Developing Your Own Portfolio Online

I’ve just visited one of the member’s of the Digital Atelier site, Dorothy Krause, and I noticed she had done something very interesting in terms of displaying her work. She used a flip book where you can click on the edges and the pages, well, flip them, as if you were turning actual pages from a book.  It’s a great use of the application because the images she is sharing all have a similar textural quality and so, viewing her book of images is a fluid, engaging experience.

Flipbooks, then, are great if your work is grouped together as a series.  And they are very easy to create — especially when your website is a blog and you can access tons of plugins that have this feature.  Just check out this flipbook plugin on the Wordpress site, and you’re good to go.  Once installed, you’ll be able to upload your images into it  automatically.  Of course, there are other options you might want to check out too.  I use both NextGen Gallery, a plugin for blog sites when I want to embed an image gallery in a line format into a web page, and a Content template called PhotoNexus with a built-in gallery, when I want to have a dedicated website, that is, when I want just a site that shows images in quick succession and organized by category.  The latter did cost me a small amount but it fit my needs perfectly.

So, don’t be overwhelmed, as if this is a mountain of a technical problem.  It isn’t. There are plenty of ways to scale the mountain of “how best do I present my images exactly!” —  from a simple slideshow, using Smilebox or a show generated from a Flickr account, to the more advanced that keeps your images completely within your own domain, as in the dedicated gallery template I’ve just described above.  Any and all of these options will create satisfying displays of your work.

Somebody told me recently.  We all have our own way to climb a mountain.  Just stick to your own preferences and do it!  I think, in this case, that’s pretty sage advice!

SF New Tech Night Out: a Mobile Education

Looking forward to SF New Tech’s event in San Francisco in this second week of the New Year.  The focus is on emerging mobile apps.

What will be exciting to know about are the more practical apps that are coming onto the scene.  Things like Rx Personal Caregiver (a reminder to take medications!)  and RadioWeave (which gives you access to radio on the go as well as social channels like Twitter.  Hmmm).  There is also an app which will allow you to record your health progress as you undergo a health intervention, called Polka, and a game that will set up a scavenger hunt scenario for you as you explore a city.  Since I’m developing something for people visiting places like San Francisco, I’m hoping for some interface between actual city spots and the scavenger app.

What I also like about SF New Tech besides the high energy in the room for things newly emerging is the fact the Myles, the organizer, makes himself available for email and follows up each presentation with a brief survey using Wufoo that also tabulates your answers immediately, giving anyone who completes it an idea of how your response compares to the rest of the people attending.  I think it’s fabulous — a small but important gesture not to lose audience feedback around a shared activity.

Shock! You can make a simple mobile app…and faster than you think!

Somewhere in the part of the world where curiosity seekers seek lies a little habitat called Mobile. Here, people go hungry if they don’t get fed, that is, when they lose access to those ubiquitous, ‘you really want me now’, increasingly useful mobile apps.

I didn’t think I knew much about this place, until one day, I saw that my home ground was a deja vu. Right on my very own iphone dashboard (I counted them) were approximately 75 apps. How did it happen? Quite obviously, I downloaded them all, slowly over months perhaps, but still, the herd was overtaking my screen.

Well, well. We’re talking iTranslate, Zhing, Brightkite, iBlueSky, Dogtag, Skype, NPR, Pandora, FMtouch, Stanza, Ruler, NightCamera, Spanish, Showtimes, Ichillout/iZenGarden, Foursquare, and Evernote, among many others. Apparently, I’m famished, not to mention I must find them tantalizingly useful. It’s true — when I’m on the run, the information’s right there,  less floundering.  Nice!

Now, after a few additional trips to the land of Mobile, I’m also learning, with some counsel, that I can actually make one of these too. Although mobile development tools like Corona that works on the iphone require understanding of code like javascript and actionscript, there’s also Build an App that lets you create something simple in less than an hour. Unbelievable how fast things turn around to encourage mobile participation.

But if you’re really smart, I’m told by Barbara Ballard, author of Designing the Mobile User Experience and President/Founder of Little Springs Designs which offers up an incredibly informative mobile design site, you’ll want to use an open source tool like Phone Gap that works on the iphone plus the Blackberry/Android platforms as well (AND they offer online training!).  Their pitch and ours: it simply makes more sense to build an app that can leverage several platforms instead of just one. And with more app stores from multiple vendors on the horizon, the appeal is obvious.

As for myself, I’m not living and breathing life as a designer in the mobile terrain yet but I have to say it’s fun to realize that there’s interesting opportunity ahead for any of us creative types who have an idea for a useful service. Whether we’re just prototyping an idea or actually diving straight in to do it ourselves, we don’t have to pray for a competent geek to arrive at our doorstep to jumpstart our idea. I’d say that’s a bit of a wow! What about you?

Video to Promote Your Creative Business: a few useful ideas

A quiet type, I don’t instinctively embrace video. Somewhere, early on, a bias settled in me. Video en masse was a time waster and a showman’s tool for people who craved attention and didn’t deserve it.

So, it surprised me when I changed my tune from “no, thanks” to advocate.

I think grazing Youtube definitely helps. You can see that there are a good many videos offering us something of value, whether it be an authentic/appreciated point of view, good information or a good laugh.  Sure, the inundation of videos lacking anything close to substance still proliferate, but you can get away fast.  No one’s made captive here.

And somehow, given the fact that videos are so much easier to make and upload, joining the mix of visuals and voices is an accessible challenge. Who hasn’t seen how easy it is to both search out a video (today, I can find a specific interest, like Photo Collage, for example through Youtube’s search on the word, collage) and make my own via a webcam or flip video and a mic. Speaking of which, if you’ve got the webcam setup going, perhaps you’d like to gather a few testimonials to give your business a plug?  Tokbox couldn’t be easier and you can send them via email!

What’s good about the easy entry is that your own creativity can open up from the exposure. You can now tell a story, putting to rest the tedium of talking heads. And no, you don’t even need to be in it to tell a tantalizing tale.  Check out You Suck at Photoshop for a clue to the art of story, e.g. the creative point of view. Funny and a little crass, this series of videos nevertheless heartily proves the point that less is more while also encouraging us to share something of value too.

But back to you and finding that video-angle, the value-proposition that can translate into a gain for your business. Here are some tips.

• By checking out channels on sites like YouTube, you can get a feel for what works and how.For example, do you want to engage executives in storytelling or show your product? How about making more vivid your nonprofit/cause challenge or illustrating in a series of educational webisodes what your community doesn’t quite understand. Take the lead by watching a few video categories listed at places like YouTube so you can pinpoint to yourself and others what you could see doing.  Send the best ones to yourself so you can get the dialogue going within your own group.
• Check out the comparative strengths of video sites.Did you know that while Youtube has a great reach (1 million users a day with a wide user base) while Google video showcases many excellent e-learning and training videos?  Or that Viddler offers a strong platform for testing since it integrates well with itunes and digg, and makes commenting and tagging easy?  Or that Hulu offers great targeting in the U.S. or that Metacafe attracts those marketing a new product and independent producers/artists as well.  You may not be a video producer yourself, but as a small business interested in getting the word out, these sites should be of interest, especially when companies like Mogreet report video views and click-through rates 15-25 times higher than other forms of advertising media.
• Consider mobile, often referred to as the third screen.Mobile video is increasing steadily as user experience improves on mobile devices and as 3G networks proliferate (4G is on the way), making video, the creation and dissemination through simple devices like the iphone, blackberry, android, etc. more and more common. Since both user-generated and premium content both add value to a network, it’s smart to begin thinking how your small business can use it to get people more connected to what you do.

More on those specifics next time.  Unless you’ve seen something recently, that you can’t wait to tell!

Have you exercised today? No, I mean, exercised your brain!

There’s a book that’s been around since ‘99, but one which is the forerunner to many since. It’s called Keep Your Brain Alive by Lawrence Katz and Manning Rubin, and they’ve named their fitness practice, Neurobics.

The premise is that to keep our productivity up, we need to be exercising our brain — daily. For example, learning something new every day, like waking up and smelling something unexpected (vanilla instead of coffee), putting a chess game in a collaborative space so with each person throughout the day is responsible for making just one move, doing common tasks but with the hand you don’t typically use, and placing different gelatin filters over your lamps, (which create new associations).  These simple activities all lead the way toward increasing your mental fitness.

I particularly like the one that makes the shopping list into a treasure hunt. Instead of listing the ingredients, describe them so the shopper has to work a bit to figure out the ingredients for dinner.  Oh, and have a backup plan, just in case.

Both playful and very serious, Keep Your Brain Alive sells at Amazon.

Hosting a Kick-Ass Event: insight from the pros

Guest blogger, Sarah Kennon, graciously filled in this week to review a panel of organizers sharing insider tips about hosting events. Read on…

“How To Host a Kick-Ass Event”, a Sandbox Suites co-working program organized by Sasha Vasilyuk, co-founder of the organization, featured three highly successful bay area event facilitators: Edith Yeung from BizTechDay; Myles Weissleder from SF New Tech, and Cassie Phillipps from SNAP Summit. Check out the great tips from folks really practiced in the art of organizing!

What to Consider When Choosing Tools for Event Promotion?

Myles advises: When choosing a tool, leverage all the tools out there, not just one. Find your audience where they already are. Myles uses Eventbrite for sales, Facebook and Twitter for promotion, noting you can’t extract email addresses from a service like Meetup, which he sees as limiting community development for membership-building organizations. The challenge, according to Miles, is to consider what is right for you and realize that it takes time to grow an event audience.

Cassie advises: For events which pull in a sizable audience, it makes sense to use tools like iContact. When her event list grew to 1,500 people she began using this tool. She uses Eventbrite for sales and Meetup for expanding her mailing list and gaining exposure to new faces, but doesn’t find the RSVP stats to accurately forecast attendance.

Edith advises: Keep looking to extend the value of the tools you have available. Edith is constantly experimenting with PR methods, so, for example, she might ask a question to be answered along with the invite to elicit engagement and information gathering prior to an event. Like Myles, she sees a strong need to understand the people you’re serving however you can.

How to Find the Right Location?

Myles advises: An atmosphere that loosens people up really helps to make an event successful. His organization’s venue choice evolved from corporate office space at CNET (which they outgrew) to the Metreon (which they found expensive) to Mighty because the atmosphere is just right for his events. He thinks it helps when there isn’t an audience charge for the venue itself — especially if it’s a bar where you’re bringing an audience who will pay for drinks. In addition, he finds it enormously valuable to poll people after events to take advantage of audience feedback.

Cassie advises: Take advantage of weekday events! She advocates knowing your budget well, and then, when approaching bars and office spaces, to realize quoted prices can be negotiated down to free most of the time because often the space isn’t being used. So, don’t fall for what hotels typically start out quoting, sometimes 35% to 40% higher during an initial conversation –interesting! Cassie also emphasizes thinking through the event format in relation to the space — e.g. do you need something quiet because you’re holding a panel discussion or a place where lots of ambient noise will create more of a party atmosphere?

Edith advises: Take into account what your audience is most likely to appreciate as much as you can. The events Edith organizes frequently take place at the Metreon because this audience of mostly small business owners value the proximity to downtown and public transportation which she took into account early on.

How to Find Speakers?

Cassie advises: To find speakers, use Google and your own networks. She also recommends asking for a personal introduction email to speakers since it provides some needed leverage to get them interested. In addition, she encourages being clear about what you can cover. For example, her group does not pay speakers, but they will provide room and board if people fly in for an event.

Myles advises: When bringing speakers in, it’s smart to realize the value of your own audiences. Speakers, in other words, often see his venue as an opportunity to demo to a large audience of colleagues, and pay him. Seen from the point of view of exposure prior to and after certain events, the expense of the fee ($300) is really just money invested wisely.

Edith advises: Understand what you’re offering speakers, because often, there is the promise of learning for both the speaker and your organization. In fact, sometimes she invites people who have skills she would like to learn. She adds that having reviewed the value you’re adding, you can better express the potential of the event to the speakers. A good place to start is asking yourself: What kind of an audience am I bringing them? Why is our conference the best place that they can participate?

How to Set an Event Price When You Want to Encourage Attendance?

Cassie advises: To get an accurate account of attendees requires some additional steps. For example, he day before and event, Cassie will send out an email to the RSVP list telling them the event is sold out and asking people to respond if their “Yes” has become a “No”. She finds this yields a very accurate response rate.

Other tricks to try:

Myles advises: Charge money if you want people to show up. Even a small fee such as five dollars gets attendees feeling they’ve got to get into the game. He recommends getting people excited about attending. Some ways to do this are:

Edith advises: Set a fee! If there’s no fee, people tend not to show up even if they say they will.

Other tips with promise:

How to Manage Day of the Event Unknowns?

Myles advises: Find an organizational partner.  Myles partnered with Justin.tv to live stream the event. He attested to inevitable glitches initially, but worked them out with his team to a glowing response . Myles also underscores the fact that the things that you might consider catastrophic as an organizer often go unnoticed by attendees.

Cassie advises: Be flexible since speakers will inevitably cancel, and events regularly go differently than what you expect.

Edith advises: Be approachable and be flexible.

Creating Books and Buzz — ready to take the plunge?

It’s not like promoting a book didn’t demand a heck of a lot of effort from book authors before. There was always the legwork of book tours, finding individuals and organizations willing to recommend your book to others, putting on ancillary events. But if individual effort was part of the package then, it’s tenfold now.

That’s not a bad thing. For your efforts, you actually get a book published, sometimes with just a three-day turnaround. Your book may lack some of the touches of custom formatting or be published without the benefit of more professional review, but you’ll get it out there, giving you authorship and a good many of the services traditional publishing affords.

For some guidance on this topic, check out 5 Great Services for Self-Publishing Your Book where there is some great information about the major differences among the various services, the new terms promulgated by these publishers, as well as common standards for payment/royalty rates. Self-Publishing 2.0, a blog with some entertaining Youtube videos, concentrates exclusively on POD (print on demand) topics, and provides readers with insight into the hot topics of the self-publishing world. Writers and Editors focuses on both traditional and non-traditional publishing formats, sharing good information about the writer’s circuit with discussion of the POD field as well. And SelfPublishingResources.com offers up the latest trends, some of which can further your thinking about marketing as well.

Which brings me back to the original reason for writing this blog. Once you’re self-published, generating that buzz now falls squarely in your lap as author. AuthorBuzz does a solid job of revealing what actually makes for good “viral effect”, the spread of activities that will spur people to either promote you or be involved with your creation. For example, one suggestion is to buzz readers, booksellers & librarians that you do phone calls with book groups.  It’s a novel idea, and a double value strategy for getting promoted AND getting connected directly to potential readers.  Since every creative professional can benefit from sharing their expertise, self-publishing is an opportunity with the promise of some very enticing returns.

Collaborate!

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a look at the world that has grown up around collaboration.

I think, like us all, I know a program here and there, and use what occurs to me to involve others more, usually by incorporating a tool which simplifies a process or finding a user-friendly framework for sharing content. There’s tons out there.

There’s an excellent diagrammed map at Mindmeister, for instance, that charts the different activities called forth in collaborating these days — everything from document-sharing to white boarding to private social networking platforms to workspace tools for collaborative writing and reviewing.

But after you glimpse into this universe of how people are currently conceiving collaboration, it’s good to identify what would compel you to make such a shift.  At the most basic level, think how you, one single artist to another or you, one group of creative folks to another, might benefit from greater exchange.  I’ll share with you a few scenarios.

Scenario #1: Suppose you are working on developing the website to help promote your work.  Ordinarily, you might scan a few websites of people in your network or those whom you admire, bookmark particular pages for later viewing, make mental notes of those approaches, text, and visual components which are most likely to be successful for you, and perhaps, once you developed your own site, pass it on to a few friends for review.

Now, imagine a more collaborative approach using your network.  Twiddla embraces a good example of this (they call it co-browsing).  A team of people can get together on a Twiddla page and browse your site while participating in discussions, adding annotations, sharing files and chatting along - all in real time.  It’s like adding a whiteboard layer over any uploaded image or website. Through the use of the tool, you might engage via audio, real-time chat, website mark up and the ability to brainstorm new elements from scratch. You can save what you come up with, and get the feedback all in one pass. A true time saver.  And guess what? It’s free. (Along the same lines, there is Envolve, but they are still in beta, stay tuned!).

Scenario #2: You’ve come up with a number of new product ideas and frankly, you’re not sure which of the ideas has the most legs. You need people to share their insight on what you should go with.  In addition, you want to hear from potential customers some detail regarding their perceptions and have them feel included in your development process. After all, it’s all about knowing your clients better, isn’t it?

Typically, you’d approach things this way: You might ask for some direction from those you already know well, posing your questions unsystematically, maybe via some impromptu, informal feedback mechanism.

So again imagine that same scenario, using UserVoice. You discuss an idea on your blog or website, invite people to vote on each idea and like a forum, you get detailed comments but with the addition of a final count of how many people responded, and many more actually participating — even those you don’t know very well. You’ll know which ideas really were embraced and why, and the whole thread of the conversation will be there to view by everyone who cares to read it. Since Uservoice can live wherever your customers gather, after the initial signup, they can just offer reviews right there. Finally, you’ll get a quick idea of who all participated and realize the best ideas quickly, since they will quite literally rise to the top of the list.

Scenario #3: You want to organize an event to showcase your work.  You’ve designed a half-day set of client activities. Others will be presenting and you feel it might be nice to coordinate/collaborate on some parts of the day’s events as well.

It’s natural to start with what you’re used to doing, chatting on the phone with your co-creators, and identifying common areas of support.  However, it often turns out one or both of you had a different sense of things and didn’t quite communicate as intended.  Oh, well.

But imagine that this time, you would go about setting up your mutual participation differently. Imagine having the flow of events mapped out.  Mindmaps are now tools for collaboration, meaning you can work on the same map at the same time online.  You can mark the steps, identify who does what, and have a reminder map for later. Check out Comapping.com and  Mind42 and see what I mean. Does it get you further?  Clarity, a clean way to delegate tasks, and a permanent record, for instance?  If it does, it’s a collaboration idea worth embracing.

So, try them out.  All of them, as they fit you.  You’ll be including others, and maybe even having a better time.

Taking Advantage of Local Spaces — Even Your Home!

Networks, networks, networks.  All forward possibilities — even those which center around our private social spheres — are dependent on our ability to expand them. To create a draw, now you put out the message to all on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network so everyone you already trust can learn what you’re planning.

Still, that’s just one piece.  What I find really thrilling is the idea of using networks to really pull resources where they are needed as much as to put an overflow of resources to better use. 

Take, for example, the introduction of house concerts from the site, Concerts in Your Home. As more and more people in a neighborhood reject converging on a crowded, bar-like scene which may lack civility, the chance to actually hear another person in conversation given noise levels which fight against it, and the comfort factor of familiarity, an entire generation of folks are opting for a better alternative. 

That’s where the idea of “Concerts in Your Home” holds promise.  It simply makes far better use of creative resources.  The musicians come to you, where the spaces are more intimate, with your network providing the pull. It’s a product of Texas but they’ve got good company with the number of artists who are beginning to offer similar services.  Heather Gold, storyteller and comedian, performs on both coasts yet on her web page, she elicits interest from individuals who might be interested in doing home concerts as well.  She even asks for recommendations from her network for possible future themes. 

Is there any doubt that both the creative professional and the home viewer are benefiting?  What additional assurances might you need to make this idea a go in your neighborhood?

Dominos of Self-Confidence: this way to growth

In this post, I’ll explore the tremendous value in building and protecting growing self-confidence.  It will influence every aspect of how you offer your craft to the world.

I’ll start with the obvious. I know that in really taking a shot at something, to really come out of hiding, it’s essential to be aware of where you are inside yourself.  It’s not trivial. Self-confidence is the fuel that holds hands with motivation which, in turn, allows us to take the plunge and do some very interesting things.

I also know that for many years, all I wanted to do was stay beneath the radar, invisible.  If you asked me why I was doing this or even if I was doing this, I’m fairly certain you wouldn’t have gotten much of a reply.  But I think I have two good stories which are helping me piece it together better now and transition.

The first is at an event I recently attended.  It was from a micro-finance professional who had been immersed in facilitating micro loans on the ground level in Bangladesh. Micro-finance is a relatively new field, with new models emerging every day, but one could say it’s birth came from the mother of lending, a more established process here in the United States where donors typically advise where and how money should be spent. We are familiar with this kind of giving, and its name is “donor-advised” funds.  Terrific.  Money going out in support of important causes. Giving in substantial amounts.  All good.

Then, the speaker started to relate more dimensions of his story.  He mentioned that the loans were always successful (paid back) if they focused on the activities recipients sensed they could do well. If there was the willingness to honor an individual in this small way, there would be a domino effect that would spur all kinds of other personal efforts made by this same individual in the future.  In other words, it was never really what someone else believed would be beneficial for either the individual or the community that created outcomes of abundance for everyone, but what one individual was willing to believe and make better about him/herself, followed by a real opportunity to build oneself up from there.

The micro-finance approach of starting with the individual, in organizations like Kiva and Wokai, are now helping millions of people pull themselves up (from the individual in poverty to the average guy loaner who is now gaining confidence as one who gives).  In effect, it’s an industry whose 360 degree purpose may well be to grow the self-confidence of people.  It reminded me that, in life, progress always comes down to cultivating enough inner self-confidence to translate ideas into action. It’s the courage not to accept hanging back or hiding as a solution but rooting oneself in uncompromised practice of a single strength that helps us all make a difference.

The second comes from direct experience.  We know we can learn a lot through feedback from others but what if the feedback comes from a person with jealousy or insecurity or arrogance or without any sense of what can be built upon in you.  I’ve been in those circumstances, and while I couldn’t influence the outcome for myself, I certainly noticed the effect — a situation which had me working against my own capacities. Only when I made a decision to protect that area of my becoming, stand up for the circumstance that would make it stronger, could I make progress. Otherwise, I was left holding the bag, the lingering echoes of others amplifying all my imperfect efforts.

Hey, don’t misconstrue what I’m saying. Feedback can be extraordinarily necessary and gratifying at times.  But self-confidence is like the blood that runs through our veins; it’s vital to our circulation in ourselves and in the world.  And learning how to protect what is emerging is so interwined with the growth of confidence and in turn, being productive, that if you don’t recognize it or ignore what is pulling against it, you will lose a great deal. Better to devote yourself to your craft and make a commitment to building yourself up day by day than listen to feedback that could derail you.

To get moving with this, imagine a single, confidence-building domino to get you in the game.  Next, imagine the energizing belief it can represent, cup it in a hand, and use it to remind yourself you will be leading with and then protecting this inner piece/place in the months to come. Imagine laying this domino back down, and see it connecting to a first opportunity and then another and another, until quietly, intentionally, you are building your strength out to wherever and whenever you need it. Align yourself with every activity you find that will support your movement. And make it real.  Okay then, dominos on the table, please.  And oh, your turn.