Hello everyone and welcome to the October 2008 edition of Canada 9-5, a selection of Canadians who use blogging to showcase their work and civic involvement.  This time around is unusual – normally we present a mix of submitted blogs and others we have come across in our travels; this time we’re only presenting those that were submitted through the blog carnival.  We actually get a lot of submissions but many of them fall by the wayside because somehow the message that this is about Canadian bloggers didn’t quite get through.

Here’s what’s on tap today:

Ethnic Marketing

Ethnicomm submitted an article about using Google alerts.  I also liked this post on marketing to ethnic communities.

A recent article on Adage.com called “Marketers: We Don’t Get How to Do Diversity” made me laugh.

Seems that the majority of the big marketing gurus in 60 odd companies surveyed by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles believed that multicultural marketing was critical to their business but about 24 of them said they can’t quantify it. Come on! What a cop out!

The financial worth of multicultural segments is relatively easy to determine…at least here in Canada. According to Marketing Magazine, South Asians, Chinese, Italians and Portuguese account for more than $36 billion in annual expenditure, or 24 per cent of the total market dollars in the GTA. The South Asian market is worth $12.6 billion annually in Toronto alone.

But it’s not just about not knowing. I think it’s also about not caring. Getting the senior exec to buy-in and support multicultural or ethno-marketing was a significant roadblock for the marketing gurus. And who wants to fight that battle when it’s easier to stick with the status quo?

For the rest, go here, to Ethno-Marketing.

Laid Off After 20 Years

Canajun Finances sent an article that’s a part of a series of posts in the wake of getting laid off at Nortel.

Twenty years of my life summed up in a bank entry (a 5 digit bank entry so I am not really complaining about the sum itself), it just seems so final.

Over my twenty years at Nortel, I have met and worked with some of the most amazing people and seen technological changes that staggered me, when I think about how life was before these technological “miracles”. I have had four children, and many wonderful things have happened, and many sacrifices were made for work, and at the end of it, I have one line in a bank statement to sum it up?

Read more here at Twenty Years In One Line.

Market Your Customer

Our second marketing blog for today is Harmony Thiessen’s Think Tub Business Blog, part of her company, HG Consulting & Publishing.  She seems like a fun person – hopefully I’ll meet her one day, maybe at the bloggers meetup.  She’s qualified – her business strategy career and specialty in marketing and revenues began, she says, at the ripe age of 14, when she was a shift manager at Jack In The Box.  In the post that she’s offering us today she talks about marketing your customers.

Rather that run another TV ad about your great prices, or print ads in the local paper about your anniversary sale – talk about the people who make your business possible = your customers.

Twitter and LinkedIn

Remember the social media megaproject in the winter? I was the Twitter and LinkedIn lady.  Looks like Andrea Stenberg could have done the job, too.  She sent in an article about Twitter.  I also found her entry on a new feature at LinkedIn quite useful – I actually didn’t know about the feature (or maybe I didn’t pay attention when LinkedIn emailed me about it).

LinkedIn announced an amazing new feature on their site: you can now have discussions within.

It seems like a no-brainer to me, but for a long time LinkedIn groups didn’t have this feature. All you could really do with a group you were a member of is look at the profiles of the members and invite them to connect.

To be honest, until now I felt the LinkedIn groups were pretty pointless. LinkedIn is all about connecting with people you know, but you couldn’t get to know other members of a group until after they became a connection. It seemed to defeat the purpose of LinkedIn.

But with this added feature you can have conversations with people in your groups. You can ask questions, comment on what others have to say, have a debate. In other words, you can get to know people.

The full article about LinkedIn is here.

A Toronto Realtor On An Elevator

In September, we had Krupo, an accountant, here at Canada 9-5.  He was so kind to write about an “awesome blog written by a young Toronto realtor ” and offered this article on a new law that will alleviate anxieties around construction completions.  I personally enjoyed this post on elevators:

What I find really amusing is that people go to great lengths to avoid interacting in elevators, and use these time-tested techniques, yet when the doors open, they saunter out really slow as if to say, “Oh, is this my floor?  Right, okay.  I’m not in any hurry to get off, and I did NOT find that elevator ride awkward at all, in fact, I could do that all day.”

A Canadian Tax Blog

Dean Paley sent this article on Minimizing Capital Gains and Estate Planning.  I couldn’t get quite fired up about that topic but found this post here, RRSPs Versus Non-Registered Accounts, useful.  I think many of us just pay blindly into RRSPs, thinking they’re such a wonderful thing.  There are a number of scenarios where they are maybe not the best place for our money.

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That’s it for this time around.  As always, if you know of a Canadian blog that fits what we’re doing here (and we’re looking particularly for non-IT bloggers; IT blogs are already getting a lot of exposure) please let us know by using this submission form. We’re taking a bit of a break here; the next edition will be out on January 8, 2008.

You can enjoy getting lost just playing with different fonts, colours and packages – the materials are sorted by industry so there are plenty of templates to choose from. You can also upload photos and other images.

It’s fun to watch the little gears turn and to see the materials building themselves before your eyes! Letterhead, postcards, business cards and sales sheets as well as trifold rack brochures, even a 4 page brochure – in minutes, and with high resolution output for printing. It’s beta right now and free to try – give it a test drive!

While working on a research project recently, I’ve been thinking about the nature of research itself.

When I was teaching Research Skills for Writers and Reporters, I shared many tips and tricks of the trade, including the reality of hours of searching that may or may not yield the result that is being sought. A simple research timelog reveals the process. Hours spent in one direction that brings another lead, then several, then the branching out of the mind from item to lead to dead end to lateral correlation to new lead, and so it goes through the windy twisty passageways. Research doesn’t always reveal the answer directly, but through resonance and correspondance leads are found. And sometimes, there is a big pay off! Aladdin’s Cave of treasure: it’s all there for the picking!

I see research as a subtle dance between intuition and intelligence. It helps if your mind has been trained to categorize and make connections. It helps if you can keep track of what you have done, to retrace your steps if need be. And it helps if you can trust a hunch, make a lateral leap of the mind, think poetically to synthesize concepts. Intelligence serves the intuition at that point, and new ideas are formed that make new sense of old information.

The results of research are more than just a list of quotes and places. They are a synthesis of the information. Information is easy to find. The need is to make sense of the information, to be in a position to prioritize that information and to define uses for the most salient aspects of the information. Research is more than finding and keeping, it is a process of sorting and defining that ultimately yields new information that can be acted upon.

Bridging Media: Addressing the Challenges - this Saturday, March 29, 2008, 9:45 am – 3pm

Aimed to provide a bridge between the two communities of film/television and interactive/social media, I think this event comes just at the right time. The expertise we have here in Vancouver is remarkable, and the panelists assembled for this event have a lot to share in the short time they have available, so it looks like the whole day will be power-packed.

The tools are here and easier to use than ever, and the panelists are articulate and experienced in the slippery ever-shifting world of web/mobile/social media. Its free, its informative and it can change what you think you might know about social media, and more. Plus there is a door prize: a free pass to nextMEDIA, just before the Banff Television Festival.

Want to know who’ll be there? Go to the registration site and take a peek.

And did I mention that lunch is sponsored? Yes it is a free lunch!

Brainchild of Megan Cole and Erica Hargreave, the event now has a terrific team putting this together, with good will and sharp skills:  Cinci Csere, Monique Trottier and Monica Hamburg. I’m really glad to help out with this event and be in their company!

The February edition of Canada 9-5. Canada 9-5 presents the crème de la crème of Canadian business bloggers, people who use the power of blogging to showcase their professional and business expertise and to better get to know their customers and clients. We’re concentrating on non-IT bloggers; for IT people, blogging is second nature – it’s people whose business isn’t in IT already who, we think, need some help seeing the magic of blogging.

Today we have a virtual assistant, an expressive arts facilitator, a blog that helps with bankruptcy issues, a foodie blog, a small business blogger, and a personal coach right here from Vancouver.

Take it away!

Virtual Assistant Looks At Iceberg
I like the 30 Days of Resources project by Business Services Etc., a company of virtual assistants. In this project, BSETC features 30 products that will make the life of any business person easier. This one is about Icebrrg

Have you ever been wanting to add custom forms to your website or blog but weren’t sure where to find one or how to program them just so? Fear no more. I have found you a service that resonates well with me because (a) it’s easy and (b) it’s name reminds me of the snowy part of the planet I currently live on.

Introducing Icebrrg… The instant (and easy) form creator. It’s a wonderful little web-based program that you sign up for (they have a free account) and once registered, you just follow the prompts to create your web form. It also generates the HTML code for you to place on your blog or site.

I like it! I think I’ll try it out. This blog is a great example of showcasing expertise and paying it forward by providing the reader with valuable information.

Bankruptcy In Canada – What’s A Consumer Proposal?

Are you:
· Having trouble paying all your bills, even though you have a good job?
· Thinking about filing bankruptcy, but not really wanting to?
· Simply looking for more information about ways to deal with your debt?

That’s where a consumer proposal might be a good solution. What’s a consumer proposal? Bankruptcy Canada explains it in this three-part discussion. Part 1 is entitled How a consumer proposal might be right for you. There’s also a video you can watch.

A Foodie Blog – Buying Local
As an avid CBC radio listener, I’m quite familiar with Don Genova, a journalist and broadcaster who used to regale West Coast listeners with yummy tidbits of BC food stories. I remember once he listed all the goat cheeses to be had from Saltspring Island. So this here is his blog. (The things you can learn from a blog: Apparently, until the end of last year he was in Parma – yes, the home of Parmesan cheese – where he studied for a Masters of Food Culture at the University of Gastronomic Sciences. What an intriguing field of studies!)

The entry we’re sampling here is about buying local food

a visit to a Culinary Tourism Conference yielded some interesting info on companies and individuals trying to make it easier for consumers, chefs and other food service operators to get access to local produce and value-added products. … Most of these programs match you up with a farmer who will deliver a box of goods from their gardens throughout their growing season. … Don’t forget farmers markets. Some run year round, others will start in the spring.
You can listen to the 6 minute documentary by going to Don’s blog.

Dancing, Drumming and Children
Barbara Karmazyn’s site is a repository of information and images about the expressive arts. Dancing, drumming, storytelling, singing, crafts – all these are things Barbara brings to children, teachers, parents, seniors as she draws them together in magical circles of joy and creativity.

Barbara Karmazyn uses blogging mostly as a content management system; it looks more like a “normal” web site than a blog. Most of her material is on static pages, like this one about personal development playshops.

Small Business – Email and Customer Service
Selling to Small Business is a blog by Torontonian Evan Carmichael. This post here reminds us that we ignore email at our own peril. Love the title: Killing Your Brand Softly.

Personal Development – What Happens When we Get Sick?
One Man Can is the blog of a personal coach here in Vancouver. I like his open, honest voice; he’s not one of those coaches who continually tell people what to do. Example:

periods of stress that affect the physical body often lead to short bursts of illness. So, watching the signals from the body sooner can allow corrective action sooner. Myself, I like to think I’m invulnerable sometimes and let things get the better of me. Just took a temperature of 102…. oops.

Back to bed.

That’s from his post, Illness of the Body.

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And that’s it for this edition of Canada 9-5. If you have or know of any interesting Canadian blogs that talk about work or business, send them in – you can use this form.

The next edition will come out April 8, 2008.

Good night and good luck!

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

I’ve read that most of this is great stuff for the early blogger, and only a little of their content is a bit out of date – particularly the reference to paid links and article duplication. However, watch this space and I’ll have a report for you soon!

Meanwhile, you have to give credit to Mark Joyner, once again, for really leveraging the blog universe to draw people to his Simpleology site!

For me it was an ideal fit, having been an educator for many years, teaching writing skills and new media in community college and private post secondary settings. Before that I’d managed the educational media sales of a prominent Canadian distribution company, offering UK and Australian documentaries to schools, libraries and universities.

This Teaching Sells program came along at just the right time for me, and I’m using it now to transpose those skills to create marketable interactive courses delivered through membership sites.

Find out more about Teaching Sells here

A few weeks ago I participated in one of the member-only teleseminars that gave me great ideas to get going on the courses I’ll be preparing in the next year.

It’s amazing to have access to expertise like Brian’s at such a low cost. I recently saw in Problogger that he’ll be one of the presenters at the Elite Retreat this April, along with Guy Kawasaki and other major web movers and shakers to an exclusive group of only 35 participants. So I’m thrilled to be able to work with Brian and his colleagues as a Charter Member.

Much of the course stuff I already know (or think I know) but the approach using a variety of media for info delivery, and especially the advice on direct marketing and sales is incredibly valuable.

The year to come will see an even greater explosion of membership sites offering a cornucopia of training, information, skills, support and connectivity.

Creating courses positions your expertise and offers an evolving way to get you message out there, plus substantial income. Their free report explains this in detail.

The site itself is a model of simplicity, and a great example of the process they are teaching. Great perks are the active forums and teleseminars.

If this interests you, click on the free report image below, and if you want to talk to me about it, just leave a comment below.

I’ve heard that the price for the course will be increasing once they have all their Charter Members, so if you’re at all intrigued, check it out now.

Click the banner below for a free download of their report:

And if you have a great course idea and want help setting it up, let me know!

There are so many things you can do with blogging. Here’s a terrific project by my friend David Alexander (yet another person I met through Stumbleupon). David has a blog, Planet Thoughts, about Global Warming, Peak Oil, Resource Depletion, and Sustainable Living. David is really committed to this, he doesn’t just talk about it, he’s also taking action. Here’s his project:

We all want to do what we can to reduce the global warming gases that get emitted, especially in our own areas of living and working, where we have the most direct influence. To add another dimension, it would be great to congratulate others who are doing something to help the environment.

For these reasons, we have created the Super-Cars Shout Out Competition™ (SCSOC). This contest allows you to place a simple, colorful flier on high mileage cars that you encounter, showing the vehicle owner that she or he has done something worthy by choosing a leading-edge (in fuel efficiency) vehicle.

… when you are outside look for vehicles that are on the list of high-efficiency vehicles, those that officially achieve at least 40 mpg US (16.74 kmpl) on the highway. Place a flier on the windshield, keeping it as straight as possible, then step back and take a clear photograph showing the flier, and enough of the car to determine the make and model.

Here are the instructions in point form:
1. Download and print one or more of our fliers (recycled paper preferred)
2. Find a 40+ mpg US (16.74 kmpl) car from our list (or make a request that one be added)
3. Place our flier under the windshield wiper
4. Use a digital camera or good cell phone to photograph
5. Upload the image or images to the PlanetThoughts.org Web site

(and 6: Wait to see whether you’ve won the contest. Yes, you can win up to $500 with this. Go here to look it up. The contest is up until June 2)

Anyone can participate, from anywhere: from Alaska to Argentina, from Tokyo to the Tuscany.

I have to confess that I’m not much of a picture taker at all but this is such an interesting and important project, I’ll commit do doing this at least once before June 2. And I bet my partner Carol, who is much more of an image person, will participate, too. After all, here in Vancouver we like to think of ourselves as environmentally conscious people. Time to walk our talk!

Talking of which, let’s drum up some more participants. I’m calling on some of my Vancouver connections: The King of Compost, Al the Bokashiman; Nancy Zimmerman, our super-enlightened money coach; Beyond Robson, one of our “all about Vancouver” blogs; our green writer Mr. Narvey and of course our transit camp hero, Paul Hillsdon. Oh, and even though he’s not in Vancouver, my buddy Kilroy, I know he likes taking pictures.

People already involved in this are Sustainablog, A New Green Earth and Pelf-ism is contagious.

(This post was included in the Green Living Carnival)

Canada 9-5 is something we’re very excited about. What we have on offer here is once again the crème de la crème of Canadian business bloggers, people who use the power of blogging to showcase their professional and business expertise and to better get to know their customers and clients. We’re concentrating on non-IT bloggers; for IT people, blogging is second nature – it’s people whose business isn’t in IT already who, we think, need some help seeing the magic of blogging.

We even have a badge for it now (yup, we’re working on our blogging goals). I’ll let Carol have the word here for a sec, explain why we thought it would be important to do this:

We are really keen to see Canada 9-5 get going strong this year, and we’ve been calling 2008: The Year of the Business Blog.

Here’s our badge – feel free to use it to link back to us.

So here is our line-up for this month:

Small Business Owners – How tough to you want to get?
Our first article is by someone we already met – welcome back, Vahid! To Succeed As a Business Owner, You Have to Be Tough is a post on his blog, Work at Home Business Solutions. It talks about the drawbacks of being tough – burnout, for example – and how to deal with it.

Divorce Help – All the way from the East Coast to BC
Divorce Online is a good resource for people all over Canada who have decided they need to part ways with their spouses but want to go for an uncontested divorce. What I like about this blog is that it looks at both Federal and the various Provincial laws. Lately, they’ve had a few posts on spousal support – this one, for example.

Coaching - The poetry of search engine statistics
Lee Down is a coach here in Vancouver. His background is actually quite similar to mine – a quirky mix of IT, spirituality, community development, writing and human services. This post here about the deeper usefulness of search engine statistics shows his personality in a wonderful way. That’s exactly what blogs do – they help your clients get to know you better.

Fashion - Stories from a “petite activist”
Cynthia C is a writer and petite activist from Toronto. She has recently published her first book, Aspirations, which can be found online (Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, Borders, etc) and in bookstores everywhere. I have to confess, I’ve never heard of petite activists before – but it makes perfect sense! I have two friends who are very short and always complain of how difficult it is to find pants (and reach cupboards and find your friends in a mass of people when everyone is at least a foot taller and and and …)

Really enjoyed this article – I always find little historical bits like this one here fascinating:

The inventor of petite sizes, Hannah Troy, died almost 15 years ago at the age of 93. Mrs. Troy thought up the petite size when she noticed that many women were pulling on shoulders and waists, making them fit their figures properly. And yes, like many of us petites who know from experience, Mrs. Troy knew that alterations can “spoil the design.”

Community banking - What’s a blog bar?
Gene Blishen runs a small credit union; his blog is a bit about that and a bit about all kinds of things. He’s a great example of what we talked about in an earlier article, Blogging for business – letting your hair down. In the article we’re showcasing, Gene talks about the idea of consumers letting their hair down: In blog bars, customers (or clients, or consumers, whatever you want to call them) can let you know online right away what they think. These “blog bars” are installed on location. A very interesting idea – we’re coming full-circle: from online to on-site.

This concludes this edition of Canada 9-5. The next edition will come out on February 28. Got any articles to submit? If it’s a Canadian blog that talks about work or business, bring it on – here’s the submission form.