Inspired Convergence

Sponsored Tweets is a new Twitter advertising platform that connects advertisers with tweeters. Advertisers can create sponsored conversations on Twitter. Tweeters can earn money for spreading the word.

All you need is a Twitter account to get started. Sponsored Tweets is a whitelisted Twitter application and uses your Twitter credentials to create an account. Ethically, SponsoredTweets.com facilitates an open relationship between our Tweeters and Advertisers. The Tweeters that engage in a sponsored tweets program are required to disclose their relationship with marketers in their communications with other consumers.

Loading mentions Retweet

A recent blogger survey by Videojug reports that only 6.7% of bloggers spend more than $500/year to run their blog; most spend zero.

VIDEOJUG.COM reports:

The blogosphere has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years, so it was interesting to learn more about why so many bloggers have decided to become active in the blogging world. The overwhelming majority of new bloggers (nearly three quarters) choose to run their blogs for personal and non-commercial reasons.

Visit the Videojog blog post for survey results and additional insights.

Loading mentions Retweet

This answers the burning question of how much a million Facebook fans could potentially be worth to a celebrity, and with all the emphasis on virtual goods and social games, I almost expect a stream of similar announcement from other celebs...

Bookmark: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-can-celebs-make-money-shilling-virtual-goods-on-facebook/

You can find more of Inspired Convergence's bookmarks at:  http://delicious.com/inspiredconvergence

Or follow Inspired Convergence on Twitter.

Loading mentions Retweet

Smashing Magazine
Articles by Topic: Design Showcase

HIGHLIGHTS:

Discovering Papervision3D: Best Design Practices and Tutorials
Papervision3D (PV3D) is a popular open source 3D engine for Flash. It enables to create advanced three-dimensional objects displayed real time right in the web browser. With Papervision3D designers...

30 Fresh and Inspirational Portfolios With A Twist
It may be the economical slowdown, the climate change, or even a random boost of creativity, but the competition between graphic studios is huge right now. Today, more than ever, you really need to...

50 Fresh Portfolio Websites for Your Inspiration
Creating personal portfolio website is probably the most challenging task for designers as it should reveal the talent and some special unique style of its author. Beautiful portfolio is like a good...

50 New Beautiful Blog Designs
There are things that can't be showcased too often. For instance, beautiful blog designs. We have presented hundreds of beautiful blog designs in the past and now it's time to provide our readers with a...

50 Beautiful Flash Websites
Flash enabled designers and developers to deliver rich content over the browsers, creating motion, interactivity and an impressive visual experience. Good Flash-sites do not require too much bandwidth,...

Showcase Of Elegant And Original Blog Designs
When visiting a blog for the first time, you get an instant and strong impression from the design and layout. Cluttered and confusing blog layouts can be an instant turn-off, while sleek and elegant...

Loading mentions Retweet

The Web Trend Map plots the Internet’s leading names and domains onto the Tokyo Metro map. Domains and personalities are carefully selected through dialogue with map enthusiasts, and every domain is evaluated based on traffic, revenue, and character.

iA Japan grouped together closely associated websites, ensuring that every domain is on an appropriate line. As a result, the map produces a web of associations: some provocative, some curious, others ironically accurate.

Web Trend Map 4: Coolest Gift For Geeks | announcement, blog article

http://informationarchitects.jp/wtm4/

Web Trends Startpage | interactive web version of the Web Trend Map

http://informationarchitects.jp/start/

     

Loading mentions Retweet

CODING HORROR: programming and human factors by Jeff Atwood

(2009-08-09) Jeff Atwood lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife, two cats, and a whole lot of computers. He was weaned as a software developer on various implementations of Microsoft's BASIC in the 80's, starting with his first microcomputer, the Texas Instruments TI-99/4a. He continued on the PC with Visual Basic 3.0 and Windows 3.1 in the early 90's although he also spent significant time writing Pascal code in the first versions of Delphi. He is now quite comfortable in VB.NET or C# despite the evils of case sensitivity.  From 2005 to 2008, Jeff worked for Vertigo Software in Point Richmond, California. He currently works full time on his blog while building stackoverflow.com in a joint venture with Joel Spolsky.

Computers are fascinating machines, but they're mostly a reflection of the people using them. In the art of software development, studying code isn't enough: you have to study the people behind the software, too. -- Jeff Atwood

A few of my favorite postings at CODING HORROR...

{ 1 } In his post, Introducing Stackoverflow.com, Jeff states, "I refuse to become a full-time blogger."

{ 2 } Software Engineering: Dead?...

Tom DeMarco is one of the most deeply respected authority figures in the software industry, having coauthored the brilliant and seminal Peopleware as well as many other near-classic software project management books like Waltzing With Bears. For a guy of Tom's caliber, experience, and influence to come out and just flat out say that Software Engineering is Dead...  Well, as Keanu Reeves once said, whoa.

Loading mentions Retweet

First off, I never realized when I began this article that it would "have it all" in a manner of speaking.  When you review the tags for this posting, you get a sense of what is yet to come...

As quoted by Bruce on Games, "Don't play Evony."

Bruce Everiss, a veteran games industry marketer, elaborates on why to avoid Evony in a follow-up posting, "More about Evony."

Ultimately, Bruce writes quite a few posts that analyze trending of Chinese gold farmers.

Bobbie Johnson of guardian.co.uk posted, "Has Evony become the most despised game on the web?."

Zubon at KTR posted, "Condensed Evony Hatred," and linked to Lum, Mu, Tweety, Arkenor, Tipa, Ken, and Bruce on Games.

Trending on the reactions to the provocative, perhaps insultingly sexualized Evony web advertsing, an Experience Project member initiated a group with an interactive comment poll, "I Hate the Evony Adverts," prompting a response of 'Me Too' or 'Not Me' or 'Plan To.'

Nicholas Deleon posts, "Evony ad campaign: Where breasts trick you into playing a Civ clone," underscoring the shameless draw of gamers to MMO with sexuality.  In, his posting, Nicholas references Jeff Atwood's post, "How Not to Advertise on the Internet."  Jeff refers to the ever burgeoning freemium phenomenon in MMO/RTS.

(Sidenote: CODING HORROR: programming and human factors by Jeff Atwood is one of my favorite blogs.)

Emphasizing the notoriety of the advertising tactics, Gwen posts, "EVOLUTION OF EVONY VIDEO GAME ADS," featuring the maturation (so to speak) of the Evony web banners at the Sociological Images blog which is part of Contexts.org. (Contexts is a quarterly magazine that makes sociology interesting and relevant to anyone interested in how society operates.)

If you want to see what all the fuss is about without actually going to the Evony website (to which I am purposely am not linking), using a search engine optimized Wordpress blog, World Portal Group (whoever that is) promotes Evony in glorious detail.  Appears to me like the blogger(s) at World Portal Group post whatever topic they can to raise a buck for posting.  A brief review of the blog revealed a blog without much substance or context of integrity.

Interestingly, with the undercurrents of Evony disgruntlement appearing in the blogosphere, as of the posting of this article there hasn't be a lot of negative tweets trending the issue in the Twitterverse according to tweetmeme or Twitt(url)y.

Loading mentions Retweet