If you do, publish a post about it and besides impressing your readers with the techniques and strategies you put into building your blogs success, you’ll also have a chance to win some really cool prizes!

Alex Cristache of Blogsessive is hosting his very first group writing project and is offering a prize with a branding twist: it’s basically everything you need design wise to build a powerful online brand. And yours truly is in the jury!

On to the Rules

• Your post must be new.
• To be valid, you must include the a specific paragraph mentioning the sponsors.
• Recommended: link back to the announcement post.
• To submit your entry, use Blogsessive’s contact form. Choose ‘Group Writing Project’ in the subject, fill in your name, email address and use the Website field for your , entry’s permalink. Give a short description about yourself in the Message field.

I imagine some of you might have a problem with linking to the sponsors, but Alex got some really cool prizes from those two sponsors for you and we should be supportive. To improve my argument here’s the prize list:

1. One identity package – logo, business card and letterhead design – by Alex
2. One “Personal licence” for the Edge premium WordPress theme, created by Blog Design Studio
3. 500 business cards printed using your newly won design by U Printing

All these goodies will go to the contest winner. Also, there will be 2 consolation prizes, each of 250 business cards by the same U Printing.

Deadline: September 30, midnight

To find out more about this group writing project, read Alex’s announcement entry.

Good luck everyone!

Popularity: 10% [?]

A few days ago, I was talking to my friend and fellow blogger Alex about additional ways to promote a blog post he was planning to publish soon. I made a suggestion and a day later we discussed the effect. One of my reactions was: “I have pretty great ideas”. And he said: “Of course, that’s why you’re in PR!”.

And this got me thinking. We now have all the right tools, all the information, there’s hardly anything left to invent or discover. Is the PR success ensured by having great ideas of how to mix everything we can work with to get the best results? Is it already impossible to come with something completely original and has originality been pushed to how we apply what’s been done before?

Knowing the right people and connecting the dots, knowing which is the best media outlet for each story, blending everything new and old in a strategic PR plan, these seem to be the new tricks PR people should be mastering. If there is something called “Black Hat PR”, you know, spammers and the like, this dark world has nothing new to show either.

Then I started thinking of my very own experiences in PR. I’ve been directly involved in the PR and Marketing actions of Axigen for over 2 years now, less at first, more in the past year and a half. I’ve experimented with all available PR paths, some big highways already, others off road challenges for most. I’ve gotten better and better at choosing my own route, doing it creatively and with originality. But I surely haven’t built any new road from scratch.

I can now tell with good accuracy what works with what and share effective ideas with others. I do have great ideas. But when I say idea, I no longer associate the sparkling light bulb with something altogether new, I associate it with making the right connection or with finishing a complicated puzzle.

And if PR people are not shaking the ground with unseen and unheard of techniques, is it a problem? Not really, not at all. We offer the world something new with each clever piece of writing, with each great strategy we put together, with each unforgettable event, with each time we’re being honest and genuine and do the right thing, every time we take the risk of walking on less popular paths. Creativity and innovation are not only in what you’re doing, they’re also in how you’re doing it. Don’t you think?

Popularity: 11% [?]

Warning! Link to book description contains spoiler!

My first John Fowles experience was The Magus, a very troubling book that I’ve enjoyed to the extremes in my third year of high-school. I had heard of The Collector, Fowles debut novel, back then from my Math teacher, but for some reason I only bought it in 2008. And reading it was an interesting idea.

It’s the story of a simple clerk, Frederick Clegg, a buttefly collector and the woman he becomes obsessed with, Miranda Grey, a well-educated art student whom he’s known all his life but never spoken to.

After winning the lottery, Clegg decides to kidnap her and have her be his guest in the basement of a solitary house he has bought. The first part of the story, told by Clegg, describes his state of mind and what he thought of Miranda every step of their forced relationship. For a person not keen to believe getting what you want any way you want, it can be a little infuriating, as the clash of views on the same situation can have such an effect. The second part is told through Miranda’s journal entries, the other, sane side of the story. It is a beautiful story through her troubled soul, the love she never manages to spread and her struggles as an artist-to-be.

Caliban, as she had nicknamed him, bring both the best and the worst in her. Trapped and full of fear, she even decides trying to kill him would be the way to win back her freedom. Attempt after attempt, her escape plans fail and no one seems to come and save her.

Fowles explained his story and characters as a warning to the dangers that lay in creating great differences between classes of society. As mind blowing as the reality Clegg lives in can be and whether or not the circumstances in which he was brought up explain his behavior, Fowles raises an interesting issue: if all people would have the money and time to do whatever they wanted and were devoted to their sick dreams, how many would follow in his footsteps or worse?

Popularity: 16% [?]

What I think you shouldn’t have missed last week…

It’s been quite a while since the last round of monday reading tips! The vacation had that weird effect on my blog, but I’m back with new great posts, all published sometime last week.

To start with, I chose something that really isn’t my style. But given the increasing number of people getting married to fast and ending up divorced, this really made sence: some really importantquestions to ask before getting married posted by Lin Burres.

Zane Safrit of Small Business Trends showed us a great way to keep our best employees as long as possible: greeting them with open arms.

Hendry Lee of BlogBuildingU highlighted an important aspect of off page optimization that we should always keep in mind: links.

Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer taught us a great lesson: how to work with brand enthusiasts and not against them. Looks like a very effective technique!

While Wall Street is going down, SEO seems to be growing fast. Tad of SEO 2.0 gave us 7 reasons why this was happening.

Meltdowns are something really hard to avoid. No matter how hard you try, they will still happen. Jonathan Fileds explaines last week that meltdowns are really not important, what’s important is how you handle them.

Robyn McMasters shared a writing lesson: keeping your text inclusive so that all your readers feel welcome.

And to round up this week, here are the top 5 reasons why blogging rocks our world day in, day out. Alex Cristache of Blogsessive is responsible for this one!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s list. See you all next Monday!

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s today! And while not all languages have a dedicated pirate vocabulary, we’re all fascinated by these seamen. It’s a fun day and everyone seems to be talking about it. I first found out of it from John Cass of PR Communications. Through his post, I found out everything about this day.

What then caught my eye was Barbara Rozgonyi’s article on how the buzz around this day evolved in the last two years. I wonder how it will all evolve now that Google is joining in and Facebook is teaching us how to talk “pirate”. I’m sure Barbara’s search results will double in a few days!

Now, if you’re like me and can’t talk like a pirate with your friends, here are some other ideas to celebrate: invite your friends over and have a pirate themed party (this will require great event planning efforts ), watch some pirate themed movies or read something pirate related. Have fun!

Popularity: 9% [?]