Top 10
Top 10 lists generally perform well on social bookmarking websites. Whether listing movies, books, industry gurus, or tips for protecting your computer, top 10 lists always garner attention.

How To’s
Detailed how to’s and tutorials often gain popularity on the internet; although rehashes of tired content go unnoticed. When writing a how to, pick a niche topic that has not previously been detailed and explain it well.

Offbeat / Unusual
Everyone loves a story about the unusual or unique. Offbeat items attract attention and interest. Keep it real, though.

Controversial
For better or worse, controversy attracts attention. Well-timed controversial subject matter often gains traction on social networks. Taking a stand on controversial subject also generates a lot of comments (although not always positive).

Humor
The video segments on JibJab never fail to cause a stir. In fact, the most popular YouTube video clips are often mundane subjects portrayed in a ridiculous or silly way. That said, they are popular and have a high rating and large number of views.

Outrageous
It is smart to be bold. Outlandish stories that make you shake your head often get high numbers of votes on social websites.

Timely
Items that are timely are critical. Old news is not news, and will quickly be buried in favor items that are current.

Satirical
If you are able to pull off a satire that contains fact and humor, it too could perform well on a social website.

Keep in mind that social websites vary and appeal to different audiences. Study the social website to determine the kinds of stories that attract the most attention and interest. If it were easy to predict what would be successful there would be a whole lot of rich people in the world. Determining what will or will not be successful in business is not an easy task, and the same is true for predicting what will be most effective when it comes to social bookmarking.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for RecordForAll http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing software.

The strife and internal conflicts that marred the globe in 2006 continued into 2007: Mynamar (Burma), Palestine and Lebanon all continue to struggle with internal conflicts in their borders. The differences between 2006 and 2007 are not obvious; however, under close examination, it is evident that several external struggles have been transformed into internal conflicts. In 2006, many countries attempted to influence their neighbors. This was evident with Iran attempting to influence the turmoil in Iraq, and Syria attempting to control Lebanon. Both struggles have evolved into internal personal conflicts in 2007.

While video is not a new technology, the spread of video-viewing technology in devices like the iPod has brought the faces of terror into the homes of the western world. Advances in technology have also encouraged the West to open both their hearts and wallets, with many sponsoring children like Youseff, a child with a horribly scarred face. The same technology that brought Youssef’s story to millions of homes, also helped bring tragedies like the Virginia Tech massacres.

In 2007, the heavy reliance on technology forced censorship and spying to the forefront of concerns. Many western countries accused the communist nation, China, of cyber snooping and hacking. Also, Russia did not remain unscathed in 2007, with widespread suspicion and accusations following the death of Alexander Litvinenko in late 2006. On a more positive note, North Korea seems to have complacently agreed to nuclear compliance.

With Armadinajad’s (the President of Iran) comments about homosexuality heard world wide, many found them comical. He took the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to an extreme, denying the existence of homosexuality in the country of Iran. While the Western World smirks, the repressiveness of the Iranian regime lacks humor. The proximity and repeated threats against Israel illustrate the region’s unchanged tension.

With the exception of the California Wildfires, nature spared the US of it’s wrath in 2007. However, places like the Minneapolis bridge were victim to construction flaws, leading to collapse. Furthermore, the falling dollar was the victim of economics.

As culture and society have evolved, so have viruses. We have seen drug resistant TB, and “super bugs”. These drug resistant super bugs are said to rival diseases like AIDs and have the capacity to decimate an entire population.

While technology has personalized the struggles of humankind, the internet has become a flood of information making it more difficult than ever to discern what is fact and what is fiction. This generation struggles to remember a world without the Internet. A world without the “web” is as unthinkable as a world without TV’s, microwaves, or telephones. The next generation will not know a world without the real time moving images that bring news and information to their fingertips. Will the globalization and portability of news make a difference when it comes to tolerance and understanding? That is for the future generation to decide.

Top 10 Winners Predicted for 2008
1. Video
2. Healthy
3. Long Tail
4. Buy USA
5. Rich Internet / Interactive Web / Semantic Web / Web Services
6. Aggregate and Attention Data
7. Power of the People
8. Going Green
9. Biometrics and Big Brother
10. Prosthetics / Bionic

Top 10 Losers Predicted for 2008
1. Lead
2. Squat Toilets
3. DRM
4. China
5. Skinny is Out
6. Blockbuster / Netflix
7. Orbo
8. MySpace fell to Facebook
9. Privacy
10. Piracy

More on 2007 Predictions – http://www.small-business-software.net/whats-hot-whats-not-2008.htm

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

BlogZeal

I am using adBrite to provide a small but steady of revenue which will ultimately cover the cost of hosting my two blogs. The site has also been appearing on the Reuters website as part of their ‘news from the blogs’ sections. I have also been approached by people who want to put news worthy articles on the site.

NetNewsPublisher.com is receiving several thousand visitors a day and has risen in the Technorati ranks to just less than 500,000 with an authority of 17. It may not seem much but blogzeal.com is at only 2,100,000 with an authority of 3.

Now if I can just figure a better way of turning the visitors into cash while still keeping the site worthy of being a news web site then I will have cracked it.

BlogZeal

Luckily I read the instructions first, which is not something I normally do. I had to make backups of my database and some other files then I deleted the majority of the old version 2.2 I uploaded the new version, located the upgrade.php file and started the process. I expected it to take a while but in reality it was a whole 10 seconds. I was asked to update my database and then it was complete. It was at this moment I realised I had deleted two files that I could not replace but as I said earlier reading the instructions and making a backup saved the day. Now I have to work out exactly what has changed and how to benefit from it. I know tags are important but I should read a little more about them.

Technorati Profile

I trawled through the support forums and found several answers about deleting cookies and turning javascript off but none of them worked for me. Besides they were at best a workaround and I wanted an answer.

Ok I admit it, I broke it. Well actually I had set my .htaccess file to redirect requests for http://blogzeal.com to www.blogzeal.com this apparently confused my setup. I had neglected to alter my admin settings so that WordPress knew the correct url. A quick edit and all is good again. Now I guess I should post my solution to the WordPress forum.