"God of the Blogosphere, please bless Bob Bly. He didn't really mean to offend you. He just didn't know of which he spoke. He has served penance enough at our hands."

That's my "prayer" for Bob today, based on the article in DM News he wrote yesterday. He has been roundly trounced by bloggers ever since. I know, I was one of the trouncers! (But not in a mean-spirited sort of way!)

I feel a need to give some background to this story. Several weeks ago I emailed Bob to ask why he wasn't blogging. I felt he was a prime candidate to use the medium. He told me he didn't see the point really. In his defense, he did suggest that he needed to learn more about blogging. (And, boy, has he gotten an education in the past two days!)

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Business Blog Consulting's Rick Bruner wrote an extensive post in response to Bob Bly's article in DM News dismissing business blogs as superfluous. While I don't share Rick's vitriol, I do feel he has something substantive to say.

I do take some exception with Rick regarding the tone of his post. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. According to one blogger who communicated with Bly via email, after getting feedback from several bloggers, he is considering giving blogging a try. I'm afraid Rick's rant will only serve to calcify Bob's previously held opinion.

The only reason this means so much to me is that I'm quoted in his article, so I feel I have a stake in the game.

Ultimately, it is good that this conversation take place. If blogging is going to be once-and-for-all embraced by the business community, there needs to be a clear understanding of what it is and how it can help achieve the ROI that Bob suggested was missing via its use.

Yesterday I conversed with Lipsticking's Yvonne Divita regarding an idea I had for creating an association of professional business bloggers, or something to that effect. A group that could promote the craft of business blogging to corporate America and small business alike.

She referenced a recent post by Wayne Hurlbert on the need for a business blog "chamber of commerce." I read the post and I LIKE IT!

Waynes suggests that the purpose of the Blog Chamber of Commerce would be to "help organize business, marketing, public relations, economics, human resources, employment, and other related blogs into a mutual assistance and promotional organization." Sounds like a plan to me! Let's be sure small businesses are included in the mix.

There are many voices evangelizing the benefits of business blogs. Singularly, we can each have some effect. Together, our effect can be exponential. In my opinion, something like this is not only badly needed, but very timely. If we are to push business blogs once and for all into the mainstream, we need to do it with a concerted effort.

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Cowboys featuring the iconoclastic legend John Wayne. My favorite line from that movie is where Wayne's character Wil Anderson says "Come on, boys. We're buring daylight!"

Well boy and girls, "we're buring daylight!" Who is going to get the ball rolling on this? Wayne, it was your idea. You want to start it? Yvonne, what about you? Debbie, BL, Rick, what say you? Anyone else want to chime in? Please feel free. As for me, I'm willing to do whatever is needed to get it going.

Noted freelance copywriter and author of more than 50 books, Robert Bly, is no friend of business blogs. Don't get me wrong, his arguments are well-founded and reasonable. I have an immense amount of admiration and respect for Bob and his opinions. (It didn't hurt that he called me a "blogging authority" either!) However, I think that in this case, his is a rush to judgment.

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Rich Ord has become my new best friend. No, we don't know one another, but he is a friend of business blogs. And any friend of blogs is a friend of mine!

In yesterday's post I ranted a bit about Robert Bly's objections to business blogs. Today, I want to simply share some insightful opinions from Rich regarding the future of business blogs. In an article entitled Blogs: Influencers First, Businesses Next, he makes several noteworthy statements...

• The real power is in the Borg-like ability of hundreds of thousands of blogs to collectively think (assimilate) and spread information. Listen up old media … Resistance is futile!



• Business blogs designed for marketing and public relations will eventually have a similar significant impact (as political and news blogs). Business people already use the Internet as their main source for political news. It seems sensible that blogs will transition to become their primary filter for professional news as well.



• Over the next few years, targeted blogs delivering coveted niche audiences of decision makers will thrive financially. Advertisers will pay a premium to connect with these hard to reach individuals. These niche blogs will evolve to become sucessful independent businesses as they reach traffic levels that interest corporate marketers and ad agencies.

Business blogs have already become vital sources for hard-to-find information. Face it, blogging is here to stay!

Just noticed this article by B. L. Ochman on why advertisers would do well to consider buying space on blogs. Keyphrase: Narrow niche.

Ever have something good just fall out of the sky when you weren't even expecting it? Well, that happened to me following my interview with Susannah Gardner regarding the Dummies book she's writing Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies. I've been given the job of serving as Technical Editor for the book!

English author Horace Walpole called such an occurance Serendipity. The Cajuns of south Louisiana call it Lagniappe. I call it a Blessing, for which I am very grateful!

I just had a conversation with Susannah Gardner, the author of an upcoming Dummies book entitled Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies. The book is due to hit the shelves the first week of March 2005.

Susannah, or Susie as her friends call her, is writing the book from a business and marketing perspective rather than as a basic book on blogging. When asked why Wiley, the publishing company behind the Dummies series, wanted to take that tact as opposed to a more basic book, she referred me to Acquisition Editor Melody Layne. As it turns out, it is a market-driven decision that makes perfect sense. Here is what Melody had to say:

The Dummies series looked at the topic of blogging for well over a year. We also looked at how other basic books on blogging were doing in the marketplace-- not very well. The conclusion that we came to was that we needed to do a book that addressed how people were using blogs, not just how they were setting them up.

Setting up a blog is easy enough if you're going with a free hosting service. It gets more complex when you decide to host your own or roll in RSS feeds. There's plenty of technical stuff you can cover, but the blogs that have captured the public's attention over the last year or so have either been ones that give people insight into the workings of a company or a political campaign or blogs that act as independent news outlets-- getting current events info and insight out into the world that isn't as easy to obtain from the professional press.

A plain blogging book just wouldn't have cut it, and it probably would have been misshelved. We want this book in the business section of the bookstore, where the people who need it are more likely to find it, not the tech section where mostly techies, who are already blog-savvy, are shopping.

Never fear, among other content the book will include sections dealing with things like HTML, different blogging platforms, writing for blogs, etc. (The stuff a basic book on blogging might consist of.)

As with all Dummies books, it will have a practical, how-to point of view that includes best practices, case studies, and issues surrounding legal ramifications. Susie hopes to make a case for business blogging by talking about it helps to build better customer-relationships and create an open, more transparent look inside the company or corporation. The goal, of course, is to build customer loyalty and create customer evangelists who will spread the company's message on their own.

Susannah admits that she is not an avid blogger herself, but that she knows many bloggers. She is a self-confessed "lurker" in the blogosphere. I asked her point-blank if she felt she understood blogging from the inside out. She indicated that she did. With her extensive internet and journalism background (She co-authored another Dummies book, Dreamweaver MX 2004 for Dummies), I have no doubt this will be a well-written, comprehensive book that will scratch an itch among business bloggers.

Want to drive traffic to your small business blog? Who doesn't. Here's a great article from Blogger.com's Biz Stone on exactly how to do that. Some of the tips relate to Blogger sites only, but many apply across the board. I am trying to follow his guidelines and would encourage you to do the same.

According to Technorati founder David Silfry, there are more than 4 million blogs in existence today, with a new one being created every 7 seconds.

Nearly half of those are abandoned within six months of publication. That leaves 2 million, which is still a lot. Of that number, there are only about 5,000 corporate blogs.

Here's the real point I want to make from what he said. . .

Sites that have RSS feeds typically have more inbound links than those sites that choose not to publish a feed. And those non-feed bloggers are still the majority with only 31.2% of blogs syndicating via a RSS feed.

What does that mean to you as a small business blogger? Simply that by the addition of an RSS feed to your blog, you'll see an increase in traffic.

Most popular blogging platforms include the capability of syndicating content. If yours does not, I recommend you read this article by Amy Gahran called How to Create Your Own RSS Feed (Amy is a very practical person when it comes to article titles.) It's an excellent primer on the subject.

(Information gleaned from Seach Engine Lowdown)