I get it. Really, I do. It’s a tough world out there and your personal brand won’t build itself. You need to be aggressive about building out your customer base. Upselling opportunities are important, and there’s no better time to do it than when a prospect is engaged with your content.

But here’s a very important point to remember: when the VERY FIRST thing someone sees when they come to your website is a full-page takeover with a marketing message, it is not smart marketing. It is greedy and short sighted.

You were smart enough to create content that someone recommended – that’s how I came to your site. Stay smart and let that content do its job before you ask a visitor to engage with you more deeply.

I’m seeing aggressive takeovers on page load happen more and more these days. Maybe you think that “the other sites are doing it” and that you should too, but please, don’t. It just make you look like you care more about me as a sales prospect than anything else.

Sincerely,

The visitor who just left your site thinking worse, not better, of you.

One thing I find fascinating is how much viral effect even people who are not deeply networked can have. The other thing I find fascinating is that there’s no predicting what will or won’t “hit”.

Here’s a perfect example. I’ve got a small pinboard where I’ve been collecting ideas for our patio. It’s got less than a dozen photos, and about 35 followers. Tiny. None of my pinboards is particularly popular; in fact, my most popular one has maybe 60 followers.

I pinned two photos there on Saturday, both different treatments of an outdoor dining space. Here they are (click through for a bigger version):

Notice something in that screen shot? One of the photos got more than 85 repins and 20 likes. The other got none.

I’ve no clue why one shot got so much traction and the other, nothing. I like the second shot better, frankly, and even leaving sheer taste aside, the first shot’s composition isn’t as good. Yet it was the popular one on Pinterest.

Looking at other pins I’ve put up that have gotten some traction, there’s not a lot of commonality. Some are cute, some are funny, some are inspiring. And yet others in those categories go nowhere.

I don’t have a theory yet, or enough data to make any kind of guess as to what’s really going on here. It’s interesting to watch though!

By the way, this is post #1500 on my blog. Go me.

Leo, the guy Kickstarting his business, is someone I’ve known for 10 years now. I really admire how he’s taken a passion – restoring old watches – and turned it from a hobby into a business. And now he wants to take it to the next level.

People talk a lot today about where all the jobs in middle America are going. Talking is easy. Starting a business – and who knows, maybe someday creating some good new jobs – is a lot harder. I have a lot of admiration for Leo and what he is doing. And especially that he’s choosing to follow his passion for craftsmanship and creating not just another Internet site or mobile app, but something far more tangible and lasting.

I know not everyone who reads this is a watch fan, and may not feel inspired to contribute to his Kickstarter project. But if you have a friend who might want to contribute, would you please pass the link along?

And if you do contribute, you’ll be supporting someone who is going to work as hard as he can to see the project through.

Please consider helping out in any way you can.

Thanks!

After 4 years with the D40, I think it might really be time for an upgrade. More and more I find myself getting frustrated with the D40 and even reaching for my Lumix when I want to shoot something.

I can still get shots like this:

But I’m finding myself fighting with the camera more to make it do what I want. It seems to me that I shouldn’t have to struggle so hard with a camera I’ve had for 4 years; if the equipment is getting in the way, that’s a problem.

So all in all, I think it’s time for an upgrade. The D5100 is looking pretty good to me.

Or do I just have a case of NAS? When do you know it’s time for an upgrade?

I’m still at Adobe, and still focusing on community, but that’s about all that’s the same.

I’ve moved to a different part of the company and have a new focus. Instead of working with just one segment of the many communities at Adobe — the fantastic designers and developers who belong to the Adobe Community Professionals and the Adobe User Groups — I’ll be working to create a “Community Center of Excellence” for all of Adobe’s various community programs. Essentially, I’ll be applying Jeremiah Owyang’s “hub and spoke” model for social media in corporations to community.

It’s a big challenge and an exciting one. There’s just one small drawback – having to step away from the community I’ve spent almost 4 years supporting. Being able to work with such a supportive, energetic, and engaged group of people has been both a privilege and a pleasure, one that I will miss very much.

Luckily, I won’t be going too far. And I also get the pleasure of getting to learn about a range of communities I haven’t had much interaction with so far – like the vibrant Web Analytics community that has grown up around Adobe SiteCatalyst over in the Digital Marketing side of the house.

On my one-year anniversary at Adobe, I wrote this:

What a ride it’s been.

I can’t find the scene on YouTube & don’t have time to rip it from my DVD, but there’s a snippet from early in Season One of “The West Wing” where new White House employee Charlie Young is watching his first Presidential TV taping from the back of the Oval Office:

Charlie: I’ve never felt like this before.
Josh: It doesn’t go away.

I know the feeling.

A lot has changed since then, but I still know that feeling. And as long as I do, I’ll continue to think I’ve got the best job in the world.

So here’s to a new chapter!

It’s worth reading. If the Times got the story right, it paints a picture of an Apple that is well aware of the human costs they’re inflicting to produce their products, but rather than doing anything about it, continues to squeeze every penny it can out of its suppliers.

For example:

In January 2010, workers at a Chinese factory owned by Wintek, an Apple manufacturing partner, went on strike over a variety of issues, including widespread rumors that workers were being exposed to toxins. Investigations by news organizations revealed that over a hundred employees had been injured by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause nerve damage and paralysis.

Employees said they had been ordered to use n-hexane to clean iPhone screens because it evaporated almost three times as fast as rubbing alcohol. Faster evaporation meant workers could clean more screens each minute.

Apple commented on the Wintek injuries a year later.

The laptop I’m writing this on is a Macbook Pro that will be three years old this summer. When my AppleCare contract runs out I’ll likely replace it. Whether I’ll replace it with a new Apple computer is still an open question.

I’m not a fool. I am well aware that my phone, and my cameras, and a huge swath of the rest of the products in my home and closet are also made in China, and not all in pristine conditions. Why single out Apple?

Apple is getting the lion’s share of the criticism in part because of their brand image – a widely admired company shouldn’t have such a dark underside, right? And for my part, I find it particularly disconcerting because Apple sits on a huge stack of cash and brings in tens of billions of profits each quarter. They could easily give suppliers more favorable margins that would allow them to cut fewer corners, and still rake in huge profits.

When you’re in a position of such great power, a truly great company would use that power to not just rake in huge profits, but to do some good as well. Apple could earn every plaudit 10 times over if they not only led the way in product design, but also in how they treat their supply chain.

Wouldn’t that be even more amazing?

This time last year:

• Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, and Kim Jong Il were all still alive. Also Steve Jobs.
• Hosni Mubarak was still President of Egypt
• The ‘Arab Spring’ and the Occupy movement hadn’t started
• the 8-year US war in Iraq was still ongoing
• Google+ hadn’t launched

Scott and I rang in 2011 in the company of a few close friends. Sadly one of them is no longer with us.

And on a much less important scale (except to me) – this time last year I was 20 pounds heavier.

2011 was also my most-travelled year ever. I flew more than 65,000 miles and visited 7 different countries (8 if you count airport connections). I don’t think I’ll be on the road quite as much in 2012, but you never know….

As for 2012 – I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. Most of them are ignored by the end of January anyway. Changes, especially the big kind, don’t fit into neat and easy packages. It’s what you do on any given Tuesday that matters more than what you decide on some arbitrary starting point. So I won’t be making any this year.

What I do want for myself in 2012 is to stay open to the new. It’s so easy to get locked into what’s safe and comfortable, but if you do that too much, you find that the most dangerous choice of all is to play it safe. I don’t think I’ll start jumping out of airplanes or be moving to Katmandu but it’s a big world out there and there is still so much I haven’t seen, done, or learned.

So thanks 2011, and here’s to a great 2012!

Scott, you are my best friend, my love, and my strength. You believe in me more than I do myself. I love you and I am so happy to share my life with you.

The last 15 years have been a hell of a ride. Here’s to the next 15 (and 30, and more…)

Happy Chanukah to all!

I’m spending the week in Connecticut. There was a heavy rain a few nights ago that flooded a few of the marshy areas near the house.

I like the interplay of the water, the leaves, and the reflected trees.