Global Tools and Downloads

Global Tools and Downloads: "

Thanks for following along in this global series. The last part I would like to share with you are some of the Global Tools I use to keep this all going smoothly. If it weren’t for the following tools, I would not be able to live the fun nomadic life that I do. Take some time to review the list and implement any of the downloads that fit for your business!

Recommended Global Tools & Downloads

• WordPress- This is who I use for my blog. I highly recommend it because it is easy, even for first time users. Just having WP is ok, but knowing how to make it function so you get a greater audience is why you pay a professional.

• Skype- I use Skype for my weekly client coaching calls, and also to communicate with my family. If the other users are signed up with skype, your calls are free. You can also purchase Skype credit to make calls to landlines and cell phones. I use this to check in with my friends and family, or to call potential clients that do not have Skype already. The calls are only two cents a minute to any country so consider setting it up even if you just want to stay connected with international friends!

• Firefox- I have saved a ton of time since changing my browser to Firefox. I can save my pages without having to re-open them later. This, alone, has saved me hours of research time and redundant opening of windows. Use it. Love it.

• Gmail- Outlook isn’t global, gmail is. I have switched out and never felt better. Global is better. I can check email from anywhere, forward several accounts to one, share documents, have a calendar, and store my contacts. They *of course* have better search tools for your email, as well. Save time, get gmail.

• Twitter tools- There are several tools that integrate with social media and make your life easier. I use a few that integrate well with Twitter because that is my main tool. Currently, I use Su.pr to track my posts and shorten my address. Ping.fm is great if you want to simultaneously update facebook, twitter and linkedin (plus a variety of other tools). For checking in on updates, I use Twhirl. It is easiest to do multiple Retweets, or to thank people that are saying great things about you. Another twitter tool you might want to check out is Destroy Twitter. This is another integration tool and you can manage your tweets through your dashboard.

Play around with these tools and see which combination work best for you. The ease of use and time saving should help you to better manage your global tools so that you can spend your time more efficiently. I’d rather you be seeing the world and enjoying your life, so get to downloading!!

Thanks so much for participating in this blog series. It is my hope that you now feel more equipped to take your business online and go global. There are many other tips and tricks you can find my visiting my website. Feel free to be in touch, leave a comment, and let me know future posts you would like to see on this sight.

If you’ve got a question, I’ve got an answer! Leave ‘em below! Also, if you have other tools you would recommend, please add them here so we can all benefit!

"

A Life Lesson By Rick Butts

Hi and welcome back

In the book "The Leader In You" the writers devote a whole chapter to attitude.

The saying goes "change your attitude and you can change your life".

Rick reviews one story from the book "The Four Hour Work Week" that helps us to see the importance of our attitude.

Have a look...



As Rick says "it's all about FREEDOM"

for more of what I like:

check out my site.

and/or join my NETFRIENDS

email me anytime @ garydotgray

Till next post.

Smiles :o)

Gary

Learn How to Create Your Own Membership Site - Free Report

Learn How to Create Your Own Membership Site - Free Report: "

If there was one emerging trend spoken about more than anything else in the Make Money Blogging track at Blog World Expo it was ‘membership sites’. A number of sessions were directly on the topic while quite a few others touched on the topic (including the ones I spoke on).

It seems more and more bloggers are looking to expand in this way - whether it be by setting up teaching courses, starting paid forums or setting up areas where they offer subscribers exclusive content to paying subscribers.

By no means is it the only model to make money online - but it is one that more and more bloggers are looking towards and one that we’re even seeing more mainstream media doing also.

Yaro has this week relaunched a free report on the topic of Membership Sites - The Membership Site Mastermind Report.

The reports shares how Yaro uses membership sites to make a six figure income, how he runs the technology side of things, gives insights on how he gets members to stick on his sites and more. It’s a free report to anyone who gives an email address.

Yaro will be relaunching his Membership Site Mastermind course in the next week or so - but this report is free and contains useful information even if you go no further than downloading it and not going on with the full course.

PS: Get more free teaching on Membership Sites from Yaro in these two videos here and here. Also check out an interview Yaro did with Daniel Scocco on his $10,000 a month membership site.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Learn How to Create Your Own Membership Site - Free Report

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Wordpress 2.8.5 Upgrade

Wordpress 2.8.5 Upgrade: "

* Wordpress 2.8.5 Upgrade
Content powered by Maria Reyes-McDavis Social Media Marketing Blog *

Wordpress has released the latest version of it’s popular blogging platform that increases security and provides necessary fixes within its coding. All bloggers who are able (figure that out below), should upgrade to ensure your blog is not vulnerable to security risks.

Why Upgrade?

The version is considered a security upgrade and is mandatory for all Wordpress blogs run on self-hosted servers. The developers are calling this released a hardening release because it tightens up your blogs security. According to Wordpress.org the release addresses these key problems:

• A fix for the Trackback Denial-of-Service attack that is currently being seen.


• Removal of areas within the code where php code in variables was evaluated.


• Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including Admins.


• Retiring of the two importers of Tag data from old plugins.

To make it plain and simple, it fixes what needs to be fixed for your own good

Before the Upgrade

You should never just upgrade your Worpdress blog without doing due diligence before the upgrade, regardless of how large or small the upgrade is. Here’s a checklist I tell clients to follow before you begin your upgrade to help avoid any unnecessary drama:

Make sure all plugins are compatible with the upgrade. While you really only have to do this with major upgrades, like going from 2.6 to 2.8 — I say, why not just do it all the time to avoid issues. Complicated plugins can break with the smallest upgrades (like WP-Forum, WP Wishlist and WP eCommerce).

• Head on over to the plugin page and see if anyone has reported issues;


• and, search Wordpress.org for any reported issues.

Make sure your theme is compatible with the upgrade. Same issue as with plugins, not all themes are created equal. An upgrade can cause your theme to lose structure and cause custom coding to malfunction.

• Head on over to your theme designers main page and search for reported issues;


• and, search Wordpress.org for reported issues.

Always backup your blog database first. Always. If you own a Wordpress blog and do not know how to do this, you are a sitting duck. Take the time to learn it, now. If you’re using a hosting service like GoDaddy, you can easily backup any database with a click and if you don’t know how, call them — now. Wordpress also provides manual backup instructions that are fairly easy to follow.

Deactivate all plugins while upgrading. This will ensure that if you have missed potential conflicts in your due diligence, you won’t cause any serious problems. The key here is to then reactivate them one-by-one to ensure everything is groovy. You can simply “select all” and deactivate in one full swoop.

Do the Upgrade

You have three choices when deciding to upgrade:

1. Do an automatic upgrade through your hosting provider;


2. Complete the manual upgrade, detailed instructions here;


3. or, use the automatic upgrade feature within your blog dashboard.

Our team always completes the manual upgrade. It gives us more control over the process and ensures the upgrade is not hung up through the blog itself.

Get on with life…

That’s it! Now go and do something groovy for yourself

"

Barnes & Noble Nook is Official — Knocks the Kindle to the Curb

Barnes & Noble Nook is Official — Knocks the Kindle to the Curb: "

The much ballyhooed e-book reader from Barnes & Noble is now officially announced. The Nook is smaller and thinner than I originally thought and from the photos and promotional video is pretty darn nice. The 6-inch E-Ink screen is indeed augmented with a small color LCD touchscreen at the bottom. This screen is used to interact easily with the Nook, making it simpler to operate than other readers.

The Nook has free 3G via AT&T which is used to shop for and download books to the reader. The Nook can be synced with other Barnes & Noble readers and devices, making it as versatile as the Amazon Kindle. Nook owners can lend e-books to friends for 14 days by “squirting” them to the friend’s reader, cell phone or computer. B&N is also touting the availability of free content available while in B&N stores.

The Nook can be pre-ordered now, but a firm shipping date has not been specified by B&N. The Nook is $259 with free shipping.

Specs:

• Height: 7.7 inches


• Width: 4.9 inches


• Depth: 0.5 inches


• Weight: 11.2 ounces (317 grams)


• Wi-Fi


• 3G – AT&T


• 2GB internal storage, microSD slot


• MP3 player


• 3.5mm headphone jack


• internal mono speaker


• USB charging, 3.5 hour charge time


• Android OS

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Growing mobile data use turned up heat on carriers in Q3. Read the, 'Mobile Q3 Wrap-up.'

"

Google Analytics Becomes More Powerful, Flexible and Intelligent

Google Analytics Becomes More Powerful, Flexible and Intelligent: "

Google is rolling out some useful enhancements to its already useful and powerful Google Analytics tool. These new features give the Analytics tools more power, flexibility and intelligence.

Here are the highlights of the new features of Google Analytics:

• Addition of two new goal types for measuring user engagement and branding success that allows webmasters to set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per visit. Up to 20 goals can now be defined.


• Improved tracking of mobile websites and mobile apps on mobile devices even if the device is running Javascript or not. This was made possible through the addition of a server side code snippet on mobile websites using Google Analytics


• Addition of Advanced Table Filtering feature for advance data analysis and for filtering rows in a table based on different metric conditions


• Creation of Custom Report with the option to select Unique Visitors as a measurement against any Google Analytics dimension


• Multiple custom variables, sharing segments and custom report templates for enterprise adaptation of Google Analytics. These tools provide customization options for enterprise Google Analytics usage

These are the highlights of the enhancements that were done to Google Analytics but the most interesting new feature is perhaps the Analytics Intelligence. This new feature provides automatic alerts when there are significant changes in the data patterns of site metrics and dimensions on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Analytics Intelligence will prompt you on the most significant indicator that you should pay attention to. This will give you more time on doing corrective action to the issues highlighted by Google Analytics.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Analytics Becomes More Powerful, Flexible and Intelligent

"

Top 4 Takeaways from Blogworld Expo - #BWE09

Top 4 Takeaways from Blogworld Expo - #BWE09: "

The last two days, I attended BlogWorld Expo, held in Las Vegas. The show covered a wide range of topics interesting to bloggers and podcasters, including topics for bloggers who want to turn their new media efforts into commercial successes, newbies wanting to get started and companies trying to develop strategies and processes for working with social media. I focused my time on the tracks relating to turning your blog or podcast into a commercial success.

From those tracks, I came away with four key takeaways for bloggers and podcasters who are trying to become commercial successes at what they do.

1. You have to be willing to work hard. Whether you’re trying to break through or already well known, you need to put in the hours to make it work. The evidence suggests that the most successful bloggers 3-5 times every day. Whether it’s blogging, podcasting, video, or micro-blogging, consistently producing lots of content is a key component of success.

2. You need to be the expert, or a least perceived as the expert. And you need to put in the time to stay ahead of others in your field. Expertise leads to credibilty which can lead to trust and conversion.

3. You need to develop and follow a process for successful new media marketing, capturing attention, engaging your audience, building influence and ultimately getting your audience to take action. I saw a great presentation on the topic from Jason Van Orden and will be providing detailed notes in a later post, so stay tuned.

4. Most of us need produce a signature product to be commercially successful. Making money via advertising just doesn’t seem to pay enough to make it work unless you have a huge audience. Whether it be an ebook, a coaching class or a continuity program, product seems to be the way people make good money. If you can develop a successful continuity program, that seems to be the most lucrative product.

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