Thor's Archive
I didn't want to leave my Apple readers out in the cold, so I have a prize for Mac this week! Parallels allows users run PC applications designed for Windows on the Mac.
The software is a $79.99 retail value and was donated by Parallels and Digital River. Thanks Guys!
By the way, if you don't have a Mac this would make a great prize to give away on your own blog or forum :-) Subscribe to the feed by clicking the icon on the top right and selecting a reader or by entering your email address in the subscribe via email form. For a bonus heads up, you should also follow me on Twitter.
Good luck!
That's right folks! Its once again time to draw a winner in the RSS subscription contest. This post will also be syndicated on Twitter, so you might also consider following me at http://www.twitter.com/thorschrock.
The first person to post a comment here wins a free copy of Uniblue's Registry Booster 2. The software will be instantly delivered to you via a coupon code in email.
Good luck!
In the past my blog has not had sufficient content to qualify me for some of the better text link advertising options on the market. But now with almost 600 posts in the can, I had enough to apply so I did.
After reading John Chow's monthly income report I decided to sign up for Kontera. They took forever to approve my application (four days!) so in the mean time I also signed up with Text Link Ads. My Text-Link-Ads account was approved in minutes and I had their code installed on my blog that night.
For the next few days I eagerly checked my Text-Link-Ads account page to see if they had spidered my blog yet. Sure enough, every day a couple more of my posts came online. On day 4 Kontera approved my application and I thought to myself, sorry suckas! I am already with a different company.
But I might have spoken too soon. It has been just over three weeks since my Text-Link-Ads account was approved and tey only have spidered 32 posts on my blog. In addition, they have not placed a single ad anywhere on my site.
I understand they might not have had advertisers that lined up with my posts, but there is no excuse for not spidering the rest of my blog. If they would have hit my XML sitemap they might have found a post did line up.
\I am going to give Text-Link-Ads another week to see what comes of their service. If they haven't spidered a good portion of my site by then, I am going to switch to Kontera and see what they can do.
Does anyone else have experience with Text-Link-Ads vs. Kontera?
Some of you might notice a new subscription form plunked in the middle of my blog. I promise I will get around to integrating it in a more appealing way, but after what I learned today, it was very important that I get the form up as soon as possible.
I was doing some research on how Feedburner calculates the subscriber count that is displayed in the Feedburner chicklet. It appears that subscribers who sign up through RSS readers are not counted in the same way as those who subscribe via email.
I was reading a very detailed post on how Feedburner calculates the number of subscribers to a feed and I learned that readers who subscribe through a feed reader are estimated each day, while those who subscribe via email are COUNTED every day.
That means that if you want a more reliable Feedburner subscriber count, you should encourage your readers to subscribe via email rather than in a reader.
To do this, you have to log into your Feedburner account and click on the feed you want people to subscribe too. Then turn on the subscribe through email function. You will then be able to copy and paste the subscribe code to your blog. It's that simple.
Anyone else have some Feedburner words of wisdom?
Today on Compute This we will close out the Ultimate Upgrade Sale, let you know what might ne in Apple's future (the rumor mill is churning again), and of course take your calls!
You can call in to the show between 10 and 11 CST at 1-800-TALK-UNL. Listen live online at http://www.kfor1240.com.
For those of you who missed it, here is the video of the previous show:
I will admit that I was a little slow getting on the Twitter bandwagon. I just didn't understand how posting short little updates about what I was doing would benefit me or my business efforts in any way. After all, I hardly ever touch my MySpace, Facebook, or other social networking platforms as it is.
One day on a whim I set up a Twitter account and subscribed to a few friends like Shoemoney and Jenstar. I watched as Jeremy used twitter to bring additional traffic to his blog and connect with his readers in a new and interesting way.
When you use Twitter, you post very brief updates on what you are doing at the moment. The website supports mobile integration, so you can subscribe to SMS alerts on your favorite people or update your own twitter right form your cell phone.
The more I started using Twitter, the more I got to know about some of the people I follow online and the more I realized that this is something that could be HUGE in building my brand, building my traffic, and in turn building my business revenue.
I started manually syndicating my blog posts to twitter when I realized that there is a service called Twitterfeed that does it all for you automatically!
Twitterfeed monitors your blog's RSS feed and then syndicated new entries to your feed directly to your Twitter. From what I can see online, usage of the service is growing rapidly - so rapidly their server can't seem to keep up. I actually could not sign up for an account yesterday because their server was down.
Before every MLM freakaziod out there starts spamming people on Twitter, you should note that there is a right way and a wrong way to use Twitter and maintain the effectiveness of the platform. Technosailor posted about the Golden Rule of Twitter Marketing and it is a good read. He gives an example of how NBC's Today Show has a spammy twitter that 700-some suckers follow for some reason.
I am loving Twitter, and by syndicating my blog posts to my Twitter followers, I am sure I will increase my readership as well. you can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/thorschrock.
I have spent the past couple days in Las Vegas at Leadscon 08. This is the first conference that separated lead generation from the affiliate marketing space. Some people don't really think there is much of a difference between lead generation and affiliate marketing, and others say it's about time that someone gave lead gen its own conference.
After two days of sessions, networking and learning, I can tell you first hand that Jay Weintraub's Leadscon conference was a smashing success.
I arrived Wednesday morning and immediately went to work distributing the last of the Top Affiliate Challenge t-shirts to attendees (Leadscon put a Top Affiliate Challenge piece in their tote bag for us). With that bit of work out of the way, I hit a couple sessions to get a feel for how the conference was going to unfold.
Shortly thereafter I cruised the exhibition hall and talked to a bunch of companies that had some pretty innovative products.
One of the first booths I hit was the Mobile Messenger booth. They had some pretty cool technology that allows you to outsource the delivery of subscription content to mobile devices. If you want to start your own subscription service like horoscopes, jokes, ring tones or the like, Mobile Messenger sets up a $10/month revenue share between you, the mobile carrier, and Mobile Messenger. Lets just say that started my idea factory rolling!
The NeoHire booth looked like fun, even though I had no idea what they did. I introduced my self and learned that they are a professional headhunting service. If you want to hire a big-wig from another company to work for you, you tell these guys who you want and they go get it.
The guys in the booth were very interested in Top Affiliate Challenge and it would be awesome to find a way to work them into the show. I have the feeling we will be talking with them again soon.
Then I came across a booth that said they were an alternative to Yahoo and Google. Any alternatives to the Google monster always interest me, so I stopped to learn more. Reply.com is an alternative to Google Adwords. Rather than buying clicks on your ads, you buy qualified leads from them. The leads are vetted to ensure they are legit and then the marketplace determines the value of the lead through a real-time bidding process.
Their site launches this month. It's an innovative idea that would probably work really well. Rather than trying to get a click and then convert that click, with Reply.com someone else does all of that work and all you have to do is close the lead. Personally, I would rather close sales than generate clicks any day ;-)
As I mingled about, I spotted a familiar face from Affiliate Summit West 08. Jessica Parnell from CXdigital was carrying one of the cool bags they gave away at the Summit (which my wife is STILL kicking herself for not getting while she was at ASW - send me another one :-p). I stopped her to say hi and she asked about Top Affiliate Challenge.
I told her some of the companies we had on board as sponsors and some other s that we are closing on this month. At this time we still have a team sponsorship available, so I encouraged her to snap it up. She seemed pretty interested so I got some follow up work to get done when I get home.
Of all the websites that were discussed in the sessions, I was most impressed with www.mint.com. Mint.com is a personal finance website that allows you to track all of your different bank accounts, credit card accounts, 401K accounts, and more from one interface. This is an awesome idea, as long as you are not a conspiracy theorist about having everything in one place.
Today is the first of many weekly giveaways we will be doing to build our RSS subscriber following back up. As soon as I publish this post, pings will go out to RSS readers everywhere and someone will be the first to place a comment below.
The first person to comment wins a $90 copy of Norton 360, sponsored by Symantec and Digital River.
If you have not subscribed to the RSS feed yet, do so now so you will have a shot at winning next week's prize - a free copy of Uniblue RegistryBooster 2 (a $40 retail value!)
For those of you new to the blog, all you need to do is subscribe to the RSS feed and be the first to comment when I post a prize. The "prize post" can come at any time during the upcoming week (April 7-14). Keep your eyes peeled! Sometimes the post won't be this transparent ;-)
This week we have a lot to talk about on Compute This! There is only one week left to get in on the Ultimate Upgrade PC SaleWe at Schrock Innovations, a new cell phone scam going around that can cost you $100, and the all new a new Top Affiliate Challenge update.
Tune into the show at 10:00 CST on KFOR 1240 Am, or online at kfor1240.com You can call in at 489-1240 or #1240 on your Alltel wireless. We also have an 800 number available at 1-866-TALK-UNL.
We will talk to you then!
I have just been exposed to the most ascinine internet policy I have EVER heard. I am in Vegas for Leadscon 08 and the Palms was full, so I tried to save a buck by staying at the Extended Stay America across the street from the Palms.
The room is decent, noise is bad, and the girl at the front desk is nice enough even if she doesn't know an IP address from a zip code...
But the thing that really burns me is that first off, I had to pay $9.99 a night for a weak a$$ wireless internet signal. I'm missing my wife and son hard core, so we video conferenced for 10 minutes than I started downloading Top Affiliate Challenge audition videos so I could post process them and upload them to the site.
Suddenly my internet goes dead. I try to reconnect... No luck. I disabled and reenabled my adapter... No luck... I call the front desk...Waste of my time.
Then I get a call from the hotel's internet management company. They banned my IP Address for excessive bandwidth usage. I was shocked! I am paying $10 for about three hours of usage and you ban me?
So I asked what exactly is the kind of activity that will get me banned so I can avoid it in the future. The lady on the phone told me in broken English not to watch YouTube videos and to restrict my use to "normal" web pages and email only to avoid a repeat ban.
So needless to say, I can't upload any of my Leadscon photos, I can't work on Top Affiliate Challenge, and I can't watch Charles Trippy's latest video for fear of the "internet Nazi" (reference to the Seinfeld Soup Nazi) banning my account again. I guess I am "slowing down their network."
I think I will check out in the morning and inform the front desk manager that I am with Hotels.com and that I was not impressed. If only I had a clipboard...
I am about to board a flight to Vegas for the first-ever lead generation conference, Leadscon. Lead generation and affiliate marketing are often bundled together into the same package, but there are subtle differences.
Lead generation is connecting a potential customer and a client together and then allowing the client to convert that customer. Affiliate marketing is converting a customer for a client and sharing in the revenue from the sale.
This will be the third conference I have attended in 2008. I am going to use the opportunity to promote Top Affiliate Challenge and recruit additional auditions and sponsors. In fact, Top Affiliate Challenge has an insert in the conference tote bags!
This is pretty much an all-business outing for me and I fly out tomorrow, but I am taking some time to have dinner with some of my readers while I am there.
Its been a while since we have done a contest on the blog, so we decided to give it a go once again - but this time with a twist.
Each week I am going to announce a prize that will be given away on this blog sometime during the week. To enter, all you have to do is subscribe to my RSS feed. No backlink games, required blog posts or anything like that - simple and straight forward.
Each week I will make a post at some point about the prize I am giving away. The first person to comment on that post, will receive the prize. The only way to make sure you see the post first is to be an RSS subscriber :-) Comments will be moderated as quickly as possible and all timestamps will be preserved.
This week (before now and April 6) the prize is a complete copy of Symantec's Norton 360 along with their extended download service. This prize is a $90 retail value and was donated by Digital River and Symantec.
The software will be delivered by a link and a coupon code so you won't even have to wait for anything to ship! Watch for a post about the Norton 360 product that tells you to post a comment to win a free copy.
The post can come at any time of the day or night, any time between now and midnight April 6th.
If you subscribe to the RSS feed and don't win this week never fear! Next week we have another awesome prize - a free copy of Uniblue RegistryBooster 2 (a $40 retail value!)
After Schrock Innovations' much appreciated success in rolling a Gateway notebook back to Windows XP despite the fact that Gateway only provided Windows Vista drivers for the unit.
Word of that success made its way from Nebraska all the way to Pennsylvania where a Vista-strapped Dell Inspiron 1721 longed to run Windows XP instead. The owner of that notebook decided to ship it all the way to our Lincoln, Nebraska computer repair service center to have our technicians take a crack at migrating it back to Windows XP, even though Dell would not provide XP drivers for the unit.
The operation was a resounding success, and the patient is back at home with its owner now. I asked Schrock's Senior Technician to take detailed notes on what drivers he used and where they were located, just in case you have found yourself in the same situation but cant stand the thought of shipping your Dell to Nebraska.
The first thing we did was install Windows XP on the hard drive and see what Windows could do for itself. We allowed all of the Windows hardware updates to finish, and here is what we were left with:
Video - http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp
Audio – http://www.dell-drivers.com/dell-drivers-downloads/SIGMATEL-STAC-92XX-C-Major-HD-Audio_821.shtml
Webcam manager - http://www.notebook-drivers.com/ViewDownloadUrl.asp?ID=93222&brNum=3&show=0
Motherboard Driver Suite – http://www.notebook-drivers.com/notebook-drivers/Dell-Inspiron-1721-notebook-Ricoh-R5C832-R5C833-R5C843-Driver-v.1.0.1-for-Windows-Vista-32-bit-XP-2000_77545.shtml
Modem – http://www.dell-drivers.com/dell-drivers-downloads/Conexant-D330_868.shtml
Network card - http://www.dell-drivers.com/dell-drivers-downloads/Broadcom-440x-10-100-Integrated-Controller_759.shtml
Wireless Bluetooth - http://www.dell-drivers.com/dell-drivers-downloads/Dell-Wireless-355-Bluetooth-Module_1053.shtml
Once you have installed these drivers, do a second Windows Update. Some of them have updated versions that Windows can take care of on its own once you have shown it the light. Good luck! Let me know how it goes for you with a comment below!
One thing I have noticed about HP... Once you buy something from them, you get a massive influx of coupon codes to buy more things from them. I don't have a need for many of these, so I thought I would put them up here in case you wanted them.
If any of the HP deals look interesting, just click the link to take advantage of the offer. The expiration Dates are listed with each one. Some of these are pretty targeted toward business users instead of home users, but then again you never know what some people will need. Enjoy!
Save $50 instantly on the new 6720t
Mobile Thin Client (valid until 4/30/08)
Save an extra $100 on HP Tablets
Get an additional $100 savings on already reduced qualifying business Tablet PCs. (valid until 4/30/08)
Bulk up & save with HP Workstations
Get 5 fully configured workstations for the price of 4. (valid until 4/30/08)
Smart Buy on HP StorageWorks Tape Autoloader
Save up to $1,426 on Smart Buy storage bundles. (valid until 4/30/08)
Multi Function Printer Services Rebate
Save up to $250 on HP Care Pack Services for LaserJet MFPs. (valid until 4/30/08)
Get the Best for Less with HP LaserJets
Save up to $300 on LaserJet printers. (valid until 4/30/08)
Refresh your presence on the web
Get $50 off custom design logos by LogoWorks. (valid until 4/30/08)
One Step Up with free HP upgrades
Free next level Processor, RAM, Disk & more. (valid until 4/30/08)
iPAQ 510 bundles
Save up to $119 instantly (valid until 4/30/08)
ProLiant entry-level servers as low as $499
Made to meet the needs of small & medium businesses. (valid until 5/31/08)
Worry-free backup at a low cost
Save $100 on HP StorageWorks Media Vault Pro. (valid until 4/30/08)
Earlier this week I was offered an invite to Azoogle's Affiliate Appreciation Day in New York. I guess it's a gathering to thank some of Azoogle's top affiliates in the New York Area.
I checked on flights when the invitation was extended, but because of all the crap that was going on with cancellations and the last minute timing, a flight was going to cost more than $1,500 coach class.
I REALLLY wanted to attend this, but that is a LOT to pay for a coach ticket for one day in New York. Thank you so much for the invitation Azoogle. I promise I'll be at the next one!
This week we have a lot to talk about on Compute This! We will cover the Ultimate Upgrade PC Sale at Schrock Innovations is coming to a close soon, we rolled another Vista-only notebook back to XP, and the all new Adobe Photoshop Express FREE Service (or is it?).
Of course we will have a new Top Affiliate Challenge update for you with new sponsors and new developments in Lincoln's own reality show.
Tune into the show at 10:00 CST on KFOR 1240 Am, or online at kfor1240.com You can call in at 489-1240 or #1240 on your Alltel wireless. We also have an 800 number available at 1-866-TALK-UNL.
We will talk to you then!
My computer repair business in Nebraska sells a lot of HP notebook computers. From time to time I get "special offers" from HP to experience some of their different notebook computer models.
I have been using a 12.4" HP Pavilion tx1000 (dubbed "Little Thor") running Windows Vista since last February. I love the fact it is so small and light when I travel, but I hate how although it is an "entertainment PC" its processing power gets stretched pretty thin in multimedia environments.
I have been working with a lot of video in relation to the Top Affiliate Challenge reality show lately and my tx1000 is paying the price for it. Last month I rendered so much video that I torched my hard dive, and my battery has taken a beating as well. Luckily, the battery and the hard drive were covered under the HP warranty, but before I kill it again, I think it's time for an upgrade.
After 17 painful days of waiting my notebook, dubbed "Big Thor" made the long and treacherous journey from Shanghai, China to Omaha, Nebraska.
The Unveiling
On Monday, the FedEx website said my computer was on a truck in Illinois, so I was pretty bummed. I was hoping it would cover some miles on Saturday and Sunday, but oh well. To my surprise, my doorbell rings about an hour later.
Either that is the FASTEST FedEx man on the planet, or their tracking system could use an upgrade. Either way, "Big Thor" was finally home.
Typically this unit costs about $2,800 with the specs I had loaded into it. Thanks to HP for taking some of the bite out of that price!
Laptop or Portable Desktop Replacement?
Before I requested the HDX I did some research online. This unit weighs almost 15 pounds with its battery and sports an HD-quality 20" wide screen display. There was some debate as to whether this should even be called a "notebook" or if it should be considered a "mobile" desktop replacement.
Either way, moving from a 12.4" wide screen to a 20" wide screen is one heck of a bounce. The screen is also equipped with two bulbs rather than the one bulb most notebooks have. This makes the display almost as bright as my iMac's display (which are know for their brightness and clarity).
The Remote
One of the first things I noticed when I opened Big Thor's lid was the nifty media remote that was docked to the left of the keyboard. This remote has EVERYTHING on it. It can be used for basic media stuff like volume, skipping tracks, etc, but it also has a cell phone-style keyboard that allows you to type on your screen text style.
The remote does all of the normal Media Center things that Vista can do, but it throws in a few extras as well. For example, the remote allows you to DVR live television with the touch of a button. While most people would not choose to watch television on a notebook PC, this unit's 20" high-def screen and its integrated sub-woofer and 4 speakers put the HDX in a notebook class of its own.
The remote is quite a step up from the normal PCI Express remove that comes with most Pavilion notebooks. It fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and teh Receiver on the notebook seemed to pick up the signal from the remote no matter where I pointed it at the laptop.
The Antenna?
For some reason HP ships the HDX with an analog television antenna. I have no idea why they would do this, especially considering the fact that all TV stations with any kind of viewership are required to cease all analog transmissions in 2009. But oh well, I guess if you are rich enough to buy a $2,800 notebook and can't afford cable, this little antenna could hit the spot.
The Power BRICK - I Mean That Literally
It takes about 180 watts to make this monster dance, so it needs a power brick that can cut the mustard. This almost unnecessarily large power brick if the engine behind the HDX. This single power brick weighs more than Little Thor did in its entirety. This explains some of the weight discrepancy between the 15 pound notebook and the 34 pound FedEx shipping box.
If you are planning on carrying the HDX on your shoulder and want to start a workout regimen while you wait for the unit to ship, be sure to add on 8 pounds for the power brick.
All in all, the HDX seems like a NICE computer. Mine has 3 GB of RAM, dual 120 GB 7200 RPM hard drives, and one of the fastest dual core processors offered by Intel. This thing cuts through video rendering with ease, shows no hesitation in audio editing, and allows me to run just about everything you could imagine all at the same time.
Would I buy this for the full retail price? Yeah, I probably would. However, if you travel a lot, its important to note that this unit is actually wider than an airline passenger seat. Unless yoiu ntend to borrow 1/2 of someone else's lap, don't think about whipping this bad boy out on the road.
With that said, if you work from hotel rooms a lot like I do, then this unit is awesome. It is like having a desktop at your fingertips all the time and I love it.
A few weeks ago I posted about the cool Under Armour suits the guys from CPA Empire were wearing at Affiliate Summit West.
A few days ago a mysterious FedEx box arrived in my Lincoln Service Center. I wasn't expecting anything, so I had Jenn open it in case it was a bomb or something (kidding).
Turns out it was an Under Armour Jacket, long sleeve T, and skull cap from CPA Empire! I was totally surprised. I guess I am the only guy on planet Earth who didn't know that owning Under Armour gear raises a normal person's street cred. In fact, my staff thought I was uber cool for buying anything from Under Armour!
But their new-found respect for the boss faded as they found out that coolness had been thrust upon me by the kind and gentle hands at CPA Empire.
My wife immediately confiscated the Under Armour jacket, and the shirt was too small for my fat gut. Never the less we put it to good use. Kim's dad got the long sleeve T, Jacob got the cap, and I told Kim she could keep the jacket IF she let me post a pic of her in it on my blog.
While we had the camera out, we snapped a few additional pics. As usual, baby Jacob hammed it up or the camera and insisted on diplaying the coolness factor his father lacks.
But the best part of all was when baby Jacob sported the skull cap in true thug fashion. He insisted on having his shirt off and leaving just enough diaper hanging out so he would be considered cool.
Thanks to CPA Empire and Jaclyn Charles for the cool gear! I am looking forward to the awesome party CPA Empire holds for its top affiliates!
Ok people, pull your minds out of the gutter. A friend of mine sent me this image of the ultimate "peep show" in an email a few days back and I thought it was cute.
Obviously we mean the candy and not naked women, but you know some dirty guy will be Googling "naked peep show" Won't he be surprised when he finds this instead :-)
Happy Easter everyone!
This morning on my weekly radio program, Compute This, we will be talking about Apple's most recent patch woes that have left Apple home offices peeling - reeling.
We will also cover the troublesome trend of computers in our Service Centers showing up with missing Add/Remove program options. Is it spyware or your spyware removal program?
We plan on talking Top Affiliate Challenge, Chinese online video censorship, and taking your calls!
Local in Lincoln, Ne you can call 489-1240 or #1240 from your Alltel wireless between 10 and 11 AM, CST. If you are outside the Lincoln area, you can listen online for free at http:/www.kfor1240.com and call into the show toll free at 1-800-825-5865 (1-800-TALK-UNL). You can also email your questions to computethis@kfor1240.com.
We will be video taping the show and should have it online on the Schrock Innovations website late Monday.
For the longest time I did not get Twitter. It's hard enough for me to find time to write a substantive blog post, let alone write a sentence every time I see, hear, or do something different in my day.
I decided to grab a twitter account if for no other reason other than having dibs on my one name in the Twitter URL. I started following a few people I respect in the industry, and before I knew it Twitter started making sense.
I was really getting to see a side of these people that I would not have been able to see through a normal daily interaction. Its like getting inside the heads of the people you respect so you can learn more from them - or at least that's what it has become for me.
So I too have started tweeting and have 8 "followers" who keep an eye on what I am doing. Are you on Twitter? You can follow me (if you think I am interesting enough to keep your attention) by clicking http://twitter.com/thorschrock and selecting follow.
I have been exploring the wonderful world of the iPhone for the past couple weeks and there has been one nagging thing that was really starting to get to me.
It is literally impossible to keep up with mail on the iPhone when it is hooked up through a POP email account. On my old Treo and HTC Touch if you got 100 spam emails in an hour you could at least select them all and delete them at once. With the iPhone you are forced to delete each email manually. It takes so long to process all of the spam I was getting that it was literally a waste of time to even check the email on it.
I wasn't about to spend $400 on "the coolest phone ever" and not be able to use it for basic email, so I started pounding Google for an answer. My worst fears were realized when numerous articles confirmed there was no actual way to delete multiple emails at once on an iPhone.
Some of the blogs talked about an IMAP workaround though. It sounded complicated, and it still wouldn't reduce the amount of spam I was receiving from my Schrock Innovations POP accounts. The name of my company is Schrock Innovations, so I sat down and tried to think of a way I could have my email filtered for spam for free on the server side without missing important messages while at the same time maintaining the ability to check my email on my notebook AND my cell phone.
Long story short, I figured it out and here is how you can experience the pure joy of checking email on your iPhone, avoiding almost all spam, AND as a special bonus have everything you do on your iPhone synchronized with your Outlook email client in REAL TIME no matter where you are in the world!
Step 1: Get a Gmail Account
If you do not already have one, go to www.gmail.com and get a free Gmail account from Google. This process is pretty straight forward. Once you have your new Gmail account set up, enable POP and then program it to check your POP email. Once you have it set up and working, delete all POP accounts out of your Outlook account and your iPhone. You won't be needing those anymore.
Step 2: Set up an IMAP account in Outlook
By this time you should already have Gmail checking your POP accounts and loading email into your Gmail account. This give you the benefit of one of the world's best spam filers. I went from literally 600 spam messages a day to a mere 1. After two days of use, Gmail did not nab a single legitimate email as spam.
Now that we have killed the spam, its time to get your email back into your Outlook client. To do this, you need to enable IMAP in your Gmail account and then set up an IMAP account in your Outlook client and on your iPhone. IMAP is similar to POP except for one difference. POP is a one-way communication. It simply connects to the server and brings down your email. IMAP is a two-way communication that brings down anything that has not been brought down before. That way your iPhone and your Outlook get all of the same messages.
Secondly, IMAP allows your iPhone and your Outlook to communicate using your Gmail account as a central hub. This means if you delete an email on your iPhone it is also deleted from your Outlook inbox. If you send an email from your iPhone, a copy of the email is filed in your Outlook Sent Items folder. It's as if you are right there at your desk, even when you use the iPhone.
Setting up an IMAP account in Outlook 2007 is a snap. Just go to the add new accounts wizard and fill in the blanks. Outlook will contact Gmail and download all of the technical server settings, and the like. It's even more simple than setting up a POP account!
Step 3: Test Your New Setup
Go ahead and give it a whirl! Send your self an email from your Outlook client. You will see it appear in your Gmail inbox. Then, as your iPhone and Outlook client check for mail the next time, that email will be on all three interfaces. Now delete the email using your iPhone. The email will also disappear from your Gmail and Outlook inboxes in a few seconds. SWEET!
While this is not technically a fix for the iPhone multiple email dilemma, stemming the tide of spam in your inbox almost negates the need to delete 20 emails at a time. I have found that if I don't have to dig through all the spam, I can enjoy my iPhone's email features the way they were intended to be enjoyed!
When I was at Affiliate Summit West a couple weeks ago, there were a ton of affiliate networks with some pretty neat swag in their booths.
My wife was making fun of me for pretty much picking up anything that was free, but I persisted. after all, you don't come back from Vegas without gifts for the kids, right?
My 19-month old son Jacob is now the proud owner of this awesome Rocket Profit hat. Seriously though, I just completed an affiliate application for them. Shoemoney speaks very highly of them and suggested I establish an account.
Maybe now that all of their mergers are complete, someone from Rocket Profit reading this post will get in touch with us about Top Affiliate Challenge. If I like the offers I see after my application is approved, I will definately be knocking on their door!
From time to time I get a coupon code because of something I have bought online. The other day I received an email with a coupon code for 10% off my next purchase at www.lucky-baby.com.
I was just as puzzled as you are about why Thor Schrock would be getting a coupon from a baby sling website. I asked my wife about it and she shed some light on the subject when she told me she used my credit card about 2 years ago to buy a baby sling for my son Jacob.
At any rate, if you are going to buy a baby sling or anything else form www.lucky-baby.com, use coupon code lucky17 to score a 10% off savings!
I have seen a lot of people try a lot of things over the years, but this one is the closest thing to a Lifetime movie that I have ever seen in person.
This guy is attending meetings of the Lincoln Independent Business Association trying to get people to give him investment capitol. LIBA banned him from their meetings, but still he persists.
Here is an email that was sent to all LIBA members a few days ago from a LIBA representative:
We are growing concerned about a gentleman who is trying to get money (investment capitol) from local business owners.
Marty Woods a.k.a. Lance M. Woods, Dr. John Woods, Chad Woods showed up in Lincoln last December and has attended a LIBA luncheon and tried to attend our convention. We also know that he has approached other business organizations in Lincoln.
I have instructed him to stay away from LIBA events. Please see the attached photo. If you see him at one of our events, please alert the LIBA staff immediately.
LIBA is a pretty easy-going organization that is VERY effective at connecting business owners with networking opportunities. This guy must be pretty shady to get this kind of attention. I don't know him personally, nor have I ever seen him myself, but I will be sure to keep my hand on my wallet if I do.
My radio show, Compute This is coming up in just over an hour (10:00 CST). You can listen live on the web at KFOR 1240.com. If you have a question about your computer or about Top Affiliate Challenge you can call in on the toll-free line at 1-800-TALK-UNL.
This week we will be live taking calls, talking about the Ultimate Upgrade Sale at Schrock Innovations, and about the new upcoming Internet Explorer 8 and why your website may not be ready for it.
It should be an hour of fun and information. Talk to you soon!
Since Google for some reason can't figure out that we have moved the Top Affiliate Challenge blog to its own subdomain, maybe this post will help.
For all of you humans out there, please disregard the next part of this post. It is intended for the Googlebot.
101010101 01010101 Here's the Blog Stupid Googlebot 10101010101 01010101010 1010101010 101010101 1010101 Did I Mention there is a blog?10101 10101 1010 10101 1010101 0101010 1010101 101010 101010 10101 10101010101 101010101010 Some SEOs recommended I do this 10101 01010101 blog blog blog blog blog101010101010.
Obviously this is a joke, but seriously, its been two weeks and no revisits from the bot. *sigh*
Ok, I did it. I paid the $150 goodbye slap to Sprint, pitched my sucky HTC Touch phone and headed out to my local Apple Store to pick up an iPhone.
Of course, if I am getting an iPhone, my wife is getting one too (have to keep things fair, right guys?) so I bought the 8 GB version for myself and got the 16 GB version for my wife. She uses a lot more media than I do, so I figure I'll be fine.
We arrived at the dreaded Apple Store and were promptly helped by an associate named Nick. He was so incredibly awesome I actually pulled his manager aside to compliment his work.
He totally changed my opinion of our Apple Store. One funny thing though... He knew everything there was to know about Apple products, but when it came time for the concierge to ring us out, her wireless bar-code scanner/credit card scanning device was powered by Microsoft.
As was reinforced by the device in that associate's hand, going with Apple is cool and all, but as soon as it comes to getting the money in the bank, even Apple relies on a PC ;-)
So here is a fair review from a PC guy who dabbles in the the arts of the forbidden fruit.
The Pros
Seriously, this is the best phone I have ever owned. I own a computer repair business and I use the speaker phone a lot. The speaker phone on the iPhone ROCKS. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the iPhone will sync with my Outlook 2007 which made my life soooo much easier.
The phone design is sleek and the interface is smooth and easy to understand (unlike my HTC Touch that was about 400 MHz short of a solar calculator).
The interface for the Safari browser is better than any mobile platform I have ever used. So hands down it was worth the $400.
The Cons
I know this is going to get me attacked by the "Sons of Steve" Apple Worshipers, but it has to be said. I learn new things about my iPhone every day, but there are a few nagging things that my HTC Touch was superior at.
Single finger email deleting. With my touch I could delete emails with my thumb on a mouse-like touch device on the bottom of the phone.
The iPhone requires me to open the spam to find out what body part needs enlarging before I can delete it. Alternatively, I can do a fingertip tap dance on the screen that requires me to press the edit button, turn a little line deal and then tap delete... ON EACH EMAIL.
Does anyone know how to delete 10 spam emails in the inbox and just ZAP them?
No Flash Support. My HTC didn't have this either, but I am left pondering why I can watch YouTube videos, but can't do a damn thing on Revver.com. I can open PDF files, look at Excel Spreadsheets, and open images all naively. Why no Flash support Apple?
Super Slow Internet Speed. This is probably not Apple's fault, nor the fault of the iPhone itself. While I am sure you folks on the coasts enjoy screaming fast iPhone internet bliss, here in flyover country its a different story.
I live in Omaha, Nebraska which with its suburbs has a population of about 500,000 people. With that said, I can't use my iPhone in places I could use my Sprint phone. No reception in the hospital for example... and my data speeds are slower than dial-up. I thought there might be something wrong with my iPhone, but my wife confirms the lack of internet speed.
Just today Kim had to call information for a phone number and the AT&T operator was so curt she MUST have been working on a PC. It was actually just easier to Google the business on the iPhone and get the number from there - except it took forever.
All around, I am not having buyer's remorse at all and I love my new iPhone. There is always room for improvement ion a product, but Apple got a lot more right than they did wrong in this case. Now if AT&T would stop digging up my yard...
can get $800 in conference tickets FREE!
I just had an awesome phone conversation with Jay Weintraub, the guy behind the all new Leadscon Lead Generation Conference - a conference for Lead Generation as opposed to Affiliate Marketing (yes, there is a difference).
This is the first year for Leadscon, and I reached out to Jay so we could compare notes on our two projects. Like my work on Top Affiliate Challenge, we are both building new brands and overcoming the obstacles in our way.
I have to say, I was impressed with Jay's efforts on Leadscon. He knew he was taking on a daunting task when he decided to put Leadscon together, and in about 6 short months he went from an idea to a full blown conference with big name sponsors like Leadpoint, Reply.com, and http://www.oversee.net.
Tickets for Leadscon are going for about $400 right now, with the conference coming up in Vegas on April 2nd. At first glance that might look like a lot for a conference ticket, but when you realize that is a FULL ACCESS conference pass it starts to look like a better value.
But wait, there's more! Check out who you can meet at the conference!
- Matt Coffin, Founder, LowerMyBills
- Brendon Kensel, Chairman & Founder, MediaShift
- Ed Ojdana, Former CEO, Experian Interactive & Founder, ConsumerInfo.com (aka FreeCreditReport.com)
- Bill Rice, Founder & CEO, Kaleidico
- Mark DiPaola, President, D3 Ventures, Founder Vantage Media
- Matt Keiser, Co-Founder & President, Datran Media
- Mike Kelly, Media Advisor, Investor and Chairman, Eyeblaster
As you can see, Leadscon is ALREADY attracting some of the biggest names in the lead generation industry.
So on to the FREE passes.... While I was on the phone with him I asked if there was any chance he would be willing to give me a couple free passes to the conference to give away on my blog (I already have the 4 passes I need for my staff). After a ton of arm twisting he gave up a couple all-access passes - $800 in value.
All you have to do is post a comment below that you want them and then GO TO THE EVENT. It is April 2-4 at the Palms in Vegas. You have to get there on your own - I am giving you the conference passes, you need to buy the plane tickets ;-)
If you end up grabbing these, Kim and I could set up a dinner with you as well. I will buy that as an added bonus. This conference is going to ROCK and will probably sell out. If you have been waiting to experience the networking power of a conference, don't miss this opportunity!
Earlier today I wrote a post about a new traffic software suite called Web Traffic Machines. I paid $39 to get the 10 day trial, and I am taking the opportunity to go into 10 components of the suite in depth.
The first component review is the Forum Traffic Machine. If you want a tool that will allow you to completely automate the creation of forum accounts, their registration, signature lines, and posting this is the tool for you.
This is what the intro screen looks like:
Using the tabbed interface at the top of the window, the user can easily navigate to the Register and Activate screen. This screen allows you to create a Gmail account with ease. Just put in the base name tat you want and click create. A few seconds later you have a fully functional throw away Gmail account. The screen also allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts.
After you have created your Gmail account, you will be asked to enter some information that is used in the automated forum account creation process. Enter your desired birth date, user name, and password. Your email address information should auto-populate from the previous Gmail account you just created.
Now you are ready to start tracking down forums that contain posts that rank for your desired keywords. Move on to the Begin Registration tab ad click the Search button. A new box will appear that asks you for your desired keywords and phrases. Enter one search term per line and when you are done click on the Search tab.
On the search tab click the Yahoo and Google buttons to include or exclude either search engine. Click search and let the machine do its work. It will continue searching until you tell it to stop. While you get to know the software only let it grab a dozen or so. After you know what you are doing, you can really let this roll to scale your efforts.
Once you have as many forums listed as you want, click the remove duplicates button to avoid posting identical posts to multiple threads within a single forum.
Next, click the "Select All" option and then click the register button. The Forum Dominator will now start creating accounts using the information you provided earlier on each of the selected forums you found in your search. If you selected a lot of forums, this will take a while. Don't venture too far from your PC during this process because if there is a need to fill in a captchka the program will pop up a window for you to fill in. You don't want to let that time out, or you will have to do it again.
After the registration process is finished click the Registration Log button. On this screen, click the "Activate All" button. This will activate any accounts the system can automatically. Next, Navigate back to the Register Gmail tab and you will see some new items in your inbox. Go through the emails and click the activation links to activate the accounts that need to be done manually.
After all of your accounts on the forums are activated, it is time to start creating the link juice. First, you should set up a signature for each of the accounts you just established. Normally this is where people take hours and hours moving from one forum to another copying and pasting. Thanks to this Web Traffic Machine, you won't have to do it the old fashioned way. Simply navigate to the Forum Center tab and select the Edit Signature sub tab.
Click the "Load all Active Accounts" button and click the "Select All" button. Next, type your signature in the box on the top right. Once you are happy with your signature, simply click the "Edit Signature of Activated Account" button to apply your new signature to every forum you have an account with.
With the signature out of the way, it is time to submit a post to one of the keyword-targeted threads. Remember that while the thread was ranked highly by a search engine for your keywords, that doesn't mean the thread IS ABOUT your keywords. The object of the game here is to create a single post that can be dispatched to several forums and not be immediately flagged as spam.
I strongly recommend you DO NOT place an HTML link in your post. This significantly raises the possibility that your post will be flagged, your account banned, and the like. Try to keep your post generic enough that it could be applied to many situations, but specific enough that someone reading it will find some meaning. Make certain your spelling and grammar are 100% perfect in your message. I have found it is helpful to ask an open-ended question in your post such as "what is your opinion on widgets" instead of "do you like widgets" because if the thread is not bout widgets the second option is obvious spam.
To start creating your message, left click on the Message Center tab. You will notice that there is a message already there that just says Hi. You want to overwrite this message because you will not be able to simply delete it. Just highlight the existing content and then type in your message. When you are done, you can navigate away from this tab without clicking any buttons. Your changes will be saved.
The last step in the process is to launch your new message to the threads you found initially using the accounts that were created for you on those forums. To do this, simply click on the Forum Center tab and then click on the Send Comment sub tab. Next left click on the Load All Active Accounts button and click "Send Quote." Watch with amazement as your post is sent to each forum generating and end result that looks like this without you ever have even manually logging into the forum before:
That's all there is to it. It may sound like a lot of work here, but if you were auto-posting to 1,000 forums that could result in a lot of backlinks to your website as well as significant human traffic.
This single tool alone is well worth the $37 price tag for the entire suite in my opinion. If you are careful how you use it and do not abuse its capabilities by getting greedy, this could work for you.
With that said, this tool technically is capable of spamming forums. If you are a white-hat and are put off by such things, then use the tools included to locate high-value threads, create accounts, and then manually visit the threads through the software's interface and post real comments individually. Either way, this tool saves you a TON of time and typing.
How many minutes does this software suite have to save you to make back the $37 you pay for it?