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.

This wasn’t my topic. But it makes a good headline. And it’s nice to be featured in the December 2004 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. Get the scoop on Blogger’s Block.

Take a look at B2B copywriter Bob Bly’s new blog. It went up today. Yes, this is the same Bob Bly who said blogging as a marketing tactic is a bunch of hooey in his DMNews column that was published exactly three weeks ago today. It raised a firestorm of rebuttal. (Here’s my mine. It ran as a Letter to the Editor in the Nov. 9, 2004 DMNews.) Bob is not defecting to the blogosphere, mind you. At least that’s what he said in an email to me a few moments ago. The point of his blog, he wrote, is to “(discuss) why I believe direct marketing beats any other type of marketing for producing immediate sales results.” It’ll be fun to see how this plays out in the blogosphere. Anyone care to comment?! I’m also posting this entry on BlogWrite for CEOs if it’s easier for you to use the comments function there.

reBlog is a new service that I’ve been hearing about. I haven’t tried it yet but it sounds cool. In a nutshell, it enables you to re-publish snippets of content from other blogs you find interesting and useful. Check out the just-released reBlog v. 1.0. It works as a plug-in for Movable Type and WordPress. Thanks to Blog Business Summit for the reBlog tickler.

Free download from Seth Godin’s intriguing Change This site, a repository of sorts for free manifestos on engaging topics. Go grab it (it’s free through Dec. 1, 2004). But be sure you’ve got enough ink in your printer. The Bootstrapper’s Bible: Vol. 1 is a 103-page PDF e-book that he normally sells on Amazon. It’s all about how to start a business with no money. What I like: his upfront assertion that bootstrapping is “a state of mind.”

Caution: this is a digression. It’s about yoga. It’s about what I learned this weekend from Baron Baptiste. If you’re not a yoga practitioner… and before you start snickering… let me just tell you straight out that you’re missing something. Power vinyasa yoga - the sweaty, high-energy kind - is the best workout I’ve ever gotten. I’m in better shape now than I’ve ever been. I’m calmer. (I’ve been practicing for 10 years plus.) I try and fit in a class 3 or 4 times a week at Down Dog Yoga, (a great studio to drop in to if you’re ever in D.C.). Yoga is my sanity. It’s my anti-email, anti-computer antidote. It’s my passion. OK, that’s out of the way. Here’s what I learned about the power of authenticity from Baron Baptiste…
Continue reading “What I learned about authentic brand from a yoga guru”

Current issue of WordBiz Report offers a round-up of my observations from Ad-Tech in New York this week. Another good write-up of the Ad-Tech blogging panel from Jeff Jarvis in BuzzMachine. Jeff notes that the 35 million Americans who are reading top-ranked blogs (a number that is up 10% over the prior quarter) are broadband users, college-educated and higher-income. Hmmm… anyone listening? Sounds like a demographic you might want to reach… if you’re considering advertising on a blog.

A pointer to another article on this topic in today’s Toronto Globe and Mail: Net Diarists Blog Their Way to a Job. Thanks to WordBiz subscriber Barnaby Kalan for the tip. Barnaby is author of Outsourcing Yourself, a pithy little paperback that happens to mention the “Top 10 Tips” from yours truly on publishing an e-newsletter as a lead generator (pages 109 - 111).

While I’ve been ranting, er, raving about the value - and validity - of business blogs, a parallel phenomenon has taken off in the past year that you may or may not be familiar with. It’s niche-content blogs supported by advertising. And they’re doing very well, thank you. Two of the key players in the blog publishing world spoke yesterday at Ad-Tech: Jason McCabe Calacanis of Weblogs, Inc. and Nick Denton of Gawker Media. These aren’t blogs published by a company as an online branding or relationship-building tactic. These are blogs whose purpose…
Continue reading “Blogs as the new (improved) online publishing model”

Here’s a great tip from Christoper Knight of Ezine-Tips on how to get maximum ROI out of the Welcome message you (should) send to new subscribers to your e-newsletter or ezine. He readily admits that it’s obvious: introduce yourself to your readers and then ask them to respond (by hitting Reply) to tell you a bit more about themselves. 42% of his new subscribers are writing him short notes, he says, to introduce themselves and say hi. Not bad for a quick route to the personal connection you’d like to make with each new prospect, huh?! (I’m going to add this to the WordBiz Report Welcome message.)

That bit of wisdom from Gawker’s Nick Denton at yesterday’s blogging session at Ad-Tech New York. Update: oops. Actually, ’twas Jason McCabe Calacanis of Weblogs, Inc. who said that. In other words, if you are a “good” company that values - and practices - transparency, then go ahead and blog. TiVo, JetBlue are good examples. If you’re not, well keep your mouth shut… cuz you’ll get lots of negative comments and trackbacks.