The web enables anyone to create their own, personal brand of media and share their ideas with thousands or even millions. When you develop content for a publication that is all your own, you:

• Retain 100% of the rights to your work
• Maintain editorial control and total freedom to write on whatever you please
• Retain 100% of the advertising revenue brought in by your work
• Are working to build your own brand and web property
• Are creating something that works for you and makes revenue while you sleep
• Are free to work on your own timetable
• Are free to work from wherever you want, whenever you want
• Can create a group of people loyal to you who will work to promote your content (similar to what Kevin Kelly suggest with 1,000 True Fans, but for writers)
• Begin to build your own network and carve out influence in your writing niche

So it was exciting to see today to that professional blogging platform TypePad, owned by Six Apart, has created “The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program” as an easy path for journalists to step into the world of digital publishing with the ability to monetize their work already built-in.

The timing couldn’t be better, and there is no reason why every journalist interested in new media can’t get involved, even if they also work full-time for another organization.

What Six Apart is offering Journalists:

• A free TypePad Pro blog account.

• Enrollment in the Six Apart Media advertising program (and you, the writer, get to keep the revenue your site generates).

• They will promote your new site on Blogs.com. (a popular blog directory).

How journalists can get involved

Just send  the link to your last piece for a newspaper, magazine or broadcast journalism venue to bailout@sixapart.com, and Six Apart will take care of the rest.  See more details on the TypePad blog - and they clearly say this will be a limited time offer, so email them ASAP.

In their words:

While we’re obviously having a bit of fun with the “bailout” name, this program is something we’re serious about. The dollar value for you for the TypePad subscription alone works out to over $150 a year, but we know that for a lot of working journalists, one of the biggest obstacles towards independence can be just trying to figure out where to start. Now you’ve got an answer.

Great to see an on-the-edge communications platform reaching out and doing something special for journalists, especially at a time when the future feels uncertain.  If you know a writer that has been laid off (or even one that hasn’t) please consider forwarding this offer to them.

While I am a Wordpress user (and it is my personal favorite platform), TypePad also is a fantastic platform that many incredibly talented professionals use.

If this specific opportunity has ended…there are plenty of other great options

If TypePad stops their offer before you’ve had a chance to sign up, don’t fret - this is still a huge opportunity for all writers, as I have stated previously.

Wordpress is free, buying a domain and hosting is dirt cheap, and you don’t need any special programming knowledge to setup AdSense when you are ready to monetize .  There couldn’t be a better time to build your personal publishing platform if you haven’t already.

Related posts from The Future Buzz

Career Security Not Job Security (Part 2)

The Social Web:  The Ultimate Scratchpad For Passionate Communications Professionals

The Rise Of Personal Branding

Related posts from around the web

12 Useful Online Tools For Journalists (10000words.net)

Transforming Your Blog Into Really Big Business (SkellieWag)

The End Of Tangible Media Is Clearly In Sight (Micro Persuasion)

Ask yourself, what is the single most important idea I would like my web property to communicate or action I would like a visitor to take.  Now, focus your site to make sure every interested visitor sees your call to action, loud and clear.  It is that simple.

Direct each visitor’s attention only to what is absolutely vital and you will win every time against your competition that does too much and is unfocused.

For example…

You could go to Weather.com, where you’re greeted with a screen that looks like this:

Or you could go to UmbrellaToday.com where you simply get this:

You could go to MySpace to engage your friends on a social network that looks like a billboard here:

Or you could go instead to Facebook and use a service that clearly defines what it does:

You could use a search engine that tried to do everything here:

Or you could use one that focuses on being the best at one thing here:

You could get a new system from Acer’s website (they actually do make good products):

I’m a PC user, however there is no denying the beauty and simplicity of Apple’s consumer website:

You could use a service like MessageForums.net to build a message board:

Or you could use Ning.com and easily and quickly build a whole social network:

Should I look something up on Encyclopedia Britannica which offers me superfluous content I didn’t even query on the homepage:

Or perhaps Wikipedia, which presents me purely with the interface and language choice:

Look carefully at your own .com.

Are you a Weather.com or an UmbrellaToday.com?  Are you a Yahoo or a Google?  Are you a MySpace or a Facebook?  Do you really need all those tabs, buttons, links, banners, graphics, flashing animations and logos?  What is the most important thing you want readers to learn about you, what one action do you want visitors to take?

Adding complexity is standard and expected.  Simplicity is truly remarkable and will make you stand out.

What if instead of trying to do and say everything, you decided to simply be the best at one thing?

Related posts from The Future Buzz

25 Examples Of Clean, Effective And Beautiful Web Design

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By me even broaching this topic some of you are already shifting in your chairs.

Why?  Because you probably subscribe to some sort of political belief and some sort of religious belief.  Politics are often discussed openly, however today I would like to discuss religion from a marketing perspective as I have not seen that done nearly enough.

Religion is concurrently the most successful, yet most ignored example of the efficacy of marketing. If you are offended by me talking about religion as marketing, then the point has already been proven.

Think about it:

• Countless religions the world over have packaged a compelling story which has been improved and edited for generations.

• Religious leaders wrap their story in messaging and jargon that feels legitimate to many people.

• Religion offers both tangible benefits (community) and intangible benefits (promise of afterlife) at both a monetary and time cost to you.

• Religion successfully rallies people the world over to publicly brand themselves as subscribers and work without any compensation as word of mouth marketers to attract new members to their religious brand of choice.

• Religions have logos.

• People gather at their religion of choice’s physical location with frequency.

• People celebrate during established days during which they devote time, make purchases and give resources to their religion of choice.

• Other viewpoints and even science are told to be wrong, because questioning truth has been blocked by design.

• Religion fights change to keep itself relevant by updating or changing its messages, its appearance and the manner it spreads.

Much of the business and marketing world clearly has taken cues from what religion has done successfully for centuries.

It would be naive of us to ignore that our species is open to manipulation by messages during early stages of development.  This is where religion grows its roots in influencing culture.  It is passed as an idea virus from parents to children, and is instilled from a young age while kids do not have defenses to form their own opinions and make up their own mind.

The most amazing part to me is that religion succeeds in a big way even though it is purely based on spreading ideas without any evidence backing up their claims other than circular logic.

What I have learned by observing religion from a neutral and objective perspective:

• People crave a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves
• Large numbers encourage greater participation
• It has been defined as a societal norm to believe and socially deviant not to believe
• The media and much of popular culture reinforce the systems in place
• Stories and larger-than-life promises are effective marketing tools, especially if reinforced again and again

The lessons for marketing:

Build a following

Religion has existed successfully in many forms for centuries mainly because people desire to belong to something.

Digital tools allow you to easily build the same following for yourself.  And, you have the opportunity to do so in a collaborative, positive and thoughtful manner embracing truth.

Be open to suggestions/feedback

Many of the current religions and large businesses are already relics in the mind of the next generation.  They aren’t part of the future in their current form because the new generation rejects them (and with good reason).

The successful businesses of tomorrow will not be the ones that mimic the monolithic religious institutions and businesses of the previous generations with a pure top-down approach.  The way moving forward is to incorporate ideas from all your stakeholders into the mix - include everyone, especially your customers and front-line workers.

Kill the circular logic

You are not great merely because you say you are.  Prove yourself in tangible formats.  Just like I have written on how your resume is meaningless, so are your marketing messages unless you can back them up with case studies, testimonials, tangible proof, etc.

Challenge the status quo

Look at the success of the flying spaghetti monster.  They are parodying the ridiculousness of much of religion, and for it they are popular.

From Wikipedia:

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is a character created as a satirical protest to the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. The FSM is the deity of the parody religion The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson. Since the intelligent design movement used ambiguous references to an unspecified ‘Intelligent Designer’ to avoid court rulings prohibiting the teaching of creationism as a science, this presumably left open the possibility that any imaginable thing could fill that role.

Have a look at their Wiki entry to see just how far this idea has gone and how much influence and success they have had (they have made a significant impact).

Find your own way to create a flying spaghetti monster, as there is almost always a wealth of people interested in supporting the opposite end of something popular yet questioned.

Don’t be intrusive

Part of what makes religion unappealing (and part of its eventual downfall) is the fact that they are so intrusive and forceful into the lives of many people and continuously try to dig deeper.  If they were permission-based organizations and allowed whoever wanted to opt-in to their messages and viewpoints do so in a less aggressive manner they wouldn’t be viewed so negatively.

Trying to force yourself/your brand on people by knocking on doors and forcing your beliefs into areas they don’t belong does hurts your reputation and will backfire long term (you don’t need to look very far into history or even at current events to see how religion consistently paints a negative image for itself).

Study sociology

The best marketers have a strong understanding not just of business and playing the corporate game, but more importantly of our culture and the bigger picture of how society functions.  Studying everything in our world, from religion and politics to popular culture will help you be far more effective in creating strategic communications.

Learn what makes ideas spread and learn the content archetypes for ideas that stick and apply it to your own marketing solutions.

Conclusion

No matter what your belief, religion is an undeniably powerful marketing force.  My goal with this post was not to offend you, but make you think.  Think about how religion has used marketing as a vehicle to shape the very direction of our society.  Think about how religion packages their messages and stories in ways that resonate with masses of people.  Think about how they use their powers negatively and positively, and how you can use some of the positive aspects for yourself (never take the negatives from religion, it’s a slippery slope and doomed to backfire).

Your thoughts?

Related posts from The Future Buzz

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Is Obama Ready To Be A Two Way President (TechCrunch)

How To Understand Your Audience (DoshDosh)

Politically Speaking (The Kadet Communications Blog)

I’ve written previously on how your resume is meaningless, on building career security, not job security and on the rise of personal branding.  To summarize the overarching themes of those three posts quickly:

• Your work should be working for you, building your reputation, not locked away in a resume.
• A resume proves nothing, a living case study proves everything.
• Creating a name for yourself in your industry provides you the ultimate freedom:  career security.
• The tools exist for you to influence your industry in deep ways to make positive change and carve out a name for yourself.
• Building your personal network enables incredible connections with the world around you not previously possible.

A blog is the ideal avenue to accomplish all of this and so much more.

I’ve been telling my personal contacts the content from the three posts linked above for years.  Great to see several of my thoughts reverberated in a recent article by AdWeek entitled:  save your career, start a blog.

A quick quote from the writer of the article, Joseph Jaffe:

“I cannot stress enough how powerful an established and Google-juiced blog can be for yourself and, ultimately, your company. Google doesn’t discriminate in terms of how it rewards relevance and resonance, and you’d be surprised how many leads, press inquiries, resumes and business-development opportunities will present themselves through blogging.”

Joseph is absolutely spot on.  I can personally attest to a myriad of benefits in both the physical and digital worlds by keeping this site. 

Just a few things that have happened since keeping this blog…I have:

• Received inquiries for several local speaking engagements, taken a few of them up
• Been quoted in local and national industry trade publications as an expert source
• Built close relationships with countless incredible people, even met some of them in person during business travels
• Had my thoughts read by well over 100,000 people since starting The Future Buzz
• Contributed to a global, ongoing dialogue in the marketing, public relations and tech industries
• Worked relentless to sharpen my communications skills and cognitive functions daily
• Been interviewed by several other bloggers, reporters and two college students as a reference on digital media

There are so many tangible and intangible benefits, if you are serious about leading your industry, helping others and building your global reputation, you can’t ignore blogging.

Tom Peters on blogging:

“I will simply say my first post was in August of 2004…no single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging.  It has changed my life, it has changed my perspective, it has changed my intellectual outlook, it has changed my emotional outlook (and it’s the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude I’ve ever had…and it’s free)” — Tom Peters (watch clip here)

The sticking point…

The software is free, getting a domain and hosting are dirt cheap, and setting up Wordpress couldn’t be simpler…

At this point, especially to readers here for any length of time, you are either sold on the idea of having a blog (many of you already do), or you’re never going to do it.  To those who aren’t interested, you can stop reading here (or forward this to a friend you think might be interested).  Everyone who is still interested, the rest of this post is to help you overcome the one major issue I know you’re struggling with.

The only real impediment between many smart professionals and blogging?  Time.  Mainly, a lack of it.  That’s it.

I know you can write, want to make positive change in your industry and desire to create a name for yourself.  I know you are motivated and intelligent.  You know the technology is simple to setup (77 million+ others are using it just fine).  But on more than one occasion when encouraging people I know would be a fantastic bloggers to start, the sticking point for them - and perhaps the issue for you - is time.  Many think that they simply don’t have enough of it.

If you’re someone who thinks that, you’re wrong.  You can make time and be efficient with blogging.  You don’t have to commit insane hours, you don’t have to give up sleep, and the positives far outweigh any hours you’ll miss being mildly entertained. Here’s a few tips for how to integrate blogging into your busy life successfully:

Write what you know, write what flows easily

The content on your professional blog should be just that - posts about your industry.  Share what you’ve learned with the world in an open format.  This should be a joy, as you’re writing on something you’re passionate about.  Both new and experienced professionals should be able to come up with something compelling to say, as everyone brings different and useful viewpoints to the table.

Audit your time

To be successful, you should build blogging into the natural flow of your day.  To do this, you need to first audit your time.  Create a spreadsheet outlining every hour of the day you’re not at work.  Logically see where you can fit in 15-30 minutes to blog.

What do you do when you get home?  If you watch TV, spend hours on Facebook, or surf the web aimlessly consider using some of your free time to help yourself and write instead.

How much time do you spend doing chores/cleaning?  Batch task and streamline your processes and I guarantee you can come up with some extra time here.

Do you go out with your friends every night?  Don’t become anti-social, but take a night off now and then to work on your personal growth through writing.

Keep an idea-pad, write down potential post topics as you think of them

What you’ll find is you come up with fantastic ideas for blog topics when you’re not actively thinking about it.  In other words, you’ll be at work or with friends/family and all of a sudden a brilliant topic hits you.  Keep a notepad with you at all times (digital or analog) and jot down ideas as they come.  Knowing what you want to blog about will save you a lot of time when you’re actually ready to write.

Your blog and the benefits grow slowly over time if you stick with it

You don’t have to write 10 posts the first week.  In fact, you don’t even have to write every day, or every other day.  To begin with, just start slow and write when you can - the main thing is to keep at it, even if you can only start by writing once a week.  As you get more comfortable with the platform and as you get feedback, you can step it up if you’re so inspired.  Blogging is something that gets more enjoyable with time.

Blogging must be viewed as an intellectual challenge and a joy, not a chore

Writing is a fantastic way to keep your mind sharp.  Just like weightlifting, you have to challenge your mind or it will never grow.  That is why it is vital to write on something you’re passionate about, you’ll be motivated to stick with it.  Write on what you love and you really can’t fail.

Get into a groove

Once you’ve made blogging a part of your life, you will wonder how you lived without it.  It becomes something you look forward to daily and something which enriches and empowers you.  After a short time, you will find your blogging groove and it will be like second nature.

Conclusion

Blogging as a platform has matured significantly and is the ultimate tool to shape your industry, build your reputation and share your thoughts/expertise with the world.  If you are a professional who wants to lead, you can’t ignore personal publishing - it is far too powerful.

Related posts from The Future Buzz

10 Reasons Why Organizations (And Individuals) With Audiences Win

Findability, The Long Tail Of Search, And Building Deep Interactions

Every Blogger Is A Marketer

Related posts from around the web:

How To Start A Professional Blog:  10 Tips For New Bloggers (Andrew Chen)

Build Your Network:  People Do Business With Those They Know (Small Business Branding)

What Should I Write About?  Well, Who Are You Writing For? (SkellieWag.org)

The web has fast become the most efficient tool for building interactions and relationships between the world and your business. No matter if you are a national brand or a fresh startup, using the web successfully is vital to your success. It is the ultimate marketing tool, we know this - however integrating it with your business model itself can prove an even greater opportunity.

This speaks to the importance of having someone on your team, in house that is a web guru and social media evangelist.  Let’s go through 14 reasons why this is so vital:

1)  Ongoing education for all your team members

Something important for organizations globally is educating team members on what is possible using the web, as building your brand online is a team effort.  The right person on your staff will feed your team members all the right information on what they need to know to stay at the edge of your industry.

2)  Deep understanding of how people interact and how ideas spread online

People who spend the most time on the web have an innate, natural understanding of the space.  They can help you create communications, products and ideas that succeed in breaking through the clutter.

3)  Knowledge of usability

An experienced web pro knows the ins and outs of the most successful websites, and can translate the refined levels of usability developed on them to all of your web properties to help optimize conversions.

4)  Keeping your business at the edge, following trends

No longer fear that your business is missing out on new opportunities in the digital space, the right team member finds it infinitely interesting to stay at the edge and will keep pace with all developments and trends within your industry.  They will keep your business not only looking fresh and hip, but ahead of the curve in ways that are actually useful, not just flashy.

5)  Hiring the right partners and external agencies

Having a web guru on staff does not replace the efforts of external agencies in marketing, SEO, public relations, or web design, however they will be able to communicate your businesses needs properly to these people.  They will also work seamlessly with external agencies as everyone will speak the same language.  Your team will move ultra-fast when initiating new online strategies if the right, experienced person internally can be trusted and given control to execute directly with your businesses partners.

6)  Unlocking potential models that are disruptive to your industry before competitors see them

Only someone with an intimate understanding of the space will look beyond the obvious and see potential opportunities to push your business ahead of the curve.  Uncovering a model that disrupts your industry can be a massive opportunity you cannot afford to miss.  External agencies, unless given complete access to your entire business, may not have enough information to suggest new models to you.  A web guru on your team may come up with an innovative idea that reshapes your entire industry - with your business as the leader.

7)  Work relentlessly on your brand in social media

Having someone internal to take ownership of your brand in social media is vital.  You can outsource pieces of this if you have to, but having a social web expert on staff allows one person to manage this closely and advance your reputation and reach daily.

8)  Daily traffic monitoring, SEO opportunities and analytics audits

The right professional will be checking your analytics daily, managing addition of fresh content and identifying new opportunities to boost your visibility in search.

9)  Management of your company blog

Knowing how to build your brand successfully in the blogosphere is vital to growing your web presence.  The right person managing your blog can do wonders to draw you traffic, interest and build your following.

10)  Keeping security tight

Keeping your web properties safe from hackers is also important, especially if you are looking to grow your business on the web.  If a hacker is able to inject malicious code into your site, something you might never even be aware of, you could be penalized for years to come in search engines.

11)  Getting your office using Firefox and other secure tools

Along with security for your web properties, ensuring network security (while generally the duty of your IT staff) can be supplemented by having a web expert on staff.  They’ll quickly notice where the potential security breaches can occur and tighten things up.

12)  Keeping an eye on the competition

Web professionals thrive on information.  And, as a team member, they will keep a close eye on what your competition is doing on the web, what phrases they are ranking for, and if they are taking advantage of opportunities you’re not.

13)  Represent your brand properly in social media

The right staff member understands the unwritten rules of social media and how to enter the space in a way that makes sense for your brand.  Entering social media the wrong way can prove deadly, or alternatively you could be ignored altogether - neither of which showcase your brand in a positive light.

14)  Understanding of popular culture on the web

Web culture isn’t something that can be taught.  The only way to learn this is to experience it firsthand.  The right web guru on your staff not only will understand, they will see clearly how to adapt your brand and business into popular culture online.

The right person on your team is a huge key to success for your business or brand in getting the most from the web.  They can work with your external agencies and align everyone’s efforts so you can get the best results.  They can help your business deliver web-based solutions that actually make a difference to your customers and clients.  They can help bridge your internal staff’s digital divide.

Thinking about hiring someone to lead your team down the right path?  Consider asking some of the questions I posed in my article on how to choose an online marketing or PR agency, adapted for an individual, of course.

Conclusion

The companies that are succeeding in leveraging the social web successfully certainly have at least one person who embraces the web both personally and professionally on their team.  You may already have the right person on staff, and they just need to be empowered.  Alternatively, you might even be able to inspire someone already on your team to begin learning the space.  Going external of your team and bringing in a fresh web professional can work too, especially since you may get someone with a different perspective.

The bottom line is this:  getting someone on board who is a proven success at using the web will give you the edge in your industry.

Related posts from The Future Buzz

10 Tips For How To Choose The Best Web Designer

65 Bite-Sized Web Marketing Tips

Be A Savvy Marketing Or PR Professional:  Avoid These 10 Obvious Web Mistakes

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Kickstarting Your Creative Infrastructure In A Web 2.0 World (Brodcastin Brain)

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The Power Of Understanding And Solving Problems (DoshDosh)