From the Harvard Business School:

Bloggers have damaged a number of companies, but it’s time to think of the blog as your friend. Skillful blogging can boost your company’s credibility and help it connect with customers.

A must read for anyone considering dipping a toe in the blog waters.

[via Steve Rubel]

“To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.”

- Richard Branson

If you’re in need of a good stats package for your website, be sure to check out Google’s new web site analyzer.

Launched yesterday, the free service can help you answer questions like: Which keywords attract the most visitors? Which email campaigns create more customers? And how to design web page content that holds people???s attention?

- Free to use
- No need to download anything (install a small snippet of code on your website)
- Integrated with AdWords (use directly from AdWords interface, see what keywords convert best, get ROI metrics, etc.)
- Tracks all campaigns (from emails to keywords, regardless of search engine or referral source)
- Scalable for any size site

To get started with Google Analytics, create a free account, enter your site information and then paste a snippet of code in your website’s templates.

Wow! Look at how SixApart handled recent service interruptions with their TypePad service:

Extra-ordinary!

Check out the skeletal origins of some of your favorite cartoons characters. Michael Paulus took some time select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as he imagined they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass.

via [Draw.ca]

Rok Hrastnik from MarketingProfs has put together a nice seven-step plan to help get you started with RSS. You can check that out here.

A couple weeks back I wrote about how a furniture retailer was using Flickr to create conversations with its customers. And here, HyperGene Media talks about how companies can use Flickr to help market their products.

In addition to being an excellent photo-sharing tool, Flickr is also a good viral marketing tool. Sharing “official” product images or screenshots on Flickr with good explanations and related hyperlinks is a marketing tool for several reasons. These include:

1. Awareness building, education and learning tool.
2. Communication tool and feedback channel.
3. Seeds of viral marketing.
4. Affinity, relationship building.
5. Customer communication channel.
6. Enhance company’s hub in the network.

I worked as an artist’s model for several years during art school. There was nothing I hated more than the pretense of sterility they had in art classes. Because the people who run them are uncomfortable with nudity, we get personality-free models, sterile grey rooms, no talking, and (Picasso help us) no fun.

So, me and mod inspired illustrator A.V. Phibes are doing something about it.

Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School is our take on the traditional sketch class. Set in the swanky Lucky Cat Lounge we’ve got burlesque dancers modeling, ridiculous art contests, and all the sort of boozy fun you go to art school for.

You can find out more over here.

The first class in Saturday, December 10, 2-5 pm, with the glorious Dottie Lux doing some clown-burlesque inspired modeling

Download the freely available Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar, and add the following capabilities to your browser (from the site):

:: Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a Web page.
:: Locate and select specific elements on a Web page through a variety of techniques.
:: Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings.
:: View HTML object class names, ID’s, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys.
:: Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags.
:: Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, and RSS Web feed links.
:: Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text. (more…)

Yep - it’s official. Big banks move slowly. Nevertheless, TD has finally released a merchant solution for small businesses wishing to accept credit cards online. I spoke with a TD merchant exec this morning who notified me that her employer “has now realized there is a big market in dealing with E-Commerce.”

Well…better late then never.

You can find out more about TD’s online merchant and storefront solutions here. Pricing starts at $99 for setup, $49 per month and $0.25 per transaction.

Other popular choices for Canadian companies include:

- Moneris (a BMO / Royal Bank company)
- Beanstream (a Simply Accounting partner)
- Paypal
- PSIgate

Personally, I’m using Paypal now because of its flexibility and lack of setup and monthly charges. However, if you’re a bigger company with a lot of transactions, I would think the Moneris or TD solutions are your best choice. Having it all run through your current bank account will certainly make your bookkeepers life easier.

Update: Just noticed that Beanstream is powering TD’s solutions as well.