Monthly Archives: August 2009

Helpful Tips & Tricks, Internet Business, Reviews

The Worlds Coolest Blogging Software

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BlogDeskEvery so often, I stumble across something that stands out above the noise and makes me go “wow, that’s cool!”.

It’s an application called “BlogDesk” created by Johannes Oppermann. BlogDesk lets you write and publish new blog updates right from your desktop.

It’s compatible with all the major blogging platforms, including WordPress. In fact, the last post that I wrote was done in BlogDesk!

Adding pictures to your posts, bullet points, and any formatting is effortless the the BlogDesk WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) visual interface.

Typing a great looking article is as easy as pie. Writing blog posts is a joy with this software. It’s a nice, clean, intuitive interface which allows me to be creative without having to muddle with complex menus.

Setting this up to work with my blog was also a breeze. A setup wizard simply walks you through the steps, and does most of it for you!

Now I can simply write my blog updates, click my categories, and submit. Oh, & if you want to edit your update later after it’s already been published, you can do that too. Very cool.

One thing that I particularly like is how easy it is to insert pictures, audio files, pdf’s, etc. You can simply insert them from your computer, and BlogDesk will upload them automatically to your website when you publish your blog.

I’ve tried a couple other offline blogging apps, like Windows Live Writer from Microsoft. It was pretty good, but when I would publish, the formatting never seemed quite right, especially with pictures. so I stopped using it after a couple of times.

I can tell that BlogDesk will be my weapon of choice for blogging from here on out. You can also have multiple blogs in BlogDesk. Just create your article, choose your blog (or blogs) to publish to & voila!

There are a ton of other features that I haven’t even touched upon such as adding effects, resizing, & thumbnailing of your pictures, frequently used phrases feature, tag generator, and more…

Oh yeah, there’s just one catch… the price… its, er… ahem… it’s FREE! Yes, I couldn’t believe it either. This is a first class piece of software, take it from a guy who develops software myself. I would give it three thumbs up if I had an extra hand.

If you’re a blogger, and you haven’t tried this yet, go check it out. I think you’ll love it as much as I do. And if so, why not show them a little love while you’re at it.

Helpful Tips & Tricks, Internet Business, You Posts

Breaking Out Of The Infinite Doodle Loop

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Infinite Doodle Loop Pic - jackkeifer.com

One of the biggest online business killers that I know of is the “infinite doodle loop cycle”

We’ve all been caught in this, myself included. Your’re caught in writer’s block, or maybe you lack solid procedures in your business, so you don’t know what to do next.

As a result, instead of accomplishing anything constructive, you’re surfing the forums hoping that someone is going to share that magic formula that just made them rich overnight with no effort. By the way, don’t count on it.

Other common feedback loops include:

  • constantly checking your emails for something… anything.
  • Checking your web stats every 15 minutes
  • Taking long time-outs to watch TV, hoping your mind will be fresh with ideas when you come back (if you come back).
  • Going back into the forums again… maybe that “secret sauce” has been revealed since you checked 10 minutes ago.
  • Making paper airplanes & throwing them out the window, hoping that your business will build itself.

You can keep yourself very busy with all of this activity. Most marketers even deceive themselves into thinking that something is actually being accomplished. Perhaps in the name of education.

So, how do we break out of this cycle?

The first basic step is to identify why you’re not doing anything to begin with. Is it because you are lost as to what to do next? Maybe you’re frustrated because what you are doing is not working. Perhaps you’re disorganized, or overwhelmed.

When you understand what category you fall into, then it’s time to make a quick action plan to break out. This doesn’t have to be complicated, it only needs to take a few minutes to work out.

Let’s say you’re overwhelmed from information overload. Take a step back and see what you have done so far. Don’t try to do it all at once. Just define your next step and then do it. After that, repeat.

The most important thing you can do is develop procedures in your business, and follow them. I know, this sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.

Just write down (or make a video of) anything that you currently do in your business. Write them in a way that anyone else could follow if they were reading or watching them for the first time.

Are you using Pay Per Click to test out campaigns? Document how you do it. Are you submitting articles to various directories and getting results? Write down how you do it and where you are submitting to.

Make everything you do a documented procedure, right down to approving blog posts or posting to forums.

You’ll be surprised how many procedures that you come up with, just from what you are doing right now. From here, you need to make a schedule of when to follow each procedure.

Some of them every day, & maybe some once a week, whatever the case may be. If you have a set of procedures, then you have a proven set of techniques that you can follow every day to constantly build your business.

You should always be tweaking your procedures to give you the absolute best results. This will compound itself when practiced across all your procedures.

Now that you have systems in place, you will be perfectly positioned when you are ready to outsource your more tedious tasks. The systems will already be in place, so that members of your team can easilly follow them without the need to be bothering you every 5 minutes for direction.

To get the best out of building your business, you should follow a proven plan. I would recommend getting an experienced mentor. This is without a doubt the quickest & most sure way to build your business while avoiding the common and often costly mistakes that go along with internet business.

I’ve often been asked about offering mentoring. I’ve often considered offering this service, but the puzzler has always been how to give my clients the best value and the best results.

I’m currently in the process of re-structuring my online businesses, and within the next few weeks, I’ll be offering various forms of mentoring.

Interested? Stay tuned…

In the mean time, follow my tecniques above and you will be armed with the firepower to blast free of the infinite doodle loop and get your online business back on track.

Internet Business

Expand Your Universe

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Image credit: Stephen Van Vuuren, created from a simulation of 80,000 star imagesWhen I started my internet business back in 2005, I was pretty excited about it.  This was something that I had previously mulled over for quite some time, but never really took the action to just do it.

Then one day I finally decided to step outside my comfort zone and make that product, release it to the public & start my business.

In that very instance of commitment, my universe had suddenly expanded.  A few moments ago, I was a wage slave doomed to a life sentence of repetition until the day I finally retired.

Now all of a sudden, my future was changing.  I made the conscious choice to change my future, but was it realistic?

Maybe I couldn’t make a video & teach people what I knew.  Suppose they think I’m some kind of chump and all demand refunds.  My friends might laugh at me for making a fool out of myself and then failing!

Those were some of the negative self-doubts that kept me from taking action the previous months as well.  It really finally got to the point where I just had to say “you know what Jack? Either crap or get off the pot… do ya want it or not?”

The truth was, as much as I didn’t like living paycheck to paycheck, in debt, and being subordinate to someone else, it was comfortable in some off beat way.  Looking back, I can now see that the comfort of having  just this one stream of income was in reality a false security.

Having a J.O.B. means that I can pay my bills & be socially acceptable, right?.  It also means that you don’t have to think so much for yourself.  You are told when you are going to work, what you’re going to do, when you can take a break, have lunch, a day off, and a myriad of other things.

You could compare this to when convicts are incarcerated for long periods of time.  Eventually they become “institutionalized”.  For example, if Vinny the fish just completed a 25 year stretch in the State Penitentiary and is then suddenly released, Vinny’s going to have a tough time coping without the regimen that he’s been conditioned into for so many years.

The big house had become comfortable in the sense that for 25 years he was told where he would stay, when & what he would eat, when to go in the yard for exercise, etc.  Now suddenly, to experience freedom (relative to prison), he’s thrust into a very uncomfortable zone.

In order for you to break out of your ‘prison’, whether it’s a J.O.B., a relationship, an addiction of some sort, or whatever, you have to be willing to step outside the zone of comfort and make yourself do it.

If you already have a business, what can you do to make it even more profitable?  What are those things which maybe you haven’t acted on, because it was beyond your comfort zone?

Perhaps it’s making that video, or doing a webinar.  If you haven’t done it because it’s a ‘scary’ thing to do, but you know it will increase your business, just remember this; your universe will always expand to wherever it is that you decide to go.  You are the master.

If you step out of your comfort zone (your known universe), your universe will automatically expand with you into this new zone. Before you know it, your universe has just gotten that much bigger, and you are all the better for having experienced it.

The next time that you come up with an idea or think “that would be nice but…”, don’t let that fear from inexperience, or fear of the unknown stop you!  See this as the opportunity to expand the real estate of your personal universe.  Stepping out will always expand it in some way.

When your universe becomes bigger, you become more confident.  The opportunities and possibilities will grow exponentially with each expansion of your universe.  Now is the time to do it.  Dive in, and see for yourself where it takes you.  You’ll be amazed!