I Quit for LIJIT...

The story changes direction...

First of all, patient readers, I must apologize for my leave of absence from this blog. Neglecting this blog was never my intent and yet, it somehow happened. Let me attempt to explain.

After I returned home from my trip to NYC in early April, there was some talk about revamping the Lijit company blog and what that entailed. Up until that point, the "official" Lijit blog was something that we updated every now and again, with no real rhyme or reason. After much deliberation, it was decided that I should focus more on improving the Lijit blog. I think this was a good decision since it was beginning to feel like I was simply using this blog to shill for Lijit and that was never meant to be my purpose here.

If you want to read specifically about Lijit, check out The Second Click, the place where I share new features, spotlight our publishers, introduce new Lijit employees and discuss the general state of our industry. Please feel free to subscribe and add the Lijit blog to your feed reader.

But what about this space? What's going to happen here?

That is where you come in. I was thinking that I should attempt to get back to my tagline and start writing about my experiences in the startup world. In rethinking my blog's focus, I need your help. What do you want to see here?

Some of my ideas include:

• the lessons I've learned since first starting a year and a half ago
• inspirational people I've met along my journey
• my thoughts on community-building, PR, marketing, evangelism and the like
• what's it like being a woman in the tech startup scene
• examples of effective marketing and outreach

Send me an email or leave a comment and tell me what you think. I'm asking for it. And in return, I give you my word that I won't let another two months pass without an update.

And in the words of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg...

"I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better."

SXSW Highlights...

Now that I've had a few days to catch up on sleep, I feel that I'm better able to write about the experience I just had in Austin at a little conference known as South by Southwest Interactive. Most people are familiar with the music and film portions of SXSW, but if you're a tech geek, then the Interactive portion of the conference is like Disneyland. But better because there's free booze everywhere. After some reflection, I present my favorite moments from South by (which is what all the cool kids call it):

• The Unicorn

He joined Andrew Hyde's panel about half way through and stole the show. Afterwards, the Unicorn was running around giving everyone high-fives. When I put my hand up in the air to receive, he refused to slap my hand. Ouch. Let me just say that getting dissed by a nonexistent, magical creature doesn't make it hurt any less.

• Bowling for Geeks

It's always fun bowling with your CEO but even better when you're talking trash and throwing strikes. Besides the neon balls, the best part of bowling was when the entire alley got Rick rolled by the guy playing the music videos. Only a bunch of geeks would truly appreciate that!

• Seeing Lijit publishers in action

Everywhere I looked at SXSW, I saw familiar names and URLs. Having the chance to thank users and speak with them firsthand about what they want from Lijit was priceless. I went to a session on building community and one of the speakers, Jake McKee, the Community Guy, was proudly wearing a Lijit t-shirt. Bestill my beating evangelistic heart!

• Blog Network Camp

Lijit was one of the sponsors for this event and there was a great turnout for it. I always get a kick watching Todd, our CEO, give a demo because it re-energizes me and makes me remember why I started working for the company in the first place. Mainly because he's very persuasive and we have a kick-ass search service. The response from the bloggers at the event was positive and we're looking forward to seeing how we can make network search even better!

• How to piss off a blogger

I attended this discussion on blogger relations and was pleased to find out that I don't do any of the things we listed as ways to piss off bloggers. I'm self-taught and it's taken me a year, but I feel that I'm finally in the position to lead one of these panels. As I've always said, if you treat a blogger like you'd like to be treated, you're probably doing the right thing. To read more about what we came up with, check out the post written by the session moderator.

• Hanging in da Bloghaus

This was the place to be to meet anyone who is anyone in the blogging world. Interviews were going on left and right, blog posts were frantically typed, free beer was consumed...and all with the energy and enthusiasm of a frat house. The Bloghaus is where I made the most connections, met the most Twitter friends and rubbed shoulders with the most A-listers. A very dangerous place for someone who freaks out around (very) minor celebrities!

• Cathedral of Junk

There was a Flickr meetup in South Austin in the backyard of a gentleman who has constructed a 20-foot high shrine completely out of junk. How could you say no to seeing that? It was awesome to meet some of the Flickr employees, hang with other geeky photo-types and get away from the convention center for a bit. Did I mention that you can climb the stairs in this temple of junk? And that the Austin City Council has been out to check it (at the request of some neighbors) and has found that the Cathedral of Junk meets all of the city's building codes?

• Learning more about the CEO

Trips like these allow me to see Todd dressed up as a pirate (for a panel he rocked, btw) and present me with the opportunity to learn that we have the same size feet. (No need to mention that I have humongous feet. It's common knowledge.) Good to know that if necessary, I will be able to fill the shoes of the CEO perfectly. Yarrrr....

• The people

Duh. Everywhere you went, there was potential for inspiration and connection. Something about the mellow Austin mood must have rubbed off, because I had no problem walking up to anyone (regardless of their page views) and starting a conversation. It was such an electric energy, matching avatars to faces and meeting new friends. You hear people say it all the time in the online world, but honestly, it really is all about the people. I'm just glad I got to experience it myself in a backdrop as cool as SXSW.

What about the parties, you ask? Well, they were good, but I didn't have my camera on me and I ended up shouting to be heard in those venues. The parties were indeed a good time (especially the one that we helped to sponsor!) but for someone who doesn't like staying out late, they just seemed to drain me of my mornings, my voice and my energy.

That's my wrap-up of what went down at SXSW. If you went, I'd love to hear the stories and pictures that you have to share. And if I promised you a t-shirt and didn't have the right size, shoot me an email and I'll be sure to amend that situation.

(Last photo courtesy of Gwen Bell)

Things that make me happy...

Thought I'd share some feel-good items on this wonderful Thursday...

• Our stats page can help out with getting to know your readers better and with finding out what search terms people are using to get to your blog. SkottK, one of our users, can readily attest to this. He recently posted about a certain search query that has brought readers to his site. If that doesn't make you smile, maybe the fact that one of the search queries that brought people here was "earwig crawling in my ear". Awesome.

• When I first started working for Lijit, one of my biggest pet peeves (and one of Stan's) was that not many of our users were posting profile pics. I think it helps when you see someone searched from our home page. So imagine my delight, when the other day, I was presented with this...

• Lijit has recently pledged 1% of our equity to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado. Which means that whenever we start making money, we'll be giving some of it away to support the local community. It feels good to be part of a company that wants to give back.

• Around our office, we enjoy a good door sign. We think it says a lot about the person who occupies that office. Keeping that in mind, look what I found on Todd's door...

And then, walking down the hallway, I found this attached to the door where Stan, Leslie and Daniel work...

Yep. Leave it to the Lijit employees to keep it real and wear their vices on their doors.

• Daniel stumbled upon something that had us all laughing today. It's even funnier knowing that one of our users, another start-up by the name of Disruptor Monkey, also found this funny today. Enjoy what Stan and I have to offer.

 

Top 5 things I love about Boulder

So I wasn't tagged by anyone. But I am approaching my 4-year anniversary of moving to Boulder and a part of me just wanted to document how much I love where I live. In appreciation of Boulder, I decided to share the 5 places that I enjoy the most in no specific order (but numbered so as to keep things straight)...

1.  Mt. Sanitas

Mt. Sanitas is minutes from downtown Boulder and is a great hike. It offers awesome views of the entire town, is guaranteed to make you sweat, and is a must for out-of-town visitors. Plus, I always get passed by someone decades older than me, proving once again that even the seventy-year old Boulderites are in better shape than me.

2. Boulder Theater

Boulder is a great place for live music and nothing beats this place. From big-names like Spoon and Aimee Mann to smaller musical acts like The Books, from comedy (Kevin Nealon) to movies, from benefits (Microbreweries for the Environment) to bashes (Mountain Sun Hootenanny), I've done most of it in this building. The venue is small enough that there is never a bad seat and the place just reeks of history. It also doesn't hurt that I know one of the bartenders. Love it.

3. The Flatirons

I took this shot in my old neighborhood. (SoBo represent!) The Flatirons always amaze me. Big slabs of rock that stand solid to form the backdrop of Boulder, they are especially beautiful with a light dusting of snow. They point the way west which, for someone directionally challenged like me, presents a wonderful landmark to get my bearings. And on Saturday afternoon, I have a date with the first Flatiron. I haven't climbed it in a while and am looking forward to spending some quality time on it.

4. Boulder Creek bike path

Boulder has an extensive bike path system that basically connects all parts of town. When I was doing a lot of bike commuting, these paths became places of familiarity and surprise. You never know what you're going to see or who you're going to run into. The pic above is a spot along the bike path and the closest my road bike has ever been to flowing water. After living in a big town that was extremely  unfriendly to bikers (Houston), Boulder is a bike rider's dream come true. Maybe that's why so many pro cyclists live and train here?

5. My bedroom...aka the treehouse

I wake up with the birds chirping in the trees that surround my room. I can see Mt. Sanitas from my window, can walk three blocks to the Boulder theater and am five blocks from the entrance to the bike path. Sleep is a friend of mine and many good times have been spent in here. Even with the mint-green color on the walls.

Honorable mentions: the outdoor patio of the Southern Sun pub and brewery, Chautauqua park, Boulder Reservoir and the Mesa trail

On a rainy day...

A view from our campsite where some much-needed decompression took place this last weekend. I love to camp and this was the first trip out this season. We found a super-awesome place, very close to Boulder and yet far enough away to not see many people. Although I was a little sore from carrying a luxuriously-packed backpack (we brought PBR!), I can't wait to discover new and different places to pitch my cute, Lijit-green tent, which turns out to be a great shade of camouflage in the woods.

 

And this one goes out to Leslie, who had to listen to me when I was geeking out about finding these goslings in the park where I eat lunch. Just a little bit of fuzzy goodness for a drizzly day...