We’ll be blogging live from foggy Half Moon Bay for the next 48 hours.  My man Andy S, of the Upper West Side and Georgetown (ME not DC) and blogs, magazines and TVs everywhere, invited me to Andyfest ’08, otherwise known as "Brainstorm" , Fortune’s Tech Conference.  I’m looking forward to hearing the titans of tech as well as my main virtual squeeze, Arianna, speak (Can I use the term GILF on my own blog?)  along with  decidedly few glitterati in attendance from the digital ad agency business — but what glitterati they are:  Roll up king, Brian McAndrews of Aquantive, my circa 1981 Ogilvy training program mate, Tom B of AKQA, my once colleague from the VeriSign business, Rod Banner  who runs one of the coolest tech agencies in the UK and whose team took me out for one hell of a wild night in London during thedotcomboom and last, but not least, needing no introduction, the man with the shortest bio on the web, Sir Martin.

There are not a whole lot more ad hacks on the program besides the decidedly non-glitterate yours truly. I am supposedly taking a free submarine ride which I think I chose over the Segway Tour of Half Moon Bay — otherwise known as "High Tech Turkey Ride for Dummies," not the toughest choice I’ve ever made.

I’m looking forward to it all.  Looks like great panels, speakers and general yada, yada.  Check back in if you want to follow me around.  I’ll be tweeting from <rbcarlisle> and in this space.

It’s a battle of "fair use" – one that was bound to happen. The AP issued a takedown notice for a copy/paste job by the Drudge Retort (the anti-Drudge Report), reports the Guardian.

Check it out yourself, count the words, and tell me if you think it was an infringement. Read more about it on The Unassociated Press, if you want. TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington was up in arms about it, saying (and I quote), "AP doesn’t get to make its own rules around how its content is used -
if those rules are stricter than the law allows [...] frankly, the fact that they are being linked should be considered a favor." Jeff Jarvis was a little more so, at least by the title of his post, "FU AP."

They have their points, the AP has theirs – which Saul Hansell explains well here. But listen up: As long as there is laziness, there is always going to be plagiary. (And spelling errors – I myself was too lazy to even look up how to spell that. Did I get it right?) And as long as there is there is the AP, they are going to be used as a source by bloggers. But why don’t they, instead of naysaying and suing and all that fun stuff, set some guidelines? Maybe you can’t make your own rules, but you can be specific about what you want the rules to be. Tell us what we can’t do – or we’ll take that mile, and more.

There just aren’t enough to go around, apparently, so more were created… (See why here.)

Six Apart, not resting on the seventh day, decided to make an ad network that would encompass the inventory of Six Apart blogs (but not including Moveable Type). Publishers – by invitation only – can join the network, and can also reject
advertisers they’re not fond of. Of course Six Apart gets a sick share of the revenues. (Otherwise, what’s the point?)

Most recently, BBN was formed by 24/7 Real Media and four b-to-b publishers (Cygnus Business Media, McGraw-Hill Cos., Nielsen
Business Media and Reed Business Information, in case you’re one of those people who are into details). What is it? An ad network of more than 200 Web sites that will
reach an estimated 10 million unique monthly visitors," reports B2B (fitting).

IDG, Penton Media and RBI-U.S. are also in on the trend, the former a collection of 100 blogs and independent technology sites
beyond its own sites, the latter two selling
segments of their own audiences.

And oh-my-green, they’re going eco, and just in time for Earth Day. Inspired by a study that said 4 out of 5 online consumers use the internet to conduct personal
research on green initiatives and products, the Burst Media Green Network (80 Web sites, reaching 2.6 million unique visitors, delivering more than 14 million ad impressions) is hooking up advertisers with access to consumers, from "committed" to the merely "curious." Sounds like an exercise in "experimentation."

From Mel to Dr. Phil, from New York to the UK, everyone wants to know. What in the hail do women really want?

Let’s start with the facts:

• Women outnumber men online (100.4 million women vs. 93.5 million men at least once a month), and by 2012, "females will outnumber males by more than 8 million." -eMarketer
• About 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week (15.1 publishing, 21.1 reading and commenting) – courtesy of a Blogher study
• 50% of women say that their purchase decisions are affected by the blogs they read.

Putting two and two together (to reach that lucky number 4 that Beyonce and Jay-Z are so crazy about) it’s safe to say that it would be wise for anyone who is marketing to women to start, if they haven’t already, implementing a seriously kickass online strategy. Step One: find where they are. Blogs? Online networks? Shopping sites?

As Yvonne Divita writes on the Lip-Sticking – marketing to women blog – follow up here – "[...] women are using the net to do what we’ve always done -
talk to each other, build relationships, share stories and information,
and keep track of our kids."

And, she notes,

…more boomer women are finding the net a valuable
resource for meet-ups with each other. The Gen Ys and Gen Xers already know this. They’re tech savvy the
way we were phone savvy, back in the day (when our parents were sure
all that talking on the phone was going to give us brain cancer). But,
my generation, my gals, the go-green gals, the "I’m not gonna take your
flak anymore" gals, we’re discovering a whole new playground – with
events and social gatherings that speak to us in our own language. 

Some suggestions: moms’ networks, sites that specialize in organization of social events, and online versions of newly popular women’s mags, like Domino and Cookie.

Want to learn more about finding women online? (No, not in that way.) Well, if you’re not conferenced out by now, the next Blogher gathering will be in July, in the lovely city of San Francisco. Come play.

Blogging is rad. It is cost-effective, it is relatively simple, and it (or can be) awfully fun. And it gets eyeballs, that advertiser currency that is more valuable than the Euro — for now, anyway.

"So how come advertising on blogs is so dirt cheap?" asks Rob Crumpler in Restoring the Ad Equilibrium for Bloggers. The article discusses the current imbalance between bloggers getting paid what they deserve for high-quality content that aggregates traffic and advertisers accessing high-performance social
media inventory. Right now, despite all the hype -actually going back several years- bloggers still don’t have any "street cred." He argues that this should not be the case: "The Internet has turned into a million “mini” Oprah
Winfreys who have a strong pull with consumers. That is advertiser gold."

So, if advertisers still have money to spend in the coming years (and so far people think they will) then this is one of the places it will go. Clicks, conversions galore. If you are blogger and have a good relationship with your readers due to the quality and relevance of your content, the advertisers will come. But will they know where to look? "Sit tight," says Rob. They’ll find you.

Platform-wise, it’s only going to get better. With companies like Six Apart unloading LiveJournal to Siberia and focusing more on developing the community features of Movable Type, I’m feeling like a major shift is on the way. Social networks, move over. Or rather, get ready to be mashed up with blogs.

Communities–not individual bloggers–are the power brokers on today’s
Web. It’s readers, en masse, who move markets. Six Apart’s goal to
empower bloggers with tools that turn readers into active community
participants could leverage this power shift.  — Rafe Needleman, WebWare

Meanwhile, the corporate world is still struggling. Not really knowing how to deal with this rather unpredictable teenager, has finally formed an organization. Called, uniquely, The Blog Council, its goal is to share corporate blogging
strategies and develop standards-based best practices. More like ask each other, what-in-the-hell-are-we-supposed-to-be-doing-with-this-thing. Cisco Systems, Dell, Wells Fargo, and Microsoft are among the global brands in the group.

One question that might be popping up in this forum is whether or not to outsource. Is the best blogger an employee of the company? Or a professional, albeit(he/she) an outsider?

Here’s something that could have been brought to our
attention yesterday: About.com is
giving instructions on online advertising. But wait a second, what is their
content? I mean, this is not as simple as choosing,
storing, and preparing summer tomatoes. Nor is it Credit 101.

Mediapost sums
up:

Aiming to supplement–not
eclipse–the wealth of sites that provide advertising and marketing
professionals with industry insights, onlineadvertising.about.com covers such
topics as common metrics, the nuts and bolts of behavioral targeting,
media-buying basics, mobile ads, streaming video, and even finding a job…

Sounds delish. But I go to the site
and what do I see? David Beckham. What does he have to do with online
advertising? I scroll down and realize that it is written like an agency
blog. “Guide” Cory
Treffiletti, of, ahem, Mediapost’s Wednesday column (okay, and of Catalyst
Strategy and Arkitektive too) just blogs about whatever he feels like, even if
it’s Pearl Jam.
Is that a supplement? Let me rephrase. Do they think we were born yesterday?

I then realize that the section, unlike
online advertising, and unlike us – was in fact born yesterday. They’re still
trying to fit into their britches, so we’ll give them a break while they
collect articles. Do us a favor and suggest a few. Power to the user!

We can’t ignore China forever, that’s for sure. Today’s SF Chronicle tells the continuation of the story of Xu Jinglei, the Chinese actress and director whose blog now has a readership of, well, millions. Since she started writing two years ago, more than 100 million viewers have caught a glimpse of her daily activities, moods, and thoughts. (No social or political commentary here, folks. China, remember?)

And these numbers are not even that accurate. (China, remember?) Sina, which hosts the site, notes that each entry regulary receives hundreds of comments. Last year, it topped the Technorati list, and some even argued that even then the numbers were still under-reported due to Sina’s selfish blog system that steals hits and other similar factors — you know, like the Great Firewall of China.

Nonetheless, as the Chronicle states:

Xu’s prominence also is a testament to China’s sheer force on the
Internet. Only a fraction of the country’s more than 1.3 billion people is
online, yet the number of Internet users in the country  –  about 137 million 
–  is closing in on the United States, which has between 165 million and 210
million, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project report.

They’re mostly under 30, and they’re doing all the same things we’re doing, more or less. Chatting, social-networking, blogging, and buying Mao paraphenalia on eBay. Now the question is, where do they go from here? "When 1 billion people decide to do something, it has a ripple effect all
over the world," says Derek Gordon of Technorati. Sure it does, but are celebrities going to be the ones to "change the world"? My god, I hope not.

"Celebrities can obviously attract eyeballs, but celebrities can sometimes be a time bomb that will explode at some unknown moment in time," warns blogger Massage Milk. In a discussion on Xu Jinglei’s decision, or non-decision, to put advertisements on her site, he says that she should set an example for Chinese bloggers everywhere and build a foundation for the next steps towards profitability. "Anyway, if someone wants to advertise for a cure for mental retardation on my blog, I will fully support it."

Here’s even more of a laugh: check out News Groper, the fake celebrity blog site. Parodied Brad Pitt confesses, "I love popcorn. If babies were popcorn, my house would be a lot quieter. And more buttery." It’s almost as good as The Onion.

Who doesn’t love an Australian? Especially a sick one, who
immediately apologizes for his freaky accent and “flu-like fogginess” – or did he
say frogginess? And when Darren Rowse of ProBlogger got right to the point,
saying that he was going to talk about how to monetize a blog, we were glad for
the gumption that brought him all the way from the land down under to 36^th
and Broadway. A long way from home, and much appreciated.

Most bloggers, he noted, don’t make any money. Thirty
percent make less than $10 a month, and the majority make only a little bit
more. The usual revenue channels of AdSense or Amazon affiliate ads, though
easy to use and accessible, are simply not effective for bloggers whose traffic
is at such minimal numbers. Peanuts. However, it is difficult to find
sponsorships and establish direct connections with advertisers, though the
desire is there on both ends. Advertisers admit that blogging is a risky space
to be involved in, but have to face the reality of a growing trend and
possibilities of highly targeted, niche audiences. Blog readers, as Darren
pointed out, are also fiercely loyal; many spend 10 hours a week or more on the
same sites.

Henry Copeland of Blogads, who spoke the day before, had
given some good background on such readers, focusing particularly on the
election of 2004 and political blogs that suddenly started to carry some weight
among the electorate. The “secret sauce”, as he put it, was the transition from
vertical, hermetically sealed hubs, like the New York Times, Washington Post,
etc. to swarms of media, with millions of ideas being bounced off of each other
every day until it becomes difficult to establish not only who said it first,
but what they meant. The positive result of this, however, is a blending of
ideas and of course, the birth of the “citizen journalist.”

The question arose, during a presentation by Ted Murphy,
founder of Pay-Per-Post, the controversial service that allows 6500 advertisers
to auction "opportunities" to 27,000 bloggers. At heart, they’re looking for
advertorials, sponsored content, guns for hire, if you will – and with $7 million in their pocket from the second round of financing, they might just suceed in converting even the most staunch opposer. (Of which there are many.) 

Although Murphy
put up a good fight for his cause, you can imagine some of the grumblings that
occurred: real bloggers don’t accept cash for product promotion. Homey don’t PLAY that!

The Big News of the day is undoubtedly Google’s $3.1
billion purchase of DoubleClick. After all, you can read about here…and here…and here. Oh, and here. And then of
course there is the news of the reaction from AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and all
their pals as they cry, “Hey! No fair!” You can read that here – and here. In fact, I think it is safe to say that this deal is dominating
the news today like a 5^th grade bully. Or, for a closer metaphor,
like the State of the Union – even when it’s a whole lot about nothing.

But it’s not as if nothing else is
happening in the world – online or off. What happens to all the little bits of
news that fall by the wayside? They might have otherwise had a chance at the
big time, but tragically were overshadowed by this acquisition. I mean, on the day that Reagan died, the Berlin wall fell, or Britney shaved her head, scientists in the Amazon may have discovered a new species of toad, or other offbeat news might have occurred that was subsequently pushed
to the bottom of the page. “Rats!” they thought. If only we’d been a day
earlier – or later. It’s all about the timing.

Let’s go one step further: what about personal news? The Internet has enabled each of us to be our own beat reporter,
hot on the story of our lives. For example, yesterday I tried matcha tea for the first time.
It was marvelous. I could also report that there is something
obscene written in Flemish with a purple Sharpie on my left forearm and that I am having
difficulties removing it. Finally, my breaking news of the day: I am closing a
deal that involves the $3.10 acquisition of a new Uniballer pen.

So, forget Google, forget DoubleClick –
heck, forget Sallie Mae, al-Sadr, and the Boston Marathon.

What’s your news?

Good
things come in threes, so it’s fitting that I have 3 things to say about
blogs.

Are
We Experiencing Blog Burnout?
Despite
of, or perhaps in spite of, the trend
of paying bloggers to post reviews of products through sites like PayPerPost and ReviewMe, there seems to be some blog
burnout going on. Maybe we should have paid attention to that clever gal who wrote about the Gartner prediction that
the number of active blogs would peak in 2007. We’ve noticed some advertising blogs have been slowing down. AdJab has full-on retired to Mexico.
And where did Adbumb run off to? And what about the general population and
those naughty big corporations? Emarketer
says that "despite being the hot marketing term of the
moment, blogs are read by fewer only 14% of US Internet users. Not
surprisingly, over 90% of both SMBs and large enterprises still do not blog." Hmm.

Political
Travesties
When
I got started on this whole blogging business, I was duly warned that once you
write something on the Internet, it is there for-eh-ver. Unlike print publications,
that get at least a sideways glance from a somewhat-discerning eye, blogs are
just thrown out there (two sheets?) to the wind and open to anyone who can read
and has Internet access, which last time I checked, was quite a number of
people. Usually, you can get away with saying anything you want, but as Amanda
Marcotte and Melissa McEwan found
out this past week, that’s not necessarily true. Should Edwards have fired them? Is the
campaign botched for good? As
McEwan says in her resignation letter, “This is a win for no one.”

But
there’s no stopping the Democrats. Next on the political bandwagon:
user-generated politics. Donna Bogatin of ZDNet tells us that both
Barack and Hillary have incorporated the ever-popular “You” into their
presidential campaigns through Web 2.0 participatory media like online chats,
video, political networks, and, our favorite – blogs.

Flog it, Baby
No whipping; fake bloggers are the new lime green. Though, in a day and age where Kraft can call
something guacamole dip that is only 2% real avocado – the rest being modified
corn starch, food coloring, and coconut and soybean oils -
we probably shouldn’t be so sure about what is fake and what is real. But the
U.K, which is technologically ahead of us in many ways, has
gone ahead and made it a crime to “falsely represent oneself as a consumer”, The
Times reports. All those who do will be named
and shamed, which in British culture means they rip off your curly white
wig and hurl soggy Earl Grey teabags on you in the town square. All while
shouting indignantly, “Fake-ah! Fake-ah!”

We wish.