FredMcKinnon.Com

Hello Everyone – welcome to “FreePlay Friday”.

Today, I want to talk about technology, specifically, Twitter, and more specifically, a third part service called TweetLater.Com. I have three primary twitter accounts at the moment that I manage:

@fmckinnon:  personal tweets about me, life, family, church, music, leadership, worship, and a lot of @reply to friends and dialog

@theworshipcomm:  co-managed by Russ Hutto, this is the twitter account for TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  It’s mostly automated with announcements on new threads, replies, discussions, and articles at TheWorshipCommunity.Com, but we also post quick news, updates, etc.  Russ has made it more fun by engaging directly with our followers with daily Q&A, polls, etc.

@ebusinessonline:  a brand new account that will be the hub for a new forums-based/articles site I’m creating on e-business and e-commerce.  I’m looking for a bunch of people who are interested in e-business and e-commerce to help launch these forums with relevant discussion.  (I also need someone who can make a great design of the vbulletin skin, and who is gratis or VERY CHEAP).  See http://www.e-businessonline.com

As I said, I’ve been using a service called TweetLater.Com.  It’s been very effective for me in how it allows me to:
1.  manage multiple accounts in one screen (with their premium service)
2.  schedule tweets to post while I’m away (during the night, etc)
3.  automate followeres (auto-follow, auto-unfollow, etc)
4.  manage scheduled or automated DM’s (direct messages – I don’t recommend that one!)
5.  Keyword Tracking

Keyboard Tracking is perhaps the biggest deal for me.  I have TweetLater.Com setup to send me an email digest several times of day with any tweets using words like “worship pastor, worship leader, worship team, worship confessional”, etc.  It’s helped me to find and network with followers who share my passion.

TweetLater.Com has both a free service and a professional service.  For a limited time, the professional service is $19.97/month (no contract).  I hope you’ll check out this service.

In the interest of integrity and transparency, I want to let you know that these links are affiliate links, and should you signup, I get paid.  Yeah!  Hey, that’s the entrepreneur in me.  However, it’s just as important for me to say that I’m not just posting a spam affiliate post .. I believe in the product, and use it!

So go check it out – try the freebie version first, and if the professional version is right for you, then go for it!

Hey Gang,

I’m veering off-course here, and departing for a moment on the normal “worship, leadership” content.  Yeah, I typically save this stuff for “FreePlay Friday” posts, but when I believe in something, I like to shout it loud and clear.  When I don’t believe in something, I am known to share that, too.  (biting my tongue regarding comment plugins)

A while back I was turned onto this nifty Mac program called “Text Expander” from the great folks at SmileOnMyMac.Com.  You can download and use it for FREE … and it reminds you every now and then that you should consider buying the license.

Text Expander allows you to save text “snippets” and recall them with a simple keystroke or a combination of keys to activate the expander.  It saves you time in typing … lots of time.  I’ve been using it a couple of months now, and tonight when I reminded me that I’d saved over 10 solid hours of typing (nearly 300,000 characters), I decided to be a good guy and pay the $29.95 license fee.  I actually bought the double-license pack – one for my Mac Pro, and one for my Lappie.

So, this is how I cheat.  Now my blog comment signatures probably don’t seem so sincere (haha).

Example:
When I type “url” (without the quotes) and hit the spacebar I get:  http://www.fredmckinnon.com

When I type “fred@” (without the quotes) and  hit the spacebar, I get:  (my email address, I don’t want to type it here for spam mining)

When I type “sig” (without the quotes) and hit spacebar, I get:
For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon
www.fredmckinnon.com
www.theworshipcommunity.com

(recognize that sig, haha?)

I use it in my e-biz, too – when I need to forward an order, the distributors typically want certain information, so for example when I send to this distributor, I type:  “es*” and it becomes:

Customer #9012xxxxxx
PO#
PO Date:

Ship Complete:  Yes
Signature Required:  No

Shipping Method:  F02 (Ground)

Ship to:

SKU:
Qty:
Description:

Thanks, Team!
HPP Enterprises, Customer #9012xxxxx

How ’bout this one – sometimes when a product sells out on Amazon before I have a chance to remove it, and it goes on backorder.  I create a new message to customer, and simply type “oos” and it expands to:

Thanks for your purchase from HPP Enterprises.  Unfortunately this item sold out just prior to your purchase.  We have a network of several distributors and have searched to see if this is available elsewhere with no success.  We’ve entered your order on backorder with our distributor so that as soon as these arrive your order will be dropshipped directly to you.  Because of this, your order may not ship before the expected ship date given by Amazon.  Most backorders ship between a few days to 1-2 weeks.We do not charge until we confirm shipment, so you are welcome to keep this on backorder while you attempt to find the item in stock elsewhere.  Should you desire to cancel, simply reply and let us know.We do want to explain that we update our inventory throughout the day, but even with hourly updates, the inventory QTY  can quickly during this buying season.  Once we remove an item, it can still take several hours for that update to be processed by Amazon.We appreciate your gracious understanding.  Feel free to followup with us at any time for ETA, cancelation, or other questions.  Just reply to this email, or contact support and be sure to include your Amazon Order ID.Sincerely,HPP Enterprises

Pretty cool, huh!?
Every Mac user should try it!

Hey Gang,

Happy Saturday (or whenever you get this).  I need your input …

I’m making some changes to one of my e-stores over at GetSkinsNow.Com.  My buddy Joel is re-designing it, so don’t worry – it will look cool design-wise, as opposed to how it looks now), and then Chris will take Joel’s graphic design and implement it as code.

It’s the shopping category structure where I need your help.

I want to revise the category structure to make it easier to browse and find exactly what you need.  My idea is that instead of having very “general” catgories like I have now (ie. iPod, Sansa, Zune, and other MP3), I would have something more specific, such as “Choose By Device”.

If I go that direction, I need to know what you, as a customer, would rather see.

General Device Description, with Sub-Categories for Specific Devices:

Example:

Choose Your Device:
- Apple Ipods
— 4th Gen iPod Nano
— 3rd Gen iPod Nano

- Apple Laptops
— 15″ Inch
——- 15″ Aluminum Unibody
——- 15″ Core Duo/Core 2 Duo

etc.

Or …. would you prefer to NOT have all those subcategories, and have all devices just listed under “Choose Your Device”

Example:

Choose Your Device:
- Apple iPod Nano 4th Gen
- Apple iPod Nano 3rd Gen

etc.

My initial thoughts are that without the various sub-categories, the “choose your device” list could get VERY LONG.

So, what’s your thoughts – as a consumer.  Or, is there a better idea?

This mapping process is critical, and it’s a real pain to re-do it, so I really need some good feedback before committing to a plan.

Thanks!
Fred

(this FreePlay Friday banner was submitted by Jon Morris – if you’d like to make a FreePlay Friday Banner, send it to me and I’ll feature it here with a link to your blog!)

Hey Everybody,

Welcome to “FreePlay Friday” – where I take the day off posting on worship leadership and just ramble about anything random – life, family, politics, business, sports … and ask you to do the same!

My E-Biz and 4th Quarter Holiday Shopping:

For those who have followed my blog for any length of time you know that in addition to my role as a Full Time Worship Director for my church, I also own an e-business of sorts . I’ve always been active online, from creating sites like HighestPraise.Com and TheWorshipCommunity.Com to running a full-blown web hosting firm (which has since been aquired by a hosting company in Tulsa, OK) and several e-commerce shopping sites.  As we enter into the busy 4th quarter (holiday shopping) I’m making a shameless, selfish plug to keep me in mind as you are ordering online for your friends, kids, and loved ones.  As my co-workers at the church often say, “if you can buy it online, Fred probably sells it”.

If you’d like to get the newsletter (blog) or twitter updates when we have a special, check out these resources.  (BTW, I’ve got about 3 boxes of returns and open-box specials I’m about to blow out below wholesale cost!)

HPP Enterprises Blog Newsletter
HPP Enterprises Twitter (Tweeting Deals)

To give you an idea of the diversity, here’s a small sampling of some of the orders our e-biz has fulfilled this week:

• Speck See Thru Hard Shell Case for 17″ MacBook Pro (Aqua) from Ebay
• Speck ToughSkin Case for 3rd Gen iPod Nano from Amazon.Com
• LEGO BATMAN, the VideoGame for Nintendo Wii from Ebay
• LEGO BATMAN, the VideoGame for Nintendo DS
• LEGO BATMAN, the VideoGame for PS2
• DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Phone System from HPPEnterprises.Com
• SLAPPA Ballistix Aura Shoulder Bag from Amazon.Com
• Canon WaterProof Case for PowerShot SD870 from Amazon
• SeeThru Hard Shell Case for Motorola 9QC from GetSkinsNow.Com
• UltraLinx Clamps, Ground Bars, and POTS Splitters from HPPEnterprises.Com
• Myst Masterpiece Edition from DiscountKidsGames.Com
• Lego Rock Raiders from DiscountKidsGames.Com
• Speck 13″ SeeThru Hard Shell Case for 13″ MacBook (Pro) from GetSkinsNow.Com
• UNIEA U-Suit Leather MacBook Pro Cases from GetSkinsNow.Com
• Garmin NUVI 360 GPS from HPPEnterprises.Com and Amazon.Com
• BebeSounds Angelcare Movement Sensor and Sound Monitor for Babies (HPPEnterprises.Com)

As you can see, it’s an incredibly diverse group of products that we have from multiple distributors.  Check out (and support) our e-biz when you’re shopping.  Feel free to IM or email me if you don’t find something you need.

Our Listings on Ebay
Our Listings on Amazon.Com
HPPEnterprises.Com (electronics, telephony, accessories)
GetSkinsNow.Com (Apple laptop, ipod, cell phone, electronic cases, gadgets and accessories)
DiscountKidsGames.Com (computer software and video games and accessories)

In closing, (and if you read this far, you really must be a friend!) … I realize this isn’t the fun, happy, cut-up FreePlay Friday post … but every now and then I like to share what’s going on in the e-biz, and ask that you consider at least checking our pricing and availability when you’re shopping.

How about you – this is how the McKinnon’s earn extra income … most people need it these days.  Do you have something “extra” you do to supplement your income?

Go for it … got nothing to say about this?  Just share your own, random FreePlay Friday thoughts!

Hey Everybody

Pardon the off-topic interruption … but wanted to let you know about a great opportunity for you to do two things:

1.  Find some great deals
2.  Be a blessing to me (and my family) at the same time.

As must of you know who’ve read my blog any amount of time, I operate an e-biz called “HPP Enterprises” which sells products (mostly electronics, electronic accessories, iPod, iPhone, Apple MacBook, computer software, games, etc) on multiple storefronts, including GetSkinsNow.Com (cases and accessories), HPPEnterprises.com (electronics, components), DiscountKidsGames.Com (games, software), and on 3rd party sites like Amazon, Ebay, and Pricegrabber.

Yesterday I decided to create a “twitter” account for the e-biz which will be used to send out updates of special deals and sales.  For example, we have cool cases for the 3rd Gen iPod nano for less than $10 (both leather cases and toughskin or clear plastic cases).  We also got a great deal on 7″ Audiovox Portable DVD Players for $89.00!

If you’d like to be notified about deals like this, follow the twitter feed and/or the blog feed for HPP Enterprises.

Some of the products are shipped from my office on St. Simons, but many are dropshipped directly to you from the manufacturer or distributor, which is how we can have really low prices (and how I can have this business to supplement our ministry income).

So … I’d like to ask all of my friends … if you’re in the market for electronics, computer games, video games, or any type of electronic accessories (cases, chargers, etc), keep me in mind.  You can always surf the sites, or even contact me directly … maybe you’ll get a special COUPON CODE for a discount if you blog about the purchase!

As for the content here on the blog that counts most … thanks for allowing me the opportunity to pitch this commercial … more worship leading tips, worship confessional, and ministry/leadership info soon to come.

Thanks, gang!
Fred