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Ulitzer’s Amazing First 30 Days in Public Beta

Ulitzer authors are the creators, innovators and the leaders of tomorrow's social media platforms
By Fuat Kircaali
Article Rating:
May 1, 2009 02:30 PM EDT
Reads:
 10,770

Today marks the 30th day of Ulitzer's public beta. We had an amazing month and perhaps one of the most widely discussed launches of a news content site. Gartner recently asked, "Will Ulitzer dominate news content on the Web eventually?" The answer is yes, and I'll explain why.

First, I'd like to share some of the 30-day stats with you. We had more than 140,000 visitors who read 197,000 pages of articles, blogs and news stories. The syndicated page views (outside the Ulitzer domain) exceeded 1,369,983 page views. The legendary technology reporter Maureen O'Gara was the most read Ulitzer author with 231,600 rolling page views, and we syndicated more than 3,000 Ulitzer stories.



My First Blackberry, Circa 1999
I remember receiving my first Blackberry 10 years ago at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco. It was a small device similar to a pager but with a full keyboard, a huge difference. As I took its photo above with my current one, I recalled that it took four to five years for Blackberry to be known and used by the masses. Ten years ago I would e-mail friends while visiting them in their office, and they thought I was Houdini.

Early Adopters of "Tomorrow's" Social Media Platforms
Even with these impressive first stats, Ulitzer users for the next 12 to 24 months will only be a fraction of the early adopters of tomorrow's social media tools. I personally think these impressive numbers will just be a small portion of the number who will join over the next couple of years when the "followers" discover the power of the Ulitzer platform.

Today we are approving roughly less than 5% of new author submissions. However when you look at the authors who "get" the Ulitzer platform, you find creators, innovators and the leaders of tomorrow's social media participants.

We are already presenting hundreds of Ulitzer authors who are among the well-known, well-read, and professional bloggers. The following e-mail from one of our recent Ulitzer authors summarizes the distinction between ones who "get" it today and the ones who will follow them in the years to come. 

From: ps
To: Ulitzer Support Team
Subject: RE: Blog feed error
Sent: Apr 29, 2009 4:30 PM 

Our company is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), focused on ensuring the secure, reliable, and fast delivery of applications. We got a note this morning from our most notable blogger about Ulitzer and we're all jumping on the bandwagon. :-)

--ps

Newt Barrett, another seasoned Ulitzer author, explains "tomorrow" with every blog entry he publishes. I personally read all his stories with great interest.

Why Will Ulitzer Eventually Dominate News Content on the Web?
The answer to this question lies in two simple reasons:

1) Ulitzer is an original content site, which is not Twitter, Digg, Facebook or Google News with links to original content elsewhere. The platform offers a revolutionary yet simple functionality from both the author's and reader's points of view.

2) Ulitzer offers quality content under a managed environment. Google News keyword alerts are already contaminated with meaningless garbage largely due to its automated nature. Instant access to quality content will get more difficult as this erosion escalates. Sites such as Ulitzer will be the only answer to one-stop access to quality original content on any subject.

Before I end my post I'd like to extend my thanks to David Weinberger as well as Richard Stallman for their feedback, input and contributions to the Ulitzer copyright attribution references.

Until next time.

 

Editor's Note:

Regarding Rick Ross' feedback below, Ulitzer author profile pages display both rolling last 30-day page views, as well as cumulative page views. These numbers can be verified by authors by comparing them against their Google AdSense stats.

Ulitzer counts multiple visits by the same reader to the same article as only a single page view.

Other metrics may show higher numbers than reported by Ulitzer.

All other page view stats mentoned in this article are verified by Google Analytics, (1,369,983 page views reported in the first paragraph was 1,424,634 page views according to Google Analytics for the same period between March 30, 2009 through April 30, 2009).

Published May 1, 2009 – Reads 10,770
Copyright © 2009 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Fuat Kircaali

Fuat Kircaali is the founder and CEO of SYS-CON Media. Kircaali came to the United States from Zurich University, Switzerland, in 1984, while studying for his PhD, to design computer systems for SH-2G submarine hunter helicopters for the U.S. Navy.

He later worked at IBM's IS&CG Headquarters as a market research analyst under Mike Armstrong's leadership, an IBM executive who later ran IBM Europe and AT&T; and Fuat was the Director of Information Systems for UWCC, reporting to CEO Steven Silk, one of the top marketing geniuses in the country.

Kircaali founded SYS-CON Media in 1994, a privately held company with sales exceeding $100 million. SYS-CON Media was listed twice by Inc 500 and Deloitte and Touche as one of the fastest-growing companies in North America. Kircaali launched Ulitzer, Inc. new media company in mid 2009.

He completed Bogazici University Business Administration program in 1982 with a Bachelor's Degree. He was one of 50 students accepted to the program out of over 1 million high school graduates.

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Most Recent Comments
chrisfleck 05/10/09 09:38:13 AM EDT

Congratulations on the successful launch of Ulitzer !
I was skeptical at first but the more I use and contribute to Ulitzer, the more I think you have created a lasting platform that will significantly impact communications and media on the web.

Now if I could only figure out what the Ulitzer score means...
rickross 05/09/09 03:44:14 PM EDT

Congratulations, Fuat, to you and all the Sys-Con/Ulitzer team. These sound like great numbers, and you should all be very proud.

You guys really ought to add Quantcast support to all your pages, so these numbers become more transparent and self-verifying. It's really easy to do, and we have been using Quantcast successfully at DZone for quite some time now. It's free, and I think everyone would enjoy exploring the wealth of detail that Quantcast provides in its profile.

Here's a link to ours, and if you guys want any help to add Quantcast support to yours, then just give me a ring. We'd be happy to assist.

http://www.quantcast.com/p-ebK_XdQH1HeLo

Congratulations again!
Rick
BTRoundtable 05/07/09 02:38:56 PM EDT

Fuat,

I'd like to thank you -- for giving us the opportunity to participate in your venture, with our contributions to the Ulitzer platform.

Your forward-looking vision for this project creates a win-win scenario for us -- both SYS-CON media and the co-authors who are eager to share their passion.

Respectfully,

David Deans
Business Technology Roundtable