I love it!

Matt Cutts talks about why Google does NOT use keywords in their searches anymore.

Totally enjoyed the day at WordCamp Seattle. It was a good event, got to see the Adobe complex, and it was a brilliantly beautiful day as well.

There were some great speakers there, check out the list here and visit their sites:
http://www.wordcampseattle.com/speakers/

I especially liked these folks:

Chris Pirillo – and not just because he told us about the Bebot app for my iPhone!

Jane Wells - Jane works with the WordPress core development team, I liked her happy attitude and general joie de vivre – she loves her job and it shows.

Ian Lurie – good ideas on web page set up for better SEO

George Plumley – I really enjoyed  Georges talk on videos for your web site.
I especially like George’s site http://seehowtwo.com/
Its a FANTASTIC RESOURCE for WordPress Tutorials – absolutely check it out.

George is publishing a book that should be coming out in November, a guide for our CLIENTS on how to update just the basic features for their WP web site.

There are books out there – like WordPress for Dummies – but there is too much info in there for the casual user. So I am looking forward to this book as something I can give my clients when we finish their WordPress site. Sign up for his newsletter to get updated on the launch date.

Also, Mark McLaren has a lot of WP resources on his site :
http://www.mcbuzz.com/wordpress/

Scott Porad – Saw Scott at WordCamp San Francisco, he’s an engaging and thoughtful speaker. Lots of info and and insights on how his company tests out different web sites to see what flies and what doesn’t. Great for modeling.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/ and the other sites in the LOL umbrella attract millions of visitors and participants a day. They duin’ it rite!

Ignite:
Fast paced and great info – funny too!
Participants had 5 minutes to share a slide presentation (15 seconds per slide) about what they are doing with WordPress.

Next WordCamp? I’d love to go to one in Spain, or Brazil, or Australia…Thailand….

WordCamp Seattle is this Saturday the 26th in the Fremont District at Adobe.

I’m excited – wonderful line-up and totally SOLD OUT.

Hope you got your tickets!

Will let you know how it goes.

www.wordcampseattle.com

You can now embed the SoundCloud player in your WordPress site!

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/soundcloud/

We are big fans of SoundCloud, a really useful service that is part Flickr for music, part professional music collaboration hub. Artists such as Beck, Moby and Sonic Youth now use the service to distribute tracks through their blogs and connect with their fans….go to the link to read more and get the embed code.

I recommend WordPress to a lot of people – the free blog site.

This is a pretty good step-by-step tutorial to get you up and running if you are unsure of how to get started. Go to wordpress.com and set up a blog while watching the video. This video is NOT put out by WordPress, just an avid user.

The guy, Chris Abraham, that does the video is kidding around when he acts like he doesn’t know what he’s doing! He’s a geekasaurious.

OR, Click HERE to watch it on YouTube

WordPress does recommend some tutorial books, http://wordpress.org/about/books/

I have WordPress for Dummies (doh!) and it’s quite good. More info than the casual user needs, but should cover everything for the novice and anyone interested in venturing into the .ORG side of WordPress.

Also, lynda.com has an on-line training library you can subscribe to – but that might be an overkill commitment for the casual user. However, if you are web inclined and want to learn about WordPress and other programs, it’s a great resource for a few bucks a month.

Something that has confused many people is the distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Let’s clear it up. WordPress.com is brought to you by some of the same folks who work on WordPress, the open source blogging software. In addition, WordPress.com utilizes the same WordPress software which you can download at WordPress.org. With WordPress.com the hosting and managing of the software is taken care of by the team here at Automattic. With WordPress.org you need to install the software on your own server or with a 3rd party provider.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE ON THE WORDPRESS SITE

Here’s a short article on the Bellingham Web Designers Unite! group that I am a part of:

Click link or read below
Web Designers Unite! article

New club provides Web designers face-to-face time
Michelle Nolan for the Bellingham Herald

Josh Parrish loves to play around with computers, but he also likes interacting with people.

The result is Web Designers Unite!, a club that he and two friends founded last year to foster in-person camaraderie among local tech enthusiasts.

The 28-year-old Bellingham resident, who likes to grow some of his own food and has chickens in his Sunnyland yard, got in on the ground floor of Web design 14 years ago as a high school freshman. He has spent countless hours teaching himself advanced computer skills, yet has remained an avid snowboarder and outdoorsman.

Married and the father of two, he manages online communications for the admissions department at Western Washington University.

About the club: “The club was hatched when a friend who works in Web design, Ritama Haaga, and I were talking in a coffee shop, and we got around to saying how neat it would be to get together a group of Web designers for happy hours,” said Parrish, who noted that Pam Nilzon also is a co-founder.

About a dozen people came to the club’s first meeting, in February 2008, at Boundary Bay Brewery and Bistro. Now, monthly gatherings routinely draw more than twice that many Web designers, and membership has risen to about 40.

“We each have our specialties, and being able to share resources has really been beneficial,” Parrish said. “We’re learning a lot from each other.”

Why founded: “I’ve always enjoyed sharing my passions about computers,” Parrish said. “I’d drag my high school friends into it. It wasn’t exactly kicking and screaming, but I would definitely share what I was learning and doing. Now we do that in the club.”

Major events: The club meets monthly, usually the third Thursday at 5 p.m. at a local restaurant, with sites announced online.

The club doesn’t hold major events yet, but Parrish dreams of hosting a Bellingham convocation of Web design clubs.

Member stories: Parrish said Nathan Carnes is an archeologist turned Web designer, having honed his computer skills while majoring in archeology at Western.

Haaga runs her own Web design company and is an accomplished glass blower. Her creations can be seen at ritama.com

Seth Thomas is one of the leaders of The INN University Ministries in Bellingham, a fellowship for college students, Parrish said, and likes to spend his summers developing his Web design skills.

CLUB AT A GLANCE

Name: Web Designers Unite!

Purpose: Foster camaraderie and knowledge among local web designers.

Year started: 2008.

Number of members: 40.

Contacts: 319-6672 or keylime@gmail.com Online: webdesignersunite.com

Leadership: Founding members are Josh Parrish, Ritama Haaga and Pam Nilzon.

Common Craft makes great videos:

WordCamp is coming to Seattle! If it’s anything like the WordCamp I went to in San Francisco in May, it’ll be fantastic. Seriously. Fantastic.

Check out their web site, sign up for Twitter and Facebook, and go!

www.wordcampseattle.com

central.wordcamp.org/

WordCamp is a conference type of event that focuses squarely on everything WordPress. Everyone from casual end users all the way up to core developers show up to these events. These events are highlighted by speeches or keynotes by various people.

Click here to read my post about the San Francisco WordCamp in May, and here for my illustrious meeting with Tim Ferriss.