Get out the girls! The Blogger Boobie-Thon started today!  See our previous entry or visit Boobiethon.com for more details.

We’ve already donated for our 7th year in a row and have proudly nabbed our DD-cup participant’s badge. (A-cup, 1st year… B-cup, 2nd year… etc.)  Next on the agenda… coming up with a creative boobie shot we’ve not done before!  Want to participate? Submit your rack!

Not an exhibitionist? Donate instead to the Boobie-Thon™ in support of breast cancer awareness month.  All proceeds go to Susan G. Komen Foundation and other related charities.

Yay boobs!

It’s that time of year again, folks!  October is almost here and that means it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month… a whole month of pink

!  Our love of pink is well-documented, as is our love for our boobs (c’mon, who doesn’t love boobs?). That’s why for the 7th year in a row, we support and participate in the Boobie-Thon™. 

What is the Boobie-Thon™, you say? The Blogger Boobie-Thon is an annual event that runs the first week of October, the 1st - 7th.  Bloggers from all over the world send in photos of their boobage (covered and/or uncovered) to help raise money for breast cancer research.  They have lots of different galleries, Black & White, Props, they even have a Survivor’s Gallery, which is always inspiring.

This will be the seventh year for the Boobie-Thon and their goal is to beat last year’s total by a mile!  Over the last six years, Boobie-Thon™ has raised over

$40,000

.  Way to go, ladies… and gents!

That’s right, Boobie-Thon™ isn’t just for the ladies. Men participate as well.

Visit Boobie-Thon.com to learn more about this fun annual event.  It’s all in good humor with wholesome intentions and has been a great time every year.  So unhook your bras, let the girls loose and start shooting! 

Healthy boobies make happy bloggers.

On this beautiful first day of Autumn, my one spot left has been filled and I’m now, along with Kathy, booked until December 2nd, when we’ll be scheduling projects for the New Year (Winter 2009 season, January - March). If you have recently submitted a Request for Proposal or are planning on it, please note the pink boxes that highlight our current availability.

Have I mentioned that our book, Blogging with Moxie, has been flying off the shelves lately?  It’s always been doing steadily well, but recently, it’s going like

hotcakes

! If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, drop by Amazon and pick one up!  If you have interest in blogging and fancy an entertaining read, then check out The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie by The Moxie Girls… that’s us!

We would both

love to hear about your project, so if you’re interested in getting on our waiting list for the December 2nd bunch, please fill out your Request for Proposal as soon as possible — we respond to them in the order in which they are received.  In order to help expedite your request, please (pretty please?) be as thorough as possible on your form.  A quick “I want a blog”, skipping things like the name, vision and budget doesn’t really give us a clear picture of your project.  Hiring a professional designer and making an investment in your website is worth a few minutes to make sure we have a clear understanding of what you want, don’t you agree?  Help us help you. Thanks!

Thank you all so much for your patience while we sorted through the many, many Requests for Proposal we received through July and August. We’re lucky to have so many wonderful potential clients to work with, but alas, we can’t accept every project as much as we’d like to.

Kathy is booked for Fall — that’s me! — (October and November) and I’m no longer reviewing applications for this season.  I have contacted everyone on my list, so if you never responded, unfortunately that ship has sailed. Boo!  If you were contacted by me and are still interested, please respond by Monday, September 22 to get on the list for Winter 2009 or your request will be put at the end of the list. Boo squared!

Joelle is also booked for Fall, but due to a small twist, she has

one spot left

for a blog project or very small business web project. She will be contacting the remaining people on our waiting list in the order in which the requests were received with either questions about the project or an offer to be first in line for the Winter 2009 schedule.

We’ll begin contacting people starting December 2nd for the Winter 2009 spots so any requests we were unable to accommodate for Fall (that are still interested) would be first, followed by any inquiries we receive over the Fall season.

We can’t thank you enough for your patience and your enthusiasm and look forward to working with you soon.  In the meantime, take a moment to check out our book, Blogging with Moxie (Wiley, 2007) for blogging basics, insider tips, blog design insight, reading recommendations and more! 

We are always looking for new ways to improve our clients’ businesses and websites.  We’re also looking for ways to make your blog or your website work for you, integrate with your business and not just be a separate entity that sits around, waiting for people to visit… maybe… someday.  We want them to visit you NOW and a blog, RSS feed and even a newsletter are great ways to get people to visit your business website again and again.

When Kathy was in town recently, we visited one of my favorite local burger joints, Urban Mo’s (mind the music!).  Urban Mo’s (formerly Hamburger Mary’s) is a very popular bar & grill in the heart of the gayborhood. They have fantastic burgers, fun service and various events or “nights” for dancing, cocktailing and social goodness.  And I love their breakfast/brunch on the weekends.  Faaaaaabulous!

In addition to our great service by Taj, we received a slip at the end of our meal.  Taj said if we enjoyed our experience and we would like to receive free offers from him, personally, in our inbox to leave our email address.  Since I’m local, I did and promptly forgot about it. I figured I’d get some promo email for a club night or something, but really didn’t think more of it.

Lo and behold, a week later, I received an email from Taj offering me a free appetizer for the entire month of September. All I had to do was present the email to any server.  He also directed me to his blog on Urban Mo’s community website, Mo’s Space (haha!).  I think this is a brilliant way to use a blog to get butts in the seat.  I could see many ways this sort of marketing could be useful.  Sure, offering people stuff on a mailing list is nothing new, but there’s a modern twist that Mo’s has added — giving their waitstaff and bartenders blog space on the restaurant website.  This lets them personally build a clientele, as well as makes them feel like more valued members of the company.  It lets them have a voice, it lets them promote your company and it’s really how people connect these days.

Let’s say you own a spa (or a tattoo parlor or a nightclub or a…). Give each of your spa employees blog space on your company website. They can write about new products that are available, new services their clients might be interested in, show off their latest work, even about their own passions for what they do.  All of these things gets your staff marketing *for you*.  RSS feeds allow people to subscribe to your staff member’s blog so they can be kept abreast of new info, just as they would on any other blog they subscribe to, be it news or friends.  And a blog allows staff members to update people about things *right now*, not when they eventually open their email or sift through their spam folder (where often HTML newsletters go to die).

Let your staff know to ask clients at the end of their service if they would like to be added to that staff member’s personal contact list.  Providing a more intimate mailing list builds rapport, allows them to receive notices about services they would be interested in, and the stylist or esthetician or masseuse can offer the client discounts, samples, freebies or offers based on their needs.  I’ve signed up for salon mailing lists and gotten emails about weaves and chemical peels when I was really interested in pedicure and nail services.  This eliminates unwanted content and allows the client to feel like their personal stylist (or whomever) is treating them to something special.

It’s a new twist on an old standby… and I’m happy to see a local establishment embracing new marketing.  Viva Mo’s!