Our content team is starting to look ahead to 2014 — the Top 100 Channel Partner Conferences, Top 100 Technology Predictions, and 10 Ways MSPs Must Change lists are live. More are coming. But before we look too far ahead, let’s take a look back at the seven managed services provider (MSP) blogs MSPmentor didn’t have a chance to write for the week ending Oct. 4, 2014.

7. Beyond ConnectWise: The IT Nation conference is growing far beyond ConnectWise’s traditional partner base. This blog has been in my head for about three weeks now. Time to put it to page — really soon.

6. Reasonable Valuations?: Continuum remains on the prowl for potential acquisitions, but some valuations seem far too high. Or so I’ve heard. More soon.

5. Bing, Bing, Bing: MSPs with lead generation strategies often use Google Adwords to attract customers. But LabTech Software CEO Matt Nachtrab says his company has also embraced Microsoft Bing — with good results.

4. Watch SoftLayer: IBM’s SoftLayer buyout from a few months ago could be the single most interesting cloud acquisition of 2013. Why should MSPs, VARs and cloud integrators care? We’ll likely share the answer over on Talkin’ Cloud in a few days. And the answer is quite dramatic, by the way. PS: On a slightly related note, has anybody else noticed all of the channel and cloud hires over at ViaWest lately? More soon, again on Talkin’ Cloud.

3. Life-Work Balance: Sometimes the most soft-spoken people in your life need you the most. Do me a favor this weekend: Turn off all outside distractions and speak with the most soft-spoken person you know — friend, family member… the kind person who never asks you for anything. When you turn off the noise you’ll be amazed by what you hear.

2. MSPmentor 250: OK, so we typically launch our Top 250 MSP Experts, Entrepreneurs and Executives list each August. This time around it’s coming in late October. Stay tuned and keep an eye on http://www.mspmentor.net/top250.

1. MSPmentor 501 (a.k.a. MSPmentor 100): Our seventh annual MSPmentor 501 survey — identifying the world’s top MSPs — will launch in the next few days. In case you haven’t been keeping score at home, this used to be our MSPmentor 100 list. The survey will run through the end of Q4 2013. Results will surface in February 2014. For a survey link (really soon), visit http://www.mspmentor.net/top501.

That’s all for now. Thanks for your readership, feedback, constructive criticism… and news tips (yes, especially the news tips…).