Planet WordPress

It looks like I am going to be at Calcutta, India for two weeks around the end of February and would like to get together with Wordpress and blogging folks from that region.

March 4th (Saturday) is the tentative date for the meetup and my initial thoughts are to meet at the Park Hotel (on Park Street). I will post updates as and when they develop.

I would like to judge the level of interest. Please leave a comment if you are interested. Also, please link to this post if it would help to get the word out.

[EDIT]: Not sure if people realize this or not, but I am originally from Calcutta, India. My fiance’ and I are going to visit my parents for a couple of weeks and this is more of a pleasure trip than anything business. Any business conducted will be incidental and will have less priority. I am also glad to know that there is such a concentration of bloggers in Mumbai and Chennai. How about independant blog meetups there?

Technorati Tags: wordpres meetup india

Squidoo: Can user generated content directed at marketing and making a profit from ad sales really ever be good content? I have been trying to follow some of the Web 2.0 startups and trying to fathom the principles of user generated content that these sites are hoping to build on. But after looking at some of the existing proponents of the model (such as Squidoo), I wonder if this is good for web publishing in general and the ad/search industry in particular.

I really could write a thesis on this but for starters I find myself quite dissociated with the content on Squidoo. The content looks remotely useful but also feels unnecessarily padded and somewhat redundant. Hundreds (maybe hundreds of thousands) of authors are vying for the elusive few dollars in shared advertising revenue and pumping out article after article on search engine stuffers such as Senseo Coffee makers. Squidoo reminds me of a legitimate version of Hot Nachos with a revenue sharing plan on a grader scale than Hot Nachos.

There is the argument that keyword stuffers and spammers are already using blogs to make money through advertising and this is just another such venture that benefits both the author and the company reaping the ad revenue, so this is more of the same old but with a new twist of lemon. However, I just have a bad feeling about this.

On the other side of the picture are the blogging networks. Those tend to create better content since the authors are hand picked and their performance has depended (so far) on the quality of their work, their personalities and unique perspectives.

[EDIT]: All gone.

Since the edit on the old post did not get any bites and the expiration date is coming closer, here goes again:

I have two new coupon codes to give away. They come from Melanie.

1. There is a coupon code for 20% off selected desktop and notebook purchases of $999 or more from Dell. Valid through 1/31/06.
2. There is also a coupon for 20% off $200 or more on electronics & accessories. Before tax and shipping. Valid through 1/31/06.

Please leave a comment if you would like one. Also, if you have coupon codes/discounts you would like to share with the community, just email me.