Get involved in helping the Burn’s family. Visit Serenity’s new website (added to my blogroll) and please donate below.

(widget thanks to Jesse Stay)

Read the story from Phil801 about his daughter’s leukemia diagnosis this past weekend.

The bloggers here in Salt Lake City have been a tremendous support. We’re all sending the best of wishes and prayers for Serenity!

See what others are saying:

• Please help Serenity
• Helping My Friend Phil and his Daughter Serenity
• A new website for Serenity
• Would you like to donate to the Burn’s Family? Use this widget.
• How You Can Help @phil801 fight For His Daughter’s Life
• Supporting Local Entrepreneurs… and their Families
• Please Help Serenity - She Deserves Our Help!

See pictures of Serenity in her hospital room at Phil801’s flickr photostream.

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This blog will still focus on the following:

• Blogs
• ATVs
• Art
• Hobbies
• SEO and Web Development
• Utah Bloggers

Please update any links you have coming into pages other than my home page.

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Overall, the convention is of the highest caliber in terms of decor, organization, etc. There has been some frustration over the registration cards that either give you access or deny you access to each room. This has been a tiny problem for me. Others feel pretty strongly against it.

The tradeshow is smallish but strong with support from major players in the market. Plus the free swag is awesome. I think I already have 5 t-shirts and I’ve only been through half the tradeshow. I’m looking forward to some more stuff from Yahoo!.

The blog classes have been hit or miss. They’ve either been really excellent or really poor. The greatest part: Blog World is having us evaluate every session for next time. This not only falls perfectly in line with the blogging atmosphere but it shows their commitment to the industry. I’m sure that others felt different depending on their level of understand and interest. I’ve been blogging for three (3) years now and I’m fairly advanced compared to many here at the expo, which has skewed my opinion this week.

The after parties are great. Tons of food, fun, and interesting people — seeing bloggers in the pajamas wasn’t something I expected here in Las Vegas.

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Sitting in the blogger’s lounge with free wi-fi trying to get this post off before the keynote. This morning we’ll be hearing from Matt Mullenweg from Wordpress. Very cool.

More to come.

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Okay this is really last minute, but if you can make it everyone wins!

Tonight, October 23, 2007 from 4 pm to 10 pm, Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano (Salt Lake City, UT) is holding a benefit dinner and anyone can attend.

They will be serving Spaghetti Pomodoro with a salad for just $10 and all the money will be going to this young family. They will also be accepting donations to help with medical costs.

About two weeks ago a close friend of our family was paralyzed in a car accident in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is permanently paralyzed from the chest down. He’s the father of two (with one more due in 2 weeks), they’re twenty-somethings, recently married, and in need of your help.

Today, The Morning Zoo on 97.1 ZHT radio announced the benefit — THANK YOU.

Anyone is welcome. All are invited. Blog it. Email it.

Thank you for your support.

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This explains my lack of blogging, my physical exhaustion, and piles of unfinished work. It also explains why I was surprised to find what I missed while I was distracted. Even though I carry my laptop, iPhone, and Motorola Q it’s amazing how little you can follow when you’re on the run.

Key things that caught my eye tonight as I was reading through a month of blogs were:

• InfoSpace Sells Mobile Services Business, What Next?
• Internet Taxes Avoided For Now
• Mozy Acquired
• Google’s Stock Breaks $600

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It’s free. It’s fun. And first-timers are always welcome.

Where:

Applebees
123 E. 12300 S.
Draper Utah
(801) 495-4460

Blog it. Invite You List. Show up.

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The next morning I received a call - caller id says it’s from Doba.com. I found this interesting considering I don’t do business with them. So I answered assuming it was a confirmation call only to find a young-sounding, very scattered voice asking me if he could answer any questions about Doba.com and what my interest was in their website.

I was shocked, to be honest. I’ve heard great things about Doba, having never dealt with them before. Keep in mind it wasn’t that they called me or even that they would want to introduce their business to me - I’m a business owner so I understand how marketing works. I just didn’t expect Doba to assume I had signed up “for more information” when I had actually paid to hear Guy speak. They had no idea who I was (or why I was on their list) and it seemed very unprofessional. To say nothing for the fact that the caller was so confused that it left both of us speechless. It was very awkward.

Then this morning two more tweets come across that Doba is spamming those who signed up for Guy’s talk. I never received an email, but maybe my awkward phone call prompted Doba to soft-sell through email - an even worse approach IMO.

I only write this blog to make sure that Doba hears about it - I know you’re listening.

I’m not anti-Doba, and I’m excited to hear Guy speak. You should probably sign up as well cause it’s only $10. Visit here for more.

To be clear, I still hear great things about Doba and I know they intended for good things. I just believe they failed miserably.

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Disclaimer: I know Jason Alba personally. He is the founder of very fun to say, JibberJobber.com Career Toolset and writes an excellent career management blog.

When I signed up with LinkedIn, many months ago, I didn’t get it. I had a few friends recommend it, and I was fresh out of college, so I got listed. But then nothing happened - no emails, no connections, and no phone calls. I was a little discouraged and looked elsewhere for work and quickly got busy there, started a business, and networked like crazy (something new for me).

The key points about this book that were critical for me were in Chapter 2 when Jason speaks about how LinkedIn is not a “Be All End All” job hunting ground but rather a place to make connections. From there you have to manage your relationships as you would any other relationship. This can be done with off-the-shelf software. I really expected more from LinkedIn initially, and still do today, but I also understand that it isn’t meant to be everything.

Throughout the book, Jason does a great job of teaching the steps, pointing out the details of some of LinkedIn’s lingo such as InMail, degrees, etc. Not that this is extremely difficult to figure out given enough time but for those who are new, it’s a great starting point. He also includes a ton of great tips on how to maximize your experience on LinkedIn without upsetting your network.

Lastly, I appreciated the comments by LinkedIn users at the closing of each chapter. It’s an interesting perspective to listen to other customers/users because everyone has different needs and several new ideas were presented to me about LinkedIn that I’ve never spent enough time thinking about.

I’ve known Jason for about 6-8 months now, and we’ve had regular meetings at our monthly Utah Blogger Dinners and other lunches. He’s a stand-up guy who really gets the networking side of business relationships and has taught me a lot by just watching how he handles certain situations.

Get a copy of his book, read it right away, and get yourself networking with others. You won’t regret the time spent once you see the benefits financially.

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I’ve never been on a solo ride because I like having company but today was different in that I needed some me-time and I also wanted to explore a little more and sometimes having a friend along slows you down.

So here’s what I learned:

• Deer are just a stupid on the mountain as they are on the street - I almost hit 2 of them on the trail.
• It’s too beautiful not to ride atv’s in the mountains - the trees are already changing colors hee in Utah.
• The rivers aren’t as full as they were last year
• There are so many trails in American Fork Canyon that you could spend 5 years exploring and never see it all
• Heber Valley is so much more beautiful from above
• I need to ride solo more often

*Written on my Motorola Q phone.

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