Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

I’m sneaking up to the coast of Maine to swim in the icy water (really!) and hang out for a week. So nothing new till after the 4th of July. Seeya.

It’s great to get the exposure in MarketingFix but Rick Bruner misread my recent article, 5 key questions you’ve been dying to ask about business blogs. I didn’t say that blogs would replace e-newsletters. I merely posed the question. My answer was, “It’s too soon to tell” and “probably not.” I also make the point that blogs will cross pollinate with e-newsletters and vice versa.

I’m a fan of MarketingFix, a group blog with insider and up-to-the-minute tips about online marketing & advertising. I’m delighted to hear that Andy Bourland, co-founder of ClickZ, has purchased MarketingFix, along with the Adventive discussion lists. Read the write up about Andy’s acquisition in PaidContent.org.

Kathleen Goodwin, ceo of iMakeNews, took over the column I launched for ClickZ on E-newsletter Strategies. If I do say so, she’s buzzing along nicely as a columnist. Read her cogent argument for why businesses should consider blogging: Weblogs: Dare We Go There?

One of her points is that blogs are “unedited.” Can a company that’s used to speaking in carefully modulated corporate-speak tolerate that? Could be that a new set of best practices for business blogs will evolve. A successful corporate blog may ape the “raw” and “unedited” style of a personal blog. But it will probably be reviewed by a savvy in-house editor who knows what crosses the line and what doesn’t.

When you purchase information online, which format do you prefer? PDFs, audiocassettes, MP3 files? Click here to take an instant survey. You’ll see the results instantly.

In case you’re wondering… click here to see a graphical depiction of the blogosphere. In other words, a map of the A-list bloggers. And specifically, those whose blogging has an impact on mainstream media. The four points of the compass on this map are: blogging / journalism / conservative / liberal. It was created by Weblog pundit Rob Glaser. Thanks to Rafat Ali of PaidContent.org for this pointer.

Last week, the energy and excitement of attendees at the first mainstream blogging conference was palpable. This week the buzz is from the West Coast where @d:tech is playing to a sell-out crowd in San Francisco. Rick Bruner says it’s a veritable “who’s who” in his quick update for MarketingFix. “Who’s here? Just about everyone I’ve ever met in this industry in the last seven years,” he writes. I thought about going but figured wrongly it wouldn’t be anything special. What’s happening?? It’s anybody’s guess. But it sure bodes well for the future of online advertising. And for online content that depends on said advertising. Ahem, this includes WordBiz Report.

Hmm… good question. Just as there are best practices for how often to send an e-newsletter (monthly is a good bet), so is there an etiquette for how often to blog. I’ve been reading up on this as well as scouting around to look at the date stamps on some other Weblogs. The one-word answer is “regularly.” The second part of the answer is to be upfront and tell your audience what your blogging schedule is going to be. This applies whether you consider your Weblog personal or an adjunct to your business site.

I confess. In the rush to get this blog launched I neglected to nail down that detail. For now, expect a new post several times a week. No promises to blog every day.

My friend and colleague Rebecca Lieb has got it spot on in her ClickZ column today. Rebecca is executive editor of internet.com’s Interactive Marketing channel (which includes ClickZ) so she’s not a distinterested party to the concept of B (for business) blogging. ClickZ was the sponsor of this week’s conference on Weblogs.

She writes: “Blogs are fast, direct, honest, and raw. And despite protests from some purist bloggers, they’re steadily being adopted as marketing tools… So, marketers. How can you harness a viral tornado for your business?”

Good question… well, here’s an obvious example. JupiterMedia, ClickZ’s parent company, couldn’t have asked for better promotion of their event than the real-time blogging by attendees. Was it all positive? No, but that’s the point. It created big-time buzz at NO COST. Read her column.

OK, it’s obvious I have a new addiction. First it was email (still is; spend way too much time on it). Now it’s blogging. Last post for today… Eammon Fitzgerald writes intelligently on how we (the U.S.) should be dealing with the military dictatorship that has Burma (Myanmar) in a stranglehold. I traveled to Myanmar in February of this year and was profoundly affected by the beauty of the country and the gentleness of the people. Buddhism suffuses the daily rhythms of life in a way that is hard to ignore - and tempting to embrace. You can read my comment at the end of Eammon’s blog entry.

Good interview by Eamonn Fitzgerald with German e-business consultant and blogger Martin Roell that explains it clearly. It’s in English. I met Martin at the ClickZ blogging conference. He’s very young and very smart. Note the little country flags in the upper right-hand corner of his blog. Click on one to translate from German into English, French, Spanish, etc. Clever, huh?!