Gladiators enjoy modern luxuries like cigarettes and cell phones.
I have no clue who these people are.
One of the most recognizable buildings ever.
A view from the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) in Firenze, Italia.
I have no clue who these people are either. If you haven’t tried taking photos of strangers, it’s a lot of fun.
I don’t even remember how I found this site. I was sure to Stumble it, so others can waste time online just like me!
To offset that time wasted, you can become more productive in another area of your life. Why not use the PocketMod to get more organized and stay on top of things? Any product with a calendar and to-do list built in will surely make your life so much easier.
Basically, you fold and cut a sheet of letter size paper to make a handy booklet you can customize and keep in your pocket.
The Flash player application allows you to make your own Pocket Mod booklet. There are several useful pages that you can drag and drop like to do lists, calendars, conversion tables, and tipping calculators.
A savvy graphic designer can surely reverse engineer this and create totally custom booklets this way.
Renee and Elliott are tech-savvy, but they recognize when low-tech still gets the job done.
Reason number 437 Renee and I use Macs.
In the early days of the web, we had hit counters. Today, we have Google Analytics. The depth of the data is incredible. You can see the number of visitors to your site, how many pages they looked at, and if you have a webcam hooked up, we get to watch you. I want to address the guy with the tacky wallpaper in the den:
Please! Call an interior designer ASAP and get that taken care of!
You can see what keywords people queried into search engines to land on your site. One visitor from Scotland queried “Are Elliott and Renee in love?”
The only correct answer is YES!
~e
This video, “Web 2.0… The Machine is Us/ing Us,” about How Web 2.0 connects people, was created by Michael Wesch, an anthropology professor at Kansas State.
I know many of you are curious about blogging. How are we making money doing this? If we’re making money at it, it must be difficult and complicated, right? We all know the real reason Renee and Elliott rock is because Elliott is Asian and Asians are good on the computer. Actually, in the process of becoming “whitewashed,” his computer skills are handicapped. He needs a no-hassle user-friendly computer like a Mac to do anything.
Yaro Starak just launched a new site aimed at beginners and those who are not tech-savvy. The new site is called “Become a Blogger.”
Like almost every blog out there, this site is completely free. You don’t even have to sign up for an email newsletter. The video tutorials are professionally produced, easy to understand and very informative. Here’s a sneak-peek at what you’ll learn:
We’ve been doing this for a little while now, but the External Resources page still has a few gems for us. Our friends ask us about blogging all the time. Take a peek at Become a Blogger sometime soon.
We learned a lot about ourselves in 2007. Renee and Elliott are both enjoying life as the parents of a new baby girl. Elliott is totally wrapped up in his role as daddy, and Renée provides the “been there, done that” wisdom that has eased the transition.
There has been a surge in advertising for health clubs and weight loss products. If one of your resolutions is to start exercising, avoid crowds at the gym by starting your regimen in February. We don’t wait until January to make resolutions and evaluate our goals. There’s an audience and an occasion for this in January, so here goes. Read the rest of this entry »
Every job has a required skill set and job description. Blogging is no exception. It does have a low barrier to entry, but still requires a high level of skill in various areas to succeed.
I have compiled a list of skills a blogger must hone to have a successful blog. You may be surprised at where technical knowledge falls on this list. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are a few of our favorite bloggers. It’s not an exhaustive list, but these are the ones who inspire, inform, and entertain us.
Parent Hacks is the brainchild of Asha Dornfest. She writes and edits readers’ contributions. As visual artists, we both love their logo and identity. The “Swiss Army Knife” with lollipop, crayon, spoon, and safety pin is just as clever as the site’s premise.
Steve Pavlina’s site gets over 2 million visitors per month. According to his article, How To Make Money From Your Blog, his site brings in over $1000 per day.
There are more than 600 articles already and he is adding more every week. It seems like you’ll never run out of articles to read on personal development, career planning, time management, and many other topics of interest to smart people. Steve is also a Toastmaster.
Strobist covers techniques on using small flash units more creatively to achieve results similar to those you’d get with big studio lights. David peppers his writing with liberal doses of humor and offers credibility through his work as a photojournalist. His photos are pretty darn good too. Strobist is a great resource for photographers, but it was one of Elliott’s main inspirations to start blogging.
David started the blog in February of 2006 as a way to store his notes. It has since grown to get over 1 million page views a month. He took a leave of absence from his job in June of 2007 to focus on the blog full-time. The blogger’s lifestyle allows David to spend more time with his favorite Hobbys - Susan, Emily, and Ben.
The Blogging Experiment is a pleasure to read. Ben’s style is direct and easy to digest. He promises total transparency, sharing his successes and his mistakes. As of this writing, there are only two posts in the “My Mistakes” category. He must be doing well.
Ben officially launched this blog on July 4th, 2007 and set a goal of achieving a full-time income from this blog within one year. Choosing Independence Day as the launch date and deadline was an inspired move. I wish him the best.
Ben Cook recommends Yaro Starak’s free e-book, Blog Profits Blueprint. His e-book hits a sweet spot that lies between the quick overview and the exhaustive reference. His blog expands upon the principles covered in the e-book.
We have an inside joke about the magic word, “Yaro Starak.” It occasionally transforms a restaurant meal into a business expense.
ProBlogger.net is a great resource for professional bloggers or those hoping to make the jump. He regularly features video posts alongside text articles. The articles listed under “Best of Problogger” serve as a great primer for professional blogging and those who are merely curious about what a blog is. He is highly recommended by David Hobby at Strobist.
Buying a Blackberry doesn’t automatically make you a better communicator. Using it effectively does. It’s analogous to the gym membership vs. a real exercise routine. Humans are social creatures, and many of the latest technological advances have been in communications devices. Email, instant messenger, and cell phones proliferate. But are we better communicators?
Email is often vilified as the enemy of effective time management. We get caught up in the immediacy of it and feel compelled to answer it right away. We got it right away. Why not answer it right away? It doesn’t have to be that way. Some people think of email as a substitute for a telephone call. Others think of it as a business letter.
Understanding the email habitsof the people you communicate with regularly will help tremendously. If you’re a crackberry addict, don’t get upset when your email isn’t responded to immediately. The person you are writing to may have a different mentality about email.
Renee and I do not use this often. We both feel it’s sensory overload. This is the means we choose to limit or abstain from. There’s an immediacy to it, but it’s also a huge distraction and time-sucker.
Others limit their telephone time or email time.
I use the telephone when I need real-time interaction when a face-to-face meeting is impractical. I reach for the phone when I want an immediate answer. I don’t always get it, but the possibility exists.
One must also pay attention to how a voice mail is crafted. You had a specific objective in mind when you made the call. Why do people fall apart and leave rambling voice mails? Speak clearly and be concise. Say your name, leave your number, state the purpose of your call, make any relevant disclosures about times you may be unavailable, state phone number once again, and a succinct pleasantry.
Text messaging or SMS has exploded over the past few years. In 1998, I changed cell phone carriers for the first time. AT&T (which became Cingular, and it’s now AT&T again) offered text messaging. I could immediately see its potential. However, I grew frustrated as an isolated early-adopter. I used it sparingly until I met Renée.
One of my friends recently told me that it never occurred to him to send a text message until I sent him one for the first time. He thought it was just as good to make the phone call. Can you tell I hang out with people of all ages, from babies to the chronologically enhanced?
Some information is more effectively relayed via text message. A message that doesn’t require a reply would be a logical choice. It’s also great during downtime. Random “I love you,” messages to your significant other works wonders. You’ll never be bored at meetings and lectures again.
Meetings incur costs in time and money. They are valuable for certain agendas, while others can be fulfilled by other means. If the agenda is important enough or if a high level of interaction is necessary, a face-to-face meeting is the best choice. Messages of high profundity also warrant a face-to-face meeting. It’s considered a low-blow to get dumped by a significant other via telephone, email or instant messenger. In one episode of Sex And The City
That’s it? Far from it. There are entire books written on communication. This article covers the technological and logistical means. Each method described above warrants further discussion in future articles. Stay tuned.
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