Innoventions | Weekly Observations

Basics to Purchasing a Domain

Tawny Press — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:13:30 +0000

Purchasing a domain name can be a simple process with some pre-planning and understanding Domain Registration basics. Lessons learned, through years of domain management for our customers.

Clients frequently inquire about purchasing a domains, it is a constant question, especially in the web development and design process. I believe developers take for granted that people understand this process and being of such importance, it bears repeating.

This is an overview, with links to specific topics, written in more depth. Please comment adding any information you feel is of value to readers. This topic bears repeating for the benefit of all companies, especially those without departments, specially geared to handle these issues.

What is a Domain?

A domain name is a unique identification label, similar to a phone number that defines the autonomy, authority, and control on the Internet.

Domain Value

My domain name has a value? The big brands understand that their brands and trademarks, are truly one of your businesses most value assets. Domains are an extremely valuable real estate, internet real estate. You can learn more “Protecting your brand:”.

Domain Costs

Registrar costs vary due to the competition of other Registrars. Each permitted to set charges above standard costs. I have seen prices vary from $1.99 to $30.00 a year. All registrars pay the registry a fixed price of $6 for each domain they sell.

Keep in mind if a Registrar is selling a domain for $1.99, and they pay the registry $6, they are making up the revenue in another service. Compare transfer and private registration fees.

Domain Management

All of your domains should be held in a centralized system or Control Panel, to manage your domain names, including those that have been registered by other company locations or employees. Domain names should include your brands and registered trademarks, which many overlook.

Select a Certified Register

Make sure they are the top level Registrar. If you select a third party, your cost will reflect the many tiers, confusion to who you are actually registered. List of Certified Registrars.

Below are some of the most popular:

Standard or Private Registration

During the registration process, you will also provide contact information for Registrant, Administrative and Technical contact. The information you provide is published in the Whois Public Internet Directory. This includes your name, your company name, telephone, email address or even home address.

The best practice is to use pay for the annual PRIVACY feature, which is on average is $2 -$10 a year, for each domain, removing it from WHOIS.

Avoid Front Running

Before you begin your online search for open domains, prepare your list on paper, prioritize them. When ready to purchase your domain, login to the Registrar and get your list and credit card ready. Search for your preferred domain name, if it is available, buy it immediately. It may be available now, but may be unavailable when you return, depending on the registrar you have selected. Print and file your receipts.

Length of Registration

Determine the length of time wish to hold the domain? Registrars can offer registration periods from 1 to 10 years. Some offer multi-year discounts, which may be beneficial to you, but not necessary. At some point in the future you may transfer your domain, and those fees may offset your savings. Most providers offer auto renew in your account most control panels, handle renewing simply, with a credit card on file.

Registrar Suggestions

Our clients have an array of hosting providers and ICANN Certified Registrars. We have become familiar with many of them. All have pros and cons to their services, so research should be done

I would say the following should be considering in you selection:

Certified Registrar
Knowledgeable and helpful support team
Cost Effectiveness
Intuitive dashboard / Control Panel
Quality Support 24 x 7 x 365

This is a simple overview. To learn more about the Registration process and domain management, read “Domain Registration beyond the Basics”.

We hope you find this helpful and I would enjoy learning more about your experiences. We are always looking for added value and good support, so if you have a Registrar you have had good experience, please let me know.

Social Media Perspectives Have Changed

Tawny Press — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:15:00 +0000

Spring is here and I felt like a clean, fresh start. We have spent the last 7 months on two large development projects, and we upgraded our website, so we decided the blog needed a new fresh beginning.

The old blog had a few of my favorite posts, so I decided I would to start by updating a few past articles and started with Social Media. As I read through them, it was like going through a time machine. It brought me back to a time, not so long ago, when people were laughing at Twitter, didn’t understand the usefulness of LinkedIn, and Facebook was for high school students. If you would mention Facebook or Twitter for business, most were met with resistance.

How perspectives have changed. Early adapters recognized the potential, but to be honest my own expectations have been exceed, especially with Facebook. Two years ago when our design team began developing Facebook Pages for clients, Facebook had less than 2.18% of online traffic. Today it has become a social phenomenon making up 7.07%, compared to Google at 7.03%, and 20 million people becoming fans of Pages each day, enabling business and brands to drive customer awareness.

Today, Facebook is one of the most powerful and useful social media services for brands, with over 3 million active Pages and growing. There are 1.5 million local businesses on Facebook today and 20 million people becoming fans of Pages each day. If you are in brand or business, you should take another look at Facebook. It might just surprise you.

LinkedIn is a company that was created on one simple mantra “Relationships Matter”. They have become one of the most widely used professional networking sites of today. The site has grown and has added more interactive functionality for sharing.

The LinkedIn Answers, similar to Google Answers or Yahoo! Answers, has grown considerably and is a fast and effective method to get answers to business related questions, from your network and from industry experts. It even has features for jobs seekers or professionals wanting to expand in their careers with new opportunities.

And if you haven’t heard of Twitter yet, you are missing the largest surprise to come from social media in my opinion. I remember myself asking what Twitter was two years ago and was lucky to have people on LinkedIn help me learn and experiment. It is instant information whether you have a question, need information or want to see what the world topic is currently trending. Many applications, but Tweetmeme is one of my favorite sites to catchup quickly, but there are hundreds of others available.

All of these services have upgraded iPhone, Blackberry applications, helping you stay on top of your networks and easily communicate or reach out in a moment.

Take a quick and free peek at what people are saying about your brand or business with one of these free services, such as Addictomatic, it is quick and easy. Or, Setup a simple Google Alert that sends you an email each time your name, your brand, product or services are mentioned on the internet.

If you want to see more including simple monitoring charts visit Sensidea’s website and download Social Seek’s for your desktop and has a free iPhone application.

I am most surprised by how quickly Facebook and Twitters popularity has grown in the past few years. I look forward to seeing the future.

Learning from 7 Random Things….

Tawny Press — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:41:47 +0000

I was tagged with the ‘7 random things’ meme, courtesy of my friend Simon Salt or better known as @Incslinger. Simon Salt is a good friend, but I am not a huge fan of these types of games or letters, but for Simon, I would happily play along.

As expected I thoroughly enjoyed my personal trip down memory lane, not all of which I shared, but the process was memorable. At the end of the post, time to tag seven people, you want to know more about.

Let me say, reading the various posts on “7 Random Things” has been enjoyable. I have learned many things about people, their childhood memories, professional challenges, aspirations, as well as personal challenges. Most everyone was fairly transparent and some just plain bared their soul.

Here are a few of my friends and respected bloggers. They are in no specific order, as is clear in seeing the people at the end. I summarized, briefly, a few interesting facts.

Simon Salt, Incslinger

Twitter: @incslinger

Simon once lived in Scotland and traveled to England on weekends to play in Ultimate Frisbee. Today he volunteers as a firefighter. He enjoys reading and enjoys history, yet enjoys magazines like Men’s Vogue and Fast Company among other quick reads.

Russ Sumers, Hoovers

Russ loves internet memes! Good to know for next time, I say smiling. Russ enjoyed the 1980’s style music and 80’s day on Twitter just isn’t the same without him. Did you know in 1979, Russ dropped out of college to be in a rock band? Or that the Smashing Pumpkins opened for one of his bands? �
read more

Cheryl Smith, Culture Smith Consulting

Twitter: @cherylsmith999

Cheryl did a meme a few months ago, so she highlighted seven things about Christmas. She loves drives down Cranehill Drive, in Lynchburg, to see the streets filled with beautiful luminaries. Did you know she loves the movie “Olive the Other reindeer”?

read more

Rosina, Baby Friendly LA

Twitter: @babyfriendlyla

Rosina is a first time mom, published her own retro lifestyle magazine, which went national and was in every major bookstore. She honeymooned in Paris and has never drunk a single sip of Coke or Pepsi.

read more

Mel Aclaro, Business Casual Blog

Twitter: @melaclaro

Mel is a dog lover that belongs to not one, but two very jealous cats. He is a morning person who has his best formed opinions in the morning, yet is forbidden to share them before 9 am. He is not a fan of chain letters but enjoys a good meme. Big hairy eight legged spiders, not a fan, yet will make an exception for daddy long legs.

read more

Mack Collier, The Viral Garden

Twitter: @mackcollier

Mack is a painter and artist who strives for perfection. He is big-time introvert. He loves animals and believes you can learn about people, through their treatment of animals. He came close to drowning once, his cousin reached him and saved his life.

read more

Shannon Paul, Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog

Twitter: @shannonpaul

Shannon played piano and electronic keyboards competitively. She had two imaginary friends as a child, but they stopped hanging out with her around kindergarten. (cute). She can recite the quadratic formula on command.

read more

Dana Coffey, Crazee Geek Chick

Twitter: @crazeegeekchick

Dana believes there is no greater food than chocolate. She can write code to bluegrass and jazz music, when many of us need peace and concentration. She loves a good treasure trove through thrift stores, yard sales and flea markets.

read more

Amber Naslund , Altitude

Twitter: @ambercadabra

Amber majored in music performance and her primary instrument was the flute. Today her flute, given to her by her grandmother, is one of my prized possessions. She is an animal lover with a house full of lovable rescues.

read more

Sonny Gill

Twitter: @sonnygill

Sonny’s real name is Sandeep. He grew up in a large family and describes his families gatherings and both awesome and hilarious. A dog lover! He once had to get more than 40 stitches in his forehead. He has a passion for basketball. A man who admits he likes shopping! read more

Tim Walker, Hoovers Business Insight Z

Twitter: @twalk

Tim doesn’t believe in writers block. He has dreams of being an expert cook. He moved to Austin Texas in 1990 and has lived there since. Another of Tim’s many ambitions is to earn his law degree. But by far, his greatest career ambition — so far unrealized — is to write compelling books and he is working on that now.

read more

Aaron Strout, Citizen Marketer 2.1

Twitter: @astrout

Aaron has a tattoo, of a thunderbird, on his right hip. His third child sparked from a chance meeting in Jackson Hole. His wife wasn’t there. Hmm.

read more

Scott Monty, The Social Media Marketing Blog

Twitter: @scottmonty

Scott’s favorite candy is Peanut M & M’s. He impersonates singers, like Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias, when participating in karaoke. He only drives American made! He holds a Masters in Medical Science. He was once a writer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, during the Clinton healthcare reform proposal.

read more

Brent Schlenker, Corporate eLearning Strategies & Develpment

Twitter: @brentschlenker

I’m an Arizona native, married with three children, and lives a few homes down from his high school. He loves 80’s guitar rock and prefers Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar to Diamond Dave. His daughter was youngest girl to swim Alcatraz.

read more

Laura P. Thomas, LTP

Twitter: @LPT

Laura starts her meme off with an “ice breaker”. She tells of drowning as a young child, discovered by her brother, he pulled her out of the pool and emergency personal revived her. She shares a few summer jobs, one working at a TV news station, while working on her journalism degree.

read more

Cammy Bean, Learning Visions

Twitter: @cammybean

As a kid, Cammy wanted to grow up to be a writer. Her backyard looks upon a forest and little stream running through yard. She is an extremely efficient, mother of three, and occasional mouse hunter.

read more

Ken Burbary, Web Business by Ken Burbary

Twitter: @kenburbary

Ken is a closet geek and likes to tinker with technology. He is a digital pack rat and a early user of Compuserv and Prodigy. He has three children who love playing wrestlemania. He is a World War II history and has a book collection on the topic.

read more

�

Chris Brogan

Twitter: @chrisbrogan

Chris as written three posts in responses, over several years. Interesting to read his view of “meme’s”, change over time, as mine did through this experience. In 2006 Chris wrote “Not Normally a Meme Guy”. In 2007 he posted “8 random things”, and most recently

“Memes and Why They Matter”.

Questions:

What do you think about the 7 random things meme? Were you tagged? Did you enjoy reading them? Did you ignore tags? If you did a post on your 7 Random Things, please post a link? Those of you who view it as a complete waste of time, let us know you thoughts?

Enhance Comments with Twitter Link

Tawny Press — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:02:05 +0000

I was reading TwiTip and realized there was a comment field, to link your twitter address, linking to your Twitter home page. That is a great idea. I searched for a Wordpress Plugin, none was found on Wordpress.org. This worked great until I upgraded to 2.7 and am hoping this plugin will soon be upgraded as well.

To my delight, a few days later ProBlogger, wrote a post on his process. He provided a link to Ideashower, a plugin developer with a method of adding fields into the comment section. Between ProBlogger ’s post and the overview of the developers site I was able to code my comments, fairly simple. If you use Thesis template, ProBloggers post would benefit you.

Here is the process I used. Let me remind you, each Theme is different, so your code may look slightly different. It is also a great idea to make a backup before changing any code, here is a plugin referred by @panah, WP-DB-Backup. I used Dreamweaver to modify my php files and used my “undo” a few times testing this method.

Download Plugin Files

Download the plugin files from the developers site.

Download – Version 0.4

Download – Version 0.2

Install the Plugin

Unzip the “Extra-comment-fields” zip file. Upload the file PHP file “extra-comment-fields“ to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory, under your themes directory. This file does not have a folder as do many Plugins available.

Activation & Setup

Variable Setup – Access Settings > Extra Comment Fields.

Comment.php Modification

In this section, you will be modifying your html code. I am using Dreamweaver as my editor. Open your Comments.php file, usually located in wp-content/themes/yourthemename/comments.php

Part 1

Look for a piece of code similar to the image below. This code may be grouped together with several similar lines, grouped together, with “text” name(s) like comment_author, comment_author_email or comment_author_url or something similar.

When you locate the correct code, copy one entire section, and paste it at the bottom.

Part 2

a.Name =”twitter” (your reference name)
b.Id=”twitter” (Set in Activation & Variable setup A)
c.Value = $comment_extra_twitter; ?>” (refers to plugin & variable set)
d.Twitter ID’,'arthemia’) (“Twitter ID: is the label that will show on your comment form)
e.optional)’,'arthemia’) (“optional” is the label that will show on your comment form)

Once your code is modified, upload your new comment.php page. Go to your blog, view your comment section, it should now have a Twitter ID line for commenter’s to add their Twitter Id.

Part 3

This next step is a method of allowing people to enter their user names with and without the “@” symbol, and continue to link correctly. This piece of code, courtesy of ProBlogger referenced above.

Look for code that looks similar to this:

div class=”commentlist”

Under this section of code, courtesy of ProBloggers post, paste the below code as is:

extra_twitter) {
// Strip out the @ if they put it there because we’re going to need to get rid of it for the url anyway
$extra_twitter = preg_replace(”/^@/”, “”, $comment->extra_twitter);
$extra_twitter = htmlentities($extra_twitter); ?>
”>@

Twitter Added to your Comments:

This is such a quick and easy way to locate the commenters blog as well as their Twitter Id, which is as important to me.

Let me just say, I HOPE someone creates a great plugin to add your Twitter ID in the future. Every Theme is different, so please, if you follow this process and find any differences with your theme, please post the work around. I hope this was helpful and simple to understand. Please post a comment if you add it to your blog, so we can see your creativity.

How I added the Twitter ID field to comments on Twitip.com

Wordpress Plugin: Extra Comment Fields

7 Random Things

Tawny Press — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:28:27 +0000

This post is in response to being tagged with the ‘7 random things’ meme, courtesy of my friend Simon Salt or better known as @Incslinger. In his post, he describes ‘7 random things‘ as “fun blogging event to get people behind the blogs to open up a bit and put the human face to their blogs”.

I have enjoyed reading the others random things, so I will happy to play along, who knows there might actually be something new I have not previously shared on Twitter.

1 – Wisconsin Summers

Wisconsin is my birth place. I spent the first five years of my life in a small town, in Rock County. After moving to California, we continued to spend our summers in Southern Wisconsin. This was the place of running through corn fields and making forts out of hay stacks. A place you could ride a tractor without a license. My first corn roast and a country fair. The early mornings fishing trips and afternoon catfish fry.

2– Best Friends 30+ Years

I had six best friends from High School, as most friends get lost in the shuffle of life, I am lucky that these six people remain in my life today. Recently, we spend an amazing weekend in Vegas. It was the first time, in 30 years, that we were all in the same place at the same time.

3 – I love animals

I love animals. We currently have two gold retrievers, one of which was a rescue puppy we met at a visit to the Veterinary Cancer Group, he was there looking for a home. It was like he was sent to us. The very next day, Kacee our five year old retriever, lost her two year fight against canine Lymphoma. Our puppy, now named Cody, helped us focus on life, after all puppies don’t give you time to rest. We also have a Macaw, a chick imported from South America, only to end up living in a pet store for five years. I found him, gave him a home, he runs of household and too smart for my own good. (I doubt this was a little known fact, as my Facebook and Flickr pages are full of furry friends)

4 –My Genealogy Library

Life is full of discovery and learning about my history, has been a seven year fascination. My library is filled with books and recorders, some dating back to the 1600’s. I have a database of over 8,000 family members, primarily in the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Denmark and Australia, so far. It is fascinating to see people and lifestyles change over time. I am a member of the HistoricalSociety of Wisconsin and a volunteer of Rock County, helping other researchers piecing to their family trees.

5 – The Joy of Baking

There is something that comes over me in December. I have overwhelming need to get creative in the kitchen and bake. A two week period, full of cookie baking, fudge making, chocolate melting and cake decorating. My efforts are a continued tradition in my family, where mothers, daughters and grandmothers spend this special time together. My husband finds it a bit scary, multi Suzie Homemaker’s on Steroids, but I love it and he is lucky it only happens once a year.

6- Love of Ceramics & Sculpture

During a summer visit to Wisconsin, we went to my great aunts farm in La Prairie, where we spent the day painting ceramics. It was a room filled with brushes, colorful paints, clay and a kiln. Fascinated by the possibilities, I have spent 35 years studying sculpture and casting techniques, first in High School, then in college. Today I continue through experimentation in my own studio. Writing this is a reminder it has been too long.

7 – A Few things my husband would like you to know…..

She chooses to live in shorts or sweats, even though she has a closet of designer clothes. She believes filing is a passing fade (which it is if you scan your documents). She is fluent in two languages, English… and DOG! Despite Popular Opinion, she is ruled by a man, a guy named “Jose”, our blue and gold macaw.

I hope you enjoyed and maybe found something new or interesting about me.

Those of you below are now tagged.

Cheryl Smith, Brent Schlenker, Mel Aclaro, Brian Regan, Graham Smith, Calvin Lee, Lamarr Wilson

The Four Simple Rules:

Link your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
Let them know they’ve been tagged

Get Creative with Your Twitter Background

Tawny Press — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:51:08 +0000

This post has taken an interesting turn. My original thought was to feature individuals, as well as big brands in this set of examples. That turns out to be an entirely different post, as few big brands have actually “branded” their Twitter backgrounds. Valuable no cost space to show their unique brand, being wasted. Why? Maybe it was over looked as they hashed out their ROI justifications.

What the big brands have missed, the savvy business professionals have not. What do I mean? Take a look at these creative backgrounds, not only shows their brand, but also contains useful information in addition to the mini bio of 160 characters and your single URL link.

Sonny Gill

In this background Sonny Gill has managed to show his brand logo, email, AOL IM, Google Talk and shows the symbols of six of his other networks; Linkedin, Plurk, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon.

It is simple, clean and sleek, yet packed with valuable information.

Armano

I am constantly inspired by David Armano’s graphic illustrations, so it was no surprise his Twitter background would be as inspiring. He has his brand logo, expanded bio and information of address for five other networks. As a personal touch, a photograph of his motorcycle, showing more of his personality and interests.

Mayhem Studios

Calvin Lee updated his background just yesterday. Thank you Calvin! He gave me one more great example for my this post. He has managed to show his brand logo, website, blog and email addresses. In addition, four alternative network addresses, he is available to engage; on Linkedin, Bizmik, Facebook and Skype.

Michael Bertoldi

In this simple, clean and sleek. Michael Bertoldi has his brand logo, email address and five symbols of other networks he engages his community; Linkedin, Deli.cio.us, Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon.

Amber Naslund (aka AmberCadabra)

Amber Naslund’s Twitter background is simple, clean and has focus on her branding. She has matched the images, log and colors between her Twitter background and her blog. Nice transition and no doubt it is the same brand.

Cheryl Smith

Cheryl Smith’s Twitter background is a great example of branding. Her Twitter background is clean, simple and has focus on her branding. What is most nice is when you go from Twitter page to blog. The transition is smooth and almost transparent.

Need help creating a custom or semi custom background?

Not everyone wants to spend precious time on branding, yet wants to set their Twitter page apart, so I have listed a few sources to help those who want to create something, quick and easy. Here are a few websites to help, some services are free, others have are fee based.

Twitbacks -This application allows you to be creative, without any design or illustration skills. You can add your name, company, website, blog, bio, photo, logo, phone, email, twitter name and add social network icons. As of this post, the service is free.

Twitterbacks – They make it simple for those with Photoshop or any software capable of editing a PSD file. Go ahead and download a file and construct your own Twitter background.

There are many other great backgrounds out there and over time I will locate and enjoy more. If you have a good background, please drop a comment and give us your Twitter page link. I also made a Flickr album with more backgrounds I have admired.

Conclusion

Have you looked at your Twitter background? Do any of these samples inspire you? Will you create your own creative background? If you create or always have a creative Twitter background, please post a comment with a link. All creativity welcome.

I admire these professionals for thinking outside the box and taking advantage of what has been missed by many big brands. To learn more about them, click their Twitter Background. Enjoy.

The Secret Is Out – Social Media Is Work

Tawny Press — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:44:11 +0000

Very busy as of late and this morning I was catching up on my favorite bloggers. This particular post grabbed my attention, “Social Media is a Lotta damned work”. First, I laughed, thinking “isn’t that the truth”, but then continued to read and found Mack’s candor on the topic refreshing.

I was first drawn to The Viral Garden, though a meeting with Mack Collier, the author on Twitter. I enjoy his candor on Twitter and then began to explore his blog and have been a fan every since.

There are many great blogs writing about etiquette, what to do, what not to do, networking strategies, tips, applications and other services to engage in social media, but few so openly discuss the true time commitment involved. Mack sums it up.

Social media is a lotta damned work, and if you’re only interested in using the space to promote yourself, you’ll quit before you see the results you want.

Why don’t more openly discuss the time commitment? Would the truth detour people from participating in social media? Truth be told, if someone had pointed out the true time commitment, prior to my exploration into social media, I may have put if off until I had more available time. More time….. and we all know how that stories goes.

In the beginning, in addition to the time spent interacting, there is a learning curve for each service and application one might choose use, both online, desktop and even mobile. Depending on each individual familiarity with these topics, learning curves will vary.

Having support system is a definite bonus. There are many people to help, co-workers, friends, the online community through social networks, blogs, podcasts, videos, ebooks, manuals as well as service providers and application developers.

Through my LinkedIn network, I was able to find the education and support I needed to begin. Here are a few of my favorites:

Social networking, social media or building community, whatever term you wish to use, is NOT easy, fast or a rainbow that leads to the pot of gold. If this is what you believe it to be, then please invest your time in further research, before you are disappointed.

The network you have created is an important one. The same time you invest in your personal face to face relationships, you will need to invest in growing and enhancing your online relationships. Being active and engaging in your community is vitally important.

Now that your eyes are open, I must state Social Media is one of the best professional and personal decisions one can make. You will have the potential to strengthen your network, expand your resources, encourage collaboration and meet like-minded individuals.

Why don’t more openly discuss the time commitment? Would the truth detour people from participating in social media? What other bloggers have written on the topic of the time investment?

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BrowserShots – Is Your Blog Browser Compatible?

Tawny Press — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:17:15 +0000

Each morning I visit and enjoy a variety of my favorite blogs. They say it is all about good content, which of course is the real value, but what about visual ascetics? I am a visual person; I like good graphics, color, organization and some attempt at consistency.

Your content might be the greatest out there, but if the blog itself unappealing and difficult to read to “browser incompatibility” it draws my attention from your content. It is like trying to figure out a puzzle of text and graphics, in some cases. It might just be ME, but I really enjoy reading left to right, not up, down and sideways.

Inconsistencies in browsers can be difficult and time consuming to correct, but you cannot begin to deal with them, until you identify them. There are several sources to test your site against the various browsers, but I have been using BrowserShots since it was recommended by a fellow eLearning professional, Lee Graham, who I met on Twitter.

BrowserShots.Org

What is BrowserShots? A service that creates screen shots of your, blog or website, in a wide variety of browsers, including a few less common. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the queue for processing. Then it will create screen shots, upload to the central server, and make available to you in your browser.

Here is a small sample of Browsers and versions:

Lets Get Start

It is simple, visit BrowserShots.org , enter your blog or web address in the address bar and submit.

Screenshot Request Group

This process will take time, when using the free service, so don’t be surprised if you wait 20-45 minutes for your information. You will see a “Screenshot request group” message, giving you the estimated queue time, the number of browsers selected.

Tip: Best to bookmark this page and check back later.

Queue Completed

Once the queue has completed, you will see a screen containing a small screen shot for each browser you selected, similar to the screen shot below:

Use your mouse and as you put it over the snapshots, they will enlarge, as seen in above screenshot.

View Details by Browser

Click again and you view a larger format and get details on the browser, engine, hardware and operating system the test was ran.

There are dozens of other tools to check your browser compatibility, some are free, others are fee based. I find BrowswerShots is a simple method for checking your blog or website browser compatibility. What tools do you use to check your browser compatibility? What are your favorite features?

If you found this post helpful, please consider subscribing to our feed.

Other Related Articles:

Quirksmode.Org – Contains about 120 pages with CSS and JavaScript tips and tricks, and is one of the best sources on the WWW for studying and defeating browser incompatibilities.
Common fonts to all versions of Windows & Mac equivalents (Browser safe fonts) – Web design tips & tricks
Browser Tests, Services and Compatibility Test Suites

Tweetburner – Tracking Shared Twitter Links

Tawny Press — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:57:04 +0000

I follow a variety of wonderful professionals on Twitter. Through their daily links I learn a great deal, on a variety of levels, without the time investment of surfing the internet for information. I use links as part of my daily education process, quick, easy, sent by respected members of my network community.

In return, I send out information that I found interesting or helpful. That information was valuable to me, but how to analysis the value to my network community? Sure, many times I get tweets of appreciation or DM’s, but that is not a analysis by any means.

In compiling a database of social media applications, I came upon Tweetburner. It provides information on your most popular URL’s shared on Twitter, historical statistics, and more.

The first rule in using this application is the requirement of sending links in the shortened URL format “Twurl”. Twurl? Yes, you guessed it, not the format I had been using for the past eight months. A little frustrating to start a test with no history to view, however once I sent out five new links, I had plenty to help me evaluate Tweetburner.

Tweetburners Home Page

Let visit the Tweetburner home page. On the home page of Tweetburner, you can view the generated Twurl’s to date, Twurl ‘s recently shared, most popular and top 10 URLs in the past hour.
Here is what you can view :

•    Current number of Twurls
•    Number of times Twurls have been clicked
•    Most popular Twirls in the last hour
•    Top 10 URLs with most clicks in the last hour
•    Recently shared Twurls

Now that we have teased you with Tweetburner ‘s main page, let us set up your free account and view your own Twitter and Friendfeed statistics.

Create Your Free Account

Let us start by creating your FREE account. This is a two step process:

Step 1 - Go to the Tweetburner website and click on “Create An Account”. Keep it simply and use your Twitter login and password.

Step 2 - Customize your Tweetburner account to include Twitter and Friendfeed. Here is the information you will need on hand:

•    Twitter Name & Password
•    Friendfeed User Name
•    Friendfeed remote key.

What’s a remote key? A remote key is a password to share with third-party applications and other websites, which allows them to interact with your account with limits. This is much safer than supplying your password.

Your Stats

Your account is now set up. Let us look around at YOUR user statistics. Start by clicking on the “Your stats” tab.

•    Clicks on user’s Twurls last week
•    Number of Twurls shared in the past Two weeks
•    YOUR top 5 Twurls
•    Latest Twurls

Please Note: As previously stated, if your historical links were shortened using any format, other than “Twurl”, you will not see a history. To begin tracking your history, set your application to send links in a “Twurl” format.

Account Sign Out

To sign out of your account, simply click on the button “Signout”. Obviously self explanatory, but I wanted to complete ALL the tabs.

One wonderful thing about Twitter is the ability to interact and learn from your community. I find Tweetburner to be useful in evaluating the usefulness of my URL links. How do you evaluate the usefulness of the URL’s you send in your Tweets to share? What other tools have your discovered and why do you find them beneficial? Do see Tweetburner as a value to helping you engage more effectively? Would appreciate your feedback. If you found this post helpful, please consider subscribing to our feed.

Twitter to Enhance your Social Network

Tawny Press — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:14:59 +0000

You have selected a Social Networking service, created your profile, selected a photo of yourself and invited your contacts to join your network. Now you have built a network! Congratulations!

The network you have created is an important one. You have invited people to become part of your network community, so what is your plan? How are you going engage with your community?

Being active and engaging in your community is vitally important. The same time you invest in your personal face to face relationships, you will need to invest in growing and enhancing your online relationship.

Twitter is an exceptional tool to engage community. Why Twitter? It allows you to communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build relationships. People share many aspects of themselves on Twitter, much more than the carefully planned bio on their profiles. Twitter allows you to gain unique insight and open the doors to many new relationships quickly.

Overview of Twitter Basics

Account – Setup a free Twitter account.
Name – Pick a meaningful user name that you can use in all of your networks. Be consistent.
Avatar/Photo – Be easily recognizable. Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications.
Bio – Complete your one line bio, telling visitors a little about yourself.
Location – Put your location in your profile. This will help local Twitter users locate you.
About You Page/URL – Add a URL to allow people to learn more about YOU.
Customize Twitter – Create a custom background and promote your brand.
Invite Your Connections – Locate your connections on Twitter and invite non Twitter users to join in the conversation.
Set Notices – Set your notice preferences for followers.
Promote Your Twitter Account – Promote the fact you are on Twitter on your networks, in groups and in the Twitter Yellow Pages.
Managing Tweets – Simple tools to help you engage with the community.

Let’s Get Started

1. Account

Set up a free Twitter account or consider getting several accounts and avoid others from obtaining your brand, domain, product names, etc.
Twitter names/ID’s are getting as popular as Domain names. The best way to protect your brand is to reserve your name now. Twitter allows you to register one user name per email. Have other email addresses available to this purpose.

2. Name

Keep User Names Consistent. Use your real name, company name, blog title or a brand name. Be consistent between networks. It is much easier to develop relationships with your network, when they immediately recognize you across applications.
Seriously, using your real name on Linkedin, nickname on Flickr, and yet another on Twitter gets confusing for the best of us. Same goes true to avatar photos, be consistent.

3. Avatar/Photo

Select a photo and use it consistently over all other social applications. Be easily recognizable. In most cases an avatar in a 100 x 100 pixel size, in a JPG, GIF or PNG format, works across most applications, but there are exceptions.

Example: A 100 x 100 pixel size photo appears pixilated in TweetDeck’s larger profile window. Using a larger size of 1000 x 1000 file size, not exceeding 700 k, works best overall.

Special thanks to my friend Simon Salt, for allowing me to feature him as my example.

4. Bio

Complete your one line bio in fewer than 160 characters. People will look at your bio and by this brief description decide whether or not to follow you or engage in conversation. Make your bio interesting, by being “REAL”. Not everyone works 24 x 7, so put a mix of interests in your bio. Even business people have interests in sports, arts, family fun, pets, video games, gardening, etc.

5. Location

Put your location in your profile. Include the name of your city and state, or at minimum the county and state. This will help Twitter users locate you and your business on TwitterLocal.

6. About You Page/URL

Create URL to allow people to learn more about you. In Twitter you can add one link. Which link to choose? What is best, website, blog or one of the many other profiles you have created? Which one is best?

Connect to all of them. How? Create a custom landing page, just about you, and provide links to all of your social profiles. A little thought goes a long way. Make it easy for people to find, learn, engage and connect with you.

Please, avoid creating a link that appears like spam, which will turn people off immediately.

7. Customize Twitter

Let us not forget the “Visual” aspect of you or and your brand. Continue with the consistency with a custom background to match your website brand. It can be enhanced to be a , company logo or personality. Caution: Avoid creating a background that looks like a “sales” piece. The appearance of spam is a turn off to many.

Creating your background

In this example, we used Adobe Illustrator, but any graphic software will work if you can export into GIF, JPG or PNG format.

Format: GIF, JPG, PNG.” Images must be smaller than 800k.
Canvas Dimension: 795 px by 400 px (this was viewed on 15, 21 & 23” monitors)
Top Branding Dimensions: 39.428 px by 795-821 px

Change Design Colors

Select colors that enhance custom background graphic. You can change the RGB colors for the background behind your graphic, text, link colors, sidebar background fill and sidebar border.

To activate the color wheel, click on one of the fields; background, text, links, sidebar or sidebar border. Click on the color wheel to select the desired color. The color wheel will put the appropriate web or RGB colors in the appropriate field. You can also directly input your web hex color information if you have it available.

Important note: until you SAVE CHANGES, your preferences will not be changed. If you do not like your selections, CANCEL and begin again.

8. Invite Your Connections

Locate your connections on Twitter and invite non Twitter users to join in the conversation.
You can import your contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and MSN. Note: if you use Outlook, you can export your CSV file and import into one of these free services.

9. Notices of Tweets in your timeline

These settings allow you to control the replies that appear in your timeline.

In the notices section of your settings page, you can choose how you will see the @replies of others. You have three options:

all @replies: see all of the @replies made by people you follow, whether or not you follow the person to whom the reply is directed.
@replies to the people I’m following: see @replies from people you follow directed toward other people that you also follow. This is the default setting.
no @replies: never see any @replies in your timeline, ever

10. Promote Your Twitter Account

Twellow

Twellow is like the Twitter Yellow Pages. You can search by name, Twitter user or by category. Members can set up a brief bio or an extended profile with links to a variety of their social networks. , as well as your web or blog URL’s.

Communication Materials

Email Signature – Include your twitter name in your email signature. A simple and professional signature can be created with WiseStamp a Firefox extension enables you to easily customize & add personalized email signatures on any webmail service (Gmail ,Yahoo ,Aol mail, Hotmail).

Business Cards – Include your twitter address near your blog and/or website information. One Twitter user @adellecharles, suggested if your card has too much information and it begins to look busy, you could consider adding a Twit Bird as a symbol. I love this idea!

As @Twalk said, “Many of us operate in multiple niches, so why not have mult. biz cards”. This is a great idea. Going to an event or conference, want more than your normal biz card has on it? Try Moo cards.

Join a Twitter User Group

Facebook has a group named “Twitter”, with over 8745 members.
LinkedIn has several pages of groups, one prominent group Tweeple, has over 1700 members.

11. Managing Tweets

There are a variety of desktop and mobile applications that will help you organize and manage your Twitter communications are available.

TweetDeck – My favorite and most valuable tool is TweekDeck. Why? I can create different columns and categorize my followers, topics of discussion, clients, etc. Plus the added benefit of having Twitscoop built directly in the application and the expanded profile viewing in the side panel.
Twirl – This application also runs on Adobe Air, but is a compact version, taking up much less room on your monitor.
Twitter RSS feed – Keep up with Twitter updates by subscribing to Twitter via RSS Feed. You can subscribe to any Twitter user or even track your own feed.

Just go to the users page and click on the RSS feed at the bottom left hand side of their page. Note: You do not have to follow them, to get their feed.

Closing

Now that you are easily recognizable, linked to your network connections, promoted your account so others can locate you easily, you are ready to begin engaging with your community.

You can communicate in real-time, share information, get help to questions and build stronger relationships.

Writing this post was a great re-check of myself, soon realizing I had been a bit lax in following my own advice. I found a few of my avatar photos were not consistent, my landing page needs work and I will consider a new style of business cards with room for my Twitter address, or at minimum a Twitter Symbol.

People are creative, with creative ideas, what are yours? How do you promote yourself on Twitter? How do you manage your Twitter steam? What tools and tricks work best for you?

Does anyone have the perfect background size for all monitors? I tested 15” to 23”, but there must be an overall method that fits all? No?

Look forward to hearing your tips and tricks!

Innoventions | Weekly Observations

Basics to Purchasing a Domain

What is a Domain?

Domain Value

Domain Costs

Domain Management

Select a Certified Register

Standard or Private Registration

Avoid Front Running

Length of Registration

Registrar Suggestions

Social Media Perspectives Have Changed

Learning from 7 Random Things….

Simon Salt, Incslinger

Russ Sumers, Hoovers

Cheryl Smith, Culture Smith Consulting

Rosina, Baby Friendly LA

Mel Aclaro, Business Casual Blog

Mack Collier, The Viral Garden

Shannon Paul, Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog

Dana Coffey, Crazee Geek Chick

Amber Naslund , Altitude

Sonny Gill

Tim Walker, Hoovers Business Insight Z

Aaron Strout, Citizen Marketer 2.1

Scott Monty, The Social Media Marketing Blog

Brent Schlenker, Corporate eLearning Strategies & Develpment

Laura P. Thomas, LTP

Cammy Bean, Learning Visions

Ken Burbary, Web Business by Ken Burbary

Chris Brogan

Questions:

Enhance Comments with Twitter Link

Download Plugin Files

Install the Plugin

Activation & Setup

Comment.php Modification

Twitter Added to your Comments:

Related articles by Zemanta

7 Random Things

1 – Wisconsin Summers

2– Best Friends 30+ Years

3 – I love animals

4 –My Genealogy Library

5 – The Joy of Baking

6- Love of Ceramics & Sculpture

7 – A Few things my husband would like you to know…..

Get Creative with Your Twitter Background

Sonny Gill

Armano

Mayhem Studios

Michael Bertoldi

Amber Naslund (aka AmberCadabra)

Cheryl Smith

Need help creating a custom or semi custom background?

Conclusion

Related articles:

The Secret Is Out – Social Media Is Work

BrowserShots – Is Your Blog Browser Compatible?

BrowserShots.Org

Lets Get Start

Screenshot Request Group

Queue Completed

View Details by Browser

Tweetburner – Tracking Shared Twitter Links

Tweetburners Home Page

Create Your Free Account

Your Stats

Archive

Account Sign Out

Related articles:

Twitter to Enhance your Social Network

Overview of Twitter Basics

Let’s Get Started

1. Account

2. Name

3. Avatar/Photo

4. Bio

5. Location

6. About You Page/URL