Dear Bloggers,

I am thrilled to announce the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention – Hosted by Nefesh B’Nefesh, and Powered by WebAds.

The theme of the convention is “Taking JBlogging to the Next Level”.

This convention will be a great opportunity to meet other Jewish bloggers from all around the world, to network, to learn, and just have fun.

There will be panel discussions with leading Jewish bloggers from around the world on issues such as how to be a more influential blogger, how to increase your traffic, and blogging on issues related to Israel and Aliyah.

The keynote speaker will be Zavi Apfelbaum, Director - Brand Management Team, Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel.

Zavi is in charge of a new initiative by the Government of Israel, to promote pro-Israel branding and PR on the Internet, particularly in interactive forums such as blogs.

Among the bloggers on the various panels will be Treppenwitz, Jewlicious, Hirhurim, My Shrapnel, and others (see the website for all the name).

Also offering a special guest performance, direct from America, and right off the special Nefesh B'Nefesh Blogger flight, will be the comedy of FrumSatire.

As it’s a convention (of Jews), there will also be great food.

The convention will be on Wednesday, August 20^th from 5pm to 9pm (Israel time) in Jerusalem.

Space is limited and registration is required, you can register to attend in person, or watch it all by webcam and forum.

Registration is at the following URL:

http://jump2.webadsisrael.com/?WebAds.NBN.JBlogger.Convention

This promises to be an exciting event and we look forward to seeing you all there.

If you have any questions, just email me.

And please, feel free to forward this to other Jewish bloggers who may be interested in attending.

How To Use Your Data - Out of the Box

We have a client who always asks us to break down the geographic data from her campaigns in very different ways.

I happened to ask her why she always wants it that way.

She said that besides all the great leads we supply here, the geographic information supplies here with even more.

From the reports, she learns which communities are interested in her projects. She learns of new neighborhoods of potential buyers. She discovers the relative sizes of the different communities in terms of numbers of potential buyers. She identifies which neighborhoods expressed more interest in terms of relative size.

And what does she do with all that?

She goes out on road shows all the time to the different neighborhoods and communities based on the data we supply her.

Now that’s smart thinking.

A letter from an Advertiser

We received the following letter from one of our advertisers in the "Jewish" community niche. He asked that we send it out to all the publishers who participated in his campaign.

An Open Letter to the Jewish Community of Bloggers,

On behalf of the 2,500 Warm the Needy families, I thank you for your generous and invaluable support. As you may know, this winter has been the coldest Israel has seen in thirty years. Twice, Jerusalem was blanketed with snow. A record number of cold-related deaths were reported. This made our efforts ever so important.

Thanks in significant part to you, Warm the Needy was able to distribute over six hundred heaters this winter as well as assist over 1,500 families with their electric bills.

We could not have possibly done so without your help.

As a grassroots organization, we do everything we can to ensure that 100% of every dollar is spent solely on actual aid work. There are no paid employees but a team of dedicated volunteers who work day and night for the cause.

In partnership with the Israel Electric Corp., we have developed and maintain a sophisticated system spanning the entire country. We continue to work hand in hand with several major aid organizations across Israel battling the severe poverty now affecting over 1,678,000 Israeli classified as living below the poverty line. Our activists are spread throughout the country and ensure every family is dealt with professionally and in a self-respecting manner.

With the winter coming to a close we look back at what we have achieved. Simply stated, through your assistance, we did a tremendous amount.

I wanted to personally thank you all for for your contributions, for your assistance, for your connections, for your kind remarks, and even for just taking an interest.

Best wishes for a healthy and warm winter,

Hershel Puretz
Founder, Warm the Needy