America is still the greatest place on Earth

Despite all the problems people think the United States has, it's still the greatest place on the planet. I'm grateful to have been born in the United States. Proud to have served in the military defending the freedoms of the United States. Excited to be part of the future United States of America. I encourage everyone to look at what you can do to make this Country stronger. There are many things to do, including voting. It's your Country, help shape its future.

This Country relies on its Citizens to make things happen. The current generation must take control and build a strong future. You have the ability. There has never been a time in history where so many can be reached and real change made. Do it. Do it today.

Shout out to all my Military brothers, especially my United States Marine brother. Semper Fidelis. Ooh Rah!

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Put Your RSS Feed Above The Fold

There is an old media phrase "above the fold", basically meaning any material that is printed at the top of the paper. This is the most read and usually the most important news in the paper. Your website/weblog has a fold too. It's the bottom of a visitors screen, or somewhere near there. Your most important links and content should be above the bottom of the screen.

It may be just me but one of the first things I look for when I am visiting a site is the RSS link. If I think a site is one I want to continue reading after I leave I add them to a my RSS reader. But I hate having to hunt for it. Everyone who writes a blog wants return visitors. The most common way to do this is provide an RSS feed. But more importantly is that you make it as prominent as possible. Most readers look for an icon like this.

RSS feeds are important and I'm not going to get into the mechanics of RSS because it's been written about thousands of time. But help your readers out. Encourage them to subscribe.

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Is Apple afraid the iPhone is an iPod killer?

I'm sure it's no secret the reason Apple decided to only provide an iPhone with 4 or 8 gigabytes of storage space is so they wouldn't kill their wildly popular iPod line.

Ok, that is probably not true. However, I have the same problem that a lot of new iPhone users will have. My phone, a T-Mobile MDA, which is capable of playing music and video, has such a small amount of storage space that I have an iPod just for music and video. How crazy is that? With the low cost of memory and the nano sized technology available today, you would think offering 30 gigabytes of storage in the iPhone would make sense. After I've saved some music, videos, pictures, I have nothing left and with the absence of removable storage I'm sunk.

It's a very well thought out plan. No matter how cool the iPhone is, and I'm sure it's cool, just ask Robert Scoble who was Twittering about it at 2AM, you're still going to need two devices to have all you want. I think Apple really dropped the ball. Instead of adding a new device that would rule all it added a device that needs help.

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Giving Props To My Peeps

Janet Meiners just posted about giving sincere thanks to those who have helped you along the way. There are a few people I wanted to thank that have really helped me over the past few weeks.

Janet Meiners. She spent some time with me the other day helping me see some opportunities for moving my new business forward. Janet is an Internet Marketing coach and is very easy to talk with. While she really doesn't work with people like me, she didn't hesitate to at least give me her point of view. Thanks Janet. [website]

Ash Buckles. Thanks Ash. I sincerely mean that. Ash doesn't mess around. He knows what he wants. He works real hard. I watch what he does and how he applies himself. [website]

Jason Alba. Thanks Jason. You really need to get to know Jason. Jason helped me this week with setting some priorities for my new business. One of the things I appreciate about Jason is his simple no nonsense attitude. Always do the right thing. [website]

Chris Brogan. Thanks Chris. I'm not real sure yet why I feel such a connection with Chris, but I do. He also doesn't know me from Adam, although we have posted comments on each others blogs and we are Friends on Twitter. Chris gets it. Chris is the kind of guy that is always thinking about the next thing. He's like 5 moves ahead. I've told Chris before, he has my dream job. You may be wondering how Chris helped me. Well, Chris is always motivating; always asking questions; always moving forward. [website]

Jason Calacanis. Thanks Jason. I have been following Jason on Twitter for a while. Jason doesn't know me from Adam and thats too bad. I know he can't possible befriend everyone. I did managed to catch a segment on a satellite channel where Jason was giving his response to a couple guys trying to make a go of a new Internet Business. The one liner I took away from his segment was "If the CEO showed up late to an investor meeting, I'd fire the CEO". Something like that. It was great. I'm the kind of person that insists on being 15 minutes early. I'd rather wait to get started than show up late and have to make up an excuse. It shows a lot about a persons integrity and passion. [website]

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Isn’t social networking just contact hording?

There is a lot of hype today about Social Networking. Wikipedia defines a Social Network as

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes.

Huh? That sounds like psycho babel. Here is an image of a social network



So basically, the idea is to create an extended network of like minded people for the betterment of the network.

But as I look at the hundreds of "Social Networks" today, all I see are people trying to accumulate the most number of links, emails, track backs, nodes, what ever. I see little networking and trying to build something. I only see contact hording.

For good or for bad, Facebook is a great example of a "Social Network". It encourages its members to create groups, join groups, upload videos and pictures, tell everyone what books you're reading and what music you're listening too. MySpace also encourages its members to link together, post about each others MySpace site, change the look and feel, share music you like, pictures, and now video.

But with all this sharing, we still don't feel each other. Now I'm not trying to get all sappy on you, but its true. If you never actually talk to or see a person live its hard to establish a lasting relationship. That's why mail order brides have never really caught on.

Some folks are taking their Social Networking to the next step which is having local meet-ups, and getting to know each other for real. Chris Brogan does this. Jim Long does this. I'm sure there are many many more that do this too. We have even tried it in Salt Lake City, Utah, with some success, and are trying harder to make it happen more often. With the creation of PodCamps, FooCamps, BarCamps, XCamp and YCamp, people are actually building off-line relationships that strengthen their online relationships.

I encourage you to take your relationships off-line when possible. Start your own PodCamp, BarCamp or SocialCamp. Do it. You'll be surprised. If you can't start one, then go to one. Go to many. Heck make a career out of building and strengthening the Social Networks which already exist. Chris does this.

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