I recently wrote about how the online conversation is real. The basics of that post is that blogging fosters interaction. No surprise, to be a successful blogger, reading, writing, and responding to others within the larger community is an absolute must.
There are a growing number of ways that users can keep track of Read More...

BuzzMetrics, a word-of-mouth market research firm, and Trendum, an innovator in Internet search and linguistic analysis technologies, have announced their intent to merge. The new company will do business as BuzzMetrics, with Jonathan Carson of BuzzMetrics continuing as President/CEO and Itzhak Fisher of Trendum as Chairman.
What’s particularly intriguing about this deal is that VNU, owner Read More...

I’m a regular reader of SellingPower.com’s newsletters — great content for anyone in any kind of sales role, including small business owners. This week, my laptop is in the shop, so I’m operating 100% from the web — I have no Outlook.
So SellingPower’s latest newsletter came through to me as text-only, and isn’t very readable. Read More...

My long-time Ryze friend John Stephen Veitch recently launched Virtual Handshake NZ, a Yahoo Group “to encourage New Zealand residents to join online networks, like Yahoo Groups, but also social network groups like Ryze, Ecademy, OpenBC, Soflow, LinkedIn, Academici and ZeroDegrees.” It’s open to non-kiwis, too.
John is kicking off the discussion with a chapter-by-chapter commentary Read More...

BusinessWeek just published a Best of the Web special report and survey, and a social software and social media companies dominate the results. Out of some 100 sites in the Editors’ Picks, some 2/3 are very clearly a blog or other social software (as opposed to traditional e-commerce, news or reference sites).
Granted, there Read More...

Historically, the content and design of a website have been inseparable. In more technical terms, that means that the data (’content’) and the presentation (’design’) elements have typically been mixed together in one document, that document usually being a web page (such as “index.html” or “about.html”). In order to create and format the content of Read More...

Who Really Are the Elite Bloggers? And What are the Best Ways to Measure a Blog’s Reach?
 
Our NYU college intern Chris Duncan and I (much more Chris than I) have been researching the efficacy of the various blog ranking engines:
 
As part of the Virtual Handshake marketing plan, I was charged with Read More...

The reliably worth-reading Merlin Mann crafts some more useful tips on Writing sensible email messages. His points also apply well to blog posts.

Think there’s no “real money” in blogging? When it’s a marketing tool for big-ticket products and services it sure can be.
J. Craig Williams is quoted in the latest U.S. News and World Report:
“Attorney Craig Williams says his blog (mayitpleasethecourt.com) and podcast have generated close to $1 million worth of client referrals since they started three Read More...

Joanna Glasner of Wired writes about the new social network-based recruiting systems, such as H3, Jobster, LinkedIn, and Accolo, in Wired News: Cash in on Your Social Network
For job seekers who like to network, the introduction of more referral-based online recruiting services sounds like it ought to be a good thing. But David Teten, co-author Read More...