Thank you to all my clients and business associates for making 2008 a great year. I look forward to working with you over the coming year and building our relationships.

I have a few different categories of social media I use.

Blogging - Which I am now improving on keeping up with since I have a system.
Social networking websites - Facebook, My Space, Linked In, Plaxo, etc. etc.

I have not used all of these by any means to the fullest extent. I have though promised myself to start using all of these and have now got all the tools in-place to do so and loose that overwhelming feeling of being in several places at once. I know that some may have some better options and ideas to accomplish the same thing and I recommend looking into and trying as many as possible to find one that will work for you and keep you on top of everything.

Let’s start with Blogging and web posting.

I have had a personal blog on Blogger for years and felt I never had the time to share things with family and friends. Blogger is a very easy to use blog and anyone with a Google account doesn’t need any additional sig-up’s or log ins. Blogger by far made their system the easiest for mobile posting as well. They offer posting via MMS (picture messaging posting) which is very easy to set-up and use, posting via email, as well as, simply logging in and posting. So after having these options set-up you can very easily simply send a picture message and post on your blog. I finally have some posts now over the last couple of months. Nothing too significant, however at least I am building a habit of posting and will continue to do so and become more and more active.

My blog here uses Wordpress, Wordpress is a great blogging system. I would only recommend Wordpress for those that have some experience with basic websites though, as it is a bit more complicated and I feel that you should get your feet wet with something a little easier like blogger first. Wordpress options for mobile and remote blogging are a little more intensive as well to set-up than Blogger, but once it is set-up you can post via email to your Wordpress blog. You can set-up posting via email. Since most most mobile carriers allow you to send an MMS message to an email address, that means you can also post via picture message just like Blogger. However, with either blogging system I recommend email if you have a data plan and phone that allows, as you can then send longer messages for your posts. If you are using Wordpress and have a T-Mobile G1 like me, I definitely recommend the wpToGo app. This app gives you pretty much the same functionality as Scribefire add-on for Firefox, which is a must have for any blogger - Thanks Vince. wpToGo has full category support, image attachment options and more. Since I don’t have an iPhone and go rid of my Blackberry Curve for the G1 I am not sure what options exist for those platforms but recommend checking to see if there is something comparable.

Wordpress is best option to me for a blog, since you can host it on Wordpress.com, or your own server if you choose. Blogger does not have this option. With the wpToGo app for Android as well it gives you the most posting options of the two as well. Wordpress also offers substantial plug-ins, hacks and apps. you could even have an online store, forums and more added onto your Wordpress site through community developed apps and widgets. Blogger has a ton of add-ons as well and majority of them involve no coding or remote uploading, so they can be activated with just a few clicks. I suggest looking into both and trying to set them up for mobile posting and see which works best for you.

Mobile Social Networking

If you were like me then you got invited to every social network on the web and had / have several profiles over several different websites. I currently have a profile on Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Twitter, Fast Pitch Networking and more…

Keeping up with all of them on a consistent basis not only is frustrating but can take a lot of time. Most people really only want to see what you are up to anyway so I found the easiest solution that works from me. Using Twitter to control the rest. Facebook, My Space, Plaxo and Fast Pitch let you add Twitter feeds to your profile. This way you can just update Twitter and it will update your account on all of the above. LinkedIn and others have yet to add this feature, but I am sure the high demand will make them follow suit very soon. Since most people want to see what you are up to this should keep you one of the most active people on your friends lists. Haven’t used Twitter yet? Then you should definately try it for thirty days and see what it is all about. Then after activating your Twitter account simply log-in to all your social networking sites and add the Twitter app to your profile and you are all set. I won’t get into setting each one up but if you have added any apps to your profile it is just that easy.

Then after setting up your Twitter account you can configure your account to accept text messages for Tweeting. Tweets are the 140 character mini-blog post you submit to Twitter. There are several apps for mobile phones also that increase the functionality of Twitter if you have a compatible phone with a data plan then this is the way to go. I use Twidriod for my G1 and Twitterberry for my Blackberry, looks like there are also some apps for the iPhone to use as well. These apps do virtually the same thing. However, between TwitterBerry and Twidriod, Twidroid is far superior with the functionality, you basically never need to log into the Twitter website again with this app. Since all these social sites will now be linked to your Twitter account and can be auto updated by your tweets, all you have to do is Tweet away with a text message or one of these great apps.

If you don’t want to get a Twitter account or think it is best to keep all of these seperate. Then there are some great apps for almost any smart phone out there to use with these sites and the mobile version of these sites have come a long way so you can definately go that route. I currenly use Twidroid and FBook for for my G1 and never log into Facebook or any of my other accounts. So far Linked In is the only one that I log into when I need to update something. Hopefully they will get on the bandwagon and we will either see Twitter integration or an app for the G1 in the near future.

On the flip side majority of these social sites also allow you to pull in a feed from your blog into your account or display your feeds from these social sites on your blog. I use Twitter feeds on both my blogs.

Well hopefully this will get you started on becoming mobile for social life and give you a few ideas to look into.

Being mobile has become a necessity for me, so I am never tied down to one spot, one peice of hardware, or in-case I have a complete system failure like last weeks Windows Vista crash I went though, I never have to slow down. However, I do not want to loose an of my current productivity and organization. I have to say that my business success to this point has depended highly on these two items.

So with that in mind moving to the cloud so that I can be truly mobile is proving to be very easy and difficult at the same time. Easy for the fact that all the technology is truly there now. Difficult due to the fact that there are so many different choices and making a final decision with limited knowledge of these technologies is proving to be slightly difficult.

I would love to have a completely consolidated service that will work, but unfortunately I have not found a complete option yet to fit my needs.

Here is what I have so far.

Hardware:

Office desktop
Personal laptop
T-Mobile G1 with Android operating system

Web based applications and software choices that will meet my needs on all of the above to this point.

Communication:

Gtalk; Skype; Yahoo Messenger - All of these are availible for download and work very well on all my hardware.

Email and Contacts:

Gmail - So far still the best web based email client and has gotten so much better over the last two months with the addition of themes and other add-ons. Also native integration on my T-Mobile G1.

Calendar:

Google - Still the best web based calendar system on the net and of course native integration with G1 makes this the best choice. If you use Gcal and Outlook, be sure to get the Google Calendar Sync from Google. I waited years for this release, and it works great. Only negative thing about the sync is it is for one calendar only. Since I have several calendars Personal, Family and others to subscribe to and update being web based this let’s me control all of them very easily from any hardware I have.

Document Storage:

Google Docs - Google docs has come a long way since it’s inception. I have even used it several times for not only storing docs but also creating them. It is very smooth now, opposed to the old clumsy Google docs from even a year ago and saves you some money buying Office apps, or compatibility issues with Open Office. I still perfer to create most of my Docs in Office and store them in my Google docs account, hoever this is something that you should revisit and use if you do not. Especially the doc sharing and collaborative features, presentation creation added and blog posting features etc. how could you go wrong for this free app. This app also allows me to read only docs on my G1, I am extremely dissapointed in Google at the moment for not making native complete integration with Android yet. This was something that I was counting on them doing when getting my G1. Since there is not an option currently to even view document email attachments at this point on the G1, let alone edit them.

Notes:

Still struggling with finding a viable replacement for Microsoft One Note, that is web based and can be used with my mobile. I have looked into and use sometimes Google Notes. However it just doesn’t cut it for me currently. I have looked into and am considering:

Evernote or Google Notebook at the moment -

Evernote - Allows for clipping anything from the web. Scanning in business cards and documents, as well as just taking a picture of them and uploading them. The downfall is that there is currently not an App for Android. However there is a mobile site for Evernote that seems to work ok. It also comes with a Firefox plug-in to easily clip while browsing.

Google Notebook - Google notebook does work with everything I have and has a Firefox plug-in to easily clip from the web. However, it doesn’t really meet the standard when it comes to adding pics to notes and the fact that Evernote and One Note do. Since both One Note and Evernote allow for text (even hand written) on images to be searched, this makes Google Notebook a very slim note taking app for me. Although it has come along way over the last few months and definitely does work well with organizing notes in sections as well as easy clipping with the Firefox plug in.

ToDo:

Struggling to find an easy to use solution something to replace the integration that Outlook has to offer. I have set-up but not explored Google’s new Todo integration with Gmail. This is a new service and Google I would hope will expand this app and make Docs integration etc for it. Also disappointed that I will not have G1 integration, so that means all todo’s will have to be handled with one of the computers (which I am trying to get away from). This also means I am not slimming down for the moment when it comes to having multiple tabs or apps open, since I will have to have a Gmail tab constantly open on my browser. However, due to the fact that I would like to consolidate everything into one service as much as possible at this point I will start with Google ToDo and see how it goes.

So at this point I think I am set with the exception of note taking.

Other hosted and integrated alternatives that have I tried and looked into, but decided not to use are as follows:

Sugar CRM or Info@hand - These are great solutions for enterprise solutions. However, for just a mostly one man operation like myself they are a little too much.

Upvise Pro - This seems like a great service and the app for the G1 is extremely top notch and very well developed. However the web based apps and browser integration etc. Seem not to be there yet and really not anyting that I can’t do with my Google account. once agian being small mobility and integration are key for me to get a lot done in a small amount of time.

Zoho - Once agian not too much Zoho has to offer that Google does not, and it is a little over kill for what I currently need.

Remember the Milk - Now the Google ToDo’s offer the same as RTM so there is no need for them anymore since now the Google ToDo is fully integrated with Gmail.

TooDo list for Android - This is a great TooDo list. However took up a little to much space for my taste on my phone and also with the release of Google ToDo it needs to be updated to Sync with this new service from Google labs. However it does sync well with RTM and Toodlero nicely.

These are just the big ones that I did look into and test drive, but decided to go with the Google alternatives for now. Well not really sure why I shared this info today, but hopefully it will help someone looking for the same thing I am. Freedom from being locked to a particular place or peice of equipment at any time.

P.S. Check into Sandisc’s U3 if you haven’t. Not quite there yet with software options. This needs to be the standard in the future though. Software should be able to go anywhere you do. After all you own it not your hardware

See the video of this in action on You Tube.

To gain respect you must never forget that every other human being deserves it as well. If you respect everyone, including yourself and those you cannot even stand the site of, and you will gain more respect than you will know what to do with.

Respecting yourself is the first step, to respect anyone else, you feel you must know something about them, Right? So the first step is getting to know yourself, the real you, the one that you know, not the one you want me to know. This is a hard task. There will be disppointment, frustration, sadness and happiness. You will see that you, yourself are far from what you might view yourself as. We all are great in certain ways, remember that it is only causality that seperates us - just a direct effect on you as a person from an experience in your life. Why do we have homeless in America? Lack of respect for that person and the choice they made. I know I was faced with a similar thing as a homeless person in my life, as most every soul on earth has experienced loss. Most of us happen to make a choice, and follow a path that didn’t take me there. So why am I so different? I am not superior to that person, I mean he was a teacher before his wife and children died. I was just a security officer, and wished I could be a teacher. Faced with a similar tramatic event, I know I had to fight through some very rough times.

Without a very caring and invovled family and friends, I might very well be right where he is. So why should I not respect him? Maybe he is there in my place? Maybe all he needs is for someone to support him with just a smile, so he can move past the pain, anger and sadness. But he is a bum, so what do i care? loser…

What’s sad about our times, is that people always fail to realize that at any giving time the person they are next to… At that moment, may be responsible for our own life, God Forbid it is someone that we have no respect for, and they know it from the way we treated them…

Should they have any respect for you at that moment, after all, you did not respect them only a moment ago, right?

Remember the golden rule? ”Treat others as though you wish to be treated,” this example of why that is a must. Also remember that we all make mistakes, we all have things we are not proud of and we all want to just be able to live a decient life. Reality is perception, so life is truely what you make it.

Next time you see that bum, or person that you can’t stand at work, that person that cut you off. Think about this… look them in the eye and smile and say “good morning”, and mean it. I bet after one week there will less stress in your life, you will have more confidence in yourself and be happier. Now just repeat the process.

We all want to be better people. Take the freebies!

Every new dawn is a fresh start in life. What happened just a moment ago, is in the past….

Learn from it, accept it as part of you, change it, if it is negative. Improve it, if it is positive.

Freedom

A quick picture of my office in Lakewood. I sit on the left and I am searching for “the one” to fill my empty desk on the right. Seriously.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

If you are selling home and bath products in a mall surrounded by trendy teen clothing stores, you will receive a lot of traffic and gazers into your store. However, just like misplaced online advertising, how many of those lookers in this high traffic area will actually purchase your product? You may get some of that foot traffic, in addition to your regular customers, to stop in and make a purchase, like a mom, dad, or grandparent taking the youngsters to the surrounding stores etc., but nowhere near the results you would have placed next to a bed store, novelty cooking shop and a furniture outlet. I would venture to say that this placement will at the very least get more “impulse” buyers than the store we first described. “Since I am here getting a new bed I can definitely use a new set of sheets,” or “I might as well get a new frying pan after getting some spices and new recipe books.” This is an example what paid search and affiliate marketing are in the online world. The exception is that in the online world there is total freedom to change these locations at anytime. We will guide you to make the right choices to get the most out of your internet advertising dollars.

Proper internet advertising placement is only one key to success on the internet. What your ads say and present to a prospective customer alone are extremely vital to your success online. Many companies use only one or two ads when setting up internet marketing campaigns, and then send all their incoming internet traffic to the same location. This once again may produce a significant amount of website traffic, however not the best results and certainly not the best conversion rates possible.

Imagine for this example, you have a cell phone store running an ad for a Motorola® Razor™ phone and you are able to make only people looking for a Motorola Razor cell phone see your advertisement. You have this power on the internet with Search Engine Marketing!

Let’s say the ad you decide to run is just like all your other ads and reads “Best Cell phone Deals Anywhere 20% off Everyday” then all the customers you bring into the store you just leave at the front door with no further direction to look through over 200 different cell phones and accessories you carry, by every manufacturer you carry, to find the one Motorola phone they were looking for.

This may sound dramatic; however, this is what most companies do to online shoppers. Is this really the best way to capture that customer and close the sale?

Taking the same scenario above, we present them this ad “Motorola Razor on-sale now while supplies last”. Which ad do you think will get more visitors looking for a Motorola Razor to visit your site? Then after the ad is clicked they are not just taken to the store front, they are presented with a customized landing page on your website designed specifically for the Motorola Razor customer. How interested do you think the customer is at this point, to continue on to making the purchase, or looking around to see what else you might have for them?

Targeted advertising like this gets you the exact customer you are looking for, and in return you give the customer exactly what they are looking for. This is another advantage to internet marketing over the real world. Unfortunately most companies don’t have the time or experience for this type of intricate thinking.

I will also continue with my other projects and will be moving them forward over the next few months.

They include:

ManageMyProjectsOnline.com (which is live now and fully functional)

Direct Select Affiliates (which will be forming in about a month or so)

CheapDealsOn.com (hopefully a full mock-up will be up shortly and then a launch before the holiday season or first quarter next year)

MMAVideoWeb.com (which ties into Direct Select Affiliates and some new marketing things I am working on….more on that later)

I will be working on my new service list in the coming week as well and am happy to say that I will offer SEO and SEM training as well as, in addition to all my current consulting and marketing services. I will personally however, not be taking on any new web development projects unless they are related to a current marketing projects I am involved in. Apex Internet Solutions will be bringing someone in-house for development soon and I would love to keep them super busy with your development needs. So feel free to contact me still if you need development and I will see that we get you taken care of.

So about the new web site, it is actually a WordPress Blog on my own server. I have never worked with WordPress before and have to say it was pretty easy to pick up and work with. I definitely recommend WordPress, Joomla is still number one in my book though. (at least for now J ) I will also have some personal posts on the site as well, so I can share some of my abstract and random thoughts with everyone. Especially after I get the post by email function working, I will start filling up the site with posts from my Blackberry.

There is also Twitter integration on this side bar as well for all my random postings. I am about three days into the 30 day “Twitter trial”, my second attempt at it, and I am hooked. With not much free time on my hands it is by far the best social media site on the internet, especially with “Twitterberry” the blackberry app. That lets you “tweat” right on your BB.

Well that’s all I have for now, it’s time to go home for the weekend.

Today the internet is filled with millions of web sites. Web sites that provide products and services, web sites that offer information or news, web based communities, and personal web sites with people sharing themselves to the virtual world. Most of these examples don’t seem to differ much these days in the way of web design and overall presentation. Whether visiting someone’s personal web site, or a multi-million dollar company’s web site, it is sometimes hard to see a difference. Aside from the content and logos, most web design seems to be repeated throughout several sites. Most web sites are built from templates or styles that are used over and over again. Originality it seems is becoming hard to find these days when browsing the web.

In the case of businesses this is especially disappointing and discouraging given the amount of web design technology available and different ways to build web sites. Often time’s web design has taken the approach of copying existing sites that a client likes, changing the color scheme, adding new graphics and logos, then calling the job done.

Shouldn’t a company care more about their online presence to have a one of a kind custom site? An original web site that stands out from their competitors, designed to transfer their real world successes over to the virtual world. Online businesses that show you why should buy from them from the first glance. A web presence that visually, as well as with content and branding, shows the viewer. We are different, and we take the time to show you why. Statistics show that in less than a second, a customer decides if they will make a purchase from your web site. With all the money being spent these days on internet marking this should be a major concern. This is just a few examples of why a web presence is important over just having a web site.

A web presence is not just another web site. A web presence not only differentiates your web site from simply looking different from the others, with original content and graphics. Instead a web presence transfers the real world successes specific to your business, into the virtual world. A web presence incorporates branding, not just logos on the site or content. A web presence lets people know why you are you, and why they should be interested. Branding has become the difference between being just another business that people buy a product or service from, to being “the business” to buy from. This mentality works in all other forms of media, yet has been a slow transition to the internet for most companies. Most internet marketing services, and even internal web development teams fail to address this properly. In the near future a web presence will be a requirement for marketing, versus just the idea of a web site just for people to visit online. This is because internet users are becoming more savvy and particular about the sites they choose to interact with, when sifting through millions of results on search engines.

A web presence goes beyond just a nice looking site that users will be initially impressed with. Majority of the time, internet users are no longer impressed with just a flashy looking site. They are looking for web design that has it all dynamic looks or functions, valuable content, and products or services that are in demand.

Let’s look at an example of a long standing web presence. Microsoft® has several of these to choose from, in this particular case let’s look at office.microsoft.com. Not only is this site built with the latest technology, and an original design with the Microsoft brand throughout. The web design also showcases each product with its own branding style and interaction. You can find relevant information, and products you are interested in, with easy navigation and search tools. Of course there are things that can be improved with web design and other presentations that may appeal to different users, but overall this is a great example of a web presence.

In contrast, let’s look at Google™ where keeping it simple, equates to a huge success. However, underneath it all, Google’s web presence is not much different from Microsoft’s Office site? There is the same universal branding. The same ease of navigation, and the same unique presentation for each product or service they offer. So the only difference is in the web design. Other then the product differences, Microsoft’s web design has more visual appeal, fancier graphics, interactive product displays and that’s about it.

The reason behind this is the target market. Majority of people that use Google for what they offer, aren’t there to look at the ascetics of the web design. People use the search engine side of Google for its acclaimed popularity for search results. Most users of Google’s large variety of tools and services are technical people, which know exactly what they want. Therefore, there is no need for the “sugar coating” with a lot of graphics and interactivity to showcase the products and services they offer. After all how many Google commercials have you seen? Not to mention that majority of Google’s products and services are free of charge.

On the other hand, most people that use Microsoft’s Office web site are looking for ideas for new products to use, information, training, etc. They don’t always have an idea of what they want or need before arriving to the site. Since most of Google’s products and services are free, can take the try it now, what have you got to loose in their approach to marketing. Where Microsoft needs to “sell” their products to you, so converting customers is a much larger issue. That’s why Microsoft’s Office web design is set-up with tons of interaction and specific information with the goal of selling those products to you. At the same time showcasing the product in this manner accommodates those of us that just “happen to find” something we may not have realized existed before visiting and sells us that product.

As you can see with these two examples the importance and impact a web presence versus a web site. With targeted market research and proper consulting of who your customers are, a web presence can bring your business or start-up to the highest levels of success.