Cameron Olthuis

Performics - I’m happy to see Google is spinning this chunk of the DoubleClick acq off. It was a huge conflict and it’s nice to see they moved quickly. Lets see if Microsoft does the same. BTW, I saw this survey the other day that said both Microsoft and the USA are the two global brands most in need of a makeover. People must think you have a shitty company if they compare you along USA. I love this country as much as the next guy, but let’s face it, we’re not exactly beacons of popularity with the rest of the world.

Launch Day - Looks like one or two of my sites will be officially ready for launch today. I’m super excited to announce these to you all and let you know what I’ve been up to these last few months. While the sites have been live for months now, and growing, we’re just finishing up some touches on new designs/dev stuff and I feel like they’re finally v1.0 and ready for an official launch.

I have a busy day ahead of me so I’m going to cut this short this morning. Hopefully I’ll be posting a little later on in the day when this stuff is ready.

Not much interesting going on today, perhaps everyone is hungover from all the April Fool’s sillyness.

CEO SEO - Rand Fishkin wrote a really good post about Internet CEOs that ignore SEO. While I didn’t go into nearly the detail that Rand did I also touched on this back in the summer with my SEO is for Idiots post. The basic point here is that you shouldn’t be the CEO of anything if you can’t recognize the value of a good rank. I realize most people who hire CEOs or fund new startups are looking for a certain pedigree, but common sense should probably be the first thing you look for, as in if you don’t have any you shouldn’t be running a company. Read Rand’s post though, it’s very good and goes into detail with some good examples.

Passion - A big part of my little startup is content. As I’ve been hiring contributors to write for me the first and most important quality I look for is passion. If you’re not passionate about what I’m asking you to write about then you have no chance of writing for me. I get all sorts of resumes from people with English degrees, etc, but they don’t have a strong interest in the subject I’m looking for. Immediately these people are disqualified. In my humble little opinion, the one thing you can’t teach someone is passion. On the other hand, I believe grammar/english skills can be taught (I need to be taught myself). I’ve actually hired a couple people that have serious grammar/english problems but they are some of the most passionate individuals I’ve ever met. Their passion comes through in their content and in-turn, that makes for really really good content that others love to read, exactly what I want. I don’t mind taking the extra time to edit and I actually enjoy teaching these individuals how to write good blog posts, etc. I like passion.

I really enjoy writing these posts. I took a break from blogging for awhile because it got to the point where I no longer enjoyed what I was writing about. Things were starting to feel forced and it burned me out. I no longer want to feel like I have to write about SEO or social media or any of that stuff. I just want to have fun and write what’s on my mind - whether that happens to be SEO stuff or just personal stuff. Hope you enjoy this new direction as much as I do.

Up to you to decided if I’m trying to fool you or not.

Submit Worthy - My homie Chris Winfield wrote a good post on Search Engine Land today about making your content submit worthy. Chris is a social media genius so when he says something just shut up and listen. The one-liner that stood out in his post was… “In order to be successful on social media news and bookmarking sites, you have to think like a typical power user”. This is so true and it’s so common sense it’s not even funny. It never ceases to amaze me the content people pass me for social media advice - the stuff that would never in a million years appeal to the 20 y/o geek who spends his lifeless life on Digg. Come on people, it’s not rocket science. If you want to be successful on social media sites you need to think like a 20 y/o nerd and what appeals to them.

SMX Social - I know I’ve already mentioned this but SMX Social is approaching quickly. You should come, it will be fun and you might even learn something too, and it will be fun. I can’t wait to show all my lush friends how we party SoCal style. Seriously guys, leave your panties at home cause we’re doing it proper. I’m especially calling you out party boy.

Hawaii - I’m going in a just a few short weeks. Can’t wait to surf, not that I don’t already do that everyday, but this is Hawaii, come on. I’m also going to the Kokua Festival… Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Mason Jennings…. wow, can’t wait. This also serves as my warning to Kala, watch out pretty boy, I’m coming for you.

I’m seriously turning off all news feeds right now. I’ve started to post like 5 different news stories here only to realize they’re all stupid April 1st jokes. I don’t want to be that idiot sucker who falls for them. PS, am I the only one who likes this song? No, that’s not a joke.

It’s another beautiful sunny morning here in San Diego…I seriously love this place. If you’re wondering what this ‘Coffee IV thing’ is all about, read here. There’s even a new category for it appropriately called ‘coffee‘.

WordPress 2.5 - I upgraded one of my sites (not this one) to WordPress 2.5 yesterday and I have to say I like it a lot. The most noticeable difference to me is the improved UI on the admin dashboard. The rest of my sites will be upgraded this week.

Kelly Slater - If you surf then you know what I’m talking about. This dude is simply an amazing athlete and continues to dominate his sport year-after-year. Kelly Slater’s legacy continues to grow with two wins (out of two) so far this year. He deserves to be mentioned among other greats who completely dominate their respective sports… Tiger Woods & Michael Jordan are a few that come to mind.

Yahoo Shine - Yahoo’s new women’s site caught my attention, mostly because I’m in the process of rolling out a women’s specific site myself, although mine’s way more vertical so there’s really no competition. Our favorite guy who we love to hate, Jason Calacanis, thinks they’re competing with their customers. Jason, where have you been bud? Yahoo’s been in the content business for MANY years now. This really isn’t much different than any of their other verticals… and yes they already have celeb gossip and tech verticals.

n00bs - My older brother has been here for the last week shadowing me to see if SEO is something he’d like to get into. I really enjoy teaching n00bs and watching them learn what I do - but only if they put a genuine effort into it. I’ve had a lot of friends/family ask me to teach them what I do and just about everyone of them has put 0 effort into… that’s frustrating and a waste of both people’s time. I’m down for teaching whoever but you better give it a solid effort or don’t bother. My brother who is here is super computer illiterate but it’s been fun because he’s giving it his all. If he sticks with it he’ll be good at it, we’ll see. On a side-note I find it very cliche that no one (friends/family) gave a damn about what I did for all those years I struggled to make it big - but now that I am somewhat successful they all want in.

That’s it folks. I’m on my last sip of greatness.

I’m starting something new on my blog. So every morning when I wake up, like many of you, the first thing I do is brew myself a nice cup of coffee. In fact, I’m pretty much to the point where I can’t function if I don’t have my coffee in the morning. I don’t just drink a cup either, I drink a bowl of it. Well, not really a bowl but the coffee mug I have is easily the size of a bowl and fits about 4 regular cups in it.

When I’m drinking my bowl of coffee it’s usually the time when I’ll skim through my feed reader, check analytics on my sites, or perhaps just sit outside and enjoy the San Diego sun. My coffee addiction is so bad I often joke that I need an IV of coffee hooked up… hence the name of this new series, ‘Coffee IV.’

So what I’m going to try and start doing is writing a post every morning (that I can) while I’m enjoying the deliciousness that is otherwise known as coffee. It will mostly just consist of random thoughts, interesting thing I find on my news binge, etc. Here goes…

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