CodyStaub dot com

Today is the sorta-launch of my new media network, Freki Media. This is going to be the company I run all my web stuff through, plus the site will serve as a place to update on my web-only projects (for the most part). Go check it out if you want to see what’s going on, just keep in mind it’s a work in progress.

Sorry it’s such a short post, but I worked last night, had class this morning, and am now on like hour 26 without sleep (I’ve only slept like 8 hours in the last 3 days). Time to hit the sack, I’ll make a more detailed post later I promise

I wish I had the time to post this sooner, but I just didn’t. However, I just wanted to let everyone know that I did survive sky diving…and it was AWESOME! I just want anyone who is thinking of going sky diving to know that it’s something they’ll never regret doing. So here’s how it went down:

Me and some co-workers from the ER went down to Skydive Ogden in Ogden, Utah (www.skydiveogden.com) for a dive booked around 4 pm. Since there was four of us jumping, it cost $170 per person to jump. There was a LOT of people there, more than they had expected even, so our jump was actually delayed until 7 pm. Although that put us getting home rather late, it was worth it because we got to jump with the sun setting…cool experience. Anyway, back to the story. We all jumped in tandem, which means you’re attached to an instructor for the jump and they control every aspect of it. On the ground you get basic (really basic) instruction on how to exit the plane, what to do in air, and how to land. Since the tandem controls everything, there’s not much to remember. Then you’re geared up with a harness and a cap/goggles and loaded on a plane for a 20 minute flight up to about 13,000 feet (in our case). We had a rear-exit plane, so jumping was literally just walking off the edge…nothing to it really. Now I have to tell you, the only part that was rough for me was immediately after stepping off the plane. I think it’s best described as like diving into a cold lake. Not only was the air kind of chilly (I dove in plain clothes), but the initial shock is almost the same. I just took a couple deep breaths and I was totally fine after that. The view falling to earth from 13,000 at 120 miles per hour is amazing. You’ll never see another thing like it. We were in free fall for about 60 seconds before my tandem pulled the chute and he began to teach me the basics of steering and speed control, then kind of let me take the ropes. Landing was a breeze and no one was hurt on our jump.

I bought a dvd to go with my jump, so I’ll write another post and put the movie up as soon as I get it this week. If anyone has questions or is thinking about going, just ask me. It’s an experience I’d do again (and probably will) in a heart beat.

Update: Here’s a few pictures of the outing. I’ll still make a new post when I get the video in the mail.

Sky Diving Pics! (click here)

Well this weekend should be a very exciting one for me. After working my 12 hour shift in the ER tonight, I’ll be headed down to Utah to go skydiving tomorrow afternoon (Saturday). This is my first time trying this and, little fun fact, I’m terrified of heights. But, I figure I need to conquer my fears. To get over my fear of needles, I volunteered as a guinea pig for a phlebotomy class and donated plasma/blood…I guess this is kind of the same thing? Anyway, don’t anyone try and scare me out of it until AFTER tomorrow.

To add to the excitement going on this weekend, I’ll be releasing a few sites into the wild before Monday, 3 to be exact. One is my first stab at a site designed solely for affiliate marketing, another is the home site for my new media network (I had to give all these random sites a name and purpose right?), and the third is the project site for a local organization (which I mentioned in this post). I also plan on releasing a photo section right here on this site, so you lurkers can all get a personal shot of my life.

And to top off all this excitement, school starts Monday, adding insult to injury in my already-busy life. Well I can’t complain too much, it’s one year closer to getting that silly degree they make you earn to be a doctor!

Earner’s Blog

Earner’s Blog has only been around for about 6 months, but already it’s a site that is packed with some good quality content and useful tips and a reader base of over 800 RSS subscribers. While the title tacks it as an affiliate marketing blog, Earner’s Blog really encompasses the whole making money online experience, with subjects ranging from stealth link building (part 1 & part 2) to Adsense Arbitrage Made Simple back to Building a Successful Affiliate Network. And just because I’m a huge fan of online tools, he’s also created a list of 20 free SEO tools.

SuperAff

Terry over at SuperAff.com has a great blog going. If you want to learn a ton about marketing and making money online in one place, I would reccomend you check his site out. All the posts are quite lengthy and detailed, which is a very good thing if you’ve got the time to read. His latest article, Developing the Art of Detachment to Increase Results, is all about minimizing the time you spend online to increase your productivity overall. And because I’m all about the free online tools and such, Terry has put together some very useful lists: Web Tools, Affiliate Marketing Blogs, Webmaster Forums, and some other random things.

Digerati Marketing

This is a great SEO and marketing blog. Mark really knows what he’s talking about and all of his posts reflect that. He’s got so many good posts it’s hard to highlight them all. My favorite at the moment is the beginning to a series on affiliate marketing called Making Money with an Affiliate Networking Empire. He’s also delved into great subject on making money with no website, making money with a video blog, and his latest, seo tools.

Syndk8

Earl Grey’s Black Hat SEO and Black Hat SEM Community is a great site to check out, even if you don’t believe in black hat methods of promoting your sites. In today’s world of internet marketing, you can’t ignore black hat methods or you will be swallowed alive by your competition, and Earl here gives some very valuable insight into the world of black hat marketing. You can’t view any content without signing up for the forums, but I’ll tell you that if you’re into learning about promoting your sites (and you’re not a whiny baby), it’s a site worth checking out.

That’s right, I’ve laid my first trap…kinda. Kumiko over at CashQuests.com is having an advertising deal that was entirely too good to pass up: a link in her blogroll, with any anchor text you choose, until September 10th. A whole month for $10 on a fairly well-known site. So if you’re visiting from CashQuests, Welcome! I want to take this opportunity and direct your attention to a few specific areas.

• Cool Music Tuesday and Free Link Friday! These are my two weekly features to the site. Cool Music Tuesday is where I reveal some really cool, lesser known groups to my readers. Free Link Friday is where I write a mini-review of sites I frequent and am impressed with.
• About Me Of course feel free to check out the about me section. After all, how fun is a blog to read if it’s not personal right?
• A Parable of Two Businesses Part I and Part II I’m no business major graduate (yet), but I’m fairly proud of myself on these two articles, so check them out.
• My dog Kenya So I’m a fanatic when it comes to my dog. Shoot me. I’m sure you’ll fall in love with her too.

What’s this site really about though? Well I do tend to ramble a lot about what’s floating on my mind, but hopefully I’ll help someone, like me, just starting out in the online world to get a little farther. More on that bit tomorrow, so be sure to come back!

Oh, and for entertainment purposes…the inspiration for this post title…listen carefully!

[youtube]tCPjXRaP9no[/youtube]

Envy on the Coast

Although the band is only a year or two old, Envy on the Coast already has a big-name sound and has shared stage with the prowess of Angels and Airwaves and 30 Seconds to Mars. With such an awesome blend of emo, punk, and pop it won’t be long before this band is taking over the radio airwaves as well, especially after they finish up their stint on the Van’s Warped Tour on August 25th. This band is also poised excellently for a lot of publicity, check out their websites: Official band website, PureVolume, MySpace, Warped Tour, and BuzzNet.

PS: The band just released their second album, Lucy Gray, today. You can head on over to Amazon.com and get it, shipping right now!

Neurosonic

The first glimpse I had of these guys was their song “Fearless”. If you check that song out, be advised, it’s not their typical sound at all. Neurosonic is a band that crosses a lot of boundaries in the world of music genres, but are generally considered as progressive or alternative rock. The band was formed in 2006 in Vancouver, BC and were signed to the Bodog Music label in 2007, releasing their album, Drama Queen, on January 30, 2007. Currently the band is touring on the 2007 Family Values Tour.

Check ‘em out some more on their official site, Bodog Music, PureVolume, and MySpace. Also, if you want to read about how the U.S. FBI confused them for terrorists, check out their Wikipedia entry. It’s a good one!

This week’s free link Friday feature will end the front page of my daily reads, but fear not, because I have literally hundreds of blogs and links that I read on a regular basis that I find to be useful in some way or another (so we shall continue). On to the link love!

eMonetized

This is a must read for all bloggers and online money-makers in my opinion. Tim Schroeder is a webmaster who operates sites across a broad spectrum and doesn’t hide much of anything when he shares his tips. While I’m sure Tim was not the first to use site-targeted Google ads, I believe he is the one that blew the potential wide open with his John Chow ads. His last two articles, in particular, have been a motivational kick in my pants as well. The most recent, How I Make Money Blogging, made me realize the potential outsourcing and stacking multiple sites for income has (although I already kinda knew that, but now I’m refreshed in the venture). After reading that, I glanced through 4 Free Tools for Finding Hot Affiliate Marketing Niches and Trends, which actually led me to purchase a number of domain names this morning with some hefty-ish plans. Perhaps with all his inspiration I’ll get into this whole making money online thing after all.

SEOBook

SEO Book is a site whose catchline is “A New Chapter Every Day”. While the site isn’t updated every single day, it’s updated more often than most, at least every other day, and provides useful content in each post. As you can guess from the title, it’s a site all about search engine optimization. The site contains a lot of great information if you can keep up with it all. I personally have a hard time keeping up because I’m no master of the SEO. Besides awesome new content nearly every day, the site has a few other nice touches. For example, the tools page has just about every SEO and marketing tool you can find on the web and even links to a few other sites’ tools pages. All of it is free, but if you prefer the hardcore condensed version, there is an actual SEO Book available (as an ebook of course!) for $79. Either way, visiting the site will be sure to render you some useful info.

CPA Share

This is a blog written by a kid named Harrison Gevitz (hope I didn’t slaughter his name, sorry if I did!). Although he’s only 15 years old, I have a ton of respect for this little dude. He’s already making money on par with adults before most teens even get a job. I honestly find his blog to have little knowledgeable usefulness, but a ton of motivation factor. Most of his posts are generalized updates of his projects, about his personal life , or about school. However, I still find a lot of personal gain from his site and it has a fixed spot on my front reader page. Definitely give his page a check and decide for yourself. PS: Harrison if you’re reading this…a) I really do love reading the stuff you post, keep it up and b) I always enjoy a little link love myself .

Last week I wrote a little tale about two separate corporate entities I’ve worked for in the last couple of years. If you haven’t read it yet, you’ll want to check out A Parable of Two Businesses: Part I before reading any further.

Lesson 1: Treat your employees right

Looking at the overall morale and working environment of each company, I can guarantee that it’s traceable back to one thing: how the employees are treated. At the ALF, the employees aren’t necessarily treated poorly, but they sure aren’t made to feel like they’re of importance to the company. Employees are paid on the low end of competitive wages, incentives aren’t given for going the extra mile (although it is expected), and about the only time the company spends money on employees is for a Christmas party. The hospital, on the other hand, has a pretty intense program based on employees making the difference going on. We’ve also had a lot of fun activities since I’ve been there, including a picnic in which they rented out a whole family fun park for. It seems like most people there see their co-workers as family away from home.

Other companies do this as well. Let’s take ohhhhh….Google, for instance (hey why not?). Google is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing companies of our time. Ever seen a story about the inner workings of Google? It almost certainly will focus on how “Fun” it is to work there. Employee benefits abound the sprawling Google complex. In fact it was named by Fortune as the best employer to work for 2007.

So why do employers want to go to all the effort, not to mention expense, of making their work environment fun? It costs a lot of money, generally, to find and train new employees. If you’re employees aren’t enjoying their working environment, most likely they’ll leave it. As your turnover rate goes up, so does your cost of doing business. Making work fun also improves employee productivity. If your employees are more productive, then you’re making more money. Enough said.

Lesson 2: Make your jobs everyone’s dream job

When I had my orientation at the hospital, the chief financial officer (who was once the temporary CEO of the hospital) said that when he started working there you could hardly find a person to say one good thing about this hospital. In fact most employees were afraid to admit they worked at the hospital. What was done to change this? They made the hiring process stricter. Instead of hiring any old shmoe off the street who met the qualifications, you now had to prove yourself to the company that you’re a valuable asset. For example, my hiring process took about 3 months to complete, from the time of the interview to the first day on the job. That doesn’t include applying for the job. Now the ALF that I worked for still hires just about anyone that qualifies because they are short staffed, after all turnover is really high in that field. Perhaps they should adopt the hospital’s policy, and I’ll explain why this is a good policy.

• Quality workers make working easier. Have you ever had to pick up someone’s slack at work? What does that do to your morale as an employee? It makes you want to start looking for a new job most likely. Hiring quality employees makes everyone happier and employee retention will stay up.
• Everyone wants the unattainable. What does every car-enthusiast child want growing up? What is every child’s dream job? Most likely it’s a Ferrari, Lambourghini, or Porsche in the car category and probably something like an astronaut or a horse jockey. And what guy here has seen a picture of Kate Moss or Heidi Klum on a spread and not thought….well you know what you think. Why is this? Most of us will never be able to afford a high-priced supercar, most of us will never become an astronaut, and I’m pretty sure that no one reading this will ever be able to get into the same bed as Kate Moss (there’s a challenge for you). The answer is simple. We as humans strive for, or at least dream about, the unattainable. Now, if your company becomes that unattainable dream for most people, you can really start to pick your employees can’t you? And you get to pick the best of the best because everyone wants to work for you.

Lesson 3: Be involved It’s no secret that being involved in the community is a company’s fastest route to a good PR standing (public relations, not PageRank you nerds). And to be honest, I don’t think it matters what your motivations are. After all, any true company’s top priority goal is to make money. Why else form a company? And giving back to your community can be a prime investment. The ALF I spoke of puts on community barbecues, sponsors floats in parades, and hosts other family events. This directly affects the occupancy of the residence because people from outside come in and get to see how much fun the environment is (even if it’s just a show sometimes). The hospital sponsoring a health fair shows the community that the hospital really cares about the health of community members, so where are you going to go when you feel sick? It’s all about the money baby, but you can make it look like it’s not .

I’m sure there’s a lot of valuable lessons I’ve overlooked here, but feel free to give some input. What other great lessons in business can we learn?