I’m also in the midst of launching a side brand related to my Portland-area photography business. It’ll be a month or two until it’s unveiled, but I have a vision for the online component. Rather than try to kludge my way into something that doesn’t fit, I decided this would be a great time to get into WordPress.

I’ve setup a local WordPress development environment, pored over the WordPress Codex, and am diving into constructing a theme.

Wish me luck.

On the other hand, the lack of an API, search functions, and/or robust mobile apps is preventing Google+ from being the answer in one big use case: events. Smart event attendees use Twitter to connect with other attendees, speakers, and staff. A hashtag is usually created for the event; anyone can follow along by using a search for the tag. These searches can be saved, and some applications allow for a search (or a list) to be used in lieu of the timeline view so that one can easily see the incoming items for the tag.

Given that my usage of Google+ shows that I could see it replacing Twitter, this is a roadblock.

Google+ simply won’t work at events right now for two reasons:

• Lack of search – Without search, any sort of #hashtag is useless. One can’t even search for the event name. As noted above, this is likely the killer feature for Twitter at events.
• No single-circle view on mobile apps – even if someone manually created a circle for the event, the mobile apps only show a combined “stream” view – there isn’t (at this point) a way to view only posts from a single circle.

I know many folks who were skeptical about the usefulness of Twitter until they used it at an event – it truly was one of the key use cases that helped the service gain traction. I hope that Google+ implements features soon allowing it to be used in a similar fashion. As it stands now, I’ll be heading to WordCamp San Francisco next week with around 1,000 other folks. Google+ won’t be of much use… back to Twitter we go.

I’d really like Google+ to succeed. I really don’t think I can continue to devote a lot of time to it unless it gets past some limitations quickly.

While I’m intentionally ignoring Facebook, I’ve discovered what’s actually happening is that I’m starting to ignore Twitter as well. The easy-to-follow conversations on Google+ are nice. Embedded photos are nice (especially for a photographer). There’s now an iOS app which means that the mobile story is improving.

The killer feature though is Circles. On Twitter, I’m either following someone or I’m not. And Twitter lists are very clunky to use in comparison to Google’s circles. I can put photographers into a circle and when I want to read about what’s going on in the photo world (and look at some nice images) I read that circle. I’ve created a WordPress circle to keep up with the ecosystem surrounding my favorite blog software. There’s a Railfans circle for those connections I’ve made who appreciate railroad information and photography. And yes, I have a social media circle where I can drop those who I follow solely for their take on the world of, well, the things discussed in this post.

I’m using circles more for reading than for posting. I probably publish 70-80% of my Google+ content to “Public” meaning that anyone can read it. This is just like Twitter where I push content out for all since I feel that it’s of value to a wide audience. That said, I do publish some content only to specific circles. Something only of interest to folks who live near me gets published to the “Local” circle, ensuring that if you’re across the country you won’t be bothered by noise that’s only of relevance to those in the Portland area.

Another big advantage of Google+ right now is that it’s pretty much crap brand-free. Companies aren’t pitching, folks generally aren’t pimping their own services heavily, and I can read my stream without finding out who gave Klout K to whom or who just published their own “newspaper” with Paperl.li. I realize that this is probably going to change, but I’m going to savor the bit of purity we now have over there.

What about you? How has Google+ changed your mix of online communications?

Here are some thoughts on how I’m using the service, some TOS stupidity, and a bunch of random tips.

Usage (Compared to Other Services)

I’m in the midst of going almost-Facebook-free for a period of time. I’m checking in over there once a day to see if anyone’s talking about me and to catch up with a few folks where that is their only online presence, but other than that I’m ignoring Zuckerworld at the moment.

I’m continuing to use Twitter, although I’ll be honest I think Google+ is eating into my Twitter usage. The big advantages I see with Twitter are that I have an established social graph and the mobile experience (I’m currently using Tweetbot on my iPhone) is top-notch. So far, Google+ on the iPhone is very minimal. Google has indicated they’ve submitted an app to Apple for approval; I look forward to seeing what the iOS app will bring to the game.

Lots of folks are making analogies to FriendFeed because many of the stream’s features are like those of FriendFeed (realtime updates, comment activity bumps an item to the top, the ability to mute an item). One area in which Google+ is very much unlike FriendFeed is in adoption. I’m seeing tons of “regular” (not computer geek) folks trying Google+, where FriendFeed never caught on beyond the geekiest of the geeks.

Circling My Wagons

The concept of Circles (groupings of one’s connections) is interesting. It’s similar to Facebook’s lists feature, except that it’s not just for reading. As of this writing, I’ve created nine circles based on topics of interest, local connections, family, and a special list of folks I want to follow closely. Here’s how I find myself using circles for reading and posting.

For reading, it’s rare that I’ll choose to read the main “Stream” – instead I find myself choosing one of the circles to read. If I want to check out some interesting photos or related discussion, I’ll select my Photo circle. If I’m curious what’s up in the world of my favorite blogging platform, I can read my WordPress circle to see what’s being posted by WordPress developers and community leaders. My “Local” circle will let me see what folks in the Portland/Vancouver area are talking about.

When posting something, I’m finding that I post about three quarters of my updates to Public, which makes them visible to all. The rest are posted to a select group. Something that’s only going to be of interest to folks that live nearby will go to my local circle. Something that’s only of interest to railroad buffs will go to the Railfan circle.

Photos+

The Google+ interface does a great job of making photos look good. I’ve shared several images and I’m quite happy with the amount of engagement that I’m seeing (comments, re-shares, and folks marking +1 on the images).

In the past I’ve been known to make a big deal about user-unfriendly terms of service, and at least one blogger posted a piece warning about Google’s Terms of Service. Given that I tend to disagree with that particular individual on damn near everything, I wasn’t surprised to find his analysis lacking. For a more rational look at the conditions of posting content on Google+, I’d recommend Jim Goldstein’s look at how he evaluates terms of service. In short I feel that the user agreement is adequate and I have no qualms about posting photos and other content on Google+.

Tips! Get yer Tips!

• Get the permalink to a Google+ item by clicking on the timestamp at the top of a post.
• Want to send a private message to one person (the equivalent of a DM on Twitter)? Just start a post and in the box where you choose which circles to use, simply start typing the person’s name. Select their name and the post is private only between the two of you. You can also send posts to any arbitrary number of individual users in this fashion.
• Make liberal use of the Mute feature. Muting a post hides it from your stream. You won’t see it and it won’t bubble to the top or cause notifications for any subsequent comments.
• Post to Public by default, just like you would on Twitter. Only restrict something to specific circles if you need to do so for privacy reasons or if an update is of a very limited-interest nature.
• Setup circles for sharing and circles for reading. Sometimes these might overlap.
• Setup some sort of “home” or “key” circle that will become your main reading list. This circle will be for people whose updates you really don’t want to miss. Be selective about who you place into this circle. Your spouse should probably go here. Robert Scoble should not. Unless he’s your spouse. In that case, hi Maryam!
• Before you start adding folks, fill out your profile page. Make sure you fill out the little one-line description that shows right below your name. When people start choosing whether or not to follow you, if they don’t know you in real life they’re likely going to look at your profile and that one line is the easiest way to make a first impression.
• The notifications preferences are your friend. You’ll probably want to disable at least some of the email notifications.
• If you follow celebrites (either “real” ones or the internet variety), your stream will very quickly be filled with their discussion. I generally recommend that you hold off from following these sorts of folks as their updates probably won’t let you gauge the usefulness of the service.
• Way down on the page and wishing you could quickly jump back to the top? I’ll trust that you’re using Google Chrome (if not, why not?), so grab the Scroll to Top Button extension.

Circle me on Google+

What are your impressions of Google+ thus far? Any tips or other thoughts you’d like to share?

• Twitter “Tweet This”
• Facebook “Like”
• Facebook “Share”
• Google “+1″
• Delicious “Add”
• Pinboard “Add”
• StumbleUpon “Submit”

And those are just the big ones.

Enough is Enough

It’s not realistic that every web publisher is going to add a new button each time the new social network de jour enters the fray. It’s similarly absurd to expect that users are going to hunt through a dozen icons to find the button they want to press. I’m not the first to notice this.

The Problem with Simplification

Some users (such as myself) have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Google, Pinboard, and a variety of other networks. Others may spend most of their time on one site.

My first thought about how to solve this issue involved some sort of centralized button service. Much like Gravatar provides a global avatar, this service could serve a single button that would post to a user’s social network(s) of choice. The idea has a fatal flaw in that users don’t always want to share in the same way. Depending on a particular article, I might want to share it with my Twitter followers, or on Facebook, or perhaps I simply want it saved to Pinboard (perhaps to end up in one of my other people say compilations).

Darn, that sounded like a good idea.

So what’s the solution? Services such as AddThis make it easy to add the buttons as they arrive, but it doesn’t solve the clutter issue, or the fact that users must make multiple moves if they want an article in more than one place.

We need some sort of magic button. I don’t have a solution, but the current situation is messy.

If you liked this article, please press some buttons! (grr)

Last night I bought Reeder via the Mac App Store (app store link – $9.99). Wow. It’s really damn good.

UI

As expected, the UI is beautiful. You can choose from a couple different general views, one of which resembles a view similar to iTunes, Mail.app, etc. and the other is more like the Reeder’s look and feel on the iPad. With either view you have the ability to customize the color tones, textures, font opacity, and so on.

Keyboard Accessibility

One thing that would be critical as to whether I became a Reeder user was the level of keyboard shortcut integration. I plow through feeds at a rapid pace, my hand quickly using the keyboard to move through items, marking them as read (either automatically or manually), opening some items into a browser, and moving between my feed categories. Reeder doesn’t disappoint. It ships with single-key keyboard shortcuts for all imaginable uses including feed navigation, read/unread status, and navigation within the app. Here’s a screenshot of the default keyboard shortcuts – all of these can be changed if desired:

Integration With Other Services

Another key workflow piece (and one for which Google Reader is less than ideal) is services integration. Reeder ships with quite a few services offered:

For me, three are key. I use Instapaper to push long articles for later reading (usually on my iPad). Pinboard is my bookmarking service and how I queue links for my other people say posts. I also have the Twitter integration enabled so I can share interesting finds with my followers. Note that you can enable a custom keyboard shortcut for any of the services. This again allows me to quickly move through items without reaching for the trackball.

It’s a new Primary App

Reeder now has a global hotkey² and after just a few hours is now part of my information workflow. I’ll have to see how I feel after a few weeks but at this point I can see myself moving all of my RSS consumption to Reeder apps either on my Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

People / Websites to Follow

• Problogger (blog)
• Problogger (community / forum)
• Copyblogger
• The BlogWorld Blog

Books

• 31 Days to Build a Better Blog
• Attention! This Book Will Make You Money
• Content Rules
• Trust Agents
• UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

Affiliate Programs

Places to start if you’re looking for affiliate programs:

• shareasale.com
• Commission Junction

If you have any other questions about the topics we discussed, leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help you out.

Some of the links above are affiliate links.

• Prerequisites – things to think about as you plan to make money. A quick overview of some considerations that will help guide your monetization strategy.
• Revenue Sources – options for income and a look at the plusses and challenges of each one. I’ll talk about advertising, sponsorship, affiliate programs, membership sites, and product sales.
• Lists – a quick look at email lists and how to effectively tie one into a blog revenue stream.
• Resources – where to go, what to read, and who to follow to learn more about making money with a blog.

Tickets are on sale now for WordCamp Seattle and I’d love to have you join me for what should be a great event.

If this sounds vaguely familiar it might be because this presentation will be similar (but not identical) to a talk originally presented at the Portland WordPress User Group earlier this year. That talk was very well received so I’ll start with it as a foundation and incorporate some improvements as well.

This was my first Blogworld… I went into it with two purposes. Part of my motivation for attendance was to learn a few things from some of the official conference sessions. My other plan was to meet and network with a variety of smart people.

Overall, it met my expectations. Some of the sessions were really great, although there were a couple that I felt were disappointing or didn’t really fit with the session title. I attended a couple of the WordCamp sessions that were part of the WordCamp Las Vegas being held inside Blogworld and they were great – John Hawkins (@VegasGeek) and his crew put on a good program. A couple of the monetization panels were excellent, including the site critique/review panel… I stepped a bit outside my comfort zone and asked for a critique of Social Photo Talk and got feedback from Darren Rowse (ProBlogger), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), and John Chow. They asked some good questions, gave me some solid suggestions for improvement, and to my relief validated that a lot of what I was doing (and have planned) is correct. Thanks guys!

I’ve seen several comments that there were less vendors and exhibitors than in the past. With this being my first trip to the show I can’t offer a comparison but there were less than I expected. VegasGeek noted that it was disappointing that there was no representation from Automattic, but as I thought about it I realized I didn’t see anyone there who works for any of the major blog platforms. Not only was Automattic (WordPress) missing, but I didn’t see anyone from Six Apart (Moveable Type / TypePad), Google (Blogger), or even Squarespace which has been all over the place lately seeking publicity.

The afterhours activities were a lot of fun (and as a photographer, a special thanks to Victor for a great photowalk on Thursday night).

On a personal level it was great to see a bunch of friends from the west coast WordCamps like John, Chris, Abbie, Shayne, Austin, Jeana, Todd, and Sara (and since I’m tired I’m not going to link ‘em up… but they know who they are).

Thanks to everyone who made Blogworld a great event. I’m leaving with all sorts of great ideas and a bunch of new friends.