From the monthly archives:

June 2009

This post was written by Mike from HTS Tech Tips – Computer Tech Tips, News & Computer Support for non-geeks.

The meteoric rise in popularity of Twitter has spawned a rapid growth in media coverage, Twitter books and numerous Twitter-related applications and tools. The best hands-on book about Twitter, the social media platform, that I have come across is an e-Book written by well known blogger Marko Saric entitled Twitter Marketing: How to Go Viral On Twitter. Mr. Saric developed much of his material through substantial experience in acquiring over 20,000 Twitter followers and through his successful blog, Howtomakemyblog.com. His understanding of social media is evident in the practical nature of his explanations and advice.

Tactical Twitter Marketing

As Twitter’s popularity continues to grow many people are looking for methods to use Twitter and other social media more effectively. Mr. Saric’s 55-page eBook is focused on the tactical, hands-on use of Twitter for marketing and promotion, from growing an online audience, presence and reputation to driving more traffic to a web site or blog to growing product sales to lowering customer acquisition costs and more. Twitter Marketing provides tips, tactics, explanations, examples and graphics to help flatten the Twitter learning curve for readers. Mr. Saric also draws on his extensive experience to cite real world examples of what not to do on Twitter and how to avoid the potholes on the Twitter Highway. Sometimes knowing what not to do can be as evaluable as knowing what to do.

Continue Get More from Twitter – Twitter Marketing eBook Review

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, #FollowFriday recommendations, some personal news, another PageRank update, previews and reviews, and an engaging music video.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

Continue Fetching Friday – Resources, #FollowFriday, Personal News & PageRank (Again)

This post was written by Trevor from Striking Towards the Top – Striking Up.

I struggled with the concept of not checking things repeatedly. In fact, you could say I checked things so frequent that I was wasting my life away doing it! The people that mentored me always told me, “Stop checking! It doesn’t do you any good.” And its true! It doesn’t do you any good.

Why isn’t it good?

1. You’re wasting time.

You’ll be astonished at how much time you can waste just checking ANYTHING repeatedly. Lets take for example, your blog! I find myself amazed after I calculate how much time I spend looking at statistics for my blog. Statistics like traffic, amount of time spent, bounce rate, etc. They are all fun to look at and looking at those stats rise definitely make me happier but what is it really doing? Its just giving me an illusion of making me happy! That’s it! My stats won’t raise if I check it more often and if I check it at the end of the day its not like the stats will be lowered.

Continue Alternatives to Checking Statistics

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, #FollowFriday recommendations, Facebook usernames, Kikolani’s new logo, week in review, previews for next week’s posts on kikolani.com and cat yodeling.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

Continue Fetching Friday – Resources, #FollowFriday, Facebook Usernames & A New Logo

Southwest Critters

by Kristi on June 18, 2009 · 15 comments

Here is a sampling of some of the critters I see around Arizona. These were taken around my office, apartment, the Desert Botanical Gardens, and on a recent trip to Mt. Lemmon.
QuailHere Lizard LizardFrog or Toad?Ground SquirrelSquirrel at Mt. Lemmon

Continue Southwest Critters

This post is the second in the Benefits of Blogging series, where I will cover the many benefits of blogging, for bloggers and readers.

What could be better than gaining a worldwide audience with blogging? Taking that audience and creating a community.

Benefits of Building a Community

Have you ever wanted to find people to share a particular interest, but maybe friends and family are not that interested? By blogging, you can build a community that not only wants to hear your opinion about a topic, but wants to share theirs with you as well. A community interacts with you on the things you care about. The benefits of having community members is that they:

  • Come back time and time again
  • Add insightful comments to your articles
  • Inspire you to write more
  • Help you when you ask for advice
  • Ask for your help or advice
  • Share ideas that they think will help you
  • Share your articles with others
  • Recommend you to their community

Having a great blogging community also means that community members on your site will get to know each other, expanding their network and reach as well.

Now that you see some of the benefits of building a community, let’s look at some ways to do it!

Continue Benefits of Blogging – Building a Community

Kikolani features a weekly series called Fetching Friday. It has been exciting to see the series take off, and I thought I would share some of the elements, benefits and tips of writing a weekly blog series.

The Consistency Element

I chose Fetching Friday because I wanted an article that really summed up the best of the week. Fridays are not usually that popular in the blogging world, so I thought it was a great day to catch people’s interest. Also, the basic items in Fetching Friday are generally consistent from week to week. Readers can expect to find the resources mashup at the top, which contains the best articles I have found over the week, #FollowFriday recommendations, related news, previews, and a random video – sort of a TGIF treat!

Benefits of Consistency – Having the article appear on a consistent time interval, plus regularly including the items that readers like the most makes the articles more sticky, memorable and likely to attract regular readers. Also, keeping a consistent style for each article in the series allows you to create a template, further simplifying the process of creating the new post each week.

Tips on Consistency – If you choose a particular day of the week for your weekly series, pick a catchy, short title with the day included. I researched a lot of different titles before coming up with Fetching Friday – you want to make your series title unique and memorable! Also, don’t abandon the post just because it is late. While it is best to get it published as early possible on the chosen day, giving it to your readers a day later is better than not at all, disrupting the rhythm.

Continue Elements, Benefits & Tips for a Successful Weekly Blog Series

This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring the resources mashup, #FollowFriday recommendations, guest posting opportunities, the New Moon trailer, and previews for next week’s posts on kikolani.com.

The Resources Mashup

Here are some of the best articles I have stumbledupon this week.

Blogging / Design

Continue Fetching Friday – Resources, #FollowFriday, Guest Post Opportunities, & New Moon Trailer

It’s been awhile since I have posted some photos of our handsome little Miniature Schnauzer, Dobby. So here are some photos of him – pre and post haircut.
Dobby the Miniature SchnauzerDobby the Miniature SchnauzerDobby the Miniature SchnauzerDobby the Miniature SchnauzerDobby the Miniature Schnauzer

Continue Dobby the Miniature Schnauzer – Latest Pics

This post begins the Benefits of Blogging series, where I will cover the many benefits of blogging, for both bloggers and readers.

Before the internet came into being, if you were not a published author, public speaker or anchor for CNN, the average person’s largest audience would be no greater than his or her family and friends. So anytime the average person had something important to say, they would have to hope that the people they were able to influence were receptive to such information.

But now, it doesn’t take much for the average person to share what is on their mind. With blogging and social media, anyone is able to put their thoughts onto the internet and expose them to a worldwide audience.

Benefits of a Worldwide Audience

What are the benefits to gaining a worldwide audience?

Continue Benefits of Blogging – Gaining a Worldwide Audience