7 Tips for launching a successful blog

My friend Ray sent me a link to the blog, the evangelical outpost, where there is a series on launching successful blogs. There's a lot of information there and the parts I reviewed seem very strong. Here are the main topics covered:

• Part I - Before You Begin


• Part II - The Beginning Bloggers Toolbox


• Part III - How to Become an A-List Blogger


• Part IV – The Art of Marketing Your Blog


• Part V - Owning a Micro-Niche


• Part VI – Three Essential Elements of Blog Design


• Part VII The 5/150 Principle

PS - Ray just got mentioned by Seth Godin today. Congratulations Ray!! It's truly a thrill when Seth gives you a little publicity.

Vimeo Makes Video Integration on Blogs a Snap

A friend asked me today to recommend a video hosting website to him to use for a family blog he keeps. The first one I suggested was Vimeo.com because I've heard some good things about it. He reported that it was easy to load the video onto Vimeo but wasn't sure how to get the video onto his Blogger blog. Vimeo provided him with a video embed link and he sent it to me to get onto his blog. At first I wasn't sure how difficult this was going to be because I had a terrible time getting a You Tube video to work for me a few months ago. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the link Vimeo provided just had to be plugged into Blogger's new post field and it published to the blog without a hitch or glitch. I spent at least 30 minutes the day I tried to get You Tube video on this blog so the 30 seconds it took to get the Vimeo video on my friend's site today was a breeze. I know where I'll go when I have a choice for video from now on. Also, if I ever start a video blog, Vimeo will be my first option to host the video...it was just that easy!

MySpace Users Older Than You Might Think

Saw a fascinating post on Church Marketing Sucks.com about the age of MySpace users. It turns out that a little more than half the people on MySpace are over 35 years old...or at least a Fortune Magazine article says so.

Will "Pod" Become A Bad Word?

I saw on Micro Persuasion that Apple is beginning to take legal action against organizations, websites and products that use the word "pod" in regard to podcasting. It appears that Apple wants to reign in the podcasting name and any unsanctioned use of "pod" that could be related to iPods or podcasting.

I must say I don't really get this and am disappointed in Apple. Isn't it the goal of any company to get their brand to a point that it is so ingrained into the culture that its product name becomes synonymous with the use of the product? Look at Xerox, Frisbee and Kleenex. For many people xerox is a verb for making copies, a frisbee is any recreational flying disc, and a kleenex is your best friend during cold and flu season. These brand names have transcended the actual products they originally represented and as such own the mindshare of their respective markets. We already know iPods are the leading MP3 players. In fact the word iPod has even begun to represent all MP3 players...and how could Apple not be pleased with that?

So let's say Apple sufficiently cracks down on all this pod-speak. That means everyone will have to use another term to discuss the technology formerly known as podcasting except in the actual cases when you're referring to the Apple products/technology. As this new word emerges it will undoubtedly push the "pod" to the background and the "casting" to the foreground. I don't see how that helps Apple at all. They already have the "pod" product with the family of iPods, so by default they win every time someone uses the word "podcast" whether it's intended to represent something specifically for iPods or not. In fact, this depodification may only clarify for some people that podcasting is not exclusive to iPods. While that's a nice clarification for the uninitiated consumer, it doesn't help Apple extend the reach of their brand.

In the end I think Apple may regret this course of action because it's going to muddy the waters that they have clearly owned up to this point. It's also going to be a PR problem because they have been the anti-corporation for so long and this is very corporate...it's fearful and controlling and just very un-Apple of them.

Another Good Web 2.0 Podcast

Jon Haarstad sent me a link to check out a podcast giving further explanation about web 2.0 on Business Week's website. The guy interviewed on this podcast (Tim O'Reilly) was one of the people who had a hand in coining the term "web 2.0" so he's certainly got a good perspective on it and provides some valuable insight.

If you're still trying to figure out what this is (and like I was asked again yesterday when a church pastor said, "so what the heck is web 2.0 anyway") this is worth a listen. So is this.

Friends Don't Let Friends Place Banner Ads

I had a tough conversation recently. It was tough because I had to let a client make the wrong decision. In fact, I told them it was the wrong decision, and I was tactful, but they got the message. After my gentle protest and suggestion for taking another approach I was met with a resounding gong of silence (insert cricket sounds here) and it was then that I knew they were going to do it anyway. What is it? IT was banner ads.

The goal this client came to us with was to drive more traffic to their website but they already had decided they wanted to try to accomplish this with banner ads on a particular website they selected. After a few minutes of listening to them I just had to tell them that it isn't generally a good idea and that there are better (and much cheaper) ways to go about it. As I mentioned above they wanted to do it anyway...and so they are...but here's where we're really going to test this...

In addition to the banner ads we're going to put some video for this company's same product on YouTube. We'll be able to track the number of views and links from both areas and see what happens. I don't quite know what they're going to pay for a month of banner ads...but I know what they're going to pay for the YouTube video...$0.00. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'll admit, I've got an issue with banner ads. I rank them right up there with the people who sell email lists that are usually just spam. Banner ads are the very reason I was interested in switching from Hotmail to Gmail a year or so ago (Gmail only has text ads). Banner ads just don't work most of the time. They're not a wise expense. An effective banner ad would have to be highly targeted on a very specific kind of site to even have a chance. For instance if Apple had a banner ad for an iPod accessory they're going to have a good chance of getting some attention for the ad, but even then most people still ignore them. By and large banner ads are ignored and with all the effective (and free) web 2.0 options today like blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, video blogs, Wikipedia, etc. there are much better ways to go. Needless to say I'm excited to see how this little experiment turns out! In the end I expect the score to be: Banner ads - 0, Web - 2.0.

MicroExplosion on RealVerse!!

Just saw that an interview I did with RealVerse a few weeks ago is now live. Check it out here.

We talked about a lot of different things during the interview and this segment was just introductory...but it was great to hook up with the RealVerse team. Thanks guys!