Helping me author articles on this new blog is Josh Neiman, a longtime friend and great internet marketing mind. Josh was a colleague of mine at a previous job with an start-up social network. Josh is currently working for a major online auction website based in Chicago, Ill.

I am not sure what I am going to do with this blog, but we’ll see.

Queen Bees from "The N"

A new television show on The N called Queen Bees is aimed at helping some of the most self-indulged, self-entitled divas change back into good girls.

The show premiered today – check out the first ten minutes. Their claims to fame are quite hilarious. I think we all know plenty of girls like this and its true we all hate these queen bees. Hopefully by placing the girls in the same place they’ll realize how much they dislike people who act just like themselves.

I think the favorite part of the introduction was the fact that most of these girls didn’t even know why they were on a show. They all just volunteered to be on a reality show because they wanted the attention.

The only thing I thought could have been improved was if the girls didn’t know right away that the goal was to be nice. We could have really seen their true colors and it could have had a great moments like the reality show Average Joe, where the guy had no idea that everyone on the show with him was actually an actor.

On a nerdy note – The video masher tool on their website is awesome. Users can mash together clips from the show, add music and graphics and enter it into a contest. It is a pretty sweet tool.

uBid Promotion

A friend of mine works at Ubid.com and he alerted me that they just purchased over 1,000 of apple ipods from a partner who had excess inventory. The online auction website’s starting for price for the iPods is just $1. With this many iPods, uBid customers have a good chance to get a winning bid and more importantly a good chance to save some serious money.

I should mention that I was compensated to make this post. If any other bloggers are interested in making a little money to help support their blogging addition, they can check out this deal and others at social spark.

A day after explaining the difference between about bloggers and journalists, I thought that this viral video of John McCain speaking his his love for bloggers was quite timely.

I should also state that unlike other bloggers, I am trying to make McCain look bad. Democrats are just as frustrated with bloggers and the rumors they like to run with. Take for example, Barack Obama’s new site, FightTheSmears.com.

Over the past two years blogging has boomed, while traditional media outlets have been slowly downsizing. It is easy to blame blogs, bloggers and the Internet for this trend.

As a response to dwindling mass media consumption, many media outlets have decided to ditch traditional news stories for more fantasized, supersized and outrageous news.

And as funny as it may it seem – filling this void that they left as the watch dog media are the same people who have caused it go away. (bloggers)

As a person with a college mass communication degree, I often ask myself if I should be worried. And yes, I am – however I do not think the situation is helpless.

Here are few things I think journalists and bloggers can do to help the current situation:

1. Engage in conversation with each other and don’t be afraid to call each other out when it comes to facts and fact checking.
2. Take an oath to always tell the truth and stand by the reputation of the news outlet you represent.
3. Like Tim Russert did so well, journalists should strive to report on complex situations in such a way that the common working man and woman can understand.

Three weeks later you hire a gen-y college grad and they suggest you upgrade your web site. How dare they, right? What the hell do they know?

It’s true they might not of thought about what they were saying and how they said it, nor could they explain exactly how you should improve things, but don’t be afraid to trust their instincts.

Gen-y is programmed to say what they think and they are also trained to judge a business by how slick and how easy a web site is to use.

If you don’t believe them, consider the following list of tell tale signs that it is time to upgrade your web site.

Signs that it is Time to Upgrade your Web Site:

1. Your web site looks like to could have been built with geocities in 1998. What do I mean? You have 12 different font types, sizes and color. Images are from clip art. Things are slightly misaligned. Navigation is not universal and you have an image as a background.
2. You are not receiving any organic traffic. This is a no brainer. Let your targeted audience think that they are the one initiating the conversation and good things will happen.
3. People complain that things are tough to find on your website. If this is true, they might not trust you as a business manager. It might turn them off to the point that they don’t want to buy anything from your web site.
4. Your website doesn’t reflect your business objectives. Within four seconds of visiting your site, it should be clear to a first time visitor what you do and why you do it better.

Fast forward to two weeks later, Kobe and the Lakers were handled by the Boston Celtics and the big three, and Shaq must have heard of or read a couple blogs like mine because Shaq went off on Kobe in a rap. I must admit that it is funny, but at the same time – “Come on dawg.” Shaq must have know he crossed the line with some racial stuff, with some comments about how part of his body tastes. But I guess, if Kobe really did cause his divorse, then…what can I say.

1) The world view of the United States is tainted. From the war in Iraq to Guantanamo Bay to greed – Barack Obama understands that ending attacks on our country means that we must a good neighbor. And the as the economy turns more and more global, this could not be any more important to our future. To understand in greater detail what I am talking about, view this video by Lee Lessig. Exactly 20 minutes into it, Lessig explains in greater detail the need to reach out to foreign nations.

2) Barack Obama has the power to inspire our nation to work harder. In our lifetime we have never seen a politican do this. We have heard that Kennedy and Reagan had this power, but we unfortunatly have never had the opportunity to hear them speak. Alternativly, McCain seems to lack this ability. To view an example of Obama’s ability to inspire and tell us what we need to hear, look no further than his Father’s day speech.

3) We do not care that he is black. We were lucky enough to grow up in a culture and school system that allowed us to judge people not the color of their skin, but by their merits and their actions.  

4) Obama is all about giving opportunity and helping those who want to work for it. We love his plan to offer grants for college age students willing to serve their country.

5) We do not want special interests groups influencing politics. We want to influence politics and we want politicians working to better our future.

6) Obama backs free speech and net neutrality. He is by far the most advanced candidate when it come to understanding the internet and the importance of free speech. The days of the media as a watchdog are pretty much over. Especially after so called “legitimate” news sources like Fox News hire political reporters like Mike Huckabee. Tim Russert must be rolling in his grave.

Now dead at the age of 58, we have lost one of the greatest journalists of all time and it is really saddening. I was always impressed by detailed and well researched his questions were. I loved the way Mr. Russert called people out without degrading them.

This is a tragedy for the mass media, a tragedy for our country and a tragedy for his family and everyone who knew him very well. God Bless.

Here are a couple of videos of Tim Russert interviewing John McCain and Barack Obama.

The last two minutes of this “pep talk” by Barack Obama is one of the many reasons why I like Obama come November and come the next four years.