This week Follow Friday is coming to you from Fargo, North Dakota in the form of Josh Whitford aka The Real Josh from, editor of the Unconventional Marketing blog! I ran into Josh online about a year ago, maybe a little longer and we’ve just kept bumping into each other ever since. I guess when you’re working in the same field… that kind of thing happens.

“Start now, don’t care about making it perfect. You will have tons of time to perfect things down the road. Eventually, you’ll find your own groove and go with it. Everything is an evolving process and blogging is no different. Make it fun and you’ll be set.”

I asked Josh what’s been the most exciting thing that has happened to him because of blogging. “I got a postcard from Read the rest of this entry

Now, before you descend on me like a swarm of locust for backpeddling… read on!

I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that social media marketing, or trying to make sales through “the social media channel” is a beyond a waste of time… it is driving potential business away, never to return. And for everyone’s sanity, including my own, I still feel that way! This past weekend at BarCamp Memphis, I had the opportunity to have some extended discussions that included this very topic. One blog owner was very concerned about having any advertising on their site saying they had made a huge investment gaining the trust of their readership and didn’t want to risk that by selling ads. At the same time, there has to be a viable revenue model or many sites, including some pretty popular ones, will not be able to continue. Well, maybe there is a way…
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It was my distinct pleasure to get to return to Memphis last weekend, this time to attend and speak at BarCamp Memphis 2. As always the fine folks of Memphis were fun to be with, the sessions were fun and thought provoking, the conversations were top notch (more on that in a sec), and then of course, there was PowerPoint Karaoke!

As with Social Camp back in September, BarCamp was hosted by the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering (MASE), a charter school in Memphis with lots going for it. You should really check out their website!

In what could best be called a lapse in planning on my part, I showed up Saturday morning bright and early, eager to present the two topics that were in the can. As it turned out, a couple of presenters couldn’t be there Saturday morning so I wound up leading a group for all three morning blocks. I’m pretty sure everything turned out ok… nobody got up and left during any of the three, that’s always a good sign.

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