Michael Stein: Internet Strategy for the Nonprofit Sector

Using RSS tools to feed your information needs

Peter Campbell offers an excellent review of how best to use RSS tools to feed your information needs in an article on Idealware.org in March 2009:

"The Internet gives you access to a virtual smorgasbord of information. From the consequential to the trivial, the astonishing to the mundane, it's all within your reach. This means you can keep up with the headlines, policies, trends, and tools that interest your nonprofit, and keep informed about what people are saying about your organization online. But the sheer volume of information can pose challenges, too: namely, how do you separate the useful data from all the rest? One way is to use RSS, which brings the information you want to you. Many of the Web sites that interest you are syndicated. With RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, you subscribe to them, and when they're updated, the content is delivered to you --- much like a daily newspaper, except you choose the content. On the Web, you can not only get most of what the newspapers offer, but also additional, vital information that informs your organizational and mission-related strategies. You subscribe only to the articles and features that you want to read. It's absolutely free, and the only difficult part is deciding what to do with all the time you used to spend surfing."

Read Peter Campbell's full article on using RSS

How do you increase blog traffic?

My colleague Britt Bravo who writes the Have Fun Do Good blog offers us an amazing list of ways to increase blog traffic.  I'm copying the list here, but you should visit her blog to follow the many links that she's embedded in the list:

• Post regularly.
• Link to other bloggers in your posts.
• Comment on other blogs.
• Have a blogroll.
• Make it easy to comment. It's ok to have comment moderation, but don't make people register.
• Allow readers to email posts to other people.
• Enable subscription to your rss feed with Feedburner.
• Enable subscription by email with Feedblitz.
• Include images or graphics with every post to catch the reader's eye. Blogs are a visual medium.
• Add your blog URL to your email signature.
• Tell Google you have a blog.
• Tell Technorati you have a blog.
• Write titles with phrases that people are searching for (i.e. How to Bake a Cake).
• Write about current events.
• Ask a question in your title.
• Post a list (i.e. Ten Ways to Frost a Cake).
• Provide a way for people to easily share and bookmark your posts by using something like AddThis or Add to Any.
• Twitter.
• Bookmark your posts in del.icio.us, and other social bookmarking services.
• Try writing shorter posts (200-300 words). That's about how many words the average person can read in a minute.
• Leave more space between paragraphs. Use bold subtitles. Catch the reader's eye.
• Participate in memes, blog carnivals and challenges.
• Tags your post with Technorati tags.
• Let ping servers know when you have a new post.
• Interview people who have blogs or email lists, and will post a link to the interview.
• Have guest bloggers post on your blog
• Include videos in your posts.
• Install web analytics tools like SiteMeter, StatCounter and Google Analytics. Look at what kinds of posts get the most traffic. Write more of those!
• Highlight your most popular posts in your sidebar.
• Create a MyBlogLog community.
• Participate in social networks like Facebook and MySpace, as well as niche social networks related to the theme of your blog.
• Participate in online forums and communities.
• List your blog in blog directories.
• Run a contest.
• Finally, write posts that people want to read!

Read Britt's complete blog post with embedded links

Help Change.org launch a social action blog network this Summer

Ben Rattray and the good people of Change.org are launching a social action blog network this Summer and are currently hiring a team of part-time bloggers/editors to help create a movement for change around the major causes of our time.  Each blogger will lead an online community focusing on a different social, political, or environmental issue, maintain a daily blog covering news and offering commentary, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their interests and passions into concrete action. Positions are part-time, paid and start in June. They start interviewing in mid-May so get on over there to learn more if you're interested.

My blog is a featured Typepad Weblog today

I'm proud to have my blog as a featured Typepad Weblog today.  Typepad is by far the easiest and most powerful blogging platform that I've used.  I use it to promote my business, to connect with friends and family, and even at my local preschool to connect with other parents.  My favorite feature is the ease of redesigning the layout of any of my blogs.  I discovered blogging at a time when many other tech consultants were starting to find new ways to connect with colleagues.  Typepad has been a lifesaver for me, and lets me truly enjoy using the Web to connect with people.  Thanks, Typepad and Six Apart -- I'm honored!

Widget fundraising case study

Beth Kanter and ChipIn have published a remarkable case study entitled Using the ChipIn Fundraising Badge for a Personal Fundraising Campaign.  The case study walks you through the step-by-step process of using the ChipIn widget to conduct a personal fundraising campaign on behalf of any nonprofit or cause. Beth raised $800 for a Cambodian orphan's college education in a few weeks.  Better than any marketing-ware that I've encountered recently, this document turns the case study on its head and shows how to actually use a technology product in the real world for a real cause (she calls this an "action learning experiment"). Strikingly devoid of marketing spin, Beth's report on raising money for a cause is a testament not just to Beth's endless inventiveness, but to the ever-changing nature of the Internet and fundraising. Beth explores issues such as setting a realistic fundraising goal, crafting an effective message, identifying likely prospects, incorporating social networking sites into your implementation efforts, and how to best use the ChipIn widget.

Two new blogs chronicle Palestinian-Israeli struggle

Listening to Nora Barrows-Friedman report yesterday from Gaza on the Flashpoints radio show on KPFA 94.1 FM, I was transported back to my own trip to Palestine and Israel in 1997.  The trip was a delegation organized by the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) which is based in Berkeley, California.  If you're interested in following eyewitness reports on the ground you can do no better than reading MECA's new blog authored by their own Josie Shields-Stromsness, who is currently touring Gaza to visit the centers they support.  And speaking of Israel and Palestine, you will be engrossed by the fabulous new blog by Jewish Voice for Peace entitled MuzzleWatch, which tracks efforts to stifle open debate about U.S.-Israeli foreign policy.