Tech Tuesday Tip

Tech Tips for the non-techie:

Last week I was watching as the news broke about how Gmail was going to release a new Priority Inbox feature.

(Gmail is the free, almost never ending, email service that Google provides.)

I have a Gmail account, but I also have a Google Apps Account that I use to manage most of my ScLoHo Marketing Solutions business with. Friday, my Google Apps Gmail account gave me the option of adding the priority feature.

Of course I said yes, and here's the email they sent me:

Priority Inbox^Beta

Welcome to Priority Inbox! By automatically separating out your most important messages, Priority Inbox makes it easy for you to read and respond to the messages that matter.

Get through your email faster

Try reading and replying to the messages in the "Important and Unread" section first. Mark anything that requires follow-up with a star, then go through the "Everything Else" section. If you leave Priority Inbox, you can return to it by clicking the link next to Inbox on the side navigation of Gmail. How it works Gmail's servers look at several types of information to identify the email that's important to you, including who you email and chat with most, how often you email with these people, and which keywords appear frequently in the emails you read.

Train Priority Inbox

If Priority Inbox makes a mistake, you can use the buttons to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important, and Priority Inbox will quickly learn what you care about most.

And more...

• Customize Priority Inbox: You can change what type of email you see in each section (like switching the "Important and Unread" section to just "Important"). Just click on the section headers or visit the Priority Inbox tab under Settings and choose to "customize inbox groups."
• Use filters to guarantee importance: If you want to be absolutely sure that some messages are always marked as important (like email from your boss), you can set up a filter and choose "Always mark it as important."
• Search by importance: If you want to see all the messages that have been marked as important, both read and unread, do a Gmail search for "is:important."
• Switching back to your old inbox: If Priority Inbox isn't for you, you can easily switch back to your normal inbox by clicking "Inbox" on the left or hide Priority Inbox altogether from Gmail Settings.

To learn more about managing your email with Priority Inbox, check out the Gmail Help Center.

- The Gmail Team

Google, Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA

For quite awhile, I've been urging friends and family to switch to Gmail. I switched from Yahoo and Hotmail to Gmail due to Gmail's spam filtering was so far superior. I now recieve about 300 spam messages a day and over the course of a week, maybe one or two (out of 2000) aren't caught by Gmail.

For the past 8 years, I've worked for a group of radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana and have used Microsoft Outlook to manage that particular email account.

Well a couple of years ago, I set up my Gmail so my radio station email would also show up in my Gmail account. This gives me multiple ways to check, respond and organize email, which is still a necessity these days.

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Self Help?

I've been thinking that "Self-Help" books really aren't.

I mean if you were able to self-help, than why do you need the book?

Perhaps more specific titles are more appropriate.

Self-esteem is okay. Self-motivate is important.

Which brings me to this piece from the DLM Blog:

Simply Said...How to Motivate Yourself

Posted: 02 Sep 2010 07:58 AM PDT

There are a lot of times in our lives when we've got an external structure or impetus to stay motivated.

When you're in college, you generally don't cut your compulsory classes just because you're feel like goofing off – you don't want to get penalized, and you don't want to miss valuable content.

When you've got a job, you don't decide to have a long lie-in on Monday mornings. You get yourself into the office – and whether you feel "motivated" or not doesn't come into play.

If you're used to having a lot of external direction, it can be really tough to motivate yourself when you're totally in charge of your own time.

We all have goals and dreams – whether or not we ever talk about them, or write them down. Perhaps you want to lose weight, or start your own business, or carry out a home improvement project. In each case, you need a ton of motivation to get going – and to stay on track.

If you haven't got a boss or parent or teacher looking over your shoulder, here's how to get (and stay) motivated.

Get Support In Place
Although it might feel like you're out on your own, the reality is that millions of other people have the same goals as you.

If you're trying to lose weight, join a slimming club.

If you're starting your own business, find a local group of would-be entrepreneurs – or hang out with some online.

If you want to build a deck for your home, get a bunch of friends together who can help (and return the favor for them at a later point).

Be Organized With Your Time
In school, you had a timetable telling you what to do when. At work, you have meetings and appointments scheduled, deadlines and targets. Even if you're not a naturally organized person, you'll pretty quickly find yourself adapting to what you need to do.

When you're going after personal goals, though, it's very easy to get disorganized. Maybe you've got a big dream but you never seem to find the time to take the first steps towards it. Perhaps you always intend to exercise, but somehow you never get round to it.

We all like to organize ourselves slightly differently. See which of these tips works best for you:

• Put your personal goals into your diary. E.g. "Thursday – 5pm – workout"


• Find a regular time slot to use for working on your goal. E.g. Your lunch hour; every Saturday morning from 9am – 11am


• At the end of each day, write down what you did to make progress towards your goal


• Set a rule like "no TV until I've filled in my food diary" to help you stay on track with new habits

Set Yourself Milestones
One of the challenges with staying motivated on our big goals is that we tend to get overwhelmed. If you're trying to lose 100lbs, or repaint your entire house, you'll pretty quickly find yourself questioning whether it's worth the effort, and whether you'll ever reach your goal.

Instead of focusing on the finish line in the distance, break your goal into smaller steps.

You might go for equally-weighted chunks like:

• Aiming to lose 10lbs, then another 10lbs, and so on


• Painting the bedroom, then the bathroom, then the kitchen
  

Or you might start with smaller, easier tasks and slowly work your way up:

• Learn five chords on the guitar, then learn a simple song, then a more complex song


• Write a basic business plan, then do some pro bono (free) work, then find your first client

The exact approach you take will depend on your exact goal – but the important thing is that you break that goal into manageable pieces.

Celebrate Small Victories
Every time you achieve a chunk of your goal, celebrate! Depending on how big the chunk is, you might:

• Tell a friend about your achievement


• Write down your progress in a log or journal


• Give yourself a reward, like buying that DVD you want


• Go out for a special meal or open a nice bottle of wine to celebrate
  

It doesn't matter exactly what you do – the point is that you acknowledge your progress and feel good about what you've accomplished. It's much easier to stay motivated when you're being positive, rather than when you're beating yourself up for not getting more done.

What are your big goals at the moment? How can you keep up your motivation on them?

Written on 9/2/2010 by Ali Hale. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing.

Photo Credit: bortescristian

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Reputation Matters

Not only with people you know, but people you don't know.

This was one of the main points I made to a group of college students when I was invited to speak to a class earlier this year.

From the DLM Blog:

How To Effectively Manage Your Online Reputation

Posted: 23 Aug 2010 08:54 AM PDT

I have talked about the importance of monitoring your online reputation and the tools that help you do it effectively. The web 2.0 era demands that you keep a track of what's being said about you online. It's a part of what one might call "being informed."

Having said that, I think what's more important is what you say and do on the web and how you manage your online reputation. Managing online reputation, in my opinion, is a different than monitoring it; in fact, it's a completely different ballgame. It's the first stage of building your brand on the web and has to start even before you think about monitoring the brand.

If you aren't sure how to go about managing your online reputation, the following tips should help you get started. Check them out.

Think Before You Write
One important thing people don't understand is that when they email, tweet, or comment on blogs, is, that whatever they type is written record. In many cases, the comments can be held against you in a court of law any day. There are enough examples of celebrities landing in trouble due to their tweets, aren't there?

The bottom-line is this: just because you can type anything online doesn't mean you should type anything. Not only does it reflect on you as a person, but, an inappropriate sentence typed in haste could go a long way in damaging your brand. So, think before you write. Doesn't matter if it's a tweet, a blog comment, an email, anything...just take a step back for a second and take a careful look before you hit the send button.

Facebook Privacy Settings
Being the biggest online social network, it's imperative that we take our behavior on Facebook into consideration when we are talking about managing online reputation. The first step in this case would be to make yourself aware of Facebook's privacy settings. Ali did a nice roundup of them in one of her articles. You can also check out this guide to new Facebook privacy settings, and steps to disable Facebook places.

Once you are all set with privacy and other settings, the next step is to get your profile in order and remove unnecessary stuff. People often use Facebook to share very personal and private stuff which they should be ideally sharing face-to-face (or over email/phone). This is not recommended especially when there have been Facebook privacy disasters in the past.

Research Social Sites & Adapt Accordingly
Understand that just because everyone seems to be on that cool new social site doesn't mean you have to be there too. Don't join social sites impulsively. Think about the pros and cons first, and see if the site is actually helpful.

Some people spend their entire day on Digg while for some, there's hardly anything beyond Twitter. Hence see which site suits your needs and adapt accordingly.

Perform Ego Searches Often
Even though you might have been careful in your online interactions, things may not always go as smooth as you want them to. People might bad-mouth you on other sites or forums and try to damage your image. Hence it is recommended to perform ego searches i.e. searching for your name or brand on Google and checking the results that come up.

Build Trust and Get Followers
Finally, it all boils down to two things: trust and relationships. And they are valued in the online world as much as they are in the real world. At the end of the day, we are the same humans; it's the mode of interaction that is different.

So, try to build trust and develop long lasting relationships. This can be done by helping others, sharing your knowledge through a medium like a blog, providing incredible value through your services, doing something unique and different..there's no dearth of ways but as in the real world, building trust online also takes time and effort. But if you are patient and consistent, it isn't that difficult.

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 8/23/2010 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is a blogger and web publisher from India. He loves all things tech as long as it aids in productivity. He edits Guiding Tech, a blog that publishes useful guides, tutorials and tools. Check it out and subscribe to its feed if you like the site. You can also find him on Twitter.

Photo Credit: patparslow

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Saturday Night Classic Music Video

In case you're just catching on to what I post every Saturday night, I've been featuring a trip through the alphabet of music. Tonight, it's the 2nd of two "R" artists, Ray Charles:

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You Tube, I Tube, etc

Every once in awhile I realize that there are things my kids take for granted that I don't.

Like cell phones.

Central Air Conditioning.

Indoor plumbing.

Okay, I've always had indoor plumbing as did my parents.

What about my future grandkids. Will Facebook and You Tube be around?

I guess we better take a look at You Tube's history while we still know what it is!

From the Basic Marketing Blog:

A Short History of YouTube

The Rise of YouTube

Many people simply can’t imagine a time without YouTube, but the fact is that this video-sharing site has only been in existence since early 2005. In just a few short years, YouTube has gone from newcomer to dominator. In the realm of video-sharing, few sites can even come close to matching YouTube. Like its parent company Google, YouTube dominates on the web.

YouTube was designed to be a place where people are free to upload content. Much of the content that is loaded onto YouTube’s website is material from copyrighted television and movie programs. This aspect of the site has received a great deal of attention. However, copyrighted material is far from being the only type of content on YouTube. In fact, the scope and variety of content that is showcased on this website is nothing short of staggering. This is due, in part, to the fact that YouTube is available in fourteen different languages.

People are using YouTube for everything from promoting their own products and video blogging to showcasing their independent films and animations. YouTube is even used by major media outlets and news organizations to promote their content. By 2008, YouTube had agreements with companies such as CBS and Lions Gate Entertainment where television shows and films could legally be posted to the site. As of 2010, YouTube has formed over 10,000 content partners in total from around the world.

YouTube was developed and launched by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Chen and Karim were both from a computer science background and developed the site in response to problems they had experienced involving sharing videos over the web. Interestingly, Steve Chen was also one of the first employees at Facebook, but left the company to pursue his YouTube plans. Chad Hurley was instrumental in the creation of the company’s logo.

The real breakthrough for YouTube and its young founders came in late 2005, when they were able to secure over $11 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. Sequoia Capital is the same venture capital fund that has played a role in numerous Internet start-ups, including PayPal and LinkedIn.

After several months of work, YouTube officially launched a beta site in May of 2005. The rate of growth for the site was nothing short of phenomenal. Within just one year, YouTube was experiencing an impressive 100 million videos being viewed each day. Even while it was still a new website, the potential of YouTube was clear to many people. Mashable.com wrote an article in 2005 entitled, “YouTube-The King of Video Sharing?” Quoting Nathan Weinberg of Inside Google, Mashable stated, “YouTube has moved ahead of Google Video in terms of popularity…But its not just Google-these guys have moved ahead of everybody!” Even in 2005, industry insiders realized that Google was going to be the dominant player in video searches and video downloads.

Part of what makes the YouTube story such a fascinating one is how website grew with such unprecedented speed. By 2006, it was a dominant player in the video download game. In October 2006, Internet giant Google acquired YouTube for a whopping $1.65 billion dollars, which was paid in Google stock.

With the help of Google, YouTube has found yet more growth. By 2010, a remarkable two billion videos are served each and every day. In fact, the amount of content that YouTube has at its disposal is likely to play a significant role in the development of Google TV.

There are many video-sharing sites on the web, but YouTube quickly managed to distinguish itself. Part of what makes YouTube somewhat unique is this wide spectrum of diversity. Today, YouTube is used for just about every reason imaginable. You can quickly find videos from media giants like CBS or children’s piano recitals for grandparents and relatives to watch worldwide.

YouTube also began providing a method through which users could profit from their videos. As of 2007, YouTube has allowed users to place advertisements in and around the videos they upload. The money from these ads is then split between YouTube and the user. In 2008, Brian Stelter at The New York Times wrote an article entitled, “YouTube Videos Pull in Real Money.” This article explains how people are able to make a living through adding advertising to the YouTube videos they produce. Buckey writes, “One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become ‘partners’ and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the website.”

Of course, the site has not been without its controversy. On one level, the site has been attacked for not doing enough to combat copyright infringement on the site. The issue of copyright on YouTube, of course, reached a fevered pitch when Viacom sued YouTube. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a very messy legal battle.

Google, the parent company of YouTube, even went so far as to state that Viacom had uploaded large volumes of its own content on purpose. Wired Magazine covered this issue in a March 18th, 2010 article called “Accusations Fly in Viacom, YouTube Copyright Flight.” The article includes a quote from Google stating, “’Viacom alone has uploaded thousands of videos to YouTube to market hundreds of its programs and movies, including many that are works in suite,’ Google wrote. ‘Given the broad scope of marketing, YouTube could not be charged with knowledge of infringement merely because it came across a video that was clearly from a professionally produced television show or movie.”

Yet this is only one aspect of the legal problems that YouTube has faced. Several countries, including China and Pakistan, have shut down the site for a variety of political reasons. However despite its problems, YouTube has grown seemingly unabated.

YouTube realized the high-definition would be an important aspect of the site, and with this fact in mind has slowly moved the site in this direction. In November 2008, 720p HD was added as an option for videos and full 1080p quality was added about one year later. By 2009, some 3D content was made available as well.

YouTube Becomes Dominant

As of 2010, YouTube held an Alexa ranking of 3rd of all sites on the Internet. Part of this success stems from the sites incredible 23 page views per visitor. YouTube visitors average about twenty minutes on the site per visit. These incredible numbers are further amplified when one considers that YouTube’s parent company is Google, whose Alexa ranking is number one. Thus, with the acquisition of YouTube, Google effectively gained the spot of both number one and number three of all Internet web destinations.

Few sites have ever experienced the rate of growth that YouTube has experienced and continues to experience to this day. Today, billions of videos are watched daily on the site, and there seems to be no stopping YouTube’s growth. The simple fact is that YouTube has become a vital part of many people’s lives. The site is truly nothing short of a global phenomenon. In recent years, YouTube has been taking serious steps towards monetizing the site, and there is little doubt that parent company Google will likely earn back far more than it initially invested.

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Video Time: Steel Wool Hands

There are some really weird but creative ad campaigns out there, like this one:

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Yes, I said No

from the AOM Blog:

How to Firmly Say No Without Coming Off Like a Jerk

We’ve talked a lot about the Nice Guy Syndrome here on AoM. You know the guy. Big time people pleaser, always puts others before himself, lets people walk all over him. Heck, maybe you’re that guy. These so-called Nice Guys might appear happy on the outside, but on the inside they’re feeling burnout, resentful, and depressed.

One trap that a lot of “Nice Guys” fall into is always saying “Yes!” to every request that comes their way. These “yes men” are afraid that people will stop liking them if they say no. By saying yes to everything, the Nice Guy piles on the obligations and deadlines to his already busy schedule. He ends up spreading himself so thin that he can’t even fulfill the obligations he said yes to in the first place, which in a sadly funny, yet totally predictable turn of events causes people to resent Mr. Nice Guy- the very result Mr. Nice Guy was trying to avoid by saying yes in the first place!

A man firmly sets his core values, goals, and priorities, makes time to tend to them, and says no to things that conflict with what’s important. He doesn’t lose sight of the best, by pursuing the endless opportunities for the merely good.

What Nice Guys don’t realize is that it’s possible to have this kind of backbone and be able to say no while maintaining positive relationships with others. In fact, it’s even possible to say no to people and leave them thinking you’re a pretty swell guy.

If you’ve been having trouble saying no to people, we’ve provided some pointers on how to do it without coming off as a cad.

Don’t make the no personal. Instead of making it seem like you’re saying no because you don’t like the person, think their cause is crazy, or their parties are boring, just let them know you’re simply “following the rules.” By this I mean that your pre-set personal rules prohibit you from saying yes.

• “I can’t come to the Polka Festival on Monday night because Monday night is always family night for us.”
• “I can’t donate to your charity. We’ve made a decision to set aside our charitable dollars for our church and the Red Cross.”
• “I appreciate the invite, but I don’t date women with more than eleven cats.”

Let them know you wish you could say yes. Letting someone know you sympathize with their request, but still can’t grant it, will soften the blow of the no.

• “I would have loved to hire you-you’ve got just the right personality for the position. But HR has an internal candidate who’ve they’ve already pegged for the job.”
• “It would have been a great honor to speak at your convention. I’ve enjoyed attending it every year and have always been impressed with the presentations. But I’ve just got too much on my plate at this time.”

Show them that you thought it over before saying no. Feeling like you’re getting the brush off can be just as hurtful as hearing “no.” Show the person that you took the time to understand their request before turning it down.

• “This was a very entertaining screenplay. I really like how in the third scene the man-eating robot and the platypus become friends. But the studio is really concentrating on romantic comedies at this time.”

Offer a “consolation prize.” If you can’t fully grant someone’s request, think of a way you can still do something to help out.

• “I can’t referee at the game, but I will donate a keg for the after celebration.”
• “I can’t come on the Scout trip, but I can volunteer at the Pinewood Derby this year.”

Show them that your “no” is really in their best interest. You can take some of the sting out of your no by showing the person that having you on board wouldn’t have worked out anyway.

• Your newsletter is always so topnotch. Even if I could have found time to crank out some articles for you, they wouldn’t have met the standard of quality you are known for.”
• Even if I had chaperoned the all-night lock-in, I probably would have fallen asleep, leaving some kid to shoot his eye out with an airsoft gun.”

Say no by helping the person say no to himself. Web designers, barbers, and other creatives understand the frustration of having clients request something they know will simply not look good or turn out well. But if you say no outright, the client may become angry and defensive. Instead, ask them about their goals and then kindly show them why their suggestion wouldn’t help them achieve it.

• “If you’re going for a simple, modern look on your webpage, then all these rainbows and unicorns in the background would distract from that. Let me show you some examples that may be more of what you’re looking for.”
• “You’ve got a chin that makes Jay Leno look like Paul Giamatti. That haircut would only make it look even bigger.”

Let them know what it would take to get a “yes.” Don’t make the situation seem hopeless if it’s not.

• “I can’t give you an A on this paper. But you’re almost there. Next time, include a stronger thesis statement and more supporting evidence and your grade will definitely improve.”

Expose holes in their request. If someone comes to you with an idea that’s never going to go anywhere no matter who they talk to or how they tweak it, it does him no good to sugarcoat your no. But a “Get out of here, nutso!” isn’t the way to go either. Instead, ask them some questions that gently expose the holes in their plan. Help them see for themselves how untenable their idea is; you’re doing them a service.

• “Okay, and who would be the target market for a chest hair toupee?”

Just say no. It turns out that DARE was right-sometimes you just need to “say no.” If someone is wasting your time and doesn’t respect you, there’s no need soften your denial. Tell them no and walk away.

A final note. While these pointers will help you soften the blow of a no, they should not be said with any equivocation or hemming and hawing. While remaining polite and warm, you must also be firm and confident. Say your piece and let that be that. Don’t let someone guilt you into doing something by making you feel bad about your decision. There’s no pride to be had in saying yes, even to good causes, simply because you’re too afraid to say no. But you will find self-respect in making decisions that are in line with core values and priorities, regardless of what others think of you.

What are your tips for saying no politely but firmly? Share your advice with us in the comments!

Related posts:

1. How to Break in a Baseball Glove
2. 30 Days to a Better Man Day 30: Get a Straight Razor Shave
3. The Art Of Manliness Weekly Roundup: There Will Be Blood Edition
4. Check out The Manival #6 At Building Camelot
5. Check out The Manival #7 at The Simple Marriage Project

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