21st Century Sales

I've been wondering about this for almost 4 years.  Every time I think I've got it figured out, something changes. 

There definitely are changes underway on the web that impact how we will interact with it, and how we will interact with each other using it. From the business book perspective, I feel what's being called Web 2.0 is worth investigating.

I believe that there will be significant business rewards for those who figure out how to apply Web 2.0 tools and techniques.  I'll certainly explore that in the book. 

In the meantime, I've decided to migrate my business from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0.  I'm not sure yet what that means in terms of cost or workload.  Learn at my expense!

I've been teaching a course in eBusiness in the MBA program at the University of Phoenix for several years.  The course isn't being offered right now, so the website is gathering dust, so to speak.  I'd like to use this website to share resources that might benefit business developers everywhere. 

I'll start with "Cool Tools".  My aim for the course was to compile a list of free, or close to free, eBusiness tools that were relevant to the course and that I believed would benefit my students both during the class and in their professional lives.  I'm going to broaden that mission to say this "Cool Tools" section is to benefit the readers of this blog and the readers of my book-to-be.

I was very eager to go to the Northern Voice blogging conference this year.  I went in 2005, its first year, because my friends at Bryght were on the organizing team.  Last year, my wife scooped me by registering first and I got to stay at home with the kids.  Same this year, but one of my kids was sick with the flu and only mama could provide the required TLC, so I got to go to 1/2 the conference.  It was a good investment of time!
Several people I have a lot of time for would consider themselves bloggers in the same way that I would consider myself a salesperson or a runner.  To them, being a blogger is one of the key attributes of who they are.

My first impressions 3 years ago were who really cares about your blog?  You see, these folks were so passionate about their blogs and blogging that I figured the options were: