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Hello all -

I wanted to updated you on a few things we’ve been working on and some other news.

First of all we just released the next revision to Iowa Blogs, which now includes widgets (see live on my website), code updates, bug fixes, new blogs, etc. You can see the full list on the front page. We also rearranged some of the interface and added a full post viewing (for those feeds we aggregate that offer the full post). Just click read more underneath the post excerpt to read the full post.

Next up for Iowa Blogs will be the new directory that will allow user submissions, Digg-Like social news features so our community can vote posts to the front page, and other ’social’ enhancements to be determined. We’re also working on some blog hosting packages so you can have your own Wordpress blog @iowablogs.net built on Wordpress MU.

We updated the Central Iowa Bloggers website with some bug fixes, most importantly the one that was not allowing the site to update itself as often as it should. It’s now processing every 15 minutes. Next up for the CIB website is an auto-update feature so you can leave your browser open and the site will update itself. There’s also a ‘Read More’ link under each excerpt on CIB that will expand to the full post - which is a feature it seems our readers are not noticing.

Another feature on both CIB and Iowa Blogs that no one seems to be using is the search feature. Although we are currently updating it to be more expansive, it is an excellent feature as we archive all the posts we aggregate (now at ~5000 posts in Iowa Blogs). Soon we’ll add search and subscribe so, for instance, if you want to subscribe anything written about the ‘Iowa Caucuses’ on Iowa Blogs we can deliver that focused content right to your RSS Reader.

Our *other* web applications are coming slowly but surely. It sucks being soo close with no time to work. Damn Love those infernal full-time jobs. That leads us to…

Sponsorships Available. Why are we looking for sponsors for our websites? We aren’t looking to profit - just cover our development and hosting costs. Since we don’t do this full time (yet) and don’t take client work we are looking for our websites and products to at least pay for themselves. We also hate Google AdSense and wish it to not ugly up our stuff. Looking towards a premium model allows us to not only pick sponsors we want and approve but not clutter up our sites with crap.

So, on that note we have the following opportunities available:

Get A New Browser (you are here): We will be offering one premium spot right under the GANB logo and have six spots available in our RSS Feed.

Iowa Blogs: We have a rotating premium sponsorship which appears on the top right of every page on Iowa Blogs. We also have RSS ads available for the aggregated feeds we distribute.

Central Iowa Bloggers: There is one rotating premium sponsor ship available at the top of the page.

If you come early on the rotating premium banners you have an advantage of being the only one showing up until we get more. We are looking to fill approximately 5-10 inventory spots for the premium sponsorships.

If you are interested in sponsorships email me at andy[at]simplifive.com or advertise[at]iowablogs.net.

And, as usual, if you have any feedback (bugs, feature requests, etc) on any of the projects we are working on we would not only love to hear from you but need to hear from you so we can set our priorities straight.

Thanks,
the s5 team

Tags: Iowa Blogs, Central Iowa Bloggers, Simplifive, Get A New Browser

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