For my Erie Blue data center marketing project I am evaluating the Grasshopper phone service.  Grasshopper provides a simple to use and fast to start up virtualized phone system complete with greeting messages and inboxes.   I added on top of Grasshopper phone call tracking solutions provided by Mongoose Metrics. With Data Center marketing, paid search keyword rates are quite commonly in the $7 to $18 per click range and organic keyword campaigns require incredible investments in copy-writing, SEO talent and link building. So integrating a phone call metrics system in order to fully measure offline keyword conversions and to monitor and evaluate your sales and marketing process are critical.

The ‘integration’ was actually quite simple.  For flexibility, I use a WordPress platform along with Thesis theme for the Erie Blue site. In Thesis, there is a simple to use analytics tool that allows for the inclusion of javascript code across all pages of the site.  I simply entered in the required Mongoose Metrics javascript code. Done. Total integration time was less than 60 seconds and I didn’t even need to open a file editor or FTP client.  I was on sweet street for sure.

Now when a visitor enters the Erie Blue site through either organic search or paid search, a tracking number is dynamically assigned to the visitor session.  Should the visitor call the tracking number, it will seamlessly connect to my Grasshopper virtualized phone service.  Sales process improvement is important and with phone call recording I can listen to the caller navigate through the menu system and know if there is menu choice confusion and how often the caller connects with a live operator as opposed to leaving voicemail or worse – abandoning the call.  But with Mongoose, if there is caller abandonment, I can always call them back or do a 411 look-up since I have already captured the incoming caller ID.  It goes without saying that the call data is also pushed into Google Analytics through the Mongoose tools.  Here’s a screenshot below of my test call appearing in Google Analytics which shows the keyword which drove the call.

The screenshot taken from the Mongoose Metrics reports show the keyword I used to enter the site from organic search and it shows the tracking number assigned. You'll notice in the screenshot below that the keyword is what's logged automatically in GA once I placed the phone call.

This is a screenshot within the campaign section of GA. The above keyword is the keyword I used to enter the site from organic search and it was associated with the tracking number assigned to the visitor session.

This screen shot is very small I know. It shows the call detail report in the Grasshopper reports. The log is showing the test call passed from Mongoose Metrics. For privacy, I have the Caller ID edited, but it shows the Caller ID from the orginating caller and not from the Mongoose Tracking number - very cool.

Only one thing left to do… push the call data into SalesForce which is next.

The best pizza in Hamilton is Richard’s Pizza and Chester’s Pizza. Period.

Of course there can really only be one ‘best’ and who you think is best in a Richard’s vs. Chester’s Smack-Down probably has a lot to do with what side of town you’re on, the toppings you prefer, and your mood.  Here are my thoughts on why I  select these two Hamilton pizzerias as the best.  Richard’s needs extra mention too for their glorious Richard’s Steak Sandwich.

It comes down to three things; Flavor, Following and Tradition.

Flavor  – Richard’s Pizza, It’s In The Crust.

Understanding what makes Richard’s Pizza so great starts and ends with its crust.  The crust is neither thin nor thick and it is pan leavened (proofed)  in the same pan it will be baked in.  Unlike most thin crust and hand-tossed pizzas where the dough first proofs in a dough-ball until it is ready to be baked, Richard’s pizza takes a different approach.  They pan leaven there dough where the dough is rolled through a dough roller and then placed in the pan to raise.  You can see stacks upon stacks of pizza pans in the Richard’s pizzeria all with their dough proofing within.  They have made I’m sure an incredible investment in the hundreds of different pizza pans needed to make their pizzas and keep in mind too each pizza pan needs to be washed and stored at the end of the night. So this method of dough preparation requires a great deal of effort.

The effort is well worth it.  When dough is allowed to proof in the same pan it will bake in, some wonderful things happen. Richard’s pan proofing is not about thickness.  It’s not a thick and spongy dough like Sicilian, the pizza thickness is normal neither being particularly thick nor thin.  What’s special about the crust is the flavor it takes on when the yeast in the dough is allowed to take it’s final warm-up proofing in the pan.  Pan proofing creates some unique yeasty/fermentation/almost wine-like flavors that are just out of this world.

I’m unsure what to call this style of pizza.  Searching around I found some interesting posts here and here describing the “Ohio Valley Pizza style”, which is a style I’m familiar with (Little Ceasar’s and Cassano’s of Fairfield) but it’s not Richard’s.  Therefore, for lack of a better term, I declare midwest Pizza from Ohio which is round, pan leavened in order to produce a yeasty crust and with toppings beneath the cheese to be Miami Valley Pizza Style.

Additional points about Richard’s pizza include that its sauce is slightly sweet and the toppings are placed beneath the cheese.  Normally, I prefer all toppings above the cheese so that there is great charring and crispiness, but for Richard’s pizza, the below the cheese toppings works best because it really helps bring out the flavors in the crust.

Flavor – Chester’s Pizza, It’s In The Toppings

I talked a lot about Richard’s crust because it’s memorable. To be perfectly honest I can’t provide much detail about Chester’s Pizza crust. I believe it’s pan-leavened as well but I can’t be certain.  Why can’t I recall? Because the toppings are insanely good.  I would describe Chester’s as a big-flavor toppings pizza. Their Italian sausage topping is a must to try.  There’s a joke in Hamilton that if you’re pregnant and your due-date is soon, eat a Chester’s Pizza.  I guess all the spicy toppings is suppose to help the situation.

Pregnant or not, Chester’s Pizza really puts a lot of love and attention in their pizza and specifically their toppings.  The toppings at Chester’s are, unlike Richard’s, on top of the cheese which goes a long way in adding big flavor in the way of charring of the onions, green peppers, peperoni and sausage.  This combines to make an incredible pizza full of flavor that is unforgettable.  Above all, Chester’s is not a cheese-only pizza.

Tradition

Tradition is history and emotion.  Both Richard’s and Chester’s are Hamilton pizza pioneers.  Richard’s is the first pizzeria in Hamilton, established in 1955.  I write this article from Cleveland, Ohio, so I can’t conveniently drive by Chester’s to look at the date but I thought it was established in 1956.   I could be wrong. Knowing my memory, I’m way wrong.   It’s not important either way. What’s important is to know that in Hamilton, Ohio in the late 1950’s if you wanted pizza – you had only two choices and both are going strong today and both Richard’s and Chester’s are the pizzerias of our parents and now grandparents.   Tradition is important in choosing the best pizza because like all great food, it should invoke emotions including nostalgia.  Nostalgia is really a foolish emotion because we so easily omit the details of past hardships.   But for food, I fully indulge in nostalgia and see no folly in doing so.   For me, I can think of countless great times with friends and family, specific pizzas, specific toppings, all with great clarity.  Only great pizza can do this and forgettable pizza is just that.

Following

Following is action and devotion.  My family ordered Chester’s Pizza (we were west-siders) for special occasions that merit the long drive or when we had east-siders over for company and we wanted to keep things civil.  Speaking of East Side/West Side.  Richard’s is on both sides of town while Chester’s is on Dixie Highway on the East Side only.   My east-side friends and family-friends from neighborhoods such as Lindenwald, the north-end and five-points all seemed to prefer Chester’s a great deal.  You could say that Chester’s is best because Richards and Chesters are both on the east-side and east-siders, from my experience, like Chesters.  You could say Richard’s is the best because it has since 1956 a west-side location and Chester’s isn’t in the west-side market.  This debate will continue I’m sure.

I mention ‘keeping it civil’ only as a joke but it’s worth pointing out that Chester’s Pizza fans seem to be particularly vocal in their preference.  Maybe it’s just their love of sausage and peperoni. Richard’s patrons are no less loyal.  Both pizzerias are family owned businesses which have generations of customers. Many of whom, like myself, live nowhere near Hamilton.  So we must wait until a home-coming of some sort and when we are back, we order their pizza so that we can have what’s been lost and with so many changes in Hamilton over the years, it’s nice to see, taste and smell things that are familiar from our child-hood.  They are both great pizzerias because of their followings inside and outside of Hamilton.  My only criticism on ‘following’ for Chester’s is that I don’t understand why their website is branded so heavily with the term Cincinnati.  Chester’s is in Hamilton, what am I missing?  If I want Cincy pizza I’ll eat La Rosa’s not Chester’s.

So with flavor, tradition and following, I declare Richard’s and Chester’s to be the very best pizza in Hamilton, Ohio.  I rest my case and hope I have made an intelligent argument.   Taking a firm side on the matter, my favorite of the two is a Richard’s pizza with onions and green peppers served hot and enjoyed with my brothers Greg and Scott and cousin Rick.  If there’s some cold beer around and Led Zeppelin or AC-DC playing, it just might be Hamilton perfection.  See what I mean about nostalgia?

I’m sure you have your favorite as well.  Chester or Richards, I would love to hear your positive comments and memories on the two.  No bashing please.

The Problem

It’s Christmas night and the Guitar Hero drum set has not even lasted 24 hours.  My son had taken the hi-hat cymbal and twisted it around which caused the 1/8 mono audio  line to completely tear. Fortunately, with only some basic tools and supplies you can quickly and easily repair your Guitar Hero drum set.  My repair strategy will be to solder the audio line and then insulate the lines with some heat-shrink tubing.  This repair should take only 20-30 minutes.

The problem: Here you can see the audio wire torn away from the drumset due to twisting.

If you have never soldered before, don’t let this stop you.  I would say the skill level for this is beginner and if you don’t know how, to solder watch some YouTube videos on the subject.  Soldering and heat shrink tubing supplies can be found at any Radio Shack.

What You Need

Basic supplies including solder iron, shrink tubing, and helping hands.

Prepare The Wires

On careful examination of 1/8 mono audio line you’ll notice that there are both inner and outer copper lines. The inner line is surrounded by a white insulation.  You need to repair both lines.  What you’ll want to do is with a sharp razor strip back both lines so that there is plenty of exposed copper.

Solder Inner Wire – Add Heat Shrink Tubing BEFORE Soldering

It’s hard to see in the image but I have taken two different diameter sizes of heat shrink tubing and slipped BOTH of them onto the line before soldering.   The smaller in diameter size tubing will cover the inner solder repair and this will insulate the connection from the outer repair.

With the magic hands I have the inner wire ready for soldering. Hard to see, but notice that the two heat shrink tubes to the right of the exposed copper are already on.

Solder Outer Wire

Once you have soldered the inner wire and applied the inner shrink tube to insulate the line, you can now repeat these steps for the outside line.

All Done

Below is a photo of the completed project where the outer heat shrink tube has been applied over the soldered wires.  The outer tube covers both the inner wire connection that already has the shrink tube on it and the outer wire connection.

Some Background and History

If you are not from the Hamilton, Ohio area this post will make little sense to you. To help you better see where I’m coming from, think of your hometown. Now think of some of the very best food that’s unique to your home town.  Food so good that when everyone is home from out of town, it’s the first thing you order.  Well for me, and many other Hamiltonians, this is a Richard’s Steak Sandwich.   Richard’s is insanely popular in Hamilton. It’s our comfort food and if you ask any Hamilton west-sider what’s Richard’s phone number, I would bet 9 out of 10 will answer 894-3296.

Richard’s Pizza was started in Hamilton, Ohio in 1955 by Dick and Peggy Underwood and I remember in the late 70’s picking up steak sandwiches and pizza with my father. Dick was always there and he was always back tending the ovens. Back then, the logistics of carrying the food home was much more complex because this was before pizza boxes.   The pizzas where wrapped in a large paper sack which was crumpled up on top to make a bit of a dome.  So you needed plenty of extra hands when carrying-out because you couldn’t stack anything.

Richard’s Pizza is also Hamilton’s oldest pizzeria beating, I think Chester’s Pizza by a year, and almost from the start they offered their steak sandwich.  The steak sandwich began in the 50’s,  I’m writing a lot about the history of Richard’s to underscore just how special their steak sandwich is because I believe firmly that no restaurateur today would ever put on their menu a sandwich  like this.  It is too simple and too bold with it’s sauce, onion and pickle flavors and smells.  When I say smell, I’m not kidding. It’s a wonderful smell that will stay in your car and in your house.  There’s no hiding that you ate one.

Only the rugged mid-western simplicity of decades past could produce a sandwich like this.  Richard’s Steak Sandwich is an institution and like all good institutions, there’s an anachronistic element which is dearly loved but ironically would also be rejected by modernity if not for its history and tradition.   Here’s another way to put this -  it’s old school.

So what is exactly a Richard’s Steak Sandwich? It is:

• Buttered toasted Italian bun
• Steak Patty
• Richard’s steak sauce
• 3 Pickles
• Spanish onions

It’s a simple list but critical to the sandwich’s success is the quality of all the ingredients.  The Richard’s steak sauce deserves special mention here because it’s an essential element of the sandwich.  I’m unsure exactly what the sauce is but it’s a bit orange and it appears very thick when cold.  The sauce is baked on the bottom bun for about 5 minutes and then the top bun is hit with melted buttered and then assembled.  If I had to guess what their sauce is, I would say it’s blended mushrooms, pizza sauce and butter.  A lot of butter.

Richard’s has other toppings and combinations these days, but this is the classic and it’s known as a ‘Regular’.  For me, the Regular is the best and it’s the only way I order them.  Richard’s also offers their steak sandwich with pizza sauce instead of the regular sauce.  The pizza sauce is popular, and without sounding too critical, I think it’s a newbie  mistake and very un-Hamiltonion to order with pizza sauce since the bun tends to be more soggy from the moisture in the pizza sauce.  Since the regular pizza sauce is butter based, you get this amazing flavor that doesn’t destroy the bun with excessive moisture.  And if you’re also ordering a Richard’s Pizza, you don’t have the redundancy of pizza sauce flavor.  Again, this is only my opinion.

Re-Heating a Richard’s Steak Sandwich

My wife who had a weekend trip to Oxford, was kind enough to bring back to Cleveland four Richard’s steak sandwiches.  When she arrived home, she was placing them in the microwave.  Horrified, I stopped her immediately before any damage was done.  If she would have microwaved them, the results would have been steamy hot onions, limp hot pickles and steamy soft bun. Bad, bad, and bad.

To properly re-heat a Richard’s steak sandwich you need to understand the textures and temperatures that all work together to make it taste so good.

• Buttered Italian bun should be toasty (not crunchy) and hot
• steak patty should be moist and hot
• steak sauce should be fully melted into the bottom bun but not soggy
• pickles should be cold
• onions should be cold and crunchy

So there’s a complex mix of temperatures and textures you need to re-create in order to enjoy the sandwich at its best.

Instructions

1. Deconstruct your Richards Steak Sandwich by separating the sandwich into 3 groups:
   1. 1. steak patty
      2. onions and pickles
      3. bun
2. Place onions and pickles in refrigerator until cold
3. Wrap steak patty in foil and place in hot oven to re-heat. Avoid drying the patty out. You can spritz the patty with water to add moisture if needed.  the patty should never be dry.
4. Place bun on tray and place in hot oven to re-heat with the bottom bun sauce-side up.
5. Re-assemble with three pickles on steak patty and then onions
6. Cut in half and Enjoy!

A Regular Richard's steak Sandwich showing onions, pickles, steak patty, and bun. The steak patty is a marvel and you can forget finding this anywhere else because this doesn't come off a Sysco truck. Instead, their patties are ground and pattied by Richard's. The patties are juicy, dense but not tough or chewy, and they have a flavor profile I can't begin to put my thumb on - but I like it!

The buns are Italian buns which are cut in half and then baked. The bottom bun gets regular steak sauce and the top bun gets melted butter after baking. I'm such a regular sauce fan that I ordered them with extra sauce. Extra sauce means sauce is put on the top bun too. Since these sandwiches were going on a road-trip we asked for the sauce in a container so that we could bake the extra sauce on ourselves at home. The top bun is always baked with the cut side down but since this was a re-heat I opted to bake cut side up to avoid a crunchy bun.

Richard's Steak Sandwiches come with generous amounts of Spanish onion. They are best in early Spring and Summer when the onions taste very sweet.

I hope these instructions have helped and feel free to leave comments about the sandwich or Richard’s if you would like to share them.

I’m back from Pubcon where I spoke on phone call lead generation and my wife reminded me to not forget to give right now ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.  It goes without saying this is an incredibly tough time for many families and this is especially true for rust-belt households who have taken more than their fair share of hard knocks the past few years in the manufacturing, machine trades and construction sectors.   Our local Cleveland charity of choice is The City Mission found at TheCityMission.org.

Lead generation for charities isn’t much different from other forms of online lead generation.  Namely, you have a site visitor and your job is to figure out who they are, what they want to do and then take this information and channel the visitor into a conversion goal while reporting back these metrics into future campaigns.  Based upon my experience today giving to The City Mission (which is just one experience  I know)  I’m willing to speculate that traditional charities lag behind in skill-sets as compared with professional full-time lead generation professionals who operate in the online marketing space. Common tools and techniques such as landing page optimization, organic and PPC driven traffic, advanced web analytics, social campaigns,  and A/B split testing should be used more by charities conducting online lead generation.

This review is not meant to bang on the City Mission at all. It’s my favorite local Cleveland Charity so my hope here is by giving my time on this review I can share with Charities my thoughts and ideas on lead generation in a beneficial way.

Need For Campaign Tracking For Attribution

So we get a very well prepared mailing with a simple and clear  set of instructions for giving.  Being an Internet Marketer, I of course choose the online giving method. I enter in the City Mission’s website address and on the homepage I see a very clear button that takes me to the online payment form – good!

Now my lead is being generated from  a postal mailing campaign where the instructions are to go to simply, TheCityMission.org.  Improvements to this mailing campaign could be made by both instructing on the mailer a simply custom URL to enter such as perhaps,  TheCityMission.org/givethanks or whatever sounds meaningful and is short.  Next, on the homepage, for anyone that doesn’t enter the custom URL  it would help to see reinforcement of the offline mailing campaign. This could be as simple as a  thumbnail image of the mailing piece artwork I received.  Perhaps a header nav bar at the top of the site would work with a ‘Why are you here?” question and drop-down responses. Experimentation is required, but my point is that there are ways to better track the arrival of traffic from offline mailing campaigns.

With campaign tracking through custom landing pages you can make a direct path for the recipient to follow the same message and experience and track this across channels.  I received a postal mailing and my experience is about giving for this Thanksgiving. A well prepared landing page to reinforce this campaign could have both enabled better campaign tracking for The City Mission and given a better user experience for site visitors.

The above screenshot shows City Mission's current button that leads to their online contribution page. The button was in a good place and easy to find but a custom landing page combined with an additional campaign specific conversion button would have enabled better campaign tracking.

Lost Metrics – External Domain For Online Payment

Clicking on the above button takes me to the online payment page. I quickly notice that the page is on a different domain name and there’s additional branding.  Since I deal with internet marketing all day, I’m probably hyper-sensitive to changes in domain names and site templates. It’s probably only a slight negative for more average visitors who spend less time online. However, as a general rule, changes in site experiences such as templates and branding can hurt conversions because it’s creates a point of consideration in the mind of the visitors, ‘what is this page?’, ‘am I on the right site?’, ‘is this fraud or spam?’  And while this is only a small negative, what if it causes a 1 percent loss in conversions from visitors who think, “I don’t know what this is, I’ll give later” and then never do.  Is 1 percent important? Probably.

The City Mission’s logo at the top of the page helped to continue the brand experience and I wasn’t bothered by it too much.  However, the lost metrics is I think a more serious problem.  What I mean by lost metrics is that when the City Mission’s visitor goes over to the payment site, the City Mission’s web analytics package (Google Analytics I looked) loses the chance to further track and measure the campaign because there is no analytics tracking on the external payment form domain.

Losing the opportunity to track on the payment form creates black holes in the conversion funnel and things such as campaign conversion tracking, A/B split testing on payment forms, ROI tracking (value of donations), are not possible.

Confusion In Donation Payment Forms

Confusion = lost conversion.  Without web analytics installed on the payment donation form it’s much harder to conduct experiments and spot problems. From my experience, I nearly left the check-out process on step 2 because of a simple form default setting I didn’t understand.  After completing my contact information and donation level on step 2, I saw this:

This form asked for my bank account information. I did not want to give my bank account info. I was looking for the credit card payment form and I nearly abandoned the process entirely.

So with the above payment form, I nearly left the process entirely because I did not wish to pay via bank account transfer.

What I didn’t realize is that back at the top of the step 1 form, the payment option was set by default to bank payment instead of credit card.  Simple confusions like this can hurt a campaign’s performance.  Without analytics tracking experiments in payment form optimization cannot be made.  Forunately for The City Mission, I decided to take extra time and go back the the first page and see where the credit card option might be  – a close one.  Site visitors are not always as patient and something as simple as an interrupting phone call can be all takes to derail the conversion completely.  Keep forms easy and confusion free and always test and measure.

Paid Search Lead Generation

Just a quick note to say that charities should consider paid search to generate local leads. A quick search for ‘Cleveland Ohio food charities” didn’t come up with either strong paid search results or organic results with the exception for the Cleveland Food Bank – another great charity. With analytics, campaigns can be tracked to determine ROI.

Leveraging The Close With Social Media

It is HARD to get someone to give you money online. Even in the best of situations.  When it does happen, I think it helps to use social media in creative ways to further brand the charity and to extend the message across the donator’s network.  It feels good to give and while some prefer to give totally anonymously, others like me, don’t mind saying that we did in order to drum up further support for the charity among friends and colleagues.  A simple Twitter or facebook app or reminder on the thank you page is all it takes.  This is what I did on my own, charities should remind others to do this as a way to further market for donations:

So with the above example, it’s possible to take the donation viral and again cross channel. The campaign began as a postal mailing to my home, it converted online to a credit card donation, and now with viral marketing there’s the potential to share the event with others in my network who perhaps need a simple reminder to do the right thing.

Summary

I wrote this review quite fast.   If you have comments or suggestions, please feel free to participate in the thread discussion below.  I’ll be curious to see if anyone from the City Mission is doing social reputation management – another lead generation tool – and will see this post. If so, I hope you appreciate the comments and suggestions.

Yesterday  I posted my Pubcon Survival Guide. Its aim was to provide practical information and insights for beginners on topics mostly outside the  sessions and conference. This post will step it up and dive into the conference itself along with networking tips.

Registration

Pubcon Tote Badge. With so many useful compartments there's no excuse for running out of business cards.

My first bit of advice was going to be that you should show up early on day 1 of the conference to avoid long registrations lines.  But with the mailing out of new PubCon Tote Badges, my advice has now changed to – don’t forget to bring it.  Michael Dorausch has a nice post with practical advice about what to put into your tote badge.  I’m a sappy dad who by day 2 will be missing my wife and kids, so I plan on turning my badge over to my 6 year-old son and 4 year-old daughter to see how they can glam it up a bit with some Vegas style bling.  It’s craft night at the Tirey house this weekend and I’m sure they’ll make a beautiful disaster. I’ll keep you posted.

Morning Breakfast & Keynotes

The morning keynotes are way too early.  This is why there is so much advice about how to properly endure Pubcon. If you’re working it right, you’ll be doing 18-20 hour days for a 3 day burst.  I find it quite a challenge to get there on time since I’m from the east coast. My advice is not to slow down, it’s to push it hard and not be a baby in the morning.

Do not be late. Do not sleep in.

When you arrive in the morning, with sugar-free Rockstar in hand, there will be pastries, muffins, fruit, juices, water, coffee and tea.  Grab what you need and then sit down at a table with people you  do not know. Let the networking begin.  Head over to the keynote speaking area early if you want a good seat. Towards the front will be tables for laptops and power.

Networking At The Sessions

My comments on networking is all common sense stuff that just needs repeating.

Rule #1, networking starts before the show begins. I’m networking with you right now .

Bring more business cards than you ever think you’ll need. If you meet someone interesting, don’t forget to write some notes on the back of their card because it’ll be a blur the next week.  If your business card has a gloss finish – stop doing that. It smears and defeats the whole purpose.   Follow people you meet on twitter immediately as this could be your best information for what’s going on later that night.

At morning continental breakfast, lunchbox lunch and other events sit down with people you don’t know.  I can’t say this enough.  If you’re going to Pubcon alone, this is an easy thing to do because you have no choice.    If you’re going as a group or have your own posse of friends, avoid the comfortable temptation of hanging out with them too much as this will isolate you from meeting new people.

If you liked a session speaker it’s well worth it to stick around after the session and speak with them.

There’s not much I can add to this. Don’t be a wallflower loner! I’m one myself  by nature but not while at Pubcon.

Session Etiquette

I’m just ranting here, skip this section if you don’t want to listen to a whiner because whining is what this section is all about. Listen, I’m an old fashioned when it comes to how to behave when attending live speaking session. For me, I like to pay attention. That’s just my thing it doesn’t have to be yours.  My rant is that I can’t stand it when people are outwardly appearing distracted on their phones to the point where others (me) notice.  All the laughing and banging away on their iphones and BBs with one another when they’re just 10 feet apart is disrespectful.  I’m not saying not to do it, whatever it’s a free country, just show some love  and respect to the speakers and others in the room who are not privilege enough to be in your tweet stream and be cool about it.  Enough said.

How To Be A Cuttlett (Without Looking Like One)

If you have ever seen Matt Cutts at a conference, unless he is walking very very fast, he will have around him what are called Cuttletts which is the throng of people who are seeking his assistance.    As far as I know, the origins of this term is here.  I’m on the fence about the term. With certainty it’s a witty observation and yet, for me at least, the term is a bit of pejorative as it implies that Cuttletts are the little guys with a singular focus on the big G.

It is something to see true indeed, but I say join the mosh-pit. Be a Cuttlett if you need to be.  Step up and orbit Matt like one of the tiny moons of Jupiter!  Meeting the right people and getting access to real help is what Pubcon is all about.  The truth here is that it’s worth it. Matt is a very polite guy who will listen to what you have to say. He’s a pro.  It’s worth it because he acts on the information you give him.  I had a website with duplicate content problems. After clearing the problems and patiently waiting the site was still penalized.  I ran into Matt, who I had never met before and exactly 7 days later the site was restored.  But I didn’t have to appear like a Cuttlett to get action.

Here’s an inside tip to being a Cuttlett without having to look like one if you want to save face or don’t have the time to stand around.  Unless Matt has gone all high-tech since the last time I saw him at a show, he keeps with him a simple card holder.  Just write your domain and problem on the back of a business card and hand it to him. He’ll file your card with the rest and hopefully you’ll see some movement on your problem.

You can see in Danny’s photo Matt taking notes on the back of a business card. I say be a Cuttlett, it’s worth it if you have a problem that needs G’s attention and you don’t want to play the waiting game.

Closing Thoughts

Have fun and try not to let any work back at the office dominate your experience.

If you have not attended before, see Pubcon as an annual event you go to.  This means that you should introduce yourself to Brett Tabke because you’ll see him again next year and maybe be pitching the Pubcon team for a speaking spot down the road.

Pubcon is very much a social event that extends well past the sessions. To make the most of that, be yourself but be outgoing in your actions to meet others. A tremendous talent pool attends Pubcon and the seeds to both friendships and solid working relationships can be planted there.

I welcome any comments you might have. I saw yesterday and today too other PSG’s.  Here they are with additional insights which I enjoyed.

SEOMoz: 7 Tips For Surving Pubcon Good thread, like always from the mozzers, with awesome insights.
SEOCopywriting: 15 Tips for a successful Pubcon Heather adds some great ‘after the show tips’.

Three short years ago I attended my first Pubcon and knew almost nobody there. This year I’m speaking and very much looking forward to connecting with friends and collegues and meeting even more new people.  This guide is for the Pubcon newbie with little to no conference experience.

Pubcon is for me my favorite of all the online marketing conferences.  My observation is that attendees are more social at the show and the attendees have more role up your sleeves practical experience than at the other shows.  This means you can talk shop and share and learn.

One reason I speculate for the show’s sociability is that it’s in Vegas and unlike New York, Silicon Valley or Chicago shows, almost everyone – except for the Zappos crew are out of town.  So you don’t have the expo-hall drop-byers who have half a million other things on their minds and are distracted by what’s back at the office, what’s for dinner tonight with the family, taking kids to soccer practice at night, etc.

Pubcon attendees are just in a better mood since we’re all out of town. And it’s Vegas.

Hotel

The room blocks for Pubcon Vegas started at Treasure Island and then more opened up at The Wynn. I personally favor TI because it’s a better location on the strip and the Wynn does not have the monorail. However, I pinged Joe Morin and it appears most attendees are moving over to the Wynn. So I expect that’s where the action will be.  The Wynn is I think a better hotel (no disrespect to TI) and its restaurants are far stronger than TI in my opinion.  If you stay at the Wynn, you should consider eating at Daniel Boulud’s restaurant.

Transportation

Take a taxi or rent a car to get to your hotel from the airport.  If you have not been to Vegas before, all casino parking is free – they want you to gamble.  To get to the show, Pubcon is at the Las Vegas Convention Center North Hall.  From TI your choices for transportation include either a cab  or monorail.   Walking is not an option.  The Wynn is much closer to the convention center and it’s about a mile away to the west. Too long of a walk for me.   I have not seen any news yet about a conference shuttle for the Wynn.   If you take a cab, remember that it’s North Hall.  For me, I like the monorail and I find it just as fast as cab and this is especially true if you’re coming from the MGM end of the strip.   Just remember that the monorail is on the east side of the strip so you’ll gain access through the back side of  these casinos.  See the monorail link above to see which casinos have stops – not all do.  If you go with a monorail, you’ll probably use it more than you think so buy a nice size pass at a better discount.

Getting Social

No matter your choice of hotel, it’s a good idea to stop by the main bar at either TI or the Wynn. Seriously.  This is where most Pubconners will be.  The worse thing you can do is act like a loner at Pubcon – don’t do that.   If you go to Pubcon alone, there is simply no reason that you can’t meet up with other interesting attendees.  Keep your eyes and ears open to what’s going  such as any Pubcon sponsored parties.

If you do not have a web enabled phone or SMS texting plan you’ll be at a bit of a disadvantage.  A lot communication about what’s going on and where people are going will take place on Twitter.  To stay connected, it’s helpful to follow the Pubcon crew such as @BTabke and  @joesephmorin.  You should also consider following many of the ‘ususual suspects’.  Sorry I can’t say who they are because then I’m a groupie.   Also you should join the Pubcon group on LinkedIn. Finally, monitor #pubcon to see what’s happening and be sure to explore Twitter monitoring tools such as monitter to make this easier. I would suggest networking ahead of the show as much as possible. Figure out who’s going who has shared interests with you and start building the relationships now.

Food & Hydration

Get to the morning keynote early and there’s continental breakfast, coffee, tea and juice.   Box lunch is provider at lunch time.  Midday there is usually in the expo hall a refreshment area that opens up with cold bottled water.  I know it sounds silly to mention these basics but every year I see people buying coffee at the Starbucks in the expo hall lobby when right inside is free coffee.  Ok, so maybe they know that and really want Starbucks but I bet about half don’t and are just looking for their morning jolt.

About hydration, you’ll want to stay hydrated as it’s a lot of walking, talking and drinks at night.  I tend to not eat too much during the day and I like to be packing some protein bars.  Two things I do not go without at Pubcon are Rockster and Bourbon. It’s pathetic I know, but I’m sadly known for this. So if you like a sip of Kentucky corn whiskey – find me for a drink.  I’ll sound like a drunk saying this, but sometimes I pack a bottle of bourbon if I really want to bring my favorite brand which is of course Evan Williams Single Barrel. This is not to be confused with the regular Evan Williams which is about $11 bucks and it just awful – not even good when put into an over-sweetened Manhattan.

As a Tirey who's family comes from Owsley County Kentucky, when I want to show my Pubcon peeps some love, I bring this.

There we go, I’m feeling the Pubcon love now…and no, Matt Cutts, real Kentuckian’s drink bourbon. At least while at Pubcon Vegas.  It’s called PUB-con for good reason. The best conversations and networking often happen over drinks.

Chotskies - Chotskies are the free crap at the booths.  Only on rare occasion is it not crap.  With the recession and all, I have certainly seen a down-turn in chotskies this year on the trade-show circuit.  If you stop by our booth, Mongoose Metrics, you’ll find no chotskies because we don’t believe in them.  I just said they were crap didn’t I?  Why would I want to give you crap when we can have a glass of definitely-not-crap corn whiskey together after the show? c’mon!  If you still want chotskies go directly to the expo hall on day 2 right after keynote to get anything good before it’s gone.  You’ll see the chotskie-train rolling on into the station right after the keynote. Most people head over to Google, SEOMoz and other well booths that have made good reputations for non-crap chotskies.

The reason chotskie’s are crap to me is because I’m not clever enough to think up one that isn’t crap.  Despite my chotskie bashing, there are some which are cool. Here’s my list of past Pubcon non-crap Chotskies:

1. Acquisio’s “I Hate This Shit” t-shirt. (I have two)

2. SEOMoz’s Ladies T-Shirt  (For the dazzling Mrs. Tirey of course and she looks great in it – thanks Rand!)

3. Google’s LED yo-yo (I was playing with this just yesterday)

*Everything else I have was either a pen or I forgot about it.

(Chotckies rule #1  for those who have kids -get IDENTICAL chotskies or you’ll have a war.)

What To Wear – Pubcon Style Guide For Men

Vegas can be cold at this time of year. Keep that in mind. My suggestion on what to wear is to first just be yourself.  It’s not at all a business culture so you’ll see the whole board from jeans and t-shirts to suits.  For me, I like to wear a blazer. The blazer and designer blue jeans with leather loafers can’t be beat.  A blazer gives me some extra interior pockets for business cards, pen, and whiskey flask and I’m covered if I end up that evening at a nice restaurant with a dress-code.  But if you like to kick it with jeans, t-shirt and a backpack that works too.  Travel light. Be prepared.

Wrap Up

Okay, so that’s the end of Part 1.   Next time I’ll step it up and talk about how to make the most of the conference. I’ll discuss the importance of showing up early for the keynotes,  networking at the sessions, session etiquette rants, being a Cuttlett without looking like one, and some closing comments .  Hope you enjoyed this and please leave additional Surivival Guide comments on anything I have left out.

]]> http://www.tirey.tv/2009/10/27/pubcon-survival-guide-part-1/feed/ 11 http://www.tirey.tv/2009/10/11/15/ http://www.tirey.tv/2009/10/11/15/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:44:17 +0000 TireyTV http://www.tirey.tv/?p=15

If you have HDMI video inputs and you’re wondering why you cannot get a video output on a  non-HDMI (analog) cable such as component or composite, this post is for you.  Simply put, Denon AVRs (at least the 2808ci and 1609 models) do not convert a signal from digital to analog.

Denon 2808ci AVR

Refer to page 11 of the Denon 2808ci manual to see what I’m talking about. (PDF)

So why do I care so much about old analog video outs?  I really don’t care but for one reason, your choices for Zone 2 video on  the Denon 2808ci monitor out lines are either composite or s-video – both analog.  Only the ultra-high Denon models have better zone 2 monitor out options.

Fortunately the solution to this problem is simple and that is to run both two sets of cables.  HDMI so that you have pure digital video and audio, and then run a component or composite input as well.  Notice too on the chart that component will only down-convert on 480i signals – so standard format DVDs and non HD television only.  If you have an HD signal, then you’ll need a composite cable as well to push video out to zone 2.  If you want to take care of everything, run video inputs on HDMI, component (where available) and then composite or s-video.  This will allow video inputs, no matter the format, to be sent out to zone 2 video.

You can read my review of the 50 foot component cable performance here.

Other than this – Denon is sweet and I would still buy again. If you’re reading this for the first time and thinking about Denon, the solution is to pimp-out on the analog cables. Monoprice.com is my choice for finding what I need.  Their shipping could be a bit cheaper so order what you need once.  There’s nothing worse than not having a cable you need when you need it, which is usually on a Saturday night.

I bought one of those screen kits off ebay. This was my seller: http://myworld.ebay.com/dkeitho/ In every way the screen kit is absolute quality and I think you’re just plain crazy to pay big bucks for the high end screens if you don’t have money to burn.

The screen comes inside a heavy cardboard tube with clear instructions on how to assemble. When done, my home theater screen was very tight and the black velvet border looks great.  I do have a few comments about the product:

- It was claimed that it was easy to assemble and that it can be done in a couple of hours. This is true but assembly does take some time. I think it took me more like 3-4 hours. Perhaps I was going very slow.  I went slow to double and triple check the instructions before making a mistake. I bet I could assemble another screen much faster.

- The pocket screws are a bit touchy to get a tight fit of the two boards. You really need two people (or a clamp) so that the boards of the frame can be held together tightly while the pocket screws are tightened.

- There was no good way to attach the screen to the wall. this could have been solved with the right hardware included in the kit.

- You should have one of those screen door repair tools, the one thingamajig with the handle and the two roller wheels that presses material down into a groove.

Overall the home theater fixed screen is wonderful. It’s very tight with no stretching whatsoever. The image is bright and movies look great.  It’s been in my home theater for over a year now and there’s no stretching so it delivers well on that point.

This is the 50 foot component cable I purchased from Monoprice.com Considering how hefty the cable is with 3 video and 2 audio wires, it's a great price at less than 20 bucks.

I’m running a Monoprice.com 50 foot component cable from my Dish Network box down to my home theater with very good success. I chose a 50 foot run so that my cable was long enough to connect directly from my satellite box upstairs to my AV unit downstairs without having to have termination first at a wall jack.  Here’s a direct link to 50 foot component cable that I purchased from Monoprice. Too bad they don’t have an affiliate program. **sigh**

One feature common with both Dish Network and DirectTV boxes is that the boxes will allow the a/v signals to be sent out simultaneously out of different outputs. It’s the same signal of course but it does give you a poor man’s distributed audio feature.  So for example in my setup, I have and HDMI out going from the Dish Network box to my plasma tv and I have the component audio and left/right rca audio out going down to my home theater across the 50 foot component cable run.

If you’re worried about the video quality on such a long component cable run, for me, I’m getting an ever so faint ground loop issue with scrolling horizontal lines but it’s barely visible certainly not bad enough to do anything about it.   Again, it is *barely* visible and only on solid black screens. For moving images, I don’t notice it.   My guess is that the  ground loop problem is caused because power to my box upstairs is on a different grounding path than my home theater power downstairs.

Overall, this was a cheap and simple solution that allows me to push audio and video from my Dish Network DVR down to my home theater.