Another Google Smackdown?
Michael Martine of Remarkablogger is a tad bit ticked off with Google and giving them a slap back before the next smackdown. The latest change over with feedburner has caused some of his clients major problems, like loosing business and loosing subscribers. He recalled how Google has changed their algorithms in the past, taken accounts offline and destroyed entire businesses.
He wants no part of this and has decided to rethink his heavy use of Google services. In his words he is going to “de-Google-fy his life”.
Michael brings up some valid points such as a lack of customer service from Google and sketchy help pages. But some of his readers are expressing a slightly different train of thought about this issue because these services are free. Nevertheless, it is a hot topic worth checking out….
Here’s a few more thoughts on other Google Smackdowns:
Is Google Being “Evil”? Plans to Annihilate their Analytics …
Is Google Being Evil? Plans to Annihilate their Analytics Competition with Ajax? The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs …
Google AJAX Search Results = Death To Search Term Tracking?
Buzz has been growing over the past 4-5 days about what appears to be a new Google search results test that, if widely implemented, might spell doom for SEO rank…
Google Smackdown & aimClear Blog (Kinda) » aimClear Search …
aimClear Blog’s homepage Toolbar PR ticked from PR5 to PR4 overnight. Also, TB PR seems to be distributed with more power & deeper within the blog. Imagine that…
What’s the Next Google Smackdown? | Vertical Measures
We all know it is coming. We all wait with great anticipation. We all hope it doesn’t hit someone we know. And we can all guess at who it is going.
What Will *Really* Break If Google Switches To AJAX…? – Online
On Friday I wrote a piece on how it looked like Google was testing AJAX results in the main serps. Some discussion followed as to whether, if this change were to become a widespread permanent one, …
Increase Your Productivity By Finding Your Peak Time
If you think that by sitting down and writing a to-do list, and that this alone can increase your productivity, you might be setting yourself up for failure. You can have all the to do lists in the world, but if you don’t feel like doing them, they won’t get done.
Everyone has different times of the day when they are at peak performance. So if you schedule your to-do list around these times, more than likely you will have a very productive day.
Most people don’t do this. They create a to-do list that doesn’t take into consideration the ups and downs they are going to have throughout the day.
For example, after eating a fulfilling lunch, and I mean those carbs or huge meals, people may tend to get sleepy because of that sugar rush. And we all know what happens after the sugar rush…you crash so hard that you can’t even keep your eyes open.
Here’s another example…
Many people wake up in the morning and jump right out of bed ready to take on the world. But by the afternoon are probably struggling to pay attention. By the evening they are totally zonked out.
I am the epitome of a “night owl.” I don’t get into the groove until the afternoon. So in the evening I have a surge of energy and am very productive. I find that it is almost impossible for me to be productive during the day. I am sluggish and my attention span can sometimes be that of a gnat 
Your Greatest Productive Time
I’m sure you know what times of day are your peak time when you are most alert, focused and productive. What you should do is schedule your to-do list around these peak times. As a matter of fact, schedule the difficult stuff during these period because you will be more likely to finish the job.
If you don’t know what time of the day you feel best, then just journal how you feel for about a week or so. Once you figure out what your peak times are, and schedule your tasks around those times, you will see that your productivity will skyrocket.
How To Increase Productivity-Kick Procrastination To The Curb
Learning how to increase productivity by eliminating procrastination can play a huge factor in how smoothly your online business operates.
You know you have a priority task, or number of tasks to complete. When juggling so many tasks you might start feeling somewhat guilty that you haven’t begun some of them. So, you find yourself doing things like cleaning the kitchen or washing some clothes when you know you should be working on your #1 priority task. When it happens to me, I find myself doing things like organizing my desk or going through papers.
Yes, we are talking about procrastination
My name is Sonja and I am a procrastinator. And If you too are a procrastinator, you’re not alone. I’m sure that it ranks pretty high as one of the biggest productivity killers of all time. But, there is help. Here’s how…
Find Root Cause Of Procrastination
You need to understand exactly why you’re procrastinating. In order to solve the problem, you need to know what the root cause of your procrastination is; that is if you want to stop it.
Grab a piece of paper, and at the top write “why am I procrastinating?” Spend about 10 minutes writing down anything that pops into your head. Don’t think too hard about it, just start writing without doing any changes. Let your mind flow.
When you are done, you should have your answer as to why you are procrastinating. Then you can work on learning how to remove the tendency to procrastinate.
Look at your list and select the most unpleasant task first. Don’t even think about how much you don’t want to do it or how much you’ve been dreading it. Just get straight to tackling the task so you can put it behind you.
It’s like jumping into a cold swimming pool. The more you sit on the sideline thinking about how cold the water is, the more and more you will dread getting in the pool. Often it is the thoughts that are worse than the deed itself. But, if you just go ahead and jump in, all those fears are left behind.
Which brings us to our last step…
Learn to take action by making small steps towards a very large task or one that you think is unpleasant to do. If you learn to break it up into little steps and take action on those, before you know it, the task will be done. You know what they say about how to eat an elephant, you eat it one bite at a time and that’s the only way you are going to finish it.
You Can Beat Procrastination
The key to beating the “procrastination monster” is to (1) identify why you are procrastinating, and (2) take action quickly. Usually, procrastination is a symptom of fear. You may fear the success or failure associated with whatever task you are doing, or it could just be that you simply dread doing a particular task.
Whatever the reason, remember that the cure is always the same. Identify the problem and take action. Once you begin to jump in, the fear immediately disappears.
Review-Otherinbox.com Email Organizer
An article over at TechCrunch led me to the beta email service called Otherinbox . I had been battling the email monster for years, and no matter how hard I tried the monster just continued to get bigger. I tried setting up automatic filters, using folders, using separate email accounts and to no avail hadn’t been able to effectively manage my email.
Currently all of my various email accounts forwarded to my one gmail account, so I am in touch with all accounts at one time. The advantage to this is that I have the ability to see all of my email in one place. The disadvantage is that it becomes somewhat cumbersome to manage. That’s why when I read about Otherinbox I decided to give it a try.
After using Otherinbox for a little while, I think it depends on what you’re looking for that will determine whether or not its for you.
Otherinbox Advantages
Let me tell you what I do like about it. I like the fact that you can create emails on the fly. Meaning that if I am signing up for something I can quickly create a prefix, add it on to my email addy and voila! Once the email hits Otherinbox it automatically creates a folder. So I see all of my emails in one spot and in folders.
That I do like.
Otherinbox works like this, on initial signup, you are required to give a name that will be your main email address. Choose this name wisely. Let’s pretend I used the name flashbulb. If I visited Jane Doe’s website and wanted to sign up for her offer, I could create a on the fly disposable email address named JaneDoe@flashbulb.otherinbox.com.
The problem I found is that after I did that about 20 times at different websites, I had that many folders in my account.
So I decided the next best thing would be to create category names such as cars or ebooks and use these instead. This creates higher level grouping vs a separate email address for every sign up. The disadvantage to this method is that if you start getting spam and want to delete that email address, you will delete all of your subscriptions to that email address.
Otherinbox Disadvantages
What I don’t like is that the reading screen is too small. It’s like reading in frames with the a window pane on top displaying the messages, and then the actual message below in a second pane. My gosh is that pane small and the little bit of resizing available doesn’t help much. I would say its equivalent to reading your email on cell phone…well maybe not that bad but close to it.
Despite these shortcomings I will stick with it, because I find that I can manage my email better. Note that I still use my main email account quite frequently and use Otherinbox to manage email that I don’t have to check on a regular basis.
What Time Is It In Your Part Of The World?
“What time is it in your part of the world?” is a common question amongst internet marketers or people just casually participating in social marketing.
The world of internet marketing personifies fun and excitement for me. I can connect with people from every nook and cranny around the entire world. It is a pleasure to talk with people who live outside of the US to discover different views on society and ways of life.
I’ve made connections with people in Australia, Germany, Phillipines, etc., and guess what? Each one of these people are on a different time zone….so when I am wide awake they’re in bed and vice versa
There have been times when we’ve needed to meet on webinars or teleconferences. There was always one common question in determining the meeting time. “What time is that for you?” Thing is, none of us knew the answer to that!
Well here’s a easy tool for you to always know the answer to the proverbial internet marketing question, What Time Is It?, elsewhere in the world. Its free so enjoy!
Simple yet very useful tool. Bookmark it to keep it handy!
Time Management Tips Revisited For Internet Marketers
Effective time management is an area that many internet marketers struggle with. No matter how hard you try, you can’t squeeze in more than 24 hours in a day. Father time has made a commitment to never allow that. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are, we all have a limited amount of time to do all things. Life can just put us off track trying to fit in both our personal and business needs in those 24 hours.
Sometimes we just need a little nudge to help us get back on the right path. Here are some great articles that you can pull out some awesome tips and advice to help you leverage your time and become more productive.
The Striking Post: Time and Time Management – Time and Time Management. Here is a little trick I picked up from where I don’t know and then changed it a little bit to suit my needs. Each year, sometime in November, I write down my goals for the coming year. …
Nerdy Productivity: Covey’s Time Management Matrix Illustrated … – Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix, with illustrated items from each quadrant using one of my favorite comics….
Time Management Tips – 3 Tips to Conquer the Inner Critic Who … – What if you could break free from the voice inside you that criticizes you endlessly? It’s easier than you think! Simply practice these 3 tips.
Good and bad time management habits and their consequences – As a home worker or business person, time is your most precious asset. Just as you would plan how to use other resources such as money and monitor their use, so you should plan how you allocate your time and check that …
Time Management v Task Management – The standard approach to fitting more into your day is to seek out advice on time management, right? After all, the entire field is designed around helping you squeeze more productivity out of yourself. …
7 Simple Time Management Rules For the Super Busy | Dumb Little Man – Dumb Little Man shares ideas to make the everyday person more productive in life. Expect to read tips on finance, saving money, business, and some DIY for the house.
Remember, Nothing Ventured…Nothing Gained, and if you don’t do something everything will remain the same.
Online Marketing – 6 Areas To Sharpen Your Communication Skills
Communication in online marketing is done the majority of time through the written word, although podcasting and video marketing are rising fast in popularity. So unless you are a writer, and in order to reach some level of success in online marketing, you will need to focus on how to effectively communicate with your target audience.
There isn’t an option for you not to do this unless you have deep pockets and can afford to pay others to write for you. This barrier, if it is broken or better yet never even built, will make the difference between sales and no sales for you.
6 Areas Of Online Marketing Communication To Sharpen
Ad Writing – You can have the greatest product or service on the planet, but if you haven’t learned to write effective ads that convey this message to your potential customers, its going to be hard for you to make any sales. So you better learn how to write ads.
Article Writing – You’ve heard this over and over….Content is king the king of all kings on the internet and there’s no getting around this. Just visit any site that is ranked high with Google and you’ll quickly find out that they all have one thing in common – content. So you better learn how to write articles and write them very well if you want to compete in online marketing.
Autoresponders – Here’s another one you’ve probably heard over and over…The money is in the list, no question about this. Well, getting your potential customers into your list is one thing. Keeping them there is something totally different. Unless you can provide them with a series of emails that gives them content that they can use and find helpful, they are simply going to unsubscribe from your list.
Customer Communication – Sale or not, you’ll be asked questions from potential customers and current customers that you’re going to have to come up with some good answers for. If you can’t communicate with these people effectively, you’re going to end up losing sales, repeat customers and get a bad reputation.
Creating Your Own Product – This should be on the top of your list of things you better know how to do if you want to take your business to the next level. Most product creation is in the form of digital PDF files on whatever your subject is. This involves yet another form of communication; writing in a way that educates and informs the buyer of your product. If you don’t do this effectively, you’re going to end up with a ton of refunds.
Sales Page Copy – Conversion is the goal here. When you write up a sales page, you better make certain that the copy is compelling, otherwise no matter how good the ad was that got people to your sales page, you’re not going to convert these people to customers.
The main point to understand is that communication, or rather how effectively you communicate is important for almost everything when it comes to online marketing.
Well, as you can see, communication is the heart and soul of online marketing. Without effective communication, your business just stops. It’s that cut and dried.
