The Bitcoin Business Review Launched!

[carbonpenguin]

For those who have not been following the previous thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=39586.0), I'm pleased to announce the official launch of the Bitcoin Business Review http://btcbusiness.net/?q=about this evening! We've got an interview of Search Bitcoin's Jared Ostmeyer (http://btcbusiness.net/?q=node/14) to kick things off, and several community members have pieces in the works that should be expected in the coming week. A few things to note:

Advertisers

If you'd like to advertise on the BBR, we've initially set up two spaces on the site that are for rent through Operation Fabulous for a starting bid of 0.001 btc. As the project develops, expect more promotional opportunities to emerge.

Writers

If you'd like to have a piece published on the BBR, create an account and submit an article for review directly through the website. Policies for submitters are as follows:

I.   Submission and Publication

   Articles submitted to the BBR must be original work that has not been previously published elsewhere. Writers who violate this policy may be banned from submitting future pieces at the discretion of the Editor, and any shared revenue to which the submitter would have been entitled will instead accrue to the article's true author or, if that author cannot be contacted, will be donated to a bitcoin community project such as the Bitcoin Faucet. Additionally, the final decision as to whether or not to publish an article is the Editor's.

II.   Compensation

   Published writers are compensated for their work in bitcoin by the BBR through a revenue sharing system. At the end of each month, a potion (currently 50%) of the site's advertising revenue will go to the writers, pro-rated by the percentage of traffic that month was generated by that writer's articles. For example, if the site received 10,000 hits, and your articles comprised 500 of those page-views, you would be entitled to 5% of the bitcoins in that month's writer's pool. Disbursements will accumulate until a writer's balance reaches a level determined by the Editor, at which point they will be sent to a bitcoin address provided by the writer.

III.   Promotion of Articles by Writers

   Writers are strongly encouraged to promote their pieces on all legitimate channels, but spamming will not be tolerated. Additionally, using illegitimate means to generate false hits as a way of increasing the size of one's share of revenue will not be tolerated, and might result in the offender being banned from the site and his or her illicit earning being donated to a non-profit cause that benefits the bitcoin community. The BBR's aim is to cultivate a collaborative, respectful community in which members deal with each other honorably, so such betrayals of the community's trust will be dealt with publicly and decisively.

Thanks for all the interest people have shown in the project thus far, and we're looking forward to this new adventure!

P.S. While still functional, the website is still very much under development; if you have any suggestions/feedback, send it along to kevin (at) btcbusiness.net

[1714199346]

1714199346

[Vod]

You should do some SEO work on your links.  Links such as "http://btcbusiness.net/?q=about" and "http://btcbusiness.net/?q=node/14" are not search engine friendly, so your articles won't as easily be picked up by Google and other search engines.  Drupal should have some SEO mods.

[carbonpenguin]

Thanks for the heads up; I'll check to see if Kevin (who's handling the programming side of things) can get that straightened out...

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Awesome stuff man!

You should cover how the Open Video Conference is doing a workgroup session Bitcoin
http://openvideoconference.org/alternative-currencies-and-transaction-models/

I'll be attending, see my post about it here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=41932.0

[carbonpenguin]

Awesome stuff man!

You should cover how the Open Video Conference is doing a workgroup session Bitcoin
http://openvideoconference.org/alternative-currencies-and-transaction-models/

I'll be attending, see my post about it here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=41932.0

I like the idea; would you be interested in doing a short write-up on it for the BBR? As indicated above, we're trying to draw in a wide range of voices...

[Yankee (BitInstant)]

Awesome stuff man!

You should cover how the Open Video Conference is doing a workgroup session Bitcoin
http://openvideoconference.org/alternative-currencies-and-transaction-models/

I'll be attending, see my post about it here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=41932.0

I like the idea; would you be interested in doing a short write-up on it for the BBR? As indicated above, we're trying to draw in a wide range of voices...

I really like how your website looks 

Sure, I'd be glad to!

Ill shoot you an email when done

[jostmey]

I appreciate the interview.

I posted the link on Hacker News. Maybe the BBR will get a few hundred hits from the post :-)

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2972741

[Alex Zee]

a) Add "justify" to your formatting, it will look much more professional.

b) Shrink width of text on articles.

The optimal line width for reading is 1.5 of alphabet length, I am not advocating for such extreme, but make it at least somewhat smaller.
Especially on the About page.

c) Add breadcrumbs: "Home > Interviews > Interview with John Doe"

Just my 2, I mean 3, cents

[Alex Zee]

Like this:



(clickable)

And shorten the paragraph length. Brevity is a virtue

[Vod]

a) Add "justify" to your formatting, it will look much more professional.

Not sure how it looks, but it's actually easier to read non-justified text.  Your eyes are able to use the difference in line length to move to the next line easier. 

[Alex Zee]

Not sure how it looks, but it's actually easier to read non-justified text.  Your eyes are able to use the difference in line length to move to the next line easier.  

The left side is aligned at the same position, so there is no difference - eyes will have to search exactly the same thing, because they are searching for the beginning of the line, not the end.

Books are printed with justify, nobody complains

Anyway, I'm not a typography specialist, but I think justified text looks much better.

[osmosis]

Thanks for the heads up; I'll check to see if Kevin (who's handling the programming side of things) can get that straightened out...

Also, I request and RSS feed.

[Alex Zee]

Also, I request and RSS feed.

I concur

[carbonpenguin]

Thanks for all this awesome feedback, folks! We'll try to implement as much of it as possible in the next few days. And if you have an idea for an article, feel free to shoot me a message

[carbonpenguin]

Just posted an interview with Mike of http://bitvapes.com, and BTConTilt has come on board as our very first sponsor (there's a second banner that is unclaimed as of yet, should anyone be interested...).

Also, while there are a few pieces in the works already, we're continuing to keep an eye out for new submissions. A few ideas I've had that people could run with are as follows, but feel free to also submit on other topics as the inspiration strikes:

-A "Silk Road for Dummies" type essay that explains to the consumer with limited tech savvy how to go about using that marketplace (Tor, safe postal practices, etc.).
-Now that MyBitcoin is gone, a comparative outline the payment processing options that are now available for bitcoin merchants.
-Analysis of the value of an equity on the GLBSE.
-A discussion of strategies for hedging against currency fluctuations and other risks.
-A guide for how the tax code treats bitcoin income in various polities.

Finally, if anyone out there has ideas re: an article they'd like to read, we're all ears

[bitstarter]

wow this is awesome! I didn't see this thread before! going to check it out great work!

[BitcoinPorn]

-A "Silk Road for Dummies" type essay that explains to the consumer with limited tech savvy how to go about using that marketplace (Tor, safe postal practices, etc.).

This http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/imoc0/using_silk_road/ is going to be hard to top, but I look forward to a good read.

Also, considering doing something on your site, the compensation seems low, but I am pulling over 1000 page views on just on three things I have put up on BitcoinMedia.com the past couple of days just to help the site out (it has some kind of visible counter too, so you can see a general count), I would not mind continuing writing things if more clear compensation was worked out.   Will you be putting on Google Ads at any point or other pay per click incentive based ads?   I can get eyes on the page and to a site.

[bitstarter]

-A "Silk Road for Dummies" type essay that explains to the consumer with limited tech savvy how to go about using that marketplace (Tor, safe postal practices, etc.).

This http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/imoc0/using_silk_road/ is going to be hard to top, but I look forward to a good read.

Also, considering doing something on your site, the compensation seems low, but I am pulling over 1000 page views on just on three things I have put up on BitcoinMedia.com the past couple of days just to help the site out (it has some kind of visible counter too, so you can see a general count), I would not mind continuing writing things if more clear compensation was worked out.   Will you be putting on Google Ads at any point or other pay per click incentive based ads?   I can get eyes on the page and to a site.

Bitcoinporn do you run BitcoinMedia.com ? Just was wondering since I've been seeing a it a lot  I like it!

[carbonpenguin]

-A "Silk Road for Dummies" type essay that explains to the consumer with limited tech savvy how to go about using that marketplace (Tor, safe postal practices, etc.).

This http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/imoc0/using_silk_road/ is going to be hard to top, but I look forward to a good read.

Also, considering doing something on your site, the compensation seems low, but I am pulling over 1000 page views on just on three things I have put up on BitcoinMedia.com the past couple of days just to help the site out (it has some kind of visible counter too, so you can see a general count), I would not mind continuing writing things if more clear compensation was worked out.   Will you be putting on Google Ads at any point or other pay per click incentive based ads?   I can get eyes on the page and to a site.

Thanks for the link; I just messaged the writer to see if he/she wants to do an updated version for the review.

As for compensation, we're starting off with the operation fabulous ads, which are bid for the day based upon the number of pageviews the previous day, that day, and the average for the week, but I want to increase our capacity beyond that as we grow (if you have any suggestions as to other BTC-based ad services, let me know). At the moment, though, monthly compensation will be: (page-views for each article)/(total page-views for all articles)*(monthly revenue). Initially, it will be fairly small, but my hope is that it will grow in coming months (and articles will continue generating shared revenue as long as they continue to get page-views). Hope that clears stuff up, and that we might be seeing some of your work .

P.S. We'll be shying away from the Google ads, since we're trying to run the whole enterprise entirely in BTC.

[BitcoinPorn]

Bitcoinporn do you run BitcoinMedia.com ? Just was wondering since I've been seeing a it a lot  I like it!

I wouldn't mind running BitcoinMedia.com honestly, but nah, I am just helping out.   Genjix posted a request over on the Bitcoin Forums and my curiosity on Posterious and desire to help out a site I liked has come through is all.  To be honest though, I am still very curious as to specifics on what is going down with the site.  I appreciate the kind words


Thanks for the detailed info carbonpenguin, I will be looking into the site further when I can and also see if I would have anything worthy to contribute.