Welcome to our new competitor and near namesake Blogadsnet.com. I won’t boost their page rank with a direct link, but you can access their beta site here. They’ve bought one Blogad already on Blogshares. We’re flattered by the imitation. As my wife said, “Now you are validated.” Thanks honey.

As part of my as-yet-unpatented “jetlag before your trip” program, I started work today at 5.15am. Let’s see, that 11.15am Central Europe time. If I can get up at 4am a couple times between now and next Monday, I’ll be well adjusted in Budapest/Vienna. The problem with this wake-before-the-birds strategy is that you blur by lunch, so I’ll probably sneak out to see the Matrix II at the 1PM showing. Later today, we’ve got a new server coming online dedicated to Blogads. Exciting.

Neat stats at Idlewords. (Via Heiko Hebig.)

I’ve gotten some helpful reactions from friends who have previewed my presentation for Blogtalk in Vienna next week. If you’d like to take a peek and a poke, drop me a line and I’ll send you the current draft.

The abstract: Unbridled media proliferation poses a perverse challenge for traditional advertisers: ad space becomes free but ineffective. Blogs, offering unique passion and hubness, may save advertisers. Passion: blogs command reader loyalty far greater than that inspired by traditional media and corporate online publishers. Hubness: network theory suggests that advertisers should, rather than blanketing entire demographic cohorts, seek out influential individuals ‘ and these folks are increasingly bloggers — who serve as network hubs. Finally, I review emerging tools that might make the metrics of passion and hubness tangible.

Blogger newbie, tech-guru and Pressflex shareholder Esther Dyson‘s brother George has been reading some of the early memos from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where they grew up. “A lot of what George has discovered in the archives is touchingly human – memos about the computer guys taking too much sugar at the Institute teatime in the great hall, discussions of where to put their offices – next to Goedel in a spare room, or in more spacious digs in the basement next to the men’s lavatory… (there was a certain prejudice amongst some of the scientists against mere engineers.) And my favorite memo – the one banning children under 10 years old from dining privileges!” Sounds a lot like blog fodder.

The singing is what gets me to church most Sundays; it feels good to hear folks yodel along to a simple organ. We also go with the hope that the kids can experience a community that gathers to celebrate the spirit, rather than education, commerce, entertainment or sport.

So this Sunday’s sermon surprised me.

Preacher Fran Ruthven talked, without notes, about her 11-year-old son’s cystic fibrosis, about the operation when he was one day old, about his rollercoaster ride since.

She said that now, looking back on her family’s terrifying experience and ongoing uncertainty, she can see God’s plan. I normally shudder when I hear people talk about God’s plan in relation to death, pain or evil, having once heard a fundamentalist preacher rationalize a Stalinist purge as part of God’s plan to launch a raft of Christians into Central Asia. (Yes, God works in weird and wonderful ways, brother.) I don’t buy that God sticks his nose into our daily business to do either good or evil.

But Ruthven knocked the ball in a different pocket. God wasn’t acting in the pain of her son’s illness. God was active and visible in the human responses to that illness: the doctor’s prayers, the community’s support. God is in man’s response to pain and evil.

I haven’t been surprised by a sermon in 30 years, but this one got me.

The first time I heard Ken Layne sing, I was driving through the mountains of Slovakia on a weird corporate road trip with my wife, toddler daughter and Matt Welch. Somewhere (lost?) near the Polish border, Welch popped a cassette into the dashboard of the old black Volvo 240 I’d bought from Adam Lebor, the Times of London’s eccentric correspondent.

The cassette revealed Ken Layne humming and chanting about some “monkey cup.” Whatever that was, I couldn’t tell, but the song was at once hummable, evil and captivating. Then we heard “springtime in Budapest,” a lovely ode to the city’s prostitutes.

Now, Ken’s starting to digitalize and propogate his old tapes. Here’s the first, “don’t you worry ’bout me.” Toss Ken ten and maybe he’ll keep playing.

A final note before I go coach soccer (where six months of winter and kindergarten have transformed unruly thrashers into disciplined kickers): welcome to new Blogad peddler and Republican-scourger Atrios, who opened his adstrip for business yesterday afternoon and already has three ads running.

Blogcritics has added a section focused on self-produced music, art, and literature titled DIY. Gee, DIY is a great way to sum up the Internet revolution. Blogads, for one, is all about DIY ads.

I’m looking forward to testing Paris WiFi when I’m over in June for the annual French weeklies shindig. I’ve got to remember to sign up here. (Via Buzzmachine via Ben Hammersley.)

Ken Layne, my favorite writer in Reno and the rest of the western hemisphere, gave Blogads a fine plug yesterday.

And speaking of testimonials, here’s the one Ken mentions:

I like the Blogads; I’m getting a better click-thru rate on them than I had on BCentral banner ads, for the most part. At least, more people are actually BUYING my books after clicking through. I really wanted to focus to a narrow market, especially L.A.-based media. I know the big money in writing is having movie options on your book. (I’ve optioned one already), not selling books. So if I can just break even in sales, but expose the books to people who can get me into the movie-making machine, that is what I’m after. I can’t get that with the rather broad dispersal in banner advertising.

David Kilpatrick
Author LA Stalker

David later bought an additional ad on Moxie and wrote me to add “Getting good results on that Moxie ad…”

All of which makes me wonder — is there any place better than a blog for advertising a book? And you don’t need to be Random House to afford Blogads…