The Australian Blogosphere's #1 Meeting Place
As you can see, we’ve updated the Australian Blogs Banner… We thought it was time we gave it a mini face lift. Let us know what you think by posting a comment to this blog post. If you have ideas and suggestions about other themes and iconic images we should include, we’d love to hear them!
Hello World — this is Will Swayne. After a bit of a hiatus in activity on the Australian Blogs Blog, I’ve been charged with getting this blog going again to take up the quest of reporting on the Australian Blogosphere.
The first item of business is to assemble a crack team of bloggers to contribute to this blog in a “magazine format”, (kinda like Small Business Branding).
If you’re interested in being considered, here’s a “Job Description” of position(s), plus how to apply:
AustralianBlogs.com.au is aiming to be the go-to site for what’s happening in the Australian blogosphere. The site consists of a tag-centric directory, plus a blog. AB was started by Jon Yau a couple of years back until he sold the site earlier this year to focus on other projects.
We are now looking for 6 to 10 bloggers to share the blogging duties here at the Australian Blogs Blog.
This could be for you if you are:
We are also looking for an EDITOR to be the head blogger and generally boss everyone around – the main duty of the editor is to keep an eye out for post quality and be main liaison point for the other bloggers in the team.
Here are some of the perks of being a blogger @ Australian Blogs:
If you’d like to get involved, please send an email to me (Will) at info-at-australianblogs-dot-com-dot-au before September 19th with a brief summary of why you think you would suit the position, plus some links to blog posts you’ve done. If you’d like to be considered for the Editor role, please mention that too.
Bests,
Will
Sick of the unending checkout queues?
Shitty with crappy car parking at your local mega-hyper-suburban shopping centre?
Then save yourself the hassle:
And the best part is, these guys never ask for the receipt so that they can return it for something else!
I’ve been dabbling with creating websites and online communities as a hobby since 2005. I used to spend the whole day working on other people’s IT solutions – counting down the hours until I could flick on my laptop at home after my wife and kids had gone to bed and hack some amateur code together and put up the website I had pictured in my head.
Why?
I just want someone to tell me they thought it was cool (or thereabouts….)
AustralianBlogs.com.au (via BLOG.biz) launches its first WordPress theme! YAY…(it’s even XHTML-OK…I checked)
I hope it’s a stinging blow I strike for fellow untrained, untalented wannabe web designers.
Download it here at your peril.
The who’s who (spoke to on the day):
Special mention (shared a group conversation with):
These are just a few of the bloggers/web2.0′ers/beer’ers and Interweb’ers that I had the pleasure of seeing/meeting at podcamp perth day 1 2007.
Credit goes out to Chris Quinn for the sweet shot of a podcamp sign.
You have a new idea or product or service.
It’s cool but in its early form – a little edgy and raw.
But it’s got potential.
How do you get the word out?
Hypothesis No.1: Personalise it
If you can’t be all things to all people, road test the idea with a few trusted friends. Cut it down to its raw elements and put it to them for comment.
Put a little spin on it to initiate eyeball engagement. Think of it this way: if your product was a book, what would the cover/title/book need to look like so that the potential reader grabs it off the shelf. Whether he/she ends up buying it will depend on the merits of the transaction – does the book give the reader what he/she needs/wants, but the point is you need to gather the audience before you can even start that spiel.
The AustralianBlogs experience
We thought we’d try our new idea on the inmates/housemates at the Silicon Beach House by individually labelling some beers we brought for Freelancer Friday. Small and hopefully unobtrusive but enough for Bronwen, Myles and Dave to ask the question we wanted them to: “So what’s BLOG.biz?”
Whether or not the new idea meets their needs will depend on how well we do our job in structuring our offering + whether they actually need what we offer….but last things first – let’s make them grab this little idea off the shelf for a closer look.
The Concept
The Yakka
The Execution
Myles Eftos (MadPilot Productions and PerthNorg) and Luke Evans (AustralianBlogs)
Dave Gardner (Intilecta Corporation)
Bronwen Clune (PerthNorg) and Luke Evans
Bronwen Clune and Bronwen‘s beer
Beered in absentia: Richard Giles (Scouta) and Jordan Brock (Five Senses Coffee)
Excerpt from Water Corporation’s (WA) latest marketing push.
“water for ALL, forever”.
What I want to know is… what are the WA frogs doing to conserve our water?
Found this sign on the entrance to the main arena at Challenge Stadium, taking a ‘state the obvious’ marketing approach.
I wonder what they class as a weapon (Scissors, toothpick, grenade launcher) and who decides?
Looks like we’re tracking at 80:12:8 (%) with the bulk of our visitors either typing in our URL directly or via bookmark.
I’ve been avoiding the Facebook and MySpace crowd since its inception – I didn’t want to be the thirty-something, dirty old man on the barstool of a teenie/twenty-sonething nightclub. However, about the time of the relaunch of AustralianBlogs (or thereabouts) Simone sent me a LinkedIn invitation. I must have signed up a little while ago as it’s fallen by the wayside like my hotmail account. So I gave i a whirl – accepted Simone’s kind invitation to link up and dusted off the resume. This time around, I pasted a link on this blog (as you can see on the top right-hand corner).
It’s terribly uncool to the digerati, I’m sure. LinkedIn’s up there with Amazon, eBay and Yahoo as the giants of the first go-around of the internet boom.
So I thought…PERFECT.
Positives
Negatives
Overall, I’ve added 30-odd friends (real friends) and a couple of acquaintances from the blog world. Not bad. The greatest tangible benefit has really been hooking up with long-lost friends but I guess it’s been some help with any interested surfers looking to get involved with AustralianBlogs.
I’m such a lousy unconference unattendee having missed out on the fabulous Perth Barcamp organised by Myles and mates. But my wife seems to think the newborn is much more important (plus we’re in the middle of moving house), go figure.
But this upcoming event might just be in the right timezone where I could sneak out for a few hours (just quietly):
PodCamp is a FREE new media UnConference. It’s for anyone with an interest in media and technology and covers topics such as:
* social networking
* emerging technologies
* podcasting and blogging
* creative media (music and art)
* new media development and startups
* business newmedia marketing
Below are the vitals for PodCamp Perth:
WHEN: October 27 & 28
WHERE: Central TAFE (140 Royal St, East Perth WA 6004)
COST: FREE!
REGISTER: at the PodCamp Perth wiki or email perth@podcamp.info (include your full name, website/blog address, and suburb)
The best part of PodCamp is that “you” help make it happen. Whether you want to give a presentation, volunteer to help bring it together, sponsor the event or simply want to listen and learn, it’s about you getting what you want out of the conference. Everyone is encouraged to get involved in their own way.
If you have any questions or want to get involved – email: perth@podcamp.info.
UPDATE:
Look who else is coming!
Attendees:
Found an interesting post from Seth Godin about free postage from the Galapagos Islands.
Key thought: Getting people to do something for nothing, that they actually enjoy and at the same time create a demand for the wider community to be involved.
Recruiting agencies get your pad and pen out, becuase that right there is what I call recruitment!
The only question left now is; How does one get the ball rolling, start the momentum of hipe and loyalty to fullfilling postion/job/task you have available in your business, non-profit org, blog or other:________. ???
Ill let Seth answer that one. 
The Experiment:
Measure the effectiveness of online polls, and if they add any value to a website.
The Stats:
Days poll ran: 9
Total votes: 14 (12 if you don’t count the 1 vote each Jon and I contributed)
Total unique traffic during poll: 3740
Winning answer: I find polls… “highlight how lonely my website is”
Summary: 79% say no to polls, 21% say yes
Does only 0.374% of visitors willing to vote justify taking up valuable real estate on your web-page?? Are you prepared to take the risk of “highlight how lonely my website is”?
In our case it was more of a matter of giving the poll a go, the result just being a few laughs.
But hey, maybe its just the demographic (Australian Bloggers) that let us down? AustralianBlogs.com.au ain’t that lonely is it?? Would be interested to hear if there are any poll success stories out there…
Having kicked-off a very successful Sydney weblogger meetup and followed-up with a brilliant Brisbane weblogger meetup, I’d like to ask for volunteers in Adelaide to help kick off a weblogger meetup there.
Easy peasy (really) – once a quarter pick a fave pub or coffee shop and take a few photos on your mobile phone while you’re there.
Scanning the BuggerAll localities tags in Adelaide, I see:
http://www.nevershoppedout.com/
http://australialiving.blogspot.com/
http://pandadan.com/
http://www.georgiadis.com.au/index.php
http://atmospherecentral.blogspot.com/
http://gayforallseasons.blogspot.com/
http://melanieduckworth.blogspot.com/
http://toohardtodo.blogspot.com/
http://ozrisk.net/
http://greylead.blogspot.com/
http://www.threadsofgold.info/
http://marketingjournal.blogspot.com/
http://adelaidegreenporridgecafe.blogspot.com/
http://halfheartedhack.blogspot.com/
http://www.spinningpretty.blogspot.com/
http://counteractnow.blogspot.com/
http://unplugged.blogsource.com/
http://threecountriesthreekids.blogspot.com/
http://www.shaicoggins.com/
http://freshwave.tv/
http://laceandstars.faerywinged.org/
http://aqualung.typepad.com/aqualung
http://www.reapercomix.blogspot.com/
http://gaycards.blogspot.com/
http://angelarandall.com/
http://gerlblog3.blogspot.com/
http://lachcorp.blogspot.com/
http://www.thirdeye3.blogspot.com/
http://igloomelts.my-expressions.com/
http://rialla-t.blogspot.com/
http://ricks-rambles.blogspot.com/
http://whatmewasted.com/
http://stable.cowoh.org/
http://mseyfang.edublogs.org/
http://www.dylankissane.com/
http://thirdcat.net/
http://grahamcatt.blogspot.com/
http://misslauren.com/
http://thirumurugan.blogspot.com/
http://thehighseas.com.au/
http://www.audreyapple.blogspot.com/
http://howtoliveonline.blogspot.com/
http://whatmewasted.com/?page_id=63
http://yaniblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.australiauncensored.wordpress.com/
How’s about it?
July was a ripper month for AustralianBlogs, we:
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.
Just when you thought you couldn’t care less about how we spent our work day, AustralianBlogs is proud to announce that August is “Double your Traffic” month. We hereby declare that our target for COB 31st of August 2007 is 20,000 unique visitors (up from 10,000 u-u-uniques last month).
For our next trick, Jon will get a proper haircut.
Distracted by work obligations and the arrival of my second child, AustralianBlogs and BuggerAll bore the brunt of my neglect in the last few months.
However, things kept simmering along with the fabulous Sara Goldstein who kept a steady ship at the Sydney Weblogger meetup (now up to 124 members!) and the quite unreal Mick Real even found time to help me kick off the Brisbane Weblogger meetup (21 members!).
Having had a nice break (and being re-introduced to baby-induced sleep interruptions) I am re-energised and have begged Luke Evans – gun web designer to join the team. I’m excited to have him on board and we’ve mapped out a bunch of really exciting things to bring to AustralianBlogs.
A trashtalking hobbit trapped in the body of a profanity-impaired web designer, I look forward to being his biggest pain in the arse.
Kung Hei Fatt Choy.
I can’t think of a better time to launch AustralianBlogs’ latest offering….BuggerALL(.com.au, that is)! The FAQ can be found here.
I’d like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous Year of the Pig, and that over the next few weeks of festivities, that you eat, drink, indulge and get to do bugger all.
Richard MacManus’ Read/WriteWeb ran a blog post by Vishal Sharma in Oct06 showcasing the Top web apps in Australia. Placed in a situation where he was always going to be pushing the proverbial up the hill with a Fisher-Price Funtastic shovel, Vishal did a great job. Of most interest to me, however, were the comments on the blog post. Some great startups that were still under the radar.
To indulge my interest in this area (and also to continue on from RWW’s landmark blog post), I have created a wiki and a wiki page. Please feel free to add/delete/amend as you see fit.
· Buttonator (url)
· Campaign Monitor (url)
· Developers Portal (url)
· Fullasagoog (url)
· NationMaster (url)
· RaveAboutIt (url)
· Remember the Milk (url)
· ScribbleHere (url)
· Smooth Budget (url)
· Studentface (url)
· Suburb View (url)
· The Australian Index (url)
· The Podcast Network (url)
· Tin Finger (url)
· Touchstone (url)
· Wyacracker (url)
