Blogging | Winecast

In my travels online today I found an older blog post that caught my attention. The Kineda blog created a widget using the Technorati API to determine what group a blog is in from A to D. The so-called “A-List” bloggers get most of the attention in the blogosphere today and it’s difficult to break in unless you started blogging in 2001. Since the first wine blog didn’t get going until 2004, it’s no surprise there are no “A-List” wine bloggers yet. But there will be sometime soon. It looks like Stormhoek, Dr. Vino and Vinography are the most likely to get there first.

Since these rankings are based upon incoming links, link to your favorite wine blog today. Yep, I’m on the “B-List” with the rest of the top wine blogs…

Just In Under The Wire? »

By Tim on Jan 10, 2007 in Blogging, Wine Marketing | 3 Comments

Some months ago, Josh from Pinotblogger offered free t-shirts. I was among the first to sign up for one but didn’t receive it until about 6 weeks ago. Since then I’ve been trying to set-up a worthy shot of me with it on in public to qualify for Josh’s samples list once his winery gets going. It’s not really t-shirt weather here in Minnesota right now so I haven’t had the chance to get just the right shot.

Imagine my surprise this morning when I read that he was cutting off the list today and would post only one more photo. So I hastily set-up this shot in my typical blogging environment. Hope it makes it just under the wire

My boring shot in the fine Pinotblogger t-shirt

I promise to post a more interesting location with the T a bit later on; perhaps while tasting at ZAP (bet I’d get some looks

I Have Seen The Future of Wine Blogging… »

By Tim on Jan 9, 2007 in Blogging, Wine | 10 Comments

…it will be in your pocket.

Apple's iPhone

Thanks, Steve!

(photo from Engadget)

American Wine Blog Awards 2007 »

By Tim on Jan 6, 2007 in Blogging, Wine, Wine News | 0 Comments

Tom Wark is spearheading the American Wine Blog Awards with nominations opening this coming Monday, January 8th. Although there is a drinks blog award elsewhere, these awards will be solely focused on those of us who blog and podcast about wine in the English language (i.e. you don’t have to be American to participate or win).

I think this is a very good idea and encourage you to participate. Thanks, Tom, for the leadership here.

Update, 1/8: The nominations are now open and will run until January 18th. I posted my nominations which you can check out at FERMENTATION.

Update 2: I noticed that the Bloggies are also open for nominations. They have a “best food weblog” category where wine blogs might fit, but in looking back at past years it looks like this award is too broad for the wine genre. This, of course, makes the American Wine Blog Awards the place for our niche.

Why Wineries Should Blog #6 »

By Tim on Dec 31, 2006 in Blogging, Wine | 4 Comments

That was 3 months ago, folks.

In writing up my last review, I looked for the W.H. Smith website to link to but also to look up the fact sheet since I didn’t capture the alcohol percentage in my notes. What I found there was an out of date website. Nothing that serious but anoying to someone like me looking for information about a wine released 3 months ago.

I’m sure the reason for this is the agency or designer who put this site up is also the webmaster and it takes several emails or phone calls to get anything updated. Running a winery is busy enough without having to worry about keeping your website up to date. It doesn’t have to be this way as open source blog software like Wordpress is free which can create websites that anyone can edit with a web browser. So even if you don’t want to blog, you can use this software to build your website; check out this site to see what I mean.

This type of thing is becoming increasingly important as wine enthusiasts look to find out about specific wines. Perhaps there’s a business here for some enterprising marketer with technical chops

I Resemble That Remark :) »

By Tim on Dec 30, 2006 in Blogging, Wine 2.0 | 2 Comments

My blogging buddy Jeff over at Good Grape posted the following comment about your humble narrator: “While Tim isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t a geek, he does bring the right mix of skills to being an online ringleaderÃ¢â‚¬â€?notably heÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a marketer with technical chopsÃ¢â‚¬â€?two characteristics that are sometimes in conflict with each other.”

Wrong! I am a geek (from a purely technical sense, of course).

And I may be in conflict with myself but I am a marketer with technical expertise, as noted

I’m also for hire, but that’s another story… thanks, man.

Wine 2.0 In The Old World »

By Tim on Dec 21, 2006 in Blogging, Wine 2.0 | 2 Comments

As this meme about Wine 2.0 has made it’s way around the blogosphere, it has always been an international discussion; as long as you speak English, that is. So through the magic of trackbacks and keyword feeds, I’ve been tracking the discussion in some Italian wine blogs. Through the use of Google translations and my rudimentary understanding of Italian, I’m able to get the gist of most of the discussion.

It’s good to see a popular blog like Aristide post a nice write-up on Bottletalk and WineLog. Judging by the comments, it would seem there are fewer folks drinking the “Wine 2.0 Kool-Aid” in Italy than us English speakers. I also found a blog called “Vino 2.0” which seems to have been created after I started my writing on the subject here (Grazie for the Second Life coverage, Giusy).

I love the discussion no matter which language it’s written in.