Gas Prices are Down. Will SUVs Go Up?

That's the real question, isn't it? The gas price explosion of the last couple of years has made casually buying a sports utility vehicle a thing of the past. People are more aware of gas mileage than ever before, so will the drop in gas prices make it easier to sell them?

I don't think so. Now that people are more conscious of what is going on in the world with the environment, many feel good about their decision to get out of the Expedition and into the Prius. More importantly, many people were caught off guard by the sudden hike and they found themselves making life-changing decisions based upon it.

SUV sales will stay low.

They won't make the same mistake twice. SUVs will remain a luxury for a while to come.

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Read more about J.D. Rucker on this blog.

Call for Causes on Social Media

A couple of articles that I wrote last week received strong feedback from social media users. The concept: social media sites, with all of their power, should be able to do more in the way of promoting charities and other causes.

Social Media Charities

Social Media and its Users for Causes

This is a topic that I feel strongly about as there are very few things that take up more of my time than social media and charitable events. If there was a way to combine the two, it would personally save me a lot of time.

Then, of course, there's the matter of it being the right thing to do.

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Read more by JD Rucker on this blog.

Rugged Laptops: At These Prices, Why Not?

Over at TechScienceReview, we took a look at one of the most innovative creations to come to computers, and I never even knew they existed before.

These technological wonders called rugged laptops absolutely blew my mind. Considering that they are about the same price as many normal laptops, a guy like me who is on a plane 5 times a week really needs one for the go.

This article goes into detail and offers a video that really puts it all into perspective. When it comes to rugged notebooks, there's really only one thing to consider -- how much?

Read more about computers on my blog.

Social News Watch Wants Digg to Give People Another Chance

With all of the recent bannings, it's no wonder that the front page of Digg has decreased in both total number of Diggs as well as quality in content. The front page, already in shambles since the introduction of the Recommendation Engine, has taken a turn for the worse and started focusing on stories that just should not have made it.

Over at Social News Watch, one story points to the heart of the trepidation that has engulfed the top end of the Digg community. They are banning people left and right and the bans are permanent. If they listen, they will realize that they shouldn't make the bans against script users permanent.

It's not rocket science. People made a mistake. Give them a second chance, Digg.

More Digg Ban Stories will be coming to my blog soon.

Automotive Blog Network: TK Carsites Blog on Driving Sales

With so many industries coming to the table across the blogosphere, having the automotive industry start to make a play is a nice change. Over at driving sales, TK Carsites has a blog that has 4 of their top executives leaving posts.

It's actually very refreshing seeing information from a vendor that car dealers can use. Advice, predictions, and trends fill the posts with informative commentary from people who understand the business.

More stories about automotive blogs will be posted to my blog soon.

Spreading Out Across the Blogosphere

Over the past several months, I have received a few invites from people who want me to guest-post on their blogs. It's an honor to receive requests from anyone, but I have to admit that some of the requests have been a bit intimidating.

I have always declined because my job has required a lot of my attention. With a family of 5 and a ton of professional duties, it has never been prudent for me to do it.

Until now.

As things have progressed at my work with an automotive marketing firm, I am finding that I have more free time available to work on things. As a public figure for my company, it has even become prudent to "spread my wings" and get my name out there for others to find.

With that said, I would like to ask that anyone who needs a guest blogger, please keep me in mind. I am not a "professional" blogger who gets paid for my work, but it's okay. There are so many great writers out there who do not make money on that I can only hope to be considered part of their ranks. That, of course, would require that my writing is great, which is definitely up for debate.

Still, I consider myself competent at it. I write about a variety of topics - not just automotive - and any opportunity to contribute gives me a way to get my name out, so I am definitely open to it.

If interested, please simply leave a comment here or contact me at jd.rucker.oboy@gmail.com

See you on the internet!

Automotive SEO Video of JD Rucker

Here's me:

Stories I Wrote that hit the Front Page of Digg, part 1

Here is a partial list of stories that I authored that made it tot he front page of Digg. There are several others, but most are on websites with which I cannot mention my involvement. Enjoy.

Why Democrats Love the Pickens Plan - 806 Diggs. An article that touches on the Boone Pickens plan for alternative energy sources that would free some of the United States' dependancy on foreign oil.

Fake Hookers + Fake Credit Cards + Fake 13yr olds = Marketing? - 1389 Diggs. When a story goes viral, it's possible for the source to get a ton of traffic and a lot of backlinks. When it's a spoof, but a lot of people believed it to be true, well, it can get ugly.

Recommended Flaw: 31% of Digg Homepage submitted by 10 Users - 3400 Digg.

iPhone was Dugg. Way Dugg. - 1559 Diggs.

Read more about JD Rucker.

Digg Recommended Flaw: 31% of Homepage submitted by 10 Users

This one hit 3400 Diggs and 309 Comments.Posted to popFAIL.Original Description:A look at the last 500 front page stories on Digg reveals that 10 submitters control a mind-boggling 31.4% (157 out of 500). Some of the names on the list are familiar to the front page, while a few have found new success using Digg's new Recommendation Engine.

read more | digg story

iPhone was Dugg. Way Dugg.

This got 1559 Diggs and 97 Comments.Posted on popFAIL.Original Description:With the unveiling of the iPhone at the WWDC on Monday, there just weren’t very many real surprises. Many of the speculations and rumors came through. Some were merely fiction. Here are some quick statistics from the week in Digg that was dominated by the enigmatic iPhone.

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Digg & Fox Tricked: 13yo ordering hookers w/ dads cc a FAKE

This one got to 1389 Diggs and 120 Comments.Posted to NowPublic.Original Description:What a virtual world we travel through sometimes. A (relatively) innocent marketing ploy designed to draw in backlinks for a financial services comparison website in London has stirred up media attention ranging from the front page of Digg to coverage on Fox News.

read more | digg story

Why Democrats Love the Pickens Plan

This one got to 806 Diggs and 152 Comments.Posted on Greenopolis.When anyone invests $300 million dollars into promoting alternative energy sources, the Democrats usually take notice. When that person is an oil tycoon, brother of a "Bush Pioneer", and someone who was a major contributor to the 2004 Swift Boat ads, that person gets an invitation from Nancy Pelosi to speak before the House Democratic Caucus.

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Wishes "Funner" was a word. It's so useful. Cute to say when you're 4. Not cute to say when you're old but act 4.

Tomatoes: After $500 million in losses, the FDA appears wrong

Please check out this story:

http://ping.fm/HKJXy

It is likely that, after huge losses, the FDA may have been wrong about declaring tomatoes as the source of the current salmonella outbreak.

There's a Digg button at the bottom of the story if you like it.

THANKS!

oboy

Was Oil the real "WMD" that put us in Iraq?

http://ping.fm/lONqN - Great story that I found on NowPublic.

Testing Ping.FM on Blogging

This is the first test of the http://ping.fm blog posting feature for my blogs. If this pops up on Plurk or Twitter or anything, please disregard as ignorance.

Digg Spelling Etiquette

With the 'check spelling' button every story on digg should have perfect spelling, but so many make it to the front page anyway with basic mistakes. Does it matter?

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Top 10 Social Networking Annoyances

It's great to keep in touch with your friends and colleagues, but does the price have to be spam, zombie bites, and friend invitations from people you've never heard of?

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10 Amazing URLs with Sites that Suck

Most URLs give you exactly what you think they will. Money.com takes you to CNN's Money page. If you're looking for a car, go to Cars.com. Then there are the ones that suck -- those complete wastes of excellent domain names that take you to a blank page (or even worse). Here are some URLs that SHOULD be something. They just aren't.

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Quasi Social Networking Sites

At social bookmarking sites we primarily share websites and other content with each other and with search engines. However, we can also communicate and build relationships. What is the difference between a social bookmarking site and a social networking site? Our priorities. Online social bookmarking emphasizes content, while online social networki

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Intuitive Local Search With Ajax Makes Finding Pizza Simple

Here's a handy tool that makes sorting through Google search results seem silly when looking for something locally.

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ChrisBrogan.com: Best Social Media Advice From This Site

An excellent compendium of social media sites courtesy of Chris Brogan and Alexa Scordato.

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What is SMR (hint: has to do with social media)

A interesting blog article that defines what is and what isn't a social media release (SMR)

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The 6 P’s of Social Media Parenting

As a self-professed social media addict, I was really excited when asked to take care of posts on Girnarsoft site about social media parenting. I thought about potential related topics, and it occurred to me; I found a lot of likeness between parenting and better social media development.

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0 degrees of separation - book review - about social media

With Twitter, Digg and Flickr, the right to assemble --and to take mass action -- is getting and will continue to get a lot easier. Book review of "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky. With an exciting range of examples, the NYU prof makes a bold & compelling case for the raw publishing powers of the Internet and its impact on group action.

read more | digg story

Google To Launch “Friend Connect” On Monday

Don’t they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we’ve heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs for Open Social participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party websites.

read more | digg story

How Web 3.0 Will Work

You've decided to go see a movie and grab a bite to eat afterward. You're in the mood for a comedy and some incredibly spicy Mexican food. Booting up your PC, you open a Web browser and head to Google to search for theater, movie and restaurant information.

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Apple Last to the Social Web, or Just Waiting to Be Best?

Why hasnt Apple come into the social media game?

read more | digg story

Social Media Branding: Are You 'With It'?

This blog explores the continually evolving concepts of Social Media on the web, applying fact, opinion, and general thought as to how marketers should leverage them.

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Five ways to Score Big on Digg - webpronews

The big social media sites receive thousands of submissions continually. Yours doesn't have to be one that never escapes Digg's Upcoming section, or the basement of any social bookmarking presence.

read more | digg story

7 Cs of Social Media Marketing

Here the guys over at Indian Prblog, summarize the basics of social media marketing in 7 C's. Do give it a look.

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Is Social Media a Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Yes, well ... maybe. Nobody knows but this article has some great insights.

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The New & Correct (?) Definition Of Social Media

Is Digg, part of the social media ecosystem or is it 'the social media'. Answer it yourself through this new definition

read more | digg story

Google To Launch “Friend Connect” On Monday

Don’t they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we’ve heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs for Open Social participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party websites.

read more | digg story

Black Hat SEOs: Is This the Future of Search?

Tell "tl;dr" to take a hike -- this excellent, thought-provoking two-part series on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must-read.

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Sphinn: SEOs Do Not Understand Social Networking

Sphinn is a dysfunctional social network because most SEOs just do not understand social networking.

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Dot Dash Create, Another Social Media Question Mark

Pajamamarket takes a look at a new blogging network. Still haven't reviewed the article or the subject matter of the article. A quick review of dotdashcreate.com, a blogging network currently in beta that has already signed up more than 100,000 blogs into its network.

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Social Media Branding - A Growing Phenomenon?

Not reviewed yet. The lead in sounds interesting enough, but I've never heard of the source before. Will check it out this weekend to see what it's all about. Social Media has come to party in the last couple of years in a big way in India. With funding, acquisitions and tieups happening all over the social media scene in last two years as far as India is concerned. And the trend to do tieups with social media sites to build brand leverage just continues to get bigger.

read more | digg story

Social Media Video Library Launched

Still need to review this one -- a source that I haven't checked before: The Wall Tweet Journal (WTJ) today announced the launch of the Social Media Video Library (SMVL), a user-generated video search and on-demand viewing/video sharing channel. SMVL features video content on every topic of... Sounds like it could be a clone or an innovation of other sites, but those are sometimes the best ones. Will get back with everyone once I've had a chance to review this.

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The Dark Side of Social Media

I still need to review this one -- Social media has risks involved, apparently. Submitted by mclbcdgh with 1 Digg after 22 minutes. It comes from a free wordpress blog.

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The Five Commandments of Successful Blog Marketing

Knowing a thing or two about affiliate marketing, AdSense, SEO and all the techniques you can read about every day is quite mandatory, but I will state that the most important of them all is successful marketing through your connections, your friendly network that can bring you exposure, advice, help and sometimes even funny conversations all the w

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What is Web 3.0? The upcoming revolution.

Internet visionary David Bayer gives the low-down on web 3.0 and where our emerging technologies will take us.

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Social Media Adoption and Adaptation

Companies large and small are looking into social media and social networking as a valid element of their marketing. The question is, do they integrate with something that already exists or do they create something new and unique?

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10 Interesting Social Media Memes FromThe Blogosphere

I’ve noticed many new memes circulating in the social media/web 2.0 space over the last two weeks. I decided to pluck 10 of my favorites and summarize them. If you haven’t been glued to Google Reader or Twitter, here is a run-down of memes worth paying attention to

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Social Media Marketing Strategy #2: The Mullet

User generated content is all the rage but most of it totally sucks. That is why sites like YouTube, MySpace, CNN, and HuffPost are all embracing the mullet strategy. They let users party, argue, and vent on the secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking sharp.

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Want to create your own social networking site?

A new website that aims to show you how to create your own social networking website using only open source and free software. The site is based on the free content management system Joomla.

read more | digg story

A Way to Get More Traffic using Social Communities

There is many way to increasing traffic of our site with regular way or with other smart way, and one effective way is through large numbers of user of social communities. Activities of joining, chatting and communicating with other members of social communities will make traffics.

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The Dawn of Social Networking 2.0

I have been investigating the possibility that social networking is something that can be used inside an organization -- "intra-organizationally," as my bureaucratic friends might say. That should really be no surprise -- the entire employee base is a natural community.

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Profitable social site w 3.5 million paid subs, 50MM members

At least one social media site is grew its PAID subs by 322,000 in Q1 2008, suprassing 3.5 million paid subs with a total free/paid membership of 50 million. How? Advertising and subscription revenues, along with new site features that helped it generate more than 1 million additional net paid subs in the past year. Who? Classmates.com

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YUWIE

I found this web site called Yuwie where you can get paid to social network. Looks interesting.

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Marketers to spend on social media, they just don't know how

This new study shows that 88% of marketers say they plan to spend more money on social media ... they just have no idea how they're going to do it.

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Rationale for Social Networking

My good friend Ivo Jackson, a gifted writer, wrote a blog post April 8, the 7 Reasons Why You Should Do More Networking Than Selling that looked at networking from another angle. Ivo provides an excellent rationale for social networking that applies to offline as well as online social networking.

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Humval: Customizable Social Network

A customizable social network that gives its users most of its advertising revenue. Allows users to customize the entire site, blogs, user blog homepage... -pretty much everything. Has a lot of nifty features.

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Alexa - Facebook Overtakes Myspace

Mark it on your calendar - April 19, 2008 - the date that Facebook overtook Myspace as the #1 social networking site on the Web.

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Diigo V3 is a Social Media Winner

It is refreshing to see another fan of this often overlooked Social Bookmarking Tool. I've been using Diigo since its earliest version and it is beginning to hit full stride with auto suggesting tags, public or private, Twitter feed check and a tremendous amount of flexibility.

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New Social Bookmarking Site

Here is a new social bookmarking site that don't edit what you say. It allows for you to say what is on your mind.

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JD Rucker, Social Media Wannabe

Here is my newest blog. It's really just a compilation of stories that I find on a social media. A dumping ground, so to speak.

I will post stories here from time to time, but mostly I'll just use it to store the stuff that I find. Some people like social bookmarking, others use their browser. I prefer to have a place where I can read the stories, then write and store my thoughts about it.

If you are reading this, first off, I have no idea how you found it. Second, I'm sure you're finding nothing of interest to you. Third, I don't mind. This blog is really just for me.

Enjoy, if you can.

JD Rucker

The Benefit of Focusing on Just One Social Media Site Design

There are literally hundreds of social media sites out there and while you could easily try to make an appearance on each one at some point in your day, it would never be enough to actually establish you as an expert.

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How Late Adopters Get Into Social Media

Those in the social media worlds seem to often forget that it’s still a Google World. Most normal people who aren’t frantically checking FriendFeed or Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn all day long are just hanging back doing 1998-style searches for stuff. And most of those, in my experience, are using Google. So I call it a Google World now. . .

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Greasemonkey Scripts For the Social Media Addict

A large list of Greasemonkey scripts to modify the way you use sites like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, Delicious, Flickr and more!

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Online Social Networking: a Potential Marketing Tool

Social media provide consumers with opportunities to enhance existing relationships and create new ones. Interaction is a key factor in a network's success, as shown by the success of sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, which encourage user-generated content.

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How To Use Social Media And Social Networking To Popularize

A Blog About How To Use Social Media And Social Networking To Popularize Your Blog And To Increase Traffic To Your Blog! A Comprehensive Guide To Increasing Traffic With Social Networking And Social Media Marketing!

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Social Media Meets Social Responsibility

Find out about how social media can help your socially responsible organization or your business. People, planet, profit--they don't have to be separate from each other!

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SEO Shenanigans Pose Clear & Present Danger to Social Media

Steve Rubel: "I have recently witnessed a disturbing trend. Some respected experts are advocating launching social media marketing programs solely for the purpose of influencing search engines, rather than with the intent of fostering collaboration. This represents a clear and present danger to the fabric of the community.

read more | digg story