Shawn Smith’s web ninja life

Time for me to put in my 18hrs/day for the next month. Probably won’t pop my head up much. Just a warning

Wanted to give you a look at what it’s like in my office this morning – my first day going full-time for OptimalWebworks.com!

So here’s just a quick spin around my workspace. Probably will only be here a couple of months before finding another spot.

I’m now a member of the self-employed. My last day at MLive.com is Friday, June 5, 2009.

My video explainer (turn your volume all the way up – sorry about that)

WHERE I’M GOING

Since my Nikki moved to Michigan, we’ve been working on building websites for small and medium-sized businesses. We joined up with Sam that summer to form Optimal Webworks. That was 2007. Amy Watson jumped in during 2008. And then there were four.

Over the last two years, we’ve all put in many long nights and weekends to help us get to where we are.

And it wasn’t easy.

But we are on the cusp now of realizing our goal – to own and operate our own internet-based company.

I am the first to transition to a full-time position with OW. Hopefully, I won’t be the last.

WHAT I WILL BE DOING

Internet marketing! It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work.

Everything from SEO to PPC to SEM to every other three-letter online acronym you can think of. That’s what I’ll be doing and have been doing for some time now.

Most people will call what I do affiliate marketing. I prefer to call it internet entrepreneuring.

BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE!

I really couldn’t have gotten here without the support of my family, friends and co-workers.

I’ve received an unbelievable amount of congrats and warm wishes, and it’s really helping make this transition easier.

The online experiments I’ve been given an opportunity to try during my four years since college have been incredibly valuable to my growth both personally and professionally. I can’t thank the people at MLive enough for believing in me and encouraging me to push things in all sorts of new directions.

I think we are both better for having such a great relationship.

I won’t get into the gushy stuff here. Many of you know how I feel. Thanks for everything.

SEE YOU ON THE INTERNETS

Since returning from Japan, I’ve been drinking green tea regularly. I even wrote a blog about it

My tea adventures have brought me most recently to Ann Arbor’s TeaHaus, a tea store with more than 200 varieties of tea. They work with a German vendor (so you know it’s good … haven’t you  heard of ShamWow!?!).

In fact, 28 of the vendor’s teas were among the best teas in their categories at a 2008 world tea competition.

If that’s not enough to impress you, head over there and talk to Andrew about anything related to tea. He’ll gladly take some time and explain just about anything you want to know on the subject. And if you want to stay for a while, they have some seats where you can relax and chat.

Here’s my quick tour:

Andrew also turned me on to a in-cup tea strainers. I had been using a French press for tea, but as he explained, French presses continue to steep tea even if the press is pushed to the bottom, which leads to a bitter, high-caffeine last cup.

Here’s the new strainer I got:

If you’re interested in tea, check this place out. Other places I’ve had luck is Cafe Japon, who’s owner is a certified tea expert and the Crazy Wisdom bookstore.

In case you were wondering, I found TeaHaus by searching “best tea ann arbor.” Good job on your SEO

The mid-February snow melt in Michigan caused a heavy fog in Ann Arbor this morning.

Tuesday temperatures hit the 50s, followed by similar temps on Wednesday, leading to large puddles forming on sidewalks as melting ice and snow packs have made a mess of things.

Here’s a video of my morning walk today, showing you just how nasty it is. It really wasn’t too bad, but the fog was so heavy that my hat was pretty wet by the time I got to work.

We did it! We helped change come to the world! We’ll we actually didn’t do much other than attend the 2009 U.S. presidential inauguration ceremonies – swearing in Barack Obama as the 44th president.

@_samjones, @nikkicino and @shawnsmith (me) all drove through the night from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Washington, D.C. to hang out with my cousin Jessie (Sam’s sister @pandair). She has a great great great house near union station and had plenty of room for us to share.

Here’s a link to my inauguration photos and videos.

I will highlight some of them here in the meantime.

The first day walking around D.C. we went to the inauguration concert, which kicked off the celebrations. Walking up to the concert, I noticed that the fences had been taken down that were previously guarding the Washington Monument. This was awesome! I hadn’t seen such a clear view of the monument in years. Here’s the video of the Washington Monument without fences.

We stayed for most of the concert, which was really interesting. The crowd was so happy and warm, it made you forget about the freezing temps in D.C.

Here’s one of my favorite videos from the concert, people singing “American Pie” as we tried to exit the grounds between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool.

THE CONCERT

We then went to dinner that night with some of Nikki’s old friends from AOL, and it was great seeing them again.

One item of note that I kept coming back to was the number of inauguration-type advertisements Ikea and Pepsi had up all over D.C. They really were playing them up.

OBAMA’S INAUGURATION CEREMONY

The city was quite crowded during the celebration, but we really didn’t have much trouble getting around D.C. We didn’t hit an overwhelming crowd until the day of the actual ceremony.

We had a great seat at the WW2 memorial, with an empty pool in front of us to break the crowd action. Some of the highlights was Obama taking the oath (video) and some girl throwing a shoe when they showed Bush on the jumbotrons.

Here’s how the crowd reacted when Obama was introduced to give his speech:

SOME DISAPPOINTMENT

One thing I have to say that really disappointed me was that after Obama’s awesome speach for American’s taking action on things like the economy and global warming, we walked through the national mall to see trash completely cover it. check it out:

GREAT TRIP!

All that said, it was an awesome time in D.C. and a blessing to be able to be there to witness it.

We finished our trip to D.C. with some sake bombs from Kyoto, a sushi place near Union Station. One of the sushi chefs put on a great performance for us with the bombs, check it out.

Sake Bombs at Kyoto in D.C. from shawn smith on Vimeo.

If you want to see more on our trip, just check out my inauguration photos and videos on Flickr.

You’ve no doubt seen the commercials of Vince repping ShamWow, the “revolutionary” liquid-absorbing material that seems to put people on their heads when they see it in action.

Today, one of my office mates brought in a single sheet of ShamWow for us to test, and test we did.

We had to break this down into two parts. In the first video, you’ll see us use a dry ShamWow towel to wipe up some water we spilled on a desk. Our reactions aren’t what you might expect, or maybe they are

In the second video, we try to wipe up some more water a second time after the ShamWow towel has been rung out once. Does ShamWow do a better job soaking up liquid the second time?

There you have it! Our ShamWow test. Seems OK. But if you’re cleaning up some dirty liquid, I can’t imagine using this stuff over and over. I think the material would just get gross eventually.

If you have other experiences, let me know.

I joined the Maker’s Mark whiskey fan list about three years ago. They call fans like me ‘ambassadors.’ And I am just now realizing, I am doing my duty.

This holiday season, Maker’s Mark sent me a package that included wrapping paper, ribbons and tags. I was really surprised to get this package. I hadn’t even told Maker’s Mark my new address since signing up with their list.

Here’s what it all looks like:

I’m not being paid for this review, but I felt I had to really give credit where it’s due. Maker’s Mark has conducted one of the best customer outreach programs outside of the digital age I have come in contact with.

I really appreciate it.

If anyone from Maker’s Mark is reading this, please also follow me on Twitter @shawnsmith. I’d love to see what else you guys are up to.

Thanks again, and happy holidays.

p.s. I really do like the whiskey, if you haven’t tried it, check it out. They sell big bottles at Costco and they are sealed with wax. Pretty fancy

My boss, colleague and I visited seven Michigan newspapers in four days to talk about the future of online journalism in the state. I took a few videos in the later sessions to show you what it’s like to live the life of a newspaper rock star. (see all pics and videos from Michigan Newspaper Tour)

Here’s a quick look at what one of our meetings looks like:

Not so scary, right? I took plenty of videos of several newsrooms and here they are in no particular order: Grand Rapids Press (more Grand Rapids Press videos)

Muskegon Chronicle (more Muskegon Chronicle videos)

Saginaw News (more Saginaw News videos)

Bay City Times

Hope you enjoyed going on the tour with me.

Does Old Town Tavern, a pub on the west side of Main on Liberty, have the best burger in Ann Arbor? I wouldn’t go that far.

But if you ask many Ann Arborites, Old Town is a safe bet for those looking for one.

Old Town’s warm, homey appeal sets it apart from many of the restaurant bars in town. You won’t find any pretentiousness here, but you will find good beers and friendly company.

Take a look:

The burger meat comes from Knights, a local meat market known for high quality foods.

Old Town does not feature a whole list of concocted burgers. Rather, the menu sports some simple suggestions and you basically build your burger to your liking. It’s kind nice to choose exactly what you want on it.

My one suggestion, which comes from an Old Town server, put some of Ann Arbor’s own Clancy’s Fancy hot sauce on the sandwich. It’s hard to beat that sauce!

Here’s the burger:

I dined on a burger with cheese and banana peppers, french fries and a cup of clam chowder (with some Clancy’s) for about $14, including tip. The meal did not include a beer, which run about $4-6.

My last tip about Old Town, get a bowl of peanuts for a buck, it’s a great deal!