Six Apart News & Events: May 2007

We get a lot of customer feedback here. A lot. All of it is incredibly helpful and informative. Much of it also helps affirm that we are doing the right thing for our customers. Here's one that came this week from a new TypePad customer Rick Stilley whose blog is at http://safezonellc.typepad.com/:

"I'm sorry to bother you but I just had to send this. I struggled for three days trying to set up (a popular free service) with its bloated documentation, snarling support (when you could get it), and its avalanche of code. Then I found TypePad. Salvation! Not only was I up and running (with ads) in under 30 minutes I was having fun doing it! Forgive me, I hope my singing didn't bother the rest of the support folks while I typed this out. Oh, yea. About that 30 day free trial...yea, right. Like I'm leaving."

I've taken the name of service out because it's our policy not to denigrate competitive services. Yes, we strive to make our stuff better than any other, but more important, we do everything we can to make it work great for the people who use it. In this instance, we seem to have the mark. Thanks for the feedback, Rick!

Well, in a recent article from Reuters titled "Blogging economists draw cyber-crowds", five of the six economists mentioned indeed use Six Apart's tools - four are on TypePad, the fifth on Movable Type. They've voted with their pocketbooks.

Seriously, it's great to read about customers succeeding with their blogs. Mentioned in the article are:

"(Dani Rodrik), the professor of international political economy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, started his blog in April at http://rodrik.typepad.com/."

"Daniel Drezner, a professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. He blogs on global political economics at http://www.danieldrezner.com/blog/."

"The Big Picture (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/) following the market impact of everything from the Federal Reserve to housing."

"Brad DeLong, who teaches economics at the University of California at Berkeley (who) writes regularly at http://delong.typepad.com/."

"Mark Thoma, an economics professor at the University of Oregon, writes Economist's View at http://economistsview.typepad.com/."

So why are these economists blogging?

"It's a way for me to keep a voice in the conversation," Drezner said, adding that blogging has helped raise his profile. "The New York Times Op-ed page now returns my phone calls."

That must help make the dismal science a bit more sunny.

Technorati : Blogging, Reuters, Six Apart

In 2006 we dedicated ourselves to helping to move business blogging from being a cutting-edge technology to being part of every company’s communications plan. Just by looking at the numbers from the first few months of 2007, there’s no question that we have made remarkable progress, thanks to the help of our community and our incredible partners.

Take a look at just a few of the many highly regarded companies and institutions that have become Six Apart customers just this year:

• GlaxoSmithKline
• Johnson & Johnson
• PriceWaterhouse Coopers
• Oracle
• Weather Channel
• CondeNast
• Warner Bros
• Advertising.com
• Penn State
• University of Melbourne
• Grainger
• Accuweather
• LifeTime TV
• The Australian Broadcasting Company
• Fiji Waters
• ClubMom
• Bell Canada
• BabyCenter

And the list goes on and on, and when you add these to the multitudes of small businesses and professionals who have installed Movable Type or signed up for TypePad accounts (many of which are featured here), the picture is clear: Businesses have decided that blogging is good. And blogging going mainstream is a sign that these companies are seeing measurable results. So, if you’ve started blogging for you business, or you’ve helped others get started, or you just engage with businesses through their blogs, we wanted to say a quick thank you for helping bring business blogging to a new level.