Guy Grimland, editor of TheMarker IT has recently interviewed me for an article discussing the importance of blogger coverage for startups as opposed to traditional media coverage.

In my interview I told Guy that bloggers today have a dramatic effect on the outcome of startups. Bloggers are the opinion leaders of today. I would be more inclined to try a service or product if a specific blogger that I admire recommended it as opposed to a journalist. But we’re not only talking quality. We’re also talking quantity. 120,000 blogs are opened each day and startups can receive a great deal more coverage through blogs than through traditional media. In addition, there are niche bloggers that write about specific topics and turning to those bloggers will of course get you much more targeted exposure for your service/product.

Here are a few tips from the article on how to approach bloggers:

1) It’s preferable that you contact the blogger through a mutual acquaintance. Even then coverage is not certain. The service/product needs to be unique and interesting enough for the blogger to write about it.

2) In your email, make sure to make your pitch short and concise. Don’t write a long novel and don’t just send an impersonal summary.

3) Didn’t receive an answer? Try again in another week. Ask the blogger whether he received your email. If he doesn’t answer, move on to the next blogger. No point in wasting time.

4) Arranged a meeting with the blogger? Prepare well for it. Try to predict ahead of time what questions he may ask you. There’s no point in hiding events from the past or current difficulties. Be truthful and honest. If you supply the blogger with high quality screenshots and perhaps even a demo video, that’s even better. If your service/product is still in private beta, give the blogger some invites for his readers. At the end of the meeting, make sure that the blogger has all the important details he needs in order to write a comprehensive post.

5) Watch for the post and the response it receives. Be ready to answer comments from readers. Don’t try to deny problems that you may not have been aware of. If there’s a problem, be truthful and take advantage of this opportunity to fix it. If you committed to giving away invites, make sure to keep your promise.

Even though this article was written specifically about startups, bloggers today influence the future of all companies/organizations (not to mention individuals - but that’s another post). It is crucial for every company/organization to keep good relations with bloggers and a positive online image. What do you want people to see when they Google your name?

Technorati tags: blonde 2.0, blonde2dot0, bloggers, israeli, israel, startup, guy grimland, the marker, traditional media, blogs, google

Did you know that the majority of blog Readers read a very small number of top blogs? Is this social media?  We all have our usual daily reading list: TechCrunch, Mashable, Robert Scoble, Om Malik, Guy Kawasaki, etc. But how often do we invest time in searching for undiscovered blogs with new points of view?

on August 31st, I will be participating in BlogDay. BlogDay takes place once a year and is a day when bloggers from all over the world post recommendations of 5 new blogs, preferably blogs that are different from their own culture and perpective. On this day, blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, diverse, and interesting blogs, from all over the globe.

BlogDay was created by Nir Ofir, VP of Product & Content at blogTV.com, with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest.

Here are the BlogDay posting instructions:

1. Find 5 new blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2007
3. Write a short description of the blogs and place a link to the recommended blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
   http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2007 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

For all bloggers out there, join me on this day of celebration & discovery, and post your own recommendations. For all my readers, be sure to check back on August 31st for my recommendations.

Since Jeff Pulver has started a new “Question of the Day” post, I will also add my own question for today: Which blogs are your favorite to read, and why? I personally enjoy reading the blogs of those people who not only tell you about the latest social network or software and how to use it, but rather actually have something to say about it. Bloggers like Kent Newsome, Jeff Pulver, and Robert Scoble, not only tell you about the latest product or development, but they state their opinions, add some context to all these developments we’re seeing around us, and often talk about the whole web 2.0 culture and its influence on our daily lives. Makes for a much more interesting reading than just hearing about “the latest whatever”.

Who are your favorites?

Thanks to xiaoxia for the pic.

Technorati tags: jeff pulver, kent newsome, robert scoble, blog, web2.0

Since it was Holocaust Remembrance Day this week, I found myself thinking: Would the holocaust be possible in a time like today when we have the internet, online communities, and blogs? In an age of endless networking and community building, what do these communities really mean to us? How do we define a community today?

If a mass killing were to happen now, how would we all react? Would we reach out to those from our online communities who need our help? Would we take care of each other and write about it in our blogs, asking governments to take action? Would we digg and delicious our posts, giving them a common tag on technorati in hope that they reach the widest possible audience? Would we open a flickr account so we could share photos and upload a video to YouTube? In a social networking age like today, how would we deal?

When you enter an online community. you start building your profile, uploading videos and pictures, blogging, adding your favorite sites and widgets. You share little bits and pieces of yourself with your community hoping that members will be interested enough to go through the pieces, and also share a couple of their own. In any such network, you will probably make some connections. Certain people like to explore and learn about others before making them contacts, while others simply add contacts randomly. Some approve every request for a connection whereas others have certain criteria for approving a contact. Everyone’s behavioral patterns are different.

You may start chatting, skyping, emailing, perhaps even meeting your connections in person. But how close do you feel to your online connections? If they need you, will you be there? What meaning do these connections take on for you? Given the large number of contacts that we each have in the various communities, is it even possible to form personal connections with everyone? Probably not, Just like in real life, you will most often make deeper connections with certain members than others. Are these connections that we can depend on?

I’d like to believe that community and sharing have not become empty words in our lexicon and that we’re not using the word community only to define a business model that prevents churn. I can only hope that in an age where open communication has been made so easy, horrible tragedies like the Holocaust could not happen again. Hopefully we will never need to find out.

I would like to thank John Suler for the brilliant pic.

Technorati tags: holocaust, community, internet, blogs, digg, delicious, technorati, flickr, youtube, social networking, contacts, skyping, sharing, John Suler

There’s been a lot of talk recently in the blogosphere regarding Tim O’Reilly’s call for a “Blogger’s Code of Conduct“. O’Reilly wants us all to play nice now and put civility badges on our sites. Frankly I find this whole idea to be pretentious and disturbing. O’Reilly will decide what I can or cannot post on my blog? And if I don’t place a badge on my blog, will I be called a “commie”?

I think that such a code of conduct misses the point of blogging, the internet, and human behavior in general. The whole idea of blogging is based on the notion that I as a blogger have the freedom to write my opinion, no matter what it should be, and that people have the right to react to my opinions. Isn’t that what freedom of speech is all about? The minute we start regulating blogging behavior and adding rules and censorship to the blogosphere, we lose its most precious element of freedom.

Of course I am not saying that derogatory comments such as the death threats that were sent to Kathy Sierra should be ignored. However, don’t we have the law to deal with these sorts of issues? Why do we need to add extra regulations specifically pertaining to the blogosphere?

I completely agree with Kent Newsome’s words:

“Here’s an Idea: Just Be Nice

Rather than try to recreate the world, how about just apply the real world rules of common sense and courtesy to the blogosphere. Everyone interacts with other people all day every day in the real world, and we don’t need Tim O’Reilly to rewrite the Golden Rule for us.”

I act as a civilized member of my online and offline community not because I put a badge on my forehead saying that I will do so, but because I just do. I don’t need Tim O’Reilly or any other form of “higher authority” controlling what I do or say on my blog. This type of control scares me more than all the nasty comments I had read about.

Robert Scoble writes:

“I do find disquieting the social pressure to get on board with this program. Tim O’Reilly is a guy who really can affect one’s career online (and off, too). I do have to admit that I feel some pressure just to get on board here and that makes me feel very uneasy.”

I find this picture very disturbing. Don’t you?

Let us focus on writing good blogs, interacting in good and meaningful debate, and not on limiting our abilities to express our minds and our notions in a world that was meant to do just that.

Technorati tags: Tim O’Reilly, Blogger’s Code of Conduct, badge, blogging, internet, law, freedom, blogosphere, Kathy Sierra, Kent Newsome, Robert Scoble