By eavave • September 7, 2011

Empire Avenue now has direct access to over 57 million WordPress blogs

You know that WordPress is kind-of-a-big-deal in blogging circles as the software that most blogs use. And you likely know that there are two flavours of WordPress out there -- the self or ISP-hosted WordPress.org blogs (such as blog.empireavenue.com and planet.empireavenue.com), and the WordPress.com hosted blogs. It's this latter category we are really jazzed about today, and here's why.

57 Million Reasons
WordPress.com is a blog hosting service that uses its own WordPress software.  Over 57 million blogs are using WordPress. That's a lot of interesting content.

And now we have access, much more direct and accurate access, to all those hosted blogs through the WordPress.com API.

Why this is important.
Currently on Empire Avenue, all blog activity is measured through a RSS feed. While a great and efficient mechanism for getting content out to the masses in a timely way, RSS is not a great way for the Empire Avenue Market Makers to accurately evaluate network activity and value. API access changes that, which is why we prefer to wait until an API is available before supporting a network content stream.

As well, RSS can be fragile, especially when using 3rd party aggravators aggregators such as FeedBurner, where we are dependant on a 3rd party (or even the vagaries of your log host) to get your content. If it comes from WordPress.com, it's virtually guaranteed that your blog is up and running and ready to be connected to Empire Avenue -- I'm considering moving some of my personal blogs there simply to relieve some maintenance headaches :)

What it means for you
Using a WordPress.com blog, the Empire Avenue market makers can reliably get your blog post, comments and other content and evaluate the blog, generating a more accurate value score than the same blog would on a self-hosted WordPress.org platform.

Hooking up your WordPress.com blog
This is done the same way you've hooked up other connections. Simply go to the connection tab and follow the friendly, helpful instructions.

Though you may have many WordPress.com blogs, we can only allow one WordPress.com blog per Empire Avenue account. Connecting the same WordPress.com blog and its RSS feed is considered duplication. In this case, once the scores for WordPress.com connections are released, you will only receive a score for the WordPress.com blog and not the duplicate RSS feed.  

Your WordPress.com content will then start to be evaluated by our Market Makers, and your score will be available within two weeks or so.

Oh, and there's this contest
Yeah, we figured that news of this nature was a reason to celebrate, so, until September 21st,  we're running this contest. Basically anyone who connects a WordPress.com blog using the Wordpress.com Connection is automagically entered to win one of 10 Fabulous Prizes™

  • 1st Prize: Empire Avenue Private Island ($100 value), 50k Empire Avenue Eaves and an Apple iPad 2 (16GB, Wifi Only Version - $520 value)
  • 2nd Prize: Empire Avenue Private Island ($100 value) and 50k Empire Avenue Eaves
  • 3rd Prize: Three prizes of 50k Empire Avenue Eaves
  • 4th Prize Five prizes of 30k Empire Avenue Eaves

About the Private Island Prize
Last week we said goodbye to the Castle Luxury Item, and this week we're introducing its replacement: the Private Island. In addition to its tantalizing benefits, purchasing this ultra-luxurious escape unlocks an exclusive community, for, you know, exclusive and private events and the like.

So, what are you waiting for? If you've got a WordPress.com blog, hook it up!!
Disclaimer: Our owners, writers, and/or guest post authors may or may not have a vested interest in any of the above projects and businesses. None of the content on this blog is investment advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified financial planner.

Comments