This week I begin the two week process of getting our Poplar Bluff office ready to be open 6 days a week. I’m pretty excited!

I missed out on getting you guys all the “Black Friday” deals, so I wanted to point you to a great”Cyber Monday” deal page.

“Cyber Monday” is the web’s version of “Black Friday”. You can get some amazing online deals if you know where to look.

I found just the site for you, courtesy of my friend Chris Pirillo. Check them out right here. I hope you save a ton!

Thanks to Chris and his staff for compiling the list!

-Dr. Ben

Update- The above list is full of “handpicked deals”. To sift through the deals yourself check out http://www.cybermonday.com

Happy "Cyber Monday"! is a post from: DrBenAdkins.com - Serial Progress Seeker

My secret to getting in so much reading is “RSS”. If you know what RSS is, then this blog is going to bore you to tears. If you have no idea what RSS is, however, this blog could change the way you use the internet.

What is RSS?
“RSS” (Really Simple Syndication) works so that (instead of you visiting 20-30 sites) websites come to you on one page via “Feeds“. “Feeds” are just like syndication on the radio. Instead of you having to drive to New York and listen to a radio show you like, they syndicate (or rebroadcast) the show on a station in your area (Examples: Howard Stern before satellite, Imus,  Rush Limbaugh). Everytime that a new blog gets posted on one of the sites that you subscribe to, it automatically sends the new post to your “RSS” reader.  The Video below is a wonderful beginner’s guide to RSS.

Video: RSS in Plain English

What is an RSS “Reader”?
There are many RSS “readers” out there, but I personally prefer Google Reader. I log into my google acount (that I use for mail and advertising) and it takes me to a page where all the new blog post (for the sites that I am subscribed to) are listed and readable. Instead of having to visit all the different websites/blogs that I enjoy and checking to see if they’ve updated with new content, I log into my RSS reader and it displays all the new content in one place. Pretty Nice!

Once I get my “RSS Reader” set up, How do I subscribe to a site’s feed?
The best way is to look for this icon:
If you see this icon on a page, just click on it and then the site will give you a few options on how to subscribe to the feed. For example, you can look at the top right portion of this website and see the RSS icon. If you click on it, it takes you to this page, where you can subscribe to our feed.

How easy is this to set up?
The hardest part is getting used to how your “reader” of choice works. When I signed up for Google Reader, it took me about 5 minutes to get comfortable with the interface. After that, it pretty much takes me 1-2 clicks to subscribe to any site’s feed.

You can check out what my Google Reader Interface looks like by clicking on the image below.
(Complete with A Sneaky Plug For “Problogger.net”)

Conclusion
I wrote this small tutorial because I wanted to show you something that has completely changed my web browsing habits (for the better!). I literally get double the work done in half the time since I started using RSS Feeds to get my latest news. It almost makes me sick how much time I used to spend surfing the web just to check for updates on my favorite sites. If you have any questions or comments about RSS, just ask.

By the way, If you haven’t signed up for our RSS feed yet, you can do that here.

Have a cool RSS reader or feed tip? Leave our readers a comment below and tell them about it.

Technorati Tags: rss, tutorial, how-to

What is RSS and Why Should I Care? is a post from: DrBenAdkins.com - Serial Progress Seeker

I wanted to shoot you all a few tools that I use that make vacation planning (and my life!) alot easier.

Cost to Drive (www.costtodrive.com)

-If You’re Driving- Cost to Drive is a very useful tool because it gives you a very good rough estimate of how much money you’re going to have to spend on gas for a trip. Half of my problem with budgeting for a trip is that I can never get a good estimate of what my gas cost will be to a place that I’ve never been before. (I also hate doing a lot of complicated math…and this saves me the trouble). I just type in where I’m going, tell “Cost to Drive” what kind of car I have, and it spits out a very good estimate of what the trip will cost me in gas.

There are a few limitations with Cost to Drive. For example, if you drive a car that was made before 1999 (Cost to Drive Just Updated their site and it now covers 10 more years of car info!), you’re out of luck. All in all though, it’s a very good way to get a rough idea of what your gas expenses are going to be

Kayak (www.kayak.com)

-If You’re Flying- I’m going to be completely honest, I had stumbled across Kayak’s page several times before I actually took the time to understand what it really did. Kayak is really good at helping you find the best deal on a flight or hotel by comparing all the major travel sites. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this the hard way by typing in my trip information at all the major travel sites (Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) and then comparing them. Kayak does all the typing for you. You type in your trip info once at Kayak and it goes and gets all the results from the major travel sites for you. Kayak will save you a ton of time when you plan your next trip.

Schmap (www.schmap.com)

-If Your Planning Trip Activities- As you can probably already tell, I am a fan of sites that do the job of 4 other sites. Nothing brings trip planning down quicker then having to jump back and forth between different resources and then put the information together yourself. That’s why I love Schmap’s. If your going somewhere and you want to get a good idea of how you should spend your time when you get there, then Schmap is amazing. You tell Scmap where you want to go, and then it shows you where all the relevant sites of interest are, gives you a history on each, and more information then you could ever ask for. It cuts your “trip research time” in half (at least). (As useful as Schmap is, its a million times more useful if you happen to be carrying an Iphone around with you.)

Trip Stalker (www.tripstalker.com)

-If your looking for Cheap AirFare-There are a ton of services out there that help you find the cheapest airfare. The only problem is that rates change almost daily (and most services only search for the current rates). The key to finding the cheapest price for a particular flight is to check airfares everyday, at least twice a day, for every airline. That’s where Trip Stalker comes in. You type in what you want to pay for a flight and trip stalker will tap the airline databases continuously until the fare meets your criteria. You can set it up to send you a text message or alert via email when your flight gets priced where you want it. It will save you alot of time when your looking for your next flight.

Did I miss a gem? Got another useful travel tool? Send us a comment below!

Dr. Ben

Travel Tools that Make Travel Planning Easy! is a post from: DrBenAdkins.com - Serial Progress Seeker

My Story went viral (although I’m not sure why considering how silly the story was)! It was picking up votes (Diggs) like crazy. After about an hour of insanity, it made the front page. (It was now in front of millions of Digg Users). The Digg Frequency Tripled and it currently sits on the top Five “All Topics” Section.

Even though this post is extremely nerdy, I wanted to share my “Digg Post Journey” in Pictures. (Please note that I think that the story is being blown out of proportion…but it was amazing how many Digger’s got fired up over it)

Without Further Delay: “The Anatomy of Going Viral in Pictures” (Click on Images For Full Size)

When The Story Initially Reached The Front Page

It Shot Up like Crazy After its Debut on Page 1

As it went into the "Big List"

As of This Posting it Was Number 5 on the "Top in All Topics" List

I realize that this isn’t our usual subject matter, but I thought this was a good demonstration of the power of internet advertising. I’ve had some users ask me if advertising on Google is a Good idea…. Google’s Traffic is around 3x the daily traffic of Digg…. In Short… Yes… Google Advertising Works….

I got a kick out of this and I hope you did too. If you see this tonight, you can probably jump over to Digg and see my story still up!

G’Night

Dr. Ben

—UPDATE—

10/8/08 at 9AMCT

It’s getting really interesting now as the story is now number one “in all topics” on Digg. It’s amazing how a silly “slip of the tongue has gotten so much attention.

The Number 1 Story on Digg

—Update—

The story continues to pick up steam… I’m really flabbergasted at the response people are having to this. I’m not a McCain fan by any stretch, but the kind of bad press he’s getting over this is ridiculous. I don’t know if I could take people examing everything I say so closely. Being a presidential candidate is a lot to take on.

The Anatomy of Going Viral is a post from: DrBenAdkins.com - Serial Progress Seeker

If you had to put this blog into a category, it would probably be in “Self Help”.
I think one of the most important things you can do to help improve your situation in life is to participate in our democratic process (U.S. Readers).

With most state’s voter registration deadlines ending soon (some have ended already). I wanted to give you a quick guide to getting registered so you can vote. Even if you haven’t figured out who you’re going to vote for yet, don’t mess yourself up for later!

You can register to vote online here, or you check the deadline for your state below.

-Find Your Polling Place-

You can find your nearest polling place, register to vote online, and get more information for your state voting rules at vote411.org.

If you’re having trouble believing what the candidates have said so far (and we all wonder sometimes), I suggest you jump over to the CNN and check out their Fact Check Page.

Another great fact check site can be found at FactCheck.Org. They also do a wonderful job of sifting through the candidates rhetoric.

If you’ve been following any of the debates, you know how important it
is to check and see if what the candidates said is actually true (there
is alot of untruth going around).

If you still need help figuring out which candidate lines up best with your beliefs, jump over to the USA today Candidate Match Game. (Please note that it only tells you what the candidates say their issues are….what they will actually do will vary).

I also recommend Glassbooth.org. They have another great app for you to figure out which candidate lines up best with your beliefs.

Whatever you do… Go register today! You still have time to figure out who you want to vote for, but not much time to get registered.

Do your country a favor and make your opinion count. We can’t take another election filled with voter apathy.

ELECTION 2008 TOOLS (No Excuses… You Have To Vote!) is a post from: DrBenAdkins.com - Serial Progress Seeker