Monday, March 31, 2014

Want to Write an Article for BitsDuJour's Tech News?


Got an idea for an article for our Tech News section? We love to hear what you have to say here at BitsDuJour. Below are a few guidelines for what to write and how to write it, so pencils at the ready... we'll begin.

First a bit of history. BitsDuJour is all about it's community of software developers and software enthusiasts. We love that the comments on our deals put developers in direct contact with buyers, and that's why we call it "The Conversation". We have tens of thousands of comments, and add to that forum posts where you can chat about whatever you feel like.

We realized recently that people had a lot more to say than just comments and posts. Some of our comments get really long, full software reviews and information that's about much larger subjects. So we created a new section of the website, open to everyone, but vetted. That's the new "Tech News" section.

Tech News articles are special. We feature them on the site in category pages, the homepage, and the Daily Bits email that goes out to hundreds of thousands of people. That's why we have to make sure that the subject matter and writing meets a certain standard, and that means a couple guidelines to follow.

Tech News articles all live in a category. First step is to select a category from the list and think of a subject.


The best subjects are topics that relate to software, but are not just straight up product reviews. We won't accept any blatant advertorials for software products, but you can put in a mention of a product. Your subject should always be bigger than any products. Let's give a few examples...

Productivity: "How to organize your online life"
Development: "The easiest way to start out developing an application"
Security: "Are anti-virus programs enough to keep your computer safe?"

Good subjects answer a direct question, and give information around that. Bad subjects are simply descriptions of a topic that read like a dictionary. Don't feel shy in expressing an opinion, either positive or negative, just be sure to fact check your sources.

We prefer HTML format, and images are encouraged, as are links and videos. Articles should be at least 350 words, and feel free to go longer.

To get started writing please Contact Us and tell us what you're thinking of writing so we can make sure that it's a good subject.

We really look forward to seeing more submissions from the ever-growing BitsDuJour community!

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

iOS App Discounts at BitsDuJour

iOS App Discounts have never been so popular, so we've taken a big step in bringing you the best iPhone, iPad and iPod deals we can find!

If you've been following our daily deals then you'll know that we've always excelled in bringing you the best Mac and PC apps, well now we have iOS apps too! So if you've got an iPhone, iPad, iPod or any Apple device come check out what we have on offer in the new section.

We'll be showing apps that have dropped prices in the Apple iOS Store, so you can easily see what deals are available and you can download them straight to your iOS device in the usual way.

iOS Apps
iOS App Discounts from BitsDuJour

This is our first step in bringing you iOS deals, so expect a lot more features coming in the following weeks.

All these changes mean a new header on the website. We've split our Mac and PC deals across two easy to navigate sections using our new header control.

Mac, PC and iOS Apps

So swing by every week (or every day) to see the latest apps for all your devices!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

New Tech News on BitsDuJour

We're very happy to announce the start of our Tech News section on BitsDuJour!

Check out the first article.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

What's your Favorite Software Category Icon?

So we've spiced things up over here at BitsDuJour, and added this cute little guy to all our software categories! As you browse through the site you'll see him in a variety of places, holding a paintbrush for the art page, and a briefcase for the business page. He's a sharp developer too and knows how to code and all about technology. He's also clearly been doing some push-ups in the Security section!

We haven't decided on a name yet, maybe he's called Bitsy?