At yesterday’s Plato marketing training event, the topic of business blogging came up. Seems like our 100,000+ unique visitors is nothing in the blogging world, but most Small to Medium Irish Business (SME’s) would kill for that kind of traffic. So since I’m an ‘expert’ (and when exactly did that happen ?!) here’s the 10 minute guide to get your business on it’s way.

Plato rules presume that member companies remain confidential (until they choose to break cover!). So, if you want to leave a comment below (feel free to link back to your website) I’ll be happy to apply the advice below to your business. I don’t sell blogging advice (although there is a business idea!) - more Irish Business Bloggers there are the better (all, hopefully, linking from their websites back to here!)

What is blogging?

• A Blog is a new way of doing that same old things. You already network, talk (and listen!) to your customers and are passionate about publicising the thing you love (your business idea). A Blog just helps you do the same things online.
• A Blog is the easiest way to update a website. If you can email (remember how scary that used to be?) you can blog. And yes, I can give examples to back that one up. And that’s you updating it, not paying some web design company to do it.
• A Blog is the quickest way to get a good website. If you haven’t a website, a blog is the quickest way to get one. It does most of the Vodoo Search Engine stuff out of the box. Likewise, a blog can easily added to your existing website.
• A Blog is an online Diary. Think one of those reality TV shows. But about your business. And without Jade Goody in it. There is a reason that ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Blogs’ score highest in the ratings - they’re all about people. Remember ; People don’t buy your business, they buy you.
• A Blog lets you have conversations with your customers. It allows customers to say what they think about you on your website.Scary? Yes. But not as scary as not hearing what they are saying about you.Yes you can delete offensive comments, but I’ve only had to remove 2 out of 700 comments in the last 3 years.

The Who, What, When , Where and Why of Irish Business Blogging

Remember, blogging is cheap to try out (in money , if not in your time) . It’s still new enough to forgive people who make mistakes. Dive in , give it a go, and when (not if) you learn something new, tell me about it.

And after all that, you couldn’t be bothered blogging?
Try LinkedIn.com. As a business networking tool , it’s excellent, with more Irish business contacts than anywhere else.

No , nothing to do with recent financial turmoil in the IFSC , but the Vikings have arrived back in Dublin.

More info on the route they took is here.

It’s strange having (by accident) seen the same ship before it left Denmark - that’s a 2 hour Direct flight, can’t imagine how long it took to sail it across the North Sea and around Scotland down to Dublin. I’m just glad we took the plane. This is the original - good condition considering it’s almost a thousand years old.

At a recent OpenCoffee Dublin event Brian Cleland of InterTrade Ireland mooted the idea of a Seedcamp Ireland. He’d love to see it be held in Newry or Dundalk (as cross-border networking is really his thing), but is realistic enough to consider other locations.

To quote the main Seedcamp website:

Seedcamp is where Europe’s top young founders can come together in one place.

From securing funding to developing the right network, young entrepreneurs in Europe face challenges in building globally competitive technology businesses. Through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors, we want to provide a catalyst for Europe’s next generation of entrepreneurs.

We might need to use a different name, but would you be interested in an informal meetup of startups and investors? Given the turn in the property market, would investors be ooking to put their money into the startup technology sector? Where would you like to see it held?

Well, apart from 30 Seconds early on in my life on RTE’s Wanderly Wagon, I’ve not had national media exposure before. Given what I write about (how to use technology in business), I doubt if I’m going to be on celebrity big-brother any time soon. So here’s the photo from the Irish Times. If you click on it, you’ll be able to buy it.

The story is that we (as in FirstPartners.net) were sponsoring an award (couple of quid back when Damien was trying to get the blog awards off the ground). On the night , I had to catch the last train for Belfast at about 8.30 , so the Irish Times photographer got a couple of us together earlier on to take the shot.

So , apologies to Roger Galligan of IrishBlogs.ie who I didn’t get to hand the award to on the night, and any of the blog award winners, all of whom deserve to be in the pic!

If you haven’t already read a post about the Irish Blog Awards, you’ve either been a coma for the last month, or lost your internet connection for a very long time. Either way , you missed a very good evening in the Alexender Hotel in Dublin. We (FirstPartners.net) were sponsoring one of the awards (Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere). At least I can say ‘I was there’ , which will either seem very far sighted or as strange as sponsoring ‘The Irish email awards’ as blogging goes mainstream. Either way , I doubt if blogging will fall into the ‘no-one will care’ category.

Despite the lead-in , this is not a post about blogging. In fact despite the evidence in front of your very eyes, I (Paul Browne) am not really a blogger in the real, hip and trendy sense of the medium. Compared to some of the characters I met there, I’m just somebody how likes getting things done , and happy to talk about one of things that interests me (Technology). Blogging is (currently) the best way I find to do it.

Talking of the people that I met there , here are some (and I’m still playing the game of ‘connect the people to the blogs’). Apologies if I’ve missed you (leave a comment)

• Gavin’s Blog. Gavin’s been blogging 6 years. Put me and my ‘15 months Blogging’ in my place.
• Letter From America - Jeff. One of the real (good) characters of the evening , but not somebody that I’d recommend to my (single) sister in law , despite both of them living in Belfast
• Red Mum. A real star - Have been following her blog for a while and had almost ‘can I have your autograph’ moment when meeting her.
• That Girl - also in the Irish Times picture. A very welcoming presence at the pre-awards drinks when I was wandering the cellar bar wandering where all the bloggers where (Duh! in the corner drinking cocktails of course!)
• Bonhom.ie (Dermot) - very interesting guy, moving back to Ireland from Italy , although to hear his current location , you’d have to question his sanity!
• irelanddigital.blogspot.com and culturesluts.podcast.com. Both by Stephen and Jesse. Encouraged me to dip a toe into podcasting, even if I’ll never reach the dizzy heights of those guys.
• Brian Greene - wxtc.net / BrianGreene.com - another podcaster who I wished I had got talking to in more depth.
• Technolotics - Trinity Students , podcasting on technology and politics. If you met them, keep their autograph. I expect they will do big things in a ‘Zig and Zag meets Google’ kind of way. (That’s a compliment
• John - faxYourTD.ie . Sometimes it takes a new faceto shake things up. John’s work to bring ‘faxyourMP.com’ to our shores is a lot of hard work and is one of the first ways that Web 2.0 will begin to affect our sceloritic polical system.
• Bernie Goldbach. Back in Techcamp , Bernie had encouraged me to to take this blogging thing seriously. Good thing that he did.
• Tom Raftery- TomRaftery.net / Podleaders / IT@Cork. Didn’t get talking to Tom this time around as he had to hurry to a podcast interview. Along with Bernie, his presentation on Blogging at Techcamp last year pushed me to take the potential of blogs seriously.
• James Corbett - Eireprenuer , also speaking about about OPML. Anybody who
• Colin O’Munieachan - an T-imeall. His hosting and technical setup of the pre awards podcasting event would put commercial radio to shame.
• Piaras - PR Supremo , who took the endless questions of ‘when are we doing the next techcamp’ with good grace.
• Ed Byrne - who confessed to not having blogged for a full 2 months. Security!
  Update - Ed Byrne is now back blogging due to unprecedented public demand!
• Michele - penseiri / Blacknight hosting , who has (finally) convinced me to try out Ubantu, as well as getting a few digs in about my current hosting issues.
• Rick O’Shea. Didn’t actually get to meet the guy person, but is that what he really looks like? How much longer before RTE are actively recruiting bloggers the way ZDnet magazines and O’Reilly books are?
• Fergal Breen - IrishDev.com. Co host of the IIA Web 2.0 presentation and good to see that he is finally coming out of his shell (that’s a joke, for anybody who doesn’t know him)
• Damien Mulley - major kudos to the man for organising the whole thing. Nerves of steel as he actually looked like he was enjoying all the pressure on the night!
• Alison? - Will go now and search for your blog again! A real ‘fit the blog to the person’ moment as I realised we’d both worked toghether in a previous life!

Just found out that I’ve also managed to get my picture in the Irish Times. Surreal - I’m writing this on the Train and have seen it by looking over a fellow passengers shoulder .. I’m the one standing in front of Bernie Goldbach on the right. What are the rules for linking to this picture online?

On my todo list after the events are 1) Get a Podcast out 2) Check out Odeo.com for hosting the content 3) Check out Tredia 4)Do a google for people writing about ‘The Irish Blog Awards’ 5) Check out Jeff’s Podcast for the people that I’ve missed.

If you look at our company website you see that we now have a UK telephone number listed. No, we haven’t splurged on a Penthouse London office, but instead are using the wonders of modern technology (Voice over IP- VOIP) to provide the service.

It’s a good example of how the internet lets Small and Medium Irish Business play with the big boys. Previously, we’d either have to use either serviced Offices (like we had at the Regional Development Centre in Dundalk), or take on somebody full time for the job.

Both Metro and the Herald AM free newspapers launched this week and now you can’t leave a Dart station in Dublin without getting offered both. For the Record, I’m a Metro man myself , having used it (unsucessfully) to try and learn Flemish / Dutch while in Brussels.

The word has it that both were ready to launch, and held back several times while waiting (a) for the legal action to finish and (b) to see what it each other did.

It makes you wonder about the (good) flexibility of the Irish Jobs Market. Here , in an era of ‘full’ employment these guys can launch at the drop of a hat (less than 48hrs notice) and still have hundreds of people out on the street to do the distribution. Given that it’s unlikely they had the distribution guys on a retainer , shows that the Irish Jobs Market is definately more Boston than Berlin .