Not so much a review as a quick view. Some blogs have a begging bowl or a request for donations or a tip box, subtly placed in a sidebar. Not Beggr, they have the whole site dedicated to asking you for money. Clever approach, and I have donated not a dime. If he is smart enough to come up with that angle, he is smart enough to get a job! A tiny bit more on Beggr

This classy directory was a discovery via John Chow dot com. Business cards aren't exactly 21st century, but bla.st's execution of the on-line concept is. After writing this review of bla.st, The Pisstakers were credited 3 cents a day. Our first pay per review, I guess! We also got to meet fellow humor mongers Larry Hmmm, and ommmmm Zenny, which was an added bonus.

This is the full review of bla.st.

It came to our attention that we have a load of website reviews already written but probably lying undiscovered. They were written a while back and come under entertainment - music mainly. For posterity's sake, she has been good to me, I will keep the page up, and add new reviews here.

The Pisstakers review whacky entertainment websites too.

Blog About Your Blog has put together a Blog Carnival with 20 articles from the best bloggers in their world. Starting with an in-depth analysis of the China stock market melt down by a pisstaking financial expert, the carnival moves effortlessly on to Business Elites Capitalists - a masterpiece of reason written by a real expert displaying reasoned audacity. And most remarkable, a clear and inspiring picture of US foreign policy!

In the spirit of carnivals, it meanders through all sorts of topics to tickle your fancy. There is an enlightening post concerning a lightening stop bus tour through Italy. Who would have thought such a mode of travel could become so appealing to one so young? Football fans got a day trip through the NFL from Lee and a trippy article on self -healing that made me feel great.

With 20 in all, there is something for everyone at the Blog About Your Blog Carnival.

I once did a blog inspired by what I considered to be the worst audio quality podcast I had ever heard. It came from internet darlings Boing Boing. This is a review of what the podcasters with voices made for print do best - blog.

First off, the blog name.

You're not going to forget the name Boing Boing in a hurry, but when you first land on the site and read the banner, it gets you thinking, wtf is this? Fortunately there is a sub-title that immediately lets the first-time visitor know what the site is actually all about. Or does it? What exactly is a directory of wonderful things?

What sort of a directory is Boing Boing?

Certainly, Boing Boing is not like one of those gazillion eye candy logo-riddled useless directory lists that promise all and deliver nothing but empty hope. This directory is a real content-filled erm, blog. The authors strive to entertain the reader with multitudinous posts comprising words of many syllables ably strung together with proper punctuation, and graphics and links and comments. You know, a blog of wonderfully interesting things.

Boing Boing content

So what exactly are you going to read about in wonderment? Bungee jumping, rubber balls, elastic bands? nah. Don't take the name literally, eedjut. Check out the authors for an insight into the filling in this cornucopia of writers' delight.

Co-founder Mark wrote about co-founder and co-writer, Cory: Meet Cory Doctorow:

Disney freak, science-fiction novelist and self-described "happiest geek on Earth." His peer-to-peer dream is to help obscure artists find their audience.

So the picture takes shape. Cory Doctorow is a sci-fi writer of some repute. And then there's Xeni, (Shay nee)

a tech culture journalist and co-editor of the award-winning weblog Boing Boing. She is a contributor to television, radio, and print venues including Wired Magazine and National Public Radio, and likes to float in spaceships.

And then there's David, the futuristic thinker with a retro nihilist website!

These insights sort of hint that Boing Boing has a science bent. And you would think that Technology abounds indeed with back-up from John Battelle, whose own blog is an eminent set of thoughts on the intersection of search, media, technology, and more.. But Boing Boing is not just a haven for tech journos and space cadets. Co-writer and co-founder Mark is into everything, judging by the best About me page I have ever seen.

So, to get a better impression of what is really going on with content, I snapped the feed reader. Co-writers seem to cover anything that isn't sport, finance, movies or TV entertainment?

Source of material?

It looks like you send them a link to a story and the Boing Boingers put their spin on it. A good way to involve the readership, and the standard of writing is most excellent and engaging. (Perhaps the authors want to use the same spell checker as Boing Boing on their own sites - "a" editorial and "an" speech!!! Tut tut!

The Boing Boing look?

They have avoided the newspaper layout and the blog feels like a blog. The design has plenty of white space. It is easy on the eye. I don't know that is a world-beating design, but it is easy to spend time surfing Boing Boing, so it works!

Is Boing Boing a cash cow?

Plenty of traditional money-making efforts are going on, and ads are enticing enough to get a click or three from the millions of weak-willed maxed-out credit card-holding visitors. At the same time, the ads don't detract from the content. Good balance.

However, having heard Cory Doctorow talk on some panel or other, TWiT, I think, it seems that ads are for pocket money purposes only. Boing Boing per se is a platform for marketing the contributors' writing and speaking skills in the real world. What a great tactic for sparing themselves the humiliation of watching blog stats like mad things. Instead they just sit waiting for the phone to ring.

Summary

There is no doubt the Boing Boing guys are talented, driven and well connected bloggers. Fair play to them for building up their little empire on the back of quality techno-science-art content? If you are into all that stuff, man, there is no reason why you wouldn't read every word they write. And then buy their books, commission them for articles, have them talk at your show.

Many thumbs up.

PS if their MyBlogLog logo is in The Pisstakers sidebar when Ed starts blogging Sunday morning, the Boing Boings will get another link to a featured post. How exciting is that!

169 posts, over 1000 comments, traffic growing to over 675 visitors per day, adsense money trickling into the coffers, good start, bright future. There is only one blog that fits that bill - King Nomar dot com.

Nomar is unashamedly blogging his way to internet mogul-dom (in the mold/shadow of evil icon John Chow?) Posting articles on all sorts of internet and blogging tips, techniques and tricks, Nomar has built up quite a fan base, and is trying hard to monetize his king content.

Nomar no nonsense blogging

The vast majority of Nomar's posts are well-conceived and advice is worth considering. Like John Chow, he is disarmingly honest and upfront: He was dugg, and Digg generated good traffic for a few hours and then tailed off to leave his visitor numbers a little bit ahead of pre front page fame. That is no bull, it is how it works in Digg land and good to see he doesn't use the spike as his benchmark for current popularity of his site.

And he saw an ad for a PPP coupon and got $100 of reviews for $25. He enjoyed the 7 episodes of fame, but thought the full price would not have been good value for money. Cool and honest.

Agloco is King Nomar's new clothes?

He is a shrewd assessor of what is and isn't worth a punt in blogging, but to be honest, I would suggest he reassesses his ideas on Agloco, a con in the making if you ask me. Having said that, as he is scorching up the Technorati and Alexa rankings, and The Pisstakers is a satirical website with no clue of the real world, who am I to criticise.

Hail the future king of blogging and good luck to Nomar who obviously has the passion to succeed.

This is an update of blog, Random Encounters of We (REoW). Since the last time, it has become an overtly 2 person effort from hard-working team, Stefanie and hubbie. I say hard-working, because this is one of a stable of Randoms (Games and Super-heroes ) that they put together. Clearly they are versatile writers, plenty of interests and lots of curiosity.

Read More...

The Cynical Libertarian offers a healthy dose of cynical libertarianism, UK student style. (He?) sounds like an angry 20-something, treading his exasperated downtrodden way through the daily grind. What an advert for slow, grey and anally retentive England.

Blog posts

Cynical libertarian content is quite extensive and posts are proper essays. From train journeys where he lost his shoes, to train journeys where he had to abandon a trip due to a fire, right through to university interviews, comments on anarchists on trumped up charges, anti-MP opinions... it is all there to put you off ever stepping foot in the damn country.

Blog content style

The Cynical Libertarian writes like a student, ie he strings an argument together quite well and writes in an easy to follow style, even with his really long sentences. For some reason however, he fucking insists on dropping in the odd fuck word now and again. I personally don't care, but it seems sort of contrived. I am sure he fucking talks way worse than he writes, but the eff word is kind of lame the way he implements it, if you ask me.

Cynical anti-libertarianism

In comparison with the rest of the world, the UK is still the free-est country of the lot, in my ignorant opinion. But even so, after reading and then thinking about his observations, the blog does make you wonder what on earth is going on in the 51st State.

Allowing for the exuberance of youth, it does seem as though the paranoia about Government state control, as expressed by students from Christmases past, has slowly evolved into reality. Locking up a guy for having a cupboard full of bleach and weed-killer in the name of terror seems about right for a 1984 movie, but proper procedure in good old England? I agree with a lot of what the cynical blogger says, but as an old fart, I couldn't possibly rip into the UK like he does - it isn't worth my time wasting energy ridiculing such an insignificant country!

Blog side bar and bits

Looking down his sidebar, he should perhaps call the blog the healthy anarchist. There is a glowing and probably growing list of logos dishonoring such worthy peace-keeping institutions as the UN, Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist groups, the UK government et al.

For a more balanced view, or a broader view of the same material, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a look through his blog roll on the right. Incidentally, Abandon All Fear isn't there, but it would fit in neatly - hint, hint read our AAF reviews!.

Summary

All in all, a good read, but as he doesn't post every day, maybe call by once a week to catch up with the Cynical Libertarian's gossip.

On a scale of 1 (crap) to 10 (ermazing) this is a 6.6 recurring.

Earlier in the year we reported rumblings of another competition from BAYB dynamo, Matt. Update. The competition is underway
Write a review, good or bad, about BAYB and leave it to the judges to decide whether it wins the $10 prize. There are runnners-up pay outs too. Hurry hurry! And remember, you don't have to sucker up to win.

Ed has been nominated as one of the judges, so now the pressure is on him to read, and on you to scintillate.

In fact, if you want to to sucker up to a judge - write a review about The Pisstakers too while you are at it. No prize, just a nice warm fuzzy feeling that comes from reciprocal reviewing.

Having promised to do a review of Blogtopicz, here goes.

Zen the Shadow, aka Zenny, believes that content is king. He is a fast thinking, speedy writing blogger who picks up on any idea for a post and runs with it.

Read More...

Mr Rant is a British, presumably male ranter, who seems to have a great eye for detail and good grasp of UK mindsets. From TV to childhood ponderings, he has an informed red, white and blue opinion, with a great sense of humor - and that is what the best blogging is all about, if you ask me.

The layout is clean and easy to navigate, I think. At least, I found the posts he has written with consummate ease. But then that leads on seamlessly to Mr rant's failing grace.

Just like Faulty Towers, the only thing wrong with this blog is the lack of content. Work harder matey, and come up with some weekly posts to better engage us humor and satire desperadoes. Everyone a winner.

A cool alternative to directories is Swicki. Swicki is a search engine-encyclopedia. It is easy to create a custom entry for Swicki search results that include your blog. It is collaborative too! This is what I wrote for Norman Roberts Swicki result Try it!