A pretty quick note about #MozCon and becoming Marketing Director.

Where do I even start?

So much has happened.
So much has changed.
Some changes good.
Others not as good.

But wow, change all around.
It really is the only constant.

New job, or new position I should say, is going well so far. It’s my first week, and all the websites are still up, so I consider that a personal win, haha.

I really want to do this well. To own it. To progress the company well and forward.

Oh, yeah, so #MozCon was amaze-balls. Scrumtrellescent. As they say.

First and foremost, I got to connect well with the owner, my new boss, and develop a good rapport with him. That was great. Secondly, I just learned a crapton of stuff.

The conference was a wonderful range of inspiring higher thought level content, general principles and rules, and specific nerdy tools and tips. My aspirations now range from lofty brand identity and purpose-driven goals all the way to wanting to be a Distilled Excel Ninja and also be Google Analytics Certified.

Also, I totally helped start a mini-flashmob cantab toast to Rand Fishkin at the beginning of his head-to-head with Will Critchlow. Kudos to Greg Gifford for helping it actually happen!

And now, I have a cool title. Marketing Director. Pretty Schnazzy I must say.

It’s not really the exact position I’ve imagined myself being in, but then again, not so far off either. I feel like I can thrive here.

In some ways it’s been tough to not try to pursue and date girls more often or, more heartily. But then I look and realize that I haven’t had the time to prioritize that, and that’s ok. I’m glad I called myself out early in the year.

Sadly, I’m not as close to meeting my yearly goals as I would like to be. I’ll get there though.
Like Ali in the Jungle.

Quick Webinar Recap on “The Future of Linkbuilding” by SEOmoz

I just got out of another great webinar by Rand Fishkin and the team at SEOmoz on The Future of Linkbuilding.

While some of it seemed to be kinda common sense and stuff I’ve heard before, I definitely walked away with some takeaways I wasn’t expecting to.

The summary is nothing that most SEO people aren’t already aware of.

Content is the thing. Organic, Natural Links are the thing. Why spin your wheels on black hat tactics that will only work less and less from here on out? Google is only going to get smarter, and Facebook is already organic and accounting all the time for more and more of search rankings. You should put that same amount of effort you have been on black and gray hat linkbuilding into any one of 34 ways Rand and Tom discussed to generate content that people will share, love, and link the crap out of.

I’m not gonna mention all 34, many you could probably guess, and it’s a PRO webinar anyway, can’t give it all away for free, right?

But here are a few things I think are worth mentioning:

2. Be a Content Resource in your niche.
Higher Quality > Higher Quantity.

7. Leverage Current events in Content.
This recap I’m writing right now is an example.

8. Find Amazing Designers. Pay Them.
Look at design boards and galleries for newcomers who are more willing to work for a less premium price than veterean design masters.

11. Build Robust About pages. Use photos if at all possible.
This builds your profile as an actual brand, not just a generic (possibly shady) online company.

13. Earn and display Testimonials and Press Mentions.
Submit yours with link and photo to sites/companies you love and use.

16. Register your business and address at getlisted.org
That site quickly and easily checks and completes your location listing on the major search engines.

18. Earn branded search traffic.
Build your search engine rankings by clicking on this and clicking “Drew Allen is retiring…”
Now you try that with your brand.

22. File patents and/or fund scholarly research.
It costs a little money, but not only does it more robustly protect that web app you developed, but it also gets you link love from some very respectable sources.

24. Get your great design in design portals.
The designer is featured on the design portal, but where are they all visiting to see his (or her) work? Your site.

28. Use sites like followerwonk to make key bloggers, and connectors aware of your brand.

34. Make your RSS feed “full content” and include appropriate, absolute links back to your site.

There’s plenty more where that came from. SEOmoz is awesome. Anyway, I’ll leave with a quote from Rand at the end about moving towards EARNING links as opposed to begging for them:

“If you’re not willing to trade short term gains for long term benefits, what you’re making probably isn’t worth making” – Rand Fishkin

Well said.

Anybody else attend? Love it? Hate it? Let’s hear it.

I made some sweet wallpapers for Veterans Day.

It’s part of a campaign my company is doing called Hug a Veteran.

I even made ones for iPhones(3 & 4) and iPad.

I think that whether you’re for or against war, we can all agree to appreciate people who for whatever reasons have tasted the hell that is war on our behalf. So, yeah, give a veteran a hug. And download these sweet, sweet wallpapers.

Here’s the link:
http://new.speedysigns.com/blog/hugaveteranwallpapers

Ok, I’m out.

- Drew

PS Is it bad that I’m really excited for the new Kanye West album?


I wrote to Facebook.

Dear Facebook,

I use Facebook extensively and have over 1200 friends. While I actively weed out unwanted info from my Live News Feed by hiding people or applications… my Live Feed is still overloaded with plenty of info, more than I can ever really keep up with… but that has never really been a problem, thanks to friends lists.

I was able to make friends lists (one was “Radar” for potential dates/love interests, and also “Core”, for my closest dozen or so friends). I was able to make the lists, but much more importantly, I was able to drag and drop the lists I wanted most accessible above the “More…” line that by default hid everything below it.

This way, whenever I would visit Facebook, I had the following simple options on the left hand side, all only ONE click away:

News Feed
Radar
Core
Status Updates
More Lists >

This made Facebook easy and convenient. The information I wanted most was the easiest and quickest to access.

That is no longer an option… Now a friends list is buried under 2-3 clicks and even some scrolling down.

Here I will say, that I am not one to always complain endlessly about the changes you guys make to improve Facebook. Check my group history if you doubt it :) .

Actually, I very much like many of the changes made this weekend to Facebook. Notifications on the top bar, even more fully using the links and navigation possibilities of the left hand side, these are very positive moves.

However, as much as I appreciate the new changes to the home page, Removing the drag and drop functionality from the left hand side is a tremendous downgrade to the facebook user experience.

I know that I am but one voice among millions, but I’m sure you’re aware that a customization option like drag-and-drop link lists is a large one to be haphazardly tossed away. Please consider restoring/adding that function back to facebook’s overall very well-done home page.

My friends and women who may or may not know that I have crushes on them will thank you almost as much as I will.

Drew Allen


*Ahem*

Sometimes, the answer was looking at you in the mirror.

For years I have had numerous people tell me that I should look into doing voiceover work.

Well, after seeing some postings online for making money doing just that, I’m gonna do it.

I used my tax return to, among other things, purchase the tools necessary to start doing voiceover work from my house. These tools are essentially, a professional condenser-type mic, an audio interface to connect to my laptop, and the necessary software to record and edit my voice (Pro Tools Essentials).

I’m not at all going to discontinue my attempts to make it as a web designer, but if there’s even a slim chance I can make some reasonable money doing something I’m already very capable of doing well, that I also enjoy, then I owe it to myself to give it a shot.

Also, I’m writing this blog from a desktop blog program called Blogo. We’ll see how well this works.

Oh, and I did get an xbox360.


allen.

Well, I’m sitting in Hanahan, SC at my grandma’s house.

I’m actually on her ancient PC. Tweaking it a bit to get a bit more life out of it.

Chrome, Thunderbird, whatnot, etc.

What a weekend. I regret ever losing contact with the Allen family I have.

It was… just… absolutely delightful catching up, reconnecting, re-knowing these people who have been theoretically close to me for so much of my life…

I just can’t tell you how it feels to hear and say “I love you” to people and that you and they mean it. Because you’re family.

I had all but forgotten the very special connection the Allens share.

It was bliss to feel it again.

“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.” – The Godfather

Pics and video coming soon.

this one’s reasonably important. I’d love your thoughts, too.

my life is pretty much in time crisis mode nonstop these days. it’s made me stop and think.

I apologize by the way, this post is not supremely eloquent or very well thought out. Editing and revising a post on my personal blog is a luxury that possibly august will afford me.

I am turning my social knob down.

I don’t want to, really. But i have no other choice.

This is a phase in my life (read:single) wherein i have a unique opportunity to pursue the interests I want to, to grow and learn things in all the ways I really desire to. Many married people have told me while they don’t regret their marriage at all, they are jealous of that kind of freedom.

The problem is… i’m so socially motivated. I make friends easily. I tend to open up and love good, deep conversations, and love going to movies, and catchphrase, and pretty much if i can convert anything into a social event, I will.

This sounds good, but in the end i have

a.  a large number of acquaintances (you’re all awesome)
b. a pretty large number of good to very close friends
c. a constantly changing list of people who are good friends of mine that are angry because I haven’t spent enough time with them recently.
d. nothing all to show in the way of progress toward any of the goals I have set for myself in life.

I have a high list of things that demand, nay deserve my time and attention, but I am too busy hanging out to give any.

I find myself neglecting responsibilities like working out, reading, or practicing drums (things I am passionate about growing in myself) for hanging out/catching up time with a certain friend or friends. This post isn’t about any particular group of friends, because they have all played that part numerous times.

If I were caught up on everything (which I will be someday soon), I might be able to be as social as I am now. but sometimes, growing up and being a responsible adult means saying no. “I can’t do that, really. I’d love to, but I have some things I have to take care of tonight. or today. or this morning. or whenever.”

Anyway. I just felt the need to write that here.

I don’t think anyone will notice a huge change per se. But I am doing, my self, my future, and my eventual wife a disservice to not chase dreams, grow, and learn all I can now at this phase of life. (including discipline.)

PS ON THE OTHER HAND,

At the band’s last show (Saturday Night), I noticed a trend: People not coming to the show because they had no one to go with. Please, I ask you not to make that a reason. See, what you might not know is, on any given night in gainesville, I have to be at or near the venue we play at until 2 am. We arrive by around 8 ish usually. Our set is usually 30-45 minutes. After that *I* am there and wanting to hang out with people (read:you). I can’t tell you how many times I have been alone at a venue ten minutes after we play. Don’t get me wrong I understand some people might have to get up early and so they leave after we get done. But still, I’m a lot of fun to hang out with and after we play, I’d love to actually have people there TO hang out with. So, come. If you can “survive” 45 minutes of stunning soul music while standing alone, then I’ll make it up to you by being extra witty afterwards.

thoughts on hots and nots

I really wish Google would release Chrome for the Mac already… seriously.

The Office tonight was SO good. Proof that it’s a freakin awesome show, is if we needed more proof.

I am listening to radium88 right now. They randomly friend requested me on myspace… and i clicked to see where they were from or if I knew them. By the time I discovered that I did not know them at all and that they are from the U.K., their sweet downtempo tune had sucked me in. Check ‘em out: http://www.myspace.com/theradium88

But, much more awesome than those guys is another band from the U.K.: The Foreign Exchange. Seriously. Hot Music. Especially dig Take Off The Blues. Check it out here: www.theforeignexchangemusic.com/

Actually, just watch this:

Sweet, eh?

I am trying to get back on the wagon with exercising. Did something light tonight. It slips away so fast.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with matt green tomorrow night.

Anyway, it’s late, and I still have  some stuff to work on.

Did I mention I could use a good night’s rest? I really could.