As you can see from the image here, my third book – The Commitment Engine – Making Work Worth It is just about ready to go.

And, I would like to give you a free copy!

A bit more on that in a minute, but first, what’s the book about?

This book is undoubtedly the riskiest thing I’ve ever written, but it contains a message that I think needs to be spread and shared. In this book I share a lot of personal thoughts and feelings about why I do what I do and what I’m passionate about when it comes to work.

I share tons of stories from entrepreneurs that have discovered a higher purpose their business serves and how they found the clarity to build a business that brings them joy as well as success.

I map out a system for building a business that people want to commit to.

I also use words like love and grace in the context of business and talk a great deal about building a culture and community based on these concepts and for some that’s just not that comfortable.

So, while I fully expect there will be those that won’t find this book as relevant as my past offerings, I also fully expect that many will find this book brave, important and thought provoking – and that’s who I wrote this book for.

Have you given up on Google+?

Are you wondering whether it is worth managing yet another social network?

To address some of the benefits and misconceptions of Google+ marketing, I interview Jesse Stay for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Jesse Stay, author of several books including Google+ for Dummies and Google+ Marketing for Dummies.

Jesse shares insights into Google’s strategy and what this means for your business. You’ll learn what’s critical for a successful approach to your Google+ marketing and why Google+ may be essential to your business even if you don’t think so now.

Reducing your home energy use is the best of win-win deals — not only does it reduce your carbon footprint, it also saves you big bucks on your energy bills. That’s especially exciting when you consider that many home energy improvements are fast, easy and inexpensive. Often, the savings from an individual project are small, but when you start putting them together they add up quickly.

RELATED CONTENT

Home Brewing: How to Make Homemade Beer

This home brewing article explains how to make homemade beer. Includes step-by-step instructions, e…

DIY Hot Dog Sticks, DIY Wind Chimes and More

These MOTHER EARTH NEWS easy DIY projects are syndicated features that have appeared in more than 1…

Home Landscaping Tips: Simple Home Improvements That Add Value

If you want to add value to your home, skip the family room addition or the vinyl siding. Try some …

Best Home Energy Improvements

Making your home more energy efficient has many benefits. Not only does it reduce your energy bills…

Get Cash Back for Energy Improvements

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 makes home energy improvements more affordable through tax credits….

My family set a goal of cutting our total energy use, energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions in half, and we were able to meet that goal with the help of these simple home projects. We found these reductions in our energy use easy to accomplish without making any significant lifestyle changes.

Here are the details: We cut our total energy use from 93,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year to 38,000 kWh per year. This is saving us $4,500 per year in energy costs, and has reduced our carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 17 tons! Our rate of return on the money we invested in this program is more than 50 percent — tax free.

Altogether, we took on 22 different projects, including two solar heating efforts that have already appeared in Mother Earth News. (See Build a Simple Solar Heater, December 2006/January 2007, and Solar Heating Plan for Any Home, December 2007/January 2008.) You can find details about all the projects we’ve done at our home in Montana on my Web site. But those I’ll explain in the following pages are the fast, simple ones. These eight easy home improvement projects cost us about $400 and will save us at least $9,000 over the next 10 year

The Top Eight Projects	Initial Cost	Savings per Year	Energy Reduction per Year	CO2 Reduction per Year
Personal Computer Power Management	$20	$178	1,780 kWh	3,560 lbs
Install Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs	$50	$117	1,170 kWh	2,340 lbs
Seal and Insulate Heating Ducts	$20	$75	940 kWh	480 lbs
Reduce Infiltration Losses From House (Seal Leaks)	$50	$156	1,980 kWh	1,010 lbs
Vent Dryer to Inside During Winter	$5	$63	630 kWh	286 lbs
Insulate Windows With Bubble Wrap	$38	$75	960 kWh	490 lbs
Eliminate Phantom Electrical Loads	$70	$57	570 kWh	1,140 lbs
Use an Electric Mattress Pad	$125	$186	2,320 kWh	1,150 lbs
Totals	$378	$907	10,350 kWh	10,456 lbs

In the United States, the average person uses about 40 gallons of water per day to bathe, wash dishes and clean clothes. Unfortunately, this water almost always goes straight down the drain. But this “greywater” could be put to good use to irrigate fruit trees and other plants. Greywater refers to all used household water except water from toilets, which is called “blackwater.” Historically, state laws have dealt with water from your sink, shower or washing machine in exactly the same way as water from the toilet — it’s all considered sewage that requires treatment. Consequently, home systems that use greywater for irrigation are sometimes illegal.

RELATED CONTENT

Independent Newsletters: Bob’s Gardening, Tomatoes and Non-Profit Fundraisers

This short series of reports includes news on MOTHER’s choice for independent newsletters, includin…

Old Basins Never Die

Old Basins Never Die December/January 2000 I recently received an old enamel basin from a fr…

Photovoltaic Systems: All About Grid-Connected PV Systems

A grid-connected PV system is the least expensive and lowest-maintenance option for a home solar el…

BLOW AWAY THAT CLOGGED DRAIN

BLOW AWAY THAT CLOGGED DRAIN December/January 1994 COUNTRY LORE Heavy Artillery The easiest, fastes…

However, in recent years, greywater activists have been working to change this attitude and the state codes that enforce it. Now, with more than half of U.S. states facing water shortages and the momentum shifting as some states change their codes, we think greywater reuse is coming into the mainstream. Many policymakers are beginning to see greywater as a valuable resource that — with a few simple precautions — can be safely reused in home landscapes.

For decades, greywater has been a boon to gardeners in dry climates, but using greywater has many other benefits in all regions. Greywater use lowers your water bill, and diverting greywater from overloaded or failing septic systems can extend their life. Reusing water saves energy: Greywater irrigation replaces water that would otherwise be treated to drinking water quality, and it also isn’t treated at the sewage treatment plant, saving more energy. And perhaps most importantly, more efficient water use reduces pressure on scarce water resources — especially in the drier parts of the country, where farmers, individual households and wildlife all face the problem of limited water supplies.

A Simple Laundry-to-Landscape System

The simplest type of greywater use is to collect water in a dishpan as you handwash dishes, and then toss it over your flowerbeds or fruit trees. This is a wonderfully simple, inexpensive way to tap into greywater, but with just a little more effort and expense, you can capture much more water.

One of the easiest and most popular greywater systems is a landscape-direct system that diverts greywater from your washing machine and routes it to mulch basins around trees or bushes. This “laundry-to-landscape” system captures greywater from the drain hose of the washing machine and sends it out to your plants through 1-inch tubing, without the need to alter existing plumbing. You can expect to harvest 10 to 25 gallons of water per load for a horizontal-axis machine, or about 40 gallons per load for a vertical axis machine.

If you’ve ever considered installing a home solar electric system and generating your electricity with free, renewable energy, now’s a great time to look at your options. In recent years, prices for solar systems have plummeted thanks to increased demand, mass production and intense competition among manufacturers. Generous government financial incentives for solar power have reduced the cost for homeowners even further, making a home solar electric system more affordable than it’s ever been.

RELATED CONTENT

Photovoltaic Systems: All About Grid-Connected PV Systems

A grid-connected PV system is the least expensive and lowest-maintenance option for a home solar el…

The Promise of Thin-film Solar

Are you ready to bring solar power into your home? New and improved thin-film solar panels can help…

THIN-FILM, AMORPHOUS-SILICON PHOTOVOLTAICS

The search for a less expensive solar-generated electricity just might end up focusing upon this so…

Power Struggle: the Public and the Power Line

In the late 1970s residents of upstate Yew York were locked in a power struggle with the Power Auth…

Water Power + Wind Power = Win!

Norwegian energy company StatoilHydro has developed a floating wind turbine, which greatly expands …

Because the source of energy — sunlight — is free, the cost of solar power equates to the cost of your solar electric system spread over the lifetime of the system you buy — easily 30 years or more. As a rule, solar incentives for homeowners reduce the system cost by 30 to 50 percent. Incentives for businesses can lower the cost by 50 to 75 percent! However, even without incentives, the lifetime cost of solar electricity is now frequently cost-competitive with the cost of electricity from your local utility. In some places with relatively high costs for utility electricity unsubsidized solar is already cheaper than utility rates.

When purchasing a solar electric system, most people choose to contact a solar installer, who can help them decide which type of system they need. To find a solar installer, check local listings or use the Find Solar Directory to search for local options within a national directory. Another option is to plan and install your own solar electric system. For more on this approach read Choose DIY to Save Big on Solar Panels For Your Home!. In either case, before you get started you’ll want to learn a few of the basics about how solar electric systems work and what decisions you’ll need to make when choosing a system.

How Solar Power Works

As the name implies, solar electric — or photovoltaic (PV) — systems convert sunlight energy to electricity. This transformation occurs in solar modules, typically referred to as panels. Each module consists of numerous solar cells, which are usually made of silicon. They produce electricity when incoming solar radiation knocks electrons from the silicon atoms out of their orbits around their nuclei. These electrons flow to the surface of the cell where they are drawn off by tiny silver contacts.

In solar electric systems, numerous modules are wired together in series to provide the electricity for our homes. These modules are usually attached to an aluminum rack, which can be mounted onto your roof or a foundation set in the ground next to your house. The modules and the rack system constitute a solar array

Life in Alaska

Thirty below four days before Christmas, and I am trudging through drifted snow along an old snowmachine trail that makes a thin, mostly obscured line across three miles of the frozen lake. A heavy snowfall last week weighed the two-foot-thick ice. Despite the bitter cold, water swelled through cracks and holes in the sinking ice, flooding the layers of insulating snow to lie hidden the drifts.

My father follows me slowly with his snowmachine as I walk the trail to see if the water buried underneath is deep to weaken the trail’s surface.

If the machine falls through the packed snow into the water flooding over the ice, it will freeze instantly in the slush, accumulating ice until it can’t move. By walking ahead, I can watch for this danger, and if the water gets too deep we will go home rather than risk soaking our feet and wrenching our backs trying to extricate the machine in the cold weather.

We don’t want to give up, because my brother will be on the weekly mail plane when it lands oil the tiny airstrip across the lake. He is coming for Christmas, and we are trying to make a safe trail so he can cross the lake to the home in which we grew up.

If the machine can’t get through, I will try with our dog team. The light wooden dog sled glides easily above most of the slush, and the huskies will go through the water, although they don’t like it. My twin sister and partner, Miki, and I usually travel by dog sled instead of snowmachine, but today the dogs are resting. They have pulled our sled more than 650 miles since the fall freeze-up—about 240 miles in the past three weeks—and they have earned their Christmas vacation.

For most of the winter, my sister and I use the dogs to travel along remote trap lines, catching furs, which provide our main income. Usually we set out 60 to 100 miles of trap line, with cabins or tents every 15 or 20 miles, and the dogs make a round trip every week or 10 days. Although slower than snowmachines, the dogs are less likely to break down, are quieter, more versatile, better company, and they do not bog down in overflow.

Now, as my boots sink through the crusted trail into water with a sickening sensation, I wish my dog team was here on the lake instead of the snowmachine. “There’s some bad stuff here, I call out. My father guns the machine, guiding it sately across the soggy slush before stopping so we can trade places.

Ooyala put out their Global Video Index for Q2 2012 recently and Longtail Video dropped some stats about video consumption through their products. I’ve been digging through the data trying to glean some interesting insights and I’ve got a handful for you today, video viewing by country and region so you can optimize your pre/mid/post-roll campaigns.

For Ooyala’s part, they pulled the numbers from their network of publishers. They see over 200 million unique viewers a month in more than 130 countries so their analytics should prove useful. Longtail compiled theirs from JWPlayer installs and Bits on the Run usage. That means that none of these numbers are industry-wide, but when we start compiling them I think we get a clearer picture of where the industry is going and how video is being consumed digitally.

Optimize Online Video Ad Campaign Tip #1: Mobile and Tablet

I’ve already mentioned on several occasions that you should be optimizing your online video publishing schedule to match the target device because there are certain times of day that each (PC, mobile, tablet, TV) are used more than others. Here’s a quick look at some Ooyala info in regards to mobile and tablet which further reinforces the fact that you need to optimize your content for these platforms. This is pretty much just what percentage of video viewing is done in each country on them. It’s amazing to see how much Japan watches on their mobiles and how much the UK watches on tablets.

As you can see, even in the US and Canada, we are using our tablets for video more than we have in the past. Longtail shows that tablet and mobile usage for video is reaching up to 10% on their platform. You can also see that there has been a rapid rise in video viewing in the last year on tablets.

Tablets are clearly growing in video viewing, but if you’re going to optimize for them, you might as well do yourself a favor and optimize for mobiles as well.

Optimize Online Video Ad Campaign Tip #2: Time of Day

Both sets of research also showed that video consumption varies not only by platform but also by time of day. We already had an idea about that as I stated, but these findings reinforce the need to daypart your campaigns or run multiple campaigns at different times of day and on different days of the week.

Ooyala found that, by region, video viewing follows a very similar trend. EMEA and LATAM both watch a bit more later at night while APAC has an early morning spike (most likely commuters).

Longtail went a step further and broke down the usage numbers by device finding that a larger portion of video viewing on tablets was done at night versus other platforms and that desktops rule the daytime hours.

Device usage by time of day. Light blue indicates late night / early morning hours, pink indicates morning hours, yellow is afternoon / early evening, and green is late evening / night.

Ooyala broke theirs down by counties in each region as well, which I think is extremely informational, especially if you’ve got campaigns you’re running outside of the U.S. and need better results.

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

US, CAN, UK

Optimize Online Video Ad Campaign Tip #3: Placement

By placement I am talking about in-stream: pre-, mid- and post-roll. There has been a rise in mid-roll completion rates recently, most likely because more long-form content is being watched. But that isn’t true across all devices as there is a major difference in how much long-form is consumed by device. So as part of your online video advertising campaign optimization you should look at where to do a pre-roll and where you can probably do more mid-roll, or a mixture of both.

According to Ooyala, tablets rank second only to Connected TVs and game consoles though desktop looks to be almost even (66% to 62%) in regards to long-form (10+ minutes). In their research, tablets gained a pretty good chunk in this past quarter. Long-form gained almost 25% on tablets alone and showed more modest gains on other platforms.

The continued trend of more long-form consumption means more in-stream video ad inventory that will need to be filled. It’s probably safe to assume that you can do mid-rolls or a mix of pre- and mid-rolls on desktops, tablets and connected TVs. From the looks of Q2 2012, you might even see some good success with mid-roll ads on mobile, though it’s only 50% of all video consumed on the platform now.

Average video play lengths on tablets are in the 200 second range, 3-4 minutes. Surprisingly, for desktops, it’s closer to 150 and mobiles are around 100. Connected TVs average about 500 seconds per play, about 8 minutes. Clearly, mid-roll is going to be a major portion of inventory on that platform for in-stream ads. But don’t limit yourself to just that, see my recent series of connected TV articles for more.

Optimize Online Video Ad Campaign Tip #4: Day of the Week

These types of research, by themselves, are interesting. But when you start compiling them together, you can start to get a better view of the online video landscape. Turning that into optimization tips seems the next logical step for me. We know that viewers watch different content for differing lengths of time based on device and we know that they do so at different times of the day. Longtail even did it by day of the week (below) for some added insight.

This gives you a bit more information on what day you might want to push more ads. You can see that weekends generally account for just 25% of video viewing on most devices and the rest of the time is pretty much evenly spread across the weekdays. It does seem like viewing slows later in the week, perhaps that’s because people need to get more work done by the weekend or they’re spending more time in the bars.

That’s a Wrap

While the numbers in the research might not match up entirely, it’s to be expected as both Ooyala and Longtail did their research based on their own products. That being said, it’s still valuable information, especially when we look at it in a more combined way like I did here.

For the full stats post from Longtail head to their blog. You can download the full Ooyala Q2 2012 Global Video Index. Neither of them was specifically talking about online video advertising, but I thought their insights could be applied and should be.

Your ability to produce and distribute your own video content easily and inexpensively gives you an incredible opportunity that didn’t exist a decade ago.  What are you doing with that opportunity?

Whether you’re already producing videos to help market your service and your properties or you’re not sure where, when, or how to start, this session about video should give you some helpful information and inspiration.

Delivered by Ethan Beute, the Chief Marketing Officer for BombBomb, the presentation below was recorded at the Xplode Conference at the San Diego / Del Mar Hilton in August 2012.  He starts with his background in local television marketing and promotion and moves into how and why brokers and agents are adding video to their marketing strategies.

From the power of video to connect with your leads, customers, and entire sphere to places your video belongs to cameras people just like you are using every day, you’ll get a good overview of video marketing.

Plus, you’ll see examples of brokers and agents using video to build relationships, earn referrals, and grow their businesses.  Check it out …

 

The FOMC delivered everything I expected – and more. This was a very strong move and I suspect many analysts are underestimating the potential positive impact on the economy.

However, as Fed Chairman said, monetary policy is “not a panacea”. I do think this will help, but this will not solve the unemployment problem.

Here are a few key points:

• Forward guidance is a critical part of Fed policy (see Michael Woodford’s paper presented at Jackson Hole). The FOMC didn’t go as far as targeting nominal GDP, but they took two key steps today: 1) they extended the forward guidance until mid-2015, and 2) the FOMC made it clear that “a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens“. “AFTER the economic recovery strengthens” is key.

• This easing was not based on new economic weakness. From the FOMC statement: “economic activity has continued to expand at a moderate pace in recent months”. This easing was intended to help increase the pace of recovery.

• Another key change was the FOMC tied this easing directly to the labor market: “If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability.”

• I think this will be more effective than most analysts expect. As I noted last weekend, housing is usually a key transmission channel for monetary policy, and now that residential investment has started to recover – and house prices have stabilized, or even started to increase, this channel will probably become more effective.

I also liked that Bernanke addressed three concerns that have been raised about monetary policy. Note: The replay of the press conference is available here.

The first “concern” was that some people are confusing fiscal and monetary policy. Monetary policy is NOT spending (see Bernanke’s comments at 7:00).

The other two are legitimate concerns – that the Fed policies can hurt savers, and that there is a risk of inflation down the road. I agree with Bernanke that a stronger economy will lead to better returns for savers, and that inflation is not an immediate concern.

Rising prices, disappearing bargains and economic troubles at home are quickly thinning the ranks of foreign property buyers. Who, just a few months ago, were being hailed as a major force in Florida markets and other resort destinations.

Foreign nationals spent about $82.5 billion in the 12-month period ending in March 2012-up about 24 percent from the $66 billion they spent the year before-but only 9 percent of all residential real estate sales come from international buyers, according to a report from the National Association of Realtors released six months ago.

However, every month since then with the exception of May, NAR reported foreign nationals have purchased only 2 percent of all homes sold, the same level as in most of 2010 when the foreign buyer boomlet began.

In July, the real estate site Trulia reported a decline in the international share of overall online house hunters in the second quarter. From April 1 to June 30 the share of foreign searches on Trulia fell nearly 10 percent year over year in the second quarter, with the fastest appreciating markets seeing the biggest declines in foreign interest.

“Foreigners attracted to real estate bargains get turned off when prices increase,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist. “Investors want to buy when prices are at their bottom, but they’ll start to lose interest when prices rise 15 percent, as they have in Miami and Phoenix. Demand by people looking to scoop up bargains can dry up quickly when prices rise.”

Six of the 10 metro areas with the highest share of searches from abroad were in Florida — a warm weather state that saw huge price declines during the downturn. Nonetheless, recent price increases in metros like Miami and Cape Coral-Fort Myers mean some of these metros have seen less interest from overseas house hunters in the past year, Trulia said.

However, a new survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors found that number of international buyers in the Sunshine State is on the decline. From June 2011 to June 2012, 19 percent of Florida home sales went to nonresident foreigners, down from 25 percent in the previous 12 month period.

That’s especially bad news for Florida sellers. International buyers paid a median price of $194,700, higher than the Florida median price of $125,100 and U.S. median price of $167,758, and some 82 percent of foreign sales were all cash. The largest share of foreign buyers were Canadian, 31 percent, and gravitated toward the lower-priced homes. Both European and Latin American buyers bought homes in the higher price range, according to a study by the Florida Realtors.