Click To Hit

Another really good article completed by Steve Rubel who's work I've followed in the past. This one surrounds business blogging, but drills down to some of the hard to describe value propositions surrounding corporate use of blogs and how they may cost effectively and significantly impact marketing efforts for any business looking to close that emotional divide with their customers and prospects. He even cites some great examples I have also brought up in the past like Channel 9:

Today, Microsoft has more than 1200 corporate bloggers - more than 10 times the number it had just last year. They have the company's blessing to write about whatever they want, provided they adhere to some basic guidelines. As a result, virtually overnight the bloggers have become one of the company's greatest marketing assets, generating incredible online and offline word of mouth.

He describes how blogs really differ due to their structure, and how that structure changes the way information flows through the net:

What makes blogs unique is that they are easily discovered and social in nature. Weblogs facilitate transparent dialogue by incorporating tools that encourage readers to give feedback through comments and emails. In addition, since many blogs link to each other, they are often found engaging in an exchange across the Internet, just like two friends conversing on a street corner.

It's this intimacy factor that has really changed things, and why blogging is growing at such a phenomenal rate. But for me personally, the biggest and most profound statement found in this article is the simple two sentences he closed with:

While some might dismiss blogs as a fad, I can assure you they're not going away. And right now they are one of the most cost effective tools you can use to reach influencers who will recommend you to others.

'nuff said, read the article.

I have no idea how credible this story is since I've never come across the service, but I must say this is a pretty big accusation whether it's true or not. Even if it is true though, they have about 70 customers so I don't necessarily blame MSN for overlooking this one if there was no trademark, but it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

No actual law-suits have been filed as of yet so make up your own mind on this one…

Is this a milestone? One of many that have and will come.

From Politics to competing with journalism blogs are here to stay so they say.

I agree from allot of perspectives, but journalism and catching stories with cameraphones and immediately publishing them are examples of how blogs are perceived by the media… a potential threat? Maybe… a revolution? More likely.

The blogging “phenomenon” is the birth of a new way of consuming and distributing data. It's just a tool so that everyone can share and be heard. Other tools will emerge, but this is the groundbreaker that will foster a major industry.

“We are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other,” said Mr Nachison.

On this point, I couldn't agree with you more Andrew

We finally completed our move up to the additional office space we took upstairs in the building next to the main office. The environment really has a neat vibe to it. We even have a garage door for our meeting room for what it's worth but I definitely like it.

2005 is off to a great start, a slew of email to catch up on and some big implementations have taken up the majority of my time but things are great and there is a beautiful energy developing in all of our teams as we head off into what I think will be a very prosperous year for the Bovine crew. I can't wait to see how some of our efforts turn out over the next couple of quarters… Stay tuned!

Some impressive numbers for you to consider. Here is a link to the actual report in PDF format, but I have provided some of the juicier details for you to chew on:

-    Over 7% of Internet Users in the US have created a blog, that is a number in excess of 8 million customers while at the same time only 38% of Internet users even confidently know what a Blog is.

This means that almost 19% of anyone who knows what a blog is has created one of their own, or basically 1 in 5-6.

-    27% of Internet users regularly read blogs, 12% have commented or contributed content to blogs, and over 5% use RSS aggregators to consume dynamic content through blogs or Interactive websites.

Blogs are changing the way surfers interact with the Internet. A basic portal to information is morphing into an experience connecting Internet users professionaly and personaly. Connectivity is becoming an application that provides more value to their lives.

-    Likely Blog Creator Profiles:

    57% are male
    48% are under the age of 30, while 52% are older
    70% have broadband at home
    42% have a household income over 50K US
    39% have college degrees or better

Blogs are not only the realm of teenagers and geeks any longer. They have entered almost every demographic and as the knowledge of this application is spread so will the diversity of the customer base.

Holidays are almost done with a return to the office on Monday, but purposefully ignoring your email inbox can result in tragedy.

Forget to fund your reseller account? Well NO DNS FOR YOU!

Thankfully we have online credit card payment options, so estimated downtime? about a couple of hours until I noticed and a few minutes post that.

The Tucows DNS service is really good and I have never had any issues with it. It has a really easy to use control panel, and here is the kicker in emergency situations like this once you have noticed a problem…. 5 minute TTLs