A friend of mine, Forrest, is working for Polka, a start up company focused on sharing Random Acts of Love for Valentine's Day. Forrest is a great guy, someone I've known since we were 16- he even was my date for my junior prom! So, anyway, Forrest is working with Polka, and their focus is on spreading awareness and getting assistance for people in need. Their two most recent random acts of kindness events focused on assisting victims of the San Diego wildfires and adopting families over the holidays.

If 5,000 Polkas are sent out by Valentine's Day, Forrest is going to post his most embarrassing moment ever- on YouTube. He asked if would help spread the word about Polkas- and that's where you come in.

If you want to spread some random acts of kindness this Valentine's Day, I'd invite you to send a polka. You can do customize them at this link:

http://alpha.polka.com/love.php

You can send virtual gifts- or real ones- depending on your mood, cash flow, and your recipient.

I share this with you not only to help a friend, but also, to show you the power of social marketing. Forrest is activating his friend networks to help get the word out about what he's doing. Through the internet, he's able to activate promotion and assistance from friends and colleagues alike. That's the beauty of social networking.

Anyway, if you're looking for a different Valentine's Day gift, want to help spread kindness, and want to see a cool Web 2.0 application- send a Polka for Valentine's Day.

That link once more:

http://alpha.polka.com/love.php

(All emails will be used only to send greetings, and for no other purpose, Forrest assures me)

So send a polka today, please, and spread some random acts of kindness.

While you're doing so, begin to think wider and bigger about how you might put your social network to work for you.

No related posts.

I've been recently getting more into the audio-visual stuff, and learning my way through programs like Camtasia- which is a great recording software. I have been using it to create videos for my clients, as well as to create videos for my assistants, as I train them in various aspects of my business.

Camtasia usually costs $299, which can be a reasonable investment, especially if you're not sure that you'll like doing video.

I got some information today that Techsmith, the makers of Camtasia, are offering Camtasia 3 for free, but only for a limited time. This is not the trial version, it is the full one.

Now, since I own the full version of Camtasia 5, which is the latest version, I haven't tested all the links, so please let me know if there are any problems.

I am offering part of the email message I received today from several marketers whom I respect. I wanted to pass this on to you so you could get a copy of Camtasia 3 for free- if video making is in your marketing plans. (And it should be!)

Here are the details:

TechSmith are making Camtasia Studio 3 available for FREE (For a limited time). Camtasia works with Windows 2000 and XP (NOT Vista)

This is for the full program, not a trial version.

To get your copy, just follow these steps:

If you like Camtasia, you can then upgrade to Camtasia Studio 5 for $149. That's a savings of $150 over the full price of $299.

I hope this helps you in your video marketing efforts!

No related posts.

Ok, so in my quest to try and get even more done each day, but in an easy and fun way, (of course!), I decided to try dictating blog posts on the way to work. While this particular one wasn't dictated, I have several others coming up which were, so you should be hearing from me more often.

Anyway, there are two reasons for sharing my favorite digital recorder with you. One, because I love it! and, if you're in the market for a new digital recorder, you might benefit from knowing about this one. The other reason I wanted to share this with you is because I've lately been focusing on how I can streamline my work and make better use of my time. One way I've done this is to spend some time at the beginning of each month and map out my projects for the month, including details about each step.

You can see a portion of my mindmap here:

Anyway, so you can see that I set up a main topic and then put action items around it. I print out the large mindmap and simply check off when each step is completed. This has helped me stay more focused and actually follow tasks through to completion. I, perhaps like you, tend to jump around and try to work on multiple tasks at once- which leaves me with a lot of tasks in various half completed states. Anyway, I wanted to share this technique with you with the idea that it may be useful to you- or spark something useful for you.

These mindmaps are useful for helping me see the big picture- and, as you can see, with finding my new favorite digital recorder, a section of my mindmap has already been completed. The question to ask yourself is whether taking some time to plan out your month, in advance, would be helpful, and, if so, why not plan out the rest of the month right now?

If your mindmap includes finding a new digital recorder, I can wholeheartedly recommend mine: The Olympus Digital Voice Recorder WS-100. I picked it up for less than $70. It's extremely lightweight (we're talking ounces!) and it has a built in USB connection for easy transfer to the PC. This version records 27 hours at a time, and is super easy to operate, with few controls. Much easier to work with than other digital recorders I've tried.

You can find the Olympus here:

If you are looking for ways to accomplish more this month, why not build your very own monthly mindmap? See how much more you accomplish when you know what you should be working on.

No related posts.

The 2007 Authority Summit is coming up, with a whole line-up of well known online marketers. I've already bought my ticket and can't wait for the event. I attended last year and it was a really great experience, with lots of online marketing specific content. You know how you sometimes attend conferences and there isn't really anything you can immediately use? The Authority Summit is different. I, myself, applied just a few of the techniques I learned there and my site traffic increased more than 10x soon after, just on one website. If you've been floundering around the internet, looking for a well-designed, cohesive system to build your online presence, you will get a strong foundation at the Authority Summit internet marketing conference. This could be the missing piece in the puzzle of your online internet success. One of my most favorite people, Dave Lakhani, will be speaking there, as well as one of my other most favorite people, Jack Humphrey, and I'll have a bunch of friends and colleagues there as well. It would be great if you were one of them. If you're looking for a way to develop your online presence and generate traffic to your sites, look no further than the Authority Summit. You'll leave with a wealth of new ideas and a community of new friends. Here's the link to the Authority Summit Press Release if you'd like to learn more. I hope to meet you there! I'll be back tomorrow with a new article. See you then.

No related posts.