I hate doing things that waste my time. I also get annoyed when Pageviews are bandied about. A 2013 study by Incapsula revealed that 61% of web traffic is from bots. Is your target reader a bot? Mine's certainly not!     Don't get me wrong. I too obsessed over my site's Pageviews. When I reached 500 posts on this site, I shared my growth in terms of visitors and pageviews, knowing full well that I'd gamed the numbers, especially for 2012. Sure I posted consistently. I posted a lot. But was it quality--making a difference to anyone? Did it allow you to get to know me? No and no.   A quick pause. When I'm talking about "gaming the numbers" I'm not talking about buying clicks or traffic. I'm talking about writing and posting content that attracted traffic, for example Tuesday Shoesday, Thursday Purseday (once a meme, but no longer), Font Friday, and so on. These were strong hashtags and many women were searching for them. My target reader then l...

No one attends the same conference as another and walks away with the same key insights or takeaways. What we glean from a conference is what we bring to it. If we're seeking guidance for the direction of our path or our purpose, we're more likely to "hear" or interpret what we hear with that filter. Here is my takeaway from Women 2.0 Conference 2014.     When I heard about the Women 2.0 Conference 2014 I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't read anything about it, so I didn't much beyond the Pitch Competition and whether sessions would be inspirational or informational in nature.   What conferences have you attended recently?  

I've been reading blogs for over six years. As many of my favorite blogs are design and lifestyle blogs, I've read about many milestones in the lives of my favorite bloggers: first child, first house, death of a fur baby, and more. Through their words I've formed an idea of who I think they are. And my impression -- as well as yours -- may or may not be realistic.     Whether we'll admit it or not, we form an opinion of what our favorite blogger is like from their blog posts, their Tweets, their Instagram photos, and so on. What we forget is most bloggers, myself included, don't share/post every challenge we encounter.   Have you met bloggers who matched the impression you had of them? Have you met bloggers who were completely different?  

Whether we come right out and say it, we all want more traffic to our blog. Come on admit it, you get a lift when Google Analytics sends you an alert that you just broke your all time high unique visitor in a day record. So let's look at ways to optimize what we're doing and get more visitors. In the first of a new series, Up Your Game, I take a look at Pinterest.     One channel that I have not taken advantage of personally is Pinterest. I love Pinterest, but I haven't leveraged it as a way to get my content out there. Sure I've made half-hearted attempts, but nothing with a concrete action plan. That changes in 2014!     Susan Petersen's Tips for Maximizing Your Exposure on Pinterest Occasionally Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked teaches classes on Alt Channel (I've taken both her Pinterest and Instagram classes). In her Pinterest 101 class, she shared the following tips on how to use Pinterest: Link to your Pinterest feed on your website. Add a Pin It...

One of the biggest problem with New Year's Resolutions is that we set them and forget them for roughly 345 days. (Some of us -- not typically me -- make it through to the middle or end of January.)   In the past, I've been known to have completely forgotten my goals, a few days after New Year's has come and gone. If you struggle with your resolutions or objectives and goals as I like to call them, here's an action plan (a tried and true plan that I use with all of my clients).     If you ask anyone who knows me, they'll tell you I'm crazy organized. Give me a date and a goal and I'll come up with a plan for making it happen. Now when it comes to my own life outside of my clients, I'm not so organized. So, when I started thinking about this year's objectives and goals I was surprised to find I'd actually jotted down my 2013 goals (I often don't). More startling was the fact I'd achieved some of them! Immediately, I decided this year is ...

When done right, employee evaluations can be a positive experience. They're an opportunity to review your skills and set objectives and goals based on your strengths. They're a chance to craft a roadmap that leverages your strengths to do something that interests you and benefits others as well as you. That's why I don't make resolutions, I set objectives and goals.     How do you make resolutions?  

I admit it. Lately, I've been a one subject girl. Alt-this. Alt-that. I get that you're sick of it. But, it's a big deal. A really big deal for me.     What's the big deal about Alt? Not counting life events, such as getting married or having Gates, attending Alt Summit SLC this week ranks in my top three. The other two events? Yearbook camp in high school and my first Burning Man. Both of those events changed my life. I landed my first job in tech because someone saw the print out of my neatly laid out and illustrated notes from my Geology class -- skills I learned at Yearbook camp. I got engaged at Burning Man, but also learned that no matter how well prepared you are for something you've never done, to survive takes a community. Will Alt have a similar impact? Who knows.   Never heard of Alt? Having never been and based solely on accounts I've read or heard, Alt is an indoor, micro-sized version of Burning Man with branded sponsors (the sponsors are ther...

I'm addicted to Instagram - an iPhone application that lets you take photos, transform those photos using filters, and then share them via Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr. Initially I had no insight into how well or how poorly my content was performing. Now, I can get statistics for my Instagram content with Iconosquare (formerly Statigram) .   Iconosquare gives you a few features you don't get with Instagram, the ability to see who followed you recently, who unfollowed you, which fans follow you that you follow back, and more. You also get recommendations about when to post.   Reviewing Your Most Popular Content In the Viewer (the default view), you can organize your photos by Likes and by Comments Received. This ordering allows you to see which photos are getting liked or commented on, and if you chose, influence the direction of your future content.   You can also quickly scan through entries into Instagram Challenges or your uniquely tagged Instagram series. ...