Movable Type Motion Connects a Fast-Moving Audience

When we released the beta version of Motion, our new social application for Movable Type, we knew that the first people to try it would be enthusiastic about social media and interested in how to more effectively share and publish content online.

That’s exactly what DL Byron and Jay Allen had in mind when they integrated Motion into the latest iteration of their Bike Hugger site. DL Byron is the principal of Textura Design, Inc., a Seattle-based company that offers creative social media strategies; Jay Allen is the founder of Endevver, a San-Francisco based web development firm that specializes in building and customizing Movable Type sites.

Bike Hugger is “bike culture blogged”; it started with a series of evangelism events called “mobile socials” where cyclists would meet up to network, ride, and share information. Version 1.0 of the blog was built in Movable Type, and the community eagerly began connecting online. “A lot of people in the design and development community are also enthusiastic about cycling,” explains Byron. “The bike racks at tech conferences are always full.”

“Bikers are early technology adopters,” Jay adds. “They’re very open to experimentation. They’re an ideal audience for us to try out cool new technology and see what works.”

Both Textura Design and Endevver use Bike Hugger as a lab. The site is built entirely in Movable Type, and they use it to test new design ideas, plugins, and various ways of sharing content that they may eventually apply to the enterprise or other clients. “The key to successful blogging is to live it,” Byron explains. “That’s what we do every day with Bike Hugger.”

The newly re-designed 2.0 site uses Motion to create a single, one-page view of all of the latest Bike Hugger activity around the web, including Tweets, news articles and photos posted on Flickr. “We’ve carefully selected action streams that we think are relevant to our community,” Jay says. “We want Bike Hugger to offer timely content that our audience can use and share.”

The site also offers a unique way for visitors to find archived content, with an alphabetized tag cloud, a grid of monthly archives by year, and the ability to search by popularity, author or keyword.

The flexibility of the biking community has made this kind of experimentation possible. “If something doesn’t work, we’ll pull it down,” says Byron. “We don’t believe in the ‘Big Reveal’ - we build out an idea, take it live, and see if it works.”

“You can’t get this kind of testing in a QA Lab,” adds Jay.

Adapt to Social Media or Die

Bike Hugger is a perfect demonstration of a site that enables people to share information in multiple ways. “The blogosphere used to be very insular,” says Byron. “Now, tools like Twitter are breaking it wide open. Publishing online has become easy enough that almost anyone can do it.”

Jay agrees: “Action streams have turned the web on its head,” he says. “The ‘walled garden’ approach to publishing content online was too limiting. People want to stay in control of their content and share it with the communities they care about.”

That’s where Motion comes in. The application has the ability to import action streams from dozens of sites around the web, allowing community members to share content from a variety of networks, and allowing sites to evolve as technologies change. “I feel like Movable Type is supremely situated to take advantage of these evolving ways to share content,” says Jay. “MT is so flexible that it can integrate many different technologies into one platform.”

Bike Hugger plans to begin extending more publishing privileges to its community in the coming months, allowing people to share relevant information about the events, people, and topics that are important to cyclists.

“Mobile Socials are a great example of how we bring content together in innovative ways,” says Jay. They created custom fields in Movable Type to include pieces of information about their activities - from event name to start time to location - which makes adding new events a snap. From the site, people can RSVP on Facebook, and will soon be able to upload photos and related Tweets and other event-centric content. “Not only is Movable Type an amazing content management system, but it’s also an incredible event management system,” he says.

The new Bike Hugger site was built in less than two months, with the combined efforts of Endevver, designer Scott Benish, and the team at Textura Design. The site now has 4,000 daily subscribers and tracks at 10,000 impressions a day. On Flickr alone, they’ve surpassed 800K annual views. “Our growth is strong,” Byron says. “Motion has helped us grow by enabling us to provide timely, relevant content.” 

Both Byron and Jay anticipate that the site will continue to grow and expand in the future: “This is such a forward-thinking community that we’re going to be able to keep on innovating,” says Byron. “We don’t care about industry buzzwords; we just want to do epic work.”

Engaging a Loyal Audience in Brand New Ways

In the fall of 2008, publishing giant National Geographic decided to re-vamp their online presence and create a network of blogs and forums to engage with audiences from both print publications and television shows. They chose Movable Type to power their new initiative for several reasons: they wanted to purchase a license that would allow them to own all of their content; they wanted to host their site locally for complete control; and they needed enterprise-level support.

“Movable Type offered a better level of support than we found with other companies,” says Anton Gelman, senior producer at National Geographic. “It gave us complete control over our content, and we felt that it was also a very cost-effective choice.”

The company consolidated all of its older blogs and launched a number of new ones, including the Dog Whisperer, the Explorer Blog and the DogEared Books Blog for Kids. “Launching communities is a complex process,” Gelman says. “You start out thinking that people want one thing, but you have to be flexible and open to tweaking things over time.”

The company has found that Movable Type allows them to do just that: “The fact that so many Movable Type functions are widgetized and can be modified by dragging and dropping enables our producers to make most changes themselves,” says Gelman.

MT Provides a Fast, Affordable Way to Update Content

Previously, he reports, National Geographic’s legacy systems required a great deal of technical know-how to manipulate; producers had to file requests with the IT department for every change they wanted to implement: “Now that producers can change things on their own, they can quickly respond to our what our audiences are doing.” For instance, if readers are clicking a lot on a certain widget, they can re-position it to a prominent spot on the site.

“It is significantly cheaper to do it this way,” Gelman says. “The Movable Type platform has saved us tremendously both on cost and speed to market.”

National Geographic often launches their blogs internally before revealing them to the public to get feedback, identify potential issues, and also to expose the whole company to the features and functions available on the MT platform. “Now that we have Movable Type, all of our internal ‘customers’ have access to the same innovations and tool sets,” Gelman explains. “Different departments don’t have to start from scratch when they want to build or change a blog.” The approach not only saves the company time and money, but it also benefits readers and visitors: “People now have a cohesive experience when they visit National Geographic blogs,” Gelman explains. “Each site will feel like a part of something bigger.”

The company has ambitious goals for growing its online presence in the years to come, and blogging will play a central role; it plans to create blogs for every television show and blogs that extend content from popular sections within its publications. A single sign-on will give members full access to all of the content created by National Geographic, thus building community and fostering connections. “We’re committed to making blogging an integral part of our publishing strategy in the future,” Gelman says.

Kid-Safe Blogs that Parents Can Trust

For more than three decades, National Geographic has reached out to kids in innovative ways through television and print with nature, sports and adventure-related content designed to inspire and motivate. Now the company has launched several kids blogs to engage with their young audiences online. The National Geographic Kids blog network includes DogEared Books, Global Bros, You Are Here, and Hands On Explorer, all of which are built in Movable Type. The majority of the blog posts are authored by real kids who blog about their adventures, and the voices of their peers have resonated with young readers.

“The mission of National Geographic Kids is to inspire kids to care about the planet, including all the people, places and animals in it,” says Michelle Sullivan, Executive Producer of National Geographic Digital Media, Kids. “The NG Kid's blogs are natural extension of that, because they bring the world right into their laps... or in this case, laptops!”

The editorial team finds most of its kid bloggers by reaching out to their own extended network of employees, colleagues and friends. The kids are then contracted to become bloggers and agree to an editorial schedule; a team of online editors reviews and posts content. “It seems so much more credible when it's a kid-to-kid conversation,” Sullivan explains. “That's what really make us unique and differentiates us from other kids' sites.

The editors review the content before they post it, but they’re careful not to use a heavy hand in the editing process. “Authenticity is important to us, says Sullivan.  “We want it the blog posts to sound like the kids who wrote them, not like polished pieces written by an adult.”

Thus far, the process has worked wonderfully. “The kids are so excited to have a "voice",” Sullivan reports. “They love sharing their stories and opinions. It's really empowering.”

MT Enables Compliance with Legal Requirements

Creating websites for kids is more complicated than it seems. “There are a lot of legal and technical requirements involved in creating a blog for kids,” producer Anton Gelman explains. All National Geographic Kids content is COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)-compliant, meaning that the site does not solicit or store any personal information without parental notification or verification. All ads that appear on the sites abide by COPPA, and also follow the suggested CARU (Children’s Advertising Review Unit) guidelines for advertisers. “Movable Type made it easy for us to add custom fields and rules that allow us to comply with all regulations related to having a kid’s site,” says Technical Lead Anton Gelman.

Comments have to be monitored to ensure that they meet strict content guidelines before they’re published; with the RSS subscription feature in Movable Type, producers can subscribe to the comments and approve them from anywhere, thus simplifying the process. “We make extra efforts to keep our community secure and give moms and dads peace of mind that their kids are in a safe online space,” explains Michelle Sullivan.

National Geographic enlisted Seattle-based Textura Design, Inc. and San Francisco development consultancy Endevver to build out the sites. They used Movable Type’s flexible comment moderation tools to enable editors to review and publish comments from multiple interfaces - inside the application, via email or mobile device. “The Movable Type software has made it easy for our team to manage and publish content,” Sullivan says. “We really love it.”

The company is committed to expanding its digital presence in the future, with plans for additional blogs, more exciting content, and new ways to engage its readers. “This is a generation of digital explorers,” says Sullivan. “They've grown up with technology and the Web is a central focus for them. We have a great opportunity to reach this young audience and help build loyalty to National Geographic and its mission.”

National Geographic Kid's Blogs Built in Movable Type

DogEared Books
DogEared Books is community for young readers and the books they love. The blog features seven kids ages 8-12 who blog their thoughts about the books they’re reading. “Kids love giving their feedback on the books,” says Michelle Sullivan. “The blog gives them a place where they can be heard, and where their opinion matters.”

Global Bros
The Global Bros blog follows the adventures of two “cool brothers” - 11-year-old Stefan and 8-year-old Tyler - who are having the enviable experience of traveling around the globe with their parents for an entire year. The boys post photos, stories and videos from wherever they are - from Germany to Japan - and kids everywhere can follow along at home.

You Are Here 
The “You Are Here” blog shines a spotlight on bloggers in different countries; last year, it was written by 12-year-old David, a blogger who lives in Beijing and blogged about his visits to the Olympic Games and what it is like to live in China. Currently, the blog is being authored by 10-year-old Ayat, who lives in Jordan and blogs about Middle East geography, her family traditions, and trips to nearby Petra and the Dead Sea.

Hands On Explorer
The Hands on Explorer blog tracks the adventures of National Geographic Kids’ Hands-On Explorer Challenge contest expedition team on their worldwide adventures. Australia with the destination in 2008; in 2009, the team will take a 12-day trip to Peru. The team will be made up of 15 kid contest winners and two teachers who will travel to Peru together to learn about the culture, people and history of this ancient civilization.

A Large Heart That Shares With Others

In 2002, David Gutowski had an Internet radio stream called Guided by Voices that streamed songs by the band of the same name. Inspired by the Guided by Voices song titled “Unleash the Largehearted Boy,” he began to develop a plan for his own blog.

With a Master’s Degree in creative writing, a career in technology, and a love for music and culture, David wanted to share his interests with others and develop his writing skills. “I looked at several blogging platforms,” he recalls. “I wanted something I could host, adapt and customize. Movable Type had it all.” David appreciated the fact that Movable Type gave him control of his own blog installation. “Movable Type allowed me to do anything I wanted to with my blog,” he says.

Today, Largehearted Boy is filled with music recommendations, interviews, book reviews and cultural insights, and is read by fans, musicians and authors around the world.

Among its rich trove of content are insightful interviews with musicians and authors from John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats to Alina Simone. Another gem is the Books Notes Series, authors from Lauren Graff, author of Monsters of Templeton to Amy Shearn, author of How Far is the Ocean From Here  share songs that are connected thematically to their work.

David’s Book Notes Series has not only been a reader favorite, it has also been important for authors: both Richard Lange, author of Dead Boys, and Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Bright Forever, included his Book Notes essays in the paperback versions of their book.

Another of David’s series is Note Books, in which musicians discuss their literary side, featuring notable names from Patton Oswalt to John Vanderslice.

Over the years, Largehearted Boy has received lots of love from the press, with mentions from Salon.com to the Times Online to the Wall Street Journal.

Even more meaningful to David than the press is the feedback he gets from readers. “Blogging is filled with daily kindnesses,” he says, “no matter how many readers you have.”

Making the Leap to Blogging Full-Time

In 2007, David quit his job as a systems administrator to become a full-time blogger. Supported by advertising revenue and consulting opportunities, he’s now able to blog for a living. “Going full time changed the way I blogged,” David says. “I created a routine that I stick to every day, and I treat it like a job.” He writes his featured post each morning, and spends the afternoon posting and collecting information and notes for the next day.

He also has a sidekick to keep him company. “My wife and I decided that we would get a dog when I started blogging full time,” he says. Their terrier mix sits on David’s lap while he blogs; the two take walks around the neighborhood to help break up the day.

David listens to music while he works, making his way through the stacks of CD’s and digital downloads that arrive on his doorstep and in his email box every single day - well over 1,000 per year. “The publishing and music communities have become much more open in the last couple of years,” David reports. “A few years ago, I rarely received a promo CD; now I’m deluged with them.” He logs everything that comes in, but maintains a strict policy of only writing about what he likes.

How does David manage it all? “My wife is in school,” he chuckles, “so I’m lucky in that I can blog while she’s studying, and more than that - she’s very understanding.”

No matter how busy his schedule gets, David turns the computer of at 10 pm. “It has been incredibly rewarding to create something out of nothing,” he says. “Now I can dictate my own future.”
 

A New Model for Global News

March 8, 2007 was an auspicious day for two reasons: it marked the annual celebration of International Women’s Day and the launch of The WIP - The Women’s International Perspective,  an ambitious news site that publishes unique and timely views from women around the globe.

The WIP was founded by Katharine Daniels, a passionate educator and world traveler with an ear for a good story. With a Masters in Applied Linguistics and a history of working on social causes, Katharine began to notice a void in mainstream media. “Through my travels over the years, I started to realize that the stories people shared with me weren’t the ones I read about in the news. These stories were personal and experiential; I could connect with them, and they meant so much more to me than an official news item from a large publication.”

Even more urgent than the lack of personal stories was the dearth of stories written by women. “Our natural instinct as women is to find solutions that directly benefit the communities where we live,” says Katharine. She began to form a vision for a site written exclusively by women writers, filled with powerful, compelling stories about real lives and tangible issues.

Katharine was a TypePad blogger, and was familiar with Six Apart’s other products, including Movable Type. She added Movable Type to her list of possible software options, but wasn’t initially sure that it was the right platform for her project.

“One of my biggest concerns in choosing software was that I didn’t want my site to look like a blog,” says Katharine. “I wanted it to look like a news website.” She created a development brief of everything she wanted to accomplish with the site, and began to search for developers. “The first few people I talked to weren’t a fit,” she recalls. “So I decided to contact Six Apart directly.”

She met with David Jacobs of Apperceptive, now part of Six Apart Services, and explained her vision. “David 'got it' in one shot,” she enthuses. “It was brilliant - they took my brief and created the site exactly as I imagined it to be. It was a marriage made in heaven.”

The WIP was built entirely in Movable Type in about six weeks. Six Apart Services provided the complete site design, configured and customized the Movable Type installation, and made it easy for site members to create their own profiles. WIP site members can even subscribe to an email newsletter that's fully integrated with the site's publishing system. The finished site launched just in time for the International Women’s Day celebration on March 8.  

Brave Voices, Real Issues

Today, The WIP is read around the world, and covers a broad range of issues, from poverty to global warming to the political landscape, using personal stories from over 100 writers in 35 countries. “We’re giving women the opportunity to write about what matters to them,” says Katharine. “In the process, we’re helping to create change.”

Katharine makes it clear that though the articles are written by women, the issues matter to everyone: “When we talk about a woman’s perspective, we aren’t simply talking about ‘women’s issues’ - but rather a whole range of complex topics from diverse women around the world.”

The WIP is headquartered in Monterey, and works closely with the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which assists with fact checking. News Editor Aralena Malone-LeRoy is located in Paris, while Features and Photo Editor Sarah McGowan works out of Los Angeles.

The stories on The WIP are as diverse as they are hard-hitting: from Julie Chowdhury of Sweden on the global water crisis to Cheery Zahau of Burma on the rape of ethnic women by Burmese soldiers, the site courageously addresses a range of difficult, complex and painful topics.

The WIP is now hosting offline events, such as a public talk at Columbia University featuring an accomplished panel of women well-versed on issues such as human rights, the economy and education.

In the future, The WIP will continue to expand both online and offline with a clear mission: “Our goal in gathering these stories is to listen and learn so that we can find solutions together,” says Katharine.
 

For years, Alder Yarrow was one of those guys whom everyone wishes they had in their back pocket: he kept obsessive notes about the restaurants he went to and the wines he drank, and they weren’t just random scribbles - they were the real deal. “I was the go-to guy about food and wine for my friends and family,” he recalls. “I found myself answering the same questions over and over, and knew there must be a better way of delivering that information.”

In 2004, Alder typed “wine blog” into a Google search bar and got zero results. Then he typed in “Vinography” - and got “Address Not Found.” As a busy Internet consultant, Alder was aware of blogging, but hadn’t yet explored it. “Blogs were becoming reasonably established by that time,” he remembers. “It not only seemed like a good way to get my notes out, but it was also a smart business strategy to learn more about blogs.”

Alder began researching blog tools, and came across Movable Type. “I wanted complete control over the design,” he says. “Movable Type seemed like the most powerful piece of software out there.”

And thus Vinography was born. Alder began posting about wines he liked and restaurants he had visited in a friendly, straightforward style that resonated with readers. Several times a week, he posted thoughtful, extensive notes about wines he liked; he attended events and tastings, and posted comprehensive lists of wines he had tasted, scored with his own system, often complete with price points. His insightful, detailed posts revealed a consistent theme: he was crazy about wine.
 
Four years later, Vinography has become one of the most respected wine blogs in the world. From breaking stories like the tattletale scandal at Wine.com  to calling foul on wine snobs, Vinography is on the short list of anyone interested in wine, from top wine writers and critics to everyday oenophiles. 

His consistent, even-handed writing has made Alder Yarrow a respected wine expert, in demand at wine-related events around the world. Earlier this year, he led two packed wine seminars at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic, one of the toniest food and wine events in the U.S. Later this year, he will present for the third time at the Professional Symposium of Wine Writers; in 2009, he’ll be a judge at the Chilean Wine Awards.

Despite the accolades, it still feels somewhat unreal to Alder: “I’ve gone from being some guy with a notebook who likes wine and knows a little bit about it to someone who is globally recognized as a wine journalist and critic.” He pauses. “And that’s utterly gobsmackingly unbelievable.”

Vinography is now running on Movable Type Pro, and Alder notes that many of the plugins he used in the previous version are now built into the core platform. “I experienced significant performance enhancements when I upgraded to Movable Type Pro,” he says.

In September, Alder took a trip to South Africa, where he was invited on behalf of an industry group called Wines of South Africa to investigate the growing wine community there. Which raises the issue: now that Alder has become so influential in the wine community, how does he deal with the bevy of wineries who want to curry his favor?

“I maintain a strict ethics policy,” he reports. “I don’t go to events sponsored by one specific winemaker. I don’t go to lunch with people representing an individual winery or wine company. I only attend events where a large number of wineries are represented. I get hundreds of bottles of wine every month, and I taste every single one of them, but I only write about the ones that really excite me. Period.” Vinography generates more than enough revenue to pay for itself, and Alder plans to continue running his consulting business and keep Vinography as a rewarding hobby.

One question remains: with a hugely popular blog, a thriving internet consultancy, a wife and brand new baby daughter, how does Alder Yarrow do it all? “I don’t watch TV,” he laughs. “Seriously, look at the statistics - not watching TV gives me several hours more a day than most people. I’m very efficient with my time, and my wife is very understanding.”

On behalf of all of us who count on Vinography to help us navigate the world of wine, we offer our sincere gratitude to Alder’s wonderful wife - and hope he never develops a TV habit.

When Sam Javanrouh moved from Tehran, Iran to Toronto, Canada in 1999, he left behind many friends and family members. He wanted to stay in touch and let people know about his new life in Toronto - but he wanted to show them what it was like, not tell them.

Sam purchased a digital camera and began to carry it with him everywhere, documenting his new city one photograph at a time. He captured idyllic street scenes, the glowing nighttime cityscape, and clouds that looked as if they were painted on canvas. Every few days, he attached a few photos to an email and sent it to friends and family. The system worked, but not perfectly - not all email systems accepted large photos, and he felt uncomfortable “pushing” photos at people.

Then, in 2003, Sam discovered Movable Type. “It was the best blog software out there,” he says. “It allowed me to customize my design so that I could display large images with very few words, which is exactly what I wanted.”
 
Sam named his blog Daily Dose of Imagery, with the implied goal of posting one photograph every day. Though he had a full-time job as a creative director, he felt that the project would motivate him to explore his fascination with digital photography. He is entirely self-taught as a photographer; his early interest in the visual arts was spurred by his father, a cinematographer.

“Daily Dose of Imagery is a very personal project,” he says. “I post different types of images and all kinds of subject matter - I do have a definable style, but I love to experiment and try new things.”

Personal though it was, Sam’s project didn’t stay under the radar for long - with his uncanny eye for composition and the vivid sense of place in his photographs, people soon began to take notice. In a matter of months, mega-sites from BoingBoing to Forbes began linking to Daily Dose of Imagery. Since then, the site has garnered a staggering number of awards, from Best Canadian Photoblog to Photobloggies’ Best Photoblog of the Year. The site averages 50,000 unique visitors per day, sometimes double and triple that on days when one of his photos gets linked from a top site. Movable Type’s robust architecture handles traffic spikes with ease, so the site never goes down.

Over the years, the blog has brought a number of wonderful connections and opportunities into Sam’s life. When he posted a photo titled Jumping Girl taken at star architect Daniel Libeskind’s new addition to the Royal Ontario Museum, the architect’s office rang, asking Sam to take photos of the museum for the firm. “Libeskind is one of my heroes,” he says. “It was really exciting.”

When he compared one of his photos to a world within the game Myst, the legendary creator of the game contacted him, and the two exchanged emails. “I never had any idea that this kind of thing would happen when I started my blog,” Sam says today.

Yet another satisfying serendipity has been the way that Daily Dose of Imagery has inspired people to visit Toronto. “I get emails from all over the world,” Sam says. “Japan, Brazil, you name it - they tell me that they had no idea what Toronto looked like, and now they’re visiting based on my blog.” He chuckles. “I tell them ‘If you don’t like Toronto,’ don’t blame me.’”

Today, Sam maintains his full-time job as a creative director, while still posting to Daily Dose of Imagery every single day and fielding requests for licensing and photography assignments. “I haven’t missed posting a day since I began,” he says. He continues to experiment with different techniques, including dramatic composite shots, time-lapse shots of a single scene, and a recent project where he compiled hundreds of still shots into a video.

“Movable Type has never let me down,” Sam reports. “Because the Movable Type architecture is so open, it allows me to do whatever I want, from videos to Flash. I love being able to try out new things and share them.”
 

We've been championing blogging in the enterprise for years, so we are thrilled to note that one of the biggest and most respected enterprises in the world is blogging on Movable Type.

Blogs.Oracle.Com (BOC) is managed by the Oracle Technical Network and consists of hundreds of blogs authored by both employees and Oracle partners. Technologists, scientists, marketing professionals, and groups all maintain Movable Type blogs that aggregate up to Blogs.Oracle.Com, and the result is a rich view into the diversity and vitality of the company and its ecosystem.

The technology underlying BOC was developed by Oracle Asia Research and Development Center, a group located in the Asia Pacific that is tasked with creating innovative solutions based on Oracle technology. They chose to implement the Movable Type platform atop Oracle's Content Database to create a scalable network of hundreds of blogs.

Blogs.Oracle.Com is a space where collaboration, communication and knowledge sharing can take place across the enterprise and with partners and customers. Both internal and external blogs enable Oracle teams to interact with each other, vendors and customers quickly and efficiently.

Prior to implementing Movable Type, the company had been using a platform that did not provide RSS capabilities, entry tagging, or the ability to post different types media. Now, as one Oracle blogger writes, "we are finally catching up." And catching up they are - Oracle bloggers are already off to a great start, creating content and developing a dialogue around many key business areas.

Among the blogs on the BOC are a Social CRM blog, the Oracle Open World Blog, and the OTN Tech Blog written by head of the Oracle Technical Network Justin Kestelyn.

Blogging within and without the enterprise - especially on the scale of Blogs.Oracle.Com - is a tremendous show of confidence for this medium, and we look forward to watching Oracle use the Movable Type platform to connect and communicate more powerfully than ever before.

Kevin Cornell describes himself as a writer of excruciatingly banal prose with an inferiority complex, but don't let that stop you from checking out his blog. Clever, droll and only occasionally serious, this talented illustrator has created a cheeky site populated with characters that include a sock monkey named Mojo, a turtle-man and a temperamental pot-bellied stove.

Would you expect anything less from the man who named his blog Bearskinrug?

In 2002, Kevin Cornell was a graphic designer working mainly in Flash. Encouraged by friend and fellow designer Jason Santa Maria, he created the first iteration of his blog in Movable Type 2. "I wanted to interact with people," he explains. "And I wanted something that would make it easy for me to write and publish online."

He also had another nascent goal: to begin drawing again. After years of working in digital animation, Kevin had a yen to dust off his pencils. "If I had set out to create a big website, I never would have done it," he says today. "But because I could take small steps, and upload illustrations as I created them, I was able to start drawing again and get feedback."

He continually revised the design of Bearskinrug as he upgraded to newer versions of Movable Type; in true designer form, he chronicles the evolution of his designs in a gallery on his blog, where he has also showcases his drawings and other work.

But Bearskinrug is far more than just a portfolio site; Kevin has proven to be an adept comic with a droll writing style that has attracted a loyal following from all over the world.

Perhaps it has something to do with his comment form, which encourages readers to leave a "witty bon-mot or clever repartee," but Kevin's readers are in on the game. "There's a genuine sense of fun on my site," he says. "My readers are smart and clever, and I've rarely had to delete a comment."

Not only has Bearskinrug become a valuable forum for interaction and inspiration, but Kevin's decision to create a blog also paved the way for a new career path. "I probably wouldn't be an illustrator today if I didn't have a blog," he says thoughtfully.

Today, Kevin's work as a freelance illustrator spans a broad range of projects, from graphic novels to editorial pieces to storyboarding for films. "My blog is the only marketing tool I use," he explains. "I don't know of any other way of marketing that would be more effective."

Most gratifying even than pursuing a career he loves is the sense of having built something special: "I've created this large archive of drawings and articles that I'm proud I made instead of letting them sit in my head," Kevin says.

If that isn't one of the finest justifications we've ever heard for blogging, we don't know what is.

The riddle of how to increase search engine rankings is one of the hottest topics in business today. A high Google ranking almost certainly leads to greater visibility and increased revenue, and the secret of SEO has become the holy grail.

As search traffic continues to expand, web design and development firms are scrambling to integrate SEO-friendly practices into their offerings. For web development firm Portent Interactive, the topic isn't new at all; for the past 13 years, improving search engine metrics has been central to the value they bring their customers. Known for their deep SEO knowledge, this Seattle-based firm is often tasked with helping clients improve search engine rankings.

For some of those clients, the answer is to build a website in Movable Type. "From an SEO perspective, publishing and updating often is key to increasing search engine rankings," says Ian Lurie, principal of Portent Interactive. "Because Movable Type makes it so simple to publish and update web content, it has become a valuable tool that we use to help our customers reach their SEO objectives."

Lurie describes Portent Interactive as an Internet marketing agency, where clients not only come for nuts and bolts development but also for strategic help in creating a strong online presence. From building online e-commerce sites to creating internet marketing strategies for small- and medium-sized businesses, the 29-person team at Portent uses a comprehensive approach to help clients succeed.

No matter the project, one objective remains the same: creating sites that are easy to update. "Movable Type is easy for our clients to get their heads around," Ian says. "It doesn't have a lot of extra features that they don't want. We show them how to log in and use all the basic functions so that they can quickly publish and manage content." Using Movable Type's Pages functionality, Portent builds websites that are customized to each client's needs - some of which include a blog as part of the site, and some of which do not.

For Groomstand, a site that provides high-quality gifts for groomsmen, Portent Interactive used the Movable Type asset manager to enable the company to manage a wide variety of products and images and publish a wide variety of content.

For business consultant Fred Janssen and business development coach Lenora Edwards, Portent designed sleek, professional sites in Movable Type that enabled these independent professionals to reach a broader audience.

Portent Interactive uses their own website as a showcase of how a custom site can be built on Movable Type. Various staff members regularly post on the firm's blog, providing valuable search engine tips, content management strategies and much more. Ian Lurie's book Conversation Marketing provides yet another layer of insight to potential clients, and cements Ian's position as a guiding voice in the marketing dialogue of the Web 2.0 community.

Inside the firm, Portent's developers find that MT simplifies their own internal processes: "Movable Type allows us to implement multiple sites with a single install on our server," Ian reports.  "And that makes us more efficient."

Most importantly, "Movable Type allows us to say 'yes' more often," Ian says. "We combine our SEO knowledge with tools like Movable Type to enable our clients to gain visibility and stand out from the competition."