WiseStamp.com – the ultimate interactive email signature

WiseStamp.com is a new email app. Yeah, I hear app and I go, app-huh?

Basically it’s a signature that is automatically updated with the things you care about, the things you want people to know about and it is pretty interactive too.

Here is what mine looks like.

Keep in mind that those cute little icons are buttons to my accounts on each of those sites! You choose what you want to show in your signature and you can have one personal and one business – whatever works for you.

I’m LOVIN’ that I have put my blog rss feed into the signature and it automatically shows the latest blog post I’ve written. It’s a dream come true for bloggers! No more copy-pasting every time you want people to know about the latest thing. Check out the apps gallery for a full list of what you can include in your signature.

It’s an addon that works with Chrome, FireFox and Safari and it’ll work with the major web email providers (gmail, yahoo, etc.). Let me know what you think!

Um, nobody noticed…

Just read an enlightening blog post by Leo Laporte who just realized he’s been focusing too much on social media and not enough on more meaningful things like blogging.

Yeah, not everyone is necessarily going to come to the same conclusions but I did find his article enlightening. It reminds me to take seriously where I put my time. Last thing I want is to look back and realize how much time a wasted (I cringe when I write that because I waste so much time!).

You want to hear what experience he had that brought him to his realization? He thought he was posting to Google‘s Buzz for a while and then realized all his stuff was disappearing so no one even saw it. And no one seemed to notice that he wasn’t around all that time either.

Definitely worth reading.

Buzz Kill

Photo by aussiegall on flickr.

New wordpress.com theme – Oulipo

I really like it! I’m so tempted to use it for one of my blogs. Just need to think which… I like that the left column stays in place.

http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/new-theme-oulipo/

Zemanta – a new wordpress.com feature

This is the first post I’m writing using Zemanta. It’s a new feature on wordpress.com that helps you jazz up your posts. On the right of the post you will be able to see automatically generated ideas of pictures and other things you can add to the post. I am curious to see how it works though I must say I am not holding my breath. I will be very surprised if it gives me anything to add…

OK, it’s recommending a Zemanta link and a wordpress.com link. Cool! It automatically made the words Zemanta and wordpress.com into links!

I suppose it’s worth activating to play around with it and then you’ll see if it’s helpful, neutral or plain old annoying. In the case of annoying, you can just unclick the feature.

OK. Go to your dashboard and click on “Users” then click on “Personal settings.” Find Zemanta and check it off. Save changes. Go back there if you want to deactivate it.

Enjoy!

I’m a techy person by default and even then not so much.

Here is an example of a Hawaiian geek. See? We don't even look alike! (btw, he really is a geek - check out the original photo.)

I think it’s amusing I feel the need to define where I fit on the oh so important scale of geekiness*. And, honestly, I often feel uncomfortable with my lack of geekiness, aka, my not total excitement when it comes to learning things like HTML and all those other ABC languages. There is something very satisfying to me in knowing quite a bit of technical stuff but when I can get by without knowing something, I am pretty happy.

The thing is that I LOVE to write and I have found that more than any other medium, I enjoy blogs as the perfect place to put my thoughts and ideas down. This, of course, necessitates learning at least a minimal amount of technical stuff.

So, when I’m in a position that I have the opportunity to be taught something, I’m usually happy to learn. And when I need to figure something out for one of my blogs (like mapping which I recently did a couple of times), I feel very satisfied when I succeed. I am also very happy when people ask me technical questions and I know the answers. (When they ask me I like to think it’s because I give off a somewhat geeky (if fake) aura. And when I know the answer, I just feel like the coolest geekette around.)

My point is that there are a lot of things that can be overwhelming about blogging but at least the basics (and some) are totally doable even if you are not in love with computer and internet stuff. If you’re patient with yourself, of course. If you really want to be blogging, just start and slowly learn more and more until one day you’ll find yourself changing font, inserting media and all of this while standing on your head.

* A geek is a computer nerd, or a very techy person, in case you didn’t know. And if you didn’t know, please pretend you did and write a comment telling me how I just wasted 15 seconds of my life writing this * message. Just to be cool.

Photo by madmarv00 on flickr.

WordPress.com: When I put up a new post, can the email that goes out be a shortened version of the post?

Question: I’d prefer to send out only the beginning of blog posts so that people have to go to the site to read the post. Otherwise I assume that I’m not generating hits. Unless you know if by opening the email that would count as a hit (that doesn’t make sense though).

Answer: Fuggetaboutit. In WordPress.com, as far as I am aware, there is no such option to specialize the email that goes out. But there is another issue here of wanting to generate traffic and feeling like a reader who only read your stuff in an email is a waste of a reader.

Best to get rid of that way of thinking, IMHO. Think about it. What if you had 1000 people signed up to your blog to receive updates by email? Would that not be awesome? You are not the first to ask this question, of course. There is an ongoing discussion online of, is a reader a worthwhile reader if they don’t click on your blog and my opinion is that yes, they are.

First of all, if you want clicks because you’re hoping to make your millions through your blog, you’ve gotta get rid of those expectations. One has to work LOOOOONG and HAAAAARD to make money from a blog. Right now (and always) you need to focus on writing the blog because you love what you’re writing about and you want to share your thoughts with others who might benefit from it.

And that goal is reached no matter if they read your blog on a bog, in a boat, on an airplane or on a goat.

I know, it still doesn’t feel totally right. I mean, hits is like the online currency. But also think about it this way: Both go up at the same time. If people like your blog, some will sign up for email updates because that is your preference and some will stop by because that is their preference. And, those who are signed up for emails will stop by when they want to comment.

One more thing: Clicks may be gold online but it is ease of use and convenience that keeps people coming back. Make your site annoying to use, people might like the content but will feel like you’re manipulating them in some way. You’ve gotta be nice to your readers. And being nice means creating a place to click when it’s good for them.

A newsletter would be different. If you were to send out a monthly newsletter with the highlights of your blog, then you wouldn’t include everything at once. But for regular blog updates, I think the way WordPress.com currently does it is best.

WordPress.com: How do I know who has signed up for email updates?

I kept forgetting where to get this info because it didn’t seem logical to me. But now I remember.

Under “Dashboard” is “Blog Stats.” Click on the stats and then scroll to the bottom. Under “Email subscribers” is “Blog” and next to that is a number that is a link. Click on that link and you’ll get what is probably a loooooooooong list of all the people subscribed to your blog.

Well, maybe it isn’t that long yet but hopefully soon it will be.

Make sure it’s the right blog!

One day when you grow up to be a mega blogger like me, you may have a few blogs you write on at a time. It is so important to make sure you post the right stuff to the right place!

Clicking preview before publishing is key in general and it helps eliminate this issue (it just happened to me so I would know).

Where did the good story disappear to?

It’s so annoying! So often people have this great story they tell someone but when they go to write it for their blog, it disappears into thin air.

OK, first it’s just possible that you’re being over critical of your story/idea once it’s written on the screen. So regarding that, stop.

Otherwise, so often, in writing it just doesn’t come out how you want it to. People often tell me that my writing feels like I’m talking to them. I think it might be helpful to try to write that way too. I know not everyone has to write in my style but I am a blog freak and I think that is part of what makes me such a blogger – I write like I talk.

When you tell someone an idea or story, do you give a whole minute of intro first? Well, hopefully not if you want them to pay attention. Same here. See what happens if you just imagine you’re telling someone the idea/story. It also might just help to pretend you’re emailing instead of blogging because emailing is also more talky because it’s more private.

After you finish the piece, you can look back and make sure it makes sense. Always check for typos and other mistakes!!!!

Did I mention to check for typos? One here and there is OK. Lots is totally unacceptable.

Don’t agonize.

One of the recurring problems with people trying to blog is taking too long to get the material out there because you’re trying to make it the best piece ever. To prove I think it’s a bad idea, I am not going to spend too long on this post. It might not be written amazingly but it is getting the point of the post across. aka, write and post. Yes, check for typos and grammar mistakes. Make sure it’s a normal level but don’t worry too much about it. It’s only a blog post, not an article in the New Yorker.

yalla bye.

P.S. Of course even if I hurried to get this post out, I didn’t forget to categorize (I even created a new one this time) and to tag. But don’t think too much about those either! And if you decide to add a pic – which of course you often should – if you find it’s taking too long to find an appropriate photo, don’t worry, just post without. At least half of posts should have photos, I’d say, but it isn’t worth spending too much time on it.