The Problem

I was using Twitter and Facebook as sources of constant distraction from my work, family, and spiritual life. I wanted to use social media as a tool to communicate with potential readers, to network with fellow writers, and to keep in touch with friends. Instead I checked them both an unseemly number of times in search of links, conversations, or anything that I could read.

I responded to any mention or post immediately. Links to interesting posts were pursued, and I left comments without thinking about the time they consumed.

Any time I hit a tough spot in my writing, I’d drop by Twitter or Facebook.

I needed to break my dependency on these tools, while learning how to use them in healthy ways. It wasn’t going to help me if I could quit cold turkey for 40 days, learn a few lessons, and then gradually forget them over the following months while rediscovering the lure of social media again.

I needed a practical way forward so that my personal, spiritual, and work times were equally guarded that would last beyond Lent.

The Plan

I settled on a plan to spend only 30 minutes each day on Twitter and Facebook. To be honest, that seems absurdly long, but in practice the time goes by quickly! I broke it into 3 ten-minute slots. This meant that I needed to make the most of my time online and if I really wanted to interact with people, I needed to space my time out.

This required a decent amount of discipline, since I wanted to think of interesting things to say, but I also wanted to read what other people were sharing. I didn’t have unlimited time to follow blog posts and links.

In addition, effectively tracking your friends on a tool like Tweetdeck, as I do, I needed to leave Tweetdeck open for a while before I could look at it. I hide my menu bar so as to limit the temptation, but I still knew it was there.

The Results

While I certainly missed my sources of distraction, I soon appreciated the limits of my fast. Sometimes I followed links and ended up reading them beyond my time limit, so I had to subtract time from my next 10-minute session. I probably interacted online a lot less to my detriment in some ways, but I also thought a lot more about effectively using my limited time, which is a real benefit.

I’m most grateful that I broke the habit of checking social media first thing in the morning. Instead I spend my early morning time writing fiction, drinking coffee, reading scripture, and praying. My mornings are SO much better without Twitter and Facebook.

Waiting until 11 AM or later for social media really helps me use my most productive times in the most effective ways—both for work and spiritual growth. I never catch myself thinking, “Damn, I wish I’d spent 30 minutes on Twitter this morning instead of praying or editing my novel!”

In addition, HubSpot marketing found that more people are willing to retweet something on Twitter around 11 AM, so I really have no reason to use Twitter before 11 AM. I can share my links and socialize at 11 AM just fine.

Perhaps my biggest problem was that I found new distractions such as checking my e-mail, but even that was a bit easier to resist since it’s much easier to convince myself that no new e-mails have arrived in the past 15 minutes. Twitter guarantees fresh content. In addition, an empty inbox isn’t all that distracting even on my worst day.

Here are some outcomes from my limited fast:

• I now budget an extra 30 minutes for blog reading and networking.
• I stick to the 3 ten-minute social media sessions on Tweetdeck and Facebook. I aim for 11 AM, 2 PM, and 5 PM.
• I try to avoid social media at night. If I want to drop someone a note or need to send a message via Facebook, I can drop in, send the note, and then log off.
• I allow myself to visit Twitter online if I want to post something, but I can’t do anything else.

How have you dealt with your bad habits in social media? Have you tried sometime different that worked? 

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.

blog

Technorati Tags: blog

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.

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.

technorati tags: w.bloggar, ecto

Is Web 2.0 Caught Up in its Own Noise?

Web 2.0: A Pattern Library

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

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

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.

Technorati Tags:blog, community, 21publish

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.
Basecamp

Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

What is Basecamp?

Basecamp is a unique project collaboration tool. Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs, or reports, they fail from a lack of communication and collaboration. Basecamp makes it simple to communicate and collaborate on projects.

It’s elegant, easy, and web-based. You don’t need to download, install, or configure anything (no IT department required!). All you need is a web browser and an internet connection. And don’t worry, your data is safe with us.

How can Basecamp help us?

Basecamp makes it easy to centralize group communication with co-workers and clients.

Assign to-dos and tasks
Post messages and gather feedback
Simple scheduling and permissions
Share files internally or with clients
Track people’s time

My thoughts about the free version:

Basecamp is light on features, but is fairly easy to figure out. You can develop simple to do lists or create projects in a simple word processing format. You’ll be up and running in minutes, but first give it a good long look. Make sure that Basecamp has all of the features you need before investing a lot of time and entering a lot of data.
Next Up . . .

Jotspot

Here’s what Jotspot has to say about itself:

What can you do with our wiki?

Whether you’re at work or at home, you can use the JotSpot wiki.

The JotSpot wiki allows free-form collaboration, but you can also collaborate using structured applications from our application gallery.

Here are some things our customers have done:

• Create an intranet
  Publish company information, such as news or employee guidelines. See an example.
• Project management
  Schedule project deadlines, assign tasks, and define product specifications
• Document collaboration
  Multiple users author documents with aid of version history and MS Word integration
• Coordinate a non-profit agency
  Utilize event calendars, discussion forums, blogs and other apps
• Collaborate with virtual teams
  Communicate with remote contractors or clients
• Track software bugs
  Log defects and build custom queries
• Call center support
  Access case histories and increase customer support

My Thoughts:

Jotspot has quite a few impressive features:

Collaboration & Community
* Blog
* Forum
* Group Calendar
* Meeting Manager
* Simple Poll
* Personal To-Do Lists

Business Productivity
* Project Manager BETA (New!)
* Bug Reporter (New!)
* Company Directory
* Knowledge Base
* Contact Manager
* Recruiting
* Call Log Manager

While you will probably never use all of these at once, the options it presents are tremendous. The number of options make jotspot a little bit more daunting to the inexperienced user. There is a lot of stuff that you can have on your homepage at once.

Basecamp’s basic package has a few simple tabs to manage, while Jotspot has all kinds of links to click on. Yet, having said that, all of the tools on Jotspot seem to be useful and simple to set up. Having discussion forums, a contact manager, writing board, and file uploader can put all essential info in one easy to access place. The file uploader is the selling point for me, but whatever the case may be, there is a lot to like about jotspot and it’s my choice for the best free collaboration program.

technorati tags: collaboration, management, jotspot, basecamp

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.

This could be very helpful for non-profits with volunteers and employees working different schedules at different locations. I know that it can be problem to have several people using and editing the same document. It is such a hassle to know who has the most up to date draft. I think that I will use this program for the Northshire Non-Profit Network in the near future for some of our projects.

There is a waiting list currently for a Writely account, but I think it will be worth the wait.

If you need something that is a bit more extensive for your document creation and editing, you can create your own wiki at jotspot. Jotspot is an easy way to creatively work together on a variety of projects. The web site says:

What can you do with our wiki?

Whether you’re at work or at home, you can use the JotSpot wiki.

The JotSpot wiki allows free-form collaboration, but you can also collaborate using structured applications from our application gallery.

• Create an intranet: Publish company information, such as news or employee guidelines. See an example.
• Project management: Schedule project deadlines, assign tasks, and define product specifications
• Document collaboration: Multiple users author documents with aid of version history and MS Word integration
• Coordinate a non-profit agency: Utilize event calendars, discussion forums, blogs and other apps

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.

The thing is that both programs allow you to do basically the same things in their most basic versions. So if you can spend a little bit of time messing around with what works and what doesn’t, WordPress is for you. In addition, you can use WordPress for free if you don’t mind buying a domain name and having it hosted. You pay a little bit more, but then you have an incredible amoung of flexibility that equals the Typepad Pro option.

More to come, but that’s a start.

via

The other project that I am very excited about is the development of a web page for the Northshire Non-Profit Network. We are meeting this Friday at GNAT at 8 am. There will be coffee, tea, and donuts. This is a great grass-roots kind of group that meets to collaborate on a variety of topics from newsletter, to volunteers, to this week’s topic: events. There isn’t a strong agenda driving the group, only a topic, and all are free to contribute. It’s a great place to share ideas and to find new ones.

My plan is to propose a web site for the group at this meeting.

My primary reasons for proposing a web site are for the group to have a simple web site where info can be shared, links can be put in a central location for the group’s use, events can be announced, and the public will have a place to find out about our meetings.

At this point I’m thinking about using WordPress, the same program I use for this blog. While I really like Typepad a lot, WordPress is a little bit easier to sort through the control panel. Typepad has too many options and I fear that if someone took over editing the site, they would get lost. I also really like the option of using a free wordpress.com site for now, and then being able to purchase a domain name and use the free version of wordpress to make a more jazzy site. Typepad’s sites are nice in that they make it easy to link to books and other media, but such things will not be needed for the NNN.

I’m open to ideas about user-friendly web site/blog software out there. With my limited knowledge of html, my options are a bit limited.

Stay tuned for the new Northshire Non-Profit Network web site! We’ll see what the group comes up with.

Technorati Tags: northshire,manchester, vermont, non-profit

Sometimes I want to list directories or blog tools on my site and certain products do not provide their own buttons. In order to make your side bar uniform, this button maker enables you to make your own in a matter of minutes. It’s then a matter of saving the image, uploading it to your web site, and then copying the location of the image. If you ever wonder how to do it, you can view the source of any web site by clicking on the view option of your internet browser and checking out the page’s source code.

If you want a quick break down of the html of my link so you know what you’ll need, here it is:

First you need the address that people will be going to when they click on the image:

This will have a at the end, but don’t get ahead of yourself. If this is a link that you will make available for others to use, put your web address in the same place as mine above.

Then you need the image location: 

This means that you will have to upload the image to your web site and then figure out the location of the file on your server.

Then you close off the image location with a description of the image’s properties. Don’t forget the “greater than” sign. It’s important! 

width=”80″ height=”15″ border=”0″>

Lastly, you want to close off the hyperlink. 

And then you have a cool button of your own. Enjoy.

While I will provide some excerpts from from the interview further down, it’s also worth nothing that there is a review of Blogging For Dummies and NY Times article on blogging on the road. On now without further ado, here’s a look at the interview with Mena Trott.

While Mena sees blogs having a role that complements that of journalists, she sees the personal publishing end of blogs having a much more important role. This means that people will be documenting their entire lives on blogs, and there are implications for design, content accessibility, and other media options. Mena’s comments:
“What do you see as the next big issue in blog design?
We’ll focus on the idea of more select and filtered readership, and how to allow people to read certain posts. That to me is interesting: how different people want different views of the blog. A big issue right now is how to take that idea in account when designing blogs.

Another new challenge is the trend toward adding a lot of assets. People are adding photos, video, and music to supplement the text. How do you make it possible for bloggers to present as much as they want to present without creating blogs that are too cluttered or confusing?”

She goes on to say:

“Most people think of blogs as being primarily political or tech-focused. To most people, the important things they want to learn about have to do with people they know. So I think personal blogs are really the future, and with that comes a challenge for blogs to be more friendly and welcoming.

Also, blogs are all about capturing and preserving information about our lives. And that makes me think of what might be the biggest future blog-design challenge: How do we design blogs that will archive and present 20 years worth of content?”

Read the whole article.

Technorati Tags: blog, Mena+Trott, typepad

My basic philosophy follows some of the following points:

1. Provide as much free assistance as possible.
2. Keep the content fresh and helpful for writers, non-profits, and whoever else ends up on this page.
3. The page will pay for itself

While I made sure there was a good bit of content to begin with in the first two months or so, I have now begun building up the sidebars. The addition of ads to the page was something I agonized over. I didn’t want to junk up a nice site with flashy, trashy, and unsightly ads. I didn’t want people to feel like they had to buy something in order to use this site. I also didn’t want the content to lose significance with the integration of ads.

So my first thought was that I would never do anything that I wouldn’t want to see on someone else’s site. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I did not want scantily clad women on the ads like those in hotmail, nor did I want cheesy photos of random people in the ads. I did not want bright flashing colors, nor did I want to have obnoxious banners and random ads that meant nothing to most readers like the classmates ad or vonage. I also wanted to make sure that the ads related to the content on the page and my overall vision for the site.

Such a path of thinking led me first to Google ads. The content is specific to the site and does not have to throw graphics in your face. The links often relate to the content well and if they are not helpful, as they often are, they at least can be amusing.

My other thought was to include ads for products that I know users will find helpful. For example, many web sites and the vast majority of blogs are associates with Amazon. If you purchase a book on an associate’s site, they receive roughly 5% commission on the sale. As an associate of Amazon, I have chosen to only list books that are useful to those using this site, instead of attempting to drive up sales by only listing best-sellers.

The same is true for the web hosting companies listed. These sites have either come with recommendations from reliable sources, such as Blue Host, or offer easy compatibility with the open source blogging program know as wordpress (the program used to build this site). Even if you can find a cheaper web hosting program, the sites listed are worth a look because they are compatible for wordpress. I give my word that I put up the ads that were least visually offensive.
I also have put web hosting and other online services on this site because Vermont has notoriously lagged behind in the technology sector. I hope to help non-profits flourish in a world that is rapidly moving online, even if Vermont as a whole is a bit behind the pack.

As I expand the site I may ad some advertisements, but they will continue to be sites of interest to my readers. If you have any comments on the ads on this site or have questions about putting ads on your own site, feel free to comment below.

Technorati tags: advertising, web+hosting

The beauty of this service is that you can see how many people have tagged the same item, thereby giving you an idea of its popularity and possibly its usefulness. Once you connect to another person’s del.icio.us account, you will find that they have their own collection of tags to choose from.

If you would like to get started with social bookmarking, you can set up a del.icio.us account very easily. If you are not using Mozilla Firefox as your internet browser, I recommend downloading it. It’s a much better and safer browser than internet explorer. Then go to the add-on section and download the del.icio.us extension.

This extension will put a “tag” icon on your browser bar next to your print icon. If you’re at a web site that you like, just click on the tab and you can categorize it for your bookmarking account. This is a very easy way to store and organize information, while also connecting yourself to a network of people whose preferences are available to you.

Signing up for technorati is a great way to promote your blog. Technorati is a blog search engine that allows people to find blogs related to certain key words. By signing up for an account you can register your blog and define it with a list of 25 key words. After you post to your blog and categorize your content, follow the below link to get the code that can be placed at the bottom of your post:

link
While most major blogging programs use categories that can be sorted through technorati, use these links to add key words that will make your post stand out. On inamirrordimly.com, I have received the most technorati hits through very specific tags at the end of my posts.

Technorati Profile

technorati tags: tags, technorati, blog

Here are some main points from the summary:

In Summary

• Blogging and Mainstream Media continue to share attention in blogger’s and reader’s minds, but bloggers are climbing higher on the “big head” of the attention curve, with some bloggers getting more attention than sites including Forbes, PBS, MTV, and the CBC.
• Continuing down the attention curve, blogs take a more and more significant position as the economics of the mainstream publishing models make it cost prohibitive to build many nice sites and media
• Bloggers are changing the economics of the trade magazine space, with strong entries covering WiFi, Gadgets, Internet, Photography, Music, and other nice topic areas, making it easier to thrive, even on less aggregate traffic.

technorati tags: blogs, technorati

Using Google ads and other advertising programs that use key words, you may be able to place ads on your organization’s web site that will provide links to sites of interest to those using it.

While a static web page will not do a whole lot for your organization, a more interactive page with blog posts, regular updates, and a wide variety of content may make Google ads an option to chip away at some of your hosting and development expenses.

Harold Davis of Googleplex and author of several books on Google comments:

“Blogs are good because they keep content fresh, but that’s just a small part of it. Good reference material really draws traffic. On a photography site I run, for example, one piece I wrote on how to convert raw digital photos draws more traffic than 99 percent of my other photo pages.”

Content, content, content. That seems to be the key. For more ideas on using ads, read the whole article: link.