Remabulous

My guest post for Web Marketing Therapy!

Hi All...

I am very excited to share the post that I wrote for Web Marketing Therapy's website. The fabulous and fun Lorrie Thomas was kind enough to invite me to write for them so I thought I'd share the link over to the result....

Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday.

Funny Friday: Thank you Ramit Sethe for this video.

I have recently discovered www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com. Author Ramit Sethe gives great tips for being financially savvy. He has a new book out, too, the same title as the site. I have been doing a lot of posting about budgeting and getting close to what real luxury is for you. The urge lately has been to be frugal and to pinch pennies. Ramit has a great take on the topic. And as I make myself re-evaluate my life if I am not laughing enough, I just had to share this video:

Self-Care: Ways to keep it going in a tricky time.

One of the ways I have always taken care of myself is by going to yoga class. But between moving, having to find a new studio, and trying to economize during this time, I haven't been for a while. After spending six weeks sick in bed, it has felt a bit daunting to get back into a class.

So... in the interest of encouraging people to find ways to keep up soothing and grounding rituals, I have found the most amazing free resource: yoga downloads, a free yoga podcast. Friends of mine had recommended it, so I downloaded a gentle hatha class from iTunes and decided to give it a try this morning.

I have never been a big fan of yoga videos- I can't seem to connect with them, but for some reason this was totally different. I streamed it from my computer to my stereo and laid out my much neglected mat in the middle of the living room and did the 25 minute class and loved it.

The only challenge was dealing with my cat Oskar's (pictured above)tendency to jump up on me- he can reach my shoulders- and use me as a jungle gym during warrior poses. But still- real life is grist for the mill.

I certainly still advocate going to a real class- especially if you are new to yoga as getting form correct is essential to avoid injury. But for those of you who want to do yoga more often or at home, this podcast is a must try.

Your customer service MUST rock in this economy.

That pretty much sums up my entire sentiment in this post. But, I have a couple of anecdotes that will help convince you if you aren't already on board:

In the past week I have heard two stories of very bad customer service:

• A friend who was accused of stealing a gift card from the 99 cent store when a computer error did not register the amount she had put on it when she bought it for her mom. Instead of her mom getting to buy fun treats with the card, they were both treated to an unfair lecture on stealing. My friend is a lawyer for a non-profit. She wants to help the world. The 99 cent store got in the way.
• Another friend wanted to try the free week promotion at a gym. They dug through their computer and found that she had been a member of a different branch 5 YEARS PREVIOUSLY. They threatened her as well and tried to make her buy a day rather than enjoying a week of the gym on their promotion, which might have encouraged her to join again.

By contrast, I ordered a microphone adapter for my iPod touch from a little company called Touch Mic (http://touchmic.com/). When I had a question about the product, they responded quickly with great information. But their customer service turned out to be nothing short of a miracle...

What's the big deal about GTD?

Lately, the fancy web term seems to be GTD. As those of us who play around on the web know, it is a world of acronyms. And as someone who only recently realized that natch was short for naturally, I thought I might take the time here to demystify GTD for the rest of us.

First things first: GTD= Getting Things Done, a term that was pioneered by productivity and business coach David Allen in his book of the same name.

Even though the term is Allen's, as is made clear by the registered mark after every title of his workshops and products, it's become quite a buzzword outside his realm as well- specifically as related to productivity planning and software.

Since I am a big proponent of taking the bull by the horns in terms of brainstorming, organizing and charging ahead procrastination-free, I wanted to give some time to these elements of GTD, complete with my spin on the philosophy as well as sharing my favorite software for this process.

This is the time to start thinking about what things you want to get done in 2009, so why not set up a system that helps you do just that? Let's get started...

image:  "Post-it To-Do 2.0" by rintakumpu

Comic Relief on Deadly Shopping Friday

I spent this Friday morning sleeping in. It felt rather rebellious to sleep through all the crazy sales that started, in some cases, as early as 4am. What a treat to have a relaxing morning and enjoy some salmon and bagels at my favorite spot in Baltimore, Greg's bagels. I've written about it before, so if you need to know why I love Greg's, please read my old post.

This weekend, I am enjoying having some fun time with my family. That has increasingly become a time when my brother and I swap funny websites we have found. His latest discovery, Fail Blog, is a goldmine. So many times we are afraid to move forward on projects and ideas for fear of failing. I think a trip to this blog will assure you that you are safe from disaster at the level these events have created. Here is my favorite that I found this morning:
Have a fun weekend, and remember to relax and enjoy some time to recharge!

The wish list: dealing with blogging as it balloons from micro to macro.

Recently, I got involved in a discussion over at Gwen Bell's site about what has happened to blogging as a medium. Essentially, a medium that started as online journaling has exploded to become the new online journalism. It's only natural that there would be some growing pains.

So what needs to change in order to accommodate this new growth? Any good business needs to be prepared for success. A blog is, in many ways, like a business in this way since, even if you're just doing it for fun, dealing with an active blog can be quite overwhelming when it suddenly takes off. Both times I've been to BlogHer, I have heard people bemoaning the fact that they now can't respond to all their comments and e-mails, because there simply aren't enough hours in the day, whether they are full-time professional bloggers or if they are working another job during the 9 to 5 week.

I set out to make a wish list of features that blogging needs to now have inorder to make room for all this new attention, but realized that something else entirely is at stake.

image: kevindooley via flickr.

How to say thank you to those sites and people that matter.

There has been quite a flurry of commentary on twitter and on sites about Seth Godin's idea that clicking on ads for sites and blogs you read is a way to say thank you. Given the amount of response this created, from tweets about how he'd gotten it all wrong, to alternative commentary on the idea, it is clear that online advertising revenue as well as supporting those who create online content is a hot topic right now.

Since Seth has since published a clarification post, I'll let that stand as his thought on the matter and take this a step further: if clicking on ads isn't the right way to support and thank bloggers, writers, and web experts, what is?

Here are the thank you options I have discovered that do acknowledge and support the content that you love, without the tricky pitfalls. I thank Seth for opening the discussion on the topic and for taking a risk with his idea... this is the way we move forward!

image: jcbonbon via flickr.