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Blogging for Business Conference Highlights

posted on October 26, 2007

The Blogging for Business Conference was held 22 October 2007 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Should Company Employees Blog?

Cheryl Snapp Conner et al., Snapp Conner PR

If a company blogs, expect reactions. Be open to that dialog, be open to that conversation, be prepared to engage with it to go with it.

If your company blogs, blog consistently. Have something to say—make it interesting, compelling, relevant. Make sure it’s something worth reading about. Don’t just use company brochure material, people. Otherwise, save your breath.

It’s important to monitor the blogosphere—watch your employees.

  • Personal websites and blogs are positive—they’re a chance for the company to spread its “good news” far and wide.
  • Create a policy to give to your employees, explaining what they’re allowed to talk about on their personal blogs.

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Senate Passes 7 Year Extension on Internet Taxation

posted on October 26, 2007

Good news for online retailers and ecommerce – the Senate passed legislation that could ban taxes on sales for the next seven years. If passed into law would extend the moratorium on Internet taxes. Called The Internet Tax Freedom Act, it has been in effect since 1998 and has already been extended twice.

The extension was much-hoped for and looks promising. An agreement between the House and Senate must be reached and the new law signed before November 1st when the current moratorium expires.

The House has already passed a four-year moratorium on internet taxes, so the two must now reach an agreement. Then President George Bush will need to sign off, all before next Thursday.

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RedZee – Best Search Engine Logo Evah?

posted on October 26, 2007

Mrs. Beal wanted to share with you what she thinks is one of the cutest, search engine interfaces “evah”. While RedZee might not win any awards for search results–and the Zebra might get annoying after a while–it’s certainly cool enough for a Friday mention.


 

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Pilgrim’s Picks for Friday 26

posted on October 26, 2007

I couldn’t find much to dissect today–maybe I’m just itching for the weekend. How about you?

Anyway, there were some items that caught my eye:

  • David Dalka finds a Google job description that suggests further building development in Northern California.
  • Ahmed makes a good point about the MSFT/Facebook deal. Part of the $240M includes extending the ad relationship until 2011. How much of that $240M should go towards that 2 year extension? Does that reduce Facebook’s $15B valuation?
  • Omniture has acquired WebSideStory/Visual Sciences for $394 million.
  • Wetpaint–a build your own Wiki service–has some funny Mac/PC parody videos.
  • Want to win a new Macbook? Advice Network is running a writing contest. They need entries in three main categories, real estate, weddings, and running a business–do you get a Macbook Pro if you can include all three in one article? ;-)
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Microsoft Enjoys Great Quarterly Earnings

posted on October 26, 2007

Microsoft had a perfect storm of positive trends to help with its most recent quarterly earnings. Sales of the XBox 360, Halo 3, Windows Vista, and international growth all contributed.

Microsoft reported revenue $13.76 billion for its first quarter, which ended Sept. 30, 2007…Microsoft enjoyed a 27 percent increase in its revenue over the same period in 2006.

It’s online business looks like a mixed bag. Revenues up, income down…

Microsoft’s Online Services Business segment saw an increase to $671 million from $536 million in the same period in 2006, and operating income loss of $264 million compared to $102 million in the same period last year. The Online Services Business includes Windows Live services, Live Search, the MSN.com portal, as well as its advertising and display ad businesses.

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Halloween Costume Search Stats

posted on October 26, 2007

Here’s a fun story for SEO on a very timely subject – Halloween costumes. As a fan of both Halloween and online marketing I’m curious what is selling. First, the most popular search, according to Hitwise data is “hanna montana costume.” (here is the Hitwise full download with all the data).

Other popular Halloween Costume searches include:
Halo 3′s Master Chief, pirates, Wonder Woman, Little Red Riding Hood, and Tinkerbell. What else are people looking for? Ideas on how to make a cheap or for a sexy costume.

People often searched on these words describing the costumes: sexy, funny, homemade and cool. The phrase “cheap halloween costume ideas” increased 305 percent this year, and the term “adult halloween costume” increased 336 percent.

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Forget Silicon Valley for a Startup, Try NYC Instead

posted on October 25, 2007

Last week Paul Graham said Silicon Valley was the only place worth being, if you want to have the best chance for success in launching your own Internet startup. This week Charlie O’Donnell has broken down and dissected the idea that creating a startup in NYC is not nearly as challenging as one might believe it to be.

In fact Charlie goes into a fairly in depth discussion of acquisition not only of space in NYC, but also talent, legal advice, and funding. With all of that said Charlie feels that the true value of success is most likely industry knowledge and expertise above and beyond anything else.