That everyone will find what they are searching for in 2009 and most of all: all the happiness and good health in 2009!

I love to write. I get a kick out of it. That’s why I write on this blog for example. Except for the last couple of weeks when I haven’t been writing here as much as I wanted to… Why? Look below for a preview. My lines are needed elsewhere for now. But more explanation will follow! This week!

It’s been quit on this blog the last couple of weeks. That is because I’ve been very busy. Off course with my job but also with making this blog better and with writing for Dutch Cowboys. Also this is the event-season. I’m visiting a lot of events. Last week I was at E-Day, this week I’m at PICNIC. As usual I will be reporting these on Dutch Cowboys.

This also means I will be getting a lot of information I can use in my job and also here on this blog. So when I get back I will have lots to write about. So stay tuned, we’ll be right back!!!

The nice thing about the Internet is that you can get many people together really fast. That is something that is for instance done by ‘Blog Action Day 2008‘. This year Blog Action Day wants to battle poverty. I’m not saying that this will bet THE solution, but its a good example of how you can use the web for social matters. And a good reason to become a blogger

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Deze posting in het Nederlands

Maybe it is clear that in the past few months a lot of things have changed on this blog. A new header, a new format, new features and a number of things that have disappeared (including a few new features ).

This weblog has two functions: first off course informing visitors of this blog. I hope that the visitors will ‘take home’ or even ‘learn’ something on this blog when it comes to Internet marketing and/ or Internet project management. A starting point for looking at how you can best organize your online activities. In addition, this is also place where I can give my opinion, but also where I can try out things. And most of the time those ‘things’ are certain online features. For example, the ability to chat live with me on this weblog. Chances are that such a function will disappear again if it is not used enough. But hey, I’ve tried it.

In this post I would like to give a brief overview of all the possibilities that this blog is currently offering and what I still intend to do in the coming months with this blog. That way you as a visitor will get a picture of what you can expect this blog.

Existing and new functionalities

Some features on this blog is already there from the beginning: of course the blog feature itself, but also the books, articles and the shared items on the web have been there for a long time. Some items are relatively new and I would like to briefly give them some attention:

Videochannel 

The videochannel is there since a few months. I have given very little "attention" to it I wanted to give it a little more weight. In the videochannel you can find videos from across the Web. The videos are divided into five categories: Search, Internet Marketing, Learning, Presentations, Blogging, Mobile & Bas van den Beld. The videos are partly videos here on this blog in posts and for another part interesting, educational or just fun videos related to topics discussed on this blog. It is a useful collection absolutely worth exploring. The last video is added to the homepage to be viewed in a special player! Live This section has already been brought to the attention before, but it still deserves some more attention. On this page (live) streams of events that I visit or live streams that I make through Yahoo or Live Qik (mobile phone) are placed. You can always see the latest stream and therefore sometimes live streams. Fun to be able to look live at an event!

Events

I am an frequent visitor of events related to internet marketing, search engine marketing and other Internet-related events. I blog about them at Dutchcowboys and / or here on this blog. On the events page you can find an overview of all upcoming and passed events. A short description of the contents of the event. Convenient to keep your calendar up to date!

Bilingualism

The weblog is currently bilingual. That means that each item is both published in English and Dutch. Although this is quite a lot of work, I think that I’m doing the foreign readers a great pleasure. Presumably the English language section will soon move to www.basvandenbeld.com. This partly because the plugin that I use for bilingualism sometimes is responsible for technical defects (for example take a look at how the date is shown in Dutch).

Flickr

In the sidebar you can find a flickr-feauture. Flickr is a service where you can store your online photos and graphics. The images on this blog for example, I’ve stored there, but also photos of events that I visit and sometimes just ‘interesting’ photos.

What will the future bring?

As said I’m far from being finished with this blog. In the upcoming period a number of issues will be worked on:

English to .com

As said I want to move the English part to the .com domain.

Tools

There will be a section ‘Tools’. Here are handy tools will be placed that you can help improve your website. These may be project management tools, searchtools or other type of tools.

Books

The section ‘Books’ will be radically be changed. Where there are now a number of books described I intend to write reviews of Internet marketing, project management and search engine books. This will be a separate section.

And what else?

Still a lot more likely, because I often think of new things or see interesting things I also want to use. And there will also things disappear. For example the ‘chat with me’ functionality will probably disappear. Simply because it is not used (yet). But who knows that will change in the coming weeks;).

In any case I am very curious about your ideas and thoughts on this. What things should I do or not do? Do you have tips? I like to optimize my weblog so I like to hear from you! Please leave a comment! [lang_en]

The summer holiday for me is often just as new years eve. You make good intentions about what you want to do after the holiday. Work harder, work less hard or do more household chores are examples of those intentions.

For my blog I’ve also made a number of plans. Not only will I keep on improving this weblog (more on this later), I thought it was high time for those long-awaited notification in the Marcom 100. And that is what happened. It almost fell through because off the English part on the site (The Marcom is Dutch only), but from this moment on I am ‘electable’ with this blog for the Marcom. What that means? That you can vote on my blog if you are a member and that I probably will get more name recognition and related press releases from now on. Furthermore, not much more;). This does not mean that I don’t like to score high in the Marcom. Right now I entered as number 149 in the runners up section.

So do what you have to do: put www.basvandenbeld.nl in your favorites on your Marcom page! Are you not a member? No problem, just sign. For tips on other sites I can do the list: Besides off course basvandenbeld.nl: Dutchcowboys.nl Mobilecowboys.nl Searchcowboys.nl Dutchcowgirls.nl Or any other (Dutch) blog from my blogroll at the bottom of this website;)

As loyal readers of my blog will know I try out a lot of features on this weblog. Some work, others don’t. Today I present another new feature from which we will find out in time if it works or not: chat. You can now chat with me directly through this weblog. Off course only when I’m online and not busy !

On the below right part of this weblog you can see if I’m online and you can get in touch with me. Can’t find something on this blog? Ask me! Or do you have another question about internet marketing or projectmanagement? I’m here for you!

We will see in the next periode if this service will stay. I’m curious if it will be used!

Update: in the newest version of this blog this feature has been removed. There were just too little people who wanted to talk to me

[lang_nl]Zoals u kunt zien werkt het rechterdeel van de website door onderhoud niet goed. Ik probeer dit zo snel mogelijk op te lossen. Excuses voor het ongemak.

UPDATE: de belangrijkste problemen zijn opgelost. In de komende dagen zullen er nog wat aanpassingen plaats vinden.

[/lang_nl][lang_en]As you can see the columns on the right are not working well due to maintenance. I’m trying to fix this as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: the most important issues are solved. In the following days some more adjustments will be done.[/lang_en]

Most weblogs have a ‘blogroll’. This is a list of websites and weblogs ‘recommended’ by the author of the weblog. Having a link on that list can sometimes be very interesting for search engine marketing purposes. If you feel the need of putting this weblog in your blogroll I therefore wouldn’t mind : ).

The main reason for putting a link there however, should be the convenience of the reader. It offers the reader ‘more information’ on issues where he or she may be interested in.

Today I have updated my list of websites and weblogs. The list can be seen in the most right column. These sites are what I recommend to read. But perhaps this list isn’t complete. Therefore, I also wonder if you have additions. Which site or weblog should not be missing?

Note: This is not about unscrupulous advertising of your own websites, but an objective demand. So please give constructive comments : ).

The list so far:

Partners  

NetTraject

Dutch Cowboys
Checkit
Cymeq Software
Mobile Cowboys

Weblog NL

Brickmeetsbyte 
Cafe del Marketing 
Creativeions 
Erwin Blom 
Frankwatching
Marketingfacts 
Marketingland 
Mensmerk
Usarchy Usability 
Whelp! 

Blogs (english)

Alexander van Elsas 
Boris 
Inspire 
Jason Calacanis 
TechCrunch 
Techmeme
The Next Web 

Searchblogs

Joost de Valk 
Matt Cutts 
Searchenginewatch 
Searchengineland 
Searchcowboys 
TBBlog 
Wiep

Last Friday night I was in my car back of my ski vacation. At that moment, the Dutch Cowboys – drink in De Jaren in Amsterdam took place. Unfortunately I had to miss it. Fortunately Vincent Everts was there. He interviewed some bloggers from Dutch Cowboys. Very nice to watch!

See below the compilation of the interviews. Check out this page for the DC-interviews and other interviews of Vincent Everts.