The Glacier Lakes Quattro Club is part of the Audi Club North America. Our chapter provides members with the opportunity to share their knowledge with each other at driver schools, teen clinics, social gatherings and more. Follow the links below to review our upcoming and past events, browse photos and learn more about our club.
Glacier Lakes Quattro Club

Webmasters often ask us at conferences or in the Webmaster Help Group, “What are some simple ways that I can improve my website’s performance in Google?” There are lots of possible answers to this question, and a wealth of search engine optimization information on the web, so much that it can be intimidating for newer webmasters or those unfamiliar with the topic.
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google’s SEO Starter Guide

Twitter isn’t just a tool, though; it’s a community — one that will stop paying attention if it feels like you’re exploiting it. One way to make Twitter users feel exploited is to open an account and immediately start blasting out your latest press releases. That kind of headlong behavior could conceivably strike back against you, leaving your brand and your reputation in tatters.
Twitter for business: 5 ways to tap the power of the tweet

This will be the first in a serious of posts devoted to highlighting new and interesting ways people are using WordPress. I already have at least 3 amazing uses of WordPress lined up that you probably have never seen before and are sure to spark your interest.
Innovative Use of WordPress: The WordPress Link Directory

My friend Kare Anderson has some great suggestions on how to use social networks to benefit everyone in a group.

I’ve found that the real benefits of social networking are mainly getting in touch with those you normally wouldn’t reach, and streamlining the process of thinking as a group. Some of my most pleasant surprises in social networking have been the connections and discussions I’ve shared out of groups on LinkedIn and Facebook — for those who actually take the time to add their thoughts to a discussion and try to contribute in a meaningful way the possibilities are endless.

Of course, the flip-side of the ease of social networking tools is that the folks who are trying to make “quick hits” and plaster their message everywhere find it easier to do so as well. My biggest frustration with the groups I contribute to is the avalance of “I’m looking for work” or “buy my widget” posts. None of them provide any value at all — which is a huge disappointment because if the submitters took a few minutes to pose a meaningful question or provide helpful information to the group it would get them exactly what they’re looking for (enhanced reputation, more leads, sales, etc.). The tendency for far too many is to be lazy and transparent instead of helpful and collaborative.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

The Cab Ride I’ll Never Forget | Zen Moments

If you’re a dad and you haven’t read Letters to My Son, you should check it out.

2) Will Facebook, MySpace, and SMS marginalize the role of email in communication between friends, family, and peers?

For those of us who use the above tools (and particularly the techno-savvy generation enjoying the majority of their user base), it’s hard to imagine that Facebook and other social networking sites won’t have some impact on email communication. It’s very simple to login to your page, see what your friends and family are up to, and chat back and forth to each other (or “write on their walls,” “tweet,” etc.). Likewise it’s really nice to have the ability to share photos online and play interactive games, or even get a text when someone you’ve subscribed to makes a post.

However, I don’t think that email will be “marginalized” in any real way until the devices we use can more fully support and interact with these tools in a seamless way. The closest we’ve come thus far is the iPhone, which has applications for Facebook, Twitter, Loopt, etc. built in, all in a compact device that also takes calls, shoots photos and handles SMS. And now with the 3g iPhone, the additional layer of location-awareness (GPS) and context has been layered onto existing networks and interactions. It’s even possible (although not really practicable yet) to connect with friends based on where they are.

The key point to remember is that devices like the iPhone are nowhere near ubiquitous yet. To reach critical mass on any technology that would usurp email, we need prices to drop on enabling technology, and there needs to be a massive rush on new hardware. Email remains the consistent/constant technology that everyone from your boss to your grandmother has access to. Messages via email are easy, quick, and allow you to check messages on your schedule. And there’s nothing that will move the status quo on the horizon just yet — not until you can keep everything with you, and until these technologies can convice the mass population that being “always on” is a good thing.

So, will social networking tools marginalize the role of email? Not anytime soon — but we’re moving in that direction.

spy :: visualizes the conversations on Twitter, Friendfeed, Blogs and more.

Very handy to get a “right NOW” view of what the “twitterati” et al are thinking and saying about any topic.

Until now BizzyWeb has been a “hobby,” but I’ve got entrepreneurism in my blood. I always wanted to have my own business, and growing up seeing my father work for himself certainly left an impression. When I got my MBA in 2003, it was in “venture management,” which is a fancy term for entrepreneurship. So it’s all been working up to this point.

I have tons of ideas of what I want to do with BizzyWeb now that it’s official, but right now I’m going to focus on the basics — finding new clients that need help building websites. I know from conversations I’ve had with friends, colleagues, clients and relatives that there are many small business owners who don’t have a web presence because it seems too complicated. Now, however, the technology has caught up so well over the past few years that it’s possible for even a small business owner with very little computer savvy to easily maintain their own site. My clients can login to their own pages via a web browser and add or edit pages just as easily as if they were editing a Word document.

I’ll be “tweeting” the experience of starting my company — and of course I’ll be blogging here with more lengthy discussions and posts. For now, it’s all about networking and getting some new clients to help. If you know anyone, send them my way!

Check out my new page on WordPress for more details, or just hover over the Web Design tab, and then select WordPress from the fly-out menu.

Wondering how WordPress could work for your business? Reply below in comments!