Entries Tagged 'Reviews' ↓

Online Learning with Information Websites

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The internet has a wealth of information just waiting for you to dig in and start learning. There are a very few select websites that I keep in a special folder in Google Reader. I keep this folder at the top of the list (even above my Friends and Family folder) and whenever there is a new post, I read it immediately. DoshDosh is one of those websites. Maki, the author and god of this website, provides so much incredibly useful and relevant information that I can recommend it to anyone in any field. You probably know of other websites, perhaps specific to your own field, that are as useful as DoshDosh is to me. It is because of websites like this that I thought of the following.

These ultra-important websites should be looked at as more than just sources of information that you make sure you read. These websites should be looked at as the essential online learning institutions that they are. Think of them as part of your schooling. Set aside some time every day to go through the information and take notes. (Google Notebook is good for this.) Think of all the ways that you can use the information you are reading and create an action plan. Read and re-read the post to catch what you might have missed on the first or second pass. Create an outline or a mindmap. Absorb as much of the information as possible. You are not just reading great information, you are reading necessary and life-changing (or at least work-changing) information.

For example, here is a post from DoshDosh from a couple of weeks ago: How to Use the Web to Build A Powerful Reputation In Any Industry. I read this article within minutes of it being published. You can tell I usually read these right away because am often one of the first people to leave a comment. The first thing I do is skim through the article and get a good feel for what it is about. Then I go through a little more thoroughly, usually reading the whole article, but not to the point of deeper absorption. At this point, I leave a comment. I’m a fast reader and can absorb information quickly and on that second read I usually have a question in mind that I know will bother me unless I have it answered. Maki is always very good about commenting back and answering my questions and this deepens the learning process.

I then set aside the article until later in the day when I can take the time to go through it much more thoroughly. This is when I do not let myself get distracted by the steady stream of Tweets, new posts, emails, earthquakes, etc. This is also when I am most likely to find the real gems.

Here is an excerpt from the post I referenced above:

For example, if I were in the art field, this is what I’ll build and why:

  1. An Art forum/social network. In order to position myself as a leader in the specific field, I should create communities which will allow me to attract large amounts of interested industry participants. This pull-strategy allows you to not only keep on top of happenings in the specific field but befriend a large amount of people who will be likely to support your future initiatives. This is a social branding strategy.
  2. Multiple Niche Art Sites. I’ll narrow down my art interests to build sites that focuses entirely on specific art forms (e.g. Renaissance art). My goal is to make each site a definitive resource. This will of course involve conscious targeting and ranking of multiple keywords which will spread my name throughoug a specific topic field in search engines. Search engines will provide you with organic traffic and is a means to pick up a lot of relevant contacts. This is a search-oriented strategy.
  3. General Art News Blog. A news blog is a good way to develop visibility, especially if there are no real competitors in the niche. I would make it a multi-author blog and I’ll invite the friends I have (including the ones I’ve met online) to write for it. A news blog frames you in the mold of a journalist. As a member of media, you’ll usually get access to launches, exhibitions, events and networking parties. This is a network-development strategy that’ll allow you to build your contacts offline.

I’ve placed this as the last step because it allows you to leverage your established community trust and media relations to kickstart these ventures. You don’t have to struggle to get people involved if you are well-networked enough: people will naturally recommend and provide support for your initiatives, especially if they are beneficial for the end-user or industry as a whole.

You can believe my jaw dropped when I read this because it relates specifically to my industry. And just in this short excerpt from the much longer article I came up with these possible action steps:

  • Create an art community. With Diane Clancy, I have created the art marketing forum at YourArtMarketing.com which already has 33 members and 340 posts. BUT… what additional work can I do here? I’ve talked about creating social networks, I can possibly pursue one of those.
  • Create niche art sites. This site IS a niche site, it focuses on online marketing for artists. What additional niche sites can I create? I could create niche sites for music and writing and photography and any number of artistic or creative niches.
  • Create an art news blog. This is one that I am REALLY thinking about creating, especially after reading today’s post on How to Build a Successful News Blog. I am now a staff blogger for ReveNews.com and thanks to DoshDosh, I now have a solid base of information to help me make this a reality.

Take the attitude of a student and pick the most valuable website to study. Go through it thoroughly and write down every possible action step you might take and keep a thorough list of notes that you can search through whenever you need them. Take advantage of the learning opportunities that are waiting for you.

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[Comments]

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Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com

E-junkie for Your Shopping Cart and Downloads

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E-junkie logoE-junkie is an incredibly cheap and powerful online service for selling both downloadable and tangible goods. At it’s most basic level, E-junkie is a shopping cart program. But this is a shopping cart that does a lot more.

E-junkie provides several buttons that you can install and use, and they provide you with all the snippets of code that you need and then help you install them. But what is really cool is WHERE you can install them. Not only can you put these buttons on your own website, but you can put them into your MySpace pages, eBay, Craigslist, and most other sites where you would normally not think of inserting your own personal shopping cart. Think of how useful it would be to include a “Buy Now” button for something you were advertising on Craigslist or to include your own mini-store on your MySpace page.

E-junkie allows you to sell both downloadable items (ebooks, reports, prints, audio, video) and tangible goods (the stuff you pack and ship yourself). For downloadable items, you store those directly on E-junkie so when they are sold they are delivered immediately to the customer. You can also include all sorts of discount and promo codes, download links that expire after a few days, and a list of codes that are stored and doled out as each product is sold. What I am referring in that list item, the stored codes, are such things as pin codes to be used for downloadable calling cards or keys for software. You can also use a packaged product feature which allows you to sell, say, mp3s for one price and the entire album for another price. (They also collaborate with SwiftCD which will create and deliver physical CDs as they are ordered, sort of a print-on-demand setup.)

You can also sell your tangible goods with E-junkie, you just pack and ship them yourself. The great thing about E-junkie is that you can include all sorts of options for each product; such as size and color. It also has both packaging and shipping calculator. The packaging calculator is set up with your own specifications. For example, you can say that up to 4 prints can fit into the same container, but if there are 5 to 8 prints, they have to pay for two containers. It then uses the USPS tables for shipping and a shipping table that you help set up for international orders. You can also choose one rate for the first item and then another rate for additional items. There are enough choices to handle any combination that you want to throw at it.

This next part is where I think you will really be sold on E-junkie. For each product, you can configure a thank-you email, instructions or any other follow up message you can think of. Once someone buys a product, they are automatically put into the buyer group for that product. You can then send as many follow up emails or newsletters as you want to everyone who bought that product. If they refund the product, they are automatically removed from the buyer group. You can also add people manually to any buyer group so they are included in the follow up emails. You can also view and download a log of transactions, including buyer emails, so you can send your own follow up emails outside of the E-junkie system. This kind of interaction and follow up with your customers is very important, as I discuss in this week’s Marketing Monday article.

There is one last feature I want to discuss to conclude this review. E-junkie also includes an affiliate program that you can set up with any product. This allows you to pay a commission to people for selling your product. You determine which products are included in the program and you also decide if you want the seller to receive a percentage of the sale or a flat fee. Once you set it up, E-junkie handles all the rest of the details for you. Affiliate sellers sign up for the program themselves and the system automatically assigns them a referral link they can use to sell your product. Whenever they make a sale, E-junkie handles the payment and you do not have to lift a finger. It is a very effective way to help other people sell YOUR product.

E-junkie has many more features that I just did not have time or room to discuss. Go take a look and decide for yourself. Oh, I almost forgot to mention… the price is unbelievable inexpensive! If you sell 10 different products or less, you only pay $5 per month. And that is only after a one-week free trial. Isn’t that a crazy low price? I thought so.

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Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com

What Camera Should You Use for Video Blogging

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Although it is wonderful that video is becoming more popular and we have so many camera to choose from at prices that are at their lowest ever… it leaves us wondering exactly which camera to choose. The answer to that question depends on what your intended use is and what you might use it for in the future.

If you only plan on doing some low-budget video blogging while you sit in front of your computer, you will only need a standard web cam. I use the built-in web cam on my MacBook for my video blogging and it works just fine.

If instead you want a camera that you can take anywhere you go and easily capture decent video (decent, not excellent), you fall in that middle range. You are probably most interested in a camera that is easy to use, highly portable, and not very expensive.

On the higher end of this spectrum is the camera that is good enough to shoot prosumer (professional consumer) quality video. If you are looking at these camera, you might be interested in shooting film that you will eventually sell or that will give you the ability to hire out your services.

Let’s take a look at all three levels along with my recommendation for each.

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Level One - Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX

There are many web cams available, but you do NOT want one of those super cheap models you can pick up at K-Mart. If you spend too little, you will end up with video that is too dark or choppy or fuzzy and you will be very frustrated. Logitech still makes some of the best web cams and the one I chose for you has an excellent rating and is still very affordable. Web cams are extremely easy to use and if you are only going to do a video blog sitting at your computer, this is all you need. Well, almost all you need. You also need the software to record the video. If you are using a Mac, just fire up iMovie. If you are using a PC, you can use Windows Movie Maker. Since this is only a post about video cameras, I won’t get into the details of the software. There are a lot of tutorials out there, though, so just Google away.

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Level Two - Flip Video Camcorder

These small portable video cameras are SO cool! Barely 4″ by 2″ by 1″ in size, they run off of 2 AA batteries and can record up to an hour of digital video on the built-in 1 GB of memory. It plugs into either a PC or a Mac via a USB connection and includes both a wide range microphone and a speaker. Just think of the fun you could have with this! You could record yourself anywhere and anytime. You could take video of people at parties, at the grocery store, at the bar… even out birdwatching. The extremely small size and portability of this camera open up a whole world of possibilities.

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Level Three - Panasonic PV-GS320

Now with this camcorder you start getting into the higher end machines. If you want a picture with really decent quality, you want a camcorder with a 3-CCD sensor. 3-CCD camcorders are what the big shots use and an you do any less? This camcorder is one of the most affordable 3-CCD cameras out there, but is still from a reputable brand. You also get a high-quality Leica lens and we all know that the quality of the glass is one of the most important features of any camera. One more thing, you can also take 3.1 megapixel still shots with this camcorder which saves hauling a separate digital camera around.

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So there you go, a range of affordable camcorders that will get any of you video blogging in no time. Make sure you let me know where to go watch!

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Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com

Review of “Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook” (Part 2)

Continuing my review of this ebook, “Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook” by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo…

This book does a great job of introducing you to many of the ways that you can use the new social media aspects of the web. This includes blogs (writing your own and participating in those of others), social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etcetera), microblogs (such as Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku), wikis (and Wikipedia in particular), virtual worlds (such as Second Life), and more. Much of the focus is on blogs (about half the book) and I think rightly so because blogs are still the most prominent form of social media out there and have the most options for anyone involved in marketing (or just communicating).

There is a section on risks or things that could go wrong and they address what I think is the biggest issue: It Doesn’t Get Off the Ground. So many of us have tried to make an impression on the web and have supposedly done everything right and have done the blog, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etcetera; only to find that nothing happens. We even contact other bloggers, join various groups, and have tons of friends on our Facebook account and nothing much happens. This section of the book addresses that and gives some useful suggestions.

My overall impression is that this book is a great start. I highly recommend it because so many of us simply do not have a good grasp of what has been going on with online social networking and how to get started using it. I immediately saw a need for a second book, one that gives you even more specific tools and ideas. For example, what are the all the different kinds of posts you can try on your blog (contests, top 10 lists, and so on), what sorts of things do you put on there, what additional plugins and features can you add… the list becomes very long. [I am currently putting together a toolbox of all the various online marketing tools you can use and this will become part of my upcoming paid membership site. Just the section on blogs alone is expansive.] I look forward to the next book from these two!

(Question for Darren and Julie: do you have an affiliate program set up for selling this book? Have you looked into ClickBank?)

Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

Review of “Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook” (Part 1)

This book was impossible to just plow through because they kept giving so many interesting examples and websites that I was constantly setting it down to go check things out (damn Baitcar.com!). My first “oh, yeah” moment was when I read the section “Get Linkable”. I have been designing websites for artists for a couple of years, now, and almost everyone wants one of those pretty Flash-based gallery sites. The problem is that you cannot send someone a link to just one of those pictures and say, “hey, I really like this one.” The best you can do is say, “go to this page and then click on the 12th thumbnail over and that is the picture that I really like.” In this new age where more is happening online rather than offline it is vital that you make everything on your website linkable. How does a blogger send someone to their favorite painting of yours if they have to explain it in terms of navigating a Flash site. They don’t. They will end up not even bothering because you’ve made it so difficult. So in addition to my motto of “make it easy to buy from you”, I add a new one: “make it easy to link to you!”

Along these same lines, they suggest that you make it easy for people to embed your images into their website. A great way to do this is to upload your images to Flickr. (I am already picturing a remake of one of my websites where all of the art images are only in Flicker and I simply use their code to embed them into my website.) Another great benefit of this method is that you can tag your images in Flicker which makes it even easier for people to find YOUR picture! (For those unfamiliar with the term, a “tag” is simply a “keyword”.)

My next post will wrap up the review and give you my final recommendations.

The website for this book by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo is www.socialmediaready.com. They are also run the company Capulet Communications where they offer web marketing services and truly walk the walk. From Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, they now live in an old farmhouse on the island state of Malta (south of Sicily).

Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

Getting to First Base… hopefully

Boy, that sounds bad. But actually “Getting to First Base” is the name of a book by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo on social media marketing. I just requested a review copy, so hopefully I’ll get that and can give you a detailed review so you can decide if you want it for yourself. It sounds like a great addition for what we do! I’ll keep you posted.

Update:
Within mere minutes of my request, I had heard from Darren and received my review copy. He even subscribed to this blog! I just printed it out and should have a review up for you in the next few days.

P.S.
Their website is at www.socialmediaready.com.

Chris O’Byrne
OnlineArtsMarketing.com

Review of Fine Art Studio Online

I have been teaching artists for some time, now, that they need their own website. I have also built several of those websites myself (and continue to do so), but this can be more of an expense than most artists are willing or able to afford. Several months ago I came up with a brilliant idea. Create a way for artists to easily maintain their own websites. Allow them to easily add pictures at random, put up their own biographical information, create a blog, send out newsletters, etc. Just in case, I did a Google search to see if anyone else was doing something similar. And guess what? Somebody was!

Clint Watson and his company have a website called FineArtStudioOnline that does everything I was thinking about and more. He makes it extremely easy to put up the typical pages and features (Bio, Contact, Links, Articles, Galleries, Portfolio, Books, Exhibits, Workshops), plus allows easy uploading and resizing of pictures. You can then arrange these into galleries and the number of pictures you can upload is determined by which monthly plan you are on. Even better (in my opinion) are all the marketing tools available. You can integrate a blog, have a signup for your own newsletter, view your site’s analytics, and, well, tons more that you have to see to believe.

Normally, you get a free 30-day trial period when you sign up. If you are reading this post, I have a special deal for you that I arranged directly with Clint. If you click on this link to go directly to FineArtStudioOnline, you will receive a 120-day free trial period AND he will throw in a copy of a teleseminar he did with Alyson Stanfield called “How to Be an Online Art Magnet” which also includes a 19-page ebook that goes into even more detail than what was covered on the teleseminar. I listened to this seminar live and it was worth every penny I paid for it. Now, just by signing up for a free 120-day trial of FineArtStudioOnline, you can get it for free.

Check it out!

Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com/blog