Michael Banks has written a book published by Wiley on today's top bloggers called Blogging Heroes. 30 of them to be exact. What is even more interesting than the content of these blogs is the marketing behind it. Wiley has given the PDFs of each chapter (where one chapter is an interview with one blogger) to the bloggers themselves to be shared on their blogs for free. This play on ego is a very interesting marketing move that could possibly work well in the blogosphere where self-promotion is the name of the game. But since the announcement was made on Friday, only the following bloggers have shared their chapters. So for those hoping to get a free e-book, you might have to wait a bit and for all I know, some bloggers may not want to do Wiley this favour. Free chapters currently published: Chapter 2: Chris Anderson (The Long Tail) [ PDF | Post ] Chapter 4: Ina Steiner (AuctionBytes) [ PDF | Post ] Chapter 6: David Rothman (Teleblog) [ PDF | Post ] Chapter 9: Mark Frauenfelder (Boing Boing) [ PDF | Post ] Chapter 25: Gary Lee (Mr. Gary Lee) [ PDF | Post ] Chapter 29: Steve Garfield (Off The Tangent) [ PDF | Post ] Let me know if you find other chapters and I'll update this post. (Updated: 3 November 2007)

At home I use StarHub's MaxOnline Express, the cheapest one which promises download speeds of up to 6Mbps (6,000Kbps) and upload speeds of up to 256Kbps. Judging from the result, I have to say their advertised specs are almost there. Maybe there are a couple of overheads from my router and wireless network.

(StarHub MaxOnline Express)

For mobile broadband, I've been a GPRS user for the longest time, switched up to 3G when I got the right phone, and just recently StarHub rolled out their 3.5G (HSDPA) service. I use the HSDPA service today with my Motorola Maxx V6. According to StarHub, the performance of this brand spanking new network has the highest download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps and upload speeds of up to 1.9Mbps. What I ended up getting was:

(StarHub MaxMobile)

Very disappointing, and check out the latency. So much for voice over wireless broadband. Maybe it could be because I'm working it from indoors. These providers seriously need to consider Femtocell technology to boost indoor coverage.

At other times when I'm out and about, I prefer to use Wireless@SG. The seed isn't great but it serves its purpose as a free service. This test below was taken at Starbucks at Suntec City.

(Wirelss@SG)

I also pop by Geek Terminal now and then, but the last time I checked their network, it wasn't all that fantastic for a dual-leased line system.

(Geek Terminal, SingNet leased line)

The office is where upload speeds are the best, although downloads aren't fantastic, but good enough for work I guess.

(Hill & Knowlton Singapore, StarHub leased line)

Cutting and pasting is something computers have spoilt us with, but when it comes to pitching that desires a response one should never do it through cut and paste.

Be it a PR pitch, sales pitch, whatever. If you want the recipient on the other end to actually respond you should always understand what they are looking for, how they prefer it, and what can help them. Once that is digested, then customise the pitch just for them.

I know it gets tough when you have more than 10 to target with the same thing, but every custom pitch is worth it.

There's a great example of a pitch to a blogger on MarketingProf's Daily Fix today by B. L. Ochman. Something to learn from.

The company has decided to get everyone a 19-inch LCD monitor. Everyone, both laptop and desktop users have one and are free to use it as they wish. Now I get to have two desktops, one as my primary work desktop the other for blogging email. I think everyone here is feeling a bit like this:

CNA and TODAY ran a really interesting transcript of Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew speaking with US columnist Tom Plate and new media expert Jeffrey Cole.

What I got out of it was: Print is getting old and slow, online is fast and overflowing. Newspapers got to do deep with analytics and web needs services like digg.

The only thing I don't get is, why even bother with environmentally unfriendly print? It's not about the physical medium but the content. Good deep analytics can be placed online too. In fact, it is better online because hypertext makes everything a lot more deeper. Case in point: Wikipedia vs any print encyclopedia.

I'm totally on the MM's side when he says that we need to filter to get that credibility and overcome information overload.

The quote that made my day:

... But if we don't use this [new technology], then we are just one hand tied behind us ...

Hat tip to Siva for the find.

Here's an article in MEDIA that I commented on. My 20 minute interview ended up becoming a simple PR tip, but still good. The funny thing is that I didn't even realise the article was out until my global CEO sent it to me. I guess that's a good thing... right?

Anyway, a good read and overview of the monitised Asian blogosphere. Interesting point to note: Malaysia seems to be taking the lead. Also, interesting that there's no mention of PayPerPost or those like it. Maybe the influence of those sites haven't yet corrupted the Asian bloggers.

The monetisation of blogs Advertising on popularblogs can be a risky business, as Sara Yin reports 5 October 2007 You probably won't read about this on her blog, but Chinese celebrity Xu Jing Lei has a very difficult decision to make: should she include advertisements on her emoticon-filled website? After all, the host of her blog, Sina.com, one of China's largest online portals, recently invited 3,000 of its top bloggers to make money through blog advertising revenue. Sina will give participants in the monetisation programme half the revenue it earns from ads on the blog. Sounds like easy money for Sina, who claimed its non-monetised blogs earned US$1 million in revenue in the second quarter of the year. Xu is Sina's most popular blogger, after tallying 100 million hits in the first 600 days of her blog's existence, according to Sina. But will advertisements drive her readers away? Will Xu - and Sina - meet financial expectations? You can't blame a blogger for wanting to monetise. The top blogger in Singapore earns up to S$2,000 (US$1,300) a week for including a single display ad, says Timothy Tiah, CEO of Nuffnang, an ad serving company for blogs. Popular bloggers can pocket even more money by plugging a product in their entry. But such advertorials can be costly and difficult to coordinate with bloggers. "No one's going to run 400 effective advertorials at one go," says Tiah. "We normally get bigger bloggers to supplement display ads with advertorials. It's a lot more effective that way." Finding the right ad-serving tool is crucial from both blogger and advertiser perspectives. In Asia, the pickings are slim for bloggers. Google AdSense is the oldest and easiest way to pocket a quick buck. This system automatically matches blogs to display or text ads, which might explain all the Viagra ads you see in your favourite blogs. Malaysia is advanced in this field, as headquarters to two specialist agencies run by bloggers: Nuffnang and Adverlet. The benefit of specialist agencies, says Nuffnang's Tiah, is to ensure that a blog doesn't get overrun by irrelevant, distracting ads. "We don't have rollover ads, and we try not to allow more than two ads on a site at a time." It's easy to assume that once money enters the equation, a blogger loses control over his own content. However, Tiah emphasises that there are numerous levels of control, ranging from the client writing the entry for the blogger, to a non-intrusive text ad conspicuously placed at the bottom of a blog. "You need a balance between pleasing the blogger and pleasing the advertiser," says Ng. Sina's success hinges on how it manages blogger and client expectations. "As long as the blogger is aware of what's going on, I don't see why putting banners and buttons on the page wouldn't be successful," says a China-based planner. "Corporations trying to harness the power of blogging need to be especially sensitive to how difficult these media are to control." Sina's plans may backfire given that in China, blogs are seen as one of the few 'authentic' media. "If readers in China believe that the blogger is getting paid to talk about a particular brand of shampoo, then Sina's scheme could go wrong very quickly." Blog advertising remains niche, everywhere. In the US, PQ Media estimated that less than US$17 million was spent advertising on blogs in 2005. This is expected to grow to $300 million by 2010. In Asia, Malaysia has the most advanced monetisation system in place (the country's top three bloggers, for instance, each have their own agents). "The industry is still trying to catch up with social networking measuring metrics," says Ng. "It's still a very new concept with unproven effectiveness." Although ads on blogs are purchased based on similar statistics and audience measurements as any website, advertisers are more wary of intruding on a private interaction between blogger and reader. "General ad serving on blogs, such as through AdSense, might get lots of impressions - but not necessarily lots of click-thru." While agencies in Asia-Pacific grapple to understand how to value blog advertising, media owners (and blog hosts) such as MSN and Yahoo have begun dealing directly with clients. In Singapore, Lenovo worked with Windows Live Spaces to build a blog, purportedly written by Melody Chan. Buena Vista International did the same to promote Ratatouille before its digital agency Profero could present the solution. What it means for... ADVERTISERS

• Advertising on blogs is riskier and less proven than general online buys, but the benefits can be immeasurable.
• Given the perceived authenticity of a blog, it's crucial to understand it inside and out. Who does it target? What makes it so popular? How does the blogger engage his readers? Do your competitors already advertise on the blog?
• Advertorials generally work best. Unsurprisingly, they are also the most expensive and difficult to coordinate. Don't fall into the trap of expecting hundreds of a market's top bloggers to speak positively about your brand.

MEDIA agencies

• Given the pace of blog adspend overseas, it's worth familiarising yourself for an early mover advantage. Most of the media agencies Media spoke to were only vaguely familiar with blog advertising.
• Think beyond display ads, which are more intrusive on a blog than on a typical website. Sensitively-placed advertorials can be as rewarding, as they have been for clients such as Apple and Nike.

PR agencies

• Pitching to bloggers is no different from pitching to journalists, says Benjamin Koe, new media specialist at Hill & Knowlton Singapore. Except for one crucial difference: bloggers are less focused. They can write about how the PR agency treats them, as Edelman knows after last year's run-in with A-list bloggers who were sent laptops from Microsoft.
• Advertorials don't come cheap. Target no more than a few top bloggers per campaign.
• Editorial integrity matters. Consumers will desert blogs if they feel they are commercially influenced.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbfpLE3hRKY]

Walang Bato', or 'Without a Kidney' in Tagalog, is an independent documentary project about body parts sales in the Philippines. We're still in the midst of production.

If you have any related information/stories , do drop us a mail at colouredsky@gmail.com. We're definitely open to funding opportunities.
A digital media kit is also available upon request.

This is from my friend's university mate's final year project. These (can I say) kids have a fantastic documentary in the works and are obviously looking for support.

I blogged about another friend's documentary earlier. These guys made the film while they were students too and their film made a debut at Cathay's Picturehouse cinema here in Singapore.

I'm not a fan of local films, but these documentaries have touched me. Here's to lending my support.

The next Web 2.0 startup that's worth owning or buying would be the one that finds the cure for the information overload created by the social media.

If necessity is the mother of all inventions, then the solution to help us pick only the ripe fruit and consume it would be her next child.

It's the natural trend already with social gatekeeping services such as Google News, Digg, and Technorati becoming the entry point for anyone hungry for social content. Couple that with personalisation tools such as Google Reader, FeedBurner, and now the newest attempt, FeedHub and we're half way there, but still no elixir.

I need not remind us that the days of the agenda setting "press" are quite over. I'm not saying they're not influential, I'm just saying it's not all we've got. In my opinion the first and best thing for we, who know and are exposed to thissuper market of content that is impossible to consume, is to identify our favourite sources. Selecting the choice trees, if I may continue my above metaphor.

But even that is a bit too much. Robert Scoble can't figure out his 800 feeds and I'm hardly managing my 100+. I thought once before about pruning those that Google Reader Trends proved I hardly read, but I found that to be quite impossible because there were one or two gems in some of those blogs and I rationalised to leave them there just in case I stumble upon some new ones in my browsing.

So, now that we've got our choice feeds, where do we go from here? I like FeedHub's attempt at teaching the machine, but I'm not convinced that's utopia.

As I was mulling over this problem, I thought of some features that could be worked into the cure for information overload:

Natural language search interface
Most of the content that goes into feeds are either blog entries or news. Technical content such as how-tos or the Wikipedia tend to be accessed via keyword search on a when-you-need-it basis. News and blog posts however, we like to see constantly updated and refreshed as if we're fearful to miss the latest trend or gossip. So what are such feed worthy content made of? Strings of natural language!

Human powered recommendation engines
This is my favourite feature on Amazon and some tech news sites. I absolutely love the "people who read (bought) this also like..." system. It's a beautiful use of the social wisdom and it should be applied to my choice feeds too. Maybe the privacy advocates don't like a a robot making pubic comparative statistics out of my feeds, but this is one proven feature that I know works and would love for it to manage my feeds. And the trick is not to recommend a feed that I might like, but actual posts! Now that's a recommendation that cuts through the crap.

Custom channels
Although collecting feeds and dumping them into the reader is an easy way to aggregate, it isn't the best way to get what you want. I believe that a lot of us already know or have a clue of what we're after and search is the best way to get that information. Just like how Google Alerts or Miro (my new favourite video app) does it, first we search, then we save that search as a channel which gets updated. This is also the best way to aggregate content such as video, pictures, and audio. Why watch all episodes of diggnation when you only care about those that mention Apple products, for example.

Mobile interface
I mean true mobile interface not just Nokia N95 and iPhone users that have full web browsers on the go. Google Reader has done a decent WAP job, and reading from my Motorola Razr in the train, while in queue, or even when taking a dump can help significantly reduce the information build up. With so much momentum for mobile broadband drumming up all over the world, the mobile platform will play a significant part in the cure for information overload.

Those are my ideas, new ideas are welcome in the comments. All this ideastorming is making me wonder too if there can actually be a "cure" for this problem of information overload. Maybe what I really need is a fruit picker with a crystal ball telling me what I need and which tree to find it on.