Find a Planner that Fits Your Style

With the New Year, comes resolutions and a commitment or recommitment to goals. To keep all your new tasks organized requires a planner that fits your needs.

I’m organizationally challenged, which causes problems because I’m also a multi-business entrepreneur. I’m always on the hunt for the perfect planner system that fits how I work. My preference is to see the whole week at a glance and have all my to-dos (personal and professional) listed along side any appointments. I don’t want to have to turn pages to manage my day because I’m more likely to not turn the page and therefore miss something. The problem has been that I’ve never found just the right planner.

If you’re having the same problem, visit DIYPlanner which has tons of different planner styles…for free. These planner templates are created by DIYPlanner or its members and uploaded for anyone to use. Planners come in a variety sizes depending on your needs.

The site also offers articles and other resources related to planning. The best way to find the actual planner templates is to click on “DIYPlanner.com” or “Time Management” in the left hand side bar. But do take some time to read the articles and other information. There is an interactive community with lots of great tips and ideas.

To learn more, visit DIYPLanner.com

Screencast-O-Matic Offers FREE Browser-Based Screen Capture

Screen capture is a helpful tool in business and education. The difficulty is finding a quality, AFFORDABLE screen capture software. One option is Jing, which provides a free and low cost option for screen capture video. However Screencast-O-Matic offers one-click recording from your Windows, Mac or Linux browser. The free version provides 15 minutes of video (Jing only offers 5 even in the paid version), hosting, YouTube upload, and exporting in MP4, FLV or AVI. For $9 per year (Jing is $15/yr), you can have the watermark removed, password protect screencasts, ability to screencast outside the browser and editing tools.

If you’re creating lots of videos and need a full range of tools, Camtasia may be your best bet, but at $299 it’s pricey. For the individual or small business owner with few screencapture needs, Screencast-O-Matic offers all the basics for an affordable price.

To learn more, visit Screencast-O-Matic.

Better Living on the Web does NOT receive any compensation from Screencast-O-Matic.

Is Someone Stealing Your Image?

A couple of years ago I was checking my web stats and noticed that one URL seemed to making a lot of hits on one of my graphics. Visiting the site I discovered it was using my logo as its own. This was potentially very bad for me as my site was about finding legitimate work-at-home opportunities and the site that was stealing my logo was a scam. People who didn’t know better would think that I was promoting the scam or at the very least endorsing it. It could have ruined my credibility.

Copyright infringement is rampant on the Internet, and its hard to know what materials are being stolen and where they are posted. But at TinEye.com you can an least find out if your logo, image, or other graphics are being used somewhere other than where you placed them.

TinEye has an easy to use image search engine for graphics. Just upload the graphic or give the URL of the graphic and it will show you where else the graphic is being used. You may be surprised to find your pretty mug showing up on a different  site! Or your logo!

To learn more visit TinEye.com

Results of a search on my photo image. Sparkplugging has permission to use this photo.

Get Money for Your Creative Project from Kickstarter

Are you a fledgling artist, filmmaker, musician, writer or creative soul? Need some cash to pursue your creative project? Then check out Kickstarter, which touts itself as the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Don’t worry that investors will have part ownership of your project. Through Kickstarter you keep 100% ownership over your work.  Instead, investors are thanked or compensated in other ways such as copies of the completed project. Current projects include documentaries, game boards, comics, art app for iPad and more.

If you don’t have a project, but are interested in supporting artists, Kickstarter has thousands of project looking for your help.

To learn more, visit Kickstarter.

Record Skype Calls with Pamela – Perfect for Podcasters

For over two years I’ve been doing a weekly podcast at Work-At-Home Success. I’d avoided podcasting for a while because the set-up to record the call was tedious and not always reliable. I had to use an old laptop, because my newer one didn’t work right with the equipment I had. I had to hook up my phone to the computer’s recorder through a little Radio Shack device. Using Windows Movie Maker to capture the recording, I’d then need to convert it from WMV to MP3, transfer it to my new machine and edit. Fortunately, Skype and Pamela have changed all that.

Skype allows me to call via my computer to anyone anywhere. Its free to other Skype users and just a few cents a minutes to call landlines. Pamela records the call and saves as MP3. All I need to do once the call is over is edit and upload. No converting or transferring. No extra devices…just my headset and computer.

Pamela features include:

• Skype Call Recording
• Skype Video Recording
• Skype Chat Recording
• Skype Call Transfer
• Rich Mood Editor
• Answering Machine
• VideoMail
• Mega Emotion Sounds
• Auto Chat Reply
• Birthday Reminders
• Email Forwarding
• Contact Personalization
• Auto Start Applications
• Skype Publishing
• And more.

Pamela has a free version with a time limit of 15 minutes of recording and a few other limitations. It also has standard, professional and business versions for a fee. I opted for the Professional version which has a 30 day trial and is $38.95 if you want to keep it (there are less expensive options as well). It includes unlimited recording and all the other features such as blogging and podcasting.

Visit Pamela Systems to learn more!