You know, there's a lot to be said about a good blog.  Sure, you may have been interested in the subject for a while, but to be able to retain and develop that interest is the challenge.

My personal fav is Autoblog, a site dedicated to automotive news and views from around the world.  I still love automobiles like I did when I was a kid, and feel like this is one of the most historic moments for the industry, from both a financial and design standpoint of vehicles.  I really think the editors have a great blog, with rapid updates and good content. This week Autoblog presents the Top 10 Most Forgotten Hatchbacks, a series of various models from the past 20 years.  It's definitely entertaining to see.

This short photo serial is not only cool from an auto enthusiast perspective (I actual laughed when I saw the fastback A-body Grand Prix and Monte Carlo -- it's a stretch to include these vehicles, being that they are not hatchbacks), but the site post is cool from a blogging perspective. Serial photos or subjects can help generate targeted traffic, as well as evergreen subjects that come up every year. Sometimes it pays to see how blogs on various subjects can challenge your assumptions (See my earlier post on Andy Cohen).

Take a look at the Autoblog serial.  In the meantime, may your dream cars be a bit larger than the ones in my photo below.  Enjoy.

May your dream wheels be larger than Hot Wheels!

This post comes straight from Cali!  Yours truly is listening to the takeaways from the Blogging and SEO sessions at the SES Conference in San Jose.  Lee Odden from Top Rank Blog is currently speaking.  Much of the discussion is regarding the content, how to reach out to bloggers and other blog, and how to create community on the blog.  He finds content valuable at SES San Jose and spends no dollars on advertising.  I particularly like the comments to link in the presentation.  On a personal note, I have sat in on few presentations that reference website let alone a link offer.  But presentation content varies from industry to industry.  I look forward to sharing more information in posts to come...

Welcome to the first post of Zimanablog!  This blog is support by Zimana, a new innovative analytic consultant firm dedicated to helping businesses make the most of web analytics data and business metrics for strategic advantage.

As founder of Zimana, I am excited about this first effort! Zimanablog makes possible a dialogue for great ideas on analytics and associated concepts that deliver value for firms and organizations.

Our company website and logo was created by Studio150, a web development firm based in Brooklyn, New York. Currently Zimana is based in Huntsville, Alabama, so all coordination was via email and phone calls.  I've done similar communication on a project for a client based in Austraila.

These dances of communication are no different than what goes on across the world, as thousands of businesses large and small use various means of communication.  And it's a dance that goes way back before Skype and Wi-Fi -- The songs have changed, but its the same DJ on the one-and-two's!  I remember the video conferences in my Ford days during the 1990s, speaking to program teams based in Australia as well as plant teams based in Louisville, KY and Edison, NJ.

But what makes this dance worthwhile in business is an analysis of the communication content and its frequency -- how much value is derived and how much overhead is used to create that value.  This information can create an analytic strategy to minimize costs and maximize profits, particularly as more and more businesses become "micro-global firms" and interact with each other for products and services. Growing businesses must learn to take moments to analyze its efforts so that more productivity and value can occur.  This is especially critical for service-based businesses.

What ways do you think businesses can strive to not only work together but measure the value created?  Your posts are welcome and encouraged...