Find Buffalo Blog

Tipsy from head spinning knowledge and sharing … not the booze. Thanks to a back issue and pain meds I had to suffer and watch Paul Jahn and Patrick Schaber enjoy cold beers while I rocked some Diet Pepsi.

Paul and I expanded our “blog-net-webby-seo-local search-life” sessions to include Patrick and we think adding a few more great MN minds would add to the fun. If you are a blogger in MN and have any interest drop a comment here and we’ll give you a heads up on the next happy hour time and location. Patrick might already be Twittering about it non-stop … he confessed a crush on Twitter last night for some reason.

I guarantee you’ll learn a ton from even just soaking up Paul and Patrick’s experience and knowledge. If you want to know more on my expertise, pop over to my day job blog … the FB blog has suffered due to the day job postings. Poor hobby blog.

So if your thirsty for blog knowledge and more, join us for a beer.

I always see the high traffic (A-listers if you will) blogs passing around their meme’s and basking in their popularity and I feel so left out. I’ve been part of one, but there are many that never sniff my neck of the woods. Finding Buffalo isn’t for everyone, right?

So I’m talking matters into my own hands and starting a Minnesota Blog Meme. Requirements are simple, fill us in on three things about MN ….anything … what you love, what you hate, where you visit, where you party, where you blog from, just keep it Minne-sooo-tan. Then tag three other MN bloggers. If you are unaware of any other MN bloggers, City Pages has a good list of MN blogs, so visit a few of them!

3 Minnesota Items:

• Downtown Buffalo, MN is on the shores of Buffalo Lake.
• I bet I watch at least 100 of the 162 Twins games on TV each season (my wife loves that).
• Nothing beats eating lunch (a made-to-order wrap or sandwich) at BJ’s Deli in Buffalo during summer on their patio.

3 Minnesota Bloggers I’m tagging:

• Paul Jahn of Local MN, great local search info
• Jean at Searching For Minnesota
• Cafe Cyan - Sharing recipes from Apple Valley, MN

OK, the bus has left Buffalo, I hope it makes it around this great state without running out of gas.

I have loved reading Daniel’s DailyBlogTips Blogger Face-Off posts (Odden vs. Fishkin, Chow vs. Coddington) and wanted to use that format with some great local search minds. Paul Jahn of LocalMN and Matt McGee of Small Business SEM are two great local search experts. I emailed these pros of local search with nine questions and here is how they weighed in. I’m hoping to put together another Local Search One-on-One next month so stay tuned.

	Paul Jahn | Local MN Blog Covering local search marketing
	Matt McGee | Small Business SEM For small businesses that want to compete and succeed on their own terms (and budgets).

Q: What’s your favorite thing about local search?
Paul: Definitely being able to search for something online, finding exactly what I want, then walking or driving to purchase something and have it all within an hour or two.

Matt: From a marketing perspective, it’s a tougher nut to crack than regular search. From a user perspective, it’s less bulky than the phone book.

Q: What’s next for local search?
Paul: I see more adoption of user ratings and reviews, similar to what’s prevalent in online product search.

Matt: More confusion, more trouble with bad data or lack of data, more growth predictions, and hopefully more consolidation.

Q: The better local solution right now: Google Maps or Yahoo Local?
Paul: Two days ago I would have said Yahoo. Right now, I’d say Google and more attention to TrueLocal (Yahoo Local has some local spam issues to fix).

Matt: Yahoo has better tools for maps and driving directions. Google is a better natural search option for business owners, but Yahoo is a better paid search option.

Q: What is your favorite local directory?
Paul: Right now there’s not one in particular, but in a few months or so I’m guessing it will have something to do with iBegin Source.

Matt: Probably Yelp because at my age I tend to like things that make me feel hip.

Q: Would you rather own and operate a local search engine or a local directory website?
Paul: Given my lack of algorithmic formula skills, I’d definitely have to say a directory.

Matt: Neither? They both sound less satisfying than what I’m doing now.

Q: With a $1,000 or less annual budget, what 3 things should a small business execute online?
Paul: Getting their correct business information to the online portals, get social (online), and proactively encourage customers to provide online ratings and reviews … and up the budget (ok, that’s four).

Matt: Less than $100/month? That’s ultra-small budget. Okay… 1) A blog. 2) A listing in all the free local search sites. 3) A PPC campaign on low-cost, long tail phrases (including geo-targeting).

Q: What is the most important SEO tactic for a small business (excluding content)?
Paul: This deviates from SEO a bit, but 3rd party reviews on trusted, visible sites.

Matt: Almost impossible to answer because SEO is a process. Great content won’t do much good without links. But I’ll say keyword research, because if you get that wrong, you’ve sabotaged almost everything else in the process.

Q: What do you think FindBuffalo.com’s strongest feature is?
Paul: Aaron, there is absolutely no one in Buffalo that is providing the unique community content like you are, and there aren’t many people in other communities that do, either.

Matt: Aside from the fact you once linked to my wife’s real estate blog? Okay… you’re very focused on one specific area. “Hyper-local” seems to be the hot keyword these days, and that’s what you are.

Q: What one thing should FindBuffalo.com improve or add?
Paul: Hmm - maybe an area for businesses to portray user-generated “YouTube type” commercials and the Find Buffalo faithful could rate them? I don’t think anyone is doing that right now.

Matt: Localize what people are doing elsewhere on the web; i.e., Buffalo-Tube, where local folks can share videos. Buffalickr, where local folks can share photos, but with a better name than that! (What about a place for local photographers to post and sell their photos?) Buffalauction, where local folks can post links to their eBay auctions, because it’s always easier when the buyer and seller are nearby. That’s more than one, sorry.

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Thanks Paul and Matt for taking the time and giving great information for any small business and any local search mind. You’ve set the bar high for whomever follows here. My readers now have two new blogs to subscribe to.

Since day one I’ve had every intention to add some uniqueness to my blog template, just not time. I know there are about 10 other layouts I like better but I would want to customize them even more. I decided to concentrate on content, learning this blogging game. Finally I knew it was something I had to take the time to slap together after reading Lee Oden’s Blog Tips of the Week:

This week’s tips to bloggers!

1. Include a descriptive tag line near your blog’s logo or title. Give readers something to quickly understand the purpose of your blog
2. Give your blog some identity. Use your name, a catchy blog name, logo, unique design. So many great blogs are using the same blog template as everyone else. When you use a common blog template, it makes your blog look like a spam blog - splog.

So, mix in the logo colors of FindBuffalo, add some grid action and plop down the standard MN city sign for some local spin and visual depth and PRESTO! I did have to get a little help from a few peeps to get it to appear.

Here are 5 blogs that I visually enjoy when visiting:

• Gigaom - Love Business 2.0, love the Om, love the layout
• Search Engine Land - New & fresh from the vets of SEO
• MarlerBlog - Legal schemgal … it’ so clean - it’s dirty.
• Volksbloggin - Fun, fun & fun color scheme, hero shot, so unique
• N. Design Studio - Amazing. Free WP themes too!

Please comment on my new header (good, bad, ugly), much appreciation in advance.

I’m not taking $7.50 for this post as I want to write about this on my dime. I came across RockStartUp.com a few months back through one of the CSS gallery sites, maybe Remix. I was in awe. I love web, I love video, I love entrepreneurs and I love watching a business start up and go somewhere. Combine those and give some transparency to an idea taking flight, a web business making it’s way and I’ll watch daily (or check every day for a new episode). So far there are 6 episodes to date, keep ‘em coming. The first one highlighted founder/CEO Ted Murphy getting his VC money and getting things going. Some of the videos are great … the ones that cover more of the business side. The others offer some entertainment but I could skip those, but I can see how others tune in for that alone.

As far as PayPerPost, I don’t know where I stand. PPP should know that after watching RockStar, I went to the site, signed up but was denied as I had just started blogging at the time. I have yet to go back to resubmit now that I qualify. The plusses are a little coin for your efforts and having them put me onto new products or services. The fact that I can choose to post a little or a lot with these paid posts is enough control for me. The cons I guess are letting the money fog or direct your agenda or opinion. I know PPP doesn’t mandate a glowing post, but still … it does for many. You can also get more inner workings on PPP at their blog.

So I would recommend the RockStartUp vids to any web entrepreneur, it’s fun to watch someone making moves. As far as PPP, we all are in search of some currency, whether it’s cash, popularity, compliments, comments or just an avenue to rant. I’ll let you decide what your posts are worth.

Star Tribs online venture to reach the young and vibrant is Vita.mn, a companion to the weekly print version. They push and pull (online tools for saving, tagging, rating, reviewing, list building) info for the music, arts, movie, bar, club, food and “all that jazz scene” in the Twin Cities. I came across it early last fall but haven’t been drawn back to it until I saw thew print version (free) in the entry way of where I ate lunch Friday. I decided to peruse the online version again and see if there were things that might be worth learning from for FindBuffalo.

I enjoyed some of the collections, especially the Overrated Restaurants (I agree on Chino - overrated). Users also get Karma points for their participation. Some people love that type of validation. For some strange reason the site doesn’t click with me. The design and layout is fine, the content generated by users is good … but I’m still disconnected from loving the site for some reason I can’t totally define yet. In searching some blogs I found both some lovers and haters of the site. MNSpeak.com had some interesting comments/banter, mostly down on VitaMN on the post Star Tribune Launches Vita.mn whereas some other users/visitors liked what they saw including AllFourSeasons and Yelvingtons (Steve Yelvington actually put the Strib online back in 1994 as editor | article).

I’ve been tagged twice now so I figure I should take part. Thanks to LocalMN and RugJeff for the love. Here are 5 things you can now file away for me … assuming you’ve started one on me.

1. I never intended to get into this internet thing, but 12 years ago, I was the only employee under 30 at a small company so they bought me a book on creating web pages and that was the beginning of the end.

2. I’m a die-hard Nebraska Husker Football fan and make a few trips to Lincoln every year for the Big Red experience.

3. I’m a very blessed husband to a great wife and a proud father of 2 little girls. It doesn’t get any better.

4. I stayed at Sheryl Crow’s house in the mid to late 90’s for a week. She was leasing it from John Malkovich at the time, in LA. It was a “friend of a friend” deal, who moved to LA, so we trucked her stuff out from Minneapolis, spent the week in Cali and Sheryl put us up and spent a few nights out with us. She is a great person in addition to her talents. Cool experience.

5. If I had enough talent, I’d love to write a book on my life’s experience and just get at least 10 people to read it. (I know ..that’s a stretch!)

There’s my five. I know the people I would tag have already been through this so I’ll leave you with a few links of what I read the most in my quest for SEO, webmaster and marketing knowledge.

Lee Oden’s Top Rank Blog
Paul Jahn’s Local MN blog
Mike the Internet Guy’s Blog
10e20 Search - Social -Design Blog
iBegin Blog on their local search website - it’s a cool project in my eyes (user power!).

Thats a wrap!

Upon reviewing my traffic from yesterday I noticed that City Pages, a news and arts weekly in the Twin Cities, had featured my Find Bufffalo blog. City Pages has a great collection of Minnesota based blogs to which FindBuffalo is listed on. I was the “Minnesota Blog of The Day“, you’ll see it as the third header down the page in their 1/2 Morning Communiqué.

There is nothing like an incoming link and a little validation that you’re worth reading to put a smile on your face, especially to start the day. Hopefully this isn’t the last!

So I can review what the heck I was thinking when the last day of 2006 seems like a long time ago, I’ll post it. FindBuffalo.com has been up and running for about 30 days now I’m pleased with the steady progress the site is making. I have definately made a short and long list of improvements to the site and most of them center around giving the users more control and abilties. Those include job postings, user reviews and possibly Buffalo, MN real estate listings. The other two numbers that matter to me are these:

1. Grow to an average of 300+ users per day.

2. Land 40+ local businesses as site sponsors/advertisers.

I know I will be blogging more on how I’m doing with these numbers so stay tuned. I will also add that I have learned a TON about the Blogosphere and all that it has to offer. I’m looking forward to writing more, attracting more readers, getting more comments/feedback and growing my blogability even further. Best of luck to everyone out there in 2007 and Happy New Year!

Since I started blogging about FindBuffalo and other internet musings, my spotting around to other blogs has increased about 400% (very solid stat). I used to read a few blogs every now and then … and I still remember the first bog I came across, Mark Cuban’s BlogMaverick. I’ve found some other good ones over time, Gigaom had cred with me as I’m a big Business 2.0 fan.

So now I’m in deeper and I find myself consuming just blogs “on the rocks”. I’ll get on the laptop and just bounce from blog to blog, just running with whatever catches my eye. I don’t even dare mix in a plain website … no Yahoo or ESPN, no StarTrib or CSS Mania, just straight up blog. I can’t help myself and I don’t think I want to. I just want to soak up the knowledge, the angles, the purpose and shape of each post. So intoxicating. I’m too skitzo on what really energizes me right now but I’m sure I’ll find a way to give some shout outs to those that compel me to push ideas out. I know I could BlogRoll them, but it seems so empty to me not to attach why I deem them worthy of mention. I’ll figure out something … until then I’ll continue to enjoy in moderation or abusive amounts.