The only time that the Pomodoro system really comes into play while utilizing GTD is during the “Do” step. When you go to sit down to do your work, instead of doing it in an unorganized fashion, use Pomodoro to break up and organize your work time. Normally in GTD, everything is organized except for the actual “Do” step. Although we are given contexts in deciding what work to do, we are not told if we should take breaks, how long to work for, etc. Pomodoro helps with this.

For the simplified version of the pomodoro system that I use, all you need is a timer or some sort (I prefer a kitchen timer, or try tomatoi.st), and a sheet of paper. First, look at your list of next actions and pick four that you want to work on. Write them on a sheet of paper. Set the timer for 25 minutes, pick one, and start working. When the timer goes off, put a tally mark next to your action, and take a 5 minute break. Now heres where my system differs from Pomodoro. In the Pomodoro system, you would normally resume here with the task you were working on for another 25 minutes. In my system, you resume here with any of the four tasks on your sheet. I find that sometimes working on something new keeps my creative energy flowing. After 4 Pomodoros, take a 30 minute break.

That’s it, that’s all there is to my system. This keeps me at least somewhat productive and prevents me from dazing off or spending my hours reading blogs and checking my email. (Sometimes this works even better if you unplug, by the way).

On Thursday (Dec 3), I did a clean install of OS X on my Mac. It was running slower and slower with all the crap I had installed and I was getting tired of the speed. I put in my Snow Leopard disk, formatted the entire disk, and ran the installer. The install process went through without a hitch. The main problems I encountered in this process were getting all the applications needed back onto my computer. I have installed everything I wanted to except for Adobe’s Master Collection CS4. All in All, it took about 20 hours of work, not to mention the hours spent downloading apps on a 100 Kbps capped internet connection (roughly 1/10 of my connection at home). Although it was a long process, it was well worth it. My computer is running extremely smoothly now, and I have adopted a more minimalistic setup than my previous one. The only hitches I encountered were:

• Installing iLife. Ended up using my old Leopard Disk’s and then updating.
• Getting my iTunes library back. Ended up copying the entire iTunes folder from my time machine backup onto my HD.

Overall this is definitely something I would recommend to anyone having trouble with their OS X, or who wants to see it “running like new.”

1. Think About the End
   Think about how awesome it will feel to finish this project. What will it bring to your life? If you don’t know what’s in store at the end, get excited and brainstorm what it could be.
2. Plan/Break It Up
   Instead of just starting and worry about what its going to be, sometimes its best to break things in to smaller steps, GTD style. Start off by planning instead of actually doing, so that when it’s time for the doing, you won’t be overwhelmed and you can take it in small chunks.
3. Don’t Plan, Just Do
   Sometimes it is best not to plan. For example if you are just trying to write a blog post, try freewriting. Just start putting ideas on to paper. They can be about anything, and eventually something valuable will come out that you can use for a blog post. Once you get some ideas out, then you might want to plan. Or sometimes the best projects aren’t planned at all. Your creative side of your brain isn’t your planning side, so sometimes plans can impede it.
4. Use Somebody
   I’ve found that a great way to get motivated is to tell someone the outcome of your project. How awesome it’s gonna be, how much work it’s gonna be, whatever. The more people you tell the better. Because it’s gonna come up in conversation, and when it does, if you haven’t started it, or barely done anything, your not going to feel to good. Although this may sound bad, it’s called negative reinforcement. Your subconscious mind is going to want to start that project so that next time you talk to someone, you don’t have to say “well, I haven’t really started yet.” Sometimes it is really difficult to motivate yourself, so having someone else do it is a great trick.
5. Ask for Help
   Many times you don’t want to hear the opinion of another when it comes to your personal projects, but sometimes their criticism is what you need. If you tell your idea to someone, and ask them to help you out, they may be able to provide valueable insight. Make sure it is someone useful though. Don’t go to the senior center and ask grandma what she thinks about your new Web 2.0 app.
6. Check Out Something That Will Inspire You
   Depending on what you are trying to get started, sometimes you need to look for inspiration elsewhere before the creativity really flows. Say you are starting a new novel. Read a couple great novels in your genre for inspiration. Writing a blog post? Read some blog posts similar to the one you’re trying to start. Trying to design a new logo? Look for some existing logos for inspiration.
7. Eliminate Fear
   Many times we don’t even realize it, but fear prevents us from starting something. Fear of failing, fear of the reactions of people, fear of a lot of things. Once you can accept and realize that this fear is what’s preventing you from starting, you can kick it to the curb. See emotions we experience, as well as other things like stress, all come from within. You have the ability to control your feelings and emotions whether you want to or not. So stop fearing, and start doing.
8. Set Goals
   If your project is big enough, even getting a huge chunk done won’t feel much different then getting nothing done. By setting goals for yourself, you can create a point when you will feel fulfilled that you got something done.
9. Reward Yourself
   When you finally do start working, reward yourself for your accomplishments. This will make you want to do better in the future.
10. Watch This (Three Parts, in Order)
    
    
    
    

That last one is by my favorite philosopher: Alan Watts (look him up on youtube!).

I hope this post helped you out.

It was an informative post, but what about us Mac users?

According to his post, setting up a new PC has five stages:

1. Denial: I’ve got a new computer. Nothing can go wrong now!
2. Anger: No, I don’t want to subscribe to AOL. No, I don’t want Norton updates. No, I don’t want a 60-day trial of Office 2007. There are HOW MANY security updates?!
3. Bargaining: I’d do anything to be able to use this thing!
4. Depression: I’ve been uninstalling Norton components for 17 hours now. If I have to restart the PC one more time, I swear I’ll kill myself… All I want to do is update Twitter!
5. Acceptance: OK, let’s install some good stuff now!

In My Opinion, setting up a Mac also has five stages (especially if you’ve just switched from a PC):

1. Excitement: There’s nothing quite like opening the box of a brand new gadget, especially if that is a brand new Mac.
2. Anticipation: As you set up the initial bit, you anticipate actually getting to use the computer.
3. Awe: Once you finally get to the Mac Desktop, you can’t help but feel a bit of cool factor come on, as you play around with different bits.
4. Tinker: Getting all the basics of the OS set up to your liking.
5. Use: Includes not only installing the software, but using it as well.

Once you’ve installed updates, set up your password, account, networks, etc. You can finally start using your mac.

Here is the list of free apps I would recommend you put on a new mac:

1. Google Quick Search Box
   Dustin start’s off his list with anti-virus. Let me congratulate you by saying, you have a Mac now. You don’t need antivirus. That’s right, I know it’s a lot to take in. But anyway, something many Mac users use is some type of launcher basically they allow you to launch programs, documents, etc quickly. Some perfer Quicksilver, some prefer Launchbar (Not Free) (I formerly used it), but Google’s Quick Search Box does the trick for me. It’s fast, non-intrusive, and does what I need. I would recommend any Mac user (or even PC user) start using a launcher.
2. Firefox
   Although many people choose to stay with Safari, Safari 4 has been buggy and slow to load for me. Also, Firefox allows you to install add-ons (I would recommend Adblock Plus). And themes (I would recommend GrApple Themes).
3. The Unarchiver
   This may not apply to everybody. But archives come in all shapes and sizes. The Unarchiver is a great tool for extracting just about anything you download.
4. Burn
   An awesome free software to Burn just about everything. Take advantage of that shiny SuperDrive in your new Mac.
5. Perian
   This is an awesome little set of plugins that will allow you to play just about any media file in QuickTime.
6. VLC
   IF Perian can’t play it, this can. It’s a great free media player, and can also perform encoding and conversion.
7. OpenOffice.org
   An awesome free Office Suite. It runs faster than Office on Mac, and costs 100% less.
8. Chax or Adium
   Adium is an awesome Multi-Protocol IM software. If you want to stick with iChat however, I would recommend installing Chax. It customizes iChat to be a lot better. With features such as a unified buddy list, Chax is great.
9. Smultron
   An awesome text editor, you’ll never run out of uses for it.
10. AppCleaner
    Although moving an app to the trash does delete the app, it doesn’t delete its settings, cache files, etc. AppCleaner takes care of that. A quick and easy way to fully uninstall apps on the mac.

Once you have these apps set up, you’ll have a pretty good base on which to get started working. What free apps do you like? Let us know in the comments!

Today my article is going to be  a review of two high quality, cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) SEO applications, Advanced Web Ranking, and Advanced Link Manager.

The ranking report software, Advanced Web Ranking, produced by Caphyon, is an, All-Purpose SEO software with tons of features. It covers all aspects of Search Engine Optimization, from Keywords to Search Engine Submission, to Reports, to PageRank, and even includes project management.

Let’s start off with keywords. For any serious SEO Marketer, keywords are one of the most important aspects of any campaign. Advanced Web Ranking can help you come up with keywords by integrating with services like Google Keyword Suggest and WordTracker. Already have keywords? Advanced Web Ranking allows you to import keywords from an existing website or a file. Once you get your keywords ready, AWR has a feature called keywords builder, which helps you create compound keywords, as well as group together your current keywords. AWR can also help you find the relevance of your keywords by integrating with the WordTracker Service (both free and paid subscription).

Next let’s talk about search engine submission. AWR has an awesome feature called “The Submitter” that guides you through the indexing of your site to search engines. Not only does it help you submit to the popular engines, but in total it submits your site to more than 400 search engines.

Of course the main feature of Advanced Web Ranking is the ranking part. The normal ranking technology checks your ranking in the major search engines by how close to the top result your site is for designated keywords. The software displays informative evolution charts of your ranks. It includes charts for Current Rank, Keyword Rank, Search Engine Rank, and the Visibility Rank.The software then goes beyond that with tons of added features. First, it allows you to see your ranking in Google PageRank, which gives you a second point of view for Google, the most popular search engine in the world. A feature I really liked about Web Ranking that most other softwares don’t include, is the Proxy feature. Say you have a client who lives in another country, or who is trying to advertise in another country. Just use the proxy feature, and it will allow you to route your connection through a computer in another country to get the most accurate information possible.

A really nifty feature of AWR is the Extended Data view. It allows you to select a specific keyword, and then compare all of the websites that you have loaded into the software. This is a great tool to check how certain sites are comparing to others. This feature also allows you to see “number of potential competitors,” a great statistic if you are writing a marketing plan or a business plan.
The last set of features for AWR that I found useful were the reports. Not only do they look good, but they provide all of the information I talked about above…and more. For example the Competition Report shows the information for selected site side by side for specific keywords, a great tool when analyzing the competition and where you need to spend the most effort.
After using the program, the only con I found was that it lacks integration with Google AdWords. This doesn’t surprise me though, as Google AdWords is technically SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and not SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I give Advanced Web Ranking a 4.5/5. It is an excellent software, and any serious marketer should think about getting it.

Advanced Link Manager, Link Popularity Software

Made by the same company, Advanced Link Manager is also cross-platform.

Although this is a more specialized tool, if you are in the Web Marketing business you know how valuable links are, both outgoing and incoming, and Advanced Link Manager is an invaluable tool. The two main sets of features are:

• Analyzing your Websites link popularity
• Finding potential link partners

The first set of tools that Advanced Link Manager offers, analyzing your websites link popularity, is an excellent tool if you are thinking about executing a link exchange campaign. First, the software allows you to find out who links to your site, and what keywords they use. Using this data, the software allows you to track the links over time, and see the trends that take place as you execute a link popularity campaign. The software also allows you to analyze the competition, so you can see the link strategy they us and where they get their links from. Another great feature of this software is allowing you to automatically allowing you to keep track of your paid links. If you purchase a link on a website or link farm, you’ll know when the link disappears, so you can make sure you don’t get ripped off. Another great features is the outbound links tool. If a paid link provider has too many links on one page, the links are not valuable and will not be worth the cost.

Advanced link manager allows you to analyze the number of outbound links on a page, so you can make an informed purchase.
The second major feature that advanced link manager has is allowing you to discover potential link partners. If you can find a link partner in your industry, it will greatly help both of your search engine ratings. Another great feature is that the software allows you to gather information about potential link partners, so you can find the best possible partner to share links.

Overall, ALM is great software, and should be considered along with Advanced Web Ranking by an serious marketer. You can buy both enterprise version (recommended for Search Engine Marketers) programs in a bundle for $600. A small price to pay considering the benefit you will recieve.

Welcome to zenspire. We hope to be a valuable source of information and tips related to productivity, creativity, technology, and zen. Currently we only have one author, but we could use more. If you would like to contribute, please contact us.

For my first post, I am going to give you 17 tips on Viral Marketing.

What is viral marketing?

Viral marketing is a marketing technique that uses pre-existing social networks to achieve brand awareness, and other goals (such as increased sales), through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses.
–Wikipedia

Viral Marketing is a buzzword encompassing a whole plethora of stuff. A better way to define viral marketing is by example. If a company gives away something for free, be it software, information, t-shirts, etc, it can be considered viral marketing. A great example is Skype. Skype gives away great voice/video chat software for free. To use the software to call real phones, or accept incoming calls however, costs the user money, and that’s where they profit. By giving the basic software/service away for free, they can insure that their customer and prospect base will be extremely large. If the Skype software was not free, Skype would most like not exist today.

The Elements of a Viral Marketing Campaign

Not every viral marketing campaign is going to work as well Skype, obviously, but by ensuring your campaign has the six elements of every viral marketing campaign/strategy.

1. Gives away products or services
2. Provides for easy transfer to others
3. Easily scalable
4. Takes advantage of common motivations & behaviors
5. Utilizes existing communication networks
6. Takes advantage of available resources

Let’s examine each of these elements.

1. Gives away valuable products or services
   “Free” is the most powerful word in marketing. Most successful viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services to attract attention. Free email, free information, and free software are all great examples. “Cheap,” “bargain,” “sale,” or “inexpensive” may generate a wave of interest, but “Free” will generate a Tsunami. Although giving something away for free may not initially generate profit, Viral Marketers practice delayed gratification. Eventually the profit will come, and when it does, it will be much greater than traditional marketing.
2. Provides easy transfers to others
   Viruses only spread when they are easy to transmit. The medium in which your message travels must be easy to transfer and replicate. Good forms are: email, website, graphic, software download. Viral marketing works best in the digital age because instant communication has become so easy and inexpensive. Digital format makes copying simple. For most messages, shorter is better.
3. Easily scalable
   Viruses can spread fast than wildfire. Ensure that when developing your strategy that you have planned for what will happen if your idea goes big. And its a good idea, just in case, to plan for it going real big. Think Facebook.
4. Takes advantage of common motivations & behaviors
   There are tons of drives behind people’s decisions. Things like greed, the desire to be cool, the desire to communicate, the urge to be loved, understood, etc. This might be the one thing that you can actually apply your knowledge from Marketing 101 to when it comes to viral marketing.
5. Utilizes existing communication networks
   Most people are social, and are constantly communicating through different means. Learn to place your message into these communication networks for true success in your viral marketing strategy. Great places to start are social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. In a future post I will elaborate more on social media, and how you can tap into it.
6. Takes advantage of available resources
   Many of the successful viral marketing campaigns use existing resources to get noticed. Examples are press releases, affiliate programs, and placing your message on aggregator sites. A great example is, if you make a free web design theme, put it on a website that hosts other themes.

Now that you’ve get an idea of viral marketing, here are some tips to help you get started

1. Don’t Sell
   Although this may go against every practice, ideology, etc, you learned in a marketing or business class, Viral Marketing is different. Viral marketing doesn’t give you sales by the actual thing you are giving away, but rather it greatly increases brand awareness, and therefore increases sales. As soon as you begin to sell, it will not bring in customers, but rather drive them away. The key is to make sure that what you are selling/distributing is something users will want, and want to spread/talk about.
2. Tell People
   This might sound simple, but many people are afraid to get the word out personally. If you are giving something away for free, tell people you know to begin with. If it is something valuable enough to them, and they tell other people, you have already started the wildfire.
3. Make Sure You Have a Strong Web Presence
   The internet is the main way that people find things today. If you are giving away a product or service for free, ensure you have a nice, functional website to tell people about it. If you can’t design a website yourself, hire a company to do it. My company, EnsoWorks Creative, for example, provides not only web design services, but marketing, and graphic/print design as well.
4. Do Something Original
   For viral marketing to really work, it has to be something that people haven’t seen before. If it is something others have done, make sure you tell people why it is different/better in some way. If it is not original, it’s most likely not going to get noticed.
5. Make it suck
   Yeah I said it. You have “pull” rather than “push.” What I mean is that instead of “pushing” information at users, you have to “pull” them by allowing them to actively seek what you are saying. A great article about making websites that “suck” is over at sitepoint.
6. Create a Story
   A great viral marketing tactic is to come up with some kind of story, and then release bits and pieces through various channels. A great example was the movie Cloverfield. Before the movie was in theaters, there were all kinds of websites runs by the production company that were part of the story. They all fit a piece of the puzzle.
7. Ask for Feedback
   The best advice you can get for your new offering will come from your users. Too many campaigns fail because they don’t listen to the people that are actually using what they have to offer. Easy ways to do this are to provide a feedback, or contact us page on a website.
8. Mix It
   Mix your viral marketing campaign with your tradition marketing campaign. Sometimes the perfect mix works out better then one or the other. An example of this would be Skype. Maybe their traditional marketing campaign is to sell their VOIP software to enterprises, so they release it for free for personal use. Then they wait until they are noticed, and then market the software saying “Is your company thinking about switching to VOIP? Skype is the most popular VOIP software on the planet.”
9. Give bits and pieces over time
   Make your offerings a mystery. Instead of giving everything away at once, give away bits and pieces over time. For example, upload small websites that each give a little bit of information for your authoring, and then a big one when the brand, product, etc is launched
10. Make ‘em want it
    Make your users want something bad. For example when Facebook came out, it was invite only, then eventually it became public, and the signups skyrocketed. By making it secretive/making people want it, their strategy worked out.