I Quit for LIJIT...

Playing the straight man...

has never been a strong suit of mine. As you will see in this video I did with Kutenda (a marketing company located just up the road from Lijit) about how blogging can help your small business. It was very difficult to keep a straight face and I was talking like Donna Kutenda for the rest of the day.

Talk about brilliant marketing concepts! I was honored to be a part of the video, had lots of fun making it and recommend my friends at Kutenda for anyone needing some help with online marketing.

When the ball breaks...**

One of the many things that I love about working for a startup like Lijit is that when an interesting opportunity presents itself, we're quick to take advantage. This is not often the case when dealing with a corporation. Old-school corporations shy away from quick movement or employees having fun. Fortunately, we embrace both concepts here...on an almost daily basis.

Just such an opportunity occurred a few weeks ago when one of our trusty green "exercise" balls up and popped. No one is quite sure just how it happened, but I'm sure it was due to some incredible mental activity taking place on said ball.

Most normal folks might just throw the old busted ball away, but not us. Not after we worked so hard to bring these balls into existence. (The following video may cause emotional discomfort but it's really short. Just don't miss out on the faces I'm making during the hard labor of pumping up balls for the new office. And yes, that is our CEO laughing at us in the background.)

Pump it up from Tara Anderson on Vimeo.

No, in lieu of mourning the beloved green ball, we simply had different employees try the ball on for size. Turns out Daniel looks really good with a ball on his head.

And, if that weren't enough, we also somehow convinced Grace, our smallest employee, to actually crawl into the lifeless green shell...and be the ball. She did a nice job.

Although she said it was hot in there, I'm pretty sure she's considering changing the name of her blog to Small Hands, Big Green Balls, which, if not taken, is a great name. Of course, the new name might change the focus of her blog and attract the wrong kind of readers...but she already has a banner image all set to go.

Just another afternoon around the Lijit office.

And this, my dear readers, is why I continue to work here--for the laughs, for the people and for the learning experiences.

(You can thank me later for this hard-hitting bit of behind-the-scenes investigative reporting.)

**Hopefully, the cradle does not fall.

Ignite Boulder 6: Ladies Take Over

I'm about to get all gushy. Ignite Boulder does it to me every time. I don't know if it's because I've been to every one that Andrew Hyde has organized here in Boulder or because I've spoken at 50% of them, but this is my absolute favorite event that happens locally. While Ignite may have started as a small tech event, it is no longer that. This event sold out the Boulder Theater last week and with it, proved that there is such thing as a sense of humor to be found in Boulder.

The first few Ignites were sorely lacking in female presenters. At the first one, it was just me and Julie Penner. Fortunately, the tides have changed and at this most recent event, there were more female presenters than men. Simply put, the ladies rocked it.

One of my favorite food bloggers, Jen from Use Real Butter, started off the night (after Ef's humorous musical introduction) with a presentation about food porn.

In case you don't know, I'm a big fan of the food porn and if given more free time, would probably post more of it.

Vanessa Schneider told us all the grizzly details behind getting a DUI. While I sympathized with her dilemma, I also couldn't help but laugh because this chick is funny. DUIs are not a laughing matter, but Vanessa, however, is.

Other funny ladies that I did not get pictures of include Sara Levi, with her brilliant idea for alternative energy, Heather Clisby with her presentaion on screwed-up logic, and Christina Sagray's thesis on the modern teen chick flick. (Christina gets extra points for including a John Hughes memorial slide in her presentation.)

The gentleman of the evening did not disappoint either. Ryan Wanger gave another outstanding presentation about the princess being in another castle...

and provided us with the event's obligatory Mario reference. The always-entertaining George G. Smith Jr. offered up tips to become a master debater, including volume control, remaining topical and how to avoid being Kanye a sore loser. And in his Ignite debut, my buddy from back in the stand-up days, Dave Burdick did a wonderful job of proving that he really did learn a lot from Ghostbusters.

If you haven't attended an Ignite yet, I strongly suggest you do. Ignite 6 proved to be yet another in (hopefully) a long line of fantastically entertaining and educational evenings. A big thank you to all of the speakers, the volunteers and most especially to Andrew Hyde, for continuing to share his community-building talents with all of us in Boulder.

BlogHer 09: Bringing it back to Chicago

There are lots of post-conference reviews and summaries coming to light as BlogHer attendees write about their experiences. Some are on blogs, some are in the traditional media. I was unsure how I should go about talking about the conference, because as a marketer and a blogger, I have a few different angles I can take on the subject. Since I'm mostly caught up on sleep, I thought that I would share a different sort of top ten list with you--the questions I have after returning home from BlogHer. There are a few that I can actually answer and a few that don't need it...

Question #1: Do I talk about all the awesome bloggers I met?

    Because really, I could go on and on and on and on with regards to the caliber of women (and the few men) that I met while at BlogHer. There's not enough room to link to them all.

Question #2: Do I mention the incredible sessions that provided much food for thought?

    Whether it was listening to how some of my favorite bloggers tend to their craft or hearing about how big companies are dealing with social media, there were learning opportunities around every corner of that Sheraton.

Question #3: Do I dissect what it felt like to be a non-mommyblogger wandering around an expo floor full of major sponsors looking to reach the mommybloggers?

    At another time, perhaps.

Question #4: Do I discuss the issue of swag and how crazy it has all become?

    No need to since many other talented writers have already done a better job than I ever could.

Question #5: Do I bring up how amazing it is to hear bloggers read their best work aloud with tears streaming down my face and my heart swollen with pride?

    The Community Keynote is the best part of BlogHer in my opinion and reminds me why we all started doing this in the first place.

Question #6: Do I share the numerous conversations I had about Lijit, listening to feedback and explaining how we strive to provide value to bloggers?

    Let's just say that Lijit stickers became one of the most coveted accessories of the weekend.

Question #7: Do I approach the topic of how much I've learned since first attending BlogHer in 07?

    You can see it firsthand here and here.

Question #8: Do I broach the subject of just how many parties and events took place outside of the official BlogHer conference lineup?

    Lots and lots. If you wanted to attend BlogHer without ever really attending BlogHer, it was quite possible. (And you probably walked away with better swag than I.)

Question #9: Do I even begin to wax poetic about how grateful I am to work for a company that gets it?

    No. It's been a while since I've written poetry but if you must, check out the rhyming ode I wrote to the Lijit stats. This will remind you why I don't write poetry often.

Question #10: Do I simply thank Elisa, Jory and Lisa for allowing me to be there for a small part of the magic?

    Yes. See you ladies next year in New York City.

{Photos courtesy of Veesees and Southern Fairytale...because I still haven't uploaded my pictures yet}

Showing a gnome around Boulder

I often find myself doing odd things because of my job. Slap a sticker on a drunk Guy Kawasaki? Check. Put your head through a whiteboard made to look like a widget? Check. Take a gnome around Boulder and give him a tour of local startups? Ummmm...okay.

When my friend Lindsay asked if I would help out, I didn't hesitate. It was fun hanging out with the little guy for two days and I learned a few things by taking the Yim gnome (that's his name, btw) around town.

Basically, when you work for a startup, you ALWAYS have time for a photo op. Especially one involving an inanimate object and a Twitter mention.

This was Day 1 with Yim...

Powered by Whrrl

And in case you can't get enough, even more startup fun with Yim on Day 2...

Powered by Whrrl

Not only did I have fun getting to see the offices of all my favorite Boulder tech startups, but I really enjoyed playing around with Whrrl. It's a fun application and very easy to use. If you like telling stories with your pictures and having an easy way of sharing that story with your friends, be sure to give Whrrl a whirl.

Word on the street is that Yim will be attending BlogHer as well, so this may not be the last you see of him here.

Names can be deceiving

Part of my daily morning routine is to check out the blogs who signed up with Lijit the day before. I love starting my day like this because you never know what kind of randomness you'll end up seeing. Sometimes it's a blog that impresses me with design or a blog in another language that leaves me confused. Like Gump was known to say about life, I say about our sign-up report..."you never know what you're going to get."

When I saw a URL with the words ear sucker in it this morning, I was intrigued to say the least. I'm not new to the slightly sexual sites, since we have quite a few that are using Lijit.* However, with this one, I had no idea what was going to greet me when I clicked on the link. Was my computer going to crash? Was I going to blush?

To my surprise (or is it disappointment?), Ear Sucker is a music blog. They feature information about upcoming tours, gossip about musicians, and must-see videos. I liked the content I saw on their blog, but honestly, they had me at their URL. With a name like that, you'd better not disappoint.

*Other Lijit publishers that have helped to increase my tolerance: Booted Up, Towleroad, and Christian Sings the Blues. Remember...you've been warned.

Nashville bound

I'm heading out to Nashville today for the Blissdom Conference and am quite excited. So excited that I seem to have lost my sanity, hopefully just momentarily, and decided to share a video that has never seen the light of day. This was a fun little collaborative project that took place when some of the guys from the first TechStars group stopped by the old Lijit offices.

***Be warned that the video contains a lot of MC Hammer and white people dancing, so if you're sensitive to either of those things, it may not be in your best interest to watch it.***

However, if you want a good laugh, then have at it. You can thank me later. And for those ladies going to Blissdom who are stopping by to get a feel for what I'm bringing to the conference...yep, you guessed it...mad line-dancing skills.

2 Lijit 2 Quit from Tara Anderson on Vimeo.

6th Photo Meme

I'm going to start this meme post off with a disclaimer: I hate memes. In my almost two years of blogging, I've only been tagged one other time. While hesitant to take part in another, I was tagged by Grace, who works with me here at Lijit. This means that if I don't respond, I'll have to hear about it on an almost daily basis. Therefore, I'm participating, although begrudgingly. Bah humbug meme!

The 6th photo meme works like this:

• Go to sixth page of your Flickr account.
• Pick the sixth picture.
• Blog it.
• Tag six friends to join the meme.

Since I consider this my "work" blog, I thought it would be more appropriate to refer to the Lijit Flickr account for this meme. So here's the winning shot...

This picture is of Leslie and one of our Lijit publishers, Aaron, at the racetrack. I love this picture for so many different reasons, one of which is that I *rarely* see Leslie drink a beer and another being that you never know who you might run into at the racetrack. If you're interested, you can read an earlier post I wrote about the evangelism that occurs on the racetrack.


And now, I'm going to tag six other Lijit folk to join in the fun...

1. Todd (our fearless leader)
2. Aimee (a fantastic friend, photographer and Lijit publisher)
3. Daniel (I tagged him that first time too...)
4. The Communicatrix (because she was my first blog crush and you never know what will be in her Flickr photostream)
5. Caroline (a Lijit publisher I met at BlogHer '07 and one that I'll be seeing again in '09)
6. Derek (this should give him something to remember me by over the long holiday break)

Whew. So far, my average is one meme per year. Here's to hoping that doesn't increase in 2009!

And lastly, I hope you're happy Grace. Consider this an early Christmas gift since I didn't get you anything. ;)

Ignite Boulder lights up local community

A couple of weeks ago, I was helping a friend (and local Boulder startup) celebrate the opening of some new office space when a buddy came up to tell me I should be participating in Ignite. I'm generally wary when people tell me I have to do something, but the next words out of his mouth were about how Ignite would be a perfect opportunity to do some stand-up in front of a tech crowd. Now he had my attention. Fortunately, at this same party was Andrew Hyde, the organizer of said Ignite, and after talking with him for five minutes, I was sold. (Andrew is really good at that.)

The idea behind Ignite is simple. Give a presentation for 5 minutes, with 20 slides that auto-advance. (That's 15 seconds per slide, if you need help with the math.) The presentation can be about anything at all AND there was going to be free beer. Sounds fun, right?

Ignite Boulder was beyond fun. Inspirational, funny, and educational, the presentations ran the gamut from tech topics (the future of the mobile web) to human topics (lucid dreaming) to practical topics (how to crash a party). The beauty of Ignite is that you really can listen to just about anyone for five minutes and the format allows for lots of personality to shine through each presentation.

As for me, I decided to tackle two subjects close to my heart: startups and standup. I didn't do any material from my actual stand up routine, but instead, decided to show the similarities I've found between the worlds of standup comedians and startup entrpreneurs. What follows is my presentation but I'm warning you...it's NSFW if you work in a place where you can't joke about sausages. (And if that's the case, then I'm sorry for you.)

Now, it's your turn. If you're in the area and have a hankering to rock the mic, applications are being accepted for the second Ignite Boulder, taking place on December 17th. Take my word for it...this was a creative challenge that left me feeling good about myself and my local community for days after. What more could you want from a free event?

And if anyone has any ideas for my next Ignite presentation, feel free to leave a comment. I have a few things bouncing around but am always open for suggestions.

Where in the world is Lijit?

As I've often said about my job, one of the best parts is building relationships with amazing bloggers. BW Jones is just one of those people. His blog, aptly named JonesBlog, is a mashup of beautiful photography and mind-boggling scientific adventures. He is a retinal neurophysiology scientist, after all. BW signed up with Lijit a long while ago...

and has been supportive of our company ever since. In the early days, he provided feedback and was a most capable bug-catcher. We rewarded him then with an iPhone and a t-shirt. In return, he has taken us with him around the world on various trips. You can see him Lijit in Japan but this time, he has gone Lijit in China. Mount Emishan, to be exact.

Big thanks for all the support BW. It's nice knowing our Lijit shirt has really been getting around.