I also don't talk about negative interactions often because they usually bring weird vibes in. But there's a lesson to be had in this, so let's look at the silver lining.

He obviously didn't watch my videos about being social before asking for the sale. It didn't go well for him. More after the fold.

The Expanded Commentary

I don't usually put people on blast, and I'm not even doing that here. I withheld this guy's name because everyone makes mistakes. He's young and hungry so there's a chance he will straighten up.

But it's such a turnoff when I get approached like this so I thought I'd share this with you.

Don't be this guy. Don't approach someone pretending to want to be friends when in reality you're trying to pitch a business. Could I be the guy that's 100% wrong about this? Maybe, but a 20 year run of experience at this tells me I'm right.

There's nothing wrong with pitching your business or service or widget. Heck, I do it all the time! There are a couple of ways you can do that and I talk about that below.

But the issue comes in when you pretend like you're just making a connection so that we can help each other and you start dropping my friends' names as if you actually know them.

It's also cringy when you start using bullshit terminology and phrases like: "I'm glad to find a local brother" or "mutually fruitful relationship." I don't want to put up all the screenshots, but here's one piece of the conversation.

But in fact, you have no intention of actually helping my business, or helping me with any of my immediate problems in any way shape or form.

It's like going out on a date

Think about the dating world, you go out to a singles event and you see someone across the room; they were just talking to someone you know. You decide to approach them and introduce yourself, then when they are polite and introduce themselves back. Good right!? But then 2 minutes later you ask them to marry you.

Do you think that would work? Fuck no.

Take your time, truly develop a relationship. Offer something of help without asking for something in return first.

Give it time. If you do it right, the opening to talk about whatever service or business you're offering will work itself naturally. It might take 20 minutes, it might take 2 weeks. It might take a year. But your character will shine, and if you're in business for the right reasons, you understand the long term play.

If you must, just come out directly and say something like:

Hey, my name is such and such and I offer this service. I thought based on some of the stuff I saw on your profile you may be interested, would you have a few minutes to chat about it?

Do NOT name drop, pretending you know my friends.

That doesn't win you anything. And be honest and upfront about it. Drop the act. It's 2019, we can see right through it. Also, notice the little bit I added about "stuff I saw on your profile" take a few minutes to at least find something to chat about other than "where are you from?" or "what do you do?" etc... That's all in our profiles.

In the video, I mentioned a couple of other videos, here are those videos:

• Ask for the sale (only) after this
• One way to spot a scammer on Facebook

Okay, that's it for this post. Do you agree? disagree? Have you had this happen before? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to know your story.

The post Don’t Get Butthurt Because Your Pitch Sucks. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But I had forgotten about this cool gadget I ordered over a year ago. The Switchpod. Check it out in the video, I did a quick impromptu unboxing.

Switchpod Tripod Unboxing & Discount Code

I also have a discount code or coupon code that will save you $10.00 as long as you order yours before the end of 2019.

Get the Switchpod here:
http://oglink.it/switchpod

The discount code, or coupon, whatever you want to call is good for $10.00 off, and good until the end of 2019. This would make a great gift for your favorite vlogger! Let me know in the comments if it worked for you.
Code: Maketheswitch

Don't want to buy one? Win a Switchpod!

The post Switchpod Unboxing + Discount Code appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Having a secured site is important even if you aren't selling or collecting data. By secured, in this context, we're talking just about the identity of the site being secured by using SSL.

Google cares, so... get on it. If you don't you could be left behind.

Here's Neil Patel's take on it.  Business.com says this about the whole SSL discussion. SSL and https have been a ranking factor since 2014, and increasing in importance ever since.

We didn't cover it in the video, but most modern and reputable hosting systems offer new and FREE SSL certificates. Let's Encrypt, Comodo, and a few others are some of the options out there that provide free SSL certificates (this blog post has a good list).

Hint, hint, if I haven't made it clear enough yet, you need SSL on your website. No longer is customer data a requirement for SSL, but now it's just a basic SEO ranking factor.

Check your own web hosting dashboard to request your free SSL and get it installed. If you don't see it or if it isn't obvious, chat with your support rep to get an answer.

However, if your host isn't helping here are some options for hosts that support free SSL options and I highly recommend:

Other hosts that offer free, point and click SSL certificate setup:
http://oglink.it/greengeeks (environmentally friendly) *
http://oglink.it/wpengine (white glove treatment) **
http://oglink.it/liquidweb (truly outstanding support) **
http://oglink.it/hostgator (tried and true, has something for everybody)

I put asterisks next to the ones I recommend the most. More asterisks means I recommend it more, but in any case here's the video:

Here's the video:

The post You MUST Do this for your WordPress Site. SSL Certificates — This Week with John and Oscar appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

In a short video (below) I took a moment to answer this question which comes up regularly. It applies to moms as well, so technically it's good for WAHD and WAHMs.

When you read it or watch the video, you'll think it's obvious and simple, even trivial.

But I think this small aspect is critical if you want to succeed with a home or online business AND also raise kids without putting them on the care of strangers.

As a quick side note, I pass no judgment if you have to leave your kids with babysitter services, or even regular daycare.

I know, as a parent you gotta do what you have to do, but all things considered, I think it's always better if I am with my kids whenever they're not at school. Call me old-fashioned if you wish.

But if you think this is a simple and obvious tip, watch the video and also read the entire blog post. I think you may reconsider after you absorb everything.

Simple, yet powerful.

Also as a side note and quick disclaimer. Someone I know and admire runs her entire life from a regular, pen-and-paper calendar system and it works amazing for her.

So whatever works for you, that is what you should do, but as you'll see in the video and read below, I prefer a digital option.

The option is yours, simply be true to yourself and use what works best for you.

How Can You Do It? Tips for Time Management for SAHD & WAHD and SAHM & WAHM.

You can start simply with a good calendar app.

I recommend Google Calendar, but since we're talking about using it for business then use the G-suite version instead of just the free Gmail version. Here's a link to a free trial.

Update (2021-07-19) After numerous negative experiences with Mailchimp, I no longer recommend it. Yes, they're still one of the leading email marketing service providers, but the headaches and heartaches that come with it just completely removed it from the options I think you should consider.

This lets you use a professional email address when using your calendar.

Using a professional email address when you invite customers or leads to an appointment will look more professional than if you use a free Gmail account.

Also, you can use the free trial link, but after the trial, you'll need to pay for the service. When you pay for a service like this, it helps you to commit and solidify it as a critical part of your infrastructure and thus helps you do everything better.

It's a psychological hack. It should help you think that you have to use it, since you're paying for it. And this helps create a full loop.

Use the calendar to do better, do better and make more money because of your calendar, rinse and repeat.

A Few Other Tips

In addition to the main calendar where I keep my appointments and commitments to my family, I use a few other tools worth mentioning.

Mobile notifications

My mobile device alerts and notifications are critical. Make sure your phone alerts you of upcoming appointments ahead of time.

To make sure this works and nothing falls through the cracks, I set my calendar to remind me of upcoming appointments using the free Zedge notification app to customize the sound.

You're going to laugh at me, but I literally have the "Trollolololol song" as my calendar appointment reminder notification sound. Keeping things interesting and fun right? -- Not the whole thing, just like an 8-second clip, you'll find it on Zedge. ?

Using the new notifications control panel for my Android device lets me get really granular with notifications so I get notified by sound and don't even have to look at my screen sometimes to know what's coming up.

I set up multiple notifications for every appointment, by default with the following list of notifications are set:

• 1 day in advance
• 4 hours in advance
• 30 minutes in advance
• 5 minutes in advance

I adjust these four different notifications on a case by case basis for each event that makes it into the calendar.

For example, sometimes I may need more than 1-day notice for an event, and other times I don't need to be reminded more than once.

Remove Myself From the Equation

Sometimes managing the calendar in and of itself is a chore, I try to automate as much of that as possible. I have a system configured to minimize my time spent managing the calendar.

For client appointments, I use Calendly.

This way if I'm working with a lead, I send them a special link where they can book an appointment with me.

For most people, the free version of Calendly works just fine. Connect it to your Google calendar, set your rules of availability and you're ready to roll!

The Calendly system is based on settings I set in advance and also on my current availability. This prevents the usual back and forth series of emails trying to find a time that is convenient for both parties; they just find an open slot that works for them and automatically pencil themselves into my calendar.

I get notified and the appointment system will then remind me of the appointment as needed using the four notifications I mentioned earlier.

For Family Events Use the Shared Calendar Feature

In order to coordinate with family members, we all have our private calendars but we share availability with each other.

You can also do this within the settings of your calendar, or you can create a shared calendar for everyone that needs to participate.

We know what times are available, which times we're together for an event, and we can easily invite each other for future events.

For Social Events I Automatically Add Them to My Calendar

If you like to attend a lot of different events and have to deal with different websites to see your agendas, it is very useful to get all of those calendars to work in your Google calendar.

Meetup.com, Facebook events, EventBrite, and other types of calendars can automatically show up in your google calendar. Take a moment to search for instructions for your particular need and you'll find ways to get those appointments to show up in your own Google calendar.

I have this for my active Meetup.com events, and Facebook events. This way when I commit to an event in Facebook, or Meetup.com it automatically gets added to my calendar so I don't double-book myself with personal or professional activities.

If for some reason, you can't find instructions to connect a specific calendar to your Google calendar, you can try an app like IFTTT or Zapier to help you integrate new appointments with your calendar.

In Conclusion

This is a short video where I talk about how to run a business from home and raise kids at the same time.

I recommend getting a good calendar that works with you and for you. The last thing you want is to add more work to your daily life so take advantage of the technologies available.

This is just one aspect of managing the entrepreneur lifestyle while raising kids, but it's a big part of staying productive and maximizing efficiency.

Keep Your Eye on The Prize

Keep an eye on your desired outcome. For example for me it's imagining something like the scene below. Total relaxation, everything at peace. With a calendar in order, this is one step closer to reality than a distant dream.

In a future blog post and video, I'll cover other aspects talking about other productivity tips, including more automation, task management, time tracking and keeping a log of activity.

The post WAHD, Running a Business and Raising Kids. But How? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

You may be wondering, a year later after Sean dropped that video. Should I get it if I want to vlog with it?

Watch the video to hear what I think about it and how I got my hands on one of these for about $100 less than regular retail price.

The company I got it from is eGlobal Central. Some people have had less than stellar experiences with them, but my experience was flawless and my friend’s also.

A couple of friends have spent over $ 4,000 with them in various electronics and gadgets without a problem. But the general recommendation is to use Paypal or a good credit card so you have buyers’ protection just in case something goes wrong.

My camera took about 12 days to arrive. I expected that it would take two weeks so 12 days was just about right. 

If you are skeptical of using eGlobal Central, I understand and I don't blame you. I have found this same camera in Amazon for a little cheaper than retail, check it out here for the latest price.

Here's the video: Canon EOS 800D or Rebel 7ti as a Vlogging Camera 

The post About my New New Vlogging Camera, the EOS 800D AKA Rebel T7i appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I took the kids after school one day to see what was up with them since I hadn't been there in a year, maybe two.

This is what happened during this new #foodieadventure.

There's a reason I haven't been to Bruxie in a while. Or rather, several reasons, only one of those reasons has changed now.

A few years ago Bruxie started to change. I'm not sure if they went through some growing pains, but the quality of the food went down, prices went up and the part that made Bruxie awesome kinda lost its appeal.

I can't quite pinpoint what appeal I'm referring to, but it was gone.

This time around, the food was amazing. I ordered the B.A.M.F. and got the kids some chicken tenders with Bruxie's waffle fries. Check out how everything turned out in the video.

The thing that changed was the quality of the food. I only have tried the B.A.M.F. and what they were serving at Taste of Huntington Beach the other day.

But I can say that the taste and quality are back, that's undisputable. The price, still a problem. Maybe it's just part of growing up, but $30 for 1 "grown-up" meal and one "side order" seems steep.

The post The B.A.M.F. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We meet weekly to talk about all things related to online marketing, and digital marketing.

We've also been doing this little weekly recap of stuff that hit our radar. This week we responded to a troll, and John roasted the Riverside Cars & Coffee meetup.

What do crazy liberals and the movie Bird Box have in common? Yeah, we covered that too.

Join us in person at the next Dot Com Lunch meetup in Irvine. RSVP here.

The post Dot Com Lunch – This Week with John and Oscar appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

That's the topic I explore in this video, let me know what you think in the comments!

Let's Talk About The Gillette Ad Controversy

It took a lot for me to stay on point here because I really wanted to give you my opinion on the ad but instead, I talked about the business aspect, the marketing part of it.

It seems that some reports have come out saying that the Gillette's ad response has been positive. That's a load of crap if I ever saw one, they simply want to spin this to show that social justice has a place in marketing. Short answer, it doesn't.

Other reports claim that the ad didn't fare well for Gillette. Either way, take a look at the ad, watch my video and let me know what you think in the comments!

The comments are still raging right now, even at the time of this writing, there are comments being posted daily reminding Gillette that the customers are displeased with this "short film."

About the thumbnail. The thumbnail says "Brilliant Marketing OR get Woke, Go Broke?" - You may be wondering what that means. If you're here for Internet marketing, that may not be in your radar at all.

What IS 'Get Woke, Go Broke'?

But if you wanted to know, the phrase "get woke, go broke" means, according to Urban Dictionary:

Get Woke, Go Broke is a phrase coined by the internationally bestselling author John Ringo to express the opinion that when organizations "get woke" to politically correct actions, those same actions usually result in a massive loss of income.

And I guess I would agree with that definition, so that's at the core of my video.

If you haven't watched the ad, here's Gillette's Original Ad:

The Best Men Can Be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0

Commentary videos:

CBC --The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, similar to PBS.

Notice the dislike ratio also on this one:

Tim Pool - Political journalist and commentator.

This was one of the earliest commentaries that came out and he eventually made over 8 or so videos about the topic. Worth watching.

The Quartering - This guy has a commentary channel, mostly about the gaming and Youtube community.

This commentary seemed to be pretty spot on. I included it because this is an average dude, you can't really pick up on a political agenda from him, but he wanted to comment on this.

For people that said things like, or took a stand like:  "I just don't understand why this is such a big deal," this might be a good video, almost at 1 million views.

The post Let’s Talk About the Gillette Ad Controversy appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

A couple of viewers and some people in Meetup have asked me why don't I get anything else besides pho when we go to our Dot Com Lunch.

But we actually try a lot of different places and dishes. Make sure you're part of the meetup if you want to join in our next meetup.

We've been to Happy Dining, and Mai Thai and a few others I haven't reviewed yet. Just join the meetup and we'll keep you posted of new events and locations. But in this day, I tried something besides the pho.

In this Dot Com Lunch video, we also talk a little bit about the minimum wage hike in California and generally just have a good meal.

My Review of the Crispy Noodles with Sea Food (Mì Xào Giòn)

This time around, I tried something besides Pho. This looked attractive and I don't recall having it in recent years. Maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

This dish is too mild for my taste, I had to add a dash of chili and a little bit more cilantro, but once I took care of that, the dish was perfect.

I would get this again if I was looking for a healthy light dish with bok choi and seafood.

And tiny little corns. It had some of those. That's a thing in some Vietnamese dishes, really.

It was nice eating some of the noodles while they were crispy and crunchy, but later on, some had been soaking in the sauce and gave them a nice bite but weren't crunchy anymore. I guess this is what you hope for with this dish.

That was a nice contrast. This dish is different. Good, but different. I'd recommend it to anybody that wants to try something new and wants to go with some seafood.

I think a couple pieces of shrimp would have made this a perfect dish, but I can't complain.

The post Pho Ba Co Review – Crispy Noodles With Seafood (Mì Xào Giòn) appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

There are 30 bonus interviews with a workbook each where you can get started. Then when the challenge kicks off, the daily tasks and assignments will be released.

In the meantime, I thought about the things I need to do to set my mindset in the right place. I want to focus on important stuff for the challenge.

Today's current political climate sometimes makes that difficult, so here's my new take on that, in the video.

Do you agree with my perspective? why, or why not?

If you want to join the challenge, then you can join using this link. Or click here to watch my previous video about how to join, what to expect, and see me going through the registration process, go here on Youtube.

I tried to show how it works and some thoughts I had during the enrollment process, all in the video.

The challenge comes with a package so I recommend you enroll soon so you get that stuff right away and have it ready when the challenge starts. Instead of waiting for it to arrive after the challenge starts. Remember, February 25.

In any case, here's my video about Politics, Business, and IGA.

You do know what IGA is right? 

Mixing Political Opinions With Business

The post IGA over Politics – Discussing Politics in Social Media. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The reasons for adding subtitles to your video are many.

If your video is properly closed captioned, more people can watch it. Closed captions are used by people that can't listen to a video to be able to read or interpret the message from the video.

Youtube creates automatic closed captions, but they're not always accurate.

One more benefit for the closed captions is that you can describe sounds and activity that the automatic captions won't ever do.

You can even add an introduction text where you plug your company. I do this at the beginning of the introduction and I say something like "closed captioning by notagrouch.com".

I think it looks pro and it looks like the captions you see on movies and TV. You can see that in the video below if you have CC turned on.

I also decided to spend more time on my own captions because I noticed an increase in youtube views recently after I started following best practices recommended both by Youtube and other Youtube experts.

So I made a video on how to do it. This is when you want to do them from scratch. There are two other methods that are more suitable for making adjustments to existing transcripts.

I also have a feeling that closed captions can or may affect search engine rankings. It makes sense to me that they would, but I'm not sure yet. Here's that tutorial for now:

How To Create Subtitles or Closed Captions on Youtube

The post Youtube Tutorial. How to Create Close Captions for Your Videos appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The premise of this challenge is that you're just 1 funnel away from achieving amazing results. It could be 1 funnel that makes all the difference, so I decided to start this challenge.

The challenge starts on February 25.

I'm taking the challenge and inviting you to join me. This should be an amazing opportunity to get personalized coaching and support while participating in each daily task.

I'll be active each day as soon as the challenge starts, this is your chance to join me and a group of entrepreneurs making a big difference in our businesses and our lives. Once you join, you'll be granted access to the private group where we are starting to know each other and getting ready to start in a few days.

Come join me! Here is my video inviting you and showing you how to join.

Click this link to join the 30 day One Funnel Away challenge here.

Join the challenge on this link:

https://notagrouch.com/1funnel

The post One Funnel Away 30 Day Challenge. A 30 Day Internet Marketing Challenge for Entrepreneurs appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

As I worked on that video and did some research, I found that beanie babies aren't something that you can make money from anymore. Unless you have one of the really really really rare ones then you're not likely to make any money.

Some of the ones you see in the video sell for as high as $4.99! And that's only if they're new.

Remember when the beanie babies craze was going on? People were spending hundreds of dollars looking for the "good ones" and then selling them for thousands. It reminds me of that PBS documentary The Botany of Desire. I recommend you watch it if you get a chance. It's interesting to see how things are valued depending on human desire and context.

To find the really rare beanie babies, you need to be a collector, a serious collector. Besides that, the rare ones aren't just the limited edition TY beanie babies, they are the ones that were limited edition AND have a defect.

For example, I found that one of the angel-looking ones, I think is called "Halo" can be worth a few hundred dollars, if and only if you have the one that came with a brown nose instead of the regular black nose.

Yeah, good luck finding one of those. Nonetheless, it was interesting going through the bin of stuff I found.

So it turns out, at the end of the day most of these were junk. A few worked out great as toys for Picasso and my kids wanted to keep a few of them. I guess I don't have a million dollar find in my attic this time around.

The post Found a Cash Cow! Can You Even Make Money From Beanie Babies? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

From the official Taste of Huntington Beach website:

Featuring delectable tastes from local restaurants and catering companies. Add in unlimited sips from your favorite wineries and breweries, along with live entertainment by The Ramsey Brothers Band for your listening and dancing enjoyment – and you have the perfect mix for a great day of food, fun, and friends!

All proceeds go to the Children's library of Huntington Beach.

Taste of Huntington Beach is a fun event. I think you should go to if you're in Southern California and especially in Huntington Beach and surrounding cities. I know people come all the way from Riverside County, Santa Barbara, and even San Diego.

It is a single day event. I wish it were a 2-day event, and I think many people feel the same way. The primary reason I wish it were two days is that you simply don't have the time or a big enough stomach to try everything. There's so much food!

Every time I go, I come out stuffed like if I had gone to an all you can eat buffet in Las Vegas after a 20 day fast.

I had a chance to talk to the organizer and one of the requirements is that each vendor that participates must have at least 2000 servings. If memory serves me right, there were over 50 food vendors last time so there is tons of food to go around.

As you'll see in the video, these aren't tiny samples either. Many servings are big enough to be considered appetizer size and in some cases, you get a huge portion. Not to mention, the tastings are unlimited so you can come back for seconds, thirds, or more.

Another fun thing about it is that they also serve alcohol. You'll find local wineries, breweries, and distilleries serving their best.

I highly recommend you check them out. I believe they still have their early bird tickets available right now. So go get some!

Taste of Huntington Beach will take place on April 28 from noon to 4:00 pm.

I also covered this before, here's another video for the Taste of Huntington Beach 2016.

The post Taste of Huntington Beach appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We're doing another prologued fast next month and many of the members are doing intermittent fasting on a regular basis. The group is there to talk about fasting and to support each other and help each other find information, hold each other accountable and stuff like that.

Our fasting group if you want to join, Let's Fast!

The post 5 Tips for Prolonged fasting. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We often write reviews or make complaints when something bothers us or someone did us "wrong." To close out 2018, I decided to give a shoutout to someone at Starbucks that sometimes helps my day get started on a good note.

I even sent the commendation to the higher-ups at Starbucks telling them to give this guy a raise or something. They ended up talking to me on Twitter DM about it. I don't know what happened with that but hopefully something good.

Thanks for all the likes, views & comments. See you in 2019!

The post Last Shoutout for 2018 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

You probably disagree with the statement about because shooting, editing and producing a video seems like a lot of work. And you'd be right, but if you look past that initial investment in time and effort you'll notice that a video can be reused many times over.

A video can be transcribed for search engine benefits. A video can be split into shorter highlights for Instagram or Twitter. A video can be uploaded to more sites than Youtube. A video can help you retain viewership on your blog longer. There are a half dozen other good reasons to start a piece of content with a video so that's what I've been doing.

I've been teaching this principle for years, but only recently did I start putting it into practice for my own stuff. As you can see on my blog, many of my recent blog posts are based on a video.

I made this short video to thank all of you that have subscribed and helped me reach 1500 subscribers. Although it is not a big number, I'm thankful and grateful for each one of you.

Thank You!

I also talked a little bit about getting old and all the youth wasted in the young. Even if it's late for the blog. If you aren't a subscriber, you can just hit the subscribe button directly below this video, or head over to my channel and subscribe there.

The post 1500 Youtube Subscribers! appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I had some thoughts to share with you about Tim Cook, Youtube, and even Patreon. I recorded this before the Patreon purge begun so keep my timing in context.

I also started a four fast and talked a little bit about that.

I have a lot I want to say about Patreon's censorship and de-platforming moves over the past few weeks, I also am alarmed by the censorship we're seeing from Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and even Apple.

If you listen to Tim Cook's recent speech at the ADL, it sounds like straight out of a 1984 passage. It's disturbing to say the least.

Tim's speech starts at 9:37, Tim's message pretty much amounts to suggesting we need to have thought police and he is probably thinking he should be spearheading that movement. Maybe even a book burning session for all thoughts and media that he doesn't like.

Look at the top comments on that video, I'm not the only one that feels this way.

Even more frightening is the fact that some of the other tech giants and leaders of industry are jumping on board with this politically correct and social justice warrior moves. I'm talking about the likes of Paypal and Mastercard.

Paypal recently cut off service to Subscribestar, well, they politely asked them to stop using their service. Same thing. Then, Mastercard has also given Patron "direction" on who they can or can't work with.

Double WTF.

I feel like we're living in a bizarro world. The Internet was supposed to free us from all this nonsense, but it seems that we traded convenience for freedom and now these tech giants or "technocrats" as I call them have decided that they can and should decide what is good for us.

Skip to 4:24 if you want to get to the meat of the video.

As I was polishing up the video and adding notes and all that, I came across various articles that say that the frog in hot water may be debunked. It appears that perhaps it isn't true, but the analogy still stands.

Perhaps we're the frog and the water around us is just getting hotter and hotter. Will we realize this before it's too late?

The post Why Does Tim Cook Think he Should Be the Thought Police? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you didn't know, Kevin Hart was going to host the Oscars in 2019. But as his luck would have it and as it's customary for social justice warriors, some old tweets of his were dug up.

This is happening more and more with not only celebrities but with common people like you and me. It seems like we can't go a week without someone getting fired, expelled, excommunicated and or forced to apologize for old thoughts, old comments or like in the case of Kevin Hart, old tweets.

This is happening at an alarming rate. People are in fear now of saying the wrong thing, of looking the wrong way, of laughing at the wrong joke. In fact, even I'm considering some protections for that and I started deleting all my old tweets. More on that later, but we simply can't trust people to do the right thing, to be noble and moral and to mind their own business.

Have we gotten to the point where our egos are so fragile that a joke is so offensive that we're willing to destroy someone's life over it? Is that the next way to fulfill our life's desires?

I mean, WTF.

So back to Kevin's story. So, someone dug up the tweets from Kevin and brought them to light. His "team" as he describes on an Instagram post told him that the world was upset about the tweets and he responded with this:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEFNFalWgw/

The Academy then contacted Kevin and asked him to apologize or they'd have to give the host role to someone else.

As I was following the whole drama with these old tweets and Kevin Hart, I was so happy that he posted a response. His initial response was to tell the Academy that he wasn't going to apologize, that the tweets had been addressed and that if they wanted to pull the gig then to go for it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrEjHFCFe83/

As a side note, who cares about the Oscars anyway? They're a dying show, with dramatically dwindling viewership over the past several years.

This made me so happy. Finally, someone standing up to the outrage culture movement.

But then... then, that's where my video takes over.

To Kevin, if you ever read this. Man, you should not have apologized. You should not have apologized.

The post Kevin Hart and The Oscars Controversy appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

There's a bit of a conundrum we find ourselves in with the current times and how people react to cameras and the ever-expanding nature of social media.

As vloggers and bloggers or just social media enthusiasts, we are bound to take photos and video while we're out doing just normal stuff. Living, shopping, walking, it is all happening all around us and a lot of us like to document or just make memories of these activities.

To some, they may seem mundane, to others this is life.

But I do have a problem with stores prohibiting recording in their establishments. I get it, it's their right and prerogative. But it's also our right not to patronize those businesses.

Some things to consider when looking at this topic:

• They record us and all our movements, often before we even enter their stores, and we did not give them consent.
• We (bloggers & vloggers) usually promote the business in our content.
• We (vloggers and bloggers) most of the time film or photograph only the stuff we're interacting with.

So it leaves me to guess the reasons for these archaic policies. One, they're paranoid for no real reason or two, they have something to hide or are afraid their staff is going to do or say something wrong.

There's another very likely possibility, and that is that upper management is totally detached from reality. Look at the second store we visited that day, you get to see their great products, their layout, what you can find there and ultimately they get some promotion.

Nobody gets hurt, nobody is embarrassed, but in contrast, some people are now aware of that store when they weren't before.

Either way, it leaves a lot to be desired and I probably will be looking for stores that aren't afraid of cameras, the first two to scratch of the list are Wholefoods and Sprouts.

At least Sprouts has a clear policy of no cameras posted on their front door, while Wholefoods doesn't. But Whole Foods, you really need to get over yourselves.

In any case, I leave you with those thoughts as I show you my latest vlog.

The post No Recording? Whole Foods & Other Stores Have Archaic Policies. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

He shared a little-known trick about getting your book into Barnes & Noble stores and didn't mind me capturing it on video for you.

As with anything like this, YMMV. Obviously, your book is going to have to be good and desirable and all that good stuff.

Then I also wonder if you do it correctly how many big box stores could you sneak your way into with other products, not just books?

It would only work with small items because it would be difficult to sneak a lot of them in.

But anyway, here's the video

How to Get Your Book into Barnes & Noble Video

Errm... we'll call this the quick, not-guaranteed, probably-will-not-work, legit-but-not, red tape-less, jump-the-line, method to get your self-published book into the big bookstore.

Years ago, I had heard of a similar trick to get promotion and visibility but it didn't really aim at getting picked up by Barnes & Noble or even other retailers.

The trick was to bring your own books in a backpack or a duffel bag when you go to the airport, for example, and where you see books and magazines, and just pop your books in there.

If you designed a great cover and your book looks good, if it is attractive then it will sell.

Granted, won't see any money from the sale of the books but you'll gain new readers hopefully. The book might cost you $3-10 to print so it could be a fair price for a new name on your list.

The cashier will just manually ring up the book. If the book doesn't come up then they'll just charge the customer the price listed in the cover.

If their system is more sophisticated they might put it into the database.

My buddy called it reverse theft, lol.

Since you most likely will not receive any money from the sale, your only benefit will be having a new reader and the opportunity for you to put a great offer in front of your new reader.

So make sure you've set up your incentives, multiple tier funnels and email list ready for action when you do something like this.

Since Affiliate Summit West is coming up soon, I thought I'd share this with you. A good reminder of the value that Affiliate Summit has to offer.

Even out of sessions, you'll learn little tips and tricks that can be worth the price of attendance.

The post How to Get Your Book into Barnes & Noble appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Sometimes the fear is really unfounded because these same people don't really investigate the true costs of starting an online business.

And before they even start, they extinguish their business.

In this short video, I explain what you *need* to start an affiliate marketing business online.

The good news is that starting an affiliate marketing business, and many other online businesses, the start-up costs are small. In some cases, the cost can be zero. That's what this video is about today.

How Much Does it Cost To Start an Affiliate Marketing Business?

The basics to start an affiliate marketing business are as follows:

#1 Website (hosting & domain)

This amount is generally for one to two years, $60-$120. If you want to learn more about web hosting, I have this blog post here that might help.

Get hosting through Inmotion Hosting here and receive up to 50% off your first invoice. And you get a domain for free, or a free transfer if you already have a domain.

#2 Email marketing

This ranges from $0 to $20/month approximately.

Get email marketing services through Aweber here and get 30 days for free. I think in the video I mentioned you could do email marketing for free. And you can, although I don't recommend it for a couple of reasons.

You may want to try Mailchimp if you really can't afford $20/month for Aweber. ** If you really want to know why I advise against using free email services, you can read this post and watch this video.

The next steps are basically free, just take some of your time and effort.

#3 Start producing content and build your email list and email sequence. Free.

Publish content to your website and or blog and start an email sequence. The email sequence should introduce your subscribers to you and to your vision. It should also explain what to expect in future emails. The sequence can be a few days or a few weeks long.

An easy way to tackle this part is to answer all the "About" related questions in several blog posts. These blog posts then become the email that you send to your list as you introduce yourself and eventually you'll be sharing the current blog post instead of the introductory sequence.

#4 Find products to promote. Free

To find products you can promote, you can start with some affiliate networks, here are three easy sites to work with: Shareasale, Peerfly, and Refersion.

These are free to join and you can browse through the various offers and see if any of them would be a match for your blog or website.

There are another dozen I could list, but that's a good start. Also good to get familiar with the concept of an affiliate network.

If you don't see a product or service you like inside those networks, you can also go to your favorite product or service and see if they offer a rewards or affiliate program section.

Sometimes they have it under sections titled "work with us" or "earn money" or "webmasters" if you don't see it on their own website, then do a web search for "Brand-name +Affiliate Program" where brand-name is whatever brand you're looking for.

Sometimes the affiliate program is run through a network like the ones I shared above or something like CJ.com and many others but the search I gave you above should find it for you.

If you don't see it, then maybe they just don't have one.

For physical products, if you can't find it on a network or directly through the manufacturer, one last resort tends to be Amazon, they have most of the products available for sale also available through their affiliate program.

That is also free to join and you'll find it under Amazon associates. Sign up, then you'll be able to search for any product and get your own affiliate link to share on your blog articles and monetize it that way.

Please note that in a few cases, you may need to own the product you want to promote. This is especially true with software, or web tools. I just wanted to note that because I make a point on this section to say "Find products to promote. Free" so I want to make it clear, you can always promote products for free without paying for fees or memberships.

But there are some cases where an affiliate program is only open to active members or owners of the product, for example, Leadpages.

#5 Work Your Butt Off. Free.

The start-up cost is small, but your effort needs to be big. Constant, and relentless. Even when you face major setbacks that make you want to quit, you must be committed to publishing, on time and consistently.

The post How Much Do I need To Start an Affiliate Marketing Business? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

It all depends on the response this video gets, but I know suicide is definitely a taboo topic.

I couldn't add the word in the Youtube video description for fear that Youtube might penalize the video. Tubebuddy extension suggested that it may hurt my monetization options.

And my fears are not unfounded. It's not just the warning from Tubebuddy. We see censorship and demonetization on Youtube daily.

This video is for my friends and those of you in business. Believe me, the struggle is real. The struggle is lonely, but you've got options, and not just one.

The post Shhh… We Don’t Talk About it –Taboo Topic in Business appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

So what would be my feedback to you as a 20-something life coach?

Today's video is about that.

The post Tell Me About Being a Life Coach appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We have done four episodes and we are settling into a schedule. As of right now, we have scheduled Tuesday nights and you can join our group to get the episodes live.

We're also working on getting our Youtube channel up as well as developing our Facebook page.

Our first episode kicked off and we talked about AHA! moments in online entrepreneurship and affiliate marketing. The whole thing was a play on words with the content and the title. AHA Talks stands for After Hours Affiliate Talks, but episode 1 was literally about those "aha! moments" that we have as entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers.

Join our Facebook group here to catch the live shows, replays, and ask questions and learn more about affiliate marketing.
https://notagrouch.com/night/

The post AHA Moments Announcement appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you don't know what the 90 day video challenge is all about, here's the scoop.

For 90 days, you will be required to create, upload and publish a video to Youtube. The goal is to get you started with video content creation or to help you get to the next level.

Today, video is really important for any business, and while Youtube has been around for a little over 10 years now, independent video creators are just starting to flourish and they're starting to become mainstream.

Whether you have a brick and mortar business, an online business, a blog, or all of the above, video can help you grow and besides your time and a small investment in equipment, it's virtually free marketing!

The focus of the challenge will be to increase brand awareness, to generate more traffic and ultimately generate more sales for your business.

If you don't have a Youtube channel, this is the best opportunity to start. If you haven't done much with your existing Youtube channel, then this is your chance to step up your game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmNrWO0Hpw

The 90 day video challenge starts in two weeks!

The challenge begins on January 29, so you have a couple weeks to prepare! If you're interested in learning more, then join the updates here and I'll send you links to the Facebook group and all the details.

I'll be posting a few updates about the challenge here on the blog and on my Youtube channel. We're finalizing the rules, the prizes and all that sort of stuff so it will be good if you get into the Facebook group so you can see what's going on.

Unlike the previous challenge, this one will have more structure and we'll have tips, tricks, strategies and weekly guidance to help you succeed. Don't hesitate!

The post The 90 Day Video Challenge is Back. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Maybe this sounds like you: A blogger has been blogging for months, maybe even over a year and hasn't made any money.

Perhaps they've made a few dollars here and there. But the reality is that most bloggers, and chances are that includes you, don't make enough to even cover basic costs.

It's not for lack of trying or for lack of skill, generally.

Keep in mind most successful bloggers didn't make money until months after starting their blog.

What do affiliates need to start making money online?

There are many things that comprise the recipe for profits online, but I'm going to cover two important factors that would help you make money if you haven't made enough money from your blog yet.

I know it can be frustrating.

Making money online is more than just posting content and sharing it. You can have a huge following and still fail to make a decent income. In this video, I dive into one of the main reasons why you're not making money despite all your efforts.

Check out the video and take action. If you're not profiting from your blog, maybe it's time you try something new, or time to upgrade your methods or products.

And if you don't think that these are the missing ingredients for your blog to start making money, let me know more about your situation in the comments and we can figure it out together.

https://youtu.be/t9ZgNvtSB2s

If you didn't want to wait for the entire video. The key of one of the messages is to start working with higher-end products which in turn pay out a higher level commission.

If you're interested in learning how to do that and start earning more money than ever before, check out the 21 step training I talk about in the video right here.

The post Affiliates: This Is Why You’re Not Making Money Online (Video) appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Minds recently crowdfunded a million bucks, Gab.ai is fighting Google. Voat wants a piece of Reddit. And I could go on and on with the rest of new social networks that are competing for our mindshare.

So today, I would like to introduce you to Vidme.

What is Vidme?

Vidme is a new-ish video sharing platform. Some say Vidme is a mix between Youtube and Reddit, some call it the Imgur of video. But I see it as a video sharing platform, one of few that seems to have the basics nailed down and is gaining some traction.

Vidme describes themselves as a platform with one mission: To build the world's most creator-friendly video community. People are talking about it, and some of the features make it attractive to new and existing content creators.

Vidme has raised a little over 9 million dollars since 2015, it appears that they started with a seed of 3.2 million. Later on, they raised another 3.2 and just recently they raised an additional 6 million dollars.

I know there are other platforms that have been around for a long time that have challenged Youtube's dominance in video; and I intend to talk about those as well in a future blog post but for now, I wanted to cover Vidme and tell you about my own experience with it so far.

What's so special about Vidme?

Vidme has some interesting features that are intended to help content creators.

The strongest features attracting creators to the platform are the monetization options. While Youtube takes roughly 50% of the earnings from ads and the other part goes to the creator, Vidme has two main ways to generate revenue, and the lion's share of the revenue goes to the creator.

One such feature is paid subscriptions, the other one is tipping. They also have an ad revenue share program in beta right now, similar to Youtube's but with a 70% cut going to the content creator.

The platform used to be ad-free, but with the rollout of ad revenue sharing system, it seems that the ad-free experience is going away.

I don't mind ads except for the fact that about half the times that an ad was about to play, I was served just a black screen for a few seconds then the video would just start playing. Hopefully, it's just a glitch.

Show me the money!

Subscriptions start at $1.00 and work on a monthly basis; a subscriber can choose to pay a dollar or more each month to benefit the video creator.

Tipping works on a per video basis and the viewer decides how much to tip. Both of these options incentivize the creators to keep creating top-notch, relevant content.

Vidme takes a 10% cut of the revenue from those two options. This percentage split alone is a great incentive to join the site.

The only problem is that Vidme doesn't have the traffic that would allow creators to make a significant amount of money, yet. Hopefully, it grows more in 2017 and truly blooms in 2018.

There are some creators that have joined in from Youtube and have quickly received hundreds of subscriptions. But many of these are people that have over a million followers on other platforms already so many people are just following them.

Even so, Vidme is still fresh, and small allowing people like you and me to build a following there with little competition.

Vidme is also bouncing around the idea of having a merchandising system built in. No word on whether it will actually happen or when.

The idea of a merch store builtin to the system is innovative, but to me, it seems like out of the scope for a site like this, and I don't have a whole lot of faith in it. But it could work.

They have a sense of humor

Recently with the backlash that Youtube has been receiving, Vidme took an opportunity to take a jab at it with a promotional video. See below.

https://vid.me/KEnH

That's alright in my book. They capitalized on an opportunity and at least seem to be paying attention to what's going on over at Youtube. Now if we could just get a proper responsive embed for WordPress, that would be awesome.

So how big is Vidme?

When I emailed Vidme to get some current stats, they reported to me that they have about 25 million unique visitors "touching the product." I found that wording a bit interesting, but I'm guessing that it's just what we know as unique visitors. I was not able to find a number of creators or active creators, but if 25 million unique visits per month is accurate, then that's pretty damn respectable for a 3-year-old website.

I do have to wonder though, this same number has been reported for almost a year now. Are they being coy about their numbers or has their growth plateaued since December of last year? I'm not sure.

There's potential there, even if it's not without controversy.

I know there are lots of haters out there taking cheap shots at Vidme. I've watched the videos and read some articles.

But having the experience I have with startups, marketing, and product development, I think they are not giving the platform a fair shot. From what I can see, the "issues" some people like Eli the computer guy are complaining about are growing pains of a fast-growing company.

Most of the complaints seem like whiny rants that lack business insight. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. It seems that Vidme has been implementing changes as it receives feedback. They hosted an AMA on Reddit about 7 months ago where people got a chance to ask questions and give feedback. I think it's time they do another one.

Alexa reports Vidme to be in the top 2000 sites in the U.S. and it's climbing fast. It seems like it's about to cross that same mark globally. Their DA is a respectable 67.

It'll be a challenge to get under 1000, and even more so to get into the top 100. In contrast, Youtube is number 2 while Vimeo is at 94.

But I challenge any startup to get to 25Million unique visitors per month while hosting and serving video; arguably the toughest type of content to host and manage.

Why should you care about Vidme?

You should take a look at Vidme, create an account and use it for a couple of reasons.

They're a new company and new companies need support. Small companies need patronization from users because this is what keeps them viable, and in this specific case, it isn't good to have one single site dominate a total space as Youtube does.

When a company like Youtube becomes as big as it is, they start shaping culture, they start shaping thought, they become an entity that can control the media. They shape language, just like you "Google" stuff, people are "youtubers" and if you need to fix your broken washing machine, you'll "youtube" a video about it.

Youtube has fueled entire economic systems and with one change in policy, they can sweep it all away and drive people to lose a significant amount of revenue even if such outcome is unintentional, that's not a good thing.

It is especially disconcerting when you consider the type of issues Youtube is facing. Censorship, demonetization, and changes to the partner program status, are amongst the most notable problems bubbling up over there.

At the very least, you should try Vidme so it gets a chance to play in the big leagues. Maybe they'll fail, maybe they will be worse than Youtube. But if they don't get enough traction to prove themselves or hang themselves, we'll just never know what could have been.

I have faith that they can make it.

I think the timing is right, the product is good enough. That's not to say that there aren't some issues and needs for improvement, but that takes time and I think they're doing a good job at communicating with the users and working on improvements and trying new things.

If those reasons don't appeal to you, maybe I can appeal to your selfish nature and tell you that the site is young and open. It's not crowded yet.

From a practical perspective, it seems like it would be easy to have videos noticed and featured if you produce good content. Vidme is like an unexplored world waiting to be settled. A place where you can carve a nice little niche for yourself.

If you aren't a huge Youtuber already, it's refreshing to see that Vidme has very little competition within the site and thus you may be able to make a good amount of money in comparison to what Youtube has to offer.

And who doesn't like money? If you are already on Youtube, you can easily import your videos or just upload them to Vidme simultaneously. It would only take you a minute to fill in the title and description. Scheduling your videos in advance is available so that makes things easier.

Where can you find out more?

First, don't forget to follow me on Vidme. You'll find me as Notagrouch. If I haven't made it obvious yet, the site is at http://vid.me. Their own channel is here.

I'll be covering stuff about Vidme like I do for Youtube and other social networks here on my blog under the Vidme tag. And if you want to stay current with up to the minute news and discussions about it, the best place I found was the Vidme Reddit here.

Conclusion, TL;DR.

Vidme is a newish video sharing platform with some innovative features built in. Their goal is to help content creators by providing monetization features built directly into the platform. The site is growing and it has a little over 9 million dollars of funding. It's not crowded so it may be easy to carve a little niche and build an audience there as the site grows.

I'll write a little bit about using the site in a future blog post, but for the time being, you can find me there under Notagrouch. While I'm not leaving Youtube anytime soon, please join the site and follow me there.

1. Vidme Launches Paid Subscription Option To Diversify Creator Revenue Streams - Tubefilter, Vidme Launches Paid Subscription Option To Diversify Creator Revenue Streams, http://www.tubefilter.com/2017/05/11/vidme-paid-subscription-feature-diversify-revenue/
2. Vidme - Timeline | crunchbase, Vidme, https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/bit-kitchen/timeline#/timeline/index

The post Introduction to Vidme and Why You Should Check It Out appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But Youtube has some flaws, and one of those is the subscription system. If you use Youtube on a regular basis, you know that most channels encourage you to subscribe to them so you can stay up to date with their videos.

Obviously, after a while, you may end up being subscribed to hundreds or even thousands of Youtube channels.  What happens then is that Youtube can't notify you of all the updates. It wouldn't be practical.

Youtube came up with a solution for this, and they introduced the "subscription bell," a little icon that is available next to the subscription button on each channel. This bell icon lets you tell YouTube that you want "all notifications" from this channel. You can think of it as a priority status for that subscription compared to the other subscriptions.

But this doesn't solve the problem of too many notifications. You may have a thousand subscriptions and clicked the bell on 300 of those to receive all their alerts. But if those 300 channels are very active, then this is not a solution either.

I got sick of this notification mayhem and decided to unsubscribe from all Youtube channels so I could start from a blank slate. I went to the Youtube settings to look for a way to unsubscribe from all channels. No luck! Youtube wouldn't want me to unsubscribe from all channels because it would go against their goal to keep me on their site for a longer period of time.

So I went to use one of my favorite tools to make an unsubscribe script for Youtube. This tool is called iMacros, it's free. Even though it works with Firefox or Chrome, I think it works much better with Firefox, so that's what I used.

The following video shows you how it works and some of the basics. After the video, there are a few notes and also a download option for the script so you can just start using it yourself right away.

How to unsubscribe from all youtube channels, notes.

You need to install iMacros as an extension for Firefox.

If you want to subscribe to some channels after you have unsubscribed from all, I recommend that you back up your subscriptions first. You'll find the backup option on the bottom right of your Subscription management page. This option will let you download an OPML file which you can read with an RSS reader like Feedly.

Use this unsubscribe method at your own risk! Youtube doesn't have an interest in making it easy to mass-unsubscribe from all channels; they have an interest in selling advertising. One of their goals is to keep you on the site as long as possible, and they accomplish this by trying to show you content you would be interested in based on your previous watch history and subscriptions.

Using a script to unsubscribe is probably not something Youtube would endorse or encourage so use it your own risk. It's for this reason that I deliberately made the script with lots of pauses and time delays. The script is intended to be convenient, not to be fast.

If you are pushing the boundaries and Youtube decides to prevent you from unsubscribing quickly, you'll see a screen like this when running the script:

All you have to do at that point is wait a minute or two and then start the script again.

You can run the script manually, and it will unsubscribe you from 25 channels. Just use the "Play" button.

To run the script mostly automatically you should use the "Play (Loop)" option and specify the "Max" number of loops to run through. I ran the script ten times at a time, and this made it so that I unsubscribed from about 250 channels at a time. See screenshot below:

You'll notice that the script has a screenshot command, this is to take a screenshot of your subscriptions before it unsubscribes you from the first 25 listed on that page. If you don't want to keep screenshots, you can just delete that entire line. Screenshots are saved to the designated "Downloads" folder for iMacros.

If you want to remove the time delays (not recommended), you can delete the lines that say this:

SET !VAR1 EVAL("var randomNumber=Math.floor(Math.random()*4 + 2); randomNumber;")
WAIT SECONDS={{!VAR1}}

I recommend if you're going to "loop" the script to do a few hundred unsubscriptions at a time, you leave the last time delay so that there's a pause each time that the loop starts over. This delay may prevent Youtube from flagging your account or limiting you and showing you the 504 error I described above.

I was able to run the script on ten loops, and it only gave me the 504 error twice, depending on your Youtube usage and other factors you may not see it at all or you may see it more frequently. If you see the error every time it loops, you should log out of Youtube, clear your cache and log back in.

For more documentation and information on iMacros, you may want to take a look at the extensive documentation they offer in their Wiki here.

The script is here. Download it to your computer, put it into one of the iMacro folders, then play it through Firefox using the iMacro commands.

The script is herehttps://notagrouch.com/wp-content/uploads/youtube-unsubscribe.zip. Download it to your computer, put it into one of the iMacro folders, then play it through Firefox using the iMacro commands.

The post How To Reset Your Youtube Subscriptions appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I'm going to come out and say it directly; you should not start a blog with WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Medium.com, or other free blogging platforms. Specifically today I want to mention why you shouldn't go with WordPress.com if you want to start a blog for profit.

What's wrong with WordPress.com? Nothing is technically wrong with the service. It's reliable, it's fast and it's easy to use. However, if you want to start a blog for profit or a blog that will help your business generate income, then you should use the free, self-hosted counterpart to WordPress.com known as WordPress.org. I know it seems confusing, but if you read the points I make below and watch the video, hopefully, I will be able to clear things up for you.

WordPress.com will show ads to your visitors without your control. Also you don't get paid for those ads! The free version of WordPress.com doesn't let you use your own domain. When you set up your free blog with them, you'll need to use a non-branded address. For

For example, is not branded for you, but it's branded for WordPress.com. What you want is something like this: http://yourname.com

If you want to have your domain on WordPress.com, then you have to pay and it's no longer free. If you want to remove ads, then you have to pay more. If you want to monetize your blog you have to pay more! On top of that, you can't install custom 3rd party plugins, even if you pay at their highest plan. I explain more in the video below.

But basically, WordPress.com is free to start and what you get for free isn't what you need, even if you pay for the top level service they offer, you still won't get what you need.

WordPress.com is great if you're just tinkering with the idea of blogging. But if you want to be a little more serious about your business, or you want to make a blog that will make you money, you should go with WordPress.org.

Can't you transfer from WordPress.com to WordPress.org later on? Yes, you can but it's not easy, and you may lose followers, traffic and in some cases, you could lose content. Why risk that?

I invite you to get your blog started professionally by using my service. I explain it all in the video, so please watch it before you make a decision. If you decide you want to take advantage of my free blog setup, then make sure you use one of these web hosts:

• Inmotion Hosting - 47% off, business-centric. Great support.
• GreenGeeks Hosting - Low priced, environmentally friendly. Great support.

More details are in the video so you should watch it:

In this video, I mentioned two ways to get started with making money online. One is to apply for the 21 step online training course, click here to start. If you are accepted into the training, you'll get access to the same program that I use to make thousands of dollars, and you'll get a one-on-one coach to help you navigate through everything you need so you can also start making money.

The second one is to start a blog. I've just made the best offer I have ever made for my email subscribers that want to start a blog. If you're interested in taking advantage of that, make sure you're subscribed to my email list and I'll send you all the details. Go ahead and get a hosting account with either GreenGeeks, or Inmotion hosting, send me your information, and I'll take care of the rest.

The post The Truth about Free WordPress appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I know I said that I'm going into this challenge by myself. I didn't announce it to my groups, as of the writing of this blog post I haven't even told my VIP group about it. I'll be emailing them about it soon.

But that doesn't mean that you just get to sit back and watch and read only. I would like you to get something out of this challenge too, a large percentage of the videos and content I'll produce over the next 99 days will be to teach you and share with you tips, tricks, methods and techniques to help you make money.

So while I'm doing this challenge by myself, you have to do something for me, well, for you really. All I ask for now, is that you subscribe to my YouTube channel and to my VIP email list. This will help you not miss anything and also make sure that you get all of the tutorials, or discounts or insights that will make you more money, save you money or help you start a business.

If you have any questions you want me to answer in an upcoming blog post or video, please send them to me. To send me your questions, join the email list and reply to one of my emails and let me know you'd like me to answer a question.

By the way, did you notice my new introduction in the video? I just made that. I'd love to get your feedback on that as well.

The post Your Turn to do Something 100 Day Challenge, Day 2 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

My wife walked into the room the other day and asked me: Do you want to do a 100 day challenge with me? This caught my attention and I asked: What do we have to do each day?

She left it open to each of us. She's been on an amazing weight loss journey so she wants to do 100 days of 10,000 or more steps per day. She's already lost a lot of weight, so she's looking for ways to keep going and reach her ultimate goal so this makes sense for her.

To be honest, I could do with some weight loss myself, but I picked a different challenge. I'm doing 100 video & blog post challenge.

Here are the rules: Starting on June 1, produce 100 videos and 100 blog posts in 100 days. I guess that makes it just one rule. I

I deliberately left out any specifics about making one video per day, or anything else. I'm going to keep it simple. We have some family trips planned and outings so in some cases I will be using the scheduling feature on Youtube and on WordPress to cover for days where I can't manually post.

So this is my first video, enjoy! I hope you follow me along on this challenge. You just have to subscribe to my email list, or to my Youtube channel (why not both?), to stay on top of my latest video and blog post. Oh yeah, I got a fancy new intro for my videos, let me know if you like it.

I would love your feedback, you can leave it here as a comment or in the youtube video itself. If you want to find out more about the 100 Day Challenge, then visit this page.

The post 100 Day Challenge Begins Now appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Excuses don't really help you, so if you have a smart phone. All you need is to come up with an idea and start recording. In future videos I'll give you some ideas about which topics you can cover.

If you have a smart phone, that's all you need to start. Keep it simple, just get started.

As you grow, you can improve buy better equipment but you can always start with what you have. If you have a point and shoot camera that can record in 720p quality then you could also use that.

I have a few different cameras that I use, but the majority of the videos I make are shot with my Galaxy Note 5. This makes it so easy to shoot a video when the idea pops into my head because I always have my phone with me.

If money is no object, then you could start by buying a nice DSLR and a great microphone and fancy editing software, but if you don't have deep pockets, then just use what you already have with you, your iPhone or Android phone and get started.

The post What Equipment is Needed to Join the 90 Day Video Challenge? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Many will start but only a few will finish. Will you make it to the 90 day mark?

If you're an affiliate, a blogger, a social media professional or regular business person I recommend you join the challenge. If you want to learn Youtube and Facebook video then you should definitely join.

If you have a limited marketing budget, you should also join in the challenge as this could be the best way to market anything on the cheap.

You are invited to join the 90 Day Video Challenge.

The 90 Day Video Challenge is a challenge you can complete to improve your marketing skills, increase subscribers, fine tune your video production skills and ultimately make more money.

How does it work?

After you join the challenge, you are committed to publish one new video each day for 90 days straight. If you miss one day, you're out!

Who can join the video challenge?

Anybody that is willing to take up the challenge and improve themselves, learn something new and meet other like-minded people.

How do I join the challenge?

Make a commitment that you're going to do it, and join our Facebook group: 90 Day Video Challenge. In the group you'll find instructions and tips as well as support from other members to help you get through the challenge.

What kind of videos?

You get to decide what kind of videos. Most people do vlogs, or short informational videos about their business.

Do I have to be on camera for my videos?

No, you can make videos by creating slideshows and adding a voice over, you can make tutorial videos where your face isn't shown. There are many ways to complete this challenge without being on camera.

Is there a bounty or prize?

Not at this moment, but we're working on something. The biggest reward is the benefits that you get from completing the challenge; subscribers, experience, and more money!

Is there a penalty if you fail the challenge?

No, just your own feeling of defeat.

If I complete the challenge, will I become a YouTube star?

Probably not, but you can try.

The post 90 Day Video Challenge appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

How do you get people to subscribe to you, leave comments and like your videos. Maybe even share them out to their friends. This video focuses on establishing relationships with other youtubers.

This will help you increase youtube engagement. Just keep in mind that the method and tips described in this video are meant to be a medium to long term play.

Youtube is one of the most trafficked websites in the planet, and many people use it as a search engine to find tutorials, instructions, entertainment and all kinds of other content. I'm sure you've heard this before: Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.

So how can you leverage Youtube for your business or cause?

As far as Internet marketers, bloggers and social media professionals go, I feel that Youtube is underutilized. Not very many people are using it with successful results. I decided to make a short video to help out with some of the basics.

In addition to this video, I also recommend that you take a look at my 7 Power User Tips for Youtube. Soon I'll make new videos explaining other aspects of Youtube and how you can leverage it to make money, promote your brand or help get your message out.

If you have any suggestions for new videos or blogpsots, please leave me a comment with your idea.

Here is the video: Tips to Increase Youtube Engagement

If you have any questions, please leave them below and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I would also appreciate if you could rate this post using the stars at the end of the article, Thank you!

The post Tips To Increase Youtube Engagement appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The following tips will help you get more comfortable with Youtube and will help you get the most out of it. This is especially useful if you want to grow your own channel, or just be more efficient when using Youtube.

Also! If you know one I didn't list in here, feel free to leave it in the comments.

#1 Filter the search results for something specific using the search bar

If you use search engine operators, you can refine your search and spot new videos about a topic you care about or want to cover in your blog. If you have never used search engine operators, I'll give you a crash course right now by showing you step by step.

Here I use an example with the words "Orange County"

I want to search Youtube for that keyword, but when I first put it in, just plain and simple the searches I received were not relevant to what I wanted. Also notice that there are close to 1 million results. I can narrow it down easily.

They were lots of pages (almost a million results) with irrelevant results I didn't want to see. I was looking for local updates to the local area of "orange county" in California. I wanted recent updates too. Take a look at the results, there's only five of them.

Some keywords I knew I had to eliminate immediately from past experience. The words: choppers, florida, repair and "home repair". If you try to follow along with this, you'll find some words like this of your own. These words are irrelevant to our context.

I wanted all those keywords eliminated from the results so I used the "minus" symbol to omit those words. I could have used -"Orange County Choppers" too and and I should have received the same results.

To eliminate keywords, it usually takes a few tries. Each time we add a negative keyword, we find that removing the word opens up the results to show you other, potentially new, keywords. You may have to repeat this process a few times to clean up the keywords you don't want. I eventually had something like the screenshot below.

I continued to refined the search by eliminating these undesirable keywords by adding a negative (minus) symbol in front of them. For a double keyword, like "home repair" we need to add it with quotes.

I refined the search and instead of just searching for Orange County, I used the words "Orange County" by designating them as a single keyword, locked together in quotation marks.

I did this for the same reason I just explained. I want to find specific instances of the words "orange county" together.

Check this out, the screenshot was too good to pass up and I still would like to show you how I ended up filtering my search.

Wow, did you see the title of the video of the last result in the screenshot? That's why I said earlier that I had to show you the screenshot. If you missed it, go look at it. I highlighted it.

That's the kind of stuff I was looking for. Not for that content specifically but I was looking for that type of video in that it's a relatively new video about "Orange County," but I still have a lot of other stuff that it's old or irrelevant in the search results.

The next tip is to explain how to refine your search even further.

#2 Refine Your Search with Built in Search Filters

If you were not able to use search operators like I showed you on Tip #1, or would like to refine the search further then you can use Youtube's built-in search filters as I'll demonstrate next.

I'll continue using the example from Tip #1 above.

If I wanted to find more recent videos only, and ignore anything that is older than a month, or the past year, I can use a filter for that.

You can also filter by 2 time brackets. Videos shorter than 4 minutes and longer than 20 minutes.

Using the filter function you can also sort the video by upload date or by view count. Those are two factors used to find out which video may be the original one.

That leads to power user tip #3.

#3 How To Find an Original Video

Sometimes you do a search you think Youtube should give you the most important result. Maybe you think it should give you the best result. Or instead you think of it as the most relevant.

A friend recently looked for Psy's Gangnam Style video and mistakenly found a video that had been uploaded only a few months back. If you're not familiar with it, the video Gangnam Style was released in 2012, not 2016. The original video has accumulated over 2 Billion views.

Somehow, a copy cat video was showing on the front page and had accumulated over 2 million views! Unknbenonwnst to my friend, he thought he was looking at Psy's video and told me that it only had 2 million views.

I told him, impossible!

For some reason Psy's actual official video didn't show on the front page when he searched. Maybe his settings, or his past search history was showing him a different result. To be sure, a way to make sure the video you're looking for is the right one, is to sort the results.

But what do each of those expectations mean when you search? The most important, the best result, the most relevant? Each definition may be different for each person.

Use the sort feature to remove all doubts.

Usually the first video to be uploaded tends to be the original, but the view counts may be an indication of which one is the "official" one, maybe based on a re-distribution deal.

Sometimes people, especially artists let their videos be played on other channels and they may get more views. Sometimes the original video is removed and only the licensed video gets published around.

Sometimes your search may not give you the result for the original video you're looking for. Instead, you may see a video about the video you're looking for, like news coverage, or a reaction video.

You may also see copycat channels or videos trying to get some traffic to their channel by redistributing a popular video. They try to rank themselves by using someone else's videos.

You have to be a little smarter than the algorithms and the to find a video that might be the first, or the original. Another reason to sort by number of views might be to find the top 10 videos with a specific keyword search.

This leads to the next power tip!

By the way, if you're finding these tips to be useful, could you take a second to share this article in your favorite social media? buttons available at the top and bottom of the article. Thank you!

#4 Become a Master Youtube Curator With the Watch Later Built in List

Now that you know a few tips about how to search for videos, you know how to find them fast and early. But you don't actually have time to watch them all right now do you?

Maybe you're doing research for a blogpost. Maybe your'e collecting videos to learn to do something. Or maybe you're collecting videos in a topic to share with a group later on. In order to consume the video information you need, you need to master the "Watch Later" Youtube list.

I use this list as a wide-mouth funnel to watch things that I'm interested in.

Videos in Youtube have a small clock-like icon that appears when you hover your mouse over them. Use this when you're scanning through your search results, playlists, recommended sections, additional videos to watch and other similar groups of videos.

By using the Watch Later list, you don't loose focus of your research now and your immediate goal. The first pass at any type of research consists largely in pinpointing a large group of resources that you're going to enlist in your research. That list may be made from links, or books, or  movies, but in our case, it's a list of videos.

This is how you add videos to the "Watch Later" list. See screenshot:

Once you feel that you gathered enough videos for whatever purpose you want, then you can go watch the videos in your "Watch Later" list. As you watch one video you'll see recommendations for other videos on the sidebar.

As you watch the videos in this list, they will be marked as "watched" and you can use the button at the top that says "remove watched" and this will purge your list from those videos.

You could stop there with the Watch Later list, but if you want to be a video curator, the watch later list is just the beginning. From here, you can pass each video to another list where it may live indefinitely.

#5 Become a Master Curator by Managing Several Lists

One thing that you can do in order to curate videos for your blog, for a group or just for entertainment is to use the main watch later list as a type of "catch all" list, like the funnel I mentioned, then sort the videos from there.

Then when you have time to watch videos and go through a good portion of your watch later list, you can make your experience much richer by saving these videos somewhere else.

As you watch a video, sort it into a list with other videos in the same topic or genre. This is will help you find videos again. But can also help you curate videos for other uses.

When you watch a video you can add it to a playlist, you can create a new list if you don't have one that you want to use already in your account.

As you create lists, if you do a good job of curating them for a type of search or a specific topic, your lists may start showing up on Google and Youtube search results. This is a good thing and can bring you new visitors to your channel.

#6 Watch it All, Faster.

Now that you have all these videos in your Watch Later list and a few other lists to curate videos, you need extra time in the day to watch the videos. What if I could give you a few minutes each day to watch more content.

I can give you extra minutes right now. How's that? you may be asking...

Youtube has a little known feature that allows you to speed up videos so you can get through them faster. Sometimes you may be looking at a long lecture. Or a how to video where the presenter speaks very slowly.

You can double the playback speed on Youtube to avoid slow videos. This works for speeches, tutorials, interviews and other similar type of content. Doubling the speed is usually too much.

You'll find the sweet spot between 1.25x or 1.5x speed up on the playback. I believe you save about 20% (2 out of 10 minutes) using the 1.25x and 30% (3:20 out of 10 minutes) using 1.5x and 50% (5 out of 10 minutes) at 2x.

The opposite also works. If the presenter is speaking too fast, or you want to slow it down in order to transcribe the video then you can slow it down.

#7 Find New Content Through Recommended Channels

Youtube knows a lot about your viewing habits if you browse the site while you're logged in to your gmail account. This can lead to some really good recommendations for new stuff to watch.

Look on the Home page and on the various recommended sections.

The recommendations in Youtube come from a mix of popular and trending videos, past viewing history and whether you have interacted with certain channels or videos.

You can increase these recommendations just by clicking the thumbs up in the videos you like, subscribing to channels you are interested in and watching videos from your watch later playlist and other related videos shown on the side bar.

Thanks for reading and sharing if you found this useful! Please take a moment to rate this article, the rating scale is just below. Thank you!

And that wraps up this list of tips. Did you find them useful? Do you have other ones you'd like to share with me? Please leave your comments or questions.

The post 7 Youtube Power User Tips and Tricks appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Theses videos tend to be huge! They are high quality recordings of our Skype interactions and my desktop training session all in one. Most of the time, I use Dropbox or a similar file sharing service so the client or student can download the video of their training session.

But sometimes, file sharing doesn't work exactly as planned. An alternative way of sharing big video files is through Youtube. Technically, I could just share the video in Youtube privately and call it a day but I also would like the client to have a copy of the file for their own offline viewing.

There are some caveats with this method, primarily loss of quality, and privacy. When using this method, the very best version of the video that a client can download will have the quality at 720p. You can read all about video resolution here. The video also must be set to unlisted or public, it cannot be private.

In my case, my videos are always better than 1080p and I would like the client to have that quality. But in a pinch, this may work just to get the file over to the other person so they can start reviewing it.

I also want to put a little disclaimer out there, I don't condone the illegal download of videos, mkay? So don't think that this is for that purpose.

So let's get to it:

How To Download a Youtube Video File

If you are not the owner of the video, find the video you want to download and get the URL for the video.

Copy the URL for the video and open up a new tab or window in your browser.

Visit KeepVid and paste the URL in the box and press the gray download button on the right. This will return a long list of files that you can download as you can see in the screenshot below.

There are other services out there that work simiarly, but this was the only one that didn't try to install some junk in my computer or tried to mislead me in some way or another. The ads can be deceiving sometimes a little which is why I made it very clear where to get your file from.

To get the highest quality file, select the 720p option that I highlighted in the screenshot.

To download, right-click on the link and use the "save as" function. This file ended up being about 900mb, compared to the original 5.6GB file so you can be sure the video file was heavily compressed and also evidently by the 720p limitation, it was scaled down as well.

In the past, Youtube allowed us to download up to 1080, but they removed that option. Who knows if they'll allow it in the future.

What if you are the owner of the youtube video?

If you are the owner of the video, you can download the video directly from the video manager section. Unfortunately the original file is not available, you'll also only be able to download the 720p version of the file.

The only benefit for you as an owner is how simple it is to download the file, and you don't have to go to a 3rd party website to do it.

Go to your video manager section in Youtube, this link will take you there.

Then find the video you want to download. You'll see a dropdown menu available to the side of the video. Clicking on this will reveal many options about your video. To download the file, select Download MP4.

This will not be the full resolution original file, but it saves you the trouble of using a 3rd party site to download the file.

Depending on your specific computer settings, you may or may not be prompted to select a location to save the file and give it a name. If you don't get this option, chances are that the file was just downloaded directly to your downloads folder, it will be titled to match the title of the video in Youtube and not the original file.

You now should have a video file from the youtube file you wanted.

And if you have any problems watching either one of the video files, don't forget to install VLC Media Player, good for any platform and it's free.

The post How To Download a Youtube Video appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I use it and it works great. Once you sign up, you can establish an hourly rate and start promoting your profile as an expert so that people pay you for advice.

This is a great way to make additional income without having to spend a lot of effort doing it. Simply help another professional, or entrepreneur with a challenge.

Sometimes 15 minutes is all that people need, sometimes a full hour is necessary.

If you join, and you have a WordPress website then you can add an interactive widget that allows people to book you through Clarity with just a couple of clicks.

You just copy the text provided by the Clarity website and paste it into a text widget in your own WordPress website. The video below explains it all.

The post How to Add a Clarity Widget to Your Blog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Nobody would be interested in hearing about that in a blog -- they say. But I always show them the posibilities instead of looking for the pitfalls.

This is a perfect example. Who knew that Slacklining was a thing? Slacklining is the sport of bouncing on a taught but elastic rope (more like a ribbon) and doing tricks while in the air.

Think of a single dimensional trampoline jumping routine, and yes it's a thing. The video you're about to watch is of the finals, the championship. So this is fully sanctioned somewhere.

That's an opportunity for media production for and around the sport, the people in it, the equipment, the events, the training and all that. A whole niche can be built on a blog just around a topic like that.

But enough about that, enjoy the video. It's quite entertaining. This is The World Slackline Masters 2015 Final. America vs Estonia:

The post Yes, Even This is a “Thing” appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Recently, I noticed that you no longer can share a video with a circle of people on GooglePlus. Currently the only options for privacy when sharing a Youtube video are:

• Private
• Public
• Unlisted

There used to be a fourth option you could use. You could share a video directly to GooglePlus and share it only with a specific circle. That was a really neat feature.

I actually would like to complain to Google on this one. First, they sell us on using their services as a life-archive with the Dear Sophie video. Heartwarming right?

I bet you there was a surge of new accounts when that video came out during father's day years ago. If you are guilty of creating at least a Gmail account for your kids in advance of them being able to use it, raise your hand!

Guilty!

But I can't help to be irritated with Google giving us features to use then taking them away.

This "hidden" fourth option of sharing video was great. You could share video with a specific group of people from 1 up to the maximum people allowed per circle in Google +.

I could share a family video with only 10 - 12 people. It was great. Now the best option is to post the video to youtube, make it "unlisted" then share the link with the people you want to share it via GooglePlus or Email or whatever.

The problem with this approach is that the link is really viewable by anybody that has the link. So if you wanted so share some personal videos with just a very limited group of people, you simply can't anymore.

I really don't understand why people don't like GooglePlus that much. I think it's a great service, but the problem is that people, critics and others tried to make Google+ a feature by feature competitor to Facebook. Intstead, Google+ had its features and Facebook has its features.

So Google now has disconnected this great feature I loved. In a way, it's a good thing. It makes me get back to reality.

We are at the whim of these companies if we put all our content in their service. You must be the owner of your own content! Get your own blog where you can really share your content any way you want. All the cloud services are nice as additional services but they own you!

Your own blog is your own blog. You decide. By the way, speaking of sharing photos and videos go check out the latest posts at my Daddy blog.

The post Youtube Sharing to Google Plus Disabled. The Beginning of The End? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Where I grew up, in Puerto Vallarta (Mexico), fresh coconuts are a staple of everyday life. You can get one almost anywhere you look. You'll find them near the beach or at the restaurants.

But now that I live in the US, it's hard to find coconuts fresh like back at home. But there's hope. Some grocery stores now sell fresh young coconuts, and the Coco Jack will help you open them without any trouble. If you're just looking for the Coco Jack coupon, scroll to the bottom.

The Coco-Jack will let you get the coconut meat, or coconut flesh out easily. If you do it a couple times, you'll be able to get the whole thing in one motion. So awesome! And of course, you can get the water too! Check out the video to see how it works, it's quite simple.

I don't think you can find many US grown coconuts, but the Coco Jack is proudly made in the USA. You can get it here: Coco Jack.

Oh and if you decide you want to get one of these things, the Coco Jack has a discount code, use "SWEETCOCO" when you buy it and you'll get 10% off. I recommend you get the Coco Jack Pack, it has everything you need.

I got this last year for father's day and, apparently I was eating a little too much coconut. LOL. Looking back, I gained quite a bit of weight back then. Glad to be back to normal now. I still want to lose more weight, but that's for another post.

Now where's my coconut?

The post Summer is Coming, Do you Have Your Coco Jack Yet? And Coupon. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you've never been then you owe it to yourself to visit and try their new menu. The experience of dining at Charlie Palmer is one of the best in the area. The service is personal and attentive; the staff really make you feel welcome without being pretentious. Special thanks to the manager, Sten who made our experience outstanding.

And the food! The food is delicious. As you can see in the video, the chef came out to greet us and even prepared a special bacon kimchi risotto dish, just for my wife; should I be concerned? j/k it was awesome. Everything was to die for and the experience is one we'll remember for years to come.

In the video you see the a NY strip with Lobster, a Rib-eye with bone marrow and a few more things. The mushrooms were perfectly seasoned, and cooked to perfectly, so succulent.

One of the things that distinguishes a top tier restaurant like Charlie Palmer from the rest is their flexibility. I usually go to there for cocktails instead of dinner and until their menu changed, they had a terrific cocktail with jalapeño infused tequila (infused in house). They no longer serve this but because I asked, they were able to make it and that just buttoned up the whole experience.

Whether you're feeling like having one of the best steaks in Orange County or want to celebrate a special event with someone, Charlie Palmer at South Coast Plaza can take care of you.

cocktails-charlie-palmer the-pepper-cocktail ravioli charlie-palmer broccolli bacon-kimchi-risotto nystrip-and-lobster bone-inribeye-bonemarrow bone-in-ribeye charlie-palmer-dinner capuccino fruits-and-cream

The post Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s for Birthday Dinner appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

It was 100% automatically made by Google autoawesome. The music is good, the transitions are cool and the video clips and photos were good too. Sometimes Google will grab scenes or photos that you don't necessarily want to include in your video, but this time it did a great job.

I wonder what is going to happen to this when Google Plus finally gets dismantled as rumor has it.

The post Google’s Autoawesome is Awesome: Ashli & Bryan’s Babyshower appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Seriously Strange is produced in a weekly basis and new videos are released on Wednesdays. Topics range widely but mostly focus in the bizarre, occult or right down disturbing. If this is your cup of tea or you want to add a little variety to your life then I think you should check it out.

It's dark, but fun and entertaining. By entertaining I mean that some of the videos will keep you up at night. Seriously, nightmares are made of this.

Some of my favorite videos from Seriously Strange are below. They range from a few minutes to about 10 minutes so they're easy to watch.

I'm not alone in liking this channel...

Addicted to the #seriouslystrange series its so interesting

— Paul (@PaulKirkpatr1ck) April 28, 2015

Decided it was a good idea to scare myself silly by catching up on #SeriouslyStrange by @TheRobDyke. I may never sleep again...

— Starfish (@wicked_roses) April 27, 2015

And if you're a marketing type (like me) trying to crack the nut of building an audience, building a community and getting a huge level of engagement then follow the old tried and true method, like Rob does; create amazing content. You too can get raving fans like this:

Catching up on #SeriouslyStrange.
Can't believe I let myself get so behind in the midst of musical rehearsals.
Sorry, @TheRobDyke

— Olivia (@oliviarsarver) April 26, 2015

With over 1.2 million subscribers, I'm sure you'll find many videos entertaining. I like this channel because the videos have a high production value and the content is often new and unique. Rob sometimes calls on the audience to give him ideas to feed this creepy video feed. You can get in touch with Rob on Twitter @TheRobDyke.

Pranks are all the rage in Youtube, but what happens when a prank goes horribly wrong? Here's a compilation of some of the pranks that went horribly wrong. Pranks that Went Horribly Wrong #SeriouslyStrange

There are many things we can't explain in life. But disease is something that is terrifying when  you can't tell what is causing it, what it is and whether you will survive it. This is Unexplainable Diseases #SeriouslyStrange

Then there is the hunger that some of us have for the mysterious. In this case Rob finds the most Terrifying Unsolved Mysteries, and nails it, again.

Rob has a great looking site at Rob Mob, and you can find him on Twitter: @TheRobDyke.

The post Youtube Gold. Rob Dyke and Seriously Strange appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Eureka Building is home to Eureka Hub and Eureka Events. They are a co-working and event space in Irvine and they (Eureka Events) host events like this all the time. This was my first time attending one of the Eureka events and I had a blast. The food was great, the companies there were pretty awesome. Some were very innovative and inspiring. I also made some great connections.

I met Alex Sewell and Kina De Santis from Motormood along with other great entrepreneurs. In fact Alex Sewell will be a speaker at our next event.

The post Eurekafest 2015 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.