It's almost quitting time at the office. Jane is not sure how that happened. Seems like it was just 9:00...a few minutes ago!

As the night sky turns dark, and we resist turning on the office light (our co-workers constantly berate us for sitting in the dark, but we like the shadows), we would like to bring you another What's Working and What Isn't post. Relevant to marketing to women online, which - as many folks have told us - also works for marketing to guys who shop online. In fact, it's relevant to marketing online, to anyone.

We discovered this blog today. Our critical eye is disappointed by blogs such as this. By blogs (and websites) that ignore the visual dynamics of the web. The web allows small businesses to be exciting, colorful, innovative, interactive, friendly, and direct. At Managing Innovative Thinking + Design we find...nothing exciting, no color, a lack of innovation - though they have the word in their title, nothing friendly or direct, and little interactivity.

What's Working: let's start with the positive, shall we?

The blog offers resources. Link after link of them.

Ok, now on to What's Not Working: everything.

We mean no disrespect, and it's not in our nature to be cruel...but there's so much missing from this blog, it pains us to report on it. There is little to compliment on the 'design' though the blog is supposedly about design. The colors are pale and painful. The links, in bright pink, hurt the eye. The background - in taupe, is bland and unappealing. The font is so hard to read - we just gave up trying. This blog screams: software tool!

We don't know that it's generated by a software tool - but we know that if a real person is behind it, he or she needs to go back to school and play with Crayola crayons for awhile.

There is NOTHING in this blog's profile - a good indication that it isn't a real blog, and the content is suspicious - with no commentary.

We don't have time to go into more detail today. In fact, we just wanted to show you this blog to make a point: blogs are conversation starters. They're personal connections. They're a means to give your company a voice. This means posting more than link after link after link - it means adding a well-designed header that gives the viewer an idea of who you are and what you stand for. It means having something to say about the links you offer. It means asking questions...and providing some tiny bit of information about yourself.

<gigantic sigh>

Jane is sorry - but, we peeked at the SourceCode and discovered the blog is managed by a company called Bright Creative. Well, their website may be bright and even somewhat creative, but their blog is NOT!

It fails more than the female-friendly test. Jane and her friends will not visit it, we will not add it to our blogroll, and...those of us who know how, will peek at the sourcecode, find out who really manages it ------- and wonder, what is David Shea thinking? Author of The Zen of CSS Design... well, he may know CSS and websites, we don't think he's much of a blogger.

In the world of marketing to women online - don't make David's mistake. His blog makes his whole business look - shabby. Women are not in to shabby.

And, there is so much NOT to like about that. Tomorrow, we will have another Fortune Forum Fit by Five: with content we meant to post over the weekend. Stay tuned!