• 2010 Olympics – What is Curling? | Tracy’s World
• Tiger Woods Sincere? Who Cares? | Tracy’s World
• High School Sports – High School Team – Discus Awards
• An Invite to Pimp Your Blog

• An Invite to Pimp Your Blog
• 2010 Olympics – What is Curling? | Tracy’s World

• Tradition… Moderation… Simplicity
• Big Brother UK Season 11

• Tradition… Moderation… Simplicity
• Big Brother UK Season 11

Erika L Rich RT @sidneyallen: @WebErika I’m your 1,000 follower!! Yeah! THANKS Sidney! w00t!! [weberika].

• 2010 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony – 2-28-2010 | JoAnnGuida.com
• The Power Of A Positive Attitude | Tracy’s World

What is Digg?

Digg is a social media news website that gives users the ability to share content from anywhere on the web. Users can submit links to stories and news items they find interesting, and vote and comment on links submitted by others.The popularity of an item is determined by users who have voted it up (called digging) or voted it down (called burying) using the toolbar that appears at the top of every user-submitted page or just browsing the links throught the website itself.

The homepage of Digg.com contains the most “Dugg” stories and there are manuy options to filter and browse through everything the site has collected in the 5 years since they began.

Why do I love Digg?

Partially, I have to admit, I just love the little Digg guy with his shovel. I think it connects with the gardener in me.  I love to dig. Give me a shovel, some soft fertile garden dirt in the warmth of the summer, a few plants and flowers, and I’ll be a happy little digger. Yeah, ok, I’m a dork.

The other reason I love Digg.com is the ease of submission. That hard working little Digg guy gets to work and looks to make sure someone else hasn’t already dug my submission. If they did, all I have to do is click DIGG! to add my vote to the rest and add that link to my Digg.com account. If they didn’t, the process for me to be the first to Digg is easy and painless. A nice 2 step process is presented to you.

Step One:
a. Enter the link.
b. Pick the type of link.

Digg Step One

Step Two:
a. Enter a decent eye catching, clear and concise title.
b. Add your “review” or description of the story to further enhance the title.
c. Pick a topic (category) for it. This is the only area I have a hard time with. I think Digg.com needs a few more Topic areas, or the ability to “tag” our submissions. Maybe someday.
d. Check the preview of your submission.
e. Fill out the “are you human” test.
f. Submit!

Digg Step Two

Digg Step 2 Continued

You’re done! You’ve dug! You have made the little Digg man happy and you can be off to find more stuff to Digg.

A Dugg Submission

Digg Plugins

There are some great Digg plugins available for Wordpress and other blogs or some great copy and paste code to implement on just about any website out there. This makes it easy to integrate Digg into your online life and enable your user to promote your site easily.

Digg Traffic!

Last, but by no means the least, I like Digg.com for the quality traffic is can drive to your website. It does take a bit of work and maintenance to ensure that happens. You will need to participate in the Digg Community and continue to submit good quality links. Don’t just submit your own website links, make sure you submit other website stories you surf or read.

Personalize your Digg profile. Add a picture. Add some information about yourself. Make friends on Digg.com. Add them as favorites. Encourage your coworkers or circle of friends to Digg your content, and always reciprocate by digging theirs if they have any. Commenting on Dugg stories and having some good conversation about what’s been submitted is highly encouraged.

Good traffic takes time and with Digg it really is all about the participation.

So grab your shovel and start Digg’ing!

P.S. Don’t you think that little Digg guy needs a name? Dugg?

P.S.S. Don’t forget to Digg this post!

• 2010 Olympics – What is Curling? | Tracy’s World
• Tiger Woods Sincere? Who Cares? | Tracy’s World
• High School Sports – High School Team – Discus Awards
• An Invite to Pimp Your Blog

• An Invite to Pimp Your Blog
• 2010 Olympics – What is Curling? | Tracy’s World

• Tradition… Moderation… Simplicity
• Big Brother UK Season 11

• Tradition… Moderation… Simplicity
• Big Brother UK Season 11

Erika L Rich RT @sidneyallen: @WebErika I’m your 1,000 follower!! Yeah! THANKS Sidney! w00t!! [weberika].

• 2010 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony – 2-28-2010 | JoAnnGuida.com
• The Power Of A Positive Attitude | Tracy’s World

One of the dissenters said, to paraphrase, that no, it was a good choice. That Apple did right by not just releasing another “tablet named” device, that the name made sense. OK. Whatever.

No, I’m sorry, but after all these weeks have passed, I still believe it’s a stupid name, and it will forever conjure up images of feminine hygiene for me. And apparently, those images haunted someone’s dreams, because lo and behold, we now have the first iMaxi. With Wings. <sigh>

From the creator’s mouth (er, website) to our ears:

“Introducing Hip Handmaids’ exclusive iMaxi—the only Apple iPad case made with protective wings! With its durable vinyl outer layer and plush, quilted-cotton sleeve, the iMaxi helps keep your iPad clean and dry. Plus, the iMaxi’s Velcro-latched, advanced wing design wraps snugly around your device, so your iPad always stays where it should.”

I have to admit, if they were going for this connection from the beginning, to add humor and a constant laugh track to be aligned with a several hundred dollar purchase, then kudos to Apple. They pulled it off nicely. I’m just glad the name didn’t rhyme with tampon.

Danny Brown:

“Sometimes, as marketers and/or business owners, we over-complicate matters and offer so many facts on ideas and products that none of them stick. Sometimes, the simplest of ideas work.

This ebook is a collection of simple ideas that may work for you. Enjoy.”

Why Simple Works by Danny Brown

• 2010 Olympics – What is Curling? | Tracy’s World
• Tiger Woods Sincere? Who Cares? | Tracy’s World
• High School Sports – High School Team – Discus Awards
• An Invite to Pimp Your Blog

• An Invite to Pimp Your Blog
• 2010 Olympics – What is Curling? | Tracy’s World

Today’s “pants” story comes to us from, of all places, Norway’s 2010 Olympic Curling Team. Yep. The Norwegian Curling Team has the news-lines buzzing and the morning TV shows laughing. Never mind how big the crowd is, or how many gold medals have been won. Never mind the news about China’s first gold medal in figure skating. Today, it’s all about pants. Crazy pants.

Apparently, Thomas Ulsrud and his curling teammates from Oslo thought that shopping at Loudmouth Golf was the hip and cool thing to do these days. After all, that’s where John Daly shops, so how could it be bad? The company refers to the trousers as “the first argyle pants for men in the world.”  Teammate Christoffer Svae was the driving force behind the final decision, saying “Hey guys — we’ve got to play in them. They’re cool. Come on, you’ll get used to them, you know?”

Norway has added pizzazz to an otherwise, staid, mostly misunderstood, wallflower sport. With their country cheering them on, and mixed reviews from other teams and spectators, the Norwegian Curling team has certainly brought curling into the limelight.

Whilst many people would think they were just clowning around in their red, white and blue argyle, they beat the American team, 6-5. Maybe the Americans were too busy being distracted by the swirling of colors before their eyes.

It did not stop the top-ranked Canadians however (go figure). Norway faced Canada on the first day of competition on Tuesday, losing a close game 7-6 in extra ends. Perhaps those Canadians are just too cool to be done in by crazy pants.

• Luckies 30-Day Social Media Makeover.: The Social Path
• http://jdowdle.com/wp/2010/02/explore-the-semantic-web-with-coldfusion-cf_calais/
• Day 1 – Planning Your Site
• Welcome to Facebook
• The Top 3 Numbers To Use In Your Headlines — Best Seller Book Marketing Best Seller
• Google is the world’s first $100 billion brand

• The Top 3 Numbers To Use In Your Headlines — Best Seller Book Marketing Best Seller
• Welcome to Facebook
• http://jdowdle.com/wp/2010/02/explore-the-semantic-web-with-coldfusion-cf_calais/

Google Buzz has been making a very fast splash this past week creating a huge buzz around the interwebs. I jumped right in there on launch day and tried it out. Was easy enough to use but I didn’t like having to sign into my gmail account to use it. It was not, and still isn’t as of this writing, available on my Google Hosted account. I do not believe it ever will be. Strike one.

After a few days I signed back into my gmail to check things out (whereas had I had a client or separate app for it [at the time of launch], I might have just been there every day) and lo and behold: LOOK at all the followers!!! But WHOA there nellie … How did they find me? I didn’t know 99% of them. ACK! Stalkers! EEK! Strike two.

And where oh where is the stand alone client?? Why can’t I integrate it into my IM clients? Where is the FF plugin? WHY do I have to sign into gmail to use it?! Strike three.

So I turned my back on it until today. I figured I would let the buzz die down a little. (see how I do that wink, wink, nudge, nudge…) and soon Google would make changes (they did) and user’s would start to make requests (they did) and that there would be apps and plugins, and API playgrounds galore (there are).

On Saturday, four days after Buzz launch, Google posted a bunch of great changes and product manager Todd Jackson had this to say:

“It’s been an exciting and challenging week for the Buzz team. We’ve been getting feedback via the Gmail help forums and emails from friends and family, and we’ve also been able to do something new: read the buzz about Buzz itself,” Jackson wrote in a blog post. “We quickly realized that we didn’t get everything quite right. We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We’ll continue to do so.”

Most importantly that adjusted that buzz-killer: auto-follow. That’s where my biggest concern about Google Buzz was.

Jackson:

“For the tens of millions of you who have already started using Buzz, over the next couple weeks we’ll be showing you a similar version of this new start-up experience to give you a second chance to review and confirm the people you’re following.”

Then there was the dreaded “Let’s display ALL your content to everyone!” fear. They squashed that too:

“Second, Buzz will no longer connect your public Picasa Web Albums and Google Reader shared items automatically. Just to be clear: Buzz only automatically connected content that was already public, so if you had previously shared photos in an “Unlisted” album or set your Google Reader shared items as “Protected,” no one except the people you’d explicitly allowed to see your stuff has been able to see it. But due to your feedback Buzz will no longer connect these sites automatically.”

Last but not least, they added a “Buzz” tab to the settings in your gmail account, so you could disable it all together if you didn’t want it.

Those are some great, QUICK strides by Google addressing the angry buzzing over Google Buzz. With the addition of the API and the developers Google Group for Buzz, I’m expecting some pretty cool things from this latest product of Google after all.

In addition to all of the above, I had the pleasure of listening to Gary Vaynerchuk on an Audible broadcast at Facebook, and asked him what he thought about Buzz. To paraphrase his response, he really “thinks they have something there. That the people behind it are sharp and we can expect to see some great things down the line.” I can believe that now.

Overall, I am very interested to see what Google Buzz has up it’s sleeves. Google Wave never really showed it’s silver lining to me – but I think Google Buzz has definite potential in the Social Media and Marketing realm.

If you want to connect with me on Google Buzz, hit me up at weberika at gmail.com.

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.

— Reinhold Niebuhr

This is their email to me:

Subject: you are being removed from my list (Mr. Bobby Doe)
On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Mr. Bobby Doe wrote:

You haven’t opened one of my emails or clicked a link in the last 6 months.

Which means this email address is dead, or you just don’t want to be on my list any more.

So I’m getting ready to remove your from my mailing list unless I see “signs of life” from your email address.

Please click this link just to let me know you are still out there:

http://www.bobbyswebsitesomewhere.com/

I you click the I will assume your email address is still good and will NOT remove you from my list.

Thanks,

Mr. Bobby Doe

P.S.

This link simply takes you to my blog, nothing else.

Please visit my blog so I know not to remove you from my list.

http://www.bobbyswebsitesomewhere.com/

WOW! I was really taken aback. So I immediately penned this response and sent it:

I don’t think that’s a fair assumption. In fact I’m kinda taken aback by this accusation.

I actually DO open your email and read them. Just because I do not click a link though doesn’t mean that I don’t:

• a) get any value from emails
• b) actually go to the links in the emails

I don’t always click on links in emails, that’s how a lot of people get trapped by crappy viruses and spyware, etc. Virus protection software is also only as good as the habits of the user.

I’m not saying you would ever do that (spam me with a virus link) – BUT- it is a habit for me to sometimes simply copy and paste a top level URL to go see a site. And not just blindly click away on every link I ever see. Now the way I see it today: is I don’t believe I should have to click on that link and visit your blog, to prove to you that I’m human.

You either want me on your mailing list or you don’t.

What if I was on a 6 month vacation?
What if I was ill, and just haven’t been online in awhile, but was looking forward to all your emails piled up in my inbox?

The scenarios are endless.

Is this really proper email marketing? I think that unless an email “bounces” as a failure, then I’m keeping you on my list until you physically complain or unsubscribe yourself.

Or was this whole email just a “bully tactic” and marketing ploy to get me to visit your blog today?

Sincerely perturbed,
Erika L Walker Rich
aka “WebErika”

Now, I never did visit this guy’s site today. I was too busy feeling insulted. But that is irrelevant. If this is a new way to talk to your email marketing list, I don’t think I’ll ever use this tactic. You can stay on my email list forever and ever and ever, even if you never visit my site. At least you are letting my email sit there in your inbox and stare at you.

What do you all think? You like his approach? Would you use it to speak to your hard won list subscribers?
——

UPDATE: Mr. Bobby Doe just replied to me. I give him major kudos for the super fast reply, but I wasn’t really satisfied with his answer from a “marketing mentor” point of view. He apologized, said I must of gotten it “by mistake” and then said:

Here’s a tip: if you remove people that don’t read your emails you can save money on your email service and increase your open rates and your click-through rates.

OK. I can appreciate the need to save money – BUT – see my scenarios above. What if they were on a sabbatical? What if they were ill? What if they are like me, don’t have “images enabled by default” (because that is how you track opens) or can only receive “text” emails. But you read everything he has to say and like me, only copy and paste links?

I still don’t believe that kind of “culling” tactic is smart. I believe there’s definitely better ways to manage your non-opens. I know I have learned one thing from him today: What not to do to my own list subscribers.

What do you all think?

The following is my current favorite list, and there’s still tons of other great plugins I don’t have listed here, but if I had to install a new blog, these are the first to go in.

Don’t forget to leave a comment and let me know what your favorites are!

Please note: The versions listed are as of the date of this post. There’s a few that could be redundant, but if you run several blogs, then you can pick and choose different ones to play with.

Add To Facebook
Adds a footer link to add the current post or page to a Facebook Mini-Feed.
Version 1.4.3 | By David Goldstein

Advanced Excerpt
Several improvements over WP’s default excerpt. The size of the excerpt can be limited using character or word count, and HTML markup is not removed.
Version 0.2.2 | By Bas van Doren

Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin.
Version 2.2.7 | By Matt Mullenweg

All in One SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog. Options configuration panel | Upgrade to Pro Version | Donate | Support | Amazon Wishlist
Version 1.6.10 | By Michael Torbert

CommentLuv
Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.
Version 2.7.64 | By Andy Bailey

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator
Generates a fully customizable sitemap
Version 3.15 | By Dagon Design

Exec-PHP
Executes code in your posts, pages and text widgets.
Version 4.9 | By Sören Weber

Facebook Comments TNG
A new and re written Facebook notes comments grabber.
Version 0.18 | By Phil Spencer

Facebook Posted Items
Goes all the way to Facebook and fetches the posted items to show them to you.
Version 0.3 | By Fepe

FeedBurner FeedSmith
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
Version 2.3.1 | By FeedBurner

FeedBurner Widget
Adds a sidebar widget to easy customize and display your FeedBurner subscribers stats RSS button.
Version 1.2 | By Alexander Dichev

Feed Statistics
Compiles statistics about who is reading your blog via an RSS feed and what they’re reading.
Version 1.3.2 | By Christopher Finke

Feed Subscriber Stats
This plugin will show the number of subscribers according to FeedBurner.
Version 3.0.6 | By Allan Collins

Flickr Widget
A widget which will display your latest Flickr photos.
Version 0.1 | By Donncha O Caoimh

Gaboinked! Facebook Badge Plugin for WordPress
The Gaboinked! Facebook Badge Plugin for WordPress is a Sidebar Widget that displays a facebook Badge in the Sidebar of your self-hosted WordPress Blog.
Version 1.0.142 | By the Gaboink! network: George Jones

Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin makes it simple to add Google Analytics with extra search engines and automatic clickout and download tracking to your WordPress blog.
Version 3.2.5 | By Joost de Valk

Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
Version 3.2.2 | By Arne Brachhold

Maintenance Mode
Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end. Navigate to Settings ? Maintenance Mode to get started.
Version 4.4 | By Michael Wöhrer

The Wordpress Bar
Seen the DiggBar on Digg.com? Add a similar feature to your Wordpress blog by creating a navigation bar for all external links outside of blog. Also feature social network links such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and FriendFeed.
Version 0.6.2 | By Anthony Montalbano

Twitter for Wordpress
Displays your public Twitter messages for all to read. Based on Pownce for Wordpress by Cavemonkey50.
Version 1.9.7 | By Ricardo González

Twitter Friends
Displays a list of our twitter followers. Help and tutorials, go to Realhomeincomes.com
Version 1.2 | By Matt

Twitter Widget Pro
A widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It can even display profile images for the users. Requires PHP5.
Version 2.1.4 | By Aaron D. Campbell

UBD Block Ad Plugin
Let the blog owner add 125×125 block ads to their sidebar. Set your Block Ads here.. Questions on configuration, etc.? Make sure to read the README.
Version 1.1 | By Unique Blog Designs

What Would Seth Godin Do
Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors.
Version 1.7 | By Richard K Miller

WordPress.com Stats
Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.
Version 1.6.1 | By Andy Skelton

WordPress Admin Bar
Creates an admin bar inspired by the one at WordPress.com. Credits for the look of this plugin go to them.
Version 3.1.7 | By Viper007Bond

WordPress Online Automated Backup
Plugin that allows you to backup and restore your wordpress blog very easily. Read how it works before installing. Requires an account on WordPressBackup.com (free acounts available).
Version 0.8.2 | By LiquidStudios

WP Chameleon
Used for generating random copies of pages or articles for opt-in page optimization or article rewriting.
Version 1.13 | By Gustav Stieger

WordPress Related Posts
Generate a related posts list via tags of WordPress
Version 1.1.1 | By Denis

WP Security Scan
Perform security scan of WordPress installation.
Version 2.7.1.2 | By Michael Torbert

WPtouch iPhone Theme
A plugin which formats your site with a mobile theme for the Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android and other touch-based smartphones.
Version 1.9.7.6 | By Dale Mugford & Duane Storey (BraveNewCode)

Youtube Brackets
Insert YouTube videos in post using bracket method. Enables YouTube blogging to standalone wordpress setups.
Version 1.1 beta | By Robert Buzink

Chris Peterson

I was idling in #coldfusion on Dalnet this morning and amongst the distorted, haphazard conversations that usually occur in there, an awesome little tidbit of code popped up. Courtesy of Chris Peterson of Alagad fame.

Someone was asking about the formatting of the code that <CFDUMP> spits out and Chris suggested a few scenarios, one of which he said he uses all the time:

<cfdump format=”html” output=”c:\#createUUID()#_dump.html” var=”#whatever#” />

That tasty morsel spits the output to a handy dandy .html file. All these years, I’m ashamed to say I never knew you could do that. Very awesome. Thanks Chris. (yeah yeah yeah, I know, RTFD)

My first batch turned out great. I shared my success with Vicky and all was eaten. It was just as thick as a normal tub of Fat Free store bought yogurt but I wanted my second batch to be a little thicker without having to do anything special like straining through cheesecloth or adding gelatin.

Below is the process I followed exactly for this second batch. Mixed a little more powdered milk in this one. Tasted superb and thickened beautifully. Just perfect!

Ingredients
1 large crockpot with at least a low setting
3 quarts of milk, 2%
3/4 cup of fat free yogurt as a starter
1 1/4 cups of powdered dry milk (helps it thicken)
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of honey
2 large THICK cotton blankets or bath sheets.

1. Turn crock pot on LOW. Pour all 3 quarts of milk into crock pot. Cover with lid. Cook on the LOW setting for 2.5 hours.

2. After 2.5 hours, UNPLUG the crockpot. Let it sit, with the lid on, for 3.5 hours.

3. At the end of 3.5 hours, scoop approximately 2.5 cups of the hot milk out of the crockpot, and pour into a small plastic bowl.

4. With a whisk, gently stir in 3/4 of a cup of fat free yogurt, 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract, 1 1/4 cups of dry milk powder and a teaspoon of honey.

5. After mixing that for approximately 30 seconds, add it back into the crockpot and blend the mixture together for another 30 seconds.

6. Put the lid back on.  Spread first blanket or towel on counter or table where yogurt can sit UNDISTURBED for 9 hours. CAREFULLY lift and place ENTIRE crockpot in middle of the spread out blanket or towel. Hot milk splashes so please be careful. Wrap it up like a tender little package. Then do again with the second thick cotton blanket or towel. Check the time and let it sit for 9 hours.

DO NOT TOUCH IT. DO NOT CHECK IT. FORGET IT. DONT WORRY ABOUT IT. LEAVE IT ALONE. 9 HOURS.

7. When 9 hours has passed, carefully unwrap the package, and lift the lid. If you take a spoonful, it should behave like you see in the video here. Take the crockpot portion (not the base) and put it in the refridgerator if you have the room, and let it continue chilling.

A clear “liquid” should rise to the top like you usually get in yogurt containers. Some people like to mix this into the yogurt and eat it. I like to drain mine off for thicker yogurt. You can soak it up with a clean paper towel if you would like.

Liquid rising to top of yogurt

Soaking liquid up from yogurt

Otherwise, after it chills, you are all done! Divvy up into separate containers for storing and eating.

You just made yogurt in a crockpot.

There are dozens of methods, and dozens of recipes and dozens of different ways people have to make yogurt, and they will all offer their advice. I’m just giving you the method that worked for me, flawlessly, with less than 15 minutes of “touch time” and fuss. Make it this way at least once, get the hang of it – then try all the other cool stuff.

HINT: If you start this at 4pm (providing you go to bed around 11pm and are home at 4pm) you won’t be tempted to peek at it while it’s resting for the 9 hours.

Hit me up if you need something explained better…. Happy Yogurt Making!

(WARNING: This is the R-rated version. If you are afraid of having to get your eyeballs washed out with soap, try this G-rated link: F-word Free Version)

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

I sure hope it doesn’t cause any damage … that would be bad

This is a pretty big deal for those not in the developing arena, so if he can have your support that would be great! Pass it around to whomever you can get to take 30 seconds out and vote. No registration needed. No firstborns promised. They don’t even want to know who you are … just a simple radio button choice and a button click.

Thank you!