Exploring Web 2.0:Second Generation Interactive Tools-Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Networking, Virtual Worlds, and More
By Ann Bell Katy
Crossing Press 2009 Copyright

Web 2.0? Whatever happened to Web 1.0? For that matter what’s the difference? And even more to the point, who cares?

According to the author, Ann Bell, an Online Instructor and Course Developer For the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Web 1.0 faded away shortly after the Dot Com debacle at the beginning of the new millennium. Before that, she says, the information paradigm was “publish and browse;” the web was there to be read from, not interacted with. Today, in Web 2.0 data streams from every conceivable source are continually mixing and combining. As to who cares, knowledge, as they say, is power; any businessperson planning to make a living on the Web would be wise to pay heed to some of this stuff.

And this is a fine book for someone who wants to learn more about the Internet but doesn’t want to get bogged down in the technical morass. Author Bell doesn’t torment us estimating kilobytes or explaining domain name servers. Web 2.0, she says, depends on sharing among users, and she sets out to show us how we all can benefit from this collaboration. The chapter on RSS Feeds, for instance, gave the clearest explanation of what RSS is and how to use it of anything I’ve yet read on the subject. Information diced and sliced and delivered to your plate to suit your needs. She also gives us a list of valuable links to use in building our own RSS system.

For those of us that have always gone blazing by such nonsensical words as metadata and folksonomy, there is an interesting section explaining these terms and showing how they are important in Social Bookmarking, another system any businessperson who hopes to succeed on the net should be aware of. Are you on delicious.com yet? Good, then you understand tagging. Of course there is still Podcasting, Vodcasting and ScreenCasts, Wikis, Mashups and Virtual Office applications to be discussed.

Virtual Office applications, or cloud computing as it is called by many, is a valuable addition to any business office. Free software and free storage that is well beyond the reach of your crashed hard drive. You don’t know where to find this valuable stuff? No problem, Ms. Bell lists several of the better-known services: Google Docs, Microsoft Live Office and Zoho. (I tried Microsoft Live Office for the first time and found it overly complicated; I’m back to Google Docs.)

Some readers might find this book a bit on the light side. Ms Bell spends very little time on technical questions. Except for the section on RSS she tends to be more descriptive than helpful in using the various items she describes. But the book does serve as an excellent introduction to the new interactive resources of Web 2.0.

Boohoo describes the story of the first Internet casualty. The late nineties were the height of the Internet bubble. It was the era of venture capitalists and Internet entrepreneurs. Next to the fact that the book is a great read and gives insights to the craziness of that time the book is also an insightful read for any entrepreneur. It gives valuable lessons for starting up your own business.

About the book

At its peak boo was valued at 390 million. Boo had become a myth, a legend.

The story involves business people, the media, banks, individual investors, the Internet business and the entrepreneurs. The 130 million that was put into the company, two years of hard work, five overseas offices and 350 people of staff were not enough to make boo.com a success.



About Ernst Malmsten

Ernst Malmsten is the co-founder and CEO of boo.com. He takes the reader behind the scenes of this start-up during the great Internet hype of the late 90’s.

Malmsten wanted to tell the true story of what happened as honestly and true as possible.

What to learn from this book?

You can learn the pitfalls of becoming a hype. It shows that starting big can be a great risk. If you read this book together with “the perfect store” it gives you a good insight on how you can start your own business. I learned that starting small, let the business grow gradually and organically gives you the best opportunity to grow together with it.

If you want to start your own Internet business or just want to know more about the Internet business this book is a must read!

I just finished reading “No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for your Blog” by Margaret Maso. As a professional blogger and owner of a blog network, I try to read as much as I can about the topic of blogging. I have mixed feelings about this book, but overall I thought it was good and worth a read.

As the title suggests, this book is about ideas for new posts. If you have been blogging for over a month, you know that sometimes you experience writers block. The purpose of this resource is to help you work through that and there are great ideas and suggestions on what you can do get the creative juices flowing. The author presents her ideas in a funny and witty way that makes this book very enjoyable to read. I actually learned several things from her, and after I read the book I had 6 new ideas for new posts. With that said, I thought the book was useful and worthwhile.

My main criticism of the book is that there is not much meat to it. It is 128 pages and there is a lot of white space. This could have been condensed into 30 pages or so. It took me about 30 minutes to read the book from cover to cover.

In conclusion, I though the book was well written and useful and I would recommend it to all bloggers. I would suggest that you borrow it form the library or maybe read it in the bookstore because I do not think it is worth paying for.

never say never

I’m sure you are familiar with the great Napoleon Hill and his most famous work “Think and Grow Rich.” If you have not read this book you need to stop everything you’re doing and go read it! This booked is based on his research of predominant qualities of some of the most successful and wealthiest individuals of his time.

Today I’m going to talk about the second chapter…Desire. In this chapter Mr. Hill describes desire as The Starting Point of All Achievement. He goes on to say that it’s not a hope, want or a wish. No, it’s something much greater than that, it’s a burning desire. I’m going to try and give a couple examples of how this comes into play with the Direct Sales industry.

Everyone who decides to take the leap and join a particular company does so with the best of intentions. I talk to people in this business and other businesses who use terms like, want and wish. While these terms are again meant with the best intentions, they will always leave you with more want and wishes. It is very easy to use terms like this because if something doesn’t go your way or you are met with a road block you can simply justify it to yourself and others by saying it was just a wish. I’ve got news for you…wishes come true when you make them come true.

When you have Desire for something, nothing stands in your way. This isn’t a “fired up” feeling. Quite the opposite. It’s almost a calmness, a feeling of knowing it has already happened. You see, the problem with being fired up is that it is usually (at least in this industry) geared towards simply making more money. You have to understand that if your energy is all placed around making more money so you can pay next months bills or you can buy that new toy or whatever the case may be, you will often be disappointed and that same energy will work against you. Why do you think there is a 97% failure rate in this industry, it’s not because of the “systems.”

You have got to get yourself to a place of wanting a larger picture. Make your why something that truly moves you. Do you really think Russel Simmons cares about making another million dollars, or is he now out to see how far he can go and how much change he can bring to the world. It’s time for you to do the same. Look inside yourself and start to think BIG! I’m not talking about changing your dream car from a Benz to a Bentley, but how many people can you take with you!

Have a desire to change the industry. Have a desire to be respected by the other Top Earners in this industry. Have a desire to make change so that everyone can experience the joy and freedom that this industry offers when done correctly with passion for others success. It’s been said a hundred times that if you make it an intention to go to the moon and only make it half way, that’s still pretty remarkable!

So look in the mirror. Do you have the Desire Napoleon Hill talks of in Think and Grow Rich? Or, do you daydream about new cars, toys and paying your bills? Make this a must and it will give you all of your Dreams. I’d love to hear your thoughts about this. I hope this helps you on your Journey. Until next time, Happy Marketing!

woo themes templates

I just finished reading “WordPress for Business Bloggers” by Paul Thewless. As a professional blogger and owner of a Blog Network, I always like to stay current and read new offerings on this topic. Most of what I read is the same information just repackages, I am happy to say that this book is quite the opposite. It is filled with fresh content and I actually learned a great deal.

This is a technical guide that is focused on the WordPress platform for blogging. This is the platform that I use as well as the majority of other professional bloggers. This resource is very complete and jam packed with everything you need to know to take your blog to the next level. I really liked the section son plug-ins as it touches on the basics and then really dives into hundreds of different ones available, many of which I have never heard of. After reading the book, I actually installed some and made some great changers to my blog. The book covers a technical topic but it is written in a very easy to digest and understand fashion. It is also very well organized and the chapters are laid out in a way that makes sense and allows you to refer back various subjects with ease. I also got a lot of the sections on advertising and search engine optimization.

In closing, I would recommend this book to any blogger who is looking to increase the professionalism and increase the success of their blog.

Together with a four years old history holding the position of ebook best-seller, Google Cash 3 states to be the world’s most speedy money-earning opportunity. Surely, it sounds good to your ears- however, does it really keep up to the promises?

Recently, I have been searching a “get started” guide over the net to buy my wife (who was going crazy) some money-making techniques, when I just trooped on the Goggle Cash. I, myself have left my day-time job and got engaged with online business, which on turn initiated my newly-married wife to know the secrets behind my home-sitting successful business. With having no time, for teaching my enthusiastic wife, I decided to lookout for a top-notch guide.

Previously, I’ve done pay per click advertisements to drive in more traffic to my affiliate site, going through the tough track of learning it and spending almost $7500 approximately to finally expertise the tools. Google cash, where this is the prominent thing it teaches you, got me extremely excited at the first sight, as I wanted to know how much worth my experience was.

Reading the ebook of Google Cash 3, I had to admit it was lot more different than what I initially expected. I, for one, had loads of depressing experiences with money-making online schemes, and was definitely alert of any such scams. However, not only I learned that my time-consuming experience matched the recommendations, but most shockingly I also learned a few things, which I’ve never heard before. Moreover, one of tips suggested showed instant result in just two hours after applying. This alone, automatically paid for the guide’s cost price, seducing me to purchase it.

The Google Cash 3 effectively passed my examination, as it holds such important info, which I know to factual because of my experience. However, what I wanted to determine is that how the kit works for a new-comer with no or less experience like my wife.

How did she do after the hand-over of the kit?

To be honest, it took her a little time to get started with earning money because she was unfamiliar with many technical terms. I assisted her to gain knowledge about such terms, which turned her on to the money-making route.

Yes, Google Cash is definitely worth the money, but before rushing to it, you necessarily have to know what it takes. Surely, it’s a wonderful step-by-step guide to award you success in Internet marketing, but it’s essential to have a little knowledge regarding technical terms, together with the practice of writing general HTML or having someone to assist you with the terms for smoothing the procedure.

I’m not scaring you off, but this is no “click a button and earn cash” scheme. If you are obliged, bring out minimum 2-3 hrs and then expect money at your bank account.