Contest Soon
That’s right, I’m gearing up for my first ever contest here at TrishaLyn.com. I’m not really going to make people
jump through a million hoops with some complicated point structure system to win – but I won’t lie, it will have to benefit me in some way of course.
Prizes are being compiled, details and rules drawn up, and everything should be ready soon. So in the meantime, stay tuned!
Oh, and a Free Toolsday post obviously didn’t happen this week…mostly because yesterday felt like Monday and it slipped my mind. So a really good one will be coming next week to make up for it, I promise!
Want to donate a prize for the contest? E-mail me at Contests@TrishaLyn.com! For those of you interested in donating, the audience is readers of my blog… so businesses, performance marketers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, etc.
Read MoreCourtesyCast #2: Clean Livin’
Welcome back to reality! I trust everyone had a pleasant Memorial Day Weekend… I know I did. Here to kick you into the second half of 2008, I’ve returned with another edition of CourtesyCast – Clean Livin’! I discuss the importance of not relying on a janitorial service to clean up after you at work and making the effort to keep things neat & clean.
Take a listen, and as always if you have any suggestions, hit me up in the comments!
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Show Notes:
- Bay Area Janitors Union Authorizes Strike
HOW Conference Post-Game Show
Well I’m back in the Pacific Standard Time Zone after 4 days in Boston. To date, it’s safe for me to say that the HOW Design Conference has been the best for PsPrint to attend so far! About 80% of people stopping by our booth had never heard of us before, which isn’t necessarily bad. This has been a relatively untapped resource for us, and we excitedly passed out samples of our printing, paper stocks, and information on the Reseller Program.
A neat feature of this show was that the expo hall wasn’t open the entire day – we only had to staff the booth from 8-9 am, 12-2 pm, and then 5-6:30p on Monday only. I believe the “Resource Center” hours (their moniker) were set this way to avoid stepping on the toes of too many special sessions. The real star of this conference is, of course, the educational sessions for designers. The expo hall is just a bonus for vendors to be able to toss some marketing voodoo at a prime audience.
I think we’ll definitely go back next year to the HOW Conference, being held in Austin, TX. Of all the trade shows I’ve been to as a representative of PsPrint, this was by far the most successful. Everything arrived on time, our booth looked great, and the audience was truly interested in what we have to offer. Overall, a great feeling!
Of course, I had to visit Faneuil Hall & Cheers, and did take some pictures that I’ll share tomorrow once I pull them off my camera. My hotel (pictured above) was pretty decent for a Best Western, and I have some tips & such to share about Boston for those of us going back for Affiliate Summit East in August. But that, my friends, I’ll leave for another day.
Read MoreFree Toolsday for May 20th
I learn so much just by hanging out on Twitter most of my day. I learned about a spectacular travel site called TripIt.com from Sam Harrelson.
This knocks TripAdvisor out of the park. I got on TripAdvisor thinking that it would be great a resource with all the reviews of hotels and attractions in the areas. But in the last year 99% of the travel I’ve done has been for work, where I’m not there for pleasure and I’m not necessarily choosing where we stay or go. So I don’t think I’ve logged into TripAdvisor in months. At least 6.
TripIt is a much more suitable replacement for me. And the user ease is AMAZING. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, let me tell you the purpose of TripIt. The site works as a great organizational tool that aggregates your activities, meetings, hotel information, flight information, etc into a centrally located personal travel assistant. Just email your confirmation emails directly to plans@tripit.com and it integrates the details into your trip itinerary.
The itinerary itself is spectacularly thorough. Not only does it add your hotel info and flight info through the email, but you can also add different types of events, restaurant outings, and meetings. Everything is color coded and the site automatically adds Google Maps and Directions from one location to another into the itinerary. Here’s an example from my current trip to Boston:
TripIt also integrates well with Google Calendar, which is my online calendar of choice, and adds exact time and details for each appointment, flight, check in, check out, etc. The site has a printable itinerary that is currently keeping me on track here in Boston, and if you’re more of a mobile/smart phone reliant person there’s mobile features as well. I only wish the printable version was color coded as well, but I understand why it’s not.
If you travel a lot for business, you should give this site a try at the least. As all the free toolsday features, it’s FREE! So you have no reason not to go check it out.
Read MoreAffiliate Thing Post-Show
On Tuesday I had the pleasure of co-hosting the Affiliate Thing podcast with Shawn Collins of Affiliate Summit. Let me start by saying that I was unaware that it’s a live show since I always listen to it on iTunes or GeekCast.fm. I listened to the recording last night that’s up over at GeekCast.fm and I have some criticism for myself.
First though, the experience. Monday night I spent nearly an hour fussing with Skype. The test call was choppy and I couldn’t understand all of what it was saying. But all my settings seemed fine. I determined at last that it had to be my internet connection, which has a tendency to be not so good in the evenings sometimes. I must have called the test call in the neighborhood of 30 times. I also called my husband’s cell phone to see if it was any better – nope. He could hear me pretty well but I could barely hear him. I finally give up and hope that it works in the morning or that there’s another option for me to call in or something if all else fails.
I can’t sleep (of course) because I’m nervous about the show. I finally get to sleep and surprisingly have no trouble waking up early the next day for the show. I’m on the West Coast and I usually work 10 am to 7 pm at PsPrint, so I had to get up around 8:30 am to wake up enough to tape the show at 9 am. I fire up my home computer and get Skype up and running, calling the test call about 10 more times with only slightly better results than the night before.
I let Shawn know over the messenger portion of Skype that I’m having issues and he suggests we start anyway and if it’s too bad I can drop off. Luckily when WebmasterRadio.fm called, it was much clearer. Which begs the question – shouldn’t the test caller be the best quality possible? I digress…
The call itself went great in the moment… there weren’t any points where I was sitting there silently banging my head. I fumbled the intro to myself, which is ironic because that’s what was keeping me up the night before – how to whip in PsPrint AND this blog. I figured that was the only part I could rehearse, and coming from a theatrical background I’m a fan of rehearsal.
Now, for my “notes to self”.
- Be more conscious of how close my mic is to my keyboard and how loud I’m typing.
- Do more research about what’s going on so I can suggest more topics instead of being a ‘yes’ woman.
- Don’t laugh – it doesn’t come across well over the phone/skype.
- Attempt to fix the skype thing because in the recording I do hear myself cut out sometimes.
I think, all in all, this was a good exercise for me in giving up control of my image and gives me some things to work on. Please, go listen, and add on to my notes so I can work on my presence, public relations and such! In advance, I truly appreciate it.
Read MoreMaking It Big
This week has been full of win, and it’s only Tuesday!
All the Cool Kids (and me)
My humble little blog TrishaLyn.com has been featured on Alltop.com under the Marketing category. Alltop is a digital magazine rack, per se. At each Alltop site, they display the latest five stories from 30+ sites on a single page, aggregating the information as a starting point. Alltop is a great way to expose yourself to blogs and websites relating to your interests that you may not have stumbled upon before. The interests range from women’s interests to sports, religion to geekery. In the marketing category my humble blog is mentioned amongst the likes of Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, Michael Martine’s Remarkablogger, and Seth Godin’s blog. I’d say that lives up to the “all the cool kids (and me)” slogan!
Guest Co-Host of AffiliateThing on WebmasterRadio.fm
Regular host Shawn Collins of AffiliateTip.com and co-founder of Affiliate Summit invited me on to co-host the weekly Affiliate Thing podcast in lieu of regular co-host Lisa Picarille of Revenue Magazine who can’t make it tomorrow. I’m excited as I know this is a well-produced, professional podcast broadcast on Cranberry Radio, so I can’t wait. I’ll be recording from the pleasure of my own home in the morning and can’t wait to chew the affiliate fat with Shawn. I will say that I’m glad I’m not the one who has to edit it! it’s all recorded over Skype, so it’ll be great quality I’m sure!
Featured Expert on EzineArticles.com
That’s right, yours truly is also now a featured expert author on article site EzineArticles.com. So far I’ve submitted my Top 10 Things That Improve Work Ethic article and plan on submitting many more. If you’d like to see any of my former blog posts as articles on Ezine, drop me a line and let me know!
So that’s it! I feel like all this work I’ve been doing is paying off, and let me tell you, it’s a terrific feeling! I’ll be sure to report back on how the recording of Affiliate Thing goes tomorrow!
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