In the Terralever Blogosphere

February 28, 2008 – Mix08 - Silverlight as a Gaming Platform
February 13, 2008 – Become Successful by Helping Others
February 09, 2008 – How to promote a blog for free
February 07, 2008 – Google: Microsoft's Yahoo bid bad for innovation, consumers, Internet
February 07, 2008 – Zombomatic 3000 on Miniclip.com

February 28, 2008 –

Mix08 - Silverlight as a Gaming Platform

February 13, 2008 –

Become Successful by Helping Others

February 09, 2008 –

How to promote a blog for free

February 07, 2008 –

Google: Microsoft's Yahoo bid bad for innovation, consumers, Internet

February 07, 2008 –

Zombomatic 3000 on Miniclip.com

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February 28, 2008 \| Taken from refactor by Joel Neubeck Mix08 - Silverlight as a Gaming Platform This year Terralever has the great opportunity to present at Microsoft’s Mix 08 conference in Las Vegas, March 5-7th. Mix is an amazing conference that exposes the technology community to the latest on Silverlight, Internet Explorer, ASP.NET, Expression, Windows Live and other key technologies. The topic I will present on is “Silverlight as a Gaming Platform” and specifically our experience writing a game in Silverlight 2. Abstract “Come learn how Microsoft Silverlight was used to create Tunnel Trouble, an online game built using Silverlight 2. This session covers concepts of using Silverlight technologies and tools to build game boards, animations, collision logic, game loop logic, integrating media into game play as well as integrating with web services and being more efficient with managed code.” I am very excited to represent Terralever in this opportunity. If your attending Mix, make sure to attend our break out session on Thursday March 6th at 4:15 PM in the San Polo 3501A room.
February 13, 2008 \| Taken from SEO Diva by Kay Frenzer Become Successful by Helping Others One of the keys to being successful in the social media space is to get involved, extend yourself, and help others. ‘Social’ means relating to human society and its members. When you get join one or more social media groups, be it Stumble, Facebook, or MySpace, to name just a few of the many that are online, you’re expected to give before you get. Estaban Panzera (a rising star to keep your eye on) has a blog article with tips from Social Media Marketers, in which Neil Patel says, “Participate in the community before you try and leverage it. It is one thing to read about a community and how it works, but you need to actually get involved in the community.” In order to become an active member of a social media community, you must choose which of them you relate to and enjoy the most - no one can do it all. Once you’ve chosen one or two to contribute to, move forward by connecting with others within the community. Learn what motivates them, gets them interested and excited. Before you ask for Stumbles, comments, and clicks, start doing it for other members. A blog article from July of ‘07 titled A Fable Do Follow and Comments (Real Estate Blog Lab) clarifies how being helpful toward others will benefit you: “I’ve noticed on the blogs I author and track that posts without comments can move quickly to supplemental results and right out of the Google index. However, posts with comments tend to stay in the active index much longer and some almost indefinitely.” “The second thing I’ve noticed that helps keep posts in the Google index are those containing links that are contextual to the post. It means you are giving away a link to another blog. It is often called link love because these contextual links are the best kind of back-link to get from another blog or website.” In other words, share the love. Become successful by helping others succeed.
February 09, 2008 \| Taken from Online Marketing Performance by Scott McAndrew How to promote a blog for free When a friend or colleague sets up a blog, I am often curious to see what they do to promote it. Unfortunately, they often don’t do some basic things that can give their blogs the opportunity to take off. If you’re committed to writing good content, it often takes no money at all to get the ball rolling. Before we get ahead of ourselves, a quick caveat: We’re beyond the “How do I blog?”, “Why would I blog?” and the dreaded “What is a blog?” phase here. If you’re at that stage, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m assuming you already know why you are blogging, and what it can offer you or your organization. You just might not know what you can do to give it a nudge so people can find it. OK. So you’ve set yourself up a blog, and you want to be sure your efforts bear fruit. Here are some easy, basic, and FREE techniques to promote your blog:Tags and Categories - Cost: $0.00 Internet and blog search engines use the keyword/keyword phrases in tags and categories to file your postings so they’re ready can be served back to Internet searchers. Use them thoughtfully and creatively! If you use both tags and categories, your categories should be broad; your tags should be specific. Submit Your Blog to Search Engines - Cost: $0.00 Submit your blog to credible, qualified directories (Google, Yahoo, Live, ASK, DMOZ.org) For some sites (such as the Yahoo directory) you do have to pay. However, you can submit your site to Yahoo without submitting to their paid directory Leverage FeedBurner - Cost: $0.00 FeedBurner allows reporting on the number of subscribers to your blog as well as some high-level web site traffic reporting. It is also useful to promote your blog. After doing the basic FeedBurner setup, enable the ‘PRO’ settings. The ‘PRO’ features previously cost money; they are now complimentary (thanks for buying FeedBurner Google!), Finally, go through each tab in FeedBurner and read the options that are available. Scores of additional options exist from pinging other aggregation/syndication sources when you post an entry to placing ads in your feed to monetize your syndication. Claim your Blog on Technorati - Cost: $0.00 Technorati is the Google of blogs and a great source of traffic. There’s no excuse to not sign-up with the basic information Technorati needs. Don’t stop at the bare minimum. Go ‘Favorite’ blogs you enjoy. Don’t forget to ‘Favorite’ your friends’ blogs; maybe they’ll stop by and ‘Favorite’ you too. Add a ‘Favorite on Technorati’ badge or link on your blog. Add a post to the Where’s the Fire (WTF) every now and again. Make sure they’re good posts. Even if you don’t get a lot of votes, you do get people coming by to see what your blog has to offer. Enlist a Well Rounded Analytics Package - Cost: $0.00 Google Analytics allows you to get more detailed web site usage reporting than FeedBurner can supply. Free or not it’s a great tool. Figure out which reports help you the most. You can gauge affinity for your content based on how often articles are viewed, how long visitors stay on your site when they arrive at a specific individual article (etc.). Sky’s the limit. Get to know Google Analytics. Learn and adapt. Viewing reports on usage of your blog isn’t blog promotion. How you interpret and apply what you learn will provide a strong foundation for your future blogging and blog promotion efforts. Link to your Blog - Cost: $0.00 If you send out any regular communication (online or off) provide a link to your blog. If your email program allows it, place a link to your blog in your signature. When you comment on other people’s blogs, be sure to provide your blog’s URL if you are prompted. If you keep a LinkedIn or Facebook profile, be sure to add a link to your blog. Facebook also lets you import your blog’s RSS feed as “Notes” so they display on your Profile page. Ping when you Post - Cost: $0.00 If your blog doesn’t automatically do it for you, ping Technorati and other services when your blog is updated If you’re not sure if your blog platform pings aggregators and syndicators when you post, check your documentation (most good blog platforms do this automatically, such as WordPress and Blogger). FeedBurner also has a ping service. Be sure it is activated, and take advantage of their offer to let you specify more sources to ping. Participate in the Greater Blog Community - Cost: $0.00 You want people to interact with your blog, be sure to do the same yourself! When you provide meaningful commentary on others’ blogs, you will benefit from visitors and/or the author stopping by your blog to learn more about you. Make it Easy to Engage Your Content - Cost: $0.00 What you don’t want to do is have visitors read one post and then leave. When setting up your blog, think about the best place in its layout to place related, popular, and recent posts. Either pick a template that meets your needs, or modify it on your own. Entice visitors to come back. The best way for them to know about new content you write is for them to subscribe to your RSS feed. To encourage them to, place your RSS feed link in a prominent, visible position on your blog. Write Good Content - Cost: $0.00 This is the big one. Without good content, you’re toast. Write provoking titles that speak to your audience. If the title is good, you have a much better chance of drawing viewers to your content. Be sure to post regularly! Post as regularly as you can. Search engines (and your readers!) like to see stability and frequency in the amount of content that comes from your site. Syndicate your Content - Cost: $0.00 If there are any niche RSS syndication services for your content, see if there are fees associated with adding your feed to their service. Often, aggregation and syndication services don’t charge a thing. Zimbio is a great, user-friendly place to start. Educate your self on how to republish your content so you aren’t penalized by search engines. If you leverage Feedburner (and you should) visit the Optimize > FeedFlare section. It offers several ways to encourage your visitors to promote your content elsewhere on the web. I hope these tips help. They are all free, and they will promote your blog. If you write compelling content and use the methods above, you will get traffic. How much blogging and promotion of your blog you commit to will determine how popular your blog becomes.
February 07, 2008 \| Taken from Online Marketing Performance by Scott McAndrew Google: Microsoft's Yahoo bid bad for innovation, consumers, Internet Today in a response to Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo last Friday David Drummond, Google Senior VP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, provided a statement in Google’s Press Center. The statement, entitled “Yahoo! and the future of the Internet”, opens by stating that both Google and Yahoo, as well as their customers, have benefitted from a climate of “openness” where good ideas allow businesses to grow and thrive. Google warns that this open and innovative climate is threatened by Microsoft’s Yahoo bid. The statement directly takes critical aim at Microsoft’s history, character and intent. From Google’s statement: Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft — despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses — to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services? Google’s statement is ‘to be expected.’ If anyone is going to be scrutinized for making a technology acquisition on such a scale it’ s Microsoft. If any one company is going to provide commentary, it’s Google. Clearly Google sees the threat in the potential marriage, and it isn’t immediately in the search realm. The statement doesn’t explicitly focus on search in and of itself because while Microsoft capturing 30% of the search landscape does create the beginnings of a threat for Google’s dominance in search, it still only adds up to about half of Google’s search share. What Google fears is Microsoft leveraging one strong position to overcome a seemingly insurmountable force as they successfully did in the 90’s—leveraging their OS dominance to catapult their Internet Explorer browser past Netscape’s marketplace dominance. Google’s long-term concern revolves around the potential collective customer-base for web services and share of global web traffic Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo would create, and how those positions could combine with Microsoft’s other offerings (including its OS dominance) to create a real threat to Google’s strong foothold in search, and thus online advertising. The technology and investment communities clearly understand this. Real discomfort aside, Google’s statement is a nice podium for flying the good guy flag, especially in the wake of a year peppered with articles questioning Google’s dominant market position and trust. Google’s statement follows murmurs on Friday that Microsoft’s bid is unwelcomed and a threat as well as reports that Yahoo has engaged Google as a potential ally in fending off the hostile takeover.
February 07, 2008 \| Taken from refactor by Joel Neubeck Zombomatic 3000 on Miniclip.com Today Terralevers interactive team released our second game written for the Silverlight plugin. Zombomatic was writen for Miniclip and targets the 1.0 version of the silverlight plugin. Zombomatic is a fun puzzle game that challenges you to swap electrical conductors to connect them into a path for the electricity to flow and bring your Zomomatic 300o back to life. Give the game a try I gaurantee you will enjoy it.

February 28, 2008 | Taken from refactor by Joel Neubeck

Mix08 - Silverlight as a Gaming Platform

This year Terralever has the great opportunity to present at Microsoft’s Mix 08 conference in Las Vegas, March 5-7th. Mix is an amazing conference that exposes the technology community to the latest on Silverlight, Internet Explorer, ASP.NET, Expression, Windows Live and other key technologies. The topic I will present on is “Silverlight as a Gaming Platform” and specifically our experience writing a game in Silverlight 2.
Abstract
“Come learn how Microsoft Silverlight was used to create Tunnel Trouble, an online game built using Silverlight 2. This session covers concepts of using Silverlight technologies and tools to build game boards, animations, collision logic, game loop logic, integrating media into game play as well as integrating with web services and being more efficient with managed code.”

I am very excited to represent Terralever in this opportunity. If your attending Mix, make sure to attend our break out session on Thursday March 6th at 4:15 PM in the San Polo 3501A room.

February 13, 2008 | Taken from SEO Diva by Kay Frenzer

Become Successful by Helping Others

One of the keys to being successful in the social media space is to get involved, extend yourself, and help others. ‘Social’ means relating to human society and its members. When you get join one or more social media groups, be it Stumble, Facebook, or MySpace, to name just a few of the many that are online, you’re expected to give before you get.

Estaban Panzera (a rising star to keep your eye on) has a blog article with tips from Social Media Marketers, in which Neil Patel says,

“Participate in the community before you try and leverage it. It is one thing to read about a community and how it works, but you need to actually get involved in the community.”

In order to become an active member of a social media community, you must choose which of them you relate to and enjoy the most - no one can do it all. Once you’ve chosen one or two to contribute to, move forward by connecting with others within the community. Learn what motivates them, gets them interested and excited. Before you ask for Stumbles, comments, and clicks, start doing it for other members.

A blog article from July of ‘07 titled A Fable Do Follow and Comments (Real Estate Blog Lab) clarifies how being helpful toward others will benefit you:

“I’ve noticed on the blogs I author and track that posts without comments can move quickly to supplemental results and right out of the Google index. However, posts with comments tend to stay in the active index much longer and some almost indefinitely.”
“The second thing I’ve noticed that helps keep posts in the Google index are those containing links that are contextual to the post. It means you are giving away a link to another blog. It is often called link love because these contextual links are the best kind of back-link to get from another blog or website.”

In other words, share the love. Become successful by helping others succeed.

February 09, 2008 | Taken from Online Marketing Performance by Scott McAndrew

How to promote a blog for free

When a friend or colleague sets up a blog, I am often curious to see what they do to promote it. Unfortunately, they often don’t do some basic things that can give their blogs the opportunity to take off. If you’re committed to writing good content, it often takes no money at all to get the ball rolling.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, a quick caveat: We’re beyond the “How do I blog?”, “Why would I blog?” and the dreaded “What is a blog?” phase here. If you’re at that stage, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m assuming you already know why you are blogging, and what it can offer you or your organization. You just might not know what you can do to give it a nudge so people can find it.

OK. So you’ve set yourself up a blog, and you want to be sure your efforts bear fruit. Here are some easy, basic, and FREE techniques to promote your blog:Tags and Categories - Cost: $0.00

Internet and blog search engines use the keyword/keyword phrases in tags and categories to file your postings so they’re ready can be served back to Internet searchers. Use them thoughtfully and creatively!
If you use both tags and categories, your categories should be broad; your tags should be specific.

Submit Your Blog to Search Engines - Cost: $0.00

Submit your blog to credible, qualified directories (Google, Yahoo, Live, ASK, DMOZ.org)
For some sites (such as the Yahoo directory) you do have to pay. However, you can submit your site to Yahoo without submitting to their paid directory

Leverage FeedBurner - Cost: $0.00

FeedBurner allows reporting on the number of subscribers to your blog as well as some high-level web site traffic reporting. It is also useful to promote your blog.
After doing the basic FeedBurner setup, enable the ‘PRO’ settings. The ‘PRO’ features previously cost money; they are now complimentary (thanks for buying FeedBurner Google!),
Finally, go through each tab in FeedBurner and read the options that are available. Scores of additional options exist from pinging other aggregation/syndication sources when you post an entry to placing ads in your feed to monetize your syndication.

Claim your Blog on Technorati - Cost: $0.00

Technorati is the Google of blogs and a great source of traffic.
There’s no excuse to not sign-up with the basic information Technorati needs.
Don’t stop at the bare minimum. Go ‘Favorite’ blogs you enjoy. Don’t forget to ‘Favorite’ your friends’ blogs; maybe they’ll stop by and ‘Favorite’ you too. Add a ‘Favorite on Technorati’ badge or link on your blog.
Add a post to the Where’s the Fire (WTF) every now and again. Make sure they’re good posts. Even if you don’t get a lot of votes, you do get people coming by to see what your blog has to offer.

Enlist a Well Rounded Analytics Package - Cost: $0.00

Google Analytics allows you to get more detailed web site usage reporting than FeedBurner can supply. Free or not it’s a great tool.
Figure out which reports help you the most. You can gauge affinity for your content based on how often articles are viewed, how long visitors stay on your site when they arrive at a specific individual article (etc.). Sky’s the limit. Get to know Google Analytics.
Learn and adapt. Viewing reports on usage of your blog isn’t blog promotion. How you interpret and apply what you learn will provide a strong foundation for your future blogging and blog promotion efforts.

Link to your Blog - Cost: $0.00

If you send out any regular communication (online or off) provide a link to your blog.
If your email program allows it, place a link to your blog in your signature.
When you comment on other people’s blogs, be sure to provide your blog’s URL if you are prompted.
If you keep a LinkedIn or Facebook profile, be sure to add a link to your blog. Facebook also lets you import your blog’s RSS feed as “Notes” so they display on your Profile page.

Ping when you Post - Cost: $0.00

If your blog doesn’t automatically do it for you, ping Technorati and other services when your blog is updated
If you’re not sure if your blog platform pings aggregators and syndicators when you post, check your documentation (most good blog platforms do this automatically, such as WordPress and Blogger).
FeedBurner also has a ping service. Be sure it is activated, and take advantage of their offer to let you specify more sources to ping.

Participate in the Greater Blog Community - Cost: $0.00

You want people to interact with your blog, be sure to do the same yourself!
When you provide meaningful commentary on others’ blogs, you will benefit from visitors and/or the author stopping by your blog to learn more about you.

Make it Easy to Engage Your Content - Cost: $0.00

What you don’t want to do is have visitors read one post and then leave. When setting up your blog, think about the best place in its layout to place related, popular, and recent posts. Either pick a template that meets your needs, or modify it on your own.
Entice visitors to come back. The best way for them to know about new content you write is for them to subscribe to your RSS feed. To encourage them to, place your RSS feed link in a prominent, visible position on your blog.

Write Good Content - Cost: $0.00

This is the big one. Without good content, you’re toast.
Write provoking titles that speak to your audience. If the title is good, you have a much better chance of drawing viewers to your content.
Be sure to post regularly! Post as regularly as you can. Search engines (and your readers!) like to see stability and frequency in the amount of content that comes from your site.

Syndicate your Content - Cost: $0.00

If there are any niche RSS syndication services for your content, see if there are fees associated with adding your feed to their service.
Often, aggregation and syndication services don’t charge a thing. Zimbio is a great, user-friendly place to start.
Educate your self on how to republish your content so you aren’t penalized by search engines.
If you leverage Feedburner (and you should) visit the Optimize > FeedFlare section. It offers several ways to encourage your visitors to promote your content elsewhere on the web.

I hope these tips help. They are all free, and they will promote your blog. If you write compelling content and use the methods above, you will get traffic. How much blogging and promotion of your blog you commit to will determine how popular your blog becomes.

February 07, 2008 | Taken from Online Marketing Performance by Scott McAndrew

Google: Microsoft's Yahoo bid bad for innovation, consumers, Internet

Today in a response to Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo last Friday David Drummond, Google Senior VP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, provided a statement in Google’s Press Center. The statement, entitled “Yahoo! and the future of the Internet”, opens by stating that both Google and Yahoo, as well as their customers, have benefitted from a climate of “openness” where good ideas allow businesses to grow and thrive. Google warns that this open and innovative climate is threatened by Microsoft’s Yahoo bid.

The statement directly takes critical aim at Microsoft’s history, character and intent. From Google’s statement:

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft — despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses — to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services?

Google’s statement is ‘to be expected.’ If anyone is going to be scrutinized for making a technology acquisition on such a scale it’ s Microsoft. If any one company is going to provide commentary, it’s Google. Clearly Google sees the threat in the potential marriage, and it isn’t immediately in the search realm. The statement doesn’t explicitly focus on search in and of itself because while Microsoft capturing 30% of the search landscape does create the beginnings of a threat for Google’s dominance in search, it still only adds up to about half of Google’s search share.

What Google fears is Microsoft leveraging one strong position to overcome a seemingly insurmountable force as they successfully did in the 90’s—leveraging their OS dominance to catapult their Internet Explorer browser past Netscape’s marketplace dominance. Google’s long-term concern revolves around the potential collective customer-base for web services and share of global web traffic Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo would create, and how those positions could combine with Microsoft’s other offerings (including its OS dominance) to create a real threat to Google’s strong foothold in search, and thus online advertising. The technology and investment communities clearly understand this. Real discomfort aside, Google’s statement is a nice podium for flying the good guy flag, especially in the wake of a year peppered with articles questioning Google’s dominant market position and trust.

Google’s statement follows murmurs on Friday that Microsoft’s bid is unwelcomed and a threat as well as reports that Yahoo has engaged Google as a potential ally in fending off the hostile takeover.

February 07, 2008 | Taken from refactor by Joel Neubeck

Zombomatic 3000 on Miniclip.com

Today Terralevers interactive team released our second game written for the Silverlight plugin. Zombomatic was writen for Miniclip and targets the 1.0 version of the silverlight plugin. Zombomatic is a fun puzzle game that challenges you to swap electrical conductors to connect them into a path for the electricity to flow and bring your Zomomatic 300o back to life. Give the game a try I gaurantee you will enjoy it.