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October 2007

The Top 100 Business Blogs - wow!

After all the SOB Blog-birthday fun (did you know TheGoodBlogs have a new widget capturing all the 'Good' SOB-blogs? See here) another surprise this week. My one year old Kiss Business blog found its (his/hers?) place among the Top 100 Business Blogs.

John Crickett over at Business Opportunities And Ideas has done a tremendous job in creating this list - based on Technorati's ranking:

"I define a Business blog as one that provides business ideas, advice, commentary or feedback on business in general. I’ve excluded any site that I feel is primarily a news based site or that is merely posting content from other sources. I’ve also excluded sites that are too new or have not been updated for over a month."

The blogs are listed in order of their Technorati rankings (T), their Alexa rankings (A) are show as well. The rankings are correct at the time of posting (24.10.07)

  1. Copy Blogger T: 36 A: 7,825
  2. Seth Godin T: 47 A: 10,314
  3. MicroPersuasion T: 169 A: 33,643
  4. How To Change The World T: 180 A: 14,709
  5. Duct Tape Marketing T: 215 A: 31,714
  6. Freelance Switch T: 312 A: 10,638
  7. A VC T: 1,226 A: 27,737
  8. Rough Type T: 1,253 A: 69,429
  9. Successful Blog T: 1,432 A: 44,935
  10. Small Business Canada T: 1,517 A: N/A
  11. David Allen, Getting Things Done T: 1,549 A: 53,592
  12. Springwise T: 1,913 A: 23,858
  13. Small Biz Trends T: 2,155 A: 63,364
  14. Fast Company T: 2,310 A: 12,141
  15. Instigator Blog T: 2,477 A: 58,816
  16. Occam’s Razor T: 2,548 A: 45,541
  17. Smart Wealthy Rich T: 2,879 A: 79,415
  18. eMoms At Home T: 3,443 A: 27,125
  19. Escape from Cubicle Nation T: 3,467 A: 202,751
  20. The Marketing Technology Blog T: 3,496 A: 47,038
  21. Business Pundit T: 3,724 A: 114,669
  22. The Engaging Brand T: 4,404 A: 433,644
  23. Influential Marketing Blog T: 4,779 A: 98,886
  24. Drew McLellan - The Marketing Minute T: 4,820 A: 129,669
  25. The Digerati Life T: 4,873 A: 53,353
  26. Success From The Nest T: 4,908 A: 95,008
  27. Business Blog Consulting T: 5,186 A:237,901
  28. Church Of The Customer T: 5,576 A: 250,201
  29. Todd And T: 5,643 A: 161, 019
  30. Net Business Blog T: 5,936 A: 36,107
  31. Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing T: 6,583 A: 92,784
  32. Bootstrapper T: 7,497 A: 50,304
  33. Entrepreneurs T: 7,797 A: N/A
  34. Blogtrepreneur T: 7,897 A: 53,011
  35. Branding & Marketing T: 8,200 A: 710,326
  36. Simplenomics T: 10,252 A:288,753
  37. Freelance Folder T: 10,543 A: 63,590
  38. Business Opportunities Weblog T: 11,018 A: 16,213
  39. HELLO, My Name Is Blog T: 11,395 A: 422,218
  40. Self Made Minds T: 11,704 A: 39,719
  41. Sox First T: 12,894 A: 994,161
  42. Young Go Getter T: 14,239 A: 45,373
  43. Trust Matters T: 15,462 A: 58,403
  44. Small Biz Survival T:  A: 18,074 A: 875,069
  45. The Personal MBA T: 19,207 A: 142,649
  46. The Entrepreneurial Mind T: 21,958, A: 155,166
  47. Blog Business World T: 23,025  A: 252,405
  48. Working At Home On The Internet T: 23,247 A: 423,900
  49. Biz Informer T: 24,631 A: 904,745
  50. EmpowerWomenNow T: 25,837 A: 117,085
  51. Biz Plan Hacks T: 27,048 A: 1,335,732
  52. CreateBusinessGrowth T: 32,949 A:197,290
  53. Business Opportunities and Ideas T: 33,205 A: 282,805
  54. The KISS Business T: 35,496 A: 621,082
  55. Startup Spark T: 35,747 A: 386,949
  56. Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Blog T: 41,092 A: 467,418
  57. MindPetals T: 41,714 A: 128,487
  58. Marketing Deviant T: 43,764 A: 281,072
  59. Go Big Network T: 44,842 A: 25,303
  60. Cool Business Ideas T: 49,679 A: 187,126
  61. Neville’s Financial Blog T: 52,048 A: 140,296
  62. Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog :T 52,589 A: 795,253
  63. College Startup T: 53,143 A: 184,398
  64. Reflections Of A Biz Driven Life T: 79,365 A: 361,398
  65. Branding Blog T: 93,462 A: 1,110,518
  66. Carnival Of The Capitalists T: 93,462 A: 1,897,375
  67. Young Entrepreneur T: 104,933 A: 26,491
  68. Marketing Genius T: 132,066 A: 2,222,119
  69. Better For Business T: 137,774 A: 590,797
  70. The Small Business Blog T: 140,824 A: 577,490
  71. Focused Mind T: 162,356 A: 520,971
  72. Small Business Tips T: 166,367 A: 74,005
  73. Lifes Perspective T: 194,358 A: 179,801
  74. Business Opportunities Blog T: 199,700 A: 832,678
  75. The Savvy Entrepreneur T: 224,227 A: 391,147
  76. Egg Marketing Blog T: 231,062 A: 740,867
  77. The Franchise King Blog T: 273,240 A: 520,732
  78. Small Business Entrepreneur T: 317,977 A: 883,094
  79. The Great Startup Game T: 331,293 A: 421,492
  80. Work At Home Start Up Guide T: 345,597 A: 1,190,178
  81. Dorm Room Biz T: 360,865 A: 957,072
  82. Startup Blog T: 377,609 A: 2,552,189
  83. Open Inovators T: 395,824 A: 1,230,257
  84. Get Entrepreneurial T: 437,475 A: 446,085
  85. Bplans Blog T: 437,475 A: 1,373,525
  86. Stuff4Restaurants T: 461,534 A: 298,982
  87. Canadian Entrepreneur T: 484,461 A: 237,901
  88. Strategize T: 487,964 A: 2,856,731
  89. The Marketing Spot T: 587,893 A: 2,550,840
  90. The Ravings Of A Mad Entrepreneurial Scientist T: 587,893 A: 566,836
  91. More Than We Know T: 871,446 A: 2,964,420
  92. Solo Entrepreneur T: 1,212,405 A: 471,491
  93. Stuff4Business T: 1,391,575 A: 298,982
  94. Consultant Journal T: 4,262,598 A: 667,342
  95. Startup Addict Musings T: 4,446,976 A: 1,03390,690
  96. Edith Yeung T: 8,911,336 A: 125,290
  97. Boostrap Me T: 8,911,336 A: 550,348
  98. The Selling Sherpa T: Not Listed A: 772,292
  99. BizzBangBuzz T: Not Listed A: 1,484,797
  100. The Freestyle Entrepreneur T: Not Listed A: 1,519,518

Yours truly was truly amazed to find "The Kiss Business too - No more Double Dutch in business" ranked at 54! Wow.

The future and change

My friend Steve Roesler (All Things Workplace) is back with more post in his series about Change - (Creating Change and Smooth Transitions): not just a must-read, but also a must-think/ponder topic.


While reading - during lunch-time today - I found this 'thoughts on change' in "Soar with your Strengths" by Donald O. Clifton and Paula Nelson:

"The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created - created first in mind and will, created next in activity.
John Saar

I can live with that ;-) Rephrase that: I live with/for that!

Reminded me not only of Steve's series and my own ponderings on it, but also on what my mentor urges time after time: thinking out ideas/changes is fine - implementing ideas/changes is better and much more rewarding.

A Birthday party, multiple again! 24.10.07

Birthdaydot_2 Liz at Successful and Outstanding blog(gers) is throwing a party!

A Party, Wednesday, October 24th! You’re Invited!!

In honour of various blog birthdays (my Kiss2 among them) the celebrations will be plentiful. What will be happening:
It’s an all-day conversation with outstanding gifts for EVERYONE.

    * Open Comments all day.
    * Flash mob commenting.
    * Photographic Party Favours.
    * Guest posts galore. (My  contribution - The Currency: Talent)

A Party! You’re Invited! C’mon! Let’s Talk and Have Some Fun!

(There’s only one rule . . . be nice.)

Changes and 'simplicity' (or plain laziness?)

StevechangesChanging methods never comes without some repercussions.

On  "All Things Workplace" Steve Roesler is dedicating a whole category on the subject "Creating Changes and Smooth Transitions". The main train of thought on his latest series (4 articles so far) is how to get others on board when the change instigator has a mile-long head lead.

A week ago I mentioned working with (more testing out) the online software program of AWeber that will make my life as 'marketing' manager more easier (with a bit more automagical auto-responder emails to our prospects). I'm getting to grips with all the features the online program has to offer and I must say, I didn't find it that hard once you know the sequel you have to follow to start an email campaign.

On a monthly base we as Wood You Like send out an semi-automated newsletter and one of the features of AWeber is doing that fully-automated. Only thing is though, our existing newsletter readers have to confirm their subscription. Re-register their interest in our news, because we, as company, are changing one of our methods to communicate with them. We know it's for the better, but - and this is the reason for mentioning Steve's series - we are also miles ahead in this particular 'change-process'. Will our readers 'catch-up' with this and how quickly?

No better way to find out with a small test-group. I've just finished reading (on recommendation of the 'good doctor') Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini. One of the captivating researches mentioned in the book (more posts will follow on this excellent and sometimes astonishing book) is that most persons want to appear consistent, i.e. once they have agreed to something they are more than likely to back that decision again.

Counting on that human trait I mailed one group of 100 of our readers with a small newsletter, requesting them to re-register their subscription. The email contains a link to our newsletter page on the website where they have to fill in their name, email address and click the button "Sign me up!". Then an automated request to confirm the re-registering would follow, with the request to click the link embedded in that email. All in all 5 actions, very kindly asked, but 5 separate action nonetheless.

Another book (“The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing” by George Silverman) I read beginning this year talked about "Shortening the Decision Cycle". Making it very simple for a person to decide on anything really. AWeber also has a feature to import existing lists of readers, who will be sent an automated email - the same Request Confirmation email the first test group will receive once they've gone through the 4 other actions.

So I decided to test out if the combined ideas of consistency and shortening the decision cycle would make a difference to the number of re-registering readers. In AWeber I created a new campaign, edited the request confirmation email text to explain very shortly why the receiver was requested to click on the link in the same email to re-register for our  newsletter - imported a different group of 100 existing readers to the online software and waited.
That was Friday afternoon.

Same wording used in our kind request, only the number of actions to take is different.
A clear winner - in this catch-up race for change - is showing its face: but is it laziness or life made simple?

The results so far:
3% of group 1 (5 actions) re-registered versus
25% of group 2 (1 action)

You tell me?

Autoresponders by AWeber






So, without further ado and in no particular order:

