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We have a premium level of The ListBuilding Club called “ListBuilding 411,” where members can ask a question each day and one of the Overcome Everything team answers it on video within 24 hours. It’s an awesome service, and I wish it had been available when I was learning. It could have shaved years off my learning curve.

Anyway, today, one of our clients asked how he could get 4 spreadsheets with multiple pages online so that he could collaborate with others. I was amazed that he’d never heard of Google Docs! And then, I’m thinking… Wait.  People know how to search with Google, but most folks don’t really get the power of Google!

Google Docs is a great way to store information online. It not only gives you the ability to get to it anytime you need to as long as you have an Internet connection, it gives you the ability to share with other folks and to keep it all private. Google Docs is great!

Of course, it’s not without limitations and irritations. Like sometimes, it won’t let you paste stuff in where you want it to go, or you can’t export or well… it’s just NOT as adaptable as MS Office applications, but it’s still worth the effort to get in there and try it. Why not? It’s free.

Google has given us a whole bunch of stuff that’s free and very helpful.

Google Calendar can help you plan your schedule.

Google Maps is more accurate than MapQuest, in my opinion, and with Google Earth, we can see our own street or what’s going on in London at 2 a..m. Why not?

Whatever would we do without GMail, and Picasa? Email and photos are all that some people do online, right?

Lest we forget, there’s Google Video and Shopping and blogs at Blogger.  And now, they’re even putting books online for us! There’s Google Alerts, so we can see what people are saying about any topic, Google Translate, and Google for our mobile phones.

But did you know that you can also create 3-D images at Google Sketchup, create your own keyboard shortcuts, let you see You Tube videos or Picassa images right in your Gmail messages, and a whole lot more through Google Labs.

Google is getting to be a very powerful resource (as though it wasn’t powerful enough already). Try some of the “hidden” perks of Google, and you might find a whole new world of stuff to help you or waste your time and not have to pay a single dime. Amazing.

Hey…

Just want to apologize for missing a couple of days’ posts here. Tellman is in town!

So, all the OE South folks have been hanging out and having a great time. Today, we’re going sailing.

Should be fun!

Keep at it while we’re busy, eh? TTY tomorrow!

People are always asking me about my books, and since I have to come up with a video for the Overcome Everything channel each week, I decided to show folks my prior life. I did a lot of bleeding from the soul for these. You’d think that an accomplished author would be wealthy and famous…

Not

So, I came online to help sell these books, and now, look at me. Raving SEO, Internet marketing afficionado, and making more money than I ever have in my life. If I can come from an academic background (more or less, I was a banker for 20 years before writing) and be successful at this Internet marketing biz, you can, too.

‘Course, I wouldn’t have done it without Tellman. He was my mentor, which made all the difference. The cool thing is that you can have Tellman as your mentor, too. Just go over and Join The ListBuilding Club. It will set you straight down the path to IM success… I kid you not.

Anyway, check out this video and let me know what you think…

So, today has been a frustrating one, and I’m in a pretty testy mood right now.

Want to know what’s on my mind?

OK…

1) I HATE Internet Explorer. All versions. Hate it.

IE is a developer’s nightmare. It’s very quirky, and often won’t recognize what you want to do. For example, my new blog site (http://EasyBlogTricks.com). I have embedded some Camtasia videos into the blog, and they work perfectly on Firefox. No problem!

But when people try to view them in Internet Explorer, nada.

And I have a flaw. Yes, I admit it… a flaw. OK, well, maybe more than one, but this is tech related.

I always forget to check and see how my stuff looks in IE because I figure people should all be using Firefox, anyway.

Kidding.

People have their druthers. I really went kicking and screaming into Firefox from IE, and now, I realize how narrow-sighted I had been. But, people have their faves, and I know that TONS of people still use IE.

So, I’m trying to find a fix for this issue. I’m not much of a programmer. That’s the problem. I mean, if there’s PHP around, I can manipulate it, but writing? No clue. So… that leaves me at the mercy of Google, and trying to find a fix online. So far, bupkiss. I do have PHP for Dummies, so I think I might learn one day–at the Dummy level, anyway. Ha!

2) Power Going Off and On

I’ve had to reboot my computer 7 times this afternoon. Yes, 7! Servers me right for not having an APS, so I’m supposing I need to go out and purchase one tomorrow.

3) Windows Vista

Who does it think it is? I mean, it’s always telling me what I can and can’t do, and I’m sick of it. I turned it off. Stop trying to mother me, Vista. I’m a big girl and I know what and what not to do, really.

OK… I’m finished. I will return you to your regularly scheduled chat with Pat.

Whew! Feels better to get THAT off my chest.

If you have any pet peeves, anything that’s totally pissing you off today, here’s the place to let me know what that is!

Remember, misery loves company.

And I’m not really miserable, just hacked. LOL And totally glad it’s Friday.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

So, a couple of days ago, I got an email newsletter from Steve Bass, who used to be a columnist for PCWorld, and whom I totally enjoy. I find the fact that they just booted him after umpteen years despicable. I always enjoyed reading his stuff.

But, I digress…

He has a piece in there about router hijacking. Apparently, if you haven’t changed your router password, like so many of us hadn’t … duh… your router is susceptible to attack. The issue starts with a trojan that allows hackers to hijack your router and then, everything that you send or receive goes through them first. Not good at all. I immediately remembered that my virus protection software had caught a trojan a week ago, but still, who wants to have their router hijacked, right?

I had been noticing a slowdown, too, so that really scared me. I thought that I’d been hijacked. Who knows? Maybe I was… And then again, read on…

I’ve learned a great deal since I got that router, but it just didn’t occur to me to change the password. At the time, I’m sure I wouldn’t have known how. I mean, I’m pretty techy, but the hardware stuff still alludes me somewhat.  Anyway, I figured, OK… I can do this.

So, got out my notes for the router, and logged in.

Come to find that some of my neighbors have been pirating signal from me. Oh, did I feel like a dummy!  No wonder I was losing speed. I was allowing the whole neighborhood to use my broadband. What a dope!

So, I quickly changed my password, and then, tried to allow only my computers.  There are 5 in this house. Not so easy. But I did it anyway. Thought I was pretty smart, too.

And then, I couldn’t get back in.

I forgot to add my main computer!

So, guess what? I had to reinstall my router and start all over again.

It’s fixed now, but if you have a router and haven’t changed the password or only allowed your computers, you’re in danger of not just slowing down but of having your identity stolen and a whole lot more.

Scary stuff, eh?

I don’t know about you, but I make a lot of videos. I make training videos for work, videos for my website, and videos that I just throw up on the Web, like the one I uploaded to this site yesterday. I love making videos, and I really like them to come out professionally done. Let’s just say that I’m getting much better at that.

If you want to see some cool videos I made for Overcome Everything, just go to YouTube and search for OEVideos1 and you’ll see a bunch of them. Mine are the pretty PowerPoint ones. I mean, there are some crazy Tellman videos and some that Brian made, but you’ll notice mine right off.

Anyway, do you know how I get those videos delivered to 30 video sites, the audio portion to podcast sites, to a couple of blogs, and have them all social bookmarked at the same time?!?!?!

Traffic Geyser. It rocks.

In honor of their second birthday (and I was on the phone with Mike Koenigs when he was getting ready to launch the site at OE, as I recall), Mike has made some KILLER videos. Just cool info. You can watch the first one at:

http://easyseotricks.com/tgeyser1

and the second at

http://easyseotricks.com/tgeyser2

And then, you’ll be notified of the others. I think there are 5 in all, and they’re sweet!

Anyway, Traffic Geyser totally sings, and if you aren’t a member, but are used to making videos or want to make them, let me tell you what a freakin’ time saver Traffic Geyser is! I mean, uploading videos takes a long time, if you’re on DSL like I am. If I had to upload to 30 sites, that would take more than a day.

With Traffic Geyser, all I have to do is upload it once, and their software does the rest. You can even make video squeeze pages and choose a cool player there, too. Nice, eh?

Anyway, the site is owned by Mike Koenigs, Rocket Helstrom, and Frank Sousa, who I have been lucky enough to meet at the JVAlert seminars. Frank has never missed one! He’s a really nice guy, too.

So, check out the videos at least… Trust me; they’re totally worth the short time that it takes to watch them.

And enjoy!

So, I’m currently on the telephone with Verizon. I’ve been uploading a lot of video and whatnot, and let me tell you, the upload time is ridiculous for anything over five minutes with their fastest DSL.

I can’t take it anymore!

But what I’ve been told by an IT company owner, who is also a neighbor, is NOT to allow Verizon to take the copper wire out of my home. If you do, you can never go back to regular phone service. Nope, nope. Can’t do that. I spend half my life on the telephone in meetings, conferences, and doing teleseminars, and I need clear, reliable phone service.

Today, I was on Skype with someone and every five minutes, it stopped working and he had to call me back. Talk about frustration! That’s VOIP. I defiitely don’t want that for my phone service!

So, now, I have to find out if I can keep my copper wire if I go over to FIOS. Well… I know I can. My neighbor did it, and his condo is IDENTICAL to mine. Makes no sense to me at all. I have to have a technician come out and tell me yes or no before I even place an order. Argh.

It’s been one of those frustrating days. Mars must be in retrograde or something like that, whatever that means. Ha! I guess I’ll either have to a) stop making video (won’t happen) OR I have to find another solution.

Cable. But they want to do the same thing to me.

They all need to stop messing with people that.

Only people who never use their phones for business are in like Flynn.

Who was Flynn, anyway?

Over the past year or so, I’ve become quite enamored of video. I’ve been making lots of short films for my blogging business, for Overcome Everything, and for a special project I’ve been working on for more than a year. If you want to get into a sci-fi video novel, this is my client’s site: http://CugelsCastle.com

Anyway, these are all different types of videos… screen capture, talking head, and Power Point. The first thing I did was buy Camtasia. Why not, right? Everyone uses Camtasia.

OK… Works great for most stuff, but when I started working with the video novel, I bought Sony Vegas Pro 8 Editing Workshop. Wow! I mean it’s so much more powerful! It’s very easy to add rolling credits, a watermark, and to edit. I totally love it. I know I’m only scratching the surface with the software, so I plan to learn tons more about that.

Cameras were a problem, too, believe it or not. We bought a digital camcorder last year and though that would do the best job for the talking head videos. Wrong. When it came time to render them, it was a total hassle. I had to reformat them, and then the sound didn’t always meet the facial expression. I worked that out with Vegas, but there were just a ton of glitchy things that happened.

Well…

Brian Edmondson, our resident video guy at Overcome Everything, told me to get the Mino Flip Video Camera. It’s like $150 less than we paid for the other camera we bought, so I didn’t think too much about it. Then, Brian made some videos with it for The LIst Building Club, and the picture and sound were so clear that I went out the same night that I had seen Brian’s videos and bought one for less than $200.

Wow!

If you’re doing video or contemplating it, the Flip Cam is the easiest way to go. I LOVE that thing! Plus, you can take it anywhere because it’s so slim and small. (Yeah, I was lucky enough to have waited until the slimmer version came out.) It’s just the best.

So, if you’re hesitating about doing video, don’t. It’s becoming more and more important online.  And, I have some great advice for you, which can save you tons of aggravation and time:

1) Get a Flip Cam

by Douglas Spotted Eagle

2) Get the free version of Sony Vegas and work with it until you feel you’re ready to upgrade. Then, work with it for a while. Try not to get too frustrated. But if you do, there’s a book you ca buy: Sony Vegas Pro 8 by Douglas Spotted Eagle. I haven’t had to look much up, but it sure comes in handy when you’re scratching your head.

3) If you’re lucky enough to be in Stomper Net, watch the Stomper Vision videos by Mike Stewart. Awesome! If you aren’t in Stomper, buy the course. It’s totally worth it and helped me to understand Vegas a whole lot better.

And then, shoot some video! It’s a blast!

So, today is Monday, and as with every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., I’m working like crazy. I totally love what I do, but our company is growing and there are tons of interesting things coming up.

Today, Tellman launched “The Tellman Show” on video, for example. (You can see it at http://www.viddler.com/explore/Tellman/videos/10/ )

He’s just incredible and has more ideas and energy than any person I’ve ever met before. I love being part of his company–Overcome Everything, where I have the awesome job of being Content Manager.

To be honest, I’ve never worked with a group of people that I respected and cared for so much. It’s very cool, and after two years, I wouldn’t trade what I do at OE for any other job.

So, here’s the thing…

I’m to the point where I need people, so I’m gathering a team.

• I need a videographer who can make Camtasias and work with Sony Vegas, for example.
• I need writers… People who can write articles, special reports, or whatever else that’s not copy.
• I need graphics savvy people who can dress up a report or physical product.
• I need people who are comfortable with fulfillment and getting all that together.

Might YOU fit the bill?

Are you looking for some extra income, albeit sporadic? This isn’t like a job, it’s like extra help when the time presents itself, like when we’re doing two launches simultaneously, or rushing to get the latest newsletter down the pipeline. I need people for when the work just gets too heavy for me & Brian to handle. Brian Edmondson does an awesome job of creating videos, but he’s only one guy, too.

So, here’s what I’d like you to do:

Post your resume online. Then, come to the blog here and post a comment, letting me know where it is. I’ll happily check it out, and if I can utilize your incredible skills, I’ll contact you. Please remember to add your email address to your CV (resume).

And… Here’s a trick so you don’t get spammed…

Make your email address an image. Use screen capture software to take a picture of your email address and make the picture clickable. The spammy robots will never know.

Anyway, if you’re interested and have the skills, let me know! I need someone who knows English very well and is pretty well versed in Internet Marketing, too. So, keep that in mind. Not every project will be about that, but when the project requires IM knowledge, it’s important that you know what we need.

Looking forward to working with some of you! It’s always a blast!

I just finished watching the video that Frank Kern made with mind movie guy, Ryan Higgins. Nothing new there–visualization. We’ve been hearing all about the for the last couple of years, since The Secret came out, right?

And some people think it’s a bunch of crap.

OK…

Feel sorry for you.

I know it works. I know I’ve experienced it. And if you’re not at least keeping an open mind about how the universe works, you’re missing something totally powerful.

So Ryan made these 6 movies about health & fitness, money, relationships, etc. and he says to watch them twice per day… when you get up in the morning and before you go to bed at night.

OK… His movies are cool, but they aren’t MY movies. You know? His are pretty cool and general so they might work for anyone, but I have very specific requirements, my friend. Not just any house, any place to live, or any amount of money will work for me. Hell, no! I think about these things every night before I go to sleep. So, unless MY things are in a movie, hmm…

Need to go make a movie.

But… if you don’t want to take the time…

If you want these 6 movies, you can go and watch Frank Kern’s FREAKY MOVIE or just go to http://MindMovies.com and sign up. I get nothing for telling you this. I’m not an affiliate.  This is just something I’m into and feel very strongly about.

Knowing what I want has changed my life.

But…

Not because I sat back and waited for the Universe to just go about doing its thing.

I knew what I wanted and took action that led me to the changes in my life. It’s a THOUGHT + ACTION deal. You can’t just sit back and wait for things to come to you.

It’s like the lottery. If you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t win. You can sit there and wish for the money to come to you all you like, but without that ticket, well… Wish in one hand.

Nada happens.

Have definite, positive thoughts, make your affirmations, take action, and watch how quickly you move! The whole thing just rocks out loud in your face!

So, yesterday I told you about this new Firefox add-on called Ubiquity. The promo material made it sound really cool, and if you’re a total propeller head (I’m halfa one and why I got excited), then I suppose it is.

Problem 1: You have to type commands into Ubiquity to tell it what you want.

The commands are easy enough, but there are so many, how can you remember them all? You’ll need a cheat sheet or have to keep referring back to them online whenever you want to use it. ‘Course you’ll surely come to remember the ones you use a lot, but who has time for memorization? Sheesh. I mean, there are so many more important things to remember and your brain can only hold so much. Stuff keeps leaking out of mine at the most embarrassing times, you know?

Problem 2: Now that I see how it works, I realize that I already have most of those abilities in Firefox already. I mean, I can search Amazon, IMDB, eBay, Wikipedia, etc. from my search bar because I set it up to do that. No gain there. I can’t insert a map easily into email, but oh, well… How often do I want to do that, anyway? I can see the usefulness if you’re using a cell phone and you want someone to meet you at a place they never heard of, but here’s the other part… those maps are often unreliable. The can totally take you in directions you never wanted to go! Grr.

Problem 3: It doesn’t integrate with my most favorite add-on (or vice versa), which is Fast Dial. I love having the ability to get to like 15 of my favorite sites (you can add as many as you want, really) with one click. I get thumbnails of each site on my homepage and BOOM! I don’t have to look up a bookmark and click on it, the site is right there in my face. Love it.

So, I had to shut Ubiquity down.

Here are some suggestions for the developers, and I know they worked really hard on this, but…

The app isn’t user friendly at all. No icons to click. You have to type fer cryin’ out loud. That’s so 90’s! So, I’d make it easeir to use for the less techy of us and the lazy, like me.

And I’d make it app friendly. Ubiquity should seemlessly integrate with all the other add-ons, no matter how squirrely they are. Ha. I know that’s totally impossible because there will always be conflicts among them, but it’s a dream.

The concept of Ubiquity is cool. The application is just so-so.

But, it’s only Beta. They’re still working on it, trying to make it better. From all the things that Mozilla puts out, I know they will. You guys still rock.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear… And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” –Frank Herbert, Dune

Fear is indeed the mind killer.

Is fear stopping you?

When I think back to when I was starting out online, I can say that I was afraid of certain things. I didn’t want people to think I was clueless, which I was. I didn’t dare to think about playing in the big leagues because those guys are so much smarter than me. And spend money? I was afraid to do that, too, because I was afraid to lose it.  And my business was going nowhere.

Yet, I thought that without any help or direction, I’d still be able to crack the code.

But it wasn’t a code I needed to crack. It was my own fear.

Are you like I was? Does the tech stuff freak you out? How about talking to people? Are you scared to make videos or to do teleseminars? How about blogging? Creep you out, too?

Well, guess what?

You need to be less afraid and more aggressive.  Fear will kill your dreams. Fear will stop you dead in your tracks and you will be paralyzed in one way or another. It can be fear of loss, or even fear of gain. Yep. T. Harv Eker says that if you’re afraid of wealth or if you think it’s bad, you’ll never have it. It’s that old fear sneaking up on you again.

Get it out of your mind.

Bravery is forcing yourself to do something you’re afraid to do.

Be brave. Make your Brave New World. Visualize it the way you want it to be and then, take steps to make that happen. You’ll be amazed at what you can do when you just overcome your biggest obstacle… you.

Vacations are great, aren’t they? I mean, you get some downtime. You do stuff you can’t do when you’re working, like take a nap in the middle of the day. Very sweet. I did that twice.

Vacations also good for reading. I love to read, and read at least two or three books at a time.

While I was off last week, I read a book for the second time. I don’t often do that. T. Harv Eker and Frank Herbert are two of the few authors I’ve reread over time. But I’ve just added Roy H. Williams to that short list when I reread his The Wizard of Ads. It’s an awesome book, and one that Tellman turned me on to.

In it, Williams talks about advertising, about getting under the surface to find the real stuff, and he teaches you in surreptitious ways. That sneaky guy. When he sells you something, you won’t even know it.  His series of autobiographical anecdotes are interesting and endearing. And, he’s fun. I really love that book.

You see, he doesn’t really talk much about the down and dirty of where to put your deck copy and how many bullets a long-copy sales letter should have; he shows you things in a way that you will remember. He tells you stories.

I had a comment about my “frivolous” style today, and I’ll agree that my style is a tad fanciful. I’m a little wackier than the average serious businessperson and I write some stuff the way I do because I’m slowly moving into that realm of life. Any story will do.

But aside from the now and then serious banter, rather than bore an audience, I’d prefer to be like Roy H. Williams. I like to have fun, and if you’re not having fun with me, well… you’re missing my point.

And that’s OK…

You may totally hate my style, think I’m a twit, and run far, far away. That’s cool. You aren’t one of my people. You don’t get me. And to tell the truth, I probably wouldn’t get you, either.

Oh, well.

But if you enjoy learning and not even noticing that you are, I’m suggesting here that you try The Wizard of Ads. Even if you don’t learn anything, I know you’ll enjoy it.

So, do you schedule in time every day to learn something new? I mean, actually put it on your calendar and then, do it? I hope you are.

I learned this (and most everything else having to do with online biz) from Tellman. One of our requirements of employment with Overcome Everything is that we spend at least 20% of our time learning. He asks us regularly to send him plans for further education, and I think that’s really awesome! I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned in the last two years.

Before I started working for Tellman, though, I always tried to learn new things, but the day just became filled with “to-dos.” You know. There were always fires to put out, stuff that had to be written, and on and on. Working online is a full-time proposition when you’re starting out. And though I learned stuff by reading books and hanging in forums, it was hit or miss, you know? Some days I learned a lot and other days, nada.

Making learning part of your daily schedule makes it as important as anything else you do online, and I totally thank Tellman for getting me to see that. He, of course, wants us to know more and more so that we can make the company stronger and stronger. Makes a real impact. Our team is getting stronger every day, and I know it shows.

So, if you’re not learning, get with it! Otherwise, your business won’t grow. You won’t be up to date in technique. You won’t be able to move forward. No matter how much time you have to do business each day, take some part of that day, even if it’s only 15 minutes and learn something new.

You’ll be so happy you did.

And for that, you can thank Tellman.

I was cruising around looking for cool stuff to tell you about today, and I came to a pretty sweet blog post that told me things I didn’t know about…

http://thefutureofsocial.com/7-very-likely-visions-of-social-networkings-future-is-this-web-30

Want to be a .tv star? Start your own TV channel on ustream.tv or not. I mean, some people were born to be in front of a camera. My daughter, for example, is totally photogenic, while I am totally not. I wouldn’t be a great candidate for my own .tv show. Maybe you would, though, and the beauty of this is that you totally CAN.

And what about a loan? I never knew there were such things as lending clubs, did you? I guess it’s kind of like a credit union, right? People join and members can lend/borrow money. People are making 18+% at this place: http://www.lendingclub.com/home.action and borrower are getting below bank rates.

Wow.

Can we really take back society?

I’d love to see the banks, drug companies, insurance companies, etc. who are ripping us off to the hilt totally humbled. This is a total aside to what this blog is about, but one of my asthma drugs–ONE– costs me $200 a month!

So, how’s the web going to go?

Seems you can’t apply to be a lender at The Lending Club anymore, until they get SEC approval. Hmm… wonder how that will go.

I also watched a video today from Jason Calacanis from Mahalo.com talking about how polluted the Web is becoming. He gave examples of how Usenet is dead because of all the damned spam there. I used to LIVE on Usenet. Breaks my heart.

He also mentioned that pay-to-post is dead. Google just gave the smackdown and banned some of those sites. No loss, in my opinion. People want me to post stuff about their products all the time, and they’re not even in my niche! I can’t tell you how many requests like that I’ve declined. I don’t often post about affiliate anything here.

To me, a blog is more about providing interesting information or entertainment before you include advertising. I know, it’s right there in my sidebar, and now and then in my posts, but not until I’ve given you something to think about. Right? Correct me if I’m dreaming.

Calacanis also said that “curation” is coming, meaning that eventually, all the ways we try to “game” the system, like posting to social sites and even SEO will be in the past because humans will become involved again and weed out all the dross.

His search engine, Mahalo, is a human edited SE, so it makes sense he would say that, but I can see it.

What’s wrong with pure content? AdSense sites are pretty much things of the past, which is good. I thought they sucked all along. No content, just a bunch of crap and AdSense links. People must have made money with them because there sure were a sh*tload of them at one time.

Who needs stuff like that, really? I mean, I’d much rather contribute to some of the cool things going on online than to add to the junk, wouldn’t you? Get a blog and write in it. Send new content to article directories and to social sites like Gather and my nemesis (but still a good site) Scribd.

Here’s the deal… When you give people good useful information, they’ll remember you. They’ll trust you, too, because you’ve most likely helped them to solve a problem and you need that trust if you’re ever going to sell them anything.

Become part of Web 3.0 and add to the quality of the Internet. I still think SEO is OK, as long as it’s just good solid practice, like keyword research and using the proper tags and stuff. But all that black hat stuff is just as Calacanis said just “pissing into the Web.”

I want the Internet to be the really cool place it is for the rest of my life, don’t you?

You know I love cool add-ons for Firefox, and I think I wrote about Speed Dial here several weeks ago.

Well, I liked it a lot, until I used it a lot. It makes rows of thumbnails for you so that you can see sites you visit every day. You don’t have to go hunting down the bookmark, you just click on the screen and voila! You’re there. Saves a lot of time.

But with Speed Dial, the thumbnails didn’t come up a lot of the time. And if they were there when you started out, they’d disappear. Another thing that bugged me is that you couldn’t name the site and let Speed Dial get the thumbnail for you also It was one or the other. So, when the thumbnail disappeared, you were SOL. You’d have to rest your cursor on the square to see the URL.

Not so with Fast Dial. It totally rocks. Not only does it hold your thumbnails, but it allows you to name them as well as allow Fast Dial to get your thumbnails. So, if for some reason, one disappears, you can still see the name of the site. But, what’s really cool is that they don’t disappear! At least none of them have gone AWOL all week. I’m thrilled.

You can get Fast Dial and try it out for yourself here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5721

Love it, love it, love it.

So, I’ve been using Mozilla’s Firefox 3.0 for a couple of days and I really like the look and feel of it. It’s more 2008 and has some cool features.

For example, when you type a URL into the address bar, it drops a menu down that makes seeing what you’ve typed in before pretty easy. You see the site’s name, the URL and the favicon. I’m easily amused, you know.

Another cool feature is the “back” button. It’s all gelled out and looking calm, like. You know, it’s like gellin’. And there’s a new icon for “Most Visited” sites. That makes it easy to get to the sites you’ve just been to more than few times.

But even better is an add-on called “Speed Dial,” which works with 3.0. I love it. Shows me all the sites I program into it that I have to look up all the time, which now, I don’t because I have Speed Dial. Nifty.

Here are things I hate about 3.0, OK, Mozilla?:

Some of my add-ons won’t work anymore. Grr. This is unpleasant in many respects. I’ve also lost ColorZilla, which helps me to get the HTML and CSS color codes when I’m trying to match something. Grr..

AND, Tab Mix won’t work. Every time I click a URL, it opens in my current window. That makes me nuts! I changed the setting in Options, but it doesn’t seem to be the option I need. Grr… Do you know how exasperating it is to be in the midst of a streaming .mp3 because you’re trying to fill in a transcript blank and you get sent to another site in that tab, against your will! Well…

You have to frickin’ start all over again! You have to fast forward that puppy and hope to God you land in the general area where you were before. I mean, people send you IMs and tell you to go to other sites during the day. It’s not even me goofing off! CRipes.

OK… So now that I’ve ranted about that…

I have no other rants, really. I like Firefox 3.0 so far, especially the Twitter plugin. It’s easy to see whenever someone I’m following tweets, and I can tweet from there, too. Pretty cool.

I haven’t read all the tech stuff that probably tells you to stay away from Firefox 3.0, but I just saw that Paul Colligan likes it.

So do I, Paul. So do I.

In our local paper today (the Bradenton Herald-Tribune), there was an article from the NY Times by Brian Stelter, suggesting that Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable are intent on charging for bandwidth used. In fact, Time Warner has already started a program that is doing just that in Texas.

Here’s how it works:

For example, someone who downloads videos and/or music all the time uses more bandwidth than someone who just comes online to check email. The short-time user pays less than the all-day user.

Stelter says, “All three companies say that placing caps on broadband use will ensure fair access for all users.” What? Give me a break. Without the high bandwidth users, the Internet will be a very different place. We’ve just started getting into video as a viable source of content.

So, might this poppycock have something to do with the fact that people are just spending more time online communicating with people around the globe, gathering information and entertainment, and not watching as much cable TV? Egads! The sponsors don’t like that. Not at all.

Hmm…

If they start charging for bandwidth, think about it.

YouTube might become less cluttered, but think about how it will inhibit creativity. And you can’t tell me that email checkers never read the jokes in their email or follow links to funny videos because they do.

And, what about video bloggers or podcasters?  And then, there’s iTunes? Wonder how Apple feels about all this. Does it mean there will be less to put on our iPods because we won’t be able to afford the connection? Blockbuster will still deliver, but not as much and at higher expense to meet the cost.

Oh, and let’s not forget Grandma who likes to Skype with her family and see her grandkids in another state. It will cost you more, Granny, winnowing down that already skinny Social Security income you can’t even live on.

Charging for those of us who use more bandwidth will definitely smote online commerce.  Video is a primary source of information product dissemination these days. And what about those videos that go with eBay products? Even if you’re just an email checker, it will mean higher prices for you because there will be higher prices for us.

You will end up paying more for every online activity you do. Your bank will have to pay more, so bye-bye free online banking, right? Think about it. And gamers? Go back to TV and the PS2 because you’ll have to get a job to pay for your connection.

So, the big companies are positioning it that there needs to be equality for all users, like light usage or water usage. It should cost the “bandwidth hogs” more.

Feh…

Don’t tell us that you’re going to squeeze us “big users,” and neglect to tell everyone that even if they just check email, they’ll be paying more, too–in the long run. My back is wet here, guys, and it’s a perfect sunny day outside, if you know what I mean.

To me, what it boils down to for Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner is nothing more than a bigger bottom line and sponsor security.

I can tell you three services that I want NOTHING to do with. I suggest you let your voices be heard, too. Vote with your feet.

No, I’m not that conceited. I know I’m good, but hey… Wonderful?

Well, Wonderful Web Women thinks I am, which is totally cool. I get to be among some of the top women online today and talk about being honored! Janet Beckers invited me way back when I was just starting Blogging4Boomers. Wait… That was only February! It seems like for.ever in Web time, eh?

Anyway, this Monday night, I’ll be joining Janet’s line up of truly wonderful women like Rosalind Gardner, Lorrie Morgan Ferrero, Heather Vale, Stephanie Mulac, and so many others that I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am to be joining them.

Women are totally wonderful, of course, and I’m a child of the ’60s, women’s rights and all that. Plus, I wrote a book about Gloria Steinem, though many Internet folks don’t know it. Yep. Gloria is awesome. She called me a couple of times saying, “It’s me… Your cross to bear,” which I thought was totally hilarious.

Imagine her talking about being my cross, when it was all I could do to remain firmly planted on the floor and not in the air when we spoke. I mean, little-known writer gets to interview icon of tremendous stature. But she treated me as though I was no different. I really respected and appreciated that.

That’s a key, though. You never ACT as though someone else is that much higher in stature. I’m a big fan of Christine Comaford Lynch, who I just spoke with the other day. That’s her philosophy, and it was my mom & dad’s. “They put their shoes on in the morning, just like you do,” they would always tell me, and it’s true.

Anyway, back to Gloria…

I think she’s the kindest person I’ve ever met. I mean, lots of us are kind, sure. We do things for other people and all, but this woman dedicated her life to being kind to women. She traveled constantly during the 70’s and virtually gave her life to the cause. I admire her a lot, as a person. She rocks! And she couldn’t have been more helpful when I was working on her book.

But that’s why I’m totally stoked about being a Wonderful Web Woman. I love to help people, and in this business, it’s soooo important. If you get a opportunity to help anyone, take it. Do it. Give, give, and give some more. Don’t be this greedy salesperson just looking to make a buck. You’ll never make it.

I started working for Tellman and wasn’t even paid, at first. I was on his Black Diamond Line Inner Circle coaching program that cost like $500 a month. The first day I got on the call, I was blown away by the information he was giving us. But at the end, he asked for “Traffic Apprentice” applications. He wanted people to learn to drive traffic, and well… Who could resist? I put an application in, never thinking I’d get the position, but I did. And can I tell you that I was still paying the $500 and working with him, and it was worth WAY more than I can begin to explain. It led to a really great job and more learning than I can handle at times, right? I mean, I’m light years ahead of where I was almost two years ago.

So, it’s like the Law of Attraction in action. When you want something, you go after it in every way. You think about it. You work toward it, and you help other people any time you can.

“You get back what you give three times,” my husband’s grandmother always used to say, and I never forgot it.

If you have a list, let me know how I can help you. If you don’t, let me help you to get one started.

Want to know how?

Go to Blogging4Boomers.com/forum and sign up for my forum. We can talk about blogging, Internet marketing or just hang out. I’m interested in you and want you to be successful. Let’s kick some IM butt!

There’s a really huge giveaway happening now. Reed Floren, one of my Facebook buddies, and a featured speaker in my telseminar series (He’s speaking on May 29), is running it, and more than 1,700 marketers have added gifts.

Pretty sweet.

To get them, just go to http://easyseotricks/IMG and sign up at zero cost.

I like giveaways because they help me build my list of subscribers, and nothing is more important than list building. It’s the single most important thing you should be working on, no matter what you’re doing. If you don’t have a product to giveaway, it’s time to create one!

I have been using my 7 Secrets to Writing Killer Articles, and if you go to that site, you can see that I normally sell for $37. Good gift, huh? And that’s just one of the gifts you can get. There are over 1,700 of them.  It will take days to decide what you want.

It’s like having a key to Neiman-Marcus, and being told you can go in after hours and take home anything you want without charge. Shopping Nirvana.

For Internet Marketers, this giveaway is even better. The more you learn, the better your business will be. Take advantage of getting this stuff free or you’ll be paying for it down the road.

Do you know Ken McArthur?

I feel very lucky because I do know him.

Ken is a friend who is kind and caring. He totally understands what it takes to make an impact with people because he makes everyone he touches feel special.

His JVAlert Seminar is like a big family gathering. I went to my first one in February, and I have all my plans finalized for attending another next month.

You may wonder why I’d spend the money to do that so soon, and if you are, realize how very, very important it is to make friends-not just on Facebook or MySpace, but in person. Every single person at the last JVAlert became my friend.

We created a product together. We helped a woman save her house. And Ken makes all of that happen. I’ve known him for a long time now, but meeting him in person and feeling his true desire to make an impact on other people’s lives is overwhelming…

So, here’s the deal…

I want you to go over to Impact Factor and buy the book. This is not just something you may want to do, it’s something important that you HAVE to do, for yourself and your business.

Just go and see how many cool people Ken worked with to get this book  moving. And, if you’re a member of Blogging4Boomers, go over there and listen to my call with Ken. You can totally hear his commitment
in his voice. If you’re not a member, go opt in. It’s free to listen to the calls, at least for now. I’ll be taking them down soon. So…

If you want to be part of that and learn what Ken and all the people in his book know about making an Impact, I encourage you to go right now to:

==> http://easyseotricks.com/impact-ov

Being part of Ken’s huge family is a very cool place to be. My copy just arrived a few days ago. I can’t wait to dig in and learn all the secrets of making an impact. It’s something I want to do, too.

Well, I’m not totally sure it’s new, but it’s really awesome.

If you don’t have “Speed Dial,” go and get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4810

Here’s how it works…

There are sites you go to every day, right? Some sites more than once. If you have an enormous bookmark file, as I do, it gets rather tedious hunting for those bookmarks time and time again. Well, Speed dial  puts them all on one browser tab for you.

You just program in the sites that you visit by adding a URL. Speed Dial comes up with a thumbnail for you. You can add as many sites to it as you want to add, and you can make speed dial your home page, if you want, but it also has a small icon that you can click to get there instantly.

When you do, you see thumbnails of the sites you visit often. Mine has AWeber, StomperNet, The ListBuilding Club, this blog, Blogging4Boomers admin, AdWords, SEOBook, and others. And it’s so cool. When I want to create a broadcast message for my list, I just jump onto AWeber by clicking the thumbnail. I love it!

I got a few other add ons last week, too:

Bookmark Duplicate Detector: Who needs more than one bookmark for the same site?

Shareaholic: Allows me to Twitter, Digg, and other sites with the click of my mouse.

Foxmarks: I’ve had this one a while, but it’s really cool. It syncs up my desktop bookmarks with my laptop whenever I turn my laptop on. If it were only that easy to sync up all my files without paying through the nose, that would be sweet.

ColorZilla: Allows me to get R,G,B and HTML color codes, just by placing my mouse on a color I want to duplicate. I love it!

But I also love Pixie by Nattyware. It’s a tiny little program that does the same thing as ColorZilla, but you can use it outside your browser. Get it at http://nattyware.com

For someone who went into Firefox kicking and screaming, I couldn’t be happier with this browser. The only trouble is that IE doesn’t always display code the same way; so, when I’m developing a page, I have to remember to check it in both browsers to make sure it looks the way I want it to in IE.

Grr… I forget a lot.

But, there’s another add-on called IE Tab that you can get that allows you to switch rendering engines with a click. You don’t have to open a new browser, and I’m lazy. It rocks.

Anyway, I’m not just a convert anymore. Now, I’m a damned evangelist for Firefox. If you don’t use it, start. You’ll be amazed at how much better it works and how you can adapt it to do just about anything you want.

I’m so totally excited…

This is it!

Bill Clinton has thanked her for “fostering American entrepreneurship.”

EVENT:  Mystery Guest (You’ll have to come to see who she is!)

DATE & TIME: Wednesday, May 7th at 8:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…

http://Blogging4Boomers.com

This mystery woman is what some would call “visionary.” Not only has she served been on the board of directors or actually working to see the success of 36 startup businesses. Her investing acumen includes 200 startups (including Google) as a venture capitalist or angel investor.

But wait…

She has been a consultant for the White Houses of Clinton and Bush.  She has also consulted for 700 of the Fortune 1000, and over 300 small businesses. And she has been on the cutting edge, supporting new ideas long before they became popular in the marketplace.

Don’t miss this call! I’m so excited to have her I can hardly believe she’s coming! This is HUGE! And I’m so glad I got her for you.

Clear your schedule for 8 p.m. this evening (EST). Get on the phone or come to the webcast.  Go to

http://Blogging4Boomers.com

and get in now.

If you haven’t been online all that long, you probably forget the days when all web pages had to be written by hand in a text editor, like Notepad, TextPad, WordPad, and all those other pads. Everyone had to learn HTML because that was the only way to get your stuff onto the Web.

Enter WYSIWYG, which means, “What You See Is What You Get.” WYSIWYG HTML editors abound from the free versions, such as Nvu to the expensive alternatives like DreamWeaver. And you know what most of them have in common? Overblown code that can make you nuts if you half know what you’re doing!

Well, I know at least that much and the WYSIWYG editors I’ve tried from MSWord to that freebie, Nvu work, but how well? Often the code they create isn’t compatible with all browsers. For example, some center a table with <table align=”center”>. Firefox doesn’t mind, but Internet Explorer says, “So what?” You have to physically go in and add the <center> and </center> tags fore and aft. Annoying!

Here’s a link to the Boing Boing short for an interview with the NY Times Design Director, who says they hand-code everything:

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/30/nytimescom-handcodes.html

Probably a very good idea, if you’re uber picky about how your code looks.

But… also important for another reason.

Our Tech genius at Overcome Everything, Johnny Meehan, just discovered something very unhappy, at least for me, who uses Nvu a lot—it doesn’t work with Google Analytics. For some reason the code it manufactures makes the Analytics stats come out all wrong. Please don’t ask me why or what they are… I don’t have a clue. Johnny’s the genius. I’m just lucky to work with him.

I recently did a page for one of the OE sites that was totally screwy when I tried to edit it and enter new content into the page. Pfffttt!!! It got me so crazy that I just hand-coded the whole page from scratch. It was much, much simpler.

Anyway, WYSIWYG is great for pages that don’t have to be reworked or for pages that you’re throwing up in a hurry or whatever. I use it, too. But… if you want reliability, learn some HTML.

It’s not rocket science.

Have you started to notice it? I mean, blogs… web pages… all to the far left of the screen??

It’s making me crazy. Even WordPress has moved their “write post” to the far left, and I feel unbalanced.  Those of you who know me well probably think that already, but hey…

Doesn’t it bother you that you have to turn your head to look left when trying to read something?

I mean, we’ve been indoctrinated with the idea that people like 650 pixels in the middle of the screen. My eyes expect that. Then, some of younz throw a curve ball and thwack! My neck flys west and I’m reading stuff that’s out of kilter.

I hope this isin’t a trend. What marketing firm made a study and decided that we’re better off with 19 inch uber flat-screen monitors that only have half their space taken up? There’s like all this white stuff on the right.

I know, I know… You’re thinking, but my monitor isn’t that wide.

And this could be making you happy.

If so, I heartily apologize for the rant.

But I have to say that it will be a very long time until I’m used to this looking left fad. It’s making me cranky.