Alaa Hassan

The Most Passionate eCommerce Coach & Advisor

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LIFE TIP: A Simple Thing I do When I Miss My Friends

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What to do when you miss your friends

Most of us currently use social media throughout the day to stay in touch with our friends (or just spy on them).  We comment on their posts, LIKE their images, POKE (until that feature was removed) or chat with them.  We might do this probably to 20% of our friends list.

Actions within our relationship are now mostly based on quantity VS quality.  

The fact that you liked 20 photos on your friend’s profile or that you commented 3 times this week on her status or texted him 5 times this week – it doesn’t mean that you have a valuable friendship.  It simply means that both you of are spending a lot of time on social media.

Honestly…..look deep inside and you will notice that you really miss your friends.

Here’s what you should do (and what I started doing): CALL THEM & SIMPLY SAY Hello!

It will take you literally 1 minute…but because of how it will make both of you feel,  you will end up talking to each other longer.

Happy Monday!

Favorite Tool: The Fastest Way to Read Blogs

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Fastest Way to Read Blogs

Nowadays, many of us consume information through multiple channels such as:

  • TV (a lot less than before)
  • Newspaper (a lot less than before)
  • Radio (mainly when stuck in traffic)
  • Magazines (a lot less than before, when stuck at the airport or reading old ones at the salon)
  • Books (physical & mainly digital)
  • and the famous Internet (which is used most of the time)

We consume this information using multiple types of devices:

  • Smartphones (web surfing & apps)
  • Tablets (web surfing & apps)
  • Desktop Computers (web surfing, apps & software & when smartphone/tablet out of reach)

The Internet alone offers a wide range of tools to consume information such as:

  • Blogs (millions)
  • Podcasts (thousands)
  • News websites & Wiki sites
  • Videos
  • Audio Streaming
  • Audio Books

As you can you can see, there are many many ways of consuming information which can certainly cause many headaches for the average consumer.

How do you stay on top of the latest posts from your favorite blogs without wasting time & being overloaded?

Start using Feedly.com – A Free tool which offers you a better way to organize, read and share the content of your favorite sites. 

I love it because:

  1. Easy to use & setup
  2. It’s free
  3. Has its own App
  4. Lots of neat features for improved reading

Try it! Visit Feedly.com

DISCUSSION: Are we more productive on Weekends…

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Are we productive on Saturdays

Who doesn’t like having the weekend off?

But for some reason, I feel that I am sometimes a little more productive on Saturdays! Not sure why exactly, but it  may be the fact that the regular routine is abolished and having some sort of flexibility allows our brain to be at ease when working on the weekend.

One thing for sure, I get less interrupted when I am working on days where not all my staff is present.  It allows me to brainstorm, re-evaluate current processes and just think!

Let’s just say…….I love dreaming while at work on Saturdays!  Innovation is best accomplished when relaxed!

How to Become Anti-Social and Succeed

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How to become anti-social

I’m sure you asked yourself, how can you possibly succeed in life while being anti-social?  In my opinion, you simply can’t.

Recently, I listened to a podcast by Michael Hyatt, Top 10 Productivity Hacks, where he speaks about interesting ways of becoming more productive.  One of those ways was to eliminate online distractions.  For me, ignoring all those distractions is a big challenge considering that most of what I do requires me to be online and on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest etc….

But at the same time, I noticed that I’m always checking up on my emails, reading the latest industry headlines on websites such as Mashable.com & Techcrunch and by the end of the day, I notice I’ve opened over 25 different tabs within my browser and got distracted multiple times with notifications.

So I followed Michael Hyatt’s recommendation of purchasing a program called Anti-social which allows me to block all social media, email or any specific site for a set time (ex: for 3 hours).

The best feature within this application is that it keeps you honest and it can’t be turned off! That’s exactly what I want.  Now, whenever I need to get something done without worrying about interruptions, I launch Anti-Social.
It’s affordable and easy to setup.  You should give it a try.  I’m not in any way associated with them, just an honest recommendation 🙂

Visit http://anti-social.cc

How to Read One Book a Week

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How to Read one book a week

 

Last weekend, I read an inspiring post on Medium by Julien Smith – CEO of Breather.com –  about How to Read a Book a Week.

I decided to try it myself this week with an amazing book written by my good friend John Lawson called Kick Ass Social Commerce for E-preneurs.

In his post, Julien shares the following tips in order for anyone to read a book in a week:

One Day at a Time

Average book is around 250-300 pages, so read around 40 pages a day.

Make It a Routine and Stack It

Making into a habit and sticking to it is crucial.  Don’t put it off.

Use Every Moment

Take advantage of every free minute you get (on the bus, metro, on break etc)

It’s Ok To Cheat

Sometimes you can cheat by reading a short book simply to catchup on your goal

Never Fall Behind

A great trick is to stay ahead of schedule by reading a little more.

LIFE TIP: Share Your Knowledge with Others

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Share your Knowledge with Others

A couple of months ago, I was invited to speak at Internet Retailer Focus – Design & Mobile in Orlando, Florida to share my experience in implementing a Responsive Design on my website iNetVideo.com.  What I love most about speaking t is the whole idea of being trusted and given the opportunity to share valuable knowledge with attendees. I mean, think about it, you are about to HELP hundreds, if not thousands of people improve their businesses within 30 minutes of listening to you!  Talk about being able to make a difference in this world. My journey into helping other online business owners started with simple one-on-one interactions, face-to-face, by email, by phone or social media. I noticed that every time I spoke to someone, I felt really good about it.  I wanted more and that’s when I decided to speak at events.

Seriously… what are you waiting for?

During my 12+ years of online experience, I’ve met many individuals that simply don’t want to share anything.  BUT WHY?? I understand that some of us are not allowed to disclose company information, but there’s nothing wrong with sharing some of the things you’ve learned or experience with the tools you’ve used.  Everyone is looking to either make some extra $$$ or save some and you might have some tips to help them do that.

Stop being selfish and share this valuable knowledge