Angela McCall

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How to Create an Animoto Video

November 12, 2014 by Angela McCall 30 Comments

[ Transcript ]

Hello everyone, this is Angela from AngelaMcCall.com. Today we’re going to talk about how to create an animated greeting card through Animoto. But before I show you I’d like to show you the greeting card I created for Halloween.

(Halloween video playing)

It looks pretty complicated but it’s really not complicated. All it has it includes about 7 photos. And say you created your Animoto account and here we are in front of the page and all you do is just go ahead and click CREATE.

And you can see you have different style or templates here that you could pick for your animated greeting card. They have all kinds. They have the Autumn…and you can play this before you start creating one.

So lets go ahead and pick one.

Let’s say we want to create a Christmas card. Or Christmas greeting.

(Sample video playing)

So you can see it plays about 36 seconds.
So this video takes 36 seconds all we do really is just add photos in there.

So here we are. We are about ready to upload photos. I chose about 7 photos and I’m ready to upload them. Some of these photos are just old photos. And some of the photos I’ve took it from freepik.com. So select all these photos and just drag and drop. And you can see them uploading one by one.

(let’s put some music)

So I guess it uploaded all of them. So let’s preview it.

(Sample video playing)

I’m not sure I really like that song. So I’m going to go ahead and change my song. If you like to change the song, you can go ahead and go here on this icon here, you can see it’s a note. Just click that. Upload a song. And I already like the song I pick — Joy to the World.

(Sample video playing)

That sounds much better. So give it a title — Joy to the World. And you can put the date if you like. And say a little bit description — Christmas Video. And produce.

(Sample video playing)

Say you want to edit the video. I forgot something. Edit the video and let’s put a text on the very last part. Add text. Enter a title. Or enter the person who created the video. Say…Created by Angela McCall. Or you can say Subscribe at AngelaMcCall.com and save. And let’s play that preview video again.

(Sample video playing)

So there you go. You created a video and you can produce it or cancel it. I want to show you something else. So I have added my text and say you wanted to add another song not from your computer. You can select a whole bunch of songs over here, I forgot to show you, so there Love/Romance, Birthdays, Travel, Baby/Kids, Full Library Music, they have all kinds of music over here like they have classical, and you can play it so…(now playing the music)

…and here’s Beethoven (playing the music). So that’s how you select the song. You can go here and click and just choose the ones that you like. So that’s the way you do it. I hope you learn something from this Animoto. And I’m anxious to see all of your videos. Just leave me a comment. And don’t forget subscribe to my channel. Or subscribe to my newsletter. Thank you. I’ll talk to you later. Bye-bye.

* * * * *

EDIT:

I thought I’d include this tutorial video here how to upload your YouTube video to your computer. No application needed. This is a VERY SIMPLE TRICK!!! Watch the video. SO EASY…

After you created your Animoto video, you want to upload it to your YouTube channel. Here’s why. All of these precious moments. All of these photos are just precious to us. You don’t want to lose all of your customized photos especially of your family. You can download this Animoto video to your computer by simply following the EASY instruction on this video below.

Filed Under: blogging, video blogging, videos Tagged With: animated greeting card, animoto, holiday video, video blogging challenge

I Finally Got My Wacom Tablet

October 15, 2014 by Angela McCall 28 Comments

(NOTE: If you want to see the Wacom tablet demo start @ 9:40.)

I have been wanting to get this for a long time. I wasn’t so sure when but I have been eyeing on one of these tablet. And finally I am so excited to tell you that I got one!

Lately, I have met this Digital Artist name Mike Meth in YouTube. He works for Wacom and also works as a Digital Artist Teacher. I have just shared one of his YouTube video saying, I have been inspired by it. And then we just started talking. This is the beauty of social media, I get to meet all kinds of professional people in my industry and connect. And, I like to experiment on my new toy.

I have been wanting to get back on painting again. Perhaps not on the real canvas but on digital media. Real paint can be messy in real life. But the Wacom tablet will take me to the next level on my journey in the Graphic Arts world and the Interactive media per se.

Anyway, I’m not going to waste your time reading my post today. But I’m going to keep this short and sweet so you can watch my video, the latest news and my demonstartion on how to use the Wacom tablet for painting. So have fun in this video…

EDIT:

After 3-days trying to get the feel of this, here’s my first attempt on real drawing and painting. I don’t mind being a copycat right now because I am just praticing my related space and shape. This is going to take a while getting used to it. This video is 8x faster. Done in Photoshop. Artwork is unfinished.

sorry this video does not exist

Filed Under: blogging, digital arts, photoshop, video blogging, videos Tagged With: #digitalpainting, digital arts, intuos, intuos pen and touch, intuos pen small, intuos tablet, video blogging, video blogging challenge, wacom

How to Transfer Your List from Aweber to INinbox

September 17, 2014 by Angela McCall 38 Comments

INinbox Welcome Newsletter

So finally I have transferred all of my Email List from Aweber to INinbox. 🙂

In my previous post How to Create a Welcome Newsletter on INinbox, if you are wondering how to create your INinbox Webform on your widget and how to create your Welcome Newsletter after they’ve opt-in your newsletter, just click the step-by-step- tutorial post on the link above.

As you can see the “Hello ##firstname##” there, this is only a sample letter. Once it is sent to your subscriber, it will mention their first name. Makes sense?

INinbox Newsletter Broadcast

On this one it is my “This is only a TEST Newsletter” I sent to myself. I just want to make sure that the scheduler works. And indeed it works!!! And the good thing about this is, I love all of their free layouts. I have customized my layout here and I’m pretty pleased. Don’t worry about the verbage on there, that’s only a dummy just to show you the layout.

However, on the very first time I sent this Newsletter to myself, I had to wait for INinbox “Awaiting for Approval”. The INinbox Manager said to me that make sure I have my username@angelaabrown.com. They don’t like to see your gmail or yahoo account as your reply to address. They want to see your  direct email address from your domain and so if you do that, it will be automatically approved.

INinbox FREE account allows you to have 2,000 subscribers and 20,000 emails. Plus FREE scheduler.

While Aweber doesn’t give anything free except for that $1 trial. MailChimp gives you also free 2,000 subscribers but doesn’t give you free scheduler. INinbox pricing is pretty cheap and their autoresponder is pretty competitive. Just as good as Aweber. If not, even better. For up to 5,000 subscriber INinbox only charges $3.95 a month. How can you even beat that price? While companies like these charges more. See the difference:

  • $49 per month with AWeber
  • $45 per month with GetResponse
  • $40 per month with MailChimp

…and the LAST thing you need to do is transferred your Email list (whether this is on .csv or .txt) you can watch my tutorial video below. And if you have any question don’t hesitate to ask me.

[ Transcript ]

Hello everyone this is Angela from angelamccall.com. Today I’d like to talk about “How to Transfer Your List from Aweber to INinbox”. As you can see INinbox have changed their dashboard. So let me go to my dashboard. And you can see that they have changed things around here. And if you’re a new person and you don’t know about INinbox, this can be very confusing. So how do you transfer your list from Aweber to INinbox. So the first thing that you do is go to your main dashboard which is this one. Says: Overview. Click: My Lists. Go to: Add Contacts. Go to: Import. And go to: From a File CSV. Click. And check “I confirm that all of these new subscribers fall in the OK to use category”. Proceed with my import. Choose a file. And as you can see I have click the Aweber CSV on my computer. And so I’ll go ahead and ready to import this to INinbox.

NOTE: After you click “Next Step” it’ll tell you “The page at https://www.ininbox.com says: Email field is mandatory”. Make sure you Enter your “Email Field” and “First Name” click OK and you’re done.***

Before you import your list from Aweber to INinbox there is something very IMPORTANT you need to know. On here it says Single opt-in. Make sure your opt-in is in Single. Otherwise if you put it on Double, it will ask again to confirm all the email address that you transferred in there. And you don’t want that. So make sure you have your list on Single opt-in. And then after you transferred you can always put it back on Double opt-in, okay? Anyway, once you imported all of your lists from Aweber to INinbox, INinbox will have to approve your lists and they will activate it. So that’s how you do it.

EDIT:

***On this “Email Field” make sure you enter your: (1) Email Field (2) First Name and (3) Last Name. Otherwise, if you didn’t include the “Last Name” in there, the First Name and Last Name will be all in the First Name window. And you don’t want that. Because if you email someone like “Hi John” but instead it’s saying “Hi John Smith” and you don’t want that last name in your Newsletter. Anyway, it’s up to you. Just a simple note.

INinbox Edit Contact

So here is what I am saying. Did you see that “Kenneth Griechen” is all in that First Name window? I don’t want it this way. Kenneth should be in the First Name window. And Griechen should be in the Last Name window. But because I didn’t enter the “Last Name” in that Email Field before I clicked OK, that’s why. INinbox put both First and Last Name in the same field and so I have to redo all 74 of them one-by-one. Editing one-by-one. Oh, what a headache! Don’t make that same mistake!

Related articles across the web:

  • INinbox Review: Great Prices. But There’s a Catch
  • Why I Quit Aweber for INinbox – A Better Option?
  • Fed Up With Your Email Marketing Service? You Should Give INinbox A Try

Filed Under: blogging, tutorial videos, video blogging Tagged With: aweber, INinbox, transfer from aweber to ininbox, video blogging challenge

How to Stop Brute Force Attacks (Part 2)

September 6, 2014 by Angela McCall 20 Comments

How to Stop Brute Force Attacks

I am still appalled from this Brute Force Attacks. I want to help my clients, friends, and readers how they can fight against this malicious people who tries to make you miserable.

I have put so much time and effort on this post because I want you to be SAFE and SECURE in your blog. If you are under attack and you are in WordPress, this is the post for you.

Or if you know someone who is a new blogger then go ahead and feel free to share this with them. They will benefit from this and will save a lot of headaches in the future!

3 important things you need to remember:

• Your WordPress

• Your WordFence

• Your CloudFlare

NOTE: Make sure you read my previous post How to Stop Brute Force Attacks (Part 1). In order to understand better what I’m talking about here, you better read my previous post. If you are a newbie, you need to know some of the things I talked about here.

WordPress

How to hide your Admin section?

Recently, I installed Lockdown WP Admin. This allows me to hide my admin without having to deal with the coding on my HTML. With a regular HTML website, this is probably a lot easier to do right? But what about the WordPress section? Specially in Genesis.

Of course you can always do this Dashboard > Appearance > Editor. And on your right hand side it shows this (see image below). Make sure you are on your “child theme” and not the Genesis per se. Your functions is mainly on that Theme Functions (functions.php).

I have never touch the front-page.php neither the Landing Page Template.

genesis-editor

I have the code on how to hide your admin area but I’m too scared to touch the cPanel or my dashboard. The last time I tried to do something on my PHP, I made a big booboo and wiped out my whole entire website. Thank God for hosting service who has all my data and backup.

My hosting service have restored my website without a problem. So if you’re not that savvy with the coding and stuff, I recommend you should use this plugin instead.

Also there is another plugin that allows you to hide your admin section and that is Rename wp-login.php but I had a problem with this one because I have WP Super Cache installed.

Here’s what it tells me:

“WP Super Cache is enabled on your website. To make sure Rename wp-login.php works correctly, you should add [your new login name] to Rejected URIs. This notice will disappear once you’ve done that correctly.”

It says there that I should include the “new login name” in “Rejected URLs” right? I have included it and it didn’t change anything and so forget that. I had to trash this plugin.

How to Stop Brute Force Attacks Tutorial Video

WordFence

Install Wordfence Security in your WordPress. Go to: Dashboard > Plugins > Add New. Also since you are on the Plugins dashboard already, you might as well install CloudFlare too.

When you are under attack go to Wordfence Basic Options.

  • Wordfence > Options > Basic Options
  • Under Security Level put it on Level 4: Lockdown and then Save Changes.

With my experience HERE I have not even put my Security Level on 4 but I just bought the premium Wordfence and set my settings on Cellphone Sign-in and blocked a couple of countries!

It seems like it was the necessary thing for me to do at the time. Either way you will have to pay the premium plugin whether this is Wordfence or CloudFlare.

CloudFlare

When you are under attack you can put your CloudFlare Under Attack Mode. Read more HERE.

I’m under DDoS attack what do I do now? From what I gathered HERE there are 6 Essential Steps that you must do when you are under attack.

Just for your information, DDoS means Distributed Denial of Service.

  1. Upgrade to CloudFlare Business or CloudFlare Enterprise
  2. Turn on I’m Under Attack Mode
  3. Turn on the WAF (Web Application Firewall)
  4. Set your DNS records for maximum security
  5. Do not rate-limit or throttle requests from CloudFlare IPs
  6. Block specific countries and visitors

Tim Bonner said, DDoS is “when someone deliberately sends a massive amount of traffic to a site so it falls down and no-one can access it. These attacks often come with a ransom note request for money to stop the traffic from coming!”

Anyway, I just want to thank Tim for explaining this to me. This is what he did during “under attack”. He used Wordfence and Cloudflare combined together.

While with me I didn’t have to bother with Cloudflare but only bought the premium Wordfence and stopped the Brute Force Attacks via Cellphone Sign-in.

Then I blocked a few countries who are malicious. So far I have ZERO intruders! I just hope and pray that they don’t come back to my site. Please SECURE your website now. If you haven’t please download these plugins. Take your pick. I wish you have a wonderful day. Happy Blogging!

[ Transcript ]

Hello everyone this is Angela from angelamccall.com. Today, I’d like to continue to talk about “How to Stop Brute Force Attacks.” I’ve written a special post for today, which is the continuation of my previous post, which is Part 1 and today is the Part 2.

So today I’m going to cover a little bit about “How to Hide Your Admin Section”. I will also talk about Wordfence and Cloudflare. And you can either install Wordfence or Cloudflare or both.

Anyway, during the Brute Force Attacks, I only have Wordfence. I don’t have Cloudflare because I already have the premium Wordfence…which allows me to block the whole country or I can sign thru Cellphone Sign-in.

Everytime I login my WordPress, Wordfence gives me a CODE thru my phone and I enter that and add that to my password. So every time I sign in, it’s always different. And so if you don’t know how to install Wordfence, all you do is just go to your Dashboard. Go to Plugins. Add New.

Type Wordfence. And as you can see I already installed it because it’s gray. And so if you have not installed it just click install and activate it. Then add Cloudflare. And click install then activate it.

On Wordfence premium it cost $3.90 a month or you can pay $39 dollars a year. Cloudflare…it’s more. The Cloudflare cost about $20 dollars a month. If you activate the “Under Attack Mode” you will have to pay Cloudflare.

So I just talk to Tim Bonner. All of you knows Tim and he actually shares his experience during the Brute Force Attacks. He had Wordfence and Cloudflare working together. And he said that he put his Wordfence on Level 4. And then he put the Cloudlfare “Under Attack Mode”.

I’ll show you how to do that in Wordfence.

So here we are. Go to Options. And under Options, go to your Basic Options. Underneath there it says Security Level. And as you can see I have mine on Level 2 because I’m not under attack. But if you’re under attack you would want to put this on Level 4 and Save Changes.

So after you have taken care of Wordfence, let’s go to Cloudflare.

As you can see I’ve installed Cloudflare on one of my Clients and how to go to the main settings, you have to Plugins and underneath it’s Cloudflare. And as you can see it needs an API number.

How to find out the API Key number is you have to go to the Cloudflare website and on your registered Cloudflare, you can see that you can add website. Or how many domains that you have.

And on your Account you can find out your API Key number down below. So all you have to do is just cut and paste that. And go back to your WordPress and just cut and paste the API number.

How to Stop Brute Force Attacks…the way I did it is I just use Wordfence premium. So let me show you how I did it.

I’m back to Wordfence and underneath here you can see Cellphone Sign-in. And or Country Blocking. You can see here I’ve blocked China. I also blocked Ukraine which is the most malicious countries that always get into my blog trying to intrude my home.

When you sign-in for a premium Wordfence, Wordfence does not want you to use the same email address that you used in your WordPress. So you will need to have a different email address and username.

I thought when it says it asked me for a username, I thought I would need to enter the one I entered in Wordfence but NO. This username that you will need here is the same username you used in your WordPress.

And then enter a phone number here. And then enable Cellphone Sign-in. And so after you enable the Cellphone Sign-in, you’re done. And that’s about it. You can blocked all of these intruders that comes into your home.

Before I forget I’d like to show you “How to Hide Your Admin Section” by using a plugin. So let’s go back to my dashboard and on the dashboard I have the “Lockdown WP” plugin and I’m on the dashboard on Lockdown.

And on this window you can enter your login name. And then Save Options. So now when I go to my Admin section, it’ll say enter your login name. And then you will go ahead and proceed and enter your password. So that’s how you hide your Admin section.

Anyways, I hope you learned something from this. So make sure you protect your blog and fight back. And if you have any questions just leave me a comment. Okay. So I’ll talk to you later. Bye-bye now.

Related articles across the web:

  • Dictionary Attack
  • New Password Cracking software tries 8 Million Times Per Second to Crack Password

Filed Under: blogging, security, video blogging, videos Tagged With: brute force attacks, cloudflare, genesis, video blogging challenge, wordfence, wordpress

How to Stop Brute Force Attacks (Part 1)

August 27, 2014 by Angela McCall 60 Comments

How to Stop Brute Force Attacks

I’ve never thought I would have to deal with Brute Force Attacks until now. This is my first time I have ever been attack. Hundreds of them a day. They started it since August 21, 2014.

I told Carol Amato about this and said, “Ever since I change the setting on CommentLuv, there are bizillion intruders tries to get in my domain. Hundreds a day! 🙁 I changed the setting back where it used to be but the people still trying to INTRUDE my domain are still coming like CRAZY. Dunno what to do now.”

Carol said, “That doesn’t sounds like a plugin malfunction, that sounds like a brute force attack – call your hosting company and see if there is anything fishy going on.”

I emailed Geoff (my hosting service) and asked for his help and he said that his wife, Susan, used Limit Login Attempts. And they’ve been attacked frequently and now it’s my turn. Wow. I never thought I would experience anything like this. But there is always first time for everything, isn’t it?

You can see the screenshot of the Brute Force Attacks here.

I first heard Wordfence from Tim Bonner. I had Limit Login Attempts installed then but I switched to Wordfence when I heard that this can do more advance blocking.

It has the same feature as Limit Login Attempts but it can do more.

For instance, it warns me for malwares when I click on that link from CommentLuv that others left me to read on their blog. It warns me if there are viruses on the site I visits. It also alerts me when I need to update other plugins in my blog.

It alerts me right away all the intruders who tries to get in my site. It tells me their IP address and what Username they were using to try to get in my blog.

Related Post: Wordfence to the Rescue

What is Brute Force Attacks?

Unlike hacks that focus on vulnerabilities in software, a Brute Force Attack aims at being the simplest kind of method to gain access to a site: it tries usernames and passwords, over and over again, until it gets in. ~Codex

These morons enters all kinds of Usernames and Passwords in your blog over and over and over again. If you use “admin” username you are more likely to get hacked. Some are too lazy to create strong password and just use “123456” on their site. Now c’mon you can do better than that.

Don’t use “test” for a username either. Most of all never use “admin” for a username. Make your password 20-characters long. Make sure you use the upper case, lower case, numbers, alphabets, and mix it with characters like @%#$^&*. And change your password quite often.

Never ever use the same password for all of your social media and/or blog. I used LastPass to remember all of my passwords on computer, tablet, and iPhone. It’s free and every blogger should have it. Use the LastPass password generator to create new password for your site or social media.

Check out the Wordfence Security

As you can see Wordfence has a lot to offer when it comes to either free or paid option. I will not repeat what Tim Bonner mentioned on his blog but I thought a picture is worth a thousand words. So take this image and check it yourself. They have a lot of good stuff to secure your blog.

Wordfence Security - Free and Paid

The free option was great. I get alerts on intruders every day. But I was so nervous last Saturday, I couldn’t sleep. I had to do something to stop these Brute Force Attacks. And so I decided to get the premium one.

On this one it allows me to block the whole country (i.e. China). Btw, I am so disgusted by this country, I have actually blocked the whole country. Perhaps they are good for creating our goods here in America. BUT…

Enough is enough when it comes to trying to invade my home. Last time they hacked my Twitter. I was just a new blogger online and only have 500 followers on Twitter, that’s not very much. I thought who would hack the little ol’ me? Lo and behold these people don’t choose whether you are small or big.

They just do not like bloggers! Specially new bloggers!

12 Greatest Plugins to Secure Your Blog

  • Limit Login Attempts
  • Block brute-force attacks
  • BruteProtect
  • Lockdown WP Admin
  • WP Fail2Ban
  • Admin Renamed Extended
  • Enforce Strong Password
  • Wordfence Security
  • 3WP Activity Monitor
  • All in one WP Security
  • Rename wp-login.php
  • Brute Force Login Protection

All of the above are suggested by WordPress.org. If you prefer not to use Wordfence, feel free to use these ones. Limit Login Attempts does a good job also. But I prefer Wordfence, just my opinion.

Cellphone Sign-in through Wordfence

Cellphone Sign In - only for Worfence Security Premium users

This is great. I just tested it. Entered my Username and Password and it gave me a message like “sign in again and add a space and the code to the end of your password”. This is pretty cool.

Ever since I entered the CODE from my cellphone, the Brute Force Attacks stopped. I’m not sure I want to wait for these attacks to stop on that FREE Wordfence plugin.

This time they cannot get in my blog unless they have that code. I know there are probably other security that could provide me the same thing but I’d rather pay the “premium” because I know for sure that the plugin is getting updated everytime. I know that not everyone likes signing with the code through their iPhone.

But to me, it is a LOT safer. Who said that these intruders won’t be back? Since my computer remembers my passwords anyway and I only have to sign-in once in a while, I think it is worth it.

Some of the Strong Password Generators

Passwords iPhone

  • LastPass — can remember all passwords
  • Passwords – (this is the one I used on my iPhone)
  • cPanel – even your hosting service have its own password generator
  • iPhone Password Tools – never tried this one but looks good
  • Keeper Password Manager – for Android user

These are only a few I mentioned. I’m sure you can google these Password application both for your iPhone, Smartphone, or Android. But so far these are the top ones I like to use. Rated: 4.4 to 5 stars.

You can change your WordPress username. Instead of using “admin” you can create a much harder username to guess. Please go to Adrienne’s post here: How to Change Your WordPress Username

Make Your Password Super Hard

Never ever use a password that you can find in the dictionary. Never use your name, last name, year you were born, birthday, social security number, or your home address.

Make your password super hard. Something that doesn’t make any sense. That even you can’t remember it. Remember, you can use LastPass to remember all your passwords.

What is Your Method of Securing Your Blog?

I am willing to hear your experience. Please share with me what you did during the Brute Force Attacks. What did you do? Please leave your comment below and share with me and my readers. Thank you.

NOTE: Make sure you read Part 2 here.

Filed Under: blogging, security, video blogging, videos Tagged With: 12 greatest security plugins, brute force attacks, hackers, intruders, security, video blogging challenge, wordfence

The Naked Truth of Paid Social Media Jobs

August 13, 2014 by Angela McCall 26 Comments

I have been wanting to post this for the longest time to expose the naked truth of paid social media jobs but I’ve been hesitant to write about this until I gather some more evidence.

I just want you to know that I have been observing this industry since I’ve joined them. As you can see the above video is the one that Paid Social Media Jobs are using to promote their business.

In my research about Paid Social Media Jobs, I believe this is owned by some Asian guy name John Wai, who is an IT engineer support by profession. He said that he began building Slick Social Media Jobs a site dedicated to all things paid social media jobs and training. In November of 2012 he discovered all about being able to earn money mucking around on Facebook, Twitter or Youtube.

As you can see his About Me page he doesn’t tell much about himself.

John Wai doesn’t say much where he grew up with, where he was born, or even say anything about his family. So I am leery about this because I don’t know how sociable and does he even engage with the people who are members of his site.

In my opinion the members area of Paid Social Media Jobs is pretty lousy.

I don’t see any real people engaging with you there. Everything is automated. For all I know I don’t even think he has real customer support.

Some of the complains about Paid Social Media Jobs

  • what they say cannot deliver its promises
  • this company is nothing but one big upsell
  • you don’t have to pay someone to get social media jobs
  • clickbank taking the time to refund the money
  • there is no customer support
  • it’s not true you can make money in 3-days!

The lists can go on and on. I can just mention a few things on top of my head. When you do your Google search about Paid Social Media Jobs you will see what I’m saying. There are more complains. More negative written articles about this company than positive. The reason why I wrote about this is to enlighten the mind of those who are naive about this subject.

Paid Social Media Jobs Scams

I can reveal to you everything they have and I am not ashame that I have joined this company. Whether this is a mistake or this is to gain knowledge from them, I am not really sure what to say about this company. Except they are not scam. They over compensated for what they can do.

…and some of the things they say are not true.

Some of the hype and upsells about this company is all propaganda. They have to exaggerate this to play your emotions in signing up to their membership.  I am revealing to you the naked truth of paid social media jobs. I want all of you to wake up what you are getting yourself into.

It is true that when I saw this advertised in SimplyHired.com, I was intrigued by it.

I was curious to find out. I wanted to be a Social Media Manager. I thought hey…I know Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and YouTube, I can benefit from all of the knowledge about these social media.

Making 6-figures on Paid Social Media Jobs: True or False

It is true that you can make 6-figures in Social Media Management, like the video you see above.

However, I don’t think that video derived from having a job from Paid Social Media Jobs company.

That video exist as a true evidence that some people are really making money tweeting, answering comments on social media like Facebook, creating videos for YouTube, doing business campaigns and all that. But there is no evidence that these people got their jobs from PSMJ.

Otherwise, you’d be hearing testimonials from people what they really experience from this company. The thing about this company is they don’t really have any testimonials from real people.

I’ve seen a few of them in YouTube but very few.

And the ones who gave dramatic experience, I’m not sure if they are for real either or just some people got hired faking their experiences or what. You do your research and judge it for yourself.

Don’t believe what other people say or what I tell you either. You should be skeptical.

Do your own research and go from there. Before you join anything specially membership of some sort, make sure you ask around and do your own research.

I cannot emphasize enough or extend enough the word “do your own research” because some of these companies wants you to make quick decisions in certain period of time because the more people they get the more money they make. That’s the game.

But I’m not saying using strategy like “certain period of time” in sales marketing is bad. It works in some criteria like: selling eBooks on Amazon, for instance. To a certain degree it works.

If you see a computer on sale and the time is limited, it always works for this company. You can save a few hundreds or thousands by purchasing big items such as computers, cars, furnitures…but then you should always be skeptical and don’t let your curiosity wins you.

Because that’s what happened to me. I was curious about this $1 offer on PSMJ and then it rolls over to $97 of one time charge membership. I’m sure they lowered their membership to $47 to $37. Perhaps not too many people are buying this and so they have to lower their prices.

Paid Social Media Jobs Legitimate

Yes. Social Media Jobs are legitimate.

But not necessarily have to come from signing Paid Social Media Jobs. You can do this without signing up to this membership deal. Some of the companies I’ve found out where you can find the ones below…just to mention a few online companies who advertise real Social Media Jobs online.

  • SimplyHired.com
  • ZipRecruiter.com
  • JobSerious.com
  • Indeed.com

It is true that some of the business owners do not have the time to do their own social media and so they would hire others to do this job. I have met people from Meetup groups that some of the business owners needs a part time Social Media Manager and you can set your own price in whatever you think is fair.

Some have asked me to write a Business Proposal for such job. Paid Social Media Jobs have their own PLR business proposals written but I have never put it to the test. If you want you can put it to the test. I’ll make it available for you here.

  • Facebook 101 for Local Businesses: Benefits of Using Facebook in Your Business
  • Google Plus 101 for Local Businesses: Benefits of Using Google Plus in Your Business
  • Linkedin 101 for Local Businesses: Benefits of Using Linkedin in Your Business
  • Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses: Boost Out Profits by Hanging Out Online

And if you want to write a Social Media Proposal you can download the document here. I have never tried this but you are more than welcome to put this to the test. I have written my own proposal and I can tell you my Business Proposal works. It leads me to a job interview.

However, my proposal is entirely different from what Paid Social Media Jobs have written. If you want to have a copy of what I have written, my own business proposal, my own words and preposition, you can contact me and I will send it to you as soon as I receive your email.

Social Media Jobs From Home

It is true that you can now do jobs at home like being a Secretary, Medical Biller, Medical Transcriptionist, Data Entry, Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Technical Writer, Content Writer, Teleconference Operator, and so many more jobs titles that I don’t remember.

The 21st century is more flexible compare to the 20th century.

We are in the Information Technology era and the proliferation use of modern devices such as computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones…makes it a possibility to work with an employer in New York City while you live in California. You get the picture.

I am affiliated with Paid Social Media Jobs…

…BUT I am not putting my affiliate link on this one. I am not sure if I should be proud of this or should I be ashame that I even joined this company. As a VIP member I have access to all of their stuff like:

  • social media job training
  • ebooks about how to make a profit
  • videos about affiliate blogging secrets
  • how to set up and use wordpress
  • finding work on paid social media jobs

Paid Social Media Jobs Scam

There are some valuable stuff in there. I can’t say that it’s all worthless. He must have hired a professional voice announcer and as an IT Engineer he knows how to manipulate his members area.

However, the Paid Social Media Jobs in there are from places like: Elance, eBay, oDesk, Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour, Indeed, Craiglist…I can only mention a few of them and not all. Imagine jobs like you can find on Indeed yourself, this person is advertising all these jobs that you can find yourself just by doing a little search on Google. I’m not too impress by this.

Also the members area is kind of sloppy. He could have hired someone to organize this because the members area is not all about being a “Social Media Manager”. But there are things in there he talks about making money on eBay and/or Craiglist.

He talks about being a Graphic Designer of some sort. It’s all confusing in one place.

He could have done a better job designing the members area in sections, so the not so savvy, so naive and so new members are not very confuse. I admit that I have learned how to set up my WordPress from PSMJ and what company to choose from to register my own domain, what hosting service to use.

But his job training is incomplete. It’s like having a recipe to bake a pie not knowing all the ingredients are not included. The crust is missing and how can you hold the pie together without the crust? So that’s what I meant his webinars are not thorough and complete. He mentioned some things but there’s only part of truth in there, not all. There are a lot of these stuff you can find on the Internet for FREE.

When I signed up for PSMJ, I actually wanted to become a Social Media Manager but I end up Blogging instead because they claimed that I could make money blogging.

While that is the truth, they never told me that making money blogging can take time. But they want you to think that you can make money on an instant.

So the “make money on 3-days” is a lie.

There’s no way in the world you can make money in 3-days! Reading all the stuff in their members area can even take a year before it finally sink into your brain. So again, that upsell is very misleading!

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

The company may not be a scam but a lot of people think they are. I don’t think they are scam.

However, it is very misleading and a lot of the things they say are not true.

They over compensate for something just to make you sign up. In my opinion, I think it is better to say less about your company but over-deliver something to your client or customer instead.

If this guy is selling something on eBay and he did not follow exactly what’s on his description, he would have a negative feedback by now!

And so I don’t think I want to support a company that over compensate for what they can do and so I am not putting my affiliate link on this.

As far as affiliate marketing is concerned, I am trying to stay away from this.

Some people offered their product affiliates but I am still thinking about if I should go ahead and try this again. But so far, I am busy on getting my business offline. Meeting clients face-to-face instead. I am lowering my profile on affiliate marketing and instead boost up the sponsor advertisement in the future.

Anyway, I hope this product review helps you make the right decision.

Filed Under: blogging, product review, social media, video blogging, videos Tagged With: paid social media jobs, paid social media jobs review, paid social media jobs scam, product review, social media jobs, video blogging challenge

Where to Find Post Ideas

August 8, 2014 by Angela McCall 24 Comments

post ideas

I tell you what, this post today is an accident. I wasn’t going to post anything today but guess this post got out today by accident. And so might as well. I have been keeping this draft in my folder. Thinking that I will write more about this later. But now it’s out of the box, I might as well do it.

You know where I got some of my post before?

The Linkedin community is a pretty good place to get ideas what to post next. I don’t have too many communities on Linkedin but all of them get into my inbox and I get to read the headline and if the headline catch my attention, I’ll read it. And then when I read it, some of the discussions are really very interesting. Some are controversial. Some are dramatic. Some of the discussions just never end. I think these can make very good topic to post in your blog because you know it’s the talk of the town.

Some of the blog post ideas I have came from reading a book. I am an avid reader. I’m not a huge fan of fictions but most of the books I read are nonfictions. I think this is a great habit to develop. The more you read the more you write. Ideas comes like honey when you do this!

I’ve never really ran out things to say. There’s always things to talk about.

Just by reading other people’s blogs gives you ideas what to write about. Sometimes just by leaving a comment I can leave 300-500 words. When you have so much in your mind, it’s easier to write. You don’t even have to think of the words, it just comes out naturally.

When ideas strikes what do you do?

Sometimes I’ll be taking a shower and ideas come! Or I would be driving the car and ideas come around. So I guess that’s the beauty of “text voice” messaging, you can always talk to your phone while driving instead of texting. Never ever text message when you’re driving,  it’s dangerous!

But majority of the mobile devices nowadays are voice activated. So when ideas comes into your head just write down the keywords and elaborate your thoughts more later. It’s just like me sometimes. I’d be having a dream in the middle of the night.

Sometimes I have pen and paper on the side of my bed and I’d be writing down the things I have dreamed. And when I do that I always remember what I dream and I can say, “Oh yeah…that’s right…” So always have your pen & paper handy. Or your smartphone notepad handy.

When ideas strikes in your head, just write it down and elaborate your thoughts more later. This is a great habit to develop. I always do this either on my mobile device or my desktop computer. When ideas strike, a great title in my head, I create a draft right away even if I didn’t have the body yet.

Anyway…

I just want to share with you what I got from Darren & Chris Newsletter. Here it is…

* * * * *
Hi Angela,

Once your blog starts rolling you need to keep up the momentum
you have created – where should you look for article ideas?

==================
Where to Find Post Ideas
==================

1. Conversations – it’s amazing how many ideas come from the
chats I have with other bloggers, co-workers, readers, friends and
family both in real life and via IM or email.

2. Reader Questions – related to this is responding to questions
asked by readers

3. Reader Comments – similarly, the comments left on your blog
can be a treasure trove of ideas for future posts

4. Other Blogs – I find the writing of others often stimulates
ideas. Don’t forget to dig around in other people’s archives also
as it isn’t only current posts that are places where you’ll get
ideas. Of course always give credit to the source of your ideas.

5. Books, Newspapers, Magazines – I’m increasingly finding
inspiration in offline sources of information

6. Mad Ideas – ever been laying in bed at night and get a crazy
idea! I don’t just chuckle to myself when they come – I get up and
write them down. It’s amazing how many of them end up being key
posts for me later.

7. Experience – a fairly large proportion of my post ideas come
directly out of an experience that I’m having on the topic.
Problems, achievements, challenges and mistakes are often the best
source of useful posts as you’ll find readers relate well to them.

8. Brainstorming – I take time out each week to specifically
come up with ideas to post about. While most of my posts ‘just come
to me’ through my day to day rhythm – I’m a big believer in working
hard on story ideas also and have a folder permanently on my
desktop filled with text documents that have little else in them
except for a topic idea and perhaps a few jotted down notes – all
to work on later.

9. Archives – dig around in your own blog’s archives and you’ll
be amazed at the opportunities that you’ll find. Look for half
finished ideas, opportunities to update your ideas or even topics
that your newer readers wouldn’t have seen before.

Hope we have given you some inspiration there!

Until next time, happy blogging!

Darren & Chris
(ProBlogger)

Filed Under: blogging, video blogging Tagged With: find post ideas, post ideas, video blogging challenge

How to Do a Cheap Podcast

July 9, 2014 by Angela McCall 14 Comments

You know I’ve mentioned on my past video here that I have been doing research on podcasting. But I don’t know when I will start doing this. Some people said that if you’re going to do podcast, it better be a fun thing for you. Or you will not enjoy the process.

If you have the Macintosh already and you have a Garageband, you are way ahead of the game…you can use it for podcasting. If you don’t have a Macintosh, some people use Audacity which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and BSD platforms–it is a FREE platform.

podcast

What kind of microphone should I use?

So far I have watched reviews on microphones for podcasting and they are the:

  1. Blue Yeti Pro
  2. Rode NT USB
  3. Apogee ONE

While I do have the Apogee ONE and I have used it for singing a few times, I don’t think the USB on this one is very good. Plus, when I’m recording on my monitor the microphone keeps getting turn OFF. And it’s very distracting when I’m recording a song on Garageband and I happen to be reading the lyrics and I have to keep turning that thing on. Clicking here and there. Not a good thing.

However, there is also a Blue Yeti microphone, without the “Pro” word. The difference between the two is, the Blue Yeti can be hooked on the USB only while the Blue Yeti Pro can be hooked both USB and XLR. The XLR Connector is either you can hook this to another microphone, video camera, external mixer, amplifier, professional CD player, etc. XLR gives you more power.

The Rode NT USB microphone is mainly just for USB computers. But I don’t think it has an XLR. This is actually the latest series of the Rode microphones. I heard this is a very QUIET microphone. Rode NT USB cost around $159 brand new. But you can get it cheaper on eBay or Amazon.

The Blue Yeti cost around $100. You can get used ones on eBay starting from $41 up to $75 dollars. Blue Yeti Pro cost almost $400 but you can get a used one with a complete set of Pop Filter and Headphones around $259 or less. Depends on the auction. I’d like to get the Blue Yeti Pro, which is great for both podcasting and singing that will not break my bank.

Do I need a Pop Filter when I’m podcasting?

RODE-NT1

By the way, this is the beautiful photo of the Rode NT1 microphone and that black thing on the left that looks like a lollipop is the Pop Filter. What is a Pop Filter and how can it help me in my podcasting? The Pop Filter helps eliminates the popping Ps and Bs because the microphone is very sensitive picking up every single sound. Even a whisper. And so to keep it down, use the Pop Filter.

Pop Filters can range on the prices of $20-$40 dollars. Depending on what brand you buy. You can Build Your Own Microphone Pop Screen using hose stockings. I’ve checked this link and I’m not sure I want to build my own just to save money! I think between the time putting this together, the cost is about the same. But if you are ambitious and you really want to save money, go right ahead.

Where can I host my podcast?

When I learn that I need another hosting service just to host my podcasts, I thought wow…this is not cheap! Pat Flynn’s complete step-by-step podcasting tutorial on How to Start a Podcast didn’t say it’s cheap. Rob Cubbon told me that he is paying like $15/month just to host his MP3.

If you’re not making any money yet in your blogging, how can you afford this? So I started searching out there and I found out the Free Podcast Hosting and it looks pretty good. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m going to experiment to see if this is true. How good is it.

EDIT:

I have just watched Cliff Ravenscraft’s video on podcasting, he said that if you decide to store your MP3 on podbean.com, DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO PULL ALL YOUR MP3. Instead, let FeedBurner do it. Watch Cliff’s video here: Learn How to Podcast.

Over to you…

What about you? Have you ever thought about podcasting sometime? Or are you just scared of the technical part of this? They said, “If there’s a will there’s a way!” If you are truly willing to do this, YOU CAN DO IT!!! Do you agree? But if you don’t doing a podcast is like pulling your teeth out, it will definitely be a drag. Don’t worry about the technical part of this, there are tons of videos who can give you a tutorial video about this. I’m not technical at all. In fact, I hate this part of the business. I’m not truly a geek. But I’m always willing to learn. So there’s a big difference!

[ Transcript ]

Hello everyone this is Angela from angelamccall.com. Today is very, very hot. So if you hear a noise in the background, that is my air condition and two fans blowing in my room.

So today my topic is “How to Do a Cheap Podcast”.

I’m still doing my research and so I thought I decided I would write something about this. Not only it is a note for myself but also it is a note for those who wants to start podcasting, the cheap way. I found out that in podcasting, you have to have a separate hosting service just for your MP3s.

Your MP3 is the one that you upload in your website and you create a “feed” from it and when you sign in iTunes, you can direct that address to iTunes. And everybody else can get your RSS feed, not only iTunes. There is other stuff on website out there for other platform that could pull out your MP3s.

Anyway, I wrote down a few things that I’d like to talk about today. So, I’ve been doing my research on microphones, right? So I mentioned it in the past that I’ve been eyeing on Blue Yeti, Rode NT USB, and so far I also saw a video on Apogee ONE…which I already have. But, I’m not too happy with this although I’m very happy with the professional sound and singing. When I sing…it sounds really good when I sing. It sounds very professional and it catch that whole sound and my voice is louder.

But I’m not too happy with it because when I sing and I turn ON the microphone on my monitor, somehow this thing gets keep getting turn OFF for some strange reason and I don’t know what is the problem. So I’ll just turn it back ON. But it’s distracting. When I’m singing and I have this lyrics right in front of me, and I’m reading the lyrics when I’m singing, it’s kind of distracting because I have to keep turning it ON and OFF or turn it back ON; so I’m not too happy about that.

Also the USB on Apogee ONE is very flimsy.

And they could have done this better, they could have design a better USB, maybe put a clamp in there so it won’t keep coming up…it won’t keep coming out, I mean. So, that’s the one I’m not happy. And I try to bend that USB and finally I bent it to a point that it’s not longer working. So you can get one of those Apogee ONE USB on eBay for like…maybe about $20 bucks. But that’s just the downfall on the Apogee ONE. It’s good for podcasting but I don’t know about the USB.

I like the Blue Yeti.

There are two kinds of microphones in Blue Yeti. One is the Blue Yeti. And the other is Blue Yeti Pro. What is the difference between the two? The Blue Yeti is hooked only to USB; which is hooked to your computer only. However, the Blue Yeti Pro can be hooked on USB and XLR at the same time.

Now, what is an XLR? An XLR is something that gives you more power to your microphone. It can be hooked to another Mic. Or to another, or to an Amplifier, or Video Camera, Mixer, or CD Player. So that is the XLR. So that is what I want to get. I want to get the professional microphone.

The other one, another alternative is the Rode NT USB. Now this one is Rode NT USB. Spell — R-O-D-E. Now what is the difference between the other microphones of Rode? Now the Rode NT USB is the latest one they have and this one only hook to USB computers. But it sounds really, really good. And the cost is not as much; it cost about the same thing as the Blue Yeti. They cost around like $159 dollars for a brand new one but you can get one, a used one on eBay or maybe Amazon.com.

So where do you podcast? I am looking at this FREE podcast hosting service which called podbean.com. P-O-D-B-E-A-N. Podbean dot com. So, I haven’t tried it yet but I’m going to experiment. I heard some people said that if you’re going to do podcast, make sure it’s FUN. If it’s not fun for you, then don’t do it. You know…coz you’re just wasting your time and energy. Make sure it’s fun.

I think it’s the same thing in Blogging. You think so? Blogging and Video Blogging…Video Making. You have to have some type of fun doing the video. Otherwise, you’re not going to last. Same thing in Blogging. If you’re just going to blog for the sake of money, don’t even think about it.

If you’re going to blog and start…and the only reason why you’re blogging is because you want to make money. No, you’re in the wrong business, baby! Don’t do it. You have to have fun and then the money will come. That’s what I’ve heard from a lot of probloggers out there. So you have to have FUN.

Now I told you in the past this guy besides Rob Cubbon, I forgot his name. I just saw his video and I already forgot his name. Coz I think his name is something German. Anyway, he’s the one who said, there are 450 million Bloggers on the Internet. And there’s only like 1.2 YouTubers.

And there’s only 250 Podcasters. I said before 400 because Rob Cubbon said 400 thousand. But there’s only 250 thousand Podcasters. And 90% of them — sucks! So there goes. You got really no competition. Plus it’s highly in demand. There are 1 billion smartphone users! So take that. It’s a good way to know that the whole world is going onto smartphone using this little device, this little computer in your hand.

So anyways, what else did I write…ah…Pop Filter. Now what do I need a Pop Filter for? When you are podcasting, you bought this professional microphone. Now the professional microphone can pick-up all the sound. All the sound. I mean whispers and picks up the Ps & the Bs. And if you have a Pop Filter around your microphone, it eliminates the Ps and Bs sound. So that’s what its for.

Now Pop Filter is really not expensive. You can get one for $18 dollars. Some are $20 dollars. And some are very expensive kind of like $40 bucks. You can make your own Pop Filter. And I actually mentioned that in my post today. And yeah…you can make one.

But then I’m thinking, I looked at the website on how to make your own Pop Filter. I’m thinking all the energy and all the money, and all the time and all these things that I have to spend in making this Pop Filter, I might as well just spend $18 dollars. Right? It’s just going to cost me just about the same.

That’s just my own opinion.

So…but if you really want to save money and you have all the equipment, all the things that you…you know…to make a Pop Filter, then go ahead and do it.

Garageband. If you are a Mac user, automatically you have a Garageband. Right? So you are all set to do your podcasting. You also use the built-in microphone on Garageband coz you can turn it up all the way to 200% and make it very loud. But a lot of people or these people who are professional podcaster DO NOT recommend that, they would recommend you to use a microphone, a professional microphone instead.

Anyway, Garageband is pretty good for editing your audio.

Now if you don’t have a Garageband and you are a PC user now, you can use Audacity. A-U-D-A-C-I-T-Y. Audacity. And this is a FREE platform for mac, windows, linux…and this is pretty good. I heard it’s a pretty good one, I’ve never use it. So you can use that for podcasting.

Anyway, that’s all I want to say for today. And I hope you have a cool day on this very hot day.

I’ll see you later. Goodbye.

For more information read:

Learn How to Podcast
How to Start a Podcast
11 Steps to Podcasting GOOD on the CHEAP
Build Your Own Microphone Pop Screen
Free Podcast Hosting

Filed Under: blogging, video blogging Tagged With: cheap podcast, video blogging challenge

Why Quality Content is Not Enough Today?

July 2, 2014 by Angela McCall 22 Comments

Are you overwhelm of the Internet?

It’s amazing how many people tried to get me to do this and to do that. How to make passive income! How to achieve the place of your dreams! How to make your first $30K in the first year! Yada…yada… I have never been more overwhelm than I am today.

I get tired seeing the same redundant things on the Internet. If I go to Google now, I can find bizillion of these answers saying the same thing over and over again.

Don’t get distracted with a lot of noise on the Internet. If you have set your goals this year on specific things to do, stick with it. The Internet is full of hype and a bunch of people who are always trying to sell you things to join them on making money, taking courses, signing up for new affiliates, etc.

If you are a brand new blogger, this can be overwhelming. You don’t know where to turn to or who to listen to. Everyone is inviting you to Lala Land promising you this and that. The fact is money online doesn’t come overnight. It takes a lot of time, hard work, consistency, and dedication.

Every single time new social media are being introduce. You don’t know where to go. You don’t know which one to pick. Everyone promise you this and that. Your head is spinning and do not know exactly which where to go and which one to pick.

What is your goal this year?

Ask yourself. What do I want to accomplish this year? How do I target these goals? What is my true passion in life? Do I just do things for the sake of money? Or money or not will I still be doing what I’m doing now?

What is your answer?

I’m sure that by talking to yourself you will find an answer deep within you. There will come a time when the light turns on and you get that “aha” moments. The thing about this is, money becomes easier when you do something you are passionate about.

Whether this is fashion, hairstyle, or the latest gadgets…you just have to have that passion or you will never make it in the world of blogosphere. If your only reason is to “make money online” then you are heading for the fall. Business online takes time to accomplish. Traffic takes time to develop.

In today’s world it’s very hard to reach the top…

…specially in the year of 2014. Seven years ago, perhaps it’s enough to just have quality content and you make it to the top of search engine and you make money! But now, it takes more than that. You combined the YouTube, Blogging, and Podcasting…targeting all areas of audiences out there. But then you still have the social media. You have to promote your post still and keep up with your followers specially if they shared your posts, you can thank them via social media!

Related Post: Blogging Isn’t Enough: We Have to Create “Intimate” Content

Rob Cubbon said that there are 400 million bloggers and only 400 thousand podcasters! The Internet is so saturated with millions of bloggers every year, sharing the same content over and over again. Even if you are writing that “Quality Content” it is not enough. Lisa Irby said, it should be “Engagement Content” instead of “Quality Content”. What is quality content if you have no traffic coming to you?

No matter how hard you tried writing that article with quality content, there are tons of the same information on the Internet. If these people are getting 2,000 views a month and you’re just beginning, you will get lost in the crowd. Your content will never be found.

So instead of hassling on the Internet…I mean I didn’t say you should stop blogging, but blogging nowadays is just the side dish. It’s like your sidekick when you are doing your YouTube or Podcast. You can always refer them BACK to your blog when you are talking in your YouTube or Podcast.

What I’m saying is…go with the low competition but very high in demand. YouTube is highly in demand. But even that, there are 1.2 million YouTubers being born each year. Thousands of YouTube every minute. But there are not too many Podcasters. And this my friends is the wave of the future!

There are 1 billion smartphone users!

Mobile device is the wave of the future. How many times do you take your smartphone with you even just going to the bathroom? I know I do. I cannot live without my iPhone. I take it everywhere! If I lose it, I’m gone too. And so yeah…that little computer in your hand is the wave of the future! So better start now…doing podcast in the year 2014 — The Year of the Podcast.

If podcast is not your cup of tea, then you better have a very interesting content that is “engaging” and something that can evoke or elicit response from your audience. Make it interesting. Be creative. Put more images. Perhaps make humor and be funny. I don’t know, be my guest, sky is the limit.

Just be different and stop being like the others.

Related Post: 21 Truths About Making Money Online People Never Reveal But Should!

Lisa Irby just hit the nail on the head. She talks about a lot of other things but the main thing that really caught my attention is, that some people are still wasting their time getting that FREE wordpress theme or signing up the third party like wordpress.com and creating their blog their for their business!

What a waste of time and energy. Plus later on if you decide to get your real dot com domain and redirect them to your new website, you lose your followers! They don’t know where to follow you. Because of that 301 redirects, this is a pain in the ass! PLEASE BE WISE AND DO NOT GET A FREE FLATFORM OR FREE WORDPRESS THEME. You are losing your audience as well as your SEO!

If you’re going to do it in the beginning, do it right from the start.

Related Post: Why Jon Morrow Said to Ignore Most Popular Bloggers

…another interesting post from Adrienne Smith. Just write great content, right? Not anymore. Jon Morrow said that “in order for me to write great content it should include drama, data, depth and design.” While I’m not really quite too gungho about the drama but I think the data, depth, and design are very important.

Go a mile or two more. Some people put statistics. Or write an eBook. Or maybe start your own YouTube channel. It could be podcasting. Whatever tickles your pink, if you don’t feel right doing it, it’s not going to work. So how do you go the extra mile to compete with 400 bloggers who are craving as much attention as you are? What are your thoughts? Give me your feedback. 

[ Transcript ]

Hello everybody this is Angela from angelamccall.com. Today is very, very hot here in Fresno and I don’t appreciate it.

Oh, Winter please come! It’s so hot out there my air condition is blasting and the lamp pointing at my face is hot. I am sweating.

Anyways, but I’ve been doing this video now for like how long…I’ve been…maybe this is now for the 10th take. It’s amazing, sometimes I just can’t seem to record a perfect video! What is wrong today! Jon Morrow said that “

Specifically, I don’t really have anything…a topic that…what I was going to specifically say today. But I want to tell you I read a couple of blogs. One is from Lisa Irby and the other one is from Adrienne Smith. And it’s so interesting, even SEM Rush is talking about “quality content”.

Why quality content is not enough today?

Seven years ago, it’s so easy to reach success. Or you can make money so easily just by having quality content. Now, quality content becomes so regular. And it’s not as important because there are so many people out there who are blogging.

As I read Rob Cubbon’s blog, he said that there are 400 million, that is million okay? 400 million Bloggers. And 1.2 YouTubers. And there’s only 400 thousand Podcasters.

So if you are not into podcasting, maybe you might want to start that and reach a different type of audience out there because…well, I’ve been thinking maybe someday I’d like to do the podcast. But I’ve been doing my research on this.

And I’ve been shopping for microphones like the Blue Yeti or maybe RODE NT1. You know professional microphone. Both that I can use for singing and podcasting. So I don’t want to spend the money just for the sake of spending the money. If I’m going to spend $500 dollars, I might as well just get the whole entire studio here.

Ah, the Blue Yeti is pretty good. It’s not as expensive. Maybe you can get one of those for like $80 to $100. The Blue Yeti microphone…Blue Yeti microphone PRO…is the one that could attach to your USB and XLR. So that’s the one I wanted to get.

So I’ve been researching for microphones for…what can I do in this podcast. It’s not as easy as I thought. I mean it’s not as cheap as I thought. I mean it cost money. So if I’m going to buy the microphone, I better stick with podcast, right? But if not I probably will just use it for singing ‘cause I like that professional sound.

Anyways, like I said, there are 400 million Bloggers. 1.2 YouTubers. And only 400 thousand Podcasters. If podcast is not your cup of tea, then perhaps maybe you might want to address yourself to create a unique content, be creative, put more image in there because…if you want to stand out, it’s very very hard to make it in 2014.

This is actually the Year of Podcasters. There’s not too many people is doing it because it’s not as easy and it’s not as cheap either.

A lot of people are doing YouTube, there’s probably like thousands of brand new YouTube every single minute. So you actually…you’re competing with these people!

So anyways, I wrote that besides quality content, I think the best way to stand out is by doing guest posting and make sure that your content is interesting.

It says that…someone said that, it only takes 12 seconds to get someone’s attention on the Internet specially on YouTube. If you’re going to create a video make sure in that 12 seconds it’s very interesting. Otherwise, you’re losing audience, you’re losing people.

There are actually 4 main search engine. The Amazon.com, if you write an eBook that is a search engine. Also YouTube is a search engine. And the Podcast iTunes is also a search engine.

So besides Google you have these three other things…of course…

So anyways, I wrote a little bit for today, so I hope you read it and tell me what you think about the Quality Content of today. What is your idea? Or what is your thoughts about this? Make sure just leave me a comment okay?…I’ll talk to you later. Bye.

Filed Under: blogging, video blogging Tagged With: video blogging challenge

How to Create a Google+ Badge

June 25, 2014 by Angela McCall 16 Comments

How to Create a Google+ Badge in Your Widget?

This is simpler than it looks. If you have a Google+ go ahead and sign up on your account first. Then either you go to Google search and type “how to create a google badge” in the search window or go to this link right here: https://developers.google.com/+/web/badge/

When you click the link above, you will see that there are several features in there to choose from.

It’s either on Portrait or Lanscape. You can also change the width. Most Badges or Banners on the side of the widget measures 250 width. Some are 300 width. I normally use the 200 width coz that’s the normal size that everyone use for their widget. Commercial banners such as your affiliate products use either 250 or 300 width. But I like the measure of 250 width. So I will go ahead and use it.

You can change the color of your badge to either Light or Dark. Just click the button there. Depending on the color of your website. You have choices between the two.

googleplus-badges-different-sizes

Also they come on different sizes and what Profile or Page badge you want. You can create one from your main profile page or business page. You can make it either as wide or big as you want.

[ Transcript ]

Hello everyone, this is Angela from angelamccall.com. Today is the very time I’m going to be using my iMac to create a tutorial video.

Harleena Singh requested me to do a tutorial video. She’s from aha-now.com. She asked me “How to Create a Google Badge in Your Widget”. Not the business page but the personal profile in Google Plus.

To show you exactly what I mean what Google badge is all about is, I can show you on my website.

On my right hand side widget, it says Angela McCall and it says G+ and that is my Google badge. Anyways, you can either go to Google and type “how to create a google badge” and it shows you a bunch of stuff in here, for people who created their posts on how to create a Google badge or the very first one here that says “Google Badge” which is direct from Google itself.

So lets go ahead and click the first link. If you click this, it will lead you to this page and it will show you all kinds of features that you can do. You can create this badge up to 400, I think 450 is the biggest one. Or you can make this 250…which is the normal regular banners that a lot of these affiliate products are using on your widget. So if you want it to make it a uniform, you can go ahead and copy their width.

Also if you want to make it Dark or Light, you can do that. You can disable you Cover Photo or Enable it. I normally just leave it “as is”.

And here is the code that you can cut and paste on your widget. But before I cut and paste on my widget, I want to show you down here, that you can also create a Profile badge, Google page badge, or a Community badge. And it gives you all kinds of codes down here. So it’s your choice.

Also you can do animation on your badge. I haven’t done it. I haven’t tried it. So…but it’s just…some of these neat and cool things that you can do with your badge. So let’s go ahead and cut & paste.

Cut…and paste. I copy and I go back to my widget.

And you can see how it is. So go back to my site. And you can see the very last one that I cut and paste. Right there. So that’s the way you do it.

Filed Under: blogging, tutorial videos, video blogging Tagged With: google+ badge, video blogging challenge

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