As part of my job, I spend a lot of time researching blogs and bloggers that would be interested in a variety of topics including everything from politics to magic. There are an amazing amount of blogs out there and every now and again, I stumble across a blog that is a true gem.

Radicalparenting.com is site that approached parenting from a different perspective, the teenagers. A blog only makes up a portion of the site with those posts covering everything from teen trends to building confidence in teens. In addition to the blog portion of the site there are videos and other resources so parents and teens can get a little closer to being on the same page. Finding a way to bridge the communication gap between parents and teens is a challenge, with RadicalParenting making that gap a little smaller.

Vanessa Van Petten, author and founder of RadicalParenting.com, was kind enough to answer a few questions for the Bub.blicio.us audience. A teen herself when she began to explore the teen mentality, is 24 years old and provides a unique perspective on parenting by providing an opportunity for teens and their parents to connect through the social web.

What inspired you to create Radicalparenting.com?

I wanted to hear the teen voice in all of the parenting blogs out there. What did teens think about their behavior and what parents should do.

Who is the primary audience of your blog?

Parents of tweens and teens.

What type of feedback have you received from teens and their parents?

We have had an amazing response with over 200,000 reading the blog and we get applications for inters every week!

Where do you see Radicalparenting.com going in the next few years?

We plan to have even more teen writers to give them a voice and hopefully a few partnerships to expand our webinar and ebook offers.

As someone who is neither a teen or a parent, it’s interesting to read through issues and topics that are important to teens and how much that demographic has evolved since I was a teen and will continue to evolve. During my teen years, I would have loved having a resource like this so I wouldn’t have to explain to my parents what a Facebook wall is or what LOL means, I would just direct them to this site and roll my eyes (yep, I was an eye roller as a teen). There are also great opportunities for teens to participate in the site as a contributer and intern.

Have any Friday Find recommendations? Email me at stephanie@future-works.com

It’s official. The FTC has released guidelines requiring bloggers to fully disclose when they are being paid for reviews. If they don’t, they are chancing up to an $11,000 fine, according to the Associated Press. (Note – The FTC press release does not mention the amount of the fine.) Blogs or not, these guidelines apparently haven’t been updated since around 1980. It was time. The Guides, however, affect more than bloggers. The new updates apply to advertising across the board.

According to the FTC, the revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising require a reviewer or ad to clearly disclose the results that consumers can expect from the product. In other words, that old “results not typical” isn’t going to fly any more. The Guides also ask for clear disclosure:

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

Additionally, the Guides now address celebrity endorsements, holding both the company and the endorsers responsible for false claims. The revisions require that celebrities must make their affiliation clear when making endorsements outside of traditional marketing, including talk shows and social media.

I don’t see that this will be too much of a problem. Most of the bloggers I know (and myself included) always reveal when we receive free samples, whether technology or wine. Those of us who review technology often have to give the technology back. With wine and food, that’s not possible, but most wine bloggers reveal complimentary samples without a second thought. I suspect this will have more impact on bloggers who accept payment in cash or merchandise for reviewing a product. As Mashable points out, the Ford Fiesta and General Mills bloggers (amongst others) are going to have to be crystal clear about disclosing their relationship.

While I know some bloggers will be ranting about the unfairness of this, I think it’s a great idea. I’m glad that the FTC has seen blogs as part of legitimate advertising campaigns. It’s what we wanted, right?

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

By Miiko Mentz (@MiikoMentz on Twitter)

It’s now just a matter of time before newspapers try to start charging for online access to their stories, and it’s got me thinking: what is this going to do to Twitter and blog link love? I’m a huge proponent of using Twitter or blogs to share links and to click on links of interesting stories.

Sure, many blogs and online-only sites produce quality content, but let’s face it, many bloggers as well as Twitter users rely heavily on linking to “old” media sites, and I’m no exception. In fact, I’ll do it now. Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that News Corp. executives have met with other newspaper publishers – believed to include the New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., Hearst Corp. and Tribune Co. – to discuss the creation of a consortium to charge online subscriptions or micropayments for access to stories on people’s computers, smart phones or other mobile devices. With ad revenue dropping and print subscriptions declining dramatically, I don’t blame the publishers for trying to come up with a new revenue-generating model to survive.

It’s questionable whether consumers will subscribe or simply switch to another news provider that will provide stories for free. The LA Times article quotes a former journalist who says it best: “The reality is that unless a lot of people who produce news act in unison to start charging for content, then individually they will fail,” said Alan D. Mutter, a former newspaper columnist and editor and consultant on new media ventures.

That’s a great point. And it also sounds like Twitter link love is going to potentially get less enticing. Say a friend Tweets a story about “Great Examples of How to Use Twitter in Business” – something I’d be interested in — and the friend provides a link via Bit.ly, TinyURL, is.gd or some other URL shortener. Today, I rarely click on a link and see a “need subscription” notice. (I mean, the main Washington Post Web site currently requires a free username and password, but when I view the site on my iPhone, I can see the stories without ever having to log in. And I do a lot of my newspaper reading on my iPhone). But with a consortium in place to charge for online content, I bet I’ll be gunshy about clicking a link when 75 percent of the time, I get a need subscription notice.

Every time I click on a URL shortener, I will wonder: is this free? Will I have to pay and need to subscribe? Worse yet, what if I have a micropayment plan in place and the story sucked and was really, “Rudimentary Examples of How to use Twitter in Business and Unless You’re a Moron, You Won’t Learn Anything New If You Read this.” It may cost me five cents to find out, but still, five cents is five cents and it adds up.

Online subscriptions and micropayments will also affect me when I tweet. If it’s a breaking news story I want to share with my friends and colleagues, and I want to ensure they can see it for free, I’ll have to dig a little harder to find free links. Rather than linking to SFGate for example, I might have to find a small town daily newspaper that links to AP stories for free.

I know I’m throwing out a problem that doesn’t yet exist, but it’s something to start pondering. Perhaps maybe when we tweet a link that requires a subscription, before the link you put (NS) as an identifier that the story needs a subscription. It’s something the Twitter and blogging community at large could find a solution for.

Then again, this newspaper consortium can try to charge for a few months, realize it’s a complete disaster, and revert back to free again.

Have you noticed that the people in your Twitter stream seem to be turning green?

It’s not with envy and it’s not eco-conscious. Green is a new meme that shows support for those in Iran, speaking out against the election results. If you look at the trending topics, #IranElection has been hanging out at the top for several days.

I saw someone tweet that turning your avatar green isn’t really going to help anyone or anything, but I respectfully disagree. It’s a small way to help show solidarity with those who are speaking out. It’s good to know you’re not alone.

The Green meme was most likely started by Arik Fraimovich, a “friendly web-geek” in Israel. His HelpIranElection page has several ways you can go green with your avatar.  Many people are also taking their blogs or Facebook photos green as well.

Alternatives to going green? I added a green ribbon to one of my images using Photoshop, and you can also download Show Support avatars. You can show your support in other ways, by following these tips on BoingBoing.

How to Go Green:

Quick One-Click Go Green App from Arik (automatically adds a green tint)

Green Support Avatars

Green Ribbon (I used Photoshop to add the ribbon)

Use Picnik.com to add a “Night Vision” effect to an image

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Vote for Michelle and then tell all your friends!

More information at http://www.rainbowgoode.com

Good: Amazon launched a new beta program that lets you offer your blog on the Kindle. I love that. I always wondered how certain blogs got in there and the rest of us were left without an option.

If you go to the Kindle Blogs page, you’ll see a link for the beta program in the left-hand colum. Just click it to to sign yourself up. Fill out all the required information, include images, and agree to the Terms of Service, and your blog will be available within 12-48 hours.

Amazon sets the price (not you) and there’s no way to give your blog away for free, which I might have done had I the option. Instead, Amazon set the price for my blog at $1.99 and I get 30% of that subscription price whenever I acquire a new Kindle reader.

This is not a viable income option, really, so don’t go there. It’s more of a nice surprise. Once your blog is approved, it’s available in the Kindle store. I have to admit, it’s kind of neat seeing my blog available for the Kindle but at the same time, I dread any user comments that might appear. Once you’re on Amazon, you open yourself up for user reviews.

Bad: I could have added any blog. Any. Bub.blicio.us is technically Brian’s blog, but I could have added it and collected the money for myself. As TechCrunch discovered, anyone can add TechCrunch even though it’s already one of Amazon’s featured blogs. Amazon is depending solely on the Honor Code (the ToS states you must own the blog).  Hmm … how trusting of Amazon.

Amazon told TechCrunch that

Occasionally, people publish material to which they do not have rights, in violation of the Terms and Conditions for Kindle Publishing for Blogs. In these cases we react vigorously to remove unauthorized copyrighted material.

The listing of a few unauthorized blogs was unfortunate and we have subsequently removed those titles.

So whether you decide to publish to Amazon or not, make sure you pay attention that no one else publishes your blog for you.

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel
Sites: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

by Michelle Lentz

Those good folks over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have updated their Legal Guide for Bloggers. Similar to useful Creative Commons Legal Guide for Podcasters, the guide basically tries to clarify all sorts of things that might get a well-meaning blogger in trouble. The guide clears up things such as online defamation, intellectual property (copyrights!), trade secrets, right of publicity, publication of private facts, and intrusion into seclusion. It also talks about how to deal with online bullies and the wonderful practice of disemvowelling.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help – in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

To be clear, this guide isn’t a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you’re being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.

– EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel, Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Nominee for City Beat’s Best of the City: Vote for My Wine Education under Public Eye > Blog:
http://www.bestofcincinnati.com/

by Michelle Lentz

Seattle has a handle on coffee – and apparently food-oriented web sites. A lot of popular foodie web sites, including Allrecipes.com and UrbanSpoon are located in that fair city, and now they can add Foodista to the list.

Foodista is, at its core, Wikipedia for recipes. I’m not sure how I feel about it. One thing I love about Allrecipes and its ilk is that there are usually several different versions of a given recipe. After all, we all make eggnog differently.

Foodista co-founders are Barnaby Dorfman and Sheri Wetherell. Dorfman is a previous VP of Amazon’s A9 Search group. Additionally, Colin Saunders, a former Amazon developer is involved. The team started building the site in April, creating a rather large repository so that the site would have a nice starting point at launch. (I wish all new sites would do that.)

I signed up for an account and added a recipe for Egg Nog (yum!). It took my basic recipe and prettied it up. That includes adding hyperlinks to each ingredient – you know, in case you want to make your own ice cream for the recipe. Additionally, it allowed me to choose from a selection of Flickr photos related to Egg Nog.

Since I also blogged about nog on my Wine Blog, I was able to link that post to the Foodista entry. Foodista provides a nice link back to my blog post as well, similar to how Urban Spoon links restaurant review posts. I’m a big fan of this convention.

Finally, it has a brief definition of Egg Nog, pulled from Wikipedia, and a comments section, adding to the interactivity.

Now that I’ve entered this egg nog recipe, someone else can edit it, change it, and make comments. It’s an interesting concept. Collaborative recipes are sort of a new thing – most of the chefs I know are rather possessive of their recipes. It’s a neat idea; we’ll see where it takes them.

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more.
Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net
Twitter: @writetechnology
Friendfeed: michellel
Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Young. Female. Entrepreneur.

by Marissa Louie

Darlings, throw your effen hands up. I’m proud of you. Not only are you a Silicon Valley Anomaly, you’re probably really hot too. And under 40.

Fotki

Shabooya sha sha shabooya ROLL CALL! Who here is a young female entrepreneur? My fearless darlings, wear your company logo on your chest. Comment on this post and I’m your new girlfriend for life. Or call me/text me at (510) 375-1941 to join the Girl Gang. The Girl Gangster Entrepreneurs.

You know you’re a young female entrepreneur in the Internet biz when:

-TEAM-

-1- You work for The Man The Woman. What could be better?!
-2- You have an office suite in a Milpitas office park, but you primarily spend time in your Nob Hill San Francisco office space with a kitchen, backyard, overhead projector, and wi-fi. No wait, you turn a hip local coffee shop like Sugar Cafe into your third office so you can do Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur Office Hours with other cool people. Because you, honey, are VIRAL by nature.
-3- You’re the CEO but the rest of the team wants to take care of you. You might even be the youngest person on the team, but have no problem managing others who are twice your age. You have experience, balls, or both.
-4- Your venture has a 80-20 ratio of males to females. Out of your 16 core team members, only 3 are female. You make sure the females and males are treated by merit.
-5- Nobody can truly hurt you. But if somebody tries to hurt your team, it’s OVER for them.

PARTIES AND TIME MANAGEMENT-

-1- You sometimes get caught wearing full-on party gear by your Internet biz friends at non-tech events. And you get away with it. Just make sure your reputation is intact and that you have a healthy work-to-party ratio. Transition between being Plain Jane and Janet Jackson effortlessly.
-2- Angels and VCs – real or fake? You can tell a real Gucci purse from a fake, so you should differentiate the genuine investors from the fake. The genuine ones might be able to really help you. But if they really just want to waste your time fantasizing about you over dinner, Filter. Them. Out.

-REPUTATION-

-1- Your Woman Charm gives you home field advantage. Turn it on at the right times, because you are a rare specimen in the Valley. It helps you stand out in a crowd, at a party, at a press conference, during a video interview. It may even differentiate your blog. Advertise yourself and turn that into revenue.
-2- It’s 11pm and you’re at Safeway after the Digg party. You get introduced to a connector VIP like Sanford Barr of Stirr. He asks what you do. He has a puzzled look on his face when you tell him how your company got started, and you just know he’s seen everything in the Valley. Then he says he knows your company’s name. (You think he’s kiddin’ ya.) But then he even knows your last name. Nice!
-3- You are a rogue. A stubborn, fearless, rogue. You often do the stupid thing. It gets you in trouble at work, with family, with friends, and with love interests. If you channel it correctly and you get a little lucky, it can also propel you towards entrepreneurial success.

-LIFE HACKS-

-1- You no longer have to wear corporate raider gear but can wear lifehack gym clothes that pass as business casual all day long.
-2- On the Caltrain from San Francisco to Palo Alto, you ask an engineer from hi5 how old he thinks you are. He sneaks in a look at your website bio via wireless card. He says, “You can’t be older than 38. You’re definitely not 40. Are you 35?” ZOMG what a compliment.
-3- You’ve managed your own life so that you have no kids, no husband, and no responsibilities to run home to, giving you free reign of your time and energy. Ahh. If there is a male in your life, he is helping you take care of the responsibilities. You may want to consider a Massey Prenup if it’s not too late, though.
-4- You know you don’t need an MBA. Don’t waste the precious youth, vivacity, and money you could’ve spent on your startup on a tier-one B-school just to get contacts. If you really want to take the easy way out, work at a country club or SF Tennis Club for $8 an hour, lead gen, and become a trophy wife.

-HAPPINESS-

-1- Strangers, friends, and your family are proud of you. Except if you have rich a$$ relatives, they might not be so supportive (to which you pay no mind – just look at Paris Hilton versus the Hilton Hotel Family). Accept the good vibes, but don’t embrace it too much lest you get lazy. Don’t let it feed your short-term ego too much either. Because you might be future President of the Billionaire Girls Club and can give back to society for OPK (other people’s kids).
-2- You’ve come to love pain. Because you turn negative into positive like no other, and nobody can break you. You are fearless, fun, female, and you rock. The bounce in your step shows it.
-3- You could cast an entire Les Miserables play with your unhappy yuppie friends. A 5 year run, plus. But you, darling, are passionate and happy.
-4- You just do it. These are your dreams? D@mn the consequences. F**k the naysayers. Because you know that for every year that passes, your risk tolerance as well as your je ne sais quoi diminish. REVOLT! REBEL!

Young female entrepreneurs, if any of this rings a bell with you, JOIN THE GIRL GANG by texting me at (510) 375-1941 anytime because I don’t sleep.

Marissa Louie is the Founder and CEO of AD Village (http://ad-village.com) which helps bloggers monetize and advertisers optimize. If you liked this post, you might also like 10+ Funniest Angel and VC Blog Posts and The Future Co-existence of PR and Advertising. She also announces Entrepreneur 2 Entrepreneur office hours via Twitter.