Author Archive
Colin’s Charity
Posted by: | CommentsGuest Post: Colin Brimfield
So I need to write a post about a charity to get into a charitable poker tournament. After doing some research and considering my options I am choosing The Sierra Club. As a kid I grew up on camping in California. We spent time in the western, southern and eastern sierras. Places like Owen’s Valley, Big Bear, and Yosemite are some of the most beautiful spots on earth. It’s truly awesome how many great ecological wonders are available in California and the western U.S. in general.
The Sierra club represents people like me, environmentally conscious regular people who love nature. I am no saint when it comes to the environment but I do what I can and I try my best to protect and enjoy what we have. The Sierra club is one of the oldest and most well respected environmental organizations and clubs and it makes an impact. I would encourage anyone I meet to do 2 things: go to California to see Yosemite and the Sierras and read about The Sierra Club.
Pubcon 2009!
Posted by: | CommentsI’m super excited! I’ve wanted to go to Pubcon for a few years now, almost went last year but was super slammed and couldn’t escape to Vegas for it. We’re leaving today, flying out of Cleveland around lunch time and will be in Vegas early this afternoon.
There are a ton of awesome events at Pubcon. My good friend DK really goes all out I hear with the poker tournament, burgers, fight clubs and more! Check out his overview here. He has 2 Fight Clubs this year: Fight Club at Randy Coutures’ gym and Fight Club with Robert Drysdale. Drysdale is a really awesome dude, super laid back. I got to meet him at ThinKTank this summer. Check out his site for more on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Las Vegas. He is also in the video below which is pretty slick.
Can’t wait to connect with friends at Pubcon! Brian has a bet going that he can out drink both the Madhat and Streko. He better not back out, its going to be absolutely hysterical to see!
Future Hope Charity
Posted by: | Comments
Leading up to ThinkTank this year DK and Andy ran a contest to benefit a charity. The charity they were promoting was Future Hope. I had never heard of this charity before but I read into it when DK and Andy were talking about it. You can see how Andy has been involved with this charity in the recap that DK gives here. Guys like Shoe, DK, and Andy are real inspirations to me for the work they do and giving back.
This is what Future Hope does:
Future Hope provides education and career opportunities to poverty stricken communities through the use of technology.
The Mission of Future Hope is to provide education and career opportunities to poverty stricken communities through the use of technology. Future Hope will:
Utilize technology and the Internet to provide training and support through local mentors, online training, and person-to-person communication. Local mentors would be trained by the local church community network. Introduce basic business skills to the communities. Introduce opportunities for the communities to accept contract technical work from established firms. Aid the communities in achieving self-sustainability of the program in a few years time frame.
I would check out their site and get involved. It’s really amazing what people are doing to help out!
2009 ThinkTank Contest!
Posted by: | CommentsDK is putting on ThinkTank again this year in September and I’m so fortunate to be able to go again! Last year was a blast and I got to meet a lot of awesome people! This year I will not be diving off any surfboards however!
One of the guys I met is Andy Liu. Andy is an entrepreneur and runs BuddyTV. He is giving away an opportunity to go to ThinkTank! This is awesome, especially since you can’t even buy a way in since it’s sold out! Here are some of the details Andy lays out:
All you have to do is blog (if you don’t have one, start one!) about your startup’s single biggest challenge and your thoughts on how to solve that challenge. If you don’t have a startup, blog about your biggest challenge to starting that new venture and how you’ll solve that problem. In the comments below link to your post and I’ll be sure to read your post. I’ll select the best post by August 31st at noon PST. This is a $3,500 value to a sold-out conference and is open to anyone over the age of 21 in the US. No purchase necessary:)
There is also a chance to win a ticket to Startup Day for the 2nd best post and more importantly, to help out the non-profit Future Hope.
DK over at Purpose Inc and the ThinkTank has graciously offered to send an El Salvadorian student to receive one year of computer training up to a total of 30 children and adults through Future Hope. Not only does Future Hope provide computer and Internet training, it also provides leadership training to set up opportunities for a better life in the future. This is a program that has been around for over 4 years and continues to donate nearly 100% of its receipts directly to El Salvador, there are no paid staff members in the US. The children and adult students that attend come from a community that is considered extremely impoverished or living under $2/day. It is a tremendous program and your post will make a difference.
Check out Andy’s post for all the details of the ThinkTank contest and good luck!
Wow… How Time Flies!
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been neglecting my blog for awhile now and I didn’t realize how long it has been until I took a closer look. It feels like I just wrote on it yesterday! Since my last post there have been at least 2 SEO seminars I have spoken at, 2-3 breakfast bootcamps, and a handful of other things going on!
I am going to try and make a big push to keep the blog up going forward. I’ve been learning a lot and hope to share those ideas here. Some of the things I have been learning more and more about each day are programming, SEO/SEM, affiliate marketing, business, and more. It really has been crazy. I feel like the last 3 weeks have been all over the place but it will be for the best!
Speaking at TKG’s SEO Seminar
Posted by: | CommentsI’m pleased to announce that I will be speaking at the Karcher Group’s Akron SEO Seminar in September! I will be talking about social media and all the fun stuff involved. The conference is the 18th and 19th of September and there are still spots available to register! We will also be having Anita Campbell from Small Business Trends and Jake Baillie from STN Labs speaking at this seminar.
Some of the topics that will be covered besides social media are blogging, copy writing, PPC, and link building. I have heard Jake speak before and he is a really good speaker so I’m excited to be speaking along with him and all the others. If you are interesting in attending, you can click on the link below. My discount code is COREY and it will save you $100 which is an awesome discount!
Reputation Management by Kurt
Posted by: | CommentsA buddy of mine, Kurt Krejny, wrote a really good article for Marketing Pilgrim on reputation management and how to pounce on negative search engine results that could hurt your or your companies reputation.
He gives a lot of great information especially on tracking reputation online. These strategies can be used for both personal and business reputations and brands.
Check out his article Sure-fire Strategies to Pounce On Negative Search Engine Results!
Verizon Wireless Finally Buys Alltel Wireless!
Posted by: | CommentsWow… Can you hear me now Chad?
Finally! There has been speculation for years about the merger between Verizon and Alltel! I use to work for both companies, first Alltel (they stole my identity to make Chad, see below!) then Verizon. I really like both of them. I love the wireless industry, the phones, the constant change, etc.
I lost track of him over the years, but there was this guy I worked with at Alltel, Jay Ortman. He was a great guy. He was my area manager or whatever and his office wasn’t far from my store. He would come in and I’d plug him for the latest and greatest news and we’d have talks about the speculation. He said it wasn’t going to happen because of the cost per acquisition per subscriber. I saw some numbers and I think Verizon is paying upwards for $2100 per subscriber, which is steep. The article had said that the Sprint-Nextel disaster, I mean merger was in the ballpark of $2400 per subscriber.
All in all I think this is great. Verizon has made some big announcements like the acceptance of open source, LTE migration, and now the Alltel merger. I can’t wait to see how they handle this merger and especially the open source move!
Chad vs. Corey
My picture quality isn’t the greatest, but notice the similarities? Even more, he has the same personality that I do and I worked there before they ever launched “Chad”. Some genius in marketing must have met me and liked me that much 
Yahoo goes naked for CSS Naked Day
Posted by: | CommentsToday is CSS Naked Day. The goal is to help promote Web Standards like html and xhtml by getting rid of your style sheet. In support of this, it looks like Yahoo has gone naked in their search engine results!
Also baring it all is The Karcher Group!
Here is more information on CSS Naked Day.
Anyone have more examples of sites dropping their CSS and going naked?
Why I Like T-Mobile and Sprint Together
Posted by: | CommentsSo far, I’m not seeing a lot of love for a rumored Sprint and TMobile deal. Om Malik over at Gigaom says “Just say no…Now”. And thats pretty much the theme most bloggers are taking.
I think it could be a real powerful deal. Everyone knows Sprint really jacked up the Nextel deal. Walkie talkies are for children. On top of that, Thomas Edison had newer technology than iDEN! Push to talk is such a small part and niche of wireless. I think Sprint needs to take the technology and do something right with it. They launched these hybrid phones with cdma voice and data along with Nextel push to talk. The problem with that is, there are interference issues with the iDEN and cdma and the coverage area is restricting the phone to the 1800/1900 mhz network I think. This kills the service area. 1800/1900 mhz is a weaker signal than the 800 mhz network. Verizon and Alltel have a lot of 800 mhz I believe and thus eliminates these phones from roaming on those agreements. Action plan for Sprint: Drop the iDEN network completely.
Now, if Sprint sheds the troubled iDEN network but keeps the push to talk technology, they could be in a little better position.
Now enters TMobile! TMobile has a reputation for customer service and customer satisfaction. Sprint is probably the worst in the industry. I have worked with Alltel, Sprint, Att, Nextel, and Verizon. Sprint can take over 30 minutes to do an esn change(changing phones). 30 minutes?! What the heck are you doing for 30 minutes?! ESN changes should take no more than 5 minutes with system lag! I feel bad for Sprint customers because it takes this long to do everything and longer if you get an over seas call center! I think TMobile would help that DRAMATICALLY! Sprint could go from pissing every customer off to actually helping their customers!
Next big issue which I touched on with the Nextel problem is the network problem between Sprint and TMoblie. CDMA vs. GSM? Which one do you go with? Its a hard call. I’m a bigger fan of cdma in the US, especially with the roaming agreements Sprint has with carriers like Alltel and Verizon. Also, Sprint has an existing 3G network that TMobile currently lacks. TMobile can take their smaller than average GSM network and convert it to CDMA.
I know this isn’t the popular opinion but Sprint is hemoraging subscribers right now. They just wrote off more than they are worth! That is sick! Its like a mass exodus! I think TMobile has the financial backing and some other great assets that could help turn Sprint around into the carrier they could be. I mean, you have to admit, they have done some good things despite their recent track record!