During my current sabbatical in Washington, DC, I decided to make time for some of the things that I had neglected the past several months/years.  Things like personal blogging and my website in general.  I also got caught up on reading and started playing around with applications that I had downloaded to my phone and iPad, but don’t use very often.

Sunset on the Lake

This is when I fell in love with the simplicity and elegance of Instagram as a photo sharing service.  While I’m not a professional photographer, I feel like I take very good photos with my Canon Powershot G12 camera.  This is due to my college training from professional mentors.

The problem is that I don’t always have my G12 with me at all times and I need to revert to using my iPhone to snap pictures.  While the iPhone is an excellent camera, it’s not quite good enough to use for prints. As such, I find myself questioning why I should take a photo at all if it’s not the best quality.

This is where Instagram comes in as the savior.  The whole point isn’t to take the best possible photo, but rather to embrace the average quality of these photos and make them feel exceptional by applying filters to make the photos take on a retro-feel.

Instagram even makes Blogging look cool

The way it works is simple: all you need to do is take a picture with your phone and add it to instagram.  From there you apply one of several filters (about 20 total) in order achieve the look you desire for your photo.  From my experience, there are at least 1-2 filters that make just about any photo look great – anything from black and white to sepia to color enhancements.

The app allows you to add a caption for the image and upload it to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  The whole process takes about 5 minutes to set up the first time, then about 30 seconds to get a photo uploaded after that.

I have been having a lot of fun using Instagram on my trip to DC and plan to use it more moving forward.  I am also investigating WordPress plugins that I can use to automatically add these photos to the blog as well.

Have you tried Instagram?  If so, what do you think?  Enjoy some of my photos from the weekend!

'Merica (American Flag, WW2 Memorial and Washington Monument in same frame)

Grand Finale in Alexandria, VA

The set from my favorite Wesley Snipes movie - Murder at 1600

Instagram Photography – Making iPhone Photos Sexy is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Creating a Global Bodyguard Network

Today I have the pleasure of presenting at the Unsummit, a local un-conference in St. Paul that is equal parts fun and informative. The format is very relaxed and presentations are rapid fire and not over-engineered. I would say my deck is probably going to be on the over-engineered side compared to others, but I tried to make it as visual as possible.

The story I am sharing is about how Hucky and I created Bodyguard Careers in 2005 and how it has evolved since then into a global leader in the industry for career advice and job placements.  The goal was to be funny, informative, and if at all possible, inspirations.

Creating a Global Bodyguard Network is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Funny Video Search

I have done a horrible job of promoting my own projects recently, so most of you have no idea that I have been posting videos on Funny Video Search since September of this year.  It really has been an easy gig finding videos (tons of friends and web sites post great videos), and I’m able to update 1-2 times per week… which is far more frequently than the once every 3-4 months that I have recently been posting on this blog.

One of my 2009 goals is to publish more content on Jeff Sauer dot Com, as well as get Funny Video Search to reach thousands of visitors per day (right now I get less than 20… almost all through search engines).  Hopefully if I have my friends help spread the word, this can be a reality.

That sets me up for my 2010 goal, which is to crack the top 10 on Google for the search term Funny Videos.  I think it’s possible, and I even bet my friend Amber $1,000 that I could do it.  It will take a lot of effort and help from friends, but I think I have a few things going for me (the domain name is killer), and I am a world class Search Engine Optimization guru.

If you read this blog and you have a blog, please tell people about Funny Video Search using the phrase Funny Videos to highlight your link.   This helps me rank better for that term.

Here is a complete time-line of how long it has taken me to get this site going:

• May 24, 2006 – I got the idea to register the domain name after being sent 2-3 YouTube videos each day.  YouTube’s search functionality was so poor that I could never find anything.  Using the site to find videos was a horrible user experience because there were just too many videos (like millions of videos every second without any quality control measures).  I got the idea to make a better site by hand-picking videos and registered the domain names funnyvideosearch.com and funnyvideosource.com.
• May 30, 2006 – Wrote this blog post about the site and made it sound like I would post videos all the time.  That obviously took 2 years to actually happen.
• July, 2007 - After going nearly a year without actually doing anything with the site, I got an offer to sell the domain name for $400.  I could have taken the easy cash, but I figured if a domain name without a site is worth $400, how much would it be worth WITH a site?  I turned down the offer and decided to come up with a site idea.
• July 25, 2007 - I blackmailed my friend Bill, who is a Freelance Web Designer in Denver into creating a site template for me to get started on the site.  It turns out that creating a template is very difficult without content in the site… so we got a rough outline done and then we were at a standstill.
• September, 2008 – I realized that the biggest thing holding me up was the design (which needed content to work), so I bit the bullet and decided to start posting things.  At a friends wedding, I got drunk and sold my friend Todd on the idea as a contributor, and he thought it was a brilliant idea.
• September 22, 2008 – I post my first ever video, which is a video by Tracy Morgan called You Can’t Be Black.  The site used the default WordPress theme and looked pretty ghetto.  However, I finally got over the posting a video hump, and I haven’t looked back since!
• December, 2008 - I found a cool theme for WordPress that allowed me to make the site look better without putting in a ton of work (it’s the exact same theme on Jeffsauer.com right now).  I can now build out a layout for the site incrementally as I make adjustments to the site.
• Some time in 2010 - I rank in the top 10 for “Funny Videos” thanks to your help!

Funny Video Search Update is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Normally, I don’t agree with movie reviews because they rigidly place emphasis on nit-picky crap that I don’t really care about. Dan does that too, but with one caveat; he’s FAIR with the way he grades and rates movies, and he makes an argument for each facet of his reviews. Unlike sites that lump reviews into a simplified and catch-all reviewing system of 4 or 5 stars, Getafilm actually puts thought into their reviews, and grades the film based on a 100 point rating system. The end result is a grade on a film that matches the American school grading system, from A (No country for Old Men) to F (Rambo).

I don’t actually watch movies in the theater (last movie I saw was Superbad, and before that Knocked up… I guess I’m subconciously a Judd Apatow fanboy), so I enjoy reading Dan’s reviews in order to get a heads up for which movies I should order on Netflix. Also, with Getafilm’s guidance, I can sound semi-educated when it comes to talking about the Academy Awards. Thanks to Dan, I know that Daniel Day Lewis is a lock for best actor, and Javier Bardem has supporting actor wrapped up. I’d tell you the rest of my Oscar picks, but they aren’t as cut and dry, but you can compete against my picks here.

I’ve known Dan since we played on the same basketball team in 3rd grade, and we’ve somehow remained friends in between his moves to Boston, San Diego and back to MN. His reviews are fair for the most part, and at times controversial. Help support an old friend by checking out his movie blog and if you like what you see, subscribe to his RSS feed!

Getafilm – Honestly good movie reviews

Getafilm and the Oscars is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Site - Hot Chicks with Douche Bags

Synopsis – This site is amazing. The author (DB1), posts pictures of beautiful women accompanied by guys who are total Douche Bags. He posts several times a day, and it is always hilarious. There is at least one post a day that makes me literally laugh out loud. I wish I would have come up with this idea years ago when I defined the term “Douche Nozzle” on the Urban Dictionary (I am sowcow50).

Signature Post – The Gator. This guy is the epitome of douchedom; the fake tan, the blank stare, the overly tight shirt. You name it, he can ‘bag it.

Synopsis - Thousands of hilariously inappropriate eCards that you can easily email to your friends. Nothing says awkward more than sending one of these cards!

Signature Post – Pretty much everything on here is golden. You could browse for 30 minutes and laugh 100 times. For example, this one is hilarious: I’m a cheap date due to emotional issues surrounding food. Who thinks of this stuff? A Genius, that’s who.

Synopsis - A sports site that covers every topic with a refreshing sense of objectivity. They are also a lot more raw than mainstream sports sites, so you get to hear true opinions about anything and everything. If you like sports, this should be your #1 visited site each day, not the corporate sports sites that are too afraid to say their real opinions.

Signature Post – You’re with me, leather. The story of ESPN’s Chris Berman swooping in and winning the company of an attractive young lady wearing Leather pants and jacket. For some reason, this story became so notorious that another blog was created with the name “with leather”. Now that’s an homage.

Synopsis - Celebrity gossip at its finest. I actually read about 5 gossip sites each day, and this is probably the most well known. Much like Hot Chicks with Douche Bags, the guy who writes this site is extremely witty and I have no idea how he comes up with fresh comments on such a consistent basis.

Signature Post – These sites post so often that the lines are often blurred between this and the other gossip sites, but one recent event that brought out a lot of reactions was Jennifer Love Hewitt’s bikini nastiness. I have always have disliked Love Hewitt (talentless and annoying), so to see her bikini shots while not looking very “fit” were pretty enjoyable. Kind of like the satisfaction you get when you see the hot girl from High School who turned you down, only she looks 20 years older and 40 pounds heavier. I obviously have “Nerd In High School” issues…

Synopsis - This guy is a Twins NERD, and I love him for it. He blogs about the Minnesota Twins on a daily basis and provides his opinions on how the team is faring during the season, as well as the offseason. The catch is, he only uses statistics to form his opinions. He literally backs up everything he writes with statistical facts. Being a numbers geek myself, I really value his input because I realize that statistics really influence baseball. He is a “SABR Metrician”, which I don’t really understand, but it has to do with stats. It has gotten to the point where most of my opinions about the Twins are based on Gleeman’s columns.

Signature Post – The only time I have ever disagreed with Gleeman is his breakdown of the Matt Garza trade from November of this year. He says it was not a good trade for the Twins because Garza could be a superstar. I think it’s good for the Twins because it gives us an awesome talent in the outfield (which we desperately need), and we sacrifice a young pitcher who has a 50/50 chance of being a successful pitcher in the majors. Young pitchers are a dime a dozen, and only a few of them turn into Johan Santana… who we are trading because we can’t afford him!

Site - ShoemoneySynopsis – This guy is an Internet Marketer who has made millions online. For me, he is a source of inspiration as well as technique. I read a lot about Internet Marketing, and a lot of the guys who publish posts seem like they are snake oil salesmen. Shoemoney is the real deal, and he’s a very successful person. Plus, his blog also gives a window into his own life, and it’s a great source of inspiration. For example, in one post he tells of how he used to weigh nearly 400 pounds and was unmotivated with life. He got a surgery to shrink his stomach (not gastric bypass, but similar), and talks openly about how it gave him a new lease on life. I can relate because I have also lost a lot of weight (50 pounds), and I feel as if it has made my quality of life significantly better.

Signature Post – Everyone starts reading Shoemoney based on this photo. It involves Shoemoney posing with a check that he received from Google for $132,994.97. This was for ONE MONTHS WORK. That’s instant credibility. Personally, I was absolutely amazed when I got a $1700 payment from Google last month. Multiply that by a factor of 100 and I’m moving a tropical island nation.

Synopsis - A few times a week, this site posts strange maps. You’ll really have to read them to see what I mean, but there are some really cool maps on this site. Check it out!

Signature Post - A great example of how this site is intriguing is the Blonde Map of Europe. It tracks how “Blonde” Europe is by percentage of people who are Blonde. The results aren’t necessarily surprising, but it’s very cool nonetheless. Another good one is the French Kissing Map. It breaks down how many cheek kisses are customary in the various regions of France. Having just been to Paris, I wish I had known this ahead of time!

My Favorite Web Sites: Part 1 is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Over the past 6 months, I have seen more funny videos online than I probably saw the previous 24 years in my life, and friends send me links to videos on a weekly basis. I love the convenience of receiving these videos, and I love watching them with friends and laughing my ass off.

The only thing I don’t really like about these videos is that I can’t really find them in a single location. Sure, the big video sources (Youtube, Google, etc.) have search features on their sites, but what exactly am I searching for? I often see hilarious videos once and then can’t find them again! Other times, I search on these sites and see many videos that are of subpar quality, and generally aren’t very funny.

My frustration lead me to consider creating a funny video blog of my own, and allow me to post hand-picked links to videos that I find hilarious. So, last week I registered two domain names: Funny Video Source and Funny Video Search. I plan on using one (or both) of these sites to post links to hilarious videos online, and I already have a few ideas for videos to post.

You may be wondering how can I post videos on my site without getting into trouble. Well, here’s how it will work. YouTube (and other sites) store videos on their web servers. They allow (and encourage) people to embed their videos on their own website. So, I can embed videos on the site without using bandwidth on my server! This allows me to post a potentially limitless number of videos on the site, without having incremental bandwidth problems (as the site becomes more popular). This will allow me to post hilarious videos often, and hopefully give people entertainment on a daily (or several times daily) basis.

The major drawback that I can see from this site would be the content I am providing will be completely contingent on sites like YouTube and Google Video. What happens if these sites start charging for videos? What if they don’t allow me to embed videos on the site? I don’t think it’s highly likely that either of these things will happen (actually, I think more variability is on the horizon for web video), but they are definitely legitimate concerns!

Concerns aside, I’m really excited to give this site a try. If nothing else, it would be a great experiment, and also a way for my friends to see many of the handpicked videos that I find funny. Here is a tentative list of videos that I will be adding to the site right away:

• Lazy Sunday
• Bubb Rubb (Whistle Tips)
• Lady Punch
• Grape Lady
• Ghostride the Whip
• Live Action Punch-Out
• PI Video
• Boom Goes the Dynamite

So, now comes the time in this post where I ask you, the reader, what you think about this idea? Which domain do you like better? Would you visit the site daily if I updated often? Are there any obvious videos that I omitted from my list? Do you know of any sites that already do this exact same thing? Let me know what you think.

Funny Videos is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

Naturally, being the money grubbing entrepreneur I am (or like to think I am), I said to him “why give away all of your information for free? Why don’t you put up a website that has all of your stories?”

Harlan said “You know what Jeff, that’s a good idea”.

trueprincestories.com was registered as a domain name 5 minutes later.

24 hours later, I had a site design up.

Within a week we already started our guerilla campaign.

Our underground marketing campaign was very simple, and it was simple for a reason. You see, we both weren’t really very sure how people would react to the site. Would there be interested? Would there be resistance? Would we be able to have enough material to keep people reading? We really didn’t know how to answer those questions (and to this day, a few may be unanswered).

So, rather than spend a lot of time attempting to figure out how to market the site, we received a great tip from Harlan’s cousin (Dr. Dallas – an attendee from our Hollywood trip in February). His idea was so simple, yet so genius at the same time.

He said “Why don’t you just post pictures on the Prince forums, and at the bottom put your url, trueprincestories.com”. Genius.

So, we followed Dallas’s plan, and Harlan (Huck) posted several pictures on the Prince message boards, all of which had trueprincestories.com at the bottom.

That was the only marketing we did for the site.

Within days, word caught on with the site. Soon, we were getting hits from all over the world (with a surprising number from the Netherlands. Prince must be big there!). We had all kinds of comments from well wishers, people excited for our first story, and just people glad to see something new in the world of Prince. I couldn’t believe how many visits we were getting to a newly launched website; this had never happened to me before!

Then came something that none of us were prepared for; our first incoming link. Yes, someone who had previously seen one of our pictures decided to post a direct link to True Prince Stories on a Prince message board (located at prince.org). That link gave us 1000+ visitors!!!! From a single link!

Now we were becoming big timers in the Prince world! There was a buzz, and it was becoming very loud. In fact, as I write this, the buzz hasn’t even peaked yet. People are still talking about the site, and are still excited for what we have to offer. We have posted a three part story, and it has been received very well so far.

Some people are even scared about the negative implications of the site. Harlan actually received a call from the little man himself (Prince) and talked to him over the phone for several hours! Yes, even Prince is excited for our True Prince Stories (well, perhaps he’s scared, I’m not sure).

So far the site is going well. We have a good buzz, and are getting a LOT of visitors (Over 1500 unique visitors this month, with 0 advertising and minimal self promotion). We are getting a lot of comments from former Prince tourmates and staff (many of them want to contribute to the site). Old friends (or perhaps just old colleagues) were able to talk for the first time in years (namely Harlan and Prince, but several others as well)! And, best yet, the site hasn’t been shut down yet!!!! Perhaps that’s the most important.

Anyway, that’s one of the many reasons why I haven’t been posting recently. I hope to change that over the next few weeks. Please comment on what you think about True Prince Stories.

True Prince Stories is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0

My Billion Dollar Experiment is a post from: Jeff Sauer Experience v8.0