37 Mile Ride today
October 25, 2008
Today I went for a ride by myself. I had an idea of how far I wanted to ride but did not think I would actually tackle the distance. This last week I completed a 33 mile ride on Tuesday morning and a 28 mile ride Wednesday afternoon. I am enjoying riding more each time I complete a ride. Keep in mind I am riding a single gear track bike.
The distance: 36.92 Miles
Average speed: 17.24 MPH
Average pace: 3.29 miles
Total Time: 2hr 8mins.
Get control of your Inbox
October 16, 2008
There was a time in my life when email handling would bring my productivity to a standstill. It was often that I put off an email response because I believed it deserved more time then I had to offer at that moment. The problem that brought is that I often forgot or the email became buried under many others. Over the years I have found that any response to an email is better then a good response at a later time. Last year I was receiving a great deal of emails inquiring about pricing and packages I offer for wedding photography services. Each email was unique enough that a boxed answer or saved response would not be sufficient. Emails were falling through the cracks. Often it was weeks before I responded due to being so far behind. Brides act quicker then that. Besides that, I was guilty of saving emails after I respond to them. I would have 100 or so in my inbox that I kept there in case a response came back with out the first communication attached to it. When that grew to difficult to manage I set up folders in my email application to keep them organized. I never went inside those folders. If I need to find something, a quick search would bring me what I desired thus rendering the organization of my emails pointless. It would be no different if they were all in one folder. After watching the InboxZero video I decided to implement that as my new policy for email handling. On occasion I backslide, but it does not take as much effort to get back to an empty inbox as it used to. For a person who receives 50-100 legitimate emails a day and 4-5000 in spam, inboxzero has helped me beyond measure. I suggest you watch this video and use from it what you believe would work for you.
What is this recession you speak of?
October 16, 2008
Add value, not discounts.
Your advertising = Fail
October 11, 2008
In a downturn market it is very easy to think that we should go out into the back yard and dig up the stash we were saving for a big advertising campaign. However I believe that in the market we are in today, that would prove futile. I am a huge believer in community. I do not believe in hit or miss marketing. Huge newspaper and yellowpage ads are the way of the past. Watch this video; Gary V does a great job of illustrating my point.
Thrive in this Recession
October 7, 2008
It is all to easy to fall into the all to familiar survivor mode when money seems tight. I would like to offer a different approach to take. Rather then sit back and hide in the corner until it’s over try making the most of the situation. Today I am talking about how to thrive in this so called recession we are experiencing.
ModestoBuzz.Com
October 4, 2008
ModestoBuzz.com is a social blog website run by Roy McKenzie. I say Social Blog because this blog allows you to register as a author and post content to it. I think it’s a great idea. Our local newspaper’s website allows you to post comments to stories they write but there is nothing in Modesto that allows users to post content of their own. Content ranges from posting something you are selling to specials going on at local businesses. I like where this blog is going. A while back I wanted to do a video podcast reviewing local businesses. We need something like this in Modesto, I hope it takes off and people start making use of it. Good work!
Ordered a new fixie
October 4, 2008
I did it, finally after months of fretting over what to get, where to get it from and how much to spend. Deciding to order a fixed gear bike also saved me a bunch of money. I’m sure in the future, probably near, I will purchase a road bike. The Central Valley is pretty flat and a fixed gear bike will do just fine. A friend of mine has a fixed gear bike and rides it everywhere, part of my inspiration for wanting a fixie is because I totally dig his bike.
So I ordered a 2009 Motobecane Messenger from BikesDirect.Com. Anybody have any experience ordering from them? I ordered the bike in Orange, because I didn’t like the red and am not really into black frames. I used to bike a lot when I was younger. Whenever I had a black frame, I would crash a lot.
Here are two images from their website:
Can’t wait for it to get here.
I’m in fixie love.
October 4, 2008
I have been debating what type of road bike to get. I have been intrigued by fixed gear bikes (aka. track bikes) for a while now and after watching some of these videos decided that a fixed gear bike would be much more fun. Less practical, but more fun.
Macaframa SF Track Bike Promo from MACAFRAMA on Vimeo.
Circle of Influence vs. Circle of Concern
October 2, 2008
I know the video for this podcast is super choppy, I am sorry about that. Just close your eyes 
I will have that fixed next time around.
“You can either be proactive or reactive when it comes to how you respond to certain things. When you are reactive, you blame other people and circumstances for obstacles or problems. Being proactive means taking responsibility for every aspect of your life.”
“We can’t do anything about things beyond our control so we might as well keep on focusing energy forward on the next thing we can create.”
Circle of Influence vs. Circle of Concern
Empower People to Talk About Your Business
October 2, 2008
Online it’s all about being talked about. If nobody is talking about you there is no way to get noticed. The most common question my web design clients ask me is, how do I get listed higher in the search engines. Contrary to popular belief, just having a website will not rank you in the top and being on the second page is just as bad as not being listed at all in my opinion. There are many user driven websites out there that give voice to the consumer. Here are a couple of websites that do a good job of letting people talk about you and your business.
#1 Yelp.com
Yelp is a user driven website that allows for business reviews to be posted. Yelp is most commonly used to review restaurants but there are many reviews on Yelp for professional services, health clubs, churches and more. Go to Yelp and if your business is not listed, LIST IT NOW! Once your listing shows up, contact some of your previous customers or clients and have them go on Yelp and write reviews. Ask them to be as specific as possible, include photos if they have any and of course, give you a 5 star rating. Once you have a few reviews and your business listing has been crawled by the search engines, Yelp should help you climb a few notches up in the search engine listings. Yelp has an iPhone App that allows you to search for near by businesses by category. People like me could find your business just because I’m in the area.
People trust the opinion of others.
Why do we read reviews before we buy something? Why do we watch a movie review before we go to the theater? We want to make sure we are informed before we make a decision. Sites like Yelp help people make good informed decisions. You can not afford to pass up listing your company on Yelp.
#2 Upcoming
Yahoo purchased a social calendar site called Upcomming a while back now located at http://upcoming.yahoo.com. Upcomming is a social calendar that allows you to post events on a calendar for others to search by geographical location. Upcomming is most commonly used for conferences, concerts and social events but it can also be used for a Wine Dinner that your restaurant is putting on or a Soccer Clinic your sporting goods store is sponsoring. Getting the word out there about what you are doing gives people a vehicle to talk about it with their friends. I may not be interested in a Soccer Clinic but I would tell my friend who has a son that is getting into Soccer.
#3 Meetup
If you have information to give people, why not start a Meetup group for the topic. If you are a real estate agent that specializes in first time home buyers, why not put together a First Time Home Buyer Meetup? Bring people together that have an interest in what you are offering and teach them how you can help them. People love free information. The Tag Line for Meetup is great: “Use The Internet to get Off The Internet”.
Meetup put together this great video. Check it out.
There are many tools like this that are catalysts for people to talk about you and your business. I highly recommend that you figure out how you can use tools like these to grow your business and benefit people who are looking for your services.
