Saw this in an article on EContentMag.com. . .

The wild and wooly blogosphere itself will not make money for many, including blog networks like Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc. Nevertheless, blogs are already proving to be powerful audience retention devices for known media brands. Some B2B sites report that up to 10% of daily traffic now goes to columnist blogs.

Blogging is less a business model than a thoroughly compelling communications model that keeps users coming back two and three times a day more effectively than standard content refreshes. Accept it and get sponsors for it.

"Thoroughly compelling communications model" is the phrase that jumped out and grabbed me. That pretty much sums it up. Blogging is not so much a business model, as it is as a tool for enhancing marketing communications. It's a traffic magnet that no small business should be without.

I was contacted by Aboavista, a company based in Finland, about linking to a series of articles produced by their CEO Steve Jackson. (A good Finnish name, don't you think?)

The articles have to do with improving website conversion rates, which really is not key topic of this blog. But, because I'm a nice guy I decided to go with it.

Here's the first in a series of three. I'll post the other two in subsequent weeks. Oh, and they offer a free ebook entitled Learn Before You Spend. Feel free to download it.

If this is a topic of interest to you, let me refer to an excellent blog on the subject, Conversion Rater.

A movie on the life of the late Ray Charles, simply entitled Ray, hits theatres across the country Friday, October 29. I plan to be one of the first in line to see it, for I have a profound appreciation and respect for the man and his music. To say that Ray Charles was anything less than an icon would be to do a severe injustice to the man and his legacy. I'm also very interested to see Jamie Foxx's portrayal of him.

But, this post is not a movie review. It is to ask a question and make a singular point. The question is: Why is there not an official blog to go along with the movie release? More on that in a moment. The point I wish to make is: Movies and blogs are made for each other.

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I've had the privilege recently of dialoguing with a college student in Hawaii by the name of Shin. Here are some excerpts along with comments from me.

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Pheedo has just rolled out their new RSS ad managment system called the SimpleAd Network. This provide blog publishers with the ability to monetize content through targeted ads in RSS/Atom feeds.

In addition, Pheedo has created a link exchange program called the SimpleAd Traffic Exchange. This is designed to drive traffic to blogs using text ads. The principle is that when you promote another blog who is a member of the exchange on your site, your blog gets promoted on someone elses. The goal is to increase traffic to participating sites.

(One disclaimer: I started running the ad exchange script on my blog, and some pretty off-the-wall stuff started showing up which had nothing to do with internet marketing. So, I decided it's not in my best interest to use the exchange just now. I've asked Pheedo if there is a way to qualify the types of ads that appear. This is something they are working to improve. If you join the exchange just be sure and categorize your ad. That should help.)

Pheedo's new system is the latest attempt to help bloggers generate revenue streams. Others include Blogversations, Blogads, and Google Adsense.

I came across an ebook the author said could be given away, so I am. It's 50 Ways to Promote Your Website. Some of them are obvious, and some not. At the very least it might give you some ideas you hadn't thought of. Click here to download it.

WOMA = Word Of Mouth Advertising

The old has become new again. Everyone has always known that word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising. It costs nothing. It's honest, real, authentic, genuine. Successful businesses have been built on it. Others killed by it.

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My favorite RSS reader (and more), Pluck, is rolling out a new brandable OEM version. What does that mean for your business? Namely that if you serve RSS feeds, you can provide your readers with a branded version of Pluck that contains your feeds as well as relevant feeds from other sites.

Here's a heads-up I got from Jay Velanju at Pluck...

OEM was always in the plan. Personally I think OEMing is going to be key to our success. We had to wait on two things though:

1. We needed to be feature rich so people would be interested in OEM deals. We're finally there from a feature point of view.



2. We needed to get a few people (like you) who were interested to help guide us forward from a market point of view.

So listening to you helped us decide what to include for OEM deals...

The non-profit for which I work had contacted Pluck some months ago about doing something like this. Hopefully, if all goes as planned, the new OEM version will be available soon after the first of the year.

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

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.