Tweetups are basically events that are organized and attended by Twitter users [Twitter + Meetup = Tweetup]. As you might suspect, there’s a healthy amount of Bostonians on the micro-blogging platform so Boston tweetups are usually well attended and are a great way to meet awesome people in your industry.

Rooftop Tweetup

@Sarah Merion organized a rooftop tweetup for tomorrow, June 4th at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill (hashtag is #roofup). The roofup runs from 6PM to 10PM but there will be a lot of people attending this one so try to get there early!

The roofup is also co-hosted by @BostonTweet [aka Tom O'Keefe] and @URWingman [aka Thomas Edwards].

The Rattlesnake Bar and Grill is located at:

384 Boylston Street
Boston, 02116

Here’s a few great reasons to attend:

1. Good People
2. Yummy drinks
3. You get to hang out on a roof
4. You might win a Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt
5. You might win an Annie Mulz t-shirt
6. You’ll get to eat some Kickass Cupcakes
7. You might win a RUNmyERRAND.com giftcard

Sounds like a blast, @AdamPieniazek will be there for sure! Join me and a ton of other great Bostonians by registering for the roofup at eventbrite.

Tweetnetworking

Mark J Carter, founder of Tweetnetworking, organized the Tweetnetworking event, a tweetup for Boston social media users and those interested in learning about social media. The event is being held June 9th at the Red Sky Restaurant & Lounge from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.

The Red Sky is located at:

16-18 North Street
(Near Faneuil Hall Marketplace)
Boston, MA 02109

Networking for a Cause

Mr. Carter also organized Networking for a Cause Boston, an event where non-profits meet with professionals who are willing to help non-profits out for free. It’s a great event that connects skilled indiviuduals with non-profits who need help in web design, social media, marketing, computer programming, and other skilled professions. The event is part of the Networking for a Cause organization.

NFAC Boston is also being held at the Red Sky Restaurant & Lounge on June 11th from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.

The 42nd Estate will be giving away a four hour social media consulting package at the event to one lucky non-profit. The package will include a review of the organization’s current web-site and social media campaigns and include advice on how to improve their outreach efforts and streamline their marketing tasks. If you’re not a non-profit, check out our unrelated concert where we’re giving away three free hours of blog/social media consulting.

The tweetup event will also feature a social media audit giveaway from John Haydon. 4 copies of the book “Saving The World At Work” by Tim Sanders will also be given away at the event.

I’ll be attending all three events and hope to see you there! If you know of any other Boston tweetups happening in the next two weeks, let us know via the comments below.

What I love about Boston Young Entrepreneurs meetings is that you get a broad cross section of business owners. There were people there from real estate, technology, banking, law, liquor brewing, government, non-profits and other fields. You really get a diversity of feedback that would be tough to replicate elsewhere.

Feedback from the Boston Young Entrepreneurs

Some of the actionable feedback I received was:

• Raise rates.

We’re a bit overwhelmed with projects currently and customers have been satisfied so it’s an ideal time to raise rates. We were worried we’d lose business with higher rates but it may actually increase the number of customers due to increased confidence and image quality.

• Expand into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMM (Social Media Management).

 
We’ve found our projects arrive in bunches, so SEO could potentially provide additional constant revenue stream to balance out the irregular revenue streams from SMC (Social Media Consulting) and freelance writing.

• Provide case studies.

 
We’ve had some success implementing our strategies for clients and could increase our revenue if we provided proof of this success. It would also help better explain exactly what we do.

• Obtain market research (possibly for free from college libraries).

 
A perfect example of not applying your own advice to your own company. We’ve performed market research for our clients and emphasized it during strategy creation. Yet, we’ve not performed the same market research on The 42nd Estate and its industries. One of the reasons The 42nd Estate is the most successful company I’ve started yet is because we dove right in and got cranking instead of sitting around creating plans and never implementing them. However, the time has come to optimize our own business model and market research is a crucial aspect of this phase.

There was a whole ton more feedback that I received. One thing I really wish I had brought with me is a tape recorder to record the feedback so I could refer back to it. I’ve got a solid memory and most of the feedback stuck but I know that in a week or two the details will only get hazier. Alas, that’s why we live and learn.

Thanks to everyone who came out to hear the business model for The 42nd Estate and give that awesome feedback. Thanks to Devin Cole and the Boston Young Entrepreneurs group for organizing the event and promoting it so well. I really, really appreciate it! If there’s anything I can to help your business, let me know.

Head over to the site and celebrate with us as we give away $42 and a pair of Celtics playoff tickets.

Way to be The 42nd Estate, way to be.

Thanks to Josh, Justin, Eddie and John for joining me on what’s been one amazing ride so far, here’s to many more years to come!

The other two already announced contests are:

1. The Easiest $42 You’ll Ever Make

This contest is super easy. All you have to do is comment on the linked post (remember to leave your e-mail so we can contact you if you win – no spam, ever, we promise). That’s it. No linking, tweeting or any other -ing required. Just write a simple comment on that post and you’re automatically entered to win $42, sent via paypal. The contest ends on April 8th at noon (EST) so hurry up and write a comment!

2. Win a Pair of Boston Celtics Playoff Tickets

As The 42nd Estate is based in Boston, Massachusetts, we’re obviously big fans of the Boston sports teams (heck, we even have a sports blog focused on Boston sports). Two of our members are also season ticket holders for the world champion Boston Celtics and we decided to giveaway our first pair of playoff tickets!

To enter, become our fan on The 42nd Estate’s facebook® page. As soon as the playoff scenario for the Celtics is set in stone, we’ll pick one fan at random and award them a pair of playoff tickets to either the first or second home playoff game.

There you have it, two super easy to enter contests and another prize to come that will be given out via twitter.

EDIT: The Twitter contest is now live. A free portable iPhone charger! Retweet this tweet to enter. Contest ends Monday, April 6, 2009 at 5PM.

Though a little bit of money flowed in here and there via various freelance writing gigs and advertisements, it was by no means equivalent to a full-time salary. Over the past two months my incoming cash flow has increased more and more each day, but there’s still a story to tell from the previous ten months.

Resigning in a Recession

One year ago I resigned from my full-time job as a Senior Tax Administrator at State Street Bank. While my time at State Street was beneficial and lucrative, it simply wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Armed with that knowledge and a hefty savings account I turned in my resignation letter and looked to the future.

A lot has already been written on why starting a company during a recession might be a wise choice, but let me go over a few points briefly [also check out Paul Graham's "Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy" post and this article from the UK Times Business section by Rachel Bridge).

Five reasons to start a business in a poor economy:

1. You might lose your job; a side business provides a safety net.
2. You likely won't earn a big raise, so you'll lose less by quitting in a recession.
3. Prices and thus costs will drop during a recession.
4. If you can succeed in a recession, you'll thrive when we recover.
5. Value will be a priority for everyone, new companies can gain business by pricing low.

Successful Savings

At the time, I had no real plan about how I'd make money but honestly, it did not concern me. Nearly all my friends and family members were shocked by my resignation. After all, every economic indicator was pointing to a long term recession in the United States and global economies. A lot of people thought it was foolish to leave a well paying job to pursue my passions, especially when I did not know exactly what those passions were!

Readers of My Last Name Means Money know my opinion that storing as much money as you can in online savings accounts is vitally important to your success and tolerance for risk. It's an obvious tip, but one I implemented very well. Once my savings account reached a level where it could fund my lifestyle for at least six months, the risk became bearable.

Wise Investments

A big reason my savings account is still supporting me is that I aimed to withdraw money only when necessary. There were many times I failed and made foolish expenditures, but for the most part I stuck with the plan and still have enough cash to ride me through the next six months. Overestimating how much money was needed to survive for six months also gave me plenty of leeway to afford those not so wise spending decisions.

A big use of my savings account went towards investments that led to a simpler lifestyle that was easier to afford. My used bicycle easily paid for itself countless times now through improved health, lowered transportation costs and free entertainment. It also gave me plenty of time to think while pedaling about the city of Boston. Time to think is a very valuable asset.

Another investment was continuing to be a Boston Celtics season ticket holder. Though it was a huge use of my money, most of the tickets ended up getting sold to friends at face value. Sure, that cash didn't earn any interest but I was able to hook up my friends with Celtics tickets and hold a great contest at The 42nd Estate to win a pair of Celtics playoff tickets. It's a product that has maintained it's value and allowed me to get back money throughout the year that otherwise might have been spent on a trip or other use that I could not re-sell.

I also continued to pay down my student loans and am now less than $3,000 away from being completely debt-free! The wisest investment I made by far, however, is the one I did not make. When I resigned from State Street I also elected to not re-invest my 401k into an IRA. Instead, the money has sat in a Citibank account as liquid cash. I would take a hit on cashing out my retirement account early so for now it sits there earning a little interest, which is immensely better than losing half its value in the stock market. Sometimes doing nothing is the best action.

Dow Jones Index for the past year, down 5,000+ points, -41%

A few not so wise expenditures:

• Xbox 360 Console – great release for frustration but no time to play with it.
• Second bike and bike frame – planned to fix up the first one and build a bike from scratch but again, no time.
• Countless domain variations of the42ndesate.com – a few were OK but I went way overboard with this one.

Pinpointing my Passions

Along the way many, many mistakes were made, but these mistakes enabled me to learn about myself and my true passions. Sometime in November/December I realized my passion was right in front of my face the entire time. I love blogging and social media and spent a lot of time learning and growing my knowledge in those fields. It was then that we began an overhaul of The 42nd Estate. We recently pushed out a new design and began publicizing our service offerings:

• Freelance writing
• Blog & social media consulting
• Web hosting

Over the past few years, I picked up a lot of knowledge about blogging, writing and maintaining WordPress installations. I also spent a lot of time researching how to tweak our servers and picking the brains of my buddies who are experts in the field, which has enabled us to begin offering hosting to clients who need it. I am by no means the world’s most authoritative source in any of these fields, but I also realized I don’t need to be. My goal was never to strike it rich, but merely to afford a simple lifestyle while using my knowledge to help other people and organizations become successful.

Over the past few months The 42nd Estate has begun acquiring more and more clients each month and genuinely helping people become successful. It’s a great feeling to finally discover your passion and realize it can be your job too. And that, my friends, is why the word “nearly” is in the title, cash-flow free for nearly a year!

Photo of all that cash is by Tracy O. Thanks Tracy!

Well, a few days ago the cards arrived and they’re clean and slick but there’s one small issue. It’s barely noticeable but, well, check them out yourself:

Slightly slanted...it's still good, it's still good!

Notice anything a little off?

Yup, our site url at the bottom of the card is ever so slightly slanted. D’oh!

Now, I don’t believe in throwing something out just because it’s slightly imperfect, especially since the cards are still fully functional, but it taught me a valuable lesson. Never order business cards after midnight!

Now…that was the post I was going to write, but then I took another look at these cards. In particular, I opened up another box and took a look inside. Lo and behold, this box had cards that were not quite as slanted!

Still slightly slanted but with lots of white space.

Phew!

It wasn’t entirely my fault!

So, then I gave VistaPrint a ring, explained the situation of the some good, some not so good cards. They quickly explained that it was partly my fault due to not placing the card entirely within the dotted line border, but they would still credit me the full cost of all 1,000 cards and help me order up a new batch!

What amazing customer service! Even though it was partly my fault that half the cards look terribly slanted and cutoff, they still gave me a full refund!

Sorry to have misled you all for a few paragraphs, but that post title was just too good to not use.

So the real moral of the story? Maybe you should order business cards after midnight, but only if you’re a night owl and excel in these conditions. Otherwise, save it for the morning! Oh, and of course use Vistaprint for your business cards as they have amazing customer service.

If you do experience any problems, please drop me an e-mail and let me know.

Personally, I’ve donated 3 months of free 125 x 125 ads on this blog to the contest AND The 42nd Estate has donated $42 in cold, hard, cash (in U.S. dollars).

Here’s the full list of sponsors and prizes:

Platinum Sponsor

• Jay Green & The Balesio Team (http://www.balesio.com) donating:

1. 1 Copy Of “ALLCapture Enterprise 3.0″ Screen Recording Suite – $344 USD Value
2. 2 Copies Of “ALLCapture” Screen Recorder – $466 USD (combined) Value
3. 8 Copies Of “PPTMinimizer” Powerpoint Compression (up to 98%) – $331 USD (Combined) Value

Gold Sponsors

• Fresh Never Frozen Web Design (http://freshneverfrozendesign.com) donating:

1. 2 Custom Blog Designs – $300 USD (combined) Value
2. 1 Hour Blog/Website Design Session Consultation – $49 USD Value

• Carlocab (http://carlocab.com) donating:

1. 5 Copies of Direct Response Templates for Minisite Design – $185 USD Value

• Logo Design Team (www.LogoDesignTeam.com) donating:

1. A Best Seller – Logo Design Package – $149 USD Value

• Scot (http://www.revvenue.com) donating:

1. 1 Hour “Adsense Tutoring” Session – $39 USD Value
2. $30 Gift Certificate to Starbucks – $30 USD Value

• Corey Freeman (http://www.deadlyclever.com) donating:

1. A Logo Design Package From Deadly Cleaver – $99 USD Value
2. Blogroll Link on Diligent Design – $5 USD Value

• Adam Pieniazek (http://adamp.com) donating:

1. 3 Months of 125×125 Advertising On His Sidebar – $20 USD Value
2. $42 Cash Prize from the42ndEstate.com

• David Leonhardt (http://SEO-writer.com) donating:

1. Copy Of “Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines” Ebook – $40 USD Value
2. Top 52 S.E.O. Tips Sheet – $10 USD Value

• Peter Lee (http://www.peterleehc.com) donating:

1. Copy Of “Quit Being a Wage Slave in 10 Easy Steps” Ebook – $49 USD Value

• Blogupp Team (http://www.blogupp.com/) donating:

1. 50 000 BlogUpp Impressions – N/A Value

• Hugo Santos (http://bloggervenue.com) donating:

1. 3 125×125 ads on his sidebar (1 month) – $20 USD (combined) Value
2. 3 Text Link Ads – $19 USD (combined) Value

• Dan And Marsh (http://www.giveawaycity.blogspot.com) donating:

1. 2GB Kingston Data Traveler (USB Storage Drive) – $29 USD Value

• Pam Hawk (http://www.passitonplates.com) donating:

1. A “Pass It On Plate Lite” Edition (See This For More Details) – $29 USD Value

Silver Sponsors

• AnotherMMOBlog (http://www.anothermmoblog.com/) donating:

1. 2 x 1 Month Text Link Ad
2. 1 Month 125×125 Sidebar Ad

• Lhurey (http://www.phblogger.net) donating:

1. 2500 Entrecard Credits

• Tim Johnson (http://www.yimto.com) donating:

1. 2000 Entrecard Credits

• Yan (http://thoushallblog.com) donating:

1. 1000 Entrecard Credits from Wpbeginners.com
2. 1 Month Text Link Ad on his blog – Thoushallblog.com

• Hussein (http://www.niessuh.com) donating:

1. 125×125 Ad On His Sidebar For 2 Months

• Marvie Pons (http://underscore30.blogspot.com) donating:

1. 125×125 Ad On His Sidebar For A Month

• Indo Contest (http://www.indocontest.com/) donating:

1. 468×60 Ad On His Header For A Month

• Multiply Themes (http://marviepons.blogspot.com/) donating:

1. 1000 Entrecard Credits

• Charles (http://piggybankpie.com/) donating:

1. 1000 Entrecard Credits

• NHC (http://themelib.com) donating:

1. 1 Month Text Link Ad

• Rajaie AlKorani (http://RajaieTalks.com) donating:

1. 1 Month Text Link Ad

• Sharon Hart (http://sharonahart.blogspot.com) donating:

1. 1 Month Text Link Ad

Wow, that’s a TON of prizes!

It’s with great honor that we’re introducing Justin Wright as the newest member of The 42nd Estate!

For those of you who don’t know, Justin blogs over at Life of Justin about his trips, hiking expeditions, workplace shenanigans, skating and other interesting topics. Justin has proven himself quite adept at blogging and is going to be an extremely valuable addition to our team.

He’s already helped us out a great deal by creating the great looking logo at We Demand Videos! as well as submitting a few high traffic videos. His experience in web design, graphics, and social marketing will complement the many talents of the existing members of The 42nd Estate quite nicely and really help move the company a few steps closer to our goals.

Pretty big news, eh?

As you’ve surely surmised from the tantalizing title, this time around the web we’ll focus on The 42nd Estate and its vast repertoire of web-sites. The last time we spoke about my company we announced a few sites that we’re working on, one of which is a reviews magazine. Well, over on The 42nd Estate’s blog we’re taking a sneak preview look at OTIBR.com, Only the Internet’s Best Reviews. If you’re curious how the site will look make sure to check out the latest post there for two screen captures of OTIBR. We’ve also chosen a launch date, September 29th 2008, so keep your calendars free that day!

In other news around The 42nd Estate network, yesterday was wicked productive as we took a site from idea to purchase to setup to launch over the course of one day! The site is called We Demand Videos!

As you might’ve guessed, it revolves around videos of all kinds, from comedy to action to politics and beyond. We do not focus on any one niche of videos, but rather comb through youtube for videos we enjoy and nearly guarantee you will too. For anyone wondering what the deal is with the #42 and The 42nd Estate’s obsession with it, check out this video clip from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie, which should better explain it.

To anyone whose checked out my about page here and found it, ahem, lacking, well now is your chance to find out more about yours truly in a much more informative post where I introduced myself to The 42nd Estate’s fans. Check out that super awesome t-shirt I’m sporting!

Oh, and speaking of those wonderful fans of The 42nd Estate, we’ve setup a facebook page so you can show your support, get updates and be our facebook fans. While you’re there RSVP for the otibr.com launch too! Note the wall post announcing the DVD giveaway (more details to come).

Well, that’s quite the whirlwind of activity for this edition. Let me wrap it up by letting everyone know that I’m truly excited for the OTIBR.com launch, the recent addition of We Demand Videos! to our network and the other exciting events on the horizon. Thanks to all the hard working members of The 42nd Estate and our great fans all across the world.

That does it for this edition of Web Quotes and Counterpoints.

We are you are us.