As most of you who know me online know, I frequent #blogchat. It’s an amazing chat and I encourage anyone even SOMEWHAT interested in social media or blogging to participate.

After all, there are no experts in the chat, as Mack Collier says.

That being said, there seems to be a vocal minority of people contesting the things people having to say. Specifically, people are dismissing the advice people are giving out saying that it’s from “self-proclaimed experts” or that people seem to bring attention to themselves.

 Hey, it’s FREE advice. If you don’t like it, don’t bitch about it.

And it’s not just in #blogchat that I see this either. It seems like everyone is bad-mouthing the advice that people give. Ok, look, I’m not that big on the whole “social media guru” thing myself, but even those types of people have some semblance of intelligent things to say sometimes.

Even if someone’s inexperienced in Social Media or the topic in question, they may still have experiences that shine a new light on the way people can look at things. That Engineer may not know marketing and advertising, but you can bet they might know a thing or two about organizing and building a project. Their previous expertise can give you advice that’s just as useful as an expert in your field.

As for me, I’m not an expert. And I doubt you are too. In fact, I’ve met very few people who actually are experts. I consider myself knowledgeable in the fields of social media and content, but I am certainly no authority (Not yet, anyway.) Are you someone on the lines of Darren Rowse? Chris Brogan? That’s the criteria; those are experts in their respective fields.

But this shouldn’t stop you from giving advice (or taking it.) You are knowledgeable in your area, you have knowledge to share, you should share it. There have been numerous times in history where the expert is corrected by the apprentice. And what better way to become an expert than share knowledge with others?

I never figured I’d be the kind of person to enjoy using Pinterest.

Image via Wikipedia

However, I wasentertained enough by the concept (and the fact that I MUST try the newest in Social Media happiness) that I had my good friend The Tsaritsa give me an invite to use the network.

After a while, I noticed some people listed some of their favorite books on their boards, which gave me an idea…Why not make boards of books I recommend, and make a little profit as well.

I created two boards: One for Blogging and Social Media books, and another for PowerPoint and Public Speaking books. In both boards, I added links to some of the books I personally recommended, BUT I also had affiliate links with them (And I clearly disclose this in both the board description and the description for each book.)

By doing this, I have dramatically increased the amounts of clicks I got for my Amazon Associates links. The process below is for Amazon Associates, but can easily be adaptable to almost any other affiliate system.

1. Click on the “Link to this page” button in your associates window, then click on “Text only.” Click the text link on that page.
2. Use your “Pin it” bookmarklet to grab the picture and link. Note that sometimes the bookmarklet won’t work, so you’ll have to grab it manually through Pinterest’s website.
3. Describe why you’re recommending the product. I don’t add books I don’t recommend myself, so I explain what I liked about the book, or what was important about it.
4. Add a disclosure that your link is an affiliate link. This is quite important, we wouldn’t want the FTC knocking down your door.

One of the best things I like about Twitter is its ability to interact with others quickly on a real-time basis. You can make your name known to the best in the business, tell a company how much you love their product, or even participate in a discussion. Twitter is a great networking tool, but it’s a rather bizarre tool to wield. Fortunately, Jade Craven  has provided a great how to for networking in a cheap eBook.

What I like

Craven’s book provides a very comprehensive study on the many ways one can use Twitter to interact with others. They range from simple steps to take at startup such as writing your Twitter bio to participating in a Twitter Chat, to even live-tweeting real-time events as they happen. She gives detailed advice on putting these to work for you, and includes examples as well.

She also provides advice on using other social networks, as well as other tools. For instance, Craven gives advice on when a conversation on Twitter should instead be moved to another place, such as a blog or through email. All good information to make sure you avoid making an epic faux pas like certain celebrities have done in the last year.

What Could be Improved

Craven also includes blog articles from other bloggers on Twitter as well, but in the form of links to their specific blog articles. While she has every reason for doing this (quoting parts of their work without permission would result in copyright infringement and/or plagiarism, especially since this is a paid ebook) it’s a little annoying to have to click on the links in order to see the information that the other blogger has working for them. I’d like to see the information all in one book. What if I didn’t have a data connection at the moment? I wouldn’t be able to see the content she recommends.

Bottom Line

Jade Craven’s book is a great way to get started if you want to learn the basics. Since the cost is under $5, it won’t be too bad of an investment either. While there are some content holes in that they are other blogger’s content, it’s still a good resource for your first few steps in Twitter, and establishing yourself or your brand.

How to network on Twitter  (Disclaimer: Affiliate Link)
PDF version coming soon.

Additional Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge from the author as a review copy. However, The above review was not under any form of influence by the author nor any other party.

I’d like to deviate a bit from my usual Social Media and Blogging schedule and discuss something that always plagues me every Holiday season. As I said on G+ earlier today, I hate a lot of Christmas music. Why? Because most of it is horrendously slow, depressing, and insomnia-curing. Fortunately, Dr. James has a prescription in the form of several much better albums. Your mileage of course may vary.

First off, a disclaimer: The links below are Amazon Affiliate links. However, I give you my guarantee that these music albums rock house and won’t put you to sleep. You get good music, I get a little money, we both win. This might set me back a little bit on PageRank due to the links, but I don’t care. This is important for everyone.

Mannheim Steamroller - My favorite Christmas music band, these guys use modern instruments in conjunction with orchestras to produce spiffy versions of your favorite Christmas songs. My personal favorites include Deck The Halls, Hallelujah, Carol of the Bells , and Hark! The Herald Angel Sings! 

Here’s Deck The Halls set to some epic house lighting:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra- TSO is similar to Mannheim in that they also use modern synths and guitars set to orchestra, but they also place heavier emphasis on rock and roll. Their most popular song (and my favorite) is Christmas/ Sarajevo 12/24. I also enjoy A Mad Russian’s Christmas

True Blue Aussie Christmas - This is one of my newer findings, but they seem to be rather funny. A lot of their theme is Australian-oriented (obviously) but there’s a few that I can identify with living in Los Angeles (The heat,) such as Aussie Jingle Bells and Santa of the Desert. Still, it’s a nice pleasant beat and has a nice tone.

And here’s Aussie Jingle Bells in action:

And lastly, here’s some singles:

• We Wish You a (Metal) Xmas
• The Redneck 12 Days of Christmas
• The Night Santa Went Crazy

Bottom Line: If you can avoid it, don’t make your Christmas music suck this year, or any year.

I won’t bother you with a review of the Kindle Fire. There’s a bajillion different websites you can see to offer that. Instead, I can offer a list of things I feel that would really improve the Kindle Fire. I personally like it for what it is, but I can’t call it a tablet. It’s a fancy eBook reader.

Here’s a list of things Amazon can do with a firmware release.

1. Allow me to change the direction I have to slide at the first screen.
2. Enable Screenshots
3. Enable the Android Marketplace (It already allows third-party software to be installed)
4. Allow PDFs to be sent via one’s Kindle Email account.
5. Let PDF files be included in the “Books” Section. It’s annoying to have to put them in “Docs.” 
6. Show the PDF’s first page, which is usually the title.

Things to do for the next version of the Fire

1. Bluetooth
2. Consider a 3G plan ala the iPad
3. Partner with someone for free WiFi?

Apps you need to approve: 

1. WordPress
2. Facebook (The REAL app, not a damn website)
3. Instapaper (Although this is more a kick in the pants to the developer, not to Amazon.)
4. The Android Calendar (So I can get Google Calendar.)
5. Hootsuite
6. Grocery IQ
7. Some sort of Wikipedia app
8. A journal app

Related articles

• Amazon Kindle Fire ‘main iPad challenger in 2012′ (telegraph.co.uk)
• Kindle Fire to nab ’50% of Android tablet market’ in 2012 (techradar.com)

I rarely post my personal gag projects, but I felt this was relevant. Ever since Rebecca Black’s “Friday” came out, I wanted to do a parody of it for Black Friday.

Unfortunately, Kohl’s beat me to it:

But you know what? It stinks. So here is my parody of the entire song.

12 a m
Waking up at midnight
Gotta be fast, stumble on downstairs
Maybe have granola, no more cereal
seeing that it’s hitting that time again

Ticking on and on everyone’s rushing
Gotta get to the BEST BUY!
Gotta bust the door…I SEE THE LINEEEE!
Sticking out the FRONT DOOR
Sticking out the SIDE DOOR
Gotta make my mind up, which line do I STAAAND?

[BEGIN CHORUS]

Black Friday, Friday,
Buy stuff on Black Friday
Everybody’s looking forward to the deals (deals)
Black Friday, Friday,
Discounts for Black Friday
Everybody’s looking forward to the deals
Shopping and shopping and shopping and shopping
KACHING
Shopping and shopping and shopping and shopping
KACHING
Spend spend spend spend
Looking forward to the deals
[/CHORUS]

3:15 and cramming down the aisles
Runnin’ for things that I wanna buy
Spend Spend, I gotta spend
You know how it is
I got this, you got none
My taser’s by my right, yea!
I got this you got none
Now you’re outta luck!
Sticking out the FRONT DOOR
Sticking out the SIDE DOOR
Gotta make my mind up, which line do I STAAAND?

[CHORUS]

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, yea
Today is Black Friday, Friday
We we we so excited
We so excited
We gonna blow a lotta dough today
Tomorrow is Saturday
And sunday comes afterward
I don’t want this morning to end

[RAP]

Yo, hey, I’m gonna freeze
So chilly in the fucking morning
In the crap tent
I’m freezin’ wheezin
Mass crowds, switchin’ lines
Wit’ a bbq on unto me
Passin by a hobo in front of me
Hey tick tock tick tock snooze and loose
check the time it’s Friday, it’s now 3:00
We gonna shop now, c’mon c’mon y’alll

[CHORUS 2X]

So…are you going out there tonight/tomorrow?