Friday, August 26, 2011

It's Important to Neutralize Your Liabilities

We will be recommending solutions for best neutralizing any liabilities that you possess. As part of our job hunting information system, you will be able to initially review solutions that we have developed and refined over the years for all common liabilities. We will ask you to review these. Once you have done that, we will custom fit those solutions to your personal situation.

Common liabilities

Few professionals devote enough thought to properly handling their liabilities... in their resumes and letters... and in their phone conversations and interviews. We’ve learned from experience that if you don’t anticipate all of your liabilities and develop strategies for neutralizing them, you will lose out on many good opportunities for which you are well qualified.

Unfortunately, many people are not even aware of their liabilities until it’s too late. The good news is that in the course of serving tens of thousands of clients, we have developed proven solutions for largely neutralizing almost any concern you may have, and they are very easy to put into action.

  • Unemployed.
  • Unemployed a while.
  • Age could be a concern.
  • Changed jobs too often.
  • Too specialized.
  • Too generalized.
  • Too long with one firm.
  • Too long in one industry.
  • Lack a degree.
  • Career may have peaked.
  • Lack large firm experience.
  • Firm has done poorly.
  • Jobs are all similar.
  • Lack career progression.
  • History has gaps.
  • Been passed over.
  • References are doubtful.
  • Haven’t been a leader.
  • Been an entrepreneur.
  • Short work history.
  • Need to change careers.
  • Just changed positions.
  • Achievements are minor.
  • Earnings have been low.
  • Need confidentiality.
  • Too high previous earnings.
  • Job titles aren’t impressive.
  • Lack line experience.
  • Need much more income.
  • Achievements not measurable.

For more information be sure to check out SET Personal Marketing's Twitter, follow SET Personal Marketing's Facebook, watch SET Personal Marketing's videos on YouTube or visit SET Personal Marketing's website.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

The 4 Pillars of Mobile Apps



With about 14 bn app downloads from the iPhone app store alone, one thing is obvious - the market for Mobile Apps is here to stay. Gartner estimates the total mobile app downloads since 2008 to reach 185 bn in 2014. It is becoming increasing important for marketeers and product managers to understand the basic things that make a mobile app successful.



Here are the 4 pillars which are crucial to create a successful mobile strategy for any company. I am not explaining any of these in detail since that will take several long posts. The objective of this post is to give you some Food For Thought - what to think about when you decide on your mobile app strategy??



1) User Experience and Design



The small screen real-estate makes this one of the most important thing for a mobile device.

This starts from a high level overview - understanding the main features for your target user, using metaphors for design and creating the main app flow and the side flows - to getting into very specific details like managing user data entry well - should it be a keyboard or keypad or scroll wheel/ picker? When will the app sue swipe v/s flick v/s pinch? What alerts, action sheets, tool bars will be used? Apple HCI Guidelines explain some of these very well. Here are some more details.



2) Application Performance



This is the software that runs the app. Most crashes of app happen due to mismanaged memory. It is important to ensure the iPhone memory is managed properly. What features work when the app is offline? What information needs to be cached - when the app is pulled from the background v/s when a new instance is charged? How important is data security? Do the API calls need to be asynchronous? There are many more such questions which need to be answered to help create a great performing app.





3) Monetization



The decision to make the app free or paid is a difficult one, yet very important to an app's acceptance in the market. With the new trends of Freemium apps, this becomes even more confusing.



Options - Free always!! (with or without ads) OR Freemium with in-app purchase for subscription or lite version OR Freemium with in-app purchase for virtual goods OR Paid



Some things to consider - how do you compare to competition? (If you are far better then you can charge a premium provided you have some marketing budget to get the word out there and to make the app viral). Is the app more for a branding experience and hence needs to be free? Is your user base big enough to make adding ads sensible? (tip: If its not, don't spoil the user experience for a few dollars everyday)



4) Analytics





Last but not the least, this is the feedback loop to track your app success. What are your engagement and retention metrics looking like? How many new users are you adding? How many sessions and what is the session length? How many repeat users do you have? What demographics does your app cater to? How do these metrics compare against those for competition? With companies like Flurry, this process has become less complex than what it seems. Read more on the need for analytics here.



Feel free to post any questions you have on this.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

MIUI Digital Weather Clock 3.1.7 (Android)

MIUI Digital Weather Clock 3.1.7 (Android)

Requirements: for all Android versions

It features:
12/24 hr+Color on all info displayed
System Stats Info + pop-up
Weather & Forecast
2 Forecast layouts(user choice)
+tap bottom right->preferences
+tap bottom left->system information dialog
+tap weather icon->forecast
+tap Hour->launch anything!(more coming)
+tap Minutes->launch anything!

WIDGETS GENERAL
===============
Widgets on Android work a bit differently than a normal application. Unlike regular programs they don't just install themselves in the application tray so you have to add them manually. They will not open or launch.
Here's how to add a widget on your Android home screen.

STEPS HOW TO ADD A WIDGET
==========================
1.On your Android home screen, tap any blank or “empty” area with size 4x2 and hold down your finger.
2.An “Add to Home screen” window will pop up. From that window, tap “Widgets”.
3.You’ll be presented with a list of all the installed Widgets on your Android device.
4.Select the clock to add to your home screen by tapping it.

tTorrent 0.8.1 (Android)

tTorrent 0.8.1 (Android)


Requirements: for all Android versions

Features:
- multiple torrent downloading, queuing
- search for torrents
- file selection in torrent files
- Wifi only mode(You can switch if off, if you like)
- able to limit Upload/Download speed
- web browser integration
- trackerless torrent (DHT) support
- RSS support(automatically download torrents published in feeds)

Recent changes:
Open torrents from the status view.
Fixed transdroid search not found error.
Fixed media scanner, now media files are added properly to media storage.
Fixed force close occured when opening file in the filebrowser.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Uncovering Your Best Industry Options Pt. 3

If you have no knowledge of an industry but have an interest in exploring situations, extra steps are recommended. As mentioned, the easiest way to acquire knowledge of a new industry, and gain credibility for it, is to read trade publications. They will bring you up to date on personnel changes, new products, information on companies, and challenges as seen by industry leaders.

Another way to acquire knowledge is to talk with executives already in the field. In some cases you can go further by getting more formal input, attending trade shows and the like. The most radical approach is to take a lower level job in an industry in order to acquire knowledge.

During the last decade we’ve witnessed declines in many industries. However, don’t overlook opportunities in troubled industries. Executives who have worked for firms under pressure often find they can be valuable to distributors or consulting firms. Those who learned tough lessons in competitive battles can function as veterans in any industry.

As you begin to consider industry options, you’ll also need to decide whether you should take a narrow view. This is essential if there are a lot of growth companies in the industries to which you relate best.

However, if you are part of an industry that is suffering a decline, then you will want to adopt a broad view of your options. The more you understand the dynamics of a market, the more you can spot potential opportunities.

Historically, executives tend to overrate the barriers and to underrate their own abilities to make contributions in new areas. It is, of course, up to you to take the initiative to learn something about new companies, new industries, and the problems and opportunities they face.

As you review potential industries of interest, remember that while glamorous high tech and service businesses receive 90% of the publicity today, many executives will find far more opportunities in industries that are considered low tech or non-glamorous by today’s standards.

For more information be sure to check out SET Personal Marketing's Twitter, follow SET Personal Marketing's Facebook, watch SET Personal Marketing's videos on YouTube or visit SET Personal Marketing's website.