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The Week In Review: New Clients and Popular Blog Posts

October 18, 20085:55 pm

Well here we are again. Saturday and it is time form my weekly catch-up of the events in my business, etc.

I was very happy to stay the whole week in London in order to be able to catch-up on my emails and more after a week’s holiday in Crete. It is just amazing how much you can get behind if you are only out of contention (and emails) for a week. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the break and it was really needed in order to get the head free and switch to the next gear for the rest of the year. But I guess that is why the holiday season is there as nothing happens then and you can have peace of mind that you are not missing much. If you do holidays while everyone is working 100% you are bound to loose contention on many topics and developments.
Anyway. I am happy to report that I have finally concluded the talks with two “potential” clients to become clients. This means that I am pretty much booked out in terms of monthly consulting days for the next 6 months. This is great news and it will enable me to make for sophisticated plans for 2009.
The redevelopment of the forum is also going according to plan. I think we will have something to report and show before we all go on our Christmas holidays. Keep your fingers crossed.
I published three hopefully interesting posts on my blog this week.
Here are the titles including links:

I will be in Germany for most of the upcoming week at client meetings and then in Krefeld to catch-up with lawyers, advisors and some good friends of course.

All the best,
Fabian

The new Blog Networks on Facebook

September 24, 200811:39 am

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As a regular Facebook user and blogger I have recently come across and started using the new Blog Networks.
Blog Networks is a new application for reading, rating and finding other people who enjoy the same blogs, all within Facebook.
The purpose of this post is to introduce it and show some of the features and provide a very quick walkthrough including a screenshot.

Here is what you can do as shown in the Screenshot above.
Search Possibilities

Search for blogs
View the Top Blogs of the Network
Browse blogs by category such as Technology, Politics, etc

Blog Management

You can give 5 different tags to your
Add a description of your blog
Add selected content

Interactivity

You have a wall for others to post something
People can rate your blog. 1 Rubbish up to 5 Excellent.
If people go to your profile they will see that there is a box with your blog network details.

Promotion

You can promote your blog by inviting friends
Get a widget that you can put on your blog asking your readers to join your network. See widget below.

All in all I think this Blog Networks is a good addition to Facebook and I hope that this application will be a key feature of the “New” on Facebook. And for bloggers this new application is another great tool to promote their message and to get the word out. The application still needs improvement but that will come once it is successful enough in my opinion.

So thumbs up for “Blog Networks”!

What is for You? Self Hosted or Developer Hosted Blogs?

September 10, 20086:45 pm

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I am have been totally taken in by the whole blogging possibilities as a way to express your personal as well as professional opinion. It is for other people to decide whether I am good at this of course. Today’s post is about the two types of blogging software and an indication of popularity that are out there on the Net.

Here is a link to brief history of blogging if want to brush up on your history skills.
History of Blogging

So if you decide to become a “blogger” and want to get started then you need to start somewhere where you can post what you do and your opinions on topics of your choice. To do that you have to choose which way you would like to go. Do you sign up with an internet hosting company and start your self hosted blog and pay a small fee for hosting every month or do you go with the so called developer hosted blogs that are free of charge?

Here are the two choices in more detail:

Self hosting blogging software
Self hosting software is good for bloggers that are looking to attract a lot of users and be ambitious with their blogging goals. Another huge benefit is that you are able to change the look and feel of your blog very easily and even create your own unique style if you have it developed by a web designer. And not to underestimate is the fact that once you have regular readers you will have the possibility to earn some money with either text ads or banners. You can only do this in a limited way on the developer hosting blogs.
There are really only two global players in the self hosting blogging software in my opinion:

WordPress.org
Moveable Type or also called TypePad

Both of them are great. Here are some more on the Wiki page on Blogging software. Blogging Software

Developer Hosted Blogging software
Free of hosting blogging software also called developer hosting blogs are hugely popular and really something you could set up within minutes of signing up to a blogging website such as Blogger.com. The real benefit is the usability and convenience and that you do not need to have any previous knowledge of HTML, etc. There are a lot of them around so this is my top 5:

See Wikipedia for a more extensive list: Blogging Software
So what to do? Well you have the choice. If you have the time and would like to try something more individual then I would go with the self hosted blog. But if you really only want to use it for your thought and ideas or a way to connect to your friends and family then go with the self hosted blog it is just a lot a more convenient and you have a blog ready in minutes.

To finish up I would encourage everyone to become a blogger of some sort. There is no better way to reach such a large and diverse group of people across the globe then being a blogger (See picture!). And best of all you will be making friends from the most unlikely places. Now that is what I call global audience and making the most of your efforts.
Start blogging today!

Use Twitter – It Is Part Of The Future Of Networking

August 28, 200810:55 am

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One of the lasting trends in social media in my opinion is the use of Twitter as a networking tool. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Why is that? Well because through Twitter you can easily build and increase your network, connect to friends and colleagues and last but not least drive visitors to your site. Here are some tips on how I use Twitter.

This is how I use Twitter.

I provide useful and short information on the profile page. Do not write more then 4 lines in the profile. Be short and sweet.
Have a nice and friendly picture of you. Comic avatars are nice but you need to do all you can to bridge the gap of anonymity as best as possible. So use a picture of yourself if possible.
Either be totally professional or crazy in the look and feel of your Twitter profile. In my opinion nothing in between works. I have chosen to focus on the professional look. Meaning nothing fancy and information first. Some others like the cool look like Jake Marsh and others. You decide.
Always provide daily updates on what you are doing. Twitter is all about continuous updates. No matter how unimportant for you. Your followers want to know what you are up to. So let them participate.
Try to provide something that is of value to your followers. Provide a comment ot a news story, news links, etc. But make sure to always include a link to the story you comment on.
Use the TinyURL format for links. This makes it easier for readers to follow you links and it is a lot better to look at.
When you are starting of try to find Twitter users that are in the similar area of work as you. Then follow them. This will help you to get noticed and get more
If you are looking to for users that have updates that include the topics you are interested then the best way to go forward would be to use the Twitter search function at http://search.twitter.com. This is a really useful tool. I use it a lot.

That is it for now. Please let me know whether you have any other ways on how to use Twitter. I am open to all further ideas.

Fabian on Twitter

Wedding Number 3 And the End Of A Busy Week

August 27, 20086:26 pm

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wedding Wedding Number 3 And the End Of A Busy Week Yes I know. Not another wedding post. But yes of course. Wedding number three in August is up next. We are going to Germany tomorrow to join one of my old school friends for his wedding. This time we are going by car, not plane.
My week so far has been very successful again. I only had two full days but these two days brought good progress and important decisions have been made.
Finally.
I will provide more detail on these decisions once I am allowed to so bear with me for a few more weeks.
I have written another blog post yesterday on the SustainabilityBlog,org. This post is on the topic of renewable energy and the way companies are on the look out for the solution that suits them best. Take a look if you like. eWaste Article

In this wedding spirit let us enjoy the nice picture on the right had side. Wouldn’t you like to have a bite (if it is marzipan of course)? I just loved the picture that is why included it here.
I will be back on Sunday for a full week of week and no more weddings in the next weeks I hope.

All the best,

Fabian

Very Good Meeting And Another Nice Wedding

August 23, 20082:04 pm

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Our wedding yesterday was really fun but a little to long in my opinion. We came back very late or may I say early. But it was great to see a lot of our friends and be part of a classic German wedding for a change. Photos will follow once I am back in the UK on Tuesday.

The meeting on Thursday went really well. We had a good open and frank discussion of ways to work together. Something I expected and I wasn’t disappointed. I will reflect a little about the outcomes of this meeting and see where this leads me.

I will now get back to enjoy the weekend (although I love writing blog entries as you can see) but stay tuned for more updates. Next week will have another social media post as well as a CSR related entry.

Regards,
Fabian

Use iGoogle To Make Your Day More Productive

August 18, 20084:33 pm

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I have started using iGoogle over the past weeks and I am really amazed what you can do with it. This post is about how you could use iGoogle to better organize your day.

The general purpose of iGoogle is to provide you with one or more pages to combine many gadgets as they call that can make your life easier. Gadgets can either be RSS feeds, blogs and applications. Everything is customizable and really a pleasure to work with.

Here are my favourite gadgets for raising your productivity and for the better organisation of your day through iGoogle:

A simple but highly useful To-Do list: To-Do List
The best “Date and Time” gadget in my opinion: Date And Time
Important when going out and you are thinking about taking the umbrella. The Weather Gadget
A great and easy to use currency converter: Currency Converter
If you using Twitter then BeTwittered is indispensible: Twitter on iGoogle
For all the website owners this Adsense gadget is extremely useful: Adsense
For directions is the Google Map Search the ideal companion: Google Maps
Translation anyone: The Babelfish translation gadget: Translation Gadget
Facebook for iGoogle. Access your Facebook account through the interface: Facebook

And finally when you look at your iGoogle page and think that it is a mess then take a look at this gadget. The compound gadget is a great tool to organize your gadgets into tabs in a compound gadget to give you a cleaner and easier usage of the page.

This is rounds up our look at iGoogle today so let me know whether I missed any good gadgets. All gadgets can be found here: All iGoogle Gadgets

All the best,
Fabian

Social Media and Microblogging – What applications you can choose from

August 11, 20085:57 pm

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Today I am starting a new topic area called „Social Media“. I have also added a new category with the same title. The term and concept of social media is becoming more and more popular month by month it seems and I have been caught by the bug I guess as well.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about social media: “Social Media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio”.
Social media can take many different forms. The most known I guess are forums, blogs, wikis, pictures, videos and podcasts. These are all very important but different communication tools for an individual and organisations.

Today I would like to provide with a little bit more information on the so called microblogs.

I have only used microblogs or did microblogging for 3 months now but I am really fascinated by it. Here are the microblogging websites I have come across so far (There are more so please fell free to suggest others):

Twitter – The current market leader in microblogging
Jaiku – Bought by Goggle and will make a big impact once registrations are open again.
Pownce – Similar to Twitter but with the main difference that you are able to show your other profiles from Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and can upload files as attachments.
Plurk – The new kid on the block. We will see how it develops.

I just signed up for Pownce and currently testing it whether this is a useful application or not. My experience so far has clearly favoured Twitter due to its simplicity, overfriendliness and ability to easily connect with likeminded people from across the globe.

I will keep everyone updated on the Pownce adventure.

Fabian

A week to remember

July 19, 20088:43 am

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This week has been an amazing week so far. Of course there is the weekend still to come.

These are the highlights of what happened this week:

The Sustainability Writers Network (TSWN) is taking shape and I was able to recruit 10 more great writers. I will write more about this network next week.
I have been to two great MeetUps here in London and connected to many great people.
Connected to Kevin Long the COO of JustMeans. Great guy.
Got another call with a request for a consulting pitch next week.
The SustainabilityForum.com got over 60 new members in only a week with the best ever week in terms of traffic.
My cooperation with AccountAbility21 kicked off.
Bought a new domain with great potential: SustainableChina.com.
Sold a domain after weeks of negotiation.
My new design for this blog was finished and went live.

All in all has this been a very productive week and thank you to everyone that I met or that visited my websites.
Next week I am off to Germany for three days and back in the UK on Wednesday evening. I am going to the Entrepreneur Meetup on Thursday morning and have important meetings on Tuesday and Friday. Keep the fingers crossed for another successful week next week everyone.

I will provide an update when I am back from Germany.

All the best,
Fabian

Welcome to the new look of FabianPattberg.com

July 18, 200812:06 am

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Earlier then expected has the new WordPress theme gone live today and I hope you like it.

Now everyone will be able to see who is behind this blog from the first moment you click on the page. Scary? Well you will get used to it once you have revisited my site for a couple of times.

Thanks to Christian at GoYippi for the quick and great work.

All the best,
Fabian