The Controversy Around Corporate Blogging

Corporate blogging is a relatively new idea, and the jury is still out on whether it will succeed. This controversial marketing tool may be the beginning of a new kind of advertising strategy, or it may fizzle out in a matter of months. Many companies are looking for ways to capitalize on the blogging trend, and many of these corporations have determined that a great way to ride the blogging wave is to keep a blog on their corporate website. These blogs are often created to appeal to the demographic that the company needs to court, and the content may have quite a lot to do with the activities of the corporation, or it may have very little to do with the company itself. Often, a corporate blog will focus on the kinds of content likely to attract the desired surfers, even if that content is not related to the product or service that the company provides. Some bloggers feel that corporate blogging is a kind of validation for the blogging movement, and shows that this exciting new medium has really infiltrated the mainstream. Other bloggers consider the kind of viral marketing that corporate blogs practice to be unethical or distasteful. In any case, watching the evolution of corporate blogs and whether they survive and proliferate or fail and disappear promises to provide some interesting insight into today's consumers. (Word count 234) PPPPP

Picking The Best Free Blogging Site

Choosing a free blogging site can feel overwhelming because there are so many options. There are several large free blog-hosting sites that dominate the blogosphere, but there are also smaller sites. Whether you decide to join up with an established site like blogger or whether you choose to sign on with a relatively new venture depends on what your priorities are. Reliability is perhaps the best reason to opt for a large and well known free blogging site. When you choose to have an established brand host your blog, you can feel secure that your blog will not crash often and will not disappear in the middle of the night. A company that has been around for a while is likely to have the resources to make sure that its clients aren't unpleasantly surprised by any technical glitches. However, many bloggers decide that this isn't enough of a selling point. The bloggers who choose to go with smaller, newer blog hosting sites do so for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the number one advantage is a fairly abstract one. Bloggers tend to relish the fact that the internet is a place where the underdog has a strong chance of success, and by choosing to have a small company as a blog host, a blogger is casting his or her vote for David against Goliath. (Word count 231) PPPPP

Photo Blogging May be the Pinnacle of Modern

Photo Blogging May be the Pinnacle of Modern Technology Many people feel that photo blogging is the most exciting kind of blogging that exists. Building and maintaining a photo blog is no more difficult than creating and updating a text-based blog, and many people feel that the internet's high speed, full-color technology reaches the pinnacle of its appeal with the transmission of images. Posting photographs in a blog format on a daily, weekly, or occasional basis is a great way to express yourself while reaching viewers in an emotionally charged and aesthetically engaging way, and surfing photo blogs can help you to get a whole new perspective on the world in which we live. Many people who run image blogs are photographers by trade, but photo blogging is also very popular among hobbyists and amateur shutterbugs. To be certain, a lot of the most popular photo blogs have gained attention because the pictures on them are of the highest artistic caliber, and a lot of the people who run these striking blogs are graduates of prestigious art schools and have impressive professional portfolios. However, some of the most well known and most often visited photo blogs are as notable for their concepts as for the pictures themselves. Certain photo blogs, like the popular "Cute Overload" which features picture after picture of adorable animals, are more about the thematic content of the pictures than they are about the style in which the snapshots are taken. The fact that photo blogs range from forums to display the work of highly skilled artisans to playful collections of curiosities shows that photo blogging is a truly diverse form. The fact that photo blogs are so easy to build and to update makes this kind of visual communication very democratic, and enables people at all skill levels to become a part of the global conversation about the nature and value of photography today. Whether you are an artist or hobbyist who wants to create a photo blog, or whether you are just somebody who enjoys learning about new places and things, spending some time looking at the most popular photography blogs on the internet can be a very rewarding endeavor. You can travel to another place or another time by seeing pictures of faraway locations and long-gone eras. You can see your own neighborhood with fresh eyes by discover how local artists have photographed the town or city in which you live. Photo blogging allows people to communicate all of these things and more, which makes it a very exciting part of the modern blogosphere. If the best thing about web technology is that it allows people to reach each other in a very personal way from across great distances, then in many ways photo blogs are the most successful kind of web sites. (Word count 469) PPPPP

Personal Blogging, Documentary, and History

When it comes to personal blogging, documentary is the default genre. There are plenty of blogs that serve other functions, but many blogs are primarily catalogues of the life experiences of their author. Although there are quite a few blogs that focus on collecting poetry and other forms of creative writing, the vast majority of personal blogs are in some sense documentaries. For many years, the act of making a documentary was meant to be an objective act of reporting the sights and sounds that the filmmaker, writer, or photographer encountered. However, in contemporary times there has been a movement towards embracing the subjectivity inherent in the documentary form. This means that modern documentaries often reflect the distinctive voice and sensibility of their creator, and the fact that todays documentaries often revolve around personality blurs the lines between documentary and memoir. Blogs rest somewhere between these two genres, muddying the distinctions even further. Personal blogging, documentary, and memoir are now irrevocably intertwined, for better or for worse. Although few bloggers think of themselves as making documentaries in any formal sense, every time somebody sits down in front of a computer and types up a record of their day, they are documenting their own historical moment. The things that we take for granted about our daily lives, like the way that we use specific modes of transportation, or the kinds of products that we buy, often seem quite fascinating to people who live in circumstances different from ours, and it is this kind of fascination that is at the heart of many documentary projects. When people think about blogging, documentary is not very likely to be the first adjective that crosses their minds, but a few decades down the road it is very likely that todays blogs will be seen primarily as very subjective documentaries of our era. The people of tomorrow will almost certainly look to the blogs of today for insight into our historical moment. When it comes to blogging, documentary may not be the aim of most people who spend their time posting their thoughts and ideas on the internet. In some ways, the documentary aspect of blogging is more of a side effect than a primary goal. However, the fact that so many people are interested in publishing these public online diaries shows that personal blogs are about more than just rumination. The fact that bloggers are so stimulated by and interested in sharing their ideas with each other reinforces the idea that personal blogs are, in some ways, documentaries meant for public consumption. Documentaries appeal to people who are curious about other ways of life, and many people who regularly read others personal blogs are looking for this same kind of new perspective. (Word count 462) PPPPP

Mobile Blogging is on the Cutting Edge

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in the first place is that they enjoy being able to make frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors up to speed with current situations. Mobile blogs, or "moblogs," take this to the extreme by allowing users to post things literally as they happen. This new wave of moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date with good and bad events of importance as they occur all over the world, helping to make international communication faster and more accurate. Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so current that a blog can be when you need to run home and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era when web-based communication can happen spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that remains off-limits for bloggers. Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the technology that makes it possible has only recently hit the global market. The first moblog technology became available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two or three years that mobile web devices have become user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As camera phones and other mobile technology become more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away from their desks and are hitting the streets. Moblogging is becoming much more widespread that it was even a few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay. Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites where current events are unfolding, which is one of the reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the stands during the final moments of the world series. This enables bloggers to experience the same real time thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a more democratic medium. The combination of mobility and individual control that moblogging provides certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of today's communications technology, and it is hard to imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will not continue to grow in the coming years. (Word count 462) PPPPP

Learning How to Make Money Blogging

There are two major types of business models that entrepreneurs use to make money blogging. The first and most common way to turn a blog into a profit making machine is to sell advertising to different companies and brands who want to reach that blog's readers. The second kind of money making blog is one that helps a single brand improve its image by creating positive associations between the blog and the product in the mind of consumers. Both kinds of blogs can make a lot of money, especially if the creator has a keen mind for marketing. If you are blogging with the goal of selling advertising, there are two basic ways that you can go about recruiting sponsors who want to put ads on your site; you can let someone else do all of the legwork, or you can do the work yourself and keep all of the revenue. Within the first group, many people make money blogging by selling space through Google's AdSense program. The advantages of this program are numerous, as it requires very little effort on the part of the blogger or webmaster to begin raking in profits. However, most people discover that they make less money through this method than they had hoped that their blog would earn. Selling advertising directly to companies who want to put banner ads or sponsored links on your blog can take quite a bit of time, but it is often fairly lucrative. If you have a lot of contacts in industries that are related to the topic of your blog, you may want to try to go this route. People who have a strong background in sales and are experienced at pitching proposals can make quite a bit of money by renting blog space to interested companies. The most serious problem with this model is that you often have to build quite a sizable readership before you can attract advertisers, which can mean that you have to do several months of work before you start to make money blogging. As blogging becomes a more and more lucrative business, a lot of established companies are considering how they can get into the action. One way that companies are capitalizing on the blog movement is by having blogs that provide a kind of friendly face for their corporation. Often, a company will employ an established blogger to create a weblog designed specifically to appeal to that company's customers and to create positive associations with the brand in consumers' minds. More than one writer who never even dreamed that he or she could make money blogging has been approached by a company and offered quite a pretty penny for this kind of gig. (Word count 458) PPPPP

Modern lifestyles and erectile dysfunction

There has been a growing phenomenon around the developed world. The birth rate has been falling quite steeply and, in some countries, the average is only marginally above one child per woman. This is not enough to maintain the population in balance. Over time, societies will age and there will not be enough young to pay the taxes to fund healthcare. This change is a direct result of a major cultural shift. Our lifestyles now delay parenthood or postpone it altogether. Ignoring the long-term social risks, there is a more immediate problem. Such medical evidence as there is suggests the problem of erectile dysfunction is growing more common. The reason for this is the redefinition of what it means to be a biological man and woman. Go back fifty years and you find yourself in a time warp that has lasted thousands of years. Men go out to work and the women stay home and have babies. Originally, this was men go out to hunt leaving women to clean the cave. But the spirit of the gender roles has remained consistent over the centuries. But all that changed as the 1950's turned into the 1960's. A revolution was coming.

Today, we all understand the force of the words, "feminism", "gender equality" and "sexual discrimination". The men running government fifty years ago had no idea what was coming. Now, the cultural dominance enjoyed by men over the centuries is under threat from more confident women. They no longer see their roles as baby factories and homemakers. They demand equality and make career choices that delay child-bearing until later in life. This adds to the stress of modern living. Now consider two other factors. Men are becoming increasingly overweight. This has a direct effect on sexual performance as high cholesterol blocks the arteries and unfitness reduces the stamina for sexual activity. Further, sexual performance slowly weakens over time. If men are expected to wait longer before producing children, the pressure on performance increases and anxiety can induce erectile dysfunction.

It is going to take time for men to adjust to this new cultural landscape in which women are more assertive in all aspects of life. When it was always up to the man to make the running, everything could go at his pace and match his comfort levels. A woman demanding more immediate sexual satisfaction is disconcerting to the older man. The new generation of men who grow up in this new reality will be better attuned to its demands. This leaves viagra as the standard support for aging men. When performance comes under pressure and the fear of inadequacy saps confidence, this drug preserves self-esteem and enables a hard erection in reply to sexual stimulation. It is fortunate this drug came on the market when it did. Feminism was strongest during the 1970's and early 1980's and then there was a slight plateau. Viagra has appeared just as the drive for greater equality has resumed with new force. So long as women persist in their drive to delay conception, the birth rate will continue to fall and society will grow older. But men will be better able to rise to the occasion when women do finally decide the time is right to conceive. Thanks to the little blue pill, humanity will continue.