Video Highlights And A New Page
Posted by Mitch on Mar 9, 2010
I have a lot of videos on this blog. Sometimes they’re easy to find because they match up with the content. Other times they’re kind of hidden gems, something I used to add something different to the post.
Overall the videos are all over the place, so I decided it was time to consolidate them, as well as highlight a few of them here. I did this before with my post showing my early videos up to June 2008. Below are 9 others I’d like to highlight, mainly because today is the 9th of March. For all other videos on this blog, though, go to the link above that says Videos, or of course you can click on the link I just created.
This video of Tunak Tunak Tun by Daler Mehndi just thrilled my wife and I when I discovered it last year. It’s infectious and fun.
This was the video of the year in 2009, a funny wedding entrance video.
We’ve talked a lot on this blog about commenting; this was Chris Pirillo’s take on it.
I had someone recently tell me about Google 411 service; told him I’d written about it in 2008, including the video.
I had finally written about the movie The Secret, and this was the 20 minute video clip from The Secret, which is enough to get you going.
This video caused a lot of consternation for a lot of people, mainly me, on my business blog for about 2 years before I decided to move it over here instead; it’s a motivational video of a boy with Down’s Syndrome.
A very recent video showing that stupidity and racism is still alive in America, courtesy of this Rachel Maddow clip with Pat Buchanan being stupid.
Talk about people with a passion that I’m not sure I could ever find again, this one highlights something known as Free Running.
Finally, we’re coming up on St. Patrick’s Day, and even though I’m not Irish and I’m not Catholic and I don’t drink beer (let alone green beer), I figured I’d get into the spirit of things this one time by presenting the Muppets singing Danny Boy.
And there you go, 9 videos I wanted to bring some life back to. I hope you check these out, and if you’re ever looking for some entertainment, remember to check out my Video page above.
Is Instant Messaging Dying Out?
Posted by Mitch on Dec 3, 2009
I remember when I first got into instant messaging. It was 1997, and I had just learned about ICQ, which is still around. There was AIM, and I don’t remember if Yahoo Messenger was around at that time. But ICQ offered just what I and my family members needed.
Through ICQ, I was able to connect my dad to all of his brothers and sisters, a couple of my cousins, and some friends I’d met through newsgroups. Later on, I had some friends I would talk to. We’d talk often, pretty much every night, and it was fun. Of course, ICQ tanked in a big way, but still, there are other instant messaging systems; even Facebook has one.
These days, I can’t find almost anyone who’s using instant messaging. It’s pretty much been replaced by Twitter and Facebook, and even a little bit by email. Sure, email was around back in ‘97, but many friends wouldn’t use it for whatever reason.
Is instant messaging dying out, or am I just too old to have many friends who want to use it anymore? I ask that because it seems the people who say they still love instant messaging are all younger than 30. Obviously most of my friends are older. I only have one family member who still has an instant messaging account, and he’s rarely on. The friends I have accounts for almost never show up. There’s a couple of people I talk to sometimes during the day while they’re at work, and when I’m out of town my wife and I will try to have conversations through Yahoo (though I use Trillian), but that’s about it. I don’t even know anyone who uses Facebook’s instant messaging, though I’m sure there are people who do.
I also wonder if it’s why having Meebo on my business sites doesn’t seem to bring me much communications during the day when I hold office hours, which I announce on Twitter every once in awhile. I mean, one would think someone would take me up on the chance to speak to me live, but nope, doesn’t happen.
What are y’all thinking about this? Anyone else lamenting the demise of instant messaging, did you care, or have I just passed by the age where it makes sense for my friends and my business?
5 Websites You May Not Know About
Posted by Mitch on Nov 14, 2009
I don’t do this often, but I thought I’d take a diversion for a little bit of fun. How often do I do this? Well, I’ve done it only twice. The first was in 2008, and then I was only talking about music sites. The second was in April of this year.
|
This list is going to give you 5 websites you probably don’t know about, which I think are pretty cool, and have been around for awhile. You might find them fun or informative; that’s what I’m all about.
Achievement Radio is a motivational site that I’ve always thought was very cool. There’s all sorts of motivational material everywhere, but that’s not the beauty of the site. If you look to the right, there’s a place where you can actually listen to short motivational excerpts from both famous and not so famous people. It’s free, and it will play all day if you’d like. Every once in awhile, we all need to hear uplifting stuff, right?
Every once in awhile, I feel I need to know how to make certain things. You’d think I would know how to make everything I need, but I don’t. Allrecipes is the site I go to whenever I need to check on a recipe, or I’m looking for ideas. There’s a ton of websites like this one out there, but this is the one I like best.
This site will kind of freak you out, but it’s neat for at least a little while. It’s called The Human Clock, and if you go to the site, then click on the image at the top, you’ll see it giving you the correct time. Then, if you keep it up for awhile, you’ll see that every minute there’s a new picture and the new picture tells you what time it is. No, it’s not a site where you’ll want to stare at it for all that long, but I have popped it up there for an hour or two, just to look to see what creative picture they’ve done for the minute I’m there.
Who remembers Cabbage Patch Dolls? What about mood rocks? This site is called Bad Fads, and you can go through the site and relive some of those things that you may not want to own up to as being a part of your life. I know many of you wore those bell bottomed pants; go ahead, admit it.
Finally, if you’re one of those people who loves quiz sites, you’ll want to check out Cool Quiz. Just like it says, it’s replete with many quizzes of many times, and you can find out lots of stuff about yourself; that is, if you believe this kind of thing. Hey, it’s a good time killer.
And that’s that; enjoy on this beautiful Saturday.
When Is The Last Time You Searched Your Name?
Posted by Mitch on Oct 8, 2009
How many of you ever check your name on Google to see what might be out there for you? If you have a common name, the numbers might be kind of skewed, which stinks. If I go looking up Mitch Mitchell I’m out there, but I have to deal with a heck of a lot of stuff that talks about Jimi Hendrix former drummer.
However, when I go looking under my official business name, which is “T. T. Mitchell (and don’t ask, because I’m not telling what any of it stands for), I’ll find myself all over the place. As a matter of fact, out of the first 50 references on Google, 38 of the references are to me. Out of the next 50 references, 17 are about me. I mean, 55 out of the first 100; that’s not bad if you ask me.
It can be pretty heady stuff when you keep finding websites that you’re listed on, or things you’ve written. I’ve found all sorts of things about myself that I never expected to find. I found a reference to a speaking engagement I’m giving next April on social media; never knew that was online. I found that many songs I have copyrights on are listed online in a certain place; freaky. I’ve found my articles on sites I never knew existed. I’ve found myself listed for things I’d have never expected to be found for. I even found someone who recommended both my newsletters and my services (read the article by Catherine Ryan on the right), someone I hate to admit I don’t remember, or can’t verify that I’ve met, but you know, we take recommendations as we find them, right?
Overall, how many references are there that pertain to me? According to Yahoo, more than 8,600; yeow! There’s also one thing I found that kind of freaked me out. The last year of my dad’s life, he was going to try to learn HTML so he could put up a family genealogy site. He got some of the references in, but not all that many. However, one of those references is me, and seeing that, something my dad put online back in 2001,… chills!
I guess the best thing is that I didn’t find anything negative about me, which is always a good thing. Of course, I’d probably find more if I could weed myself through all those other Mitch Mitchell’s. I’m listed at least 3 times in the top 100, and I guess that will have to do. Of course, if I add the “T T” to it, in quotation marks of course, I kill! As a matter of fact, 46 of the top 50 references are me; yeah baby! How long have I been talked about by some folks online? Check this article out from January 2004. I’d forgotten about it, to tell you the truth.
I’ve talked often about marketing and advertising on this blog. I haven’t talked as much about PR, or public relations, or press releases and the like. I have talked about being all over the internet and wondering what else I need to do to break through and become at least a well known name so that I can start making money, or at least getting more business, off my own name. No one can say that I haven’t established a presence on the internet, that’s for sure.
So, how are you doing with spreading your message, and getting your notoriety online? Are you ready for more? I am.
Services And Stuff
Posted by Mitch on Mar 3, 2009
Probably only one or two of you know this, but I do have another website that I’ve never talked much about here. It’s called Services And Stuff, and it was my attempt to create a different kind of web portal, i.e. web directory.
Let’s face this fact; I don’t like most web directories. It’s a bunch of categories that all look the same, and you’re crowded in with lots of other people without getting to really stand out in any fashion. The format is also the same on all of them, and that just makes them all really boring.
So, I came up with this thought about changing the model a little bit. I would have categories and allow people to list their links for free. They would also get to add a short, one line blurb about their site, and all of the listings would be relatively consistent, so that there weren’t lots of words getting in the way. And, since I wasn’t charging anyone for their link, I would put in my affiliate links instead, and only charge people if they wanted to advertise somewhere on the site.
It actually worked kind of well for awhile, then it stagnated. What you see now is the second redesign, and I’m not quite sure I’ve still fully got it the way I want it. One of the problems with even minor directories is that they fall outside of the realm of what one needs for proper SEO processes, i.e., enough content on each page to do it right. How the site has maintained its PR3 throughout all these years is beyond me, since I also haven’t done the best job of internal linking with it. The page I’m most proud of is my articles page, although I’ve always wished I could get it up to at least 100 articles so I could create categories for them also. And there’s also a blogs page, which could be used instead of a blogroll. The one thing about this site is that I can add people at will if I so chose to, as it’s been established that one can do that unless requested not to, and I added one of Sire’s site to the mix because, well, we’re playing email chess, so I figured I owed him something for all those beatings he’s taking (yeah, like that’s happening all that often).
Still, it’s my site, and it’s out there, and I wanted to introduce it to all of you. When I start writing squeeze pages for affiliate programs, or other items, I’m going to link them off this site, as it’s best suited for it. Yeah, some folks would say to create a new domain name and advertise it that way, but I’m thinking that if I’m buying new domains, I’m either popping another blog on there or I’m creating an entirely new website. Truth be told, many affiliate marketers use one of their websites to promote their products, and it’s not a bad model if the website already has some web prominence, which this site does have, at least.
Anyway, take a look, if you will, and decide if you’d like some link love to the site, or if you’d like to do some advertising on the site, or if you hate the model totally. I still think the idea is sound, but the process might be Wed 1.0 instead of Wed 2.0, and of course we’re moving quickly towards Web 3.0.
Let’s Learn Affiliate Marketing Together
Posted by Mitch on Jan 19, 2009
Check out my Big RSS Subscriber Contest after reading this article.
As many of you know, our buddy Yan wrote a post early in the new year called 2009 Is The Year Of Internet Marketing. As I read that article, I was thinking how, for me, last year was supposed to be my year of internet marketing, and I can’t say it turned out all that well. Sure, I made some money, probably my best year ever, and yet, when it’s all said and done, I don’t really think I learned much this year to push me to the next level.
And I’m not alone. Let’s face this fact; there’s a lot of us out here who are trying to learn this internet marketing thing better. We buy the books and manuals and CDs and videos, and, well, we probably don’t get to most of it. I know I got to just under half of it, and, oddly enough, the one thing I really worked at, that I read deeply, was Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets, and my income did drastically increase from it, though not on the blog, but from my other sites.
This proves that sometimes this literature and stuff we decide to invest in does work. And yet, it doesn’t take care of everything, does it? Let’s take a look at this affiliate marketing thing. Last year, when I started this blog, I decided to add some affiliate banners and products to my blog. I put either a link or product at the end of every post; I didn’t make a single sale from any of that in 2008, so obviously it takes more than that. Well, I did more than that a few times; I actually wrote entire posts about some of the items I was advertising because they were things I was using and I liked, and the only one I know about that a few people actually clicked on and signed up for was Tweet My Blog, and yet I never earned a dime from them (maybe I don’t understand how they’re supposed to pay, but I know at least 3 people went ahead and downloaded the product based on my recommendation) through Clickbank; sigh,…
Enough of that. Time to stop whining, and time to start learning. Obviously I don’t know it all, but I’ve learned a bunch of things, and y’all have learned a bunch of things, but we’re still missing it. So, here’s the challenge. Let’s put together our list of questions, things we want to learn as it pertains to this thing called affiliate, or internet, marketing. I have met some big time internet gurus in the last year, and if we can put together a package of questions, I will contact one of them and ask them if they can answer our specific questions. How does that sound?
I’ll start with mine:
1. Is the list really the most important thing to making consistent sales, or any real sales?
2. With Clickbank, do we write our own squeeze page to then send someone to the squeeze page of the product, or is there a way to work around that?
3. What is the best way to sell our own products?
4. Going back to the list, is it really ethical to always gather email addresses when giving out free items, then bombarding people with sales offers?
5. How does one really go about asking for the sale, especially on a blog?
And there you go; my questions. What are yours? Or, if you can answer those above, what are those answers? Let’s all learn and grow together.
Websites We Can’t Live Without
Posted by Mitch on Jan 14, 2009
Check out my Big RSS Subscriber Contest after reading this article.
I happened to come across a pretty good article on a blog called TechRadar.com titled 50 websites you’ll wonder how you lived without, and, of course, it lists 50 websites that the writers believe are essential to our lives in some fashion. Whereas I’m not sure I’d want to go out on that kind of limb, I figured that I would highlight a few of the websites mentioned that I like.
Slide Share is one that I actually learned about before I read this article. A friend of mine uses Slide Share to upload every powerpoint she creates, and it helps spread the word about presentations she gives around the country. I’m giving this one a lot of thought as to whether I’m going to join in or not, because, whereas it’s fascinating to see some of the presentations, sometimes you feel a little bit lot when all you see is an image, or a few disjointed words that you’re not really sure what the author is communicating to you. Still, as a business tool, it’s pretty cool.
DaFont is just that, a site with literally thousands of different fonts. I’m kind of a font fanatic when it comes to some of the presentations and newsletters I create, and I love being able to change some things up.
Of course if you saw this post of mine awhile ago, you know I already participate in the affiliate program for Imagekind. It’s way more than just an affiliate program, though. The site has hundreds of thousands of images, and some are images that the photographers allow you to use for your own sites or any other reason without having to worry about copyrights. You just have to pick the right photographs, and you’re all set. But being able to actively look at pictures that you might also want to purchase makes visiting this site worth it.
Since I mentioned DaFont, I have to also mention 1001FreeFonts.com, which also has a plethora of great fonts. Yes, some are duplicated on the other site, but many others are totally original.
eHow is a site that gives you information and answers to many questions covering a wild gamut of areas. I’d also been to this one before reading the article, and have found it a great resource for many things (such as trying to figure out where those blue stains come from in the washer sometimes when we know neither one of us in the house left a pen in our pockets).
Anyway, those are my five favorite sites that they mention, but that means there are 45 more for you to check out, to see if there’s anything there you can use. Enjoy reading!
I'm Just Sharing is where I share my thoughts on internet marketing, writing, blogging and many other things. You never know what I'll be posting on. So keep coming back, read, enjoy, and buy! ;)
