A little celibration for myself: ErwinVanLun.com. has since today a Google page ranking of 4, Chatbots.org has, since the press release last week, a Google page ranking of 3. Not yet spectacular, Mensmerk (the Dutch version of ErwinVanLun.com) scores a lot better, but this means that the pages are becoming easier to find and that terms such as 'futurist', 'trend analyst' or 'speaker' also have more of a chance internationally. Both sites are part of my international stratergy. I hope to base myself in Sydney in the near future. In my vision ErwinVanLun.com will then become the leading site and will eventually have 10 times as many visitors as Mensmerk (whilst Mensmerk must also attract 10 times as many visitors as it does now). Finished, just wanted to share the good news!

Mensmerk.nl statistics show that a lot of people still use all kinds of old feeds. This is not a big problem, as everything works, but lists like the Dutch blog50 count the number of bloglines subscribers on the new feed. Because of that, I am ranked too low. So I urge you to please change your feed to http://www.mensmerk.nl/nl/feed. Little effort, great results! Thanks!

In January 2008, Chatbots.org had its soft launch. This site presents all chat bots in the world. This is not just handy for the consumer, but also for developers as a benchmark, and as a promotion for their own bots. Brands owning chat bots as well as platform developers support this initiative. Chatbots.org seeks to support the development of dialogues between brands and their customers. The site is paid for by advertisements (especially around the word 'chat'). Since the introduction the site has grown continuously, although this is definitely not enough yet considering the worldwide market. I am now looking for someone to help me with the content and promotion of this site, on a commercial basis.

For the development of the current version of Erwinvanlun.com 1.5 I have enjoyed working with Lodewijk Schutte. Unfortunately he has too many projects at the moment, forcing him to end our collaboration. For this reason, I am looking for a talented, freelance ExpressionEngine programmer. Maybe you?

Yesterday night we had the first jury meeting for the SpinAwards, the interactive prizes in the Netherlands, for the category 'best website'. 83 entries had been submitted, and we each had gone over them individually. This night we had to come to a joint nomination. Everyone using their own laptop (80% of which Apples), lead by Kirian Cousin and Stephan Fellinger, we started working. It was a lot of work, but we managed to decide on the nomination. To be continued. In the picture a moment is captured in which the members of the jury were standing together (you can see me in the window )

Mensmerk.nl, the Dutch origin of this website, had already made it to the long list (top 10) for the Dutch Bloggies, the prizes for web logs in the Netherlands. Meanwhile I have made it to the shortlist (top 5) in the marketing as well as the design categories. Exciting...

Do you want to take your future in your own hands? Do you want to be completely informed about the latest trends? Do you want to communicate that more and more? Do you work correctly? Can you write quick and without mistakes? And maybe do you have your own blog already that costs a lot of time, but doesn't bring you much yet? Then it might be time for us to start working together!

From today under the header 'keep on track' in the top right corner it no longer reads 'trendupdate' but 'newsletter'. This because I came across the word 'newsletter' a lot in the site's search function. A learning point. The newsletter itself will still be called 'brandupdate' and the email address will remain 'TrendUpdate'. The word 'brand Update' is already in the graphic design and I can't get it changed today. All in all I call my newsletters TrendUpdates, with a specialisation in brands, so a 'Brand Update'.

The moral of this story: always use the terms your customers use. I always say that, but I hadn't implemented it completely right yet. And make sure there are synonyms. That's too much work right now, but still it's also solved through a simple workaround. This post can later be found in the search function through just about any term, with or without spaces. Go ahead and check. Enfin, click here to sign up for the Trend Update (almost 1800 subscribers).

Mensmerk.nl, the Dutch origin of this website, has been added to the long list for Dutch Bloggies in the category best design. This is fun! . More info about the development of this site you will find here.

Mensmerk.nl, the Dutch origin of this website, has conquered the 8th position in the Dutch Marcom top 100. About a half year ago Mensmerk had the 13th position. Then the Technorati Index was added to the scoring. As I seemed to score low on that index, Mensmerk fell to place 18. Last month the MarketingFacts editorial team graded Mensmerk with an 8 (only 4 sites in the Netherlands are given that grade), and with that Mensmerk again rose to place 13. My call for my fans to vote for Mensmerk last month resulted in conquering the 8th place: the top 10 position I've been aiming for. Even so, I can improve a thing or two...

Today I have started to here and there promote Chatbots.org, where you can find an overview of chat bots on the web and in Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger). In my old website the chatbot page was a popular page, but it didn't fit in the concept of Erwinvanlun.com. When I launched Erwinvanlun.com I kept the chat bot page, only separate from the site. And now I had it restyled. What is nice about this website is that the content is maintained by the chat bot suppliers themselves. This is actually pretty logical, as it is in their interest too to show the size and the growth of the market. For me, it is part of my mission: help marketers add value to the lives of consumers. And if you want to add value, you have to first start listening. We are slowly discovering the art of listening, and Chatbots.org illustrates this development.

On January 15, 2008 the Buzz Awards will be given out in the Netherlands. These are awards for the most 'buzzed about' products of 2007. What product or service did we most talk about, did we recommend to each other, or buzz to each other? I myself am proud to be one of the judges. From the nominations consumers have proposed over the last month, we selected 25 products for the grand finale of the Buzz Award 2007. And another 10 products for the category forecast 2008 (products or services that haven't been buzzed about a lot in 2007, but which we expect a lot of for 2008). Now it is up to the Buzzers. We'll see the end result in January!

A new season, a new appearance, an international approach! With pride I present the first international version of Mensmerk.nl, in the domain ErwinVanlun.com. With many new functions, with much new content, and especially a completely new image. An image that very much is part of me. An image that really feels like: 'that is me'! I think I have been able to combine my personality, my competence, and my ambition, in one website. A site that took 9 months to develop, a site various people have helped me build, and an site I am proud to present to an international public. In this posting much more detail, but of course you can just read the next postings. At this site after all I will closely follow the developments in media, marketing, en brands. That stays the same! And it keeps going. Every day.

I made up a work title for my new book: Pamper Planet. This book describes what the world will look like in 2050. After we have gone through a tumultuous time, we will get a period of rest, peace and safety being the worldwide standard. Pamper Planet describes a very soft, friendly world in which basically everything seems to be in balance. A world in which every resident will be completely pampered. A world which has elements of paradise. That world we are building now. Daily we take small steps in this direction. And 2015, the year I write about regularly, is just an intermediate stage (like 2050 will be as well).

That world is partly visualized in some Science Fiction films. It is a combination of The Matrix, A Space Odyssey, West World, The Game, Minority Report, 1948, and Demolition Man. I don't watch movies so often, but there must be many more movies showing elements we can expect in 2050. All things to be researched after the summer. The question now is of course: do you think 'Pamper Planet' is an appealing title? I already registered the domain name, just in case . Let me know!

Related trends

• 2050-2100: Pamper planet

Since the publication of my book 'Van Massamerk naar Mensmerk' (From Mass Brand to Personal Brand) in August 2005 many people have asked me if the summary was available in English. I have always wanted to do that, but because of my focus on the Netherlands I never really got to do it. Very recently however I have started working on a new, more international book, and I am looking for international cooperation. For this I very much needed the English summary of my first book: see the translation below (in cooperation with Winning Letters). The new book by the way has the same theme: the future and its impact today, but it has a very wide scope (society, economy, marketing, with much more attention for the human species) instead of a very narrow scope (brands). Brands will still make an important part of the book, because I think they will gain a lot of importance in the lives of consumer compared to their importance in the 21st century. To be continued...

Related trends

• Coaching brands