Here’s the back-story about the Chrysler Group Media Blog, The Firehouse.biz, direct from "mysource" at Chrysler who has asked to remain anonymous.

Chrysler’s business strategy was to create a blog to support their on-line "press only" site. As mysource pointed out, "press only" sites are common practice within the automotive industry. I must admit, I had no clue about that one and it seemed odd to me.

However, I did a few Google searches and found some "press only" sites from a few of the big guns in the auto biz. The language says loud and clear KEEP OUT. And we wonder why so many
dealerships stink at customer service. Must be a culture thing.

Toyota: You have entered a section of The Pressroom that requires a user name
and password. Some sections of this site are reserved for use by
members of the print, broadcast or electronic media.

Ford:
(Supporting information is required to obtain media access)

Honda:

If you are not a journalist, your application will not be approved.
Please do not fill out this form unless you are a journalist. All
applications will be verified prior to approval.

When I asked "mysource" why Chrysler didn’t jump in on the
blogosphere conversation and explain their position he assured me that
someone who had access to their blog was sure to do that. I didn’t get
this one either. Why would you want to depend
on the kindness of reporters when you have the opportunity to speak for
yourself?

"Mysource" was right. BlogWorks and Adrants
and picked up the post written by Jason Vines, vp of communications at
Chrysler and added their own spin. Be it good..bad..or indifferent.
That the point is Chrysler missed a chance to participate in the
discussion – to tell their story in their way.

Now I don’t have a real problem, as some might, with closed blogs.
What frustrated me was completing an application, in good faith, to
gain access to the blog and then being told I wasn’t part of the
in-crowd.

From my point, the entrance page doesn’t tell you that the blog is for the media
only. I assumed that the name the  "Chrysler Group Media Blog" referred
to a multi author blog written by the media group. [Cool, thought I.
Some PR folks who are getting it.]

"Mysource" agreed that might
be a valid point and would take it up the food chain. Seems to me all
this could have been avoided if Chrysler had simply put access to the
blog within their "press only" site. But then again…they wouldn’t
have the buzzzz.

Lessons Learned: If you have a closed blog keep don’t make the entrance page public.

Chrysler welcome to the blogosphere!

I just noticed this panel at NY AdTech, Nov. 7th:

Creating and Distributing A Corporate Blog

Many
companies are creating blogs to connect with their customers. Should
you have one? And if you do, are you doing it “right?� Should you
provide an RSS feed for your blog and how does that work? While you may
own and run your blog, you need to think of this as your contribution
to a much larger ‘discussion’, i.e. it’s about the blogosphere not the
blog. It’s about participation vs. publishing with links. Corporate
blogs can effectively promote organizational messages, information and
ideals. They are great for feedback and for keeping fresh information
in front of your most influential customers. Find out the magic do’s
and don’t and how to get started.

MODERATOR:
Michael McGuire, Research Director, Gartner Group

SPEAKERS:
Michael Terpin, Chairman & CEO, Terpin Communications Group
Pauline Ores, Web Marketing Strategist, IBM.com
Stowe Boyd, President, Corante
Michael Wiley, Director, New Media, GM Communications

Don’t think you need to publish full-text RSS feeds? Think again.

Looking at the Search Engine Watch review of Google Blog Search:

Google’s blog search indexes all of the content it finds in feeds, but does not attempt to access and index the full content available on a publisher’s web server.

One more reason why you should consider publishing full-text feeds.

Chrysler has launched a blog for the working press. Can’t help but wonder what are behind those firewalls that can’t be let out to Chryslers’ customers. If any bonafide ‘working press’ people register would love your take on the new blog.

Thanks for your interest in TheFirehouse.biz, the Chrysler Group’s
media-only blog.  We will issue media registration rights to members of
the working press only.  A member of the working press is one who is
paid as an employee,freelancer who regularly contributes, or
representative of a known and established media organization
(newspaper, magazine, television, radio, etc.) If you would like to
resubmit your registration, we would be happy to reconsider it.

[itv] is combing new ‘old media’ – eMail – with new ‘new media’ – podcasts. Podcasts are integrated into  an email. Of course, you can also download the ‘old-fashioned’ way via the [itv] website/blog.

Great way to add more value to your email newsletters and
differentiate from the clutter…at least for now. If you want a forward of the newsletter (you can subscribe for free) drop a comment and I’ll email it to you.

Dave, I’m very excited! Finally, Google’s unveiled its blog search system, called, ingeniously enough Google Blog Search, and I want to learn all about how to use it. You ready to take on that challenge?

I’m also excited about this. Finally, we can sidestep slow and primitive RSS and Weblog search engines like Technorati and Feedster and instead tap into the amazing speed that is the underlying Google technology.

However, it’s still Google, so it’s still leaning on the complex side. Let’s have a look…

First off, basic searches are easy enough. Want to see where I’m mentioned in the blogosphere? Search for “Dave Taylor”: you can obviously make the appropriate tweaks to search on your name instead, if you’re so inclined. Want to see what parenting weblogs are out there? That’s particularly easy now, just search for Parenting. Curious about what the blogosphere is buzzing about Voice Over IP telephones? That’s another easy search: voip.

But this is Google, so now, finally, you can use more sophisticated search patterns too. Instead of just searching for “voip”, let’s try a more sophisticated OR search

No surprise here – only wondering what took them so long.

The interface is typically Google and the results are a bit odd but hey, it’s Google.

Google Blog Search

Someone asked me yesterday where to go for a "blogging 101" and I was momentarily stumped.
There’s so much information out there it’s hard to know where to
begin. I decided to be literal and look for resources labelled Blogging
101… or close to it.  Here are a few 101 links to get you started. I include RSS and podcasting because they fall under
the umbrella of corporate blogging.

Blogging 101

Blogging 101 by Rebecca Blood (on MSN Spaces)

Blogging 101 by Kari Chisholm

Blogging 101 v. 1 on BlogWriteForCEOs

Blogs 101 by Rich Meislin in New York Times’ Technology section

Blogging 101 by Technorati

Business Blogging 101 on the NEWPRWiki

Global Voices’ Intro to Blogs

Weblog Basics on About.com

Wikibooks’ Blogging 101

Wikipedia definition of Weblog

Click "Continue reading" for Podcasting 101 and RSS 101 resources…

Podcasting 101

Podcasting 101 on MacZealots.com

Podcasting 101 on TechWeb

Podcasting 101 by Merle Stinnett

How to Record a Podcast by Glenn Fleishman

RSS 101

RSS 101: "Really Simple" 5-Step Guide to Get Started

RSS 101 Screencast by Alex Barnett

RSS 101 for Marketers (Forrester report, July 2005)

RSS Marketing

These are by no means the only 101 resources for blogging,
podcasting and RSS. If you know of others  titled "101," leave a note in
the Comments below and I’ll add them.

Using the word "mainstream" when it comes to blogs is now, so last
year.
But, based on the frequent questions I receive from readers,
effectively employing a blog as a marketing tool is still a bit of a
mystery to most.

Many of my readers ask some variation of this question: "Should I be using a blog, an ezine, email or RSS?" And my answer: YES

Here’s my take.

By itself, a blog is probably not enough (unless you are Tom Peters or the like.)

Small businesses should take the power of a blog and combine it with
an email distribution list and weekly or monthly ezine newsletter.
When you employ all three you get the biggest bang for your marketing
effort.

A couple reasons why you still need to email delivery.

• RSS is not yet the content delivery method of choice for the average person
• Email content is pushed out to readers as a reminder that you are there – RSS doesn’t allow this same control
• Capturing email addresses allows you to market your readers over and over again

In many cases, someone will visit your blog or web site and like
what they see but get pulled away by some other distraction, never to
return to your blog again. If you capture that same person’s email and
permission to send further communication, you turn that visit into a
lead.

If
you are posting to your blog like you should (3-5/wk minimum) then you
should have plenty of content to repurpose into a newsletter. Pull out
your best posts and expand on them or do a round-up of your blog posts.
You will find that your readers will gravitate towards their reading
method of choice – RSS or email.
I love blogs, I love RSS delivery. But, don’t short your marketing
efforts. Make your message available in as many forms as possible –
that’s how you create marketing momentum.

TechCrunch has posted an excellent list of the "Top Ten Things You Can Do To Get Blogged" giving guidelines on how to get coverage on their blog. I think it’s usefulness extends beyond that though.

Build a kick ass company
Approach Bloggers Directly
Be Persistent
Start a Blog
Be humble
Be confident
Be descriptive
Tell a Story
Don’t hide information
Don’t be a Jerk

This a great list for PR professionals as well as marketers reaching out to blogs.  In fact, it provides some compelling reasons why people in public relations doing the pithcing should have their own blog.

For bloggers that have problems with an abundance of crappy pitching by PR firms, why not publish a guideline like TechCrunch has?  It could lead to a more productive interaction for both the blogger and the person making the request.

Last Friday, Duncan Riley from The Blog Herald posted a short item about another blog stealing his content. Today, Duncan follows-up with his case against WebProNews. In a lengthy post, Duncan provides a number of examples of how he feels that WebProNews has stolen his content without proper attribution.

Sure, a lot of bloggers are ametuers and don’t know any better, or if you dug through the archives of the Blog Herald I’ve probably done it by accident once or twice as well, but when your a paid writer for a leading internet portal you shouldn’t just know better, you do know better, and when you don’t play by the rules its not an accident, its a concious decision.

Duncan also provides examples of quotes taken from other publications without credit being given to the original source.

Update: Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews has provided a well-written response in the comments.

I’m usually quite a proponent of LinkedIn, as readers of my weblog are aware, but I find it quite fascinating that the desire to have the LinkedIn site ranked highly in an influential BusinessWeek Best Of the Web poll is showing a bit of the seamy underbelly of online networking.

Four times in the past week I’ve received email from one of my LinkedIn connections asking me to pop over to the BusinessWeek poll and vote for LinkedIn to help it rank well in the results. The intention is splendid and the slightly questionable tactic of trying to either (depending on your viewpoint) encourage voter turnout or stuff the virtual ballot boxes is no different from many of the other nominated sites posting “vote for us” articles too (even Om Malik, one of my touchstones for professionalism in the business blog space, couldn’t resist when he added “Vote for GigaOM” to his busy weblog).

Ordinarily, receiving four messages like this in the never-ending tsunami of email I get every day wouldn’t be worthy of note, but I find it quite fascinating that…

After blogging on how to save a step with Ping-o-Matic and use it for multiple blogs, Denise Wakeman and Arnoud alerted me Pingoat, a competing ping service.

So far, it’s been a great experience.

ss Blog ConsulFirst off, it’s much faster than Ping-o-Matic. It pings about 50
different services, categorized into General, Non-English &
Special.

The site is clean and fast-loading. It’s got a blog, a community forum, and even a Google sitemap generator, if you’re so inclined.

But perhaps best of all, it appears that Kailash Nadh, the site owner and a recent high school graduate from Kerala, India, is adamant about keeping spam blogs from using his service! He regularly blacklists blogs that appear to be automated, with no original content.

He even has a section of his Pingoat forum
dedicated to people who have been blacklisted feel they have been
wrongly accused. It makes for great reading, even when you should have
gone to bed hours ago. Here’s a typical rejection slip:

First i would like to welcome you to the pingoat.com community forums.

After reviewing your blog, and reading your dispute statement in detail, we have come to this conclusion:

Your blog will remain blacklisted. your blog is very blatantly fed via
a content generator, however if this is truly not the case, this would
be required to be proven on your end, it may not be fed via a content
generator, however it strongly appears as so, please re-evaluate the
blog and adjust whats needed

Our suggestion to getting your blog removed from our blacklist:

If it is spam and you have no intention upon creating your own
unique content, then i am sorry to tell you, that pingoat will not
allow you to ping the blog

And last but not least, stop spamming

That’s just great stuff.

After all the discussion about the lawsuit and legal liability that bloggers apparently have with the comments on weblogs (see my earlier piece on Blogger sued for comments on his weblog), I’ve decided to add a small disclaimer to this blog to help protect myself in case anything untoward might occur in the future.  Should you add one on your site? Maybe, maybe not.

To get the full scoop, and to help write a disclaimer that will actually protect me against potential lawsuits, I’ve asked attorney Daniel Perry to help with this particular entry. My prose is in black, Daniel’s is presented in blue.

Here’s my first stab at a disclaimer:

Daniel responds: First, a disclaimer: there is no such thing as a perfect blog comment disclaimer. Each blog may require its own individualized disclaimer. Moreover, a comment disclaimer should be a living part of your blog which might change as we learn how these disclaimers are treated by courts. 

Fortunately, there is a wide body of caselaw and law review articles concerning website disclaimers. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel. Caution is appropriate when applying those case precedents, however. Blogging is…

RSS is a wonderful thing as it allows us to easily distribute content. On the other hand, it allows slime balls to rip content off at will. Sites are cropping up like mushrooms that do nothing more than scrape the feeds of blogs, press release distributors and article publishers to repurpose this information, often as their very own, on a blog.

These sites have no user value as they are often written by robots and don’t make much sense to the human eye. They do however, generate some cheap search engine traffic and AdSense clickthroughs for the owners.

I guess these folks figure that since you publish an RSS feed, it’s
not really stealing. These are the same people that would reason,
"since you left your door unlocked I thought it was okay to take your
new big screen."

Here is a Scam Blog
(no follow tag used) that appears to take every single one of its posts
from other blogs – word for word – and gives no credit. You will notice
also that there is no person to contact regarding the blog and even the
comments sections are monitored so that no one can post a cautionary
comment.
One way to locate these types of blogs is to do an exact search on the
title of your blog posts and see what comes up.

Now, what to do about it.Some have proposed putting really
nasty copyright notes in your XML file that will be written when
someone or something merely republishes your RSS feed.

Something like:

"This content is copyright Bill Blogbucket and if you are
reading it on someone else’s site then they simply ripped it off and
are violating every known copyright law in the free world. The fact
that you are reading this makes you a criminal too."

There, that ought to keep the scammers away.

The problem I have with this any other form of policing is that it
sort of defeats the purpose of RSS. I want people to read what I write,
I want people to use what I write, I want people to aggregate what I
write and I know that some may rip me off along the way. To me, I don’t
have to be happy about it, but it’s part of the price of admission.

There are a host of other solutions, such a making people register
to view or publish your RSS feed or setting your RSS to show only
headlines. The problem I have with any of these fixes is that they make
it harder for legitimate users to get the content. I don’t think the
trade-off is worth it.

When I can find the guilty party I send them a note imploring them to stop at once and leave it at that.

I choose to view it as a compliment I guess. I wouldn’t dream of
doing it myself but I’m not going to lose any sleep over it either.

I believe these folks will rot in hell someday, so that’s good enough for me!

On the other hand, these scam artists may someday pose such a
problem for the search engines that they may be forced to view RSS
feeds, good and bad, in a different light than they currently do – that
may be a really bad thing.

Please, bloggers and any other form of Internet marketer, have the
decency to give credit where credit is due. And, stop spending your
money on those software programs that promise to create thousands of
high quality content pages for you in minutes and just do the work.

And on that note: Darren Rowse at ProBlogger is the source for some of this rant and good source of information on all things blogish.

And some other thoughts on Blog rip-off and blog content copyright

• Creative Commons
• Marketing Sherpa
• Read/Write Web

Many of you bloggers may already be familiar with Ping-o-Matic. It’s an online tool that lets you ping several news aggregators at once. For me, it’s become part of my posting routine; once I’ve saved my latest post I just visit their site to let the world know.

But there’s some cool ways to get even more out of Ping-o-Matic, especially if you have more than one blog.

Instead of bookmarking the home page, bookmark the results page.

Ping-o-Matic, as cool as it is–or maybe because it’s so cool–often suffers from slow downs. I’ve waited sometimes 30 seconds or more for the page to load. (OK, so I’m part of the "Now" generation.) By bookmarking the home page you’re doubling the amount of time you need to wait for your pings to be sent out.

The other benefit of bookmarking the results page is that this allows you to save multiple ping blasts…one for every blog you contribute to. For example, the ping for my blog, flyte: what works online, is:

The ping for Business Blog Consulting is:

By bookmarking the results page, I can quickly ping all these resources for either flyte: what works online or Business Blog Consulting. Now, if I could just find a couple more hours in the day to blog the way I want to….

One last thing I would recommend: occasionally check to see if Ping-o-Matic has added new sites to the list they ping; I only discovered they added News Is Free and Topic Exchange while putting together this post!

Rick Bruner, a trusted business colleague, emailed me a pointer to an article on blog search engines published by the Wall Street Journal, with a caveat that the link would only work for seven days before the article was pushed into the paid member archive. I’m a paid subscriber, so I don’t much worry about that, but he also told me something I hadn’t realized that won’t mean anything to you unless you too are a subscriber: the “email this story” URL is actually a publicly accessible link.

When I cite the Wall Street Journal, I include the link to the story itself — not using the “email this story” URL — and simply add [members only] or [pay site] or similar.

Two ways to link to the story, but both have their limitations, problems that I really encountered when researching business articles recently for my upcoming IBM trade business book (whose name might well be changing, so I won’t list it her). Bloggers like to talk about permalinks, permanent page addresses that will always point to the article referenced, but I’d like to ask a different question: how do we link to ephemeral items or information behind a wall of one sort or another?

here’s something dissatisfying about linking to a temporary URL with a note like [note: this link will only work until 17 September, 2006] somehow. It seems to violate the whole spirit of the Web, somehow, particularly as a business communications vehicle.

Consider the reference section for my upcoming book: one of the unstated assumptions of any citation is that unless it’s a “personal interview”, someone else can always dig up the article, story, book or blog entry cited and see if they agree with the conclusions and derived facts and quotes in the new material. In academia especially, information is expected to be permanent.

But what happens if I have some outrageous claim about…

If you’re looking for an entry-level/introductory article on search engines for blogs, check out the Personal Journal section of today’s Wall St. Journal (9/7/05). Alternatively–for the next seven days–you can follow this link to read New Search Engines Help Users Find Blogs online.

The article focuses its attention on blog search engines such as Technorati, IceRocket, Feedster, DayPop and Bloglines. It looks at how they differ from traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo, and how they differ from each other.

Since this article appears in the Personal section of the WSJ,
its focus is on how this affects you…personally. It’s not an in depth
look at the marketing strategies of these companies, their business
plans, or target audiences.

There are, however, some good
examples how current event searches–such as "William Rehnquist" and
"video music awards" pull better results at the blog search engines
than at Google.

One thing that does seem to be overlooked is the
impending entry into this arena of Google, Yahoo and MSN. Once these
three giants jump in, it’s hard to know if there will be room in the
pool for some of these upstarts. More likely, some or all of these
companies will be acquired as these new media giants look for new areas
for expansion.

I had lunch today with an interesting chap who is between gigs (a fancy way of saying “unemployed”, I know) and we started talking about his deep and extensive knowledge of the medical and pharmacological industries from a marketing and business development perspective, and how it overlapped with his background and legal training too.

When he got around to explaining how he’s trying to find a job but hasn’t landed anything yet, I wasn’t surprised when he asked for my suggestions on how he might leverage the blogging phenomenon to help generate both visibility in his target marketplace and some income.

What stuck in my head, however, was that his background gave him a unique ability to tell an interesting story. After all, isn’t the best marketing and, yes, even public relations, fundamentally all a throwback to our days around the campfire trying to influence and sway people based on our ability to communicate in a more interesting and engaging manner than the next person?

Then I thought about how some work I’m doing with entrepreneur and gadabout Jeff Miller on his Senior Safety Blog really boils down to the same thing: while his company may sell emergency notification devices for the elderly and infirm, it’s the stories that…