andydidyk.com

I’ve been MIA for a while now, because my wife just gave birth to the latest member of our family, Kaela Ruth.  Our new daughter is incredibly beautiful and keeping me very busy.

I started this post a few weeks ago, and decided to finish it today while in the Atlanta airport.  I watched this great Google Tech Talk video in which Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame talks about how to better manage your email.  The upside of me not blogging for a month is that I’ve had 30+ days to put these habits into practice, and let me tell you, it’s changed my digital lifestyle for the better.

The video is excellent, but it’s 60 minutes long.  If you’d like the highlights and my opinion, then read on.

Here are seven philosophical points about the “whys” of controlling your email, rather than letting your email control you.

1. Knowledge workers make money by turning knowledge and information into value.  You can’t effectively do this if your time is all tied up in pointless emails.
2. Where you decide to put your time and attention says a lot about who you are.
3. “Time and attention are finite, but demands on your time and attention are infinite”.  You have to filter out what gets attention and what gets ignored.
4. Never check your email without “processing to zero” - actually doing something with the email you receive rather than merely “checking it”. In sum, you have to look at every piece of email in your inbox whenever you check your email, and you have to decide what to do with it. Not necessarily respond to every piece, but you have to make a decision about each and every one.
5. Once you’ve gotten the info that you’ve needed to from the email, it’s useless to you. Get rid of it!
6. Make your system as simple as you can stand it.
7. If you’re not in customer service or some other extremely time-sensitive email situation, then turn off your email app and only check your email once an hour, or less if possible. As much as you can, try to reduce the number of times you check it.

Mann then asserts that there are most 5 options that you have for processing a given email:

1. Delete it! (or archive it if it’s really something worth saving).
2. Delegate it. If you tell someone else to do it, set a reminder to yourself to ensure that it in fact took place.
3. Respond to it. This is a tough one for me to follow, because I’m a writer. But email isn’t the place to debut my next philosophical tirade. Mr. Mann suggests placing a line in your footer that states, “I will not write any email longer than 5 sentences”. If nobody reads long blog posts anymore, certainly in a business context no one reads long emails anymore. If it’s that long of a response, then schedule a meeting.
4. Defer it (will need a response, but could take additional time). I don’t know if I like this one. At least in my world, I can respond to most emails fairly quickly.
5. Do it. If something requires action from you, just get it done. If you can’t do it right now, schedule a meeting or reminder for it, and then it’s taken care of.

This has truly helped me to tame my inbox and to stop using it as a reminder system.  I was very guilty of reading the emails when I didn’t have time to respond to them.

Anyways, it’s good to be back.  I still have no idea why Google still refuses to index my blog, so I may go ahead and move it from a Wordpress platform to something else, or redesign it and see what happens.  At any rate, it’s not like I’m selling ads or anything, so I’ll keep writing for now.

Bear with me, this site will likey be taken down sporadically as I try to implement some new security features.  I haven’t found conclusive proof that I’ve been hacked, but Google Webmaster Tools is reporting some major spam keywords in my keywords report (that aren’t being caught by other keyword analysis).  Words such as the names for major drugs, porn, software piracy, etc.

For the record, this really isn’t fun.  I’ve had to take over two months off of writing regularly just to try and fix all of this stuff in my spare time.  On the other hand, I’ve learned a ton about internet security and the importance of taking some basic precautions when running an open sourced CMS, such as Wordpress. I’ve also learned quite a bit about the down-and-dirty world of Search Engine Optimization (something n-tara interactive has lots of experts on but until recently I was but a mere novice in understanding).

Special thanks to Nick Rice, who is always one step ahead of me.  I’ll try his suggestions on a couple of Wordpress plugins (Ask Apache and Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam) and manually checking my HTML source code, and I’ll report back soon.

Well, I’m writing this blog while sitting at a Starbucks (fortunately, it hasn’t been closed yet and isn’t slated to be).  It’s a great place to write, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at how cliche it is to be blogging at Starbucks.

As an update, it turns out that my blog was, in fact, dropped from Google.  It hasn’t yet been reinstated, despite repeated attempts to contact Google and the filing of a formal complaint.  A good friend and former co-worker, Peter Cook, did a little digging for me and discovered that I was a victim of a “splog,” or a “spam blog,” that basically installed a Wordpress plugin that scours the web for recent blog posts with certain keywords and then downloads the post and automatically posts it on the splog.

Because this guy, who for ethical purposes will remain nameless as will his URL, was doing this with thousands of advertising and marketing blog posts per day, his traffic went through the roof, and it made it seem as if every blog from whom he stole content (because of my more modest traffic rankings) was stealing it from the splog!  Google’s algorithms know no mercy, and thus it looked like I was the thief from the more “established” site and that I was duplicating his content.  Not fun.  Or cool at all.

I’ve learned a lot from this experience, and I want to share some excellent resources with all of you in case you find yourself a victim of a splog, or of anyone who steals your content.  I want to give credit where credit is due, because without this specific online resource, I would have been lost.

If you suspect that someone has stolen your content, go to Lorelle’s blog on Wordpress.  It’s the most comprehensive, one-step-at-a-time approach to dealing with content theft I was able to find.  The cut-and-paste letters and forms really helped me as I escalated steps in order to get my content removed.

I’m still not entirely sure why I don’t have any post content showing up in Google, but I’m going to keep posting, do some reading on SEO for blogs, and hopefully everything will work itself out.

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UPDATE: one or two of my blog posts have started resurfacing on Google, but I haven’t received a notice from them as to why.  I guess that’s pretty good though.  The really good news is that the splog has been vanquished!  The deceitful practice has been replaced with a simple site stating that the domain is for sale.  Ahh, vindication.

UPDATE AGAIN: Also, the guy posted my emails to him on his blog stating that it was a “one sided conversation” accusing him of content theft.  Lovely, eh?  He stole it, whether intentionally or through a plugin, and I’m glad he took it down.   And someone else bought the URL, so at least I don’t have to worry about that guy anymore.

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“Show me that smile…” I know that is the song that anyone born before 1980 undoubtedly had playing in their heads when they read the title of this post. Although I’d love to have some witty commentary on one of the legendary episodes from the early 80’s sitcom, I’m afraid that my title is alluding to something much less nostalgic (and notably lacking Kirk Cameron or Tracy Gold).

The agency I work for, now named n-tara Interactive, is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s very exciting to be working in an environment that is aggressively growing, because you always end up with something new to do, and limits are often tested. Our marketing department is working like crazy to crank out our new ID set and other materials, but the new logo and materials are just a small part of how our agency is growing. We’re adding more people, capabilities, and expertise, and running out of room in our building.

Where that affects me is that we’re obviously adding more clients with bigger budgets and more strategic objectives. It’s certainly kept me hopping and my blogging activity to a minimum, which in turn does not represent very well what I’m actually learning and experiencing on a daily basis. New trends in analytics, guided-selling, and the value of social media are all at the top of my mind, as well as the old favorites of agency project management and the proper way to manage client expectations (one in the same, to some degree). It’s become comical to me how much being a successful agency involves balancing bleeding-edge creative and technology with the basic principles of listening, managing expectations, doing your homework, and respecting those you work with.

Please be patient with me…upgrading the look and feel of the blog over the next couple of days, and getting my Wordpress upgrade completed. Feel free to comment and read on, but not everything may work from a navigation or presentation standpoint. Thanks!

Oh, and yes, I do know that I should use a test URL for doing this, but that’s just too much work.  Thanks for understanding.

Okay, so lots of people are talking about presidential candidate Ron Paul. I’ve read about him quite a bit, and can’t say I agree with everything, but one thing I really appreciate about his campaign is that he is easily the most forthright and defined candidate when it comes to national issues. Again, not saying I agree with all of them, but you won’t find a lot of wishy-washy political speak on his site, and that’s something that a generation of people who are seeking genuine experiences can appreciate, whether you agree with Ron Paul or not.

At any rate, what I found most interesting recently about his campaign occurred when I viewed his LinkedIn profile (and yes, you too can be LinkedIn with the likes Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, or Dick Cheney (although poor Dick is currently listed at 0 connections)). This caught my eye, so I copied and pasted it directly from Ron Paul’s “Experience” section on his public LinkedIn profile:

“I have stronger Internet support than any other candidate of either party (as of 11/24):
• Most campaign website internet traffic (Alexa.com)
• Meetup: 67,000 Ron Paul Supporters in 1,230 Groups from 958 Cities
• MySpace: 87,000 friends
• Facebook: 46,000 friends & 40,000 supporters
• YouTube: 6+ million views, 38,000 subscribers
• Technorati: consistently a top blog-search term ”

This is amazing. I’m reminded of Sally Field’s oscar acceptance speech, “You like me, you really like me!” Let’s be honest…achieving this kind of internet notoriety is an admirable feat, especially for a political candidate. Communities in social media tend to err more on the side of being genuine than not in their interactions and support of one another, so this could be a really good indicator for Ron Paul. His polls are rising nation-wide, and his single-day fund raising record had everything to do with online support.

But shouldn’t it strike us as at least a little odd that a qualification for President of the United States is that you have 87,000 “friends” on MySpace? I mean, if that’s really a qualification, then the venerable “Tom“, with over 214 million friends, should rule the world for sure. And if 6 million+ YouTube views are important, the candidates better move out of the way for this guy, with over 68 million views. I think that touting statistics like Ron’s are just another example of the world not quite understanding the true impact of the social and information age. We’re still not sure what to do with all of our new toys, and it’s only by experimenting and living with them that we’ll eventually settle down a bit into a new status quo. I hope.

Until then, I’m going to keep Linking In, although probably not with Ron Paul. And who knows, if this blog gets popular enough, maybe I’ll run for local office. I can see it now, “Andy Didyk. Strength. Leadership. 87 LinkedIn connections. Zero MySpace friends. A blog with moderate readership. For America.” Look out Ron and Hillary…here I come!

Arresting headline, isn’t it? This was taken directly from a LinkedIn question by someone far-flung in my “3rd degree of separation” network. For those of you not yet in the know, LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals (which, by the way, seems largely dominated by those in the ad/marketing industry), and it features an “Answers” section where people can ask personal or professional questions of those in their network. I like to answer questions from time to time and to read what others have posted, although I have yet to ask a question of my network.

This question, however, threw me for a loop. Three quick things:

1. This question was listed under the “Personal Debt Management” category. Weird. I would think there was a better place for it, although getting a divorce involves answering a lot of personal finance questions.

2. Interesting that a freelance journalist would choose such an open forum for asking a question that would become the basis for an article about relationships. I guess anyone who has been in a relationship has something relevant to say, but this is also another facet of the social media revolution…we’re all experts about something. What will mark the capabilities of a true journalist, as well as the successful consumer, in the coming age, is how capable she/he is of sorting through and filtering everyone’s “expertise” that is becoming available.

3. Here’s my tip for the LinkedIn user: don’t separate from your spouse if you can avoid it. Measures for not separating from your spouse can include, but are not limited to, honoring your commitment to him/her, swallowing your pride, being the first to say “I’m sorry”, getting some counseling, stop being selfish, and work on your marriage actively before things get bad. Separation is devastating, and sadly at times unavoidable. However, a great cause of the rampant divorce rates in our country is selfishness.

Alright…off the soapbox, on to more questions.

I’ve recently been reading quite a bit on eggstrategy.com, the recently created brainchild of Julie Fleischer (her previous blog was Innovation Ecosystem).  I was introduced to Innovation Ecosystem via David Armano’s blog, and have been hooked since.  Egg Strategy is a blog that features content from a variety of industry professionals, and is updated regularly.  Check it out.

Well, if I could use some of my own criticisms, it would be now. I was out all last week on vacation in Florida, and neglected to tell anyone that online. Let that be lesson to me. During my stay, I got some great comments with good thoughts from Nick Rice and from Oliver Blanchard. Because I was away and didn’t let anyone know, their comments sat in moderation for close to a week! Please forgive me, guys. Shame on me for not being “real” on the web.

My wife, son and I spent a week with my extended family at a resort south of Orlando and had a great, refreshing time. The highlight for me was a chance to go fishing for sharks with my brother and sister. After 3 hours of exhausting battle, we managed to reel in this 10 foot, 270+ lb. Lemon shark. The picture was blurry because I had to use manual focus on a moving object in the dark. What a rush!