JR Farr

Are you using a Mac, and need a quality Screen Recording Software?  ScreenFlow might be what you’re looking for.

ScreenFlow is easily one of the better Screen Recording softwares because of the ability to edit the video once you’ve recorded it.  It also takes advantage of your iSight camera.  Recording both your computer screen and you at the same time.

Awhile, back I was really interested in finding a good software to record my screen. My main goal was to eventually find some time to do some quality tutorials.

So the search began

I came across a buddy, Jeremy Weiss, an old hockey teammates blog, Weiss Tech Hockey and found a few of his videos.  Check out his Hockey Training website, he has done some great work using ScreenFlow.  I was instanly impressed.  I reached to him immediately to find out what he was using.

It was ScreenFlow.

What is ScreenFlow?

ScreenFlow is a new application for creating amazing screen recordings on your Mac.
Using a unique new screen capture system, powerful enough to capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer’s audio, you’ll be creating incredible screencasts in no time.

The finished result is a QuickTime movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog.

Feature Highlights:

• Record from desktop, a video camera, microphone & computer’s audio simultaneously
• Powerful editing tools
• Highlight using ‘Callouts’
• Position video in 3D
• Easy narration of presentations
• Highest quality exporting
• Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Only

Watch this ScreenFlow video by Jeremy Weiss

Did this help?

Let me know if this helps? Or if you know of a better screen recording software let us know!

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P.S. - You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

Are managing a big bulk of Paid Search campaigns?

If you’re running some hefty campaigns through Google Adwords then it might be time to check out the Adwords Editor.

What is the Adwords Editor?

AdWords Editor is a custom Google application (which is FREE) for managing your ad campaigns. Use it to download your account, update your campaigns with powerful editing tools, then upload your changes to AdWords.

• Work offline, then upload your changes any time.
• Make bulk changes (such as updating bids or adding keywords) in just a few steps.
• Copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns
• Navigate through your account quickly and easily.
• Circulate proposed changes and get feedback from other users.

A few reasons I find it useful

There are those days when managing paid search campaigns when the hammer comes down.  When it feels like something will take a week to complete.  I know I have been there and more times then I can count, the Adwords Editor has really saved some headaches and most importantly, my time.

Time Saving - No need to wait for Adwords to load the next page as your creating new ad copy, or making bulk changes.  The tool is an offline application.  Just load up the Adwords Editor, find the account you want to edit and you’ll be done in no time.

Changing Destination URL’s - If you have 100 campaigns that all need the dest. URL’s changed because your client just got this new tracking system and want’s to track variables in the URL then this is a life saver.  Find the account in the Adwords Editor, sort by “ads” and updated the dest. URL’s within minutes.

Updating Bids - You can easily select a handful of ad groups you want to update the bids for in seconds.

My Favorite: Downloading your Google Account/Campaigns/Ad Groups - This is my favorite feature of the Adwords Editor.  Sometimes you have everything looking so great in Adwords but you’ve not giving the same tender loving care to Yahoo! and MSN.  Well, Yahoo! & MSN have made it possible to accept your downloaded Google Accounts and import them right into their systems.  Saving you time to work on other things while they upload the new account or campaign.

There are tons more features and benefits of the Adwords Editor so I can’t name them all.  If you have a question about a particular feature, let me know and I’m sure it’s something you can use this tool for.

Anyway, I’m almost positive that someone experienced with paid search is using this.  I’m also sure that a big majority of your aren’t.  Don’t be afraid to try it out and see if it provides some value to you.  This is just another way to be more effiecient and make better use of your time.

So… are you using the Adwords Editor?  Was this helpful?  Let me know

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P.S. - You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

Today it came to me so clearly… The old days of Google Adwords are long, long gone.  Yeah, we all knew that but are we doing anything about it.  It’s just like anything else where you get stuck in your old ways ya know.

What I’m talking about is the new Google Adwords Quality Score update.  Don’t know what that is? Read about it here.

On top of that, I’m actually afraid to change anything with my Adwords accounts because who knows what keywords will get the boot!

But, don’t let that scare you.  Don’t be afraid to re-vamp your old paid search campaigns.  If you want “Google Love” then that’s what you have to do to get it.

I’ll admit, I was one of those peeps.  I was one of those complainers.  “This new Google Qualtiy Score update is awful, what were they thinking?”  Yeah, it does have a few bugs in it, but it’s time stop complaining and it’s time to do something about it.

At least that’s what I have been doing over the past few months.  One thing that has helped me is creating an idea of what it is I’m actually doing to help the quality score.  I like to call it, having “tight” campaigns and ad groups.  Gone are the days of 2,000 keywords in an ad group.  10-15 keywords in an group is where we have landed. Bringing more and more relevacny to your campaigns, ad groups, keywords and of course your ad copy.

I know everyone and their dog has talked about how to help quality score, but try not to get tangled up in the B.S. and stick to a simple plan.  Keep your campagins tight and you’ll be good.  Just remember, if your not exceeeding the amount of campaigns and ad groups in your accounts, then you’re not doing enough.

Best of luck and hope that helps you on your paid search journey!

More to come…

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P.S. - You can Follow Me on TWITTER.

Go Red Sox!

Can’t wait for this series…

Review of Woo Themes

It’s official, J.R. is now a Woo Themes subscriber. Yep, I gave in and bought the developer subscription on Woo Themes.  I did this about 2 months ago, but sadly I am just finding time to review them and give my thoughts about Woo Themes custom Worpdress Themes.

Before finding Woo Themes and eventually purchasing their subscription I began to follow Adii, one of the founders of WooThemes.  I subscribed to his blog and followed him on Twitter.  When I started to see post’s about their new project I was pretty anxious to see what they would come up with.

Who is Woo Themes?

WooThemes is a project started by three respected designers - Adii, Magnus Jepson and Mark Forrester - whom all share one thing: their passion for WordPress. All of the themes available on WooThemes are 100% unique and we can assure you that you won’t find similar CMS solutions elsewhere for any other platform.

We pride ourselves not only in the quality of our themes releases, but also that of our support & customer service. Our ultimate aim is to build a community of passionate WooThemes users, where future themes will be influenced by our userbase.

We truly love WordPress and after using any of our themes, you’ll not only love WordPress, but you’ll love WooThemes as well!

I won’t lie, there are plenty of “so-called” Custom Wordpress Themes, so I couldn’t imagine it being much different.  I already had purchased one of Brian Gardner’s themes and he is one of the pioneers of custom Wordpress Themes.

The Bottom Line… Worth It or Not?

100% Yes.  I am not new to Wordpress, I have had my fair share of free and premium Wordpress themes and these themes are worth every damn penny.

They include a one of kind “theme option tab” in the admin section which includes all kinds of goodies:

• Easily change your logo
• Add Feed Burner URL
• Add Google Analytics
• Add Flickr photos
• Add Twitter updates
• And More!

The best part is, all of those things I just mentioned take about 5 seconds flat to add to your site.  There’s no digging through the code, not worrying if you placed it in the right section, it’s all laid out for you ready to go.

Lastly, WooThemes has collaborated with well respected designers (Elliot Jay Stocks), making their designs not only genuine but truly nothing you have ever seen before.  They also guarantee that you’ll see at least 1 new theme every month.  So far they have delivered.

You don’t need to take my advice though, go to their site and demo any of the themes, read what the community is saying on their blog and you’ll know what I am talking about.

More to come…

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P.S. - You can Follow Me on TWITTER.