As some of you may know, for me blogging started out primarily as an electronic newsletter. It sidewinded into a book deal opportunity, online writing opportunities, marketing consulting engagements, start-up job offers, angel investor inquiries, and my recent position at 21Publish as COO. Three of these opportunities (which I closed) are international relationships. There are a number of other opportunities baking as well, some related to blogging, others not.
If you are interested in another source of information on doing business online, the concept of a "virtual handshake" and a book by the same name, is being promoted by Harvard Business School alum and CEO of Nitron Advisors, David Teten, at a blog here.
An excerpt of the book is here. Here’s a snip of that excerpt that provides some great context about why you should consider learning more:
Most professionals meet new people and maintain relationships the same
way they did 50 years ago—with phone calls, letters, and face-to-face
meetings. However, today you can use social software to build and
leverage a much larger and more effective network. Even if you do not
use these technologies yourself, your competitors are—to gain an
advantage over you, or at a minimum to learn more about you. Whether
you choose to participate or not, social software will impact you. 84
percent of American Internet users have used the Internet to contact or
get information from an online group–more than have used the Internet
to read news, search for health information, or to buy something.