Blogs I Commented On Regarding Email Newsletters

I read many blogs this week and commented on some. Here is a list of some I commented on:

• Xumei Zhang
• Eduardo Martinez
• Anne Engardio
• Matthew Caruana

Email Newsletters For Business

Email marketing is a powerful tool to use to promote one’s business. It is often used to send out a newsletter promoting products, people or ideas related to the topics the company is associated with. The content in email newsletters is seen as being editorial rather than as a commercial message with a sales offer of some sort.

Newsletters allow for special treatment of topics that can be covered from different angles than what a blog does. The particular issue of a newsletter can have coverage of several different topics, or a single overreaching idea, backed up with expert opinions and case studies or practical applications.

For my business I would publish topical newsletters once a month. I would cover such things as networking technologies, IT hardware, IT security layer approaches, forensics and incident investigations and the many other related issues that people in my industry would be interested in. These topics are standard industry discussion points and will retain their validity over time.

Categories of Posts for My Business

My business, IT Security Ideas, is primarily tasked to dessiminate information. That information can be about any number of things in the realm of information technology. This includes everything from small data cards such as the Rasberry Pi and USB sticks used for forensics, such I built just this past week, all the way up to firewalls, drones (unmanned vehicles) and satellites that we use to protect our country.  These all fall under the category of  hardware or appliances.

Other things addressed will be how to fight malware (the modern virus threat), social engineering (think Kevin Mitnick), the twenty controls of the OWASP (Open Web Applications Security Project), the ten core areas of the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), and any of a myriad of other basic knowledge base concerns in which IT security engineers immerse themselves.

All of the above are important because IT security professionals must show continued professional education and they can do this by reading and responding to books, podcasts, video and other media given that there is proof that what they say they learned something from actually exists, for example a screen shot or the actual media or the saved podcast or other.

This means that I can write about anything in my blog that picques my interest since my primary interests are about security in information technology.


In regards to a previous post I made regarding how personal one should be on their blog, there are a few other people's blogs that I have commented on regarding their ideas about "getting personal on a business blog". These peoples ideas deserve a shout out and include:
(1) Charles Lisherness   CharlieCSIT155
(2) Matthew Caruana   Krimson
(3) Melanie Haynie   Melanie's Social Media Journey

Adding One's Personality Into A Blog Post

I just finished four days on a jury trial. Evidently I have a personality that lawyers like because this is the third time I have been selected.  Would the traits that make me a desirable juror translate well into the realm of the blogosphere? When does it make sense to add one’s personality into a blog post and when does it not make sense to do so?

 

I think extreme ideas that fall on opposite ends of the spectrum from the median, should be relegated only to blogs set up specifically for like-minded followers of those ideas. I don’t think that extremist ideas necessarily have a place on a blog set up to promote a for-profit business.

 

As far as the interjecting of one’s personality into blogs, I think it is important to do so otherwise the blog will become dry after a while and people will cease to follow newly added entries. I would propose though that restraint should be exercised in businesses, like mine, that focus on the scientific and technological. In blogs about everyday topics like food or clothing or places it is entirely appropriate to interject ones opinions and personality into the writing of each post.  Balance and variety will create readership.