Wait! Hold the presses!! We're not done yet!!! The saga continues. . .

Last week, I started a series of posts dealing with the future of blogging. I asked several Internet mavens who were obviously experts on the subject to comment on some questions I posed to them. Many did. Needless to say, this site has been inundated with traffic to those posts. I swear, you'd think nobody had ever written on this topic before! :-)

Part one featured comments from several Internet marketers including Seth Godin, and part two featured three of the four co-authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Today, I want to feature two other commentators: Amy Gahran and Steve Rubel. As you will see Amy is one of the most prolific writers I've ever read, not only on the subject of blogging, but pretty much anything she sets her pen to. Steve is a PR strategist with more than 10 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He writes extensively about blogging at Micropersuasion.com.

Normally, it's "ladies first." But, since Steve's comments are a bit more concise than Amy's, I'm listing them first. If you read parts one and two, you'll enjoy part three as well. Here are their comments. . .

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Top25Web.com offers a suite of three search engine optimization tools worth checking out: PageRank Value, Ranking Report, and Link Popularity.

I'll let you in on a little secret. . .I'm working on a post called "The Future of Blogging, In Their Own Words." I asked a few questions of some Internet and blogging movers and shakers (some of whom have actually responded. . .an act of generosity for which I am truly grateful) regarding their opinion of the future of this publishing medium.

I would list their names. . .you would likely recognize them. . .but I don't want to let the cat "too much" out of the bag. The post will contain little more than their quotes. Having read them, I can tell you we will all be getting a "post-graduate level education" in what the Internet is really all about, and blogging's role in it.

I'm waiting on a couple of others who indicated they would respond - and am going to harass a few who haven't responded at all - before I post it. It should be up sometime next week.

(BTW, if you feel you qualify as a "mover and shaker," email me at pchaney -at- gmail dot com with your quotes.)

This is a bit off-topic for this site, but bears enough importance to warrant comment. . .the blogging going on at the Democratic party convention. Let me say up-front that I am not a Democrat, nor a supporter of their party's platform. That's not the purpose behind this post, however. Just a disclaimer.

What is of note is something that B. L. Ochman said on her blog, "Traditional media will have to take note or they will be left behind in bloggers' dust. It's inspiring and exciting to see this sea change."

Blogging will become ensconced as a formidable publishing medium. To quote ChangeThis.com, "Blogging is the populist response to the media hegemony: a sea of independent voices."

Traditional media better wake up and pay attention. Small business ought to as well. Blogging is here to stay.

Check out this Technorati search on the blogging at the convention.

Each Friday I want to offer an online resource that is not only cool, but helpful as well. A couple of Friday's ago, it was the Dictionary.com toolbar. Today, it is a new online personal archiving service called Furl.

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In case you didn't know it, there is a huge debate among techie early adopters as to whether RSS will replace email as the haute couture publishing medium. Following are links to three of the most articulate commentaries on the subject. . .

• Chris Pirillo - 10 reasons why RSS will kill email publishing.



• Christopher Knight - 22 reasons email is not dead.
and


• Ed Brill gives a reasoned response to both sides of the argument.

Here's an interesting article from Entrepreneur.com. It's interesting for two reasons. First, there is cautious optimism that the dotcom world may be making a comeback. Second, the diversity of the people bringing it back. Case in point, Cameron Johnson, the 19 year-old CEO of CertificateSwap.com. Ah, but don't let me give away the plot. Check out the article.

In a word. . .YES!!!

If you plan on designing your own small business website, even if you use WYSIWYG tools like Dreamweaver or Frontpage, you still need to know HTML. It's the basic language of the web. Before I go into my rant listing the reasons why, here are a couple of links to basic HTML tutorials: Davesite.com, W3Schools.com. These will get you started.

Here's my list of reasons why you need to learn HTML (Feel free to add your own in the comments.). . .

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While I don't yet have any of the coveted Gmail accounts to sell, barter, or give away, one thing is certain. When I do, I will offer one or more to the troops. (After all, I have a brother stationed in the middle east.)

Here's a riff I found on the Marketing Vox website. . .

People can sell their Gmail accounts, auction them, trade them for odd (very odd, it seems) services, and now, thanks to a couple bloggers, donate them to soldiers serving overseas. The sites, GmailForTheTroops and Gmail4Troops, ask people with extra invites to the Gmail service to donate them. . .to "make 'em feel loved and connected."

I couldn't believe it! Within five minutes of posting my shameless request for a Gmail account on GmailSwap.com, I received invitations from two generous souls, April and Anthony. (Anthony did ask that I mention his blog, Soup-a-Tech.) I extend my personal gratitude to both these folks. Thanks!

Just a thought, if enough people extend Gmail invitations to enough other people, it just might prove to be a path to world peace! (OK, so maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but you never know. One thing for sure, a Gmail invite does create a lot of goodwill.)