Adventures in Life Has Moved!!!!!!!

Hi Readers,

In the interest of consolidating the blogs I run and the ideas I have, it is time to merge my blogs. The new Blog is called Real World Basic (http://jobbasic.blogspot.com) and it offers life and work advice for recent grads with some fun stuff thrown in along the way. Please check it out and change your feeds and bookmarks! I understand that in the beginning some information gets rehashed. Hopefully bringing others up to speed will further the discussion.

Thanks,

Brad Maier

6 Simple Questions with Humor Columnist Dave Barry

So I recieved half a response from Dave Barry. Perhaps Dave's love for his art never ceases because answering three questions out of an interview titled Six Simple Questions is funny in its own way. Whatever the case, any response at all from Dave was more than we could have hoped for.

Dave, a Haverford College alum, was a Humor Columist with the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005 and has written over 30 books. In 1988, He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Two of Dave's books, Dave Barry Turns 40 and Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, were used as the basis for the sitcom Dave's World, where Harry Anderson played Dave. Barry's first novel, Big Trouble, was made into a movie directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. The movie which starred Tim Allen and Rene Russo included a cameo by Dave.

Though he frequently asserts that he's not quite sure how it happened, Dave has taken a path of his own and carefully crafted a career that he loves. Here's Dave's handle on some of the Six Simple Questions:

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I don't recall having any career goal when I was a kid. I mostly remember looking for ways to amuse myself. This is still pretty much what I do.

Whether it is in a big way or a small way, how do you change the world?

Well, I try to make people laugh; I suppose that's a good thing, as long as what they're laughing at is worthy of being laughed at. Here I am thinking specifically of Barry Manilow.

What's one invention or innovation that would change the way you do your work?

I could really use a cheap, reliable time machine.

Unfortunately, Dave didn't have a chance to relay his favorite ice cream flavor... but for more information on Dave or to do some reasearch of your own, check out his website at DaveBarry.com.

Announcing Where is the Director?

For a while I had been preparing an article on people who have broken out of the traditional mold and were working in a career and living a life that they loved. I was keeping the interviews at a site called Where is the Director? Inspiration and advice from those who run the show. In thinking about it more, the topic is very relevant to what I write here and in the future I will be posting the responses to the Six Simple Questions here as well for the people who already subscribe to this feed. To start here's the short interview format as it played out with Keith Schacht of JobCoin.com:

Keith Schacht is Founder and CEO of JobCoin, which provides a user-friendly job board application that gives websites a new way to monetize their content. He also currently co-edits Freshwater Venture and previously co-founded Inventables, Lever Works, Inc., and Chicago Beta. As someone experienced with living the start-up life and succeeding, here’s how Keith tackled the Six Simple Questions:

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Back then I would of told you “Someone who can just make stuff all day.” Give me some space parts and a little duct tape, and I was entertained for days.

Whether it is in a big way or a small way, how do you change the world?

I’m changing the way people connect with one another around job opportunities. I’m constantly amazed at how inefficient the process is.

What’s one invention or innovation that would change the way you do your work?

I want a tool that knows what I’m working on, or what I’m looking for, and automatically connects me to people who are in the same boat as me or who can help. It has to be instantaneous and it has to be smart. Yahoo Answers and other sites are almost there, but not instantaneous enough. People have an inherent desire to help each other and answer questions.

What problem do you encounter most frequently in your everyday life?

I don’t feel like there are a lot of problems, I’m amazed how many tools exist to help you day-to-day. It would be nice to eliminate batteries, no more charging laptops, cell phones, etc.

If you could go back to when you were just starting out, what are two things you’d do differently?

I don’t think I’d change anything. I know that sounds cliche, but it’s a learning process and you have to experience the good and the bad to learn the lessons.

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Cinnamon!

If you’re interested in learning more or getting a job board for your site, check out www.jobcoin.com. Also, be sure to keep up to date with new developments at the JobCoin Blog.

*Check out Where is the Director for the other interviews so far and look forward to more on the way. If you're interested in learning more check out the About section on Where is the Director and if you have any ideas for who should be featured next please let me know. Eventually I plan to merge the two blogs into one.

The Importance of Traffic

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The same thought could apply to the Internet. If a great website exists but no one knows about it, what's the point?

It's true, great content is what keeps visitors coming back and with the advent of RSS and other web technologies it is becoming arguably the main thing that attracts visitors. However, with the amount of content on the web today, the ability to market your offering is still incredibly important.

Like it or not, your website or blog is a brand. It is important to make sure that your content and presentation is uniform and professional. You also need to take steps to establish your "brand" and to make it known to others. The most effective way to do this is to network through the Internet and especially in the blogosphere. Make friends, read blogs frequently, and join their communities by posting correctly. The more friends you make the more allies you have to drive traffic to your site.

***NOTE: learn the blog, read some posts and get a feel for how the community works. Above all do not post spam. If you are going to contribute a link please also take the time to contribute a relevant comment. Behave on other people's websites as you would wish them to behave on yours.***

We also hear a lot about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) these days. Search engines, if used correctly can generate a lot of traffic for your site, especially as search technology improves. Thankfully this cottage industry has far more information on the web than one could ever ask for and more than I could possibly present. If you're interested, check out Search Engine Watch to learn more. Perhaps, the best advice I can give is that it is very important to learn how to develop and implement an effective META Tag. It will prove very valuable when it comes to controlling how your site is indexed by a search engine.

Another often overlooked tool is a press release. Chances are if you're publishing a website worthy of traffic, you're doing something newsworthy as well. In a sense, your website is a community or a project and big or small you're working towards something. The media is always looking to keep tabs on these types of things and specifically if you target your release to members of the media who cover the area of interest that encompasses your site (this takes some research), a press release can provide you with leads, contacts, and media coverage. All of which can lead to increased traffic for your site, not to mention opportunities you may never have even thought of when it comes to getting involved with an area you love. Here is a great article on how to use this tool to market your site. If nothing else you'll gain great experience in media relations.

Finally, we touched on Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in the beginning and it has become an increasingly important traffic tool. Users are becoming tired of having to check all the different sites every day to get their information. RSS brings information and your content to the reader through a feed. This makes it easier to get return visitors and to keep visitors tuned into your site. Projects like Feedburner and Technorati have simplified the process even further and remove any hassle that was left from syndicating your feed. If you'd like to learn how to make any site into an RSS feed check out this link from Search Engine Watch: Making and RSS Feed.

I really can't stress it enough but in anything you do you should be conscious of how you are going to sell it. If people aren't interested in what you're doing, you need to take steps to either reach a different audience or to make what you're doing interesting. If you're creating a website or a web application, it would serve you well to reread Everyone Should Learn to Sell, it applies to your website as well as your person.

Tip of the Day: Shh! Don't Neglect the Library

I've been doing a lot of research lately and have come to realize just how important and useful the public library can be. Where else do you get a free and helpful service these days? In some cases the librarian's knowledge itself is worth the visit. Whether you need to learn how to write a business plan or are just looking for inspiration, the library is one of your greatest and cheapest assets.

Perhaps its because we grow to loathe them in college after spending long nights doing research for papers or cramming for tests, but we tend to neglect them as a valuable resource once we leave school.

For a budding or contemplating entrepreneur, the library can save valuable dollars and prevent an onslaught of restraining orders from the employees at Barnes and Noble.

If you haven't been there in a while, libraries are catching up with the information age. Unless it is a newly published business book you're looking for, the library is likely to have books with the information you need. We all know most of today's business books are just rehashing yesterday's ideas anyway.

So if you're looking to commit the ultimate act of bootstrapping, get a library card.

The Changing Way We Organize Our Lives

Over at Brazen Careerist, Ryan Healy of Employee Evolution has written a guest post about the advent of the blended life and it has caused quite a stir; typically among people who believe that a blended life can't possibly work for them.

I think it is important to clarify some aspects of the blended life. A blended life is not the same as multi-tasking (i.e. you're not on your blackberry while you're at your kids play). This is typically an inefficient way to operate and causes problems when neither one of your tasks receives the focus it deserves. The concept of the blended life might be better stated by saying that things no longer occur in set schedules. In a blended life, work is no longer confined to 9 to 5 and family life and other pursuits are not confined to the rest of the day.

It's perfectly acceptable to make your schedule flexible to fit your needs and it is not a bad thing to do some work late at night or to take a half hour to send work email while at home. If you're working at something you love this shouldn't even be a big deal. The same thing goes for tending to other interests or to children in the middle of the "work day" if the need calls for it. This is not an entirely novel concept. The blended life is just becoming more acceptable and in reality is probably a more efficient way to work.

I should stress again that multi-tasking is not blending. When you are doing something your attention is completely focused on the task at hand. When you begin to accept that your schedule is malleable then you begin to move towards a blended life.

The first step to a successful blended life is finding work that you don't mind blending into the rest of your life. Pursue something you're passionate about and enjoy doing. It is not surprising that most of the people who want their work to be separate from their lives are also the same people who don't like their jobs and don't want to have to think about it the rest of the day. If you take the time to evaluate yourself and find something you enjoy, you might be surprised when your life starts to become blended without even thinking about it.

Personal Competitive Advantages

As an extension of the posts on learning to sell and life entrepreneurship, I think it is also important to realize that something as simple as competitive advantage can be scaled to the personal level as well.

On a small scale, each person is their own business. Your work is your product. Your competition is anyone who does the same type of job or work that you do. You must examine yourself and know your strengths and weaknesses, just like a business would. You may not be able to sell as well as someone else or you may not have as many connections as another person but if you're a better researcher than both of them then you tailor your approach from that angle. You would succeed by doing better targeted research to find the clients who are most compatible and then you don't need to talk to as many people or cast as wide a net as the others.

Individuals in the same line of work still possess many different strengths and weaknesses. Those that succeed are the ones who take better advantage of their strengths and do a better job adapting their "competitive advantages" to the job at hand.