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I’ve been pretty busy lately so I didn’t even notice this. As of last month, I’ve been blogging here at Take A Peck for two years. The blog has definitely undergone some changes since I started it in 2006, shifting from focusing on advertising and random thoughts to sports business and social networking.

Here are a couple of posts from the last two years.

50 Sports Social Networking Websites 

Twitter – The New Stalker Tool 

Crowne Plaza on Target with Golf Ads

Sports in Movie Theatres

What is a Blog?

Guy Grocery Store Shoppers and Caveman Essentials

For those of you who’ve been reading the past two years, thank you. If you’re new here, I hope you find my blog interesting. Feel free to comment or use the contact form to get in touch with me about work, play or whatever and let me know what you’d like to see here.

In December 2007, North Carolina’s governor signed a bill that allows mixed martial arts fights to be staged and promoted in NC. On April 26, Carolina Fight Promotions will have an event in Raleigh at Dorton arena.

This is obviously not major news nationally, but it’s just one more signal that MMA isn’t going away anytime soon. According to Carolina Fight Promotions, “MMA fights were officially the number one grossing sporting events in 2007. More viewers tuned in to the reality TV series “The Ultimate Fighter” than the American League Baseball playoffs.”

On another note, I’ve been on vacation the past two weeks (NC mtns, beach and Aspen) so that’s why posts have been sparse around here lately. Expect to see more regular updates from now on.

I was recently interviewed by Mitchell Blatt, who runs Juiced Sports Blog and the Sports Blogger Forums, a new set of forums for sports bloggers and webmasters who are trying to make money by blogging about sports.

If you’re interested, go check out the interview.

Take A Peck experienced record traffic in January. It’s clear that more and more people are interested in the intersection of sports business and social networking. While I don’t claim to be the know-it-all authority on these subjects, I at least try to provide a few interesting posts each week that may lead to the development of new ideas and discussions. If you like what you see here, you may want to subscribe so can keep up with what’s new.

Thanks for stopping by. What questions do you have about sports and social networking that you’d like to see answered here?

Brian Clark over at Copyblogger recently wrote a post titled, “What’s a blog?” He says there are many “experts” who have blogging rules such as “blog posts should never be over 350 words,” and other rules that really don’t make any sense. His take on post length is that it depends– it depends on who the audience is, why you’re writing, what you want to accomplish, etc. He sums it up by saying, “You’re either writing something compelling that resonates with readers, or you’re not.”

What are my thoughts about “what is a blog?” I consider them testing-grounds for new ideas, so they can be spontaneous and unfinished at times. I think blogs don’t necessarily have to be formal or well-thought out. Mainly I think blogs are thought-outlets which should promote conversation and interest among your readers.

This holds true whether you’re blogging about sports, real estate or money. If your blog isn’t interesting, it’s not going to attract readers, and without readers, there can be no conversation. I’ll be the first to confess that I don’t always have the most thought-provoking posts that promote conversation, but I think that should be the goal.

Ultimately, blogs should be authentic. This means being open and honest and transparent about the purpose of the blog. A company shouldn’t pay someone to pretend to be a brand advocate and blog about it, and try to play it off as an authentic blog. A CEO should not have an intern write a blog for him and pretend that it’s his.

So those are my rambling thoughts right now about “What is a blog?” What do you think?

For some reason I tend to try to read many books at the same time, instead of reading one all the way through before moving on to a new book. So, instead of doing a full-blown recap for each of the books I’m reading, here’s a few thoughts about each book I’m currently reading.

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In

Great book so far. It discusses a lot about the merits of negotiating based on principles, not positions. If I had to summarize the best part:

4 points of principled negotiation:

• People – Separate people from the problem
• Interests – Focus on interests, not positions
• Options – Generate a variety of possibilities before deciding what to do
• Criteria – Insist that things be based on some objective standard

Join the Conversation

Joseph Jaffe, president/founder of Crayon and blogger at Jaffe Juice sent me (and other bloggers) a copy of his new book to review as part of his “Use New Marketing to Prove New Marketing” initiative. Here are a couple thoughts/things I’ve learned so far:

• Word of Mouth is people telling their friends about products, services, etc.
• Conversation is about bigger things – laughter, life, love, frustration, etc.
• In the world of social media, everyone is a critic. Deal with it.
• Microsoft is on board. It’s shifting its marketing strategy from informing/persuading/reminding to demonstrating/involving/empowering consumers.

The Story of My Life

I know this isn’t a sports business or marketing book, but Casanova’s autobiography includes some great stories, insights, and thoughts on life. If you ever forget that most guys’ lives revolve around girls (this was true in the 1700s and is still true today), read this book. Guys aren’t paying attention to your marketing efforts because they have more important things to worry about.