A Sack of Seattle

Comment lurkers playing SEO games

This comment came from Disney World Vacation Rentals:

• "Its really good to see this blog,you have nice information about vacations at Disney.People who are looking for hotels there,you really have good material for them. I got valuable links. I will like too see this blog again."

For those of you who don't know -- this firm is trying got get link value from my blog to their website.  Yes their attempt is weak and I didn't publish their comment but the game they're playing is very real.

Typepad new implementation is very sharp and sexy

I was beginning to wonder what moveable type was doing. It's been a long time since I was impressed as a customer. I have to say that their most recent release is a vast improvement on their core product. It actually may save me from abandoning them for a new platform like wordpress. Features that I have caught my eye after playing with it:

• The overall user expereince has improved. It's easier to blog and track your blog traffic. Every step of the writing process feels more intuitive than it did before.
• Integration with twitter and facebook and a whole host of other platforms like dogster and amazon -- effectively they've implemented a feature that we at Judy's Book used to call write once publish many.
• They've implemented a follow feature very similar to twitter. This makes the prospect of discovering other typepad blogs and other authors much easier.
• They've introduced a question of the day which gives bloggers who don't know what to write about a suggestion of authoring. These questions of the day are sponsored by a company and include a link ot that sponsor. This is very smart revenue creation and allow them to sell unique content and links to lots of companies. This is powerful and smart -- and is also well done. 

Well done guys.  The changes make me happy to be a customer!

What I would splurge on this year to improve my future?

This question was presented to me by Typepad -- the blog platform that I'm still using even though I know I should switch to wordpress.

I'm playing with the Typepad new user interface and one of the things they offer is a question of the day to inspire a post. These questions are sponsored and have a built in link in them (i've include the exact text below):

"What's something you would splurge on this year to improve your future?
Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow."

Pretty crafty SEO and monetization strategy -- nice job guys.  Anyway -- I digress. Back to the question of the day - things I'd splurge on:

• More time -- If there was a way to buy more time I would buy it.
• 4 romantic weekends (1 per quarter) with my wife: I'd go to London, Hawaii, Saigon, and Santiago. Oh -- and I'd teleport myself there rather than take the flights.
• I'd get a personal trainer 3 x per week
• I'd get a personal chef and shopper too. They would fold laundry when not making me tasty salads for dinner. 
• I'd go to the magic house outside of LA with my son and I'd go to the best waterpark in the country wth my daughter (I believe it's in AZ).
• I'd buy a convertible lexus
• I'd buy health care for the US -- and introduce medical mal practice reform.
• I'd buy peace of mind.

Tweeting vs. Blogging: you can follow me on twitter at @asackofseattle

I'm wondering if other people are considering tweeting as a viable and attractive alternative to blogging. In the last 30 days I've found the experience of tweeting to be easier and more engaging than blogging. I'm still blogging but the thought of just tweeting is attractive to me. In the end, I think the twitter medium and user experience is just lighter and easier than blogging. 
I suspect I'm not alone in considering a transition to tweeting. In fact, I suspect that there is a significant shift from blogging to tweeting and that this new form of microblogging is likely to far outpace the growth of blogging.
As a friend pointed out, I'm already a fan of the "short" blog post. I generally try to make a point and not belabor it in my blog posts.  If you read this blog, don't worry...I'm not quitting the blog. But I'm interested in my desire to tweet more over blog more and think there's something to the phenomena. I'd also suggest you follow me on twitter #asackofseattle

Lost comments

Sorry to the folks who have been reading and commenting on my blog. I've had an issue with comments and hope to correct it imminently.  Please don't lose faith or stop commenting.

blog serendipity

Blog serendipity happens all the time but in the last 24 hours I've had three instances that made me appreciate it:

1. I was contacted from someone who reads I learned that my friend Tom happened to be in Seattle for 6 hours. He lives in Denver but flew in from San Francisco. I only learned about this from a twit via Facebook.
2. I was contacted by an entrepreneur in NYC who goes to the NYC Open Coffee organized by a friend of mine -- Nicholas Butterworth. He told her to read my blog and contact me. We had a good conversation about her potential business.
3. I was contacted by a Tacoma, WA angel who is a fan of my blog.

Thanks to all of you for reaching out. I love to hear from my readers in blog comment or email!

A little self promotion: Seattle 2.0 best bloggers

I was just voted by the editorial team of Seattle 2.0 as one of the most influential bloggers of Seattle. This honor lives somewhere in between the Fortune 50 Most Influential Bloggers and your mom’s favorite entrepreneur.See the list here

Blog Feedback

I've  been meeting people at web 2.0 and I've had 3 people (seperately) come up to me today and tell me that they enjoyed my blogging about the transition of Judy's Book. It's positive encouragement like this that makes me want to write more of these kind of entries. Thanks for the feedback folks....more good stuff should be on the way

web 2.0

I'm one of those conference attendees that tends to hang in the lobby. I hear that there's a name for people like me -- "lobby lurkers". I think that fits. I get tired sitting in the big rooms listening to lecture style powerpoint presentations. I much prefer the dynamic of interactive networking and think that lobbies and coffees are best for it. I'll be hanging in the lobby by the coffee pot at the Palace hotel -- home of teh web 2.0 conference.  Hey ....just saw John Battelle....gotta go.

Best quote I read today

On Fred wilson's blog...

'cash is more important than your mother'

Alan Shugart, the disk drive entrepreneur