Blogs
The What Blogs Are Lecture
At dinner on Thursday, the subject came around—as it so often does—to blogs. Yet another friend launched into the conversational gambit I (until now) secretly called the What Blogs Are Lecture. I get the “What Blogs Are Lecture” quite often. I get it from friends, from colleagues, from people with blogs, and people without. I get it after I give talks (ironically, most of these talks include some segment where I get to talk about what blogs are myself), or before, and sometimes even during.
These folks who give me the lecture have a bunch of things in common. Pretty much everyone who gives me the lecture is aware that I have written about book about blogs, most are probably even aware that I discuss what blogs are in that book. It’s perhaps paranoid of me, but I don’t believe many of these folks have necessarily read the book, though many tell me that they have plans to do so at any minute. Many, perhaps even most of them have blogs, but a larger number than you might expect don’t have blogs, don’t have plans to start one, and some don’t even read blogs. They all, however, are fascinated by blogs. Often that fascination takes the form of revulsion, or wonderment, but they’re all curious, interested—engaged—by the blog phenomenon.
I don’t mind the What Blogs Are Lecture, although I’ll admit to a few moments of incredulity during the first handful of lectures. ("Does this person really think I don’t know what a blog is?!") I got over my ego in a hurry because of what all my lecturers don’t have in common: nearly all of them have a different idea of a blog is, or who it is that writes a blog. It’s amazing! There are as many definitions of blogs and bloggers, as there are blogs. I love hearing all these ideas people propose; it reminds me of the all the fascinating blogs out there that I could never even conceive of, much less put together myself.
I’m looking forward to my next What Blogs Are Lecture. Dinner, anyone?
There’s an Audience for Everything
So earlier this week when I wrote about a blog that has developed a particular niche and inhabited it (Candy Blog), I was thinking about the fact that what makes blogs so successful is that they can be entirely tailored to your interests. If you like to knit, but only orange sweaters, there’s a blog for you. If you want to hear a tailor’s thoughts on making bespoke suits, there’s one for you. Crave the perspective of a publisher of programming books? No problem.
It’s actually this specialization that makes blogs so hard for people new to the concept to get excited about the blogosphere. Until you find the blog aimed at you, it’s pretty easy to dismiss everything you see as meandering trivia.
At any rate, I knew blogs were niched—specialized. But I hadn’t imagined this: Hitler cats!
Yes, it’s the “blog dedicated to cats that look like Hitler.”
CandyBlog Gets Some Sweet Press
Friend (and Hop Studios client) Cybele May has set herself in the candy review blog space and spends hours tasting and reviewing candies for your edification. Cybele has been writing Candy Blog for some time, and has gotten some nice press. I thought I’d point you to a piece that ran in Canada’s National Post on Monday: ”Sweet Success.” As you can see from this thumbnail, in print the article was huge.
Cybele is a great example who has taken advantage of blog software to turn her hobby into a creative niche she can use to promote herself and, quite literally, feed her hobby.
Congrats, Cybele!
Answering Angry Bloggers
The Dallas International Association of Business Communicators is running a poll right now asking the questions “Who should respond to angry external bloggers—media relations or customer service?”
There are only 8 voters so far (media relations is winning), so head over and cast your vote!
Results are here.
Southwest Gets Bloggy
Southwest’s Nuts About Southwest blog launched April 21, 2006.
Nuts about Southwest is our new blog all about our Employees, Customers, airplanes, and airports. We really are Nuts about Southwest, and we hope that you, our Customers, will share that passion by posting your own comments at http://www.blogsouthwest.com ...Our goal is for this blog to go beyond the facts and numbers to give you insight into our fantastic Employees—what motivates them, how they do their jobs, and a look into the way they serve you, our Customers.
Brian Lusk, Manager of Customer Communication and Corporate Editor, wrote the first post, and promises more in the future from “Pilots; Flight Attendants; Airport Employees; Mechanics; folks from our Marketing, Schedule Planning, Properties, People and Leadership, and Executive Office Departments.”
The first few posts area mix of casually written Southwest kudos and recognition, and personal anecdotes—seems like a good recipe for holding the reader’s interest. Future promised features are Flickr feeds, customer letters, and insider tips from Robert Scoble.
Blogosphere Spreads Cannibalism
Anil Dash of SixApart put up a hilarious post today about Daniel Henninger’s critique of the blogosphere. Go read it!
The truth is, it is still an open question whether the growth of cannibalism around the world is due to the blogosphere, or whether this growth is in fact due to instant messaging.
Bad Buzz for GoDaddy
For an example of why businesses need to pay attention to the blogosphere even when they don’t start a blog, check out this post on Wired’s Monkey Bites blog today:
As the user GoatMonkey2112 (no relation) points out, he performed a little test of his own design at GoDaddy.com. He went to the domain registrar’s site, found an available domain name, added it to his cart, and then cancelled his shopping cart. He returned the next day to find the domain name parked, and thus available only by paying an inflated fee. ... If GoatMonkey2112’s story is true, then GoDaddy is yet another company to put on your “sneaky business practices” list.
Commenters on the post speculate about just which business might be responsible for the purchase, which most folks regard as underhanded. Ryan left this comment:
I have experienced this more than once with GoDaddy: I actually warn people that if they are fairly certain of their purchase, they should not hesitate to “invest” the nine dollars in buying an avaiable domain.
My thoughts were always that the same people who buy expired domains had some insider information from godaddy on recent searches/shopping cart leavings, not that godaddy themselves were the vultures. Still, this would suggest the existence of some official (or cloak and dagger) way to scrape this data.
I suppose it could also be old-fashioned packet sniffing, though, so who’s to say GoDaddy is playing Big Brother?
This is actually a great opportunity for GoDaddy—assuming they aren’t actually engaging in the suspect behavior—to make it clear what kind of business they are and clear up the rumor. For kicks, I sent the link to the post in via GoDaddy’s customer support email system. I’ll be keeping an eye on this post to see whether a GoDaddy rep shows up.
UPDATE: Wired Monkey Bites reports that GoDaddy, rather than being engaged in shady business practices, is conducting business as usual:
One of the things everyone should know is that when you submit a query for ANY domain name, it is sent out across the interenet to ALL the registrars and registries. That means everyone knows that it is a potential quality TLD. The reason they send the query out is due the amount of expired and waiting to be deleted domains. Registrars want to get you the domain that you ask for, so they query everyone to see if it is available.
The number of comments on the post has doubled, but there’s no GoDaddy representation visible.
UPDATE 4/20: Yesterday, Wired Monkey Bites wrote a new, clarifying post based on the comments and feedback received on the original. Happily, there was a long comment from GoDaddy VP Tim Ruiz:
There are many companies doing domain “tasting” on the Internet and many millions of domains being grabbed each week as a part of this process.
While we appreciate those of you who have vouched for GoDaddy.com in this thread, there is an important correction to be made.
When an availability check is done on a domain name, the information is sent to only registries, NOT registrars. When this is done, secure communication methods are always used by GoDaddy.com.
We believe our communications with the registry are secure and that it is 99.99% impossible to check our availability list through those communications.
I’m glad to see GoDaddy finally adding their voice to the discussion, even this far in. And for demonstrating my point—companies, especially those that work in the tech sphere, need to be monitoring blogs so they can be part of conversations like this, rather than a corporate monolith.
Increase in Fortune 500 Companies That Blog
The Long Tail blog posted yesteday about the number of Fortune 500 companies that are blogging: 27 out of 500, or 5.4%. It’s not a great number, but it is an increase from when The Long Tail first compiled its list:
In the four months since we set up the site, the number of Fortune 500 companies with public blogs has increased 50%, from 18 to 27. That’s a significant increase, but it’s still not a lot in absolute terms.
There’s a wiki set up to track the companies that are blogging. Remember, this is a list of “active public blogs by company employees about the company and/or its products.”
The Long Tail is written by Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson.
Trixie Tracker—Blog Business Spinoff—Launches
Trixie Tracker, a tool for tracking your infant’s “Sleep, Diapers, Bottles, Solids, Nursing, Pumping and Medicine” launched this month. Trixie Tracker is a spinoff from the popular blog The Trixie Update, Ben MacNeill’s blog about his daughter’s birth and growth. The Trixie Update, written initially for the benefit of Trixie’s working mother, was an Internet hit, thanks to MacNeill’s entertaining prose, the gorgeous pictures of Trixie, and of because of the unique telemetry tool MacNeill added to the site. Trixie fans could track her food intake, diaper changes, and sleep schedule—and now you can do the same for your child with Trixie Tracker.
I am SXSW
After an unending day of flying yesterday, I’ve finally made it to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival. When I left Vancouver Friday morning, I left two inches (to my inexpert eye) of snow on the ground. I arrived in Austin near midnight to 78 degrees and humidity. My body is still reeling from the change.
This is my first visit to SXSW, and I’m so excited about it. This festival is huge—my cabdriver ("It’s not that I’m prejudiced; I just don’t like foreigners.") told me he expects to make $800 in cab fares from festival attendees every day of the event. Even at midnight last night, the streets and hotel lobbies I caught a glimpse of were packed. There’s a lot of energy here, and it’s almost all GOOD.
Wish me luck now—I’m off to pick up my badge and find my fellow panelists for our 3:30 talk about making a living designing blogs. I haven’t met Peter, Joelle or Lisa in person before, and I know we have tons of talking to do, comparing our businesses and this industry. Paul Chaney, our moderator, I have met before and it’s always great to reconnect with him. There are some busy days ahead!
When Newspapers Blog
Check out this article on BluePlateSpecial.net, ”The Best Blogging Newspapers in the U.S.”
Fifteen undergraduates in journalism, two grad students, and one professor set out to determine--by our lights-- the top blogging newspapers in the U.S. among major dailies. We found six standouts, two honorable mentions and some wacky blogs. Number One in our eyes: the Houston Chronicle. By a mile.
The Blue Plate Special editorial team is drawn from the students enrolled in Prof. Jay Rosen’s blogging 101 class, plus two graduate students working with him. Other contributors are drawn from around the Web.
I Comment, Therefore I Am
Need a smile on hump day? Check out by Lore Sjöberg’s hysterical commentary about online conversations ”No Opinions? No Problem” on Wired:
While you’re wasting time considering context and relevant factors, lesser minds are beating you to the Submit button. This simple guide to posting on message boards requires no more contemplation than is necessary to microwave popcorn.
Bloggers in Amsterdam
BlogAds and Holland.com are working together to offer 25 lucky bloggers a trip to Amsterdam with their Bloggers in Amsterdam program. Here's the details:
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What I can't find on the Bloggers in Amsterdam site is anything about how they will choose the bloggers (page views? unique visitors? celebrity?)... or, come to think of it... how to apply, though there is an "email me" link on the site.
Also read: Henry Copeland's post about Bloggers in Amsterdam on the BlogAds blog.
UPDATE: Comments on the Bloggers in Amsterdam blog indicate some irritation on the part of those who have already blogged about Holland, bloggers who live in Holland who blog about Holland, and a reference to 25 bloggers having been chosen already but with no link to it.Blogs Build Relationships (Not)
I was catching up on reading Jory Des Jardin’s blog, Pause, yesterday, when I started thinking about how few blogs cause me to want more contact with the writer than I get just through reading. Now, I really enjoy reading Jory’s blog. Her posts are frequent, invariably thoughtful, written with a deft hand, and she touches on a broad and unpredictable range of topics. Plus, they are loooong. This girl has got the essay-type blog post going on. And I like it. I enjoy seeing what the latest subject is, and the length of her posts gives her room to really explore her ideas. Plus, I met Jory briefly (among so many others at BlogHer), so it’s a pleasure to be able to put a face to words, so to speak. But what really got me thinking yesterday was the fact that reading Jory’s posts makes me want to get to know her better.
“I bet we could be friends,” I found myself thinking (perhaps presumptuously). “At any rate, it would be cool to get to know her better, because reading these blog posts is great, but it’s pretty one-sided.”
And that got me thinking about the other blogs I read, and how there are a very few that have ever prompted this response from me. Mostly, unless I read the blog because they are already an offline friend, I’m pretty content with simply reading blog posts, and—very occasionally—leaving a comment. It’s pretty darn rare for me to want more than I’m already getting. I have heard a lot of stories of people meeting up with the bloggers they read while traveling, and the occasional friendship, but most of those stories have been from hardcore bloggers and the extremely social.
Sure, I know a bit about Jory’s life from reading her blog, but she knows next to nothing about mine. I have as much a “relationship” with her as I do with any journalist, novelist, or columnist that I read.
So, really, I wonder about the phrase I’ve used a million times: “Blogs are about building relationships.” Are they really? Don’t most relationships grow, change, deepen? Is there really a chance for that with a blog, or does it just feel like it?
MarketingSherpa Study Shows Blogs and RSS as “Emerging Favorites”
The 2005 MarketingSherpa study of Internet marketing is worth taking a peek at. Here are a few key elements:
- Email marketing is overtaken by search, though both have increased in effectiveness
- More marketers are spending more money on online ads and marketing
- Blogs and RSS look to be increasingly mainstream and accepted ways of spending online marketing dollars
Check out the study yourself, including some handy charts.
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This blog is the companion Web site for "Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies," a book for business professionals looking for advice and solutions for business blogging by Susannah Gardner. In stores now!
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