I’ve not really been able to get into the whole Facebook.com thing, but I kept getting invites from lots of people so I eventually signed up. It’s still not really taken off with me to be honest, and I think part of that is that I still haven’t put in enough time so I “get it”.
One thing I don’t really get.. I’m not really clued up on these add on applications that I keep getting “invited” to use. Each time I sign up for one, I just seem to get more email I don’t want. For example, this is from the Facebook application, Social Profile.
“Curtis, you are more desired than 69% of all people
In total, you were reviewed for dating 327 times and 12 people expressed interest in you.
You are more desirable than 69% of 30,297,707 people.
Last week you were viewed 15 times and no people expressed interested in you”
Out of 327, only 12 were interested. That’s something like 3%, but strangely enough I’m doing better than 69% of over 30 million other people. I think that’s massaging the statistics a little, and someone needs to revise their numbers as I don’t think I should be doing that well. 
Traveled with Dr. Mike to this weekend’s BarCamp meet in San Deigo, at the Microsoft campus in La Jolla, Southern California.
Check twitter updates from a bunch of attendees here.
Wiki with attendees and details of talks here.
My photos of the event available here.
I’ve other notes on people I spoke to and talks attended, to add to this post when I pretty them up properly.
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Ok, gathering my rough notes into something a little less rough for this post. Lesson learned is don’t wait long between the event and the write up, as you start to forget the details/context of some of your notes! I ramble a bit, am missing a few names to credit, but you’ll get the idea
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Tonight I attended Mixergy, a kind of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) type talk at the Edgemar theater in Santa Monica, featuring knowledgeable folks like Michael Dorausch of Planet Chiropractic (more info on Dr. Michael’s site here), Elmer Thomas of Thinking Serious, MrBabyMan over at digg.com.
Things I learned from tonight’s talk include..
- A great thing to do to get your site ranking is to join popular social media sites like technorati.com (me), digg.com, reddit.com (me), sphinn.com, mixx.com, amazon.com (me), youtube.com (me), stumbleupon.com (me), myspace.com (me, me drumming), propeller.com, create profiles, submit articles, post reviews, comment, link to your site, etc.
- Track your website traffic to see how the changes you’re making are working using tools like google analytics, awstats, etc.
- Read and stick to the google webmaster guidelines.
- Google for, and read read read all the great online sites that gives lots of SEO information away for free, like SEObook.com.
- Google lists search terms that are hot right now over at Google trends. Find any you can tie to your core business, come up with an informative article on one of these hot topics, and you’ll scream to the top of the google search results listings for those terms.
- Use WordPress, and use it with plugins that allow easy submission to social media sites, like the Share This plugin. Even Matt Cutts of Google recommends using WordPress as your blogging software as it’s well optimized for Google SEO right out of the box.
These are some key points I came away with. I’ll add more as/if I remember them.
All in all a great learning and networking event, really worth attending. Even though I got a $35 parking ticket, a $25 ticket for no front license plate, and paid $25 for the event after Dr. Mike supplied a code to get me free access to the event. D’oh!
Huge learning experience. No, really. Spun myself off into the big wide world of contracting recently to see what it’s like. It’s got TONS of good points, and TONS of pitfalls. You MUST be on your toes. Some things I learned include ..
- You cannot trust folks to do due diligence, so always go over the statement of work you’re hired to implement. If you’re lucky there will be some overlap with reality.
- It’s fine to be in the weeds, but keep your eye on the bigger project picture, who the main players are and what their concerns are.
- If things aren’t going to plan, keep your ear to the ground for folks making you a scapegoat. Speak up if you suspect blame is being wrongly placed at your feet.
- Own up immediately if there are problems and you’re the cause, or the bottleneck to the problems getting resolved. Be able to say why, and provide one or more ways to resolve the problem and move forward.
- If they keep you working beyond the agreed time, and you don’t mind .. at least make sure the checks keep coming.
- Some people have the turning circle of an oil tanker when it comes to responding to new input. This is especially true for unpleasant budget affecting stuff folks don’t want to have to tell their bosses about. Refer to the point about scapegoat.
- Make sure you recognize the decision makers. You’ll minimize delays due that previous point.
- It’s ok to be the hostage if the checks keep coming
- Did I mention keep an eye on the checks?
- Ultimately, it’s nothing personal, it’s just business .
And a whole lot more.
I’ll blog about it properly at some point.
My current laptop is a PowerBook G4, 1GHz CPU, 768MB RAM, 40GB hard drive. Looks just like this ..
Went for the upgrade on Friday night ..
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