DirectMarketingMBA

Utterz upgrades upload form with cool features

2008-01-25T00:33:00.001-07:00

Great new additions to the Utterz interface include the ability to choose where Utterz sends each update, plus tagging channels, audio uploads and more.

(Would be great to have support for .wma files, but I found a slick converter here: http://nch.com.au/switch/)

Thanks, Utterz team!

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Endless ROI goes live today, ranks well in Googl

2008-01-24T00:10:00.001-07:00

I was excited to see the search results for Endless ROI on BlogTalkRadio today. We had a great show with Matt O'Brien of Moguling.com and Jody Gnant, a new user of Moguling.com's services for cosolidating communities.

Check out the podcast!

Links:

Endless ROI - The Monetization Conversation with Susan F. Heywood

http://BTR.EndlessROI.com/

Moguling:

http://www.moguling.com/

Advertise on Endless ROI -

e-mail Advertise@EndlessROI.com for info

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Monetizing with Moguling.com on EndlessROI.com

2008-01-23T11:35:00.001-07:00

Today's EndlessROI show on BlogTalkRadio starts at 3 PM EST (Wed.) and will include discussion of the Moguling.com platforms and other info to help you monetize your blogs and online content.

Also, the EndlessROI.com domain now points to some new content we'll talk about in today's show, which will be produced a little differently this week.

Catch the show live today at 646-200-0120 or listen to the archives at http://BTR.EndlessROI.com/.

Links for today's show:

Moguling.com

http://www.moguling.com/

The site I created for EndlessROI using Moguling.com:

http://moguling.endlessroi.com/

RSS Feed for the EndlessROI podcasts:

http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/…s/sheywood

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Classmates communications held hostage

2008-01-13T00:01:00.001-07:00

Tonight I received an e-mail message from Classmates.com that said I had a new e-mail message waiting. Curious, I logged into the site, which I've been registered on for more than a decade, only to find that in order to read the message (which btw, was sent back in November!) I would need to upgrade to the "gold" subscription package. I went to my friend's page, because the message was from someone I really want to catch up with, and composed a message to her. When I hit submit, I learned that for my friend to be able to read my message, I would have to pay (or I could have her pay.)

Presumably, this means that at least one party in an e-mail exchange on the site needs to be "gold." I don't know if this is a recent thing, or if folks who've sent me messages in the past were subscribers.

For a site to call itself a "leading online social networking service" to hold communication among members hostage this way does not make sense to me in 2008, given all of the other social networking options that now exist.

While the revenues from the 3 million "pay accounts" from the subscribers to the social networking sites under the banner of Classmates Media Services is a significant figure even if each subscriber only went "gold" for one month, more telling is the statistic that there are 50 million registered users of the sites. This means that only 6% of registered users use the pay features of the sites.

Given the amount of advertising on the site, Wonder what the traffic and revenue numbers would look like should it decide to allow users to communicate freely?

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Jody Gnant spoke at Phoenix Social Media Club

2008-01-10T23:53:00.001-07:00

Jody Gnant spoke at Phoenix Social Media Club Thursday evening

Bohemian Geek Soul songstress and lifecaster (http://www.jodygnant.tv/) Jody Gnant streamed her presentation live on Thursday evening when she spoke to the Phoenix Social Media Club about her experiences with lifecasting and how it has helped her in reaching her goal of making music full time.

Jody's viewers from all over the world contributed to the discussion via chat as Jody told the SMC group about how she uses Ustream.tv to stream videos journaling her daily life.

Jody will be my guest next Wednesday, January 16 at 3 PM EST on my new BlogTalkRadio show, EndlessROI. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sheywood)

Join our conversation on Wednesday, when we'll talk about lifecasting, social media and making music and answer your questions--Call in live to 646-200-0120 or join the live chat during the show.

P.S. The EndlessROI Ning group is open and is at http://endlessroi.ning.com/.

I would love to have you join!

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Favorite Cocktail, Endless ROI, Utterz Meetup

2008-01-02T23:47:00.001-07:00

Social media can be used to achieve Endless ROI - welcoming your calls each Wednesday at 3 PM Eastern to talk about how you use social media and answering your questions.

Wishing that I could be in Boston for the Utterz meetup with Chris Heuer. Forgot to mention that my favorite cocktail is CC & 7 UP. :^)

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Merry Christmas, Everyone!

2007-12-24T23:59:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas to all my listeners and readers.

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Endless ROI show on BTR debuts 12/26

2007-12-20T11:37:00.003-07:00

Starting next Wednesday, December 26,

from 3-3:30 pm EST for my new BlogTalkRadio show Endless ROI or subscribe to the feed to listen anytime!

Stop Blocking Campaign champions employee trust

2007-12-20T00:03:00.001-07:00

Last night I talked a little about BlogTalkRadio. One of the shows I like is The Rundown with Luke Armour. Last week he interviewed corporate communications guru Shel Holtz about a campaign he started last fall to stop employers from blocking employees' access to some or all parts of the Web.

This campaign is an effort to rebut "studies" (often by entities with vested interest in selling blocking solutions) that blame frivolous surfing for business "losses."

Treating employees with trust that recognizes their commitment in a world where "company time" is often logged at home or on the road is an important way to foster employee engagement, loyalty and productivity.

Listen to the interview and read the Stop Blocking blog (links below) to learn more.

Links:

Stop Blocking Campaign Site:

http://www.stopblocking.org/

(Be sure to check out the Wiki and the Petition.)

Luke Armour interview with Shel Holtz (12/11) on BlogTalkRadio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/…Shel-Holtz

Stop Blocking Facebook Group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php

Stop Blocking Campaign announcement 9/18 from Shel Holtz:

http://blog.holtz.com/…_campaign/

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BlogTalkRadio Rocks!

2007-12-19T08:28:00.001-07:00

BlogTalkRadio Rocks!

Look for my new show on BlogTalkRadio, which will be about using social media in business and marketing, and about cool news related to technology.

I won't be abandoning my Utterz, just complementing them with a lengthier discussion that will support call-ins and guest interviews.

I'll also be looking for guests and inviting you to call in live when the show airs, so stay tuned to learn more.

Links:

Sheywood on BlogTalkRadio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sheywood

BlogTalkRadio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/

Now is the Time show on BlogTalkRadio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/…wistheTime

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Hulu.com Beta - First Look

2007-12-18T00:00:00.001-07:00

Today I received a beta invite from Hulu.com, a site that streams a wide variety of television content with "limited commercial interruptions."

Hulu is rolling out betas on a limited basis, and my wait for an invite after requesting one was about two weeks. (You can sign up for an invite from Hulu using the link below.)

Content that is available for viewing on the site ranges from old stuff (like the pilot for Dogie Howser) and new stuff (like Family Guy, The Office and Roswell) conveniently identified by season and episode number.

There is a social media component included, as users create a profile and can make comments about the shows and clips.

Because the site collects demographic information like birthdate and zip code for its users, this type of delivery format should be attractive to advertisers who like to measure such things about viewers.

Ads are served at the beginning and the end of the shows and clips, and the run times reflect the limits of the interruptions (21:48 for a 30 minute TV show, for instance.) The ads are current, not those that would have appeared in the original airing.

The site touts its ability to allow users to embed the content as well as to view it anywhere, although on first look, I haven't made the embedding or the RSS subscription feed for my playlist work yet.

So far, Hulu is an interesting alternative for those (increasingly frequent) times when there is nothing good on regular or cable TV.

It also appears to prove what the writers have been pointing out since beginning their strike -- that there is value and profit in Online content delivery.

Look for more posts about Hulu as I test it further.

Links:

http://www.hulu.com/

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V:Social VP discusses white label video at Phoen

2007-12-13T23:04:00.001-07:00

Pictured: Marcia Canady of V:Social

This evening, Marcia Canady, VP of marketing and sales for Tempe-based V:Social discussed the use of "white label" video at the December meeting of the Phoenix Social Media Club.

V:Social offers a platform that businesses can use to produce and distribute video on their Web sites and to share the video on sites like YouTube. Unlike YouTube itself, or other free video distribution sites, V:Social offers its clients the ability to brand the look and feel of the video player with customization consistent with the rest of a company's brand identity.

One of the most common ways that V:Social clients use the platform is to run promotions where users upload their own videos to a company Web site to compete for a prize. She shared examples of such contests from Vespa, UPS and Foster's.

Links:

V:Social:

http://www.vsocial.com/

UPS Delivery Intercept Challenge:

http://challenge.ups.com/…ontest.php

Foster's Laid Back Legends (UK):

http://www.fosters.co.uk/…index.aspx

Vespa Go Green Video Challenge:

http://gogreenchallenge.vespausa.com/

Social Media Club:

http://www.socialmediaclub.org/

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2008 Online Marketing Survival Tips from OMMA

2007-12-11T23:24:00.001-07:00

MediaPost's OMMA magazine shares ten things about ten things related to Online media and marketing in its December, 2007 issue.

MediaPost's print publication OMMA - The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising identified ten key areas Online marketers need to manage to survive in 2008 in its December, 2007 cover story.

Hear the ten areas necessary for survival in 2008, and use the link to find out ten things about each that Online marketers need to know.

Link:
OMMA's Ten Things stories
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Archives.showArchive&art_type=101&archive_year=2007

Miriam-Webster names W00t word of the year
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071211/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_year

p.s. Happy Birthday to Sue in Houston!

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Cutting the (phone) wires? - How do you call?

2007-12-10T23:49:00.001-07:00

A government study released on Monday based on sample data for the first six months of 2007 shows that one in eight US households have cell phone service but not traditional landlines.

While the growth of 1% in this group versus 2% growth in the second half of 2006, it's unclear whether the results were affected by changes in the way the survey was worded and organized.

Significant findings include significantly higher proportions of people ages 18-29 rely solely on mobile phones, which is double the percentage of people ages 30 and over who do.

While 59% of respondents used both land and cell lines, only 24% relied only on landlines.

These findings have implications for emergency responders and political pollsters.

What do you do? Do you have both mobile and landlines?

Links:

Yahoo news story on wireless cell phone use study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071210/ap_on_hi_te/cell_phones_only

CDC report on wireless phone usage (PDF file)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless200712.pdf

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A few short thoughts on social media

2007-12-08T00:06:00.001-07:00

Links:

Thinking a lot today about how businesses outside the existing social media community can use these new tools effectively.

Chris Brogan's Social Media Starter Pack post
http://chrisbrogan.com/social-media-starter-pack/

Arizona Twitter Meetup Info:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/379597/

Follow me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/sheywood

p.s. Happy Birthday, Ben!

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Local Shopping Yields Big Rewards

2007-12-07T00:04:00.001-07:00

This holiday season, look for local sources for food and gifts. You'll be helping sustain independent businesses in your local economy, find unique gift items. Plus, when you shop at local farmers' markets, you know where your food came from!

In Phoenix, there are a number of local farmers' markets across the metro area. The Downtown Phoenix Public Market is open Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings. A store featuring local merchandise is slated to open in Spring, 2008.

Links:
Downtown Phoenix Public Market:
http://www.foodconnect.org/phoenixmarket/

Local First Arizona /Arizona Chain Reaction:
http://www.localfirstaz.com/

Local First Arizona Links to other Local Shopping Advocacy Organizations:
http://www.localfirstaz.com/links/

American Independent Business Alliance:
http://www.amiba.net/

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Opting out of Facebook's Beacon

2007-12-05T23:36:00.001-07:00

Opting out of Facebook's Beacon

The latest news on Facebook's Beacon feed is that it will be opt-in only. This is true when it works. Here's how to opt-out of all Beacon feeds.

Links:

Facebook Help page - Actions from External Websites:
http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=57

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Stress Free Travel

2007-12-04T23:39:00.001-07:00

Today's Utterz topic of the day is stress-free travel, so I thought it would be a good time to share one of my favorite travel tip -- Take the train!

Long distance train travel is a fun and low-stress way to see the USA. Plus, it is more environmentally-friendly than air or car travel, and gives you plenty of time to relax or even work using wi-fi connections. (And you can take your whole bottle of shampoo, too!)

Some other travel tips:

* Travel light (For long trips, remember that there are often laundry facilities available, so you can take fewer clothes. Doing a load before you leave can make your return less stressful, too.)
* Use travel SpaceBags to keep your outfits organized and neat
* Allow enough time (Be realistic about how much stuff you can really do on the trip.)
* Use lists to stay organized (FlyLady has a great packing list you can use to start.)
* Keep separate toiletries packed (Replenish as necessary after each trip.)
* Unpack as soon as you return from your trip

Links:

Amtrak - Travel America by Train -
my Squidoo lens about Amtrak train travel:
http://www.squidoo.com/amtrak_travel/

Sunset Un-Limited Google Group - Advocating restoration of Amtrak's cross-country Sunset Limited route east of New Orleans:
http://groups.google.com/group/sunset-un-limited

FlyLady's travel control journal - PDF file:
http://www.flylady.net/images/PackingCJ.pdf

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Iowa is Purple

2007-12-03T00:07:00.001-07:00

Iowa is Purple

The Iowa caucuses are different than other primaries.

Links:
Squidoo Lens: Iowa is Purple:
http://www.squidoo.com/iowa_is_purple/

USA Today on Latest Iowa polls:
In unsettled GOP field, Huckabee finds footing:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-02-huckabee_N.htm

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Dealing with large class sizes at universities

2007-12-01T23:50:00.001-07:00

As traditional universities deal with larger class sizes, Online Education looks more attractive.

Link:

Huge class sizes unavoidable on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21951104/

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NaPodPoMo ends -- And my Utterz will go on!

2007-11-30T23:36:00.001-07:00

Today marks my final podcast for NaPodPoMo! I posted a podcast each day for the entire month of November and actually completed the challenge. I credit Utterz for making it possible, since before I found Utterz, podcasting was a little intimidating to me. Utterz makes it so easy to podcast that you can even podcast without power as I did earlier this evening.

PodcampAZ was another podcasting highlight this month that really crystallized the benefits of podcasting for me.

The ability to post Utterz directly to my blog also helped me jump start my posting habits on my main blog, although I did find myself neglecting my link blog a little.

Also this year, I sort of attempted NaNoWriMo again, but, like last year, never got the momentum going on my novel. I did double my word count from last year, but that's not saying much. I've still got an hour, maybe I can get to 10%...

NaPodPoMo was a great success, though. Thanks to Jennifer Navarrete for introducing it this year. Can't wait for next year!

Links:
NaPodPoMo:
http://napodpomo.ning.com/

NaNoWriMo:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/

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Uttering in the dark

2007-11-30T19:23:00.001-07:00

The power just went out for the second time today. I love Utterz.

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Social media socializing

2007-11-29T23:53:00.001-07:00

This evening, I noticed quite a few of my contacts had recently signed up on Plaxo Pulse. It seems that there are definite patterns to social media sign-ups. Since I sign up for so many, I generally don't let social media sites access my address books and send invitations for every social media site that I sign up for, lest my contacts think I'm spamming them, but when I notice contacts on the sites or they find me, I'm happy to connect. :^)

What do you think?

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12 Days of Cookies eMails Inspire Holiday Baking

2007-11-28T23:17:00.001-07:00

Molasses and Chocolate Chip Cookies baked today

Today I received the first of this year's 12 Days of Cookies email messages from The Food Network. The 12 Days of Cookies have become somewhat of a holiday tradition. This year, The Food Network has added video and social media to the mix.

Although I haven't tried today's selection yet, I did make a batch of chocolate chip and a batch of molasses cookies this evening. :^)

Food Network 12 Days of Cookies Page (includes all the recipes since 2004):
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/12_days_of_cookies/0,1904,FOOD_18276,00.html

Food Network 12 Days of Cookies Videos:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/12_days_of_cookies/text/0,1904,FOOD_18276_65616,00.html

Food Network 12 Days of Cookies Recipe Swap:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/12_days_of_cookies/text/0,1904,FOOD_18276_65628,00.html

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FlyLady conquers clutter with baby steps

2007-11-27T23:47:00.001-07:00

FlyLady conquers clutter with baby steps

Overwhelmed with clutter and short on time? Take fifteen minutes and go shine your sink! You'll find that taking baby steps from there will have you FLYing in no time with a little help from FlyLady Marla Cilley and her crew.

I first read about FlyLady.net in the Washington Post early in 2006. At that time, her list of "FlyBabies" was around

225,000 strong. In April, 2006, the site announced that it had passed the 300,000 subscriber mark. In October, FLyLady told

her podcast listeners that the FlyLady group is the largest on Yahoo! with more than 436,000 subscribers.

FlyLady's home page:
www.flylady.net
BlogTalkRadio link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flylady

Also, BlogTalkRadio CEO, Alan Levy, interviewed Marla (FlyLady) on his podcast, The Alan Levy Show, today:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/AlanLevy/2007/11/27/Rescheduled-Interview-with-Matt-Mullenweg

My Squidoo lens about FlyLady:
http://www.squidoo.com/flylady

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