Archive for the ‘Web’ Category
Tips on Blogging Frequency
Pending on your goals, a blog format may really work for a non-profit web site or your own personal home page. Yet the medium of blogs with dated content, can create pressure to keep things fresh. Many bloggers buckle under the pressure of posting daily updates, but this may no longer be necessary.
Eric Kintz says that daily blog posts can sometimes be a liability.
ProBlogger Darren Rowse adds some qualifiers.
The bottom line for me is that each blogger must determine the goal and audience of his/her blog. For example, a more specialized blog such as cooking, history, or theology may only require weekly posts. Tech, politics, and news may be a different story.
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Technorati Tags: blog
Review of Google Calendar
I just began using Google Calendar this week and have pratically driven my wife crazy with my excitement. The beauty of Google calendar is two-fold, but there are many other parts that are good-looking as well.
Nevertheless, the two best parts are: it can be accessed anywhere and it can send reminders to your gmail account. This is what makes it truly useful. I check my gmail often, but would not always think to pull up the calendar. Also, I’m on 2-3 different computers in the course of a day, so it’s essential to have the calendar online.
Google has cleverly set their accounts up so that a gmail account unlocks the door to all of the google services. This calendar is just another one of the nice tools you can use with gmail.
Another nice feature is “event sharing.” The Google Calendar site says,
“If your website mentions events – including reservations, appointments and shows – Google Calendar can help you stay on people’s radar. You can let people quickly add single events from your site to their calendars, or list public events you want people to be able to search for within Google Calendar.”
They even have buttons that you can place on your site and program with the relevant information about the event. By simply clicking on the button, friends and family can add that event to their own Google calendars.
So I’m sold, though there surely are other worthy calendars out there. If you have not made the switch to gmail and want to give it a go, just post a comment and I’ll send you an invitation.
Blog and Web Tools
Todd Heistand, who designed this site by the way, has a great list of tools at his site: www.toddhiestand.com. What particularly caught my eye is a wordpress plug-in called “SimpleTags”. I sometimes tire of adding the Technorati Tags, so I may have to waste some time adding them here.
Todd also has the usual list of programs, including Bloglines and Firefox (two programs that I cannot imagine life without), but give his list a look. You may find a gem that has escaped your notice.
w.Bloggar: My New Toy
Though I downloaded it a while ago, I finally got into “w.Bloggar,” an offline blog editor. It essentially allows you to write up your blog posts in the exact format they will appear without actually having to be online.
While there are a number of reasons why this is a good thing, the number one reason for myself is that I’ll waste an entire morning reading the news at bloglines or from my google home page. The wireless card just sits on the table with a little sticky note stating the time I’m allowed to insert it. I can then post furiously without the temptation to read my mail, other blogs, or the news.
While many say that Ecto is the best program, Ecto also costs $20. While this is not steep for a program that does everything but write the post for you, I’m very satisfied with w.bloggar and have found that it is very easy to use.
The best part is that it keeps all of my blog passwords stored so I don’t ever have to log in. I should also note that it provides a lot features that basic blog editors simply do not have. Simple file uploads, font colors, various heading settings, and other font options make it really useful when customizing a post. It was a little tricky to set up WordPress with w.bloggar, but a quick visit to the forums at their web site cleared it all up.
Articles on Web Applications
If you can persevere, Wired News has a series of articles on Web 2.0 and free applications that are well worth looking into. If you don’t know what Web 2.0 or 1.0 is for that matter, these articles are worth reading and applying.
Is Web 2.0 Caught Up in its Own Noise?
Folksonomies, giving it all away
If you persevere through all 3 of these articles, you can read a very interesting list of quotes from Steve Jobs here.
Technorati Tags: web 2.0, steve jobs
Directories are out. Tags are in.
I have my web sites listed in a number of online directories either for blogs or web pages. You can find them at the bottom of the right column. One of my frustrations has been with the difficulty of categorizing my web sites. Is this a writing site? yes. Non-profit site? yes. Photography, web tips, volunteer tips, administrative tips, Vermont news, open source tips? yes.
So I’m happy to hear about a new way of keeping track of web sites. Tagging has become the new way to go about this. By simply attaching a tag from a site such as Technorati, you can be found based on your content, and specific content can be accessed immediately.
An exampe of this system will be started by the directory: blogs4god. They explain the way it all works on their site. I look forward to seeing how this catches on. If you’re not tagging your blog posts or web site, look into it. It takes a few seconds and will make your site easier to find.
Technorati Tags: technorati, tag directory
21 Publish: Too Good to be True?
In uncharacteristic fashion, I gave in and clicked on an ad this morning. The company is called 21 Publish, and they offer free, hosted blogging for communities. In other words, you have a web portal or home page where you can post links or general content, and list all of the blogs in your community right there. The template can be customized and you can host it under your own domain name or it can be integrated into an existing web site.
It looks very attractive at this point, but I need to take it for a test drive first. You can get an idea of what it does by looking at some blogs they list: East Central Elementary School, Amnesty International USA, and Platform 27. Click here for a full list of Platform 27′s features.
Collaboration & Management Tools
Since my focus is on helping non-profits on a shoe-string, I have been sampling two programs that help with project management and collaboration online. The nice part about using an online tool is that members/volunteers an organization without a central location can track with each other. Even if there is a central location for the non-profit, volunteers can be spread out and may need a central place to share ideas, post meeting dates, share minutes, and provide other information for the group to access.
This can be especially helpful when trying to plan an event. Typically the volunteers are all spread out. One person edits a document, passes it around, everyone else edits it, and then mayhem ensues. Who has the real document??? Online wiki’s and other content programs can provide a simple, no-cost solution.
There are plenty to check out, but I’m going to look at Basecampe and Jotspot today. Keep in mind that Basecamp has several versions that you must pay for. For more on content management systems, see Jordon Cooper’s blog.
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Writely: Order Yours Today
You can guess pretty safely what the next big trend will be based on what Google is up to. Google recently purchased a company called Upstartle, the makers of a popular web-based, free word processing program known as Writely.
The concept of Writely is clever. Here’s the jist of it:
- Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time: Pick exactly who can access your documents.
- Edit your documents from anywhere: Nothing to download — your browser is all you need.
- Store your documents securely online: Offsite storage plus data backup every 10 seconds.
- Easy to use:Clean, uncluttered screens with a familiar, desktop feel.
Blog Software Review (part one)
After a year of messing around with blogs, I have had a chance to work with some of the programs out there. My inamirrordimly blog uses Nucleus, but I also have been working with Typepad and WordPress. While a lot of people use typepad, it seems that WordPress has been gaining some momentum. Andrew Jones of Tallskinnykiwi.com told me that Typepad has had its day and that WordPress is on its way up. While I have enjoyed using Nucleus, Typepad and WordPress are a bit more accessible for the blogging novice. And here are a few thoughts along those lines.
I have had a Typepad blog since April of last year, while the WordPress thing is new to me as of this year. Though I could say a lot in comparison, here’s the short cut to my point: WordPress takes a little bit of time to learn and requires even a minimal knowledge of html code, but it’s free. Typepad is really easy to use and makes buidling links and editing your content really easy. The down side is that the extra convenience costs you $6 a month.
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