The great thing about year end is that you can take stock of what happened in the previous 12 months, and look at ways to avoid mistakes and build on successes. This is true for pretty much anything you do – your personal life, your job, your business, your blog, your dreams. Anything. I know I’ve had a lot to look back on in 2010 – some good, some bad. Some of the good has (fortuitously) turned to great, while…

By Geoff Livingston and Danny Brown. Cross-posted on Geoff’s blog. Contrary to Violet Blue’s disappointing stance about women in tech in 2010, this year saw a terrible new trend, the outright enforcement of the glass ceiling in technology. First there was Michael Arrington’s terribly ignorant rant, followed verbally by the likes of Robert Scoble and Ms. Blue, as well as the visual use of boobs to sell copies of WIRED by Chris Anderson and crew. Before opining too much, here…

Hey there. So, notice anything different? After what seems like a long journey (longer for some, eh, Lisa?), I’m really pleased to be able to unveil the new design here at DannyBrown.me. Built from scratch on the core WordPress platform, design has been handled by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer Graphics. It’s a bit of a change for me, since it’s the first time I’ve used a fully customized design as opposed to building from a premium framework (I’ve used everything…

… And in with the new, as the saying goes. Seems kinda apt for some of the changes coming this way in 2011, at least as far as this blog is concerned. In the next few days, I’ll be putting the new design live on here. Built from the core WordPress platform, it’s the first time I haven’t used any premium theme framework and instead gone for a custom design. The makeover is being handled by Lisa Kalandjian of SceneStealer…

I was originally going to write a Christmas blog post of my own, to thank you all for continuing to be part of this little part of the web, and for giving up the time in your day to be here when you could be somewhere else. But then I thought – it’s Christmas Eve, you’re probably busy preparing for tomorrow, and the last thing you want is another long-ass Christmas post to say what I hope you know I…

As I start to wind down for the year – and, I guess, with the ubiquitous year-end blog post to come – I looked back at my very first post on this blog to see where I started. (Note – I’ve been blogging on and off for about 12 years but this is the one that I’ve made my own, so to speak). The reason for looking back was simple enough – I’m a firm believer that your first post…

Did you know that in Germany, you should always use a knife and fork to eat sandwiches? Or that in Italy you shouldn’t yawn in front of others? How about clicking your fingers or whistling in China – did you know it’s rude? There are a lot of differences between cultures. Some are less profound than others, yet they’re there all the same. Are you taking that into account when trying to reach that audience? Say your new client is…

When you have a great meal, do you tell your friends about it? When you see a great movie, or hear a great CD, are you someone who recommends it to others? Word of mouth is the most trusted recommendation factor around. We trust our friends, our families, our connections. We’d rather go with their advertising than some stranger that’s being paid to recommend something. So how often do you use your word of mouth to highlight unsung heroes, or…

There’s a lot of negativity around online influence tools at the minute. Things like Twitter Grader, Klout and similar are coming under fire, with common complaints being how is influence decided, what metrics are used, and does it even matter anyway. Allyson Kapin came up with a great statement, about measuring impact as opposed to influence – show us real metrics of success from your actions as opposed to success with your interactions (big difference). There’s no doubt influence can…

This post originally appeared over at For Bloggers By Bloggers. I’m reposting here as WordPress, and the various premium frameworks around, are becoming an increasingly important and adaptable toolset for any business, small or large and should be your starting point when building your presence online. New to the premium WordPress theme scene, Catalyst looks to be the most in-depth and extensive premium WordPress theme currently on the market when it comes to dashboard options. From the same guys behind…