I feel like I know a new side of Berkeley, a more intimate one. I love Berkeley’s liveliness, local and organic food culture, hippy vibes, happy people, bike-friendliness, cute houses and shops, green efforts, and on and on…

Though I am moving on to bigger and better things, I will definitely miss daily life in Berkeley. I will miss biking to Berkeley everyday and I will miss my coworkers in Berkeley. I’m sure I will be back to visit and enjoy all Berkeley has to offer though. This recent post on Matador Network said it better than I could - On Leaving Berkeley.

My last few weeks in Berkeley were spent trying new places and revisiting all my old favorites. Here’s a list of my recommendations (mostly food).

Favorite Downtown Berkeley Lunch Spots

Cheeseboard pizza

Long Life Vegi House - Best lunch special ever! I could never get enough of it. $5 for an entree that comes with hot and sour soup and an egg roll, not to mention the entree is big enough to take home and make a second meal out of. As the name implies, it’s also a perfect spot for vegetarians! All dishes are vegetarian and contain fake meat. I recommend the beef and broccoli dish.

Cheeseboard Pizza - One type of pizza per day, always vegetarian, and always amazing! Even if the toppings sound a little off, I always trust Cheeseboard to do it right and am never disappointed. Though it’s at least a 10 minute walk from the center of downtown, it’s definitely worth it and better than the downtown equivalent of Silver (okay, they’re the same but I’m biased to stick with the original). Grab some cheap slices at Cheeseboard, listen to a local band, sit outside, and visit their Bakery too!

Gather - Okay, I’ve only been to Gather once so I’m no expert but I’m so glad I tried it and would definitely go back! Pricier and nicer than the other spots on this list, Gather is definitely a special occasion spot. It’s not way too expensive and is totally worth the awesome food and atmosphere. We shared an awesome pizza, fried egg sandwich and grilled cheese sandwich. I’d definitely recommend one of their refreshing cocktails as well. The Bloody Mary I had at Gather was the best, and spiciest, I’ve ever had!

The eclectic Brazil Cafe

Platano – I hadn’t had much experience with Salvadorian food until I visited Platano but I was immediately hooked. If you’re looking for a quick, cheap lunch order some delicious papusas. If you’re looking for a little more food, a combo with papusas, salad, and fried platanos are the way to go.

Brazil Cafe - Though I’ve only been to Brazil Cafe a handful of times, I’d definitely recommend it. Great lunch spot with refreshing sandwiches and mango smoothies. I’ve experienced long waits in the cafe on Shattuck but there’s also a stand on University with outside seating if you want to enjoy the Berkeley sunshine. The meat options look awesome but as a vegetarian I can definitely recommend the sandwiches.

Clearly, Berkeley is an awesome food spot and this is only a short list that leaves out many other hits. These are my favorites and I stand by them – keep in mind my vegetarianism too. What else would you add to the list? Herbivore? Bobby G’s? Thai Noodle? Burgermeister?

Favorite Downtown Berkeley Beer Spots

Albatross – Okay, it’s not really downtown but it’s worth the trip to North Berkeley. Albatross, known for being Berkeley’s oldest pub, not only has an awesome variety of nice beers on tap but is also full of awesome board games, free popcorn, and darts. Great spot for a group hang out!

Jupiter’s patio is one of the best parts

Jupiter – If you’re just going for a beer and sitting outside, Jupiter is a great spot. It’s also very conveniently located right downtown by the BART stop. They have their own beer plus other local ones on tap. Lots of good variety to choose from but the menu and the service isn’t always great.

Triple Rock – While this place gets packed in the evenings and on the weekends, they definitely have some great beer. Another spot that makes their own beer, Triple Rock offers an awesome variety of beers you can’t find elsewhere. While the menu is pretty standard and unimpressive, it’s still a nice place for some snacks and bar food. The upstairs patio is pretty great too if you can find a spot.

And, I just found out that Triple Rock and Jupiter are owned by Drake’s Brewery! I also have to mention Bobby G’s for beer because they have Pliny the Elder on tap!

Other Favorite Berkeley Spots

I spent my time in Berkeley doing things besides working, biking, eating and drinking – sometimes. Here’s some other spots to check out…

Virginia Bakery is amazing. Go in to browse and have a sample and you will walk out with some amazing desserts. I also love that they always have something specific for the season – whether it’s cookies decorated like baseballs or election cookies, one for each candidate, they’re always delicious and creative!

The Berkeley Library is beautiful and huge. Easy way to waste an afternoon reading or browsing at least. You can also check out movies.

Try all of Berkeley’s unique theaters!

The park next to Berkeley High School is a great place to picnic and enjoy your lunch hour. There’s always some interesting people watching too. It’s close to Trader Joe’s, another favorite spot of mine, so you can always grab some snacks there.

John’s Ice Cream is the perfect place for a quick afternoon treat, you can’t find a much better deal than $1 scoops!

Berkeley has some movie theaters with character like you won’t find anywhere else. Shattuck Cinemas has an old timey feel, a cool sign in front, big and comfy seats, and awesome mosaics on the walls. The Downtown Theater isn’t as special to look at but they play old movies, or flashbacks as they call them, once a week for $5. Great place to catch some older classics! The California Theater has an awesome look to it as well. Definitely worth checking out even though it’s smaller and more independent.

Clearly, I have tons of reasons to continue to visit Berkeley. What are you favorite spots downtown?!

It has been one of my recent goals, and even a New Year’s Resolution, to become a Google Analytics expert. As a marketing professional and someone interested in websites and search engines, Google Analytics is important for many reasons.

There are many ways to learn about Analytics. It can be overwhelming at first. My suggestion would be to have goals in mind. What do you want to learn? There’s so much to learn, but most of it you will probably never use. What are you going to be using Analytics for? I use it at work to track traffic, see which pages are doing best, and to see what our top referrers are. I can also look at conversion rates for clients, trends, top keywords, etc.

By summer, I hope to be ready to get my Google Analytics Certification and pass the test! That requires a lot more video watching, playing around in GA, and reading. Before spending that $50 to take the test, be sure to be ready! Follow along with my GA adventures and offer any advice you have.

Below I’ve highlighted the techniques I’ve put in place for learning as well as some of my favorite tools and resources. Feel free to add more in the comments, thanks!

Practice - The most obvious and simple way to learn is to practice. Try some hands-on learning and really get into it! Set up your own site personally or use your company’s account more regularly. If you’re not already an administrator at your job, ask someone who works on Analytics regularly to add you and show you some basics. Have some metrics to check and analyze weekly at the very least.

Details - Analytics can be very in-depth but you can also get by and learn a lot just from some basics. Learn the basics and terminology first then dive deeper. Watching videos can be a great way to get a better grasp on the nitty-gritty.

Testing - This Google Analytics Testing site has been my savior lately! You can choose which topics to be tested on and how many questions to have on your test without a time limit. The most useful part has been reviewing the answers after taking the test and reading the explanations.

More Resources & Articles:

Analytics Setup Check list from Google

A Guide to Getting Started with Analytics from Search Engine Watch

Google Analytics Guide PDF from Google

A Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics 5

A whole section of posts on Analytics from SEOmoz

When It Comes to Analytics, Are you Doing Enough? from SEOmoz

Google Analytics Certification and How to Pass the GAIQ Test from SEOmoz

Get ready for the IQ test! Google Analytics IQ Lessons

Take the test! Google Testing Center

I want to hear from other Analytics users (beginners and experts) out there!

How would you rate your knowledge? How do you use Analytics? Have you taken the IQ Test? Share your knowledge and resources!

In school, I had several internships, part-time jobs, and class projects that allowed me to gain real, professional experience. My upper division Public Relations classes allowed me to work on a team with several local businesses as our clients.

We worked on various aspects of awareness campaigns for the American Red Cross, the Cal Poly Community Center, and the Central Coast Railroad Festival. We created marketing materials like flyers, media kids, press releases, brochures, and even video scripts. We also used our knowledge of the college-age audience to attract new supporters, volunteers and donations from the younger crowd in the college town. From social media to fundraising, we did it all!

Another great example of “learn by doing” that I experienced at Cal Poly was my Red Cross internship. After forming a great relationship with the SLO Red Cross Communications team during on the client-agency basis, I wanted to continue my work with them so I became an intern there. I focused mostly on social media strategy, branding, more marketing materials, and a fundraiser called Swim Across. I had such a great time putting together a social media strategy and handbook. I also enjoyed setting up every aspect of the fundraiser event.

My senior project was yet another hands-on experience I learned a lot from. I choose to study and analyze the effects of social media on a new local organization.

Now two years after graduation in March 2011, I have had several internships and a great full-time job at Go Overseas. I am continuing to learn new things and expand on my professional development everyday. From teaching myself to code by building a site and using things like Codecademy or watching videos to learn Google Analytics and understand the measurements and tools available, there’s always more to learn.

The best way to learn something new is to just try it and learn from it!

Here is a list of some of my favorite tools I use to do keyword research!

Google keyword tool - This is a basic one you should already know.  It gives you the number of times each keyword or phrase has been searched and it’s level of competition. This keyword tool isn’t always updated quickly meaning you can’t rely on it for those hot, trending topics.

Google search suggest - You probably already know this one too but it’s definitely worth mentioning and always keeping in mind. Just start typing in Google and those suggested searches that show up underneath are the most up-to-date trending keywords.

Ubersuggest - Simple and easy way to get some quick ideas based on any topic. Just write a term in Ubersuggest and it will produce a list of ideas with the keyword term you input. It will also give suggestions for your term + each letter of the alphabet.

Free Keywords from WordTracker - Even though I’ve been less impressed with Wordtracker’s Free Keywords tool compared to these others, it’s still worth mentioning. After creating a free account, you’ll be able to search an unlimited number of keywords to see how popular they are.

Quora - Quora is a great Q&A site that you can search to see what people are interested in. If there’s a question asked on Quora in your industry that you don’t already cover, time to write on it! Sign up for Quora and start following people and topics in your industry.

SEM Rush - SEM Rush is pretty great, not only for tracking keywords but for keeping up on your industry and competitors as well, an important part of marketing that we sometimes don’t pay enough attention to. Type in your own domain or a competitor’s to receive a full report with graphs, charts, and tables of rankings, traffic, organic keywords, ad keywords, and more.

Keyword Eye – The best part of Keyword Eye is the layout of your keyword suggestions, almost in a word cloud format but you can also choose a grid or chart. You can sign up for free or paid pro accounts from this UK site.

Keyword Spy – Keyword Spy lets you search and browse by keywords as well as your domains, a great way to “spy” on competitors as well. Not only do you get to see search volume, but also the value of the cost per click (CPC) for each term. Free and paid accounts available but not necessary.

These certainly aren’t the only tools available but they are the best FREE ones I’ve found. I hope this post will remind myself and any readers to stay up to date on your keyword trends and keep them in mind to use organically in your content and throughout your site.

Any keyword tools I’m missing?!

Also – “101 years ago today, Juliette Gordon Low assembled a troop of 18 girls together in Savannah, GA for the first Girl Scouts meeting!” (Source: Ms. Magazine)

Here is a list of four awesome reasons to support the Girl Scouts of America. Whether you buy their cookies, encourage a young girl to join, donate to the organization, or just spread the word about their good work, you will be doing an important service for the future of our country’s young women.

 1. Create a better future of smart, confident young women.

I have fond memories of being a girl scout in elementary school. From making friends to learning to fun activities and crafts, there’s so many positives about being a Girl Scout. The program not only gives young girls something safe and structured to do, but also gives them a sense of empowerment and leadership.

The skills learned in Girl Scouts can be translated and applied to all aspects of life. By supporting the Girl Scouts organization, we can help girls learn these skills in a positive environment at a young age.

2. Girl Scout Cookies

Besides the delicious cookies, there are tons of benefits of the Girl Scout Cookies. Selling cookies also gives girls experience with goal setting, money management, decision making, business ethics, and people skills.

“With every purchase, approximately 70% of the proceeds stays in the local Girl Scout council and with troops to provide a portion of the resources needed to support Girl Scouting in that area, including the portion that goes directly to the group selling the cookies. The balance goes to the baker to pay for the cookies.”

3. Connections to Other Organizations Worthy of Your Support

Check out a Timeline of Girl Scouts’ Connections with Planned Parenthood, United Nations & More from Honest Girl Scouts and a list of the official affiliates of the Girl Scouts.For more than 100 years, the Girl Scots have been connected to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the EPA, the Peace Corps, and the United Nations.

4. Equality

Girl Scouts are diverse and this is more important and less common than most people think. By focusing on equality in gender, race and class, the Girl Scouts teach the next generations to be more tolerant and equal.

LGBT-inclusive policies, policy updates to include transgender members, and sponsors of all kinds – the Girl Scouts of America have every right to be proud of their organizational culture, especially when the Boy Scouts are so far behind.

Were you a Girl Scout? Know someone in Girl Scouts now? Why do YOU support this wonderful organization?