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Awesome Monday Email

Koka Sexton — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:04:48 +0000

Another one of the best internet memes going around is a string of emails written from the perspective of an attorney. These are always entertaining.

You gotta love this lawyer…

Everyone who has ever bought a house will enjoy this. A New Orleans lawyer sought an FHA loan for a client who lost his house in Hurricane Katrina and wanted to rebuild. He was told the loan would be granted if he could prove satisfactory title to the parcel of property being offered as collateral.

The title to the property dated back to 1803, which took the Lawyer three months to track down. After sending the information to the FHA, he received the following reply:

(Actual letter): “Upon review of your letter adjoining your client’s loan application, we note that the request is supported by an Abstract of Title. While we compliment the able manner in which you have prepared and presented the application, we must point out that you have only cleared title to the proposed collateral property back to 1803. Before final approval can be accorded, it will be necessary to clear the title back to its origin.”

Annoyed, the lawyer responded as follows:

(Actual Letter):
“Your letter regarding title in Case No. 189156 has been received.
I note that you wish to have title extended further than the 194 years covered by the present application.

I was unaware that any educated person in this country, particularly those working in the property area, would not know that Louisiana was purchased, by the U.S., from France in 1803, the year of origin identified in our application.

For the edification of uninformed FHA bureaucrats, the title to the land prior to U.S. ownership was obtained from France, which had acquired it by Right of Conquest from Spain. The land came into the possession of Spain by Right of Discovery made in the year 1492 by a sea captain named Christopher Columbus, who had been granted the Privilege of seeking a new route to India by the Spanish monarch, Isabella.

The good queen, Isabella, being a pious woman and almost as careful about titles as the FHA, took the precaution of securing the blessing of the Pope before she sold her jewels to finance Columbus’s expedition. Now the Pope, as I am sure you may know, is the emissary of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, it is commonly accepted, created this world. Therefore, I believe it is safe to presume that God also made that part of the world called Louisiana.

God, therefore, would be the owner of origin and His origins date back to before the beginning of time, the world as we know it AND the FHA. I hope you find God’s original claim to be satisfactory.
Now, may we have our damn loan?”

He got the loan.

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Why local blogging is important

Koka Sexton — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:13:08 +0000

I recently wrote about a new blog I started called the Mayor of Concord. Starting a local blog is not for the faint of heart. Depending on how many other people are writing in your community, you have the chance of pissing off a few people. Maybe I’m an exception to the rule but I got about a dozen hate emails within the first week. Everything is better now but it was a bit concerning in the beginning. I have this site among a couple others that I do not update as often as I like and for some reason I really thought that starting a new blog would be the right thing to do. (I’m addicted) Besides having a new site that can be an outlet for thoughts and opinions, it could also be turned into an online business of sorts. Now most of you know that just starting a new site and expecting the checks to roll in is a fantasy at best. You have a better chance of a leprechaun knocking on your door with a pot of gold than to have a brand new site generating a consistent revenue stream over night.

by pbo31

Local blogging is important

As a writer/blogger, I express myself through words. I can’t get into vlogging like iJustine or sxephil. Well I guess I could but I really have very little interest in that form of media expression. Not to say that a video won’t be made at some point but I tend to enjoy the sound of my keyboard more than my voice. Since i write about so many different topics from social media and technology to general super geek stuff, I wanted to put some work into highlighting the city I have grown up in.

Giving your city or even your neighborhood a voice is a great thing to do. I felt compelled to put something together that I could use as a platform for my thoughts on a local level and I have a lot of opinions. I tend to follow the news on a more national and world level. I would catch a few headlines about what was happening in the city from time to time but I never focused on it. I’m kinda scared after I did focus. The school system here is a mess, crime is on the rise and realtors have to carry pepper spray. I guess this is being echoed across America on some level.

How to start a local blog

Like everything else you do online, you need to decide if you want to brand yourself into the new blog or start a new brand all together. I chose a hybrid approach trying to make the local blog as separate from my personal site as possible but not making it completely anonymous. You wont be seeing my typical posts on the local blog. It’s completely focused on the city and community.

Either get a free blog from a service like WordPress or host your own.

Do a quick search using the keywords for your area. You know your city well enough to do a Google blog search for people places and things in your area.

Find out who is blogging in your area. What are they writing about or are they just posting news and things already in the mainstream. Getting in contact with other local bloggers can make your entry into the local blogging scene easier since most times they will support you and provide some additional information you would otherwise have to go looking for.

Start local blogging

Where are your favorite places to eat, are there any local radio stations you can write about, what are some of the issues going on in your city? Those are just some ideas. There are local blogs that focus on the high school sports teams and some that focus only on the school districts. One local blog in my area has a large following and gets tips emailed to them daily about things happening around the city. Some of the readers listen to police scanners and report on the crime.

Whatever your specific interest is, you can write about in on a local level. Blogs are becoming more useful to communities than mainstream news sources that have to cover much larger areas and the REAL local news gets lost among the sensationalism.

As a writer/blogger you can help bring attention to the real issues and highlight some of the greatness of your city. Though I was initially chastised for owning the Mayor of Concord, the initial shock reaction kicked off a nice flow of traffic to the site. As any new site goes, I’m not drawing a ton of new visitors yet but the numbers are growing.

Do you have a blog that focus on your local area? Leave me a comment so I can check it out.

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How to blog like Michael Phelps

Koka Sexton — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:49:38 +0000

Some would wonder what Michael Phelps has to do with blogging. I think there are many similarities and I’ll outline a few. As of the time this posts, Michael Phelps has grabbed 11 Gold Medals and is aiming for more to add around his neck. It would appear that Michael Phelps is unstoppable. The trick is learning from his success to make your blog explode.

Being #1 takes a lot of effort. Sacrifices need to be made and priorities adjusted. For professional bloggers, writers and freelancers, this is nothing that comes as news. What do you do to continually bring your A game to the internet? Do you have a process to follow or just jump in the pool and hope everything works out for the best? Here are a few things to think about.

Change your state of mind.

There are many ways to stay focused on the Gold ahead. I was amazed when I continually saw Michael Phelps out of the pool not necessarily paying attention to the events taking place but listening to his iPod holding a stone cold face like a poker player about to go ‘all in’.

One thing we should all be in control of is our emotions. If we are playing the game of life to win, we would make a Conscious effort to surround ourselves with positive influences and happy thoughts. Since this is harder said than done, making the effort to the best of your ability will start the ball rolling in the right direction.

Do you know what music you can listen to that gets you energized or podcast that helps bring you laser focus on your goals? I bet Michael Phelps shuffles between house music for the energy and Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. We often over look the simple act of changing our state by the things we listen to. I listen to my music at work on a special playlist the keeps me driving forward without being a distraction.

Blogger Unleashed explains the power of focus.

You must choose which you will focus on: if you choose poorly, you will doom yourself to never achieving your goals and being successful. Count on that.

So how do you begin to think positively if you’re a natural pessimist? I don’t really believe there ARE natural pessimists, just people who have been taught how to consider the darkest side of every cloud.

Never give up…not for a second.

When Michael Phelps hits the water he’s a man on a mission. Though he may be behind (not often) in the race, he is putting out 100%. Up to the moment he touches the finish line breaking another world record, he is a force in motion. If you look at some of the other swimmers they pop their heads up or relax moments before the finish. In a race that is measure in .001 of a second, there is no time for relaxation. As the cartoon above illustrates, Michael Phelps is known for steam rolling into the walls at the finish.

The same is true with blogging. Many great writers start a blog, get some decent traffic and don’t get the returns or satisfaction they expected. If you love writing the way Michael Phelps loves swimming, you would just keep writing. You don’t need to stop or relax, just drive forward and the rewards will come. Patience is a virtue.

Have a goal

Michael Phelps came into the 2008 Olympics saying he was going to win every Gold Medal. In fact there have been many questions about the magical list that Michael Phelps has put together outlining his path to success. The media had two responses. Either they acknowledged his dream and wished him well, or they said he came across as arrogant since winning 12 Gold Medals was unheard of. Well…needless to say EVERY reporter is now on the Michael Phelps bandwagon.

Having a goal and achieving it is only half the process. You need to continue to create goals for yourself. Michael Phelps said in an interview after winning Gold Medal #11 that he wanted to change the world of swimming. Michael Phelps has become the Bavid Beckham of the pool.

What is the goal of your blog? Do you even have one? Take some time and think it through. How specific can you get with what you want from your website?

For help on writing a better blog post, check our Super Blogging tips.

Let’s say you have an amazing idea that you can envision becoming one of your most popular articles, or an idea for some strong linkbait or social media content. You sit down and write, except it’s “one of those days” and your writing quality is suffering and the words aren’t flowing like they should. Instead of publishing something you don’t like and is only half as good as it should be, either save the article as a draft that you can edit some other day, or delete it altogether. It’s better to not have a post at all one day than waste an idea on something that is low quality and won’t be appreciated. If you feel it’s not as good as it could be, don’t publish!

Blogging like Michael Phelps takes dedication, focus and determination. Can you do it?

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iPhone 2.0 – An upgrade for disaster

Koka Sexton — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:17:38 +0000

Today was supposed to be a wondrous day for Apple. The release of the new iPhone 3G and the much anticipated iPhone 2.0 software update. People waited in lines for the phone and I woke up first thing this morning to download the latest firmware update. Turns out Apple and I had another thing coming!

Some are calling this iPocalypse, the beginning of the end for iPhone enthusiasts. I wouldn’t go that far but I will say that the massive outages being talked about and the iPhones that have turned to ibricks because of this recent update is really making some waves around the internet.

iPhone FAILS

After all the work put into the release of the newest iPhone, you would think that Apple and AT&T would have thought about how to manage all the requests for the update. I guess someone fell asleep at the wheel and their iNap is holding all of us back.

Engadget another popular technology site has already logged 330 comments to his post Are you having problems with your iPhone? ZDNet is telling all of their readers not to upgrade their iPhones today also.

The meltdown is a classic example of problems that can result from complex systems that have single points of failure. In this case, the company appeared to invite disaster by not separating its existing customers from new ones.

“There are certainly lessons in preparedness,” said Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry consultant who is president of Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y. “The acid test for many years has been Christmas morning where customers contact companies in droves after opening presents,” Mr. Doherty said, adding that he had still not been successful in activating his own phone after upgrading.

Have any of you had any luck with the iPhone update? I’d like to hear what you experiances have been. I have given up! Maybe I’ll try again in a week when Apple gets their act together.

A spokesman for AT&T Inc., the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., told AP that a global problem with Apple’s online iTunes Store prevented the phones from being fully activated in-store. As a result, those who spent night in their own beds (rather than the sidewalk outside Apple or AT&T stores) paid for their currently useless sleek bits of tech and were told to go home and wait.

Of course. Apple blames AT&T and AT&T blames Apple. I don’t give a rats ass who’s to blame, just fix it!

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Much ado about nothing – Viral Marketing

Koka Sexton — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:13:34 +0000

20,000 visitors in a couple days can’t be wrong. My last post was titled Why geeks make better boyfriends. I was searching the interwebs for some information on a future post and came across an old post on the ‘best of Craigslist’ that laid out 15 reasons why Geeks make better boyfriends. Instead of just giving it a thumbs up in StumbleUpon, I thought I would add it to my geek break section as well. I did this because I thought the post was so amusing that it would eventually get lost in my StumbleUpon favorites and I would never see it again. So I found a geeky picture to add to the post and put it up. I specifically put the post in a low level category of my site thinking it was not worth any attention at all. I was wrong.

Blacksmith2 of the StumbleUpon community discovered my post and added it to his favorites. Then the shit storm started brewing. Within a few hours my iPhone was blowing up with emails for me to approve comments on my blog. Initially I thought is was related to my post about becoming a daddy but that failed in comparison to the importance of why geeks are better boyfriends. Thanks to the brazen comment by an anonymous dj41326 everyone started chiming in.

But what I want to understand is this. How can such a meaningless post be so controversial? After reading the comments it is very clear that people have a strict position to hold on the subject. Do we as geeks have such fragile souls that a comment can stoke a flame so large? I mean, I cried watching The Notebook, but that doesn’t make me a wuss does it?

I’ve been reading sites like Super Blogging and DoshDosh and been looking for a way to get my blog posts noticed but is there really a science to it when a random post gets all of the attention when more content rich articles like Everything you ever need to know about Twitter gets so little? I took a look at my copy of the Problogger book to see if he had any insight. There was very little about why a blog post goes viral but they did explain some places of reference for me to understand how this happens.

Photo:http://blaugh.com/

Viral Marketing is uncontrolable

The geeky boyfriend post is a prime example of viral marketing. I think the holy grail to a company is running a successful viral marketing campaign. But is it controllable? I would think that setting a viral fire that swept through social media would be hard to start without throwing some money at the real heavy hitter out there in the industry. But as it seems, I could even do it without even trying.

It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like.Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.

I don’t get it but then again, I guess thats the beauty of it. I don’t think people like iJustine who made a funny video was expecting the reaction to her post about a 300 page iPhone bill. What do you know about viral marketing? Give me some insight.

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I’m having a baby

Koka Sexton — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:50:25 +0000

My wife came home with a present for me that contained a card and a book. Cute really. I think I read the card like three times before I understood what I was reading. It was like I suddenly had a reading comprehension level of a 4 year old. The only thing I could find to say was “Are you sure?” that was the alternate answer to “How did that happen?”. I think I chose the right answer.

I suppose this post has been coming for a while. I wrote in the beginning of the year that baby talk had started in Casa De Sexton and not to be surprised if there was a post like this in 2008. I would have been happy with a Quad Core Server and a 30″ monitor for gaming and web development. It would have been a hell of a lot cheaper. But the news of baby Sexton is so much better!

Am I ready to be a dad?

We had been talking about it and I was unsure about being ready to raise a child. I mean, come on, really?!? Koka Sexton having a kid? There could be a comedy skit written about such blatant lack of fatherly skills. I can see it now. I’m sitting at my desk stumbling online and writing my next post while my kid is tied up with CAT-5 cable and using an old optical mouse as a pacifier. Don’t laugh, I’ve had that nightmare.

I treat my Boston Terrier like a child but I know there is a major difference. Good thing I have some additional credits at amazon.com so I can order some baby books.

Photo source: DavidWallace.com

I’m going to be a Baby Daddy.

Truth be told, I know I will be a good dad. I love kids. It’s really surprising I haven’t had one already but it’s been REALLY nice to play with my friends children and then give them back. I don’t think BestBuy has a return section for geeky kids. Let’s not be mistaken, my offspring is going to come out with an iPhone in their hands. I’m not much of a sports guy, I can throw a ball but I’d rather write code. So with a deficit in the sports arena, my contribution to a child will surely lead to them becoming the president of the chess club and having the highest score in World of Warcraft. Just as their father was before them, my kid will be the one everyone turns to when their computer crashes or they want to upgrade their network. I guess it’s not all bad.

The Golden Child.

Coincidently about a month ago a rumor started on my side of the family that my wife was already pregnant. Seems like I was the last to know. Somehow, someone thought they heard something about it and decided to tell everyone else. Then I got a series of calls asking if the stories were true. I got a laugh out of it and wrote an email to my family.

Trust me. If Meghan were pregnant, my family would not be hearing from third parties about it and would be getting a call from me. When the glorious day comes I will let you know the ‘chosen one’ is on the way. Don’t buy into rumors and think that I am keeping things from you.

Boy or Girl, I don’t mind. Truth is that more than likely it’s going to be a girl. That’s just the trend in my family. Either way we’ll be ready. I have always thought I would not want to know the sex until D-Day but with my wife and her Type A personality, that will not be the case. It makes sense. getting boy or girl specific clothes and decorations for a nursery is better than having some hodgepodge as if we were planning on a hermaphrodite child.

Single Soldier Troop Deployment.

I used to laugh when I was in Iraq and my wife would tell me stories of other military wives that posted in their blogs about kids on the way. They called it a troop deployment. I guess their was comfort in thinking of a baby on the way and the dad being in a combat zone and relating the two together in some way. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about teaching a little one how to conduct a dismounted patrol in the back yard or low crawl in the living room. (I think they will have the low crawl down pat soon enough.)

Image Source: jaw_24

Baby 2.0

I think that having a kid is really about raising them the best you can. Since I have been so focused on blogging and technology and babies have been on the back burner, I need to play some catch up on the parenting scene online. There is one of those right? How many of my readers are parents? What sites do you frequent online? I need help!

Not surprising, I started thinking of domain names to register. I have a couple but keep thinking of new ones. I don’t know if I should have the baby chronicles of how to be a daddy on this blog or start a new one like I have in the past with my other sites. I guess I have some time to think that one over.

We’re having a baby. Now that the baby shock has subsided, I’m so excited. We have 9 months before the future blogger arrives. If all goes well that means sometime in January 2009 the Golden Child will arrive. If you have any advice or know of any websites that cover this topic let me know. Thanks!!!

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Hello Viddler

Koka Sexton — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:26:51 +0000

What is Viddler?

Viddler is a fresh, creative web application that lets you upload, enhance, and share digital video quickly and easily inside your web browser.

In other words Viddler is the hottest video sharing site online. A lot like YouTube but brings a social aspect to their site. After you post a video you can accept comments inline with the stream. This adds a new level to your Vlog by creating a conversation during your video that is shared with everyone and using tags that make searching and sharing even easier.

Who uses Viddler?

The exact number of users is a secret but it’s got to be in the millions (idk). The uploaded videos range from things like cooking tips to comedy. One of my favorite searches is the Me Today. This is a collection of Viddlers that post a video update daily. It’s the best kind of Vlogging done. Viddler Me Todays are usually entertaining and sometimes comical. Obviously I enjoy the posts from iJustine who holds some of the most popular and commented on videos and the Vlogger from down under DJ Steen.

Viddler pays you.

Besides being a kick ass video hosting service, one of the added benefits drawing people to Viddler and away from YouTube is the ability to make a few bucks off their video posts. What happens if you make some crazy video that goes viral? You can make a good chunck of change. There have been stories of people making a couple hundred dollars from a single video.

Viddler has decided to split revenues 50/50 with content producers, and it has given them a good deal of flexibility regarding the service as well. Producers can opt out of the advertising system completely or sign up for multiple levels of deployment. For example, you can deem that only advertisements from bidders can be displayed, and only through timed tags that you as a producer have created. Or you can allow Amazon to advertise as well, and through tags that your viewers create in addition to your own. -TechCrunch

Take a look at Viddler and let me know what you think. Do you use Viddler? Leave me a comment and I’ll watch your videos.

Here is a video thats shows a good sample of what you can see.

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ProBlogger book – Hip or hype?

Koka Sexton — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:08:10 +0000

A couple weeks back I felt a disturbance in the force. Chris Garrett and ProBlogger announced that they have assembled a book together that has Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. Sure that sounds great but is this really necessary? I am a bit split on my opinion and figured I would write them out and see what your take is.

“How to blog” wrapped in a box – Amazon Product Description
Blogging has become a popular and fascinating pastime for many, but more and more bloggers are finding it can also be an excellent source of direct or indirect income. Although the barriers to starting a blog are low, without expert guidance it is easy to get frustrated when success doesn’t match expectations. Written by the creator of the world’s #1 resource for making money with blogs, ProBlogger takes the reader from absolute beginner to earning money from or as a result of blogging. Through step by step practical lessons the reader will choose a blog topic, analyze the market, set up a blog, promote it and earn revenue.

Unlike other books that are big on potential and theory, ProBlogger provides results based on the authors own experience of what really works through practical, tried and tested advice. Inside readers will learn:

* How Bloggers Make Money

* Direct Income Earning vs. Indirect Income Earning methods

* Why Niches are Important

* Using 20 critical blogging tools

* 20 Ingredients for a successful blog post

* Optimizing advertising

* Which advertising platforms work best

* Expert analysis of Technocrat’s Top Blogs – why they work and so much more.

Being #1

This is, as far as I can tell the first release besides Lifehacker that went from virtual to physical in book form. Being some of the pioneers in the Make Money Online niche and social media space the authors Chris Garrett and Darren Rowse may have just hit the gold mine with this book.

Amazon is the largest online distribution sources for books and the attention this book is getting is amazing. The announcement post from Darren already has 108 comments in appreciation. Over at Chris’s blog he has gotten 8. After the announcements, other sites started spreading the word. The ProBlogger Book is currently at #2 on the Amazon Best Sellers list under Computers and Internet and Blogging. The fact that these two powers have converged into a book deal is almost mind blowing. But maybe I just need to get off their nuts.

Do we need a book on this subject?

This is not a get-rich-quick book, but rather a practical guide to creating and marketing a blog with the potential for generating a six-figure income.

A statement like this stands out. With so many MMO sites in the niche the mere search of make money online in a Goolge blog search pulls up 2,429,363 listings. There is a cesspool of websites out there that want nothing more for you to click on their ads for a quick buck. If you want to get rich quick you had better give up.

There are however an exponential set of opportunities to make money online. From affiliate programs to PPC there are so many I don’t even want to list them. I figure Darren and Chris took the time and made an entire chapter explaining all of the options. From the description of the book it really just looks like they grabbed a bunch of their favorite posts on the subject and compiled them into chapters. Isn’t that what their blog already is supposed to do? Problogger hosted an article guest written by Skellie that clearly spelled out this need. Skellie is another great voice in the blogosphere with a number of sites like Anywired that I follow.

A category list with 10 categories is a lot more usable than a list with 50 categories. Too many options creates overload which leads to deferral: a visitor will not engage with that element at all. Your list of 5 most popular posts will get clicked more than your list of 20, and so on. Simplified options make it easier for the visitor to decide where they want to place their attention. Too much choice will actually hurt your blog’s usability.

With so many free tips and tools available why spend $17.00 on a 240 page paperback book? Even as a beginning blogger part of the thrill was to find new and interesting sites online that could teach me how to be better at my craft? That’s how I found ProBlogger and Chris Garret to begin with.

What’s really in this book?

Did Chris and Darren wake up in the middle of the night in sync with some brilliant idea of how to transform the blogging for dollars market and call each other? I doubt it. Both are extremely talented writers and marketers and this has probably been in the works for several months. Other than blogging about how to blog they put together a guide to walk the people from idea to product and have it bound. This is really nothing new, people have been writing books for at least a few hundred years about how to do just about anything under the sun. Based on the descriptions provided and the explanation on ProBlogger’s and Chris’s respective sites, there really is nothing ground breaking being published. 240 pages of explaining what most people already know if they read either one of their sites and have a genuine interest. It’s really a simple process that could and has been driven into the dirt.

Find a niche that your passionate about.
Get a blog account and start developing content.
Market your site and build a decent sized community.
throw up some advertising and Voilà you are starting to make a few buck.
Rinse and repeat as necessary.

The truth is that it all comes down to finding the perfect niche for YOU and putting in a lot of work to build it up. As the sites clearly states. This is not a get rich quick scheme, it’s going to take a year or more. Put your heart into anything and you will reap some rewards. The secret is not a secret, you just don’t want to hear it!

ProBlogger and Chris would not release a book unless these two felt that it was pristine. I sure hope they don’t let their fans down with some watered down fluff with a few great tips. Darren and Chris are extremely influential to thousands of fans around the world. They support us by providing knowledge and I support them by pre-ordering a book that could help me define my online life.

What do you think? Is the ProBlogger book a brilliant idea or just another attempt at making some money?

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The Naked Vlog Campaign

Koka Sexton — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:36:15 +0000

I checked into YouTube for a quick distraction and maybe a laugh after getting home from work. I was surprised to see that one of the featured videos was a campaign for naked Vlogs.

Come on people. I’m sure this started out as an innocent attempt for some attention and it worked. The guy who started it Chris has a large collection of interesting videos filled with music and this campaign is getting him a lot of additional attention.

He even has added an additional Naked Vlog video where he does a strip tease that is awkward at best. I thought this was just another attempt at getting some more viewers then I did a search on Naked Vlog Campaign was surprised to see that this was not some solo campaign but has actually caught momentum and has several pages of other video bloggers contributing to the naked campaign.

WTF!?! Are people that eager to get naked for their webcams? Men, women, young and old have added their own videos in support. Naked videos on YouTube are nothing new. Freaky people post this stuff from time to time but what makes this different is that the video bloggers do not ‘actually’ show anything that violates the YouTube TOS. This is still borderline. Not that I mind watching porn or anything (I am a guy) but the fact that this naked vlog campaign has people taking off their clothes for YouTube is bound to start getting some heat soon. He has gotten some typical responses.

discobayboler “u friggen perv we know what your after you sick piece of crap wow”

So I ask my readers a question. Is this type of promotion appropriate in a social media space?

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Everything you ever need to know about Twitter

Koka Sexton — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:51:10 +0000

I recently wrote about Twitter saying “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (or “tweets”; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service [SMS], instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific.” I thought I would put together a post for people to reference on everything you need to know about Twitter.

A great place to start is a video on YouTube called “Twitter in plain english.” This is a great overview for the people that ask “WTF Twitter?” and gives you a 10,000 foot view of what the possibilities are with it. By now you should have an account and you may even be following a few people that you know. Step out of your comfort zone and start following other people.

Twitter Tracking

A great way to find people on Twitter that have the same interests as you is to use the Twitter Tracking feature. Start tracking some keywords that interest you like “Starbucks” or “Earthquake” and when ever someone puts that in their update across the entire Twitter network, you will get a message. Then you can choose to follow them or not. I find people all the time that I want to follow from using Twitter Tracking. Valleywag wrote about how Twitter Tracking takes all the fun out of stalking. I say track away and hear what other people are saying about your favorite celebrity, product or city.

Follow people and be followed.

Initially I was only following about 10-20 people that I had already known from other sites but by tracking comments and digging through my friend’s followers, I built up a decent list of people to follow on Twitter. Thats when Twitter becomes interesting. As I followed more people, I started seeing that they would follow me and then some of their friends would start following me too. This started a spiral of following and followers that has incrementally increased over time. People like Robert Scoble has upwards of 15,000 people he is following.

Now you don’t need to get notifications on your phone for everyone, you can select who you want to interrupt you while you are out and about by turning off the device updates in your settings. This way you can make sure you never miss an update by the people you actively want to follow.

Common list of Twitter commands

@username + message

directs a twitter at another person, and causes your twitter to save in their “replies” tab.
Example: @ijustine I love that song too!

D username + message

sends a person a private message that goes to their device, and saves in their web archive.
Example: d krissy want to pick a Jamba Juice for me while you’re there?

WHOIS username

retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter.
Example: whois jack

GET username

retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.
Example: get goldman

NUDGE username

reminds a friend to update by asking what they’re doing on your behalf.
Example: nudge biz

FAV username

marks a person’s last twitter as a favorite. (hint: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you’re receiving it in real time)
Example: fav al3x

STATS

this command returns your number of followers, how many people you’re following, and which words you’re tracking.

Once you start getting more involved with the Twitter you will see that it is really a community of people that just want to give constant updates to people that are following them. Why does someone want to get an update if you’re stuck in traffic? Maybe they will give you a call to pass the time or send you a direct message of a funny joke to lighten the mood. don’t think this is weird, it’s happened to me.

Twitter Etiquette

As any community will tell you, there are unspoken rules of etiquette that you should follow. This has been talked about on several websites like MWGblog, Global Geek News Blog, and WebProNews. You could always Google Twitter etiquette and see more. The top 3 I will mention are:

Keep it clean. Unless you are foulbastard (Why would anyone follow him, I don’t know) don’t be vulgar in your updates. If you have something off color to say send it as a direct message or don’t update it.
Don’t bash other Twitterers. Why would you want to start a Twitter war and pit people up against one another? If you want to do that, again use the direct message.
Don’t post the same update across multiple services. I was doing this for a while with Pownce and got hit with a few direct messages that said it looked like I was spamming them. Sure they can always unfollow you but is that what you want?

Get involved in the conversation

Sure you can just lurk around with all the people you are following and just keep track of what they are doing but thats boring. Start replying to them with the ‘@’ command and start a dialog. Most people are too busy to have a full conversation with you but if someone you are following says something interesting, respond. There is nothing better than getting an @ reply from your followers. I’ve watched conversations last for several minutes with some people writing back an forth. Some think that is excessive but who the hell is any ‘user’ to say what Twitter should or should not be used for. Just don’t break etiquette.

Advanced Twitter

Chances are you have a blog or are online a lot if you have been exposed to Twitter. There are ways to integrate Twitter with your every day online lifestyle with some simple tools.

Twitterfeed: Performs a useful service. It can take almost any blog and feed it into a Twitter account, so you see new items when you’re on Twitter or using any of the Twitter applications. Webware has a good explanation of ways to use Twitterfeed.

Shareaholic: This is a Firefox plugin that lets you send a Twitter update. Found something awesome online and can’t wait to pass it on? Tired of copying and pasting endless URLs? Shareaholic allows you to share, bookmark and e-mail web pages quickly without leaving your browser.

Twittervision – a Google Maps/Twitter mashups that lets you see Twitter updates on a world map. Works only for users who have their location set up in Twitter preferences.

TwitTwoo Another Wordpress Plugin that displays Twitter status in the sidebar of your Wordpress blog. It’s nicely designed, and it displays your Twitter avatar next to the tweets.

EmailTwitter – allows you to post Twitter updates and retrieve your Twitter timeline via your cellular phone or other e-mail enabled mobile device, without incurring SMS fees.

Twitter Badges: This comes straight from the developers of Twitter: Flash badges intended to be displayed on your website, showing your latest Twitter posts

TwitterBuzz is an interesting tool that turns Twitter into some sort of simple Digg. It displays a list of most popular links on Twitter. You can see all the Twitter messages mentioning the link.

TwitterFeed – a service that combines OpenID and Twitter to let you feed the entries on your blog to Twitter

Twitterholic keeps a top list of users based on how often the post, how many friends they have, and other factors.

Twitteromatic – a tool that posts all sorts of information (weather, Firefox updates) to Twitter automatically.

Twit This is a badge similar to the popular “Digg This” badges, which help the visitors of a web site to quickly include its URL into a Twitter post. It’s available as a Javascript snippet, a bookmarklet or a Wordpress plugin.

TwitterSearch Simple Twitter search.

I am sure there are a lot more than this as far as Twitter Tools go. Leave me a comment of any other you know of.

Twitter resources

There are many resources available online that give you a deeper insight into Twitter if you are interested. Here are some of the onces I know of. What are others?

What do you think? Is this a good resource for Twitter users?

Please add any other tips or suggestions you have in my comments.