The Buzz About Widgets: Keep Blogging Interesting
Sometimes, there’s only so much blogging you can do before readers get bored or lose interest in visiting your site. Giving your blog an edge and adding some flair to it may give you the boost you need to see those visitor counts go up.
This is where widgets can be incredibly useful and so necessary. I find that, in moderation and using the right ones, widgets can be a valuable asset to you and the blogging community alike. I particularly love using the widgets that allow me to meet and stay connected with my audience. Still, there are widgets out there for every taste, and bloggers have an ample varietyof widgets to choose from in the blogosphere.
My favorite widgets are listed below, but you can look around for widgets and you’ll be sure to find so many of them out there that your head will spin.
Yes. I am a Twitter addict. I spend a great deal of time posting on Twitter, letting people know what I’m doing and giving them insight into my exciting (or not-so-exciting) life. For those of you oblivious to the marvel that is Twitter, it is essentially a way of people letting each other know what they’re up to through status updates done either online or through your mobile phone. It can get pretty addictive if you’re really into the social networking aspect of the Internet like I am. Now, Twitter has created a widget that lets Twitters share their updates with blog visitors. The site will give you a code designed for your blog or profile, be it for Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Typepad, or any other site that you would want it for. Now, not only can I share my Twits with my Twitter friends, but I can share them with the rest of the world.
Great Public Domain E-Book Sites Every Reader Should Visit!
As a writer and an avid reader, I not only enjoy books, but I recognize the importance of having access to them on a regular basis. I personally don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have books available to me. Now, with the Internet growing more and more each day, I find that my reading time is being taken up by blogs and web sites.
Recently, however, I started to miss reading my books and my novels. As much as I love print copies of books, the reality is that it is so much more convenient these days to look for e-books that can fill that void. The problem is that a lot of the mainstream e-book sites charge for books, which to be honest, in this economy, is not what I’m looking to spend my money on. But I did a little research and found a list of sites that have what’s called public domain e-books. Those are free to download and enjoy, and there are many titles to choose from, no matter what the genre.
Make Full Use of YouTube With These Great Tools
Once upon a time, YouTube was just a speck in the vastness of cyberspace. Seemingly overnight, however, YouTube has become a phenomenon; a place for people to learn, vent, laugh, cry and think, YouTube has become the world’s playground for video posting. When Google bought YouTube in 2006, it became even more popular and now, counting on millions of users from all over the world, it has become the foremost video uploading site on the Internet today.
The only drawback to YouTube? Its limited useability. Upload, watch, link or embed — those are the only four choices for YouTube videos. Or are they? I have scrambled and scrambled all through the web looking for some cool applications and tools that can maximize my YouTube experience and I’ve found a few excellent ones that I’d love to share with you.
Video Downloader is my favorite YouTube tool because it integrates right into my Mozilla Firefox web browser. Video Downloader allows you to download videos onto your computer so you can do whatever you want with them, whether it’s watching them on your own time without having to go to YouTube and search for them again, or extracting audio for various other uses, whatever your need is, Video Downloader helps you get it all done. The Firefox extension gives you immediate access to it by providing icons to add to your browser and its user-friendly interface makes it a breeze to use.
Have you ever seen a video on YouTube and wished that you could watch it at any time, from any device? You don’t have to wish anymore; this application, TubeSock, makes it possible for you to do so. TubeSock allows you to rip videos from YouTube and format them so that you can play them on your iPod, or your PSP, or your Mac. There are some particularly awesome things about this application that I love. For one, it’s supported on both Mac OS and Windows XP. It can also download videos from other video sites, not just YouTube. My favorite thing about TubeSock though is that if you’re like me and you only have an audio-only portable device, TubeSock will rip the audio for you and convert it to an audio file. Very cool application, indeed. And so easy to use!
Splicd is a neat little website that is pretty self-explanatory. For those of you that are easily annoyed by extremely long YouTube videos that only have a snippet of useful information that you want to share with friends and family, Splicd gives you the opportunity to take that little snippet and create a link for that specific spot on the video, so you can send friends that link instead of having them agonize over an extremely long video clip. When you go to the Splicd website, you paste the link to the video in question, then you plug in the start time and the end time of the clip you want to extract from the video. When you hit the submit button, it gives you a Splicd link to share. It also shows the video that you’re sending so you can make sure it’s the right clip. It’s pretty easy to use, very fast and very convenient, I have found, especially for educational videos.
What kind of cyberworld would it be if we couldn’t have a WordPress plugin to help us improve our blogs? TubePress comes to the rescue with a plugin that creates beautiful and crisp video galleries for your WordPress blog. It is simple to use and integrates nicely with WordPress. I really love it because video can add so much variety to a blog, and TubePress makes it so easy to achieve that. I love anything that can enhance my WordPress experience; WP is one of the most user-friendly blog hosting sites on the Internet, and plugins like this make it so much more fun to use! No longer do I have to go through posting videos on my blog the old way. TubePress makes it easy and fun to add videos to my site.
Using these and many other applications, widgets and plugins will enhance your YouTube experience in spades and help you make the most out of the most popular video site on the planet.
Resources to Make Money Online are Ready for You
The wave of the internet opened up many doors for people who wanted to work from home full-time or part-time. It also opened up a new world to companies who benefit from outsourcing their work to people who work from home. The internet is a gateway to bring benefits to all who want to gain. You do not have to lease an office to have your own business. You simply need a computer and access to the internet. Have you thought about trying to make money online? Here are the resources to make money online just for you.
Get Paid To Write
Smorty – If you have an opinion about products, services and websites Smorty pays you weekly for simply writing your honest opinion in a blog. Select areas that interest you the most. They allow you to have more than one blog to make more money while you are online.
Take Advantage of Free Online File Storage
If you are an avid digital photo taker or creator, you know how big those files are and how much space they take up on your computer. Any company knows that there is a plethora of documents that need kept in order for business to run smoothly. If you are running out of space for these types of things, it is time to check out upgrading your computer with more memory or maybe there is a better solution. Before you consider upgrading your CPU space for files, photos and other documents try a free online file storage site to clear up the clutter and gain more hard drive space. The best part is you can access them from any computer or mobile device that you use to access the web. A business benefits by letting employees access documents even when they are out of the office. Let’s see what they have to offer.
Box.net – This free online file storage gives you 1GB of storage with no ads. Add more space for a minimal fee as you need it.