ICONOCAST has been gradually adapting its proposition over the last year culminating in this week's relaunch under the banner of Trendsetters.com.

The inaugural issue simply highlights some of last year's top trends, so it is difficult to fully gauge how good this publication is going to be, however it does look as though it could be very useful.

[MarketingFix]

E&P Online: Newspaper Outsiders Offer Tips for Web Sites

In this article, online experts such as Kathy Yates, president and CEO at Marketwatch; Gary Kebbel, AOL news director; and Tolman Geffs, CEO of Internet Broadcasting Systems offer advice to newspapers regarding thier online efforts. Among the recommendations:

• Local newspapers should create more of an online community with their sites.
  
• Newspapers should promote their sites within their printed products similar to how TV pushes viewers to their own websites.
  
• Newspapers should bolster their news timeliness with wireless mobile editions.
  
• Local papers should carry more local news online as well as create archival databases form story background information.
  

[MarketingFix]

iMediaConnection: Jaffe Juice: The Golden Ticket, Part III

Joe Jaffe, in his usual blunt fashion, puts forth three more of his golgen tickets to success for Internet marketers. These three:

• Reach and Frequency may not be the answer but practices like surround sessions, dayparting, and "impressionless" audience measurement techniques will allow the Internet to more easily be part of the integrated media plan.
  
• Truly understanding how consumers use the web will allow for better strategy.
  
• Creative use of creative, so to speak, such as advertainment and the like will allow marketers to build a closer relationship with consumers.
  

[MarketingFix]

. . Corporates in the Know Blog!.

Most corporates have lost the plot on the Internet. As Meryl.Net Articles points out: 

Most agree that online advertising has failed. The people who have done offline advertising are applying the same rules and concepts when creating online advertising. The first rule that online experts learn: writing for the Internet is not like print journalism. The second rule: you can have all the whiz-bang graphics and flash you want, but words make the sale. Words load faster than graphics-laden Web pages.

But wait! How do people arrive at Web sites? Sure, some of the biggies like Amazon and eBay need not worry about search engines as they’ve established themselves with online presence that everyone knows. Small businesses and lesser known companies have to rely on search engines to lead the troops to their sites. Email newsletters are another way to reach people, but how do they find out about the newsletter in the first place? Unless it’s a referral, it’s most likely through the Web site.

Some corporates have found a high-content answer that really gets readers and builds relationships -- Blogging. Just look at Ray Ozzie's Weblog from Groove. The Corporate site is necessary and provides informaton about the company. But it is Ray Ozzie's site that build a relationship with customers, uses the FreshBot principle of getting new stuff in Search Engines on a daily basis. Ray Ozzie has more than 2,000 people come to his weblog door a day. Through weblogs, Ray Ozzie is building fresh content daily, building a conversational style with his readers and has real opportunity to talk about his software products and concerns surrounding them. Beats SPAM anyday!!

Goodbye flashy advertising, wizbang gadoodles that littler my email box each day. I do not mind if Corporate put wizbang gadoodles on their website -- then we have a choice whether or not to view it. Content, relationships, networks, links and carrying the conversation and knowledge building on is the core of the web. Those who are really up with the develoment of the web know this and are blogging. Those who are less Technate, continue to SPAM us all and cause us all a garbage destruction problem.

[The Technacy Log]

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, the first novel by blogger, cultural critic, and Electronic Frontier Foundation wonk Cory Doctorow, entered the world today. Wired's Mark Frauenfelder calls Down and Out "the most entertaining and exciting science fiction story I've read in the last few years," and Bruce Sterling declares, "Science fiction needs Cory Doctorow!"

Doctorow has published Down and Out under a Creative Commons license.

Read our interview with the author -- our latest Featured Commoner. [Creative Commons: weblog]

NewBay Software is hoping to capitalise on the ubiquity of mobile phones and particularly the MMS capabilities of the latest generation of camera phones to market its FoneBlog software product. Using FoneBlog, network operators provide Web addresses for customers who can then update their personal Web sites by sending text and images from their phone. If the user's phone does not have MMS, a text only site can be created. [Smart Mobs]

Check out Janes' Blogosphere, by David Janes. He describes it to me as a "web based aggregator and search engine for blogs that works against RSS feeds and a large number of scraped blogs.

Pretty cool.

Here's the one for this very blog, and here's a search for its author.

[The Doc Searls Weblog]