Originally uploaded by www.wordstream.com

This blogsite has never existed as a money spinner. Sure, I sometimes promote the activities of my various businesses and that can be beneficial, but I have never tried or expected to make a dollar from publishing blog posts.

I’m also a big advocate of inbound marketing and tend to believe the rather funny recent study that found its more likely your will survive a plane crash or win the lottery than click a banner ad. That’s because we don’t go to our favourite websites to look at ads, we go for what that site offers; information, advice, entertainment etc. And its very rare that we are actually served up advertisements that are relevant to us.

Advertisements are pointless and annoying unless they are actually relevant and of service to readers. So that’s why I haven’t included any ads on Media Hunter or even on Urban Insider….until now.

As you’ll (hopefully) see on the right hand side of this site there is an ad. Its not large, its not flashing and popping up to infuriate you, but for many I believe (hope) it is actually relevant.

I recently joined the Influads bloggers network. I have been approached by numerous ad networks over the years but none really seemed right so I declined to participate. To me, Influads seemed different. They claim to be the only ad network actually curated by its publishers. They’re aiming to build a tight network of blogs around different topics and match them with highly relevant advertisers…businesses with services that might actually be relevant to readers of these blogs.

Its only early days but I am fairly happy with the ads that have been served up so far. Online invoicing services, handcrafted online video services and other online tools and services that innovative businesses might be interested in. In fact, I have even been keen on some of the products so far to try for my own business.

Do I think I’ll be sitting on a beach blogging and living off the ad proceeds soon? No. But I am very interested in learning whether blog readers will click on advertisements if they are relevant and whether this is a viable marketing proposition. Being part of the network will tell me because I get to see all the stats.

If Influads is successful it’ll be because of relevance and that could be a strong pointer to the future of web advertising in general.

The social media community is fairly vibrant and well-established in the Newcastle area now. I think its about time to highlight the great writers, photographers, sights, scenes and ideas floating around the region and put them all in one easy place for everyone to find.

This photo is here for no other reason than its of a Newcastle beach

My team and I are putting together a side project to curate the best Hunter-based content.

That’s where you come in. We’re looking for people who’d like to contribute to a well-run online magazine for Newcastle and the Hunter. Its a chance for you to raise your profile, discuss burning issues, highlight the things you love and get some additional traffic and link-love along the way.

It’s a little bit Huffington Post (without heavy politics), a little bit Daily Candy, a little bit Digital Ministry (community contribution, not the geeky content), a little bit Gridskipper.

Topics should be of genuine interest to the greater community, not some niche tech / web / marketing subject (like this blog) …..although over time it might evolve enough to support niches.

Content should be original, not old material on your site being re-hashed. It should be your very best stuff. We won’t mind a bit of controversy, but it must be of acceptable quality and not abusive or defamatory.

Its an opportunity for you to publish the ideas, issues, debates etc that you wouldn’t normally include on your own site.

Its an opportunity to provide an alternative to traditional media coverage of the region and spark interesting discussions with the broader community.

Its an opportunity to promote events and artists who might struggle for mainstream coverage.

This project will launch in early January 2011. It’ll be modest to start with but should grow rapidly if we have good content.

So if you’re a blogger, video blogger or photographer, or you’d just like to see how you can get involved please put your hand up. Email helen@stickyads.com.au and she will compile a list of contributors and topics. Also chat with me at Newcastle Coffee mornings or at NewLunaticks.

I just learned that Mediahunter is ranked as one of the Top 150 Social Media Blogs in the World according to eCairn. Apparently this site is ranked 98th based on their formula of measuring various links:

• differentiating blogroll versus direct links,
• weighting the links based on the influence of the «source»,
• weighting more reciprocical links,
• counting links at blog or post level.

eCairn say, “The list is subjective and brought few questions and surprises – btw influence is subjective. It’s actually the list of influential bloggers in the social media marketing community more than a list of social media marketing blogs.”

That’s the interesting thing about online compared to other areas of influence. In most cases influence is hard to measure and opinions often come into play. But links are the major currency online. They determine your Google PageRank and a large percentage of your traffic. Links are a vote for your site, and hence a relevant measure of influence.

Quite rightly, the leading bloggers on this list are the heavyweights of industry. Chris Brogan, Jeramiah Owyang, Brian Solis, Seth Godin and David Armano are all there. These are people I read every week so its not surprise to see them there.

Australia has surprisingly fewer names on this list than I would have expected. Gavin Heaton is our highest ranked blogger here, and once again that’s no surprise to me. I read Gavin’s blog a few times a week and link to it often, as do many others obviously.

But there is once common denominator amongst these top bloggers (that doesn’t include me) – these guys all produce great, thought provoking content week-in, week-out. Their influence might be measured by links, but its created by sheer quality.

I just had lunch at a popular Newcastle cafe that could seriously teach many larger businesses a thing or two about modern marketing.

Three Bean Espresso

Three Bean Espresso in Hamilton has been pumping out great food and coffee for about five years now, but returning there today for the first time in over 6 months I was impressed at some of the other initiatives Ben Armstrong and his team have undertaken.

Ben now has two blogs for the cafe. The main one includes menu items and the usual information, but it is led by an entertaining and informative series of posts about food, ingredients, suppliers and good living. Its wonderful story telling that even Servant of Chaos would be proud of. The site is simple and clean just like the cafe and makes you want to eat lots of delicious food.

The key here is that Ben isn’t trying to sell, he’s engaging visitors in an ongoing conversation about good food. Your salivating tastebuds will do the rest.

Ben has another blog, The Adventures of Ari 2030,  that is a pure fictional story telling exercise. They publish a new chapter every week and also print it on the back of that week’s menu. Its charming, quirky and innovative.

Finally, this little cafe has developed their own iPhone App so customers can keep up to date with the menu and blog posts. Like everything at Three Bean Espresso, the app is very smart and stylish. (just search Three Bean Espresso at iTunes app store), and run a Twitter account.

These guys are only new to the whole online marketing thing, they don’t have a big budget but they are doing a great job at attracting customers and keeping them engaged. Needless to say, business is very good.

P.S. The organic coffee from Peaberry’s is awesome.

Media Hunter is now an iPhone app

We’ve been experimenting with iPhone apps a bit lately here at Sticky. Last week we launched GetSticky as an iPhone app and now the Media Hunter version is live too. Its all thanks to the guys at MotherApp.

Once again, its not earth-shatteringly amazing, its just another way to follow this blog and a fun experiment for us in the emerging world of apps. We do this so we can explore how they might be able to work for our clients in the future. And with the imminent release of the iSlate / iTablet we think the apps market is going to explode.

If you’d like to you can download the app here: http://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/media-hunter/id351983688?mt=8

All reviews and downloads will be greatly appreciated.

Enjoy.

Last year's Tour de Kids riders

In early March I will be riding in the Tour de Kids, an annual cycling challenge raising vital funds for a variety of children’s charities. My charity for this event is the Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Starlight are dedicated to granting a once in a lifetime, life changing experience to wish children who are referred by qualified health professionals. Starlight’s aim is to create long lasting memories for the wish child and their entire family.

Sadly Starlight has had to cut down on the amount of wishes granted throughout Australia because of funding. I’m hoping that we can turn this around and help Starlight grant the wishes of serious ill children all over the country by donating to Tour De Kids for 2010.

The fundraising target I have been set is $1000 but I’d love to show the corporate community how bloggers and social media types (i.e. you) have the ability to band together for a good cause…how the long tail of an online community can collectively achieve great results.

Every dollar can help, so your contribution – large or small -  to my fundraising efforts will be enormously appreciated.

You can donate here on my Tour de Kids Page.

I will be riding on behalf of one of the event’s major sponsors, Colliers International and will be covering the event for them online via a dedicated blogsite and Twitter (links coming soon) so everyone can see the action and follow the ride.

The event is fairly demanding with an average distance of 150km per day and some hilly terrain. The second last day from Canberra to Bowral is around 190km, so I’ll be suffering plenty but knowing that its all for a great cause and worth every bit of it.

ABOUT TOUR DE KIDS
The Tour de Kids is an annual cycling challenge, transporting executives from the daily grind to an epic journey on the roads of Australia, with the aim of raising vital funds for a variety of children’s charities.

Over the past 9 years, Tour de Kids has raised a phenomenal A$3.5 million for some very deserving causes. The cyclists themselves pay all the event costs, thus ensuring ALL of the funds raised go directly to the chosen beneficiaries.

The 1000km Tour itself is a feat of endurance which places the riders in a very different realm from their every day life in the board room or in front of a computer. The Tour de Kids replicates the Tour de France in Australia, complete with competition jerseys for exceptional conduct either on or off the bike.

ABOUT STARLIGHT CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION
The Starlight Children’s Foundation is dedicated to granting a once in a lifetime, life changing experience to wish children who are referred by qualified health professionals. Starlight’s aim is to create long lasting memories for the wish child and their entire family.

Starlight grants wishes for children aged four to eighteen years who suffer from terminal, chronic or critical illnesses. Starlight works closely with each wish child to ensure that their individual wish delivers the maximum positive benefit to them. An example of one amazing wish was with a 9 year old boy named Tyran who was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy who was soon to be confined to a wheelchair, Tyran’s Starlight wish was simple – to walk up to Uluru and touch it while he could still walk. When Tyran told the other guests on his tour that this was his Starlight Wish, they all stood back to let him enjoy this very special moment.

Once again, every dollar counts, so please help out where you can and support this great cause. Thanks in advance.

Over at Marketing Magazine they’ve just published my post Marketers need to turn to ‘inbound’. Its about making sure your marketing is keeping up with today’s media consumption and marketing trends. Let me know what you think.

The Internet, Twitter especially, exploded with indignation today when the Australian government announced it will proceed with controversial plans to censor the Internet.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said today he would introduce legislation just before next year’s elections to force ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” (RC) websites for all Australian internet users.

While the Australian government may be proposing an Internet filter with the best intentions of protecting the youth of our nation against “immoral content”, most experts agree that this is easier said than done and could do more harm than good.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

An earlier version of the Government’s top-secret list of banned sites was leaked on to the web in March, revealing the scope of the filtering could extend significantly beyond child porn.

About half of the sites on the list were not related to child porn and included a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.

The torrent of objection on Twitter has been nothing less than astounding. The #nocleanfeed Twitter hash-tag quickly started trending globally and many people started calling for strong action against the government.

As I type this #nocleanfeed is the third biggest topic on Twitter internationally. Nonetheless, it will likely spike for a short time in the aftermath of the announcement then fade away as we collectively settle down (and the US population wakes up tomorrow and takes over the Twitterverse).

But for me it does beg the question: could the blogosphere topple a government?

I’m no anarchist or political agitator. I rarely talk politics online but…Think about it for a minute? There are a LOT of educated, influential people blogging and tweeting in Australia. And these people reach a LOT of other people. The Australian media also love a great online story and are very active online these days (including Twitter).

The Australian blogosphere is in a position to spread the message about the Internet filter and reach further than the noisy geeks that make up most of its population. If we all made a BIG, BIG effort could we force change?

Or will we just lay down and take it?

I propose we take the fight to the government via the very medium it proposes to censor.

You can start by blocking @KevinRuddPM on Twitter. Tell him repeatedly how you feel. At the very least we could topple him from the top of Aussie Twitter.

Make sure that you consistently use the #nocleanfeed hashtag on Twitter.

And if you have any other great ideas that might help change the government’s mind, let us know.

Learn more about the No Clean Feed

Update Wed 16 December

More coverage here:

Do these people have no idea? The folly of the Internet filter Acidlabs

IN the name of MY children Tea Brennan

Report Card #nocleanfeed God’s Will

Australia 2.0: from cyber-safety to “clean feed” Public Opinion

Internet blackout to protest Australian Internet filtering Be the signal

No clean feed 2 Design 4 Learning

Kevin Rudd wants to filter your Internet Crikey

Australia plans to filter the Internet. Again Mashable (US Coverage)

Online protests begin to rage against RuddNet censorship The Orstrayhun

Writing this blog has been an amazingly informative experience for me. What began as a small site dedicated to the media in and around the Hunter Valley (hence the actual reason for the name Media Hunter) quickly grew to tackle national media issues. Then, as the media landscape began changing rapidly with the convergence of digital technologies, I began musing on the implications for traditional media and marketing organisations.

Researching and writing Media Hunter helped me tap into a realisation that we are experiencing one of those rare revolutionary periods in history. Old powers are falling, new technologies are rising. And the changing media landscape has become one of the most important battle grounds of the 21st Century.

Understanding the nature of this change has been crucial. It has informed the direction of my business (which I have deliberately transformed from traditional media agency to new media thinking). It has helped me identify new business models and marketing strategies (Inbound Marketing) and create new services (NLYZR).

During this time I have seen the emergence of specialist media and marketing bloggers, such as Mumbrella, who have been able to provide a deeper coverage of the industry than I ever could.

My initial Newcastle (Hunter) centric content has been a rich source of traffic over the years. The local radio industry seems to generate plenty of passionate discussion and my frequent badgering of Bill Caralis and his disgracefully run Supernetwork has resulted in some of the most popular posts of all time.

But in 2010 these issues pale into insignificance against the backdrop of the titanic struggle taking place as traditional media attempts to tackle the new media landscape. Will Murdoch build paywalls for his content? Will Newscorp and other media stop having their sites indexed by Google and other search engines? How will all media address the opportunities and threats presented by Australia’s forthcoming National Broadband Network? Will social networks continue to drive the direction if the web?

The implications reach well beyond the battles of a handful of old media moguls and their young and newly powerful nemeses. It will affect how organisations, large and small, market themselves in the future.

As AdAge editor Jonah Bloom says in this excellent short video piece

the marketer has become the media owner…the job of the agency is going to morph into bringing their expertise to bear to help marketers build channels that connect them with potential customers and continually reward the customers who come back with new valuable information.

Already the smart marketers are realising that traditional media marketing is becoming less effective and that there are more efficient ways to engage and attract customers. Outbound marketing is meeting unprecedented resistance. Inbound marketing is the future. Businesses that adapt rapidly to this new paradigm will survive and thrive. Those who don’t could become as extinct as some of the newspapers they were advertising in 2 years ago.

So in 2010 Media Hunter will be focusing on new battles. I’ll occasionally update the Newcastle media scene, but its no longer a key part of this blog’s content. I’ll occasionally look at the national ratings figures, but only in the context of the bigger battles taking place as the old media titans attempt to shift their power into more modern arenas.

I believe that 2010 will be a landmark year in the new v old media transition. Some serious skirmishes will break out and significant deals struck. Because the battle for our attention is the biggest battle of all.

I try to update this as regularly as possible, but when there’s so much good stuff being published online its difficult to keep up. Anyway here are some top posts I have noticed recently (notice how the big guns keep pumping out great content):

5 reasons to use the new Twitter lists feature by John Jantsch

Making content pay by the ever-reliable Neil Perkin

Six social media trends for 2010 by David Armano

Where measurement falls short by Amber Naslund

For the future of the media industry, look in the app store by Edo Segal

The rapid evolution of search by Brian Solis

Enjoy.