Steinar Knutsen » tools

3 Great WordPress Plugins to Customize Your Blog’s Navigation

Steinar — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 02:12:37 +0000

WordPress 3.o introduced some great new features including an advanced set of Menu options. Nonetheless, I always find the need for additional flexibility to customize what Posts and Pages are shown on my blog, when they’re shown and in what order.

Here are 3 WordPress Plugins to Customize Your Blog’s Navigation:

PageMash: This is one of my all time favorites. It allows to drag and drop Pages into the order you need for navigation. You can also drag and drop child Pages in, out and among Parent pages. This is a real life saver if you several nested Pages and want to change things around a bit.
Exclude Pages from Navigation: This plugin provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation. This is useful if you want to have a page “hidden” from everyday visitors or if you really only want people to find it through a link on another Page.
WP-PageNavi: If you have a lot of Posts you’ll like this plugin, which adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog. For example, instead “previous” and “next” at the bottom, this plugin will help create a numbered index of Posts, such as Prev, 1,2,3, Next, Last. It may require some custom CSS depending on your theme, but the end result is quote nice.

Any other WordPress Plugins you recommend to customize your blog’s navigation?

My fist QR Code – scan this into your phone

Steinar — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:25:10 +0000

If you’re not familiar with QR codes, they are an increasingly popular method of sharing information similar to a bar code. Users with a smartphone can focus their camera on this code and the QR code software will save the information behind the code on their phone.

In this case, it’s my URL, but it could be your contact info or any number of attributes.

Looking for a QR scanning app for your phone? Here are some sources I found:

I’m already starting to see QR codes on packaging and websites. What do you think? Are QR codes here to stay?

… Sent from my iPhone

New Audio: Podcasting from my iPad again with AudioBoo

Steinar — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:12:16 +0000

Podcasting on your blog and iTunes is a great way to reach your market and the iPad makes it easy. Check out the Related Posts below for more details on how this is done.

Listen or Download

7 Tools to Increase Social Media Efficiency and Save A Ton of Time

Steinar — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:14:33 +0000

Nearly everyone agrees that social media is a great way to reach and communicate with your market online. Weather it’s through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, direct access to your target market has never been easier. The challenge, of course, is finding the time and resources to make the process efficient and effective. Following is my list of 7 Tools to Increase Social Media Efficiency:

1. Google Reader

This one might not be so obvious, but Google Reader is a great tool for market intelligence and brand management when it comes to social media. Basically, Google Reader allow you to subscribe to the RSS feeds on other websites, blogs, Facebook Pages and Twitter Searches that you want to track or find relevant to your market niche. You can also subscribe to Google Blog or News results containing your name, product or brand. Finally, sign up for BackTweets and track Twitter updates that link to your content.

Now you have a powerful one-stop-shop for getting up to speed on the latest news, trends, and brand mentions in your niche. Now, use this for inspiration in your next blog post, reply to people’s comments about you, and share links with your social network.

Congratulations! You just saved hours a week by setting up a proper system that pushes your content to you!

2. WordPress “Press This”

“Press This” is a often overlooked bookmarklet that comes with every WordPress blog. Essentially, it allows you to highlight text on a website and then easily quote the content in a blog post. So instead of copying and pasting text and links back and forth between a webpage and your WordPress post editor, you can now do it with the single click of a button. This is a huge time saver!!

3. Ping.fm

If you’re like most people using social media today you have accounts on multiple social media networks. Ping.fm allows you to update multiple platforms at once without having to go to each individual account. The beauty of this system is that you have central control over how information is distributed.

For example, when this blog post is published, Ping.fm will automatically send a link to Twitter, Facebook, linkedIn, and Delicious. If at any point I decide to change my distribution strategy all I only have to login to my Ping.fm account and make the changes there. This is much more efficient than re-routing my content on each individual network.

4. Smart Phone (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, etc)

Today’s smart phones provide users with many of the same capabilities available to them on a laptop or desktop computer. However, most smart phones also have cameras and GPS capabilities that add visual interest and location-based information to your social media updates. The tools are so easy to use that literally within less than 60 seconds you can take a picture of something, tag your location, and update all of your networks with just a few clicks.

To do this from your desktop or laptop computer would take considerably longer and would be virtually impossible to complete using a standard cell phone.

5. TweetDeck or Hootsuite

Tweetdeck and Hootsuite suite are two applications that allow you to control your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn updates from one single location. This is very helpful because you no longer need to log into each individual account to post an update or to see what others have to say. Another great feature of these services is the ability to schedule or timestamp your updates for future release.

For example, if you knew that next week you were going to be announcing a new product, you could schedule your updates over the course of the next few days all at once to correspond with the upcoming product launch. This saves you the time and hassle of manually updating your accounts every day with Marketing copy you already have available now.

6. InstaPaper

InstaPaper is a free and very simple online tool that allows you to save a webpage or article for later reference. Rather than printing the article or saving it to your bookmarks or favorites where he can easily get lost, InstaPaper keeps everything organized and accessible across multiple devices by storing information in the cloud. This is particularly important if you don’t have time to read the article now and/or you would like to reference the article in an upcoming blog post.

For example, I can save something using the InstaPaper bookmarklet on my iMac desktop and it will be instantly available for viewing and sharing within my iPad InstaPaper App. Dozens of third-party applications are supported and the functionality continues to expand, so check out InstaPaper when you get a chance.

7. Posterous

Posterous is a terrific blogging platform of sorts that allows you to easily capture text, images & audio and then share this content across multiple social media networks automatically. The real differentiator is that you can e-mail content to your Posterous account, and it will use a smart filtering process to determine where and how that content is posted on your blog.

For example, you just took a picture on your cellphone and would like to post it to your Posterous account, but you would also like that picture to get posted to your Flickr account at the same time. In this case, you would e-mail your picture from your phone to Flickr@Posterous.com and Posterous would take care of the rest. Again, trying to do this manually would take considerably longer.

There are so many other tools and approaches that you could incorporate into your process to increase your social media efficiency. I hope you learned at least one new idea in this post. What other tools are you using that help make your social media life easier?

More Evidence that Social Media is Critical to Online Business Strategy

Steinar — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:14:33 +0000

I help companies map out their Internet marketing strategies and one component is often the use of social media. A common response is that their customers do not use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I often argue this point, given the growing numbers and expanding demographics of those using social media.

Currently, three quarters of Internet users worldwide visit a social network or blog when they go online — that’s a 24% increase over last year.

Joe Average (the international version) spends 66% more time on these sites than he did a year ago — for example, your average user spent 6 hours on these sites in April 2010, while last year he spent 3 hours, 31 minutes.

Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia make an appearance among the world’s most popular brands.

via How the World Is Spending Its Time Online [STATS]

If your company is considering social media as a tool to reach your market online, engage with existing customers, or expand your brand to connect with new prospects, I recommend you get started with three platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Facebook is the leading online social network with over 500M users. Facebook Pages are a great way for a business to leverage this volume. Pages can be custom branded to fit within your other online assets and provide an excellent channel to offer a new communications channel to your online community.

Twitter is the leading microblogging platform. Currently Google indexes Twitter content into their “Updates” results and it’s believe to provide future value in how search engines determine webpage rank. In other words, if you’re engaged with customers on Twitter, it’s an indication that your website has value and may have some level of influence over others. There certainly are a number of tracking tools that indicate this is directionally true.

YouTube is owned by Google and is the leading online video sharing site. It provides companies with the opportunity to engage with customers using video rather than static text and images. Statistics suggest that video is more engaging and website visitor retention rates are higher when video is present. Video doesn’t need to be a high production excercise and I recommend you take a more casual, conversational approach with video when using it to speak directly to your customers.

Not convinced yet that social media is right for your company? What’s holding you back?

Tracking Facebook Ads in Google Analytics

Steinar — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:40:56 +0000

Facebook Ads are a great channel to market your product or service to a targeted set of Facebook users. The cost is very reasonable and with the right hook, your ads can drive significant traffic. To learn more, check out http://www.facebook.com/ads.

Statistics for Facebook Ads have improved recently, but it’s useful to know what happens with visits once they visit your site. Tracking Facebook Ads in Google Anaytics is a great way to do just that. Did visitors purchase? Did they browse around? Did they complete the intended action?

Steps to Track Facebook Ads in Google Anaytics

1. When designing your Facebook Ad, include a reference parameter at the end of the Destination URL, such as http://www.myurl.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=test

You can generate this URL at the Google Analytics URL Builder.

2. In Google Analytics set up an Advanced Segment

3. Create a new advanced segment

4. Customize the segment info

5. Select your Segment from the Dashboard to only see traffic stats from Facebook Ad traffic

What do you think? Will this help you get more insight into Facebook Ad performance?

Record and publish online video with no additional hardware or software with screenr.com

Steinar — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:17:44 +0000

Sharing video content online is something we would all like to do and screenr.com makes it easy. It’s basically a free web app for simple screen casting. It’s great if you want to narrate a powerpoint presentation or share something you’ve found online via video.

Details: Up to 5 minutes, audio recording, download finished video, save or export to YouTube, embed link and custom URL’s for linking. Plus, it’s integrated with Twitter so it’s easy to share with your friends.

Check it out at screenr.com.

Share iPad links on Twitter and Facebook with Ping.fm bookmark in Safari browser

Steinar — Fri, 07 May 2010 23:19:21 +0000

Here’s an easy technique to share iPad Safari browser links on Twitter and Facebook with a Ping.fm bookmark.

One of the most popular tasks in twitter is sharing links with your followers. On a laptop or standard computer this is fairly simple since you can just cut and paste from the browser into your favorite Twitter client, such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.

You can do the same on the iPad but Ping.fm makes the process significantly easier by adding a Ping This bookmark in your iPad Safari bookmarks. I use MobileMe , so the Ping This bookmark is already there from my iMac and Macbook Pro.

What do you think? Easy right?

Audio and Video: How to podcast from your iPad and publish on WordPress with AudioBoo App

Steinar — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:53:20 +0000

The iPad serves many purposes, but for me it’s about marketing and finding new and different ways to leverage mobile technology to grow my business and engage my market online. New media has been especially interesting and I’ve confirmed the iPad is great for recording audio to create podcast episodes which can translate into new WordPress blog posts.

Listen or Download

I’ve written previous posts on how to post audio directly to WordPress from iPhone, so I won’t repeat everything here.

I love using my iPhone to podcast with AudioBoo and now I can do the same with my iPad. It’s a a great free app from the Apple iTunes store that allows you to record up to 5 minutes of audio, share on Twitter and tag for use in other platforms.

Personally, I use the AudioBoo RSS feed and WP-O-Matic WordPress plugin to automatically import my audio episodes into WordPress as individual posts. It’s great when you want to get content out on the fly and don’t necessarily have time to write a post or record a video.

What do you think? Have you tried AudioBoo? Does it seem like a good fit for your audience?

What

Repurposing existing content for an additional boost to your online marketing and communications strategy

Steinar — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:56:28 +0000

If you’re creating online content for your business, at some point it may make sense to repurpose existing content for an additional boost to your online marketing & communications strategy.

For example, let’s say you’re an avid blogger. Chances are you have a series to posts that can be organized in a fashion that somewhat resembles a short novel. Heck, even if it’s just five posts on a niche subject, surely it’s meaningful to package those posts together into one coherent piece of work.

Why? Because packaging your content helps readers consume it more easily and the easier it is for your customers and prospects to consume your content, the better.

Repurposing existing content also give you the opportunity to share your best work in a new and different way. It may look the same to you, but for your readers it somehow seems fresh. Let’s take a look at how this might work …

3 great ways to repurpose existing content

1. Create an ebook. This is so simple and requires no additional software. Simply copy and paste your blog posts into your favorite word processing program, such as MS Word or Apple Pages. Spend a little time organizing the content, creating a table of contents, building a title page, and updating the content to reflect any changes in your original work.

Paginate, add some simple headers and footers and print it out as a PDF. Apple Pages has PDF output capabilities built in. If you’re using MS Word you’ll need to use one of the dozens of free PDF creator apps or online tools. Now, upload the PDF to your website or email it to all your friends and fans. Easy, you’ve just created an ebook. Now go create another one!

2. Create a real book. If you’re in the business of meeting face-to-face with clients, it might make sense to make an actual printed soft bound or spiral book from your content.

This could be as simple as printing out your content and stapling it together; a quick visit to your local print shop where they can bind your pages for you; or using a site like LuLu.com which allows you to upload your content and create a true piece of work. I’ve seen some of these LuLu books and they’re as nice as anything your would find at the local bookstore.

Think about how great it would be to greet new clients with a copy of your latest book!!!

3. Create video or audio. Text is great, but what’s even better is when you take your blog posts and create a cool video or audio to compliment your content.

For example, open the audio recording app on your computer (MS Recorder or Apple Garageband), hit record, and read your blog post out load. Add some color to your text or some variation to the original piece for interest. Post the audio along with your blog post or start a podcast on iTunes. Maybe forward the audio to one of your clients in an email and see their reaction.

A better approach would be to record a video of the content. This could go two of several ways: 1) turn the video into a presentation (PowerPoint or KeyNote) and record the presentation with voiceover, or 2) an easier method would be to use your webcam and speak into the video camera while reading the content.

This takes practice and I recommend you learn the content so as not to actually read the words off a page. Once complete, submit your video to TubeMogul and share with YouTube and other popular sharing sites. Include a copy in your blog and your Facebook Page.

************************************

So, there are three pretty straightforward methods of repurposing existing content to market your business online.

What do your think? Is it worth the effort to repurpose existing content? Have you tried this? What’s the results?

Start a new blog on a shoestring

Steinar — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:09:08 +0000

Blogs are a great way to share your ideas and content online, maintain control over that content, and network with others within your niche. The good news is there are several ways to start a new blog on a shoestring.

The thought of setting up and managing your own blog may at first seem overwhelming and even unnecessary to some, but the truth is it’s quite simple.

If you’re looking for a free solution check out Blogger, WordPress.com, Tumblr or Weebly. These platforms have tons of great features and you can literally be up and running in minutes. The downside is you won’t have complete control over every aspect of the site, including the URL (which you can personalize for a fee).

Two great paid solutions include WordPress and TypePad. WordPress is the most popular mainly because of the plugins and support community. Both are specifically designed for blogging, so the admin capabilities cater to ease of use and it’s very easy to add new content on a regular basis.

If you choose to download and install WordPress on your own server or domain, you’ll need a hosting package. I use Bluehost, but several other options exist. You’ll also need an FTP client such as CyberDuck, which allows you to easilly upload files, images, themes, etc.

Again, most of the functionality and features to get started are built in, but for those of you that want a more customized approach, WordPress is probably your best bet.

Any other good options you recommend to start a new blog on a shoestring?

Google PageRank Checker – Check Google Page Rank of any Web Page

Steinar — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:05:24 +0000

Google PageRank is a factor that many consider important to search engine optimization and how your site ranks in Google search results. Here’s a site that lets you quickly check:

Google PageRank Checker – Check Google page rank of any web pages.

How to increase your PageRank? Well, that’s one of the great mysteries. Here’s how Google explains it:

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

Use Safari, MobileMe and Ping.fm to share browser bookmarks and content across iMac, iPhone and iPad

Steinar — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:53:45 +0000

Here’s a quick video to illustrate how I use Safari, MobileMe and Ping.fm to share browser bookmarks and content across my iMac, iPhone and iPad.

Why do I take this approach?

MobileMe syncs Safari bookmarks across any Apple device you setup with MobileMe and Safari
Safari is a great browser - fast, reliable, and compliant with most of the latest website components
I constantly switch between devices and need consistent access to the same bookmarks
Ping.fm allows you to centrally manage how you share and distribute content. Rather than setting up share controls in individual applications like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I prefer to centrally control the content from my blog and use Ping.fm to handle the distribution.

What do you think? Do you see value in using Safari, MobileMe and Ping.fm to share browser bookmarks and content across multiple Apple devices?

PS – here’s how I made that finger cursor mouse on my Mac

Mac Custom Human Finger Mouse Cursor for iPad and iPhone Simulator Screencasts and Tutorials

Steinar — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:07:47 +0000

Have a new iPad or iPhone app you want to demo? You probably want this Mac custom human finger mouse cursor app that offers a great solution for screencasts and tutorials using the iPad/iPhone Simulator.

PhoneFinger transforms your Mac’s mouse cursor into a realistic simulated human finger for testing and demoing iPad applications and websites.

Why would you want to do this?

Well, it’s a great solution if you want to demo a new app or record a screencast and make it look as realistic as possible. The app lets you resize the finger and choose from a male finger, female finger or minimalist circle.

PhoneFinger also includes instructions to make your own custom finger mouse cursor.

To download the free app and read the tutorial visit http://www.wonderwarp.com/phonefinger/

Here’s an example . . .

What do you think? Is this a “handy” app for developers?

Improve Productivity with the iPad – More Focus, Less Multi-Tasking

Steinar — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:33:08 +0000

With the upcoming iPad release, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how exactly I could use the new device in my daily routine. I already have an iMac, MacBook Pro and iPhone, so the questions for me as a business owner is will the iPad help improve productivity?

Many have criticized the iPad for its lack of Adobe Flash and inability to run multiple application simultaneously, unlike Windows or Mac OSX which allow you to multi-task and easily share your desktop among several apps at once.

I actually see the single app iPad limitation as an advantageous feature to help me focus on a single task and ultimately help drive productivity in some situations. Of course, there are exceptions, but with the right iPad apps, I believe this will be a good thing.

“When people try to perform two or more related tasks either at the same time or alternating rapidly between them, errors go way up, and it takes far longer — often double the time or more — to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially.” — David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition, and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan

via 4 Steps for Managing Social Media Attention.

A good example is writing blog posts. Many times, we spend a disproportionate amount of time researching a new entry rather than actually writing. It’s not that the inspiration is difficult to find, it’s that we easily get distracted during our research by tangential subtopics, comments, and related posts from source material … I’m sure you can all relate.

On the iPad, however, I’ll be forced to stick to one app to write my post – at least the initial draft. Without the distraction of Twitter, email, and the web looming off to the side, I can spend some serious quality time focusing on my writing.

And yes, I have a few wireless Mac keyboards handy, so the physical typing part will be easy and familiar.

Of course, this sounds good in theory, but I won’t really know until I have the iPad in my hands.

What do you think? Will the iPad improve productivity? Is the lack of multi-tasking across apps a limitation or feature?

How to properly tag your images for search engine optimization

Steinar — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:17:17 +0000

Tagging your images for search engine optimization is a great tactic to drive more targeted traffic to your site.

If your site is being indexed by Google, chances are your images will be indexed as well. I suggest you sign up for Google Webmaster Tools (free) just to make sure Google know you want your images indexed.

First, I tend to only use one image per blog post, so the optimization settings are pretty simple and only take about 10 seconds.

Once you’ve inserted your image you want to set the Title, Alt and Description tags to include your keywords or at least some description that relates to the topic of your content. Some content publishing systems, like WordPress, allow you to right-click and set the tags, but you might have to look at the HTML in some cases.

For example, if I’m blogging about “homemade fishing lures”, my optimized code would look like this:

Easy right? Give it a shot and track your image related traffic in Google Analytics.

What do you think? Do you tag your images for search engine optimization?

Finding your Rhythm for Blogging, Social Media and Engaging Customers Online

Steinar — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:38:51 +0000

Whether you are new to blogging and social media or have been at it for a while, finding your rhythm can be a challenge and something that requires continuous improvement. This is especially true as the tools and platforms change in relation to your marketing strategy for engaging customers online.

This is my 100th post on this blog, so I thought it would be fitting to review my daily process. Let’s start with my goals.

My blogging and social media goals:

Stay informed of the latest news, trends and topics within my niche
Connect with other marketers, customers, and folks I find interesting
Share my thoughts and those of others with my network
Deliver valuable content to build my network, engage my market and grow my business online

Daily blogging, social media, and market engagement process:

I use Google Reader to find the latest news and keep my finger on the pulse of what happening within my niche. I subscribe to dozens of news sources, popular blogs and Google searches to find relevant articles, with which I can share, comment on, or use as inspiration for my next blog post. I usually check Google Reader 2-3 times a day for 5 minutes each and complete 1-2 actions as a result.
I use this blog as the main source for content creation and distribution. Creating content on my own domain allows me to maintain full control. Sure I post information on Facebook and Twitter, but anything with substantial content resides on my blog. I publish new posts every 1-2 days.
I use the WordPress ping.fm plugin to automatically share my blog RSS feed with Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and a few other popular social media and bookmarking sites. Again, this allows me to maintain control rather than setting up 3rd party sites to receive my RSS feed. If I ever want to turn off my stream, I can control this from one central dashboard in ping.fm. Not everything flows through ping.fm – only content that I want to share with my entire network.
My iPhone is my Internet Marketing Remote Control. I can manage Twitter, check Google Reader, update WordPress posts, reply to comments on my blog, check in with Facebook friends and fans, snap images and record & publish podcast episodes from my iPhone with the click of a button. Of course, I can also use email and talk on the phone.
At night, I like to use Google Reader to answer questions on Twitter from people looking for help. I have several dozen search queries set up and RSS feeds organized in Google Reader to make this simple. Answering people’s questions on Twitter allows my to meet new people, learn something new, and share content I find helpful.

Keys to Success with Blogging and Social Media

The keys to successfull blogging and social media vary, depending on your particular situation. Here are a few things I find helpful:

Write original content. It’s OK to quote others, but the majority of your content should be original.
Find a frequency of engagement that suits you and be consistent.
Reply to comments, messages, and mentions quickly.
Write as if you were talking with your reader, but keep search engine optimization in mind.
Proactively promote your content by leveraging your RSS feed and providing links for people to find you.
Have a content creation strategy to help define what you will talk about and how that unfolds over time.

I hope you find this helpful as you continue to define or improve your process for blogging and engaging your market online through social media.

Any thoughts? What tools and process do you follow to increase your efficiency and effectiveness?

Create Video Content to Engage Your Readers Online

Steinar — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:23:18 +0000

Creating videos to engage your readers is a great tactic you should consider if you manage a blog or would like to take your online communications strategy to the next level.

Publishing online video has vastly improved over the years and for a minimal investment you can easily shoot, upload and share video on the fly. The two biggest barriers I most often see are 1) fear of criticism and 2) assumption that video takes a long time to produce.

I’ll admit, shooting video takes some nerve. My advice is to practice. If you need to, shoot a video everyday for 30 days and then start publishing. This will give you the chance to become familiar with the tools and find your voice or individual level of comfort.

In terms of time required – true video can take longer than simply typing out a new blog post. However, that doesn’t need to be the case if you’re willing to sacrifice perfection for efficiency. You can easily shoot and post video right within Youtube or use a tool such as Seesmic.

So, what’s your experience been shooting video and what’s the reaction you’re getting from others?

A popular subject – How to Podcast from your Mac

Steinar — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:25:32 +0000

Based on the traffic, comments, and backlinks I’m seeing, my series on how to podcast from your Mac is relatively popular. The numbers aren’t staggering but nearly 1000 visitors have come here to learn exactly how this all works.

So, here’s a summary of where we are in the series and what’s next.

You can also watch these on my YouTube Playlist: How to Podcast from Your Mac.

In upcoming episodes, I’ll cover:

How to host your podcast on WordPress and publish to iTunes
How to publish a video podcast from your Mac
How to include video, audio and pdf’s in your podcast
How to publicize your podcast on other podcasting networks beyond iTunes

Any other topics you would like me to explain on this subject?

Also, please subscribe to my RSS feed and newsletter to stay informed when these new episodes release.

Part IV – How to Podcast from Your Mac (iWeb and iTunes)

Steinar — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:39:36 +0000

In our last episode of How to Podcast from Your Mac with Skype I discussed how to record Skype conversations for your podcast and today I’ll show you how to publish your podcast using iWeb so that it is available on iTunes. This episode assumes you have a MobileMe account, but you can still achieve the same results with your own domain.

Basic Steps to publish your podcast from Your Mac using iWeb include:

Create your audio in Garageband and either Share with iWeb or save to a file
Open a new Site in iWeb, choose a theme, and choose the Podcast template
Change the name of your Site, Page, and entry to include the title of your podcast and any keywords to reflect your subject
Update the podcast page title, description, and image. This is information captured in the iTunes store for your podcast name and cover art
Update the podcast episode entry title, description and image
Import the audio and image for the episode (this is automatically done is you started in Garageband Share with iWeb)
Open Inspector>RSS>Podcast and update the podcast series and episode author, email, parental advisory, and Publish to iTunes Store settings
Update your site publishing settings to MobileMe (or other destination depending on your preference)
Publish the entire site
Choose File>Submit Podcast to iTunes, check settings and select Publish and Submit.
To add an additional episode, create your audio in Garageband and Share with iWeb to automatically create a new entry on your site.

At this point you will get a confirmation email from Apple that your podcast submission request is being reviewed. Within 24-48 you will get notification that it has been accepted or denied. If accepted, Apple will provide a link to your podcast on the iTunes store, which you can begin to share immediately on your website, email, Facebook, etc. Your podcast will begin to show up in search results on iTunes within another 24 hours.

Congratulations! You now have a podcast on iTunes that people can subscribe to and enjoy for free!

Just getting started with podcast on your Mac? Check out previous episodes:

What do you think? Does this process make sense and is this an easy approach to podcast from your Mac with iWeb? Let me know how it goes!

What does your Twitter psychological profile say about you?

Steinar — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:12:34 +0000

I have been doing some research on tools to analyze customer sentiment on social media networks and ran across TweetPsych which maps your psychological profile versus other Twitter users.

My results are pretty accurate based on my interests, work, and stream of content I share on Twitter. I’m most interested in Internet marketing, SEO, and new media and specialize in consulting, teaching and generally helping others learn how to leverage the Internet to grow their business. This comes accross clearly when you look at the TweetPsych analysis.

Visit TweetPsych to view your profile.

What do you think? Do you find it useful have this kind of Twitter psychological profile information?

Part III – How to Podcast from Your Mac (Recording Skype Conversations and Interviews)

Steinar — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:56:04 +0000

As I reviewed in Part II – How to Podcast from Your Mac, using Garageband to record a simple podcast is pretty straightforward. I hope you got a chance to try out the process I outlined in that video and found it rather easy to get started.

For most new podcasters, the challenge is finding a certain level of comfort in front of the microphone. It is a funny thing, considering we have no problem talking throughout the day, either in person or on the phone.

A great technique that many podcasters find appealing for their listeners is to record a conversation or an interview over the phone. Traditionally this would require a phone tap of sorts or a paid recording conference service.

Today it’s much easier with Skype. I f you’ve never tried Skype it’s basically an online phone service that let two people talk over the Internet anywhere in the world for free. You can also purchase blocks of minutes and call people on their land line from your computer.

WARNING: it is against the law to record a phone conversation without mutual consent. You must disclose the fact that you are recording the conversation and get verbal agreement from all parties that this is acceptable before you proceed with the recording.

The beauty for podcasters is that you can record Skype calls and the quality is generally very good. It’s a common practice that leading podcasters use and a technique I use on my Entrepreneur Weekly podcast.

Install Skype and Recording Plugin

Visit Skype.com and download the free application
Sign up for Skype Out if you plan to call people who do not have Skype. I highly recommend this even as a backup security measure should they have trouble connecting with Skype. Calls are only $.02-$.03 per minutes.
Download ECamm Call Recorder – this plugin let’s you record calls and split the tracks for editing in Garageband.
Get a good headset. Skype has a number of models they recommend. You can also use a mic like the Samson CO1U (aff) and a separate set of headphones. In either case I recommend the mic inputs are USB rather than using the mic input jack. Check out Part I – How to Podcast from Your Mac (Equipment and Software) for more tips on this.

When you first install Skype, you have the option to make a few free test calls. I also recommend you find a friend to also install Skype and familiarize yourself with how Skype works before you start doing any recording. Of course, I just dove right in and learned the hard way, though I must say Skype is simple to use.

Skype Recording Preferences - Click to Enlarge

Once you install Call Recorder, you have the option to modify its setting from within Skype, but you will be fine with the default settings. Personally, I set the recorder to record by default so as not to miss something by accident.

Once you’re ready to record, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Minimize any background noise. Turn off the ringer on your phone and any other machines that make white noise (fans, printers, etc). Close the door and put a sign outside if necessary – you don’t want someone barging in and ruining your great recording.
Click the red record button on Call Recorder when you are ready and let the conversation begin.
You might want to start off with an introduction of yourself and anyone else on the line.
Keep it conversational and do not read from a script. You may find a list of leading questions helpful, but try to talk as if you were have a regular discussion.
Speak clearly and ask open ended questions – those that require more than just a simple yes or no response. This will help keep the discussion going.
At the end of the call, ask your guest how people can find them (website, contact info, etc)
Thank your guest and finish the call.

At this point Call Recorder will stop and save the recording to the default folder. You can change this folder in Preferences.

After the recording is complete you have a few options:

Save the recording as is.
Open in QuickTime Pro and split the tracks. Save both tracks and import into Garageband, so you can tweak individual tracks
Open the recording in Garageband and edit or add some intro music and other elements.

In my upcoming posts, I will review how to send this new podcast episode to iWeb or WordPress, among other details for making your podcast public.

What do you think? Have you tried recording calls with Skype for your podcast? How is that going?

Facebook Via – Twitter Retweet Meets Facebook Allowing Friends to Easily Share Content

Steinar — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 13:55:04 +0000

It was only launched last night, but I’m already seeing use of Facebook’s new share feature or “via”. It basically allows you to share links from your friends’ posts, add your own commentary and give credit to your friend’s original post.

Generally speaking I think this will go over well, due to the limited nature of the simple “Like” feature and closed in nature of “comments.” By allowing friends to share and comment on each others’ content, Facebook is encouraging many-to-many conversations, like those taking place on Twitter.

We’ve long speculated as to when Facebook might get its own version of Twitter’s Retweet, and it appears that the time is now. This evening, the site rolled out a “via” feature that lets you repost another user’s shared items, with a “via” link attached for attribution.

via Facebook’s Version of the Retweet Has Arrived.

No doubt, anyone who owns a business should be delighted by the improvement if you’re leveraging Facebook to grow your business, since most of the updates businesses post on Facebook include a link.

What do you think? Have you tried the new “share via” features yet?

Mobile Phones Will Serve as the Online Content Consumption Platform of Choice by 2013

Steinar — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:11:37 +0000

More evidence today from Gartner that mobile phones will serve as the online content consumption platform of choice by 2013. Is your company preparing for the shift? It’s happening now, so get on-board.

By 2013, mobile phones could easily surpass PCs as the way most people hop onto the Web. Gartner’s statistics show that the total number of PCs will reach 1.78 billion in three years, while the number of smartphones and Web-enabled phones will shoot past 1.82 billion units and continue to climb after that. This trend will force more Web sites to revamp their pages to make them easier to surf on a mobile gadget.

via Smartphones to dominate PCs in Gartner forecast | Business Tech – CNET News.

Consider the following tactics to make your site mobile friendly:

Create a mobile version of your website or if you’re using WordPress, install a mobile theme such as WP-Touch.
Use mobile friendly video, not flash. YouTube is a great choice and now supports high-definition. Some services, such as Vimeo, don’t play nice on many devices, including the iPhone.
Understand the bandwidth and screen size limitations (and opportunities) of mobile devices. Large images, files and other on-page elements create a barrier for users.
Consider more new media – audio and video – instead of just text. Text is difficult to read in some cases if not properly formatted, whereas optimized audio and video can potentially get your message across faster and with greater impact.
Use a website statistics analysis tool, such as Google Analytics to track visitor devices and navigation. You can learn a great deal about their behavior and tweak your content appropriately.

What are your plans to meet the needs of mobile users? What’s working for you?

Part II – How to Podcast from Your Mac (GarageBand)

Steinar — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:22:42 +0000

This is part two in a video series on how to podcast from your Mac using GarageBand. In this episode I walk you through the steps of recording your voice, inserting a jingle and an image, and some simple editing to create your first podcast episode. Check out Part I: Podcasting equipment and software for the Mac if you missed it.

Basic Steps to podcast from Your Mac using GarageBand include:

Open GarageBand and select the Podcast template. Name your podcast.
Import artwork into the Podcast track from iPhoto or other location on you computer
Highlight the Male or Female Voice tracks and hit the record button at the bottom of the control panel
Hit record or play to stop the recording an rewind to review your audio
Insert a jingle or other audio clip in the Jingle menu by dragging pre-built jingles from the Media Bar off to the right
Adjust the timing of your audio track and the jingle by selecting the track and dragging it to the appropriate location
Rewind and play to review your finished podcast. Record new segments that you’re not happy with.
Save the GarageBand project and export as you wish.
To create a MP3 from GarageBand, export to iTunes and then convert in iTunes.

What do you think? Did this work for you? What questions do you have about how to podcast from your Mac?

Facebook is More Like Google and Why Your Business Needs a FaceBook Page

Steinar — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:25:30 +0000

In December, Facebook traffic reached 132 million unique visitors and continues to grow. Surprisingly, most small businesses claim “our customers don’t use Facebook!” Oh really?

Traditionally, we’ve compared Facebook to Twitter and MySpace, but with its mammoth size, Facebook looks more like Google …

… any comparison between Facebook and Twitter is meaningless and Facebook should actually be compared with Google.

via Facebook’s U.S. Traffic Reaches 132 Million Visitors.

If you have a business how are you leveraging Facebook? Do you have a Facebook Page, Application, or Ads? How’s that working?

5 ways to leverage social media to better engage customers

Steinar — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:31:46 +0000

Engaging customers through social media is not a trend, it is part of human nature. People simply want to feel like they have a voice, especially when dealing with a company they do business with.

This quote from eMarketer reinforces the idea that companies marketing on social media platforms need to take this to heart and make the extra effort to truly engage with their market:

Most businesses have realized that when it comes to social networks like Twitter or Facebook, simply broadcasting content isn’t quite enough. Consumers want companies to engage with them on social networks — not because they want to have a relationship, per say, with a brand of soap or shampoo, but because they appreciate the opportunity to give feedback on products, receive meaningful information from brands, and catch the occasional bargain, among other things.

via The eMarketer Blog.

Simple ways to engage customers with social media:

Actively search Twitter for people asking questions about your niche. For example search “how do i” [insert industry keywords]. Think of other leading indicators to surface questions and answer them directly.
Set up a blog search alert on Google and respond to any blog posts that mention your company name or brand. Include a link to your website or social media platform of choice.
Blog about your industry and your market. Invite customers to comment. Don’t edit the comments. Don’t hide the comments. Make the dialogue open and honest.
Setup a site similar to my Starbucks Idea and invite customers to provide innovative ideas. Make your customers part of the solution.
Reward customers that actively engage with you online somehow. Don’t make it some formal program. Make it a surprise and don’t publicize it. Let them do the promotion for you. That’s the power of social media

What do you think? How can companies leverage social media to better engage customers?

How to post audio directly to WordPress from iPhone

Steinar — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:09:55 +0000

Posting audio directly to WordPress from my iPhone has been a project of mine for a few weeks and I have a very good solution now that you might try.

Audio is a great format to communicate with your readers for several reasons:

audio blog posts are much faster to produce
audio blog posts do not require extensive editing
you can easily set up a separate RSS feed for audio posts and let readers subscribe via iTunes (see my sidebar)
audio blog posts can be created while driving – much like talking on the phone
audio blog posts are great for interviewing people
audio blog posts are a great way to differentiate your blog and add variety

My solution satisfies the following criteria:

post audio to WordPress from my iPhone without logging into WordPress
blog posts must contain a flash audio player that is user friendly for desktop users
blog posts must contain a direct link to the raw mp3 file so that audio is mobile friendly
audio posts must publish automatically without any further editing or logging into WordPress
Any social networking notifications stem from my blog and direct users to my site, not some 3rd party site.

Installation and Setup

Here are the steps to post audio directly to WordPress from your iPhone:

Install the AudioBoo app on your iPhone
Install WP-o-Matic plugin on your WordPress blog
Install Podcasting plugin on your WordPress blog

AudioBoo

No custom settings are required. Just set up an account, go to My Boos, and copy the RSS feed address from the Address Bar.

WP-o-Matic

Set up a new Campaign
In the Basic tab, give your campaign a name, activate it, and provide a slug. I use “audio.”
In the Feed tab insert the RSS feed address from AudioBoo
In the Categories tab, indicate your preferred category. I use “podcast.”
Leave Rewrite tab blank
In the Option tab create a custom post template with the code below.

- Set Frequency at no less than 1 per hour to determine when new feeds should be checked.
- Select Published when you’re ready to go live. Choose Private or Draft while testing.
- For Max Items, I select one(1) since I do not want more than one audio post per day. You could do more if you like.
In the Tools tab, do nothing.

Podcasting Plugin

The only option I recommend you modify is the Player Width under Audio Player Options so that it fits horizontally within your post appropriately. I use 480px on my site for example.

How to Use

Open the AudioBoo app on your iPhone
Record your audio, give it a title, and publish
Your MP3 will now appear as a new post, based on the frequency you selected in WP-o-Matic Options.
After post has published you may add text to the post. If you want the ability to add text prior to publishing, change the WP-o-Matic Options back to “Draft,” but this defeats the purpose for me – the ability to publish audio to my blog without logging into WordPress at all.

What do you think? Does this work for you? There are other solutions – what are you using?

Optimize your WordPress Blog for SEO and User Experience – Joost de Valk (Video)

Steinar — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:37:56 +0000

Another great video from Joost de Valk “Yoast”, including some useful advice on strategies to optimize your WordPress blog for SEO and user experience.

In particular, Yoast shares some very helpful hints for Analytics, Automation, RSS, Commenting and Plugins. Hope you enjoy.

What tips do you have to share to optimize your WordPress blog for SEO and user experience?

Using Ping.fm vs. Facebook Notes RSS to share blog posts on Facebook Pages

Steinar — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:37:27 +0000

There are several ways to automatically share blog posts on Facebook Pages. The functionality of each approach is unique with different handling of images, links back to your website, and the need for separate applications to make them work correctly. Let’s look at Ping.fm and Facebook Notes RSS to get started.

Ping.fm

Ping.fm is a popular tool for distributing content online. For example, I use the WPing.FM WordPress plugin, so whenever I publish a new post, a link is sent to a variety of targeted social media networks, including Facebook.

I like Ping.fm, because it offers a central admin panel to manage the flow of content and easily swap in/out targets.

Sending Ping.fm content to Facebook results in a post that links back to your original content. It does not support post images and seems to grab a random image from your blog page. In my case, it grabs the image of an ebook in my sidebar. There seems to be no place to correct this and it’s not terribly user friendly.

The benefit is that Facebook Page posts are backlinks, so readers are redirected to my website to read the full story. Good for me, not necessarily good for them. Good for me because readers are now exposed to other content on my site. Also potentially good in terms of SEO, since this approach produces backlinks.

Not good for my readers, because it forces them to exit Facebook to read my content. This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s an important distinction for those using Facebook mobile. It puts a wrench in their process and depending on the phone their using causes Facebook to shut down and open a new browser. Potentially very rustrating.

Facebook Notes RSS Import

Facebook Notes is a useful native Facebook application that most people only use in conjunction with some of the more popular list-building Facebook apps. For Facebook Pages admins, Facebook Notes is great, because it has a setting that allows you to import an RSS feed into Facebook.

You can only import one feed. If you want to import multiple feeds, use an RSS aggregator like Google Reader or Friendfeed (which is now owned by Facebook) to combine feeds into one. Be careful though, don’t link to a feed unless to have absolute control of it. Last thing you want to do is overwhelm your readers, which will ultimately cause them to unsubscribe from your Facebook Page.

Using the Facebook Notes RSS Import is good for a couple reasons. First, it embeds the content within Facebook, so readers don’t have to leave Facebook to consume your content. Notes includes the first image from your post, which helps you retain some of the visual appeal you built in the original post and add a bit of variety to your Notes feed. Using the Facebook Notes RSS Import is also dead simple – easy on or off. No need for any additional applications or plugins.

On the downside, Notes will not direct users to your site unless you explicitly put a link within the body of your post. Without such backlinks, there are potentially SEO implications as well. That’s it for cons really.

What do you think? Do you share blog posts on Facebook Pages? How’s that going? What other approach do you recommend?

How to generate inbound links with videos for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Steinar — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:04:49 +0000

Let’s discuss how to generate inbound links with videos for search engine optimization (SEO). Most folks don’t understand how video seo works and once you do, it can serve as a powerful means for driving traffic to your site.

Let’s use YouTube as an example. Here are the steps to optimize your video for inbound links (or backlinks).

Use you keywords in the Title (1st words if possible)
Use your keywords in the description
Use your keywords in the tags (use dashes to keep phrases whole; e.g., “real-estate-strategies”)
Put your url as the very first item in your description. For example, “htttp://www.mysite.com”. You must include “http” to make the link active.
Set up a Google Alert for your video title to see the the video spread and inbound links proliferate.

PRO TIP: Instead of uploading directly to YouTube, sign up for a free account at TubeMogul, which will syndicate your video to dozens of the leading video sharing sites.

For a good example, check out my Construction Site video on YouTube (over 250,000 views) or watch this quick tutorial on videos seo strategies:

What do you think? If you’re publishing video will this help generate inbound links?

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Steinar — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:16:16 +0000

Below you’ll find 13 steps to make every blog post most SEO friendly. These steps leverage keyword research, social media, meta tags, and inbound linking strategies to optimize on-page and off-page tactics.

These steps are considered white-hat and assume your blog is already setup with a structure (code, tags, plugins, etc) that facilitates SEO. For example, you might consider WordPress with the All-in-One-SEO plugin, which helps you control meta tags, spiders, and rss to make the most of these SEO tactics.

13 Steps to Make Every Blog Post More SEO Friendly

Preparation
__ Identify your long-tail keyword phrase

On-Page Post Optimization
__ Include keywords in title
__ Include keywords in first 70 characters
__ Include keywords in at least one other place within post
__ Bold keywords throughout post
__ Include keywords in title, alt, and description of any images
__ Include keywords in tags or categories
__ Include keywords in Keyword meta tags
__ Include keywords in Description meta tags

Off-Page Post Optimization
__ Post to Digg with keywords
__ Post to Delicious with keywords
__ Post to StumbleUpon with keywords
__ Post to Twitter with keywords
__ Post 3 meaningful comments on other blog with keywords in your anchor text-based link

There is more you could do, but this is a good start.

What do you think? What other tactics do you use to individually optimize your blog posts?

Create a Blogging Editorial Calendar for Consistent Content Creation (template included)

Steinar — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:51:27 +0000

Creating a blogging editorial calendar is a logical next step once you have set your Internet marketing goals for the year. For me, it’s about taking my goals and sub-goals for the year and translating them into a stream of blog posts that bring the discussion to life.

Many bloggers struggle finding new content to write about on a regular basis and a blogging editorial calendar helps organize your thoughts and map out a plan of attack. This is especially helpful is you have a mini-series on one subject you want to blog about over the course of a week, month or year.

It is by far easier to brainstorm and organize topics for your content now, than wait until it is time to write a new post. For example, yesterday I mapped out a new theme I wanted to discuss, broke it down into “chapters”, and then brainstormed individual blog posts on each topic. In 30 minutes, I came up with a very well organized stream of 98 blog posts that I’ll publish over the next 3 months.

The benefit of creating a calendar is two-fold. One, you’ll feel more organized and have the appropriate time allocated to discuss a topic that’s been on your mind. Two, your readers will appreciate a consistent flow of content around one or many topics, rather than random posts on seemingly disconnected topics.

Free Template Downloads

What do you think? Would a blogging editorial calendar help keep you organized and motivated to blog?

How to start a podcast quickly, easily and without spending a fortune

Steinar — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:49:12 +0000

Listen or Download

Starting a podcast is easier than ever these days. You can use some of the free tools that come with virtually every computer these days or make a few modest purchases to improve the quality of your podcast. I recommend you focus on content creation before buying a bunch of unnecessary equipment.

Here’s are some of the basic elements to consider when launching a podcast for the first time:

What is a podcast? There’s some argument over where the term came from and who produced the first podcast, but i use the definition: audio & video “portable on demand”. Essentially, this includes new media content that’s available for consumption in iTunes (or another leading podcast hub), directly on your website, or via a mobile device, such as the iPhone.

What microphone should I use for my podcast? Since a podcast obviously involves audio communication, I recommend you use the best quality microphone you can afford or one that at least offers a level of quality your listeners will find acceptable. I’ve done podcast episodes using my Mac internal mic and my iphone, but when I’m in the office I use the Samson CO1U USB Condenser Mic.(aff)

Where should I deliver my podcast? Any website or blog can have its own podcast. By definition, a podcast doesn’t need to be on iTunes so don’t let that misconception stop you from publishing audio content. For example, sign up with AudioBoo and record a show – then paste the html or script into a blog post or a web page. This is an example of a very simple approach. You could also set up a WordPress blog, install one of many podcast plugings, and upload audio files from your computer. I prefer to use the Podcasting plugin, but there are several other WordPress plugins available.

What should I say on my podcast? All of us have something to say; however, podcasting is not for everyone. My suggestion is that you find a subject you are passionate about and make a list of potential topics you could discuss. What are the top 5 questions people ask you about your topic? What are the top 5 questions they should be asking? There’s content for 10 episodes right there.

Should I do all the talking on my podcast? Some podcasts are run by a single person who does all the talking, while others are two or more people engaged in a conversation. Some are discussion style, while others are more of an interview. It really depends on your subject, what you have to share personally and who else you know that can help liven up the discussion. Ask your listeners what’s working for them and change as needed.

Is there a show format I should follow? I recommend you establish a consistent format or ageneda for your podcast episodes or shows. The reason is that a consistent format puts the listeners at ease and builds a certain level of expectation over time. For example: 1)intro music 2) introduction 3) topic one 4) topic two 5) pick of the week 6) closing remarks with call to action and 7)closing music. That’s just an example — the possibilities are unlimited.

What file format should I use for my podcast? MP3 is the most widely accepted audio file format, but most podcasting hosts will accept a variety of file formats.

How do I get my podcast on iTunes and how much does it cost? Podcast distribution on iTunes is free. Just be sure you’re using the correct RSS format. To learn more open iTunes and go to Store>Podcasts>Submit a Podcast. You may also have readers subscribe to you podcast through iTunes without actually publishing to iTunes. Of course, this does not make your podcast available to the general public but is a convenience.

Are you thinking of starting a podcast? What’s holding you back? Is there something I can help clarify to get you started?

Dailymotion Launches Video iPhone App (another reason to use TubeMogul)

Steinar — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:51:21 +0000

We have previously discussed how to leverage video to reach a new audience online and while YouTube is the leading video sharing site, there are other video networks you should consider when publishing video online. Dailymotion is one of those sites and they have just announced a new iPhone app that’s sure to draw more users.

The question is why are you only posting your videos on YouTube? I understand that some of you are only uploading videos for fun or don’t really care if anyone sees them, but for those of you in the business of marketing yourself or your business, I suggest you use TubeMogul.

TubeMogul is a great, free distribution service for online video. Upload your video once and TubeMogul will syndicate it for you on up to 25 leading video sharing sites, including YouTube and DailyMotion. The benefit is that your video is now available in a place that’s convenient to your viewers. Not everyone watches videos on YouTube and Google indexes far more video sites beyond YouTube. It’s a win-win for you and your audience.

Paris-based video sharing site Dailymotion has released an iPhone app. In fact, two versions exist. A free to download version (iTunes link) that is supported by ads and a premium ad-free version that costs €4.99, which seems a little on the high side, although that depends on how intrusive those ads are to you.

Like the plethora of competing iPhone video offerings, Dailymotion, which as been called the French YouTube but has much wider reach across continental Europe and elsewhere, is at a significant disadvantage compared to the Google-owned video sharing site, which comes pre-installed on the iPhone. That said, the functionality provided by Dailymotion’s iPhone app at least matches YouTube’s offering.

Dailymotion-iPhoneiPhone users can search for videos on Dailymotion, view featured and the most popular (viral) videos of the day, browse channels and access their Dailymotion account. IPhone 3GS owners can also record and upload videos to the site.

via Dailymotion lands on iPhone.

Do you share videos on the Internet? How and where do you upload them?

Autoresponders: Questions to consider before building your community and asking customers to opt-in

Steinar — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:47:17 +0000

Before you dive in and sign up for an autoresponder, ask yourself:

Why specifically do you want or need an autoresponder?

This will depend greatly on your current situation …

If, for example, you already have a loyal following on your website, an autoresponder is a great way to capture the names and email addresses of those visitors so that you can initiate conversations more easily in the future.

… Or maybe, you have a new product you want to start selling to your readers. Setting up an autoresponder is a great way to build trust, credibility and rapport with your market, so that you have their attention and respect should you wish to discuss something new.

Finally, maybe you have a product or message that makes sense to deliver over time. A good example is a newsletter for pregnant women. Because subscribers are on a predictable calendar, it makes sense for them to hear from you on a weekly basis as the gestation process unfolds. In other cases, some autoresponders are used in a similar fashion to teach a set of lessons over the course of 10-12 weeks or even a year. It’s a great way to parse out the information in consumable sections or chapters that provide subscribers with direction and room to breath.

Define Success
As a first step, I suggest you write down your goals for an autoresponder as they relate to your overall Internet marketing strategy. It is important to identify exactly what action you want subscribers to take, what benefits they’ll get from subscribing and how you’ll measure success.

Measuring success might include:

an increase in site traffic,
an increase in subscriber rate,
more products sold,
higher average order values,
or more Facebook fans.

It all depends on what you are trying to achieve and how you position an autoresponder to help achieve your specific objective(s).

It is also important to remember that you can set up multiple autoresponders either for separate groups of people or for individual niches within a single group of people. If you take a strategic approach to segmenting your market, it is likely you will have some people on more than one list. This is good and in fact will please your subscribers if you can achieve this level of targeting with your communication.

Are you using an autoresponder? How’s that going? Did you set clear objectives before inviting people to opt-in?

Posting videos in your blog just got easy with WordPress version 2.9

Steinar — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:40:42 +0000

For those of you familiar with WordPress, adding a video to a post has traditionally required one if not many plugins.

With WordPress 2.9, you just simply drop in the url and publish. WordPress does the rest!

Here’s a quick video showing you how to embed video in WordPress 2.9:

The following picture says it all …

And here’s the video I embedded video with some good suggestions on podcasting.

Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Top 4 Autoresponders and Website Email List Management Tools

Steinar — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:27:45 +0000

Autoresponders offer email list management services so you can build a list of prospects, send individual or broadcast messages, and segment your list for a scheduled stream of emails over time based on a predetermined frequency.

The benefit is that these tools offer CanSpam compliance, rotating IP addresses for better open rates, and the ability for customers to easily opt-out without complication.

Trying to accomplish any of these tasks through traditional email would simply be a nightmare.

Following is a list of the most popular autoresponders and website email list management tools:

Aweber

Hosted Autoresponder Solution With Free 30 Day Test Drive. Includes everything you need to create and send email marketing campaigns, as well as tools to build your email subscriber list. $1 first month trial then pricing starts at $19/month, based on total number of subscribers.

iContact

Web-based email marketing service that includes unlimited email campaigns, 300+ HTML email newsletter templates, email personalization and tracking, survey creation and more.

ConstantContact

Use the step-by-step Email Wizard to walk you through the process. Schedule welcome emails or commonly-sent messages with Email Auto-Responder. Add your colors and logo to one of our 400+ email templates. Starting at $15 per month.

MailChimp

Free for up to 500 contacts. Setup as many different subscriber lists as you want. Built-in tools help you design and deliver great looking HTML email campaigns that actually work.Robust tracking features.

Are you using an autoresponder? Which one do you recommend?

My favorite WordPress plugins when setting up a new blog

Steinar — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:38:38 +0000

This is a list of my favorite WordPress plugins when setting up a new blog. It’s not all inclusive, but a good place to start if you want search engine optimization, social media integration, mobile friendly interface, audio & video podcasting, Google Analytics, Google sitemap, navigation control, and spam security.

Links to these WordPress plugins:

I hope these plugins help next time you set up a new WordPress blog.

What are your favorite WordPress plugins?

Autoresponders: sequential opt-in email marketing campaigns to drive engagement and build community online

Steinar — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:23:53 +0000

Autoresponders offer tremendous customer value and growth opportunities for your business.

Basically, an autoresponder is a web application that allows you to build sequential opt-in email marketing campaigns. A good example is a campaign for pregnant women to receive a weekly progress report via email. Another example is an email newsletter for new home buyers that delivers a daily email over the course of 2 weeks to prepare them for purchasing their first home.

The beauty of using autoresponders is that you can pre-populate your messages, customize them to your reader, schedule the frequency with which they are sent, and engage your customers more controlled, targeted & meaningful way.

The benefits of an autoresponder include:

Double Opt-In Spam Free Security – The most reputable autoresponders, such as Aweber require subscribers to double opt-in. That is, readers are indicating twice that, yes, in fact you have their permission to send them email. This is in compliance with CanSpam laws and protects both you and your subscribers.
Easy Opt-Out – Again, the most reputable autoresponders, such as Aweber, require that every email includes a link so that subscribers may easily unsubscribe. This is essential to comply with CanSpam rules and reassures subscribers that your intentions are legitimate. Think of it as a trust building tactic and embrace the fact that some subscribers will unsubscribe for various reasons. Don’t take it personally.
Consistency – Because you can pre-populate your follow-up emails for subscribers, you create a level of consistency with the message you’re delivering. This is powerful because it gives you the confidence in knowing that everyone is hearing the same thing from you vs. cutting and pasting emails together in a less consistent manner.
Upsell / Cross Sell – With any form of regular communication channel, autoresponders provide the opportunity for you to upsell and cross-sell your subscribers either to other lists or new and different products or services. The benefit is you can further segment your market and test different sales techniques with less risk.
Target Marketing – Autoresponders typically capture a wealth of information about a subscriber, such as name, email, and location. You do, however, have the ability to ask questions of prospects before they sign up or assigning subscribers to different lists based on the page on which they sign up. This helps targeting individual segments over time.
Efficiency – Autoresponders increase your communication efficiency in several ways. First, once the sequence of emails is set up, it literally runs by itself. Second, if you wish to send a broadcast message to everyone on a list, it’s very straightforward vs. using traditional email clients to send hundreds of emails which may be treated as spam.
Effectiveness – Email is still considered the top method for sharing information. Sequential email marketing success depends on several factors; however, it has proven a simple and effective method for engaging customers over the long-term. Thankfully, most autoresponder services include trackable links and detailed subscriber statistics to monitor the effectiveness of your various campaigns.
Broadcasting – Most of the emails you send using an autoresponder will be pre-loaded and delivered according to a schedule and frequency that you determine is appropriate for your market. In some cases, it might make sense to send a broadcast message – a note to all or a set of your subscribers outside the regular stream of emails. For example, you might have urgent news to share and broadcasting is a great feature to make this easy.
Customization – The leading autoresponders give you a number of options to customize your campaign. You can customize the sign up form, the variables you want to collect at sign up time, the frequency of email delivery, the follow up messages (including html) and the option to send text-only messages.

For a small monthly fee (usually $10-$20), autoresponders offer tremendous value, security, and growth opportunities for your business.

In my next post I’ll review the top 5 autoreponders.

Are you using an autoresponder? Which one do you prefer? Tell me about your experience.

Now broadcasting live from Ustream (Audio)

Steinar — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:22:08 +0000

Listen or Download

In this audio post I discuss Ustream.tv and the new opportunities available to reach your market in a new and exciting way through video.

Ustream has been around for years but many businesses have yet to grasp the potential. Basically, Ustream offers the ability to broadcast live video over the Internet in a controlled, yet open platform. Viewers may interact through a closed chat feature or through the new built-in Twitter feed. Live broadcasts may be recorded and saved for future playback.

Obviously, the implications of this are huge in terms of market reach and differentiation for your business. Consumers are ready for this new media and comfortable consuming content in this manner – think of it as a real-time version of YouTube. Of course, if you’re not comfortable creating video in the first place, this may be quite a leap in terms of confidence and risk. The key is to get started today and practice. It will get easier – trust me.

I’ll leave with the final thought. Video creates a personal touch with your market. If any of you have ever “finally met someone in real-life” after chatting with them on Twitter, then you can appreciate this. People want to see, talk and interact with others beyond text based methods. If that makes sense to you, then I encourage you to push your comfort zone and leverage Ustream (or YouTube) to take things to the next level. You’ll be glad you did.

What are your thoughts? Is streaming video something that would help you communicate with your market? Are consumers ready for this?

Twitter Search RSS Feeds to Find Customers and Blog Content (Video)

Steinar — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:09:15 +0000

In this video I show you how to use Twitter Search to find people in your niche, answer questions, and find new content for your next blog post.

In particular I illustrate how to:

search twitter for leading indicators of questions
use exact phrase match to narrow in on the right tweets
save the RSS feeds to your RSS aggregator
leverage Twitter questions to build your following, knowledge, and business

UPDATE: if you want to exclude Tweets that include links, simply add -http to your search. This will weed out Tweets that look like user questions but are potentially links to an answer of some sort. Here’s an example:

I hope you found this useful. I know it’s been a great approach for me.

You else do you conduct real-time online market research? What other techniques can you share that work?

How to Start an Effective Blog for Free (Video)

Steinar — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:30:52 +0000

Blogging is a great way to create original content, engage with customers and find new prospects for your business, yet many business people still have yet to make the leap. In this video I discuss six essentials to start an effective blog for free.

The myth is that blogging is difficult and expensive when in fact it’s simple and can be done with no money at all.

I specifically discuss:

How to get over your fear of blogging (practice and finding a comfortable zone)
Mapping out your blogging strategy (why you should blog, who’s your audience, and what’s your call to action)
Picking the right blogging applications or tools (Blogger, WordPress, Weebly)
Integrating plugins and widgets to increase the usability of your blog
Syndicating your blog’s RSS feed to get the word out and attract readers
Connecting with others via social media to drive traffic and a loyal following.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you whether blogging is the right thing to do. In my opinion, the benefits far out way the alternative.

How did you get started blogging? Any additional tips you can share? What else would you like to learn about blogging?

Why Would I Want a Facebook Page for my Business?

Steinar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:24:35 +0000

Facebook also has two unique sections that are of particular interest to businesses and organizations. One is Facebook Ads, a Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising network that serves ads to users based on their biographical listing information. The second is Facebook Pages, a place for users to create a separate profile page for their business, organization or special interest group.

Facebook Pages continue to improve and the latest round of enhancements present a terrific platform for you to connect with your market. Similar to personal profiles, Pages enable you to post images, video and links that may be interesting to your readers.

You can post simple one line updates or launch an entire threaded discussion. You can integrate Twitter updates to drive cross-platform traffic and even develop your own simple Facebook application for others to help spread your message. You can also automatically import your blog’s RSS feed and customize your Facebook Page to appropriately reflect your brand image.

Some might wonder why you want a Facebook Page when you already have a website for your business and a Twitter profile. The fact is, people consume information and choose to interact with others in different locations on the web. Some prefer to search for information, others discuss topics on Twitter, and some rely on Facebook to connect. There are literally hundreds of other Social Media platforms to consider as well. The point is to be where your audience is and right now Facebook is definitely a place you need to consider.

Executed well, Facebook Pages can clearly increase your reach and engage customers.

Have you set up a Facebook Page for your company? How’s that going?

Build a content distribution strategy, not a Twitter or social media strategy (Google Real-Time Search)

Steinar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:50:35 +0000

The recent news of Google real-time search inspired me to share my thoughts on content and how we share information on the Internet. For those of you not up to speed, Google real-time search provides a subset of real-time search results within the standard results for popular keywords searches. Google real-time search includes Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, identi.ca and Jaiku.

The fact is Twitter will fade into the dust one day and social media will shift to new and different platforms over time. Instead of sinking all your eggs in one basket, I encourage you to think about a broader content distribution strategy rather than focus on one platform.

To be clear, by content distribution I mean two-way communication. Your message goes out and replies come back. The strategy boils down to what networks you connect with, why you connect with them and how you manage those relationships.

Use RSS to Distribute Content

RSS (most commonly expanded as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

via RSS – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RSS is nothing new, yet often misunderstood. I’m not claiming to be an expert on the subject, but I will say it’s worth understanding how to publish your RSS feed, either from a blog or from some other source in which you contribute. For starters, I recommend submitting your blog RSS feed to Technorati, MyBloglog, Friendfeed, Google Reader. You might consider these RSS aggregators that can help get more eyes on your content.

On the social media front, submit your blog RSS feed to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, identi.ca, BrightKite, Bebo and others. The point is that not everyone “hangs out” on Twitter and if you are truly trying to reach more people within your target market (aka, internet marketing), you need to have a voice on multiple social media platforms. I’m sure some of you will disagree with this and I welcome your feedback.

Use RSS to Manage the Discussion

On the flip side, RSS is also useful for collecting, monitoring and responding to content posted by others that is either directly or indirectly speaking to your interest, industry or niche. Virtually every website has an RSS feed you can subscribe to today. You can subscribe to RSS feeds for a particular search phrase. You can monitor social media platforms remotely with RSS feeds.

Honestly, there is very little need to physically visit these individual sites anymore, other than to tweak your profile or add new connections. Of, course even those functions are moving off-page as well as new tools pop-up to handle administrative tasks such as this. Beware: some deliver great benefit, while others may cause you to lose control.

For me, Google Reader is the ultimate platform to manage RSS subscriptions and engage with people from multiple websites at once. Sure, I use Tweetdeck for Twitter, but it’s much bigger than than that. From Google Reader I can check updates from people, store items of interest, share content, and reply to people all in one place. It’s really simplied my life.

Build Your Content Distribution Strategy

The beauty of the web is that often there are multiple solutions to the same problem. For me, the best way to map out my strategy was to put pen to paper and start drawing out how information is shared and how my network can be connected to increase reach, efficiency, and overall effectiveness. You could also use presentation software or a mind mapping application such as Bubbl.us.

I suggest you start by exploring Friendfeed, Ping.fm, and Posterous. These tools manage multiple RSS feeds in a centralized manner and can direct inbound and outbound activity from you and your connections. I also recommend you start with a single distribution point for all of your original content – for me, this is my blog.

What’s your content distributions strategy? What’s working for you? What would make it easier?

Why Would I Want My Business on Facebook? Facebook Ads

Steinar — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:22:56 +0000

Facebook also has two unique sections that are of particular interest to businesses and organizations. One is Facebook Ads, a Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising network that serves ads to users based on their biographical listing information. The second is Facebook Pages, a place for users to create a separate profile page for their business, organization or special interest group.

Facebook Ads are very simple to set up and basically include an image and some text with a link to any website you choose. There is a Facebook review team that approves each ad within 72 hours, so plan accordingly.

The real power of Facebook Ads is that you can laser target your audience to a degree unlike other PPC networks such as Google Adwords. When users initially sign up for Facebook they answer a series of questions about themselves. This might include location, age, gender, marital status, education, and interests.

All of this data can be used to target your ads. For example, you could launch an ad to single men, 35-40 in zip code 22911 who graduated from UVA. As you can imagine, this provides you with the ability to target different market segments and A/B test various ads quite easily.

A new feature allows for Facebook Ads on Facebook Pages and the ability to target friends of your fans! The stars are aligning!

Are you using Facebook Ads? How are the results? If not, when do you intend to try it out?

Leverage Online Video to Engage Readers, Drive Website Traffic and Differentiate Your Business (Video)

Steinar — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:11:54 +0000

YouTube has been around for years and is without question one of the best video sharing sites. Getting your video message online is a terrific method of engaging readers, driving traffic to your website, and differentiating your business. It takes practice but the payoff can be significant.

Topic Covered:

Test and gain confidence (It’s all about practice)
Use the right tools to shoot, edit, publish, promote
Using Multiple platforms to share videos online
Leveraging the network to reach a broader audience
Engaging with readers unlike text or audio content
Search engine optimization to drive traffic to your site
Mix it up with different approaches to use video.

How can you get started with video today? What holding you back? Have any success or horror stories to share?

Safari User Agent iPhone Simulator – See How Your Site Looks to Mobile Users (Video)

Steinar — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:06:02 +0000

Safari 4.0 has a great feature in Advanced Preference that let’s you activate the Developer’s menu and view websites as if you were using an iPhone or iPod Touch. This is great if you are just curious, but even better if you are working on a new theme for your site to make it more mobile user-friendly.

I am using the WPTouch plugin on my WordPress blog to create my mobile theme and its proven very simple to install and customize. I’ve also incorporate Push notification, so when anyone leaves a comment on my blog, my iPhone notifies me with a pop-up message – it’s a beautiful thing.

WPtouch: WordPress on iPhone, iPod, Android, Storm & Pre

More than just a plugin, WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple's app store design specs, WPtouch makes your WordPress website load lightning fast on touch mobile devices, show your content beautifully, all while not interfering with your regular theme.

via WPtouch: Mobile Plugin + Theme for WordPress ↔ BraveNewCode Inc..

Have you updated your site to be mobile friendly? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Evidence that YouTube Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Works (Video)

Steinar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:50:43 +0000

YouTube search engine optimization (SEO) is an often overlooked element that can drive significant views and traffic back to your website.

Setting up a search engine friendly video is very simple and only take a fraction of the time required to actually shoot, edit, and publish the video.

Keywords are critical in your title, description, and tags. In this video I provide an example of a video I uploaded 2 years ago, which continues to get a steady flow of viewers now topping 250,000.

The link in my description feeds these viewers back to my website of choice (another feature that 99% of videos fail to incorporate).

Why don’t people optimize their videos? What do think? Seems like good sense but it’s so often overlooked.

The video referenced in this article is the 1st video in this YouTube Search.

Does Audio or Video Really Engage Blog Readers? (Audio)

Steinar — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:20:11 +0000

In this audio post I discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using audio and video on your blog.

003-audio-versus-video.mp3

Advantages of Audio Blogging
•   Quicker to record and post
•   Fewer tools required
•   Faster download
•   Greater reach with MP3 players

Advantages of Video Blogging
•   Great to put a face with your name and voice
•   Good for presentations or tutorials
•   Good to leverage YouTube channel network
•   Most engaging web content according to studies

In either case, audio and video both add color to the standard text based blog, much like photos make your posts pop. Experiment with both and find which works best for you. You may find that video works in some cases, while audio is better for others.

What are your thoughts? Are you finding success with audio and/or video. Which seems to work best given the topic or situation?

Drive More Traffic to Your Blog and Engage Readers (Audio)

Steinar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:10:25 +0000

In this audio post I’ll touch on a few techniques to drive more traffic to your blog and engage readers in a more meaningful way.

002-more-blog-followers.mp3

Topics Covered:
• Creating unique and compelling content
• Search Engine Optimization and long-tail keywords
• Commenting on third-party websites
• Leveraging Social Media

How are you attracting more readers? Which tactics are getting the best results?

BCS and Social Media: Here’s What Not to Do

Steinar — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:13:05 +0000

Bowl Championship Series … added a Twitter feed (@insidetheBCS) and Facebook fan page.

But it made the classic mistake — at least initially — of treating these social-media platforms like propaganda broadcast tools, rather than a way of finding out what, exactly, fans want. For several days after its Twitter feed went live on Nov. 18, nothing but ire was directed the way of the organization, which helped fuel the anger by failing to respond in any meaningful way to the incoming messages.

via BCS and Social Media: Here’s What Not to Do – Advertising Age – Digital

This is the classic mistake and I see it time and again – one way communication with little attention to listening to and interacting with your followers.

For me the answer is a three-way approach that balances your voice and participation in Social Media:

Tweets about your company, product or service
Tweets about your industry or niche at large
Tweets about you as a person or the people that make up your company

Combine that with a healthy dose of re-tweets and replies to others that you follow and you are much better positioned for social media success.

Blogging – Tools, Topics and Traffic (Audio)

Steinar — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:07:11 +0000

In this audio post I discuss the benefits of blogging and strategies to easily get started.

001-blogging-101.mp3

Topics Discussed:

What are some of the tools I can use to get started?
What do I blog about – what should I say?
How do I drive traffic and more readers?
What are the benefits of blogging?

Tools Covered:

What are your thoughts? What tools are you using and what makes blogging easier for you?

LinkedIn – Now What?

Steinar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:49:06 +0000

A great resource I picked up at Barnes & Noble last week. Within 5 minutes I learned at least 10 new tricks.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from steinarknutsen’s posterous

New Mobile WordPress Theme Activated with WpTouch

Steinar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:28:17 +0000

If you use WordPress, you might be interested in WpTouch, a great plugin which creates a customizable theme of your site for mobile devices.

It’s plug-n-play out of the box, but also very simple to tweak based on your preferences.

Here’s a screenshot of my blog, which took about 10 minutes to setup on WpTouch.

Posted via email from steinarknutsen’s posterous

iPhone desktop snapshot

Steinar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:27:27 +0000

Why? Because it’s always fun to see what apps people find useful.

Thanks,
Steinar

… Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from steinarknutsen’s posterous

What materials or applications would you recommend for producing podcasts and YouTube videos?

Steinar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:09:17 +0000

Q: I am working to create a YouTube channel and weekly podcast; I have been requested to put together a list of necessary materials I will need in order to do this, both on a Mac and PC platform (e.g. lighting kit, editing software, etc.). I’ve done this before, but wanted to see if anyone out there might have any specific recommendations I should be considering! via LinkedIn Answers

It depends on the context, but here is a sample of the equipment I use.

For high-definition, professional results I shoot with a Canon HG20, with either voice over or music or a USB mic. My mic of choice is the Samson Audio C01U.

For casual high-definition shoots, the Flip MinoHD could also work.

For video blog style, I use my Macbook Pro iSight, either with a mic or using the internal mic.

In all cases, I edit on my Macbook Pro with either iMovie (direct post to Youtube) or with Final Cut Express ($199).

Lighting can range from window light to $50 halogens from hardware store to professional lighting kits ranging from $50-$1000.

You can get started for a couple hundred bucks or go into the $1000′s depending on the quality desired.

Hope this helps.
-Steinar

Looking for a low-cost email marketing solution

Steinar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:05:52 +0000

Q: I’m driving initial leadgen operations for a European enterprise software vendor starting up in the US. I have a starter list of prospects, email copy, a landing page, and someone to create an html mailer. What I need is a low-cost way of getting the mailing out that doesn’t require me to spend a week learning how to get the job done. via LinkedIn Answers

Aweber is my preferred platform and you can start for as little as $10 per month. Hopefully, the leads you’re generating will translate into revenue which will more than pay for the service.

Aweber is great in that it’s relatively intuitive, has great Spam protection, and is highly scalable and customizable. It has a step-by-step process that guides you through setup and if you get stuck, there’s a great customer support and user community to help answer questions.

Spam protection is the greatest reason I prefer Aweber. They use 100′s of IP’s to cut down on returned mail and have apparently made agreements with leading email providers to protect all parties involved. When building your messages they provide a Spam score so you can reduce the chances of being flagged, which is also helpful.

Customization includes ability to send HTML or text, personalize your messages to user name (and other variables), autoreponders (either single or sequential), and ability to set up multiple lists within a single account. You can also integrate pay systems such as PayPal into Aweber so that as customers buy from you, they become a member of your list.

There are other solutions available and for less, but Aweber has proven the easiest and provided the great ROI in my opinion.

Hope this helps,
Steinar

iPhone Poised to Snap Up More Business Users?

Steinar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:51:09 +0000

Below is an interesting article from Fast Company on the growth of iPhone share among business users.

I use both the Blackberry and iPhone for business and they each have unique strengths and weaknesses. My gut tells me that Apple will continue to grow market share with outstanding customer service, ease-of-use, and the ever-growing app store on iTunes.

More iPhone business applications are coming online and it’s just a matter of time before we see significant growth in this segment. On the flip side, marketers that have yet to explore building applications of there own should strongly consider this channel as a powerful method to build market share and loyalty.

When you think of corporate smartphones, you tend to think almost automatically of RIM’s BlackBerrys–they’re solid, reliable, iconic, successful and have sewn up something like 40% of that market. The iPhone, with its glossy looks, high-tech allure, reputation as a gaming and entertainment platform and relatively high unit costs isn’t something you’d necessarily associate with a corporate environment.

via iPhone Poised to Snap Up More Business Users? | Technomix | Fast Company.