I’m wary of any government attempts to regulate the blogosphere. So what’s wrong with corporate marketing departments creating blogs solely to sell products? Isn’t that what business blogging is designed to do?

An advocacy group called Commerial Alert has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate “buzz” marketers (PDF copy of letter).

Maybe something’s wrong with my comprehension skills, but I don’t get it.

(Hat tip: The Raw Feed)

BlogOn is a two-day conference on blogs as social media, and it’s just about over. From the site:

Learn how to use social media to create more meaningful conversations with your customers from leading experts including Seth Godin, David Weinberger, Gil Schwartz, Jackie Huba, Jeff Jarvis and Steve Rubel. Plus, hear how major companies such as AOL, Chrysler, ESPN, McDonald’s, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Sprint, Sun Microsystems, Unilever and Yahoo! are using social media for business advantage….

Social media is changing the way companies interact with customers and employees. The challenge is how to keep abreast of developments: What applications are emerging? Which companies are breaking new ground? When and how should you employ these new technologies?

BlogOn 2005 will answer these questions, and more! Through thoughtful analysis, candid conversations and innovative product previews, you will gain invaluable insights that will help you use social media effectively.

Sounds very informative and cutting edge, and I hope to be a panelist for BlogOn 2006. For more information, vist the conference blog.

The one issue many bloggers obsess over and most at least think about often is traffic. If you’ve managed to build up an audience of more than a handful of people, you’ve noticed a sharp drop-off in site visitors on weekends. This can be very disconcerting, especially for the business blogger.

Wayne Hurlbert of Blog Business World offers a few tips to retain weekend readership.

Some form of traffic builder, or at least some form of weekend visitor retention concept, needs to be implemented if weekend visitors are important to you. The visitor traffic can be at east partially maintained in many creative and innovative ways.

A contest may require an answer on a Saturday or Sunday quiz, contest, or similar device. To win the contest, the reader might have to make a weekend visit. The post might contain a secret word that might be removed at midnight on Sunday. Perhaps the prize could only be claimed on a Saturday or a Sunday. The weekend blog perusal could be done either live, or via an RSS reader. The point is to maintain, and even add on additional regular readers for your blog.

Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion knows where to find good information, so I highly recommend you visit his site at least once a week. In a recent post he links to a podcast from Jupiter Research about blog marketing.

We all know “inner-city” is code for “black neighborhood,” and we also know that economic development in inner cities is crucial for the revival of gutted areas. The Small Business Association published a report called State of the Inner City Economies: Small Businesses in the Inner City (PDF), and I’m looking forward to reading it.

(Hat tip: Entrepreneurial Mind)

Producing a good blog is akin to building a better trap to “catch” more mice. As long as you’re committed to blogging and following a few simple guidelines, you will attract search engine traffic, which may convert to customers.

Blogger Priya Shah outlines what can now be considered universal guidelines for beefing up your blog’s search engine rank:

1. Fresh, Updated, Relevant Content

When you write a good blog about a theme that you’re passionate about and post to it frequently, you’re creating fresh, keyword-rich, content that search engines love.

Let’s say you detail cars for a living, and you have a business blog. Blogging at least three times a week about car detailing in general, your business specifically, and the latest car-washing techniques and products, for example, allows search engines to rank your blog according to similar themes. Depending on how often you update and whether you’re blogging about the most popular subjects in your niche, your site could end up near the top of the results. The more you use specific keywords, the more differentiated your blog will be. For instance, if your business is located in coastal North Carolina, make sure your blog and post contents contain references to that area.

2. Natural, One-Way Links

Search engines view links to your site as a recommendation of your site content. More links pointing to your site or blog boosts your visibility and search engine rankings.

Google gives more weight to natural, one-way incoming links, and blogs make it easy to get two types of one-way links to your site.

One-way incoming links, as opposed to buying links from sites known as “link farms,” will greatly enhance your search engine ranking. Google places greater weight on incoming links from similar sites. For example, a link from a car wax manufacturer to your detailing site is worth more than a link from a mortgage company site.

Read the rest.

Some readers may have questions about search engine optimization (SEO). A series of basic articles about the subject is on my to-do list. In the meantime, visit the Search Engine Watch Blog and Priya’s SEO articles.

…about something, says Seth Godin, the online marketer and blogger who gives away free e-books. He writes:

For a long time, the web has been about more. More links, more traffic, more hits, more choices. In the face of all that more, many sites (and most surfers) are not getting what they want. This free ebook proposes a different way of achieving your goals: less.

Intrigued? Download a PDF copy of Everyone is an Expert.

This morning I met with an enterprising young man named Ken Yarmosh, owner of a DC-area technology company called Technosight. He contacted me after reading a press release I sent out last week. Ken visited my business and personal blogs and wanted to talk to me about some of his ideas.

Ken is well-versed in the technical side of the web, and I am a staunch blogging advocate and online marketer. We both know there’s gold to be dug in Washington, D.C., and it would be a shame to let it sit there unmined and unspent. Ken suggested that we develop seminars for various organizations and sell the idea of blogs and the importance of building and maintaining a web presence. I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but sitting down face to face with someone, putting our heads together, and coming up with a solid plan was just the impetus I needed.

Ken and I are both enthusiastic about what we do for a living. In fact, we were talking loudly enough at one point that another customer in the coffee shop overheard us. She came over, introduced herself, apologized for eavesdropping, and asked if we’d be interested in speaking to some people she works with about blogging.

It was a great morning.

We envision offering a few free seminars to gauge interest, then offer courses in web development, business blogging, and online marketing. Blogging is a very inexpensive way to market a business and build relationships with existing customers, but many businesses are resistant. We want to change that. For non-profit organizations, a strong online presence is a cost-effective way to attract potential donors and increase grant opportunities. Washington, D.C., is filled with public policy organizations and other non-profits that don’t have blogs.

Ken Yarmosh and I have all sorts of ideas, but the key is sitting down, coming up with a plan, and getting things done. I’ll keep you posted.

Addendum: A blogger gets rich. Jason Calacanis, founder of a blog network called Weblogs, Inc., just sold his company to AOL for $25 million. Speechless.

Other bloggers talking: BL Ochman, The Angel Blog, Bloggers Blog, Blogspotting, Jeff Jarvis, Jeremy Wright, Micro Persuasion (and here), Business Blog Consulting, The Blog Herald…

ABC News’s blog, The Note, tried to be cute by posting a 30-year-old Jimmy Carter speech as an advanced copy of one of President Bush’s, and some readers didn’t think it was funny. By the way, I hate to be the one to break it to ABC, but that is not a blog. Anyway, back to the story:

Printing what is known as Carter’s “malaise” speech was intended to show a comparison to President Bush’s new conservation effort. But not all were in on the joke, and, ultimately, it served as a cautionary tale for news organizations as they increasingly try to penetrate the blogosphere and its culture.

“I appreciate the point The Note was trying to make,” wrote blogger John Aravosis on Americablog.com. “But a serious news source like ABC News doesn’t make that point by publishing 30-year-old speeches and claiming that they’re an advance copy of today’s address by the President. That’s not satire. That’s just stupid.” (Source)

Stupid, indeed. You have to be really clever to do good satire, which is why I rarely try. One advantage personal bloggers have over professionals (including news organizations) is that we can afford to be stupid and make readers angry every now and then; they can’t.