Brush Your Teeth

I Love Chocolate. In fact, I like it so much that sometimes my will power will bend to the chocolate, rather than the other way around. But when I find my will power flagging, I have a sure fire way to stop myself.

All I have to do is brush my teeth. With clean teeth I don't even want to eat the candy anymore.

Today in an effort to stop myself from polishing off a bag of Dove Milk Chocolate eggs I went and brushed. While I was walking back to my desk I wondered if there was some way to "brush my teeth" to save myself from the other things that I do that I know I shouldn't. 

For example, I compulsively check my email. There's really no need, but I do it. For some people it might be facebook, news sites, T.V., texting, etc.

I wish there were some way to "brush my teetch" so that I didn't even want to check my email anymore.

So far the best option I've found is to use http://www.nestersoft.com/timeleft/ and work in fixed time chunks. What do you do to stay on task and away from the compulsive but trivial time wasters in your day?

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous

Crowd sourcing logo design

I sent through the process of helping a client with a logo design and some of our communication could be generally applied to anyone using a service like 99designs.com to produce a logo or identity for their website. It can be difficult to achieve the quality that you want with some of the crowd sourcing sites, but there are absolutely some things you can do to improve your chances.

Learn how to crowd source your next logo or creative project

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous

optincrusher customization webcast

I held a live webcast the other day where I installed optincrusher on several websites. If you're not familiar with optincrusher, it's the most effective way of getting visitors to your site to optin to your email list. If you want to build an email list in WordPress fast, this is the plugin for you. It gets attention without interrupting and provides high engagement for visitors that have interest in your offer.

The optincrusher customization webcast shows you how to use the included graphic files to create a completed customized and brand centered version of the footer that will engage your visitors while staying true to your identity.

It's currently running on no less than 13,645 web pages (possibly many more), and building email lists in WordPress for some very happy bloggers.

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous

Authorize.net for WordPress

Just a few months back I released my Authorize.net + WordPress plugin. While it's geared toward membership websites, people have purchased it as a standalone billing mechanism. It installs in minutes and provides blog owners with a reliable way to add a one page checkout that processes credit cards directly on their website. Here are some highlights.

• Get more sales in fewer steps
• Find the perfect offer with
  • Single (one-time) payments
  • Recurring payments (ongoing and fixed length)
  • Trail periods and amounts
  • Any combinations of single, recurring and trail payments
• Increase trust and confidence by running SSL on your site, just like banks do (extra charges apply, but I’ll show you how to do this for as little as $15)
• Get paid automatically
• Freedom from PayPal, ClickBank and other processors rigid requirements
• Effortless installation and configuration
• Seamless integration with MemberWing
• Customizable checkout and thank you pages
• Stand alone use for other business needs independent of MemberWing

The plugin provides a great deal of flexibility allowing both single and recurring payments. The notification callback feature allows integration with membership websites and other API style uses. If you need to use Authorize.net on WordPress, it doesn't get much easier than this.

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous

How to create a podcast

Lynn Terry has published a few articles recently that teach about podcasting. She's teamed up with one of the best in the industry, Paul Colligan, and they've come up with some really stellar material.

You can read more about it on her blog: How to create a podcast

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous

Running Shoe == Running Success

If one decade of running has taught me anything, it's that running shoes can make or break the habit.  I've posted a bunch on my blog at Maintain Fit about the importance of running shoes over the years, but I think that people still don't understand that running shoes should not be a budget purchase!

A former partner and I built a website dedicated to just this about a year ago.  When we split he kept the site and I was thrilled to hear that it's been super successful for him.  In fact he's been putting a lot of time in recently to not only review more shoes, but to make tools that would help people find the best price among a bunch of vendors when they were ready to buy.

If you're a runner (or want to be), do yourself a favor and make sure that you have running shoes that will help you succeed.

If you think this post is just a blatant commercial plug for my friend who still runs the site, you might be right.  I don't actually stand to benefit from it, but I have a permanently built in passion to help people succeed at fitness from the years that I worked on Maintain Fit.

Honestly, do yourself a favor and make a real habit of running.  You'll look good and feel good.

http://www.runningshoesexpert.com/

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous

Where is your tribe?

Early this year Ed Dale suggested I read a couple of books, The War of Art and Tribes.

I just finished reading Tribes last week and I have a mixed review. Closer to the end of the book there were some really great insights and overall I formed some new opinions about leadership.  So I guess he did his job.

If you want to read my thoughts on the book, I've published the here: Where's your tribe?

I'd love to hear your comments on it.  By the way, I love Seth Godin's blog and put a link to it from that article too. There's a lot of clarity to be had in his writing.  Make sure you check it out (and subscribe to get updates from him).

Posted via email from Daniel Watrous