Blog Correct, Son

I "attended" my very first webinar this Tuesday, hosted by my new favorite company HubSpot, to learn about the timing and frequency secrets of social media to increase your visibility (good for business).
I'll give you the basics:
-Blog all day, every day
-Tweet up to 22 times a day, repeating the same tweets reworded.

Bam. If you want the full "Top 30 Points of Interest", user-created list, I'll put that up in a follow up post. All in all it was a highly successful webinar that was trending on Twitter at number three for a good ten minutes. It was so successful, that I took my excitement to LinkedIn, and tracked down HubSpot employees to harass them with questions. One representative in particular- Adrianne Mayshar- was not only quick to answer my questions (it wasn't even an interesting one. I was asking about time zones..), but further took the extra step to call me on my LinkedIn-posted phone number, to make sure she answered all my questions. Way to connect! After our phone conversation, she sent me a couple emails with some useful links- one to help the business I work for (which is why I attended the webinar to being with), and one to help me personally in building my marketing-savvy resume.


 Now the second link is really the one I want to get into. Apparently HubSpot, in all its awesomeness, also has its own free, online Inbound Marketing University, complete with sixteen, one-hour slideshow classes. At the end of your instruction- which you do at your own pace- you can take the exam to get your certificate.
Each "class" comes with an optional homework assignment at the end, and seeing as how I just finished my first class, allow me to do my homework with you:
*Note: I have included the video at the end of this post*

Assignment #1
Write a blog about the three best practices that you will adopt into your blogging strategy.

1. The first class teaches the importance of blog commitment. The worst thing you can do is to write a couple posts, then drop it completely.If you're a business, you'll frustrate the followers who were interested in your company. This also shows negligence, laziness, and incomplete projects. Personally, I've been doing that, and have committed to post a blog regularly. It's forever now, baby.

2. While blog quantity is important, so is quality. Instead of writing on an array of random topics to try and appeal to everyone, you'll earn more readership and bring value to your readers by "focusing on topics that prospects may find interesting and useful." When I viewed this slide, I thought about my favorite blogs and realized that each one supports this claim. My friend Chelsey, author of Girly Enthusiast, writes awesome reviews of beauty products. My friend David, author of A Man in the Arena, ties together wonderful discussions about philosophy, religion, and biology. My friend Joe, author of Get Some, Go Again, has a very distinct writing style as he tells stories about the people, places, and food he encounters as he travels the world doing stage lighting. My friend Mia used to write a fabulous little blog about knitting, but I guess she just couldn't commit. ;) My gimmick is to try and bring interesting topics that I find online to light, thus giving everyone a "shiny new penny" every day. Because everyone loves finding a shiny new penny? Right?

Don't tell me it's lame now...I'm already doing it!

3. Basically, blog all the time. HubSpot says that, "businesses that blog multiple times a day have on average 100% of customer acquisition." That's just crazy. While this may seem like a daunting task, especially if you're like me and have two followers (charity work, thanks guys) in the beginning, don't give up the frequency of your blogging. You will get readers.

Welp, that's the end of my homework. I appreciate your attention to this matter, and hope to see all your little faces in tiny square icons in my subscribers box.




How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101)

I'm Ready for My Close-up, Google.

Am I the only one excited about this? I can't wait til they tour in Cali. Free photo shoot, free publicity, free advertising, how fabulous. If I were a Tucsonian, I'd be lying on my lawn in full makeup and a prom dress, holding a sign reading, "I never go anywhere without my Chelsea Mielke!"

Photo this, Google!
http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/030311_google_street_view




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One Man's New Planet is Another Southerner's Abduction

I've been told the hot topic this year is proof of alien existence. I can't tell you how many The Fourth Kind parties I've thrown. In honor of this, but also just because it's really, really cool, here's my favorite article of the day:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/02/110202-nasa-kepler-new-planets-found-mini-neptunes-space-science-nature/

And a couple pictures to go along with it, that may or may not be directly related:

Men vs. Women

Hello again, friends.

So I've been making lists lately. Important ones. Gender-specific ones, which goes against everything I tell you I believe in with regards to androgynous utopia. I just can't help but allow my way of thinking to sometimes confine itself in a box of binaries. It usually happens when I'm mad. Since I'm the only female living in a house full of men, I'm usually mad. I have more pictures on my phone of the unbelievable filth piles in this house than I do of my niece. It's bad. I'm poor. Options are limited, thus, I stay put.

My boyfriend lives with me, my best friend's boyfriend lives with me, her other best friend's (Thanks, I know, I'm jealous she has two best friends too) seasonal "date" lives with me, and a girl my best friend and I used to work with's boyfriend lives with me. It's an incestuous dog pile. I've nonetheless gained some priceless wisdom from this bizarre and humiliating circumstance. After over a year of this lifestyle, plus my general life experiences with men, I've created a very easy-to-follow list that might just save the world.

And I'm here to share it with you.

Guidelines for Men
1. Kill spiders.
2. Stop leaving your hair clippings on the sink. Now. 
3. Spitting never looks cool. 
4. Don't expect someone else to pay for the pizza. 
5. A little extra wipe never hurt anyone. 
6. Child support is not a synonym for pot. 
7. Guacamole: Leave some for the rest of us. 
8. Always deodorant. Always.
9. Relearn how to pee. 


And finally...


10. You kinda suck on the guitar. <3


Guidelines For Women
1. Razor + eyebrows = stop. 
2. Stock up on Plan B. 
3. If you offer to pay for pizza, no one will stop you. 
4. Try to be funny.
5. His roommates probably hate you. 
6. If your book to shoe ratio isn't at least 40/60, yardsale. 
7. Oh, bangs. (Please see: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=131785423505525&v=wall)
8. If you don't even live together yet, but you're already nesting, chances are someone's annoyed. 
9. He probably hasn't washed his sheets since he moved in.  


And finally...


10. Salads are boring. Eat a burger. 



Just stew on those for a while.

Hugs, kisses, and broken fingers,
Chelsea Mielke

In the beginning.

Let's get this first post out of the way. I have more important things to move on to, and can't spend an unreasonable amount of time and effort on a throwaway post. It's embarrassing. Chances are if anyone takes an interest in this blog, they're not going to scroll back to the beginning. I do predict, however, that when I'm a worldwide celebrity in 2013, desperate fans will dig their greedy little cursors through the posts of Shiny New Pennies and arrive here. So for those of you from 2013: Hi. You may be present now, but keep in mind that at one point you were the future.

Love and Rockets,
Chelsea D. Mielke