About Us

Well, what can I say about us?  Us is really me – Johnny Optimist.   

But Johnny, how did you get here?  Why did you start this site?

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I had been surfing around the internet for quite some time reading many blogs about how people were doing things on the internet to make money.  Then I thought, why not build a conference for folks here in my city instead of spending a ton of $ to go to San Fran. or Seattle.  So I thought about it some more and decided I needed to come up with a more complete idea. 

The more I thought…

the more I realized I should do a lot more research and maybe find a niche that I really liked.  So I started 5 different sites at the same time.  This is just one of my sites, and I use a different handle at each one so I can keep track of which one people are responding to as well as being able to answer questions more completely.  One thing I did not want was to answer a question thinking it was one site instead of another – that would only lead to confusion on everyone’s end.  I also wanted to diversify my efforts a little bit since I didn’t really know which avenue I wanted to direct most of my attention towards.  Learning from failure is just as important (if not more) than learning from success.

So, here we are – or here I am.

This brings us to our sites.  The 5 handles I am using are Mitch- Mitchendise, Slippy – From Pink Slip, Ben –  Blogmaster General, Chuck –  Click Into Action, and Johnny – Johnny Optimist).  Each has its own little specialty that uses tools on the internet.  This site is basically a summary of what the others are doing and how their process is going as well as marketing information, management information and other general business purpose ideas and posts that I have read.  I will introduce you to more than just my 5 sites.  I will also report on what other well-known sites are doing, and try and bring an upbeat twist to the internet.  If you need motivation, I will be there commenting, helping, and encouraging my readers. 

More about me:

I have also built a couple other sites for people (yes, using the same template – it works so well).  But am certainly not an expert when it comes to building websites (thus the templates).  My most recent sites that I built this last month were:  Speak Without Interruption, and The LEAP for America. 

The Speak Without Interruption site lets people write on a blog, finish their thoughts, etc. without the need to maintain a blog.  It is perfect for people who would like to try it, but don’t really want to commit to setting one up, or people who like to write but don’t really want to blog daily, etc. 

The LEAP for America is a idea that is trying to hold the President to his promises.  Basically each promise that was made during the campaign is listed on sites across the internet.  The guys at The LEAP for America took some of the promises that were measurable and doable and put them on their site and are challenging citizens to pledge community service hours if the promise is met.  This in effect is a form of lobbying without getting things messy with money or lobbyist, etc.

In total I have created either from scratch or using wordpress templates somewhere in the range of 20 sites over the last 2 years or so.  I am the administrator for several of them, and have just minor updating duties on another, but for the most part I know enough to make some nice sites.

My real name is Mark, and here is some of the other stuff I have done:

Some of the other things I have done in the last couple years:

• Created and still maintain the Ha Ha Shirt Shop on CafePress.
• Created a couple flash animation videos (one complete w/ sound, the other specifically w/o sound.)  The one w/o sound can be found on my YouTube Channel.
• I have a Squidoo page for Ha Ha Shirt Shop, but I haven’t filled it out quite yet.
• Researched affiliate companies, both from a who owns what perspective and from a how to perspective.
• Have my own Wiki – internal wiki that I maintain with a friend
• Have a Blogger blog called WSOP Rookie
  • Was in the 2006 World Series of Poker
  • This blog has pictures of me at the event / signing up. – and wearing a What Would Slippy Do? shirt.
• Day traded for about a month – net loss of $300.  Was doing it with 3 other guys as one pool of $, but 2 of the other guys pulled their money after the first $50 loss and it really changed all the rules of how I was planning on trading which of course led to more losses.
• Built business plans for several companies
• Have tested out several new software programs
• Edited the colors & some code on most of my sites (the template is made from Unique Blog Designs)
• Done some Domaining (have since let those domains expire)
  • Have owned somewhere near 20 different domains
• Written several books
  • Submitted one to a publisher
  • Have had the book rejected (see Mitchendise)
• Created logos
  • Created all the logos for the 5 blogs
  • Created the logo for Ha Ha Shirt Shop with the help of my wife
  • Created the logo for The LEAP for America w/ editing input from the owner
  • Created logos for prior websites & sites I have built for others
• Painted a mural
• Drawn maps for use in presentations, drawn pictures for some of my shirts

These sites are not my day job though, they are something I do every morning.  My day job is as a Research Director – I basically try and find as much information as possible about companies &/or industries.  I spend a lot of time researching on the internet so I have seen tens of thousands of websites – both good and bad site designs.