Aweber WordPress Web Form Plugin

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Nov 18, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

If you use Aweber for your email marketing you will be delighted to know that today they released their AWeber Web Form Widget for WordPress. You can use it to place your Aweber forms on your WordPress site with just a few click. There is no need to copy and paste code any longer.

With the Webform Widget for WordPress, you can easily drag and drop web forms that you have created in your AWeber account into your WordPress blog, without having to log into your AWeber account or copy and paste anything. All you need is an AWeber account and a completed web form.

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1: You can find the AWeber WordPress Web Form Widget on WordPress.org. You can use WordPress to install the widget for you, but if you’re manually installing it, make sure you upload it to “/wp-content/plugins/”. Once installed, activate it on your Plugins page by clicking the Activate link.

Step 2: To connect the widget to your AWeber account, first click AWeber Web Form under the Settings tab on the left of your WordPress control panel.

On this page, click the link next to “Step 1″.

Step 3: You will be taken to a page asking you to authorize the connection between your AWeber account and the widget. Enter your login name and password here and hit the “Allow” button.

You’ll be taken to a page with an authorization code (it will be a long string of characters) – simply highlight it and copy it to your clipboard.

Step 4: Back in your WordPress control panel, just paste the authorization code into the space provided and click the “Make Connection” button.

Step 5: Once you’ve installed this widget and connected it to your AWeber account, head over to the Widgets page under Appearance on the left side of your WordPress dashboard.

Simply drag the widget (it will show up under Available Widgets as “AWeber Web Form”) into the widget area in which you’d like your form to appear.

Sep 6: Once the widget is in place, you can choose which form you would like to appear. Expand the AWeber Web Form widget’s options by clicking the arrow to its right, then use the drop down menus to choose the list you want to work with:

And the web form you’d like to place on your blog:

Then hit ”save” to save your changes, and your form will be installed on your blog.

Time Trackers For Greater Productivity

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Nov 3, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 1 comment

Want to know how many hours you spent last week on the website for your new client? Need to track your team’s hours by function? Want to figure out your hourly wage by project? Or maybe you would like to monitor the time you spend playing solitaire or cruising blogs? Then what you need is a time-tracking software program. You have a bevy of paid and free options to track your time. Here are a few suggestions.

Klok
This desktop application allows you to create a visual representation of your time, track by client or project, and export your time totals to your time sheets for clients. Available as individual licenses for $15.99.  Visit their website here.

Paymo
This system provides free time tracking and three invoices for individuals. You may also use overview and reporting systems for businesses, for $3.99 per user per month. You can sort and track by user, client, project, and task, and track by iPhone or desktop. Visit their website here.

Toggl
One-click tracking on your computer or iPhone with Toggl. Free for up to five users; plans scale up from there. You can also embed Toggl into your favorite Internet application, like iGoogle or Gmail. Visit their website here.

RescueTime
RescueTime doesn’t just let you track your time; it helps you focus by blocking distracting sites (Facebook, anyone?). It also creates time tracking reports and graphs. RescueTime’s Solo Lite is available for free but is limited on features; Solo Pro is available for $6-$9 per month, and the Team Edition is available for $15/month or less. Visit their website here.

Clock My Time
Clock My Time is a desktop widget for Yahoo or Vista. You simply download the widget to your desktop and use it to track your time. You can monitor your or your team’s time from any Internet-enabled computer. $10 per user per year.  Visit their website here.

iPhone apps
If you are on an iPhone, you have a number of low-cost apps for your own tracking time, including ClockedIn, Timely, and Easy TimeSheet. Be careful when shopping for an iPhone app, though, as some require a membership subscription to a more powerful desktop application.

When evaluating your time tracking options, consider:

• How many users you’ll need
• What reports and charts you’ll want to create
• How many tasks you’ll be tracking
• If you need access from other computers
• What kind of storage you’ll need
• If you want to generate invoices from your time sheets, and if so, how many per month you’ll be creating

Once you select a time tracking program, be sure to USE it. Just like a budget, it won’t do any good just sitting on your desktop. Put it to use to increase your productivity and start saving time… and money!

If you have a great time tracking software that you use and recommend, I would love to hear about it.

Jot It Down Using Note-Taking Tools

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Oct 21, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Keep your mind in one place!

Steno pads. Spiral notebooks. Legal pads. The back of an envelope. A cocktail napkin. Receipts. The corner of a newspaper. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’ve got ideas striking you every hour of the day and night, and you grab the nearest writing implement and snippet of paper to scrawl a few words on. But how often do those pieces of paper make it into something more permanent?

With today’s variety of note-taking and idea-gathering software, there’s no excuse for stealing your kids’ crayons anymore. Take a look at these multimedia opportunities for storing your thoughts, ideas, photos, blog posts, and more… and best yet, they’re all free!

Evernote
Collect, sort, tag, and annotate a variety of notes and other information. Log in online or access it via your iPhone. Store your web clips, text clips, videos, audios, and more in a single file. You can even snap a photo with your mobile phone and save it. Oh yeah, you can share it with others! Find out more at Evernote.com

OneNote
This is Microsoft’s version of a note book that lets you capture text, images, video, and audio notes and take and edit notes with other people in other locations. View and edit your notes from virtually any computer with an Internet connection or your Windows phone. Available with Microsoft Office. Find out more here.

Springnote
This is a free, online notebook based on wiki. You can create pages, keep them in your Personal Notebook or create a Group Notebook to share with friends. Store up to 2GB online. Add photos, comments, and more. Springnote for the iPhone is also available. Find out more at Springnote.com

Tumblr
If you’re the visual type, you might want to take a look at this note book. Billed as “the easiest way to blog,” it’s a fun way to create your own virtual bulletin board with pictures, photos, quotes, audio, video, and more. You can set your privacy level and collaborators, creating a bulletin board just for yourself, or one to share with a team or the public. There’s also a free iPhone app. Find out more at Tumblr.com

Virtual Yellow Stickies
Depending on what browser you are using, you may already have virtual yellow stickies available to you. If not, simply Google the words “virtual sticky notes and you will find many great free tools. One of my favorites before I switched to IE8 was Stickies by Zohrn Software. You can read more about them here on my Internet Mastery Blog. I use yellow stickies on one of my monitors to store often used html code snippets.

After perusing these sites, you’ve probably come up with a dozen or more ideas that you quickly jotted down on a scrap of paper somewhere. Don’t waste them – choose a note-taking solution and get your thoughts and goals down safely and permanently. You can’t act on your ideas if you don’t remember where you put those notes!

Getting Things Done – To Do List Software

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Oct 15, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 2 comments

When I was thinking about entrepreneurial productivity, I polled my virtual assistance team on their favorite productivity tools. The number-one answer: “To-Do” lists!

I was surprised at the number of computer science degree techy-types who owned up to using the old-fashioned pen and paper to create their lists. I admit freely to being on this list! There is something very emotionally satisfying about old-fashioned pen and ink list making. However, in our very fast-pasted high-tech virtual world, we may want to reserve the old-fashioned way for making our Christmas lists.

What to-do list program works best will depend on a number of things, including:

• Are your entries simple tasks or complex projects?
• Do you want to group or code tasks together?
• Is the list just for you, or will you be managing and assigning tasks to others?
• How do you want to archive completed tasks?
• Where will you access your list: On your computer, remotely, or on your iPhone?
• Do you want to track just the task, or additional elements like time, priority, etc.?

There are dozens of to-do tools available, including the following:

Ta-da List
Looking for basic list capability without a lot of jazz to distract you? Then Ta-Da Lists is the answer to your prayers! Create multiple lists, share them with others, and download them to your iPhone. Free service.  Find out more here.

Remember The Milk
This is like a To-Do list on steroids with interfaces for Google Calendar and apps for Twitter, the iPhone, and the Android. Set up reminder messages to be sent via IM or email, share  tasks with others, and set priorities. Free service.  Find out more here.

TeuxDeux
With its pared-down, drag-and-drop interface, you can get started with TeuxDeux’s to-do list immediately. An iPhone app is underway, but for now it’s entirely browser-based, which means it’s accessible from any Internet-enabled computer. Free service.  Find out more at here.

Toodledo
Assign priorities, tags, and deadlines, set goals, create folders, and collaborate with others via Toodledo. A robust list function lets you store all your lists and notes together. Free service.  Find out more here.

Gmail lists
If you’re already a Gmail convert, add to-do lists to your mix. Convert Gmail to tasks, integrate with your calendar, and access from your mobile device. Free service. Find out more here.

While all the bells and whistles may make your eyes glow, remember that the easier the program, the more likely you will be to use it – and that’s the end goal!

If you have a terrific to-do list that you use and recommend, please share it with us!

Now You Can Publish Your E-Book on Barnes and Noble

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Oct 14, 2010 in Entrepreneurism, Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Barnes & Noble has just released PubIt!, a new tool that allows authors and publishers to publish e-books through Barnes and Noble.com.

Now, you can upload Word, txt, rtf, html and other files directly to PubIt!, which will convert the files and make them available as an e-book. The e-book will be available within 72 hours of its upload.

The company will take as their royalty rate 35% of books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and 60% of books priced below $2.98 and over $10.

The new service will compete with Amazon’s pioneering Digital Text Platform (DTP), which many writers have turned to for distributing their works to the Kindle and other devices that run the Kindle Reader software. Sony, too, has a DYI option for its Reader Store, and Apple is now allowing self-publishers to distribute their e-books in its iBookstore thanks to a deal with Smashwords, a start-up that specializes in DIY e-book creation and distribution.

Will PubIt! make e-books even more popular with readers – and writers? We shall see!

If you use PubIt!, send me an email and tell me about your experience. Good luck!