SOBCon08 – Biz School for Bloggers… A report, part 2

Amazing that it took a whole blog post to cover the first day of SOBCon08, but it did. Friday was great. The boat ride stellar. And the conversation even better.

Seeing Lorelle first thing Saturday morning started the day off right. Got a chance to speak with Easton Ellsworth a bit, catching up on family and the like. Truth is I talk to Easton almost weekly. I did get to have breakfast with David Dalka and Phil Gerbyshak. We mostly talked shop – not blogging shop, but business shop – niche marketing and expert positioning. In other words, what problems do you solve for whom.

Business School was the theme of SOBCon08. The idea was born from watching lots of bloggers getting traffic and tons of comments, but making no money. This year’s SOBCon was going to bring business people and bloggers together so that business owners could learn about communities and using social media while bloggers could learn solid business practices.

Anita Bruzzese of 45Things kicked off the morning. She gave a great talk about managing your online reputation. Her advice: Remember “whatever you write has your name on it and you must be willing to stand behind it.” Her talk sparked a great conversation afterward that I was really getting in to. If only more time.

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Are you coming to SOBCon08?

I’ve been set on coming ever since I left Chicago last May. The event in 2007 was great. Lots of great people. Lots of great information. And, of course, lots of of great conversation. But what would I expect from an event that was partially the brainchild of Liz Strauss, Miss Conversation herself (now, that’s my opinion and she would probably deny it even though it’s the truth)?

That’s why I was so excited last fall when Liz and Terry Starbucker started planning for SOBCon08. This year’s theme – Biz School for Blogging. Notice the title closely. It’s not blogging for businesses. Rather, it’s business school for blogging. In other words, bringing sound business principles into the blogosphere.

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Yeah, it’s possible. You really can break the internet. Want to find out how, just watch this simple 30 second clip below and you, too, and break the internet.

Go ahead, try it. See what happens.

Pretty funny, huh?

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Speaking of bugs…who’s that guy up there in the corner? Well, that’s me, of course. You finally get to see what I look like (without having to dig around my bio page).

Well, I’m back. Yeah, I know it’s been a while. But I’ve been pretty hard at work.

You’ll also notice that in my month-long absence, I’ve managed to complete a new design of my blog. My goal was to clear out the clutter so the good stuff would be easier to find.

And while I don’t see this layout as being complete, I felt it was close enough to launch it tonight. What I’d love is your feedback. What do you like and don’t like. What works, what doesn’t. And please, if you run into any bugs, let me know. If you could list the browser and operating system you’re using that would be most helpful.

I’m really excited about the layout changes. I’ve got lots of plans for the coming year – including podcasts and video casts. I’m also working on a customized homepage layout – which I’m in no rush to put up.

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I’m sure you’ve seen Apple’s new hyper-thin laptop the MacBook Air – touted the world’s thinnest notebook. It’s so thin it can fit in a manilla envelope. If you haven’t seen the 30 second TV spot yet, check this out…

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Now that you have the background of the original, watch this great parody.

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Yes, I’m a Mac user and a huge fan (though I don’t consider myself one of the cult). And yes, I’m planning to get a MacBook Air very soon.

Without a doubt, I’m a WordPress evangelist. I absolutely love WordPress. I’ve not found a better platform for building and managing a website. Doesn’t matter whether you’re blogging, have a store front, create a massive business site or need a basic, static website to promote your services and products – WordPress can manage it all.

One of the most remarkable things about WordPress for me is the huge development community that supports it. First, WordPress is free (you can even get it installed for free on your server). Second, it’s infinitely expandable through thousands of plugins, add-ons and widgets. If you need a function for your site, it’s likely someone’s already written a plugin to do it.

Yet one of the places that I feel WordPress really shines is in all the free themes (templates) that are available. Basically, thousands of developers from all over the world have created visual designs for WordPress. And while some premium themes are available for between $50 & $250, there are thousands of themes that are completely free.

Just like WordPress, free is a good thing. And, as your developing, updating or enhancing your web business web presence, it can sometimes be good to do so on a small budget.

Here are WordPress theme catalogs, each having many (and in some cases thousands) of free WordPress themes: [ continue reading & share your thoughts → ]

This has just about nothing to do with business development, marketing or social media, and I had to share it.

This morning I stumbled a video that I just need to share. Why? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the simplicity of the message or the excellent tutorial involved.

I know it’s not a new video – you may have even seen it already. But I hadn’t. And just in case you hadn’t either, here’s the way to fold a shirt in 2 seconds…

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Interesting, huh?

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you. It took me just a couple of attempts and I had it down perfect.

Now, what are you going to do with all the time you’ll save folding laundry?