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.
How to Use Adobe Flash to Make Your Page Pop!
By far, one of the coolest things I’ve come across while searching for ways to make my pages more interesting is Adobe flash animations. They’re all over the place; go to any website and I can pretty much guarantee that at some point you will run into some pretty awesome (or maybe not so much) animated flash images. I always wanted to learn how to create flash animations, but was afraid of doing so because I thought they might be too difficult.
As it turns out, it’s not only easy to do, but it’s even easier to find tutorials that will teach you how to create them. Here are some pretty interesting tutorials that I found while looking for ways to create flash images that would pop on the web page.
Picture Animation — At first glance, the image on the left looks like a bunch of white dots amidst some yellow and what looks to be some water. But when you click on the Picture Animation link you’ll find out a couple of things: one, that the image on the left is, in fact, a lemon and two, that creating an animated image of a lemon is not only cooler than you imagined, but also easier than you thought. I say lemon because that’s the image that the tutorial uses, but you can use any image — a flower, a plane. a phone. You name it, it can be done. It’s a neat way of getting started with these animations.
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.
Here are a couple of the ones that I found that I was really excited about!
Gutenberg.org, home of the first online project to bring free digital books to the masses, has been around for a long time, and its library is composed of over 25,000 public domain books for you to enjoy. It includes books in almost every language, ranging from classics like Machiavelli’s The Prince to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. It might be difficult to find more contemporary titles, but this is definitely a good place to start should you be in the mood for some literary genius. Especially useful for high school students needing to read something for class!
Enhance Your WordPress Blogging Experience
I love WordPress. It’s user-friendly, simple to understand and so comprehensive when it comes to managing your blog.
I’m not the only one that feels this way. In fact, WordPress is one of the fastest growing blog hosts on the web, and bloggers all over the world can easily understand why. Its interface is easy to use and there are so many things you can do, so many templates you can choose from — the list goes on and on.
Now, there are different applications and tools that you can add to your WordPress blog to enhance your blogging experience and make it even more useful and exciting for you, while helping you bring more readers into your space.
Web Design Made Simple — Great Tools to Get You Started
It’s not true anymore that a novice web surfer can’t build their own site or get their own space online. Social networking media has made that possible, of course, but you don’t have to limit yourself to Myspace, Facebook or Xanga anymore. There are hundreds of tools that can help you build a home in Cyberland, and most of them are aimed at helping the amateur web designer create beautiful, dynamic spaces on the Internet.
From web design templates to web application creators, there are dozens of sites available online to get you started in building that web site you’ve been thinking about. Most of them are little to no cost, and they are easy to use.
SiteKreator is an easy-to-use beginner’s tool for creating, building and hosting your own web site. With different plans that range from $0-39.95 a month, you have a variety of options to choose from . The site is comprehensive in that it explains each plan carefully, indicating what’s included with each package, and it offers various levels of tech support, going from email help to a 24/7 customer service hotline. The hosting is reliable and the designs are slick and easy to get around. You get 6 different templates with the free account which, for a novice web designer should be plenty of choices. But you can always have more if you want.
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.
Job Hunting Made Easy
Nothing is harder and more tedious that going out to find a job, especially in this shaky market. It just seems like there are no jobs anywhere, no matter where you look. I’ve gone through that before; looking and looking in vain through the same two or three websites, trying to find that perfect job, only to be constantly disappointed.
But doing some heavy-duty searching, I found out that there are not one or two, but tons and tons of job hunting websites and online tools that job seekers can benefit from. I couldn’t believe it! There are so many places, and they’re not just your typical Careerbuilder site either. They’re specific to everything from location to career goals. You can apply to jobs that cater to the specific field that you’re looking for or you can apply to jobs that are in your area; you can even apply to jobs based on education level or availability of employment.
I’ve listed a couple of the ones that I like the most below. They proved to be some of the most helpful sites that I went to.
Craigslist — Craigslist is the foremost online classifieds listing in the world, with thousands upon thousands of listings from all over the world in hundreds of categories. I have found many leads through Craigslist when it comes to job search. The good thing about Craigslist is that it’s very much like looking at the classifieds in your local paper; it’s straightforward, it’s self-explanatory and the best part is that it requires no registration for you to use it. Simply click on the headline you’d like to view and, if you like what you read, email the person who posted the item. The bad part about Craigslist is of course the amount of spam that makes it in there, but many times it’s pretty easy to tell what’s what. So avoid spamming and take the proper precautions and you’re good to go.
Web Icons - Cute, Useful…and Free?!?!
It used to be that finding a nice set of professional looking icons was difficult to do unless you were either a web designer or someone who was willing to fork out some cash for them. No longer; in fact, it’s not uncommon to find beautiful, interesting web icons that you can use personally and professionally at absolutely no cost. Why is that, you ask? Well, icons are pretty cool to make…if you have the time and patience — and the ability — to make them, that is. Most people don’t, but there are graphic artists out there who create icons regularly and put the sets out there for public use as a way of being recognized and having their work out there. Almost like putting out a resume, but with really cute drawings.
Icons are more than just cute drawings, though. They’re extremely important in web design, so much so that many times it is the quality of your icons that can make the difference between dull and interesting. Here, I’ve listed a couple of my favorite free icon sets and some places where you can find many more.
These are just two of the many styles included in the RSS Icons Campaign designed by Design Freak. Their RSS feed icons are ideal for those of you who are looking for a cool-looking, very different take on the boring little feed box that sits on the corners of the websites that we are used to visiting. These little guys can make your design look fresh and modern, with a hint of wit and tons of charm. I am in love with these icons!
Amazing - 7 Ways to Send Huge Files - Bigger than Gmail
Gmail users have the ability to send up to 20MB of attachments. Sometimes you need more maybe even over 500MB at a time. Businesses especially often have the need to send very large file attachments. Freelance workers, advertisers, small and large companies are a few of those in need. Other people are just people like you and I who want to send the latest and greatest family pictures to our friends and family living further away. Now you have 7 ways to send huge files bigger than Gmail offers.
YouSendIt – Those familiar with sending large files may have heard of this free file sending company. Send up to 100MB files at a time without even registering. You upload the file; they get an email with a link and click to download it. It stays there for seven days. There is a premium service for those who need to send up to 2GB and need more bandwith. Read more
15 Ways to Watch TV Online Free
Does anyone remember the old school television sets with the out wooden cover? It looked like a large coffee table with a picture. You had to get up and actually walk across the room to turn a knob to the few channels you had after you adjusted the rabbit ears. TV hit our home as a small black and white. There was no color, no digital, no stereo sound. Best of all it was free! Those days just like Model T Fords are gone. Now without further wait, here are 15 ways to watch TV online free.
YouTube – If you have not heard of YouTube by now, you must live in a cave. Internet’s number one TV viewing site is packed full of everything you can find and things you might wish you had not found.