I just wanted to say, again, how much I enjoyed today’s meeting. I think this is a really bright and talented group of people with potential for great synergy and collaboration. And blog posts (hint/note to self).

Those of you I met for the first time: Laurie, Sibylle, Michael & Laura, it was a real pleasure meeting you. Bradley and Tim, good to see you as always. I’m glad we could all get “out of the building”, too. For everyone else, I think a recap of some of the important things might be valuable. I’ll start one here, through I’m sure I’ll miss something. Feel free to add in the comments or your own post.

Here are some things I learned:

1. We’re not 100% sure what we want out of this group, but we agree that meeting is worthwhile. We also agree that the more we interact, whether in-person or on this website, we’re increasingly likely to organically create value for ourselves, each other and the group as a whole.

2. We should all try to post to the blog. Bradley’s qualifying criteria of “anything anyone in this group would find interesting” is great.

3. We’re a mix of specialists and generalists, but there’s a lot of overlap around “making websites, making websites better, internet marketing, clever programming, general marketing, design.”

4. Don’t Make Me Think and The Designer’s Guide to Marketing & Pricing are both “the best book in the world”. I’m happy there are two bests because I got “free super saver shipping”—thanks Tim and Sibylle. I think posts about good books/articles/whatever are good, especially when we include our experiences implementing the ideas therein. My favorite is The E-Myth, I’ll write a post about it.

5. We should all try to post to the blog.

6. I learned a bit more about what everyone does. I think that’s a really important part of this whole thing. It’s probably worth each of us posting a “What I Do” post, or an About Me page/post on the site. What does everyone think about that?

7. We’re equally interested in (external) Client Fulfillment topics and (internal) Business/Management topics.

Anyway, I’m cutting this short because I have to run. Thanks again, everyone.

When others post on this site, let’s make an extra effort to comment if we have feedback. That should accelerate the group’s evolution. I’m looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks.

Cheers,

John

(Noah and Michael (new guys), this is a group of small business owners who have been meeting over the past few months to, well, talk shop. We’re meeting tomorrow (Wed., 12/9) from 9:30 to 12:00 at the SF Main Library, 4^th floor, maybe we’ll get a conference room. You’re welcome to just show up or drop in anytime. Despite the name, it’s not really just about WordPress anymore.)

I’ve been trying to think of topics for our WordPress Wednesday tomorrow and I actually have too many topics rather than too few.

I stumbled on this guy’s blog recently and almost every post he writes is relevant to us. Here’s one I thought was great:

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/if-you-have-an-extra-half-hour/

My favorite is #7 and I should do more of that. Of course, I should/could put those posts onto our www.creativestorefront.com. Can I challenge you all to post something by tomorrow? (I just took a 10-minute pause from this email and wrote this: http://creativestorefront.com/you-got-flickr-in-my-facebook/). Let me know if you don’t have a login.

I also talked with Michael McDonald last week (http://www.kelek.com) and we were talking about outsourcing. I was talking about job/project tasks and finding help via www.elance.com or www.odesk.com but he brought this up:

http://getreplacemyself.com

I’d love to talk a bit more about that tomorrow. Because if I’m busy writing posts about Reese’s (“reaching out to thousands and not the single email response”), who’s going to take care of the 148-strong-to-do-list-that-is-my-inbox?

Other topics? Please add them as comments here:

http://creativestorefront.com/wpw-20091209/

(Yes, I posted it openly to the site, maybe we can find a nice/good way to post these kinds of topics on the site.)

What AM I doing up so early? My 3-year old woke me up at 5:00 for milk and then HE happily fell back into la-la-land …

See you all tomorrow.

It’s time to take charge of how you appear on the Web — to prospective clients, editors, publishers, employers and readers. In this forum, top designers and successful writers will show you the secrets to a productive Web site. You’ll learn whether to hire a designer or do it yourself, how to sell books and articles through your site, what you can get for how much money, what makes a site pop up high on a search, and much more. Don’t miss this informative seminar from the northern California chapter of the leading association of professional independent writers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA).

WHEN: November 7, 2007, 7 p.m.
WHERE: The Mechanics Institute (map)
RESERVATIONS and information: Laird Harrison laird_harrison@hotmail.com 510-530-6699
COST: $5 ASJA members, $15 nonmembers

The Panelists

• Tim Ware of Hyperarts has designed sights for writers including Patricia Holt and Terry Ryan, musicians Mike Marshal and Tuck & Patti and practitioners of many other professions
• Bradley Charbonneau himself a travel writer, designs Web sites for other writers and writers groups, including San Francisco Lit Quake and folks in many other walks of life.
• Patrick Miller seven-title author, magazine journalist, and indie publisher whose online publishing guide ranks at the top of Google and Yahoo searches for the term “how to get published”
• Gini Scott, a published author has built 25 Web sites using some to promote her books and others to connect writers to publishers and agents.