Gimzoo

Business blogs are blooming

Business blogs are booming.

Business blogs are also blooming.

The idea of adding a business blog to a business website appears to be picking up steam.

Business owners and managers are catching onto the value of a business blog for their search engine power. They are also recognizing the power of a business blog to communicate with their customers, business associates, and the news media.

The number of business oriented business blogs continues to grow.

Business blogs are in a bull market.

Rick Bruner at Business Blog Consulting is attempting to catalogue the many great business blogs that are appearing everywhere. Rick reports that he has discussed and linked to almost 200 business blogs.

Business blogs are indeed blooming.

Here are just a few recent examples.

Jennifer Rice, at the must read What's Your Brand Mantra? has begun to compile a list of companies that use blogs successfully.

Bill Slawski of A Nasty Bit of Business is also a featured contributor to Cre8tive Flow. Bill has begun to highlight some outstanding business blogs as well.

Business blogs are growing in number.

Business bloggers are also helping to market and promote one anothers blogs.

The future looks bright indeed for business blogging.

Blogs and gifts

Here I am again with a birthday post.

Birthdays usually bring along visions of presents.

Bloggers often think in terms of gifts too.

Did you ever notice that many bloggers have an Amazon.com wish list?

On the Amazon.com wish list, a person registers and then lists the merchandise they would like to receive.

The most frequently requested items are books, movie DVDs, and music CDs.

To receive as gifts.

I don't have an Amazon.com wish list, but they must work, because there are lots of them out there in the blogosphere.

Perhaps some people, who have such a registry, could relate their experiences.

Do people actually receive gifts from their wish lists?

By the way, I am always open to receiving gifts, donations, and incoming links.

:-) :-) :-)

Today is my birthday

Well, today is my birthday.

I'll have to think of a birthday, and perhaps gift related post for the occasion.

Blogs and money: A fun topic

Blogs and money.

Some observers say they mix about as well as fire and water.

Blog critics believe that blogs can never be money makers.

So far, the returns have favoured the doubters. The vast preponderance of blogs fail to produce any revenue whatsoever.

Of course, from that vast and overwhelming majority, we must remove all of the blogs, where the owners flatly do not want to make any money.

In a nutshell, many bloggers refuse to have any commercial or revenue producing streams associated with their blogs at all.

Once that group of purists is removed from the equation, we see some bloggers starting to make some progress toward monetization.

The problem is that the journey to cash is a slow one.

The first halting steps toward making a living as a blogger are slow and often painful ones.

In a post about blog revenue, The Blogfather invites bloggers to tell him about their blog revenue. The Blogfather mentions how some of the big name bloggers are already on a revenue producing path.

I would think the money trail will eventually move lower into the more mainstream blog pecking order over time. Some mid level blogs will start to produce some dollars for their owners too.

I am attempting an experiment by offering my readers free magazine articles. Simply click on the rotating display ad and take advantage of the no strings attached free magazine offer. I get a small commission from each free magazine subscription claimed.

So far, the experiment has been good. Many of my readers are getting the free business and industry magazines. Since they are available to readers world wide, that helps a lot.

I'll keep everyone apprised of the experiment.

Right now, I depend upon my blog as a general advertisement for marketing my skills as a freelance writer.

My blog also highlights my knowledge of search engine optimization, for those businesses who want their websites to rise in the search engine rankings.

The use of the blog, as a resume, is still a work in progress.

Highly regarded baseball blogger Aaron Gleeman of Aaron's Baseball Blog and The Hardball Times has asked readers for donations to purchase a computer. Aaron's donations request was very successful for him in purchasing a new computer.

Perhaps there is still some future, for the "tip jar" type donations, for favourite and most informative bloggers. The donation system appears to work best however, as a one time donation of support, for bloggers in need.

I have requested, in the past, that my readers provide financial assistance to Jennifer at Drink this. Jennifer was experiencing severe money problems. She could still use a bit of cash to help her out. If you click over to Drink this, don't forget to show your monetary support for Jennifer.

She deserves your support.

There will be many ways to make cash from blogs in the future.

Some methods will include an advertising model. Some bloggers will gain commissions from book and music album sales as affiliates.

There will be blogs that return cash in ways as yet unknown.

Some bloggers will refuse to receive any money for their blogging efforts at all.

It appears to be a mixed bag right now.

We'll follow this idea in the future.

Let's follow the money.

Carnival of the Canucks: Blogs in the Great White North

Canadian bloggers write great blogs.

If you ever doubted that concept, all you have to do is take a surf to an installment of Carnival of the Canucks.

This week, the Canadian blog caravan makes its stop at Jennifer Vetterli's fine Circadian Shift blog.

Jennifer's hosting of Carnival of the Canucks features some of the finest bloggers from the Great White North.

Many of them are well known around the blogging world. Others simply need a little wider audience.

The posts vary from busines to food, with some Canadian tourism tossed into the recipe. There are advice and helpful hints blogs, plus a number of posts on the Canadian Federal Election.

Yes, it's true.

There are more elections out there in the world than what you see on the television news. Here's your opportunity to catch up on voting in Canada.

I have an entry included in this week's Carnival of the Canucks.

Jennifer has taken the liberty of including my post on links and content for search engine optimization entitled "Links vs. Content: They both count".

That post has found the rare situation of being part of two Carnivals, as Jennifer points out to her readers.

"Links vs. Content: They both count" was also included when Richard Stokes of Startup Skills hosted the May 23 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists.

I am flattered by all of the inclusions in the various Carnivals.

Anyway.

For future editions of Carnival of the Canucks, check out the Carnival of the Canucks home page.

In the meantime.

Take a trip north to Canada and experience some Canadian bloggers at Jennifer Vetterli's hosting of Carnival of the Canucks.

It's Spring in Canada.

You won't get too cold!