2. Because customers like to know that you care about people in need.

3. Because you work better when you feel better, and you feel better when you serve others.

4. Because you can learn many blogging lessons from the poor.

5. Because it’s the right thing to do.

Here are my three surprise victims (beneficiaries) for October 2008, selected randomly from commenters here and at Visionary Blogging in September.

1. Blogopreneur - Tan Kian Ann shares all kinds of Web marketing insights. More than anything, I love Kian Ann’s enthusiasm and verve that he puts into all his blog posts and comments that he leaves on other blogs. Keep up the great work KA!

My tip for Kian Ann: Post more often, dude! (I know, I know, I’m a hypocrite. But I do promise that Business Blog Wire will not remain quiet for long.)

2. Level343.com - Gabriella and the Level343 team offer a wide range of SEO and online marketing services. I’m impressed by their homepage (love the mouseover effects!) and the variety of services they offer.

My blogtip for Level343: Bring out your personality a bit more - maybe share some pics and bios of the team members at the About page, explain where you got that cool name, show off a bit more of your portfolio and clients, etc. You can do it!

3. Brad Blogging - Run by Brad (of course), this website is chock full of blogging tips to help you make your blog generate better results. Includes the coolest 3D “B” you’ve ever seen and lots of WordPress advice.

My tip for Brad: Differentiate yourself a bit more - make sure the tagline, content and meta-stuff (Advertise/Connect/etc.) tells a story about you being unique from all the other folks who are blogging about blogging. You’ve definitely got uniquely useful content and I hope you continue to write in that same style (although even more often, as I encouraged Kian Ann to do above).

That’s it for this month! I’m impressed by the quality of these blogtippees and encourage them (and you) to tip over other bloggers every month on the first calendar or business day.

Stay tuned for news about Business Blog Wire’s relaunch!

Pardon my brevity and the plain look. I’m essentially rebuilding a house that I just tore down and moved across town after being with Know More Media since 2005.

Tell me what’s ugly, what’s broken, what’s nice, in design as well as content.

Tell me what you want to see in your feed reader or email inbox or browser every weekday from this site.

My plan to make this once again a premier source of business blogging news, corporate blog reviews, professional blog tips, and much more.

I promise to take all your comments, questions and suggestions to heart.

Thanks for starting out on this new journey with me.

It's my first day without a job.

It's also my first day as a full-fledged freelancer.

Fun stuff!

I plan to do some great things with Business Blog Wire over the next year. It has great potential as a source of timely news, reviews and advice on business blogging.

And I hereby announce Visionary Blogging, my new business blog consulting website.

Here's a taste of what Visionary Blogging has to offer:

• 139 blog improvement tips from the SOBCon08 Business Blog Conference
• How to build blog traffic using the Visonary Blogging method
• My 3 all-time favorite business blog tips

Sound tasty? Feed your addiction.

Together, these two resources will give you more professional blogging news, analysis and premium services than you can handle.

That's my vision for Visionary Blogging and Business Blog Wire.

What's yours?

Photo by grendelkhan

Know More Media (the network that hosts this blog) plans to cease operations as of next Friday, August 1, 2008. That's almost certainly gonna happen. (We'll see.)

So I will no longer be a full-time editor for KMM (my job since 2005).

But have no fear.

Business Blog Wire is here to stay.

And I am here to stay with it.

Since Know More Media is going to keep all of its 100-ish blogs online, I'll be able to post here as usual.

So coming soon, please look forward to business blog advice, business blogging news, blog reviews and … that's right … blogtipping.

Subscribe now for a good time.

So what would you like me to write about? Any burning questions I can answer?

I'm all yours.

Sincerely, Easton Ellsworth

The closest thing it's ever had to an officlal company blog like the Google blog or the Dell blog is its PR-speak Hot News page and a long-defunct student blog.

So … Apple, what gives?

Why is there no Apple blog?

Some argue that Apple is simply too good to blog - that its products are so marvelous and its fans so numerous and rabid that it has no need to start a conversation via blogging.

Others say it's because of Apple's marketing approach, which stresses secrecy over openness to build buzz.

Still, I wonder if it's just because no one (at least no one with a loud enough voice) has called Apple out yet.

Betcha Apple'd start a blog if people compained about its bloglessness.

I think Apple could benefit from an official Apple blog. It sure could appease the masses who find Apple snobby and elitist. And it wouldn't be so hard …

Would it?

What do you think? Will Apple ever start a corporate blog?

We'll have some good ol' business blog news, reviews and tips coming your way starting tomorrow with a Fortune 500 company blogging review.

Welcome back to Business Blog Wire.

3 things I like:

Blog Content - It's clear from the outset that the purpose of the Kapalua business blog is to share Kapalua news and travel information. (I didn't know that golf's Mercedes-Benz Championship takes place in Kapalua! Sweet.) That's a huge key to business blogging success - that you make the purpose of your company blog clear right away.

Blog Design - Great URL - simple and clear. Friendly masthead that captures a few scenes from Kapalua. I love minimalist looks in blog designs - less is usually more for the reader.

Blog Community - Young but starting to grow. Comments are enabled and I'm sure they'll add more social media functions (Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, etc.) in the future. The important thing is that the conversation is open and free to flow.

1 suggestion for improvement:

A photo/video gallery with lots of juicy Kapalua images would be an awesome addition. Would help people get pulled in to the beauty of the area even more.

Conclusion:

Good job to the Kapalua blog team. Along with Maui Pineapple's blog, it shows that business blogging is here to stay and continues to mature.

3 things I like:

Blog Content - Who can resist the sweet tang of fresh pineapples? Okay, seriously - I like the content of this corporate blog. It's friendly. The images are mouth-watering. And I find the content to be genuine-sounding.

Blog Design - The colors and three-colum layout remind me of a newspaper or newsletter, which is good because the site's name is Pineapple News and it deals mainly with pineapple-related news and buying advice. The layout is fairly simple, which helps the reader focus on the content without getting distracted by lots of flashy "buy our pineapples" links. The hard sell is losing strength on the Web anyway.

Blog Community - By allowing comments, the Maui Pineapple folks have taken a step forward in their corporate history. It's great to see them doing this. It's also good to see links in the right sidebar to recent comments and to relevant social networking links. Corporate blogging needs to be part of the global conversation going on about companies.

1 suggestion for improvement:

As soon as possible, it would be great to add author name(s) and bio(s) to the About page and a link to them in post bylines.

Conclusion:

I like the Maui Pineapple blog. It's off to a tasty start.