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Word Camp Still On My Mind

Sorry for the delay in my Word Camp report. I took a break and spent the weekend in Lake Tahoe. I forgot how beautiful and blue that lake really is.

I did however wear my Word Camp T-shirt and talk geek with some new friends I met in Tahoe. I love the shirt - it's a girl shirt , not an over-sized man's shirt like I often get at events. Okay, I realize I am totally rambling. Back to focusing on Word Camp.

Jeremy Wright talked about blog monetization. Content should be fantastic and ads should be ones that are valuable to your readers.

Jeremy said to think about... "Would you read your own blog?"

He also emphasized the point that although you can make money blogging, it takes a LOT of work to make a living off of blogging.

Check out what Tris Hussey had to say about Jeremy's talk.

Word Camp In My Sleep

I am a little embarrassed to admit this but last night I was talking in my sleep. You will never guess what I was caught saying? I said “Word Press Word Camp” in my sleep! I am not kidding. Proof that I actually am a geek!

John C. Dvorak and Om Malik

Blogs Vs. Journalism
Dvorak started the talk by saying bloggers should be credentialed. That statement kind of scares me. What happens to the one’s who are not credentialed? Kind of reminds me of the whole topic of Virtual Assistants – should they be certified or not? (note to self: stay focused to go there right now)

Take home tips of the topic:

• Dvorak suggested when blogging to consider not posting immediately. Let the post sit, come back and check it for errors, read it out loud to your self. (Maybe I should start doing this…)

• I also learned that it is not okay to call someone a crook on your blog unless they have been convicted of a crime.

Taking their advice to link when you can (when someone has already said what you want to say) here are some summaries of the talk I found from fellow Word Campers (that I didn’t actually meet in person): Stephanie Booth and Matthew Batchelder.

Word Camp 2007 In The News

I'm in the news. You have to look very closely at the beginning and ending clips to see me though. I'm sitting next to my new friend Deena.



Today I am going talk about my favorite speaker at the conference. She's not in the news clip but that's okay. Lorelle VanFossen is cool, she deserves a whole TV show for herself! In addition to being cool she did a much better write up of the conference then I ever will.

I love seeing women in the techie/geek world. We were definitely a minority but we were there! Lorelle is great! I think she may have missed her calling as a public speaker/comedian though.

She spoke about creating "Kicking Ass Content Connections". Some tips she offered on starting a blog conversation were to:

• not write for your 8th grade teacher (your blog does not have to be an essay)
• don't blog the whole idea - leave some room for your readers to respond, incomplete thoughts allow your readers to respond.
• link back to other bloggers
• comment on other's blogs

PS. For those of you wondering why I am using a blogger blog when I hype Word Press so much... there is a good reason for that. My Virtual Simplicity Word Press blog will be coming soon. I currently use Word Press for some of my clients and love it.

How I Became a Geek! Word Camp 2007

How I became a geek? It all started when Becki Noles told me about Word Camp 2007. She got me all psyched to go.

While sitting at the conference a thought struck my mind... "what was the first website I ever saw?". All these people kept talking about back in 1996 or some other random year in the 90's and I realized, "wow I almost forgot the internet has not been around my whole life and I don't even remember when I first started using it or what the first www address was that I typed in to my computer. I got through high school and college without the internet... how on earth did I do that? I do remember having AOL and those chat rooms... but it's all kind of a blurry fog from then. I remember my Mac with the little green screen and waiting and waiting for AOL to load. Do you remember what the first www address you typed in was? What was the first website you ever saw?"

I think what I am going to do is post about one Word Camp session each day. There were tons of great session! I’m still on information overload. So, let’s start with Day 1.

Day 1 started with Dan Kuykendall the author of the PodPress plugin. One tip from Dan that I thought was a great idea was to play your podcast in a popup so people can keep browsing your blog. I often times click away from a podcast un-intentionally and get really sad.

To add to my proud geek status I won the Blog of the Week award over at VANA today- where 6000 of my closest friends hang out.

Am I a geek?

In my never ending quest for knowledge I am heading to Word Camp tomorrow. I will be spending my weekend learning how to be a better blogger.





Are you Asking for the Sale?

Last night I attended a workshop on Nonviolent Communication, you can read more about it here. A point was made to always request/state your needs when in a conversation. Our words are often mis-understood.

I got to thinking how this could be applied when networking for our businesses. Do you let potential clients know your needs? Do you ask for the sale? They may not know you want to work with them or even have thought about the fact that you might be able to help them. Next time you are talking with a potential client try saying, "I'd really like to talk with you more about your business and ways I might be able to help you. Can we get together for coffee on Tuesday? or Can I call you on Monday to set up a phone meeting?" Now your potential client knows you are interested in them and they know you want to meet with them. I mean seriously, what is the worst thing that can happen? They might say they are busy or not interested. That's fine, now think about the best thing that can happen: you might get a new client or a great referral!

The Fuzzy Tail

The Fuzzy Tail slide show is from the Logic + Emotion blog.

Are you fuzzy?

Think and Grow Rich

All wealth is a product of mind. Some economists will try to convince you that wealth comes from productivity. Many people believe that wealth is a matter of ownership or the accumulation of possessions. They are blind to the truth. They see only effects, not causes.

It is ideas that produce wealth. The process of creating anything, including wealth, begins with the idealization, the conceptualization, the visualization. Everything that follows is simply the implementation of the original thought. Everyone has the capacity to think and to choose what and how to think. Therefore, everyone can be wealthy.

The great thing is that ideas are free. You don't have to exchange or pay anything to have an idea. The problem most people have is that they don't have any original ideas. Of course, it is possible to refine someone else's idea or to find a better way to implement someone else's idea and thereby create wealth. That is actually what most people do. But why not just come up with your own concept. After all, ideas are free. Yours for the asking. No cost.

Hold onto that thought. Something you can produce with no visible effort, something you can have an endless supply of, something that you can have for free, can make you wealthy. Just one simple idea.

Hey, why don't we create an online flea market?

Zap. eBay. A multi-billion dollar company.

Hey, why don't we create a 24-hour international TV news channel?

Zap. CNN.

Hey, why don't we create a better delivery system than the post office?

Zap. FedEx.

Hey, why don't we create a personal computer?

Zap. Apple Computer.

The experts at IBM laughed at the two Steves. "Who would want a computer in their home? You guys are nuts." Now IBM's business relies on the sale of PCs. And the world is a different place. What would your life be like without a personal computer?

His college professor gave Fred Smith a 'C' on his paper proposing the need for a guaranteed overnight delivery service. Now even the post office copies Fred's FedEx concept. Fred is wealthy. The prof is still not. Not wealthy and not thinking correctly. Thinks A ideas are C value.

Ted Turner knew nothing about TV. His business was outdoor advertising. Billboards. Now, the major TV networks copy little old upstart TBS. And now it is CNN/Time Warner/AOL.

Ideas. How great they are compared to tangible things. Here's why. If I have clay pots and you have apple pies, I can trade you a clay pot for an apple pie, but then I'd have one less clay pot and you'd have one less apple pie. But if I have an idea and you have an idea, I can trade you my idea for your idea and now we both have two ideas. Not only that, two ideas often act synergistically to make a third idea and maybe even a fourth or a fifth idea as well.

Tangible things do not grow when exchanged. They merely change hands. Ideas change the world. Tangible things do not create wealth. They are the effects of wealth creation. Ideas are the cause of wealth creation. Had any good or original ideas recently? You are equally as capable of having them as any one else. Ok, maybe you don't know how to think original thoughts. Improved upon anybody else's ideas lately? At least you can do that. No? The find a good idea and implement it. Copy. Mimic. Do the same thing.

Michael Dell did not invent the personal computer. DHL is merely copying FedEx. The boys at Google did not invent Internet search engines. They just built a better one. It was someone else's original idea.

I did not invent eBooks. Online marketing was not my original idea. I took my ideas, added the ideas of others and presto, a wealth creation business.

Yes, you can think and grow rich. I know. I have the proof. That's what I do. So can you. Go ahead; I dare you. Think. Idealize. Imagine. What if...

Why don't we create a...

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© Leslie Fieger. All rights reserved worldwide.

Leslie is the author of The DELFIN Knowledge System Trilogy: The Initiation, The Journey and The Quest plus many more success publications. He also the co-author of The End of the World with Hugh Jeffries and Alexandra's DragonFire with his daughter Ashley. Subscribe to his free and ad-free eZine at http://www.ProsperityParadigm.com or http://www.LeslieFieger.com.