Always remember that everything is always your fault, always.

Realize this and realize you have the power to fix problems instead of look for people or things to blame.

When realize that it’s always your fault you will possess an unfair advantage over 99.99% of the rest of the population of the world.

Why?

… Because you will use your energy to solve problems instead of wasting it on people and or things to blame.

I like to use Twitter, but to be honest it isn’t entirely productive.

The way I see it, most people are on twitter because they are goofing off.

But if you stop and look at twitter from a business perspective and look at the opportunities it presents, it’s obvious to me what the single greatest opportunity is.

No it’s not spamming people with lame tweets to affiliate links or automatic direct messages linking to those same affiliate links.

The biggest opportunity is meeting SPECIFIC people.

By specific I mean people in:

… specific geographic locations,
… or people with specific interests or specific occupations,

But there is no simple way on Twitter to find people specifically.

Nonetheless there is an easy solution that not many people know about. It involves using Google’s advanced search functions.

Here is a breakdown of different advanced searches you can do with Google quickly easily and simply by just using copy and paste and filling in the blanks:

How to Find People In A Specific Location:

(link to results: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:twitter…)

site:twitter.com/* location+edinburgh

Type the above into Google and it will return users who have listed their location as “Edinburgh” (which in case you are wondering is the capital city of yours truly country of residence).

How To Find People With Specific Interests:

(link to results: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:twitter…)

site:twitter.com/* bio+entrepreneur

Type the above into Google and it will return users who have listed the word “entrepreneur” in their bio section. You could replace this with things like “web designer” if you were looking to hire one, or “virtual assistant” if you were looking to find virtual assistants to work for you while you sleep or if you wanted to find bloggers you could replace entrepreneur with “blogger” above and find bloggers to start conversations with …

I think you will find these two Google Search queries interesting, but they may present you with a problem. The results they produce are very broad. But here is a solution.

How To Find Specific Types Of People In A Specific Location

(link to results: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:twitter.com…)

site:twitter.com intitle:”on twitter” “bio* * copywriter” “location london”

Type the above into google and it should return 4 pages of results (well it does for me) displaying twitter users who have listed their location as London and put the word “copywriter” in their bio. To find people interested in specific things in specific locations just replace “copywriter” and “london” above and paste into Google accordingly.

P.S. Stop being such a stranger. Comment below and tell me what you think of this post.

There are a bunch of free Firefox SEO addons you can use with the hip browser Firefox.

I recently tried out some new SEO addons over the weekend such as SEOpen, SEO Toolbar, SEO Moz Toolbar and a few more.

But, I didn’t really like any of them.

Why?

Is it because I am a spoiled brat?

Well I probably am a spoiled brat …

… but I didn’t like them because in my opinion the best Firefox SEO addon you can hook up with Firefox is none of those listed above …

In my opinion the best Firefox SEO addon you can run with Firefox is called The Foxy SEO Tool.

It makes finding out the traffic statistics of the specific website you are browsing very very easy.

And it integrates extremely well with Google, Yahoo, Ask and the cool new Microsoft search engine Bing.

The Foxy SEO Tool just makes SEO simple.

Like a gazillion people I use photoshop to manipulate digital images.

In fact I use photoshop nearly every single day.

And you can do seriously cool stuff with photoshop. You could even use photoshop to create an image just like the one you see above with a screenshot of this website plastered onto a billboard …

Anyway, I am sure you already know about photoshop and the chances are you use it frequently, just like yours truly, to work with digital images.

But sometimes you just want to take a particular image and get a specific effect quickly. By “quickly” I mean within a few minutes not an hour or more fiddling with complex settings in Photoshop.

While you could use photoshop to create the effect in the picture above, I did not. I used something much much quicker.

Now there is a new website where you can create funny photo effects using pictures you upload that creates effects within 60 seconds.

It’s free and it has my approval.

Check this out. Here’s an example using a picture of me I took at the weekend:

Pretty cool right?

This would take you 5 minutes at least in photoshop, but it took me less than 15 seconds.

Here are 3 more examples that took me pretty much no time at all:

Just click this link to start creating similar effects pronto: funny photo effects.

It's called Writers block. It's defined as:

"When a writer loses their ability to produce new work."

It sucks because when you have something to write like:

1. content for the internet,
2. a book,
3. or a script
4. or a whatever

... You can't get done what you want to get done - you have writers block!

How does writer's block affect you?

Personally, it comes and goes for me.

Sometimes I have writers block, other days - most days in fact - I don't.

But when I do have writers block it I try my best to eliminate it.

Below I have included 2 techniques.

The first, can work well but well but not always ...

The second, you are going to swoon over! It's totally kickass!

Overcome Writers Block Technique 1:
The Washing Dishes Technique (kind of works)

The Washing Dishes Technique: You shut down your laptop or drop your pen/pencil, and go wash your dishes.

Just taking my mind away from my computer to somewhere else can work.

It's not always effective though.

But, recently I have been trying out a new technique because sometimes this technique simply just does not work for me.

I call it the "Me Chat Technique". Here's what this is all about:

Overcome Writers Block Technique 2:
The "Me Chat" Technique (utterly KICKASS!)

"Me Chat" Technique Next time you have writers block, chat to yourself using one of the many free instant messaging services available online.

Have two accounts, perhaps two on GoogleTalk or two on Yahoo Chat or two on AIM ... whatever you want.

Then have a conversation with yourself as if you are talking to someone else.

Ask yourself questions. Questions like:

1. "So, what?",
2. "Who cares?",
3. "How can I believe you?"

... and answer these questions and use your answers to finish your work.

This really works for me. My theory is that it works because there is no such thing as "conversation block", well at least not for me and most people I know of. So by having a conversation you get the words you want out of you out there, but by doing it in an instant messaging program the words are all there for you to copy and paste into what you are working on.

Right now I could end this whole production with "If this is a problem you have..."

But I think we both no that EVERYONE get's writer's block unless they're illiterate.

And you are not illiterate because you have read my entire post.

Therefore I KNOW you get writers block. So.

SO: Please let me know how the "Me Chat" technique works for you by simply NOT being a stranger and dropping your comment below pronto.

"Alan, you should tell people about what you do first thing in the morning!"

Up until now my reply has always been:

"Do you really think they want to know?"

But now I am coming clean.

Every morning I spend 1 hour mindmapping.

You may already know what "mindmapping" is.

Of course you do.

But in the unlikely event that there is someone somewhere who doesn't here's what this sexy activity of the supercool is all about: It's a way to organize ideas and information and create what's called: "mindmaps".

It allows you to think visually. Plan projects. And generally brainstorm ideas.

Like many things in life, many people know about it and what it is, but they don't actually do it.

Well I do.

I mindmap.

I mindmap like crazy.

Here is a picture of a mindmap I have on my screen right now:

This is a mindmap of a book that is a couple hundred pages long, all in one screen ...

The idea is that you have 1 central idea then what is called "nodes" which are effectively like branches.

And if you are interested in being able to manage ideas better and access archived ideas faster then check out these applications

1. Here is a link to a Google Search:

   http://www.google.com/search?q=mindmapping+software

2. Here is a free mindmap application called FreeMind:

   http://freemind.sourceforge.net/

3. I don't really like FreeMind, while it does work it looks a bit crappy so instead I use MindManager, which you can check out at:

   http://www.mindjet.com/

Also by the way here are three free tools to create mindmaps (the first one is the best in my opinion):

• http://www.mindomo.com/
• http://www.mindmeister.com/
• http://bubbl.us/

I hope my friend was right and you might just maybe now, see the logic behind yours truly 1 hour morning ritual ...

Keep it real and keep winning.

When you have work to do and you have a deadline, do you tend to work faster and better as that deadline approaches?

If you don't then this blog post will be totally useless for you.

But if like me you tend to work faster and better as deadlines approach then I got some "magic sauce" for you.

A couple of years ago I read a book. In this book I read a tip about productivity. It involved a kitchen timer.

The tip was this:

1. Get a kitchen timer.
2. Set it to 30 minutes.
3. Then work for 30 minutes on one single task till the timer stops.

Well that was 2 years ago and it's now 2009, and I have used a kitchen timer every single day I have worked since.

In fact I have a gargantuan kitchen timer I bought off Amazon sitting next to my monitor right now counting down the seconds till I must finish this email!

Why am I sharing this with you, because if like me you notice you are more productive as deadlines approach, you can go get a kitchen timer and create as many deadlines as you want to achieve monster productivity when you want and where you want.

Try it out. Grab a timer. Set it to an interval ... 10 minutes ... 30 minutes ... and work for that amount of time with no monkey business. No pointless web surfing. No TV. No distractions.

Who knows you may like me end up with a huge timer next to your monitor ... And be able to achieve monstrous levels or productivity.

Keep it real and keep winning.

Awesome Tool #1: Digg Spy

What is Digg Spy?

You heard of Digg yes? The social bookmarking site ... Well DiggSpy allows you to see what is being "dugg" in real time. This is "awesome" because you can see in real time what content on the internet is most popular at any one moment in time.

This is far far far superior to newspapers, or crappy TV because this shows you what is happenning now! And what is hot right now.

To be in the know what is happening online check it out at:

http://labs.digg.com/bigspy/

Awesome Tool #2: Twistori

What is Twistori?

This 2nd tool allows you to get a real-time insight into what humans are saying right now.

It works with social networking site, Twitter.

And it's very similar to DiggSpy.

It's kind of sort of unexplainable ... The best way to explain it, is not to explain it. So just check it out at:

http://twistori.com/

Keep it real and keep winning.

It's a simple addon for the web browser, Firefox.

Firefox is my web browser of choice. And if you are using something else then good for you.

But if you are using Internet Explorer then WHAT'S GOING ON?

Move to Firefox!

Anyway ...

So, this thing I use is called "SearchStatus".

I am telling you about it because it kicks ass!

It sits in the bottom right of firefox, and it shows you the Alexa Ranking and PageRank of the website you are currently viewing.

These numbers tell you crucial things about the site you are viewing ...

And to otherwise access them you would need to go to the Alexa site or some other site to get the PageRank ... this addon shows you the numbers as you browse, which keeps you in the know.

It's great for comparing your site to other people's sites ... monitoring the traffic of other sites ... etc. etc. so on and so forth ...

Check it out at:

http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/

Keep it real and keep winning.

But really, you and me we are different.

We are winners.

We don't purposely infect ourselves with negativity so going to a site like http://www.fmylife.com/ is not an option, despite its popularity with the masses ...

Well up until now there was no alternative option. But everything has changed.

Now here is a positive alternative called http://www.givesmehope.com/.:

Instead of people publishing negative stories from their life, they share only inspiring stories.

Both of these sites are kind of addictive, but if you must get addicted to one of them I hope it's the positive alternative:

http://www.givesmehope.com/

Keep it real and keep winning.