How Rafat Ali Found a Job (Part 2)

SM: The fellowship you received enabled you to attend Indiana University. Were there any requirements tied to that fellowship? RA: Two of us were given a fellowship, and our mandate was to create an intranet for the university’s professors to use. It sounded grand, but we could not achieve it over the year and a

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Ads on Blogs

Steve Hodson says, “Advertising for bloggers has to change.” There are a number of Ad Networks that are trying to address the issues he raises. I am anxious to see how this plays out. I am now on Forbes, IDG, Washington Post and TheDeal (all powered by Adify, all business blog networks).

Vertical Ad Networks: A Trend to Watch for 2008

I talked about Audience Fragmentation and the Rise of Ad Networks recently. At the moment, the Ad Networks are in the business of amassing large volumes of fragmented traffic, and offering a channel to advertisers to access the publishers who own this traffic. Expect, in 2008, a trend towards these “mass” Ad Networks gradually becoming

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Did Digg Just Dump FM?

Digg has announced a deal with Microsoft. In a big win, Microsoft will manage their ad inventory as exclusive provider of banner, display and paid search advertising, replacing Federated Media and Google. FM will continue to provide other types of advertising on Digg, including integrated campaigns and sponsorships. What are we seeing here? Is FM

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A Service for Active Netizens

If you are trying to do a web PR campaign, you know you have to pitch to the bloggers. The good news is, bloggers are highly visible, easy to identify, and very reachable. Entering the market is a new service that wants to identify people who are the most active members of various online communities,

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Re-engineering the Book Business: Blurb CEO, Eileen Gittins (Part 3)

SM: Describe the value proposition of Blurb, including differentiation versus the rest of the market. EG: Blurb is bringing book publishing to the masses by providing an affordable publishing platform that’s accessible to anyone with a broadband connection and modest computing skills. Every family, traveler, photographer, bride, cook, poet, teacher, blogger, and artist has a

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Om Malik: Pioneering Blogs (Part 10)

Om discusses his vision for the company. SM: When you look at the scaling of the company, what is your vision? Where do you want to take it? OM: I want Giga Omnimedia to be a proper publishing company. Just like companies publish magazines and newspapers, we publish a web / blog hybrid. Just think

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Om Malik: Pioneering Blogs (Part 9)

Publication businesses earn their revenues through advertising. Running a blog requires a great Ad Network partner to achieve success. for Om that has been FM. SM: When did you sign up with FM? OM: Right out of the gate, before I even left my job I had already signed. I think it was the end

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