I woke up to a pleasant surprise today: my Droid Incredible was ready to update to Froyo.

After ok’ing the upgrade, it went off downloaded the software then rebooted.

“About” Software information in Settings now reports Android Version 2.2.

I haven’t had a chance, yet, to look at the new features, but I’m looking forward to playing on it later this week.

With the release of the updated AWeber Jomlink software, I had a chance to visit the Joomla Extensions Direction in order to create a new listing. [The login timed out while I was writing the description, I need to NOT write online like I am doing now!]

Anyway, I found some posts that made me realize … I’ve never fully described the power that our AWeber software has. It really is the best bridge from AWeber to Joomla available. Ok, so as a proud “dad” of the software I may be a little biased.  But really, it rocks.

So I decided to write a post … over at the Intellispire blog … on exactly why it rocks.  And how, over the years, it has evolved from a “scratch” of approximately 12 lines of code to a complex, robust bridge to one of the most popular email services in the world.

Do, spend a moment and hop over to the Intellispire blog and check out this post:
Why the AWeber to Joomla Link (jomlink) rocks.

This week has been a great time to purchase software products that you can use for yourself, or for beginning to build your own inventory of digital products you can sell.  The topics I’ll covert today include the MWG 1.2.3, AWeber Jomlink, Epic Firsale and Source Code Goldmine.

Eric Holmlund’s “Epic Firesale” ends today. This is a series of 32 software and 14 ebook products that you can use or sell in your business. I’ve downloaded and looked at the source code (which you you can purchase additionally), and most products are pretty good. Some are PHP, Delphi and a little Visual Basic thrown in.  Note that you DO NOT need the source code to sell the products: the initial offer includes everything you need: the product, documentation and sales website, to make a fully functional reseller website.

However, with the source, you can take the products and brand them as your own, which is highly desirable from a branding standpoint.  You can see the bonus package I’ve put together at the Epic Firesale bonus page.

Remember, this sale ends shortly.

Also, Jeremy Burns has put together his latest source code goldmine package. This package consists of 10 high quality ebooks – you’ll want to read the Source Code Goldmine review to find out more.

Marketing Website Generator has released version 1.2.3 of the the open source Membership Management System. The MMS system is software you run on your website to manage your membership and products. This is a free download after account creation.

My company, Intellispire has released version 3.1 of the AWeber Jomlink software, used to connect your Joomla powered website to your AWeber auto-responder service (or any one of the many compatible systems, such as jvlistpro).

Jeremy Burns has created yet another Source Code Gold Mine, and I’ve just completed downloading the package.

As you know, I’m a great fan of any type of software and digital products that I can use, modify and sell, and this package stands out among the crowd.

SCGM products have always been good, and this year is no exception.

The 10 items include:

• Law of Attraction Marketing – A new take on a popular topic
• Banner Ads are Back – I’ll use this when promoting my upcoming Traffic Exchange software for use with MWG
• Ben Franklin’s Guide to Internet Marketing – a unique twist on applying Franklin principals to marketing.
• Facebook Power Ads – I’m just “getting into” facebook, as many people are, so this is a particularly timely guide.
• Internet Guru Training Camp – looks to be good info if you are looking to teach
• How to Become a Work At Home Mom – I’m simply not in a position to have an opinion on this one
• Creating iPad Apps – I’ve been playing with iPhone, iPad and Android Apps for a while. I’m extremely skeptical that one can create any app without technical skill, this manuscript does a credible job of the types of things you’ll need to know to get started.  There are some shortcuts that it doesn’t mention, so if I decide to sell it (and I may), I’ll update it with my unique perspective, first. Like many reports of this nature, it can’t go into great detail, simply due to Apple confidentiality restrictions, if for no other reasons.
• Local Internet Marketing Empire – after the recent 6 and 7 figure launches in the local space, this item is also pretty timely.
• Micro Project Outsourcing – a different take on a classic subject. Instead of focusing on projects sites such as Elance or Scriptlance, it focuses on the Amazon Mechanical Turk and “micro tasks”. This has been one of my “secret weapons” for years.  I’m really impressed with this report, and that it makes such cool technology accessible to you. There is much more to say on this subject, but I suggest you read the primer, first. Major thumbs up.
• Social Media Manage for Celebrities – little in this book focuses on “celebrities” (one chapter shows you where to find celebrities to work for), but it does show you how you can manage social media for anyone. Since I’m trying to wrap my head around social media, I’ve found it a good primer for myself. It DOES contain good information on how to find clients, market your services and run a social media business, and I’m personally more interested in the chapters on how to actually manage the social media.

From a pricing standpoint, the package is an excellent value: he’s offering the entire package for $197, but there’s a $100 “rebate” if you act quickly. Since there is more than one product in the pack that I am personally interested in, and I know my subscribers are also interested in the same topics, purchasing this package is really a “no brainer”.

I am a little disappointed that, over the years, the SCGM sales have turned away from software and moved more toward PLR and digital products such as “ebooks”.  With the support that most software requires, I do understand why he’s done this, though: and 10 high quality products that cost under $10, each (after rebate, if still available) is a great deal.

Finally, a note on quality: each book reads like a “book” or manual, and not a fluffed up, triple spaced report written by a non-english speaker that you so often see. It contains a very nicely done cover, title page, table of contents and resource page at the end (which you’ll want to add your own resources to). Each book is about 100 pages or so, and are well done.

The writing IMO is mostly above average – it gets the information across. From my informal tests, the writing is a bit inconsistent in some places, reading at about a 12th grade level. The reading level is probably about right for the target market: my writing generally hits about college sophomore level according to the tests I run, before I struggle to clean it up.

The reports are definitely usable as-is, but to be top-notch I’d suggest spending some time and possibly making the content a little more accessible by editing the documents and smoothing out the rough edges. The great thing about this package is that you CAN go in and edit the documents if you so choose.

One note on a Mac: my Word 2008 keeps closing when opening some of the .docx files. I don’t know if that’s my computer or a problem with the package (I suspect my computer), but using the free OpenOffice program worked pretty well, and allowed me to create “one click” PDF’s as well. You can google for OpenOffice here, if you need it.

Overall, a qualified “thumbs up”:

If you are interested in any 2-3 (or more) of the topics covered in this package, then it’s worth getting for your own personal use alone.

If you have an online business, where your customers are interested in these topics, then by all means, get the package. You should be able to make your money back and more in a single mailing after implementation, or as an cross-sell to an existing offer.

If you are just starting out, and looking for some top-quality products to put into your product pipeline, then this is a way to go. You get timely reports on interesting subjects, and should be able to start building a list pretty quickly. Consider implementing a Marketing Website Generator site with OTO, affiliate program, and more.

The qualification? If you aren’t looking to sell any of the products, and you only want 1-2 manuscripts for personal use, you may be better off waiting a few days and purchasing from a reseller. Otherwise, I say “go for it”.

My affiliate link is:

http://www.intellispire.com/try/scgm

And I appreciate your patronage.

[Edit: A few people have asked if I will be offering a bonus with this purchase, and the answer is "probably". I can't reveal details at this point, but if you know me, you also know I don't leave my customers behind. I'm looking for good ways to create a  Source Code Gold Mine Bonus similiar to the way I did for the Epic Firesale.]

It looks like Eric has done it again.

His is new 7-day sale includes over 40 software and digital book titles, sales material and documentation, white-labeled and ready to sell.

I’m putting together a bonus by taking the products, implementing them inside of the Marketing Website Generator software, and providing you a ready-to-go business in a box.

To take advantage of this Epic Firesale Bonus, simply follow the instructions you can find, here.

Here’s the “official” swipe copy, which I happen to agree with:

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If you’re like me, you’ve probably seen a lot of hyped up product launches on the internet lately.

Needless to say, it takes something special to REALLY get my attention any more.

So today I want to tell you about a CRAZY 7-day sale that will shock you even if you’re a jaded internet marketer

It blew me away, and that’s why I wanted to share it with you.

Check out this short video, and be sure to watch all the way to the price.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being perfectly normal and 10 being certifiably insane, this deal is an 11!

I still can’t believe this guy is basically giving away his 7-figure business (and more).

He explains his reasons in the video… and it does seem to make sense… but I still have to wonder.

Nevertheless, his insanity is YOUR gain!

I recommend going to this site and “ripping off” his amazing business before he changes his mind.

This page is going to be taken OFFLINE in 7 days (or sooner if he comes to his senses), so be sure to check it out right away!

This would be a great way for you to start a new business or expand your existing online business.

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So, I plugged in my iPhone into the Mac in order to recharge the battery today, and was asked to upgrade to the new 4.0 OS (which I had previously Ok’d for download).

What the hell, I’ve got a few minutes before I have to run … And Apple’s been pretty good about seemless updates, right?

Wrong.

About 20 minutes later, I get the notification that the phone cannot be used because iTunes is out of date.

WTF?

And sure enough, the phone is dead as a doornail – it can make emergency calls, and that’s it.

At the very least, iTunes could have checked the required version BEFORE attempting to update the phone and killing the device. That’s basic update 1.0.1 … check to make sure the requirements have been met BEFORE you attempt an update.

The real problem here is that my confidence is shaken … if they (Apple engineers) can make that kind of simple mistake, what else has been overlooked?

I’m moving to a Droid Incredible as soon at comes in (it was orderd on Father’s day) … not because of Apple, but because of AT&T’s crappy service – but this hairowing experience has me just as glad to be on a phone that isn’t tied to (literally) iTunes.

So, between 2 kids softball games and Jacky’s party tonight, All while doing my own product launch, I have to somehow find time to upgrade iTunes and try a reinstall …

(I’m writing this post while iTunes is doing downloading)

Point: beware of this update, and upgrade your OS and iTunes, FIRST.

I’ve just finished the integration of Marketing Website Generator into iContact. You can read more bout it at the Intellispire blog.

I’ve been thinking about David Allen’s use of the word “project” for quite a while, and am becoming more and more unsatisfied with with it’s definition in my day to day work.

If you’re not familiar, here’s the official definition:
“Our definition of “project” is any outcome you’re committed to complete that requires more than one action step. That can encompass quite a range of things, from “Replace tires on the car” to “Reorganize marketing division.””

The problem, here is that in my lines of work, “project” already has a precise meaning:
A project in business and science is a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

Now, if everyone I worked with agreed to change the definition of “project” to the GTD way, then everything would be fine.  The reality, though is that I have to work with most people who don’t “do” (or usually have even heard of GTD), thus making communication difficult – or at least, somewhat confusing at best.

That doesn’t mean we don’t need “something” to define a committed outcome, we do. I’m just using the word “task” for that outcome statement.

This seems to work.  I think have three major lists to work from:

- my projects. These are the things that involve other people, are managed by Microsoft Project or similiar, and use the accepted (varied) definitions.  When I talk to my staff about the “project for client X”, we all know exactly what we mean.

- then I have my tasks lists.  These are the committed outcomes, and usually – but not always, align to a higher level project. In many cases, a Project is Also a Task, but not all tasks are Projects.

- From there, I then have Actions .. the next action items to complete each task.

I’ve seen the Outlook GTD try to manage a similar issue … that of having “big projects” that require multipe “little projects” to complete managed by a “sub project” capability, which is sub-optimum in my view. By simply leaving the word “Project” as an externally defined entity, and managing at the runway level the Tasks and Actions.

The danger here … and one that I believe David may have been trying to avoid … is that systems other than GTD use the word “task” to mean something amorphous, and can itself be confusing when applied to GTD, and with GTD, the intent is to “break out of the mold” and not pigeoh-hole GTD with other time management systems.  The reality for me is that I spend far more time communicating with people about who “don’t do” GTD about projects than I do about sub-projects, tasks, or actions … so aligning the updated definition is much easier when it’s an “internal” shift than it is trying to explain my meaning to each new person I work with, or having to mentally translate between definitions.

So I work, day to day, from my actions list which are tagged to tasks, just as described.  Projects are reviewed at least weekly, usually as external commitments. And when talking with GTD’ers, I can mentally switch vocabulary and call my “tasks” projects, and we are all on the same page.

I’ve implemented this in pretty much every system that can implement tags.  My Contexts all start with an “@”, my Projects all start with an “+” sign, tasks with a “-” sign, and the actions are tagged to the task/project/context for which they relate. This works in Remember The Milk, GMail and Evernote, among others – as long as you keep your tagging relatively consistent,

Getting a list is as easy as clicking on a tag, my actions list is eveything not starting with a special character, and moving from one list to another

Another side effect of this technique is that an action can “appear” on multiple lists, just by adding the appropriate tag.

It seems to be possible to create a “mashup” application that will pull data from all of the above plus others, I’m still experimenting with that concept. I find that it’s easy to keep all the Actions in RTM, but reference needs links to GMail and Evernote … and sometimes Google Docs or Dropbox.  I’d also love to have a way to display appropriate task items from various PM tools such as RedMine.

Android is beginning to look like a promising platform for suh a mashup, while the iPhone’s lack of multi-tasking is seriously starting to cause frustration.

If you’re familiar with Tolkien’s Middle Earth, then you
know what a hobbit is.

They have a special place in my heart because as a child,
I was told I was too slow to be able to read.

But eventually I spent my reading time devouring The Hobbit
and The Lord of the Rings.

So, you could say, Hobbits helped teach me to read.
(along with my parents, thanks Mom & Dad)

Hobbits also have another strange custom I enjoy … when it’s
their birthday, they give gifts to all their friends.

And, guess what? Today’s may birthday!

So, for this weekend only, I’ve acquired a special report
that you can download as my birthday gift to you.

http://www.nicktemple.com/birthday/

No, I’m not really a hobbit, but I do love the creatures
and I think we can all learn a lot from their kindness
and love of life.

Have a great weekend.

Nick

P.S.: In case you are curious, I was able to build
out that complete site in a hair less than 3 hours -
from downloading the product to writing this email,
using the MWG.

About a year ago, I made a post talking about a Joomla plugin I created to connect Joomla! to Cloudfront.

You can read the full post here:
http://www.nicktemple.com/2008/206/cloudfront-plugin-for-joomla.html

After many requests, I decided to release the system under the GPL, and make it available to all for free.

The system needs some work: specifically in the areas of support for CSS files, features, and documentation.

You can download the code from subversion on Google Code. Support is provided only through the linked Google group however I may be available for implementation consulting on large projects – contact Intellispire if you are interested.