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Tag: typepad

  • Blog Services: The Good & The Bad Of 2011

    One of the hallmarks of the Internet experience in 2011 is the towering amount of blogs that are out there, waiting to be read by any online flaneur with some time to kill. The nice thing about blogs is that it’s easier than ever start one thanks to a number of blogging services that will host your content – most of the time for free – and provide you with all of the necessary tools to help you build your blog. The bad thing about blogs is that it’s easier than ever so anybody who has so much as walked by a keyboard has started a blog at some point. The term “critical mass” does not apply to blogs.

    Since you’re about to get started on your blog any second now, Pingdom wants to help you lift-off. They’ve rated the top five blogging services so you’ll know which blogging service is the most reliable (least downtime) and which one to stay away from (most downtime) all so you can have and provide the best blogging experience ever.

    The blogging services included in Pingdom’s surveyed were Blogger, WordPress.com, Typepad, Tumblr, and Posterous. Over the period of January to November of this year, they monitored each service to assess the total amount of downtime each service had. They used their own the monitoring service to test the services from multiple locations in North America and Europe. From each blogging service Pingdom monitored four different blogs to measure the amount of downtime experienced by each.

    And the winner is…

    Google’s blogging service, Blogger! Pingdom found that Blogger was down only a minute and a half each month. That’s some incredible reliability. I’m a human being yet I consistently have more downtime than Blogger. The service actually came out on top last year in the same study, so Google’s got some pretty good longitudinal reliability to boast of now, too.

    Honorable mentions go to WordPress and Typepad, both of which had a larger sum of downtime during the study but were still under a total of two hours. With WordPress down only nine minutes per month and Typepad down ten minutes, that’s still really good and I bet you would hardly notice the outage.

    So do you see who ranked the most unreliable blogging service? That’s right: Tumblr. Tumblr had a median downtime of almost four hours per month with the single longest outage observed during the study at three hours. Three hours in Internet time is, like, it might as well just be a whole month. Have you seen how impatient people get when they try to load a page and it takes more than three seconds?

    As you could probably glean from the above table, Pingdom ranked the blogging services in the following order, from best to worst:

    1. Blogger
    2. WordPress
    3. Typepad
    4. Posterous
    5. Tumblr

    Now carry on, my wayward bloggers, and enjoy the exquisite services offered to you by Blogger. However, if you happen to have already signed up for a Tumblr account, it’s not too late to jump ship and move on to greener pastures. Especially if you’re counting on Tumblr to help you get re-elected.

  • Six Apart Acquires NaturalPath Media

    Six Apart, the company behind TypePad, has announced the acquisition of NaturalPath Media, an online ad/media network geared toward "sustainable, healthy, and conscious lifestyles." Some of its more popular sites include: DrGreene.com, GreenLivingIdeas.com, ScientificAmerican.com and EcoSalon.com.

    NaturalPath claims to be the largest green and healthy living network, and tells publishers to "capture premium and values-driven advertising dollars", while telling advertisers they can engage with over 18 million conscious consumers and align their brands with "leading voices in green and wellness." Six Apart already claims to be the #1 blog property in the U.S., citing comScore data putting it at nearly 90 million sites.

    "NaturalPath Media is a valuable addition to the Six Apart Media network and strengthens our ability to help marketers reach highly influential green and healthy living consumers while they are engaging with content and conversations that are important to them," says Six Apart CEO Chris Alden. "By joining the Six Apart Media program NaturalPath Media publishing partners will be able to generate more revenue and increase traffic through our innovative conversational marketing programs which are sponsored by well known brands seeking to build awareness for their sustainability and cause-driven initiatives."

    Natural path Media

    Last month Six Apart launched TypePad Conversations, a feature for blogs, which injects sponsored comments into conversations on the blogs. The company works with what it considers "leading voices" in a given category to come up with questions that are syndicated to "influential" bloggers, who post their answers on their blogs. Dr. Greene.com will be the first Natural Path Media publishing partner to launch TypePad Conversations. Natural Path calls this an integral part of an upcoming ad campaign.

    TypePad Introduces sponsored conversations

    "We’re thrilled to be the first NaturalPath Media blogger to participate in TypePad Conversations," said Cheryl Greene of Dr. Greene.com. "This is a terrific way for us to grow revenue and drive traffic while inspiring our audience to participate in authentic conversations on topics that they are passionate about."

    Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

  • TyepPad Turns Blog Comments Into Ads

    TyepPad Turns Blog Comments Into Ads

    Six Apart has launched an interesting new feature for blogs (not just TypePad blogs, but all platforms), which injects sponsored comments into conversations on the blogs. TypePad works with "leading voices" in a given category to come up with questions that are syndicated to "influential" bloggers, who post their answers on their blogs.

    All answers from participating blogs are aggregated in one spot at conversations.typepad.com, and what is deemed "the best" wil be featured below the blogger’s original post.

    "If you have ever been to an industry conference like iMedia, E3, Ad Tech, ShowWest, you have experienced a form of sponsored conversation," explains David Tokheim, EVP Six Apart Media. "We are taking that principle online and allowing brands to join in the conversation, and as with those conferences, TypePad Conversations helps brands sponsor discussions without controlling them."

    TypePad Introduces sponsored conversations

    "Participating in the conversation is strictly voluntary and we don’t pay bloggers to post," adds Tokheim. "If you are a member of the Six Apart Ad Program – open to bloggers on all platforms — you will share revenue from impressions generated from the advertising that accompanies TypePad Conversations."

    Tokheim compares the sponsored conversations to sponsored tweets on Twitter and Facebook’s engagement ads.

    Do you like the idea of TypePad offering sponsored conversations for blogs? Share your thoughts.