» 2009 » April

This week was really the first opportunity for me to get out and meet some of the great people I get to Tweet and meet on Twitter and Facebook. Man I met so many cool peeps at the ChannelAdvisor Catalyst event this week.

I got reels and reels of killer content and pages of notes to compile and share. BUT, the first thing I want to get out there is rule #1 for meeting people that you follow in social networks. So here it is and I hope you get it, cause it is really kind of important.

As you guys venture to different summits or conferences, just keep rule #1 in mind would you? Rule #1 is Don’t Be a Jerk!

So, it’s Thursday, which means…Wednesday @ColderICE Twitter Re-Caps! If you love reading the re-caps, why not get updates in real time by following @ColderICE on your Twitter account? There are ‘Top Five’ updates 3 times a day – everyday. A little humor to get started:

1) "Flickr Photo Download: P042109PS-0870" http://ow.ly/4ttJ If a picture is worth a thousand words, what does this one say? A great candid of Barack and Michelle Obama doing a photo-op for Earth Day. Looks like Michelle is the one that does most of the heavy lifting in their relationship, . It’s nice to see such a real relationship between the two of them.

2) "Kill Frozen Windows Apps Easily" http://ow.ly/4qsz Tried of frozen programs and applications on Microsoft that aren’t responding? If you want an easier way of killing them than Task Manager, use this tool that creates a shortcut on your desktop to get rid of the annoying problem instantly. Easy to create, and easier to use.

3) "World’s 20 Best Places To Live" http://ow.ly/4nHL Forbe’s recently create a new list ranking the “20 Best Places to Live”. The international list ranks cities on their quality of life, among other criteria. Both Denmark and Australia have cities that are high on the list, but we won’t be revealing number one. You’ll have to check it out for yourself.

4) "HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events with Social Media" http://ow.ly/4ttA Looking to get the word out about an upcoming party or charitable event? Whether it’s a small affair or a big blow-out, use social media tools all the way from the start to the end, whether it’s planning the theme during a conference call on Skype, to sending out invites on Facebook. This guide has great tips and tricks and shows you the tools you need to plan something memorable.

5) "Passengers drunk, not infected by swine flu" http://ow.ly/4nID More on the Swine Flu epidemic? This time it’s good news – albeit a bit silly. Passengers on board a flight from Mexico bound for Maryland had their flight delayed while two passengers sporting symptoms of Swine Flu (mainly nausea and fever) were checked out. Doctors’ prognosis? The men were just drunk.

Missed the other Twitter posts? Don’t worry, we have those, too. And for more up-to-date, real time posts, follow @ColderICE on your Twitter account!

"Ten Great New Ecommerce Ideas for May 2009" http://ow.ly/4tts

"GM: A Behemoth in a Troubled Industry" http://ow.ly/4tty

"Recovering from a Serious Website Error: Four Simple Steps" http://ow.ly/4ttn

"Are Men Hunters & Women Browsers?" http://ow.ly/4qqc

"If Everything Was Made by Microsoft" http://ow.ly/4qrw

"Design a Beautiful Website from Scratch" http://ow.ly/4qrL

"Microsoft Responds to EU’s Charges of Browser Bullying" http://ow.ly/4qpS

"Apple, Verizon and AT&T: Who’s Playing Whom?" http://ow.ly/4nGc

"Passengers drunk, not infected by swine flu" http://ow.ly/4nID

"15 Impressive and Beautiful Uses of WordPress" http://ow.ly/4nI1

"The Wide Open World of Web Site Search" http://ow.ly/4nG0

Looking for the @ColderICE Twitter Re-Caps from Tuesday? Look no further! For more up-to-date Twitter postings, follow @ColderICE on your Twitter account today. With all the news about Swine Influenza circulating, here’s another story for you:

1) "Child could hold swine flu key" http://ow.ly/4jyp A young boy who lives a mere four villages away from the industrial pig farm, dubbed ‘Ground Zero’, where the Swine Flu outbreaks began, is being considered a major break through in potential treatment of the virus. Edgar Hernandez Hernandez, four years old, who had previously tested positive for the illness is no longer sick. Scientist are currently conducting tests on why Edgar has no symptoms and seemingly made a full recovery.

2) "Cucku Backup Stashes Your Files with Friends" http://ow.ly/4elq Trying to save space by moving files from your hard drive and don’t want to buy another one? Cucku has the solution for you – leave them with your friends. Cucku is a great, free program that allows you to manager both local and remote backups. Don’t use third-party servers, when you have a more secure option available.

3) "Yorkshireman has brain surgery… and wakes up singing in thick Irish accent" http://ow.ly/4ekW Foreign Accent Syndrome has started to make headlines again – at least this time it isn’t permanent. This baffling disorder, which seems to take some form of a memory loss causes suffers to speak with an accent different from their own. Most cases come from some sort of brain damage, such as stroke or surgery, which is the case with Chris Gregory, who awoke from brain surgery to greet his fiancé using a strong Irish brogue. The affects didn’t last, and by the next morning, Gregory had no memory of the event.

4) "Facebook seeks to export its network across the Web" http://ow.ly/4eed Facebook is looking for more ways to export it’s 200 million uses, in ways that discourage the use of web browsers. Using phone applications is just the beginning, with users being able to update and stream information in a variety of ways using their strategy of ‘Open Stream API’. Talks are currently in works with a variety of small developers, so keep your ears open for more information.

5) "Global Warming Forces an Alaska Town to Relocate" http://ow.ly/4efg The increase of temperatures and melting of glacial structures is causing some 340 residents of Newtok, Alaska to relocate, at the cost of the federal government. It’s going to cost an estimated $130 million to move the first ever “climate refugees”.

If you want more, remember to keep checking in at ColderICE every weekday, and to follow @ColderICE on your Twitter account. If you still want more news, check these articles and blogs out, too:

"Leveraging Perceived Disasters for Optimal Performance" http://ow.ly/4jwp

"Police stops bicyclist WTF?" http://ow.ly/4jC1

"12 Inspiring Stories of Successful Social Networkers" http://ow.ly/4jxy

"Amazon Widens E-Book Channel With Lexcycle Buy" http://ow.ly/4jvQ

"Ecommerce Know-How: Four Ways to Measure Print Advertising Effectiveness" http://ow.ly/4ecZ

"20 More Excellent AJAX Effects You Should Know" http://ow.ly/4efD

"The Mystery Of CSS Sprites: Techniques, Tools And Tutorials" http://ow.ly/4ehb

"Verizon Posts Solid Q1 Numbers, iPhone Rumors Fly" http://ow.ly/4ebg

"Video Review: 5R Web Conversion Formula" http://ow.ly/4eca

"Robots and the Law: Will the Real Inventor Please Stand Up?" http://ow.ly/4eaJ

Another day and another day’s worth of Twitter Re-Caps from @ColderICE. If you like these, be sure to follow @ColderICE on your Twitter account to get real-time updates and postings! Ready? Let’s begin with a little science:

1) "Computer Program to Take On ‘Jeopardy!’" http://ow.ly/45Rj IBM recently announced that it was in it’s final stages of testing a computer program against a human with the hit trivia show “Jeopardy’. Previously testing the supercomputer ‘Deep Blue’ with chess-champion Garry Kasparov (and winning), the next step in their tests for artificial intelligence is designing a program that is able to “weigh an almost infinite range of relationships and to make subtle comparisons and interpretations”. Keep following this story, and to see if any of that cool stuff from ‘Minority Report’ is next.

2) "Do You Want to Live Forever? | Around the World With One Question" http://ow.ly/4b7w ‘Reader’s Digest’ recently announced their findings of a question that was asked globally, “If you could live forever, would you choose to?”. Surprisingly, many people said ‘no’, including those under the age of 45. Most American’s would not choose the immortal life, either, but around 75% of Brazilians would choose to live forever.

3) "Technology Bells and Whistles…Do You Need Them?" http://ow.ly/4b7q In a world of practically instant gratification, do we really need all the tools and tricks to keep us happy? This is a great blog that shows where the good stuff is, and what is just not necessary. Also has a great re-cap of the history of some of the common applications and tools that we use everyday.

4) "Dying is no reason to give up online social life" http://ow.ly/45Wr Speaking of technology overload, this article talks about the more recent trend of preserving one’s loved ones virtually. From sites like Legacy.com, and the recent adaptations to Facebook, we are now able to give our deceased a lasting memory on the World Wide Web. Some funeral homes have even gone so far to enable a package to be included in the funeral fee that has a virtual memorial site.

5) "Pitchmen: What E-commerce Can Learn From Television" http://ow.ly/45Qg Looking to increase your sales optimization? Fortune recently reviewed a few options on using direct response TV to increase their sales. Check out this review of the Fortune article, which includes a direct link to the original, and start thinking outside the box to increase revenue.

Still want more? Here’s all the rest, and remember to follow @ColderICE on your Twitter account!

"Droste Effect with Mathematica" http://ow.ly/4b7T

"Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?" http://ow.ly/4b7D

"Study Finds 76% Want to Chat about Checkout Problems" http://ow.ly/4b7i

"SpecialFoldersView Displays Hidden Windows Folder Locations" http://ow.ly/496G

"25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips" http://ow.ly/4968

"Fastest Fuel-Efficient Cars" http://ow.ly/4951

"eBay Earnings Release Not Entirely Good News" http://ow.ly/494q

"One Time Decisions and Daily Decisions" http://ow.ly/494j

"12 Content Management Systems Recommended by Readers" http://ow.ly/45Sn

"Let the IT Land Grab Begin" http://ow.ly/45PI

Hey guys, sorry but due to a technical error the Breast Cancer Charity auction for the shirt did not get posted yesterday. We will resubmit the starting time on Wednesday night at 8:40 pm and run it for 5 days so it will end as planned on Monday May 4th. Thank you for your understand and lets make it HAPPEN!!!

I get this question all the freakin time! People ask me over and over when I am addressing them about Twitter and mention hash tags. Why is there so much confusion over a simple # sign and a few letters?

I guess it all starts with the geek speak they like to put around it, huh?

Wikipedia  says:

A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. On a website in which many users tag many items, this collection of tags becomes a folksonomy.

What The Hashtag says:

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your posts. Hashtags can be created by anyone simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #myhashtag.

OMG, that is way too much geek-speak!!! OK, so let me de-geekify the Twitter Hastag for you…

For those of you who missed @ColderICE’s Twitter re-caps this weekend, here they are! Remember, you can get real time updates by following @ColderICE on Twitter. Let’s get started with some comic relief:

1) "10 Divorce Stories Too Strange to Make Up" http://ow.ly/41Vp Ten hilarious stories that are almost unbelievable. Some make mention of the way the digital age is affecting marriages – such as the couple that got caught cheating on ‘SecondLife’. Be sure to check out the story about the man announcing his divorce of Facebook.com.

2) "The PeC Review: Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool Lets You See What Spiders See" http://ow.ly/3V0l Have you wondered how your AdWords stack up on your webpage? See what Google sees by using Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool. The SKTool tells where everything from where the keyword came from to your monthly average searches, all in one place.

3) "HOW TO: Track Swine Flu Online" http://ow.ly/3Xhb Nervous about the recent outbreaks in the US and Mexico regarding Swine Influenza? Track the statistics online about the amount of outbreaks and locations, using Google News Alerts and the WHO Disease Outbreak News Center. Let technology keep you healthy and put your mind at rest.

4) "Man, 70, drowns saving two boys in rip current" http://ow.ly/41Vk Let it be known that heroism is not dead. On Saturday, after witnessing two young boys in distress in waters off the coast of Pompano Beach, FL, a 70 year old man lost his life in their daring rescue. Charles Schulze managed to carry the two boys, whose ages are 9 and 12, almost to all the way to shore before succumbing to the current himself. Rescuers found the man facedown after washing up on shore, while the two boys where treated for minor injuries.

5) "Nepal Telecom to start mobile phone service in Mount Everest region" http://ow.ly/3V2v Can’t you just imagine the advertisements for this one? The Nepalese government has recently decided to construct towers in order to have cell phone reception in the Mt Everest region. Already phone service is available at base camp, but soon adventurers will be able to call their loved ones with updates and information on their trek up the mountain. Officials say this will enable more inexperience climbers to receive help more quickly in case of an emergency.

Ready for the rest of the news? Remember, you can receive up to date information by following @ColderICE on your Twitter account!

"13 Free Mac OS X Apps That Can Make Your Lives Easier @ SmashingApps" http://ow.ly/41Vd

"Push a Coin Through a Table" http://ow.ly/41Wa

"Man, 70, drowns saving two boys in rip current" http://ow.ly/41Vk

"The 10 Best Windows Backup Software Programs" http://ow.ly/41V8

"Customer Segmentation" http://ow.ly/40QE

"Five Best Malware Removal Tools" http://ow.ly/40QZ

"Tokyo Edge: April’s Hottest Gadgets" http://ow.ly/40QN

"Skytone’s Android-powered netbook to cost around $250" http://ow.ly/40QR

"Sustainable Packaging Expo Recap" http://ow.ly/40QB

"Tight Budgets Mean Hot Competition in Prepaid Cell Market" http://ow.ly/3ZrB

"From fired to fire, bad day for Oregon man" http://ow.ly/3ZtI

"Michigan Student Aces ACT, SAT, PSAT" http://ow.ly/3Ztp

"Useful scripts and resources Facebook-inspired for web developers" http://ow.ly/3ZtF

"Google Product Search Mobile" http://ow.ly/3ZsR

"Lost in Space" http://ow.ly/3Xj6

"7 Do’s and Don’ts of Website Optimization Testing" http://ow.ly/3Xfe

"Kersey student busted after teacher eats marijuana-laced brownie http://ow.ly/3Xg1

"HOW TO: Track Swine Flu Online" http://ow.ly/3Xhb

"How to dispute an error in a credit card bill?" http://ow.ly/3Xeo

"Can Consumers Trust My Online Store?" http://ow.ly/3W9p

“28 Online Photo Editing Websites To have Fun With" http://ow.ly/3Wap

"As cigarette sales dip, new products raise concerns" http://ow.ly/3W9M

"Become "Human" With Video" http://ow.ly/3W9m

"The Geomagnetic Apocalypse And How to Stop It" http://ow.ly/3V1M

"Wii Video Channel Hits Japan May" 1 http://ow.ly/3V0v

"Nepal Telecom to start mobile phone service in Mount Everest region" http://ow.ly/3V2v

"Hollywood vs. RealDVD: It’s On" http://ow.ly/3V0d

Well, eBay has made its changes and boy it is a lot of work AGAIN for eBay seller to deal with. I guess if you constantly change directions you will ultimately end up somewhere right? LMAO.

I am not sure what direction eBay wants to go in right now, but they seem to have a glimmer of hope. eBay hopes that making the changes which they should have made back in 2004-2005 will help. What would have been “major” advancements in ecommerce 5 years ago, now seem rather hoo-hum. These moves at eBay are sort of like throwing out the ugly shag carpeting in the guest room, FINALLY.

But I must admit, I hated that ugly carpet so I think the changes would help too. I am just not to sure it will help that much though, but they sure can’t do much worse than they did in 2008 now can they? Or can they? That still remains to be seen. Remember eBay normally falls flat on its face when they actually IMPLEMENT change, not when they make simply make announcements of change

So to help you along, our geek squad leader, Scot Wingo just made a new guide available for download. You can get it for FREE here. 

eBay Spring Changes white paper now available – HERE

Now being the “cool ass, bro ham” that I am, the “dudes” sent over a few angles they learned so I could share them with the ColderICE readers. See they know that you guys are cool as hell too!

• This is really eBay trying to Amazon-ify the secondary market.  They haven’t been able to win in primary / mainstream products, so they’re taking cues from Amazon and applying them to secondary market products. 
• Look at the Amazonian history: free shipping, fixed prices, trust improvements, and now catalog pages, better item pages, multi-SKU, the BUYING GUARANTEE…more proof of this in the eBay analyst day slide we included in the report
• Look at the New York Times story titled “Undoing Meg Whitman’s eBay” 
• Auctions are REALLY falling out of favor. Multi-SKU will probably become another death-blow as the number of listings really dries up (more consolidation, less focus on listing coverage). Look at the 12% fixed price growth, -20% auction growth
• Blackthorne and other eBay tools may not support multi-SKU until OCTOBER!  This is going to hurt a lot of sellers and really delay their transition to parent / child.
• eBay’s changes make it easier to go multi-channel — they’re finally adopting the parent / child structure that everyone else has (Amazon, Buy.com, Web Stores, etc.)

By now, anyone that listens to my weekly radio show (B.S. Walks When Money Talks) is already familiar with Jeff Brathwaite or JB as he likes to call himself. JB has been a good resource for my business for nearly 5 year and we have become truly great friends in the process .

I am such a tech geek that speaking to some other business owners is like talking in French. Over the years I have found that while these executives and CEO are wizards with a balance sheet, they are “lost” in a spreadsheet if there are no graphs.

One of the things that many businesses are missing is the use of automation and tools that can make the daily tasks of running your business smoother and easier. That is where a good “technology coach” comes in. A Tech Coach can analyze what you are doing currently and then adjust those tasks with automation using FREE and paid technology to smooth out the process.

JB is the CEO of 2 The Next Level, and business blogger of the company blog as well as a Twitter Marketing blog. He is constantly on the forefront of technological advancements that can aid businesses in using tools and techniques to automate process and procedures. He is a wealth of technical information and a guru of technology tools on varied platforms. Check him out weekly on http://www.wednesday114.com and check out this exclusive interview with JB right now!

Listen to the Interview NOW!
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Every once in a while we got to do something fun to release the pressure on our minds from outside sources.

So what if It has some silly stuff in here, I found it pretty darn funny…