Starting a New Blog with my Cousin

On 9/15/2006, my cousin (he's really a 2nd cousin many times removed...I'm not convinced we're actually related ;-) John Ingrisano and I will launch a new blog targeted to the small business owner. He'll provide most of the content and I will provide the technical and marketing expertise.

Ok, ok, starting a blog isn't rocket science but we're aiming to [eventually] derive some sort of profit from this venture, so I plan on doing this right. The two blogs I currently maintain live on the free Blogger.com and LiveJournal.com. I'll be covering the adventure here on Effective Thoughts--providing insight as to what worked and what didn't.

To start off, our first activities are:

• Choose a name and a theme
• Find a host
• Help John learn the ins and outs of blogging
  
• Implement the site: look/feel, about/bio, 1st content, announcements, etc.
  
• Understand marketing best practices

To this end, here is some research I compiled:

Finding a host
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_hosting_service
http://www.idealware.org/blogging_software/
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm
I'm leaning toward TypePad Plus or Pro. It's not free but reasonably priced, gets rave reviews, and is chuck full of features.

Understanding blog marketing best practices
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051101/handson-technology-sidebar.html
http://scoble.weblogs.com/2003/02/26.html
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_crea.html
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_first_100_d.html
Building a Strong Online Community
Ready to Start Blogging?
Pro Blogging Guide
Be a More Productive Blogger
Make Your Blog More Valuable to Readers
Blogging Workflow
Blogging for Beginners Series


Blogs themed similarly to what ours should be:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/
http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/get_a_life_blog/
http://www.tompeters.com/
http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/
http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/
http://www.businesspundit.com/
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/
http://www.makingalife.com/
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/

We're off and running!