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I’ve been redoubling my efforts in improving my knowledge of web coding lately. I’d say I’m now to the point where I’m completely fluent in HTML and CSS, and I’m getting there with PHP. Next up I want to get better at Javascript, and the startup site Codecademy has me intrigued. It’s a fun and engaging way to learn language structure, variables, operators, and more. I haven’t gone far enough with it to see if it provides advanced tutorials that will really be valuable though.

On that note, I’ve been having some fun applying my knowledge. I recently completed some improvements in SEO and usability on the Hosmer Chiropractic site  and helped them build a site for the HPC Racing Team as well as a new massage-focused website, Portland Sports Massage. Next up are a couple of projects for friends including a sports-photography website and possibly a rewrite of my own personal site just for fun too!

In general, I still tend not to post much on this blog these days as you can tell, so check out my Twitter Feed or Tumblr for more regular updates.

Everyone seems very caught up in the whole idea of internet monetization these days.  One of the problems most websites seem to have when deciding on a revenue model is dealing with the fact that people aren’t used to paying for internet services.  As a result, ad-supported models are the most common revenue source on the internet.  I fall into the same boat as most of my generation – growing up with free everything on the internet results in not wanting to pay for anything on the internet.  However, there are several tools and services that I find valuable enough I’d be willing to pay for them, even though they’re free:

Gmail:  Google’s email service blows away all the competitors that I’ve used, which includes most of them.  Their spam filter actually works, labels and filters are easy to use, and everything is conversational.

Google Maps: I don’t know why anyone out there still uses Yahoo Maps or Mapquest.  Google has street view, the best search functions, and even Google Earth.  Between my laptop and my iPhone, it’s my complete GPS and navigation system.

Firefox:  I’m not sure where Mozilla’s funding to keep Firefox free comes from, but it’s a browser that provides real value to me.  It’s the most flexible, most user-friendly, and fastest (with a few tweaks) browser out there.

Facebook:  I’m not a huge fan of the Facebook interface, but at this point it serves as a valuable address book and catalogue of all my friends.

Twitter: Twitter is quickly turning into both my main online conversational tool and my RSS reader.  It’s also becoming a potential threat to search engines.

WordPress: WordPress is pretty much amazing.  A great interface and blogging platform that I’ve come to rely heavily upon in the last several months.

Now I’m not saying these should suddenly become pay services, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind as websites I would pay for if they suddenly started charging.  When I think about it, they all fall into a couple of similar categories: interfaces, communication tools, and services that replace older non-internet offerings.

Then there’s another category.  There are many other sites I find useful, but if they began to charge I would find a free alternative.  However, if suddenly every website became a paid site with no free alternatives, here are some more I would likely continue to use:

Popurls, Evernote, Flickr, Google News, Wikipedia, & Craigslist

This is still a very small percentage of the total sites I use, which means the rest are all better off with ad-supported revenue models.  The good news is as traditional media channels continue to flounder, advertising budgets will shift more towards the internet.  This should result in steady growth in internet ad revenues in the near future, and continued growth of useful sites and services that I and many others enjoy for free.  I can deal with free.

I’ve been messing around in the last several months with search engine optimization in a bid to see if I could manage to dominate the page 1 search results for “Adam Edgerton” on Google.  It finally happened today.  I’ve been hovering around 7-9 results in the last few weeks, but today things worked out perfectly.  It’ll probably be back to 9 or something tomorrow with how much Google results fluctuate, but still, mission accomplished!

1. My Website

2. My Blog

3. Linkedin Directory with my profile listed at top

4. My Linkedin Profile

5. My Facebook Profile

6. My Twitter

7. My Business Card 2

8. My Resume on Scribd

9. My Flickr Photostream

10. My OBRA racing results

Bonus: My Google Profile at the bottom

For the last month or so my website has been up, I’ve known that it had issues with certain browsers, namely the one that begins with Internet and ends with Explorer, AKA browser from Hell.  Thanks to a link from Joey a little while back, I was able to figure out exactly what different browsers were displaying on my site using browsershots.org.

A call from Uncle Bruce this morning reminded me about the browser from Hell’s insistance upon incorrectly displaying my site, so I decided to set about figuring it out once and for all.  After some searching, I figured out the problem.  Besides the fact that the browser from Hell itself is a problem, I found a couple tiny little div tags surrounding non-link text overlying shapes that seemed suspicious.  I removed them, changed the references for the text alignment in some cases, and the problem would appear to be solved!  The offending div tags:

Of course this never would have been an issue had the browser from Hell simply decided to cooperate.

A decent chunk of my time as of late has been spent working on a website for an aunt’s new wedding/event hosting business.  It’s been a fun (at times painful) project that has provided some good hands-on experience.  I realized that while I could build a static html website fairly easily, but a much better solution for the situation was using WordPress.  WordPress is traditionally a blogging platform, but it’s versatile enough that it is being used more and more as a website design tool.  The big plus in this case is that it means after I finish the site I can hand it off to my aunt, who can edit basic content without having to worry about understanding code or layout.

Step one was getting WordPress installed on her Godaddy hosting, which proved to be a pain compared to my one-click experience using Fatcow for my own blog/website.  Whenever you switch a domain or hosting setting, it can take hours for the changes to take effect.  I had to switch from Windows to Linux hosting, and that was only after I wasted several hours creating a hosting plan through their free hosting with domain plan when the .net adress was the paid account, not the .com.  The problem that results is a large Godaddy ad at the top of all pages. That wasn’t going to work.  So I deleted that account and switched over the .net to the .com address, and waited.

Then I shuffled through Godaddy’s uneccesarily bloated interface to create a MySQL database required by WordPress.  The WordPress installation finally took!  That was the easy part.

Next up we decided on a theme I could work with to modify fairly heavily into a website.

The next part was the real learning experience, as I have limited knowledge of php.  However, I’ve always had the ability to read code and understand its function pretty well.  My shortfall is more that I can’t write it from scratch.  So I spent a while sifting through different .php files looking for things I wanted to change.  My strategy was generally to cut out chunks of code that I thought might be whatever I wanted to get rid of, and then refresh the site to see what happened.  Often I got it right, but every once in a while the entire sidebar would disappear or some such.

After adding some basic content and pages, the website is now in a useable form.  Still to come is some minor design tweaks and probably an overhaul of the current basic content, but for now there’s a working, half-way decent looking blog masqeurading as a website!

I’ve spent a little while sitting here tweaking settings and adjusting layout on the blog, and I think it’s looking good.

The biggest thing I’m currently rethinking is content.  I feel I need to refocus a bit, find several topics I like that I can delve into further, and at the same time recognize who my readers are and what they might find interesting.

A hot topic right now is “personal branding” – that is, the presentation of one’s self whether that be in a digital or physical form.  As a job hunter, it’s something I’m conscious of, and with the high level of competition for jobs, the recent new website and other facets of my online presence have been one way I’m attempting to separate myself (if only slightly) from the competition.  Plus it’s been a fun project.  I think I’ve got a pretty decent and now nearly complete online presence that gives a well-rounded look at me, but the blog is really the one part that I haven’t made an attempt to professionalize, and I think I like it that way.

My problem with personal branding as it has generally been presented, is that it’s all too easy to lose an individual touch and personality in your efforts to create a persona.  The most notable example that comes to mind is someone I follow on Twitter who is a self-proclaimed personal branding expert.  I’d agree that he certainly seems to be an expert in the field – to the point that his online presence tells me virtually nothing other than that his profiles, blog, website, and book are all about personal branding.  The downside is that it all feels overly branded and manufactured, and I don’t really get any sense of who he actually is (unless he’s very one-dimensional, in which case I suppose I do).  I hope to avoid that extreme.

In that spirit, I’ll continue to blog about really whatever I feel like in whatever tone I feel like whenever I want to.  I just need to refocus a bit to figure out what sorts of topics will inspire my creativity rather than boring me for the sake of simply posting regularly.  Stay tuned.

So if you checked out the blog between Friday and now, you will have hopefully seen my new website. As is the case with everything in the times of modern technology, that website was already far too obsolete as of oh… this morning. Here’s what it looked like:

And this:

And this:

Not bad, right? Right – for a fourth grader with a mouth full of cookie dough ice cream!

So I spent a good number of hours this afternoon whipping something new up, and I’m pretty pleased with what I whupped. I’d take it a bit further if I had access to flash and some other fancy web programs, but as it it’ll do.

So once again, check out www.adamedgerton.com (that’s right, my own domain!) to see it.

If for some reason you see the old page, you probably need to clear out your cache. That or type in www.adamedgerton.com/index.html.

Hey look, my very own webpage!

Or at least the start of one. It’s got a little ways to go.

Today was one of those days that was really productive, but with not much to show for it. I spent all day building an greater online job-hunting presence, which included:

-Creating a business card and profile at BusinessCard2

-Creating an online CV at VisualCV and submitting it to various companies through the site

-Creating a profile on JobFox

-Reading strategies on personal branding and online social resume formats

This, in addition to the normal job hunting routine which includes:

-Checking Linkedin job listings
-Checking Craigslist jobs for a bunch of different metro areas
-Doing a bunch of different job term searches on indeed.com
-Checking the sites of 15-20 local companies that I’d like to work for in search of new job listings
-Looking at several different outdoor industry job sites
-Searching through my ever-increasing list of nationwide companies I’d like to work at for new job listings
-ideally finding maybe one (2-3 if I’m lucky) jobs to apply for

Throw in catching up on the news, social media websites, and online ad/marketing publications and my day is pretty much full.

This was my remedy for my mood earlier. I created a list of all my skills, experience, and knowledge (that I could think of in an evening) of various degrees and semi-organized it. What I ended up with is a list of things that I would generally consider myself more knowledgeable/experienced in than your average person. The actual level of each may range from simply proficient to expert, but all of them are things that contribute to who I am and could be talking points in an interview. The list could be subcategorized many times more than it is, but that would make it much longer than it already is. It lacks all personal attributes, characteristics, morals, and everything else that creates my personality. Instead, it’s just a list of everything I’ve picked up along the 23 year journey of my life so far that still seems at least somewhat relevant today. For example, I was a really good shot with a Super Soaker way back when, but what good is that today? If you read through it in detail, you’ll probably get a chuckle or two, and probably even learn some things about me you didn’t know. Without further ado,

Actually wait – another comment: it’s interesting how interconnected technology and the internet are to my life. Now, without further ado,

Skills, Knowledge, Experience:

Online experienced with
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
Google Analytics
Gmail
Hotmail
Yahoo
Digg
Blogger
WordPress
Flikr
Youtube
Hulu
eBay
Amazon
Craigslist
Html, xml, css literate
keywords, tagging
Firefox
Google Chrome
Safari
Internet Explorer
Flash
Geocaching
General social networking
General web 2.0
Email list maintenance
Website maintenance

Software experienced with
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Access
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft Visio
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Bridge
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Acrobat
Gimp
SPSS
RAW Image editing
HDR image creation
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Mac OS X
Basic Unix
P2P Protocols
iTunes
iMovie
CD/DVD burning

Technology knowledge
Computer sourcing and building
General troubleshooting
Computer hardware
Device compatibility
RAID
Networking
Wireless networking
iPhone
Blackberry
File extensions

Sports experience
Cycling – competitive road, recreational MTB
Runner – race experience
Golf – 6 years approx handicap between 10 and 15
Fencing – competitive
Tennis – recreational
XC skiing – recreational
Downhill skiing – recreational
Soccer – recreational
Ultimate Frisbee – recreational

Creative outlets
Photography
Digital SLR
Photo Manipulation
Writing
Copywriting
Resume Design
Blogging
Photoblogging
Trumpet
Graphic design

Marketing knowledge/experience
Direct consumer interaction
Grassroots marketing initiatives
Brand/logo design
Brand image/recall/response
Brand continuity
Event marketing
Advertising and promotions
Retail marketing
Consumer behavior and psychology
databases
PR and paid news
Sports marketing and sponsorship
Marketing life cycle
5 Ps
Agency-client relationships
SEO & SEM
Marketing metrics
Viral marketing
Guerilla marketing
Permission marketing
Direct/email marketing
Employee brands
Marketing plan creation

General Business knowledge
Six sigma manufacturing
Annuities and Perpetuities
Time value of money
Break-even analysis
Business calculus
Management styles
Business organizations (matrix, etc)
Annual reports
Market analysis
HR/OSHA/Labor practices
Management versus leadership
Product life cycle
Basic accounting – credits, debits, depreciation, AR/AP
Union labor
Budgeting

Operations highly knowledgeable of
Golf Courses
Hotels
Bike shops
Bike manufacturers
Cycling teams
Shoe/sports apparel manufacturers
Media organizations
Web startups
Marketing and advertising agencies

Games good at
Poker
Hearts
Spades
Sudoku
Boggle
FPS
3PS
RPG

Misc. Education
Geography
US politics/government
Classic literature
World/US history
Basic Calculus
Algebra/Trig/Geometry
Physics
Basic German
Economics

Publications/Online regularly read
Businessweek
Wall Street Journal
Economist
New York Times
Ad Age
Google News
Wired
Huffington Post
Seth Godin
Tech Crunch
Technorati
Gizmodo

Manual Skills
Luggage Handling
Caddying
Oversized vehicle handing
Cooking
Bike building
Basic woodworking
Landscaping
Hauling heavy objects

Other knowledge and proficiencies
Travel logistics
Navigation
GPS
Knowledge of many US cities
DOT regulations
Animal attack survival
Alaska
Typing 50-70WPM
Reading 60-100PPH dependent on reading material
Thesis writing
Bibliographies
Can read music
Heart rate/threshold training
Calvin and Hobbes
Dog care and training
Job hunting
Green technologies
Laundry

Networks connected to
UO Cycling team
OBRA
Team Oregon
Event Marketing/marathon
Business School
American Marketing Assn
Honors Business College
Family