Category: Web sites

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Thoughts Web sites

Old and New

It’s the day after Christmas and all through the house…

is a bunch of stuff we have to clean up.

Okay, that’s not very poetic, but it’s true. And since I don’t want to do that, I decided to write in here instead.

Such a sorry blog.

Every time I write in it, it has been months and I say, “Gee I forgot all about this!”

So here I am doing it again.

But why?

Because it’s true, I do get excited and write in here for a little while, then forget all about it, then write in here some more. It’s the story of my life.

Starting new things, not sticking with them, then starting something else.

But then, isn’t that life?

There are always cycles to things.

I guess some people like to keep on the same cycle for longer. I guess I like switching. But yet, I don’t fully switch, so I keep stuff hanging around.

Like this blog. It’s still here.

But I have started a few new things.

I’m experimenting with Substack. It’s a platform that lets you set up paid subscriptions for your writing (or blogging) or podcasts. Or you can use it for free.

So that’s what I’m doing for now, free content, until I decide to have people pay.

Right now, I have two publications. One is called Micromovements and it’s about doing small things to make big changes within a corporation.

The other one is just housing my old “Rex on the Road” vlog series. But I might add new episodes once I get all the old stuff up there. I figured since I own the domain name, I should use it.

So check out http://www.rexontheroad.com

And http://rexwilliams.substack.com

I also have something else going on.

The link below is my main web site where I’ll try to set up my courses and stuff that you can pay for. But for now, there’s just a free ebook for subscribing to my list. And it’s kind of under construction, so I’m not really done with it yet.

Check it out at: http://www.rexawilliams.com

Anyway, more to come on that.

But I’ll keep this around, because I like it 🙂

And I like you.

Thanks for reading.

Categories
Events Thoughts Web sites

One Day On Earth

Start here to see my contribution: http://archive.onedayonearth.org/index.php/videos and look in Everett, WA for “Hope in the Ground”.

Here’s the behind the scenes video: http://www.onedayonearth.org/profiles/blogs/behind-the-scenes-part-1

And check out this movie trailer: http://www.onedayonearth.org/page/motion-picture-trailer

Think about it. What is one day on earth really like?

This is it.

Pretty awesome.

 

 

 

 

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Web sites

Would You Like an Invitation?

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Web sites

Grootship

Hey everyone!  (both of you)

I’ve started a new blog:  grootship.com

But that doesn’t mean I won’t still be posting here, maybe just not as often. (But how can I be less often than I am now?)  Ok, forget that.  Maybe I’ll be posting here more often, just so I can drive traffic over there. 

But I’m not making any promises.  You’ll just have to keep checking back.

So what the heck is “grootship”?

I’m not even going to tell you.  You’ll have to watch my launch video and then go read the blog page that answers the question.

I’m going to shoot for a post every day over there, excluding weekends.  Pretty ambitious, I know.  Some of them are going to be really short.

I just wanted to start something that I have a little bit of experience in, not an expert, just some experience, and that I think is fun and worthwhile.

(And yes, I made up that word.  Is that cool or what?  You can too at wordoid.com)

So come learn how to practice good grootship.

Categories
Thoughts Web sites

Do you want to spread your word?

The main way people are spreading word about their ‘stuff’ is to ask people who can reach a lot of people to talk about it.  In other words, they ask famous bloggers to blog about it.

This is somewhat analagous to trying to get your commercial on TV during the Super Bowl instead of putting it up on a local PBS channel.  But I think there is less money that exchanges hands, even though it is probably more effective advertising.

So if you want to try and ask a famous blogger to promote your stuff, Chris Brogan has some great tips.  And it involves a little more effort than slappin’ down dollar bills.  This is the ‘Trust Economy’, maybe more work, but probably more valuable than cash.

There’s also another tactic you can use in this new economy.  Instead of asking a famous blogger like Chris Brogan to promote your stuff, you can also easily ask someone else you already know (built trust with) to blog about your stuff.  Sure, their blog may not go out to hundreds of thousands of people, but maybe they might reach a few people.  And who knows, maybe those few people might tell a few more people about your stuff, and so on.

If you get enough small time people blogging about it, you just might reach a big time audience.

I guess what I’m saying is that if you want me to mention something for you, just go ahead and ask.  It could be a mutual benefit for both of us.  (If your thing is really cool.)

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Web sites

NaNoWriMo

I found something new… again.

An online friend pointed me to this site and challenge.  Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month?  They call it NaNoWriMo for short.  And the challenge is for you to write a novel in 30 days. 

The only requirement:    50,000 words

Sure, there are few other stipulations like you can’t use stuff you’ve already started, or copy something, but basically everyone who writes 50,000 words wins!  And all those words don’t even have to make sense. You can’t type the same word over and over again, but their definition of ‘novel’ is pretty loose – basically, whatever you say it is.

I thought it might be a fun challenge, and something I could get the kids into also.  They have a Young Writer’s Program where they set age appropriate goals for word counts and have some really cool resources for the kids.

You can also find local writing groups who organize write-ins where they all get together and write, I guess.  I haven’t been to one, but it sounds like fun because you have kind of a support group.

I don’t read novels and wasn’t really interested in writing one, never mind coming up with a story, but I read somewhere that “writing is the key to all wealth,” so I thought it would be good for me to get into the habit of writing.  Since I didn’t have a storyline in my head, the only place I could think of to get stories from is my childhood.  And I realized that there is a lot of material there.

So I just started writing about funny things that happened when I was a kid.  Things about my house, dog, friends, elementary school, my brothers, our pool, etc.  Plus my kids are always asking me what I did when I was young, so I thought it would be a good idea to get them down on paper.

If you divide 50,000 by 30 you get a daily quota of 1,667 words, so my goal was to hit the quota every day.  Well, I actually made it each day for the first 3 days.  I made it to 5001 words!  

Then, I fell off the bandwagon.  I’ve continued to write each day, but haven’t made the quota.  I’m hoping to catch up this weekend.

It’s still not too late to get started, you can join any time.  I know I should have posted this before I started, so you wouldn’t be so far behind, but I only found out about it 2 days before November.

Maybe if I get into the habit I’ll be able to post more entries in my blog.  In fact, I’ll probably create some as part of my ‘novel’.  It really is a mish mash of stuff, such as a little history or explanation about my family, crazy made up scenes that lead to an unbelieveable climax then end, some poetry, and streams of consciousness.  They say editing is for December.

Write, write, write!

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Thoughts Web sites

The Best Writing Advice Ever

Experienced another breakthrough epipany – so I must write.

I’m an Actor

I’ve been acting like a writer lately at work, interviewing people and writing their stories.  I guess the reason I’m doing it is because it’s kind of fun for me, even though I’m a total amatuer (although I have been told by some writers that I’m not bad, which is probably why I keep doing it.)

I Have Good Friends

Last week I was talking to a friend of mine who is a writer and I was telling her how I was kind of dabling in her business.  Since she is very nice and friendly, she gave me some good advice: read copyblogger.com.

It’s kind of funny because it’s one of those things that have been right under my nose for a long time and I never saw it.  It is one of Seth Godin’s recommended blogs, so why didn’t I think it was worthwhile?

Love at First Read

So when I went to copyblogger.com I quickly scanned the blog post titles and immediately fell in love.  Then I started looking at the most popular posts and said, “where have you been all my life?”  I guess I must really be a wannabe writer if the stuff they talk about on copyblogger gets me so jazzed. (Of course those who know me know that I get jazzed about a lot of things pretty easily.) (Which you might be able to tell from my posts.) (But never mind that, this time it’s for real.)

Here is the Best Advice Ever

So here’s one of the most popular posts on copyblogger:  10 Steps to Becoming a Better Writer

Which is why I got motivated again and immediately wrote this post.

No, Actually it’s This One

But then I read this one: The Two Most Important Words in Blogging

And totally blew it in this post.  Do you think it was because I didn’t want to or just habit?  There, now I can say I used them.

Then Again, Maybe…

I do love writing when I produce something good.  But I am pretty slow. It takes me a long time to craft a sentence sometimes.  Then later, I remember how hard it was and how long it took, so I wimp out and don’t do it again.

Which is why this post grabbed my attention and gave me some good stuff: How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes.

Advice is Cheap… and Powerful

I could keep going, but you get the point.  A friend gave me a little advice, read copyblogger, and that turned out to be the best writing advice ever.

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Web sites

Communicators

I don’t remember what I signed up for, but I’ve been receiving a daily email called Ragan’s Daily Headlines that contains main headlines from Ragan.com which is a site for internal business communicators.  Even though I’m not an official ‘communicator,’ I do similar work as I communicate with people inside the Boeing company. 

And this Ragan site has some great info.  Relevant stories, videos, and discussions from people trying to make things happen within big corporations.  Again, I found a place with more stuff to learn.

Will it ever end?

 Of course their business model is to hook you with good stuff, then make you subscribe if you want more of their good stuff.  Some articles require you to be a member of ‘Ragan Select’.  But there’s plenty of free stuff for me.

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Consultants Web sites

A telephone call

There really is no end to what’s happening ‘out there’ and who are the movers and shakers. 

I found another one, Dave Winer, who pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software.  He is a former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies.

What was interesting to me was his  podcast phone call with Chris Brogan, marketing mogul. 

What do you do when you want the world to hear what a smart, influencial person has to say about the latest trends in social marketing?  Call him up, record the conversation, and create a podcast.  Genious.

It’s 30 minutes long, but you don’t have to listen to the whole thing.  It’s just kind of fun to listen to two smart guys having a conversation.  Plus, you can learn something about what’s happening in the twitter, blog, web 2.0 world.

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Web sites

Venus de Milestone: the car

Here’s an interesting story that proves a point about the way projects are managed these days.  What would happen if a car operated the way most companies managed their projects?

http://billiondollarsolution.com/blog/?p=74

There are some fundamental concepts regarding variation in projects that more people should be aware of.

Categories
Books Web sites

Building Communities

I finally found what I’m looking for.  This is my newest favorite blog, along with this one running a close second.

They’re about building communities, and more about the personal side of it than the technical side.  The posts are short and to the point and provide great insight.

It turns out that community building is now a whole new industry with many available jobs, consultants, books, and communities.  Who knew?

Of course I knew it was a hot topic and something that many people were talking about, but I never dug deep enough to find the actual experts on it.  And I still think I’ve just scratched the surface.

Call me naive or disconnected or out of the loop, but it’s still true: the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.

The world is one big place, with a lot of stuff happening.  And just watching TV only makes you think you know what is happening.

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Web sites

The Long Blog Tail

I know for a fact that there are a lot of talented musicians in the world that you have never heard of.

Like this guy for example.

By the same token, there are a lot of good blogs out there that some people may never see (like this one. The one you’re reading.)

So why not share a little and spread the knowledge of something good.

Here’s a good obscure blog that I found.  He has a great post with an interesting analogy for today’s financial situation.

(Okay, so he happens to be a friend at work.)

(Okay, so the musician happens to be my brother.)

How else would I find these things?

Oh yea, I suppose I could surf the net too.  But it doesn’t hurt to start with your world.

Categories
Web sites

The Alternative MBA

I thought it might be a good idea, once a week, to share the book review presentations that we are creating in the Alt-MBA program.  One reason is because they are really well done, and another was to give me some authomatic material at least once a week.

Well, it doesn’t make sense to continually share something that is already on a public web site (so much for automatic material.)  So I’ll just tell you to bookmark this website and check it each week as new book review presentations are posted. 

The guys running the program have done a bang up job.  We also have interviews with some of the authors and have shared those as podcasts in iTunes.  We are trying to show that with the new technology and social tools available today, it can be quite easy to redefine what it means to ‘get an education’.

Categories
Books Web sites

Changing the World

What happens when you write a blog post every day for two months and then all of a sudden stop?

Well, both of your readers get upset.

Or, nobody notices.

I’m hoping the later.

But here’s something that might be interesting.

Seth Godin doesn’t promote too many books from other people, only when it’s something he completely believes in.  And let me tell you that Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund, is one of his favorite people.  So when she releases her first book, The Blue Sweater, you know he is going to promote it as best as he can.

Here is his explanation of why you should buy her book.  (I wouldn’t doubt that he is the anonymous donor.)

I think this is interesting because we’re learning how possible it really is to change the world.  Maybe because there are so many parts of the world that have a lot of room for improvement, and we’re able to more easily connect those who can help with those who need the help.

I’m guessing that is what The Blue Sweater is about since the subtitle is “Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World”.

That looks like a good book to own.  Plus, by buying it, you are doing your part to change the world.

Categories
Web sites

Lessons on Marketing from Twitter

I really don’t like referring to one blogger all the time, and I don’t even read his blog every day, but somehow I stumbled on this post and thought it was relevant to my post yesterday.  (And as I write this, I’m watching a Nightline story on Twitter, so I feel like I’m right on the cutting edge of relevance.)

There are two concepts that Chris demonstrates in his post:

  1. The new marketing is about personal, human contact that is easy now because of web tools, not the spam messages that are also easy with the new tools.  Spam is the lazy way, and the old school business model, which actually damages your reputation and is more detrimental to your business than the few sales or traffic you may get from it.
  2. The new web tools (and influence built with them) also allow changes to be made quickly, which makes your business nimble and responsive, able to address your customer’s concerns instantly.  And that is invaluable to your customer, in fact, so amazing that they might tell all their friends about how you treated them so well.  And that’s really good for you.

 

I guess the overall message is that we should be careful about every interaction we have with anyone, because that is who we are to that person, especially if they have no other information on which to base their impressions.

So this post actually ends up being about the new marketing and not so much about Twitter.  Because you can do good and bad marketing with other tools also.