Archive for the 'Cool Stuff' Category
Creative Promotional Video
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.
Friday Fun - What is Podcasting?
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.
Five websites for International Blog Day
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 five 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, and their Three Gorges Dam Project documentary is very informative.
- 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.
- Bath Guy - For those of you who don’t know Tod, he’s a guy who likes to soak in the bath.
- Askimet - It would be an exaggeration to say that I thank God every day for Askimet, but I probably should. Since installing the plugin, Askimet 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?
Happy International blog day.
International Blog Day
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
- Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
- Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2007 and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org
Watch this space for our own International Blog Day post next Friday.
Queenstown, New Zealand Hotel Unzips Eye-opening New Loo
It’s great to get design inspiration from a variety of sources. Via Patricia Gray’s blog I discovered this great article about a new washroom at the Queenstown’s newest hotel, Sofitel Queenstown. The concept is sure to raise a few eyebrows and make a few men laugh.
Share your memories online using Scrapblog
I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly struggling to keep up with my inbox content. I love receiving pictures of my friends kids, but waiting for them to download can be a real pain in the butt. This is why I looooooooooooooove Flickr. I much prefer receiving a link to a flickr account than a bunch of images. Flickr allows me to view the images whenever I want and I can share the link with my friends and family.
The best thing about Flickr is that it’s free and really easy to use. You can upgrade to a paid account, which gives you more features, but the free account is perfectly fine to begin with. This week following a link from Veerle’s blog I discovered Scrapblog. Scrapblog was created to go beyond photo and video sharing. Their funky application allows you to create “scrapbooks” using your Flickr images and save them online. Just like Flickr it’s really easy to use and Free. I can see kids having a lot of fun with this. There are loads of templates to choose from and the drag-and-drop feature makes it super easy to get started.
Here is my first scrapblog that I created in barely 15 minutes using photos of my trip to France.
Gallery of Business Cards
Here’s another great source of inspiration for you: a collection of business cards on Flickr. They’re posted by DailyPoetics, who has a number of other inspirational albums as well. Enjoy!
Friday Fun - Some eCards
It’s been a busy week at Bluelime, busy enough not to have anything big to say. So, here’s a quick link to some edgy eCards. As the sites says, they’re for “when you care enough to click send”. Definitely not for everyone, they’re often ironic, sometimes distasteful, and not your grandma’s Hallmark cards. But, some of them sure are funny!
Sometimes I wish I was a marketer
Being a web designer I usually keep my head buried in code all day. I love debugging CSS and writing XHTML but every once in a while I look up and realize that there are people out there doing stuff.
I heard a few weeks ago, while in Seattle, that the Simpsons movie was coming. I used to watch the Simpsons, but got bored of it around year 5 or 6, so I didn’t pay attention to the movie poster. A few weeks later I read somewhere (I forget where) that a few 7-11 stores around town had been converted into Kwik-e marts. I thought that was pretty cool.
I hadn’t realized how big this Simpsons movie is until I stumbled across a post by Rohit. This movie is proving to be something else. I just lost several hours poking around the Official Simpsons movie website. It’s at times like these that I think that marketing would be a cool job.
The flash developers who worked on the site have done a fantastic job and the marketing effort is outstanding. I’m intrigued now and looking forward to the movie.
The Ultimate Packaging Designer Blog
Packaging is one of those things that people don’t pay that much attention to. But packaging is much more than that and it can influence your perception of a product or a brand as a consumer. Via Kate I discovered TheDieline.com which defines good packaging and is a great resource for packaging designers and others seeking inspiration.