Hi! I’m Adam Saverian (Save-rĭn) the host of the Online Business Hour

I’m an online business owner, consultant, blogger, seo, podcaster, developer, designer…I’ve done a lot on the web since I launched my first website in 1996!

I’m seriously passionate about…

Teaching, Consulting and Coaching

Give me a chance to help you, or anyone, understand something fully and I’ll take advantage of it! I love teaching, consulting, and coaching.

Topics I love to teach on:

Online business and marketing (particularly content marketing, social media, and SEO). For over 5 years I’ve been working as an SEO and content marketer both in-house and as a consultant.

Website development and design with WordPress (particularly focused on SEO driven development, and aesthetically driven design). I’ve been working with wordpress since 2004. I’ve worked with several different frameworks, and with hundreds of themes and plugins.

Podcasting! Podcasting is the unsung hero of new media. People talk a lot about video, but the audio experience is far more flexible and personal. Audio podcasts contain a different sort of power, and establish a more intimate and personal influence than video. I love utilizing interviews on podcasts to discover new information, meet new people, and teach others through conversation. I’ve used several different hardware and software setups for recording and delivering podcasts over the last 5 years and have perfected a great system for podcasting.

Software tools and web applications that truly save time and energy. I test hundreds of applications every year. I’m sort of addicted to testing.

Aesthetics & Design

Form vs function? I prefer to think of it as form AS function. Whoever said that business websites, shopping carts, landing pages, and blogs had to look as ugly as sin?

Fortunately over the last few years the gap between beautiful design and effective user experience has shrunk, and the cost to achieve brilliant form AND useful functionality has diminished considerably.

And what of Ad copy and psychological triggers? A common objection to aesthetically driven design is that it neutralizes powerful psychological techniques used in marketing. Unfortunately, this view completely disregards the fact that well designed websites say more about you and what you’re selling than pages of brilliant ad copy and well designed “buy now” buttons. This is a well guarded secret among leaders in online marketing. Focus on better design, and people will believe you. It’s a fact.

The Web & Technology

The web has changed everything! Seriously. The internet has affected humanity the way few other technologies in history have. It is perhaps the most “disruptive” technology in human history. There are so many great questions raised by this disruption. How is the internet changing society? What is the effect of internet use on brain development? What is the effect of social media on friendship and community? What is the internet for, really? How will the web challenge hundreds, or thousands, of years of human tradition and governmental policy? The list of questions goes on and on. I’ve had a lot of time to think about this since I’ve been a student of philosophy, and of the internet for two decades. I hope to launch podcast someday focused on these subjects.

Then there are the simpler questions about technology. Which phone should I buy? Which social network provides the best return on investment? Which customer relations management application is the easiest to wrap my head around? I enjoy these qustions as well. And as I’ve already mentioned, I’ve spend countless hours testing technology.

Curation

Something else I’m crazy about is curation. There’s so much information online that it’s hard not to get lost. Who should you listen to? Who should you believe? What content is most valuable? Without curation you’re left with a mass of data points floating around without organization.

There are many levels of curation. Some curation is greatly aided by new technologies (e.g., RSS), while some requires mostly human selection. Curation is a fascinating subject which I’ve only begun to plumb the depths of. I have some unique projects in mind centered around curation that I hope to launch in the next year.

Other interests