What an awesome, long weekend it was! I’m not really sure what to say about it because there are some legal issues to resolve before our product can go live, but we were able to accomplish something that I think is very cool.

In the span of 54 hours, lasting from Friday evening until Sunday night, I was with a group of like minded technologists, marketers, business developers and lawyers and we managed to come up with an idea, develop it, and are ready to launch it. I feel great pride in the work we did, especially because I was able to go from group to group and contribute a lot to each aspect of the project.

I started in the user experience / usability group and we worked hard Friday night until about 2am on Saturday to define the product. Saturday morning 8am was our next meeting time and it came around way too quickly. I met up with other UX people at a coffee shop to start working on wireframe models of how we envisioned the site to look, how we envisioned it to work, and how we envisioned the user’s experience to flow. The group was working well and we fed off of each other to come up with new ideas and flesh out details of our master plan. It was pretty impressive, especially because we had just met each other the night before. Some of the team already knew each other from school but for the most part we had all just met. By noon we had everything pretty much mapped and sketched out. It was time to pass our plan over to the legal department, the business development team, the marketers, and of course the coders and developers.

Meeting with each team was a bit of a challenge as we were not able to have 1 representative talk to each group; this process was so time-sensitive that we needed to have different people talk to each group and in the end some details got a bit skewed and there was a bit of confusion among the groups but that was quickly fixed and all the different teams got our vision and got to work on their respective tasks.

At this point, the UX team started thinking about usability tests for users and I decided to move to the marketing group. The marketing group was composed of some really talented individuals who are true professional marketing people. They do marketing campaigns for a living and also do graphic design and copy writing for a living. I was glad to be part of that group and I got to brainstorm and contribute valuable content to the copy writers and helped out with the marketing campaign by brainstorming taglines and ideas. The day quickly came to a close and I went home to catch up with my wife and our friends. They brought over a nice growler of Bloomington Brewing Company’s new Brown beer. It was delicious and hit the spot. Bed felt great and Sunday morning arrived before long.

Sunday was a fantastic day for me. The marketing campaign was going well, the UX team had their plans in place and I headed over to the development team because they needed a few coders. I was intimidated at first. After all, I don’t code too much anymore and these guys are all professionals. There was a front end developer and several backend PHP people. I joined the PHP team and was assigned a few tasks. After shaking the rust off my fingers, I was once again in my element and helping code the pages that will go live in the next few weeks. A day’s worth of coding always goes by fast and so the day flew by.

After getting home I got to reflect on the experience of the weekend and one thing is certain: I’m glad I went. I made some great contacts in the SEM industry, the SEO industry, met new school colleagues, met a few alumni from my program, and talked shop with people that I would probably otherwise not have met. Highlights included meeting the founder of Startup Weekend, Andre Hyde, seeing and playing with my first Macbook Air, being outnumbered by Mac’s (I’d say 80% of people at this conference had a Mac), being surrounded by iPhones, meeting new people, learning new things, and founding a company!

This experience was fantastic and I’m looking forward to the day the lawyers give the “go ahead” to launch our product. It’s not as revolutionary as Digg or Twitter, but I’m confident that it’ll make the lives of some individuals a bit better.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always owned a PC. I started out working PC’s, helping PC users connect to the Internet, building PC’s, networking PC’s, and now I work in a professional setting with a whole bunch of PC’s. However, the more access I have to Apple products, the more I feel that they are the better option for personal computing. Apple computers are fast, the operating system is intuitive, computer performance is solid, and the user experience is beautiful. In addition, I hardly ever hear about any Mac users having problems with their equipment…and when they do, things get taken care of quickly and effectively.

I’m becoming a fan of Apple and the Macintosh more and more every day. Software compatibility is getting much better, especially with the new version of Microsoft Office for the Mac. I believe that compatibility has been a (if not THE) major issue and the reason why people were hesitant to switch to the Mac. Now that Apple switched to the Intel architecture, their performance has increased even more and it also made it possible for people to run Windows on the Mac, therefore getting rid of the compatibility issue.

Now that the Mac can run Windows and Windows applications, there is no reason for people not to buy a Mac. With the price of entry so low, your next computer can easily be a Mac. Mac Mini’s pack a nice punch and cost roughly $600. You provide the mouse, keyboard, and monitor and you’ll be ready to roll.

I think that Apple will continue to grow its audience and users, but I believe that it could really experience exponential and explosive growth if they would release Mac OS for the PC. Although the software would cost less than a new piece of hardware, they could instantly grab millions of users who want to try out the Mac OS for themselves. The Mac operating system is already running on the Intel platform, so why not make it available to those of us who still have a PC? I believe that if Apple were to to this, they would become the number one software giant, hands down. Computer users don’t want another version of a bloated software that hogs more resources and requires more attention to use (Vista, anyone?). Computer users are at a point now where they need something fast that allows them to run applications securely and reliably. I predict that in the near future, Apple will release a version of their OS for PC users. What do you think?
[poll=7]

Last week I made a post about people who use Entrecard precariously and place their widgets above the fold. I do not agree with this strategy and claimed that it takes up valuable space that could be used to monetize your website. Divablogger took the bait and issued a nicely written response to my argument. The following post is my retort.

Let’s start with the first comment that got my attention:

“placing it somewhere more accessible makes it convenient for people to drop their cards”

I agree completely with you. This statement is actually helping me to prove my point. You see, although I do like Entrecard for its potential to generate a fair amount of traffic to a website, the advertisements on the widgets are still free and cost $0 in real world money. So why would you sacrifice space on your website where you could be making real money in order to promote somebody else’s site who is just using you for your widget? Don’t you feel so….used? You are willingly giving up the potential to sell ad space on your site and make money online for a silly Entrecard point. I’m no economist but I would call this “negative equity”. You are not gaining anything valuable by giving away prime real estate on your blog nor are you being properly compensated for it. If ever in doubt, just repeat this mantra: “What Would John Chow Do?”.

You also stated the following:

“Being in directories (which are strongly promoted by the creators) is like being a part of the daily life of entrecarders who use these directories and are too lazy to create their own.”

I’m not entirely sure what you meant by that statement. Firstly, of course directories will be promoted by their creators! I promote all kinds of things that I make; this started in kindergarten when I made my first hand print on paint then had my parents hang it on their refrigerator. It’s just plain simple to understand. Secondly, although Entrecard is a fantastic avenue to reach a wide readership and gain an audience, I don’t necessarily want to be in a directory of lazy people. “Dress for success”, as they say. I would rather have proactive Entrecarders and Bloggers like my sponsor JasonBoom that participate and support my site. He is obviously working hard at promoting his brand and blog and is not a “lazy” blogger. If you take away all of the lazy bloggers, I believe that the web would be filled with content that is of much higher in quality than what is available today.

I guess we could go around and around in this argument. You believe that placing your Entrecard widget, which gives away a free link and takes away space for paid advertisers “above the fold” is the smarter and better thing to do. I believe that placing the free link widget that still brings me traffic “below the fold”, thus saving more prominent spaces for paid advertisers is the smarter thing to do. The point I was trying to make is a financial one, where as you were making a point about quantity of traffic. In the end it is just a question of “quality versus quantity”. I would much rather have 1000 daily visitors who found my site through other quality “non-lazy” blogger’s websites. These visitors would probably read multiple posts and pages per visit, leave comments, become advertisers, and even help me out by clicking and following my affiliate links. It seems to me that you, on the other hand, would be satisfied with 1000 daily visitors who get to your site, click the widget and leave. I’m in this for the quality, but if that’s the kind of visitor that you want going to your site, then I hope your strategy works out for you. To me, it’s a no-brainer.

[poll=6]

Dear Entrecard users,

I want to take this time to talk to you all about a little something I call “common sense”. This letter is not intended for EVERY Entrecard user, just the vast majority of them that make my life really easy.

In the last few days, I have been using Entrecard (henceforth known as ‘ec’) more and more in order to rack up credits so that I can spend them on certain things for this site. Recently I have traded 500 ec’s for a header design that is being worked on right now. With so many other interesting things in the ec marketplace, it makes good sense to rack up a ton of points and spend them on things that will help make your site better, more interesting, or more visible.

As you know, it is possible to get ec credits either by dropping your card at other websites or by ‘charging’ people to advertise on your site. The thing I love about advertising with ec, and no doubt one reason why so many people love it, is that in reality the advertisement is free. The point of ec is to get you to visit other websites and check out the work of other bloggers in your niche or in new niches all together. The truth of the fact is that most people (myself included) will sometimes just load up 20 pages at a time, drop their cards, and leave.

Not sure where I’m going with this yet? Hold on, it’s coming.

If you look at my site, or countless other successful blogs, you’ll see a sidebar with a few paid advertisements on them. I’m working on selling more ads on my site and the requests will come in soon, I’m sure. Those paid sponsors become acquaintances in the short term and possibly business partners and friends in the long run. They get to know the blogger and vice versa. So, here we go. Why on earth would you, as a blogger and web designer, place your Entrecard widget above the paid links and in a place that is really easy to find on your site?! You are basically giving away PRIME real estate on your site for people to quickly find the widget, click it, and leave your site. They basically “hit it and quit it”, if you know what I mean. They love you and leave you. They hunt you and dump you. Do you see where I’m going now?

Another reason why you should NOT place your ads front and center is that, in the long run, advertisers will get mad and leave you. Why should they pay a premium to advertise on your site if you are giving away free advertisement in a space that is even better than theirs?

USE YOUR HEAD, PEOPLE!!

I’m not mad at you. In fact, I love you because you make my life easier. I just wanted to tell you my thoughts on your decision. I probably don’t remember who you are, what your blog is, or what it’s about but I do thank you for the credit.

Let’s face it. Change is a part of life. You do things differently today than you did months ago. Chances are that you made some new year’s resolution that required some change on your part. Unfortunately, change is not always easy. I’ll go as far as to say that change is hard! Nobody likes to change…we have so much momentum going in our current direction that in order for us to stop, analyze or realize that something needs correction and then to apply the necessary change takes a whole lot of time and effort from us.The thing that even trumps effort is the fact that change is hard. Creating new habits, inventing new processes, embracing our creativity and all the other things that comes with change is not easy for most people. Below I outline the top 5 things that make change difficult. Learn these things and be aware of them so that next time change is necessitated on your part, you’ll recognize these items and be better prepared to make a successful transition!

1. Change is difficult. Any kind of change is difficult because you have to start doing things differently. It means letting go of your old way of doing things; a new way of life, so to speak. If change is to be successful, you must persevere and agree to do things differently for a certain time period. Commitment to change is key to success.
2. You may be happy with the way things are. The “status-quo” is a comfortable place. You know how things work, you know why things exist and you know how to get things done. The thing is that if you wish to make things better, easier, more efficient, and more streamlined then you need to let go of the way things “used to be”. One of the hardest aspects of change for me is learning (or figuring out) how to do things better. This usually means doing things differently and this process is normally confusing and uncomfortable.
3. You many not be ready for change. Some people or websites are too quick on the trigger and make changes before the blog or business site is ready for change. I’ve made that mistake in the past. That is, shortly after creating a website that was on its way to making me a little money I decided to completely redesign the site. After the redesign, visitors were not clicking through nor making purchases and my online income suffered. The site wasn’t ready for change and by me forcing a new design, things turned sour.
4. You may not understand what needs to be changed. Everything has a learning curve, even blogging. To be successful, I believe that you should use the “review and revise” method so that you’re always looking back and changing the bad for good. This can be a web design or a process that you do on a daily basis. The hard part is recognizing what is bad and what is good. Understanding the difference is hard and adds a degree of difficulty to change.
5. You may be threatened by change. When people give you suggestions or critiques, or when you realize that some kind of change is necessary, one of your first reactions will be to either be defensive or to be intimidated by change. This is because you may not have been aware that such a change was necessary or because you may not even have known that anything was wrong in the first place. Don’t be threatened by comments or critiques, but rather, look at them as a chance to make your site just that much better!

Aside from the fact that change is hard, change is a powerful and positive force in everything we do. When we do things differently, we realize that there are different options in the things we do and therefore figure out a way to make our lives easier or better. I encourage you, in your blog, business or personal life, to find something to change and just do it. Do you normally wake up at 8 in the morning to get to work by 8:30? Then change and start waking up at 7. See what kind of a difference an extra hour can make in your day. Do you spell check your blog posts? Start checking them to see what kind of a difference that makes to your readers. Do you want to do better in your business life? Then go to the book store and take a look at the new books out there and buy one or find a friend so that you bounce ideas off of each other. Like the old “Nike” ad said, “just do it!” You’ll be better for it!