﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"><channel><ttl>60</ttl><title>Business Blogging Tips</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com</link><lastBuildDate>Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:33:49 GMT</lastBuildDate><pubDate>Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:33:49 GMT</pubDate><language>en</language><copyright /><itunes:subtitle> </itunes:subtitle><itunes:author /><itunes:summary /><description /><itunes:owner><itunes:name /><itunes:email>dsorles@gmail.com</itunes:email></itunes:owner><itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit><itunes:category text="Arts" /><item><title>Adam Bouska and the NOH8 Campaign and the Power of Social Media Groups</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/03/14/adam-bouska-and-the-noh8-campaign-and-the-power-of-social-media-groups.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/adambouskacollagenoh8.jpg?a=94"&gt; &lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;Photographer &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.bouska.net/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;ADAM BOUSKA&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;became a LGBT activist quite by accident. He calls it "&lt;EM&gt;accidental activism&lt;/EM&gt;". Gosh, he has come a long way in the 6 years we have known him!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;We met Adam in 2003.&amp;nbsp; He was living here in the suburbs of Chicago and had just graduated college where he studied Computer Science. &lt;A href="http://www.bluemenphotography.com/" target=_blank&gt;Being a photographer myself&lt;/A&gt;, I was always on the lookout for fresh new young talent. I met Adam and asked him to pose for me. During the shoot, he confided that &lt;EM&gt;Computer Science &lt;/EM&gt;was not really his passion. And though he was dabbling with modeling, it was the art of photography that really intrigued him. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;It was also at this time we were delving into&amp;nbsp;&lt;EM&gt; computer science&lt;/EM&gt; and blogging and social media. Shortly afterwords, Adam moved to Southern Californina. We stayed in touch now and then through&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://www.myspace.com/bouska" target=_blank&gt;MySpace &lt;/A&gt;and watched as his young budding career began to blossom. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;It didn't take long and his name was sprouting up everywhere!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;In November 2008, &lt;A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008)" target=_blank&gt;Proposition 8 in California&lt;/A&gt; happened. California wanted to put a stop to the idea of gay marriage. The defeat of Prop 8 provoked a groundswell of activism within the LGBTQ community and many new political and protest organizations were formed in response to the defeat. It was like Stonewall was happening again!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: right; CLEAR: right"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/adam_bouska_photographer_male_models_chicago_michael_snell.jpg?a=10"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Adam, his partner Jeff Parshley &amp;nbsp;and some friends attended the Prop 8 rallies in Los Angeles. Afterwords, they got so emotionally stirred they knew they wanted to do something,&amp;nbsp; to make some kind of statement. He and a dozen friends went to the store and bought some paints and duct tape, went back to his apartment and shot photos. Using photography as his voice, Adam placed tape over their mouths and painted the now famous NOH8 on their cheeks, and the next day posted their images to MySpace and Facebook, to demonstrate their silent protest.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Before he knew it, a dozen more friends wanted to do the same thing . Adam shot more photos and those friends also posted them online. The next month 30 of &lt;EM&gt;their&lt;/EM&gt; friends wanted the same photos! It started to grow exponentially. In the 6 months that followed it exploded and nearly&amp;nbsp;500 people had been photographed and pictures were flooding the Internet. VIRAL MARKETING IN ACTION! And it was not even planned!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: right; CLEAR: right"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/adam_bouska_male_model_photographer_chicago_noh8_cher.jpg?a=57"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Soon celebrities want to join in and show their support. To date, 3,000+ faces have been shot by Adam and his team for the NOH8 Campaign. &lt;FONT size=2&gt;The campaign began with portraits of everyday Californians from all walks of life and soon rose to include politicians, military personnel, newlyweds, law enforcement, artists, celebrities, and many more.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Cindy McCain&lt;/STRONG&gt;, wife of former Presidential candidate Senator John McCain,&amp;nbsp;&lt;A href="http://www.accesshollywood.com/cindy-mccain-silently-gets-vocal-for-noh8-campaign_article_28040" target=_blank&gt;was even photographed by Adam&lt;/A&gt;,&amp;nbsp;speaking out on behalf of gay marriage rights as part of a popular ongoing photo campaign. "Cindy McCain wanted to participate in the campaign to show people that party doesn’t matter – marriage equality isn’t a Republican issue any more than it is a Democratic issue. It’s about human rights, and everybody being treated equally in the eyes of the law that runs and protects this country.”&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.noh8campaign.com/video/adam-bouska-jeff-parshley-on-msnbc" target=_blank&gt;The NOH8 Campaign has received overwhelming support from around the world&lt;/A&gt;, appearing on various local and national news programs and publications. The images are currently being used on various social networking sites to spread the message of equality, predominantly Facebook and Twitter. Eventually the images are expected to be compiled for a large-scale media campaign. &lt;A href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEatd5PF08c" target=_blank&gt;The group just shot their 3rd PSA&lt;/A&gt;. There has been talks of&amp;nbsp; billboards, possible&amp;nbsp;calendar, coffee table books and even a documentary.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/8/1/2/8/0/218463-208218/jeff_parshley_adam_bouska_noh8_prop_8.jpg?a=85"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Just last month the team shot 500 people in 5 hours in New York City. Adam hopes to tour major cities soon, doing more open shoots and spreading the message across the country. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Thanks to the power of Social Media and the interconnectedness of the Internet these days, we can make a statement about who we are and show the world our messages.&amp;nbsp;Whatever those messages may be. &lt;STRONG&gt;Internet Marketing is WHERE YOU NEED YO BE&lt;/STRONG&gt;. &amp;nbsp;&lt;EM&gt;Print is so last century!&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;EM&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.noh8campaign.com/store-items" target=_blank&gt;&lt;EM&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;THE NOH8 store online &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&amp;nbsp;has t-shirts, bumper stickers, tattoos and my favorite, THE BRACELET!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Funds raised by the&amp;nbsp;NOH8 Campaign will be used to continue promoting and raising awareness for Marriage Equality and anti-discrimination on a global level through an educational and interactive media campaign. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.bouska.net/" target=_blank&gt;Adam Bouska&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.myspace.com/bouska" target=_blank&gt;Adam Bouska MySpace&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.facebook.com/AdamBouska" target=_blank&gt;Adam Bouska FaceBook&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://twitter.com/bouska" target=_blank&gt;http://twitter.com/bouska&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.noh8campaign.com/" target=_blank&gt;NOH8 CAMPAIGN&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.noh8campaign.com/articles/category/news-blog" target=_blank&gt;NOH8 NEWS BLOG&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Michael&amp;nbsp; Snell and Derrick Sorles&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com" target=_blank&gt;Web 2.0 and Social Media Strategies&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</description><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/03/14/adam-bouska-and-the-noh8-campaign-and-the-power-of-social-media-groups.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">b3d20379-d054-489e-b4e7-2955a4faa533</guid><pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:50:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>A Few Blog Tools For You To Try</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/03/14/a-few-blog-tools-for-you-to-try.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/feed_shark_brain_bliss_ping_pinging_tools.jpg?a=40"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Pinging your site really isn't necessary these days. However, if your site is coming up poor in search engines and maybe you want to try to give it a boost, this certainly can't hurt.&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://feedshark.brainbliss.com/" target=_blank&gt;FEED SHARK&lt;/A&gt;&amp;nbsp; will&amp;nbsp; ping your site on command and send out pings to about 2 dozen sites. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Want to make sure your RSS FEED is working properly? Use&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://validator.w3.org/feed/" target=_blank&gt;W3C Feed Validator&lt;/A&gt;. They also make a good &lt;A href="http://validator.w3.org/checklink" target=_blank&gt;LINK CHECKER&lt;/A&gt;&amp;nbsp; which can check your links and anchors. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;SPAN style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline"&gt;&lt;FONT color=#346ba4&gt;Copyscape&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt; &lt;/STRONG&gt;– allows you to track down other sites that are stealing your content.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;SPAN style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline"&gt;&lt;FONT color=#346ba4&gt;&amp;nbsp;Only Wire&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/SPAN&gt; &lt;/STRONG&gt;– a bookmarklet that submits posts to multiple social bookmarking sites at once.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Make sure that you join &lt;A href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/" target=_blank&gt;Google Webmaster Central &lt;/A&gt;- they have lots of tools there and some tips for quality guidelines you should be following.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Useful Tips</category><category>Useful tools</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/03/14/a-few-blog-tools-for-you-to-try.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">afabe1a3-d276-4354-a125-bf3ce751b919</guid><pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:18:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Blogging For Profit and Money is Being Looked at by  FTC</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/09/blogging-for-profit-and-money-is-being-looked-at-by--ftc.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/blogbloggingformoneyprofitftcrules.jpg?a=51"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;Many online publishers &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;have been able to turn their hobby/passion into a small business.&amp;nbsp; Once you have a following&amp;nbsp; and&amp;nbsp; good&amp;nbsp; search engine rankings, many companies will start coming to you with press releases and offers to be featured on your site. They want to reach your readers. Some will even pay to advertise on your site.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;We get hundreds of press releases each month. Businesses wanting to be featured on our sites. It's just like a magazine or any other publication. Free things are given all the time, with the hopes the writer or publication will write about the product.&amp;nbsp; But now the FTC wants disclaimers ran.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-ALIGN: left; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; COLOR: #000000; OVERFLOW: hidden; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; TEXT-DECORATION: none" id=TixyyLink&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;A href="http://www.ftc.gov/" target=_blank&gt;The FTC&lt;/A&gt; has always looked&amp;nbsp; very hard at product advertising and the claims that are made.&lt;EM&gt;&amp;nbsp; "I lost 50 pounds using Fat - BeGone!" &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Now comes a big can of confusing worms!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Now it is being stated that bloggers who get freebies and perks and cash incentives for reviews, are being looked at with the same scrutiny and the reviews are &lt;A href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm" target=_blank&gt;legally classified as advertising&lt;/A&gt;.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;EM&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/EM&gt;The paid reviews &lt;/STRONG&gt;are supposed&amp;nbsp; to adhere to the same laws as other types of advertising, including the existing legislation against "&lt;EM&gt;false and misleading claims."&lt;/EM&gt; -&amp;nbsp; But when I read the documents from the FTC, I believe this means, if the reviewer is giving the product a &lt;STRONG&gt;personal positive &amp;nbsp;endoresment &lt;/STRONG&gt;and &lt;STRONG&gt;making certain claims&lt;/STRONG&gt;, it must&amp;nbsp; be disclosed if money and/or free goods&amp;nbsp; were&amp;nbsp; exchanged. &lt;STRONG&gt;But it is very confusing.&amp;nbsp;So I called&amp;nbsp; Betsy Lordon in Public Affairs, who asked me to submit my questions by email, which I did, twice, and no one has answered them.&amp;nbsp; It's been&amp;nbsp; 45&amp;nbsp; days!&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Bloggers and writers who do reviews should look closely at the FTC&amp;nbsp; document and there are a couple phone numbers listed below &amp;nbsp;as well. I think the &lt;STRONG&gt;biggest caution &lt;/STRONG&gt;is for the writer to &lt;STRONG&gt;be careful not to make claims that can not be verified&lt;/STRONG&gt;.&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Does this apply to personal opinions?&amp;nbsp; The FTC&amp;nbsp; document does not really&amp;nbsp; say.&amp;nbsp; If a restaurant gives me&amp;nbsp; a free dinner to review them, and I say they have the best Tiramisu in Chicago! And&amp;nbsp;I think they do! Does that require disclosure of the free meal I was given?&amp;nbsp; Do movie critics who get to see movies at free press screeenings,&amp;nbsp; disclose they got in for free? I don't see the NY TImes&amp;nbsp; book&amp;nbsp; reviewers disclosing that they got free books to review. And what if it's a bad review?&amp;nbsp; Do we still have to disclose anything at all??&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-ALIGN: left; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; COLOR: #000000; OVERFLOW: hidden; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; TEXT-DECORATION: none" id=TixyyLink&gt;&lt;EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;
&lt;DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-ALIGN: left; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; COLOR: #000000; OVERFLOW: hidden; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; TEXT-DECORATION: none" id=TixyyLink&gt;To stay compliant with the new FTC paid blogging regulations, bloggers&amp;nbsp; are now supposed to disclose&amp;nbsp; when they get paid to&amp;nbsp; write and review about a specific item as well as keeping their paid post in compliance with product advertising laws.&amp;nbsp; So that means we need to, allegedly, &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;include a small disclaimer somewhere within the blog post about our relationship with the product/advertiser.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm" target=_blank&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Read moreabout FTC RULES&lt;FONT size=+0&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Contacts - Betsy Lordon&amp;nbsp; @&amp;nbsp; Public Affirs&amp;nbsp; 202-326-3707&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;Richard Cleland&amp;nbsp; @ Consumer Protection 202-326-3088&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com" target=_blank&gt;Web 2.0 and Social Media Consultant / Strategist&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=+0&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>News and Events</category><category>Recommended Reads</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/09/blogging-for-profit-and-money-is-being-looked-at-by--ftc.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">bef6e653-4601-4a7a-a04a-8db68bfa6964</guid><pubDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:26:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Tonys Crispy Crust Pizza and Social Media</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/03/10/tonys-crispy-crust-pizza-and-social-media.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;P&gt;&lt;EM&gt;This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of &lt;A href="http://socialspark.com/metrics/click/disclosure?slot_id=196432&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tonys.com%2F" rel=nofollow&gt;Tony's Pizza&lt;/A&gt;. All opinions are 100% mine.&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/tonys_crispy_crust_pizza_best_frozen_pizza.jpg?a=84"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;PIZZA?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt; &lt;BR&gt;On a Business Blogging Site? &lt;BR&gt;You are probably asking, &lt;BR&gt;&lt;EM&gt;what's this all about&lt;/EM&gt;?!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;As the power of Social Media grows, everyone is trying new ways to reach their public.&amp;nbsp; We have been a&amp;nbsp; member&amp;nbsp; of&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://socialspark.com/" target=_blank&gt;Social Spark&lt;/A&gt; for&amp;nbsp; some time. We were contacted recently and asked if we wanted to have some new&amp;nbsp; Tonys Crispy Crust in the office to try and review,&amp;nbsp; and&amp;nbsp; I said&amp;nbsp; SURE! We love Pizza!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;So yesterday we picked up three (of the reasonably priced) frozen pizza's.&amp;nbsp; Tony's&amp;nbsp; new&amp;nbsp; CRISPY CRUST&amp;nbsp; Cheese, Pepperoni and Supreme, and sampled them all. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;The new crisp crust is baked, which I love, and has zero trans-fat. It's a new odd, smaller shape, than the traditional 12" pizza's you might be used to. Most 12" pizza's you buy in the frozen foods run about 15 ounces. This new shape is 8.5"&amp;nbsp; and about 9-10 ounces. And priced right. About $2 at most stores.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;LOOKS&lt;/STRONG&gt; - Like MOST &amp;nbsp;foods, the inside product NEVER looks like the real product.&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Could have used more cheese.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; 1 out 5&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;TASTE&lt;/STRONG&gt; - I like the crust - And we all liked the flavors. I thought it would be crispier however.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I prefer&amp;nbsp; thinner and crisp as opposed to heavier and&amp;nbsp;thicker.&amp;nbsp; Overall&amp;nbsp; 2.5 out of 5&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;OVERALL&lt;/STRONG&gt; - I would it average. But I rate almost all frozen pizzas average.&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For the price, a couple bucks, I think it makes a good&amp;nbsp; kids pizza. &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; For adults, I think we want more.&amp;nbsp; But to get more, you have to pay more.&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; So at the end of the day, I would give them a 3&amp;nbsp; out of 5. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://socialspark.com/metrics/click/post?slot_id=196432&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tonys.com%2F" rel=nofollow&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;Tony's Pizza&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://socialspark.com/metrics/click/disclosure?slot_id=196432&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tonys.com%2F" rel=nofollow&gt;&lt;IMG style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" border=0 alt="Visit my sponsor: Free Samples" src="http://socialspark.com/metrics/view/post?slot_id=196432&amp;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fsocialspark.com%2Fimages%2Fdisclosure_badges%2Fdisclosure_badge_grey_three.png"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;EM&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;Business Blogging Consultants&lt;BR&gt;Web 2.0 and Social Media Strategies&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</description><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/03/10/tonys-crispy-crust-pizza-and-social-media.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">87d4ff90-400b-43ad-bf5a-922e3a2ad545</guid><pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:48:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Betty White - Facebook - and The Power of Social Media</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/02/22/betty-white--facebook--and-the-power-of-social-media.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/8/1/2/8/0/218463-208218/betty_white_SNL_Facebookhostgayicongoldengirls.jpg?a=28"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;I &lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#cb55ca&gt;work in Social Media&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt; &lt;BR&gt;10 hours a day, 6.5 days a week. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;I GET IT! &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;But a lot of people under-estimate the power of the people. There are still many&amp;nbsp;businesses that have not tapped into the power of the Web 2.0 and Social Media Networks. &amp;nbsp;When a &lt;A href="http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/02/05/betty-white-saturday-night-live/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#0177c2&gt;recent grassroots campaign&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt; involved both Facebook and a beloved Golden Girl, the scope of its influence cannot be underestimated.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;A couple months ago, someone on &lt;A href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Betty-White-to-Host-SNL-please/266442514828?v=info" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000&gt;Facebook started a campaign to get the 88-year old Betty White a spot on SNL&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;.&amp;nbsp; People laughed. Even she laughed!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;EM&gt;"I don't even know where that came from,"&amp;nbsp;&lt;/EM&gt;says&amp;nbsp; White&lt;EM&gt;,&amp;nbsp; "That just came out of left field. It's ridiculous. I don't think ['SNL' creator and producer] Lorne Michaels even knows about it, so we won't worry about it."&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Today, sources&amp;nbsp; say &lt;EM&gt;Saturday Night Live&lt;/EM&gt; is &lt;EM&gt;thisclose&lt;/EM&gt; to signing TV legend Betty White to host the&amp;nbsp;show for the very first time. 
&lt;P&gt;But she would not have to host it alone. &lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;We hear &lt;EM&gt;SNL&lt;/EM&gt; is putting together a “&lt;STRONG&gt;Women of Comedy”&lt;/STRONG&gt;&amp;nbsp;episode that would team&amp;nbsp; White with several of her younger contemporaries. Ex-&lt;EM&gt;SNL&lt;/EM&gt; MVP Molly Shannon is on board,&amp;nbsp;we hear, and feelers have also been put out to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. (An NBC spokesperson insists no one has been confirmed at this time.)&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P sizset="103" sizcache="5"&gt;This tag-team approach will&amp;nbsp;allow Lorne Michaels&amp;nbsp;to appease White-on-&lt;EM&gt;SNL&lt;/EM&gt; zealots (&lt;A href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Betty-White-to-Host-SNL-please/266442514828"&gt;&lt;FONT color=#0177c2&gt;half a million and counting&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;!) without making the 88-year-old shoulder the burden of all 90 minutes on her own.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;This is the power of Social Media at work!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Web 2.0 and Social Media Strategist&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>News and Events</category><category>Interesting data</category><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/02/22/betty-white--facebook--and-the-power-of-social-media.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">b9e83c00-d618-4e52-b105-7edc00f1c4e7</guid><pubDate>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:31:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>10 Stages of Web 2.0 and Social Media Growth</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/14/10-stages-of-web-20-and-social-media-growth.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/social_media_ideas_web_2_0_networking_blogging.jpg?a=73"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;What is the secret to being found? &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;to the Web 2.0?&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;to Social Media? &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;There is no&amp;nbsp;ONE &amp;nbsp;secret! &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;It's many pieces of a pie. And if you only have a website for your business, you only have one tiny piece. You need many more pieces!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;This graphic is not a great visual but it does show a variety of pieces to be considered.&amp;nbsp; There was also a great article on &lt;A href="http://mashable.com/" target=_blank&gt;Mashable&lt;/A&gt; this week by&amp;nbsp; Brian Solis. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;We have been preaching this for&amp;nbsp; 4&amp;nbsp; years&amp;nbsp; now - and Brian think's the time is right.&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;"&lt;EM&gt;At last, 2010 is expected to be the year that social media goes mainstream for business. In speaking with many executives and entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed that the path towards new media enlightenment often hinges on corporate culture and specific marketplace conditions. Full social media integration often happens in stages — it’s an evolutionary process for companies and consumers alike."&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;We often refer to the process of staging a big broadway show. It's done in steps and is a slow growth process, to reach the finish line. He does a great job of outling the &amp;nbsp;ten most common stages that businesses experience as they travel the road to full social media integration. It's takes time. It does not happen overnight. But you simply MUST be a part of this new world or your business will be left behind the dust. There is a great distance between where&amp;nbsp;you &amp;nbsp;are today, and where&amp;nbsp;you need to be.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/social-media-integration/" target=_blank&gt;Read Brians full article outlining the 10 stages of growth&lt;/A&gt;.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;EM&gt;Derrick Sorles&lt;BR&gt;Blog, Web 2.0, and Social Media Consultant&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Tips To Get Traffic</category><category>Recommended Reads</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/14/10-stages-of-web-20-and-social-media-growth.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">c6a3f85e-7966-4d53-947f-251e39773090</guid><pubDate>Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:25:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Trademarkia Provides Advanced Trademark Search For FREE</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/07/trademarkia-provides-advanced-trademark-search-for-free.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="CLEAR: left; FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 3px"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/trademarkia_business_blogging_tips_social_media_marketing_consulting_services_1.jpg?a=38"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;This may seem a little off topic but I'm sharing this because I know many readers are small business owners and or some of you may be planning to launch a business in 2010 and I've found this an extremely useful resource in the business building BS we've been dealing with in our Gay Travel Online Publishing. 
&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;It's easy to search patents on the Internet, but trademarks are still lost in government websites that are not particularly search-friendly.&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.trademarkia.com/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Trademarkia&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt; makes trademark search a breeze. &lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Trademarkia let’s you search all U.S. trademarks filed since 1870, including dead trademarks. The company has scans of all the marks and returns results in a very appealing visual grid. You can search by company, theme, product category, or even filing attorney. Companies can also file a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office through the site.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;DIV style="CLEAR: right; FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 3px"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/trademarkia_business_blogging_tips_social_media_marketing_consulting_services_2.jpg?a=84"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Trademarkia is an&amp;nbsp;excellent resource for anyone researching trademarks, companies getting ready to file a trademark, or even product and brand logo designers. It operates much like a domain registrar like GoDaddy. Instead of searching for available domain URLs, you search for trademarks, and if they are available, you can register them for a fee.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;On &lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.trademarkia.com/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Trademarkia&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;, for example, you can search all trademarks with a certain image you may want to use to make sure you are not duplicating someone else’s trademark. You can search for dead trademarks as well, and if you like one, you can register it for $159.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;You can also can look at all trademarks registered to a company, or sort them to see just the trademarks the company has allowed to expire making them currently available!&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Web 2.0&amp;nbsp; Consultant and Social Media Marketing Strategist&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell - We Help&amp;nbsp;"Pull" New Business To You!&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000 size=2&gt;Your Business MD's&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Business Blog Consultants&amp;nbsp;and Internet Marketers&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;</description><category>Interesting data</category><category>Useful tools</category><category>Useful Tips</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/07/trademarkia-provides-advanced-trademark-search-for-free.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">8262a429-ddd5-42ea-bfdb-84891999e210</guid><pubDate>Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:11:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Web Analytics Showdown: Woopra vs. Google Analytics</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/06/web-analytics-showdown-woopra-vs-google-analytics.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/woopra_and_google_analytics1.jpg?a=15"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;We have actually used&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://www.woopra.com/" target=_blank&gt;WOOPRA&lt;/A&gt; for the last 1&amp;nbsp; 1/2&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; years, as part of their&amp;nbsp; Beta&amp;nbsp; test program. I loved it. It's a great analytics tool and gave me real time live information about my visitors and the opportunity to even start a live chat with them, while they were on my site! Woopra is the world’s most &lt;STRONG&gt;comprehensive&lt;/STRONG&gt;, information rich, easy to use, &lt;STRONG&gt;real-time&lt;/STRONG&gt; Web &lt;STRONG&gt;tracking&lt;/STRONG&gt; and &lt;STRONG&gt;analysis&lt;/STRONG&gt; application. Pretty cool stuff. But now that they have come out of Beta, it comes with a price tag. Whereas Google is all free. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Guest&amp;nbsp; Author&amp;nbsp; DANIEL&amp;nbsp; FOSTER&amp;nbsp; from&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://royal.pingdom.com/" target=_blank&gt;Royal Pingdom&lt;/A&gt; did an article recently about the two services. "&lt;EM&gt;Google Analytics blows Woopra out of the water where cost is concerned. GA is free for anyone with a Google account and will track a large number of page views for up to 50 sites.&lt;/EM&gt; 
&lt;P&gt;&lt;EM&gt;When I started using Woopra six months ago, it was in beta and free for testers. Halfway through writing this review, however, the developer released it for general use and modified the price structure.&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;EM&gt;A free version is still available, but with major limitations. Freebie accounts are restricted to 30,000 page views a month and data is only stored for 3 months. Small text ads appear at the bottom of the client.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;EM&gt;For $4.95 a month, the limit is upped to 100,000 page views and ads are removed. Considering that Woopra updates in real-time and offers such a great user experience, I would be willing to pay this fee if only for one thing: data is retained for only 6 months. Pricier plans store data longer, but even the $49.95 Platinum plan, which tracks 1.25 million page views a month, only keeps statistics for 24 months. &lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;EM&gt;Considering the low cost of storage and the importance of long-term visitor data, this is unacceptable. The limitation can be bypassed by manually exporting data, but this is tedious and forces the user to keep track of the files. While not as streamlined as Woopra, Google Analytics stores data forever at no charge."&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Read&amp;nbsp; his&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/10/30/web-analytics-showdown-woopra-vs-google-analytics/" target=_blank&gt;full article on WOOPRA VS GOOGLE ANALYTICS&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;EM&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Business Blog Consulting, Web 2.0 and Social Media Strategists&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Web 2.0</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2010/01/06/web-analytics-showdown-woopra-vs-google-analytics.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">f87c9550-3e15-4c64-9b0e-50bdc2bf69b4</guid><pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:51:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Compressing Photos and Saving Images for the Web</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/12/06/compressing-photos-and-saving-images-for-the-web.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/compressingphotosimagesfortheweb.jpg?a=86"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;While we are all painfully aware Google will not divulge their recipe for a site's success, we do hear about bits and pieces that are leaked, and make sense to follow.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; People often ask us, what can I do to get my site ranked higher in search? The reality is it is 101 different little things.&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Hopefully you have a Google account and use their Analytics and Feedburner and countless other free tools like&amp;nbsp; the&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&amp;amp;answer=35769" target=_blank&gt;WEBMASTER GUIDELINES&lt;/A&gt;. The Guidelines provide a lot of common sense tips that is worth reading annually, to make sure you are doing your best, so that Google gives you the proper treatment when it comes to ranking your site. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Recently I realized I was not compressing my photos and images for the web. A habit I used a long time ago but go away from it, in an effort to save time. It is one extra little step, but can make a difference on how fast your page loads. And I was told Google is now factoring in&amp;nbsp; LOAD&amp;nbsp; TIMES to their equation of how a site is ranked. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;So when you use in image on your site, make sure it is &lt;EM&gt;compressed&lt;/EM&gt;&amp;nbsp; or&amp;nbsp; &lt;EM&gt;saved for the web&lt;/EM&gt;.&amp;nbsp;JPG is the best choice. GIF is the second best choice, and never&amp;nbsp; use&amp;nbsp; BMP. &amp;nbsp;If you have &lt;A href="http://www.cobourginternet.com/compress.htm" target=_blank&gt;Windows XP there is a way to do it there - if not most photo programs like PhotoShop&lt;/A&gt; can do the job easily. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;It's one more little step. I know, but will help your site load faster and at the end of the day, it can't hurt!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Web 2.0&amp;nbsp; Consultants and Strategists&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell - We Help&amp;nbsp;"Pull" &amp;nbsp;New Business To You!&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000 size=2&gt;Your Business MD's&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Business Blog Consultants&amp;nbsp;&amp;amp; Internet Marketers&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</description><category>SEO</category><category>Useful Tips</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/12/06/compressing-photos-and-saving-images-for-the-web.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">dfade5cf-44fc-4ab1-a40a-d2788fd07c63</guid><pubDate>Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:21:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>How Important is Google  Page Rank Anymore?</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/11/11/how-important-is-google--page-rank-anymore.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;DIV style="CLEAR: left; FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 3px"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/googleprpagerank.jpg?a=26"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;Being a professional blogger for&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;4&amp;nbsp; years&amp;nbsp; now, I have been conditioned to follow certain metrics, like&amp;nbsp; Google&amp;nbsp; Page Rankings. Lately however, Google is doing a lot of tweaking and revamping and peoples&amp;nbsp; PR&amp;nbsp; is jumping up and down like crazy. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Startling news from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa&amp;nbsp; now&amp;nbsp; comes&amp;nbsp; fourth....&lt;STRONG&gt;that Google has ditched PageRank &lt;/STRONG&gt;from Webmaster Tools. 
&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;"We've been telling people for a long time that they shouldn't focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it's the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true," states Moskwa. "We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it." (Source: WebProNews)&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;SO NOW WHAT? If you work hard on your site and build it's repuation, how do you tell the real good sites from the posers?&amp;nbsp; PR&amp;nbsp; was a&amp;nbsp; way, at a glance, to get a glimpse of a sites authority and realness. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Now we just have to guess?&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;This could be a big problem I think.....&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>SEO</category><category>Facts and Myths</category><category>News and Events</category><category>Interesting data</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/11/11/how-important-is-google--page-rank-anymore.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">3a19e1da-c97b-43d3-8ca4-5b2efcbd2ddb</guid><pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:46:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>ZEMANTA - Blogging Just Got Easier and Faster</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/08/08/zemanta--blogging-just-got-easier-and-faster.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/zemanta_blog_faster_and_smarter_blogging_tips.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;H2&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;&lt;EM&gt;Focus on writing the best content. Let us jazz it up for you.&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/H2&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Simple point &amp;amp; click enrichment of your blog posts (and emails). In real-time, while you type.&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;They suggest tags, links, photos, related articles, and more! How much easier can it get?!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;With&amp;nbsp; &lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.zemanta.com/bloggers/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;ZEMANTA&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;, you download&amp;nbsp; a simple &amp;nbsp;browser extension. When&amp;nbsp; you open your blogging software, &lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;BEFORE - &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/zemanta_blog_blogging_tips_advice.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;AFTER - it adds bars on the side and bottom to help you quickly import pre-selected images, links and tags, saving you time searching for them!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/zemanta_blog_blogging_tips_advice_save_time_tags_tagging.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Lets you quickly add&amp;nbsp; Amazon links and Social Media friends as well.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Of course, it does not work with&amp;nbsp; EVERY blogging platform yet. But it does for most!&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P &gt;&lt;A href="http://www.zemanta.com/bloggers/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;ZEMANTA&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>Useful Tips</category><category>Useful tools</category><category>Search Engine Optimization</category><category>Web 2.0</category><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/08/08/zemanta--blogging-just-got-easier-and-faster.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">47c96788-053f-4bef-bb94-c434a36db40b</guid><pubDate>Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:52:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Blog Engage - Homophobic?  Let the  Readers Censor You!</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/07/08/blog-engage--homophobic--let-the--readers-censor-you.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;P&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/clipart_red_circle_slash.gif"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/blogengage_blog_engage_sucks_censorship_anti_gay_homophobic.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=5&gt;JUST&amp;nbsp; SAY&amp;nbsp; NO!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; To&amp;nbsp; Blog&amp;nbsp; Engage!&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;We first wrote&amp;nbsp; about&amp;nbsp;&lt;A href="http://businessbloggingtips.com/2008/02/28/blog-engage-may-help-get-you-traffic.aspx" target=_blank&gt;BlogEngage in 2008&lt;/A&gt;.&amp;nbsp; It sounded like a cool tool. &lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;But I recently found out they were censoring my gay travel submissions! My sites &lt;STRONG&gt;are not &lt;/STRONG&gt;sexual in nature and quite popular with people seeking&amp;nbsp; LGBT travel&amp;nbsp; info.&amp;nbsp; We&amp;nbsp; are on page one of Google for about 3000&amp;nbsp; keyword combinations currently, have a page rank of 5, and attract over 40,000&amp;nbsp; unique readers a month from&amp;nbsp; 150&amp;nbsp; countries.&amp;nbsp; We also attract the attention of tourism boards worldwide as well as national advertisers. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;MyBlogLog,&amp;nbsp; BlogCatalog, FaceBook, and many others have no problem with my sites. But apparently, some right wing homophobics keep complaining my gay travel sites are "sexual in nature" - which they are not. &lt;STRONG&gt;So as of today, I am removing all links to Blog Engage, from all of my sites that have been promoting them. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;You gotta love censorship, right?&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Michael Snell&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>News and Events</category><category>Web 2.0</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/07/08/blog-engage--homophobic--let-the--readers-censor-you.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">6c67c81c-54c1-4632-bbab-a43e898839b7</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:04:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>BloggerBase Can Help Find New Readers and Earn You Money</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/06/19/bloggerbase-can-help-find-new-readers-and-earn-you-money.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="CLEAR: left; FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 3px"&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.bloggersbase.com/?rl=mGy7GxwReP0%3D"&gt;&lt;IMG alt="Join BloggersBase" src="http://www.bloggersbase.com/images/rl/going.jpg" border=0&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;P&gt;BloggersBase provides a discovery platform for bloggers, user-generate-content and readers alike. This platform takes the form of an online magazine spanning various topics, each implemented as a multi-authored blog, moderated by algorithm-enhanced crowd wisdom.&amp;nbsp;Their magazine introduces a brand new concept of citizen-journalism, using powerful analytics and unique algorithms.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;B&gt;Bloggers - your audience is here!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Get discovered &amp;amp; monetize on your talent on BloggersBase!&lt;BR&gt;Compete and become a part of an exclusive club of elite professional bloggers!&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;B&gt;Readers - Find high quality content that interests YOU to read and watch!&lt;/B&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Make a difference by ranking and controlling the content that gets exposed!&lt;BR&gt;Earn recognition for your expertise and gain social status!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.bloggersbase.com/?rl=mGy7GxwReP0%3D" target=_blank&gt;CHECK IT OUT! BLOGGER BASE&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Useful Tips</category><category>Tips To Get Traffic</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/06/19/bloggerbase-can-help-find-new-readers-and-earn-you-money.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">fdc51e4e-a999-4ca9-9bea-0b63ff38c1e2</guid><pubDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:06:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Free How to Do Social Media Marketing Webinar with Chris Abraham and Sally Falkow</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/05/13/free-how-to-do-social-media-marketing-webinar-with-chris-abraham-and-sally-falkow.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;P&gt;Sorry for the short notice.&amp;nbsp;Sally Falkow and Chris Abraham are going to co-present a free webinar tomorrow, Thursday, May 14, on the subject of digital PR, social media marketing, and blogger relations. This event is at 1PM Eastern time and 10AM Pacific time and you need to register in advance.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;DIV style="CLEAR: right; FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 3px"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/web2_0_social_media_business_blog_consultant_consultants_marketing.jpg"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;How to Do Social Media Marketing:&lt;BR&gt;Bloggers, Social Networks, Metrics, and More&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt; 
&lt;P&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Hear Sally Falkow of &lt;A href="http://expansionplus.com/" target=_blank&gt;Expansion Plus&lt;/A&gt; and Chris Abraham of &lt;A href="http://abrahamharrison.com/" target=_blank&gt;Abraham Harrison&lt;/A&gt; talk about the best practices in social media marketing.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Not only is social media marketing the hottest thing in marketing, it may well also be the most effective marketing tool available to anyone doing any form of outreach.The meteoric rise of twitter and the slower but just as large groundswell of blogging have combined to shake communications of all kinds to the core.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;But social media marketing isn’t monolithic and it covers a lot of ground. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. But there are best practices, there are tools and tricks and techniques to achieve greater success. Sign up for this webinar to find out how to:&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;use twitter wisely and well &lt;BR&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;reach out effectively to bloggers &lt;BR&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;drive success with social networks &lt;BR&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;combine fronts to multiply your success &lt;BR&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;get your audience to help you reach out &lt;BR&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;measure and understand your success (and failure) &lt;BR&gt;~&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Plus many more techniques to help you master social media&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Speakers&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Sally Falkow is a veteran of the PR industry. She has since translated her experience in marketing, PR and communication to the Internet. Her main interest is in the shift in media consumption and how new technology is affecting the practice of public relations. Sally is the author of the Proactive Report and co-developer of PRESSfeed, a social media tool for PR and marketing professionals.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Chris Abraham, President and COO of Abraham Harrison, is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management. Chris is a pioneer in online social networks and publishing, and specializes in web2.0 technologies, including content syndication, online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;This webinar will take place live on Thursday May 14th at 1 PM EST and 10AM PST. It will include audience participation and will be recorded and made available on demand within two days. &lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/442680738" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Register now&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;!&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>Web 2.0</category><category>News and Events</category><category>Useful tools</category><category>Useful Tips</category><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/05/13/free-how-to-do-social-media-marketing-webinar-with-chris-abraham-and-sally-falkow.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">73acb905-f330-47d1-8bb3-051c33a4c5f0</guid><pubDate>Wed, 13 May 2009 18:48:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Business Blogging Consultants on Business Consulting Buzz!</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/05/08/business-blogging-consultants-on-business-consulting-buzz.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/business_blog_blogging_consultants_consulting_web_2_0_derrick_sorles.jpg"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Last week I was approached by &lt;A href="http://www.consulting-business.com/about.html" target=_blank&gt;&lt;BR&gt;BUSINESS CONSULTING BUZZ&lt;/A&gt; &lt;BR&gt;to be a guest writer on their site. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;BCB is your one-stop resource center for everything consulting. Whether you’re just starting out, been in the business for a couple of years, are a consulting veteran, or a company looking for information on how to hire good consultants, this is the website for you. 
&lt;P&gt;Mike and Sam (&lt;EM&gt;or the “Zipursky cousins” as they are often called&lt;/EM&gt;), created this website with the goal to provide&amp;nbsp; an arsenal of knowledge to take your consulting business or career to the next level and beyond.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Stop by and see them&amp;nbsp; and&amp;nbsp; &lt;A href="http://www.consulting-business.com/web-two-explained.html" target=_blank&gt;read my post&lt;/A&gt;!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; Sorles&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Web 2.0&amp;nbsp; Consultants and Strategists&amp;nbsp;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell - We Help&amp;nbsp;"Pull" &amp;nbsp;New Business To You!&lt;BR&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.businessbloggingconsultants.com/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#000000 size=2&gt;Your Business MD's&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;FONT size=2&gt;&amp;nbsp;- Business Blog Consultants&amp;nbsp;&amp;amp; Internet Marketers&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/business+consulting+buzz" rel=tag&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/A&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Useful Tips</category><category>News and Events</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/05/08/business-blogging-consultants-on-business-consulting-buzz.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">cdb5bf90-49cc-40a0-8916-1ba6a5d8a5be</guid><pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2009 17:28:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>BuddyPress and WordPress - Social Networking 3.0?</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/05/02/buddypress-and-wordpress--social-networking-30.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/buddy_press_word_press_platform_business_blogging_consultants.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;P&gt;What if there was software with the elegance and extensibility of WordPress but all the features you’ve come to expect from social networks like Facebook? &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Now there is: &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://buddypress.org/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT color=#21759b&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;check out BuddyPress&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;.&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;BuddyPress is an official sister project of WordPress. The idea behind it was to see what would happen to the web if it was as easy for anyone to create a social network as it is to create a blog today. There’s been an explosion of social activity on the web, it’s probably the most important trend of the past few years, but there’s been a dearth of Open Source tools that enable the social web.&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;In WordPress we have a robust and extensible base that can scale to many millions of users, and BuddyPress is essentially a set of plugins on top of WordPress that add private messaging, profiles, friends, groups, activity streams, and everything else you’ve come to expect from your favorite social network, like a Facebook-in-a-box.&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;This is just a 1.0 release and it’s not for everybody yet, for example it currently requires using MU which is a bit trickier to get set up than regular WordPress, which is tricky in itself!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Yeah, call me&amp;nbsp; when&amp;nbsp; 3.0&amp;nbsp; is ready!&amp;nbsp; I need&amp;nbsp; easy!&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Useful Tips</category><category>Wordpress</category><category>Useful tools</category><category>Web 2.0</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/05/02/buddypress-and-wordpress--social-networking-30.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">936527a1-3a06-44a5-b875-b32f1f015bed</guid><pubDate>Sat, 02 May 2009 18:33:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Can I Touch Your MingleStick? Say Goodbye To All Those Pesky Business Cards</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/04/22/can-i-touch-your-minglestick-say-goodbye-to-all-those-pesky-business-cards.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/mingle_stick_minglestick.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Don't you hate coming home from a conference with a stack of business cards? &lt;BR&gt;And God forbid you lose a couple along the way....This is an idea that could really catch on! The MingleStick!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;Simplify your life and meet someone with ease. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;It’s Simple! Two people connect with each other by pointing their MingleSticks and pressing one simple button. A connection is made within a split second! Lose the need for business cards, pen, paper and the hassle of it all. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Not sure what contact information is right for the occasion? The MingleStick allows you to decide later! Protect your privacy and have peace of mind knowing that your email address, phone number, mailing address will be given to the right people at the right time. MingleStick users socialize and safely connect with others without any risk. &lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;Use your stick to meet anyone - friends, business associates, acquaintances and even complete strangers!&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;BR&gt;The MingleStick is sleek and small, so take it out of your pocket to make that connection wherever you go!&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;WHY DIDN'T&amp;nbsp; I&amp;nbsp; THINK&amp;nbsp; OF&amp;nbsp; THAT?!&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.minglestick.com/" target=_blank&gt;MingleStick&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Web 2.0</category><category>Useful tools</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/04/22/can-i-touch-your-minglestick-say-goodbye-to-all-those-pesky-business-cards.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">fc706efb-5623-48db-9987-2dbe4b6b47b3</guid><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:14:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN on Twitter</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/04/17/ashton-kutcher-vs-cnn-on-twitter.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/ashton_kutcher_vs_cnn_on_twitter.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;ASHTON KUTCHER now has more followers on &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.twitter.com" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;TWITTER&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt; , than CNN NEWS!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://chartbeat.com/cnnvsashton/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;CHARTBEAT&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt; is&amp;nbsp; watching their numbers, live!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;I really do not Twitter enough!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;But if you want to follow me, I am &lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;A href="http://twitter.com/BlogStrategist" target=_blank&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;BlogStrategist&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;.&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/blog+consultant" rel=tag&gt;blog consultant&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/web+2.0+consultant" rel=tag&gt;web 2.0 consultant&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/twitter" rel=tag&gt;twitter&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/ashton+kutcher" rel=tag&gt;ashton kutcher&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/business+blogging" rel=tag&gt;business blogging&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/gay+travel" rel=tag&gt;gay travel&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://turbotagger.brainbliss.com"&gt;Turbo Tagger&lt;/A&gt;</description><category>Web 2.0</category><category>Twitter</category><category>News and Events</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/04/17/ashton-kutcher-vs-cnn-on-twitter.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">d5fc205d-ba94-46e2-a696-9ce1ac5aca02</guid><pubDate>Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:58:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Darren Rowse and ProBlogger TV  on Facebook</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/02/26/darren-rowse-and-problogger-tv--on-facebook.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;DIV style="MARGIN: 3px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left"&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/45255-41244/darren_rowse_problogger_facebook_application_business_blogging_consultants.jpg"&gt;&lt;/DIV&gt;&lt;BR&gt;I was on &lt;A href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Derrick-Sorles/900095401" target=_blank&gt;my Facebook page&lt;/A&gt; today giving it a much needed update and answering some mails and what not. And I stumbled across a new app&amp;nbsp; from Darren Rowse!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;STRONG&gt;Problogger&amp;nbsp; TV!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Of course,&amp;nbsp; unless you have been living under a rock the last 4 years, you know Darren Rowse is the author of &lt;A href="http://www.problogger.net" target=_blank&gt;Problogger.net,&lt;/A&gt; a website devoted to helping bloggers improve their presence online.&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=28397479019&amp;amp;ref=mf" target=_blank&gt;You can Add this app &lt;/A&gt;&amp;nbsp;on Facebook, to get the latest articles and videoblogs from Darren. &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Pretty cool!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;</description><category>Useful Links</category><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/02/26/darren-rowse-and-problogger-tv--on-facebook.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">eb5dd01e-a0da-4fbe-9464-37595ca55dad</guid><pubDate>Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:21:00 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title>Blogging from Australia's Great Barrier Reef - Best Job in the World!</title><link>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/02/21/blogging-from-australias-great-barrier-reef--best-job-in-the-world.aspx?ref=rss</link><dc:creator>derrick sorles</dc:creator><description>&lt;BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"&gt;
&lt;P&gt;&lt;IMG src="http://images.quickblogcast.com/42494-38842/best_job_in_world_australia_derrick_sorles.jpg"&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;Imagine...&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.islandreefjob.com/" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;living and working in Australia &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;for 6 months, &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;exploring the &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrier_Reef" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;Great Barrier Reef.&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt; &lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;And your job is to write, blog, photograph and tell the world about it! &lt;BR&gt;That is what I hope to be doing this coming July!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Please&amp;nbsp; take&amp;nbsp; 90&amp;nbsp; seconds and view my video and cast me a vote!&amp;nbsp; &lt;BR&gt;This would be a dream job for us! Blogging from Australia!&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/D5k5W6LwZ54" target=_blank&gt;&lt;FONT size=4&gt;&lt;STRONG&gt;VOTE FOR DERRICK SORLES!&lt;/STRONG&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/A&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;FONT size=3&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Many thanks!&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;Derrick&amp;nbsp; and Michael&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;BR&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/BLOCKQUOTE&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/best+job+world" rel=tag&gt;best job world&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/great+barrier+reef" rel=tag&gt;great barrier reef&lt;/A&gt;&lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/australia" rel=tag&gt;australia&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/queensland+tourism" rel=tag&gt;queensland tourism&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/derrick+sorles" rel=tag&gt;derrick sorles&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/web+2.0+expert" rel=tag&gt;web 2.0 expert&lt;/A&gt; &lt;A href="http://turbotagger.brainbliss.com"&gt;Turbo Tagger&lt;/A&gt;</description><category>News and Events</category><category>About Us</category><category>Social Media</category><comments>http://businessbloggingtips.com/2009/02/21/blogging-from-australias-great-barrier-reef--best-job-in-the-world.aspx#Comments</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">46a8bc15-3546-4d94-9c60-e9ce08e73909</guid><pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:13:00 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>