Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

Web 2.0 Social Tools Starter List

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Web 2.0 Tools

The Living Web

This is a short list of Social Media tools organized by their most compelling feature.
It’s not meant to be comprehensive, but instead a starter set. If you’re looking for something more extensive, I suggest Top 100 Social Media Tools by Steve Dale online.

Great examples of online social media tools often used (and referred to in conversations) include these.

I’ve left room to add in more. Feel free to suggest links for each category. If you think it’s useful, I’ll compile them into a pdf when I return from BlogWorld Expo.

Monitoring and Listening

Search: Google and other search traditional engines, Google Blog Search, Technorati, and others . . .


Alerts: Google Alerts, Twitter Search, and others . . .


Online Presence

Online Professional Networks: LinkedIn, Xing, and others . . .


Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace, Ning, CollectiveX, and others . . .


Microblogging and Conversation:
Twitter, Pownce, Plurk, Identi.ca, and others . . .


Media Sharing Communities

Digital Publishing and SlideShows
SlideShare, YUDU, PictureTrail, Slideoo, Slide.com and others . . .


Video Sharing: YouTube, BlogTV, Vimeo, Viddler and others . . .


Photo Sharing: Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, PlaceandTime, and others . . .

Content Sharing

Blogging Platforms
WordPress, Typepad, Blogspot, tumblr,and others . . .


Blog communities: MyBlogLog, FuelMyBlog, BlogCatalog and others . . .


Social Bookmarking
Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon Sphinn, and others . . .


RSS and Email Syndication tools: Feedburner, Feedblitz, Zookoda, others . . .


Aggregation tools: Friendfeed, Second Brain, and others . . .


Blog readers: Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes and others . . .



As I said, it’s a starter list with plenty of room to edit and add your own. The more everyone contributes the more useful it will be for all of us.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Get your best voice in the conversation. Buy my eBook.

From PlanetOZH — A Comment Counter Named LIZ!!!

Filed Under Comments, Successful Blog, Tools | 12 Comments

The WordPress Liz Comment Counter Plugin

If you haven’t heard about it . . . a very nice man by the name of Ozh did something even nicer — he made a plugin named after me. How beautiful is that?!! As Ozh says

Liz Strauss Comment Counter is a highly configurable “internet badge” that shows the number of comments your WordPress blog has. Use it either to show off how social your blog is, as an incentive for commenters to be part of it, or just because it’s fun :)

See for yourself!!

The dashboard is cool.

Liz Comment Counter Preview

The colorwheel is fun!

color wheel

Of course, presets come with.

presets

I’ve got to get me one!

Find out all you need to know from Ozh!! Go check it out and do tell Ozh hello from me!

Thank you, Ozh! It’s almost too cool for comment!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Time to Save Time When You’re Browsing

Filed Under Successful Blog, Tools | 11 Comments

Working Plans logo

This week Chris Hebert has dropped share a blog post. You might know her blog WebDazzling, if you don’t yet this will give you a reason to check it. Great writing and great information.

Make Your Browser Save You Time
by Chris Hebert

Do you have a routine? Most everyone does. I am like most nuclear physicsts (got your attention didn’t I, just kidding) with several customary websites I visit each morning. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have our browser do the work for us instead of opening several browser windows or tabs each morning? If you use Internet Explorer or FireFox/Mozilla than I have just the trick for you!

What is a Browser Tab?

IE tab 300x 21



What is a browser tab anyway? In Internet Explorer 6 & 7, or Firefox/Mozilla you have the ability to open a new tab each time you explore a new site or start a new search. For those of you who do not know what a tab is within your browser, complete this quick experiment for me. Select “File -> New Tab” and you should now be the proud owner of a new tab.

Why Use Tabs?

The benefit of tab view in a browser is the simplicity of working with one browser window and benefiting from the ability to jump between tabs, as opposed to having several windows open and try to fumble through your task bar and possibly click the wrong link. Come on, we all have did this once or twice. In addition to jumping from tab to tab, the ability to re-order tabs allows the user to prioritize their viewing experience. Merely select the desired tab to move and drag the tab into your order preference.

How To Start Browsing with Multi-tabs

Internet Explorer 6 & 7

Internet Explorer 6 and 7



1. Select “Tools” (depending on your tool bar, it may be on the upper right or lower left)
2. Select “Internet Options”
3. Make sure the “General Tab” is selected (should default to this tab)
4. Your current website home page should be highlighted in blue. We are going to leave it. (If you wish to erase it and change your current home page - press “Backspace” or “Delete” to erase it)
5. Place your cursor at the end of your current home page and “Enter/Return” to the next line (your original site should still be in tact)
6. Type or paste the new URL (website address) name you want to use, then “Enter/Return” to the next line
7. Repeat #4 as many times as necessary (here is an example of what it should start looking like)

http://www.yourfavoritewebsitehere.com
http://www.yourotherwebsitehere.com
http://www.webdazzling.com
http://www.google.com

8. Select “OK” to exit from the “General Tab”
9. Close and Restart your browser to see them all open

Firefox/Mozilla

FireFox / Mozilla



1. Select “Tools -> Options” (MAC USERS select “Firefox -> Preferences”)
2. Make sure the “MainTab” is selected (should default to this tab)
3. In the “Home Page:” field, enter the addresses you want to use and separate them with a pipe symbol (shift + \ ) between each URL. With or without spaces between each URL, it didn’t seem to mind (here is an example of what it should start looking like)

http://www.myfavoritewebsite.com | http://www.webdazzling.com

4. Select “OK” (MAC USERS close the “preferences box”)

Let’s Get Colorful & Organized

FireFox colortabs



One last trick I would like to share with you, now that you are a tab owner. The ability to have tabs is a great feature, but what if you could color the tabs different colors? If your default browser is Firefox/Mozilla there is a addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1368. (I am not aware of a color tab option for Internet Explorer at this time.)

Want to Work Like an Expert?

Shortcuts with Tabs

Open New Tab = Ctrl + T (MAC USERS command + T)
Close Current Tab = Ctrl + W (MAC USERS command + W)

By utilizing these handy web browsing tips, anyone can go from being a novice web surfer to an expert in quick fashion. Don’t be afraid to explore, some of my best work has happened by accident! Go on, save yourself a click with these handy web browsing tricks.

Chris Hebert is a web designer with a passion for learning computer skills and passiong that information in a clear and simple format. You’ll find more of herarticles at WebDazzling.com

Thanks Chris!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Buy the ebook and find out the secret.

August 1-2, 2008 — Site Meter Code Crashes Thousands of Blogs

Filed Under Successful Blog, Tools | 14 Comments

This Blog Was One of Them

The Living Web

Apologies to anyone who tried to visit this blog using IE6 or IE7 last night. Site meter code was bring down this site whenever it was loaded by those browsers.

Thousands of sites including b5media sites and Consumerist.com use site meter code as part of their tracking an analytics.

What to do if this is happening on your blog?

Remove the site meter code and paste it into a notepad document. It’s usually placed in the header or the fooler and is bookmarked with

Then visit www.sitemeter.com using Internet Explorer. Makes sense that when their error is gone, yours will also be.

Thanks to Darren Paul, Consumer/Lifestyle Publicist for the email this morning about this.
Hat tip to oneprojectcloser for the verification.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Like the Blog? Buy my eBook!

JS-Kit Acquires HaloScan: Commenting Goes Multi-Media

Filed Under Comments, Successful Blog, Tools | 3 Comments

Check Out that Profile

JS-Kit logo

At noon CST, widget maker, JS-Kit, announced that they’ve acquire HaloScan — the largest hosted comment service on the web — and they’re building out some enticing new features to make the new product a full-service commenting engine. Key traits are that it allows embedding of YouTube and audio in comments and is completely removable — you won’t lose your comments should you decide to opt out at a later date.

Last night JS-Kit CEO, Khris Loux explained that his team is working feverishly on a build out that will offer commenters ever-increasing ways deepen their profiles and manage their information. He strongly emphasized his core beliefs that content belongs to the producer and that great customer relationships will be forged by serving that idea.

New features include:

Portable Visitor Profile

The new profile feature gives users access to their comments made across JS-Kit 550,000 publisher sites and encourages cross-domain traffic. When you mouseover a comment by a JS-Kit commenter you’ll see a profile that looks like this:

JS-Kit profile

Synchronization

You can add or remove JS-Kit Comments without risk of losing comment data. Import and update existing comments from Blogger or WordPress. The integration panel looks like this:

JS-Kit integration

100% SEO Support for Comment Data

I haven’t tried it yet, but it sure sounds promising. Khris encourages feedback so that the product offers you the most useful features and usability. You can find out more at JS-Kit Comments.

-ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Buy the ebook and get your best voice in the conversation.


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