JoBlog

Vacation in South France: Nîmes, Stes Marie sur Mer, and La Salle

2008-08-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from my vacation in the South of France. Nils and I went camping at Le Salendrinque in La Salle. It was fabulous weather! Thank goodness for the river right outside our "back door" so we could cool off during those hot afternoons.

I saw some amazing things while I was in France. One afternoon we went to Grotte des Demoiselles. I was thoroughly impressed by the formations in these caves. Pictures cannot begin to capture the amazement and awe you feel when you are in there.

SEO is hard work!

2008-07-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

This is the last time I will look out of this window.

Well, it is my last day at myalbum. I made some yummy tarts last night and treated everyone at the office to either chocolate torte or my apple/berry taart creation. Everyone said they liked it, and I did too (I hope they were not lying!)

I'm still struggling with this SEO thing. I can't figure out what the best keywords are with the highest registration rate. It's difficult. Especially with the competition. Did I mention the competition?? Not only that, some competitors just take up all the space on the first few pages of results. It doesn't seem fair.

Well, I hope everyone at least considers myalbum for photo sharing, because I think it really is a nice site, very easy and simple. I hate those sites where you have to spend an hour setting up a profile and choosing your first pictures. No. With myalbum you just sign up, choose which photos you want, and you don't even have to receive stupid spam every week if you don't want to.

Well, this is me signing off from MyAlbum.com.

Next to come: the housing search in Wageningen....

MyAlbum.com Photo Sharing Review

2008-07-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of how I could update my blog this week. Reading over my previous posts I realize that I haven't talked much about myalbum the website, only about what I'm doing here. So here is a little review of the myalbum website.

I must say, I use the service myself. I like it because it's really easy. What is even more interesting is not only is the service in English, but also French, Spanish, Chinese, and of course in Dutch, which is the native language of myalbum. This will make it easy not only to upload photos around the world, but also when you want to share photos with people around the world who do not necessarily speak your native language that well.

I love the ease of use. Once you've logged in (which can be easy if your computer saves your login name and password, or if MyAlbum saves it for you), you're just one click away from creating a new album, or 2 clicks away from adding photos to an existing album. You can choose either an advanced or simple upload. I usually go for the simple upload, which means you just browse your computer for specific files. The advanced photo upload goes a little bit slower, but you can see thumbnails of all of your images right in the web browser, and just check which ones you want to upload.

You get 500mb of storage space for free, which is enough room for approximately 150 photos. It's not enough room if you're a professional photographer, or even a hobby photographer, but if you're just taking snapshots and family photos, I'd say it's enough room to store a few photos and share them online.

Now I've tried a lot of photo sharing websites, and I'd have to say MyAlbum is one of my favourites. Photobucket, for instance, has really annoying and large advertisements. Flickr is beautiful and has great photos, but my photos do not pale in comparison to the semi-professional photographs you can find there. I also like it that my photos are private until I make them public on myalbumand not the other way around. I think that's especially important if you have pictures of children; you don't want some creeps looking for your family photos.

Well, all in all, I would rate MyAlbum:
Ease of use: 5/5
Storage space: 3/5
Overall look: 4/5

Now you should check it out for yourself by clicking here.

Final Week

2008-07-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's my last week of doing my internship at MijnAlbum. Right now I'm busy with a campaign for MyAlbum.com. So far, it's going relatively well, but it's difficult with all of the stiff competition in the English-speaking market.

And I must say, this new location in Heerenveen is really beautiful. Even with all of the summer rain. Because without all of this rain, it would just get all yellow outside, and it wouldn't be beautiful anymore.

It's going to be weird not having to go to work every day, but I am looking forward to my holiday with Nils in the south of France. I hope for sunny weather and maybe even coming back with a tan! But first I must brush up on my French. Je ne parle pas français.

A new office for a growing company

2008-07-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

MijnAlbum moved to a new location in Heerenveen on Monday June 30. It is a beautiful building large enough to handle the growth of the organization. The building has 3 floors and a balcony that looks out into the courtyard. On sunny days in the summer, it is great to go outside and stimulate the brain with vitamin D.

The address is:
MijnAlbum B.V.
Koningin Wilhelminaweg 11
8443 EJ Heerenveen
The Netherlands

And if you have any questions about the building, or the company, or if you just want to drop by and see this fabulous new building, don't hesitate to contact the Marketing Director, Andries Nolles:

T. general: +31 (0)513-412133
T. direct: +31 (0)513-411426
F: +31 (0)513-412155
E: a.nolles_at_mijnalbum.nl

For more photos of the location, click here.

Facebook in real life

2008-06-18T01:21:00.001-07:00

Adventures in communting to work

2008-06-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

In general I think Dutch people are good drivers. They seem to have proven me wrong this morning on my way to work. First of all, I got stuck behind a few drivers who were stuck behind an industrial vehicle going 50km/h on an 80km road. There were multiple chances to pass, but since s/he was tailgating the vehicle, there was no way s/he could see those opportunities. Well, finally the slow vehicle turned off, and we all sped away with fervor.

Then I was on the last road towards work. There's a construction zone where you can only go 50km/h. So I was going the speed limit, especially since there were trucks and workers. This retarded woman behind me decided to pass me just before the end of the construction zone, only to slow down within 300m and turn left, causing me to brake, slowing down to below 50 because you can't pass a person who is turning left.

Thank goodness I was sleepy, and therefore had patience.

Graduation

2008-06-12T06:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my thesis defense, and I found out I'm graduating cum laude! I'm very excited about graduating with honors. I wasn't sure I could do it, but apparently the best feedback is no feedback because even though I received little guidance, I learned a lot, and was able to put together a fantastic report. Yay!

Graduation day is November 16 (I think).

Thanks to MyAlbum.com because if I didn't have any luck finding this internship, I'm not sure graduating with such a high thesis grade would have been possible.

Now I just have to wait and see if I get into Wageneningen University to do my masters...

Internship update

2008-05-19T23:52:00.002-07:00

I am scrambling to finish my thesis this week so I can hand in a draft for feedback. My thesis is due on May 30, which is less than 2 weeks away! I'm looking forward to having it done so I can continue doing market research for MyAlbum.com.

Internship

2008-04-08T02:01:00.000-07:00

From March 2008 to July 2008, I'm working at MijnAlbum BV. It's a company in Joure that provides online image hosting.

MyAlbum.com or

MijnAlbum.nl (for Dutch visitors)

What am I doing? I'm busy writing a strategic plan of how they can enter the English-speaking market. So soon if you're from Canada like me, you can also use their services like printing photos and ordering photo gifts. :)