Kirsten Osolind: Blogger Extraordinaire

Kirsten Osolind, CWIP’s charismatic April speaker, is the avatar of virtual empowerment for women. Got a message, product, or service you want to reach the largest and most apt audience possible? Osolind says: “Blog it!”

These do-it-yourself online journals enable anyone to be an instant pundit about anything and to reach other people who are interested in the same topic?anytime, anywhere. Blogs may be the most revolutionary development in publishing since moveable type. Nine percent of all Internet users blog, with a new one created every second. So why not more CWIP members?

Although half of all blogs shut down after three months, Osolind says blogging need not be an exercise in solipsism. Technical incompetence or shallow pockets are not barriers to blogging. Free, ready-to-use blog kits are available online for every level of expertise via convenient links from her blog site, www.reinventioninc.blogspot.com. Just scroll down the left column and click on any topic under WEBSITE/SEO RESOURCES FOR WOMEN. SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Alternatively, Osolind’s marketing firm, reinventioninc.com, can help set up professional-looking blogs on a fee-for-service basis, as can other vendors that are accessible through the aforementioned links.

Osolind’s secret to successful blogging is the “four C’s”—a measurement of return on investment:

1. Conversation—engaging your colleagues, community, or clients
2. Community—building your relationships and connections
3. Credibility—effectively communicating your vision and values
4. Cutting the Clutter— archiving categories, savvy platform choice, and prudent crisis management to diffuse and disengage from negative attacks

Most informational sites about blogging focus on the technicalities of SEO, since the machinery of blogging is designed to make blogging a popularity contest. Each visit to a blog raises its ranking on Internet search engines, slowly bringing a blog toward the top of a list of search results.

Osolind’s talk detailed how to achieve a higher ranking by compiling blogrolls, searching Technorati.com for key words, finding categories and news aggregators and parsing HTML. Codes, metacodes, long tails, tag clouds, trackbacks, and RSS all figured prominently in her exposition. Osolind’s take-home message was crystal clear: however specialized or arcane your blog topic may be, optimizing it with eight tags, not 100 on search engines, will enable it to rank high in search results for that topic. The same techniques can also be used to control access and accessibility to a blog.

Osolind did not become the number one blogger of women’s business marketing without mastering SEO, but the quality of her blog is what sets her apart from the rest. She shares her encyclopedic knowledge of Web site and blog construction and content to empower other women to communicate effectively—it is obviously working to mutual advantage. Although feminism was not mentioned directly, Osolind embodies feminist ideals and makes them sell. “Think love,” she says. “Woo, don’t boo. If you link to them, they will come to you.” Osolind draws profit from Google ad words, public and media relations, press releases, business cards, and integrated marketing.

Osolind has been blogging for four years together with her full-time staff of eight, her team of rigorously certified associates, and her growing community of upbeat, enthusiastic doers. Their blog reflects all aspects of women doing business, and has become a top resource for almost every activity, idea and contact necessary for success.

Osolind has made the Internet and blogging her own by setting a high standard for others to emulate. Her vision for the Internet is a practical, profitable and principled sister to that of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page: make information accessible to all comers without commercial distortion or political manipulation. While the reality sometimes falls short in her estimation, their vision for data mining may one day give everyone on the planet free access to all human knowledge. Until then, Osolind is reinventing the world one click at a time.

The author hopes to put Osolind’s suggestions to the test by setting up her own blog in her spare time. Osolind recommends spending a weekend submitting one’s blog to search engines. However, designing and structuring the blog itself can take longer. If the experiment succeeds, one day you will be able to find it on your own and dispatch any doubts that even a blogging ignoramus such as yours truly may blog, not clog.

Barbara Langer is a scientist, analyst, medical and financial writer, public health advocate and regulatory investigator. Her work has appeared in The Utne Reader, www.prudentbear.com and numerous scientific and medical journals. Contact: graceflo@ameritech.net.

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