With the start of a new year comes the time to make resolution. Most of us will plan on losing weight, exercise more and get organized. Professional organizer, Linda Chu, asked me to write a piece about using the web and get organized and we sent out the newsletter yesterday. In this article I mentioned my top three free online tool to de-clutter my desk and brain; Ma.gnolia, Ta-da lists and Flickr.
Coincidentally, common craft released another great video explaining how photo sharing works on the web.
Looking for inspiration for your Christmas cards? Perhaps you need to jazz up your website with a few Christmas icons? Nick La from N Design Studios created a series of Christmas Icons and is offering them to you free of charge. So long as you don’t re-distribute or sell the icons, Nick is happy for you to use them as you like.
You have to admit it, getting these for Christmas is way better than a new electric razor! Thanks Nick!
If you’re unhappy with your current website or your latest brochure, why not try the Make My Logo Bigger Cream. Who says design takes skill and creativity? Pshaw!
With the popularity of YouTube growing, entrepreneurs are understandably excited by the potential of the medium. I’ve consulted with people who are looking at taking their basic web sites to the next level of web marketing, and heard things like “We’ve got to have video. Video is so popular now.” To which I say: maybe. It depends on the video and how you use it.
Unless the video content on your site is somehow great, nobody cares about that video except you and maybe your Mom.
“Great”, on the web, means meeting a need. That need can be to have a laugh, to learn something, to be inspired.
In other words to truly leverage video on the web, you have to create videos that will draw your customers to view them. At it’s best, the video will help new people discover your website.
A fun example of this is The Human Flipbook by the restaurant chain Ebert & Gerbert. This is so creative & wonderful, it was mentioned on a site that I subscribe to. Because the video was embedded in the page at Do Something Pretty I didn’t even realize I was watching a commercial until the end. By then, I was so impressed I didn’t mind.
Every year at the beginning of September, I get really excited about the Vancouver Film Festival. I picked up a copy of the sneak preview magazine a couple of days ago and started picking the movies I would love to see. So far I’ve selected over 30 movies and I’ve only reached the letter M. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage to see all of these. One thing that peaked my interest is that a series of films have been nominated for the Kyoto Planet Climate for Change Award. It nice to see so many films dedicated to the environment. But the green theme is far more common these days.
Just a few days ago, Darren announced the Greenest Photo Ever Contest. This contest is part of their online marketing activities for the folks at DeSmogBlog, who are trying to clear the PR pollution that clouds climate change. 96 photos were submitted last time I checked. The contest ends October 1, so submit your photo for your chance to win.
If you miss the contest or don’t have a camera, Blog Action Day takes place October 15. Bloggers around the world have signed up to write a post about the environment. The rules are pretty simple, just write something about the environment and let them know that you are taking part by registering.
Chatting about the environment is often paired up with the price of gas. Whether you like or not, the two go hand in hand and big oil companies have remained silent, that is, up until now. Petro Canada’s new blog, Pump Talk aims to contribute to the discussion of gas prices and fuel efficiency. What better way to talk openly about gasoline prices and fuel efficiency than directly with the big guys. Let’s hope that their blog leads to great discussions.
It can be very discouraging at times to think that it’s not worth it. Recycling your water bottle water may not help the environment that much, but looking around the net there are tons of ideas and people getting involved. Going green seems to be gaining up momentum.
Still confused about podcasting? The folks from Ask a Ninja have created this hilarious video which may not help you understand podcasting, in fact you may be even more confused, but it will make you laugh.
I must admit, I don’t read that many blogs. I currently subscribe to 58 blogs via RSS and I have trouble keeping my RSS reader under 50 new items every day. I made an effort in honour of International Blog Day this week and poked around via some of my regular blogs and discovered some new ones. Here are my four new favourites:
Bedjump.com – Thanks to Rob from Techvibes, I came across this fantastic blog devoted to bed jumping. I’m not sure how anyone came up with this idea, but the photos are hilarious. If you are looking for a bit of silliness in your life, this is where you will find it.
Common Craft – The folks at common craft are the ones who came up with the fabulous RSS video. For anyone confused about RSS, this is the one to watch. They’ve recently posted a video about social bookmarking which is very useful.
Blue Olive Photography – I’ve done my fare share of websites for photographers. I love working with photographers, but most photographers work on very limited budgets. Following a recent wedding I discovered Blue Olive Photography and was impressed with their blog. This is by far the best solution for photographers wishing to maintain a portfolio easily and without the need for a large budget.
Akismet – It would be an exaggeration to say that I thank God every day for Akismet, but I probably should. Since installing the plugin, Akismet has caught 4,512 spam on my blog alone. Poking around a bit I came across their blog which has some incredible numbers about spam. When will the insanity ever stop?
The third annual International Blog Day is coming up next week. On August 31st, bloggers worldwide will be posting and introducing their audiences to their 5 favourite blogs from other cultures, backgrounds and interests.
The worldwide event aimed at further establishing blogging and in particular spreading the word about valuable and diverse blogs has the added benefit of promoting tolerance. By linking to other great blogs from alternate perspectives to their own, bloggers spread the buzz about blogs they like so that their audiences in turn can discover them and learn.
On the blog day web site, the blog posting guidelines are as follows:
Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2007
Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
Looking for inspiration for your Christmas cards? Perhaps you need to jazz up your website with a few Christmas icons? Nick La from 
