Wow, what a day of learning! My head is still spinning. This is my 2nd ReBar and it was wonderful. Learned a ton, and more importantly had so much fun meeting and reconnecting with so many Active Rainers. What a wonderfully supportive group we have.
First, hats off to Patrick Healy for organizing the whole day. He did an amazing job and is a wonderful teacher. Super job on your WordPress sessions and for all your contributions for the sessions.
Wonderful to reconnect with Marilyn Katz (aka WestportMoves), Angela Johnson (Monroe NY) and J. Philip Faranda (Briarcliff NY) who I originally met for the first time at ReBar Camp in Rye. After meeting you in September and subscribing to your blogs, I feel like we are all great friends and are really there to help each other. So much fun have drinks after. You guys are the best!
Marilyn Katz Angela Johnson J Philip Faranda
Wonderful to finally “meet” Gay Rosen. She is the New Rochelle expert and if you haven’t heard, she’s now guest blogging for a radio host in New Rochelle. So good to hear your voice – love the accent and I almost didn’t realize it was you. So sorry we couldn’t spend more time together to really talk in between sessions, but hopefully we’ll see each other soon since you are so close by.
Nice surprise and guest appearance from Jeff Belonger from Southern NJ. He certainly is the king of networking. Very impressive. Looking forward to getting to know him better and learn from him – I’ll be like a sponge.
And, nice to meet Sal Poliandro who is just across the river in 
Saddle River in Bergen County.
And, of course, so much fun to catch up w/ Mark Woodward of Floor Coverings International in Morris County. So glad to have another flooring person on board.
It was such a learning experience, an so nice to hear kduos about fellow Active Rainers - several who weren't even in attendance including Katrina Gasset, Lenn Harley and Bill Gassett. We have such a wealth of talent here,it's incredible.
Sorry about the last minute cancellations from some of my good friends including Dagny Eason, Leah Stern and Debra Walsh. Love you guys and we will definitely stay in touch. Debra, can't wait to meet on Sunday. And, Suzanne Welch, sorry you couldn't make it - I'm sure ReBoot camp was amazing, too. Not sure why they schedule both of these on same day. What were they thinking? Let's get together soon and compare notes.
Some key takeaways (although most of these are obvious).
1. I really need to get cranking on my FB business page. Thanks to Mike Mueller, I now have a much better understanding how to do . I also learned that comments and commenting back helps get your page ranking up, so not only will I comment back (which is obvious), but commenting back individually is better for page rank. And, to get me started, I'll have friends like me and leave comments. I'll get more content up and then ask others to like. Oh, and better to mention in an email newsletter or something saying you have a new page rather than "begging" people to like you.
2. I also need to jump on the video band wagon. I have few videos done by my company (that I have permission to reuse, and they do help my rankings on google. But, I really need to start creating some of my own and get the flip camera. This was also a reminder that I can easil incorporate some of thise videos into more of my posts. I got some good ideas on how I can do some of these without having to even show my face (or when I'm having a bad hair day or if I get nervous on camera). Also, if you have videos, you can syndicate them for free on tubemogul.com to get more views which in turn will help your youtube ranking. I had done this a while back, but didn't subscribe to all the sites, so I need to go back.
3. I need to get my wordpress.org (not .com site set up soon). This will help my long term searches and allow me to get even more spots on google page. Got some good advice on how to set up cheap cheerfully and than later in the year, when I have the money, I can have someone really set this up right. But, since it may take 6 months to build up the authority on this site, better to start sooner rather than later. And, everyone, please please please do the .org one and the .com one. I just lost my entire .com one - I think because my posts were commercial and you're not supposed to do the that (which I didn't know). Thankfully, I had not put too much time/effort into those, but don't let the same happen to you.
4. Analytics. Apparently, we can't use google analytics on AR (which explains why that metatag won't save). I did read somewhere on here that you can use for your outside blog, but I never saw an explanation for that, so if someone knows, pls let me know...or how to use some other program. You can, however, use your google analytics and subsegment by source (I still need to get set up...I couldn't get online to have Gahlord DeWald set up for me, but he said I could email him and he'd help me. At least that way, I can see what posts/areas on AR are driving people to the site. I welcome advice here.
Overall, a phenomenal day. Great job you to everyone who was involved in the planning and from all the participants..
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