Have you seen this mashup ?

Empire Avenue – The social network that gives “Social Influence” a brand new value!

Your username is the ‘ticker symbol’. Your  social web activity and influence with your communities earn value.  Your friends can buy and sell you.  Depending on how well you do, you may just be the next CFO of your index (their term for your chosen area of interest). Which in-turn may land you the job of a lifetime, as the next infamous social media representative of a lucky fortune 500.

EmpireAvenue ” is the Social Media Exchange, where you can invest in any social media profile by buying their shares, meet new people, unlock Achievement badges, and earn boatloads of virtual cash by being active and social online! Buy shares in your friends, your followers, people with similar interests, brands you love, celebrities – anyone! All using a virtual currency and all for free!” – excerpt from empireavenue.com about page.

I just signed up and am still figuring it out, navigating my way through the multiple features and functions. The interface is a bit overwhelming, but as I become more familiar with the architecture, I find more ways to interact.

Although Empire Avenue could use some help and feedback to fine tune its interface for better usability, don’t let it distract you from the fun factor.  I’m sure your friends and colleagues would love to own a piece of you, well now they finally can.  Just don’t sell yourself short !  See how much I’m ‘worth’ these days - http://www.empireavenue.com/askjayson

Whats your ticker symbol?

Leave a comment below with your first impressions of Empire Ave and don’t forget to link to your (e) ticker.

Each and everyone of us has experienced a time in our life of great transition.

Whether you moved to a new part of the world as a child, left the job you hated or loved, departed from a loved one or just needed to re-invent yourself for some apparent and important reason.  We have all been there and we have all struggled determining where to go and what to do…now.

I have learned it’s not so much about where ‘you are at’ emotionally, physically or mentally, rather its about making the decision to move forward.  Your feet know where to go, you just have to take those initial steps.  Make decisions that feel good, where there is the least amount of resistance.  We need to trust that we are taking this new path for a reason, although the exact reason may not be presently apparent, have faith that you will know ‘why’ in time.  Don’t get stuck! And if you do, then put your boots on and walk through the mud.

As an entrepreneur, I want to fail as quickly as possible.  I can’t spend time contemplating if, should, could or would.  I just need to put my idea into action enough to see if it will fly.  If it gains traction then I will organize my resources to further its success.  If my new idea or venture is going to fail, it’s best to find out ASAP, so that I can learn from it and move on the the next.

I practice this methodology in my personal life.  Sometimes you just have to pack your bags, get on the bus and see where its going to take you, at least you are moving forward, taking steps in a new direction, leading you to your next great chapter.  You never know where you are going to end up, but with clear intentions of what you want to achieve, you will never get stuck and be zip code challenged.

So pick a direction and always take one more step forward!

Public speaking is something I love to do.

I love to teach, engage and contribute to those who want to listen.

I was honored to be able to present at WordCamp Phoenix. The event was one of the best organized and produced WordCamps I have attended. Excellent line up of WordPress professionals, great venue and format. Kudos to the organizers and sponsors.

WordPress is utilized by such a wide variety of people for multiple disciplines. There are bloggers, web designers, web developers, entrepreneurs, business owners, application innovators, social media enthusiasts, content publishers, small businesses and everyone in between. Considering the breadth of users and uses for WordPress, its difficult to host an event that will cater to everyone in the audience.

Questions & Answers

I had the chance to speak to many of the folks that attended.  They all thought the $30 price tag was an incredible value, especially with breakfast and lunch being included.  I asked all of them a few questions including: What would make WordCamp better?  What expectations did you have and were those expectations met?  What would you like to see at WordCamp in the future?

I was surprised to hear that many of them did not have specific expectations, rather they attended the event to either learn more about WordPress itself in general or to hear a certain speaker.  Many did agree the event should  incorporate educational learning components, the fundamentals of WP and technical presentations as well.

Almost everyone I spoke to you loved the idea of having more of a question and answer format and hands on training modules. A few participants brought up the idea of a hand out with resources.

Ideally, in order to address the concerns, desires and wishes of the attendees to WordCamp and provide the most entertaining and educational experience possible, its my opinion the event coordinators should survey each participant before and after the event to help define the best speakers and topics for presentations as well next years format.

I really like WordCamp NYC and WordCamp Victoria Canada’s formats.  You will see the consistency in the programs that I am trying to explain below.

My Take Away – Chunk it!

WordCamp is still a new concept.  We are all doing our best and each event will always be different, but maybe standardizing the flow and content would be a benefit to connect with as many people as possible.  Here are my suggestions.

1. Open with a presentation on the history, current status and future development of WordPress.  This is where it started, this is where it is now and this is where it is going.
2. Invite one keynote speaker that has made a major contribution to the WordPress culture.   On first thought, it would be great to have a WP authority from the local community as to capitalize on name recognition, if this is not possible then one who is well known through out the WordPress community.  Lorelle Van Fossen was a perfect choice for WordCamp Phoenix.
3. Allow attendees to sign up for specific modules focusing on areas of interest.  This may be accomplished with multiple tracks or days.

   WordPress design, WordPress development and Plugins , WordPress as a CMS, WordPress as a vehicle for Social Media, WordPress for Business, etc.  This would allow for the WordCamp organizers to concentrate their time and efforts in the areas that people are most interested in learning about WP, as well as give participants exactly what they expect from WordCamp.

4. Offer demonstrations and specific techniques for hands on real time learning and interaction with the participants, i.e. Q & A sessions, demonstrations and expert panels.
5. Offer continuing education.  WordCamp is just the beginning for most.  Many folks left with more questions then answers.  Provide the possibility for webinars and follow up materials to the participants, maybe even workshops organized in the local area after the event.  Offer people to join a WordPress Meetup!
6. Form a global WordCamp advisory board and committee of past organizers, where enthusiasts wishing to host a WordCamp can find definitive resources and answers to produce the best event possible.
7. Make sure the speakers are prepared and attend to their needs!  Help them with their presentation design, flow and content.  I would have loved to have had others’ opinions and ideas and a little help from my friends.  Asa first timer speaking at WordCamp, I was not sure what to expect, even though I have made dozens of presentations before.
8. Last and certainly not least, make sure the technology works flawlessly.  Utilize one computer for all presentations and each presentation should be created in the same software or format.  Make sure the Internet access is robust and reliable.

I am sure there are many more factors that make a great event a success.  We all live and learn.  I am not saying that WordCamp Phoenix fell short in any of these areas.  I am just sharing my overall insights from attending my 4th WordCamp.

Love to hear your thoughts.  Please leave a comment and share.

November 13, 2009 will be a day to remember as WordCamp Pheonix will be the first WordCamp professionally produced by a big name local internet services company, GoDaddy!

I have attended a few WordCamps in person as well as via live streaming video and tracking the trends of status updates on twitter.  I have been totally impressed with the volunteers efforts and class A speakers.

The venues have varied greatly all over the world, each with their very own distinctive and unique atmosphere and culture.

It will be interesting to experience WordCamp  at The Arizona Grand Resort Phoenix, Arizona.  A very established city  split between retired golf fanatics and university students in the middle of the desert and geographic center of the state.

The resort lies adjacent to 17,000 acres of South Mountain Preserve, the largest municipal park in the world and the second most visited tourist destination in Arizona.

I am super excited to find out what GoDaddy has planned.

The folks behind WordCamp Pheonix say

The webcast will be professionally produced with multiple cameras, great sound, and a high quality video feed.

Visit WordCamp Pheonix at phxwordcamp.com to learn more!  Hope to see you in person or virtually there!

Come listen to me with several other great speakers including Matt Mullenweg, Merlin Mann, John Hawkins, Brent Spore, Lorrelle VanFossen and Dave Moyer from the WordCast Podcast.

As many of you, I too utilize social media as my main communication tool.

Yes I still check email, but I love the quick status messages from my friends, family, clients and colleagues.

We are a “byte sized” information society.   We scan web pages, we don’t read them.  We surf the net looking for what we want and if we don’t find it on the webpage within 7 seconds we move on to the next listing on our SERP (search engine result page).

I read so many blogs that the only way I can keep up with my interests is to subscribe to them with my RSS reader.   I use Google Reader, to enable me to see all the latest articles from multiple blogs in one place.

I use Seesmic Desktop to manage Twitter and Facebook, again so I can get all the information and respond from one application, just makes for more time efficiency.

One of my other primary social platforms is LinkedIn. I have made great contacts in the professional realm with LinkedIn groups and discussions, but I have to go to LinkedIn.com to participate.

Yes I can use ping.fm to post a status update, but I can not join a group, read current messages, visit my inbox, or comment on a discussion unless I go to LinkedIn.com.

So when are they going to get on board and allow developers access to hook into their program? Do they even have an API? Maybe, but not one that anyone is using to my knowledge, otherwise I know the guys at Seesmic would now have a LinkedIn tab.

Doesn’t this just make sense?

Hey LinkedIn do you wish to comment? Do you know this article is even here mentioning you? Guess we will wait and see.

What do you think? Would you like to see LinkedIn follow suit, like Facebook and Twitter and allow developers to give you easy access to manage your LinkedIn profile with your third party management tool of choice, without having to go to LinkedIn.com all the time?

Love to hear your thoughts.

I love it when a WordPress Theme makes my job easier

And better yet still retains custom design changes when you upgrade your theme for the latest and greatest functionality.  The Thesis theme available from diythemes.com was developed with that purpose in mind. 

Tweak it, bend it, modify it how ever you want, as long as you follow the rules and only make your changes to the files in the “custom” directory.  This will guarantee your modifications will be safe and sound; protected from being over written with future Theme upgrades.

My task was simple, make changes to the WordPress theme to allow for a 3 column layout on the home page while keeping the default 2 colum layout on all secondary pages.  (you can choose your column layout and design from the Thesis Design Options panel)

No problem right?  A few conditional statements to verify what styles to render depending on what page is displayed, write the CSS and poof, a custom home page layout.

Wrong! – Thesis does more than just wrap WordPress in an elegant design, it adds tremendous functionality for the blog administrator and WordPress developer alike.  Remember when someone first showed you the keyboard shortcuts for copy, cut and paste?  Life was so much easier.  Thesis has built in function and design options.

After diving into the code and trying to figure out what happened to the core theme files that I am so familiar seeing in any other WordPress theme, I discovered in order to make changes to the Thesis theme, I need to do things a little bit differently.

2 Files to Make Custom Design Simple

There are only 2 files you need to manipulate to make all your design changes.  The custom.css file to overwrite the theme’s default styles and custom_functions.php to make all your functional changes utilizing the ingenious method of Thesis hooks. 

Thesis hooks and filters allow you to change blocks of code or module positions.  Modules make up your web page layout, the header, navigation menu, sidebars, content area and footers.  Click here for a visual representation of Thesis hooks.  Its very easy to add custom code, text and images above, within or below various modules in the Thesis framework. 

For example, lets say you wanted to move the navigation menu from the top of the page to below your header image.

Just add the following code to your custom_functions.php file.  Its that easy!
 
/*move the nav bar below the header*/
remove_action(’thesis_hook_before_header’, ‘thesis_nav_menu’);
add_action(’thesis_hook_after_header’, ‘thesis_nav_menu’);


OK now lets play with the Thesis Mutimedia Box.  A very smart, built in theme functionality. Thesis Multimedia Box is a Thesis design option you can control form the admin panel.  Just choose a default setup to display rotating images, a video or your own custom code.

I wanted to show a category relevant video on each different category page.  Select the custom code option, remeber to hit the big ass save button.  Then go to your handy dandy custom_functions.php file and write a few ‘ if else’ statements to determine which video you want to show up on which category page.

/* Custom mm Box */
function custom_mm_box() {
if ( is_category('twitter')){
?>

} else {
?>

}
}
add_action('thesis_hook_multimedia_box', 'custom_mm_box');

Remember to add the 'add_action' hook to call your function.  Again simple as pie. For a full visual of the working product, take a look at my video on the Twitter category page and then the video on my Wordpres category page. 

So many options.

If you can Imagine it...

Thesis can help you do it.  I am continually amazed at the power of WordPress.  Thesis is now to WordPress, what Youtube is to   video.  It is revolutionizing the way we share content and making it very easy for the novice to look like a pro.

Let me know your thoughts about Thesis and some cool ways you use the Multimedia box?

I needed to point a domain to a new website I am developing, so I logged in to my GoDaddy account and noticed something very interesting on my domain manager screen.  There was a little blue Twitter button to the right.

Huh? Is GoDaddy an affiliate of Twitter Or is Twitter paying GoDaddy?

I rolled my mouse over the little blue button and a gray box pops up with an advertisement for me to join the conversation on Twitter.  I immediately asked myself, “What is GoDaddy getting out of promoting twitter?”  I thought Twitter was trying to make money and I really didn’t think they needed to spend on advertising.   So what gives?

Then I saw the little blue Twitter button again and again on a few other administration screens in my GoDaddy account, so I paid closer attention to where the twitter buttons were placed and carefully read the small print on the advertisement.

“Holy huge revenue opportunity batman!”

1. Is Twitter going to somehow capitalize on your user name domain name?  Twitter.com/askJayson is important to me.
2. How about adding some Social Media solutions and applications to you Twitter account,  for a small fee of course?
3. Are there Twitter gadgets and widgets in the works?  It would be pretty cool to have more interactivity on my twitter page.
4. Why Not?  Is your Twitter domain going to become your Social Media hub page on the web ?

So what does this all have to do with GoDaddy?  I am not entirely sure, but I do know you can now register your Twitter domain name through GoDaddy.

What are your thoughts about this Godaddy Twitter alliance.  Am I making some huge assumptions?  What do you think its all about?

What is your Twitter domain worth to you?

“Plug in the DISQUS comment system and bring out the best discussion on your website”

- from disqus home page

We all know the power of comments on our blogs.  They give us a mechanism for discussion, real feedback and personal opinions from our readers.  With comments, we are able to establish a connection and participate in the conversation with our audience.

But there is so much more we can do!

Disqus is a robust commenting system allow us to track our conversations, share our discussion with the likes of Friendfeed and Plaxo as well as always stay in touch by replying via email or our mobile phone.

Disqus enhances our experience and considerably steps up the interactivity by incorporating ratings and video comments.  Now that’s cool!

Ok, ok I can hear you.

“Come on Jayson, with all those components, you will need a programmer just to install it on your blog.”

Its easy as pie to implement.

Actually Disqus has done a great job with making their commenting system easy as pie to integrate into your blog.  The administrative area is very intuitive.  They have incorporated search engine friendly plugins , a complete data sync (whatever that is) but it sounds good, and widgets allow you to easily build your community.

Forget the boring simple text fields we usually see, Disqus is totally customizable to match the look and feel of your blog design.  Disqus has reinvented what it means to make a comment.

In their own words; ” there’s no difference between a great comment and a great blog post…people feel good about taking the time to speak (or type) their minds.”

I really can’t think of any reason not to have Disqus on your blog, unless you don’t want your readers talking to you, about you… “oh yeah, they are going to do that anyway.”

I would love to Disqus this with you!

All about domain names, usernames and email adresses…

Make sure You Get Them All!

I have a few new projects in the works and one of the first things I do is run extensive searches on name availability.  I search for top level domain names (.com, .net, .org) for the project name or with a keyword people would search for related to finding information about the project.

Domainers (people that buy and sell domain names) know this routine very well.  A good domain name is as important to your web presence as having a powerful social media strategy.

For example one of new projects is developing a directory of WordPress experts, developers and designers.  Since Automattic, the company that developed WordPress does not allow you to utilize “WordPress” in your domain name, a popular alternative is WP.  So I registered the domains WPCOOP.com, .net and .org.

Its very easy to search for available domain names with your favorite Registrar.  Most have them have a suggestion tool.  Remeber to try hyphens and numbers if your desired name is not available.  Personally I use domainsbot.com to search for available domain names.  Its a simple tool that searches TLD’s, provides suggested names and allows you to register your new found domain name with your preferred registrar.

Secure Your Personal Domain Name

If you do not own http:// your-personal-name . com, I highly recommend registering it now.  This is imperative if you are an authority, expert or professional service consultant or just a passionate blogger and want to build your online reputation.  After all when people are searching for you on the web, the first thing they will do is Google your name!

Do you have kids?  Secure their name as a domain name now, they will be very happy you did, especially when they become the next social media giant and gain world wide web recognition.

Secure Your User Name

Do you have a nickname or stage name?  One aspect of personal branding, we seem to overlook is securing our user name.  Every social media profile asks for a desired user name, which becomes as synonomous to you as your real name and sometimes people only know you by your nickname or user name.

Twitter is a perfect example for brand recognition built on user names.  Almost every profile you have out there will display your username, bookmarking sites, social networks, and even blog comments, so choose a unique, catchy and easy to remember username.

Need some help deciding on a username?  Check out this great service by namechk.com.  They will run an analysis and availability report on a username across the web.

Think about your industry, your passions and how family, friends and colleagues already know you.  As you know I love to help folks out with anything related to social media, WordPress and Twitter, especially.  My username is @askJayson, which is appropriate for me as I love to answer questions and solve problems.

Secure Your Personal Name and Username Email

Another important personal branding strategy is making sure you own your name and username as an email address.  I was reminded of this when I went to get a new google gmail account for my new project.  GMail also allows to check name availability before your register, so you can find a good one before you have to complete the entire registration process.  I recommend you register your personal name and username email with Google and Yahoo, considering they are continuing to develop social media applications where your username will get a lot of exposure.

Another side note: register your kids names!  All my kids (I only have 3) have a personal email address.  Its my way of ensuring atleast they will email me when its not cool to call your Dad on the phone anymore.

When I first signed up with Twitter, there were maybe 800,000 users. Today I believe there is approximately 8 million. With the ever increasing popularity of any network building platform, spam is always an issue. It seems that a lot of folks on twitter are obsessed with the number of followers they can attract, as if that was their only goal.

Now having numerous followers is not a bad thing, but they way we go about it may be questionable, especially if a Twitter Bot is your application of choice.

STOP Twitter SPAM

There is a new service to combat follower bots to ensure your followers are real people.  TrueTwit.com has developed an innovative application that sends you a direct message with a validation code that requires you to log in and validate your humaness. Great option for Twitter accounts with a large audience or anyone sick of getting followed by @bigboobedbrenda and her gang.