"One of the things right now with social networking... and pharmaceutical firms are that certain nodes are more respected and influential. Pharmaceutical firms want to identify who the key opinion leaders are. They don't want to sell a new drug to everyone, they want to sell to the 60 key oncologists. Who gets accessed the most for advice and information? We can figure out who the opinion leaders are."

Editor's note: This is the twentieth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...

The Project, Process & Business Improvement weblog is a great resource for businesses of any size.

As the title implies, it is all about using project management and processes to improve business.

The Project, Process & Business Improvement weblog is published by A. J. Vasaris, a management consultant, writer and speaker from Akron, Ohio, USA. A.J. uses his blog in connection with his consulting firm, Value Management Partners.

This is a great weblog for understanding how to make information technology -- and information technology professionals - work for you in business.

One of the things I like best about this blog is how practical all the posts and advice are. A.J. clearly has a lot of business and IT experience. So it would be easy for him to write at a level that is over his readers' heads. But he doesn't. He keeps everything streamlined and practical.

He also takes the mystery out of information technology implementations in business. It all seems so simple and easy to understand when A.J. explains it.

A recent weblog post illustrates what I mean. The post is about doing a "lessons learned" review after engaging in a lengthy project. A.J. says:

"Whether you call it a close-out, a lessons-learned review, or a post-mortem, what you do after completing a project is the first step in the success of all future projects. It should bring together people from all parts of the organization -- those who worked directly on the project to those responsible for budgets to transient personnel, vendors and contractors.

Many of the participants said the meeting would be a waste of time because the project was so successful, nothing to talk about. But it is a misconception thinking that lessons-learned reviews are only needed when something goes wrong. Actually the close-out process really starts at the beginning of the project when goals are established. If the goals are met, the post-mortem sets out to prove it; if the goals aren't met, then it tries to discover what went wrong."

• Approximately 66% of SMEs employ between 1 and 4 employees.



• Another 29% of SMEs employ between 5 and 19 people.

• Having or establishing an online presence (35%)



• Having or obtaining dedicated business email (30%)



• Increasing online advertising (30%)



• Hiring more employees (19%)

"Not unlike the first U.S. and Soviet space travelers in 1961, and China's first successful spaceflight last October, these private citizens are pioneers in their own right. They are doing much to open the door to a new marketplace offering the experience of weightlessness and suborbital space flight to the public.

We congratulate the SpaceShipOne team and wish all those who may follow safe flights."

Editor's note: This is the nineteenth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...

Ad Blog, is published by San Diego-based freelance advertising copywriter John Kuraoka.

Kuraoka promises "news and views about advertising, branding, marketing, and copywriting." He delivers all that and more.

Going by the Ad Blog archives, Kuraoka has had Ad Blog up since February 2003. However, it is obvious that he has been a longtime collector of tidbits, advice, concepts, and creative approaches to advertising and marketing.

What makes this blog worth visiting is the quality of information posted and the links to other of Kuraoka's projects and articles. (Be sure to visit his Tightwad Marketing Project.) Kuraoka mixes timely observations of what is happening in the advertising and marketing world with solid advice on how to take a message to an audience.

Graphically this is a pretty plain-vanilla blog, but don't be fooled by the absence of bells, whistles, and color illustrations. This is a blog produced and hosted by a pro with a lot to say, and we would all do well to listen.

There is one thing I wish he would change. All his blog entry links are made from the phrase "Advertising copywriter blog link." Ad first I thought this was a permalink. It turns out that this is how he links to his sources. Not the most intuitive approach, and by the way, permalinks would be nice.

Ad Blog ranges off topic from time to time, but as Kuraoka says, …it's my blog," and when the postings are as interesting as Kuraoka's are, why complain. A recent post that I enjoyed was the June 11 link to a series of BBC radio programs on branding. Kuraoka seems to pay particular attention to BBC articles on business and marketing.

Kuraoka promotes his freelance copywriting services throughout the blog. That's fine with me. From what I've read, he deserves to be hired as often as someone needs a strong, knowledgeable copywriter.

The Power of Ad Blog, is in the two decades of copywriting, advertising, and marketing experience Kuraoka brings to his blogging. His posts and articles add up to a primer on how to do it. Along the way he delivers a few chuckles and gets you shaking your head in astonishment over what seemingly smart people sometimes do.

Editor's note: This is the eighteenth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...


The Management Professor Notes weblog is published by Sandy Piderit.

Want to guess what Sandy does for a living?

She is a management professor, at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. As she notes on her blog, she works in the Frank Gehry-designed Peter B. Lewis Building on the Case campus in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. (Watch the video of this astounding building here).

Sandy teaches organizational behavior at Weatherhead to undergraduate, MBA and PhD level students.

Sandy started her blog as a way "to share information with current and former students and as a way for former students to keep me up to date about what they're doing." In her blog she often speaks directly to her students, sometimes about course assignments, sometimes about University affairs, sometimes about business and life.

Using her blog as a teaching tool is a worthy objective in its own right. I find the teaching aspect unique and quite interesting in its own right, even though I am not one of Sandy's students.

But there's far more to this blog than a teaching tool.

One of the things I like best about it is the way it pushes the envelope of new ideas for balancing work and life -- and new ideas for shaping how we work. These are issues of great importance to entrepreneurs, small businesses and large corporations. Take, for instance, a recent post in which Sandy speaks about the universality of the life/work balance issue, but points out how people just don't seem to connect their own circumstances with the issue:

I'm so frustrated with the response I get when I say that I'm interested in talking about work-family issues. The young and mid-career women with children are interested, but it's rare for anyone else to stay engaged with me for long. And I want to do more than address people in the same life situation as me -- I also want to do something that's relevant for and helpful to baby boomers who are taking care of their aging parents, and seasoned employees who want to gradually shift into a new career (rather than quitting their full-time job immediately and then struggling to build a new career), and artists who want to work more than 40 hours a week for 8 months, and then not at all for 4.... but those people don't hear themselves when I talk about work-family or work-life issues.

Reagan noted in a June 1983 speech: "We hear so much about the greed of business. Well, frankly, I'd like to hear a little more about the courage, generosity, and creativity of business. I'd like to hear it pointed out that entrepreneurs don't have guaranteed annual incomes. Before they can turn a profit, they must anticipate and deliver what consumers want.... The truth is, before entrepreneurs can take, they must give."

Reagan also was famous for using humor to make his points. In an April 1982 speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he observed: "Winston Churchill said that some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few see it as the sturdy horse pulling the wagon. Well, this administration believes the workers, savers, investors, and the entrepreneurs of America have been milked and shot at long enough."

"The effects of uncertainty on a small business are shown as Joni Stubbs notes that her plans for opening a new brothel have been on hold due to unclear funding."

"Small proprietorships are the most likely to hear from the IRS. Questionable deductions by many firms with gross receipts under $25,000 hike their audit rate to 3%, triple the rate for all firms.

Self-employeds also get examined more often than most taxpayers. Their 1.9% audit rate is three times the rate for other individuals."

"Audit rates for small businesses plummeted in the 1990s. In 1997, the IRS audited more than 4% of all sole proprietors with total gross revenues of at least $100,000; by 1999 that figure was down around 2.4%. The audit rate for sole proprietors with total gross receipts of $25,000 to $99,999 fell to 1.3%.

Quite simply, the audit rate has pretty much reached the point where there is nowhere to go but up."

Editor's note: This is the seventeenth in our popular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of other weblogs...

The Duct Tape Marketing weblog is a great resource for small businesses.

And don't you just love the name? It is so appropriate for a weblog targeted toward small businesses. It signifies -- at least to me -- the epitome of being a small business person, i.e., having to use whatever material is at hand to get the job done.

I mean, think about it. How many uses can you make of duct tape? How frequently do you use it to do an emergency patch job -- a patch job that works just fine, by the way? That exactly captures the mentality of being in a small business, where you make do with the resources available -- and get along just fine.

The Duct Tape Marketing weblog is published by John Jantsch, a marketing coach, consultant, speaker, writer, and author located in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

According to his companion website, johnjantsch.com, John has been advising small businesses for over 15 years. He uses his weblog as a place to provide fresh content in the form of advice and how-to's for small businesses.

What I like best about this blog is the way the advice is extremely practical and hands-on. While John clearly demonstrates a grasp of marketing theory, he knows that small businesses need practical guidance delivered in easily digestible bites. After all, the person responsible for marketing in a small business probably wears several hats and doesn't have a lot of spare time -- he or she wants to cut to the chase quickly.

He also gears his advice toward a small business's size. There's no sense talking about marketing advice that the average small business can't implement because it is too complicated, too expensive or too out-of-touch with the business's way of doing business.

A recent weblog post illustrates what I mean about practical advice geared specifically for small business. The post is all about using photos in testimonials. John says:

"Instead of simply listing your clients and telling about the results you have delivered, take a photo of every one of your clients using your product, meeting with you, doing something goofy involving your name brand.

The power behind this technique is incredible. Suddenly, you can offer tons of proof that people are happy with your company."

• Do Your Research: read magazines and study pop culture for signs of what's next.



• Extend a Trend: try a variation on an existing trend.



• Be a Contrarian: sometimes it pays to go against the trend, because trends change over time.



• Be Flexible: you never know when a trend is about to stop, and you need to be able to stop manufacturing production when the trend stops.



• Be First: if you're too cautious, you may be too late.



• Follow Your Gut: follow your instinct, even if friends and family don't understand your vision.

• Manufacturing production, which had been weak, is up. Capital spending is also up, meaning small businesses are buying equipment and making other major purchases.


• Proprietor's income has increased by 10% over the past year. Corporate profits increased a healthy 31.4% over a year's time.


• And it looks like the ranks of incorporated self-employed are up, now at 5.2 million compared with an average of 4.4 million over the past 3 years.