I just got the official paperwork today…

My WickedWordCraft.com tagline (Writing and Marketing Magic) is now OFFICIALLY a registered trademark!

Wicked WordCraft has been registered for several years, and back then, few people wanted to be “Wicked’ and you didn’t hear the term thrown around quite so often. There wasn’t “wicked weather” on the evening news or “wicked bargains” at your neighborhood store. The whole use of “wicked” as good concept was a trailblazer… way back then.

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If you are interested in learning to market your blog online, I’d love to help you in an upcoming seminar. I’ll be hosting a “Marketing Your Blog” seminar for RemoteProfessionals.com later this week.

Read on to learn more…

The event which will be free for all RP members and will be offered by RemoteProfessionals.com at a reasonable price to the rest of the world. (You may also want to check out the other upcoming events by other presenters).

If you would like to attend a one-hour interactive conference to help you get your blog-legs up and running, join me! If you are considering a blog, or if you already have one up and running, there are things you can do to help improve your visibility and your readership without requiring a great deal of your time.

Join me on January 25th to learn more.

technorati tags: Blog+Marketing, Marketing+Seminar, Online+Seminar, Marketing+Specialist

When you are just beginning as a virtual assistant or an online service provider, one of the biggest “stoppers” is the money. You think that running your own business means you will have low overhead. You think the computer you currently have can be “tuned up” without expense to manage a full business load. You think the software you have will probably be enough. You are probably wrong.

However, there are a number of online resources, shareware and open source solutions which can make starting your business less expensive — and give you the opportunity to start providing services before investing hundreds of dollars in software considerations. And, some of the options continue to be viable long after you have hit the “big time” and are a career service provider. For instance…

• FileZilla – an open source FTP client that makes uploading and downloading those huge files so much easier. It’s a slim little program that doesn’t “bloat” your system (and it’s a program I still install on every one of my machines!)
• OpenOffice – this open source software package makes it easy to get rolling without the investment of hundreds of dollars on Microsoft (or similar) products. It’s free. It’s good. It’s constantly improving and it’s compatible with most well-known and often used program formats. It has been widely adopted by government offices, educational organizations and is finding fans in teh corporate world. The main “hole” I see in this suite is a desktop publishing alternative.
• Google Mail – Get a good, free email account with lots of storage. You can set this to be your default email account (so it automatically opens whenever you hit an email link), and, you can brand it with your business name — if your name is not already taken. (While you are at it, you may want to look into using Google Calendar and Google Notebook and Google Docs.)
• GoDaddy Domains – Not a freebie, but it is a quick, easy and inexpensive way to brand your business from the beginning.

There are some other things you may want to consider as you get started to save you money and get you online quicker. For instance, you may want to consider launching a blog before you launch a full-featured website. Blogs are easier to set up and get you noticed in the search engines quicker than a traditional website. They are also extremely affordable.

A business blogsite may not be the solution you want long-term, but it may be exactly what you need when you are starting out. (Even if you get a full-fledged site later, keep a blog going to help boost your business). Note: Do be sure to use your own URL.

As you get started, be sure you have a basic idea of your business goal. You may not want to have a formal business plan, but you should at least have a detailed outline to use as a blueprint. Without this, you will spend much of your time revisiting decisions you have already made and chasing inevitable tangents.

Starting a business opens up a whole new world — and effective pre-launch planning, efficient organization, watching the cost considerations will help ensure your success.

EA Games has just announced a new mobile-friendly game, based on the famous Sims2 model. The company has announced three games, marketed under the umbrella of Sims Life Stories.

The first one is called Life Stories, is due out in February. The second, Life Stories Pets is due out this summer. The third is the one I most anticipate (probably because I’m such a huge “Lost” fan) called Castaway Stories.

But what do I look forward to most with this new offering?…
The fact that it will play in a window!!! So I can do other things while my Sims are living their lives. For those not currently Sims2 fans… you probably can’t understand the importance of this. For those who are… ISN’T THAT COOL?!?!

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I have a few ideas for your consideration:

• What would you say if, suddenly, you could no longer access the sites you like to visit? What if you were automatically redirected to a “similar” site without your knowledge or permission?
• What if your own site was no longer visible on the web or if it took MUCH longer to load your site than to load others?
• What if every search query typed in for real estate your area came back with a single franchise — the competition’s and you had no way to change that because they had an exclusive agreement with the ISP/Host/Search Engine providers in your area?

Sound impossible? It’s not….I’ve just returned from Memphis, the host city for the 3rd National Conference on Media Reform. I must say that about 17 years ago, I would have attended this (and probably the two prior conferences) from a completely different perspective — one of a journalist.

This year, I attended for one reason only — I wanted to learn more about the organizations and the individuals dedicated to helping insure that everyone who wants to define, pipeline, shunt and stifle the Internet is stopped. I went with one issue “Keep your grubby paws off my Internet!”

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Ok, I’ve been doing alot of thinking lately…

The conference planted a few new seeds, but mostly it fertilized the seeds already planted in my mind. And the vines are becoming dark and twisted. I’m getting mad… mad as hell, to use an overused (but extremely accurate) phrase…

I recently commented about working harder to make less. And I’ve done even more thinking about that now. I’ve determined the following:

• I work harder to make less (which means I spend less time with my family to give over more money in taxes to my government)
• My food supply is not a quality food supply (and quality food supply is not readily available, although that is improving — if you have the money to pay for organic foods and the time to search out and use local growers)
• The quality of my children’s education is abhorrent (this isn’t improving and I have little hope that it will)

So, I’m wondering if I wouldn’t be better off if I worked half as many hours, brought my children home and spent the other “half” of my time educating them. I wonder if teaching them to put food back, raise a garden and cook from scratch wouldn’t be a better use of my time and energy — and a better preparation for them. At the very least, I’d get to spend more time with my family. Quality time, working together, learning together, playing together.

I wonder if moving back to the farm is the answer. I’m wondering about alot of things and I’m trying to put it all together. And I’m redefining what I consider “poverty.” I talked with my father about this. We argued and “talked politics” for quite some time. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we violently disagree. Today, we did a little of both.

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I really enjoyed this spoof from the National Conference on Media Reform, and I wanted to share it with those of you who were unable to attend. I’m not really fond of our President, but I enjoyed THIS appearance…

Last night, I saw Geena Davis. Cool enough all by itself, but I found her to be an impressive speaker with an interesting message. I’ve never been much of a feminist — perhaps because I live in a time and in a country where I can do mostly what I want without worry.

But she made me think about a few things. About how women are portrayed to our children. As the mother of a 9-year-old, this rang a little more loudly than it may have otherwise. Her examples were matter-of-fact, entertaining, engaging and leave me still thinking about it this morning. For instance…She compared the cartoon “females” available to her growing up. Since we are approximately the same age, I can relate to all of them. One of the ones that stood out most was Smurfette. The ONE female in the 100 male-group of Smurfs. Initially ugly, and created by the enemy to bring down all the Smurfs (isn’t that nice?), Papa Smurf reworked her by plastic “smurfery” and she became a blond bombshell adored by all the boys. Hmmmm.

She talked about the “mysterious dead mother syndrome” wherein many films dealt with women by killing them off before the story started. Think The Rifleman, Bonanza, and even Nemo.

She mentioned that Loony-Tunes had one long-term woman. Granny. Davis explained, that she was the one who “owned Tweety bird and had to leave so the story could begin.” Interesting, I thought.

Then her other examples really hit home for me. She talked about Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie and Star Trek. Now, these first two shows were my childhood favorites — and as she pointed out they were about two powerful women who “sat on their powers for fear of pissing off their men.” I liked Star Trek too, and the only recurring female character there, Lt. Uhura (sp?) was “a glorified telephone secretary.”

On my own, I started thinking about the other women in Star Trek — all foils for Captain Kirk’s sexual foibles. Hmmmm.

Yes, I realized, she was right. There was a serious lack of female role models in TV when we were growing up. No wonder I was a tomboy and always “play acted” the male roles. Geena Davis did the same thing. (That’s comforting.)

What surprised me was that the disparity is still with us. Her not-for-profit www.SeeJane.org did the largest study ever done of G-rated movies and found that 3 out of 4 characters are male — even today! SeeJane is currently undertaking a study of TV shows and will be doing a study of PG-13 movies soon.

She ended by stating her goals:

• Work with the industry to close this gap and dramatically increase the number of female characters
• Create a public education/awareness campaign
• Reduce the gender stereotypes

She hopes in five years that reviewers will notice if there is only one woman in a movie and will make a note of the fact.

Davis ended the presentation with a few facts about our current political system. She said that we are 68th in the world for females in our government and that if we continue to add women at the current rate to public office, we will reach parity in 500 years. Davis said, “I think that’s too long.”

It was an excellent presentation. And I, for one, will now notice this when I see a movie.

technorati tags: Geena+Davis, SeeJane.org, See+Jane, Media+reform, women+in+media, NCMR2007

I’ll bet that, by now, you wish you had come to the conference. If you would like the “next best thing to being there” you may want to consider “tuning in” for streaming video…

If you are interested in seeing the evening’s conference event via streaming video, go here.

In addition you can get more information about the events, view photos and voice recordings by vising the main site: http://www.freepress.net/conference/.

You can also peek at a slew of photos from everyone at the conference posted at Flickr.

Enjoy! I’m headed to the conference center now to watch in person!

technorati tags: NCMR2007, , streaming+video, National, Conference, on, Media, Reform

I thoroughly enjoyed the session with the FCC commissioners. I genuinely related to these individuals in the panel presentation and Q&A format in the morning session. And I wasn’t alone. During one of the responses by Copps, I heard a female voice behind me say, “I love this guy, can we hang out with him?”

I couldn’t agree more. I’d love the opportunity to have lunch with these three individuals. Pro-public access, openly vocal about the problems with the current system — even the FCC itself — they are endearingly honest and openly frustrated… and yet they keep working.

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This morning, I picked up the news releases on the presentations last night by FCC Commissioners Michael J. Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.

Since these releases have the full body of the speeches that the two made at the National Conference on Media Reform event, I thought I’d share it with those of you who are interested, but were unable to attend the conference.

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When I returned from my blogging lunch (in comparison to a working lunch), I attended a speech by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. I’d just managed to wrap my mind around what I could do as a single person for this cause when he urged the audience to “light a match” explaining that in a room of darkness, a single match throws out alot of light.

I must agree…

In an effort to light my own match, I started working to gather more effective tools I need to explain the issues to my own “sphere of influence” when I return from Memphis.

During a later afternoon session on Net Neutrality, I had the opportunity to talk briefly with Tim Wu (probable author of the term “Net Neutrality”), professor of law at Stanford and proponent of Net Neutrality.

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This conference is one of the most diverse I’ve ever attended. People from all walks of life, of all ages, with a variety of agendas andinterests have converged in Memphis, Tennessee this weekend. I see what my sister described as “crunchy” folks — the granola crowd — when she accompanied me to my registration the night before the event. I’m not sure where I fit in her definition. I think I’m a bit “crunchy” from time to time myself.

I also see corporate suits (although these are in the minority) and everything in between. There are college students and retirees. There are concerned citizens and executive directors, some are here as activists, some have come to become educated on what’s at risk — there are women and men from all over.

This is also one of the most diverse groups from a technology standpoint. Some people are concerned most with the traditional media outlets, but there is an amazingly high percentage of wired participants. Wall outlets are in high demand. I’ve never attended a conference where so many members of the audience are “connected” during the presentations.

There are over 3000 people in attendance and “diversity” is certainly the best word to describe this conference on all levels.

technorati tags: Memphis, NCMR2007, National, Conference, Media, Reform

The conference is off to a great start. I’ve heard speakers and issue activists Danny Glover and Bill Moyers. Personally, I’ve been battling with what, exactly, my role should be in this fight. I’ve been battling with it for weeks. I now believe that by the end of the conference, I’ll have my game plan.

So far, I know I’ll continue to be vocal to my local political representatives (Not that it’s been a particularly productive pasttime so far). However, I must continue to try. My interests are broad — but interrelated.

• I think that the Internet is required for economic development in rural areas. That requires access.
• I think that our current defunct educational system could be better served by relying more on online resources to educate our children. (I have children that ride a rural bus for over an hour and a half each day to get, what I consider to be, less-than-adequate education). If it were possible to do online courses that were state approved in KY as they are approved in other states, my children would be studying online at home.
• I think independent workers and small businesses can compete more effectively with online tools and that the removal of geographic boundaries is advantageous to the businesses and our economy overall.
• I think NOT being required to commute and pollute our environment in order to do your job is a good thing. The Internet permits me to do just that and I want others to be able to do the same.

I think all these things are important. And although I find media reform a sticky and difficult to fully recognize, much less fully understand, I do know that these issues are what impact my own issues.

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We arrived in Memphis just after 1:00 a.m. and after a few hours of sleep, we hit downtown today. I was looking forward to spending my birthday in Memphis and it was a wonderful day. Sushi for lunch (check out BlueFin if you are ever in town — or if you are looking for a great place to eat while at the NCMR2007 conference.)

My sister and new nephew came down with me, so I had excellent company on the trip and have had fun out and about today. It’s much better than flying solo. Ezra, now at the ripe old age of four months, was a real trouper. We kept that poor baby out and about all day long. He seemed to love it. Tomorrow, the two of them will be doing her own thing while I’m in sessions.

This afternoon we then went to Peabody Place where we did a little
window shopping, picked up a couple items, checked out the Asian art
museum and relaxed with a large coffee and some gourmet chocolates.
Yeah, the diet is shot until I return home… then vigilance! But for
now, I’m loving life… and wondering why I don’t spend more days like
this.

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If you are a real estate broker … and one of the things you plan to do this year is get more organized (but the thought of doing the WORK to get more organized makes you decide this task can wait) — you may be interested in a new service I’ve found!

Long-time transaction coordinator (and the person I recommend to my own clients for these services), Karen Drebes of The Coordinator Group (www.CoordinatorGroup.com), has recently launched a new division, DocManagers. This service takes the burden of paper management off any weary broker’s back and makes life inside your office easier. (more…)

Well, it’s now officially official! Apple has released the first real photos of the new upcoming iPhone, due to hit the market through Cingular this summer. After a bit of a legal/financial rumble with Cisco over the ownership of the name “iPhone” — Cisco is handing over their rights to the name.

It makes me wonder if this slick-faced, multi-touch input device is actually what we saw earlier on the trademark and patents site, rather than the face of the new iPod to come. Or maybe the design will be used for both! Hmmmm…

If you want to see both “artist renderings” of what the iPhone was expected to resemble AND the actual photos of the prototypes (as presented by Steve Jobs)…

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It’s a new year, and I’ve just rebuilt my computer. Running a Tablet PC as a primary machine is an exercise in restraint. I don’t want to have anything that isn’t absolutely necessary, but, one of the things that IS necessary is security. Why? I’m so glad you asked!

Because “stuff” happens. Think it won’t happen to you? Tell that to my clients who have experienced:

• Virus attacks that have wiped out the business machine.
• Worm/back door trojan that unleashed delete sequences on their main hard drive.
• A pipe that broke in the ceiling over a desk and literally flooded and shorted out the machine.
• Hard drive failure (mechanical) – replaced by the computer manufacturer, but that didn’t help with the data.
• Fire that did enough smoke damage to render the computer useless.
• Power surge that wiped out a computer with all the data it contained.
• A laptop stolen when on a business trip.

And you also have the possibility of major disasters that are weather-related, floods, fires, etc.

When you are looking at your own computer security and data security, you should ensure:

• A user that uses a strong password (letters AND numbers).
• A computer that doesn’t run an administrator account as a default.
• A business machine that isn’t used by other members of the family (in particular teenagers, IMHO).
• An anti-virus that works flawlessly.
• A firewall that protects you from the outside without making you crazy when you are networking inside.
• A selection of spyware detection/removal tools that work well together.

Be sure that your maintenance is done on a regular basis and that you also do a weekly backup (at a minimum). You should also secure your critical data (no less often than once a month) on a removable drive and store it offsite. Then, if something happens to your home office or your computer, you will still be able to serve your clients!

This WAS the year that was supposed to be less stressful, right? This was gonna be THE year for me… wasn’t it? So how come we are already past the one week mark and I’m still playing catch-up?

So far, almost everything that could go wrong HAS gone wrong. My Tablet started acting up, so I spent last weekend (and much after-hours time yesterday) getting it back from a ground-floor regen in preparation for my upcoming trip. My Hubby’s birthday was nearly ruined when I left the grocery store with only half of the bags I purchased… leaving the jumbo shrimp splurge for his dinner in the self-checkout lane. (Note to self: when stressed out, let someone else ring up my groceries, so I’m sure I get my goods in my basket after paying for them.)

My sister called, over the weekend inquiring about all the details of the trip. There are some times in my life when I think I am a planner. All my friends laugh at my “every detail planning” methods. But, I’m trying to reform. I’m trying to plan less and live more. My sister… she’s a planner’s planner. She wondered if I’d done the MapQuest on how to get to the hotel and if I knew the best restaurants around that area and would I like her to do that for me.

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I just finished the fairly daunting task of rebuilding my Tablet PC.

When I bought it, I spent months doing what I do… pushing the limits and trying out everything. Now, I needed to fix the damage done by installing and uninstalling a plethora of programs — I needed to regen the system for the new year.

Now that the task is mostly complete (I still have to install some small things that will undoubtedly bite my butt over the next few days — there always is).

I thought that some other new Tablet PC owners — or those contemplating owning a tablet — may be interested in what I have running on mine and what I consider essential.
I don’t have all the cool tablet power tools or even the PowerToys for XP installed now. I’ve skipped most of the games and the extras. When you are working with a small hard drive, you need to guard your space for essential data.

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