As our site grows every day we want to share some information with you on the way we are operating the project. We call this section «Business Blog» as it is similar to doing a log book where data is recorded in a chronological order. «Blogging» is gaining popularity with more and more people picking up the habit of publishing their experiences and thoughts on the Internet. Our Blog covers various topics — from TOEFL, TOEIC, MBA, GMAT, ESL/EFL test preperation to cultural traditions and current political events.
There will also be some Internet marketing terminology and if you have any questions regarding the information simply let us know.

The Business Blog is written by Torsten Daerr and edited by Alan Townend.

2006 — November 01
Yes, I do admit that I frequently google expressions and word combinations to get a better idea of how popular they might be. Now and then I come across a phrase that clearly has been coined by one particular person. Would you like to see an example? If you are interested in the field of personal development you must have heard of a guy by the name of Steve Pavlina. (In case you haven't, you really should get to make yourself familiar with the information on his website as it provides excellent food for thought.) Now, Steve Pavlina describes himself as 'the most intensely growth-oriented individual you will ever meet'. It goes without saying that googling this very phrase produces only a handful of results, at least at the moment. I actually spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what 'the most intensely growth-oriented individual in the world' would have to say on this issue: Don't do it if someone else can do it better? So, what do is your take on all of this? How 'growth-oriented' an individual are you and what are you really good at doing?

2006 — October 30
Did you know that the number of Internet forums that are related to "ESL -- English as A Second Language" is fairly limited? I would say, there are a about a dozen forums in that field than can be classified as useful and dynamic. By that I mean, you can post any English language question and get a professional response within a few minutes. One of the fastest growing ESL forums is probably englishforums.com which generates about 500 new messages per day. Of course, quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality. The bigger a forum gets, the more difficult it becomes to manage and administer. So far, it seems Frank West and his team have been doing an excellent job, though. Incidentally, we started a discussion about lurkers vs. active forum members in which we explore the psychology of Internet forum users. A 'forum lurker' is a person who follows forum threads without making an active contribution. That means, they only read messages instead of actually writing something themselves. It would be quite interesting to learn what category you fall into?

2006 — October 17
By the end of this week the english-test.net newsletter community will reach the 10,000 mark. Yes, we have mentioned this number often here on in our blog because it is a true milestone, isn't it? I'm sure you have heard of "viral marketing" -- a modern form of "word-of-mouth". Let's say 10% of our readers share the newsletter with 5 of their friends. That would be 5,000 new subscribers who in turn will spread the word to other potential readers and so on. I think 10,000 could be defined as a "critical mass", some kind of magic number that connects us with a place where the sky is the limit. In other words, our newsletter has developed into a medium that can get a message to people all over the world. So, in a few days a new newsletter era will start...

2006 — October 05
It has occurred to me that the word "newsletter" might not really describe what Alan Townend has been publishing since 2003. Most website owners normally operate an email list so they can notify their users about new site features or materials. This means, you usually read the same piece of information several times in different places. That's not Alan's approach. Every issue of his ezine is unique and tells a story rather than merely stating facts. What's more, he shares his personal experiences with you and he does it in a very special way. I asked him how he himself would describe his email publication and here are a number of suggestions he made regarding the title:

• Saying it in English
• Talking of English
• The English Way
• This is English
• Telling you all about English
• All you want to know about English
• Exploring English Words
• Exploring English
• Discovering English
• English Anecdotes
• English in Anecdotes
• Different ways with words
• All ways with words

The list above is the result of what some people like to call a "brainstorming session". It gives an idea of what you can expect from the emails you will receive after joining our mailing list. It's my job now to come up with better methods of spreading the word. For example, in the upcoming issues we could include a short paragraph asking our readers if they know anybody who will benefit from Alan's materials as well.
So what about it? I mean you surely know somebody who is interested in English anecdotes and exploring words?