Why is pricing one's services - valuing one's time - so challenging for some people (ME)?
I have 20+ years of experience in my field, my clients are happy, I love my work, and am very good at what I do. But when it comes to pricing out a proposal, I undersell myself. Just had a trusted client today tell me I should double my price. Yes, a client.
How are you with pricing your work? Tips, tricks, kick in the pants?
I'm looking for a virtual assistant who is available during regular business hours for short, varied, online-based projects. I work with an incredible one but she is mostly available evenings. Anyone working with someone who can jump on a task and complete quickly? Thanks!
It is a sad day for me - or at least my avatar. No, for me, too.
Just as I'm getting ready to keynote at Second Life Community Convention this weekend, I have had to clear my virtual island - Athena Isle - and get ready to be homeless in Second Life. Just couldn't foot the rent bill anymore.
Longshot Test of Google+: Working on a piece for Mashable, tight tight deadline. Seeking cities globally that are using social media AND SM monitoring and seeing some tangible results from it. I have several U.S. cities but am looking for non-U.S. Any thoughts? Please pass along to your global connections. Many thanks!
The new Firefox update prompted me to re-skin my Web browser. How 1999. Of course, I did it with their featured Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows look. How 2011. Is anyone even using Firefox anymore? What about IE? Or has Google Chrome crushed the competition?
Just had an "Aha Thump on the Head" moment re: Google+. I haven't been using Circles much because I don't have a burning need to narrowcast.
But instead of Circles to SEND narrowly, I can use Circles to RECEIVE more filtered streams - clear, concise, specific - just by clicking on one of the filtered Streams on the left side.
I've been a bit disenchanted with Google+ lately. Over the last 2 weeks, I've received a ton of random spam on many of my public posts including some dating back over a year.
Is anyone else experiencing this? If so, what are we able to do to block this?
Just got another notice from a friend that they are quitting Facebook. Some are doing it on a trial basis. Some are doing it indefinitely. And this doesn't include those that have abandoned Twitter or who can't bring themselves to even try G+.
To me, it is becoming clear that we're beyond overwhelmed and overloaded. I vow to spend 2012 helping others sift through the chaos of this so called "social media" and find real value, purpose and meaning.
I think we've all gone a little bit over the deep end. Or a lot. What do you think?
RESHARE: Wow, this is fascinating. Banning airbrushed ads... What do you think? Airbrushed ads: Good, Bad, Indifferent?
Reshared text: Britain bans airbrushed Julia Roberts make-up ad. What are your thoughts?
Isn’t it a given that all photos of females appearing in glossy magazines have been retouched?
Don’t we all subconsciously know that the latest Maxim cover girl actually has skin pores, arm pits, knee caps and a waist line bigger than 20″ in real life? If you really want to know, you can just flick through one of the millions of celeb-bashing websites and see said Maxim cover girl’s “appalling cellulite”.
I have to ask myself if these picture perfect images contribute to my own body image insecurities? Probably. Is this a rational behavior? Not really. I think as a culture we are educated enough to know fact from fiction.
I find the pictures of girls in Men’s magazines almost laughable. They look like more like CGIed sex bots, than real, sexy girls. The sad thing is that if they replaced these images with more realistic images of women, people would probably spend 5 minutes pointing out all their flaws and chastise their wrinkly elbows.
As a photographer, I try to make my subjects look their best. "Best" isn't necessarily "real". Obviously, all blemishes, wrinkles, & stray hairs will be cloned out immediately, but I'll admit to slimming 20lbs off people, adding makeup, painting in eyelashes and the list goes on and on.
Maybe the continual exposure to this airbrushed standard of perfection in images of models and celebrities has made me as sick as the Maxim editors, but I don’t see retouching images as negative, it’s merely a part of my artistic process as a photographer.
Beauty and fashion photography isn’t meant to be a realistic portrayal of everyday life. It’s a fantasy. And in this fantasy everyone is skinnier, prettier, richer and more well-endowed than you. Once you know what the images selling, you can take the blow to your ego with a grain of salt.
The other day I was looking back at old Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit covers from the pre-airbrushing mid-nineties. It was interesting to see supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Elle MacPherson, and Christie Brinkley with minor bags under their eyes, little bulges under their tiny bikini bottoms, and actual texture on their skin. In some ways, they looked sexier and simply more real, than the pushed up, squeezed in bikini models of today.
Is airbrushing images lying? I say a resounding YES. But it’s a lie I’m willing to live with. The more important question is: Will the media ever go back to a publishing photos sans Photoshop? I honestly don’t know. Brad Pitt seems to think it’s possible, but then he’s Brad Pitt. No one cares if he has bags under his eyes. But if I was Britney Spears, I would want a whole team of Photoshop monkeys working on my photos 24/7.
RESHARE: Oooo, fascinating rethinking of working in the cloud. Not as an "add-on" but as the whole enchilada.
Reshared text: I'm about to leak a major secret about Google now that I work inside...
The company really is cloud-centric and I live in the browser (Chrome) all day. Now, I actually run two versions of the browser simultaneously all day, one for my work account and one for my personal accounts, but it's true that I don't ever open anything else. We collaborate with our colleagues using Gmail and Google Talk. We schedule on Google Calendar. We use Google Docs to create and present content. We use Google+ to share. Everything else is a Web address away.
I've been talking about living in the cloud for a long time, and well before I joined Google, of course. (It's only been two weeks) But it's fun to see the reality matches the promise. What desktop apps are you using now that you simply can't give up that could be replaced by the Web in the future?
Hello Friends! Will you do my co-author +Danielle Smith and me a BIG favor? Go to http://bit.ly/momincbook and click on the text link: "I’d like to read this book on Kindle on right side of page?" We are trying to convince our publisher to provide a Kindle version. Thank you!
I need to figure out how to get rid of spam on a Wordpress blog. There must be a setting to increase the filter strength.
Also need same thing on a Typepad blog. Or maybe I need to finally migrate from Typepad to Wordpress. Have been on Typepad for over 8 years but it just isn't cutting it anymore.
While I do like a lot of things about Google+, I am pretty sure most brands and organizations will see very little traction and even less conversion from participating here. It's way too soon. But being here and testing it out? If you have the resources, it is worth exploring.
What benefits do you see for brands and organizations in terms of being here on Google+ right now?
I have 2 burning business ideas and want to find entrepreneurial minded folks to start and run them. I realize I'm best at concepts, initial builds, marketing and evangelizing but not running. Where do you find the people who just want to run something?
I am being circled by dead people. From Hunter S. Thompson to...Jesus Christ. Yes, was just added to a circle by JC. Have noted a few fictional characters plussing, too. Mad Men, anyone?
I posed this question on Twitter but thought I'd check here as well:
Are you seeing that agencies are offering just Social Media strategy, just engagement/management or both?
I'm feeling it is definitely both but someone said the bigger agencies don't bother with the engagement/management aspect i.e. the day-to-day interactions. That doesn't seem true anymore.
When I told someone the other day that I just feel like crying, she said "If I were planning two book tours and doing everything else you're doing plus being a mom, I'd be crying, too" it made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. Sometimes a little bit of validation does a world of good.
Will we ever return to talking about 'online marketing" and then social media marketing is a subset of that? Doesn't it mislead people by thinking that just because social media has transformed online marketing, that it is now the end all be all for reaching out on the Internet? I think that perspective gives a distorted view of how we do outreach and communications and ignores the myriad of useful tools and tactics still at our disposal.
If I wanted to get a digital camera under $1000, what is my best bet? And is there one that does video, too, or am I diluting quality for multi-function?
I was an avid CoolPix user for years and upgraded often because costs was negligible year to year. Now I use my iPhone 4 and it is with me everywhere. But outdoor lighting is an issue with a phone camera, and I've missed some great shots due to obvious limitations. Thoughts?
Is crowdsourcing EVIL? Let's Discuss: TODAY 12pm ET/9am PT Upside & Pitfalls to #Crowdsourcing LIVE w/@prosperitygal aka +Michele Pricehttp://budurl.com/cuuh And if you participate on Twitter using #BBSradio you could be entered to win a copy of my book.
What is YOUR burning question about Crowdsourcing? And it's okay to admit if you don't know what it is... Ask away. We won't bite. At least not TOO hard. ;)
Am I the only one finding Circles much more useful for ancillary things such as Save2Evernote than narrowcasting my messages. In fact, I am thinking of doing away with all the circles I created and just keep one called People and put everyone from all the circles into it. Maybe, some day, I'll find a need for more than one circle. Are you really parsing your messages to a variety of slices of your network?
Got an email from the New York Times: "Our records indicate that you recently requested to cancel your home delivery subscription."
Funny, but I do not subscribe to the New York Times. And certainly not the home delivery.
If this is a ploy to get me to "re-subscribe" for the 50% discount, it is to no avail. Because the New York Times REFUSES to deliver the newspaper to me in Tok Alaska. Same with the Wall Street Journal.
Going to Blogworld? I just know my goofy video will convince you to attend! And while you're there, join me and +Jill Foster Friday 3-5pm for a two-hour high energy empowerment extravaganza! #BWEVoice
Anyone ever seen The Fresh Beat Band? http://www.nickjr.com/the-fresh-beat-band/ I'm trying to better vet what my 5 year old is watching. She loves Electric Company which I think is OK but she also has watched iCarly and Wizards of Waverly, and I don't think either are good for her to see at her age.
Darn, this parenting thing is freaking hard. I just realized the Katy Perry album she loves and sings along with has the F-Bomb. Need to find a clean version, if that is even possible.
"Over the years, educators, recruiters and government authorities have bemoaned the gender gap and warned that it can have dire consequences for American competitiveness and continued technological dominance.
It isn't just that fewer women choose to go into these fields. Even when they go into these fields and are successful, women are more likely than men to quit."
RESHARE: Wow. I thought +Jeff Pulver was exaggerating when he said "the best 60 second film" he's ever seen. Totally made me cry. Not what I expected at all. As he said: Watch, share, watch again.
Reshared text: Tomorrow (GPS) - The best 60 second film I have seen to date. Created by Abe Forsythe. Please share with friends. And then watch it again. :)
I'm officially calling Travelgirl.com my labor of love and putting more time and effort into it. Not sure where it will lead, but I will keep at it because it feels right.
I'd love to publish some of your essays on travel or on journeys. Dust off something you've written a while ago - something more personal (not about location reviews). I'll link back to you from the site and promote it, of course. I just want to provide a platform for women's voices around the power of travel and our life journeys. You can submit here: http://bit.ly/travelgirlstory Thank you!
How many social networks do you participate in? And in which order or when?
I still go to Twitter first and come here to G+ as an afterthought as in "Oh yeah, I really like that network." Then I go to Facebook with less enthusiasm. I tend not to cross post unless something is really compelling or I am hoping to reach the widest audience. And then there is Pinterest. I go there on whims throughout the day.
I'm exploring alternatives to the term "social media" to more accurately describe what we do online. I think we've gone down a dark rabbit hole trying to infuse meaning and derive instruction from an inaccurate term.
I may be the only adult in the U.S. who has never made a Thanksgiving meal. Nary a turkey, ham, pie, sweet potato casserole, green been casserole. Maybe I helped a little like stirred a pot or cut some veggies. But I don't think I ever wanted to spend that much time in a kitchen or to risk butchering many recipes at once.
Instead, I try to remember to give thanks every day. Especially when the hubby's cooking.
I'll be in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Napa for my Crowdsourcing booktour starting 8/3. Would love to connect with some folks here. You know, the Plussers. Any California Plussers out there?
Is it kosher to invite people via Google+ to come over to Twitter TONITE, 9pm ET for a TweetChat? I mean is that overstepping some rules I don't know about? ;) I'll be talking about my #CrowdSourcing Book TONITE 9pm ET over on that OTHER site http://budurl.com/qjfr - Use the hashtag #Speakchat
Aliza founded the first woman-owned, full-service Internet company – Cybergrrl, Inc. – in 1995, and the first global Internet networking group for women – Webgrrls International. EPIC.
Reshared text: How to design your presentations for social sharing
Thanks to the relentless spread of social media and mobile devices, the art and practice of making presentations at conferences has changed forever. A growing percentage of your audience members are now equipped with laptops, netbooks and mobile devices. Many are live tweeting or reporting on your remarks - in real time. They're looking down at their screens, not at you.
If that's not scary enough, a growing number of conference organizers are displaying the live tweetstream on a screen to the side of the stage. If the crowd turns against you during your presentation, this audience back channel can get ugly - fast.
What's a presenter to do? +Brian Solis presents a creative and savvy solution to this challenge in his new book, The End of Business as Usual:
"I completely redesigned the format of my presentation to trigger the sharing of experiences. I realized that if I could encourage attendees to share my words, I could at once get my message across to those in the room as well as to their online friends and followers. My slides, to this day, are rich with visuals and statements made with fewer than 140 characters—usually 120 to leave room for potential retweets.
"See, at the center of the transformation of the audience is the ability for individuals to capture a moment through text, video, audio, or still images and share them in real time to the hundreds or thousands of individuals in their social and interest graphs. To me, it was the manifestation of the nextwork to take a one-to-many distribution channel and reshape it into a one-to-one-to-many-more syndication network that invited others outside the realm of the event to participate and ultimately connect with me."
Solis recommends that you think about every update and every idea you share online as a "social object." In other words, it is "a form of media that invites interaction in which reach resonates and extends like concentric circles with every instance." Think beyond your own social network to the networks of your followers - your audience's audience. "My job now is to speak to you and through you at the same time. The goal, of course, is to share our words and ideas across social graphs and interest graphs connecting to those in the room and the people to whom they're connected around the world," he explains.
The genie is out of the bottle. The ability to share experiences in real time has become part of the conference ecosystem. Why not use it to your advantage, as Brian has done? Instead of just reaching a few hundred people in the room where you're speaking, you have the potential to influence tens of thousands more beyond the conference hall, sparking conversations that may continue for days and weeks after the event has ended.
Like Seth Godin's "idea virus," we need to intentionally structure our ideas and presentations in such a way that they will be infectious, and will spread from one mind to another, well beyond our immediate social stream.
It was a crisp, clear night last night, and the aurora was aglow. (photo by my husband). Hope to take more if it happens again this weekend now that I know how to set my camera.
I want a personal trainer via Skype. Live, not videos to watch. I wonder if +Heather Frey would do it! I'll need some serious motivation when I get back to Alaska.
Just invited to join Diaspora. And get an eerie feeling that someone there leaked their specs to Google+ and Goolge+ stole the idea and ran with it. Is that possible? It is EXACTLY the same.
Living in rural Alaska means everything is very expensive and selections are limited. Like wine. Only a handful of wine brands in our liquor stores and usually $2-5 more per bottle which is a lot since my wine price threshold is $12. ;)
So I'm always bringing up a few bottles in my suitcases after my business trips. I wrap them up in my jeans then cross my fingers that they won't break.
But now...introducing The Jet Bag. I think I may be their new best customer! http://thejetbag.com/ (Although I question the description "wine diaper"...)
My latest post about #crowdsourcing for the @conversify blog: http://conversify.net/2011/07/27/is-crowdsourcing-evil/ The more I talk about crowdsourcing & my book, the more often I'm getting the question "But isn't that EVIL?" What do YOU think?
"Continuous learning isn’t just happening in the developed world. With low-priced computers, tablets, and cell phones in the hands of children in resource-challenged communities, many kids who are engaging in technological leapfrogging will have the opportunity to skip past outdated formal school systems, too."
If you've never contributed to a Kickstarter project before, here is a great place to start!
"We know that girls are great at solving, deducing, and experimenting. Yet...
Only 15% of female first-year college students intend to major in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Less than 11% of engineers are women And...
Toys for young girls are predominantly dolls and princesses We think there is a connection.
We believe that early exposure to STEM through toys will inspire change." WooT!