The OG Online Thought Leader Seth Godin talks at TED about Tribes (What I like to call True Fans – what if you had a Tribe of 1000 True Fans? Never “work” again because you would have your own economy!).

TED is my favorite site for learning who the leading thinkers are for today. Seth Godin is the Original Thinker and I read his blog updates FIRST in my inbox. Enjoy and EXPAND your thinking!

What’s a Blog Carnival you ask? You know by now I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel, so without furthur ado, here is the description straight from the Blog Carnival Barkers mouth:

Welcome to Blog Carnival! We love the idea of blog carnivals where someone takes the time to find really good blog posts on a given topic, and then puts all those posts together in a blog post called a “carnival”.

To understand what a blog carnival is, consider some examples. Here is the first edition of Carnival of the Vanities (one of the earliest blog carnivals). Carnivals can be very descriptive like this one, or very concise, like this one. Find the style the fits your topic and time schedule.

We think blog carnivals are a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts, organize blog posts around important topics, and improve the overall level of conversation in the blogosphere. Carnivals come in edited “editions”, just like magazines or journals. The fact that carnivals are edited (and usually annotated) collections of links lets them serve as “magazines” within the blogosphere, and carnival hosts can earn their readership by providing high quality collections.

Since blog carnivals include lots of posts on specific topics, they also serve as a place to connect with those who are expert (or at least highly opinionated!) and those who are interested in that field.

Talk about moving the free line!

Peter Shankman didn’t start out thinking that he’d be giving the well-known PR service ProfNet a run for their money when he decided to post emails he was already getting from reporters asking if he had sources for their stories to his Facebook Page. He decided to call this free service “Help a Reporter” – it helps hungry reporters looking for sources connect with hungry sources looking for publicity.

What is interesting is that he was already getting reporters emailing him to help them find sources, so he has some credibility and influence with this audience. They have recognized that he is skilled using a new resource – social media – which makes him attractive to say the least. (Let’s face it, besides us information marketers and life-long learners, most people would rather not learn something new, they just want the answers.)

So he decided to take action to help them by exposing them to his existing network, using his already existing Facebook profile. Free to use, simple to execute – reporters emailed him their queries, and he posted them on his profile. A lot easier than answering them all one on one.

Then word hit the street – freelancers (who obviously must have been a part of his network) started telling friends, then publicists (also probably already in his network) realized these were prime opps for additional ways to spread the word about their clients. He created some buzz by buzzing it on his own blog, shankman.com. An A-list NY Times blogger wrote a nice post (notice, at this point he still hasn’t asked anyone to actually help him promote this service)

The free service got so popular he had to move it off of his Facebook Page and onto it’s own site at www.HelpAReporter.com.

Now, here’s where the story takes a counterintuitive twist…because it’s STILL FREE!

He clearly could have monetized it, because it’s clearly meeting a huge want in the market – which he says doesn’t surprise him that reporters are seeking an alternative to ProfNet. He says they get tons of queries from their posts there, but so many of them are “misguided”. (and he firmly says he will dump list members who don’t send a response that is on target in his welcome email)

Reporters report that they get a lot more on-target answers from Shankman’s list. Another plus is they get fresh faces from many of the smaller PR folks and even entrepreneurs themselves who can’t necessarily afford the pricey ProfNet service.

Maybe at some point in the future he will start to charge. However, my guess is that he’s getting a lot more visibility and more business doing what he really loves to do anyway this way.

There’s a lot more meat to this story here:
Tired of ProfNet? Start Your Own PR-Journalist Service

What could you do that would provide a similar effect to your target audience? I’ve got some ideas now myself that would help my expert authors…stay tuned!

I think this is fascinating. In this report from eMarketer, a survey of 1200 online users who shop online more than 4 times a year and spend over $500 indicates:

• 43% of read customer reviews most of the time before a product purchase and
• 46% required a minimum of 4-7 before they would make a purchase decision

These online buyers are also Web 2.0 savvy…44% of them also indicate that they wish that websites had more product videos, 39% wanted the ability to subscribe to email or RSS alerts, 39% want discussion boards or forums and 37% want the ability to personalize the site or create a personal profile.

Oh, and in case you wonder if having customer testimonials really makes a difference, 49% of these buyers want them.

Read it all here:
Online Buyers Seek Out User Reviews – eMarketer

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I met Howard Berg through my good friend and Xtraordinary Women Mastermind partner, Maria Carter. He holds the Guiness Book of World Records for being the world’s fastes reader.

And he was in San Diego doing a course for the Learning Annex on speed reading. I wasn’t expecting to learn anything new and was I ever floored! He actually teaches a strategy called “accelerated learning” which among other things in this Age of Information Overload helps entrepreneurs read more, faster, and retain more of what they read.

He runs a virtual school called Gateway Prepatory with his partner, Kuni Beasley, and there are 16 year olds using these strategies and techniques to get their Associates Degree before they graduate high school and 19 year olds getting Master’s Degrees! Visit Gateway Prepatory School for more information on THAT.

I recorded an interview with Howard which I’ll upload very soon.

Fascinating, and definitely one of the smartest human beings on the planet.

I met Howard Berg through my good friend and Xtraordinary Women Mastermind partner, Maria Carter. He holds the Guiness Book of World Records for being the world’s fastes reader.

And he was in San Diego doing a course for the Learning Annex on speed reading. I wasn’t expecting to learn anything new and was I ever floored! He actually teaches a strategy called “accelerated learning” which among other things in this Age of Information Overload helps entrepreneurs read more, faster, and retain more of what they read.

He runs a virtual school called Gateway Prepatory with his partner, Kuni Beasley, and there are 16 year olds using these strategies and techniques to get their Associates Degree before they graduate high school and 19 year olds getting Master’s Degrees! Visit Gateway Prepatory School for more information on THAT.

I recorded an interview with Howard which I’ll upload very soon.

Fascinating, and definitely one of the smartest human beings on the planet.

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the Net. The plan is to introduce you to my personal Brain Trust…the teachers, mentors and thought leaders I’ve discovered on my journey to conscious entrepreneurship. And to inspire women about making a quantum leap in consciousness and having that spill over into your business results…;-)

Enjoy. Come back and visit often…

Michelle P.