Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

I saw through my Twitter stream someone using Gowalla, and was curious to what it was all about. Gowalla (@gowalla on Twitter) is a site made for people to share where they are in the world. Might sound a bit like telling too much or a way for people to become a bit stalker-ish, but those on the go and use to being social, this is a way to allow people who are interested to know more about you.

You can share if you had a beer or shopped at places like the Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Or if you have been to a place that has not been covered, you can create a place, or as they say at Gowalla, ‘pin’ a place.

The site is really user-friendly and allows you the option of connecting your Gowalla account with your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The systems is even courteous enough to check through your followers to see if anyone is using the system, so you can friend them at Gowalla too!

Gowalla even has a couple phone apps for users to be able to check-in and automatically update on their profile.

Have you tried Gowalla? What do you think of it?

So Google seems to be seriously looking into reasons why they should stay in or pull out of China. Whether it is the right thing for Google to pull out of China for business reasons as mentioned in TechCrunch, or for the greater good – the fact is that Google can do what they like.

Hacking happens all the time. Ten years ago, we were raving about Yahoo! getting hacked on New Year’s Eve. I remember that because I was online as it was happening and was in shock like the rest of the users on. I have nothing really against China. Their economy is growing and yeah, I wish the United States could be in the same situation, but for any of our home grown companies to venture to another country, it is not my problem to judge Google if they pull out of China.

While some would say that Google is not profiting well in China, and others argue it is stupid to pull out because the country has 1/6 of the world’s population – who cares. If Google pulls out, what can the common techy online do – NOTHING (but grouch about it.)

Perhaps as mentioned in the TechCrunch link above (and I will put a quote from it):

This may be the most shocking part: In retrospect Yahoo has played China far better than Google. It pulled out of the country years ago, knowing it wouldn’t win and owns nearly 40% of the Alibaba, a company that very definitely knows how to grow in China. Entrepreneur and angel investor in China Bill Bishop —who hasn’t always agreed with my China coverage in the past—pointed this out, adding “Not often Yahoo looks smarter than Google.”

Perhaps Google could learn from this and invest smartly in Chinese web companies as Yahoo! has.

What do you think?

Recently I read an article on TechCrunch called The 100 Millionth Deviation on DeviantART Is A Gay Sex Story, But I’m Going To Show You This Arctic Unicorn Instead. I would not tell them to retract their article, but I will say it was the dumbest thing next up to the other sites they have bagged on without looking at it from more perspectives. In fact, the last major act of idiocy was publishing that they had been privy to information that had been hacked from Twitter.

I do want to note that TechCrunch is not a site that is known to not be bias, so when you read what their writers have to say, you only get that one-sided feel. However, TechCrunch is a very informative site that tries to reveal the ins and outs of the tech world.

This time, TC decided to set its sights on DeviantART, a site for all types of artists can congregate. Yes – all walks, from barely novice, to artists so advanced, you see their work when you watch movies, peruse the game aisles for that perfect game, and much more. Yes, there are a lot of work done by amateurs, and there are art pieces that may push the link of taboo, but it is a community – a VERY successful community that has been around for almost 10 years.

I am not saying this because I have a premium membership, I am a beta tester, and have been a DeviantART member for over 5 years. I am saying this from experiencing communities that have strived and failed to produce what DeviantART has done. On a social media level, they have effectively branded themselves as a top art community. The staff interacts and there are many smaller communities within that are quite active. Recently, DeviantART opened a new section called Groups. In fact, I run a few myself. There are professional artists lending their spare time to help novices. Some people I have seen improve so drastically that they have become successful professionals themselves. I have seen some amazing concept art that has been used for past and upcoming movies, as well as for gaming. There are even manga artists too!

Are you a member of DeviantART? What are your thoughts about this?

WordPress World Map

WorldPress World Map is a place where you can add yourself to the map and see how many WordPress users are in your area. The site was created by Oliver Schlöbe. Whether you are a company that is focused on using WordPress, a core developer, a plugin developer, theme designer, blogger, or even just a fan, you are welcome. The site even has markers for WordCamps that have taken place.

Just visit the site and you can either click on where you are from on the map, or sign in using Twitter oAuth. If other users on the map are also using Twitter, you can click on their little icon marker and can view the user’s profile and even follow them.

The site is a great idea, especially for those interested how many WordPress users there are and where they are from.

Have you mapped yourself yet?

There are people who I talk to a lot from my local area that ask me this question…. well a variation. I have seen some blog posts out there that blog about this, but issue their affiliate links to webhosts and such. Of course, I webhost at Host Solutions and I believe even as a small business, I have a great product that runs people $25/year for 5GB diskspace and 25GB bandwidth.

However, I would like to emphasize a few ways you can either have a type of website at little or no cost.

First off, for the people html-challenged and who are not familiar with putting together a page, there are many places you can get free templates for your site – for free. Just search for them. For example, you can use ‘free website templates’ to search and there are many sites that will come up in your search on Google.

1. Of course, actually purchasing a webhost. I have been a small business webhost with Host Solutions since 2004. I recommend mine as my servers are with Host Gator (by the way, that is a direct link and not an affiliate link) and even I would recommend them if someone is looking to host with a bigger business. The are professional and have made hosting easy for both myself and clients.]

2. Free sites like WordPress.com. The only thing is that there are limitations and you cannot do to many things on a free WordPress.com account. I really recommend this as a beginning for those who have heard of WordPress and are interested on how it works. It is not really that hard to go from a free host with WordPress.com to being a self-hosted WordPress.org site

3. Etsy or Ebay – these sites are auction based sites. Etsy is really cheap, but everything has to be DIY (do-it-yourself / totally handmade.) All you need to do is put your shop description, logo (optional), and your products. Other than that, this is not a really flexible way.

4. Subdomain Hosting: So-Pink is small, but they offer subdomain hosting. I would not recommend domain hosting with So-Pink in case you want to take your domain elsewhere.

I even offer free subdomain hosting on my domain Pixelled.com as long as people link back to my site. You can use my contact form here to inquire. However, I do not host commercial sites for free.

Please note that these places do not usually have anything but FTP access, but you can host a self-hosted WordPress blog.

Making a website is not difficult, nor finding a good place. This is just for those who need an easy and low cost way to do it.

What other places do you suggest?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Sponsored Tweets. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have blogged about get paid to tweet programs and my recommendations, but I probably should blog about the one I like the best: Sponsored Tweets. Yes, this is a sponsored post, but out of all the paid to tweet sites I have tried out, I can comfortably say this is the best one. It is fair and full disclosure is required on every tweet. Full disclosure can be as simple as putting #ad at the end or within your sponsored tweet. Sponsored Tweets also allows users the option of writing their own tweets based on their sponsors.

You can sign up for sponsored tweets. It is really easy. Just put in your twitter username and basically they (Sponsored Tweets) gather your Twitter stats with their API. Although Sponsored Twitters allows you to set your own price, they have a suggested price which is based on your involvement on Twitter. You can also set the keywords to topics you like to tweet about which will help advertisers find Sponsored Tweeters that will best suit their product.

Sponsored Tweets does payout when you reach $50. I can vouch for this as I have a Sponsored Tweets account and have reached payout several times in the past two months.

Have you tried Sponsored Tweets? What do you think about it? If you have not used Sponsored Tweets before, do you have any questions that I might be able to answer from my own experience with them?

For a while I wanted to make a WordPress related website dedicated some to helping, but mostly the fans. There are quite a few sites out there that are WordPress related, but nothing to say there were not already enough. (lol)

I created WP Addict. Of course, I will still blog about WordPress, but leave them on WP Addict. I am even moving my tutorials that I have currently here over to the site. Never fear…those will be redirected. I am making room for my other tutorials (like html) that I use to have on my site before it became Blondish.net. This is just another refocus. By the way, anyone who likes to help out WordPress users are welcome to post and cross-post their articles at WP Addict. Just use the contact form there and send me a note that you are interested in contributing articles from time to time.

I am actually making fan-ish (WordPress fan stuff) like Wallpapers and such, are free to all who are fans.

There are quite a few sites dedicated to extending a helping hand. Some for free, some for a fee.

However, do not forget about the WordPress Support forums! It is a forum that is full of many people who regularly answer any questions that come up, even myself. If you have not signed up there, you really should try it. A lot of people may have the same question. A lot of the questions fall under:

- installation
- bug issues
- plugins
- development of WordPress
… and much more.

It really is a great community to start finding any answers for your WordPress needs. For newbies, the forum is great because a lot of the people answering the questions have experienced the same issues. Some of the plugin developers frequent the site as well, so it is a great way to have a centralized place for even them to improve their own plugins.

For those who are knowledgeable about WordPress, it can be a way to further yourself if your advice is very helpful. Also, the kicker is – it is free!

There are not enough mentions out there praising the WordPress support forums. In fact, there are not many praises out there for WordPress-related forums. WP Addict will eventually dedicate a resource section for WordPress users to find what they need in the community for their project.