Helping You Rock Out Your Site Like A Rockstar!

Another nifty bookmark site has surfaced: TopRoundups.com! This one is focused on quality articles in the web and graphic design world. The project creator is Webmasterish, who also created SimpleFunctions.com. I had blogged about that site with Back To The Simple Things: SingleFunction.com not too long ago. Some of the popular articles are in the design, web design, and WordPress sections of the site.

TopRoundups allows users to submit their articles. You simply fill out the form with your blog articles information. The site allows people to vote or even leave comments. It is a great way to get trackbacks for your articles as well as attract traffic with a similar interest in what you blog. To navigate the site, you can go by tags, author, and publisher.

The one thing that stands out about this site it uses the WordPress core, TDO Mini Forms, and some extra tweaking.

Go ahead and check it out! If you have a related article, submit it and look at the other articles available.

No one listens when people say to keep hash tags simple. Sometimes making hashtags into acronyms can be confusing. I would be scratching my head if I saw #tna come across for possible a political or religious trending topic, but not mean TNA (short for…excuse my language – “Tits ‘n Ass.”) In fact, I probably would have clicked on it out of curiosity as my mind tends to go down the gutter when seeing things.

While TechCrunch gives a guide to understanding Twitter hashtags and trending topics, we have sites like What The Hashtag trying to make some semblence of the trending topic mess. What The Hashtag is a site that basically documents the trending topics and how they have developed. By the way, while using Firefox and my broadband, this site loaded VERY slowly, well over 40 seconds. I just about gave up, but being a dial-up user (not by choice, but because of location) not so long ago, I stuck it out despite the impatience. Note to What The Hashtag site owners: Perhaps a bit optimizing on the Media Wiki databases that the site works is something to consider doing soon.

Although I would love to condense my hashtags so I can fill my 140 character tweet with as much goodness as possible, why are such sites useful?

Well, from a business perspective, this is great to find the topic, its history and possibly join into the conversation. If you are seen in that hashtag giving out great advice, you will definitely be on the way to influencing others and even attracting clients. It could also allow you to use it as a supplemental site rather than watching the degenerates on Twitter that are tweeting defamatory trending topics.

Check it out What The Hashtag and tell me what you think about it. Is it something you would use and possibly recommend?

I found this opportunity for Elearning and thought it might be a great thing to share. Learn.com is a place that allows you to keep on top of your career.

The site works a couple ways. You can take courses or if you are an expert in an area, you can create a course. In fact, if you create a course, Learn.com will give you 70% commission if your course has been taken by other users.

These days, it is about what your experience/skills are rather than your education. With the economy not doing that great, employers are seeking people with experience. The skills from taking Learn.com courses can help you develop the experience you need to get ahead. Some of the courses available are even connected with accredited colleges.

I know that for myself, I am seeking to increase my own skills with business management and my IT skills. I already am enrolled in college, but I think a place like Learn.com can help me develop things that my schooling may not cover. For Learn.com I selected IT and Microsoft Productivity because I already have previous college courses in this field, but I had not finished my certification. These would help eliminate the time spent in class and I could just take the exam when ready. Right now, I do not have the time to sit in a classroom, so this is convenient.

Have you tried Learn.com or a similar service? What did you think of it?

Well, as usual, I end up stumbling on something by chance and this time is was CrowdSpring.com. CrowdSpring is a site that gives freelancers a way to put their best work forward instead of bidding. How? Well, when you sign up and fill out your portfolio, you can go and browse the job postings. When you find one, click on the details of that job, and you can get right to work.

Instead of putting out a proposal in words, you are submitting your work for the buyer’s consideration. The best work chosen is the person that will be paid. Yes, it seems like a big contest, but how many times have you seen bids on other freelance sites get negative reviews because they could not keep their side of the deal. The great thing is that these places already paid and the money is kept in escrow by CrowdSpring, so if you are chosen, you will be paid.

Pretty cool, huh?

Projects that are posted can be for logo design, web design, general graphic design, and even print design. It is free to join.

Do you participate in any freelance websites? Have you tried CrowdSpring?

I recently joined Swagbucks, a site that when you use it, you can earn ‘swag bucks’ that you can spend on items they offer.

Ways you can earn ‘swag bucks’ are shopping using their referral system. Some places award you 1 swag buck for so many dollars spent. Some places offer discounts. However, one big thing is using the search. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter. On occasion, they will give out swag bucks codes and there are even random members picked daily to get more. One of the main ways to earn swag bucks is using their search tool when you need to search for things online. Swagbucks.com offers a toolbar that you can download and use that works the same as the search on their site. It does not cost to sign up nor does it cost to use their services.

I thought I would sign up and give it a try. If you have signed up, please tell me about your experience with Swagbucks. Would you recommend it? Have you received anything from Swagbucks?

A lot of the topics at WordCamp Chicago worked around social media. One of the sites that were plugged was Lijit, which is a free service you can sign up. What it does is once you sign up, you insert all the social media places you have an identity with, and then you can put a widget (or as Lijit says – ‘wijit’) on your blog. The widget is a search field.

I am sure that you are saying, especially if you are using a content management system: Why would I need another search form when I already have one built into my site?

Well, Lijit, as explained in their About section that it is like social media. People will seek information from people they trust first before going out into the internet to find what they want to know. When your visitor types a search into your Lijit search, it will go through all of your social identities that you put in your Lijit profile and pick up whatever results are closest to the topic they are trying to find. In a way, it kind of helps keep your visitors on your site.

Not only that, but Lijit gives you the ability to see what your visitors are searching for so you can provide the information they need. It is a pretty cool tool. Try it and see. There is even a WordPress plugin for Lijit Wijit too. Pretty cool, huh?

This is a guest post.

While Blondish.net helps more with people using WordPress on self-hosted, WordPress also offers a place for bloggers to start. If you are unsure of starting a website for blogging or to add a blog to your current site, try using the free WordPress.com services first.

Note from Nile about Guest Blogger.
Please welcome Amy Ravit Korin (@interactiveAmy on Twitter) as a guest. I met her at WordCamp Chicago. She came to find out more about WordPress and became a new blogger. I have asked her to blog as a new blogger that has used WordPress.com as their startup spot for blogging. Her WordPress.com blog is also interactiveAmy.

Congratulations, you’ve decided to start a blog! Now what?

That was me, less than a week ago. I had the good fortune of attending WordCamp Chicago, a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. Well, everything except for getting started, that is. In a room of 200, I was one of a handful that wasn’t already a blogger. Intimidating? It could have been, rather I seized the opportunity to learn from my peers and decided right then and there that on day two I was coming back with a blog!

I had a website, interactiveAmy.com, but it wasn’t on WordPress and it didn’t have the capabilities to support the type of blog I wanted. So I issued a tweet for help.

Jason Pelker (@jpelker on Twitter) was the first to respond, and we met up during a break. Jason listened to my dilemma, how to switch my static domain to WordPress, and assured me I could do it! He also told me that he didn’t think I was ready to start a self hosted blog, so he directed me to WordPress.com to get started with a free WordPress hosted account.

Jason could tell that I was a smart cookie, so he pointed me in the direction of the WordPress.com support page, and then said to figure it out on my own. So there I sat, the last one to leave the WordCamp conference room – busy logging in and setting up my interactiveAmy.wordpress.com account.

And that was that! With additional hand holding from Dan Schulz (@danschulz on Twitter), I was determined to go home and figure it out. And I did! Day two of WordCamp I came back with a blog!

I just had to say it. I already said it on Twitter, but this whole big deal with Facebook coming out with usernames was really dumb. There was so much hype into it that I felt like people would be seriously worried about their username being taken. It kind of sounds like when you hear those Black Friday stories from Walmart goers that stand all over the store and when it hits 7AM, everyone goes bonkers. Or, the one analogy where you (that is, if you are a woman) end up fighting over a bra at the Victoria’s Secret Semi-Annual sale.

Well, there were those who acted like it, and I laughed when people were counting down the minutes and seconds until Facebook allowed users in as if they pushed a button to let people through their virtual turnstyles. Once they got their usernames, they were said “I got my username that I wanted.” I could just hear the thrill…well read it. Yeah, I know… I am not enthusiastic.

My response – Well, good for you. I did get my username over 20 minutes after because I was not in a rush, and did not care. It was easy to pick my username, but I kept thinking on why in the world Facebook did not think of it sooner. I feel special that I am no longer a number, but I that have a username. It was the worst hype ever since the recent KFC grilled chicken (which my local store cannot cook the chicken to what I need it to be. It was a whole debacle that was tramatizing for me…physcially. Enough said on that before it goes over that WTMFI line.)

Frankly, Facebook is becoming too much like MySpace. All the applications that you can use for it are similar and with MySpace trying to keep up, your real-time activity stream now appears. All the ads are annoying too. I have ads that have nothing to do with me as a person.

Did you get your username? What did you think of the whole ordeal?