How can I schedule status updates to Facebook? One of the limitations with Facebook is that you can’t schedule posts inside Facebook itself. But there is a workaround. Here’s how to schedule updates to your Facebook page so you can keep you page active while on vacation, business trips, or even when off the web.

How To Schedule Facebook Status Updates With Hootsuite

I use Hootsuite to manage both my Twitter and Facebook accounts. You can also use it to monitor your LinkedIn page and others Social Media sites, such as Foursquare.

To schedule blog posts, for example, to your Facebook page, do the following:

1. Open Hootsuite (it’s free to use and there is no download.)
2. Add Facebook to your Social Media accounts. This adds a new tab where you can see your Facebook status updates.
3. Enter a message in the text box, for example, a link to your new blog post.
4. Click Schedule and choose the date when you want it to be published.
5. Click Facebook from the tab. You can change the text if you wish and the image that goes with the blog post.
6. Click Ok.

This blog post, status update, or message will appear on Facebook later.

Note: you can select other Twitter accounts and send the same message (or blog post) to these accounts at the same time.

That’s it.

You can now schedule as many blog posts, messages or whatever to Facebook. Hootsuite has some other great tools in there. Let me know if you know of any others.

Catchy ebook titles! What’s the trick to make them stand out? Here’s some creative ways to find a catchy title for your ebook (or blog post) and ensure that it gets the attention that it deserves.

Write The Ebook Title First Or Last?

There are different schools of thought on this. I write the title first – even if it’s a working title – and then develop the content from this. This helps me stay on track and ensure that I don’t deviate from the subject matter. Or forget my target readers.

There is no wrong or right. Some recommend you write the title first, others (eg James on Men with Pens) that you write the headline last.

One compromise is to define a working title and then refine it when the content is complete.

3 Ways To Get Ideas For Ebook Titles

Let’s say you’re writing about a ‘boring’ subject and can’t find an interesting angle. Of course there are no boring subjects; it depends where you stand. I love collecting old coins and spend hours examining patinas. Maybe that’s not your thing but for me…

I take a three-pronged approach:

1. Amazon – I type the main keyword, for example, Coins into Amazon. Then I filter the results by Bestseller (see above). Next, I try different categories, for example, I might avoid Books and look at Movies. Then I look at the titles and see if I can borrow a few ideas. Something will jump out, trust me!
2. RSS Reader – I deliberately add great writers like Seth, Tim Ferris, John Jantsch, Yaro Starak, and Chris Brogan to my Google Reader so I can scan their titles and select titles that I can adapt. This is a nice way to examine 100s of great titles in 5 minutes or less.
3. Copyblogger – I saved the best to last. Most everything I’ve learnt about web writing has been from Brian Clark. Credit also goes to Darren Rowse but I keep re-reading Brian’s old post and recommend that you PRINT them out, use a yellow marker and highlight the key points. It’s all there! You just have to make the effort.

10 Step Copyblogger Headline Writing Formula

One post by Brian provides a headline writing formula that you can use as a framework – not a template – for creating your own headlines. These work mostly for blog posts but can be adapted for ebook titles.

1. Who Else Wants [blank]?
2. The Secret of [blank]
3. Here is a Method That is Helping [blank] to [blank]
4. Little Known Ways to [blank]
5. Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All
6. Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]
7. Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]
8. [Do something] like [world-class example]
9. Have a [or] Build a [blank] You Can Be Proud Of
10. What Everybody Ought to Know About [blank]

Another suggestion is to use these titles for the chapter heading and/or sub-heads. More on that in a later post.

Adding Fear, Uncertainly, and Doubt To Ebook Titles

Another approach is to identify the three main keywords, such as Coins, Collecting, and Rare. These play with these keywords until you find a combination that works.

When doing this, try to factor in FUD:

• Fear – what happens if I lose my rare coins?
• Uncertainty – do you know what happens if you don’t clean your coins?
• Doubt – maybe the way you store you coins is risky – and crank it up – to your children’s health.

You’re So Vain You Probably Think This Title’s About You

[Ed – apologies to Carly Simon for getting creative with her title.]

You can then flip this around and stroke the reader’s vanity – and we’re all vain to some degree – using the AIDA formula.

• Attention – what will get their attention? Did you know your coins are worth $77k?
• Interest – how can you get them to click on the title?
• Desire – tickle the part of them that’s hungry for knowledge or a bit greedy. Did you know that…
• Action – what do you want them to do next? Click the Buy Now button?
• Success – and how will this make them more successful. Or attractive. Or thinner. Or more popular. Or get the recognition they deserve. Or a combination of all these.

Experimenting with ebook Titles

If I was looking for an ebook title, saying for my new Business Planning book, then I could use these titles to get me started.

Appeal to the readers desire to have an edge over others

• Competitive Advantage with Business Planning
• Using Business Planning for Strategic Advantage
• Using Business Planning in a Competitive World

Appeal to the reader’s vanity

• Business Planning For Smart CEOs
• Business Planning For Gods
• The Creative Power of Business Planning

Then look at ways the book will make their life easier

• The No Hassle Guide to Business Planning
• The 1 Hour Guide to Business Planning
• The Secrets of Creative Business Planning

And wrap up by combining good keywords (e.g. Business Planning) with either power verbs and/or specific benefits.

10 Business Planning Strategies

Adding Strategies make it sound more important, more elevated and worth their time. Remember the target reader is an Executive!

10 Business Planning Strategies to increase Productivity

We’ve added Productivity to include those who want to save time and/or looking for ways to reduce costs.

10 Essential Elements of Business Planning

This makes you curious. ‘I know three,’ you think to yourself, ‘what are the other seven?’

10 Business Planning Strategies That Work

This is the most direct and worth a shot if you’re unsure what is your true readership and/or you don’t want to dilute the impact of ‘Business Planning Strategies’, for example, if you’re concerned about SEO ranking.

Those are some ideas on how to write catch headlines for ebooks. Please share your idea below. I’m learning too!

Developing a professional writing style is critical if you’re serious about making money from blogging. You can get so far by posting free flowing articles that discuss subjects in a conversational manner. Many such blogs are popular, but if you look at the really successful bloggers, they all use a distinct writing style.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to develop a professional writing style that can be used for blogging:

Introduce topic

In your first paragraph, introduce the subject. Tell the reader what you’re going to talk about and why they should continue to read the article. Give them a reason to read onwards. Emphasize your credentials, expertise, or research you’ve performed on the subject – you want to establish some rapport with the reader. Quickly!

Use headings

Avoid writing long blocks of text. Break your article into several chucks (i.e. units) of text. Give each chunk a heading. This helps the reader scan the article and zoom in on the sections they’re interested in. Web readers like to scan. So, write to be scanned!

Short sentences

Don’t write as you speak! Use short sentences that drive the reader forward. Talk to the reader as though you were explaining something to a good friend! Help the reader understand the subject better than before they visited your blog. Don’t show off. Remove affected or pretentious sounding words. No-one uses these in the real world. Use key words where necessary (if you want to attract search engines) but avoid writing in a ‘search-engine friendly’ style. Automated robots might like it but humans won’t!

List key points

Use lists to break up long paragraphs. If necessary, number the items in the list, especially if they signify levels of importance. Lists are another way to help readers scan text. Keep them short. One line max.

Add graphics

Balance the text to graphics ratio by using images, diagrams, screenshots to compliment the narrative. Don’t add images just for the sake of it. Use something that emphasizes the main points. If possible, keep the image colors in line with your blog’s color scheme. Remember that search engines index images. For this reason, use keywords when naming your images. Instead of 123.gif, name it google-gmail-screenshot.gif

Direct user to next article

When the reader gets to the end of your article, they should NEVER have this thought, “Where do I go next?”

Direct the reader to the next website that will interest them. This is a type of ‘customer service’ to the reader. You’re helping them enjoy their online web experience. Readers, being human, will appreciate this.

And No, don’t link only to your own blog. If your blog is good enough, they’ll bookmark it and return.

Golden rule

Always write with the reader’s interests in mind. Once you get this right, the rest falls into place.

About the Author: Read more from Gerry McGovern at  www.gerrymcgovern.com

photo credit: Alma Salvaje

Everyone has an opinion, right? What makes one blog more interesting that another? It’s different things. Style. Tone, Knowledge. And Opinion.

Look at the A List Bloggers. They all have opinions. Strong opinions. That’s part of the appeal. You want to hear what they’ve to say. And see the reaction from others.

But here’s the catch.

If you want your blog to move up a notch, you too need to make a stand or take a strong position. This means move away from the comfort zone and committing to what you believe in.

How to Change Your Attitude Towards Negative Comments

John Chow said you need a skin like a rhino to survive as a professional blogger.

I’ve blogger since GeoCities (now defunct) in the late 90s.

That was the first community site with semi-decent blogging tools. I ran a little blog about being… ‘left-handed’.

It was a little gathering place for lefties to come together and bemoan their faith in a right-handed world.

Some comments were terrible. Really harsh.

This was a real wake up call for me. It’s hard to have a site as inoffensive as ‘left-handedness’ but…

Since then I’ve worked on dozen of web projects. Some were more successful than others. One trend we noticed was that sites with a strong identify drew the most viewers.

They also got the most abuse.

When your site has a strong identify, two things happen:

1. You’ll attract followers – some cosmic law ensures that there are leaders and followers. The more you lead, the more others follow. Having a strong opinion is the quickest way to do this.And please try it before you say, ‘No it’s not’! It really does work.
2. You’ll attract abuse – another cosmic law says that there will also be trolls sniping from the sidelines, undermining your efforts and second-guessing your moves. Trolls want attention. Even negative attention works for them.

Lessons Learned

Today I run eleven sites and sell products such as the Instant Business Letter Kit, Sales and Marketing Toolkits and Project Management Methodology Suite

Some get 1000s of visitors every day, with lots of comments coming in though the forums, email newsletters, and of Social Media channels.

Do I still get abuse?

Yes.

Do I like it?

Hardly.

But, here’s the point I want to share.

You can’t please all the people all the time.

There will always be folks who want to cut you down to size, highlight that typo you made, and second guess every move you make.

and that’s fine with me because… that’s the role in life.

I don’t want to be that person and I’m sure neither do you.

So, the next time you get some negative comments, just sit back and think, ‘thank god, I’m not that guy.’

These people won’t change but we can change our reaction to them.

What do you think?

PS – thanks to Yaro for covering this in his recent Blog Blueprints forum.

Facebook’s new security features help control your privacy, especially if you log in on cybercafés, hotels or at airports. You can now force Facebook to logoff from a remote location and create one time passwords. These are easier to use than you’d think and, for me, give greater confidence when using Facebook on business trips. Here’s how it works.

How to Sign Out of Facebook Remotely

Facebook has added more security features to its social network. I’ll avoid the technical details and explain three ways to protect your privacy and stay more secure on Facebook.

1. One Time Passwords

Facebook has released one-time passwords to make it safer to use public computers in places like hotels, cafes or airports. If you have any concerns about security when accessing Facebook, they can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password.

To do this:

• Text “otp” to 32665 on your mobile phone
• Facebook will send you a password that can be used only once.
• It expires in 20 minutes.
• To access this feature, you’ll need a mobile phone number in your account.

2. Sign Out From Facebook Remotely

You now also sign out of Facebook from a remote location.  These session controls are ideal if you log into Facebook from a friend’s phone or computer and then forget to sign out.

To do this:

• Go to your Account Settings, you can check if you’re still logged in on other devices and remotely log out.
• Under the Account Security section of your Account Settings page you’ll see all of your active sessions, along with information about each session.
• If someone accesses your account without your permission, you can also shut down the unauthorized login before resetting your password and taking other steps to secure your account and computer.

3. Keep Secrets Secret!

When you log in to Facebook, it will regularly prompt you to keep their security information updated.

If you ever lose access to your account, having this information helps us verify who you are and get you back into your account quickly.

Tip: You don’t have to wait for us to prompt you; you can update your Facebook security setting here.

Want to Know Even More?

You can get more security tips and updates on the Facebook Security Page at www.facebook.com/security.

I’ve never had any issues (touch wood!) with Facebook and it’s security.

What’s the best trick you know to protect yourself online?

photo credit: DavidDennisPhotos.com

Read this article is you’ve ever wanted to start a business but can’t find the best way to begin. Like many of us, you want to run a business, you feel you can do it, but something holds you back. You’re not sure what. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what stops you from taking the first step. Well, I’ve been there. Here’s some ways to get round this.

How to Get Started

One thing I’ve learned is this. Your mind changes like the weather.

Let’s say you decide to lose weight and promise to make a real effort.

You really mean it. You’re determined that it’s going to work this time, right?

…then you walk into the kitchen, open the cookies, eat a few ginger snaps, maybe a Coke. What happened to the diet?

Our brains are strangers to ourselves.

One part of you can decide to diet. Another has no interest. It’s not paying attention. It sees no benefit. It doesn’t want to make efforts. Any effort.

And this is the secret…

If you want to start your business:

• Create a game plan whereby you can overcome this resistance from yourself. The battle is internal, not external.
• Think of all the times, for example, you started a diet, or decided to learn a new language, and then what? You sabotaged yourself, right? It wasn’t really the kids fault, or your wife, or husband. We create our own obstacles.
• Create small goals, which we can monitor more effectively, are the best way to get started. If your goals are set too high, you’ll make a super effort at first, but then fall away when the enthusiasm wears off.

Now we need to find ways to get round this. How?

Find More Time For Your New Business

Developing a business is like any new skill. It takes time. It takes patience. Yes, there are ‘get rich quick’ stories out there but most are flukes.

You didn’t learn Spanish in 21 days did you?

So, you’re not going to learn to run a fully-fledged web business in a few weeks either. But, with patience and effort you’ll get there.

The first commitment you need to make is your own time.

• Start your work day an hour earlier. I start at 6am. My aim is 5am. Don’t believe me? Catch me on Twitter and you’ll see I’m there.
• Use this hour to your advantage. Don’t check your emails, Facebook or Twitter.
• Focus on creating outputs. Write material for your blog, improve your website, connect with others in a meaningful way, develop some content that you can resell later, read tutorials that drive your business forward. Do things that move you forward.
• Limit the amount of time on Facebook, Twitter and other sites. Keep asking yourself, ‘Does this drive my business forward?’
• Turn off your cell phone when studying. Stay focussed. Make the best use of that one hour.
• Turn off the TV for one week. This one ‘sacrifice’ may give you 10, 15 or 20 extra hours to dedicate to your business. And once you get used to not watching the TV, you mightn’t go back. I watch sports and that’s about it. Life is too short.
• During your lunch-hour bring a business book or copy a MP3 to your iPod.
• Be more selective in your choice of friends. Spend more time with friends that support your business ideas and avoid those that are skeptical or try to mock your efforts. These types arent real friends anyway so don’t feel too guilty in avoiding them.

How to Motivate Yourself

To get things up and running:

• Surround yourself with material that drives you forward. We all need reminders of where we’re going, so place things in your house the keep these goals in mind.
• Keep a notepad next to your PC.
• Write down every great idea that comes to mind. Don’t self-censor or critique what you’re writing. What’s important is that you develop your business brain. Exercise it. When you have an idea, write it down. Over time these ideas may form the seed of your next business project.
• Invest some money in your new business. Don’t go overboard but budget some money every month for your new business to remind yourself that this is happening. This also forces you to take your business more serious.
  When ‘you’ see that your investing real dollars into your project, other parts of your personality take notice. ‘Hey, this is serious. I need to pay attention.’
• Visit the library. Take out three or four books.
• Leave Business books around the house. Some in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. And next to the TV. That way you can dip into the books instead of searching for them. It’s like getting kids to each fruit. They won’t eat it if you ask them but… if it’s there next to them, they may pick it up while watching TV and then start munching away.

As always, plant seeds.

How to Continue When Things are Hard

I’ll talk more about this in the coming weeks as there are different ways I push on when things are not working for me.

Here are some quick wins that always help:

• Stats – if you update your blog once a week (or more), you’ll begin to see more traffic to your site. This proves that the needle is moving in the right direction, right? If you update it three times a week, traffic will really improve. Google likes frequent posts.
• Sales – create a product as soon as possible and get it online. If you don’t have one, find a great product that you can sell online and claim your commission. If you need ideas, email me and I’ll share some that I resell.
• Feedback – ask questions on LinkedIn.com and other business networks about where you’re going. People are very helpful and will respond. If you’re doing it right, they’ll start following you on Twitter and hopefully add comments to your site.
• Comments – these will start to come in once you’ve build a small following. Remember to email everyone who leaves a comment for the first time. This creates a nice impression and really gets folks to come back more often.
• Share – you should also share what you know. You know more than you think. Like most folks, you probably undervalue what you’ve learned and don’t realize how valuable it may be to others.

Of all the points listed above, sharing what you know is the best way to make things work. People are looking for in-depth knowledge. If you can provide this, they’ll start to follow you.

As Kevin Costner says in Field of Dreams, ‘Build it and They will come.‘

Those are some ways I’ve managed to get my business from a dream into a reality. What else do you think I should add?

Isn’t it strange. After working 30 years and building up a remarkable set of skills, suddenly no-one needs you?

photo credit: desbyrnephotos

Every year 1000s of hard-working men and women lose their jobs… and then what? As  I head into my mid-forties, I’ve found the web the most lucrative way to make a living and support my family.

It’s taken time but, now that I’ve carved out a niche for myself I’m more comfortable with this arrangement. My family are also convinced, something they were a bit skeptical about when I started. But when the checks started to arrive, the skepticism started to fade away.

Why there are no shortcuts to a successful web business?

I get emails most weeks asking for advice – or shortcuts – on the best way to start a living working online. To be honest, I’ve found no shortcuts. Maybe there are some but I haven’t seen them recently.

Think about it. How could there be any shortcuts?

• When you went to college… was there a shortcut to learning Math?
• When you learnt to swim… was there a shortcut that magically got you doing breast-strokes?
• When you cook a Sunday roast… is there a shortcut that gets it cooked in 20 minutes?

Ok, sometimes there are. But, the things in life that are worth acquiring usually involve effort. Real effort.

And, to me, this is a blessing.

Why?

Because it means that if you apply yourself and make the effort, then in time it will work. It has to work. It’s also what guarantees that you’re business will stay in business while others fail.

Effort = Rewards.

I bet that anyone over 40 reading this knows that true. There are no shortcuts.

I have an Idea! Where to Start?

So, we both agree that if you want to run a web business (or a business over the web, which we’ll explain later), you need to accept that a certain amount of effort is involved.

How long will it take?

I’d be lying if I gave you an answer as it depends where you are, what you can offer, and how you apply and re-apply yourself to you web business.

Sometimes I work 10 hours a week, other times I work 70. But it’s never a grind in the way that office work used to be because you know that there is a reward and it’ yours to take.

Why The Web Suits Over 50s For Business

Let’s say you’re 55. You’ve worked as a:

• Home-maker
• Accountant
• Team leader
• Admin Assistant
• Project Manager
• Line Manager
• Carpenter
• Nurse
• Driver

…and other things in between.

For most of us, the years between 20-50 include a range of ‘jobs’ that never appear on our CV. And many of these have provided you with the raw material for your web business.

Indeed, this raw material is the ‘content’ that drives your web business. (A good friend worked as a driving instructor for many years. Now his site offers tips on good driving techniques and helps folks pass them driving exams. He’s building on the knowledge he had accumulated over twenty years. With that at our disposal, we simply had to package it in the right way.)

The other thing is that you now know what you Don’t want to do.

As you get older, things  get clearer. Your priorities change. Things simplify themselves.

This clearness of vision is a huge advantage for web entrepreneurs as they can stay focussed and ignore the distractions that unbalance younger folks.

Thirdly, you have the commitment to make this happen that you didn’t have when younger. Again, getting old is like climbing a mountain. The higher you get, the better the view.

So, you have three things in your favor:

• Experience
• Vision
• Commitment

What’s the Difference Between Web Business v Business Over the Web?

The terms are used so interchangeably that it’s easy to get mixed up. But, to be clear about it:

Web Business focus on selling digital items, information products and downloadables. These business use the web to share, distribute and offer products/services over the web. Classic examples are:

• ebooks
• educational materials
• mp3s
• mastermind groups
• forums
• market research
• productivity tools
• plugins
• WordPress themes

Business Over the Web?

Whereas if you have a shop in the high street, say Gourmet Foods or a specialist Whisky Shop, you can use the web to attract new customers, increase sales and offer affiliate fees to others who promote your site.

My focus on this site is on web businesses where you run your ENTIRE business online.

What Type of Web Business Would Suit You?

Before we jump into running a web business, let’s consider some other points:

• Investment – while there are few overheads to setup a web business, you need to budget some money towards the basics, such as web hosting, newsletter software, and some essential tools that you’ll need as your site becomes more successful. Yes, there are oceans of free stuff out there but there’s also stuff the actually works I use free stuff where possible and pay for the best products, such as Aweber and video-making tools like Camtasia.
• Technology – the technical side of running a web business has never been easier. And, if the something trips you up, say customizing your blog’s theme, use oDesk to find a freelance designer. Business is time v money. Don’t spend your time on activities that drain your energy. I’ll show you how to outsource the basics so you can focus on more valuable activities.
• Success Criteria – it’s important to define for yourself what constitutes a successful web business. For example, if our aim is to make $1000 per month after 6 months, then let’s shoot for that and be grateful with the results. If our aim is enough to pay off the mortgage, then let’s work on that.

I’ve found that if you can set a target amount you want to make, then it concentrates your efforts in that direction. Otherwise, you’re trying to run a business but it all becomes vague.

• It is working?
• Should I have more subscribers to my newsletter?
• Should I give up and look at another area?

In the coming weeks, I’ll give you examples of the different types of businesses that suit over 50s (and under 50s can run with these ideas too). Some are obvious, whereas others you may not have thought of.

Before We Start

Before I do that, there something you can do to get started.

Make a list of the three things that give you the most pleasure in life. Maybe it’s taking care of animals, coin collecting, photography, classic cars, embroidery, dtp, ceramics, musical instruments or another field.

Then type the name of that field and the word Blog (for example, Coin Collecting Blog) into Google and see what comes back. What may surprise you are the number of people already running web businesses about these fields.

But here’s the next step.

Then go to Google and type in the topic you are really in love with AND the word eBook.

These are the folks making money from this topic!

And how they do it is what we’ll look at next week.

PS – add the topic you look at in Google in the comments below and we’ll focus on those.

Warren Buffet’s Annual Reports were the first annual reports I ever read. To this day, I go back and re-read them to remind myself what business writing is really about – making a connection with words. That’s it. The more you can connect, the more people will read you. They may not agree with you – more on that later – but they will read what you have to say.

‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’ Warren Buffett

Warren Buffet is from Omaha. Not sophisticated LA or cosmopolitan New York. Saying their simple folk is a bit patronizing. Rather they saw things as they see them. His Annual Reports are a joy to read. Most mainstream annual reports are like sedatives. You read a page or two and then the zzzzs.

Warren Buffet’s Nine Steps To Effective Business English

What’s this got to do with business writing? Well, if customers don’t understand what you’re selling, they won’t buy. If employees don’t understand your principles, they won’t follow. If you don’t understand your own vision, you can’t lead.

Writing is a process of clarification. We edit to make things clearer. Let’s start at the top.

1. Customer Focus – it sounds obvious but… write the letter so that it addresses ‘their’ needs, not yours. It’s easy to get caught up when under pressure to sell or promote your ideas but, step back, and look at this letter from the customer’s perspective. Put yourself in their shoes. What’s their impression of your letter?
2. Facts – likewise, stick to what you know. Don’t make up facts, figures, amounts, dates or other numbers to impress the reader. You’ll look very foolish when these are seen as ‘mis-informaton’. We all know what that word really means? Avoid saying, “I feel that”. Rather use “I believe that” or “I think that” and then explain why you believe this to be true.
3. Include Technical and Legal Document As Attachments – if you need to refer to technical documentation or other such material, don’t insert it in the document, rather cross-reference in the Appendix. For printed material, print out the material and include it in a binder. This also applies to sales collateral, such as case studies and white papers.
4. Jargon – write in a professional tone, avoiding slang, jargon and acronyms. Few things annoy me more than unexplained acronyms appearing in the middle of a case study. Am I supposed to know what this means? If I don’t, I feel a bit stupid. Is that what the writer meant?
5. One Page Max – train yourself to keep business communication under one page. You can do this by compressing the main points together and using lists to break out the key points. If the document needs to be more than a page, then consider calling the person or arranging a meeting. Also, if it’s more than a page, it’s unlikely that the customer, employee, or colleague will respond to all the points.
6. Proof the letter – for business critical information pay special attention to the financial data. You can be forgiven for the occasional grammar or spelling mistake, but you won’t be forgiven if the numbers are wrong. Check these more than once. Where possible, get a colleague to check them also.
7. See The Big Picture – have the overview in mind before you start. Don’t start writing your next business plan when it’s still half cooked in your brain. Think it through first and then start writing.
8. Short Words – don’t write ‘utilize’ when ‘use’ will do. Don’t procure meat products when you mean get a sandwich. Use simple everyday words. There are no Nobel prizes for emails. Use direct, immediate language that describes the main topic. If you go over a page, the reader may leave it to later… and never get to read it. So, if shorter letters have a better chance of getting read, then use this approach.
9. Structure Your Letter – Before writing your business letter, make a list of the key points you need to cover. Prioritize them. For example, as prospective clients are more likely to read the first two or three bullet points, highlight these to convey their importance. Then work through the other points.

Conclusion

What I’ve learned from Buffet is that annual reports, proposals and other business documents can be written is a simple, easy-to-read format. They don’t have (and shouldn’t) intimidate the reader. Or bore them.

The next time your boss says the Annual Report needs to be more ‘serious’ and more professional, hand them a copy of Buffet’s letter and see what they think.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the Business Plan Consultant Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS: The Business Plan Template is here

PPS: Another great read from Buffet is this Plain English Guide He wrote the Foreword for the SEC.

Once you’ve figured out how to make money from your website, you can start looking at how to sell it. Maybe you want to start another business venture and use the profits to get things started. So, how do you sell a website? This week I’ll show you how to sell your web business, which in many ways, is no different than selling a ‘real’ business. The business processes are the same, especially from the legal side, though how you value the business and attract buyers is different. Here’s how to do it.

Deciding To Sell Your Website

twcollins

First off, why do you want to do this? I sell websites for two main reasons:

1. I’ve lost interest in the topic and/or
2. I want to focus my energies in other areas

For example, I sold a site about Microsoft Word templates as I couldn’t develop the site any further; the market had become saturated and the time/effort was too demanding. The new owner outsourced the work and leveraged the domain name (which was very good, Google-wise) into his suite of sites, all to do with Microsoft Office templates.

You’re probably in the same position, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this, right . I would also add that there is also money to be made (very good money!) in buying under-performed sites, fine-tuning the site, increasing its profiles/sales etc and then selling it on at a profit. We’ll look at this over the coming weeks.

How Much Is Your Site Worth?

peasap

Next, I’m going to show you next is how to value your site. Before I go any further, I would suggest that if you want to get the best value for your site (or business), then spend some time reading about business negotiations, valuation strategies and contracts. It’s not that hard, honest. Go to the library and get some (slim) books on business development. The same fundamentals apply online as offline.

Website v Web Business – to keep things simple, I’ll use the term website in this article. But, and this is important, try to look at your site as a business. It’s more than just a domain name and some webpages. Once you make the leap from building websites to creating web business, then you’ll start to make real money. Why? Because the money is in the business end, not the technical side. It’s a bit like real estate. They are all just bricks and mortar but it’s the location that usually makes the difference.

So, how much is your site worth?

To determine the value of the site, you need to collect the following information:

1. Site traffic – create an excel spreadsheet and enter in the traffic for the past 24 months. In the Excel file, show the number of unique visitors, repeat visitors (i.e. loyal readers), page count and other analytics. Your aim here is to show the buyer where/how your site has progressed. This helps them decide if the site fits their business strategy.
2. Email Readers – similar to above. The ‘money is in the email’ list as they say. The more you have signed up, the more you can ask for the business. One rule of thumb is that every reader is worth $1 per month. Therefore, if you have 500 readers, then 500 x 12 = $6000. This varies depending on your industry. For example, if your readers are CIOs and you’re selling web based project management software, this figure will be a multiple of $6000, maybe $12-24k. Why? Web-based project management is a very lucrative area and these readers are essentially leads to the project management company.
3. RSS Subscribers have slightly less value. Why? Because it’s harder to send broadcast messages such as special offers, see demographics, segment this list, and analyze trends as you can with really powerful email software, such as Aweber. I use Aweber; it’s not cheap, but then neither is a BMW. Get Response is a low-cost alternative for email newsletters.
4. Number of Sales – if you sell products on the site, break out the numbers. Focus on the top-sellers. Ignore under-performing and slow-sellers.
   Tip: sell no more than 7 products on your site. 3 to 5 is ideal. Don’t be all things to all people. Have a cross-section of low, medium and expensive products. But keep it focused.
5. Google PageRank – let’s say your sites doesn’t sell much or have much traffic BUT Google likes it! You can turn this to your advantage. Show the buyer where your site ranks for certain keywords and (hopefully) the number of in-bound links to your site. Google uses in-bound links (i.e. links from others sites) to determine your site’s true value. Links from comments, forums, and no-follows don’t count. So, if you’re in this for the long haul, make sure your sites have something that others can link to, e.g. great tutorials, case studies, and other magnetic content.
6. Advertising Opportunities – if you don’t have products to sell (services are very tricky to monetize on the web), then use advertising tools such as Chikita, Text Ads, and everyone’s default ad serving program Google Adsense. A more lucrative way to generate revenue is to concentrate on a specific area, say Real Estate for Upmarket Homes In San Francisco, and then approach the large Real Estate brokers on the web. This type of targeted advertising will generate considerable more revenue than generic box ads.

Once you have this information, you can start crunching the numbers.

But how much is my site, worth? Ballpark figure?

• In the real world, businesses are valued between 7-10 times their annual turn-over. It varies by industry, segment and competition but this is a starting point.
• Web business valuations tend to be valued lower that offline businesses. So if your site generates 15K from Google Adsense, 9k from direct Adverting and 17k from affiliate products then, your gross profit is $41 a year. This means that value of the site may be between $150-250k.

Reality Check: your business is worth as much as people will pay for it – not what you think you ‘deserve’. It’s up to you to get the best deal. Some domain names have sold for millions. Others you can barely give away.

Gross v Net – what does it mean?

• Gross Profit – total revenue minus costs. For example, you make a product for $100 and sell it for $1,000, your gross profit is $900.
• Net Profit - is gross profit minus deductions. For example, you sell $10,000 worth of goods, refunds are $1000 and expenses are $2,000, then your net profit is $7,000.
• Deductions – are the items you deduct (take away) from Gross profit to get the Net profit. For example, interest payments, rent, utilities, taxes, salary, and web hosting.
• Gross Profit Margin – the ratio (i.e. percentage) of Gross Profit to Revenue is called Gross Profit Margin. This is the percentage of profit your business is making.
• Net Profit Margin – the ratio of Net Profit to Revenue is called the Net Profit Margin. The higher your net profit margin, the better.

Costs of Running a Website

Let’s look at expenses and other running costs for a moment. Depending on the size of your web business, you’ll need to capture the following expenses:

1. Web Hosting – shouldn’t be expensive unless you have a dedicated server
2. Domain name registration – less than $10 per year unless (and it’s a good idea) you register your domain name privately.
3. Web Marketing – depends on your business but not investing enough in marketing was a major mistake for me starting out. Allocate at least 10% of your budget to marketing every month. Put some metrics in place to ensure your getting value for money.
4. Web Advertising – I used Google Adwords extensively when I started but less so now. We spend approx $500-$2500 per month on Google Adwords now, especially when promotions and product launches, but have scaled back from last year. The ROI isn’t there anymore, at least for our markets.
5. Email Software – as above, I tried to do it on the cheap and ended up regretting it. FeedBurner is free and very good, but Aweber is even better. John Chow, Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) and other A Listers all use it. And you can now convert each blog post into a newsletter. No need to cut/paste, send etc. It does it automatically. Get the $1 trial version here.
6. Contributing Writers – we use an Adsense sharing tool to share the profits, so no real cost here.
7. Training – another mistake I made in the early days was to teach myself and do it DIY. Big mistake! Yes, the web is full of incredible information but finding the right material in a nice format you can read and reference as your business develops, that’s harder to find. One that I recommend (and yes, it’s very expensive) is from Yaro Starak. Before you buy it, print out some articles from his site, listen to the podcasts and decide if this is for you. If you’re looking for a very detailed, systematic approach to running a web business, this will do it for you. And, yes, there’s a No Questions Asked refund!
8. Staff – I outsource all the back office and admin tasks. oDesk is the place to find Virtual Assistants; ask for references.
9. Backup – you back up your site every weekend, right? If you don’t, get some software that does it automatically. If your site goes down, and it will, you can upload the backup. Otherwise…
10. Insurance & Legal fees – while you can’t insure your website (maybe you can!), make sure you have some insurance for your office, equipment, software, data, storage etc. These can all be written off as expenses by your accountant. You have an accountant, right? I know these are an expense but, in the long run, they will claw back the money and make sure your financials add up.

How to Write the Sales Pitch When Selling Your Website

Before making your sales pitch to prospective buyers, check that you have:

1. Financial details ready. Include, as a minimum, the last two years trading accounts.
2. Website stats and traffic figures – provide as much data as possible.
3. Estimate of the site’s value. If you don’t have a figure in mind, the selling process can go on forever… maybe you think you’ll get a better offer next week. Maybe you will, maybe not. The sooner you have the money in your pocket, the sooner you can move to the next project.

The next step is to find a buyer.

Before Contacting Prospective Buyers

Do as much research as possible before you contact prospects (prospective buyers). This will save time and help narrow the focus on sales activities. You don’t want this to go on for months. The sales process from start to finish should take 4 week approx. If it goes on longer than this… drop me a line!

1. Business value – decide on a figure you’d be happy with.
2. Demand – see how much demand there is for your type of web business
3. Finding Prospects in your industry – contact business owners in the same niche/industry as you. They will understand the value of your site and see where it aligns with their business. This means you have to do less ‘pitching’. Either they get it or they don’t.
4. Finding Prospects outside your industry – if your site is in a micro niche or a new emerging market, then contact entrepreneurs looking to enter these markets. This may take more effort and ‘pitching’. Show them the figures and walk them through the financials.

Write a Short Compelling Sales Letter & Highlight the Benefits

First, write your sales letter. If you feel uncomfortable about this, or if English is not your first language, hire a sales writer on oDesk. As always, ask for samples. While this is another expense, try to see it as an investment in your business.

Don’t refer to your business as a site or a blog. Talk about the web business. They’re buying a business, which happens to be on the web. Do you see the difference?

Here’s what to include in the sales letter:

1. The name and title of the person reading your sales letter.
2. Spell their name correctly. I get emails addressed to Evan, Ian and Igor. And they want to do business with me… hmmm.
3. An introduction to your web business – one short paragraph.
   Tip: Keep it focused. Don’t call it a blog!
4. Identify your target audience – hopefully, this should align with your seller’s customer base.
5. List the most impressive stats, for example, number of email subscribers. Generate interest. Make them want to learn more about your business.
6. Highlight other key points, such as mentions in magazines or other well-known publication. We were mentioned in the New York Times last year – that didn’t hurt sales!
7. Explain why you want to sell it. Be honest. If you don’t have time to manage it or want to move in a new direction, then say it.
8. Add your contact details, including your mobile phone number. Don’t make it difficult.

Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Your Sales Letter

1. Don’t include the asking price. The sales letter is designed to generate interest. Once you have this, you can start negotiations. Remember the X percentage of the responses will be competitors and/or tire-kickers. Don’t lose too much energy on this. Get a feel for who’s really interested and work with them.
2. Don’t spell their name incorrectly.
3. Don’t forget to spell-check.
4. Don’t forget to follow-up.
5. Don’t do mass mails. Really, don’t! I get close to 200 emails a day, every day. Sometimes you need to chase me.

Where to Find a Buyer For Your Web Business

If you’re starting out, then use the following sites. Once you’re more established, contact buyers directly and make contact in the industry. Most of these are free but watch out for hidden costs, especially if they charge a percentage of the sale, often as high as 5%.

• BizBuySell.com costs $45 and $75 for standard and premium listings
• Business-sale.com lists UK businesses selling for over £250,000. Free listing for three months
• Daltons Business – UK web businesses selling
• Digital Point – No charge for posting.
• Domain State: Free listing.
• DNForum: Paid site with the focus on domains
• Ebizbrokers.com - selling web businesses since 2001
• Flippa.com – $40 for their most expensive listing. Charge a “success fee” if you achieve a sale (5% of sale price).
• Geek Village – Free post every 30 days. Sites worth less than $10,000. WTB allowed. Free listing.
• Quiet Light Brokerage – 100% on website business brokerage. Network of thousands of website buyers actively seeking web businesses.
• Search Engine Forums – No charge for listing
• Sedo – UK site for the sale and purchase of domains.
• Sunbelt Network – the world’s largest business brokerage firm, with approximately 250 licensed offices located throughout the world.
• WHT – for sites under $10,000. Free to list or post Want to Buy.
• Webmaster Talk: Free listing for sale or purchase.

Arranging To Sell the Web Business

After all your hard work, you find a possible buyer. What next?

1. Take it step by step – Don’t get rushed into signing. If alarm bells go off, or you get ‘bad vibes’, pull out. If the buyer tries to rush you, and keeps pressurizing you, run. This guy is a hustler. Stay away.
2. Agree a Handover Date – give them a date to sign by and transfer the money. Otherwise, this will drag on and they may change their mind.
3. Don’t Be Bullied – don’t agree to last minute re-negotiations. This is another ‘trick’ to avoid. Buyers will go 99% of the way with you – and hope you’ve refused/turned away all other offers – and then threaten to walk away unless you lower the price. Expect this to happen.
4. Stick to the agreed price – If you waver, they will drive you down even further. Remember, some of these people do this for a living. You’re one of many sites they’re dealing with.

Handing Over The Site – Create a Checklist

Create a handover checklist. Itemize what you need to do (and dates) and what they need to do (and dates). See this as a small project that needs to be coordinated. Create a list of tasks, allocate them and assign dates. Share this with the new site owner.For example:

You need to:

1. Show the new owners how the site works (e.g. if it has a CMS or Advertising software).
2. Send PSDs of all logos and branding.
3. Send them a User Guide if necessary. A Quick Start Guide will save you answering all those quick questions you’ll get if you don’t do this.
4. Backup of all files including images, mp3, podcasts, videos etc.
5. Tell your customers that the site has changed ownership
6. Check if existing agreements, e.g. Adsense and other advertising arrangements, are discontinued or phased.
7. Close Google Adwords campaigns.
8. Remove content that will not be part of the handover.
9. Show the new owners how email is setup, including autoresponders etc, if relevant.
10. Send web hosting details if this is part of the transfer (IP numbers etc)
11. Send the FTP username and passwords, if relevant.
12. Remove personal, temp, test and other files from the server and/or databases
13. Close any standing orders or direct debits that support the site, e.g. Anti Virus software
14. Contact Advertisers and let them know you are no longer involved with the site.
15. Forward your ‘old’ email address to your new business address.

The Buyer needs to:

1. Schedule time to do this and have the right people available.
2. Confirm they understand how the site works.
3. Test the site, e.g. if there is a CMS used to publish content.
4. Arrange web hosting so you can forward the IP address information
5. Change the domain names to their server
6. Setup new autoresponders
7. Introduce themselves to existing customers

Arranging the Payment & Mistakes to Avoid

Before you do the handover, discuss with the new owner how the payment will be made. Don’t leave this to the last minute and assume it will be ok.

Here are some things you need to consider:

1. How will the money be transferred? E.g. bank transfer, PayPal, check, or cash.
2. When will the money be transferred? Agree dates for the transfers. Check the payments are made in full. If they miss the first payment, walk away. Don’t proceed; cancel the agreement. You’re dealing with a bad egg!
3. Arrange an upfront partial payment (usually 50%)
4. Agree the final payment amount and dates.
5. Where possible, hire a lawyer to protect your interests.
6. Send them a draft copy of the contract. Made amendments and send the final draft.
7. Agree handover dates, price and which parties will sign it, e.g. the directors.
8. In the contact, agree to provide X hours of support for 3 months.
9. Itemize software licenses and expiration dates. (make sure to close standing orders with these vendors)
10. Identify other third party contracts, e.g. with advertisers.

Conclusion

PinkSherbet

We’ve now covered the entire lifecycle of buying and selling a website. While there are many steps involved in this process, most of these are common sense and not that difficult to master. The hardest part is the prep work, such as gathering the stats, estimating how much the site is worth, and writing the sales letter. Once you’ve been through this once, the next time will be much faster. Letting go of the site can be hard too, especially if it’s got a place in your heart.

So, what did I miss?

I’ve tried to cover as much as possible above but must have overlooked some points. Let me know below and I’ll try to answer your questions.

Friday is my busiest day. Most folks power down and go into weekend mode. Not here! Ask yourself, ‘why do I go down a gear on Friday?’, ‘How does this benefit my career?’ Ok, let’s be honest. We do this because others do it. Right? This is a high-risk way to manage your career. You’re letting others determine how you behave. And it damages your career in many, many ways. Here’s an alternative approach.

How to make Friday your busiest day and reap the rewards

7 Mistakes to avoid:

1. Don’t fill your day with low-impact tasks.
2. Don’t get pulled into fluffy things that you don’t really want to.
3. Don’t do project meetings when you know it will kill your whole morning.
4. Don’t go to long lunches.
5. Don’t leave early.
6. Don’t waste time studying analytics, trends, click-thrus etc… you know what they’ll say, don’t you?
7. Not Saying NO enough.

Do this instead.

You’ll get more success if you:

1. Plan with intention - Use Friday to plan the entire week ahead. Spend at least 2 hours on this. Planning is decision making. When you plan, you make decisions.
2. Get Ready for Monday – planning on Friday lets you hit the ground running on Monday. See the difference? You’re already a step ahead of everyone else.
3. Do Strategic Meetings Only – Book meetings with key contacts on Friday. Most will say Yes. They’re in down mode, so they’re easy to arrange.
4. Find Like-minded people – Connect with people that have the same values as you. Look around the office and ask, ‘who’s killing time v who’s using it’. Link up with those doing it right.
5. Do high impact tasks – disconnect from activities that suck the life out of you, your projects and your enjoyment in life.
6. Share useful information – everyone wants ‘relevant’ information. Select the 5 pieces of useful information you’ve read during the week and circulate these.
7. Authority – Establish yourself as someone who provides ‘useful’ and high value information not just cats doing ninja tricks.
8. Stay late – when everyone is gone, you can get focused and do more work. Global clients will still be up. Call them. Chase them up. Your colleagues won’t. They’re gone, so now is your chance.

What’s going on here?

It’s about behavior.

• It’s how others impact the way you behave and respond.
• To succeed, in the way you want to succeed, you need to observe how others make you behave the way you do.
• Admit it.
• Put a plan in place to create your own blueprint for success.
• Find ways to do this every day.
• See where you fall down, where you can improve and what you’re doing right.
• Keep at it.

Success is like developing a muscle. You have to train it, assess it, and increase it. Luckily, there are no short-cuts. If you persist, you’ll succeed. You have to!

What do you think?

Do you plan to make Friday’s the busiest day? What would change if you did?

Photo Credit puliarfanita

What do you want people to do after they’ve watched your video? Most beginners forget to ‘close the sale’. Their efforts go into making the video, getting it up on YouTube, but forget its original purpose. It’s easy to do when you’re in a hurry or engrossed in the technology. But you want people to do something, right? Otherwise, the point of the exercise is lost.

Video Blogging – Creating a Call to Action

Here’s how to create a Call to Action with your videos. Use your video blogs to encourage viewers to take some action. One of the mistakes new video bloggers make is that they overlook this step and assume that viewers will take the next step. They won’t!

Remind your viewers to take the next step.

1. Encourage them to sign up to your newsletter
2. Subscribe to your YouTube channel or
3. Leave comments

Also, remind them who you are: ‘’Hi, I’m Ivan Walsh from IvanWalsh.com, visit my website”.

Keep it short, less than three minutes and ALWAYS encourage the viewer to add a comment. That’s the easiest thing for them to do. Don’t make it difficult for them to interact – just remind them.

What did you think of this video, by the way?

Getting started with Clickbank is easier than you’d think. In this video, we look at how to get started, setup your account and start selling your first information product.

Video on How to Sign Up & Start Selling Information Products with Clickbank

This instructional video helps you get started with ClickBank. It walks you through the process of signing up for a ClickBank account.

Problems Getting Started with Clickbank?

What problems have you had getting started with Clickbank?

It is:

• How to set a price for your information products
• How to setup the account information
• Adding images for your products or
• Creating more affiliates?
• Selling digital goods outside the USA

For me, it was knowing how to price the product I was selling.

What’s the main problem you’ve had with Clickbank?

If Google Buzz is too much for you – the endless stream of live data clogging up your Gmail – you can always turn it off . Yes, the option is there and here is how you do it. This also explains how to filter Buzz and filter your fav friends with Buzz.

How To Turn Off Google Buzz

1. Scroll down to the bottom of your Gmail page.
2. Find the ‘turn off buzz‘ link
3. Click on it.

This turns off Google Buzz.

How to filter Buzz

You can also filter email alerts from Buzz.

1. In Gmail, click Settings.
2. Click Filters
3. Select ‘Create a new filter‘
4. Enter label:buzz in the Has the Words field

How to filter friends with Buzz

To restrict Google Buzz updates to your close friends, change their setting to ‘Private‘.

Know any other Google Buzz tips?

Do you need spend hours trying to make all your photos be the same size, format, with your company watermarks added in the corner? How can you convert 100 images to same file format, add a 1 pixel black border, and make them all the same size in less that 5 minutes? Here’s how.

How to Batch Process Groups of Images

I used to use Adobe Photoshop to batch process photos but have now moved to Snagit.

One of the hidden features in Snagit is its Batch Conversion Wizard. This lets you convert your images in a batch. Even better is that you can modify all the images on the fly, for example, give all the images a black border or converting them to the same file format.

This saves an immense amount of time ensures that all your images are the same size, format and whatever settings you want.

Snagit Batch Process Wizard

You can apply SnagIt’s image editing filters to multiple captures in batch processing mode. You can also convert one or more graphic image files from one format to another.

For example, you might want to convert low-res BMP files into PNG and store them in another directory for your website.

The SnagIt Catalog Browser processes the file conversions and saves them to the Output directory you want. Any filters you applied appear in the Conversion Filters box.

The files are individually converted to the selected format and stored in the folder you select.

NOTE: The original files are not changed. Snagit creates new files for each batch process.

How to Batch Process Images

You can batch process the images are follows:

Step 1. Select Files

1. In Windows Explorer, select the files you want to process.

2. Right-click on the files.

Tip: hold down CTRL and click on individual files if you don’t want all the images in the folder.

3. Select Snagit and Batch Convert Images.

Note: you can also use the Catalog Browser in Snagit. Open it and then use Edit, Select All to select all files or hold CTRL and select individual files.

Step 2. Conversion Filters

Use the conversion filters to:

• Modify the Color Depth
• Substitute Colors
• Change the Image Resolution
• Rescale the Image
• Add a Caption, for example, a notice or warning message
• Add a Border and select the size, color and other special effects
• Add a Watermark, for example, DRAFT, or the name of your website or business
• Trim the image, so that it’s more uniform

For example, in the screenshot, you can see that we added a white background, drop shadow and positioned it towards the lower right.

In this example, you can see that we added the www.Klariti.com logo to the lower left corner of the box shot.

And this is what the finished box shot looks like. You can add your own company logo to screenshots in the same way.

Once you have finished with the conversion filters, click Next.

Step 3. Output Options

Here you setup the output options:

1. In the Output directory, select a folder where you want to save the files.

2. In the File Format dropdown list, select a file format, for example PNG or JPG.

All files will be converted to the same format.

3. In File name:

Use the default Windows file name or create your own naming conventions.

Note: I have found the Automatic file name to be a bit problematic. You might need to experiment here until you get it right.

4. Click Next.

Step 4. Ready for the Conversion Process

Check that you’re happy with the settings. Go back and change if needs be.

Click Finish.

The conversion process starts.

When the conversion is complete, the converted images will be displayed in the output folder you selected and the Catalog Browser.

The images will be converted to format you selected, filters will be applied, and the new images will be saved to the folder you selected.

Summary

If you know better ways to convert images and run batch processes, please let me know. I used to use Photoshop but found it didn’t have the range of effects that Snagit has.

Is there another screenshot product that does a better job?

Most screenshot software doesn’t let you take a screen capture of the Windows menu bar. Here’s a workaround.
To Take a Screen Shot Of The Windows Start Menu Bar:

1. Hold down Shift
2. Press the Start Menu Bar
3. Press Print Screen on your keyboard.

BUT how do you do this?

Take a screenshot of the Window startup screen?

I don’t know. Do you?

If you do know, describe how to do this below.

What’s the fastest way to take a screenshot of a website, turn it into a thumbnail, and get it on your blog? How about if you could automate this?

Most of us hit print screen, take it into Snagit or PhotoShop, play with the size until it’s right and then save. Well, here’s a faster way.

Andy Wibbels was looking for API-based services that create thumbnails. He found PageGlimpse.

Instant Site Thumbnails for Your Blog with PageGlimpse

Here’s how to do it.

1. Get a PageGlimpse Developer Key.

2. Go to http://www.pageglimpse.com/signup and sign-up.

Once you activate your account you’ll get a developer key, i.e. random collection of letters and numbers.

3. Drag-and-drop the Create Thumbnail link to your Links toolbar in your browser.

NOTE: Don’t click it. Click-and-hold-and-drag-and-drop.

4. There is a Create Thumbnail is in your Links toolbar. Add your Developer Key to it.

5. Right-click on the Create Thumbnail link in your Links toolbar and select Properties.

The script will look something like this:

avascript:void((function(){location.href=location.href.replace(/^http\:\/\/([^\/\@]+)/,”http://images.pageglimpse.com/v1/thumbnails?devkey=YOUR-DEVELOPER-KEY&size=medium&url=”+”$1″);})())

6. Replace DEVELOPER-KEY-GOES-HERE with your PageGlimpse developer key and save.

7. Go to whatever site you want e.g. http://andywibbels.com/

8 Click on Create Thumbnail.

9. PageGlimpse will create a screen capture.

10. Save the image or Add it to a post.

Note: you can replace the size variable to small, medium or large.

This means that every time you take a screenshot with this tool, all the thumbnails will be the same size. No more time-wasting in Paint, Photoshop or whatever.

How it works behind the scenes

The PageGlimpse web service is a REST service, meaning that you can construct request URLs that will work in your code, in your browser or at the command line.

The REST access to the PageGlimpse service is simply an HTTP GET or POST request (RFC2616). The service parameters are passed as simple HTTP parameters.

All request URLs start with the host-name followed by the API version number and resemble the following code:

PageGlimpse http://images.pageglimpse.com/v1/

Andy Wilbbles: http://andywibbels.com/2009/07/instant-site-thumbnails-for-your-posts-using-pageglimpse/

If you know a better way to do this, please let me know. It takes about 5 min to get setup and then you’re flying. Let me know if you have any problems getting it working.

You can now link your Flickr account to Twitter, allowing you to send photos in real-time to this very powerful social media application. Before you start, you might want to read the tips on getting started over on the Flickr Twitter Beta site. It’s an easy read and you’re bound to pick up some nice tips there. So, how do I link my Flickr and Twitter accounts? Here’s how you do it.
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Step 1. Authorize posting to your Twitter account

You’ll need to authorize your Twitter account. Flickr doesn’t ask you for your Twitter username and password, but it does need to give Flickr permission to post to your Twitter account.

You can undo this as any time.

1. Go to www.flickr.com/account/blogs/add/twitter

2. Click the Head over to Twitter link.

This sends you to Twitter where you authorize the connection between the two apps.

If you aren’t already logged in you’ll be asked to do so. If you don’t have an account, then you need to setup an account, obviously.

Step 2. Click ‘Allow’ to give Flickr access to your Twitter account

Important: This step does not allow Flickr to go in and change your account settings or anything like that. It’s just allowing them to talk to each other and send messages from one system to the other.

1. Click Allow.

Step 3. Twitter sends you back to Flickr

Nothing for you to do here – except enjoy that nice warm feeling that something (for once) is working without a hitch.

Step 3. Ready to Go. You can now start Twittering from within Flickr

Actually, you have a few options here depending on how you want to do.

From Mobile Devices

Open up the address book in your mobile device and add your unique email+Twitter address. This is just your existing upload by email address with “2twitter” added.

From Flickr.com

Once you’ve authorized Flickr, you can Tweet photos either using the “Blog This” button, the API, or Uploaded by Email.

Via Email

When you upload via email, the subject line becomes your Twitter tweet, and a short URL to the photo is appended (added on).

Example Flickr Twitter

Here’s an example from Kellan’s Twitter account of what a post looks like: twitter.com/kellan/status/2062931580

A few other things

As they have added the Flickr URL, use 116 characters and not 140.

As it’s in Beta, they have yet to create FAQs, add this feature to your Account page and “Blog this” is available in English only (until launch).

Flickr/Twitter integration is still in BETA.

They’re always looking for feedback in the Flickr Twitter Beta group.

Link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrtwitterbeta/

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Another feature in the new version of Yahoo Mail is the Connection manager. Connections are contacts with privileged benefits. They’re the people you spend the most online time with and the people you are most about sharing information with.

Connections can view more information on each other’s profiles than is visible to the general public and can easily share information through updates.

Adding Connections

To be connected, the other person needs a profile on Yahoo!

You can invite anyone to connect with you, even those without a profile.

Those without a profile can create one and connect with you in a few easy steps.

1. Open the invite window from your profile or contacts page.

2. Click the Invite link near the bottom of the Connections area.

3. Click the Invite to Connect link (which only shows if the person’s details include an email address or a Messenger ID).

4. The Invite Others to Connect window opens.

If you’re inviting a specific person from your contact list, the To: box includes that person’s email address or Messenger ID.

5. Type one or more email addresses in the To: box separating each address with a comma, then

6. Click the SEND INVITE button.

(If the person exists in your Yahoo! Contacts and has an email address, you can also type the name.)

Your invitation is sent!

When people accept it, their names appear in the Connections area of your profile and in your Connections category in Yahoo! Contacts.

You can learn more over here: http://overview.mail.yahoo.com

One of the new features in Yahoo Mail is the contact manager. It’s similar to a paper or desktop address book but has a lot more features and functions such as categories and links to your connections.
Yahoo! Contacts is an online contact manager that helps you organize and communicate with the people in your life.

1. In Mail, click the Contacts link in the left pane.
2. While viewing your profile, click the Contacts tab.
3. The contacts page opens displaying all of your contacts.
4. From here, you can

a. Add contacts.
b. Connect with those closest to you.
c. Create categories so that you can organize your contacts.
d. Work with contact details.

You can learn more over here: http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/products/new

You can switch between the all-new Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Classic if you (like me!) prefer the old interface.

To switch between back to the Yahoo! Mail Classic:

1. Under yourname at the top of your Yahoo! Mail page, there’s a Mail Classic link.

2. Click Mail Classic to go back to the Yahoo! Mail version.

To change to the new Yahoo! Mail, just click All-New Mail in the upper-right corner of your Yahoo! Mail page.