read and that continue to inspire me. My blog reading changes all the time because I’m always looking for new sources of challenging thoughts and new ways to learn so a dynamically populated list makes tons of sense.
Also, I really like the idea of being able to support other bloggers. I get an unbelievable amount of inspiration from many of the guys on this list. Some of the best & most inspiring are Neil Patel’s QuickSprout blog & Fred Wilson’s AVC.com. In the BlogRollr widget you can see my all time most read, or click on the Recent tab to see what I’ve consumed lately. For example, I’ve been reading both Charlie Hoehn & Steffan Antonas a lot recently because their unique approaches to the changes on the web & in business. Check their blogs out and let me know what you think of the widget in the comments!
Update: The BlogRollr widget is a Firefox plugin and apparently does not display to those visiting the blog using Internet Explorer. My advice, don’t use IE, but I will reach out to the folks at BlogRollr to see what’s on the horizon to fix this issue. Thanks!
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New URL shortener, SU.PR
I’ve started using a new short URL service called SU.PR pronounced ‘super’ built by the team at StumbleUpon. Using StumbleUpon has driven a lot of traffic to my site when I’ve used it in the past and I believe that this tool will do the same. The video above from Tim Ferriss talks about what SU.PR does and the benefits of using it.
For me the most interesting feature is the analytics that it provides into what your “optimal” tweet time (of the day) is, not to mention the “su.pr-ior” tracking they provide on the clicked links. Also, they allow you to promote the best posts from your blog. Pretty sweet.
Here are just a few things that the viewer of a su.pr link sees and why it’s really beneficial:
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The Perfect Twitter Business Model
I was watching This Week In Startups and Jason Calacanis mentioned an idea he had that was worth sharing. He said, (I para-phrase) what if Twitter were to insert it’s own affiliate ID to any Tweet that advertised a product? Or, at least on the major ecommerce sites; any Amazon link, or eBay link, or Zappos, etc. They would literally make a killing! It would not impose on the user experience and it would provide a significant revenue stream to a business most believe are desperate for a revenue stream. The subject of how Twitter will monetize their service has been a hot topic for months now, even though the only people who don’t seem worried about their monetization strategy is Ev & Biz.
I give Calacanis serious credit here because in my mind business models can the the most fascinating thing in business and this tops em’. In regards to ‘The Week in Startups’, I recommend checking it out. It’s a live show every Friday, that I normally watch recorded. The guests thus far have been very impressive & the topics/thoughts shared are anything but stale.
14 Comments
June 15, 2009
Fred Wilson's been using it for a while, right? I dig it. In fact I just added it to my blog as well after reading your post (you trendsetter, you ;-)). Traditional blogrolls are dying, in my opinion. There's just no way that people have time to maintain static lists anymore – my Twitter/Friendfeed stream has been the most accurate reflection of what I read day-to-day, but Blogrollr definitely has a solid value proposition. Having a list that generates dynamically is perfect – it gives blog readers a true, authentic representation of what you read regularly….now I've got to populate this sucker with some data. :). Good stuff. Btw, did you read the Building43 Manifesto that went up today?
June 15, 2009
BlogRollr is definitely moving in the right direction. Bring to light what
you truly are consuming not just what you chose to share. This goes right
along with the Building43 manifesto point about transparency!
If you watch my BlogRollr, Building43 is creepin' on up.
June 15, 2009
Totally agree….the next thing I want to see is real time presence on websites and blogs. I want people to know that I'm there WHEN I'm there. Hopefully something that'll start to be built into the 2010 web. MyWebLog gets close, but it's still a trail of breadcrumbs. Too bad it doesn't highlight your avatar when you're still physically on the site.
Yeah…Building43 is creeping up on mine too. You'll see it up there with ReadWriteWeb and Mashable in a few days no doubt.
June 15, 2009
Maybe Facebook will allow developers to use the same “real time, I'm on
Facebook” chat feature within other websites.
Not a bad idea huh?
June 15, 2009
It'd be a great idea. I see the web heading this way. The semantic web
movement will glue everything together (horizontal) and then improvement in
tracking and analytics will start tracking us and allow us to display
presence in real time.
June 15, 2009
At what point does the “allowing us to display presence in real time” become
an invasion of privacy. You know I'm a fan, I'm just playing devils
advocate…
June 15, 2009
I think it'll be like anything else…it'll start out as a small group of
alpha geeks that will demand real time presence, innovation will occur and
create useful applications out of it, then people will get used to it, then
2 or 3 years later, it'll be mainstream. You'll see…
The trick, and you're right to point to privacy as the main issue…is that
people will want to control who sees what and where. Suppose it starts out
as a “whitelist only” service (where you have to tell the service where to
display your identity in order for it to work)..that way, you'll be able to
control where you show up. I touched on this at the very end of my “Public
Vs. Private” post a few months ago. either way, it's an interesting
question. I wonder where the 2010 web trajectory will go.
June 15, 2009
Fred Wilson's been using it for a while, right? I dig it. In fact I just added it to my blog as well after reading your post (you trendsetter, you ;-)). Traditional blogrolls are dying, in my opinion. There's just no way that people have time to maintain static lists anymore – my Twitter/Friendfeed stream has been the most accurate reflection of what I read day-to-day, but Blogrollr definitely has a solid value proposition. Having a list that generates dynamically is perfect – it gives blog readers a true, authentic representation of what you read regularly….now I've got to populate this sucker with some data. :). Good stuff. Btw, did you read the Building43 Manifesto that went up today?
June 15, 2009
BlogRollr is definitely moving in the right direction. Bring to light what
you truly are consuming not just what you chose to share. This goes right
along with the Building43 manifesto point about transparency!
If you watch my BlogRollr, Building43 is creepin' on up.
June 15, 2009
Totally agree….the next thing I want to see is real time presence on websites and blogs. I want people to know that I'm there WHEN I'm there. Hopefully something that'll start to be built into the 2010 web. MyWebLog gets close, but it's still a trail of breadcrumbs. Too bad it doesn't highlight your avatar when you're still physically on the site.
Yeah…Building43 is creeping up on mine too. You'll see it up there with ReadWriteWeb and Mashable in a few days no doubt.
June 15, 2009
Maybe Facebook will allow developers to use the same “real time, I'm on
Facebook” chat feature within other websites.
Not a bad idea huh?
June 15, 2009
It'd be a great idea. I see the web heading this way. The semantic web
movement will glue everything together (horizontal) and then improvement in
tracking and analytics will start tracking us and allow us to display
presence in real time.
June 15, 2009
At what point does the “allowing us to display presence in real time” become
an invasion of privacy. You know I'm a fan, I'm just playing devils
advocate…
June 15, 2009
I think it'll be like anything else…it'll start out as a small group of
alpha geeks that will demand real time presence, innovation will occur and
create useful applications out of it, then people will get used to it, then
2 or 3 years later, it'll be mainstream. You'll see…
The trick, and you're right to point to privacy as the main issue…is that
people will want to control who sees what and where. Suppose it starts out
as a “whitelist only” service (where you have to tell the service where to
display your identity in order for it to work)..that way, you'll be able to
control where you show up. I touched on this at the very end of my “Public
Vs. Private” post a few months ago. either way, it's an interesting
question. I wonder where the 2010 web trajectory will go.
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