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Five Mushrooms Recipe & Food Searches work the same way as search engines like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft Live, and Ask. Our spider uses selective crawling and filtering to provide only recipe search results. Type keywords, ingredients, flavors or products into the search bar for a list of relevant recipes.

Jango is all about making online music easy, fun, and social - a free social music service that lets you create your own custom radio stations and share them with friends and others who like what you like.

Just type in what you want to hear - and your station will play the music you want along with similar favorites of other Jango users who share your taste. You can customize your stations further by adding more artists and rating songs.

You can also tune in to any other station playing on Jango. As you listen, your player will show other people listening to the same artist. You can "tune in" to any song they're listening to, message each other or share your stations with others. Or just go to any Artist Page to see all songs by that artist you can tune in to at any given time!

Tokbox is a free service that lets you talk with your friends over live video. Here's how it works: you sign up and we give you a link. When you want to talk with anyone, just give them the link - they click and you chat.

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Dan gives a good overview of it on his blog and explains how to set it up with Wii.

The software is free to download.

I blogged about Jott in May. This is a free service (how do they do that?) that is so feature rich, I've hardly scratched the surface. A brief refresher, Jott is a great way to remind yourself and others of upcoming appointments, birthdays, family obligations--you name it. Get yourself set up on-line with your preferences, set up groups to notify co-workers, family or friends of happenings. A feature I utilize is to set up a reminder for something that happens out in the future and I tell Jott to notify me the day of my appointment. Less chance of forgetting that way!

But today, we're going to talk about the new iPhone app Jott developed. With the release of the new iPhone and the subsequent deluge of third party apps, this one caught my eye as being useful for a client of mine. I watched the short video and was convinced. Download and install the app from iTunes. To use, simply tap on-screen anywhere and begin to speak. Tap again when you're finished (think there's a 30 second limit). Then your reminder/message is sent to the clouds to be transcribed into text then back on your iPhone and in your web Jott account.

You can organize, prioritize and categorize your Jotts, i.e. business, personal, etc. When you complete a task, swipe it with your finger and a line goes through it and you've marked it off your list! For those of us who derive fulfillment with the pen and notebook system, this flourish gives a similar sense of satisfaction.

This is truly an elegant and cool application--not to mention, it's actually both useful and safe to use while driving!

For you Blackberry users out there, there's a Jott version for you too!

The final session I attended was the "Link-Building Workshop" with Ben Finklea, CEO of the search engine optimization firm Volacci. Finklea's session was perfect for people like me, who are not aware of all of the tools and strategies available for gaining prominence in search engines. Here are highlights from Finklea's presentation:

Finklea first asked the audience why links are important, and together developed the answer that links are votes for your site. Finklea also said that page rank is not as important as relevance. Your content must be relevant to the searches people are performing. He then went on to discuss a variety of strategies that I found useful as a freelance writer working to build a brand online.

BASIC STRATEGIES

Link exchange: You link to someone's site and they provide a link to your site. This is ideal for a business in your industry that is not a competitor. For example, I might link to a freelance graphic designer's site, and they would link to my freelance writing site or blog.

Article Marketing: Everyone is looking for content for their websites. Why not write an article on a subject and be sure the article contains links to your site?

Article Exchange: A version of Article Marketing, Article Exchange is a strategy in which you give someone a free article and permission to post it. You want to find a good site for this. For instance, I might write a free article and send it to the creators of Freelance Writing Jobs, giving them permission to post it. The article would, of course, include a link back to my site.

Testimonials: Do you have a favorite restaurant or product? Write a testimonial for that product, include a link to your site at the end, and then send the testimonial to the company's webmaster or marketing department with permission to post it on their site.

Press Releases: Embed links in a press release about your product or service and send it to a national press release site such as PR Web.

ADVANCED STRATEGIES

Blogger Surveys: Compile a list of 20 bloggers in your industry, develop an interesting question and send it via email to these bloggers. For instance, I might ask a group of freelance writers, "How much of your day or week do you typically spend searching for and acquiring new work?" Then, with their permission, post their answers on your website or blog, with links back to their sites.

Reviews: Ask your customers to review you. This is something I am currently doing on my own site on the testimonials page.

Videos: Like other SEM for SMB presenters, Finklea also emphasized the importance of videos in search engine marketing. Create a short video detailing your services, then post it on your site as well as on the several video sites out there.

WHAT NOT TO DO

1. Don't acquire too many links too quickly. This makes search engines suspicious and doesn't look good for you.
2. Don't sit around waiting for links--actively seek them.
3. Don't buy or sell links-this is bad, bad, bad.
4. Don't focus on just one strategy--you have many available, so employ a variety of tools.
5. Don't use a link farm.

There are so many strategies available to freelancers who are building a brand online that it can be overwhelming. What I've taken away from Finklea's presentation is to invest as much time as you can, and to diversify your efforts. So, I've decided to focus my efforts in the next few months on blogger surveys (because they just sound fun) and videos. Any ideas for survey questions or videos that would be helpful to the online freelance writing community?

Cheers!
Jen

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng

After Thursday's general session, I headed to "Leveraging Social Media," a session presented by Connie Reece, founder of Every Dot Connects, and Paul Walhus, founder of The Spring. This session served to reiterate many of the points presented in Thursday's General Session and throughout the conference. Here are some highlights:

• Reece emphasized the importance of building networks on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but she warned the audience to value the quality of a network over the quantity.
• Reece referred to Twitter as "microblogging," and said that it is an easy way to get a message out about a blog post or other online activity you want to promote.
• Reece also addressed the question of the ROI of social networking, saying the that time is the big investment, but, she asked, "What is the cost of not participating?"
• Walhus echoed a message heard elsewhere at the conference--that podcasts and videos are valuable to audiences, and that these media increase a site's ranking in search engines.

This presentation, along with the General Session, inspired me to create a Twitter account to keep my network aware of blog posts, daily activities and upcoming events. And, for a long-term goal, I am planning to incorporate videos or podcasts into my online marketing plan for my freelance writing services as well. What have you been doing to increase your search engine ranking? Comment away and share your ideas.

Take care,
Jen

Image courtesy of stock.xchng

You can also change the letters until you find some you like. I did this to come up with a second version:

What fun :-)

I have to admit that I use and abuse the Amazon.com wishlist feature. Not only do I use it to keep track of things I want, but it's also handy when I'm researching products or trying to come up with gift ideas. Its only limitation was that the item had to be for sale on Amazon.com.

Until now. Amazon has just released a nifty browser toolbar button that lets you add anything you see on the Internet to your Amazon.com wishlist. Just click the "Add to Wish List" button, enter the price and it's there, with a photo! Now all my loved ones can know that what I really want is an expensive piece of jewelry from the Sundance Catalog.

Mixturtle ist eine neue Suchmaschine für Mp3´s aus dem Netz. Es ist schnell und die Ergebnisse sind sehr gut. Seeqpod und Songza sind ähnliche Seiten dieser Art, die Schildkröte ist jedoch schneller und mit einem besseren Interface ausgestattet. Ausserdem können Playlisten erstellt und nach der Registrierung gespeichert werden.

Guter neuer Dienst, der die Musik zwar nicht zum Download anbietet aber perfekt für die flotte Musiksuche und das persönliche Radio ist.

Link

]]> http://merlibra.wordpress.com/?p=163 Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:33:48 +0000 Merlibra http://merlibra.wordpress.com/?p=163 Since I’m already using Google Reader (GR), I decided to sign up and try Netvibes (NV) to see what differences there are in how these two subscription management (RSS) tools present the same service. Let me tell you, there are some differences! My initial impressions?

-Then-

Google Reader: "That’s nice.”

-Now-

Netvibes: “Whoa!”

Adding subscriptions through GR was pretty simple, and after a few add’s, I had the small sequence of clicks down pat. NV starts out in a pretty basic manner… but got a little confusing when some blogs would come up with 3 or 4 different options like “RSS,” “Atom,” “RSS 2.0” or RSS .95” or something like that and I’d panic with choosing “which one, which one?!”

But adding subscriptions to any RSS manager one by one would be time consuming… which is why I learned how to Import/Export my subscriptions from GR to NV. That is a skill that will come in handy again.

NV also offered a Firefox toolbar button - which I was only oh-so-happy to install (and it made me fall in love with Firefox a little more all over again). But it did make me wonder – what about those who have not yet discovered the joys that are Firefox? Do they have an easy-peasy button to escape tedious subscription adding?

Layouts also differ. GR’s layout is simple and clean with a static list to the left that tells me the blog title and number of new entries. Clicking on the blog name gives me all the posts to the right of my screen. NV offers little movable widgets for each blog and you can group them together and make different tabs instead of tags (Google) for similar-interest blogs (or however you want to divvy them up).

I am a dork for customization. One of my minor little gripes with GR is all the WHITE. Everything is just so white! With NV, I got to customize using themes and wallpapers, and I could even have different themes for my “private” and “public” pages.

“Wait, where’s that one post I read…?” I like to “Star” my favorites and mark some posts as “Keep Unread” in my GR. I make regular use of those features. NV lets me mark posts as “unread” as I see fit which is nice, but their Star adds to “private/public activity,” not “my favorites.” Although I’m sure I can use it that way.

“Do you come here often?” NV is more upfront about their social networking interface than GR. I didn’t even know GR offered social networking features. Besides your “private” reader pages, NV offers “public” pages, a profile to set up, friends to add, and a comment wall reminiscent of Facebook.

Overall Google Reader is simple and straightforward. It keeps basic users (like me) happy. Netvibes appears much more involved and intricate. Set up at first feels a little intimidating, but the built-in walk-through and support helped to eliminate any “overwhelmed” feelings. GR has many of the same features as NV, but in my opinion, NV made theirs more visible.

Maybe that’s the trade-off… maybe NV only at first seems a little intimidating because everything is right there, while GR’s simple, clean-cut look is accomplished by having their features tucked-in in seemingly unobtrusive ways. I dunno.

Netvibes is definitely a step (or several) up from Google Reader and it’s going to take a little getting used to. I like Netvibes. A lot. And while it even offers a “General” page that reminds me of my iGoogle account, it’s going to be hard for me to make the RSS reader switch because right now it’s really convenient to see my GR subscriptions whenever I log into my Gmail (main email) account.

It’s amazing how we can deem ourselves a little inconvenienced by something as simple as a few extra mouse clicks. We’ll just have to see how it plays out over time.

TotSpot is very easy to get started using and keep up to date. It has an attractive interface that lets you choose either a blog style or a Facebook style for showing off your kids. You can post journal entries, photos, videos and Twitter-style status updates, and you can keep track of your child's favorites, milestones and growth. Security controls let you keep your stuff private or open it up, whatever you choose, and of course you can invite everyone you know to ooh and ahh over your cute, super-genius kid. Even Grandma figured out how to use it without help.

Yes, I wish it had an RSS feed. And because I'm creating an online memory book for my son, I'd like to be able to download my data to a place where I can keep it for all posterity. The folks at TotSpot are going to implement these features soon.

How do I know? Because TotSpot has the best technical support/customer service of any free Web 2.0 service I've encountered. They use a friendly tech support site to capture questions, issues and suggestions. I suggested both of the above improvements and received a reply from someone at TotSpot within a day. It's great to know that the people behind TotSpot are so passionate about what they're doing, and that makes me enjoy the site even more.

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• TotSpot Adds New Features, Still Making Your Kids True Early Adopters

Die Bands sind zum grössten Teil unbekannt und nicht unter Vertrag, werden aber für jeden Stream bezahlt. Weiterhin werden alle Alben in anständiger Qualität wiedergegeben. Mit der "Keep Stumbling" Funktion, wird nach einigem "Stumblen" sogar das vermeintlich eigene Radio erstellt. Stumbleaudio ist immoment (wie üblich) noch beta und mit einer Datenbank von über 2 Mio. Stücken, sollte für jeden etwas dabei sein. Anfangs ist es zu empfehlen, einige Bands über die Suchfunktion einzugeben und die Vorschläge zu bewerten.

Ungefähr 20 Votes und ein paar Suchen später, hatte ich dann die erste gescheite Musik entdeckt. Ich werde auf jeden Fall noch etwas damit rumspielen und denke es lohnt sich, das Ganze zu testen.

Link

Using SEO, Blogs and Social Media Together for Top Results presented by Mark Volpe

Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot spoke at Thursday's general session. Since the crowd was made up of marketing professionals and business owners, each speaker faced a bit of a challenge. The SEM practitioners already knew much of the material being presented, and many of the small business owners or staffers were beginners. Though I am familiar with a few SEM techniques, much of what I learned was new and gave me many challenges as a writer hoping to market her suite of services to a wider constituency.

Here are a few things I want to pass on from Volpe's talk:

Every company needs a blog. This is not only to help increase search engine ranking, but also to develop a personality to for your company or brand.

Companies that use videos on their homepages rank better in search engines. How can writers use this knowledge? Create a video detailing your suite of services, post it on YouTube or a similar video site and embed the video on your homepage. This also helps people associate a face with your brand.

Google your company's name or your name. Are people talking about you? Is it good? Then tell your blog readers and Facebook friends about it. You're not just promoting your product, your promoting all the chatter online about your product or service. Wanna see an example? Last week, I wrote about the Tillamook Cheese Macaroni and Cheese Contest on Foodie Friend Jen. Someone who works for Tillamook found the post and posted it on Tillamook's Facebook page. Now all of my readers who love cheese can visit the Tillamook Facebook page to read more about cheese, and the Tillamook readers can visit my blog. Woo hoo!

There are plenty of free tools available to help your brand become more prominent online. During his Thursday morning talk, Volpe mentioned blogging, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us as free tools of the trade for any business wanting to become more visible. And, these tools can all work together. See the Tillamook Cheese example above. Also, Volpe generously broke down "The Day in the Life of Inbound Marketing" for the audience. One technique he introduced: Post a blog about a topic relevant to your industry, let all your Facebook and Twitter friends know you've posted the blog, then once someone else writes about your content, let your friends know about that as well.

Volpe inspired me to become more active in the social networks online. So far, I am on LinkedIn and Twitter, but in the next few weeks I will be experimenting with Facebook as well.

Stay tuned. Later this week I will bring you more goodies from the SEM for SMB Conference.

After attending the SEM for SMB conference last week, I have succumbed to the peer pressure--I'm on Twitter. If you're already Twittering, here's my profile page: http://twitter.com/writerfriendjen.

If you are not sure what Twitter is, well let me tell you. Twitter is a social networking tool that enables people to share every juicy (and for me, mundane) detail of their lives. It's sort of a cross between blogging and instant messaging. Since I blog about writing, food and yoga, expect to see Twitter updates about what I'm consuming, writing and reading, as well as what I'm learning in my yoga teacher training program.

Later this week here at Writer Friend Jen, I will be sharing more of the gems I picked up at SEM for SMB.

Take care,
Jen

But as a retailer, you know that 155 days, or approximately five months, is almost no time at all.

Not just because time flies, but because there is SO much to do to make sure your online store is ready for the holiday rush. And in a recession year, or as the optimists call it, a weakened economy, every sale counts more than ever.

Of course there's inventory to order, sales to estimate, and special promotions to devise. Those are the basics, year in, year out. And if you haven't yet started, then here is your gentle reminder. Today is the day to begin.

On top of the basics, give your online business a boost this year by maximizing your sales. To do so you will need to focus on either improving, or acquiring revenue optimizing tools.

First off, make sure your site is operating at full capacity. Check and double check all existing tools. Is your UI clear, easy (i.e. intuitive) to navigate? Do you have a search box? If so, is it clearly visible to shoppers?

It's important to remember, your shoppers cannot buy what they cannot find. Make it as simple as possible for site visitors to find what they are looking for, in as few steps as possible.

Are you making the most of every sale? Do you offer shoppers additional recommended products along the way? A good cross-sell solution is a must for all online retailers. Once your shoppers have committed to spend, it's easier to add on other items.

Christmas is THE shopping holiday. So don't let the opportunity pass you by.

For a free site evaluation, to determine your site's preparedness for the holiday season, click here.

I am amazed, astounded, and in awe of what WordPress is able to do....and for free. WordPress is the online software I used to create this website/blog.

I remember creating my first website with Microsoft's FrontPage. When working on it, I thought I was going to die. It was supposed to be "easy"....as was claimed by one of those insane descriptions made by those who no doubt who grew up playing video games, rather than someon like me who had a hard time learning how to type on a manual typewriter. Even after all that agony, I thought the final FrontPage website looked awful and modifying type and other details that were my obsession in print was impossible. It was also never updated because I couldn't ever remember what I did in between times of working on it. The snarky emails I received pointing out my errors didn't increase my love for the program.

Then I've slepped along with various content management programs. All useful, but somewhat costly and taxing, and I seldom liked the typography, but was never sure how to change it.

Years pass and the magic (or so it seems, no evil interest in witchcraft or any such things intended) and WordPress appeared. It simply organizes things; catagorizes, remembers and makes it look wonderful.

But it isn't WordPress alone that makes this transformation of my info, such as it is and to whoever it is useful, possible. The partner hero is www.lynda.com and the extraordinary instructor of WordPress in the Lynda program Maria Langer. As someone who struggles to teach, I admire beyond words her clear, measured and understandable instruction of this fabulous program. Thank you--you've opened up worlds for me and I trust for many church folks.

YOU can do this. You can create blogs, websites like this. And it's free.

I get so upset with the folks who advertise that they will do for you for huge amounts of money. Little children are starving. That is reality. In our world of connected communications we can't say we didn't know. So why are you spending huge amounts of money to create websites when you can do one for free and send the money you've been spending on website maintenance you could do to a group like World Vision (www.worldvision.org) or some other charity?

Spend $25 on lynda.com; learn WordPress; get your message out there. Send the money saved to a group who feeds hungry kids. And someday, when Jesus divides those who cared about hungry people from those who don't (Matt. 25:31-46) you'll be on the right side.

Word Spy is spying new words and phrases and serving them up with definitions and example citations. Pure geeky fun for anyone who loves language.

Wordle is a fun tool that lets you create word clouds. You paste in any text or link to your del.icio.us page, and Wordle turns the text or your tags into a cloud, with words that are used more frequently appearing larger. But here's where Wordle gets fun -- you can plan with the font, colors and arrangements of the words. This is a really inspiring way to play with your text.

ProjectAlphabet is a neat and simple idea. Using your own photos, come to the site to create custom alphabet and counting books for your kids. Then download your creation as a PDF and print it. It's all free. If you have an excess of digital photos, this is a fun way to use them and exercise a little creativity at the same time.

I love lists. I think the organizational part of my brain likes having everything neatly listed and categorized. If youre like me, then Lists of Bests is the site for you. There are tons of lists here: lists of books, movies, music, places, people, almost anything. You can track your progress on a list, such as how many of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die you've listened to or the five-star restaurants where you've had dinner. You can compare your progress to other people's. And you can make your own lists. (As I have done.) Of course, since this is a Web 2.0 site, you can comment on other people's lists and contribute to community lists. Loads of fun for the obsessively organized.