…If you’re a Twitter user, it’s a great way to get more followers and support your favorite Twitter apps. If you’re a Twitter app developer, it’s a simple way to start monetizing your application.

The basic idea is that Twitter users can gain exposure and followers by paying to have their Twitter details show up on various Twitter app websites. The idea is simple, cheap, and will not turn you into a Twitter superstar overnight. However, it’s a great way to help support 3rd party Twitter apps and gain some followers in the process.

As Twitter spam is on the rise, many are quick to denounce anything that even looks like spam on Twitter (and usually with good reason). This kind of Twitter ad network is a great alternative to spamming people directly on Twitter. Advertising yourself here still gets your name in front of a highly targeted audience (Twitter users) without cluttering up people’s tweet streams.

In a way, FeaturedUsers.com helps keep spam out of your twitter stream. And that should make any tweep happy.

Check ‘em out over at FeaturedUsers.com.

After you sign-up to win, I’d highly recommend browsing the website for a little bit. No matter what your technical skill level is, noobie.com is one website you’ll want to bookmark and return to again and again. Patric has put together one of the few local sites that always makes me pause and think, “wow, he has put a lot of time and effort into building this website.”

From articles and blog posts to events and personal coaching services, Mr. Noobie is full of relevant and easy-to-understand guides to just about anything technology related. If you are the kind of person that likes to figure stuff out on your own, but sometimes needs a little help, I highly recommend noobie.com.

That, and a chance to win a Nintendo Wii… what more excuse do you need?

Seems simple enough. The problem was that if you (like myself) simply want to skip giving your own grade and just view the results, something unexpected happens. By clicking “Next” without selecting a grade, you automatically submit a grade of F!

Oops! At the time of taking this screenshot early this morning, over 16,000 visitors had voted. How many of them had accidentally graded someone with an F? Both candidates had an average grade of D, which leads me to believe that a significant number of people simply clicked next.

While I’m sure this gaffe is the result of rushing to put together a widget, it isn’t like the debates were a surprise. As an update, I’ve noticed that CNN has now corrected the problem by requiring the user to either select a grade before the “Next” button becomes active, or clicking a “View results” link which does not auto-select a grade in the process.

With that being said, a business parter and I have had our eyes on a particular domain name that is perfect for a future expansion of our current project, IndyDads.com. The domain name we wanted was DadNation.com. I’ll let your capable mind explore exactly what our future idea is with this domain instead of writing about it here. As luck would have it, the domain was up for expiration last month and I was excited at the prospect of snagging it. This is where I ran into trouble.

I was all ready to go. I had my domain name backorder set through GoDaddy and was just waiting for the good news. Now, I understand a thing or two about how competitive the domain name aftermarket can be and that for most good domains, it’s difficult and expensive to snap up expiring names. However, I figured with the relatively low demand for this domain, I would have no problem getting it. I knew I was in trouble when I received my very first email from a domain taster.

Because I had already registered DadNation.org, the domain taster’s automated system had managed to snap up the dot com AND generate a marketing email to me explaining that I could acquire the dot com easily by purchasing it through their company. The asking price? $997!

Ouch! No way. Perhaps if I was some big company that just had to have the domain, $997 wouldn’t seem like so much. But, for a side-project that is mostly a labor of love, that is out of the question.

So, I figured I had lost the domain for good. But, the way the email was written, I figured it was a form letter and not an actual human sending me the message. Two days later, I received another email that was similar, but contained a slightly more urgent call to action. I did some research on domain tasters and confirmed that they indeed only had 5 days to return their domains for a refund. Also, based on what I had read, often times domain tasters base the value of a domain off of the traffic hitting the domain. So, I was careful to neither visit the domain DadNation.com or respond to any of the emails.

I held my breath for 2 more days (not literally).

Then, on August 3rd, I received an email from GoDaddy alerting me that the name servers had changed to GoDaddy name servers! Then, another email telling me my backorder had been successful! It worked! The domain taster returned the domain after getting nothing out of me and I was able to register it for the normal price.

Having lost good domains in the past to a variety of frustrating reasons, it was nice to actually win one (and without spending a small fortune). While I’m sure the situation would change depending on the exact domain name in question, but my parting advice is that your best weapon against a domain taster is patience and silence (and an active backorder on the domain).

For some reason, I’m not! I’m actually excited! Focused. Determined. I feel like we’ve really run into a wall, but I think of all the other people who have given up and turned away because of it. This is where we prove how innovative and creative we are. We have to throw away our conventional thoughts on solving our problem and get a little crazy. If we can solve this problem, we’ll be in great shape and will greatly multiply our success.

I know this is all vague. I just needed to share a business epiphany I’ve had today where I feel I’ve turned a corner on how I handle problems. Instead of taking the easy road and giving up on an idea, I feel compelled to charge ahead.

I think this will be fun. More details eventually.

I am generally a modest person. However, I have to declare that Blog Indiana 2008 was a success. I still haven’t taken the time to dig through the boxes of stuff we crammed into my truck as we rushed to clean up and exit the building before it closed on Sunday. Though, I’m pretty sure we topped 160 attendees total by the time the weekend was over. We had an article in the Indianapolis Star on Saturday that drove a good number of people to register at the door on Saturday and Sunday (something we had originally planned not to do, but glad we did!).

The Good

By far, my absolute favorite aspect of the entire weekend was getting to meet and talk with so many of you. Even though I spent a fair amount of time running around the place making sure everything was running smoothly, the personal interactions and random conversations with local (and not so local) bloggers was so much fun. Meeting so many people I only know on Twitter and through blogs was interesting and strangely comforting.

Seeing the hard work that Shawn and I put in to creating a conference that, from face to face conversations and the majority of our received surveys, was well received and enjoyed by the attendees was a dream come true. We’ve never put on a conference before and we had to make some decisions without really knowing what was best. It looks like most of them worked out and most people seemed to get a lot out of the event.

It is also worth pointing out that I learned a great deal about how much of any of my success in life is because of the never ending support of my wife. She is the reason I am able to push myself to do the things I want to do in life. Her only complaint with this conference was that I didn’t let her take some of the stress off of my shoulders sooner. She was invaluable in the weeks leading up to the conference and was a life saver the days of. She is new to blogging, so feel free to stop by her site and leave a comment!

The Bad

The only truly “bad” part of the entire weekend was wireless internet issues. Sure, some sessions were better than others, we forgot to check for random marathons occuring in the city, and Shawn & I probably figit too much on stage. But, the wifi was really bad. So, I’ll take this moment to apologize. I’m usually the first person to roll my eyes and say “How hard is it to get WIFI right, people?!” at any conference that screws it up. And, while I won’t go into the reasons why we had so much trouble here, I will say that wifi WILL work at any future event we put together. Top of my list. I might still figit a little on stage, but, by God, we’ll have working wifi next time.

The Future

The survey results we’ve received so far have been outstanding. Not just in that people really enjoyed the conference, but we are getting great feedback on how to improve. Believe me when I say that we are reading every single survey and will be compiling a list of every idea and suggestion.

So what is next? Let’s just say there is a lot of wind in our sails right now and we’ll be getting to work on our plans for next year this month. I’d love to drop hints, but we still haven’t formally met to discuss the future. We do have some big ideas that I think you’ll be interested in.

With that said, if you have an interest in lending your talents to help us in planning, generating ideas, speaking, or sponsoring the next conference, don’t hesitate to drop me an email at noah (at) blogindiana (dot) com.

Photos (see many more at the Flickr Photo pool and Photrade Group)

Sell photos on photrade | By HamWithCam

Ever since I discovered Photrade.com through their sponsorship of Blog Indiana, I’ve been admiring the service and slowly starting to use it. My main interest in the service is the ability for bloggers to find great photography and easily place it on their blog or website. Many bloggers just grab images from Google Image Search or where ever they can find them without consideration for the legal implications of using photos without permission. With Photrade, the permission is built-in.

On the other side, photographers (professional and amateur) can profit off not only your free usage of their photos, but the integrated marketplace allowing their photos to be licensed/sold at prices they can control. All photos can be watermarked with a custom mark that helps protect everyone’s photos. If someone wants to purchase the right to use your photo without the watermark, Photrade facilitates that purchase in an automated way.

I believe this new service, which is just now in beta, has huge potential. Below, I humbly submit some feedback from what I’ve experienced so far.

• I love the ability to search for blog post images and easily post into my blog. I would love stronger integration the way flickr lets you make blog posts about a photo directly to your self-hosted blog.
• Please, please, please release an API. I think a killer application for Photrade would be a Wordpress plugin that would let me browse Photrade’s database of photos straight from my “Create New Post” screen. Then, just a button click drops the photo into my blog post.
• It would be great if the framing and links that accompany an embedded Photrade photo could be customized. I’d just like to see the style, spacing, and fonts be a little better styled (or give me control).
• The uploader works pretty well and it is fairly fast (as they claim). However, it would be great if they could add some kind of counter letting me know how many photos I’ve uploaded and if any had any errors. Also, once the uploads are done, there is nothing prompting me as to what to do next.
• A more detailed, expanded view of all my photo view activity and their earnings.
• And last but not least… I can’t wait until the Flickr integration is complete! That is what is really keeping me from using Photrade to full potential. I have a pro account at Flickr and use it for ALL my photos. Being able to import photos directly from Flickr would make Photrade my 2nd favorite photo app (maybe my first, depending on the size of my next royalty check!)

Of course, the site is still beta, and is still amazing. I highly suggest you check it out: Photrade.com

While planning for the Blog Indiana conference next month, an idea was put forth about a creative way to have some fun with a normal networking event. The concept involves having people wear “tags” or keywords representing areas of expertise or knowledge they have.

The idea is if everyone wears 2-3 tags, others will easily see who knows what and it will prompt discussions that may not have otherwise happened. We’ve been calling this concept PeopleTagging.

For example, I may see someone at a networking event who is tagged with “videocasting” or “photography.” Both are areas I have an interest in, but am only at the hobbyist level. I would definitely want to strike up a conversation with those two. Whereas, normally in a crowded room of people, I may have never had the chance to randomly start chatting with that person.

This concept may also work well as a replacement for name tags (or word just below/above name tags).

At the Blog Indiana conference next month, we’ll be trying this concept out with actual buttons attendees will get to “tag” themselves with during the conference. Think of it as a conference-long networking booster! You can read more about our plans at our conference blog.

What are some unique activities you’ve seen at networking events?

For some reason, I tend to be fascinated with other people’s business cards. I love seeing how creative people can be in such a small amount of space with such a specific purpose. I never seem to be happy enough with the business cards I design for myself and am considering a redo sometime soon. I thought I’d share one of the websites I came across that gives some amazing examples of simple, stunning, and memorable business card designs that should give anyone a creative kick in the pants.

36 Cool Business Cards You Should’ve Seen

Sell photos on photrade | By noah

Sell photos on photrade | By noah