Facebook - like or group or both

I've set up two things on Facebook for Nudge Village. One is a group where I invited people in (without choice) and one where I invite people to "like" a page if they so choose.

So far people have commented on the group and added their own entries, but not on the "like" page. Interesting.

Will keep them both up just to see what is most effective over time.

Editing and Revising

While driving home from my day job I got all kinds of ideas on how to improve the site. Here are a few changes that I made today that may help.

• Navigation - changed "Village Stories" to "Villagers" - thought it might have been a confusing title. Plus, I may want to use "Village Stories" at another time for something else, like actual village stories.
• Nudginary - took Brett's comment from the "Post a Nudge" section and made a resource link called "Nudginary." We'll see if people are interested in forming some words for the community. If not, no harm done, but it could be a fun activity for some.
• Daily Nudge from a Nudger - Anthony wrote a great piece on logos in the "Post a Nudge" section and so I pulled it and turned it into a daily nudge entry for today. This is what community is all about - sharing knowledge and learning from the knowledge others provide. Great stuff!
• Navigation - Opportunities became Help Wanted - not sure what difference this will make, but wanted to have a new title for this section. Perhaps people will want to post things they need help on here instead of making it like a job site. After all, we are hoping to get people pursuing passions instead of perhaps a cubicle job...unless people work well in cubicles.
• Navigation - took "Sandbox" out of the main navigation and put it as a sub-resource page. This blog will feed into it - if I can figure out how to keep it going continually instead of manually. I like the idea of people sharing in the journey of the site creation (if they want to) and it may help me capture moments that might get forgotten along the way.

Whew! Two hours on this and it doesn't feel like it, but all good.

Oh, I also posted the latest "Daily Nudge" links on Facebook. We'll see if anyone comes to the site from it.

Logos - displaying the brainstorming

So, there is quite a bit of functionality offered when you pay for it through http://www.squarespace.com.

I decided to upload all of the logos I've been playing with using the photo gallery functionality. It isn't too bad and there are a lot of different options for presented the photos and graphics.

Here's the album - http://www.nudgevillage.com/photo-galleries/nudge-village-logos/ - and I'm sure I'll tweak it as I find out about more functionality.

It is nice to have it be live, but a work in progress thanks to modern technology.

Nudginary

One of our "nudgers" entered a comment about how we should have a nudge dictionary. Very clever!

We'll get working on it. Great idea.

Who is your audience?

Today I met up with a friend to talk about the holidays and the endeavors we are pursuing. She asked me one question:

"Who is the audience for Nudge Village?"

I think, or thought, I knew. However, this is something that I think is still coming together.

In my mind, Nudge Village is for entrepreneurs. In whatever type of business they may be in, but I'm finding that people don't think they are necessarily an entrepreneur if they write a book. Hmmmm. I count that as entrepreneurship.

So, perhaps my audience is bigger. Perhaps it is a place for people pursuing their passions meet and share how to turn their ideas into products or businesses.

Is that too broad? I don't know. But, I will keep playing with the tag lines and such until I figure it all out.

I may even move this blog into Nudge Village itself so that people can see my sandbox as I learn and grow on the site.

Isn't it great to be around people that ask questions? It helps me go through the process of clarifying what I'm really trying to do!

Languishing Logo

I'm still languishing on the logo for this site. I've decided that from here on out, I will pick something that I think is right now that I've asked enough opinions.

However, it doesn't mean the answer has come to me any faster.

So, hanging in there and allowing myself time over the holidays to figure out the best logo for the site.

Coming soon.....

In the meantime, I am trying to add a daily nudge to the website - http://www.nudgevillage.com - and so hopefully along the way it will get a following and people will start to comment and share.

A Village of Nudgers

So, the Senior Nudger gave me the idea to use the phrase "A Village of Nudgers" for Nudge Village. Will need to figure out if I have that as the title of the page, the tag line or in what capacity.

That really is the desired outcome - to have us all nudge each other toward our entrepreneurial dreams, passions or whatever.

Hmmm. Will have to think on this for a bit.

Nedgeville

Today I met with a friend that told me that she kept getting emails from my website.

I was a bit perplexed because I haven't set up the site with user accounts.

Come to find out, my friend thought that my new website was "Nudgeville."

Hmm. It even has "Top Nudgers" playing off the "nudge" word.

This is a little lesson in marketing.

Note to self: always, always, always include the web link in every communication. So, there will never be a mistake in communicating where you want the customer to go and what you want the customer to do.

htttp://www.nudgevillage.com

Just had to put this in here. (-:

Nudgings from Villagers

So cool. Someone that knows about my website came up to me at work today and made a suggestion to give the capability to add "nudges" just like the "poke" function on Facebook.

Very cool. That is the purpose, after all, to learn from each other, contact each other, help each  other, etc.

That, along with all the ideas people sent in for logos, really made my day.

Now, I've got some nudgings of my own to do - responding to email questions, highlighting another person, posting on Facebook....

Sick Day

Today I had to take a sick day from my day job because I felt like I'd been run over by a truck.

However, by about noon (while in bed listening to a two hour conference call), I realized that perhaps I was just worn out!

I started this site, for all intensive purposes, on Monday, November 22nd. A couple of long days and nights and then I was off to NYC and NJ for the holiday. I came back and started my usual late night "playing on the site."

This past week work started up again and I played on the site from about 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. each morning.

Pro: It didn't feel like work and the time FLEW by each night!
Con: It is wearing me out. I need to set some boundaries for myself going forward.

So, it is now 11:34 p.m. and I think I'll turn out the lights and call it an early night...but, not before checking http://www.nudgevillage.com to make sure all is well.

Logo - opening it up to everyone

After one round of showing logo options to a few close friends through email, I decided to post some of the 2nd round options on the website at http://www.nudgevillage.com/daily-nudge/2010/12/3/selecting-a-logo-need-village-help.html.

I was surprised at the response. First, that people responded. And, second, for the logo that they seem to like best.

One set of reviewers seems to like the logo with people represented and the others like the spartan triple roof tops.

Hmm. My father, who has volunteered to be the "Senior Nudger" for the village, is kind of coaching me on this - saying that I would select this based upon the experience the users need to have with this and a few other marketing "stuff" that I can't remember.

I'm learning to take my time and not to rush it. The site is rather simple looking, but don't want to put the wrong logo up there either. After all, I will have to create business cards and other paraphernalia once I select the logo.

Then, on to building a marketing strategy!

New Website

Yea!

I've started my website - http://www.nudgevillage.com .

This is just where I'm going to be keeping "notes to myself" on setting it up so I remember the pitfalls and lessons as I pursue new ideas and new businesses.

So, nothing here yet, but visit the main website for info.

http://www.nudgevillage.com

Nudge Village - other names that were considered

So, the reality of this project is that I had no clue for a name the week before Thanksgiving.

I had originally floated the "Idea Ladies" concept, but realized that I'm here to promote all entrepreneurs and not just women. Plus, women have a hands up in the market nowadays and are actually starting more businesses than men.

So, I started thinking of some of the following names:

• talentwoot
• nudgebazaar
• creatorsnook

I really like the http://www.woot.com concept - selling one item a day. Except, I wanted to share one concept a day - which may at times include something to sell.

Unfortunately, some of the ideas were already taken or in the case of "woot" it seemed best not to select anything that could have a trademark on it.

Nudge Village was a result of a lot of thesauruses searches online and so I'm here to say that online dictionaries can be helpful for so many ideas besides definitions.