Photo Credit: renmeleon

I don’t know if any of you are trying to find out where you can retweet your tweets on schedule.  I have been looking for such a tool desperately actually.  That’s because I have a lot of great tweets to retweet about.  For all of you who have been following me on twitter, you will see me massively flooding your inbox with my retweets.  They are useful tweets actually.  They should be helpful to you if you are interested in them.  If not, you should not follow me because I must have sent you unwanted tweets all along.

Recently, I was introduced by @tommytrc to this twitter program called TweetMiner (affiliate link).  I think it could be an interesting program to review about, hence I decided to write about it in my blog here since Twitter is one of my everyday tools that I use to communicate.

What is TweetMiner?

TweetMiner is not only a program which allows you to retweet on schedule, it also allows you to do much more.  But this retweet schedule is the one that caught my attention when I use it myself.

I am not really sure what this program really is until I give it a try myself.  Take a look at the screenshot below.  (By the way, don’t you think my tweeps are simply giving me too much great tweets to retweet?)

It basically has two types of interface for you to choose.

• You can either use it directly on the website
• Or you can download the Adobe Air application and run it off your operating system.

Once I see all the tweets I am interested to retweet, I can either set a certain date for my retweet to appear in my timeline, or I can even set it to the rolling schedule.  Rolling schedule simply means that I can set the retweets to appear every other minutes (e.g. every 30 minutes? 60 minutes? and so on..)

What’s the advantage of scheduling your retweets?

There are several advantages to this.  Let me do a quick explanation on the advantages.

1. It allows me to retweet all my favorite tweets as much as I can without flooding my followers’ inbox.
2. It also allows me to nurture my followers as I am giving them great information on a more consistent basis.
3. It also allows me to be lazy on the days when I am working on my other things.

If any of you are also using this TweetMiner, do let me know of your opinions too!

Just wish to share my joy with you that my laptop is finally coming tomorrow!  I am now waiting anxiously for my new laptop.  I have waited this laptop for three weeks before I can get my hands on it!

What does the arrival mean?

It basically means that I am going to work on a couple of things with the new laptop in place.

1. I am going to set up my own podcast.
2. I am going to continue working on my video reviews.
3. I am going to have fun trying out the new Windows 7 on my 23 inch LCD monitor.

All things are falling into place

With my new blog interface utilizing Thesis wordpress theme (affiliate link), I find it a breeze to manipulate all the various components within the blog.  And it’s really cool to work on a wide screen!

If anyone of you are familiar with podcast, do let me know how to start one! because it is my first time working it out.  I would like to find out how I can review the Internet with all these cool tools (finally equipped with the hardware).  I personally think that one of the most successful podcasts today should be with Cali Lewis with her GeekBrief.tv.  I find it really both educational and entertaining.  It sets an inspiring stage for me to work out my very own Internet review on television as well.

Moving forward

I will start playing around with the laptop tomorrow to get myself familiarized with Windows 7 interface.  I believe it will be pretty easy to understand since it is supposed to be designed like that.  I will show all of you my new laptop tomorrow!

As I am working further in a job as an e-marketing executive, I am starting to learn things that I would not have in my previous businesses that I have done.

I started to realize that it doesn’t really matter whether you are working in a job which the business is owned by you or not.  Why is this so?

Working on my own business

Well, it felt really good that you are working on your own business.  Whenever someone asked, you can be proud to say that this is your own business.  I have been doing that for the past few years.  I told myself before that I will start to work for others if my own business is not stable when I am reaching 30 years old.  Now, I am 29 years old, and I am going to be 30 years old in the next two years.  I have not regretted my choice to work in a job that I like.  In fact, I like this job very much!

Working for other people’s business

Today, I have been working in a job for one and a half years.  It’s coming to my 2nd year very soon.  Seriously speaking, I can’t believe that I have actually done that!  But it is actually a really good experience to get to know different people over there.  I am really starting from scratch to get to know the people around.  My mentality is a little different from (probably) everybody.  I felt that I have such a privilege to be able to work in a very nice environment.  Meeting rooms used to be a luxury for me in the past… Now, I treat my office like my 2nd home!

In fact, I used to treat my own office in the past as my 2nd home because it was my own business (If I don’t care, who cares?).  But even in this environment where I am being paid for my job, I find a sense of belonging whereby I want to do my best!  In the past, I used to think if ever my employee thinks like me… Today, I will want to achieve that role as an employee!

What really matters is your growth in bringing out value for your company

I have come to a conclusion that it is not really about working for others, or working for my own business.  So long as you are part of the team that you want to belong to, what matters is how you can bring out the value of your company to the next level!  And with the value that has been produced, that’s how you will grow together with your company.

Being able to work really well with the team is what really matters.  It gives you the chance to excel, and to go up there where you will want to achieve.

Do you really think that you can be wealthy in a job of your own business?

At the end of the day, you are still getting paid for your job that you are in.  If wealth is what you are after, it’s all about investment to make money work harder for you.  Just concentrate in your own trade, and expand your career from there… Things shall fall into place nicely for you for wherever it shall take you.

Photo Credit: isayx3

My new LCD monitor has finally arrived!  It’s huge! It’s 23 inch.  I originally thought of getting a 24 inch, but Dell has no stock for that.  Now, I think 23 inch is good enough for me.

Don’t you think my WordPress dashboard is really looonnggggg?

You may want to ask me why I am getting such a huge LCD monitor?  Ok, here’s my reasoning.

1. I find that it is now affordable to buy a larger LCD monitor.  This LCD monitor is costing me SGD$300.
2. I have been using laptop for the past 6 years.  I just wish to have a feel of PC, while I am still able to bring out this PC as a laptop.

Now, I am waiting for my laptop to arrive.  According to my order status, it is now shipping from the factory in Malaysia.  I am waiting for it to arrive in Singapore… And yes! My laptop’s LCD monitor is also quite huge! It’s 15.6 inch.

Ok, it’s time for me to write a serious post.  Wait for my next post!

I have followed about 500 tweeps.  I found myself really hard to categorize them in different lists.  Not that I don’t want to list all of them, 500 is just too time consuming.  I wonder for those who follows over 1000 tweeps, how did you manage with your following and listing…

Ever since Twitter has introduced list, this is somehow going to be used as a measure of what people are perceiving you, which gives a very good idea to all of us.  If someone lists you as a web designer, I will know that I can think of you when I need a web design.  When someone lists you as a problogger, we will know that you are a professional blogger over here.

I will want to list all the tweeps that I have followed.  If not, I will have followed them for nothing.  If I ever have a problem listing them, it’s probably I just don’t have any chemistry with them since I still don’t know them after following for so long.

Sometimes, do you wonder who you really follow?  There is an information overload here.  Information is following too quickly with the tweeps that I have followed.  Listing is a good idea of categorizing them, but can we use these lists in the various Twitter APIs?  I will hope to see a major improvement in TweetDeck to use the list function!

I don’t believe it! Another month has gone so quickly.  It’s already November.  Rebecca has emailed all of us a reminder, and also blogged that it’s time for the November monthly goal meetup!  While I have achieved two important goals for October, I have failed terribly in all the rest on the way.  This goal setting is really telling me something that I need to buck up!

Previous goals set in October

Let’s take a look at my 12 goals previously for October 2009

1. To continue to keep the progress our company’s regional website revamp project aligned with our timeline. (Yeah!)
2. To go to the gym for at least once every week. (The website revamp is eating into my gym session. But I still go for army training.)
3. To blog 2 posts a week in Charles Lau dot Com.  (hmm… Sorry guys! I am going to work this out when my revamp project is up.)
4. To blog 1 post a week in both Internet Review dot Me.  (I’m hit by this as well because of the revamp project.)
5. To blog 1 post a week in Internet Branding dot Me.  (This is also affected by my revamp project.)
6. To send 1 guest review every week to Carl Ocab.  (I’m sorry Carl because of my workload and my laptop failure…)
7. To send 3 guest posts every week to Liz Strauss.  (I’m sorry Liz because of my workload and my new biz plan)
8. To be active in twitter for at least 1 hour on every single day.  (I’m usually confident in this… But I’m also hit!)
9. To be active in problogger forum every day.  (Let alone for this!)
10. To give my two-cents worth of comments in at least 5 blogs every day.  (hmm)
11. To keep up with Internet technologies and businesses for at least 1 hour every day. (Hit!)
12. To buy my new laptop with Windows 7 and i7 Intel Chip! (Yes I bought it!)

My full time job

As all of you can see, I am seriously held up by my website revamp project.  It’s pretty much going well, and I must thank Nick and Vik for reviving this project from its “almost death” really well.   I‘m excited as I am planning out new things in my full time job after November.  It’s going to be an exciting journey as our platform is almost ready.  We have almost everything ready in our hands, and I’m going to plan even more things to happen in the coming new FY10.

My regular physical exercise

My gym session is not very much aligned along the way but it is being compensated by my compulsory fitness training provided by my government.  Hence, it’s still not so bad after all.  Whether it’s going to be a gym session or my compulsory fitness training, I am going to work out at least twice a week.

My newly acquired laptop

I have managed to buy my new laptop and a 23 inch monitor in preparation for my business plan that I have set – I am planning to work out podcast for my Internet review hobby project.  My old laptop is really getting slow and keeps complaining to me of its lagging video playback and video capture.  I have been going through the various social media, and talking to several people through this interesting media.  It’s especially fruitful in Twitter when I get to know even more people out there.

A series of failures

Looking at my demanding number of posts that I have set every week, I’m really angry with myself that I have set my targets too high.  I have either not done any posts, or I have not been consistent.  I’m sorry to Carl and Liz.  Well, thanks to Rebecca again for helping me indirectly to measure my goals I have set.

Goals setting for November

Moving forward, let’s move on to see what I  can do in November:

1. To launch the 5 country websites successfully by the end of this month.
2. To prepare podcast for my Internet review project.
3. To work out on my fitness at least twice a week!
4. To comment on at least 5 blogs every week.
5. To write 1 guest post to Liz Strauss.
6. To write 1 review post to Carl Ocab.
7. To be active in Twitter for 1 hour every week.
8. To be active in Problogger forum every week.
9. To keep up with the internet technologies and businesses every day.
10. To write one post in Charles Lau dot Com every week.

P/S: I am now eagerly waiting for the arrival of my new laptop!

Photo credit: mefeather

As I spoke to different agencies, I do realize that the agencies are still struggling with understanding how the social media works for them.  It’s like a code hard to crack.  And on the other hand, I got to learn about the existence of a few 15-year-old guys who started their own tech blog called Techxav.com.  It’s founded by a 15 year old Singaporean boy called Xavier Lur.  I was really excited to know that they are working out big projects which are still within their means so long as they know about programming and are keen in learning about hardware and software.

Looks to me that the people who have been practising online marketing communications have to re-learn something new from the young generations.  Yet, the demand is now obvious when more and more people are using the social media as their main reason to be online.  The only deal that they have confidence in is with the paid advertisement.  In layman term, they want to be the middleman to handle the Google Adwords, banner ads, text link ads and video ads for their clients.

Social media is something whereby all of us are still experimenting.  I am still trying them out.  The agencies are also trying them out.  The other businesses are also trying them out.  It’s only a matter of time when the social media will become mature enough for all of us to know how to get the best results out of it.

With all these, I can foresee that Web 2.0 will be gracefully accepted by the businesses in Asia by the mid of 2010 when experience is being gathered further.

Nothing excites me than to get the website revamp project to be on time. I’m glad that the project is turning out better and better. I really thank God for that. Also not to forget the project members within. Thank you guys!

The internet seems like a code hard to crack for many people. There are a lot of people who know how to create websites out there, tools to analyse their existing websites, and putting in information. However, the website is always an empty shell when we don’t have traffic.

How to attract traffic to your website?

First of all, ask yourself if your website is “talkable” by people or not. Is it containing topics that people are talking about?

Always remember that the website is all about being a pull factor.. People will only find your website when they are looking for information related to your website.

Technically speaking, we have a lot of ways out there to reach out to people who are looking for your information.
We have many ways in social media and search engines.
We have many ways to do joint ventures with other websites too.

However, it’s all about the “why” factor that creates a strong “how” method.

Do you really need a website?

It’s not necessary that we need a website since we have social media websites to leverage on such as Facebook page.

The real juice is with the building of your own community who is interested in your topic. Whichever website you are on, it’s just a tool only.

Whenever i hear people saying that it is a brilliant idea to use Facebook to do “something like that” (i just heard that from my local radio station “class 95 fm” in the morning), i believe Singapore is starting to be dawn by the idea of using the Internet as a tool for their business idea.

It is just a matter of time when the Internet is going to be the first media tool to use, before they think about tv, newspaper, magazines, etc.

By the way, this post is written via my mobile phone.

It has been a while since I have last blogged.  This recently, I have been talking to 3 groups of people about 3 respective Internet business startups.  I was amazed that they don’t know a lot of things which have been so obvious on the Internet today.  One is going to sell apparels online, another is thinking of bringing his insurance business online, and another is a webware which I am working out.  As I spoke to them about the three online businesses (on three different days), it is interesting to note that the kind of information which I have taken for granted, turned out to be valuable to the three of them.

Last two days ago, I have received an email from my good online pal – Dan Schawbel – that he is going to launch his next issue of Personal Branding Magazine.  Dan is someone who has been very consistent with his work as a personal branding expert.

In his latest issue (issue 10), he has interviewed my favorite singer MC Hammer when I was very young.  It is interesting to find out that MC Hammer has become a Web 2.0 enthusiast (after being a singer in the past) with millions of Twitter followers!  And he shared in this magazine his thoughts of how a person can use the social media to reinvent himself!

I have written for Dan’s magazine before when he first started this magazine.  And I must say that he has improved a lot in his magazine layout over the years.  It is very easy to read on my LCD monitor since it is distributed digitally.  It is very straightforward, and it gives me what I want to read to equip myself with my own personal branding.

I have no affiliation with Dan, except that I admire his enthusiasm to share with the world about the topic of Personal Branding.  But if you are looking for consistent articles to feed your brain how you can brand yourself especially in the social media, this magazine is definitely for you!  Go get it!  By the way, 50% of the proceeds will go to American Cancer Society.

Get yourself a copy of Personal Branding Magazine Today

I was revamping my website, when I realize how simple Thesis really is.

The reason why I am revamping my blog is because of the blog critique I had in Problogger Forum recently when I put up my blog for people to critique.  I got to learn quite a couple of things from the blog critique which I wish to share with all of you here.

My previous theme is good as well.  I just need a theme which can allow me to tackle some of tricky questions that a professional blogger has posed to me.

Here’re the pointers she has mentioned to me:

1. First, when I got to your blog, I thought – where’s the content? You have to scroll down pretty far to find a blog post and that was hidden under a huge banner ad.
2. I would remove your bio from the top and put that under an About Page. The content is the most important item – you need to move it up to the top.
3. Second, your posts need cut tags. At a glance, I should be able to see two or three of your most recent post titles.
4. Next – topic. Your header says the blog is for reviewing software, websites and books. There isn’t one review on your whole front page. (10 or more posts?) You need to refocus your topic. Your interest seems to be in social media, if that’s the case, then revamp your header to reflect this.
5. I can see you have some drive, I think you simply need to find a focus.

My solution

1. I should have tackled the 1st pointer by now with a revamp of the theme.  The blog posts are now much more visible to the visitors.
2. I have reduced my bio to be shown only on the left sidebar.  This is important to me because I need to stress on the branding that I am portraying to the visitors.
3. With regards to cut tags, I am not sure what she meant.  But now, it is able to show 2 full posts, and the rest are in excerpts.
4. Yes, I know that I am not really reviewing anything in this blog right now.  In fact, this blog is meant for me to show my online presence.  I am bringing my focus as an Internet reviewer on a separate blog.
5. This sentence has caused me to re-think who I really am… And how I can focus myself to be a better reviewer.

Conclusion

Seriously, I think it looks much better now that I have made some amendments.  Don’t you guys think so?  If it is, do leave me a comment to let me know!  Thanks!

My next step

Now, I am thinking of re-categorize my articles I have done so far.  They are all in a mess with my existing categories.  I would probably want to refine some of the articles I have been writing so far too.