Marine biology, scharine schiology. Pleated Jeans skips scientific facts for its series of sea life diagrams. Via Pleated Jeans. (H/T @laughingsquid) Laughing is good for you. Permalink | Leave a comment »
Selected by curiositydiva
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Most Topular Stories
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The (not so correct) anatomy of sea life
Holy Kaw!16 May 2012 | 11:52 am -
TED: David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence - David Kelley (2012)
TEDTalks (video)16 May 2012 | 8:30 amIs your school or workplace divided into "creatives" versus practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create... (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.) -
Diary Of A WordCamp
Matt Mullenweg15 May 2012 | 8:41 amWith all the hubaboo going on about WordCamps right now, it’s nice to read Siobhan McKeown’s Diary Of A WordCamp on Smashing WordPress, a great story about her experience at WordCamp Netherlands. -
Brain Disease Is Found in Veterans Exposed to Bombs
NYT > Home Page16 May 2012 | 11:42 amThe same degenerative brain disease found in football players and boxers has been found in veterans exposed to roadside bombs, a finding with potentially profound implications. -
Newlywed hero's 1970 sacrifice honored
CNN.com16 May 2012 | 10:50 amRose Mary Sabo Brown spent just 30 days with her new husband, Army Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr., before he shipped out to fight in Vietnam. But from that month together in 1969 grew a lifetime of love.
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Holy Kaw!
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The (not so correct) anatomy of sea life
16 May 2012 | 11:52 amMarine biology, scharine schiology. Pleated Jeans skips scientific facts for its series of sea life diagrams. Via Pleated Jeans. (H/T @laughingsquid) Laughing is good for you. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
The mechanics of eclipses [infographic]
16 May 2012 | 9:11 amWhen the moon passes in front of sun, as viewed from Earth, the eclipse that occurs is visible from a narrow path on Earth that corresponds to the location of the moon's shadow. During a total solar eclipse, this path is known as the path of totality. WARNING: Never look directly at the sun during an eclipse with a telescope or your unaided eye. Severe eye damage can result and scientists use special filters to safely view the sun. Via Space. The view from space. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Clean air improves heart health, Olympics show
16 May 2012 | 8:39 amUsing the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a lab, researchers found evidence that even short-term reduction in air pollution exposure improves a person’s cardiovascular health. “Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the Chinese government had proposed to reduce pollution levels to be comparable to other Olympic host cities,” says USC Professor Junfeng (Jim) Zhang. “We wanted to take advantage of such a huge intervention and look at what happens to people biologically.” Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink |… -
Why parents can’t rely on video game ratings
16 May 2012 | 7:48 amNot all E-rated video games are created equal. New research indicates content matters more than ratings when it comes to effects on kids. “In the children’s study these were are all very cartoonish games—they were all rated appropriate for everyone—and yet we still show the violent harm aspect, as well as the prosocial, good aspect of some E-rated games,” says Iowa State University psychology professor Craig Anderson. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Fotolia Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Top-educated women picking family track
16 May 2012 | 7:46 amMore older, highly-educated women are choosing to have a family, but it remains unclear whether they are having children in addition to—or instead of—careers. “Women born in the late 1950s are the turning point,” says Qingyan Shang, assistant professor of economics at the University at Buffalo. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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TEDTalks (video)
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TED: David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence - David Kelley (2012)
16 May 2012 | 8:30 amIs your school or workplace divided into "creatives" versus practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create... (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.) -
TED: Jean-Baptiste Michel: The mathematics of history - Jean-Baptiste Michel (2012)
15 May 2012 | 8:00 amWhat can mathematics say about history? According to TED Fellow Jean-Baptiste Michel, quite a lot. From changes to language to the deadliness of wars, he shows how digitized history is just starting to reveal deep underlying patterns. -
TED: Tali Sharot: The optimism bias - Tali Sharot (2012)
14 May 2012 | 8:10 amAre we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side -- and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial. -
TED: Renny Gleeson: 404, the story of a page not found - Renny Gleeson (2012)
11 May 2012 | 8:08 amOops! Nobody wants to see the 404: Page Not Found. But as Renny Gleeson shows us, while he runs through a slideshow of creative and funny 404 pages, every error is really a chance to build a better relationship. -
TED: Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do - Joshua Foer (2012)
10 May 2012 | 8:00 amThere are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua Foer describes the technique -- called the memory palace -- and shows off its most remarkable feature: anyone can learn how to use it, including him.
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Matt Mullenweg
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Diary Of A WordCamp
15 May 2012 | 8:41 amWith all the hubaboo going on about WordCamps right now, it’s nice to read Siobhan McKeown’s Diary Of A WordCamp on Smashing WordPress, a great story about her experience at WordCamp Netherlands. -
WP Businesses and Contributions
13 May 2012 | 5:54 pm10up partner Helen is now a core WP contributor and 10up highlights that contribution on their blog. It’s very exciting to see more core involvement springing up all over the WP ecosystem, as it has a big impact on the quality of the core software we all depend on. Let me know if you spot any more examples and I’ll share them here. -
Three Laws of Makerbot
8 May 2012 | 8:21 amThe landlord at 87 Third Avenue included a lease clause requiring that MakerBot comply with science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s “three laws of robotics,” which require that robots follow orders, not injure humans, and protect their own existence. Makerbot has a fun article in the WSJ today about moving office space. (Makerbot is an Audrey company.) -
Richard Clarke on Stuxnet
26 Apr 2012 | 8:46 amSmithsonian Magazine has a great article on Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar, discussing Who Was Behind the Stuxnet Attack. -
Automattic Growth
25 Apr 2012 | 7:40 amLiz Gannes writes for AllThingsD, Automattic Grows Up: The Company Behind WordPress.com Shares Revenue Numbers and Hires Execs. In addition to Stu joining as CFO and Paul as Consigliere/Automattlock, we’ve been on a hiring roll the past month or two with excellent folks joining at every level of the company, including two more Matts. If you’re passionate about Open Source and making the web a better place, like we are, there’s never been a better time to join. My favorite thing about logging in every morning is the people I work with. Friends say I work too much but it…
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NYT > Home Page
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Brain Disease Is Found in Veterans Exposed to Bombs
16 May 2012 | 11:42 amThe same degenerative brain disease found in football players and boxers has been found in veterans exposed to roadside bombs, a finding with potentially profound implications. -
Greece Teeters Ahead of New Vote
16 May 2012 | 11:40 amAmid warnings of the possibility of bank runs, state television said June 17 would be the date for a new round of elections. -
Riot Police Break Up Antigovernment Encampment in Moscow
16 May 2012 | 11:39 amThe crackdown occurred as an unpredictable political situation continued to unfurl in the early days of Vladimir V. Putin’s new term as president. -
TIMESCAST: TimesCast | May 16, 2012
16 May 2012 | 11:39 amGreece sets a date for new election amid euro exit fears. | Latino networks take center stage at television upfronts. | President Obama meets with Congressional leaders over the legislative agenda. -
ArtsBeat: Gehry Changes Design for Eisenhower Memorial
16 May 2012 | 11:32 amThe changes came in response to concerns that a youthful statue failed to represent the former president’s significant achievements.
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CNN.com
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Newlywed hero's 1970 sacrifice honored
16 May 2012 | 10:50 amRose Mary Sabo Brown spent just 30 days with her new husband, Army Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr., before he shipped out to fight in Vietnam. But from that month together in 1969 grew a lifetime of love. -
Google search to become more human
16 May 2012 | 10:35 amSo, let's say you're doing a Google search for "Kings." Did you mean the L.A. hockey team or the Sacramento basketball team? Maybe the TV show? Or maybe you actually wanted to know something about monarchs. -
Defense rests in John Edwards trial
16 May 2012 | 9:03 amThe defense team for John Edwards rested its case Wednesday without calling the former Democratic presidential candidate's ex-mistress to testify at his corruption trial. -
Mobster's body exhumed from Vatican
16 May 2012 | 8:26 amThe body of a mobster buried among cardinals and bishops on a Vatican property has been exhumed in an investigation into a teenage girl's disappearance. -
Doctor: Zimmerman's nose was broken
16 May 2012 | 7:09 amThe report also said George Zimmerman had black eyes and cuts on his head a day after fatally shooting unarmed teen Trayvon Martin. An autopsy showed Martin's knuckles were injured, a CNN affiliate reports.
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CJR
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What's the right price for ebooks? (updated)
16 May 2012 | 9:00 amAuthor Chuck Windig, GigaOm's Mathew Ingram, and TechDirt's Mike Masnick all took on the question of ebook pricing recently, arguing that production costs (you know, minor details like advances, editors, etc.) don't or shouldn't factor into the end price. Ingram writes that "It doesn't matter what e-books cost to make," and Masnick follows with "Nobody Cares About the... -
How I got that story
16 May 2012 | 4:50 amIn March 2011, Lisa M. Hamilton, a writer and photographer, began a series of road trips around rural California. She had a grant from the Creative Work Fund—a San Francisco-based foundation that supports collaboration between artists and nonprofits—to tell stories that would help bridge the cultural divide between the rural and urban parts of the state. Initially she... -
Logue jam
16 May 2012 | 4:50 am“Catalogue” can also be spelled “catalog.” “Dialogue” can also be spelled “dialog.” But “monologue” is rarely spelled “monolog.” The Americans are at it again. The combining form “logue” is French, descended from Latin, and it indicates an engagement of some sort, a discourse, if you will, between people or things. People browse “catalog(ue)s” to “discuss” what items to buy; a... -
Audit notes: Commercialization, GM and Facebook, Saverin's taxes
15 May 2012 | 9:15 pmConor Friedersdorf makes a nice catch on Tom Friedman's Sunday column bemoaning the commercialization of seemingly all aspects of American life: For example, his column is bizarrely titled, "This Column Is Not Sponsored by Anyone," despite the fact that right above it on NYTimes.com there is a banner ad for a Citi/American Airlines credit card. But Friedersdorf... -
Health costs: Is Mass. the only model?
15 May 2012 | 1:19 pmWe all know Obamacare is Romneycare and Romneycare is Obamacare and that the Bay State has set the standard for everything health reform—from the individual mandate right down to ways to cut its gigantic medical bill. Or at least the media have passed along that narrative. The Wall Street Journal’s recent piece, “Same State, New Stab at Health...
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Mashable!
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Facebook Fans Get to Pick Bonus Levels in ‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD’
16 May 2012 | 12:06 pmActivision is polling fans via Facebook on which levels will be included as additional downloadable content on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD is a rebuilt version of the classic games. It features seven levels from the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, released in 1999, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, which came out in 2000. Players will be able to skate all over classic levels such as “Warehouse” and “Mall” that have been rebuilt using the old maps. Starting Wednesday afternoon, fans will be asked to pick which of their favorite Tony… -
Facebook IPO Gets a Boost: 84 Million More Shares For Sale
16 May 2012 | 11:15 amJust days away from launch, Facebook is continuing to make last-minute changes in its IPO plans. On Wednesday, Facebook announced that an extra 84 million shares will be added to its stock pool for sale. The extra shares will come entirely from insiders and early investors, according to the Associated Press. Facebook and its current stockholders will offer more than 421 million shares in the IPO. The company has raised the price range of its stocks to $34 to $38, up from $28 to $35. If the shares trade on the higher end, Facebook could raise $16 billion when it goes public. Some of the early… -
18 Mashable Family Photos
16 May 2012 | 10:47 amWhat does a family portrait look like when it represents a community of millions of people? For our photo challenge this week, Mashable readers sent us their photos, helping us to create a family portrait of our community. This past Sunday was Mother’s Day in the U.S. Sons and daughters found time to pick up the phone and call their moms, and many families enjoyed the day together. In honor of Mother’s Day, we asked you to show us a photo that represents family to you. At Mashable, we loved seeing your photos of family outings, newborn family members and canine best friends. -
Behind the Launch: A Promising, Yet Controversial Job Candidate
16 May 2012 | 10:31 amDiscuss the show on Twitter: #BehindTheLaunch In Mashable‘s new video series, Behind the Launch, we’re taking cameras behind the scenes at Vungle, an in-app video advertising startup. Last week, we met the the founders and saw them bring on Colin Behr to head up business development. This week, they courted big-name startup investors, such as 500 Startups‘ Dave McClure, DFJ Esprit‘s Krishna Visvanathan and AOL Ventures‘ Adam Smith. But Vungle needs to focus more on the core — developing the product instead of fleshing out press releases and a website… -
Billion-Dollar Tech-Testing ‘Ghost Town’ Being Built in New Mexico [VIDEO]
16 May 2012 | 10:16 amIf a $1 billion ghost town sounds to you like the set of sci-fi movie, think again. A company called Pegasus Global Holdings is constructing a town in Lea County, N.M. as a testing ground for the latest renewable energy technology and terrorism security systems. It will look like any other city, filled with office buildings, homes and roads, the BBC reports. The only difference from a regular city: no people will live there. The site could be used to test self-driving cars, smart grids, citywide wireless networks and just about anything else Pegasus’ clients are interested in. Ground is…
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Wired Top Stories
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China Flies New Stealth Fighter as Problems Plague U.S. Jets
16 May 2012 | 11:27 amThe second copy of China's stealth fighter prototype has just flown at a research facility in the city of Chengdu. The first flight of the J-20 Mighty Dragon with the nose number 2002 doubles Beijing's stealth test fleet at a time when America's latest jet fighters are hobbled by cost overruns, labor disputes and lethal design flaws. But it's far from certain how much, and how fast, the new Chinese jet will alter the military balance. -
Dell Targets SMBs With Boomi-based Cloud Packs
16 May 2012 | 11:05 amFresh on the heels of rolling out its virtual desktop Simplified DaaS , Dell is bolstering its cloud services offerings again with Integration Packs, "... a point-to-point integration solution ... that enables automatic synchronization of critical data between popular software applications." -
Found Contest: Imagine the Future of School Science Fairs
16 May 2012 | 10:55 amWired magazine's Found page represents our best guess at what lies over the horizon, from touchscreen windshields to organ farming. Now, we're inviting readers to help create Found pages: What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years? -
Make amazing neuroscience discoveries without even thinking about the brain.
16 May 2012 | 10:26 am*Wait a minute... There's something vaguely familiar about this new science paper, "Automated Cognome Construction and Semi-automated Hypothesis Generation"... http://blog.ketyov.com/2012/05/journal-of-neuroscience-methods-paper.html http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/10-in-the-future-doing-science-is-like-blogging -
Step 1 in U.S. Plan to Rule Sea and Sky: Actually Share Data
16 May 2012 | 10:24 amNo one really understands the Navy and Air Force's new blueprint for dominating Earth's seas and skies. But what's increasingly clear, even to the heads of both the Navy and Air Force, is that there's a big challenge ahead for it, one that doesn't have anything to do with an adversary like China: getting U.S. ships, subs, planes and drones to actually talk to one another.
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@ProBlogger
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5 Effective Tricks to Create a Killer Call to Action
16 May 2012 | 7:04 amThis guest post is by Greg Digneo of Sales Leads in Thirty Days. Here’s the dirty little secret: there are actually two steps to building an extremely popular blog. The first and most popular step is to drive traffic by guest posting, social media, and SEO. The far less sexy step is to convert that traffic into loyal readers who will become the backbone of your community. Who will share every piece of content you produce with their friends. And who will ensure that every post sparks an engaging discussion. But most of all, they will be the first to buy your products and services. The… -
Get Obsessed with Your Message
15 May 2012 | 1:01 pmThis guest post is by Danielle LaPorte of DanielleLaPorte.com. Blog = up? Posts = rolling? It’s time to get obsessed with your message. A quick dictionary moment, to differentiate between your voice, your topics and your message. Your voice is what makes your writing distinctive, compelling, unmistakably you. You’ll carry your voice from your blog, right into your book. Seamless, identifiable. Individual. Your topics are the categories or subjects you write about (Eco-luxe weddings on a shoestring budget! Savvy corporate management, with heart and soul! Thrifty vegan recipes!) Your… -
On the Elusive “Next Level” of Blogging
15 May 2012 | 7:04 amWe’ve all heard of it—the elusive “next level” that so many bloggers talk about online. But what is the next level? How many levels are there? Is there an end point in leveling up? These are all worthwhile questions—especially for more experienced bloggers who have spent a lot of time and energy in reaching the level they’re already at. For these bloggers, trying to reach the next level can involve a degree of risk, so the steps that get us toward the next level might be taken slowly and with care. On the other hand, the web isn’t exactly undersupplied with… -
Grab Your BWE Virtual Ticket for $100 Off—24 Hours Left
14 May 2012 | 5:09 pmWish you could get to Blog World Expo this year, but can’t make it to New York? Me too. I’ll be in Queensland with the winners of my blogging competition, but I know there are plenty of bloggers from other countries, as well as within the States, who won’t be able to attend Blog World this year. Fortunately, you and I don’t need to miss out on the information and fun of the Expo (and if the speaker list for this year is anything to go by, the conference is going to be really impressive). We “remote” bloggers can still “attend” on a BWE virtual… -
Install Your First WordPress Theme
14 May 2012 | 7:09 amThis guest post is by Karol K of ThemeFuse. Seeing a headline like “How to Install a WordPress Theme” on ProBlogger might seem strange at first. This doesn’t sound like a “pro”-thing at all, right? If you’ve been dealing with WordPress for a while then this is probably even more than obvious to you. However, everyone starts somewhere, and there are plenty of experienced bloggers who haven’t ever installed a WordPress theme—but would like to give it a try. Maybe you’re installing your first theme right now, and you’re searching for a…
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Copyblogger
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What Does it Take to Write a Billion-Dollar Marketing Story?
16 May 2012 | 4:00 amIn 1984, two artists used a simple process to create a story that captivated an audience for years and generated billions of dollars in revenue. That same process is being used today by a master copywriter to attract hundreds of thousands of paying subscribers. With companies creating millions of web pages of content marketing, finding an untold story or a new angle can feel like an impossible task. Especially when you want to avoid creating a story so unique nobody understands it … or wants to pay for it. So how do you create a story that cuts through the noise and strikes at the heart… -
How to be a World-Changing Writer
15 May 2012 | 4:00 amAs a copywriter, you know that words have power. You know words can influence, inform, and inspire. They can persuade your fellow humans to do some amazing things (or to do the wrong things, but we won’t go there today). What you may not realize is that your words can change the world. Here’s something else that’s really cool that you might not have realized … The keys to world-changing writing are also the keys to damn good copywriting. But as you know, good writing doesn’t happen all by itself. So let’s talk about what it takes to be damned good …… -
WordPress Hosting That Means Business
14 May 2012 | 8:00 amDid you know Copyblogger Media has a WordPress hosting division? Many people don’t, because it’s been a bit under-the-radar. The whole thing started with our frustration with web hosting in general. Specifically, the fact that a lot of “WordPress hosting” amounts to generic one-click installation of the CMS on a standardly-configured box — which simply doesn’t cut it for optimal performance and security. So, last year we decided to manage our high-traffic network of content and product sites ourselves. We did this by bringing into the family a team of people who themselves… -
The Truth About Making Money While You Sleep
14 May 2012 | 4:00 amWant to hear about the day in the life of a so-called “successful entrepreneur?” Yesterday, I stayed in bed until about 2 PM. I watched the last few episodes of Mad Men. Around sunset, I took a leisurely stroll down the beach. When I got back, I hung out with a friend for a couple of hours, ate dinner, and went to bed. In other words … I goofed off. And while I was goofing off, my business generated a pretty decent chunk of revenue. You want to know the coolest part? I did absolutely nothing to “earn” it. I didn’t check my email. I didn’t talk to… -
7 Instructive Content Marketing Links
12 May 2012 | 6:00 amThis week on The Lede … Are Content Publishers Waking Up from Their App Dreams Nightmares? An Email Marketing Autoresponder Schedule that Sells 3 Quick Tips To Conquering Your Fear of Public Speaking Does Your Domain Say “Trust Me?” Why “Freemium” Fails for Startups: 3 Business Lessons from the Band New Order 5 Basic SEO Truths We Can Learn from Star Wars Peter Shankman on the Value of an Audience If you want to grab more useful links (than the seven we highlight here) every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. Are Content Publishers Waking Up from Their App Dreams…
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YouTube Videos
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Darian Rodriguez Heyman on New Trends in Social Media for Nonprofits
10 May 2012 | 3:33 pmDarian Rodriguez Heyman on New Trends in Social Media for Nonprofits Aiden Livingston of Call2Action interviews Darian Rodriguez Heyman, the co-producer of Social Media for Nonprofits. Darian explains new trends like peer to peer fundraising, community engagement technology, and socializing the giving process. Learn about new platforms that let you maximize the effectiveness of your existing online elements, like hootsuite, Google nonprofit resource center, Google Checkout, and Google grants. From: call2actionchannel Views: 3 1 ratings Time: 06:15 More in Nonprofits & Activism -
Google for Nonprofits Google+ Hangout Series_AdWords Optimization.mp4
26 Mar 2012 | 9:34 amGoogle for Nonprofits Google+ Hangout Series_AdWords Optimization.mp4 On Tuesday March 20th we held a hangout on AdWords Optimization with +Kiva, +National Wildlife Federation, +Seed Savers Exchange, +Grassroot Soccer, + Mattress Factory Museum, +iWith.org. and +Monterey Bay Aquarium. Thank you to all of the nonprofits that participated! Our three main takeaways from the conversation were 1) Make sure to set a goal for your AdWords campaign before getting started 2) Use conversion tracking to measure how successful your campaign has been at accomplishing your goal 3) If you have limited time,… -
Nonprofits to Know™: Ecumen
23 Feb 2012 | 5:01 pmNonprofits to Know™: Ecumen The Minnesota Philanthropy Partners' Nonprofits to KnowTM video series is proud to feature Ecumen, a nonprofit that provides senior housing and services, empowering individuals to live richer, fuller lives. Featured organizations in the Nonprofits to KnowTM video series are selected from those nonprofits that receive grants from The Saint Paul Foundation, FR Bigelow Foundation or Mardag Foundation, all of which are affiliates of Minnesota Philanthropy Partners. Ecumen received a grant in 2011 from the Mardag Foundation. To learn more about MN Partners… -
Nonprofits to KnowTM: The Minnesota Project and Farmers' Legal Action Group
27 Dec 2011 | 10:04 amNonprofits to KnowTM: The Minnesota Project and Farmers' Legal Action Group The Minnesota Philanthropy Partners' Nonprofits to KnowTM video series is proud to feature the Minnesota Project and Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG). The Minnesota Project is a nonprofit organization that connects people with policy to nurture collaborations that build strong local economies. FLAG is a non-profit law center dedicated to providing legal services to family farmers and their rural communities in order to help keep family farmers on the land. Featured organizations in the Nonprofits… -
Nonprofits Helping Others
13 Dec 2011 | 8:55 amNonprofits Helping Others Nonprofit leaders discuss the benefits of volunteering and serving on King Day. From: nationalservice Views: 474 1 ratings Time: 02:13 More in Nonprofits & Activism
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BBC News - Home
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Syria is 'losing information war'
16 May 2012 | 11:38 amSyria is losing the information war against the West, President Bashar al-Assad has said, amid continuing violence across the country. -
Dalglish sacked as Liverpool boss
16 May 2012 | 11:29 amKenny Dalglish is sacked as Liverpool manager after finishing eighth in a disappointing Premier League campaign. -
French PM Ayrault names cabinet
16 May 2012 | 11:13 amFrance's new Socialist Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault names his government but party leader Martine Aubry will not join the cabinet. -
Bangladeshi arrests spark anger
16 May 2012 | 11:07 amDemonstrators and police clash in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka after 33 senior opposition figures are arrested in connection with anti-government protests last month. -
New Palestinian cabinet sworn in
16 May 2012 | 11:04 amPalestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas swears in a new cabinet in the West Bank, a move Hamas describes as a "big error".
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WSJ.com: What's News US
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European Fears Erase Stocks' Gains
16 May 2012 | 11:40 amU.S. stocks bounced back after a three-day slide, though confusion over Greece's political future and the role of the European Central Bank kept a lid on the gains. -
Fed Flags Fiscal Risks
16 May 2012 | 11:35 amFed officials in April flagged concerns over U.S. fiscal policy and its impact on the economy, according to minutes of their last policy meeting. -
Deere Beefing Up Output on Farm Strength
16 May 2012 | 11:35 amDeere is speeding its production expansion, brushing aside concerns that the market for its farm tractors and combines has peaked, and offered an improved outlook for the global farm economy. -
J.C. Penney Posts Loss; Stock Slumps
16 May 2012 | 11:29 amJ.C. Penney swung to a loss in its latest quarter on restructuring costs and a 20% drop in sales. Its shares fell sharply, as the retailer also suspended its dividend. -
GE Capital Resumes Dividend
16 May 2012 | 10:27 amGeneral Electric is again able to take cash out of its hulking finance arm in the form of a $475 million quarterly dividend.
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TechCrunch
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Third Pivot’s The Charm? Events Site Ravn Becomes Flash Sales Site Touch Of Modern
16 May 2012 | 11:34 amNo one ever called a limit on the number pivots a company can do, right? So here’s the latest at a company we’ve been watching for a while now. RAVN, an event planning and sharing app that itself was the product of a pivot from the developers behind “experiences marketplace” Skyara, has sent a letter out to its users telling them that the app is getting shut down at the end of this month. In RAVN’s place, the founders are starting up yet another business — their third — also loosely based around events but with a decidedly more commercial bent: a… -
This Won’t End Well: Toyota Connects With Nintendo DS For In-Car Navigation Interface
16 May 2012 | 11:31 amFor some inexplicable reason, Nintendo and Toyota have teamed up to turn the Nintendo DS into a navigational remote control, thereby allowing drivers (although I hope passengers do most of the fiddling) to set their routes using their game consoles. The service, called Kuruma de DS lets you see map and destination info as well as tour information as you drive through town. The service slightly gamifies the experience by adding a POI saving option. The compatible Toyota Smart Navi system costs about $3,000 while the game itself costs $92 – quite a bit of cash to simulate the map screens… -
Forrester: 32.1 Million U.S. Households Now Access Online Video On Their TVs
16 May 2012 | 11:04 amAlmost 115 million households in the U.S. currently own at least one TV set and 36 million own four or more. That’s a huge market and as Apple, Google and Microsoft try to wrestle more of this business away from the traditional content and hardware players, the old-school cable and satellite providers now suddenly have to content with this new group of challengers that, until now, barely registered on their radars. According to Forrester analyst James McQuivey, it’s Microsoft that’s winning this platform war so far. Why? Microsoft, MCquivey argues, currently has a massive… -
Verizon To Axe Unlimited Data Once Their New Data Share Plans Go Live
16 May 2012 | 11:01 amVerizon Wireless has been working on bringing shared data plans to market for months now, but it turns out not everyone may enjoy making that transition. Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said at an investor conference earlier today that users on those wonderful old grandfathered unlimited data plans will soon have to give them up if they want to move into a 4G device. “A lot of our 3G base is unlimited,” Shammo remarked. “As they start to migrate onto 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go onto the data share plan. That’s beneficial for us for many reasons.”… -
Funny Or Die Gets Strategic Investment From Turner, Looks To Accelerate Growth
16 May 2012 | 10:39 amIndependent online video company Funny Or Die is about to get a lot of help from a traditional TV company, as it’s struck a strategic partnership with Turner Broadcasting to collaborate on multiplatform video content. As part of the deal, Turner is taking a small minority stake in Funny Or Die — terms of which have not been disclosed. “We’re at an inflection point with digitally distributed video,” Funny Or Die CEO Dick Glover told me by phone. He says that as a result, the timing of the deal is poised to coincide with that inflection point and catalyze further…
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Andy Sernovitz | Damn, I Wish I\'d Thought of That!
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A name with a bug, part 2
16 May 2012 | 7:00 amLast week we had an amazing conference called the Word of Mouth Crash Course. It was a fantastic day, the third in a series. But it wasn’t as big as we expected, and we discovered a critical reason why: We changed the name of the event — it used to be called Word of Mouth Supergenius — without any testing. Here’s what happened — people thought that it was an online course instead of a live conference. The word course implied online training to many people. We also failed to use certain trigger words that indicate that something is a live event: Summit, Expo,… -
A name with a bug, part 1
15 May 2012 | 7:00 amWe were going to launch a site called WordofMouthMarketing.org. During the few months we were planning it, everyone kept saying WordofMouth.org — they kept dropping the word marketing. Even employees and contractors who were working on the project. That was a problem. If our own team couldn’t get the name right, how would our customers find the site? So we killed the project until we could get ownership of WordofMouth.org. It was incredibly lucky that we caught the problem before we launched. We would have sent all of our confused customers to someone else’s site. Lesson:… -
Give them an experience they’ll never stop talking about — and a reminder to re-start the talk
14 May 2012 | 7:00 amThe Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX invites school and scout groups to spend the night camping in the zoo. It’s an amazing behind-the-scenes experience. More that just the camping, which is remarkable, you also get to feed a giraffe, pet a rhino, and hold a giant cockroach. Just as important: Every kid gets a free shirt with the Zoo Snooze logo on it. And everyone other kid in school finds out about the Zoo every time the shirt is worn. (And because it was a Cub Scout trip, dozens of kids in the same grade all have the shirt.) Lesson: Don’t just think about the experience. Think… -
What’s the simplest thing you can do to create a remarkable experience?
13 May 2012 | 7:00 amSubway gave us a kids meal in this nice reusable bag. We talked about it, we told people, we kept it, and we tell more people when our daughter carries it around. Probably cost them 30 cents — which is about 10 cents more than a throw-away box. But the conversations it starts are priceless word of mouth advertising moments. -
35 ways to improve sales
12 May 2012 | 7:00 amClassic advice from e-commerce master Sam Decker, now CEO of Mass Relevance, originally published in 2004 and still relevant: Can I find that item I’m looking for? Tune your internal search engine to match top search terms to product pages. Put top sellers on home page. People buy on impulse or recommendation. Match the landing page to the marketing campaign. Use vanity urls for offline advertising. Test your categories, naming and navigation with customers. They’re less intuitive than you think. Can I find something that interests me? Put top sellers on home page. Add related items to a…
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NTEN
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Sharing Our Way toward Equality: Social Media and Gay Rights
15 May 2012 | 6:56 amBy John Hoffman, Director of New Markets, ZeroDivide Since the moment that President Obama stated that he supports same-sex marriage, there’s been a flurry of social media activity, both pro and con, on the issue. It’s obvious by now that social media has played a huge role in shaping Americans’ attitudes toward LGBT issues. But I would go a step further. Despite the unavoidable struggles and setbacks that lay ahead, the inherent qualities of social media make the passage of same-sex marriage and equal rights for LGBT individuals and families inevitable. Here’s why: 1. Social media is… -
Google Drive: Does It Matter?
14 May 2012 | 10:48 amTJ Rainsford Chief Technology Officer 501cTECH Google Drive is still brand new and not without limitations, but its capabilities are pretty hard to ignore. On April 24, Google announced the much anticipated Google Drive service, a cloud-based "disk drive" where individuals and organizations can store there documents, spreadsheets and a host of other electronic files. That may sound like a big deal but organizations and individuals with Google accounts could do that already using Google Docs. So does Google Drive really matter? In short, the answer is yes! -
Member Round Up: Change and Opportunities!
11 May 2012 | 2:23 pmFlickr:MarkusramWe can feel it - the season is changing! How do we know? NTEN members are providing more educational opportunities, asking for more help on amazing projects, and announcing even more technology tools than ever before. With all the change going on, make sure you learn about all the ways NTEN members are making a difference in the world. Have more news to share? Drop us a line or include your links in the comments!Women rule! And Women Who Tech just created an awesome infographic that details exactly why women rule. For example, did you know that women represent 56% of the… -
Engaging Volunteers in Technical Roles
11 May 2012 | 11:54 amWould you trust a volunteer to help maintain your organization's servers? Okay, probably not, but what about taking out an iPad to collect constituent data? Or setting up wi-fi hot spots after a disaster. Volunteers are the lifeblood of many a nonprofit, and there are many ways you can engage them in technical roles – but it requires a special skill set to manage them. We'll explore the pros and cons of a volunteer workforce supporting technology at our upcoming webinar, "Engaging Volunteers in Technical Roles". Learn more and register today >> In this webinar, you'll learn: How to… -
Developing a Cloud Migration Strategy, Part 2: Process, Costs & Things to Consider
10 May 2012 | 2:57 pmMatthew Eshleman Director of Professional Network Services Community IT Innovators The promise of the cloud is that you don't have to worry about servers anymore. The reality of the cloud is that you have a lot of other things to think about. We may have jumped the gun a little by discussing what systems to migrate in part 1 of this look at developing a cloud migration strategy, but now we're going to ask and answer the question of How to Migrate. Migrating to a cloud based application or service is different from installing some software or server in your office. It is imperative that…
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News
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Town's Effort To Link Fracking And Illness Falls Short
16 May 2012 | 11:41 amMany residents of Dish, Texas, blame the fracking operations that surround their tiny town for a host of health problems — from nosebleeds to cancer. The former mayor was so scared, he left town. But scientists who've studied Dish say there's not enough evidence to link natural gas operations to any illness.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Chipping In To Your Office Lottery Pool? Read This First
16 May 2012 | 11:25 amA group of workers at a Chicago bakery recently won $118 million. But two employees say they should be getting a share. It's another example of why it's important to write things down beforehand.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Latino Voters: Seen, But Will They Be Heard, In 2012?
16 May 2012 | 10:57 amNow the fastest growing voting group, Latinos have never been so heavily courted in a presidential race. They could play a key role in battleground states in the 2012 elections.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
EU Human Rights Court Could Be Last Stop For German Claiming CIA Kidnapping
16 May 2012 | 10:40 amKhaled El-Masri is looking for redress, after he says he was mistakenly flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan, under the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us -
Four Decades After Dying In Cambodia, Soldier To Receive Medal Of Honor
16 May 2012 | 9:51 amMore than 40 years after his actions during the Vietnam war saved the lives of his fellow soldiers, Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony.» E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
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USATODAY.com Feed
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McCain adviser defends Palin pick
16 May 2012 | 11:36 amThe lawyer who ran John McCain's vice presidential selection team sticks by Sarah Palin and gives some insight into vetting running mates. -
Healthy food no more costly than junk food, government finds
16 May 2012 | 11:32 amCarrots, onions, pinto beans, lettuce, mashed potatoes, bananas and orange juice are bargains compared to, say, soft drinks, ice cream and f ... -
Senators seek expansion of GSA investigation
16 May 2012 | 11:15 amTwo senators have asked GSA's inspector general to expand his probe into possible waste at the agency. -
Lead poisoning guidelines revised; more considered at risk
16 May 2012 | 11:07 amAbout 200,000 more children will be considered at risk of lead poisoning under new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. -
Crews working to contain fire near Ariz. mining town
16 May 2012 | 10:16 amFirefighters in Arizona worked through the night to prevent a wildfire from spreading.
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FundraisingIP.com: Fundraising Ideas
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How to Promote Your Fundraising Event
26 Apr 2012 | 4:33 pmRegardless if you’re holding one or several fundraisers each year, properly promoting each and every event will help you get the most out of your time and money invested in them. Even just a little bit of extra effort can result in much better results. Following some tips to get started with promoting your event: 1. Before you start promoting your fundraiser As with any larger event, the better you prepare for your fundraising event, including promoting it, the smoother it will run and the higher the chances that you’ll have a positive outcome. - Identify a budget for potential… -
New Options for Mobile Donations
6 Mar 2012 | 1:19 pmYou can already collect mobile donations via an SMS text donation campaign through companies like mGive or MobileCause. However, these services are relatively expensive and aren’t suitable for smaller fundraising campaigns, or drives that need to be organized and executed quickly. It’s also hard to collect donor data and impossible to enable recurring gifts. If you’re interested in harnessing mobile donations for your future fundraising campaigns, without the disadvantages of text donations, keep an eye on the new mobile payment services springing up. (Maybe we will finally… -
How To Ask For Donations From A Large Company
9 Feb 2012 | 11:56 amLarge companies support charities on a large scale, providing financial support through fundraising events and donations, in addition to providing publicity of their sponsored non-profits among their employees. But even large companies may have to lower their cash donations during tough economic times and will often resort to making up at least some of the difference through in-kind donations or giving their employees paid time off to volunteer. How you ask can make the difference between getting a donation or not. Following are a few points to consider when approaching a company for… -
Food Truck Fundraiser
31 Jan 2012 | 12:12 pmMaybe you’ve already seen them in your neighborhood, or heard about them in the news: a new generation of food trucks that serves everything from tri-tip and crepes to cupcakes or any ethnic cuisine you can imagine. Unlike a traditional ice cream truck, or the hot dog and taco wagons at a downtown street corner, these new gourmet food trucks are modern kitchens on wheels. Sure, you could raise funds with the old fashioned food trucks as well, but the diverse cuisines of the new gourmet food trucks will get people curious and surely attract a large crowd. Besides, who can resist a… -
Make Money With a Valentine’s Day Fundraiser
25 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amValentine’s Day is one of the best times of year to hold a fundraiser! A Valentine’s Day fundraiser offers the advantages of • Decreased competition from other fundraisers – as opposed to the busy times of year for fundraising like Christmas and Fall, when many local and nationwide groups launch major campaigns • Demand for novelty products and candy • Opportunity for entertaining event-based fundraisers Every type of Valentine’s Day fundraiser offers a variety of ways to make money. Some, event-based fundraisers especially, can bring in profits in more ways than…
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NYT > Global Home
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Brain Disease Is Found in Veterans Exposed to Bombs
16 May 2012 | 11:45 amThe same degenerative brain disease found in football players and boxers has been found in veterans exposed to roadside bombs, a finding with potentially profound implications. -
Greece Teeters Ahead of New Vote
16 May 2012 | 11:40 amAmid warnings of the possibility of bank runs, state television said June 17 would be the date for a new round of elections. -
Mexicans Unflinching in Face of Drug War’s Carnage
16 May 2012 | 11:40 amMany Mexicans are increasingly disturbed by their disaffection as drug violence has taken a turn for the worse. -
Riot Police Break Up Antigovernment Encampment in Moscow
16 May 2012 | 11:39 amThe crackdown occurred as an unpredictable political situation continued to unfurl in the early days of Vladimir V. Putin’s new term as president. -
TIMESCAST: TimesCast | May 16, 2012
16 May 2012 | 11:39 amGreece sets a date for new election amid euro exit fears. | Latino networks take center stage at television upfronts. | President Obama meets with Congressional leaders over the legislative agenda.
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ReadWriteWeb
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Read/Write Daily: Bionic Eyes That Can See Clearly
16 May 2012 | 11:30 amToday's theme is improving on life. Nature did a pretty good job of engineering some hardy life forms. But now we're able to tinker with life ourselves. We're further along than you might think. Researchers have lifted the lid on turtle evolution, a perfect demonstration that technology is natural. But now we have our own genetic ideas. We're able to triple the physical strength of mice in the lab. This paper shows that high-resolution prosthetic human eyes are possible! Here are slightly and greatly more accessible articles about these bionic eyes. We've also developed low-cost artificial… -
Google Goes Back to What It Does Well: Finding Things
16 May 2012 | 10:00 amSurprise! Google has completely transformed the way search works again. But this time, it's a kind of search that would have made the old Google proud. Today, starting with U.S., English-language users, Google unveils the Knowledge Graph. Search now looks at the words of your query and identifies the things in it. You're not just searching the Web anymore. You're searching the world. From Words to Things Most of Google users' queries are ambiguous. In the old Google, when you searched for "kings," Google didn't know whether you meant actual monarchs, the hockey team,… -
Why the iPad Works for Writing
16 May 2012 | 8:02 amWhen the first iPad launched in 2010, critics were quick to lampoon the device for being geared too heavily toward content consumption. The criticisms weren't entirely without merit, especially considering that the first-generation iPad didn't even have a camera, and external media slots are still nowhere to be found. Over time, the iPad has evolved into something that's much more creation-friendly. It still doesn't compare to a desktop or laptop computer for many things, but it's great for quite a few others. Writing is one of them. I happen to write things for a living, but the… -
The Truth About Why Yahoo's CEO Got Fired
16 May 2012 | 7:02 amWhat's the takeaway from Yahoo's recent CEO fiasco? Don't lie on your corporate bio, for one, and make sure no one else has lied on your behalf. But the real lesson has nothing to do with falsified credentials. Sure, the world will remember Scott Thompson as the Yahoo CEO who got fired over a fake computer science degree, but the context is crucial: A battle with Yahoo shareholder Dan Loeb for control of the company. If not for Loeb, we may never have found out about Thompson's juiced resume, and he might still be CEO. The real lesson is: Beware the activist investor. Four months… -
Loomio: Making Better Decisions Remotely Possible
16 May 2012 | 6:33 amEmail, instant messaging, forums, code forges and other collaboration tools make it possible for distributed teams to get work done - but they're not great tools for making decisions. The team behind Loomio wants to solve that with a new Web-based tool for focused, concise discussions that allow all team members to be heard. If you've ever worked with a distributed team, you know how difficult it can be to make decisions as a group. Discussions are unstructured, rambling affairs with dozens of messages flying about and no good way to track consensus. Even worse, requests for feedback…
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Twitterrati
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Frrole: What’s Happening on Twitter in Your City?
6 May 2012 | 4:21 amIdea: Looking to see what’s happening on Twitter in your city? Frrole delivers a “social newspaper” of 20 cities. My take: An interesting and easy way to get a snapshot of the local TwitterSphere. Utility Grade: 6/10 -
A Whois for Twitter Users
27 Dec 2011 | 7:00 amOne of Twitter’s shortcoming is how little information it provides about users, other than a short bio and a URL. So how do you quickly get more insight about particular users? The answer could be Twho is This, which offers up an extensive list of a person’s social/digital presence, along with their Twitter bio and a link to follow them. It’s not the prettiest service and it could benefit from offering more information but it’s better than what Twitter offers. An example below is Mathew Ingram (aka @mathewi). By doing a query on his username, it shows 14 different… -
$300 Million of Twitter, Please
19 Dec 2011 | 12:40 pmTwitter may not have a vibrant business model but it sure has no problem attracting heavyweight investors. The latest person to step up in a major way is Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who bought a $300 million stake from an early Twitter investor as part a strategy “to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.” (More details on the New York Times) You figure with so much interest, Twitter could do an IPO. Of course, an IPO means you have to disclose your financials, which Twitter may not want to do given it’s probably spend a lot more money than its… -
Postpost Streamlines Twitter
15 Dec 2011 | 9:00 pmA fact of life about Twitter is the more people you follow, the noisier your live stream becomes. As much as the live stream is a parade in which a new “float” comes along on a regular basis, there can be times when you want a way to have a more focused or narrow slice of what’s happening with our live stream. An interesting tool to take control of your live stream is Postpost, which drills down into it so that people can do searches for particular keywords. For example, if I was interested in tweets about “startups”, Postpost would generate the following results… -
So How is Twitter Making Money?
14 Dec 2011 | 10:05 amCurious about how Twitter makes money? Henry Blodget did an interview recently at the Insight conference with Adam Bain, Twitter’s chief revenue officer, which I suppose is the guy responsible for helping turn Twitter into a business big enough to support its sky-high valuation and growing workforce (800 and counting!)
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This Just In
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Passengers On Virgin Atlantic Will Soon Be Able To Use Cell Phones In-Flight
16 May 2012 | 12:41 pmA Virgin Atlantic plane on the runway in Manchester (Courtesy eisenbahner/Flickr) How many times have you been forced cut off a phone call practically mid–sentence, or send a frantic "CallyouwhenIland!!" text, seconds before the airplane door closes? Thanks to Virgin Atlantic, that may be a thing of the past—in the not–too–distant future. Passengers traveling between New York and London on the airline's Airbus A330 will soon be able to use their cell phones to talk, text, and surf the web in–flight. It's a bit of news that's sure to delight business travelers and… -
TSA Misstep Causes Teen to Lose Pricey Medical Equipment
16 May 2012 | 9:02 amA familiar sight at the airport (Courtesy niiicedave/Flickr) There are a lot of jokes at the expense of the TSA, thanks to some ridiculous mistakes and policy misunderstandings on the part of agents. But it's no laughing matter when an agent's ignorance causes a teen traveler's life–saving medical equipment to malfunction. When 16–year–old Savannah Barry—who is a Type 1 diabetic and wears an insulin pump—was flying out of the Salt Lake City airport last Monday, she followed the guidelines for diabetic travelers listed on the TSA website and asked for a… -
Why Flight+ Is Apple's App of the Week
15 May 2012 | 10:33 amThe app Flight+ launched only a couple of weeks ago, but it's already a bestselling app in the iTunes App Store. The reason is simple: This week, Apple named Flight+ its App of the Week, singling it out as exceptional among the 725,000 apps in the store. Flight+ deserves its popularity. It can do complex things in a very streamlined way. That matters most when you need help handling a snafu with your itinerary, such as a delayed or canceled flight. Say your flight is delayed. Flight+ earns its $3 price tag because it lets you track any flight in the sky on a map in real time—at least as… -
Why You Don't Want to Have an Accident When Driving a Rental Car in Mexico
11 May 2012 | 8:45 amRental car in Mexico (Courtesy adam_d_/Flickr) Last year, Wade Bruleson of Enid, Oklahoma, learned the hard way what could go wrong when you rent a car in Mexico. During a vacation stop in Cozumel, Bruleson went on a quick trip in his family's rental car to pick up a map from a local shop. During the drive, he accidentally broadsided a motorcycle, which led to a few broken bones for its two riders. At the police station, Bruleson discovered that the premium insurance policy he bought from his rental car company wouldn't cover everything. In Mexico, the guilty party in a car accident that… -
Will You be Flying or Driving This Summer?
11 May 2012 | 8:25 amAre you a fan of flying vs. driving this summer? (Courtesy Ceo1O17/Flickr) A couple months ago we theorized that no one would be taking road trips this summer due to high gas prices. Turns out, we might have been wrong. According to the Royal Bank of Canada, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, their U.S consumers are feeling better about the economy—and they want to travel. Thanks in part to a recent dip in gas prices, 67 percent of the respondents said they were planning on driving to their summer vacation spot—up 8 percent over 2010—while 34 percent plan to fly…
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WordPress News
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Calling All Contributors: Community Summit 2012
15 May 2012 | 3:36 pmEach year, the WordPress core development team meets in person for a week to work together and discuss the vision for WordPress in the coming year. As annual events go, it’s easily my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I love attending WordCamps and local WordPress meetups (which are awesome and you should try to attend if you are able), but at the core team meetup, the focus on working together and getting things done is unique, as is the experience of every person in the room being so highly qualified. This year, instead of just planning a core team meetup, I’m aiming a little… -
WordPress 3.4 Beta 4
2 May 2012 | 7:52 pmLess bugs, more polish, the same beta disclaimers. Download, test, report bugs. Thanks much. /ryan #thewholebrevitything -
WordPress 3.3.2 (and WordPress 3.4 Beta 3)
20 Apr 2012 | 8:10 amWordPress 3.3.2 is available now and is a security update for all previous versions. Three external libraries included in WordPress received security updates: Plupload (version 1.5.4), which WordPress uses for uploading media. SWFUpload, which WordPress previously used for uploading media, and may still be in use by plugins. SWFObject, which WordPress previously used to embed Flash content, and may still be in use by plugins and themes. Thanks to Neal Poole and Nathan Partlan for responsibly disclosing the bugs in Plupload and SWFUpload, and Szymon Gruszecki for a separate bug in SWFUpload. -
WordPress 3.4 Beta 2
11 Apr 2012 | 8:52 pmHowdy, folks! Another week, another beta. Since we released Beta 1 last week, we’ve committed more than 60 bug fixes and feature adjustments based on testing and feedback. If you’ve been testing Beta 1, please update to Beta 2 to make sure things are still working for you. If you are a theme or plugin author and have not yet started testing your code against the 3.4 beta, now’s the perfect time to start. And as always, if you find any bugs, let us know! Full details on testing and bug reporting can be found in last week’s Beta 1 post. Download WordPress 3.4 Beta 2 -
WordPress 3.4 Beta 1
4 Apr 2012 | 7:07 pmWordPress 3.4 is ready for beta testers! As always, this is software still in development and we don’t recommend that you run it on a production site — set up a test site just to play with the new version. If you break it (find a bug), please report it, and if you’re a developer, try to help us fix it. If all goes well, we hope to release WordPress 3.4 in May. The more help we get with testing and fixing bugs, the sooner we will be able to release the final version. If you want to be a beta tester, you should check out the Codex article on how to report bugs. Here’s some of…
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Signal vs. Noise
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We're hiring: Help us significantly improve conversion and retention
14 May 2012 | 10:18 amWe’re looking for another teammate. This time we’re looking for someone who is completely focused on improving conversion and retention. You love moving the needle, one small step at a time. This job is all about seeing untapped potential. Conversion could be financial (get more people to start a trial or complete it – what we consider a “sale”), or outcome-based (inspire people to create more Basecamp projects by showing them creative ways to use Basecamp they never thought of before). Or something else. Retention could be reducing cancellations, or reducing… -
Taking the Pain Out of MySQL Schema Changes
14 May 2012 | 6:53 amA common obstacle we face when releasing new features is making production schema changes in MySQL. Many new features require additional columns or indexes. Running an “ALTER TABLE” in MySQL to add the needed columns and indexes locks the table, hanging the application. We need a better solution. Option 1: Schema Change in Downtime This is the simplest option. Put the application into downtime and perform the schema change. It requires us to have the application down for the duration of the “ALTER TABLE”. We’ve successfully used this option for smaller tables… -
Basecamp in Antarctica
10 May 2012 | 7:39 amWe have customers around the world doing extraordinary things with our software, but Ben Saunders is taking it to a whole new level. Ben and his team are using Basecamp to organize an expedition to the South Pole and back, unsupported and on foot. This is the same journey Captain Robert Scott died trying to achieve 100 years ago, and no one has attempted it since. Ben has been a professional polar explorer for more than 10 years and is one of only three people to complete a solo journey to the North Pole. He will be joined by Alastair Humphreys, who has cycled 46,000 miles around the world,… -
Sortfolio: Going once, going twice...
7 May 2012 | 3:19 pmA year ago we put Sortfolio up for sale. We entertained a variety of offers, met with a few potential suitors in person, and negotiated numbers. Ultimately nothing came together. Then we shelved the process so we could focus all of our efforts on designing and building the new Basecamp. Sortfolio continued to run itself for another year, generating over $200,000 in profit for us during that time. Our paying customer count continues to hover consistently in the 170s, each paying $99/month to be listed as a premium member. The price We’ve put Sortfolio on the clock: We either sell it by… -
VIDEO: Keynote by David from RailsConf 2012 on progress…
1 May 2012 | 12:05 pmKeynote by David from RailsConf 2012 on progress, curiosity, fear, and the danger of easy-bake ovens.
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zenhabits
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The 9-5 Guide to Staying Active
15 May 2012 | 8:00 amEditor’s note: This is a guest post from Matt Madeiro of Make Every Day Count. Let’s see if this rings any bells. When the clock hits 8, I sit. I plop back in my rolling chair, crack open the laptop on my desk, and spend the next nine hours with my butt glued firmly to seat. I stand on occasion to step into the bathroom, but I’m back to my post again shortly thereafter — hunched over, bleary-eyed, and nursing my coffee like it’s the greatest thing since toilet paper (I make no claims to the contrary). When that clock hits 5, I bolt. I’m out the door in the blink of an eye,… -
Three Little Habits to Find Focus
10 May 2012 | 10:42 am‘Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.’ ~Blaise Pascal Post written by Leo Babauta. I’ll be the first to admit that I fall victim to the trap of the Internet — a wonderful empowering tool that can fill your day with distractions, a million little “productive” tasks that matter little, constant interruptions from messages and status updates. Who doesn’t fall victim to this? We are frittering our lives away. So how do we beat this? How do we make best use of the awesomeness of the… -
How to Live Well
7 May 2012 | 12:59 pm‘Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.’ ~Seneca Post written by Leo Babauta. I’m not a rich man, nor do I fly around the world and drink champagne with famous people in exotic locales, nor do I own a sports car or SUV or a yacht. And yet, I’m very happy. Much happier than seven years ago when I ate fried foods and sweets all time time and felt unhealthy and overweight, when I watched television and was out of shape, when I shopped a lot and was in debt, when I worked a job that paid fairly well and had no time for myself or my loved… -
What I’ve Learned About Learning
3 May 2012 | 8:07 am‘We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.’ ~Lloyd Alexander Post written by Leo Babauta. I am a teacher and an avid learner, and I’m passionate about both. I’m a teacher because I help Eva homeschool our kids — OK, she does most of the work, but I do help, mostly with math but with everything else too. I also teach habits, writing/blogging, simplicity and other fun topics in online courses. I’m a lifelong learner and am always obsessively studying something, whether that’s… -
The 39th Lesson
30 Apr 2012 | 8:05 amPost written by Leo Babauta. Today (April 30) is my 39th Un-un-birthday, and as usual, the day is a good day to pause and reflect. Last year I wrote 38 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 38 Years, and people seemed to find some use in it. This year, I thought I’d share an additional lesson I’ve learned: You’re not missing out. Our lives are often ruled by the Fear of Missing Out, or FOMO. (Never heard of FOMO? You’re missing out.) Some ways we let the fear of missing out rule us: We check email, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks often, in case we’re missing…
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Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
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Find Your One Thing
15 May 2012 | 11:15 amCan you sum up your professional you in one or two words? I was very touched watching the documentary, Being Elmo, on PBS' Independent Lens. The movie is about Kevin Clash (the puppeteer behind Sesame Street's Elmo). From a very young age, Clash demonstrated a strong desire to be a puppeteer. While that seems quaint and points to someone who was focused on what they wanted to do in life from a very young age, you can imagine the struggles he faced growing up in Baltimore. While all of the other kids were out playing baseball or causing mischief, Clash was at home sewing puppets together and… -
Can Breastfeeding Save Time Magazine?
15 May 2012 | 10:01 amWhen was the last time you discussed Time Magazine around the dinner table? I found myself giving a dissertation on mass media at dinner the other night. It all started when one friend leaned into the table and spoke (in an almost embarrassed whisper), "Did any of you see the cover of Time Magazine? The one with the mother and her older child... breastfeeding?" I knew that they were talking about the issue dated May 21st, 2012 titled, Are You Mom Enough? by Kate Pickert. The article about Dr. Sears and the attachment parenting movement has created quite a stir, but I wanted to tease… -
Listen. Engage. Connect.
14 May 2012 | 11:10 amOne of the largest gatherings of professional marketers is about to take place. The Canadian Marketing Association's 2012 CMA Summit is happening next week (May 16th - 17th, 2012 at the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel in Toronto, Ontario). I'm fortunate to be the chairman of the board of the directors of this association and prior to that role, I was co-chair of these national annual gatherings. Each and every year offered professional marketers from across the globe the opportunity to connect and share. This year will be no exception. All under one roof. During the two days, just some of the… -
The Virtual Self And The New Trend Of Self-Tracking
13 May 2012 | 8:09 amEpisode #305 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. Now, with the ubiquity of smartphones and mobile connectedness, it has never been easier to share with the world our each and every move (look no further than Facebook's one billion dollar acquisition of Instagram). And we're publishing our lives. All of the time - in text, images, audio and video - for the world to see. In fact, it's happening more and more with each and every passing day. Why are we doing all of this self-tracking? It's a topic that has fascinated Nora Young for a… -
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #99
12 May 2012 | 6:09 am93Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see? My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see". Check out these six links that we're…
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Better Living Through Design
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JACK Table Legs
16 May 2012 | 7:31 amTable legs sold separately are always a good bet as you’re able to change out the surface to whatever suits your fancy. Plywood, wood, stone, glass, you name it, you can alter your desk/work top to whatever you want. These JACK table legs were named after the game jacks (reference there for you young things that have no idea) and will look excellent with whichever table top you prefer. The JACK legs are available in three finishes: Black, White, and shot blasted aluminum finish. And, if you’d like the table top included, there’s the complete Jack Table as well (custom sizes… -
Pedrera Floor Lamp
16 May 2012 | 6:24 amIf you love/admire/dream about the Pedrera Floor Lamp (previously written about here: PD2 Floor Lamp), today is your day. As in, the day where everything lines up perfectly and you get a steal of a deal: 40% off. It’s actually 40% off all of MoMA Store’s spring ‘must haves’ but we don’t care about that, we just care about the Pedrera, for today only, with a cost of $495. Be sure to note code below for discount. Use code VIP40 at checkout, today only. Regular price: $825.00 ($742.50 Members) -
Organic Tote Bags
16 May 2012 | 6:10 amTime to feature some totes again, especially as SFMOMA has a couple of good ones from FluffyCo. You’ve heard time and time again that totes are great alternatives to those icky plastic bags, so if you don’t have one you’re a bad person. Not really, of course, but carrying around a tote does make you a better person, at least according to the people at the local health food store. And they know everything. If you’d like to check out all of FluffyCo’s organic totes, here’s their website: FluffyCo. (Most of their totes are priced at $56, but they don’t… -
ARKCANARY II
15 May 2012 | 8:04 amDon’t get too excited, it’s not a modern day earhorn for your less-than-great hearing (though I suppose you could try it out to see if it works), it’s an analog acoustic speaker for the iPhone 4. You know all about acoustic speakers, as we’ve posted several, but this pint sized version seems all the more charming because of its size (and because it looks like an earhorn). Manufacturer: ARKWHAT Material: PVC Dimensions: 8.5 ” x 3.9″ x 5.8 ” -
Cuppow Mason Jar Lid
15 May 2012 | 7:47 amYeah I know, canning jars are extremely trendy right now, even more than the actual canning process. I’m drinking out of one in a coffee shop at this exact moment. But beyond fashion, they are simple and robust in their design, perfect for drinking glasses. However, the open top proves to be unwieldy when on-the-go. Cue the Cuppow, a plastic drinking lid designed to convert any mason jar into a spill-proof cup. The Cuppow gets bonus points for being manufactured in the United States, and at only $8, is quite affordable.
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Design daily news
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8 tools to manage an email newsletter
15 May 2012 | 6:26 pmAccording to internet marketers, the email list is still what you should look to grow fast if you want to make any money online. For non-business people, it is a great way to spread ideas and contact many people at once. I recently encountered problems with a client’s email list, some emails are not sent, so I’ve been looking for new ways to manage their newsletter. In the following article I share some of the popular options you get to technically manage your newsletter. Open-source solutions Whenever I start a new project or need some software to perform some tasks, I always… -
The best rejected New Yorker covers
14 May 2012 | 5:27 pmThe New Yorker is famous for its gorgeous illustrated covers, but the published covers are only the tip of the iceberg. Many, many cover proposals stay unpublished for various reasons. Françoise Mouly, who has been chosing covers since 1993 as art director, authored a book giving these rejected covers some exposure. You can see some of these covers here, and see more as well as an interview on ImPrint Mag. -
This week on Pinterest
13 May 2012 | 6:15 pmPinterest has become a great source of inspiration for me. Each week I share my favorite pins of the week. If you don’t want to miss any pin, make sure to follow me on Pinterest. Alessandro Gottardo illustration. Via My Modern Met. The Velvet Underground Loaded Album Cover.Via Tralfaz Archives. Sculpture by Ron Ulicny. Via Colossal. To Kill a Mockingbird cover. Via Amazon. Photography by Daniela Sachs. Via Flickr. Coffee Duck logo. Via Behance. Cool vintage typographic label. Via Codex99. -
How to get people to buy your software
11 May 2012 | 8:37 pmA quite fun way by the founders of the Chocolat text editor to get people, graphic designers at least, to purchase your software. Via Reddit. -
Stylised 17th century floriated letterforms
10 May 2012 | 7:22 pmUsually exagerated ornaments aren’t my cup of tea, but there is something charming about these letters engravings. See more on BibliOdyssey.
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ScienceDaily: Fitness News
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Scientists identify protein that stimulates brown fat to burn calories
10 May 2012 | 9:28 amScientists have identified a protein which regulates the activation of brown fat in both the brain and the body's tissues. -
Long commutes may be hazardous to health
8 May 2012 | 7:39 amAs populations move even further away from urban centers, more people spend longer hours behind the wheel on their way to and from work. While sedentary behavior is known to have adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic health, the impact of long commutes by automobile are less understood. A new study has found that greater commuting distances are associated with decreased cardiorespiratory fitness, increased weight, and other indicators of metabolic risk. -
Eating fast increases diabetes risk
7 May 2012 | 6:00 pmPeople who wolf down their food are two and a half times more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes than those who take their time according to new research. -
Exercise slows muscle wasting from age and heart failure
7 May 2012 | 1:53 pmA four-week exercise program for heart-failure patients slowed muscle-wasting and improved their exercise capacity, regardless of age, according to new research. The study confirms that exercise can reduce inflammation in skeletal muscle. Findings offer a possible avenue for future drug therapy to treat muscle-wasting in heart failure patients. -
Kids with cerebral palsy may benefit from video game play
7 May 2012 | 7:22 amLike their healthy peers, children with disabilities may spend too much time in front of a video screen. For children with cerebral palsy (CP), this leads to an even greater risk of being overweight or developing health issues such as diabetes or musculoskeletal disorders. A group of scientists has found that video games such as Nintendo's Wii offer an enjoyable opportunity to promote light to moderate physical activity in children with CP, and may have a role to play in rehabilitation therapy.
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Beth’s Blog
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Akilah Institute for Women: Social Media Workshop
16 May 2012 | 8:24 amAkilah workshop View more presentations from Beth Kanter After the ACE leadership training, I had the opportunity to spend a day in Kigali. I volunteered to do a Social Media and Professional Networking workshop for second year students at the Akilah Institute for Women. The mission is to empower young women in East Africa to transform their lives by equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to find meaningful employment and launch ventures in the fastest growing sectors of the economy. The organization was founded by Elizabeth Dearborn Davis and Dave Hughes. I… -
Social Media, Networking, and African Women’s Leadership Training in Rwanda
15 May 2012 | 8:00 amFor the past ten days, I’ve been in Rwanda, Africa. I was honored to be a trainer as part of the launch of the ACE Leaders Project, a program developed by the Institute of International Education Sub-Saharan Regional Office and supported by the Packard Foundation. The project is under the visionary leadership of Cheryl Francisconi who is the director of IIE’s office in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and has vast expertise in developing, designing, and implementing transformative leadership programs for several decades. The project mobilizes leading women’s organizations and… -
Need Answers: LinkedIn Has Them
14 May 2012 | 8:44 amNote from Beth: I’m just finishing up an intensive training here in Rwanda. I was out in a rural area where Internet connectivity was a huge challenge, so was not able to blog, But now that I’m back in Kigali with a good Internet connection, expect to hear more about my experience teaching social media and the Networked NGO. Right before I left for this trip, Geri Stengel, shared a guest post about nonprofits and use of LinkedIn that was of interest to many folks. So, when Geri offered up this second post about nonprofits and LinkedIn, I couldn’t… -
Are You Being Left Behind as Technology Ushers In a Whole New Approach to Philanthropy? #CoFLA
4 May 2012 | 7:25 amNote From Beth: Just before I left for Rwanda, I caught some interesting discussion threads about organizational adoption of networked ways of working on Twitter coming from the #COFLA hashtag as a result of the Council on Foundations gathering in Los Angeles. I discovered that it was Larry Eason from DotOrgPower and his colleague, Shelley Wenk, offered to write this summary of the discussion as a guest post. When I landed, I was able to get the guest post from Shelley via email and publish it because Rwanda has one of the better Internet connectivity infrastructures for the countries… -
Attention Data Nerds: Nonprofits Miss Out on the Power of LinkedIn: Learn How to Tap It
3 May 2012 | 8:02 amNote from Beth: By the time you are reading, I’ll probably have been on a jet plane for far longer than I want to be and maybe have landed in Rwanda. Once I recover from the journey, expect read reports about the Networked NGO in Rwanda and use of social media to support Women’s Rights organizations. If you’re motivated to go deeper on LinkedIn after reading this summary, you will want to check out my curated list of nonprofit and LinkedIn resources here. Nonprofits Miss Out on the Power of LinkedIn: Learn How to Tap It – Guest Post by Geri Stengel …
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Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog
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Giving is up, and it’s still about relationships
16 May 2012 | 12:03 amMy organization, Network for Good, sits at the intersection of many forms of digital giving—via nonprofit websites like yours, portal sites like Charity Navigator, and social networks like Causes.com. Today, we release the Q1 2012 update to The Network for Good Digital Giving Index, which analyzes giving across these channels, and we have interpreted the results so you know what the data means for your organization. The headline is that online giving is up across all channels. The healthy growth of digital philanthropy continues apace. We continue to find the winning formula online to… -
Social lipstick on a network pig: 4 ways your online efforts can go awry
15 May 2012 | 12:25 amThis post on social media for nonprofits is adapted from The Nimble Nonprofit: An Unconventional Guide to Sustaining and Growing Your Nonprofit by Jacob Smith and Trey Beck. Jacob blogs at brightplus3.com. Should your nonprofit dive headlong into the world of Web 2.0? The simple answer is to first know your audience, how it communicates, and how its members interact with each other and with organizations they support. You may be able to mine some of this information from your personal knowledge of supporters and prospects, from your member database, or from analytics on your web site. … -
A good formula: Email plus social media
14 May 2012 | 12:44 amIf there’s anything that’s become clear in fundraising, it’s that no single channel is a silver bullet. Email alone - or direct mail alone or social alone - aren’t enough. What works best is using them in combination. Donors are channel agnostic, so you can’t give them only one way to give. Here’s a nifty infographic from GetResponse on the merits of using email and social media in combination. Enjoy! -
How to Make Your Big Idea Really Happen
11 May 2012 | 12:18 amThe title of this post comes from a new article at the Harvard Business Review blog which provides some solid pointers for people like us. According to John Hagel and John Brown, turning a grand idea into reality requires five critical concepts. Here is my paraphrase of those factors, along with my thoughts. 1. Create a Compelling Shaping View To mobilize supporters,say Hagel and Brown, you have to create a compelling view of what the future-state could look like. Think “I have a dream” or Kennedy’s man on the moon speech. Don’t just pitch your cause -… -
How to get unstuck when you lack inspiration
10 May 2012 | 12:24 amVery young kids’ drawings usually don’t feature a person’s neck. Why is that? My theory is that if you’re two or three years old and your perspective is pretty low to the ground, you don’t see people’s necks when you look up. You see a head sitting on arms. Perspective is everything, isn’t it? If you’re feeling stuck, you may not have writer’s block or marketing problems or any other creative limitation. More likely, you’ve lost the perspective you need to do your best work—that is, the perspective of…
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About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs
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Social Media? How Even Small Nonprofits Can Get Started
14 May 2012 | 5:23 amI know one small nonprofit that has a small staff, a one-person development department, and no marketing staff. But they want to get started with social media, and they should. It will help with communicating with their volunteers, raising funds, building their community, publicizing their events, and building their brand. What they don't realize though is that their website is the place to start. Then adding even one social network could make a difference. The staffing problem can be solved with a tech savvy volunteer and/or having several staff (think the development person, the Executive… -
Older People Rule in May
8 May 2012 | 6:00 pmOlder Americans Month takes place every year in May, and it is a great time to both celebrate our elders and remember just how important they are to the charitable world. Read Full PostOlder People Rule in May originally appeared on About.com Nonprofit Charitable Orgs on Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 at 01:00:22.Permalink | Comment | Email this -
Help Me Share Your Content on Social Media
7 May 2012 | 6:30 pmI'm a content hunter. And I'm after yours. It's the only way I can keep my social media well fed. I was late to the social media party but, once there, I fell in love with it. Twitter was my first fav, but once the new Facebook design appeared, I became an avid poster. I update my FB page frequently and even groom my Facebook updates so they look nice and read well. The cardinal rule of social media is share and then share some more. So I do. Brian Murray, blogging at PRDaily, made that point recently in his excellent 6 warning signs that you're doing social media wrong. Murray says that if… -
Animal Charity Keeps Recurring Donors With a Great Thank You
7 May 2012 | 8:50 amRecurring donations are so important to any charity. Thus, it is worth the effort to engage as often as possible with recurring donors and thank them well. One organization that does just that is Best Friends Animal Society. I'm a recurring donor and was blown away by the end-of-year thank you package that I received earlier this year. I've had the letter right next to my computer for months now, planning to add it to my collection of thank you letters here on my site. I finally got around to it and share it here: A Thank You Letter (Plus DVD) Makes Best Friends Stand Out. Photo: Best Friends… -
Incorporate Endowment Fundraising into Your Charity's Calendar
6 May 2012 | 6:00 pmBuilding an endowment for your nonprofit is way too important to put on the back burner. Guest author Scott Stevenson has come up with 25 Ways to Market Endowment Gifts for Your Charity. These are strategies that can be worked into all aspects of your organization's work and year-round calendar without breaking a sweat. Which ones are you doing already? Which can you add this year? Are there any that we forgot? Just let us know in the comments. Photo: Getty Images
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Step By Step Fundraising
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Cookie Dough Fundraisers to Try
2 May 2012 | 1:37 pmWe’ve meant to discuss the effectiveness of cookie dough fundraisers for a long time and now that the fundraising season is ending for schools and sports organizations we felt like this was as... [This is a summary only, click on the title to read the entire article.] -
Even Towns Look for Fundraising Ideas
16 Mar 2012 | 1:40 pmTimes are getting so bad that even towns are looking for fundraising ideas to raise money and other ways to reduce spending. Shawn Touhill, a Doylestown Township supervisor, got people together as... [This is a summary only, click on the title to read the entire article.] -
Activity Based Fundraisers Booming
7 Mar 2012 | 6:51 amWe ran across an article the other day that was encouraging. It talked about activity based fundraisers like walks and runs and how they had set new fundraising records in 2011. For the past few... [This is a summary only, click on the title to read the entire article.] -
Lessons from Presidential Fundraising
6 Mar 2012 | 7:36 amIf you think presidential fundraising is different than the way you raise money think again. There are lots of similarities. The one I’d like to discuss today is the need to bring star power to... [This is a summary only, click on the title to read the entire article.] -
7 Fundraising Tips
5 Mar 2012 | 1:49 pmHere are some basic fundraising tips: 1. Start with a List: Put togther a list of friends, family, neighbors and anyone else you might contact to raise money from. The more people the better. But... [This is a summary only, click on the title to read the entire article.]
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HowStuffWorks Daily Feed
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How Rummikub Works
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amEndlessly mispronounced but universally beloved, this game is a mix of rummy and older, tile-based games like mahjong and dominoes. Think you can be the first to yell out "Rummikub"? -
The Ultimate Bicycle Quiz
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amLearning to ride a bicycle seems to be a universal experience for children around the world. Whether you've been riding bicycles since you were a child or just recently started pedaling, how much do you know about this elegant and simple vehicle? -
5 Ways TV Has Influenced Presidential Elections
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amThe introduction of television all but changed the way we elect our presidents. So just how exactly has this powerful medium influenced our elections? Read on to find out. -
Videos: Stephen Hawking's Visions of the Universe
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amAstrophysicist, cosmologist, lecturer, cartoon voice actor, author, parent, grandparent -- Stephen Hawking wears many hats, and he also has a few ideas about black holes, time, aliens and wormholes. -
How long should building a house take?
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amIs your new home proceeding on schedule or is your contractor just blowing smoke at you? Here's how to tell.
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TMZ.com
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'American Idol' -- We Really, Really Want Jennifer Lopez Back
16 May 2012 | 11:40 amJennifer Lopez isn't sure if she'll come back for a third season of "American Idol," but the big cheese on the show says he wants her back in the worst way."A.I." EP Nigel Lythgoe tells TMZ, "We want her back. I want her back." Nigel is… -
'Workaholics' Billboard -- Fully Erected in Hollywood
16 May 2012 | 11:10 amThe new season of "Workaholics" is already facing hard times ... and it hasn't even aired yet.The good people over at Comedy Central just put the above billboard up on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood -- and if it wasn't glaringly obvious ... it… -
Kim Kardashian -- Skechers Got My Ass In Order
16 May 2012 | 10:20 amKim Kardashian doesn't care WHAT the Federal Trade Commission says ... she says Skechers worked for her, and THAT'S why she became the company's pitch person.Kim made a 1-year deal with the company, which touted Shape-Ups as a shoe that promotes… -
Joey Lawrence -- Whoa, I'm a Stripper!
16 May 2012 | 9:12 amJoey Lawrence is taking it all off ... or most of it at least ... because the 90s heartthrob just inked a deal with the man-stripper crew at Chippendales in Vegas.A rep for the beefcake brigade tells TMZ, the 36-year-old former "Blossom" star will… -
Feds: Kim Kardashian Hocked BOGUS Shoes
16 May 2012 | 8:43 amThe Skechers fitness shoes Kim Kardashian tried to convince you to buy don't actually work ... not even a little bit ... so says the federal government. The Federal Trade Commission has determined Skechers made unfounded claims about its Shape-Ups…
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The Latest from VanityFair.com
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A Little Late This Time, Gloria Allred Enters the John Travolta Sexual-Assault Arena
16 May 2012 | 10:45 am -
Romney Wins a Couple of Meaningless Primaries—But He’s Up in North Carolina
16 May 2012 | 9:47 am -
Moviegoers Will Have to Choose Between Equally as Appealing Aaron Sorkin and Ashton Kutcher Steve Jobs Biopics
16 May 2012 | 9:00 am -
Buying Shares of Facebook: More Difficult Than Figuring Out How to Unlike Things on Facebook
16 May 2012 | 7:50 am -
MTV Movie Awards Scheduled for Same Time as Obama Convention Speech!
16 May 2012 | 6:19 am
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Salon.com
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SPIN METER: Rivals airbrush anti-Romney words
16 May 2012 | 10:30 amWASHINGTON (AP) — Remember Newt Gingrich calling Mitt Romney a liar? Michele Bachmann saying Romney's unelectable? Rick Santorum calling Romney "the worst Republican in the country" to run against President Barack Obama?They're hoping you don't. And acting like it never happened (even though most of their words are just clicks away online.)One by one — with the exception of holdout Ron Paul — the GOP also-rans have coughed up endorsements of their onetime rival. And as they do, they're pulling rhetorical backflips to distance themselves from their former harsh assessments of… -
Ron Paul sets up Rand for 2016
16 May 2012 | 9:50 amSo Ron Paul says he is going to stop actively campaigning, but his supporters will continue to rack up delegates by storming state conventions. What will he do with these delegates? That is still unclear. (Barter them for gold?) What is the point of this strategy, exactly? Also unclear, but the Daily Beast's Ben Jacobs today says it's part of a "sneaky maneuver" to help his son Rand out. Ron will continue to consolidate power but will not appear to be actively sabotaging the party's nominee. Dave Weigel says the maneuver is less sneaky and barely a maneuver: He doesn't want it to be a huge… -
Next Tea Party targets
16 May 2012 | 9:36 amWhat may be most notable about the surprise triumph yesterday of a Sarah Palin-backed insurgent in Nebraska’s Republican Senate primary is how routine these sorts of things are becoming.Deb Fischer’s late charge to victory wasn’t really rooted in ideology. As Hotline’s Reid Wilson points out, she’s actually racked up a (somewhat) moderate record in the Nebraska legislature, and has some personal connections to the state’s leading GOP establishment figures.But most GOP primary voters probably didn’t know this. Fischer came to the race with little money or name recognition and… -
Susana Martinez’s veep suicide
16 May 2012 | 9:04 amWhile Newsweek touted New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as a possible running mate for Mitt Romney, the erstwhile beneficiary of the hype all but killed her chances of getting the job by opening her mouth.“I absolutely advocate for comprehensive immigration reform,” Martinez told reporter Andrew Romano. “Republicans want to be tough and say, ‘Illegals, you’re gone.’ But the answer is a lot more complex than that.”With those words, Martinez inflicted multiple wounds on whatever slender chance she had to join the national ticket. First, she indicated support for the immigration… -
Romney’s human shield
16 May 2012 | 9:00 amThe only honest line in "Inside the Circus," the recent Politico e-book in which millions of nauseating Republican operatives lacerate each other anonymously during primary season, should be mounted on the computers of all "political news readers": "It is sometimes unclear whether political campaigns are run for the benefit of the voters and office seekers or for the professional consultants who earn their living from politics." Every other line in the book mostly goes like, and then the RNC flack whispered that the campaign flack didn't know what he was doing, but that one sentence about…
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The Martha Stewart Blog
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Amazing Tree Peonies At Rockefeller State Park Preserve
15 May 2012 | 9:01 pmI love growing peonies and I especially love growing tree peonies. The plants in my collection are many years old and when I moved from Turkey Hill to ... -
Honoring Maurice Sendak
14 May 2012 | 9:01 pmAs you may have heard, Maurice Sendak, the writer and illustrator of children’s literature, passed away last week. He is, of course, the best-selling author of one of ... -
Attending the Costume Institute Gala at the Met
13 May 2012 | 9:01 pmLast week, I attended the annual Costume Institute Gala held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The gala celebrated the new exhibition, “Schiaparelli and ... -
Our Television Wrap Party at EN Japanese Brasserie
10 May 2012 | 9:01 pmYesterday’s blog was all about the final taping of my television show. Today’s blog is all about the wonderful wrap party we threw to celebrate the close of ... -
The Last Taping of my Show - The Mother's Day Show!
9 May 2012 | 9:01 pmOn April 24th, we taped the very last episode of my television show, our Mother’s Day show, which airs today on Hallmark. Mother’s Day is celebrated on the ...
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hrw.org
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Russia: A Sunday Stroll for Freedom
16 May 2012 | 2:27 pmTweet Widget Facebook Like Police arrested hundreds of people following clashes with demonstrators at a major protest rally in Moscow on May 6, 2012, the day before Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as president of Russia. (Moscow) – Police arrested hundreds of people following clashes with demonstrators at a major protest rally in Moscow on May 6, 2012, the day before Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as presiread more -
UN Security Council: Press Libya on Impunity
16 May 2012 | 7:23 amTweet Widget Facebook Like Members of the United Nations Security Council should condemn attempts by the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) to prevent accountability for serious and ongoing crimes committed in Libya. The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, will brief the Security Council on his Libya investigation on May 16, 2012. (New York) – Members of the United Nations Security Council should condemn attempts by the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) to prevent accountability for serious and ongoing crimes committed in… -
US: Sexual Violence, Harassment of Immigrant Farmworkers
15 May 2012 | 8:45 pmTweet Widget Facebook Like Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their workplaces because US authorities and employers fail to protect them adequately, Human Rights Watch said in its 95-page report, “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.” (New York) – Hundreds of thousands of immigrant farmworker women and girls in the United States face a high risk of sexual violence and sexual harassment in their… -
DR Congo: Bosco Ntaganda Recruits Children by Force
15 May 2012 | 5:01 pmTweet Widget Facebook Like Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who mutinied against the Democratic Republic of Congo in early April 2012, has forcibly recruited at least 149 boys and young men into his forces since April 19. Ntaganda, a former rebel leader turned army general, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes for previous recruitment and use of child soldiers. (Goma) – Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who mutinied against the Democratic Republic of Congo in early April 2012, has forcibly recruited at least 149 boys and young men into his forces since April 19, Human… -
US/Burma: Don’t Lift Sanctions Too Soon
15 May 2012 | 2:47 pmTweet Widget Facebook Like The US government should not ease sanctions on business activities in Burma until adequate safeguards are in place to prevent new investment from fueling human rights abuses. (Washington, DC) – The US government should not ease sanctions on business activities in Burma until adequate safeguards are in place to prevent new investment from fueling human rights abuses. A US presidential order imposing a ban on investment and financial services in Burma is scheduled to expire on May 20, 2012, unless it is renewed or revised.read more
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UNICEF News
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Partnership helps restore public services in rural Sri Lanka
14 May 2012 | 5:00 pmTRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, 15 May 2012 – It’s the morning rounds of the village mothers’ support group. Today, they’re visiting one of the poorest families in this remote village in eastern Sri Lanka. -
Ghana Health Service and UNICEF encourage mothers to deliver with help from skilled birth attendants
13 May 2012 | 5:00 pmTAMALE, Ghana, 14 May 2012 – Midwife Doris Azuma Bugri was sitting on the veranda of the Moglaa clinic, in northern Ghana, when she saw a pregnant woman walk into a compound across the street. -
In Madagascar, urban children highlight their needs through video
13 May 2012 | 5:00 pmANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, 14 May 2012 - Fanomezanjanahary Lantoniaina sits in the training room of the Antananarivo-based French Institute of Madagascar. Born and raised at the outskirts of Madagascar’s capital city, she eagerly awaits the start of UNICEF’s OneMinutesJr. video workshop. -
FC Barcelona and UNICEF strengthen their shared commitment to children's sports and education
10 May 2012 | 5:00 pmBARCELONA, Spain, 11 May 2012 – In an event held yesterday at Camp Nou, the stadium of legendary football team FC Barcelona (FCB), the FC Barcelona Foundation and UNICEF reaffirmed their promise to work together to improve the lives of millions of children through sports and education. -
In Nepal, a collaboration between UNICEF and the Nepal Press Institute draws attention to the lives of women and children
10 May 2012 | 5:00 pmKATHMANDU, Nepal, 11 May 2012 – Fifty journalists in Nepal have been awarded for highlighting the harsh realities facing the country’s children and women.
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Most Viewed
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Boss Bacon Burger - Epic Meal Time
15 May 2012 | 12:04 amBoss Bacon Burger - Epic Meal Time LIKE/FAV!!! (The Return of Muscles Glasses part 2) After beating down a zombie vegan horde, EpicMealTime prepares a Boss Bacon Burger in honour of Muscles Glasses' return. With over 400 bacon strips, a custom bacon bun and a massive triple meat patty, this bacon cheese burger takes being a genius to the next level. BUY AWESOME TSHIRTS!!! http://shop.epicmealtime.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/epicmealtime Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/epicmealtime BACON LUBE: http://www.whiskeydicklube.com From: EpicMealTime Views: 844373 36959 ratings Time:… -
Singapore tragic accident video - warning, graphic (Ferrari / Taxi)
14 May 2012 | 8:58 pmSingapore tragic accident video - warning, graphic (Ferrari / Taxi) Rest in peace to all the innocent parties involved and all the best to their families. No sympathies to the one who caused the accident... What a wanker.. Source: http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/%5Bgvgt%5D-video-ferrari-involved-horrific-crash-not-snap-shot-gif-3728551.html From: TheMockymocky Views: 769004 835 ratings Time: 00:29 More in People & Blogs -
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (3D) - 4 MINUTE SUPER PREVIEW
14 May 2012 | 4:53 pmTHE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (3D) - 4 MINUTE SUPER PREVIEW Like Us https://www.facebook.com/theamazingspiderman Follow Us: https://twitter.com/#!/spidermanmovie Visit the Official Site: http://theamazingspiderman.com/ From: spidermanmovie Views: 890505 6392 ratings Time: 04:03 More in Film & Animation -
"GATEWAY SEXUAL ACTIVITY" BANNED IN TENNESSEE
14 May 2012 | 3:25 pm"GATEWAY SEXUAL ACTIVITY" BANNED IN TENNESSEE Check out today's SourceFed!! http://bit.ly/JSM8xm Get some PhillyD Merch: http://forhumanpeoples.com FACEBOOK: http://on.fb.me/mqpRW7 TWITTER: http://Twitter.com/PhillyD Philly D OFFICIAL APP: http://bit.ly/aIyY0w ---------------------------- ALL of today's Stories: BAMF because he Cares: http://bit.ly/KhYJKP Ban on Texting & Walking: http://gizmo.do/JBuIGS No "Gateway Sexual Activity" http://gaw.kr/KhYRdf New Apple Macbook? http://bit.ly/JgfGb8 Megan Good Gallery: http://bit.ly/Jcw9Q3 Steven Staley's… -
Minecraft - Rapidfire Bow & Time Control Mods!
14 May 2012 | 12:39 pmMinecraft - Rapidfire Bow & Time Control Mods! Simon and Lewis take a look at the amazing Rapidfire Bow and Time Control Mods! Rapid Fire Bow Mod: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1179672-125-rapid-fire-bow-150-downloads/ Time Control Mod: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1180611-125-time-control-remote-fight-mobs-in-slow-motion-now-with-matrix-remote-4080-downloads Texture Pack: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/26727-johnsmith-texture-pack-v93-32x-124-with-customizer-0324/ ♪ Outro music by Area11 http://www.youtube.com/user/area11band ● Yogscast Gear:…
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Seth's Blog
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Digital analogs are no longer sufficient
16 May 2012 | 2:00 amThe parking meter was rebooting. I guess we're supposed to walk to the other end of the garage and find one that's working. We're seeing digital awareness coming to just about everything. In this case, it was the parking meter near the library. Of course, it's not really a parking meter, it's a centralized fee collection system that saves the town a lot of money. It's easier to collect from, certainly, it doesn't waste the time of meter readers (who get alerted as to what spaces aren't paid for, as opposed to checking them all) plus it doesn't let a new parker enjoy a few minutes of the last… -
Hard work on the right things
15 May 2012 | 2:00 amI don't think winners beat the competition because they work harder. And it's not even clear that they win because they have more creativity. The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters. It's not obvious, and it changes. It changes by culture, by buyer, by product and even by the day of the week. But those that manage to capture the imagination, make sales and grow are doing it by perfecting the things that matter and ignoring the rest. Both parts are difficult, particularly when you are surrounded by people who insist on fretting about and working on the stuff that makes no… -
Worldliness
14 May 2012 | 2:41 amIntelligence is the combination of knowing a lot about a little while you also know a little about a lot. Deep domain understanding helps you create analyses. Your ability to understand how a particular system (no matter how small) works allows you apply a confident analysis to new systems you encounter. Once you know everything there is to know about nuclear physics, soccer or the praying mantis, it makes it easier to understand new systems. At the same time, it's impossible to be smart without also being aware of the wider world. That's because it's the random interactions and the… -
The reason the customer is always right...
14 May 2012 | 2:08 amIf you insist that they are wrong, they stop being your customer* (if given half a chance). People spend their time and attention and money in places that make them feel valued. *There's nothing wrong with asking customers who are wrong to leave. Just be sure you do it on purpose. -
Dedicating the merit
13 May 2012 | 2:02 amFor an author, one of the nicest parts of the traditional book is the dedication page. The dedication is far more than an acknowledgement to someone who helped you write the book, it's a permanent signpost, a capstone to the work of a year or more. Even if the person you've dedicated the book to can't read it, the writer benefits from the knowledge that a connection was made and that a memory was preserved. Here's the thing: you can dedicate just about anything. A project, a meeting, a tweet. You don't have to tell anyone but yourself. This blog post, like all the posts before it, has a…
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Daily Writing Tips
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Does Everyone Know Every One?
15 May 2012 | 8:19 pmWriters are sometimes confused about when to attach any, every, and no to one or body as a closed compound and when to treat one of these word pairs as just that: a two-word phrase. Here are guidelines and sample sentences for each combination: Any Body/Anybody The two-word alternative, which refers to people’s physical form rather than the complete body-mind package, might be used as an advertising-copy play on anybody, as in “We can get any body into shape,” but that’s rare; it might also appear as a modifier-noun pair that itself modifies another noun: “People with any body type… -
All About Ellipses
14 May 2012 | 9:01 pmThree dots. Dot, dot, dot. What could be simpler? Then why do those dots make so many writers dotty? The rules for use of ellipses are not as simple as they seem. But they are manageable. First, a definition: An ellipsis (from the Greek word elleipsis — also the source of ellipse, meaning “an oval” — is an elision of words that can be implied to mentally complete a statement; it can also mean “a sudden change of subject.” But the meaning we seek is another one, the grammatically mechanical one: Ellipsis and its plural form, ellipses, also refer to the punctuation marks… -
7 Terms with the Root “-Vore”
13 May 2012 | 9:30 pmAre you a locavore? Probably not — it’s still a fringe movement — but you should know what it means, even if you do not consider yourself a member of the class. A discussion of locavore and six related words follows: 1. Locavore The term was coined in 2005 by a group of San Franciscans who launched the website Locavore.com to spread the word about the conservationist concept of striving to restrict one’s diet to foods and ingredients produced locally. (Some locavores quantify the range as anywhere within a one-hundred-mile radius, but most are not exact in their limits.)… -
The Rules of Engagement in English
11 May 2012 | 8:19 pmIn the same day, this site received, among readers’ responses to my recent post Courtesy Titles and Honorifics, two diverse email messages: One was a reasonable, well-written support of the writer’s opinion that, as she was taught, because the courtesy title Ms. is an artificial designation that doesn’t abbreviate anything, it should not include a period. The other correspondent wrote, “hey watch out your website looks like a rule book, and we all know rule books are fascist.” Whether one’s convictions are adept or absurd, however, one must accept the incontrovertible fact that… -
Book Review: “Spunk and Bite”
10 May 2012 | 8:56 pmThe Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, has been widely celebrated as one of the masterworks of English usage. Time magazine listed it as one of the one hundred most influential books written in English since 1923. More than ten million copies of the slim little volume that elucidates good usage, proper composition, and correct form have been sold over the course of the last half-century. Shred it. Shred it, that is, after you’ve read it once so that you know what not to do in your writing. Then, buy a copy of Arthur Plotnik’s Spunk and Bite: A Writer’s Guide to…
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ScienceDaily: Latest Science News
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Ancient tree-ring records from southwest U.S. suggest today's megafires are truly unusual
16 May 2012 | 9:03 amToday's mega forest fires of the southwestern U.S. are truly unusual and exceptional in the long-term record, suggests an unprecedented study that examined 1,500 years of ancient tree ring and fire data from two distinct climate periods. Researchers constructed and analyzed a statistical model and found that today's dry, hot climate combined with the past century of human fire suppression is causing megafires. -
Baby galaxies grew up quickly
16 May 2012 | 9:02 amBaby galaxies from the young universe more than 12 billion years ago evolved faster than previously thought, shows new research. This means that already in the early history of the universe, there was potential for planet formation and life. -
Common fungicide wreaks havoc on freshwater ecosystems
16 May 2012 | 9:01 amA new study on chlorothalonil, one of the world's most common fungicides, shows it was lethal to a wide variety of freshwater organisms. -
Let's get moving: Unraveling how locomotion starts
16 May 2012 | 8:59 amScientists have shed new light on one of the great unanswered questions of neuroscience: How the brain initiates rhythmic movements like walking, running and swimming. -
Microscope looks into cells of living fish
16 May 2012 | 8:59 amMicroscopes provide valuable insights in the structure and dynamics of cells, in particular when the latter remain in their natural environment. However, this is very difficult especially for higher organisms. Researchers have now developed a new method to visualize cell structures of an eighth of a micrometer in size in living fish larvae.
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Techbargains.com
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Toshiba 46L5200U 46in LED LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz) $699.99 Free Shipping at TigerDirect
16 May 2012 | 11:35 amTigerDirect Coupons -
Samsung ST90 14.2MP 5X Compact Digital Camera Bundle $89.99 Free Shipping at TigerDirect
16 May 2012 | 11:30 amTigerDirect Coupons -
LG 47LV4400 47in LED-Edgelit LCD HDTV (1080p, 120Hz) $699.99 Free Shipping at TigerDirect
16 May 2012 | 11:25 amTigerDirect Coupons -
New Banana Republic Coupon Code 25% off orders $100+ at Banana Republic
16 May 2012 | 11:20 amBanana Republic Coupons -
VOIP Roundup - Offerings from Vonage, Viatalk, Lingo, and Phone Power at Phone Power
16 May 2012 | 11:15 amPhone Power Coupons
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123 Social Media
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Building a Social Media Dashboard
9 May 2012 | 9:08 amWarning: fopen(http://su.pr/api/simpleshorten?url=http://123socialmedia.com/building-a-social-media-dashboard/&login=barryhurd&apiKey=R_5908e1757bbb2d6bc0b88f47a59d3403) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable in /home/executiv/public_html/123socialmedia.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-tweetbox/wp-tweetbox.php on line 109 Warning: fread(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/executiv/public_html/123socialmedia.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-tweetbox/wp-tweetbox.php on line 112 Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not… -
Social Media Policy & Employee Rights with National Labor Board
12 Mar 2012 | 5:14 pmWhile there are many social media policy documents floating around and we’ve covered the topic in-depth here many times before (see related articles below) - it is always interesting when social media policy is viewed strictly from a legal and labor relations perspective. On that note I want to draw your attention to cases from the acting general counsel of the U.S. National Labors Relations Board. While the NLRB has a very broad goal, its various rulings regarding existing social media policy and regulation is interesting. The most recent report (dated January 25, 2012) covers 14… -
Corporate Social Media Training, cookie cutter = bad
9 Mar 2012 | 2:27 pmOn a daily basis we receive inquiries for social media training via webinar and on-demand platforms. The reality of the request is that most of the people want a “canned solution.” The general reasoning goes like this: They have a problem. They need it fixed. They want to buy something off the shelf to fix it. Unfortunately when it comes to corporate social media training, nothing exist on the shelf. There isn’t a single cookie-cutter item that can be universally applied to a corporate footprint that doesn’t cause more problems than it is worth. Typical examples… -
Social Media Training, a guide to no nonsense education
13 Feb 2012 | 11:21 amTo help some of our readers I’ve collected a list of training articles that I have written over at BarryHurd.com that detail some of the core elements around types of media and how the interact in both the offline and online world. I typically add an additional article about once a month to this list in an effort to create a holistic resource to raise the common understanding of what ‘social media’ is and is not. This series of social media training documents is also a go-to list of ideas when I am researching client projects or developing tactical plans. If a ‘social… -
Social Media Training – 40 Questions for the Corporate Team
6 Feb 2012 | 6:26 pmThere are a lot of questions regarding social media training and how it ties into a larger organization. To help with that I’ve collected some of my thoughts in a free whitepaper that highlights some of the critical areas of impact you should be thinking about. You can read through the list of questions I’ve covered below… but will need to download the whitepaper to get some of my value-added thoughts. Some questions to think about… How much does this cost? What forms of social media will reach our business goals? Are there any “low cost” benefits? What are…
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Social Business Advisor: Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0
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Free Webinar: Common Collaboration Problems with the CIO of Pabst Brewing Company
15 May 2012 | 12:28 amThis Wednesday the 16th at 10am PST Ben Haines, the CIO of Pabst Brewing Company will be joining me on a webinar to discuss some of the common collaboration problems that organizations face today. We’re going to try to have a casual discussion around what obstacles organizations are running up against and how they are overcoming these obstacles. The event is being powered by Cisco which is allowing us to host the event on their platform. Here are the details taken from the event site: Collaboration is not new. In fact, we have collaborated for thousands of years. However,… -
What Would Happen if Your Organization Didn’t Invest in Collaboration?
10 May 2012 | 11:40 amI (and many others) have spent a great deal of time talking about why organizations should invest their resources in collaboration tools and strategies. But let’s assume for a moment that you didn’t. How long do you realistically see your organization going on without making this investment; 1 year, 2 years, 3 years? Do you really see your organization waiting this long? At this point I have probably worked with, spoken with, and researched hundreds of companies and it’s rare to come across an organization that nothing in place when it comes to collaboration. At the… -
Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at IBM
8 May 2012 | 1:06 amI had the opportunity to have several in-depth conversations with John Rooney (CIO of Technical Strategy) and Ethan McCarty (Senior Manager, Digital and Social Strategy) of IBM. The conversations resulted in our recently released case study on Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at IBM. Here is an overview of that case study. With over 420,000 employees in over 70 countries, IBM is one of the largest and most recognized companies in the world today. A company of this size needs to be able to coordinate and collaborate, share business processes, and respond to market demands. In order to make… -
The Twelve Principles of Collaboration
3 May 2012 | 10:41 am1. Individual benefit is just as important as the overall corporate benefit (if not more important) Don’t focus on the overall corporate value and benefit when communicating collaboration to employees. Employees care about how this will impact them on an individual basis. How will this make their jobs and lives easier? 2. Strategy before technology Before rushing to pick that shiny new collaboration platform focus on developing a strategy which will help you understand the “why” before the “how.” This is crucial for the success of any… -
New Study: Only 10 Percent of Employees are Engaged
1 May 2012 | 11:52 amI don’t like reading things like this, I really don’t. But today I came across a report released by Modern Survey which found that we have a lot of work to do around engaging our employees. Modern Survey isn’t the first firm to report low engagement numbers, Gallup and Blessing White (along with others) have all found low engagement rates within our organizations. The questions, approaches, methodology, and data that all of these firms get is different but the trend and overall findings remains the same. I don’t think we realize how crucial employee engagement…
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Social Gears
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New Follr Features – Improved Contact Finder and Networking!
9 May 2012 | 7:00 amWe are pleased to announce a significant change that will allow you to connect with with people far more easily! Simply log into your Follr account and click the ‘Tags & Contacts’ link: You’ll see lot’s of suggested contacts: Click any ‘Connect’ button and your invitation is sent! Alternatively you can click the ‘Contact Finder’ link: and then search by member tags or last name. Every connection improves your Follr score. Is that important? YES! Search results on Follr list people with the highest Follr score first. So if you want to… -
Will You Take The Blue Pill or The Red Pill?
26 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amWhether you love or loath science fiction you have to give it credit for preempting technological advances. So here’s a quick quiz using a sci-fi stalwart; Star Trek. Can you name the modern day equivalent for these four Star Trek gadgets? If you said mobile phone (‘Handheld communicator’), GPS (‘Transporter Console’), Bluetooth (‘Communications Earpiece’) and iPad (‘PADD’ or ‘Personal Access Display Device’) you get full marks! You have to love the app that makes your iPad look like a PADD. Now that’s backward… -
You Have 6 Seconds To Get a Job. Are Your Ready? Go!
18 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amThis month we’ve been told that the unemployment rate is going up. Change that, it’s going down. Sorry, I meant it’s going up and down! No matter where you get your news the most important job related information, the information about you, is in your resume. But according to job-matching service TheLadders you have six, yes six, seconds to make an impact with your resume. If you think about it that’s less time than it took to read this paragraph… Are recruiters suffering from ADD? Are CEO’s and brokers sick of the normal “I’m the perfect… -
Follr Releases New Digital Identity Management Platform
15 Mar 2012 | 4:00 amCompletely redesigned software product replaces Follr Digital Identity Websites administration system and rolls out significant feature enhancements. Emeryville, CA (March 14th, 2012) Follr, Inc., today announced the release of a new version of their digital identity management product, a free Web based SaaS (Software as a Service) platform. The announcement follows a record increase in registrations, up 78% in February versus January and initial first quarter registrations up 51% versus the fourth quarter 2011. The enhanced platform is available across all three company products; Follr Solo,… -
Follr Releases Free Digital Identity Management Community Platform
14 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amSoftware product extends use of Follr Digital Identity Websites to communities, associations, professional bodies, membership groups and societies. Emeryville, CA (February 13th, 2012) Follr, Inc., today announced the release of “Follr Community”, a free Web based SaaS (Software as a Service) product aimed at helping communities, associations, professional bodies, membership groups and societies to help them better serve participants, grow member base and generate revenue. The announcement follows the recent release of Follr Business, which alongside Follr Solo, makes this the company’s…
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Daily Blog Tips
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Burn the Bridges
16 May 2012 | 6:37 amFirst of all keep in mind I don’t support or see as a positive thing the massacres that happened in Central and South America when Spain, Portugal and other European nations started colonizing the continent. Quite the opposite. That being said we can still learn from their strategic and military choices, and that is what this post is about. Hernán Cortés was the Spanish general who was responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire and sub-sequent colonization of the Americas by Spain. His military technology was far superior, but the Aztec outnumbered his men, and they were fighting… -
The Verge Slams Internet Marketing Gurus
14 May 2012 | 9:17 pmIf you still haven’t seen the piece on The Verge where they slam some Internet marketing gurus pretty hard, well, grab some popcorn and visit the link below, cause you are in for a treat (whether you agree with the opinions of the article or not). The post is titled Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monster, and it runs for thousands of words with a very comprehensive view on the matter. Just to give you an idea on how they didn’t hold any punches: there are pictures and videos of some pretty famous Internet marketers (e.g., Frank Kern and Mike… -
How to Structure Your Posts (and Why You Need To)
14 May 2012 | 4:30 amDo your posts seem to be a loose collection of ideas, in no particular order? When I’m coaching bloggers, one common problem that comes up is a lack of structure. During the drafting process, many writers simply sit down and type whatever comes into their head. That’s fine for a warm-up … but it’s not a very efficient way to create a blog post. Think of structure as the underlying framework for your posts. With a strong frame in place, your post won’t sag in the middle or have bits falling off at the edges: it’ll be easy for you to create, and easy for your readers to take in. -
Make Money On YouTube with Affiliate Marketing
11 May 2012 | 7:52 amA couple of weeks ago I published a post explaining the basic process you need to go through if you want to become a YouTube partner, which allows you to display ads and monetize your uploaded videos. My buddy John Chow followed that post up with an explanation of his approach to YouTube monetization, which is quite different. In his post titled How to Make Money on YouTube John explains that in addition to the money he makes from the ad impressions on the video he also earns by placing affiliate links in the description of the videos. In fact he mentions that the affiliate links earn much… -
First Impressions on Websites Can Be Misleading
9 May 2012 | 7:02 pmOne thing that makes online marketing particularly complex (and interesting) is the fact that you can never be sure about what’s going on behind the scenes of a certain website. That is, you can’t know how many visitors the site has, how much it makes per month and so on. In fact sometimes the first impression you’ll get can be quite misleading, and here are some examples: Number of Comments Until a couple of years ago the average number of comments a blog would get per post was a good indicator of its traffic. Today, however, I don’t think this rule holds true. For…
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SheGeeksSheGeeks | SheGeeks
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4 Tips to Cut Useless Tweets Out of Your Twitter Timeline
9 May 2012 | 6:00 amJust like the Facebook Newsfeed, keeping your Twitter timeline full of relevant information. As we increase the number of people we follow on Twitter, we also increase the number of distracting, useless information, otherwise known as noise, that flows into our Twitter timelines. Constantly pruning for fresh information is a tedious and time-consuming job that I only do once a month. In the meantime and in between time, I use the following tips to keep the noise level down in my Twitter timeline. Turn Off ReTweets for Individual Accounts I have quite a few people I follow that love to… -
Google+ Receives A Fresh Redesign That You Might Like
12 Apr 2012 | 12:30 amI have to be honest. I haven’t been the biggest fan Google+. I’ve been Circled over 11k times , but I don’t see much activity from users beyond sharing the same things they share on Twitter and Facebook. Most of the people I’ve circled seem to be more active elsewhere. Though Google+ original design was well received, I found the layout too cluttered with text. Overall, Google+ reminded me of a message board stuck with an old school design while flaunting new school features. So, I’m more than excited about the new redesign for Google+ because it finally feels… -
Facebook Buys Instagram: Thoughts On Why And What To Expect
9 Apr 2012 | 2:18 pmFacebook is buying Instagram for $1 billion. After the $500 million valuation Instagram received, it makes you wonder why Facebook will pay twice the price for Instagram. It’s just a mobile app that lets you share pics with friends and has less than 50 million total users compared to Facebook’s 800+ million active monthly users. You can do the same thing on your phone or desktop from the Facebook site. This may be true, but when it comes to designing an addictive mobile app and photo-sharing experience, Instagram is a winner, and threat-turned-opportunity for Facebook’s… -
Khoya: An Interactive Adventure Made For Your New iPad
21 Mar 2012 | 7:00 amWhen the iPad was first announced, I expected to it to magically transform the world of ebooks. I expected a new world of e-reading experiences to flood my screen from authors all over the world. I mean, can you imagine what Harry Potter would look like had J.K. Rowling written it for the iPad? If you’re having a hard time imagining it, let a new iPad app called Khoya open your eyes to an interactive storytelling experience far beyond anything you or your iPad has ever seen. Price: $4.99Download: AppStore (iPad Only) Khoya is a city under the control of the evil Nasha, and… -
How To Diversify Any Conference You Attend
15 Mar 2012 | 3:51 pmOn Monday, March 12th, I participated in my fourth panel at SxSW 2012 titled: “Race: When to Hold it and When to Fold it.” The purpose of the panel was to change the conversation from “What can technology conferences do about diversity?” to “What can attendees do about diversity at technology conferences?” If you have a few minutes to spare, listen to the full panel via the link above. In this post, I’d like to focus on why recommendations are a big part of diversifying conferences and how conference attendees (and speakers!) can help. The (Echo) Chamber of Networks…
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Technology & Marketing Law Blog
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Groupon Defeats Trademark Challenge--Groupion v. Groupon
16 May 2012 | 9:48 amBy Eric Goldman Groupion, LLC v. Groupon, Inc., 2012 WL 1655728 (N.D. Cal. May 8, 2012). Groupion makes CRM software.... -
Granick on CISPA's Deficiencies (With Some of My Own Comments)
15 May 2012 | 3:07 pmBy guest-blogger Jennifer Granick (with comments from Eric) [Eric's introduction: Some guest visitors to the blog need no introduction, and... -
A Twitter Exception for Defamation?
15 May 2012 | 11:05 am[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] William Charron pubished a short piece for the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law that... -
The Dangerous Meme That Won't Go Away: Using Copyright Assignments to Suppress Unwanted Content--Scott v. WorldStarHipHop
14 May 2012 | 10:15 amBy Eric Goldman Scott v. WorldStarHipHop, Inc., 2012 WL 1592229 (S.D.N.Y. May 3, 2012) Copyright law wasn't designed as a... -
New York Judge *Slams* Bittorrent Copyright Plaintiffs – K-Beech; Malibu Media; and Patrick Collins v. Does
12 May 2012 | 10:48 am[Post by Venkat Balasubramani] K-Beech, Inc. v. Does 1-37, CV 11-3995 (E.D.N.Y.) Malibu Media, LLC v. Does 1-26, CV 11-1147...
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FreshNetworks Blog
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The science of social media ROI
15 May 2012 | 9:05 amTweetLast week I presented at a webinar as part of a series looking at the science of social, focusing on social media ROI and demystifying the confusion that surround it. The problem with social media ROI is that it is so easy to measure so many things that we become overwhelmed by measures. We think that everything is important and that everything is a measure of ROI. It isn’t. And it isn’t. Followers and Likes do not make ROI; moreover they stop us from thinking about the bigger business benefit of social. We need to measure different things for different reasons, not just… -
Twinteresting: why can’t we curate tweets?
15 May 2012 | 3:24 amTweet It is no secret that Pinterest is a great way to share discoverable content. The “waterfall stream” format can really help rapid skimming of visual content. Take, for example, the ‘Pinterest for Facebook’, Friendsheet, or Pinstagram, the Pinterest-style Instagram feed. People are finding ways to curate images from a variety of sources, but what about the ability to do this with items that are primarily textual, or links? Using favourites as a stopgap I use Twitter prolifically, but a lot of my usage focuses on finding new information – blog posts and news… -
Three simple ways B2B marketers can get value from LinkedIn
10 May 2012 | 8:34 amTweetWhen thinking about social media and how to use it for your brand, our initial reaction is often to think about the channels we can use and the conversations we can have. But using social media does not necessarily mean having a channel or joining a conversation. There can often be as much value (and sometimes even more) from listening to what others are saying. For B2B brands LinkedIn is a great example of where social media can be used as much to listen and learn as to talk and engage. From ambassadors, to market information and even competitor research, here are three ways that… -
WalmartLabs – taking Big Data into retail
9 May 2012 | 8:16 amTweet Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, acquired social media firm Kosmix just over a year ago, creating @WalmartLabs, with the intention to use this specialist R&D unit to define the future of commerce by merging social, mobile and retail. So far WalmartLabs has released two interesting developments using social: • ShopyCat – the gift recommendation engine This Facebook application uses your Facebook profile to suggest suitable products for you, based on the interests and hobbies of your friends. An interesting aspect of this approach is that the app will offer links… -
Facebook’s action links – new potential for branded apps
3 May 2012 | 8:53 amTweetOn Wednesday Facebook launched action links: “a new way for people to interact with your timeline app directly from Facebook”. An action link is a customised link which sits alongside the classic “comment” and “like” options in open graph stories on the timeline, newsfeed and ticker. One of the examples of an action link, given by Facebook, is foursquare. When someone checks in, friends now have the option to “Save this Place” in addition to commenting and liking the story. Clicking “Save this Place” adds the location from Facebook, directly to your foursquare to-do…
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BloggingPro
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The 5 Worst Pieces of Blogging Advice I Got
16 May 2012 | 8:57 amWhen I first started blogging way back in 2005, I had a lot of great people giving me wonderful advice. There are many people to whom I am deeply indebted for their guidance, help and criticism. Without them, I doubt I’d have been able to do a quarter of the things that I have. However, there were also a few people who gave me what would turn out to be terrible advice. Advice that, if I had listened to it, might have prevented me from as much as getting started, much less, make blogging a major part of my career. So what were those nearly-disastrous pieces of advice? Well, there’s… -
Top Reasons Web Hosting Providers Are Worth Your Extra Pennies
16 May 2012 | 5:03 amFor those who are new to owning a website, it can be tough to find the right web hosting provider. There are tons of different features a web hosting provider can offer, but it’s tough to know exactly what all of these features mean. For this reason, many hopeful website owners skim down a list of “top rated” web hosting providers and look at the price and the number of stars that each was awarded. This is an easy way to quickly assess a web hosting provider without having to go into in-depth research about all of the different features. Most of these features a basic blog owner… -
4 Questions you need to ask yourself before blogging
15 May 2012 | 6:12 pmBlogging is one of the hottest activities in the internet. It is the most prominent reason why people go online. In this article, we will tackle some questions that you need to ask yourself before you start blogging. 1. What do you really want to do? Before you start setting up your blog, it will be essential for you to ponder on several matters first before pushing through with it. Ask yourself the primary reason or motivation behind your desire to establish your own blog. Is it just a spur of the moment idea? Or, do you really want to achieve something concrete through your blog? A lot of… -
5 Tips and 5 Tools to Improve Your WordPress Error Page
14 May 2012 | 4:53 pmNo website actually wants to offer its visitors a 404 page. After all, it means that there is an error and a page cannot be reached. It looks unprofessional, it is a hassle for the site owner to fix and is an annoyance for visitors that might lead to them not returning. Unfortunately, there is no way to really prevent it from ever happening. Errors occur, URLs are typed incorrectly or links become broken or outdated. Sometimes there is an issue with the server that will take time to fix. It is just a part of having an Internet site that cannot be avoided. But that doesn’t mean you… -
Blogging Pro Job Board Highlights (May 7-11)
11 May 2012 | 5:00 amHi, everyone! It’s that time of the week again, so here are the highlights from the Job Board. I hope you find a gig that suits you. Have an awesome weekend ahead! Wellness Blogger Do you have the time to churn out at least two blog posts a week about wellness? Add one press release to that, and you can go ahead and apply for this work at home position. It pays pretty well! ESL Writer Writers who have a passion for teaching the English language to others, listen up. If you have US experience, and you are looking for a remote ESL-related writing gig, this one is for you! Freelance Social…
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Affiliate Blog Online
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Yikes!! We’ve Been Hit By the Latest Google Penguin Update…and Other Boring News!
3 May 2012 | 9:21 pmFirst of all, thank you to everyone who emailed wondering where we have been for the past couple of months…we appreciate your thoughts. We have actually been travelling the world or at least some of it…Las Vegas, Orlando, Paris, Barcelona, Prague and Vienna. It’s been an amazing trip and we had all sorts of good...Read the rest of this entry -
Your Most Frequently Asked Questions…Answered!
7 Mar 2012 | 4:29 pmThe one thing that we have found since we started this website is that we seem to get the same questions asked time and time again. These were the same questions we used to ask when we were struggling to make it. Now I can see how futile those questions were but back then we...Read the rest of this entry -
A Day in the Life of an Affiliate Marketer
13 Feb 2012 | 3:36 pmWe’ve had a few requests recently from readers who want to know what we do on a daily basis. This is a really good question although a little difficult to answer because we are often working on different projects at any one time. In the past few weeks for instance, we have been looking at...Read the rest of this entry -
Yet Another Goal Setting New Year’s Post?
16 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pmDoes time seem to speed up as you get older? It certainly feels that way to me. Last year just flew by and here we are already in 2012 and of course that means the obligatory goal setting post. Yeah, I know…ho hum…it’s not the most interesting of topics and most people try to ignore...Read the rest of this entry -
Christmas Giveaway Winners!
25 Dec 2011 | 4:57 pmHope everyone is having a great Christmas. For us here in Australia, Christmas is already over and today we are celebrating Boxing Day. That usually means watching the Boxing Day cricket test match on tv, having a bbq, catching up with family or friends that you didn’t see over Christmas or going to the post-Christmas...Read the rest of this entry
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Disqus: The Official Blog
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Try out the new DISQUS 2012
3 May 2012 | 9:48 amToday we’re releasing Disqus 2012 on a rolling basis to existing websites using Disqus. Disqus 2012 is what we’ve nicknamed the completely new version of the Disqus platform. Our plan is to invite websites — starting today and over the course of the next few weeks — to activate the new Disqus for their communities. You can request an invite here if you’d like to get started before others (note: this is currently only for existing Disqus users). We’re doing things this way because we want to learn from your feedback, make improvements, and then open it up to the public in June. -
Graduation Day
24 Apr 2012 | 1:58 pmLast month, we introduced Disqus 2012 as a part of our Labs. Today, the new Disqus graduates from Labs and is moving onto a slightly-more-public preview. We’ve just started inviting some Disqus users to flip on the Disqus 2012 preview for their websites. This will be on and visible to all website visitors — now you’ll be able to gather feedback from your audience and see how they take to the new Disqus. If you don’t receive an invite right away (or you don’t run a website yourself), you’ll still be able to poke around at Disqus 2012 as it continues to get tested around the web. -
DISQUS API Recipes
24 Apr 2012 | 9:54 amAs a community support team, we run into many users of our developer community who would like to start using the Disqus API but may be having a bit of trouble getting started. For this reason, we’ve started what’s known as Disqus Recipes. Recipes is a GitHub repository that provides multiple code examples of methods and functions within our system that our developer community may want to explore. Different coding recipes are available for all skill levels and include doing something as simple as retrieving a thread’s details. Most of the API recipes available can be used by… -
Why DISQUS 2012
12 Apr 2012 | 10:09 amThe new Disqus is nicknamed Disqus 2012 because we’re working to make it the platform that we’d personally want to use in today’s world. It’s about pairing what already works with new, exciting ideas — but most of all, it’s about refining the core Disqus discussion experience that people care about. We’re not all the way there yet. And that’s why it’s the perfect time for us to continue letting existing Disqus fans preview each step as we make our way towards a wider release. In our few years on the web, I like to think that we’ve gotten pretty good at listening and… -
Import options for the Echo community
10 Apr 2012 | 9:39 amWith the recent news of the discontinuation of Echo comments, which includes Haloscan and JS-Kit, we wanted to let those in the Echo community know that Disqus has them covered. We’ve prepared a guide that walks users through exporting their comments from Echo and importing them into Disqus. There are a few exceptions which may vary based on the type of commenting system you’re using (Echo, Haloscan, or JS-Kit), so be sure to read the full guide. Users currently have until October 1, 2012 to export their comments from Echo. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to…
