Bloggasm

I don’t have much time to talk about my endorsements for the 2007 Weblog Awards (which end today), but I thought I’d quickly list them and encourage others to vote. If you comb through our archives, you’ll actually find interviews that I conducted with several of the nominees:

Best Blog: I endorse BoingBoing

Best individual blogger: I endorse majikthise

Funniest Blog: I endorse Jon Swift

Best online community: I endorse Fark

Best liberal blog: I endorse Glenn Greenwald

Best technology blog: I endorse readwriteweb

Best science blog: I endorse Pharyngula

Best video blog: I endorse Crooks and liars

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Related posts:
1. Blog Highlights: Sadly, No!
2. Interview with LiewCF

This is pretty cool. Boingboing, arguably the most popular blog out there, has done a major revamp on their site. They’ve re-added their comments section, redesigned the entire blog, and also added a gadget blog.

I wonder if this will eventually increase their competition against huge gadget sites like Engadget and Gizmodo. In fact, their gadget blogger is a former Gizmodo editor.

The LA Times has a cool article about how local/regional bloggers are having effects on politics, even in small, isolated towns.

via poynter

We’ve already reported that Glenn Greenwald was bought up by Salon.

Now, his new blog is finally up and running. Be sure to update your bookmarks and/or feeds.

Glenn Greenwald, arguably one of the best political bloggers out there, will be moving his blog to Salon.com:

Beginning next Thursday, February 8, this blog will be moving to Salon, where it will be a featured front-page blog. I will also be a Salon Contributing Writer and will write at (least one) feature article per month. I am very excited about this move. It will substantially increase the readership and enhance the visibility for the blog, and I think Salon is the ideal venue for both blogging and for writing. A few observations about the move:

I can’t explain why, but I felt a sudden pang of saddness when I read this. I guess it’s better than going to work for one of the major mainstream publishers like the NYT or Time.

UPDATE: Greenwald becomes somewhat irritated with criticisms that he’s “selling out”

Related posts: Political thuggery, Interview with Liewcf, Why Google News shouldn’t include blogs in its search results

Just in case you care, here’s a link to my personal journal. It’s not very exciting, just an ongoing account of my life, but thought I’d provide a link just in case: Simon Owens’ livejournal

LiewCF.com is a personal tech site on latest technology, gadgets, softwares, computing tips and tricks, product reviews and some interesting stuffs. The author, Liew Cheon Fong, is a full time blogger, one of the first few Malaysians who blog for a living.

Simon Owens: Do you get a lot of feedback from your readers in regards to technology news? How active is your readership in communicating through your comments section?

Liew Cheon Fong: Generally, my readers are reading my blog for tech news but they will take part in discussion for some interesting topics. Basically, I get less than 10 comments for each post.

Simon Owens: What are some of your main sources for the latest gadget and technology news? Do receive a lot of press releases and tips from techology companies?

Liew Cheon Fong: News feeds. I subscribe to a lot of website feeds as my news sources. I seldom receive press releases from technology companies.

Simon Owens: Would you say that your blog is mainly geared towards a tech-geek audience or do you have a lot of readers from a more mainstream audience?

Liew Cheon Fong: My target readers are general computer users, not tech geek. The initial purpose of the blog is telling some interesting tech news and some useful computing tips to computer home users. That’s why I usually write blog posts in simple language and complete with screenshots.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed you’re part of the Gadget Blog Network. How did you become part of that network and do you find that it’s good at directing advertisers towards your site?

Liew Cheon Fong: I was invited by the BlogAds’ Gadget Blog Network founder, methodshop because I am one of the gadget blog in BlogAds. Joining the network has increased the BlogAds sales on my blog.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed that your blog partly focuses on making money through blogging. How successful have you been at this and which niches do you think are the most profitable?

Liew Cheon Fong: I am now a full time blogger (a.k.a problogger). All of my income is generated from my blog. In my opinion, tech related niches are still the most profitable but the competition is very high. You need to do some research for low competition tech niches.

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs everyone should be reading (besides your own)?

Liew Cheon Fong: It is difficult to suggest a blog for everyone. Personally, I recommend the following blogs:
- http://www.performancing.com/
- http://www.problogger.net/
- http://www.lifehacker.com/
- http://adsense.blogspot.com/
- http://www.engadget.com