The World of Blogs – That was Then, This is Now
Published August 6, 2010 | 
Even though five years can fly by relatively fast, in Web time five years can be like centuries with the rapid advances and changes that have occurred, particularly in the world of blogs since 2005, a year that saw a lot of significant startups and developments including YouTube and the foundations of blogging.
Since then sites have been created, sites have faded and died, while other sites have grown up and effectively changed with the latest waves in technology and market trends. Completely new blogging formats and platforms have been born and business empires grown from the simple foundations of the humblest of blog beginnings.
The blogging world we know today is more diversified than five years ago, but only a relatively few number of blogs have risen to the position of domination across the new media landscape. In addition, the blogging world of today is powered and influenced in many ways by Social Media which was just starting its infant stage five years ago and barely an afterthought in anyone’s mind at the time.
A look back at the last five years in the blogging world might help us better understand the future world of blogging.
Midway through 2005 the world of blogs grew to over 14 million and growing at a strong clip of approximately 80 thousand new blogsites each and everyday, come rain or shine. In 2005 most of the new bloggers “journaled” mostly random thoughts and boring clichéd entries, and transitioned the blog world to one that now supports a growing number of rapidly escalating media empires, each unique in their own ways.
Today, as you might know, blogging has entered the mainstream of the Web consciousness and proven to be a legitimate source of media, reprogramming how people throughout business and industry think about 
blogs with a much greater understanding and respect, although the vast majority of blogs are still likely to be personal in nature, which is not to say their reader traffic is small as some enjoy several million each month.
According to the 2009 State of the Blogosphere report by Technorati, professional bloggers are blogging more than ever, while hobbyists are blogging less, even with 133 million blogs and counting, and we strongly suspect that Social Media has something to do with the trend.
Business Blogs and Content Marketing – Information Experts
Published June 10, 2010 | I recently visited with a couple of insightful Entrepreneurs from different areas of the U.S. that contacted me, as they were really starting to understand the vision of what the Social Media (R)evolution is all about, and one of the questions they both asked was about ‘blogging and its future,’ and to tell you the truth, I chuckled a little at the question because blogging, or 
Content Marketing, is not a quick fix, but it’s something you will never quit doing, because honestly, blogging should be to a business what milk is to a baby or breathing is to man, performed naturally almost without thought, but without it the business’ future survival and success becomes jeopardized.
The serious misunderstanding that many businesses share is that Content Marketing is not static, since search engines, as well as consumers, simply appreciate web sites that are constantly evolving and being updated regularly, and with this strong attention, they’ll keep coming back, and in addition, the scope and influence of the site itself will continue to grow and grow, with every new bit of valuable content that you add.
This is why your business, for as long as you own and operate it, should at a minimum add or upload 1-3 fresh articles to the business’ blog every week, with no exceptions.
You must completely understand that at this point, adding articles isn’t a question of ‘if,’ because it’s become a significant part of our Social Media Culture, and in addition, Content Marketing includes adding more and more video and relevant pages to the website itself, on a very consistent and ongoing basis, I can’t emphasize enough to you that it’s not all about just more information, 
but more GREAT information, and therefore, such is the goal, and once an Entrepreneur realizes and embraces this critical paradigm for their business, they will see everything start to change.
So finally, that is the challenge we share as Entrepreneurs and business owners, to become known as “the information experts,” embrace information, and visualize yourself, and your business, as a powerful Content Marketing machine, and as you strive to accomplish this, do so with complete confidence and certainty, that all the energy and effort you invest will be returned to you and your business many times over, as such has been the case with thousands of other forward-thinking persons that have visualized beyond the market-horizon, and who have made the decision to see business and marketing in the whole new light of the Social Media (R)evolution.
Business Blogs and Content Marketing – Content Marketers
Published June 9, 2010 | I talk to so many Entrepreneurs each day that are starting to understand what the Social Media (R)evolution is all about, but for every single Entrepreneur that “gets it,” there seems to be many more that struggle with the changes that have taken place in the market dynamics, 
and if there was only a way I could convince everyone to stop seeing the world through their own eyes and instead see the world through the consumer’s eyes, but alas, many that fail to see will indeed, be left behind to fail, falling victim to their own narrow shortsightedness and lack of market vision.
Many businesses will simply not embrace and adapt, and many will simply fade off as so many did before them, and you must understand the changing market, as always, waits for no one, such is the way of business cycles, and such is the times in which we all now live.
So my question for you, and one you have to ask yourself is quite simple, “Are you in, or are you on the outside looking in?”
Seriously, have you decided to make a commitment to elevate your business to the expected standards in the next 10 years and beyond, and are you ready to make blogging and content giving the lifestyle it should be, and not just a poorly thought-out new year’s resolution?
An Entrepreneur, whose entire foundation is built upon giving information to others in order to build high value in the marketplace, has come to be known as a ‘Content Marketer’ or ‘Information Expert.’
The best way for me to explain Content Marketing, really has to do with an Entrepreneur’s approach to business, for example, it used to be that Entrepreneurs saw their business as a ‘XYZ service company’, and for all practical purposes, that’s exactly what it was, a business that provided lots of service and therefore it was a service company, nothing more, and nothing less.
In looking back through 20/20 hindsight though, this way of viewing business was wrong, and today, Entrepreneurs should view their business as a Content Marketing company, or in other words, their entire goal is to provide more valuable, helpful, and ‘remarkable content’ in addition to ‘excellent service,’ to consumers than anyone else in their field, which in-turn will lead to greater sales, and why should you use such methods of operation?………………Because the strategy really works!
After some careful thought, I think you will understand, that the more valuable the information you can give to others, the more you will become viewed as a valued expert in your field or industry, and therefore gain their complete trust, and even more important, you gain their business, and therefore, the you have the utmost need to blog.
And when I say ‘blog’, I don’t mean that your business has a section on your website that says ‘blog’ on it, so when a visitor views the page they see a handful of articles that are weeks, maybe even months old. You should view such a strategy as completely ludicrous, and an utter waste of your valuable time, because it is.
Business Blogs and Content Marketing – The Future Now!
Published June 8, 2010 | Just in case you have been living somewhere in isolation and missed it, global marketing strategies have been going through some crazy evolution for small businesses and Entrepreneurs throughout the world, as times are changing, marketing has evolved, and you can rest assured that what was true 
yesterday no longer applies today, and tomorrow, this is why I can make the following true statement with complete confidence and certainty, since it’s already started, “Within the next 5 to 10 years, Blogs will be the foundation of any successful business and individual brand.”
That’s right, what was originally looked on by many in the market, as just a bunch of online noise and market clutter that would never find its voice, has revolutionized commerce, economies, and information sharing as we know it.
The world as we have known it has changed forever, for proof, think back and remember that just twenty years ago, what generally defined ‘having a business’ was the ownership of some type of ‘brick and mortar’ storefront or professional office, compare that to today, in 2010 and beyond, what defines the image of that very same business is its website, and the increased value added to the business by its comprehensive Web presence.
Also, not to long ago, it was common that company websites were few and far between, and seen as part of the world that belonged to Programming and Technology Geeks, but now, in an incredibly short span of less than ten years, businesses are expected to have websites as part of their Strategic Social Media and Web Marketing Plan, and even the mere mention of such an idea would have been viewed as completely preposterous by most of us less than a decade ago, during that same period of time, the Social Media (R)evolution has come in with such a furry that a website has become the expected core representation of any business and its brand.
So the obvious questions that always come to mind is “What’s the next phase of the Social Media (R)evolution,” and “What’s next that consumers in the global market will expect and demand?”
Over the next few years, as consumers continue to embrace Web technology even further, and as they become more and more adept at judging a business by its website, they will soon look for a company’s, or an individual’s, blog, yes, that’s right, just as a website is expected and searched for by today’s Web savvy consumer, a business’ blog will be expected by the consumer of tomorrow, and I don’t mean months or years from now, I do mean literally, tomorrow.
Although I know that many of you are in agreement with me right now, there are sadly still some that feel like blogging, and even websites hold little importance and consequence when it comes down to the successes and failures of a business.
New Google Video! Real Time Search!
Published December 8, 2009 | 
Team Altman Great Google Video for Real Time Search!
The innovation at Google stays on the cutting edge and continues to deliver the latest tools to help users keep up with the latest information needed for both business and personal use, and real time search is no exception!
As always enjoy, share and try out real time search!