I just finished reading the book, Problogger - Secrets to blogging your way to a Six Figure Income. It was actually a book I won in an online contest but is one I highly recommend anyone buy. Don’t let the title fool you. This book is not a get rich quick scheme using blogging. The principles laid out in the book not only can help you be a better writer but also a better business owner if that is where you are in life or looking to go. Of course as a small business owner and blogger I was thinking of both while reading this book.

The book is co-authored by Darren Rowse of Problogger.net and Chris Garrett of Chirsg.com . Two of the most successful bloggers today. I would describe both Darren and Chris as real. Real individuals who are passsionate about what the write about but also are completely honest about how much work blogging takes if you want it to be a profitable venture. It wasn’t long after I started reading the book that I realized the things they were saying were a lot of the hard lessons I have already started learning as a business owner. Some of those aspects include finding a niche, income and earning strategies, promotion and marketing and creating a worthwhile product.

Another thing I discovered in my reading was they used a term we already use in our business mission statement, Compelling Content. However a big point they made was that just having compelling content without marketing is talking to yourself.

The buying and selling of blogs is also covered in the book. That whole section confirmed things we have told customers when it comes to having a web site that has value. I read things in that chapter that apply to any business. I dare say the entire book is really a handbook for the entrepreneur of business person will professional blogging as the prime example. Of course I as a part of our business we encourage our clients to blog as a way to communicate news, tips and ideas about their industry however you may want to take your blogging or desire to blog from hobby status to a professional venture, If you are a small business owner or looking into starting a small business or If you just want to be a better writer who will connect with your audience, buy this book.

Have you read Problogger? What were your thoughts? I’m also interested in hearing what other books you may have read that could apply beyond the title.

Ok, technically our company has not been around since 1801 but something that happened in 1801 that influenced many aspects of our business and maybe even the economic development of the area we live and work in. One of my favorite series of documentaries growing up was Connections hosted by James Burke and this tale of how an innovation in the early days of the 19th Century basically made us who we are today.

Jacquard’s Web by James Essinger tells the story how a hand loom led to the birth of the information age. The book covers a lot more than just one man’s attempt to automate the fine art of spinning silk but also chronicles the birth of the information age in a time you may not have thought any serious computing was going on. No, it wasn’t electronic computing as we know it with circuit boards and wires but this was a time when computer programming was born. On the left you will see a photo of the Jacquard loom with the early 19th century punch cards that made the automation of spinning intricate designs possible.

This is fascinating to me as a Greenvillian because at one time Greenville,SC was known as the textile capital of the world. A place where a lot of “computer programming” was going on and most people did not even realize it. I’m proud that our company name is somewhat inspired by this innovation that occurred over two centuries ago. This area of the United States is not only home to many web developers but we are a budding center of innovation and technology. I’m thankful we have a great networking and educational group like the GSATC to provides many opportunities to network and learn from other technology professionals and innovators. While textiles is not the prominent business in the Upstate that it once was you will discover that Greenville is even more of a technology center with such companies as BMW and Michelin as well as centers like ICAR.

If you are the least bit interested in either the history of computing, textile or innovation I encourage you to read Jacquard’ Web. What are some surprising things you have learned about your industry? What lessons of innovation and inspiration can you glen from the historical ties to what you are doing today?

You can now view Greenville,SC and surrounding areas in a whole new way. Google Street View is now available in the Greenville,SC area. In the photo her you can see our office. The technical address for our office is 1 Cleveland Street, Suite 203 in Greenville, SC however our office is on the second floor of a building known as the ARP Center. The ARP is the administrative offices of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church denomination. Two of our clients, World Witness and Outreach North America are also located in this building. Our office is my easily accessed via the Camperdown Way side of the building as seen in this photo. For those familiar with Greenville we are located between the Chamber of Commerce, Falls Park and the School District of Greenville County Office building.

We’re very thankful to have such a centrally located place of business. It’s a pleasure to take a walk to Falls Park at lunch time or to take another short walk to attend an event at the Chamber of Commerce. You can find out more about our location and explore surround areas via the Google Map below. Feel free to click on the arrows along the street in the photo as well as click and drag on the image below to spin around and go for a drive around town!

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One of my very first paying gigs for doing Internet work was a project a co-worker called Internet Resources for Christian Growth. This site combined an e-mail newsletter and an archive of the newsletters. This was in the very early days of the World Wide Web and some of the original features and aspects included;

• It was on free service without it’s own domain
• each archived issue was created as a static page using the formatting in the original e-mail
• Their was no search feature
• The images were not original or ideal for the job

If I could change things today I would definitely make sure that the project had;

• It’s on domain name - the shorter the better
• I would set up the site primarily as a blog so that each issue could be sent by RSS and e-mail
• Include a search feature and also categories
• Take custom photos to get the message across better

In a lot of ways I have learned from these experiences over the years. Of course I have always been an advocate of having your own domain but at the time (about 10 years ago) I wasn’t aware of how one could have been redirected to another space. I see a lot of bloggers registering a domain name and redirecting it to a free blog service and at that time for that particular project that may have been ideal. I mentioned custom photos and I have set up a set on my flickr account dedicated to this project I was working on way back then. I hope to continually post new versions of the photo I wish I could have posted on the site way back then.

to spur innovation it’s always good to look back on past projects. Can you think if things you would have said differently? Different images you would have used or different technologies you would have used? Sometimes we want to kick ourselves when we wish we could have done something a different way but how often have you gone back and looked at past work and developed new strategies and workflows? We’re you ever afraid of investing in a new technology because you were worried about the cost only to look back and wish you had taken the leap to explore and use the technology? What will change today?

It might not be completely obvious but SpinningSilk Multimedia is a division of a larger company, SpinningSilk, LLC. We devote the greatest amount of time to SpinningSilk Multimedia, the division this web site is based on but we do provide products and services which have a connection to our multimedia services but we chose not to advertise those on this site. We have been working on setting up SpinningSilk I.T. (I.T. as in Information Technology) as a place I we will blog about various networking, security, storage and the technical issues behind internet communication technologies like e-mail.

We also are partnering with companies like MXLogic, ITC Deltacom and are looking for other vendors who provide services we can resell and offer to our clients. While we currently won’t be offering onsite service such as computer repair, setting up or trouble shooting networks, etc. We will work to recommend partners we believe can provide you with the best service based on our research.

We will seek to provide non-biased platform information based on your needs. We will discuss our products from Apple, Microsoft, various PC vendors, networking providers can benefit you or your company based on your unique situations.