Trev

I make stories.

Chromebook Guide for 2018

What are Chromebooks?

Okay, maybe you’re wondering why there is all this discussion about a technology device called a Chromebook that looks like your typical laptop.

A Chromebook is certainly similar to a laptop, but it primarily runs on the cloud.

What this means is most of your work is accessible through an Internet connection, unless you have anything saved to offline file storage.

All Chromebooks today have local flash storage, ranging in sizes, from 16 gigabytes up to 256 gigabytes. As a result, these machines turn on in seconds, open applications quickly and transfer files without a hiccup.

We all know that our tablets, computers and smartphones have operating systems, and Chromebooks are quite similar in this respect – they run a lightweight system called Chrome OS.

Chrome OS automatically updates itself on restart, doesn’t receive viruses, is built off of an open-source system called Linux, and runs Google Apps and anything you can find from the Chrome Web Store.

There’s this company you may have heard of called Google. They built Chrome OS with the original intention of serving the education market back in 2011. As of 2016, they own 58% of that market in the USA. Most recently Google has been targeting households for personal computing.

Is a Chromebook the right device for you?

I run this entire website with an entry-level Chromebook, and I’ve yet to wish for anything more. If you’re a student, this is a great low-cost alternative to today’s laptops. If you’re running Google and you’re in business, this can absolutely serve your needs. There are even more powerful Chromebooks that can handle photo and video editing now.

If you appreciate modern technology, it may serve you well to take a Chromebook for a spin. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Top 10 Chromebooks of 2018
(Ranked and updated October 5, 2018)

Here is an updated list with purchase links of the best Chromebooks for 2018. Each product’s ranking is based on three main criteria: design, performance, and value. From budget-friendly to high-end, education to business, there is a Chromebook option available for every type of consumer:

Here are the summary reviews of my top three Chromebook selections:

3. Google Pixelbook
2017’s Google Pixelbook brings best-in-class design and performance to the Chromebook category, albeit at a much higher price point than some would prefer. With Google Assistant, hybrid 2-in-1 hinge and pen input, this is a device tailored for professional users who want the best and latest Chromebook features.

2. Samsung Chromebook Plus
Samsung has been a long-time Chromebook producer, and they continue to make well-designed devices. The Samsung Chromebook Plus is no exception, with built-in pen, 2400 x 1600 display and hexa-core processor, all at a reasonable price point. Skip the more expensive Pro sibling in favor of a device that does everything well without breaking the bank.

1. Asus Chromebook Flip C302
If you’re in the market for a Chromebook that checks all the boxes, from lightweight design and Intel performance, to excellent price and battery life, the Asus Chromebook Flip is the laptop-killer to go for. You will not regret the decision to purchase this hybrid 2-in-1.

8 reasons to consider Chromebooks over other devices

Price. Instead of spending significant money on an iPad, you can pick up a Chromebook for a fraction of the cost.

Productivity. Other devices can be life distractions. Grab a computer with full-size keyboard and get work done.

Business. Start your venture the right way with a device that doesn’t cause headaches for your business. From a training and management perspective, the Chromebook is a dream machine. You will cut down on IT support for technology as Chromebooks are simple to set up. They are also less likely to have operating system failures or viruses as Chrome OS is an incredibly lightweight, bloat-free system.

Kidproof. Some Chromebooks have rubberized edges and spill-proof keyboards to protect your child from damaging it. This makes them great for classrooms and education.

Games. If you’d like to install games via the Chrome Web Store, touchscreen Chromebooks work well here.

Google Apps. It’s easy to switch to a Chromebook if all of your files are in the cloud. As a replacement device, it doesn’t get any easier than a Chromebook.

Offline. This year Google has made great strides to ensure Chromebooks work well without the Internet. Most Google Apps now work offline, and upgrades to local file storage allow for users to save and open files when there isn’t an Internet connection.

Education. Students and teachers will appreciate a simple-to-use device. With apps like Google Classroom, keeping track of students is a breeze.

7 More Reasons Chromebooks beat laptops

Battery life
Speed
Ease of use
IT management
Cloud computing
Android Apps
Chrome OS

My Chromebook obsession story

I quit my job and needed a laptop – fast. I had three weeks before I would lose the company laptop. Thing is, I had my personal files on there too. Then I had my business files while managing my new eCommerce business (my replacement to the 9-to-5 job) as well. I depended on this device because I didn’t have a computer at home to transfer everything over.

What was I going to do?

With a day of work left, I went with the most expensive machine available at the time – the Macbook Pro. I was familiar with Apple’s computers from my marketing job and decided I didn’t want to skimp on features, bells and whistles.

After one week I returned it to the retail store. I couldn’t fathom owning a device that was more than $2,500. Plus the battery life was subpar and keyword downright frustrating.

Now I had no computer to do work on. I needed to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm my computing needs.

After some serious thinking, I decided I needed an incredible hybrid laptop / tablet without breaking the bank. My plan was to go into future business meetings with this device.

I chose Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4.

…for two weeks.

Once again I was left unsatisfied with the experience of using this computer.

Now I REALLY needed a computing device. I remember assisting my now-previous employer with the implementation of these new computers called Chromebooks. The CEO was saying that they had only cost $250 each. I was quite impressed with these machines at the time, but thought they wouldn’t be powerful enough for my workload.

As an experiment, I thought I’d give them a try for my business. I went and picked up the Acer R 13 Chromebook and haven’t looked back since.

I am a business professional who defied the naysayers by running an entire business in the cloud.

In fact, I’ve done branding and design work for clients, all through my Chromebook. I even worked in a tech startup using this device exclusively.

Since I’ve purchased my Chromebook and reduced my screen usage on other devices (no TV and no email on my phone), I’ve noticed several benefits. I only focus on what matters. I live in the browser and install anything I need in the browser.

Top 11 Chromebook Books

I wished there was more education on using a Chromebook and Chrome OS for teachers and business owners. Chromebooks have been relatively fresh on the market, but I’ve still managed to find 11 books to help you learn everything about Chrome:

Happy learning!

Top 41 Chrome Web Store Apps of 2018

I rank the top Chrome Web Apps available for Chrome OS (excluding Google apps, must be four stars or higher):

Top 6 Chromebook video editing tools

One of the challenges to a Chromebook can be processing power, especially if you own an older model. Today’s Chromebooks are seeing performance improvements to handle your video editing needs. In this article we list the top 6 video editors you can use on Chrome OS:

Learning resources

In this section we share the top ways you can learn how to use Chromebooks and Chrome OS today. These resources are entirely free to help you become a master with Chrome. If you are a teacher, programmer, personal user or business professional, these links can help you on your journey with Chrome OS.

Google Training Center: Chromebook Training

What better way to learn about Chrome than with Google’s Training Center? If you are in the education space, this is a great program to learn how to use Chromebooks for the classroom, as well as managing your devices among students.

Learning Chrome OS – Lynda.com

With a free trial to Lynda.com, you can learn how to use the Chrome OS platform for your business, education or personal needs. Instructor Doug Winnie is a pro at teaching others programming and technology and is a great teacher in this course.

Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts

Understand how to handle tasks more efficiently with Google’s keyboard shortcut resource. Learn these keyboard shortcuts and become a pro at using Chrome and the web browser.

eLearning2

This site has incredible educational resources for Chromebook users. From beginner to advanced user, eLearning2 is a great resource to bookmark as a reference while you implement Chromebooks in your classroom.

TrainingCourseOnline.net

This website has fantastic tips with screenshots to help you use Chrome OS effectively.

That’s it for my Chromebook post! Hopefully you’ve gained some valuable information about the devices and their benefits. If you are considering a Chromebook, I hope you will find one that fits your needs.

To help you further, I have posted several YouTube videos related to Chromebooks here.

Chromebook Guide for 2018 Read More »

My 12 Business Failures

I have failed often in business. Much too often. 12 total failures in my life by the age of 29. You could say I never learn. To top it all off, I even quit two secure marketing jobs just to work on these business dreams.

Each business I started was about something different. I had a wild idea, a spark of imagination, and I was good at acting on it in the heat of the moment.

Here is my list of business failures and what I learned from each one:

Textbook reselling

At age 20, I decided to start selling textbooks while attending university. I would find international copies of a textbook from Thailand or India, and I would bring them in at $40-60 a pop.

Textbooks at the retail level were expensive, with some selling above $200. I thought this was outrageous to pay, on top of astronomical tuition fees.

I would sell books at $80-100, helping students save their hard-earned money. Compared to the university bookstore, my textbooks were unbeatable in price.

The only difference with the international versions of the textbooks were the covers. You would have softcover books from Thailand, while the university’s books would be hardcover. Most students would want to lighten their backpack load with a softcover book anyway.

I stopped selling textbooks after a year of doing the business. I decided it was odd to be carrying books to campus and selling them right across from the higher-priced bookstore.

I was profitable for the entire time I ran the business. This fueled my entrepreneurial spirit, realizing that success is attainable with the right attitude.

This led to my next project.

Eye research nonprofit

Due to my history with eyesight, I wanted to start a nonprofit and help scientists cure eye diseases. I managed to raise a few thousand dollars in funding from friends and family.

After two years, I decided my heart wasn’t in the project. I shut the website down for good. Anytime I decide to donate going forward, I will do so privately.

Clothing brand

For my next venture, I sold t-shirts, hats and accessories. Every design was created by me, with a portion of profits donated to mental health initiatives across the world. Carss Clothing Co. was born.

Starting a clothing brand online takes less than a day now. WooCommerce is my platform of choice. It’s free to start, and you have a great selection of custom website themes to choose from.

I paired my WooCommerce site with a platform called Printful. They handle all of the printing and shipping of my designs, on-demand.

Although the clothing fabrics were high-quality and made in the USA, I couldn’t get past Printful’s slow shipping times and no-refund policy. For any clothing brand looking to seriously grow long-term, it may make sense to find an alternative supplier overseas. You will have more control on your shipping times, materials quality and manufacturing processes.

I shut the clothing business down before committing to any overseas investment.

Freelancing

It was time to start earning some real money with freelancing. I hopped on Upwork to look for clients that I could do marketing for. I made over $10,000 in my first few months! It helped that I had a specialization in marketing.

If you would like to succeed on Upwork, watch this video about profile optimization.

When freelancing, my advice is to go high. Find clients who will pay you more per hour. The marketing effort to find one client is the same, whether you are charging $5/hour or $100/hour. Go high. With all of the low-cost freelancers out there, it’s best not to race to the bottom.

I liked freelancing, but from a passive income standpoint, I would still be trading all of my time for money. I wanted to figure out how I could make real money while sleeping, which led to my next project.

eBooks

I love creating stories. It was time for me to unleash my inner creativity by writing and illustrating a variety of books and publishing them on Amazon. I have over a dozen books on there now, and plenty more on my website.

Here are a few of my books on Amazon.

Amazon has so much worldwide traffic that I thought it would be a cinch to get noticed there. I was wrong. Even after publishing your books, you need to market the heck out of them to get any exposure. In the end, I decided to stop my marketing efforts, feeling like a better solution should be created.

My solution was Fuzzery.

Fuzzery

I created a marketplace to help children’s authors sell their books. The authors would get 80% of every sale, which is 10-50% better than Amazon’s royalty rates. This worked out well for authors, because they could publish their books in any format (not like the restricted formatting on Amazon).

What I learned is that Amazon’s publishing platform is quite appealing to many authors. With the sheer traffic heading to that website, I found it challenging to build a scalable infrastructure that could beat it. From a niche, small-player perspective, Fuzzery certainly had potential in the children’s book arena. What I really preferred was selling my own books, rather than spending all of my marketing effort promoting others.

Then something interesting happened.

Coaching

From my blog articles, a startup founder reached out to me to ask for advice. The founder was interested in paying me hourly to help grow her business! I decided to get into coaching entrepreneurs.

I have so much to learn still. I decided that I would not be suited to give advice just yet. This coaching practice never really took off due to my sheer lack of self-confidence. Someday things might change.

Affiliate marketing

I started an Amazon Associates account many years back to become an affiliate marketer and promote books that I had read and reviewed.

After only a week of trying, I decided to stop this venture. I made $0.55 and felt like a snake-oil salesman. It didn’t feel genuine to be recommending books that I was opposed to. Now I only recommend products that I use, whether I get affiliate income or not.

Chromebook review site

Along the lines of my affiliate marketing business, I started a Chromebook review site to share my passion for computers. Most people might not know what Chromebooks are because they are such a niche product, typically reserved for the education industry.

I did videos on YouTube and top 10 lists on a blog. Then I ran out of things to talk about. The Chromebook website never really gained traction, so I decided to shut it down. I wish these computers were more popular, then there might be better business opportunities to talk about them.

Facebook group

I started a Facebook group to educate entrepreneurs on success, motivation and passion. I managed to recruit over 1,100 members in the span of 45 days.

Here is an article on my growth strategy for Facebook Groups.

My vision was to promote courses and marketing books with this community, but I ended up giving away everything for free to help as many people as possible. I couldn’t sustain this approach. I stopped growing the community.

YouTube channel

Growing a YouTube business is downright difficult, but so much fun if you’re into video creation. I started to film tutorials and vlogs, with links to business courses that I had created.

I never really saw traction or interest in what I was putting out, and decided it wasn’t right for me at the time. Maybe when I become more relaxed and confident with entertaining others, I could revisit this business.

Podcast

Lastly, I tried out podcasting. It is so easy to start a podcast, I’m surprised more people don’t do it. All I used was my Chromebook and red microphone, and I was off to the races!

I had the idea of talking about marketing, business and life on this podcast, but quickly noticed that most people do it for fun. I also ran out of things to talk about after over 200 recordings.

Now

Today, I’m still experimenting to see what clicks with me. I love building things, and who knows what my next venture will be.

For those of you who are worried about failure: don’t be. Failure is learning, and I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from all of my mistakes thus far.

If you have a business idea in mind, I would encourage you to give it a try. Later on, you might regret not taking action. The right time is now.

My 12 Business Failures Read More »

How I Reached 150K Views in 7 Days with Quora Questions

I have always been fascinated about our world. For one week, I decided to start asking questions on Quora to find answers.

After just seven days of curiosity, I reached over 150,000 views for my questions! With tremendous results, I thought I would share my experience here.

I am fascinated by the traffic numbers from this platform, as I have only added 200 questions throughout the week.

If anything came to mind, whether it was hypothetical questions or marketing-related questions, I would hop on Quora and ask away.

Quora is a powerful platform because questions show up at the top of Google Search. This is incredible exposure for anyone looking to drive awareness for their personal brand.

With 150,000 views, I attribute the popularity of my questions to a number of scenarios.

Right after asking a question, I would request an answer from 25 people who are knowledgeable in that topic. Quora gives a list of recommended users to ask after you add your question.

I wouldn’t stop there. The next day, I would ask another 25 people.

Quora sets a maximum number of answer requests to 25 per day, per question. That helps drive traffic to the question each day.

As more people follow and answer the question, Quora will typically rank the question higher in their search algorithms.

All of my questions were unique and original. They tapped into different industries, allowing me to access a fresh pool of people every time. I would add a mix of current questions related to 2018 and “evergreen” questions – content that would be relevant for years to come.

If someone left a thoughtful answer to my question, I would thank them with a nice comment. This social interaction is a great way to connect with potential followers of your brand.

In summary, my strategy was to ask questions as they came up, followed by 25 answer requests per question, followed by social commenting.

I would repeat this experiment every day for a week. Now you can find answers to your most thought-provoking questions on Quora!

How I Reached 150K Views in 7 Days with Quora Questions Read More »