I thought This was such a cool post that I would feature it here on the blog

There will be a bunch of new content over the next couple of weeks.

Dan and I have been very busy with our “Day Jobs” at the Immediate Edge  and I have been flat out with the relaunch of my Buying and Selling web site course

If you would like to contribute a video or an article - let me know. We will make sure you get full credit.

Take it away Kim!

Ed

Hey gang!

I hope you’re doing well.

This is a post I wrote to a newcomer in response to their being overwhelmed with organizing the deluge of 30DC info. Bookmarks in Firefox might seem simplistic, but to someone who has never used Firefox or bookmarks, it’s a lifeline.

When you have time, I would appreciate any quick feedback as I would like to then post the revised version to the 30DC forum by next Monday.

Rob, feel free to make a video.

The basic idea of this draft, if you’re rushed for time:

Create a folder in Bookmarks for Market Research
Create a folder for traffic testing
Create a folder for conversion (i.e., bookmark the page for Analytics)
Create a folder for product creation

That way, newcomers can bookmark each site mentioned so that the symphony flows from one movement to the next. So they remember what site Rob mentioned.

Here’s the draft:

Because Ed teaches a “four part symphony” of market, traffic, conversion, product, that’s the basic structure of my bookmarks. Creating folders for each section of the “symphony” is the key to this system.

A lot of these sites are explicitly mentioned in the 30DC training or in the forums; however, there was never a video on how to completely organize Bookmarks to keep up with the vast amount of sites and tools mentioned. None of these link to any affiliate product which I am selling. The aim of this post is simply to help newcomers organize all of the new information within their Firefox browser.

So, let’s start by learning how to create a new folder for our Firefox bookmarks.

HOW TO CREATE A NEW FOLDER:
Click on the word “Bookmarks” on the toolbar at the top of the screen
Click on “Organize Bookmarks”
You’ll see a split screen
Click on “New Folder” at the top of the toolbar.
A box will pop up. This is where you will type in a new name for the folder.

We’re going to name the first folder “Miscellaneous” or “Personal”, actually.

Why?

Because we need a handy place to store all of the fun stuff which is NOT related to the 30DC. It’s too difficult to do research or check traffic stats when those bookmarked sites are mixed in with your photos of Italy, your football fan page, the Pink Thong video, and “Sweep The Leg, Johnny”.

So, back to that box.

After you name the folder, click OK.
The folder will now appear in the left pane of your screen.
Close that window to return to Firefox.

Now we can start adding 30DC bookmarks.We’re going to use the same method of creating a folder.

Click on New Folder again.
We’re going to name it Getting Ideas.

Now, we’re going to bookmark sites that pertain to the Symphony of Edward Dale, The First Movement, the market research stage.

Enter the following website names into the search box on your Firefox toolbar. I don’t think I can list the exact link in the forum due to the rules on outbound links within posts. But these are popular sites; you should see each site near the top of the search listings.

This first site is one of my secrets, and the least straight-forward. Everything else is easy to find.

Type in “About.com”. Scroll to the very bottom. In the right-hand corner, there is a link for Be A Guide. Click that link. You will land on a page with another link for Available Topics in the left column. Click Available Topics.

This is a goldmine.

Not only are you looking at hot, in-demand topics (About.com posts this because they need writers, because there’s a proven demand) If you click on a topic, it will tell you what they (the editors at About.com) think are relevant ideas within that topic! A ready-made list of blog / content holder post ideas! Incredible. For example, under the topic Action Figure Collecting, one of the writing ideas was “insurance for collections”.

Caveat: You are still LOOKING at this stage. These topics may or may not meet the later Gtrends criteria. We are still developing ideas about the market and possible niches.

So, the first site we’re going to bookmark is About.com’s list of available topics.

HOW TO BOOKMARK A SITE:
While you’re on the site, click on Bookmarks on the top of the toolbar
Click Bookmark This Page, or press Ctrl + D
the “Add A Bookmark” pop-up appears
To the right of “Create In”, you’ll see a drop-down arrow (the black arrow)
Click the drop-down arrow.
Click on the folder you created, called “Getting Ideas”
Click OK.

Now, the next time you open your Bookmarks and click the Getting Ideas folder, you can go straight to the secret page for About.com ideas.

What follows is a long list of the websites that I, Kim Fleming (Meridian), use to get ideas for niches.
In following the 30DC method, we’re looking for niche ideas, and not products, at this stage.

In adding the following websites to your Getting Ideas folder within Firefox Bookmarks, use the same process for creating a new folder and bookmarking a site.

Rinse and repeat.

43things.com
Alexa Top 500
Amazon Magazines
AOL Hot Searches
azlist.About.com (different than secret available topics)
BoingBoing (thanks, Ed)
eBay Hot Categories / also add Pulse/ also add Seller Central What’s Hot
Google Groups/ also add Google Catalogs
Live Search ( this is in beta: click More, and click Feeds)
Magazines.com
Meetup Topics
Omgili
SEObook Keyword Tool
Technorati
Thisnext.com/ activity (This blew me away. It’s a world map that shows you what people are buying right this second).
Trendwatching
Yahoo Answers! / also add Yahoo Buzz
viralvideochart.com

The next several posts will outline the sites I have bookmarked for the next stages of the symphony, traffic and conversion. I want to wait until Ed and the gang introduce their ideas for product creation before I mention mine. I don’t want to lead a newcomer down the wrong path.

Thanks for your feedback! I’d like to post this to the 30DC forum by next Monday, as the next round of newcomers start that day. I’ll wait for any comments or changes you might want me to consider. Yes, including the length!

Thanks,
Kim Fleming (Meridian)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 8:16 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.