New features include:

Offline payment module
After requests from a number of people, you can now let advertisers pay “offline”. If selected, the advertiser will be taken to a page containing instructions that you define in the admin area.

Filtering Zones by Wordpress Category
Again, this was a feature requested by quite a few people. Each text / banner ad zone contains a new option that lets you associate a Wordpress category with each ad. When displaying an ad zone on a category or post page, only ads within those category(s) will be shown. This allows you to use a single ad zone to filter ads via category.

Tracker Module Update
Previously, tracking impressions meant loading a new image file on every page request, which increased load on the server. This extra image file has now been removed to help reduce load. Some backend code was also added to stop individual ads from using the tracker if needed (on request, requires editing the database).

Less Admin Clutter
Previously, every ad zone created was shown at the top of the settings page (e.g Zone 1, Zone 2). This took up a lot of space and made it difficult to tell at a glance which ad zone was which. A dropdown menu is now used instead, with “Zone 1″ being replaced by the name you give each zone. The admin editor has also been tweaked for easier use, via feedback on the forum.

Better compatibility with Wordpress config file
This issue was highlighted recently in the forum. If you use Wordpress 2.6+ and have moved your wp-config.php file for better security, OIO will use wp-load.php instead. This should prevent anyone else from having to hack OIO to get it to work with their config file.

Other Tweaks
The “availability” column on the purchase page now shows the number of free ad slots available (rather than the total number). The “price” dropdown menu is also pre-selected if there is only one price available, to improve continuity.

And if you’re purchasing a new license, remember to use the coupon code “RAINMAN-WSHED” (no quotes) now through July 31st, 2009 and get OIOpublisher for just $39 (normally $47) by using.

If you’re unfamiliar with BuddyPress, here’s the gist:

BuddyPress will extend WordPress MU and bring social networking features to a new or existing installation.

BuddyPress is a suite of WordPress plugins and themes, each adding a distinct new feature. BuddyPress contains all the features you’d expect from WordPress but aims to let members socially interact.

All BuddyPress plugins can be themed to match your own style, in just the same way as a WordPress blog. The BuddyPress plugins are bundled with a default theme to get you going out of the box.

As all BuddyPress plugins are independant, they can be used in two different ways. All of the plugins could be used to create a complete social network from scratch, or you could use specific plugins to add desirable features to your existing blog network.

Great work guys and keep it up!  It’s really exciting watching this unfold.

That question is usually followed by the question, “is there a good book that you’d recommend. “  And up until now that answers has been “no, not really”.  While there are more book/ebook products out there than you can imagine, most are overpriced and the few I’ve seen first hand are, how to put it nicely, useless garbage.  Beyond that, there are blogs out there that are helpful, but these don’t typically get laid out in a portable, easy to follow manner, so I can’t really tell a client, “go read this blog and do what so-and-so says”.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

I’ve been following Darren Rowse since 2002 due to a blog of his he kept up frequently at the time and it happened to be the same time I jumped aboard the blogwagon.  Before I knew it I watched his ProBlogger site just explode right before my eyes (in 2004) and Darren was going gangbusters with what seemed to me to be very little effort and he was making a living at it.

All of that to say, Darren is a guy that I trust.  So when I saw his latest ebook offering, 31 Days To Build A Better Blog, available for a mere $19.95, I sent over a few bucks in order to take a look to see if this is something I’d be willing to suggest to our clients who have been begging for something like this.

After giving it a quick run through, I’d classify this more as workbook than an ebook.  It’s laid out very nicely and similar to many print study type books I’ve seen.  Without giving away the subject matter, I can say that it includes many of the tasks I recommend to clients as well as a few I hadn’t thought of before.

But before you purchase a copy, I must preface it with you must be willing to set aside the time and commit to doing these tasks (and no, it doesn’t need to be in 31 consecutive days).  While I stated that it looks like it takes little effort to do, in actuality I can tell you that it does take a time commitment.  If you want to improve your blog you cannot continue to do what you’ve always done and expect different results.  But if you commit to it, you will see measurable results.

As an example, I’m going to personally commit to taking one of the Surge Bucket Media blogs and running through this wokbook over a two month period at least once and then reporting back on the results.  If you purchase a copy as well, I’d love to hear your feedback.