tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729523262235693292024-03-06T00:33:10.271-08:00SEO and Social Media InsightsAirSafe Media shares insights gained from managing the online presence and online advertising for hundreds of web sites and online marketing companies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-24199747390768173902014-10-14T17:35:00.001-07:002014-10-15T22:38:23.258-07:00Basic tools for online business collaboration<p>The technology of the Internet, especially all the freely available tools like Twitter and Gmail, are a key part of any business that relies in any way on the Internet, and that involves two or more people to make the business run.</p>
<p>If you're thinking of being an online entrepreneur, or even if you are thinking of working with other people to develop an idea that may one day become a business, you'd be smart to have a handful of tools that are ready to use so that when the idea hits, or when you find one or more collaborators, you can immediately get down to business.</p>
<p><b>Why go to the trouble of getting these collaboration tools?</b>
<br>Quite simply, these tools allow you to use the Internet to freely share information (as in without restriction and also without cost) with a group of people without letting outsiders see what you are doing or thinking. While you can certainly use email to trade ideas and messages back and forth, the tools mentioned in this article make it easier to share other things like documents, photos, and media files.</p>
<p><b>What every business needs</b>
<br>Most businesses, even businesses that don't have a product or service ready just yet, will have a few basic needs, namely the ability to communicate amongst the people working in the business; the ability to create, edit, and share documents; and the ability to communicate with the outside world.</p>
<p><b>ACTION STEP - get Gmail</b>
<br>Probably the smartest thing to do is to get a Gmail account. If you already have an account, get another one that'll be used strictly for your business. In fact, if you don't stop right now and take a few minutes to get your new Gmail account, stop reading this article because otherwise you are wasting your time.</p>
<p><b>AFTER ACTION EXPLANATION - Why is Gmail important?</b>
<br>There are a lot of reasons to use Gmail, but maybe the most important is that Gmail is run by Google, and when you get a Gmail account, you get access to dozens of other useful free Google tools. Some, like Google Docs (described below) are immediately useful, and others may come into play later. Another important reason to get a new Gmail account, even if you already have one, is that it is good to keep your personal affairs separate from your business affairs, especially email. </p>
<p><b>After you get your new Gmail account</b>
<br>Your first steps after getting your Gmail will getting your other basic tools. for all of your other business related accounts that are necessary. The following are the minimum set of basic tools you should have, and why they are useful:</p>
<ul><li><b>Google Docs</b>: This is like an online Microsoft Office, allowing your to create and edit word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentation slides. Just as important, you can allow one or more people edit those documents, even simultaneously.You can also export Google Docs in formats that work with Microsoft Office.</ul>
<ul><li><b>Twitter</b>: Before you start using it for work related collaboration, you can use Twitter to get update in real time on events of wide interest to individuals or the news media. For business, it can be one of your best free marketing tools. </ul>
<ul><li><b>Bitly</b>: This is a tool that allows you to shorten URLs, and more importantly track how many times someone clicks on the link. This can be used to measure aspects of your marketing efforts, and to measure what topics if of interest to your audience.</ul>
<ul><li><b>Dropbox</b>: This is an online storage application that allows you to share files with people who are not your collaborators, including your audience.</ul>
<p><b>What about web sites?</b>
<br>Web sites are still an important part of any business strategy, but at the beginning of any collaboration, it may be too early to think about getting a web site. However, by getting a Gmail account, you also get a freee Blogger account, which you can use to create a very basic web site.</p>
<p><b>What about Facebook and LinkedIn?</b>
<br>Both of these social media sites may be useful later on for promoting your idea or project. Since they are both connected to an individual, you may want to go ahead and one or both for your own reasons, but you don't need them to collaborate online.</p>
<p><b>What should I do now?</b>
<br>If you actually followed the advice earlier in the article and created a new Gmail account, use that account to sign up for Twitter, Bitly, and Drobox. After that, get your collaborators on board with the idea of using these tools. If you don't have collaborators, start looking.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-46166977021049816362014-01-14T22:40:00.002-08:002014-01-14T22:40:36.767-08:00Listening to music online<p>Using my computer. I go through three different music-listening apps pretty seamlessly; Spotify, iTunes and Grooveshark. Of the three I would say that Grooveshark is my favorite to use.</p>
<p>There are a couple reasons for this. Part of its cache comes from the fact that it is a somewhat forgotten medium from the last generation of mp3 listening/downloading platforms--including Pandora (still going strong), Songza, and the lesser known Dogpile. The other is that Grooveshark started out with an ambitious goal, providing free streaming music on the internet with the maximum amount of individual choice. Basically a YouTube but for music.</p>
<p>In this sense it would be a mix of Pandora, which based its image around the fact that there is a seemingly unending supply of songs that can be played on a custom radio station, and iTunes, which gave you the kind of comprehensive selection that no physical record store could promise. With Grooveshark all the music is at your fingertips. Since all music is uploaded by users (which hover around the tens of millions) you end up with a free for all of music that even iTunes cannot compete with.</p>
<p>As a result you get to find obscure artists, obscure albums by popular artists, popular artists and artists that refuse to have their music for sale in a digital market place or music-streaming service (Frank Zappa is a particularly notable artist whose music has shirked the grasp of juggernauts like iTunes and Spotify).</p>
<p>However, this idealistic marketplace has its obvious down sides. For awhile, the group of University of Florida students who started this company were able to do exactly what they wanted. Living an ultra realized version of the start up fantasy life that so many entrepreneurially minded techies would dream of.</p>
<p>There was the fact that they were actually making revenue, but there was also the essence that these were true techies, people like hackers, shaking the system with an innovative approach to marketing and internet commerce. However, the company, as a result of its vision, has run into continued legal troubles.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, and very impressively, they have been able to surmount orders from major record labels, including EMI, and continue to provide free music in a way that no other service can.</p>
<p>To me it is surprising that more people aren't using it. Surely this repels a certain number of people averse to listening to artists without compensating them, even so it seems like sites YouTube have already democratized the media consumption experience and gotten people used to the fact that you don't have to do the things they way we used to and that in fact, yes, we can do something outlandish like listen to a full album, watch a full television episode, even watch a rare interview between two luminaries; all of these would be impossible without the advent of the knowledge-democratizing medium known as the Web.<p>
<p>I, as an individual, am not particularly bothered by the fact that using Grooveshark would in the eyes of a traditional consumer constitute stealing. For one, it's so fun to use because there is so much out there (very literally any artist you can conceive of, within reason, should have something on there). Secondly, because there is so much to choose from, it makes it easy to search for related artists and discover new sounds. Thirdly, you find yourself connected to a large community of people who regularly upload and curate their collections, as well as broadcast individual music radio stations, and talk to each other through sharing music.</p>
<p>I commend the people behind Grooveshark immensely, because I think it is a music listening model that is perfect for the music, and most accurately reflects the way people listen to music currently. Barring anymore serious legal issues, I see a lot of good things in Grooveshark's future. From my view it seems that it has nowhere to go but up, as more people catch on to how exciting their blend of art and commerce is.</p>
<p>I would say the next step would be, somehow (and I can expound on this later), making Grooveshark and ideal place for independent artists and small labels to place their music. How this will work with more traditional media such as physical or digital album/single purchase we will say, but for now I'd have to say that Grooveshark is the underground king of internet music.</p>
<p><i>- Alex Curtis</i></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-15385599838363185422013-12-26T08:59:00.002-08:002014-03-21T05:59:44.346-07:00Using the cloud is not as complicated as it sounds<p>One thing that you can count on in the online world is the use of buzzwords and buzz phrases, which are nothing more than a kind of shorthand to explain a subject or a concept in just a few words. When used by people who both have a common understanding of what those words and phrases mean, it enhances communication. When only one side in a conversation understands the concept, or worse, if no one understands the concept and someone is just spewing hype, then real communication may be difficult. </p>
<p>One area where this has taken off in recent months is in the area of cloud computing. While definitions vary, one way to think of cloud computing is as follows. In the early days of personal computers, all your programs had to be in that computer, so if you wanted 10 computers with the same capability, that you had to have 10 sets of identical computer programs. With cloud computing, that capability is in some remote computer or remote computer network, and those 10 computers are sharing that capability. </p>
<p>Want another example? If you use Gmail or one of the other online email services, you are using cloud computing. You can log into your email account from any computer with a browser and an online connection. While Google is known for offering Gmail, Blogger, and other cloud-based services to the public, companies like Zoho offer business related services in the same way, allowing simultaneous access to the same resource, for example a database, from multiple locations around the world. <a href="https://www.zoho.com/support/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Zoho Support</a> is a service that comes with their cloud offerings, with the amount of support depending on the kind of service and the number of users in an account. </p>
<p>With cloud computing, the key things to remember if you are considering using any cloud service are the following:</p>
<ul><li>Cloud computing is not a mysterious subject, and you are likely using it even now.
<li>Cloud computing could be used to perform most functions traditionally performed on an individual computer or on private networks.
<li>If someone is using cloud computing type buzzwords to convince you to spend your money, treat that person like a seller of used cars and do your own independent research before you reach any agreement.
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-17865474666143685722013-12-03T21:50:00.000-08:002013-12-03T21:50:33.949-08:00Twitter’s Efficacy in Aiding Social Transformation<p>I talked last week about how Twitter makes life on the Internet easier. You can customize your allegiance to certain products, celebrities, and even people in your real-life, carbon-based social network. This week I’ll be a little more specific and talk about how Twitter makes social transformation, big and small, easier than ever before. In this article I’ll focus on how Twitter makes it easier to be funny and how in turn humor can lead to social change. </p>
</p>Twitter is easily translatable into the language of irony: brief, content heavy statements meant for immediate impact and in some cases prolonged relevance. For example, a particularly cogent tweet could, in another context, be a powerful bit of dialogue in a movie, comedy or otherwise. If you’re a stand up, you no longer have to “grind it out” on the underground circuit for years hoping that the big break will come your way. </p>
<p>There are a thousand potential George Carlin’s and Bill Cosby’s out there waiting to be heard who may not have ready access to a comedy club where they can test out material. Twitter in this case serves as the intermediary that open mics and road gigs used to be by necessity. Used effectively, one can acquire a sizable fan base through consistent activity on Twitter and other sites like it, as well through a process of shrewd and comprehensive personal branding.</p>
<p>I say this because it is also much easier to cultivate an audience of like-minded people than ever before. We don’t live in an age where artistic viability is judged solely on how broadly appealing one is, whether that’s in their comedy, or any art form they choose to practice. That is not to say of course that we should prevent someone from becoming the next John Lennon or James Brown, inspiring people with a timeless message while rocking super hard at the same time, but someone who is trying to make their way in the artistic or pop-cultural game no longer has to look to these monoliths as the only way to make a living and be influential. </p>
<p>Indeed, part of the revolutionary part of Twitter is that everyone can get up and reach an audience almost immediately. As they develop, they develop as a collective instead of in isolation. Being on Twitter, or any other active social networking site, is like the 21st century version of being at a speakeasy, coffee shop, or a hip socialist bookstore in the not-yet-gentrified part of town. You can make a tangible difference on the world without leaving your bedroom.</p>
<p>In short, the action required for social change can take many forms, big and small. With Twitter, and the Internet as a whole, relevant information is effectively organized and instantly accessible to all curious parties. That, combined with the human desire to connect to others, and humor’s power in not only easing social tension but also in speaking truth to power, make Twitter an ideal climate for cultivating both widespread civil disobedience and cathartic, brain-cleansing laughter in equal measure.</p>
<br>- Alex CurtisUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-82008070467397310942013-11-23T11:25:00.000-08:002013-12-03T21:50:51.091-08:00Why Twitter makes life on the Internet easier<p>It goes without saying that the Internet is an invaluable resource, and Twitter is one of the most influential Internet companies (along with meta-brands like Google and Facebook) that are defining how we all relate to one another on this vastly interconnected global network. Twitter is one of these companies. It’s been at the epicenter of major political uprisings for more than two years now (Arab Spring and other movements), and rivals both YouTube and Facebook as the number one source for cultural content on the web.</p>
<p>That being said, Twitter is not without its faults. One issue is how hard it can be for someone to navigate their list of followers and people they follow, what groups they are a part of, what they’re friends are doing, etc. This can lead to a lot of anxiety, and as a 20-something trying to navigate myself through this crazy world, I’m not an exception.</p>
<p>Here are a couple reasons why you should embrace Twitter and not fear it.</p>
<p><b>It makes contacting people easier</b></p>
<ul><li>Communication is brief (140 characters or less).
<li>It forces you to come up with something quickly, if not concisely.
<li>Twitter is compatible with essentially all other social apps.</ul>
<p><b>It broadens your social network</b></p>
<ul><li>On your Twitter stream, what your friends say can be directly followed by what your favorite artist, humanitarian cause, or blog has to say about their day or upcoming events.
<li>It’s very easy to connect from one article to another.
</ul>
<p><b>You can appeal to different parts of your audience</b></p>
<ul><li>Everybody relates to the Internet differently.
<li>Those who do not like long articles may appreciate brief synopses, short jokes, poetry, aphorisms, etc.
<li>Those who do not like its brevity will appreciate the rapid generation of new content.
<li>It’s easy to adjust your friend network without fear of repercussions (most twitter accounts are public and thus viewable to anyone on the internet).</ul>
<p>This is just a rough outline of why Twitter is such a good resource. I’ll get into a more specific analysis in my next article, where I discuss Twitter’s efficacy in aiding social transformation. But for now, if you have a Twitter account and you’re wondering how to make more use of it I would suggest doing at least one of these things.</p>
<p>If you have a cause you’re passionate about, follow it online and read through what they have to say. Odds are you’ll learn something you didn’t know before. After all, isn’t that what the Internet is all about?</p>
<br>- Alex CurtisUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-16412907712573511872013-11-15T06:15:00.001-08:002013-11-15T06:15:13.841-08:00Bad Online Habits<p>Being informed is important. The Internet is widely used and journalism is spread throughout the information superhighway. There are a dozen different ways to get your content and stay engaged with current events and important social issues. This is all very fine and good. A bad habit that I can still see though is the almost dogmatic adherence to specific news organizations/journals/political blogs, etc.</p>
<p>The same bad habits that apply to traditional news consumption (sticking to one particular news outlet let MSNBC or Fox News) apply to the proliferation of content options on the Web. No matter how many facts are really out there, people are going to remain uninformed, to a degree.</P>
,p>Multitasking as we all know can be distracting. This is another habit so ubiquitous that it is taken for granted as part of the 'new age' of Internet culture. For example, listening to an entire musical artist's discography while writing a paper due the next day and chatting with friends about the upcoming weekend's events can be seen as a normal evening's workload. This is surprising, even to me as someone who practices against these habits but so frequently falls into them. This is indicative of a lot of things, about the Internet and it's users, but what I see most clearly in it is a proliferation of the instant access and incredible speed at which the Internet can provide whatever anyone on it--or in it, around it--is looking for. A problem that comes up with this though, is that there is there is so much that I want and no way to choose.</P>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-35230945111459200162013-09-22T20:55:00.000-07:002013-09-22T20:55:10.271-07:00Using Twitter to follow the NFL<p>The NFL is by far the most popular, and profitable, professional sports league in the US (except, perhaps the NCAA, but that is a discussion for a completely different venue), and because it is both popular and profitable, it can do two things with every kind of mass media, force competing media outlets to bid for the right to carry the games, and limit access to their products.
<p>The most sought after product is their live games. If you happen to have a favorite team in your local media market, catching all the games on radio or television is easy since just about every game will be broadcast in the local market. However, if your favorite team is outside of the local market, you may only have a few opportunities to see or hear them on free broadcast media.</p>
<p>Of course, you can always pay for the privilege of watching them play by paying for premium cable channels like ESPN and NFL Network on cable, or for even more high priced options like NFL Sunday Ticket or NFL Red Zone.</p>
<p><b>Best smartphone option - Twitter plus sports.yahoo.com</b>
<br>However, if you are desperate, cheap, or broke, there are a few free options you can try that will give you at least some of the flavor of a live broadcast. If all you have is your smartphone, go to Twitter just before kickoff and find the hashtag that will work best for your team. Usually the team nickname is the easiest to use, and is much better than the city name. For example, if you are a Dallas fan, #cowboys probably works best, and #dallascowboys may also do it for you.</p>
<p>If you are a stats freak, you can bounce between Twitter and Yahoo, specifically sports.yahoo.com. They post updated stats from all the live games, though your Twitter stream will probably be updated more quickly than Yahoo.</p>
<p><b>On a laptop or desktop? Look for an online radio station too</b>
<br>Most teams have a live radio broadcast of their games that you may be able to catch online. The team's web site typically has a list of the radio stations that carry the game live. Most radio stations have online audio streaming, though some may block the stream for NFL broadcasts, especially stations in larger cities. You will often have better luck with stations in smaller towns far away from big cities. Just keep trying stations until you find one that works.</p>
<p>You probably only want to try this option on a laptop or desktop for several reasons. The biggest one is convenience. On a regular sized display, you can probably open two or three windows at once, or at least toggle back and forth between windows or tabs, as you check Twitter and Yahoo while listening to the radio station. Also, the radio stations typically have popups for their streaming options, and many smartphone browsers just can't handle that.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-1181335284818435562013-07-21T22:32:00.000-07:002013-07-23T11:36:38.345-07:00The crash of Asiana flight 214 and the Don Lemon Test<p>As many of you know, in addition to writing about SEO and social media, I've had a long career in aerospace, including time as a flight test engineer in the US Air Force, and a safety engineer at Boeing. Early in my professional career, I had the experience of having some of my research work in a study I coauthored featured in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/01/us/fatalities-higher-on-crowded-jets.html">New York Times newspaper on November 1, 1991</a>. </p>
<p>The next day, I had the experience of seeing the findings of the research twisted for a cheap laugh on <a href="http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/91eupdate.phtml">Saturday Night Live</a>. That led to my first lesson in the power of the media when it comes to aviation safety. It also led me to the concept of the New York Times Test.</p>
<p><b>The New York Times Test</b>
<br><a href="http://www.airsafe-media.com/2009/01/airsafecom-new-york-times-test-and.html">As I described in a 2009 post on this site</a>, The New York Times is a major new media publication that has influence on other news outlets and on society at large. Based on this first experience with being featured in the newspaper, I came up with the "New York Times Test."</p>
<p>The test is a simple one, you can pass the test if you can answer the following question with a resounding yes. If your words or your deeds end up being featured in the New York Times, could you deal with it? Specifically, could you deal with the kind of scrutiny that happens when your family, friends, colleagues, coworkers, and millions of total strangers suddenly take a keen interest in your work?</p>
<p>Would you be prepared to handle criticism, whether it was deserved or not, whether it was honest and fair or mean-spirited and destructive? Did I mention emotional responses like ridicule and jealousy? Also, don't forget about maybe being lampooned on national television.</p>
The New York Times Test doesn't have to involve the New York Times. Any major and influential media outlet will do if the result is a significant amount of follow-on attention. I can say for certain that I've taken the test twice, the first in 1991, and the second after the ditching of the US Airways A320 in 2009. On that occasion, USA Today provided me with a New York Times Test. A page on the AirSafe.com site discussed the history of intentional ditchings involving large jet airliners, and information from that site was prominently featured in a USA Today article, which it turn generated significant attention and online traffic for AirSafe.com.</p>
<p><b>The crash of Asiana flight 214</b>
<br>Earlier this month, a different airline accident led to a completely different kind of media experience, one that deserved to have its own name. On Saturday 6 July 2013, <a href="http://777.airsafe.com">Asiana flight 214, a Boeing 777, crashed while attempting to land in San Francisco</a>. This crash, which killed three passengers, was noteworthy and newsworthy for several reasons. Among those reasons were the fact that it was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 777, it was the first fatal US crash of a large jetliner in almost 12 years, and the crash occurred in a major US media market in broad daylight.</p>
<p>Normally this kind of plane crash results in nonstop coverage by all the major cable news outlets, and when this happens I typically receive multiple media requests for comments or interviews within minutes of a crash. I didn't find out about the crash until about 90 minutes after it happened, and checking my phone, I was quite surprised to see that no one in the media had made any calls or sent any emails or text messages since the crash. I suspected that it was due to the crash happening in the middle of a long weekend.</p>
<p><b>On a four-day weekend the media is on holiday</b>
<br>Because the July 4th holiday fell on a Thursday, the following weekend became a four-day weekend for many in the US, including apparently many in the media. After I found out about the crash, I spent the next half hour reaching out to many of the media contacts in my phone, and it took a while before I got any responses. As it would turn out, the four-day weekend and lack of available on-air experts gave me an opportunity to get on the air, something I had done numerous times in the past, and if the past were any guide, I'd might even have a few minutes of air time on a major cable or broadcast network. I was right about the opportunity, but was completely wrong about the magnitude of that opportunity. </p>
<p><b>Face to face with the anchor</b>
<br>My typical on-air appearance on a national network show is from a remote studio far from the network's headquarters. In my case, I had a call from CNN, and since I was in New York and CNN is headquartered in Atlanta, I expected this to be the case. I figured I'd be in and out in 30 minutes or less and get maybe two minutes of air time. When I showed up, I was first told the anchor was Don Lemon, and I wanted to know where I'd be doing the remote shot. Then I was told that Don wasn't in Atlanta, he was in New York, and I'd be at the desk with him.</p>
<p>Hearing this, I thought I'd get maybe five minutes of air time before I'd be asked to leave and have some other on-air expert would take over. Five minutes turned to fifteen, and fifteen turned to thirty, and it was clear to me that there were no other experts coming to the studio. Six hours later, I finally left the studio, having had a completely new experience, and a new test named for Don Lemon</p>
<p><b>The Don Lemon Test</b>
<br>The Don Lemon Test has three elements. The first part is that it is a New York Times Test, a situation where your words or deeds are on on display through a very high profile media outlet. When it comes to major plane crashes, few are higher than live hours-long coverage of a major disaster by CNN. The second part is being live for an extended period of time, which means one has to not only prepare a few relevant comments ahead of time for a few minutes on the air, but to come up with such comments on very short notice, and to do so many times not over a period of minutes but over a period of several hours.</p>
<p>Because of the amount of time I was in the studio, most of which was spent waiting patiently for the action to move in my direction, I was doing something I don't normally do, which is to check email and the web on the set. Normally I cut off my phone to keep from having what I thought was a silenced phone surprise me by ringing at just the wrong time. However, I didn't have that option. I needed to keep up with constantly evolving information about the crash to help me anticipate what issues I may have had to respond to on the air. I could only do so because the last element of this test was in place.</p>
<p>The third element of a Don Lemon Test is that you have to be in the presence of a truly professional communicator like Don Lemon, someone who can deftly present breaking and tragic news to a world audience, while at the same doing so in the presence of someone whom he had never met and who was also not a professional journalist.</p>
<p>My job for those several hours was to remain in a of state of high focus so I could perform the role of an on-air expert and actually say the appropriate things when called upon. That job wA at times stressful, but it was inconsequential compared to what Don Lemon and his crew were dealing with during my six hour stay, and I commend them for a job well done.</p>
<p><b>It's not about Don Lemon</b>
<br>The Don Lemon Test isn't about Don Lemon, but about the situation. You can pass the test if you can answer the following question: Are you both willing and able, with the help of a team of media professionals, to have your words and deeds scrutinized by a national or even global audience, and do so in a way that will be beneficial to the audience? If the answers is yes, then you pass the test. Having done so once, I would recommend that if you have the opportunity, do plenty of preparation before taking the test, and be ready to deal with the unexpected once the test begins.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-87340001101049073382013-02-03T21:58:00.000-08:002013-02-05T21:58:11.015-08:00Using Google Trends to choose your words<p>Anyone who has online content know that being found by search engines is the key to generating traffic and building an audience. However, having good results for a few key words is not enough. You have to use other words as well that are related and that are commonly used by your potential audience.</p>
<p>The following example is for the fear of flying content on AirSafe.com. The site already scores very highly for the phrase. However, other related aviation terms related words and phrases like "turbulence" and "plane crash" get much more traffic, as the following output from Google Trends suggest. </p>
<hr size="1">
<p><b>Comparing the terms "plane crash," "turbulence," and "fear of flying"</b>
<br><script type="text/javascript" src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=plane+crash,+turbulence,+fear+of+flying&date=1/2008+61m&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=500&h=330"></script></p>
<hr size="1">
<p>One way AirSafe.com takes advantage of this is to put links to the fear of flying content on pages related to turbulence and plane crashes. Another thing that is done is that these highly used search terms are also included in the fear of flying content on the site. </p>
<p>Taking this idea a bit further, fear of flying is related to psychological terms like "anxiety" and "panic." As the following chart shows, the terms "anxiety" and "panic" are used far more frequently than "fear of flying."</p>
<hr size="1">
<p><b>Comparing the terms "plane crash," "anxiety," and "panic"</b>
<br><script type="text/javascript" src="//www.google.com/trends/embed.js?hl=en-US&q=plane+crash,+anxiety,+panic&date=1/2008+61m&cmpt=q&content=1&cid=TIMESERIES_GRAPH_0&export=5&w=500&h=330"></script></p><hr size="1">
<p>As you can see, "anxiety" and "panic" are much more popular search terms than "fear of flying." Based on this kind of data, it would make sense to review text content on AirSafe.com related to fear of flying to include key words associated with the psychological aspects of fear of flying, words that someone may use when looking for insights into their reaction to the flying experience.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-34315319029127709922012-08-05T10:56:00.000-07:002012-08-05T10:56:11.242-07:00Dealing with factual corrections during live TV interviews<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I've been an on on-air television expert discussing airline safety topics for over a decade, serving as one of those aviation safety experts who show up on camera whenever there is a major newsworthy event involving aircraft and danger. <br />
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On-air experts like myself are typically seen only in the studio, and photographed with a head-and-shoulder shot. The term for this kind of guest is a talking head, and I do my best to be the best talking head I can be. Like most talking heads, I've never had any formal training in how to be a talking head, and every time I get the chance to be on the air, there is something to learn, often because of unexpected issues that happen when I am on the air live.<br />
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Last week, I was a guest on CNN's HLN channel discussing an air traffic control situation that occurred 31 July 2012 over Washington, DC. It was a relatively minor incident that received significant media national media attention in the US primarily because it was reported by the Washington Post newspaper, and because the highest levels of the FAA had to respond publicly to the incident. <br />
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Typically, a show's producer wants me to provide the viewer with some context about the event, and my goal is to use the short amount of time I have to give at least one good bit of information.<br />
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In this particular interview, the HLN anchor Isha Sesay introduced me as a retired pilot. When that happened I faced a bit of a dilemma. While I am a pilot, I've never been a professional or military pilot of any kind, and I'm also not retired. I had two choices, ignore the mistaken introduction and go ahead with the interview, or take time to correct the anchor on-air.<br />
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Given that I would have less than 30 seconds of air time, I immediately decided to take the first option and go ahead with the interview. In the second or two that I had before I had to start talking, I concluded that calling me a retired pilot was incorrect, but it wasn't worth taking up limited air time with a correction and running the risk of not being able to provide the audience with useful information. Also, I wasn't introduced as a retired airline pilot or military pilot, which would have been very misleading to the audience. Had that happened, I would have immediately corrected that error.<br />
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In retrospect, one way to avoid this problem was to confer with the producer ahead of time about how I should be introduced by the anchor. However, even if I had done this, the same mistake may have happened. Live television is a very fluid situation, and everyone who is on the air has to do their bit to keep things moving. For all I know, the anchor knew the introduction was wrong the moment it passed by her lips, but like me, she had to keep the conversation moving.<br />
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The two things I work hard to avoid while on the air is silence and wasted words. The silence would have happened if I took too much time to think before I start talking, and the wasted words would have happened if I said things that were not relevant to the task at hand or got in the way of my goal of providing useful information. <br />
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While I always strive for on-air perfection, the two goals that I always have at the top of my mind are to encourage the audience to keep watching and to get invited back for future talking head opportunities. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-24920216499507458942012-07-23T22:24:00.000-07:002012-07-23T22:24:17.110-07:00How to keep technology from taking your jobIn highly industrialized regions of the world such as the North America and the EU, one of the byproducts of rapid innovations in the worlds of high technology and online communication is that more and more tasks that used to be done by people are being outsourced either to technology or to lower wage workers.<br />
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While the trend is most pronounced in wealthy industrialized countries, as the cost of computer and Internet-related technology continues to decline, the trend will inevitably make its way into any country that has relatively easy access and low cost access to the Internet.<br />
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For many kinds of work, the Internet has allowed employers access to a much wider pool of potential employees, often in countries that have much lower wage scales. While hairdressers and gardeners and other kinds of workers who have to be physically present to do the job may be safe from low cost long distance workers, engineers, accountants, doctors, and others who have skills that can be effectively outsourced will likely see much more competition from workers willing to accept lower wages.<br />
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When it comes to high technology, which can take various forms such as artificial intelligence, cloud storage, or remote databases, many jobs can have some or all of their functions done with fewer people, people who don't have to be at a particular location, or without using people at all. <br />
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For example, 20 years ago if a company used a common database to keep track of clients, vendors, transactions, payroll, and other information vital to the operation of the business, it was typically located in a computer or a set of file cabinets that were physically located in the office if it were a small business, or in one or more dedicated location for larger businesses. It also meant that one or more employees were needed to manage the file cabinets, computers, software, and other resources needed to keep the database up and running.<br />
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Today, businesses large and small can pay relatively small amounts of money to a vendor to have all of their databases needs managed remotely, often eliminating the need for many of those employees that they would have used in the past.<br />
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The future is not completely bleak for those whose current jobs may be at risk. There are some things that are difficult or even impossible to do with technology or with remote employees. Workers who have the following kinds of skills will likely have no trouble finding gainful employment (though they may have to be a remote employee):<br />
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<ul><li><b>Mathematical reasoning</b>: While even the simplest computer can crunch the numbers far better than any human, it takes the kind of intuition that comes from experience to understand what questions can be asked, how to ask those questions, how to interpret the results, and how to communicate both the questions and the answers to an audience. <br />
<li><b>Solving open ended problems</b>: These kinds of problems by their very nature can be quite difficult address since the first big challenge is often to understand what the problems or issues may be, as well as framing the problems in ways that can be understood. This is a set of skills that often require a subtle and extensive understanding of the context of the situation and the people who are involved.<br />
<li><b>Managing people</b>: While technology may eliminate the need for most managers by eliminating the need for most employees, the reality is that so long as there are at least two people involved, at least one person has to be engaged in managing that relationship. So far, no computer has come close to being able to do that, and in some situations it may be best to have the manager located in the same place as the people being managed.<br />
<li><b>Writing and communicating</b>: While algorithms can work wonders with basic communication, more complex interactions, by spoken or written word, are still beyond the technologies that will likely be available in the next several decades.<br />
<li><b>Sales and marketing</b>: While technology often provides vital tools for much of the process, the sales and marketing process often needs skilled practitioners to persuade the customer or client to make a particular decision or take a particular action.<br />
<li><b>Anything involving intimate human contact</b>: There are wide range of activities, from child rearing to nursing to live entertainment, where even if the technology existed to perform those tasks more effectively than humans, the customer would accept it. Sometimes it would not have to involve direct physical contact. For example, it is possible to fly aircraft remotely, or to even program an airplane to fly autonomously, but few passengers would willingly choose to fly in aircraft that didn't have a highly trained pilot at the controls. Oddly enough, that same passenger would likely have no problem riding an automated train between airport terminals.<br />
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-6815083346405856162012-03-18T19:17:00.009-07:002012-03-18T20:36:47.613-07:00Sharing ideas and resources from South by Southwest (SXSW)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEtuGOlK1V0A6ZZ82MXWZdOJ6iITJSJ34Y6-Brj4_AoMzEyu6X0MlNuqQ1WVrI5l264REltcqE8CjXVL3ygrgvTJY5IHrv-tU3Vte3dQrtnKoOT_8QAfaIgPCRKQXPPk5n48acm1GxyU/s1600/sxsw-interactive-log.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfEtuGOlK1V0A6ZZ82MXWZdOJ6iITJSJ34Y6-Brj4_AoMzEyu6X0MlNuqQ1WVrI5l264REltcqE8CjXVL3ygrgvTJY5IHrv-tU3Vte3dQrtnKoOT_8QAfaIgPCRKQXPPk5n48acm1GxyU/s320/sxsw-interactive-log.jpeg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721429505777838466" /></a>If you have heard of South by Southwest (SXSW), you may have heard of it as a giant convention of musicians, movie makers, and technologists that takes place every March down in Austin, Texas. <br /><br />There are in fact three very large conferences that overlap each other for 10 days in March. The only one that interested me was SXSW Interactive, a five-day conference that featured emerging online technologies. This was my second time there, and unlike many of those attending, the wild parities lasting until the wee hours and the free beer and wine available starting sometimes before noon were not a big attraction for me, but the chance to interact with thousands of Internet professionals of every stripe was well worth the visit.<br /><br />A lot of the fun of SXSW is running into big ideas worth thinking about. There were many things to take away from SXSW, but four things that I think are worth sharing are an inspirational talk, a novel use of science fiction, my observation of what technology will have a lot of near term attention and development, and some recommended resources for budding technology entrepreneurs:<br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think</span>: A talk by Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation spoke rather passionately about the role that technological development will play in overcoming many of the daunting problems facing the world, from clean water, to population growth, to medical care. <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html">Many of the ideas were also in his TED talk from early 2012</a>. I also recommend his new book Abundance, which goes into much greater detail. While you are at it, check out what he is doing at <a href="http://singularityu.org/">Singularity University</a>, an institution he founded with Ray Kurzweil.<br /><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Using science fiction to advance technology</span>: Brian David Johnson, a writer and futurist at Intel, has been involved in bridging the gap between science fiction and science fact by promoting the use of science fiction writing by actual engineers and researchers in order to better understand the impact that an emerging technology may have on society. If this sounds at all interesting, I recommend visiting Intel's <a href="http://techresearch.intel.com/tomorrowproject.aspx">The Tomorrow Project </a> where you can download an anthology of science fiction stories from the likes of Cory Doctorow ans will.i.am. You can also reading one of his technical papers on <a href="http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/yoshi/papers/SIGCSE/csefp118-kohno.pdf">using science fiction to help computer science students understand computer security</a>, <br /><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">The role that smart phones will play</span>: If I had to judge where the near term action will be by the number of presentations, the amount of exhibitor space, the level of hype, and apparent venture capital interest displayed at SXSW, it will be the role that smart phones will play both as tools that more people will use to go online and as places where much money will be invested and where many young minds will toil. I won't bore you with the numbers, but I will say that the number clearly show that where there is explosive growth of Internet access in the developing world, it has been through the spread of smartphones in areas where there were barely even telephones 10 years ago. In the rest of the world, when was the last time you saw consumers stood in line to buy something that was not a smartphone or a tablet? <br /><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Useful resources for a startup company</span>: There were plenty of pitches from new companies looking for funding and other backing, and I saw many of them in the <a href="http://www.s.co/">Startup America</a> area of SXSW. It was very, very clear that smartphone apps that emphasized social media in a local context were all the rage. Startup America was also clearly funding by many tech heavyweights, and were quite generous at giving out freebies, from candy, coffee, and wine, to a rather interesting book from Steve Blank and Bob Dorf called <a href="http://www.stevenblank.com/startup_index_qty.html">The Startup Owners Manual</a>. At SXSW, they were free and were practically thrown at people like Mardi Gras beads. However, if you are at all serious about starting an Internet related enterprise or working with a startup company, check out the book. It will be worth whatever Amazon is charging.<br /></ul><br /><br />P.S. If you're thinking about going to SXSW next year, book your hotel early, and be prepared to have some very long and interesting days.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-27418937549843256882012-03-10T10:51:00.000-08:002012-03-10T10:51:00.149-08:00LinkedIn answers coupled with ReaderUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-83437509109479686312012-01-22T08:18:00.000-08:002012-01-22T09:10:23.203-08:00IRS changes for 2012 and your PayPal accountDo you get payments from PayPal? If you do, the IRS has your number. That number being the amount of money you received from PayPal. What does this mean for you? If you are not subject to US taxes, it doesn't mean anything. If you do have to fill out a US federal tax return, then this means that the US government knows how much you received from PayPal and may be upset if you don't pay your taxes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Who has to pay US taxes?</span><br />For individuals, if you are not a US citizen and did not live or conduct business in the US, then you don't pay US taxes, even if you received income from the US (either directly or through a third party payment processor like PayPal). The situation is similar for companies. If your company has no presence in the US, it typically is not subject to US taxes. If you don't fit into these categories, then you have to pay attention to US tax laws and regulations. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What's changed for 2011?</span><br />Starting in 2011, third-party payment providers like PayPal (as well as credit and debit card payment processors) were required to report to the IRS payments made to individuals and businesses.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How is this different from before?</span><br />The only difference is in who reports payments to the IRS. For example, if you ran a web site and had some kind of affiliate or advertising relationship with some company, and that company paid you using PayPal, that company may have been required to send you an IRS form (typically a 1099-MISC form) that summarized your total received payments from the previous year. Now, that company doesn't have to send you any IRS summary form, PayPal would do that now.<br /><br />In previous years, the company that sent you payment using PayPal was typically required to both report those payments to the IRS, and send you a 1099 form if the total payments in the previous year was more than $600. Now, that company is no longer required to send that information to you or to the IRS.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How does this affect you?</span><br />There will be no change if you or your business are not subject to US taxes. For everyone else, there will be no change if you have always followed appropriate IRS regulations for reporting income and expenses. If you are subject to US taxes, and have not reported income in the past, then the only change is that PayPal will tell the IRS how much you were sent, and it will be more likely that you will get penalized by the IRS for not reporting your income. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What do you have to do?</span><br />If you are subject to the new reporting requirements, your payment processor (PayPal, Google Checkout, etc.) will contact you and request information such as your name and tax identification number. If you don't provide this information, that processor may withhold some of your payment for tax purposes. If you do provided all the required information, you may be sent an IRS form 1099-K that summarizes your payments that you received from that processor.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How will this affect your taxes?</span><br />If you had done proper accounting and reporting of your income and expenses before, then this new reporting requirement won't change your taxes at all. If you have not been reporting your income in the past, then you may have to pay more taxes (or even fines for under reporting income). If you have not taken the time to treat your activity as a business, now would be a good time to start. If you are self employed or run a small business, you may want to <a href="http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html">check out some of the appropriate IRS resources</a>. If you are in a large business and are responsible for dealing with accounting and tax issues, then you should review your procedures to make sure that this change in the IRS rules has been addressed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Other Resources</span><br /><a href="http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/article/0,,id=225080,00.html">IRS Third Party Reporting Information Center</a><br /><a href="http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html">IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Disclaimer</span>: This article contains general information about US tax laws and regulations and does not constitute legal, tax, or professional advice. If you have questions about these issues, please seek out the services of appropriate professionals or information from authoritative sources.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-22063241728936777442012-01-02T19:58:00.000-08:002012-01-02T22:53:29.800-08:00How to become an ebook publisher without spending moneyLate last year, I published an article about <a href="http://www.airsafe-media.com/2011/11/how-to-read-kindle-books-without-buying.html">how to read Kindle Books without buying a Kindle</a>. The article was written with a larger goal in mind, to put you on a path to becoming an ebook publisher, creating books and other documents that can be read on Kindles, iPads, iPhones, personal computers, and just about any other ebook reader or personal computing device.<br /><br />If one or more of the following applies to you, then this article has a lot to offer to you:<ul><li>You have written a traditional book, and are thinking about publishing it as an ebook.<br /><br /><li>You are thinking about publishing a new book, and think that starting with an ebook would be quicker and cheaper.<br /><br /><li>You have a web site, blog, or podcast and you want to offer your audience downloadable documents.<br /><br /><li>Kindles and ebooks are the new hot thing and you want to get in on the action.</ul>All of these things were true for me, and I certainly had the desire to get something out the door and into the hands of an audience. However, I had a couple of obstacles between me and an ebook:<ol><li>I barely knew anything about ebooks other than they existed.<br /><br /><li>I didn't feel like spending a lot of time, or much money, learning how to publish an ebook</ol>I'll spare you the middle of the story and go straight to the end. If you want to learn about the ebook production process, even if you don't want to write an ebook yourself, go to <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/about/how_to_publish_on_smashwords">Smashwords.com</a> and sign up for their free service. They will take you by the hand and show you how to get your book properly formatted, and ready for sale.<br /><br />If you take the next step and actually create a book (it doesn't have to be either very good or very long, so go ahead and put something together), give lots of copies to friends, relatives, or anyone else who will give you some feedback about it.<br /><br />After you get some feedback and edit or even rewrite sections of the book, go ahead and put it on sale. If you use the Smashwords distribution system, you can even give it away for free, and have Smashwords track your downloads. The great thing about Smashwords is that they turn your book into a version suitable for every kind of ebook reader. They will even turn it into a PDF document. <br /><br />At AirSafe Media, I took one previously published book and turned it into an ebook, and created two other ebooks in a matter of days. One was based on existing online articles, and a second based on a training manual I made for another purpose. <a href="http://www.airsafenews.com/p/downloads.html">All three are available for free download</a>, and I made them available as a PDF file and in versions that could be read in a Kindle, iPad, or in an ereader or smartphone.<br /><br />If you want to go a step further, after you become familiar with the Smashwords process for creating ebooks, check out the the free book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Publish-Amazon-Kindle-Publishing-ebook/dp/B004LX069M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1325568694&sr=1-1">Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing</a> from Amazon. If you have something is good enough to sell, go ahead and try Amazon. The worst thing that could happen is that you will make some money.<br /><br />Speaking of money, I paid nothing to use the Smashwords system, and nothing to use Amazon Direct Publishing. You have no excuses, go publish something.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Resources</span><br /><a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/speedbrake">Smashwords Author page for Todd Curtis</a><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Todd%20Curtis">Amazon.com Author page for Todd Curtis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-10772311526554495402012-01-02T01:19:00.000-08:002012-01-02T13:50:38.442-08:00Podcasting production book from AirSafe.com<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDFIiNQxz_M9UmrikGmjYMUQGG9wrSfYQ0j8P-q00Js3mL071nw4BXINbMIeMJF3YDWBP-nxCb120xfMIoFoj05vzYoyc7rDNHVqFVo5FObsjaRVJL45X2nQsHhTRzt1DEY0iI6h1d8s/s1600/cover-red.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQDFIiNQxz_M9UmrikGmjYMUQGG9wrSfYQ0j8P-q00Js3mL071nw4BXINbMIeMJF3YDWBP-nxCb120xfMIoFoj05vzYoyc7rDNHVqFVo5FObsjaRVJL45X2nQsHhTRzt1DEY0iI6h1d8s/s320/cover-red.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692960079032673826" /></a>If you create or manage a web site, blog, Facebook page, or other online resource, if you are in the business of increasing traffic, enhancing search engine results, or serving a specific audience, one way to do so is by using podcasts. Whether it is the classic audio only podcast distributed on your web site, or a video podcast that you distribute on a video sharing site like YouTube, if you want the podcast to be successful, you have to be able to create many episodes over a long period of time.<br /><br />AirSafe.com has produced the <a href="http://podcast.airsafe.org">Conversation at AirSafe.com podcast</a> since 2006, and last year created an ebook ,<span style="font-style:italic;">The AirSafe.com Podcasting Manual</span>, that laid out a systematic production process that makes it easier for an individual or an organization to sustain a podcast over the long run. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What's in the book?</span><br />Below is the table of contents of the book:<br /><br />CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Podcasting<br />CHAPTER 2: The Grand Plan for Your Podcast<br />CHAPTER 3: What's Your Mission?<br />CHAPTER 4: Who’s on Your Team?<br />CHAPTER 5: Leadership<br />CHAPTER 6: Money and Other Resources<br />CHAPTER 7: Communications<br />CHAPTER 8: Planning, Production, and Distribution Systems<br />CHAPTER 9: Legal Issues<br />CHAPTER 10: The Podcast<br />CHAPTER 11: The First Airsafe.com Podcast<br />CHAPTER 12: The Video Version of the Podcast<br />CHAPTER 13: Example of a Podcast Plan for a School<br />APPENDIX 1: Downloading and Using Audacity<br />APPENDIX 2: Example Podcast Episode Script<br /><br />If this looks interesting, check it out one of the free download options. Feel free to buy it on Amazon as well.<br /><br />You can <a href="http://www.airsafe.com/downloads/the-airsafecom-podcasting-production-manual.pdf">download a PDF file</a>, or a version that is compatible with one of the popular ebook reading formats:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.airsafe.com/downloads/the-airsafecom-podcasting-production-manual.pdf">PDF</a><br /><a href="http://www.airsafe.com/downloads/the-airsafecom-podcasting-production-manual.mobi">MOBI</a> (Kindle)<br /><a href="http://www.airsafe.com/downloads/the-airsafecom-podcasting-production-manual.epub">EPUB</a> (Nook, iPad, iPhone, and others)<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006C4GFM0">Purchase Amazon Kindle edition</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-26489074481633183352011-11-12T17:10:00.001-08:002011-11-13T11:15:34.141-08:00How to read Kindle books without buying a Kindle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbt9dLMQIFvCSgJUmKYv-qvfG9jacQLZpttTY5nmwPbd7UhI-cxuyica-SXTftQnXZoXHHvgP8A8I3wZY0NBNZu5AN_uqUcyvLx3w9wlpWCjrbHRts4cWmKnm0q91i2G31s4E4G2oi_0/s1600/kindle-app.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbt9dLMQIFvCSgJUmKYv-qvfG9jacQLZpttTY5nmwPbd7UhI-cxuyica-SXTftQnXZoXHHvgP8A8I3wZY0NBNZu5AN_uqUcyvLx3w9wlpWCjrbHRts4cWmKnm0q91i2G31s4E4G2oi_0/s320/kindle-app.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674558914406685458" /></a>The Kindle ebook reader is a lovely device that some people love. However that love comes at a price. The cheapest version cost less than $100, and if you buy one, you have to put up with the hassles of learning how to use it, keeping track of, and maintaining it. <br /><br />You can avoid the expense and hassle of buying a device by downloading a free Kindle application that will let you use your computer, tablet, or smart phone to read Kindle books.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Why is all this good stuff free?</span><br />Amazon.com, the company behind the Kindle, isn't in the charity business. While the Kindle devices generate revenue, over the long term they will make most of their money through the paid content, including books, that can be displayed on the Kindle device or on one of the free Kindle apps you can download. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">How do I get this free Kindle App?</span><br />Simply go to Amazon.com at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/kcp">http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/kcp</a> and download the appropriate Kindle app for your device. You can get an app for the following devices:<br /><br />- Windows PC<br />- Mac PC<br />- iPhone<br />- iPad<br />- Android<br />- Blackberry<br />- Windows Phone 7<br /><br />Once the download is finished, you can use your Amazon.com account to log into the online Kindle store to either buy content or to download free content. You don't have to have a Amazon.com account to read books and use other content, there are several advantages. One of the biggest ones is that you can download a sample of a book and evaluate it before you decide if you want to buy it. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Magic Kindle Powers</span><br />Since the Kindle app is free, you can download it for every device that you have. There are two ways that Amazon makes this a convenient option. First, if when you purchase a book, you can download it and read it on every device where you have a Kindle app. Second, if you make notes or bookmarks in a book on one device, when you open up the book on another device, all the notes and bookmarks transfer as well. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Try these free books</span><br />You don't have to get your books from Amazon. You can read .mobi format ebook file on your Kindle reader. Check out these two free ebooks from AirSafe.com's partner Speedbrake Publishing.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.airsafe.com/downloads/parenting-and-the-internet.mobi">Parenting and the Internet</a><br /><a href="http://www.airsafe.com/downloads/the-airsafecom-podcasting-production-manual.mobi">The AirSafe.com Podcasting Manual</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-68047105325969719772011-05-29T09:25:00.000-07:002011-05-29T13:25:55.744-07:005 ways to use Google Docs to run your business<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJcG68wOTcfZThPYc9tbzm8E8cQs5gYMBOk6wt6qw0eItrFVi0z22ZZE19ZbKLL8mjDJqeoolSEiuAHU9NXMKo23zP2J_PWdcBpUbHmof7H4jbmAcv3GbPcuxlA2_7z3yg242p4VcFfg/s1600/google-docs-icon.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 208px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUJcG68wOTcfZThPYc9tbzm8E8cQs5gYMBOk6wt6qw0eItrFVi0z22ZZE19ZbKLL8mjDJqeoolSEiuAHU9NXMKo23zP2J_PWdcBpUbHmof7H4jbmAcv3GbPcuxlA2_7z3yg242p4VcFfg/s320/google-docs-icon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612181043118111026" /></a><br />Google Docs has three great things going for it: it's free, it keeps getting improved, and it is flexible. The first advantage is obvious, and the other two are well illustrated in a <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20065804-2.html">short video from Sharon Vaknin of CNET News</a>. You may also know her from <a href="http://www.sharonvak.com/author/admin/">Geek and the City</a><br /><br />The following are the key points about Google Docs you can pick up from the video:<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Easy uploading</span>: You can upload files of almost any format to Google Docs, and also drag and drop files from your hard drive to the Docs home page. You can also upload an entire folder (like your My Documents), into Google Docs, and it would keep your folder and subfolder organization intact.<br /><br />2.<span style="font-weight:bold;"> Insert photos directly into a document</span>: You can insert a photo into a document by dragging and dropping files from your hard drive or from the web. <br /><br />3. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Add comments</span>: This is a great option if you are collaborating with someone on a document. You can highlight a block of text, add a comment, and that comment, along with the name of the person who wrote the comment, will appear in the sidebar, where other collaborators can reply to that comment. You can even send the comment to a specific collaborator with a Twitter-like capability by typing "@" followed by the person'sname. If you move the highlighted text, the comments will move with it.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Easy file backup</span>: With a few keystrokes, you can download all of your Google Doc files into your hard drive, and even specify what kind of format you want to use. For example, you can save a document file either as a Word file or an OpenOffice file.<br /><br />5. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Helpful Google Rappers</span>: While not technically a part of Google Docs, you can go to YouTube to see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps8qXjeYvIk&feature=youtu.be">Google employee rapping about how to use the help functions in Google Docs</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-74402236885760324422011-04-21T23:02:00.000-07:002011-04-22T00:19:41.544-07:00What to get when starting a new online effortIf you are thinking about creating a new online presence, and intend to create something that would be attractive to a wide audience, it usually helps to plan it so that people can relate to what you are doing in several different ways. Doing just a web site, or just a podcast, or just a Facebook page isn't enough. With a little bit of planning, you should be able to get something useful up and running in a day or less.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What to add and how quickly?</span><br />Ideally, you would have all your content created and ready to go on day one, and a very clear idea of what you want to do online. Realistically, you may have only some of the content created, and only a vague idea of where you will end up even a few weeks down the road. My suggestion is to prioritize what you do by how important it will be to you later. A few years ago, that meant getting a domain name. Today, you probably would still need a domain name, or at least a user name or other identifier that would end up in the URL of services like YouTube and Twitter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFlgHNtPgd9NBjhpZlyjvqT68l9kiN7JVR1zfCaT12aGCaK9cbphkt5lSvQyLu5zgY9-6DtftdJEro5zw3q6SY_xUcN3k00-oea0CXtxvIzJ3sYZMxan4xBe7zTI7TaJgJkMgLRqRA5o/s1600/moneyroad_iStock_smaller.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 173px; height: 169px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFlgHNtPgd9NBjhpZlyjvqT68l9kiN7JVR1zfCaT12aGCaK9cbphkt5lSvQyLu5zgY9-6DtftdJEro5zw3q6SY_xUcN3k00-oea0CXtxvIzJ3sYZMxan4xBe7zTI7TaJgJkMgLRqRA5o/s320/moneyroad_iStock_smaller.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598300723781691714" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;">Case study - MoneyBahn.com</span><br />My latest project was creating a web site promoting financial education and investment services. Based on my experience with the airline safety site AirSafe.com, I understood that to get and keep an audience's attention and to attract traffic, it helped to have several different elements to an online effort, including widely used online resources like web sites to resources like Twitter and Facebook that may be used only by a portion of my target audience. While few would likely use every resource, my goal was to have a range of options for someone to choose.<br /><br />I wanted to start with three new online resources: a web site, a Twitter account, and a YouTube account. I also wanted to pick a domain name that could also incorporated in the user name of the Twitter account and the URL of the YouTube account. After a short search, I found that MoneyBahn.com was available for a domain name, so I went ahead and had the site created. I then created a new Twitter account and YouTube account with MoneyBahn as the user name.<br /><br />With these key elements in place, I was assured that the most likely resources I would use to promote the new web site (Twitter and YouTube) would have URLs that would include the 'MoneyBahn" portion of the web sites domain name. With these new elements in place, I could not concentrate on creating more content. To see how that is shaping up, you may want to visit the main site at <a href="http://MoneyBahn.com">MoneyBahn.com</a>, or sites <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MoneyBahn">Twitter account</a> and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/MoneyBahn/109529232465931">Facebook page</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-78366329789266567092010-11-11T09:46:00.000-08:002010-11-11T12:37:26.086-08:00Restricting Blogger links to the home pageFor those of you who have sites on Blogger, one of the great advantages is that you don't have to know HTML or any other programming language to have a site up and running in minutes. While you can use Blogger-supplied code (called gadgets) to add or subtract extra content into a sidebar like blogrolls, polls, or a search box, you don't usually have any options when it comes to where those widgets will be seen. Typically, once a Blogger gadget is added, you will see the content of that Gadget <br />in the sidebar of every page on the site.<br /><br />If you have a handful of links that you only want on the home page, one option is to use the HTML/Javascript gadget (my favorite for adding plain text links) and to change how that gadget operates so that it only shows up on the home page. This involves changing the template that controls the look and feel of the site. By adding a couple of lines of code, you can change this gadget so that it is only visible on the home page. <br /><br /><hr size="1"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Note</span>:If you haven't done any kind of web site or blog coding before using HTML, and feel unsure about changing the code, either find someone who can do it for you or practice this on either one of your inactive Blogger sites or on a site that you put together for testing changes like this.<hr size="1"><br /><br />The following instructions are taking from an <a href="http://www.bloggertricks.com/2009/03/how-to-show-blogger-linkswidgets-in.html">article on the Blogger Tricks site</a>:<br /><ul><li>Sign into Blogger dashboard and click on the Design link for your blog, click on the Add a Gadget on your blog's layout, and then select the type of gadget you need (for example HTML/Javascript). Add the content that you want, and save your changes.<br /><br /><li>Next, you have to add a small piece of code to that gadget so that your content only displays in the Homepage. Just clcik to Edit HTML and then select the box next to 'Expand Widget Templates'. Now would also be a good time to save the template just in case.<br /><br /><li>Find the HTML/Javascript gadget, which should start with code that looks like <<span style="font-style:italic;">b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='' type='HTML</span>><br /><br /><li>Just below that line of code, You should see a "<span style="font-style:italic;">b:includable</span>" tag that looks like <<span style="font-style:italic;">b:includable id='main'</span>><br /><br /><li>Under that line, add the following: <<span style="font-style:italic;">b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'</span>><br /><br /><li>Just before the line <<span style="font-style:italic;">/b:includable</span>> tag, add the line <<span style="font-style:italic;">/b:if</span>> to close the "if" statement.<br /><br /><li>Save your template and test your blog. If everything went well, you should only see that gadget on the home page.</ul>The same <a href="http://www.bloggertricks.com/2009/03/how-to-show-blogger-linkswidgets-in.html">Blogger Tricks</a> article also shows you how to do this for other types of gadgets, and also how to do this so that the gadget content shows up everywhere except the home page.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-81904164618220575262010-06-25T11:58:00.000-07:002010-06-25T12:26:15.423-07:00How to Easily Clip Web Pages to Evernote Using Your iPadIf you are one of the millions of new iPad owners, and you want to use it as useful tool, I recommend using the Evernote application to help you take notes and keep them online. The Evernote application works best if you can both cut and paste content of a web page as well as write notes.<br /><br />One weakness of the iPad is that it is hard to select, copy, and paste large blocks of text, or an entire web page. The folks at <a href="http://www.joetaxpayer.com/evernote-ipad/">JoeTaxpayer.com</a> have solved that problem in an elegant way. The Evernote application on the iPad acts as a mini-browser in combination with Google.<br /><br />It is a simple process. First, make a new note and type in the Google home page URL and save the note using the 'Clip to Evernote' option. The next time you need to copy entire pages into Evernote, open up that Google note and select the Google URL and go to Google's home page. Navigate to the page you want, and when you find it, open up the option menu in the lower right and choose the option to safe the page. When you are done, you can quit or you can go back to the Google page and do it again.<br /><br />By the way, this technique will work with any search engine.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-21921561066665976242010-06-08T22:30:00.000-07:002010-06-09T00:27:37.151-07:00Google vs. Bing and Real Time Search<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/blog/wp-content/themes/smx20/_assets/logo_adv.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 272px; height: 68px;" src="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/blog/wp-content/themes/smx20/_assets/logo_adv.png" border="0" alt="" /></a>When it comes to search engines, the two most important resources are Google and Bing. Both perform well when it comes to traditional search, but only Google currently has a useful option for real time search. While I knew that from following various news and information sources about search engines, sometimes it takes a real world problem to understand the what those differences really mean.<br /><br />In my case, I was at the <a href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/">SMX Advanced conference in Seattle</a> earlier today, at a presentation titled SEO For Google Vs. Bing: How Different Are They? As is the case for many Internet-related conferences, many attendees were furiously updating Twitter during the presentation, and using the hashtag #smx, anyone could follow the comments coming from the presentations.<br /><br />Regular visitors to this site may recall my a<a href="http://www.airsafe-media.com/2009/12/three-practical-twitter-tools-you-can.html">rticle from last December when I discussed how much I used search.twitter.com to follow fast breaking news items</a>, and for a few minutes, I was able to follow the sometimes insightful comments from the other attendees. Suddenly, we were all frozen out of the service because Twitter saw too much search traffic from one location and apparently suspected that there was some kind of a problem.<br /><br />With my favorite Twitter tool out of action, my first reaction was to go over to Google to see if I could do the same thing. I typed in the #smx tag, selected the "Latest" option, and I was able to see the stream of tweets. Since the session was about comparisons with Bing, I went there and tried to do the same. No luck. <br /><br />Later, after I spoke to Danny Sullivan and others, I realized that Bing had not real time search capabilities, at least not yet. I'd read articles earlier about the Bing real time search situation, but I never gave it much of a thought because I normally only used search.twitter.com. Now that I know Google has it, I'll use that option more. When Bing gets around to adding that capability, I'll try that too.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-48152214171358824602010-06-03T21:20:00.000-07:002010-06-03T21:33:25.060-07:00The Creator of Dilbert on the Future of Free ContentScott Adams, creator of the long-running comic strip <a href="http://www.dilbert.com">Dilbert</a>, earlier this month posted an <a href="http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_adams_theory_of__content_value/">article on the future of content</a> where he proposed what he calls the Adams Theory of Content Value, that the value of content will approach zero as our ability to search for media content improves. It is worth your time to read, since it touches upon many of the issues faced by content creators, especially those who combine information or content from many sources to create web sites, blogs, online videos, and podcasts. He also talks about the role the <a href="http://www.airsafenews.com/2010/04/airline-travel-issues-and-ipad.html">iPad</a> may play in making it harder to charge for online content.<br /><br />At AirSafe.com and AirSafe Media, our response to this reality is to invite sharing rather than fight it. While all material we create is copyrighted, <a href="The Adams Theory of Content Value: As our ability to search for media content improves, the economic value of that content will approach zero">we've embraced the Creative Commons concept</a>, allowing everyone to use the material any way they want, so long as they do so in a noncommercial way and allow anyone else to also reuse their modified material.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-51638267573205896132010-05-16T20:24:00.000-07:002010-05-16T20:22:27.066-07:00How to Keep Your Emails Short and EffectiveIn AirSafe Media's online marketing business, customers and vendors are located around the world, and email is the most effective way for everyone to communicate. Since a particular advertising deal may be active for months or even years, it helps everyone if emails have a similar and predictable style and format. By following a few basic rules, AirSafe Media staff and affiliates can ensure that their emails provide clear and concise information. Even if you are not involved with AirSafe Media, you can use these basic guidelines to make your own emails more effective.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Use a AirSafe Media email account</span><br />This is one of the easiest rule to follow. By using an AirSafe Media email account (ending in airsafemedia.com), it makes it much easier to go back and reconstruct a conversation. If for some reason this account is not working, it is likely that the problem is only temporary. Send a copy of any email to that address so that it can be recovered once the account is working again. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Use a consistent subject format</span><br />Because many email programs display only the subject line of an email, make sure that the subject includes the following key pieces of information:<ul><li>A web site URL (if the email deals with a particular web site)<br /><br /><li>The date the email was sent (using the format DD MM YYY, for example 16 May 2010)<br /><br /><li>One or two keywords that describe what the email is about<br /><br /><li>The words "AirSafe Media" to indicate the source of the email</ul> An example subject line might be "New advertising offer for mortgage311.org - AirSafe Media 16 May 2010"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Include only key parts of previous emails</span><br />Often, there could be several emails going back and forth on a particular subject. For example, negotiating the placement of a particular ad, or dealing with a technical problem with a web site. When replying to an email, most programs attach the body of the previous email. After a few exchanges, you could have a two page email where only about four or five lines have all the information that you need. Take a little bit of time to cut out what you don't need. Leave in enough to say what needs to be said, and leave out the rest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472952326223569329.post-60162899078488021462010-03-15T12:13:00.000-07:002010-03-15T13:14:25.347-07:00How acceptable is online gambling? - ask Ellen DeGeneresA common issue for many web site owners is what kinds of advertising are acceptable to their audience. Most sites would not even consider for a moment advertising that promotes something that is illegal or that they consider immoral. Sexually oriented advertising, as well as ads promoting the consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs are rejected outright by most. <br /><br />Less clear for many are advertisements for products or services that are legal, but that are largely rejected by traditional advertisers. Gambling related advertising is clearly in this category. Gambling online, and even gambling online with money is legal in most parts of the world, and with rare exceptions is legal in the US. However, a combination of public perception, strict laws in the US against using electronic banking transfers to fund gambling accounts, and severe restrictions on gambling ads by Google and other major online advertising providers give most web site and blog owners the perception that accepting advertising is risky or potentially damaging to the site's reputation.<br /><br />Perceptions can change, especially if if a well-know and well-regarded web site leads the way. Enter Ellen DeGeneres.<br /><br />On a recent show, a pop-up on the side of the TV screen invited viewers to play games at her web site at http://ellen.warnerbros.com/games/poker/. The biggest graphic on the page was inviting viewers to play online poker:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajCt8cRfzNJLsQHiayEtD3lp201SExmwdTuKA2136dOTPyQAyeHYMNWkit4YGLpEYyNaQke7XeU63jJIQU_REttZ1oKD8blvGu-ppe6qSoICmTiQx2SN3fVSmFq9AWuLynOt-r6_-_V8/s1600-h/ellen-poker.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajCt8cRfzNJLsQHiayEtD3lp201SExmwdTuKA2136dOTPyQAyeHYMNWkit4YGLpEYyNaQke7XeU63jJIQU_REttZ1oKD8blvGu-ppe6qSoICmTiQx2SN3fVSmFq9AWuLynOt-r6_-_V8/s320/ellen-poker.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448950133395300530" /></a>Below the graphic were several options for either playing poker online or learning how to play online poker. While there were many non-gambling or casino related games on the site, the most prominent links were to poker, blackjack, and Texas hold-em links. Also, it was clear that several of the links were associated with some of the biggest names in online poker such as Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, and Mike Caro.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What should a site owner do?</span><br />As was pointed out on the site How-to-Bet.com, playing a <a href="http://www.how-to-bet.com/2010/03/top-10-things-to-know-about-online.html">gambling type game online is legal</a>, so web sites and web site visitors are not a legal risk when they place ads or follow those kinds of links online.<br /><br />There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to placing advertising for legal products and services. Whether a site owner wants to accept this kind of advertising will depend on several factors, including how an owner would answer the following questions:<ul><li>Would the links or the content be useful or entertaining for your audience?<br /><br /><li>Do the links go to a site that is offering legal products or services?<br /><br /><li>Do the links go to a site with content that is in conflict with your site's goals?<br /><br /><li>Is the destination site associated with any controversy or suspicious business practice?</ul><br /><br />It will be interesting to see if Ellen's web site becomes the norm rather than the exception--a non-gambling web site with significant and prominent gambling content. If you want to join this club, take some time to think it over before you make a move.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0