Search-Powered Web Apps

It’s been a while since we’ve profiled a Lijit employee. I’m blaming that on the fact that there only a precious few left that haven’t been interviewed yet AND it’s been a little crazy around these parts. But we’re back and very excited to introduce you to one of the feistiest** members of our Publisher Acquisition team…Erica Prather. Lijit is Erica’s first REAL job out of college (awwwww…how cute!) so she still has a lot of that school spirit that seems to wither the further from graduation you get. Here she is, showing off her Jayhawk pride…

Can you say Rock Chalk? She can…and loudly. But the thing about Erica is that she brings that same enthusiasm to everything else she does as well. See for yourself.

What is your Lijit contribution?

I work in business development, which means that I identify publishers that would benefit from the Lijit search. I maintain relationships with current publishers, help customize their widget and learn way too much about Heidi Montag Pratt while doing the aforementioned. I also act as Advertising Services Manager - meaning that I create ad tags, schedule ad campaigns and generally manage the affairs of our publishers when it comes to the ads served on their page.

What is your favorite word and why?

I appreciate the f*#% word for all of its versatile goodness - if you can name one emotion it doesn’t cover, let me know. But since my mom is reading this, I’ll have to say milquetoast, because it sounds like a cool Kellogg’s cereal, but it’s really describing a boring person.

What turns you off, emotionally, spiritually or creatively?

I’ll have to go with excessive materialism and a skewed perception of reality…I think that people tend to forget that they go to bed with a full belly and a roof over their heads every night. Even I struggle with it (don’t get me started on car troubles) - but realistically we deal with what I call ‘luxury’ problems on a daily basis. Losing your vacation home, your Porsche or your retirement because of a bad economy is really not a problem…I think we forget how truly blessed we are.

What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

I just want to travel and get paid for it or just survive doing it. I don’t care if it’s cliche - I love everything about it: the accents, new smells, interesting foods, weird things people wear, funky music, other people’s traditions, it’s awesome. Should I start looking for a trust fund baby to marry?

Something you’re guilty of…

I think we all know that I hate sharing my food when ASKED to. You can borrow my clothes, shoes, earrings, even sleep in my bed, but touch my food and you are dead to me. Maybe it’s because as a kid, if you didn’t make it downstairs in time, you’d miss out on the muffins/cinnamon rolls/treats because I had two siblings (one being a garbage disposal brother). But excuses and psychological reasoning aside - I hate sharing my food unwillingly.

As you can tell from the above pictures and her profile answers, we can all safely say that Erica is far from being a milquetoast. She is spunky, a quick learner and always prepared with a punchline. In other words, she fits in around Lijit perfectly.

Especially with her love of the f*%# word. (Sorry Erica’s mom!)

**Yes, it really is a word.

“Crush it. Crush it real good.” (Sorry we had to).

As a startup we believe in passion and crushing it. It’s pretty obvious Gary Vaynerchuk has both in the can, which is why we’re teaming up.

Who: We’re hosting a contest with our friend, Gary Vaynerchuk - the man of hustle, Wine Library TV and the author of the recent book, Crush It.

What: We have five Crush It books, signed by Gary himself ready for you. You know you want to know how “Skills are cheap, passion is priceless.” Here’s all you need to do to be one of the lucky winners.

How: Choose one of these three options:

1. Never used Lijit? Sign up for Lijit’s custom search (we provide you with stats, too), add it to your blog or website, then add (http://crushitbook.com) to your Lijit network.
2. If you’re a current Lijit user just add (http://crushitbook.com) to your Lijit network.
3. If you’re a current Lijit user, get your friends to sign up and use Lijit’s custom search, while also adding (http://crushitbook.com) to their Lijit network.

For points 1 and 3, to sign up be sure to use this link so we can track and include you in the contest.*

Timeline: The contest starts now: October 23rd and lasts until November 6th.

To add (http://crushitbook.com) to your Lijit network: Sign in to your Lijit profile page and click on ‘Network’ at the top or the ‘Edit’ button next to your Network list.

Then, you’ll be on your network page…

At the end of the two weeks, we will pick (at random) five lucky winners who will be on their way to learning how to #crushit.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email Grace.

*You get one contest entry for each friend who signs up with Lijit. Remember, if you have lots of friends (good for you) but it also means you can enter more than once.

This was our third year having a booth at Blog World and it just keeps getting better for us. Instead of going on and on about what a great conference it was and how many times our company got mentioned in sessions or during keynotes, we thought pictures might do a better job of telling our story…

Our booth, along with the swag we were handing out, attracted quite the crowd. The  Purell was a big hit…either due to the fact that folks were shaking a lot of hands or that they agreed that Las Vegas was a dirty city.

But, one of the main reasons we go to Blog World is to be immersed in a world we love…that of blog publishers. Seeing their eyes light up when we explain and demo what we do is something that just can’t be described.

Not to mention all the opportunities we have for spreading our message to a larger audience…

However, probably our most favorite thing to do while at a show like Blog World is to thank our current users. Folks like the masterminds behind I Can Has Cheezburger, Neatorama, and WebUrbanist. And slapping a few stickers on cute mommybloggers doesn’t hurt the cause either. (Hi Extraordinary Mommy!)

A conference like Blog World takes a lot of energy. Not only is it a big show, but the fact that it takes place in Vegas makes it all the more tiring. To make sure we were up to the task, we made sure we had all of the essentials covered…

Thanks to everyone we met and to all those who told us how much they loved what we’re doing. Wear your Lijit shirts with pride and we hope to see you next year at Blog World 2010!

[Photo credits: Perry, Grace, Greg and http2007]

Think about all those times you visit an unknown place. And I mean this in the analog world…e.g. a ‘real life’ place such as when as you walk into a new building and don’t know if you’re even in the right place, what floor you need to be on, etc etc. You have enough stress in your life, right?

Got the mental image? OK, hold on to it for a sec…

Now repeat that real life process I speak of above. You have your Google map printed and in hand, you generally have building location nailed. You walk in and…behold!…a concierge waiting to welcome you to the property and fundamentally telling you you’re in the right place and where to go and hopefully lots of other insightful information. Makes you feel are warm and fuzzy, right?

Ladies and gents: Welcome to the software equivalent of this example above, now available for your site:

The Lijit Welcome Wijit!

Let me give you a bit of a background on the Welcome Wijit. Frankly, it doesn’t deviate too far from the ‘real life’ example above!

Your content is extremely valuable to you and even more so to your loyal readers. Yet how many times have you done a search on a horizontal search platform like Bing, Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc and clicked on a link in the result set only to land on the page, not dive deeper into the content other than a 2 second eye scan and bail on it via back button to return to the search results and keep on searching. Admit it! What we’re attempting to do with Welcome Wijit is prevent this from easily happening to YOUR content. Fundamentally Welcome Wijit is about….

• Welcoming new readers to your site when they’ve linked in from somewhere else…e.g. a search engine, blogroll that includes your site, etc. They land on your property and they get a true ‘greeting’ to say thanks for stopping by!
• Better content discovery: Readers landing on your site for the first time will have an initial experience right off the bat of mining your content. What is old to you is all new to your new readers! Welcome Wijit will help them find it easily.
• Tools tools tools for your readers: The Welcome Wijit by design is about improved loyalty and return visits. The Wijit offers features to quickly add your feed to RSS readers, My Yahoo and iGoogle home pages to ensure they have you earmarked for return visits.
• Pre-selected search results: When a reader is searching the web for something and they stumble upon your site, Welcome Wijit knows that search term and will provide a pre-selected list of the top 3 relevant items fitting that search on your blog, within your content and throughout your network…given them a true ‘feel’ of the Lijit search experience.
• Advertising opportunities: We’re committed to doing what we can to make you more money! Similar to your Search Engine Results Page advertising, Welcome Wijit provides Google Ads to ensure more relevant ads are seen and clicked through by your readers.

So how does the Welcome Wijit Work? Let’s show ya!

Turning the Welcome Wijit On:

If you have the Lijit Search Wijit installed, Welcome Wijit is ready for use! You’ve got to turn ‘er on though first. You do this by visiting your Wijit management console and you’ll see a new tab for Welcome Wijit. By default Welcome Wijit is turned off. Simply check the ‘Show my readers the welcome wijit’ and you’re done. In addition, the Welcome Wijit management console provides you certain customization features and a preview of the wijit as you see here:

By default, the Welcome Wijit is set to appear above the post your reader is clicking in from via search engine, etc. The position of the Welcome Wijit can be set to be seen below the post, however:

How your readers interact with Welcome Wijit

You’re probably asking: “So how do my readers interact with Welcome Wijit?”. Easy! Assume that the reader has found your site through prototypical means…e.g. a search engine search, a link from someone’s blog roll, a link in an email, etc. The Welcome Wijit determines things like where your reader came from, what search terms if any were used to find your content, etc, before unveiling itself and providing the pre-selected content for your reader.

From a mechanical perspective, Welcome Wijit will invoke and appear within the content post region of your site. In cases where we can not automatically detect this, our team can work with you to ensure this fits to the place you need it to. Welcome Wijit automatically determines characteristics of your blog and assumes styling traits of your Lijit Wijit to inject itself into your site elegantly.

What are the main features of Welcome Wijit?

Let’s walk you through the UI. Note that the screen shot below is what is referred to as ‘expanded mode’, controlled by the reader to unveil more tools (and more of your content!)

1 Welcome Wijit will ensure we say hello to your reader from the place they came from. A Google search in the example above.

2 RSS Subscription feeds have been added to put them front and center. By design we want new readers to come back to your site time and again to enjoy the content your publish.

3 Your Network is key! Providing a link to traverse over to your Lijit user page so readers can see your network, popular search terms, etc is designed to help readers see your larger presence on the web.

4 Like RSS, we’ve added one-click tools to insert your site’s feed into iGoogle or My Yahoo gadgets so your readers can scope out your new prose first thing in the AM with their coffee.

5 The Lijit Search Field is front and center and designed to incentivize readers to search more of your content. It will be pre-loaded with the search term the reader was hunting for on their initial search when they found your site.

6 Pre-selected content based on the search term will be unveiled to ensure the reader will see the historical depth and richness of your content. What’s old to you is new to them! Let ‘em find it easy!

7 Thumbnail previews of the content items will help attract readers to see your content and visually parse its relevance. Plus it’s pretty cool.

8 Advertising like that on your Search engine Result Page are included on the Welcome Wijit in a slim and non-intrusive implementation. We’re about making you more money and advertising opportunities like this will help ensure this with better and more creative visibility to your readers.

So there you have it folks! The first release of the Lijit Welcome Wijit! The team is pushing to produce more tools for  you and your readers, dear publisher! Better discovery of your content, improved time on site as they see really what you have published all yield improved loyalty and more opportunities for you to make money and gain more exposure.

So go ahead and enable your Welcome Wijit! Start giving your readers that big ‘ol warm electronic hug when they enter your domain for the first time. Not unlike when your Grandma used to hug you when you visited. C’mon, you know you have a soft side….

Check out our FAQ if you want more info !

Little Ben Matson has been with our company for long enough now that we can easily make jokes at his expense. That’s always the true test, isn’t it? And fortunately for us, he can laugh at himself AND he has a blog designed to document his D&D adventures. Really…what more could we want from a co-worker?

Let’s not forget that Ben is an extraordinary team player who is willing to help out anyone at any time. Since he’s been at Lijit, he’s been put in many situations of extreme pressure and has passed all the stress tests with flying colors. Of course, he has yet to experience the famed Lijit Holiday Party. We’ll see how he does with that one. In the meantime, enjoy getting to know Ben. I can honestly say that the picture he provided me of his summer internship has to be one of the best of all time.

What is your Lijit contribution?

I am one of two Publisher Support Engineers at Lijit, and we do a variety of things around here. Whenever a blogger has a technical question, or runs into a problem with something, we work to provide the answers and solutions they’re looking for. Whenever we can’t handle an issue ourselves, we track down the people that can and make sure things get resolved properly. But my job is not just troubleshooting, I also get to trick-out the special accounts we create with a bunch of custom features for the different business development deals that go on around here. One of the things I really enjoy about my particular role at Lijit is seeing all the different ways our products get used, and all the neat things our company can do.

What is your least favorite word and why?

If I could remove any subset of words from the human vocabulary, it would be racial slurs. They are a bane on our advancement as intelligent and benevolent creatures, and generally come from a place of ignorance and hatred.

What is your favorite sound and why?

The ambiance of the natural world. When you can get away from all of the cars, all the humming electrical boxes, and all of the noise that society makes, you can hear what the world sounded like before the modern age. Admittedly, it is mostly just wind, but it can really have a profound effect on you if you let it. I also really like the sound of eggs cracking open.

What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

Before joining Lijit I spent some time as an intern in an intergalactic mercenary syndicate with a focus on mounted dinosaur assault squads. They had their hands in everything from galactic warfare to spice smuggling, plus they had amazing dental benefits. Ultimately though, Lijit just made me a better offer.

Something you’re guilty of…

Living a total bachelor lifestyle. I very rarely cook for myself, or even buy groceries. I’m pretty sure the only things in my fridge right now are some shredded Parmesan cheese, half a jar of raspberry jam, and a couple beers. A few of the girls in the office have tried teaching me the ways of healthy and responsible food purchasing habits, but I have thus far proved untrainable.

Actually, Ben, speaking for many of the girls in the office, we think you’re highly trainable. Thanks for all you do, even when we continually bug you for tech support help. If you’re interested in learning more about Ben, follow him on Twitter, take a look at the outtakes from our photo shoot, or ask him if you can join him on the next quest to raid the Green Dragon’s lair. I’m sure he’ll let you play. He’s nice like that.

In the United States, we have a three-day weekend coming up in which we celebrate the struggles we’ve endured in our labor. We’ve been observing Labor Day in the U.S. since 1882 and it was something we borrowed from Canada–only to make it our own. Some view Labor Day as the end of summer, while for others, it means the beginning of the school year.

In case you don’t already have plans, may we suggest a few options gathered from our wide range of publishers?

You could try out a new hobby. Perhaps this is the weekend that you finally get around to pursuing that birding dream you’ve always had. If you need help, be sure to check out the Little Brown Job and use it as your blogging birding bible.

You could go shopping. Whether it’s for back-to-school or some of the newest fall fashions, a three-day weekend is the time to take advantage of the sales which will be all over. Two of our publishers, Bargain Hunting Moms and Vintage Indie, have the inside track on some special sales going on. Who doesn’t love a deal? Especially combined with a day off work?

You could cook something yummy. There are many people who celebrate this holiday with a backyard BBQ, and for those folks, La Jolla Mom provides a recipe for gourmet sliders, Cupcakes Take the Cake offers a recipe for sweet corn cupcakes, and The Perfect Pantry serves up ideas for everything in between. Whether in the kitchen or manning the grill, there is no excuse not to eat well this weekend.

You could go outside. (Crazy, I know.) A three-day weekend presents an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and spend some quality time with nature. If your preferred method of getting away from it all includes four wheels, then the German Car Blog might hold some interest for you. Like biking? Check out VeloNews for everything going on in the cycling world. And if you’re one of the crazy few that actually packs everything on your back, then the Backpacker blogs are more your bag.

You could use the holiday to challenge yourself. The Happiness Project shares twelve ways to create a happier workplace, if you’re looking to get a heads-up on the rest of your week. The Simple Dollar suggests trying new ways of doing things that will result in saving money. And Duct Tape Marketing is helping with a contest that asks online workers to redefine what it means to work in today’s workforce. The grand prize? Healthcare coverage for 2010. Whether you’re looking to be happier, richer or simply to have health care, Labor Day weekend is the perfect time to start on these goals.

Whatever you end up doing this three-day weekend, be sure to have fun and be safe. We’ll be back to laboring next week, making search an even better experience for everyone.

When I first got to know Stan James (Lijit’s Founder), we had a great conversation about a conference called Gnomdex in Seattle. I thought I had heard of such a conference in my startup days out in San Francisco, and sure enough I had.

In the late 1990s, I worked at a startup in Emeryville, CA. While there, several of the developers received an email from a guy named Chris Pirillo, and wished they could attend a conference in the corn fields of Iowa. It was called Gnomedex.

Lijit was a sponsor of the conference in 2007, and last year I attended. It was an amazing conference. Probably one of my favorite of the year because of Chris’ curation of speakers (including the guy that drove the Mars Rover!) and the community interaction of the attendees.

As I laid out my wishlist for conferences to speak at in 2009, Gnomedex was high on the list. Over the course of the year, Chris and I became better friends, and I was honored to be asked to speak at Gnomedex 2009. Talking about the impact blogging and community have had on my life (The presentation was entitled “How to be Awesome…er”) I really enjoyed speaking in front of the Gnomedex attendees, both in there and virtually.

Here are my presentation slides:

As always, it was great to connect with current and future Lijit publishers. Gnomedex has been a great measure of Lijit’s growth. In 2007 and 2008, we were the new kids, and most of the conversations I had about Lijit were filled with explanations of what we do, and why its interesting. Now, with our strong feature set and new monetization options, the conversations are much more focused on how to work together.

If you have a short list of conferences, please put Gnomedex on the list. Its an amazing conference, on par with SXSW (except without the size and craziness), and is the only conference that I lament missing sessions.

Cant wait for Gnomedex 2010!

This past weekend, Lijit was proud to be one of the sponsors for the ongoing Chicks Who Click conference series. San Jose, or to be more specific-downtown Palo Alto, was the setting for this installment of the (mostly) female gathering of those involved in social media and working in the tech industry.

There was a panel featuring Aubrey Sabala of Digg, Margaret Stewart of YouTube and Meagan Marks from Facebook. These three incredibly smart women talked about how they’ve trailblazed their way to fantastic careers by carving out roles for themselves that cater to their strengths. One of the key take-aways from this panel was the notion of “intelligent risk-taking” and that if an opportunity scares you, then it’s probably exactly what you need to be doing.

I spoke on a panel about being a woman involved with a tech startup. (There I am, in the middle, talking with my hands yet again.) Emily Olson of the delicious Foodzie and Suzanne Xie of the stylish Weardrobe joined me as we discussed the different challenges we’ve faced as being part of early-stage tech companies. Suzanne brought up the point that her background is in finance and coming from that kind of workplace, tech seems very open to women. Both Emily and I agreed that being female has helped with marketing our companies in both online and offline communities. A point that resonated with the audience is that if you’re going to have women users, it can be beneficial to have a female voice or face to assist with tech support or new customer outreach.

In case you haven’t experienced it, there really is a kind of magic that happens when you get a roomful of women (and a few men) together, talking about collaboration, connection and how tech can play an important part in building a business. Women of all ages shared stories of how they found jobs on Twitter, used Facebook to get the word out about their startup or formed relationships with major brands all because of their blog. It was an inspiring day, full of shared knowledge and newly-formed friendships. I’m grateful that Lijit was able to help make it happen.

Last month, we launched a contest to find a great Lijit story. We did so to hear what our publishers had to say about us. And it turns out…they have lots to say and many different ways of saying it. (Also? Some only entered to get a free shirt–which tells you a lot about our shirts!) From the humorous to the ethereal to the very concise, the contest entries really spanned the spectrum. After wading through all the posts and getting most of the company to weigh in, we are proud to announce that we have chosen a winner.

Before I announce that winner, some comments about the entry that was deemed most Lijit…

“Everyone loves a video…”

“How can you beat screencast explanations?”

“She rocked that shit.”

“With a name like Keller, how can it not be good?” (contributed by a certain someone named Keller in our office)

With much excitement and an imaginary drumroll, I present the winner of our Lijit storytelling contest…

Keller has put together a fantastic summary of our service, covering everything from the value she gets from using Lijit on her blog (and how we help her blog readers) to how you go about installing Lijit on your blog. She even went so far as to add video screencasts to her post.

You can read her Kindle-worthy post here and be sure to leave a congratulatory comment.

So, to Keller, we say thank you. You are the winner and your Kindle will be in the mail to you on Monday. Enjoy, thanks for using Lijit and know that you have our undying love. (As promised in the fine print of the contest specifics…)

Many thanks, also, to everyone that took the time to enter our contest. It’s publishers like y’all that make it fun to come to work. Your Lijit t-shirts will look great on you.

Perry came to us from a corporate setting but we don’t hold that against him. As soon as he wheeled his bike into the office, we knew it was a good fit. Of course the fact that he can keep up with most of the cyclists in the office also wins him points all around. From his casual demeanor (he loves wearing old-school Vans with no socks) to his good humor, Perry has been a most welcome addition around Lijit.

Perry’s official title is VP of Market Development, but since he seems to know everyone in Boulder, we also like to call him the Jaunty Man about Town. And don’t even get him started about his glory days in the 90’s when he rode mountain bikes with Dan Cortese or hung out backstage with Perry Farrell (who, believe it or not, shares the same first name. OMG.) Fortunately, Perry agreed to take some time out of his busy schedule to allow us a peek into his psyche.

What is your Lijit contribution?

A muddy bike in a no-bikes allowed building… I have worked for large and small companies - I like to believe that I bring the best perspective/practices from each (and left the shite at the door…well, mostly).

What is your least favorite sound and why?

The sound of a frisbee banging into a car. For any of you who have played the game, you will know EXACTLY what I am talking about. When I was a kid, we used to play frisbee in the cul-de-sac where I lived. Invariably, someone would either over-throw or miss and that unforgettable sound would echo through the neighborhood…thankfully is was (usually) less damaging than one would think.

What turns you on, creatively, emotionally or spiritually and why?

I am not sure if it is a paternal thing, but I get really fired up when my kids take an interest in a sport and get super excited about it. My girls both locked onto Lacrosse (I never played…and am horrible) and my son took to cycling right away. While they have miles to go to be “great” at their respective endeavors, it inspires me to learn or better myself so that I can enjoy their growth alongside them. Wish me luck.

What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?

As Boulder-stereotypical as it sounds, I would LOVE to own a bike shop. People need to remember that cyclists put the U.S. into flight first (Orville and Wilbur). A bike shop caters to every demographic and has substantial breadth when it comes to customer interests - everything from the recreational rider to the pro-level cyclist…and the revolutionary anti-gasoline commuter to the hardcore downhiller. Many different customers creates a hyper-diverse and interesting place to work.

Something you’re guilty of…

My body is really bad at processing sugar, which does not work well given my moderate addiction to dark chocolate. The pros tell you there are anti-oxidants in chocolate, but I still think that the sugar wrecks me…such is life.

But the greatest thing about Perry is that he is willing to represent Lijit in the manner to which we’ve become accustomed. On bikes.

I would normally wrap this up by encouraging interested parties to check out Perry’s blog and Twitter stream. However, in this case, all you’ll discover is that he is woefully negligent with both.

But then again, he does have a wonderful wife and three really cute kids…which speaks more about him than any social media platform ever could.