Jay Lane

Here’s My Three Cents…

Jay — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:11:03 +0000

When I left full-time employment with New West back in September 2009 to start my own company, I went on a COBRA insurance plan. This allowed me to have full insurance coverage for my family. A couple of months ago, New West hired Ceridian to administer its COBRA insurance program.

Once I accepted my new position at Power Creative, I called Ceridian to cancel my COBRA insurance policy. They told me that they couldn’t cancel my coverage because I had an outstanding balance of $.03 (I later found out that they had sent me two invoices. The second one was for $.03 more than the first.). Guess which one I paid?

I was told that I couldn’t cancel my policy until I paid the $.03.

Seriously? Let’s think about this for a second. I had to attach a $0.44 stamp to my payment, postal workers had to sort and deliver the envelope and then Ceridian had to pay someone to sort through all the mail and put my payment in the correct box.

After I got over the silliness of the whole situation, I mailed in my payment…

Update: I canceled my policy today. I guess they accepted my payment.

Woodworking Fun

Jay — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:59:41 +0000

Back in 2005, I discovered that I enjoyed making things out of wood. It all started with a poker table and then I moved onto bigger projects like an ice cream truck playset. I was inspired to build a playset for my kids after seeing bunk beds built by one of my wife’s cousins for his kids. What kids don’t like visits by the ice cream truck? I sketched out my ideas on paper and then started building. It was a fun project and the kids loved playing in it. I ended up selling it to our realtor when we sold our house because I was worried that it would get destroyed in the move.

Click on the thumbnail images below to view the pictures.

The New Father’s Guide

Jay — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:59:21 +0000

In 2006, I wrote New Father’s Guide: How to Survive 42 Days Without Sex as gift for one of my friends expecting the birth of his daughter. I wanted to give him something fun and unique (and clean) that poked fun at the six week sexual drought that would immediately follow the birth of his daughter. It has 42 days (6 weeks) of suggested activities to help the new father make it through.

Here’s a sample activity (Day #21) from the book.

You can get the book at NewFathersGuide.com.

Adventures in Video Gaming

Jay — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:52:02 +0000

I’ve enjoyed playing video games for as long as I can remember. Over the years, I’ve owned just about every system imaginable: Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Dreamcast, PlayStation, Playstation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Back in 2003, I tried to parlay my love for video gaming into a business. You can read about the adventures below.

Louisville Video Gaming Association (LVGA)

After attending a huge (and poorly ran) video game tournament (Halo) in April 2003 with some of my friends, I wanted to start running my own tournaments. It seemed like a pretty simple idea. At the time, I was working at a local newspaper and started running ads looking for local video gamers. After I started hearing from a lot of people, I decided to create the Louisville Video Gaming Association (LVGA).

We held tournaments and get-togethers at various venues. I even had the opportunity to write some video gaming-related columns for Louisville Eccentric Observer (local newspaper). Over the first year of its existence, the LVGA grew by leaps and bounds. We went from one tournament with around 30 participants to a tournament of nearly 150 participants. Our web site message boards had several hundred members posting messages on a regular basis and traffic to the site was around 40,000 pageviews a month. We even received some local press for our activities. I was even interviewed by Velocity about video gaming. The picture above ran in the article.

We were doing so well in fact that I started having thoughts of opening a video gaming center. I surveyed hundreds of local gamers on the LVGA website and determined there was a demand for such a business.

Louisville Gaming Center

Myself and a partner opened the Louisville Gaming Center, Louisville’s FIRST console-only gaming center, in December 2003. The plan was to host tournaments, leagues, b-day parties, and corporate events. Since video gaming had become so popular, I thought it would be a great place for friends to get together and play video games. The LGC got great press from LEO, Velocity, and Fox 41 (Fox in the Morning and Fox News at 10).

Unfortunately, the business didn’t do as well as we had hoped. We decided to close shop after four months. When my first son was born, I decided that running a retail business wasn’t worth the time and it sure wasn’t a way for me to support my family. The idea didn’t take off like I thought it would. I think it was a little too far ahead of its time. It was a great experience for me and I’m proud to say that I at least attempted to open my own business. Not many people can say that! I also learned that the old adage is true “Fail to plan and you plan to fail.”

Click on the thumbnails below to view some pictures of the gaming center.

I had a great experience with the LVGA and Louisville Gaming Center. I met a lot of great people and learned a lot. Now that those days have passed, I’m content sitting at home playing video games with my kids.

After attending a huge (and poorly ran) video game tournament in April 2003 with some of my friends, I decided that I should start running my own tournaments. It seemed like a pretty simple idea. Thus, the Louisville Video Gaming Association (LVGA) was born.

We held tournaments and get-togethers at various venues. I even had the opportunity to write some video gaming-related columns for Louisville Eccentric Observer (local newspaper). Over the first year of its existence, the LVGA grew by leaps and bounds. We went from one tournament with around 30 participants to a tournament of nearly 150 participants. By the end of our first year, our web site message boards had several hundred members posting messages on a regular basis and traffic to the site was around 40,000 pageviews a month. We even received some local press for one of our tournaments.

The Louisville Gaming Center opened in December 2003.

I decided to take a chance and opened the Louisville Gaming Center (pictured left), Louisville’s first console-only gaming center, in December 2003. I had planned to host tournaments, leagues, b-day parties, and corporate events. Since video gaming had become so popular, I thought it would be a great place for friends to get together and play video games. The LGC got great press from LEO, Velocity, and Fox 41 (Fox in the Morning and Fox News at 10).

Velocity Weekly interviewed me (above) in 2004 for a video gaming story about Madden Football 2005 .

Unfortunately, the business didn’t do as well as I had hoped. I decided to close shop after four months. When my first son was born, I decided that running a retail business wasn’t worth the time and it sure wasn’t a way for me to support my family. The idea didn’t take off like I thought it would. I think it was a little too far ahead of its time. It was a great experience for me and I’m proud to say that I at least attempted to open my own business. Not many people can say that!

About a year ago, I decided to shut down the LVGA website as well. I kept it going after the gaming center closed and even helped some other gamers organize some tournaments. I wanted to keep the LVGA going but just didn’t have the time anymore. It was great developing a gaming community in town but I just couldn’t give it the attention that it deserved.

Teaching

Jay — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:10:12 +0000

I’m passionate about teaching and sharing what I know with others. I teach digital marketing and social media classes at University of Louisville and Bellarmine University. I also speak to other private and professional groups throughout the year.

Check out the full list of upcoming classes.

Custom-Built Poker Tables

Jay — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:59:09 +0000

I started building poker tables about five years ago because I couldn’t find what I wanted within my budget at stores. The tables you find in stores are typically really expensive and you don’t have the ability to customize the colors or add really good cupholders.

Click on the thumbnail images below to view examples of my poker tables.

If you are interested in having me build a table for you, feel free to call me at 502.509.2529 or use my online contact form.

Blue Table

This is probably the simplest poker table that I’ve built. It’s just a standard poker table with a padded rail and blue speed cloth for the surface. I have folding legs for it but haven’t yet put them on.

Midwest Poker Series Tables

The Midwest Poker Series asked me to build eight custom table tops featuring a padded rail, custom printed cloth, dealer cutout and chip tray for use in their poker tournaments at local bars and other establishments.

Raised Rail with Red Suited Speed Cloth

This was my second-ever poker table and I decided to build on what I did with the first table. In addition to the wood racetrack and jumbo cupholders, I decided to add a raised rail to make the table look more like the ones you see in the tournaments on TV. I sold this table in Spring 2010.

Purple Table

About 5 years ago, I decided to build my own table because I couldn’t find what I wanted at local stores. I found some plans online and away I went. This was my first ever woodworking project. I didn’t even own any tools when I made this one. I built the table and my uncle’s house.

[Video] How to Create an Email Signature in Microsoft Outlook 2007

Jay — Sun, 02 May 2010 03:52:05 +0000

I send/receive a ton of emails on a daily basis. I make sure that every email includes my name, company name, contact information and links to all my social networking profiles.

These easiest way to do this automatically is to create an email signature. Every time I create I new message or reply to one, the information is automatically added. Plus, I use the opportunity to promote my monthly email newsletter at the very bottom.

Watch the video below to learn how to create your own email signature.

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What are some of the most creative email signatures you’ve seen?

Cheat Sheet for Tweeting “Retweetable” Tweets

Jay — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:38:12 +0000

Getting people to “retweet” your Twitter posts is a great way to get yourself more exposure and reach.

I just read a great blog post by Aliza Sherman (@alizasherman), “Tweeting 101: A Twitter Cheat Sheet” on WebWorkerDaily.com.

In the post, Aliza discusses some of the reasons for using Twitter such as branding, communications and community. She also talks about how to use Twitter and how to make your tweets “retweetable.”

This is a great resource and I highly recommend that you check it out.

Is Your Social Media Username Available?

Jay — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:06:01 +0000

If you’re like me, you participate on a lot of social networking sites.

Part of signing up on these sites is picking a username or vanity URL (i.e. Facebook.com/JoeSmith). I try to keep my username consistent across all the sites I spend time on. I do this for three reasons:

My personal brand is important to me and using something like “JayTheVikesFan22″ isn’t as descriptive as “JayLane”
I want to make it easy for other people to find me and connect with me online
It’s easier for me to remember my username or vanity URL if I consistently use the same thing

Nothing is more frustrating to me than when I go to a site to create a username and find out that the username/vanity URL I want is already taken. For example, I had to settle for Facebook.com/jaylane2 instead of what I wanted (Facebook.com/jaylane). I was able to get the vanity URL I wanted for my company Facebook page though (Facebook.com/JayLaneMedia).

I recommend going out and signing up for accounts on social networking sites (i.e. Twitter) even if you don’t have immediate plans to use them. They are free and it doesn’t hurt to be a little proactive.

There are great Web sites that will go out and check what usernames/vanity URLs are available for you instead of making you go to each individual site.

Check out a couple of the options below.

namechk

namechk is a free service you can use to see if your username is available on some of the most popular social media sites (145 of them to be exact)

In the example below, I’ve typed in “joesmith.” You can see that it’s available on quite a few sites.

KnowEm

KnowEm is a provides a similar service but they will actually go out and register the usernames for you depending on the type of account you sign up for. They have a free service similar to namechk.

My suggestion to you is to check on your desired usernames (your name and/or your company name) to see what’s available.

If the usernames are available, go sign up and protect your personal brand.

If you don’t, you might regret it later.

Have you found any cool tools for protecting your online personal/company brand?

PPT Presentation: Growing Your Business with Social Media

Jay — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:00:32 +0000

Below is a presentation that I gave last night at Social Media Club of Evansville.

Growing Your Business With Social Media – Social Media Club Evansville

View more presentations from Jay Lane.

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