Reality Bites!

It's a term that typically hear when bad things happen to good people - or something like that!

But reality bites!

And this is especially true in business both online and offline.

Who says "you deserve to be successful"? Has that ever made one single person a success...? Absolutely not.

You don't deserve to be successful - success is an outcome that results from certain actions and decisions.

Make good business decisions - and eventually, you'll achieve success.

Make bad business decisions - and well... reality bites!

Nobody Cares About You

If you're like me, you've been pushing your way through idea after idea on how to make something work on the web - and if you are like me, then I don't even need to begin to tell you how frustrating and discouraging this process can be.

But you know what - it's like pretty much everything else in life worth achieving - you have to push through the hard times in order to come out on the other side.

I will tell you one thing I hate more than anything - and that is the "Make $10000 a month in your first month" type ads. Unfortunately, the only way these guys are making money is off the hopes of unsuspecting - get rich quick minded folks.

Seth Godin is certainly is certainly an inspiration to me through these times. His message is simple - "No Body Cares About You" - which means, everyone really only cares about themselves.

Why is this important?

Because the Internet is a place where people don't have to succumb to unsolicitated messages - like they do on TV - here on the web, people do things only because they care about themselves... NOT YOU!

I'm not inentionally making this sound demeaning or anything - I'm trying to help you in establishing a simple premise upon which a build can be built online.

If you get the fact that "Nobody Cares About You" on the Internet - you might then begin to develop habits, content, messages, etc... that deliver value to someone else (not you) - and when that "someone else" picks up on your content, they will find value in it for themselves and will begin to follow you.

SO... since we in this thing together - assuming that other Internet entreprenuers are reading this as well - let's begin today to have a mindset that "Nobody Cares About You (ME)" - that people really only care about themselves.

And then, as we discover ways to provide value and meet the needs of others - why by golly... we might just have a business that grows some legs!

So Here I Am!

So here's the question most people ask... how do you make money online?

I think a smarter, wiser, more thoughtful question would be... how do you build an online business.

"Making money online" has such a get rich quick innotation - make money fast, etc...

However, as we all know, that statistically speaking very few people ever experience online riches.

Dispite that fact - it's the message that the Internet is saturated with. Buy my product now and you'll make $5000 a day - blah, blah, blah.

The only money being made is what desperate people spend on these products as they seek out Internet riches.

So making money online, in my opinion (probably in a lot of other's as well) is achieved by focusing on building a business - but one that is facilitated via the web.

I'm trying to get my focus on this one point - trying to focus on building a business instead of getting rich online.

I mean, look at Zappos.com - they were just purchased by Amazon for $800,000,000. The reason being - they've built a solid online business that focuses on customer service - not "get rich quick" concepts.

So the question I'm just staring at here is this - what business can I build online? What can we build that fits the definition of a "business" that is just facilitated by the web.

Getting a hold of products to sell is one place to start. However, I'm unsure how to get ahold of products.

Like Zappos.com - how do they get shoes to resell? I mean, where is their supplier? Who is the supplier? How do get the deals on shoes - what's the source, etc...?

Anyway - so here I am!

Breaking News on Twitter >> Henry Allingham, British first world war veteran, dies at 113

Henry Allingham - Breaking news from Twitter

Born in 1896, Henry Allingham was the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving first world war servicemen.

Henry William Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving first world war servicemen, has died at the age of 113.

Born in 1896 to an ironmonger's wife in a corner of north-east London, the veteran, whose life spanned three centuries and six monarchs, was 67 when John F Kennedy was assassinated and 73 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

He died this morning at the St Dunstan's care home in Ovingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex.

Read full story here >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jul/18/henry-allingham-oldest-man-dies

Have You Heard About Google Wave?

Google Wave is a new interface that will apparently allow live interaction and collaboration among users (friends, family, co workers, etc...)

And this interaction will be fluid on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices - basically anything with a monitor!

Here is Google's definition of what seems to be quite an amazing new release:

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

My only question about Google Wave is this: will it have a functional interface for Twitter and Facebook? My guess is "yes". However, if it doesn't, I see it has "dead on arrival" - a lot like Microsoft products of late.

Here's some videos for you to check out about Google Wave:

TechCrunch Stops Leaking Twitter Docs - But A Lot Has Been Spilled

There has been a lot of buzz about the leaking of Twitter docs - a lot of the leaking has come across Twitter itself.

TechCrunch however has been playing a key role in the leaking of the docs, and it has finally concluded its days-long drip of stolen Twitter documents with details on the company's conversations with Google and Microsoft.

Obviously Twitter is concerned on many levels - both with Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Being a smaller start up, Twitter sees itself as vulnerable to being trumped by these larger, more prominent online companies.

Nonetheless, for the flowing of documents has ceased - but there will certainly be more discussion about the information we were able to see up to this point.

Making Twitter Work For Your Business

There is absolutely no question that Twitter is exploding on the social media scene as a way for businesses to connect to new prospects.

I see social sites like Twitter, and now ever Facebook Fan Pages, as a way to "pre-qualify" prospects and also send high quality traffic to your business website.

Pre-Qualified Prospects

I call the followers on Twitter, and fans on Facebook, pre-qualified because of this one key point - they (an actual human being) has to voluntarily chose to follow you! You do not get followers by accident, and when someone does follow you, they've made an active decision - for one reason or another - to receive your update (content).

Now I know that a lot of people, especially on Twitter, are following you because they want to drive trafffic to their profile for promotional reasons. Regardless, that's still another person who is going to receive your content each time you update your Twitter profile.

Drive High Quality Traffic To Your Website

The second way I see Twitter as a valuable marketing tool for your business is in the way it drives traffic to your website.

When you update your Twitter profile, or your Facebook Fan Page (or both), your content is going out to each of your followers (and fans on Facebook). Along with this content you can add a link that points back to your website, blog, promotional page, etc...

By adding a link to your updates, your are instantly providing an opportunity for your followers to click the link and land on your website.

Some people have stated that Twitter is most valuable at sharing links. SOOO.... why not give your followers a link back to your website, and in turn dramatically increase traffic and brand awareness for your business?

Google Voice Now Available via BlackBerry and Android Smartphones

I might also add quickly that Google Voice is available on the iPhone as well by simply going to http://google.com/voice in your iPhone Safari browser - no need to worry about downloading an app!

However, on a much larger scale, is it not conceivable to think that Google will eventually begin making headway in the entire telecom industry?

I mean, what other telecom giant is offering anything close to Google Voice?

Google Voice does not use VOIP - it makes calls through the standard public switch telephone network. When you place a call to someone using Google Voice on your device, it essentially routes the call through the Google cloud, which then sends the call out to its final destination. This way, the person receiving your call sees the call coming from your Google phone number rather than the number given by your wireless carrier.

This technology is quite amazing in that it really doesn't matter what phone carrier you use, or how many companies you switch to (Verizon, AT&T, etc..) your Google Voice number remains the same.

And let's take this one step further - could we not possibly see in the near future a mobile phone being offered for free from Google and one that functions solely off Google Voice?

I think it's very conceivable seeing the latest technology at work on my iPhone, and how it syncs directly to the Google Voice application on my computer as well.

Google Voice, when managing it from my computer, actually reminds me of Gmail. It has a very similar interface with a lot of the same functionality such as "archiving".

So looking ahead, I don't think it's a far fetched idea to see a free data phone (like the iphone) being offered by Google that runs on Google Voice, and of course would be driven by Android (Google's mobile OS).

Here's a video for those of you interested:

The Wrong Way To Use Twitter

I have to admit that I don't really understand why some people (businesses) use Twitter as a tool for marketing, yet spend absolutely no time building their brand - their story - or even attempting to build a message that others will care about following.

For example, I get followed by people (businesses) that are following hundreds, sometimes thousands of others, yet they have ZERO followers themselves and absolutely no tweets.

Obviously the goal for doing this is to drive the traffic to their profile where there's a link to their website, etc... and don't get me wrong, I understand what they're trying to achieve and why they do it.

My only thing is this - if you're going to spend time scouring Twitter to find the right people to follow, and hopefully get them to view your profile, then why not take an extra minute to post some updates about what you do?

Without any updates, any content, or any message associated with your product or service, how can you expect anyone in their right mind to decide to spend their money on what you offer?

Anyway - that's my rant on "The Wrong Way To Use Twitter"

The Future of Social Media & The Web

I don't want to even pretend to claim I know everything when it comes to the web and social media - but I do think I know enough to write the following post!

I want to share my thoughts about where I see the web, and social media, moving in the very near future.

I don't think it's too difficult to see that Google is scrambling to get a handle on this live search thing. Twitter has been the leader in live search by providing live Twitter streams (conversations) based on your search phrase (visit http://search.twitter.com)

I see live search playing a major role in the way people search for and find information. After all, most people want to know what's happening "right now" and when you search on Google, you don't get that.

Facebook is another social networking site that is moving toward the live search concept as well. They (being Facebook) has recently updated their site to provide Facebook Fan Pages, which follows the same concept as Twitter in updating followers.

I don't think it's too difficult to believe that Facebook is now hard at work trying to build their own live streaming search engine as well.

Anyway, where does all of this leave Google?

I predict that Google, being the current leader in online properties, with have to either acquire Twitter and Facebook (either / or / both), or find a way to build their own live social streaming site AND create a search engine for those streams.

And since Google doesn't currently have anything close to something like Twitter and Facebook, I think they are in a position a lot like the Google Android mobile phone scenario where they are late to the market and no where near as popular as the iPhone.

People are spending most of their time online either on Twitter and Facebook - and this is going to be something that Google will have to address either through acquisition, or building a competing platform.

Either way - the future of the web and social media, as I see it anyway, is currently in the hands of Facebook and Twitter, not Google!

@Homes_Atlanta - My New Twitter for Real Estate Experiment

Last night I launched my Twitter for real estate experiment at http://twitter.com/Homes_Atlanta

The concept is simply to provide a way to market homes (property) in the Atlanta area. I'm currently using RSS feeds from Atlanta Craigslist housing category, and specifically the real estate by owner and real estate by broker feeds.

These feed pull in 10 new listings per feed / per hour and updates them on Home_Atlanta Twitter profile (http://twitter.com/Homes_Atlanta).

In less than 12 hours, we are already nearing 50 followers.

My goal is to build a large number of followers and provide a way for real estate agents, investors, and brokers to advertise their homes, announce open house schedules, and other events - all for the metro Atlanta real estate market.

Check it out at >> http://twitter.com/Homes_Atlanta

Wanna Know How I'm Trying To Make Money From Twitter?

I've always been an entrepreneur at heart!

And Twitter... well, it's a very exciting place for me to experiment with business ideas - I guess with anything else, you just never know until you launch it.

So I'd like to maybe share with you couple of business concepts I've got underway on Twitter. It's actually one business concept but being used in two different metro areas. Here it is:

I've taken the Garage Sale / Yard Sale RSS feeds off Craigslist in both Atlanta and Houston. Both cities of which do not have "sub" cities within the main metro areas (like Los Angeles, Chicago, etc...)

So Atlanta and Houston are two huge cities and the yard sales categories are being flooded with new listings every hour.

The problem:

With so many listings being generated in just one category, in one huge metro area, it's very difficult to determine easily if the garage sales are in your neighborhood, or 3 hours away on the other side of the city. Craigslist just has the listings posted as they are generated.

The Solution:

I'm able to take the RSS feeds for the garage sale categories and dissect them by any subsection I want - zip code, neighborhoods, counties, cities, etc... So now I'm able to take the feeds, and organize the information so you could see, for instance, garage sales that were only in your neighborhood and not be inundated with thousands of others that aren't.

How Twitter Fits In:

So on Twitter, I've created an Atlanta yard sale profile and a Houston yard sale profile. Each profile on Twitter is automatically updated via Twitter Feed with new yard sales from Craigslist.

The Business Concept:

Of course anyone can follow the profiles for free and get updated every 30 minutes with new yard sales in Atlanta or Houston. But if you wanted to pay only $2.99, you could subscribe to receive yard sales, garage sales, and moving sales (whatever is listed on Craigslist) for whatever specific area you wanted - city, neighborhood, zip code, county, etc...

Have I made any money yet, you might ask???

NO

However, both of the profiles have grown to over 100 followers each in less than a week - which I see as somewhat promising.

So we'll just have to see how the business unfolds, and I will keep you posted.

So what do you think about the concept?

How are you trying to make money on Twitter?

Facebook Adds 50 Million Users in 3 Months

Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook, has announced that it has gone from 200 million users to 250 million in just over 3 months!

Yes - that's over 50 million users in the past 3 months - just in case you didn't catch that.

And as Mashable reported back in April, Facebook grew from 100 million to 200 million users in just 8 months (from August 2008 - April of 2009)

The reach, popularity, and social relevance - not to mention to the growth - is nothing short of massive. It does seem that the king of the web, or at least social networks, does change hands every 2 or 3 years, but for now and into the immediate future anyway, Facebook is on a rapid rise.

Here's what Mark Zuckerburg had to say:

"As of today, 250 million people are using Facebook to stay updated on what's happening around them and share with the people in their lives. The rapid pace of our growth is humbling and exciting for us, and it affirms that people everywhere are realizing the power of staying connected to everything they care about on Facebook.

From the beginning, Facebook hasn't been about building a website. Facebook is about all of the people using it and all of the things that are important to you. The 250 million of you on Facebook today are what gives Facebook life and makes the site meaningful to everyone using it, so we thank you."

What I'm looking forward to is when Facebook has a public offering for stock! There will be a feeding frenzy for that stock quite possibly unlike anything we've ever seen.

Integrating Your Blog Into Twitter & Facebook Is A Must

With the rise of traffic and relevance of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and the seemingly declining visitors to blogs, I think it's a no brainer that now is the time to integrate your blogging content into the social graph!

Luckily, this process isn't as hard as you'd think. Since your blog has an RSS Feed, you now have a bridge that can automatically connect you to Facebook and Twitter. And since Facebook pages are now more like Twitter in the sense that you gain "followers", which also happens automatically, this is the equivalent of email subscribers to your blog.

So continue writing in your blogs, just take the extra step of integrating your blog into Facebook and Twitter - and thus dramatically increase your readers, traffic, and exposure to your content.

Keyword Research For Your Twitter Tweets

Wow - I never really made this connection before until today, but I'm now realizing that keyword research is important for a business who is on Twitter!

And how is this... you might ask?

Because Twitter (search.twitter.com) search is what's called "real time search". Meaning, when you search for something, you are seeing what is being talked about right now on Twitter - real time search.

Google and Bing are starting to see the importance of this real time search element, and starting to learn from Twitter, and find ways to implement real time search into their search results.

People are desiring, more often than not, to get search results in real time. This means people want to know what the online conversation is that's taking place right now about a specific subject.

Of course Twitter is currently leading the way here - and it's amazing to me that Google finds itself, and admits, they are behind the power curve here and that they actually need to learn from Twitter regarding this real time search factor.

Building Your Brand On The Web

From my 6 year old son to my 86 year old grandma - the Internet is becoming a critical piece of everyone's life.

And where are most spending spending "most" of their time??? Interacting and connecting in places like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, email, etc...

However, for a business, it's critically important to build a strong reputation. And why? Because the more people who know about you opens up more opportunities to make profitable connections.

Building a reputation (getting people to know about you) has never been easier because of the tools that are now available online. Twitter and Facebook are quickly becoming to 2 main avenues for people to share information. And I can assure you, there are more people reading (or listening) than there are people typing.

Again, being consistent and active, producing valuable information for others to read, will build your reputation faster than any other tool that's currently available.

So get out there - get active - and start building your online reputation.