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Archive for the 'Tools' Category

ScribeFire Makes Posting Easy

November 18th, 2008 by Debra Simpson

ScribeFireIf you use the FireFox browser you may be familiar with FireFox’s addons. One of the addons I use regularly is ScribeFire. ScribeFire can really help you with posting to your blog, or if you are like me and other bloggers, your blogs….

With ScribeFire you can set up your blogs in the admin area and when you are surfing the web and find a site, post, or article you want to reference, you simply tap F8 to launch ScribeFire.

With ScribeFire you can post to your blog, add images from your harddrive or Flikr and even videos from YouTube. You can categorize your posts, even use the timestamp to publish them at a later date. If you’re referencing other online sources, ScribeFire can be a great tool to use in leveraging your time.

If you have any tools you use to make your blogging easier, I invite you to share by commenting.

Category: Tools | No Comments »

Marketing With Audio and Video

November 3rd, 2008 by Debra Simpson

Penny Haynes, Commercial Creation Center, and I had a discussion about using audio and video in combination with social media as a way to leverage business on the Internet.

Penny took an informal poll over at LinkedIn, asking about which social networking sites other business owners and professionals used. The usual suspects were mentioned, in addition to a few that aren’t well know.  The sites discussed were:

Bottom line, if you really want to maximize your social networking, it’s imperative that you gain your site visitor’s trust and multimedia can do that for you. It’s getting easier and easier to create audio and video. The Commercial Creation Center is a push button system to let you do just that, reach out to your community in a very personal manner.

If you are already using audio and video, feel free to share your experience, what has worked and what didn’t.

 

Category: Tools | No Comments »

Keeping The Faith In Your Business

September 4th, 2008 by Debra Simpson

Subliminal Desktop free softwareWow, it’s tough at times to keep the faith while you’re running your business in these times. All I’ve been hearing is how bad the economy is, how bad business is and I’ve watched friends just quit!

Do you feel like that at times? I have a great piece of FREE software I’d like to share with you. Subliminal Desktop is a FREE software program that runs on your desktop, popping up positive affirmations every few seconds.

Now, I did purchase the full version, which allows me to customize the phrases that come up on my screen. I can’t tell you how many times I see those phrases pop up and it just warms my heart and keeps me moving forward.

If you are into positive affirmations, and know how powerful they can be in helping reframe our subconscious thoughts.

Check it out and see if it doesn’t put a smile on your face during a trying day! Let me know what you think!

Category: Software, Tools | No Comments »

Free Website Tools

August 19th, 2008 by Debra Simpson

I found SEOAlleyCode while I was doing some research on keywords for a client and wanted to share it with you.

One of the tools I think is most valuable to small business owners and solopreneurs is the Meta Tag Generator. It’s a wyswyg (what you see is what you get) that will step you through the process of creating meta tag info for your blog or website.

If you have a WordPress blog with the All In One Seo pack plugin, you can transfer this info into the SEO setting.

Let me know what you think by commenting!

Category: Keywords, SEO, Tools | No Comments »

Digsby Helps Me Manage My Social Networks

August 5th, 2008 by Debra Simpson

Digsby.comI’ve been knee deep in Facebook for almost three months now. I have two twitter accounts, Magic In Blogging and North San Diego Business, well three but I’m hoping to combine the two into the third. I have a YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Flickr and my favorite microblogging service, Plurk. Then there’s my various instant message accounts. Wow, what’s a girl to do??

To post to any of my social sites used to have to open the sites in individual tabs in my FireFox browser. What a hassle! Obviously, I wasn’t the only solopreneur to experience this problem.

I’ve been know to download and test almost anything, so I’ve been testing Social Media "assistants", for lack of a better term. I thought I’d start sharing them with you.

Today, my share is Digsby.

What Do I Like About Digsby?

One of the biggest advantages to me, with two Twitter accounts is the ability to add more than one Twitter account. It easily offers me the opportunity to update my status without having to go to a browser. I can keep up with Facebook requests, notifications, as well as tweets and Facebook, AOL and Google Instant Messages.

I can customize the skin and send files, similar to Skype.

What Don’t I Like About Digsby?

It doesn’t include my favorite microblogging tool, Plurk.  It also doesn’t incorporate my YouTube or Flickr account. That would make it just about perfect.

Is Digsby Right For You?

I don’t know, you’ll have to take a look at it compared to other Social Media widgets/gadgets/assistants. Keep tuned and I’ll share what I’ve been working with, including widgets, FireFox addons (because I don’t use IE) and other tools I find here and there.

So, tell me, how are you managing your various profiles? Share by commenting below. Tomorrow, I’ll share with you another Social Media tool.

Category: Communication, Social Networking, Tools, Widgets | No Comments »

Skype Extra, Share Your Desktop With Mikogo

July 1st, 2008 by Debra Simpson

Skype Extra MikogoI’ve been testing the Skype extra, Mikogo, which allows you to share your desktop with others.

I had a total of four users join the meeting. We were able to easily watch the desktop being shared. We used a PowerPoint presentation and the lapse between clicking the slides and them visually changing was 3 seconds.

All you do is go to Mikogo, sign up for an account and download the Mikogo.exe software. You’ll also want to download the connect.exe found by tapping the "Join Meeting" in the header.

It’s an easy application to use and it will support 10 people in the meeting at one time.

As a blog coach, I find the ability to share my desktop to be essential, especially if I’m training my client on a program or task. If you have any need to share your desktop, and are a Skype user, this is one extra you don’t want to be without.

Category: Communication, Tools | 1 Comment »

Skype, A Great Online Tool

June 11th, 2008 by Debra Simpson

My status

Skype me! What a great online tool. Skype to Skype calls are still free and by having a webcam, you can actually see the person you’re talking to on Skype.

One of the ways I use Skype is with my client’s while I coach them on Internet marketing. I can work with them on desktop sharing, walking them through various tasks.

You can also start a public chat. Here’s one I have going.

Blogging Questions hosted by northsandiegobusiness.

Join now


Chat about what’s on your mind. More about public chats.

There are many extras for Skype including productivity, games, business, remote access applications and many, many more. There are buttons, like the one above to show your online status and making it easier for you to reach out to others on the Internet.

Category: Skype, Tools, Welcome | No Comments »