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Free Video Recording/Editing Software! Yea, Camtasia!

There’s an amazing deal going on over at The Warrior Forum right now.

To get more people to upgrade to Camtasia v5 they’re giving away Camtasia v3 - which will record your desktop, you can edit video…it’s a great program if you’re planning on teaching people almost anything.

It’s also the best way to turn your powerpoint presentation into a movie that can be put up on YouTube, etc.

As with all Warrior Forum posts…make sure to read the comments after, not just the juicy first post. There’s more good information in there.

One last thing. The first time I went to the .exe link in the thread, it wouldn’t install completely. I redownloaded the .exe file from the website and it worked just fine that time…so if you encounter a glitch, don’t freak out…just try again!

Go get yours HERE….before it goes away… (I don’t know if it will go away, but better safe than sorry!)

Have faith in your dreams

I give thanks for my dreams. I also give thanks for yours. I hope you do too.

Because you never, ever know where you will be one year from now.

Here is a great reminder of how, no matter what anyone else says, you just might have a phenominal idea…the only way you’ll ever know is to stick with it! Enjoy it, it’s a quick read and there’s even a fun little video!

Click Here to Read Disney’s Folly

Best Blogging T-Shirt Ever

If there is a cooler T-shirt in the world, I haven’t seen it….

I figure this is at the very least a fun shirt, and at the most…a potential client snagger.

Either way it’s so very, very true. If you’re at the Orland Park Sephora today, I’ll be wearing this…come over and say hello!

Want one for yourself? Go over to Despair, Inc. and get one!

If you have a blog, and want more than 0000002 readers, call me!

Glenn Beck vs. Dr. Oz - Who has more “Pants Appeal?”

Alternate Title for this Post: Marketing your pants off!

Glen Beck has a great article about Dr. Oz and his magical scrubs. The ones that he wears (in my opinion) to stay sterile around Oprah.

Some may think that Dr. Oz is just SUCH a snappy dresser in real life that perhaps Oprah was threatened that her wardrobe would pale in comparison. Others may think that he’s just trying to be more “dignified” or exert his expert status by wearing the clothing of his trade.

But I know the truth. (Allegedly)

Dr. Oz likes to play with messy things. I’ve seen him with a wheelbarrow full of fat, and that was messy and gross. Not seen in person, of course, I mean seen on Oprah - well, really it was on YouTube, because I don’t watch Oprah on a regular basis.

So, yeah, he’s messy…I figure you don’t want to be wearing a $2k Armani when you’re on Oprah playing with chicken fat. Or any of the other various and sundry things he messes with on the show. If he only wore scrubs when something fun and gross was going to occur, it would be a dead giveaway if he came out wearing a suit 90% of the time and then just came out in scrubs when the messy stuff was going to go down.

And Oprah is all about the suspense. I think. It was when I watched it last.

Either way, I really enjoyed what Glenn Beck had to say about Dr. Oz and his constant scrub-wearing. Enjoy!

Wired Magazine Editor in Chief blocks PR People

WOW!

I’ve been trying to understand PR lately. I’m told it’s completely different than marketing, I’ve seen the lines blur…but stay intact…for a while now. But to stay up to date I figure the smartest thing I can do is learn about PR.

So today’s Google Alerts comes in and I was astounded! The Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine (one of my looooong time favorites) listed, on his blog, the email addresses of the people he feels have sent him inappropriate pitches in the last 30 days.

There are about a gajillion people on the list. Go take a look at his post “Sorry PR people: you’re blocked”

There are also over 300 comments on the blog post. Some from PR people on the list, some from PR people not on the list and a whole bunch of people cheering him on for what he’s done.

So…I’ve learned that PR is volatile *grin*

Also, I think that newbies may have a good chance here - to learn how to do it the right way from the beginning. Make some calls, ask some questions, be polite…I mean…there are so many news outlets all looking for news. You have news. At some point there has to be an intersection between the need and the deliverable.

On the bright side, the company Marketing Curve uses for our clients’ PR needs was NOT on the list! WooHOO! (I mean, I knew she wouldn’t be, but you never know….)

Social Networking - Still not convinced?

I was watching my most guilty-ist of pleasures a little bit ago and it just hit me that it’s really a new breed of television show.

We all have TV shows we watch now, or used to watch, that we’re not particularly proud of…so I’m just saying…don’t judge *laugh*

I’ve been watching Gossip Girl on the CW - I *think* it’s a “tweener” show. But I’m not entirely sure. I know that they’re mostly supposed to be high school seniors, but there is a pretty intricate backstory (and plots!) for all the adults as well. They’re not just “wah wah wah” characters like Charlie Brown used to have. That’s what I tell myself when I’m watching it and thinking about how darn young most of the main characters look!

So, enough about my tawdry TV habits - the point here is that the entire premise of Gossip Girl is a blog. A blog about the “elite of New York” (more specifically Manhattan’s Upper East Side) with all the posts signed (you guessed it) Gossip Girl. The intro and out-tro are both voiced by “Gossip Girl” as well. It’s used very subtly in the show, they don’t say blog or talk about Gossip Girl…it’s just something that “is” in this world of excess on the CW.

Seriously. A blog.

If you visit the site you’ll see even more bells and whistles. An interactive menu, fashions available at Victoria’s Secret, complete with picking a character and getting specific item suggestions (if you want to see how to execute a cross promotion in a world where commercials are mostly optional…this is a good site to check out.) There’s even a video game where you can pretend to be one of the characters. Wait, I’m not sure on that…in the interest of research I’ll have to check it out right quick.

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Ok, I’m back. OH MY GOSH! If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll see that I’ve blogged about the online video game Second Life a couple of times - well guess where the Gossip Girl’s hometown is located in cyberspace?? You guessed it again! Second Life!

Second life had some problems recently, but it really seems to be making a resurgence - this time among the masses instead of geeky gamers (like me) and other Internet snobs that found it a while ago.

I just saw Second life in CSI:NY a while ago (I know, my DVR is filled with shows you’d call [sardonically] “nuttin but class”.) There’s a CSI:NY section in Second Life as well - or so I was told by the eight thousand commercials telling me to go solve the crime now! Wow. Last time I went there were no people (except those trying to get naked - for journalistic purposes I tried to get a job in Second Life but all that was available that I could find was stripper or escort…not my style…so you haven’t seen a blog post about it.)

Maybe I need to log back in and see what’s going on in the world of the Lindens. It seems they may have lost a lot of gamers…but wow…they may just capture the world instead. Interesting, indeed!

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Last but not least, in searching for an image to use for this entry, I stumbled upon something I think is amazing. The show Gossip Girl is based on a series of bestselling novels (written for teens) - and I think we all know how I feel about books…

My guilty TV pleasure may turn into a guilty book pleasure. Strictly for research purposes…of course…

Blogging, Tagging, and Memes

When you’re blogging…even for business…you will occasionally cross the line into the personal. But it’s your choice how personal you want to get. (Your branding plays a part in this!)

Memes are fun little questionnaires, and when someone fills one out they have to pick three people to fill them out as well. That’s called tagging…and the people who are picked have been “tagged” - make sense?

Well this all came out because Tammy Munson over at New Media VA tagged me for a Meme. This gives me exposure on her blog, because she has my name with a link back to my page…and when I talk about her I’ll link back to her webpage…giving her a link and exposure on my blog.

It’s a very non-intrusive way to do the whole “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” thing.

The subject of this Meme is “Seven things you may not know about me”

So here goes:

1. My favorite sound is the one a 2400 baud modem makes.
2. I’ve been blogging since November 10th, 1999.
3. I LOVE football (Go Bears!)
4. My local microbrewery was named Best Small Brewpub at the Great American Beer Festival.
5. I was raised by my great-grandmother.
6. I love planes. I especially love take-offs and landings when I’m on a plane.
7. My favorite color is pink.

The reason Memes are great is that when you find one on a blog where you know the author, if you then end up at a conference or networking event together…you have something to talk about beyond the weather and the food. This is valuable information that can enable you to make a personal connection with someone much sooner, and the faster you can make that connection, the more likely they are to remember your name when they have a need for your services (or are looking for someone to invite to the Bears game with an extra ticket.)

This is how friends are made.

I’d like to tag:
Kelly McCausey
Tishia Lee
Patty Dost

Now you wait a few…and they should have their responses up. (That’s how it works in a perfect world. You will find that people won’t always post your Meme…but that’s okay…)

Edited to add: And sometimes you’ll have smarty-pants comments that people have already been tagged and you’re a little too late….so you add someone that you should have thought of in the first place and should IN NO WAY feel like a second choice. In my case, that awesome person is:
LaTara Ham-Ying of Vegan Family Living

Blogging Made Easy(er)

I heard that a local-ish CoC blog presentation this week-ish was less than helpful-ish.

Now there is an entire group of people in the city of Chicago that think blogging is difficult and time consuming. How awful is that?

I’m here to tell you a few truths: Read more

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