The Raging Tech

Best Blog Ad Solution?

With the announcement I made earlier about having ditched Entrecard (incidentally, since clearing my Ad queue, I suddenly have over 30+ ad requests per day. Entrecard users, give up. I’m not putting my badge back up, and you should actually look at a site before you advertise with them.), it occurs to me I’d still like to earn some ad revenue.

Google Ads are neat, but they hardly do anything for me. Is anyone else making money from advertising on their blog that would like to share with me what system they’re using? Are you cold-calling or e-mailing sponsors to get ad sales? Do you have an advertising system you use on your blog that lets people sign up and automate your advertising process? I’d sure like to know. Leave me a comment!

New Venture: ‘Tech Jaws’ Technology News Site

As I’ve been hinting at the last few days, and those of you following me on Twitter already know, I’m working with Frank J on a new tech news web site, Tech Jaws. It’s got an aggressive tone with a focus on the bleeding-edge of technology reviews, news, and tips.

This morning I posted an article reviewing the Logitech Harmony One universal remote control. This remote is simply awesome! Head on over to Tech Jaws and check out my review - complete with screenshots of the software and photos of the remote itself.

Also, feel free to comment - and when you do, mention you came there from my blog!

Coming Soon: Logitech Harmony One Full Review

Hey everyone. Just a heads up - I received my Logitech Harmony One universal remote control - and it is completely awesome. The long and short of it is I like it a lot - it found devices no other universal remote has ever found for me before, and it even has provisional support for my Playstation 3 if I can buy the IR-bluetooth adapter.

As I wrote earlier this morning, I’m going out of town this weekend, but I’ll be working on my review and should have something Monday morning to share with all of you.

The reason this is exciting to me is that this will be the first review of a technology gadget that’s been sent to me for free to review. I’ve done reviews of things I already owned before, but this certainly makes me feel good about the reviewing and posting I’ve been doing here so far.

Thanks to my readers - it’s you guys who give me the numbers to show people I’m worth advertising with / sponsoring / sending cool free stuff to review. Don’t forget - if you like my blog and find it interesting, share the URL with your friends and family, add me to your blog roll, and subscribe to my RSS feed!

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights on May 15th

On May 15th, 2008, bloggers from across the world will be participating in one of the largest collaborations of online publication for human rights violations. If you decide to join me, you can help by being a voice for those who don’t have a voice.

There are several main topics to choose from, primarily to keep everyone on the same topics so the impact is greater - such as Darfur, Shi Tao in China and Yahoo!’s part in his being seized by the Chinese government, the illegal detentions at Guantanamo Bay, and more.

Blogs are indexed by search engines, feed readers, and other programs of interest. That means when thousands of bloggers write on the same topic, especially in a relatively short period of time, like one day, it gets noticed.

Join Bloggers Unite now, and on May 15th blog for Human Rights violations world-wide!

Put Your Ugly Mug on Anything

That’s right. You can put your ugly mug on anything, even an ugly mug! Or a t-shirt, or a mouse pad [Note: despite popular opinion, mouse pads are not feminine protection for mice], or a calendar, or just about anything else that can be printed on.

What’s even better is you don’t have to sacrifice quality to get them cheap! The last two or three times I’ve needed business cards for several enterprising ventures of mine, I’ve had them printed up with VistaPrint. If you’re a first time customer, they can give you some basic cards for free (you just pay shipping). You can also get other free stuff as a way to try out their services.

If you’re a regular customer, they send you e-mails with huge discounts on stationary, calendars, business cards, and other cool print items and personalized office accessories. If you haven’t heard of them before, be sure and check them out for just about any of your print needs. You can even order checks with your design on it! Shipping is fast and inexpensive, and their packaging is unique! My cards always come in a white box that can be easily folded back and used as a display holder for my desk. I’ve also purchased a cool metal business card holder, so my cards don’t get all bended in my wallet or pocket.

Show Some Love: Advertise on Raging Tech

Hey everybody, I just wanted to take a moment to point out a new page on the site, a link to the right detailing some information about advertising on my blog or sponsoring a post. The Raging Tech currently has several sponsors for posts, but is now offering banner ad space on the right.

Right now, for $35 USD, you can have your banner ad appear on the sidebar to the right (where the Raging Tech ad is now) for an entire week as the only banner ad on the site. That’s right. For just thirty-five bucks, you can have complete exclusivity on this blog for an entire week.

If you don’t already have a tower banner ad, I am in contract with a graphic designer who can make something awesome for you to use for a negotiated price.

For just $15 (for 50 words), I will give your site or business or product a review here, or let you sponsor a blog post on a topic of your choice, and you can get exposure to a group of really cool readers. Click here for more information on advertising with the Raging Tech.

SPECIAL: The first 4 advertisers / sponsors to sign up will receive a special promotional Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal on whichever type of advertising is purchased upon receipt of payment.

I.E., buy a banner ad for a week, get an extra week free, sponsor a post, get an extra post free. Schedule of free post or ad to be settled on between advertiser and The Raging Tech on an individual basis.

One Rank to Rule Them All

Previously mentioned Izea Ranks, is set to trump all other ranking systems. Alexa, Google Page Rank, Technorati, Blogjuice, and the other myriad of ranking systems are starting to get nervous, maybe even a little sweaty, over newcomer Izea Ranks.

These other ranking systems all have their prolific search engine-based ranking algorithms and fancy mathematical formulas that basically add up to bloggers and other web site owners having to kiss-up to the ranking provider, and live and die by their numbers.

Those systems might still be well and good, after all, they’ve been mostly good to me (I’m glaring at you, Google). But when you’re a blogger and your livelyhood is based on how popular your blog is, you want a metric that’s actually based on your blog traffic and not whether or not the ranking provider likes you or the way you run things.

Enter Izea Ranks - just install a simple piece of javascript code into your blog’s template (don’t worry, it’s not that complicated - they provide you with instructions) and then within a day or two, you’ll start getting statistics on your blog’s popularity within the blogosphere.

It’s exciting to get daily updates on where you stand, as opposed to waiting 3 or 4 months for a certain company to get off their “google” and update your page rank. That way, you can see what is and is not effective at attracting visitors to your site. This allows blog owners to be dynamic and quick-change artists who can effectively draw traffic and page views.

One of the best things about a daily update though, is that it gives a certain sense of satisfaction to my competitive side. Something about looking at my rank and knowing that there’s thousands upon thousands of blogs that aren’t doing as well as me makes me happy. I know that’s unsportsman-like, but you know you’d do the same thing.

I challenge you other blog owners out there to sign-up for Izea Ranks and install the code, and see how you stack up against The Raging Tech.