This post is part of a weekly series, Fetching Friday, featuring interesting discoveries and useful resources on the net, random tidbits of news, and a preview for next week’s posts on kikolani.com.
While my main focus has been bringing you lots of online resources, I recently stopped to think those people that would rather curl up on the sofa with a good book. So I moved away from my glaring monitor, and into a few local bookstores to check out some good technical resources on the shelves. Here are some of the ones I found that had some useful information.
Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read – This book covers the basics of setting up a WordPress blog, from installation to troubleshooting. It also covers whether to choose a pre-designed theme, or to build one yourself.
The 2009 Internet Directory: Web 2.0 Edition – This directory gives you websites, videos, podcasts, blogs, social networks wikis, and other links to the best sites for a wide range of topics including: branding, careers, entrepreneurship, current events, politics, education, entertainment, family/parenting, food, health, hobbies, home, shopping, sports, travel and more.
Blogs, Wikis, MySpace, and More: Everything You Want to Know About Using Web 2.0 but Are Afraid to Ask – The basics of everything Web 2.0 for beginners.
Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day – A guide to creating a social media marketing strategy for your brand or business and maintaining it. Includes an in-depth look into the big social networks: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.
YouTube: An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts – How to create a video (including the storytelling, direction, shooting, editing and rendering), broadcast, and market it to viral success.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Covers optimizing your website for search engines, pay per click strategies, keyword targeting, and tapping into social media to drive your site to the top of search results.
Also, don’t forget the newsstand. Two of my favorite web design magazines, Web Designer Mag and .net Magazine not only have great galleries, tips and tutorials, but they come with a CD with full programs, program demos, royalty free media (photos, music clips), source code or files for the tutorials, and more. These magazines are from the UK, so they are pricey (16.00USD), but they are worth it for, for the resource CD alone.
This week, I have spent a lot of time on Twitter, and found a wealth of resources. If you’re not using Twitter, you should be – it’s a great network to share information with in people in all ares of interest.
Find followers and add yourself by interest to Twitter directories – Just Tweet It and Twellow Add Twitter links to your website using these unique, beautiful Twitter icons 50 Twitter tools and tutorials for web designers and developers Customize with beautiful Twitter backgrounds or with your personal info and branding Learn the 7 habits of highly effective Twitterers See the top Tweeted links at Tweetmeme 8 tips to become successful with Twitter Reasons to follow or not to follow on Twitter A great Twitter Tips blog maintained by Darren @ ProBlogger Save your 140 characters by shortening your url in advance
Friday is #followfriday on Twitter. Send a Tweet with the @username of a fellow Twitter member you think everyone should follow, include a short reason why (maybe with a url to an interesting blog article they posted), and add the #followfriday hash tag at the end. For example, you could recommend me to your followers by sending the following status update: Follow @kikolani for useful blogging and social media tips, photography, and more http://tinyurl.com/cp9dg7 #followfriday. I’d be quite grateful, and will reciprocate a follow message for you to my followers as well. 
Check out #followfriday’s popularity on search Twitter and see if anyone is sending recommendations about you by adding your username to the #followfriday search.
Also, if you are on Facebook and would like to have only select Tweets become Facebook updates as well, try out the Selective Twitter Status application. Once installed, give it your Twitter username, and add #fb to the end of any Tweet you want as a status update on Facebook. This is especially useful if you want to share informative articles on both Twitter and Facebook, but not your #followfriday Tweets which Facebook users not on Twitter may not understand.
It’s time for a follow up on the growth of the hummingbird babies in the nest outside my office. They’ve developed a lot in the past week, and it is almost time for the babies to leave the nest. I have been taking pictures almost daily, and have a few videos on Youtube, including a short clip of the mother hummingbird feeding her little ones. [More Hummingbird Baby Photos]
One of the trends in blogging are blog tagging, or memes (see “What is a Meme” for more info). While they seem only applicable to personal websites, there are ways to adapt them to almost any site. Next week I will write about those ways, plus how to get some added SEO and link building benefits from a meme. [Ways to Write Great Blogging Meme Responses]
Be sure to check back next week to find out more, and for another Fetchingly Friday post with more great discoveries on the web. Better yet, subscribe via RSS to have them delivered to your favorite subscription reader or by email.
As some of you may have noticed, I have been tweaking the design and functionality of the blog here and there. I’m trying to decrease page load time, and make sure every post is social bookmark and subscription friendly.
I now have a custom Related Post-like area at the end of each article, highlighted in blue. I could never get any of the plugins to pull the articles I wanted with each post, so now I just add related items to articles when necessary. Yes, it’s extra work, especially since I have to go through the archives. But the bonus is it shows up in the RSS feed as well, which my previous plugins didn’t, and I can add a specific number of links to anything related – categories, tags, posts and pages.
Also, I have added some plugins, including the RSS Footer, which puts custom text and a link back to the original post into the bottom of every RSS update (so if anyone tries to hijack my content, the credit to this site will be intact), and Chat Catcher, which notes links to my posts on Twitter and Friendfeed, and adds those as trackbacks in my comments so I will not miss any props given to my articles.
So my question to readers this week: Any tips or suggestions about the changes to layout and functionality? Likes or dislikes?
Looking for some link love? Articles featured in the resources come primarily from people I interact with in the comments, and on the social networks. So comment away (DoFollow, CommentLuv, and KeywordLuv enabled), and join me on the networks below, and if your article/photo/video catches my eye, it may appear in following Fetching Friday posts.
The Fetching Friday archives – tons of useful resources on blogging, social networking, and more
This post brought to you by Kristi Hines
Kristi Hines is creator of Kikolani which focuses on blogging tips and social networking. Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Kristi has written 310 awesome article(s) for Kikolani.
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great collection of links! Now im going to busy reading for the next hour or so
Anthony Feints last blog post..1000 Free Business Cards…
The little tweaks here and there Kristi are great! And I cannot wait for more updates and photos on the baby hummingbirds!
The book list is great, I have no doubt, not an option for me at the moment as I have a few books piled up by me to read and review…so I have my reading cut out for a while at least. But I am not complaining as they are all great reads that I am excited to dive into
Great collection link! I looking forward to it.
Thanks!
I really enjoy the way you share your knowledge, research and stuff about social media here. They are so detailed and I am pretty sure you know what you are doing Kristi.
Keep twitting!
Ben Peis last blog post..Which Affiliate Networks To Look Out For When Promoting?
Excellent round up of links. I think the paper books is a very cool addition. :Z)
Dennis Edells last blog post..Do You Charge For Blog Reviews?
Great roundup K!
harveys last blog post..The Rector
@Anthony: I hope you get some valuable tips!
@Evita: I have a LOT in my “to read” pile as well, so I can totally relate.
@clickktdotcom: Definitely hope you enjoy!
@Ben: I enjoy sharing. If it weren’t for what other people shared, I wouldn’t learn as much as I do, and I think I am just paying it forward.
@Dennis: I spent a lot of time in bookstores this week, and remembered that some people do prefer getting their information from non-electronic sources as well.
@Harvey; Thanks!
Kristi, with this, may I invite you to write something on Social Media for my blog?
Ben Peis last blog post..Taking A Closer Look At How Pros Make Money Online
Great resources. I’ve checking out a few of the books. I’ve been picking up tips, almost exclusively, from reading blogs. Usually I go the book route first though in this case bloggers have taught me most that was needed.
Gennaros last blog post..9 Top Cities, 9 Top Irish Pubs
@Ben – Hey sporty, she owes me one first.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Do You Charge For Blog Reviews?
@Ben: Yes, I believe I still owe you one on Digg. My writing schedule is a bit more backed up than I had anticipated, but I haven’t forgotten.
@Gennaro: You can learn a lot from the information other bloggers have provided. I just know that, even when getting into the Web 2.0 world, some people prefer to have that source that is always available, even when the internet and computers are not.
@Dennis: I haven’t forgotten about yours either.
Thanks to both of you for being patient.
Look here twitter alerts via sms for free
http://linkuri.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/twitter-alerts-via-sms-for-free/
TheNutzs last blog post..High Resolution Wallpapers
@TheNutz: I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Thanks a lot for the post, I need to learn a bit more about creative use of Twitter.
By the way, nice background on your blog
I think that the information given here is really good. Also the look and feel of the site is great – just what I would want to see on a Friday and say “Thank God that it is Friday”. Ah! Am just trying to be cool. These days everyday is a Monday! And Friday never arrives. But the list is great and I think it will take me sometime to go through it. And I need to checkout CommentLuv because I want my site to be do follow – after all if comments are moderated then why not allow Google and others to chase up more sites?
Sanjeev Sharma´s last blog ..Directory Submission – Manual or Automatic?