So yesterday I posted about Good People Day and I hope you took the time to check out Gary’s video blog. I love this idea and I don’t even know where to begin. There are so many good people in my life and in my circle of friends that I couldn’t possibly recount them all. Instead, I’d like to share a story about two very special friends who I will never be able to repay for their kindness.

In March 2005 my wife Aeryn was diagnosed with cervical cancer. In fact, tomorrow is the 3 year anniversary of that horrible day. The original plan was that Aeryn would get a full hysterectomy and then have some chemo to make sure all the cancer was taken care of. But when they started the operation they found the cancer had spread to her bladder and other areas. They couldn’t proceed, instead an aggressive radiation treatment and chemo regiment would be prescribed. She had external and internal radiation and chemotherapy. Her chemotherapy took nearly 8 hours a day and she had to stay sitting there during the entire thing. I, of course, sat with her the entire time.

Two friends who I met online back in the bbs days found out and decided to get Aeryn a get well gift. We got home one day and a package was waiting on us. Inside was a brand new Sony PSP and some games to help her pass the time. This is when the PSP had just came out. This was an amazing gift and meant so much to Aeryn and me. It was an important moment in my life and a very trying time and my friends reached out in a very real way to help out. I can never thank Andy or Justin enough for their friendship and kindness. They aren’t just good people, they are great people and I’m better for having them in my life. So many others stepped up too and helped us and supported us, but this particular gift was just so far above and beyond… just, thank you guys.

Aeryn has been in remission for about a year and a half now and I know we wouldn’t be where we are without the support of great friends. Thank you all. Thank you so much. I hope you have Good People in your life too, today and every day!

Technorati Tags: GPD08

I’ve been watching Gary Vaynerchuk for a few months now. Someone had posted a link to his show talking about how good it was and while I don’t really drink much wine (I’m trying!), Gary’s just got charisma and energy to spare. He’s also started blogging about the whole web biz, personal branding and those sorts of things, which are right up my ally. Best part? Gary’s got to be the nicest guy and he gets it. I wish I knew he was at SXSW, would have loved to say hi.

So today he posted a video asking people to take part in Good People Day tomorrow. It’s a great idea, the gist of which is to highlight the “Good People”. Love it. I’m already working on my entry for tomorrow. Check out the video. Pass it on!

Technorati Tags: GPD08

So I’ve been back working a regular job for two days now and it’s been pretty good so far. Yesterday I had the pleasure of consulting with Karina from Hispanic.com, which is a fantastic domain name. Karina has a great sense of humor and I think she’s going to do a great job with the site. Meeting people like her is one of the best parts of working back in the office.

Being around people again is going to be interesting and mostly in a good way. I’m sure there will be some rough patches here and there. You can’t spend eight hours or so a day with people in close proximity and not rub each other the wrong way sometimes, but having people around to collaborate with and cut up with is good for the soul. I can already feel the creative energy building up and just the buzz of doing something new.

Once I’ve been there a little bit longer I’ll go deeper into what all is going on, what I’m doing and the good and bad bits about returning to work.

So, tomorrow marks my return to the 8-5 world of an office job. I’ve really enjoyed freelancing the last 7 or 8 months and the freedom that came with it but I’m very much looking forward to being back at a regular job. I’m going back to work for my old boss before I left to start 451 Press. I’ve been doing freelance work for them for some time now and it’s just a good fit. I’ll get more into specifics in a later post. There are plenty of things I don’t like about working in an office but I think the pros are worth so much more than the cons. This doesn’t mean I’m abandoning the company I’ve started on my own. In the long term it means more opportunity.

One of the things I’m looking forward to most is a more structured routine. What I’m not looking forward to is getting up in the morning. I’m just not a morning person. Even after working full time for nearly 25 I’m very much a night owl. I really get creative and energized as the night goes on. Hopefully after enjoying the flexible schedule for so long it won’t be too hard to fall back into the routine. Tuesdays were always the hard day for me. This time around I’m going to try and establish my schedule 7 days a week instead of sleeping in on the weekends and see if that helps.

At any rate, I’m excited and if anyone has any tips on returning to work after a long time freelancing I’d love to year it.

Last year I made it to my first sxsw conference and it was so much fun that I knew I had to do it again. This year we had the luck to get the Hilton right across the street from the convention center, which means were are right in the thick of all the goings on. Last year was mostly about panels, learning and meeting a handful of people. This year was all about meeting people. The panels were decent, but didn’t seem quite as good as last year and it seems like all the good panels were spread out so far apart that by the time you got to the one you wanted to attend it was standing room only. I’m sure it doesn’t help that this even continues to grow by leaps and bounds every year.

The high point for me this year was finally meeting old friends in person: Patrick, Brandon, and Stephan. It was a lot of fun hanging out with these guys and of course Steve. I appreciate Brandon making sure I got back to the hotel after the web awards after party. Lets just say we had too much fun that night.

I also had fun hanging out with the b5 crew. Some of which I’ve known for a while, others are new friends. It was just great to see them in person: Jeremy, CJ, Darcie, Mark, Aaron, Chad, Laura, and anyone else I might have missed. I think every other person I met was from b5!

Darcie also did a great job putting together this years Blog Network Camp where I got to catch up with Jim and finally meet Omar and Rick. Great food, great conversations.

It was also very cool finally meeting Darren. The beer bus was loads of fun and a great way to get people talking. I’ve got some video that I’ll post later that Ryan from Chitika might not want me to post ;) I think Darren got some pics as well. Chitika did a great job getting this together and providing great snacks, booze and fun.

By and large this was the most fun I’ve had in a good while. I’m already looking forward to next year and thinking about hitting up at least 3-4 conferences a year. It’s a great way to connect with friends, make new contacts and get inspired.

And to all the “internet famous” people that I just randomly went up to and said hello: Rober Scoble, Leah Culver, Evan Williams and so many others, thanks for being cool. Everyone was totally cool, down to earth and very nice. That’s what rawks about sxsw.

There were a ton of people that I met and It was fun meeting everyone. I hope to see as many of you as I can again next year and at other conferences.

I’m heading to the airport in about 30 minutes to head to SXSW. The flight is only about 3 hours, but we have to make 1 stop to pick up folks in Nashville, TN. We should be touching down in Austin around 4 ish, hopefully at the hotel by 5-6 if everything goes smoothly.

If you are going to SXSW this year, feel free to look me up if you want to chat or just say hi. The main reason I go is to meet people and just have some fun. I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones!

In case you haven’t seen me before I added my mugshot.

I’ll post some pics and videos from SXSW as time permits.

Technorati Tags: SXSW, SXSWi

Whew, the last couple of weeks have been crazy. I’m wrapping up on one major contract and trying to transition everything over to my replacement on that project and gearing up to start the next big project. In the past I’ve had 2-3 medium sized projects all the time, but for the next few months I’ll be working with one client on several bigger projects which should make communications easier and maybe be a little less stressful. It should also be interesting as at least half of the projects are new developments vs. cleaning up existing ones, though there are at least two of those as well.

Next Thursday I hop on a plane for SXSW and I can’t wait. I really need a break. Also, In the next day or so I’ll also be posting some articles on Affiliate Marketing including my first guest post here on this site, which I’m happy about. If anyone is ever interested, feel free to pitch me your idea.

Hopefully things are getting back to normal now and we’ll be back to our regularly schedule program.

I just got a comment by someone who’s link was to a BlogTalkRadio.com user page. At first that seems normal and I almost approved it without looking closely. Then I noticed the username in the blogtalkradio.com was Buy_Meridia. Red flag! So I check out the page and sure enough, it’s a real page on BTR, but it’s just chocked full of spam. After a few seconds it redirects you to another spammy site. The folks over at BTR need to make sure they remove meta refresh and those kinds of codes from user submitted content. Spammers can now hijack profile pages and direct people away. Very nasty bit of spammage.

I check my bloglines a few times per day and trust me, it suggests people are still blogging. Sure, people are still using Wordpress and other blogging tools to update their sites, but are they blogging? I don’t think they are, I think they are writing. I’ve been pretty vocal about not really liking the whole “blogging” label in general because it doesn’t quite convey what we do, and for a long time it wreaked of someones online diary where they told you what they had for breakfast. Technology aside, semantics aside, I think blogging, or at least the blogs I read, have left the blogosphere and entered the realm of magazine quality publications.

More and more of the blogs I visit, and again, this may be a shift in my personal focus, are writing longer, well researched, higher quality articles. Sure, there’s still some opinion pieces, news bits and other odd items, but by and large I’m seeing more content that I would call “featured stories”, things you would lead a magazine or newspaper with. While there are plenty of personal blogs, product blogs, news blogs and every other kind of blog, some seem to be pulling away from the crowed. There have always been blogs like this but most were run by ex-main stream media writers and editors or managed and funded by them. What I’m seeing is a rise in production quality from your every day blogger and I, for one, like this shift. I hope it’s not just me noticing more, but rather the game being stepped up.

My friend Patrick, whom you probably know from phpBBHacks.com, just announced the launch of his latest project, ManagingCommunities.com.

The site targets anyone who runs an online community, though I think anyone who has to manage users would benefit from subscribing. But perhaps the most important part of Patrick’s announcement is the release of his book, Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards. The book is due out in April but I can tell you know it’s well worth reading. I was happy when Patrick asked me to read some early chapters and then eventually a couple of early versions and final drafts. He also asked me to write the Foreword for the book, which I was honored to do.

So help Patrick out, go pre-order the book. It’s listed at $24.95, but amazon has it on sale for $16.32 plus another 5% of you pre-order. Grab it Managing Online Forums now.