Hi all

I have just upgraded this site to the latest version of wordpress – version 2.8. Everything appears to be fine, please let me know if you find any funnies.

thanks

Craig

A new public speaking website has just been launched – Speaking Pro Central. They describe themselves as “a community that collects and organizes the best information on the web around the business of speaking.”

Anyway, I was having a look on their site today, and I discovered that I am featured on their website. Just visit the site, and have a look at the featured links on the right.

Go and check the site out – there are some great resources and some fantastic public speaking websites to explore.

Are struggling to find good quality images that you can use in your presentations? If so, you need to watch this 4 1/2 minute long video.

It shows you how to use the photo-sharing website – www.flickr.com to find images that you can commercially use at no cost.

Enjoy

Just a quick apology to anybody trying to visit my main website – www.craigstrachan.com. A setting that has worked fine for many months seems to have suddenly started causing issues a day or so ago.

Anyway, without telling you all the boring details, I have made the repairs, and all is up and running again. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. 

I just came across a great article on Ramon Thomas? website about the power of LinkedIn. He gives a brief overview of social networking and then discusses LinkedIn specifically. There are some great suggestions on how to grow your network, and more importantly, who you should grow your network! Ramon should know ? he has over 1000 connections.

One of the most powerful comments he makes is that most people who get business through connections get it not from a direction connection, but from one of their connections. Eg – a friend of a friend. So, you aquire business through weak, and not strong connections. This means that the bigger you can grow your network, the more you are creating business opportunites for yoursef!

I have been growing my LinkedIn network ? I am up to 134 (from about 110 a week ago), and my goal is to get to 200 by the end of May. So come on over, and let’s link.

Here is a link to my profile.

Just a quick note to let you know that I have completely revamped my website – www.craigstrachan.com. It is easier to navigate, contains free resources & RSS feeds.

Have a look when you have a moment, and let me know what you think!

I have just completed a CD containing over 400 PowerPoint templates. What is special about this CD is that the templates are categorized, and EVERY TEMPLATE has a thumbnail view, making it very easy to browse and find the best template for your job!

You can view a sample, and download 24 free templates here.

I am selling the CD for $15, which is less than 3.75c per template – and to celebrate it’s launch, you can use the following discount code to get a 20% discount – valid until the end of April 2008. Just enter the word PowerCode on the checkout page. Buy now – only $14.99.

To celebrate even further, I am going to give away five copies in a lucky draw – just leave a comment on this post, and I will select five random names. I will contact you for delivery details if you are one of the five (names by April 25 please).

Hi all-

Just a quick update: In an attempt to keep my speaking and IT businesses separate, I have changed my blog site from http://blog.cdssolutions.com to http://www.craigstrachan.com. In theory, if you visit the old URL’s, all should still work fine. I will shortly be making similar changes to the main sites as well.

I have also updated the RSS feed address, so please use http://feeds.feedburner.com/craigstrachan if you view the posts in a RSS reader.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused, but in the long run it should make things a bit simpler. Please give me a shout if you have any problems with the site.

thanks

Craig

I have just found a great list of 100 websites that contain educational MP3’s and podcasts that you can download to you iPod. Some of it is commercial, but most of it is available for free.

Some of the material includes:

• News
• Vocab builders
• Languages
• City Guides
• Educational games
• Science
• Philosophy
• Audiobooks
• Success
• University classes (eg Stanford, MIT, Yale)

So now you have no excuse for not learning on the go.

Enjoy!

(There is also a section on creating your own podcasts, podcasting software etc.)

I had some spare time yesterday, (and I have a sexy new cell phone), so I decided to create a speech timer application for it. So, if you would like a simple, easy to use speech timer for your phone, you are looking in the right place. Please download it and let me know what you think.

It should work on any SmartPhone running the .NET compact framework version 1 or higher (ie: most Windows mobile devices).

Features

• select when the green, yellow and red lights turn on
• small footprint (26k)
• really easy to use

You can use it to time your own speeches, as well as to time your Toastmasters speeches. Remember that speaking to time is one of the most important skills you can learn!

Download here! (there is also a free Windows version)

Enjoy!