Lifestreams for Beginners

It is becoming increasingly difficult for socially connected people to keep up with all their own online activities, never mind their friends. Skinflakes, for example, writes posts on a variety of sites including, Digg, Delicious, Twitter, Clipmarks, Zimbio, Blogger, and Wordpress. We are also looking to create a presence on YouTube, facebook, and Scribld . Clearly this strategy allows people using a variety of different services to find out about Skinflakes. However, our posts are strewn all over the net making it difficult for people to access all of our content.

FriendFeed, Socialthing, and Dipity are examples of a new generation of websites that allow you to organise all you and your friends’ social media activities into one place. They allow you to create a new page or "lifestream" made up of content written in various social media sites.

Some of you may have noticed the mini blog column that runs down the left hand column of our Skinflakes. This feature is simply uses the lifestream created by FriendFeed to bring together all of our social media content into the mini blog.

Of course you can also use FriendFeed to keep up to date with friends who use services that are not your bag. So if you have friends that uses Pownce instead of Twitter you can use FriendFeed to bring their updates into one place. You can also use FriendFeed as a simple web based RSS reader to create a constantly updated list of interesting things. For more about web based RSS readers check out one of our previous posts.

FriendFeed is not the only service in town. Dipity is a new service that gives you the option of displaying posts in a timeline a feature that gives a deeper insight into how people spend their time online. SocialThing looks like a much prettier version of FriendFeed that has been recently acquired by AOL but, for the moment you need an invite to sign up to this service.

How to put a FriendFeed on your blog

• Sign up to FriendFeed

• Add friends from facebook or from your email address book

• Click on “next see your FriendFeed”.

• You need to link your accounts by clicking on the surprise surprise “link your accounts” link

• When you have added all the services click on feed to "view your feed".

• If you want to add a service that isn’t on the list – just click on blog and past in an rss feed link for a service you are interested in eg feeds.feedburner.com/skinflakes will give you posts from skinflakes on your FriendFeed.

• You can also use FriendFeed like Twitter and post messages directly on to your feed

• When you are happy with the contents of your FriendFeed - copy the link for your FriendFeed

• Go to your dashboard in blogger and click on layout

• Add a new gadget – select “feed” and past in your FriendFeed link

• Save the changes and view the FriendFeed on your blog

Second Life for Beginners

This week, Skinflakes attended the launch of the Elucian Islands, the Second Life home of the Nature Publishing Group. The event was a meeting that took place in the real world with guests from the virtual world displayed on a plasma screen. We sat listening to the guest speakers but you couldn’t help being drawn to the virtual figures or avatars sitting in a beautifully rendered meeting room in Second Life.The hands of the avatars typing away, submitting questions to be asked in the real world.

At one point I was sure one of the the avatars stripped naked and suspended themselves in the middle of the virtual meeting room. Why did the person controlling this avatar do this? I guess the simple answer is because they could.

Nature are working hard to use Second Life to extend their traditional role as an organisation that allows scientists to communicate which began with the journal, then through the web and now through Second Life.

I had dismissed Second Life as a game for geeks and my attempts at creating a skinflakes presence of second life took me back to adventure role playing games of the eighties and nineties with a character who was named Skinflakes Scaramon. I must admit I decided the whole thing was just a bit too geeky for me and gave up. This feeling was compounded when one of the speakers told us about people, known as furries, who like to roam around as animals in Second Life. Confirming my suspicions that Second Life is just Dungeons and Dragons for the noughties?

Nature Publishing Group don't seem to think so. Nature on Second Life is a serious business venture. They have clearly invested a lot of time and money in creating an interactive virtual world and judging from their literature they hope to make a return charging people to hold events in their virtual world. Looking at the economic statistics on Second Life is an eye opener. The 15 million people who visit second life have created a vibrant economy with their own currency, the Linden Dollar.

I'm starting to think that virtual worlds are going to be big and whilst the technology is not quite there for the masses. It is only a matter of time before virtual worlds move into the mainstream. Perhaps its time for Skinflakes Scaramon to take his first steps in Second Life after all.

How to get a second life

Visit the second life website

Fill in the registration details

Select an avatar

Download the software -to be honest I didn't get this far but it all seems quite straight forward

Generating Ad Code for beginners

Last month we showed you how to make a bit of on the side dosh out of blog or website by using Google Adsense. Google have also put together a very useful video which gives you a 60 second run through of how to get your ad code.



It is also possible to add the code - and therefore the adverts - straight through blogger, by going to the Settings page, selecting "add widgets" and then scrolling down to the "Adsense" tab, denoted by a dollar sign. As long as you have an adsense account already (see last month`s entry) you can quickly set up your adds in less than five minutes.

Unfortunately, those of you using Word Press (mentioned in our recent blogging post) wont be able to access the riches of adsense, as this popular blogging system doesn't allow Google Adsense or indeed other obvious mechnisims for advertising. We are examining how Word Press works as part of our possible switch and will let you know whether any financial avenues open up on this front ...

Blogs for beginners

The Blogsphere – or the Sanctum of Saddos as my Dad flatteringly calls it – has been abuzz this week with the story of a home based blogger who recently sold his blog for an eye watering $15 million. Bankohlic, a blog that provides info about the banking sector, is now in the hands of a corporate site, Bankrate, who felt the blog had acquired such a valuable, distinguished and numerically large audience, they simply had to have it.

Naturally this has had a lot of bloggers dribbling over their keyboards as it seems to prove that there is gold in those cyber hills. Some, like the distinguished Problogger, have let the odd sour grape slip into their reporting, but overall there appears to be renewed excitement in the possibilities – particularly those of the cash kind – that can stem from blogging.

Of course very few people make anywhere near the astronomical amount that Bankoholic`s owner has reaped – and many non-corporate bloggers, individual and organisation based, are probably not interested in making money in the first place. But even if riches aren't the goal, it’s a fact that many blogs fall a long way short of such lofty heights. Many indeed are barely able to keep going or attract a very small amount of interest.

This is a shame as blogs remain an engaging and direct way to communicate with a target audience. Even the internal medico-politics in Wales can produce a decent and interesting blog if, as in this case, its done properly.

Today’s how to guide seeks to highlight the basics behind a decent blog. This isn’t a revolutionary set of concepts and its aimed very much at beginners – but following these steps will give you the building blocks for a well read blog:

How to … set up a blog

Choose a host site wisely: Choosing where you host your blogger – in other words which site you put your blog on – is important as it will effect key elements such as your design and even where you are placed in Google’s ranking system (see our entry on Google rankings). At Skinflakes we are considering the unthinkable and jumping ship from Blogger as while it is easy to use, it has a number of drawbacks. You have to have an account to comment as a reader and it is behind other flexible sites such as WordPress in terms of Google rankings (as WP gets more hits and so forth). Buying your own domain name (something else we are considering) and therefore site is the best option as you wont be at the whim of your host site if it decides to make changes to its structure. Plus you’re given more respect by Google and higher rankings. This is cheap to do and can be achieved quickly through looking at the 123 site, but you may wish to make sure you’re committed to your blog for the long haul before you take this step.

Choose a niche even more wisely: When opting for a subject for your blog ask yourself three questions:

Do you know enough about the subject and are you monitoring other key websites so that you’re up to speed with what is happening in your field?

Are you prepared to update your blog at least three times a week? If you aren’t then you run the risk of losing readers and interest, as well as being displaced by other competitor blogs. And yes, we know Skinflakes occasionally falls down in this regards …

Is the niche you re aiming for popular enough for you to meet you re aims? If you re writing for fun then ignore this question, but if you’re looking to make money or are an organisation trying to get its opinion across, consider carefully whether your target consumers are there in the first place or are likely to be interested in a blog. In short, is it all worth the effort?

Using "ping" sites: In order to get your posts "indexed" on the major search tools and servers it helps to "ping", or rather notify them that your post actually exists. This will make it more visible to users when they are searching for your blog and posting subjects. Some sites, like wordpress, do this automatically, but there is not harm in registering for free with sites like pingomatic and after each post making sure you "ping".

Lay the right technological foundations: Blogs can take a variety of different forms and styles. Lifehacker is completely different in look, feel and content to Al Gore’s blog, which in turn has little in common with Notts County FC’s midfielder Gary Strauchan’s effort (yes, a shameful plug for one half of Skinflakes favourite football club). However, if you want a successful blog, whether as an individual or as an organisation, you do need to get some practical elements right. All blogs need some basic, but easy to achieve technical and style flourishes so that they can attract and retain readers:

Keep your entries short, snappy and to the point: A blog is not a novel and online users don’t have the time or the inclination to read reams of text. If you look at any of the major blogs, such as those mentioned above, you will see that the entries set a premium on being short and snappy. Don’t worry if you cant squeeze all your info into a post as blogs should also be …

Link heavy – To cut down on the amount you’ll have to write, link to other sites and pieces of information that are relevant to your topic. Blog readers appreciate links as blogs are often regarded as a useful bank of information and content - irrespective of the opinions they offer.

RSS Feeds – People have a thousand and one websites to view these days, so setting up an RSS Feed that delivers your latest updates straight to an individual (such as through an RSS Reader) allows you to guarantee visits and readership, as well as build up an army of subscribers. People who browse blogs also tend to be more techy and more likely to use RSS Readers. Setting up feeds is automatic through Word Press and shortly they`ll be a post on Skinflakes showing you how Feedburner allows you to set up feeds easily for other sites.

Social Bookmarking – Make sure your blog has social bookmarking tabs that allow readers – and maybe even yourself – to post your contributions to large community sites such as Digg it, Delicious, Facebook and Reddit. This will increase the chance of more people seeing your entry.

Comments – Finally blogs should be interactive. Allowing people to comment and interact with you directly will make your blog more engaging and more likely to be read. There is also no need to worry about adverse comments - all blog platforms can be moderated as a user function, meaning that you can choose what ends up in print on your blog.

Web Widgets for Beginners

Aren’t widgets those little bits of plastic at the bottom of beer cans that makes the pint come out like draft? Yes well that is true, but here in geekland widgets are bits of code you can paste into your website to do interesting things.

If you look at some of the new features that have appeared on the skinflakes website in recent weeks such as: the search bar, the email alerts sign up box, the adverts, the feed from our social media sites – these are all web widgets (also known as gadgets on blogger).

The great thing about web widgets is they allow you to do clever things on your website or blog without having any knowledge HTML, Javascript or any computer language. All you have to do is go to a third party website follow a list of instructions and you will receive a bit of code needed to do the job.

Web widgets give bloggers the power to create webpages that are more feature rich than many corporate sites. Through the use of widgets the skinflakesblog can now generate income through Google Adsense and the amazon affiliates programme . Our email alert widget allows readers of our website to become subscribers and our friend feed displays all the content from our social networking activities.

How to add a web widget to your blog

1. Go to a website that will create a web widgits. Widget box, which list hundreds of widgets, is a good place to start alternatively go to a specific site such as Google Adsense to create an advertising widget or feedburner to create an email alerts subscription box. Blogger and wordpress also have many widgets you use to improve your blog.
   

2. Many widgets can be created in a few minutes by selecting the designs you prefer. Most websites give two options: you can copy the code that when pasted into your blog or website will display your widgit or click on a button to that will add the widget directly to your layout page in blogger or wordpress.
   

3. The pasting code route is fairly simple in blogger. Click on layout tab and then the “add a gadget” bar. This will give you an range of custom built widgets you an add to your blog. If you select the option for HTML/Javascript you can paste your code, remembering to click on the save button, and the widget is now on your site.

Skinflakes round up ...

Skinflakes comments

Graham Jones returned from an extended absence in August with a new posting on the, ahem, gender problems facing Internet marketeers. The article is not quite as exciting as many of you are thinking and didn't find full favour with Skinflakes, but it is an interesting look at how many websites focus a bit too much on the all mighty dollar sign. And just to show that our own hypocrisy can occasionally result in us disappearing smartly up our backsides, have a look at our own posting on Google Adsense that shows were not totally adverse to a bit of Skinflakes cash ...

Elsewhere, Problogger published another interesting article on how to get a blog postings read which also drew a comment from us, this time endorsing all of the main points, but warning starting out bloggers that they might want to lay off the press releases and newsletters ...


Skinflakes facts


As we mentioned when Skinflakes started out, we are keen to give out regularly facts on how Skinflakes is doing and since weve now passed our first month with a webcounter, here are our vital statistics:

1. 704 views in one month - a good start, but were aiming for more than a thousand over the next month.

2. 8 followers on Twitter.

3. 8 followers via RSS Feeds.

4. 1 comment to our articles.

5. The staggering total of $0.84 made from our Google Adsense drive in the past week.

6. 10 Diggs for our articles on Digg it

Not bad figures for our first full month, but obviously were looking for bigger and better things down the line ...

Social bookmarking for beginners

Social bookmarking is now present on virtually every news site and information webpage – which is sometimes perplexing considering most people haven’t got the faintest idea what it is or the opportunities it offers.

All of us though have seen a social bookmarking tab. If you look at the bottom of any page on BBC Online, such as this one below, you`ll see a box with tabs for five sites, including Facebook and Digg it, the latter being the most popular pure form of social bookmarking site with around 2.7 million regular users. Skinflakes incidentally uses another variation – a tab on the left hand side of the screen with the full plethora of social bookmarking sites currently on offer.

The presence of Facebook in the BBC’s list hints at the underlining commonality between social networking and social bookmarking. Digg it, like Facebook and its other cousins in the genre, is a free service that allows an individual to create a tailored profile which can be customised with information, pictures, links to sites of personnel interest, a section that allows you to add friends and even the facility to start up a small blog.

However, the main difference between the two is that social bookmarking is built primarily around the sharing, discussion and rating of individual web stories and articles. Users mark a webpage, save it to their profile and in doing so highlight it to the Digg it community.

This latter process of distribution to the millions of Digg it subscribers works through a series of mini-feeds which are tailored by category (identified by the submitter) and can be accessed through the sites search engines or by setting preference controls so the user sees a specific feed when they log in. Categories include political news, gadgets and business.

The real twist behind Digg it though is that articles receive more prominence, the more votes – or “diggs” – they receive from Digg it users who see the article and think it’s worth a positive endorsement. Hence the more digs an article gets, the higher it is on the main Digg page in each category which users see straight away when they log on. In addition, submitting an article creates a mini-discussion forum where all Digg it users can discuss and argue about the stories content.

For users, Digg it provides a neat online storage system where their favourite articles can be secured in one place and shared with other people. For someone with something to say, Digg it provides a way of flagging up content to a large body of people who –thanks to the category based mini-feeds – are likely to be interested in the topic behind the post. It therefore offers an opportunity to get access directly to your target audience.

Of course, simply digging a webpage isn’t the end of the story as to get it widely viewed and dugg it must receive those crucial votes to get on the front page where more people can see it. There are various guides knocking around on how to do this, but in truth all of them, such as this example from Problogger, only work if you have built a strong list of subscribers and have the time to put some serious effort into it. And rather paradoxically, social bookmarking was listed in another recent Problogger post about distractions that can prevent a blogger from the main business of getting a blog written.

Below are five basic tips from my experience of using Digg it that give you a starting point on how to get a webpage promoted through this particular social bookmarking site.

How to … begin to get your content noticed on Digg it

Make sure the content is relevant – if possible – A lot of readers of Digg it have a specialist interest in particular areas, especially tech issues. Yes, the word geek is applicable. Therefore if you want diggs marking your content on tech issues, such as say Firefox, is likely to be the way to go. However, don’t become too obsessed by tailoring articles/webpages solely to Digg it – just make sure that it’s worth posting your information there in the first place!

Make the title interesting – The first thing that Digg it asks for is a title for the article or story. Don’t automatically use the title of the story as sometimes they are painfully dull and probably wont attract anyone’s attention. Pick something that is likely to grab your target audience’s attention when they glance down a mini-feed. Obviously don’t just call it “big tits” or anything like that …

Make sure you place your Digg in the right category – An obvious point, but its surprisingly easy to botch your category and send your article off to the wrong group of people. At the beginning Skinflakes posts were all being placed under gadgets – applicable for articles on podcasting equipment, but less so for articles on Google rankings. Therefore think carefully about your target audience before choosing your category.

Don’t over- spam or become an obvious marketer – The web does not like a spammer. As with all forms of communication there is a temptation to go crazy on Digg it and repeat post your article or flood the system with too many Diggs to boost your profile. This can – and is in one case – result in a lot of negative blowback from the Digg it community. Also make sure you don’t just promote your own pages – keep your account lively with other diggs about related topics so that people will become interested in what you`ve got to say and will follow your diggs as a “fan”.

Make friends and fans – A simple way to alert more people to your postings is to get your current online contacts to join Digg (or link up with them if theyre already on there). Look out for prominent, active Diggers who you can become a fan of and allow anyone whose interested in your content to be a fan of yours.