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Last night while I wasn’t working, I was doing some reading on a number of changes to how the web and social media are evolving.

The first is an article geared more at SEO, which truly is everyone’s responsibility, in that Google searches are getting longer. Gone are the days of trying to rank for just a corporate name or single keyword term. People are getting more and more specific in their searches and these are things we’ll need to take into consideration as we move forward with web copy writing and our SEO strategy.

The other two were interesting and directly tied to social media. How Facebook plans to take over the web – more specifically Google, is a very interesting read that will no doubt have an impact on our channels and sites. The other is on a new plug-in that Facebook just released around what they’re calling recommendations. This one will truly change the web and is something I think we should get on the road map to implement soon. Essentially, without getting too technical, it will show personal recommendations to users via Facebook. This gives us more exposure in a user’s timelines on Facebook (which we all know had more traffic than Google last month) and actually should helpb with some basic link building from an SEO perspective.

I’d love to hear thoughts on implementing any of the above, as well as comments or thoughts on how Facebook might actually change the way we surf…and market our sites. EAVB_TNXJBJZNYL

I figure that it’s been almost two months since I wrote my 2010 goals out for all to see, so I decided that today would be an appropriate time to check in on them. After all what good is it to write down your goals when you never review them. It makes it much easier to ignore them, that’s for sure. That’s not what I want to do. I made them to move forward and make some progress.

So “on with the show” as they say. A review of my 2010 personal goals begins:

• Raise $20,000 for the Tom Baker Cancer Centre & Alberta Cancer Foundation through the 2nd Annual Tight ‘n Bright event to be held March 20, 2010.
  Well we got nowhere near it. In all honesty I haven’t added up all the numbers yet because I’m a little depressed on how low it is. I mean locally we can raise over $20k for something like Haiti relief, but when it’s something in our own backyard we tend to feel there’s no importance. This years event has caused me to re-think the model for next year—if we have a third-annual. Check the Tight ‘n Bright website for final dollar figures…soon.
• Generate $80,000 through legal online activities like affiliate sales, products & services by September 15, 2010. Roughly 236 days remain, so that would equate to $338.98 per day…if I start making cash NOW!

  To date I’ve made $203.26 from online affiliate sales. Roughly 155 days remain until September 15 so that would mean an average of $514.82 starting today. It’s possible and totally achievable I know for sure. I just launched a site geared towards the Adobe Creative Suite 5 release that will generate some sales. I’ve also been working through the Shoemoney System and getting even more ideas. If you feel it’s too pricey for you, then why not try the FREE ShoemoneyX out for a while – like the 12 weeks it is?!

• Run a full marathon under 4 hours by December 15, 2010.
  Still working on this. I met with a guy I’m calling my running coach and he gave me some great advice and training tips. Just a few days ago I went for a 10 mile run in about 1:50. I haven’t run 10 miles since the start of this year. I’ve registered for the Manitoba Marathon’s Half at the end of June and am contemplating the Calgary Half Marathon as well. I haven’t targeted my full for the year, but worst case I fly to Honolulu for a few days and run there again.
• Launch BlueBinder by March 1, 2010 with full e-comm capabilities.
  Can you say nope. Haven’t touched it. I think about it A LOT but haven’t touched it.
• Launch Phase 1 of OoberScoop by February 1, 2010.

  Sort of, kind of, but not really. You can sign up to get an invite right now and that’s about it…but the development stuff I’ve got looks good too. My business partner and I are reconvening this week to set some firm goals around it.

• Launch Workshops Everywhere by February 1, 2010 to the Calgary market as detailed in Phase 1 of the plan.

  It launched. I think it was closer to March 1, 2010, but it still launched. Now we’ve observed a number of its weaknesses and are looking at a developer to completely customize the solution for what we need. Watch out for Phase 2 soon.

• Travel to three new destinations by December 31, 2010.
  It’s quite surprising that I haven’t traveled much of anywhere in 2010. I went to Vancouver in February for the opening weekend of the Olympic games and to Winnipeg to see my family as well…but that’s it. Definitely nowhere new, though we are talking about Turks & Caicos or Barbados in October, so either of those would be new.
• Speak at a minimum of one conference by November 30, 2010.
  This one hasn’t really been a focus at all. I’m targeting PubCon in Las Vegas in November, but who knows what things will come about. Honestly when I launch the above sites, there’s a strong chance that I’ll definitely be speaking about something at PubCon.
• Support and love Monica, Ava and the other members of my family on a daily basis.
  I think I’m on target for this one. Sometimes probably over achieving.
• Help Monica launch her site to the best of my abilities around her time line.
  It’s back on the radar again and I’m so happy about it. Still waiting and I can’t share too much, but you know once it’s launched it’s going to kick ass.
• Blog a minimum of five times per week through to June 30, 2010.
  Ummm…yeah. That hasn’t happened really now has it?!
• Live everyday and enjoy and appreciate what I have.
  I’d say for the most part I do this regularly. I still complain about some things (like work, lack of cash, etc) but I try to not dwell on them nearly as much as I used to.

After looking at the above, it’s actually not as depressing as I thought it was. There’s still plenty of time left in 2010, 262 days or so, to make it an amazing year. I’ll review the review in a month or two…on a casual basis to see how I’ve done again. Until then I’ll probably waste more time building out sites, trying new things, and just genuinely trying to enjoy life. Thanks in advance for reading and for any comments you feel like leaving.

photo credit: nDevilTV

I’ve been meaning to write this review and insight of the ShoeMoney System for quite some time, but have felt as though I’ve been too busy to actually put any thought into a quality post. Something I’m trying to do more of. Quality over quantity (which goes somewhat against my 2010 goals). There’s no doubt that you’re probably wondering “what is the ShoeMoney System” and more importantly, why do I care.

Let me backup a little bit and give you some history. Just over a year ago I joined Twitter and began adding friends and just getting lost in various users through other peoples tweets. I stumbled across this guy who went by the name “ShoeMoney” and was intrigued. I read his bio (always something good to have if you want Twitter followers), and clicked through to his website. Well it was at this point in seeing his Google Adsense check for $132,994.97 that I realized I’d seen this bum guy before when doing some research. I started reading his blog and found out a little bit more about him. I got so lost and mezmerized that I almost forgot to follow @ShoeMoney on Twitter.

It all made sense on the “ShoeMoney” name. Jeremy Shoemaker, who coincidentally doesn’t make shoes, was a money making machine. Jeremy Schoemaker (the correct spelling of his last name) and I had several conversations on Twitter about a few things here and there. If he only knew how excited I was that an “online celebrity” was tweeting with me in conversation (kind of like what just happened with Lisa Barone & Rae Hoffman).

Well I’ve followed him ever since and in November of 2009 had the privilege to meet him and have a quick chat at DK‘s Purpose Inc. poker tournament at PubCon Las Vegas. (I really actually need to thank my friends Lyndsay Walker & Lyndon Reid for making that trip happen). It was a quick, but friendly chat. Shoe, as his friends apparently refer to him (not sure I can get away with it—yet), was friendly and approachable. I’m glad that my gut instinct was right through only some select tweets.

Fast forward to a few months ago and Jeremy was getting ready to launch the ShoeMoney System. The teaser videos were awesome and because I had the chance to chat with Jeremy in person, I knew that any content he would produce would be first rate. I was hooked. I watched the previews, signed up on the mailing list, joined a webinar and even signed up as an affiliate to promote the ShoeMoney System. YES, I was sure it was going to be that good. The price came down and calculating it with incentives and bonus gifts, Jeremy was actually going to be paying me to take the ShoeMoney System. Only 500 students were going to be accepted so I was going to act fast. Alas I had to cough up some cash up front, which makes perfect sense, but I wasn’t in a position to do so. It’s not that expensive—just $197USD a month for twelve months. That’s a screaming deal…but I just wasn’t there.

A couple of weeks ago some clients of SPRY had finally paid up their account and to my surprise the unthinkable happened. The ShoeMoney System was re-opened to new students. NOW was my chance to get in on the content the ShoeMoney System could offer. I didn’t hesitate and signed up right away. There was no chance the system was going to fill up and close without me being in it for a second time.

It was one week ago today that I got on board. I blew through the first couple of videos as I’d seen one as the teaser and the other was fairly high-level. I was eager to get more videos and they seemed quite slow. That is until now that I realized it’s only been one week and I’ve had an extra two. The pace seems good with a “real job” going on, family life, travel, etc. I’ve got a bunch of experience in the web design/development area and have briefly touched on some affiliate marketing concepts (yes, the site is about winning blackjack strategies) and even a bit of SEO (again, thanks Lyndsay). I eagerly await a new video and email from the ShoeMoney System every day so that I can work towards my goal to generate $80,000 online by September 15.

I’ll be keeping you posted with my progress and any information that I feel like sharing. I know that with Shoemoney and his team creating and testing the content, that there’s no better course out there for a beginner or advanced user or anywhere in between. My recommendation to you is to figure it out, get the cash and just enroll in the ShoeMoney System TODAY! Tomorrow, you can thank me for it.

To my almost 600 Twitter followers, I appreciate that you take a moment out of your busy day to possibly see something I’ve written or asked. I do have one simple question to ask you that I’m in desperate need of an answer to though:

Why do you follow me?

It’s a simple question and I’m sure the answer will be simple as well and I’m OK with that. Is it because you’ve met me in person either at work or a conference? Do you think I’m a funny guy? Do you hang on every single word I say to make you laugh? Do I give you help and/or advice? Just a few ideas for responses, but please let me know. Either send me a tweet or leave a comment below…please. It’ll take 5 seconds.

Thanks in advance.

I’m busy working on an idea, and it keeps growing and evolving each day. I’ll essentially be creating a portal of information, for lack of a better term. For this example lets go with running only 2 TLD domains. Something along the lines of region.com & city.com should work. These are not my domains, but illustrate the example I’m going after.

When the visitor goes to region.com they will be presented with a landing page that has information for that particular region. I live in the province of Alberta, so let’s use that as a reference point. Some of the information will be aggregated information from the city.com category. I live in Calgary, so think of it that way. Now I do say category because I’m that this will all be one WordPress install, with multiple domains. The URL structure would be region.com/city/another_category/article.html on the main site. ( alberta.com/calgary/events/event-1.html) What I want to do is have someone that goes to city.com be directed to the /city/another_category/article.html portion, however the resulting URL would appear as city.com/another_category/article.html (calgary.com/events/event-1.html)- as it’s own domain.

I’ve explored WordPressMU and I’m not completely sold on it as the solution. I know that it can do domain forwarding with it’s sub-domain settings, but I still don’t believe it will populate correctly.

The other option would be to still have region.com with links to categories, but it would then link off to city.com, city2.com, city3.com, etc as needed.

The other issue is that each city might not have a domain. So city2 (let’s use Airdrie) might not have a domain. Without airdrie.com it would then be alberta.com/airdrie/events/event-1.html but if they decided to get a domain at some point, I’d want to be able to utilize that. I was initially thinking of simple domain forwarding (i.e. calgary.com would just resolve to alberta.com/calgary/) but don’t really feel that’s the best solution for branding and definitely SEO. The best way to take this forward is with a good keyword finder to find out the right words based on the target.

Thoughts on this? Am I clear? Am I off my rocker on what I’m trying to do? Does this make any sense at all? Oh, and of course I need a solution basically yesterday. Thanks in advance for your input.

Edit: I just came across Examiner and it’s similar to what I’m looking to do…but NOT what I’m doing, so I still need a solution.