Why do you blog?  There are hundreds of reasons a person may blog, whether they be personal, business or pleasure, you’ll find a different reason from whoever you ask.  The main question you want to ask yourself is, are you blogging for the right reasons?  People are blogging just because it’s the ‘cool thing to do’ or the latest trend or the next big thing.  According to dictionary.com blogging is simply, to write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog.  Knowing this we need to know the definition of the word blog!  Blog- an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a web page; also called a Weblog.  So according to the dictionary, when your blogging you’re basically just making an online diary.  If you work in a corporation and blog regularly, I’ll bet you never thought of it that way.  But lately the blogging definition seems to have changed and taken on a looser meaning.  If you check out Wikipedia.com and look up blog, you discover a more detailed or current definition of the term.  When you wrote a diary as a kid did you ever allow anyone to read you personal diary, much less comment in it?  Of course not that’s the whole point of the diary it’s supposed to be personal. So maybe there is more to this whole blogging thing then meets the eye.

Blogging has definitely changed over the past few years, going from what I remember as a personal thing you might do on your free time on your online personal website or MySpace page to now something you feel you must do in order to keep your visitors attention, inform someone about something, keep your popularity up, rant off about something, etc.  Believe it or not though, blogs have been around since the mid 1980’s.  Most early bloggers were journalists who typically wrote about their personal life with text, video and images.  Blog’s typically were just an easier way to have a diary and weren’t intended to make you popular or give you social status through the internet.

The Cons of Blogging
Blogging without the right mindset is perhaps one of the worst things you can do when blogging.  Let’s say you work for a large company and you tend to share a lot of knowledge with your customers through the use of blogs.  This is a good thing, until you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.  Now I’m a fan of blogs don’t get me wrong, but have you ever read a blog and thought, “What was the point of that?”  When you blog you need to have the right mind set.  If you’re writing for a company and feel your writing will benefit the reader and you can honestly admit to yourself that, then you have nothing to worry about.  When a person blogs a lot and is fairly decent at it, it can lead to fame in the virtual world, with readers from all over the country and world going online and visiting your blog site.  The problem with this is when you start becoming popular you don’t want to lose your status.  So you’re more then likely going to be trying to write either more or better blogs to keep your readers coming back, while staying consistent.  Now the problem comes when you honestly don’t have anything to write about yet you write anyways.  This is where blogging can turn either pointless or narcissistic and risk turning into an all about you article.  We, the readers, already know you’re an awesome writer; you don’t need to go on an ego trip and brag about yourself, doing so will typically do the opposite of what you want and turn off readers from your site.

Blogs also take away the great feeling of finding things on your own through research and exploration, and blogs aren’t always accurate.  Which leads to the next point, you don’t want to believe everything someone says or blogs about.  Don’t be a sheep, no matter how popular or famous someone is, do some of your own research as well.  Blogs tend to be a one way conversation, you post and receive a comment, typically will not go any further.  When you do actually write a good blog you have to compete with others just to try and get ranked or even have your blog read.  Another downside to blogs is you don’t get paid to write them unless you are extremely good.  It’s also hard to be original these days because so many people have written about the same or similar topics over and over.

The Pros of Blogging
Blogging of course has its benefits as well.  If you are truly a good writer or know how to get your point across better online then you may indeed be a good blogger.  Blogging can give a person fame, e-fame, status and popularity by being good and capturing and maintaining visitors.  Blogging allows the person to become more creative and improves your typing speed, accuracy and internet knowledge.

Blogging can be good for sharing information on specific topics, giving your professional opinion about something.  Blogging can simply be a diary for you or a way to express yourself and how you feel that day or about a particular situation.  It can also be a personal reference to something that maybe you need to save for a future time.  By writing you may improve the view point from an outside person or company on how they see your company.  Blogging can also improve your search engine rankings which is pretty much a free thing except for your time and optional blogging software.

Now a days blogging programs can be used to create websites for your company such as Wordpress.  Even though they were created primarily for blogs you would be surprised how well they can pull a website together just as well as any other web site design program, not to mention you have a blog style and website in one program.  Some of the side effects to blogs can b
neovaine, becoming an author of books or magazines, create new friends all around the country or world, great for your resume or even a replacement of needing one if your good enough, you can create your own brand, influence people or start your own business!

So as you can see blogs have changed a lot in the last 10 years and can serve multiple purposes.  If used correctly and with the right intents blogs can be a very powerful tool for you and your company.

With the creation of HTML newsletters, it is imperative to incorporate text, many of the following factors may interrupt the viewer’s ability to view the visual aspects of images and graphics and therefore the text is imperative: 

• Code compliance differences with various email programs
• Viewers differing computer settings
• Viewers who can’t or choose not to view the images of your newsletter

Because of these factors, it is imperative that text of your newsletter be accessible to the viewer whether the images are visible or not.  Below are a few do’s and don’ts when creating your html newsletters:

DON’T:

• Make your entire newsletter graphic based
• Leave your pictures without description
• Forget to create a text version of your html newsletter

DO:

• Make you newsletter text based and have minimal graphic or picture based text 
• Add detailed alt description tags to your images and graphics
• Test your newsletter to make sure text will show correctly in various email programs without the images/graphics appearing
• Create a text version of your commercial html newsletter

Disability Reasons
Not only is it important to have text based newsletters for viewing purposes, but also for various disabilities and functional limitations, such as the visibly impaired, physical, language, and cognitive disabilities. Some users may not be able to use a mouse, while others may be listening to your newsletter using a screen reader that sends information to a text-to-speech synthesizer or refreshable Braille display. The blind depend on text versions. For text emails, it is important to have alt tags used to describe images. Having image descriptions helps the visibly impaired ‘see’ pictures through screen readers. Give your viewers every opportunity to access your newsletter.

Code Compliance Reasons
There are many different email programs that your newsletter will be sent through - Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, AOL, etc.  It is important to realize each program has code requirements and therefore you want to create an html commercial newsletter compliant in various versions and programs.  Testing and sending your newsletter to different programs will help you see what improvements to make.

• HTML Inline styles & table tags versus CSS Style sheets & div tags
   
  The main code compliance that will help improve newsletters to work well in various programs is to use HTML tables and inline styles versus CSS style sheets and div tags. Keeping all styles inline, as well as, replace all CSS div tags with table tags.  This will make a significant difference with email program compliance. For example, the newest version Outlook 2007 no longer recognizes CSS and therefore any style rules or div tags will not be recognized and the newsletter will be distorted aesthetically with the CSS code not being recognized.

Text Version Send-Outs
A text version newsletter does not have html code; it basically is taking all the text from your html version and placing it as a separate newsletter to send out. Newsletter programs will send the text version at the same time the html version is sent out. Any subscriber with a text base email will receive the text version.

Branding Logo Graphics
Many fonts are not accessible through basic inline-style font-families.  For this reason often-times main headers or company names/logos are graphics.  This is when alt tags are crucial with describing the newsletter images and graphics.  Any text that you make an image, it is important to have alt tags describing the text-image, especially your logo and company name. Your logo is crucial for company branding, if the image is not showing, alt tags become a crucial aspect to branding your product, name, and logo.

ALT Tag for Header Image

Header Image
 

 
Conclusion
Text is the basis of newsletters and communicating your message whether the commercial aspect can be viewed or not.  Keep text the center focus as you create your newsletter. Always make your information accessible no matter what computer settings or email program a client uses. Clients are less likely to fully open an email if they can’t see what it’s about or the company it is coming from. Text will broaden results and the actions you would like your cliental to take! This is just one more step to success with email newsletters!
 

Men and women are different. A profound observation, I know.

While modern culture and changing gender roles have closed the ranks to some degree and have made our differences less pronounced, they do still exist. Stereotyping the sexes proves to be a tricky line to walk, is sometimes offensive, and is never completely accurate for all individuals. There is no denying, however, that the genders are different. We look, think, act, and feel differently and our hearts and minds operate in a completely dissimilar manner much of the time.

Setting aside all other aspects of life, gender differences often make the shopping and purchasing processes of men and woman distinctly unalike. Men shop with a specific purpose, while women shop as an activity or as a social outlet. Men often decide to buy quickly, but women generally need to be exposed to a product or service numerous times before committing. Men need to digest information in a logical, concise order and will focus on facts and figures in making their selection. Women can receive information in any order and piece it together beautifully, but they focus on social influences more than on the hard data. Men rarely ask for help. Women need to ask questions. Men don’t usually consider price with routine purchases, but women regard it as very important. Most significantly, when men make a purchase it is generally to fill a basic need or as an investment, but women often buy to make themselves feel good emotionally.

Because the purchasing process is so dissimilar between the sexes, a website’s copy should take that into consideration. If your property caters primarily to business travelers, the copy should be aimed at the needs and wants of men (Men are still the majority in the business world, though this is changing.). If your business deals largely with spa weekends and family retreats, web copy catering to females might be more effective in converting lookers into bookers.

However, more often than not, your copy will need to appeal to both sexes. Here are some suggestions for helping each:

• Make sure contact information is prominent on each page for women, as they will be more apt to want to speak to a real person. Also make FAQs easily available to answer common questions that are often asked.
• Focus on the amenities that will fill a male’s vacation needs, while still writing about views, atmosphere, and environment which will help a woman make an emotional connection with the property.
• Write personal, conversational copy for women, but have bullet points and links to “more information” for men.
• In general, if you seek to improve a male’s standing or position while improving a woman’s feeling and emotion, your copy will “speak” to both effectively.

Chevrolet.com offers a great example of a company using copy to “speak” to customers on a gender level. The headline shown with the Silverado truck is a mere four words:

OUR COUNTRY. OUR TRUCK

It is short and sweet, but says so much. It’s offering men identity as well as status. It says that to own a Silverado is to be an American man. It is tying pride in vehicle ownership to National pride and patriotism. This is a powerful statement to men.

In contrast, the headline offered with the Uplander minivan reads:

THE FAMILY SPORT VAN

Minivans are driven primarily by women and it’s not uncommon to see them marketed with some sort of family focus. Relationships and the feelings that accompany them are powerful motivators for female purchasers.

In the SUV section of Chevrolet.com, the company continues to speak more to men by offering a rise in status with their headlines:

LIVE BETTER WITH ALL THIS, YOU’LL BE ALL THAT

Gender is central to identity and the way in which each of us thinks and sees the world. Companies and copywriters that understand this and consciously use the differences of the sexes to their advantage will meet with unmatched success.