Michaela Cernescu’s Blog

Advanced Solutions For Information Overload

All I said in previous post is true, and I hope was helpful to define the problem and find a solution for an isolated instance. But the endless information overload requests a permanent and elegant solution. By the way, when I got back after the 2 weeks of productive isolation, I found out 1026 e-mail in my in-box. I spent one day just to sort them out, and to come back to the real world. Must be a better solution, and this is what I come up with.

I start analyzing some patters.

I lay out the facts first:

• When it is a new release, I noticed that I use to get 10-14 or even more emails for the some product. If it is a good product, every Internet Marketer and his dog is promoting the “big launch” 
• When it is a mediocre product I get only 6-8 emails, because there are a couple of honest IMs that don’t advertise based on volume, they advertise based on quality of a product, and I put the Quality Crowd on a separate list 
• Among people advertising the same product, 70% are using the materials (e-mails text, pictures) provided by the author. I call them Lazy and Novice Marketers and I keep them in a separte list
• And 30% of IM are inventive, they want to separate themselves from the crowd and they advertise creating their own advertising materials, they are unique in what they are doing. I call them Professional Internet Marketers, and I put the on a separate list.

Then I put my buyer hat, I took an example of a launch with 14 e-mails, read them one more time, and I asked myself from which marketer I want to buy. I put him on a list and I wrote a note why I buy from him.

Repeat and rinse with other 9 examples. Surprisingly, on the last list instead to have 10 different names, because I search 10 examples, I end up with a list of 6 persons because same names repeat themselves; I call this list People I want to buy from.

Then I intersect:

•  People I want to buy from list with
•  Professional Internet Marketers list, and with 
•  Quality Crowd list.

I come out with a list of 3 names.

Following my logic, those 3 names are people that

• do a professional work on Internet marketing
• they advertise only products of value as they do want their  business to be respected, and
• they convince me to buy from them.

This is what I did, I cancel all my memberships and I keep only the 3 memberships from the last list, which in my mind produce the best value for me.

Now I sleep well, I replace 14 e-mails, with 3 e-mails from people I trust, respect, and the most important they are able to produce value for me.

Find a way to automate repeating tasks.

I bought a great software which can automate tasks for me and gave me back a lot of time to use for creative work.
Please, take a look to this product, it is a learning curve to learn how to use macros on your advantage but is the best buy with the best results if you have the patience of learning to use macros.

The package contain really

• Everything you need to know if you are a beginner
• Everything you need to know to run pre-build macros (they produce instant automation)
• Document all macros which are part of the automation

You will get:

• The Software
• An incredible 338 pages Macro Marketer User Manual
• Training Videos
• Automation Videos
• Automation Blueprint ebook
• The instant automators

The software itself is very intuitive and easy to use. You must start watching the videos and immediately you can start using some of pre-build macros.

Note 1: Sorry, this is a brutal analysis for avoiding Information Overload, but I think is a method to bring value to your business and in time pays off a great deal for you. There is no value on whatever you are doing if you cannot distance yourself from the crowd.

Note 2: This can heart me as well, as I am working to publish soon a new membership site in a very competitive marketing. About some “friendly” commentators, it is a mistake to do it. I don’t think so, as I make the effort to be honest with you, add real value, help others to get in top, and believe in me and in my readers. It is a challenge, Yes, it is, but it isn’t a mistake to work with a competitive marketing.
Ultimately you will be the judge.  I think it is fair! .

All the best for my readers Michaela

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It has been a month with so many events, it is hard to decide among them.

This week we welcome arrival of Amazon’s Kindle 2, wireless reading device.

Amazon Kindle 2

Do you need a kindle 2? Click on the next link.

Kindle 2: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)

For all the details about the new features I have created a Squidoo lens , please look it over.

I don’t want to repeat content, I’ll summarize the beneffits of having a Kindle 2:

• You can select to read from Kindle Store: books, magazines, domestic and foreign newspapers, blogs, all Kindle edition
• The price of all Kindle edition items are very low vs. paper
• Internal mempry of the Amazon Kindle can hold aroud 200 non-illustrated titles, available memory is 1.4 Gigabytes
• You can send documents to a conversion service which will send a Kindle file to the device directly for $.10 or to a personal e-mail account for free
• You can play music from MP3 files
• You have wireless access to Wikipedia and Owner’s manual (both PDF format)
• With new Text-to-Speech teature, Kindle can read to you 
• You can download books under 60 seconds, and read them at your convenience, when and where you can. 

I read an eBook waiting my grandson to get out of his soccer practice, or on the bus coming back from Manhattan,  or I read a magazine waiting on a doctor waiting room and so on.

I have a freedom of reading like never before, the dimensions of Kinder 2 are:

• Display: 6″ diagonal E-Ink® electronic paper display, 600 x 800 pixel resolution at 167 ppi, 16-level gray scale
• Size (in inches): 8″ x 5.3″ x 0.36″
• Weight: 10.2 ounces.

As you can see, I can keep my Kindle 2 in my pocket, so do you.

I already gave a Kindle 2 as a gift to my grandson, and Andrew is reading now 50% more then usual, he starts today practicing his Franch reading articles from a French newspaper and he thinks that I am the best grandmother in the world, he realy likes his Kindle 2!

Regards

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I wrote some blank verses for Inauguration day.
They represent my wishes from  the bottom of my heart:

Let’s put our Stars and Stripes Hat,
Let’s be Americans at heart and wish all the best for our 44th President.

The Inauguration is a turning point; let’s do the best of it
Let’s pledge to work hard
Let’s be productive in all we do
Let’s pray for wise decisions, and hope for a quick recovery
Let’s be open, tolerant as we always do
Let’s get the best ideas flowing around
Let’s stop political fights; this will be a real change
Let’s be an example for troubled soles
Let’s help others to do the same

Let’s be proud that we are Americans,
Let’s count on all and each of us, and I know
We the People can do it!

I also published the blank verses on my lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/republicansmemorabilia

I don’t care about the duplicate content in this moment, the event is bigger.

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It is about the right time for Dec. Newsletter that I pledge to get it out around 15th of each month. This is special because is the last newsletter of the year and we are close to special Holidays and the challenges of a new year.

My mini talking points are:
1. Website design – Find out if your Website is meeting its usability requirements!
2. The faster growing Web 2.0 Application – Twitter
3. Holidays and 2009 expectations

——————————————————————

1. Website design – Find out if your Website is meeting its usability requirements!

Website Design is a subject dear to my heart. I have started creating Websites from the scratch long time ago, and I have been a stanch believer on the concept of combining a good looking Site with a useful content. I don’t believe in ugly Websites, even when the content is good. Make sense as I am a fun of Seth Godine’s school of the 3 Rs:

useful  –  unique  -  up-to-date

We always create our Sites with a purpose in mind. We never create a Site for just one time visit, using websites we want to create lists of potential customers, a community of friendly people that coming back again and again to visit out site, and this is the most powerful way to transform potential customers in customers. 

The first impression: unique, pleasant, a warm feeling is what makes me look closer and discover the content. The first 5 seconds of exposure are very important to determine a visitor to stay longer or go away. If the visitor starts browsing your site, the other characteristics are important: easy navigation, clarity, quality content.

The truth of the matter is, after so many years of Website design, we have now good guidelines for website usability, accessibility, and we have a lot of tools to measure those characteristics. The bad news is not everybody follow the guidelines.

The general wisdom is that a Website must have:

• Easy Navigation, and map side for large WS
• Functionality, Clarity, and Consistency
• User Control, everything a user wants to do, must be available: search, cancel, sign-in, read more, contact us, about us. Don’t leave the impression that you have something to hide, put your picture, address, email, your Twitter count, Alexa count. This is the way you will build trust
• Content of high relevance presented in simple language, avoid jargon, well structure info: clear links, paragraphs, bullets. This is very important that a lot of people first scan and second read or go away
• Content is the king, but don’t hype, be as honest as you can, at this point in history people are sick and tired of hype and sophisticated enough to discover what is hype and what is not
• On-line help and instructions available for sign-in, for download
• An efficient System of User Feedback
• An efficient System of Error Prevention with visible error messages and concise instructions for correction

We have a lot of sources, but for more details, I redirect you to the best source available that also contain learning sites, checklist and guidelines:
http://web.mit.edu/is/usability/usability-guidelines.html

I give you same tools to measure your site usability and accessibility:
http://fivesecondtest.com/   this is a site which will run a quick usability poll for you

http://www.feng-gui.com/  this site shows you the heat map of any image you put in your site, it effectively analyze attention and attraction in visuals (this is important for “5 seconds first impression” I talk about)

To lean more about Usability and Accessibility you can go in forums:
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums

Hang on in forums is always a time well spend, you can learn from others, find best advice, and best people interested in your niche, new ideas, and is fun as well.

If you enjoy this post, let me know, drop a line or two. I’ll come back to this subject, because I believe in the power of “well done” Websites.

2. The faster growing Web 2.0 Application – Twitter

Not all Web 2.0 Applications are equal, and Twitter is really the fastest growing Application.
It is build around a simple question: What are you doing now? And you can respond only in 140 characters or less. Initially I was skeptical but after I tried I discovered why people get into it:

• It  is very simple and easy to communicate, a lot of people is using it as a mini blog
• A perfect way of picking up useful information
• Easy way to find new customers, business partners, pears, friends 
• Excellent opportunity to advertise yourself, your work, services, blogs
• A powerful networking tool, put questions, give answers
• It is addicted and fun 
• You can build a following crowd in a short period of time, anyway quicker then an opt-in list in a website

All I said is valuable but the best profit of Tweeting is build a team of followers, create a community that like you, communicate with you, pay attention to you, get closer to you daily. In time you can brand your business, doing this you make people know you, remember you and finally trust you. 

I don’t advise you to put in front of your follower offers all day long, this will be considered same sort of spam and the people will go away, but if you build correctly the relationship, and brand correctly your business, when you will advertise something this community will pay attention to you, because the felling of knowing you was created, and you will have customers.

In summary: The numbers of so many applications that have been created and are related with Twitter are definitely the proof and the recognition of the value of Twitter. I list just a couple of them:
http://twitter.grader.com
http://tweetdeck.com
http://twittAd.com
http://tweetMyBlog.com
http://TwitWall.com
http://search.twitter.com
http://TwitPWR.com
http://TwitPic.com
The latest I found is: http://itweet.net  it built-in auto-refresh, search and hashtags, full follow, block, notifications features, view user bio, location, URL inline with tweets, and watch conversations with “in reply to” links, awesome!

Play with all of them and you will find something you like it for sure.

3. Holidays and 2009 expectations 

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