Nate Whitehill dot ComStrategic Business Blogging & Internet Marketing

Unique Blog Designs is finally on Twitter! It is certainly about time, as I have been using Twitter for over a year now.

Make sure you follow UBD on Twitter to stay up to date on all of the cool things happening.

We have a lot of exciting things planned for 2009 that will definitely surprise you! In Q1 2009, we have something very special to show you and we will be announcing it first on Twitter.

I’ve been beta testing WordPress 2.7 for the past few weeks and I have to admit, I am impressed to my highest degree of geek. It is so much cleaner looking, has cool new functionality, and the fact that you can upgrade and download new plugins from with the WP Dashboard is pretty sweet.

Check out this video which explains how cool WP 2.7 actually is:

Most people are not comfortable with making big upgrades to their blogs, but I have been testing WP 2.7 pretty extensively with all of our WP Themes including Citrus Theme and the UBD Moneymaker Theme, and it has been working perfectly.

Download WordPress 2.7 Here

If you are using WordPress 2.7 now, what is your favorite new feature? Run into any weirdness? Tell us about your experience.

I have been up all night listening to this awesome podcast from Internet marketing legends, John Reese and Frank Kern.

I follow John and Frank on Twitter, and earlier today, Frank tweeted a link to a 6-hour podcast he and John recorded back in 2003.

Now, I know what you are thinking… isn’t Internet marketing advice from 2003 outdated? That is exactly what I was expecting, but you will be surprised at how many fundamental truths Frank and John cover in this podcast, which are all true today.

I know 6-hour is a long time to listen to discussion, but if you are into Internet marketing and making money online, I highly recommend you check this out - especially because it is free and there is no opt-in required.

Let me know what you think.

• Check out the podcast here
• Follow John Reese on Twitter
• Follow Frank Kern on Twitter

Everyone’s favorite wild man, and CEO of IZEA, Ted Murphy, loves cereal so much that he is giving away 52 boxes (enough to fill a bath tub) of it in his first “super promotional happiness giveaway.”

How to Enter

Each person can enter up to 2 times, once via their blog and once via twitter.

Enter with your blog. To enter with your blog simply write a short post including one of the promotional images or video below and link back to this post. Please make sure you drop the URL of your post in the comments.

This is a great opportunity to win a lot of cereal and donate the boxes to a local food bank, which is what a lot of the contest entrants are promising to do.

You can learn more about the contest here.

Win a Bathtub Full of Cereal from Ted Murphy on Vimeo.

With the recent election of Barack Obama, there is going to a new Presidential precedence in using the Interwebz to communicate with the US citizens.

There was no question Obama’s Internet marketing was top notch. He and his team had the most effective marketing of anyone who ever ran for office.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr - Barack Obama’s team has and is participating in all of these new mediums.

Even though he will likely have to give up his Blackberry when he gets to the Oval Office, Obama will still be the first president to use a laptop at his desk.

Add to that, Obama will now be giving a weekly address via YouTube. This is obviously a HUGE step in the right direction - not since JFK using TV has a president involved himself in new channels of communication.

With regards to his technology policy, perhaps what is best about the election of Obama is that he is a strong proponent of Net Neutrality, the purposed laws and measures which will keep the Internet open and free for a long time to come.

Obama will even be appointing the first Chief Technology Officer of the US. Hello, change.

Check out this video of Arianna Huffington (Editor in Chief of Huffington Post) interviewing Google CEO, Dr. Eric Schmidt about the underlying potential of the new Internet Presidency.

Hopefully, the US government will be able to be as increasingly transparent as businesses/corporations have become through the use of social media.

Whether you agree with the rest of his policies or not, with Barack Obama in the White House, the Internet wins.

What do you think?

In September, my biz partners and I spent three weekends of the month at blog and Internet conferences. One of the conferences we attended was IZEA Fest in Orlando, Florida, where my biz partner, Matt Blancarte, gave a speech on blog design for the Blog Design Makeover panel.

Needless to say, IZEA Fest and the Blog Design Makeover panel were incredibly successful for both UBD and IZEA. Matt and the other panelists did an excellent job at discussing the blog designs they made over. You can watch the full video presentation here.

Win A Blog Design Makeover From UBD

At the recent Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA, mentioned the idea of doing a monthly promotion to for bloggers to win a free blog design makeover. Of course, we thought it was a great izea, I mean idea!

We are huge IZEA fans and we are proud to partner with them for this opportunity. Even cooler, the first Blog Design Makeover promotion is now launching.

Entering this monthly contest is super easy! Read more details here »

Thanks to IZEA for their promotion and support!

Just like last year, Blog World Expo has come and gone way too quickly. This was my second appearance to the second annual Blog World Expo, held in Las Vegas Nevada. Overall, the BWE08 weekend far surpassed last year!

Last year was our first conference ever and first time we exhibited, as well. This year, UBD designed and implemented the official Blog World Expo Blog, so we were upgraded to a 10×20 booth (twice as big as last year). KA POW!

On Friday afternoon, only four days after returning from Orlando (IZEA Fest), we packed up our monitors and UBD supplies, and we drove the 4.5-hour trek from Phoenix to Las Vegas.

Friday

We arrived in Vegas around 9:00PM, right when the Tech Set party was kicking off. We first met up with our Blog World Expo buddies from last year, Ms. Danielle and Greg Morgan.

New friends Gary from iPhoneinCanada.ca and Derek Semmler also joined us and we went to the Tech Set party at the Mirage where we met up with our Market Leverage home girls, Dina and Debby, and ShoeMoney.

At this point, the bar was closing at the Tech Set party, so we went another bar in the Mirage where we saw IZEA CEO Ted Murphy and also Pete Cashmore from Mashable. After a few drinks with everyone, we basically called it a night.

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Saturday

Saturday was the first day of the conference, so we spent the majority of the day at the conference hall talking to a wide range of different businesses and individuals. As you can see, I look a little more tired than the night before.

ShoeMoney and Ted Murphy stopped by to let us distribute some of their t-shirts, stickers and buttons. Did we mention we love IZEA?

Later that night, the fun started when we went to the Market Leverage-hosted Super Panel dinner with Internet stars such as Zac Johnson, Ian Fernando, John Chow, Jeremy Schoemaker, Brian Clarke and Jim Kukral. We had dinner at an awesome steakhouse. Big thanks to Market Leverage!

Sunday

Sunday was the final day of the expo, but luckily, I was much better rested than the previous night. We exhibited all day, and afterwards, we had dinner with John Chow, ShoeMoney, the Market Leverage girls at the Red8 Chinese restaraunt in the Wynn.

Unfortunately, my camera died earlier that day so I wasn’t able to snap any more pictures.

Overall, it was an incredibly productive weekend and some of the best networking I have done since, well, the week before.

Sometimes people ask me if I have any tips or tricks for people looking to get started online and how they can become more well known in their online field. My answer is always:

Remember that next time you are thinking about going to an industry conference/tradeshow.

More photos here »