Skype is simple, useful and free.

Well OK not strictly free. But it proved it’s worth in the first year I was at uni. My dilemma was simple, “how could I phone home cheaply and easily without a landline”. Firstly the mobile phone was ruled out, without doubt it is useful but it won’t be cheap, even making calls to a landline. The alternative was (without trying to sound like a geek!) voice over internet protocol or VoIP, for those who haven’t heard of or understand what this is, basicly it involves routing phone calls through the internet, or for more detail see the wikipedia article.

So how is this cheaper, firstly if you are talking to other users of VoIP then your call is completely free, secondly calls to landlines are often cheaper than making normal landline calls and certainly cheaper than payphones. Another positive is calls to international numbers are likely to be cheaper.

The drawbacks, well, people cannot phone you unless you pay for a number and then you have to be online to receive calls. Although if you are using an internet connection in a halls of residence you are unlikely to be paying costs equivalent to line rental. But call quality’s is not always as good as landline services. Also you need to have a microphone and headphones, but you could also use a webcam if you want.

But overall I was really pleased with the service I used, Skype, which is probably one off the most established VoIP operators. It allowed me to phone people cheaply without having to leave my computer, allowing me to do work at the same time! All you need to do is download the free software to your computer and follow their instructions. One last point if you are using university provided internet connection, check to see if Skype will work over it, for me it did but there is no guarantee as you are going over a network connection too. But if it does you should find Skype will help you save money whilst keeping in touch with family and friend!

Martyn.

image: www.freeimages.co.uk

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Today I’m going to look at BlogRush, is it worth the space it takes on my blog?

Firstly, before I discuss BlogRush, apologies for the lack of posts in the last week, university work takes priority at moment. This has been holding me back a little of late, but not to worry my desk is slowly becoming more visible, after hiding under pages of half finished practical write ups!

Well then BlogRush has been causing a bit of a stir over the last few months! For those of you who haven’t heard of BlogRush here’s what it is and how it works:-

It’s aim according to the website,

“BlogRush is a free service that was created to help bloggers solve their #1 need:
More Readers For Their Blog.”

This is done by hosting a widget, as seen in the top right of this page, on your blog (a simple piece of code). This widget then shows the latest blog post titles, that may be of interest to your readers. For showing the widget you get credit for each time the widget is displayed in front of one of your readers. This then leads to your blog post titles being shown on other blogs in your niche, equal to as many credits you have ‘earned’. Also low traffic blogs get bonus credits to try and help them along!

But does it work, lets take one of my recent posts as an example. “Easy Money, No Hassle, How?” this post has been shown, according to BlogRush, 3875 times from which I got 2 readers. This may sound pretty poor, but looking at my server stats, these visitors were unique, spent longer and looked at more pages than the average visitor. The downside is other posts have been shown on a couple of thousand blogs, but I have gained no readers from them.

So ultimately is it good or bad? Well to gain anything you have to write post titles that grab peoples attention or make them curious. Otherwise it is likely to fail, I suggest you read Brian Clark’s post over at copyblogger -

“10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work”

But the traffic you will gain will be high quality, but, small quantity. If you are trying to make money this may not be what you are after. If on the other hand your blog is just for personal enjoyment on a niche subject I don’t see why you shouldn’t try it. For me, it will stay another month or two. I don’t believe in quitting early, because you just don’t know what is around the next corner. But if it’s performance doesn’t improve I might have to review BlogRush’s placement on this blog.

A little patience is needed, me thinks!

Martyn.

image: www.freeimages.co.uk

I’ve been doing a few surveys online lately, testing which ones I would recommend to others. Well earlier today I did a survey about lager, which showed me some adverts and then asked questions about how I felt when I saw these adverts. To be honest all these adverts were pretty bland and uninteresting. But one advert people have been talking about lately is the Cadbury Advert. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here it is :-

[youtube TnzFRV1LwIo Cadbury's Gorilla Advert]

Strange, a bit different you may say, but I think its quite fun and attracts your attention. But so many people have said or I have over heard saying, how does it advertise chocolate? Well showing the advert has obviously got people talking about the advert and therefore the brand involved (Cadbury’s). So therefore it’s not only getting exposure on telly and through video sharing sites such as youtube, but also via word of mouth. Which in my opinion is the most effective form of marketing a product, because you are more likely to trust and believe information from a friend, than when you are told to ‘buy product X, because ….’, by someone you don’t know. Also this advert shows great use of subliminal advertising techniques, this is when a company tries to promote product ‘A’ without talking about or directly showing the product in use. This method is often used in films where companies pay to have there products used, such as in the James Bond films. Where you see Aston Martin, Jaguar, or BMW cars, or brands of mobile phones and watches being used. They are there so you subconsciously associate the products with desirable elements such as style, speed, glamour e.t.c.

Returning to the Cadbury advert, without mentioning chocolate, it has caused more of a stir, people have then talked about it, then re-linked it back to the product the advert is ultimately trying to increase sales for, bars of Dairy Milk. In the end very clever indeed, but why am I so interested? Well could this form of marketing be turned in to promotion for a blog or website? Well I think yes, but yes you are indeed correct I don’t have any money for a TV advert! Yet!! So I need another option to try, what I’m thinking is a short video posted to a video sharing website such as youtube. You may of heard this method called viral marketing. It will have to be funny/entertaining or thought provoking, without again, directly promoting this website. Sounds a bit of a challenge, well I will give it a go, and write a follow up post in the next couple of weeks!

Cheers,

Martyn.

image: www.freeimages.co.uk