Germany Tour

David Jay on Facebook

I'm out in Germany doing a short tour right now. Part of my presentation is about social marketing and 5 years ago I would've talked all about blogs but now I don't even mention them. Blogs are so out.



Blogging was a great technology to use to start and faciliate conversations five or six years ago but now Facebook and Twitter have kicked its butt for so many reasons - Read my blogging is dead article if you care to know more.

So if you want to keep up with me you'll need to join me on Facebook or Twitter or both b/c I don't plan to blog anymore. :)


I started online journaling on my forum way back in 2003 and you can see my first posts here.
Then moved to my Xanga blog
Then moved to my blogger blog
...and now Facebook!

Showit at Photoshop World

Sweet! We are out at Photoshop World in Las Vegas and having a great time! Dave Cross, The Senior Developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, said "Showit is an amazing application"

He's even created his own website with Showit!

He is stopped by our booth yesterday to get an interview and Matt snapped this pic of me yappin' :)

Amanda Pair - awesome!

Our latest featured site on ShowitLoves.com is Amanda Pair and I love her site for sooooo many reasons! First of all it's great because it's about her! ...all the way down to the itty bitty details like the pre-loaders! Only Showit allows you to customize and control - EVERYTHING!!!

She partnered up with one of Showit's Authorized Designers - Spilled Milk Designs - to really trick it out!

Another thing you should see is that her blog header is also made in Showit and it matches her website brilliantly!

BAPVA Event at Adobe Headquarters

The BAPVA crew put on an incredible event at the Adobe Headquarters tonight! It was live streamed to the web! So cool! My presentation starts about the 19:30 mark. :)

Edited video coming soon :)

Another cool website and blog!

Here is a phenominal example of how to use Showit to create a very cool and unique website as well as a custom blog. I think it's crazy how much people have been paying for "custom" blog headers when you can now make them completely for free using Showit.

Nate and Brittany from The Shot Shot used Showit to create a website with some punch! Using the timing features they brought in text with sweet music that gets you excited to click on another button! Just like their website claims - "You cannot find another experience like ours anywhere!" - Click here and check it out!

and they didn't stop with a website! They used Showit to create a very cool custom blog! They used Showit's Twitter widget to automatically display posts from four twitter accounts and create a custom blog header that's all their own!

Photographer to Watch

Gail Werner. I found her because she started using Showit to build her website and I was just blown away with the site she created and even more amazed with the content on it.

I view websites as a package and the importance of making it "YOUnique" to YOU is vitally important. The old days of everyone having the same website are over and if you're looking for a great examply of someone who put the whole package together with a great design, Beautiful pictures, and a lovely "spunky" personality that shines through it all Gail Werner is it.

Click here to see her website!

DJ

Shampoo detergant?

Shampoo detergant?, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I couldn't find any detergant for the laundry so I'm using shampoo. Do
you think that will work?

LAX Workout

LAX Workout, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I think I just crutched 1/2 mile through LAX. I had a short layover
here and they came to the plane with a wheelchair for me and that was
very nice but I'm not fond of being carted around in a wheelchair so I
had the guy drop me at the red carpet club and then when I had to
board again I just crutched it...but wow I'm outta breath and maybe
even sweating a little. Lol...that was a long way but I made it!!!

I'm off to London this week for a U2 show! I'm so excited!

Also, next Monday I'd love to meetup with some of you. We've already
got a few photographers planning to meetup so stay tuned for a time
and place!

Rock on!
DJ

Designer Insight Group!

We just finished up our first Designer Insight Group and we held the two day confernce in SB at the Freedom House. We invited a bunch of the top web designers in the world to get specialized training by the Showit Crew and we're stoked to see more and more web designers switching over to use Showit to build their websites.

One of the evenings we took everyone out to the Canary Hotel in SB and went up on the rooftop deck to hangout before a delicious dinner down in their Coast Restaurant.

I can't wait for the next one!

Rock on!
DJ

Showit Designer Conference

Showit Designer Conference, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

This week we're having a two day conference at the Freedom House for a
few of the web designers now using Showit to develop websites! Yea!
Smart folks!

As is tradition everyone is staying at the house slumber party style!
I love it!

With over 10,000 users we have access to a mighty large pool of
potential clients for web designers and so these designers who are
getting training by our crew will be able to get access to that!

These conferences are invite only so contact us if you're a designer
using Showit and we'll let you know what it is we're looking for.

:)
DJ

Sweet Shoes! Heutchy

Checkout my buddy's shoe company! He's sick!

Click here. It's called Heutchy and you may remember him from this image.

Josh Newton wins $1500 from Showit.

Yesterday I posted a contest on facebook that I was gonna be crusing around SB for the next couple of days on Christianne's little scooter b/c I can't drive a car. I just strap my crutches on there and it's great! I love it!

...and the first person to snap a picture of me on the scooter and post it on Facebook would win a free Showit PRO account and a few hours later Josh Newton came cruising around the corner on his Ducati with his friend Brendan James on a Harly so we snapped this picture and Josh is now $1500 richer thanks to Showit!

Look for more contests like this as I travel to London this next week and Costa Rica, Austria and Germany in the next couple of months.

More FREE Showit updates!

One of the greatest things about using Showit is that we are always making it better and adding more free features and better stuff! As opposed to template websites where you get what you get and you're stuck with it for the next year or two. Everytime we release something new you get it instantly and you don't have to pay anything extra!

So just the other day we launched an update to introduce a few new features and squash some minor bugs. If you haven't already... open up Showit and you should be prompted to install this latest update.

One of the new features added gives you the ability to control the latest galleries with any text or image you want to. Now you can advance the images in a gallery... advance the thumbnails... play... or pause... with whatever layer best fits your site. In the Link tab for any layer... check the Action radio button... match up the target with your thumb gallery and display area... choose the action for when the user clicks... and you're done!

In addition to that, we've also added some new options for the galleries. You can choose to hide the current thumb gallery controls if you're going to take advantage of the new options mentioned above. And you now have the ability to use a highlight color that will highlight the selected thumbnail and also highlight any thumbnail you mouse over.

Another feature added that will definitely speed up organizing your site is the ability to quickly add blank style groups and pages right from the pages panel. Make sure to right click on a style group in the pages panel and you'll see the new options in the displayed menu.

And here are some of the other things you'll be happy to know we've fixed:

• Scrolling bug for organizing lists of images in a gallery
• Background bug with style groups
• Scroll bar issues on smaller monitors
• Background editing on inherited backgrounds
• "Copy URL" uses HTML instead if deep linking for improved SEO results

We hope you enjoy this update and let us know if you run into any issues.

Thanks again!

Showit promotion code

Hey Everyone! Here's a Showit promotion code for all you OSPers!

Just type in "OSP" when you're signing up and you can get the first year for $32/month which is an $80 savings.

Rock on!
DJ

The Death of Blogs

As you can see I've been "blogging" a lot more but just not in the same old way that I used to. I've felt for the past year that the traditional type of blog was dying despite so many people just now hopping on the band wagon. Jasmine likes to fight me on this :) ... and she has by far the most successful blog in our industry so it's easy for people to say "it's working for her so I'm gonna do it" when I think it's better said "it WORKED for her" back when blogs were the best tool for the job.

So I'll clarify a bit .... As always keeping in touch and creating conversations with a large group of people is SUPER important! Yes! Keep doing that!

BUT...

Do it effectively and as technology changes use the technology that is best for what you're trying to create! Blogs, as a conversation starter are not the best tool anymore. I believe that Facebook and Twitter easily trump blogs so whatever you do don't waste your money on some "custom" blog. If you want to customize it a bit with a flash header and cool graphics you can do that for free with Showit but get going on Twitter and Facebook b/c that is a much better place to get conversations going!

Join me on Facebook and Twitter!

CLICK HERE TO COMMENT.

Rock on,
dj

Showit 2.0 Live Webinar Schedule

We've had a chance to look through all the questions from the Showit v2.0 webinar last week. We really had such great participation and feedback! We're super thankful to have the best users who are passionate about Showit and want to be involved in making it better.

We have scheduled a few topic specific tutorials that we hope you will register for and find helpful. The schedule is below with a registration link. Unfortunately we won't be doing any tutorials on where you can get an ushanka...that one you'll have to figure out on your own.

Showit 2.0 Widgets Overview
Date: Wednesday - July 22, 2009
Time: 2:30 to 3:00 pm PDT
Join us for an overview on how to implement and configure the standard widgets included in Showit 2.0.

Click Here To Register

Showit 2.0 Building a Website from Scratch
Date: Friday - July 24, 2009
Time: 9:30 to 10:00 am PDT
Join us for an overview on how easy it can be to launch your website from scratch with Showit 2.0. We will cover the basics of getting your site launched with a custom look.

Click Here To Register

Showit 2.0 New Gallery Features
Date: Tuesday - July 28, 2009
Time: 9:30 to 10:00 am PDT
Join us for an overview on using and configuring the new gallery features in Showit 2.0 to maximize loading time and viewing options.

Click Here To Register

Showit 2.0 Updated Share Feature
Date: Thursday - July 30, 2009
Time: 9:30 to 10:00 am PDT
It's now easier than ever to share the content from your website with your blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages with Showit Share.

Click Here To Register

Fotografos De Corazon

Hey Everyone!

I was invited to be part of the Luminarias Speaker Series which is put on by a wonderful group in LA/OC called the Fotografos de Corazon and since it's a spanish speaking group I'll be doing the entire presentation in spanish. It will last about 25 seconds. lol...just kidding. It will be in English and it's an all day gig so check it out.

I'm only doing a handful of speaking gigs this year and half of them are outside the U.S. so get to this one if you're around. It's cheap. They are only charging $45! It's next Sunday.

Adios,
dj

Barnaby Aldrick

Checkout Barnaby Aldrick! I like this guy! He just made a fun video for his blog and a super nice post about Becker, Jess and a bunch of other stellar photographers. Very cool.

I'm probably gonna head out to London next month for the U2 show and possibly a small workshop/conference and I hope to meet him.

Showit FREE - LIVE webinar

I'm sure that you all have heard by now but we launched Showit 2.o last weekend and Showit now has a completely FREE version! The launch has been an incredible success and I'll be hosting a LIVE webinar at 5:30pm tonight to answer any questions you might have.

Click here to register and to get more details! It's free!

Rock on!
DJ

Fear

Fear, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I just tried to cook something that didn't come ready to go...can you
seethe fear in my eyes!

Get this video and this book for FREE!

For a limited time you can Click here to go to my website and get this audiobook for free! Do it! Why not!

You can also get a FREE video I just made about how to use this model of FREE as a wedding photographer! by clicking here and joining my Facebook page! ...joining my page is also FREE ;)

I LOVE FREE!

FREE IS MY FRIEND. :)

UNITE

A bunch of us have been meeting on Wednesday just to get together and pray and encourage one another and it's been a really great time and we've seen God do amazing things!

Last year at WPPI a group of Christians all got together to hangout and it was so awesome! He's put it on our hearts to keep doing this so if you want to get messages and hear about when things like this are happening along with some encouraging words put your name and email below.

Name:


Email:


State (2 digit - ie. CA):

Get FREE :)

Chris Anderson is the editor for Wired Magazine and a brilliant dude. He wrote a book called the The Long Tail that totally nailed what was happening with digital distribution and instantly became one of my favorite books. I've listened to it six times!

So when I heard he was coming out with a new book called FREE I was intrigued and watched some videos he had put out about his thoughts on it and was once again "enlightened" if you will, about where things are headed.

A week ago he put up this blog post up and said he was going to send out 50 prerelease copies to people with a megaphone but we had to prove it so he asked for info like our Facebook pages, blog stats, twitter accounts, etc etc... and so I sent him all that stuff - and I was one of the chosen 50!

I've just started devouring the book because we will be making an announcement TOMORROW which is highly related to this subject. :) .... so get ready...

FREE is here and it's changing things!

Wow wow wow!!!!

Wow wow wow!!!!, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

It's not everyday you get a package from the editor of Wired
magazine!!! I seriously can't believe this!

I already know what's inside!!!! This is crazy cool! Only 50 people in
the world got this!

Showit Sites discount code

*** All discount codes have expired so Showit is now $39 across the board.***

Click here to get started

Hey Everyone! Showit Sites I wanted to put out a Showit Sites discount code for all the faithful OSPers! ... and for the record all upgrades come FREE for current subscribers. Yea!

Just type in "***" when you're signing up and you can get the first year for $32/month.

Rock on!
DJ

Showit Sites Promotion Code

*** All discount codes have expired so Showit is now $39 across the board.***

Hey Everyone! Showit Sites I wanted to put out a Showit Sites discount code for all the faithful OSPers! ... and for the record all upgrades come FREE for current subscribers. Yea!

Just type in "***" when you're signing up and you can get the first year for $32/month.

Rock on!
DJ

Pay Now or Pay Later

My friend Deyl always says "You're either gonna pay now or pay later" and usually it's cheaper to pay now because if you wait until you really need something you're always gonna pay more for it than if you buy it before you absolutely must have it. This is true for acquiring just about anything including skills and knowledge.

Most photographers choose to pay later. They start their businesses and they do all the things they want to do because those things (studios, gear, letterhead, samples, etc...) make them feel important and they differ the things they need. Most go out of business completely and 80% of wedding photographers only shoot 2 or 3 weddings a year.

So decide for yourself. Do you want to pay now and get things on track for success or are you going to take the quick and cheap route to failure?

I'd love to hear your thoughts...

*** Click here to comment ****

:)

Sunrise on the water

Sunrise on the water, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I shot this beautiful sunrise this morning. I spent the last couple of
days buried away reading and praying. Taking a little mini sabatical
is something I'm going to do a lot more often!

Thailand

If you want to keep up with what Christianne and Bethany are doing in Thailand checkout their blog and give them some love. Keep praying too. :)


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

FREE pre-loader from Spilled Milk

Nick Haskins over at Spilled Milk Designs created an entire business using Showit to design websites and has been doing an incredible job building sites for many of you. That rocks!

...but what has impressed me the most about Nick is that understands the power of FREE! ...and the trust that is built through helping others. He's been a great help to us and all of our users by being active on the forums answering questions and just the other day he did something very smart. He offered something for free. It's a super cool pre-loader that you can easily drag and drop into your website.

Click here to get your FREE copy!

Mail

Mail, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Here is my mail from the last couple of months. Almost completely
unopened. I don't like the mail much. Most of it is junk or bills that
are on autopay (hopefully) :) ... It's just more noise in my life so I
just set it on the floor.

Sweet post...

What a sweet post! :)

One of my former clients from almost five years ago just made the nicest post on her blog about me!

You can see one of my first ever "hill shots" if you click here and checkout her blog. ;)

What went wrong?

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Something did go horribly wrong! ...but we have the opportunity to fix
it!

Right now ask yourself these three questions!

- How do you want to live?
- How much of the time are you actually living that way?
- What is one thing you could do TODAY to increase the amount of time
you're living that way?

...then go do it right now!

:)

Reframe now using Showit!

Checkout another cool Showit site!


Reframe used Showit to create a fabulous unique website for their stellar videographer conference! Showit is a fantastic tool for videographers because of the massive amount of storage space that is offered as well as our fully integrated SmugMug and Vimeo video players so all the FLV compression and cataloging is handled automatically ...and beautifully!

Showit also offers the freedom to display video in a multitude of different ways on your site including: page transitions like on Jasmine-Star.com or custom video galleries like on ElysiumProductions.com or individual videos displayed and played at any size like on Nick Haskins website.

Showit live Chat!!!

CLICK HERE to Join members of the Showit team for a question and answer time!

Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM PDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows(R) 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh(R)-based attendees
Required: Mac OS(R) X 10.4 (Tiger(R)) or newer

What a week!

This past week was possibly the busiest of the year...but it was great. My folks were in town and somehow I had planned like every meeting of the year into the past 6 days so I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off...


I'll start with something fun ... I learned to cook my own steak! Can you believe that I have never done that. My dad always took great pride in manning the grill and now I have some friends who always do it but last night I had to man-up! ;) We were at a restaurant where you cook your own steak and it was pretty funny because I wasn't even that hungry and so I was just gonna share a steak with Christianne's sister but Christianne said "be a man and get your own" and I was a little embarrassed b/c I didn't know how to cook it so she helped me a little bit and I was very proud to have cooked my own steak...well...kinda cooked it. She likes her steak rare so that's the way I cooked mine too. It was the first time I've ever had a rare steak and it was so good!

So going back...our Wednesday morning get together really got me stoked and filled up for the rest of the week! Wow! God is doing rad things in our lives and to get together and celebrate that gets me so stoked!

Then I cruised down to OC for a meeting that my friend Greg Bumatay put together in his awesome studio. He's an incredible photographer and he also gives back by teaching at Cypress College so he invited 10 of his students over and we shared Showit with them and got feedback about what they liked and didn't like. The response was unreal and we are looking to do more of these around the country so if you are an educator or a student then please contact our Director of Love - JD@showitfast.com and we'll set it up.


Then the Orange County SMUG happened! Wow! SmugMug is doing such an incredible job building community and it doesn't hurt to have Jasmine Star leading the group! There were 250 people including other inspirations like Becker, Bobby Earle, Gabriel and Carlie Ryan, Dane Sanders etc etc etc.....


ok... this post is too long. Have a great weekend!

Stephanie Fay got Myntd with Showit :)

Wow! Checkout Stephanie Fay's beautiful new Showit site! I love it!!!

Stephanie and her Groom-to-be stayed with me while they were here shooting a wedding a few months ago and they are as gorgeous as their photography!

My buddy Michael Thompson over at Myntd.com created this stellar site! I really like how he gives all of his sites a very smooth fluid feel so if you're looking for someone to help you rock out a killer site then hit him up!

Parents

Parents, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

My folks went on a cleaning and fixing spree today! - I'm not
complaining. :) ...here my pops is teaching me how to fix the leaky
faucet. We need some more parts so if you use this bathroom only the
hot water works. :)

Less pretty breakfast

Less pretty breakfast, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

:) yummmmm .... Sharkeez breakfast!

Bfast...yummm

I need to eat more and lift some weights to get my weight back up...so I'm starting today...with the eating part at least. ;) I nice little breakfast sandwich at Tre Lune. :) .... I actually think I like the ones at Starbucks better but Tre Lune is my favorite because it's just a cool place.

Wrong direction...

Wrong direction..., originally uploaded by davidjay13.

I guess I didn't eat enough yesterday! I'm gonna eat a big breakfast
right now...it's funny because I didn't eat bfast for years and I
gained weight so maybe I shouldn't eat breakfast...I dunno...

Uhhh...whoaa

Uhhh...whoaa, originally uploaded by davidjay13.

Definitely time to start adding weight again. I was 190 on the tour
and it's funny because I didn't look much different. My face was fat
but otherwise my body distributes the weight pretty well...but I
should be 175 so I gotta change my diet a bit and lift some weights
because this is way too low.

Free Live Training Tomorrow!

Hey Everyone! I just read on OpenSourcePhoto that Jefferson Todd from Moka Design will be offering free live web design training tomorrow morning. He's an expert with Showit and so if you have questions or are in need of someone to help you build your site hit him up!

Click here for more info! or read below...

Rock on!
DJ


-----------------------

Jefferson Todd will be hosting a Q&A session tomorrow (wednesday) for any Showit Sites users or anybody interested in using Showit Sites for their website design.

The session begins at 10am PST (1am EST) and will last at least an hour. The session is limited to 20 users at one time, so be sure to login early or to try every 10 minutes to see if anybody has left.

You can even login using your iPhone or iPod Touch!

The room will be available HERE
10am PST (1pm EST)

MokaDesign.com offers custom design services built on the Showit Sites platform.

Kindle keeps improving

The Kindleis the future of reading and I love the ability to search books for certain words as well as the ability to buy books instantly from anywhere. The Kindle uses cell phone networks to connect you to their store so you can grab a new book anytime you want.

...but what is super cool is that they just opened up auto-syncing of your highlights and notes online and that is sweet b/c before it was kind difficult to go back through on the Kindle interface and see what you had highlighted and it was even harder to share it...but now checkout some of my highlights from probably the best marketing book of all time.

Promise is Awesome!

Click here right now!!!

You have to go checkout my new friend Promise Tangeman! Wow! She's amazing! I'm so inspired by her and I think she probably has the best blog I've ever seen. I can't stop looking at it.

It's like creativity on crack.

There is EVERYTHING. Inspiration - Encouragement - Resources ... and just lots of good stuff!

I really liked her post on how to feel miserable as an artist. I think all of us have felt this way at times and she really nails why.

GO GO GO....stop wasting your time on my blog.