Today’s trending topics on Twitter included more than celebrity gossip, world news or some pointless meme. “Twitter Analysis” and “Tweets Are Pointless” were #1 & #2 respectively. Ryan Kelly of PearAnalytics completed a study of a 2,000-tweet sample over a period of two weeks to determine the breakdown of tweets. On the heels of Twitter’s recent acclaim as a viable news source, Kelly decided to dissect Twitter’s content.

The chart above reflects the study’s findings: 40.55% of the tweets were considered “Pointless Babble”, 37.55% considered “Conversational”, and only 8.70% had “Pass-Along Value”.

Perhaps more interesting were the following stats:

- 11:30a and Monday’s have the most frequent tweets with Pass-Along Value. If you want something re-tweeted, try it at 11:30 in the morning, or try it on a Monday. Maybe folks are feeling generous then.

- Spam seemed pretty consistent all day, everyday, but luckily was second-to-last on frequency.

- News seemed heavier at 2:00p and on Tuesdays. Note that we did not collect any tweets during the Michael Jackson news, in order not to skew the results.

- Conversational tweets were high between 2:00 and 4:00p throughout the study, and heaviest on Tuesdays. Most people are busy on Monday catching up with work, so perhaps it takes until Tuesday to get into the swing of Twittering again.

You can keep your babble. Robert Scoble interviewed Ryan Kelly this evening, which included an offer to perform the same study on @Scobleizer‘s friends. The difference? Scoble recently dumped all of his tens of thousands of friends and then reinvested between 50-70 hours vetting his new list of friends to follow. The new list does include people he has met in person, but it’s probably safe to assume that Scoble’s list consists primarily of tweeters that initiate “conversation” and offer “pass-along value”.

Be sure to read the white paper on the PearAnalytics blog here and hear Robert Scoble’s exclusive interview with Ryan via FriendFeed.

Related posts:

1. Blaq Friday — A BlackBerry Twitter App Review
2. Twitterpated With Social Networking
3. That Just Happened — Feed My Twitter

Tweet from @tonyhawk…the Tony Hawk Foundation seeks to foster lasting improvements in society, with an emphasis on supporting and empowering youth. Through special events, grants, and technical assistance, the Foundation supports recreational programs with a focus on the creation of public skateboard parks in low-income communities. The Foundation favors programs that clearly demonstrate that funds received will produce tangible, ongoing, positive results. To support the cause, the THF is auctioning off a pair of Jeeps. To bid, visit this website.

Tweet from @TechCrunch…in conjunction with my heads up about Amazon VOD meets Roku, Michael Arrington shared the news today that Roku now supports Amazon VOD.

Tweet from @blellow…Mandi Leman is a San Antonio entrepreneur that started Blellow — its mission is to encourage open collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. If you’re scratching your head and want to learn more, see how it works and sign up for Beta, which closes today. So get movin’!

Related posts:

1. Amazon Video On Demand Coming Soon to Your Roku
2. That Just Happened — Zune Freezes Over
3. That Just Happened — Andre Smith Needs More Than A Bro

As if Facebook didn’t include enough “me” time, now I’ve done it. I joined Twitter. Actually, I joined over a year ago but just never caught the Twitter bug until now.

Based on my current list of ‘Following’ twitterers, I’m covering the daily allowance of information and entertainment. While I try not to come off as star-struck, I actively follow Tony Hawk, Lance Armstrong, the the Kutchers…and, of course, THE_REAL_SHAQ (‘actively’ meaning I try to contribute or reply to their tweets…as if they care). Shaq frequently shares pictures of his Shaqness via Twitter, and he’s been known to tweet clues of his whereabouts…sometimes rewarding finders with tickets to a game. Awesome.

Feel free to follow me if you find Derrich.com the least bit interesting…or even if you just want to pad your Twitter numbers.

BlackBerry + Twitter = TwitterBerry. For you BlackBerry addicts, you can Twitter with your phone as well. There are a number of apps available to tweet your twitters, but I’ve settled on TwitterBerry by Orangatame.

You can download this app via your phone by visiting http://orangatame.com/ota/twitterberry/.

Related posts:

1. Twitter For BlackBerry Beta Available To The Public
2. 7 Ways To Take Advantage of Social Marketing
3. Blogger Interview @ Fleeing The Social Scene

Related posts:

1. iPhone Giveaway Results By Video

As you can see, DERRICH.com has undergone a facelift. It has been a long time coming, but I finally got around to it. And to do so, I summoned Nate Whitehill and the crew over at Unique Blog Designs. They are refreshingly flexible and accommodating.

The biggest hint of what my focus will be is the logo. It was designed by yours truly. I submitted my idea to Nate; he took it and ran. The final logo is a result of his mad PhotoShop skills. Embedded in the logo, you’ll see sports, pretty ladies, hot cars, the NASDAQ center in Times Square, and a BlackBerry. Embedded in each post…the usual DERRICH.com crude yet refined humor.

I hope you enjoy the new theme. There are still some minor changes to make, but I’d love to hear your feedback. Thank you, Nate and Unique Blog Designs!

Related posts:

1. Go, Derrich…It’s Your Birthday!
2. My First Crack At Advertising Derrich.com
3. Derrich.com Gets A New Title…Sort Of

Completely unaware of what was happening, I emailed Google to get to the bottom of this. That was a few days ago, and I haven’t received a response yet. But after digging around, I discovered that I’m not the only one.

My good friend, Michael Kwan, was recently bitch slapped by Google as well. Like Michael, I wonder why some of us were singled out, and others have retained their coveted PR.

It appears that Google has targeted blogs with paid links and sponsored posts. While Michael doesn’t fit this profile, most of the others effected do. Yaro Starak over at the Entrepreneur’s Journey was penlized by Google. And Yaro does sell text links on his PR6 blog. Because advertisers refer to PR to gauge pricing, this creates problems. Luckily (and so far I can only speak for myself), the PR of Derrich.com has been reinstated to a 5 on those services I do use until this is resolved.

Robert Clough at the Search Engine Guide decided it would be best to surrender to Google. A little hasty in my opinion. But probably the smart thing to do. This move by Google will definitely effect the smaller bloggers before it effects those with greater traffic (versus higher PR).

John Chow has quite the track record with Google…having been bullied before. While the bitch slap might effect Derrich.com, it probably won’t effect JohnChow.com. John has done an excellent job of monetizing his blog through readership and by selling his own sponsorships and advertising. John talks about this very topic and how some bloggers mentioned here surrender to Google. Since this isn’t his first rodeo so to speak, he has a more confident stance on this whole issue.

For me, surrendering to Google would cost way too much money. Sure, it will be nice to be ranked properly in their index but the traffic they would send wouldn’t come close to making up for the money lost. This is a business decision that each site will have to make on their own.

He’s right. Each blog will react differently after considering a number of variables. I’ll just sit back, and wait to hear from Google. Surely there’s a way for us bloggers to continue to monetize our blogs without being penalized by Google. I value the traffic I get from Google, but I don’t believe they are right to chastise me and the others. Derrich.com offers value to readers, and advertisements and paid reviews are pertinent to the rest of my content and to my blog’s purpose. C’mon, Google. Stop slapping me.

Related posts:

1. Break The Swimming World Record With Google Maps
2. Naked People on Google Earth
3. The Mystery That Is Google AdSense

Although I wasn’t posting for days on end, I was still receiving some respectable clickage on my AdSense ads. With yesterday’s scramble to find Kyla Ebbert Playboy photos, I pulled in gobs of additional traffic. I’ve said it before, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time…but how on Google Earth does AdSense record so few clicks while MyBlogLog records so many more.

I’m aware of all the nuances of the two services. There are countless blog posts that explain why. There are even those that show you how to capatilize on one by using the stats of the other. Great. I still think I’m getting shorted. See for yourself.

Over 28,000 page views. 2 clicks. Are you kidding me? I suppose MBL pulled “139″ out of its @$$. Some may argue that content might play a role in what ads are showing. Fair enough. But most of my ads have been the same for weeks…including the time I was on my hiatus. None of it makes sense regardless of how many posts I read about codes and fraudulent clicks…etc. By the way, as I write this post, I’m sitting at about 10,000 page views with 1 click. If anyone else wants to join my “boohoo” party, the invite is open.

Related posts:

1. I Made $100 Using Google AdSense!!!
2. MyBlogLog And AdSense Don’t Agree
3. February Brought More Than Just AdSense Revenue

Click here to watch the video, and be sure to visit Gary and Danielle on their new website, Creative Traffic Builders [dot] com.

Buy a New Home w/ Flexible Payment Options – Quicken Loans®

Related posts:

1. Mr Gary Lee Announces An iPhone Giveaway
2. iThink iPass On iPhone
3. Dunk Nearly Results In A Headache

Despite the decrease in posts, blogging revenues remained relatively unchanged. Here are my blogging revenues for August 2007:

So, a decrease from July 2007 blogging revenue, but expected. I only did four paid reviews through PayPerPost in August; PPP is clearly my biggest revenue generator. AdSense did increase by about a buck. I’m a little discouraged that I have not sold more Text Link Ads. I lost one advertiser, but quickly gained another. Credit Solutions provides debt consolidation services and a learning center to assist those concerned with managing their debt. Thanks to them for advertising on Derrich.com. I’ve also stopped advertising on Brohans.com. I don’t think they are updating anymore, so they’ve also stopped taking money out of my PayPal account. I did get a free link to Sweethacks.com. The blog has 8 free backlinks since I last checked. Wander over and grab a spot.

And big thanks to all of you that contribute your thoughts and comments. I just remembered halfway through the month that my Top Commenters counter is set to 7 days, which means it resets itself sooner than I thought. I’ve fixed that to go for the full month. Cheers to a successful month of blogging for everyone…and if you’re not a blogger, then cheers to your pursuit of success.

Related posts:

1. Blog Money — June 2007
2. Blog Money — July 2007
3. Blog Money — May 2007

Infiniti G37 Coupe Review
I had the opportunity to test drive an Infiniti G37 Coupe about 2 weeks ago. I wrote all about the experience and included some pictures. Since then, my review has been linked on numerous G37 and Nissan forums. I have received a little over 1,000 hits (1,005 as of late last night) from Google searches on some variation of “Infiniti G37 Coupe”. Last I checked, my post was in the Top 10 search results for many of those variations…and #1 under “G37 test drive”.

Meguiar’s Ultimate Quik Detailer
I have virtually zero bad things to say, if any, about Meguiar’s Ultimate Quik Detailer since I wrote my review over a week ago. I snapped a couple of photos of its “Hydrophobic” effects on my car, which simulate the beading qualities of a fresh wax.

Shortly after I posted the review, I decided to forward the link to Meguiar’s. Within a day, I had received the following email:

Dear Derrich,
Let me be the first to thank you for taking the time to send in this link. That is a great write up, and if you do not mind I will be passing this on to other departments within Meguiar’s. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me anytime. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you very much,
Ash Erickson

Shortly after I replied with an email just short of “Heck, yes!”, I received an email from its public relations company, that also represents other auto-related manufacturers. To my surprise, I was congratulated with a good amount of sample products from Meguiar’s and a variety of other manufacturers. My camera is kaput and I’m in the middle of changing phones (more on that later), so I can’t offer you pictures of these items. But the moment an opportunity arises, I’ll get that up.

There are only a handful of bloggers that write thorough AND interesting reviews worth reading. I’d like to include myself in that category, but that’s for readers to decide. Whether or not the review is sponsored, a good review (in my opinion) includes photos for depth and focus on the main characteristics on the product or service…and how those features benefit the user. And don’t hesitate to point out any fallacies. Those are the things that help consumers decide whether a product is right for their needs.

Related posts:

1. Meguiars Ultimate Quik Detailer Rocks!
2. Nokia N800 Review
3. A Review: Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera

Hello Derrich, it is a great time to check back in at the new inventory at Text-Link-Ads.com The inventory of niche websites have been growing fast I wanted to extend to you a special discount. Save 15% on all NEW orders for the rest of August! Just enter august into the coupon code at checkout and you will save 15% off your order for the life of the order. We are excited about the growth of our inventory and the results reported back from our advertisers. If you are ready for an ad that can drive traffic and raise your natural search engine rankings head on over to TLA now. Thanks again!

While my blog isn’t a niche blog, I know you’ll be happy with the results from buying a text link ad on Derrich.com. Click on the banner below to get started.

Related posts:

1. Text-Link-Ads Post Level Ads
2. How To Get A Link On Derrich.com For One Month
3. Does Link Baiting Still Work? 3 Ways To Make It Last

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure
Derek Semmler and Leo Chiang are both supporting the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure by offering some sort of swag to incent readers to help out. Of course, I missed out on Derek’s contest; he chose his winners last night. Leo’s contest is still going strong. Find out how to win a great prize and help fight breast cancer. Both of these fine gents are sponsoring Darla Briggs in the CIBC Run. Kudos to both of you guys for supporting such a good cause. Expect my donations soon. Heck, at today’s exchange rates, $25 CDN is like $3 US, right?

Run A Business In Your Underwear
Wendy Piersall, who I haven’t seen in awhile (my fault, Wendy), is always posting about something that exudes success. It is her Modus Operandi. Perhaps I should take this job and shove it, scrap my bar plans, and learn how to start and run a home business in my underwear. While she did not disclose whether or not she works at home in her underwear, Wendy offers 10 viable options for doing just that.

Support The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk
Just a reminder that I have formed a team to participate in the The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk. My friends, family, and I are walking on behalf of both my grandmothers. You can donate to our team if you feel so inclined. I will match every dollar donated up to $100. So far, we’ve received $50. Our goal is $1,000. While I’m personally responsible for $100 of that goal, it would be sweet if I could knock that one out of the park. Thanks in advance.

Related posts:

1. Kindle For BlackBerry Coming Soon
2. Amazon Video On Demand Coming Soon to Your Roku

Last month, I mentioned that some bloggers were reporting a notable decline directly following Google’s elimination of arbitrageurs. Mine increased. While many bloggers noticed a significant increase in AdSense revenue for July 2007, my AdSense earnings decreased despite increased traffic.

The PayPerPost reviews I did happen to complete once again brought a steady stream of high-eCPM ads. Some of those posts included topics such as financial responsibility for teens, drug rehab, and traveling to Jamaica.

Here are my blogging revenues for June 2007:

My TLA revenues remained flat. Although I set a goal to improve this source of revenue, I was unable to lure new advertisers to Derrich.com. If you guys have any suggestions on how I can sell my remaining inventory of 9 sidebar ads, I’d greatly appreciate it. Much of the problem is likely from the fact that my content isn’t specialized, which is understandable. But I know a few “general” blogs that have sold more ads than I have, so I know it can be done.

Thank you!
Once again a big thank you to my Top Commentators for July. They included Urbanist, Gregg Hawkins, Matt Propst, Derek Semmler, Brown Baron, and Ed Lau. So don’t forget, U Comment, I Follow…and keep ‘em comin’. Special thanks to sponsor, StockTrak.com for its continued support of Derrich.com.

Please share your blog success with us, and any practices or secrets you have applied to your own blog to increase your monthly revenues.

Related posts:

1. Blog Money — June 2007
2. Blog Money — August 2007
3. Blog Money — May 2007

During the past 6 months BlogCatalog has grown from a little known blog directory into one of the best known blogger social communities on the Internet. One of the main reasons for this growth is you. Everyday we receive new ideas and feedback from bloggers. Since many of you already share your ideas with us and we know that all of you have great ideas, we have come up with a challenge to make it more worthwhile and fun for you to share your feedback. To do this, we have created the BlogCatalog Big Idea Challenge.

The BlogCatalog Big Idea Challenge is a contest for the best ideas to improve BlogCatalog. To enter, come up with an idea that you believe will make BlogCatalog the most extraordinary Blogger Social Community on the Internet.

The Grand Prize winner will be awarded $2,500. With second receiving $500. To enter, submit your ideas via email or regular mail (with links to applicable online presentation if applicable).

Via Email Send To:
webmaster [at] blogcatalog {DoT} com

Via Regular Mail (if applicable):
BlogCatalog
7126 Eckhert Road
Suite 208
San Antonio, TX 78238

Submission Dates:
Open July 12th, 2007
Close August 31st, 2007 (11:59pm EST)

Prize Dates:
Winners will be announced before September 30th, 2007.

Related posts:

1. “New” BlogCatalog Adds Functionality & Promotes Interaction
2. BlogCatalog Gaining Ground On MyBlogLog
3. BlogCatalog Reps Your ‘Hoods

——- START COPYING HERE ———-

Geek Train – All Aboard!

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and linkback to the blog(s) that put you on the list in the paragraph. You MUST do this. No-one plans on getting slapped for duplicate content any time soon, do they?
2. Next, copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your own blog. If you’d like a different keyword for your blog then change it, when you do your post, and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword, provided the train keeps on spreading.
3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.
4. Add at least three new favourite blogs of yours to keep the train going, e-mail the blog owners (or comment on one of their posts) and insist that they post.

The Originals:
(The kick-ass) Nate Whitehill
(The original) 13-Year Old Blogger
(The money-making) Affiliate Marketing guide
(The crafty two at) TechRave
(The AdSense ‘dude’) Michael Cheney
(The overclocker) Shawn Knight
(The incredible) Chris Hooley
(The rhetorical) Michael Kwan
(The talented) Leo Chiang
(The root of all evil) John Chow
(The business dude) Josh Mullineaux
(The brilliant) Shoemoney
(The absurdly loud) Ed Lau
(The mastermind) Jon Waraas
(The yaketty) Stephen Fung
(The wickedly cool) Everton Blair
(The uber blogger) Ms Danielle
(The enterprising) Matt Coddington
(The career minded) Jane May
(The legendary) Gary Lee
(The nifty) Dosh Dosh
(The ambitious) Jeff Kee
(The Down Low) Shawn Low
(The Reviewer) Thomas De Maesschalk
(The Post Whore) Derrich
(The Bitchy Mogul) Bob Buskirk

My Adds:
(The Anti-Social) Matt Propst
(The Hawk) Gregg Hawkins
(The Carpenter) HMTKSteve

This link train is the brainchild of David Wilkinson, hyper, money-making kid, and kick-ass blog designer Nate Whitehill.

———- END COPYING HERE ———-

Related posts:

1. Take A Ride On The Alexa Redirect Train
2. Riding The Technorati Favorite Train
3. High-Speed Train Roller Coaster

Here are a few other posts that will help you market your blog effectively:

• 7 Ways To Take Advantage of Social Marketing
• Does Link Baiting Still Work? 3 Ways To Make It Last
• Optimize Your SEO Scorecard

Related posts:

1. iPhone Giveaway Results By Video
2. iThink iPass On iPhone
3. Apple iPhone Announcement Official…and iTV…and a Namechange

By the way, if you haven’t downloaded Akismet for your blog, do it now. Get Akismet. If you already have it, how much spam has Akismet eaten from your blog?

Related posts:

1. You Comment, I Follow. So What Are You Waiting For?

Be sure to check out the interview and leave him some comments. Thanks for going out of your way to interview yours truly, Matt. What a perfect follow-up to the “8 Things You Don’t Know About Derrich” meme. Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. 7 Ways To Take Advantage of Social Marketing
2. Twitterpated With Social Networking
3. Colt McCoy BCS Championship Postgame Interview

• Complete Visual Redesign. The new look required only minimal changes, but the result is a much cleaner look…and a bit more organization of its functions within your dashboard, which is nice.
• Shout-to-Shout. This upgrade gives users a better picture of shoutbox conversations.
• BlogCatalog Broadcasts. Broadcasts allow users to send mass messages to your BlogCatalog friends. If you use MySpace, it is very similar to sending a bulletin. Not spammy at all.
• Special Features. BlogCatalog Supporters (such as myself) get frequent thumbshot updates, access to beta features, elimination of ads, online community integration including twitter, de.licio.us, last.fm, and digg (good idea, guys *wink*wink*), and featured blog exposure.
  

  

• BlogCatlog Help. A new Help page makes finding the answer to BlogCatalog issues much easier…a FAQ of sorts. FAQing genius, guys!
• UTF-8 Encoding. BlogCatalog features blogs in dozens of languages. Encoding has been updated to UTF-8 to make translations easier.

If you still haven’t signed up at BlogCatalog, sign up today. You won’t be disappointed. After that, be sure to try out the 7-day trial of the “special features” mentioned above. This community is growing fast, and they are constantly making positive changes based on users’ input. If you are already a BlogCatalog user, join the Derrich.com Community.

Related posts:

1. BlogCatalog Big Idea Challenge
2. BlogCatalog Gaining Ground On MyBlogLog
3. BlogCatalog Reps Your ‘Hoods

AdSense improved despite bloggers all around the blogosphere reporting a notable decline directly following Google’s elimination of arbitrageurs (here, here, and here). Each had their own idea of why it was down this month. My AdSense earnings were up. I credit my PayPerPost reviews for that. I wrote about secure and reliable online backup, spyware detection and removal, and criminal defense attorneys just to name a few. Each brought in some good click revenue in addition to the fee I made for the review itself through PPP.

I was *this close* to matching May’s revenues, and I’m not the least bit disappointed. In fact, I’m excited about July. Here are my blogging revenues for June 2007:

I had 8 PPP reviews last month versus 7 this month. I’ve run AzoogleAds on my blog before. In fact, they’re on my About page. But I added BlockBuster Total Access banners to my videos, and I lured one referral in. And, finally…my TLA revenues increased because my stats continue to increase. Alexa has gone from about 160k down to 139k, and my pagerank remains a PR5. Both are used to determine your ad price through TLA. Now if I can just determine how to sell my remaining inventory of 9 sidebar ads and my post level ads, I’ll be all set. New goal for July!

Thank you!
Thanks to everyone that has contributed to the Derrich.com community. My Top Commentators are Irwan.biz, Ed Lau, Blain Reinkensmeyer, and Leo Chiang. I missed the rest of you (like Terence Chang and Derek Semmler)…I went on vacation for the last 4 days, so missed my list before it updated. But don’t forget, U Comment, I Follow. And special thanks to sponsor, StockTrak.com.

Please share your blog success with us, and any practices or secrets you have applied to your own blog to increase your monthly revenues.

Related posts:

1. Blog Money — July 2007
2. Blog Money — August 2007
3. Blog Money — May 2007