Did you make a resolution this year? Mine was to spend more time sharing the cool things I find around the Internet with you. So… to start things off, I would like to share one of my favorite productivity tools — Action Machine.

If you are at all like me — and you get distracted on the web – timers are a great aid to getting focused. Action Machine takes this one step further and allows you to create timers for all the tasks in your day. The days that I’ve used Action Machine effectively – I’ve gotten an incredible about of work done. Action Machine also adds up all your estimated times so that you don’t overschedule your day. I am *very* guilty of this.

I only use Action Machine in it’s most simple format. I know that you can set recurring timers, set timers that match up with goals, etc. You can also take notes on the different tasks (I find this VERY helpful).

If you think this might help you, You can check it out here. Currently, Derek Franklin, is offering a special where you also get his Day Launcher system as a bonus.

Here’s a quick video I made to show you how action machine works.

One of the first things my clients want to do (usually just after they set up  their website) is to set up a webinar course/membership site.  There are generally two things that make this difficult.  The first is that there is a technological learning curve.  To set up a good webinar series, you need:

• a website (with a way for students to make comments — i.e. a WordPress blog)
• an autoresponder (to send out class notifications)
• a place to host videos
• a way to take payments (usually paypal to start)
• a webinar hosting service (i.e. Go to Webinar)

The above list can seem very overwhelming if you are just getting started with online marketing.  It can also be expensive to hire someone to set all the above up for you.

The other obstacle (which isn’t talked about as much) is that many subject matter experts have no clue how to present the information in a way that makes sense to adult learners.

Most “course in a box” systems like moodle, kajabi, jigsaw and the like address the first point (although expensively) but not the second.  The thing I really like about Ruzuku is that if forces you to structure the course in a way that people can learn from it.   Here is my video review of Ruzuku that shows you how easy it is to set up an effective course.

While many “course making” services cost hundreds a month, Ruzuku is still in its early adopter phase, so you can run unlimited courses for $39. And… and if you are lucky, you might even get a year’s worth of Ruzuku for free. They are running a contest, take their intro course and get 5 entries. The winner gets a free year of Ruzuku plus a free copy of Copyblogger’s flagship course – Teaching Sells. Click here to enter.

Many of my clients seem overwhelmed when considering what keywords to choose for their site (and social media profiles). It really just boils down to knowing what your customers are looking for and making sure that your site both echos and answers the question. Here’s a video where I share more information on how to choose the right keywords for your business.

Just as people have different learning styles – they also have different “presenting” styles. Some are natural writers, some excel at teleseminars and others are natural video stars. If you can do all of the above you have a great chance of standing out. Here’s a quick video on using audio and video to market your business.   You’ll learn how to choose and how to do it all if you want to.

One of my goals for this year is to add more video to my business.  Video is now more effective than audio in promoting your web page…  And, I’m told that once you get the hang of it – it is actually faster to shoot a quick video than to write an article.  My sticking point with this is that I hate to see myself on video – so I tend to do screencasts.  I also know that I can’t hide behind the computer forever.  This short video from Ruth Sherman  gives some great tips on how to overcome “video freak out”  with about a half hours’ work.   Are you avoiding seeing yourself on video?  Post your thoughts in the comments.

Are you wondering what the new facebook insights mean? At first, I couldn’t really make heads or tails of it. After all – what is true reach? And what how does facebook determine how many people are talking about my post? And is a high virality score a good thing?

Big hat tip to the Hubze blog for this great infographic on that explains all the changes an an easy to understand way.

Yesterday, I posted a video about how to upload and manipulate images in WordPress. Today’s video is about how to do light editing of videos in the You Tube interface. Obviously, YouTube is not as powerful as Camtasia or professional video editing software, but the quick editor allows you to flip the video, trim it (useful for when you don’t click the record button quickly enough, and stabilize the image. If you want to get creative – there are a bunch of fun color corrections you can do. You can also work with the contrast, fill and color saturation. I find this useful when I’m doing videos where I’m actually on camera — especially at home where I have skylights — so the room is too bright most of the time.

I recently discovered a cool WordPress trick – adding and editing images from within WordPress. This is a huge timesaver. I used to have to edit the images in Photoshop and then FTP them to the web server. Now, that can be done completely within WordPress for very simple edits (cropping images, rotating, flipping). If you want to do the more serious stuff, you need to use a photo editor – but about 75% of the time – the WordPress editor works great for my purposes. The picture on the blog is the one that I edited in the the video below which shows you how to add your images and edit them in WordPress.

We are in the midst of a massive societal change — as big as the Industrial Revolution.  Big changes cause big suffering…  Just look at the We are 99% blog (or just talk to your neighbors, friends and family) to get a sense of how much we all are suffering.My business mentor Anastacia Brice posted the link to the 99% site on her blog last week.  The comments ranged from “this is terrible, what can we do”  to some very pointed political solutions.  The whole conversation (and the follow up conversation I had with Anastacia about her post) has been swirling around in my head for the past week or so…

I’ve come to three conclusions:

1. We are moving to a new system of production.  The Industrial Revolution was all about creating a work where more people could have access to tools in order to work.  Now, jobs that require tools can be done elsewhere – the jobs that matter in the future are the ones that include technology and ideas and allow people to have their own tools.  This article by Seth Godin explains how this movement is taking place.  We are moving back to a place were there are more independent workers and instead of working for one company – you work for several.

2. The problem with this is that most people aren’t trained in these skills.   People are going to have to get much better at marketing themselves (constantly) as well as learning the technology, and managing the financial part of a business.  Most people right now are having trouble managing their personal finances… Even worse,  according to economic Jeffery Sachs, our beleaguered education system is not producing workers that are skilled enough to justify the high wages we’re used to. Our system needs to teach kids “how to fish” – how to find and analyze information to solve problems rather than memorizing facts to pass tests.  Happy to say that my daughter attends a school that focuses on teaching thinking skills.

3. Our current safety net is strongly tied to a society in which at least one person in each household is employed by a corporation.   Many people get jobs just for the health insurance or because they don’t want to deal with the added taxes and bookkeeping required to own their own business.

There is a lot that needs to be done on the macro level to make the country more friendly to micro-businesses. Health insurance and other safety net programs need to be decoupled from traditional employment (or at least made accessible to the self-employed).  We need to make some serious financial and “thought”  investments in education so that our children are internationally competitive.  Programs need to be created to teach people to sell their skills in the open marketplace.

When I think of all that has to happen… I start to get overwhelmed.  Then, I realize that, on a micro level,  I am making a difference every day in my business.

Those of us who support virtual businesses are at the vanguard of this revolution.  We are in a position to make a serious difference and to help shape the future of our country.  Every time, we teach someone how to get clients that don’t live in their town – we are making a difference.  Every time we help set up the payment systems, websites, autoresponders, we are making a difference and helping to create a better future for our country.

Viva la Revolution!

Here are some of my favorite blog posts from this week.

Although I try to get keep my e-mail box clear – it is a constant challenge  – In her post, How to Get Your E-mail Inbox to Zero, Tamar Weinberg lays out a solid plan that allows you to keep your to dos in your box AND to respond to e-mails quickly,  I think I’m going to try it out this week.

The web is becoming more and more visual.  I have a hard time finding good images for my posts (and for my client posts)  Michelle Schaffer shares some great ideas for creating your own images for your posts.  I made one for the picture that goes with this post.

One of the things that seems to worry people in online marketing a lot – is whether or not they’ve chosen the right niche.  According to Lynn Terry – the answer isn’t hard.  Are you having fun?  If you are you are probably in the right niche.  It was good to hear that.

Another very useful post came from Sara Cook.  Sara writes about a brain dump system using sticky notes  where you write what you have to do on sticky notes before you go to bed.  I tried this earlier this week and I slept very well — and got a lot done the next day!  Helen Rappy takes this concept a bit further in your Overwhelm Rescue Kit

Finally,  many posts this week were about the passing of Steve Jobs.  I am an apple user and an admirerer — but I had no idea that he said so many profound things.  EOX graphics put together a nice post with 5 great Steve Jobs quotes

Have a great week!