The submissions are in and the final author list for Age of Conversation 2 has been released.  A total of 237 marketing and business bloggers joined forces to write Age of Conversation 2 - Why Don’t People Get It?  The book is currently in the editing stage and should be released later this year with all proceeds going to Variety, the Children’s Charity.

Check out the complete Age of Conversation 2 author list (with links to each author’s blog) below:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem 

One of my favorite blogs for businesswomen, Biz Chicks Rule by Kristen King and Bridget Wright, is hosting a contest where one lucky person can win an iPod Shuffle.  With such a cool prize, I had to give some link love to the contest here at Women On Business.

Just follow the link to enter.  Good luck!

I read a great article by Elinor Robin on WomenEntrepreneur.com called The 7 Components of Positive Partnership where she provides analysis of the seven most important things a partnership has to encompass to be successful.  While the article is targeted to businesses operating as partnerships, the traits apply to any type of partnership you might have in business (e.g., with colleagues, clients, etc.).

Elinor lists these 7 characteristics of a successful partnership:

1. Shared values
2. Complementary skills and traits
3. Sense of equity
4. Growing together
5. Proactive conflict management strategies
6. Shared vision
7. An exit strategy

Each of the traits Elinor discusses is meant to create a stronger team.  The one that stands out the most to me (aside from having the same goals and vision) is #2 - complementary skills and traits.  Whenever I have to build a team, I always look for a team of people who bring different skills to the table but will work together cohesively to ensure all bases are covered, gaps are filled and the strongest team overall is created.

You can read Elinor’s analysis of each characteristic of a successful partnership in her article on WomenEntrepreneur.com.  What other traits do you find to be essential when it comes to developing a successful partnership?

Time for another round of Women’s Words Weekly where I take a look at what businesswomen bloggers were talking about during the previous week.

Donna Maria Coles Johnson of the Indie Business Blog asks What’s Your Exit Plan? where she interviews a Kristen Fraser Cotte who shares her experience in creating a plan to exit her previous career to start a new business with her husband.

Darlene McDaniel of Interview Chatter gives us Social Networking - Secrets of the Job Hunt where she tells readers about a social networking website dedicated to job searchers.

Lisa Moren Bromma of Wise Women Investor shares Challenges Business Owners Face in Today’s Economy where she discusses the top 5 challenges business owners face regardless of size, industry or location.

Jean Murray at Small Business Boomers brings us Nightmare Employees - Some Scary Stories from Boomer Business Owners where she shares some amusing stories about true nightmare employees!

If you read Women On Business frequently, then you know that I blog about branding for a fairly new website, Corporate Eye.  It’s a great group of people and the company is growing quickly.  Currently, Corporate Eye is looking for two more business bloggers to add to the team.  These bloggers will be asked to write about Corporate Careers and Investor Relations.

Blogging is a great way to expand your online presence and further establish yourself as an expert in your field as well as to network with other businesspeople around the world.  If you’re a Corporate Career or Investor Relations expert, then you can follow the link to get more information about the Corporate Eye Blogger Jobs. 

Technorati Tags: Corporate Eye,Corporate-Eye,business blogging,blogging jobs,professional blogging,professional blogger,business blogger,career blogging,investor relations,women in business,businesswomen,women on business

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Last year, Advanta launched a website called ideablob.com where entrepreneurs and small business owners are invited to share their business ideas.  In simplest terms, users submit business ideas and community members give (and get) advice related to those ideas.  Each month, the community votes on the best idea, and the idea with the most votes wins $10,000 from Advanta.

This month, all eight finalists are women, which is very exciting.  The businesses include an afterschool science program, an eco-friendly women-owned clothing company and more.  If you want to vote for your favorite (or submit your own ideas), just visit ideablob.com, register and join the conversation.

I think this is a great idea, and I’m happy that Advanta isn’t burying the usefulness of the site in ads and marketing messages.  I’m certain they’re gathering user information and using it to market Advanta credit cards in some way, but I suppose that’s to be expected.  What do you think?  Have you used ideablob.com?

While women still make up the minority when it comes to holding executive business positions and a gender pay gap exists that is not going to close anytime soon, the media is starting to notice the value of women in business.  In 2008, several large media organizations have launched websites and magazines targeted to businesswomen.

Some of those sites include:

• Journal Women from the Wall Street Journal Online
• Forbes.com Executive Women’s Network coming soon from Forbes.com
• Paralelles.com, an online community for women business owners
• GlobalExecWomen.com
• WomenEntrepreneur.com from Entrepreneur.com

Sounds like a media bandwagon that more and more media outlets will jump on in the near future.  It’s about time!

Time for another round of Women’s Words Weekly where I take a look at what businesswomen bloggers were talking about during the previous week.

Melissa Seymour from Melissa Seymour Small Talk blog shares Small Business Start-Ups, a Sobering Reality where she quotes some findings from the New York Times but adds some hope to the disheartening results.

Allison Boyer at Greener Assets shares Green Flying Tips that will teach you how to be more eco-conscious on your next trip (for business or pleasure).

Celine Roque at Pimp Your Work asks What is a Productive Worker? where she shares a cool slideshow demonstrating that productivity should be linked more closely with results than hours clocked.

Liz Fuller of Business and Blogging asks Business Blogging - Is Your Blog a Failure?  where she shares information from an ezine article that can help you set reasonable expectations and goals for your business blog.

Mary Larsen from Your Design Biz Blog writes Focus, Focus, Focus! where she reminds us to ask ourselves what the tasks we do each day will help us achieve and how to better prioritize those tasks.

A study conducted by Bizjournals.com ranked 112 major occupational groups to determine where how those jobs sized up in terms of pay gaps.  The results paint a picture that is less than desirable for women in business.

Check out the top 10 most equitable occupation groups:

1. Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers
2. Food preparation workers
3. Secondary school teachers
4. Cooks
5. Stock clerks and order fillers
6. Packers and packagers, hand
7. Bus drivers
8. Dispatchers
9. Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food
10. Counselors

Now let’s take a look at the 10 least equitable occupation groups (with #1 in the following list representing the worst, or least equitable occupation group of all):

Continue reading »

Lilly Ledbetter was a manager at Goodyear Tire for 19 years.  During her tenure, she suffered pay discrimination constantly receiving smaller salary increases than her male colleagues.  Ledbetter sued and the jury sided with her, but the Supreme Court said she should get nothing (5 to 4 ruling) because pay discrimination claims must be made within 180 days after pay is set.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg dissented stating that most people don’t know their colleagues’ salaries.

In April, the Fair Pay Act reached the Senate (brought by Senators Edward Kennedy and Arlen Specter) that would change the 180 day time period to file a pay discrimination case.  Rather than 180 days from the time pay is set, the 180 day clock would restart with each discriminatory paycheck.

In response to the Fair Pay Act, Senator John McCain stated that what women really need to obtain equal pay is "training and education."  Suffice it to say, too many Senators held similar, disillusioned views, and the Fair Pay Act was not passed (it was just 3 votes short).

To help fight for fair pay, MomsRising.org has been collecting resumes from women to send to John McCain to demonstrate that the United States is filled with highly experienced and qualified women who deserve equal pay.  Today, women from MomsRising.org delivered 9,000 resumes to Senator John McCain in Washington, D.C. wearing sashes that said "Magnificently Overqualified Mother" and accompanied by television cameras from networks such as CBS and CNN.

Kudos to MomsRising.org for fighting this fight!