We lost the Senate in 2006 because of the Internet, so to ignore it this cycle would be political malpractice. With that in mind, the NRSC has written a 39 page Web manual for Senate campaigns with tips on engaging bloggers, avoiding "macaca" moments and even how to ask for money online.

Altogether, the advice given in the document is solid. Here are my favorite parts:

"Every campaign should film their candidate and record his/her every move at any event that is open to the public," the guide states. "Campaigns should also remind their candidate that they should assume there is a camera on them at all times and act accordingly. It is also recommended that campaigns film their opponents' public events as well."

That's a no-brainer. Any campaign with the resources to travel near and far to tape their opponents should easily be able to video themselves -- it's just one more person to add to the entourage. Today, the McCain campaign attacked Mitt Romney for what the Romney campaign considered to be an out-of-context quote. The Romney campaign posted the entire clip to show the context. This is even more vital in the heat of a campaign. A campaign that can't show off clips of their guy shining, or defend themselves against selective YouTubing, is at a serious disadvantage in the online world.

Additional tip: Start aspiring "trackers" by having them tape your candidate. Then graduate them to the opponent.

Hire at least one staff member, but hopefully three, to lasso the wild Web. Basically, the Internet can't be a payroll afterthought. Campaigns must have people who constantly update the website, manage postings on YouTube and MySpace, and monitor the hundreds, if not thousands, of chattering bloggers.

This stuff doesn't just happen on its own. Every Senate campaign worth its salt should have at least 2 to 3 people doing the legwork full time. This will pay off in better, content-rich sites. And especially at the Senate level, better websites pay off in more traffic, and more money and volunteers.

"Bloggers, particular national bloggers who've developed a reputation, have no interest in being BCC'd on a press release," the guide states. "They do, however, eagerly desire inside information about rapidly developing storylines of interest to their audiences. Personalized attention is important. Quick, personal response to any questions or concerns they may have about the information that you give them is also important."

Amen. Somehow, I've gotten on the press lists for Members of Congress that I don't care about and will never blog about, who spam me several times a day with boring press releases. A version of the golden rule applies here: If you were a blogger, what would be the one or two things on any given day that would hold your interest? Send only those updates to your blogger list, and target all the rest to just those bloggers who blog about that issue. Also: One-on-one outreach to bloggers is far more effective than blasting to a list.

A couple of macro thoughts to wrap up: These tips need to permeate at the campaign manager/general consultant level, not just with the web guy and communications director. This is especially true when it comes to making the big budgetary decisions about staff and advertising.

Another tendency I've noticed, among Republican campaigns especially, is to assign greater weight to blog outreach than to building up your own Web site and email list. That's true to some extent in this manual. And, to be fair, there's also a market for this thinking two and three levels down in the party. In my candidate trainings, blogs are always the first thing on people's minds.

Avoiding another macaca, and potentially inflicting that coup de grace on your opponent, is very important. But to focus on it at the expense of everything else returns us to the pre-2004 philosophy of the Web as a communications vehicle above all else. It's also a money and mobilization vehicle. Jim Webb raised $4 million online -- that as much as macaca gave him the infrastructure to be a credible candidate. Your potential Web audience is broader than just those few thousand who will visit a state politics blog daily. You need to be thinking about these different audiences and engaging them.