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I WON! Thanks Outright!!

2 comments By Deb Filed in Startup, bookkeeping, community, productivity, social media Tagged with , , , , April 20th, 2010 @ 12:38 pm

A lot of my friends know the last few months have presented huge challenges for me. Well, while I am not one to share personal details, I did a post on Outright.com’s community page and, of course, there was an incentive- $500. (To see my “story,” you’ll have to scroll down to get to it- look under “What do you think?”)

The challenge:

“Tell a story now, we want a glimpse into how complicated your taxes are and how your business, rightly, deserves your time. What are the crazy things keeping you from that IRS deadline?”

This was one of the few times I felt exceptionally qualified to compete and win.

AND I WON!!! You can read my crazy story here and you can learn more about Outright.com’s free bookkeeping service for indies like you and me. Thank you Outright!

Outright is an automated software for entrepreneurs and bookkeepers with a highly active community of members. Daily posts and Q&A’s answer questions about taxes, managing a small business and integrating with other apps, like Freshbooks.

Being the consummate PR person, I asked Outright VP of Marketing, Paul O’Brien, what motivates his team:

Whether through dealing with the back office accounting we all less-than enjoy, fostering a community of peers and experts who can help, or sharing in our success, by rewarding others for having some fun with us, we had a great time during tax season; giving everyone a chance to share their frustration with taxes and their need for some flexibility in the deadlines.  I’m glad Outright.com could help entrepreneurs get through it!

Pretty cool, thanks again to you all for supporting our lives and work.

And a very special thank you to commenters M Jeske, Every Dot Connects and CNewcomb WoodWorking and to the five folks who voted my story up!

UPDATE: Thanks for linking to this post in the Weekly “RoundUp” Outright!

Blog Action Day for Climate Change: just do one thing.

4 comments By Deb Filed in Environment, blogs, community, community service, participation, poverty October 15th, 2009 @ 12:48 am

Last year I was lucky enough to participate in Blog Action Day. It’s pretty impressive to see the numbers- 7,883 blogs, from 140 countries with over 11 million readers are reaching out to educate people about Climate Change. Posts are from bloggers like Vincent Abry from France whose un monde du geek I enjoy. Ritsuko’s ゴハンBlog in Japan. (ゴハン = food.) Whose tweets about camping I’ve enjoyed. And, The Gamelian World out of Ghana who recently reported the first iPhone game likely to come out of Africa.

You get the idea- all these folks on the same day reaching out for the same goal. Pretty amazing.

My contribution is a small one. I used to work in the environmental movement and what I noticed is that most people felt guilty about not doing enough. I think they felt that if they couldn’t do something on a grand scale, like have a completely solar home, that their was nothing they could do to contribute to protecting the environment. When, in fact, if you asked them, they did something- turned off the lights after they left a room, conserved water, drove a smaller car, etc. Once they thought about it, they decided they could add one more thing into their lives, such as:

  • Writing to an elected official once a year to let them know their opinion.
  • Figured out how to recycle in their neighborhood.
  • Watered their garden before 8 a.m. (less evaporation)
  • Wore a sweater and turned the heat down. (Thank you President Carter!)
  • Bought grass-fed beef when they could afford it.
  • Supported a local CSA buy purchasing their vegetables through one.
  • Volunteered at community organizations committed to protecting the environment while serving the community. Denver’s Same Cafe is a great example!
  • Giving props to a climate-friendly business on review site tuggl.com.

Again, I am not suggesting you do all of these, just saying maybe you can try out one of these occasionally. Then you can work on getting your home off the grid. jk.

Thanks again to the folks at Blog Action Day for making this happen!

#chat on twitter: what do you get out of it?

0 comments By Deb Filed in community, twitter Tagged with , , , September 14th, 2009 @ 2:49 pm

This week Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter) and Aaron Strout (@AaronStrout) hosts of the Quick-N-Dirty Podcast have asked me to be guest. We’ll discuss twitter hashtag chats- #foodchat , #blogchat, editorchat, and #journchat are a few you may have heard of. And we’d like your feedback- take this poll and let us know what you think.

How and why do you participate? What do they bring to the community as a whole? And what do you do if a chat is junking up your stream?

Take the poll. Catch us on the the Quick-n-Dirty Podcast this Thursday, 9/17, at 4PM MT.

What social networking sites do you use?

0 comments By Germaine Filed in community, social media, social networking September 30th, 2008 @ 10:25 am

Let me know! Take my poll and I’ll post about it once it ends on October 3. If you don’t see one of your networks here, please leave me a comment.

Cyber-Traffic: your blog on tour

0 comments By Germaine Filed in blogging, community, measurement July 8th, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

Planning a vacation? Summer gas prices got you down? Maybe you can live vicariously through your blog as it travels around cyberspace. Among other places, my blog has been to Petaling Jaya, Malaysia; Rhiga, Latvia; The Pentagon (I am not making that up!) and Dakar, Senegal. (I want to learn to say Dakar like that lady on NPR- Dahkaahhrrhh.)

So many people ask me how many readers I have for my blog. I never hear though, what sites has your blog been linked to or posted on? Generating traffic for your blog isn’t just about putting it out there as an online magazine for your devoted followers. Blog traffic is both increased and enhanced by being linked to, or, getting posted to other blogs. Here are some examples of how my blog traffic has been increased by being posted on other blogs.

Your blog gets mentioned

I can think of two posts that drove a lot of traffic to my site. In the early days, Celeste Federico of Riverfront Park mentioned my blog when I asked to interview her for a post. Mack Collier of The Viral Garden mentioned me in a piece on websites you can use to grow your blog. Both of which generated a flurry of traffic. And because Mack has such a large audience, I got a lot of traffic as at least seven other blogs linked to his post on Search Engine Guide.

A particular post generates interest on other blogs

My PlurkShop re-cap generated a lot of interest and even more when The Harte of Marketing compiled a list of all the recent PlurkShops.

Your blog is listed in the blogroll of another blog

Blogs as diverse as Green Elevations, GroundFloor Media, The Harte of Marketing and C’est Bone have all kindly listed I Can’t Keep Up on their blogrolls. When I check my stats

Posting comments on other blogs

Blog rookies may not know this, but when you post comments to a blog, your blog/website can be linked to your name. Other readers who find your comment interesting may click through to your site. In mid-June I posted a comment on this piece in Publishing 2.0 and received a lot of traffic. Also, blog authors appreciate the mention and return the favor by mentioning your blog in a future post, or linking to your blog in a blog roll.

Just a little food for thought as you build your blog!

Enjoying summer, hope you are too!
-I Can’t Keep Up

Sunday Funnies: Blog meets GI Joe

1 comment By Germaine Filed in Sunday Funnies, blogs, community, going local, humor, images May 8th, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
Pond Patrol: One Man’s Quirky Hobby Develops Narrative, Following

image credit: Gio Toninelo

I love the Pond Patrol internet series that I read about in a Westword article a couple of years ago. While Corporal John Harris has concluded his story, it is worth going back and reading for a number of reasons, if not only to give yourself a funny break during the work day.

Blog Rises from a Silly Situation (I am not making this up.)
Denverite Gio Toninelo just wanted to protect his pond from some neighborhood kids. As reported in a 2006 Westword article:

“After two of his turtles went missing, he suspected neighborhood children and placed two of his G.I. Joe dolls around the pond to guard against any more nighttime intruders. He was so amused by the situation that he started a weekly web log featuring photos of the miniature soldiers fishing or camping.”

Voila, an original blog with a funny narrative and creative visuals was born! Toninelo combined an engaging story with GI Joe doll images setting the stage for each of the 100 episodes is this serialized drama.

image credit: Gio Toninelo

The setting is Mulberry Ridge an allegedly decontaminated nuclear waste dump. Several biologists and marines from a specialized recon unit have gone missing. The series, narrated by Corporal John Harris, follows the adventures of the Third Force Recon Team which includes an EPA researcher and scientist as they study the pond’s ecosystem and reported unusual plants and animals.

Go to the archives and start from the beginning. It’s a treat to read a great series and see the evolution of Toninelo’s writing and photography skills. During its run, Pond Patrol was an amazing hit on the web attracting up to 62,000 hits a month. In addition to the massive following, Toninelo hosted GI Joe Fest a stop motion film festival. Quirky? Yes. Toninelo’s passion took a totally goofy idea and developed his writing and photography skills, not to mention an online community – something we all endeavor to foster.

Signing off - I Can’t Keep Up

Comments: Send me some love!

1 comment By Germaine Filed in comments, community, engagement, interactivity, tracking April 23rd, 2008 @ 8:08 am

Now that things are up and running, I would love to help connect you, gentle reader, with other gentle readers through the comment feature on the blog.


Comments give readers the opportunity to offer immediate feedback, or ask questions without having to go through the trouble of writing an e-mail. Blogger does a great job explaining the feature and how to leave comments. As the blog author, I have set up “moderated” comments so that I can read and approve them before they get posted. This ensures I don’t have spam and/or profanity showing up on my site, not to mention a few other undesirable topics. I am happy to post criticisms though; they generate discussion.

Speaking of discussion, comments make it possible for you to expand the topic du jour with other readers. This harmonic convergence means a lot to me – better ideas are generated when a group of folks are engaged, rather than myself and one other person. I love collaboration!

Following responses to your comment is easy just by checking the box that says “E-mail follow-up comments to your e-mail here.” You can track the conversation and not have to keep checking the blog for updates. Those bright people at Blogger! 

To learn more about engagement and if you live in the Bay Area, check out the Creating Infectious Engagement mini-conference.

Signing off  -I Can’t Keep Up

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