There is a new way to present custom content on Facebook Pages, Tabs and FBML are gone… Get ready to befriend iframes!

Iframes are nothing new, they’ve been around for many years and they are a standard HTML tag, which allows one webpage to be inserted into another.

This means that Facebook page owners can now create dynamic Facebook pages using their standard tools (HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, JavaScript, Flash, etc.) by hosting their page on their own server, and using whatever tools they desire to build it. Using this technique will allow marketers the creativity and flexibility available to standalone webpages.

If you can create something for the web, as long as it’s under 520 pixels in width, you can now present it as a custom Facebook page.

This might sound complicated, but actually  it’s much easier than the old FBML process.

You can create your Facebook iframe page using whatever tool you may like, but in this tutorial we will be using WordPress to create our Facebook landing page since it is probably the easiest way to do it for beginners, and advance users can also take the advantage of using plugins, php, and other tools available in WordPress.

We will create 2 “welcome landing pages” in this tutorial, one for fans of our page and one for non-fans.

To get started on this tutorial, log-in to Facebook and your WordPress website, and follow the steps below:

Install The Static iframe Tab App:

To get our iframe pages to work on Facebook, we need to install an app that will call our page and display it on our Facebook fan page. There are many apps that you can use for this step, but I prefer the Static iframe Tab since it gives you 3 features that will be very beneficial to you:

1. It provides you with a “https” connection, which makes your connection to Facebook secure, and will soon be a mandatory requirement for Facebook iframes pages.
2. It generates analytics on the visitors to your landing pages.
3. You can create a custom icon for this app, making more brandable .

On this page you must click on the green “Install Page Tab” button, and choose the page for which you want to install this app.

Once you’ve installed your app you can set it aside for a moment, we will now install your custom page template PHP file.

Install The WordPress Page Template File:

Download this PHP file, and upload the file titled “facebook-iframe.php“  in to your themes root directory.

This is the typical location of a themes root directory: yourwebsite/wp-content/themes/yourtheme

In the video above I used the Firefox addon FireFTP to gain access to my website’s server and upload the file.

Using Facebook Iframe PHP Template File

After you’ve installed the “facebook-iframe.php“  file I created, you need to apply it to the page that you will be using as your Facebook landing page.

You can set it by going into the editing mode of any page and clicking on the “Template” drop down box,  in the Page Attributes settings, and selecting “Facebook Iframe“.

Once you’ve selected the “Facebook Iframe” template save the file by clicking on “save draft” or “update” if you’ve publish the page already.

Building Your Facebook Welcome Pages

Once you’ve set the Facebook iframe page template you are ready to start designing your page. Remember, the sky is the limit; designing a Facebook Page is very similar to designing any other website, but you must keep these considerations in mind:

• Design for a 520px Width — Facebook Pages must fit within a width of 520px. This also means that any image you use must be no wider than 520px. The WordPress PHP page template that I’ve provided for this tutorial takes care of creating a page that is 520px for you.
• Design for Any Height — Although Facebook Pages can be any height you like, you must remember that most people interact only with the content above the fold.
• Account for the Width of the page’s Name — We must take into consideration our page’s name in order to create an appropriate call to action to the  ”Like” button. The button appears just to the right of the company name at the top of the page. If you are going to point to the “Like” button, you need to figure out the pixel width from the left of our landing page to the start of our Facebook “Like” button.

 body{
background:#fffff;
}

Once you’ve created your Facebook Landing pages on WordPress you must add them to your Facebook iframe app. To do this make sure your pages on WordPress are published, and copy the URL of the page and paste it on the “Tab Settings” of your Static iframe Tab.

You Are Done!

After adding the page URL to the “Tab Settings” you are done! This is all that you need to do in order to get your Facebook iframe landing pages working!

You see it was not that hard, was it?

I told you that this was the best way to make facebook welcome pages with WordPress.

You can check out my Facebook page and leave me a comment, let me know what you thought of this tutorial, and feel free to leave me a link to your Facebook page, I would love to see what you came up with!

Don’t forget to click on the “Like” button and leave me a message with any questions or comments you may have!

The post Facebook Welcome Pages Using IFrames and WordPress appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

Fatal Error on WordPress Version 3.3: Call to undefined function is_rtl()

Soon after the release of the latest WordPress 3.3 version upgrade, a lot of blog owners, specifically marketing blogs, have been reporting a failure on the blog and the following error occurring on their WordPress Admin dashboard page:

“Call to undefined function is_rtl()”
“Complete Error: Fatal error: Call to undefined function is_rtl() in /public_html/wp-includes/general-template.php on line 2102”

This error occurs because of an incompatibility with some plugins installed on your WordPress website.

This can be an annoying inconvenience but the steps of fixing it are not too difficult.

Follow the steps below to resolve the Call to undefined function is_rtl() Error:

• Access your installation files on your website through your FTP client or file manager.
• Find the “Plugins” folder of your WordPress installation, found under “/wp-content/”
• Rename the “plugins” folder to any other name, doing so will disable all your plugins at once.
• You should be able to login into your WordPress admin dashboard now.
• Rename the “PopUp Domination” folder to something else on within your “plugins” folder using your FTP client or file manager.
• Rename the plugin folder back to “plugins”
• You will need to login back into WordPress and activate all other plugins except “PopUp Domination”
• And you are done! Everything should be back to normal!

This error is primary caused by a conflict with the PopUp Domination.

Unfortunately at the moment there is no fix you can do yourself, you will either you have to not use “PopUp Domination” or contact their support to fix it for you.

Also, keep in mind that the same could happen to your blog due to some other plugin, but the solution would be the same.

All you have to do is identify the malfunctioning plugin.

Please add a comment below if you found it helpful!

And dont for get to share it on Facebook and Google +

Fatal error: Call to undefined function is_rtl() in /public_html/wp-includes/general-template.php on line 2102

Back Up Your Website!

If you have never backed up your website, this might be a good time to do so.

backing up your site is really easy to do.

You can use Dropbox to back up your entire WordPress site.

Check out the video below to see how you can do that.

→ Get a Dropbox Account, It’s Free!

**** WARNING ****
The WP Time Machine plugin may cause some conflicts with other WordPress features or plugins.
I recommend disabling this plugin when not in use, and enabling it when you want to back up your website.

The post Fatal Error on WordPress 3.3 Version Upgrade appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

Why am I telling you to market to 5^th graders for fun and profit?

Actually I’m really not.

What I’m really trying to say is that you should take advantage of the fact that most people don’t like to read complex copy.

I know I don’t.

In fact, most people prefer to read short paragraphs, short sentences and simple words.

In other words, people like to read content that even a 5^th grader can understand!

The question now becomes how do you determine the reading ease of your copy?

Besides the few tips I’m going to reveal in a moment, there is a way Microsoft Word can tell you exactly the U.S. grade reading level your copy is written in, or how many years of education a person must have in order to understand your copy.

And you do it all with one click of your mouse.

But before I get to that I want to explain a few things to you.

First I want you to understand that people crave simple and easy to understand content.

I can assure you that no one will ever complain that your writing is too easy to understand.

You think your audience is too sophisticated for this?

I wouldn’t be so sure.

A study by the American Institutes for Research shows that more than 50 percent of students at four-year colleges and more than 75 percent at two-year colleges in the United States could not:

• Understand the arguments of newspaper editorials.
• Interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure.
• Summarize results of a survey about parental involvement in school.
• Compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees.

What’s even worse is that these college students are more literate than the average U.S. adult.

Yikes!

Do you now see the importance of keeping things simple?

Your copy needs to be so simple that in less than five seconds your visitors will understand what you wrote on your page.

Notice that I said “understand” not “read,” there is a big difference between the two.

Your headlines, sub-headlines, body paragraphs, links, and even your navigation bar should all communicate clearly what they’re all about.

You have to write so people can understand what you are trying to say without second-guessing themselves or pulling out a dictionary.

“Write to the chimpanzee brain. Simply. Directly.”
~ Eugene Schartz

5 Tips For Writing Easy To Understand Copy:

Good marketing copy is written in clear, conversational, concise, simple words that get your point across.

You can often ignore what you learned in 5^thgrade about grammar if it makes your content more easily understood.

Try these 5 tips to create great easy-to-understand copy:

1. Simple Sentence Structure

Sentence fragments; one-sentence paragraphs, beginning with conjunctions and ending in prepositions are all fine, and sometimes even necessary.

Most people “skim” online, so it is also a good idea to use plenty of bullets and numbered lists whenever possible.

2. Choose Simple Words

Only bring out your thesaurus when you are trying to find a simpler way of saying something.

For example, say “a lot” instead of “Myriad,” “story” instead of “anecdote,” and “surprised” instead of “flabbergasted.”

Only use longer or more complex words when there are no other words to explain what you are trying to say.

3. Write Short Simple Sentences

You should keep sentences short for the same reason you keep your words short: they’re easier to read and understand.

How short should sentences be?

Drew Eric Whitman, author of the book Ca$hvertising (you can read my book review here) recommends that for best readability your sentences should be approximately 11 words in length.

Each sentence should have one simple thought. More than that creates complexity and invites confusion.

4. Keep Paragraphs Short

Yes, you guessed it.

Just as your words and sentences, paragraphs should be simple and short.

Just look at any newspaper or magazine and notice how short paragraphs really are.

This is done to make reading easier, because human brains take in information better when it’s broken into small pieces.

Remember, writing in marketing is not the same as academic writing.

In marketing, writing is more casual, the style is less formal and paragraphs may be as short as a single sentence or a single word.

5. Don’t forget the Slippery Slope

Think of your copy as nothing more than a slippery slide to get people to slide down your content.

Your headline needs to get your reader to your first sentence. Your first sentence needs to slide the reader into your second sentence. And so on.

Don’t try tricks or clever or cute headlines, or sentences. Just straight, uncensored, easy-to-digest copy.

Do it any other way and you’ll repel people, bore readers, and lose money!

The Flesch Reading Ease Score

Now that you understand why we need simple copy and you understand the basics of how to write it; we need to find a way to check if the copy you write is easy to understand.

Of course you can ask your friends, family or colleagues to help you out and give your their opinion; But as you might imagine this could bring in mixed results and you will not get a real sense of how easy your copy is to read.

Luckily for us there is a more elegant and simple way to gauge the reading ease of your copy.

Enter Dr. Rudolf Flesch.

In the early 1940s Dr. Flesch developed a formula to determine readability that is still used today.

The Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), is a mathematical formula that determines how readable your copy is based on a scale from 1 to 100.

100 being the easiest to read and 1 being the hardest. For example comic books typically score around 90 while legalese can get a score below 10.

Let me show you how the ease score works with a few examples.

The sentence, “John wants food.” Has a Flesch Reading Ease Score of 100. This means that everyone would be able to understanding this sentence, no matter what reading grade level you’re in.

Now let’s take it to the next level, “John is feeling exhausted after a long day and would like to eat some food now.” This sentence has a FRES of 84.8, which means that it is written at about a 6th grade reading level.

This last sentence shows you where you don’t want to be if you are writing marketing copy: “Apparently John has had a tremendously demanding day, which has exhausted him and he would like to have supper immediately.” This sentence has a FRES of 38.4, which means that it is written at a college level.

Flesch Reading Ease Score Chart: Based on U.S. Reading Grade Levels

How Do You Calculate The Flesch Reading Ease Score?

The Flesch Reading Ease Score is calculated like this:

1. Calculate the average number of words you use per sentence.
2. Calculate the average number of syllables per word.
3. Multiply the average number of syllables per word multiplied by 84.6 and subtract it from the average number of words multiplied by 1.015.
4. Subtract the result from 206.835.

Flesch Reading Ease Score Formula:
206.835 – (1.015 * average_words_sentence) – (84.6 * average_syllables_word)

If all this sounds confusing to you then don’t worry!

There is no need for you to calculate it all yourself. I let Microsoft Word do all the work for me. – Yes, the same word processor I’m using right now to type this blog post that you’re reading!

Microsoft Word can figure out your Flesch Reading Ease Score with one click of your mouse, and I will show you how to do it.

Using Microsoft Word To find Your
Flesch Readability Ease Score

Using Microsoft Word to find your Flesch Readability Ease Score is really simple.

First, make sure that your readability statistics are showing.

You can enable them on the Proofing Options.

Once you enable the readability statistics you can simply click the spell check button.

After the spell check is complete you will get a window with the readability statistics of your page, or selection.

In these statistics you will find the Flesch Reading Ease Score near the bottom of the window.

(you can also activate the readability scores in Outlook if you wish.)

Microsoft Word also shows you the Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level Index, which is used by the U.S. Department of Defense to check readability of its forms and publications.

The Flesch-Kinkaid Index tells you the number of years of education your readers need in order to understand your copy.

In the 3 “John wants food” examples above, the Flesch-Kinkaid scores were 0, 5.4, and 12.8.

Want to learn more about copywriting and keeping things simple?

I would recommend reading Drew Eric Whitman’s book  Ca$hvertising, he speds a whole section talking about simplicity and the Fresch Reading Ease Scores.

Google and The Reading Ease Score

Did you know that Google is also implementing the readability ease scores in their search results?

If you haven’t notice them yet, try searching for your website and see how you rank.

Simply enter “site:” before any website address on the Google search input box and click on the search button.

In my case, I would type”site:marketingunfolded.com”

Then, on the left hand side options in the search results page click on “show search tools”
and then click on “reading level.”

This will bring up all the pages on your website that are indexed by Google, along with a reading level chart for your site.

This chart shows the percentage of pages you have in each reading level.

In my case, 10% of my pages are written in a basic reading level, 90% in an intermediate level, and 0% in an advanced level.

Clicking on any of the links will narrow your search to the pages in that reading level.

Here’s an example of what the Harvard Law website looks like:

As you can see it is a little harder to read than mine.

How does your website rank?

The Bottom Line

There is no doubt that creating easy to understand copy is essential to marketing.

There are plenty of rule of thumbs to follow, and tools like the Flesch Reading Ease Score to help you write good content.

But keep in mind that the Flesch Reading Ease Score and the Flesch-Kinkaid Index are only gauges to determine the ease of readability of your content. You should not make an obsession out trying to reach a certain reading grade level.

Even though a 5^th grade reading level would be ideal, it is not necessary for easy to understand copy.

As long as your FRES is not too low and your Flesch-Kinkaid is not too high, you should be OK.

Just try to keep things simple, clear, and to the point.

And always remember:

“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.”
~ Leonardo Da Vinci

The post Marketing To 5^th Graders For Fun And Profit appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

A few days ago I was looking through some web development and design YouTube videos and I came across a few videos that I liked. Some had less than 100 views, and some had over 10,000 views. In terms of quality of the information provided, they were all the same.

But why did some have so many more views than the others?

Perhaps the video belonged to a channel with a lot of subscribers? or the owner had a bigger list? or maybe it was better “Search Optimized”?

But I didn’t think that any of those were the case.

As I examined the videos more, I realize that the videos with more views had an icon I had never seen before.

This icon was not on any of my YouTube videos.

I clicked it and I noticed that a transcript of the video came up and it displayed verbatim what the person was saying along with the exact time they were saying it.

I realized that maybe this was why some videos had so many more views than others.

I decided to test if Google and YouTube were reading the words that were being displayed in the transcripts and used them in their search queries.

I created a transcript of my Backup Your WordPress Website to Dropbox video, and within the transcript I hid a made-up word, “jrmktunfld” that I knew was not used in any other website or video.

Within 24 hours after submitting my transcript to YouTube, my keyword came up in the search query results for both Google Video and YouTube.

Go ahead and try it, just type “jrmktunfld” on either search engine and my video will come up in the search results. (or click the links above)

Now this might not be new to you, but it sure was for me.

My videos usually contain more information than the keywords and description I provide, so I decided that I would transcribe all my videos.

Doing so would not only help with getting more traffic from more related keywords, but it would help people with disabilities learn from my videos as well.

Increase In My YouTube Video Views by Adding Transcripts:

I currently have 5 videos on my YouTube channel, so it’s a little difficult to tell the overall page view increase.

But my Creating Facebook Landing Pages Using Iframes and WordPress video increased dramatically after I added the transcript. Here is an image of the view jump.

One thing to note is that Google and YouTube are the only search engines that read the video transcripts. Bing and Yahoo do not come up with anything when I searched for “jrmktunfld”

How To Create Your Transcripts:

Creating your transcripts is very simple but very time-consuming.

I used my Backup Your WordPress Website to Dropbox video (5 minutes) to create my first transcript; it took me almost 45 minutes to listen to what I said, and type it out.

Evidently I’m a slow typist.

Then I did the same for my Creating Facebook Landing Pages Using Iframes and WordPress video (27 minutes) and this took over 2 hours!

This was taking way too long and was almost not worth the effort.

I decided to use Dragon Naturally Speaking to create a transcript for my next video. Dragon is a speech recognition software that does a pretty good job at recognizing what you say, and types it for you on a text file (Actually It does way more than that, but that is what I use it for).

I uploaded and MP3 of my video to Dragon and it transcribed it for me.

Dragon actually did a good job, it got about 70% of what I said right. Unfortunately it took me close to 45 minutes to go back, listen to the audio and correct the errors.

To be fair, Dragon just listened to an MP3 of my video, if I had known at the time of recording my video that I was going to be transcribing it, then maybe I would of spoke a little slower, and tried to have better pronunciation of my words.

But even then, I doubt that it would of have had over 90% accuracy.

Luckily I already owned Dragon so I did not spend any money testing this idea.

My third try on transcribing my videos was to outsource my transcription. I tried oDesk and found a person who would transcribe my 15 minute Copy & Paste CSS Text Shadows video within 30 minutes.

This person only charged me $8, and in exactly 35 minutes I had my video transcribed with 100% accuracy. I was very impressed.

Some people might not want to spend $8 every time they post a video, and I understand. But I don’t see it as spending money, and neither should you.

I’m sure your time is worth more than $8 and hour, so if you save 2 hours by spending $8, then you are really saving  money.

This same project would of taken me over an hour to do myself (wow, I must really type slowly!).

My time is worth much more than $8 an hour. Not only that, my time could be spent on far more productive things that would make me money.

If to save $8, I spend an hour or more, then how much money am I really saving? Even if my time was worth $10 an hour, then I would lose $2 by doing it myself.

Also, when I put up my job on oDesk, I received about 15 job requests in less than 30 minutes. I had people who would do this for as low as $2, but the person that I chose had 5-star reviews, and promised to deliver it all in under 30 minutes.

I just had to see if it were possible.

And it was, my VA (Virtual Assistant) delivered the work as promised, and with 100% accuracy.

I won’t always need my videos transcribed that fast, in fact, my new strategy is to send 3-4 videos a time. This will be cheaper for me, and probably faster for my VA.

I would highly recommend oDesk for your outsourcing needs.

Adding Your Video Transcripts To YouTube:

Adding a transcript to YouTube is really easy, all you need is a plain text file (from NotePad), not a Word file, and it needs to have verbatim what is said in the video.

Don’t worry about spacing, paragraphs, and things like that. You Tube will take care of that.

Log in to your YouTube account and under “Edit Video” click “Captions and Subtitles.”

Next click on “Add New Captions or Transcript”  and click the “Browse” to find your plain text file in your computer.

After locating and selecting your file, select the “Transcript file” radial button under “Type” and select the language of your video. (Currently there are 2 options, English and Japanese.)

Upload your file, and that is all! YouTube will do the rest.

Once your file is downloaded, your video will have a transcript and it will be available for search engines to crawl!

The Bottom Line:

Using YouTube’s video transcripts to increase your video views should be a strategy that you implement now.

Think about all the things that you talk about in your videos that are not even mentioned in the headline, description, or tags of your videos.

People are for sure typing long tail keywords in their search queries.

I’m sure you’ve see your website’s analytics before.

How many times have people found your website using random keywords that you didn’t even know were being searched for or that you were even ranking for?

This is the same idea with your YouTube video transcripts. Use those “random” or not so “random” keywords to increase your YouTube video views; therefor increasing your YouTube Channel subscriptions, and views to your website.

I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

The post 1,244 Words to Overnight YouTube Success appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

One of the books I read this month was CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything to Anyone.

I had seen several copy writers and marketers recommend this book so I decided to give it a look.

Ca$hvertising By Drew Eric Whitman Book Review

Don’t let the cheesy title confuse you.

Ca$hvertising will pleasantly surprise you by providing you with tons of useful information jam-packed into this no-filler, no-fluff advertising book.

Whether your focus is on print ads or internet marketing, Ca$hvertising breaks down WHY people respond to certain ads.

Whitman explains exactly how you can tap into the desires that all humans are naturally born with, he calls these the “Life-force 8.”

These are the 8 fundamental “desires” that most psychologist agree are common to everyone.

They are:

1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages
3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger
4. Sexual companionship
5. Comfortable living conditions
6. To be superior, winning, “keeping up with the Joneses”
7. Care and protection of loved ones
8. Social approval

These life forces can be utilized by advertisers and marketers to give people “what they really want” and to market to them more effectively.

In fact, most of the information in this book is related to psychology, the mind of consumers, and other hardwired switches we all have as human beings.

These are not theories or assumptions; Whitman backs these techniques up with actual psychological studies.

Such as Dr. Robert Cialdini’s studies on influence, from which he devised 6 principals of influence. He wrote about these principles in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.”

Ca$hvertising also gets into depth on explaining why “99% of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything,” and how most people follow what everyone else is doing and fail just like everyone else.

This is defiantly a concise, accessible, and even entertaining book.

Whitman does a great job explaining complex and controversial subjects and offers a lot of other sources for further reading.

There are also dozens of quotes by copywriting legends that lend further creditably to Whitman’s points.

My favorite of these quotes is by Eugene Schwartz, and it reads:

“Write to the chimpanzee brain. Simply. Directly”

This quote is found in a great section of the book that deals with the psychology of simplicity and how writing for a 5^th grade audience results in more powerful advertising than writing to more educated people.

In this section we are introduced to the Flesch Reading Ease Formula, which is a mathematical equation that determines the redibility of copy and relates it to a school grade reading level.

For example, by using that formula I found out that this review is written at a 7^th grade level, which makes it accessible to most readers.

My Final Verdict

I gave Ca$hvertising  4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

This book is jam-packed with a lot of incredibly useful information and examples.

The book itself is a great case study on copywriting, as he uses his own techniques throughout the book.  I was glad to see Whitman follow his own advice by telling very interesting stories to convey his message, not just boring facts and hard cold numbers.

It beautifully turns what can be a boring data driven topic into a fun and entertaining read. You definitely forget that you are reading a book about data and conversions.

Everything is segmented into easily digestible chunks of information that are easy to understand.

Whitman also does a great job of backing up all his claims with research, and he gives you confidence that putting his advice into practice will help your business.

The humor he uses to communicate his message is also another plus for me, I am very big on books entertaining me and teaching me at the same time. Ca$hvertising managed to do both, and quite eloquently.

I learned so much from reading this book that I have to recommend it to anyone interested in copywriting and marketing or any who owns a business.

I rarely ever re-read a book, and I’ve already started reading Ca$hvertising again (in fact the only 2 books I’ve read more than once are “The 4 hour Workweek,” and “Influence“).

I liked it that much!

Have you read it? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Ca$hvertising By Drew Eric Whitman Book Review appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

One of the books I read this month was Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance by Jonathan Fields.

This book is about overcoming the fear of uncertainty, risk, and exposure to criticism.

Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields Book Review:

This book was brought to my attention by a video Derek Harplen put up on his blog.

Darek runs a successful blog on converting visitors into leads, and I usually find his advice valuable and useful; so I decided to check out the book.

“Uncertainty” is a book that deals with defining and solving an obstacle that we all face that prohibits us from succeeding; that obstacle is “uncertainty.”

As I have set out on my own entrepreneurial journey with this website, and my other projects; I have experienced so much of the uncertainty, doubt, and fear that comes with trying to create something that others will value.

Unfortunately for me and others on the same path, it is impossible to create something substantial and capable of serious impact without embracing a fair amount of uncertainty and criticism.

This book intends to help you overcome that uncertainty and harness it as a creative source of power.

This seemed like the perfect book for someone like me who is creating something out of nothing, and taking a leap of faith into the great unknown.

This book contains some interesting case studies of people succeeding while facing great uncertainty, and a series of good exercises that show you how to overcome it as well.

Unfortunately for me, the book never really caught my attention, and I was never “hooked” to it. I didn’t have as many “aha!” moments while reading this book as I had hoped. Maybe I had read of similar concepts before, or I was expecting something different. The point is that I never really read more than 20 pages at a time, I usually got bored, and started doing something else.

However, some of the case studies provided in the book were interesting and even inspiring, for example the story of:

Randy  Komisar, a former lawyer and CEO of Crystal Dynamics, who left his career to start a “Virtual CEO” business where he helped such companies as WebTV and GlobalGiving grow and build their businesses.

Marie Forleo, a former fitness and dance instructor who self-published her first book and sold over $8,000 copies! She then redefined masterminding by creating a women targeted mastermind that was like nothing ever seen before. She created an exotic adventure that could cost up to $20,000 to attend.

Erik Prolux, a copywriter at a large advertising agency, who after being laid-off created a documentary  about advertising professionals who have lost their jobs.

Uncertainty also provides provides tools, techniques, and a series of exercises that we could use to overcome uncertainty; such as creating anchors, hives, and rituals.

Essentially these are creating habits that create certainty, surrounding yourself with engaged mentors, meditating, and exercising.

Perhaps the one chapter I did connected with and enjoyed was Chapter 9:
“Own The Story Line.”

This chapter dealt with “reframing” your mind.

This essentially means stepping outside of yourself and looking beyond what often appears to be the only possible interpretation of any given circumstance.

Perhaps this is best illustrated by the farmer story, my favorite in the book, it goes like this:

In a small village, lived an old farmer. He awoke one morning to discover that his horse had run away.

The news circulated through the town and his neighbor paid a visit and offered condolences, saying, “what a shame.”

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” said the farmer.

The next day, the horse returned, bringing with it five wild horses.

“What a blessing,” said the neighbor.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” said the farmer.

The following morning, the farmer’s young son tried to ride one of the wild horses, was thrown, and broke his leg.

“What a shame,” said the neighbor.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” said the farmer.

That evening, high-ranking official from the army arrived, enlisting every able-bodied young man and taking them off to war. The farmer’s son, however, was left behind.

“What a blessing,” said the neighbor.

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” said the farmer.

This chapter deals with the way we look at things, and how things might not always be as they first appear.

This chapter also talks about “going to zero,” or taking an extreme loss, whether it’s losing a huge amount of money, time, energy, prestige, respect or reputation.

“Going to zero” is not always as bad as we make it out to be in our heads. In fact most worst case senarios are not as bad as they seem, and they rarely happen.

Sometimes, “going to zero” is exactly what we need to succeed.

As J. K. Rowling was quoted on saying, “I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive,  I had a daughter whom I loved, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.”

In this chapter, Jonathan Fields also talks about how doing nothing in much worse than failure. If you do nothing, Jonathan argues, your current life become incresingly painful, you become bitter and angry. This is something I completely agree with and I really liked how this subject was handled in the book.

This chapter alone made me give this book a higher rating, since I really enjoyed it.

My Final verdict:

I gave Uncertainty 3 out of 5 stars.

This book was well-intentioned and it had decent case studies, examples, and stories to make its point.

But I found it to a bit of a boring read, and it only got me “hooked” on the second to last chapter.

This is not a bad book by any means, and I’m not disagreeing with the points Jonathan Fields makes, I just hoped I would have had more fun reading it.

Because of this I cannot give it a higher rating. In fact, this is my lowest rated review so far, but it was not because of the lack of good content but because it did not entertain me. I know that the purpose of these books are to teach, not to entertain, but I have read other books that teach a whole lot, and do it in a fun engaging manner.

If you’re interested in this book, I would recommend checking it out in a book store first, where you can read the back of the book which includes chapter summaries. Read those summaries and decided if this is a book you would like to read.

Have you read it? What did you think of it? Let me know what you thought about it in the comments below!

The post Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields Book Review appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

I recently wrote an article tittled “Slippery Slides For Fun & Profit!“.

The headline to this article broke weird on my page (see image below)

The word “profit” was left alone in one line, and what I wanted was to have “slippery slides” in one line, and “For Fun & Profit!” in another.

But how would I add a line break to my headline?

After all, hitting “enter” on my keyboard would not make the break on my headline.

Well, the answer is simple.

Simply add some HTML to your headline’s input box when you are creating or editing your article.

<br/> is all you need:

by adding <br/> to your headline input box, you can control where your lines break, making more visually appealing headlines

Other Useful HML Tags You Can Use On Your WordPress Headline:

Bold your text:
<strong>Your Text</strong> → Example.

Emphasize your text:
<em>Your Text</em> →  Example.

Strike your text:
<strike>Your Text</strike> → Example.

Underline your text:
<u>Your Text </u> → Example.

Create a superscript:
<sup>Your Text</sup> → E=MC².

Create a subscript:
<sub>Your Text</sup> → H₂0.

You could also add a style tag to these HTML tags to further style your headline without changing all the other headlines on your page.

For example if you just wanted a single word on your headline to be underlined and red; this is the code you would use:

<u style="color:red;"> Word </u>

Fixing Your Broken Breadcrumbs

If you decide to add HTML to your headlines, this might cause problems with your breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumbs usually add the_title() tag which works fine, but it renders any HTML code apply to it.

A better tag to use on your bread crumbs is the  the_title_attribute()

The title attribute also displays your title, but it strips away all your HTML tags.

The post QuickTip: Adding Line Breaks and Other Styles To The WordPress Headline appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

Remember those fun hot summer days when you were a kid?

You would go to a friend’s back yard, set up a slippery slide and have fun for hours sliding up and down the slide.

Once you threw yourself into the slide you would just keep sliding down, unable to stop, until you reach the end.

Well, this is exactly the same type of unstoppable slide that you must create when you write.

Most people think that the number one priority of the copy they write is to make a sale, get a sign-up, or even get some SEO traffic. But that is all wrong!

No matter what you are writing, whether it is a sales letter, an email newsletter or a blog post. Your number one priority is to get your content read.

The copywriting legend Joseph Sugarman, in “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook,” talks about how in copywriting:

“Every element must be so compelling that you find yourself falling down a slippery slide, unable to stop until you reach the end.”

Sugarman continued to say that “The sole purpose of the first sentence is to get prospects to read the second sentence, and the sole purpose of the second sentence is to get them to read the third and then the fourth – all while you are building a selling environment for the sale of your product.”

This means that every element in anything you write must be so compelling that your reader finds themselves falling down a “slippery slide“, unable to stop until they’ve reached the end.

Every sentence you write must make your reader want to
read the next sentence you write.

Yes, the entire purpose of copywriting can be boiled down to this single statement.

You must pull the reader right through your page, your story, your features, and finally to your call to action.

This is a lot easier said than done, but don’t worry, you won’t be able to do it most of the time.

Even the best copywriters in the word struggle with this. It takes time, practice, and split testing to get it right.

But if you succeed at creating these fun and exciting “slippery slides“, you are sure to have some fun and profitable times!

The post Slippery Slides
For Fun And Profit! appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought to yourself, “I could lose a few pounds?”

Then you think to yourself, “in order to get fit and healthier I could possibly do some running. After all running is good for the heart, it will increase my metabolism and it will get me in shape.”

So you decide to set a goal of running a few days a week.

A few weeks go by and you realize that you only ran on a few days the first week, 1 or 2 days the second week, and by the third week you gave up.

You had a goal, with good intentions, and you really wanted to accomplish it. So what was the problem?

Unfortunately for you, the problem was with your goal. You set a goal of running a few days a week to try to lose some weight; you did not set a S.M.A.R.T. goal.

Believe me, there is an enormous difference between the two.

Setting goals is a lot more than making vague statements like, “I will try lose 10 pounds” or “I will make more money.” Creating smart goals means creating a written action plan that includes reasonable and measurable long-term and short-term objectives. It means setting S.M.A.R.T. goals.

S.M.A.R.T is an acronym that refers to creating goals that are:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timely

The first known uses of the term occurred in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran

Specific

The perfect recipe for failing any goal is making ambiguous or incomplete goals.

Vague goals produce vague results.

Your goals must be very clear and unambiguous; vagueness and generalities have no place in goal setting. When goals are specific, they tell you exactly what is expected, when, and how much.

You want to make your goal as detailed as possible in order to achieve the specific results that you desire. A specific goal is one that is clearly defined in such a way that anyone could come by and understand what you intend to accomplish.

Your goal should contain a detailed description of what you want to accomplish; when you want to accomplish it by; and the action(s) you will take to accomplish it.

A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

To set a specific goal you must answer these questions:

• What: What do I want to accomplish?
• Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
• Who: Who is involved?
• Where: Identify a location.
• When: Establish a time frame.

Measurable

A good measurable goal will be one where anyone can come up to you at the deadline and, by viewing the results, determine whether or not you have completed your goal.

If your goals are not measurable, you never know whether you’re making progress or even if you’ve completed your goal.

It’s also very tough to stay motivated and complete your goal if you have no milestones to indicate your progress.

When your progress is measurable, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the excitement of achievement that keeps you going in order to reach your goal.

Make sure to set a standard unit of measurement that will enable you to see exactly how far you have come from the start of your goal and how far away from the completion of the goal you are.

If your goal is to make more money, don’t just say “I want to make more money online,” say “I want to generate $5,000 a month in passive income from my website.”

Attainable

Goals must be realistic and attainable. Your goals must require you to stretch a bit to achieve them, but they cannot be completely out of your reach.

You must create goals that are realistic for your situation and skill level. Many people set their goals so high that they are just not very realistic or attainable.

Creating goals that are not attainable is very disempowering and will only serve to demotivate you, and make you feel like a failure.

Also, goals that are set too high or too low become meaningless, and people tend to ignore them.

Relevant

Your goals must be relevant to what you want to achieve in your life or career, in the short-term and the long-term.

Sometimes you can be tempted to do something simply because it is easy and it sounds cool, only to discover later on that is has no long term importance to what you want to achieve as a person or a business.

Do those things that are most important and in line with your long-term vision and mission in life.

Make sure that your goals are relevant to you, much like a college curriculum which focuses on specific courses for each major. Your goals need to be consistent and relevant with who you are as a person, and your overall goals in life.

Timely

Goals must have  a fixed duration, with a starting point, an ending point, and milestones along the way. Commitment to deadlines helps you to focus your efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due date.

A goal should be grounded within a time frame to establish a sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs, when do you want to lose it by?

“Someday,” won’t work.

But if you anchor it within a time frame, “by September 1st,” then you’ve set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal to meet the deadline.

Not having a time element attached to your goal creates procrastination. It makes it easy for us to put the goal off for a later time and never get it done.

Putting It All Together

Remember that original goal we started out with?

The goal of “running a few days a week to try to get fit and lose some weight?”

Well now that you know the proper way to set S.M.A.R.T. goals how would you re-phrase this goal?

How about:

“I will be more fit and healthier by being able to run 2 miles in under 12 minutes by September 1st. I will start by running 1 mile every day, and move up to 2 miles a day in 3 weeks”

In this example your goal is:

• Specific: Run 2 mi. in under 12 mins. and you will start by running 1 mi. a day.
• Measurable: You can either run 2 miles in under 12 minutes or you can’t.
• Achievable: With your current age and weight, this can be an achievable goal.
• Relevant: It’s relevant to you because you want to be healthy and fit.
• Timely: This goal must be completed by September 1st, and in 3 weeks from now you will have your first milestone.

Become Accountable, Share Your Goals!

Writing down your S.M.A.R.T. goals is the first step of the processes, your goals MUST be written for others to see.

Yes, that is right, for others to see.

Just writing goals down rarely leads to getting them accomplished. They get buried in your notebook or on your desk and you rarely will see them again.

Accountability to your colleagues, your family, and your friends is what gets you to accomplish your goals.

That’s why you need others to see, and read your S.M.A.R.T goals.

I’m doing this with my Bookshelf section on this website. I have a S.M.A.R.T goal of reading 2 books every month, I will do this by reading no less than 15 pages a day, at least 5 times a week.

Me telling you this, and creating a page where people expect to see 2 new books every month makes me accountable to complete my goal.

You don’t have to share your goals online, or for the whole world to see, but you do need to share it with your spouse, your close friend, or anyone that you know will hold you accountable for completing your goals.

So now that you know the secret to success, what are you waiting for?

Go and accomplish your goals!

If you are feeling courageous leave your S.M.A.R.T goals in the comments below!

The post The Secret To Success is Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.

THIS METHOD NO LONGER WORKS!
You can now simply go to
https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline
and click activate.

I’m sure that by now you’ve been hearing about all the wonderful new Facebook features, and you are probably probably super-eager to get started with them.

If you want to be the first of your friends to try out the brand-new Facebook Timeline feature then you’ve come to the right place!

I created the video tutorial to show you how you can activate the Facebook Timeline Feature Now! 

Simply follow the instructions in the video below

First, you’ll need to log in to Facebook, and go to the Facebook developer page. then start watching the video below!

The post Add The New Facebook Timeline To Your Profile Now! (Video) appeared first on Marketing Unfolded.