Today is world AIDS day.

Although the fight against AIDS has come a long way, there's still a lot of work to do. Scientists have created amazing drugs to combat the affects of the disease. Still, the only cure is not to get infected in the first place. That means talking about it, sharing information, making sure that AIDS stays part of our national and international conversation.

The folks at AIDS.gov understand that. Smartly, they've created a whole campaign aimed at people who LOVE to talk: bloggers. At Blogger's Unite, you will find everything you need to write about AIDS and spread the cure, one post at a time.

Flickr Photo: mybluemuse aka PJ TaylorNTEN Discuss has been full of recommendations and interesting bits of information over the past few weeks. Read on for a summary -- and join the discussions on the NTEN Affinity Groups.

Blog Guidelines

Holly Wright was put in charge of creating blogging guidelines for her organization, Bread for the World. She asked the NTEN Discuss list for any helpful pointers they might have:

Flickr Photo: Jeff KubinaI spent yesterday at the Salesforce Innovation for Nonprofit Success event in New York. It was a really fun event, and I met a whole host of really interesting people doing amazing work at their nonprofits.

I sat in on most of the sessions yesterday and heard a lot of interesting ideas. What really struck me, though, was that almost every session, including my own, had one theme running through it: the empowerment of nonprofits.

We are moving to a new model of software delivery for nonprofits, and it means more than convenience. Software as a Service is on its way. Google Apps provide just one example you're probably familiar with. Most of the Web 2.0 tools you use also qualify, from your blog software to Facebook.

They are always on, and always available. More importantly, they work the same whether you are Microsoft or Save the Bay. Software as a Service means that we all have access to the same platforms and all they can do for our organizations. It will help bridge the technology gap between nonprofits and the for-profit sector.

There's another benefit...

For some reason, I've been shadowing Beth Kanter on the conference circuit lately. I've had the great pleasure of listening to her speak several times in the last few months -- with more to come! At some point during every presentation, one of the attendees, whose mind has just been blown by her awesomeness, asks "Do you have that written down somewhere?"

Beth's answer is always the same. "Just 'Google' Beth. My blog will be in the top of the listings. See?! Another reason to blog. It increases your search engine rankings!"

While I've always agreed with her -- blogging has clearly increased our own search rankings -- I now confess that I never truly understood why... until today!

Many thanks to Paul Hyland for posting this Wired Magazine infographic about the secret life of your blog post on his Facebook news feed. It sums it all up nicely. Next time I see Beth, I'll be able to agree with her whole heartedly.