Divestment and investment. Two concepts that we were introduced to early in our first year as Advertising students. The theory of trimming the fat – cutting out what isn’t working – and subsequently putting more emphasis on what is working.
This website has gone through many iterations; none of them have been particularly successful. It’s a mixture of not knowing exactly what to write combined with an overwhelming urge to procrastinate. It’s a bad combo.
I’ve attempted to run a personal site on a consistent basis since late elementary school, so that’s a little over seven years. But it always seems to fall by the wayside; I never give it enough attention.
The one thing I’ve always lacked is a plan. I plan for everything else – business projects, client sites, academic assignments – but I never seem to plan for my own stuff. And that needs to change.
I’m writing this for my own good. I really don’t care if anyone reads it. It’s more of a confirmation that I’ve made a goal public; it’s posted, and it’s on record.
I will come up with a plan – a strategy – to guide everything I do online. To keep it consistent, to keep it on message. It’s a learning experience, first and foremost, and hopefully it will be the first step into something better down the road. I will divest from the endeavours that lead me nowhere, and I will invest in the endeavours that make the most sense.
As the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail.
Hopefully, in the coming weeks, my entire online presence will have a sufficient strategy to justify its existence. There is no school to blame for keeping me busy; there is no excuse to be made to allow me to procrastinate further.
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I love to poke through the web and constantly add bookmarks to my Delicious profile. The subjects vary, but I do my best to only tag content that I find particularly interesting. At the end of each day you’ll find a listing of my most recently tagged bookmarks posted here.
These are my bookmarks for May 2nd through May 13th:
- Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing Rich Snippets – "As a webmaster, you have a unique understanding of your web pages and the content they represent. Google helps users find your page by showing them a small sample of that content — the "snippet." We use a variety of techniques to create these snippets and give users relevant information about what they'll find when they click through to visit your site. Today, we're announcing Rich Snippets, a new presentation of snippets that applies Google's algorithms to highlight structured data embedded in web pages."
- SEOmoz’s YOUmoz | User Generated, Search Industry Blog –
- SEOmoz Blog | Search Engine Marketing News & Tips –
- List of “White Label” or “Private Label” (Applications you can Rebrand) Social Networking Platforms, Community Platforms « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing – This is software you can brand and integrate tightly into your existing domain. The user experience should be near seamless, therefore any company can have their own MySpace. Kindly do not submit Social Networking tools that don’t meet this criteria, as the list can extend to hundreds if not thousands of companies.
- CTV Toronto – Worker may have passed H1N1 to Alberta pigs – Health authorities have confirmed the presence of H1N1 in Alberta pigs, and say the virus may have jumped from a farm worker to the animals, in what could be the first case of human-to-animal transmission of the virus.
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In a Nutshell: Promote events through Eventful; view upcoming events for your region/city; rally together and demand that events/performers come to your hometown. I’m using Eventful (in tandem with other sites) to help keep tabs on what’s happening here in Kingston.
I just wrapped up my last few classes a couple of weeks ago. Since then I’ve been trying to get my head out of the “I’m a student” mode and back into the “I’m trying to figure out where I go from here” mode.
One particular subject is topping my list of priorities: I need to get out into the community and see what’s going on. What bands are performing downtown on Friday? What stores are having sales? Is there a public event taking place that I should know about?
The traditional way of finding this information would involve checking the community spotlight pages of the local daily newspaper, or poking through posters that have been pinned to community bulletin boards. But newspapers really aren’t a part of my routine. I’m always connected to the web, though – whether it be from home or through my phone, and eventually from work as well – so I’d rather have the information come at me through that medium.
This is where Eventful comes in. Although the service is oriented primarily towards performers, the service can also be utilized to promote pretty much any kind of event.
As a registered user, you are also able to receive weekly event updates for your area. (For example: I know that it’s Pizza Friday this week at Watertown High School, and Arlo Guthrie is performing at the Grand Theatre on Sunday.)
Are there any sites that you use on a regular basis to keep tabs on local events? Leave a comment if you do!
Local Events: Concerts, Festivals & More Upcoming Events – Eventful.
View Comments | Posted in Random