What’s Coming in WordPress 3.0 Speaker: Jane Wells

• NEW Default 2000 Theme
• Custom Post Types
• Better Menu Management (custom nav, mix pages, cat., exclude items, etc…)
• WordPress MU = Multiple sites in One (( WP + MU = WP ))
• Stay tuned May 1st

For more update news: wpdevel.wordpress.com | #wordpress-dev

Finding Your Blogging Voice Speaker: Jess Jurick | @JessJurick

• Find your voice, point of interest, what appeals to you most.
• Yes appearance is important! But should not wait until you have the perfect blog site to start blogging.
• Put a spin to it! Not just Copy Paste. No gimmicks.

A few successful blogs to follow…get ideas and observe their niche:

• Silicon Beach
• Holy Crap My Hair Is On Fire
• Wine Library TV
• Blog SouthWest
• Tom’s Shoes

Top Tips for becoming a good blogger:

• Read a lot, Brainstorm often
• Write from different perspectives
• Go out and meet people, See the world
• Don’t be afraid to share your story

Jane Wells, Mark Jaquith, and John James Jacoby

Make Your Blog Social Speaker: Brian Breslin | Infinimedia, Inc. | @brianbreslin

To be Social = Integrative

Social Networks: Build Up or Build On

Put Social in your Media:

• Bookmarking Sites: Delicious, Digg, Reddit
• Social Browsing Sites: Stumble Upon

Turning Your Blog Viral:

• Make reading your blog infectious
• Turn your readers into promoters

Best Practices:

• Understand the culture of social networks
• Treat the community with respect
• Engage your community whenever they want to

Things to Avoid:

• Spamming seriously
• Diving IN without testing things OUT first

Simplifying Social = Plugins

Future of Social Blog:

• (OPEN ID) Identity Providers
• (DISO) Distributed Social Networks
• Activity HUBS (Activity Streams)

Attendees Sara & Brad from pixelscut.com

E-commerce & WordPress

Speakers: Shayne Sanderson | 9seeds | shaynesanderson.com | @shaynesanderson

Things to consider in your planning before building your e-commerce site and deciding which source to use:

• How many products you have, What type of product…
• Does your product have attributes (sizes, colors, etc…)
• What will be your Gateway (Need SSL_encrypt data HTTPS Secured Site)

E-commerce Plugins…

How do you decide what’s best for you or your client? Research! Take a look at these plugins, do some investigation on the features you #1 need, #2 want and #3 it be real-cool to have. Just remember that Need comes before Cool to Have.  Make your decision based of what will be effecient for the user and manageable for you.

• Quick Shop
• eShop
• PayPal Shortcodes
• Simple PayPal Shopping Cart
• Fat Free Cart (Shipping & Sales Tax)
• Ecwid Shopping Cart (iFrame & Real-time Ship Quotes)
• StorePress
• ShopperPress (Analytics)
• PHPurchase (Tax by State & Zipcode) – $49
• Shopp (Solid Plugin, 200 Template Tags “Short Codes”) – $55
• WP Ecommerce ( Theme engine) – FREE

I hope these notes and links help you on your WordPress endeavors. Be sure to check out this local user group South Florida WordPress Meetup, for monthly updates and info on WP.

Photography by Yours Truly -Vanessa Montes

Peter Leshaw, an Internet Marketing consultant was among the speakers on “Using Social Media in your Job Search” on August 25 @ PinkSlip Networking. He discussed many things you, (me), we should be doing using social media in your job search. I thought to myself…”Well I have a full time job, a small business, and do freelance -I’m not sure this topic is really for me”. I found his enthusiasm and message interesting, so I sticked around for more and I’m so glad I did. He said something that opened up my eyes..sort of like a neck breaker moment. Say that again!?! Intrigued yet?

Alright here are my notes from my epiphany…
Keep Your Resume CURRENT and online. Simple as that. Employers and agencies that are looking for candidates search online, why isn’t your resume online when you have free tools at your disposition? Now it gets better…Business owners, consultants, full time freelancers, self-employed people…DO YOU HAVE A RESUME POSTED ONLINE? What’s the point of that if you are the boss of you? Well my friend, if someone runs into your name or your skills, specialty, experience and offers you a position, obviously your not looking for a job but you are looking for business. Some companies may prefer the idea of doing business with you as; B2B, independent contractor or as a consultant. This is just another way to expand your opportunities, market your name and be the “word of mouth” on search engines.

Here are the steps to find your next job or business lead:

1) Write a well written Sales Letter/Cover Letter about you.
- Be sure you proofread and optimize it, in other words “don’t make it a recipe”. It’s an introduction like a movie trailer of you.

2) Keep your resume current and up to date.
- This is a must for online profiles and also WORD or PDF attached files.

3) Setup a profile on the following accounts…
- Google.com/profile or gmail account also allows you to do this
- LinkedIn: Gather professional titles/descriptions for your ideal job title as well as all past job titles. You can use Google’s free keyword tool to do some research. Basically, be specific in your title on what you specialize…e.g “Software Specialist”, this can be too broad specially if you don’t master all. Try using something like “Adobe Photoshop Specialist, Web Designer & Flash Expert”. It’s short, to the point and the reader can automatically identify what you’re all about.
- Facebook: If using for business, keep the dialog for business ONLY. No personal conversations, drunken pictures/videos, or political/religious opinion that can jeopardize you as a trusted individual for your business.
- Twitter: Tweet brilliant thoughts, quotes, educational or worth sharing news with the world!
- Delicious: Create this account and bookmark your Emurse profile here)
- Digg: (link your Google profile here)

4) Create an account on Emurse.com (This site allows you to create, store, and share your resume online. You can have more than 1 resume. Also a great way to track your resume and how are people finding you)

5) Blog: Start a blog about you, your services, products. Free blogs; WordPress, Blogger, plenty of free ones out there

6) Buy your domain name: www.YourNameYourLastName.com

Do all this and you will find yourself on the top searches @ zero cost. If you think I’m kidding, type the speaker’s name in google right now…Peter Leshaw…go on do it!  This guy is listed on the first 2 search pages of search engines. No problem finding him

Try it out! Let me know what results you got from these collaborative social media tools.

Yours truly,

Vanessa Montes

I know I have a hard time updating it on a daily basis but if I add my time on a weekly basis, it’s a whole lot! Cheez, I should of spend that time freelancing, eh! Anyhow, I have my battles if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that we spend so much time following people online, looking at pictures, joining more networks, posting comments rather than doing something more productive with our times. Then, again look at me sitting here posting my thoughts and links @ midnight to take some of your productive time. LOL, I’m a wreck! 

Well that was just my intro…a little confusing but I’m sure there is at least someone here who have thought about it too!

I attended a discussion by Sheryl Cattell about Making Money with Social Media. She gave out a list of helpful sites and tips to stay on top of social networks and using them to promote your business and your name. If we are spending so much online, why not spend it making money while you are at it. Best practices, use your social accounts to post brilliant things about you, your services, products and company. Get your name/company out to the world! Word of mouth is powerful..So is social networking. Ask your friends and family to add your web site links to their sites, facebook, myspace pages. Little things like that can get you an opportunity, job, clients, Etc…Just flinging some ideas @ you. Check out these sites and links! Information, courtesy of Sheryl Cattell, twitter: @allmaya

Follow the Conversation
- Google Alerts – your name, your hashtag
- www.tweetdeck.com
- www.seesmic.com
- http://search.twitter…
- http://twemes.com…
- http://hashtags.org…
- www.tweetscan.com

Start a Conversation
- Twhirl (used for virtual intranets, desktop client)
- Twitpic (post pics from your phone)
- Ping.fm (post once distributes many – blog, twitter facebook)
- Tweetlater – schedules posts while you are away, autoresponds to followers
- Twitterlocal – get local info from locals (great for traveling)
- Tweetseeker – search and rank tweet keywords

Mobile Twitter
- Twitterberry
- Twitter Mobile
- PocketTwit – Windows Mobile
- iTweet
- Tweetie for iPhone
- Hahlo – iPhone/iPod

Getting the Word Out
- Twellow
- We Follow

Other Twists of Interest
- Tweetmyjobs – subscribe by city and discipline
- Microtweet
- #socialmedia
- #sfima
- Twitter Karma (who is following who)
- Twitter Sheep (analyze bio words and presents a tag cloud)
- TinyURL (bit.ly or is.gd)

Check Out these sites to get ideas how others are using social media to create fan base:
- Facebook Fan Pages: cocacola, nutella, pizza, mrbean, pringles
- Facebook Groups: Contiki Holidays, Socialmobile
- LinkedIn Companies: Dell, Home Depot
- LinkedIn Groups: eMarketing Association Network (100K), SFIMA (1K)
- Twitter: @ Delloutlet