Nashville101.com - Citizens Media for Nashville, Tennessee

A HEARTY WELCOME TO OUR NEIGHBOR TO THE WEST!

THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT BLOGGERS

Mission Statement

The Committee to Protect Bloggers is devoted to the protection of bloggers around the world. In a host of countries around the world bloggers are routinely imprisoned for their activities. The blogging community should not leave the responsibility for their well-being in others' hands.
The Committee has four primary spheres of activity.
Read about them, and more here.

Curt Hopkins of the Committee to Protect Bloggers is scheduled to attend BlogNashville.

Ourmedia.org

OurMedia's Promise:
Ourmedia provides free storage and free bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, texts or software. Forever. No catches.

J.D. Lasica of OurMedia is planning on attending the BlogNashville conference.

Blogging comes to Matthews, NC

Will the Matthews News & Record follow the lead of the Greensboro News & Record, and invite bloggers to become a part of their editorial and reportorial mix? After all it is housed in the same Wi-Fi hotspot as Kaldi's Koffee House...which could become the region's first Blog Cafe. And a better place for it could hardly be imagined. Nice people, plush sofas and chairs, tables, chandeliers, WiFi, great coffees (including cappuccino & espresso) chai tea, pastries, sandwiches, salads and more for your delicate sensibilities.



If you are a local blogger...come to Kaldi's Koffee House located in the Bank Building, downtown Matthews, at 157 N. Trade Street which is Internet, WiFi and coffee-ready. Meet other bloggers. Host blog meet-ups. And while you are there...maybe you can convince the Matthews News & Record that they could do worse that incorporating bloggers and blogs into their news mix. And if you need help with your blog or your website, right around the corner is Parker Web Developers, who can answer most of your questions.

Kaldi's is open the following hours:
Mon.-Thurs. - 7am-9pm
Friday - 7am-11pm
Saturday - 8am-11pm

For more information you may contact Pam via email or phone 704.321.7113.

Analyst Blogs

Tekrati Analyst Cafe
List of 86 industry analysts.

Forrester Research Launches Print Magazine, Six New Blogs

Forrester Research launched the debut issue of its print magazine, Forrester, and added six analyst blogs to the widely respected blog written by Charlene Li. Forrester has posted key stories from the magazine online, and invites interested individuals to apply for a subscription, submit a letter to the editor or download the writer's guidelines. The new blogs are available only to Forrester clients.

For a listing of the new blogs, see Tekrati's directory of industry analyst blogs.

Revenue Journal

Main Page
The Revenue Journal covers marketing and selling strategies, tools, and techniques
for top executives.

America Online's Red Service for Teens Introduces New Blog Product

Blogging Phenomena Reaches New Audience With More Than 30% of Teens Using Blogs
Teens Can Create Tailor-Made Blogs in a Secure and Interactive Environment

N.C. Newspaper Uses Blogs to Reach Readers - BizReport

via BizReport

excerpts:
The News & Record's Web site features 11 staff-written Web journals, or blogs, including one by the editor that answers readers' questions, addresses their criticisms and discusses how the paper is run.

That puts the paper way ahead of even much larger news organizations. The News & Record's blogs range from "just-the-facts, ma'am," to slightly spicy.
...
"When the paper's overhaul is complete, it may be a model for the sort of 21st century paper that many journalism big thinkers have been talking about, chewing over, and confabbing on for the last few years," wrote the industry-watching magazine Editor & Publisher. "Greensboro will be the first place where this conceptually newfangled newspaper actually exists."

"It's a wonderful idea," said Phil Meyer, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It's important for newspapers to try dangerous experiments." His only reservation: The paper hasn't added any staff to work on its electronic experiment. "I'd rather they were willing to make an investment in this."

Other papers are watching. The Houston Chronicle, The (Portland) Oregonian, (Raleigh) News & Observer and USA Today have all called News & Record editor John Robinson to discuss what his paper is doing.

Dave Winer: Yahoo 360 shows up, sorta

Scripting News: 3/29/2005

Here's Jeremy Zawodny's 360 weblog.

How to succeed as a citizen media editor

How to succeed as a citizen media editor

Our own Lex Alexander is profiled, among others.

Bloggers in Malaysia Warn of Earthquake

Global Voices Online

Blogging the latest earthquake and potential tsunami...and being first.

FLASHBLOGGING
Developed by Malaysian blogger Mack Zulkifli in the wake of the Asian tsunami disaster, it's a cool new way to get across information, express your opinions and make your point about issues you care about. Mack explains flashblogging over at Global Voices. Check it out.

Blog Nashville

Nashville hosts its Bloggercon May 5-7, 2005.

Among those who are going to be there are:
- Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)
- Rebecca MacKinnon (Berkman Center for Internet & Society)
- Dan Gillmor (Grassroots Journalism)
- Ed Cone (News & Record)
- Henry Copeland (Blogads)
- Robert Cox (The National Debate)
- Mark Tapscott (The Heritage Foundation)
- Mark Glaser (Online Journalism Review)
- Curt Hopkins ( Committee to Protect Bloggers )

and lots more...including yours truly, Darryl & Dave.

Some blgging about Blog Nashville:
BlogNashville Site Launched; Registration Begins - The National Debate

BlogNashville Participants

Blogs and Websites represented at BlogNashville...so far.

Using Skype as a Community Media Production Tool

Phil Shapiro
(via Ed Cone)

excerpt:

"Skype was created as a no-cost long-distance phone service. It does that very well. What it also allows you to do, if you're just a little technically-minded and have a homebrew gene or two, is to record your Skype phone conversation, with the other person's permission, to an audio file on a second computer. Once you've recorded the audio, you can edit out the uhms, ahs and pauses, compress the audio and then place it on the web for public consumption.

I've been doing some experiments recording Skype interviews and am writing this article to pass along some tips and pointers. If you'd like to see the results of a Skype interview right away, see this QuickTime segment of an interview with Taran Rampersad of Trinidad & Tobago."

...

"I am buoyant that Skype will allow a flourishing of interviews with an audio quality that was never possible before. It's useful to note that not all Skype phone calls have a clear audio signal, so you shouldn't plan for success the first time you try this. If the person you're interviewing doesn't sound clear on the computer they're using, have them try from a neighbor's computer or from some other computer they have access to."

Skype was designed as a free phone service. Community media people are beginning to realize Skype may be one of the most powerful new tools in the community media arsenal."

7-Eleven is Going to Start Selling Music

via AMCP Computer Privacy TECH BLOG

7-Eleven will start to sell music this year. 7-Eleven's chief officer, James Keyes said, "Customers should be able to walk into a 7-Eleven store to burn their favorite songs onto a CD or download content onto their portable music player."

Virtual Roast

You may be next!

Turn Blogs To Books With Blogbinders

Turn Blogs To Books With Blogbinders

For bloggers who can't wait for traditional publishers to turn their web logs in to printed books, then Blogbinders might be of interest. Think of it as the vanity press for blogs. In any case, printed versions of web logs can be used as hard copy backup files, as gifts, or even as products for sale to avid readers.

The company used to support only LiveJournal blogs. But now, they've added support for other blog services like Movable Type, Blogger, TypePad and WordPress.
...
Blogbinders takes content from a customer's blog, puts it into book format, and prints and mails the book to the customer. Using a wizard-like approach, customers tell Blogbinders where their blog is located and what date range they wish to print. While the service downloads content the customer can personalize their book by adding a title, choosing a type style, and designing covers.

Blogbinders.com

The Josh Kaufman "Personal MBA" Program

Seth says that you can get most of the value of an MBA education without forking over the big bucks by reading 30-40 books. I agree.

Check out the Personal MBA Reading List! Not a bad selection, although I believe there may be holes here and there. For example, there is no mention of John Caples' "Tested Advertising Methods", Claude Hopkins' "Scientific Advertising", David Ogilvy's "On Advertising", Harry Beckwith's "Selling the Invisible"...which should be Ad/Marketing staples. And for Big Ideas, we are only given Ayn Rand and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
But what can you do? If you want to feel like an MBA without going through the rigors of the classroom, and with only reading 40 books...here is the way to go.

(Thanks to the ever-interesting ThoughtSignals for the link)

Tech News by Greensboro's "Lux et Umbra"

Yahoo raises mail limit to 1GB
Yahoo has announced that they will raise their mail limit to 1GB. And so starts the mail quota wars. Apparently, mail is also one of the leaders in page views and drives profits. No wonder Yahoo has been scared of GMail's launch.
Via BattelleMedia

Howto use Google's Adsense for increased earnings
Google's Adsense has provided many people with a bit of extra money for their passionate blogging. Here is a very good 8 step tutorial to increase the likelihood of making that little extra bit of green go a bit farther.
An interesting little tidbit:
A feature I didn't know about is that if you include a Google search box on your site, and a user searches with it, the targeted ads on the results page use your AdSense ID, so you get money from that as well.

Microjets bring needle-free injections
Hate needles? Perhaps there won't be a need for any in the future. Students in the bioengineering department at University of California - Berkeley have designed microjets, an electronic actuator that propels the payload through the skin without needle punctures.
Via Slashdot

This and much more from Ben Hwang.

Five Ways Your Business Can Benefit from Blogs

The Business Ledger -- Business Newspaper for Suburban Chicago

You’ve probably heard that “blogs” are transforming media around the world. But you may not know how you can use them to help your business.

Regular blogging can both improve your search engine ranking and build customer relationships in ways that traditional marketing can’t touch.

Read more about the five ways here.

Blogs as Business Opportunity

"Blogs are going to be big, even if they have "a horrible name and are virtually unknown."

Some quick take-aways from the full article on MarketWatch:

-The business value of blogs lies in their ability to initiate communication that's more authentic and transparent than traditional marketing dialogue.
-Publishers looking to put iron fences around their content should relax and offer news headlines with brief summaries instead.
-Businesses should encourage employees to blog (Microsoft does this) and welcome rebuttals and responses on commentary.

8 million bloggers can't be wrong

Real Estate tycoons targeted with new Blog service

Residential property owners and managers are being targeted through a new blog service BuildingBlogz.com.

To quote NetImpax: “BuildingBlogz.com will change the way real estate rulers and their denizens coexist and communicate…On multiple levels. Using our extensive knowledge of business, real estate, blogging, and marketing, we have developed a valuable business and consumer network that benefits both real estate property owners and managers and the millions of tenants they house and serve.”

Specter of regulation haunts political blogs

via KRT Wire

Yahoo Offers Creative Commons Search Engine

via Search Engine Journal

excerpt:
Yahoo has released a search service for searching the Creative Commons database of content which is available for reuse and redistribution. Most material on the Internet comes with a full copyright, Yahoo Creative Commons search helps developers and site owners find content published by authors that want sites to share or reuse it, under certain conditions. The new search service was announced on the Yahoo Search Blog today, with a special guest post by Creative Commons creator Larry Lessig.

Search Industry Maturing

Search Industry Maturing
"The days of a website being a picture that contained a thousand words are long over. Today's successful websites can be found using a multiple number of search-tools such as; image search, local search, video search, audio search and organic search. A successful search-campaign also involves making sure a reference to the site is virtually forced on users through contextual advertising programs such as Overture and AdWords. The establishment of a corporate blog for clients is the last step of a highly sophisticated search marketing campaign. By offering better technologies, search engines offer marketers much larger tracts of real estate to work from. User adoption of many of these technologies pushes search marketers to figure out how to best use them as well. "

Social Software for Set-Top boxes...

via plasticbag

Making your TV jump through hoops...

Davidson College: Stimulating Intellectual Life with the iPod

Davidson Network News

iPod Does Davidson...TOMORROW!

EXCERPT:
Stimulating Intellectual Life with the iPod: March 24th Presentation

About one year ago, Duke University began a year-long experimental program to explore how iPods could be leveraged for teaching and learning. In August 2004, Duke University distributed fourth-generation 20GB Apple iPod devices to all incoming first-year students and loaners to upper-class students in classes that applied to be part of the iPod experience. The pocket-sized digital devices allow users to download both audio and text content including language lessons, music, and recorded lectures. The goal was to stimulate creative uses of digital content by providing the iPod devices as a mobile computing device to enhance intellectual life.

ITS’ Instructional Technology Group invites faculty, students, and staff to learn more about Duke’s iPod program. The presentation will delivered by Matthew Gardzina, Duke University Academic Technology Consultant. Please join us in the Sprinkle Room of the College Union at 12 noon on March 24th. Bring your brown bag lunch and we will provide refreshments and dessert!

For additional information, please contact the Instructional Technology Group: Mur Muchane mumuchane@davidson.edu 2672, Kristen Eshleman, kreshleman@davidson.edu, 2583 or Sarah Hatfield, sahatfield@davidson.edu, 2620

Constitutional Convention/Blogger Convention

Tara Sue Grubbs poses an interesting question:

On September 17th members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the U.S Constitution. The Shu points to the Trade Street Journal on the coming Charlotte BloggerCon scheduled for the same day. Maybe the event could take on a constitutional theme?

Thoughts?

David Hoggard: We are as one, aren't we?

"We are as one, aren't we? "

Gentleman-blogger, David Hoggard offers up some ideas about the upcoming bloggercon. Charlotte is indeed in the Piedmont, and I personally would not be averse to calling it Piedmont II. I believe the Triangle is also in the Piedmont, so maybe we can absorb that area as well. Whatever happens, I think it should be cooperative, and not competitive...especially since there is so much I have learned, and hope to continue learning from the good folks in the northern piedmont...not to mention the affection I have for my blogospherical partners in creation.

From Mr. Hoggard:

There is some talk around about setting up a 2nd Piedmont BloggerCon for this summer here in Greensboro. Although I would support the event here, we might do better to throw our support behind the upcoming Conference in Charlotte that Anonymoses has worked his butt off to pull together.
Just get Dave and Co. to change the name to Piedmont BloggerCon II and get on with it. Last I checked, Charlotte shares this topography we call the Piedmont. Next year, back to Greensboro. Of course it might have to be expanded to more than one day's duration."

Greensboro Is Talking about bloggercons

Greensboro Is Talking

With today’s announcement of a Charlotte Bloggercon in September, I was curious as to what impact this might have on a summer Piedmont Conference II. So I sidled on over to Cone’s place and asked, figuring since he helped organize the last one and he has his finger on the pulse of blogging and all that, that he might just be the guy to ask.

Ed responded:

I have not given much thought to another Greensboro conference, because I haven’t felt the need for one — with the ongoing series of events here (eg Meetups, visits from Gillmor and Winer, Teach-in), the general vitality of our scene, and the conference in Chapel Hill, it seems like there has been plenty of talk and action. The Charlotte event seems to me to be part of a series that started here, and would make a GSO event near the same time feel redundant…that’s my take. Do other feel a need for a GSO event in the next several months?

The conversation continues...

There are so many ways things can evolve. They can transpire in a different city each time, for example. Or reunioncons might grow into coliseum-sized August Jams (I'm dating myself!). I should think that reflecting the area would be appropriate. The city could get involved, and help show off what it deems fit.

Since blogs are such a great way to, say, attract an audience...bloggercons might also take on multigroup venues, where blogger-artists and blogger-musicians, for example, might take advantage of the gathering, and vice versa.

Celebrating sharing, creativity, innovation, education, content...these are all things that can be won at a bloggercon.
These things and more...

Blog Together: North Carolina bloggercon and meetup news

Mister Sugar sweetens his offering with "Blog Together: North Carolina bloggercon and meetup news"

Anton Zuiker not only hosts a mean bloggercon (not in the sense of meanborn or mean-spirited or modemedianmean), in fact let me change it... Anton Zuiker not only hosts a formidable, important, historic bloggercon...he also does a superb job keeping up with them, and keeping the hungry blogosphericals well-fed. Just the idea alone is worthy of note and applause...but to do it, and do it well...well this is indeed a good time to be a Carolinian.

If one is careful, while examining the offering, one might find that this very blog is listed thereon. But don't stop there! Allow it to merely tickle your retina as you move on to all the other happenings transpiring in this amazing state, and its many satellites.

We hope Anton, and indeed, Ed, will come and share their experiences hosting the aboriginal Carolina bloggercons.

Imagine a roving university, where the professors come to you!
This is how I see bloggercons (and much else besides). And North Carolina should pave the way for other, less visionary, states, to take and improve upon -- as citizens are given the access and tools for community, expression, publication, information-gathering, and such.
An evolutionary advance in education and livelihood...

Enough already! Go Blog Together!

Content Wire - Fresh Picks

Innovative Blog Network

excerpt:

Popular Alternative Reaches 60,000 Members

With today's news that Yahoo! is joining Google and Microsoft in the battle for control of the blogging market, rapidly growing service provider MindSay Interactive is announcing the registration of its 60,000th blogger.

The company also noted that it is entering its third year of operation with a suite of new capabilities while continuing to provide user-friendly publishing tools, a unique social experience, and the most innovative features in the blogosphere.

In an ongoing effort to educate and evangelize the millions of curious onlookers about the power of blogging, the company recently launched Ready Set Blog (http://www.readysetblog.com/), a grassroots initiative featuring MindSay bloggers in their own words, answering the frequent questions:

(1) What is a blog?
(2) Why should I blog?
(3) How do I get started?

The project was highlighted recently on The David Lawrence Radio Show, WebProNews, and on some of the Web's most influential blogs. Wil Wheaton, actor, writer, and blogging pioneer praises MindSay for simplifying blogging through its service and the Ready Set Blog program. "Blogs are an incredibly powerful communication tool, and regularly bring together tens of thousands of people who are otherwise separated by time zones and countries," says Wheaton. "So why do 62% of Americans have no idea what this powerful technology is, much less use it? Because nobody has told them about it. Ready Set Blog is changing that, and helping ordinary people use this powerful new paradigm to communicate, educate, and entertain."

McColl Center for Visual Art

Charlotte, NC

Named for Charlotte visionary, philanthropist and business leader, Hugh McColl.

A place where sparks fly, metals fuse, ideas soar, paint comes alive, clay and cement take on form, neon glows, and creativity explodes! Our mission is to advance artists to the vanguard of contemporary art while enriching and engaging our community in the creative process.

SOCIAL SOFTWARE: Yahoo! vs Google Race Heats Up As Yahoo! Enters "Social Software" Space

Upcoming Social Network Formerly Code-Named "Mingle" Announced - Blogging, PhotoSharing, and More
March 21, 2005

Summary
Yahoo's "Mingle" project has been formally announced, and re-named "Yahoo 360" - a social network or "social software" platform integrating Yahoo's existing products such as instant messenger, photos, local search, music, and groups with new offerings such as blogs, mobile blogs and sharing tools for recommending movies, restaurants and other items.

...
Marcel van Leeuwen, CEO of YEALD, believes Yahoo 360 will succeed where many others will fail. It could become "both huge and financially successful," van Leeuwen says, because, as he puts it:

"It's not just another blogging site.
It's not just another photo site.
It's not just another music site.
It's not just another review site.
It's not just another email site.
It's not just another messenger site.
It's not just another news site.

It's not just another niche site.

It's the link that makes many of Yahoo's services come together and more valuable."

Corporate Blogging Policy

Feedster'sCorporate Blogging Policy

Not a bad example for others to follow...

As Mike Manuel says in WebProNews:
I've said this before and it bears mentioning again, the two biggest barriers to entry for most companies considering corporate blogs is 1) lack of education and; 2) lack of practical policies. To some extent the two go hand-in-hand, but I think a lot of headway is being made on both fronts. With respect to the later, there will always be a fine line between setting and sharing corporate expectations while still allowing self expression.

For things to evolve, however, we need good models to work from and I think the folks at Feedster are providing just that.

How to be a journalist

News-Record.com: The Lex Files

Via LexFiles, who guides us through the CJR wiki...

Blogs: "the most effective web presence available to businesses today"

JSLogan Voted Best Marketing Blog as Part of The 2005 Business Blogging Awards
from PRweb

Meadow Vista, CA (PRWEB) March 13, 2005 -- Accelerate Business Group, LLC today announces it has won an award for its business blog, JSLogan (http://www.jslogan.com/). JSLogan was yesterday awarded Best Marketing Blog as part of The 2005 Business Blogging Awards (http://www.businessbloggingawards.com/), hosted by InsideBlogging (http://www.insideblogging.com/).
...
The 2005 Business Blogging Awards, a voter selected business award program, list over 100 nominations across 20 categories of business. A two week voting process included voters throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. Thousands of votes were cast in this inaugural business event.
“Business blogging has found its time. Blogs are no longer just a tool of techies and those on a rant.” Noted Logan. “ Blogs are becoming mainstream and are without doubt the most effective web presence available to businesses today. The ability of blogs to build a sense of community and nurture customers is incredible. The ‘stickiness’ and viral nature of blogs allow tremendous marketing opportunities for start-up, small, and medium size businesses.”

New Business Podcast Show Launched

"...a promising new entrant into the burgeoning business podcasting space."


"The BizBlog Show is the latest offering from The Podcast Network, which aims to be "the best collection of podcasts available anywhere that are managed and aggregated under one roof" (it says on the home page). The Podcast Network is the brainchild of Mick Stanic and Cameron Reilly, the Australian duo behind the successful G'day World podcast. "

Greensboro News & Record blogs

The Greensboro News & Record is creating the future of journalism with their inclusion of bloggers in their editorial mix. Included are the blogs by the editor, John Robinson, the great and marvelous Lex Alexander's LexFiles, The Chalkboard (which covers educational issues) The Inside Scoop (covering local government) The Front Pew (Religion), Fast Forward (Transportation), BizBuzz (Business) and more.

They also list the blogs from local politicians...
Greensboro City Council
Sandy Carmany
Yvonne Johnson
Tom Phillips
Don Vaughan
Register of Deeds
Jeff Thigpen

If you enjoy this feature, please let them know.
This is the new stuff.

Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition

The mission of the National Clean Cities Program (locally represented by the Centralina Clean Fuels Coalition) is to improve air quality, reduce petroleum dependence, and expand alternative fuel use and technology. The program promotes, accelerates, and expands the use of alternative fuels in the transportation sector. Working through locally-based government- industry partnerships, the Clean Cities Program seeks to expand the use of alternatives to traditional gasoline and diesel fuel. The US Department of Energy classifies the following fuels as "alternative fuels": biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, methanol, natural gas, propane, p-series, and solar energy. For more information please visit the AFDC web site.

Lakeview Farms: The Milkman Cometh...to Fort Mill, SC

Lakeview Farms is dedicated to delivering fresh quality dairy products and so much more to your door. Please review our product listings for a variety of items we believe will meet your expectations including eggs, cheese, stone ground grains, and many other quality goods.

Along with dependable service you will realize a savings in time, gasoline and money spent on impulsive buying on your market trips. You will experience the convenience of always having farm fresh milk delivered to your door.

We unconditionally guarantee the freshness of our products. We welcome your comments and suggestions for our customer service and product lines, please feel free to call our office at (803) 548-7111. We look forward to serving you!

The Carolina Trail: Charlotte's destination for golf

Now that the Spring is upon us...

UPDATE on The Manolo: The Lover of the Shoes

UPDATE on The Manolo

Good Luck/Bad Luck

On St. Patrick's Day one likes to ponder the famous Luck of the Irish. There is a tale from ancient China which questions luck...and whether it is good or bad. What we think is good luck often turns out to be bad luck. And what we think to be bad luck often turns out to be good luck...
------------------------------------------------------
GOOD LUCK/BAD LUCK
“An old man was living with his son at the top of a hill. One day, he lost a horse. The neighbors all came to express their sympathy at his bad luck, but the old man said,
‘How do you know this isn’t good luck?’
A little later the horse came back and with it were some superior wild horses. The neighbors all congratulated the old man on his good fortune, but he said,
‘How do you know this isn’t bad luck?’
With so many horses, the son began riding, and one day he fell off and broke his leg. The
injury left him with a bad limp. Again the neighbors came to sympathize, but the old man said,
‘You never know – this may be good luck.’
Another year passed, and a war came. All the able-bodied young men had to go to war, and many died. The son, because of his bad leg, was saved. In this way, what seems to be good luck may really be bad, and what seems to be bad luck, good.”
-------------------------------------------------------
(from Li Zi, adapted by Lin Yutang)


UPDATE: There is also an excellent variant, with commentary on 9/11 at the wondrous Pratie's Place.

Technorati----------> Tag: business blogging

More Info »
business blogging

Who Let the Blogs Out? Greensboro News & Record and the Piedmont Bloggers

Greensboro is in the heart, and mind, of North Carolina...and the world.

The prestigious Editor & Publisher magazine has been covering the revolution taking place in Greensboro, North Carolina, the main characters being their bold and open-minded major newspaper, The News & Record, and the local bloggers, chief of whom is Ed Cone, whose name has long decorated buildings, estates, hospitals, highways, factories, colleges and universities(among other things) , and whose vision is largely responsible for the world changing in our midst...

Here are some excerpts...but you really need to read both parts to get the big picture.

- Editor

Letting the Blogs Out
Why a daily in Greensboro, N.C., decided to get "a little radical" and create an online "town square." Now it's getting national attention. Part 1 of 2.
(via Ed Cone )

excerpts:
NEW YORK (March 14, 2005) -- John Robinson is an unlikely revolutionary. He's the establishment, really. For the last six years he's been editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., where he's worked for two decades. And he certainly doesn't like the implication he's some kind of radical. "It's kind of embarrassing," he says, "as I sit here in a suit and tie and short hair." But to those who spend time thinking about how, even if, newspapers will survive in a super-connected, empowered, non-intermediated, and — here's the word — blogified world, John Robinson is on the barricades.

What's Robinson doing? Merely redesigning his paper's Web site. But he's doing it in a way that also reconsiders the print newspaper, its staff, and most important, the relationship between the paper and its community. He's incorporating more Web logs and increased transparency in an attempt to create, virtually, what the News & Record folks call a town square. When the paper's overhaul is complete, it may be a model for the sort of 21st century paper that many journalism big thinkers have been talking about, chewing over, and confabbing on for the last few years. Greensboro will be the first place where this conceptually newfangled newspaper actually exists.
...

Enter the ' town square'

Greensboro is a city of 230,000 residents and three colleges in North Carolina's north-central Guilford County. There's a mix of Old South conservatism and college-town progressivism; it's a John Kerry county in a comfortably red state.

The News & Record, owned by Landmark Communications, is the dominant media presence in the market. There's also a thriving blog scene, best demonstrated by Greensboro101.com, a bustling and popular "online citizen's alternative media hub," as Roch Smith Jr., its founder, terms it. Tension between Greensboro's old-money culture and a certain "rebelling undercurrent," says Smith, has helped drive the blog movement there.

News & Record editor Robinson blogs. So do several local officials. Smith's Greensboro101.com lists 50-odd local bloggers.

...

Also in late August, egged on by Ed Cone, a nationally known tech writer and blogger and a Greensboro local who contributes a weekly column to the News & Record, Robinson started blogging, "just to learn, really," he says. Cone didn't just work his magic on Robinson; when asked why Greensboro became so bloggy, Roch Smith says, "Two words: Ed Cone. He's an excellent blogger."

Letting the Blogs Out, Part Two

excerpts:
NEW YORK (March 16, 2005) -- News & Record Editor John Robinson asked for advice on his plans to bloggify the newspaper from a likely source: Lex Alexander, who has been at the News & Record since 1987.

He's been a reporter and an editor there, and, for the last year, he's headed a three-person investigations team for which he both reported and edited. He's also, basically by default, the newsroom's go-to guy on the intersection of journalism and technology. "This is ironic," he notes, "because I'm an English major, and I know nothing about computers." He's been blogging on and off since 1997 and continuously since April 2002, at a News & Record blog called "The Lex Files." Robinson tasked Alexander with figuring out how best to create online the town square City Editor Mark Sutter had envisioned.

Alexander, like any good blogger, then asked the world what it thought about plans to build a true public square. "We plan to take some large steps, soon, toward building an open-source, online community," he wrote.

The response was overwhelming. Bloggers locally and nationwide threw in their two cents, as did readers of the News & Record, editors elsewhere, press critics, and media thinkers. On Dec. 23, only a week after Alexander put out his query, he turned in his report.
...
Alexander lumped the suggestions into five categories: community, interactivity, site additions and alterations, and revenue.

Among the specific ideas:

Community bloggers, reporting on local sports teams and neighborhoods, and a consumer affairs reporter/blogger drawn from the current staff.

More interactivity, from something as simple as easily available RSS feeds of news and sports headlines to more in-depth efforts, like bio pages and blogs for everyone on staff, where reporters can discuss stories they're working on and why they made certain decisions.

Innovations like an interactive assignment desk that follows up on readers' story ideas; letters to the editor and obituaries restructured as blogs, allowing room for feedback and tributes.

Outlinks from all news stories to the sources for facts, information, and assertions; and feedback sections on each article, which the reporter must read and, where appropriate, respond to.

Alexander even suggested blog coverage of editorial-board meetings and news budget meetings. "Doing nothing is not an option," he says. "All the trends say that if we continue to do business the way we've been doing business, we're going to be out of business in a generation or two, tops."

He sees dramatically shifting the way newspapers work as a business necessity. "And," he adds, if the model changes as he's suggesting, "we're going to get better journalism out of it — better sources, better stories. What we do is going to more accurately reflect the way people live their lives in this community, and we're going to raise the communities trust level in us" — something that, today, is becoming increasingly necessary.

Commentators are exceedingly supportive. "They are charting a new course," NYU's Jay Rosen tells E&P. "That's why I'm excited."
...
The exciting part, everyone seems to agree, is the process. "Man, it's an exciting time to be in journalism," Robinson wrote in the blog post that introduced this project. On the phone, he sounds almost like an eager j-schooler, excited just to be figuring out how best to reach people.

"The goal is — you know, as I sit here and think about this, it sounds really hokey — the goal is what every journalist's goal is: to spread the news and to get people talking about the stuff that's important and what's happening in their community. If I have to do that online, I'll do it online. If I can do it in the newspaper, I'll do it in the newspaper. We want to help people make smart decisions for their life, and help give them the information they need to participate in democracy."

Ed Cone, the freelance tech journalist in Greensboro who turned Robinson onto blogs all those years ago, the man who in some ways got this whole thing rolling, is happy, at least, that the process is finally happening in his backyard.

"There's nothing unique about Greensboro, that this couldn't happen elsewhere, with other newspapers," he says. "There's not some hothouse environment, there's not some unique situation, the water's not different."

(Hear that, Jude? The water is not different...as you once suggested. )

E-conomy: New game of tagging may be "it"

The Seattle Times: Business & Technology: E-conomy via Jon Lowder

excerpt:
One of the more tantalizing, if not confounding, innovations in how people share information on the Web has to do with a new process called tagging.

Promulgated by a site called del.icio.us, tagging has to do with on-the-fly categorization of Web links. It's like a do-it-yourself Dewey Decimal System for the Web, except that it really isn't a system at all. At least, not yet.

Tagging works this way: You find a piece of content on the Web you like, and you assign it a descriptive keyword. Say you come across an article (or a Web log entry, or a video clip) about a cool new concept called folksonomy. You assign it the tag "folksonomy" and post it on del.icio.us (note that the site is accessible simply by typing del.icio.us — there's no www or .com).

Here's what happens: Someone sees your post and remembers reading another piece about folksonomy. Or comes across an example of folksonomy on the Web. Then that person tags and posts the link.

As others tag and post, a whole body of information builds around a topic. Where tagging works best, it acts like a meme — an idea whose time has come and which captures the imagination of a lot of people all at once.

ThePodcastNetwork :: The BizBlog Show

ThePodcastNetwork :: The BizBlog Show

Welcome to the Business Blogging Show!

Forrester Research: Free Research For Marketers

Forrester Research: Free Research For Marketers

To Blog Or Not To Blog? That Is The Question.
Blogs are all the rage, but can they have real impact on your firm's brand and relationships with customers? Forrester says yes, and we have best practices for creating and managing blogs, a blogging code of ethics, and metrics that will show the impact of blogs on your business goals.

CyberBrew Net Cafe

CyberBrew Net Cafe

Next time you're in Southern California...

CyberBrew serves great coffee and espresso, lattes, cappuccinos, smoothies and delicious ice-blended drinks, as well as fresh baked pastries. High speed Internet is available for your convenience and enjoyment, with either desktop PCs or connections for your own laptop. At CyberBrew we pride ourselves in our friendly staff that is always there to serve and assist you.

Internet Access
CyberBrew offers it’s customers high speed Internet access using our state of the art computers with popular applications like Microsoft Word. You can also edit your digital pictures on our PCs and print them on our high-resolution color laser printers. Our guest can also check email, surf the web and use Microsoft Messenger, America Online Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Our customers can also connect their own laptop with a wired or a wireless connection.

Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World

Blogcritics.org: MarketingSherpa does case study on my blog marketing ways

The marketing experts over at MarketingSherpa published a case study on how I use blogs to sell real estate. Blogs sell property quick, for top dollar! Especially when you have a Realtor who happens to be a blog guru. I closed over $2 million in sales last year simply from blogging, and I'm the only Realtor in Florida's Tampa Bay area who uses a blog to connect with you, my clients, buyers, sellers and interested readers. Here are some more links to the case study and here's a snippet from it:

The Blog Marketing Explosion

There are literally thousands of blogs by eBusiness insiders. This has changed the landscape of guerrilla marketing. At first it was seen as just something cool to do ... but blogs are now being used to build personal and corporate credibility that will eventually attract customers (they hope!).

Measuring Blog Marketing

Measuring Blog Marketing

"What are the unique metrics for this stuff?" said Copeland. "Not people's income and age, but how do these people really interact? Do they really get emotionally engaged and spread the word? That's the whole next dimension of this stuff. That's where the extra value of blogs are."

Approach Life as a Banquet

"Think of your life as if it were a banquet where you would behave graciously. When dishes are passed to you, extend your hand and help yourself to a moderate portion. If a dish should pass you by, enjoy what is already on your plate. Or if the dish hasn’t been passed to you yet, patiently wait your turn.

Carry over this same attitude of polite restraint and gratitude to your children, spouse, career, and finances. There is no need to yearn, envy, and grab. You will get your rightful portion when it is your time."
- Epictetus

Approach Life As a Banquet...

Epictetus should be required reading in business schools, as his teaching would serve to temper much of the envy, greed, and ambition that might otherwise be in superabundance. Even this one quote can help a business person to realize that it is not polite to gobble up all the customers, but rather that it is better to help and nourish the few that are lifted or gifted from the sweettable of life.

As Epictetus says, all advantage has a price, and some prices are simply too high...

All Advantages Have Their Price
"Is someone enjoying the privileges, opportunities, or honor you desire? ...
Remember: You will never earn the same rewards as others without employing the same methods and investment of time as they do. It is unreasonable to think we can earn rewards without being willing to pay their true price. Those who “win” at something have no real advantage over you, because they had to pay the price for the reward.

It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life’s rewards. And often it is best for us not to pay the price, for the price might be our integrity. We could be forced to praise someone who we don't respect."
- Epictetus

How many problems in the world might be solved if people heeded this advice? Ask yourself: Do people kill in order to gain advantage over "competitors"? Is this not too high a price? Do people steal and cheat in order to get the best desserts from the banquet table? All the time! And are they likely to be invited back? Not when found out.
Is being # 1 all it's cracked up to be?
Only when Numero Uno is such an exemplar that it benefits all by their being there.

When those at the top are caring stewards of that which they have been given temporary charge, including those below, then those below are more protective of, and productive for, those above.

Care for What You Happen to Have
Nothing can truly be taken from us. There is nothing to lose. Inner peace begins when we stop saying of things, "I have lost it" and instead say, "It has been returned to where it came from." Have your children died? They are returned to where they came from. Has your mate died? Your mate is returned to where he or she came from. Have your possessions and property been taken from you? They too have been returned to where they came from. Perhaps you are vexed because a bad person took your belongings. But why should it be any concern of yours who gives your things back to the world that gave them to you? The important thing is to take great care with what you have while the world lets you have it, just as a traveler takes care of a room at an inn.
-Epictetus

Someone tries to rob you or steal from you. What do you do? Kill them? Would not this be a case of losing your integrity? Why should it be any concern of yours who gives your things back to the world that gave them to you?

No one wants to hear this, since people work hard for what they have...and yet to respond too strongly would be to put oneself on the same, or worse, footing than the person who is behaving badly. One never really knows what kind of situation the person who appears to be behaving badly may be in. What if they were told that your friends or family would be killed if they didn't steal from you? Then you kill them, and only later realize that they merely stole from you, but did so in order to spare your family or friends...

Granted, this is rarely, if ever, the case...and yet the situation might not be all that different.

Forgive Over and Over and Over
Generally, we're all doing the best we can. When someone speaks to you curtly, disregards what you say, performs what seems to be a thoughtless gesture or even an outright evil act, think to yourself, "If I were that person and had endured the same trials, borne the same heartbreaks, had the same parents, and so on, I probably would have done or said the same thing." We are not privy to the stories behind people's actions, so we should be patient with others and suspend our judgment of them, recognizing the limits of our understanding. This does not mean we condone evil deeds or endorse the idea that different actions carry the same moral weight. When people do not act as you would wish them to, exercise the muscles of your good nature by shrugging your shoulders and saying to yourself "Oh well." Then let the incident go. Try, also, to be as kind to yourself as possible. Do not measure yourself against others or even against your ideal self. Human betterment is a gradual, two-steps-forward, one-step-back effort. Forgive others for their misdeeds over and over again. This gesture fosters inner ease. Forgive yourself over and over and over again. Then try to do better next time.
-Epictetus

Inner ease. How can one quantify that? Quality of Life. And yet to be forever forgiving...is this not to make one's self an easy mark? Perhaps this is why one needs to be selective, and not try to have ALL the customers, as surely some of all will be among those who would behave badly.

As businesses strive to become exemplars, they are going to be faced with difficult challenges. But these challenges should not be avoided just because they are difficult. In the business world...may the best businesses win.

-- Epictetus: The Art of Living, A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell (© 1995 HarperSanFrancisco), p. 22.

ResourceShelf

ResourceShelf

A Cool Blog Discovery Tool

SearchEngineWatch

Creating Great Online Content

Creating Great Online Content (via ThoughtSignals)

The Bottom Line on Business Blogs

August 09, 2004

The Manolo, he does the marketing!

Mister Snitch!

EXCERPT:
However, just as many would-be novelists have traditionally earned their keep as ad copywriters, many bloggers will go on to become Marketing Bloggers The term drew 1,540 results on Google today - we'll check back in a month - and 34,200 for Marketing Blog. This suggests that while the idea of a Marketing Blog is well established, the concept of it as a job description or specialty is not.

That should change. We expect this will be the fastest-growing aspect of the 'blogging phenomenon' from here out. Therefore, it's worth studying from The Master to learn the ins and outs, the whys and wherefores, of the Marketing Blog.

Read MORE of this fascinating article on blogmarketing...

MBA Finds: Business Blogs

MBA ZoNe
Blogroots
Blogs as Business Tools
Finding Fans in Business World
Management by Blog
Meet the B-Blog
The Blogging Revolution
The Sales, Mktg & Biz Blog
Using Blogs in Business

Business Opportunities Weblog

The Business Opportunities Weblog is a moderated list of legitimate of business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Its presented like a weblog with chronological archives and extensive outbound links.

2005 Business Blogging Awards

Business Opportunities Weblog 2005 Business Blogging Awards
Voting is closed, but it is still a good information site...for next year!

Penn Media converts 50 email newsletters to Blogs

Rick E. Bruner's Business Blog Consulting: Penn Media Converts 50 Email Newsletters to Blogs

Mokena, IL Penn Media announced today that it will publish fifty of its flagship owned and operated e-zines as Blogs, positioning them as one of the largest publishers of consumer trade blogs. It has contracted with Pheedo, Inc. to guide them through the evolution and provide RSS and Weblog advertising services.

Bye Bye Email?

Rick E. Bruner's Business Blog Consulting: iMedia Connection: Bye Bye Email?

Speakers at a recent Blog Business Summit believe blogs are replacing email as an effective two-way dialog tool.Going forward from the recent Blog Business Summit in Seattle, two powerful messages have been reverberating through the marketing world:

1. Blog feeds are rapidly replacing email as a form of proactive marketing communications
2. Marketers wishing to post their own blogs should not approach the form as another one-way communications medium, but should plan for their blogs to offer two-way dialog.

Business Blog Consulting

Rick E. Bruner's Business Blog Consulting:
"A new seminar on business blogging: 'Blogging Goes Mainstream: New Media For Corporate Growth.' Cost: $125."

Blogging for Business

With readers flocking to their Web postings, execs are finding blogs useful for plugging not just their products but their points of view
(from Business Week Online)

excerpts:
Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of server maker Sun Microsystems (SUNW ), first suspected that his blog was a success when his salespeople began reporting that customers were reading his posts and sealing deals faster. Then, the blog started getting a surge of traffic from users with e-mail addresses ending in "ibm.com" and "dell.com" -- folks who work for Sun's rivals. Schwartz saw that as irrefutable proof that his blog, started on June 28, was a gold mine (see BW Online, 8/4/04, "Don't Quote My Blog on That").

Some six weeks later, he's a firm believer that a blog -- which generally consists of diary-like entries that are posted to the Web -- is a must-have tool for every executive. "It'll be no more mandatory that they have blogs than that they have a phone and an e-mail account," Schwartz says. "If they don't, they're going to look foolish."

HBS What a Blog Can Do for Your Small Business

Harvard Business School

Article at About.com
excerpts:
The blogging movement is picking up speed with the launch of blogs on our About.com network and the purchase of blog software company Pyra Labs to Google. More companies are experimenting with the blog environment. Will blogging become the next mainstream application like email? Will business blogs improve your business?

What does Blogging Provide to Small Business?
-Blog software is easy to use. Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. Blog software companies such as, Movable Type, Blogger.com and Radio Userland all offer easy blogging tools to get started.
-Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company's name out on the Internet.
-Updating the weblog is a much quicker process than contacting a web designer with changes or doing the coding and uploading yourself.
-Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. A powerful benefit for consultants and knowledge workers. Examples of Business Blogs

Gizmodo is a weblog about everything about gadgets and gizmos for those who want to remain on the cutting edge of consumer electronics. As a web magazine, Gizmodo is quickly building a specialized audience in consumer electronics with an advertising business model.
Research Buzz is an excellent resource tool for Internet research. An information provider, Research Buzz provides advertising and a special paid edition of their newsletter.
Joel on Software is a blog that displays Joel Spolsky's knowledge and views on software development. The blog acts as a method for Joel to highlight his expertise and promote his small business, Fog Creek Software.
Jupiter Research, a top business market research company has a blog for each company analyst. The weblog provides analysts with the means to connect with their audience on a regular basis.
Loosetooth.com Shop Blog, by Brandy Agerbeck, is an online art shop blog that provide customers with a way to get to know the store owner. This blog is an e-commerce site with buy and shop options.
MacroMedia the software company provides a customer service blog for users and staff to share solutions in an organized fashion.
Blogs do have a downside. Blogging does not provide the functionality of web pages, has limits for e-commerce solutions and can be time-consuming with regular posts. But with minimal costs, it maybe advantageous to start blogging and position your business early. Is your small business blog ready?
Other Guides:
Anatomy of a Blog
A Blog Can Help Your Business
Business Blog Resources

Blogs Will Enhance Any Computer Business Opportunity

Excerpts:

Blogs or web logs have taken the net by storm in recent times and can be very useful to any computer business opportunity.Here are four ways that blogs can be invaluable to a computer business opportunity or to any home business for that matter. The Computer Business Opportunity Can Use Blogs for Communications.
Spammers or senders on unsolicited mass mailings have played havoc with email marketing. So much such that marketing via this most lucrative online method through permission marketing, has been greatly hindered. Blogs to the rescue. This wonderful new star of the net is an effective tool to pass messages online to a single person or to a large group without the fear of the message bouncing back or not reaching the recipient.
A computer home business opportunity can use a blog to distribute messages on developments, new pricing and whatever else that needs to be communicated.
The Computer Business Opportunity Can Use Blogs for ResearchConsumer research can be terribly expensive. Many times people will not give you an honest answer to your questions and you end up with results that are misleading. Blogs are a different ball game. Just take a closer look at some of the posts. Usually brutually honest and exactly what a home business doing research on a new product or certain aspect of their business would want.
Simply launch a new blog based on the area of research you are interested in, promote it briefly and then carefully monitor the responses coming in. Excellent, valuable research at zero cost.The Computer Business Opportunity Can Use Blogs for MarketingBlogs are proving to be explosively successful marketing tools capable of reaching huge audiences quickly and efficiently. Simply offer valuable information and create a format that encourages regular visits and with very little promotion of your blog, you suddenly find yourself with a huge receptive audience. Almost like an instant and huge opt-in list to promote your computer business opportunity to.
The Computer Business Opportunity Can Use Blogs for PrBlogs are fast becoming important and recognized news mediums. This was quite well illustrated in the recent American Presidential elections.
It does not require a genius to realize that this will be the next big thing in the spin world of PR experts and practitioners. The new medium has several advantages over other traditional mediums used for PR. One of the most important ones is that you are able to get an almost immediate reaction from the public of news, announcements and other PR strategic actions and plans implemented using blogs.
Decide what sort of image and positioning you want for your home computer business opportunity. Next look for a related popular and maybe controversial subject and launch a blog based on it. Since the subject matter selected is already a popular one, getting search engines to direct traffic in your direction should be a breeze.
Carefully consider your PR strategy and objectives and make sure that you carefully nudge your blog audience in the direction you want them to go. Blogs are actually a PR person's wildest dream come true.

Stroplog: Small Business Blogs

The name of the trend: Business blogs.
Blogs are the new must-have tool for business. Even Bill Gates has shown his support for blogs. He points out the possibilities of blogging, and specifically mentions the merits of rss feeds. "

Benefits of blogging

New Communication: in the days when emails get deleted before being opened, blogging offers a new way of communicating with customers and potential customers. By subscribing to your RSS feeds customers can get notified everytime you update your site, and visit when it's convenient to them. You dont have to impose upon your customer at all!

Customer Focus: by updating regularly you keep yourself in the customer focus. You are demonstrating that you're a current business, important in the days of site-rot and bankrupt companies with websites that survive them. Moreover you can demonstrate you latest services easily: if you're a clothes business you can talk about new ranges, and you favourite picks, a IT consultancy can talk about the latest virus, and give tips on cleaning up. You can demostrate that you are knowledgble and professional, and that you keep up to date. As a small business this can be done in a easy-going manner that will tie in with the personal relationship you will invariably have/develop with your customers.

Easy Customer Interaction: Blogs allow an easy way to contact you, and indeed interact with you. The effort can also be time saving. If a potential customer has an enquiry about a product or service they may not bother to email or phone you, but they might click "comment" and ask there. Once they've done that their enquiry, and importantly your response, will be there for other customers to read. It demonstrates professionalism, care for the customer, and is another way of helping and supporting your clients.

What blogging [is] about is that you make it very easy to write something, like an e-mail, but it goes up onto a Web site. And then people who care about that get a little notification. If you care about dozens of people whenever they write about a certain topic, you can have that notification come into your Inbox and it will be in a different folder, and it doesn't interfere with your normal Inbox.
Bill Gates (edited), Microsoft.com

"Before blogs, it was difficult for small companies to afford a way to stay in touch with their customers. Now they can," says marketing consultant Jack Trout. "It's a great marketing tool."
Matthew Foge in Inc Magazine

All about Blogs and Blogging

excerpts:
Recommended Blog and Blogging ResourcesFollow my "Blogging Experiment"- I create a network of Business Blogs, try various methods of maximizing the "Power Linking Potential" of them, watch the PR grow.My Marketing Blog Site (Marketing B.S.) - This is the original blogspot weblog, started in mid October, 2004. Check it out and see where it's at.
Advertise on a Network of Blogs - You get regular blog posts, optimized and maxed out for links pointing at your sites. This is an incredible deal. The ultimate "Power Linking" Strategy. Become a Linknet Blog Partner.

Small Business Trends

excerpt:
As you might expect, Jay's blog is very good at providing marketing tips and advice to small businesses. Even compared with other marketing blogs it is especially useful. It is written in a clear and succinct style. All the information packs a punch.This blog excels, however, in the way it is being used by Jay as a two-way vehicle. This is where a blog leaves a traditional website in the dust. A traditional website is a one-way conversation. Rarely if ever do you get a chance to receive input from a site visitor, other than perhaps taking an eCommerce order or a newsletter subscription. In fact, many traditional websites actually discourage communication and interaction, by making it hard to find contact information. Not so with a blog. And Jay has figured that out. Jay uses his blog to expand his knowledge base, to get fresh ideas and thinking from others. He tells me that one recent post, "Marketing a big ticket item," had just such an effect:"After making the post, I heard from other experts in this area who added their comments to my post. Many of their points were good ones ... and ones I never would have thought of. As a result I came away from the exercise with more valuable information that I could end up using with my small business clients."Another example of the two-way mode is for networking. For example, Jay says that for years he admired from afar the work of Robert Bly, the copywriting legend. He'd read his books and incorporated Bly's concepts into his consulting work. Then one day, he commented on a post on Bly's blog. He was surprised and, of course, pleased to get an email back. Bly had visited his blog and liked some of his posts. From there the two started emailing. The blog played a pivotal role in establishing a networking contact -- a contact that wouldn't have had a 1-in-1000 chance of occurring in the absence of blogs. Jay sees blogs as playing a crucial role for the small business owner: "I see many small business owners who suffer from isolation. Without a host of cube-mates or peers discuss key ideas with, these executives can sometimes operate in a vacuum." There's a lot to like about this blog. Anyone, no matter how experienced they think they are, and no matter how good they fancy themselves at marketing, will find some useful tip at Smart Marketing.My favorite tip? I liked the post about how to write a brochure. Among other things, I learned "always use captions with photos."

Sundry Related Links

Business News Blog

Bloggers challenge traditional media

Triangle Bloggers

Beginner's guide to the blogosphere - Ed Cone

Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.

News aggregator, TriadBlogs.com

BloggerCon: Stanford

Business Blogs and Stock Market and Financial Blogs
from Blog Search Engine

The World's 1st Black Business Blog for minority business!
Kamau's Business Blog Page

Blogging for Business Nick Lewis: The Blog

New Voices: Blogger Corps Delivers Greensboro101

Technology - Why There's No Escaping the Blog - FORTUNE
Business blogging by Fortune.

Trim the fat and get your résumé in shape
BostonWorks - Jobs, Events, and Information from The Boston Globe

First chapter of business blogging book posted
Thoughtsignals by Mark Tosczak

The Sales, Mktg & Biz Blog
MBA ZoNe Resource Site

Thinking by Peter Davidson: Four Ways a Blog Works for a Small Business

excerpt:
When a customer first calls me to talk about a sign project, I have about 3 minutes to convince them I can do a better job that any signmaker out of the Yellow Pages. That's a lot of pressure on those 3 minutes...
What I tend to do now is at the end of the phonecall, I ask them for their e-mail address. I e-mail them a thank you note for taking time to talk to me on the phone, and send a link to my Blog and encourage them to take a look. Now, my Blog can be the "automatic salesman" and sell to them for the next 10 minutes or 6 months (depending if they take a peek every now and then). Using the Blog this way had gotten me jobs, period! and I have not had to do the "sales work"!
Now that's a good tool...

Why Small Businesses should blog :: Adam Kalsey

"In Small businesses and blogging, Church of the Customer discusses blogging options for small businesses, gives some examples of small business blogs, and provides a half-dozen reasons why a small business owner should write a blog:
They fan the flames of customer evangelism. They help humanize you and your organization.
They can function as an instant-feedback machine about your company and its products and services (because of the comments and trackback functions).
They compel you to Napsterize more of your knowledge, which attracts prospects thanks to the search engines which index your ongoing knowledge automatically. Attraction is easier than hunting.
The facilitate the spread of buzz if you're honest, authentic and write your blog yourself.
They allow you to have more conversations with customers and prospects than you could ever do in person.
They help position you as a knowledgeable expert in your industry. "

Small Business Trends: PowerBlog Review: BusinessWorks

"SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS brings you daily updates on trends that influence the global small business market. "

Millennial Living Blog: Why Small Business Blogs make sense

"Why Small Business Blogs make senseBlogs may become the Swiss Army knife of small businesses since they offer affordable content management and an effective marketing tool to reach clients and prospects. We had originally planned to have a discussion board on the Millennial Living website. However, we changed our minds and opted for a blog or web log instead. Here's why."

Small Business Weblogs

Leadership Blogging & Small Business Blogging - Small Business Weblogs

Blog Business World

Blog Business World - Marketing, Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization
Blogs in business, marketing, public relations, and search engine optimization for successful entrepreneurs

Small Business Blogs - Business Blogs

Small Business Blogs - Business Blogs
Recommended links:
The Blog Herald
Blog Explosion
Blogarama
Blogwise
Blog Search Engine
Globe of Blogs
Blog Rankings
Weblog Link Directory

The Bottom Line on Business Blogs

They've moved beyond the realm of diarists and techies to benefit mainstream businesses.August 09, 2004

excerpts:
So how do blogs fit into a business?
They can be used in several different ways. Many companies use them for communication and collaboration among distributed colleagues, partners, suppliers, customers and others. That's the most popular use. My personal favorite is that they also can be used as a unique, informal way to establish a company or individual's reputation or brand. Other businesses use them to improve operations (like for project management or tech support knowledge-sharing), to demonstrate expertise (useful for professional services businesses) and to establish competitive differentiation. Blogs let companies reach out to value chain members with organizational news, marketing promotions, new product announcements and more.
To get a sense for the effective use of small-business blogs, check out www.clip-n-seal.com/news and www.sbblog.com.

-Blogs can really give a company substantial business benefits:
-They're cheap, easy to launch and don't require HTML expertise.
-They make working in groups easier, are community-builders and can be more inclusive (and interesting!) than e-mail.
-They strengthen internal and external business relationships and improve productivity through interactive information exchange.
-They're not intrusive, since users have to seek out a URL to read the content.
-They improve branding by presenting a more authentic and distinctive voice for a business than canned PR or MarCom messaging.
-They're more searchable than e-mail and instant messaging, so they're effective as an information or knowledge-base archive.

Tools of the Trade
What do you need to get a blog started? You must acquire a blogging software platform or personal publishing application, easily identified with a Web search. You also should have RSS, which will help you syndicate and share your content with other sites. RSS will let you post your headlines to blog aggregators and search engines. That way, they're easily findable and don't get lost in the noise of millions of blogs.

Joining the Blogosphere
For many companies, blogs have become a business staple. They're mainstream and not just for techies! Blogs, though, are not for every company. Their informal style probably won't suit very conservative organizations. But they're great for companies that value freedom of thought and informal communication of ideas. If the fit is right, companies must decide:

-Who should blog.
-Whether the company is really committed to the ongoing care and feeding that blogs demand.
-What's to be achieved by the blog.
-Who will get access to company blogs. (They're password and access level protectable.)
-How blogs will fit in with the company's content strategy, which may include e-mail, blogs, wikis, the Web, voice mail, newsletters, PR and MarCom.

Blogs are a unique vehicle for communication. While they're not for everyone, many small and midsized businesses will find that they're a great way to craft a distinctive image, convey important messages and relate informally with the outside world.

Is freedom free with Google? We'll see

article by John McBride and the Charlotte Observer
Want to start your own Web log, or blog? Go to blogger.com and create yours in three easy steps. It works with Hello to make it easy to put your pictures on your blog. And, like Hello and Picasa, it's simple, elegant, free -- and owned by Google.

Lifting the fog from blogs

via Charlotte Observer 02/14/2005 (Registration required)

Small Businesses Using Blogs

Small Businesses Using Blogs

excerpts:
Here's a good article from the Contra Costa Times that chronicles several small businesses who use blogs to connect with their customers and generate new business. Well worth reading. (registration required)

Two New Small Business Blog Clients
I want to introduce two new clients I worked with (am working with) who are now blogging. Both are small business owners, one an attorney and the other a jeweler. Both are excellent writers and are getting used to writing "blog-style." And they are...
Jeff Syrios - SyrioslySpeaking.com
Patti Thompson - DiamondDivaOnline.com
I want to especially thank Lisa Sabin at ElegantWebscapes.com for her work on the design.

Business Blog Case Study: Stoneyfield Farms
Comedian Rick Bruner (OK, he's not really a comedian, but he plays one on his blog. :->) recently did an interview with Stoneyfield Farms' corporate blogger, Christine Halverson. It answers several questions you might be asking about small business blogging.Stoneyfield runs four separate blogs each targeting a particular demographic. The company, which makes yogurt, is a prime example of how blogs can be used as marketing communications tools.

Real World Business Blogging
In a recent post Tinbasher blogger Paul Woodhouse makes a real world case for using blogs in business...Blogging is the logical solution. By all means have your static website which lays claim to your products, services, testimonials and all the other usual stuff. A business blog allows you to expand on all of these aspects of your site and build a more complete picture.You can look at your blog in the same way as you’d look at a business meeting with a potential client. A blog can even help you focus your thought processes that whirl about your head on a daily basis.Business blogging is the new bricks and mortar for your web presence. You have the opportunity to re-identify yourself on the web and to make that vital connection with your customers in the same way as if they’d popped into your office for a brew.

Small Business Blog Case Study:
HorsefeathersI wrote a PowerBlog Review for Small Business Trends blog about a restaurant called Horsefeathers that is using a blog as their website. Rather than reprint it here, let me encourage you to read it on their site.

Small Business Blog Case Study:
Northfield ConstructionThis is the third case study I've done on small businesses that blog. This one features Northfield Constructon, based in Northfield, Minnesota.RMG: What advantages do you see in the use of a blog for your business?Ray: The big advantage and the main reason I went to a blog is because it is so easy to post things to the site. There are millions of very boring web pages that haven't had attention for years. I had a company webpage that I struggled to get updated every 3-4 months. Now I can easily post and add things about our work. The best thing about blogs is the quick, easy posting and the fact that they are written from a person....not an entity.If you visit the company website, you'll note that its home page is the blog. Or, conversely, the blog is the home page. This represents a growing trend which allows you to kill two birds with one stone. Not only do you incorporate your blog into the overall architecture of the site, you provide your readers with a constant stream of updated information without having to redirect them to another page or site. They get it all right there!

Small Businesses Are Blogging!
Thanks to Grif Wrigley just about every business in his hometown of Northfield, MN is blogging! (Or so it would seem.)Grif's company, Wigley and Associates, specializes in helping small businesses and other organizations set up and maintain weblogs on their web sites. A quick count of his client list shows over 30 businesses and organizations that are currently using blogs as communication tools for their business.
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He is even in the process of writing a book entitled Small Business Blogging - Why and How to Do It.Other case studies are available on this site.