A good friend of mine (Ryan Courteau) recently had a change in employment and was able to spend a day per week working with me.  He has a sales background, so he’s been acting as a consultant on contract with an eye toward helping us increase sales on our e-commerce business.

Things have been a little slow over here due to the economy, so we decided to spend most of December making a new e-commerce site.  It sells maid carts here.

Ryan and I worked our hearts out on this one.  It really is a lot of work to populate all the data into an e-commerce site.  Jason (my other co-worker) did a lot of the previous ones, so I had not done one in a while.  It’s very time intensive.

All in all, 2009 was a financially tough year for a lot of people.  Thankfully, by decreasing expenses, we were able to break even the last six months of 2009.  Making the new site opens up another potential revenue stream for 2010, even if it was a ton of work.

The flight up went smooth and although we stayed at my sister’s house, we needed to be very careful to not mention the surprise anniversary party we had planned for her that Saturday.

My nieces, my mother, and others worked very hard to make the party a huge success.  About 100 attended from all over the country and we surprised them pretty good.  My sister and her husband expected to have a dinner with family and friends.  So, they were in for quite a shock.

After a full dinner, we showed a slide show with video that my niece put together showing their 25 years of marriage.  She did a great job with it and I made comments while we showed it.  Then, the band that played at their wedding (25 years ago) played their wedding song again.  It was very nice.  My sister definitely got a little teary-eyed.

During the trip, I got to spend some time with my parents, my nieces, and my sister & her husband.  They are all good people and I’m thankful to have such a close family.

I also got together with my best friend and visited the Patriots Place for an afternoon.  That was fun.  (Even if they did lose by one point the previous Sunday.)

The weather in New England is straight up cold.  I don’t know why it feels so cold there compared to NC.  The temperature is only 10–15 degrees colder, but it always seems to feel a lot colder to me.  The sun goes down about an hour earlier there too.

Lastly, we got stuck on our plane for several hours while they “diagnosed a mechanical problem”.  At first, I had nothing to read & my wife was using the ipod touch.  But, once we finally got off the plane, I ran to buy a book and a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.  I read about 150 pages by the time we landed.  Much better.  (I don’t do well with boredom.)

I love my family and friends, but it’s good to be home.

(No joke, we’re a little concerned. If anyone lives or works near him, please let him know we’re looking for him. I’ll try to keep the page updated and/or people can leave comments)

His most recent tweet was about 8:00 AM Thursday, Sep 3.
http://twitter.com/davidkyle/statuses/3736275628

Cara noticed that he was missing at the SEMCLT meeting that night.
http://twitter.com/Cara/statuses/3744802152

LesPorter mentioned around 8 AM that is he never checked in.
http://twitter.com/LesPorter/statuses/3755165263

…and that he is not returning voice mails.
http://twitter.com/LesPorter/statuses/3755182880

His voicemail is now full and no response still.
http://twitter.com/NC_SEO/status/3756475241

Belias21 is going to drive by his work and look for his car.
http://twitter.com/belias21/status/3756977232

Leave a comment below if you know anything else…

There were nine other friends of ours in our group, and we were with a tour group of about 80 people in two buses.  I did not take barely any pictures, but I did take almost 200 videos.  I’m currently trying to go through them all and post the stuff that is good.

We absolutely loved Vienna.  What a beautiful city.  The architecture and culture there is just amazing.  Our trip included plenty of time walking around the city, visiting the cafes and restaurants, and attending to the Vienna Symphony Orchestra one evening.

Athens was not quite as beautiful.  However, the history and sights were amazing.  We visited the Acropolis, the Areopagus (Mars hill), ancient Corinth, and other amazing locations.  We especially enjoyed the brand new Acropolis Museum.  It is the most amazing museum I have ever seen.  We also spent an entire day cruising a few Greek islands.

I’m going to do my best to go through my videos as soon as possible to share with you the highlights.  However, right now my body is still getting used to the 7–hour time difference.  Therefore, my evenings are not that productive.

Hospitalist is the term used for doctors who are specialized in the care of patients in the hospital.

In working with a new client, I’m starting to get to know more about hospitalist jobs.  PrimeDoc offers some very compelling options for hospitalist careers and hospitalist positions.

Their locations are in different places around the southeast.  They all offer hospitalist employment at each hospitalist group location.

If you’re thinking about getting a hospitalist job, check out the various pages that this post links to.

(Hopefully Google will too!)

Corey

FAMILY:  Both of my nieces visited my wife and I (from Massachusetts) over the last month or two.  The 20–year old stayed for one week, but the 18–year old stayed for an additional three weeks.  We loved having them both.  I’m so proud of my sister (who I constantly like to tease) and her husband for raising such wonderful girls.  We love having them.

Also, my parents are visiting next week.  I’m really excited about spending time with both of them.  My dad recently retired.  So we’re glad he can visit us and not have to rush back to work after.

TRIPS:  Last week we went to the US National Whitewater Center.  It’s only 30 minutes from home and we got to do whitewater rafting and a 1,000 foot zip line.

Sandy and I are especially looking forward to spending two weeks in Europe in July/August.  We will be visiting Austria and Greece.

WORK:  Work is going well.  The economy does not seem to be affecting our industry.  Since January I have only been working 4 to 4–1/2 days per week.  It’s been my goal for a long time.  I finally got there.

I don’t think I actually have 500 posts, but I am surprised about how long I’ve been doing this for.

How appropriate that post #501 should be about “How to hire an SEO”.  You’d think I’d have that figured out by now.  HA!

It’s amazing someone has not thought of it earlier.

(Maybe I just needed a diversion because the Celtics lost the first game of the playoffs this year.) 

But I thought Charles Barkley was very funny in this video.  Check it out.

NOTE:  If you double-click on the video, you can watch it in full screen mode.

For those of you that know me well, I talk about it all the time, but rarely provide the details.  So here are some specifics…

It all started with reading the “Four Hour Work-week”.  (For the record, I did not like that book because of the premise behind it of doing everything for yourself.  I believe life is more about what you can do for others than what you can get for yourself.)  But the basic time management concepts were interesting.

So I started my diet by un-subscribing to every email newsletter I ever got.  Now I am only down to three:

1.  MarketingVox daily newsletter
2.  SearchCap daily news
3.  Web Marketing Now monthly newsletter

Anything else that comes into my inbox that is automated gets sent directly to a folder I call “noteworthy”, and I check that a couple times per week.  So my inbox is simply for real people who send me real emails.

But that does not mean I don’t stay informed.  When I drive and/or workout, I listen to and watch the below audio and video podcasts time permitting.

1.  This Week in Technology
2.  Ad Age Video
3.  Duct Tape Marketing
4.  NPR 7 AM ET Daily News
5.  TED Talks
6.  Tekzilla Daily
7.  Buzz Out Loud

As for actual physical mail, I get the below magazines/info…

1.  The Net Effect (I read it cover to cover)
2.  Wired Magazine (I don’t read it, I scan it)
3.  Fast Company (I don’t read it, I scan it)
4.  Charlotte Business Journal (I don’t read it, I scan it)

I also rely on several of my local SEO, Social Media, and Marketing colleagues to keep me informed via Twitter (time permitting), e-mail, and most importantly in person at monthly meetups.

Lastly, I do use an RSS reader, but the only blogs it has in it are friends and the various official search engine blogs.  That reader synchronizes to my two desktops, two laptops, my ipod touch, and my cell phone. 

I read them when I am bored.  (Like when my wife watches HGTV and/or House Hunters.)

Overall, this is what I’m down to and it suits me well.  I now work only four days per week and almost never work during evenings or weekends.