Follow my blog it you like. I promise to post more in the following weeks.

I feel it is always important to rethink things in order to refresh your prospective and ideas. The back to basics idea came to me last week mainly when I received a reminder for a community that I had forgotten I signed up for. I really enjoy trying out the latest software, apps, concepts, you name it I sign up for it. However, with trying out all the newest things comes the fact that great ideas, quickly becomes diluted with trying to mash together or add on the newest buzz of the week. Soon the original idea is no longer there and gets lost.

So, I am going back to the basics of the things I use on a daily basis to try and re-capture some of those original ideas. Some of which I know are still very valid and simply need to be launched.

Here is the list I am going to start with, in no specific order:

1. WordPress
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Netvibes
5. Google Reader
6. The Flock Browser
7. Link Building
8.
9.
10…….30

Time to get started. If anyone has or knows of well written 101 documents that I should read, please send them or link to them in the comments of this post.

I have really enjoyed Collecta.com over that last year and now I they have created a great WordPress widget to monitor blog topics inside of your side bar. I installed this widget earlier this afternoon, check it out to your right.

If you are not familiar with Collecta.com, it is a real time search engine that you can adjust to spider through engines, blogs, twitter, you name it. I highly recommend it for when you are watching events and want to know real time comments and thoughts. I had it running during the State of the Union address a few weeks ago and could read the real time thoughts from people all over the US and the world. I plan to update this widget for cool events each week.

Also check out the Meebo.com toolbar at the base of my blog, cool way to share blog posts. You can get download the Meebo Toolbar here.

Further more, I took a few days off from blogging, twittering, txt’ing to spend some time with family that was in town. I feel all of us who embrace the social media world need to be reminded from time to time that spending time with our real family is more important that spending time with our virtual families.

Now that my disclaimer is out there, I have a few hours here before I leave to go see the Arizona Cardinals take on the Atlanta Falcons and it gives me time to reflect on 2008. What a year it was for my life. Here is a Harper’s Weekly style summary for everyone.

January – Diane and I Celebrated New Years, by accidentally being allowed into a $200 per person private party at a fine Italian restaurant here in Vegas. (no names, don’t want them to find out).

February – Turned 29, went to see Artie Lang at Mandalay Bay and Diane got to meet him after the show, super cool.

March – Diane and I purchase a house and construction begins.

April – House construction was in full swing, started choosing options for the house.

May – The house started looking like a house and Diane and I already sold almost everything we owned.

June – Selling Source / PartnerWeekly eliminated my position to change their corporate structure.

July – Go to work for Black Diamond Digital Imaging.

August – Closed on the house and hours later on our way to Idaho with VegasGeek for a two day concert. This was one of the most fun trips I have ever taken. Can’t wait to do it again in 2009. Any excuse to wear a cowboy hat.

September – Economy really started to fall apart, but was able to get away and visit my parents in Wyoming. That is always a party.

October – New theme for JakeLudens.com and Diane and I went to a record number of Halloween Parties. Normally I am not one to dress up a lot.

November – Diane and I got engaged! Yeah how crazy is that? I am excited, should probably set a date for the wedding, 2010, 2011?

December – 30 day blog challenge. My parents came to Vegas to see the new house and stay with us for a week. It was great, our first Christmas in the new house and we had all of the family here.

2009 is starting out great, I spent yesterday spending gift cards from Christmas and watching football. Now I am off to see an NFL playoff game in Arizona. I can’t wait to see what 2009 has in store for the bloggers, tweetfreaks, and this crazy life of mine.

@cashkits – Great looking membership site (send me a free copy of your kit and I will be happy to review it. )

@webdesi3 – Spotlight Blogger – Submit your best blog post of the week.

@PRsarahevans – I love her playful but professional theme and Sarah is a connected Twitter user.

@CCSeed – Reflections on rural living and social media, I will be reading this blog for sure. Rural living, reminds me of my childhood in Wyoming, Thanks Richard.

@Nabbit – Just check out Nabbit.com, awesome branding with the frog, awesome name for a company.

@Jimconnolly – Jim’s Marketing Blog – cool resource for any marketing buffs out there. Thanks Jim

@bobfirestone – Bob, thanks for stopping by Black Diamond Digital last night for the Social Media Meet Up. It was great to meet you.

Thanks again everyone for following me.

I see myself as a problem solver, but even more so a puzzle solver. By this I mean putting together pieces that others may not even see as a part of a puzzle. Or other times there isn’t a puzzle to be solved and I still try to force the pieces together. That was sort of the theme for today, determining what is a puzzle and what is not? This to me sounds a lot more productive than calling everything a problem.

Let me start with an example. One of my best friends put a message on my Facebook profile pleading with me to stop blogging. He is doesn’t see the point of posting insights up on a page and I think he still views it as an online “diary”. That is ok, blogging isn’t for everyone. However, as I read his comments busting on me, it dawned on me this is a great way to come up with a clear explaination that I can present to people who don’t see the value of blogging and are quick to dismiss it. So, I am going to start sending him different points of views about how blogging is a great way to connect with customers, as well as friends and family. After, all he posted on my Facebook profile so is already on board with Social Media. Do I dare tell him his Facebook profile is essentially a blog about him? Nah, he is a smart guy he will figure it out.

Puzzle One of the day created, solution imagined, all that is left is the execution. (Bryon, you are going to love this, cheers).

Second example or puzzle of the day, my brother and I had a great conversation about the new ways people are deciding to advertises when budgets get tight and a majority of companies are turning to digital media. We came to the conclusion that there are some fundemental shifts that are going on in our industry, however the rules still apply even if the mediums change. In a nutshell, is a great image produced with oil paint any less appealing to the viewer then if it was printed on a color laser printer? To your traditionalists, yes, to a consumer, no. Here is the thing though, conversations like this are where the lines of a puzzle needing to be solved and a lot of pieces available that sound like they might be good together cross. Can you come up with one solution to this? No, there are too many variables included.

And that brings me to my point of this post, it is important to keep an open mind to all new innovations, trends and tools at your disposal, but make sure someone else’s ideas don’t become extra pieces in the puzzle you are trying to solve. Identify early if there is a puzzle to be solved and use your experience to determine this, then use everything you can to best solve the puzzle for you.

Mashable announced their Open Web Winners today, and the article mentions some of the numbers they had participate this year.

Over 100 Blog Partners have helped make this the biggest Open Web Awards to date with 50,000 total nominations, 80,000 total votes in the first round, and 90,000 votes in the final round. Our blog partners come from 25 countries and are written in 10 different languages.

I used Mashable as an example here not only because it is an informative site, but because it too has become a buzz word. Websites in the coming months needs to be re-evaluated and developed as mashed-up sites. By mashed-up, I mean put together using 3rd party social media outlets as features (widgets) along side the core site content for the company or product the site is promoting.

This is kind of a no brain-er for anyone who has been in the online world for more than a year, but what is going to be interesting is how are the social media networks going to survive offering free services? As more and more large traffic sites start relying on these free outlets, like Twitter and Facebook as their main source of customer service, who pays the hosting bills for all of this traffic?

What are the options that are available that can generate revenue for these companies, and still keep an audience that is used to free and fun? First thing that comes to mind is Advertising, but there are a number of catches to this. With the simple nature of social media networks and social widgets, the two way conversation is the key and what company would want to possibly promote other companies and products on their websites or while talking to their customers. That would be like sitting at a Chili’s and having Applebee’s sponsor all of the TV’s in the bar. (Trust me I have seen this happen).

OK, what if the social networks charge extra to have advertising free services for business users? Simple you couldn’t because there is no way to tell who is a customer and who is a business. Or are they both now?

To end my ramblings this morning, I wanted to put this thought out there. As the next few month unfold, with the world economy in a slump and more and more people are unemployed, how will social media survive? It exists because it is free, it’s popularity will continue to grow, but as the saying goes, there is not such thing as a free lunch.

I started by looking at the tag cloud on WordPress and found the “Me” tag. Let me share some of the more interesting blogs posts that had this tag.

Interesting FAQ instead of an About Me page.

Top 10 Marketing Blunders of 2008. This blog was had great links on it. So I started checking out more tags on the site.

Lets see here – Humor – Satan offing his services to bailout GM. Interesting.

Random – All she wants for Christmas is a laser toothbrush, what?

Now this I didn’t really understand, tagging your blog posts with the word blog – Blogs about: Blog

I wasted a lot of time on WordPress today. However I didn’t find any really good about me pages so I am still back at square one. If you happen to have some time that you want to waste, I recommend checking out some of the very strange tags that pop up on the WordPress.com network. Even more interesting was the creative names that bloggers are coming up with for the titles of their blogs.

I did see Laura from Lollie Shopping when we stopped for drinks to continue the party. It was very entertaining to see all of the people who are normally very quiet non-profit workers cutting loose and drinking Sake. Oh and like my twitter post from last night, I did see a guy chug half a bottle of soy sauce. Good Times.

Anyway we didn’t stay out very late and when we got home I started watching tv and woke up around 3 am realizing I didn’t post. So I hope it is ok that this post works as my Mulligan.