I’ve been wondering for a while now, do bloggers experience the Blank Page Syndrome the same way other writers do? It’s not easy to maintain a decent blog with quality content and frequent updates. Authors, journalists, columnists and bloggers all share a need to be sustainable in their work. Deadlines are very important even if they differ from one type of publisher to the other.

Writing a book requires months of work whereas magazines and newspapers have daily or weekly prints. Blogging and micro-blogging on the other hand have increased the pace and information has to be visible the minute after an event happened. But does it have to be like that? And what if you’re uninspired or have no valuable content to share?

You never know when to expect it to happen; the Blank Page Syndrome is indeed a tricky adversary, but there are precautionary measures one can take to keep it at bay. There are actually many blogs talking about it and I noticed it’s often connected with deadlines and a desire to start with a brilliant opening. With other words, the two main aspects are:

1. People need to have access to the information at a specific time
2. The content must be eye-catching

This brings me to one of Chris Brogan’s latest posts Audience is King. This post has one central thought that publishers have to realize their biggest value is in their audience and that content is molded for the audience's appreciation. It reminds me of the following question: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to see it or hear it, will it make any sound?

The issue with blogs however, is that there are millions around and most of them have a very limited audience. Does it mean these falling trees are not nice to behold? Does this mean the blogger has no wish to continue writing?

This is where we get to the second question: If you hear the falling tree, do you actually enjoy it?

Each writer has a purpose, a mission. One can write thriller stories to frighten the readers, some writers may want to inform, while others yet only wish to share personal events. The way content is updated is based on the author’s mission and achieved value. A professional writer will seek to enlarge his audience in order to increase his status and commercial value. A teenager’s blog will focus more on what the person likes and experiences and is directed to a limited set of friends and family members. As a reader, what value do you get from each of these blogs?

This simply means that not unlike the falling tree, it’s all about the way you experience something and perceive this experience. You could say that each one of us is a forest with many falling trees, each one representing an action we undertake, a print we leave in life.

When you finally discover a new forest, because you were lucky enough to hear one of the falling trees, wouldn’t it be nice to know more about the forest and why or how his trees fall?
Is it a large forest with many trees that are slow to fall? Is it a bamboo forest that grows daily a thousand new trees? Or is it a very old forest with large and heavy trees that make a lot of noise when they fall?

Well, with this little tree falling I would like to share with you a secret – there is a way to know and it’s called a Zilhouette. The Zilhouette is like the outline of the forest, telling you more about the way it is perceived by other people that walked in there and saw its falling trees.

Starting now we will have more falling trees on the ZackBrandit blog. Don’t worry these are only virtual ones and we will use them to create new ripples while focusing on the value of the content. In order to explain you how our Zilhouette model works, we will present you other famous and less famous forests (bloggers) and show you how they can be perceived and understood by passersby.

This is not an easy task and we greatly appreciate your feedback!

  A creative mind that enjoys sharing its knowledge and passion with others.
Often found promoting ideas and innovations, the Fan is a “brand” advocate by heart.

The Fans have an idyllic relationship with a particular brand, sport, person or state of mind and want the world to know about it. Their blog shows genuine passion for the main topic and a strong red line in the communication. The Fans convey a message coming from the heart, punctuated by a rash desire for self-expression.

Fans keep part of their childhood dreams and visions. Their blog focuses on a chosen “hero”; hence, the general layout of the blog can be extreme. It can be simple, almost minimalist with a focus on the actual and personal (creative) content, or it can on the contrary be full of colours, pictures and videos. This depends on the main topic in focus, and the age and state of mind of the blogger. Fans will most probably not use a personal domain name and will use a free, yet personalised, template. The writing style reflects passion which at times can compensate for a lack of mature communication skills.

Fans enjoy interactions regarding their own writing. Comments and feedback are very important, and they gladly share their view with other people. Yet, the purpose of a fan’s blog is to show their appreciation and love, and although the world may be listening, their contribution still is something very personal. Most Fans therefore have few or limited readership, but have a very strong bond with them. One can also be a fan of his own life and use his blog as personal diary, as an autobiography and for self-branding purposes.

Fans are quite knowledgeable about their preferred subject and will be able to find a balance between evidence and opinion. They probably have several interesting sources they're tapping into, but are not necessarily visible. Fans provide their readers with their own and unique view on the subject and do not wish to resemble an exhaustive encyclopaedia or replace the official press. They will therefore combine their acquired knowledge with the message they wish to share, rather than talking about crude facts.

Fans will probably be members of different social networks and will potentially use other social media to share their passion. The blogs will likely use videos and pictures, yet the use of many textual links should not be expected. The Fan’s Blogroll will expectedly have related fan blogs and other subjects of interest which are not directly related to their blog.

Advertising and affiliations are not important and adverts should have a connection with the blog’s subject and its design.

Example of blogs: Groupie, Sport Fan, Supporter, Amateur Philosopher, Brand Lover, NGO member

 The Mechanic

Mechanics have an adventuresome spirit.
They have a compelling drive to understand how things work and like to take things apart to understand its functioning.
They have an action-oriented, “independent” spirit.

Mechanics live in the world of the concrete and the applicatory . They have patience and may devote a lot of time to “research”. They enjoy taking their latest gift apart and analyzing the way it works. Though not interested in theoretical concepts, they are good at logical analysis. Mechanics have a free and adventurous spirit and a rich inner world where everything seems connected. Though not necessarily the most structured communicator, they know what they want to tell and will pass the message accordingly. Some Mechanics can write methodically and almost algorithmically while others may resemble mad scientists.

Mechanics are mainly attracted to technology, cars, computers, mobile phones, etc., but some are more scientifically oriented and will dissect formulas and algorithms instead. They are often technical-minded and quite skilled in their field. Mechanics are ingenious people, but their creativity may be used as a means to discover the truth: how something works. This also means that the Mechanic knows how to appreciate harmony.

The Mechanic’s blog is often very descriptive and will use many pictures and videos to present their discoveries and share their opinion. The blog does not necessarily require a unique domain name nor does it need to have amazing looks. This however might change based on the blogger’s readership and the desire to be more appealing and understandable.

Mechanics are not particularly people persons and tend to feel and understand emotions like the functioning of a clock. They are not critics and will first explain objectively before expressing an opinion. Their blogs are mainly a monologue, a place to share their discoveries. The blog-posting pace depends on their capacity to acquire new items. Mechanics do not often respond to comments and even less to critics and will provide personal information on a “to know” basis. (This is of course relative to their personal limitations).

The Mechanic’s blog is introverted, meaning the writing style and informative part will be based on personal vision and knowledge rather than external sources. They might carry out many comparisons between competitive products but will not specifically look for other sources to confirm their analyses (whether technical or theoretical).

Mechanics do not wish to convey a message or express an opinion. Their desire is one of objectivity and to share the truth with their readers. Though not a pioneer, they will often look for new products on the market in order to sustain their interest and remain relevant as an information provider.

Mechanics are usually not particularly well-connected and limit their involvement in social networks and media. Their Blogroll is often not comprehensive.

Mechanics do not care about commercials and will strongly limit them on the blog. Their focus is on the objective information they can deliver and the joy they have by sorting it out. The rest is secondary and can be perceived as a nuisance.

Here comes the second profile.

The Administrator

Often seen as a pillar in the community, they live in a world of facts and concrete needs. Their eyes constantly scan his personal environment to make sure everything runs well. Administrators have such a clear vision of the way things should be, that they naturally take on leadership roles.

For the Administrators, nothing is more important than the relevance of the conveyed information and the way it is applied by the new owner. Though creativity is appreciated, it only comes second. Administrators are highly regarded for their ability to explain how things should be done.

Their blog is usually well structured and to the point. Administrators have good insight and are very knowledgeable about the chosen subjects. They often have enough experience and confidence not to use too many external links in his posts, but will gladly share their sources with others. When presenting schematics, they are most often their creations. On the one hand, they believe and trust in their own capacities and succeed in passing on this confidence to their followers. On the other hand, Administrators are humble enough to not put themselves at the forefront. Most Administrators are experienced and therefore of older age. Their writing style reflects their gained wisdom.

Administrators do not post very often and prefer bringing value with each of their writings.They do not really like sharing personal information except in cases where anecdotes could be used to provide added-value to an explanation. They are pragmatists, living in the world of deeds. People appreciate their insight and envision them as leaders in their area of expertize. They are often extremely active in society.

Administrators are extrovert and believe in the need for interaction. They might be actively using micro-blogging solutions, but again to share relevant information. There is only one way for building society and it starts with sharing. They are gatherers by nature. 

Administrators are not looking for new stuff. They are not pioneers, but rather prefer focusing their message around systems that already have proven results. Sustainability is very important. They will not be the first to write about a particular subject, but will integrate it when there is some quantified and qualitative data available.

Administrators will most often have their own domain name and a personalized template, though a simple and straight-forward one with little navigation capabilities.

Administrators do not have the need to use social networks and may use a select few. They are not actively looking to create new connections and readers, as they are automatically attracted or referred to them.

Advertising is not a priority on the Administrator's blog and they would normally limit it to be relevant to the content.

Example of blogs: CEO, Business Man, Politician, Social Sciences Specialist, NGO

The web has evolved a lot since the ‘90s. We have known Web 1.0, we are living today in the Web 2.0 era and are slowly moving towards Web 3.0.

It seems there is one thing in common and that is the “0”. This zero shows that we are speaking of an evolution or maybe even a small revolution.

Web 2.0 has provided us with interactive web applications, features and services such as blogs, mashups, social networks, wikis and others. We have moved from an individual user’s perspective to a community approach, keeping in mind that it always revolves around the user’s personal experience.

With Web3.0 also known as Semantic Web, we intend to go a step further. The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work cooperatively.

 

 

 

The idea is to have computers tap into metadata and create meaningful relationships without the need for a powerful artificial intelligence.   The Web will be linked in a way that it can be used more effectively across various applications. The Semantic Web will contain and link resources corresponding to several kinds of objects such as media (images, clips, etc.), people, places, organizations and events.

Web visionaries have been working for some time on this new evolution. Semantic web is a combination of crowd sharing, done today to an extent through tags, natural language processing and machine learning techniques.  Semantic web could change the Web the same way Windows’ metaphoric desk replaced the textual DOS at the end of the last century. A semantic browser will learn from the user’s behaviour and adapt its links. Gradually and with the help of mind maps and virtual worlds, the web could become an adaptive platform represented by a metaphor based on the user’s interests. This however, is a future step which might result in introducing Web 4.0.

This brings us to Advertising 3.0, an information-rich model where adverts become more relevant and grow to become content. Though it may sound very tempting, the underlying risk is that message and facts can be mixed-up. I believe there is great potential, but like my spandex-clothed friend once learned – with great power comes great responsibility.

The ZackBrandit team believes in the necessity to support a rich and relevant Web. Information is as valuable as the meaning we endow it with. But meaning does not necessarily indicate factual data; life is indeed more than just facts, it is also about the way we as people apprehend the information. At the end of the day, it is us who give meaning to words.

Zack’s Profiling System (ZPS) transforms a particular blog, brand or product into a set of elements perceptually annotated by users. The idea is to offer meaningful categorization based on pertinent criteria. We would like to know how people perceive blogs, brands and products, how they categorise them and use this data to create new relationships.

If the actual rating systems are linear and provide one result for a specific product (usually an amount of points or stars), ZPS has the unique capacity of linking up to 8 different criteria, thus resulting in meaningful profiles. The profile is the result of crowd participation and therefore brings the user’s perceptive meaning into our database. Hence the possibility to introduce a new browsing approach reflecting one’s moods, feelings and personal view.

It is not a replacement, nor is it semantic web. ZPS is a smart but standardised tagging system that will more easily support the arrival of Web 3.0 and its share of advertising.

And we are those embodying it!

 

The ZackBrandit team wishes to provide its community with a unique set of features and tools which are fun and relevant to use. There are different ways to widen social interactions and connect individuals with ideas, consumers, companies, NGOs and other stakeholders of our society. These features and tools will provide each participant with added-value like information, access to specific services, leads, community gatherings, market insight, sales and many more.

Some of these will be invented by the ZackBrandit team and others by partners or community members.

Initially, we would like to bring you what we call the Zilhouette System.

Since I am an avid blog reader and having had my share of experiences in understanding humans for what they are or seem to be (I’m a big fan of crime investigation TV series); I decided to share with you some of my insights. Most people wear various masks or are sometimes understood at different levels. Being a Lemur, I also have my share of personalities that I wish to relate with you. Those will be consequently used as explained underneath. As for the feminine character – I’ve got that covered too because I’ve asked my beloved Zaya to participate.

Let us start with 3 examples out of a total of 16 profiles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the exponential increase of e-commerce we also saw an overflow of recommendation oriented solutions. Most use ratings (usually 1 to 5 points) and verbatim messages.

Very few services have their ratings based on more than one criterion and therefore limit the value of the final grade by restricting the provided details. With our Zilhouette System we desire to go a step further by integrating perception and essentially show how brands and products, but also, journalists and bloggers are perceived by others.

Our first approach is to work with bloggers and provide them with a simple tool to see how they are perceived by their readers. It is not a rating tool, therefore there is no good or bad. The feedbacks received from blog readers will enable to depict a perceived blog profile, which will then be represented by one of the pictures above (and more to come).

This profile will help:

• the blogger understand how he is perceived by others based on his writings
• new visitors see what kind of blog they are looking at and be able to differentiate “bargain hunters” from “philosophers”
• ZackBrandit provide specific offers and services based on communities around bloggers
• additional information to support the study of online social trends.

Each of these traits will be clearly defined and with time will be refined based on your feedbacks.

In our next postings we will explain how the profiling system works and identify the 16 different existing profiles. Meanwhile, I have to dive back into my latest book How to be a Hero for Dummies