Sharp End Training » Technical

Pluggio review

Jonathan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Pluggio is a web based twitter management tool,with a few twists. Maybe it has struggled to compete with the massive higher profile tools like hootsuite but having spoken to pluggio creater Justin Vincent a couple of times I am not sure this is his goal.

So what is pluggio
Pluggio is first of all web based. This means there is no software to download, no incompatabilities, no “an error has occurred” error messages. Having software on the “wrong” machine” is a thing of the past.

Once you are signed up, just link your twitter account,and away you go!

The pluggio workflow isn’t totally intuitive, although it does have a certain amount of logic to it. There are a stack of “start” tutorial videos to get you going.

Pluggio helps you to be ‘the signal not the noise’ and whereas most twitter software helps you get more followers

(pluggio does this if you want it to by the way)pluggio helps you get more followers by using a two pronged attack – specifically

a. By finding interesting people
b. Tweeting cool stuff

Lets take each in turn.

Finding interesting people.
You can find people who are tweeting certain words and phrases, hashtags and specific locations. You can turn this feature on or off. Once ‘found’, people are not alerted in any way. They are saved (not is a twitter list – Justin assures me that this is coming soon). At the moment, I have around 100 people who pluggio thinks I might want to talk to.

Tweeting cool stuff
With this cool feature you can add an RSS feed, any RSS feed!, and post from it to your twitter stream.

Thinking about it – you can any RSS feed posts and comments from; a blog, from a forum, anything. The logic here is that if you can’t be the source, be the REsource.

One final feature is that you can add tweets to a ‘rolling schedule’- In essence this means you can add tweets to a heap which will then be tweeted at random intervals.

You can add anything onto this queue and give the illusion that you are sat at your desk, when in fact you are nowhere near it!

There are several feature which I don’t use so can’t pass comment on and these include bulk upload of a spreadsheet of tweets, (Of course pluggio gives you the spreadsheet template to download) and I tend not to upload photos to twitter so I can’t comment on this.

All in all, if you want something that is reliable, funky and where the top man answers emails personally, look no further than pluggio.

(Oh and if you want to read some more about my twitter thinking, check this out

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Publishing with createspace

Jonathan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:15:42 +0000

Publishing with createspace (which is an amazon company) has suddenly become popular. Anyone can be an author or wannabe author – Heck even my kids are talking about writing books to sell to their friends.

We have a book marketing webinar coming up next week where we will be sharing more book marketing tips.

But in the meantime, here are some tips on publishing with createspace taken from around the web.

(Usual disclaimers apply – these are not our posts – we are just linking to them because they are helpful).

Tips on formatting your print book for Createspace and Lulu. Part1 …

timctaylor.wordpress.com1/7/12

Yesterday I completed a commission to format a book interior for Createspace, and wanted to share some tips to help you create your own great-looking Createspace books. This isn’t a top-to-bottom comprehensive guide, … radically different from print. Certainly if you are self-publishing then it is a great help to think from the beginning about writing your manuscript so that it lends itself safely and easily to being built into a print book or an eBook. Createspace is one of …

Tips on formatting your print book for Createspace and Lulu. Part2 …

timctaylor.wordpress.com1/17/12

Before we see how we deliver this in Word, I’ll turn the page once more in Createspace’s Interior Reviewer tool. Headers & footers at chapter start. Click for larger image. We’ve seen this in earlier tips, but it’s a timely reminder …

Tips on formatting your print book for Createspace and Lulu. Part2 …

timctaylor.wordpress.com1/17/12

Tip Trick Thursday:CreateSpace | andrewcyrushudson.com

andrewcyrushudson.com1/19/12

Tip Trick Thursday:CreateSpace. Well, it’s almost here. Drift in paperback form. But I’m not here to post for the sake of promoting my own novel. Rather, I’m here to talk about how it went into paperback form.

How To Self Publish Your Book With Createspace

www.squidoo.com1/12/12

After much consideration and research, I chose to use Amazon-owned Createspace to launch my creations into the cybersphere! … Essential Resources To Get You Up And Running On Createspace … Tips For Free Book Promotion Online …

Createspace or Lightning Source: Pros & cons breakdown | Chazz …

chazzwrites.com4/4/11

That was enough for me because very few publishers for indies do that and if they say, as Createspace does, that they have full distribution, you better make doubly sure that the wholesale discount is 45+ and that you can have a return policy. Createspace never told me that. I asked and they said, “We don’t make that … Filed under author Q&A, authors, Books, DIY, ebooks, publishing, Writers, writing tips. Tagged as Amazon.com, Author, Createspace, E-book, Jeff …

CreateSpace and UK authors -

www.kuforum.co.uk1/28/12

I went all the way through putting my book onto createspace, was about to publish it when I saw it doesn’t appear on amazon.co.uk, just amazon.com – so I didn’t bother in the end. So yes, it is open to UK authors but doesn’t …

Some interesting thoughts – Wondering about you guys, have you though about publishing with createspace? Do you know what it is?

Any thoughts welcome.

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10 tell tale signs you need to stop using outlook

Jonathan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:29:05 +0000

Most web users of a certain age have grown up with outlook (or for those of us who are old enough – outlook express).
Outlook though, has it’s limitations. Here are ten tell tale signs you may need to look for something else.

1. You have bookmarked more that 2 microsoft technical help pages.

2. You saved an attachment but you can’t remember where

3. You get an error message when you open outlook “An unexpected error has occurred”

4. You have mistyped someones email and now it is in your address book wrong seemingly forever,

5. Your machine has crashed and you have lost your entire history of messages.

6. You have had an outlook or email related virus.

7. You find yourself on the “wrong” computer unable to send or receive email.

8. You have set up signatures and mail filters (to be more efficient) more than once (ever)

9. You work mobile or on more than one machine

10. You don’t use any other microsoft products.

Help is available >> http://www.emailmanagement.biz

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Gotomeeting and camtasia

Jonathan — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:34:16 +0000

How to integrate gotomeeting and camtasia?

The gotomeeting application is superb. It just works. Straight out of the box.

Even better, when I click record, it records straight onto my hard drive.

BUT (and it’s big BUT)

The .wmv file output won’t go into camtasia for editing. So gotomeeting and camtasia could play better together in that respect.

(If you are really interested that I *think* it is to do with “time points” on the recording).

This is no problem if I don’t need to edit the gotomeeting recording at all. (And assuming my viewers are all windows based and happy to watch .wmv files). Gotomeeting also records the WHOLE SCREEN – toolbars and all the other required junk on my screen.

There are loads of blog posts about this but I sorted (and I am using camtasia 7) doing the following workflow.

Take the raw .wmv file and make a copy of it – so whatever happens – that isn’t changed. By default it will be stored in your “My documents” folder if you are on PC. (You can change this in your gotomeeting settings). Store this somewhere safely elsewhere.

I downloaded windows media encoder (free) – just google for it. I got version 9.

Next, I imported the COPY of the gotomeeting .wmv into media encoder and clicked the “convert”

This takes a while and you now end up with three versions of the same file. Obviously the longer the event (or the bigger the file) and more activity on the screen – the longer it will take to encode. While this is happening, you can’t do anything with that machine – so plan when you will do this task wisely.

The original, the copy and the windows media encoder produced. They will all probably be called the same thing although you can specify where to send the “output” file.

So I rename them “raw” and “final.” Then I can edit the “final” in camtasia or any other video editing program.

Then I can export to flash video or mp4 or whatever I want. I can also add intro’s, outro’s and so called “callouts”

You can also rip out the audio with camtasia – “export as mp3″ and voila – you have a podcast. Two for the price of one..

(By the way – this procedure also works exactly the same for gotowebinar).

A bit messy but anyone got any other suggestions on how to integrate gotomeeting and camtasia?

Let’s ‘ave em…

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Which TOP level domain for your business?

Jonathan — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:20:59 +0000

The other day, we posted this article about domains.

But I realised that maybe, the cart had gone before the horse. Most people can be forgiven for not knowing their .biz from their .mobi extensions.

Plus the domain registrar companies aren’t going to bend over backwards to explain all the details to you. So we will…

All the top business strategists talk consistently about brand and personal branding. What is little talked about is the value of a domain in your brand.

The domain is the www people type in to get to your website and it really should be the corner stone of your business.

So which domain to buy and why?

(Of course you are free to register which ever domain you want and I won’t be there holding your hand on the mouse as you press the “buy” button – so use you own judgement).

.com

is obviously the heavyweight of the domain world. It’s been around the longest, people trust it. The thing to remember though is that in a few years time, the internet will still be here and .com’s (especially short ones) will be a scarce resource.

Short, pronouncable .com’s are almost all taken already.

.net

Is usually referred to as the second level behind .com. Like .com they are respected and still freely available. They were originally intended for network & IT professionals but that is no longer the case.

Get a .net domain but be careful if the .com has been taken and be even more careful if it has been developed into a site. Your customers and visitors maybe confused.

.org

.org (or .org.uk) domains are usually used by non profit making organisations and charities.

If you plan on developing some sort of advice site then .org would be a perfect choice.

.biz

.biz domains are aimed at business owners and business pure and simple. If you are a business, a .biz is a good choice.

.info

These are relatively new and can be cheaper to register than other top level domains. They don’t carry the same “weight” as the other extensions mentioned already.

.tv

.tv is actually the top level domain for the tiny pacific Island country of Tuvalu. The country sold the rights to the domain and invested the money in the infrastructure if the country.

.tv domains are generally more expensive than most top level domains but if you have a video, film or TV related business, they are an ideal choice.

.mobi

These are intended for use with mobile devices and not generally to be used on a top level development site.

There are other domain extensions which are marketed heavily by domain registrars – but – be true to yourself and remember – you are spending real money…

Which domain for your business?

Jonathan — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:37:11 +0000

If you are a start up, work from home, “mumpreneur” or any other 21st Century “new age business”, it’s likely that your website will be your primary marketing vehicle and shop window.

As far as “buying” it – you don’t actually buy it. You effectively lease the rights for sole use for a specific period. If you don’t pay the renewal fee – the domain will “drop” (watch for a future article) and the website and email attached to it will stop working.

Remember, some domains are valuable and it is worth paying for more than one year and making a note of when it expires – so you don’t lose it.

It is obviously a vital choice. Something you need to get right – so which domain to buy?

If you are a solo professional or 1 person business, you should always register your own name .com and preferably .net. If you are outside the US, get the country top level domain also. So in the UK – this would be .co.uk

Registering your own name will stop so called “cyber squatters” putting up site and asking you for a lot of money to buy it off them.

If you head a small business, think about registering your business name as follows.

1. Remember the “phone test” – Think about how you would explain your website or email over the phone. (Maybe to someone who doesn’t speak english as a native language). As a rule of thumb, if you think you are likely to run into trouble… You will…

2. Don’t worry about hyphens. There are theories that they are not liked by search engines. But as few people are party to what search engines like and don’t like, you can think of hyphens to just break up words.

3. Be careful what words you put together which normally have a space in between them. These can make the domain harder to remember and pronounce. Not what you want.

4. The shorter the better, As a general rule – short is easy to brand and fit round a logo. If possible under 10 characters.

5. Think about who you chose as your registrar. All companies offering domain registration should be registered with ICANN. But if you ever want to sell the domain, if it is not registered with one of the main players, your chances of selling it are likely to be less.
Also, some registrars will offer you cheap first year and then be more expensive afterwards. Think strategically as to how long you intend to keep the domain for.

6. You don’t have to get your hosting from the same place as your domain. Registrars will often give you a cheap domain but make up the shortfall on hosting. Don’t be taken in, again be strategic in your thinking.

So I get your spam as well now?

Jonathan — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:45:01 +0000

Most of us get spam – this is usually unwanted email. This can be from sales material we never requested to more unpleasant “adult” products. Spam can also be text messages, facebook group spam, incoming telephone call spam and blog comment spam.

But now there is yet another spam

The spam of other people. Spam from other people’s blogs.

Like most, I comment on other blogs to help them build their community. After all, what goes around, comes around.

There are all sorts of comment plugins for wordpress and the various content management systems and blog engines. These do various things to make the content sticky. Allowing you to do things like post to facebook, blah de blah.

So I get a bit annoyed when I click “keep me informed of future comments” box to keep up with the debate and the next thing I get is an inbox full of comment spam.

Remember guys, protection is better than cure and I am unlikely to be back.

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Browser plugins

Jonathan — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:17:12 +0000

Browser plugins – Which do I need?

With the boundaries of the web being stretched with all manner of applications and different technologies being flung together, the average non technical user can be forgiven for being a bit lost.

It is not uncommon for people buying a new PC or laptop from a high street vendor to have no idea of what software is installed on it.

**So which browser plugin do you need?**

(And which can you do without?)

(Note there are browser plugins to do various tasks and shortcuts – especially for the firefox browser – so I have kept this list relevant to people wanting to view video and play games online.

Adobe Flash Player

One of the major reasons why Adobe bought Macromedia in 2005 was to acquire the technology behind flash.

Flash player is free and it allows you to watch videos and animations created using the paid for flash authoring tool. (Or compatible tools)

Flash player will generally prompt you when it needs to update and you should update when prompted. Flash player is installed in over 97% of new computers.

Alas, if you own an ipad or various other apple devices, you will be unable to see any flash on your device.

Shockwave player

Shockwave is the format of video and animation outputted by Macromedia Director. However, since the Adobe buyout, question marks persist over the future lifespan of Director. As a result, you probably won’t need shockwave player.

Authorware player

Authorware is a no longer supported elearning application. You should look closely at any sites requiring the authorware player. (Last time I checked, it was quite a large download also).

Quicktime player

Quicktime is a format of video produced by apple. Similar to the flash player, the free player allows you to watch media created with the paid for authoring tool.

Maybe it is because I use a PC, but I have always found this format to be unreliable and buggy.

Windows Media Player

Good old windows media player. I have no recent experience of this and it is used to watch video rather than animation and games.

So which browser plugin?

The only player you should really need to watch videos is the flash player. That’s the reason why the Sharp End Training courses are made using it.

What about you ?

Which browser plugins have you used and which have you installed and not needed?

New home for our helpdesk

Jonathan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:42:31 +0000

Just a quick note to say that our helpdesk has moved to a new home on a new server. Unfortunately, we need to re upload some the “how to’s” and canned responses.

We will be doing this in the next week or so so please bear with us.

In the meantime though, the support desk is fully operational and you can submit tickets as normal.

All existing tickets have been moved over.

Thank you for your patience and we hope you didn’t notice any “downtime”.

The Flesch reading ease score

Jonathan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:45:15 +0000

A couple of posts ago, we started talking about readability.

Like most things these days, readability can be given a numeric score. The one we tend to use is the Flesch reading ease score. (To see how Microsoft word actually works this out for you, click here)

There are other indicators but broadly, they judge a document on 2 things.

1. The length of sentances (number of words) and
2. The number syllables in each word

(The exact formulas are available on sites like wikipedia but to be honest, they do look very scary..)

Armed with these 2 simple facts and very little else, we can make very powerful inroads into improving our readability scores.

Let’s look at two sample passages of text/strong

“the purpose of this document is to ensure that all staff are aware of the required safety procedures” (18 words)

includes a lot of what we called “clearing the throat” text. It can be shortened to

“this document shows staff the safety procedures” (7 words)

Now, we want to get our flesch reading ease score as high as possible.

Why?

Because we want our document to be read and most people stop reading at the age of about 15 or 16 (when they leave school).

Here is the Flesch reading ease table.

90-100 : Very Easy
80-89 : Easy
70-79 : Fairly Easy
60-69 : Standard
50-59 : Fairly Difficult
30-49 : Difficult
0-29 : Very Confusing

How easy is this to do?

Very, if you know where to look. Look for “clearing the throat” words & phrases.

The most obvious ones are “In order to”, “the purpose of” etc.

Also, read the classified ads in the Sunday Papers – they have to be absolutely miserly with words. “Lose weight – free book shows you how” is just 7 words (and just 7 syllables also) but gets the message over perfectly…

Ok – Now off you go to look over your own documents…