Attract More Visitors

In my last post How to Improve Your Memory During Your Workout at the Gym and YouTube video I showed how you can use the free software program Evernote to jot down notes so you can remember anything anywhere at anytime.  As I mentioned this works on any platform/ computer (PC, Mac, iPhone, Mobile Phone).

Turn Photos of Notes into Recognizable/Findable Text

One thing I didn't mention about Evernote is that theoretically you can also take photos of your handwritten notes with your mobile/iPhone and Evernote will recognize your handwriting so you can search/find your notes later.

Turn Lost/Misplaced Notes Into Information Bonanza

How many times have you taken notes at a live lecture, webinar, conference call, and filed the notes somewhere (in that giant uncategorized file)...where they're totally lost to you, since you can't locate them when you need them?

Think of all of the conferences, seminars, etc. with tons of great info that would be excellent to tap into...if you just could find it and view it.  This should be great for students, conference/seminar/webinar-attendees, knowledge-lovers, and internet marketers (who are always studying and learning).

Now there's a solution, or at least a potential solution...

Not Quite In-Focus Yet

I haven't quite gotten the note recognition functionality to work yet with my T-Mobile Wing phone but this most likely has to do with the resolution (size: number of pixels), quality (fineness), brightness (of light), and/or the distance from the orginal handwritten note (due to the focal length of the camera).  Evernote addressed this in their Help/Support: Why can't Evernote find some of the words in my pictures?

How to Turn Handwritten Notes into Retrievable Information

1. Install Evernote on your Mobile Phone or iPhone.
2. Start the Evernote program (on your phone).
3. Select "Snapshot" (Note: This takes you to your phone's camera).
4. View the handwritten note through your viewfinder and when it's the clearest, take the photo.
5. Press the curved arrow button.
6. Enter a title.
7. Press "Done" (Note: Then your picture will upload to your Evernote page on the Internet).
8. Go to your Evernote page on the Internet.
9. Refresh the page (by hitting <Ctrl> + F5 on a PC, or Command/Apple + F5 on a Mac).
10. View the photo of your handwritten note.
11. Note: It may take awhile for Evernote to recognize/index the photo of your note.
12. As I understand it, your note will be processed quicker if you opt for the fee-version of Evernote (which also increases your monthly storage allowance).
13. Search for a word in your note and Evernote should find your handwritten note so you can read it.

Note: If this doesn't work, then play with the resolution and quality settings on your phone's camera and/or the brightness of the light as well as the distance of the camera from your note.

That's it! (once I figure the last part out, that is).

FYI: It looks like Griffin has a solution for improving the clarity for iPhone photos of text/notes called "Clarifi": A protective case with built-in close-up lens for iPhone 3G.

--> If anyone knows of a clarity-improving solution like this for the T-Mobile Wing or other non-iPhone mobile phones please let me know with a comment below...

Attraction and Internet Marketing

Question: What does all of this have to do with attracting visitors and Internet Marketing?

Answer: People are attracted to:

• How to articles.
• Solutions to problems.
• Tools and gadgets.
• Tips and Reviews.
• Keywords of interest (e.g., "treasure")
• YouTube videos.

Writing blog posts or making YouTube videos addressing what attracts people can increase the traffic to your blog/YouTube site and to your website from there (if they find information of value to them), e.g., IncreaseOnlineProfits.com.

Last word: Always provide valuable content which helps people since "Content is King".

Comments, Questions, Better Solutions?

• Have something to say about this?  Let me know...
• Have a better solution.  Chime in...
• Have you gotten this to work with your T-Mobile Wing or your mobile phone?
• Were there any additional/crucial tips to getting this to work.  If so, please let  me and the AttractMoreVisitorsblog readers know by leaving a comment below...

Know anyone who might find this blog post interesting/helpful?  Then please use "Tell A Friend" below...

Problem: Too many Great Ideas, not enough Memory

I love working out at the gym because it's a great opportunity to listen to internet marketing podcasts and learn about the lastest marketing strategies and trends.  The only problem is that when you hear great ideas (especially ideas that you're thinking of tweeting/blogging about later) it's tough to remember them.  Since it's hard to remember several ideas (or website links) throughout your entire workout and until you get to your home/office, it would be great to be able to write them down.  But who wants to carry a clipboard or notebook around the gym?

Solution: Your Mobile Phone/iPhone and the multi-platform Evernote program.

Evernote is  an excellent web-based as well as phone-based program you can use to jot down your notes in a hurry.  All you have to do is register on Evernote's website and then download the Evernote software and install it onto your laptop/desktop (PC or Mac) and web-enabled phone. Since the Evernote site has directions, videos & tutorials & screenshots, I'm just going to show you how to use Evernote at the gym during your workout.

How to Improve Your Memory During Your Workout at the Gym

1. Download and Synchronize podcasts onto your mobile phone/iPhone.
   Note: I use Juice and Windows Media Player for this.
   You may use iTunes.
2. Listen to the podcasts while doing your workout.
3. When you hear a great idea start Evernote on your mobile phone/iPhone.
4. Jot down a note in Evernote.
5. Example: "MOC: Google Website Analyzer" (see Evernote image).
6. Rinse and repeat (do this for every great idea you hear that you want to remember).
7. Extra credit to boost your site traffic: When you get back to your home/office write a tweet or blog post based on the great idea.

• Twitter Example:
  • Google Website Optimizer tweet with thanks to Marketing Over Coffee podcast and @cspenn (Christopher Penn) for the great idea.

• Blog Post Example:
  • For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast by Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #441: April 20, 2009 re: Domino's Pizza.
  • Generated idea for Attract More Visitors blog post re: Domino's and How to Deal With Social Media Emergency Responses.
  • Clearly when you write these notes on Elliptical Trainers or the Treadmill they don't always look that great (do not do this...see the Caveat/Warning below).
  • But the point is: All they have to do is be good enough to remind you of the idea you need so you can take action on them, e.g, writing a tweet or posting a blog post.

YouTube Video: "How to Improve Your Memory During Your Workout at the Gym"

How does this help me Attract More Visitors to my Site?

You might be thinking, this is all great, but how does it help me get traffic to my website? Basically, by helping you remember all of the great ideas you heard in internet marketing and social media podcasts so you can blog and tweet about them on Twitter.  That's it, no magic or mirrors involved, just enabling you to write more blog posts and Twitter tweets which others may see or find via Google searches and then follow to your website (from your blog or your Twitter bio/profile).

Comments

Have a better way to remember great ideas during your workout? - just let me know...

And "extra credit" points for ways which improve your site traffic as well.

Caveats and Fine Print Warnings!

Please consult your Doctor before engaging in any exercise program.  Also, please be sure to *pause* during your exercise routine *before* writing notes in Evernote in your mobile phone/iPhone!  After all, you don't want to end up falling or having an accident at the gym.

And no matter what happens, please do not hold Evernote, me (Karl Kasca), Attract More Visitors blog, IncreaseOnlineProfits.com, or Social Mastermind Corp. responsible as we've already cautioned you above.

11 Quick Questions for Podcasts

This is Part III of a series of posts on evaluating/improving websites, blogs, and now podcasts.

First, you should know that I'm a great fan of podcasts and listen to as many as I can, as often as I can. I've learned so much from you that I'm really in your debt. Now I'd like to "give back" in the form of some constructive feedback to help improve your podcast.

One thing to keep in mind when reading this post: If "audio is 70 percent of video" then audio is 100 percent of an audio podcast.  And of course I'm not referring to the content of the podcast which is a completely different subject.

So when I pose the questions below, just know that I want your podcast to be the best that it can be so you can attract more listeners and be more successful.

Since Podcasters often have blogs for their show notes, you should take a look at the 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website -- Part II and then consider these questions:

1. Is the ultimate* volume of your podcast recordings high enough?
   * Where "ultimate" is podcast player software (e.g., iTunes or Windows Media Player) set to maximum volume and the device (iPhone, mobile phone, MP3 player, PDA) set to maximum volume.
2. Ask yourself: "Who are my Customers and Why do they Buy?" as my co-instructor at UCLA Extension, Beverly Macy, is fond of saying. Applied to podcasting: Think of it this way, where might your typical listeners (consumers) listen to (consume) your podcast)?
3. Is it somewhere like the gym, where there's lots of noise pollution from TV's, loud mobile-talkers, loud talkers, clanging weights, and whooshing flywheels? Or is it on a walk, where there's the sound of cars/traffic, street sweepers, garbage trucks, etc.?
4. What device/software will they listen with? (some devices/softwares have maximum volumes that aren't loud enough to compensate for the factors mentioned above).
5. Is your lead-in bumper music or big-voice announcer promo much louder than your voice so the listener needs to turn the volume up to hear you? Or is it smoothly equalized? After all, you'd hate to be compared to traditional media advertisements with loud ads and soft programming, right?). Similarly, does the podsafe music at the end of your podcast have a big bump in volume?
6. Are your guest interview calls and/or call-in questions (on or off-line) equalized so that one is barely audible and the other is much louder?
7. Do you have show notes with links so listeners who can't write while listening (e.g., driving) can still access your valuable content?
8. Do you have transcripts of your podcasts?
   
   Tip: One no-cost way to do this is to use another microphone (e.g., a headset mic) and route it to another computer with built-in (free) voice/speech recognition (e.g., Windows XP or Vista) software so your words will be automatically typed into Microsoft Word (or OneNote) as you speak. Of course, currently this only works well if there's one person speaking. See these resources for more on this:
   Audio transcriptions and annotations with OneNote
   How to transcribe any audio on your PC
   - And you can just use MS-WORD instead of OneNote.
   - Assuming you'd like a free solution, rather than buying Dragon Naturally Speaking, of course.
9. If you do a video podcast do you offer an MP3 version as well for those who are just listening to your podcasts versus watching them? This is the value-added podcast equivalent of giving a CD (with MP3 files) in addition to a DVD, if you sell DVDs).
10. If your listeners subscribe to your RSS feed and download/synchronize your Audio podcasts to their devices, do you try to avoid inserting a long (large file size) Videocast which might blow-out their storage/memory when they auto-sync their feeds to their devices (Yikes!)?
11. Do you have some sort of consistent naming convention for your file names so your podcast will make sense when viewed in music player or File Explorer? E.g., an acronym/abbreviation for the name of your podcast, podcast number, the date, and a brief title.
    The reason for having the podcast number and a title is that depending on how someone's viewing the filename (music player or File Explorer) they should be able to easily differentiate which they've listened to versus which are new (since they may not remember which # they listened to last/before).

And I know it's easier said than done for some of these things like equalization. But just try to think of these points from your customer's perspective and what will draw more people to your podcast so you can grow the number of your listeners and retain more of them.

For some ideas/programs to help with equalization see Segment #3 of  the show notes (or listen to) the eMarketing Talk Show --> "Podcasting 101: Understanding the Basics & Getting Started".

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Have any questions, comments, or tips of your own for evaluating podcasts? If so, please leave a comment...

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Prior post (Part II): 10 Quick Questions for Evaluating your Website -- Part II.