Fine Art of Blogging

As per a survey, teens dont tweet because of the following:

Demographics and usage habits of the microblogging crowd

Twitter has experienced explosive growth in 2009. According to “An In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World,” from Sysomos, 72.5% of all Twitter users joined the service in the first five months of this year. Who are they?

More than one-half of all Twitter users (53%) are women, and the majority are young. Among users who disclose their age, 66% are under 25, and another 15% are ages 25 to 29.

Read at eMarketer

Economies are slow and people are reconsidering their spending habits; How You Can Start Spending Smart and on what and how to get quality for less? Most are looking for saving even on consumers and household products.

Thanks to Zenni Optical – a leader in provision of quality, cost effective prescription eyeglasses - that they offer products that anyone can afford. The secret to their low prices is that they sell only their own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. That is what makes Zenni Optical my favorite high fashion eyeglasses.

Explore Zenni Optical collection of eyeglasses (as low as $ 8 Rx eyeglasses) and frames and find what you need. The imagery displayed on site is good and gives a feeler of how those eyeglasses will look at your face. Try them.

Every time of life is a greetings time. You don’t have to wait for an accession to send greetings to those whom you love. Not for a person like me. I am a collector; I collect sentiments, passions, love and joy. I do it through sending greetings to others and receiving greetings from them.

Advent of the Internet has added another cultural dimension in our society; greeting through the Internet. There are so many sites on the World Wide Web offering free cyber greetings for all occasions from where users can select, customize and send e-cards with a few clicks.

Imagine what you get on e-cards. The messages printed on the greeting cards are poetic, passionate, persuasive and very comforting. The e-cards available on the internet meet the requirements of all the conceivable situations in the human relationship. There are in endless varieties, designs, shapes and sizes from simple messages like ‘I wish you were here with me now’ to such questions as ‘I often wonder what made us fall in love and more?’

One of the e-cards that I have received lately is from the Chairman of a German NGO. Almost entire manifesto of the NGO is printed on the e-card. I might not have read the material if I was given a leaflet about the NGO but the e-card is so beautifully and aesthetically designed and presented that not only I read it but it touched my heart too. I wish others could follow the line to make their voices heard in this din.

The greeting card shows how our cultural heritage values architectural styles, fashion designs and form visible record of our history. Most of the cards are work of art that is collector’s delight.

The best card I had the pleasure to receive was from a foreign volunteer working “to fight against poverty in rural areas.” It was simple and beautiful. What touched me was the message on this e-card. It said, “my future lies with you.” I haven’t asked my friend weather this message is focused or on purpose? I have bookmarked the page and see this whenever I come and work on computer. I enjoy every time I look at this card.

When was the last time you send an e-card to any of your loved ones? It is time to send it now.

Building a home is one such activity most people go through that users need a lot of help and resources to go through the process from planning to actually building brick by brick. First thing you need is a home plan. That is where www.HousePlansandMore.com of HDA, Inc. comes in.

Start at www.HousePlansandMore.com and see a wide variety of home building resources and helpful tools they are offering all in one convenient website organized to make your house plans search simple and easy. They cater for everything regarding home plans. Explore the site and choose blueprint that fits your needs, style and your budget. What is more, just enter your zip code and determine a specific home's estimated cost to build within that zip code.

Website is neatly laid out and users friendly. Search function too is very efficient. Users can search luxury dream home plans and find what fits their unique needs. Given a large variety of architectural designs, you will sure find the plan that is right fit for your requirements.
Their project plan collection includes garage plans, shed plans, backyard project plans, and plans for other great project plans for your home. Similarly, users can locate a builder in their areas. Have a look at their Builder's Advantage program.

I suggest you try them before you start building your home.

Tom Peters says, (100 was to Succeed # 29), “Blogging, I firmly believe, is the premier emergent marketing-brandbuilding-lovemarkcreating tool of our times! It is the premier way to have intimate-engaging-informative-WOWing" conversation with clients and prospects! This all goes double for small … Do you see blogging in these exalted lights? If not why not? Please… Blog as if your professional success depends on it.

Let me add this, Blog As If Your Social Life Depends On It. It does, only replace clients and prospects in what Tom Peters wrote with friends and may be crushes (they know who they are).

I was doing my MPA from the University of Punjab in 1999 when (on August 23, 1999), Pyra Labs launched its Blogger product, which would go on to become the biggest blogging platform in the world. I was only thinking of starting blogging then.

Now Blogger turns 10 years old. And to celebrate, the Blogger team is promising a bunch of gifts to users in the form of new features. Without naming anything specifically, Blogger points to this list as a good reference point for some of what they’ll be rolling out over the next few weeks. Of note on that list are a better commenting system and WordPress-style pages.

Happy birthday to Blogger. Yes, the world would not be same without blogger!

Regator, a blog aggregator similar to AllTop, today released an iPhone application which lets you view the latest blog posts from selected blogs on your iPhone or Touch. Have a look.

Rob Starr from Rob Starr has written this excellent and useful post {From Blogging Tips}.

Online presence is important for almost everyone in this information age. Having trusted and sound web host before putting assets online is even more important. Growing demand of web hosting has given birth to so many web hosts with almost similar claims. In this situation, it is difficult for to find and engage the best web host, particularly for beginners.

Thanks to the WPdesigner that they have made the task to find the best web host easy. Based on the credibility and the reputation of people who stand behind hosting companies, WPDesigner.com selects top hosts and present Trusted Top 10 hosting list on the net. The top ten are rated on the bases of price, server up-time, reliability, ease-of-use, control panel and customer support. The criteria makes the top ten list very authentic and anyone who chooses any of them can have an enriching online experience.

The information rich site also offers some useful insight on related subject like Basic Guide to Web Hosting, Guide to Switching Web Hosts, How to Pick a Web Host, E-Commerce Guide, Choosing a Web Design Firm, Hosting Terminology and some more articles about Wordpress themes. I personally picked up some great ideas while browsing WPDesigner.com. I suggest you explore what they are offering before choosing a web host.

Penfold

Recently I presented a question relating to the point of blogging.

To many the point was the pointlessness. Or an open plan diary for you and the world to share. Or a stream of conciousness (or unconciousness in the case of the Old Git) to satiate a desire to communicate something to somebody somewhere…

I first started mine for a completely different reason - I wanted to learn how to build a website and get a podcast together - at the time I was starting to mix music again (unfortunately work has taken that desire from me for the moment) and I wanted to be able to share it with others. Rather than take the easy route I built a site from the ground up learning html and xml and all those fun ‘ml’ things tripping over each obstacle as I went and struggling through (the remnants of those pages are still in my archives). Then to facilitate the graphical side I started to get my head around Photoshop and Illustrator so I could make my own banners, buttons and widgets…

So all the while I was blogging almost as a side line. Then I finally added comments to the site and the whole thing sprang to life. I discovered that the stats I’d been getting were actually real people with real lives from the furthest reaches of the planet and they actually enjoyed what I was writing and in turn I was loving reading about their worlds and lives. My tiny isolated bubble that I’d been trapped in was growing and changing shape and I was starting to make friends such as Lucy, Lizza, Surftwin, Nursie, Kevin and Sylvie, Paula, Rachie, Jen and many more...

So months later I switched to wordpress so I could concentrate on the content and the communication. Now blogging has become a huge part of my life - I feel so disconnected where I live sometimes and it’s like a small vibrant web spreading out through the internet keeping me in contact with the rest of the world.

For some reason it’s also given me a boost to get back into things that I’d long discarded such as my photography and some artwork and then of course I get to rattle on endlessly about my greatest passion surfing. So all in all it has to be a good thing…

Cheers everybody for spending time here and thanks to all the other bloggers that put so much effort into their own sites for everybody else.

I didn’t surf today.

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Twitter, the Web site that lets people post updates through 140-character messages, said it was attacked again by hackers, following a series of assaults that hobbled the site last week.

"We're back up and analyzing the traffic data to determine the nature of this attack," San Francisco-based Twitter said Tuesday on its blog.

Twitter was the target of a denial-of-service attack last week, along with Facebook and LiveJournal. Hackers targeted an activist blogger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia by flooding the sites with requests, causing them to slow down or crash.

"Twitter continues improving system response such that inevitable denial-of-service attacks such as those we saw last week don't interfere with normal operations," Twitter said in a statement. "We make every effort to keep folks updated."

The company said last week that defense measures caused some of the disruptions. The site was shut down entirely Aug. 6. The next day, many users could not send updates, known as Tweets, via short messaging service and other applications, Twitter said.

Twitter had 20.1 million U.S. users in June, according to research firm ComScore in Reston. That made it the third most popular social-networking site. Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace ranked first and second. {#}

The Internet is a newer platform characterised by a large, open, public network where people interact with people from throughout the world without any barriers like geography, culture, age, social class or gender. It is unlike real word where people with their own identities come together face to face. Online, users are a little less perceptive about their identities.

Having an identity is not a new concept. Every one is having at least one since the dawn of the civilization; ascribed identity. Anthropologists and sociologist have been discussing different aspects of identity ever since. But identity has never been a general problem until now.

Things started changing fast in the Information Age. After the advent of computers and the Internet, the world around us is continually changing. People are evolving newer norms and folkways for conducting themselves in contemporary society.

Nicks, handles and URLs are being exchanged and they already have started appearing on visiting cards. The Information technologies are helping global and more aware societies in countless ways, putting one's identity online being one of them.

There are so many users who interact with the Internet, and so many different things that they do besides getting connected to each other for communication. In the process, many users go a long way to create online identities.

Paradoxically, digital identities can be duplicated perfectly and easily. In addition, Internet world makes it easy for users to present themselves in as many different forms as they want to; even gender swapping.

Internet has made it possible for any one to stay anonymous and still reach out to a vast audience the world over. Details users provide (or do not provide) are entirely up to them.

With so many easy options to stay on the Internet and do things anonymously, assuming any desired identity is quite common. Theoretically, this is not much different from classical literary nom de plume or anonymous, which publishing on printing press allowed.

Only it has been relatively difficult to remain anonymous for long in real world, it is much easier online. Hence, it has become a standard option of communication on the Internet.

I do not subscribe to the idea but some call this aspect as a freedom to be whatever you want to be. Celebrated writers like Sherry Turkle in her book "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet" emphasises, "Perhaps one of the most secure things about the Internet in this day and age is that on the Internet, you are anonymous."

And then there are some aspects of identity that inherently remain hidden below the surface in text-based communication. This divides users in two groups: Those who choose to create a clear digital identity that can be related to who they are in person and those who choose to remain hidden behind the walls of anonymity. This is about the later - how computers and the Internet are causing users to adopt online identities in the age of the Internet.

There are still many problems with online identities though. Currently there is no generic system for recognition of any identity in virtual world. Electronic bits do not carry any inseparable and unique information along with them hence cannot define who users are or more importantly who they are not.

So far information required for authentication is lacking and it is not possible to identify anyone online with absolute certainty. This has given rise to a sort of mistrust in the medium. What is more, users are not bothered about it; they have started taking this suspicion for granted instead.

Common niches for self-displaying own identities in the forms of bios and profiles include personal home pages, different social sites, blogs, email and myriad of other accounts and registries on the World Wide Web.

Most of these sites hoist their user's identity information for free whereas there are some premium places where users actually pay for showcasing themselves. Then there are online activities where users leave behind bits and pieces of information.

Combinations of these isolated pieces of personal information make quite a biographical sketch that forms a strong online identity, sometime the users may not be aware of.

Not to mention information left while engaged in activities like credit cards, online shopping practices, health and social securities because they are not yet common in this part of the world.

There is a plenty of general information on the Web about online identity, how some users create and what they do with it. Consider this case: "I picked a typical login name and created a temporary yahoo e-mail account to go with it.

Then I had to create a profile where I listed my interests as: chocolate and clothes. I activated my account and my new blonde identity was soon added alongside thousands of other females with low self-esteem who desperately need attention.

I thought it would be fun to see exactly how much attention an attractive girl on the Internet receives. My theory was that I would get a few replies from guys who were interested in meeting me.

My expectations were exceeded. I was bombarded. I was amazed at just how many losers there were on the Internet. In a 24 hour time period, I was able to locate 342 guys in my area who had the time to email a random girl on a website whose interests were chocolate and clothes..." Excuse me, I did not experiment this. An anonymous writer has narrated this personal account on Website Sophists - Philosophy forums and psychology news.

So what is the point? My point is that online identity is becoming a bit of a pressing issue, particularly among high end users who have integrated Internet in their lives.

Intuitive insight of conventional identity is fading away slowly. In the longer run, this may change the fibres of our society. So, let us reassess who we are in cyberspace? Are we real self as in real world or someone slightly different? What if one wears a mask or is assigned the wrong identity by someone else? Internet will not become a reality till the time such issues are adequately addressed and problems solved.

Close to half of Europeans use the internet every day but one third have never used the web, according to a new report (PDF) published by the European Commission. The study, which took a deep dive into the digital landscape in Europe over the last five years, demonstrated that new technologies are spreading fast across the continent but deep divisions remain and that particularly the elder and unemployed remain largely unaware of the existence of websites such as TechCrunch and FAILblog.org. The commission's study showed that 56 percent of Europeans had become regular Internet users by 2008, a jump of one third since 2004. Forty three percent of EU citizens currently use the web every day, while 75 percent use it regularly ("at least once a week") compared to only 43 percent in 2005. Half of all households and more than 80 percent of businesses had a broadband connection last year and with 114 million subscribers the EU is in fact the largest world market for fixed broadband access. {TechCrunch}

The world's online community was crippled this week by cyber-attacks that temporarily brought down Twitter and slowed popular site Facebook and LiveJournal. But if that wasn't enough to make you contemplate the fragility of our great internet civilization, consider this: the successful assault on some of the web's most trafficked institutions was apparently aimed at just one obscure blogger in Europe. The blogger, a professor and refugee from the Abkhazia region of Georgia, writes under the pen name Cyxymu. His posts describing the conflict between Georgia and Russia that took place last summer drew the ire of tech-savvy critics, who, as one security expert put it, performed "the equivalent of bombing a TV station because you don't like one of the newscasters," with a string of nasty tools.

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Boston Laser has explained the procedure that is simple, fast, and effective. There are different Lasik (iLASIK is the new name for a specific combination of technologies making up the all-laser Lasik procedure that Boston Laser have been offering for almost a year now) eye vision correction procedures depending on the condition of your eyes. What is more, if you have a surgery cost problem, contact Boston Laser about financing and see their Lasik Eye Surgery financing options page for more information.

Boston Laser Lasik doctors are some of the most experienced Lasik eye surgeons in Boston. New advanced laser systems such as the state of the art VISX laser create superior results. Make Boston Eye Group your choice for your Boston Lasik Surgery and be confident of excellent results.

Explore Boston Laser and see what independent review of last year's results at the Boston Eye Group (that 92%-96% of our patients were able to see 20/25 or better. 100% of patients were able to see 20/40 or better) shows. This will help you make an informed vision decision. Try them when you need.

Have a look at AMACO/Brent – a leading manufacturers of products such as Warm Glass Kilns and warm glass supplies. AMACO/Brent is one of the oldest crafts materials manufacturers in the US and is considered the largest manufacturer of ceramic supplies and equipment for schools and studios. The wide range of items they offer includes over 50 different craft products with an extensive line of polymer clay materials and tools, an innovative soft metals program, and modeling materials some of which have become classics that have sold in craft and school supply stores for over five decades.

Have a look at AMACO/Brent pottery tile and you find the reason to praise the pottery artist at AMACO/Brent who created the product.

AMACO/Brent is the best when it comes to manufacturing wheels and the related accessories. AMACO/Brent wheels have set the standard for quality since 1969. During that time, they have earned a reputation for dependability that is unsurpassed by other brands. Each wheel is built with materials, components and workmanship designed to take the punishment of classroom and studio use over the long haul.

Explore the site and see what they are offering including potters wheel parts and other dry glazes. Better still, try them.

The Internet has changed the ways and processes of doing business and marketing. Businesses need much more than just their online presence. Savvy concerns are realizing the importance of search engine friendly web sites as they give tangible results. Now everyone knows that Search Engine Optimization strategies can play an important role in the success of business.

The trend to shop online is growing fast. With the given rate of growth in the Internet users’ base, it is safe to predict that online shopping may surpass the shopping on ground sometime in the future. This also makes it necessary for businesses to have a fresh look at their ecommerce strategies and build powerful web presence. That again can be done through a powerful web design backed by Search Engine Optimization efforts.

Refashion your Internet marketing strategies, measure results and see what more can be done to enhance your online positioning and who can do it the best way. I suggest you try Arizona web design and see how they can help you to move to the next level and what Arizona SEO can contribute through their expertise and experience in the field. Browse the site and read though rich information there. Also see cool before and after gallery and make an informed decision.

Science of war has now practically entered the cyber age. Imagine what will happen if all computers-based utilities, people have come to rely so much on, stop responding or computer stop recognizing domain names or vital information regarding national security is compromised through computers and communication networks. This is not just a hypothetical war game scenario rather a strong possibility to which empirical observations of the recent past point out. Any soundless, invisible but determined cyber action could paralyze an entire nation without mobilizing a single soldier.

It is in this context that information national security should be discussed and the role of computer chips in war-related fields viewed.

Information warfare also called cyber warfare has evolved into a full-fledged war technique. It is different from war in information age, though computer-based methodologies are being used as an add-on to conventional wars as well. As per Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, "Information warfare is a new kind of warfare where information and attacks on information systems are used against enemy. Information warfare may include giving the enemy propaganda to convince them to give up, and denying them information that might lead to their resistance. Information warfare may also include feeding propaganda or even disinformation to one's own population, either to build support for war efforts or to counter enemy propaganda." The encyclopedia defines information warfare as "any action to deny, exploit, corrupt, or destroy the enemy's information (every thing from message to data to observation that contributes to the combat environment superiority) and its functions; protecting ourselves against those actions; and exploiting our own military information functions" in support of their objectives in the economic, political, or military arenas.

Cyber warfare is different from the conventional war in many ways: Attrition and maneuvers that used to be the main objectives in conventional wars are being replaced in computer age by emphasize on control. Physical forces' attempt to exhaust, annihilate the enemy and capture and hold grounds in conventional wars is being exchanged with actions intended to paralyze the opponents. Defensive measures are not easy to implement in the cyber world and the attack favours the aggressor. By nature the settings of cyber warfare are international as compared to fighting in confines of limited war zones, sectors and on borders.

Information systems have always been vital for any professional military might. Since the advent of computers and the internet, there have been amazing changes in the ways of handling and using information: collecting, storing, processing, and distributing information. Like corporate world and even individual members of society, military commands are also taking advantage of the medium at all levels and computers and networks dependence is growing.

War weaponry that might have started with one to one use of force and hurling of stones on adversaries have changed into attacks by precession guided and capable of mass destructions warheads launched across log distances through independently targetable re-entry vehicles, camera-fitted smart bombs or even nuclear warheads.

Soldiers in today's conventional armies are already making use of computer chips in devices such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Range Finders, Meteorological Measuring and sophisticated Fire Control Systems (CFS). Moreover,"microwave cannons, plasma guns, sensing devices and even mechanical bugs that can swarm and explode around the enemy, body heat powered combat dresses and digital helmets are turning up" reads report of Defense Journal, which is making it difficult to draw a line between conventional and cyber wars.

But this is not about how computer chips are serving soldiers in battlefields. It is about how computers and the internet have become a new weapon in the military's arsenal that need not mobilize the physical forces; virtual battlefield, virtual warfare but no less seismic in any sense as for as their potentials to inflict casualties and loses are concerned.

Loren Thompson, a reputed defence analyst writes, "warfare is less and less about pushing men and machines around the battlefields and more and more about pushing electrons and photons."

Students of military history know how war doctrine, threat perceptions and defence strategies changed when mechanization started after the First World War and armored fighting vehicles were introduced in the military inventories in the Second Word War. And again when the United States unleashed an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on ill-fated day of August 6, 1945. One time use of nukes produced the theory of nuclear deterrence that has been working fine ever since.

Proponents of theory argue that the primary reason that kept the USA and the former USSR from testing their nukes on each other during the long period of cold war was nuclear deterrence; consequences were clear to every one. Now the computers are poised to bring basic changes in the war doctrine once again.

Cyber warfare is not entirely untested. The power of computer was proved in the Gulf War. Intelligence about enemy forces gathered by spy satellites and unmanned reconnaissance planes was transmitted through digital communication systems, followed by effective attacks with precision guided missiles. Later, cyber war methodologies had become much more sophisticated by the time the US and her allies waged an air war against Yugoslavia. By then the computer gurus in the Pentagon were able to gain access to Belgrade's advanced computer based Air Defense System, upload misleading messages and download sensitive data. And during the bombing of Serbia by NATO forces in April 1999, virus carrying emails and denials of service as well as piracy computer attacks were launched against hundreds of civil installations and military facilities in a number of NATO countries.

Like snipers and scouts of Infantry or observers of Artillery, computer hackers can act as cyber vanguards. They are surely working around the clock and around the world to find and take advantage of vulnerabilities in networks and penetrate to steal information and do more damage or just keeping an offensive vigilance.

Such events have brought in the new philosophy that the nation's security is depends upon her ability to withstand cyber warfare. More connected countries, lucrative cyber targets, are investing huge amounts in an effort to place invincible firewalls - at least that is what they would like to think - around their sensitive national assets.

American National Security Presidential Directive number 16 that called for a national policy on the rules of engagement for using cyber warfare as a weapon and now America has an operational plan for information warfare in place. Billions of dollars spent, The US National Strategy sets out five key priorities for the public and private sectors to secure cyber space: "Set up a security response system; Identify threats and vulnerabilities; Increase awareness and training; Secure the government's cyber space; Increase national and international security co-operation."

The Department of Homeland Security that was "envisioned as a means to bring together all of homeland security agencies under one central umbrella to better plan and execute our security efforts" is also functional now.

Lately, a classified Japanese defense agency had conducted experiment cyber attacks on a network system called Defence Information Infrastructure, which the agency aims to introduce this fiscal year.

Reports are that China and India are also in process of preparing their own cyber warfare strategies. India has set up Internet Security Centre at the cost of 20 million dollars to prevent cyber attacks on her sensitive military and civil installations.

India has also signed an agreement with France to collaborate in several areas including cyber security. After "ninety-five percent of network management centers connected with Internet in China have been attacked or invaded by domestic or foreign hackers, with banks, securities and other financial institutions being major targets," the Chinese are also actively working to consolidate their cyber space defence.

What forms cyber warfare can take is a surprise future holds for those interested in military history? At the moment one can only imagine threats and calculate risks.

Communications networks can be the easiest targets. One country clogging up computers of the adversary that handle war logistics, shutting down the civil utilities that are computer based, crushing computers at military headquarters, jamming radar sites and or interfering with hostile air traffic or simply downing commercial websites are some other cyber actions. All or some of these actions can effectively neutralize the enemy.

In less connected countries such as Pakistan where the infrastructure is not very resilient, many of the casualties of any possible cyber war may be in the private sector. But the impacts of any cyber 'figment' or the Internet and the World Wide Web's blockade on the civil life, national economy or military machine may not be difficult to understand.

In the conclusive analysis, people at all levels of decision-making and operations will be involved in conducting information warfare. Information will become the decisive weapon and that future battlegrounds will be everywhere around us. Given the development in the field, weapons and technology of war will improve beyond any expectations. Military forces in the information age, still evolving in their use of cyber space, will first adapt information technologies by incorporation, and then will reinvent their processes and change their organizational structures in consonance with the technical ways.

What should be done? Indigenous research, extensive debate to prepare every one involved - every one will literally be involved - and preparing to live up to any eventuality are some starting points. Threat to national security should be perceived afresh. Possible lines of defence and early warning systems should be planned.

Military strategists and planners need to think about how a cyber attack could affect war efforts or peacetime economy. Nation have to dedicate, at policy level, at the private sector level, and academia will have to invest increasing resources to deal with the complexity of how to address issues of threat to national interests and cyber security.

Knowing own strengths and weaknesses as well as of others and preparing for every kind of eventuality is essential for living nations moving and growing with time. More so for those independent nations that want to live in peace or do not want to be surprised off guard. The preparation in line with the time is also essential for protecting national sovereignty and integrity.

That said, let the Internet and the Web be a source of peace rather than war.

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Browse the site and read some of the procedures they have described there on the site. I read how Breast Augmentation. I was surprised to learn has been explained there. LookingYourBest.com can treat and make you look your best. Learn what LookingYourBest.com is offering and how?

John Lampard

I've been "blogging" in one form or another since 1997. The word "blog" didn't exist then. Nor did Google - it was Yahoo! and Alta Vista then! ;)

People had "personal websites" where they would "showcase" themselves, their interests, their hobbies, their photos, their art, their poetry and lyrics, their favourite websites, whatever.

Almost as an "aside", personal websites would include a journal, that was very much like an online diary. Or the forerunner of the blog. But it was only a part of a personal website, and was by no means the central focus.

We very rarely wrote consistently about a specific topic. We only used the word "niche" when talking about exclusive boutiques!

My reasons for blogging today are exactly the same as my reasons for "journaling" back in the day.

I love to write, express ideas, and reach out and meet other people. I started to met a lot of web designers in Sydney back then, through their personal sites and journals, and together a number of us went on to form the first inception of the Australian INfront, a community of Australian web designers, with the aim of raising the international perception of Australian web creatives.

I am still meeting a lot of cool and interesting people, and blogging for the most part is fun, although it is no longer quite the same "past time" activity it used to be. A lot of people taking blogging too seriously, yet it is those who don't that seem to, that have the most "success" (wish I was one of them...! ;)

Sometimes writing, or blogging, can feel like a chore, or feel downright boring. That's until I look back on a finished piece of writing, or a blog post, and think "I'm glad I wrote that, I feel good now!"

Mostly the brochures are artistically laid out and presented whereas users’ manuals are like government notifications; life less, color less and totally technical. The brochure gets the bigger share of budget as compared to the manuals. This indicates that most concerns treat potential users so much better than existing users and focus accordingly?

I think this should be other way round. I am not suggesting that marketers should stop making the documents to be given away for free. What I am saying is the focus should change. Users should get much nicer manuals, the way they want to, including online. That will help the potential users to buy and existing users to learn?

Paying more attention and better budget allocation to product manuals and support will help everyone. There is no harm in trying to get new customers for anyone, particularly those who are in the market for short term but those who are here for long term must refashion their focus and invest more users’ manuals.

It is the users manuals that can bring loyal users, passionate users, repeat customers and can form the bases of what is called customers relationship.

Here is the simple philosophy: Users manuals will get passionate users who will get others. The better users get at something (through learning from freely available manuals), the better the user experience. The better the user experience, the more likely they are to keep trying to use the same product. Nobody is passionate about something they are stuck with. Helping your users learn is the best way to up the odds they'll become repeat customers.

Creating fabulous users’ manuals might be a far better use of the budget than creating fabulous ads and brochures. If traditional advertising and marketing is becoming less and less effective, why not move all that talent including designers, artists, copywriters and others from before the sale to after the sale?