If you are looking for a very simple and easy-to-use mind map software, then bubbl.us might just be the answer for you.

I have got to hand it to the developers of this software. They have made it extremely easy to get started. When you fist load up the website, you see a button in the middle of the page that says “Start Brainstorming”. You click that button and you’re immediately in editing mode for your new mind map. Brilliant. No sign up necessary, but of course once you start creating a mind map, you decide you want to save it and you sign up.

 

Here is a quick video walkthrough of the software showing various different aspects of it. There are a few little quirks I found such as the Pin/Unpin aspect that made it quite difficult to work with large maps, but overall I think it is an excellent platform if you are looking for something simple and easy to use, and best of all… FREE.

 

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pld4pKlllOY

 
Here is an example of the HTML embed option:
 

Some of the other mind map software available is FreeMind, MindMeister, MindNode, iMindMap, Mind42, MindManager, & SimpleMind.

If you like this post and would like me to review other mind mapping software, then please leave me a comment below.

How do you handle rejection? It’s definitely something that is not easy to accept for most people but something that is key to success in business. It’s what separates the top earners from everyone else who jumps from one idea to the next in the hope that their new idea is going to work. Here’s how to measure your rejection rate: How many rejections or failures does it take for you to quit a proven method or strategy?

Most people’s honest answer is 1.

Here’s a story told to me once by a wise man to illustrate the point. If you were to put in two dollars (for argument sake) into a vending machine and click the button for a coke, what would you expect to happen? You would expect the coke can to pop out the bottom right? Say you passed this vending machine everyday and you bought a coke everyday for a year and each time it popped out the bottom just like you expected. Then one day you came to the vending machine just like normal and put in your two dollars expecting a coke can to pop out the bottom, and nothing happened. You shake the machine, give it a kick and a prod, but still nothing. What would you think? You just spent your hard earned two dollars and got no return. You now have doubts about this vending machine. Maybe it’s broken, maybe it doesn’t work anymore. The question is, are you likely to return to this vending machine the next day? Probably not, even though this machine has worked perfectly for the last year, your faith in this machine is now shaken. That’s the point. All it takes for most people to give up and look to something else to be the answer is one rejection or failure.

Smart business people know that rejection is part of the game, and persistence is key. They have built up a high rejection tolerance. It takes more than one ‘NO’ for them to quit.

That’s an important lesson. You got to stick to the plan when things get tough and it seems like they’re not working.

Think about that story again, and ask yourself the question… What’s my rejection rate?

If it’s one, then it’s not enough. Think about how you could increase it to two, and then three, and then when you achieve success, solidify this idea in your mind so that when you move onto bigger projects, you know and understand that rejection is just part of the game.

The Internet only become more and more important to business owners in the last 5 years. Although 5 years doesn’t seem like a long time. It’s surprising to see just how far technology has come in that short space of time.

The internet has made communication easier. Dissemination of information and other data has became almost instantaneous. People from all around the globe can now be connected. It has become a solid platform where people can transact and conduct business twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. There’s no restrictions on opening and closing hours and it has opened up the doors to essentially millions of people who can visit your business page.

In this article, I am going to show you a glimpse of the current trend of internet usage specifically for Australia.

 

Australia
Internet Usage Stats and Telecommunications Market Report

Internet Usage Statistics:

17,033,826 Internet users as of Aug/2009, 80.1% of the population, according to Nielsen.

Facebook Users in Australia:
9,520,960 as of August 31, 2010, according to Facebook.

Internet Broadband Subscribers:
4,700,200 Broadband subscribers (connections) as of Sept./07, 22.8% of the population, according to OECD.

 

Internet Growth and Population Statistics:

YEAR Users Population % Pop. G.N.I. p.c. Usage Source
2000 6,600,000 19,521,900 33.8 % $19,992 (’00) ITU
2007 14,729,191 20,434,176 70.2 % $21,650 (’06) Nielsen
2009 16,926,015 21,262,641 79.6 % $32,220 (’06) Nielsen
2010 17,033,826 21,262,641 80.1 % $32,220 (’06) Nielsen

G.N.I.p.c. = Per Capita Gross National Income in US dollars, historic series.

Australia Internet Demographic Information:

Population:

20,507,264 (2005 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 19.8% (male 2,116,875/female 1,943,563)

15-64 years: 67.2% (male 7,085,692/female 6,695,189)

65 years and over: 12.9% (male 1,193,435/female 1,452,002) (2005 est.)

 

Median age:

Total: 36.56 years (2005 est.)
Female: 37.4 years
male: 35.74 years

According to this data, Australian internet users are mostly in the 15 to 64 years old age bracket. This only means that most of them already have the capacity to purchase.

People in Australia alone spend 11 billion dollars in online purchases. The question now is: “Do you want your business to get a portion of those 11 billion dollars that our fellow Australians are paying for online products and services?”

The statistics I have gathered clearly shows that Australians are not shy when it comes to purchasing both goods and services online. Australia is now the third highest country in the world when it comes to utilizing e-commerce.

The internet isn’t a story of how beneficial it is for home usage anymore. The internet now presents an opportunity for your business to step up and reach out to more potential clients. Internet marketing is not easy as it seems but through the proper marketing techniques, and strategy – you’ll reap the harvest of your investment.

The key to internet marketing is to go where the people go. Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, Yahoo groups are only some of the social media sites that we can use to reach out to the potential clients and eventually drive traffic to our site.

 

Australia’s Fastest Growing Social Media Activities
Activity 2009 2008 YOY Change
Read messages on Twitter 23% 7% 16%
Interacted with a brand via social network 38% 23% 15%
Read a wiki 72% 61% 11%
Posted on Twitter 13% 4% 9%
Browsed/followed brands on Twitter 14% 5% 9%
Interacted with people on a social network 63% 55% 8%
Watched online video for product/service 63% 57% 6%
Updated a social networking profile 57% 51% 6%
Looked at a social networking profile 73% 67% 6%
Posted pictures online 68% 63% 5%
Source: The Nielsen Company

 

The opportunity to take your business online and reach thousands more customers is already in your hands.  It’s either stay in the traditional OFF-line market where people sell and advertise through newspapers with less and less readers each week, or we reach out to the entire country through a website, or social media platform which is open to thousands or even millions of visitors. It’s time to think outside of the box.