The first, most important thing I discovered was that the recording software build into any webinar system is totally unreliable. Completely!

Out of 3 webinars, the software worked perfectly only once… yes, once. And even then, I stressed all the way through. Why? Because if it didn’t record, I was going to have to sit down for another hour (that I didn’t have spare) and rerecord it because I needed the content.

Besides… what if I did a really good webinar? I can’t guarantee that I’m going to say the same things exactly every time and I might miss recording a great insight

So how did I fix the webinar recording problem?

In the end, I returned to using a 2nd piece of software that I know is reliable – Screenflow –  to record the desktop as I ran the webinar.

This software is pretty well 100% safe so you get a high quality recording of the screen, computer audio and voice every time. Better still, you can edit the recording in the built in editor and export it for use anywhere.

One other aspect I liked is I could export directly to Youtube, Vimeo, etc from Screenflow.

Only Screenflow?

No, there are a range of programs for PC and Mac that you can use but my productivity hack is to use a 2nd program. Don’t rely on gotwebinar, gotomeeting, etc to do it for you. Besides, in my experience, converting their files to play can be a MAJOR issue for many people.

Have a great day!

Brad Hauck

PS If you want to watch those webinars, go to www.mrwebmarketing.com/freewebinars

Why?

Because of the plugins that allow you to complete multiple actions at once. For example, the plugin Social Poster can automatically do you updates on many social media sites at once. Better still… it only cost $12. Think how much time this might save you each day???

Facts are that there are literally thousands of plugins that can help you do more in less time. All you need to do is go to Google, type in “what you need” wordpress plugin, then dig through the results.

Sometimes it’s a bit ‘suck it and see’ so you may need to install a few different plugins to find the right one but when you do, it will be worth it.

Go on… try it and see what you can get your website to do automatically for you.

Cheers

Brad Hauck

Do You Regularly Use Microsoft Word Templates? Did you know that you can save a Word doc as a template DOT file and open an unnamed copy of it just by double clicking on the template?

If you didn’t, it’s a great way to preload a document such as a letter or booklet with all of the basic information such as name, address, etc. Then just choose Save As: and click on the drop down box below the file listings to choose DOT.

Save it somewhere you can find it easily when you want to make a new file from the template.

But… did you know that you can drag that file from it’s folder OVER the top of the Taskbar and drop it there? It will create an icon that you can click on when you need to launch the template. Amazing!

If you have templates that you use a lot, it will save you loads of time if you place them on the Taskbar.

Have fun with that!

Brad Hauck

Most people think of it as the program that opens when you launch a PDF file or double click on an image but it’s so much more. What you probably don’t realise is that there are loads of hidden features.

For example. did you know that it has an Alpha layer tool? You don’t know what that is? It’s a little tool that removes the background from images easily. You know… when you just want you against a white background

Or in a powerpoint you want to add a sign without the sky in the background. Well in Preview there is a tool that does it.

You can also rearrange PDF pages, delete pages, crop and resize images (love this one!), annotate PDFs, add a signature and create or fill in PDF forms.

You can also open and image and re-save in a different format e.g. JPEG -> PNG. Flip, rotate, draw on images, run a PDF as a slideshow, and more…

It’s the app that just keeps you productive because it does soooo much. If you’ve got a mac, try it now. If you don’t, isn’t it time you switched? LOL Just joking!

You can read more about Preview at Apple.

Cheers!

Brad Hauck

Productivity Hack #1

 Automate anything you can: From autoresponders to webinar replays, there are thousands of tools that can do repetitive work for you. Stop manually doing any task you can use a robot for!

Productivity Hack #2

 Use templates: Stop rebuilding the layout of every email you send. Set up a template and use it over and over again. Firstly it build familiarity for readers and secondly it saves hours.

Productivity Hack #3

 Use a form filler: Filling out forms is a pain in my butt A form filler can pre-fill most of your details for you. Better still, you can set up multiple profiles so that you can choose which details to fill in. 1 set of real details, another when you think you might be spammed.

Productivity Hack #4

 Use sequencing: Write your articles for the month or week in one sitting. When you’re in the groove you get a lot more done in less time. Sequence them so they post to your blog or update your facebook status etc over time.

Productivity Hack #5

 Use dlvr.it: Sites like this allow you to spread your RSS feed or updates to multiple social media sites at once. You want to get your message out as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Productivity Hack #6

 Use Google Alerts: Don’t spend hours researching for article content, Google will send you anything it finds that matches your search phrase for free! Daily, hourly or weekly.

Productivity Hack #7

 Work Offline Often: When you’re constantly connected, you get distracted by bells and whistles going off all the time. Being online doesn’t mean living online. Constant connection will draw you away from what is important.

Productivity Hack #8

 Implement Dropbox: Stop moving files all over the place. Sign up for dropbox.com and download the software. Install it on all your computers and log them all in with the same username and password. Now anything you save into dropbox will appear on all your computers at once. This means you can start work on your laptop, save then open and finish at home or work on your other computer or ipad etc.

Productivity Hack #9

Evernote: Signup for Evernote and download the app. Everytime you find an example of good layouts, articles you like, sales copy that’s good, etc tag it into Evernote so you can refer to it later. Think of it like a manilla folder full of examples.

Productivity Hack #10

 Use Tabs: Funnily enough,not many people realise that you can have one browser window open with multiple websites showing in tabs. This is perfect when you’re working on your site as you can make edits, switch to another tab and refresh to see if it looks right. Tabs save time reordering windows.

So there’s my latest top 10 online productivity hacks. What do you think? Do you have any ideas to add? if so, please send them to me via facebook or email.

According to the New Jersey Journal, online sales for Cyber Monday 2012 could pass $2 Billion. That’s right… in only 1 day, two billion dollars could be spent on online purchases alone. Don’t be fooled, your Internet marketing is far more important than just having a website and a Facebook page. If you aren’t learning how to leverage the web, you could be settling for the crumbs!

If you’re ready to take your online marketing by the throat, I’ve recorded my experience as a course. This 9 unit training course is no hype, no jargon, just pure tested results getting steps.

You’ll learn about:

Unit 1 – Onsite Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Unit 2 – Offsite SEO Link Building
Unit 3 – Email & Database Marketing
Unit 4 – Social Media Marketing
Unit 5 – Video Marketing
Unit 6 – Blogging for Profit
Unit 7 – Outsourcing for Success
Unit 8 – Make Your Website Sell
Unit 9 – Producing eProducts to Sell or Giveaway

Click here to get started today and drive your results up

If you’re looking for a speaker to keynote or run session for your audience on how to get more business online, I can speak on topics such as Social Media, Online Marketing and Online Reputation Management

Topics include:

Download Brad’s Topics

Winning More Business Online

“7 Steps to Building Powerhouse Web Businesses that Rank Thru the Roof”

On the Internet, a small local business can do better than a multi-national company if they focus.

Online marketing is more than just SEO, social media and email. It’s about building brand that envelops the people who are searching for what you do or sell. Everywhere they look, they should find you.

Discover the 7 essential steps to creating a powerhouse web brand that ranks and drive your lead generation through the roof!

Learn how to ensure that no matter where they look online for what you do or sell, you come up as the #1 result. With so many decisions about who to call being made as a result of an online search, can you afford not to build your web brand?

Book Brad today for your next conference, networking event or seminar.

Social Media Marketing

“Get Social Smart & Crowd Clever: Using Social Media to Build Raving Fans”

If communication is one of the keys to better business and social media is a communication tool, why is it so confusing to implement it in your business to connect with your clients?

Discover what social networking is and how it can drive your business profits through the roof at little or no cost…

What is social networking and is it for your business? Since the birth of the web there have been huge changes in how media is consumed and produced. At the forefront of this evolution is social networking – a user created phenomenon that is no longer being used by the few but by the many, and should be considered as a part of any businesses’ online marketing strategy.

Discover how to implement a plan that allows you to reach your market, engage your followers and improve your business. You can do it all… Blog, Twitter, Facebook in less than 5 minutes a day. Learn how anyone, even if you have no experience, can use social media to increase traffic and sales.

Explode onto the social media landscape today!

Book Brad today for your next conference, networking event or seminar.

If you haven’t done much shopping online, now is the time. Click Frenzy is a nation wide online event where you can save up to 30% or more on your orders.

So what is it?

• It’s for 24 hours only, starting this Tuesday November 20 at 7pm!
• There are hundreds of retail brands selling thousands of unbeatable deals in one place!

Developed by Power Retail, Click Frenzy is modelled on the very successful Cyber Monday in the USA. Cyber Monday has been responsible for massive sales figures and was originally launched to allow online retails to leverage of the after Thanksgiving Sales.

Click Frenzy only lasts for 24 hours so warm up your fingers, go to the Click Frenzy website and register your email to get access to all of the fantastic bargains.

Start your Christmas shopping early… this Tuesday 20th November!

In previous weeks, Qantas made headlines for grounding its entire fleet, which not only inconvenienced customers around the country but seemed to upset the community as a whole. The news and talkback radio were buzzing with stories about people missing business meetings, weddings, graduations, or holidays that they had booked for a year. Definitely NOT the right time to ask people for their ideas regarding a dream luxury experience with Qantas.

Not surprisingly, a social media disaster began as people used the #tag to say what they really were thinking.

Online tracking showed that there were upwards of 50 tweets a minute at its peak, of which almost all were putting the boot in using the #QantasLuxury hashtag. Within 12 hours, the story had broken in the mainstream newspapers, national tv news, etc, some Qantas were probably being retrained in #irisk and the airline most definitely were reviewing their social media tactics..

iRisk Tip: Think about you business environment and wording before you tweet!

• Before you do any more for SEO, map out all of your marketing efforts. List out everything you are currently doing, both online and offline to help get your brand noticed. This could include (but certainly not limited) to: public relations, social media, collateral development, dealer incentive programs, tv, radio, outdoor boards, trade shows, promotions, contests, etc. Put this all down on paper so you can later establish the connection to your website.

• Determine your goals, both online and offline. I am a big proponent of defining goals. If you do not have a goal to work towards, what is the point of your efforts? If your company executes a lot of different marketing/promotional tactics, chances are you have an overall marketing strategy and goal already worked out. If you don’t have this, take a step back and map out what you’re really trying to do. Let’s say your goal is to create more brand awareness among females, ages 20-35. That means every effort should be focused on reaching a large audience and simply sharing your brand information and benefits. In that case you would have a different marketing mix that someone who say wanted to generate product trials from females ages 20-35. From there, think about how this overall marketing goal translates to your website and your online efforts. If your overall goal is to generate trials, is your online goal then to capture contact information so you send out free samples? Or is it contact information to then follow up and ask if they want a trial. Also think about how you are going to measure success for what you are trying to do. Go beyond just rankings and think about other metrics – time on site, bounce rates, cost per visit, etc.

• Map out efforts and link them to the online space. When you start to think about it, everything you do is likely driving traffic to your website in one way or another. For instance, if you have a lot of collateral materials, do you put a PDF version (or the content itself) onto your website? If so, you should be thinking about this connection when you write the copy for the brochure. If you aren’t putting your brochures onto your site, why not? This can be a good way to add additional content onto your site.

Now that you have defined your goal as well as mapped out how everything connects to the web, now you can start looking at ways to optimize your current efforts for SEO. You know the most important piece is to define your keywords, but as you determine these for each page of your website, also think about how the keywords can work for you in other efforts.  Continue onto the rest of your SEO steps and best practices that you already know (update page titles, meta descriptions, work keywords into your copy, optimize videos and images for SEO, etc.) Get your website working hard for you, to the best of your ability.

As you get your site optimized, start working your SEO best practices into all of your other efforts as well. Is it time to write & print a new brochure? Give the person writing, a list of your keywords and highlight the top 5-10 most important ones that apply to that brochure. Have them try and work in the keywords into the copy so that once it is complete, you can easily post the content onto your site without much additional effort. Doing this also means you are sending consistent brand messaging as people who see the brochure, then visit your site see a lot of the same terms.

For press releases, do the same thing. Give your PR team your keywords but then also scan the release before it goes out to make sure it is optimized for SEO success. Also, be sure you always include a link back to your site within the release, so if it is picked up, you could also help out your link building at the same time.

Social media, dealer efforts, other collateral, etc. can all follow in a similar fashion. Optimize all mediums from the start so messages are consistent. For more traditional mediums like TV or Radio, make sure you put these on your website as well (assuming you have the rights to do so) and use video optimization best practices to make sure you are ranking. If one of your main keywords you are trying to rank for is “SEO tips”, work that into the TV or radio script so if you later add a transcript version on the site, this keyword is already worked in there.

The biggest key to offline optimization success is to think about where these pieces might end up at some point. If there is any chance they will be online in the future, optimize from the beginning rather than having to go back and do it afterward. This can help save time, money and in the end create a more integrated marketing plan with everything working together to help you rank higher.