Company blogs for businesses big and small are a pretty instant way to combat tough criticism while talking directly to your audience. From Kodak to Martha Stewart, we’ve seen blogs help reinvent brands that had previously been through the wringer.

So the ultimate endorsement for company blogging came this week when the White House released a 6,200 word blog defending their response to the April 20th explosion and more…

It happens to all of us sooner or later…. we fall in love with a brand or a brilliant mind or an addictive product, and after searching high and low, we finally find the website dedicated to it. Thrilled to have more to fuel our new obsession, we devour the content on the site. Or we start to. But our appetite and interest are replaced with disappointment as more…

Happy Earth Day! There has been many a blog this week discussing all things green and going paperless and whatnot. Blogging itself, after all, is a pretty green concept when you think about it. There’s no paper involved or cars used to distribute the darn thing or child laborers forced to write about Kate Gosselin for more…

This blog at Huffington Post about the perils of free labor poses interesting questions in a humorous way about how the workforce uses interns and the purposed lawsuits and regulations that are currently being discussed. It turns out that interns are an economically friendly way to get work done for free with little or no risk. Uhm, yeah, we who have been through more…

I think it’s time for a bloggervention. Your company’s blog gets zero hits, illicits little response and seems to collect dust as it sits there online just waiting for readers to show up. The countless articles that say youngsters don’t blog anymore don’t exactly more…

Always on the hunt for inspiration and ideas, I am constantly searching for and reading lists. Whether it is the ten best this or worst 50 of that- I am list obsessed. I blame my childhood ritual of listening to Rick Dees and the Weekly Top Forty for this obsession.  Anyway, I stumbled upon a provocatively and somewhat hilariously titled list called The 100 Must Read Blogs… by Women! posted last year on Blogtreprenuer. As I perused their choices (Ann Coulter and Michelle Maklin?!?) I noticed what all of these blogs should have in common besides the whole being created by women thing is that they should all contain that kind of more…

There is an old adage that says,  ”bad artists borrow from other artists, good artists steal.”  In these copyright sensitive times, steal is a harsh word; but the point of the saying it is still valid. With blog writing,  it is really helpful to be aware of other great blogs that entertain their readers while helping promote their brand. Borrowing ideas from other blogs or using them as inspiration can jump start your business’ blog.  Below are five noteworthy blogs, in no particular order, that deserved to be read, enjoyed and  maybe even borrowed from.
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While the rest of the planet scrapes ice from windshields and shovels snow off of driveways, the people of Los Angeles gear up for awards season. It is a special time of year where  the spirit of self congratulation sweeps nearly every industry in the city. Naturally, bloggers have gotten in on the act. Celebrating 10 years,  The Webblog Awards or “The Bloggies” as they are commonly known will announce nominations for the best blogs online later this month. The prestigious Pulitzer Prize committee will hand out an award for best online content for the second year in a row with many blogs in contention.  And for the first time ever, a film based on a book based on a blog, Julie and Julia has been nominated for several Golden Globes and seems like a sure-thing at The Academy Awards in February. The point is that well written blogs are gaining the recognition of television, film, and publishing. So what makes a blog truly award-worthy?

1.) A Fresh and Original Voice- In a radio world full of Britneys and Beyonces, standing apart from the pack like Lady Gaga helps an artist get noticed. The same thing goes for blogging. Granted composing your blog in fake blood while wearing mirror ball pants may not be the best idea, but creating content that isn’t simply regurgitated or rehashed from other sites will certainly get you noticed. The days of using a blog to simply link readers to stories from other sites are over. Today’s standout blogs have an individual perspective paired with one-of-a-kind content. Writing from your own perspective automatically sets your blog apart from the pack. Can’t seem to find your own voice? Try using a writer for your blog whose ideas and thoughts are a creative match made in heaven with your own.

2.) New and Cutting Edge Content - Talked about blogs like the Huffington Post have taught us that frequently updated blogs float to the top of the must read stack. Yet a blog doesn’t need a flock of writers and advertisers to stay current. Small businesses can beef up their blogs with daily videos, links, and personal twists on the day’s breaking stories.

3.) Catering to the Right Audience – Collecting the shiny awards and accolades means very little if no one reads your blog. Luckily, blockbuster audiences can be lured in with great keywords and specialized copy. Readers in search of a specific blog topic should be able to find their desired blog with little or no effort. Carefully chosen and used keywords can elevate a blog from the bottom of a search to the top. Specialized copy is another blog writing secret weapon that brings in the right readers. If a blog author is passionate about their topic, the audiences will come. In short, it doesn’t matter if you write about cats and drier lint. If there’s fire behind the copy, people will read and talk about it.

While awards season only lasts a few months here in Los Angeles, blogs live on forever. Using a few easy tricks, though, a blog can be memorable for all the right reasons and even award worthy.

Yesterday the Google Android phone, named Google Nexus One, was unveiled to a drooling public. In the days of yore, a press conference would be the only way to get the skinny on new products and services, or, at a trade show. But in the age of the intertubes, anyone can get up-to-date information by tuning into any number of online outlets. Many of us who were following the event chose to check out live blogging sites. Live blogging is the process of taking notes, photos, audio recordings, video etc., at an event and quickly posting it up to your blog as the event unfolds. Many companies hire blog content writers or reporters to do this for them so they can focus on the event. Some examples of live blogging are the Matt Cutts live blog and the one I followed on TechCrunch. Live blogging can be a great way to widen your audience when unveiling a new product or service or when your company is having an event. If you want to get really fancy, consider doing a live video-stream so that you can point a camera at your event and broadcast it across the world instantly. Live video-streaming can be costly, because you have to have massive server space and there are technical issues when streaming live data. In fact, I was viewing a live stream (I won’t mention the name here) of the Nexus One event and it went down due pressure put on the server. But live blogging costs nothing but time and having someone who can type fast and report on the event in an interesting way. Live blogging is a great solution for any size company looking to shine the spotlight on new wares or services. Have you ever used live blogging to report on your company events?

I am in the business of creating high-quality content for companies in order to help them drive qualified leads, establish an online brand footprint and to increase search engine rankings. The competition for content providers is enormous. In a recent Wired Magazine Article titled “The Answer Factory: Fast, Disposable, and Profitable as Hell‘”writer Daniel Roth (daniel_roth@wired.com)  uncovers the fast-paced world of cheap content creation by publisher Demand Media. To put it in perspective,

“By next summer, according to founder and CEO Richard Rosenblatt, Demand will be publishing 1 million items a month, the equivalent of four English-language Wikipedias a year.

Streaming video is about to go for overload. But there may be even more competition on the way. In a related post , clickz reports that AOL may be getting into the act. There goes the neighborhood.