Try Brizzly to Manage Your Lists
Guess what? Twitter is making more and more sense, at least when you integrate some new applications and platforms. Brizzly, a web-based social media reader may be in beta – invite mode only right now, but it promises to elevate the usability of Twitter and even make it, dare I say it, more Facebook-ish.
Brizzly has a ton of features and essentially makes Twitter less clunky and more user-friendly. It displays tweets in line, but with expanded URLs, so that you can see exactly what you are being asked to click on – no more bit.ly calls and trojan invasions? Photographs are displayed fully in line, as are YouTube videos, which you can watch directly from the page without having to click elsewhere.
You can easily add people to your pre-existing groups, simply by clicking the user icon and adding. You can also make new groups on-the-fly and then add members to that. All your groups appear in the panel on the left hand side and you can add up to 50 users per group.
As you scroll down the page, earlier tweets are automatically added, giving you a constant flow as you move down. Within the page or within your groups, if one member suddenly develops Twitter diarrhea, you can “mute” him or her temporarily, rather than actually removing them from your account.
On the right-hand side, direct messages appear in a chat format, or a running thread and you can also include photos in your direct messages. Brizzly has also developed an API called “Lets Be Trends.” Current trends will appear within this box and you can expand by clicking on “why” and see exactly what is happening in the real world. Add your own definitions and trends and related news items will appear within the content.
If you conduct a search, your history can be saved and you can also save drafts so that you can work on formatting later on. If you have multiple Twitter accounts, Brizzly handles them all within this single interface.
While it is basically designed for use with Twitter, Brizzly may also be used with your Facebook account to group together and show you threads and comments about stories that you are currently interested in.
Have you had a chance to try Brizzly yet?
Adam Toren
Get Up and Running Quickly with Windows 7 Using These Free Tools
Early reviews about Windows 7 have been largely positive and many consumers are opting to review the operating system for themselves. To some, however the prospect of migrating all the programs and applications and configuring Windows as they like it can be daunting, even though it may be time for a pretty comprehensive spring clean on your desktop anyway!
It’s always great to find a solution to such a problem, as we have faith in application developers to dig deep in their quest to serve their fellow man. Enter Ninite, a great new service that will automatically download and install your favorite applications and popular software packages, a good number of them at any rate. Ninite will install the applications with their default settings and thankfully reject the browser toolbars that we are always being plagued with.
The service will check to see whether 64-bit support is appropriate and will install the best versions of each application. It does not install itself, but only what you need.
Over 70 different applications are available and you simply scroll and check the boxes for programs that you want. For example, Chrome, Safari, Opera or Firefox, Skype, Thunderbird, iTunes, WinAmp, Picasa, Open Office, BumpTop, WinRAR or Filezilla. When you have checked your boxes you just click “get install” and Ninite takes care of the rest. Sure beats all that clicking around and fumbling for CDs. This free service could save you hours – highly recommended.
Don’t forget that you can also use Google Pack to install your Google stuff and turn to Xmarks, available for Firefox or Internet Explorer. This service can automatically synchronize your bookmarks. Before you migrate to 7, install Xmarks within your Vista or XP and then when you arrive at 7, simply load the program, sign in and all your bookmarks, together with your web passwords will be ready for your use.
Now you can really enjoy exploring Windows 7.
What are your first impressions of Windows 7?
Matthew Toren
Give Your Online Shoppers What They Need
As an e-commerce retailer, one of your first priorities should be to give your website visitor as perfect an environment as possible and one which is completely conducive to consummating a sale. Unfortunately, findings of an e-commerce survey commissioned by iperceptions found that this is a perception which may be far removed from reality. Four out of ten visitors arrive at an e-commerce site to conduct research, but only 85% of them are able to complete the task successfully. Of those who arrive with the intention of making a purchase, only six out of ten actually complete this task. These are worrying figures and it pays to try to get to the bottom of this research to make sure that you are giving your online shoppers what they really need.
Fundamentally, your site architecture should be very intuitive. It must relate directly to the source, so that visitors who are arriving due to a marketing process that you have initiated do not have second thoughts about the validity of this trail. Calls to action should be very clear and apparent and you should make sure that you do not place too many obstacles in the way of allowing your visitor to move all the way to the checkout page.
Here are some considerations:
• Have you fully answered a “features and benefits” analysis of your own products or services? You should have answered any potential questions yourself and make sure that you have provided the information and any FAQs; don’t leave any stone unturned.
• Include testimonials and customer reviews. Remember social proof is very important.
• Have you addressed any potential purchasing options and different scenarios – what if the product is being bought as a gift for somebody else?
• Clearly enunciate your return policies, warranties and confirm the security of your purchase arrangements.
• Detail all “supplemental” costs, including shipping and tax early on during the decision-making process.
• Do not require customers to go through lengthy registration processes prior to making a payment!
• Give as many payment options as you can.
• When it comes to check out, do everything you can to make this as simple a process as possible. Multiple checkout pages are not a good idea, as every additional stage here increases the abandonment ratio exponentially.
Choose a trusted confidant, with little direct input into your business or experience of your site, to do a complete run through as a new client. Encourage them to give you honest and complete feedback on every element of their experience and use this information to make your site highly user-friendly.
How have you made your e-commerce site user friendly?
Matthew Toren
How To Live The 4 Hour Work Week
November 11, 2009 by Adam
Filed under Blogging, Personal Development
Still Doing It All Yourself When it Comes To Blogging? You Need To Read This – And It’s FREE
I recently stumbled across this great little report called Secrets of Outsourcing Experts Revealed – and I had to let you know about it straight away.
You see, I come across SO MANY bloggers who are going out of their mind trying to do everything themselves – from building their blog to customizing their design. They get home from work at around 7.30pm, eat, touch base with the family – and sit down to work on their Internet marketing . . . sound familiar? I know – I’ve been there – and this little gem is specifically for those of you who do it all themselves – and wish you didn’t.
The Secrets of Outsourcing Experts Revealed is not just another report about outsourcing. It melds together leading experts such as Tim Ferriss, Jeff Mills and John Jonas, all of whom have outsourced their entire businesses and live the lifestyle they desire, working as little as 4 hours a week. The report is packed with insights from these leading Internet marketers – they reveal their screwups, and their successes – and what they’d wished they’d done in the beginning. They also wish they’d had the kind of knowledge about outsourcing delivered in this report – and these guys know what they’re on about. One of the things all of them agree on is they wish they’d outsourced more of their businesses earlier – and that struck a chord with me because, like you, I know what it’s like to be drowning in a ‘to-do’ list for my online business.
The report is by Tyrone Shum, a young entrepreneur who has already cracked the secret of outsourcing successfully and now rakes in a cool 6 figures a year while working only 4 hours a week. He has implemented the strategies covered in his report, and knows exactly what (and what NOT) to do.
This is a perfect example of learning from someone else’s mistakes without making them yourself – the report covers the pitfalls and ripoffs people like John Jonas have already experienced – so you don’t have to. Know exactly where to go and how to begin outsourcing from the start – and I recommend doing it as soon as your business can afford it; according to the report, you can begin hiring staff from as little as US$125 a month part time – and think of the time that will get back for you…
I was literally bowled over by the amount of information and knowledge in this report – the more so cause it’s absolutely free. I personally would be happy to pay for this sort of information, so grab it while you can. All of the information you need on outsourcing are in the report, so take a little time right now to download it. After all, if it’s good enough for John Jonas, Tim Ferriss and Jeff Mills, it’s worth your time to look into.
YOUR DOWNLOAD LINK TO THE REPORT
To download your own copy of Secrets of Outsourcing Experts Revealed
report, please visit the following page:
Free Report Click here
For best results, I recommend you print out the report and find a nice and quiet place to sit down and read it from start to finish without being interrupted. That way, you’ll get to enjoy the interviews and have a much better overview of what it takes to outsource your Internet business. You’ll probably get loads of ideas from these Internet marketing experts and start jotting down ideas right away – I know I did. So far I’ve noted dozens of ideas for my own business.
Not everything in the report will apply to all of you, but there’s a lot of information to work with as you grow your online business. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about leveraging your time. Think about the parts of your business you don’t really like, or that take you far too long (like technical stuff if you’re a copywriter – or content creation if you’re a techie). Do you spend time writing invoices, when you should be strategizing for growth? This is exactly the sort of thing you can outsource – and you’ll get stacks more ideas about leveraging your time in this value-packed report.
If you’re thinking about outsourcing, I recommend you read this report first – doing it the wrong way can cost you a lot in time, money and lost business revenue. Check out this report – you’ll be glad you did.
Four Optimization Truths
November 11, 2009 by Matthew
Filed under Website Traffic, Websites
Website optimization should be an ongoing process and should be the subject of attention for every webmaster, regardless of the size, authority or age of the site itself. From a business development perspective, optimization is a “must do” activity within the online marketing arena. Feedback and interaction are essential ingredients for any business and without it, it is difficult to change with the times and to grow. For an online initiative, interaction and feedback can be difficult to achieve without making a concerted effort to gather it. As such, even if your site is in the very early stages of development or growth, optimization should be embraced.
Truth number one: you have more to gain that you have to lose. It’s no good assuming that you can just tread water until such time as you might have “more information” to work with, on the assumption that relatively low levels of traffic do not provide you with enough material. With even a relatively small amount of information, you can attribute leads to certain sources or conversions to certain actions and while you might not have the luxury of multiple methods of testing to see whether your assertions may be backed up, you can nevertheless focus on your positive areas as you are feeding new growth and not waste money during your delicate formative times.
Truth number two: you cannot do business unless you optimize, one way or another. Any marketing action of any kind is a process of optimization. Just doing business by placing an ad in a particular format, in a particular place and waiting for results, you have a set strategy. If your traffic levels are really low at this point you still need to record the results of your individual initiatives and develop your ongoing strategy accordingly.
Truth number three: you have plenty of tools to help you at every traffic level. We have advocated before that Google’s Webmaster tools are quality products that every site operator should familiarize him or herself with. The analytics program has a wealth of information, allowing you to drill down to analyze your traffic sources or set up conversion goals. Their optimizer duration calculator allows you to input different scenarios and see how long you could expect to wait before you achieve realistic results, based on your data.
Truth number four: you can always analyze something. If you do not have a significant number of conversions yet for a particular campaign, be aware that you do not have to have an A to Z breadcrumb trail to enable you to make some assumptions about your overall business. You can, for example, take a look at the way that people interact with your site, the pages that they jump to, your entry pages, whether they are getting to a particular page during a checkout process and then bailing out. Just because you do not have a cash conversion does not mean that you cannot make any changes to your site infrastructure or its logistics to better prepare for those converting days ahead.
What Optimization Truths have you discovered?
Matthew Toren
