Guardian Unlimited :: The next big thing (blogs)
The good news just keeps rolling in! “The next big thing“
Paul Woodhouse was interviewed for the latest article at the Guardian Unlimted. Visit and read “The next big thing“. I know he wouldn’t post this here. Not his style. So, if he’s miffed that I am - well, Paul - you can take one of those tin hammers or welding torches to me, ok.
Woodhouse runs the Tinbasher blog, a site about Planters Direct - a supplier of stainless steel planters - and its parent company, Butler Sheetmetal. The site was named small business blog of the year in a worldwide poll.
(Correction: The new name for Planter’s Direct is Tinpot Alley.)
The article makes many good points. Among them:
So why are they getting so excited? Blogs are, after all, merely another form of website, albeit one with easy-to-use software sitting behind it.
The key lies in the impact of this software. Because it’s easy to use, you tend to write less formally, and more often. Blogs lend themselves to a more confessional style of writing, and early business bloggers say these unfiltered, unspun voices will make business communication more transparent and, ultimately, possibly even make the businesses themselves more profitable. Ultimately, honesty and transparency will be demanded by customers, they say, and the demand will be fulfilled by this kind of site.
And BLOGthenticity is mentioned, thanks to Paul Woodhouse. 
Congrats and thanks, Paul!
Others mentioned in the article? Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Sun’s Jonathan Schwartz, Six Apart, Movable Type and even WordPress in the list of blog platforms. WordPress powers BLOGthenticity.
Check out “The next big thing“.
Filed under: BLOGthenticity, Blogger Interviews, Business Blogging, How to Blog, Paul, Robert, Why Blog?
Of course I would’ve posted it!
Purely and simply for the fact that BLOGthenticity got a mention.
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However, I didn’t ask for a BLOGthenticity mention. I just pointed him towards a couple of articles on here expanding on some of the points I’d made. Maybe we can officially claim it as some kind of Guardian endorsement. Then again, considering he got the Planters Direct thing wrong, it may have just been a Grauniad typo.
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It’s the first time in a while that I’ve actually bought The Guardian as opposed to reading it online and I expected it to be tucked away somewhere. Imagine my shock and horror as I came across a half-page sized picture of my moon face staring back at me. Quite freaky. I can only apologise for scaring any children or souring the odd bowl of cornflakes.
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What you also might not know is that just before the photographer turned up the button on my jeans popped off and most of the poses involved me trying to make sure my pants didn’t wind up halfway down to the old ankles.
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I either need some media training or some new trousers.
This is real nice and all…congrats…but “comments are closed” on Blogger’s Tiff post?
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Why? I see: No vulgarity. No racism or sexism. No frenzied rants. No “personal attacks”.
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And you call this “BLOGthenticity”…real blogs by real, etc. Real censorship is more like it. Now watch this comment get deleted and me be banned from site.
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I liked the flame against me written by Rich…! He keeps me in line, like no other. He’s got balls.
I must admit, it was my daft idea and have now reopened them.
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I was going along the lines of thinking it not fair that certain folks might be coming on to have a go at you or anyone else.
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My mistake and I apologise. Honesty is the best policy and all that.
“Because it’s easy to use, you tend to write less formally, and more often. Blogs lend themselves to a more confessional style of writing, and early business bloggers say these unfiltered, unspun voices will make business communication more transparent and, ultimately, possibly even make the businesses themselves more profitable. Ultimately, honesty and transparency will be demanded by customers, they say, and the demand will be fulfilled by this kind of site.”
This is the part of this blog that interested me the most. I must admit, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what it is about blogs that are making them so revolutionary as opposed to websites with updates on them. With just these few sentences, I think I understand a little bit better. It IS easy, and I can see how that would lead to more unfiltered conversation. And that’s always a good thing.