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Here is a quick list of little software, goodies and apps I use daily and love them:

1. Tasque – A Task Manager - Compatible to Remember the Milk Service. Light Weight, and very easy to add new tasks using Keyboard.. No need to ever use Mouse :)

2. GColor2 – Desktop Color Picker – Lightweight utility to get HTML and RGB color from anywhere on your screen. Great from Web Designers to get color ideas.

3. Take ScreenShot - Ubuntu Built-in Utility to take screenshot of whole window, or selected area. I use it almost every day to take shots and send to clients to make my point. You can find it in under Applications > Accessories > Take Screenshot

4. Artha – An Offline English Dictionary & ThesaurusWow I love this little friend, it has what every conventional dictionary tool misses i.e. If you enter wrong spelling, just like Google, it will give you options saying: Did You Mean :)

5. Blobby Volly Game – A cute little game to kill time when you need to :) I really love this little fascinating game. Best when played by two players.

6. CheckGMail – A little app like Gmail Notifier, keeps you updated about your Gmail emails, good for quick overview of what is coming in there :) Just search in “Application Software Center” in Ubunut for CheckGMAIL and click Install. Set it to be loaded on Start-up to run every moment to monitor your inbox.

7. VLC Media Player - My all time favorite one and only one Media player for all media needs. If you stick to this player for a week. You are going to love it for life :)

Other applications include FireFox the great, Skype, Chrome, Open Office, GIMP and FileZilla.

Best Regards,

Mohsin

Hi,

I remember listening Bob, Founder of Godaddy, say this, “Anyone can sell domains or hosting, it is the customer support where you can WIN the hearts and make them your repeat business. Make them free source of viral word-of-mouth advertising for your biz.”

Just this week a company won my heart and did what was way beyond you can expect from a software company of their caliber.

Their product is also great you all know: Market Samurai!
Now It is not about the product but about their business customer support.

I have been using their software on trail, and trail was expiring soon. I wanted to buy the full version but…. Sorry only Paypal accepted …(and no paypal in my country!!!)

It was really a big problem i wanted to solve, as i really wanted to keep the software for my business, and second i do not wanted to buy this later on high price..

I contacted them for alternative payment options, they said sorry for now we are working on other options.. but here we extend your trail to the date until that payment option is available! WOW they did it without even me asking them!

Now i am using their software for free until they have other means of payment to accept.

Not a big thing, companies do this! right?

But here is BIG thing, i got greedy and sent them another email saying THANK YOU! and told them my concern that when that payment option will be available i will not be able to take advantage of their discounter promotion (reduced price) ….

They said no problem.. we lock the current discounted price for your email.. so onward whenever you will us , you pay the current low price!!! is not it sweet?
They made my day!
(Even just my younger brother has screwed one of my website auction by reducing the reserve to $1, without him knowing what he was doing :( but Email from Market Samurai
guys made me happy even i was angry with my brother’s negligence…

So Friends I wanted to share this with you that following Bob’s, Godaddy’s Founder, advice, remember customer support is very very important for your business growth, make great things happen for your customers to make them RAVE fans of your business.

Oh if you outsource your customer support, remember to teach these lessons to your support guy… do not let him be ever rude to your customers, who have PAID you their hard earned money.

Best Regards,
Mohsin Rasool

Bobby McFerrin hacks your brain with music! Very interesting video!

How many times it has happened that we were doing something on our computer and time just ran out. We had to quit, no problem we resume it soon. And then time passes… We login to our pc back next day and we have forgot the most important thing we were almost 92.74% done!

If there would be some reminder who can remind us just the moment we are at computer just browsing and having leisure time. One thing is to have Coach always remind you of your goals and actions.

But I use this little trick and it works, a startup file in my pc, a simple Notepad file. Well I have a simple notepad file in my pc, listing little todo I am working on. And I have dragged the short-cut to this file in Startup folder of my PC.

Now everytime I login to my PC, this file opens up automatically and I know exactly what needs to be done. Yeah often time i find myself skipping it but it really keep coming up and finally things in that file are taken care and new things are added.

Today just i logged in to my pc, and this file just jumped in saying: Write Blog post! So here i am writing with the tip I am using quite effectively.

Ok what is the take away for you? You can create a simple Notepad or text file in your pc or mac, and make it open on Start-up. And keep adding stuff in it you want to get done and onward it is self reminding system. Everytime you login to your pc first thing you will see is this file asking you to finish up at least one item in this list of todos.

How to setup a file to open in Start-Up you can google for insturctions for the operating system you are using in your computer. For most common operating system it is as following:

1. First of all create Notepad file say Today.txt

2. Now create a Short-cut for this, by right clicking on it and click Send to > Desktop (create short-cut)

3. Now you will have new shortcut link at your desktop to this newly created file. You can drag or copy/paste this icon to Startup folder of your computer so Windows always opens up this file when your computer starts.

Where is startup folder in your computer?

Well in XP it is here:

C:Documents and Settings%USERNAME%Start MenuProgramsStartup

Just replace %USERNAME% with your user name on your pc.

For Vista it is here:

Click the “Start” button, Click “All Programs” then right click the “Startup” folder. And click OPEN

For Window 7 it is here:

same as above for VISTA.

let me know if this works for you or not?

Regards,

Mohsin

You remember compassion, empathy, friendship? Watch this video! And let me know how you feel? Post in the below form.

It is very bad to be an entrepreneur and also try to prove the world how genius I am by presenting complex solutions!

Man it has happened to me and  often i find myself in this trap. I see a simple problem in the market, and when I try to solve this, wow I have got the simple solution…but my damn genius mind will not accept that so simple solution.

My genius mind wants me to bring something which makes people wonder, which is so complex and difficult that no one in the world can do that.

That is great if I am going to run for Nobel prize..but for simple business I observe that simple solutions always win, Simple is HOT! Simple and Easy is what is called Miracle!

I tried to come with a graph, a grid to help focus our energies, for me and my team and i came up with four cases as shown in the following image:

simple-vs-complex

Now you see there are four different cases for problem and solutions with respect to simplicity and complexity:

1. Simple – Simple Scenario:

Simple Problem and Simple Solution. Wow I think it is where the money is. When i observe my big money makers so far, it is always the case..but problem is we kill the idea as simple-simple case scenario fool us and says who is gonna buy this, people will laugh that how simple it is, and i will look like a stupid guy with so simple solution/product. Lol our genius mind always wanted to add some extra crap/steps to add the complexity to the solution to show how genius we were to discover this combination.

2. Complex – Simple Scenario:

Complex Problem and Simple Solution. Awesome, one thing to focus on long term, this is where you earn respect and fortune both in one basket. Long term but good to have in the mission statement. I think it is not where cash flow is, if you need money to run the following three months, better you focus on CASE:1 Simple-Simple!

When you have money to fund your time and energies come to this quadrant and amaze the world, bring something which brings WOW, FUN and Happiness to the world. Yeah you push the button and problem is gone because solution is so simple.

3. Simple – Complex Scenario:

Simple Problem and Complex Solution. Wow this is what genius minds always come up with. A pure genius mind trap. How irrational i sometime become, that I often find myself in this scenario, there is simple problem, and damned i have got a genius solution which takes 20 days training , 12 hours to operate and 27 steps to follow to kill that little bug :)

Forget this, fire this, whenever technology changes, i find many people who do not want to learn new technology fall in this trap, they do not want to show the people new simple solution but wanted to tie up them into their big-dinosaur solution. Sure way to go out of business in coming years.

4. Complex-Complex Scenario:

Complex Problem and Complex Solution Well that is interesting case. Many time I have thought this a good option to consider, but then one thing dawned on me , that come on, we can take this case to case 2, if we spend more energy and bring more creativity to the table, we can take this complex problem to Case:2 where we have SIMPLE solution to this complex problem instead of complex one.

Again I have crossed this one too from my goals list. I think for a short life like us humans we have much to do on first two cases / quadrants. Specially for the entrepreneurs as I said in the start of this post, let’s stop fooling ourselves and forget about complex products and solutions.

Let’s bring more simplicity to our customers’ lives and I am sure they are going to give us more money to bring more simplicity. Let’s declare to ourselves that we do not have to prove anything to anyone that how genius we are!

We just want to add value to our customers’ lives by solving their simple and complex problems and bringing SIMPLE solutions to them. This is the only thing which will justify our title of Entrepreneurship. What you say my friend? Let me know your thoughts in the following section of comments.

Best Regards,

Mohsin Rasool

Facebook allowed on June,2009 to change the profile url from default format, difficult to remember url to easy to remember personalized profile addresses.

There are still new facebook users who have not changed their url and claimed their personalized profile url (vanity url).

When you start your facebook account your profile address would be something like this:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=109XXXXXXXX

You can get it personalized and get something personalize like mine new url is:

http://www.facebook.com/MohsinRasoolDotCom

i.e. You get facebook+username (you pick the username)

http://www.facebook.com/YourChosenName

This will help your friends remember the address of your facebook page(profile), and also it will help you rank your facebook profile account high in Google and other Search engines for your name and chosen keywords.

How to pick your personalized profile address:

Very simple, simply follow this url: and rest is easy to follow!

http://www.facebook.com/username

Have Digital Life at Facebook!

Mohsin Rasool

Yes, I was talking with my friend, and we concluded this:

“You know if you can manage your Energy….you cannot stop yourself
doing Great Things…”

How do i know this? Can I verify that above statement is true and practical?

Yes, I can say it is 100% correct. As just this week I have been following a routine which generates huge personal energy in my body and after that I have been able to complete many unfinished to-dos which were taking months to finish them.

Here is another observation my friend observed:

see i used to work and be productive
WITHOUT caring about health, energy, sleeping,  etc.
so i just thought i could continue like this..
but i think my body has had enough.. i’ve
abused my system so much.. i’m surprised
it’s still working..
so i totally agree that it all has to work
in harmony..

Now this is my closest friend and I know he is extremely successful in his online business ventures but just recently he observed that he is not having great feelings sometime and sometime he feels down for no obvious reason. I know the same situation have been with me for last four years. I have my share of success but sometime I just feel very depressed and down.

How we tackle this situation, we discussed and thought and shared our ideas and so far we have come to this conclusion which I have written on first few lines, let me repeat it here:

“You know if you can manage your Energy….you cannot stop yourself
doing Great Things…”

Question is how we manage our energy? Personal energy so we get unstoppable drive to do great things!

There are few things if you can take care of them you can achieve the goal we are trying to accomplish, like:

  • You take highly concentrated sleep (Only possible in the dark NIGHT :-) so no night shift workings!
  • You take care of your food, there are two important thingswhen we talk about food:
    • First you take healthy diet and second you take food often and on time, no skipping!
  • Then after awesome sleep, you try to get up early in the morning and do some sort of exercise, no I am not talking about GYM workouts in the early morning, you can do that in afternoon if you like. It should be light exercise , best exercise you can do is: Jogging, Simple Walk, or what Great Gary Halbert (late) calls: Road Work . He advised this to his son, Bond, that do nothing in the morning unless you complete your Road Work. Read his great series of Letters he wrote to his son while he was in federal prison: Boron Letters Series : First Letter
  • Do not work continuous four or eight hours in a row, take short breaks and work in 45 minutes time blocks. I know it is impossible to work that much in single sitting, but unfortunately we Internet Marketers can sit in front of computer long hours without accomplishing much and only abusing our natural body system.
  • Try to work on ONE thing at a time and nothing else. If for that ONE thing internet is not necessary, i suggest you disable your Internet and work on that ONE task at hand. I recently have been doing this and wow, i completed my Fit4 Report which was a work in progress since a month. But applying this tip i got it done and it is already sent for review to my great Mentor before I release to the marketplace.

If you are successful applying above tips, you will have enough energy and brain juices to get most of your todo stuff done. You will get the outrageous results from your actions as now you are unstoppable with the kind of energy your body have.

For my morning exercise routine, I have been lucky to find a YOGA class in near public park with plenty of greenery and like mind peoples and great coach. If you can find something like this you will feel the great difference in your daily life after attending that Yoga exercise class. (BTW it is also great to see sunrise while doing Kings Like exercises there :-)

UPDATE- 28-Jan-2010 I shared the same on my favorite forum, Warrior Forum, with my forum buddies..and they had few things to add, so I am going to quote them below, hope you like it:

exercising every day really helps me clear my brain out for some reason.
-Daniel Brock

Then Igor suggests this:

Eat fruit for breakfast. They are filled
with fluids and charge you up for the
whole day.

The first meal sets the tone for
the rest of the day. If you start the
day off a bad meal-then you’re setting
the whole day to be as bad.
-Igor Kheifets

Paul contributed to this thread with following great insights:

I have found out that exercising is REALLY important. I have kept
track of my productivity over the last few months, and on the days
when I got at least 30-60 minutes of exercise I found that I had so
much more energy to do things and it also helps to put you in a more
positive frame of mind.

Another thing to note is to have a fairly light mid-day (2nd meal)
that is not heavy on carbs. If you eat something heavy then, you go
through this carb-induced haze afterwards that makes it a little hard
to really focus on things. If you end up feeling tired in the
afternoon, it does not hurt at all to either meditate or take a short
nap to refresh yourself. You’ll be amazed at how much more productive
the rest of your day will be by doing that!

“Solid sleep and exercise are definitely prerequisites, and meditation
is the icing on the cake that really supercharges your focus and
productivity.”

-Paul Chow – Warrior ID: paulie888

Allurre gives awesome tips to Internet Business Owners to save their body from upcoming crash in IM Lab:

1. You will definitely need adequate sleep.
2. Exercise – get out your house; don’t be holed up in your so called lab. It’s killing you.
3. Stay positive – be enthusiastic with your online business. If you’re mentally frustrated, that alone will disrupt your energy flow.
4. Have a healthy dietary regime.
5. Make sure you still have your social life.
-Allurre

Peter sums it up nicely for all Internet Marketers:

Regular exercise, drinking lots of water, and eating good food
everyday is crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle IMO.
-Peter

Source: Warrior Forum, Energy Managing Thread by Me

Just today I received my Credit Card statement and maybe this have been the first time I misplaced my one check which was supposed to be in the drop box. So only partial payment got through but the finance charge (interest) payable is just unimaginable. No problem will be cleared this month but this made me think HARD!

Ok here are figures, solve this puzzle what rate they applied. Outstanding balance for the month of November was:  PKR 46,843 , I have paid PKR 42,000 on due date and check of remaining payment was never dropped (forgot!) so outstanding balance was about PKR 4000 , and today i received this statement with almost PKR 2000 as finance charges. Wow only for one month it is about 50% for the payment. Which mean annually it would be 50*12= 600% for the year!

LOL impossible! I called their call center and they dropped a BOMB on my head and I got to realize how great this credit card banking business is!

He shared with me few things which were completely NEWS to me:

1. When you do not make FULL payment , every cent, it is called partial payment, and it does not matter you may 10% or 90%. Finance charges is calculated to FULL payment, not the outstanding balance! So while i was thinking they will calculate charges on outstanding balance PKR 2000, at the same time the banker was calculating the interest on the full payment of the month.

2. Also interest rate is calculated on each transaction daily, from the date of transaction to the date when the whole balance for that month will be paid. So it gets really worse.

Now after knowing these above two facts I came to realize how many close dear friends of mine got into Credit Card debt hell. It was the smart banker! But i do not blame only the banker, as we should take full responsibility of our acts. As we have signed and agreed T&C with the banker and we are using his money for the full month without any charges(if paid on time.)

If i knew the above facts before the due date, I would have made sure to make the full payment. I thought as we have paid almost 90% of the outstanding , very nominal charges would be due to us. But this is totally different world. I am posting this on my blog to make this the part of the record so you and I can be careful for the next credit card payment.

Here is list of seven (07) best tools which are free to use and I cannot run business without these tools which I use everyday:

ff

1- Firefox Browser 

I know you may already use it, this is great browser made for Internet Marketers. I put this on #1 for its great plugins. Most of the Time I use Following Plugins: 

  • SearchStatus SEO Plugin- Great plugin for SEO guys. Shows all stats you need about any website you are browsing right now.
  • DownloaderVideo – Using this you can download your favorite videos to your computer.
  • ScrapBook – Save any website page to your computer for offline use, with everything intact.
  • FireBug – Great plugin for website developers. It is just the awesome plugin.

2- VLC Media Playervlc-free-player

Play every format of MP3, MP4, DVD format. VLC Player can play any audio, video, or DVD without asking for another CODEC to install.

This media player is Lightweight, Fast and Great when it comes to play any media on your computer. I just hate it is Cap like ICON ;-)

3- Free Download Manager – FDM 

Sometime we have many files to download to our computer. Thing is it is hard to manage and download all small files one by one. It is just boring and time consuming. So I use this tool. You can put every file to be downloaded in it and it simply keep downloading every file one by one.

I suggest you download LITE version as it is light-weight and faster and does the job.

4- CC Cleaner – SpeedUp Your PC cc-cleaner

This is little tool i install at every computer I use, it does help me tune-up the PC, Windows, Vista garbage. I suggest you get this tool and cleanup your computer and see the difference in speed.

It also help you manage which program run on start-up so your computer loads fast.

5- Foxit Reader – Lightweight PDF Reader 

I have used Adobe PDF Reader for years but just few months ago I came across this PDF Readers and I love it. This lightweight and very fast when it comes to open new PDF files and read them.

I simply love it. And suggest you get it to save your time when it comes to handle and view PDF Files.

6- OpenOffice – Create Free PDF open-office

This is simply the free alternative to Microsoft Office. But best thing I like about it is that you can simply create PDF files from Word Docs.

You just click on FILE MENU, and click SAVE AS PDF..and You have your document in PDF format.

7- Live Writer – Free from Microsoft

I am using this right now to write this post. This is one of the ONLY best FREE product from Microsoft. You set your wordpress blogs account in it and you never have to login again to your wordpress blog.

This is just the ONLY best desktop blogging tool this time and I love it. It has many great features, and also easy to use as the interface is just like any other MS product, so if you have ever used MS Office, you will find it easy to use.

Hope you find at least one program in this list which you like and use!

Best Regards,

Mohsin Rasool