Play Well, and May the Blog Buzz Be With You
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The CMJ Music Marathonâs lineup included hundreds of indie rock bands, like Black Kids, a fledgling group with buzz on the Internet.
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Readers remark on lunar landings, the future of Apple music and journalistic integrity. Plus: Links to our most popular blog posts.
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Yesterday's piece, lightly edited, on the Huffington Post. http://x98.us/jz  I think it looks pretty good over there!
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Phil Wolff on things for bloggers to do before they die.
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If you've ever wanted a place for your visitors to just leave a quick and easy message on your site (without the hassle of registration/going through the forums/etc), then DevShed might just have an article you'd be interested in.
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More than two dozen major marketers will vie for the attention of the huge television audience. The Fifth Down blog will have live analysis throughout the game.
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Since most people using the MSN Spaces service are are just getting their weblogs up and running, it&#39;s not easy to tell what a full-fledged blog on the site will look like.
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Bloggers race to create compelling content during competition, but only one will survive what's billed as an "Internet cage match."
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1.      Meet the press. You will need the press on your side to get your product the attention it deserves. To do that, you will need to write a compelling press release. If you feel you can't do that, Google my name, Jaci Rae, and look up the various press releases. I will also put them on ideamarketers dot com for reference. Look at my articles section and you'll find them.    Once you have a kick it press release, go to prweb dot com and sign up for an account. You can send out a press release for $0, but I suggest a $10 to $40 investment on press releases you want to be noticed. The best days to send out a press release are Tuesday  Thursday. Check out what's going on in the media so you can tie in your press release with the headlines. While your press release is an advertisement, you don't want it to be completely written like an advertisement. It's a fine line you need to walk.    A great resource to get the names, addresses and phone numbers of the people you need to contact in both television and print is the Bull Dog Reporter. However, that might be more than you can afford. If you are on a tight budget, Google top newspapers. Go to their websites and find the contact information.    Don't randomly send out your press release. You need to target your release to the specific beat reporter. Sending your music press release to a sports reporter or your computer release to the wedding reporter won't do you any good.   2.      Do public appearances. Nothing will garner more sales or attention than personal contact and word of mouth. Go to your local mall and ask if they will allow you to do a public demonstration in exchange for what you have to offer. If they won't, ask what the costs are and then go to local business to offer them a piece of the action in advertising if they donate money.    There are many other avenues to spread the news: Local supermarkets, libraries, coffee shops, etc. Music can be sung, books can be read, products can be demonstrated and services can be spoken about and validated if you have recommendations from those people who have successfully used your service.    This will help compel those who are listening to want to invest money in you and your talent. People are more likely to buy when they have a personal experience with the product or person. Make sure to invite the media to your event and advertise it to the hilt to ensure a bigger turnout.     Put up flyers, call up your local cable company and find out how much it costs to advertise. Commercials at the local or regional level during prime time will only cost you $30 a spot (approx.).  That's for advertising on VH1, MTV and many other very high profile shows.    Go to a college that has an excellent audio/visual department. Many students will only ask for the price of the film as long as they can keep a copy for their final exam. If you have a larger budget, many professional services will do an entire commercial for $5,000. A great company is Event Management Services. Ask for Marsha Friedman who is the President. 3.      Use the web to its full advantage. Set up shop on the World Wide Web if you havent already done so. Web sites do not guarantee money, but they are an additional source of advertising for you. Join web rings. While I had seen many of my competitor's use this on their web sites, I never joined one. One day I made a decision to do just that and my Christmas web site went from being unseen to the top five for my search string of Christmas with love and other terms. The results showed up in one week.    If you don't know how to create a web site, you can go to your local college as I stated prior. There are also many web sites like webmonkeys that have quite a bit of information to help get you started. Don't waste money on people who promise you top ten ranking at this point.            4.      Donate your time and services sincerely to charitable events. Eventually you'll be able to donate your item or services and get valuable advertising without cost in exchange. Charities that I can personally recommend are the Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish and Saint Jude's Hospital. Many other charities I have worked with are just as wonderful. They need the help and you do too. Why not help someone else and in exchange, you may be able to help your business? 5.      One of the most important tips is to strategically align yourself with other successful entrepreneurs.
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Watching various people get on an airplane to go to Hawaii to an insider invite-only Silicon Valley conference (on Twitter), and thinking about the various business ideas the valley is floating these days, advertising, and how valuations work, and how unaccustomed the insiders are at having their ideas challenged, I came to a few rapid-fire conclusions last night on Twitter. (One good reason to follow me on Twitter is I tend to blurt out things there that would get me in trouble here on my blog.) Twit #1: "I have a theory that 'user generated content' is a last-gasp of the regal outlook of silicon valley, where we're all chumps or slaves." (Before UGC we were just supposed to be eyeballs, consuming their shovelware, buying stuff we see in ads. They had to adjust their thinking when it became apparent that we were also interested in creating.) Twit #2: "The role of the tech industry is to create tools and players. To enable creativity, not harness and control it." (I think this is when it all works best.) Twit #3: "If you're scared to hear what people really think you're not prepared for the world you live in." (I finally figured this one out. The reason why so many people in SV say I can't be trusted (it's observable) is because I'm equally likely to say your product sucks as I am to say it's great. This is a culture raised on Gee Whiz editorial coverage, the adulation of MSM. When blogs came along they had to hear that not everyone thinks they're so wonderful all the time. Who would you hate most but the guy who pushed the tools that made everyone with an opinion so audible. And would you expect such a person to keep his opinion to himself? Heh.) Even though I think this, I know I'm actually full of shit... Guy Kawasaki asked me once why so many people say I'm not a nice person, when in fact I am. If I saw you on the street I'd smile and say hello. I stop when someone is in the crosswalk. Nothing makes me happier than making a tool that people enjoy. I try to listen to everyone, and I don't care how much money you have. I never answered Guy's question, but here it is. If you asked me why some individual person thinks something, I'd say you'd have to ask them. That's basic respect. Let people speak for themselves. If you ask me why 100 people think something, I'm even more clueless.  BTW, Guy and I weren't friends for a long time after being good friends for a long time. I much prefer having him as a friend, I missed his company while we weren't talking. He doesn't suffer fools, and he's the first person to question his own thinking if someone says he's wrong. I've seen him do it, and I was totally impressed. People like that figure stuff out. People who don't want to learn about bugs in their thinking go through life with a lot of bugs. Today, and beyond, everyone has great tools for saying what they think. If you can't stand to hear it, you're not going to like the future very much, sorry to say.
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Automattic and KnowNow hook up to deliver hosted WordPress blogs to the enterprise set. With Six Apart offering a similar service, the age of the corporate blog is dawning. And check out how a
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One important topic for blog owners is how to increase traffic, which is easier than it seems, once you know how. In this article, you'll learn about 7 effective methods. By Terry Detty. 1105
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Decision: Blogs vs. New York Times. For the last couple of weeks I've been emailing with people from the LongNow Foundation and Martin Nisenholtz of the NY Times, to determine who won the bet.  Ultimately we asked the foundation to consider all the argument and make the decision. They published their decision today. It's well worth reading because it answers some of the questions raised by the bet, for example, what is a blog, and how does Wikipedia relate to blogging. I don't agree with everything in the decision, but I do like the result -- we won.  The beneficiary of the bet? The World Wide Web Consortium. I chose them as the charity to receive the proceeds if I won the bet because web standards are what make it all work and the W3C is central to standards on the web.
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This is a bit disturbing:  "If your blog software does not support those things, don't worry, you can still play. To add your post to a Technorati Tag page, all you have to do is "tag" your post by including a special link. Like so:"  {{{ tagname }}}  There are a number of things wrong with this proposal:  1. They're encouraging people to always include the technorati.com URL within their specification.  While this is great for *Technorati* (and I love those guys and wish them all the best) its just going to increase their pagerank and act as free advertising.  If Microsoft were doing this would we really put up with it?  I don't th ...
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Corporate blogging guidelines come down to respect and responsibility.
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Blogging is the topic of many a conversation these days. If you've been wanting to learn more about this medium and what it could mean for your bottom line, take a look at this book. By Nathan Segal. 0728
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Have fun -- and learn -- with business beyond your portfolio.