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Me

Who I am

"Wannabe" Placemaker
At one time, I wanted to be an urban planner. I run r/CitizenPlanners on Reddit and for a time I did some volunteer work and part-time paid work for local non-profits doing community development work in Aberdeen, WA.
  • I have a Certificate in GIS.
  • I'm a few classes short of a BS in Environmental Resource Management with a concentration in Housing.
  • I'm interested in the built environment, environmental issues, tech stuff and things where those intersect.
Homelessness SME
My knowledge of the subject comes from a college class at SFSU called Homelessness and Public Policy, 5.7 years of sleeping in a tent myself and years of writing about the topic. Some of my writing: Blogger
I write about a lot more than just homelessness. I actually run a whole bunch of websites on a wide variety of topics.

"Health Nut"
I was diagnosed late in life with a genetic disorder. In defiance of all expectations, I've been getting healthier ever since my diagnosis in May 2001.
  • I'm currently drug free. (But I'm not anti drug. Instead, I'm pro health.)
  • My condition is managed with diet and lifestyle.
  • I'm pretty persistently interested in things like genetic research, gut microbiome and "bio hacking."
Freelancer
I'm a freelance writer, resume editor and webmaster. I do resume work online, usually for very experienced tech professionals who typically know of me through Hacker News. I do most of my writing through a service and I do most of my website work locally in my small town, though I'm open to having that change if you want to hit me up for a project. For Hire.

Miscellaneous
  • I'm a former military wife and homeschooling mom of 2xE kids.
  • At one time, I was the Director of Community Life (AKA lead moderator) for The TAG Project (at a time when they were trying to become an officially incorporated non-profit, a goal that was later abandoned).
  • In spite of being American, I have been car free for over a decade.


Last Updated August 31, 2020.

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A Lean, (Ever)Green Machine: Website Tips for Small Shops

I've been making little websites to serve up information on various topics for close to two decades. I'm basically a one-woman shop, so my websites have to be lean, evergreen, low cost and low maintenance to make any sense at all.

I currently live in a small town and I sometimes attend public meetings where people are enamored of shiny tech but don't know how to use it. They get all envious of projects and talk in glowing terms about "Wouldn't it be GREAT if we did something like that?!" and I bite my tongue and don't say "You have no idea what on earth you are talking about. You have neither the resources nor the expertise to do a project like that."

Those experiences inspired me to write this post. I would love to help people in the small town where I live to establish an effective web presence, but I really am going to need to do a lot of educating if that is ever going to happen.

Most locals have no idea how to make a website that…
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Me. Woodward Park, Fresno, CA. January 2016.

My favorite pic of me that's sort of recent-ish. (No, you aren't lost. As of June 1, 2020, DoreenTraylor.com redirects here.)
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Actionable Content Marketing Tips

This is a TLDR of Content Marketing Tips from Experts at First Round Capital and A16Z (found via HN). The original podcast meanders a lot, which makes it hard to extract actionable tidbits from it. Some pieces of this TLDR are direct quotes. Others are paraphrased. I have made no effort to indicate which is which.

First, how do you measure the effectiveness of your content?

This is not a solved problem. But, there are some obvious measures you can look for, like page views and time on site. However, you really need to look for a metric that ties it to goals. Ask yourself what are we trying to measure and why? How does it fit our strategy and our goal? Stronger measures than page views are time on site, engagement and uptake.

And so, to make that more specific, what is a good (metric)?

What is the amount of length that you actually need to convey the point? It’s more about information density to me, like how many insights are you conveying? Are you really packing it in, or are you…
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