US Government agencies that use WordPress

From the State of the Word at Wordcamp SF.

SEO mistakes most bloggers make

Stephen Spencer speaking about SEO at the 2008 WordPress Wordcamp San Francisco. 24 minutes

Wordcamp 2008 San Francisco intro

Welcome by Matt Mullenweg

You don't own your content – the public does

During my recent event, my friend who I shared the booth with had a conversation with a gentleman who was from a group of artists. He was mentioning how they wanted to change up their website because people were stealing their tattoo designs. Right now if you right click to save an image, you get some 1997 javascript pop-up that’s supposed to prevent you from using the right click button on your mouse. Any modern browser such as Firefox will allow you to download images.

While I understand the need to protect your work, you need to understand that you don’t own your content – everyone does. What do I mean? Unless your going to keep all your precious work in a closet, someone will be able to copy it and do as they wish with it and you can’t do anything about it. The record companies tried to keep a lock on their data with DRM and failed miserably.

This is especially true if your an online business or you primarily use the web to market you goods. The public will use their brains and technology to take your stuff.

Here are some things you can to do react to this truth:

• Watermark your product – stick a graphic overlay with your logo over images
• Create a premium product
• Give up and give it away for free and hope people will donate
• Think of another business model

San Francisco Wordcamp 2008

I was so busy preparing for my event that I almost missed registering for San Francisco Wordcamp 2008 on 8/16/08. I noticed the posts at the bottom of the WordPress admin dashboard today and registered quickly so that I don’t get left out. I remember there were limited seats available last year. I didn’t even check to see where in SF it would be. Last year, it was in the Castro. Kinda sucks that it’s pretty far from Bart this year. The location is at Mission Bay Conference center.

Instead of 2 days, it’s 1 day with loads of speakers. A great feature is the gravatar & badge integration.

Here’s what my badge will look like

Taking an online business offline

Over the weekend (8/9 – 8/10), I took my online businesses (Baybayin translation/art & clothing) into the real world at the Pistahan Filipino Festival. I had no delusions that I would make a killing. I knew going into the event that my stuff was pretty niche. With that self admission, I was able to make realistic goals. Those were:

• Education of the Baybayin script
• Awareness of my brands and services
• Have meaningful conversations
• Network with similar vendors for my upcoming fashion project

It’s been a while since I sold anything in public. I think the last time was when I was in high school selling baseball cards at hotels. While I like getting out and meeting people, online is much easier.

My big event at Pistahan

This weekend 8/9 & 8/10 is a pretty big day for my Baybayin project. I’ll have shirts, hats and prints for sale at the Pistahan Filipino Festival. Besides selling my goods, I’ll also be co-teaching the script at a workshop. While making my investment back is a goal, I’m more interested in the market feedback and networking.

I expect the shirts not to sell much because there are other shirt vendors out there that have flashy designs. I think my best shot would be the hats. The prints should do well because nobody other than my business partner is doing them.

I’m rushing to fixup BaybayinScript.com (online store for prints & translations) and the fashion site. I will probably only put up a splash for the fashion site as 1and1 messed up my domain registration – more on that later.

Pistahan.net

Ashley Paige – Bikini or Bust

I’m addicted to this show. It’s basically about a successful business that’s having a hard time taking it to the next level because of a lack of business knowledge. It’s also filled with girls in bikinis and little business screw-ups. The plot of this reality show is that she has a great product but is pretty much broke and needs an investor to keep the business afloat and move up to the next level. There are some obviously staged parts but I still like it.

Apple app store needs free trials

There are so many good looking iPhone apps out there but I don’t want to take the risk and waste money. Apple should make it a standard feature that all apps have a free trial. I’m sure they are worried of hackers of busting the trial but I believe it would help sell more. Until this is done, the smart app developers are creating a free version and a premium one.