Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

Powerful Blogging: Can Twitter and Email Replace Comments?

Filed Under Successful Blog, Tools | 5 Comments

A Tools Review by
David Berti

cooltext451585442_tools

Can You Sleek Down YOUR Life This way?

Whether you’re a blogger or an entrepreneur, you’re probably using the net to get in touch with lots of people out there. You also know what to do, how to do that. But you feel there is always something missing to get to that so called “next step” everyone of us is longing for.

As bloggers, we can absolutely tell that wonderful feeling… that feeling of having our digital life going great, that side of our digital existence handled for good; I will be serious about that. The best advice I have been able to find on the net goes like this:

“write the greatest, deepest content you can produce and let the machines do the rest, without worrying about visitors, comments and similar stuff”.

That is to say: all the effort you really have to make is about content. Creating, is the only thing we, as bloggers, editors and writers, are allowed to worry about.

What is not so clear for the vast majority of bloggers is that the interface between the user and the internet can become a great obstacle because of the vast choice of applications, addons, plugins and widgets that are available for us to use on our pages. These features are totally irrelevant on the quality of the material we can find on a blog page.

By simplifying the blog interface, I guess I have made one of the most important and wise decisions ever in my (digital) life. What did I do, exactly to simplify my blog interface?
1. I removed the comments section under every post
2. I removed plugins and reduced my blog interface to the essential

No need for comments and features that bloat my page. I need content that is valuable for what it is. Looks doesn’t really matter to me, and all I want to look at is the content I am interested in. That is why I also removed comments.

The Results:

I uniquely use 2 communication channels that are completely free: my email account and my Twitter. This way, I don’t create clutter in my life and all I do in the virtual world remains there.

Plus, my blog remains clean and usable; no visual clutter is present on my screen and whenever I feel like I can read what I write with no need to close and click ads, useless windows and pop-up stuff.

Moreover, in absence of plugins and different elements I can have a blog which is usable and viewable by almost every kind of device out there, and doesn’t make the user wait for the content to appear and load.

No time to waste, no clutter. Just you and the deep content you’re going to enrich your existence with.

What might you gain or lose by sleeing doen your down your (digital life) to these two communication channels?

David Berti is the creator of the Ubuntulook project. His webisite is(unbuntulook You’ll find him on twitter as @ubuntulook

_______

Thanks, David! Always love a distinctively new point of view!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Top 5 Free Video Tools for Producing Internet Marketing Videos

Filed Under Business Life, Successful Blog, Tools | 1 Comment

A Tools Review by
Rahil Muzafar

cooltext451585442_tools

Who Says Your Marketing Video Can’t Be Cool?

Whether you’re making

If that video requires some sort of editing, you don’t need to pay for editing anymore. The advancement in technology and a number of user friendly video editing software means that video editing is is doable at home even if you have no understanding of how video editing works. Anybody with a little bit of creativity can produce compelling, share worthy, and interesting videos by using these intelligible tools, and step by step guides provided in those freely available tutorials.

Multiple options are available for mixing up still pictures to create a meaningful video, joining different video clips into one, adding music, audio, or jingles to your recordings, and of course, adding titles, text overlays, and credits to describe your company or products. Sounds pretty convincing? Keep on reading to find a list of 5 freely available tools that you can use for making a video to make the most of this cost-effective marketing medium.

1. Windows Movie Maker:

This, as you already know, comes with the Microsoft Windows, without any kind of additional charges. It is a very basic, easy to use, and a beginner’s level software that can be used by just about anybody for producing some impressive projects and editing home made videos. The best thing about Windows Movie Maker is that it has a very familiar interface that syncs well with the overall user experience of Microsoft Windows, which means you will be able to get on with this tool in next to no time. A simple, yet powerful tool to create and edit videos, add audio, and many different effects, Windows Movie Maker is the perfect starting point for your video marketing campaign.

Wax:

Slightly more complicated than the Movie Maker, but still pretty easy to understand, Wax provides a great platform for creating professional looking videos with flexibility and special effects. The special effects include 2D and 3D, and it has a multitude of options for both professionals and home users.

Zwei-Stein and ZS4

This tool is one step ahead of the basic ones (even though it doesn’t appear to be when you first look at it) but once you get going, you will find that it’s an incredible video compositing and editing tool, offering some very unique options as compared to the features provided by other free tools. In fact the features are exploitable by both an average user and the pro. Zwei-Stein lets you edit a large number of videos, putting forward a staggering number of special effects. Both Zwei Stein and ZS4 are free for personal use and available for download on their websites.

Blender:

Blender is not really a video editor, but it totally deserves to be in this list. This one is actually meant for 3D content production and even though 3D animation may take more time, but it’s a great way to stand apart from the crowd. The interface will take some time before you can get used to it, but once you get a handle on the hotkeys, you will find that your effort were totally worth it. Blender lets you create unparalleled animations, and has a plethora of features that seem to offer more and more every time you get a little creative. There are a number of tutorials and lots of websites dedicated to the tips and tricks for 3d enthusiasts. Blender offers a number of tools that will make your task easier and there’s no limit to what you can do with this software.

Jaycut

This is a web based editor, which means you don’t need to download or install anything on your computer, Jaycut gives you the freedom of editing anywhere on the internet with some handy options available for web based software. It provides the functionality similar to the Movie Maker, and includes features like recording audio or video straight from the application. You can publish your videos direct to YouTube or save on your disk; in fact you can save the video on their servers to access it from any computer with Internet access.

So, what are you waiting for? With so many free tools and a platform like YouTube at your disposal, you have got no reasons but to utilize video marketing and publicize your products, create buzz, engage customers, and much, much more.

,

Rahil Muzafar

—-
This post was contributed by Rahil, and this piece of information is not the only thing he has to offer, you can also benefit from Hostgator coupon code and eleven2 coupon code at his website.

Thanks! Rahil!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

SpyFu: The Secret Weapon of the Savvy Internet Marketer

Filed Under Marketing, Successful Blog, Tools | Leave a Comment

A Guest Post by Lior Levin

spyfu-logo1

Like most people new to Internet marketing, when I first started out, I made the mistake of believing that the Google keyword tool was the only accurate source of information and whatever Google’s tools said had to be treated as gospel. Boy, was I wrong! Not only are there plenty of other tools out there, they are actually a lot more accurate with their numbers because they are impartial.

Google’s goal is to make money, which they do from advertisers, so they care little about Internet marketers trying to make a living and their tools tend to reflect this bias. However, I’m here to tell you about a secret weapon no Internet marketer worth his salt should be without and that is SpyFu.com.

Competitive Data and Keyword Research

successful-blog-spyfu-screen-shot

SpyFu is a comprehensive, online keyword research tool that also offers SEO and PPC tools to allow you to spy on your competition. This online tool will allow to uncover vast amounts of data on your competition, including their daily PPC budget, their keywords, bid prices, how many clicks they get per day and much more. All you have to do is enter the domain name of the site you want to analyze and you are then presented with a plethora of information.

SpyFu allows you to also view the top organic rankings, the best performing ads and the SEO rankings for any of your competitors. It also features a list of the Top 100 Adsense keywords in terms of CPC.

You can also work backwards, by analyzing a specific keyword. You will be offered such information as the number of advertisers bidding on that particular keyword, the price range being paid per click and even the ads and links to the landing pages of the advertisers in question.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

One of the things I like most about SpyFu is that the information they provide is straightforward, with no secret formulas. You can see the complete history of a keyword, from how often a certain domain used a keyword in their campaign, to the highest and lowest CPC. It also allows provides information on when the ad copy was changed, which I find extremely useful. If I’m targeting a similar keyword, then I can always analyze the ad copy to see which approach delivered the best results.

The competitive data SpyFu provides is invaluable and I use it for almost every project I work on. After all, to beat the competition you have to know the competition and you would be surprised how much facts and figures can reveal about a competitors marketing strategy. I also save a lot of time by analyzing my competitor’s landing pages and ad copy. For example, if a certain ad has been in use for a while and hasn’t been changed, you can be sure that it is performing well. You can then use the ad copy in question as inspiration when crafting your own PPC ads.

However, SpyFu does have its limitations and I have found it to be somewhat inaccurate when it comes to the daily PPC budget of a competitor. While this information might not be important to you if you don’t do PPC, it is critical to any PPC-based campaign. After all, the budget you set plays a critical role in the ranking of your ad.

Despite its few limitations, I still find SpyFu to be one of the most effective market research tools available online. It certainly delivers much more realistic figures in terms of CPC, search volume and number of advertisers, offering a more accurate overview of a certain market or niche.

—–
This outstanding review was written by Lior Levin who is a consultant to 123 neon signs, and also works with an online task management startup.
You can find Lior on Twitter as Liors

Thank you, Lior. You’re welcome back here anytime.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

Top 5 Facebook Apps for Business Users

Filed Under Successful Blog, Tools | 5 Comments

A Tools Review by
Rahil Muzafar

cooltext451585442_tools

Top 5 Facebook Apps for Business users

Facebook is becoming of more and more assistance for both normal users, and more importantly, the businesses. Myriad of opportunities and apps exist for businesses to take advantage and make their stay at Facebook even more productive. Facebook is no more just a simple place for friends to hang around and share information, picture, and videos with each other, it has evolved into a place, where people can not only make friends, but they can also conduct lots of business activities, market their businesses, and so on. If you are running a business, and you happen to be an avid user of Facebook, then you should start using Facebook for purposes other than the much hyped business networking, a plethora of business apps can make things much simpler than you’d expect.

Let’s take a look at some of the most practical business apps.

1. Pagemodo

Not many people have the aesthetic sense, skills (or time) to create remarkable pages for their valued businesses. Pagemodo is for these people, providing the facility of creating professional looking business pages with incredible ease, sans any technical or graphic expertise, and an option to publish these pages straight away. The custom design and templates offer a wide variety of options. Pagemodo offers both free and premium packages; paid members can use many special features while paying a very small cost.

2. RSS Graffiti

For people who have multiple pages and feeds, there can’t be a better personal assistant than RSS graffiti (and it reminds you of that funny animal Giraffe, for me its reason enough to embrace this app). Apart from that, the application allows you to choose the combination between the feed that will be posted on the wall, page, profile, group, etc. You can choose exactly what shows up where, and how often. No matter who you are, or what type of business you are running, RSS graffiti will manage your feeds, in a hassle free and effective manner.

3. Facebook Files

This application lets you take your information wherever you go- which means you can access the files you need anywhere, as long as you have got access to your Facebook account. You can get up to 5 GB space for free which is extendable on demand. Share your files with your friends, colleagues, or subordinates, anywhere and everywhere. It serves like a mobile hard drive that you don’t have to carry physically, and the best part is that there’s no chance of losing it.

4. Networkedblogs

Blogging is all the rage these days, and this one is specifically meant for bloggers. Even though, there are a number of Facebook applications serving different purposes for bloggers, but this one is easily one of the best. This news reader application has the capability to pull up feeds from your blog, it lets you do stuff like adding a blog to your Facebook, read other peoples’ blogs and comment. It also lets you post feed on your profile or business page. In short, this app will enable you to make the most of Facebook community consisting of millions of people and create the much needed buzz for your blog.

5. I Endorse

In the online world, there is no asset as valuable as having the credibility, and when it comes to enhancing credibility, there’s nothing more effective than the testimonials coming from real people and real customers (believe it or not, but now the customers can differentiate between real testimonials and the bogus ones). “I Endorse” eases the process of accumulating testimonials (they call them endorsements).

Special mention – Facebook Lists:

Create and maintain all kinds of lists you can think of, no more sticky notes strewn all over the office, no more losing the grocery list, no more forgetting birthdays, and you can also share your lists with friends, and they can add/ update/ manage things for you.
,

Rohail Muzafar

—-
Thanks, Rohail! Rohail’s website is Surf Clothing and you find him on Twitter as @w3whiz

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

7 Outstanding Web Tools to Organize 2011 and Get the Right Information to You

Filed Under Productivity, Successful Blog, Tools | 6 Comments

A Guest Post by Lior Levin

cooltext451585442_tools

The Internet has put more information at our fingertips than ever before, and, at the same time, given us more to remember. As great as the digital age has been, it’s also been a nightmare for organization, giving us more mental clutter than we ever thought possible.

Fortunately, developers are finding new ways to use the Web to help people stay organized. In every area from finance to news, new Web-based tools are cropping up to help you stay organized and avoid information overload.

Though they target different challenges, their goals are are all the same: Filter out the information that one doesn’t need and ensure that the info you do need is available and easily accessible.

That is something all these tools do very well.

Contacts: Gist

gist-logo

Being on the Web means that we have an ever-increasing contact list and those contacts have an also-increasing number of means of contact. Between email, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds and more, it can be hard to keep track of who we know, where they are and what they are up to.

Gist, however, makes it easy, by syncing up with your various accounts, it unifies your contact list into one easily-digested list that is sorted by importance and includes all means of contact.

Finances: Mint

mint-logo

As great as online banking is, most of us have multiple accounts and our finances spread across more and more companies. Fortunately, Mint makes it easy to view all of these accounts in one place, by accessing your various banking, loans and credit accounts and then displaying the information in one place, making it easier than ever to get a clear picture of your finances.

Best of all, since Gist automatically categorizes your purchases, you can easily see where your money is going and where you can save money.

Files: Dropbox

dropbox-logo

If you use more than one computer, the frustration of having to more files from one machine to another are well-known. Though flash drives and email can help, they are clunky and slow solutions. Fortunately, Dropbox can help.

Dropbox automatically synchronizes files between computers, without you having to do anything. It just runs in the background and when a file is changed on one computer, the other machines on the account get the update almost instantly. Also great for collaboration and backup.

Social Networks: Tweetdeck (Chrome App)

tweetdeck-logo

If you are like most people, you have at least a few different social networking profiles spread across several different sites. Keeping track of them all can be a huge pain. Fortunately, Tweetdeck’s new Chrome Application, which is a Web-based HTML5 app, lets you follow your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare accounts and more all from one multi-column pane.

Best of all, with merged columns you can get all of your private communications (IE: Twitter DMs and Facebook messages) in one stream, regardless of where they came from.

Documents: Google Docs

google-docs-logo

Though Google Docs is best known as a tool for editing and creating files on the Web, through features like easy sharing, folders and document upload, it is also a way to organize and access your critical files anywhere you need them.

While it isn’t ideal for all document types, most simple documents can be easily used with Google Docs, making it a natural way to keep your files handy, no matter where you are.

Incoming Links: Zite

zite-logo

Between our Twitter streams, RSS feeds and other sites we follow, many of us have far more links in our inbox than we could ever read. Zite, which is currently in closed beta, calls itself “Your Personal Web Filter” and it goes through all of that to find the stories most important and most interesting for you.

Most interesting of all, Zite learns from your behavior and is always honing its approach to what you find interesting, making it a tool that gets better the more you use it.

Task List: Producteev

producteev-logo

Busy people have a lot of deadlines but keeping track of those deadlines can be a real pain. Though calendars can help, especially with meetings and appointments, there are many tasks that just aren’t right for calendars like laundry or sending out birthday cards.

Producteev helps organize those tasks and, through integration with email, IM and an iPhone app, makes it easy to ad tasks and receive updates on them. is also great for managers who need to assign tasks and deadlines to a team as it has a built-in function for group management as well.

In the end, the Web has both done more to make our lives more cluttered and more to simplify it than any innovation before. We have more information being thrown at us than we ever thought possible and more ways to sort, organize and parse it than we did just a few years ago.

When it’s all said and done, the Web is just a tool and we’ll get out of it exactly what we put into it. If we let it drive us to insanity, it can do so. But if we make it a tool to organize and streamline our lives, it can do that just as easily.

—–
This outstanding review was written by Lior Levin who is a consultant to iAdvize, a live chat support software company. You can find Lior on Twitter as Liors

Thank you, Lior. You’re welcome back here anytime.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

I’m a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

« go back — keep looking »