I just wrapped up a podcast with friend Greg Friese about Webinars. If you are at all interested in using Webinars to close more business or train or educate a group of people, a Webinar is for you. Download here.

More specifically, you will learn:

• What software options to use for Webinars
• How to promote your Webinar
• How to use a Webinar for training, sales and education
• Other fantastic tips and tricks both Greg and I use

This is one of the most informative podcasts I’ve ever done on a niche topic. Please let me know what you think, and share any tips you have in the comments.

My new daily webshow called The Daily Flip begins airing next week. Here’s a page that talks more about what the show is going to be.

The Daily Flip will be short, daily videos that focus on the world I live and play in online. Things like…

* Online marketing news & analysis
* Reviews of books, websites, software, tools, etc…
* Rants
* Definitions of common industry terms
* Whatever else I can think of

I’ve already scripted out the first 20 or so shows, but I’m looking for more things to review or talk about. Want me to review your website, or service, or whatever on the show? Just contact me with your idea.

I’m writing my monthly “Innovations” piece for Revenue Magazine about new hot video tool called Seesmic.

Do you use it? Tell me why it’s the next best thing? Don’t use it yet? I’m also open to hearing from you either by contacting me or leaving a comment below.. I might just quote you in the article. Thanks!

Updates! These are videos direct from Seesmic, updated as they come in.

So while this may be very cool, I can’t see myself trying to draw with a mouse. Still… neato.

Via Techcrunch.

The “pro” part of Feedburner is now free because Google bought the company. I highly suggest you log into your account and turn on the pro features which lets you track more information about your blog visitors.

You get to see things like daily visitor counts, and where those visitors come from, top pages on your blog and top referrers. Sure, you can get that from your Google analytics too, but if you’re a stat fanatic like me you can simply get your rss AND your regular stats in one place now.

Remember, you have to turn this on for each feed you have, and it will require you to put a piece of code in your blog.

I’m being totally honest. I was not a huge Twitter user until I started playing with Pownce. But here’s what happened.

Once I started playing around in Pownce, I realized that while Pownce was more visually appealing to me, Twitter just brought the goods. The simplicity of the solution, and the fact that I had already made the investment of adding a bunch of my core “friends” in, was enough to convince me that Twitter was in fact better for me.

In the end, it’s really about usefulness and time not wasted. Twitter got there first, and kept it simple. Therefore, they win.

Scoble says…

You all know how much I love BUMPzee! Well, I love it even more now that I was chosen as one of the select few to manage my very own community while it’s still in beta. So what community did I make?

Introducing the ‘How To Be Successful Online’ BUMPzee Community

Bookmark this: http://www.bumpzee.com/onlinesuccess/

What is the community all about?

The How To Be Successful Online community is for anyone who is interested in learning how to be successful on the Internet. The blogs and members of this community will focus on and discuss the world of Internet marketing, professional blogging and making money online. Join today for free, or submit your related blog for free as well.

That description you just read is really what JimKukral.com is all about, and many, many others like it that I read every day. Like those blogs, I don’t write about one topic like affiliate marketing only, but rather, I focus on writing about all types of online marketing, with the specific goal of trying to help businesses, brands and individuals be successful online.

Do you fit that mold? Are you someone who’s looking for more information about how to be successful online? Join the community for free!

Do you have a blog that talks about ways to be successful online? Submit your blog to the community for free!

FYI. I’ve preloaded the community with about 14 blogs, listed below (in no particular order & if I missed your blog, I’m sorry, just go add it).

If your blog is on the list below, go sign up and claim your blog, and most importantly, add the bump widget to your entries and sidebar. If your blog isn’t in the list below, what are you waiting for, submit it!

Not sure about BUMPzee yet. Read this.

Super Affiliate Marketing Blog
Earners Blog
Revenews
WaynePorter.com
Shoe Money
CostPerNews
Graywolf’s SEO Blog
Copyblogger
Andy Wibbels
Aaron Wall’s SEO Book.com
The Blog Herald
Ask the Blogger!
901am
ProBlogger Blog Tips
Jim Kukral Online Marketing Ideas

Oh yeah, and make sure to check out the other new beta BUMPzee community managed by CostPerNews’s Sam Harrelson.

Called “Next Gen Marketing”. In a nutshell, this community on BUMPzee will serve as an aggregator of blogs and insights focusing on developing trends and emerging tactics to address the rising tide of social media, attention economies and “web2.0″ platforms. It should be fun to see the discussions which arise there.

There’s also some new interface changes at BUMPzee too, so check it out!

Today I was part of a panel on Web 2.0 over the ecomXpo, moderated by Shawn Collins, and including me, Scott Jangro and Sam Harrelson. It was entitled ‘Web 2.0: Views from the Thought Shapers’.

Pretty cool panel. We discussed a list of about 43 web 2.0 websites and widgets and gave our thoughts on each. Shawn has a list of the sites on his blog here.

Beyond just talking about those sites listed and some widgets, I specifically wanted to make one major point, which I will share here now.

Widgets, Web 2.0 Applications & Everything Else You Build Online Are A Waste Of Time Unless They Are Easy To Use, Easy To Understand & Solve A Particular Problem

People come to the Internet to have their problems solved, or to have fun. So if you are thinking about creating a widget or web 2.0 application, perhaps you should first ask yourself “how will this solve a problem for my target?” Then, and only then, when you have a clear answer should you proceed.

Case in point, you all know I LOVE BUMPzee. Why?

Because it solves problems for me. It saves me time. It exposes me to new sources of content in my niche without me having to work to find it. It connects me with people in my industry.

Oh yeah, and it’s fun to go there every day and follow conversations real time. Not to mention that the widget allows people to bump my stories up which provides my own blog and thoughts with more exposure.

Solve problems, and you’ll win.

Got 10 bucks, an hour of time and a creative idea? Because that’s all it really takes to get all the media publicity and exposure you or your business could ask for, all for almost free.

Don’t believe it? I can prove it. This is a story about how I did it, why I did it and the results I got from it. You can do it too. What, you don’t like free publicity for little work? I know you do, read on.

The Setup

I live in Cleveland, Ohio, and I’m a die-hard Cleveland Browns football fan. If you don’t follow football, the team has not been good for close to 10 years with losing season after losing season… the fans stay true, yet at the same time, they get very disgruntled come the end of the season. The Browns had one final home game left in December 2006, on Christmas eve, a horrible day to leave your family to go watch a losing football team in the snow and cold.

The Opportunity

This is key in your strategy to get publicity and attention. You have to focus on what is a “story” to a news person. You have to have the awareness to understand how a news person or show producer thinks. They’re thinking, “What stories are available that are topical and timely and most importantly, interesting?”

Those are the stories they want to cover. So your opportunity is to create a story. You need to figure out an angle about something that gives that reporter a story, and then present it to them in a manner which makes it attractive. It’s not that hard, read on.

What I Did To Exploit That Opportunity

So I asked myself, “what does a reporter want right now?” The Browns are always a huge story here in Cleveland, so I decided that I’d concentrate on them and their final game in 6-days. All I needed was an angle.

The idea came quickly. I’d call for a boycott of the Browns game on Christmas eve. But wait, that’s not good enough. That’s been done before, and a reporter isn’t going to bite on a story that simple unless there’s a hook, or a unique angle to it.

Aha! I thought of a unique, cheap and effective angle. Something that could be done in an afternoon or less.

Here’s Exactly What I Did

1. I registered a domain name called www.fanprotest.com. It cost me $10 at Godaddy.

2. I built a one-page website on the domain and wrote a few paragraphs about how I was calling for a protest of the game on Christmas eve.

3. I recorded a short, unedited, simple computer webcam video at my computer in one take where I wore my Browns jersey and called for the boycott. Here’s the video.

4. I uploaded the video to Google and YouTube (free) and added the video to show on my webpage.

5. I looked up all the local television news stations in town and found their contact emails for stories, and sent off a simple email with a short summary of what I did and a link to my page to view the video.

That’s It. It Took Me About An Hour And A Half Total

I sent the emails off at about 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, and I went back to my regular working day. At 6pm I got in the car to drive home, and at home I was chatting with my wife and playing with my kids when the phone rings, my wife picks up, she looks confused.

She says, “Scott from Channel 3 news is calling and wants to talk to you about some fan protest story?” I hadn’t even told my wife what I did yet, hence the confusion in her eyes.

The Results

The reporter asked to come to my house to film a story about me and my website and idea. I said “when”, and he said, “now”. So less than an hour later, and less than 4-hours after I sent the email, I had a television news crew and reporter in my kitchen filming me for a story. That story then ran that very same night, about 4 hours later, on the 11 o’clock newscast.

You can view the actual story here on the Channel 3 website in video form.

Summary

Why did I do this? To see if I could. Could this be done by anyone? Yes. What did I get out of it? Well, I get to tell you about it here, and I get to prove a point that it’s not that hard to do.

Don’t let your highly paid public relations firm tell you this kind of stuff isn’t possible. The media is begging for you to feed them stories that are interesting and unique and frankly, helps them not have to work so hard. I’m not saying that the media is lazy, not at all. What I’m saying is that the easier and more interesting you make it for them, the more likely it is that your story will be picked up.

Anyone can do this, the key is concentrating on what the media wants and giving it to them. What I do/did is use online media tools and marketing techniques to create unique angles to get attention.

Sales Pitch Alert!!!! – Jim Kukral is currently providing similar type consulting services to customers who are looking for more publicity, sales or leads, or who simply need to find new ways to be successful online. Find out how Jim can help your business.

Matt at Netbusinessblog.com posted a detailed analysis today entitled ‘Making a Living Online – All the Cool Kids are Doing it‘.

I’ve been noticing a lot of extra activity in the web business world over the last year. At first I thought it might just be because the few sites I visit were marketing themselves better or that the internet was just becoming more popular altogether. After a little bit of looking at recent traffic trends, I think it just boils down to more people are engaging in online business.

This is something I have noticed as well. Matt’s empirical research (including traffic charts) builds a decent case for “real” data to suggest that our assumptions are true.

However, I think the question that needs to be asked isn’t “if” they are, but rather, “why are people making money online”?

Two Reasons Why More People Are Making Money Online

Reason #1 – Easy To Use Tools
It’s not hard to understand that things get adopted much faster when the tools exist to foster ideas. Look at the things we have now that we never did before. Stuff like YouTube and BUMPzee, and heck, just simple blogging/cms tools that are now even easier to setup.

Take a look at this video resource where the top Internet gurus upload their videos about making money online, for free!

Reason #2 – Marketing Butterflies
I’ve always argued that today’s bloggers are like the webmasters of 10 years ago. In other words, they are not marketers… yet. Who’s the super-successful innovators online today? Right, it’s the people who had a jump start as webmasters, or designers, or programmers years ago.

You know what happened? Those people learned how to become marketers. They learned to take their skills and sell it. That’s what bloggers are learning to do right now as well. Watch out, because in 3-5 years, you’re going to see millions of budding marketers grab the reigns, and when they do, you’re going to see trillions and trillions of user generated content pumped into the mainstream.

Matt sums it up nicely.

2006 is Just the Beginning

Just about everyone I know claims to have experienced tremendous personal growth (as far as online earnings) in 2006, and I’m fairly certain that this is just the beginning. We’re standing at the gates of a new business phenomenon that few have started taking advantage of. Now is the time to build your online businesses and learn the industry. Stop putting it off because if you do you may find yourself left out.

And he’s right. The question for you reading this now is simple.

What are you doing right now, today, that will bring success for you down the road? If you’re not at least trying, you’re going to be left behind. Go for it.