Elizabeth was looking for something that would allow us to actually set the time she was available – opposed to the times she was not available. Let me tell you, not too easy to do with some of the other online schedulers out there. Remembering Sarah’s suggestion a few months back, I decided to give Time Driver a try.

Wowzer! This system was a piece of cake!!! Love it. It allowed me to quickly and easily set up a specific group of times for Elizabeth that she is available for coaching – and then assigns a url for us to use in sending out to her clients for them to schedule. And, they offer a 90-day trial and does not require a credit card. Who does that anymore? Not 30 but 90 days…nice! And, get this. If you like it, after 90 days the cost is only $29.95 for an entire year!

The only thing I found a bit confusing at first was that Time Driver tries to be “smart” and uses the timezone that is set in your computer settings. So for me, as a VA, I wanted to set these times up for Elizabeth as Eastern, but I am in the pacific time zone. Once I figured out how it worked, I simply adjusted the times I entered to be pacific – and made a note to her clients that the times shown on the calendar were specific to those set up in their own computer system.

So far so good. I will continue to use it during the 90 day trial and continue to evaluate. If you use this, I would love to hear your comments and reviews!

To Your Online Success,
Amber

Amber

The answer is yes -  because not only are you able to post your articles for free but you get to reach a specific audience that is interested in your product or service.

Article marketing can help your business the minute you submit these to different article directories. If these are approved for posting, people will be able to visit your site or may want to get in touch with you as they click the link or look at the resource box.

The resource box is the key to this success and it is usually found at the bottom of the web page. Here, you can add your name, website and email and a brief paragraph about what you do and who you help.

If your article had a significant impact on the reader and they would like to post your article in their websites, they can do so which means more people will be able to see your work without you having to do anything.

Articles that are posted in directories usually ask you for keywords so this can easily be found when someone visits the site. These keywords are also given to search engines so if people type it in, your article will also appear and they will be able to view it.

She also asked me, “is article marketing better than conventional print publications?” Again, tThe answer is yes because people will easily find your article by typing in some keywords. Print publication on the other hand is difficult because you will have to browse through how many back issues of newspapers and magazines just to find it.

Need help with this, contact me

Amber

With the emergence of the RSS technology, you can patch up various websites in your blog. And when these sites get updated, it will all be reflected in your blog! A nice and easy way to add fresh information instantly!

How does this technology work? Here are some pieces of information regarding the collection of RSS feeds that are relevant to your web logs.

How do I start getting RSS feeds?

IN the same way that web browsers enable you to check web sites, an application will allow you to check updates on other’s website via RSS feeds. And that application happens to be an RSS Feed Reader.

What are the advantages of RSS feed readers?

RSS feed readers scan specified sites that you are subscribed to. When new articles or files are uploaded, the RSS feed reader will publish a list of new items.

Here is where the advantages set in. RSS feed users save time and effort in checking updates. Since new pieces of information are compiled, it takes smaller storage space. And you do not have to see the whole web site, or hop from site to site to get updated.

And in the field of blogging, one does not have to update blogs very often. If you know credible sites that offer wonderful information, you can just patch these sites to their blog. And voila! You now have instant contents.

All it takes is checking the list of updated information!

What are the commendable RSS readers to use?

- Pluck

Aside from being an RSS feed reader, it offers a lot of tools to make content searching, sharing, retrieving and organizing easier. But the nicest thing about Pluck is it is absolutely free!

- FeedDemon

FeedDemon is an independent RSS feed reader that can be purchased for just $29.95 dollars.

A trial version that can be used for 20 days can also be downloaded.

- Newsgator

Newsgator is an add-on feature to Microsoft Outlook. It enables users to organize news feeds like an email. This is available for $29.00. You can also try it, free of charge, for 14 days.

How do I choose RSS feeds for my blog?

Pieces of information that can be considered list-oriented are good options for RSS feeds.

You actually determine what pieces of information would be relevant to your blog site. Once you have determined what sites must be included in your blog site, all you have to do is to subscribe to that web site’s RSS feed.

One way to find RSS feeds would be checking out RSS directory sites:

- Sindic8

This has been acclaimed by SearchEngineWatch as a major RSS feeds directory.  This has been made possible by thousands of volunteers and contributors that provide RSS links to the database.

- Daypop

If you are looking for fresh information, then this is the RSS feed directory site that you have to go to. All items featured in the site are assured to be current events.

How do I subscribe to an RSS feed?

You will determine what web sites you will be subscribing to. It all depends in your desired content for your blog.

You can use the RSS feed reader tools to locate content providers for your site. Or you may also locate these RSS feeds in the content provider website. Usually, the RSS feed link is defined by an orange button, with XML or RSS tag.

You can also locate the XML data in your web browser, copy it in a clipboard, and add it in the RSS feed reader. (Just follow the instructions provided in your RSS feed reader on how to add RSS feed.) Once added, the RSS feed reader will check updates from that site regularly.

Now that you know the basics of collecting RSS feeds as well as some credible RSS feed resources and RSS feed reader, I am pretty sure that your web log will never be outdated!