You might think your smartphone is cool just because you can tweet, email, google, check in at the airport, or check in at your local YMCA (my YMCA is looking at implementing this.) But really, it can do and be so much more. Chances are you already have a whole slew of apps on your phone already. The question is…are they adding to, or taking away from, your productivity?

Whether you use an Android or iPhone, you can download many third-party applications to help you stay on task, remember what you need to do or what you agreed to, and generally keep yourself organized so you don’t waste valuable time.

Here are just a few apps to check out. Please note, I’m not saying these are the only ones, or even trying to get you to purchase these. I do not make any commission if you do. I’m just passing along some useful information.

1.      Evernote: Evernote allows you to take and organize notes. Not only can you access your notes from your phone, but with an Evernote account, you can use them from anywhere with an internet connection. The app itself is free and offers 40 MB of storage space, but you can upgrade to 500 MB of space for $5/month.

2.      ReQall: This is another to-do list app with both free and premium versions. For scheduling convenience, it syncs with your Google and Outlook calendars, and allows you to keep text and voice memos and reminders in a synced account. Also, you have the option to automatically convert your voice memos into text notes.

• The “Pro” version is $24.99 annually. Additional functionalities available with ReQall Pro include location-based note taking.

3.      Jott: Jott takes voice notes and transcribes them into texts that you can post to a variety of web interfaces including Twitter, Google Calendar and Facebook. It also offers a Jott.com account and a desktop application so that you can leave voice notes and transcribe them for later use.

• The application is free on its own, but the account is paid. The basic Jott subscription is only $3.95/month, and the pro account is $12.95/month. There is also an “a la carte” version that offers five minutes of recording time for $6.95.

4.      Air Sharing: With Air Sharing, you can drag and drop a variety of different document types between your phone and your personal computer. Basically, it enables your phone to function as a wireless, portable USB drive with which you can view, edit, and store your documents.

• Air Sharing offers a standard version for $2.99 and a pro version for $9.99. With the pro version, you can print from your phone and remotely access files on your computer.

5.      Timewerks: Timewerks helps you track how many hours you’ve spent on a variety of different projects when you’re working for clients. You can even invoice your clients straight from the app! There’s also a stopwatch feature that runs in the background and allows you to track how much time is spent on each activity.

• Using this app, you can export your invoices to your computer. Also, it integrates with Credit Card Terminal software, which enables you to accept credit card payments through your phone.
• Timewerks is $9.99 for the full version. However, there is a free, “lite” version that offers all of the same functionality, but only for one project at a time.

What apps have you found most useful for enhancing your productivity? Share in the comments below.

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In this first of three webinars hosted by WebDesign.com, Chris Garrett talked about critical success factors you need to implement if you are trying to build traffic to your blog and gain an audience. Here are a some notes on a few of the insights he shared…

The first step when deciding to start, or transform, a blog,  is planning. This also happens to be the step that gets short-changed in the rush to get going. You have to know what your goals are with your blog. What is the outcome you want? Being crystal clear about that guides the rest of your decisions.

You make money by helping other people achieve THEIR goals.
To be a profitable blogger, you have to keep your attention on your audience – what do they want, what do they need, and what do they respond to? How can what you say or share help them achieve their goals?

Develop your own voice. “You are your secret sauce.”
Let people get to know you, but don’t make it all about you. Write the way you speak so that it has a more natural, engaging effect.

Think “long-term” when you attract an audience. People need to be with you awhile to trust you, so don’t go for the quick influx of visitors without having a plan for how to retain and convert them.

What should you talk about? Focus on the intersection between what YOU know and what THEY want.

Chris Garrett is all about “being awesome”, so his final words of wisdom were “Hang out in communities and be awesome.”

This is merely a snippet of the wisdom Chris shared.
The full webinar recording is available for members of WebDesign.com. If you are not a member, it just takes a minute to sign up and you’ll have instant access to over 130 hours of webinar, training, and conference recordings.

Parts 2 and 3 of the Chris Garrett series will be on the next two Wednesdays. They are free to attend, but you do need to reserve your seat.
(Webinar recordings will be made available in the members area.)

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Well, yes…and yes. And that’s the beauty of the folks behind WordPress development. The core contributors and the entire open source community are constantly making it better and better (such as with the last essential security update).

So…f you want a preview of what’s in store with WordPress 3.1 – a sneak look at all the cool new features, join the FREE Walkthrough Webinar on Friday, January 7th, 12noon Eastern time.

Related posts:

1. Are You Ready for WordPress 3.0?
2. Are you ready for WordPress 3.2?
3. Is your blog ready for 2010?

Every New Year’s people set resolutions…but rarely do they follow-through beyond a couple of weeks (or less!).

Sometimes it’s because they aren’t really committed, but more often, it’s because they don’t have a system in place that makes it EASY.

That’s because of The Law of New Year’s Resolutions

The more you have to DO to keep a resolution,
the less likely you are to keep it.

That’s all well and good for some things, but not when it comes to your WordPress website.

So…I want to invite you to set one, simple New Year’s Resolution -

To back up all your websites on a frequent and consistent basis.

That would be a nuisance if you had to ftp your entire site once a day or week – and even worse if you had to rely on yourself to remember to do it, right?

Me, too. Although that is what I relied on for a long time. It wasn’t pretty!

Now I recommend – and use – BackupBuddy, the 3-in-1 plugin from PluginBuddy.
It does all that for you – making it much more simple to keep this critical New Year’s Resolution. I like to make things easy…hence the reason I like it so much.

And to make it even easier to keep your resolution, the company is offering 25% off through January 31st. That’s pretty awesome.

BackupBuddy:
(Use the coupon code: RESOLVE2011)

The team at PluginBuddy isn’t doing this just to get you to buy it…though of course I’m sure they’d like it.

They are actually doing it to get you to do what you know you need to do anyway – back up your site frequently and consistently.

They know what happens when you don’t…and would rather you not have to go through what they went through.

BackupBuddy is an all-in-one solution to backup, restore, and even migrate your entire website. You can even choose where you want the backup to be sent – to your server, Amazon S3, FTP accounts, or to you and your team by email.

For an overview – and to see it in action, go to the dedicated website.

Remember to use the coupon code RESOLVE2011 for your 25% discount – available through January 31^st.

Yes, I do work with PluginBuddy and help them promote their products, but I couldn’t do it if I didn’t believe in how good they are. I’ve met these guys personally, have visited their offices in Oklahoma City, and have picked their brains halfway to Tuesday. They know their stuff – and they are known for World-Class customer service.

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But if you’re like most people, you’re confused by all the SEO talk…which keywords, when do I use keywords, what about meta tags, yadda yadda…..It can be overwhelming.

Really, the best way to get known online is to be engaging in meaningful discussion with people who are in your desired market. On other words, talk to the people who are talking about the things or services you are providing.

When you are engaged in conversation about things your market finds meaningful, they will begin telling others about you – linking to you. Therein lies the beauty. Not only are you adding value, it is BY adding that value that you gain incoming links.

Sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Well, it is, but most people are going about it the hard way, creating everything from scratch. There is a very cool way to leverage the conversations already going on in your marketplace to gain natural, virtually effortless links.

The program I’m studying for this, and I hope you will, too, is Link Liberation.

I’ve been following these guys for some time and am always impressed with how clever they are, as well as how “above-board” they are. If you’ve heard the term “black hat” strategies, it refers to sneaky, and sometimes outright unethical ways of doing business. These guys are 100% white hat. There are so many honest, fairly easy ways to build your search engine ranking and online presence, that it’s a waste of karma to use the questionable ways.

So…check out Link Liberation.

And, if you join me in the program – which means signing up via my link (yes, that is an affiliate link for the program), I will give you 2 hours of free consultation time. You can use this time to have me customize your WordPress site, or even help you put the pieces in place that you’ll be learning in Link Liberation. Just remember you have to register via this link to get the extra bonus. Link Liberation

Can’t wait to experience Link Liberation with you!!

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I’ve been a huge fan of the premium themes at iThemes.com, as well as the plugins at PluginBuddy.com and the training at WebDesign.com. Those are the 3 divisions of the company most of us know simply as “iThemes”.

I’m such a big fan that I write about them frequently on this blog and encourage all my clients to use their products.

Now…I’m excited that I get to combine several of my loves -

• superior WordPress products that make it easy for small businesses to have an online presence
• fun marketing strategies
• affiliate programs where people can make some serious cash
• and doing meaningful work that makes a difference.

iThemes.com announced today that I have joined them as the new Marketing Director. You can read the announcement at iThemes.

What does that mean for you?

Nothing to worry about – I’m still setting up and customizing websites using WordPress.
And, I’ll have even better knowledge about the products, as well as knowing what’s coming down the line, so I can help you think and prepare even farther ahead.

I can’t wait to get my feet wet and get to know the rest of the players. (I’m just hoping they don’t have any weird initiation rituals!)

Take a look at the story – it’s very sweet.

Related posts:

1. Is the iThemes team really that nice?
2. Live WordPress Training – by iThemes

WordPress 3.2, scheduled for release in Spring 2011, will be the first WordPress release that drops PHP 4 support. The planned minimum supported version for the WordPress 3.2 release is PHP 5.2.

What does this mean for you?
If your server/hosting company is not running at least version 5.2 of PHP, things will go kaflooey (a technical term) when you attempt to install or upgrade to WordPress 3.2.

Our friends at iThemes to the rescue…again.

They have developed a quick and easy tool to help you discover whether the server your site is running on is ready for WordPress 3.2. It does this by looking at the information returned by your server. If your server doesn’t identify the PHP version being run, instructions for an alternate method will be provided.

Test your PHP version with the iThemes tool.

If you are using Hostgator, the hosting company I recommend, you are probably all set with the correct version of PHP, but it is still a good idea to check just to make sure.

Related posts:

1. Are You Ready for WordPress 3.0?
2. Are you ready for WordPress 3.1?
3. Live WordPress Training – by iThemes

Even so, not all videos go viral. Megan O’Neill at SocialTimes.com says there are 5 main reasons.

If you’re in business, one of the primary reasons for creating a viral video is for marketing purposes. You want to spread the word about your business. The first problem you run into, though, is sometimes the video is too much like a commercial.

OK, that’s a tricky one. If you’re using it for marketing purposes, then obviously it IS a commercial. But it doesn’t have to feel like a commercial. Take this example from Evian water. Obviously a commercial, yes? But does it feel like you are being sold something, or does it feel like you are being entertained and can’t wait to share the video with someone else?

A second problem viral videos run into is that they aren’t promoted “right.” In other words, they aren’t promoted effectively – or enough. Posting the video on your blog and telling your facebook friends about it probably isn’t going to be enough for the average small business owner or solo-entrepreneur. And, unless you are a big corporation, you probably don’t have the gigantic advertising budget to go along with the marketing campaign to market your marketing video.

For the little guy to make the video really go viral, you have to be prepared to do a lot of the legwork yourself. Obviously having an awesome and engaging video is key, but so is intentionally getting the word out.

To avoid making the other 3 mistakes that make videos fail when going viral, be sure to check out the whole story at Social Times.

Looking for some help on creating videos? Two of the best resources I can recommend are:

Rob Schultz’s Video Profits Program

Kim Doyal’s WordPress Video Marketing Program

Related posts:

1. Did you know that on average a tweet is only retweeted 1.4 times?
2. New Twitter Features – Easier & More Exciting to Use! [video]

Well, what I mean is Twitter is rolling out some new features that make it a more effective way of connecting with people – learning about them as well as sharing more of yourself.

Features such as:

• an easy way to discover new content.
• the ability to view mini-profiles, so you can get to know someone’s profile at a glance, rather than having to click over to their profile (and away from what you are currently viewing).
• view photos, video, and other media content – right there on your own profile. Easy-peasy.
• and, of course, a fresh new design.

All of that is fun, of course, as well as savvy on the part of the Twitterverse leaders. By adding these new features, you are more likely to spend more time on your actual twitter profile – since it’s now more helpful – and perhaps less time on all the various third-party services you may be using.

Savvy concept.
And in terms of marketing wisdom, take a look at the video they are using to promote the new twitter. Fun, fresh, and definitely makes you want to take a look.

What could you learn from this for your own business marketing?

Thought about creating a video? Kim Doyal’s video marketing program and Rob Schult’s Video Profit Pipeline are both top notch.

Watch Twitter’s new video and share what ideas you get for your own business in the comments below!

What do you think?

If you want to create your own video, definitely check out Rob’s Video Marketing Pipeline and/or Kim’s Video Marketing Program.

Related posts:

1. Video Marketing – upcoming program you must check out
2. Did you know that on average a tweet is only retweeted 1.4 times?
3. What do physics and marketing have in common? [video]

But you know, how much twitter is helping your particular business may be a tad over-rated. I first read about this on Jeannette Paladino’s blog.

It turns out that for most of us mere mortals, our tweets are only retweeted 1.4 times on average. If you are using twitter to build your business, that’s not so inspiring.

Of course, social marketing is still in its infancy…plenty of changes still to come. It might be hard to think of a world without facebook. But it was hard to imagine a world without vinyl records at one time, as well. So things change.

So the question for you is “how much time and energy do you want to invest in social marketing – and how will you know it is working?”

The answer, of course, is it all depends. If you enjoy it, and it hasn’t become an addiction, and you’re getting a little traction, then it may be worth it.

If, on the other hand, you dread it, you don’t understand it, and you don’t seem to be getting any gain out of it, it might be worth taking a hiatus while you step back and reconsider your overall marketing strategy.

If you want some help examining your marketing strategy, and in particular how your website or blog fits into this, contact me and we’ll see what we can do together.

Related posts:

1. New Twitter Features – Easier & More Exciting to Use! [video]
2. Viral Videos – why they fail, and what to do about it