Second Life Users File Class Action Lawsuit Over Virtual Land

Facebook-Web-Design — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:23:59 +0000

A group of Second Life users is suing Second Life’s creator over a virtual land dispute. They say their contractual property ownership rights have been changed and that this alteration of the terms of service constitutes fraud and violates California consumer protection laws.

Before you scoff too much at this seemingly ludicrous lawsuit, remember that virtual worlds aren’t just “funny money” and avatars. They’re serious business, both for the owners and investors who profit from them and for the users who pump hundreds and even thousands of dollars each into creating characters and interacting online.

Second Life’s parent company, Linden Labs, was recently valued at $383 million. The virtual world’s economy was at an all-time high when Q1 transactional data was reported last month. And although the economy is virtual, remember these transactions have a basis in very real funds.

The lawsuit gives rise to the question: Who owns virtual goods, the creators of the goods or the people who have paid virtual currency for them?

The users are claiming that Linden Labs and Founder Philip Rosedale persuaded them to invest money and pay a sort of “property tax” with the promise of actual ownership of virtual land. Now, the users say, the terms of service have been changed without their prior knowledge or consent. They say the new terms “state that these land and property owners did not own what they had created, bought and paid for, and that these consumers had no choice but to click on a new terms of service agreement or they could not have access to their property.” Moreover, the group alleges that Linden Labs froze user accounts and deleted or converted non-virtual currency and virtual property without giving any explanation or avenues for recourse.

We’ve contacted Mr. Rosedale for comment and will update this post as new information becomes available.

What do you think: Is this a frivolous lawsuit over a virtual non-issue? Can anyone really “own” pixels? Did Linden Labs have the right to change the TOS for their own product, just as Facebook does on a regular basis? Or do these users have a justifiable complaint when they say that Linden Labs broke its promise to them?

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20 Essential Tips for Graphic Design Blog Management

Facebook-Web-Design — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:15:40 +0000

Whether you work in some corporate office, small studio, or as a freelance designer, chances are you have a lot to do. As blog owners, we many times have multiple tasks to work on, content to manage, writers to handle, research to do, and more, to increase the productivity and of Course, daily traffic. One way or another, there are many ways by which one can increase the efficiency of their blog.

These tips aren’t meant for graphic design blogs only. They are also relevant with some graphic design related blogs such as web design & photography blogs. I hope that these tips will help you to manage your blogs & help you grow with other graphic design blogs. Remember, your blog is also a property, a virtual property. Just like real properties, you have to manage your property well to make sure people say in your property right? Enjoy!

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Essential Tips for Graphic Design Blog Management

Blogging is a business. Being a business, you need to apply proper business management techniques on running your blog. These are very simple and yet effective tips to manage you visitors and get most out of your business.

01. Try Hard to Write Unique Content

This is one of the most important thing in graphic design blog management. Content is the King! Without unique content, people won’t stay on your blog. Make your content different from other graphic design blogs. I know it’s not as easy as you thing, i experience this too, when i was stucked on finding new inspirations for unique content. Try to read other blogs articles & see how they present their content. You may also use other graphic design blogs ideas for your content, but remember to add something new or in depth analysis, not just copy their idea.

02. Ask Other Graphic Design Bloggers for Friendship

Let me ask you, what do you choose? Blogging alone or have some friends? I personally prefer to have some friends in blogging world. Try to at least contact them via email or contact form at their contact page and exchange link with them (if they want). But if they don’t want to exchange link, just say hi & tell them that you have a similar vision with them to grow your graphic design blog. By having friends, it will be easier to grow your blog than blogging alone.

03. Write Guest Post on Other Blogs

This can be done after asking other blogs for friendship. By writing a guest post on other blogs, you have a chance to get more traffic from that blog, especially if you write guest post on famous blogs. Don’t ask for payment first! Build a friendship first & focus yourself on providing the best content for them. The main objective on writing guest post isn’t for payment! It’s for friendship, okay? If you want to write guest post on other blogs which don’t pay for guest writer, no problem! But you have to proof that you can provide high quality content for them, for example: give your personal graphic design blog address & let them see that you can write high quality content.

These are some blog who offers guest post for their content:

04. Design Your Own Unique Button Design

What i mean on this point is you have to make your own button design for RSS, Twitter, Email Subscription, etc. Most of good graphic design blogs have their own button design which can’t be found on other blogs. Don’t tell me that you can’t design your own button… Your blog is graphic design blog, right? If you don’t have idea of how to make your own button, learn from other graphic design blogs. And remember not to copy from them. You just have to learn & design your own button.

I will give you some examples about graphic design blogs who use their own button design:

05. Search Bar

You have to place your search bar on visible place at the top of your blog. You don’t want new visitors to look for your search button from the top to bottom of your blog, right? If your template doesn’t provide search bar, you can make it with Adsense for Search. It’s very easy to make it & plade it on your top sidebar.

hese are few of many blogs which is using Adsense for Search as their search bar:

06. Provide "About" & "Contact" Page

It’s better for you to provide About & Contact page. Visitors will know who you are, your experience & your specialization from About page. In Contact page, provide some informations to make your visitors easy to contact you. You may provide email address, facebook badge or just a contact form. There are many WordPress plugin freely available to manage and install contact form on your blog. Contact Form 7 is one of many available plugins which gives you very easy solution for your requirements.

07. Categories Management

Place your categories on the top of your blog, so visitors gain full access to explore your blog. Make sure that you limit your categories into some common subject. Do not make too much categories, as it will confuse your readers. Focus on some subjects with some additional categories.

08. Most Popular, Recent Post, Recent Comments

Try to place Most Popular, Recent Post & Recent Comments on your sidebar or footer. This will proof that your blog has some active readers. If your readers are still passive, try to disable your comment form first. After you gain a lot of visitors, enable your comment form to get comments from a lot of readers.

09. Subscription & Twitter Button Placement

Place your subscription & twitter button on easy to find place. Don’t make your readers trying hard to find your hidden subscription & twitter button. Try to ease your visitors to subscribe to your blog. Place it on your top sidebar or top header to make visitors easy to find them.

10. Retweet, Digg, Google Buzz & Facebook Share Button

Most of famous blogs use these retweet, Google buzz (recently released) & facebook share button on their articles. This makes readers easier to share your content if they feel that your content is good enough. They can be placed before or after the article. For Example, Psd-tutorial.com uses Retweet, Stumble Upon, Google Buzz & Facebook Share on their every articles.

11. Use Good Looking Template

This is very important. If you have very good contents & your blog designed like 90’s style website, i guarantee that there is very small chance people will stay on your blog. If you can’t make your own template, buy it from professional template seller like Elegant Themes or Theme Forest. If you don’t want to use paid template, use original one. Search for the best free template.

12. Wise Placement of Advertisement Banner

I’m sure that you visit other blog to read their content, not only watch their advertisement, right? Most people don’t like to see a website full of advertisement. Manage your advertisement placement wisely, to make visitors able to focus on your content first, no your advertisement. I’m also sure that you won’t come back to websites which are full of banner advertisement. It’s very annoying, right? Speckyboy.com & Tutorial9.net has very neat placement of advertisement. Instantshift is also nice too.

13. Sign Up at BuySellAds

If you want to manage your banner advertisement easily. Just sign up at Buysellads. It allows you to see how crowded your traffic is. Buysellads enables you to see your impression as well as your blog statistics. Most famous blogs use Buysellads to manage their banner advertisement. It’s simple & easy. But it you want, you can manage them yourself. But if you want a semi-automatic banner advertisement management, sign up at Buysellads.

14. Submit Articles to Other Blog User News

By submitting your articles to user news, you will get some other traffic from them. Currently this is one of the most famous ways to promote your blog. Most of them are free. The only website requires a payment I know is Design Shack, which require $3.50 for every article. Maybe they have so many traffics inside? But others are free.

15. Always Use High Quality Images, If Don’t Have, Make it!

I learn about this from Hongkiat.com when i was at the beginning of my blogging activity. He always makes his unique original style of making his title image at the top of all articles. He often uses Futura font & typical adobe photoshop blending options. I learn a lot from his style & now i have my own style of making my own image to support my articles.

16. Simplify Comment Form. Better not Using Captcha

Most people don’t like to leave their comment on other people blog. If you make it harder to leave comments by placing a captcha, very few people will leave comment on your article. Just leave it as it is & let Akismet filter any spam comments. Or try using very simple alternates of captcha, just like what InstantShift.com is using in their comment form.

17. Don’t Use Too Much Plugin

If you use too much plugins, it will make your blog very slow. Just use some important plugins like All In One SEO Pack, Google Analytics, Sociable, etc. For WordPress use, it will be very nice to read these articles about important WordPress plugins :

18. Use Meebo Bar

Meebo Bar enables visitors to share your post and image easily. I know about this from Hongkiat.com. You can see how often visitors use this tools to share your articles. The way of sharing image is also unique. It requires you to drag image to Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, Email & IM. If you want to try it, visit my blog Psd-tutorial.com.

19. Provide User News Submission Page

By providing this, you may receive traffic from other people who wants to submit their article. You can also read their news from their blog. Sometimes their submission could contain useful information, right? For example, InstantShift also provide user news submission page.

Following are few good sources for news submission to tweak your daily traffic.

20. Learn from Other Blogs

Don’t be satisfied with your blog now. Keep learning from other blogs. Even though you have enormous traffic, you have to develop your website consistently to keep on fast development of internet & technology. Don’t stop learning, always humble & learn everything to keep you on the top!

Further References!

Image Credits

Find Something Missing?

While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed some other great tips. Feel free to share it with us.