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Some things have come up that I need to deal with right away, so I'm going to be late. But I hope to still make it!

Hi Karrie,

This is a great idea--I look forward to to!

Hi everyone,

My story is a bit different. When I was young I was interested in creative writing, but I gradually got more involved with language as a focus of scientific inquiry. Eventually I got a PhD in linguistics, became a professor, and set out to turn my dissertation into a book.

I left academia before that happened. I now work as a naming and verbal branding consultant, and I write a blog, called The Name Inspector, about naming, branding, and language. I held on to the goal of writing a book, but one that wouldn't only be read by a handful of professors and grad students. I struggled to shed my "dissertation voice" and find a more entertaining and interesting one, and had some success.

Recently I got a contract with WW Norton to write a trade book about "microstyle"--the verbal tools we all use to try to capture attention and stick in the mind in the hyper-competitive message environment that the web has created. I'm in the process of writing the book and I'm interested in finding other nonfiction writers in Seattle--especially those also working on books--who would like to meet on a regular basis to share work, feedback, and encouragement. If that's you, please get in touch with me!

Eylon has a good point about not needing one single phrase to do everything. A tagline should be catchy and fun, and "Business networking that doesn't suck" really fits the bill (though I agree that it's a little adolescent). But that's not a natural phrase to drop into a conversation. It's a good idea to think of apt, unassuming phrases for that--ones that sound like descriptions rather than pitches. Along those lines, I really like Rachel's suggestion: "small business community". Or, if you don't like the word "small", maybe "independent business community". Some people have pointed out that community is really what Biznik offers, online and off, and I agree.

More long names: Wikipedia (9 letters, currently the 7th most popular site on Alexa), ICanHasCheezburger (18 letters, currently the #8 blog by authority on Technorati). This six-letter "rule" gets repeated again and again--I'd like to find out how it got started. Any clues, Norbert?

What's really important is that a name be vivid, relevant, memorable, and easy to pronounce. Being short helps with that.

Hi Kare,

Thanks for mentioning my name classification. By the way, it's The Name Inspector, not The Naming Inspector, and my name is Christopher Johnson, not Stephen Johnson.