The minute we stop changing is the minute that we fall behind. Adapting is a very important ability to have. Most of us don’t like changes. We get comfortable and when we find things has changed, we tend to panic because we have become used to the way things were. Life is short, change is good, until the end of time. Tupac was one who understood that resisting change would eventually cause society to eventually accept change.

Change can sometimes be a lonely road, but breaking the cycle from everyday life is sometimes critical to emotional well being. Logo designs change, website ownerships change, places change. Make the most of it, accept it, and learn from it!

Creating a killer LinkedIn headline and an exceptional summary are half the battle as whether we are job seekers or seeking to build a business, the additional information on our profile that starts with the “blue box,” begins to play a stronger role. Your headline and summary are your searched terms but once appearing in search results, a connection is made after review of your basic information is reviewed.

The Linkedin “Blue Box”

The LinkedIn blue box is what is seen first when your profile is clicked. Your name, headline, location and industry are displayed at the top. Thereafter, the information displayed is what makes networkers want to connect with you or move on to someone else. The items displayed beneath this basic information is some of the most  important as people want to know what you bring to their network – whether that be an alumni connection, a job connection or shared information.

8 Tips to Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile

1. Status Updates. Your status update is displayed immediately beneath your basic information. Status updates have become increasingly popular with the LinkedIn integration with Twitter. Automating posts from twitter to post on LinkedIn has been used extensively but not widely accepted. Different audiences. Your LinkedIn status is business and not what you ate for dinner, where you went or how your children are destroying the house. Be selective on what you share in your status but be sure to update at least 1x per day to show that you are an active networker.

2. Current Employer. Your current employment is what stands out when people are looking for people within their industry to connect with, are looking for a referral to do business with OR want to cross check your resume. Your most recent experience needs to match your headline and summary. If you are job seeking your opening paragraph of your summary will reflect that however the body should match your career aspirations and your experience.

3. Past Employment. Your past employment is where some get queasy. A position that you only held for a few months or admitting that you worked for a company that was an “in-between” job is never pleasant however long gaps are almost worse. Adding your previous employment for 5 to 10 years (up to 10 years only if it relates to longevity in a field) not only shows that you are employable but that you are eager to work (also can show that you jump around). This is also a great way to connect with coworkers that you have lost touch with. Also, remember, beneath the blue box you can add information about each position you held and your role in the company. Suddenly that “in between” job may have a whole lot more meaning than just paying the rent.

4. Education. Your education in the blue box is not much more than where you attended. This is pretty much letting people know that you did further your education and also for an alumni connection. Beneath the blue box allows you to expand upon your your degree, years of attendance, additional information about the school and activities you participated in.

5. Recommendations. Your recommendations are highly regarded as people want to see that you are well liked, trusted and respected within your industry. When seeking employment or trying to build a business, your recommendations are taken into consideration as if you have performed well for others, then you will perform well for them. The question always arises as to whether ask for the recommendation or to wait for it to be provided. This is never an easy question as some do not think to give a recommendation as they are either not as active on LinkedIn or are unsure as to what to say. Best practice is to consider the person that you would be asking. Have they freely given out recommendations with out being asked or from your experience with them, do they need that nudge?

6. Websites. Websites is set to the default of my website, my company, my blog, my RSS, my portfolio and other. The option of other allows you to add your actual company name for the website and the name of your blog. A common mistake made by many is not changing the default. Changing the default to Other and customizing your links not only introduces the names but also provides a familiarity to them.

7. Twitter. Since the development of the app and the integration with Twitter, you can add your  Twitter account as a separate line item. Cross connecting is always encouraged however cross posting, as discussed above, is not always welcomed and generally warrants a “hide” of your profile. Why? People share items that are now always LinkedIn worthy. Best bet is to set your LinkedIn Twitter to “Share only tweets that contain #li”. This way you can hashtag your tweets of an article, a quote, etc to be posted on your status.

8. Public Profile. Your public profile is customizable to your name or something of the like should your name be a common one. This is another common mistake that people make by not creating a custom profile. Your custom profile does not contain a series of. For example, your custom profile would be: www.linkedin.com/in/yournamehere and not www.linkedin.com/pub/name/seriesofnumbers. To customize, simply click edit and create your profile name when prompted.

The LinkedIn blue box does pack a powerful punch as before connecting, this is the main exposure people have to you and base their decision to connect from this initial information. If your profile blue box snippet peaks their interest, they will scroll down to review your summary, expanded work history and education. If not, they move on. LinkedIn CEO’s contact information is one of the most sought after executives.

The way we determine how many emails were opened is by embedding an tiny invisible image into your HTML message. Each time this image is ‘downloaded’ from the server another email open is counted.

So what about text emails? Not counted. What about email clients where the ‘images’ are turned off? Not counted. What about filters that prevent images from displaying? Not counted. Starting to see why our email open rate isn’t exactly a 100% accurate measure? On the other side of the table we have some emails shown as open because of the email client’s preview pane. The image is requested so the email is considered open even though the subscriber may simply delete it from there.

So what’s a marketer to do? Continue on I guess. It’s just statistics. Get a great email auto-responder, build your list, promote your products and build relationships. As for the Extreme Ezine, I’ll work on increasing our open rates as well as the click throughs. Eventually I may still think of a tactic to dump the dead weight but in the mean time we’re pushing forward. Any thoughts on the matter? Do you have a list?

No disclaimer required: You will find my affiliate link in the article above for AWeber. I’ve been using AWeber exclusively and it’s one of my top recommended products. Even though I can gain financially should you use my affiliate link, the truth is I would recommend AWeber without a financial incentive.

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Seriously, I need to get those pages back up and the way I see it I have about 45 days before the next update. I think I’m going to make another test of it because that’s what us geeks do. I’m going to use blog commenting to bring my Friend’s Page up and other link strategies to bring up the page rank on our photo gallery. I’m not sure about the other pages yet. Now I’m talking about pages her, no blog posts. Any ideas?

I left over thirty blog comments so far today using http://extremeezine.com/friends/ as the URL. The first blogs I commented on was everyone on that page. Are you listed there? See Are You A Blogging Friend To The Extreme Ezine? Get On The List!

Any suggestions other than the linking that I’m already doing to get out of the nasty Google PageRank n/a club?

One more thing that has bothered me for a while. Sheryl from the Blog Co-Op brought it to my attention. My pages and older posts, INCLUDING my index page are not cached by Google. I have no idea why, how to fix it or if it’s even important. Do you?

Speaking about the Blog Co-op they also joined the n/a club. Brad and Sheryl are the very best of people and they go WAY out of their way to help others. I’m going to link to their forum, The Internet Marketers Guild, and the Blog Co-op from my front page and it would be great if some of you would too. The entire reason for the Co-op is to help bloggers like us. I think giving back a little is the least we can do.

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So here we go… For what it’s worth, I’m going to prove that Google does index some blog comments. It doesn’t show that any weight or authority is being attributed to blog comments but they are often indexed. I suspect many of you, if not most of you, already know this but it seems to be a recent debate. This doesn’t show that any weight or authority is attributed to the content or links attached.

My scientific experiment is flawless and precise NOT. I have a Google alert setup for my name, of course, and I see my comments showing up in the alerts all of the time. Yesterday I commented on John Sullivan’s blog. Below you can see a print screen of the Google alert from my comment on his post My Real Agenda.

Now lets take a unique string from that Google Alert and blog comment:
“The funnest statement I’ve heard in a long time:”

I also used that exact sentence when I Tweeted the post and sent it to Facebook. If you take that sentence, put it in “quotes” and Google it, you get one result (at the time of this post). Can you guess what Google indexed? Facebook, Twitter or my comment on John’s Blog?

I thought it interesting enough to share. Now let me have it. I’m a big boy, I can take it lol I wonder if this post will eventually come up in that same search? Fingers are crossed.

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The first thing I did was run a few tests. I compared the Extreme Ezine with a few other sites and it wasn’t pretty. I ran five (5) tests in a row using iWebTool.com’s Website Speed Test. You can see the complete results here but here are the averages:

Domain name      Size      Average Load Time

http://csc4u.com/ 9.73 KB     0.39 seconds (basic HTML site)
http://kikolani.com/ 40.27 KB     0.77 seconds (Thesis Theme)
http://www.dailyblogtips.com/ 25.53 KB     0.92 seconds
http://www.copyblogger.com/ 28.11 KB     0.99 seconds (Thesis Theme)
http://www.dennisedell.com/ 21.13 KB     1.77 seconds (not complete)
http://www.problogger.net/ 52.04 KB     1.23 seconds
http://thatsrightisaidit.com/ 41.28 KB        4.23 seconds (micro-blog)
http://wassupblog.com/ 85.33 KB     5.12 seconds
http://www.youradtracker.com/ 27.63 KB     5.26 seconds
http://extremeezine.com/              52.55 KB       5.44 seconds

As you can see the Extreme Ezine came in dead last (with our previous theme). Just by choosing a lighter and cleaner theme we were able to cut the load time in half to 2.72 seconds. That’s still too slow so now comes the work of cleaning up the code and dropping a few plugins. My expertise is very limited in this area so I may need to hire a pro.

I like the clean look and it seems easier to navigate. I will miss a few lost features but we can’t have it all. I’m still trying to get a decent photo gallery plugin working. I love the photo gallery running on ExtremeJohn.com but I can’t get it working for some reason. Hopefully we’ll see those promotional button pics rotating soon.

What are your thoughts about the change and new look? Is load time a big factor to you? Go ahead, I can take it

A quick note about the Thesis Theme: Kristi of Kikolani kicked everyone’s tail with respect to load time in my test. She’s using the Thesis Theme (her affiliate link). I ran a separate test with five sites (Kikolani.com, ChrisBrogan.com, CopyBlogger.com, SugarRae.com and LaughingSquid.com) that are using the Thesis Theme. I ran the test five (5) times and ended up with an average speed of 1.4 seconds with all the sites. That’s very impressive so I think I’ll end up using the Thesis Theme in the end.

Anyone that has spent more than an hour on YouTube knows how cool many of the videos are. They also know how lame most of them are. The great ones go viral and that’s exactly what HornBlasters.com has achieved.

I found a pretty funny YouTube video the other day through a tweet by John Sullivan @jsinkeywest. It’s Train Horns Scare Daytona Florida! [below] by Matt Landon Heller of HornBlasters.com Matt has many YouTube videos, several with around half a million views. The video below alone has over 440,000 views, 860 ratings (4 1/2 stars) and 853 comments. Can it get more viral than that? Driving traffic to their site to sell product – that’s what I’m talking about! I love this stuff. My hat’s off to YouTube Viral Marketing at it’s best and HornBlasters.com. I am now a big fan.

HornBlasters on Facebook
HornBlasters on Twitter

HornBlasters.com Train Horns For Your Ride!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGYcnYLK_50

Before you watch the commercial let me point something out. In the first 24 seconds (the part with the model) you actually only see the product (EasyTone sneakers) for about one second. Reebok knows what product to focus on and it’s not the sneakers. It’s not even the legs.

Having only a man’s perspective, if even just one man’s, I wonder what woman think of the ad. Here’s what my friend Sheryl Loch had to say about it, “I saw that commercial last night & wondered if they could help me. Do you think I could sleep in those shoes & wake with a firm butt?” That just goes to show you, men and woman sometimes think along the same lines lol

I don’t know how effective Reebok’s EasyTone shoe commercials are but I like them. They will no doubt offend a few people but that’s ok as long as the message makes it’s mark. What is the message? That’s easy, “Better legs and a better butt with every step“. Wasn’t you paying attention

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCHKXICefFw

I’ve been a member of The Keyword Academy for a little over two months now and I’ve been able to turn what I’ve learned there into profit. There have been very few products I’ve been able to make that statement about. I HIGHLY recommend this program!

The Keyword Academy is a paid membership site that teaches everything from keyword research to AdSense site building using a step-by-step approach with videos and other tools. Run by Court Tuttle and Mark Butler, TKA is hands down the most important step I have taken to advance my understanding of AdSense, keywords, link building, niche websites and judging the competition. Yes, all the things we think we know as Internet Marketers. There’s always room for learning and this is certainly proof of that.

Mark and Court teach EVERY detail needed using video, transcripts, tutorials, webinars, Q&A sessions, a blog and an awesome forum.

Here’s the deal: The Keyword Academy costs $33 per month and you can try your first month for just $1. If you are still struggling to make a profit online you need this. A dollar isn’t much to risk to try it out but I’m going to make completely risk free for you…

Sign up with my affiliate link and watch the core videos. If you don’t think it was worth the investment, cancel before the first thirty days and I will refund your dollar personally. Enough said, try The Keyword Academy for just $1 dollar today.

Earl Braxton is also the president of the Michigan-based Pharmaceuticals.org where he, with no formal research training, developed a system to recover medicines from waste and preventing them from entering our water systems, a patented process that can easily isolate many over-the-counter and prescription drugs from urine. Mr. Braxton seen the need and a business opportunity for such a process back in 1991 simply by watching a doctor dispose of a needle.

Interview with Earl Braxton, Porta John’s founder and president of Porta John Systems.

(EE): You own the brand ‘Porta John®‘ which, according to Google, is searched for 1300 times a month. Your site, Toilets.com is at the number one position in the search results. How were you able build such a strong brand that the name in itself became the industry standard?

(Earl Braxton): “We average 21,000 page views per day.”

(EE): It looks as if you have owned the domain Toilets.com since 1997. Were you the first to register that remarkable domain or did you purchase it.

(Earl Braxton): “We were the first to register this and many other related domains.”

(EE): I understand you own well over a thousand domains acquired as far back as the nineties. How did you have the insight to build your domain portfolio?

(Earl Braxton): “Yes, we do own many domain names. We will use these Internet Addresses in the preparation to franchise and license our business model.”

(EE): There is a rumor that you had a little run in with the late Johnny Carson, TV talk show host. Would you care to elaborate?

(Earl Braxton): “We were sued by John W. Carson regarding our trademark “Here’s Johnny” and lost on the right to publicity claim by the late Mr. Carson.”

“Mr. Carson subsequently abandoned all “Here’s Johnny” trademarks for use on portable sanitation units and we applied and received the trademark, “Here’s Johnny” from the United States patent office. The Estate of John W. Carson has opposed the issuance of the Trademark to me. I am currently awaiting the decision of the Trademark Office.”

(EE): What forms of online advertising do you use, if any, to drive traffic to your site and what do you find is most effective?

(Earl Braxton): “We have been receiving E-mails and phone calls from all over the world for more than ten years at a rate that is very gratifying.  We are now preparing to expand our manufacturing plant to meet the demand for our new proprietary Comfort Station products.”

(EE): You have run roadside billboards with the single word ‘Toilets.com’ as the entire ad. This has been coined a “marketing masterpiece”. What gave you the idea to use such a simplistic approach for that campaign and what were the results?

(Earl Braxton): “My good fortune was to have been alive and in business during the onset of the Internet Era.  This is a marketing gift of titanic proportions.  If any business can take advantage of this phenomenon and fails to do so “Shame on Them”.”

(EE): Most men of your generation have never been online or have used a computer. You are using up to four computers at a time in any given moment. Have you always been open to changes and new trends.

(Earl Braxton): “My good fortune was to be blessed with a wife, friends, co-workers and  family members who let me do my own thing from the very beginning.”

(EE): Your portable toilet company ships worldwide. I understand you have shipped hundreds of portable toilets to Iraq. How difficult was it to break into the global market?

(Earl Braxton): “Until the advent of the Internet it was very difficult.  Now it is much easier if you make products that meet the customers’ requirements.”

“Since 12/01/06 we have sold products in all 50 States, 3 Commonwealth Territories and 33 countries.”

(EE): You have many registered trademarks and patents. What advice would you give up and coming entrepreneurs in regard to obtaining their first patent or registering a trademark?

(Earl Braxton): “Make sure your concept satisfies a need.  The best person to get your money from is your customer because you don’t have to pay it back.”

(EE): One last question. You have had the foresight to recognize new trends and the confidence to act on them. What do you see coming next? What’s the next big trend we should watch for?

(Earl Braxton): “There is a trend toward eliminating portable toilets for safer and cleaner sanitation stalls.  Thus we have received patent #6721697 for our Comfort Station that has no waste storage in the lavatory stall, no chemicals and no steps for greater handicapped accessibility.”

“Time may be running out for the ubiquitous portable toilet. Our latest E-mail exchange with the Center For Disease Control can be seen here.“