The Gulf Oil Spill

A Child’s View…With Nora

The Gulf Oil Spill, Deepwater Horizon, has finally reached the Florida coastline.  Being a native Floridian, living near the coast this environmental crisis hits very close to home.  The President of the United States, Barak Obama, visited Florida last week to see the impact this disaster is having on our our coast, and afterwards addressed the nation from the oval office.  Once again, our region has been thrust into the international spot light as a result of this tragic event.

Kids seem to have an innocent and candid expression of how this crisis is filtering through their thoughts.  This week, my seven year old niece was visiting and began expressing her thoughts (unsolicited) about the oil spill.  As she talked I realized the impact this is having on the world as she understands it.  I asked her if she would be willing for me to video tape her sharing her thoughts with me.

She was very eager to do so because she “…wanted to try to help save the animals.”

She also knows I blog, and use videos on my site to speak to my readers and friends.  So, she asked me if I would show her video to my friends so that maybe they could get their kids to help too.

So, please take a moment and watch this video to see what Nora has to say about the Gulf Oil Spill from A Child’s View.

There you go folks!  The impact of the Gulf Oil Spill through the eyes of a seven year old. I think we have ourselves a future blogger and philanthropic entrepreneur on our hands here!  (She takes after me, of course…) 

Since Nora gave her call to action to all kids in the nation to join her in donating to help the oil spill clean up efforts, I thought it only fitting that I provide a resource here for you to check out.  So, I’m sharing a link from Network for Good which provides a variety of organizations that you can donate to in order to help with the clean up efforts.

As a result of her love for animals, Nora’s primary concern was for the sea life and birds impacted by the tragedy, therefore she chose to donate to an organization assisting the animals threatened by the oil spill.(…and of course the beaches at St. George) 

CLICK HERE TO VISIT NETWORK FOR GOOD AND GIVE

If you or your child would like to join her, visit Network for Good and find an organization that coincides with your primary concern and give to help minimize the damage as much as possible.

Wishing Success For the Clean Up Efforts!

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Talk Fusion Breaks The Mold And Takes Video Marketing To The Next Level!

If you have been following me or my marketing strategies for any amount of time, you know how much I absolutely LOVE video marketing.  I truly believe it is the absolute best way to connect with your audience, develop relationships with your readers, your prospects, and potential business partners.

Why is that?

Well, it’s been known for years…and you’ve heard it said, “A picture is worth a thousand words”.  Imagine how magnified that concept becomes when the picture, is not static, but moving, talking, smiling and interacting with the person viewing it.

Well, that’s what Talk Fusion has done for email and video marketing.  In fact,  check out the image in the top corner of this post.  That is an actual screen capture of a real video email I sent out to a business partner just last week.  Imagine my partner’s surprise when they opened the email and saw a video of me talking with them rather than a dull text message (remember the 80’s?…LOL).

I have been completely blown away by the value offered through this service.  When one of my Empowered Tribe partners contacted me to share this amazing resource, I was interested, but like most busy entrepreneurs thought my plate might just be too full (so full in fact, it looks like a platter instead of a plate…LOL).  But less than three minutes into checking this thing out, I was back with my partner, asking – where do I sign?!?!

Seriously, unbelievable.

What Is Talk Fusion?

Talk Fusion is the next social media giant!! This platform enables you to engage in relationship marketing at it’s absolute best.  I truly believe every single internet marketer and network marketer on the planet needs this!!  The product alone is a complete “no-brainer” for marketers, businesses, and even individuals who just want to step up their emails to friends and family.

Offering, video emails, video autoresponders, video blogging, video sharing, and video conferencing – Talk Fusion is on the cutting edge of social media and network marketing. In my opinion, it is the ultimate bridge between network marketing and internet marketing.  And, it’s so stinking easy to use that my second grade nieces can use it.  (They love videos as much as I do).

The product alone was enough to sale me on Talk Fusion, but when I found out it was also a network marketing opportunity I was “all in”.

Now, before you completely tune me out…let me say that I have never promoted a network marketing product or company on my blog, although I am a network marketer, with a solid and stable primary opportunity already in place.  You can look around my site and you will not find that primary opportunity promoted at all…anywhere.

But I feel so strongly that this one is so important to network and internet marketers everywhere, that I honestly felt like I would be doing a disservice to our industry to not share it with you.  Seriously. So, for that reason, I am going to be in your face with this one.  Not because I’m a pesky, aggressive, network marketer…but because I genuinely care about your success and the success of your business.

If you have any interest at all in building your business (whatever that business may be) or personal brand (whatever that brand may be) on-line, then, friends – YOU NEED TALK FUSION!!

Are you serious about taking your marketing to the next level?  Then contact me  at any of these places (or all if you are really serious):

Email: info@kristaabbott.com

Phone: 928-377-KRIS (or 928-377-5747)

Skype: destalrad

On-Line Form: Click Here, complete the form and I will contact you!

All For Your Business Success!!!

Enjoying The Next Level of Video Marketing

As most experienced internet marketers know, there are a multitude of marketing techniques that can be leveraged to drive traffic to your website and generate leads to your on-line business.  While I do use a variety of techniques in my business, I admit video marketing is one of my favorites.

Let’s face it.  We are a media driven society.  And, in a media driven society, video stands out.  For the first several months of using video marketing in my business, I used the same software a large majority of my colleagues use and recommend, Windows Move Maker (WMM).  This is actually a great FREE software application that comes standard with most PCs today and for the price (free) puts out a pretty decent quality video.  In fact all of my video posts prior to this one were created on WMM.

Recently, however, while trying to step up the quality of the video production for a very special project I was working on for a friend, I decided to give Camtasia a try.  And boy am I glad I did!!!

Since, video editing concepts are similar regardless of the software you are using, I didn’t anticipate a huge learning curve, but I was surprised at exactly how easy it was.  After a quick five minute tour around the navigational buttons I was off to a great start.  I found Camtasia very user friendly and the quality was way better than what I’ve ever gotten from WMM.  For the most part, I found the transition from Windows Movie Maker to Camtasia to be relatively seamless.

And…since I’ve gotten my feet wet with Camtasia, I have to say I will find it hard to go back to WMM, although I’m sure I will pay WMM a visit every now and again when I need a quick edit or two.

For now though, I will have to say goodbye Windows Movie Maker…hello Camtasia!!!

So…here it is…my FIRST Camtasia project.  The friend I completed the project for was very happy with the outcome, as was I.

Check it out…

Disclaimer:  This Video May Contain Spiritually Nourishing Content!! 

So what do you think?

What are some of your favorite marketing techniques?

Do you have a favorite video editing software that you enjoy using?

Leave some comments below and share with the community here your thoughts on video marketing, WMM, and/or Camtasia?

For Your Eternal Success!

PS.  Re-Tweets, Shares, and Comments Always appreciated!!

How to Make Sure the Foundation Your Blog is Built On Is Not Shaky Ground.

Last year, when I first started exploring the wonderful world of self-hosted WordPress blogging, I contacted my host Go-Daddy to ask some questions and get started. Their wonderful technical support agents directed me on how to install the WordPress application in my GoDaddy back office, set up my database and all of the other “behind the scenes” technical mumbo jumbo that goes along with blogging.

There was, however, ONE VERY CRITICAL piece of information, GoDaddy failed to point out to me and that is WordPress is incompatible with a Windows Platform. So, for the past 6 months (2 months of pre-launch development, and then subsequent launch and maintenance) I have earned a “frequent flyer” designation with GoDaddy technical support.

Still with multiple calls and several hours of going back and forth with technical reps and administrator support (that’s who you get to talk to when the technical reps can’t figure out what’s going on) I was experiencing problems that my other blogging friends never had to deal with.

What?!!??

Seriously, I was starting to think GoDaddy was messing with me. Even my friends were starting to make comments – like “Why does GoDaddy hate you so much?” or “What is the deal with you and GoDaddy?” Realizing of course, GoDaddy couldn’t possibly “hate” me, because well….I’m so darned adorable, that just couldn’t be it.

It wasn’t until recently when I was in the process of transitioning my radio show website to a self-hosted WordPress format and these same problems started to surface again that my blog designer convinced me that I needed to figure out what was causing all the blog drama. So, I decided to Just Ask Kim,  my techie guru friend and blog syndication partner.  After a short conversation Kim revealed the nasty little secret GoDaddy kept from me – WordPress runs much better on a Linux platform!!!

Ahhh!!!! Are you kidding me Kim?  Nope!!!  She was right on spot.  So last week, Kim Castleberry and I spent some “quality time together” working on getting all this straightened out.  We backed up my blog and database (everyone should do this on a regular basis by the way….learn how HERE) and we deleted everything, changed platforms and reloaded it all again….working into the weeeee-hours of the morning!

I am extremely happy to report, that I am writing this post from my newly transferred blog, on my new Linux platform. 

I’m all smiles.  Many of the headaches I have experienced in my blog lifetime are no longer a problem.  Now, I admit initially I was mad with GoDaddy, but after I calmed down, and forced my mind to embrace the proper perspective I was able to let all that go.

See, I learned many valuable lessons from all this blog drama.  I gained a lot of technical and troubleshooting expertise from my many conversations with GoDaddy’s technical and administrator support  as well as from the conversations this week with my personal techie, at Just Ask Kim.  And now, I can pass that knowledge along to you my friends and loyal readers, as well as  my social media coaching clients.

I don’t think GoDaddy did this to me on purpose, I think it was a simple oversight with a lot of unintended consequences.  GoDaddy does have great (and very patient) customer support.  My only recommendation to them is to make sure all their technical staff know to tell WordPress application users that they need a Linux Platform rather than Windows if they want to use syndication friendly plug-ins, and avoid problems down the road.

While WordPress will still work on a Windows platform, there are a lot of issues with plugins that will require work-arounds, time, and research to resolve.  And if you have any hair left after you’ve resolved them all, you will likely decide to do what I did…and take the plunge for the transition.  My blog was down for a whole week to get this complete.  But I am glad to say now that it is over, it is done and it’s time to move on.

Lesson learned and now maybe I can save someone else from making the same mistake and spare them the drama!!

WordPress + Linux = Peaceful Bliss

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WordPress + Windows = Blog Drama!

Now, please help me spread the word to spare other bloggers the drama…re-tweet, bookmark, and share this post.

Much appreciated! 

All For YOUR Blogging Success!

PS.  Do you have any of your own blog drama stories?  Share them with us in the comments.  As we share our “hard knocks” with others, we can build a thriving community of knowledge sharing and help each other avoid the same problems we have walked through.