|
Instagram Debuts New Filter Type, Announces Foursquare Integration
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:10 AM PST
| Instagram Debuts New Filter Type, Announces Foursquare Integration Posted: 11 Dec 2012 03:47 AM PST  After ditching full photo displays (Vcards) from Twitter on Monday the team at Instagram wasted no time in debuting new features of its very own. The world’s largest social photo sharing platform announced updates for both its iOS and Android apps.
Instagram’s new features include integration with Foursquare, improvements to its camera integration standards and a new black-and-white filter. All location pages for Instagram now feature a Foursquare button which launches the Foursquare app if installed or a website location if the Foursquare app is not featured on the users smartphone. In both cases Foursquare provides information about the venue where the photo was taken. Also included via the update is a new grid guide that is used when taking or editing photos. Users can also now preview their most recent photos. Photos also now save in the app and in a separate album on the users iOS or Android smartphone. The new album is simply titled Instagram. In a company statement Facebook writes: "The camera has been the core part of the Instagram experience since the day we launched and as a result, we've made significant improvements to its look and speed.”
Users have been asking for better camera support and new filters to keep their interest in the program alive. The “old timey” look and feel of the new black and white filter option should be enough to keep users snapping away at pictures of landscapes and clouds for at least a few months. Instagram also claims to have made technical improvements to its tilt-shift feature. Finally Instagram has promised a more visually pleasing News Feed and landing pages and they are finally being delivered via this newest update. The social photo sharing company has even managed to throw in an infinite scroll feature that user profiles have implemented in a very Pinterest type manner. | You are subscribed to email updates from The Blog Herald
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
FTC: Mobile App Developers Still Failing to Protect Kids
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:49 AM PST
| FTC: Mobile App Developers Still Failing to Protect Kids Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:00 PM PST The FTC has issued a report on software apps that criticizes their trampling of the privacy of children The report, "Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade", is the second on the subject – and like nearly all sequels, it's bad.  | | Visiting Australia? Apple Maps May Kill You, Police Warn Posted: 11 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST Travelers visiting parts of Australia are being urged not to rely on Apple Maps to guide them. The warning comes from the Victoria Police and follows a couple of incidents where people have got lost and could have died from heat or exposure.  | | Bing Social Sidebar Gets a Makeover Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:15 PM PST Following the new update to Snapshots, Bing cleaned up their social sidebar today. The background has been switched from dark grey to white and the "hover cards" have disappeared - making the whole page look more uniform and less segmented.  | | SEW Weekly: LinkedIn Shares B2B Social Ads Tips Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:00 AM PST Gary Fearnall, Global Marketing Director at LinkedIn, shares tips and best practices for marketers using Company Pages or LinkedIn Ads. Plus, news headlines include Google, Bing, Twitter and more; find out what's coming up on SEW Weekly.  | | AdWords Christmas List: 6 New Features Google Should Add in 2013 Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST What I really want to unwrap are a few gifts from Google. My 2013 Christmas wish list includes a few new AdWords features and new functionality. So Santa Google, here's my list – please check it twice – this year I've been mostly nice.  | | 6 Ways You Can Put a Little ‘Gangnam Style’ into Video Marketing Posted: 11 Dec 2012 04:00 AM PST Most video marketers have probably heard of the famous video from Psy – it's only the most viewed and liked video on YouTube ever. If you want to spice up your video and make it come to life, look no further than "Gangnam Style" for inspiration.  | | ROPE: 4 Essentials for Global Integrated Digital Marketing Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:00 AM PST Integration continues to be a problem, especially across organizations with a global market presence online. The solution? Focus on improving these areas in 2013 to drive online marketing integration and enable efficiency across global regions.  | You are subscribed to email updates from Search Engine Watch
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
NY Enterprise Technology Meetup
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:40 AM PST
| NY Enterprise Technology Meetup Posted: 11 Dec 2012 03:41 AM PST Next tuesday evening, I am giving at talk at the NY Enterprise Technology Meetup. I will talk about networks in the enteprise. I plan to use USV investments like WorkMarket and Pollenware to discuss how entrepreneurs can use networks to build powerful enterprise oriented businesses. If you plan to attend that meetup or if you are interested in networks and enterprises, I have created a hackpad where you can introduce suggested topics for me to touch on in my talk. This hackpad is totally open and anyone can contribute to it. I know that the meetup is almost completely sold out and that many of you who might want to attend will not be able to. I hope the meetup organizers will record the talk so I can post it here for everyone to see after the fact.  | You are subscribed to email updates from A VC
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
An author-centric map of publishing
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:38 AM PST
| An author-centric map of publishing Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:49 PM PST When I first heard the publishing industry referred to as an ecosystem I immediately wanted to see a map of it on the wall. How does water cycle through the system? Which communities are currently well-placed, and where are the …  | | Making dollars and sense of the open data economy Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:39 PM PST Over the past several years, I’ve been writing about how government data is moving into the marketplaces, underpinning ideas, products and services. Open government data and application programming interfaces to distribute it, more commonly known as APIs, increasingly look like …  | | Changing the culture of production Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:51 AM PST Collaboration on a book is the ultimate unnatural act. —Tom Clancy The emergence of online book production tools is of course bringing writers online. Authoring books online seems to bring two apparently opposing dynamics into play – the social web …  | | #Ebook Deal/Day: Interactive Data Visualization for the Web - $11.99 (Save 50%) Use code DEAL Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:46 AM PST  Get "Interactive Data Visualization for the Web" today using code DEAL and save 50%! This sale ends at 2:00 AM 2012-12-12 (PDT, GMT-8:00).  | | Four short links: 11 December 2012 Posted: 11 Dec 2012 04:42 AM PST Burrito Bomber — drone that delivers burritos. (via BoingBoing) Copyright Hardliners Adopt the Language of Reform — Sadly, in the end, Barnier’s “copyright fit for the Internet age” looks depressingly like the current, dysfunctional version: one based on a non-existent …  | | Approaching ethics and big data Posted: 10 Dec 2012 07:48 AM PST The other day I clicked on a message posted to the O’Reilly editors’ email list and the message text filled up almost the entire monitor screen. I must admit that I thought “Am I going to require another caffeine hit …  | 
|
|
Getting The Most From Recruiters In Your Job Search
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:38 AM PST
| Getting The Most From Recruiters In Your Job Search Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:30 AM PST As an active job seeker, you're likely ready and willing to pull out all of your resources to find a job. While working with a recruiter should be one of those tactics to use in your job search, it's difficult to understand how to best use recruiters to your advantage.  In essence, recruiters work closely with hiring companies to recruit for a specific job description. Recruiters are also involved in some, if not all, of the following tasks:
-
Review applicant resumes -
Select the top candidates -
Conduct preliminary phone interviews -
Conduct in-person interviews -
Facilitate interviews with top candidates with the hiring company -
Facilitate job offers with candidates You might be thinking, "Perfect! The recruiter can help me land a job!" Wrong. A recruiter's goal is to hire the job candidate who is best for the hiring company's position. If you aren't the right fit, you might not receive feedback or even a call back. Now that I've scared you, let's get to the good part. If you know how to effectively communicate with and reach out to recruiters, they are experts on connecting talent with the right job. Here are a five steps to getting the most out of a recruiter: 1. Target the right recruitment agencies. There are thousands of employment or staffing agencies in the U.S. Before you start contacting agencies on the fly, try targeting specific agencies by location or specialty. Many agencies recruit for a specific industry, geographic location, or both. If you're looking for a job in sales and marketing, there's likely an agency that specifically recruits for these positions in your area and understands the industry well. 2. Don't become involved with more than three agencies at one time. Because there are so many recruitment agencies in the U.S., competition for talent is high. If you're not getting much feedback from one agency, it's okay to branch out to another one. But don't contact every agency in the area. This will make you seem desperate for work or unemployable. 3. Give your target agencies a call, shoot them an email with your resume, and maintain a relationship in a conservative fashion. Most agencies have their own process for entering their job portal. So go through whatever process they have listed. But be sure to maintain communication with your recruiter without being aggressive, annoying, or needy. If you're the right fit for a position, the recruiter will contact you. If you haven't heard from them in a few weeks, don't forget the recruiter has other clients and is likely very busy. So don't hesitate to send a short and sweet email. 4. Make sure your resume, cover letters, and any other application materials showcase your skills and fit for the agency's job openings. This sounds like common sense, but really do it. Recruiters are looking for the best fit for their client's job openings. So you better make all of your materials showcase this notion! Personalize your cover letters to each hiring company, be professional, and be diligent. This will get a recruiter’s attention. 5. Refer talented friends and contacts to your recruiter if you know they fit a job opening. If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, right? So help your recruiter out. If your friend or colleague is the perfect fit for a job opening, pass along their contact information to your recruiter. (Don't pass them along if they aren't qualified!) They will certainly appreciate the gesture and good karma might find you later. Millions of people have landed a job via a recruitment agency. If you know how to navigate the world of a recruiter and are qualified for their job openings, you will likely move from job seekers to employee. Recruiters, what tips do you have for job seekers looking to connect with a recruitment agency? Share your tips in the comments below. Author: Heather R. Huhman is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder & president of Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for job search and human resources technologies. She is also the instructor of Find Me A Job: How To Score A Job Before Your Friends, author of Lies, Damned Lies & Internships (2011) and #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets. | | What’s the Cash Value of Your Brand? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:30 AM PST Coke. Southwest Airlines. You. I've always thought there should be one simple, common sense way to value a corporate brand. It would be something like, "If everything burned down, what could we go to the bank and borrow based on owning the brand name?" In other words, what are the rights to the brand worth, irrespective of its real assets? Of course, that's not a perfect formula. Rights that survive a calamity encompass more than the brand name. These would include contracts, customers, systems, know-how and other key factors like intellectual property.  For example, Coke's stashed its secret formula in an Atlanta bank vault, so presumably the ingredients list survives the ashen assets. A company like Southwest Airlines might have futures contracts on commodities like fuel, which would be used for coming decades.
In October, Interbrand estimated Coke's brand value at $77.8 billion, up 8% from its 2011 valuation. Coke is the number one most recognized brand in the world, and has been number one on Interbrand's top brands list for over 13 years. In September 2011, Southwest Airlines – the number one US domestic airline and Fortune Magazine's 4th most admired company – was valued in total, including all assets, at about half a billion dollars. Odds are you are more like Southwest Airlines than Coke. That is, you are inextricably tied to your measurable assets, your hard and soft skill-sets. Skills would be the "meat" of your personal brand. You probably don't have a surfeit of sizzle that smokes the competition. Sizzle is the charismatic quality that the homecoming queen, senior class president, and anyone who wins anything by popular vote has in abundance. The common sense way I like to value your personal brand is simply the answer to this question: "What will we pay you beyond the commodity value of your skill-set, to get you to come work for us?"
The more your sizzle-charisma are worth, the more you will be paid. That is why will we pay you more than your education, experience and skills are worth. If you are looking to be paid better than average for work you really want to do, increasing the value of your brand is pretty straightforward. 1. Polish your delivery and presentation skills – online and on-ground. Get ready to be a public person, spokesperson or advocate. Learn good manners and practice them. Use a structured style guide to introduce yourself, your topic and your delivery of material, written and verbal. 2. Do the work to become an expert in your industry or sector. Produce original content, aggregate important secondary source material, participate in associations or conferences that allow you to demonstrate your expertise, and hold small study groups on important topics and publish the findings. Put it online in places that would attract attention and engage your tribe. 3. Reach out to your audience or tribe before you need anything. The worst time to introduce yourself is when you need us to take action on your behalf (like hire you). Get in the ether. Start answering those LinkedIn discussion questions and invite members of your groups to link in. Write an article or blog post and ask industry experts to weigh in. Provide insightful comments on YouTube and other public forums. The Pay-off on Personal Branding For every year you work in your field, the cash value of your personal brand should be worth 10-25% more than what we would pay on average for someone else with your skills to do what you do. Give yourself a raise: get branding. Want a tactical plan for polishing your delivery and presentation skills? Email me at Na...@NanceRosen.com. Subject line: presentation skills. Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen | 
|
|
[music] Office Romance - Twinkling Lights (feat. Syd Butler, Seth Jabour & Amy Carlson)
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:36 AM PST
You are subscribed to email updates from Free iTunes Downloads
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |
|
|
Quite Sane
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:31 AM PST
| Quite Sane Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:19 PM PST Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) announced today that he plans to build a health insurance exchange in his state as mandated by 'Obamacare'. As you may know, many Republican governors, including New Jersey's Chris Christie have refused to do so -- which is an option states do have under the law. In a statement Otter made it clear that his move doesn't signal an endorsement of the law but rather his "continued determination for Idaho to be actively engaged in making the best possible choices - to the degree we are allowed - in the interest of more accessible and affordable health care for our citizens." This is that rare thing today in GOP discussions of health insurance policy: it makes sense. The Affordable Care Act envisions each state building its own exchange, in order to address the specific concerns and needs of each state. A state has a particularly large rural population, a particularly large elderly population, too few urban hospitals, etc. If the state refuses or doesn't get around to it, the Feds do it for them. The federal government will make some attempt to customize. But they're not in a position to or able to do so in ways a responsive state government can. More to the point, a main thrust of opposition to 'Obamacare' is supposedly its 'one size fits all' approach to health care delivery' which takes power from the states and centers it in Washington. So to fight back against this terrible law, Republican governors across the country are refusing to establish their own exchanges and insisting on the one-size-fits-all Washington model. It's senseless on its face in terms of these governors' purported philosophical stance and makes no real sense other than as an act of petulance -- or a hope that implementation goes poorly and they can refuse any responsibility. Otter's is doing what any conscientious governor, but in some ways particularly a conservative, local control-oriented governor, would do.     | | Probably a No Posted: 11 Dec 2012 07:49 PM PST | | McConnell: Everybody Back Up Slowly Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:39 PM PST | | Live Chat with Dr. Len Nichols Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:27 PM PST | | Theories of the Mitt Sighting Phenomenon Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:02 PM PST | | MOAGS Watch Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:44 PM PST | | Congressman Says, Get Off My Lawn!!! Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:24 AM PST For it doesn't get better than a Congressman accosting a noisy protestor and threatening to cane him. But that's just me. Liberal groups down in Florida were protesting 82 year old Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) when one protestor got into Young's face and it pretty much went down hill from there. From the Tampa Bay's Creative Loafing ... As the office closed, Young arrived, flanked by St. Pete College police officers as well as staff members, including Glenn. One particularly persistent activist loudly asked Young about his stances, getting into close proximity of the 81-year-old congressman. It did not end well. Young grabbed the activist by the arm and raised his cane, largely looking like he was attempting to strike the protester until both were separated by the police officers present. Repeating that the activists were trespassing on federal property multiple times, Young did engage one constituent, saying that he "was the middle class" but largely didn't address the questions on cuts. The congressman was escorted into the building as the protesters discussed taking legal action against Young. The police were rather nonplussed by the situation, pointing out that the young man did aggressively confront the congressman. However, due to the confusion during the actual incident, it's unknown currently whether or not the young man will pursue legal action. Soon after, the group dispersed in order to avoid being arrested for trespassing.
Meanwhile, Young himself is now saying he's considering legal action against the protestor whose name is Kelly Benjamin.   | | 2012 Golden Dukes Announced!!! Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:07 AM PST It's not the holiday season without the Golden Duke Awards, TPM's annual homage to the year's best purveyors of public corruption, outlandish behavior and The Crazy. (The awards are named in honor of Congressman-turned-inmate Randy "Duke" Cunningham. See the letter Cunningham sent our reporter Ryan Reilly last year.) This is the sixth annual installment of the Golden Dukes! (See last year's winners here.) Nominations are due no later than Friday, December 14, 2012. Submission details after the jump!!
This year's categories are:
1. Best Scandal -- General Interest
2. Best Scandal -- Sex and Generalized Carnality
3. Best Scandal -- Local Venue
4. Meritorious Achievement in The Crazy
5. Biggest Campaign Freakout
6. Most Hilariously Wrong Campaign Prediction
7. Most Over-The-Top Campaign Ad
How do you participate?
Email talk (at) talkingpointsmemo.com with your nominations no later than December 14, identifying the person you're nominating and make your case in no more than 250 words for why he or she deserves a place in the rogues gallery of Golden Dukes winners. Only notorious individuals are eligible for the award -- parties, issues, groups, etc. are not eligible. Nominees have to be specific, real persons. On December 20th we'll announce the nominees. The final awards will be named on December 28. Feel the excitement!   | | Yes. That. Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:46 AM PST From TPM Reader CA ... I would like to see TPM emphasize more strongly not just the history of raising the debt limit, but the essential dynamics by which it is made necessary. Congress passes budgets that are unfunded and require borrowing; Congress must vote to raise debt limit. The President can be described as structurally incidental to this process. Lindsay Graham (and others) are therefore (as always) lying when they seek to describe the problem as overspending on the part of the executive, and that needs to be hammered home again and again.   | | Let's Hope Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:34 AM PST | | Government Shutdown Watch Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:36 AM PST I wanted to quickly follow up on that Mother of All Government Shutdowns on deck for February(ish). As noted earlier, the President says he will not allow another round of debt limit hostage taking. It's been ambiguous to me just what the President means by this. Clearly, a debt limit increase is being entertained as part of a global deal. But absent that global deal, Republicans seem to be insisting on another round of debt-limit hostage-taking centered on the House. (Reid has made clear he can take the Senate out of the picture.) Here's what Lindsey Graham said yesterday, though note that the fight really isn't happening in the Senate this time and Graham himself is desperately positioning himself to avoid getting primary-ed next year. "Here is where the president will have a rude awakening," Graham said. "In February or March, you have to raise the debt ceiling. I can tell you this, there is a hardening on the Republican side. We're not going to raise the debt ceiling. We're not going to let Obama borrow anymore money or any American congress borrow anymore money until we fix this country from becoming Greece. That requires significant entitlement." Here's more of the dynamics of where this all seems to be going. There are a lot of arguments that the House won't be able to manage the hostage-taking on its own and that they'll have to fold. But I'm not so sure. I still feel like a major showdown is more likely than people think.   | | Introducing the NorqList Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:37 AM PST | You are subscribed to email updates from Talking Points Memo
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
The ultimate Instagram hash tag cheat sheet
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:27 AM PST
| The ultimate Instagram hash tag cheat sheet Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:08 AM PST In many ways, 2012 was the year of Instagram–just as much as it was the year of Pinterest. And, with all those Android users now using Pinterest, there’s bound to be a bunch of people who still have questions about all the Instagram lingo that’s used on the platform. And now with the holidays right around the corner, we’re probably looking at another wave of iPhone users ready to get their first smart phone. I’ve seen a few Instagram cheat sheets around, but none that really aggregate all the different hash tags and user terms that I’ve seen or heard about in the last year-plus using Instagram. So, below you’ll find the *ultimate* (insert tongue into cheek now) Instagram cheat sheet–share as needed  IG – Shorthand for Instagram #igersminnesota — Instagrammers in Minnesota (or insert other state). Just a way of tagging posts by area/state/city 
#photooftheday — Instagram hosts a “photo of the day” contest every day. This is your chance to participate (or scroll through the “entries”) 
#iphonography – Tag used to signify shots taken solely using an iPhone. #instagram — Needs to explanation. #iphonesia – Tag used by Instagrammres in Indonesia and East Asia. 
#instamood–reflective of your mood 
#instagramhug–community of IGers who want to get better #igers — Shorthand for “Instagrammers” (in this case “Instagrammers Lebanon”) 
#instadaily — A daily “contest” where a topic of the day is chosen that pits Instagrammer against Instagrammer #iphoneonly — Tag that’s really taking a shot at “those Android users”  #igdaily — Technically it stands for “instagram daily” but to be honest, I’m not really sure what this represents other than daily pics on Instagram. 
#nofilter — Implies that shot taken was taken without an Instagram filter 
#foodporn — Tag applied to various food shots #cloudporn — Tag applied to random cloud shots (yes, people take pics of clouds on Instagram) 
#100likes #500likes — Tags applied to the Instagrammers 100th,500th, 1000th shot 
#flashbackfriday — Tag used by Instagrammers to show photos from the past. #instagood — Tag used with images Instagrammers are proud of, for various reasons 
#tweegram — Tag used by those who use the popular Tweegram iPhone app that lets you put text inside photos 
Subscribe to Communications Conversations by EmailThe ultimate Instagram hash tag cheat sheet is a post from: Communications Conversations | 
|
|
Today's Posts From GigaOM Pro
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:25 AM PST
| Today's Posts From GigaOM Pro Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:56 AM PST | | Will McInnes, #cltrshck weekly ammo 8 Beyond Social: imagining... Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:51 AM PST Will McInnes, #cltrshck weekly ammo 8 Beyond Social: imagining the post-normal business This is Stowe Boyd's keynote from Meaning 2012. It is jam-packed with brainfood about the near-future of business. I recommend it: you'll walk away with something to mull, something to pass on. The Meaning 2012 conference was a blast, although I should have flown in a day earlier, to get delagged better. | | Two Teensy, Weensy Numbers That Say A Lot Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:28 AM PST Two stats almost collided in my stream today, with one similarity: small numbers that say a lot. First, an astonishingly small proportion of Facebook users — 0.067% — in the Facebook Governance Vote. That’s a hundreds of millions shy of the 300 million self-imposed requirement for Facebook to take any notice of the results. Which, of course, might be the result Facebook wants. A second minute number comes from a study from Chitika that shows 0.13% of North American tablet traffic is coming from the Microsoft Surface tablet, which you could try to spin as ‘slow initial uptake’ but which I call ‘death eating a soda cracker’. | | thenextweb: Flocations, for those that haven’t used it yet, is... Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:17 AM PST | | Murray Orange via Springwise TalktotheManager aims to foster a... Posted: 11 Dec 2012 04:23 AM PST  Murray Orange via Springwise TalktotheManager aims to foster a closer connection between restaurants and their clientele. Specifically, as a substitute for comment cards or other less reliable means of collecting feedback, TalktotheManager lets restaurant patrons anonymously text their comments directly to the manager. | You are subscribed to email updates from Stowe Boyd
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
15 Tips to Get Best Deals on GOSF Cyber Wednesday
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:24 AM PST
| 15 Tips to Get Best Deals on GOSF Cyber Wednesday Posted: 11 Dec 2012 04:33 AM PST Home > India > Tutorials  
How to get best deals in the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) Cyber Wednesday starting on 12 December? There will be limited stocks and considering this the first time the event is held in India and with all the hype, chances are you might not be able to grab the best deals. GOSF is a great time for regular online buyers and first time online shoppers alike. The merchants are also geared up expecting exceptional online sale on this ‘Cyber Wednesday’, going by the outstanding success of Cyber Monday in US which was the best ever this year. GOSF Best Deals So how can you get the best deals of GOSF …  Be There First - Its best to get shopping as soon as 11 December ends at 11.59pm and deals open at 12 December. There might be limited stocks (and people who read this article might be ready!) and by the time you wake up, your deal might already be gone. Then you might be stuck with lesser deals or another online shop.- Keep Buy List Ready - Waiting for something to buy for a long time? This might be the right time. Most websites have already put up teaser landing pages highlighting the deals on offer. The exact deals will work on 12 December, but you can plan early and click buy as soon as it is available. It is important to plan what you actually need to buy.
- Choose Best Deals - there are multiple sellers for the same products in the product channels. Check their GOSF pages to see what are the best deals they offer on the products you want to buy. Find the merchants which will offer the best deals. This could be cash discount, free shipping, EMIs and more.
- Explore New Online Shops – Maybe you always buy online from your favorite online shop? You might have never imagined that there are so many popular online shops out there. GOSF brings together some of the most popular branded shops online. This give you an opportunity to find better deals on other shops as well with whom you might decide to continue shopping later also. Know more about them by following their social media accounts.
- Find Specialty Shops – Chances are you will get better deals and more product variety on specialty shops – that is shops which sell in specific niche products (better to buy shoes from a shoe seller). If you are looking for some specific product, it might be good idea to buy from shops dealing in these special products (as compared to general online shops which sell everything)
- The EMI trap - See which deal works best for you. Interest free EMI might be a good option if you buy expensive items with a limited budget. But usually EMI start at a minimum price range, and are they actually interest free. What happens if you default on payment? EMI deals prompt you to spend more but it is a good idea to buy only what you can afford easily. Shopping should make you happy, not take you in debt.
- Get Free Shipping – Most online sellers will offer free shipping and it might be a good idea while shipping heavy expensive products. Free shipping makes it worth the deal to buy online rather than through your local store. Do remember to check the delivery times – sometimes the stock is limited and it may take weeks.
- Free is Not Always Better – Don’t be enticed by gift vouchers and free accessories – check if they are worth the money and deal you opted for. Do you really need to those accessories (or you already own them). Gift vouchers have lots of clauses (be sure to read the fine print), and you might never be able to use them to your advantage.
- Confirm Shipping Charges - Check to find how much the seller will charge for shipping fees? Unlike buying from your local market, sometime shipping might cost more than the product price!
- Will the Seller deliver? - Does the seller deliver to your address? Many sellers might be delivering to major cities only. If you want to ship to smaller villages, the seller might not agree to ship. So it is essential to find a seller who will deliver your product to your shipping address.
- Use Credit /Debit Cards - It seems GOSF has tied up with HDFC cards, which is offering more 5x reward points on credit card buys and assured value e-vouchers on debit card purchases (Rs. 1000 on spending Rs. 5000 and above). This converts to the extra discount you are looking for. Many sellers will not accept demand drafts or cheques. Do they offer cash on delivery – that might suit your style if you are concerned about giving out your credit card details.
- Find coupon code – remember many sites are posting coupon codes on these special pages. It is essential to add these promo codes during checkout and payment to get the discount deal. Do not be surprised if the GOSF discount is not added by default as they might have different levels of payment systems.
- Who will sell the product – Are you buying from the online shop itself like Flipkart or is it a marketplace like Ebay. The difference is that in online marketplaces, you can have thousands of sellers, who will themselves be responsible for the product they sell.
- Refund / Returns / replacement guarantee - Most online purchases are covered by a refund/ replacement guarentee. But always remember that this varies with the seller. What is the return policy if you do not like the product quality? Do remember to check how proactively the seller will be willing to provide official product guarentee and service etc.
- Contact Seller NOW - there is still time. If there is a question or clarification about products or shipping etc, you can communicate with the seller before the big day starts, so that you are ready to click buy when the time comes.
Happy Shopping. It’s Cyber Wednesday soon… are you ready. 
Original Article: 15 Tips to Get Best Deals on GOSF Cyber Wednesday Copyright 2012. Quick Online Tips. All Rights Reserved.  | You are subscribed to email updates from Quick Online Tips
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
Charter Cable Kills Customer Support Via Social Media
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:23 AM PST
| Charter Cable Kills Customer Support Via Social Media Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:54 AM PST I saw Ike Pigott mention on Facebook that Charter Cable was killing customer support via social media, especially Twitter: “As you may have heard, Charter will no longer have a customer care team tasked, specifically, with resolving matters raised on Social Media… Monday, December 10, 2012: We will no longer respond to posts that we discover while conducting Charter searches. We will, however, continue to respond to @Charter and @CharterCom mentions until Saturday, December 15th. Friday, December 14, 2012 (5pm): All the Umatter2Charter accounts (which includes: @Charter, all our individual accounts, as well as the Umatter2Charter Facebook page, Forum accounts, and accounts on Consumer Advocate Sites) will be removed.”
I checked the responses on Twitter to the @Umatter2Charter Twitter account (oh the irony), and saw responses like this: 
What I found interesting about the responses to @Umatter2Charter was that none of them were critical of the team on Twitter, in fact many customers stated that the customer support they received on Twitter was the only thing they liked about being a customer! So why would Charter pull the plug on using social media as a customer service channel? I am not a Charter customer, but my guess is that Charter wants to use social media as a channel to drive new customers, instead of providing customer service to existing ones. So they likely see the team’s efforts on Twitter as a ‘waste’, even though as these tweets prove, Charter’s CS efforts on Twitter are actually improving the brand’s image. But additionally, this likely speaks to the core problem that social media is not a contingency plan for having a shitty product. This is also one of the points I hit on in Think Like A Rock Star, but the true value of connecting with your customers online isn’t as a sales channel, it’s as a feedback channel. By closely analyzing feedback from your customers, you can not only get a better understanding of who they are and how you can help them,but your marketing efforts become much more effective and efficient. Recently, I did a social media strategy audit for a client in the hotel industry. As part of this, I looked at how their competitors were utilizing social media. In general, what I found was that on Facebook, the walls of every brand were turned into an area where customers bitched about the service the brand had given them. They bitched, the brand apologized and gave them an email of someone to contact, and that usually ended the exchange. Occasionally, the customer would return to point out that the situation still hadn’t been resolved. I can easily see how an out-of-touch brand could look at this and think ‘No matter what we do, customers will keep complaining, so let’s just kill Twitter and Facebook and spend that money on something else that we know works. Like advertising!’ If Charter had told you that they were going to stop providing customer service via social media because they didn’t see the value in it, what advice would you have given them?
 | 
|
|
Making dollars and sense of the open data economy
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:21 AM PST
| Making dollars and sense of the open data economy Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:35 AM PST   Over the past several years, I’ve been writing about how government data is moving into the marketplaces, underpinning ideas, products and services. Open government data and application programming interfaces to distribute it, more commonly known as APIs, increasingly look like fundamental public infrastructure for digital government in the 21st century.
What I’m looking for now is more examples of startups and businesses that have been created using open data or that would not be able to continue operations without it. If big data is a strategic resource, it’s important to understand how and where organizations are using it for public good, civic utility and economic benefit. Sometimes government data has been proactively released, like the federal government’s work to revolutionize the health care industry by making health data as useful as weather data or New York City’s approach to becoming a data platform. In other cases, startups like Panjiva or BrightScope have liberated government data through Freedom of Information Act requests and automated means. By doing so, they’ve helped the American people and global customers understand the supply chain, the fees associated with 401(k) plans and the history of financial advisors. I’ve hypothesized that open data will have an overall effect on the economy akin to that of open source and small business. Gartner’s research has posited that open data creates value in the public and private sector. If government acts as a platform to enable people inside and outside government to innovate on top of it, what are the outcomes? Over the past four years, the world has heard a rising chorus for raw data from voices like the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, and the chief technology officer of the United States, Todd Park. Park, in particular, has been working to scale open data across the federal government as the nation’s “entrepreneur in residence.” McKinsey and Associates estimated the annual economic value of big, open liquid health data at some $350 billion annually. While that number is eye-opening, which companies and startups stand to change health care using open health data? Some examples are clear, from mobile apps like iTriage (now owned by Aetna) to Castlight, but they aren’t sufficient to understand what’s happening out there. Other promising startups are in the consumer finance space, where so-called “smart disclosure” initiatives are enabling people to put their personal data to use. Startups like Billshrink.com and Hello Wallet now are enabling people to make smarter financial decisions. I know there are more stories out there, and in sectors beyond health care and consumer finance — including transit, energy, education and media. Over the next several months, I’ll be identifying and profiling more civic startups, such as those from the first class in the Code for America accelerator, like Captricity, to specialized search engines, like Zillow, Panjiva and DataMarket. In the course of that work, I hope to answer some big questions. What are the sustainable business models that successful civic startups are using, whether they use legislative data or other reuse of public sector information? What are the real costs associated with opening up government data to make it usable, both for government and entrepreneurs? And how does it balance against what datasets, at the federal, state or local levels, are the most valuable? Are they open and usable? If so, who’s using them and to what effect? If not, why not? At the end of this particular project, in February, we’ll publish a report on what I’ve found. In it, I hope to be able to share some answers to several core questions on the topic. Where I need your help is in identifying new startups that are using or consuming government data or in highlighting how existing companies use it in their operations, good or services. Who is doing the most interesting work — and where? If you have research and evidence to share on the questions I posed above, feel free to ring in on that count as well. Please weigh in through the comments or drop me a line at al...@oreilly.com or at @digiphile on Twitter.  | | Four short links: 11 December 2012 Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:14 AM PST - Burrito Bomber — drone that delivers burritos. (via BoingBoing)
- Copyright Hardliners Adopt the Language of Reform — Sadly, in the end, Barnier’s “copyright fit for the Internet age” looks depressingly like the current, dysfunctional version: one based on a non-existent scarcity, on treating the public as passive consumers, and on pursuing unachievable enforcement goals with ever-harsher punishments.
- Mars and Sleep in Air New Zealand Flights (Idealog) — Air New Zealand in-flight entertainment to include advertisements for Martian timeshares and relaxing music set to a slow continuous shot along a New Zealand country road. Beats the hell out of the Nashville Top 20 channel and that gloaty “still many more hours to go!” map.
- Google Drones Target Poachers (World Wildlife Fund) — that’s not the real message of this piece, announcing Google has given a $5M grant to WWF to use technology to protect animals, but that’s the vision I have. I look forward to being able to switch on the reticule on Google Savannah View and smoke a few poachers straight from my phone’s maps app.
 | 
|
|
A Quiet Reflection on Failure, Part III
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:19 AM PST
| A Quiet Reflection on Failure, Part III Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:01 AM PST Welcome to Part III! Here’s the gist of the summary of Parts I and II: I have tried for 7 years to create a blog-centered creative life. The reason I chose “blog-centered” was because it was the most satisfying work I had done, writing for myself and getting positive responses from the world for being myself. However, I have not been able to make it work. I acknowledged in the past two posts that I have “failed”, though I have gained important insights and come up with a few good tricks. Discipline and a re-commitment to mastery may be the keys… I thought that this post would be about planning the new direction; that would been the expected Dave Seah Step 3. However, I’ve re-discovered the power of letting words sit while doing the “715AM 15-minute” daily ritual; reviewing the work I’ve done a day later lets the raw ideas pickle ferment into something tastier as new ideas settle into the brine. One new idea is about the nature of passion itself. Several people both on-line and off have recommended looking at Cal Newport’s recent book So Good They Can’t Ignore You. His central premise is that the cliched slogan “follow your passion” is terrible advice and that there are alternatives. While I didn’t find the Kindle sample of his book compelling enough to buy it, this did get me thinking about passion itself. What exactly are we arguing about when we’re talking about passion? Newport’s argument is “following simplistic advice like ‘follow your passion’ is bad”, and he follows up with four good pieces of advice based on anecdotal research. However, I think the more nuanced argument—I haven’t read the book, so perhaps he addresses this—is that following any advice is bad if you don’t know how it works. Do I know how passion works? Or what following it really means? On reflection: I don’t really know for sure.
So, like a pink-skinned freshman, I dutifully looked it up: Passion (Noun) (1) Strong and barely controllable emotion. (2) A state or outburst of such emotion. I was surprised…that’s it??? I expected something much more epic. When we talk of “finding our passion”, we use hushed tones reserved for the spiritual journey, using terms like “life-changing” and “destiny”. It’s appealing, I think, because we imagine ourselves as the heroes in our own quest, seeking fortune and glory while accruing peace and wisdom along the way. I may have been reading way too much into it, and I didn’t question it because the idea of finding a passion IS hugely attractive. Why wouldn’t you look for it? Anyway, “following your passion”, if I am to take it literally, means “following your strong, barely-controllable emotion”. Sort of like dousing, as the following usually goes. More importantly, I do have strong emotions and reactions. Just the other day I was mad as hell at Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, for its imbalance of cinematic beauty and horrible dialogue. I get upset when I see someone using an ugly button widget, and don’t get me started on gradient fills. I am enraged when I see someone get put down, disparaged, or otherwise marginalized in service of a hidden agenda. These are passions. From the handful of Cal Newport’s blog posts I’ve read, I would hazard that his passion is finding a rational, well-defined path to success and satisfaction. But I digress. Unpacking “following one’s passion” could be construed to mean “using strong emotional reaction as an instrument to find the area where you might have these natural advantages”, as listed below: If you have a strong emotional reaction to something, you care. And caring is an important part of creating superlative art and engineering. People who don’t care about what they do can be efficient and productive, but it is unlikely that they will produce anything memorable. This is the difference between a job and a calling. I’m the offspring of a giant missionary family, so I’m admittedly pre-disposed to finding a calling because I’ve grown up with people who live it. It’s also a tremendous amount of thankless work, which is why I’m not keen on doing it. If you have a strong emotional reaction to something, and are compelled to do something about it, that is free starter energy. If you can combine that free energy productively with competence, you’re one or two giant steps ahead of the people who don’t have it. Not only do you know what to do, but you have the ability and the initiative to make something happen. If you have a strong emotional reaction to something, you probably are not alone in having it. If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that we’re not alone in our weirdness, and that it’s possible to find each other. That’s a reassuring, heartwarming thought. In terms of cold hard opportunity, it means you may have a market waiting to be developed. These three things, which I probably have absorbed from Kathy Sierra’s talks, are the motive, means, and opportunity for the crime of following one’s passion. I’m guilty, and I have no regrets. Dave’s Passion, Redux If I accept the above premise, I can immediately map out what I know I feel strongly about: - I am jazzed by great information, insights, instruction (and the terrible state of what’s available)
- I am moved by meaningful, truthful, transparent communication (and the extreme difficulty of realizing it)
- I am inspired and enthralled by elegant, aesthetic, novel, world-beating design and engineering (and the challenge of achieving it)
- I am empathetic toward the search for personal voice and one’s role in the world (and dealing with the fear of growing into it)
- I am drawn to the quest for self-empowerment, self-sufficiency, and creative mastery (and the techniques that help)
- I am militant about the practice of the Hacker Ethic, free sharing of information, and building of community (and making a living from it)
I wouldn’t have thought them as “passions” before, because they are usually described as “a passion for [insert name of craft or activity]“. Simplifying it further, I think I could describe it as a passion to explore and share my own ideas and experiences, practicing (as my business card optimistically says) explore, learn, build, share. Now, I originally started writing this series of posts because I felt, after 7 years of plugging away, that I had failed to create a self-sustaining creative bloggy lifestyle. I can see now that I have at least LIVED the lifestyle, inadvertently living out my “passion”. That’s great, I guess. What I have failed to address is the achievement part. This is where I think my journey intersects with Cal Newport’s writings on the merits of taking an actual career path; both are related to achievement, though my journey has been different. It’s been a meandering path, and I could easily cast it as wasted time, but I’m inspired by what my high school buddy (and former collaborator) Mark says on his twitter bio: Is it risky? Sure! Is it wise? probably not, unless it works; then it’s brilliant. Connecting the Dots Let me again step back to my original question/conclusion again: I’d failed, wah! But at WHAT did I fail? The reason I wanted to have a creative, blog-driven lifestyle was because I liked sharing what I was doing and thinking. I liked posting design work and getting feedback from people who enjoyed it. While I wasn’t making money from it, I liked feeling that I was contributing, in my own way, to improvements in people’s work routines. I also liked being recognized for my work and my words, preferring this to being part of another company. However, for complete freedom I need money and resources, more than to just scrape by. I also have been frustrated by my lack of achievement in other areas, like software, game development, and art. Last week I had the good fortune of stumbling upon Jordan Mechner’s The Making of Prince of Persia journals, in which he designed and developed the successor to his popular Karateka game as a 20-something Yale graduate back in 1985. He was one of the original masters of the Apple II personal computer during the Golden Age of computer gaming, and I remember being mesmerized by the idea of creating and authoring a game all by myself. I pursued this from high school (starting in 1982) through two masters degrees and a stint in the professional video game industry, ending in 1998 when I burned out. During this entire time, I pursued team, career, and marketable skills before I my heart wasn’t in it anymore; it had changed from the auteur-driven environment of the 80s into a big high-risk, high-stress business. From 1998 to 2003, I wondered what to do with myself, doing corporate interactive design as a freelancer, before discovering blogging in 2004 as a way to relaunch some kind of credible web presence. Reading The Making of Prince of Persia reminded me of the old desire to be someone as well-rounded and capable as Jordan Mechner. I realized that while my interest in computer gaming had waned, the desire to be author and king of my own epic projects is still with me. It is here that I am feeling frustration, and have for a looong time. I still am clinging to the romantic notion that I can do it all myself. There is a very strong desire in me to be as independent as possible, and it kills me that I am not. I don’t think the desire for money and resources is incompatible with this feeling. In fact, they n work hand-in-hand, if I am smart about it and committed to doing the work. I don’t think I had faith in myself, and I thought I needed a team. What I need is the company of creative, smart, competent people to challenge my assumptions and push me to do better. What I need is to remind myself every day of what I am doing, to pick some big targets and chip away at them with a continuous wave of daily effort. My past mistake was to try to grow as BIG as the target before taking it on, breathing radioactive fire on the challenge kaiju-style, until it melted into compliance before my triumphant feet. Apparently, the biggest target I could take on by myself was Adobe Illustrator and WordPress; this is where I could direct my impulsive blasts of energy productively and have something to show for it. The lessons of recent days, though, have shown me that I now have the ability to work in smaller doses; it’s the daily continuity that will help me focus them with surgical adeptness. So let me break the original question/conclusion down just one more time: what did I fail at when I set about establishing the blog-driven, creatively passionate life? There are four criteria that come to mind: - Did I blog about what I was passionate about? YES, apparently so.
- Did I achieve recognition? SORT OF…some people know me for the design work and blogging.
- Did I achieve financial independence? NO…I’m poor!
- Did I complete big projects that personify my values? NO…I’ve been spinning my wheels.
Those last two are the ones that need work. I’ve at least started to work on financial independence by learning how to make and sell my so-called “functional stationery” on Amazon, so this is something I can keep expanding as I develop the discipline habit around growing the business. As for the big projects, that’s something new. While I’ve always had them in the back of my mind, I’ve never really moved forward on them seriously because I thought I needed a team. Now, I see them as the opportunity to refine my skills and develop mastery in harmony with values, which give my work meaning. I think that is what Part IV will be about. | You are subscribed to email updates from David Seah
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
What’s In Store for Content Marketing in 2013?
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:18 AM PST
| What’s In Store for Content Marketing in 2013? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST What's In Store for Content Marketing in 2013? was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips. The Content Marketing Institute last week released 2013 predictions, where more than 80 marketers (including yours truly) weighed in on where the discipline was going in 2013. Some predictions we heard over and over again: - Journalists will have a new home in the corporate or agency environment.
- Visual content ramps up in the form of video and graphics.
- Creating content for mobile is key, along with other multiscreen options.
My take on the emerging themes from the survey: - Great business content that's on par with big publishers will be key.
- The way we want to receive information is changing from the device (mobile) to the medium (visual) to the delivery (concise).
Here's the report on SlideShare. Scroll down for hand-picked predictions plus my take on them. Journalists Predicted to Be Big Players in Content Marketing We heard a lot of predictions in the CMI report about the demand for journalists, and how they will now have a home in the corporate or agency environment due to the brand publishing explosion. 
If the predictions are true, businesses will be putting a high value on writers – trained writers – and especially those that can use objective writing as in journalism, as well as investigate the company to find the stories and then go tell them. I loved Paul Conley's take on the future of brand journalism, and I think it's a highly likely scenario: 
And while the journalist skill set in a company’s marketing and publishing department is a fantastic addition, it doesn't necessarily mean a successful content marketing department. Businesses should turn to journalist skill sets as a viable options for well-written content and storytelling, but those journalists may not have the digital marketing strategy to execute content marketing on a full scale. Which is why I see it a little differently than Jason’s comment below: 
My prediction is that businesses will need a healthy mix of skills sets on the content marketing team – publishing, journalism, editing, analytics, SEO, social media, writing, user experience, design and videography, and other Web marketing disciplines. In fact, here's my prediction from the CMI report: 
At the helm of all those skill sets I mentioned previously should be someone who understands how all the moving parts fit together within a healthy digital marketing campaign; someone who can speak to the strategy and make sense of all the data to balance the content production with the business goals and audience. This is similar to what Nicholas Kinports is saying: 
I particularly loved the following prediction because in order to be successful, businesses need to define what content marketing means before they go after it: 
How We Create Content Is Predicted to Change Several marketers predicted the way people wish to receive and produce content is changing and will continue to do so. Many statements had to do with the rise of video production and visuals, as well as more sophisticated execution of those types of content. So just as journalists will be in demand, I say graphic designers and videographers will continue to have a home as the need for visual storytelling becomes more and more important. Then there's the rise of mobile consumption of content. Many predictions talked about the devices people will use to consume content, which means content needs to be responsive for multiscreen use. 
And on top of it all, you have waning attention spans. One of my favorite predictions by Roger Parker was on simplifying the message: 
I also agreed with the predictions on Slideshare being a driver of content consumption. Think about it: Why wait until you have a presentation that you've unveiled to an audience? Any topic you have in your head can fleshed out in a PowerPoint, and the succinct nature caters to thin attention spans. Could slide decks be the new blog post? In a prediction by David Dunworth, he talks about visuals trumping the written word as a form of learning. I would add to that comment by saying that I believe we are going to have to take into account various personas and learning styles to cater the content deliverable (words, visuals, video) we present on the same topic. 
All of this is to say that the way we think about creating our content will need to change, from the way our text is laid out, to the type of content we create and the way content is written and delivered, where simplicity, entertainment, ease of use and engagement could trump in-depth, how-to content for the purposes of authoritative content. Does this mean that the entertainment factor will trump thought leadership in our content production? I guess we'll find out … What’s your prediction for content in 2013? Weigh in in the comments below! | You are subscribed to email updates from Bruce Clay Blog
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
WordPress 3.5 Released!
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:15 AM PST
You are subscribed to email updates from Weblog Tools Collection
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
Strategy Without Change Is Pointless
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:13 AM PST
| Strategy Without Change Is Pointless Posted: 11 Dec 2012 04:32 AM PST Next week my staff and I will hole up for an entire day of planning. We do this quarterly, but once a year, we "really" do this. This is our chance to step away from all of those seemingly meaningless little things and think bigger. It's our day to say what if and why not. It's the time to set the course for next year and perhaps realign with the vision for the next three to five years. It's a day to ask tough questions, explore new opportunities and embrace changes we need to make in order to realize our growth strategy. For me it's one of the most exciting and exhausting days of the year, but it's a practice that I would not do without and one that I suggest every business, no matter the size, commit to doing. Below are five outcomes and benefits from holding our annual growth strategy planning day. Fewer Priorities By thinking bigger and then thinking realistically about what it might take to overcome the things in our way, we naturally start eliminating things we should not focus on in an effort to make room for only the highest priorities. Our goal is to identify no more than three priority objectives for the year that make us aim higher and stop doing low priority things. Embrace Results One of the ways we get to our short list of priorities is by identifying the results of achieving an objective. By creating a list of "what we gain" if we win and by contrast "what is costs" if we lose, we create the motivation to overcome constraints and stay focused on results as a team. In most cases our stated ideal results become the goals by which we measure our priority objectives. Commit to Change Here's the thing I know for sure. Strategy without change is worthless. If your stated objectives for the year don't have you asking – "what needs to change in order for us to actually do this?" – then you are thinking way too small. All growth involves change and you have to commit to how that's going to happen or your objectives will dissolve into frustrating reminders of failure. Create Owners Every objective will naturally spin off a list of projects: The things that need to be done, the new products, the new positions, or the new processes. It's essential that part of your planning day include identifying these projects and assigning an owner to each. That doesn't mean this person is going to do all the work, they are simply going to be the one that cares the most about the project and carries the responsibility of moving it forward. Focus on High Payoff The final step and benefit involved is to identify the highest payoff work for everyone in the organization. This is how you properly assign tasks and stay focused on what matters most. The three or four high payoff tasks will differ for everyone in the organization, but they become a "go to" as you plan your week. For me, the execution of these stated high payoff tasks becomes the basis of two entire days of focused activity each and every week. The One Page Plan Finally, we take our goals and projects and align them on one page each in support of the proper topline objective. We assign each project an owner and charge that person with assembling the team, resources and plan for tackling the project related tasks. When it comes to keeping our entire business focused on what matters most this is the most important day our organization has in search of day-to-day alignment and focus. If You Liked This Post. . . :Strategy Without Change Is Pointless is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing  | 
|
|
Is It Time for You to Stop Dabbling and Get Serious?
Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:07 AM PST
| Is It Time for You to Stop Dabbling and Get Serious? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:24 PM PST If you want to start on a serious career path, don’t even think about giving up during the first year. Very little happens during the first year in terms of results. Most businesses aren’t even profitable in their first 2 years; it takes them that long just to become sustainable, even for fairly small businesses. So many would-be pro bloggers give up in their first 6 months. They get bored, lose interest, or get a “better” idea for some other venture. I see them change topics or URLs and start over once or twice a year. After five years of this kind of dabbling, they’ve still barely gotten anywhere. They keep erasing what little progress they’ve made, so they never have the chance to develop anything serious and enduring. When it comes to building any sort of business, either online or offline, this dabbling approach is a bit ridiculous because the real payoff from business comes from consistency over a period of years. It takes time to build a following, attract customers, develop products and services, gain links and search engine placement, generate referrals, develop good business sense, acquire expertise, and figure out how to generate income from your work in ways that feel congruent to you. It took 25 months from when I started blogging to pass $10K/month in income from it, which happened in 2006. In the first 6 months, however, my blog only made $167 total, mostly from Amazon’s affiliate program. If I gave up during that time and started over, I’d never have enjoyed the long-term benefits of this path. Most professional bloggers, however, give up well before they reach this point. They see weak financial results during their first year just as I did, but they conclude it’s not worth continuing if they haven’t made it sustainable by then. In addition to earning abundant income from blogging (mostly from affiliate and joint-venture deals these days), blogging has also created opportunities in other areas, like speaking (I have talks coming up in Las Vegas, Rio, Germany, and Washington DC), getting a book published (ongoing royalties), coaching (started at $997 per coaching call, now at $4997 per call), free travel, amazing social connections, etc. If you want to generate serious income and enjoy an abundant lifestyle, it’s crucial to get past the dabbling phase. For starters the incessant dabblers are perpetually broke. They keep giving up and changing their minds well before they’d otherwise begin reaping the long-term benefits of sustainability and growth. Before they even have a chance to experience serious results, they pull the plug. The truth is that you can generate serious income from just about any form of creative work — writing, audio, video, art, music, programming, design, etc. Others who came before you have already made millions from these paths. But most of them didn’t get very far in their first 6-12 months. It’s the ones who stuck with it for 5+ years that are reaping the biggest benefits. They’re builders, not dabblers. A pattern I’ve noticed in my most successful friends in business is that at some point they made the decision to get serious about their work. They decided to stop dabbling, stop drifting, and stop coasting. They committed to a particular path and doubled down on it, intending to stick with it for years so they could really master it. Consequently, those same people are enjoying serious results. Meanwhile, the dabblers are still looking for that next Get Rich Quick idea that can grant similar results within a matter of months. If you ask your friends what kind of work you’ll be doing 5 years from now, what will they say? If you’re not sure, go ask some of them. If they give you answers you don’t like, or if their answers are inconsistent, why is that? Are you broadcasting that you’re a dabbler? Do you have a history of dabbling? Are you being wishy washy and noncommittal? If you think you’re committed, but the people around you don’t perceive that commitment, you’re probably not committed. If you’re on a strong and successful path, the people in your life will likely be able to predict what field you’ll be in 5 years from now. It will be the field you’re committed to right now. If you want to build up some abundant income streams and enjoy the long-term benefits of stick-to-itiveness, pick an interest that you expect you’ll still be passionate about 5 years from now. I picked personal growth since I’d already been passionate about this field for more than a decade before I started blogging, so I had good cause to believe I’d still be into it 5 years later. It’s now 8+ years since I started blogging, and I’m still passionate about personal growth. I still love the work I do and have no desire to quit and switch to something else. The specific details of my interests change from year to year, but my core passion remains largely the same. If I’d made a less conscious choice or more impulsive choice 8 years ago, I might very well have dumped it within the first year. Don’t overplay today’s fleeting interests when you think about making a serious commitment to a career path. Look instead to the interests you had 5 years ago that you’re still seriously interested in today. Chances are you’l still be maintaining those interests 5 years from now. If you’re going to have these interests anyway, why not bet bigger on them and commit yourself to mastery? Doing something for a long time isn’t the same thing as committing to mastery. I’ve been into disc golf for about as long as I’ve been into personal growth (20+ years), but I never committed to improving disc golf. I never got serious about it. Even though I play disc golf most weekends with friends, I’m probably no better at it than I was 5 years ago. My skills hit a plateau, and I’ve stayed there for years. For me disc golf is a hobby I enjoy for fun, and I haven’t cared to improve at it thus far. If you’re okay being no better off in your career 5 years from now, then there’s no need to commit to mastery. Keep dabbling, or keep doing what you’re doing without making a serious commitment. But if it’s not very palatable to you to stagnate, or if you desire much stronger results 5 years from now, then it’s time to think about getting serious. If you want to dabble for the sake of exploration, that’s fine. But don’t pretend you’ve chosen a career path. You’ll only look foolish when every 6 months you’re telling your friends that your career path has changed yet again. Know that you’re exploring, and do it to learn. Then when you’re ready to get serious, commit to building something that endures, and don’t even think about quitting during the first year. Rule of thumb: If you can’t make a serious 5-year commitment to a given career path, it’s not your path.
Uncopyrighted by Steve Pavlina | 
|
|
And the most shared video brand of 2012 is… Google
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:54 PM PST
| And the most shared video brand of 2012 is… Google Posted: 11 Dec 2012 02:26 AM PST  As we demonstrated recently, the importance of video marketing is growing fast – with purchase statistics like these brands overlooking the medium are missing out big time.
Unruly Media has compiled its 2012 Social Video Share Index to highlight just who's doing video the right way, and Google – up six places from last year – tops the leader board, knocking last year's winner, Volkswagen, to the very bottom of the list. According to Unruly's report, Google's videos were shared nearly six million times, over twice as much as VW's, which were shared 2.25 million times. Unruly co-founder Sarah Wood said: "Savvy brands are no longer creating content to merely watch their YouTube view counter tick up, they're measuring who’s sharing the content, what they’re saying, and how it’s impacting brand metrics." But brands doing this need to keep their foot on the gas, as VW's performance shows. 
| | ASOS promotional problems show that brands must not underestimate customers Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:47 AM PST  British online fashion retailer ASOS.com made some big promises over the weekend, offering fat discounts across everything on its site and escorting frenzied Christmas shoppers and outfit-less partygoers towards salvation like a guiding star.
It's a well-respected retail brand, selling affordable fashion and high-end designer labels alike, so from the outset it should have expected demand to be big. But it didn't. Despite the Ts & Cs stipulating the promotion would end at midnight, the company pulled it early, citing a whole raft of contradictory reasons. This did not go down well with bargain-starved fashionistas.  Quickly, the brand's Facebook page exploded in negativity, with hundreds and hundreds of customers lamenting ASOS's decision to kill the offer, not to mention the huge numbers complaining that the promotional code didn’t work in the first place, or that the site was running so slowly even while the promotion was live that they missed out and felt hard done by.
ASOS tried to soften the blow with another – less appealing – promo, but the mob was already baying for blood (a situation not helped by feeble damage control efforts on Twitter, where the official brand account mentioned nothing of the halt, and the customer service account – apparently run by someone that doesn't understand how to use the '@' function – seemed unsure and inconsistent in its responses to irate shoppers). So what's the lesson, here? No matter how much chatty camaraderie brands have with their fan base, or how well-liked they are, customers won't hesitate to turn on them if they feel they've been wronged somehow. Just look at the hot water General Mills got itself into recently; much-loved family cereal brand Cheerios suddenly became the focus of hateful comments and negativity when customers felt they were being lied to about the product's ingredients. Like ASOS's customers, they felt disrespected through a lack of transparency, and they weren't happy about it. There's a fine line between love and hate, and brands can so easily end up on the wrong side if they don't look where they're going.  Editor's Note: Learn from the digital pioneers, brands like Coca-Cola, Carnival Cruises, Whole Foods, Vodafone and scores of others. Their social media blunders – in the areas of crap customer service, plain dumb marketing or simply being caught short in a crisis – provide valuable lessons from which to shape future corporate comms policy. It all can be found in our new e-book, #FAIL: The 50 Greatest Social Media Screw-Ups and How to Avoid Being the Next One. Buy the book today on Amazon UK, Amazon or on Lulu where you can find it in paperback and epub.
| You are subscribed to email updates from SMI
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
Mobile Payments Visualized
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:53 PM PST
|
|
40 Years Of Playing With Electricity At BMW
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:41 PM PST
You are subscribed to email updates from Jalopnik
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
WordPress Tutorial: Inserting Widgets With Shortcodes
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:38 PM PST
| WordPress Tutorial: Inserting Widgets With Shortcodes Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:27 AM PST The shortcode ability of WordPress is extremely underrated. It enables the end user to create intricate elements with a few keystrokes while also modularizing editing tasks. In a new theme we’re developing, I decided to look into adding widgets anywhere with shortcodes, and it turns out that it isn’t that difficult. 
Some of the widgets that can be added with shortcodes.
This tutorial is for experienced WordPress users; we will be looking at the widgets object and shortcodes without delving into too much detail about how and why they work. If you are looking for more information, I suggest reading Mastering WordPress Shortcodes and the Widgets API article in the Codex. Grabbing A Random Widget The first thing I looked into was how to output any widget without shortcodes. Once done, implementing a shortcode is a relatively trivial matter. Digging around in the Codex, I found the the_widget() function, which does just what I want. It takes three parameters: - The widget’s class name,
- The widget’s instance settings,
- The widget’s sidebar arguments.
Once I saw this, my face lit up. Not only can I output a widget anywhere, but I can pass different sidebar arguments to any widget. This is great because I can specify parameters such as before_widget and after_widget. This also opens up the possibility of easily changing the style of the widget from within the shortcode, but more on that later. 
After applying some CSS, the calendar widget can be added anywhere.
Output Buffering When adding a shortcode, you scan the text for a particular string, do something with it and return the result you want to see. It’s obvious that we will be using the_widget(), but that function only echoes content. To get around this problem we’ll be using output buffering. Take a look at the following two examples; the result is exactly the same. the_widget( 'WP_Widget_Archives' ); ob_start(); the_widget( 'WP_Widget_Archives' ); $contents = ob_get_clean(); echo $contents; First we start our buffer. From this point on, anything that is echoed goes into our buffer instead of actually being echoed. By using ob_get_clean(), we can pull the contents of the buffer into a variable (and also clear the buffer). Once this is done we can echo that variable, or pass it on by returning it if we’re in a function. Creating The Shortcode Now we know everything we need, so let’s create the skeleton of our shortcode. First we need to figure out what arguments we need to pass, and what arguments we want to allow the user to pass via the shortcode tag. - Widget type – Which widget do we want to show;
- Title – The title of the widget (used in the instance parameter);
- Other instance parameters;
- Other sidebar arguments.
I’ll admit that this is a bit vague. The reason is that each widget will need a separate set of possible arguments due to the varied functionality they have. For an archive widget, we can specify whether or not we want the post count. For a category widget, we could also specify the hierarchical attribute. Solving this problem requires a flexible shortcode, and good end-user documentation. 
The best way to make sure the shortcode is used properly is to provide good documentation.
The Shortcode Skeleton add_shortcode( 'widget', 'my_widget_shortcode' ); function my_widget_shortcode( $atts ) { // Configure defaults and extract the attributes into variables extract( shortcode_atts( array( 'type' => '', 'title' => '', ), $atts )); $args = array( 'before_widget' => '<div class="box widget">', 'after_widget' => '</div>', 'before_title' => '<div class="widget-title">', 'after_title' => '</div>', ); ob_start(); the_widget( $type, $atts, $args ); $output = ob_get_clean(); return $output; There are two common attributes all shortcodes will have. The type is where the user will specify the widget type, and the title is where the user specifies the title (no surprises there). Once we have our $atts, we figure out the $args — the widget’s sidebar parameters. Since this is a commercial theme, we don’t need to give the user control over these arguments, so they are just hard coded for now. In the final section we’ll put it all together to create the final widget. Extending the Shortcode Once this is done we can get crazy with our shortcode parameters. One example is allowing the user to pick a scheme. For our example, this is dark or light, but you could easily specify an exact color. All we need to do is add an argument to the shortcode, add a CSS class to our widget based on this argument and let our style sheet do the rest. add_shortcode( 'widget', 'my_widget_shortcode' ); function my_widget_shortcode( $atts ) { // Configure defaults and extract the attributes into variables extract( shortcode_atts( array( 'type' => '', 'title' => '', 'scheme' => 'light' ), $atts )); $args = array( 'before_widget' => '<div class="box widget scheme-' . $scheme . ' ">', 'after_widget' => '</div>', 'before_title' => '<div class="widget-title">', 'after_title' => '</div>', ); ob_start(); the_widget( $type, $atts, $args ); $output = ob_get_clean(); return $output; If you need to make this even more flexible, you can allow a background color to be specified, you can add the $args using parameters from the shortcode, and much more. This solution works perfectly with custom widgets as well. All you need to do is add the class name as the type and accommodate for its specific instance settings Conclusion By now you should be on your way to creating wonderful things with this shortcode. It is great for end users and also a very useful tool to test widgets before releasing a theme. We use this in our themes to make them even more flexible for our users. The ability to put anything anywhere, easily, is one that all themes should have! (cp)
© Daniel Pataki for Smashing Magazine, 2012. | | Opinion Column: The Inconvenient Truth About SEO Posted: 11 Dec 2012 05:34 AM PST Do you own a website? Do you want to be number one on Google? Whatever you do, don’t spend money on aggressive search engine optimization (SEO). I know that sounds like an extreme position to take. However, a lot of website owners see search engine optimization as the answer to their search ranking woes, when things are considerably more complex. The inconvenient truth is that the best person to improve your ranking is you. Unfortunately, that is going to take time and commitment on your part. The answer doesn’t lie in hiring a SEO company to boost your website ranking for Google. The problem starts with the term “search engine optimization” and the misconceptions surrounding it. What SEO Isn’t Most website owners perceive SEO as a dark art, shrouded in mystery. They have heard phrases like “gateway pages” and “keyword density”, or have been bamboozled by technobabble about the way websites should be built. All of this has left them feeling that SEO is the purview of experts. This is a misconception reinforced by certain segments of the SEO community. The problem is that these kinds of complex techniques do work, to a point. It is possible to improve placement through a manipulation of the system. However, although it can have short term benefits, it will not last without continual investment. This is because the objective is wrong. SEO shouldn’t be about getting to the top of Google for particular phrases. In fact, we shouldn’t be optimizing for search engines at all. We should be optimizing for people. After all, that is what Google is trying to do. Why You Shouldn’t Be Optimizing For Search Engines Google’s aim is simple: connect its searchers with the most relevant content. If you are more worried about a good ranking than providing relevant content, then you are going to be fighting a losing battle. If you hire a SEO company to improve your placement and you measure their worth on the basis of how high they get you in the rankings, then you are out of line with what Google is trying to achieve. Your primary objective should be better content, not higher rankings. 
Image credit: Search Engine People Blog.
The SEO company can use every trick in the book to get you better rankings, but over the long term they will lose, because Google is constantly changing how it rates websites so it can provide more accurate results. Remember, you shouldn’t be optimizing for ranking in search engines, you should be optimizing for users. A Better Way Google does not make a secret of how to gain a high ranking. It states clearly in its webmaster guidelines: “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.” So how do you actually do that? Again Google provides the answer: “Create a useful, information-rich website, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.” In short, write useful content. This could include (but is not limited to): - Publishing white papers,
- Writing a blog,
- Sharing research findings,
- Producing detailed case studies,
- Encouraging user-generated content,
- Creating useful applications or tools,
- Running a Q&A section,
- Posting interviews
The list could go on. The key is to produce content people find useful and want to share. Yes, there are some technical considerations when it comes to search engines. However, any reasonably well-built website will be accessible to Google. You don’t need an expert SEO company for that (at least not if the Web designer does their job right). As an aside, it is worth noting that if you take accessibility seriously for users with disabilities (such as those with visual impairments), then you will also make a website accessible to Google. However, setting those technical issues aside, it all comes down to content. If you create great content, people will link to it, and Google will improve your placement. It really is that simple. The question then becomes, how do you create great content? The Inconvenient Truth This is the point where we come to the inconvenient truth. It is hard for an outside contractor to produce the great content that will keep users coming back and encourage them to share. In my experience, this is much better done internally within the organization. The problem is that this doesn’t sit well with most organizations. Its easier to outsource the problem to a SEO company than to tackle an unfamiliar area internally. Admittedly, a good SEO company will have copywriters on board who can write content for you. However, their knowledge will be limited, as will their ability to really get to know your business. Yes, they can write a few keyword-heavy blog posts that Google will like the look of. However, this won’t fool users, and so the number of links to that content will be low. The truth is that if you are serious about improving your placement on search engines, it has to be done internally. This truth is all the more painful, as most organizations are not configured to do this properly. Organizational Change Required The more I work with organizations on their digital strategy, the more I realize how few are structured to do business in a digital world. The issue of SEO is an ideal example of the problem. Responsibility for the website normally lies with the marketing department. Although marketing is well-experienced in producing and writing marketing copy that outlines the products and services the organization provides, they are not best equipped to write content that will be heavily linked to. It is not surprising that if you search on a term like “call to action,” the top results are almost exclusively informational articles, rather than companies helping with services in this area. The problem is that marketeers are experts in the product or service being sold, not necessarily the surrounding subject matter. For example, the marketing department of a company selling healthy meals will know everything about the benefits of their product, but will have a limited knowledge of nutrition. Unfortunately, people are more likely to link to a post on healthy eating tips than they are to link to some marketing copy on a particular health product. What you really need is the nutritional expert who designed the meal to be posting regularly to a blog, talking about what makes a healthy diet. A blog like this would include lots of linkable content, would be able to build a regular readership and would produce keyword-rich copy. The problem is that this is not how organizations are set up. It is not the nutritional expert’s job to write blog posts; that responsibility belongs in marketing. The Long-Term Solution Ultimately organizations need to change so that online marketing is a more distributed role with everybody taking responsibility for aspects of it. I am not suggesting that the central marketing function has no role in digital, but rather recognizing that they cannot do it alone. Others will need to have some marketing responsibilities as part of their role. For example a company selling healthy meals should allocate one afternoon each week for their nutritional experts and chefs to share their expertise online. It would become the marketing department’s responsibility to support these bloggers by providing training, editorial support and technical advice. Unfortunately, these experts are often the most valuable resource within a business, and so their time is incredibly valuable. The idea of “distracting” them from their core role is too much for many companies to swallow. However, in the short term there is still much that can be done. A Short-Term Solution As we wait for companies to wake up and change the way they are organized, there are ways of working within the system. If you haven’t already, consider hiring an employee dedicated to creating content for your website. You can partially finance it with the money you save by getting rid of your SEO company. If that is beyond your budget, consider hiring a short-term contractor or a part-time staff member. You could even use an existing member of your staff as long as they have time set aside to prevent the Web being pushed down the priority list. Although this person won’t have the knowledge to write all the content themselves, by being situated inside of the business it will be much easier for them to get access to those within the organization who do. Arrange meetings with these experts and talk to them about their role. Identify various subjects based on their knowledge and then either record a video interview or write up a blog post based on what they share. Also ask these experts what news sources they read or which people within the industry they follow. Monitor these sources and ask your expert to comment on what is shared. These comments can be turned into posts that add to the wealth of content on your website. Finally, you may find that the experts within the business are already producing a wealth of content that can act as source material for content that users will find interesting. For example, our fictional nutritional expert probably already has documentation on the health benefits of certain food types or how certain conditions can be helped through healthy eating. Admittedly this kind of material might be too dry or academic, but with some editing and rewriting it would probably make great online content. The content you post does not have to be long, it just has to be link-worthy. The key is to share the opinion of your expert and provide content of value to your audience. As that audience grows, start asking questions. Maybe even get some of your readers to share their experiences or knowledge. Over time you will discover that not only will your readers want to contribute, so will your experts. As they see the value in posting content regularly to the website, they will start blogging themselves. All you will have to do is suggest topics and edit their output. I know what you are thinking: it just isn’t that simple. No More Excuses I realize this is a big cultural shift for many organizations. Marketing teams will feel they are losing control, the person responsible for blogging will feel out of their depth and the experts may resent being asked lots of questions. However, what is the alternative? For better or worse, Google demands good content in return for high rankings. Pretending that SEO companies can magically find a shortcut that allows you to avoid this tradeoff just isn’t going to cut it. If you care about how you rank, it is time to take responsibility for your website’s content. Once you overcome the initial hurdle, you will find that producing quality content on an ongoing basis becomes second nature. (cp)
© Paul Boag for Smashing Magazine, 2012. | You are subscribed to email updates from Smashing Magazine Feed
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
The Social Networking Weblog
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:32 PM PST
|
|
Explore Your Local Area (345/365)
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:31 PM PST
| Explore Your Local Area (345/365) Posted: 11 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST Several years ago, I picked up one of those tourism guides for Iowa, similar to the ones that many states put out to attract travelers to their state. I live in central Iowa, of course, so everything mentioned in that guide was within three hours of my house. About four days and a lot of page-flipping later, I ended up marking about 200 things to see in Iowa with my family. 
Thanks to Joel Dinda for this great shot of the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA
The items I marked were a mix of things, from obviously tourist-y places like the above depicted “Field of Dreams” to state parks and community festivals. I marked such things as the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend and Ledges State Park in Boone. I noted the Neil Smith Trail and the Lewis and Clark Trail. The things I marked in the guide were mostly free things. We wouldn’t have to travel too far to see them, and we could pack a sack lunch and make a day out of the trip to the location. Alternately, it wouldn’t be hard to plan a weekend around these things, where we visit a community festival and camp at a state park in one corner of the state. (In fact, we’ve done this.) This guide has led us to countless little day trips or afternoon excursions from our home, let alone weekend trips. We’ve discovered and explored lots of things, from Devonian-era fossil gorges to beautiful lakes and streams. It’s all been virtually free, and it’s filled many days with fun. How can you get started doing this? The first thing to do is to get a tourism guide from your state as well as a guide to the state parks in your state. Find out what’s close to you. Sure, 80% of it won’t seem interesting, but if you find even a few things that you want to visit, you’re going to have a good time, likely at a low cost. We usually plan a day around things that aren’t incredibly close to our location. We pack up a lunch, some snacks, and perhaps even a second meal and depart. Our only cost outside the house is the gas, and for the amount of enjoyment we get out of the trip, the $10 we spend on gas is a nice price. The activity is usually free and the food is as inexpensive as can be. You don’t have to travel to see and enjoy wonderful things. They’re sometimes close enough that you can drive there in an hour or two. You just have to look for them. This post is part of a yearlong series called “365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),” in which I’m revisiting the entries from my book “365 Ways to Live Cheap,” which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.  | | Twelve Gifts That Encourage Frugality Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST My favorite gifts (besides board games, I suppose) are ones that encourage me to make positive changes in my life. Items that encourage me to cook at home, lose weight, learn a new skill, or save a little money are ones that I really value, because I know that they can help me push toward a better life. Here are twelve gifts you can give this holiday season that will encourage the receiver to save a little money in the coming year. A razor blade sharpener (cost: $10 to $20)
A razor blade sharpener takes disposable razors (or disposable razor cartridges) and simply sharpens them with a few flicks of the wrist or a push of a button. With this, you don’t have to keep buying those disposable razors or cartridges – you can just sharpen them and get a lot more use out of each one. 
Thanks to iyoupapa for the image
Rechargeable battery kit If you have children, you have devices that run on AA and AAA batteries. If those devices get used very much, you're going to be continually buying more batteries. Rechargeable batteries are a much better option. When batteries run out of juice, instead of tossing them and installing new ones, you just put them in your charger, let them charge up, and then install them. If you want instant usage, keep a few batteries charged up so you can instantly swap them and then charge the used-up batteries. If you go this route, I highly recommend the eneloop brand, which I’ve used and my parents have used with great success. Programmable thermostat (cost: $20 to $200)
When I worked outside the home, our programmable thermostat made a huge difference in our monthly energy costs. During the winter, the furnace would basically turn off during the day automatically, only kicking on in the evening. During the summer, the air conditioning would go away during the day automatically, only kicking on in the evening. In both seasons – especially the summer – our energy bills went down significantly. Sure, we could do it manually, but this made sure we never forgot. If you want to make an even better gift, install it for them or hire an installer. Filtered water bottle (cost: $10 to $30)
If someone you know has a routine of grabbing a can of soda or a bottle of water out of the refrigerator a few times a day, a filtered water bottle can save them a lot of money. They just fill up the bottle, maybe add a squirt of lemon juice, and stick it in the fridge. When they have a craving, they just grab the bottle and drain it, then run it in their next dishwasher load. Total cost? A few cents. Cost of a bottled water or a soda? Significantly more. Repeat this enough times and it really adds up. 
Thanks to Selena N. B. H. for the picture.
Wine saver (cost: $15)
Ever seen a friend dumping half a bottle of wine down the sink because they’re not going to drink it and it’s going to get stale? A wine saver is perfect for them. It allows you to easily “re-cork” a wine bottle so you can stick it in the fridge. Sure, you can try to jam a used cork back in the bottle, but many times it doesn’t work because the seal isn’t strong. A wine saver easily creates a strong seal. Kitchen herbal plants (cost: $10 to $100)
A few herbs in a pot can be a perfect gift for someone who enjoys food. Chives, oregano, sage, rosemary, basil, thyme – they can all easily be grown in a small pot on a kitchen window frame or out on a small balcony or patio. They don’t require much effort, and then when someone needs fresh herbs, they just go out there and snip off what they need. Classes (cost: $40 to $400)
A new skill can be a valuable thing for anyone to learn, but it’s especially valuable if it moves a person from paying someone to do something to doing it themselves. A great example of this is a beginner’s cooking class, where people learn the basics of home food preparation and see how easy it actually is. Many community colleges and cooking supply stores offer cooking classes, and you can easily gift these classes to others. 
Thanks to Lisa Clarke for the image
A starting knitting kit (cost: $20 to $50)
Another example of a skill that can provide value is knitting, since you can turn a ball of yarn into a beautiful scarf or hat or sweater quite easily. A beginner’s kit is a perfect place to start, especially coupled with some yarn. I taught myself knitting using this very kit and although I’ve not completed anything in a while, I did have a ton of fun learning it and I could shake off the rust and make a scarf if I so chose. A decent coffee maker (cost: $40 to $200)
If someone has a Starbucks habit, give them a decent home coffee maker. Couple it with a coffee grinder, a bag of good beans, and a bottle of good syrup with a plunger, and they’ll find they can make a really good cup of coffee at home that compares with anything they can get at Starbucks for just pennies. My wife makes wonderful drinks with this very coffee maker that are as good as anything that you can get at Starbucks. Gourmet food ingredients (cost: $2 to $100)
Have you ever had really good honey? The kind that’s pretty fresh from the beehive and has a bit of honeycomb in it? It’s amazing, and whenever I have a bottle, I find myself making tea at home and finally pushing through the many teas we have in the cupboard. A similar effect is true if someone gives me, say, a bottle of high-quality olive oil – I can’t wait to get into the kitchen with it, and the meals I make at home are far less expensive than eating out. Your Money or Your Life (cost: $8 to $10)
If I were to make a default recommendation of a personal finance book to someone who I believed was thoughtful enough to read it and think about it for a while, I would immediately choose Your Money or Your Life. This book changed my life. It convinced me that I could have a better life if I exerted control over my financial choices. I wound up changing career paths and putting myself in a much, much better financial place, and this book planted the seeds and gave me the basic gameplan.  | You are subscribed to email updates from The Simple Dollar
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
|
Free GTD articles and diagrams
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:30 PM PST
| Free GTD articles and diagrams Posted: 11 Dec 2012 07:58 PM PST  DAVID ALLEN
Bestselling author and inventor of
Getting Things Done Click on the link below to find free articles and diagrams on getting email under control, reference filling, organizing your workspace, time management, and more. You can select from individual articles, or select a zip file to download all at once. Free GTD articles and handouts.  | You are subscribed to email updates from GTD Times
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |
|
|
9 characteristics of a great job
Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:27 PM PST
| 9 characteristics of a great job Posted: 11 Dec 2012 06:54 PM PST 
Q: Did you always dream of drawing and writing, or were you about to happily settle for a so-called normal job? Was it the misery of "humiliating and low-paying jobs," or the joy of drawing and writing, that pushed you this way?
A: I pursued a normal job so I wouldn't starve to death while figuring out how to have an extraordinary job. I just didn't know how it would play out. –Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert (link) How can you find an extraordinary job? What’s the secret to a fulfilling career? The perfect job. Who doesn’t dream of finding that perfect job? Flexible hours, massive responsibility (or lack thereof), great pay, interesting work, convivial colleagues, travel with perks, and a corner office overlooking the city. Chances are that it’s just that – a dream. Most of us who work for a living – as opposed to entrepreneurs – are stuck working at something less than our dream. The need to pay the rent, the mortgage, the medical bills and so on simply makes the necessity of a paycheck too much to disregard. There are some positives about having that not-so-perfect job, though. Here are 9 things to remember about your current less-than-perfect job: 1. You don’t have to go out feet first. I pose this question to people at work often: do you plan to die at your desk after decades of working for this company? The answer is always no, so I say “then you plan to quit – it’s simply a question of timing.” Remember that your job is not forever. The drama and politics that seem so real now will be gone in 10 years – probably even less – from your memory. 2. You are not your job. Albert Einstein was a patent clerk. Nobody remembers Einstein for his year-end patent clerking evaluation, or the patent clerk staff meetings he skipped. He was not defined by his job, but by his work. If you love to paint, don’t let the fact that you work in retail sales discourage you from painting. 3. Take pride in your paycheck. It may seem like a small thing, often dismissed as “not following your dreams,” but there is some value to simply bringing home a paycheck. If you have a family, be proud that you can provide for them. If you are single, be proud that you stand on your own feet without help from your parents. Even if your job is not perfect, take some pride in the fact that through this job you can support yourself (and your family). 4. Never stop learning. Even the worst possible job presents opportunities for learning – even if they are lessons like “I never want to do this again.” Try and find opportunities in your job to learn new skills. Those skills might come in handy at your NEXT job. 5. Your colleagues may change. If you suffer with a particular colleague, remember that they may leave any day. You don’t necessarily HAVE to be the one to blink and quit! Sometimes you can outlast people that irritate you. 6. The next job may not be that great, either. Everyone has experienced the sinking feeling of quitting one job, moving to a new one and discovering it may be even worse than the one before. If you set an expectation that your life will be a never-ending series of triumphant improvements, you may have some too-high expectations to overcome. Even a near-perfect job will have its off days. 7. Working on the side is only possible if you have “a side.” Writing the next great American screenplay is a terrific idea (although you’ll be crossing the picket lines if you do). However, nobody has ever said that you have to do that and nothing else. There is no shame keeping your day job to support yourself and working on side projects meanwhile. Scott Adams kept working at the phone company in a cubicle even after Dilbert became a syndicated comic strip. Keep at it. Success will come. 8. Don’t discount the social aspect of a bad job. Sometimes the job duties may be bad but the people you work with are great. If you have a bad job but you like your co-workers, keep in mind that a rewarding job doesn’t always guarantee like-minded, friendly colleagues. 9. Motivation isn’t always positive! Sometimes keeping that not-so-perfect job is what spurs people on to avoid “jobs” altogether. Maybe the employee lifestyle just isn’t for you – use that frustration with your current job to inspire you to discover your real passion and break away!  | You are subscribed to email updates from brip blap
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google | | Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | 
|
![Click here to read An Incredibly Massive Explosion Set The Highway On Fire In West Virginia [UPDATE: FIRE EXTINGUISHED]](https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/w0sT8jDk7dwmm2bjuyL1v4WTdxNFPe4_ow0q73_9FMtFpfm9bzxGhWTjeuxtqBDEASWPcxEZOWomlvDXc1JbkwX2g9e44A3ox3ThghhM2x0=s0-d-e1-ft#http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/1881sm3sugrw8jpg/original.jpg "Click here to read An Incredibly Massive Explosion Set The Highway On Fire In West Virginia [UPDATE: FIRE EXTINGUISHED]")
