Trada’s Marketing Metrics BootCamp a huge hit with tech community

Niel Roberston is the poster child for the phrase “go big or go home”. He is the founder and CEO of Trada, a company revolutionizing the advertising industry by crowd-sourcing paid search. I first met Niel over ten years ago at Service Metrics, an internet performance start-up that was acquired for $280M shortly after launching. He was one of the founders and I was lucky enough to help drive marketing efforts. He went on to start several other successful tech companies and is now the go-to guy for all things online advertising.

In the true spirit of community, Niel and his amazing team took time from their schedules to organize the Marketing Metrics Bootcamp, a 3-day local conference that brought together thought leaders in the advertising, performance, branding and social media spaces and let a crowd of budding (and current) entrepreneurs pick their brains. The event was sponsored by a host of local companies, Silicon Flatirons, and the CU Marketing Department. Over the course of three evenings, speakers and panelists covered topics such as:

• Basics of CPA, funnels and customer lifetime value
• Measurement tools, ROI, and performance tracking
• Video strategies, going viral, and renegade digital marketing
• Email marketing, trust, and the changing role of the social media specialist

I had the honor and pleasure of participating on the Brand vs Performance panel along with Derek Koenig (former CMO of Vail Resorts and former VP of Advertising at AOL), Toby Hedges (Director Digital Marketing for WhiteWave), and Matt Cutler (CMO for Visible Measures). That's me up front waving my arms trying to make a point. We got to discuss one of my favorite topics - how social media is radically changing how brands create, manage and leverage their online voice to serve their customers and grow their businesses.

I could talk about that topic for hours. Which I ended up doing because the conference wrapped up with an intern job fair where CU students had the opportunity to talk with dozens of local tech start-ups and learn about intern opportunities. I got to see lots of my fellow start-up junkies – Sonya Caprio and Grace Boyle from Lijit, Ted Guggenheim, CEO of Rage Digital, Mike Lewis, co-founder of Kapost, Brett Greene, founder of Hip Chameleon, Andy O’Dower from BeyondCredentials, and James Moreau with BlipSnips. It was fun watching them get mobbed by talented students hungry for a chance to work with cool tech companies.

By 9:30pm, I was exhausted and hoarse but I’m glad I stayed until the very end. The last person I talked to was Carson, who looked a little younger than most of the crowd but I just figured he started college early. He was the best conversation of the night. He asked thoughtful questions about our vision, business model, revenue plans, back-end evolution and the interest-based social graph. We talked about BlogFrog's mobile potential, viral growth and the possibilities of opening up our API. Something was different about this guy/kid. He might have thought he was looking for the next big thing, but I got the impression he would someday CREATE the next big thing. Then I learned that he was a student, but not at CU. He was a local high school student. Even more impressive. Then as we walked out, I got to meet his dad, who was his ride. Which means the boy genius who just blew me away probably can’t even drive yet. I won't mention his full name. Not because I probably need his parent’s permission first, but because I want to hire him before you do.

You can catch all the presentations and panels on Trada's Ustream channel, which were streamed lived during the event. Thanks Trada and sponsors for an awesome event (and cool t-shirt)!

Twas The Night Before Funding (alternate title - If Santa Claus was a Venture Capitalist)

Twas the night before funding and all through the suite,

The servers were humming keeping watchful their beat.
The business plans sat neatly stacked on the chair,
In the hopes that some VC with vision would care.

Employees were nestled at home in their beds,
While visions of click-thru-rates danced in their heads.
Engineering was busy still testing the app,
While Biz Dev ran numbers on stealth market cap.

When out on the roof there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Pried with my eco-pass and up came the sash.

The moon on the breast of my laptop’s dull glow,
(showed our UI’s new pages were rendering slow).
When what to my eyes on the roof should appear,
But a Mercedes sleigh pulled by gold-plated deer.

The carriage was parked by valet in the snow,
And I knew in a moment, he was loaded with dough.
More rapid than eagles his money he waved,
And the iPad he’d bought with start-ups he’d saved.

He had a broad face and a well-pampered gut,
And the wrappers from chocolates still stuck to his butt.
He was stately and stern, a nice Cuban he smoked,
And he winked at the team and continued to toke.

Red carpet was laid and trumpets they sounded
The CEO brought out the team that he’d founded,
We’re happy to help you with diligence due
And expect you could raise us a million or two?

He said not a word but went straight to his work,
He snapped for some coffee and turned with a jerk.
I’ll need to see spreadsheets of costs to inspect,
And make sure the backgrounds of VP’s are checked.

He called up our users to ask what they thought,
Of the value they got from the service they bought.
He asked for proposals on market position,
And customer plans for sales acquisition.

He spent hours inspecting each line of source code,
He tested each server’s security mode.
He bought sample product to check feature placement,
And searched partner contracts for legal defacement.

His silence he broke for a moment to stop,
To ask if our web app might work for his shop.
I have thousands of products for good girls and boys,
And I need a good tool to help them choose from my toys.

I can see that your product is just what I need,
To help them decide with precision and speed.
So I’ll give you your millions, with a couple to spare,
Since nothing like you on the markets compare.

And laying a finger aside of his nose,
He nodded his head - up the heat vent he rose!
He sprang to his sleigh, all his investors he dialed,
And said nothing more, just nodded and smiled.

As he flew, he yelled back, with a wise Ho Ho Ho
Why mess with the funding, just go IPO!

Why work on your blog alone when you can do it with 300 other women?

Starting today, and for the next 31 days, I will be joining over 300 other fantastic blogging women as we take on ProBlogger's 31 Days To Build A Better Blog challenge, sponsored by the fabulous SITS Girls and powered by BlogFrog. If you are just hearing about this challenge and want to know more, visit the SITS Girls community discussion here.


Darren Rowse, aka ProBlogger, was blogging (and making lots of money doing it) long before most of us even knew what blogging was. Not only did he turn his blog and its valuable content into a successful income empire, he has been teaching others how to do the same thing for years. I've been a fan of Darren's for a long time and am thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with him and the SITS Girls to sponsor this campaign.

Today marks Day 1 of the challenge and the exercise is to write an elevator pitch for your blog. I have been blogging since 2007 and like many of you, my topics run the gamut. I blog about business, being in tech start-ups, being a woman in tech start-ups, funny/interesting/stupid things that happen in the social media space, and my teenage kids. Now that my kids have an opinion about being the topic of blog posts, I seem to write about them less and less. Which is ironic because observing teenagers in their natural habitat and watching them evolve could keep me fed with topics for years.

This blog is my outlet, my personally-branded channel to inspire, educate, vent, ponder, provoke thought, and maybe make a few other women out there feel slightly less crazy and a bit more empowered. I do that by sharing what I have learned from 1) being in the tech space for 20 years 2) successes and failures along the way, 3) being a single parent for many of those years, and lastly, realizing just how powerful a force we are in the evolution of our own (and others) success. Success/health/peace/insert-desired-life-goal-here is there for the taking. Seriously. My desire is to help others realize this by sharing my own experiences and connecting those who are on the same journey who would love a little company along the way.

What's YOUR elevator pitch? If you are part of the 31DBBB Challenge, or even if you aren't, come share your thoughts and read how the challenge is going for hundreds of other women in the SITS Girls Community!

In the company of addicts: Serial Start-up Entrepreneurs

Last week, I was honored to sit on a panel for Colorado University's Studio Series at Boulder Digital Works. BDW brings together digital professionals and tech leaders to share what they know about business and entrepreneurship. The Studio Series meets the first three Wednesdays of every month during the summer.

The topic last week was Serial Startup Entrepreneurs and I was in good company with fellow panelists Tara Anderson, COO Quick Left, and Tim Wolters, founder and CEO of RoundPegg. We spent an hour talking about what attracts us to starts-ups, why we keep at it even when things look dismal, and what keeps us going back for more. We shared stories of our biggest blunders, what we learned, and what characteristics serial entrepreneurs seem to share. Here are a few of the characteristics we all agreed were important:

1. One thing serial start-up entrepreneurs seem to share is a passion for creating something from nothing. There is simply nothing like having a good idea one day and doing something about it the next. Just you, your partners, and the few crazy people you managed to talk into taking the plunge with you. No one says "its not my job" or puts off till tomorrow what they can jump on today. Everyone is in charge and all ideas get considered.
2. You have to be willing to be wrong. You won't survive in a start-up if you have an attachment to being the smartest person in the room or are afraid to be wrong. You will be wrong more often than you will be right. Accept it, embrace it, and let it work for you.
3. Have a mentor (or several). No matter how much experience you have, there are people who are better at certain things than you are. Seek them out, make friends and don't be shy about asking for advice. Ask if they'll meet with you on a regular basis and learn what you can from them.
4. Know what feeds your passion. Being passionate about an idea is a big part of what will make you better at it than someone else. When you are passionate about something, you have more curiosity, more drive, and more fun. When its stops feeding your passion, its time to move on. I've heard so many stories about entrepreneurs who felt compelled to leave full-time positions to start companies because their minds were consumed with thoughts of a new venture.
5. Serial start-up entrepreneurs seem to better tolerate risk. Many of us have mortgages to pay and families to feed and we are not independently wealthy (yet!). We know that only a few start-ups make it, that competition is fierce and funding is scarce. But we do it anyway because the game is just too good not to play. We don't mind driving junky cars and bringing our lunch to work because we are hedging our bets on a bigger game.
6. Most of us get bored easily. Its not ADD, its just that we have high standards for how interesting life can be. When I moved from New Jersey to DC back in the early 90s, I knew no-one. I thought about what activity I could get involved with that would have me meet interesting people. So I decided to learn to fly. I met several of my closest friends and had some of the biggest adventures of my life. It also helped keep the rest of my life interesting.
   

Its hard to capture everything we talked about in that hour but we covered many aspects of start-ups including funding, hiring, role models, start-up vs corporate culture, and lots of other topics. You can read more of my posts on start-ups like 13 ways running a start-up is like having a baby, what happened to my career?, and what I love about start-ups.

Here's me tweeting pics during the panel:

The audience included CU students and those from the local community. Sean Baxter did a fabulous job of moderating and huge thanks to Jo White for organizing it all as BDW's 60-week Program Director.

You can find out more about Boulder Digital Work's Studio Series on their Facebook page.

Favorite moments from CBC

Now that I have a good night's sleep and can function at least at half-capacity, I am sorting through my Casual Blogger Conference photos and remembering my favorite moments. While I love the instant connection and the relationships that slowly evolve online, nothing solidifies those friendships like meeting in person. Heck, it puts them on steroids. And even though it felt like I took a million pictures, I couldn't capture moments with everyone. So in no particular order, here are a few of memorable faces and moments. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer and these were all taken on my iPhone so please forgive the graininess and general lack of artistic talent :)

The photo above is one I snapped while taking a long walk one morning. I had a blissfully silent walk along the road from the hotel and enjoyed staring at the Wasatch mountain range.

Lisa (on the left) is one of the hard-working co-founders of CBC and Heather King is one the kindest, most sincere heartwarming ladies you will ever meet. She blogs at The Extraordinary Ordinary and you can find her on Twitter at @HeatheroftheEO.


This is the crowd we had for the Online Communities presentation that Rustin and I did. We talked about the power of using online communities to grow their blogs and walked them through how to use BlogFrog.


Me and my favorite mascot, Blogger the Frog!


Jennifer and I met on Twitter and I was thrilled to meet her in real life!


Another big highlight - meeting Courtney Kendrick, author of the blog C-Jane. She is as lovely and disarming in person as she is on her blog. Courtney was one of the earliest users of BlogFrog over a year ago and we are so grateful she gave our product a try way back when it was ugly and awkward. But she saw the potential in our little widget and stuck with us. Now look at how far we both have come! Thanks for all your awesome support, Courtney!


Sounds odd to say that a 25 minute ride to the airport could be a highlight, but when you are traveling with Jessica Bern (BernThis, @bernthis)) , Heather King (The Extraordinary Ordinary, @HeatheroftheEO), and Lori Anderson (@loriyay) , it can be incredibly entertaining. Jessica had us cracking up the entire way. After nine years as a comedian, she now channels her gift for humor into her blog.


To appreciate these next two ladies, you need some context. My company, BlogFrog, started over two years ago when Rustin Banks (BlogFrog's creator and CEO) programmed an early prototype during nights and weekends while working full-time as an engineer for an aerospace company. He and I launched the company early in 2009 and worked hard to get bloggers to try it. As with many early-stage start-ups, the product did not look nearly as elegant as it does today. Lets just say it was not very pretty and still had a lot of bugs to work out. But Laura Franklin (Better In Bulk, @1momof5 and Brandie Rudy (Rudy Family Rukus, @rudyrukus) gave us a chance and became loyal fans of BlogFrog. They overlooked our awkward appearance and saw the inner beauty and potential we had. They shared BlogFrog with their readers, gave us insightful feedback, and became two of our favorite champions. For that I will be forever grateful. We have shared lots of emails, tweets and discussions but until CBC, we'd never met in person. Laura and Brandie, thank you for being so amazing and talented and for giving us a chance when no one knew who we were! THANK YOU!


No, I didn't meet Magnum PI at CBC - this pic is just to see if you're are paying attention. Totally random but I find it hilarious that in this picture, Tom Selleck is holding the handset of a phone with no cord attached (um, they didn't even have cell phones back then). You can even see the little hole where the phone line plugs in. LOL.

For those I met and hugged at CBC, I look forward to keeping in touch on your blogs, Facebook, Twitter and in BlogFrog communities!

The New York Times: Friend or Foe to Mom Bloggers?

There has been a lot of discussion over the past few days about the New York Times article that came out on Friday. The headline was Honey, Don't Bother Mommy, I'm Too Busy Building My Brand. The NYT author was covering Bloggy Boot Camp, one of five blogging conferences being held in major cities around the country. The conference was created by the founders of SITS (The Secret Is In The Sauce), amazing women whose mission is to create a convenient, affordable way to teach other women about social media and blogging.

While its great to have your industry covered by a publication of that stature, the powerful facts were tempered by what many considered to be an underlying patronizing tone. Like when something sounds like a compliment but feels like an insult. And while my ego wants to get defensive and mad, a wiser part started to recognize it for something else. Something good.

A sign of progress.

I know, sounds crazy. But think about it. Every revolution, every significant wave of cultural progress in history did not come without controversy, misconceptions, and resistance.

Despite how it was packaged and spun, the facts remain undeniably clear. When there are 23 million women engaging in a technological wave (blogging) that has still yet to reach mainstream, they are a "cultural force to be reckoned with" (NYT quote). When women and moms take time from their families and jobs to sit in a room and study the policies of the Federal Trade Commission, the world better look out. There is change a-coming.

Call it what you want. Call it a market segment. Call it a demographic. Call it a fad, a trend, or NYT's media filler meant to bridge the attention span gap between the Olympics and March Madness Final Four. Me, I call it a movement. The cool thing about movements is they will happen whether you are on board or not. Movements are led by people who are tired of standing around waiting for someone else to step up so they take charge. Movements are led by people (in this case women) who are brave enough to take the criticism, the controversy, and misconceptions so those who come ahead won't have to. Movements are followed by those who make the challenge personal and contribute any way they can. Movements are resisted and criticized by those afraid of change, even when it is for the better. Starting to get the picture?

So whether you agree with the article or not, see it for the catalyst it is. It got people talking and debating. It got people so riled up that they could not help but be part of the conversation. And THAT is where the real influence it. THAT is where you as a blogger have way more power than any media conglomerate. The New York Times article was outdated 10 seconds after they published it. But the conversation about the article will be current for as long as bloggers, journalists, and the media keep it alive. If you want to change the perception many still have of mom bloggers and set the record straight, just keep being part of the conversation. Keep blogging and tweeting about it. Keep tracks about PR on your conference agendas. Keep making money from your traffic. Keep seeking out those who know more, learn from them, and then pass that knowledge on. Because real change will not come from engaging the people who already see it your way, it will come from engaging the people who don't.

If I were a newspaper losing millions of readers and paid subscribers to blogs (which I am not), would I be a bit resentful and tempted to package the stats in a pretty pink patronizing ribbon? Perhaps. If I were a women looking for smart, passionate women to break out of stereotypes and create real change in the world (which I am), than I say the NYT did us a favor.

What do you think of the article? Do you think it hurt the mom blogging segment more than it helped? If so, what do you plan to do about it? Come join the discussion in my BlogFrog forum here.

Three days of BlissDom - is it really over?

I am writing this from the plane on my way back from BlissDom 2010, one of the largest blogging conferences for women. It’s a good thing the flight to Denver is several hours from Nashville and that I forgot my book, and don’t have an internet connection. It gives me time to reflect on the time I spent with some of the most inspiring, giving, talented women I have ever met in one place. I’m sure it will take me days or even weeks to process everything and fully absorb the impact those women will have on my life but for now, I will just let myself breath and simply remind myself that it really did happen. It wasn’t a dream.

To fully grasp how soulful this experience was for me, you have to first know that I live in a houseful of men (my partner and three teenage boys). I also work with all men at my company. My online world is teaming with sisters – thousands of them, but my day-to-day connections are mostly with men. That’s not a bad thing at all - its just a different energy.

I really did spend three days with 500 women who are all on a quest to share their stories and inspire their communities. I really did get to learn from phenomenal bloggers who shared their knowledge about writing, social media and branding. I really did get to eat, play, and laugh with writers and artists who are following their passions and blazing a trail for millions of other women. And I really did get to present to them all at the final night’s keynote address. The best part of it all was that somewhere along the way in the conversations about SEO, PPC and ad models, I made some really good friends.

Once I process the whole experience, I will surely write more posts since I could never fit my thoughts all into one. For now, I am savoring every memory and smiling to myself. I am already excited about going next year!

Why playing by recession-era rules is good for your business

About nine months ago, my business partner, Rustin, and I both quit our full-time jobs to start a Web2.0 company that builds social features for blogs. We had no funding, no office, a few customers, and operated the company from our savings. We both have families to support, mortgages to pay and college educations to save for. What person in their right mind would quit their job during the worst economy since the Great Depression?

Starting a company in the middle of a recession certainly has its challenges. Funding is hard to come by and investors are gun-shy. It’s tougher to get loans and skilled employees who have jobs are less likely to leave for riskier ventures. Consumers have less money to spend on products and are very selective about what they do spend money on. While all those things might be true, with tough times comes great opportunity. There are pools of extremely talented people who are looking for work and willing to take below-market salaries to join a great team. Employees are more flexible about relocating, work hours, and job sharing. Commercial property rates are lower and the cost of travel is down. The challenging economy also means fewer companies will start new ventures, which results in fewer competitors.

From a product perspective, a tight economy and skeptical investment climate forces us to be ruthless in our product development. We don’t have the luxury of going in ten different directions and chasing features that are cool but way outside our core vision (we call those “bright shiny objects”). If we spend one day on something that doesn’t further the goal of solving our customers problems, we have wasted precious time. Competitors with more money and resources will eat our lunch if we take our eye off the ball for a minute.

And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We are conditioned to think fast, test often, be brutal with priorities and involve feedback from real customers every step of the way.

We still don’t have a fat budget, fancy office or corporate salary. What we do have is a customer base of over 22,000 customers that grows every day. We launch features in weeks, not months. We’re able to advance swiftly in a market where others have retreated with a wait-it-out mentality. We are making significant progress and have overcome hurdles with customers, investors, and competitors. We’re even driving revenue sooner than we thought we would.

Being forced to play by recession-era rules is good for our business. Our gutsy move is paying off and we’re months ahead of where we would be if we’d played it safe and waited. Sometimes what looks like a challenge is really fate handing you a lottery ticket and inviting you to play a bigger game.

13 ways running a start-up is like having a baby

I have given birth to one child and at least 5 start-ups. I might have a few illegitimate start-ups out there that I don't know about but we'll save that for another post. I had a blinding moment of delusion today with my current start-up where I experienced the exact same feeling I did as the mother of a newborn. It was a day where one microscopic sign of progress overshadowed months of endless challenge, preparation, and self-sacrifice. How can that be?! How can the joy of one tiny hint of improvement elicit a feeling so out of proportion to the work that led up to it?

Then it hit me. The absurd number of ways that running a start-up is like having a baby. Here are my top thirteen:

1. The idea to have a baby, or quit your job to run a start-up during a recession, usually has something to do with tequila.
2. Nausea is the first sign that you are pregnant or have agreed to join a start-up.
3. The vomiting eventually stops in the 2nd trimester, or when you release your beta version, whichever comes first.
4. You are for sure pregnant (or are a shareholder in a start-up) when your partner now owns half of everything that gets produced.
5. You will be too tired for sex until the baby is sleeping thru the night or you've hired someone to handle customer support, whichever comes first.
6. The average birth costs about $50,000 depending on your health insurance policy and PR agency fees.
7. You'll resist the urge to rip a total stranger's kidney out thru their left nostril when they tell you your baby is ugly or that your interface doesn't conform to the latest GUI standards. Even if they're right.
8. It is inevitable that your baby will make a mistake that lands you on the front page of the local paper and gets virally propagated across every social network. You will be subject to much public humiliation and embarrassment until another start-up makes a bigger blunder.
9. Plan to fork over an allowance and expect nothing in return. Somewhere between $10 to $100,000 per week, depending on the economy and the cost of a movie-sized box of Milk Duds.
10. Expect to be infinitely patient as your baby (and start-up) experiments with its identity and then eventually grows up to be something far removed from what you originally planned.
11. You will spend the next 18 years teaching your baby, and your start-up, how to earn money on its own.
12. You will instantly forget how much pain you went thru the moment your baby is acquired by a search engine giant for $230 million dollars.
13. Despite being broke, exhausted, aged, and divorced, you will decide to do it all over again.
    

5 Ways Marketers Can Use Twitter Lists

I subscribe to some great MediaPost publications and a favorite columnist of mine is David Berkowitz, one of the authors of the Social Media Insider newsletter. Today he wrote a great article about Twitter lists called Make A Twitter List and Check it Twice. Those of us using Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop have been making lists for a while (also called Groups), but Twitter now enables lists on its site and has added the ability to share and monitor them, which is very useful. While the whole article was valuable, he offered five powerful ways marketers can use lists:

1) Aggregate multiple professional accounts

If you have several faces of your business on Twitter. It's a natural for businesses like Comcast, which has a number of customer service representatives on Twitter, or Zappos, which has hundreds of employees tweeting. This can also work well for a company like Walmart that has a section on its site with all of its Twitter handles. A newspaper can bring together all of its reporters, or a packaged goods conglomerate can compile all of its brands in lists. Even if these lists don't bring in millions of new consumers or clients as followers, they may be useful for important constituents such as reporters, investors, or employees.

2) Aggregate passionate consumers

If you run a TV show, make a list of tweeters who love talking about every last plot twist. If you're a travel company, consider making lists of some of the most vocal Twitter users in each city where you have a presence. If you're a product manager for a technology brand, pull together all your die-hard fans. At the very least, you'll make it easier for all of these influencers to find each other to expand the noise in your echo chamber. But packaged right, it could be a way to pull in new fans and show others how much passion there is for your brand beyond those on its payroll.

3) Be a resource

Make lists of the most knowledgeable people in your industry, whether they're colleagues, reporters, consumers, or even competitors. While my lists are a work in progress, I've added many friends and people I respect from other agencies to lists. Mostly this will be convenient for me, but I'm more than happy to make these lists public in case they're useful to others.

4) Monitor what lists you're on

And what lists include your competitors and peers. It's a way to gauge anecdotal brand perception. You can also find new people to follow this way.

5) Share lists beyond Twitter

It's going to take a while for lists to catch on beyond early adopters; this highly anticipated feature for die-hard tweeters may just be one more thing to learn for casual users. If you cater to early adopters, though, creating useful lists and sharing them in other channels like your site, email newsletters, or Facebook page should resonate.

Thanks, David!