My colleague and friend, Lyn Chamberlin, who specializes in personal branding, asked me to look at her Website, SkyePR, ...   more »

Morty posted a great question to yesterday's post: "Can you give us numbers-challenged wordsmiths an introduction on how to actually read the data from Google Analytics?"

One reason I recommend Google Analytics is because it's so easy to use and read. Before they changed the interface, its analytics application was very clumsy -- I used to spend hours trying to figure out how to find the data I needed. Now it's quite elegant.

The other reason I recommend Google Analytics is because the application distinguishes between traffic from Google Adword campaigns and those coming from organic searches. The freebie programs that come with hosting packages don't do this.

What follows is the basic information you can learn from any analytics program:

1. Number of visitors -- This data should be expressed as "unique visitors," not "hits." The term "hits" is a misnomer. A "hit" is anytime someone views a page or downloads a file -- a file being any object on the page.

So look for unique visitors. I like to look at data for each month and three, six, and 12 months. Some programs will tell you the number of returning visitors versus the number of new visitors.

Is your traffic going up? Going down? Remaining flat? Do you even have traffic?

2. Traffic sources -- If you're using Google Analytics, click on the tab that reads "traffic sources." This will open a new section where you can find a wealth of information about where your traffic comes from.

Direct traffic includes those searchers who came directly to your site, usually by typing your URL into your browser.

Referred traffic refers to those searchers who found your site via a link from another site. NOTE! Google and other search engines love to see sites linking to each other. Inbound links -- or links from other sites -- are very important to SEO, so do note where you traffic is coming from.

Search engine traffic refers to the traffic that comes from search engines, including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.

For my site, for example, 42% of my traffic in the last month came directly to the site, 20% came from referring sites, and 36.5% came from search engines -- with the bulk coming from Google. 

Some sites I analyze have little search engine traffic -- usually because the site isn't optimized. Others have little direct traffic because they don't do any marketing -- but lots of search engine traffic because they are well optimized and/or use PPC. A few have no referring sites at all -- which is not good.

3. Keywords -- The fun stuff! What keywords are people using to find your site? If all they use is your company name, then that could be an indication your site isn't optimized -- or optimized for the wrong keywords.

My site is optimized for specific keywords, so I use this data to ensure people are finding the site via the keywords for which it's optimized.

I also use it to see if I've missed some really good keywords or to determine if I need to develop additional content. For example, a fair number of people find my site using various forms of the phrase "differences between B2C and B2B." That would make a good white paper, newsletter article -- or maybe even a teleclass!

I'm always amazed at what people use for search phrases. For my site, people used over 315 keyword phrases to find my site including: b2b direct marketing, b2b marketing communications, b2b marketing articles, b2b seo, b2b marcom consultants, b2b case study, b2b direct mail, and b2b marketing and copywriting.

4. Top Content -- Again, if you're using Google Analytics, click on the "Content" tab. In this section you can learn the top "entrance" pages, the top "exit pages," and the top pages people viewed.

For our purposes, just look at the Top Pages. What were the top ten pages? How long did people view them? What are the bottom ten pages? How long did people view those?

From this data you can tell if you should beef up a section on your site. For example, a year or two ago I noticed lots of people were visiting the "Before and After" section of my client's site (she is a cosmetic dentist). In fact, it was the top viewed page after her home page. We've been adding content to that section ever since.

This should be enough basic information to get you started on viewing your Web analytics data. I know it sounds very technical and tedious -- and it was for me when I first started out, because like many of you, I'm a writer, too -- but it's also vitally important. 

Get used to viewing your data. It's fun and you'll learn quite a bit about your prospects and what they're looking for.

You'll also set a baseline -- which then lets you do the next step in writing people friendly, optimized copy. Tomorrow we'll talk about keywords -- I promise!

 

To start off my week of blog posts about "search engine friendly" copy, I'd first like to define what exactly this term means to me.

I hear people use this phrase as a way of dismissing search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Because you're writing copy for the search engines, as opposed for people, the thinking goes,  optimized copy really isn't as powerful as pure direct response copy.

Of course, I completely disagree.

This week, I'm going to focus on optimized copy that's written for people and that also helps a site rank well in the search engines.

Notice I put "people" first.

Why? Because no matter how well a site ranks in the search engines results pages (SERPs) for a particular keyword set, if the site's content *sucks* it's going to deter inquiries and/or sales.

And conversely, if a site has great content but buyers and prospects can't find the site when doing searches, then again, you're losing sales.

SEO and great sales copy go hand in hand.

But, before we get into the nitty gritty of optimized copy, I'll first ask you to do the same exercise I perform for prospective clients who call me about their sites' lack of performance: Analyze your site's analytics.

Why do you need data? Because you can't write optimized copy until you know what's going on with your site.

It's the same thing Bob Bly does before writing a direct response letter. "Before I start writing," he recently told me, "I ask the client to send me the control letter plus the results of any recent test packages. My mission is to beat the control but I can't do that until I have data."

If an ISP hosts your site, you may have Web analytics as part of your monthly hosting package. If you have a corporate site, your IT or marketing department may have an application such as Web Trends.

If you don't have Web analytics, get it. Today. You can sign up for Google Analytics in about two minutes and start getting data as soon as the code is installed on your site.

If you do have Web analytics, go look at your data to determine the following for the last six months: number of unique visitors, top downloaded pages, average time on site, the Websites that are sending traffic to your site (referring sites), and the keywords people are using to find your site.

Feel free to post anything you learn. If you already analyze your data, tell us how you've used it to improve results. Personally, the more I analyze other sites, the more I learn about SEO, online marketing, and copywriting in general.

Tomorrow: Performing a keyword search

Is your website lost? Now it will be found!
Tune in Monday for
Search Engine Friendly Copy
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

Define "Take Off" :)

CEO blogs WILL become more popular. There will be more CEO blogs in the future -- of that I'm quite certain.

I can even imagine certain CEO Positions requiring the CEO blogs!

But most CEOs will never blog, at least with a "traditional" blog. Most CEOs, and companies, just aren't right for it, for a multitude of reasons.

One area I see a lot of potential for CEO blogs is in the internal blog -- a blog accessible only to employees, for example behind the firewall or password protected. CEOs can communicate more freely, openly, and with fewer worries to their troops, and most CEOs should probably communicate more often internally (blanket statement, I know, but roughly correct).

I like what Seth Godin has to say about CEO blogs in Beware The CEO Blog and agree mostly with him:

Here's the problem. Blogs work when they are based on:
Candor
Urgency
Timeliness
Pithiness and
Controversy

(maybe Utility if you want six).

Does this sound like a CEO to you?

I've only worked with one CEO who fit this description exactly, and he was a stunning success. The  again he's a renegade entrepreneur who can start AND run a company well. Not exactly typical.

My one disagreement with The Sethster is with "controversy." Controversy is good  -- people like controversy. It build readers, it attracts links, it's exciting. But if you run a big, let's say Fortune 500ish, company, people are going to want to read what you write, controversy or not.

So WHAT is a CEO or senior executive. Can I claim that my blog Blogging for Business is a CEO blog? Hey, I'm the CEO of a one man shop, so technically . . .

If I were pompous and ridiculous I could even put CEO on my business card (am I being controversial here maybe? Did I just call my friends Joe, Marty, and Paul pompous?). My blog is NOT a CEO blog.

A CEO blog -- a blog written by a CEO or senior executive of a sizable organization. CEO blogs will grow in popularity, but most organizations and CEOs will never have CEO blogs.

Of those that do, some will find great value in their CEO blog, some will probably get in trouble, and some will merely abandon CEO blogging as a failed experiment.

It's been great blogging here this week! Thanks to everyone, and I'm looking forward reading Dianna Huff here next week on "Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy."

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
We are all know by now that "Markets are conversations." But Lois Kelly, author of Beyond Buzz, says it's not enough anymore to spread "Word of Mouth." To succeed in the marketplace today, you have to have a meaningful dialog -- and really listen to your market.

Stay tuned for more details. And be sure to join IAOCblog.com November  5-9, 2007 when guest host Lois Kelly takes over the conversation with:
Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:


Lois Kelly writes, consults and speaks about how to use conversational marketing and social media to more quickly connect with customers, employees and marketplace influencers.

Reviewing her new book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, Northeastern University professor Walter Carl said “The Cluetrain Manifesto was a call for corporations to wake up to the global conversations about them, and potentially with them. In Beyond Buzz, Lois Kelly gives corporations the practical tools to answer that call.”

Lois' articles have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Advertising Age. Clients have included Sapient, SAP, Sun Microsystems, FedEx, The Business Innovation Factory, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Communispace. 

One big reason CEOs and other executives give for not even considering blogging is the time commitment.

What about "Ghost Blogging" -- could this ease the time burden and the blogging still be effective?

The chorus of self righteous bloggers, and we are a self righteous group, are probably chanting "Evil", "Not Authentic" and "Burn Ghost Bloggers and Bloggees at The Stake" now!

Sure, a blog entirely produced and scripted is not going to be effective. For example Dilbert's boss' blog was entirely produced without his input (to see it done very wrong here, here, and here -- links removed by the evil Ratbert,. These comics are offline and supposedly going into the next Dilbert book).

Ghost writing is accepted in other areas, for example books. And those quotes from your CEO in the press release -- we know they didn't really say those but it's considered OK. Why not blogging?

I strongly believe that "light" ghost writing and editing can be useful but the thoughts and opinions in the blog must be authentic. I prefer the term "Ghost Drafting."

I was approached by a CEO who wanted me to ghost blog for him. He wanted to build thought leadership, but he didn't want to write or think. He wanted me to produce his blog with little or no input from him. I simply refused. I not only have morals but he didn't offer nearly enough money :)

I am now talking to another CEO about ghost blogging. If it works out, we'll talk quite often, and I'll write drafts based on our discussions, on HIS thoughts. But he'll have to do the final edits AND hit publish himself (thanks to Mikal Belicove for first introducing me to this technique).

Ghost blogging for CEOs and other busy people? Sure, if it's done right. A ghost blogger writing drafts based on conversations with the ghost bloggee is just fine, despite the chorus of "no way, it's evil" some of us may put forth.

There are plenty of reasons CEOs or other executives shouldn't blog, and many of them certainly shouldn't.

I'll go as far as to say that many organizations do NOT need to blog. Sure, they could, and they might benefit from it, but please let's not have any of that rhetoric that all companies must start blogging soon or they'll go the way of the dodo -- extinct. Simply not true -- although MANY organizations can benefit from blogging.

Here are 5 commonly given reasons CEOs and other executives shouldn't blog. I don't buy reason #3 or #4 as I note, but they are commonly mentioned and worth addressing.

1) CEOs are risk adverse. Much of their daily lives are occupied with risk management. They have got enough to worry about without this new-fangled blogging thing.

2) The qualifications that make one a good CEO or executive and that make one a good blogger do not overlap remotely near 100%. Even among those who communicate well, many have difficulty writing in a personal and informal tone as blogging requires.

I had one CEO I coached literally hold a telephone to his head and pretend he was talking to an old friend in order to get conversational language out of his mouth! We even tried having him leave voice mail in this fashion to his secretary who would then transcribe it into a draft blog post. It took a few weeks, but I finally got him writing conversationally, but not without a lot of difficulty.

3) CEOs have confidential information that can't be made public.

This is an often cited reason, but rarely holds water. Someone that makes it that high in the corporate ladder had already better know what they can publicly discuss and what they can't.

Hey, let's be serious -- most executives are very smart people and let's give the the credit of at least common sense!

4) They may need to stop for legal reasons.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market stopped blogging because of an "independent internal investigation."
If a company is going public, there is an SEC enforced "quite period" which may disrupt blogging by executives.

This is silly. When is "you maybe needed to stop someday" a good reason to never start? I guess I'd better never go to that Chinese Buffet because I'll need to stop eating sometime. Doesn't make sense to me!

5) Time -- or lack of it. I have no extra time, neither do you, and neither do CEOs and other execs.

One solution is a multi-author blog where several executives occasionally contribute, or perhaps a CEO and a few other people do. This generates enough content to build regular readers, and is often a great solution.

Another possibility, one that makes many bloggers cringe, is the possibility of "Ghost Blogging," which we'll address later!

There are plenty of reasons for CEOs and other high level executives to blog. I'm skipping the "because communicating is good" and concentrating on the solid benefits in this list.

1) Blogs add a personality and face to a company. This can mean more business -- more dollars and cents.

Let's face it, people don't tend to trust big organizations anymore, whether it's the US Government, Microsoft, Worldcom, Enron, etc. People do however trust people they know, and like to do business with people they know and trust. When an executive blogs, they become part of the face and personality associated with the organization. They build trust. They build likability.

I never liked Sun Microsystems. They were an arrogant competitor from way back. I now occasionally read their president and CEO Jonathan Schwartz's blog, and I no longer think of them as the old arrogant Sun -- I rather like them these days.

2) Blogs influence the most important people.

I rarely read GM's Fastlane blog. I simply don't care about cars. But guess who does? Well, my friend Gearhead Gregorius (name changed for my amusement) does. When I need a new car, who do I ask for opinions? Well quite naturally Gregorius the car nut -- and he's much more positive on on GM these days.

Few if any of my clients read Jonathan Schwartz's blog. But when they need to buy new Unix Workstation, my opinion is often valued as I'm an old Unix guy from way back, and as I've said before I kind of like Sun now.

3) Blogs connect CEOs and senior executives to their most important people -- the customers.

It's lonely at the top! The higher you get, the less feedback you get. The less in touch with the end customer you are. Blogs put you in direct contact with the people that matter most, the end customers.

Bonus #4) Writing is critical business skill

Some executives and CEOs really should learn to do it better! Practice doesn't make perfect, but it does help you improve.

Tomorrow: Why executives shouldn't blog, and some certainly shouldn't!

Coming soon to a screen near you:
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog

TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

Is SEO magic? manipulation? a myth?

In a recent teleclass at which Dianna Huff was a guest, white paper guru Michael Stelzner asked, "What's more important: the words humans read on the landing page or manipulating information in favor of search engines?"

As a B2B marcom consultant and SEO copywriter, Dianna Huff bristles at the word, "manipulation." "The biggest myth," she says, "is that you can manipulate the search engines -- especially Google -- to do anything."

So what can you do with SEO? Is it a science, an art... or hocus-pocus? Join Dianna as she reveals what SEO is and isn't.... why direct response writers make ideal SEO copywriters, how to write copy that's BOTH search engine and people friendly, and why high-quality content will do more for your SEO efforts than "manipulating" the search engines.

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:

Dianna Huff blogs at the MarCom Writer blog. When she's not blogging, she's working with clients on projects ranging from e-newsletters and Websites to search engine optimization and online marketing.

Should CEOs or other senior executives blog? That is an open question. Certainly some do, and do effectively.

Executives who blog include Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, and Mark Cuban, owner of The Dallas Mavericks among other things.

Some of these blogs are easy to dismiss. Although Bob Lutz’s blog is great, GM is in such bad shape that perhaps this is a move of desperation? Companies in tough shape have little to lose by blogging or anything else. Sun Microsoft is a high tech company and lots of high tech companies blog – we can almost say there is a tradition here.  And Mark Cuban is, well, simply a maverick. Besides, as a billionaire entrepreneur, the rules are somewhat different. Oh yeah, he’s in high tech too.

How about Randy Baseler, who was the VP of Marketing for Boeing? He blogged at Randy’s Journal. Apparently it was such a success that Boeing chose another Randy, Randy Tinseth, as his replacement so the blog could carry on interrupted (was it Shakespeare, or maybe Jerry Garcia, that said something about “a Randy by any other name  . . . ?”). Or Bill Marriott of Marriot Hotels. Well, let’s just say CEO blogs, at least out of high tech, are few and far between.

So, should CEOs and other high-level executives blog? Quite frankly some are not great communicators -- some make me cringe every time they open their mouths, few have “extra” time, and this whole blogging phenomenon is in its infancy.  And what about “ghost blogging?” Is it the sin most bloggers seem to insist?

We’ll cover these and other issues this week, and let’s just summarize for the moment with:
“Some CEOs and other high level executives can blog quite effective, and conversely, some certainly shouldn’t!”

And so, finally, we get to the end of this week of my guest blog postings on the fascinating subject of being paid to blog. There are lots of great comments on all the previous entries, comments that represent the major perspectives in the marketplace, ranging from "I knew I couldn't trust you, you capitalist" to "we've all got to serve somebody" [I paraphrase!]

I'd like to end with an observation about the nature of the online world: the reason that people can work on free software, produce license free applications and create open access datasets and news is because other people are making money, charging fees and licensing their products.

To put it another way, bloggers who accept payment, who more generally run their blog as a business (however large or small) are just as much the lifeblood of the blogging community as those who eschew such revenue and write "for the fun of it" or because they're passionate about their subject.

I think this is a fitting way to wrap things up, with the thought that it takes all of us, the paid and the unpaid, to make the blogosphere truly be a valuable medium of information, discussion and enlightenment.

REMINDER:
Coming next week: October 22-26, 2007 Ted Demopoulos, author of Blogging for Business tackles the issue: Should CEOs Blog?

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
"CEO Blogs" are blogs written by executives. At their best, they put a human face on huge corporations. At their worst, they have been boring... or phony... to the point of doing more harm than good.

Are CEO blogs worth the trouble? Are they worth the risks? What if a CEO can't write... or hasn't got the time to write? Can they have ghostbloggers or blog less frequently? Will that undermine the whole purpose of blogging? The week of Oct 22, Ted will answer these and other questions on IAOCblog.com.

We've danced around the topic all week, examining the issue of bias, then disclosure, and even whether bloggers should be held to a higher level of ethical behavior than other journalists or online writers. I hope you've had a chance to read those position statements before you get to this one!

The core question is whether bloggers should accept payment for their blogging efforts. 

Whether it's as subtle as a free bottle of wine from a vineyard or as overt as an advertisement (ranging from the abstract advertising relationship between bloggers and Google's AdSense program to the explicit "sponsor this blog" links) or as crass as Pay Per Post or Review Me, should bloggers get paid, or not?

Let's start with the most overt situation: when Ted Murphy launched Pay Per Post, the response of the blogosphere was universally critical. A few examples: TechCrunch calls PayPerPost "officially absurd" and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association reports that Jeff Jarvis claims "The problem is the advertisers are trying to buy a blogger's voice, and once they've bought it they own it." while ranconteur Jason Calacanis says "PayPerPost versus authentic blogging is like comparing prostitution with making love to someone you care for deeply. No one with any level of ethics would get involved with these clowns." At least Robert Scoble waffles on the subject, writing "Why I won't use PayPerPost (and if I do, I will disclose)".

Jeff and Jason clearly don't get how the world of capitalism works, nor, apparently does WOMMA. As I have already discussed, every blogger is biased, and every blogger has relationships, the proverbial "six degrees of separation", that they should disclose but aren't. Robert understands, and he accepts gifts from vendors with frequency, as well as his well-publicized (and well-disclosed) relationship with Seagate Corporation. But the comments Jeff and Jason make leave me wondering how they think the world works, how they think that people earn money and pay the mortgage...

To make my position crystal clear, I believe that everyone is biased already, that we have relationships with vendors and products based not only on our own experiences but those of our friends, colleagues and family (an undercurrent to the terrific books The Tipping Point and The Wisdom of Crowds). Further, people can accept advertising, sponsorships, and even explicit pay for a blog entry without compromising their ideals or ethics. It's not a black and white situation, and if it were, it'd be incredibly hard to be totally pure and clean.

Something to ponder: Jeff Jarvis is a professor at The City University of New York, but when he writes or lectures, does he disclose which companies pay the university to help offset running costs or sponsor research?  Which firms have long-term endowments and does their relationship de facto bias the university and its instructors to be more favorably inclined towards that company or industry? More importantly, should it be disclosed?  Does it "buy" the bias of the institution and does the company then "own" the instructors and their publications? 

Of course not.

I think that if you disclose your relationship with your sponsor or advertiser, if you admit that a particular blog entry is an "advertorial" not a straight editorial (whatever that would mean), you're free, clear and, yes, still behaving ethically. I did exactly that when I wrote about Nick James and, yes, was paid $125 via Paypal a few weeks later. Was I wrong?  Did I sully my ethical position as a business blogger and shoot myself in the foot for a tiny bit of lucre?

---

This might be foreshadowing tomorrow's topic, but it should be no surprise that I believe it's perfectly fine and ethical for bloggers to accept payment for their efforts, whether it be a free dinner, movie tickets, three months of free access to a paid service, or a physical product of some sort.

Yes, you read that right. I don't believe that blogging is anything special or has any special rules or expectations on the part of the readership. I'll go further:


When I wade through my RSS feeds I can really see how this is evolving, because one of the most important things that blogging and its spin-off technology RSS has done is separate out the content from its distribution mechanism. In other words, you don't have to go to my weblog to see my content, just subscribe to the feed. That means that the context of my publishing venue has been rendered obsolete.

To put this in tangible terms, what if my business blog had a strongly worded statement of ethics that you couldn't help but notice because of how prominently it was in the overall design? Read my RSS feed, however, or see my feed show up in an aggregator, and that content is completely divorced from my code of ethics. Readers who access my material through a different channel therefore see my content without having any clue whether I'm "pay to blog bob" or "super-ethical dave".

I have had conversations with many bloggers who believe that blogging is apparently a higher calling, that to be a successful blogger you must be hyper-ethical, completely transparent and a model, upstanding citizen who eschews all aspects of capitalism. After all, doesn't information want to be free? (disclaimer on that: I have been involved with open source and free software for decades and have heard this phrase more times than I want to count!)

I don't agree with them. A blog is a tool that makes publishing more convenient and like any tool, it's up to individuals to make it work for their own needs and requirements. While I applaud those people who put in 50-hour weeks gratis because they believe in what they're writing about and they're passionate about sharing their view, I also applaud those bloggers who are experimenting and trying to figure out how to make blogging work for them financially as well as professionally.

Case in point: have a look at Google's AdSense program: it sure looks to me like there are tens of thousands of bloggers who are completely happy selling their ethical high ground for a nickel a click. Why not just be more up front about it and take $50 to write about  a new bicycle, ski gloves or software package?

Or am I wrong?  Are bloggers expected by the general population to be more ethical and more transparent than journalists and other people who choose to communicate in the online realms?

We continue our week's discussion about being paid to blog by delving into the question of disclosure: Whether you are explicitly paid money, paid in services or product, or are simply biased because of your relationship to the vendor or subject, it's not an infrequent occurrence for bloggers to find themselves writing about something where they're quite clearly biased (see yesterday's discussion Quick, are you biased?) and need to let their readers know.

While it's easy to say "yeah, disclose it," there are ways and ways to disclose. Obviously, when you should be disclosing but aren't, it's trouble, as happened with Wal-Mart / Edelman's ham-handed management of the Walmarting Across America weblog (which I wrote about on my own blog: Edelman screws up on Wal-Mart Blog Project). That's an extreme case, however.

But what about a blog that has small print on the bottom of the page that, when you actually zoom in and read it, says something like...

   more »

This week we're going to be tackling a controversial subject, or at least a subject that I think should be controversial because the more I think about it, the more it's clear to me that it's not black and white, not clear: should bloggers accept payment for their efforts?

There are a couple of underlying questions and issues to address prior to us really facing that question, however, and our first discussion topic of the week is bias.

Are you biased?

   more »

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
The Blogosphere honors "Transparency" above all. Publishers of fake blogs or are treated like horse thieves in the old West.

But is blogging an art form or a business? Blogging guru Dave Taylor may ruffle some feathers next week with a look at whether it's OK to take pay for blogging. Is it OK to ghostwrite a blog? Are paid bloggers like bounty hunters? Or have bloggers become like any other professional writers? Then again, didn't Moliere say, "Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money."

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:

Dave Taylor blogs at Intuitive Life Business Blog, Blogsmart and Ask Dave Taylor. He is esteemed for his technical and business expertise and is sure to have some important insights on what has become a controversial issue

Tune in next week. And keep your powder dry!

This week, we will be sending out the season's first issue of the IAOC E-zine, our monthly E-newsletter. The E-zine, edited by IAOC Vice President Steve O'Keefe, discusses IAOC events, including blog shows, conferences, speakers, as well as the latest news in online communications. If you are interested in receiving this FREE newsletter and have not yet filled out our Interest Form, please fill out this form and check the subscribe box at the bottom.

"This Week on IAOCblog.com" kicked off September 24 with guest blogger Peter A. Gloor of MIT's Sloan School of Management, who blogged about analyzing workplace communications. His postings are still available--just scroll down. The season continues Oct 15 with computer communications expert, Dave Taylor, answering that menacing question: Is it okay to get paid to blog?

Don't miss the exciting Fall 2007 season of "This Week on IAOCblog.com" -- here's the full line-up of guests and topics:

October  15-19, 2007
GUEST: Dave Taylor, Blogsmart, Ask Dave Taylor
TOPIC: Is It Okay to Get Paid to Blog?

October  22-26, 2007
GUEST: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business
TOPIC: Should CEOs Blog?

October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

November  5-9, 2007
GUEST: Lois Kelly, Foghound
TOPIC: Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?

November  13-16, 2007
(Monday, Nov. 12 is Veteran's Day)
GUEST: Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert
TOPIC: Blogger's Code of Ethics: News or Ruse?

IAOC2008
Annual Conference to be Held in Zurich, Switzerland Reykjavik, Iceland
Thursday and Friday, May 15-16, 2008 June 12-13, 2008

Save the dates! Thursday and Friday, May 15-16 June 12-13, 2008, for IAOC2008, the Annual Conference of the International Association of Online Communicators, to be held in Zurich, Switzerland Reykjavik, Iceland. For more information go to this recent post.

Two days of whirling-dervish paper presentations, plus panels and our keynote speaker, M.I.T. Sloan School of Management research scientist Peter Gloor, who just wrapped up a week on IAOCblog discussing research into workplace communications.

Our theme for IAOC2008 is "Transparency vs. Anonymity" in online communications. In a stroke of good timing, Forbes Magazine just published a feature story by Victoria Murphy Barret entitled "Anonymity & the Net." It's in the October 15 cover date issue going on sale today.

The IAOC's first European conference in Brussels, Belgium -- IAOC2006 -- was a great success. We plan to build on our European base in 2008. Make your plans today and join us in Zurich in May Iceland in June!

STEVE O'KEEFE
Vice-President, IAOC