Gel

I'm dying to go to Gel in 2006. It's in May. A bunch of high level businesspeople get together to experience (meaning listen to and watch a bunch of other creative overachievers). The buzz is to create experiences (since none of us has time to have any of our own. We'll buy them!)

Play text message tag, roam hip neighborhoods and talk to people. It's like a travel agency and marketing conference and entertainment venue in one. You get tour guides. Journalists to professors to musicians, whoever. I think you just have to be smart or want to be around people who are.

Look at the attendees list. The Trachtenburg Family went. Now that's random. I saw them "perform" at the Arts Festival last year.

The pictures are by Flickr, people blog about it, it's so geeky. I want to go. I'm going to have to make a lot more cash to do it.

BlueHost.com web site hosting

Blue Host: Easy Web Hosting $6.95
Blue Host is a great company if you need server space for your web site. I use them for my new business Altruis Media. Altruis is a way for me to test online marketing tactics/ideas, etc. Eventually I hope to turn it into a social entrepreneurship project.

Why I like Blue Host:

• $6.95/month
• lots of functionality
• solid customer service. They answer the phone, help quickly, know what they're doing. They follow-up. I called them twice and problem solved each time. Everyone I've talked to is friendly.

But please, don't let the developers design your site. Not incredibly user-friendly. It's a pain for non-techies to figure out. Get a brand manager, marketing, writer, and design people to take over and interpret/filter things for the rest of us.

I posted several weeks ago with my bad experience working with a hosting company. Here's a plug for a good one. Click the banner ad on the right hand side of my page or the other links on this entry. You can't beat the price or the service.

Get Blue Host: Easy Web Hosting $6.95

internet wonders

Found today: http://www.neighborhoodies.com. Brilliant marketing and branding for such a simple concept. Not too many choices, just straightforward. I ordered one even though I think it's overpriced. Utah is not hip enough to be on the neighborhood list. How about sugarhouse???

If I stay single for much longer my dream longer term is to buy a house in Sugarhouse and work in Salt Lake at some hip internet firm or just do my own thing. It's not time yet. Things happen so much more slow in life right now. Everything has to take its place in line. For instance I promised to clean out my friend's fishbowl while she's in Ireland. That was Saturday. It's now Tuesday and I haven't done it (I called but it was a bad time for the people housesitting the fish). Tonight. I'm on duty to pick up the organic produce this week. That will be a stretch. Once I'm home from work I'm on 4-year-old standard time. Once he's in bed I'm pretty much stuck in the house until morning. I'm too social and have too many things I want to/need to do. Sleep suffers. I'm usually beat.

My roommate Rebecca moved in last week. Since then we have planted a garden, my house is cleaner, Bjorn digs her, I've got a friend around to talk to, and I'm making more organic/healthy food at home rather than eating out so much. It helps that I'm on a dating freeze. All those dinners weren't good for my figure. Now if I can just squelch that clothes buying habit and lose 10 lbs.

I'm eating the best chicken curry with cashews. Found the recipe on epicurious.com. Life is good. How did we ever live without the internet??

be well,
Janet

everyone, start your own blog!

I like people who blog in the same way I like true geeks. They tend to be pretty smart, open-minded people. This is how I started online, asking geeks questions. I answered the phones at an internet start-up company and worked into 2 careers (HTML programmer now internet marketer).
I believe networking with other bloggers is better than using linkedin.com or other ways of networking. I love how we mix business and life together and how simple it is. I want to recruit my friends to blog. Then I know what's going on in their head and what they're learning. Plus it can make you a better writer and organize your thoughts. I wish it had a blog search function though. I don't see one. There are a few things that are clunky to me but overall I'm an enthusiast.
My goal is to get a nice photo up. Before that my goal is to actually get a photo of myself that I like.

Top Blogs

Favorite Blogs (I will update this as I go):
Paul Allen's Internet Marketing Blog - I'm indebted.
Making Money From your Blog (which btw, is not my strategy on this blog but if I made cash I wouldn't turn it down. Perhaps I'll start one for that purpose later.)
Utah Technical Jobs - Rob should write a Connect article.
John Jonas - This guy rocks. People scan his blog for SEM secrets. The secret is: he's not a marekter, he's a programmer.
Bigfoot's Cave This is my friend Jim's blog.

I'd love to find a blog about a specific Utah nonprofit or one that addresses all of them in Utah generally. Let me know if you know of any. Also, I'd like to read a good social entrepreneurship blog or two. How about one on environmental issues?

You can email me at grocerybike at gmail.com.

synergy and engagement

Turns out that the more engaged you can get someone on your web site the more expontential growth of sales you can expect. So get them to email something to someone else, print out a shopping list or coupon, register for something, get an email from you, etc.

At ad-tech:
Studies show Hispanics are replacing television viewing with the internet or watching TV and surfing at the same time. They are downloading music and watching video clips. Hispanics are especially adopting the internet but only 1% of marketers are targeting this segment.

Most influenced customers to buy something:
- a web site, general about the industry
- the company web site
- search engine
- company email

Most marketers are not ready for the switch from television to digital. It's complicated and they're overwhelmed.

Use your site to:
acquire new customers
create awarenss (educate)
expand your brand

They spoke about persona marketing or really designing your site according to who is going there and why. If unexpected people are using your site and buying you might be tempted to think you've made a mistake. You haven't. Ultimately not you, but the market determines your customer or niche. Make your product better for them. Build on what they love about your company.

"Integrating Online into the Traditional Media Mix"
Fuzzy notes on this one.
If you can reach an additional family member and get them to purchase from you, that is very powerful. Also, the more educated (bachelor's degree or higher) the female head of household is, the more valuable she is. (note: look up this study, who did it, etc.)

most unique advertising seen: a car ad in the subway. It was incredible. We're sitting there. We're bored. It's an hour ride from the airport. No one is talking much. We see this cool ad, like a movie in the dark underground. It's about a car (yeah, as we're on public transportation). 3 long screens. I don't remember what brand of car is was (duh, they need to put that more in our face). I thought they should do movie previews in the subway like this. The young shoots next to me were talking about it. (did you see that??) It was almost like a dream. It was unexpected. I've ridden subways in London, Washington DC, Atlanta, and some other places but have never seen this. I loved it.

More Notes on Guy's speech

On Utah:
He spoke about a hypothetical company that eradicates mice. It's expensive and sophisticated. But you have to not only pay for the contraction but the disposal of the mouse. You're going to have to drive to the middle of Utah to dispose of it! I laugh. Thanks to Utah politicians and Envirocare we're well-known for our radioactive waste dumping.

Suggested web sites: istockphoto.com. Use any picture for about $3, high resolution, royalty-free. For powerpoint presentations, reports, etc.

Nike's brilliant copy about women and how we measure ourselves by external factors. This is how you make evangelists for your brand (women's aerobic shoes).

Filmloop.com - new way to advertise, push content through photos (check it out).

Joke about the Apple II and Mac divisions at Apple. How many Apple people does it take to screw in a lightbulb? One. They just hold up the light bulb and expect the universe to rotate around it.

Make a mantra that describes you, your family, your brand, your product, your business unit, your service. In just 3-4 words long to describe the reason you exist.

thanks Guy Kawasaki

I'm at an Ad-Tech conference in Chicago (I recommend it, coming to NY in November) and just heard the keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki speak. I have to say my favorite speakers of all time can do 3 things. Make me think. Make me laugh. Make me cry. He did all 3.

He spoke to something that is meaningful to me: being a revolutionary. I can't explain why I've always had a bit of a bent towards revolutionaries but I do. I like to be a free spirit. I think we all do.

I have two dreams in my heart right now:
1. I want to be an entrepreneur. A successful one.
2. Then I want to use all that I gain and share it with others who are interested.

I want to be a philanthropist of money, ideas, value, meaning. Guy is like that. These types of people give out their personal email address in their presentations. They sincerely care about what they are talking about, there is meaning beyond just money. There is truth. Truth gets me every time.

Guy talked about the end of our lives, the decision of what happens next, where do we spend eternity. He said going to hell is like being stuck in a car forever. Or heaven: an airplane. You can get to heaven and be on an airplane but once you're there it's still divided into classes. If you're in coach there still might be annoyances. You want to be on the best airline in 1st class. It can take you places. He hopes to spend his eternity on Singapore Airline's 1st class. I laughed at that but then I thought about it. I want to be in first class. I gave a lesson about degrees of glory at church last week. I never thought about this anaolgy. A lot of times the book gives pretty standard answers. Where are you going and how are you going to get there? Guy's place that represents heaven is a company (which is funny). I'm going to think about what my symbol for celestial glory is.

roundabouts

I saw my friend Bill today. He designs roundabouts. Several years ago I built a site for him to put roundabouts information and photos. He's seriously into it and is really good at what he does. Have you ever ridden your bike or driven around a roundabout several times, just for fun?

Anyway, Bill gets at least a phone call every month resulting from his site. He's ranked 3 on google if you type in roundabouts and has a page rank of 5. Not bad. We didn't try that hard. It is full of real information though. He's not interested in putting up ads or fillers. He gets press interviews, invitations to present at conferences and contract work from this site. I also wrote an article for the Provo Herald that ended up on the AP Wire. It ran in a few papers. So he got free publicity that way. He's built himself into a roundabouts expert. I love that it's been such a success and helped build his career. I mostly did it for free dinner and he's pretty much taken over maintaining it now.

Kudos to Bill and Roundabouts USA.