Ten Free BlackBerry Apps You Actually Want!

BlackBerry handheld devices give you complete mobility for your business or personal life.  With functioning phone, email, and text messaging you can stay in constant communication with important people no matter where you go.  But simple communication is only the beginning.  BlackBerry devices now have a huge range of software applications (or “apps”) which bring their functionality to a whole new level.

Some of these apps are totally superfluous—and of course there are plenty of games and other time-wasters you can play with, but this is a list of ten BlackBerry phone apps you actually want and will use in your business.  Oh, and they are all FREE:

1.     Viigo  (http://viigo.com/home)

Viigo is basically an RSS reader which has been specifically designed for handheld devices.  It is beautifully designed, easy to install and use, and offers you several options for keeping your different channels organized.  Stay up on your favorite blogs and keep up with breaking news in real time with Viigo.

2.    Twitterberry (http://www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/)

Twitterberry brings the magic of Twitter to your BlackBerry with convenience and speed.  You can quickly update your own Twitter status, send direct messages, view your friends’ updates exclusively, and view your replies.  Twitter on the go and give the world a play-by-play of your successes in the world of business.

3.    Facebook for Blackberry (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2254487659)

As more people get connected on the world’s largest social networking site, Facebook for Blackberry makes it easy to access the site quickly from any location and  update your status, send a private message, view your own profile (or anyone else’s), invite new friends, and much more.

4.     Opera Mini (http://www.opera.com/mini/)

A full-fledged web browser that is made for your hand-held device, Opera allows for total customization, and the pages are compressed (without compromising graphic appeal) for speedy browsing.

5.     Grid Magic (http://www.simprit.com/free/gridmagic/)

The only free spreadsheet application for BlackBerry, you can quickly launch and begin creating financial or data sheets on the go for your business.

6.     Web Messenger (http://www.webmessenger.com/products/im-all.htm)

A single application that lets you access all your instant messenger accounts in one tool; import your Yahoo!, MSM, AOL, and Skype contacts and have real-time interaction with all your friends and business associates.

7.     BlackBerry Currency Converter (http://m.fxconverter.com/fxlabs_intro.shtml)

Whether traveling for business or doing transactions with overseas clients, the Blackberry currency converter will let you get real-time global information for all major world currencies.

8.    PocketMac (http://www.pocketmac.net/products/pmblackberry/index.html)

Just because you have a Mac doesn’t mean you have to have an iPhone.  Many Mac owners love the Blackberry, and now they can sync their desktop or laptop Apple computer with their Blackberry handheld device using this application.

9.    E-Trade Mobile Pro (https://us.etrade.com/e/t/mobile_pro?SC=BR12345&WT.mc_id=BR12345)

Keep an eye on the market and your own portfolio using this handy app from E-Trade.com

10.    Where (http://www.where.com/carriers/BBHH.php)

Where coordinates with your GPS and generates points of local interest—everything from restaurants to state parks.  It generates maps and directions as well as local weather alerts.

BlackBerry has so many amazing functions that anyone can step away from the office and feel confident that they can keep their business running.  Do you have a favorite BlackBerry app that is not on this list?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Keeping Your Social Media Organized

If you are like me you jumped into social media with both feet, taking recommendations from friends about which sites were the best to participate on.  Before I knew it, I had membership on more than forty social networking sites—everything from MySpace and Facebook to YouTube and FLICKR.  There is really no end to the number of sites you can join.  In fact, Mashable.com has compiled a monster list of 350 established social networking sites (http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/) catering to every community imaginable.  In addition to being part of your networking many use these sites for strategically marketing their products or services.

But after a while, it can become overwhelming.  Every site has its own login and password.  They all have their own protocol and it can be exhausting trying to keep up with posting on them all.  That’s why I’d like to offer three tips for managing your social media to be able to make the most of it.

1.     Focus

Just because you can join 50 social networking sites doesn’t mean you should.  The key to social networking is being social.  If you don’t have time to interact with your contacts, you’re just another name on a list of their friends.  It is important to isolate which of these sites have the kind of people you want to appeal to and focus your efforts there.  For example, if you are a musician, MySpace is probably a lot more effective than LinkedIn which is used more for professionals.  Learning about the demographics of each of the social networking sites will help you decide if you will be able to have an impact with your presence.

2.    Use a Spreadsheet

Until someone comes up with a way to keep all your social networking information in one place, I highly recommend using a spreadsheet to keep track of all the sites where you regularly participate.  Logins, passwords, URL’s, and notes that can help you keep yourself organized are best compiled in one sheet which you can access at all times.

3.    Make a Schedule

Having a plan for using social media is very important.  Hit or miss participation on these sites will produce the same kinds of results.  If you hope to see anything from your social media efforts, you must be consistent.  John Jantsch wrote an excellent post on his blog Duct Tape Marketing called My Social Media System (http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-social-media-system/) where he outlines the sites he uses, and the schedule he has created to keep up with them.  Some of these social media sites, such as Twitter, move at a much faster pace than others.  That means you want to make an effort to visit them more frequently and keep updated daily, or even multiple times a day.

There is a fine balance that must be struck between the number of sites you choose to participate on, and the amount of time and energy you have to develop real, meaningful contacts.  The key to social media is quality, not quantity.  Social media members are very sensitive to spam and traditional selling techniques.  Simply logging in once a month and doing a fly by with a bunch of self-promoting posts is not going to gain you a favorable response; and in fact will work against you in this instance.

Do you have any tips for keeping your social network efforts organized and effective?  Leave a comment and let us know!

The Most Critical Characteristic for Bloggers

During my time as a blogger I’ve come to believe that the most important characteristic or quality that a blogger can have is simply to be proactive. Sure, having the knowledge of an expert or exceptional writing ability will help your chances of success, but knowledge and ability will do nothing for you if you don’t put it to work. Growing a successful blog is hard work and it requires dedication. The proactive blogger will be aggressively finding new opportunities and new ways of doing things while others will be watching from the sidelines.

Any ability, talent, or connection that blogging requires can be learned, gained, or improved by someone who is willing to make the effort. There are plenty of different ways to be successful or make money with a blog. What separates those that are successful from those that are not? In most cases it’s action.

There is so much free and readily available information online about making money that it’s tempting to want to learn more before jumping in. Sometimes you just need to take the plunge and learn as you go. You’ll almost always learn more from doing things yourself than you will from simply reading what others have to say (don’t take my word for it, test me and find out if I’m right).

4 Ways That Bloggers Benefit From Being Proactive:

1- Networking

All successful bloggers are surrounded by a strong network of other bloggers. Your network can help you in so many different ways, including links, comments, social media votes, advice, referrals, guest posts, collaboration on projects, and much more. There really is no limit to the impact your network can have on your success.

The best way to meet other bloggers is to be proactive. Keep in mind that other bloggers are also interested in networking, so it really is not as intimidating as it may seem at first. While a passive and non-assertive blogger will be missing out on great networking opportunities, you can be making an effort to build relationships with others in your niche.

2 - Learning from Mistakes

One of the biggest things that holds people back from being proactive is a fear of failure. While this is understandable, it’s also important to realize that your shortcomings provide the best learning opportunities. Personally, I’d rather fail first, learn from my mistakes and eventually succeed than never try at all because I was afraid of making a mistake.
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The Art Of Planning: Making Before Taking The Plunge

In a time where most things are becoming quicker to do, to achieve and to receive, many people feel that the internet holds all the answers and can help take your life from the dark ages into a new age of instant gratification.

If you think that what I just said does not hold true, do a quick search for “make quick money” on our favourite search engine and take a quick peak at those 60 million results.

As you can see, some false hope has been sprayed around and people are beginning to think that the internet is the next gateway to 24 hour riches.

Whilst the aim of this post isn’t to slander every single Get Rich Quick Scheme out there, I wanted to focus on a method that could actually help you to develop not only income, but success, branding, marketing, content creation much more quickly than before (but still not overnight either).

And I think you’ve heard this buzzword before. The name of the game is planning.

What Are The Benefits Of Planning?

Some talented individuals always make plans before starting anything new including a new website or internet business or before doing something as simple (or not) as a Wordpress upgrade. These people make sure they know every single step in detail before actually undertaking the project, even though this might cost them 5-10 minutes of their time.

For those skeptics who never plan, here’s a few reasons why you should:

• The human memory isn’t bulletproof. I often forget things half-way through a task and try and rack my brains to search for the thing I was thinking about. By writing or typing a plan, you make sure that you don’t leave out an important part of the procedure, which could end up costing you more time in the longrun.
• Allow ideas to brew. This point is especially useful in content creation. By jotting down a plan of your next blog post, you can let your ideas brew, and don’t have the pressure of trying to write a post on the spur of the moment, something that guarantees a lack of quality.
• Be more productive. Whilst planning takes up some of the precious “action time”, in the longrun, it can actually help you to organize your activities and to make sure you perform the most useful activites whilst you’re in the groove. Leo Babauta always mentions making a plan before undertaking any task, so you should too.

How Do I Make My Plan?

Once you’ve decided that planning really is necessary before you take the plunge, then the next step would be to decide how you are going to make that plan. In the world today, there are 2 places where you can write down pre-thoughts; on a screen or on a piece of paper.

It’s up to you which one you use, I myself personally prefer jotting things down in my roughbook (which you’ll be able to see below). The advantages of doing this, is that you get to step away from the screen a bit (which in turn uses less power), but at the same time, you’re using paper. So from an environmental perspective, you’re doomed both ways. Find out whichever one works for you - experiment a little.

Once you’ve decided upon the medium, it’s time to decide upon the method. Here are a few methods that I’ve used in the past:

• 1. Spider Diagrams - the picture you can see above is of a plan for an upcoming guest post on a Top 10 blog. This method was great, as it allowed me to link factors together, to continually add on top of the ideas I had already formed for the post, and it inevitably led me to realize that I could put together a great series, instead of a single post.
• 2. The Simple List - ideal for planning events or continuous steps (again great for Wordpress Upgrades). Planning this will help you get rid of uncertainty and will make sure you carry out the task in the quickest time possible. This technique is great also for creating social media linkbait.
• 3. Flowcharts - again a flowchart can be awesome for planning an event or for detailing your workday. These can also be more visually attractive, helping to detract from that boring, planning experience.

Again, I’ve only detailed a few pieces of opinion here, but the key here is to continually trial and improve upon your planning techniques.

Once you’ve mastered the art of planning, not only will your productivity shoot up, but you’ll be left with more time to focus on aspects of your website, blog or company that are lagging behind and which are causing you to lose potential gains. Patching up these leaks will guide you to success; sooner rather than later.

Keeping Your Content Flow from Running Dry

Written by Travis, partner and contributing writer at Young Go Getter.

This guest post is an example of what can and will happen at some point in your blogging career. You’ll think you’ve covered every topic for your audience and have a bit of blogger brain freeze when trying to think of what to write. I know Adnan and I can admit to this happening on all too frequent basis.

The solution comes from borrowing a practice from blog’s sister medium, magazines. Editorial calendars are created at the beginning of each year by every magazine to plan a schedule for content for the entire year. This calendar focuses on determining feature articles, not topical. These articles may be lists, holiday themed, relate to an annual event, or just an article format that your readers enjoy (ex. Sites We Love on YGG).

Being that blogs have an hourly turnaround time as opposed to monthly like magazines, I recommend your calendar be created on a month-to-month basis as opposed to annually.

The first step is determining how often you’d like to consistently post on your blog. Don’t commit to one post per day if you can’t deliver; most small blogs can develop a loyal readership with a few posts a week.

Once you decide on the frequency of posts, mark those dates on your calendar (editorial calendar). If you’ve scheduled a new post every Tuesday and Friday, you have 8 spots per month that need to be filled.

This is where recurring formats can be planned ahead of time. So say you have a bi-weekly podcast you feature on your blog; that’s 2 out of 8 spots covered for the month. You might also feature an interview every other week; only 4 more spots to go. You get the point.

I recommend leaving a couple posts per month open to be topical (current happenings in the news). A big announcement, scandal in your industry, or pop culture will invite you to comment on such incidents.

Creating an editorial calendar will help you determine the content your readers enjoy, develop a rhythm for writing posts, help you consistently grow your readership, and avoid the dreaded blogger brain freeze.

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