IanDavidChapman.com

Set your own YouTube thumbnails when embedding a video

ian david chapman — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:37:51 +0000

If you have your own YouTube channel but don’t have partner status you may have wanted to set your own video thumbnails when you embed a video on your own blog or website. Sometimes the YouTube video image is very blurred or they just pick a really bad image that doesn’t represent the video at all. In order to do this you have to use a little workaround and get your hands dirty by making a few adjustments to the embed code. the first video is just a straight emebed from YouTube using their normal embed code. As you can see the thumbnail looks Ok but what if you wanted to change it to something else or wanted to show more of the image. The next example is using a little bit of custom code so that the video is displayed inside a hidden div tag and when you click on the image the video is revealed and starts to play

The code is pretty simple.

If you want the video to autoplay you need to add the following code to your YouTube Embed code in two places, after value= and src=

;autoplay=1

Here is the autoplay code inside the YouTube Video so you can see exactly where to place it.

value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-4gs5lvH1zE?hl=en_GB&version=3&rel=0;autoplay=1"

src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-4gs5lvH1zE?hl=en_GB&version=3&rel=0;autoplay=1"

To make the video and the thumbnail work well together you need to make them exactly the same size. In this example I am embedding a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio video on my webpage at a size of 800px by 450px. So I created my thumbnail image 800px by 450px and uploaded it to my wordpress media library.

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How to remove photos from your iphone

ian david chapman — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:24:13 +0000

This post will show you how to delete all the photos on your iphone and then put the best ones back onto your camera roll. After spending 7 hours trying to do what should be a most basic task, i.e. take all the photos from my phone, select the best ones and delete the rest, I have vowed my next phone will be on Android. Even though I’ve been in love with apple products for about 5 years when I got more into photography and wanted to start moving my photos around between my laptop, iphone and ipad trouble began. Anyway, this post is for anyone else who is having the same frustrations I had and might just speed up the process for you. I did this on my iphone 4s, running IOS version 5.1.1 I wanted to do this without using itunes or iphoto as I hate pressing that SYNC button. I have accidentally erased the contents on my phone multiple times for me ever to trust it again.

Step 1 – Backup your photos.

The first step I took is to back up all my photos to an external hard drive, I manage all my images using Lightroom 4 and store them on a single external hard drive. The way I did this was to use a piece of software called IExplorer. It allows you to use your Iphone like a USB drive. You can navigate to the folder where your photos are store by following this file path. Root/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/100APPLE Just select all the photos in this folder and copy them to where you want to store your backup.

Step 2 – Delete all the photos on iphone camera roll.

Once you have your backup, you can safely delete all the photos on your iphone. The problem is there is no way to do this from your phone. I discovered a quick way to do this using Finder after searching extensively on the net for a solution. Thanks to tandoantd for this solution

connect your iphone to your mac

open preview

select file > import from iphone

select command + A to select all photos

hit the delete symbol on the bottom

This will take a while to delete all the photos especially if you have a lot, so take a break and come back in 20 minutes. Once all the photos are deleted you are ready to select the best ones and put them back onto your phone.

Step 3 – Select your favourite photos

I did this using Lightroom 4, but you can do this using any photo software. I starred all the ones I liked and then exported the best ones to their own new folder ready to put back on my iphone. I first tried to use the Itunes method of syncing the new photos folder, I thought it had worked but my camera roll was still empty. Iphones store synced photos in Albums and not on the Camera roll where I wanted them. After much searching I found a way to put the photos back on my phone using an iphone app and transferring them via wifi.

Step 4 – Transfer your photos back to Iphone Camera Roll

You need to install an app called drop2roll this allows you to move pictures from your computer back to your iphone camera roll. To use it you will also need to install CyberDuck, a free FTP software. You need to make sure your phone and computers wifi is turned on and they are both on the same network. Here is a short video I found on Youtube explaining how to do this.

Step 5 Decide whether having an Iphone is really worth all the trouble.

After spending so much time doing such a simple task, decide if owning apple hardware is really worth it when they control and restrict the way you use it. I for one will be jumping ship at the next opportunity. I hate to say it but my next phone will probably be made by Samsung and not Apple.

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Time For A Facelift

ian david chapman — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:18:22 +0000

It’s been a long time since I last updated this blog and it’s a bit embarrassing really since this is my personal blog. the last post I actually published here was on May 13th 2010. I had pretty much abandoned this blog in November 2009 when I launched Crowd Conversion, one of the first and best Facebook Marketing training programs. If anyone googled my name this site is where they would end up, It didn’t look pretty since it had mutated into a mass of popups, outdated plugins, toolbars and widgets that I hadn’t had time to stay on top of. I finally decided it was time to give this website a long overdue facelift. Even though I’ve developed hundreds of websites for my own business and my clients over the past 6 years I had a huge inertia to update this one. One of the reasons was I really didn’t know where to start. I decided to be a bit ruthless and clear out everything. I deleted all the plugins and sidebar widgets, updated wordpress and installed a brand new theme. Phew… It feels like I can actually breathe again.

The Traffic Stats Surprised Me

While updating the website I tracked down my google analytics stats which I hadn’t checked them in years. I had a bit of a shock to see how much traffic google was still sending me. Over 38,000 unique visitors in the past year on a website that I had done absolutely nothing with. It seems I did my SEO well all those years before so I can give myself a little pat on the back. Let this be a lesson to anyone who is starting out a new blog.

Make killer content and Google will love you for years to come.

Relevant Content

The problem I now face is a lot of the content that I created is now out of date since it was Facebook related, so when visitors arrive it’s no longer relevant to them. In the future I am going to focus on writing more evergreen content and I might even update some of my highest traffic blog posts.

Next Step Deleting My Outdated Facebook Friends.

The next thing on my list of tasks I’ve avoided, is to clean up my Facebook account. It needs trimming down to a more manageable size and I need to delete contacts who I either don’t know or who I accepted without checking if they are actually in my target market.

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Mobile Friendly Marketing

iandavidchapman — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:02:33 +0000

How To Optimize Your Website And Marketing Process For Mobile Devices

In the presentation below..

You will discover why it’s so vital to cater to mobile web users and why this is going to be even more important in the future.
The five main areas that you need to focus on no matter what type business you are in.
Tools you can use to build a mobile friendly site or optimize your existing one.
The best way to prepare your digital media for mobile consumption.

VIDEO TIMELINE : 00:00 Introduction 00:58 Mobile Web Explosion 02:17 Email Marketing For Mobile 03:40 Mobile Website Simulators 05:01 Your Website 06:12 The Zen of Mobile – Designing Your Mobile Site 08:50 Mobile Website Builders 10:28 Design Consideration 11:17 Mobilizing Your blog 12:30 Your Marketing Process 14:00 Digital Media For Mobile 16:20 QR Codes – Mobile Links 17:28 Action Steps

Downloads

Resources

QR Code Generator

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ If you have enjoyed this video, have any feedback or have any other resources you want to share please leave a comment below. Feel free to share this with your friends too!

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It’s Official – People Who Use Macs Are Richer And More Productive

iandavidchapman — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:26:25 +0000

How Much Time Do You Waste?

Did you ever stop and consider if the computer you are using is affecting your success and business productivity. Most people don’t realize how much time they actually spend at the keyboard and how much time they are wasting because the technology they use isn’t up to the job. When I first got started online my computer was a mid range PC it had a built in web cam and was running windows vista. It cost me around $1000 and I was initially very happy with my purchase.

An Expensive Chunk Of Aluminum?

One thing I did notice was that practically all the successful “Marketing Gurus” I was following used Mac’s and not PC’s. Did they know something that I didn’t? What was so special about those expensive chunks of aluminum? I had originally considered buying a Mac, but at that time they weren’t so popular as they are today and I couldn’t logically justify the price. It seemed like I was only paying for looks and design not for the amount of memory or processing power. I reasoned that all those millionaire marketers just had them to show off. I kept telling myself that my PC was perfectly fine and that when I became successful I would get one too.

A Catch 22 Situation

I didn’t realize that I was caught in a catch 22 situation and that my PC was actually slowing me down and hampering my ability to succeed. I was ignoring the fact that I had to restart my computer around 2 or 3 times a day. This meant waiting for around 15 minutes for it to shutdown and restart. (That’s 45 minutes every day just sitting around doing nothing) or the fact that every few months I would pick up a virus and spend the next 48 hours frantically trying to resolve the issue. (this happened 3 times) Over a whole year I was losing around 34 days because my computer had crashed. It wasn’t until I started to make videos that the frustration increased. Not only did I have a big psychological block to video I also faced a technological one. My first attempt at making a video was extremely painful. I tried using the built in webcam but the quality was too poor. I then went out and purchased a high quality external web cam which seemed to do the Job better but I still had audio issues and software conflicts. It kept crashing all the time. Another $150 wasted I then wanted to edit the video clips but didn’t have the right software. I spent ages researching how to do this and discovered that I would need to spend several hundred dollars on video editing software and then have to learn how to use it. As my frustration built up I realized that it was going to cost me an arm and a leg to do what all these gurus kept telling me was vital to my online success.

Problems Solved…

The penny finally dropped when I was watching Ed Dale show off his latest purchase. He was making a quick video for his subscribers putting his new Macbook pro through its paces. He was using the built in webcam and microphone and what struck me was the quality of the recording that was produced. It was crystal clear as if he was sitting in the room right next to me. No fuzzy video jumping frames or audio that didn’t sync up to his lips and no need to wear headphones to prevent audio feedback. At that moment I decided that I needed to make the switch and to be honest it was probably one of the most profitable decisions I have ever made. I threw caution to the wind and took the plunge investing in a top of the range 15inch Macbook pro.

Mac’s Totally Rock For Making Video

Video editing became really simple and intuitive. Imovie, the built in video editing software met pretty much all of my needs at the time. I could record a powerpoint video in no time and add background music and titles and could also pull in clips from my flip video camera without having to convert them to a new format. The thing I noticed the most was a lot less crashes since software on the Mac seemed to be much more stable. Instead of restarting 3 times a day it was now happening once or twice a week. I also didn’t need any antivirus software or have to perform weekly scans and cleanups as I did on my old PC My skype conversations took on a whole new dimension. I could speak from anywhere in my office as the internal microphone was so sensitive. I was no longer chained to the desk via my headphones and my old desktop microphone. If I was to estimate what percentage my productivity increased it would be around the 30% mark. Imagine what a 30% productivity increase could mean to you.

Is your current technology actually up for the Job?

If you have a PC have you considered making the switch to a Mac If money is the only issue have you calculated how much time and money you might be wasting by still clinging to your PC? Now I know I must sound like an Apple fanboy and to be perfectly honest I am. To be fair you can make good quality video using a PC if you know how to do it. It has excellent programs like camtasia, and sony vegas studio but they all come at a price. Plus you may need an external microphone or professional web cam. (all this adds up)

It’s official – People Who Use Macs Are Richer And More Productive

The thing is, its not just me who thinks that Macs are better than PC’s a recent study carried out by Forrester Research shows that People Who Use Macs Are Richer And More Productive

“Mac users the “heavy hitters” and “heroes” in organizations, and said that they hate windows PCs because they slow them down and look cheap.”

So what’s the best Mac for You?

This really depends on your needs and budget, I have outlined my own recommendations below. A 17 inch Macbook Pro if you want a laptop that can also be used as a desktop – You can easily hook it up to a big monitor. A 13 inch Macbook Air if you want something portable and with a long battery life A 27inch Quadcore Imac – this is for those who will be doing a lot of video editing and want a big screen and lightning speed rendering. An Ipad – I couldn’t live without mine I hope you have enjoyed this article and that it helps some of you make that shift over to the dark side. I can assure you that it will be an important step on your path to online marketing success. I welcome all your comments as I am sure I will have upset some die hard PC lovers out there. DISCLAIMER : The author does not work for apple computers but is a self confessed Mac Addict. He currently owns a 2.8 GhZ Quadcore Mac Pro, 15 Inch Macbook Pro, 13 Inch Mac book Air, 64 Gb Ipad. 32Gb Iphone.

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Adding A Facebook Twitter Share Button To Your Word Press Blog

iandavidchapman — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:55:47 +0000

UPDATE 17th Jan 20-13 : My current favourite sidebar sharing plugin that works well on mobile devices is AA’s Digg Digg Alternative plugin , you can download it here. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/aas-digg-digg-alternative/

Many of the most popular Social Media websites use a sharing widget on the left side of their blog posts. This tutorial will show you a simple wordpress plugin you can use to achieve a similar result

As you scroll down the post the widget stays in place which means its always visible on the page increasing the liklihood of people sharing

The plugin we are going to use is called “Twitter, Facebook Like, Google Plus One Social Share“

To add a wordpress plugin to your website login to your wordpress admin dashboard and select plugins on the left hands side

Click on “Add New”

Enter “Twitter Facebook Social Share”in the search box and install

Install the plugin and activate it

Now under Settings select TF social Share

You can now configure the plugin, select what social media sites you want displayed and where you want it to show up on your blog

You can configure how the left side floating option will be shown

You can also adjust the width and size of the social media buttons to match your blog design

By deafult the share box displays above each blog post

If you want it to show on the left side of the post you need to alter the position setting

You can select where on the screen you want it to display

So now the plugin is activated and showing in the correct place all you now need to do is send some traffic and encourage people to share your content

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How To Use Facebook Insights On Your Website Or Blog

iandavidchapman — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:05:10 +0000

Are you using FB Insights On Your Site ?

Most people trying their luck with online marketing find themselves asking “Why did that happen, what did I post that worked (or didn’t work), how many likes did it generate?” Most people use Facebook Insights to monitor the success of a Fan Page, but. . . Few people know that you can use Facebook Insights on your blog and your website’s landing pages

Stop Guessing And Start Marketing With Precision

Facebook insights will give you almost “psychic insight” into the age range of your sites visitors, male to female ratio, and which country they are from. Facebook Insights will give you the ability to track:

How many people are liking your posts.
The extra exposure that each like gives you on Facebook.
How many people are clicking on the links to your site, that have been shared on Facebook.
Which times of day are getting you the most amount of viral traffic.
Which type of posts your readers are responding to.

Here is your action plan

Step 1: Install Facebook Analytics on your site (video tutorial here) Step 2: Write a new blog post for your subscribers Step 3. Use Facebook Insights to see what is getting you most traction In combination with your Google Analytics this gives you a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal. The only question is now, are you going to take action. . .? To Your Success Ian David Chapman PS: Definitely worth the 5 mins it takes to install - Grab The Instructions To Install FB Insights On Your Website Here

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How To Add Facebook Social Plugins To Your WordPress Blog

ian david chapman — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:23:38 +0000

Facebook Social Plugins

After seeing the latest Social Plugins from Facebook I was testing out a few ways to integrate them on my wordpress blog. As a result of these investigations I would like to share a couple of useful resources to save you the time and effort of hunting this stuff down.

Simple Facebook Connect

This is a great wordpress plugin created by Otto. It basically consists of a Base plugin that configures you blog to interact with Facebook and then has a series of single plugins that you can activate as you need them. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-facebook-connect/

HyperArts

Another really useful resource that I stumbled upon is on HyperArts a blog written by Tim Ware http://www.hyperarts.com/blog/how-to-add-facebook-like-button-social-plugins-to-wordpress-posts/#og-type this is more for coders and people who want to get down and dirty with FBML and hacking up your wordpress theme.

Like Buttons

As you can see if you are reading this post on my blog that I have configured the like button to show up at the top and bottom of every post. This is a great way for people to share your content directly to Facebooks newsfeed.

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Warning : Facebook Fan Page Disabled

ian david chapman — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 06:40:35 +0000

Facebook Change Their Terms Of Use For Fan Pages

If you are the administrator of a Facebo0ok Fan page and you recently got a message like this from Facebook then you are probably a little upset to say the least. Most people who receive this kind of warning have no idea that they have violated any of Facebooks’ terms and conditions and feel somewhat victimized, especially if they have spent a lot of time and effort building up their Facebook community only to have their publishing rights taken away.

Jane Savoie Gets Her Fan Page Disabled

This exact thing happened to Jane Savoie, an Olympic horseback riding champion who had her publishing rights removed by Facebook because they deem her page to “represent generic concepts” I can only assume that they looked at the name of her fan page and decided that it did not clearly represent her business. “Solve Horseback Riding Fears” has become a thriving community of horse owners and people interested in horseback riding and Jane has been the driving force behind this community. I have suggested to Jane that she contact Facebook directly (disabled@facebook.com) to request that they reinstate her publishing rights and that they change the name slightly to reflect that it represents her business more clearly to “Jane Savoie : Solve Horse Back Riding Fears”

Facebook Change Their Terms Of Service

Facebook restricts the publishing rights of Pages that impersonate other entities, represent generic concepts, spam users, or otherwise violate our Terms of Use. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit the Terms applicable to Facebook Pages at http://www.facebook.com/terms_pages.php Facebook Pages Terms : Date of Last Revision: March 26, 2010 1. Pages are special profiles that may only be used to promote a business or other commercial, political, or charitable organization or endeavor (including non-profit organizations, political campaigns, bands, and celebrities). 2. You may only administer a Facebook Page if you are an authorized representative of the subject of the Page. 3. Pages can only post content and information under the “everyone” setting. 4. When you publish content or information to your Page we have no obligation to distribute your content or information to users. 5. If you use a Fan Box widget off of our site to promote your Page, others will be able to copy and place the widget elsewhere. 6. You may not place a Fan Box widget in an advertisement. 7. If you collect user information on your Page, Section 9 of this Statement also applies to you. 8. If you display advertising on your Page, Section 11 of this Statement also applies to you. 9. You may not establish terms beyond those set forth in this Statement to govern the posting of content by users on a Page you administer, except you may disclose they types of content you will remove from your Page and grounds for which you may ban a user from accessing the Page. 10. You will restrict access to your Page in order to comply with all applicable laws. For example, if your Page includes content not suitable for minors, you will use your Page to block minors from accessing your Page.

Why Did Facebook Make These Changes

The reason Facebook made these changes is to stop people using Fan pages to spam the news feed of their Fans. A recent trend has emerged due to the immense power of Facebook fan pages to host what would normally be considered a Group on a Facebook fan page, and while most of these pages are harmless a small minority are used by professional marketers and spammers to hijack the Facebook newsfeed and inundate people with offers and promotional stuff. Since Facebook are sworn to protect the user experience they have modified their terms and conditions so they can shut these pages down or at least take away the power from the administrators. Unfortunatly a few legitimate businesses and Fan Pages will get punished under these new rules, Jane Savoie is obviously one of them

Be Careful What You Name Your Fan Page

If you set up a new Facebook Page you need to be very careful how you name your Fan page to make it clear to Facebook that you are a business. While you should ensure that your fan page name clearly states benefits you will provide to your fans and includes your main keywords (preferably at the beginning) you need to clearly state that you are a business or you will fall into the catch all category of representing “Genric concepts”

Solve Horseback Riding Fears

Jane started her fan page back in October of 2009 and it has rapidly grown to over 10,000 members. Its probably one of the most engaged niche communities that I have seen on Facebook and it will be a terrible blow to the community if Jane is not quickly reinstated with full control of her fan page again.

Help Jane Get Her Fan Page Back

If you want to help Jane get her fan page back you can send an email to facebook at disabled@facebook.com asking them to reinstate her publishing rights. This is especially important if you are also a Fan of her fan page. If enough people express their concerns Facbook will change their minds and make an exception. You can also help by leaving a comment, pressing the share button or tweeting about this post to your followers on Twitter. [facebook_ilike]

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How To Block Facebook Applications From Posting On Your Wall

ian david chapman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:01:10 +0000

Since the recent changes in Facebooks privacy settings they have inadvertently removed your ability to control how applications can post to your wall. If you have a lot of friends on Facebook then I suspect that your wall is probably starting to look like mine and getting overloaded with spam. There is a solution but it means manually blocking each offending application. This quick tutorial will show you how to get your wall back to the way it used to be so you can actually see things that are more relevant

Is Your Facebook Wall Becoming Cluttered With Spammy Apps?

You Have To Block Each Facebook Application Individually

Click on the link that takes you to the Facebook Application that made the post on your wall

You Need To Go To The Applications Profile Page

When you are asked to allow access to the Application DO NOT click on the “Allow” button. Instead click on the hyperlink for the actual application. This will now take you to the applications main profile page

You Can Now Block The Facebook Application

Click Again On The “Block” Button To Confirm Your Choice

When you block the Application it will no longer be able to post on your Facebook wall. You now have to repeat this process for all the offending applications. Once this is done you will soon see that the amount of spam on your wall is greatly reduced.

Another Way To Block Applications

Another way to prevent applications from sending you invites it to block the application and to also ignore all further invitations from the person who sent them to you. To do this you need to go to your Requests found on the top right of your Facebook homepage

Go To Your Facebook Home Page

Select the “home” link when you are logged into Facebook. This should take you to your main Facebook home page. Your requests are located on the right hand side of the page

Select “Other Requests”

When you select “Other Requests” you can scroll down to the very bottom to see any unwanted application invites that you have received

You Can Now Block This Application

Select “Okay”

Just Click on the “Okay” button and the application will no longer be able to send you invitations or post to your wall

You Can Also Ignore All Invites From This Friend

If a particular person is sending you a lot of invitations for Facebook applications and you don’t want to remove them as a friend you can just choose to “Ignore All Invites From This Friend” the person will not know you have blocked them.

Privacy Settings

I hope that in the future Facebook will give a simpler one click option for managing how Applications can interact with your profile instead of having to do it in this more tedious way. I spent a while trying to discover if there was an easier way. I hope this blog post will helped to improve your overall Facebook experience so you can focus on what your real friends are actually doing.

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