We chuckled earlier this week at Tom Scott’s journalism warning labels featured on the inventor’s website. Scott has created a series of labels designed to be printed onto Avery’s 5160 sticker sheets to mock the new breed of bad online journalism. It’s a smart, tongue-in-cheek joke with seemingly pointed relevance. Our favorite is the PR warning label which reads “Warning: This article is basically just a press release copied and pasted.” Others include jabs at unfounded medical research, unverified sources and plagiarism. Scott demonstrates how to use his handy little stickers on actual publications but notes that the articles used in his examples are not examples of bad journalism. We believe him, but we’re pretty positive that Scott’s labels could be used in most published pieces, especially online.

Underneath Scott’s parody lies a genuine commentary about crappy content. On a national level, the conversation about what we read and where it comes from has been on the lips of media watchers, politicians and marketers all summer long. A few weeks back, it was Wikileaks that stirred the pot regarding journalism ethics. Then Digg got some much-needed press a couple of days ago when news outlets wondered if the site was responsible for tainting journalism objectivity. Yet the ongoing dilemma of new media and online journalism appears to be one of content.

As marketers, we are constantly testing the quality of our content to make sure it fairly represents our clients and products and small businesses. Yet big time media appears to be struggling with the marriage of traditional reporting and Internet spin. First-rate content, news or otherwise, is now the litmus test for a website’s respectability. User-generated content, too, has become a delicate balance between letting the readers sound off and having the nut jobs take over the tone of the content.

Scott’s labels, while certainly parody, are not off-base when it comes to the looming issue of content gone bad and journalism gone wrong. So the question we’d like to toss your way, dearest readers, is how does content affect your web reading experience? And while you’re at it, tell us some labels you’d like to apply to bad Internet writing.

Honesty time: We’ve had the misfortune of reading some pretty boring business blogs as of late. The crusty content, yawn-inducing narrative, misdirected topics and lack of bells and whistles in these blogs is only good for serving as a reminder of what not to do. In fact, we were so inspired by the uninspired content that we came up with a list of 5 ways to avoid business blog hell.

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Sparkle: I don’t care if your business blog is about pinto beans or human resources; there’s gotta be some personality, some reason to read it. The blog should be filled with a narrative that not only coveys your company’s mission statement but speaks in a way that is readable and entertaining. There is no rule saying that you can’t inform while being yourself. Note: For caveats, see #2…

2. Stay Out of Controversy: Your business blog is not the place to vent about religion, politics, Jersey Shore catfight winners or other heavy issues. The content should be like a first date. Not bombastic but thought-provoking enough to entice them to want to see you again.

3. Open Up the Keyword Buffet: You’ve taken time to map out your keywords, so you might as well place them all over your blog. Stick them in the title or in the body of the blog or both. Keywords help your blog get found, so don’t be shy with them.

4. Add Lots of Cool Stuff: Product demonstrations, how-to videos, links to similar blogs and music playlists are all good add-ons to your blog because they can freshen up content and tones that might otherwise teeter on being redundant.

5. Update All the Time: A friend in the real estate biz was telling us how many of her colleagues have blogs for which they forked over big design bucks, only never to be updated. What a waste. To keep readers, you have to deliver fresh content regularly. Before starting your blog, honestly ask yourself if you have the energy to update and market your blog regularly. If so, buckle up for a fun and challenging ride. If not, consider hiring a content agency to help you out.

6. (Don’t Say We Never Give You Anything!) Take Some Risks: Want to fill you blog with interviews? Think some customer polls would be fun? Have comic strip you’d like to share? Do it! All of it. Blogs have no rules so as long as your crazy content ideas fit with your branding, go for it. Often in blogs, it’s the wacky content that people respond to and your gives you a springboard for inspired content.

Blogs have turned into the modern-day version of those bodice-ripping Harlequin romance novels. All the elements are there: the drama, the love stories, the catfights and the fact that what you’re reading may or may not have been written by the lady in the fur coat with the small dog on the back of the book cover. The point is that in today’s blogosphere, some of our favorite reading is actually composed by committee.

Come on. You didn’t really think that there was just one person over at Huffington Post or Tech Crunch burning the midnight oil for your reading pleasure, did you? The best blogs are online magazines are built by villages of folks committed to telling the story in a singular voice. Yet how do we find our blog’s voice? Should we enlist others to help with the heavy lifting?

I was spurred to ask these questions after reading KevinMD.com for what seemed like hours. While I cannot say definitively if the title of “social media’s leading physician voice” is something to be proud of, I can say for sure that Kevin MD has a strong and undeniable voice. Long known for its practical advice straight from the mouths of Kevin and his team of doctor-collaborators, the site currently provides an unheard voice in the debate over health care. In effect, the site now has added a political flavor to an already spicy recipe of science, doctor’s orders and medical breakthroughs. Consistent throughout the blog is the tone. Kevin and Co. is selling a knowledgeable blog that is easy to read and lives up to your expectations. Voices emerge when we blog about our passions and things we have strong opinions on. Blogging for our business should get others excited about our company and services too, right? Our fever for the blog should be contagious; otherwise, maybe we need a career change. Seeking out current topics and new stories that relate to our blog helps us develop strong, relevant blogging identities.

In this case, group blogging is successful. In the recent case of Perez Hilton, not so much. When it comes to blog contributors, think of the New York Times. Rarely is there a guest writer in NYT that stands out like a sore thumb. Contributors for your blog are no different from NYT contributors (except for that high-paid writer thing). They need to be writers who “get it” and are able to speak your blog’s language. Until you can identify such contributors, towing the line yourself remains the best solution.

But what say you, Brandsplat readers? What blogs give great voice? Are you aspiring to be “social media’s leading voice” about something through your blog? And does blogging by committee actually work? Discuss in the comments section!

Is the Internet making us stupid? That’s the question du jour. The Swallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, a brand new book by Nick Carr that has been getting a lot of buzz, answers this question with a resounding “Heck, yeah!”

Naturally, everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Tech Crunch has taken to the Internet to respond to the book, either to pooh-pooh Carr’s claims or to provide a round of applause. Never mind the irony that the very media source in question is the stomping ground for this very debate. In fact, never mind the debate at all. It’s a tired and worn more…

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…

What do the Nicolette Sheridan versus Desperate Housewives lawsuit, controversial people rating site Unvarnished and Lil Wayne tweeting from prison all have in common? If you answered all stories you’d expect to drive you insane by the end of the week, you are correct.  Little stories like this, though, seem to more…

As much as the doors have flung open for social media marketing and the world has embraced Facebook with open arms, when it comes down whether or not it actually produces results there’s still a very “wait and see” attitude. After all, it is still a relatively new and often parodied medium whose 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…