If you happen to be a business owner, or know someone who is, then you probably have heard some of the resistance to using social media. Facebook, Twitter and other social media forms have their advocates and their detractors. I love reading this story because it systematically explains away 5 misconceptions people have concerning social media.
If you want a general blog design, you have plenty to choose from that are simple, elegant and many are free. If you’re looking for something more customized to your personality, you’re going to want something requires custom coding and that increases the cost. That’s not always a bad thing. Take this custom blog design. I love the color scheme and the layout of the pictures in relation to the content gives the page a very unique look. I also was surprised to find that I liked the placement of the navigation menu. I usually prefer left navigation, but for this site, it works to have it on top.
There’s a new program out called KISSInsights and Daniel Scocco provided a review about it on his blog. It asks any visitors to answer questions concerning the site you are currently on. It looks to me like a pop-up window that, while it does appear in the lower left corner, is still a pop-up. You might get some good feedback, but to me, it just seems that pop-ups are the commercials of the internet.
I’m a fan of Star Wars so this is not being posted out of anything but fun and lave for the story and franchise. Of course, if the first movie in 1977 had ended this way, it would have made for a very short film franchise.
A guest author at Daily Blog Tips suggests five plugins for improving the interactivity of your blog. I have never thought to use any of these plugins, not even the FAQ builder. It seems to make sense only if you already have an established readership. Adding the FAQ too soon seems a little egotistical to me.
amount to 15 billion. That’s right, there have now been 15 billion official tweets. I don’t know whether to feel good or not about that. I presently don’t do the whole tweeting thing, I just blog. I only have on tweet when I was trying to figure out if I wanted to get involved with this. So, I guess I’m 1/15 billionth of the problem or solutions, depending on your point of view.
If you’re looking for a simple and elegant design for your blog, you can’t go wrong with something like this. I find the space to be a nice change of pace from the other blogs that feel the need to fill every inch of available space. Sometimes, there is so much that it seems as if the blog and its content gets lost, but not with this design.
If you’re looking to get your blog off the ground, try this: post a response to another article in your blog. Make sure you provide a link so that people can follow the discussion from one blog to yours. Good ideas and thoughtful answers will spark thought and discussion.
Today’s bit of Friday fun comes from a particular artist who creates alternate endings to popular movies with animation. They are very entertaining. And with my wife being a huge fan of these books and the movies, I find this to be a little more humorous than most outings. I mean, they’re all funny, but this one gets extra kudos since my wife bristles when she hears it.
I’ve covered the concept of commenting on blogs as a way introduce yourself to the blogging community, but it appears I have only scratched the surface when it comes to covering the topic. To me, commenting is something we do in response to a blog post. Whether we agree or disagree is really not the point to me, the point is to reply to something you have a strong feeling about but do so in a way that is respectful of the other person. What Ive seen happening is a de-evolution to juvenile name calling and offering comments with nothing more than a simple, “I disagree and don’t like you.” No reason is given for a lot of dissenting points of view. And I find some bloggers don’t handle negative comments on their blog real well either. Some bloggers will be just as quick to start name calling anyone who posts a different opinion. The whole point of blogging is to open dialogue. I personally find commenting and posting a much easier form of debate and communication. The reason is is that when I am in front of someone who is debating a contrary view, I get very nervous and start to lose my train of thought. Commenting on a post allows me to organize my thoughts, and when someone posts a contrary view, I can again take my time and compose a thoughtful response rather than get nervous about the other person in front of me.
