blogging

The main reason I’ve ditched this blog is because I now moblog more than anything, and there is a very simple solution that I like for that. So now I have three options:

1. Continue using my “Stealth Blog” only
2. Use the same software as the stealth blog and create a new blog
3. Keep this wordpress blog and moblog on wordpress… and keep the stealth blog

The third option seems like the best though I have some good ideas for a new blog name which would be my reason for number 2… 2 or 3, I plan to try to get back into public blogging…. just hope some readers come back.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not really using this blog again. There are really two reasons 1) this is too public, and I don’t really want a public forum right now - though I may again in the future. 2) Moblogging doesn’t seem to work well, if at all with wordpress. So, I now have a more private blog that allows me to moblog and not share everything with the world… but I will be posting here occassionally, when I feel the content is audience appropriate… in fact I might just post a few things now…

A little while ago I subscribed to a free email tip of the week related to marketing. It’s valuable when it comes, but it makes me a little upset when I don’t see it in my inbox every week. If it were monthly and only came once a month, that would be fine… but it says it’s weekly so it had better come weekly. As the publisher of the Daily JDA - a semi-weekly if your lucky blog - this makes me quite the hypocrite. So, it’s time to rename the blog. I have some ideas, and would consider moving to a new domain, but I’d like to hear a few others first. If you have any ideas please comment or email. Thanks.

Who doesn’t hate an acronym? Corporations for one, they seem to love them. While I’m sort of in career limbo I’m working with a company on possibly developing a blog or six - to help in this task I came up with the RICE acronym of best uses for corporate blogs.

Reputation: building up your image, making sure you are proactive in make yourself look good before the press makes you look bad. This one is more important in some industries than others - but everyone could use it.
Information: this is the type of blog the Lopico blog is. It’s all about what your doing and explaining things to your customers.
Communication: really the heart of every blog, but my emphasis with this point is on letting people communicate with you; not just shoveling your info on them (for shoveling, see: I).
Expertise (or expertification if you need the consistent ending): That’s the type of blog I wish I could say that this is. Using your blog to establish yourself as an expert is a great way for a corporation to use a blog and usually the easiest answer when someone says, “why the hell should we blog?”

It’s quick, easy to remember and most importantly helps explain some of the most common uses of a blog - use it or don’t, but it works for me.

So…. I think I can start blogging again… at least for a while. It’s pretty exciting for me, because there have been a lot of things that have happened that I would have liked to blog about. Before I get back into it, here’s a quick rundown of what’s been going on with me:

1. I finished law school. I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier to end something.
2. I took a job, but it’s not permanent. I took it as a way to make some money while I look for a job.
3. I went to Hawaii with my girlfriend and had a great time.
4. I am 25 now.
5. I’m working on the next version of Lopico. Lots of new stuff coming if I can find the time.
6. I’ve done some other things with Lopico which you can read about here.
7. I now have what I call the “real daily JDA” - it’s a journal that I write one new website idea in everyday.
8. I have a bunch of new ideas for start-ups (see #7) that I plan to write about.
9. I’ve probably lost all of my readers.
10. I may have inadvertently discovered a business model for motask.
11. I’m a big twitter fan.
12. I don’t plan on writing daily. The less I blog the more work I get done on Lopico.
13. I’ve missed you. You can still tell me what to write about here.
14. I have a bunch of emails to write.
15. I have a new ipod (full size, no more mini) and have found a lot of great new bands, some of which I plan to write about.
16. My best friend from High School, who I used to meet with weekly to discuss web ideas, is in Afghanistan.
17. I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting. Law school has really been all I’ve had time for lately.

18. I plan on having more photos/images in the blog - this one is from a luau in Maui.

That’s about it - look for the real blogging to start again soon.

i’m not blogging anymore. but i may return to it. i wanted to do one last post, but it wasn’t until a meeting i had today that i really decided how to do it. i had a great meeting this morning with a local entrepreneur; i wish i did more of these. i’m going to have to if i stay in northeast ohio. if i stay in NEO i want to have an impact. i want to get involved. i want there to be a higher profile tech community. this will take some effort, but i’m willing to help the effort. there’s a lot of great talent in the area… but it’s an area that isn’t connected well. the way we work in NEO is wrong. the community owes it to itself to do more. it wouldn’t be hard to make this a blossoming area - it would just take openness to ideas and the right people to implement the ideas. when i see things about NEO for the most part i think ’stone age.’ NEO is a community with good ideas that lack implementation and bad ideas with implementation. it’s a community with the wrong leaders listening to the wrong things. what do i mean by that? we have numerous efforts to revitalize or fund technologies - but the effort is put in the wrong places. it’s a community where people say things that they heard without any substance behind them. for example, i used to work for a company that recently decided they’d like to consider blogging. how did this come about? someone high in the company said, ‘ i heard blogs are good for marketing, we should do that if we’re not.’ what a perfect illustration of NEO - late action with little substance or reasoning. so how is this problem fixed? action. the problem with communities (and politics) is that it is only those that act that get to determine what happens. if you sit back and watch and complain about bad ideas you’re not doing anything to advance the good ideas that you have. if anything you’re perpetuating the implementation of bad ideas. it’s not about having prominent figures and ideas it’s about the right figures and ideas. i believe i’m one of the people that should be more prominent in the community. my problem has been inaction. this has largely come from the fact that i’ve been in law school for the past three years and haven’t had much opportunity for anything other than law school… but if i stay in the area i’m going to do my best to change that. what’s confusing to me about the state of affairs in NEO is all the talk about how bad it is that NEO is loosing all of its young talent… yet their is little done to promote the efforts of the young that remain. so… what will it take for me to stay in the area? first let’s think of why i’d want to leave. there are a number of reasons: 1. Attitude. the attitude of the region is wrong. it’s self loathing and only serves to perpetuate its negative image. 2. Opportunity. i don’t know if i will be able to stay in the area. i’d like to, but the field i want to be involved in isn’t prominent enough in the area. that’s not to say that there aren’t great companies in the area… it’s just that they don’t get the attention they deserve, which in turn makes them less successful than they could be. 3. Age. i’d like to leave the area now, because i’m 25. there really won’t be a better time for me to try to pick up and leave. i recently ended a 4 year relationship, which left family as more or less my only tie to the area (ok there is a new girlfriend now… but that will work itself out). 4. Age. not only am i 25, but the region is old. old in the sense that i don’t feel like i can get the respect i feel i deserve because the area, despite its claims, doesn’t respect its youth. 5. weather. ok nothing can be done to change this, but it’s april and there’s snow on the ground. so what will it take for me to stay? opportunity for impact. is this available to me? i don’t know, and i don’t know if i’ll be here long enough to find out.

this has been sort of a stream of consciousness post, and if it was someone that i was helping with their blog i’d tell them that it was too long… but hey this is the end… i’m not worried about trying to drive traffic, i’m not worried about click-throughs to Lopico, i just want to write. of course, the whole point of the first part was to say that there are a lot of things i’m considering right now… and i’d like to blog them.. but i’m not going to. not until i figure out what’s next for Josh Amer will i blog again.

it’s an interesting time in the web, obviously that’s where i’d like to continue my career, it’s just a matter of opportunity. the web is great right now. web2.0 is just about over. web3.0 will never be (if we’re lucky). there will just be the continual connectivity and the full integration (content anywhere, structure irrelevant) that web2.0 has been hinting at. we’re about to reach the point in which we are connected at every point in every way from whichever source we choose. is that scary? is that exiting? will it be a good thing? i’m not sure yet. but i’m glad that i was a small part of it at least for awhile, and i hope i can be a bigger part of it for years to come.

thanks for reading. - JDA.

I set out to do start-up review week with 5 companies in mind and 5 days to do it. But, there just didn’t seem to be any interest, so I’m killing it, just as I will soon be killing this blog. I don’t have the time to write a struggling blog. When I could write daily I really enjoyed it… the chance that I may be able to do that again some day is what keeps this blog alive. Between what is arguably my most demanding semester of school ever (at least it’s my last), my pursuit of a career after school, and all of my other web projects (I think it was 9 last count) this blog just can’t get much attention. March may just be my last month of blogging.

side note: this morning I woke up thinking I could cut the code that serves up reviews on Lopico in half, I did that and then made a couple other changes - you can read about it here. It’s the first time in a while I’ve had a chance to do any programming on Lopico, and a reminder as to why last summer - when I didn’t have a “real” job and worked on Lopico for about 12-20 hours a day - was perhaps the best of my life.

My plan for next week is to write 4-5 posts about different start-ups that you may or may not know of. My list is currently at 4, but if any reader would like their site reviewed, I will gladly make changes to the list. If you don’t have a site and just want to make a suggestion that’s fine too.

I worked with Ray Bethea to set up his blog, Greenback Chronicles, the site and first post are now up. The blog is about personal finance, from the perspective of the middle class American. Ray is an excellent writer and if you’re interested in this field I think his blog will be one you’ll want to read. The first few posts are going to be a little longer, as they serve primarily as introductory material. After the first four are up, I’m going to package them as an e-book that you can download and pass along if you’d like.

The design isn’t the greatest yet - the logo comes courtesy of me - but we have a great designer working on a new template that should be ready to go soon. Hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think.

Judy’s Book founder Andy Sack, is doing what bloggers should do. His blog has been great lately, it’s open, it’s honest, it’s self critical, and above all it’s really interesting. If you have a corporate blog, or you want to become a corporate blogger take a look at his blog. The problem is you probably won’t want to / be allowed to take the risks he does, but if you want your blog to work he’s giving free lessons.
http://asack.typepad.com/a_sack_of_seattle/

Today I decided to map out my entire 2007. I drew up a month by month calendar of objectives, and goals as well as things and contacts I’ll need to help me achieve these goals. It was pretty intense. I will graduate from law school this year and I will most likely move out of Ohio for the first time in my life. I think moving really hit me the hardest. I know that moving is not a huge deal, and something I’m sure I’ll ultimately be better off for doing, but it’s still a little strange to think about (and there is a chance I will remain in Ohio).

Back to the point…
I made two calendars, one for everything non-web related and one for web related things. Where I am right now in my life, the web related things have to come after the non-web things are finished. That’s how I came to the conclusion that this blog is coming to an end.

I’m going to end the blog either because my future employer will not let me blog, or (more likely) because the benefit of this blog is running out. I first started blogging as a way to drive traffic to my sites, that went okay, but not enough to justify my time. Now, I blog more just for fun, and have probably benefited more. This blog has opened up the door to some new relationships, it’s helped me establish myself by getting quoted in different places, it’s helped with my sites (if you ever need some help with php just look through the wordpress source and you’ll find a lot of great ideas), and it’s helped me in some ways in the consulting I’ve done. So why give it up? Time. That’s really the only answer I can give. The blog doesn’t produce enough results for me to justify the time put in. So, starting today the phase out begins. The daily jda will go back to the old style of posting when the mood strikes me and I’ll be able to get more done. A full phase out will probably come around April (which coincidentally is when I turn 25) unless something changes and the benefit really starts to increases.

Until next time. Happy New Year.

I guess Valleywag was too edgy and relevant. Nick Denton, head of Gawker Media, decided to change the focus of the wag, apparently lame is the new black. This new Valleywag won’t cost him any deals, but it will cost him readers. First, the ‘new’ design looks like it’s 1999 all over again - it’s horrible. Second, getting rid of Nick Douglas was the single biggest mistake Gawker could have made. The great wit of the valley’s best humorist (not to mention one of the smartest writers in the valley) is lost. Instead we have to deal with such great one liners as: “You linked — What a day! — to the photo gallery and exposed the poor woman to every vicious troll on the internet.”

At least this move helps my decision to cut back on blog reading.

The best blogs have a unique voice. The first thing you need to do when you start a blog is pick your voice. Is it going to be serious, light-hearted, witty, comical? You decide, but decide and stick to it. You’ll be better off for it.

Good Examples: Valleywag and Trizle

By choosing a voice your blog will stand out from the millions of others on the same topic. This isn’t anything new, if you want to have a successful product it needs to reflect a certain personality. There’s no real reason to think that you should be marketing your blog any differently.

I don’t believe that everyone should blog, but if you’re going to, make it worth reading. Have I done the best job of this? I’m not entirely sure, but I think I’m getting there.

Starting off with BarCampOhio - the wiki is at least up, I haven’t done anything for this yet. Still trying to feel this one out. I’m reading up on best practices and we’ll see what happens. Anyone that would like to participate should go to barcamp.org/BarCampOhio

First Posts on BCO: Web 2.O-H-I-O | Wake up 2.0

On Commenting
Most of my blog readers are, well, readers, not participants and not commenters. That’s fine, but if you’re also a blogger you should comment. I have a new policy on the site: anyone who comments and links to their blog gains me as a reader. I upgraded WordPress and K2 the other day, which led to me loosing some style info and then eventually changing all of the style and updating some options - while I was at it I put my new blog reading policy in place. I’m only one reader, but if you write well enough I may just throw some links your way.

Speaking of me reading blogs…
I decided that part of MyStuff monday (still playing with the format) will be me linking to new blogs I’ve subscribed to or ones I’ve stopped reading. For this week:

In:
A Sack of Seattle
Center Networks
David Beach’s blog
Korea Crunch
Marketing Profs
Somewhat Frank
Tell Ten Friends

Out:
GigaOm

Actually an unusual week, I don’t normally add this many blogs in a week. I’m guessing some of these won’t be around long.

I’m making a change to my blog and you will likely either hate it or love it - I’m putting my blog on a schedule. Here’s the schedule:

Monday……. My Stuff (Lopico, etc.)
Tuesday…… Tech News
Wednesday.. Websites (not created by me)
Thursday….. Thoughts on Marketing
Friday……… Hawaiian shirt day

This is part of my continued focus on clarity, simplicity, and time management. I imagine this will lead me to write more which may make you happy - and you’ll know what to expect which should make you happy.

I’ll also make feeds available for each day of the week so you can get just what you like.

Look for the first Website Wednesday to come soon.

I’m big into data, a numberphile perhaps, that’s just part of the reason Screenwerk may just be my favorite blog. Why aren’t you reading it? Bloglines says that there are 41 bloglines readers - assuming that’s nearly half (though personally I have more Rojo subscribers than anything) that’s not enough.

– Speaking of Rojo - the new version is great and worth the downtime over the weekend. I recommend signing up for it if you need a better reader.

Forgive me, I know I’m posting like crazy today, but…

I’m looking for a blog search engine to partner with me on a project. I’m sending out emails, but sometimes I get the best response if I just blog what I’m looking for. Any companies interested email jda[at]jdamer[dot]com. Thanks.

First : Part 1

I came out of the ‘blogging for business’ event with more or less the same view as I had going into it. I suppose it was a good basic introduction to blogging, but didn’t really get into blogging for business if you ask me. Overall I thought it was great to see the interest in blogging coming from the business community, but I still have the fear that too many blogs will miss the point.

Sorry this wasn’t a better post, my views were unswayed.

I’m going to attend a corporate blogging presentation/dinner tonight, and thought that I’d share my ideas about corporate blogging pre-event and then do a recap after the event.

Here’s how I feel about corporate blogging now:

1. Blogging won’t work for most companies.

Most companies that choose to blog will do it incorrectly. Blogging incorrectly for a corporate blog means making your corporate blog little more than another place to dump your press releases. There has to be some value added. I imagine many of the companies that blog will try it (incorrectly) not have any success and then say that blogging is just hype and doesn’t actually work.

2. Corporate blogs will be overly cautious and underly (that can’t be a word) valuable.

The secret to success of blogs is that they start conversations. Too many Corporations seem to fear conversation - they don’t want to just let people say stuff, what if they say something bad? Unfortunately, if you don’t let the conversation take place your blog falls into the ‘just another place to dump press releases’ category and no one will read it. This level of caution leads to only safe topics being addressed and in the end nothing is gained.

3. Listening to other bloggers is more important than what your own blog says

I cannot stress this point enough. Reading a blog by someone within a company is probably going to be borring, dull, safe material. Others will not hold back in what they say about your or your company. These are the posts to embrace. By addessing a blogger on their blog you will 1) make them feel special and 2) find out where your problems are and perhaps how to coreect them.

4. Most companies will miss out on the fact that blogs are supposed to be interactive.

Again, if you don’t let them talk you’re just pushing more content without the value added of customer input.

5. The best corporate blogs will rarely mention the company to which they belong, instead they will offer insight into the industry as a whole.

Companies are supposed to help people aren’t they? Every succesful company can say we help people do X… even if that X is “look good.” So tell people how it is that they can better do X on their own, and when the time comes for them to buy something to help them do X, you can be sure that they will go to the company that has always been there helping them.

Recap: Listen, take risks, and above all provide some type of value.

- J.D. Amer

Last time I said that I had just passed post number 100, now I’m wondering if that’s enough. At least enough in the way that I currently blog. Honestly, blogging makes little sense to me in the traditional format of 1 person 1 blog. That’s simply not enough. It works for some but for some people working together with others will just work better. I enjoy this blog, but when I did SportsNoise I 1) had more fun 2) had more readers 3) had more fresh original content and 4) had a lot more comments and better conversations. By leveraging the power of 7-8 bloggers with 7-8 different networks I was able to pull more people into that blog; the conversations were better and the experience was better. So here are my proposals for my continuation of blogging:

1. Ditch jdamer.com and form a new blog with at least one other person.
2. Create a mega-feed of my blog plus other blogs
3. Get another writer or 2 for this blog (but then the name doesn’t really make sense)
4. Do more to reach out to my readers and let them blog on my blog
5. Same as number 1, but keep this for purely personal purposes
6. Join another blogger’s blog - anyone looking for a writer??
7. Status Quo

What happens next? I’m not sure, I’m just starting to think about tjis. Anyone that is interested in pursuing any of these ideas let me know.

- J.D. Amer

Solicit me. I’m looking for something to blog. No I haven’t run out of topics, and I have about 10 draft posts, but who cares? Tell me what’s important to you. This can be as self-interested as you’d like. Anything. (Yes, this is an experiment for a bigger idea, and if it works I’ll go into it more)

Bored? Try these:
Downfall of Digg
The top five mistakes entrepreneurs make when they market

Unless you are on the Technorati top 100, you need an introduction. A major reason blogs don’t get the credit that they deserve is because they lack credentials. Traditional media is regarded as credible because there are barriers to entering the market. New media does not have that barrier, at least not to the same extent. New media needs a different source of credentials, if it is going to get the credit that it deserves. So why not do what new media does and let people rate the blogs? I’m sure that there are services like this, but I can’t really recall ever seeing a reputation icon on a blog with a link to a profile of the blog, with reviews of the blog and user ratings. The closest I can think of would have to be Amazon reviews that are on Alexa - but that applies to any site. I’m considering creating a site for this purpose, but I’m currently working on 3 sites, two for other people and of course Lopico. If I don’t find out about such a service I may just try to find time to create one.

I launched Sports Noise, a sports blogging site written by 7 anonymous writers, two weeks ago and I’m really enjoying it.  So much so that I’m considering do the same thing with more topics.  Right now the next too most likely topics are politics and the net. Anyone interested email jda[at]jdamer[dot]com.

I just launched my newest web creation called Sports Noise. I did the design / WP set-up, and came up with the concept.

Here’s the gist:

• 7 writers
• I know all of them, but they don’t know each other
• They blog about sports, and debate each other
• They remain anonymous to keep their posts honest and unbiased

Am I one of the writers? I can’t tell you.

It’s only a few posts in, but I’m already loving what I see.

Google launched Google Finance today, and it hasn’t exactly received rave reviews. Personally, I like it. I think that it’s actually good for the consumer. Why? Because more corporations will have to start blogging. Google finance puts blog posts about the company on the company details page. Unfortunately it is fueled by Google Blog Search, which is weak at best, but it does bring attention to some blogs, a fact that companies would be foolish to ignore. Smart companies will likely respond by launching their own blogs so that they themselves can dominate the results (as Google does with its page).

By bringing more corporations in to the blogging realm consumers will be aided. First, consumers will have easier access to important information; second, some corporations will realize that they can send out offers to customers through blogs / rss and will be able to reach the consumers that are anxiously awaiting their message; and third consumers will be given a forum to directly interact with some companies.

The site overall may not be better than any other finance site, but it certainly has a chance to bring more corporations into the world of blogging. Granted, the new blogs will be more like the extremely cheesy Official Google Blog, but it’s better than nothing.

One last note, I find it very interesting that GOOG returns no blog results for Google’s most recent lawsuit, yet it is the first result for YHOO.

I’ve been way too busy to blog lately, but here are a few quick notes:

1. I’m starting a new blogging network with 6 bloggers from accross the USA.  I’m the only one that has blogged before, and I don’t think anything like this project has been done before - more details later.
2. Lopico has a new look homepage, including a display of recent lopico lovers reviews. Unfortunately this isn’t exactly consitent with the rest of the site - but it’s a good reason to redesign the interior pages.
3. Lopromo has been scaled back and should be ready to go in the next few weeks.
4. Not long after I said that Digg was falling into the worng hands, it was used in a newly deceptive way - altering stock prices.
5. I decided that I am going to run a marathon in the fall.
6. Craigslist may be getting a makeover.

The last point about Craigslist is one that I plan to revisit once I have time to blog again (something along the lines of .. everyone says craigslist design is part of its charm, but apparently the Craigslist crew thinks otherwise…), but who knows when I’ll have time.

Just a couple of quick notes:

1. I’ve added a few more cities to Lopico - the total is now 170.
2. I created a new page on this blog called “My Comments” - this page uses a del.icio.us link roll to show blogs that I’ve recently commented on. I think that organizing / tracking comments is going to be a hot area soon, if only temporarily. I created this because I think it enhances web conversations. While I may not have the strongest following on my blog, I’d like to see this idea implemented by popular bloggers so that I could contribute to conversations they are in that are outside of their blog.