Michael M.

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How to Record Video and Manage Media Collections for Your Screencast

Michael M. posted an article on - Feb 9, 2012, 8:03 pm
Image by BigStock Photo So far, we’ve covered planning your screencast and scripting & recording audio for your screencast. In this part of the series, we will cover how to create the visual portion of your screencast and get it ready for editing. Our goal here is to create pro-quality screencas...
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How to Script and Record Audio for a Screencast

Michael M. posted an article on - Feb 2, 2012, 4:05 pm
Image from BigStock Photo. This is the 3rd part in a series on Screencasting. Check out the previous post in the series: How to plan a Screencast or start at the beginning: How to Create Professional-Quality Screencasts. Scripting for Screencasts Nobody wants to sound like an idiot when they mak...
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WTF is Smart YouTube Plugin?

Michael M. posted an article on - Feb 1, 2012, 4:43 pm
In this latest “WTF” video (I’ll try to do one of these at least once a week) I’m showing you a nifty WordPress plugin that anyone who puts YouTube videos on their blog will want to have: Smart YouTube Plugin. (Can’t see the video? Click here.) Why is thing so cool? Well, from my viewpo...
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How to Install WordPress Plugins

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 30, 2012, 2:42 pm
This video will show you how to install WordPress plugins into your self-hosted WordPress site. There are two ways to do this: search and install from within WordPress itself, or find a plugin out on the web and download it. I’ll show you how to do both in this video. This may seem simple and you...
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What WordPress Plugins I Use and Why

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 27, 2012, 1:47 pm
Plugins are, in my opinion, the big reason why WordPress has become the juggernaut success story of content management systems. Plugins let you extend and enhance the functionality of your self-hosted WordPress-powered website. Anything from a simple contact form to full blown e-commerce functionali...
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How to Plan a Screencast

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 26, 2012, 6:45 am
If you want to have a professional-quality successful screencast video, you do not simply hit the record button on your screencasting software and go. Unless, of course, you want to look like a total idiot. But if you want to look like a confident pro, a bit of planning is in order. Planning a sc...
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WTF is Pinterest?

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 24, 2012, 4:17 pm
Pinterest is exploding right now. Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board or pin board. You create boards, give them names, and then create “pins” which are mostly pictures you find on the web of stuff you like. Then, you share your boards and pins with friends and everybody has a good time. It ...
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Poll Results for Streamlining Social Media

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 23, 2012, 12:35 pm
A few days ago I conducted a poll on whether or not people were abandoning social media accounts. The number of people who participated isn’t large enough for the results to be considered as representative of the majority of my readers and the results are not unexpected (at least, by me). Here ar...
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Poll: Are You "Streamlining" Your Social Media?

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 21, 2012, 9:38 am
After my recent 5 Profitable Business Blogging Predictions for 2012 post, life coach Tim Brownson wondered in the comments if others like him had “streamlined” their social media. In other words, did they shut down or ignore social network accounts in favor of only a few “big ones” they eith...
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5 Killer New WordPress Plugins

Michael M. posted an article on - Jan 20, 2012, 6:52 am
New plugins are created constantly, so it’s easy to remain unaware of what just may be the perfect plugin for your self-hosted WordPress blog. That’s why I went looking… just for you. You might find something in this list you didn’t know you needed until you see it. Please note that I ha...
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17 Ways to Turn Your Blog Readers into Loyal Fans

Michael M. posted an article on - Oct 17, 2011, 9:35 am
This is a guest post by Tea Silvestre. Sure. You read Remarkablogger and all the best blogs about blogging. Your content sparkles. Your design is flawless. You’ve optimized for SEO and ticked off the long list of best practices. You’ve fine-tuned every aspect of your site. It’s all humming...
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How to Set Up the Digg Digg Social Media Sharing Plugin for WordPress

Michael M. posted an article on - Oct 8, 2011, 7:30 am
I use the Digg Digg social media sharing plugin because it rawks, but it takes a bit of setting up. So I thought I’d make a little tutorial video to walk you through it step by step. If you can’t see the video, visit the blog directly or watch it on YouTube. I do more than just show you the bar...
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Everything is One

Michael M. posted an article on - Oct 7, 2011, 11:30 pm
Everything is one. Back when me and the ex were together, we’d have these long conversations about life/the universe/everything that would start innocently enough about one topic and end up at a point that was so all-encompassing that I would just throw my hands up and shout: “EVERYTHING IS ONE...
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A Bright Light has Gone Out from the World – Thoughts about Steve Jobs from a PC User

Michael M. posted an article on - Oct 6, 2011, 9:55 am
A young Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, co-founders of Apple. I’ve used Macs before and I have an iPod Touch. I use iTunes on my PC running Windows 7. I get what Macs are all about and have Jobs to thank for why Windows is now a halfway decent operating system. Microsoft has always been a systemati...
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Do You Feel Like You're 10 Different People and You Don't Know What Kind of Online Business to Create?

Michael M. posted an article on - Oct 3, 2011, 8:24 pm
If so, you may be what Emilie Wapnick calls a multipotentialite. What’s that? A person who does not specialize, but is excellent at several types of endeavor. A person who could never just pick one thing and do that for their entire lives. These people are real. I know because I am one. And so ...
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Customize Your WordPress Admin Area for More Efficient Blog Management

Michael M. posted an article on - Oct 1, 2011, 9:00 am
In this WordPress tutorial video (about 8 minutes), I show you some really easy tips for customizing the WordPress Admin area and the post writing page: How to show or hide content boxes How to rearrange content boxes How to customize some of the settings It’s amazing how a few simple, easy steps...
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Three Surprisingly Simple Ways to Enhance Your Creativity at Work

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 29, 2011, 7:30 am
This is a guest post by Stephen P. Smith. Stuck in a rut? Tired of the same-old same-old day in and day out? Let’s make a few small changes in the way you work for a big impact on your results and personal satisfaction in a job well done. Injecting some “capital-C” Creativity into the work th...
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Are Referrals More Important to Your Online Business than Strangers? Then Why are You Blogging for Strangers?

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 26, 2011, 10:07 pm
Where do your clients really come from? And what is your blog doing for them? One huge problem I see time and again is people blogging for and interacting with their peers instead of their prospects. But even for those who are smart enough to not make that mistake, they may be making another one:...
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Create an About Page for Your Blog that's a Secret Freelance Sales Weapon

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 26, 2011, 7:11 am
When you do the same thing everyone else is doing, you can hardly expect to get better results than everyone else, can you? What’s the “autopilot” way of creating an About page? It’s biographical and you talk about yourself, maybe include a picture and… That’s it. Pretty lame, and it d...
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The Crucial Difference Between Blog Post Headlines and Email Subject Lines

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 24, 2011, 9:00 am
First of all, apologies for the empty post that got published earlier. Hit the wrong button. Do you know what the difference is between blog post headlines and email subject lines? Email Subject Lines for Newsletters Well, it depends on how you do your email marketing. If you have a more convent...
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I'm Presenting at the International Freelancers Day Online Conference (registration is free)

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 21, 2011, 10:29 am
On the 23rd (just a couple days) is the International Freelancers Day Online Conference. It costs nothing to register and attend the presentations. If you do any kind of freelance work, this is going to be well worth your time. There is a lot of crap on the net that purports to help freelancers ear...
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Is Your Blog Niche Stifling Your Creativity? Try Blog Projects

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 19, 2011, 7:17 am
This is a guest post by Neil Matthews I’m running an experiment at the minute on my personal blog, where, instead of having a traditional blogging niche, I am working on a series of blogging projects. How Do I Define A Project A project is a series of focused blog posts on a particular topic th...
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The Life Cycle of a Business Blog Post – Know it and Maximize Your Marketing

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 14, 2011, 7:24 am
On a business blog, where you’re marketing your business and not “just” writing a blog, you do not write a post out of the blue, hit the publish button and call it good. Unless of course you like wasting your time and getting lackluster results for your efforts. If you want to see real infl...
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How To Create a Blog That Punches People in the Face

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 8, 2011, 6:56 am
... “great” blogs and become the best blogger you can be. Who Did You ... words, don’t engage in “Me Marketing”. Discovering Your True Self I ... enough. I bet the less experienced blogger who puts that as their ... manuals, don’t we?) For online marketing, it’s typically easier...
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Personal Branding vs. Company Branding – Which One is the Winner?

Michael M. posted an article on - Sep 6, 2011, 10:04 pm
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch (at least, for now) The big news story driving this post is the possibility of Michael Arrington leaving TechCrunch. Arrington began TechCrunch as “just a blog” and grew it into the tech juggernaut it is today. The TechCrunch story is a powerful demonstration of...
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Why I Don't Give a Shite if You're Offended

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 31, 2011, 11:41 am
This is a guest post by Jennifer Bones. Writing great headlines can be challenging. But today, creating catchy titles is the cornerstone of any blog’s success. The worst mistake you can make is to wanker-out when writing your headlines. Let me explain. Recently I published a post entitled Forgiv...
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The One Question You Need to Remember Amid all the Blogging and Social Media Madness

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 25, 2011, 2:39 pm
What did you sell today? It’s easy to feel like you did a lot because you plowed through a wall of unread and unanswered email, spent hours going through your feeds and social media streams looking for awesome content to curate for your ideal customer and spent hours wearing out your keyboard as ...
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Why You'll Never be able to Increase Your Prices

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 18, 2011, 3:37 pm
Image by Striatic on Flickr This is a guest post by Tommy. As in “just Tommy no last name Tommy.” What do you do? No, actually you know what? I don’t care what you do. What can you do for me? Come to think of it, I don’t really care what you can do for me either. I have 10 million peopl...
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Don't Sell To The Banjo Maker

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 12, 2011, 1:08 pm
This is a guest post by Amy Harrison, whose previous article here was very well-received so I’m pleased to have her here for you again. My fiancé builds custom banjos for a living (hands off ladies, he’s all mine…). Recently he remarked that another maker’s website included a whole host of...
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Business Blogging is the Red Pill – Everything is Not What it Seems

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 9, 2011, 12:16 pm
In the 1999 movie (holy crap, was it really that long ago?) The Matrix, Neo is presented with a choice of pills to swallow: red vs. blue. Morpheus tells him: You take the blue pill — the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill — you s...
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The Art of Handling Rapid Technological Change with Ease

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 4, 2011, 2:22 pm
Because your business is directly dependent on the technology used to create products and operate and market online, technological change is both your best friend and your most bitter rival. New social media services appear (and sometimes disappear or fall out of favor). New online services become ...
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Why Conventional Blogging Wisdom Sucks (And What to Do Instead)

Michael M. posted an article on - Aug 2, 2011, 11:38 am
I can’t even begin to tell you how much of what I read online as blogging and marketing advice makes me ill. And I’m not even talking about brand-new wannabes with no real experience under their belt, although there’s plenty of those, too. No, I’m talking about major business sites pumping o...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 13 – Inspirational

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 28, 2011, 4:57 pm
People love to be inspired. The proof is in how much inspirational stories and videos are shared online through social media. Content which is inspirational has a longer shelf life than the funny viral hit of the month. Its traffic doesn’t die off as quickly as content which is funny or shocking ...
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3 Mind-Bending Lies that Will Block Your Business Success

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 21, 2011, 5:16 pm
This is a guest post by Rebecca Kellogg. In order to make it as an entrepreneur, let alone thrive, you’re going to need the right mindset. In talking to would-be entrepreneurs and/or entrepreneurs with no clear path to bigger success, I hear a few of the same agonized comments over and over again...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 12 – Question and Answer

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 19, 2011, 8:29 pm
Question & Answer posts are a fantastic post type for two reasons: people love to get answers to their questions and these kind of posts are great for SEO. These two reasons are related, but the first reason also makes your posts more share-worthy. Q&A posts show that you’re listening to your cus...
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5 Steps to Overcoming Info Product Abuse (Yes, I am Talking to YOU)

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 14, 2011, 3:53 pm
This is a guest post by Rachael Acklin. Last time I was here, I yelled at you for pretending you don’t have a brand. I’m still feeling angsty about that, but Michael told me I can yell at you as much as I want to as long as it’s good for you, so today I am going to about something different, ...
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Online Business – Are You a Pimp… or a Prostitute?

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 12, 2011, 7:20 pm
I love the White Stripes. In their faint-echoes-of-Zeppelin Icky Thump, is this line: You can’t be a pimp and a prostitute, too. It’s true. You can’t. You either run the show and people come to you, or you let others run the show and you take their orders. In the first case, other people d...
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Bloggers – 3 Ways Your Readers Know You're Sweating Behind Your Sales Copy

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 7, 2011, 4:14 pm
This is a guest post by Amy Harrison. To be a  true bitchin’ business owner, you know you’re going to have to write copy that sells what you do. It’s like egg and mayonnaise, pickle and cheese or ketchup and noodles. One has to go with the other (don’t ever have me cook for you). But just...
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Should You Use Google+?

Michael M. posted an article on - Jul 5, 2011, 4:39 pm
I was originally gonna write the next installment in the business blog post types series, but then Google+ happened. And the whole damn interwebz blowed up. Nobody can shut up about Google+, it seems. And right now, you’re probably wondering if you should get into it or not, and if so, to what ...
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Should You Really Use Your Photo as an Avatar Online?

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 30, 2011, 1:57 pm
This is a guest post by Nancy Stuckwisch Which one stands out? Are photos of yourself the best way to make your brand recognizable and customer friendly? Only if you never change the photo. This is swimming against the tide, I know, but isn’t the point of branding to create a consistently iden...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 11 – Interviews

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 28, 2011, 5:00 pm
As with review blog posts, interviews are popular enough themselves that you’ll find sites dedicated entirely to them. Certainly you could interview people yourself for your own blog. But how do you do an interview? Should you record it and provide media? Should you have it transcribed? How do yo...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 10 – Reviews

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 23, 2011, 2:22 pm
Review posts are so popular there are blogs dedicated just to reviews of a particular type. You got your movie review blogs, your ramen review blogs, your ebook review blogs, and many more. However, as a business owner with a product or service to sell, you may well wonder: what you could possibly ...
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Do What You Love for a Living, and the Misery will Follow

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 21, 2011, 8:31 am
This is a guest post from Liz McGowen. It goes a bit like this: a guru shows you how to start a blog. This blog is going to lead to untold wealth and soon vacations can become weekly events. Thank God. At last! They tell you to go with what you know and like, so by dinnertime on Saturday you’v...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 9 – Resource Posts

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 17, 2011, 2:03 pm
If you want your blog traffic to go all explody, a resource post is the way to go. Sites such as Mashable, Make Use Of and Smashing Mag have skyrocketed their traffic through a constant stream of robust resource posts. There are two kinds of resource posts: reports and links. Report Posts A repor...
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Do Viral Videos Make You Look Cool… or Stupid?

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 15, 2011, 10:34 am
This is a guest post by Jim Taggart. Do you consider yourself to be cool, hip to the latest tech stuff? Do you know the lingo on how to come across to your friends and co-workers? Do you consider perception more important than substance? Have you ever gone 24 hours or more totally unconnected to...
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Warning – The Double-Edged Sword of Success Cuts Both Ways

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 13, 2011, 11:51 am
When people begin an online business, they dream of watching the money roll in as they sip margaritas while lazing in a hammock in a tropical paradise–in essence, the cover of Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Work Week. But success doesn’t come from 4-hour work weeks. At least, not at first. And possibly ...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 8 – Tips & Tricks

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 7, 2011, 12:54 pm
Tip: Don't run over your kids with a lawn mower. Now you know... The Tips & Tricks post is a classic blogging staple. By providing tips, tricks, shortcuts and hacks, we provide “the good stuff” to our potential clients and at the same time impress them with our knowledge and authority. This ty...
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The 13 Business Blogging Master Post Templates You Can Use, Part 7 – Parables

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 6, 2011, 1:41 pm
A parable is a made-up story that is often allegorical and teaches a moral. The difference between a the personal story post type and a parable is that the personal story really happened but a parable is ficticious. Most of us in the Western world are familiar with the New Testament in the Bible an...
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Link Journeys for June 4, 2011 – The "Twitteriffic" Edition

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 5, 2011, 2:36 am
Most of this week’s links ended up being Twitter-related. If you’re not using Twitter, I highly recommend it for freelancers, coaches, consultants and retailers/e-tailers. You can follow me on Twitter here. Message me so I know you’re there and I’ll follow you back. We’ve got links to reso...
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Infographic: The Future of Blogging & Social Media Marketing

Michael M. posted an article on - Jun 1, 2011, 10:03 am
When I opened my virtual doors to blog consulting in 2007, only 16% of businesses were blogging. In 2009, when I quit my job to be a blog consultant full time, that number jumped to 29%. Jump to 2011 and we have 39% of businesses now using blogs for marketing. For the full story and an awesome info...
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