The Jing Project Goes PRO

I’m well aware that some of you may or may not already know about this, but on January 6th 2009, TechSmith released a PRO version of Jing. (Yes I’m a whole 12 days late in telling you!)

The original version of this software, which is still available, can be downloaded for FREE from the website. But for just $14.95 per year, you can grab the PRO version. And for anyone who wants to know, it boils down to 28.8 cents a week!

If Camtasia Studio is out of your budget, then Jing would be a great solution for you. Now I’ll admit it, Jing does come with limitations. I’m pretty sure that TechSmith only set Jing up as a little project, don’t know where I get that idea from, and it’s really taken off! – A good chance there will be more information over on their blog.

Check out the full list of features along with screenshots and descriptions!

Because the Jing Project seems to be going from strength to strength, and with many users requesting some new features, it would seem appropriate for TechSmith to release another version. And while there is a PRO version out, I still believe that both versions will still be updated over time.

Are you a Jing user?… Let me know in the commets section below!

Internet Marketing VS Baguette Express

We all know that customer service is key, and keeping our customers happy is our number one priority. It’ll either make or break your business! – However, I’m about to show you how NOT to treat your paying customers, with something that happened to me when I visited one of my local shops for a bite to eat.

Usually most Saturday’s I head off to Baguette Express, and for the one’s on the other side of the pond, it’s basically just a baguette shop were you can pick whatever kind of filling you like.

So this one Saturday my mum went in, she was passing, and decided to go and get me it instead. I enjoy a Chicken Tikka baguette, so that’s what my mum ordered me. Now she did think that the member of staff had put on something different, but as  she said to me at home, she wasn’t really sure so brought it back for me to try.

Well I instantly took a look at it, and said that’s Chinese Chicken, which I really don’t like. But I took a bite anyway just to make sure, and it definitely was. (With this happening to me before, on more than one occasion, my mum was furious so went back to the shop!)

If you think back to what I said a little earlier, can you guess what’s coming?

Turns out it WAS in fact Chicken Tikka – Makes my mum look like a right old muppet, but also the member of staff too, as they are virtually ‘arguing’ over a baguette and the filling.

Baguette Express had ordered this particular filling from a different supplier (That’s got something to do with the customer?), and there’s nothing they can do? By this point, a nice little queue has started to form. I really wish I’d gone along now! LOL

My mum tells them about the service we’ve been receiving, along with everything else, but also said that we’ll not be back! To this day, I’ve only been twice after this happened. Must be over 2 or 3 months too?!

So what has this got to do with Internet Marketing and customer service I hear you ask? Let’s look at it this way, if we had a customer who wasn’t satisfied with their purchase then we’d offer them a full refund right?

Did Baguette Express do that for us?… NO!

Not even the offer to exchange it for another filling, as I’d gladly have accepted just a normal Ham baguette. And before you ask, I don’t like all those optional extras they offer you.

Being an Internet Marketer, some of us may have even provided the dissatisfied customer with some kind of gift on top of their refund, just to apologise for the inconvenience caused. It’s not something you have to do, but I have seen a few people doing it.

What’s the important lesson learnt today then? Always keep your customers happy, and a nice way of doing that is providing them with FREE content every now and then! You’ll have a much better change of getting a sale, as it’s the subscribers way of thanking you for all the advice you’ve given them, and for all you done.

…Look at how some of the other marketers do things!

Have you had any similar experiences that you’d like to share with the rest of the world, then drop me a comment below?!

6 Days In, What Have You Done?

Believe it or not, but we’re already 6 days into 2009. And as if time isn’t already flying by, I’ve still got plenty more things I’d like to get done before 31st January! I must admit, it’s taking a little longer than I first thought to get back into the swing of things after taking time off and having a bit of fun during the holiday.

Since I last posted, I managed to get a few things ticked off the to-do list.

The main one being was that I contacted my programmer, and talked about a few little tweaks we could make to the script. And out of the 4 or 5 simple things that we can tweak, it will ultimately make the users experience much more enjoyable, but easier too!

I’m not exactly sure of the saying, or even if there is one, but often it’s the smallest things that make the biggest difference! In fact, let me give you this example.

When you first setup a blog on WordPress, it comes installed with a default theme. That theme may be what you’re looking for, but for for most it’s not. With a quick search in the Theme Directory, you may be able to find another that’s going to be more suited for the kind of blog you’re creating.

…See how small that tweak was, and how much of a difference it can make?

Along with that email tennis, I’ve been giving this PC of mine another little spring clean. It’s not something I like spending hours upon hours doing, so I’ve really just been working my way though little chunks at a time. I’m amazed when I see multiple copies of the same file saved in completely different areas.

On a lighter side of things, I was very pleased to see a couple of commissions in my ClickBank account over the weekend (Friday and Saturday actually!) But considering the fact I wasn’t really doing any work, it’s a great feeling.

What have you been upto? I look forward on reading your comments!

Looking Back On 2008

Today is the start of the new year, so it seems appropriate to look back at 2008, and see what I did and didn’t achieve. However, before I start talking about that, why don’t we take a look at the top 10 most popular posts here on Mark-McWilliams.com (This may not be 100% accurate!)

• Password Protect Any Webpage – The SIMPLE Way!
• Google Analytics, FileZilla And The Warrior Forum (Part II)
• The Final 2 Marketing Tools (Part IV)
• To Plugin Or Not To Plugin, That Is The Question…
• Has AWeber Shot Itself In The Foot?
• Did You Just Say PLR? (Grab Something For FREE Today Too!)
• What Do Comment’s Say About Your Posts?
• Don’t You Just Hate It When People Won’t Reply?!
• Blogger, WordPress Or WordPress (Part III)
• Have You Registered YourName.com Yet?

If I must say, I do agree that these are some of the top posts here on my blog. And I’m just going by what it tells me, but I do have others which I quite like myself!

The most important thing for me, is to launch my first ever product. Now this actually went into development near the end of last year I think, and there have been times wondering WHY and HOW I still never managed to launch it back in 2008.

I believe one of the reasons is the fact that I try and tackle too many projects at once! I’m willing to admit that, and there’s a good chance that I mentioned the same thing a few times last year too. So I suppose that, along with launching my first ever product, I’m also going to make sure that I just work on one project at a time. Meaning that I’ll actually be able to complete it (for once!)

Another one of my bad habits is that I keep tweaking things, and a prime example of that was this blog! It’s just the kind of person I am, and kind of the way I was brought up. I’m probably what some of you would call a perfectionist!

When I was speaking to Randy Smith a while ago now, he mentioned the fact of how he believes that I’m scared of my own success! I’ve never told any of you this, but it wasn’t until I got an email from another marketer, that I started to see what Randy was talking about here! – You see, there are still some things which I’m scared of, and it’s not just that either. If I think about it in a little more detail, I keep putting things off for no reason. Now in my eyes, and I’m sure others, it all boils down the fact that I’m scared of what’s going to happen!

It isn’t even going to stop there, as I’ll make sure I post loads more content on the blog for you all to read, absorb and learn from. If you want me to cover anything in a particular post, then don’t be afraid to shoot me a support ticket, and I’ll do my best to write one up and publish it!

(I’d also like to take this moment to wish you a Happy New Year, and as always, your comments are appreciated!… Have you got any posts from my blog that you liked and aren’t in the top 10? Why not post a link to them too then?)

A Very Merry Christmas To You All!

Today being Christmas Eve, I just wanted to take a quick 5 minutes to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!…

(Hasn’t 2008 just gone quick?)

Now as always, I plan on stuffing myself full of Turkey, and not to mention everything else we have at the same time too! I mean isn’t that the whole point of having a Turkey?

It’s also that time of the year where I watch all these films the BBC so kindly put on for us! That does also includes any of the other channels such as ITV. And so far, the line-up isn’t too bad!

Please do enjoy yourself over the festive period. I’ll either be back with a couple of blog posts to end the year on a high, or just catch you in January 2009! I’d like to THANK YOU for being a loyal subscriber/reader and look forward to working with you next year!

Keeping Your Old Scripts Up-To-Date Is Important!

It goes without saying that ANY script out there is going to be upgraded over time, and while some might have minor changes, there will be others that have massive updates. After all, the internet is changing almost every single day!

Now if you know me, and why shouldn’t you, then you’ll know that I really am a big fan of WordPress and talk about it were I can. Well I bet you’re never going to guess what they released last night while I was tucked up in my bed?

…Yip, you guessed that one alright!

Last night was the night were Version 2.7 was released, and at 9:30 this morning, I upgraded Mark-McWilliams.com so that we were running the latest version. (And this is one version that I couldn’t wait to start using here!)

There are many reasons as to why people don’t upgrade old scripts. The main reason I’ve seen, and heard, is that they can’t be bothered and it’s too time consuming! Because of the new features in WordPress 2.7 I had to edit a few styles in the stylesheet, and change a .php file that incorporated the new coding. Now I do appreciate the fact that not everyone can do things as quick as I possibly can, but even if it took you 20 minutes to upgrade your blog, then is it not time well spent?

Out of all the script’s I’ve ever upgraded, they are either for bug fixes of because the owner has introduced some new features. It doesn’t matter if the script is free or not, why wouldn’t you want to make sure that the version you are using is functioning as it should, but also take advantage of anything new?

I keep saying it over and over again, but it really is important these upgrades get done, as soon as you possibly can. Why would the developer release a new version of the script, if it wasn’t fixing something of better?

It was only a few days ago that Sam (From DLGuard) sent me an email to say that there was a new version in the members area ready for me to download. A new payment processor had been added, and also a few bugs sorted out too.

Moving back to something I mentioned earlier about not being bothered, well why not see if you have a friend that wouldn’t mind doing the upgrade for you, or even asking the script owner?! But if neither of them sound right, you could always hire a freelancer from a site like ScriptLance.

So have you got a WordPress blog of your own?… (Well is it running on 2.7 yet?)

What kind of person are you when it comes to upgrading? Let me know in the comments below, and as a little challenge, see if you can spot one of the new 2.7 features!

Thank You For The Feedback

Just over a week ago I created my first ever video, showing you How To Install Google Analytics, and published it over here on my blog. Now considering the fact that I hadn’t created a video like this before, I would have said that it was a pretty good first attempt!

I’m glad to say that everyone who left me a comment, or spoke to me elsewhere, agreed. And although I had a few hiccups, I can only improve on this over time right?

So what went wrong?…

• Well the main topic that was brought up happened to be the volume, and while I don’t want to stick the microphone in my mouth, I’ll see what I can do to make this better for the next time.
• Nobody brought this up, but I thought while watching the video back, it looked a little hard to read. This is probably down to using the wrong size to start with, which I believe was 640 x 480. (So if anyone knows the right size to use, please leave me a comment!)
• Another thing Carol brought up, is when I moved the recording window from left to right, I could possibly do that a little slower.

It’s all fair and well pointing out the problems, but what about the things that went right? What were the advantages of doing this, and how will it help me out in the long run?…

• The main point I think we can cover is that I stepped out of my comfort zone, and did something that I normally wouldn’t do. A huge thanks actually go to Lee McIntyre, and Randy Smith! – If it wasn’t for Lee bringing up this topic on his blog, then I most likely wouldn’t have done this. And although it was a while ago, Randy gave me the idea to create a video showing you exactly what I did!
• My blog readers want to see MORE video’s from me, and because of this, it gives me a real boost! Creating a video is one thing, but hoping your readers will enjoy it is another. If after posting that video it turned out my visitors didn’t like what I’d created, then of course I’d ask them why.
• From the comments I received, you can see that the video has helped a few people out, showing them how they too can install the simple javascript code onto their blog. (And that was the main aim of the video!)

The main reason for this post today was to THANK YOU for the comments and feedback regarding the video. It really means a lot to me and I much appreciate it. So all I can say for now is, keep your eyes peeled, and lookout for the next video coming to a computer screen near you!

How To Install Google Analytics

The question about installing Google Analytics on your blog, or even just a normal site, pops up from time-to-time. And in fact, I often get asked how to do it. Well today was that day I decided to jump in at the deep end and create my first ever video for my blog readers!

Now as I said, this is my first video and I do apologise if anything doesn’t sound right, or indeed look right! To say that I was a touch nervous would be an understatement don’t you think?

What did you think then? Should I just stick to the writing, or would you like to see a few more videos from me in the future?