This is the modern Godin vs the marketing guru Godin.
Here he aims to do more than inspire but get us to move. Now.
The book is composed of chapters. They build throughout and reach a pinnacle.
Each chapter is its own thoughtful piece and could be read stand alone.

Unless you’re ready to be moved, read the book slowly and savor it.

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And it’s a dang mess!

Here’s some of the feedback:

• Widgets seemed “random” – no focus.
• I wondered where pic was and short bio
• the need to scroll continuously is annoying
• too much going on in the right sidebar
• American Fonts – like our waists – are increasing “14 is the new 12″.
• I wasn’t sure what blog was about, looked for short description near header.
• the thing about the sidebar for me is that it doesn’t help me understand what the blog is about, its focus
• I too like the simplicity but the sidebar doesn’t help me discover your blog. Try moving recent/popular posts to the top.
• I think perhaps rearranging the items a little, with recent posts higher up.
• Need COLOR!
• A short “About me” would be helpful
• I wasn’t sure what blog was about, looked for short description near header.
• Agreed. Endless scrolling seems messy to me.
• I see you have 2 search bars in the sidebar. Seems redundant. Ditch the one you like least.
• I thought the sidebar looks a mess, it needs cleaning up.
• It’d be great to have a clear “This is what this site will do for you” explanation
• I’m thinking there are too many options here at your blog.
• I came for content and I left for some ad
• i would like to see a summary of what the blog is all about about.
• Different colours, ads all over the place, LI profile halfway down below the fold.

The list goes on and on. Talk about generosity!

All of this feedback is from a blog review discussion during a #blogchat Sunday session.  Mack Collier, founder of #blogchat, introduced blog reviews on the Third Sunday of the month. It’s been a smashing success.

Two more blogs, The Nerd Connection and Senior Care Corner, were on the chopping block as well.

Starting promptly at 8 CST, the commentary came fast and furious. Thankfully my blog survived the traffic and even allowed a few comments. The Nerd Connection didn’t fair so well.

Each blog author received feedback specific to their blog. That said, much of commentary applies across the board. Much to take away here for any blogger.

What Happens Next?

This hot mess gets some love. Upgrading the theme made #1 on the list.

More immediate changes

• Remove Google connect
• Reduce front page post count
• Ditch several sidebar items

The work is begun. Expect dust. Your favorite bits and pieces may disappear, content displayed differently, and topics will be focused again.

It’s going to be work. It’s going to be fun. Feel free to jump in and help, cheer, or bring the iced tea.

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Geoff hits it out of the ballpark on this one.

Quick points:
1) End of chapter summaries spotlighting key points
2) Lead ins for each chapter – setting the expectations and goal
3) Focused on business
4) Motivational

The tone this time is serious. Geoff is calling on you, the business mogul and the small business man/woman to take the online world seriously.

Breaking down first who that community is, The Fifth Estate, and why they’re important, Geoff builds it into a business case for using Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

This isn’t just a checklist though. Geoff hits on effective strategies, and one key point – don’t forget your business brain. Facebook isn’t the yellow pages, it’s another place to meet, greet, and schmooze your customers.

Geoff doesn’t come at this from a ‘passionate guru’ perspective but that of fellow businessman and entrepreneur. His work with nonprofits and corporations gives him real world experience, not just numbers and rhetoric. A highlight of this is each chapter contains real stories of success and failures by companies big and small. Not just obscure ones either, but ones from the headlines.

Any downsides? The book was just a little slow for me. Mostly because I’m already in the choir and could skip the intro chapters (but didn’t!).

Also check out Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs.

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The Scaredy Cat Guide to Social Media is for you, the person too scared to jump in.

Scaredy Cat Guide introduces the reader to three branches of social media: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Readers get easy to follow steps for each, with some common ideas running throughout.

• how to sign up
• who to connect with
• built in connections to the Scaredy Cat team

Follow the instructions in this book to go from scaredy cat to confident cat in short order.

Learn more about the Scaredy Cat Guide to Social Media.

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Robert Scoble interviews Eric Kim of Twylah.com.

Eric demonstrates Twylah, and how it aggregates a Twitter stream into buckets.

Here’s a taste of how it turned my Tweets as Tojosan on the word ‘app’:

Twylah.com Screenshot

The links within a tweet are previewed on the right of the page. Embedding works with photos, videos and more.

Twylah is in beta with more features yet to be rolled out. Coming are statistics and custom design of Twylah pages.

You can follow @twylah and @kabaim on Twitter for updates, and chatting them about about features, bugs, and getting your account going.

What would you do with your Twylah page? Curate your business’ Tweets? Highlight haiku you’ve shared or retweeted? Perhaps you’ll see what your Twitter followers really love you to share?!

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Quick video review of Michael Daehn’s book, Internet Marketing for Newbies.

This book targets those just getting started with online networking and marketing. It’s based on Michael’s expertise in marketing, a straight forward approach to the subject matter.

I hope you enjoy the video.

You can buy this book on Lulu, Internet Marketing for Newbies.

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Empire Avenue – Have you heard of it?

Empire Avenue is like those Facebook games where you buy your friends, but image it as a full fledged game with a life all its own.

Wondering if  Empire Avenue is an Evil Empire? I was at first. Up front opinion – it’s all fun and games.

What is Empire Avenue?

Think stock market of social media. On the avenue your registration, via Facebook, is an IPO. You pick the stock ticker!  I chose TOJO, short for @tojosan.

Your stock starts off with 10, 000 shares available for purchase. A bank account of eaves, read money, is loaded up allowing you to make some stock purchase.

Stock trading your profile is just the beginning. Completing registration includes the standard bio, list of interests, and connecting blogs, and other social networking accounts.  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even Flickr are included as choices.

The site doesn’t import every post on all those sites with the exception of Twitter.  There are settings for all of these.

Blogs don’t automatically connect. Unusual unless you’ve used Networked Blogs on Facebook. Each blog requires an endorsement before being credited against a profile.

So how do I grow my Empire?

It grows on its own. No. Really.

Note in the image counts for each connection. Each post, tweet, comment and video adds incremental value to stock value.

Initially Empire Avenue assigns a value with a question mark. This settles over the course of the next few days up to a week.

Twitter, Facebook, and other icons are easy to spot.  The e icon represents Empire Avenue engagement. The values of the connections isn’t a direct one for one.  Scores are based on posts over time and recency.

How do I get rich?

Short answer? Play the stock market.

Here’s a few tips gleaned from my time on the avenue, and Team Zen on EA.

• watch for IPOs – invest early – value rises quickly between registration and a few days out
• join communities – ask for help. Team Zen is a huge group and the players are great at helping out.
• create content – connection values go up. Also, without content the values go down over time.
• get your blogs endorsed – easy value increase
• complete profile portions – interests, bio, photo – both add value and earn achievements.
• check out the Achievements section – these give their own rewards as they are earned. Most are basic – accumulate eaves, post a bio, buy stock, etc.
• connect with friends and exchange listenings and recommendations – huge value for the effort. There’s a button on each profile for WATCH and RECOMMEND. These cost nothing to click and give that person a boost.
• Play once/day. Gives your stock value a boost and provides a chance to buy stock.  All the work can be done in less time than this blog post took to write.

How do I win?!

Empire Avenue has a FAQ page about winning – How to “win” at Empire Avenue.

Winning, as described in the FAQ, is what you make of it.

Is there value here?

Yes! Put aside the stock market schtick and gaming, what’s left is a tool that doesn’t drag in the content you create as much as count and measure it.

Watching the numbers on my Tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube actions isn’t just interesting. It gave me immediate feedback on my idleness and the fact I tweet too much.

Example – the reminder to visit YouTube and minimally watch and comment was spot on.

Is it for you?

That’s for you to decide.  Time waster? Definitely! Fun? Yep! Addicting? Overly so!

Tell me if you’d join, already did, or you’ve got better things to do.

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Flickr, my first big social network, ups the social sharing.  Here’s the scoop from their blog:

Today we’re announcing an update to our share functionality to help you make Flickr the hub for your photos on the Internet. If you’re anything like us, you probably have multiple places out there on the Internet where you express yourself. Maybe you use Facebook to connect to your college friends, Twitter for people who share your interests, or your blog as your megaphone to the world. The changes we’re releasing today make it easier to upload once to Flickr and get your photos out to other places you showcase your photos on the web!

What’s in it for you? One button sharing to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, and to your blogs.

icons - (l-r) email, Twitter, Facebook, More

This replaces the old style drop down for sharing. You’re going to ask about being logged in right?  No more! Even if you don’t have a Flickr account you’ll be able to share photos, sets, and more.

How does it work?

Across the top of the image, the menu includes Favorite, Actions, and little icons.  Each icon represents a one-click sharing option – email, Twitter, Facebook. That fourth icon down arrow opens the box shown above, Share this on.

The pop up box includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, and WordPress by default. Don’t see your old favorites? They’re gone.

NOTE: email option replaces the previous ‘share with’ option on photos. Use this to not only email but also share photos with other Flickr users. TO box takes either.

This is also where you’ll find the Grab the link and Grab the HTML options.

Something else to notice here – share preferences and more ways to share.

Share preferences leads to the setup options for blogs, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. As well, here you’ll find those other services you’ve granted access to your Flickr account.

More ways to share simply opens an additional block of blog buttons, adding Livejournal as an option.

Summary:

Flickr gives you one click sharing for the most common choices. It works better as well, not requiring leaving the screen.

Flickr added Livejournal and removed the requirement to be a Flickr user.

The downside is some of the options have moved around. Once through the navigation will ease that pain.

The question:

How has your experience been with the update sharing interface? Have you discovered something else about this change to share? Hate it? Love it?

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Understanding Exposure – considered a definitive book on use of a DSLR and getting exposure down to a science.

I’ve owned the Canon 400D (XTi) for several years. Thousands of photos behind me, it seems I’ve still got lots to learn. This is where Understanding Exposure and the South by SouthWest (SxSW) conference came to my rescue.

Amazon had been recommending Understanding Exposure to me for a while now. It was only recently I noticed a Kindle version. Heading to SxSW, Canon in tow, I downloaded Chapter 1 and started reading.

Hundreds of photos later, and capping out with the one above, I was sold on getting the whole book.

Bryan Peterson, the author, updated the book in August 2010, with a fresh look at digital SLRs. It’s an easy read, but you have to wade through trying some things with  your camera before he reveals why this or that combination worked well or didn’t. Readers are encouraged to follow along with camera in hand, as Bryan walks through camera settings, where to find them, and what they mean.

I may not take a perfect picture every time, but this book has already led to  my best work to date.

If you like the photo above, or some of the other shots in my Flickr stream, do consider purchasing Understanding Exposure*.

* – affiliate link

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Paper.li – you’ve seen them all over Twitter – Joe’s Daily, Robyn’s Women of Uberness, The XXX Daily.  Follow these links and you’re headed to a Paper.li Twitter aggregation page. Aggregation selected by a Twitter user.

Shel Israel describes Paper.li:

The virtual publications are  aggregations of links that were shared on Twitter in a 24-hour period. They are organized into a very readable format that looks like an old-fashioned newspaper. You can peruse the front page or read from one of 4-5 topical news sections.

A publication is created by a Twitter user, for example @Sample_User, by selecting a search, a list, or a hashtag to be the base.  Links are culled from tweeps that @Sample_User follows. Videos get a section, topics another, and other links get bigger boxes based on what’s linked.

Note: I had published three of these Paper.li papers; each was pushed to Twitter once per day.

A quick opinion poll regarding clicking through on a Paper.li link brought this feedback:

• I haven’t found them useful. But then, dismiss every other link I see. Even media articles. #toomuchdrama #justthefactsplease
• To be honest, I don’t even click-thru when I’m mentioned.
• I’m on record as not being ‘s biggest fan. http://bit.ly/dJ7GsD
• maybe. but I am often disappointed when I get mentioned. it’s often a RT – and I’m not the author!
• Truth? I only follow paper.li links to see what was written about me. #ego #damageControl
• I have this sense that paper.li has hit its apex and is starting to receded–no data, just a hunch.
• sure, if I’m one of the contributors to that edition – just to see what paper.li picked up on
• very rarely – paper.li is a nice idea but so little of the content interests me
• Negative :-/

Wow. This wasn’t my expectation.  That’s when I went back and again read Shel’s Twitter Daily article.

The removal process should give a clue how this business is run. Here’s what shows up following the opt-out link:

Paper.li made the clean up list for 2011. It’s gone for me and I opted out of being include.

Will you opt-out of Paper.li or at least stop publishing?

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