Blotbeat: New Analytics Tool Debuts

Blogbeat is a free tool which allows you to see who is reading your blog, what the referral sites are, graph your viewers, mow your lawn, AND MORE!!

(Thanks to Steve Rubel of Micropersuasion for finding this nugget.)

Threads of the Web - Linking for Success

Threads of the Web - Linking for Success
(via ThoughtSignals and Steve Rubel)

Business Blog Consultants

Radiant Marketing Group

Excerpt:
Who was the first business blog consultant? I think B. L. Ochman may be accorded that honor. (I could be wrong.) Debbie Weil is doing it. Of course, Jeremy Wright got in early when he started Inside Blogging after the infamous eBay auction. Tris Hussey is another, as is Toby Bloomberg. Dana Vanden Heuvel, Elisa Camahort, and Andy Wibbels are others who come to mind.

A bevy of others have begun to dot the landscape. My friend John Jantsch started Blogging Business recently and has joined the party. I noticed Priya Shah has become India's first business blog consultant. (That's one of the items on her palette.)

Denise Wakeman is doing it, as is Wayne Hurlbert. Steve Rubel is, at least with Cooper-Katz clients. Kevin O'Keefe does it for attorneys. I'm sure there are many more. (Actually, Rick Bruner has the most complete list that I know of.)

Not only that, but ad agencies and PR firms are beginning to consult with their clients about blogs. Many of them have no clue. Hopefully, they'll turn to people like me for help.

How to make money from your blog: 5 tips

How to make money from your blog: 5 tips

(Thanks to Steve Rubel for the keen eye.)

"If a company doesn't have a blog or a podcast... I'm gonna go spend my money somewhere else."

HOW TRANSPARENT IS YOUR BUSINESS?

Mike Collins: "What do you think the marketing potential of this podcasting world, blog world, is, Steve, ultimately, because we are in the infancy of all this? Where do you see it going in the next five or ten years?"

Steve Rubel: "Customers are gonna say...if a company doesn't have a blog or a podcast, and isn't willing to engage in a conversation with me in real time, I'm gonna go spend my money somewhere else... Blogging is changing Microsoft right now. Microsoft has 1200 employee bloggers..."

[Transcribed from their conversation on Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins.]

Blogging featured on Charlotte Radio

WFAE 90.7 FM - Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins

Rather than bothering with all the revolutionary changes happening in our own backyard, Mister Collins cast his net to New York and California.

Among his guests were:
ITConversations
and
Steve Rubel of MicroPersuasion
...who said that businesses will do well to include blogging, since in time their lack of communicability will cause potential customers and clients to go where there IS communication, or in other words, blogging.

I hope Mike will take it upon himself to learn more about blogging and podcasting, and realize there are giants in our midst. Talk with them next time. They can help localize it.

Thanks for the effort.

Another Poke At Tags As Search Savior

Search Engine Watch

excerpt:
I've been dubious before about tagging in relation to search, but Steve Rubel's Targeting Through Tagvertising article makes me want to poke at them a few more times for a reality check. He writes:

Type the word "blogs" into Google and it can't tell if you are searching for information about how to launch a blog, how to read blogs, et cetera.

Sure -- and that's true of every major search engine, an age old problem. They generally solve it by offering query refinement tools, such as the related searches links that Yahoo offers. Google's problem is that it among the majors has never offered query refinement and is long overdue to do so. Google Suggest, if ever rolled out to the main site, will help.

Steve Rubel was guest on Mike Collins' "Charlotte Talks" today.