Blogging Without a Wire

Closing Up

2008-02-29T10:44:00.000-08:00

I guess I will officially announce this blog as closed, for now.

I started a new blog about game news called Purple Pawn, and that plus this plus my main blog is too many blogs to juggle. So I'm moving any new posts about corporate and other types of blogging back to my main blog.

Yehuda

Two Down

2008-01-22T09:28:00.000-08:00

I doubt that there's anyone left reading this blog, but I at last have something new to report: I'm leaving another corporate blogging position come the end of the month.

Hypothetical you may have wondered why I never mentioned the name of the site I began working for in late August. Not that it was any big secret. I was simply waiting for the blog to go live. It never did.

I was hired with the promise that the site would go live Real Soon Now, in no more than a month. Until it did, I would do site content and design, editing, and marketing writing. I admit that I volunteered to do these other non-blogging tasks on a temporary basis, so as to make myself more of an attractive candidate. Anyhow, I'm good at writing, I know a bit about new-marketing theory even if I know very little about old-style marketing, and I'm a fairly cool guy.

In addition to the marketing writing, I was also able to offer my unique views as to the product, development, direction, GUI, and other things, also from the perspective of a hip Internet user. I like to think that they were of some use.

It turns out that I don't mind writing one or two marketing things here or there, and I can even do some of them well. But I hate doing it for a long time. And the more I do, the more I hate it. Eventually, my soul begins to rebel.

August turned into September, September turned into October, and then November, December, and now it's January. And guess what? The site's still not up. It's going up in "a few weeks". Some part of it might, actually, in some very small crippled pre-beta/pre-alpha state. But I don't care anymore.

Every two weeks I was promised: launching in two or three weeks. Eventually, I started to squirm.

My boss is a nice guy; he hasn't treated me badly, and in fact he says that he likes me. But he's a marketer. I don't know if it's that a marketer is blind to the realities of what a company, a product, and a web site can do, or that a marketer is a consummate optimist or a liar at heart, or some combination of all of these. But I gradually began to realize that when we were going to launch our site had a lot less to do with what he wanted to be true than what would actually be true.

His grasp of the product's current capabilities was the same. It's entirely possible that our product is going to one day do everything that I was made to understand that it already did on the day I joined. But every two or three weeks of working at the company, as I wrote this or that glowing and wondrous marketing copy about what our product does or is nearly about to do, I discovered entire aspects of what I thought that our product does was simply not true. In some cases we were still working on it. In other cases, it was never going to do that, and never will.

And endlessly I heard my boss tell me how valuable I am and that I should be patient, until I began to realize that this was just more marketing speak. I am not valuable to this company; I have made many valuable contributions, but I, in essence, am the wrong person for the job. They need a marketing writer, not a professional blogger. That I'm being paid around half of the salary that I should be for my experience and skills has a lot to do with this hypothetical "value".

Maybe this company will hit something big the moment I walk out the door. Then I'll feel foolish and stupid. Maybe they'll want to rehire me to do what I was originally meant to do in the first place, which is write blog posts and network.

But as of now, I've had enough. I need to clear my head and reassess what it is I want to do as a professional blogger. And I've got other opportunities to explore in the meantime. Luckily, I have a bit of a cushion to explore this for a few months.

In the meantime, I have a plan for a new site on board games. It needs some web design skills and monetary investment. Anyone want to talk to me about it?

Yehuda

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing's changed here. Still writing web copy and marketing materials until we finally launch, if we ever launch.

In the meantime, you can read a blogging related post on my main blog.

Yehuda

What I've Been Up To

2007-11-27T08:17:00.001-08:00

I was in Canada and the US for three weeks. While in Canada (and very briefly while in the US, I was able to continue working. That's good news and bad news. I took over my wife's home computer for 10 hours a day and didn't get to go out much.

Add to that another hour or two for my own blogging other activity. Ugh.

We still haven't launched the blog on the new company, so I'm still working at correcting and editing the English in presentations and emails, and building the website and materials. Falling by the wayside are tasks that I should also really be doing, such as networking with our potential clients and preparing blog posts, but I don't seem to have the time.

I'm hoping that once the site is lunched an some brief busy period is over, I can concentrate on what I do best. But maybe I'm fooling myself. Maybe the busy period, the editing and marketing materials and so on will never really end. I think I'm good at it, but it's not blogging, and hence not what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.

I just have to wait and see.

Yehuda

This Blog is an Anomoly

2007-11-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

This blog is not my main blog.

I don't do anything special to "bring in traffic". It has no top ten lists (ok, it will have no more top ten lists), no tweaked headlines, no special keywords, no SEO, no marketing, no affiliate links, and no cross-posting.

It updates when I feel like, which is roughly once a week right now. I love readers and comments, but I don't care about "growing" this blog, hooking search engines, or massaging links. No special ad placement or laser like blog focus.

In short, it has nothing that all the professional blogging pimps tell you to have and does nothing they tell you to do.

It has only one thing: the raw unadulterated truth about corporate blogging from the first-hand experiences of a professional corporate blogger.

Yehuda

Update: Blogging vs Marketing, Again

2007-11-11T06:53:00.000-08:00

I'm still negotiating the difference between blogging and marketing with my boss, as in how I should be spending my time: writing marketing letters vs creating content for the site.

I think this is primarily because the site is still not live, so I'm not actually creating blog posts, only the site content. Once I begin daily blogging, hopefully I will have a groove. Seems like it's been a long time coming, and there's still a few weeks to go.

Yehuda

Working in Toronto

2007-11-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

One of the ~~drawbacks~~ benefits of working from home as a corporate blogger, is that you can work anywhere. Which means while I'm visiting my wife in Canada, I'm working from home.

I don't get out too much, however, which kind of sucks.

What I'm up to: the site still has a way to go, so right now I'm still writing web content to create a "site", which means a collection of interesting pages beyond simply information about our services. I examined our service, searched the Internet, and decided that there wasn't a strong site devoted to a particular niche overlapping our service.

I could have chosen several niches, depending on how I looked at the service. Most of these were already covered in detail, so I chose the one that wasn't.

I'm also still editing English emails, marketing material, and copy for my marketer/boss, but thankfully less than before. I need the time to devote to creating a site.

And I'm still networking, although I've been neglecting that a bit with all the writing. I have to remember to balance the two.

Being at home is rather lonely sometimes. Although I technically don't need a laptop, I think I may have to get one just so I can go out and work in a cafe.

Yehuda

How to Get 90% of the People You Email to Click Through to Your Product

2007-10-31T10:30:00.001-07:00

Chris Anderson is fed up with being marketed to, as is David Meerman Scott.

I've been marketing for the last month now and getting something like a 90% clickthrough rate to my website. How? Great minds think alike: by doing the exact same things that David lists on his site:

1. Find out about your target.
2A. Be interesting to them and comment on their work.
2B. Or write something interesting to them that's not about your work.

In my case, I've been all 2A. I'm contacting people in my field and simply leaving comments on their posts, their work, or their forums with a linkback to my new company's site. My comments are anything from "nice post" to asking a specific question about what they've done.

The site is relevant to the people I'm contacting, and around 90% of the time they click on the link to find out who I am or what it is. Simple as that. Don't forget that the link's title is also something that might interest them, and I'm not even trying to sell it; they just want to know. Plenty of them do more than just click. They ask me for more information or want to sign up to my newsletter or beta test my product.

This is damn slow; only a dozen or so people reached per day. But it doesn't matter. Because if just a few of these people become my customers, I expect them to use the product and start spreading the word. Why?

That's really rule 0 of the above process: have something great to sell.

Yehuda

Review: The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

2007-10-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging expert, online marketing consultant and speaker. She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

And I know this because the above text is the entire title displayed in your browser when you navigate to her site, debbieweil.com.

As to how true this is, I couldn't tell you. She's one of the advertised speakers at the upcoming Blog World Expo, and while a Google search for "corporate blogging" doesn't list her site on the first page of results, it does list her book: The Corporate Blogging Book. It's subtitled "Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right".

Unfortunately, it's not. It is, however, a good introduction to the subject.

Like just about every other corporate blogging source in existence, this book about corporate blogging is aimed at the manager or CEO of a company. Either the company is considering starting a corporate blog and needs to know more information, or they know next to nothing about corporate blogging and want to know what it's all about. Or they are misinformed about blogging altogether and don't think blogging is relevant for their company.

The book covers, roughly in chapter order, basics about what blogging is, what corporate blogging is, some corporate blog examples, some fears about blogging (time and legal issues, mostly), CEO bloggers, the ROI of blogging, some blogging basics, some blog technology basics, and making the case for blogging to your boss.

Perhaps it wasn't a good idea for someone as immersed in the blogging world as me to have read the book. There wasn't anything new in it that I hadn't read a dozen times over on popular blogs already. It's merely a convenient collection of introductory ideas suitable for an airplane ride. Which was a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping that "absolutely everything you need to know" would include a lot more than that.

Regarding the ROI of blogging, one of my pet peeves is that most people speak about blogs in terms of number of hits to the blog, which is not really a useful metric for a corporate blog. Ms Weil kind of manages to convey this in the ROI chapter, but not forcefully enough. Too many of her examples still laud those blogs that become sensations in their own right. Funny how no one ever talks about the metric of a site's FAQ as being a destination site in its own right; only that it contain useful information and cut down on support calls.

Judged entirely on its own aims, which is to sell corporate blogging to companies by means of a simple offline introduction to the topic, it's good enough. But no more.

You can find more about her book on the book's site.

Yehuda

Blogger Networking: A Second Look

2007-10-18T13:49:00.000-07:00

After cogitating and hashing things out with my wife and my boss, my picture of networking is starting to clarify, somewhat. If you haven't yet read it, read my previous post on blogging and networking for background.

First off, I kind of understand the question now. It's "How would you feel if someone did this to you?"

This question is a more straightforward question than "Is this ethical?", "Is this going to work?", or even "Do I feel right about this?". The essence of it is that if your target feels good about it, you will feel good about it, and if your target feels good about it, it will work.

It could be that some things work even when your target doesn't feel good about it, such as pop-up advertising. But that's no way to make a living.

So, back to networking.

1. Networking is building relationships, not selling. Therefore, the appropriate time to sell to someone with whom you are building a relationship is when they ask you to. You can't send a few emails about other subjects and then, while you have their attention, send them a pitch, regardless of how beneficial it is to both of you.

That's not relationship building, that's deception. Relationship building is for the long-term, and will benefit you in the long-term.

2. Pitches can be sent to people who expect to receive pitches. E.g. marketers, business directors, conference attendees, and so on, and should clearly be addressed as such. You should not try to two-email or two-week relationship building with someone with the intention of following it up with a pitch and then dropping the relationship if the pitch isn't accepted. It will probably not be responded to, anyway, and you likely will have made someone unhappy, which is worse than where you were before you started.

3. One thing you can do with simple networking is to include your landing page URL and your company's tagline at the bottom of your comments and emails. As you build relationships, it is only natural that people will click on these. Furthermore, when they see your company's name in some other location, such as a news blurb or conference proceeding, the name recognition factor will come into play.

4. Hiring people to leave comments so that name recognition can occur in these places, or to send pitches to those expecting them, doesn't strike me as unethical or even problematic.

Having clarified these issues, though not with any sort of finality, I'm able to separate out what types of things I can and can't do as a hired corporate blogger for my new company.

Yehuda

Blogger Networking: A First Look With No Answers

2007-10-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure what the questions are, let alone how to answer them.

I define networking as building and using relationships with other people for mutual benefit. The word "using" here is rife with possible problems. Networking is essentially building business relations. One makes friends for mutual benefit, too, but we frown on the idea of "using" friends. "Leaning on" friends, or offering mutual support and discussion.

It's not only the hired blogger's networking functions that concern me; a regular blogger has to worry about these issues.

Consider the following situations:

1) You see a blog and leave an intelligent comment on it, with no ulterior motives. The blogger follows the link back to your site and comments on your blog. A relationship occurs.

2) You see a blog and comment on it - the same comment, but with the additional motive of wanting the blogger to follow the link back to your site and comment on your blog. Which he does. A relationship occurs.

3) You search out blogs for which to comment on, same as 2. Comments are returned, but a relationship doesn't unfold, because you weren't really interested in the relationship, only the comments.

4) You leave pathetic comments with links, with the same outcome.

5) You hire someone to leave comments on other people's blogs as if they came from you, and a relationship develops.

6) You hire someone, but you only wanted the return traffic and comments, and no relationship develops.

Now we come to the hired blogger ...

7) You scour other blogs related to your new company, looking to build relationships so as to leverage these for the benefit of the company. You leave intelligent comments, they return them, and you build relationships. Should you leave the company, the relationships continue.

8) You scour ..., but your intention is merely to build clickthroughs back to your new company. Relationships generally don't develop.

9) You leave pithy comments, and then follow up any return comments or emails with a sales pitch.

10) You simply scours for other bloggers in order to make a sales pitch. Who needs relationships?

I'm not entirely sure what questions I want to ask here.

Is it "Which situation is ethical?" I think so, but ideas about ethics vary, and there are no black and whites in these situations.

Is it "Which is most effective?" "Which is the 'right' thing to do?"

I'm wresting with the questions. When I figure them out, maybe I can start writing some answers.

In the meantime, assuming that you're really looking to build relationships, realize than relationships, like friendships, don't come overnight, or even in one month. Relationships can take years to develop. Relationships are based on mutual interest and respect, not on one party's immediate needs. And relationships cannot be scripted or timetabled. They are personal.

Yehuda

Marketing Overloaded My Head

2007-10-10T15:08:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned previously, so long as I have a full-time position, this might be a low traffic blog. I'll try write 2 to 3 posts a week, but 1 at a minimum is all I promise for now.

My stint at becoming a "marketer" and all that entails is beginning to cause some friction. Having been roped into the marketing team, it's becoming clear that I'm not necessarily a good marketer. I know what I like, and I know what my audience likes. Emphasis on my audience, not the general public. I can market to bloggers and blog-readers, and that's it.

Roping me in to write copy for PowerPoint presentations to CEOs, press releases to news outlets, and so on, is not necessarily going to get you anything special, and might actually get you crap. Oh, I'm still creative as hell, full of ides and insights, new ways to look at products and marketing stories, etc. But the nitty gritty of ad copy and presentations not only annoys me, but wastes valuable time when I should be networking and writing web site guides or blog posts.

I've had to say this now in no uncertain terms. I didn't become a blogger to do work I'm not good at and don't enjoy. I've got lots of other jobs which can give me that experience. I've begun drawing lines.

Speaking of drawing lines, working from home is one of the classic areas where line drawing is difficult. I tend to work way too much. I wouldn't have a problem drawing a line for a normal company doing something basic like technical writing. But for a startup company that has loads of work and short deadlines, ad needs to get off the ground, it's hard to know when to say enough is enough.

When it comes to the point that the only relaxed time is when you're cooking or doing the dishes, enough is enough.

Speaking of networking .... but that's another post.

Yehuda

5 Professional Blogger Types

2007-10-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

1. Independent

The classic professional blogger as addressed by ProBlogger and Performacing is the independent blogger. An independent blogger makes his or her revenue from traffic visiting the blog, either through advertising revenue, affiliate links, paid subscriptions, donations, or paid reviews.

2. Corporate insider

A corporate blogger uses the blog to drive sales to his or her company's products or services. A corporate blog may be independent or complementary to a traditional web site.

In this case, traffic is good only so long as it drives more traffic to the site, increases brand awareness, or increases the company's reputation.

3. Corporate outsider

A corporate outsider is hired to do the job of a corporate insider - that's what I'm doing. Before beginning to blog, the hired blogger has to get up to speed on the story and benefits of the product, create a mission for the blog and integrate it into the company. The insider doesn't need to get up to speed, but otherwise they are identical.

4. Sponsored blogger

As Gavin pointed out in a comment, a company may hire a blogger to blog about whatever so long as they get to host the blog on their site and wrap their site around it. In this case, the blogger doesn't need to get up to speed on the company because he's not representing the company.

5. Paid for posts

Bloggers can make money writing posts for companies, other bloggers, or post archives. They are usually paid per post and/or per traffic generated by the post. Per post payment is usually pretty low.

Yehuda

How to Find a Blogging Job

2007-10-01T08:16:00.001-07:00

debng guest writes on Performancing 22 places to find a blogging job. While a list of job lists is helpful, it is a poor way to find a blog job.

- Everyone else in the online universe knows about these places, and if they didn't, they do now. There are not all that many jobs listed, and a whole lot of people are dreaming that they will simply send off a resume and have someone pay them full time to write blog posts. Your odds of finding a position this way is about as good as your odds of writing the next Technorati 200 blog.

- The list is anemic. A few of the upper items in the list have a few dozen jobs, while half or more of the rest have less than 10, or even none. The last entry is simply "try looking in your newspaper classified", which is really a long, long shot.

- This is an, how shall I say, old media approach to job search. What decade are we living in, exactly?

Do you want to find a blogging job? Guess what? It's actually easy.

Why? Because there are millions of companies who need bloggers and don't know it. Many thousands of these companies are not looking for a blogger, or looking for one but don't know what they want or need. A whole lot of them will hire you as a blogger without you even having to compete for the position.

Before you go off looking for a "blogging position", you should probably know: blogging = marketing. All companies need marketing, and blogging is simply a new wave of targeted marketing that reaches an audience currently overlooked and underfed by traditional marketing. Becoming a blogger means becoming a marketer, and a marketer may be called upon to do a whole lot more than simply write blog posts. That's why I call it "customer engagement".

Here are five real places to find a blogging job:

1. Your blog

If you're not blogging, you're not looking for a blogging job. And if you're not successfully blogging (in any definition of success), you're not going to find one.

Which means that you're a successful blogger: you have some subscribers, some readers, some hits. Want to find a blogging job? Ask for one on your blog.

Put in in a post, in the footer of every post, and on your sidebar. Engage your subscribers and commenters. They already like you, and they will help you find a job. Either they know a place that needs a blogger, or they can send someone a link to you.

2. Your company

If you're already working, your company probably doesn't have a blog. If it does, it probably doesn't have a good enough blog.

Go to your boss, human resources, or whomever, and pitch blogging for the company. If the company already has a blog, ask to post on it, help design it, or get involved in some other way. If you're any good, you'll be blogging part or full time fairly soon.

3. Social networks

Aren't these what social networks are for? Aside from asking your 10,354 friends, most social networking places, especially serious ones, have forums and other places to advertise for a blog position. Say that you're looking on your profile.

4. Friends and family

We used to call these social networks before the online versions. And the word "friend" used to actually mean something before it was co-opted to mean "people you want to annoy regularly".

Let friends and family know that you're looking for a customer engagement position, and ask them for whom to apply in their companies, using them as a reference.

5. Local organizations

Does your church, school, or synagogue have a blog? Ask to make one for them for free or a nominal fee. Not only is it good practice and a good service, it's an item in your portfolio, and happy customers who will help you find other paid positions.

--

Don't neglect the 22 places from the Performancing post, as well as any other companies whose "job listings" include a writer, blogger, or similar.

One more trick which can sometimes work: try blogging about a product you love and about which no one else is blogging. The world's first and busiest blog about the Ford Taurus (e.g.) can be a valuable asset to acquire for Ford Motors.

When you find a job, take the time to educate each other as to what exactly the job entails. For some of my positive and negative experiences in these types of conversations, please see my earlier posts.

Yehuda

The Evaluator / Game Indstry Jobs

2007-09-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

I've talked shop with dozens of startups in Israel, and researched thousands of companies, and I've begun to see myself as a bit of an evaluator.

Everyone thinks they're idea is the next cool thing. The next Monopoly. The next Youtube. Business plans now begin with the ultimate goal of selling the company for $1.5 billion dollars to Google.

In truth, the overwhelming majority of what I see is incremental. Good products, but only layers in the groundwork necessary for someone else to make it big. That doesn't mean that a good product can't have a successful story. It just means that a lot of people are bound to be disappointed when they don't turn into Youtube.

If you're only willing to talk to people who "drink the Kool-Aid", you're never going to find this our. You have to hear and accept critical impressions.

Better products don't spiral into public consciousness. Social paradigm breakers do. If your product isn't a social paradigm breaker which can spread without any involvement from you, it's not going viral.

I think you need a business plan that doesn't involve "being bought out for lots of money". How about one about making good products or providing a service that people need, being easy to deal with, being adaptable, and providing income for your employees. Gold-rush mentality is for suckers.

As far as my own abilities to evaluate, I'm still not 100% sure that they're entirely accurate, so I'm not about to start selling myself this way.

Game Industry Jobs

Working full time for a company has slowed down my personal Web 2.0 research, so I'm late in my next post of Web 2.0 jobs. In the meantime, I just posted 3500+ Game Industry jobs for your pleasure, instead.

Yehuda

Blogging For Hire Posts Coming Out of the Woodwork

2007-09-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Performancing just ran a basic post on blogging for a company. So did Randa Clay Design.

Blogging for hire is emerging as a new profession. And baby, you don't know what you're getting into.

People keep writing these "pros and cons of blogging for hire" posts as if all it means is writing blog posts about someone else's topics on someone else's site. If only it were that simple!

Sure, there's a small chance that a great blogger might be hired to just blog with the hope that traffic to his or her blog will increase exposure to the company. But more likely than not, blogging for hire means being hired by a company to do whatever the company needs, including blogging.

That means working on marketing plans, integrating plans into the business, cultivating blogging relationships, learning the ins and outs of your company, marketing research, writing press releases, editing copy, storyboarding videos, and I don't even know what else since I'm only starting the process, myself.

But it is not, repeat NOT, simply writing blog posts for a company. Unless you want to be paid $5 a post plus traffic, which is no way to make a living.

I just got a copy of Debbie Weil's Corporate Blogging book, which I hope to review asap.

Yehuda

Customer Engagement Preparation Work

2007-09-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

The new company's blog won't be up for some time yet, about a month. So what am I doing with my time?

- Thoroughly learning what the product can do, can't do, and will do.

- Researching companies in the field. I'm tracking around 100 feeds of relevant news, competing or complimentary companies, and customers who use these companies.

- Alerts. For many of these companies, as well as key phrases related to the field, I set up Google news alerts. Google news alerts are ok, but not very thorough. It's worth a trip to the Google News site once in a while to see what the alert might have missed.

- Creating a landing page. Before the web site is up, I want there to be a landing page with a subscription to the company newsletter and information about what we'll be doing. That way I can start commenting on related blogs in my field, and hopefully arousing some interest if anyone clicks back on my user name to the company's site.

- Web site design. I'm contributing to the design and components that will be making up the new web site. I want the benefit to be readily apparent and easy to access, and I want people to be interested in following the blog or company newsletter.

- Editing. Here's where my skills as a blogger and a technical writer intersect. I'm rewriting emails, web content, instructions, and all sorts of stuff. Taking my cue from Creating Passionate Users, even the user guides are going to be marketing quality material (if I have my way).

- Wracking my brains to come up with viral material that doesn't require months to create or an expensive artist to perform.

And other items, more technical and sundry (such as setting up Wordpress, and so on).

Yehuda

Five Easy Steps to Double Your Blog Readership in Just Ten Minutes!

2007-09-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Rosh Hashanah is coming, so I won't be posting again until at least Sunday. My Rosh Hashanah message is on my main blog.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this list of how to double your readership in just ten minutes.

Step 1: Begin with a blog that has only one reader. This step is critical. Without it, doubling your readership will be hard work that takes more than ten minutes.

Step 2: Write a nice catchy headline for a post that contains recycled information you picked up from a lot of other sites and is well known. In this way, your readers will like it because they'll agree with all of it, just like when they saw the same advice on that big guy's blog. You certainly don't want to come up with original ideas that challenge conventional wisdom.

Step 3: Take no more than seven minutes to write the post. If you take any more time than that, you won't be able to double your readership in only ten minutes! You certainly don't want to spend all day working on a real post that actually has value, says something new, provides real and useful information or entertainment, and is edited correctly. All that matters are the keywords required to bring in the Google searches and make your Ad-words profits sing.

Step 4: Digg, del.icio.us, and stumble the results. You're sure to get at least two people curious enough to check out your headline. It will take more than three minutes to contact other bloggers in your field who might actually enjoy the post and with whom you've built relationships. You can't do that in ten minutes!

Step 5: Congratulations! You've now doubled your readership in only ten minutes! Pop open that champagne. Don't worry about having to go back to work again the next day to make more posts and continue building relationships. That takes too long! Besides, do you want to risk tripling, or even quadrupling your readership all at once?

Shana Tova,
Yehuda Berlinger

Old School vs New School Marketing

2007-09-09T13:34:00.001-07:00

My boss is a traditional marketer. We talk a lot about setting goals, but the differences between our schools of thought are constantly coming up. My problem is I don't know when I'm supposed to be learning from him and when I'm supposed to be teaching him.

One of the tasks he wanted me to do was to prepare the letter of introduction I will be sending to all the bloggers I will have made contacts with in order to introduce them to our new site once it rolls out.

OK, I thought, letters. Uh, wait.

"What letters?"

"Well, you simply expect them to know about your site by clicking on your user name in your blog comments?"

"Actually, yes. But if not, I won't be sending them all letters. I will talk to them one by one, when appropriate, and in the correct context. I won't be sending out marketing letters to them like they're my customers."

Blog marketing doesn't work like this. It's not: define goal, execute action, measure results. Blog marketing is relationships: build product, build relationships, trade information.

I think that last part is one of the most important parts: trade. I will be giving out as much as I'm getting, maybe more. Yeah, my goal is to get: coverage, visits, adopters. But my methodology is to give in ways that have nothing to do with our product.

Where on the time sheet do I put down: had a conversation about how to fix a program on a competitor's blog?

Yehuda

Robin Good on Professional Bloggers

2007-09-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

Advice for companies: Professional Blogger: How Do You Recognize One?

And I'll throw in this from Steve Rubel: As Technology Develops, So Does Role of Geek Marketers.

Yehuda

Should Your Corporate and Private Blogging Identities Intersect?

2007-09-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

In my first customer engagement position, I chose to have my identity with the company unrelated to my public blogging identity.

I didn't try to hide it, per se. I simply didn't advertise it and I didn't use the Hebrew name by which I'm generally known. In my public blogging identity I use the name Yehuda. My name at the company was simply my English first name. I never mentioned on my public blog what company I was working for on the side.

Why?

One, I didn't want what I wrote on the company blog to reflect on my public blogging identity. This one is a little strange, I admit. But the company had absolutely nothing to do with my usual blogging subjects. And I really didn't like the direction and content I was asked to produce; I had to write only about the company itself or the company's site, every day.

I hope to never find myself in this position again.

Two, should I ever stop working for the company, as I in fact did, I didn't want searches for my name to be confused.

Three, the company didn't want to be responsible for anything I wrote about on my personal blog.

As to this, the decision as to whether you link identities may be up to you, or the company, or a joint agreement.

As Gavin pointed out in the comments on the last post, you may simply be writing a blog which is supposed to be popular but not necessarily directly related to the company or product. In which case, hiding your identity doesn't seem to make much sense. It's just another blog you write.

On the other hand, if you're representing the company and blogging about company things, it might make sense to hide your identity. Programmers and managers may go through more than one company in their work life, but they usually don't work publicly in two locations at once, I think. Marketers might, but their name isn't usually public anyway, only the name of the ad agency they work for.

My new company is in the game industry, which overlaps with my public blogging identity. When the company publicizes, I will probably declare my identity by my public name (Yehuda). I will have to disclose my new company relationship on my own blog so that people know this if I promote the company's service or product, or speak about other companies or products in the same field.

The benefit to blogging under my public name is that I can build on the relationships I have established. Of course, these relationships were established before I joined this company, so any such building will have to be delicately done indeed. I have to really believe in the new company and their product. And I don't want my friendly relationships to turn sour. It's a delicate line to walk.

One more issue about two blogging identities is the issue of leaving comments on blogs. This affects you even if you have a single identity, but run more than one blog.

When I was working for my first company, when I left a comment in the capacity of my work I left it in my work's identity and with my name linked to my work blog. Since there was no overlap between the places I would normally leave comments, and the places I left comments in the capacity of working for the company, there wasn't any conflict.

In my new job I will have to decide when I am leaving a comment if it's on behalf of myself or my new company. Though both my public blog and the company are in the game industry, they encompass slightly different niches within the industry, so I may get off without too much difficulty.

If you have two blogs, you have to decide the same thing. If you sometimes leave back links to one blog and sometimes to another, this results in splitting the effectiveness of your commenting by splitting the resulting back traffic to more than one location.

Yehuda

Don't Try to Blog for Any Old Company

2007-09-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

If you're a freelance corporate blogger, you're a marketer. If you're a marketer, that means you're going to be selling what the company that hired you produces.

You're probably used to writing about things that you're already knowledgeable and passionate about. That means that you not only have lots to write, but enthusiasm to say it.

Moving to a corporate blogging position isn't simply picking up your own blog and moving it to their company. When the ACME toaster company asks you to blog for them, it means blogging about toasters or the toaster field.

That means you have to become an expert in the toaster field. It means you have to become an expert in ACME's toasters. And it means you have to write about toasters and toaster things for a long time. Indefinitely, even.

Can you do that? Passionately? They hired you to blog because you're a passionate writer who can show results. You can't do it if you're just churning out posts about something you don't really care about, or if you're going to run out of something to say in a year. Or six months. Or two weeks.

So here's some advice: don't just agree to work for any old company that offers you a position as a corporate blogger. I know it's tempting, because not many companies are offering them at all. Only take a position in a company whose product or service you really care about. In other words, one which you would blog about even if you weren't being paid.

Update: Gavin rightly points out in the comments that blogs for a company can have more or less to do with the company itself. Check out the comments.

Yehuda

1900+ Web 2.0 Jobs

2007-08-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

If I wait until I've finished researching every Web 2.0 company before reporting anything, you'll all be waiting a long time.

I've gone through 586 companies so far out of my list of at least 5,000.

Of these, 292 provide no information about who runs the site. Of the ones that do, I've only see a single black person as a founder or manager, and I've seen no Hispanics. About 30 companies claim women founders or managers.
218 have blogs, not including stillborn ones. Of these, 23 haven't been updated in way too long.

Of course, I'm recording a lot of other information about each company, including short summaries, web 2.0 category, top managers, contact information, a personal rating, and so on. I may be willing to give this out to anyone who is $really nice$ to me.

Here's a list of over 1900 jobs from my first batch of companies. Some sites that I didn't include invite resumes without specifying if they have any open positions. Even ones that don't invite resumes are worth canvassing, if you think you may be a good match for the company.

Round two should follow in a week or two, hopefully.

3Jam:
Web 2.0 Software and Systems Architect / Principal Engineer
Senior Mobile Software Engineer / Architect (J2ME / BREW / Windows Mobile)
Senior Web 2.0 Developer (CSS/XHTML, AJAX, JavaScript, Flash)
Product Manager

AT&T Wireless:
over 1000 jobs

Attendio:
"key positions"

Beatport:
Flex/Flash User Interface Developer (ActionScript 2,3)
Lead Interactive Designer
Application Developer (PHP)
Fulltime Mid-Senior Level Research & Development
Customer Service Representative (Multi-Lingual)

blip.tv:
Senior Systems Administrator and Network Engineer
Senior Perl Web Applications Developer
Junior Software Developer
Director of Business Development

BlinkList:
Application Developers
Web + Graphic Designers
Database Engineers
Junior Systems Administrator
Internet Marketers
Bloggers / Writers / Researchers

Blogspirit:
2 Senior Developers
1 Tests & Qualification software Engineer

ClairMail:
Customer Service Director – Technical
Deployment Engineer
Java Developer
QA Engineer
QA Engineer – Entry Level
Sales Consultant
Senior Software Engineer – Java Backend
Software Engineer – Entry Level
Project Manager
Solution Architect

CNET:
Credit & Collections Manager 0904000807001 CA-San Francisco
Financial Analyst 0108100507001 CA-San Francisco, KY-Louisville
Manager, Financial Analysis 0904000407002 CA-San Francisco
Manager, Tax 0901000207002 CA-San Francisco
Manager, Tax 0901000207001 CA-San Francisco
Payroll Specialist 0904100807002 CA-San Francisco
Senior Accounting Analyst 0904100707002 CA-San Francisco
VP, Controller 0904100507001 CA-San Francisco
Creative Director 0107000507001 CA-San Francisco
UX Designer 0111700607001 CA-San Francisco
Motion Graphics Designer 0111700807001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Designer 0107000707001 CA-San Francisco
UI Designer, Product 1100000707002 CA-Irvine
Associate Food Editor (Editorial) 0120000707008 CA-San Francisco
Community Coordinator 0107100807001 CA-San Francisco
Managing Editor 0120000707001 CA-San Francisco
Reporter 0111700407002 CA-San Francisco
SVP, Corporate Sales & Sales Strategy 0000000407001 CA-San Francisco
VP, Corporate Sales Strategy 0000000407002 CA-San Francisco
Human Resources Business Partner 0402000607001 CA-San Francisco
Associate Software Engineer 0120000707005 CA-San Francisco
Associate Software Engineer 1007200307001 NJ-Bridgewater
Associate Software Engineer 1008800807001 CA-San Francisco
Director, Software Engineering 0107000807003 CA-San Francisco
Manager of Engineering 0120000707003 CA-San Francisco
Manager, Quality Assurance 0107000607003 CA-San Francisco
Senior Java Performance Engineer 1009000307001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer 0107000607002 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer 1009000607001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer 1006200307001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer 1003100807001 NJ-Bridgewater
Senior Software Engineer 0107000807006 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer 1003800807001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer 0107000607001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Software Engineer - Oracle Applications 1006300307002 CA-San Francisco
Senior Technical Producer 0107000807004 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 0120000407002 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 1007500807001 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 0111110607001 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 0107000107006 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 1007200307002 NJ-Bridgewater
Software Engineer 0107000807005 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 0107000807002 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer 0120000707004 CA-San Francisco
Software Engineer - CNE BI 0107000807007 CA-San Francisco
Web Developer 1009100807001 KY-Louisville
VP, General Counsel 1700000807001 CA-San Francisco
Associate Product Marketing Manager 0131100807001 CA-San Francisco
Copywriter 0102200507001 CA-San Francisco
Industry Marketing Manager 0102900807001 CA-San Francisco
Market Research Manager 0102210807001 CA-San Francisco
Marketing Coordinator 0102200707001 CA-San Francisco
Product Marketing Manager 0131100507001 CA-San Francisco
Senior Manager, MarComm Dept 0102200607001 CA-San Francisco
Associate Software Engineer 0109100807001 CA-San Francisco
Technical Producer 0102100807004 MA-Cambridge
Product Manager 0108100607004 CA-San Francisco
Senior Product Manager 0111110607002 CA-San Francisco
Account Coordinator 0102100707002 CA-San Francisco
Account Coordinator 0102100807002 NY-New York
Account Coordinator 0102100807003 NY-New York
Account Coordinator 0102100807001 CA-San Francisco
Account Executive 0102300607003 NY-New York
Account Manager, Corporate Accounts 0102000707001 Telecommute
Manager, Sales 0107300807003 CA-San Francisco
VP, Sales 0107300407002 CA-San Francisco
Site Director 0120000707009 CA-San Francisco

Colligo
Sales Representative — Mid Market

Confluence
Executive Assistant
Inside Sales Engineer
Performance Engineer
Product Manager
QA Engineer
QA Lead
Receptionist
Senior Java Developer
Senior Support Engineer
Support Engineers
Technical Writers
User Interface Developer
Inside Sales Engineer
Java Developer
Junior Customer Advocate
Senior Support Engineer
Technical Support Engineer

Cozi
Web Software Developer
Software Developer

ebuddy
System Administrator
JAVA J2ME Developer
PHP Developer
Java J2EE Software Engineer
Front-end Developer/Software Engineer
(junior) Traffic Manager
Account Manager
Sales Executive
Sales Executive UK
Director of Business Development US
Usability Engineer
Sales Intern
Business Development Intern
Ajax Development Intern
Java J2ME Development Intern

entriq
Senior Software Engineer (DM) (197874-718)Carlsbad, CA, US.
Software Engineer (Security) (197870-718)Carlsbad, CA, US.
VP Marketing (205231-718)Carlsbad, CA, US.
Senior Solutions Engineer (195045-718)Carlsbad, CA, US.
Technical Project Manager (180775-718)Essen, LON, GERMANY
Web Developer / Integration Engineer (183555-718)London, LON, UNITED KINGDOM
Quality Assurance Manager (210006-718)Shanghai , STA, CHINA
Director of Sales (189028-718)New York, NY, US.
Director of Sales - West Coast (204519-718)Carlsbad, CA, US.
Sales & Business Development Consultant (205560-718)London, LON, UNITED KINGDOM

Eqo
Mobile Application Developer (C++)
Graphic Design Contractor - 3+ days per week
PR Contractor – 3+ days per week
Software Developer - OSS
Softswitch C++ Developer
Senior Network & Systems Administrator
Web Designer

Eventful
Advertising Operations Manager
Community Advocate Intern
Email Marketing Coordinator
Front-End Web Developer

Fuzz
Senior Web Developer
Senior Systems/Scalability Programmer
Senior Product Marketing Manager
Artist Advocate

Glibe
Application developers

going
Designer
Web Developer
Promoter
Marketing intern (summer/part-time)

Grooveshark
Web Developer
Java Developer
Database Engineer

Hotxt
Product Management
Website Copywriter

HubPages
Engineering Jobs (software)
Graphic Design Jobs
Media Sales Jobs

iLike
Software Development Engineer in Test
Web / Server (Ruby) engineer
Database engineer
Web/DHTML engineer
Client engineer

imeem
Software Engineer
Technical Support
QA Engineer
QA Manager
Visual/Interaction Designer
Sales Planner
Finance/Accounting Manager

IMVU
Senior Web Applications Engineer
Senior Web Systems Engineer
Software Engineer (new grad)

indaba
Ruby on Rails Engineer
Web Designer

InstaColl
Software development openings
System administrator / Data Center managers

iotum
Software Developer
Program Manager
QA Expert

jaxtr
Senior User Experience / Interaction Designer Mid-Senior level, Full-time
Sr. Product Marketing Manager (Director) Mid-Senior level, Full-time
Product Manager Mid-Senior level, Full-time
VP Product (and Marketing)

Jott
Web Marketing Manager
Software Development Engineer

last.fm
Head of Technical Operations
Java Developer
Flash Developer
PHP Developers
Senior PHP Developer
Reporting Engineer
C++ Developer
Linux Sysadmin (varying levels)
DBA, PostgreSQL and MySQL
Graphic Designer, Software
Technical Writer
Head of Financial Planning and Analysis
Community Manager (US)
Senior Business Development Manager (US)
Senior Advertising Executive
Junior Advertising Account Manager
Advertising Campaign Manager

LeapTag
Senior/Lead Software Engineer - Server-side
Architect/Technical Lead - Machine Learning

LignUp
Microsoft Engineer
Java Application Engineer
Pre/Post Sales Engineer

LiveNation
Marketing Manager UK-London-London
Director of Sales, Sponsorship US-IL-Chicago
Ticketing and Contracts Coordinator UK-HC-Oxford
Director of Sales US-AZ-Phoenix
Production Manager US-DC-Washington
A/P File Clerk US-TX-Houston
Group Sales Manager US-TX-Houston
Staff Accountant US-MI-Detroit
Treasury Analyst US-TX-Houston
Executive Coordinator/Office Manager US-CA-Culver City
Senior Accountant US-TX-Dallas
Product Development Manager US-CA-Culver City
Product Development Manager US-CA-Culver City
Product Development Manager US-CA-Culver City
Director of Accounting/Reporting HOB Clubs US-CA-Hollywood
Manager of Accounting- HOB US-CA-Hollywood
Senior Accountant-External Reporting US-TX-Houston
Compliance Supervisor US-TX-Houston
Digital Designer UK-London-London
Digital Engineer (ASP/.NET) UK-London-London

meebo
Front-end Software Engineer(JavaScript, DHTML)
ActionScript/Flash Developer
Back-end Software Engineer(C/C++)
Visual Designer
Customer Engagement

meetro
Skilled C++ programmer
Objective-C and Cocoa
Python

mercora
Senior Software Engineer

midomi
Algorithm Designer
C/C++ Expert
Mobile Application Software Engineer
Search Architect/Engineer
Search Operations Engineer
Signal Processing Expert
Speech Recognition Expert
UI Designer
Web Developer

mig33
Web Developer
MySQL DBA

MobiVox
Senior Product Manager
Director of Operations
QA Analyst
Program Leader
Junior/Intermediate Web Developer

Mozeo
Senior Software Engineer
Account Manager
Advertising and Sales
Software Engineering Internship
Marketing Internship

mTracks
Community Manager
Web Developer
Web Designer

MyPunchBowl
front-end web developer with strong CSS skills

MyStrands
System Administrator (Corvallis, Oregon)
MySQL DBA (Corvallis, Oregon)
Software Engineer, Data (Corvallis, Oregon)
Software Engineers (Corvallis, Oregon)
partyStrands Sr. Distribution Manager (New York City, New York)
Executive Assistant (New York City, New York)
System Administrator (Barcelona, Spain)
MySQL DBA (Barcelona, Spain)
Software Engineer, Data (Barcelona, Spain)
Software Engineers (Barcelona, Spain)
Designers (Barcelona, Spain)
Financial Manager (Barcelona, Spain)
Business Development (China - Japan - Korea - Singapore)

NextPage
Product Developer
Developer Intern

NimBuzz
Mobile Application Developers
IT system/network administrator
Asterisk/openSER expert
.Net Windows client developer
Web Designer
Senior Mobile Application Developer
Junior Mobile Developer
Java Developer
Quality Assurance Specialist

OthersOnline
Senior Software Engineer
Software Development Engineer
User Interface Engineer
VP of Business Development
IT Operations Manager

Oz
DEVICE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER DEVICE - INTERMEDIATE
SOFTWARE TEST SPECIALISTS - COOP
TOOL DEVELOPER - OPERATIONS - COOP

Pandora
Staff Accountant, Oakland, CA
Sales Development Manager, New York City, NY
Sales Manager - New York City
Senior Network Engineer - Oakland, CA
Senior Systems Administrator - Oakland, CA

PhoneZoo
(System) Architect
Server Engineer

Plaxo
Globalization Engineer (1039)
Quality Assurance Manager (1035)
Marketing

Pluggd
VP Sales and Business Development
Network Operations Engineer
Software Engineer
Software Development Engineer - UI
Software Development Engineer
Product Manager

PodShow
Systems/Network Engineer (posted 8/16/07)
Sr. DBA (posted 5/9/07)
Director of Production (posted 4/25/07)
Sr. Engineer
Jr. Engineer

Project Playlist
Senior Developers (PHP/SQL)

QuickBase
Consultative Sales Account Manager
Software Engineer
Engineering Manager
Senior Business Analyst
Customer Support Representative
+ many other jobs at Intuit

Qype
Web Community Manager

RadiusIM
Developer
AJAX / Web Developer

RealityDigital
Web Developer

rightround
Business Development
Python Developer

Salesforce
APAC Sales Compensation Analyst, Sales Operations Singapore, Singapore
Bad Debt Collections Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ Toronto, Canada
Bad Debt Risk Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Collections Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Director, Americas Sales Operations San Francisco, CA - HQ
Director, Internal Audit Americas San Francisco, CA - HQ
Financial Accounting Compliance Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Manager, Finance Operations San Francisco, CA - HQ
Purchasing Manager Singapore, Singapore
Sales Compensation Analyst-Sales Plan Administration San Francisco, CA - HQ
Sales Operations Specialist San Francisco, CA - HQ
SEC Reporting Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Accountant-Americas San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Compliance Specialist San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Corporate Counsel Singapore, Singapore
Senior Finance Operations Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Manager Stock Plan Administration San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Sales Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Suspended Accounts Collections Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Tax Manager Singapore, Singapore
IT Auditor San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Compensation Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Vice President of Privacy and Data Protection San Francisco, CA - HQ
Alliance Business Development Manager, APAC Seoul, Korea
AppExchange PRM/CRM Implementation Manager San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
Client Services Executive, Strategic Accounts Atlanta, GABoston, MA New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Charlotte, NC Chicago, IL Detroit, MI Minneapolis, MN
Consultant - Sydney Sydney, Australia
Customer Success Manager New York, NY Short Hills, NJ
Customer Success Manager Los Angeles, CA Orange County, CA
Customer Success Manager Philadelphia, PA
Customer Success Manager Seattle, WA
Customer Success Manager Boston, MA
Customer Success Manager, ANZ Sydney, Australia
Customer Success Manager: Corporate Sales Toronto, Canada
Customer Success Manager: Corporate Sales San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
Customer Success Manager: Corporate Sales San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
Customer Success Manager - Italy Milan, Italy Paris, France
Director, Sales Effectiveness APAC Singapore, Singapore
Director Alliances, Public Sector Washington, D.C.Reston, VA
EMEA Application Instructor - Germany Munich, Germany
EMEA Technical Training Instructor Camberley, United Kingdom
Engagement Manager New York, NYShort Hills, NJ Boston, MA Philadelphia, PA
Engagement Manager - Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands
Engagement Manager - SMB Austin, TX Dallas, TX Houston, TX San Francisco, CA - HQ San Mateo, CA
Engagement Manager - SMB San Francisco, CA - HQ San Mateo, CA Seattle, WA
Engagement Manager-SMB Atlanta, GADallas, TX Chicago, IL San Francisco, CA - HQ Austin, TX Houston, TX
Engagement Manager - UK Camberley, United Kingdom
Learning Management Program Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Manager, Sales Best Practices San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
Premier Business Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ San Mateo, CA
Premier Support Analyst San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
Principal Business Analyst Global Enterprise San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ Toronto, Canada
Principal Consultant New York, NYShort Hills, NJ Boston, MA Philadelphia, PA
Principal Consultant - Germany Munich, Germany
Principal Consultant - Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands
Principal Consultant - SMB San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA Seattle, WA
Principal Consultant - SMB Dallas, TXAustin, TX Houston, TX
Principal Consultant-SMB Toronto, Canada New York, NY Boston, MA
Principal Consultant-SMB Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL
Principal Consultant - Sweden Stockholm, Sweden
Principal Consultant - UK Camberley, United Kingdom
Principal Technical Consultant New York, NYPhiladelphia, PA Boston, MA Washington, D.C.
Principal Technical Consultant Chicago, ILDetroit, MI Minneapolis, MN Milwaukee, WI
Senior Consultant Dublin, Ireland
Senior Consultant Dublin, Ireland
Senior Consultant New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Boston, MA Atlanta, GA
Senior Consultant Stockholm, Sweden
Senior Consultant - France Paris, France
Senior Director, Certification & Education Program Development San Mateo, CA San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Technical Consultant New York, NY
Senior Technical Consultant Toronto, CanadaBoston, MA New York, NY
Senior Technical Consultant Chicago, IL Milwaukee, WI Minneapolis, MN Detroit, MI
Senior Technical Consultant Dublin, Ireland
Support Account Manager-Global Enterprise Short Hills, NJSan Francisco, CA - HQ New York, NY
Technical Consultant San Francisco, CA - HQ Los Angeles, CA San Mateo, CA Austin, TX Dallas, TX Houston, TX
Technical Consultant - SMB San Francisco, CA - HQ
Technical Support Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ San Mateo, CA
Training Coordinator San Mateo, CA
HR Business Partner - Marketing San Francisco, CA - HQ
HRIS Administrator - Contract Position San Francisco, CA - HQ
HRIS Business Analyst - Contract Position San Francisco, CA - HQ
HR Manager Dublin, Ireland
Senior Corporate Counsel Singapore, Singapore
Business Systems Analyst (BI//DW) San Francisco, CA - HQ
Business Systems Analyst (Order to Cash) San Francisco, CA - HQ
Business Systems Analyst (Services) San Francisco, CA - HQ
Data Center Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
DW QA Analyst - Contract San Francisco, CA - HQ
Field Sales Engineer, APAC Sydney, Australia Singapore, Singapore
Field Sales Engineer, APAC Singapore, Singapore
IT Helpdesk Specialist - Contract San Mateo, CA
Java Application Developer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Manager - IT OnDemand Application Support San Francisco, CA - HQ
Network Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ Reston, VA San Mateo, CA
Operation Services Center Engineer Ashburn, VA
Product Security Director San Francisco, CA - HQ
Project Manager - IT Business Solutions San Francisco, CA - HQ
QA Analyst - IT San Francisco, CA - HQ
QA- Automation Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Release Operations Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Data Center Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Manager, Global Service Desk San Mateo, CA
Senior Operation Services Center Engineer (Unix System Administrator) Ashburn, VA
Senior Operations Service Center Engineer (Network) Ashburn, VA
Senior Usability Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Unix System Administrator - IT San Francisco, CA - HQ
Unix System Administrator - Technical Operations San Francisco, CA - HQ
AppExchange Marketing Campaign Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
AppExchange PRM/CRM Implementation Manager San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
AppExchange Review Coordinator San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
AppExchange Senior Operations Manager San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
Editorial Director / Managing Editor San Francisco, CA - HQ
Interactive Designer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Marketing Manager, Hong Kong Hong Kong, ChinaSingapore, Singapore
Partner Operations Coordinator San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
Product Marketing Manager Camberley, United KingdomDublin, Ireland
Product Marketing Manager, AppStore San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Field Marketing Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Incubator Program Manager San Mateo, CA
Senior Partner Success Manager - AppExchange San Mateo, CA
Senior Partner Success Manager - Strategic Alliances San Mateo, CA
Senior Product Manager, AppExchange San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Web Producer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Services Marketing Director San Francisco, CA - HQ
Sr. Manager, AppExchange Marketing Programs San Francisco, CA - HQ
VP, Event Marketing San Francisco, CA - HQ
Product Manager Order to Cash San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Incubator Program Manager San Mateo, CA
Senior Product Manager, AppExchange San Francisco, CA - HQ
Sr Product Manager - Apex Programming Language San Francisco, CA - HQ
Product Marketing Director, Product Marketing (Platform As-A-Service) San Francisco, CA - HQ
Product Marketing Manager, AppStore San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Manager, Product Marketing (Customer References) San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Product Manager, AppExchange San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Product Marketing Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Call Center and Customer Portal San Francisco, CA - HQ
Sr. Director, Product Marketing SFA San Francisco, CA - HQ
Technical Product Marketing Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Contract Technical Writer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Development Manager, Mobile Clients Santa Monica, CA
Engineering Services: UI Automation Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Engineering Services – Release Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Localization Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
Member of Technical Staff San Francisco, CA - HQ
Member of Technical Staff Tampa Bay, FL
Member of Technical Staff-Analytics San Francisco, CA - HQ
Member of Technical Staff- Client Developer Santa Monica, CA
Quality Engineering - QA Manager San Francisco, CA - HQ
Quality Engineering - Sr. System Test Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Director, Systems Test San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Performance Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Program Manager, Technology San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer-Client San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Quality Engineer-Desktop Client San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior UI Designer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Vice President, Applications Development San Francisco, CA - HQ
Web Content Architect San Francisco, CA - HQ
Account Executive Minneapolis, MN
Account Executive Indianapolis, INChicago, IL
Account Executive, Benelux Market Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, Corporate San Francisco, CA - HQ
Account Executive, Corporate San Mateo, CA
Account Executive, Corporate Toronto, Canada
Account Executive, Corporate Toronto, Canada
Account Executive, Corporate APAC Singapore, Singapore Sydney, Australia
Account Executive, Corporate - Greater China Singapore, Singapore
Account Executive, Emerging Markets Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, Field APAC Mumbai, IndiaBangalore, India Delhi, India
Account Executive, Field APAC Sydney, AustraliaMelbourne, Australia
Account Executive, Field APAC Sydney, AustraliaMelbourne, Australia
Account Executive, Field APAC Delhi, IndiaMumbai, India Bangalore, India
Account Executive, Field APAC - Taiwan Market Hong Kong, ChinaTaipei, Taiwan
Account Executive, German Market Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, RF UK+ Ireland EMEA Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, SB, Italian Market Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, Services San Francisco, CA - HQ
Account Executive, Services Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, Spanish Market Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, State and Local Sales Sacramento, CA San Francisco, CA - HQ
Account Executive, UK+ Ireland EMEA Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, UK+ Ireland EMEA Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, UK+ Ireland EMEA Dublin, Ireland
Account Executive, UK+ Ireland EMEA Dublin, Ireland
Account ExecutiveGB, German Market Dublin, Ireland
Alliance Business Development Manager, APAC Seoul, Korea
AppExchange Category Manager, Financial Services New York, NY
Associate Sales Engineer San Francisco, CA - HQ
Corporate Account Executive, ASEAN Singapore, Singapore
Corporate Sales Manager Delhi, India
Corporate Sales Manager - Sth Europe Dublin, Ireland
Customer Success Manager New York, NY Short Hills, NJ
Customer Success Manager Los Angeles, CA Orange County, CA
Customer Success Manager Philadelphia, PA
Customer Success Manager Seattle, WA
Customer Success Manager Boston, MA
Customer Success Manager, ANZ Sydney, Australia
Customer Success Manager: Corporate Sales Toronto, Canada
Customer Success Manager: Corporate Sales San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
Customer Success Manager: Corporate Sales San Mateo, CASan Francisco, CA - HQ
Customer Success Manager - Italy Milan, Italy Paris, France
Director, Sales Effectiveness APAC Singapore, Singapore
Director Alliances, Public Sector Washington, D.C.Reston, VA
Director Alliances, Southern Europe Paris, France
Director of Sales Planning and Strategy, Field Sales San Francisco, CA - HQ
Enterprise Account Executive - Belgium Brussels, Belgium
Enterprise Account Executive - Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark
Enterprise Account Executive - France Paris, France
Enterprise Account Executive - Germany Munich, Germany
Enterprise Account Executive - High Tech Camberley, United Kingdom
Enterprise Account Executive - Ireland Dublin, Ireland
Enterprise Account Executive - Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands
Enterprise Account Executive - Northern England Camberley, United Kingdom
Enterprise Account Executive - Retail Banking Camberley, United Kingdom
Enterprise Account Executive - Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland
Enterprise Account Executive - Switzerland Ecublens, Switzerland
Enterprise Business Representative San Francisco, CA - HQ
Enterprise Business Representative San Mateo, CA
Enterprise Business Representative Sydney, Australia
Enterprise Business Representative Singapore, Singapore
Enterprise Business Representative San Francisco, CA - HQ
Enterprise Business Representative San Mateo, CA
Enterprise Business Representative San Francisco, CA - HQ
Field Sales Engineer Auckland, New Zealand
Field Sales Engineer, APAC Singapore, Singapore
Field Sales Engineer, APAC Sydney, AustraliaSingapore, Singapore
Field Sales Engineer, APAC Singapore, Singapore
Lead Generation Specialist, German Market Dublin, Ireland
Lead Generation SpecialistUK & Ireland Dublin, Ireland
Manager of Sales Processes San Francisco, CA - HQ
Mid Market Account Executive (French speaking) Toronto, Canada
Pre-Sales Engineer Dublin, Ireland
Pre-Sales Engineer Dublin, IrelandDublin, Ireland
Pre-Sales Engineer, Uk + Ireland Dublin, Ireland
Sales Engineer, CRM Applications Toronto, Canada
Sales Engineer, CRM Applications Toronto, Canada
Sales Engineer - Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark
Sales Engineer - Germany Munich, Germany
Sales Engineering Director - Northern EMEA Camberley, United Kingdom
Sales Engineering Manager San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
Sales Engineer - Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sales Engineer - Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland
Sales Engineer - Switzerland Ecublens, Switzerland
Sales Engineer - UK Camberley, United Kingdom
Sales Readiness Manager San Francisco, CA - HQSan Mateo, CA
Sales Representative San Francisco, CA - HQ
Sales Representative Toronto, Canada
Sales Representative San Mateo, CA
Sales Representative Singapore, Singapore
Sales Representative Toronto, Canada
Sales Representative Toronto, Canada
Sales Representative Toronto, Canada
Sales Representative, Emerging Markets Dublin, Ireland
Sales Representative, French Market Dublin, Ireland
Sales Representative, German Market Dublin, Ireland
Sales Representative, German Market Dublin, Ireland
Sales Representative, German Market Dublin, Ireland
Sales Representative, Italian Markets Dublin, Ireland
Sales Representative - Sydney Sydney, Australia
Sales representative UK + Ireland Dublin, Ireland
Senior Account Executive Charlotte, NC Raleigh, NC
Senior Mid Market Account Executive Toronto, Canada
Senior Mid Market Account Executive San Mateo, CA
Senior Mid Market Account Executive San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Sales Analyst San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Sales Engineer New York, NY
Senior Sales Engineer Minneapolis, MNChicago, IL
Senior Sales Engineer Richmond, VAReston, VA
Senior Sales Engineer New York, NYPhiladelphia, PA
Senior Sales Engineer, CRM Applications San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Sales Engineer, Service and Support Applications San Francisco, CA - HQ
Senior Sales Engineer, Service and Support Applications San Francisco, CA - HQ
Spanish-speaking Enterprise Business Representative San Francisco, CA - HQ
Spanish-Speaking Sales Representative San Francisco, CA - HQ
Spanish-Speaking Sales Representative Toronto, Canada
Sr. Manager of Sales Strategy & Planning San Francisco, CA - HQ

SayNow
Director of Product Marketing
Director of Entertainment
Artist Relations and Product Promoter

Seeqpod
Senior Search Engineer
QA Engineers
Search Tempered Lead Software Engineers
Customer Relations...Engineer
Graphic Design & UI Guru
Product Manager
Informatics Applications Developer Internship

SilverStripe
Senior Developer

Skobee
UI Engineer/Designer

Skype
Product Manager Skype Devices
Project Manager - Online
QA Automation Engineer - Web Based IS and Services
Software Product Analyst
Devices Engineering - C++ Developer
Accountant - Luxembourg
Financial Analyst
Business Development Associate
Fraud Screening Specialist
eCommerce - Business Manager
Business Development Internship
SQL Server DBA
Product Manager, Internship
Business Development Manager - Telecoms
Business Development Telecoms, Sales Manager
Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs, North America
Senior Software Analyst
Designer
Project Manager – Devices
C++ Developer - Skype Core Library
Release Manager
Devices Product Management Internship
Product/Project Manager – Skype for Windows - Communication
Product Designer - Payments
Product Designer - Skype for Windows
Product Designer – Skype for Mobile and Devices
Linux sysadmin
Project Manager
Analysis Manager - Marketing
QA Engineer - Skype Devices
AP Manager - Luxembourg
Senior Tester - Web Based IS and Services
Mac QA Engineer
Customer Support Person - Spanish Language
Customer Support Person - Japanese Language
PHP/Web Based IS Developer
Backend C/C++ Developer
PHP/Web Based IS Developer
Java/Web Based IS Senior Developer
Customer Support Person - German Language
Delphi programmer / UI Developer for Windows
Frontend Web Developer

Slacker
Customer Support Rep III
Java Engineer
Manager of Reporting Metrics
Test Engineer
Desktop Support Specialist
Senior Linux Systems/Network Administrator
Product Marketing Manager
Senior Visual Designer
Senior Buyer/Planner
Order Administrator
Senior Software Engineer

SnapVine
Sr. Software Developer
Software Developer - Applications
QA Manager
Data Center Operations Manager

Sonopia
Partner Marketing Manager
Copywriter
Director of Growth Marketing
Creative Services Director
Director of Logistics
Admin Assistant
Marketing Production Manager
Product Manager, Marketing
Head of Studio
Java Server Software Engineer
Web-client Software Engineer
Senior Brew Mobile Engineer
Flash Lite Software Engineer
Database Administrator
Windows Administrator, Operations

Soonr
Database Engineer
Test Engineer
Systems Administrator
Server Engineer
Partner Project Manager

SoundLoud
Senior .NET Architect/Developer

Standpoint
Senior Software Engineer - Palo Alto, CA
Sys Ops/Software Engineer - Palo Alto, CA

Stickam
Marketing Associate
Paid Marketing Internship
Web Site Designer

StumbleUpon
Web Application Developers (3)
Senior Research Engineer
MySQL Guru
Operations Manager
Software QA Engineer
Manager, Business Development
Marketing Manager

TalkPlus
Internet Marketing Manager - San Mateo
VP of Marketing

Tangler
JavaScript Developers
Front-end web developer - Javascript / Ajax
User Interface Developer
Community Managers
Marketing Coordinator

TellMe
contract transcriber
Graphic Designer - Motion Graphics
INTERN Service Delivery Engineering
Software Development Engineer, VXML
Software Development Engineer, Web Services
Software Engineer
Windows Mobile Software Engineer
Technical Sales
Director, Enterprise Partner Program
Director, Enterprise Product Management
Senior Account Manager, Service Provider
Senior Director, Service Provider Markets
NOC Analyst, Night Shift
Operations Engineer 3
Staff Software Engineer, Platform
Associate Consultant
Services Project Manager
Automation/Tools QA Contractor
QA Contractor
QA Contractor (Ford)
QA Engineer
QA Engineer - contractor
QA Engineer - Phonetop
Quality Engineer
Software Development Engineer inTest
Software Test Engineer
Software Test Engineer
Contract Orthographic Transcriber
Sr. Speech Engineer

TextMarks
UI Developer
Systems Architect / Director of Operations
Product Marketing Manager

thinkingVOICE
Senior Software Engineer VOIP/Telecom
Software Engineer VOIP/Telecom

Thumbplay
Marketing Analyst
Director, Direct Response Television Marketing
Director, Brand Marketing and PR
Manager, Business Development
Technical Project Manager
Operations Support Engineer
SEO Strategist
Senior Manager, Customer Support
J2EE Software Developer
Senior Database Administrator
Senior Web Developer
WAP Developer
Manager, Software Projects
Senior Accountant

Trumba
Senior Systems Engineer
Inside Sales Account Executive

Truphone
Help Desk Analyst Multilingual
Database Administrator
Test Engineer

Tumblr
Software Developers
Creative Developers

TypePad
Product Manager
Web Marketing Designer
Ad Server Engineer
Software Engineer - LJ
Front-End Engineer - Vox
Systems Administrator/Operations Engineer
Systems Administrator/NOC
Sales Rep - Enterprise Sales
Creative Director/Copywriter
Technical Support Representative – TypePad
Junior Technical Services Representative - MT

vlingo
Server-software architect
Server-software developer
Client-embedded-software architect
Operations Engineer
QA Engineer
QA Intern

WebJam
Intern, Quality Assurance, London UK (Summer or flexible)
Business Development Manager, London UK (Permanent)
User Experience Designer, London UK (Permanent)
Product Manager, London UK (Permanent)
Quality and Customer Care Project Manager, London UK (Permanent)
Community Managers, UK and US (Contractors)
Visual Designers (Contractors)

Weblogistan
Developer (see box)

WeeWorld
West Coast Ad Sales
Paid Internship
Bookkeeper/Accounts Assistant
Product Manager

WorkLight
Senior Java Software Engineers
Java Team Leader - Customer Solutions
Sales Director - Europe
Sales Engineer/Technical Consultant - Boston, MA
Sales Executives

Zinbra
Professional Services Consultant
Sales Engineer
HTML Production Engineer
AJAX Application Development Engineer
Territory Sales Representative
J2ME Development Engineer
Mash-up Master (AJAX, JavaScript, REST/SOAP)
Principal Software Engineer - Java Server Development
Sr. Performance Engineer
Sr. Web Development Engineer
Sr. Technical Support Engineer

Zing
Program Manager
QA Software Engineer (white box)
Linux Driver Engineer
Senior Software Engineer (Services)

zlango
Senior Web Designer
J2ME Developer
Server Developer
Web Developer
QA Position

Zvents
VP Engineering - San Mateo, CA
Product Manager - San Mateo, CA
Network Engineer - San Mateo, CA
Web Developer (Ruby on Rails) - San Mateo, CA
Senior Ruby on Rails Developer - San Mateo, CA
QA Engineer - San Mateo, CA
QA Engineer (Content Acquisition) - San Mateo, CA
Data Entry/Content Editor (multiple contract positions) - San Mateo, CA

The following sites contain job listing boards:
Ajaxian
CenterNetworks
GigaOM
Job(fu)
MetaFilter
Profy
Read/WriteWeb
Techcrunch
Vitamin
Webware

Yehuda

How to Drive Traffic, and Thoughts on Corporate Blogging by SCOUT

2007-08-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

Ask and ye shall receive.

I asked Stephen Turcotte of SCOUT Corporate Blogging a few questions and look at what he wrote about corporate blogging and driving traffic. This is all excellent advice.

Thanks, Stephen.

Yehuda

Yay Me. I Got Another Job

2007-08-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

I went to Haifa today and landed another part-time customer engagement position with a company. It probably would have been full-time, but they're still a start-up and so need to keep a tight budget, or so I assume.

Having learned from my previous experience, this time I cataloged the list of things that I can do, and can't do, as a blogger right off. I may make many more mistakes, but hopefully I won't repeat the last ones.

Still, the whole thing is still a new concept to both of us. And the person hiring me is a traditional marketer. We speak very different languages, even though we're both aiming, ultimately, at the same goal. He is very organized and thorough! While he doesn't need numbers from me, he wants me planning very carefully where and what I'll be doing. It's going to be hard work, but it's going to be a learning experience.

In fact, the entire trip until now has been a great learning experience.

While I've seen blogs and sites with bullet points about corporate blogging - by which they mean writing a corporate blog - and about professional blogging - by which they mean making money directly or indirectly from blogging - there just aren't any sites talking about what I'm doing. Namely, freelancing or hiring oneself out as a corporate blogger. Which is strange.

I'm learning it all by experience:

- That blogging is marketing, and that familiarity with marketing is helpful.
- That someone coming from the outside is going to have to sell a product that the developers and company owners already know and love.
- That companies who think that they want to hire bloggers want them for links and traffic, not for the primary strengths of blogging, which is customer engagement and relationship building.
- That companies are scared of blogging. Blogging is a tool for captivating users by bringing them the best and most valuable information, which includes outlinking. Companies want to pretend that there is nothing else in the world other than their own company, and are thus afraid of outlinking.
- That the primary qualities of a corporate blogger are, in order: great manners, great writing, great searching ability, niche defining, and only then the traditional blogging skills of SEO and so on.
- That no one knows what to pay me.
- That there's nearly no competition for these positions, and you can probably create one for yourself almost anywhere.

And slews of other stuff that I'm only beginning to crystallize. I will be writing them down as they come to me.

With all the unknowns still looming over me, and not enough written information to guide me, it's going to be a wild ride!

Yehuda

Gosh, it's like they're doing my writing for me

2007-08-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

I don't remember seeing so many articles about how blogging is a SLOW process before my "How I Became a Professional Blogger" post. Sure, there were some, but few and far between.

Now they seem to be cropping up all over the place:

The Wall Street Journal

Performancing on Social Networking

Daily Blog Tips on the Long Haul

Yo, companies: are you listening? Blogging pays off, it just doesn't pay off in a month. Invest in a good blogger.

Yehuda

Status Quo

2007-08-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Posting only once a week isn't going to get me steady readers, I know. So be it. For now, I will just write what I need to write without worrying about that.

I have run into a dissonance between what I am capable of doing and what people want to hire me for. The few companies who want to hire a corporate blogger want to do so because they see blogging as part of the new marketing, which means that they want me to bring in lots of business and lots of links ... quickly.

Unfortunately, maybe that's what a traditional marketer does, but it's not what I do. My blogging and social networking is a slow process. I can create a slow buildup of traffic. I can create a community. I can present a company image and give customers a place to go.

I can't blitz the web, drawing in lots of traffic and increased sales; well, not in two months.

All the permanent jobs that I've seen that required "blogging" are therefore not really for me. They're for a traditional marketer; the blogging aspect was added as a side thought for the job position; the company knows that they have to have a blog, but don't get blogging.

Meanwhile, other blogging jobs which I see are pay-per-post or per-comment are ... how can I put this ... demeaning. The vast majority of these payments are for posts where the content is almost entirely irrelevant. They just want the links. It's cheap and dirty work. It pays next to nothing. Because they don't care what you write, or that you establish a relationship with the people you're writing to.

That's also not what I want to get into. OK, if they paid $50 a post, I could do it for a while, but not forever. And anyway, they don't pay a tenth of that.

What am I looking for? I want to be the Internet point-man of a company. I want to be the guy who finds the conversations around the Internet and ensures that the company gets heard, too. I want to build a reputation as an expert in whatever field the company is in, so that I will get quoted and referred to when people want information about that field. I want to build a sticky site that people will want to come to and participate in. I want to make the company known as a company where at least one employee listens full-time to what the customer wants to say and supports him.

I don't want to sit around measuring how much traffic and sales I made this week. And I don't want to blog garbage just because it will drive up the SEO.

The status is: I'm talking to two companies, and I have to make this clear to both of them. I'm waiting to hear from another 4 or 5 that I sent my resume to. And I'm still scanning the wanted lists for something that pays more than crap for crap work.

I'm still compiling a huge database of information about Web 2.0 sites.

Yehuda

My Current Corporate Blogging Blogroll

2007-08-20T04:57:00.000-07:00

A Blog for Web People
Patrick Burt, Canada. Patrick talks web design.
Better Business Blogging
Mark White, UK. Mark writes about how to use a blog to help your business.
Blog News
Blog feed from Topix. All kinds of blogging news.
Blogger Jobs
Another UK site, finds and posts blog job postings.
Blogger Jobs at Indeed
This is a search string for blog jobs at Indeed.com .
Blogging for Business
Ted Demopoulos, New Hampshire. About business blogging and podcasting.
BlogWrite for CEOs
Debbie Weil, Washington D.C. area. Debbie is a one-woman blogging advocate; this is her blog about blogging for CEOs.
Build a Better Blog
Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, U.S. They give general blogging tips.
Business Blog Consulting
Founded by Rick E. Bruner, but with many contributors. General blogging advice.
Business Blog Wire
Easton Ellsworth, Arizona. Small business blog tips.
ConverStations
Mike Sansone, Des Moines. Genral blogging information for businesses.
Copyblogger
Brian Clark and others. Powerful basic blogging tips.
Debbie Weil
Debbie's other blog about blogging.
Gaping Void
Hugh MacLeod, London, UK. Insights into branding and blogging, and cute meme cartoons.
Internet UltraGeek
Raj Dash, UK? Online promotion and geeky things.
Jim Kukral
Jim Kukral, Cleveland. Online marketing.
Marketing Nirvana
Mario Sundar, San Francisco. Marketing and social media.
Net Business Blog
Dee Barizo, ???. Dee has taken over from other writers. Blogging and monetization.
Performancing
A team of writers. Excellent basics of blogging for money.
ProBlogger
Darren Rowse, Australia. Also excellent blogging basics, and community building.
Return Customer
Joe Rawlinson, ???. How to make customers happy.
SCOUT
Stephen Turcotte, Massachusetts. Blogging information for business.
Seth's Blog
Seth Godin, U.S. More about how to make customers happy.
The Blog Herald
News about blogging.
Web Ink Now
David Meerman Scott, Massachusetts. Social media marketing.
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Jeremiah Owyang, San Francisco. Customer engagement 2.0.

OK. What must-reads an I missing? Comment!

Yehuda

10 Essential Tips for Building Web 2.0 Companies

2007-08-20T03:04:00.000-07:00

I've researched over 500 Web 2.0 companies, so far, and I'm working my way through 5000. Screw around with my suggestions at your own risk.

1. Present all the information I need simply

Everyone likes to be different, but don't be obtuse when it comes to handing out the information I need about your products and company. For your information, here are the names of the pages that must be available from your home page, and every other page of your site:

About

This page is about the site and product, as well as (or contains further links to) the company. The information about the site and product should be ridiculously straightforward. It should not be a company philosophy, a treatise on the Internet or communication, or your skeet shooting trip in Albania. It should not make grandiose claims about how your product has just solved the grand unification theory. It should tell me what your product does, it's main or distinguishing features, and why it will help me.

The information about the company should include: Team, Company, Press, and Contact (Press may be included within Contact). You don't need About Us or Corporate Info links on the home page, as well. Just About.

Contact

Feedback is acceptable, but discouraged, as it is too specific a type of contact. The contact link should not be a direct email address, but lead to a page with several types of contact methods, including a form and at least one main email. And, hello? You are a web 2.0 company. I've reviewed over 500 Web 2.0 companies so far, and only two have given any web 2.0 contact information such as IM, Skype, etc...

Don't use munged or picture anti-spam email addresses. You can set up a spam filter. Don't make me work hard when trying to contact you.

Tour

You can skip the video or Flash tour. If you include it, it shouldn't substitute for the simple About page.

Support

You can also call this Help. Support/Help leads to FAQ, user guides, a telephone number, and other contact info.

FAQ means FAQ, not About. FAQ lists are not necessary unless there are FAQs.

Terms

Or, Terms of Use.

Privacy

May be combined with Terms of Use.

2. Don't assume that I know what you are and do

Some of the sites I visit are so full of themselves that they start by asking me to do something without first explaining what they are. Give me a short description about the site on the top of the home page, and above the fold.

And don't hide your About page!

3. Your company's identity shouldn't be insipid

The first person to use a color and an animal, or a misspelled word, or a lower-case letter in front of a word, as a company name stood out. The rest of you don't. Don't follow the herd, please.

Furthermore, how do you really spell that name, anyway? In the browser title bar, it's spelled "companyName", in your logo it's "companyname", and in your descriptive paragraph it's "Company Name". How do you want me to refer to you?

And what's with the faux-Apple washed out rounded dim or pastel writing? I can't even read it. Don't use light gray, light blue, light pink, or light anything, on white or gray as your text palette. Distinguish between visited and unvisited links.

4. Keep your home Page URL clean

Don't give me http://www.foocorp.com/login.php?sessionid=;JS000000000001 . I want to see http://www.foocorp.com/ or http://www.foocorp.com/index.php at worst.

I'm going to be linking to your site. You don't want me to include a session id in my link, and you want me linking to your home page, not your login page.

5. Don't make your home page primarily Flash

It's large, it's bulky, and it's annoying. Make your home page static, and let me click to open your large Flash application.

I may have Flashblock turned on. Or I want to know what your site is about before I run the software. On slow connections, I don't want to wait for your program to be downloading and I don't want unexpected animation and sound starting up.

Furthermore, your program might not even work in my country. Don't force me to start a big program only to have it complain that I'm not in the U.S. or Canada.

6. Stop with the contextual ads

Unless your company's business model is really entirely contextual ad based, please don't put contextual ads on your site. You're trying to sell me a product. Meanwhile I think you're not really that invested in your product and would rather make some quick cash having me click off your site on the advertisements.

7. Make your product versatile

iTunes may be the most popular music store, but your product should not simply work only with iTunes. It should work with many products, including iTunes.

The same goes for any other proprietary businesses. You shouldn't base your business around someone else's proprietary business. For many reasons.

8. Provide XML integration

Your site should NOT be only an XML source for other sites. On the other hand, Web 2.0 is about integrating the best of what's out there into other products. That's why the best sites have open interfaces. Yours should, too.

Are you really worried that this will mean less visits to your web site? Didn't I already tell you to get rid of the contextual advertisements? Don't worry. The more your site is used, even as a filter, the more you will be able to leverage that usage.

9. Stop with the beta and alpha already

Public sites shouldn't be in Beta for more than a few weeks, and shouldn't be in Alpha at all.

10. Diversify your staff

Want to know something interesting about Web 2.0 companies? I've researched over 500 so far and I haven't seen a single Black or Hispanic person as a founder or executive. ~~Not one.~~ One: Kwaku Yeboah-Antwi of Peekko.com.

In the 500 companies, with between 1 and 4 founders/main executives each, I've seen maybe 20 or 30 women, tops.

Are minorities simply not interested in Web 2.0? Or is this because of whom the venture capitalists pick to fund?

I may be a middle-class white male Jew myself, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not representative of a large proportion of the world's consumers, who may, at least occasionally, want to see someone like them interested enough in your business to be a part of it.

Yehuda

I am not a Blogger; I'm a Customer Engagement Engineer

2007-08-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the word Blogger is not only disrespected out of the online world, but inside, as well.

Outside the blogging world, a Blogger is someone who sits and writes dumb articles about his or her cat, partisan politics without research, flames, or celebrity pictures. Bloggers are not journalists. They do no research. They aren't worth reading. Etc.

I could sort of understand that from outside the Web 2.0 world. What I find harder to swallow is that the attitude inside the Web 2.0 world isn't much better.

In this world, Bloggers are millions of faceless and nameless commoditized text and picture generating machines. Frankly, it really doesn't matter what they say or write, it only matters how many links they write and the traffic they bring.

For this reason, Blogging as a profession gets paid nothing but performance. Bloggers have to write posts of certain length. 300 words, 500 words. They have to include certain links. If they're lucky, they'll get $5 and some of the advertising revenue. Most of the time, it's only the advertising revenue.

Good lord, man. That's not what I do. I don't write endless strings of garbage to bring in traffic or increase your links. I am not a Blogger.

I have spent three years honing the art of building client relationships. I measure the conversation about the brand. I seek out and engage you wherever and whenever you are talking about the company's space. I put a good face on the company, not by spamming, but by positioning myself as an expert and a nice guy.

I produce content that is truly useful to you. I create a client community. I straddle the line between you and company; I'm not happy unless you're happy. My job isn't to swallow up the story, but to make it heard. I want you to know that you haven't simply paid your money and bought a doodad; I want you to know that you have bought a responsive relationship with someone who will guarantee that the money you spent has brought you satisfaction.

I will educate you. I will entertain you. I will highlight your complaints, not bury them, to let you know that the company has heard them and that we take them seriously. I will highlight your happy stories, to let you know that we're happy when you're happy, and that others can have that too.

I will work hard, rest little, keep the lines of communication open, give you more than you asked for, keep you going, and give you something to look forward to.

I am a Customer Engagement Engineer. Calling me a Blogger is like calling someone in Customer Support a "Telephoner" because part of his or her job is to answer telephones.

No, I don't just sit around writing stupid posts.

Yehuda

Whoops

2007-08-15T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm no longer working as a corporate blogger at all :-( .

For the last two months I was working 1 hour a day for a company doing a corporate blog, which was simply a once a day post about some item in their directory. Owing to the lack of windfall returns on the blog, combined with two posts that bothered them, we decided to end it. My vision of a blog didn't really match theirs.

My two mistakes were:

- Embedding a number of videos into a single post. Since I had Flashblock installed, I didn't notice that all the videos began playing as soon as the post was loaded into browsers that didn't have Flashblock. Youtube videos are not a problem with this, as you have to hit click to play the videos. Myspace videos begin playing automatically, and simultaneously. Stupid of Myspace.

- Posting a note about a feature that was dropped from the site a long time ago, even though it is still discussed on the web at large and people found it annoying. My employers didn't want me to discuss it at all.

Sigh.

In the meantime, still researching Web 2.0 sites. I'm compiling my list of funniest, stupidest, best, and so on. One of the funniest is this profile for George W. Bush on Planzo.com, an online calendar site.

I promised one of my commenters that I'd put together a post on the locations that I use to look for Blog job posts. Soon.

Yehuda

Top Ten Rejected Web 2.0 Ideas

2007-08-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

1. Gonorreader - The newsgroup reader that's catching on like a virus.
2. DefrockedPriest - Your secret guide to young and agile web 2.0 religious sites.
3. YelloSno - Mark the web! Leave post-it notes anywhere on a web site. [1]
4. WreckedHum - Music covers. Go deep. Explore. See what you find.
5. Blue Balls - Frustrated at not getting what you want on the web? Click a blue ball and see what pops up!
6. Regurgit8 - Like what you once saw? See it again with this powerful bookmarking site.
7. sCatLog - The hidden web. A directory of what's left after you take out the good stuff.
8. ShoutAtYou - If you're hard of hearing, or you frequent noisy places, just forward your emails to us and we'll yell them at you over your phone. Mobile enable.
9. NotSeeLovr - An anonymous social dating chat site. You never know who you might be talking to!
10. FlemBucket - A Flemish sharing site. Take a drink of our culture and pass it around.

Yehuda

[1] Good grief, this URL exists and is a production company.

Rejections are Hard to Take

2007-08-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

Of the two interviews I had last week, one has now answered saying that they decided to scrap the position for the moment (not personal).

The other still hasn't gotten back to me.

I went on an interview to be a Technical Writer. I could be happy doing that, if the pay and conditions are good. But I'd sure rather be blogging.

If you know of any full or corporate positions available, please let me know!

Yehuda

Dell Did Something Right Once

2007-08-11T13:16:00.001-07:00

According to this article in Business Edge, about corporate blogging.

Yehuda

How you get my business

2007-08-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday, Indexed.

Yehuda

It's Quiet Out There ... Too Quiet

2007-08-09T02:25:00.000-07:00

Status: unchanged.

Last week I went on two blogging interviews. One of them asked me to send them some more info, which I did, but I haven't heard back. The other asked me to send references, which I did, but I haven't heard back.

A company I used to work for as a technical writer wants to rehire me and place me in a permanent outsourced technical writer position, for which I will interview next week.

All week I've been scouring major corporate blog resource sites looking for open blog positions. I find about twenty a day. Of which, two or three look interesting. I inquire.

What I really want is a full-time or part-time position as a blogger/company point man/editor/... What everyone wants from me is for me to write five 300 - 500 word posts a week for which they'll pay me ad revenue, or $5 plus ad revenue, with no other benefits or incentives.

There's one place (Mashable.com) that's willing to pay better and has invited me to submit long, well-researched posts. I'm gathering the research required before submitting to them. Other than that, it looks pretty bleak.

Is this what freelance writing is all about? I don't think I can do it.

I's tempted to say that I think companies don't yet "get it", but that's a cop out. I need to make them see it. My job. My responsibility.

Yehuda

P.S. And this site only has one reader a day (hi, Dee), but I'm too too unmotivated to start pushing it right now. It's not meant to be my money making site.

Does a Corporate Blogger Work Full or Part-Time?

2007-08-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Do companies need full time corporate bloggers?

I think most corporate bloggers start out as drafted internal employees. Corporate blogging is given as much attention as it deserves, while the rest of the time the employee carries on his or her other tasks. Only if/when the blog becomes a full time job does it get treated as such.

If you're working on opening a new blog for a company, does it need a full-time employee?

It Matters How the Job is Defined

For myself, I think it depends on how the service is presented. Companies that know little about blogging think that a blog post is a half-hour a day's work; what is the blogger doing the rest of the day?

I scour the Internet for similar conversations and topics and contribute comments. My name or sig links back to my site, but otherwise I don't go evangelizing.
I read blogs and news about the field and competition.
I do SEO, site design, blog rolling, blog site submission, and so on.
I come up with a few ideas for posts. Then I research what else has been written about the topic. Either I abandon the topic if it's been covered thoroughly already, or I source the material if it hasn't.
I check and recheck for spelling and grammar, eliminate useless words and extraneous thoughts, organize the sentences and paragraphs, redo the title and opening sentence.

In addition, I like to keep a backlog of posts, when possible.

That's really only half the story, however.

To really do a corporate blog right, I do a lot of preliminary research about the field in which the company is situated before the blog goes online.

I want to start by opening a blog and site that is of general use to the world, with barely any mention of the company, other than a disclosure about my employment. With the help of employees of the company, and my own experience, I want to position the blog as an expert resource in the field. This can take a lot of time.

I choose a specific niche that is under-represented on the web. I write 1 to 5 posts a day, sized from short to long. Some of them, at least, have to be great posts. Time will pass before I slip in mention and articles about our own products, if relevant.

There's more, of course.

Even so, after the initial set up I think a corporate blogger could do this as a part time job for a new blog.

For me to be a full time employee, the odds are that I have to also contribute based on my other skills: technical writing, programming, product design, or what have you.

What do you think?

Yehuda

Two Interviews, in Which I Feel Awkward

2007-08-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have to try to be careful when blogging about blogging. It's quite possible, probable even, that the people I interviewed with or work for will read this, sooner or later.

Anyway, I had two interviews for corporate blogging positions today and I felt a little overwhelmed.

I know what I'm doing when it comes to blogging and subsidiary tasks, but this is only the second and third time that I've sat down with people who want to hire me for this type of position. Corporate blogging is quite similar to, and uses many of the same skills as, regular blogging, but in somewhat different ways.

Although I know a lot of the professional tricks of the trade for fast rampups, I've only followed tips and included my blog on blog carnivals and problogger lists and so on. I haven't spent money on a professional campaign for Adwords, blog reviews and talk and so on, even though I know people to whom to turn for that.

I have to answer to the question: why are they paying me? What exactly will I do for them? I can't give numbers and measurements as to what type of effect my work will produce in such and such time.

As a result, in the first interview I felt like I was bumbling along like an amateur. I had suggestions and solid ideas as to how I was going to proceed, but no real answers to exactly what effect it would have. In fact, I've never even really done solid measurements as to how my traffic works and what effect my various techniques have.

I've built relationships with people, which took time. Over the course of three years, I've made myself known in the gaming world as hot on game news, knowledgeable about game topics, a funny and incisive write, and so on. I get clicks from comments I've left on other site's forums and posts. I get traffic from word of mouth. Heck, I get traffic from people reading the inside cover of my game.

How the heck do I measure the effectiveness of all of these things? Are there tools? Blog stats are nice and all, and analytics can measure direct clicks from certain sources, but can't tell you who thought about what you wrote and decided to visit your blog three days later.

Anyway, for this interview I had to admit that I didn't really know the answer to these types of questions. I'm now supposed to come back with a solid idea as to how many hours I'll be working on what types of activities and some guidelines as to what types of effects I expect over what time.

The second interview went somewhat better for me, as the position incorporated not only blogging, but my experience with technical writing, programming, and a number of other of my skills. Many of the tasks I will be required for this position will be instantly measurable (such as, writing white papers and how to articles on the site, the traffic for which is irrelevant).

In the meantime, waiting in my mailbox are two superblog sites that have asked for sample posts to see if they want me to write for them on a per post basis along with dozens (? hundreds?) of other writers.

Yehuda

Five Essential Boosts to Your Company Through Corporate Blogging

2007-08-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

Control the Conversation

Traditional means of interacting with a company were rather distant. As a result, people turned directly to each other on far away forums and groups to discuss your company. That left your company out of the loop.

A blog with an active personality, a name, and a face, invites discussion, comments, and complaints to occur in a single environment. That makes you and your company part of the discussion. And people know that you're listening.

I also think part of a corporate blogger's responsibility is scouring the Internet looking for those stray conversations and (politely) inviting further discussion on the blog.

Pimp the Company

I think it is a mistake for a corporate blog to directly pimp the company, like a series of press releases.

The best approach for pimping a company is to let people know what's happening: bug fixes, new products, and so on, from a relaxed point of view, like a real customer. Not as a seller. You don't want to be selling on your blog.

The indirect approach is that people who come to your blog and hear about your products and site will naturally drift over to your site and products. And if the blogger gives the impression of being a mensch, the entire company is going to look like a mensch.

Bump Search Activity

Your website gets scanned more actively when you're creating new material every day. Blogs generate fresh material for search engines every day. Even better, if what you're writing is generally interesting to anybody, and not simply to people interested in your products or existing customers, you'll be getting links, traffic, and page rank boosts.

Lower Support Costs while Increasing Support

A blog is like a combination FAQ, forum, customer support, and sales brochure all rolled into one. If you've got a long blog and it's well organized, a lot of real customer questions will be answered well on the blog. That means fewer needless calls to customer service.

Make Better Products

Forums are good for fostering customer conversation, but blogs are even better. It's because they're not simply people talking to each other, but people talking to you while feeling like they're talking to each other.

If you're an agile company that wants to know what your customers want and don't want, a high volume blog is your best avenue.

Yehuda

What I Think About Your Blogger Wanted Ad (i.e. Not Much)

2007-07-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

If you want good quality responses to your "Blogger Wanted" advertisements, you have to write an advertisement that will attract good quality responses.

Here are a few problems with the advertisements I've seen so far:

Payment only in advertisement revenue

Imagine if you offered this to your graphic designer or programmer.

I don't mind earning salary plus commission, but commission-only sucks. Besides, you're asking me to earn a commission on writing about topics you choose, when I could be writing on my own blog about topics I choose, earning more, and not having to split the commission.

Long lists of (bad) topics

If your advertisement includes 50 different topics including every annoying celebrity, I'm not that interested. First of all, you're probably only paying commission. Second of all, I don't really want to blog about the life of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears for any length of time.

No company feeling

When I work for a company, I think people, boss, co-workers, contract. If I freelance, I think colleagues, editors, contract.

Your advertisement has to make me think that you're serious people to work for, and not simply casting about for a money making scheme. I want to work for and with dependable people with phone numbers. I don't need to become friends, but I want to establish a real person to person relationship.

No idea, period

Look, if you're going to hire a blogger, you should know how blogging works. Bloggers are not simply PR machines, and slapping a blog onto your site isn't going to automatically produce 1000 inlinks and 20,000 readers in a week. Especially if you want to micromanage the blogging content and have it all be about your company.

Yehuda

Hey! When Did I Become a Marketer?

2007-07-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

It suddenly struck me as I was walking home this afternoon that I had shifted professions into the marketing profession.

I arranged two interviews today, one of which occurred while I was walking home. When I asked the person on the phone with whom I would be meeting, she said the marketing department. That's when it hit me.

I'm a marketer. Of course, I should have realized this.

Corporate blogging is about selling a brand and controlling the user conversation. I've even said so myself. It's just that I have been so wrapped up with the subject matter about which I would be blogging.

The subject matter about which you blog is entirely irrelevant. Blog about a new high tech doo dad, vacation in Europe, long distance phone service, or MTV. It doesn't make a difference. If you're being paid to blog about them, you're a marketer.

I've always kept track of the best in professional blogging and branding blogs to create my own blog. I knew that the latter were important to selling my blog. It just never occurred to me that that I was learning how to do this as a profession ... until I started doing it.

Good God! I've been a technical computer professional for 18 years! I'm going to have to start writing marketese! My soul! What will happen to my soul?!

Yehuda

The Story So Far

2007-07-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Three years ago I started blogging I became a technical writer instead of a web programmer. After three years of technical writing, I moved into professional blogging.

Theoretically, there's nothing wrong with technical writing. I simply found that most of my clients were extremely difficult to work with and most of what they wanted me to write was crap. Or, I would write, and no one would read it.

Furthermore, despite the fact that I had 14 previous years of technical knowledge before I began technical writing, I found that technical writers are treated as the low end of the food chain. Which is rather strange. Technical writers are the interface between your products and the user, even more so than your GUI, online help, or customer support. Sure you can use these three things to substitute for technical writing if you really need it, but it sure is a waste of time and money.

Anyhoo...

I left a technical writing position and applied for a programming job at company A, but when I showed up, I said that their company could use a blogger and I would prefer to do that. And they accepted.

Some people think that being a professional blogger means easy street. Yes, I'm finally doing work that I really enjoy. But I still have to work hard at it, and I'm being paid less for my time than a technical writer.

That's because company A didn't have a budget for a blogger, and therefore was willing to try me out only on a part time basis for half of a low salary.

In addition, company A didn't have any real expectations of what a blogger was supposed to do or how blogging actually works. I found myself being asked less than a day after the first post as to where all the traffic and increased viewers were.

After two weeks of this, company A came to realize that they weren't really interested in paying me for the slow ramp up over several months that blogging would accomplish, nor investing the several hundred or thousand dollars in a marketing campaign.

Furthermore, they weren't really interested in my writing about anything other than the great features of company A. Which, as any blogger will know, does not a popular blog make.

Still, writing daily about a company does have an important effect. Search engines pick this up and it keeps the company's name active in search results. Investors and reporters like this.

So they weren't interested in the traffic building aspects of blogging, only in the daily post about a feature on the site. This resulted in our reducing my working hours to only 1 hour a day.

While this was happening, I got more ads going on my personal site. I'm being paid about the same for both blogs: from company A for the company blog, and from ads for my private blog. Each about $250 - $400 a month.

To live in Israel, I need a minimum of around $2000 a month. $3000 is more like it. $4000 or $5000 is comfortable.

That means that I'm looking for more part time blogging opportunities which will fill in the other hours of my day. Figure 1 hour a day for company A, an hour for my personal blog, and that leaves me 6 to 8 hours for other companies. If I get 1 large assignment, or a few small assignments, earning around $1500 to $2500 a month, I'll be making a living, working hard, and enjoying myself.

But easy street? Certainly not. Not until I find myself writing a popular blog which gets so much ad income that I can work for only a few hours a day. I'm envious of those bloggers who can pull in $100 a day or more in ad income. I would have to change my topic niche to accomplish that.

Yehuda

Should a Corporate Blog Outlink?

2007-07-27T11:42:00.000-07:00

One of the first issues I ran into with my first corporate blogging position was the issue of outlinking to other blogs in my niche.

On my personal blog, outlinking is a no-brainer. Aside from making your blog more valuable for your readers, when you outlink you get inlinks.

If someone is interested in one blog about board games, the odds are that they are interested in others, too. So long as I know that my content is quality, I'm not afraid of losing the readers to other, better bloggers.

The same theory should hold true for corporate blogs.

Firstly, when you outlink from a corporate blog, you get inlinks. That increases your page ranking and gets you traffic, not just to your blog, but to your site, if your site hosts your blog.

Secondly, when you outlink you provide service to your readers. That usually makes them return.

A corporate blog's job is not necessarily to promote the blog, but to promote the product or web site.

If your site relies on web traffic, the more you direct people to your site as opposed to letting them flit about on others, the more traffic. Then again, if your content isn't good, they won't stay on your site anyway. And if it is, they'll come back anyway.

If you outlink to a competitor, it's may be a sign of strength. Like the movie Miracle on 34th Street, when Macy's began directing customers to its competitors for products that Macy's didn't carry, sales at Macy's grew. People liked the friendliness and the service; they knew that they were going to leave satisfied, and that the company cared about them and not just some small transient sales.

But if you outlink to competitors, be extremely careful not to diss the competition - you'll look mean and desperate. On the other hand, you don't need to praise them up the wazoo, either.

If readers end up looking elsewhere for a similar product that you carry at around the same price, that's a lost sale. There's no point losing sales for no reason; let other sites do their own advertising.

Your decision as to whether or not to outlink, and if you do, how to do it, might be guided by legacy company policy. Outlinks may go through a filter or traffic analysis tool, or you may be required to (or want to) open outlinks is a new tab or window.

Yehuda

Welcome

2007-07-25T07:59:00.001-07:00

This blog is going to be about corporate blogging, a subject only sparsely covered in the blogosphere.

In particular, I have been a regular old blogger for over three years, and recently made the switch to being a professional corporate blogger. Which means: I get hired to blog for companies.

There are a number of differences between a standalone blog and a for-hire corporate blog:

You don't monetize a company blog.
You don't care how many readers you get or how many hits your blog gets. A corporate blog exists to increase traffic to your main website.
A corporate blog is used to control the conversation on the Internet. So that if someone has something good or bad to say, they have a place to say it.
A corporate blog is used to foster a community out of an already existing community, or to create a new community around a specific topic. You can't just pick any old niche or write linkbait on whatever you want.
There are trade secrets and legal repercussions to what you write.
You have to consider outlinks to other sites in your field - these are now not your compatriots but your competitors.

And many more, which I will discuss as I think about them.

In the meantime, welcome to the blog, enjoy, and say hello.

Yehuda

How I Became a Professional Blogger

2007-07-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

Originally posted here.

I didn't really plan it, but I dreamed it.

1. First of all, when I started blogging I knew I had something to offer. One of my strengths is the ability to come up with new and creative ideas. Sometimes what I come up with falls flat, but I always have another three or four ideas waiting as a follow up.

Everyone has something to offer about something. Whatever you are good at or know about, other people will be interested in it. Worst comes to worst, by blogging you'll be practicing your writing and organizational skills. Even if you just do it for fun, like most people.

2. I picked a subject that I'm passionate about to begin with. I really do play games, and I really do evangelize about them. And I really believe the things I write about (at least at the time that I write them).

3. I wasn't afraid of failing, because I started from nothing: no audience, no readers, nothing to lose. When I got some readers, I thought: well, the worst that can happen is that I post something lame or offensive and I lose them all. In which case I'm no worse off then when I started.

4. I have lots of dreams, and only so much time to devote to them. In order to succeed with this one, it was necessary that I made blogging a daily priority. Especially at the beginning, when I didn't necessarily have anything to write, I wrote anyway. I scoured news and web sites. I made it a point of writing every day (at first, three times a week), regardless. Often, usually, about halfway through writing something, I realized that I finally had something to say. I then erased everything I had written and started over.

Sometimes the ideas only start flowing after the pen hits the paper; most people want it to be the other way around, but this doesn't work for me.

5. Since I wasn't getting paid for this, I had to justify the time spent to myself, to my wife and family. I had to fight adversity and answer questions like "why am I playing around on the computer?" Because I am laying the groundwork. I am spending the time now to get better at it, until one day I may be in a position that I will have enough experience and enough traffic, or be offered a blog position, so that I can quit my other jobs.

In the meantime, the time spent is no more wasteful than the time spent in school that you don't get paid for. It's education. It's experience. It's building habits and working through errors. Especially getting those errors out before I have a big readership, when failure becomes a bigger problem.

It was also a commitment; because even if only one other person is expecting me to write something, I feel a need to write for that person, money or no money.

6. I turned to the professionals: Problogger, Performancing, Gaping Void, Seth Godin, Copyblogger, Kathy Sierra, and so on. Some of these are specifically about blogging, while the others are about branding. Both are key. Professional blogging sites help you with the technical stuff: how to be a good blog citizen, how to network, how to optimize, how to write content in attractive ways. Branding/Marketing sites help you identify what you have to offer, how to connect to what people like to read, and how to tap into the creative process. There's an overlap between the two, of course.

7. Not only did I find myself in a good niche (board gaming), but I found things that weren't being covered in my niche and covered them. There are blogs with session reports and reviews about Eurogames, war games, Go and Chess, but basically none that cover all board gaming - which, by the way, is my interest. I collect and report on daily gaming news that nobody else reports. I cover game patents because nobody else does them. I write game poetry because, um, I'm crazy (but I like to do it, and few others do). I maintain an up-to-date blogroll like no one else does.

I also branched out into a few other subjects, when I found myself with something particularly unique or interesting to say (well, at least something that I found interesting, anyway).

8. Any person who has played a negotiation or trading game can tell you that you have to trade promiscuously to win. As such, I am promiscuous with my links. I link to all the hundreds of people that I love and read. If only 10% of them link back to me, thats still hundreds of people with one link (from me), and dozens of links back for me.

9. I maintained focus on my readers. I don't write for transient hits from Google or Digg. Not that I reject them, but I don't make that my focus. If my post isn't good enough for the regular readers, it's not good enough. On the other hand, my regular readers do get a wide range of topics covered.

I RSS full feed. Anyone who subscribes to my feed doesn't have to jump through hoops to get my content. I can count on them coming to my site a few times a year at the very least, which is a heck of a lot more than the other billion people on the internet. I'm not going to purposely annoy them.

I try not to annoy my readers with ads. I played around with ads and rejected most of them because they would annoy me if I went to read the site. I use only a small ad on the top. I use affiliate links to sites where I would also buy products, and which don't pop-up or interfere with the flow of text. I began writing reviews only of sites that I thought contained at least something that I would be interested in, anyway (and rejected many others).

Yes, it's a little extra work to tune ads properly and add all the affiliate links in my posts, but I got used to it. With little exception, I don't think I've annoyed my readers too much.

10. After I had experience in blogging - three years, now - I looked for the opportunities. There are blog positions advertised online, and there are companies that looked like they could use blogging help.

A. The direct results:

By post number 1000, I had made $75, which I gave back to my readers in the form of games. I'm now up to around $50 a month in Text Link Ads ($35), Google Ad-Sense ($12), and Amazon ($3).

Not very impressive, I admit. However ...

B. The indirect results:

I landed a professional blogging position at a company. I went in for a programming position and offered instead to be their company blogger. And they accepted.

I have had a game published by a publisher who is one my readers.

I've received dozens of free games to review.

My writing is getting better all the time.

I know hundreds of great people around the world.

I've had articles published in professional journals around the world. I've even been interviewed a few times on various subjects.

I know a lot about my field and interest.

I'm enjoying myself.

And you can do it to, if you really want to.

Yehuda

P.S. You may also want to read my Ten Lesser Known Secrets of Blogging.