Archive for February, 2007

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Challenge Completed

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 The challenge that I set myself at the beginning of February, to blog a post a day for the month, has been successfully completed. In fact, including this post I will have put 30 articles out there this month. So what have I gained by this? I have almost doubled the content of my Blog, learnt a lot about my own writing habits and have found a lot more blogs that I want to keep reading via my research. Hopefully my technique has improved, though due to time constraints on certain days I was not too happy about the quality of some of the articles I put out there. I think I have found my personal rhythm of posting, which I think will be more like two or three times a week rather than every day, allowing myself more time to put my posts together in a way that I can be happy with. My challenge to myself for March will be to try and post a comment on at least one blog per day, something that will add to the conversation rather than just "I agree". Any other challenges you would like to recommend for April?

Sharing with divShare

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 The other day I had planned to write an article about divShare on WordPress, but being unable to get it to work in its Beta format I had to delay my article, but now they have released the full version 1.0 everything seems to be working right, for me anyways.
After three days of very productive Beta testing, the DivShare Uploader Plugin for Wordpress is officially moving up to version 1.0. Thanks to everyone who helped out!
So what is divShare? This plugin allows you to post your blog images directly from your divShare account or upload an image or file via a new interface on your admin "Write" page, as demonstrated in this capture: So far it seems to work better than the standard uploader that is provided with the WP install, though I will need to do a little more testing to see how I get on with accessing pictures on my account. Have you tried divShare? How have you got on with it so far?

Clip-clopping around the ‘net

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 In my Google Alerts today I found an interesting article about clipmarks, a social network type site that is also a very useful Blogging tool, see the demo below of a clip from the article that led me to them:
clipped from home.nestor.minsk.by

The Clip-to-Blog feature makes it easy for people to add fresh content to their blogs. When users come across something on the Web that they want to add to their site, they can instantly Clip-to-Blog it, eliminating the back and forth of copy and paste. The service is compatible with all leading blogging platforms, including Blogger, Wordpress and all Six Apart services (TypePad, LiveJournal, Movable Type, and Vox).
It is a very easy to use little tool that can be added to your Firefox browser. When using the clipper you can customise the CSS to a certain extent, which helps to stop the clips you post to your blog being too jarring, note that the border and link colours are in line with my current theme. The version I am using is v2.0, so if you have used this service in the past you may want to update. The site itself does also act as a social network, a bit of a Digg type site that allows other members to vote on any publicly saved clips that you may make to your profile. All in all a pretty good tool to have in your box of tricks, though an option of whether to post or save as a draft would be a helpful addition. Give it a go yourselves and let me know what you think. Do you use a similar tool that you would recommend I try?

Finding the words

Monday, February 26th, 2007 I am having a little trouble finding something to blog about today. I was planning on writing about the divShare WordPress plug-in, but having set up an account with them and installing it I then found that I couldn't get it to work. Every time I uploaded an image and tried to add it to my post it was rejected and the plug-in interface disappeared, so I guess I will have to try and work out what I am doing wrong before I get to do a post on that feature. So I thought as I couldn't think what else to write about, I would write about writing, looking at finding a subject, how to get your post underway, what it should include and how to wind it up.
  • Finding something to blog about
I start off with my Google Alerts in my e-mails, flagging anything of particular interest in Outlook and clicking through to the links that I feel may be of some interest. Some of these get "flecked" by me to look at again later. Then I go to my Google Reader to see if there is anything going on in the news, in the real world or cyber world, that I might want to blog, "starring" those items of particular interest so that I can find them more easily later on. Having done this I can now usually decide what I am going to use as my subject for the day, leaving me to do a bit of "googling" around the interweb to see what anyone else has to say on the subject, saving some links that might be useful later when I start to write.
  • Beginnings
Now when it comes to actually writing my post I always find that the best thing to do is to begin, which may sound pretty obvious but can sometimes be the hardest step. Have you ever found yourself just sitting there, staring at the blank screen with the cursor blinking? Don't. Just start typing, get something down and go back and change it later if you need to.
  • Content 
Every post should have a beginning, middle and end. Once again, very obvious, but having begun it can sometimes be hard to work out where you are going with an article, where you want to end up. A basic guide should be somewhat like this:
  1. Tell your readers what you are going to blog about
  2. Blog about it
  3. Tell them what you have blogged
In other words, make sure that you let your readers know early on, preferably in your title/first few sentences what the subject matter is. Then tell them about the subject. Then in conclusion do a recap, but sum it all up in one or two sentences, don't labour your point, just make sure you have made it. Sometimes when I come to write my ending I realise that I haven't really explained the subject clearly enough, leading me to do a re-write, so I find that technique quite handy. Also, when writing the body of your post try to have a clear idea in your own mind as to why the subject should be of importance to your readers, explain how they will be benefited, how you benefited. If you find you can't do this, maybe it would be a good idea to scrap the post altogether, because if you can't find a good reason to write it nobody will find a good reason to read it. As to length, that will be determined by your subject, but always bear in mind that your introduction should be fairly brief, no more than a paragraph or two, and that your conclusion should not really need to be any longer than one or two sentences, leaving the body of your post to do most of your talking for you.
  • Continuing the Conversation 
And as a final thought, with a blog post always try to leave a question at the end, allowing your readers to be more than just spectators. Putting my own advice into practice, how do you go about finding your subjects, what techniques do you use to overcome "writers block", and are there any particular techniques you use to compose your posts?

Setting Blog Goals

Sunday, February 25th, 2007 Well I am almost done with my Blogging Challenge of a post every day for the month of February, I think I have learned and gained from the experience, and I hope my blog has too. Already I am trying to think of some new projects to set myself for the next month or so, there are some good ideas that I saw in an article posted over on Glenn Wolsey's blog that may help me set some long term goals. Of the six ideas that Glenn posted in his article I think I may concentrate on "New Relationships Made" for the immediate future, set myself a "Blogging Challenge" of leaving a comment on at least one blog per-day for the month of March. Go take a look at the article yourselves and remember to check back to see what ideas other bloggers add to the list. Thanks to Daily Blog Tips for pointing me in Glenn's direction. :-)

Weekly(?) life

Saturday, February 24th, 2007 I haven't got around to doing a "week in my life" post for a while now so I thought I would try and correct matters today, and also give the "wp-amazon" plug-in another run out.
  • Watching: "Rescue Me" Season One              Rescue Me - Series 1
  • Listening: Nora Jones CD "Not Too Late" Not Too Late [Deluxe Edition]
  • Reading: Linda Barnes "Heart Of The World" Heart of the World (Carlotta Carlyle Mystery)
All links to Amazon.co.uk are affiliate links, earning me a few pennies if you choose to purchase any of these products and costing you not a penny more. :-)

Open ID, your Passport to the net?

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

openID

Do you remember Microsoft's Passport.NET? It was a pretty good idea, create one user account that can be used at all websites, no need to make multiple accounts around the interweb, and best of all, just the one password to remember! But it didn't take off. It's still around, though it now mostly goes under the name LiveID. Not that many sites ever implemented it and those that did soon noted how under-used this service was and dropped it. These days it is really only usable in Micosoft's own services such as MSN (aka Windows Live Messenger) and Hotmail (aka Windows Live Mail). But in the virtual life of the web world good ideas never die, they just get a Web 2.0 makeover. ;-) And so we arrive at OpenID, the same basic tenet, one account and one password. In fact, though you may not realise it you could already have an openID account! Live Journal and Zooomr are just a couple of many sites that allow you to use your current account as an openID. Will this incarnation prove to be any more sustainable than Microsoft's attempt? At the moment it appears this may well be the case with Microsoft themselves still seeing the need for such a service and will be supporting openID:
On the heels of the Windows® CardSpace™ general availability launch in Windows Vista™, Microsoft demonstrated momentum with industry partners that are working to apply this technology to help consumers realize a more confident online experience. This includes the announcement of collaboration on use of Windows CardSpace with the OpenID 2.0 specification. Through the support of the WS-Trust-based Windows CardSpace experience, consumers can take advantage of increased security against phishing attacks without adding complexity to their identity management experience. Also at the conference, Wachovia Corp., Arcot Systems Inc. and Corillian Corp. showcased a proof of concept demonstration using Windows CardSpace to deliver a simpler and safer online banking experience for customers.
With AOL signing on, Firefox 3.0 promising integrated OpenID support, Yahoo getting in on the act and up-and-coming sites such as Digg, NetVibes and SmugMug signing on it looks as though this one might be here to stay. Some still have worries over the security of the project but most concerns appear to of been addressed, so I went and signed myself up with an account at MyOpenID.com. General Info. Brad Fitzpatrick who kicked off LiveJournal is the original developer of the current system. Simon Willison has posted a Quicktime Video demo of how openID works that you can view here. As a P.S. for those who feel they will miss the opportunity to create all those new accounts in the future, don't despair, go get yourself a Useless Account, which does. . . absolutely nothing! :-)

wp-amazon plugin

Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 A little while ago I came across an article on the wp-amazon plugin, though for the life of me I can't remember where. Anyways, I made a mental note to give this one a try at some point as it looked like a very useful tool. What is it good for?
Have you ever wanted an easy way to link to a book, movie, or product that’s relevant to what you’re writing about? Typically, this is a pretty cumbersome task—open up a browser, go to Amazon, look for the product you’re interested in, copy the URL, then paste the link to your entry. Not anymore. With WP-Amazon, the Amazon product catalog is available right from WordPress. This plugin will allow you to search Amazon as you compose your post or page entry.
Sounded pretty good to me, so I have now added it to my site. Check out the demo video on their page too, it's a surprisingly easy and versatile tool. If you have an associate id with Amazon this can be integrated in the "Options" area of your admin. It is now fully functional for WordPress v 2.1 but there are still other versions available here for those who may have chosen not to upgrade yet, or maybe can't due to some problem with their website host. There is also a Google Group support forum. So, here is my first attempt, and if I can do it, so can you. Wordpress Complete Do you use a similar tool on your blog? Do you use it to monetise your site or just to add a feature to your posts?

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