Can Social Media Influence the Way You Invest Your Money?

July 5th, 2010 No comments »

I had more than the opportunity to attend an event at the Digital Capital Week on June 17, 2010 as they discussed the topic Socialfacebooklog Media and Your Money. At first, I thought it would be about how to make money using social media but in turn it was based on how social media can influence you in investing your money(how to invest in your 401k, CD’s, mutual funds, or even stocks).

It was interesting to find that the four panelists which included the following:

  • Robert Brokamp from the Motley Fool
  • Amanda from the Daily Worth
  • Diane Ty from Life Tuner
  • Kelly Whalen from The Centsible Life

The four panelists were all from various backgrounds and discuss the different but humorous views of how the social media had influence 1003495_money_jar_2them to invest their money now and in the future. They also shared how FaceBook and Twitter are examples of how social media influences others to invest. Other social media that the four panelists mentioned was FourSquare which is used by businesses to promote their products and services and Blippy which is a site to see what your friends are buying.

Attending this event made me aware of how it is important to note how we can invest our money in various places but we have a social media like that of Facebook or Twitter to help us decide.

Book Review: The Essentials of Blogging

July 5th, 2010 No comments »

Name: Essential Blogging
Authors: Cory Doctorow, Rael Dornfest, J. Scott Johnson, Shelley Powers, Benjamin Trott, Mena Trott
Pages: 235
Publisher: O’Reily Media
ISBN: 0-596-00388-9

Essential Blogging is a book that informs you of the different types of blogging platforms that can be used as well as choosing the right blogging software to blog as a beginner.

The book begins with defining what blogging is and describes the different components of a blog such as the title, the subtitle, including pictures, and including links.  Chapters 1 and 2 describes the different types of blogging platforms that a person can use to blog but touches on four blogging platforms (Blogger, Movable Type, RadioUserland, and Blosxom)throughout the book.

In Chapters 3-5, each blogging platform was discussed on how to use the blog platform, the requirements of using a blogging platform, how to managing your blog post, and installing a blog platform. Chapters 6-8 was a continuation of Chapters 3-5 as they discussed more advanced features of the blogging platform such as customizing your own template, incorporating statistics as part of your blog, and automating blogrolling.

In the last chapter, I truly enjoyed the section on Blogging Voices which gives advice about blogging from experienced and real world bloggers.  I felt the main objective of the book was to focus on different blogging platforms other than WordPress and to take notice that no matter what blogging platform you use, it is important to know the components of successfully blogging.

Software To Use To Draw Out Your Ideas

January 31st, 2010 No comments »

In the past, I used to draw my ideas out on a piece of paper until I discover a software that will allow me to draw my ideas for my business and in turn to demonstrate to my clients. This tool is known as the mind mapping software. With that in mind, there are so many different types of mind mapping tools to use but I have pointed out four free mind mapping tools that can be useful for your business.


XMind. XMind is open source software that you can use to brainstorm your ideas. I like the fact that XMInd is simple to use without a lot of instructions and that it can be used on Macintosh, Linux, and Windows. In addition, XMind can be saved as a .jpg, text file, or even an .html file to post on your website. You can also create an account to benefit from other features as well as download the software and start using.
Cost: Free
URL: http://www.xmind.net/

Free Mind. FreeMind is used on Windows platform. This software can be downloaded and used as well as exported out into different formats like that of XMind such as .png, jpg, .html, .pdf and if you use Open Office; it gives you the option to export to Open Office Writer. For me, this one took a while to understand how to create or illustrate my ideas. However, below I have noted some Free Mind tutorials.
Cost: Free
URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/freemind/

The Brain. The Brain is one I just found out from another group I belong to. The Brain allows you to type in your thoughts or ideas. This is simply done by dragging and dropping/importing files and web pages that you want to use. I like this one because you can not only import files such as a Word Outline but some of your bookmarks as well. The Brain has the capability to export your information out to a .html file to upload to your web page for others to see your ideas. In addition, I like this one in which it is cross platform accepting Windows, Macintosh, and Linux users and provides a free version and a paid version.
Cost: Both free and paid version
URL: http://www.thebrain.com

Sticky Sorter. This one is more like sticky notes but you can still express your thoughts, concepts, or ideas with this one. Once you click on the Sign On button; it directs you to your Hotmail account to sign in. The Sticky Sorter allows you to include Notes in. The Sticky Sorter is used basically for Windows XP or Vista.
Cost: Free
URL: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/stickysorter/Pages/default.aspx

There are so many useful tools to use to draw out your concepts, ideas, or just brainstorm for your business or clients. Have you thought about using mind mapping software to draw out your ideas? or Do you already use mind mapping software and if so, what type of mind mapping software do you use?

Book Review: Marketing On The Social Web

January 20th, 2010 No comments »


Social Web Media
Name: The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web
Author: Tamar Weinberg
Pages: 346
Cost: $24.99
Publisher: O’Reilly Media
ISBN: 978-0-596-15681-7

» Read more: Book Review: Marketing On The Social Web

How to Integrate Flickr Photos into Your Wordpress Blog

December 20th, 2009 2 comments »

flickrwordpressPhotos can be a great way of giving support to your blog whether it is within the blog post itself or on the sidebar to link to a photo gallery. The majority of us either use a self-hosted blog like that of www.wordpress.org or a hosted blog such as www.wordpress.com that may or may not contain a photo gallery to display your photos on a page of your blog or on the sidebar of your blog. On the other hand, what if you have used some third-party photo service such as Flickr, Photobucket, or Picassa to show and share your photos to others to view and now you have decided that you want to integrate those photos on your blog? It is true that we can of course just upload photos from our computer and use them as part of our blog. If you are a Flickr user, you can integrate your photos by using the Flickr Badge, Flickr plugins, or using the Flickr RSS Feed. The focus in this case will be what a RSS Feed (Flickr RSS Feed) is and how to integrate the Flickr RSS with a self hosted or hosted Wordpress blog.
» Read more: How to Integrate Flickr Photos into Your Wordpress Blog

Interview: Alessandro Aralla of Toleno Design

December 12th, 2009 1 comment »

tolenodesignI had more than the opportunity to interview Alessandro Aralla of Tolendo Design. Alessandro works with graphic design, commercial art, advertising, and much more.

Alessandro took the time out to let us know about him:

» Read more: Interview: Alessandro Aralla of Toleno Design

Do You Use Firefox Extensions?

October 26th, 2009 3 comments »

If you use Mozilla Firefox as an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera; Mozilla Firefox provides the flexibility and extensibility to both non-developers and developers allowing its users to add little applications (An example of this is FireFTP that is used to upload an updated web page to the web server/web hosting using FireFTP) to enhance the functionality of the Mozilla Firefox experience which are called extensions.

» Read more: Do You Use Firefox Extensions?

Free Domain Parking

October 11th, 2009 1 comment »

A domain name is a unique website address that businesses have for their clients to view the latest articles, products, services, or other information on their website. According to Verisign, there are over 183 million domain names registered globally. If you are interested in registering your own domain name whether you are beginning your business or working on an additional business website, you might want to purchase that domain name before someone else decides to register it. If you have registered your domain name, what do you do with that domain name if you are not ready to launch the website? Why not park it!

» Read more: Free Domain Parking

My Top Five Favorite Facebook Applications

October 1st, 2009 6 comments »

If you use Facebook like I do to connect with your friends, family, or for business opportunities; there are a lot of applications that Facebook offers that are broken down into categories. When I interact with Facebook, here are my top five favorite Facebook Applications that I like to use for business and personal.

» Read more: My Top Five Favorite Facebook Applications

How often do you monitor your website?

September 27th, 2009 4 comments »

As for me, when I go to a website and type in the website address; I look for functionality, speed, and availability. If you have a website that is geared for business, you want to make sure your site is stable and maintain an image of professionalism. This can be especially true if you attend different networking events and have the opportunity to distribute your business cards to potential prospects. When those prospects decide to view your website, it appears that your website is not available to view. In this case, you might want to consider using a tool that monitors your website for up and response time.

There are hundreds of services that provide website monitoring, but in this case, I will list a few that I have tried and use.
» Read more: How often do you monitor your website?

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