Location Independent Living Now

Phil Montero 2.0 – Why 2 heads are better than one!

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:32:00 +0000

Phil Montero 2.0 – Why 2 heads are better than one!: "

I recently entered a fun video contest sponsored by HotHardware.com and Viddler where they asked you to upload a short video telling them about your personal hardware or tech gear and why it enhances your world. The prize was a Flip UltraHD Camcorder. These amazing video cameras shoot in HD and are small enough to fit in your pocket (a perfect addition to The Anywhere Office). I’ve been wanting one for a while so when I saw the contest I just had to enter! After some brainstorming with Jason we came up with a fun idea that not only highlighted some great tech but also explained the productivity boost I get from using it. There were some very creative entries to the contest but happily about a week ago they announced me as the winner (waaahoo)! Here is my winning entry:

If you’re not familiar with their website, HotHardware.com features computing/hardware news and reviews f0r technology enthusiasts and IT professionals. They have a wonderful active community and I highly recommend you sign up for free and join in the discussions.

In a recent post I talked about the importance of “sandbox time” and play when learning new technology. This contest entry is a perfect example. I’ve been wanting to learn more about editing video with Sony Vegas for some time. Instead of diving into a work project where I would be under a deadline and worried about making mistakes, I used this contest entry as a way to do something light and fun. I learned a lot of great editing tricks in order to quad myself and get the timing right on the various shots.

Well, I got my Flip camera in the mail yesterday (I was very excited when the UPS guy came to my door – I love getting my hands on new technology) so I thought I would post one of my first videos with it here so you can see how it plays!

Viddler.com still has uploading HD video in beta and my account hasn’t been granted that feature yet – so what you are seeing above doesn’t do the Flip it’s full justice – once they enable HD on my account I’ll repost this video in full 720 HD glory!

You can look forward to a lot more videos coming soon – the Flip makes it fun and easy – the way technology is supposed to be!

Sandbox Time – The Importance of Play When Learning New Technology

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Sandbox Time – The Importance of Play When Learning New Technology: "

One challenge many teams and organizations face is getting their people to use and embrace much of the amazing collaboration software and technology that is available. In working with virtual teams, we find that many people tend to fall back on email rather than shared online work spaces – or opt for traditional conference calls rather than using web meeting or conferencing services.

Find Their Comfort Zone

The biggest stumbling block is getting your team comfortable with the new software or service and truly understanding the benefits it provides.

In short, why would it make my life or job easier?

Far too few companies provide training on these technologies – so you and your colleagues are forced to figure it out as you go along or after a very brief tutorial. This sink-or-swim mentality causes many of these powerful tools to go untouched and impedes productivity.

The secret to turn this all around is simple . . . play!

The Power of Play

Play is a non-threatening way to remove stress from learning and encourage exploration of the features of new technology. Create some type of project for your team that’s fun and everyone will be excited about using the new tool.

Want your team to start using SharePoint or some other type of web-based discussion board or collaboration space? Why not setup a place where they can share recipes, bios, and information about their hobbies and families?

Want them to use WebEx or some other meeting service? Create time to have a regular virtual water cooler where they can share photos, create a poll about which books or movies are their favorites, or pass control of the desktop around to write a story together (with each person typing their paragraph into Word) or give a tour of favorite useful websites.

Play Let’s People Succeed and Fail – Safely

Let’s face it, no one wants to explore using a new technology or tool with the pressure of a project deadline; or the possibility of looking foolish in front of peers and co-workers if you are not using it correctly. I’m extremely comfortable with technology, always have been, and I attribute that mostly to the fact that I play with it and explore it’s features before trying to use it for something important.

When trying to learn Sony Vegas for video editing I didn’t create some critical video for my business website – instead I took some family footage and created something fun to share with friends. When looking to learn more about desktop publishing I didn’t immediately create a company newsletter – I created a mock CD cover for my band.

The only limit is your imagination!

Ask the people on your team, they may have some great ideas for fun projects. This is extremely useful for virtual teams: using a fun, playful approach to learning new technology not only leads to greater technology adoption and increased productivity, but also encourages informal communication and team building, which in turn increases trust and accountability.

It’s not just about choosing the right tool – it’s how you thoughtfully apply it. So find ways for your team to play with the tools you want them to adopt and you’ll be amazed at how quickly they find new ways to apply them to their work process and teamwork.

Have you used “play” in your work environment? Post a comment below and tell us about it!

(Thanks to Webex for featuring this as a Guest Post on their Ideas in Motion blog. I highly recommend this blog where they share ideas and tips for innovation and working smarter)

Amazon Delivers Kindle for PC — Works Great on a Netbook

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Amazon Delivers Kindle for PC — Works Great on a Netbook: "
Amazon’s Kindle for PC beta application arrives this morning. The software supports Windows XP, Vista and 7 machines, while Amazon says that a Mac version is coming soon. What’s ingenious about this app — as well as the iPhone app before it — is that you can read Amazon Kindle books without buying the Kindle hardware. With a Windows version, Amazon is expanding their potential customer base to 85% or more of computer users. Reading books on a computer certainly isn’t the same experience as reading them on a light eInk device or a handheld, but I could see this swaying more money into Amazon’s bank account. Fortunately the application is NOW AVAILABLE IN CANADA as of November 17, 2009.

I downloaded and installed the beta app on the Windows 7 partition of my Toshiba NB205 netbook this morning. Once I signed in to my Amazon account, I was able to see all 44 of my archived book purchases with full color covers. Books can be sorted by Title or Author. A double-tap downloads the book and you’re off and running. Page navigation can be done by mouse, arrow keys or Page Up/Down keys. There are 10 font sizes to choose from and you can modify the page width using a “Words per line” slider. Kindle for PC does support Whispersync, so the software will pick up from the last read position if you were reading on a Kindle. Or you can read on your PC and your Kindle will synchronize to that point when you move from PC to Kindle.

Notes, highlights and bookmarks also sync to the PC, but with this version of the software, there’s no way to make notes or highlight text on the PC — you can bookmark pages, however. Amazon is also planning to add search and zoom / image rotation to Kindle for PC in a future version. Of course, you shop directly for Kindle books, but not within the application. Clicking the “Shop in Kindle store” button opens your default browser where you can then send samples to or purchase full titles. Now that my software is registered, I see a “Kevin’s Kindle for PC” delivery option for content. It’s worth noting that Windows 7 users with touch supported hardware gain one bonus now and one in the future. The current app supports touch zooming with a two-fingered pinch. In an upcoming release, Amazon will add page turning with finger swipes.

Since I have a Kindle, I’ll still rely on it for my daily reading. I generally take the Kindle everywhere, but on the off-chance I don’t bring it, I usually have my netbook with me, which will make for decent backup reading device. I’ll still likely use Kindle for iPhone as well, but that would be for a different scenario. When I have five or ten minutes of just standing around, the iPhone does the trick. If I can sit somewhere and I’ll want to read for a longer period of time, the netbook will be my tool of choice. And if I have my Kindle with me, it will likely trump both options, provided I have enough light to read the eInk display. The only exception might be a graphic novel of some type as the PC app supports reading color.

Global Tools and Downloads

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:19:00 +0000

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

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:22:00 +0000

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

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:32:00 +0000

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

Wordpress 2.8.5 Upgrade

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:26:00 +0000

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:

Do an automatic upgrade through your hosting provider;

Complete the manual upgrade, detailed instructions here;

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

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:13:00 +0000

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

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

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:08:00 +0000

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

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:34:00 +0000

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.

Windows 7: A Graphics Powerhouse

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:15:00 +0000

Windows 7: A Graphics Powerhouse: "Microsoft's new operating system takes a step towards the dream of GPU computing."

The Lost Art of Focus: Multi-tasking vs. Mono-tasking

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:55:00 +0000

The Lost Art of Focus: Multi-tasking vs. Mono-tasking: "

Further research continues to indicate that focusing on more than one task at a time actually decreases productivity and may jeopardize the fundamental quality of our work and communication. But this data seems to contradict what many people hold as the vision of a fully engaged and adapted 21st century worker.

The people who engage in media “multitasking” are those least able to do so well, according to researchers. This recent BBC article examines the results of a study done at Stanford University.

And this NPR radio segment also highlights some enlightening research into multi-tasking.

But in today’s workplace, and even just in our day to day lives in the information age, a certain amount of multi-tasking is unavoidable. So it seems the skill to develop is knowing when, where, and what to multi-task. Ali Hale weighs in with what I feel is a reasonable and well thought out opinion in her article ‘Multi-Tasking vs. Mono-Tasking’:

So how do you know when you should “multi-task” and when you should “mono-task”? And how do you manage to do the latter? Some things lend themselves brilliantly to multi-tasking. These tend to be activities which are purely physical, or which by their nature take a set amount of time to complete – however well you focus.

All of this has given me food for thought – as I am a person who is prone to multi-tasking and have convinced myself that I am pretty good at the juggling routine. In fact, I half-jokingly said to my brother just the other day, ‘I’ve got to focus, no more multi-tasking, from now on I’m only going to do two or three things at a time.’

So, here’s a little eye-opening challenge if you feel the same way: try this online game called MULTITASK and see if it might start to change your opinion.

Inspirational Destinations: Location Independent in Costa Rica

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Inspirational Destinations: Location Independent in Costa Rica: "

Image by Peter Sheik

In this month’s Inspirational Destinations post, we’ve interviewed the author of the brand new Little LIP Guide to Nosara about Costa Rica as a Location Independent destination.

It’s a place already pretty popular with LIPs and Nancy Sun explains why…

Can you briefly introduce yourself & your business?

I am a new location independent professional. This summer, I let go of my Wall Street career to become a certified yoga instructor and professional freelance writer. Online, I am parlaying my 10+ years of personal blogging experience to launch the health and wellness blog HappinessPie.com. Its mission is to inspire conscious living on and off the yoga mat.

You wrote a great guide on Nosara, Costa Rica for us, how long have you spent in Costa Rica so far & what made you first visit?

I have visited Costa Rica three times; my last trip ended in August and lasted just under 3 months. My first visit in Winter 2007 was by accident: I was planning to go to Thailand but by the time I finally got employer approval, however, ticket prices had skyrocketed!

In search of closer, more budget-friendly tropical waters, I booked a flight to Costa Rica. I immediately fell in love with the country and have been spending increasingly longer periods of time there. I am returning this November for 6 months!

I am not alone in my love of Costa Rica. This summer, the country was named “The Happiest and Greenest Place to Live” by the New Economics Foundation. The Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica also recently received a lot of attention as a ‘blue zone’ where people are scientifically regarded to live the longest, healthiest lives. The town of Nosara is located on this peninsula.

How LIP-friendly is Costa Rica in your experience? What about Spanish? Is it a must-have or can you get by with just the basics?

I find Costa Rica to be very LIP-friendly. All the towns I have visited have Internet cafes and high-speed wireless is increasingly common.

LIPs have greatly benefited from Costa Rica’s $1.92 billion tourism industry. It is currently the most visited country in Central America. There is also a real estate development push here to market the country as a great place for a vacation, second, or retirement home. As such, many towns are creating infrastructure to accommodate the ‘first world’ technological amenities that LIPs need to thrive.

Linguistically, Spanish is not a ‘must have.’ English gets many people by. In fact, I have had many friends who’ve spent years here and bemoan that their Spanish should be better. That said, even attempting basic Spanish is looked well upon and can get you far. I’m not fluent myself and have not had any problems.

Image by Wha’ppen

Nosara sounds like a fantastic place – where else would you recommend in Costa Rica?

I would recommend Santa Teresa / Malpais, which recently got press for being the site of American football player Tom Brady and Supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s second wedding ceremony. That said, however, Santa Teresa is far from glitz and glamour – it is a small, friendly, and heavily surf-oriented beach town that is very LIP-friendly with several free wifi hotspots.

Well-known American tourist spot Tamarindo (and its surrounding beaches) is also highly LIP-friendly though more commercialized. Burger King and the American pizza chain Papa John’s have both recently set up shop. Puerto Viejo is alluring for those who want to see the Caribbean side and seek calmer, snorkel- and scuba dive- friendly waters.

As a place to visit, I recommend Arenal: the view of the volcano and its surrounding l hot springs, Tabacon ($$) or Thermopolis ($) are worth a weekend trip.

As a tourist, what’s been your best experience so far?

I’ve had many good experiences in Costa Rica: I’ve done the requisite rainforest zipline and canopy tour, jumped off waterfalls in Montezuma and learned to surf almost daily while gazing at sunsets over the Pacific ocean.

My best experience, however, was an impromptu 5-hour hitchhike I made from Nosara to the neighboring beach town of Playa Grande. My friend Jordan and I missed the public bus and rather than take a taxi, decided to see how far we could get depending on the kindness of strangers.

The verdict was ‘all the way.’ In addition to watching the passing scenery, I loved seeing who stopped, who didn’t, and meeting everyone who nudged us in the right direction in-between. I even made a video about my experience.

This hitchhike was a great experience as it was one of many events this year that helped me make my decision to live unconventionally.

Image by ChrisGoldNY

What challenges or drawbacks would you mention for anyone (LIPs) considering living or visiting Costa Rica?

LIPs should protect their valuables and passports. While Costa Rica has a low violent crime rate, petty theft is high. I have come across quite a few travelers who have had items stolen – even if that means just your flip flops on the beach!

Foreigners can get lulled into a false sense of security here because the locals are friendly, many of the towns are small, and they themselves are in a vacation state of mind. Don’t be fooled!

There is still an economic disparity between first world travelers and many of the locals in this developing country. Always make sure your residence is secure and lock your laptop, camera, mp3 players, etc. in a safe when not in use.

Any final insider tips or words of wisdom for LIPs visiting or wanting to live in Costa Rica?

While in transit from one town to another, let go of any expectations of the time you will arrive. Direct public buses may stop for locals and you might find a deep riverbed intersecting the very road you need to cross.

Be flexible and patient; things always work themselves out. You will get to your final destination – even if it means getting towed by the Costa Rican Off Road 2008 Champion in the Four Cyclinder Jeep category (as once happened to my friend)!

As the Ticos say, pura vida!

Are you interested in visiting Costa Rica as a Location Independent Professional? Do you want the low-down on one of the best places to head to, written by Nancy (interviewed above)?

We’ve just released the The Little LIP Guide to Nosara, available for instant download.

Next Generation Is for the Cloud?

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:20:00 +0000

Next Generation Is for the Cloud?: "

Could anyone rely on the clouds some years ago? And nowadays we have an innovation that can save much time and lots of money.

The term “Cloud” was first borrowed from telephony. Telephone companies were able to offer Virtual Private Network (VPN) based services with the same guaranteed bandwidth as fixed circuits at a lower cost because they could switch traffic to balance utilization as they saw fit, thus utilizing their overall network bandwidth more effectively. The term “telecom cloud” was used to describe this type of networking, and cloud computing is conceptually somewhat similar.

The concept of cloud computing dates back to 1960 when John McCarthy said that “computation may someday be organized as a public utility”. The term cloud had already come into commercial use in the early 1990 and in 1995 General Magic launched a short-lived cloud computing product. By the turn of the 21st century, the term “cloud computing” began to appear more widely and nowadays it includes three categories such as: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic – a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider.

A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Anyway the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services. The majority of cloud computing infrastructure consists of reliable services delivered through data centers and built on servers with different levels of virtualization technologies. The services are accessible anywhere that provides access to networking infrastructure.

Cloud computing customers do not generally own the physical infrastructure serving as host to the software platform in question. They consume resources as a service and pay only for what they really use.

Cloud computing is criticized for limiting the freedom of users and making them dependent on the cloud computing provider. Even if data are securely stored in a cloud, many factors can temporarily disrupt access to the data, such as network outages, denial of service attacks against the service provider, and a major failure of the service provider infrastructure.

In spite of the fact that cloud computing limits the freedom of users and makes them dependent on the cloud computing provider, it still remains a reliable service accessible anywhere that provides access to networking infrastructure.

Kristina Frangulyan is a Marketing Specialist at Monitis Inc. She has graduated the faculty of philology and a pedagogy (Armenian, Russian, Spanish, English). Her interests include Search Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media , Marketing itself.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Next Generation Is for the Cloud?

E-learning, cloud computing, distributed work, and telecommuting (Techwatch Radio interview)

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:54:00 +0000

E-learning, cloud computing, distributed work, and telecommuting (Techwatch Radio interview): "

I had the pleasure of joining my friends Sam Bushman and Jay Harrison, the hosts of Techwatch Radio, last Saturday on their weekly tech talk show. I’ve been a fairly regular guest on their show over the last 5 years and always enjoy the discussions we have. What I love about their show is that, much like this blog, they take a practical approach to technology and living a digital lifestyle.

The program consists of fast-paced news, callers, guests, and features such as the website of the week and the do’s and dont’s of tech. Sam and Jay focus on balancing technology in your life and letting hi-tech serve you, not own you! Their fun, casual way of simplifying complex issues will help the average person get up-to-speed on the tricks and tools for the times we live in.

Last week I joined them for the second half of the show and we discussed elearning, managing remote workers, the growth of telecommuting, why I’m drinking the Apple Kool-Aid (and switching to a Mac soon), cloud computing, and the shifts involved with successful distributed work. You can listen using the player below and I invite you to comment on this post and share your thoughts on these topics and our discussion.

Techwatch Radio can be heard Saturday mornings from 10-11am ET. You can listen live from anywhere online or download past shows from their RSS feed. I subscribe to their podcast and listen on my iPod Touch so I don’t miss a thing!

Girls Go Geek with Felicia Day & Kathleen Zuelch

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Girls Go Geek with Felicia Day & Kathleen Zuelch: "

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working with my team at MGImedia.ca to produce and host a series on Xbox LIVE in the U.S. Four weeks after each show “airs” on LIVE, we’re featuring it on our own site called Girls Go Geek. It’s been loads of fun doing this series, mostly because I get a chance to officially geek out with some of the finest ladies in the biz. Check out our first two shows, pasted below for your viewing pleasure. Please feel free to share the episodes, just so we can all get the word out about these amazing ladies.

Should You Use a Localized Domain Name?

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Should You Use a Localized Domain Name?: "

I’m regularly asked about local domain names and whether they are worth using on a blog.

My answer usually revolves around the question of ‘what audience are you trying to reach?‘ Let me explain.

When I first secured my own domain name I chose a .au (Australia) domain without really giving much thought to it. I figured as I was an Aussie I might as well include that in the domain and as the .com version of the domain was taken I though it was the next logical step. That was a naive decision and one that I regretted later (although it did have some benefits too).

There were a number of impacts of having a local domain:

the blog ranked relatively well in Google.com.au’s results - being an easily identified Aussie site it seemed to get priority when Aussies were searching for terms related to it

the blog didn’t rank as well on Google.com - .com domains (and other non localised ones) seemed to get ranked higher in other international versions of Google

confusion with readers - time and time again I heard from readers that they kept forgetting to add the .au. As a result they ended up on other sites and some gave up on even coming to the site.

Ultimately it was a mistake for me because my goal was to connect with an international audience rather than just and Australian one. I ended up with some good Aussie search traffic which was nice but it could have ranked better internationally which probably cost me traffic.

Take Home Advice: As a result, I generally advise people to go for a local domain name IF they are trying to reach a local audience. If you’re looking to connect with an international audience go for the .com or another non localised domain like .net or .org (.com is my #1 preference though).

The other reason to get a localised version of a domain in addition to the .com is as a defensive move OR if you think you might produce a local version of your blog at some point in the future. Having the local domain means someone else can’t get it and it gives you the option of expanding into local markets (as Gawker blogs have done with some of their more popular blogs).

Do you use a local domain name? What are the advantages or disadvantages from your perspective?

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Should You Use a Localized Domain Name?

Do You See Your Situation In Any Of These Fascinating Case Studies?

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Do You See Your Situation In Any Of These Fascinating Case Studies?: "We’ve got 3 eye-opening interviews to share with you today.
All on the breakthroughs offered by the Simple Writing System. To make more money… to dominate a crowded niche… to start a hot new career… all fueled by a new ability to persuade, influence, and sell.
First up: Case Study #52
Forcing business owners to pay Big Bucks [...]"

TechWatch Radio 234

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:01:00 +0000

TechWatch Radio 234: "TWR20090926 * Twins Tech * Revisiting Lynda.com * e-Learning * Nintendo Wii drops price * Special deal on the older Gamecube. * http://tinyurl.com/Buy-comGameCubeTWR * GUEST: Phil Montero, TheAnywhereOffice.com * http://www.TheAnywhereOffice.com"

Mobile Tech Minutes — Evernote

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:12:00 +0000

Mobile Tech Minutes — Evernote: "

Evernote is a true platform agnostic, note taker / collector supreme. It runs on just about every mobile device out there and makes grabbing information a snap. I show the basic operation of the program and demonstrate how it makes it easy to find nuggets of information. Of course, Evernote is cloud-based, so information grabbed anywhere is instantly available on all of the devices you might use. Pay attention to the security aspects Evernote raises for those in the habit of leaving sensitive documents up on the computer screen. I show how I can capture a full page of a document on a computer screen in a second or two, and have a searchable copy of it on every device I use. You may find it unsettling.

Read our latest analysis piece, 'Mobile Sites Show Little Improvement.' Only on GigaOM Pro.

Lessons Learned On The Road That Benefit A Stay-At-Home Lifestyle

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:59:00 +0000

Lessons Learned On The Road That Benefit A Stay-At-Home Lifestyle: "

Image by Topyti

Over the past 9 months, we’ve experienced what it’s like to be living a nomadic lifestyle and then come ‘home’ again to a more settled existence.

Call it reverse lifestyle design if you will but it’s certainly been a unique experience – and one that most nomads and location independent professionals will likely experience at some point in their lives.

With all the excitement of being pregnant, giving birth and coping with a newborn, coming ‘home’ to the UK was a welcome relief (something I didn’t expect myself to feel. Ever) but now we’re starting to get itchy feet again and are seriously planning our first trip as location independent parents, with the babe in tow.

Although much of the advice you’ll read about nomadism, location independence and lifestyle design is focused on the tips, tricks, resources & the mindset you need to become nomadic, being location independent isn’t just about the permanent travelling lifestyle – it’s about having the freedom to choose where, when and how you work and live.

And we’ve learned plenty of things whilst on the road which we’ve found just as beneficial when settled in one place…

Budgets

I regret very few things in my life so far and of the three that I can think of, two of them are too personal to share here. The one I can share however, is that I truly do regret spending so much money as a corporate rat-racer. I can’t even begin to think what I did with the ridiculous salary I earned as a 25 year old – often twice as much as most of my peers.

All I know is that I left the rat race with very little of it still sitting in my bank. “If only…” is not a phrase you’ll catch me using often but if only I’d saved half that salary, we’d be flying first class everywhere.

Since becoming location independent, we set a weekly food budget in each new destination we visit. This is largely to avoid any careless mishaps or miscalculations with foreign currency but also so we can compare the cost of living in the various places we visit (and report back on them here!).

We’ve continued doing this since being back in the UK this time and what’s eye-opening are the frivolities you purchase without a thought when you have a home base…bits & bobs for the house, clothes, gadgets and stuff that you don’t need. Setting and attempting to stick to a budget, at least gives you pause for thought with every purchase.

Lesson learned: If you’re trying to become location independent, money (or not enough of it) is quite possibly a sticking point for you. Get into good habits right now and set & stick to a budget, if you can. At the very least, always have a clear idea of where your money goes each week and where, if necessary, you can make savings.

De-cluttering

When you need to pack everything you own into a 60 litre bag and cart it with you to your next destination, it’s much easier not to purchase superfluous things you see whenever you walk into a shop with pretty things. When you’re on the road, a declutter before you leave each destination is almost a necessity so that everything fits back into your bag.

Since we’ve been back in the UK, we’ve de-cluttered the house three times: twice before the baby and once since the baby was born. No doubt we’ll have another big clear-out before we head off on our first trip again.

This is a great practice to get into, whether you’re nomadic or not, for several reasons:

It can make you money if you sell your stuff on ebay

It means you’ll have less work to do the next time you decide to pack up & head off

It feels great to streamline your stuff

Lesson learned: Get into the habit of clearing out your life regularly; it’s not only great to create physical space, it also helps create mental space and keeps you and your life streamlined and agile.

“I Want That”

Tied in to both the first and second points, since becoming location independent we’ve developed a strong aversion to buying stuff for the sake of it – we’ve pretty much conquered the “I want that” mentality although take me into a gadget shop and it might surface quite quickly again!

We’ve also applied this to having our baby – instead of spending a small fortune buying all equipment known to man-kind before she was born, we opted instead to buy the bare minimum to wait & see what we really needed once she was here.

We’ve caught ourselves falling into the trap of buying stuff for the sake of it a couple of times – and each time, we’ve ended up regretting the purchase a few days later.

Lesson learned: Adopt the habit of questioning yourself whenever you make a purchase. Ask yourself whether it’s really vital that you have whatever it is you want and whether it’s going to make life easier or it’s just something you want for the sake of it. Is it an asset or a liability?

No Mindless TV

More recently, watching almost zero TV has had more to do with our lives being based around a newborn’s schedule than anything else but when we’re overseas we rarely watch TV. We may watch some local programmes to get a flavour for the culture and vibe of a place and we sometimes watch the local news & weather.

Compare this to the average Brit or American who probably spends a good deal of their non-working time watching TV and indeed our own habits before we left the UK. I’m not going to sit on my soapbox and rubbish anyone who enjoys watching TV but it’s more a case of questioning where you spend your time – particularly if you’re currently unhappy with your lot in life.

Lesson learned: TV can be a great way to switch off but there are far more productive and valuable things you can be doing with your time than mindless goggle-boxing. Action rather than inaction is the only thing that’s going to get you to where you want to be. If you don’t do it for yourself, no-one else will.

Business Meetings

One habit we developed whilst on the road was to schedule regular business meetings with ourselves. This helped to set some sort of schedule to our week and kept us focused on the business side of things with all the distractions that our new surroundings often brought.

We both have fun projects to work on, so it never really feels like work – but that doesn’t mean we don’t take it seriously and to do that requires us to maintain focus on our strategies and regularly review what’s been happening.

As many work-from-home entrepreneurs will recognise, sometimes it’s easier to do things like this when you’re not actually at home; it means you set & stick to a scheduled time and don’t let it just fall by the wayside as something that can wait.

Lesson learned: Setting regular review meetings of your business is a valuable practice to adopt; not only does it provide you with a schedule to stick to, it gives you a regular opportunity to review what’s been working and what’s not, so you can adjust your approach accordingly.

Thirteen Steps to Write and Publish a Free Ebook In Thirteen Hours

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Thirteen Steps to Write and Publish a Free Ebook In Thirteen Hours: "

Have you ever considered producing an ebook for your blog readers? In this comprehensive post Ali Hale breaks down the process of how to do it.

There’s never enough time. In an ideal world, you’d be posting to your blog frequently, writing great guest posts, building relationships with other bloggers, and responding to every single comment … and all that’s more than you can manage. You might have considered writing an ebook as a companion to your blog, but you just can’t find the time or the energy for it.

You already know all the reasons to do it: you’ve downloaded your share of free ebooks from other blogs, and you’ve seen that:

Free ebooks can be used as what Sonia Simone calls “cookie content”, to entice newsletter sign-ups

Free ebooks can be a great traffic draw: they get twittered about and linked to

Just having a free ebook available on your site will subtly shift readers’ perceptions: they’ll see you as one of the “big guys” of the blogging world

But, of course, an ebook is harder to create than a blog post. A 25-page ebook is 4,000 words or more; you have to edit and proof-read carefully (once people are emailing that ebook to one another, you can’t fix that embarrassing typo or broken link); you’ll need PDF and ebook cover software if you want it to look professional; you have to launch it with a bang…

Writing an ebook isn’t an easy undertaking, and it’s something a lot of bloggers never do. That’s why, if you do write a high-quality free ebook, you’re going to stand out.

Here’s how I wrote, published and launched my free ebook in just thirteen hours and how you could do the same. My time broke down like this:

Writing an outline: 30 minutes

First draft of content: 4 hours

Adding some graphics: 1 hour 30 mins (mostly my boyfriend’s work!)

Redrafting and editing, inserting all links: 3 hours

Appendix of resources: 1 hour

Creating a cover: 1 hour 30 mins

Converting to pdf: almost instant!

Final proof-read and link-checking: 15 minutes

Launching and spreading the word: 1 hour 15 minutes

I spread the tasks above across four days: I’m a freelancer so my schedule’s quite flexible, but I do have to do a bit of paying work once in a while!

And here’s your 13-step guide to doing the same:

Step 1: Get an Idea

You need a clear concept for your ebook. An ebook isn’t a blog post – but it’s not a blog either: don’t make it a general overview of your niche (especially if it’s quite broad). Pick one category from your blog, or a topic which would make a series of blog posts.

I’d wanted to create a free ebook for a while, but it was one of those things I thought I’d get around to “when I have a bit more time”. Then I came up with an idea for a mini-series of two linked posts (Reframing Work #1: Ditching Drudgery and the Conventional View of “Work” and Reframing Work #2: Min Hours, Max Cash – or Do What You Love?) which would lead very naturally to the ebook (Quit Your Day Job). I decided I was going to go ahead and launch it, a week after the first post in the series. This led to…

Step 2: Tell Your Readers

Tell your readers that you’ll be bringing out a free ebook in a week or two weeks’ time. It’s amazing how a deadline – and public accountability – can motivate you!

You might want to make the announcement in a post, on Twitter, or to your newsletter list. Communicate a sense of excitement: tell readers you have a “treat” or “goodies” coming up. This is part of the pre-launch process of getting a buzz going. I personally find the word “freebie” can have a bit of a connotation of something cheap and rubbishy – but you might think differently!

Step 3: Write the Outline

If you write long blog posts, you might already be in the habit of outlining before you begin. With an ebook, this is crucial: you don’t want to write for hours only to find you’ve wandered far off-topic. Neither do you want to sit staring at a blank screen, wondering what you’re going to say next.

Open up a blank document or sit down with a piece of paper and write an outline before you go any further with your ebook. Everyone has different ways of doing this, but one which works well for me is:

Spend five minutes mind-mapping: write down your ebook’s title or theme in the centre of a piece of paper, then jot down all the points that come to mind

Eliminate any points which are too broad for the ebook’s scope. Order the rest in a logical sequence (I just jot a number next to each)

Type or write out the list in order. These are your subsections or chapters in the ebook.

Jot down at least two bullet points for each section, or a couple of sentences: these are the main points you’re going to make. Sometimes, you’ll want subheadings within each section.

If you think of a great idea for a graphic, or a resource (book, blog, etc) to recommend, write that down here too.

It might sound complicated, but if you sit down for an uninterrupted half-hour, you can easily get a complete outline written.

Once you’ve got a list of sections and subsections, think about roughly how long each will need to be. Aim for a total of around 4,000 words: this is about right for a 25-page ebook set in a large font: I like 14 pt Calibri (Word 2007) or 11 pt Verdana.

Step 4: Draft the Content

This step is the one which many bloggers find daunting – writing enough words to fill an ebook. If it seems overwhelming, try thinking about your ebook as a series of linked blog posts (with each subheading starting off a new post). Your outline really helps here, because it breaks writing your ebook into manageable chunks.

And these four tips should help too:

First: Get Rid of Distractions

It’s crucial that you avoid distractions while you’re writing. That means keeping away from emails, Twitter and Facebook till you’re done. You don’t need to write the whole ebook in one go – but try to give yourself a block of at least two hours to work on it, or set yourself the goal of drafting a certain number of sections.

If your family or housemates are likely to interrupt you, try heading off to a coffee shop or library for a few hours.

If you find it hard to concentrate, try using a full screen text program (I like Dark Room), or switch off your internet connection!

Second: Don’t Edit As You Write

This is your first draft, so forget any worries about the quality of your writing. Don’t keep editing sentences to try to make them perfect – just move on. You can come back and rewrite later: your current task is simply to get a complete draft down.

Third: Don’t Stop to Look Things Up

Don’t stop to look up links, quotes or statistics that you want to include. Just make a note to yourself in the body of the text. I tend to enclose these in square brackets [like this]. Stopping part-way through a paragraph or sentence breaks your flow … and it’s very easy to start looking up one quote and get distracted!

Fourth: Don’t Format While Drafting

Your finished ebook is going to be a visual masterpiece, with a cover page, section headings, subsection headings, bold text, italic text, lists, maybe tables and specially-formatted blockquotes…

Your first draft, however, should have few or none of these. It’s easy to get distracted with formatting, and it’s also inefficient to format before all the text’s written – you’ll find yourself changing a lot of things around.

Keep your formatting to a bare minimum while you’re drafting. You might find it useful to format headers and subheaders (make sure you know how to use styles in Word – don’t edit each header separately) – but the rest can wait.

Step 5: Add Any Graphics

Once the draft is complete, add any graphics that you want to include in your ebook. The type of graphics you use will depend on the topic of your ebook, but you might want to consider:

Charts to show statistics in a visual, instant way

Diagrams to explain complex concepts

Illustrations or photographs to complement the text

Small graphics to highlight tips, warnings or quotes

Don’t make the mistake of just using pictures to break up the text. If you use a large font size and use design elements well (just as you would in a blog post), then you don’t need to stuff your ebook with pictures. Graphics used for the sake of it don’t add much to the reading experience, and finding or creating suitable images can use up a lot of your time.

When you’re looking for graphics, be mindful of copyright laws. If you’re using images from Flickr licensed under Creative Commons, make sure you credit and link to the owner in the ebook. If you have a small budget for the ebook, you might consider buying stock photos from istockphoto or fotolia.

You should get your graphics in place at this stage because you may want to change around some of the text to explain or to tie in with the images you’ve chosen.

Step 6: Redraft and Edit Your Text

You’ve got your first draft done – the hardest part’s over. Now it’s time to revise, edit and polish your ebook until it shines!

As with the first draft, you need to find some uninterrupted time and space for this: it’s all too easy to make mistakes or forget to remove those “[notes to self]” when you’re getting interrupted.

It also helps if you follow a step-by-step method, working on one aspect of the redrafting and editing throughout the whole document, rather than trying to perfect each page as you go along.

My process for redrafting and editing is as follows:

Edit for Structure

Edit to Add Quotes, Examples and Links

Edit for Flow and Tone

First: Edit for Structure

Your first round of edits deal with the “big picture”: making sure that your chapters or sections are in the right order and cover all the points you wanted to make. Start at page one and read, fairly quickly, through the whole ebook. Look out for:

Sections which would work better in a different order

Places where you’ve repeated yourself in two different sections

Sections which are too short (you may need to expand and give more detail)

Sections which are too long (cut any waffle!)

Second: Edit to Add Quotes, Examples and Links

Once you’ve got the broad structure right, you can decide where best to enter quotes and examples. This will depend on the format of your ebook, but some things you may want to consider are:

Using an example, quote, tips box or case study to break up a long section of text

Creating a pattern: eg. opening or ending each section with a quote or case study

Putting all the links at the end of each sections for easy reference (even if you also link in the body of the text)

You may find that you need to move around a few sentences or paragraphs in order to make the quote, example or case study work well.

Third: Edit for Flow and Tone

Rewrite any sentences which sound clumsy or which are ambiguous. You might like to try reading your ebook aloud: this often highlights any over-long or complicated sentences!

This is also a good point to check that you’ve used a consistent tone of voice throughout your ebook. Did you start off chatty but then drop into a more formal style? If you’re not a naturally humorous writer, make sure that any jokes or puns you’ve included really are funny.

Step 7: Format Your Ebook

Now that the text is complete, go through and get everything into the right format. Set all your headers and subheaders, making sure that you use the “Styles and Formatting” feature of Word (or your chosen word processing program). Don’t set the font size and style each heading manually. It’s not only inefficient, it stops you making an automatic table of contents – more on that in a moment!

(You might want to read up on Styles and Formatting, if you’re not sure how to use this feature.)

Choose a modern, easy-to-read font for your text and for your headings. Make both text and headings quite large – bigger than you’d use in a document for work or school. As I mentioned in Step 3, I like 14 pt Calibri (Word 2007) or 11 pt Verdana.

As well as formatting your section headings, you’ll also want to use some of the formatting options that you’re familiar with from blogging. This might include:

Using bold to emphasise key points, and italics for emphasised words

Setting out quotes in a different style (eg. indented, or in a box) from the main text

Using a magazine-style “pull box” for quick tips

Breaking some paragraphs into lists, to help keep the reader’s attention

You’ll also want to put a header or footer on each page with, at the very least, the page number. Consider including the title of the ebook in the header/footer on each page (in case readers print it out). You could also put your name, your copyright notice, or the URL of your blog.

Note that if you’re including a cover (and I recommend that you do), you can tell Word to use a different header and footer on the first page.

Step 8: Add a Table of Contents and Appendix

An easy way to make your ebook instantly stand out from the crowd is to add a table of contents and/or an appendix. Professional ebooks (and paper books!) have these – so why shouldn’t yours?

If you’ve used Word’s Styles and Formatting feature to set up your headers, it’s really easy to add a table of contents. Just insert a new page at the start of your ebook, and (in Word 2007), go to the “References” tab, then click “Table of Contents” on the far left.

Word will automatically lay out the table with the headings, subheadings and page numbers. If you change the ebook after creating the table of contents, simply right-click on it and “update”. This is the table of contents from my ebook:

Appendix

In my ebook, I wanted to supply some ideas for further reading at the end. These didn’t fit with the body of the text, so I created an appendix.

Depending on your ebook’s subject, your appendix could be:

A quick tutorial on something which some of your readers will understand but others won’t (you don’t want to put this in the middle of your ebook as those who “get it” will start skipping)

A list of recommended resources, like websites, blogs, books, products, services…

A “cheat sheet” for readers to print out – popular in technical fields

A list of notes and references for each section – often in more scientific books

Creating an appendix is simply a matter of starting a new page and putting the header “Appendix” (or, if you want multiple appendices, “Appendix 1”, “Appendix 2” etc.)

Step 9: Create Your Front Cover – And a Graphic

All the hard work of writing and formatting the text is done: here’s the fun part – creating your ebook cover!

I’d recommend spending a couple of dollars when creating your cover. Look through istockphoto or fotolia for a great, eye-catching image. Ideally, you want something without too much detail (as you’ll be using a thumbnail of the cover pic on your blog, to advertise the ebook).

I’m no designer, and it took me some time to make a cover that didn’t look hopelessly amateur! You might want to enlist a friend with a good eye for design, though some quick tips are:

Use a big, clear font for the title of your ebook

Consider having a subtitle or strapline in a smaller font

Stick to just two or three colours

Come up with a few designs or layouts and pick the one you like best

Once you’ve put your cover in as the first page as your ebook, take a screenshot and save it as a .jpg. If you can afford to spend a bit more (currently $27), I highly recommend a piece of software called eCover Software Pro, which I’ve reviewed here. It allows you to “drop” that image onto a book-shaped template, so that it looks something like this:

It’s very straightforward and intuitive to use, and it’s a powerful way to send readers the signal that you’re a serious problogger.

Step 10: Convert Your Ebook to a PDF

When I first started creating ebooks, I tried out a lot of different free options for turning Word documents into PDF files. The problem was, they didn’t keep links unless the links were written out as a full URL – so www.aliventures.com would remain as a link, but Aliventures wouldn’t! This also meant that they didn’t keep in the links that “jump” the reader from the contents page to the entry that they’ve clicked on.

A few months ago, I bought version 8 of Adobe’s Acrobat software – which cost over $100. I realised that spending hours trying to put the links back in manually each time would cost me a lot more, in the long term. It is a big outlay when you’re starting out as a ProBlogger, so I’d recommend doing what I did – look on ebay for a slightly older version of Adobe (as I write this, 9 is the current version, so look for 8 or 7). This will be just as good for your purposes, and will cost a bit less than the latest.

You could also see if your workplace or college has Adobe Acrobat. Or ask on Twitter to see if a willing friend can convert it for you! (You’re welcome to send me a Tweet if I can lend a hand.)

The best free option I’ve used was pdf995, so if all else fails, give that a try!

Note: If you have Word 2007, you can use the “Publish as PDF” feature. I’ve not used this myself (since I have Adobe Acrobat) so I can’t vouch for how good it is or whether it will include all links. If anyone knows, do tell us in the comments!

Step 11: Final Proof-Read and Link Check

Once you’ve got your PDF file, go through and do one last check for typos. Try not to get tempted to do much editing at this stage … you could carry on tweaking for ever. Just check for anything that’s obviously wrong.

This is a good point to double-check that all the links are working – just in case anything hasn’t converted properly, or in case you put a link in wrong.

Step 12: Publish and Publicise

Publishing the ebook on your blog is easy, compared with all the work of creating it! You can either upload it using your blog software’s “upload” function (go to Media->Add New in Wordpress), or you can use an FTP program to do so.

Create a new post telling people about your ebook, using the cover image that you created (either with eCover Software Pro or as a “flat” looking image).

Then get the word out! Tweet about it, ask for retweets, send emails to blogger friends – though do make sure your ebook will be on-topic for their blog. You might even consider writing a press release to send to your local paper.

I decided to run a competition in connection with the free ebook launch, which helped to gather retweets and a bit of a “buzz”.

Step 13: Relax!

Finally, give yourself a well-earned break! Your ebook’s out there, and your blog’s getting a lot of new visitors. Get yourself a glass of wine, a beer or a mug of great coffee … and start thinking about your next ebook.

As well as writing ebooks, Ali Hale writes a blog on “getting more from life” at www.aliventures.com: you can get her twice-weekly posts straight to your feed reader.

Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger.

Thirteen Steps to Write and Publish a Free Ebook In Thirteen Hours

Balancing Content, Polish & Study

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Balancing Content, Polish & Study: "

After having had another week off work to get myself back into the swing of things after a hectic two weeks in Florida, it’s back to work today! Whilst re-familiarising myself with where I was in my software project I noticed a small dilemma that also relates to blogging or pretty much any other online activity.

The Meaty Content

With any work there is always some kind of activity which is the most important ‘meat’ of the work. For a piece of software its developing the features of that software, for a blog it’s writing the posts, for an ebook business its writing the content of the book and so on. This activity is always something to spend a lot of time on because without it, you have no business.

Software that doesn’t do anything is not software, a blog with no posts is just a dead blog and a book with no words is, well, non existent :-) For any kind of business its important that you figure out what the meaty content is and prioritise your work around that. Often this work is harder to do than other stuff and so it can be easy to procrastinate and avoid it by keeping yourself busy with other less important work. However there is a time and a place for that too.

Adding the Polish

If you’ve ever started a blog, did you fall into the trap of spending an age fidding with your theme and plugins before actually getting any posts written? This is a common pitfall and is really just a way of procrastinating. However saying that, the polish to any business is still a necessary activity in the vast majority of cases.

Whilst a blog, software or ebook doesn’t really need to look good in order to do its job, it really does help – especially if you plan to make money from what you are producing. I don’t think there’s any doubt that this polish work needs to get done, the question is when should you do it?

It’s this question in my software project that prompted me to write this post today. Before I stopped work for my holiday I had completed the functionality of a specific chunk of work which I was pleased with. It works but it doesn’t look pretty. I am not done though as I still have another couple of important features to implement so I have the dilemma – do I continue working on those new features which need to get done before I can release or do I stop and polish up what I have done already?

With any work that is somewhat ongoing such as web software or a blog, you’ll soon find that you’re never really done with the content so it can be hard to know when to polish. If the work is more finite such as a book then the decision is clearer – you can get the first draft of your book written before you even think about polishing it up.

What I’ve decided to do is alternate to some extent. Now that I’ve completed a major chunk of work I’ll take a break from development to add some polish but I won’t try and do everything as that can be a never-ending job in itself. Once I’ve added a little polish I’ll develop another specific feature and then stop to polish and so on. For a blogger I would suggest concentrating on post content for the most part but setting aside some time every now and then to just polish things up the blog and keep doing this on a regular basis.

Keeping up Your Skills

With most online businesses there is some kind of learning curve at the beginning and then there is ongoing study. Obviously if you are starting something you have never done before then you need to invest in a period of study before you can really get any work done at all. In my case, I needed to learn the PHP language and a few web technologies – this took much longer than I anticipated.

If you’re starting a blog you might want to learn about blogging first but with anything like this, there is usually an inexhaustible supply of free information out there and its easy to get so caught up in the reading and studying that you never actually get anything done. I remember when I first started this business 2 years ago, and I broke down where my time was going I realised I was doing this very thing.

On the other hand, another mistake that people make is that they learn what they need to get started but then they just stop learning. This is a mistake, especially with an online business, because things change – technology changes, new sites, tools and trends come and go, and if you don’t keep up you’ll find yourself left behind. It’s always a good idea to keep yourself up to date using whatever sources are relevant to your work whether that’s a few blogs, an industry magazine (PHP Architect magazine and some blogs in my case), podcasts or whatever.

Balancing It All Out

Personally I find that the meaty content work is the hardest, and requires the most concentration and enthusiasm. It’s not easy for me to start developing something new and challenging at 4pm on a Friday afternoon but I can quite easily catch up on a few blogs at that time. There’s always some work that’s easier than others and always some times or days when you are more or less motivated than others.

Always set aside time for your most important work and do that work when you are at your best but also allow time for other work so that you don’t neglect the other little details.

Do You Really Know How To Use StumbleUpon?

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:17:00 +0000

Do You Really Know How To Use StumbleUpon?: "

If you’ve been online for any amount of time you’ve likely heard about StumbleUpon. But do you really know what it is and how to use it to your benefit?

Well, that’s all about to change because I’ve got a free report for you called: Quick Start Guide To StumbleUpon.

This free report will teach you:

What StumbleUpon is

How to find the pop-up up rating box

What to avoid

How to convert a Stumbler into a regular visitor

Getting traffic from StumbleUpon for free

How to make money with StumbleUpon

And more!

Download Your Free Report Now

Social networking – a shift in the way we communicate

garydotgray@gmail.com (garydotgray) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:45:00 +0000

Social networking – a shift in the way we communicate: "

Let’s face it you can’t read an article anywhere these days without someone mentioning social media, social networking, Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. These tools not only affect the way we connect to each other as people but also how we share information and communicate.

Businesses of all size have now adopted the use of social media from large corporations and small businesses to solo-preneurs and freelancers. Much in the way desktop publishing and blogs put the power to spread information in the hands of the masses – social media has provided unprecedented ways for us to connect and network with one another. Check out this eye-opening video I found on YouTube that shares some amazing stats about the social media revolution.

One of the common myths we often dispel with virtual teamwork is that using technology makes relationships less personal and you can’t build trust or get to know people who you rarely or never see. I don’t agree – using these tools like Twitter and Facebook allows you to connect (or re-connect) with people, stay in touch, and get to know each other.

I’m amazed at some of the amazing people I’ve met through Twitter. Through a simple series of short message I get insight into their thoughts, views, work, and life. By the time we talk on the phone, via Skype, or meet in person I feel like I know them already and our conversations are richer for it. Without geographical boundaries I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with people from the UK, Finland, India, and all across the US. You can now work and make friends with people all across the globe – what a powerful and freeing experience that is!

If one understands the way social networks can deliver value, they have the opportunity to do more for themselves than ever before. What used to be a fairly linear world, one with ladders to climb rank, and lines to wait in for limited resources, are now built of vast and flexible networks, some loose and some rigid. Our social networks, both the old-fashioned type in real life, as well as the new constructs created by social software, give us the ability to do amazing things for ourselves and for others.

- Chris Brogan, Author of Trust Agents and Social Media Expert

Social networking has changed the playing field of business and you can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. If you haven’t jumped into the social networking fray – what are you waiting for? You don’t have to use them all but pick one and give it a try. This is no fad – although different services may come and go over time there’s no denying the point this video makes so clearly – it’s a new world and this is the way people meet and connect today. Whether you’re a person with a thirst for community and want to build your tribe or you’re looking to increase brand exposure and connect with potential customers, social networking knows no boundaries!