Dear Client

Lately, we’ve noticed a surge of email offers from Web marketing companies that promise to deliver high search engine placement by using specific, targeted phrases. They promise top results when you type in a specific (i.e. rarly used) set of keyword phrases. They actually deliver on their promise and you can prove it to yourself every month before you pay that bill, you type in those 3 or 4 phrases and there you are… right at the top of the page in Google and Yahoo. That company can honestly say they fulfilled their end of the deal. However the results will not increase traffic to your site, it just empties your pockets.

Here’s why. You cannot be sure that your prospective visitor will type in one of those 3 or 4 exact phrases. When you use one of these companies you’re gambling on a very, very long shot. Out of the 9 to 16 words in your 3 to 4 keyword phrases, you are betting that your potential visitor will type in those exact words. Did you know there are approximately 250,000 distinct words in the English vocabulary?

Is this type of service a fraud? We think of it more as a parlor trick, a sleight-of-hand. These services are created for nothing other than taking advantage of people who don’t understand how the search engines work.

The search engines are actually just computer programs that are constantly being updated by programmers so their listing results are always changing. Sometime a little and sometimes a lot. They are updated every month, every week, sometimes every day. How can you stay on top of these changes? We can help you.

We receive and read a 200+ page document about the search engines that’s updated and published every month. We recently renewed our 11th yearly subscription. We have been students of the search engines since 1997 (that means we have read over 24,000 pages since we started). The search names have changed through the years, but their basic function remains the same - to provide the best results to their visitors’ queries.

Based on what we know and what we continue to learn, we have created several relevant search engine services for 2008 that make sense to any business and budget. All of 3W’s search services are aimed at increasing targeted traffic to your website by using current and valid techniques. No tricks or shortcuts.

Please look over the services we have to offer below. Give us a call and we’ll get you started. Let us help you put the power of the search engines to work for your business.

Sincerely,
Barb and Gregg
3W Design Group, Inc.

Call us! 920-854-9459
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3W Search Engine Service Options:

Option 1. Monthly Search Engine Traffic and True Ranking Report
Tracks the major search engines - Google, Yahoo & MSN. Includes one submission to major searches and indexes.
This is for you if:
• You are a do-it-yourselfer and are able to update you own pages and code, or
• If you would like to monitor your own traffic and status and decide for yourself when action is needed to hire 3W to make adjustments in order to increase your standings.

Option 2. Home Page Adjustment
Use of current technologies including application of keywords, text, links and title in correct proportions. Baseline Search Engine Traffic and True Ranking Report - Includes one submission to major searches and indexes. 3 month follow up report with improvements suggestions for increasing traffic.
This is for you if:
• You are generally satisfied with your web site performance but may have noticed a recent drop-off in traffic or
• ou are not sure if your site is doing as well as it could be and would like an indication of how much better your traffic could be without spending a great amount to find out.

Option 3. Home and Main Pages Adjustment (6 to 8 pages)**
Use of current technologies including application of keywords, text, links and titles in correct proportions. Baseline Search Engine Traffic and True Ranking Report – followed by one submission to major searches and indexes. 3W will keep your site’s various content tags, keyword phrases and more on track with current search rules. Monthly Search Engine Traffic and True Ranking Report tracks the major search engines - Google, Yahoo & MSN. Included with monthly reports is commentary by 3W on progress and improvements made to improve traffic and rankings.
This is for you if:
• You have a nice web site that gives an excellent first impression, you are not satisfied with your current number of visitors, you are convinced that your web traffic and rankings should be higher but are at a loss for what to do next.
• You may have spent money in the past on getting top Google and Yahoo rankings but your traffic has not increased in general from Google and Yahoo.

Option 4. Google AdWords Campaign w/Home & Main Pages Adjustment (6-8 pages)**
Monitored Google AdWords campaign. Includes 5 monitored Google Ads. 3W will strive to place you with the best keyword phrases available for your business at the best bid prices. Twice monthly adjustments of keyword phrases and regular disposal of worst performing ads. Best strategy for Google AdWord listings is to avoid number one and the extraneous clicks/costs that come from being first. Use of current technologies including application of keywords, text, links and titles in correct proportions. Baseline Search Engine Traffic and True Ranking Report – followed by one submission to major searches and indexes. 3W will keep your site’s various content tags, keyword phrases and more on track with current search rules. Monthly Search Engine Traffic and True Ranking Report tracks the major search engines - Google, Yahoo & MSN. Included with monthly reports is commentary by 3W on progress and improvements made to improve traffic and rankings.
This is for you if:
• You are convinced that spending more of your advertising budget on web marketing is a far better value than print and is the best and easiest way to track your advertising dollar.
• You have a nice web site that gives an excellent first impression, you are not satisfied with your current number of visitors, you are convinced that your web traffic and rankings should be higher but are at a loss for what to do next.
• You may have spent money in the past on getting top Google and Yahoo rankings but your traffic has not increased in general from Google and Yahoo

Email us or call for pricing! 312-637-9391

If you aren’t a 3W hosting client yet call us at 920-854-9459 or at our newly added Chicago number 312-637-9391. Gregg has a hosting plan for you!

• The number of US consumers who have purchased online more than doubled from 22% in June 2000 to 49% in September 2007.

• Pew said that number extrapolated to 66% of Americans with Internet access having bought something online.

Of course, the public at large may have sensed this anecdotally, but seeing the numbers gives one a bigger picture. How can any brick and mortar retailer justify NOT having an online store? The old adage “location, location, location” takes on a new meaning in 2008 and I suspect this trend will continue.

One thing, according to Pew, that is holding down online buying is security issues, both real and perceived.

• The research center estimated that the percentage of online buyers would be as much as three percentage points higher, or 69%, if people were not as concerned about about sending personal or credit card information over the Web.

Another issue for online selling seems obvious.

• Broadband was the most significant common characteristic of online buyers compared with non-buyers. More than three-quarters of online buying US consumers had broadband, while little more than one-half of non-buyers did.

Another Pew report I ran across Information Searches That Solve Problems referenced broadband accessibility in an article on how individuals use libraries and the Internet, yet it is of interest to online retailers as well.

• A major focus of this survey was on those with no access to the internet (23% of the population) and those with only dial-up access (13% of the population). This “low-access” population is poorer, older, and less well-educated than the cohort with broadband access at home or at work.

The future exponential growth of online shopping seems to rest on the socioeconomic aspect of broadband accessibility. With talk of recession this may not be an obstacle that is easy to overcome in the short term. However, for retailers who make their goods available via the Internet, they will surely have a leg up in the long term.

Being in the business of new media in 2008 means lots of deadlines, surprises and problem solving. All at at the speed of light. In addition, in order to keep up with the “new” part, I myself find needing to learn new things every day, every week, every month. Gregg challenges me and being a hugely competitive person I attack the challenge. But sometimes in my digital life, I yearn for analog. So I’m going to share two of my favorite non-digital passtimes that keep me sane.

Reading. I love reading. I fit it in when I dry my hair in the morning; before I fall asleep at night; driving in the car (I mean RIDING in the car); and at the Y when I am sweating and my glasses are slipping. My reading diet consists of easy fast reads like Patricia Cornwell, challenging recommendations from my college student daughter by Faisal Devji, and graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi. In fact I read lots of graphic novels and my new favorite is called Shooting War, which started as a web comic. Shooting War was written by Anthony Lappé and artist Dan Goldman. It takes place in the future United States America when president John McCain is in office. It will take your breath away.

Aside from reading, my other non-digital brain workout is Scrabble played against Gregg Luhring, the undisputed champion of the household. I usually lose to Gregg, but always argue for a new obscure word that I’m sure I saw somewhere. Also, Scrabble is not a game that can be played competitively with more than one glass of wine. So don’t try.

I would be curious as to what other ways people relax in a non-digital fashion. Remember this is a non-explicit blog and you don’t need to remind me of EVERYTHING. Drop me a line and let me know.

Event podcasting is a great way to record an event for people to re-live or to be part of in the event that they were not able to attend. Check out The New North Summit 2007 and let me know what you think.

FYI: Unrelated Diversion of the Day: http://producten.hema.nl/

Thanks to Gregg Luhring!

I am also going to create more audio podcasts in 2008. Pop Goes the Culture has been a bit irregular and I hope to change that soon. I also have some minor work to finish up on the 2007 audio podcast version of the Steel Bridge Songfest for which I recorded over 100 audio files (waaaay too many). My involvement in the Steel Bridge is one of those situations that began organically. I volunteered to record some interviews in 2006 and came to be really touched by the full throttle effort put forward by organizers Christie Weber and her brother pat mAcdonald. I just had to be involved again in 07. Passion is what drives a project like that and it’s in huge supply at the winter home of the festival - the Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay. The finished SBSF3 project will be at Door Pod Show within weeks.

Back to the resolutions, I vow to make more podcasts with Norb Blei in 2008. Check out the latest, recorded in December on the subject of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. It was a wild podcast featuring Norb, Ron Whitehead and Rob Zoschke and the spirit of Kerouac. Listen in - its a great way to warm up your brain on a cold winter’s night.

One more thing. In October of this past year, my dad died. And while at 49 years of age, I’m not exactly orphan material, it was a rite-of-passage that brought sadness and allot of reflection. I had my dad around for a very long time which was great because he was funny and very supportive (even though we disagreed completely on politics). After he died, my college pal Leesa Maxwell summed it up best. Here is what she had to say:

When I think about him, there are few little strategies that are so clearly Dick and I’m sure I’ll carry them with me always.
Here they are…

1) Always greet people with a firm handshake and good eye contact. Speak to them like they are the most important person in world.
2) Bring food wherever you go. Johnsonville sausage and cheese curds are
especially good for college students.
3) Keep your sense of humor. A good laugh goes a long way and laughter brings people together.

Great advice to live by.

As a kid, I regularly watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (yes, I am that old!). His confident delivery brought the eleven-year-old me the happy news of the Apollo moon landing in 1969. He also brought the ten-year-old me a multitude of bad news in 1968 including the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Good news or bad, I was an information junkie early on and Walter as well as television was my media delivery system of choice.

Fast forward to 2007. Consolidation has brought about a sameness to television and FM radio news broadcasts. I continue to be a loyal NPR and WPR listener, but audio podcasts allow me to hear a variety of genres and voices that weren’t available anywhere else.* This programming is a feast for my ears, one that has morphed into a glorious addiction. And since I listen to my podcasts on the run, the absence of my iPod this past week has been particularly dispiriting. It’s hard for me to believe it, but three years with a new gadget has changed my life.

The good news is that today I received my repaired iPod. The green metal body is still dented, but the click-wheel has been replaced and is ready to once again entertain and inform me. And FYI to those of you who have never heard Walter Cronkite’s voice - thanks to the magic of technology, you can! Go to Podcast Pickle or search iTunes.

As for me, I’m about to pack up my gym bag and head to the Fish Creek YMCA. There I will indulge in a little Rachel Maddow and my workout will be done before I know it.

*I’m a podcaster too. My programs can be heard at Pop Goes the Culture and Door Pod Show.

An unrelated recommendation…

On December 25, 2007 an animated version of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis opens in New York City and Los Angeles. Satrapi’s story is an autobiographical tale of her life as a child during the Iranian revolution as well as the war between Iran and Iraq. While you wait for the film to come to either your town or NetFlix, pick up the graphic novel. It is the rarest of all perspectives from a feisty female child in a country where women are being taught to stay covered and hidden. Satrapi followed Persepolis with Persepolis II, Embroideries and Chicken with Plums. It’s an enlightening look at the real people who populate a country our leaders have pegged part of the Axis of Evil.

One new technology habit that is causing the sands to shift on the topic of media consumption is the viewing of television programs or movies on small devices and tiny screens.

This new habit came up last week on the podcast program I am one half of, Pop Goes the Culture. The program was called Future Media Redux and in it we were revisiting some predictions we’d made two years earlier on how people would be consuming their media. My podcasting partner Susie Watson is a self-confessed technology Luddite and since she doesn’t want to watch “The Office” on a 3.5 inch portable media player screen she thinks no one else will want to either. That ignores the fact that 18 - 34 year olds are already watching media on these small devices and the fact that the older generations have little or no interest in sharing this experience with them doesn’t matter. I could not convince Susie that small screen portability is replacing the stationary large screen experience, but maybe our listeners could.
Speaking for the 25 year old age group, listener Misty told us she uses her iPod Video to watch TV or movies when she is on the go. And while she prefers the large screen, she uses her video iPod at the gym as well as at work to listen to programming.

Representing the 40 year olds, Bernadette also disagreed with Susie. She has opted not to have a DVR on her home television set, so rather than missing the television programs she likes, Bernadette downloads it for the small screen and watches on her video iPod. In addition, Bernadette lives in Australia and tells us it takes forever for some American television programming to air on TV there, so the younger generation downloads the shows they want and watches them on their iPods. Even the thirty-somethings are into it. She says on Friday night at the pub, they bring their video iPods along and show eachoother what they’ve got and watch each other’s programs.

The lesson is that while people of my generation (45 and over) argue about new technology the younger generations - on a worldwide basis - are adopting it. This generation is taking on new media consumption habits and shedding the old ones that don’t fit their lifestyle.

Most of the time we older folks like to think we have something to teach the younger generation. We still do. But when it comes to relevant technology, we’d better throw away our assumptions and pay attention or we’re going to get left in the dust of the constantly shifting sands.

Let me make it clear that these young adults are techies in their own right. Among them one is a librarian about to integrate new database software; one is a MySpace maven who reminds me that my MySpace page is lame (she’s right); and one is a year away from completing his masters degree in aerospace engineering at MIT. We have technology in common, just not all technology.
An experience all ages in my family will be able to share is when we relive the reunion event by posting our photos online. Gregg and I took lots and lots of pictures that we plan on uploading to Flickr. The nice part about that is people can look at the photos and not have to understand how Flickr works. This will provide an excellent shared experience. In another example of digital photo sharing, my brother used his laptop to share his photos of a family vacation to England as well as the progress of the construction of his new home. My sister clung to her analog-self by bringing along an actual photo album of her and my brother-in-law’s trip to Japan. I give her a year before she surrenders to cataloging her digital photos on her laptop - there are two grandchildren due in the coming year and it will make organizing THEIR photos easier.
All in all the reunion activites were enjoyable and diverse. We took a tour of family historical sites that included visiting our relatives in three different cemeteries. My parents, being the good sports that they are, even posed together for a photo at their own tombstone, standing behind it, smiling out at the family their union has created. In the evening, some of us did a mini pub crawl of some of Manitowoc’s most interesting establishments which included a wine bar; a bar that is home perhaps the world’s largest urinal; and an Irish pub serving Guinness and Harp on tap. It was a memorable 48 hours and thanks to the Web and to digital technology, we will share it for months to come.

Plus, music and audio is in his DNA. His father Paul Luhring, was his band teacher and is a music publisher while his brother Mark Luhring plays percussion in several bands in and around Madison, WI.

Combine that impressive DNA with his experience in computer programming as well as all things Web and the end result is 3W’s newest professional service - 3W Audio! As 3W’s creative director, it is my job to create the graphic identity for our new offering - I am almost done. But what IS ready for client consumption is our true-blue staff audiophile - at your service - Gregg Alan Luhring.

Email him today and tell him what your audio needs are - gregg@3wdesign.com.

According to Twitter’s blog:

Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing. For some friends you might want instant mobile updates—for others, you can just check the web. Invite your friends to Twitter and decide how connected you want you to be.

According to Wikipedia:

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS (text messaging), instant messaging, email, the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific.

Upon closer observation, Twitter seems best described as a blogging solution for people who have a little bit to say, many times throughout the day. Every Twitter post is limited to 140 characters or less. And isn’t this what the Web does best? Take an “old school” technology like blogging, tweak it into a new product and along the way invent a whole new language or Twitter-speak.

Twitter is another of the technologies that further expands the reach of Web 2.0 and social media. It gives people who may not like the time commitment of a blog, a way to create an online personal diary in abbreviated form. It was also super easy to set up which was a relief after my forray into MySpace. Unlike my long suffering MySpace page, my Twitter page will be a breeze to update and keep current.

But here is the difference - the reason for an entity to have a MySpace page can seem obvious. MySpace opens up a huge social network to advertisers, politicians and more. I am still contemplating the business applications for a Twitter page. That’s part of the beauty of the Web. The entrepreneurial spirit that exists online will chew up this new technology and spit it out as something useful and profitable, of that I am sure.

In the meantime, I intend to explore Twitter - 140 characters at a time.

UPDATE: I just read an article at Wired.com that puts the Twitter phenom in perspective. It’s worth the read: Clive Thompson on How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense

While some people decry the increasing influence of the computer on human relationships, I choose to celebrate it. Email, texting and instant messaging has diminished the art of letter writing, but so did the telephone! The act of writing a letter was always about communicating thoughts and ideas, not just about the physical act of writing. Technology has allowed us to carry on the correspondence without involving the post office and that makes me very happy.

In the course of a day, I receive and return emails from my mother, sisters and aunt as well as clients with whom I am exchanging proofs, job orders, estimates and more. My firm, 3W Design, has some clients we have never met face-to-face, but that does not diminish the working relationship we have and the services we provide to them.

These days if I receive a “personalized letter” in the mail it is more likely from a politician wanting money than it is from an old friend. (That’s the reason I will never get rid of my paper shredder).

My message to you today is to embrace the relationships you have created and nurtured with technology. Admit that you ask Google more questions on a daily basis than you may have asked a teacher in an entire semester. We humans are adaptable, we will never lose the need for one-on-one human interaction (even if it someday is carried out in a virtual world like Second Life).

The subject of their work are the lives of the people in the midwestern community where they live. Part of that community is Manitowoc, Wisconsin and in full disclosure, it’s the town where I grew up. I enjoyed a somewhat typical sixties childhood there, but I never really considered Manitowoc worthy of artistic attention. Well, Julie and Johnie’s stunning images of my “typical” hometown have changed my mind. The lush tones of their black and white photographs give viewers a window into the gothic reality that is small-town America. Rebellious teenages in the early 90’s; a locally iconic drive-in; a Farm Bureau Queen in her prom dress posing with her champion cow; an elderly man seated in front of his crumbling family home in rural Manitowoc County. They all make surprisingly interesting subjects for the artistic eyes of Julie and Johnie.

The processes involved in creating much of the work displayed on their website is a lesson in the history of photograhic art itself. It includes work done utilizing a Banquet camera as well as hand emulsified glass plates, processes that date back to photography’s early days. Their mastery of this art form is evident in both their color and balck and white work. Rich, dark, sensual tones define the images. And Julie and Johnie do for common folks what court painters did for royalty during the Renaissance, they portray their subjects with great respect. Wander through their website and I think you’ll agree.

Fast forward to 2007. How do forty-something artists who have mastered the art and craft of photography pass the time in age of new media? Julie and Johnie have made it look easy. Their souls may be analog, but their brains have turned digital! They have turned their website into a retrospective of their life’s work and in the process have secured commissions and solo shows. As part of their new gig as Assistant Professors of Art at Lawrence University, they dove in and created their own Flickr and YouTube sites in order to experiment with artistic expression in the world of social media. And they are also part of the online Saatchi Gallery whose home gallery is located in London. In addition, on the event of a recent solo show in Brooklyn, Julie and Johnie utilized the book print-on-demand website Lulu to create their show catalog. Yes, it is safe to say Julie Lindemann and Johnie Shimon have crossed over and embraced technology and the world is a better place for it.

Check out their website calendar for upcoming shows. Their current show is Wisconsin’s People on the Land from April 3 - May 20, 2007 at the James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Overture Center for the Arts 201 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin
And be sure to check out their documentation of the birth of the aluminum Christmas tree in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in their book Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree (Melcher Media, 2004).

More full disclosure: Gregg and I created the ShimonLindemann.com website.

]]> http://3wdesign.com/blog/archives/29/feed http://3wdesign.com/blog/archives/28 http://3wdesign.com/blog/archives/28#comments Sun, 15 Apr 2007 23:48:37 +0000 Barbara Baryenbruch Luhring http://3wdesign.com/blog/?p=28 Forty-something tech geeks and 3W principals Gregg and Barbara Luhring launch 3W Design Group Media’s debut podcast. This week’s topic: Gregg’s Favorites is a discussion of Gregg Luhring’s favorite new web widgets, software and sites.

Gregg’s Favorites include:

Quicksilver  - A desktop user interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data (Mac computers only)

Peel - an MP3 blog reader/player/browser (Mac computers only)

NewsGator - Stand-alone software that organizes all your favorite news, websites, blogs and podcasts in one place on your computer (Mac, Windows and PDA)

Google Reader - Google’s web-based organizer for news, websites, blogs and podcasts

Google Documents -  Google’s web-based spreadsheet and word processing solutions

Levelator - GigaVox Media’s professional audio level control software for podcasting (Mac and Windows)

Emusic - The largest online independent record store

The band pays for its own recordings but has an affiliation with Merge Records, a small label based in Durham, North Carolina. Together, they have wildly succeeded at exploiting the peer to peer marketing opportunities available through the Internet. They leveraged MySpace capabilities by leaking over 100 songs on MySpace under fake band names to ferret out the 11 most popular songs for the new album. They heightened the anticipation of Neon Bible by embracing MP3 music blogs and the buzz they were circulating. Arcade Fire posted live performance video clips as well as a parody promo video on YouTube, the latter of which had more than 88,000 views. The video promo also gave out a 1-800-NEON-BIBLE toll-free phone number that let callers listen to their music. Neon Bible is a concept album featuring a story line and when Arcade Fire leaked the album ahead of the actual release, they leaked the last song first. It drove their fans crazy and many waited until the entire album was leaked to start listening so they could listen in numerical order!

In addition, since February of this year, Arcade Fire has also courted and conquered some high profile old media by playing on Saturday Night Live, as well as being profiled in The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. The results of their efforts? Their widely acclaimed record debuted the week of March 8, 2007 at No. 2 on U.S. and European charts, and No. 1 in Canada! Pretty impressive.

It’s going to be fun to see where Arcade Fire goes from here. And for someone who tracks Internet marketing trends, I anticipate their next guerilla advertising move as much as the next 11 tracks of music they produce.

Thanks to Gregg Luhring!

3W is featured in a recent article by Sean Johnson in RedOrbit breaking news. The article called Selling the Sizzle talks about how marketing and advertising firms in the northeast Wisconsin/Green Bay market are integrating new technologies into their service offering. This article was written for and previously printed in Marketplace Magazine.

According to Wikipedia.org: “Second Life (abbreviated to SL) is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables users to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse”.

If that defination is a bit jargon-esque, I have a simpler explanation. In Second Life you exist in a parallel universe much like you do in The Sims, the polpular computer game created in 1997 by Will Wright. And although The Sims is considered a computer game, its goal isn’t so much to win anything as it is to lead a successful life in a virtual community. The same is true in Second Life. The difference is that the world in Second Life takes place on the Internet and its’ digital characteristics have been created not by a software engineer, but by the online users themselves.
Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale is the former CTO of Real Networks and the developer of Second Life. He sees his creation as less of a game and more as a parallel reality where people live, work, socialize and make money. It’s the last two words - make money - that has caused businesses both small and large to sit up and pay attention.

Here are some interesting Second Life benchmarks:

• Resident Anshe Chung (whose real name is Ailin Graef) announced in November 2006 that she had become the first avatar to amass a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from activities she earned inside the virtual world of Second Life. She made money by designing custom animations, creating virtual real estate, and providing virtual escort and erotic services among other things.

• Boingboing.net announced that Sweden will be the first country to open an embassy in Second Life.

• ABN Amro, a Dutch bank, recently opened an office in Second Life.

• In BusinessWeek writer Gemma Simpson announced that Vodafone is expanding its presence in Second Life by offering “virtual handsets and an instant messaging service, (Vodafone) the mobile operator will expand beyond its teaser island in the Internet-based virtual world. The operator will offer virtual handsets which enable users to contact one other in the virtual world and an SMS instant messaging service”.

Now that your brain is about to explode thinking of the added pressure you will now have to not only succeed in this world but to also succeed in a virtual world, I will wrap up my post.

Even more versions of metaverses are on their way. But fear not, you still have time to learn how to exist in this new reality. I have linked to some recent articles on this virtual phenomonen that will help you grasp the here and now of Second Life. And if after reading about yet another technology you NEED to master, you decide instead to take a bubble bath, I’ll understand. Just remember, this is a great time not to be dead!

U.S. News & World Report
Putting a Second Life First
By David LaGesse

Fortune Magazine
Second Life: It’s not a game
by David Kirkpatrick

C/NET News
Sundance holds screening in ‘Second Life’ for first time
by Michele Meyers

The first, in October of 2006, was the grand opening celebration of the Sister Bay Trading Company, a furniture and interior design firm in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. The Sister Bay Trading Company held a daylong event to open their new 13,000 square foot furniture gallery and expanded interior design services. The audio podcast captured the voices of owner Marilyn Jensen, her staff, select venders who gave in-store demonstrations as well the “oohs” and “aaahs” of the crowd of visitors that came and went throughout the day.

Our second corporate event podcast was created for MarketPlace Magazine and consisted of the sounds of the daylong New North Summit held in December at the Capital Civic Center in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The New North is comprised of 18 counties in Northeast Wisconsin that banded together for the purpose of combined economic development and marketing efforts. Hundreds of people attended the event that featured business leaders as well as politicians including Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle. We captured speakers during their presentations and attendees as they gathered in the hospitality room before the conference. Through the podcast, the listener can feel the anticipation, the hum of the crowd, and share the audio highlights of the many presenters.

I created all of these podcasts to record an historical moment. I’ve also referred to these event podcasts as “audio collages.” The snippets of sound edited together become a collage that tells the listener what it was like to be in the crowd of a business conference; be on a bike ride with thousands of other people; or to hear singer Jackson Browne tell the listeners why he came to the small town of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to raise money to restore a steel bridge.

The human voice is the star of audio podcasting and listening in creates a connection. Whether that connection is pure entertainment or corporate in nature, it doesn’t matter. It’s real and it’s here to stay.

Click to listen to the following event podcasts: SteelBridge Songfest; PBS’ Antiques Roadshow; Door County Century Bike Ride; Sister Bay Trading Company Grand Opening; The New North 2006 Business Summit.

Our company, 3W Design Group, is all about turning bleeding-edge knowledge into leading-edge advantage. We are early adopters in large part because Gregg lives, breathes and eats new technology. He finds out about a new Web application, shows me how to use it and we are off and running with possibilities. The problem is, as we excitedly tell our clients about our new discovery, it sounds to them as though we are at a Pentecostal Church service speaking in tongues. We know this happens because we have witnessed our listener’s eyes glaze over. This is where Susie comes in.

Gregg and I now have a policy that our pitches need to pass the “Susie test”. Through our interaction with her, we are learning to speak in plain English, in terms of “benefit to the client” of a new service. We practice this on each other, correcting client communications several times prior to sending them out. We eliminate as much jargon as possible. It is difficult to leave all technical jargon behind, but thanks to Susie we have found that we are trainable.

However, in those unguarded moments when it’s just the two of us, Gregg and I indulge each other in the joy of jargon, our own version of speaking in tongues. We share a bottle of wine and a side order of technology terminology - RSS, Wiki, aggregator, XML, web feed, Atom, open source. Those delicious words we dare not use to excess roll off our tongues in the privacy of our own home.

When all is said and done, we do realize that Susie is right. So we strive for clarity of purpose in recommending new technology to our clients. So hats off to you Susie for your diligent jargon watch.

Note: Susie and her writer husband Henry Godbout pack quite a one/two punch in the branding services profession. They have worked both with us and for us, and we highly recommend their collective work product. Contact them through Henry’s website or through us.

Charlene Ann Baumbich replies:
Interesting topic! Let me tell you why *I’m* blogging and why–and Susie, although I’m writing about ME, I am doing so because a) I’m fascinating (ha-ha) but b) my blog is reaching a NEW audience for me, which is a wonderful PR tool. Which relates to BUSINESS.

I write books (Welcome to Partonville) and PR is key. Since I often travel for my job (professional speaking AND book promotions), I subscribe to (pay for) an industry travel genius’s newsletter regarding all elements of travel: www.joesentme.com. My subscription is worth every cent! Over the past several years I would occasionally respond to one of his newsletters to let him know how his breaking news saved my keister on a given business trip, and often I would include the humorous side.

One thing led to another and the chance for me to write a travel humor SOMETHING came up; Joe said he’d promote it. A blog was the easiest way to launch my “travel humor column” so I went with it.

Google Blog Search turned one year old this past September and as a late birthday gift, was rewarded this past weekend with a link from the front page of Google News at at the end of every news search result. Google’s act of faith will likely legitimize blogs to a whole new audience. Stay tuned.
Yahoo! had also been offering a blog search fuction on its front page but has since, without announcement, removed it. However like Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Yahoo! claims this function will return.

Want to dive into the content rich world of blog consumption? VisitTechnorati or Google and let the search begin!

From the story:

Every Wal-Mart employee that Laura and Jim run into, from store clerks to photogenic executives, absolutely loves to work at the store. Sound like a great Wal-Mart publicity campaign? Anyone familiar with Wal-Mart and its reputation for being quite stingy with wages and benefits will roll their eyes at such a rosy picture. In fact, some critics are so skeptical that they wonder whether Jim and Laura are real or whether they were concocted at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

Read the whole story here.

An organization called WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) offers guidelines for word-of-mouth advertising.

Mainstream media has left us starving for the sound of genuine human voices. When you watch the evening news, the newscasters are devoid of accents, whether you are watching this news in North Carolina or Minnesota. The stories they report are interchangeable. Only the weather report is different.

Podcasting, as well as blogging, have driven the social media revolution. And the public’s appetite for these authentic ideas and the voices delivering them is growing. This is the reason I passionately tell people that taking the time to get involved in this new media is worth the effort. So start evangelizing - you don’t want to miss the revolution.

How can I teach you what RSS is?

How can I teach you to use RSS?

These are the latest nagging questions that follow me daily. If I could sit down with each of you for 10 to 15 minutes in front of your own computer I could have you using an aggregator and give you a short account of how RSS works and what to expect from it.

The thing that you have to discover for yourself (even though I’ll tell you) is how cool it is and how useful it can become in your work and your life online.

Here is a link to a page I created in May that is still a pretty good explanation. Here is an article at The Moleskin called How To Teach Anyone RSS that might further explain my own dilemma. More will certainly follow in the near future on this important topic.

Drag this icon to your aggregator window. Did it work?

Another phenomonen aiding in our ability to work anywhere an online connection is available, is the proliferation of Web based software and tools. What are Web based tools and software? WordPress, the software we use to produce this blog is Web based as are other blog products such as Blogger, TypePad, and Radio UserLand. And in their quest to have a foothold in all things Internet, Google offers a bevy on online tools as well as tools and services in the early idea phase as part of Google Lab. There is no doubt that how and where we work is in flux. Adaptability is the key to surviving and flourishing in the swirling technological snow storm that is our world. More to come.

Looking for clear, concise answers to your changing technology needs? Contact 3W Design.

According to Wikipedia, “Web 2.0, is a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that let people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways.”

What does that collaboration mean for businesses that already have a presence on the World Wide Web? It means communicating with customers in more ways than just email. It means exciting new ways to showcase your products and services. It means leveraging your expertise to gain new foot holds in your industry. And it means inviting your customers to become part of your Website. How can you take advantage of the new technologies that allow this to happen? That’s what we plan on sharing with you through this, the Web 2.0 version of 3W Design’s new Website. So subscribe to our RSS feed (it’s free!) and buckle your seat belts. The future is waiting and we’re ready to take you there!

Gregg