A little over a year ago, Adele McConnell-Cummins began posting images of food on a Tumblr account. Little did she know that her hobby would build an entire community of “vegie heads” shortly thereafter.
As McConnell-Cummins explained to WebProNews, her followers began asking for recipes to go along with her photos. Her images were unique in that they were of vegan and vegetarian foods that she had prepared. In an effort to respond to her followers’ needs, she built a website simply called Vegie Head to share her passion with her fellow vegetarian and vegan friends.
Since then, she has built her website into a business that includes cooking classes, ebooks, and also menu development for restaurants. She told us that social media channels, and particularly Facebook and YouTube, have helped her success.
McConnell-Cummins’ first ebook, Vegan Essentials is about to be released, and a second one is already in the works. Going forward, she told us to expect “big things” from Vegie Head as well.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 6th, 2012. 
In an effort to promote more transparency in political advertising, last year, the FCC proposed regulation that would require TV stations to disclose the names, costs, and running dates of every political ad aired in recent years. Although this political ad data is available to anyone that visits a TV station, the Commission wants to make this information more accessible on a website that it would govern.
WebProNews spoke with Mark Fratrik, the Vice President and Chief Economist at BIA/Kelsey, who told us that, at a time when political contributions have become increasingly controversial, the FCC is trying to alleviate some of the rising concerns.
TV stations, however, are against the proposed mandate since they feel it would impose additional costs while also reducing competition in the pricing of ad spots. According to Fratrik, TV stations aren’t too concerned about the online database the mandate would require, but instead are worried about the logistics involved, such as the extra man-hours.
Since the issue is still being debated, Fratrik told us that it was doubtful anything would come of the proposal this year.
Should political ad data be more accessible? What do you think?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Mar 27th, 2012.
Popular forum Topix and Equation Research recently conducted a study to learn more about the relationship between the Internet and politics. The companies surveyed 1,000 U.S. voters and found that people are increasingly turning to the Web for their political information.
WebProNews spoke with Chris Tolles, the CEO of Topix, who told us that voters are trending online because they get a more balanced view. The study also found that voters are going online in order to participate in political discussions and debates.
Tolles told us that this trend would increase in the coming years as voters strive to have a “personal relationship” with news. He also said that politicians would have to learn how to leverage online platforms such as Topix, Facebook, and Twitter, to ensure that they are connecting with the conversation.
Where do you go for your political information? Let us know.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jan 29th, 2012.
Just before Christmas, the story of a 9-year-old autistic boy from Kentucky began to gain attention both on and offline. The interest was sparked when Christopher Baker’s mother, Sandra Baker, found her son immersed in a bag at school.
“It wasn’t just his body down in it and his head out, his whole body was down inside the bag,” she told WebProNews.
As she explained, the school had called and asked her to come and get her son because he was “bouncing off the walls.” When she arrived and saw what had happened, she was outraged and took the story to local news outlets.
Lydia Brown, an autistic college student at Georgetown University, saw the story and decided to create a petition on Change.org. The petition, which has received over 180,000 signatures already, calls for the school to take action against the teacher involved as well as comprehensive training for all school personnel.
However, as with many viral stories, the Christopher Baker case has generated a fair share of controversy. Some people from the autism community have spoken out in defense of the school saying that therapy bags are often used for treating autistic individuals.
Another debatable issue is in regards to how the bag was used. Christopher’s mother says he was put into the bag for misbehaving, which raises concerns over the use of seclusion and restraint in the treatment of individuals with disabilities.
Amy Dawson, the Founder of the Autism Advocacy & Law Center LLC, told us that seclusion or restraint could be harmful to any child but especially those with disabilities since he or she may not be able to fully understand what is happening.
At this time, the school board has said that it has concluded its investigation and is moving on. Sandra Baker, who now has legal support from The Gallini Group in Alabama and Chevalier Ginn Shirooni & Kruer in Kentucky, is continuing to fight the incident.
How do you feel about this story and its rapid spread? Let us know.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jan 27th, 2012.
Since online privacy is a very controversial issue, it’s not surprising that the debate is heating up again with the FTC report and Commerce Department report expected to be released in the next couple of weeks. WebProNews spoke with Jules Polonetsky, the Director of the Future of Privacy Forum, who told us that the Commerce Department’s report would be interesting since it will dictate the direction the White House takes on the matter.
While he doesn’t think the U.S. will see legislation this year, he does think we’ll have it eventually. He said that the U.S. was paying a lot of attention to Europe, especially since it is expected to change its privacy directive as well.
Polonetsky did tell us that 2012 would include even more scrutiny of companies and lots of hearings.
“I’ve never seen as much scrutiny,” he said.
For the companies that are not in favor of legislation, he recommends that they show how they are self-regulating.
Would you like to see online privacy legislation? We’d love to know your thoughts.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jan 17th, 2012.
