Tech 101: Books to Read

Some people learn by doing, some learn by watching, some learn via tutorials, some via videos, some via books. For those of you who like a good book and like to learn, here are a couple of books that I recommend. Each gives a different perspective on online markets, web 2.0, and that thing we call the internet.

The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger: ”  ... and your- call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect ... ” The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a website in 1999 (www.cluetrain.com. It’s 95 theses that articulate the state of the online market. This book is especially important for businesses trying to understand how to do business online.

Life After the 30-Second Spot by Joseph Jaffe: “Approaches that are transforming Marketing and Advertising.” Joseph Jaffe has a couple of websites but start with JaffeJuice.com. The book is about marketing and advertising that go beyond the traditional advertising models.

Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. “We live in a time when most people don’t trust big companies ...” Former Microsoft employee Robert Scoble is credited with creating the shift in attitude about Microsoft away from evil empire to that of a transparent, talkative, personal company of people. This is the book for business bloggers. It’s about how blogs change the way businesses talk with customers.

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle. Not just a book about Google, The Search is about the transformations that have taken place due to the power of search and how those transformations reflect our culture.

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson. “Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it ...” Wired editor Anderson analyzes the countless market opportunities that exist for those able to market to niches. He argues that the niches (the tail)  are more profitable than the blockbusters (the head).

These are just a handful of the books I recommend. For a longer list, and to have a look at the covers (I still judge by cover), have a look at my selection on Amazon Listmania.

And for those of you who don’t read or just need a laugh, check out this YouTube video of Middle Age Tech Support for Books.

It’s made its way around the internet several times so if you’ve watch it already, watch an interview with the creator of the skit.

June: Underwire Newsletter

Geek It Up: Attend a Conference
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SFU Summer Workshops: July 17, 19, 27
One-day workshops or week-long workshops on technology and the publishing industry. Spots are limited and registration deadlines are looming.
If you are interested register today:

July 17: Online Marketing for Book Publishers, presented by Monique Trottier.
Full-day session on online marketing. We will cover search engine marketing, email marketing, community-based marketing, website promotions. Everything web.

July 19: Self-Publishing, presented by Bruce Batchelor.
Great afternoon session on marketing and distribution for self-published authors. Bruce is the former publisher and CEO of Victoria-based Trafford Publishing.

July 27: Online Marketing for Magazine Publishers, presented by Monique Trottier.
Full-day session on online marketing. We will cover search engine marketing, email marketing, community-based marketing, website promotions. Everything web from a magazine-publisher perspective.

July 26-27: Search Engine Strategies Conference, Travel Edition
Located in Seattle, this 2-day conference focuses on search marketing for those in the travel industry. If you want more info, here is the link:
searchenginestrategies.com

August 9-11: Gnomedex in Seattle
Great speakers and great audience members. It is hundreds of bloggers, podcasters, and tech-savvy enthusiasts. A 3-day conference.
Register here.

Tech 101: Thinking of Blogging?
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Tom Johnson has a great post on I’d Rather Be Writing:
Twenty Usability Trips for Your Blog

Here are the top 5 things:

1. Pick a topic for your blog
2. Encourage comments
3. Make it easy to subscribe
4. Include an About page
5. Present your ideas visually

Read the full post.

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See Also:
Underwire Newsletter for May
Work Industries Blog
Monique’s Personal Blog

Not a subscriber? Sign-up here for the free montly newsletter.

May: Underwire Newsletter

Were you wondering what happened to the May Underwire Newsletter? Me too. Here it is.

Tech 101: Top Tech Tools for Business
Tech tools can be time savers and time trackers, unfortunately a tool has not been built to create more time in the day. No matter, there are some great tools available for freelancers, contractors and in-house staff.

I recently spoke at the Editors’ Association of Canada—BC Branch monthly meeting. Here are the 5 tools I recommended:

1. For organization: Basecamp. Basecamp is a project management tool.

2. For calendars: Google Calendar. Google Calendar has all the basic calendar functions you can imagine, but it also let’s you share
your calendar with others.

3. For money management: Bring in the cash with Blinksale. Blinksale is great for service-based businesses who need basic invoicing tools.

4. For large emails: YouSendIt.com. YouSendIt is good for file attachments that are too big to send by email.

5. For productivity: get Harvest. Harvest is how I track my hours. Sometimes you do not want to know, but when you do, Harvest is a good tool.

Read the full post for more information on Top Tech Tools, including the big top 100 list from Cogniview.com.

Word for the Day: RSS
I like to think of RSS as “Real Simple Syndication.” It is a way to subscribe to your favourite blogs and news sites, or any site that offers RSS subscription.

RSS is similiar to subscribing to an email alert or newsletter. But different. You need an RSS reader, which is sort of like your email inbox, but it is an inbox for your RSS feeds.

I suggest checking out the one-page primer on WhatIsRSS.com or watch the CommonCraft video from Lee and Sachi. They do a great job of visually explaining RSS.
Watch the video.

Read the full post on RSS.

Ask for Support
Is some piece of technology driving you mad? Are you a non-techie in need of support? Email me your questions for next month’s newsletter.

This month’s Ask for Support is an Excel tip for finding duplicate entries.
Find out how. Get the formula here.

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See Also:
Underwire Newsletter for April
Work Industries Blog
Monique’s Personal Blog

Monique’s Upcoming Events:
July 17:
SFU Summer Workshops: Book Marketing Online

July 27:
SFU Summer Workshops: Magazine Marketing Online

Not a subscriber? Sign-up here for the free montly newsletter.

Ask for Support: Excel Tip for Finding Duplicates

What do you do if you suspect that you have duplicate entries in your Excel spreadsheet?

Just find them. But use a formula.

1. You need to have at least one column that holds a piece of standard data, like an email address, ID number, phone number. Something that is identical against which you can compare.

2. Sort the grid by the column with standard data. For this example, the data is in column A.

3. Create an empty column next to this standard data column. Make sure the column is formatted as General.

4. In cell B2 type this formula:

=IF(A1=A2,“Duplicate”, “Unique”)

The formula reads, “if cell A1 is equal to cell A2, then this is a duplicate record and put “duplicate” into the empty cell, if it is not a duplicate then put “unique” into the empty cell.

5. Copy and paste this formula in the whole column.

6. Then you want to change the data from formulas to values. Select the column with formulas. Go Edit > Copy. Then Edit > Paste Special.
In the Paste Special pop-up, select “Values”.

7. Now you can sort your file by the column showing Duplicate and Unique, and delete the Duplicates.

Fun stuff.

Top Tech Tools

Several days ago I posted about the search for the top tech tools for small businesses and freelancers. I was preparing for a presentation on Top Tech Tools for the Editors’ Association of Canada—BC Branch monthly meeting.

Darren Barefoot pointed me to an amazing and thorough list of the top 100 tech tools.

Here is the big-ass list, as Darren called it.

My presentation was only an hour so I stuck to the top 5 tools that I use every day. They may not be the best tools for you, but they are the ones that work for me. The tools I recommended are:

1. For organization: Basecamp. Basecamp is a project management tool.
It nicely stores all project communications, files and contact information. I use it instead of email for messages related to a project.

2. For calendars: Google Calendar. Google Calendar has all the basic calendar functions you can imagine, but it also let’s you share your calendar with others. You can make parts of it public or private. You can sent event or meeting announcements to others. And you can import other people’ calendar into yours.

For example, my partner James and I need to be able to book client appointments and be able to see when each other is free. Google Calendars lets us manage our own calendars as well as a company calendar.

3. For money management: Bring in the cash with Blinksale. Blinksale is great for service-based businesses who need basic invoicing tools. With Blinksale all your invoices are in one place. You can see what invoices are paid, open and overdue. It integrates with Basecamp so you don’t have to retype all your client contact information. And it let’s you send out invoices and reminders in an easy, simple way.

4. For large emails: YouSendIt.com. YouSendIt is good for file attachments that are too big to send by email. It works especially well for files that are 1-2 GB, which you really should not send via email with most email clients. There is a free YouSendIt service that lets you upload your attachment to the YouSendIt server. YouSendIt then notifies your contact that a file is there waiting to be picked up. It is email, but not email.

5. For productivity: get Harvest. Harvest is how I track my hours. I can see multiple projects and multiple users and export reports on how we are spending our time.

Sometimes you don’t want to know, but when you do, Harvest is a good tool.

If you want to learn more, check out the individual sites or visit Congniview.com for the top 100 list.

Top Tech Tools for Small Businesses and Freelancers

Here at Work Industries we use a lot of web-based tools to help run our business. I’m interested in what tools you love to use for your business. What tools do you recommend?

Post them in the comments and perhaps some of your favourite tools will make their way into my presentation on Wednesday at the Editors’ Association of Canada—BC Branch Meeting.

Wednesday, May 16, 7:30 pm
Welch Room, 4th Floor, YWCA Health & Wellness Centre
535 Hornby Street, Vancouver
Tried, Tested, and True: Top Tech Tools for Business

Web-based tools allow for simple, cost-effective ways to access information from any computer. In this one-hour presentation, you’ll learn about the top web-based tools used by one small-business owner, Monique Trottier, to:

* organize and share files with clients and project teams
* manage multiple clients’ contact information, project documentation, and correspondence
* track time, and subcontractors’ time, against each project
* create invoices and track payments

Although the discussion focuses on web-based tools, alternative desktop applications will be discussed, and audience members will be invited to share their top tools with the group.

You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to assess and use web-based tools in your business.

Please join us! Admission is free for EAC members. Non-member admission is $10 at the door ($5 for students with valid ID). Light refreshments will be served following the program.

editors.ca/branches/bc

April: Underwire Newsletter

The html newsletter got a redesign this week. Of course, tweaks and bug fixes are still in progress. But if you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed.

Tech 101: Using Photos on Your Website

It is great to use photos on your website. You want, however, to avoid posting large photos in their original size and using html to resize the image. Large file formats are slow to load and often look crappy when not resized properly.

Instead, you want to:
1. Resize the image using photo editing software to maintain a good, quality image. An original file size of 2 MB can be reduced to 20 KB, which is much smaller and will load faster.
2. Rename the photo using appropriate keywords for search and human recognition.
3. Add an alt tag description of the photo using appropriate keywords.

Read the full post for more information on using photos on your website.

Monique’s Picks

Alexandre Brabant has redesigned his website: eMarketing101.ca

Alex is a guru when it comes to search marketing, explaining search optimization, and helping people understand how search works. eMarketing101.net is a great resource.

Read the full post on why I recommend eMarketing 101.

Ask for Support

Is some piece of technology driving you mad? Are you a non-techie in need of support? Email me: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Your questions will be included in next month’s newsletter.

This month’s Ask for Support is an Excel tip for separating Full Name into First Name Last Name. Do you have a column that contains Full Name and you need one column with First Name and another column with Last Name?

There is a simple Excel formula to help you.

Find out how. Get the formula here.

Upcoming Events

Monique Presents ...
July 17: SFU Summer Workshops: Book Marketing Online

July 27: SFU Summer Workshops: Magazine Marketing Online

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Subscribe here.