Pay the Blogger

Pavan Katepalli had his ‘aha’ moment about blogs when he was running his second startup, a search engine marketing service.

In trying to expand the online marketing presence of one his clients, he discovered that bloggers hold a lot of power in terms of directing traffic and boosting visits.

After selling the SEM company—his first startup, by the way, was hatched while he was a Rutger’s undergraduate—Pavan then went on to found BloggersCompete.

The idea is simple: advertisers initiate a contest for bloggers, suggesting general themes to write about. Bloggers get exposure by being part of the contest, and the winner or winners receive cash, while runner-ups get some non-cash swag or other prizes.  Continue reading

Readability: Micro-pay the Writer

I missed yesterday’s New York Tech Meetup. I’ll be fine.

However, I would have liked to have seen the Readability demo and learned more about this company’s plans.

Their FireFox plug-in de-clutters a typical web page, removing graphics, Flash, and other visual ephemera leaving you with just the nutritious text.

The software was reviewed by David Pogue in November 2009.  And it ended that year with a coveted Pogie Award.

Since the Pogie, Readability added some new features to boost the original text-centric idea. And then in a move that as far as I’m concerned nailed their dedication to the written word, they’ve installed a micro-payment system for authors. Continue reading