RSS might very well be one of the most overlooked technologies out there. We all use it, to read, to get content on different pages, to promote our content and our influence, but we rarely talk about it, there are a handful of articles on strategies, best practices and the likes. But there are special plugins to enhance your feed, there is RSS feed advertising, there are buttons showing RSS readers numbers. So here’s the paradox: if the technology is actually important, why do we fail to talk about it?

As it happens to some technologies, they are extremely useful, but lack a certain coolness factor, so we ignore them. We use them, we appreciate their value, but they are almost nonexistent in what we say, write or recommend. And then a comment someone makes that they have subscribed to an RSS feed reminds us that we depend on it! Continue reading

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Sometimes work is purely fun and I feel bad getting paid for it. Like being there when this fun ad was created for one of the Mirror Communications clients, CoSoSys, vendor of leading endpoint security and data loss prevention solutions.

The ad is meant to emphasize how a company can simply not worry about thieves coming in and trying to steal their sensitive data. More on data loss and theft, how to prevent it and how serious it can be here.

Hope you enjoy the ad! Oh, and I challenge you to find me in the ad

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

The last week of January 2009 comes with the 20th edition of the Monday reading tips brought to you by Words of a Broken Mirror.

We’ll start with some interesting top 10 trends for 2009 from Samll Business Trends: the top 10 software publishing trends by Tim Berry and the top 10 global trends for SMBs by Laurel Delaney.

Mihaela Lica raises the issues of spam-like ads on Twitter, an attempt thought of by Magpie, not Twitter’s monetization team as you might have thought.

Lip-sticking has published an inspirational guest post by Mary Schmidt on powerful first ladies, what they have achieved and what women in general can accomplish, regardless of being married to powerful men.

Brad Shorr of Word Sell Inc. discussed the issue of business-to-business sales and how managing daily pains helps build or demolish businesses and individual careers.

Brian Solis of PR 2.0 pointed out that social networks are growing up as more adults are joinging the conversation.

Hoping you’ve enjoyed this week’s list, I invite you, as always, to share your recommendations in the comment box. See you next week!

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This is the kind of news that makes all those predicting the end of print media go “Aha!”. Starting February 2009, we’ll have to say goodbye to the print version of PC Magazine. It will be changed into a digital format, with similar subscription options. I’m looking forward to see how advertising options will change, but even more curious to see how many of they readers switch from paper to downloadable format.

How did they announce it? Well, it’s all posted on their site, the CEO emailed their contacts and, just in case that email was lost among others, account managers also contacted their clients. From what my contact shared with me, before this move, a large part from the magazine’s income was generated by their digital branch. This leads me to believe the complete switch was a pretty smart move.

What do you think? Any predictions you’d like to share? Will other magazines follow the same pattern? Is this easier for a tech magazine? I’d love to read your thoughts.

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

Nice to see you all at a fresh new edition of our Monday Reading Roundup! I’ve prepared some cool articles from the week past for you to enjoy.

But I want to start on a hillarious note. We’ve all been dealing with spammers for a long time. They waste precious moments, never take no or an answer and basically are so many we can’t possibly add all the addresses to our blacklist…So here’s a little laughing of them and our own problems: Mihaela Lica discovered that spammers are stupid and can definitelly prove it!

When promoting your business on the internet, you will make some mistakes. Some might harm more than you could ever predict, so here’s a list of what not to do when promoting your business online from Cath Lawson.

Janelle asked a great question on Create Business Growth: while we know we are extremely dependent on the internet as individuals, have businesses become too dependent as well?

RSS subscribers come and some are lost along the way. If you’re thinking of getting them back, you should definitely read this guest post on ProBlogger by Glenn Allsopp.

When the winter holidays are approaching, we all think of the gifts we want to give to others. Karen Swim recommends a few gifts to give ourselves, to make us happier and stronger for the new year.

Thinking of pitching a blogger? Not all of them have personal “how to pitch me” guides, but if you use Diana Huff’s you’ll probably throw in a successful one. And here’s some advice from the other side of the border, the PR person’s view on pitching by Alan Weinkrantz.

And to end on the note I started with, here’s a little something from Jeff Pulver: The Twitter Girl Song!

Have a great week and see you next time!

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