These are 15 free online tools that you need to maximize your chances of success. Get to know what each of these amazing online tools can do for you. I’ve included a brief blurb about each. I use each of these tools every single day and I couldn’t imagine trying to accomplish what I do without them. If you have a website, you probably need them too!

1. Google (Email; Analytics; Webmaster Tools; Custom Search; GTalk; Reader; Adsense; Alerts; Sites)
If you use the tools above Google will index your site more thoroughly and learn a lot about it. The more it knows, the more it feels comfortable using it in search results. These tools take your productivity level to new heights if you’re not currently using them or currently using a mish-mash of systems to do the same things. To me this is the most important group of tools.

2. Personal Blog (WordPress.com; WordPress.org; or Blogger.com.)
You need a blog about your business whether you think it applies or not. A blog doesn’t have to be filled with your personal observations - it can bring news, photos, ideas, links, videos, audio, quotes, and other things to your customers but also - linking generously to your main website(s).

3. Facebook.com
Don’t think of it as a dating site, it’s a networking site that is even more friendly than a dating site. Use this social networking tool to find everyone you possibly can and then find out what they can do for your business and tell them what you can do for them. My Facebook profle >

4. LinkedIn.com
This is a business networking site that has the top level people in all fields registered. It can be a major source of connections between high-level people. A great business tool.

5. Del.Icio.Us (http://del.icio.us)
This is a “social bookmarking” tool that allows you to take your bookmarks on the road. You can have access to them from any online computer. A bonus is that Google appears to pay attention to sites listed here.

6. Technorati.com
It started as a technology site bookmarker but since Google lists sites found here it has been filling up with sites of all niches. Good to be here, no matter what the focus of your online site. Add Aim for Awesome to your Technorati favorites >

7. Feedburner.com
Recently bought by Google and being upgraded all the time. Awesome site which manages your RSS feeds in a nicely designed format for all RSS readers. Can also give your feed a subscription by email service for those that don’t like/use readers. FB is really adding some great features, and I’m sure it will continue. Grab the Aim for Awesome feed with your reader or by email >

8. Tumblr.com
A recent find. A very nice GUI setup that can be programmed to automatically list the most recent blog articles you post as well as be open to posting any other information you want others to see. I really like this online tool and will be researching it more in-depth to see what I can do with it. My Tumblr account >

9. Flickr.com
The ultimate image publication tool. If you have any awesome photos that relate to your industry, or really - anything else… stick your url on a corner of each photo here and label it “creative commons” license so people can use it for free at their websites. You’ll get exposure you couldn’t have guessed about before. Label images carefully and extensively for best results. Use it to find creative commons images you can use on your own site, legally. See my Flickr photos >

10. YouTube.com
In your business there must be some process you can video tape and put online at YouTube to share with others. Recently I started creating video podcasts here at Aim for Awesome. I’ll put them on YouTube to share with the millions of viewers. Link to your web site in your profile and description and include titles and credits on the video telling viewers about your website. YouTube is a Google property and they list videos as results in search!

11. Craigslist.com
Try ads to test if there’s any interest here, it’s world-wide and though full of spam filled nonsense there are people that use it to find nearly everything they need. Maybe they need what you’ve got?

12. PayPal.com
Paypal is great to run small product tests to see if people will buy them - without setting it all up as part of your shopping cart. You dont’ need much programming to create an e-commerce page someone could buy your product with - just copy and paste some code. Good for international orders too.

13. Gravatar (en.gravatar.com)
If you comment regularly on WordPress blogs - and you should, you need to have a nice gravatar (avatar) set up so people can see who you are and get to know you if you comment a lot in your niche. Anytime you see other people with photos by their comments and you don’t have a photo - figure out how to get it! There are numerous sites you’ll need to join. Join them, they’re free.

14. Alexa
Alexa is a traffic estimation tool that is taken into account by a number of search engines. Register your site with them to be included in their directory. They also have a toolbar plugin for Firefox that is handy so you can know what the Alexa rank is for any page you visit.

15. Godaddy
I recommend Godaddy.com for all shared hosting needs. I’ve used it for 9 years I think. I’ve had some problems, but overall it’s intuitive and cheap hosting that is reliable. Aim for Awesome runs for $45 a year in hosting. I think I have a Terabyte of bandwidth a month available for each of my sites. Do I use it? Heck no! But, it’s there if I need it someday!

Best of Life!

Vern

One of the worst feelings of my entire life is to lose something I’ve created. In every sentence I write is a part of me that I fear won’t come back if I need to recreate it again from scratch. Thoughts and ideas fly through my head like shooting stars and if I’m lucky enough to slow one down enough to get it in digital form I want to KEEP it.

Just like you I’ve lost sentences, paragraphs, comments and whole emails due to technological glitches that seem to know when the most important thing I’ve done all day is hanging in the balance waiting for the success message to pop up telling me my work has been sent or saved.

Two years ago I decided I needed to stop losing ANYTHING I’ve already written. I researched keyloggers online. A keylogger is a program that runs in the background on your computer and saves everything you write… Literally anytime your finger hits a key - it’s saved. If you type a comment- it saves it. If you type an entire email - it’s saved. It doesn’t get lost. A good keylogger has a very large log file that doesn’t get corrupted and that you can rely on to SYA (save your ass) whenever you need it. It saves everything in a text file so you can copy it and paste it into whatever application you lost it from. Instant solution!

I’ve been using Perfect Keylogger Lite and found it to be the perfect solution. No I don’t know the builders, I’m just recommending it out of positive personal experience.

You can choose to have it run on Windows startup and record everything that gets typed. It can run in stealth mode - if you want to monitor what your kids are typing to people they meet in chat. You can set a password for viewing the logfile so nobody can see it except you. You can choose to have the program record only 2 words or more, 3 words or more or whatever number you choose. I let it grab everything. You can choose to monitor every application that opens in Windows or only specific apps. Up to you.

Perfect Keylogger Lite will trigger your antivirus software, as it should. If you didn’t know you had it on your computer it would be a serious security compromise! But, you KNOW since you put it there. Allow your anti-virus to ignore it. You should have a firewall on your system along with your anti-virus program. If for any reason your keylogger program tries to dial out and get online - and your firewall asks you what to do - BLOCK it. Don’t allow your keylogger to get online and send your data somewhere. Don’t allow it to look for updates. Block it.

I’ve used this keylogger for over two years now. It has saved me countless times as I don’t always remember to CTRL+a and CTRL+c to copy blocks of text I’ve created before sending them in a form or email. Many times here in Thailand the power will die and if I just happened to have not put my battery in the notebook I’d lose everything I was working on. With the keylogger I still have it (I think. Need to check on this I can’t remember using it. The log may not save in the event of a power outage.)

Whether you use this keylogger or another one - no matter, up to you. Just use one.

Please follow these tips:

1.) Use Tucows.com or Download.com to find one.
2.) After you download it - check it with your anti-virus software that is up-to-date before you unzip it and after. Do a complete system scan after installing the program.
3.) Research the keylogger you do chose on Google.com. Anyone having security issues with it?
4.) Use a firewall that blocks all programs from using your internet connection until you give approval. I use the free Sygate Personal Firewall as well as the built-in Windows XP Pro firewall. They work well together.
5.) Tell your spouse, friends, co-workers you have the software installed so they don’t feel like you’re spying on them when they find the program!

Keyloggers can be an excellent tool for recovering lost data and creative writing. Some keyloggers can record screenshots so you can see if your kids are looking at porn or something else they shouldn’t be. Some keyloggers can email you at your work the files it has saved while your kids are home typing on the computer. Keyloggers are excellent tools when used safely. PLEASE research the one you choose in-depth and ensure you’re not compromising your personal data.

I feel good with the setup I have… but maybe I’ll check Google after I post this to see if there have been any complaints about this keylogger recently!

Best of Life!

Vern

Aim for Awesome Video casts are starting soon!

I’ve been wanting to create some videos here for a number of weeks now. I’ve kept it in the back of my mind and gave it some serious thought a few times. I just couldn’t nail it down…

What should I do video about that I couldn’t write about?
What would be better on video than writing?
What kind of format for the video?
Where to shoot?
Shoot what? Me?  Scenery?  Screenshots?

Then, this morning it all came to me…

When ideas are flowing you gotta get up and record them or they’re lost. At 5:30am after 5 great ideas for videos and books I got up, grabbed the notebook (computer) and went into the back part of the apartment and sat on the floor so I could type without waking my sleeping beauty (wife).

I quickly typed up over 50 topics I could shoot video on and added some of the content areas I thought I might talk about during each video.

I’ve become bored of the typical online video casts I see online - even from the top level bloggers. Darren Rowse at Problogger.net posted a question the other day asking readers about the benefits of using video on their blogs and he got a lot of comments. I left a comment too. I’m don’t like 99% of the videos I see at other personal development sites.

Darren does video on his site and he’s just so knowledgeable that you have to watch out of fear that he’ll say something you’ll miss if you don’t watch it. I’m not particularly excited by his videos - but, no matter. He’s an expert - I watch the experts’ videos whether I like them or not.

Even if you’re not an expert adding video to your blog occasionally can be a positive improvement to your site. For myself I have pretty strong ideas about how to make video look good. Not sure if I can put them into action, but these are some things I want to keep in mind as I shoot my videos here at Aim for Awesome:

1. No hats. Seems that a lot of top bloggers wear baseball caps during their videos and have the wrong exposure on their faces. The face is the most important part of the video - unless you’re shooting at some worldwide tourist destination. Hats block what little light is coming from above to light your face. I want the lighting on my face to be bright and happy, not drab. Lighitng is a major issue for most bloggers as they don’t understand that they need to increase the exposure if they’re sitting in front of a brightly colored wall as video cameras aren’t smart enough to know your face is more important than a wall.

2. I’m not a newscaster. I don’t want to sit in one place and talk. I can’t get myself excited about that kind of video. How are you going to be excited or motivated? You’re not. I just don’t have it in me to sit there with proper clothes on in front of a wall with a photo of a fish and get you excited about some topic - even if the topic is exciting. I like walking around and talking to the camera. I prefer shooting here inside the apartment and walking around in my room - but there’s no excuse not to get outside and show you something as I walk around and talk about whatever subject is the topic of the day. Thai people see a lot of wacky foreigners walking around here, what’s one more talking to himself going to hurt?

I’ll make the effort to get out to somewhere scenic most times so at least you’re looking at palm trees, islands, mountains or beaches behind me and not white wall and my ceiling! I promise, no newscasts at AFA Video.

3. I’m not an actor. I couldn’t read a script and make it seem unscripted if my life depended on it. I can’t act like I’m not regurgitating a written or memorized script. I can’t read it off a wall or have it playing in my earphone as I talk to you about it on video. It’s gotta be unscripted. It will take multiple shoots to do that because I say uhm, and uhhh too much. But, much better to do it that way - more spontaneous and I can get excited about the video which in turn might get you psyched about it.

So, assuming I can follow the guidelines above I’ll be churning out some video over the next few days and posting them along with a written post to go along with them. I’ll post the videos at YouTube I think, maybe the first couple here on site until I get the hang of it. For YouTube you probably know the trick you can use to get the uncompressed version of the videos - but I’ll post it below.

Youtube trick to get the uncompressed video which is higher resolution and nicer to look at:

Add this to the end of the url of the video - no spaces just add:       &fmt=18

Now, I need to say something about the quality level of the videos I’ll be posting here. I have a rather slow connection to the internet from my apartment and I’m using my mobile phone to connect. I can do about 1Mb upload per 2 or sometimes 4 minutes. In order to give you even a 150kbps quality video at 320×240 resolution that’s a roughly 13Mb file. At that size the video is NOT high rez and is NOT the clearest video out there. I have the nice 640×480 version that maybe I’ll offer on DVD’s each month or something - but for now I hope you can get accustomed to the small videos at limited kbps.

Video 1: Questioning Your Religion >
Length: 12 minutes. 13MB. .wmv file played with Windows Media Player. Hosted on-site, not at YouTube.

Enjoy them and be sure to comment - positively or negatively, I’d like to know what you think is good or not so good.

Best of Life!

Vern

What’s a RSS Reader?

You’ve seen the squares or cubes (on right) with “RSS” or FEED written beside them on most blogs and even some web sites. You’re probably wondering what it’s all about.

This blog is set up so that whenever I post a new article - it is available to feed readers. A feed reader is nothing more than a program that automatically checks for new articles at blogs or web sites you subscribe to.

A feed reader will check all the blogs you subscribe to every time you open the feed reader. It will grab all the new articles and put them in a neat least, indexed by title - and probably the time they were posted.

Google, of course has a feed reader. I use it daily.  Click here to see what it’s all about. Screen shot below.

Now, why would someone want to use a feed reader? Why not just go visit the sites I like to see if there’s new content?

Waste of time.

I am subscribed to about 115 blogs and web sites right now. If, every day I wanted to find out if all 115 had new articles I would have to open that site up in my browser and check. For 115 sites that might take 3 hours, or more if I wanted to copy the article to read later in Word or Notepad.

I don’t want to spend two hours surfing around hunting down new articles, waiting for the sites to load, etc. I want them in one place where I can read them easily. I want to read them ANYTIME I choose, not just when I’m connected to the computer.

Google’s feed reader allows me to do this and save LOTS of time. In fact the few hours I’d spend looking for new content at 115 sites is cut down to just 30 minutes, including reading time for all articles I find interesting. This is an average day.

So, feed readers save LOTS of time and aggravation. Plus, you can read the new articles by your favorite bloggers whether you’re online or offline. You can install “Google Gears” to be able to store the articles on your computer to read whenever you like. You can even go a week or a month without looking at your reader… The google reader will store everything that wasn’t viewed by you at the sites you subscribed to. You can read 2000 articles at one sitting if you wish. If you can.

Once you read the article you can choose to mark it read or unread. You can STAR it. You can add tags to it so you can find it in a search later. You can copy and paste it somewhere. You can send it to friends easily by email. You can notify DIGG.com, TECHNORATI, Del.icio.us, FaceBook, or any of a hundred web 2.0 sites about the article, effectively sharing it with millions of people that may not have seen it.

I use Google reader because I use Google to manage everything I do online. It’s just easier to have one place to do everything. Yahoo has a reader. Reddit has a reader. I’m sure MSN has a reader. I think the Firefox browser even has a built in reader if I’m not mistaken.

Get signed up (free) with a reader, hopefully Google reader - and then come to AimforAwesome.com and click on the RSS FEED link or the cube that you see at the top of the site.

Subscribe to our feed.

Anytime you want you’ll be able to read all the articles I’ve created since last time you looked.

How easy is that?

It’s all free - no money for anything.

Get started today, you’ll thank yourself for saving a lot of time and increasing the amount of great information you’re exposed to.

MOST blogs have feeds. The might say RSS or FEED or Subscribe or ATOM or Reader or something. Usually they are at the top of the blog - though at times at the bottom.

Good luck!

Best of Life!

Vern