YAHOO MESSENGER WILL BID GOODBYE THIS YEAR

If you’re still using Yahoo Messenger – Yahoo’s incredibly ancient application, you better start finding an alternative soon, as Yahoo plans to shoot the Messenger, no pun intended, on August 5, 2016. You can now switch to Yahoo’s new version of Messenger which is available as a part of Yahoo Mail’s desktop application, web app and as a smartphone app, or choose any of the more effective alternatives discussed here.

Yahoo Messenger has a rich history behind it. It was launched in 1998 under the name “Yahoo Pager” – which goes to show just how ancient it was – and was a big deal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Messenger was very popular with users in Asia-Pacific in particular. It also had a very strong following among oil traders and other investors, who used the app to exchange news and gossip on commodities prices.

Yahoo Messenger’s traditional supporters have since moved on to bigger and brighter things such as Google Talk, WhatsApp and of course, Facebook; which means there are no longer any takers for Yahoo’s legacy platform any longer.

Yahoo has done its best to revive the ailing Messenger, by updating the Messenger app on both iOS and Android in December, 2015. It also introduced a brand new design for the Messenger, but it doesn’t look like that has helped much.

As Yahoo Chief Architect Amotz Maimon explains, “In December of 2015, we announced a brand new Yahoo Messenger for mobile, the Web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop, built on a new modern platform. This complete revamp brings users an incredibly fast, beautiful and smart way to send – and unsend – messages, photos and animated GIFs in 1:1 and group conversations. While today we provide basic interoperation between the legacy product and the new Messenger, we encourage all of our users to complete their transition to the new Yahoo Messenger as we will no longer support the legacy platform as of August 5, 2016. We intend to continue our focused efforts on the new Messenger, with a goal of delivering the best experience to our users“.

So what of the new Messenger? Switching to the new platform is not as simple as Yahoo imagines it would be. For one, there is no replacement for the desktop tool as yet, although Yahoo promises to come up with a brand new desktop application of the new version of the Messenger for both Windows and Mac soon.

Now, while the login details of the old Messenger do work with the new Yahoo Messenger, there are some obvious problems here – you cannot transfer your contacts from the old Messenger to the new version. Also, the new Messenger logs out automatically after a short period of inactivity and requires you to confirm your password every time you want it back on.

Another issue is that the legacy platform used to store all conversations locally,     while the new Messenger is cloud based, which means it stores all conversations   remotely. This is a problem for the traditional users of Messenger, such as      commodities traders, who require a definitive record of what was said and what    was deleted – for the benefit of compliance officers.

So many of the old users of Yahoo Messenger have moved on – to

Skype, QQ, Slack and ICE Instant Messenger. Reuters and Bloomberg have    useful messaging tools for traders as well. Facebook Messenger and WeChat are  popular as well. LinkedIn has a useful chat application too.

WhatsApp, is the most popular messaging app in the world and it is perhaps the most obvious replacement for the Yahoo Messenger, especially now that it has launched a desktop version of its hugely popular mobile messaging app.

So, even as everyone bids a fond adieu to Yahoo Messenger, newsflash – the world has moved on!

Ref: https://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/145715934739/q2-2016-progress-report-on-our-product

Source: How to hire Best Virtual Assistants in the Philippines

LIFESTYLE GURU/ENTREPRENUER DARVINY TO BE A PART OF “MEDIA AND THE CITY” EVENT, FROM AUG. 13-17, 2016

  [New York City] – Darviny D, a leading lifestyle guru, artist, and a successful businesswoman who has created a popular online lifestyle brand, will be one of the 12 entrepreneurial women from around the world to be a part of the full-immersion branding and developing event “Media and the City”, to be held in New York from August 13 to 17, 2016.

The event will be hosted by Rhonda Swan, a branding expert and co-founder of the Unstoppable Family and Freedom-Preneur Academy and creative media personality Bonnie Bruderer. Media and the City is open only to a limited number of highly successful female business owners and will be held at an exquisite, super-luxurious, Gansavort Hotel Groups property. No effort will be spared to ensure that the guests feel totally at home and are able to network and share ideas in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere.

Swan and Bruderer will be joined by a team of guest experts who will tutor the twelve participants in branding, automation, monetization and media training. As a part of the event, the women, including Darviny, will feature in Brand It, a weekly TV show produced by Pietro Rotondo, a long-time veteran in the TV industry, who currently produces top-rated shows such as Sunday Morning and Morning Show on CBS.

Darviny is a self-proclaimed lifestyle connoisseur. She combines several roles – she is a mother, an artist, a trained actor and a practitioner and teacher of the Kundalini Yoga. She is also a successful business owner - a restaurateur, a boutique owner where she manufactures her own clothing, and an importer of sophisticated French products.

Darviny has trained at the Parsons School of Design in NYC and The International School of Art in Todi, Italy. She hosts her own online lifestyle show on YouTube, “Who's Coming for Dinner? With Darviny D,” through which she promotes a healthy lifestyle, great cooking and good, wholesome food.

Darviny’s great love for cooking and fine food was nurtured while growing up in France. She learned cooking and developed her own ideas of good health and nutrition from her mother, who was a professional nutritionist, long before it became fashionable to be so.

So, is Darviny a coach? No, she insists she is not – she is described best as a lifestyle guru for our times. She isn’t a big believer of the current trend in personal development as advocated by many coaches, but seeks to help people by getting to the heart of the transformation, by helping them focus their energies on enjoying the beauty and simple pleasures of life.

Darviny would like nothing more than for people to reconnect with their special inner power and work with a higher purpose in mind, and to bring themselves into a perfect alignment with the world around them.

 At Media and the City, Darviny, along with the other accomplished women will learn the intricacies of branding a business, such as securing media appearances on radio, podcasts, digital magazines and weekly press releases.

The women will learn the art of promoting brands, expertise and businesses, in a way that is guaranteed to make the greatest impact. Their training at Media and the City will ensure that their media appearances will be well received by one and all.

Media and the City will feature special expert appearances from the likes of Joe Gawalis, an award-winning movie producer, Brian Cook, hairstylist of Wall Street Moguls, CNBC and yoga expert Dana Campbell, well known as the Burnout Expert. Famous celebrity photographer Rob Klein will take pro headshots of all participants, to be used later for branding and marketing.

For more information on Media and City, visit http://freedom-preneur.academy/media-and-the-city/.

Darviny D is a lifestyle guru, restaurateur, artist and entrepreneur. She hosts her own online lifestyle show, “Who's Coming for Dinner? With Darviny D” where she promotes a healthy lifestyle and great cooking and helps people “Step into their creative power and design the life of their dreams”.

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EASY AND EFFECTIVE TIPS TO MAKE YOUR BRAND STAND OUT IN A CROWDED MARKETPLACE

Branding can make or break a business, whether it is a large corporation such as Apple or Coca Cola, a B2B company, or for that matter, a small online store. Developing a branding strategy that gives you a leg up over the competition can make all the difference, especially in a crowded marketplace, where there is little to set you apart from your competition.

It is branding that makes your product or service more than just a commodity. Branding decides whether a business survives or gets cast aside – not developing an effective branding strategy is one of the reasons for new startups to have a failure rate of 80%.

So what is branding and how can your small business develop a brand that works?

A brand is essentially a promise made by a business to its customers. Every business conveys a message through its branding strategy, about the quality and effectiveness of its products and services, and what differentiates its offerings from those of the competition. As a small business, your brand illustrates who are, how you want to be seen and how you are actually seen.

Developing a Brand Strategy that Works

Developing an effective branding strategy is all about deciding how you want to communicate, what you want to convey and to whom you wish to reach out. It is about delivering your message in a way that is guaranteed to influence people to take positive action and turn into paying customers or buyers. Advertising is a part of your branding strategy, as are the distribution channels through which you communicate your message.

Follow the tips given here to make your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace…

Tip #1: You Can’t Be All Things to All People

How do you see your business? Is it a young startup, still making its way, or an established business with a great track record? Do you sell expensive, high quality products? Or are your products cheap, affordable and offer great value for money? The point about branding is you cannot be everything to everyone. You should brand your business based on your target customers, on what they need and expect.

Tip #2: Invest in Search Engine Optimization

Getting your website on top of Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages) can make all the difference to your business. If your website is languishing in the lower reaches of Google, it’s time to hire a reputable SEO company and invest big time in search engine optimization. Develop an effective SEO strategy based on your consultations with the SEO firm.

Tip #3: Use Social Media Marketing to Good Effect

Social media marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to build your brand and grow your business. You must have a presence across all the top social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+. You should make good use of video marketing on YouTube. Develop a social media strategy to gain much better online visibility for your business.

Tip #4: Develop a Logo that Conveys a Great Message About Your Brand

Developing a great logo is arguably the most important part of branding. Your logo conveys a lot of things about your business. Once designed, it should be integrated in all promotional materials, packaging and used extensively on your website.

Tip #5: Invest in Online Reputation Management

It is very important to maintain a clean reputation online. Even if you have hundreds of great reviews, just a couple of bad reviews can cause potential customers to think twice about doing business with you. Hire an online reputation management company to protect your brand online. They usually find ways to get rid of the negative content in a legal and ethical manner.

Conclusion

We have discussed what branding means, why it is so important to develop an effective branding strategy and given a few easy and effective tips to differentiate your brand from the rest of the competition. Ultimately branding is all about making a statement about why you should be taken seriously as a business or a startup. You won’t get too many chances at this, so you better get your branding strategy right the first time.

Source: Virtual Assistants Philippines 

TWO STEPS TO FIX YOUR SCHEDULE TO START UP AN ONLINE BUSINESS

Do you want to start up an online business but you are having a hard time to fit it in your busy schedule?

Many of us go through this. We become overwhelmed and find it difficult to fit everything we need to do in the time frame we have available, it is all too hard!. If you are at that point in your decision making regarding starting your own online business, then make sure you read this article which will provide you a two­ step method that can assist you to maximize your time so you can start and run your online business.

TWO ­STEP PROCESS FOR MAXIMIZING YOUR TIME

• Step One

For you to free up your time, the first thing you must do is know how you spend your time each day. Time is something that we all get equally: 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in an hour and we all spend it the full 24 hours in each day doing something. You must take note of how you use your time. For a couple of days to up to a week, record everything you do and how you use your time.

• Step Two

After keeping a precise record of how you are using your time, you can observe the following points:

1. You get involved in time wasting activities where you are just killing time. Example: watching a replay or rerun of television shows. Something that is not necessary or important to building your business.

2. There are some tasks in your life that you can just entrust to somebody else or outsource.

3. Things that you really must do. These are things that you must accomplish in a time no matter what. For instance: having quality time with your kids and family, or personal down time.

4. Finally, you may be able to do things that allow you to do other things all at the same time! For instance if you are on a train or plane trip, you have the time to do other things rather than just simply sitting waiting to arrive at your destination. These are perfect times to check emails, write articles for blogs, catch up on writing and letters etc.

By following the above suggestions, you may be able to free up a couple of hours from your time scheduled in a day to start up and run an online business. A couple of hours per day would be the minimum time required if you’re really serious about starting up an online business. Wait no more and invest in your future!

Michele and I started a business in a box it is a great way to fast track your success. See the banner on the right of the screen, check it out for yourself.

If time is still a problem for you, rise earlier, go to bed later. Remove things from your daily routine that are not important to achieve the results you desire. If you are struggling to find the time to do everything you need to do to get your business moving forward, then use outsourcing. Click the banner on the screen “Need a VA”. Michele and I use them regularly to  get those things done we do not have time to do and to do the things we are not sure how to do. They are fantastic. Their service is great; they are efficient and get the job done.

Remember – Live Your Life with Purpose