Updates: Beer and Blog Omaha and more
April 5, 2011
Updates: Beer and Blog Omaha and more
I’m currently working on resurrecting Beer and Blog Omaha!!!
If you are curious about beer and blog go check out the official site. I’m really interested in bringing the diverse blogging community of the area together. I love watching people mingle and share ideas. I want to build the sort of group where, when a new comer attends, they will leave knowing more people with a common interests and some new tricks for their blogging platform of choice.
Some of you might be wondering “Joe, what about the WordPress user group?” Don’t worry I will be launching the website for that within the next week or so. I should also be announcing the location and time of the month. I’m trying to take a one stone at a time approach here to help build the community. I’m hoping Beer and Blog Omaha will cause more people to become curious in the WordPress platform.
I do have a list of topic ideas for the WordPress user group, but I’m always looking for more.
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So you need social media help?
March 31, 2011
Lets be honest there are a great deal of SEO and Social Media Marketing people in the world. Most of them come from either some sort of technical background, or they come from some old media background. They see social marketing as an easy market to get into and, they make promises like we will get you in-front of your target audience or top Google ranking etc….
So how is any business owner to know if they are getting what they pay for? Or if the SEO professional who is pitching them actually even knows what they’re doing? Well let me give you some simple things to look for.
1. Ask for references. Just like any other job, they should still be able to provide references.
2. Check their social media footprint. If you read their Twitter stream or Facebook page are they actually talking with people or are they just broadcasting? do they give advice or help others? If their streams just look like a lot of “spam”, or Re-tweets with no real interaction, what you see on their personal feeds will tell you quite a bit about their work.
3. Do they take the time to explain things to you? SEO and Network Marketing is not rocket science. Any one you work with or hire should be willing to explain to you what they are doing and how it’s working. They should also be willing to learn the culture of your company and develop content that matches it.
4. Results: They should be able to show you clear and clean results and take responsibility for failures.
That’s all I have for now. I’m sure there are more but these are the top four that really irritate me right now.
Thought of the day
March 30, 2011
My thought of the day is this.
If you are looking to build community, and you exclude people who want to help then you may want to re-look up the meaning of community.
If you are throwing an event or a networking group because you want recognition or you want to “Look Cool”. Then you will probably find yourself burnt out.
Community’s are built by those who give selflessly and ask for nothing in return. These people are usually forged by the fires of adversity into leaders and trend setters.
Project Launch smallspacesurvival.com
March 28, 2011
After months of planning and talking with friends the soft launch has happened. Small Space survival is gearing up to be a great source of information for renters, apartment dwellers and home owners who do not have a lot of space. I’m going to be writing and posting articles on the usual topics such as emergency water and food storage, as well as how to get your self moving in the right direction to get that dream farm/bug out location.
I’m coming at this project from the standpoint of some one who spent 70% of there life living in one sort of apartment dwelling or another. So if emergency preparedness and self sufficient living is an interesting topic to you check it out.
There are a few design tweaks that I need to complete but I should have those ironed out shortly. Questions and comments are always welcome.
Tags: Changing the way I do business
March 28, 2011
I’m not going to be doing any more Free consultations or projects. From this point forward all of the side project work that I do outside of Sensible Websites and American PCS will fall under one of these categories.
- My own business venture
- Trade (trading skills or time across the board. I really want to start doing more work on a barter and trade basis)
- Community driven (This includes projects like conferences and groups(Wordcamp’s, Podcamp’s user groups etc)
The firsts trade projects I want to go after are small farmers trying to build sites for there products. I have a possible lead on a farmer not far from here who really wants to start advertising his CSA.
Projects
March 1, 2011
The spring is coming and I can feel it. There are allot of projects I cant wait to get started on.
Website: smallspacesurvival.com
I think I have enough material to launch the site. This is going to be a site with information for people who are either renters or people who don’t have acres of space to grow food and or store preps. I was hot on this project for a while, but then real life kicked in. After listening to Save Our Skills today I found another up and coming prepper blog Sustainable Suburban Home.
It’s nice to see more prepper minded and self sufficient people poping up in and around PDX. Another great prepper cast out of Oregon is the Chip Monk Survival Podcast.
Home Business:
Brandi and I will be launching a candle company soon as well, Were going to be producing in home essential oils and making natural soy and beeswax candles. As well as working on getting Brandi’s doula business ramped up. I’m also thinking of becoming a local sales rep for Shelf reliance. I’m also doing some pick up security jobs and social media consulting work.
Garden:
I have the plans and designs for the raised beds all done and almost have the map of what I”m going to plant this year ready to go. I will be starting the seeds soon.
So that’s what is coming down the pipe thus far.
Politics and Business
February 1, 2011
As most of you all ready know, I’m very passionate when it comes to both politics and business. In my life I try to be the person I feel I need to be, not the person my environment wants me to be. I have no problem throwing my ideas out on my Blog and Facebook account. If you ask for my political opinion I will be more than willing to give it. My ideals and thoughts on subjects often surprise people. My physical appearance and recreational activities often make people think I’m rather left sided or liberal. At the same time I’m a 2nd amendment loving fiscally conservative right aisle kind of guy.
I do not worry about clients or employers reading what I think or forming opinions about me. If you don’t like what I have, and you don’t want to do business that is fine with. There are allot of Jobs/carriers out there. I do not put people down for there opinions. Every one has the right to state there opinion and I have the right to not listen and go my own way. One core principle that drives me is, life is full of choices, You must make the choice that is best for you. All choices have consequences that should be factored into all choices. So once your choice is made don’t sit and whine about the outcome. It’s your choice to be happy and it’s your choice to make changes in your life. I’m a firm believer in people needing to take responsibility for themselves.
Here is a brief overview of me in a nutshell
Business
All business big or small has some social responsibility. If you pollute an area or use up a communities resources then you need to find a way to put them back. Either clean up the mess or fund allot of research to undo the problem that you may have created. The best way for a market to grow is to build the community. Giving money to schools helps insure better education, and better education leads to better employees in the future.
Equal rights:
I don’t care what religion your worship. Who you sleep with or what you do with your body. As long as you are not hurting any one else in the process and I don’t have to pay for it in the long run. Cary on and be happy. Your voice has just as much right to be heard as mine.
Taxes: State and city level only. Schools, Roads, Police, Fire, and essential functions only. Federal taxes should only be placed on imports, If you buy from outside of the country then you pay a tax on it.
I think that about sums it up for now.
Writing because I want to.
January 28, 2011
All through my child hood I was told that I had a very creative and vivid imagination. I have always loved creating and sharing stories with people. I could play for hours by myself making up scenarios of adventure and exploration. Later in child hood, around age 12, I discovered role playing. Dungeons and Dragons and other games allowed me to really explore the world of fantasy. I could write thirty to sixty page campaigns in a night.
My love for writing was quickly trained out of me. My handwriting has always been that of a Dr’s, virtually impossible to read. My grade school teachers used to tell my mother, “Don’t worry about his handwriting, by the time he is in high school and college everything will be typed.” So no more focus was ever placed on my handwriting. In middle school I had the worst English teacher ever. This woman had no place teaching children, let alone teaching them how to express themselves. I was pretty much told by her to just float along and try to make it. The future would hold spell check and grammar checks.
In high school, I had teachers who were just floored by the fact that I made it to high school, was unable to write freehand, and could not edit my own work. I finally grew so frustrated I just gave up and only wrote when I absolutely had to. I made sure all of my papers were edited by friends who had a much better mastery at the English language than I did. I had other teachers that were just blown away at my ability to read and comprehend. Apparently, if your not able to write, you should not be able to read.
What college classes I have taken were the same way; I always had friends edit my work before I submitted it. I also always tried to avoid the grammar snobs in written word debates when ever possible. My inability to write is now causing me problems in my business life and projects. Working in social media and web marketing requires a lot of written content to be created, and there is not always time for an editor to look things over before they go out. Tweets and Facebook updates must be able to go out with little to no error the first time; the world of dynamic content waits for no one.
So, soon, I must swallow my pride and face my fears head on. I’m going to start taking some English and writing courses this term. I’m also going to follow the advice of a close friend and just write because I want to. Let things pour from my head and go back and try to clean it up myself before handing it to my editors. Practice makes perfect after all.
Play with plugins
January 5, 2011
I’m playing with WordPresss and trying to find one that will aggregate to twitter the way I want it.
