Introducing New Blog Design... Thoughts?

When I first started this blog, it was on a whim and I built it over a weekend on a hosted version of Wordpress. The theme I implemented and hacked-together worked well but didn't scale well with increased amounts of content, advertising, etc. And while much of my readership is via RSS and email, I was bothered by the overflow that become my blog.... so I finally mustered up the time and courage to hack a redesign together over the past few nights. So here it is: a new theme that is more of a "magazine" template. It is based on Arthemia and is very flexible / customizable. There several great features which aren't turned on because I haven't had the ambition or confidence to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress (any help welcome!).

Lots of blogs are moving away from the old top-to-bottom styles and into more organized, magazine styles (see TechCrunch and Mashable's new looks)... much of this is the ability to better scale, feature advertising / promotions and increase pageviews. As I test out the new theme, I will report on any changes and trends that occur, particularly within:

- pageviews - navigation - SEO - eCPMs / engagement rates

I'd also love your thoughts - like it? Hate it? Improvements? Know CSS and want to help!?

InGameNow Sports iPhone App Coming - Beta Testers?

We are very close to making a public launch of the InGameNow iPhone App - delivering real-time scores, news and interaction to your iPhone. If you are a sports fan and an avid iPhone user - we'd love to have you beta test the InGameNow App before it officially hits iTunes.

Please email me directly or leave a comment if you are interested in beta testing the App. Here's a screenshot to whet your appetite:

The other exciting news is InGameNow's growth - which is marching towards 200,000 monthly uniques. We believe that the iPhone App will significantly change the way that fans are able to stay connected on multiple devices: computer, mobile and chat.

How to Conserve Battery on iPhone 3G: Fetch Rather Than Push

I spent the last few days in Las Vegas at the BlogWorld convention and was certain that my iPhone wouldn't make it into the afternoons (after all, that is the norm considering how frequently I use it). In an effort to conserve its battery, I made one simple switch: I turned "push mail" off.

While this may be obvious to others... that one change kept my phone running without charge the entire day (and with plenty of juice remaining). Yesterday I really put it to the test with regular Safari usage (trying to keep tab on some NFL games that I had a 'vested interest' in).

To extend battery life, most people switch off 3G (which kills the phone's usability) and location awareness. In a bind, I would much rather run on 3G and get email alerts every 15 minutes or on request.

Widgetbox's Blog Network Presentation from BlogWorld Expo

As I posted earlier, we are at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas promoting our new Widgetbox Blog Network... here is the presentation we are using at our two sessions:

View SlideShare presentation

Widgetbox Launches The Widgetbox Blog Network with 29 Blog Channels

This week has been slow for the blog because it’s been *very* busy at the Widgetbox office where we launched the new Widgetbox Blog Network in time to hop on a plane and attend / present at the BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas. BlogWorld is a convention of nearly 2,000 bloggers – some who blog as side projects, others as part of large media companies and others that do it for a living. The audience is ideal for Widgetbox because bloggers and blogs are the core of our community and the new Blog Network: - Widgetbox has widgets on over 250,000 unique blogs - Blidgets have been served over 1.5 BILLION (!) times - Widgetbox now reaches over 65 million unique each month (verified by Quantcast)

The Widgetbox Blog Network connects bloggers through 29 channels (from art to celebrities to music to food) using a single widget that dynamically showcases content across all of the blogs in that channel. You’ll notice, for instance, that I’ve joined the Tech News Channel and placed the widget in the top right of my blog template. On each page view, new blog posts are dynamically presented from other bloggers also in the Tech News Channel - and likewise, my blog posts appear on their pages… effectively driving highly relevant traffic across the network and taking advantage of Widgetbox’s large audience / community.

You will also notice that the widget is customized for my blog – showing a badge of my blog and its rank within the Channel (sadly I'm #11).

Joining is easy:

1. Visit http://www.widgetbox.com/network and select the Channel that fits your blog 2. Click the Join This Network button, select your blidget (or create one) and then grab the Channel Widget’s code 3. Add the code to your blog template and press activate

That’s it. Your content will now be automatically populated in the widget and you will begin to see new streams of traffic.

The Price of Being a Wolf is Lonliness

I am at BlogWorld in Las Vegas to talk about Widgetbox's Blog Network (launched yesterday at http://www.widgetbox.com/network). More to come on this shortly... but for now I am watching Robert Scoble (of Scobelizer) and Hugh MacLeod (of gapingvoid) discuss the growth of blogging as a community, culture and business. I've seen Hugh's work before (and it's terrific) here is his latest (and it's terrific):

Netflix's New Marketing Slogan: "Save gas and time."

I am an active Netflix subscriber out of convenience... and in spite of my dissatisfaction with their web experience. I also have an inbox of marketing emails (and have spent time critiquing many of those campaigns). But the below email just arrived from Netflix and it struck me for two reasons.

1. The Title: Save gas and time. Let Netflix deliver your movies again. Fascinating that Netflix is promoting their value proposition as "save gas". Their normal marketing message includes free trials, instant downloads, and unlimited inventory. Not only is it a strange tagline (that honestly isn't very appetizing) - it's a bizarre email subject line. "Save gas and time" neither stands out from the other emails in my clogged inbox nor does it declare itself as anything other than spam.

2. My account with Netflix is active... and consequently I cannot "let Netflix deliver my movies again" because they are already delivering my movies. I'm confused!

I've Officially Pre-ordered my Fitbit

Today I officially placed my pre-order for the Fitbit - my favorite product launch from TechCrunch 50. I figured that I had promoted Fitbit enough (with no affiliation to the company) that I had to go ahead and buy the product. It supposedly ships in December and it looks like they use Yahoo Stores to sell / track the orders. This marks the first time in years (seriously) that I have placed an order from something running a Yahoo Store... I am hoping the Fitbit ships before Christmas or makes a commitment to do so; and if so, this would make a perfect holiday gift.

More From TechCrunch 50 - Best "Best in Show" Write Up

I covered TechCrunch 50 this week and gave my favorites (FitBit, Hangout, VideoSurf and Swype) and was slightly shocked by the announcement that Yammer had won the $50,000 grand prize... great product and slick UI - but not revolutionary or game-changing like some other services (some have argued stronger sentiments that that!). Here is the best TC50 write up that I've seen thus far and it's from CNET Webware. Great list and overview:

Fitbit

Hangout

VideoSurf

Swype