Archive for November, 2006

Promoting cybermonday.com as the place where big merchants post their wares for the big day may have got just a bit ahead of their ability to fetch images and style sheets.

Ouch.

Starting in around 2002, I began suggesting to Kentucky companies that they find a blogger to serve as their voice in the blogosphere. I also wrote about it, twice, as have every major business journal available, but it seems few around me have given it much effort.

A couple of my clients wanted to send me Word documents to “put on their blog” for them - undermining the immediacy and informality that makes blogs so wonderful.

Here’s the thing, folks - blogs don’t pop up overnight and you don’t need to hire a PR firm to create them. You need to build them yourself, slowly, like a bonsai tree. No time? That’s your call, but a completely effective blog can be created and grown in as little as an hour weekly. If you use a tool like PFFinder or Google Notebook to collect your thoughts as you surf the net, you can be fully stocked with material when it’s time to post. What you will find is that blogging will spawn new ideas in your company - you may even improve relations with your staff (providing your not posting fake or misleading content or stuff that will get you in deep sh$%.)

• Blogs are original and good.
• Splogs are just plain old crappy SPAM, and you can tell.
• Flogs are spam hidden behind realistic-looking blogs, like the Wal Mart fiasco.

No, we don’t want to hear about your kitten, really, if you’re a business. What we are interested in is specific good ideas, insights, and techniques that show you are the one we need. Google and other search engines will love your blog - as long as you provide great content and use basic keyword techniques.

If you’re truly a mega-bore, assign your blog to someone in the core of your company… and for goodness’ sake, don’t think of it as your company newsletter. It’s more like a breakfast meeting with everyone who visits your site. This is NOT a job for your secretary or administrative assistant, unless they are in-tune with your business as much as you are.

Well, I wanted to bring forward another good reason you need to start as soon as possible - Google is starting to show blog results in its main results pages to some searchers (I’ve not seen it yet, despite a fairly good effort at making it come up.) Screen shot courtesy of Andy Boyd, who seems to be the first one to see and post this.

No these results are not live yet, but the signs are clear. Still think it’s unimportant?

See also:
State of the blogosphere.

• Postcript: 9/6/07: eStarling has re-introduced their product, and I’ve posted about it again.

Before you start that Christmas Card list, you might want to think about grabbing your cards from these awesome world-class designers here in Kentucky. Three patients at UK Health Care’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital have created artwork for limited-edition holiday cards, which are now on sale. Click on the images to see full-sized PDFs.

Kentucky Children’s Hospital Holiday Cards - 12 cards per box with one design per box - $11.99 per box. All proceeds benefit Kentucky Children’s Hospital

You can submit your order form by fax: (859) 323-1104, or mail your order form to:
Kentucky Children’s Hospital
Office of Development
343 Waller Ave,
Suite 201
Lexington, KY 40504
Attn: Aimee Baston

NOTE TO EVERYONE:  This is a 2006 Post!!!

What if you could capture the energy of earlier search successes and share it with later ones? If an expert in a field has found results that relate to what you’re seeking and posted them, why would you want to repeat the work?

I often find that the information you get from a search engine is like answers from a gardener with clean fingernails — theoretically correct, but without common sense. Perhaps it’s time to “Wiki-fy” search with a little humanity….. read more

In Bay City Michigan a 50’s Diner has just opened after Vince Stuart spent years surfing the web looking at old diners and gathering posters and paraphanalia. “I designed the whole building,” Stuart told the Bay City Times. “I designed it off the Internet and from different diners I’ve been to. I did a lot of homework on the Internet.”

(note: photo is not of his restaurant, but I hope to get one soon)Stuart didn’t live through the ’50s, but that’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate the era. “I always liked the old ’50s diners,” he said. “I always had the dream of opening up a diner, and downtown’s always been good to me. It’s a great downtown.”

I’m with him. I’m a diner fan. They’re a simpler type of place from a simpler era, and I’m hoping they’ll make a comeback. I’ve also discovered Diner City, American Roadside and New Jersey Diners. The only thing though is I get kind of sad looking at these great places and knowing there is nothing like them anywhere in Lexington. Know any good diner sites or blogs? I’m making a list that’ll be posted here, so comment away!

Blogger is so slow that I have been unable to post all day. I’m only able to take time to put my thoughts down a few times each week, so when I do, I really need my blogging software to work. So I’m installing wordpress today. Excited.