The Marriott Desert Ridge was very nice. I’m never sure a $300+ hotel is worth it but I have nothing but praise for the hotel. Well, I do wish the WiFi was included. The food was excellent, the grounds immaculate, and the room was comfortable. The organic green salad from Blue Sage was great.

I met several business contacts there. A contact of a contact (the friend of a friend in the business world) told some great stories. He created Deputy Dog bubble bath years ago and went on to a very successful career in health & beauty. He had a great sales & marketing perspective and a zest for life that made the entire time enjoyable.

I’ve always been a car guy. I can’t tell you much about all the new car lines but I love classic cars. From my work on the 1971 chevy truck that was my first car to my short stint as a Honda mechanic to my custom software work with Mobil 1 TX, I’ve always found my way back to cars. I’m glad my work with GPS Tracking led me to Phoenix in this year.

Here are the few photos I took with my iphone.

The only disappointment was that I didn’t get a ride in the 1962 Austin Healey one of the guys I was with bought. I’m hoping to go again next year.

Goal: Re-organize and reshape the content to represent me, Michael Johnstone. The new site should be a focul point for the several businesses and  many projects I’m involved in, as they relate to me. It should be a mix of portfolio, thoughts, and experience.

Tasks:

• Define the content to organize (eLocomotive, Taglyn, etc.)
• New layout and appearance
• Define categories and tags
• Group historical posts in new context (ie. update categories and tags)
• Add links to Blogroll
• Launch each change as it’s ready (consider this agile development for my website)
• Connect to social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr
• Review & repeat until I’m satisfied

I’m targeting completion of all the big changes for the end of January.

Black Hat SEO – Giovanni Gallucci

Last night my some picked a kids book called Some Have More, Some Have Less, and Some have the Same Amount. The kid in the book (he and his mom are Rabbits) is shopping with his mom and keeps asking for more or less of things in the cart. His mom agrees that some people have more, and some have less, but they have just the right amount.

The story reminded me of some marketing meetings I’ve been in lately and one in particular. A manager in the meeting had been to a seminar where they talked about how great the web was based on a single case study. He was hooked and wanted to do everything that company was doing.

First he pulled up product pages and said they needed more pictures. Never mind that the page was performing well and that the extra photos break the design without adding significant value. Never mind that the site he was comparing too had a completely different target market, different product, and different business model. He saw more and wanted more.

Then we discussed keywords. He wanted more. Lots of keywords on every page relating to everything they do, regardless of the page topic. Instead of focusing on the page content, he was focused on every word he thought might relate to him. The list was so long that we would never be able to work all the keywords into the page copy in a meaningful way.

I took notes as we went along and waited for my turn to respond. Here’s where I earn my keep. Instead of taking the order and running back to the kitchen to cook it up, I went back through his list and talked about the different sections and the tactics. I explained the original intent of some pages and what happens to the design when we add the photos. I agreed that they needed to give their keywords more attention but suggested that we focus on a few and/or relate that work to specific pages.

I appreciated his enthusiasm but he had become so focussed on the tactics that he forgot about the goals. He remembered that the overall goal was to sell more and to grow but forgot all the intermediate goals that make that happen. He wasn’t thinking about selling each product individually or about setting the right image for the company. He wasn’t thinking about which web visitors were most likely to buy from them online.

It didn’t matter how many photos another site had. What mattered was whether we had the right amount for their needs. It didn’t matter how many keywords we could squeeze in the page. What mattered was the best keywords for them and how we used them. In the end, we agreed on a set of tasks that will be just right for them. I hope I can be that successful in my next meeting.

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It’s a mature business and an area I already had intellectual property in so I think it’s a good fit. Right now, I’m taking care of the basics like infrastructure updates and moving the customer base. Soon, I’ll be launching some new features and integrations.

I decided to take notes with Xmind instead of hand writted (which is usually my favorite). Mindmaps can be a little disjointed as a note taking system but since John P.’s discussion of WordPress and Social Media wasn’t linear, it worked out well to have the ideas organized separately.

You can download the mindmap here: John P: Make More Money with WordPress, Social Media and Analytics

Thank you again to Tony Cecala for putting the event together and for running www.meetup.com/dfwwordpress

Update: Also, check out Jennifer Conley’s notes (with links) at  http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddkq5gx8_1015sc7b9cs

I’m not big on New Years resolutions but I do want to build this subset of the DFWWP group in 2010. I now have 2 venues we can use as primary and backup to host the event. Now I need some feedback/help identifying topics everyone is interested in. Brainstorm with me. We’ll evaluate the ideas later.

Here’s a list of recent topics to get the ball rolling.

• Implementing video InWordPress
• Integrating an online store
• 7 Must have Plugins
• Picking Your Host /Server
• Productizing Your Code
• Pros and Cons of Selling your Code.
• Knowing when WordPress isn’t the Answer
• Building Member Only Sites

Also, if there’s something you’d like to present (on this list or not) please let me know that too.

I saw the 2 links they included were e-mail addresses so I took the url from that, opened a new window, and typed it in. Now I remember: it’s a nice little project management site. I can’t remember why I don’t use them but I wouldn’t hold it against them. I try 3-4 project management sites a month looking for ideas and best practices.

Most people will not go to the trouble of looking up your URL. Some people don’t even have the skills required to find the URL easily. Make it easy for them and you should see a significant increase in website traffic.

I did some business thinking and identified my key problems:

• I had selected the systems I liked best and wished they were integrated.
• I kept putting off other approaches waiting for the perfect integration (that would only come if I built it myself).
• I let the idea of a better system keep me from improving the current one.

I’ve reviewed my primary needs and tested several different products and product combinations. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve arrived at but I’ll have to let it run for a few more weeks before feeling totally satisfied. If it proves to be what I’m hoping it is, I’ll post the full structure as my own best practice review.