Monday, October 30, 2006
Mandriva One - Mandriva Linux
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Do you really understand what it takes to be a CEO? Insights from research.
CEO Insights
THE AVERAGE CEO
Graphic 1 shows the average of the 98 CEOs in the "I Opt" database. The average CEO's interest appears to center on creative options and on acting to secure them.Graphic 1The average CEO's RI (Relational Innovator) style is dominant. It is geared to plotting a course for the firm. The CEO seizes on new insights and explores what they might mean to the firm. How a new insight might fit into the business system is quickly outlined. A collegial atmosphere tends to surround the CEO when operating in this mode. The CEO is open to changes, modification and elaboration. A vision of what might be is being created.
Not every issue yields to the RI strategy. Even when it does, the creative process will sooner or later be exhausted. The CEO then shifts to their next most favored strategy, the Reactive Stimulator (RS). At this point talk is over. It is now the time to "do." The CEO's focus changes from what to do to when it will be done. Collegial give and take is replaced by authoritative direction. Milestones are set and commitments sought. Focused action is the CEO's interest.
The world is not linear. Neither is the CEO's approach. They bounce back and forth between their preferred strategies. The combination catalyzes the adjustments the firm needs to navigate an ever-changing environment. The average CEO is a creative "doer."
The "take home" from the above is that if you want to engage an average CEO, bring something creative to the table. Attach some kind of action proposal (RS) to it and be ready to move if it is accepted. Having some analytical HA material available explaining why a course has been selected is probably advisable but it should not be stressed. The least important thing is laying out exactly how things are to be done.
NON-PROFIT CEOs
Sixteen of the 98 CEOs in the "I Opt" database head non-profit or government (state and federal) agencies. Non-profits face more nebulous missions than firms in the profit-sector. There is no clear "bottom line." Market feedback is slower and less clear-cut. These differences reflect themselves in the CEO's profile as shown in Graphic 2.Graphic 2Non-profit CEOs favor the RI (creativity) strategic style but with a bit less intensity. Less defined goals make figuring out how a new idea "fits in" more difficult. A slower market feedback means less reliance can be placed on decisive action (RS). Too much damage can accumulate before a problem is known. In response the secondary strategy shifts to the analytical HA. Initiatives are more likely to be analyzed before being acted upon. Getting it done right is more important than being first to market.
All of the secondary strategies lie close together in strength. This is testimony to the nature of mission. The advantage of one strongly dominant secondary style is less clear cut. Like other CEOs the non-profit CEO is plotting a course in an uncertain environment. They are doing it more cautiously because they have to.
The "take home" from this mini-analysis is that the non-profit CEO can be engaged with creativity. However, the process of deciding what (if anything) to do will be longer. There are simply more things to consider. The balanced secondary styles mean that they may appear more "reasonable" than their profit-sector equivalents. They will seriously consider a wider range of proposals. The cost is elongated discussion and slower decisions.
Keep in mind this is mini-analysis is based on averages. There are non-profits with explicit goals and fast feedback. This means that there are non-profit CEOs who use strategic patterns similar to the profit-making sector. But these people will not be the typical non-profit CEO.
LARGE FIRM CEOs
Larger firms tend to face complex issues and their decisions usually involve more stakeholders. The 82 profit-sector CEO's in the database can be divided by size. Twenty-three have revenue of over $100 million. This should result in a different strategic profile—and on average it does.Graphic 3Graph 3 shows the style distribution with the non-profits excluded. Large-firm CEOs appear less willing to take decisive action and more inclined to subject initiatives to analysis before acting. Graphic 4 shows that smaller firms are more likely to have CEOs who are prepared to act more aggressively. Large firm CEO's are also prepared to act but none occupy an extreme position. This reduces the overall RS average of large firm CEO shown above in Graphic 3.
Graphic 4The analytical HA offers a similar story but on the other side. Graphic 5 shows that the large firm CEOs are seldom found at the "very low" HA level. This has been shifted to the "low" level. This move has the effect of increasing the large firm CEO's average HA score. In other words, the higher overall HA is due to fewer people in the very low category rather than to more people in the higher ones.
Graphic 5The difference in large and smaller firm CEO's profiles lies in the extremes. Large-firm CEOs are inclined to cluster in a band in the middle of the spectrum. It is likely due to the nature of the decisions being made. Complex decisions combined with multiple stakeholders probably favor moderate people in the CEO chair of larger firms.
Strategies that work for the CEOs of smaller firms are likely to be transportable to larger firms. The CEOs are equally interested in creative ideas. Their response to an initiative is likely to be more moderate but of the same character. In terms of decision-making information flows, what works at one CEO level will probably work at another.
I have taken this IOPT Test, with CEO results, and can help you understand this better if you need help.
Thanks Gary for the insight.
Good news from Iraq is really out there
A Gentle Warrior
You guys know that I've been really burned out lately. I keep sitting down at my computer to try and explain what's been going on inside my head, but then the words fail me. How's that for a first?! I was describing my state of mind to Kit and I called it a "crisis of faith" - in the people of my country and the future of our nation. It has been hanging over my head and clouding my mind for several weeks now. Maybe I'll elaborate more on it, but then again, maybe you don't care to hear it. It's not happy stuff.
So Kit wisely counseled me to look for the good and share that with you. I have haltingly taken her excellent advice and found something that truly touched my cynical heart - as only an American soldier can do. Maybe you've seen this before, but for me it is new.
This picture is of Chief Master Sargeant John Gebhardt. A little Iraqi girl was rescued from an attack by insurgents, who killed her entire family and shot her in the head. She survived, but would cry all day. She would only be calm when Gebhardt would hold her. So Gebhardt has held her and slept with her in his arms for four nights (by the time the picture was taken).
I owe a big thank you to Muslihoon and OPFOR for casting a beam of brightness into my musings of doom and gloom.
John Gebhardt
Here's praying that Christians take over the news outlets and start sharing the good news about Iraq. Americans on bad news about Iraq from all of the politically biased news outlets want the troops home now, Americans on good news that what we are doing it making a difference want the job done right!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
JOINRED.com - Brilliant Alliance Marketing
Maybe you've seen the shirts on Gap ads or the new red phones from Motorola or the smoking hot red iPods from Apple. They're hot - and they're for a cause. One of the 12 Steps in our Results Revolution marketing program advocates the use of alliance marketing - riding the coattails of a national advertising campaign, joining with a nonprofit or partnering with another local business that targets your customers. With this campaign, national brands are linked together for a common cause - Product RED. And it's a raving success. You have to "join" on the Product RED web site to be "notified" of product availability.
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2006/10/joinredcom.html
http://www.myspace.com/joinred
How can you support this cause in your small business? or another national cause? This one is hot - and Christmas is a great time to see RED.
Not if I beat you to it... <grin>
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Spot Me gadgets for conference connections
Consumer Electronics Assoc. economist Shawn DuBravac pointed me to this report on a cool gadget used this past summer at the World Economic Forum in Tokyo to facilitate more connections between attendees.
The Spot Me gadgets that the World Economic Forum is distributing to participants are incredibly cool. The size of a small PDA, it has the complete schedule and list of participants programmed into them, but the neatest part is its radar function which checks the surrounding area and tells you who is sitting near you. Plug in the people you want to talk to, and the thing will buzz when one of them are in your range. Send messages to them, set up appointments, awesome. I had heard about a similar function that was used unsuccessfully as a dating-match service, but gizmos like this seem infinitely more suited towards business networking.
All offline networking should be so connected.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Google Docs & Spreadsheets - use it to post to your blog
If you have a google account, then you can go to https://docs.google.com and create a document just like using word or excel, then in the publish options setup your blog at say blogger and publish the document to your blog.
Amazing! five stars!
IE7 May Be Illegal « Why noone will buy Vista
Anti-trust lawsuit again?
Does Microsoft ever learn? We are all not just peons forced to buy software from one house. We have choices and Mac looks best.
Eric
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Please keep the Kurfmans in your prayers
A GREAT big thank you to all who prayed for us on Saturday at our landlord's house.
Things went as well as they can when so few of the family are truly believers...
I believe the LORD helped me to emphasize (repeatedly) that the ONLY way to enter into eternal life and
to truly know you will go to heaven when you die is through repentance and believing in the LORD Jesus.
I was able to share that is NOT the only thing Jesus is interested in...eternal life begins right now in HIM.
Friday night when I went talk with the wife, she had put a can of beer and 2 "pears" on a tray in front of the 3 people's pictures.
We talked for a while and she felt like she had to do that for the deceased father's sister.
But after we talked and she admitted they had never done those kind of things that much before, the aunt probably wouldn't notice.
Honestly that 87 year old aunt is one of the most open to the Gospel. Anytime I share from the Bible she is always listening intently.
Several of the relatives were all geared up for the typical incense and chanting thing,
but the wife was able to tell them, we aren't doing that. PLEASE pray for Yoko Hori uchi. We have talked often about the fact that God isn't interested in
a "religious ceremony" for anything. She seems to understand but at the same time has a hard time taking the last "leap".
I came away feeling like we had done what we could do and the LORD would have us do at this point.
And "ya' cain't do no more 'n 'at" can you??
THANKS AGAIN !!
BLESS YOU ALL!!
Eric and the crew
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Apple shipped some video iPods with Windows computer virus
All I have to say is OOPS!
Apple shipped some video iPods with Windows computer virus
San Jose Mercury News - CA, USA
... Computer Inc. said a fraction of its iPod players sold in the past month contained a virus that affects rival Windows systems. The ...
See all stories on this topic
Today's HomeWord for 10/19/06 - Five-Fingered Prayer
Having trouble seeing Today's HomeWord? Click here for the Web version.
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Could there be dirty bomb threats at NFL venues this weekend?
StarPhoenixOfficials skeptical of NFL dirty bomb threat
Calgary Sun, Canada - 2 hours ago
By AP. WASHINGTON -- An Internet message claiming seven NFL stadiums will be hit with dirty bombs this weekend was met with "strong skepticism" yesterday by US ...
Officials express skepticism at dirty bomb threat San Jose Mercury News
NFL stadium dirty bomb threat doubted by experts Houston Chronicle
NFL dirty-bomb threat defused Chicago Tribune
Philadelphia Daily News - Kentucky.com
all 869 news articles »
[Feedburner] More Groovy Featurettes
Eric
More Groovy Featurettes
In our haste to tell you about some recent enhancements, we missed a few. (What can we say, things move mighty fast around here - three of our developers have already showed up for work tomorrow). Fresh off the FeedBurner "Check this when it's done" list are the following free featurettes available for your immediate use:
Digg This, now dynamic-ized
We've been working directly with the team from Digg to create an official and dynamic version of this popular FeedFlare. Now, the "Digg This!" FeedFlare reflects the latest number of Diggs and comments. If your post has been dugg and people have commented, your FeedFlare link will reflect it.Sphere FeedFlare has been upgraded
Do you want your readers to easily discover blog posts related to your content? The awesome crew at Sphere have upgraded some code to now reflect the most recent number of related items. The FeedFlare link will look like this in your feed or on your site: "Sphere: N posts on similar topics." No related posts for an item? The link will not appear because it's smart like that.Activate both the Digg and Sphere FeedFlares from the "Optimize" tab with FeedBurner. Here's a screenshot for you visual folks:
Need help FeedFlare-ing?
All of this FeedFlare talk might have you thinking, "How can I make one?" Eric has written some instructions for creating a parameterized FeedFlare unit of your very own. Use FeedFlare to:Fabulously easy! We have plans to make the FeedFlare creation process much easier, but in the meantime, you can find additional FeedFlare documentation and a handy interactive Scratchpad on our site.
- Cross-promote another property. Check out Om Malik's static FeedFlare in his FeedBurner feed.
- Run a house promotion.
- Create aStore in Amazon. Steve shows you how .
- You can even use FeedFlare to sell a sponsored text link.
Third-party extension
Steve Smith, our knight in shining armor, has updated his ordered list plugin for WordPress. The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed (e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/feed/ or http://www.yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will redirect your main posts feed, and optionally your main comments feed as well. If you have a WordPress blog and are looking for an simple way to take advantage of FeedBurner services, Steve's plugin is the "it" plugin for you.Show the world you're hot for FeedBurner
Hey, sometimes you may feel like giving back and to you, we say "Thanks!" If you're bursting with FeedBurner fanhood, we are pleased to offer the following:
- New Chicklets - Now you can find
and
under the Chicklet Chooser within the "Publicize" tab.
- FeedBurner Shmoogies - New and vinyl FeedBurner stickers are in. They're more shiny and sturdy. We'll even throw in a button if you mail us a self-addressed stamped envelope to adorn our kitchen. Requests should be sent to:
FeedBurner (note the big "B"!)
Attn: I Want a Sticker!
549 W. Randolph, 6th floor
Chicago, IL 60661
Do you have a customer-centric company?
Consider the following story an apply it to your micro-enterprise.
Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing
In today's hyper-competitive world, your sales and marketing functions must yoke together at every level-from the core central concepts of the strategy to the minute details of execution. Harvard Business School professor Benson Shapiro on creating the customer-centric team.
Source: Working Knowledge
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
ACTION ITEM: Information about Wal-Mart
Pass this very important information on:
---------- Forwarded message ----------Now you know.
From: Eric Kurfman
Date: Oct 17, 2006 2:56 AM
Subject: Information about Wal-MartWAL-MART Joins HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA
IN TIME for CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
In a rather risky move - just before Christmas shopping season, it
was announced on August 21 that Wal-Mart has joined the National
Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
( http://www.nglcc.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/5735/pid/576 )
The original announcement states: "The National Gay & Lesbian
Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) announced today a partnership
with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc... This partnership will include executive
representation on the NGLCC's Corporate Advisory Council (CAC)
and sponsorship of the organization's 2006 events and initiatives."
Yes - you heard right. Just prior to the Christmas shopping season -
the most important time of year for retailers - Wal-Mart suddenly
joins itself to the radical homosexual agenda. Did no-one in
management consider that Wal-Mart has always been seen as a
"family-friendly" store? Did they not consider that millions of
Christians and conservative Americans may object - and take their
Christmas shopping elsewhere? Did they not take note of the fact
that right across the country, overwhelming numbers in the 2004
election voted to keep marriage as between "one man and one
woman"? What on earth were they thinking?
Even the LA Times, which was among the first to break this story
in the mainstream press, commented that, "For Wal-Mart Stores
Inc., even trying to make new friends is controversial." The Times
quoted Randy Sharp of the American Family Assn. who said that
he and others had stopped shopping at Wal-Mart because of its
shift from a "pro-family" stance.
Now, why didn't Wal-Mart see this kind of reaction coming? Do
they not care if they alienate large numbers of existing customers?
Or is it just that they figure no-one will do anything about it? What
kind of business takes an action that is bound to offend millions
of its customers just before the busiest time of the year?
The reaction of people who hold conservative values was well
summed-up by WorldNetDaily in a commentary entitled, "Why
did Wal-Mart go 'gay'?" earlier this month.
In it, Kevin McCullough writes: "On nearly every occasion I've visited
a Wal-Mart, I've nearly always seen entire families shopping together...
there quite possibly couldn't be a more family-friendly vendor in all
of America... Until this week... Wal-Mart stores have now signed
on to an agreement with the 'National Gay and Lesbian Chamber
of Commerce.' Leaving me to ask the question: WHY?... why is
Wal-Mart now spending resources in time, attention and money
to promote same-gender sexual behavior?
"Why will a Wal-Mart vice president now sit on the NGLCC task force?
"Why will Wal-Mart spend monetary resources to help fund
conferences that promote same-gender sexual behavior?"
The WorldNetDaily piece goes on to comment that, "In turning
their back on the Red State shopper who disapproves of these
changes, Wal-Mart has made a terrible business decision."
Many conservative Americans could only shake their heads in
agreement at this sad assessment. And yet it appears that
Wal-Mart remains completely unapologetic and unmoved. One of
its spokesmen even dismissed their decision as "just another
routine business outreach."
There has been no backing down - no apology at all. It is almost
as if Wal-Mart feels it will suffer no major repercussions at all
from this. Even though they must be aware that in some quarters
there is talk of "boycotts", etc, they seem almost blissfully unconcerned.
Well - maybe they are right. But on the other hand, it just may be
that Wal-Mart is about to find out how its customers really feel
about these new changes. For a big retailer at Christmas-time it
would take only 2% or 3% of its customers to send a very clear
message by shopping elsewhere. If that happened, the alarm bells
would be huge - right across the retail world.
Please PASS THIS ON.
LA TIMES Article-
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart25aug25,0,1146352.story WORLDNETDAILY Articles- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51774 http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51782 NGLCC Articles- http://www.nglcc.org/ht/d/Releases/pid/576 ----------------------------------------------------
Eric Standlee
Reasons not to buy anything from Citgo or Venezuela for that matter
- denigrated our country and our President before the UN
- befriends IRAN and other terrorist nations
- encourages central and south American mafias to traffic in slaves bringing them into our country
- and the last straw is that he has been caught supporting people from terrorist nations blocked from entry into the USA to obtain false passports and ids so that they can sneak into our country
The countries voting for Venezuela to join the UNSC are receiving bribes from Chavez....?????
Unbelievable!
Monday, October 16, 2006
After patches, Microsoft warns of PowerPoint attack, 10/13/06
After patches, Microsoft warns of PowerPoint attack, 10/13/06
Just days after patching four bugs in PowerPoint, Microsoft is warning of a new attack targeting its presentation software.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Give us your questions
I would like to answer your questions on our podcast. There are two options, I can 3-way you into the podcast or I can just quote your question and answer it for the listeners.
Thanks for your questions.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Subscribe Bookmark for Reader
Subscribe as you surf
If you find yourself repeatedly visiting a website to check for updates, or if you just stumble across a page you want to keep track of, you can easily subscribe to it in Google Reader using the subscribe bookmark.
To use the subscribe bookmark, simply drag the link below to your bookmarks bar. Then, when you're on a web page, you can click the bookmark to view it in Google Reader.
Once you see the feed preview, confirm your subscription by clicking the "Subscribe" button within Reader.
[FeedBurner] A Flurry of Featurettes
Gang, more features that you should know about at feedburner.com which make our feeds work even harder for us. If you aren't using them, you ought to be.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BurnThisRSS2/~3/36154730/a_flurry_of_featurettes.php
As though they were still on the road to Grandma Frances' house, stuck in the back bench seat between a bunch of bullying databases and a self-absorbed older web server, FeedBurner's feature set sometimes wants to cry out, "will you stop touching me!" Alas, we continue to fuss over our constantly evolving publisher-driven offering — it can always get better. We'll call this latest round of improvements "featurettes" since they are mostly enhancements to the existing services you know and seem to like. Here is the rundown:
PingShot, now even more Ping-tacular
Last Thursday, Google launched a ping server in support of their blog search, and our busy engineers wasted no time incorporating it into our PingShot notification service. For those of you who were napping during PingShot class, here's a quick refresher. If you want ensure that Google Blog Search is indexing your content in real-time, activate the free PingShot service with a few simple clicks.
A few more recently-added PingShot-able services include Blogblogs, a search engine and social media platform for Brazilian blogs which is getting a bit of buzz as well as FeedBlitz, the email service. To activate and customize PingShot to your liking, just log in, select your feed, go to the "Publicize" tab and click the "PingShot" link in the left column.
FeedBurner Email — attract more subscriptions (and look fabulous doing it)
Never again miss an opportunity to promote email subscription. If you're using FeedBurner Email + BrowserFriendly, you now have an additional option for subscription. Behold the shiny new link in our feed.This new link-to-email functionality makes FeedBurner Email much more versatile. Add this link to your MySpace profile, your Wordpress.com blog or your email signature, etc. Promoting subscription to your feed is super simple with FeedBurner Email. Grab the code from the "Publicize" tab.
In other email-related news: formatting in Gmail involves some additional element-level style sheet poetry, so the design team held a CSS Slam and voila. Now, FeedBurner Email looks pretty when viewed in Gmail.
New and Improved FeedFlare
The catalog of developer-inspired FeedFlare from around the world continues to grow. There are static FeedFlares, dynamic FeedFlares and FeedFlares in foreign languages. Among the list of dynamic entrants (FeedFlares that reflect real-time information) are:Scape This. Example: Vote at Netscape. 231 votes, 548 comments Technorati Cosmos Links. Example: Technorati: 8 links to this item Feed Circulation. Example: This feed has N subscribers. Check out the full catalog (yes, this page is overdue for a touchup). If you don't see a FeedFlare that suits your fancy, build your own.
So the road trip continues, whether the feature set likes it or not.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Ideas for expanding your network of connections
- To make a good impression on decision makers you meet, "volunteer your time to a nonprofit organization they're involved in, or aid in publicizing a school fundraiser their kids are involved in."
- "Create a company-approved project that will force you to learn new skills and introduce you to new people within your company."
- "take on leadership positions in the hobbies and outside organizations that interest you."
- "spend time with peopl who are doing the jobs you'd like to be doing"
- "enroll in a class at a community college on a subject that relates to either the job you're doing now or a job you see yourself doing in the future."
"Are you making the most of the connections you already have?"
** All quotes are from "Never Eat Alone" by Ferrazzi
Take that first step and connect with me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericstandlee . Ask me how, and I will tell you how to grow your network massively just using LinkedIn and that will translate into better skills in person.
In His Service,
Eric Standlee
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
My Account
If you do, then you will want to go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount to see all of your google services and add something new.
I recommend reader, writely, spreadsheets, notebook, and if you don't have an invite ask me but try orkut.
Switch to Beta.Blogger.com
I have blogs that are too big so it will be a while before I can.
NEW! Google Docs & Spreadsheets
What's new in Google Docs & Spreadsheets?
We're still working to make Google Docs & Spreadsheets a better place, and we're listening closely to your suggestions. If you have anything you'd like to tell us, don't hesitate to let us know, and keep checking back for additions and improvements.
Writely and Google Spreadsheets have come together!
-
A combined list of documents and spreadsheets
You can see, create, and share all of your web-based documents and spreadsheets in one place. As your collection grows, you can manage and find them using tags, stars, and searches. Learn more
-
A new interface for Google Docs & Spreadsheets
The document and spreadsheet editors now share the same UI, as features of one product. Not every little detail is the same, since they do different things, but they certainly have a similar feel. -
A consistent way to share
Sharing a document or spreadsheets works the same way now. We've even added an option to spreadsheets so you can let collaborators invite others to your spreadsheets. (This is the default way that that sharing works for documents.) Learn more
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
God is running to you and wants to put the robe of God's approval on you
http://rss.streamos.com/streamos/rss/genfeed.php?feedid=111&groupname=lakewood
Friday, October 06, 2006
eBay Blogs
Take advantage of this.
Five Fantastic And NEW Ways To Generate A Traffic Explosion For Your Website
Here are 5 completely NEW ways that can make your pages experience a traffic explosion like no other!
1. Write and submit press releases. Articles, though powerful and free, have become passé. Everyone and his uncle seem to be doing it. Also, the pickup rate of articles by web publishers has severely decreased throughout the months. Whereas before, one article submitted to one directory can be picked up by 20 or more web publishers, nowadays, your article must be sharing unique and novel information to merit such numbers. Submitting a press release to a number of news wires in the World Wide Web, on the other hand, is something that not every internet marketer is availing of. As such, this avenue is much like article marketing during its heyday. All you have to do is to write a press release that is less than 750 words and submit the same to a news wire site like www.prweb.com . Your press release should contain newsworthy information, which should stick to answering the who, what, where, when and why of a particular event. Press releases get picked up by several publishers, both online and offline. You'll be surprised by the amount of traffic one good press release will generate for your website. You can submit press releases for free at http://prweb.com
2. Advertise at Froogle. If you're selling a product over the internet, Froogle is a channel that you should learn how to exploit. Froogle is a division of Google. It's actually Google's search engine for online consumers. The service is relatively new, but with Google's engine behind the same, we can all rest assured that in a few months' time, Froogle will be a byword in every internet-using household all around the world. Put your items on Froogle at: http://froogle.google.com/froogle/base.html
3. MySpace. Many of you are familiar with MySpace as an online dating website, or a social networking site as it calls itself. But did you know about the marketing potentials that are slowly being discovered with MySpace's 35,000,000 subscribers? Simply create an account that will look "cool" to your target audience. If you're selling mp3 portable players, for example, name your account as "the mp3 zone" or something similarly fresh. Then invite people to add you as their "friend." With some effort, you can immediately gain 1,000 new friends per week. Imagine if you have 10,000, 20,000 or even 30,000 friends. Send one message in the community bulleting board and you'll immediately have 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 readers. Mention your website's URL in the said message and you'll have 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 potential visitors. Now, what if you'd post a message every other day? You get the picture, right?
4. A mock sale on eBay. Selling an information product? Here's a great way to INSTANTLY establish web presence. Since eBay pages rank well in Google search results, create an account with the auction site (if you still don't have one). Then offer an eBook or a special report you'd otherwise offer for free. Sell it for a cent. Now you might wonder who'd buy the product for a cent when they can get it from your website for free. Here's the clincher. Ebay members are always on the lookout for one cent products. They're not really after the product, they're after the feedback. But in your eBay sales page, you can include a link to your website. Better yet, in the pages of your information product, you can include several links to your website as well. Since your eBay sales page will appear higher in search engine results, you'd have traffic equivalent to that which can be generated by a high placing in the search engines! Just make sure that your eBay sales page is populated with the right keywords.
5. Post a how to article at www.wikihow.com . This website is a subsidiary of Wikipedia, so you know it has the muscles to catapult it to great web prominence. Now, once your write a how to article, you can add your own website in the external links section. Your how to article, of course, should be relevant to the subject of your website. However, you have to check your entry from time to time, since Wikihow pages employ a creative commons license, meaning, anyone can add to or alter what you have written. If someone was devious enough to alter your link, simply log in and add your link once more. This strategy is known to generate thousands of hits, owing to the fact that a lot of people are subscribed to feeds generated by WikiHow.
Just using one or two of these strategies will dramatically increase traffic going to your website. So take action today!!!!!!!
Ubuntu road warrior tips
He has some insight about how to use Ubuntu on the road on your laptop:
Don Marti from LinuxWorld asked me to write a bit about using Ubuntu on the road. The article appeared here, but I thought it would make a good blog post too. I'd love to hear from folks about tools you use with Ubuntu to make it rock harder on the road!
The original article is here.
I do use Ubuntu on my laptop, and travel a lot. My laptop is both my primary working environment and my primary development environment. I also have a desktop machine, which runs Kubuntu, and which I use for development at home over the weekends.
NetworkManager is (mostly) my friend. When it works on your hardware it's a blessing, though every now and then it can get itself into a horrible jam. The primary missing feature for me, now, is the ability for it to recognise "locations" and configure printers accordingly.
I'm a Thunderbird fan and use that rather than Evolution. The best tip I can give anyone is to try the Quickfile extension for Thunderbird. It was developed in response to a bounty I put out some time ago, and has made my life much, much better in dealing with several thousand mail folders. In simple terms, it lets me file a mail to a folder by typing a hotkey and then a few letters from the folder name. This lets me drive Thunderbird almost entirely from the keyboard. Combined with the offline email function of Thunderbird I can be extremely productive with email in planes, trains and automobiles, which is where I get a lot of time these days.
One glitch in that routine is when people send me email with a URL in it. I am often offline when I get to the email, so it can be frustrating because I can't then see the document they are pointing at. To work around this I use a combination of Firefox bookmarks and T-bird labels. I have a "Needs web access" label, which I use to flag emails that have this issue. And I have a "To read" folder on my firefox bookmarks toolbar. By right clicking on the URL in the email I can copy the URL, then I right click on the "To read" folder and create a new bookmark to that URL with a note about the context. Then, when I'm online, I can trivially get T-bird to show me all the mails that need online attention, and open all the relevant pages in tabs in a new Firefox window. The result is that I can immediately deal with everything that NEEDS me to be online. This is a huge win if, like me, you are traveling constantly and can only grab net access in short windows while parked outside a Starbucks or in an airport lounge.
The original article is here: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/55
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Microsoft Word Replacements
Here are my two favorites:
1) I keep all of my important documents that I am working on currently and couldn't bear to lose on Google's own wordprocessor www.writely.com . It has all of the features of Word, it can save to word documents, and it has the biggest benefit of never being in jeopardy of being lost when and not only if your computer or personal confuser like I like to call it decides to die. It is all to common these days for confusers to do that, and instead of naively hoping that your confuser wont or stupidly thinking that you can protect your computer, unless you are using mac or linux as your operating system, then you should have a backup and even if you are using mac and linux you need to protect against loss. Writely is that insurance policy for me. It also has very very very powerful colaboration tools built in.
2) I use www.openoffice.org to edit local documents in whatever wordprocessor format (not to mention spreadsheet, presentation, and database as well). I also save my writely docs to local and open them with openoffice.org's worprocessor so that I can easily convert them to pdf for FREE!
Go to work!
[From Google Reader] The Foley Disaster Was Just A PRANK???!!
It is getting so hard to tell what is real and what isn't anymore. That is why I kept my mouth shut and didn't weigh in on this issue much, but here it is. And those dems ought to be ashamed of themselves. Now it comes out that this whole thing was just a prank that put the sick Mr. Foley in a compromised position. I wouldn't be surprised now to find out that Mrs. Clinton and gang put the paige up to it.
What is O'Reily and the rest of the press especially the left wing propoganda outlets going to do?
*****WOW! See update below!*****
**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal… Developing…
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
Here are the details:
According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats. This source, an ally of Edmund, also adamantly reports that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund.
WTF is going on out there????!
Can we just flush all of the morons in Washington D.C. down the toilet where they belong?? And the media, too?
Now we know why Jordan Edmund got an attorney - Timothy McVeigh's, no less. He's in some serious hot water…
UPDATE: From Right Wing News :
foley, politics, prankGuess what? Somebody actually called this. In the Conservatives With Attitude Podcast Roundtable that I participated in Tuesday night, high school teacher Betsy Newmark said that she thought it was prank.
I "respectfully disagreed" with her, because I didn't want to give the impression that we were blaming the victim and because, honestly, I didn't think that the average heterosexual high school kid would actually go so far as to have cybersex with a gay man as part of a prank. But, Betsy apparently figured out what was going on. It must be because she spends all day teaching kids that are around this age.
Here are Betsy's comments:
"Foley is a complete sleaze, he has got a real problem, but let me say, this kid is not an innocent kid. You read those things, he's leading him on. He's like a little Lolita. And what I picture, I picture this kid, he's in his dorm room, or wherever he is, and he has got 3 or 4 friends on and they're just giggling themselves silly. "Look what I got this Congressman to say." That's why he saved these IM messages, so he could send it around to all his friends and they could laugh at this poor, middle-aged Congressman who is so pitiful and has got some real sick problems. It just seems to be the type of thing that teenaged boys would have thought was so funny. This isn't some kid who is innocently appalled at what he's getting. He's leading that guy on."
What can I say other than, here's to Betsy, she nailed it right on the nose.
Book Reviews
Don't be surprised but I don't read just one book at a time and it drives my wife crazy. It is a part of me that I have learned to like very much and a gift from God that I find very precious. Like the article I blogged about here , I know that I am a relational innovator (I have the test results to prove it), and that is God's perfect will for my life.
So anyway, don't be surprised by the large number of books I tell you about and know that any equally large if not larger list I wont tell you about.
Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies by Susannah Gardner is a good starter book, but keep up with the latest in blogging by reading this blog. Books by definition are already old when they get printed, so some of the "new" information in this book is already out of date, but the book in general is a good way to start learning about Blogs.
Blog Marketing by Jeremy Wright will make more sense if you read it after you read the above Buzz Marketing book. It too is somewhat dated already, but a very good read and full of good info.
Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook by Mordkovich and Mordkovich is also definitely dated with all of the changes that Google and the other PPC search engine advertising companies have been making and you have been reading about on this blog, but again a very good starter book.
Get More Referrals Now! by Bill Cates, is a thouroughly enjoyable book and a must read for anyone like me who recognizes their total lack in the area of natural belly-to-belly networking skills. It will also help you be more real and personal in email and electronic forms of communication.
Never Eat Alone by Ferrazzi with it's sister blog http://nevereatalone.typepad.com/ has really been making an impact in my thinking in the business of relationshipping too.
Daily Readings from Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen has 90 bite-sized devotions from the information in the orginal book Your Best Life Now, and whatever you believe about Joel and his doctrine, you need to read this devotion book. The word of God does not return void, and this book has spoken to me in amazing ways.
Well, probably not the long list you thought it would be, but I decided to leave off 75% of the books I am reading right now.
Be blessed,
Eric Standlee
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Google Analytics: a year in review
Looking back over the last year, I can see major trends in the profitability of what I have done with my advertising across many different methods one of which is adwords.
One of the most valueable things to come out of it has been a list of keywords which have converted from front page to step one, two, three and finally to President's Interview which is the best metric of the value of a keyword or referral source or campaign after all.
I have been able to narrow down my best keywords which drive traffic to the PI. I have also continued testing other keywords and now have a solid base of information to compare their effectiveness to.
If you aren't using google analytics or some sort of analysis system, you are throwing away money. If you just don't care, then throw a couple buck my way by sending all donations to eric.standlee@gmail.com via pay pal.
But seriously folks, if you are using our splash pages system, then all it takes is going through the wizard to create the code to put on your splash pages and sending that to me. Why would I ask for more work? It will be good to have more data from everyone's results to compare. For instance, what about those Sam Crowleys out there who are mostly driving traffic belly-to-belly? Or what about the Jack Weinzierls out there solely on adwords, or the Don Goldstein's out there who combined adwords and USA Today and Radio?
It could just be an exercise to read the data once a month, or it could lead to an insight that saves you thousands of dollars which ultimately means thousands of dollars in the Kingdom.
Something to think about,
Eric
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Raise Substantial Monies without Asking for Donations -- Hidden Treasures
Would you be open to showing referring organizations how to receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars for their ministry or faith-based non-profit without asking anyone for any money whatsoever? If we could take most of the fundraising responsibilities off their and your shoulders and help them accomplish their monetary goals in approximately 6-12 months, would you be willing to spend a few minutes to meet with our director?
http://www.businessconferences.info/ht
Monday, October 02, 2006
Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test
Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test
Find out for sure.
The Irony Is Too Rich…
Are you living a life that bows to the devil, or are you standing up for freedom and those who do?…even for me.
The Spanish, vying with the Fwench to bear the standard of the ignoble white flag, have decided to change the way they celebrate their freedom from Muslim oppression, by…well, voluntarily bowing to Muslim oppression.
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish villages are toning down traditional fiestas in which revelers blow up dummies representing the Prophet Mohammed for fear of offending Muslims, the newspaper El Pais reported on Monday.
One eastern Spanish village, Bocairent, decided to abandon the custom of packing the head of a dummy representing Mohammed with fireworks after seeing the angry response by Muslims to a Danish newspaper's publication last year of cartoons of him.
El Pais found that several other villages in the Valencia region had also modified similar fiestas this year. It carried out the investigation after a Berlin opera house decided last week to cancel performances of Mozart's "Idomeneo" because the production included a scene depicting Mohammed's severed head.
Bocairent's mayor, Antonio Valdes, said blowing up the Mohammed dummy was offensive. "It just wasn't necessary, and, as it could hurt some people's feelings, we decided not to do it," he said.
Nevermind that Spain has celebrated their Reconquista with such traditions for over 500 years! Mass insanity on the part of outraged Muslims is not something any Spaniard is willing to stomach apparently. Dhimmitude is alive and well in Spain.
Colleges coveting home-schooled students
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Home_schoolers_Colleges.html
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Bombarded by choices at a college job fair, Sara Kianmehr quickly found her match: Columbia College, a small, private school that didn't mind that her transcripts came from her parents.
The college "was the only institution that didn't have a puzzled look and say, 'Home school,' and ask me a million questions," the 19-year-old junior said. "There was a big appeal."
With colleges and universities aggressively competing for the best students, a growing number of institutions are actively courting homebound high achievers like Kianmehr, who took community college courses her senior year of high school and hopes to eventually study filmmaking at New York University or another top graduate school.
The courtship can be as subtle as admissions office Web sites geared to home-schooled applicants or, in the case of Columbia College, as direct as purchasing mailing lists and holding special recruiting sessions.
After years of skepticism, even mistrust, many college officials now realize it's in their best interest to seek out home-schoolers, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
"There was a tendency to kind of dismiss home schooling as inherently less rigorous," he said. "The attitude of the admissions profession could have at best been described as skeptical."
Home-schooled students - whose numbers in this country range from an estimated 1.1 million to as high as 2 million - often come to college equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in higher education, said Regina Morin, admissions director of Columbia College.
Such assets include intellectual curiosity, independent study habits and critical thinking skills, she said.
"It's one of the fastest-growing college pools in the nation," she said. "And they tend to be some of the best prepared."
The number of home-schooled graduates enrolled at Columbia College is small - about a dozen out of a full-time undergraduate population that hovers near 1,000. But they count among their supporters an influential advocate.
Terry Smith, a political science professor and the school's dean of academic affairs, home-schooled three of his four children in the 1970s and '80s. Each of those children went on to graduate from college, with two earning master's degrees.
"All of my professional work has been influenced by this family schooling experience," he said. "We're all teachers and learners. They're just the apprentices, and we're the master learners."
The school's admissions standards for home-schooled students are identical to those for traditional graduates - minus the formal transcript requirement. Some colleges and universities, though, continue to require home-schoolers to earn a GED high-school equivalency diploma or take subject-specific SAT tests along with the standard requirements.
At Stanford, sympathetic admissions officers have helped make the university a beacon for high-achieving home-schoolers. The support can be seen on the Stanford admissions office's Web site.
"The central issue for us is the manner in which you have gone about the learning process, not how many hurdles you have jumped," the office advises home-schooled students. "We look for a clear sense of intellectual growth and a quest for knowledge in all of our applicants."
Jon Reider, a former senior associate admissions director at Stanford, said the school's pursuit of home-schoolers fits its academic and social mission.
He also acknowledged that Stanford and other schools now realize that home-school students are a prominent enough population that can only be ignored at a university's own peril.
"Part of it is driven by demographics," said Reider, now a guidance counselor at a private high school in San Francisco. "There's a surplus of college spaces" and attracting good students to them is important everywhere.
Magdalene Pride, a first-year Columbia College student, was a beneficiary of the school's aggressive recruitment of home-schoolers.
After earning more than 50 credit hours through a combination of community college classes near her suburban St. Louis home and online Advanced Placement course, Price was awarded a four-year scholarship to Columbia College that covers the school's $12,414 annual tuition.
Among those who helped sell her on Columbia College was Kianmehr, a student ambassador who spoke at a college fair Pride attended.
"They're so open to home-schoolers here," she said. "No one looks down on me, or treats me different. It's very accepting."
--
Eric Standlee
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericstandlee
Prospered not to increase my Standard of Living,
but to increase my Standard of Giving
Take this entrepreneurial quiz: http://www.7kovernover.com/quiz.pdf
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Keyword Suggestions For: online business
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Fwd: InfoWorld: Should Microsoft be in the anti-malware business?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Security Adviser <securityadviser@newsletter.infoworld.com >
Subject: InfoWorld: Should Microsoft be in the anti-malware business?
========================================================================
SECURITY ADVISER: ROGER GRIMES http://www.infoworld.com/
========================================================================
Monday, October 2, 2006
SHOULD MICROSOFT BE IN THE ANTI-MALWARE BUSINESS?
By Roger A. Grimes
Posted September 29, 3:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Microsoft has a cadre of anti-malware tools. Most are free, but some
current and forthcoming options are commercial. Any marketplace entry by
the Redmond-based company becomes an immediate formidable foe lessening
competitor profits.
Many analysts are asking if Microsoft, which could be blamed for creating
the very insecurities that Windows malware is exploiting, should be able
to reap additional profit from closing those same holes? The company's
worst critics are worried that key vulnerabilities could be left in
Windows longer to benefit additional Microsoft revenue streams.
[Talkback: Is Microsoft's anti-malware business a conflict of interest?]
I think it is a fair question, and I encourage the discussion and debate.
I admit to having mixed emotions, but I ultimately support Microsoft's
objectives as long as they compete in the anti-malware marketplace
fairly. Here's why.
First, it might be helpful to review Microsoft's newest anti-malware
tools. They are the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), Windows
Defender, Live OneCare, and Microsoft Forefront Client Security.
MSRT is automatically downloaded and run every month when the normal
Patch Tuesday patches are installed. MSRT looks for and removes the most
popular critical malware threats; the current version looks for 75
different malware families. It can be downloaded and run on demand by
connecting to this site.
Windows Defender is Microsoft's beta anti-spyware tool, which the company
picked up during the Giant Software Company acquisition. It looks for
and removes spyware, adware, and other potentially malicious programs
and hacking tools. It provides real-time protection, blocking the
installation of monitored items into more than 100 different Windows
locations. It scans all downloads arriving via Internet Explorer and
Outlook, and is able to perform on-demand scans of local media.
Windows Live OneCare is Microsoft's subscription-based PC protection
service for nonenterprise computers. For $49.95 a year, OneCare will
cover up to three PCs, giving you anti-virus, anti-spyware, host-based
firewall, performance tune-ups, backups, and automated Windows patch
management. About the only thing it is missing ...
More of this column at:
http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?r=314&ctl=14353DA:9F57DF6AFB30FA342B247C7A663AAC73EFF29049075316B4
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP
I know I am going to get some grief, but if you have to use xp you need some of these toys.
[From Google Reader] Something looks... different.
Try it out today by subscribing to this feed: http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/crusaderx
As of today, Google Reader has a new look — and even more important, a lot of new features that we think you'll like. We've listened to your feedback, done usability research, and examined all the ways that people consume content on the web, from feed readers to email clients. With a clean interface and some JavaScript wizardry, we think we've built an application that accommodates a wide range of reading styles while being fun and easy to use.
So what's new? First, we've added some things you've been asking for, such as unread counts and "mark all as read." Folder-based navigation makes it easier to organize your subscriptions, and the new expanded view lets you quickly scan over several items at once. And we've made sharing much easier - with a single click of the "shared" icon, you can publish an interesting item on your public sharing page for your friends to see. So give the new Reader a try. We hope you like it!
And what about the old interface? Well, things might look different, but we made sure the new interface enabled the reading style of current Reader users. For example, clicking "All items" and choosing "List view" should make the experience feel quite familiar. But since it's possible that we've overlooked your favorite feature from version 1, you still have the option (in "Settings") to switch back to the old interface for the time being. If you do, please let us know why so we can improve the new version to better suit your needs.
One last thing: Chris made a video for the launch. We think it's fun:
Feedburner Critical Function: Publicize :: PingShot
If you haven't then you are not getting the results you want.PingShot
Most web-based feed reading services will check for updates on their own time. Give 'em a push with PingShot. Choose the services you want to ping, and we'll notify them when you publish new content