Internet Marker

Worth checking out. I’ll see if I can find Youtube links to these speeches.  I was so impressed with the speech given by Marisa Tomei and Kerry Washington.  What a great idea this was–these speeches.  There is so much good stuff out there, stories, speeches, art, comedy, songs–it’s just shame that the good stuff doesn’t rise to the top rather than gossip or fear based news.  Sure, we need to know if there’s something to be concerned about and there’ no harm in gossip, but there is in focusing so much on it and hindering that person’s life. 

I think you have to digg though, you have to put some work in and show discipline even, demand it, not settle with the news or stories you read–you control the clicker and the keys…

‘Today we spend the hour with readings from a Voices of a People’s History of the United States edited by historian Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. It is the companion volume to Zinn’s legendary People’s History of the United States – which has sold over a million copies.

We will hear dramatic readings of speeches, letters, poems, songs, petitions, and manifestos. These are the voices of people throughout U.S. history who struggled against slavery, racism, and war, against oppression and exploitation, and who articulated a vision for a better world.

Performances include Danny Glover as Frederick Douglass, Marisa Tomei as Cindy Sheehan, Floyd Red Crow Westerman as Tecumseh and Chief Joseph, Sandra Oh as Emma Goldman and Yuri Kochiyama, and Viggo Mortensen as Bartolomeo de Las Casas and Mark Twain. ‘

Learn more…

Youtube….

‘Congress has approved about $450 billion to date for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but economists also have been tabulating the long-term costs such as veterans’ care. Economics correspondent Paul Solman explores the broader costs of the war.’

Worth reading…

Techcrunch as an interesting piece on the top blogs run on Wordpress, read more here….

“Last August the site had just 300,000 blogs, 1.6 million daily page views and 14.2 million unique monthly visitors. CEO Toni Schneider says they now have 7.5 million daily page views and 45 million unique monthly visitors. Scobelizer is no longer the largest blog on Wordpress.com, although it is still in the top 5, as is GigaOm’s Web Worker Daily.”

I like that more writers are being given a voice.  Or rewarded for their voice and writing.  Big media is getting wise to the Internet world–took some time.  But now they see how powerful these voices are and can become when they’re free in a sense to write what they want.  If anything, I think blogging and the ease of setting up a blog like this, has broken down the wall a bit that is intimidation, or what holds us back is this odd idea that this or that is too difficult to setup or too complicated.  I think there’s always has been and will be a famed local writer or a product made by a mom in southern Arizona–but the Internet gives that person more of a voice for all their hard work, which is nice.  Then there’s the question of how much they can grease their palms.  From the Wall Street Journal:

“Even Ms. Marie of Joy Unexpected says she is re-evaluating how she handles gifts. “I’ve realized that I’m inundated with free stuff,” she says. “I don’t want my content to turn into advertising.”

 TV critics have called “The New Adventures of Old Christine” one of the decade’s funniest comedies. But when CBS recently wanted to create buzz for the show, critics weren’t the targets of the publicity campaign.

Neither were newspaper feature writers, whom a publicist for the show’s star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, declared weren’t “worth her time.”

The so-called “mommy bloggers” were another matter. Warner Bros., the studio that produces the show for CBS, identified 12 blogs about motherhood, a key theme in “Old Christine,” and invited the writers to spend the day on the set. The bloggers got free DVDs, watched a rehearsal and made videos with Ms. Louis-Dreyfus and other cast members to post on their sites. “It was totally rad,” says Yvonne Marie, the publisher of a Web log called Joy Unexpected.”

Read more…

Find links via checking the back links at Google or at Yahoo’s Site Explorer.  Great way to find sites to you were unaware of and can now partner with on some level.  Either via a link partnership, content syndication, advertising (buy a link) and or in some other fashion.

What other ways can you boost traffic to your site?

Is there a popular book in your area or space that you could write a review about at Amazon.  This is another great way to get a link back at a large quality site like Amazon.  Also, check out Yahoo Answers, are there some questions you could answer and leave your link as the source?  Have a new article on your site that’s worth posting at Digg? 

Keep abreast of what’s going on in your area.  Post links to movie reviews, books, products, and so on.  These companies are already promoting the product, and you can piggy back on some of their advertising spends. 

The key is write about what you like.  The passion will come through in your writing.  Then, you’ll need to write consistantly and or pay some us to write for your blog/site.  You can then grow your RSS feed readers and follow up with them via a newsletter.