I try to wait until people ask what I think about things before I give my opinion... outside of this blog, of course. I don't always manage to wait, usually because most of the time no one asks and my opinions are so damned good, but I do try. So, it was with great glee and much rubbing of hands together that I read an email from one of my prized clients asking what I thought about search engine optimization (SEO). Meta Keywords: The SEO Shake Weight I replied as honestly as I could, and … [Read more...]

I worked for a couple of weeks on a data visualization of which I am quite proud. The only problem is that I took on that project for a very busy guy. He's got a family, is an avid outdoorsman and cyclist from what I gather, and is head of a couple of different business ventures, like Guild Quality and Ignition Alley. I, on the other hand, am a single guy with no kids and only one business. I have plenty of time to come up with silliness. So, how to get his attention? Hm. Well, why not a … [Read more...]

WordPress's plugin capability reminds me a lot of human sexuality. A web site, much like a person, has needs that require cooperation to fill. Sure, a human's needs might be a touch more, shall we say, embarrassing than a site's need to list its most recent posts, but ultimately there's a want that is getting indulged. One can take it too far. Sometimes, perhaps drunk on the vapors of pleasure or, more likely, malt liquor, WordPress users install plugin after plugin. Have you seen my … [Read more...]

Working at a startup is like drinking a vodka/Red Bull. It's a pleasurable mix of relaxation and excitement. On the one hand, the very air crackles with the unasked questions. Will my stock options ever really be worth anything? Will any of us be working here tomorrow? Why are developers so profoundly bizarre? There's so much to get charged up about, and yet no one is around until after 9:00AM at the earliest. There are probably a few beers in the company refrigerator. Flip flops see more action … [Read more...]

I overheard a young woman talking on her cellphone the other day at a cafe. She managed to work the word "actually" into nearly every sentence, and after a while I couldn't read anymore. Each "actually" rang in the air like a bell. She was trying to express to someone that she'd had a job offer a few days previous, and that she'd need time to consider the offer that the caller was now presenting to her. Whatever problems I might have with her word choices, clearly she's someone with … [Read more...]

Part of doing many endurance events, at least triathlon and running events, is the phenomenon of the race expo and packet pickup. Rather than mail your race number and timing chip to your house, they make you come pick it up so that they get a chance to inundate you with marketing messages in person. Mind you, I want race organizers to make money because I want there to be races for me to do, but I think things could be rearranged a bit to make life better for everyone. Before you Run … [Read more...]

I had a really interesting day yesterday, due in no small part to a very fun meeting with some artists in their combination studio/gallery space in the Buckhead section of town. I met Lisa Moore when I was out playing guitars last week. Upon seeing our show, she wondered if my buddy Dwight and I might like to play at her gallery some time, and through that conversation she found out about my organic marketing daytime life. She asked me if I might like to come talk to some artists about … [Read more...]

I've been wanting to experiment with a Meetup.com group for a while, and after some thought I set up the Organic Marketing Group (OMG) a few days ago. I'd love to have you join me. We're getting together for the first time next Tuesday. My laptop defines “organic” first as “of, relating to, or derived from living matter”. Organic marketing, then, is marketing that is intended for, perpetuated by, and relevant to living matter, or as I like to call them, “people”. You can call … [Read more...]

I recently ran across a new interpretation of an old chestnut titled "If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers". I say "old chestnut" because it has been around at least as long as I've been working on the Intertubes, and I started in 1996 or so. The first time I saw it it referred to programmers, not web designers, but it's mostly unchanged. At the time I was discovering Perl as a replacement for shell scripts, and the idea of installing Slackware 2.3 on my home PC was terribly novel … [Read more...]