I first heard of Fiverr through Ryan Lee’s blog. He was recommending that we outsource tasks so we can concentrate on what we do best. I took his advice that very day and contacted a seller on Fiverr to get help with my WordPress site. My site was very slow and I tried every trick I could think of but nothing was working. I needed an expert opinion.

Surfacing (username of the seller I contacted) did a fantastic job diagnosing my site and testing the speed using various WordPress plugins. After three days of testing his recommendation was that I need to change web hosts. Everything was fine with my WordPress site so it must be the server. He was right on. I changed web hosts and I saw a tremendous increase in my site loading time.

About Fiverr

Fiverr is a global … Read More »

A few years ago I was invited to a friend’s party at the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver; a private function taking place after hours as part of the Mineral Exploration Roundup conference. I recall the fun crowd, lively atmosphere as well as the Latin and vibrant dance tunes, but most of all I remember the handmade posters and photo collages showing my friend’s recent volunteer activities in South America which told a story of how she has been helping schools by donating books and used computers. I was touched by her efforts and impressed that a senior executive in the mining industry would take the time out of her busy schedule to assist children in need and encourage their education.

With the support of a few more women from the industry, Global Change for Children (GC4C), a registered non-profit foundation … Read More »

I made a commitment earlier this year that I will aim to spend at least 30 minutes a day learning something new that will help me build and grow my online businesses. As an online marketer, I figured it was time to give Pinterest some of my attention this weekend so I decided to attend a webinar hosted by Melanie Duncan founder of The Entrepreneuress Academy. It was time well spent!

Melanie is very articulate and has a great way of covering a lot of points in a short period of time. She covered some interesting statistics about Pintrest and gave valuable tips to help grow any business whether you are selling products or services.

Interesting tidbits:

“Pinterest is 2012′s hottest website” CNN
Pinterest grew to 10 million users faster than any other independent website in history
According to Mashable.com, most users are spending more … Read More »

If you are an Adobe fan like me, you are probably always tempted to upgrade every time there is a new release of your favourite product. However, we all know that is not always feasible. In a work environment where there are several users on the line, it takes time and various levels of budget approval to upgrade everyone. Plus there is always the learning curve to keep in mind and work flow disruption as everyone migrates.

With that said, at my office we usually try to skip a version when we upgrade. We recently upgraded all staff from CS3 to CS5 and of course a couple months later, Photoshop CS6 Beta is out to tease us. At least Adobe is giving us an opportunity to test drive it for free and thanks to Lynda.com there is free access to a … Read More »

I recently got back from Los Angeles where I attended a 5 day Internet Boot Camp (UIBC) which was part of my two year Quantum Leap program that I signed up for in November 2011. While it was hosted by Peak Potentials, the course itself was actually produced by “Click and Be Free”, a company owned by Alex Mandossian and Harv Eker.

The program is advertised as a “proven ‘step-by-step’ system that removes all CONFUSION and frustrating guesswork, geek-speak, and grief from creating a money-making internet business from scratch”. Being in marketing myself, a lot of the information was already familiar but there is no harm in repetition. After all “repetition is the mother of all learning”.

Pre-Training

The course started about a month in advance of the actual live date with several pre-training recorded teleseminars presented by Alex Mandossian. We were guided … Read More »

What do Trump, Kiyosaki, Robbins and Eker have in common? They’ll all be speaking at the largest personal and business achievement event of the year – The National Achievers Congress – and you’re invited.

If you are like me, you don’t want to miss out on this opportunity. The minute I received the email invitation, I followed the link and purchased my VIP ticket.

This event has already been a massive success in London, England and Sydney and Melbourne, Australia attracting over 10,000 people into each venue – and now Peak Potentials is a partner in bringing this monumental live event to the San Jose Convention Center, April 10th – 12th.

So for the first time in the USA, the National Achievers Congress is bringing these names on stage together:

Donald J. Trump – The Multi-Billionaire, One-Man Brand & Mega-successful entrepreneur will be headlining … Read More »

When we hear the word eBook, our first thoughts might lead us to think of eBooks for sale on Amazon.com or other book vendors which are typically digital versions of books already published in print format. However there are many books for sale that are only published in digital format and there are even more informational eBooks that are distributed free of charge and are mainly used as a means for online lead generation or customer education.

There are different eBook file formats that cater to different electronic readers on the market. Apart from the obvious file and device compatibility, each file format has its advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your target audience, you might choose to publish your eBook in one or several file formats.

Some of the most common file formats at this time are PDF, ePub (compatible with … Read More »

No matter what line of business you are in there will come a time when you need to demo your products and services in a more systematic way so you can reach a larger audience in the shortest amount of time possible. There are several products on the market that can package your screen captures, presentations and narration into a distributable format, like videos, flash presentations or eLearning step by step chapters. I have had a chance to work with both Camtasia Studio by TechSmith (approx. $300) and Adobe Captivate (approx $700) and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Camtasia Studio is more affordable, supports the much needed zoom feature that is lacking in Adobe Captivate but outputs files in a video format that is harder to edit. Basically it records anything taking place on your screen, even things you … Read More »

We all go through different sprouts of productivity depending on what projects we are working on and what time of year it is. Like many, I feel there is something about the months of January and September that mark a beginning of productive seasons part one and part two. In January it is about reassessing our life in general and goals for the year. In September, the typical back to school season, it is about work, training and improving our skills and value. Our birthdays can also act as a milestone for measurement, however unless there are unexpected life events or deadlines on the agenda, this model leaves a large stretch of time that could pass by without much personal and professional skills evaluation.

While attending the Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar in November of 2011, I bought a set of Secrets … Read More »

I was in Los Angeles again this weekend attending Freedom Trader Intensive by Peak Potentials; one of the seminars that are included in my Quantum Leap two year self development program.

While I have bought stocks in the past of public companies that I have personally worked for, in general I really don’t know much about trading yet. Our trainer Courtney Smith did a fantastic job teaching us the fundamentals of low risk and high returns position trading techniques. We learned about the psychology of trading, channel breakout, trend analysis, seasonality, risk management and so much more that are beyond the scope of this blog.

We also spent a lot of time learning how to read and analyze charts and looking for areas where some of the techniques we learned were manifesting through historical data. I got to know eps as earnings … Read More »

This year just flew by for me. It feels like I was getting ready for New Years only a few weeks ago. Looking back, it was probably because it has been one of my most productive years. I managed to squeeze in several trips to Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Cancun. There were so many new and exciting changes at work. I connected with friends and family on a deeper level, met so many new and forward looking people, learned new skills and started on an exciting journey of personal development training.

So much happened in the news as well with politics, global markets, tech industry and so on, but there are always a few incidents that tend to stand out more than others and it is usually those with an emotional experience. For me, one of those incidents … Read More »

On a personal level, I do tend to like responsive people. Who wouldn’t appreciate someone who is alert, open and approachable? The same applies to our online presence. We need to make sure that we are approachable and open for business to all no matter what device our site is viewed on.

I first heard of responsive designs while attending Adobe Max 2010. The topic of Mobile devices was highlighted during the keynote speech and other sessions. I was already in the process of migrating my existing site, designed in 2005, to WordPress using the Thesis Theme Framework. After the event, I decided to put that project on hold until I gathered more information on responsive designs. I spent weeks looking for the right theme, but only a handful addressed the issue of mobile devices.

Responsive WP Themes

Reaction WP
Super Skeleton WP
Seven Wonders
Responze
Elemin
Funki
Reveal
Bones
Skeleton

By … Read More »

Newsletters are an integral part of any business communication efforts. They maintain a customer relationship and can go a long way in educating and persuading prospects and clients to work with you. They give the reader a taste of what your business is all about and an opportunity to elaborate on solutions, topics and case studies that might not be appropriate for a short brochure. They offer a way of interacting with inactive customers and a chance to cross-sell other related products or services.

Online newsletters offer the advantage of a wider audience, are more customizable and easily personalized, very cheap to distribute, and save a few trees along the way. If you have a blog, you can use weekly or monthly newsletters to highlight some of your most recent posts.

However, print newsletters still have a prominent place and stand out … Read More »

During the spring of 2011, ACL Services Ltd. launched a new Audit Analytic Capability Model, a framework based on five levels of audit analytic solutions. My task was to come up with a visual concept that can be used for all messaging related to this launch.

As the main messaging revolved around steps and how taking each step up increased the level of solutions and benefits, it made sense to go with a staircase image for the visuals. A tagline of “Take your audit analytics to the next level”, tide the imagery well with the core messaging. In the linked gallery below, you will get a glimpse of how it all came together for advertising, signage and web.

Every year ACL Services Ltd. puts on a Sales Conference for the channel partners, sales and marketing staff. The themes vary from year to year but the main objective is to provide guidance on the road map, demo new products or features and generally to motivate everyone and give them the tools to deliver even better results during the upcoming fiscal year.

The theme was already picked, but this project landed on my desk needing work on the visual branding. The theme was ACHIEVE, which on its own is meant to inspire but in this case it was also an acronym for all the seven categories that would be covered during the conference.

We had already exhausted the athletic and Olympic themes the previous years as Vancouver was preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was time to come up with something … Read More »

I have moved a lot in my life and as a result don’t have boxes of “stuff” from my childhood or teenage years. Our home went through a major renovation after I went to college and I am only left with some of the items I took with me. My mom did hold on to my roller skates and a stuffed Snoopy Doll that I used to love so dearly. During one of my visits home several years ago, she suggested I pack Snoopy in my suite case and bring him to Vancouver with me. Yes, my Snoopy is now over 30 years old and has circled the globe. Made in Korea, purchased in England, grew up in Cyprus and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to live in Beautiful British Columbia!

These days Snoopy spends most of his time in the back … Read More »