Blogging and Social-Media

I love the Web and the fascinating number of useful and useless tools but it can also a huge time-suck and productivity killer. Like many digital animals, the Web constantly seduces you. Just when you've got e-mail and IM within your communications arsenal, you're using Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. Then, you've got Digg, del.icio.us, GMail, Google Reader, Mixx, et al to track and bookmark it all. At some point, it's overwhelming. It's impossible to be everywhere and anywhere, and embrace all the tools being used by the digerati. At some point, you just have to pick you digital weapons, and stick with them.

The arguments that blogs are dead usually center around several key points. 1. The growth of high-traffic, high-profile, multi-author blogs destroys any hope for the average individual blogger to be discovered and gain any meaningful audience. 2. Newer forms of social media, like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr make the need for personal blogs obsolete. 3. The never-ending comment spam, coupled with comments from obnoxious readers, simply require too much energy and time. These observations are completely accurate based on my experience with blogs and the Internet.

After some recent considerable advances in the realm of OpenID, Webmonkey had the chance to chat with two of OpenID's greatest evangelists and early adopters, Joseph Smarr and John McCrea. Smarr and McCrea are responsible for being among the first to implement OpenID on their online address book site, Plaxo. Together, they try to explain the momentum behind OpenID and how it might lead to even bigger things for the future of the web.

Today Jeff Chandler shares with us how FireFox 3 can be a great tool for bloggers. If there is one thing that sets FireFox apart from any other web browser, it would have to be the third party support in the form of themes and extensions. There are so many extensions available for the browser, you can virtually do just about anything. As I become more entrenched as a blogger online, I've started to transform FireFox into more than just a browser, it has become my ultimate blogging toolbox. The following twelve FireFox extensions will give you a head start on turning FireFox into your own personal blogging toolbox.

I had been using a short list of social media principles with my clients. When I started writing my book I wanted to codify them. So research was in order. Imagine my surprise when I found page after page after page of social media principles. The initial research turned up sixty four of the little buggers. I'll post my own personal list of social media principles that should make all these a little more concise and coherent.

If you're tackling some graphic design project or maybe even your wall decor, getting color hints from ready made color templates from professional designers can be useful. Below are 10 of the better sites to help you out on your design challenge.

Microsoft has all but confirmed that the company is hoping to ship Windows 7 in time for next year's holiday season. In the past Microsoft has said the next generation Windows operating system would be available about three years after Windows Vista's January 2007 release. But CNET reports that a Microsoft official is confirming that things appear to be ahead of schedule.

Viral marketing is the process of using peer-to-peer communications in order to rapidly spread information about a brand or message. The term 'viral' stems from the concept of a 'virus', a self-perpetuating phenomenon which infects whatever it comes in contact with, spreading itself in an expanding outward arc. Your message is the virus. The carriers are your audience. People encounter specific data or ideas daily and pass it on to their friends and other people in their network. All things equal, one can say that information is shared more rapidly when the recipient has a strong emotional connection with the specific message. They adore it. They despise it. They are deeply puzzled by it. It makes them upset. It makes them happy.

Broadcasting or Conversing on Twitter? Sonny Gill shares with us some tips on how to have Conversations rather than be a Broadcaster. \n\nSo you want to join the Twitter. You think of a cool username, sign up and get excited at the thought that you have complete freedom (140 characters worth) to tweet about whatever you want. You seek out the most popular Twitterers and start following them along with hundreds of others. How simple, you think. Now, the time has come for your first tweet:

Readers Recommend their Twitter Tools and Services. Here, Darren Rowse lists several Twitter tools.

Links about blogging in the classroom.

Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog, adding the dofollow plugin is one way to reward but why not place a link to their last post under their comment, with CommentLuv, you can do that automatically! This is an excellent way to promote comments from your readers.

It hold true that your success in the today's competitive blogging world depends largely how well you stretch your exposure. It's been part of equation which you can take it away. Surely there are a couple of things you can do to maximize your online presence, but sadly little has been said on the power of Guest Blogging and what it can do to help any bloggers - beginners or otherwise - gain the much needed exposure. The Power of Guest Blogging Guest blogging isn't a new phenomenon. It's one of the most effective method adopted by some well-informed bloggers to increase blog traffic where bloggers write article to be published on other bloggers' blogs. With guest blogging, not only will the host's blog receive new fresh content from a different perspective, the guest blogger will gain a link and the all important exposure to their target audience.

One of the most important responsibilities of a website is to communicate with its visitors. Regardless of whether the site is a blog, a portfolio site, a corporate site, or an e-commerce site, it exists to communicate with visitors. The communication in some cases is two ways (blog comments are an example), but in many ways the website is communicating to visitors before they even offer their feedback. In order for the site to communicate effectively the designer and site owner need to clear purpose of what messages should be evident to visitors. In my opinion, improving the communication is an ongoing process. As I evaluate my own sites, or those of clients, these are some of the factors that I consider.

As you surf through the internet you're bound to come across certain designs that you love and some that you hate. But good blog design has a few unique elements when compared to the design of a traditional website. Here are ten things to keep in mind when designing your blog.

Whether you're just starting out or have been coding for years, here are over 130 new tools to make you a better and faster Web designer.

As web developers, it only makes sense that we find learning resources on our preferred medium, the Internet. However, there are definite pluses to the Old School method of learning; the print book. They've been through rigorous editing cycles, and you can trust solid publishers like O'Reilly. Also, you can trust the user ratings and comments that are on sites like Amazon. You can make an informed purchase with the help of these comments, and you don't have to worry that these highly-rated titles are going to be accurate or poorly written. Publishing contracts are generally only given to industry and thought leaders who are worth listening to and learning from. Here are 50 of the highest-rated, most respected print publications on many different web development topics.

Ever wanted to master the keyboard shortcuts and get more productive on the web? Here is everything you need - 10 quick cheat sheets for some of the most widely used tools on the web. Download, print and stick them somewhere near your desk.

Flickr is my favorite online source of images: it stores an incredible number of creative and unique photos you can use for inspiration. Flickr advanced search allows for multiple search options: you can choose to search by tags or full text, media type (photos or videos or both); date, creative commons, etc. The choice is really great but somehow using the built-in search platform is by far less exciting than taking advantage of numerous external tools that search Flickr creatively.

The twitter train is pulling up, are you on board yet? Twitter is one of the most revolutionary messaging systems to come out in my opinion since AOL Instant Messenger back in 1997. It allows groups of users to simultaneously engage in conversations all at the same time, similar to being in a "chat room" in AOL. As a marketer this can be a golden tool if utilized properly for personal reputation management reasons.