All posts by Mitch Mitchell

I'm an independent consultant in many fields, so I have a lot to share.

Go Ahead, Interview Me

Well now, this is a different kind of post. The title kind of says it all, but I figure I should add a little bit of something extra.


My friend Kelvin
hates this picture

In August of last year I wrote a post about influence and social media. I talked about how I wanted to work on growing my influence and I talked about a few things I was going to try to do to achieve that goal. I talked about how I was going to work through Twitter and Facebook. I’ve gone that route, and I’ve actually had a little bit of success with it. I even talked about this blog and, at that time, my business blog and the number of links I supposedly had between the two. Now that Yahoo Site Explorer is gone I’ll have to check somewhere else to see the numbers again.

I’m also done with Klout, as you know, although using that to measure influence was really ridiculous. There really isn’t a true tool to measure clout that way. But I still want to increase my influence, and thus I’m asking for help while offering help; how’s that sound?

Here’s the deal. I’m putting myself out there to do interviews. You’ve seen examples of how I do interviews on this site and you’ve probably seen me being interviewed on other sites. This post on influence listed a bunch of interviews I’ve done with other people on this blog. This page to interviews are some I’ve done with other people; I think it needs to be updated.

Anyway, part one is putting myself out there to be interviewed. It can be through questions you send me by email (look at my contact page for my email address), or I’ll do your podcast, or even video interview. I’d like to do a lot of them, but any interviews would work nicely. I can speak on a variety of topics, but I’m not going to tell you what they are just yet.

That’s because I have part two. Last December I wrote a post asking how I could be useful to you. I got enough comments on that post and people were very nice, but no one really asked me for help on anything. I’m going a different route here. I need to create some more videos and what I thought I could do was see what people might be interested in asking me so I could answer those questions or address those topics by video. This time, instead of asking people to write their questions on the blog, I’ll ask you to go through the email route to send me your question. I started wondering if folks didn’t want to put questions in comments so everyone else could see them; by going the email route, maybe folks will feel more free in asking questions.

And now the topics. Y’all know I can talk about a bunch of different subjects, so maybe these will fit your qualifications for an interview, or give you an idea of things to ask me questions on that I might be able to answer. This certainly isn’t a comprehensive list, and frankly I know if I actually get questions that there might be some I can’t answer. Let’s see how all of this goes; if nothing else I got another unique blog post out of it. The subjects are:

Leadership/management; racial diversity; customer service; medical billing; health care finance/revenue cycle; SEO; social media; writing; budgeting; blogging; 70’s music (odd one, eh?); and speaking.

That’s what I know I know, but I’ve talked about all sorts of things on this blog over almost 1,200 posts so I know something about other topics as well that one might find intriguing. I’m game to try almost anything; almost, that is. 😎

Consider this a social experiment; at the very least you know you’ll end up with a link back to this blog if you interview me, since I always mention when I’ve been interviewed; let’s see how we can benefit each other. Thanks; enjoy your weekend.
 

Thanksgiving 2011; Is There Anything To Be Thankful For?

Wow, what an interesting calendar year. How things have changed or gone from Thanksgiving last year until now. I’m not only talking about this blog, but my life in general. For this blog, I wrote last year and put up an image of myself with a friend, and then had to tell people that wasn’t my wife; won’t make that mistake this year. lol


This is my wife and I

I’m finding myself wondering if there’s much to be thankful for this year. My grandmother first got hurt, and then passed away. I had to take a guy to small claims court, though I won. I worked on another project that took me more than 4 months to be paid for. The really big projects didn’t come through.

Had my first (last?) colonoscopy and then had a second one on the same day. I had to change diabetes doctors after 11 years. I had a few friends pass away that I wasn’t expecting it to happen to. The local symphony shut down, as well as a few of my favorite restaurants.

I had some issues with affiliates including one, Finish Line that not only didn’t pay me but then decided to drop me and threatened me while they were at it. And this year, for Thanksgiving, my mother is with her friend, my wife is with her friend, and I’m home by myself (at least for now).

Overall, it seems like it was a pretty hard year to deal with. Things to be thankful for? As I sit here trying to think of things there’s not all that much that comes up. However, one of the blessings of blogging is that you sometimes chronicle things that have happened that actually turned out to be a good thing. So let’s see…

I actually began the year by not only getting my first gig just days after the new year began, but I was named at a Fabulous 50 top blogger on the same day. Thanks Bev!

I created two new blogs this year. One is my Syracuse and central New York area blog called Syracuse Wiki. The other is my second business blog on SEO and social media for businesses called SEOX Blog. Both have done relatively well, even if they don’t get tons of comments.

I got to do some live presentations this year. I gave two presentations at a local library, one at a large conference, and one to my consulting group. I might be forgetting something but I’m not sure. I also got to be interviewed on a couple of podcasts and was in Bev Mahone’s real radio program one day this year.

I reached my 1,000th post on this blog and I started creating videos as well. According to YouTube I’m not breaking any records, but at least I’m producing something different.

We finally got Osaba bin Laden, and many other countries are seeing major changes as the people have realized just what kind of power they have… as long as the leaders of those countries decide not to just kill everyone that misbehaves, which also happened a couple of times.

I went to my first karaoke club this year and found it fascinating, although I doubt I’ll go again. I also got to go to Las Vegas for a conference and got a much different experience out of it than the first two times.

My online income started to increase drastically, not quite to the level I’d been hoping for but higher than any other year; that is, until this last Panda update, but even with that I’m going to have my best year ever.

I got personally reacquainted with old friends this year, going first to a reunion at my college, then to a memorial get-together for my friend that recently passed.

I also celebrated my 10th year in business this year; I never really thought I’d make it this long but now that I have I guess I should really learn how to do it better, eh? lol And I’m about to hit post #900 on my business blog, which is almost a shame for as long as I’ve had it compared to this one but hey, a milestone is a milestone.

If I have to be truthful, I’ve met a lot of new and wonderful people this year, both online and off. Even though it was under horrible circumstances I got to meet and get to know my grandmother’s brother, Uncle Bill. I’ve connected with relatives and old friends I never thought I would ever have the opportunity to interact with again via Facebook, so I’m not hating on that.

And finally, even though I continue to battle with diabetes and being tired all the time and vision and occasional short periods of depression and a few other things I won’t mention, when all is said and done I’m relatively healthy, still go to the gym on occasion, still get to go where I want when I want, and still have a lot of people that talk to me via social media, networking events, and just events in general; I even went to some parties this year (actually ate outside once this year at all; that’s Josh’s fault).

All that and the continuing visits from friends both old and new on this blog and my other blogs. I mean, weighted properly, I’d have to say that other than my grandmother not being with us anymore the year has actually given me a lot to be thankful for. With that, I thank all of you for putting up with me, I thank my wife and my mother (both of whom will never read any of this stuff) for hanging in there, and I guess I’ll thank me for not just quitting and going off into the wild blue yonder, however that would have manifested itself (nothing like suicide so don’t go there, but who hasn’t ever had a day when they just wanted to give it all up and go lay in bed forever?).

Thank you all, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving (and if you’re not from this country, I’ll just ask you to take some time and think about what you might be thankful for on this day as well). And just to see who actually reads all of this to the end, click on this link and mention what it is because I’m posting it just for you. 😉
 

Quick Cliq

If you’re like me, you probably like using the quick launch toolbar. If you’re still like me, you start having way too many things on that toolbar, to the extent that it’s starting to take up a bunch of real estate on your monitor. That part is irksome, but the other part is wonderful. Is there another way?

This program was found by our buddy Mitchell Allen of Morpho Designs and shared with me. The site is called Apathy Networks and program is called Quick Cliq. It’s called a “launcher” program, and what it allows you to do is add “shortcuts” (I’m assuming y’all know what shortcuts are) to a menu that you access by right-clicking your mouse, pulling down slightly, then releasing, and having everything you want in your newly created menu.

I had to try this out so I downloaded the program, which comes in a Zip file, and basically there’s only the program in there as well as a couple of small text files. You open the program and then follow the instructions, which initially might seem hard but actually it’s telling you exactly what to do.

When you get the initial menu it’s pretty much a blank slate. The way you add programs to your list, at least the easy way, is to drag shortcuts off your desktop or any of your program files into the menu and there you go.

You’ll see icons at the top which, if you hover over them, tells you what each one represents. The first icon you shouldn’t have to use. The second icon allows you to create a menu of files you’d like to open that aren’t programs, and I did that by adding certain files I open all the time like my password file, some coding files, and some other files for data I track. It doesn’t care what format they are, and in this case you’re pulling the actual files instead of looking for a shortcut for those files. The third icon adds separators, which can be kind of cool but aren’t necessary.

I’d skip the 4th icon, which brings you to the next two icons. Those allow you to move the programs up and down so you can put them where you want them to be. I put the files I use often at the top, even though when you open the menu you’re normally in the middle, because I tend to look up at first almost all the time.

What it’s allowed me to do is first kill all the rows I had before except for one, then set the entire toolbar to totally disappear until I decide I need it, like when I need to reboot or want to check to see what the time is. Otherwise all my programs open fully, my wallpaper can be shown in its full glory, and I have easy access to all my favorite programs all the time with just a click, drag and release. Very neat little program indeed; oh yeah, it’s free!
 

An End Of My Own Era – Discover Magazine

I used to subscribe to Omni Magazine, and loved it a lot. I was into alien stories and space stories and some of those scientific conspiracy theories one always heard about back then. It was the days of X-Files and I loved it all, even if I didn’t quite believe it all.

Then one month I got a notice saying they were discontinuing publication of the magazine and I was sad. I had just re-upped my subscription a couple of months earlier and thought that maybe I’d be getting some money back. But these folks never give you back your money. Instead, the letter said they were going to start sending me a replacement magazine, Discovericon. This was December 1995.

I love Discover magazine. I think some of the smartest people in the world must read it because the comments I see every month cover some topics that just leave my mouth wide open. And the commenters aren’t all PH.D’s either, just “regular” people that happen to know a lot about certain things.

I always felt smarter for reading Discover. It’s amazing the things you can learn. I was always drawn to the astronomy stuff, galaxies, string theory, warp speed, that sort of thing. I always read all the medical stuff and have been fascinated with the progress that’s been made over the years in the study of the brain.

Yes, I’m talking about the magazine in the past tense because after almost 16 years I’m letting my subscription lapse. This is a hard decision for me because I still love the magazine a lot. But you see that picture above? Those are magazines that I’ve yet to get to and I have a few more than I discovered after taking that photo. And the funny thing is that I’ve just finished reading two other Discover magazines and still have tons left.

As I’ve mentioned in the past I tend to speed read. Some articles in this magazine I still can do that, but others take time to get through. I also have other magazines that tend to be more pertinent to things I do, such as PC World, HealthLeaders, and a couple others. All of that and the time I spend on my computer and consulting in general doesn’t leave much time for such an indepth magazine any longer.

Why am I writing about this? Two reasons actually. The first is because I love the magazine and I would recommend it to anyone that has a love for science in general.

The second is because there’s a lesson here. Sometimes we have to let go of things we love when they’re counter productive to the rest of our lives. A magazine subscription might seem like a minor thing to some, but 16 years is still 16 years. In the past I’ve talked about the need to declutter one’s life sometimes to push forward. It’s hard to declutter when you’re still bringing new clutter into the house, even if it’s pretty or somewhat functional. It can be harder to give that up for something better, which, in my case, will be time devoted to other things. And if I really need a fix I’ll just see what they’re offering online.

What have you tried to give up lately to push forward? Go ahead, share.
 

Discount Panda Updates? Not Me!

This is what happens when you don’t keep up on things. I’d almost missed that Google had put through another Panda update in October. The first time they did something like that most of my blogs took a tumble, but overall it wasn’t all that bad. However, this time it’s taken direct aim at my biggest money making site.


by Richard Elzey via Flickr

I’ve talked about my site Medical Billing Answers before. It’s been generating close to $300 a month in Adsense revenue, and with the other money I’ve been earning from other sites, which isn’t much, I’d been feeling pretty good. I want it to be higher but I figured that time would help push it along.

In early October it’s earnings were right on pace and I went on to start dealing with other things. With a week to go in the month I went to look again and noticed that things had dropped off sharply, and that I might not even make $200 for the month. I did, but barely. Not only that, but I ended up not getting paid my September money, which was greatly irksome.

On that front Google did eventually send out a notice to everyone talking about their glitch and saying that most of us would get that money and our October money at the same time in November; I’m still holding my breath on that one. However, almost halfway through the month and I’ve barely passed the halfway point towards $100; what the hey?

This is the part I don’t understand. My site on medical billing issues was doing very well, and suddenly, after what I believe is its third alteration, Panda decides it has no real authority after all? And just like that it affects my income that drastically? Is that fair?

Actually, it has nothing to do with fair I suppose, but reality. I haven’t added much new to that site in about 3 months, and maybe that’s the issue with Panda; no new activity, it stops sending people your way. These days everything seems to be about activity, kind of like the topic I touched upon when I wrote about blogging frequency. I mean, while traffic on my medical billing site has fallen 32% over the last month, traffic on this site has increased 7%, on my business blog it’s up 9%, and my finance blog is also up 8%. These are sites that I’ve kept up consistently new content. The oddity is my SEO blog, which is showing a decrease of 13%, even though I have a new post every 3 days there.

I’m irked that my income stream has been interrupted, yet I also think there’s something that I should have been able to do to keep it coming in. Do I start another blog? Ugh! Nope, that’s not going to happen. I guess I just have to try to make sure to add something new there at least once a month to see if that helps get its steam back. It does prove the overall need to diversify income streams, even online. Still, I’m not happy about it overall.