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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.
So, the social milieu is ever morphing, and one of the very old standards is changing in a big way.
Social bookmarking practically started with Del.icio.us, but what a handle! I always thought it was suicidal in terms of marketing, but people found it and use the social bookmarking service all the time. I guess I learned about it in 2005 from Tim Linden, my old friend at StartXchange.
I thought it was kind of cool then, but didn’t have any idea how HUGE this stuff would get.
Anyway, Delicious is now Delicious.com–easier to deal with when typing the URL into the address bar. Easier to find for anyone who didn’t know the old .us domain.
And it looks a bit different. Still that nice four color square logo, but inside, Delicious is totally revamped and looking sweet.
You can check out bookmarks or tags on the front page, which is pretty cool. But it also lets you subscribe to tags.
To check it out, I subscribed to the tag “internet marketing,” and got a bunch of interesting stuff back.
In fact, I learned that Mozilla just came out with Ubiquity, which will allow you to, and I quote from the Mozilla Labs blog:
“Ubiquity 0.1
Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more. Ubiquity “command list” to see them all.
Find and install new commands to extend your browser’s vocabulary through a simple subscription mechanism
That’s pretty cool, no? I mean, I’m going to check that out. But if it weren’t for Delicious, I may not have found that intersting tidbit of information.
Web 2.0 rocks, and Delicious is a total cornerstone of it.
Wow! Imagine if they’d had this when I was researching stuff all the time. I go way back to pre-Internet days as a writer, and I can assure you that going to the library or running across town to interview the local expert wasn’t cutting it. Now, all the information in the world is right at your finger tips.
Social marketing is getting bigger and more important every single day. The number of bookmarking sites, networking sites, video, content, and blogs is growing like kudzu all over the ‘Net. And it’s a blast!
Jack Humphrey opened Social Marketing Central recently, and it’s tons of great fun and information. You can join for free. There’s a forum, a section for the Friday Traffic Reports, which I love, and lots of other cool stuff. You should check it out at http://socialauthority.ning.com/ .
You can start a group, a discussion, and put your picture up, which goes to the “head of the class,” meaning on top of the site whenever you log in. Pretty nifty. And lots of fun. Come over and make some friends!
And from there I found another cool place, just for small business. It’s Sta.rtUP.Biz. Check out my page at http://sta.rtup.biz/profile/PatMarcello . Very cool. It’s like a FaceBook for entrepreneurs. Love it! Finally a place where we can place links and not get booted.
Check out both of those places. I think you’ll totally enjoy them.
I meet a lot of people in this industry. Some of them are light years ahead of me, while others are just starting out. One question I’ve had more than once from folks are desperate: “I need to make money now. Show me how to do it.”
That question is just sad, and I wish I had a magic bullet or some quick solution, but here’s the deal… There is none.
Learning a business from scratch takes a lot of time and effort. None of the programs that guarantee to make you rich overnight are honest. There is no free lunch. You have to work to succeed, and you have to work very hard.
It is possible to make millions of dollars online. I know tons of people who do that on a personal level. It can be done.
But they didn’t start out that way. They started out by struggling, just as you may be struggling now. If you’re up to the game, you can be just like them. I’m still working at it, and I’ve been in this going on 5 years now. I mean, I make money, but I’m not a millionaire–yet.
There’s still work to be done and relationships to be forged and lots of fun along the way. Because when it comes right down to it, what’s ALL business? A game. It’s all a big game. And the person who makes the most money wins.
So, learn something really well. Maybe it’s blogging (my love), SEO (my other love), or maybe it’s just talking and doing teleseminars or being part of the e-commerce or eBay worlds. Whatever it is, get really, really good at it. Study and learn, every day.
Don’t get confused by everything going on around you, and don’t follow every opportunity. Don’t buy products from every launch.
Tellman says to pick one person to follow, and follow everything they do–to the letter. They’re successful because they know what works and what doesn’t. I think that’s pretty sage advice.
Stay focused. If you can do that, you just might have a chance.
If you’ve been marketing very long, you know you need to be building a list. Why? Because when you have a list of people who enjoy you and your marketing message, it’s a sure bet that you’ll make more money.
So, if you’re not sure how to get an optin box into your blog… Here’s the deal:
So, I’m over with the Hexa Track guys checking out their new product Google Goggles. No, you can’t get it yet, but if you’re an AdWords buff like me… You’ll enjoy watching their video.
This new software will analyze your page and tell you what your quality scores will be at Google. Not only that, but it will show you what’s working and what’s not.
I’m interested because it will take the guesswork out of the whole time-consuming process. And, it’s a slow process, if you’re not a guru at this, which I’m certainly not. But it totally interests me and so, I’m still studying the art of AdWords.
I worked on “list building” for a while before we got all those keywords to have a “Great” quality score and for Google to give us cheap clicks because the lower your quality score, the more you’ll pay for them. So, it’s a lot of tweaking and testing until it suits the Google ghods’ fancy.
If you’re really smart at AdWords, you can do it much more quickly than me, but like I said, I ain’t no guru. I just think AdWords is totally fascinating and something that you really need to study to get it right.
We’ll see how expensive Google Goggles is and if I can afford it. But I totally want it already and they’ve only put one video out. I’m excited! I was lucky enough to get in on Hexa Track before they shut down memberships, and it’s totally cool. So, I’m thinking this has to be awesome, as well.
And be sure to pick up the free .pdf. I’m off to read mine now. Ciao!
Well… I met Deremiah in email one happy day. He’s on my list, you see, and he wrote to me asking, “What can I do for you?”
That’s like awesome! Usually it’s can you promote my whatever or what can I do for others. I don’t mind doing for others, not at all, and I try to help the people on my list whenever I can. They’re great!
But Deremiah comes to you with his generosity and caring, and he’s just a great person to know.
He called me on my birthday and gave me a “Stevie Wonder” style “Happy Birthday” song and just blew me away. (I told him he should be on American Idol.)
Well, he’s just a great guy, and he knows how to make people feel good about themselves, which is an awesome quality.
Wow… Where do the days go? It seems like I’ve been back to work for a month, and it’s only been five days.
Not that I don’t love every minute of what I do because it is tons of fun, but the weekends are even more fun because I get to do and investigate stuff of my own.
This weekend, I have to prepare for a call I’m doing for Erik Stafford. That will be fun. We really had a blast on the call he did for me this week. So, I’m looking forward to that. If you want to hear the replay of Erik’s call with me, just go to http://easyseotricks.com/Erik . I’ll post information about the call I’m doing for him here ASAP.
We also had a product launch at Overcome Everything this week, and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know it’s Whack the Recession. You can check that out at http://easyseotricks.com/whack Great product! Smart advice and from Tellman, Harris, and Shawn. (Who didn’t know that?) I had to get transcripts made last weekend for it, so I can tell you it’s A-#1, the Duke. If you’re struggling to make money online, you really need to check it out.
I remember what struggling was like. I thought I’d NEVER make a dime because I just kept trying and trying and nothing was happening. Then, I met Tellman and my life is very, very different from what it was like two years ago.
I remember last year at this time, too. I was doing some consulting for Overcome Everything and ran into a cool guy named Don Griffiths. I’m doing a deal with him next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that. He’s a smart guy and he’s made tons and tons of progress since last year. Why? Because he took ACTION and now his list is exploding!
That’s the word, you know–A-C-T-I-O-N.
If you buy a bunch of stuff and don’t read it, listen to it, or watch it, or if you do and just don’t do anything about it, what’s your deal? I mean, are you going to be successful at this?
Hell, no. You’ll never be successful at anything. You can’t win if you’re not even in the game!
Take action to make it happen. If you want some periodic ass kicking, then just sign up for my list. :-) I totally want to work with you.
So, I’m off! Get your stuff in gear and you’ll come to see how much fun it is to make money in your jammies.
So, I could go into my Uncle Sal routine… My name’s Marcello, after all.
But I won’t. I’ll leave that to Sal.
What I can tell you is that I understand how the recession is affecting all of us. It sucks!
I can’t tell you how I feel when I hear them say, “Gas is only $3.73 a gallon!” And… what’s your point, right? Higher gas, higher food, and we’ve been watching it come at us, while the current administration kept saying that there was nothing wrong.
Yeah, right. Any idiot could see that things were declining. Hmm… Maybe that explains a lot, eh?
But I live in Florida. I can’t sell my house because it’s not worth the mortgage anymore. It’s lost 2/3 of its value. Luckily, I like where I am and can ride it out, but how many can’t?
How many of you are facing foreclosure because gas is eating your mortgage payment, but you can’t drive less because you need to get to a job that still doesn’t pay the bills?
Sucks.
I’m no different.
I’m trying to make a living online, and have been luckier than most.
And trust me, if I can conquer Internet Marketing, so can you. Want to know how?
Tellman, Shawn Casey, and Harris Fellman have come up with the answer. Totally. I’m on the inside. I know what the product is about. IT WILL WORK FOR YOU!
Vacation is great, but payback, well… you know what they say.
So, we’re doing another launch at OE, which is always fun, but you know how launches go. Frantic city. So, a little of that, and…
Tonight, a Q&A call with my list and anyone who wants to be on my list. Show up at this link for now http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=3865080 , but get on board for news of the next one and replays. I don’t usually post links in my blog. I just rushed this one out so fast that I want to be sure everyone knows.
Then, tomorrow will be totally cool. I’m having “The Faster Webmaster,” Erik Stafford on a call with me. Erik has a really great site, where he lays out everything about getting an Internet Marketing business up and running in exquisite, highly-organized detail. If you’re just learning the IM stuff, you need to hear Erik’s call.
Register at http://Blogging4Boomers.com and I’ll send you all the information. It’s going to be great! Plus, Erik has a very cool surprise that he’s giving away. It’s totally worth the effort.
Next week, we’re turning the tables and Erik is interviewing me. More details on that to follow, but it will be information packed, just as always. I think I’m a teacher at heart. Always loved the role. I actually taught writing for children for more than 5 years, so I guess it’s my thang. I love helping folks figure things out.
So, that’s it. Busy, busy couple of week. Stay tuned for more info.
And Thursday, Ayyyyyyyyyyyy… It’s Big Sal, the Tell, and Shawn. Should be interesting, eh? Wonder what’s up their muscle-Ts.
Will somebody please get Tellman out of that trunk? I’m concerned.
Pownce it!
