Starting a Meetup on Internet Marketing

In the past I’ve found myself being more of a consumer of other peoples information, tips and services and putting those to practice use for my own specific purposes.  I’m certainly grateful for all the useful and practice information that I’ve received.

I feel that now is the time for me to start contributing and helping others. So much has been given to me that I think it’s time that I start giving back. I talked about this in an earlier posted about ‘Giving vs. Receiving‘ if you want to see my thoughts on that.

With that as one of my goals for this year and challenge to myself,
I’ve formed a local Meetup in Georgia about Internet Marketing

I’m Optimistic

I’m optimistic about the group and its potential success.

My primary goal will be to give people the tools and knowledge to help with their confidence knowing that they have what it takes to be successful online.  This does not necessarily have to include making huge amounts of money.

Measure Your Success by Your RESULTS

My experience with success is that it should not be measured solely by the amount of money you make.  Know why?  Because that is always relative.  Someone is always going to be making more than you and some will be making less.

Measure you success against yourself, against your accomplishments and feel good based on your personal results.

I plan to maintain an ongoing update on the progress and results of the Meetup.

Have you taken a step out of your comfort zone lately and done something that stretches you to be a better person?

Share your stories (oh yea, wish me luck)

Chris

Is it better to Give or Receive?

Giving vs. Receiving is an age old question.  I think it’s something people have been wrestling with
since the beginning of time and probably will for now on.

Which is better?

My faith and belief in Jesus Christ tells me the clear answer.  However, how can I say definitively
that this is the case?

I can only tell you that it is true based on the personal experiences and results that I’ve seen.

Let me give you a few examples:

In 2005 when we were in the process of adopting our child, we were faced with the delima of how
to raise the needed money.

Stephanie and I sat down and asked, how we can change our lifestyle or cut out certain outflows
of cash in order to afford the adoption process?  For us, we asked should we stop Giving to our church?

Our ‘Giving’ back to God was certainly an area that we could find some extra money.    After thoughtful prayer
and consideration, we felt based on our faith and beliefts that this was not the right place to start being greedy.

Our hearts told us that we would find a way to raise the necessary money.

The conclusion to this example is one that you would think I made up.

Here it is.

Seemingly from out of no where, Stephanie received a phone call from a huge corporation asking her if
she would be interested in creating a curriculum that would be used by the United States Federal Government
in their training of employees with learning Spanish.  If that’s not incredible enough, guess how much ‘EXTRA’
money the projected ended up bring in?

The exact amount for us to complete the adoption and to be in the country of Colombia for 2 months.

The next example happened just recently and it’s a perfect example of where ‘Giving’ without expecting
anything in return really pays off.  I’ll let you decide if that’s the case.

I attend local MeetUp’s to continue to learn more and more about internet marketing.   A guy named Peter Freeman
and I seemed to hit it off.  We decided to get together for lunch, so we did and we just talked for about an
hour.  Peter is very ambitious and I could tell by his tone and personality that he has the ambition to be
successful at anything he applies himself to.

We just chatted casually and I honestly just told him some things that I knew to be true and that had given me positive
results and successes.  I find it refreshing to be able to tell people the things that you know.

About a week later, out of the blue I get a phone call from Peter telling me that he had followed some of the tips
that I had given him from our lunch meeting and that he was starting to see positive results himself from his online
business.    Even more cool (or I should say just as cool) than that was an email that Peter sent me that had
a short video thanking me for meeting with him and he was grateful for what I had shared.

The more you GIVE, the MORE YOU RECEIVE.

You may not agree with this, but it is true for me and for everyone that I associate with.  The principle of Giving
is told to be true from those with wisdom that I cannot even comprehend and in my life it has been true
and it continues to prove that over and over.

Why not try it for yourself and see if you experience the same results as I have?

Share with me below how you have seen this first hand in your life to be true.

Chris

15 Random Things about Chris

Want to know a little about the “real” me?

Here I’m experimenting with an outlet to let you know a little more about me on a personal side. I really like to get to know the “real” YOU when I make contacts on facebook, twitter, this blog, so here I’m exposing the “real” ME.

1. I flopped the SAT in high school, scoring an whopping 850. Didn’t matter, finished college with only 2 B’s total.
2. I have taken a 4 month sabbatical to travel through Africa, Asia and Europe.
3. I put blonde highlights in my hair because of my own vanity. Mostly to help hide the grays (I’m getting old)
4. I have am an adoptive parent, with a 2 year old son, Emery from Bogota Colombia
5. I am married to my high school sweetheart, Stephanie Hinton Langston
6. I grew up in a house on wheels, weeeeeeeeeee. A “mobile home” as we call in here in Georgia
7. I am learning to speak Spanish along with our son. If you only knew how bad my English grammar skills are, you’d have sympathy for my Spanish teacher.
8. I speak with a strong southern accent. I never realize it, but anytime I travel the first thing people ask me is “Where Are You From?”
9. I teach an adult Sunday School class at my church.
10. I am a very emotional person. I cry when watching things like the finale of American Idol.
11. I am an extrovert. I love to be social, to make connections and to smile. I can easily carry on a conversation with a total stranger.
12. When I was younger I used to race Dirt Bike motorcycles. It’s call motocross (notice no “R”). That drives my wife crazy. I’ve had my share of spills and broken bones.
13. I still live in the same town where I grew up. I see all my old grade school friends all the time. It’s like a constant family reunion. The pros and cons are that it’s like a constant high school reunion and you can never get anything done fast.
14. One thing I learned when I was young was that if someone asks you “How Are You Doing” to respond by saying “EXCELLENT!” It really gets there attention.
15. I’m learning to be a Landlord with owning residential real-estate. I look forward to when it’s fully paid off.

What are things that people may or may not know about you?

The Problem Is Your Thoughts

What do you focus your thoughts on? Do you focus on the things that you want or the things that you don’t want?

What You Focus On Expands

I’m a HUGE believer in the expression that “What You Focus On Expands”. Don’t believe that it works?

Give it a trial run with your friends, family, co-workers. Here’s what you can do. Find the ones that always seems to be complaining or griping about something. It usually be related to someone makes more money than me, lives in the nicer house than me, has better friends than me. They will probably make statements such as “If I wasn’t so far behind on my credit card payment” or “If I had a better car, I could get a better job” or “If I could only learn how to do “X” {insert what you hear in your situation here} I could do better.”

The problem is that they are focusing on what they don’t want instead of what they DO WANT.

These are called defeating believes and thoughts. The do not benefit you at all.

Here’s what I do when those negative or defeating beliefs pop into my head. I acknowledge to myself that I hear what it’s saying, but then I immediately squash the thought and replace it with a thought that is empowering, one that brings me the exact thing that I want.

This will sound kind of hoakie to you at first, but believe it worked for me:

Ways To Overcome Defeating Thoughts

One technique that I used early on to do away with defeater beliefs was to wear a rubber band around my wrist. When I found myself focusing on the wrong thing or letting my mind tell me negative things, I would simply pull back the rubber band and pop myself on the wrist. I’m no psychologist so I can’t tell you exactly what goes inside your brain when this “POP” hits your wrist and that sting is sent to the brain, but I can tell you that IT WORKS!

So, ask yourself this question, “Do I focus on what I WANT or what I DO NOT WANT?” When you answer honestly to yourself, I think you can start to figure out what is holding you back.

These defeating, limited thoughts are the cause if you not being as successful as you would like. Maybe this has to do with your online business or creating that new product or writing the book that you know you have inside you.

I encourage you to pay close attention to your thoughts and Focus on What You Want and it will be so.

What has worked for you?  What techniques do you use to focus on the things that you want?

Internet Marketers of Georgia May Meeting

Be sure to mark your calendars for the May 2009, Internet Marketers of Georgia meeting.

The topic for this month’s discussion is going to be “Traffic”.

If you’re not a member, it’s not too late to jump on board and join us May 27th at 7:00 p.m. You can find all the details at the meeting link
Meetup.com

The initial meeting Social Media was presented by Joey Smith. You can view the presentation in an earlier post that I put together here: imog social-media

The focus of the Atlanta area imog group is:
- Marketing
- Building sites
- Making money from scratch
- Affiliate marketing
- Driving traffic
- Social media
- Selling and conversion
- List building
- and much more

Be sure to join us this week.

Throw that Apple out of the Window?

In this article we’ll compare some of the features of Apple’s Mac Leopard operating system to Microsoft’s Vista operating system.  I can sense the pressure is already rising in some of you looking at the headline of this article.  Let’s roll-up our sleeves and take a look under the covers.

It would never end the passionate debate between the die hard Mac lovers and the windows fanatics that swear by it.  While one claims that the user needs to shell out $50 once in every two years, the other claims, the user needs to upgrade to the next version shelling out a few hundred dollars once every five years.

This post is not looking into the hardware issues.  Having said that let me be clear that I am only looking at the software issues and how user friendly these two operating systems are in terms of Productivity and getting things done.  Before I do that let us look at the specific aspects of the software because the core of the argument depends on it.

Software Installation:

Mac uses the “package” to install and run an application. Package is similar to a folder. It contains all the files that are needed to run the application. The finder helps the user find the application.

Let us look at some of those user-friendly features.

Drag and Drop: In Apple’s Mac, the user with the help of the finder, locates the package, drags it to the Application’s folder and drops it and it is ready to work with. There are no additional steps involved. (Some of the applications launched the first time, do trigger the set up wizard but it is only once.) Users can place the package wherever they wish but then Apple recommends that they be placed in the Applications folder. The user would agree it is more organized that way.

Move it – The Apple user has the flexibility to move the package from one location to an other. Changing the location does not break the program and stop it from running. In fact a user can move the program even when the Application is running, however it might prevent the software update.

Update plus: For the Mac user it is very easy to update the software. All the user has to do is replace the existing package with the latest one. There are no un-installs and re-installs and reboots. User can even run multiple versions. This really helps, for example, when a web developer would like to test a web site on two different versions of the same browser.

Windows Vista

In Windows the install wizard installs all the software in the default location – C:\Program Files\

The .exe files of the Applications are usually placed into sub-folders along with the associated files that are needed to run that Application.  The shortcut to these Applications are listed in the Start menu, occasionally they may even display un-install and help files..

In Windows, the user is advised not to move the Application once it is installed. If an Application is moved from its location there is the possibility that it might not launch. Of course the user always has the freedom to copy a program to a hard drive and “install” it, but then a shortcut needs to be provided manually to the Start menu for it to appear there and help launch. A user can launch a program directly from the search bar or a run dialog if it is installed in the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Well, there is your flexibility of both the systems!

So what, if we are talking about productivity and playing FreeCell is not productive or is it?

• While the PC users say that they are a lot more inexpensive to buy and maintain, Apple costs an arm and leg.
• Mac users say that the PC’s are for game users but when it comes to productivity tools nothing can beat the Mac.
• We cannot forget the fact most of the Mac users have used a Windows machine, but how many of those had used a MAC OS X?
• Windows Vista Ultimate costs $399-00 and Mac OS X Leopard is $129.00 for the entire packaged deal.
• The market share as mapped by netapplications for the year 2009 is: Macs 9.76% and Windows 88.12% and for the corresponding period in 2008 is Macs 8.03 and Windows 90.67. So what do those figures say?

Where do you stand on the issue?  What features do you find in either of the operating systems that you find superior to the other?  I’d love to hear your feedback.

Windows or Macs?

Did someone whisper “Linux”?

Creating A Domain Name on GoDaddy.com

How to use GoDaddy.com to find and create your own domain name.

I often take for granted the fact that I’ve purchased nearly 100 domains over the past few years from GoDaddy.com. To me it comes as second nature of what to do when I realize that my precious, beloved domain name that I knew only I had thought of before was taken.

I get all excited about the name, press the keys on my keyboard as quickly as I can and then I hit “Go” and then I see the Big Red X “Domain Name Is Already Taken”.

Oh, what to do?

If you want to see some tips on selecting a domain name that is take or if you have never registered for your own domain name before, then watch this quick video.

Hostgator.com review - Things you must consider in a web host

Choosing the right company to host your website very important, especially if you are trying to make a living online selling your products and services. The worst thing in the world would be to have your website go down right before having a big product launch and you can’t get anyone on the phone to help get the website back online.

Each web hosting company is going to offer some combination of either Widows or Linux servers to physically run the website. For those who want to read all the technical details, please go to HostGator and read the details until your heart is content or until your brain explodes. The main thing we want is a company that offer all the features that we desire and that can quickly respond to issues when they arise.

Web hosting these days is almost a commodity, so don’t buy purely on price.

I’ve reviewed many web hosting companies in the past and in this review I’m going to be looking specifically at HostGator.com. Hostgator is hosting something like 1.8 million domains on its servers. HostGator started its operations in 2002, with three servers. In less than a decade’s time it has achieved the distinction of being in the “Top 10 in the World” list last year.

So from a skeleton crew, HostGator today has more than 200 employees serving their clients. HostGator is a perhaps the first in its class to go green. It buys 130 per cent of its power consumption from renewable energy resources. According to their website, this translates to saving 5654 barrels of oil and protecting 554 acres of forest.

So how does it reflect on the customer of HostGator?

It reflects their commitment to social responsibility and by the same token the professional comment of HostGator.

Pricing Plans:
For all those who think that hosting a domain costs piles of money, you couldn’t be more wrong. HostGator services are super affordable. For less than the cost of a large Starbucks Coffee, you can get started with a Hatchling plan costing less than $5 a month.

Site Builder:

For those who are not familiar or comfortable with html or writing code HostGator offers the services of a Site builder facility and best of all, it’s free. It is an online application with a hundreds of templates. One can choose a template and configure it. One could always edit and customize it with content. With preview enabled, one could test the website in real time how the site looks and feels on line.

Hosting Features
HostGator offers almost unlimited disk space with unlimited bandwidth. What does it mean? It means that if you are going to be creating video’s, then you can store those file right on your own web server and not have to be dependent upon some other company to house those for you or to have to pay someone else to store those.

Unlimited disk space means HostGator can allocate you as much space as you want at a reasonable price. You can have 100’s of pages of dynamic content without affecting the the performance or imposing constraints on others using the service.

Similarly unlimited bandwidth. This will prove to be very important because streaming video takes up a lot of bandwidth. With HostGator you can just forget about it and focus on being creative and providing value to your customers.

Help line (24*7*365):
All said and done there are bound to be times when one would need some technical support on the site and HostGator support is always available. In fact they have a LIVE CHAT on the site, which I put to the test to see how knowledgeable they were and how quickly they were able to response. All one has to to do is log into the chat and it should not take much for their support team to be there to help you. One need not wait for an email or generate a ticket or fill in forms and submit or go to a forum to post it. Help is always available right there when it is needed.

What’s been your experience with your hosting company?

Do they respond when you need them the most?

Feel free to share your horror stories as well.

How To Use Twitter And Find Targeted Followers

On Thursday, 16th of April 2009, aplusk became the number one user of Twitter, the micro blogging social networking site.  There are more than 1,000,000 people following him on Twitter.

Twitter helps you keep in touch with others. There are people who use it to say just such basic things as “hello” to others.   The New York Times finds it a good tool as well and uses it to send out its news updates.

Believe it or not even the President of USA, Barack Obama uses it to share information.  Twitter has become much more than a fad, it’s becoming highly main-stream with many companies, charitable organizations and not so famous individuals (like me :-)).

How do I become a member on Twitter?

It’s really very Simple!

Get on to Internet and visit Twitter.com.  Register for free, that is if you do not have an account yet.  Login in and complete your profile.  Now you have a home page with your name in the url something like http://twitter.com/your_name (in my case chris_langston).  Now you are ready to begin the fun by sending your first Tweet.

A Tweet is a micro blog post or a status update that you type in the “web box” on Twitter.  It looks like the picture below. It always keeps asking, “what are you doing?” Your answer to that is a “tweet”.

The “140” number you see there to the left of the web box  is the maximum number of characters that you can type into that “web box”.  The minute you start typing in this text box the number updates itself, informing you instantly the number of characters that you have remaining. Click on the update button and your tweet joins the millions
out there.  Go ahead and try it.

How do you find followers?

On your home page on the top right corner, you will find a tab “find people”.  Click on the tab and you have four options where you can invite others from your own mailing contacts, others on other networks, or else you can invite sending them email.

Twitter automatically informs you of others whom you might like to add to your list.

A click on their profiles lands you on their home pages.  The home page has a profile image box with the legend “follow”.  Click on the follow and you become a follower.  It is a norm in the Twitter world - one who is followed, always returns with a follow you gesture.

You can also search in the search box on your home page.  Type the name of  a person or a hobby or a business entity and Twitter provides you with real time results.  You can pick and choose. You can begin the adventure of tweeting and become a part of an other world where you will always find some one to follow and you will always find some following you.

So What Techniques works best for your to find people to follow?  Feel free to share below.

Happy Tweeting!

Internet Marketers of Georgia (IMOG) Inaugural meeting

What do you think the response would be if you were to ask a group of people to have a mid-week get together to talk about the internet and marketing?

I forgot to mention that the weather would also be perfect for sitting outside on the patio and sipping a beverage of choice (mine was a mojito on this night of nights). To answer the question, I don’t know the exact number but I’d say there was at least 30+ folks there.

The topic for discussion was “Social Media” and was presented by Joey Smith as well.

You can see the video that I shot here (please excuse the quality)

What was the take away from the meeting? Embrace and utilize social media in all aspects of your business.

I had to break the video up into 3 parts to get around YouTubes 10 minute max length, so you’ll have to click on each file to play them.

Social Media Part 1

Get your social media on and get it NOW! The main areas identified were the usual suspects:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Myspace
• Linked In
• your own personal blog

Note that this list can be exhausting and I know that we’ve just scratched the surface here with this list, but I think you get the general idea.

Social Media Part 2

Social Media Part 3