Recently I had a chance to interview Dean from Mr Cheap Stuff about blog marketing, personal finance as discussed on his site and blogging tips. His answers are below.

1. How long have you had Mr Cheap Stuff up?

“I started Mr. Cheap Stuff in September 2004. The site was created as a place where family and friends could find the best deals, freebies and coupons. Since everyone always used to ask me where is the best deals were online instead of telling everyone I just created a web site to make it easier for everyone. Next thing I knew the site got picked up by the spiders and people started linking to it. Traffic has steadily increased since then.”

2. What is the site about?

“Mr. Cheap Stuff first started out mainly as a coupon or deals type site. I didn’t want to be like all the other coupon sites so I added my own personality by including some of my passions and interests like time savings tips, productivity hacks and some interesting stuff about Hawaii (I live in Honolulu, HI).

I think more and more it is very import to separate yourself or your blog from everybody else. Being the black sheep can really be a good thing.”

3. How much do you think you have saved with your tips?

“Well, one of my most popular post was “5 Massive Benefits of Throwing Out Your TV”. I did the unthinkable about a year ago and threw out my television, that alone probably saves me at least $500/year. Although, I really didn’t do that to save money, I must say it was hard at first but the benefits have been tremendous and do not miss owning a TV at all. I recommend anyone to just try it out for a couple of weeks and see the changes in your lifestyle.”

4. Do you have more than one site? What other things do you cover?

“Yes, I have other websites and websites in development. They cover a variety of niches, I currently have 4 part time workers which really helps me leverage my time. I recommend bloggers out there to “do what you do best and outsource the rest”.

5. What tips do you have for other bloggers?

“For the bloggers out there that feel like there is not enough time I recommend you take a look at what you do on a daily basis and see what you can outsource. How much time do you spend checking your stats, email, responding to comments, troubleshooting and responding to reader emails. Many bloggers or Internet Marketers say they work 60-80 hours a week but I bet most of them really only spend about 10-20 hours actually doing productive revenue generating work.

Many bloggers could really benefit and increase their traffic if they took the “Long Tail” approach. Many bloggers like to go after highly competitive keywords or niches. Try this, next time you are going to write a title for one of your posts simple do a use a Keyword tool to see how many searches the main keyword gets. Try to choose a keyword that gets descent traffic. Then a google that search term, to see if it is competitive. If it look hard to rank on the first page try another keyword. Soon enough you will master the art of writing for humans and the search engines.

One more quickie, I highly recommend the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, if you haven’t heard about it, just Google it and you will see a huge cult-like following to high approach on productivity and time management.”

6. Where can someone get a hold of you with questions?

“If you have questions you can submit them on the contact form on my site http://www.mrcheapstuff.com. Or you can send me an email directly to info (at) mrcheapstuff (dot) com. And yes, I actually do respond. I’m also open to partnerships and marketing ideas so send me a note if your interested.”

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog marketing, personal finance, bloggers, online marketing, coupons, free stuff

Should a business blog be personal?:
I posed the question, “ How personal should a business blog be ?” in January 2007, in my travel blog. I’m not sure that there is a definitive answer to this question, as ever it is a matter for personal judgment and balancing priorities. My…

Can WordPress Compete Against Moveable Type? ((from One by One Media):

Tags: Media, Blog tools, Services, The Site, Blogging News, Corporate Blogs, Partnerships, Social media, Professional blogging, Blog Platforms, Blog Consulting, Bloggers and Blogs, Blog Revenue

Leafletter is a web based application which enables users to create miniature web sites (”Leaflets”) and embed them into social networks, blogs, and other web sites with ease.

A Leaflet is a miniature Flash® based web site that can be displayed anywhere HTML is welcome. For instance, a Leaflet could be distributed to the About Me section of a MySpace Profile, the body of a Blog Entry, and in the Portfolio section of a photographer’s Personal Website, all simultaneously.

Leafletter is geared toward professional content creators - creative artists, media professionals, online sellers - users who seek broader exposure for their content, who probably already have a web site and/or online portfolio, and who want to begin showing their content, in a specific way, on social networks and blogs.

Leafletter is unique in that it gives the user complete control over how his media is laid out, embellished and displayed. It is created using an intuitive browser based (WYSIWYG) design tool, and features such helpful tools as Real Time Layout Changing, whereby a completed page can be viewed in 36 different configurations, Build By Blocks, whereby a user need only fill in Blocks to create a page within a Leaflet, and smooth Flickr integration for users wishing to share photos and maintain control of their presentation.

Once a Leaflet has been created it can be distributed using the familiar process of Copying and Pasting an Embed Code or URL to any location where HTML is accepted.

We have now begun a public beta for which free accounts are available. It only takes 10 seconds to sign up for an account and an optional 5 Minute Tutorial will walk you through the many unique features the product has to offer. Please take a moment to view the Leafletter Beta and consider sending me some of your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: beta, blogging, leafletter, social media, socialmedia

Tim O’Reilly has posted a proposed Blogger Code of Conduct on his site which has a lot of people talking. Most of these guidelines are probably things that one already practices but don’t or haven’t yet verbalized/written.

However, I would think item #4 is going to catch a lot of grief:

“When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.

When someone who is publishing comments or blog postings that are offensive, we’ll tell them so (privately, if possible–see above) and ask them to publicly make amends.
If those published comments could be construed as a threat, and the perpetrator doesn’t withdraw them and apologize, we will cooperate with law enforcement to protect the target of the threat.”

This all ties in with the badge one is required, oops, I mean requested to post on their site designating themselves Deputy Dog/Blogger Posse member.

When I see things like this, a codified version of “What I learned in Kindergarten”, I laugh because we should already know these things. It probably could simplified into

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

Wow, maybe I can trademark this?

If you are visiting this page and consider yourself to still be learning about blogging as I am, feel free (or not) to take this advice. I’ll separate it out for emphasis:

1. Your blog is your site. Do whatever you like with it.

2. If someone posts offensive material on your site, remove it. There are no higher laws to blogging or expectations that because one uses a certain web publishing platform they have attained a higher plane of spiritualness. It reminds me of one George Carlin’s new rules

New Rule:

Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn’t make you spiritual. It’s right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to “beef with broccoli.” The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren’t pregnant. You’re not spiritual. You’re just high.

3. If you feel truly threatened, contact someone. I don’t know who at this point but I’m sure someone/organization is available out there to help you.

4. Have fun. Why put yourself through misery if you’re not having fun with your blog.

There are more people talking about this.

Code of Conduct or Not? - Scobleizer
My Thoughts On O’Reilly’s Code of Conduct - Crunchnotes
Why Are We Still Confusing Blogging Code of Conduct With Having A Comments Policy - Deep Jive Interests

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, civility, commonsense, goldenrule

Blog ads replacing TV, e-mail marketing:
LONDON: Blogs are becoming a force to be reckoned with as a means of advertising products, according to a survey. An Ipsos MORI poll found that the Internet journals are a more trusted source of information than TV advertising or e-mail marketing. But

Learning to Use RSS Feeds:
Working Wounded: Scoring Points With Female Co-Workers Nov. 10, 2006 - Answer: RSS feeds are a very simple and convenient way to receive updated items from Web sites that you like, so you don’t have to go trolling around to each site to see what’s

Citizenbay, a Web community of people searching, sharing and producing local news and information, announced today the launch of its global community in which anyone can post or search localized content. This free service allows members to post stories and information that are then reviewed and ranked by their peers. These rankings collectively determine the prominence of a member’s post.

Citizenbay users have the opportunity to contribute to their community in two ways: by writing their own newsworthy posts or seeding news stories they find online. Users are also encouraged to add multimedia elements to their posts, from photos and videos to podcasts.

In addition to sharing information, members have the opportunity to monetize their contributions based on the rankings of their posts. Each day, the top 10 most popular stories in each of the 80 primary cities in the United States and Canada covered by Citizenbay — a total of 800 daily — based on the number of votes received by fellow members — are rewarded with a payment.

Posts are organized into channels, and in addition to local news include classifieds and events. Currently, Citizenbay provides local news to more than 80 primary cities across the United States and Canada. Cities not included in this primary list are classified as secondary cities, which offer both local coverage and coverage for their closest primary cities.

“Our goal is to build a large network of contributors in each of the cities we cover, who will contribute to daily news postings that will keep their communities informed and entertained,” explains Oleg Tscheltzoff, founder of CitizenBay. “By allowing users to vote on the most popular stories, we create a democratic and social method of disseminating local news that isn’t dominated by an editor’s decisions.”

Technorati Tags: portal, news, user-generated content, search, local, social media

On his blog, Matt Cutts has confirmed that an update has occurred for Google PageRank.

Technorati Tags: mattcutts, matt cutts, google, pr, pagerank, update, search engine, seo

Photobucket announced that it has exceeded more than 25 million members. The site, launched in 2003, has become a creative hub delivering billions of personal photos, graphics and videos daily to over 200,000 different websites — including eBay, Craigslist, MySpace, Blogger, and LiveJournal — and enables sharing via email, instant messaging, and mobile devices. comScore Networks reports that Photobucket is one the top 50 most visited websites, with 15 million unique visitors per month.

Photobucket’s user base has grown 300% over the past year since September 2005, driven by consumer demand for a fast and easy way to share personal digital content using one central online hub.

Technorati Tags: photobucket, photosharing, online photos, ebay, cragislist, social media