What are the Creative Commons?

Are you trying to find an image that works with your blog, but don't want to take your own.  Or your camera is broken...

Search the Creative Commons for a work that can be used for commercial purposes.

CC works are a great free resource for you to build upon.  You can also apply for your own CC license to use in works that you generate.  Obtaining the license is no cost and allows you more refined protection of your works and allows easier sharing of the material.

Widdgets and backlinks can effect my position on SERP?

SERP stands for search engine results page.  It is the listing of results returned by in response to a query.  There are several factors which may affect your ranking on the SERP, some of them are counter-intuitive.  Google pandas and penguins are not as cute and cuddly as they sound.

Google Panda is an algorithm that ranks high content sites higher than high advertising sites and moves sites with little content lower on the SERP.  Google Penguin decreases the ranking in sites that "Spamdex" or contain duplicate content, or linking schemes.  So to just copy & paste your content will hurt your results.  Original content results in the highest rankings. 

Sometimes you may be hurting your ranking without knowledge   Adding a widget to your page which helps the client calculate a home value estimate may sound useful.  If it comes from Zillow, you are providing them a backlink and reducing your score in SERP.  Not so much that you are reducing your score, but you are inflating Zillow's score resulting in a potential lower score for your site.  Many free widgets provide backlinks to originating sites, most target both nationally and the same selling area that you do.  Everyone who uses their "Free" widget inflates the score nationally and regionally on SERP.

Have a consultation with your techie, you may be inadvertently affecting your SEO (search engine optimization) by using those free widgets.

Social reputation management?

Do you work with your social networks?  There is a great service provided by postling, branded as social reputation management.  The first month is only $1!!!  After the first month it is only $5 per month for five tracking targets/ social media accounts.  $3 for each additional account.  Great service for such a low price.  The service aggregates your social media accounts into one interface where you can post respond and edit content.  Enjoy a Postling infographic!

Source: Postling

Best practice for lead response

1. Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact and qualify leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify.

2.  4pm to 6pm is the best time period to call in order to make contact with a lead.  8am to 9am and 4pm to 5pm are the best time periods to call in order to qualify a lead.

3.  The odds of contacting a lead with a phone call decrease by over 10 times in the 1st hour.  The odds of qualifying a lead with a phone call decrease by over 6 times in the first hour.

4.  The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times.  The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.

Source: LeadResponseManagement

Source: BoomTownBlog

Shorten that url!!

Whether you need to shorten that url to text it, or all those characters and numbers look messy... You can use a url-shortener to do the trick.  I use tinyurl for posting in a hurry, bitly to remember topics and share with co-workers, and goo.gl for work

goo.gl offers a free url shortener with click analytics publicly accessible to anyone.  Great service which requires login to your google account.  Also has a great Google Chrome Extension!

Tinyurl.com is a free url shortener - barebones basic, no account necessary but also no analytics.  The great feature of this site is that you can create a tinyurl button on your bookmars bar which automatically generates a tiny url based on the current url.

Source: TinyUrl

Bitly.com not quite the same as a url-shortener.  It is a free bookmark manager.  It allows users to bundle bitmarks together and send them via email, twitter, or facebook.  

WeMo?

No, I am not talking about the Nintendo Wi-mote...

Custom home automation and more are made possible through Belkin's new little toy.

WeMo is a programable switch on your home network, it can interface with ifttt.  There are almost endless possibilities for this simple on off switch because of it's communication.  You could program the motion detector to send you a text when the front door opens...


Check out the community, or order yours today!

Tubalr

I'm sure you have found some great music videos on youtube.  Everyone has by now.  The problem is creating a playlist.  While they can be made in youtube, most people are easily confused.  Then there is the problem of that annoying ad you can skip in 5 seconds...

That lasts for longer than 5 seconds because it is buffering... GRR!!

Tubalr to the rescue!!

Source: Tubalr.com

The service automatically ques up a playlist based on search.  When one video ends, the next begins.  When you register for a free account, you can create custom playlists.

@IE sucks... Less...

Microsoft is "poking the bear"... They posted a video recently that "converts" an internet explorer hater by introducing karaoke web standard... oh and they adopt islands of kittens and donate them to children everywhere!!!

Honestly it did make me smile.  Though the setup just didn't seem high-tech enough for him to be the dork Microsoft suggests he is.  Product placement is key, but so is believably.

The Logitech-g510 keyboard is shown a couple of times which is a gamer-must have.  It has programmable back-lit keys that can change color and lighting intensity.  18 programmable macro-keys and three macro-user accounts, allowing quick customization on the fly.  a central lcd display with gadgets and windows sideshow control functionality allows use and program control even when the computer is hibernating.  It's pretty awesome, I love mine...  

Image source: Logitech

I think that if he were as anti-microsoft and anti-IE as they claim, he wouldn't be using a 5 button microsoft mouse.  The R.A.T. 9 would be more apropos... It allows full customization of weight, grip, and even buttons.

Image source: Think Geek

It is nice to see that the dual screens are at least both lcd screens.  Many pro-gamers I know use dual lcd tv's mounted on the wall.  It would have been cool if he had the EVGA Interview monitor system.

image source: engadget

Funny video from Microsoft... further proof the browser wars are back.  Any one remember netscape navigator?