Learn How to Do SEO from Rand Fishkin

I went to my first Hackers + Founders event hosted by Microsoft to learn about how to do SEO from Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz. As the co-founder of a startup, you have to take advantages of opportunities to learn low-cost or free ways to gain traction. In regular English, that means getting more users to use your product or buy your product from you. I've embedded a compilation of my tweets during the SEO talk using Storify.

Hackers + Founders attendees on the mailing list will get to use SEOmoz for free for 60 days...free fits in our startup budget! It's always nice to be able to try out tools before shelling out a ton of cash for them. For a bootstrapped startup, cash is king. I'm hoping to measure marketing efforts for Hand Things Down.

Here are the highlights of what he covered in the talk:

• Inbound vs Interruption Marketing
• Use Social Media and Email Marketing to complement each other
• 10 SEO Tactics to Gain Traction for your Startup

View the slidedeck on SEO for Startups.

Constantly on the Move

How many people can say they are really great at beginnings and endings? Am I the only one holding up my hand? I realize there is a lot that happens in the middle of life, after you hit a few milestones, you settle down somewhere, make friends, have kids, and occasionally go on vacation to break the routine. You're in the middle of it, yet some people long for the past while others are charging heads down into the future. Where do you fit?

I was thinking about this because I'm about to "move" for the fourth time in less than a year and each move was to a different state more or less for business. Who puts their entire life in chaos for work? The fourth move is in the same city yet the turmoil of moving is the same.

Timeline:
Nov 2010 - March 2011: Seattle, WA for Founder Institute

April 2011 - September 2011: Phoenixish, AZ

October 2011 - Nov 2011: San Jose, CA

November 2011 - June 2012: Silicon Valley, CA (will know after we get accepted into a place...need to move in 7 days, no pressure!)

Lessons Learned

• Moving is easier than finding a new place to live.


• Using social media to make friends in a new city helps with finding fun activities and common interests.


• Cherish true friends, they will keep in touch even after you've left.


• No matter how many times you move, saying goodbye doesn't get easier.

As I sit here, I'm thinking of how I want my life to look, wondering where to settle down and spend time in the middle instead of constantly transitioning. When you look at your life, does it look the way you want it to look? Who is there with you? What are you doing?

What Will Your Facebook Timeline Say About Your Life?

Last week, Facebook announced the Timeline which allows you to view your social history. As it rolls out, you'll see what you posted or commented on by month or year. You can look fondly at the playful online banter between you and a crush, the evolution of your relationships, where you went and who you were with on the roller coaster that is your life. What if you were an anthropologist and you were looking at 21st century society? You could find evidence of how we lived through Facebook or Twitter timelines through checkins, blog posts, pictures, and comments to reveal personality or sentiment of the day.

Social Anthropology studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Has Facebook made it easier for anthropologists to draw conclusions about modern society through the Timeline?

I thought it fascinating that you could highlight particular events and for non-scrapbookers an easy way to get a time capsule of each year on Facebook. I would buy a hardcover copy of my timeline or a combination of family/friends as gifts (business opportunity...who's in?). The good times, the drama, the healing and sometimes reconnecting. On the one hand, it could aggregate a lot of great memories if you only share happy times. For some, it could lead to drama and heartbreak as you view your significant other's flighty behavior. Note: To avoid this, don't friend anyone you are dating, keep a portion of your life private. Otherwise, what will you talk about if you're busy stalking each other on-line?

As an "oversharer" on multiple networks, including various blogs, you could see where I've traveled, eaten, worked, seen my naked thoughts as I chat publicly and form a pretty decent dossier without any effort. What picture would your timeline create of you? Will it be an accurate reflection of your real life emotions and experience? Will it be a more glamourous version of your life? Would you be happy with what you see? Is there anything you would change? Would you spend time deleting stuff from your profile to create the right persona?

For a short time, you were able to view who has unfriended you by looking at your friends in a particular year and seeing who has the Add Friend button. This "bug" has since been removed. Would you check to see which friends you've lost over the years? Would you want to reconnect with some of them?

I wonder how startups like Glos.si or Momento will evolve as products because of the Timeline announcement. I like the idea of that these two aggregate from various networks. I also wonder what social anthropologists will conclude if they use all of what we share freely on the web. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. 

Social Anthropology

Facebook unfriend credit: Mashable

Related articles

• Follow Up of the Day: Facebook Fixes Timeline Bug That Revealed Unfrienders (geeks.thedailywh.at)
• Facebook Timeline: Stalker's Paradise (collegecandy.com)
• How to use Facebook's new Timeline profile to see who has unfriended you (geek.com)
• Facebook unfriending 'bug' gets quick fix (news.cnet.com)

One Night in Havana

Do you know what it feels like to PLAN to go a club, realize you haven't been in forever and have no idea what to wear or how to be? Let's take this scenario and make it more retarded by being on a business trip and not having "club clothes" packed. I know what to wear if I'm going to Vegas. It's a cocktail dress, fab heels/boots - whichever is fine as long as they are sky high and of course bring your A+ game. Ladies, this is your "A" game, sprinkled with hair and body glitter. Men, this is your best outfit, haircut, fresh shave with a heaping helping of swag...did I spell that right? 

What if you're in Seattle? I spent 4 months in Seattle earlier this year but I went to maybe one dance club the entire time to meet up with my friend White Pacman from the bay area. He picked some club that played 80's + 90's music and the people dressed kinda drab, to be expected since it's soggy about 85% of the time. I thought that can't possibly be all Seattle has to offer, it's got to have some sort of vibrant nightlife.

I was excited to go to Capitol Hill on Friday night because I'm told that's where the nightlife is. I went to Havana with my biz partner and my DJ friend. It was sort of surreal, the girls are dressed in club gear (short dresses and high heels) and guys looked sloppy. Maybe irons are outlawed because they might get electrocuted from the dampness. What a let down! Poor girls, this is your selection? How will they ever mate? I even went outside to check out the scenery thinking maybe the hot guys haven't been admitted yet...nope more of the same. I really went outside because I was burning up in the club, they had one fan and it was impossible to dance in that sort of heat. The best place in the club was sitting and chatting with the bouncer because he was elevated near a door that was open to let the cool outside air in. Plus it's always good to be friends with the bouncers. 

When I came back, I saw one cute guy who was with the tall, blond chick my DJ friend was hitting on. He was tall, had dark hair, looked like he worked out and kept fit just not to juice head status. I later find out Mr. Hottie was a reserve Seattle Sounder (ummm what?) So that means he's a player for the soccer team. Well no wonder he's on reserve, if he was a starter he wouldn't be out at the club the night before a match...just saying.

That concluded my night at Havana. A few years ago, I would have been dying to go out every weekend, now not so much. I had fun dancing and watching my friends interact with the locals. I just didn't want anyone trying to talk me, I couldn't hear anything but the beat and I can only do so much smiling and nodding...I'm getting OLD!

Passion: What would you do even if no one was paying you?

Passion seems to be the theme of the week. It's a question I've asked myself and have been examining recently. When my friend sent me a Facebook message asking me how I manage being a mom and an entrepreneur I thought it was time to write a blogpost. It's ironic she asked me how I do it all because I often have too much going on and have been thinking about what I need to drop. In reality, I don't have motivation and passion for everything, I just power through that to get to the stuff I love to do. I certainly make an effort to publicize only the positive aspects of my life because no one wants to hear when you lose your drive or question direction. I reserve that discussion for my closest confidants whose insights I trust to build my decisions around. More often than not, I'm debating these things as I lie awake at night trying to relax and fall asleep. To read about the bumps in the startup road along with the lessons learned, check out the Cache Crew blog where I'm writing and video blogging about the business.

Part of being discontent is losing sight of what your passion is in life. I think it changes over time and it's important to assess where you are regularly to make sure your life is headed in the direction you were charting or even if that is still the direction you want to go. Personally, family and relationship is important to me and my actions never reflected that value because both have taken a backseat to traveling for my career. I realized that this aspect of my life really needs to be at the forefront of my decisions or my personal life will continue to suffer and be non-existent. Living and breathing work isn't sustainable as you get older. I would rather build something with someone and have my family at my side than to build an empire alone. My struggle is finding out how to do this or make the changes in perspective so that it does become the priority.

Here are some questions to think about: 

• Do you know what excites you?
• What would you do even if no one was paying you to do it? Is there something that people are always asking you to do that you love and can monetize?
• What do you constantly research, read, or watch?
• What do you like about what you are doing? Can you do more of that?
• Is there a growth path that you can take within your company that excites you?
• What do you dislike and can you delegate some of this to someone else?

If you determine you want to take the leap for something new, are you prepared?

• How much do you need to live on?
• Does your savings support making that leap now?
• If it doesn't, how long do you need to make sure you have a financial cushion of a couple years to build the dream?
• Is there something small you can spin up to test if that's what you want to do?

What are your answers to these questions? How to you balance family and ambition? Is there a way to have it all without losing your mind? Put in the comments I would really love to have discussion on this.

Constant Change Can Turn Your World Upside Down

Doing a headstand to clear my mind

Over the last few weeks, I had to decide whether or not pursue contract opportunities outside of Arizona. While I've always been one to embrace change, I was falling into a happy rhythm of how my life in the desert was unfolding. I struggled with the idea of moving while maintaining focus on applying for three different startup pitch competitions and balancing a new found social life. My motto has always been work hard, play harder. With the demands of a startup, the play part of life has diminished to practically nothing. Meeting all of the application deadlines, preparing executive summaries, and slide decks pretty much had me deserting social functions to work on these deliverables until midnight or 1 am nearly every day. This is not a complaint because with all this hard work led to solid messaging and direction for the company, plus I love what I'm doing!

Indecision Causes Turmoil

When I was weighing my options, calculating my finances, and assessing how I felt about moving, I was a complete mess! Working on anything related to Hand Things Down was easy because I knew exactly what I needed to do and when it needed to be done. Deciding on whether or not I was ready to leave the kids behind and not seeing certain things develop naturally made me sad. I was settling into the idea of not moving until after Jelli graduated, then I realized I've got to pick up a contract so I can provide her with a really cool senior year. Who would I talk to about making this decision? Old friends I haven't talked to in forever? Can I burden new friends with helping me weigh out whether or not I should make a drastic change in my life? An ex-boyfriend who knows me? In the end, I ended up withdrawing into myself to weigh the pros and cons.

I literally felt like my world was turning upside down and I needed to make a move because the indecision was killing me! I don't function well in a holding pattern, I would rather know a direction so I can put the pieces in place to make something happen or if the situation calls for it, walk away. 

The Decision

In the end, I chose to pick up a 9 month contract in California. I've literally moved every few months for some sort of opportunity and the move has always made be grow as a person and an entrepreneur. While the external circumstances were the same in the sense that it was unforeseen and so much needed to happen in a short span of time, this time just felt more difficult emotionally.

Life is a Series of Experiments

Wish that I can have this moment for life, cause in this moment I feel so alive. ~Nicki Minaj

Do you ever stop and wonder what series of events led you to a particular moment in time? Sometimes chance leads you down a path you would not normally consider and it's result is surprisingly happy. Other times not a single thing can go right and every challenge is one hurdle after another. There was a point in my life where I literally thought, "I die a little every day that I'm in [name dreaded location]." Yes, highly dramatic and I thought this isn't me, what happened to the adventure in life?! When I realized this, I created a couple of on-going experiments to feel more alive.

Experiment: Being Lucky
Try this for a week: Believe in your heart and mind that you are the luckiest person ever. 
Each day you wake up and you have a choice to make the day amazing or it can be just another boring day. I naively believe I'm super lucky and this leads to amazing experiences. You're probably thinking your life can never go that well, so for a week get rid of that voice in your head that pops up to ruin the moment and just roll with it. Over lunch, I told a friend, "You have to show up and you end up meeting the right people or get invited to cool places." As an example, I mentioned going to an alumni breakfast, then at the end of of breakfast, I volunteered to help for future events. When I did that, I got invited to go to the SF Giant's spring training game for that afternoon. Not only did I score two free tickets, my daughter and I were seated front row on the third baseline. My friend said, "You know you're creating those opportunities, right? If you show up then sit in a corner, no one is going to hand you free tickets to anything." Hmmm...good point maybe the lesson here is if you give without expectations of anything in return, then it all comes back to you, that leads to the next experiment. 

Experiment: Be happy in the moment or change the moment
Try this for a month: Expect to have an amazing time.
During a meditation intensive, I learned the phrase, "Expectation kills the joy in life." I thought how could this be? I EXPECT to have an adventure every time I step out of the house, I don't know who I'll meet or talk to who will inspire me or whom I can inspire. How could this possibly kill any happiness? Then I realized my expectation didn't create room for disappointment. A lot of my friends in relationships hang their happiness on whether or not their significant other does something for them. Some single friends hang their happiness on whether or not the object of their obsession gives them attention. I don't have time to think about that sort of stuff. I'm busy with my kids, working on my business/fitness, hanging out with people whose company I enjoy and having a blast! My expectation is to have fun so when I go somewhere, if the plans change to something unexpected it's a pleasant surprise and I turn it into an adventure. I know this is hard, I thrive on having a very structured life with everything programmed into my calendar and if I can roll with it so can you. Put everything that needs to get done on the calendar, then one day a week, give yourself permission to be spontaneous. Open up a day to accept invitations to do something unexpected or just take a day to yourself.

Experiment: Help others create amazing experiences
Try this for month: At least 3x a week, help someone move forward with their goals.
I'm continually surprised and impressed with people around me. By their generosity, intellect, and thoughtfulness, all qualities I hope to emulate. I'm naturally selfish, I want to have fun and sometimes forget things if it's not on my calendar. When I think of that phrase, "Expectation kills the joy in life," I always hope I'm not disappointing my kids. As a mom, my goal is to create amazing life experiences for my kids because if I don't expose them to that they'll grow up with a very narrow view of the world. My oldest danced in the Nutcracker at the age of 7, as a mouse because she attended a ballet school associated with a professional ballet company. Not many people can put that as a claim to fame. I hope to help them create more circumstances like these in their lives. This idea has a broader application, you can help by introducing people to someone who can help them, forwarding an article you've read that is relevant to their goals, or help them brainstorm an idea. Whatever you do, speak up, something you say may make someone's day!

The two experiments are on-going, and recently added being thoughtful to my list. If you try either of these experiments, let me know how it affected your life. Feel free to leave it in the comments or Tweet @cherylmarquez.

Image credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44442915@N00/4574733303/

When the Boss Player Says He's Not Living Up to His Potential

When the #CaliBoss says he's not living up to his potential, where does that leave the rest of us normal peeps? I was on the phone with him for the better part of an hour last night. That itself is a feat since I normally cringe at the sound of the telephone and nearly die if I have to talk longer than 5 minutes for a non-business call.

During this conversation, he says to me he's about to make some major changes in his life. I asked why because he has his own business, his own place, drives a fancy car and is generous with his friends and family. From all outward appearances he's got everything. He admitted he was tired of being irresponsible and sabotaging himself. I thought, if that's what he can accomplish while he's half-assing it, he's going to be unstoppable when he's focused.

He would work hard building the business make a bunch of cash, then would throw away all his hard work through partying and neglect. The latter part was really hard to live through. He said, he was slipping back into the old pattern drinking, taking a day off work to recover, then he wouldn't know what was going on with the business. He also said he recently met a trainer to help him get his fitness back on track since he's been neglecting that too.

We used to be a team, he pushed me beyond my comfort zone and taught me the value of the "endless hustle". You have be there to grab opportunities people want to give you and you have to deliver. I used to complain about this and he would tell me I was smart and I had to go for it even if I was scared. These lessons have been internalized over the years and now a part of me.

The Plan

• Replace negativity with a positive mindset, people and activities that support new goals.
• Move to a new place to shed some of the old energy
• Ignore distractions, these are the things that detract from your goals
• STICK WITH IT
It's hard to say goodbye to the super-fun, party lifestyle...yet everyone has to grow up sometime. Do you have changes you want to make in your life?

Trying on Clothes, Time to Run

I have two emotions, super-excited or not interested. Anything that falls in between registers in my subconscious and I might devote brain power to it or do my best to ignore it so it goes away.

I am super-excited for the New Kids on the Block and Back Street Boys concert. So excited that my friend Sonia & I devoted a shopping expedition to find a new outfit for our groupie night out. I'm fully aware I have a closet full of clothes, shoes, and accessories. I also understand being new in town, no one will point out that I wore a particular outfit to an event before. My justification is without the ritual of buying something new for a special event, the event then diminishes to something ordinary.

Shopping
I found a great pair of dark jeans and a deep plum top to wear with my super cute red knee-high boots at the first store...so lucky! The second stop was at Arden B since they were having a ridiculous sale. I found a pair of distressed jeans with rips going down the thigh for $5, they fit great when I first put them on. Then I did the sit down test and half my bootie popped out so I couldn't get them. I know $5 is the cost of a latte but no amount is worth having a wardrobe malfunction. I'm not a kid anymore.

Mental Note: Start Running
The image I saw in the mirror was a bit horrifying and I decided to add running to my workout. It was easier to shop for Vegas dresses [pictured] than skinny jeans. The last few weeks have been crazy and I haven't been as diligent with my diet. I realized, my metabolism isn't what it used to be and running should fix things. The problem is the last time I ran was in Seattle and that was only enjoyable because I was staying 3 blocks from the beach and it was awesome to run in cold weather right next to the water.

The Goal
I'm not a fan of running, in fact I hate it, it falls in the completely not interested in this activity category. Yet training for a 10k and half marathon has shown me that it really works to shed pounds and develop discipline. The goal is to add running 3x a week to my yoga, zumba, and weights program. I am also going back to following the 4 hour body diet and only having the cheat day once a week. I still love food.

Swamped in Social Media & Startup Activity

The last couple weeks have been BA-nanas (with Rachel Zoe inflection). In case you're wondering who she is, she's a personal stylist with a reality show. I seriously need a stylist. Most days I dress like a boy; in wifebeaters and jeans except with makeup. This is probably weird, I don't feel productive until I have makeup on my face even if I'm just sitting in front of the computer all day. I like to think that the makeup hides my red eyes from screen fatigue.

So yes, back to the last couple of weeks being crazy. I've been working until 4 or 5 am most nights because in between working during the day and consulting, there are the kid errands and events. My body likes to remind me that I need sleep when I can barely keep my eyes open or when I can't wake up to save my life. Last week, I had early meetings on Monday and Wednesday, with Wednesday ending a with dinner meeting. Two alarm clocks and lots of coffee kept me alert and productive for both meetings.

Good news is the month is starting to wrap-up and the workshop I ran for Social Media Club Phoenix on How to Develop Your Persona and Brand was well-attended. We didn't announce that people would need to break into groups because we didn't want to scare them away. In hindsight, we probably should have mentioned the group work. It was a good learning experience to try a format other than a panel discussion and at least everyone was talking to each other. There was also too much content to cover with the worksheets in the time allotted for the group exercise, I have content for at least a 2 hour workshop for online personas. I'll create separate post with the worksheets attached on How to Develop your Online Persona or Brand.

On the technical front, I'm super-excited my co-founder got the Hand Things Down app approved in iTunes. It is available by invitation only (10 invites with the code "bananas"). This has been a milestone I've been looking forward to since we graduated from Founder's Institute at the end of March. The trouble with reaching milestones in a startup is once you get there, the journey towards another milestone immediately begins.

I finished updating our landing pages to include the upcoming Android app. They are connected to our email campaign software and I'm creating rules to auto-respond based on whether or not someone has an invitation code or if they've been invited to Hand Things Down by a friend who is currently using the app.

I sometimes feel like my head might explode with all the things I've learned in the last few months. Blending social media with landing page optimization and an email campaign to run a beta has taken some of what I've done before and mashed them all together. I'm hoping some of the work in the last couple of weeks will make it easier for us to get the app in to our consumers when it goes public.

This coming Friday, I am hosting a networking event for women entrepreneurs for Women 2.0 and I was up all night to get some of those invites out. I'm nervous about attendance, event planners make everything look so easy!

Alright, it's about 4:30 am so I need to go to sleep. I have a pile of legal docs I need to read through and send to the lawyers. I will need to work away from the home office, since the kids are on summer vacation and I need every ounce of focus to read legal agreements.