Newmark's Door

"Spotify leaps to US"

Spotify--aka the Celestial Jukebox--is supposedly coming to the U.S. Real soon now. We've heard this before. But if true, it would be great for music lovers.



"Spousonomics"

A newish blog to support the forthcoming book, Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes. Here, co-author Jenny Anderson interviews economist Daniel Hamermesh.

What’s the most important lesson economics has taught you about your own marriage?

It has taught me the role of compromise. To quote a song by Diamond Rio, “We’ll gain a lot of ground ‘cause we’ll both give a little, Ain’t no road too long, if you meet in the middle.” It has also taught me to think about the subtleties of comparative advantage and to recognize that preferences matter too.  To wit:  I earn about twice as much per hour as my wife; and she’s a much better cook than I am.  Yet I do much of the cooking, because my schedule is more flexible, so that the cost to me of getting dinner on the table at a reasonable time is lower than it would be to her.

Here, she answers "What's the point of marriage?".

"State of the Blogosphere 2010"

Time for Technorati's annual report. Details on the who, the what, and the how of blogging.

The 2010 election is so . . . yesterday. What about 2012?

Someone to watch: Marco Rubio.

Kevin Williamson offers a 2012 Palin administration suggestions for top positions. Chairman of the CEA? Why none other than Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution. 

I'd support that but only if Tyler shared the chair with his co-blogger, coauthor, and colleague, Alex Tabarrok. To do otherwise would be the biggest injustice since the Nobel was awarded to just James Buchanan instead of jointly to Buchanan and Tullock.

"100 Excellent Conservative Blogs You Should Be Reading"

My wife's blog is on the list.

"State of the Blogosphere in 2010"

Something I hadn't seen before: supposedly, more blogs are now written in Japanese than English.

Demographics of Door Readers

For the maybe five people in the world--but including me--who might find this interesting, here, via Quantcast, is a little updated demographic information on the people who read this blog:

And where are The Door's readers? Apparently I'm a big hit in Virginia--Hellllloooo, Leesburg! What's up, Charlotteville Charlottesville? [Thanks, Kevin]--and Ireland--Thanks for your patronage, Louth! 

"How I Sold a Blog for $20,000 in 8 Months"

Quite interesting.

Maybe it'll soon be time to cash out the Newmark family blogs. [Joke.]

What I read

Fellow economist and Door reader Phil Miller writes that he'd be interested in a short post on what I read. In context, I think he means what I read for this blog. What follows is not by any means a complete list, but I will list a number of sites I visit often and a number that I really like. (The listed sites are not necessarily in both categories simultaneously, though most are.)

For politics, current events, and just general stuff:

Arts & Letter Daily.

Betsy's Page. My wife's blog.

Boston.com. The website of the Boston Globe. I also look at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, the New York Times, the Raleigh News & Observer, and, occasionally, the Detroit Free Press. In each case, I look first at the lists of the "most read" stories. No surprise: what interests a lot of other people often interests me, too.

BuzzFeed. Gotta keep up with the zeitgeist.

Daily Rotation. Selection of tech headlines and news.

delicious--Popular Bookmarks. Here again, what interests other people tends to interest me.

Digg.

Drudge Report. Mostly for old times' sake.

Fark. Sometimes crude and dirty--not that I mind, just fair warning--but usually funny, inventive, and interesting. Nothing else like it that I know of on the Web. (Even if they really, really should let Duke-Kentucky '92 go, already.)

Hot Air. Headlines and links to articles, mostly about politics, mostly from the conservative viewpoint.

Instapundit. One of the earliest blogs and, for my money, the peak of the form. It's distinguished for breadth of knowledge and interest, its wit, and the author's careful, calm, and reasonable tone.

Joel on Software. A wonderful writer and interesting entrepreneur. The commentaries on economics are wonderful all by themselves.

Kids Prefer Cheese. Commentary by The Greaseman, aka Mike Munger, chair of Duke's poli sci department for a few weeks longer, and his comrade-in-arms, Angus.

Kottke.

Linkiest. "Surfing the net so you don't have to". Links to conservative politics and commentary.

Lucianne.com. The Mother of all conservative websites. Indispensable.

MetaFilter. Some knowledgeable and interesting people--"Mefites"--hang out here.

Blogads continues to innovate

Henry Copeland at Blogads continues to look for way to better serve his advertisers and bloggers. He's now pilot-testing a program to give 14% of an ad's revenues to any Blogads member who secures a sale through a Blogads "hive". (The Door is founder and administrator of the Economics hive.) Why?

Amid a Gobi-sized desert of generic media mediocrity, blogs have something special to offer both readers and advertisers: an oasis of human quality, a strong sense of connection with and among readers. For advertisers looking to elevate their brand and really connect with influential readers — as opposed to just getting clicks from random consumers — there’s nothing better.

We think that some niche bloggers will bring their passion for their niche and investment in its success to selling ads. Since nobody knows niche blogs better than the bloggers themselves, a self-organized group of bloggers seems like an ideal platform for selling those ads. Bloggers are often uniquely well-connected in their own communities of interest, whether in a given locale or a niche. In a sense, the blogger sales commissions is a continuation of the ideas — niche-focus, self-organization, DIY, bottom-up — that we started chewing on clear back in 2002, when we launched Blogads.

So, publishers, politicians, pundits: advertise with the econ hive! Econ bloggers: solicit advertisers!

If you don't . . . the terrorists wil have won.