Excerpt from “Bloggers learn the price of telling too much” from CNN:

“I know this very conspiracy theorist — but I wouldn’t put it past a clever criminal to warehouse different databases and wait 20 years when all the Internet youth’s indiscretions can be used for surreptitious purposes,” says the senior at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, who’s been blogging for about three years.

Can anyone say “Blogging Blackmail?”

At 68 pages, I haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but it does appear interesting. Back Bone Media has published a report about successful corporate blogs. From the Executive Summary:

With all of the buzz around corporate blogging, we wanted to understand the real value of it for companies. Why would a company want to start blogging, who should blog, what makes a blog successful, and how can a company use this type of website to make a positive impact on business?

To answers to these questions, we asked bloggers at hundreds of companies to participate in an online survey and conducted in-depth interviews with leading individuals from six corporate blogs that were selected as representative of the diverse spectrum of the corporate blogging world. What we discovered was that for the majority of our survey sample, (which includes some of today’s biggest corporations and scrappiest underdogs), corporate blogs are living up to all the hype. We discovered that corporate blogs are giving established corporations and obscure brands the ability to connect with their audiences on a personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened relationships while and at the same time benefiting in ways that are tangible to the sales and marketing side of the business.

I imagine some of the stuff in the report could be applied to successful library blogs as well.

Link via Micro Persuasion

How to Write Killer Blog Posts and More Compelling Comments[Link via Successful Blog]

How to Be a More Productive Blogger [Link via Micro Persuasion]

Some info about the survey:

This is a general social survey of the greater weblog community being conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our goal is to help understand the way that weblogs are affecting the way we communicate with each other. Specifically we are interested in issues of demographics, communication behaviors, experience with weblogs and other technology, and the meaning of various types of social links within the blogosphere.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete, and we are asking anyone with a weblog to participate. The larger the sample of individuals we can get, the better our picture of the community will be.

I just completed the survey in 13 minutes. The questions are good food for thought for those designing similar surveys. When you finish, you can take a look at how your answers compare to other bloggers. It’s a great way to measure how normal or abnormal your blogging habits are.

As the resident blogger in our library, I often get asked to explain the differences between a blog and a message board. People often wonder which application is better for online communication and collaboration. As with many things in technology, it just depends on the need. Lee LeFever, at Common Craft, has written a very creative showdown between the blog and the message board. It is a very entertaining read. Let’s get ready to rumble!!!!!!!

[Link via Media Guerrilla]

Yahoo! has recently developed Personal Blog Guidelines. The pdf document is definitely worth a look. Of particular note are the Best Practices Guidelines on page two of the document. While geared toward Yahoo! bloggers, the main points are valuable to other bloggers as well. Yahoo! recommends:

1. Be Respectful of Your Colleagues
2. Get Your Facts Straight
3. Provide Context to Your Argument
4. Engage in Private Feedback

In response to the Guidelines, Russel Beatie gives some advice for new bloggers. I have quoted most of his post below as well as link to it, because this is great motivation for keeping a blog going. I for one, definitely need a kick in the pants to keep writing. Russel advice for starting out, and for keeping going for that matter:

Just write!
When you first start writing a blog, you may be able to pump out the first few posts pretty easily, but then there’s inevitably a moment when you feel you have nothing else to say. Lots of weblogs start strong and then taper off really quickly as the original incentive for writing wears off. Stick with it! No one likes a dead blog! The secret to writing a blog is consistency, which is a lot easier to attain than it sounds.

Write to your weblog like you’d write an email – don’t get caught up in how great the writing is or how correct the sentences are or what so-and-so is going to think. The most important thing is that you just write! Get your thoughts out there! If you feel like you have nothing to write about, write about how you have nothing to write about! You need to build those blog muscles at first and develop that habit of writing your ideas down quickly and without much internal censorship.

Again, blogging is just like writing a quick email to a friend, but instead of your great insight or feelings trapped inside someone else’s inbox, you’ve set it free for the whole world to see. This a powerful thing. Putting your thoughts out on blog is great for you (writing really helps clarify thinking) and its great for others who might learn from what you have to say, or who see that you’re wondering about something and either have the answers, or often a different perspective on the topic. It’s a great experience both for you the writer and for your readers as well, really! But you have to get your thoughts out there in order for that to happen! So just write!

Okay, all that said, try not to be dumb about being a Yahoo! Blogger , hey? Write about what you do, not about what you’re doing, and don’t write about anything you would normally lower your voice to talk about in a public place. This stuff is fun, and not being a bonehead will keep it that way. 🙂

[Link via Media Guerrilla]

…..been in trouble with the law since the day they was born.”

According to a CNN Money article:

Christopher Nelson’s new job, which comes with a $100,000 salary and a one-year contract, will be to watch reruns of “The Dukes of Hazzard” weeknights on the Country Music Television cable channel and write blog postings for the network’s Web site.

Mr. Nelson competed against more than 1,900 other applicants for the job.

I remember as a kid watching the Duke’s on Friday evenings and on Saturdays trying to jump my bicycle like the General Lee. Blogging about your favorite show definitely seems a little safer (and perhaps just a little more grown up) than trying to emulate Bo and Luke. These days, it might be a little difficult the get airborne in the minivan.

[Link via Micro Persuasion]