Enklings Studio

How Do I Connect With Thee?

Let me count the ways...

Friend me, facebook me, tweet me, link me, myspace me, google me, youtube me, yahoo me, IM me, plurk me, twine me, reddit me, stumble upon me, digg me, flicker me, delicio.us me, blink me, rss me, furl me, fark me, blog me, post me, text me.... (yes, I know there's 100 more)

I'm not sure this is what Elizabeth Barrett Browning had in mind.  With all the opportunity for connection, the world should be a better place, shouldn't it?  Perhaps we spend too much time connecting with each other and not enough loving each other.  Time will tell....

Simply,

Tim

Wix.com

When you get a chance, check out Wix.com.  Here's a simple and easy way for you to put up a very nice website quickly and inexpensively.  I'm using this for a couple of clients as well as myself. 

Simply,

Tim

Is Your RSS Feed Optimized?

FEED Validator

You can find a lot about your blog RSS feed by running a simple test from Feed Validator .  It shows you whether your feed is working properly, which it probably is, but more than that it gives you tips on how well your blog is optiized for feeds.  Simply put your "feed" address into the Feed Validator and it will tell you whether the feed is working and also if there are any issues with your blog that might not be optimal.  You can find your RSS feed address by clink on the "Subscribe" or "RSS Feed" links on you blog webpage.

Most of your readers are probably using Google Reader or some other application that uses an RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed, so optimizing your blog to make sure it feeds properly is a key to maximizing readership.

Simply,

Tim

Twine and Twitter Connected with Twitterfeed

Say that 5 times fast!  But seriously, all these technologies can get overwhelming if you don't add a little automatic magic to help you.

I've found that Twine is a valuable tool for me as I do research for clients to collect websites in a central location , make notes and have the websites accessible to me and anyone I choose to allow to join the Twine. 

I do actually Twitter for food since I also write web content and handle social networking for a few clients.  Twine allows me to quickly save relevant websites and make quick comments and through a Twitterfeed connection to Twitter by using the RSS feed on Twine. I'm able to feed the Twitter accounts with content I find and save on Twine automatically.  I can also choose to feed a Twitter account with any other public Twine through an RSS feed if I chose to.

Confused?  It's really much more simple than it sounds.

If you go to my Twitter account - @thelifesimple you'll see several entries that start with TLS Twine.  These are automatic feeds from my Twine account for The Life Simple.  When I'm looking at information on the web about sustainability, organics, etc. I save them through the simple application Twine adds to your browser (see the demo video here) and I have set up a Twitterfeed (see the demo here that explains how to use RSS feeds and Twitterfeed) to automatically update twitter.

To take it one step further, my Twitter account updates my Facebook account, so with one post to Twine, I'm feeding content to my other social networking sites.  I also feed Twitter and Facebook through twitterfeed with my blogs which saves me a step - same usage of my RSS feeds.

It may not seem like a big deal, but when you have a dozen accounts your trying to keep straight for different businesses, the more automated you can be, the more time you have to actually create good content.

Shoot me an e-mail if you need some help: tblair@enklings.com

simply, (well, as simple as I can make this!)

Tim

100 Words Not To Use In Email Subject Lines

Here's a great list of words that spam filter's catch when you use them in the subject line of your e-mails:

http://tinyurl.com/cuz7ex

An email I sent to 5 people that I know this week was sent to spam filter because I used the word "Hot" in the subject line.  You should know that with the recent updates Microsoft has sent out for the Outlook Spam Filter, the filter is catching a LOT of emails that are not spam, but look like it. 

You'll need to be extra diligent these days in checking your spam filters and also following up on emails that don't get responses.  It's quite possible Outlook thinks your a spammer...don't take it personally.

simply,

Tim

(for a history of Spam go here)  : )

#Hashtags

If you're a Tweeter, there is a pretty cool site that tracks Hashtags within tweets.  It allows you to see the most popular and newest hashtags along with searching.  Here is the explanation from  hashtags.org:

Hashtags was designed to accommodate the real-time news community. We provide analytic reports and indexing features to allow users to track what's happening now.

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

You need to follow the #hashtags user on Twitter for it to work.

I've been playing with this for a couple of days to see the value.  The jury is still out, but it does help organize Twitter a bit if you're looking for something particular or you want to find people to follow that think like you or have the same interest.

Worth checking out!

simply,

Tim
enklings.com