Disqus - Latest Comments for jmhelms

Re: Rescue Time With a Productivity Monitoring Tool

jmhelms — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:29:31 -0000

Thanks Harry, I will take some time and check it out.

Re: Extending Blog Comment Functionality and Management

shellharbour web design — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:21:28 -0000

you look totally good on video.. nice comment buddy!

Re: Screencast’s or Print Screens Free Through Jing

jmhelms — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:34:31 -0000

Actually Jing has updated quite recently, there is a pro version too.

Re: Find Book Reviews and Recommendations From Community

jmhelms — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:19:34 -0000

I'll have to check it out, thanks hannah1980

Re: Create RSS Feeds From Static Content Using Dapper

jmhelms — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:29:14 -0000

Yes, finding a consistent pattern of areas on a site can be a little challenging. It really depends on what you are wanting to use it for. If you are just monitoring the site for change selecting the whole page would be easiest. There are a few other tools available to monitor sites as well but Dapper is one of my favorites.

Re: Online Book Promotion Made Easy Tools of the Trade

dj2 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:30:27 -0000

I think you're jealous. This post literally invites one to submit their website or that category would not be there.

Re: Leveraging RSS Feeds and The Sage-Too Addon For Firefox

jmhelms — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:24:13 -0000

Hey Mike, Thanks for your comment. I totally agree that some of the best tools are also the simplest. There are a lot of options when it comes to aggregators Sage-Too is simple to learn and a powerful way to stay in touch with a lot of content.

Re: Track the Changes on Any Website or Page Easily

jmhelms — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:52:25 -0000

Sometimes fast and simple is the way to go. A business should place more energy into creating greater value than in tracking competitors IMHO. I suppose a general statement like that is entirely situational too. What do you think?

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:49:33 -0000

Aimee, Yes, I totally agree with you. Let me explain by quoting the last part of the paragraph and the first part of another:

"Social media is about communicating with people not pitching products & services. Contrary to some people’s perception social media is not a marketing channel to push your wares. If you disagree I invite you to voice your opinion in the comments below.

Social media for a business IS still a function of marketing."

I think we actually agree more than disagree. Of Social Media you mentioned that "It's not a sales pitch" and that is what I was attempting to say when I mentioned that "social media is not a marketing channel to push your wares" Notice the start of the next paragraph where I say that "Social media for a business IS still a function of marketing."

Thank you for your comments and insight about adding value when using the Social Media marketing channel. If you add value people listen and a dialogue develops naturally.

Re: Online Book Promotion Made Easy Tools of the Trade

jmhelms — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:05:50 -0000

Hey look everybody...this is what a spam comment looks like. (see above) Not only would I not follow the link but I would black list every email sent from this URL.

I don't mind URL's that are relevant to the discussion but just posting a name and URL is simply comment spam.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:26:04 -0000

Hi Calie,

The graphs are great...unfortunately I cannot take credit for them either...the images are attributed to their creators within the post. I did make the video, I am glad that the visual imagery was found to be valuable.

I don't think I have a great answer to your question, I do think that it is an absolutely fantastic question to ask. All I can say is what works for me, ultimately it's a question that everyone (and every business) has to answer for themselves. Personally, I am doing my best to engage with people no matter where I go...there is always room for improvement (and always will be). For a business/professionally it's necessary to engage where your customers (target market) are...that may be online, offline, or both.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

cwaterhouse — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:27:23 -0000

Hey James -

I am a problogger.net fan! I enjoy Darren's writing style and quality of information that he shares.

Your response made me pause. If we all strive for quality and contacts - Where should we invest the majority of our time? Are we personally and/or professionally better served through personal interaction (meet-ups, networking, seminars) or through building our on-line communities?

P.S. Wanted to let you know that your graphs are absolutely fantastic! Great visual imagery! Thank you, James.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:06:06 -0000

Calie, the line "I am constantly reminding myself to spend less time focusing upon the tools and more time focusing upon my goals.” was from Darren Rowse of http://problogger.net . And I totally agree that it's really important to be focused on goals before tools.

I really think that investing a quality percentage of ourselves in everything that we do is really important. By leveraging tools I think you can strategically invest your time in a greater number of communities than without.

I attended a Legion of Tech ( http://legionoftech.org/blog/ ) event here in Portland and listened to Gary Vay-Ner-Chuck of Wine Library TV ( http://tv.winelibrary.com/ ) he said that he was on a mission to meet everyone in the world...it was hilarious, and in our minds totally not possible. But you know what? Gary can do it, he is passionate about everything that he does.

Gary has also been known to say that he has the most un-scalable business in the world, because of the amount of time that he invests with people (listening, responding, interacting). With web based tools he is more able to meet everyone in the world and still invest a quality percentage of himself.

Ultimately there are only 24 hours in a day...and our present life is only so long...you can only invest 100% of yourself into your passions and that is enough.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:26:22 -0000

Beth, I totally agree with that. Like I mentioned tools are just tools they don't represent "social media' (or what ever term you want to apply to communicating). It's the idea of listening to your customers and finding the best places on the web to do it. Tools simply allow people to listen to more...faster.

Jay, I think you may agree that the blobular mass isn't really too difficult at it's essence. For a business it's just about conversation in a non-sales pitchy way. Listening is the best way to understand needs. Understanding and solving real problems is the best way to have and provide a valuable product or service.

I think the internet itself is a little harder to wrap your mind (or arms) around. There are so many sites and networks that you can quickly feel overwhelmed and stretched. Leveraging web based tools and approaching an abstract idea with a conceptual model makes things a little more bearable.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:29:27 -0000

Sharon & Yvonne, thanks for providing me feedback! You're right if you don't use the right tools managing a variety of platforms can easily leave the users feeling overwhelmed.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:58:31 -0000

Absolutely JeanAnn, I agree with you on all points. You're right it's a massive amount to talk about all at once...and there is so much more to talk about. Yes, a home base can be any application. A home base simply represent a point...or reason...to be doing what you are doing on the internet. Thanks for stopping by I know that you are incredibly busy.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:51:41 -0000

Hi Laurel, I think that you have a lot of great insights about social networking strategy. I do think that if you down play the value of a blog in the social media space you can miss out on future innovation and change that can be added within a 3.0 world. Bloggers are not limited to their sites, the entire internet is their network.

Within a closed social networking community the tendency is to congregate into niche's and specialties. It's important to include alternate views from a variety of networks for an idea to become truly collaborative.

I don't view this post as solely a "one-to-many, locked content' world of [a] blogger" I view it as a strategy to collaborate with a growing population. A strategy to step beyond the world of locked content to encompass a variety of ideas beyond niche populations.

Re: Social Media Strategic Management From Concept to Practice

jmhelms — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:05:08 -0000

You're right Mindy. Many people don't have any idea how to start working within Social Media. If you don't know what you're doing it is really obvious, really fast. With web based tools it is a lot easier to manage a wide variety of conversations across a variety of platforms at one time.

The largest point dealing with Social Media that I think needs to be made is that it isn't about traffic...its about relationships and community. Thanks for your comment Mindy.

Re: Online Book Promotion Made Easy Tools of the Trade

jmhelms — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:41:14 -0000

Thanks for your visit and comment. It's good to know about resources like Yvonne has made available. Some things can only be learned by through experience. It's easier to learn and grow when you leverage the experience of others.

Re: Online Book Promotion Made Easy Tools of the Trade

jmhelms — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:13:28 -0000

Hi Yvonne, thanks for visiting. Yes, I know you love to share information and tips. I think that people will find a lot of value in the ebook, or just by following your blog. Thanks for all that you do.

Re: Leveraging RSS Feeds and The Sage-Too Addon For Firefox

Yvonne Perry — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:25:02 -0000

I have way too many emails already. I need to check out the aggregator. thanks for your help.

Re: Leveraging RSS Feeds and The Sage-Too Addon For Firefox

jmhelms — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:32:39 -0000

Here is another couple uses for leveraging RSS. Lets say you make the same 10 searches at Craigslist every day or quite often. You can subscribe to the results of searches and when new listings get posted your RSS collector (i.e. like Sage-Too) lets you know...using RSS you don't have to do the same searches again. Good for people searching for jobs.

Did you know you could subscribe to some email accounts by RSS (like Gmail)? How about site traffic data? If they offer an RSS feed you can keep updated about the latest traffic movement on your site.

You can create RSS feeds (like magic)...look into dapper.net once you have a good idea of what RSS is all about.

You can monitor competitors sites and only get notified when they change content...want to know how your competitors change their on page SEO and pass you up...well you can if you know how to leverage the right tools.

There are so many (many, many) other uses of RSS, I will cover as many as possible as soon as I can. Which tools would you like me to write about first?

Re: Leveraging RSS Feeds and The Sage-Too Addon For Firefox

jmhelms — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:22:49 -0000

Feedburner offers a tool for site owners to have visitors subscribe and receive updates via email. Feedblitz allows you to subscribe to content and you receive an email when content updates...its a tool for visitors. They both leverage RSS to email but beyond that they don't compare to an aggregator. Leveraging an aggregator you can subscribe to (literally) thousands of sites and receive updated content. You can easily view the content, its just a quick couple of clicks away.

Additionally, my inbox fills up really fast...an aggregator like Sage-Too never fills up...it just keeps updating content for you to read. Did that answer your question? How can I clarify it for you...please let me know...

There are others with the same question and I want to make sure that I articulate the benefits in the right way.

Re: Find Better Click Through Link Statistics Data Fast With Budurl

jmhelms — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:03:29 -0000

Hi Stacey, your very welcome. Thank you for stopping by and thank you for your comment!

Re: Collaborative Drawing Share a Whiteboard Online

jmhelms — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:00:41 -0000

Hey buddy, thanks for stopping by. Have fun on the field trip. I remember that joke, nope wrong Bob.