Jess Ostroff
New York, NY
- 62 comments
- 6 likes given
- 16 likes received
Wandering 20-something with a love for music, wine, and snark. Virtual assistant to @jaybaer, @norcross, @jasonfalls, @copyblogger & @webdevstudios. How can I help?
Jessostroff is a moderator of:
@Erin F. @Shonali I was really trying to completely unplug during my vacation, and that's when this goodness took place so I'm so sorry for the late reply!
I am a big proponent of investing time and money into whatever it takes to make you look professional (assuming you actually ARE a professional!). I didn't launch my website until I had the money to hire a designer and was (mostly) satisfied with it. Before that, I just had my email address and phone number on my business card, no website URL. I had a PDF that I would send to potential new clients since I had no site to show my work, but I thought it was worth it instead of putting up something quickly that I wasn't proud of. Creating an LLC, having a professional email address (even if you don't have a website), and being really careful about what you publish on social networks are all things that I think business owners should do. You never know who's watching (or listening!) and I think that constant level of professionalism goes a long way.
Erin, I am sure we will get to meet again soon in a smaller and less insane setting! I look forward to it.
I hope @Shonali Burke still thinks I am professional after meeting IRL! I certainly feel that way about her :)
My latest conversation: It Doesn't Always Work Out
Finally listened and remembered how much FUN it was talking to you two! Your enthusiasm is contagious and I'm still so happy that you are doing this show. I hope you start to hear from people how much it helps them (if you haven't heard anything already) and I hope I can continue to be a part of the awesome :) THANK YOU!
My latest conversation: It Doesn't Always Work Out
@JayBaer Soooo much better. Rarrr.
@Brade I agree on the crazy commenting systems but want to support some friends by trying this one. I also thought the idea behind the new commenting systems was a good one because it could link to your social networks and that seemed to be the poison of choice, as I mentioned. And I appreciate your thoughts always in general although I wasn't suggesting this is an issue for me! I realized this whole post may have been mislead. Alas! These are just thoughts. Does Google Reader allow you to comment within?
Coooooool! I'd love to write AND help organize if you need. I could see this being much bigger than a Moleskine.
Woohoo!
@jasonkonopinski I feel like burnout is the least of our worries though, don't you? It's doing so much more than that! Like what Jay said below, studies show that it's messing with our entire brain chemistry. Not to mention that feeling of withdrawal that I've been going through. Scary stuff!
@JayBaer Yeah, my mom sends me articles about the brain all the time (she teaches a class on it) and a lot of them have to do with what happens when we look at screens all the time, especially before bed. Apple should offer some kind of Anonymous group for us!
@gracekboyle Totally. I think we can learn a lot from how we react to stuff like this, especially when it happens to companies AND people we love. Worse when we see it happening within ourselves.
My boyfriend just moved in too, temporarily until we move into OUR new place in a month (as opposed to me in his or him in mine) and I'm dealing with a lot of the same issues. Not cleaning necessarily, but the place we're in now is so small that everything actually *must* be in its right place or else we can't move. It's been frustrating getting used to each other's routines, which are completely different and annoying even though they make us wind up in the same place. I mostly wish he would just do things the way I do them, but then I realize that most of the reason we even work together is because we pick up each other's slack, and if that weren't the case we'd probably be even MORE frustrated and useless. Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're going through much of the same. Also, I used to be a total pack rat too and have reformed. I think it's from all the moving, I just got tired of taking so many things from place to place!
My latest conversation: The Slump
@streich There are a few new tools that specifically measure engagement on Pinterest like Curalate, Pinerly, and Pinfluencer, but none of the tools I mentioned here have integrated Pinterest. Yet. I imagine that'll come for a lot of the bigger SMM tools first.
@RobHalper I haven't spent a whole lot of time with Sprinklr or Syncapse, but my experience with Spredfast wasn't great. Their UI needs a lot of work (or did when I tested it) and I found there to be a lot of clunky-ness in general when I would try to schedule multiple updates across channels. Hearing more about Sprinklr these days and want to spend more time with it!
@kstaxman Such a sad story indeed. It seems like they've established their priorities and anything that's not in the top tier doesn't matter. That's unfortunate for the thousands (if not millions) of people who have relied on Feedburner all this time, most of whom don't even realize the service is dying. Thanks for your thoughts!
@bobWP It's definitely scary! And as @phollows mentions below, you don't necessarily have to have your subscribers re-subscribe. It just depends on how you do it. IMO, we had an incredibly easy time making the change and didn't lose very many people along the way. It was like magic! Thanks for your feedback :)
@iagdotme Definitely. I'd argue that you're probably making more money in other ways if you have that many subscribers (or at least you should be!) so the $75 investment is nothing. I think it's worth switching off of Feedburner now even if you don't go directly to Feedblitz but use another service instead. It's not worth scrambling if they completely shut down the service!
@dblacombe It definitely takes some time to wrap your head around the idea, even though the actual process takes less than 30 minutes. I agree that if nothing is really broken, it's hard to justify fixing it, but you never know when they could pull the trigger on Feedburner entirely and then you're scrambling! That's what we wanted to avoid.
@JaredRomey Hey Jared, thanks for the heads up! It should be pointing to the right link now. Sorry about the confusion!
@fundinggates Thanks, Meredith! I'm glad you're here reading! Hope all is well on your end, and we're due for some catch up time soon!
@JasonBoies Thanks so much, Jason. Glad you enjoyed it!