The topic at New Media Cincinnati last weekend was on blogging. It was a very informative meeting, and, of course, the subject of Evernote came up as a resource for writing posts.

Perhaps one of my favorite ways I’m using Evernote is for blogging. I used to write my posts in WordPress, but sometimes I take a long time to write and WordPress would time out. So now I write it in Evernote. The advantages are 1) it’s easier to jump in and write when I find moments of time. I don’t have to log in, wait for it to load, then click 2-3 times to get to the post; 2) as I find elements that are relevant to that post, I can just put them in the article or in that notebook.

My notebook is called Blog Posts. Then, each post is a note. That can also be graphics, like screenshots, images, videos or a list of resource links. Whenever I have an idea for a blog post, I hop over, and write the title and whatever related content for it that is in my head. Then go just back to what I was doing; like a digital notepad. I like to make a Note for each post title; as I scan the Notes list, I can see all the topics at once and decide which one I’d like to write more on.

As I save screenshots (or graphics) for a specific post, there are a couple ways to tie it to the post. I can tag it, or I can copy and paste the image from its note to my article. Whatever works best at the moment.

Watch Your Formatting

There is something you should be VERY aware of here. I would not recommend Evernote for writing long, long documents, like a book, or anything that would require specific formatting. One of the biggest shortcomings, and greatest complaints about EN, is it’s word processing and styles. It has very limited functions, and sometimes adds spacing blips that I swear is a bug. And you can’t easily remedy it. It also isn’t necessarily easy to find another place further down the document, like cutting and pasting whole sections. I suppose you could keep notes for Resources for a book, or just typing quick things up. But I would copy it out of EN when it came time for formatting, page numbering, and foot/endnoting.

So give EN a try to for your blogging. It may not be right for your final draft, but for simple writing of your post, doing research, or collecting data, it can’t be beat.

Video is the most powerful way to market your business. No marketing effort converts like video. Here’s an opportunity to put that power to work for you, possibly for free.

Not all videos have to be original footage shot by you, or something expensive you purchased that is full of special effects. In fact, simpler is better. One of the sources I use when I need additional video clips, or a clip of something there’s just no way I can record myself, is Pond5.com (affiliate link). Pond5 has videos, illustrations, photos, music clips as well as full songs, and sound effects in a wide range of prices and variety, so I can usually find what I need. They even offer a free video clip per week. This site is not just another stock video site that is full of cheesy videos either. They are high quality items that are reasonably priced, and the site is very user-friendly to work with.

For a limited time, Pond 5 is giving away 50 videos and music clips. I downloaded these the other day and am impressed. These are all useful, HD or at least high quality clips, some of which include the sound effect of the video. It is not your typical “of-course-they’re-giving-this-away-for-free-because-they’re-cheap” kind of giveaway. All very nice products.

“But I wouldn’t even know what to do with clips like this.” Don’t worry; here are a couple ideas on what you can do.

1. Just take a look at these clips. Slowly. Spend a little time looking at them. Use them for inspiration. What feelings are evoked; what symbolism is being portrayed; what message can you make for your business that can clearly be reflected or related to by this clip. Write down any ideas you come up with.

2. Now, even if you are new to video, you could put this clip on a Powerpoint or Keynote slide, write a script and record some voiceover to go with it, and you have a video. You can even add a few more slides with text, and another photo or video clip.

3. And if even that feels a little overwhelming, then give me a call, tell me your idea and I can create a video for you.

Whatever you decide to do, give me a call. I’d love to know your ideas on how these clips can be used for your business; I’d be glad to give you some ideas or help you flesh out your own ideas and get you an awesome video. This special runs till May 10, so hurry.

photo credit: axbom

So, your site now has all the bells and whistles. It’s SEO compliant. It’s mobile-friendly. You’ve even got the latest and greatest social media share buttons on the market. But the question is…

is your site responsive?

What is a responsive site, you say? Glad you asked.

Simply put, a responsive site is a site that displays in the proper dimensions based on the device that is being used to view it. For instance, standard site dimensions are 1024, minimally. Viewed on a mobile device, that site would be either humungous or imperceptibly small, depending on whether you viewed it real size or tried to fit it all on a mobile phone. So you make a site that is properly viewable on a mobile phone. Ok. That’s better; but have you considered that people who view your site on a mobile phone are not necessarily just “surfing sites”? Chances are, they are seeking specific information that your company, and thus your site, has. So give priority to the information your mobile viewer is most likely looking for. Yes, that may only be 3-5 items, but if it gets them to the exact information they’re looking for, you’ve succeeded. Give them the information they want; not the information you want them to have.

The same is true for tablet devices, although you do have more room to work with and may not have to be as concerned with displaying only a few items at a time. But now you have to also deal with the directionality of the device; it is landscape or portrait? This is true for phones as well, but it is much more critical for tablet devices.

Then, let’s throw in a variety of viewing resolutions for good measure.

So, what that means is, you need a site that can determine what device it is being viewed on, at what dimension, what resolution, so that you can deliver the appropriately designed site. Cool! That means I have to make 4 versions of my website.

Ok, now you’re just being ridiculous.

Let’s bring in a responsive website. A website built responsively (responsibly?) knows all the answers to those questions and offers up the right site design automatically. This is important from a user-friendly standpoint. The whole reason you’re on the web to begin with is to meet your customers’ needs and get more customers, and that means making it as easy as possible for your customers to get what they need from you. And one way to do that is through a responsive site: a site that responds to your customer in the way that best meets their needs.

If you’re not sure what your website looks like on a mobile phone, check it out. If you don’t have a smart phone, ask someone who does; and if you’re not happy with what you see, give us call.

“Meet Evernote.”
“Evernote, meet every piece of information I will ever want to find again.”

Well, I just discovered that January is Get Organized Month and I’m tickled about that because it’s the perfect excuse to share about my latest discovery: Evernote.

I’ve heard of Evernote for years, but never really got into it till now. At this point I’ve been using it for about a month and not only do I feel more organized, but I’m always finding more uses or advantages to it and get more excited about what a useful program this is. And that “organizing” is always at my fingertips for instant access. Paper filing can’t do that!

To be honest, at the very beginning, getting started can be a little tricky. Here’s what I wish I’d known:

Organize Your Life

Everything you put into Evernote (EN) is a Note. EN does not use the typical hierarchical file/folder structure we are all used to. It basically only goes one level deep, but that really doesn’t matter. The search power of EN eases any need for that type of structure. So you don’t need to worry about how to organize everything, to start with.

So think of each item you want to store (like tear-outs from magazine articles, recipes or quotes) as individual Notes. One “thought” per note, although you can put multiple pages together, like pdf’s (scanned warranties or manuals). Give each Note an appropriate title. TIP+: you can have “untitled” notes, but as you scan the Notes list looking for something, it’s incredibly helpful to see a real title. Just make it something to jog your memory.

Next, Notes are organized by topics called Notebooks. Think of this simple metaphor: imagine you have a Notebook for every topic of your life–business, personal, recipes, Books to Read, Movies to See, receipts, bills, whatever else you need that fits your life. Then every “page” in the Notebook is a Note. For instance, I have a Medical – Eyes notebook. In it are several Notes: a scan of my glasses prescription; pictures I’ve taken of frames I like. I then tagged each of those pictures (Notes) with easily searchable terms, i.e. frames, and the store where the frames are. TIP+: every word in a note is a search term, so don’t worry about getting too specific. Think more in terms of what you are most likely to think of a month from now to find that note. I could even find that prescription by the doctor’s name because he’s on the prescription form I scanned.

There are several formats you can use to work with EN: web app, phone app, and standalone app. I use the standalone app the most.

The left column is my list of notebooks. Once you click on a notebook, the center column is a thumbnail of the notes in that notebook. The right column is the specific note. The very first notebook at the top, “All Notebooks,” is where all the notes are listed in the order they were added. Sometimes recent notes are easiest found there than trying to come up with a search term.

The first things I put into EN were all the written notes I had on my desk, like phone numbers or to do lists; each one being its own note. The name of the note was whatever the note was about; I also tagged it with something I’d be sure to remember later: “notes from my desk”. TIP+: the fun thing is, even handwritten notes are searchable. Here you can see several of my handwritten notes with the “notes from my desk” tag.

Ok. that’s enough for now. There is just absolutely no end to the power of EN, but this should be enough to get you started. So here it is broken down into steps you can do now.

First 3 Steps to Getting Started with Evernote (after setting up an account and installing it)

1. Make a New Notebook. Call it something pretty generic, like your name. Mine is “Auto-Import”. Almost everything I put in EN starts out there. Make this your Default Notebook. As you email, scan or clip things to EN, it will automatically go in there and you can decide on a specific notebook later.

1B. Make some more Notebooks based on broad categories of your life, like Business, Hobbies, Recipes, Workout, Mom’s Birthday Party. “Books to Read” or “Movies to See” are popular; make a Notebook for a project you might be doing, “Sales Presentation” or “Website”. Be sure to keep the “sync” checked.

2. Remember, each individual piece of information is a Note. Get 5 items into EN. Keeping it simple, click New Note and type something up
• grocery list
• write a blog post article
• room measurements, paint colors
• snippets of info you always seem to have to look up (keyboard shortcuts?)
• make 1 note for each book you want to read, or movie you want to see

If you want a bit more of a challenge, do some scanning. I suggest making an EVERNOTE folder on your computer and have your scanner automatically put things for EN in there. Then go back and send it to EN. (There’s a lot more to this, but I’ll cover that later. This is enough for now.)

• take-out menus
• magazine article you want to save (business or personal)
• receipts (paper ones scanned in)
• digital receipts (email to your EN account) (challenge + for emailing to EN)
3. Now assign each of the notes to a notebook. You can do this by either dragging and dropping the note into the correct notebook, or you can select a notebook from the dropdown menu at the right of the note. I have some notes that just don’t seem to have a notebook I’d like them in, so I made a “Miscellaneous” notebook just to get things out of my auto-import notebook.

Some excellent resources are the Evernote Blog, Michael Hyatt, and the forums. You’ll find more information there than you’ll ever want to know. This is an amazing program. You owe it to yourself to give it an honest try and stop worrying about hoping you’ll find that scrap of note you wrote last Wednesday.

After you’re finished with this, be sure to come back and leave me a comment telling me how it went. I’d love to know your first impressions.

Anderson Senior Center
Job Search Learning Lab
Friday 1:30-2:30pm

Are you out of work? Have you been out of work for a while now and feel like you’ve done everything you can to get a job, but you’ve long since run out of anything else you can do? Are you using every tool at your disposal to promote yourself? Are you using video?

Please don’t do a video resume: don’t read your resume and don’t give your whole work history. And PLEASE don’t give your interview on video. Use video as a finely honed instrument in your job search arsenal.

I will be doing a presentation on how to more effectively use video in your job search. We all know the ever-exponentially-growing popularity of video, and what a powerful medium it is for business. Too powerful to ignore. But have you thought about using video in your job search?

Come find out why you need to use video; what you should put in your video; and what to do with that video once you’ve created it.

We’d like you to signup, but if you can’t get to that and you’re still interested, please come anyway.

7970 Beechmont Ave., 45255 [BEHIND THE FIREHOUSE]
Every Friday
More info at jobsearchlearninglabs.wikidot.com