Nettie Hartsock

Vincent Cerf "I Believe"

Vincent Cerf is a name everyone who uses a computer should know. Here is his "I Believe" Essay on NPR - which is quite good.

Cincom's Expert Access Ezine Wins Bulldog PR Award

I'm proud to be a member of Cincom's Expert Access Panel and more importantly just really thrilled that my pal Steve Kayser and the outstanding newsletter Cincom's Expert Access E-zine, a bi-weekly business publication from Cincom Systems, that Steve puts together garnered a Bulldog Reporter " 2007 Excellence in Media Relations & Publicity,” award.

Journalist Judges

The 2007 Bulldog Reporter Awards for Excellence in Media Relations & Publicity are judged by a panel of journalists based on the following criteria: creativity, originality, strategy, fast thinking and results.

Cincom Expert Access was selected to receive a Bronze Award in the Internet Business category.

The award will be presented at a luncheon Monday, June 11 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. as a part of the 2007 Media Relations Summit. The event features a keynote speech by Juan Williams, one of America's leading journalists and senior correspondent of NPR’s Morning Edition.  Attendees will also include  members from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Washington Post, Forbes, National Public Radio, BusinessWeek C-SPAN, United Press International, among many others.

Cincom Expert Access will also appear in Bulldog Reporter’s 2007 PR Hall of Fame Magazine for the award. In  2006 Cincom Expert Access won a MarketingSherpa award for Best B2B E-zine for Marketing Purposes.

The Mission of Expert Access is to become a trusted and valued resource of objective expert advice to readers worldwide.  Expert Access now reaches 135,000 people all over the world providing relevant, concise, objective information - sometimes in an irreverent, humorous manner - to help readers do their jobs better, become aware of new ideas, products and services or to occasionally have a B2B laugh.

And frankly Steve Kayser has been a phenomenal guide to me and there is a lot to be learned from the newsletter itself and how he carefully pulls the best resources for his readership on a bi-weekly basis. Read it and learn!

Cheap Copywriting? Not a Good idea

There's a good article on GrokDotCom about why companies don't really save money if they're always looking for the lowest bidder in terms of copywriting. Keep in mind when you're hiring a writer, copywriter, or editor that you're also hiring their "brain trust" and how they can apply it to your project. In terms of long-term success that "brain trust" can be worth quite a bit.

Google Announces New Search Capabilties

Hi Folks -

Google made a big announcement today in regard to search -

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
today announced its critical first steps toward a universal search
model that will offer users a more integrated and comprehensive way to
search for and view information online. The company also introduced an
updated homepage design and several new navigation features that make
it faster and easier for users to find the information they are
looking for.

"Our focus has always been making our users' search experience as
simple and straightforward as possible," said Marissa Mayer, vice
president of search products and user experience at Google. "The
ultimate goal of universal search is to break down the silos of
information that exist on the web and provide the very best answer
every time a user enters a query. While we still have a long way to
go, today's announcements are a big step in that direction."

Google's vision for universal search is to ultimately search across
all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real
time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that
offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the
company will incorporate information from a variety of previously
separate sources - including videos, images, news, maps, books, and
websites - into a single set of results. At first, universal search
results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types
of content integrated into their search results as the company
advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.

For example, a user searching for information on the Star Wars
character Darth Vader is likely interested in all the information
related to the character and the actor - not just web pages that
mention the movie. Google will now deliver a single set of blended
search results that include a humorous parody of the movie, images of
the Darth Vader character, news reports on the latest Lucas film, as
well as websites focused on the actor James Earl Jones - all ranked in
order of relevance to the query. Users no longer have to visit several
different Google search properties to find such a wide array of
information on the topic."

here's a link to the full release at Google's site .

My husband will be thrilled that out of all things they used a Star Wars example to explain and so will all the other thousands of men who Google's PR team knew would "read on" if they used Star Wars. Very cool!

I think this is good news on the search side and saw Marissa Mayer speak last week in Florida and Google has lots more up their Google-sleeves in coming months!

CopyBlogger Contest

Brian Clark, founder of the amazing Copyblogger, has announced a copywriting contest, with Seth Godin, Brian and Darren Rowse as judges. Hurry and enter because you only have till Monday May 21st. I'm entering! Here's a link to Brian's blog post on how to enter.

Blogging for Music

There is an extraordinary story called "Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog" on music and blogging in the New York Times Magazine. The online link is here but hurry because they take these stories down after a couple of days. As a music and author publicist, I can tell you that every one of my clients is being sent this article as a link so they understand how amazing the blogosphere is and how it can impact you and all that you can do.

Not only that, but read the story because it will also help you understand how blogs can be amazing tools for creation and how you can use them to stay inspired and inspire others!

Another 5 things from Jim Logan

My friend Jim Logan did a great post also for Darren Rowse's brainchild and here's the link.

Top 5 Things I Heard Al Gore Say Today at DisneyWorld

1. "I'm a Recovered Politician. I'm on Step 9. You win some, you lose some and then there's that little known 3rd category."

2. "Glaciers could really care less about politics, they just either freeze or they melt."

3. "The answer to global warming is to colonize other planets? We couldn't even evacuate New Orleans."

4. "Will all these warnings be ignored because they're inconvenient?"

5. "Don't tell me we can't solve the global warming crisis. We could take one week's of expenditure on Iraq and solve the crisis."

* Stay tuned for more.  This top 5 post is because I'm participating in Darren Rowse's brainchild "Top 5" group writing project and I'm lucky enough to be doing it from the fantastic PDF2007 conference where today Al Gore was the keynote.

On writing for blogs

Here are my favorite things about writing a blog:

1. Instantaneous gratification after you've finished a post.

2. No writers' block allowed or "blog block." If you don't have something to blog about - then take time out to thank or link to all those other peer blogs who inspire you.

3. Freedom from an editor or story slant - although note, this never means your blog should be sloppy and not congruent.

4. E-meeting tons of other bloggers who are supportive and active in the blogosphere

5. Reaching out to potential readers and establishing a rapport.

6. Interviewing other bloggers

7. Writing anything keeps you creative and focused. It's too easy as a writer, to get lazy and not challenge yourself. Writing blogs keeps you challenged!

8. Hoping someone will comment on your blog. (Someone...anyone...Mom?)

9. Getting feedback that you're on the right track and you're helping folks view the world at a better vantage point.

10. Blog carnivals - they're fun and festive and you get to meet other like-minded folks!

Ted Demopolous' little purple book

I think Ted Demopolous is smart! And he just sent me what I will now refer to as "the little purple book" which is in essence all the brain candy on blogging reduced to a highly functional and packaged "little purple book."

The book "101+ Tips for Blogging More Efficiently, Effectively and Profitability: Secrets of Successful Blogging" is a pint-size (did I mentiona purple) power-paged font of information.

Order it, read it, put it on your desk and use it! And by way of full disclosure, I'm not working for Ted, with Ted, or on behalf of an affiliate fee, I just like the darn book and think you might too!

It's for sale at http://www.demop.com/store/secrets.html as well as on Amazon.

Ted is also recording 3 CDs of audio to accompany it that he says will be done soon.