When I started Her Business magazine back in 1995, websites weren’t around; we didn’t even have email.

By 2002 we had a website that gave us a presence online and automated a lot of processes; readers could subscribe online or change their address, which saved us lots of time. For awhile I couldn’t really see other benefits of being online.

Though by then I’d begun to discover blogging and began to play with the typepad platform. A whole new world opened up – I could do my own publishing online (without a web developer or designer) and that was beyond exciting.

Over the years my passion for media has moved away from print media to online media – and here’s why;

-          The trees – think of the trees (say no more)

-          The carbon footprint; each magazine has to be delivered to you (or your store) in some way; by road, air or sea.

-          We can archive content online. Whereas your old magazine pile just takes up a load of space.

-          Searching content is fast, accurate and easy online. Offline – you have to spend (frustrated) hours flicking through hundreds of copies of magazines looking for that article you KNOW you read somewhere.

-          Online you can usually leave a comment for the post author (unless it’s Seth Godin), and they could even email you back, you could even make a connection with them. In the print days there was no way to get hold of an author, to get in front of them and say I agree/ disagree – high profile authors were unreachable.

-          The instant-ness. Send me a press release for my print magazine (it’s bi-monthly as in every second month) and it has to arrive at least a month before publication to get through the process of content selection, editing, laying out, proofing, prepress, printing and distribution and postal strikes and un-returned phone calls and everything else in between. It takes ages before you see your news in print – and by then it’s OLD news. Chances are your news could be void because of the economy collapse, swineflu or a local disaster. Send me something for online publication and it’ll probably be up by sunset. Cool eh? Same goes for advertisers and they LOVE that. They can tailor their advertising for what’s important right now. (For a fabulous example of reacting to this real time decision making, watch this Advertising Age video on Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz explain why they’re shifting 80 percent ad spend away from print to online advertising and social media.)

-          You get to tell your story (how you want). I remember all the women in business writing, emailing, calling us, wanting their story included in our magazine – but we never had enough pages to include everyone’s business success story. Now you don’t have to wait for someone to print your story; you can go publish it yourself on your blog (Or if you’re really committed print your book, or ebook, on lulu). I so love that.

-          Online is cheaper (sometimes). Printing and distribution is really expensive. I used to believe to get ahead in this world I needed to own a printing company. That’s changed now. Now I can create a blog (for free) – and it’s there for the whole world to read (though of course you have to get them to find it to read it, but still…). You don’t have to be a big company to do PR; to get noticed, followed, fanned, commented on, connected to, friended. Today getting noticed is about outsmarting not outspending anymore – and that’s pretty damn exciting for small innovative companies with passionate people power rather than spending power.

-          The reach. We’d print a magazine and send it to you if you subscribed or maybe you’d stumble across it in a retail outlet somewhere in our distribution area. We put content online now and you could be sitting in your office in Tasmania at midnight and search for something; stumble across a link, see a mention somewhere – and you’d find us. I love that too. (And then you can still subscribe to us.)

-          Because of devices like the Kindle and the Sony reader we can take our blog reading on the bus, to the beach, in the bath. So now even the portability and readability factor of magazines that set them apart (and ahead of) online media has been trumped.

And I bet there’s heaps more reasons why online media is leading the way…. (for readers, publishers and marketers).

The vital element that sets blogging apart from your standard website – or other media in fact – is the ability to add your comments to the author’s post.

Commenting makes blogging more interactive – much more of a conversation.

 Sometimes I enjoy reading the comments as much as the blog post itself. This is a random example:  a post by Chris Perry on how Fortune 100 companies are (or aren’t using Twitter) which sparked some interesting dialogue on how Twitter can be used and how we all regard Twitter differently.

Blog comments themselves can be as lively, controversial and entertaining as the original post and add more depth.

 Whether you agree, disagree, want to add to the comment conversation or add extra information to the author’s post – you can have your say and be published!

 Imagine after reading an inspiring magazine article by a global leader in your industry you were able to shake their hand, give them your business card and say, “I agree/ disagree and have you read this about the topic too?” That’s what commenting on a blog post is like.

 You have the opportunity to gain the attention of the author, you can add your web address to your comment (so they can check out what you’re about), you supply your name and your email (so they can contact you) – and you give them feedback directly!

 This means commenting on people’s blogs is almost as important an activity as writing on your own blog.

 Commenting gives you opportunities to;

 -       build your own profile by show-casing your expertise and thought leadership, which in turn gains readers for your own blog

-       include a link back to your own website or blog which again can drive traffic to your site if people are interested in what you’re saying

-       support, reach, and interact with other bloggers

-       build a connection with the author that could develop into a rewarding relationship.

But beware; commenting requires effort – I’ve noticed as I moderate all our various blogs that some genuine comments look much like the new breed of spam comments; ‘Nice post’ or ‘I like your site” or “Important info and thanks for posting” and so on.

So when leaving a comment make sure your comments don’t look spammy!

You can do this by being genuine and;

 - Mentioning the author’s name

- Keep your comment relevant to the post (so it’s obvious you’ve read it!)

- Be specific with your comment or question (not just a vague ‘nice post’)

- Add value in some way, by offering another viewpoint or more information or giving examples that weren’t included by the author.

 Consider implementing a commenting strategy to your blog strategy (and time line!) Caroline Middlebrook wrote a comprehensive post awhile ago about what to consider with your commenting strategy. Think about what blogs you want to focus on; the importance of commenting early and how to still add value with your comment when there’s nothing left to add except ‘nice post!’ (and not getting obsessive about it all!!).

 So – reach out, be genuine and go comment!

I’ve always had this annoying habit that during an interesting conversation I often will excuse myself and whip out a pen and whatever piece of paper is in my bag (tax receipt, lolly paper – or an on organised day, a notebook) and make a note of something interesting that was said or I thought of (usually in an indecipherable scrawl and in code – so that in the event of my bag being stolen, the thief won’t catch on to my brilliant idea. This usually means weeks later when I get around to cleaning out the confetti at the bottom of my bag the coded scrawl means absolutely nothing to me and I’ll spend hours wracking my brains and playing back conversations knowing it was important but what was it??)

From there my biggest problem is turning that gem of an idea into a blog post – because it won’t write itself although I’ve technically done it in my mind already – but more about that later; for lots of bloggers finding the gem of an idea for a blog post is the issue.

Here’s some ways to find ‘ideas’ for content for blog posts;

-          From the conversations you’re having (with clients, at networking events, with yourself). Someone is bound to say something that will trigger a brilliant thought that would make the basis of a perfect blog post; the trick is to capture it – legibly and politely – before you forget (because you will).

-          Look in your email inbox; has a customer asked a question or made a comment that you can elaborate on in a blog post?

-          And ditto for comments made on your blog

-          Explore the relevant questions section to your industry on Linkedin. As well as answering one person, turn your answer into a blog post.

-          What hot discussions are happening on the online groups you belong to?

-          Share things you learn or discover – from a great book, to an online tool, to a new sales strategy, to an aha moment from listening to a guest speaker.

Essentially the trick is to ‘be aware and open’ to potential content, then capture the idea and file it away for later.

Do you have any fabulous ‘ideas for ideas?’

I love the internet and social media in particular – but I see ‘red’ when I see people abusing it… four instances come to mind straight away…

A friend of mine prints photos onto canvas and recently mentioned she discovered a photo site where you go in the draw to win prizes for uploading photos of your kids. She contacted them and offered some of her products as prizes. I’m always interested in who’s doing what so checked out the site – and alarm bells started clanging.

The site was all about uploading pictures of your kids (into different age categories) for the chance to be in to win weekly prizes. There were no contact details of the site owners – just a contact form and there was no ‘about us’ page – basically no one owned this site. There was nothing else to it – just pictures of kids. There’s some sick people out there… and while this site may have all the good intentions in the world (though if they did, why don’t they include blogs, forums and other activity rather than just kids pictures?) – it looks dodgy to me.

Another example are those blog sites that contain RSS feeds of other people’s content. The owners ‘steal’ your content and mash it all together on their site (along with lots of google ads) – again no one owns the site and the site isn’t usually about anything in particular; it’s just clogging up the internet, hogging domain names and search results and annoying people like me by stealing my content and putting it somewhere I don’t want it and didn’t authorise it to be.

But then I read this post from Duct Tape Marketing and his philosophical attitude thawed me out somewhat – he’s pragmatic (there’s nothing you can do, so if you can’t win – get clever) and he doesn’t waste energy getting upset (like I do) instead he’s found a clever way to add his signature and details to his RSS feed so when his content is used elsewhere, all his details and links are included. So that means more links back to his blog, readers know he’s written the content and can search for more. Check out John’s post on how to do it – and to soak up his pragmatism.

Thirdly are blog spam commenters – they’re getting cleverer and more insidious and annoying… Recently a client ‘approved’ a handful of comments from six different people from the same URL all slamming his services and recommending a competing service (which was their URL). My client thought it was balanced to have some negative commentary on his blog – yet really all they were doing was spamming his blog – in a meaningful way – to get readers to check out their own website and join their community. URRRGHH!!!

Fourthly are the email newsletters that I’ve ‘apparently’ signed up for. Either I was working way too late after a wine or two and thought I couldn’t live without receiving the e-learning for pets in Spanish newsletter – or it’s spam. And because I’m afraid to click on the ‘unsubscribe’ button for fear of confirming my email address, and thus inviting a deluge of even more spam, the newsletter keeps on arriving. Damn you spammer.

Finally – I loved this tweet: Dear Spammer, If you start your email with “Dear Sir” it will be automatically deleted. Love, Ma’am

What makes you see ‘red’ online?