It was announced back in April 2010 by Clearspring (the third party provider of the current Talkshoe Wdigets) that they were turning off their API coding that controlled the embed and sharing capabilities of these widgets. Now, the wiidgets still remain functional, for the most part, however, you cannot obtain a new embed code, so new users or anyone that wants to get their embed codes for these widgets, are flat out of luck! At the same time, Clearspring has also announced that by January 2011, the rest of the widgets will cease to exist…in other words, they will go away permanently.

In light of the fact that so many Talkshoe users rely on these widgets to not only function, but have the capability to be added to not only their site, but other sites as well, two alternatives have come about as replacements for these widgets until such a time that Talkshoe posts new widgets on their site again.

The first widget is for WordPress.org Self Hosted users. In other words, persons that have their own hosting available for the WordPress scripts to run on. Sorry, WordPress.com users, until WordPress adds this widget to their current lineup, you will not be able to use it.

The WP_Talkshoe Plugin can be obtain from the WordPress Repository and at it’s home page too. This plugin is compatible with WordPress v3.0 and higher and will allow for many options that are changeable and more to come as the widget continues to be developed. It is unlikely that Talkshoe will develop anything like this, so this widget will be around for a long time to come yet!

The second widget is available for other blog sites and web sites that can utilize flash and javascript coding. This widget allows for options to set your Show ID and the background color. It is available in the one size currently, however, a smaller version is being worked on and should be released soon. We’ll let you know when that happens!

I will talk more about these widgets on my Friday Night Show, The Community Collective, at 8:00pm Every Friday Night.

If you have any future update ideas, please let me know. I am always looking for feedback on projects like this!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Twitter Comes To WordPress.com –If you’re a user of WordPress.com as well as Twitter, you’ll be delighted to know that the folks at Automattic have added a Twitter widget that you can place on your sidebar. All the links that you post to Twitter remain clickable in the widget, and your @ replies link to user profiles. The widget went live on March 26th and is currently available to use.- http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/twitter-widget/

Vote For WordPress – At about this time every year, the folks over at Webware present their Webware 100 finalists on which to vote on to see who will take the crown in their respective category. In 2008, WordPress was the winner of the publishing category. This year, the category is called Social Networking and Publishing in which WordPress.com along with the WordPress Platform are among one of the choices to vote for. The poll is being conducted via PollDaddy and the results will be announced on April 19th.

3 Plugins To Speed Up WordPress – If you’re finding your WordPress powered site to be running a bit sluggishly, then consider the information presented within a blog post on ConnectedInternet.co.uk. The site features three different WordPress plugins which will help optimize your site. On top of that, the site also features a few tips to put into practice to ensure that your site is not bogged down over time.

Plugin Pick Of The Week – Twitter User – Twitter User is a simple plugin which adds an additional field to the authors profile in which they can add their twitter username. Single author blogs will find this plugin useful however Multi Author blogs should really love this plugin as it allows all authors of a blog to quickly and easily share their Twitter username with readers.

If you’re looking for more information regarding WordPress or just want to be part of a community centered around WordPress, please head on over to WPTavern.com where the drinks, are always on the house.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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As a writer, you probably already use a computer and the Internet. You may maintain your own web site to showcase your writing abilities. However, many other opportunities abound when you have writing skills. You may want to consider a few of the best home based business opportunities.

As an online writer, you can publish your own ezine or electronic magazine. The Internet essentially levels the playing field for writers as you don’t have to wait for a publisher to discover you. If you have the desire to publish an ezine, you can get started with very little upfront money. By using various self-promotion techniques, writing your own ezine can become one of the best home based business opportunities available to you. Alternatively, you could publish your own weblog or blog. Pick your own platform or just write to get your name out there. Your possibilities are limited only by your imagination and time.

Another one of the best home based business opportunities for writers is blogging or writing for hire. Many businesses and individuals want to maintain blogs for different reasons but don’t have the time or the experience to do so. They will often pay a professional writer to maintain this aspect of their business. They may also require other types of writing for their web sites or offline needs. You can find out about these types of opportunities in different writing magazines both on and off the Internet.

And, of course, one of the best home based business opportunities for any writer is freelancing. You may choose to sign up at a site like http://www.elance.com where you can bid on different writing jobs from all over the world. So many different possible projects exist for a freelancer. You could write sales copy for businesses, write business correspondence or even ghostwrite books. The list goes on and on.

Many of the best home based business opportunities for writers are available either on the Internet or through the Internet. You just need to get out there and find the best one for you.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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I have recently updated the LearnToPodcast.com site to a WordPress Self Hosted blog site. I am utilizing a new theme that allows WordPress to act as a landing page site. By using this theme, I will not only get the same results as I would by using a standard landing page, however, I will also get the built-in SEO (search engine optimization) from WordPress and this will enable me to get my site onto the search engines faster and more efficiently.

Check out the new redesign today and let me know what you think! Oh, and if you are looking for a theme like this to create your own landing pages using WordPress, I will have this theme available for purchase soon!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Prologue 2 Released – During WordCamp Germany, Matt Mullenweg mentioned something called Prologue 2. This new version of the Prologue theme introduces Ajax like real-time commenting meaning, if I place a comment on the blog and someone else is staring at the site, they will see that comment appear before them as it happens. Heather over at the WordPress.com blog sheds some light on the project, including a video showcasing the new theme. Heather mentions that P2 is already available for WordPress.com users but to look for it on the WordPress.org theme repository in the coming days. – http://www.wptavern.com/prologue-2-sees-the-light-of-day

WordPress 2.8 Delayed Until April – WordPress 2.8 which was originally scheduled to be released in March has now been delayed until sometime in April. The roadmap currently has 2.8 scheduled to be released on April first but just think that it will probably be released at some point during the month, not really the first.

Multi Use Widgets In WordPress 2.8 – Earlier this week, it was announced by the developers that a new Multi Widget class has been added to WordPress 2.8? What does this mean? It simply means that in WordPress 2.8, all of the default widgets as well as widgets that are recoded with the new class will be able to be used multiple times instead of only once. We had a similar feature back in WordPress 2.3 so it’s great to see this one making a return.

If you’re looking for more information regarding WordPress or just want to be part of a community centered around WordPress, please head on over to WPTavern.com. The site contains news, reviews, editorials and much more on not only WordPress, but all projects under the Automattic umbrella. We also have a forum which has been rocking as of late so stop on by and join the party. The drinks at the tavern are always on the house.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

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On last night’s show of Podcaster Training, we had some really great links both from the training and from the listeners. Here are those links so you can check them out at your leisure.

The Catholic Online website reports that Massachusetts-based blogger and musician, Susan Bailey, is publishing a daily podcast during the forty days of Lent.

“Theosis” is a series of daily devotions hosted by Fr. Seraphim Beshoner, a history professor at Franciscan University. The five (or so) minute podcasts do not follow the daily readings of the Roman (Catholic) Lectionary for the scripture readings, but are inspired, rather, by the Eastern (Byzantine) Church.

Beshoner also hosts the “Catholic: Under The Hood” podcast. http://catholicunderthehood.com/

The blog and podcast are here. http://www.gvonline.net/susanbailey/prayer.htm#theosis

Have you ever wanted to play your podcast over the phone? Well now you can with Podlinez.com at http://www.podlinez.com/index.php

This is a free service with some restrictions, such as a 14 day window if no one calls your number before you lose that number. It’s free and it really does work for playing your most recent podcast from your RSS Feed.

Now, I haven’t checked out this next one very much, it is free and has a premium service as well. It is another way to record and play your podcasts over the phone. Phonecasting.com at http://phonecasting.com

This exciting link came from one of my listeners, June, and you have to see this to believe it! It uses your web cam and a printed piece of paper to create a 3D animated image ON YOUR SCREEN! It’s cool! You can get this from http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

You can see a short video of this being done at http://twitpwr.com/6up/

Thanks June!

More links to come! Enjoy!

Popularity: 7% [?]

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A weblog (or simply blog) is a website that ‘publishes’ or features articles (which are called ‘blog posts’, ‘posts’, or ‘entries’), written by an individual or a group that make use of any or a combination of the following:

· Straight texts
· Photographs or images (photoblog)
· Video (videoblog)
· Audio files (audioblog)
· Hyperlinks

Usually presented and arranged in reverse chronological order, blogs are essentially used for the following purposes:

· Online journal or a web diary
· Content managament system
· Online publishing platform

A typical blog has the following components:

· Post date -the date and time of the blog entry

· Category – the category that the blog belongs to

· Title – the title of the blog

· Main body – the main content of the blog

· RSS and trackback – links the blog back from other sites

· Comments – commentaries that are added by readers

· Permalinks – the URL of the full article

· Other optional items – calendar, archives, blogrolls, and add-ons or plug-ins

A blog can also have a footer, usually found at the bottom of the blog, that shows the post date, the author, the category, and the ‘stats’ (the nubmer of comments or trackbacks).

There are numerous types of blogs. Some of them are the following:

1. Political blog – on news, politics, activism, and other issue based blogs (such as campaigning).

2. Personal blog – also known as online diary that may include an individual’s day-to-day experience, complaints, poems, and illicit thoughts, and communications between friends.

3. Topical blog – with focus either on a particular niche (function or position) that is usually technical in nature or a local information.

4. Health blog – on specific health issues. Medical blog is a major category of health blog that features medical news from health care professionals and/or actual patient cases.

5. Literary blog – also known as litblog.

6. Travel blog – with focus on a traveler’s stories on a particular journey.

7. Research blog – on academic issues such as research notes.

8. Legal blog – on law (technical areas) and legal affairs; also known as ‘blawgs’.

9. Media blog – focus on falsehoods or inconsistencies in mass media; usually exclusive for a newspaper or a television network.

10. Religious blog – on religious topics

11. Educational blog – on educational applications, usually written by students and teachers.

12. Collaborative or collective blog – a specific topic written by a group of people.

13. Directory blog – contains a collection of numerous web sites.

14. Business blog – used by entrepreneurs and corporate employees to promote their businesses or talk about their work.

15. Personification blog – focus on non-human being or objects (such as dogs).

16. Spam blogs – used for promoting affiliated websites; also known as ‘splogs’.

Blogging is typically done on a regular (almost daily) basis. The term “blogging” refers to the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding an article to an existing blog, while the term “blogger” refers to a person or a group who keeps a blog.

Today, more than 3 million blogs can be found in the Internet. This figure is continuously growing, as the availability of various blog software, tools, and other applications make it easier for just about anyone to update or maintain the blog (even those with little or no technical background). Because of this trend, bloggers can now be categorized into 4 main types:

· Personal bloggers – people who focus on a diary or on any topic that an individual feels strongly about.

· Business bloggers – people who focus on promoting products and services.

· Organizational bloggers – people who focus on internal or external communication in an organization or a community.

· Professional bloggers – people who are hired or paid to do blogging.

Problogging (professional blogging) refers to blogging for a profit. Probloggers (professional bloggers) are people who make money from blogging (as an individual blog publisher or a hired blogger).

Below are just some of the many money-making opportunities for probloggers:

· Advertising programs
· RSS advertising
· Sponsorship
· Affiliate Programs
· Digital assets
· Blog network writing gigs
· Business blog writing gigs
· Non blogging writing gigs
· Donations
· Flipping blogs
· Merchandising
· Consulting and speaking

The following are a few things that you need to consider if you want to be successful in problogging:

1. Be patient. Problogging requires a lot of time and effort, not to mention a long-term vision.

2. Know your audience. Targeting a specific audience or group is a key to building a readership.

3. Be an ‘expert’. Focus on a specific niche topic and strive to be the “go-to” blogger on that topic.

4. Diversify. Experiment with various add and affiliate programs that enable you to make money online (aside from blogging).

5. Do not bore your readers. Focus on the layout. White spaces, line spacings, and bigger fonts make a blog welcoming to read.

Certainly, it is possible to earn money from blogs. One just needs to take risks, the passion, and the right attitude in order to be a successful problogger.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to react or voice out one’s opinion on the said page. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to move forward, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

1.Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your piece on the net is through blogging. No skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, new products, and hope that the truth behind your articles comes out and entice your reader to also try your product. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

2. Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

3. Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free webtime is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are starting up. Needless to say, paid blog pages can generate more income for your seriously growing business.

4. Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend on your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

5. Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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RSS is an abbreviation that has evolved into the following, depending on their versions:

· RDF Site Summary (also known as RSS 0.9; the first version of RSS)

· Rich Site Summary (also known as RSS 0.91; a prototype)

· Really Simple Syndication (also known as RSS 2.0)

Today, RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, and it has the following 7 existing formats or versions:

· 0.90
· 0.91
· 0.92
· 0.93
· 0.94
· 1.0
· 2.0

RSS tools refer to a group of file formats that are designed to share headlines and other web content (this may be a summary or simply 1 to 2 lines of the article), links to the full versions of the content (the full article or post), and even file attachments such as multimedia files. All of these data is delivered in the form of an XML file (XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language), which has the following common names:

· RSS feed
· Webfeed
· RSS stream
· RSS channel

They are typically shown on web pages as an orange rectangle that usually has the letters XML or RSS in it.

RSS feeds can be used to deliver any kind of information. Some of these ‘feeds’ include:

· Blogs feed – each blog entry is summarized as a feed item. This makes blog posts easier to scan, enabling ‘visitors’ to zoom in on their items of interest.

· Article feed – this alerts readers whenever there are new articles and web contents available.

· Forum feed – this allows users to receive forum posts and latest discussion topics.

· Schedule feed – this allows users (such as schools, clubs, and other organizations) to broadcast events and announce schedule changes or meeting agendas.

· Discounts or Special feed – this is used to enable users (such as retail and online stores) to ‘deliver’ latest specials and discounted offers.

· Ego or News Monitoring – this enables users to receive ‘filtered’ headlines or news that are based on a specific phrase or keyword.

· Industry-specific feed – used by technical professionals in order to market, promote, or communicate with current (and prospective) customers and clients within their specific industries.

RSS feeds enable people to track numerous blogs and news sources at the same time. To produce an RSS feed, all you need is the content or the article that you want to publicize and a validated RSS text file. Once your text file is registered at various aggregators (or ‘news readers’), any external site can then capture and display your RSS feed, automatically updating them whenever you update your RSS file.

RSS tools are useful for sites that add or modify their contents on a regular basis. They are especially used for ‘web syndication’ or activities that involve regular updates and/or publications, such as the following:

· News websites – as used by major news organizations such as Reuters, CNN, and the BBC.
· Marketing
· Bug reports
· Personal weblogs

There are many benefits to using RSS feeds. Aside from being a great supplemental communication method that streamlines the communication needs of various sectors, RSS tools and feeds can also have tremendous benefits in your business, particularly in the field of internet marketing.

RSS tools and feeds provide Internet users with a free (or cheap) and easy advertising or online marketing opportunity for their businesses. Below are some of the RSS features that can help make your internet marketing strategies more effective.

1. Ease in content distribution services. With RSS, your business can be captured and displayed by virtually any external site, giving you an easy way to ‘spread out’ and advertise them.

2. Ease in regular content updates. With RSS, web contents concerning your business can now be automatically updated on a daily (and even hourly) basis. Internet users will be able to experience ‘real time’ updates as information in your own file (such as new products and other business-related releases) is changed and modified simultaneously with that of the RSS feeds that people are subscribed to.

3. Custom-made content services. With RSS, visitors can have personalized content services, allowing them total control of the flow and type of information that they receive. Depending on their interests and needs, visitors can subscribe to only those contents that they are looking for (such as real estate or job listings).

4. Increase in (and targeted) traffic. With RSS, traffic will be directed to your site as readers of your content summary (or 1 to 2 lines of your article) who find them interesting are ‘forced’ to click on a link back to your site.

These are just several of the many things that you can do with RSS. The possibilities are endless, and they are all aimed at providing you with an effective internet marketing strategy for your business.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

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Welcome to our new series called “Bridging the Gap Between Mediums”. There are three distinct, but separate mediums in the New Media World, Blogs, Podcasting and Video Streaming. Our new series will attempt to cover what it takes to bridge the gaps between these three mediums and get your audiences from the individual mediums to cross over and check out other projects you are producing.

Tonight, we will begin with blogging. The first known blog was used by The Charlotte Observer, chronicling Hurricane Bonnie in August 1998. Since that time, many blogs have sprung up ranging from personal blogs to corporate blogs and everything in between. As of December 2007, Technorati was showing more than 112 million blogs that they were tracking. That number is even greater today.

So, more to the point, when you have a blog, you have a built in audience that will subscribe and visit your blog site and will read your posts. This is great, only if you only have a blog and nothing else! But, what if you also have a podcast that you are producing, what then?

Just like your blog, you have a built in audience that will subscribe and listen to your podcasts. Are these the same people that read your blog? Most likely, no. Maybe a few will have already crossed over and are checking both, however, in general, you have two separate audiences that you are catering to. Thus the question arises, how do I get my blog readers to listen to my podcasts? Let’s look at some ways that you might be able to make this happen.

First, think about this. You already have a blog, so why not post your show notes and comments to your blog that come from your podcast? In this way, your blog audience will read your post and if you include a player in the post, they can easily listen to that one episode that is attached to your post. In this way, if you generate interest in your blog post about your podcast, they will click on the player and listen to the podcast. If they like what they hear, you may have just picked up a new listener!

So, how do you generate interest to get your blog reader to listen to your podcast? Think about public speaking for a second. For a person that has to deliver a speech or perform a public speaking event and the like, the speaker will need to do three things to insure that they can reach their audience. First, they need to start their speech with an interesting statement. Their first 20 to 30 words will help them to grasp the audience’s attention. Next, they will want to present a need. “Talk” to the audience and tell them something that they will need to listen to the speaker in order to gain something they want or need from this speech. And third, build a bridge to allow the audience to “come to them” to get this information or knowledge of which they are seeking.

With these three steps, the public speaker will be able to take ahold of the audience and hold their attention for 30 to 40 minutes and allow the audience to gain from this experience and even want more!

Let’s relate this to your blog and podcast. When writing your blog post about your podcast, have an interesting title. Something that will immediately grab the readers attention. Next, within your first paragraph, include an interesting statement that will continue to hold the attention of the reader and make them want to read further. Then, go into your blog post and about 1/3rd of the way through, again, drop in another interesting statement about what you are talking about. This will continue to hold the attention of the reader. By the end of your post, in your last paragraph, one last interesting statement and a call to action to allow them to click on the play button or to go to your podcast host site to listen to your podcasts. This last paragraph will build that bridge to allow your blog reader to come over and listen to your podcast. Your call to action should light a signal fire to your reader indicating the route that you want them to follow to get where you are taking them.

By doing this, you will be able to lead your blog reader to your podcast and hopefully get them to listen to your podcast. From here, the rest is up to you! You will need to have an interesting podcast or else they might only listen once and not come back. When bringing your blog readers to your podcast, make sure that they are interested in what you are talking about, so try not to have a blog about one subject and a podcast about a totally different subject and try to get someone that is not interested to listen to a podcast of which they have no interest. It’s best if your audiences of your separate mediums are enjoying the niches that you are in.

Popularity: 6% [?]

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