Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

Looking for articles you can reprint in your e-newsletter or ezine? Ezine-Tips has cleverly created an articles archive by inviting writers to submit articles on a range of B2C and B2B topics. You can submit articles free until 9 AM Central Sept. 1, 2004. Browse EzineArticles.com.

The clever folks over at Intelliseek, creators of BlogPulse, have set up a Webinar blog to complement their Webinars about… you guessed it, blogging. BlogPulse is a very cool tool. It lets you create “trend graphs” showing how often certain phrases or keywords are being used in blogs. Looks like their blog is brand new because I don’t see an obvious link to it from Intelliseek’s home page. Key advice to business bloggers: if you’ve got a blog, flaunt it. I.e. from every page of your site. Make it part of your basic site navigation.

Useful two-part article on business blogs by Alan Chapell, who writes a blog about consumer privacy issues. Part I talks about 3 types of blogs: product, issue or personality-focused. Part II talks about why transparency is important in business blogging. He mentions 7-Up’s Raging Cow blog which was a marketing tactic, pure and simple. I.e. the clever folks (or so they thought) in 7-Up’s marketing department set up the blog and populated it with content to make it look like there was a viral “groundswell” of enthusiasm for this new flavored milk drink. Er, that’s a blogging no-no. Credibility is one of the key attributes of an effective business blog.

Jakob Nielsen is still churning out Alertbox, his e-newsletter on Web usability… after 9 years. This is one of those oldies-but-goodies you should definitely be reading. This week’s issue talks about linking directly - and obviously - to related products from informational articles. As Nielsen puts it, “Don’t just chummy it up with your customers… explicitly ask them to buy your product.” Specific tips on how to do this are in an article I wrote for WordBiz Report: 5 tips to make your e-newsletter sell. It’s based on an interview I did with publicity expert Joan Stewart, aka the Publicity Hound. The secret to selling with content? Equate your product with a problem that your reader/customer has. Then pair a low-key promotion (”Want to learn more?”) for that product with an article on the problem.

Fun, useful article in today’s MarketingProfs.com by marketing consultant B.L. Ochman. Included in B.L.’s top 10 missed opportunities list: Teva and Tina, the elephant, for whom the company has been designing a line of footwear. (Unfortunately, Tina recently passed away.)

If you’ve ever gotten an email “from yourself”… and you realized it was spam, then you’ll appreciate why SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and SenderID are the new buzz in anti-spam and email authentication efforts. I do not pretend to be an expert on this topic. But here are some useful links you can follow to learn more: SPF site; article by Anne Mitchell in ClickZ: SPF: It’s not just a good idea ; and the DMA’s (Direct Marketing Association) backgrounder on email authentication. Stay tuned for more about what you need to know to both understand and stay in compliance with these new technologies. Oh, and don’t go phishing this summer.

Well-written special report about blogging in today’s Washington Times. And a cool front page photo of yours truly taken by Wash Times photographer Nancy Pastor. Kind of a hall of mirrors approach. Do you get it? First she took a close up. Then she put the photo onto her laptop. She handed me the laptop and asked me to hold it up, covering my face. I thought it was pretty creative. I guess her editors did too.

Want a little background skinny? Reporter Chris Baker called me about 10 days ago. We talked at length. I told him about the Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s blog, ACCABuzz, and who to contact there. (I wrote a case study about ACCA’s blog recently for WordBiz Report.) Chris did a good job on the story, other than “stealing” the ACCA blog opening from me. But heck, I was a reporter for 15 years and I used to do the same thing. BTW, the Washington Times’ article doesn’t include any live links to the blogs mentioned below. I looked them all up. Not an effective way to post an article online.

The article starts with political blogs and points to the dozens of bloggers invited to the Dem and Republican conventions. Then moves on to journalists’ blogs, including that of in-year-face TV pundit Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball. He’s part of a group blog called (if you can stand it… ) Hardblogger. The report mentions inside-the-beltway blogs like Ana Marie Cox’s Wonkette. Maybe best know for outing Capitol Hill admin Jessica Cutler who recounted the juicy details of her affairs with various Congressman and staffers in her no-longer active blog, Washingtonienne. A coincidence, I guess, but today’s Washington Post magazine features a (not juicy enough) recounting of Jessica’s blog travails: Kiss and Blog.

Then the article moves on to the Do’s and Don’ts of Blogging, Inc., meaning business blogging. It mentions Nike’s concocted blog for the “Art of Speed” produced by Gawker Media. As for companies doing their own blogging, the reporter quotes an employment law attorney who cautions, “Blogging is just ripe for trouble.” The article notes that both Microsoft and Sun Microsystems let their employees blog “as long as they don’t give away trade secrets.” (I also pointed Chris to Microsoft’s “corporate blogging policy” penned by Robert Scoble, aka the Scobleizer.) I’m quoted as saying: “Well (blogging) doesn’t have to be cool… all you need to do is be useful and useful can be as simple as linking to another Web site.” ‘Course I said a lot more than that… and more articulately. I guess he didn’t get it all down. Just kidding, Chris… The article ends with two more D.C. blogs: timesnewroman.org written by Topher Mathews (a young lawyer and musician). I don’t know what law firm Mr. Mathews works for but I’d caution him to edit his blog a bit more carefully. It’s informal and chatty to the point of being ungrammatical. Remember, Topher, you may not be Jessica Cutler but your blog pages are public. The search engines can easily find them, as can your current employer.

And finally, a blog by Bethesda space analyst Phil Smith, who is readying himself for a future career as a politician. Smith purchased a copy of “Web Sites for Dummies” and decided to start blogging to prove he could “master” the technology. Er, what technology? Setting up a blog is the work of a few minutes, if you use a hosted solution like Blogger.com or TypePad. Hmmm… I couldn’t find Phil’s blog but he works for Futron Corp. I hope he’s using spell check to spell out his political platform on “everything from abortion rights to veterans,” according to the article. Remember, a blog may look like - and even feel like - a private online journal. But it’s public and searchable. Good news for companies who are looking for a fresh way to connect with customers and prospects. Bad news for those who “don’t get it” and post their private thoughts or public foibles for all to read.

Just launched. Entrepreneur (Almost) Daily is a good example of a group blog. Unfortunately, they’ve chosen to use blogging software that doesn’t enable either “permanent links” or “categories.” Why is that important? Because other blogs, Web sites, news sources can’t link to a particular blog entry. Which is part of the point of blogging. The ripple effect of your “words” on a certain topic are what build your credibility. As for categories, Entrepreneur covers dozens of them. It would make sense for the blog to mirror the magazine’s many topics. BTW, WordBiz got a nice mention in the Feb. 2004 issue of Entrepreneur. Just discovered this Resources page today. Scroll down and you’ll see the link to WordBiz Report.

A reporter just called from The Washington Times to say he’s sending a photographer to my home office to take a picture of me “blogging.” It’s for a story he’s doing on business blogs (he interviewed me). I’ll link to the article after it’s published. But for now… the big question. What should I wear? I asked what might be appropriate. He replied, “Oh, whatever you usually blog in.” Er, that would be unshowered and in sweaty yoga clothes. I better clean up a bit… Your thoughts??

Does this guy ever sleep?! Dr. Ralph F. Wilson recently updated two of his most popular articles about Web site design, development & promotion: 12 Website Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make Correctly (or you’ll have to do it all over within a year) (prints out to 22 pages) and The Web Marketing Checklist: 29 Ways to Promote Your Website (originally published in 1997 but still on the mark). Print both out and you’ll have a complete mini guide at your finger tips.