Ok, so I’ve committed to the next 30-day blog challenge. This time it’s conducted/hosted/facilitated by Dr. Jeanette Cates.  This challenge is starting in less than one month (!!!) after the one by Connie Ragen Green ended.

I think some of the Fab 50 (completers of the last challenge) are now strategizing how to complete the 2nd challenge to make it even more beneficial for their business. There were so many lessons learned – especially ones about the importance of commitment, accountability, support, encouragement, community and the simple fact that we could do it!

Sure, there are plenty of people who blog every single day, multiple times a day. But they of course wouldn’t need a 30-day blog challenge now, would they?  You enter a challenge because that’s what it is – a challenge – a demanding test of your abilities and strengths. If you blog everyday already, then writing 30 posts in 30 days is child’s play for you.  For those of us who write fewer than 30 posts in a year, it’s a totally different story!

Anyway, all that to say, you will know whether the 30-day blog challenge is right for you, you will know if it’s the right time.  I hope you feel that this is the right time and you will join us starting June 1. If you don’t think you can do it, there are going to be at least 50 people (see, I’m assuming all the Fab 50 will be re-entering the challenge on June 1) that will show you that you can!

This time we’re going to have regular meetings and training and a fabulous new member directory all thanks to Dr. Cates and Connie (who apparently nagged her to do it LOL).

So, if you are running your business online, please click here to join us for the 30-Day Blogging Challenge from June 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010!

I got one of the new Android phones. I feel like Android is such a big step up from the Windoze Mobile phone I have. But the really cool thing is this free WordPress app for Android. Its allowing me to make this post from my phone…

I admit I wrote the above back in March when I first bought my phone. This post has been sitting in “drafts” on my phone all that time because I could never figure out how to post it. Well apparently it was a bug in the WordPress mobile app. I just installed the updated version and now I should be able to post…we shall soon see.

Are you using a mobile app to update your blog? Would you ever consider doing so?

Here’s a product idea for you.  Create an “Everything You Need to Know About…” for you niche. Think about everything someone would want to know about your topic, field, process, strategy, technique, situation, problem, etc.

On Amazon.com I found the following:

• Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two
• Everything You Need to Know About the World and How it Works Science Book
• Everything You Need to Know About Setting Up a Bedroom Studio
• Everything You Need to Know About Enzymes
• Everything You Need to Know About Bird Watching
• Everything You Need to Know About Starting to Play Bass
• Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System

As the author of the product, “everything you need to know” of course depends on what you think everything is. However, as a buyer, I’m really going to assume you are telling me EVERYTHING I need to know.  So you may want to approach it by really targeting in on your topic.  For example, you might not want to write “Everything You Need to Know About Fish”, instead “Everything You Need to Know About Setting Up a Saltwater Aquarium in Your Home.”

So, what do you know everything about?

I want to share with you five FREE screen recording sites that let you record video of your screen and upload to YouTube.  You might want to convert some of your blog posts or articles to video or create a presentation on  your topic. You might even want to add short videos to a long blog post to help explain better.  Each of these will allow you to either directly upload your videos to YouTube from the site, or allow you to download it and upload it from within your YouTube account.

1. The first is ScreenJelly.com ScreenJelly allows you to record up to 3 minutes. This is a perfect length for shorter articles or demos.  Don’t worry you can squeeze a lot into 3 minutes.  Plus your video will be straight and to the point and your viewers won’t get bored.
2. The second is Jingproject.com This site is brought to you by TechSmith, the people who create Camtasia Studio.  If you have seen any video by an internet marketer before, then you are familiar with Camtasia!  Very popular tool to create video course, software demos and more. Jing allows you to record up to 5 minutes of video. The file format is .swf for the free version so you can’t upload it to YouTube. But if you use the Pro version you can publish in MP4 format which will allow upload to YouTube –  but guess what?  Pro is only $14.95 per YEAR!
3. The third is ScreenToaster.com This site allows you to record a video of your screen of any length, as long as its under 20 MB.  There is a button right inside your account that allows you to upload directly to YouTube.
4. The fourth is Screenr.com Don’t get confused that they describe themselves as Screencasts for Twitter.  They talk a lot about tweeting your video but that just means there is a url-shortener built-in once your video is recorded so you can quickly tweet it to your followers.  But you also have an option of uploading directly to YouTube as well. You can record up to 5 mins with Screenr.
5. The fifth is  Screencast-o-Matic.com Don’t be turned off by the confusing look of this site. It has the best features! This site allows you to record your video and upload to YouTube as well. But you can also download your video to your computer in MP4, AVI or FLV format allowing you to have videos of a higher quality.  And even better you can record up to 15 minutes of video!

Please don’t forget to share your videos with me and let me know which site you used to create them!

When creating your product and it seems to be getting a little text-heavy, think about how you can use graphic organizers to make sense out the content you are writing.  This does not mean making your text upside down or into funny shapes or swirling figures (although in some cases this can work out well!).

You use graphic organizers to help you explain what you are talking about. They help your reader to better classify or organize all of the information that you are teaching them.  So what are some examples?

Headings and Sub-heading: I always talk about headings and sub-headings. Those are two very common types of organizers.  Use them help you to split up information into to smaller chunks.

Tables:  Tables are a great what to help classify data into rows and columns. Having your information in rows or columns also gives your reader the ability to “look up” information in the table.

Pyramid:  If you have content that can be classified by levels or priorities try a pyramid chart. You can color each level of the chart as well, with each color having meaning.

Flowchart: If you have content that talks about something linear, or a process, then think about organizing it with a flowchart using boxes and arrows (these can get complicated so just make sure it doesn’t get confusing).

These are just a few examples, a lot depends on what you are writing about or explaining.  Sometimes you really have to just think to yourself  ”will it be easier to the reader to understand this if it’s organized in a different way?”  Sometimes it will be, sometimes it will not.  Just keep in mind that it can be a good idea to break up a lot of text with something “interesting”.

You can use graphical organizers in your ebooks, workbooks and in your presentation-type videos as well!

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I have completed Connie Ragen Green’s 30-day Blogging Challenge.  One of my challenge mates, Terrie Wurzbacher has suggested we compile a list of lessons learned.  I discussed in a previous post some of the benefits of the blogging challenge.  Today I want to list out what I’ve accomplished.

First, I setup a Facebook page and linked my blog to the Networked Blogs application. Thanks to Connie for introducing me to Networked Blogs.  With this application, my blog posts are published to my Facebook wall and is also available for others to subscribe to within Facebook.  I now have 20 followers on my Networked Blog, so  that means I can be syndicated (don’t ask me because I’m not quite sure what that means – if you can explain, please do!)

You can connect with me on Facebook:

http://facebook.com/gatanner

And my Networked Blog:

http://networkedblogs.com/blog/gwens_blog/

Second, I started using Twitter more.  Previously,  I was only tweeting blog posts when my blog was updated (before the challenge maybe once every few months!). But now I’m using it more to interact with others, and checking to see what they are tweeting about. I’ve also updated my Twitter username to GwenATanner at Connie’s suggestion.

You can connect with me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/gwenatanner

Third, and this one is most exciting, I finally setup a YouTube channel!  I figured I’d have to have my own videos created to do this. But thanks to my fellow 30-Day blogger, Deb Augur MyWebGal, I learned that I don’t need videos to start my own channel. No reason to procrastinate now.  Deb’s post made a lot of sense – use OPV (other peoples videos) to build the content in your channel. Of course I will start adding original content.

You can friend me or subscribe to my channel:

http://youtube.com/gwentanner

Fourth, here are a few other things I’ve done, just a result of being in the blog challenge:

• Joined the EzineArticles 100 Articles in 100 Days Challenge
• Committed to joining Jeanette Cates upcoming 30-Day Blogging Challenge
• Made some updates to my blog and it’s direction
• Learned how easy it really can be posting in your blog everyday
• Started connecting and being social with more people in and outside my niche
• Started bullying others to start blogging when I feel they have something important to share
• Met so many great people!  You can find them all here http://twitter.com/mywebgal/blog30-challenge and here http://twitter.com/JSinfield/blog30 or just view my comments
• Increased my Twitter followers by at least 400
• Increased traffic to my blog

But most of all, I learned that “I can do it!”  LOL

I hope everyone else who was in the challenge enjoyed it as much as I did and that you are all ready for the next one starting June 1!

Do you have a Resources page on your blog?  I’m sure you have a collection of your favorite sites, and it probably took you a very long time to collect them all. If you take a look through your bookmarks you will probably have a few that are related to the topic of your blog. If you do, why not create a Resources page for your visitors?

Many training manuals, user guides, ebooks and ecourses will typically have a Reference section or a Resource list.  These are included because they provide supplemental information to whatever is being taught.  But on the internet there’s just so much excellent, but hidden information! No one person can find them all.  Having a list of this valuable information organized and listed in one location makes your blog a resource! It’s definitely much easier to keep track of on URL on your favorite topic than 100s.

Here’s a tip: Annotate your resource list.  Add the URL, and you own personal description and review of the site. It only has to be a couple of sentences long.  As you continue to build your resource list, it will become more and more valuable – and much longer…. Et voila – you have your next info product! When you get to about 50 or 100 links, you can copy and paste them into a Word document, convert to PDF and have your very own annotated topical resource list up for sale. No writing involved!  :)  Well not much writing at once.