Archive for the ‘StumbleUpon’ Category
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 |
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I wrote a post regarding my avatar
change on Collective-Thoughts. This post is a continuation of that. The
avatar I had chose at the end of that post didn’t work out. And since my 6 year
old daughter helped me come up with my final choice for an avatar I decided
to write this post in the form of a Child’s Story, "Goldilocks
and the Three Bears".
Image by Super
Dave Chen
TheNanny612 and the Three Avatars
TheNanny612 was a Young Lady who spent much of her days Social Networking.
She
had her own land in her part of the Web 2.0 World.
Normally this Social Media Lady would had been content to go about her usual
Social Networking, but on this day she chose instead to cut off her long curly
hair. Knowing that once she did this she would have to perform the duty of choosing
the right avatar for her part of the Web 2.0 World named Social
Desire.
It was on this day that TheNanny612 Avatar Journey began.
TheNanny612 didn’t think the duty of choosing
an avatar would be a difficult one. After all, what is the big deal, really?
An avatar simply is a picture to help members of Online Communities know who
you are…. is that really such a big deal?
So, TheNanny612 simply had her picture taken a few times with a cell phone.
She chose the best of the batch of pics, cropped it and sized it perfectly.
She made each picture into different sizes to easily accommodate the different
requirements at different Social Networking Communities. The smallest Avatar
size is 50×50 for Sphinn
and StumbleUpon uses
a 475×475 on its About
page.
TheNanny612 Avatar #1
| 475 x 475 |
50 X 50 |
 |
 |
She really liked this picture, but it was so dark. She didn’t realize how dark
until she had it resized to fit Sphinn’s
50×50 Avatar requirement. The size Avatar for Sphinn is so small & so dark
that it is terribly difficult to recognize who the picture is of….. That will
never do.
TheNanny612 sighed as she really thought this was going to be simple. "Oh
well.", she said as she moved on to the next stop.
She took a look at the first picture to see what the problem was and came up
with a few of things.
- To dark.
- Little Contrast. TheNanny612’s dark hair against the dark
chair. There was absolutely no contrast.
- The picture was taken with a Cell phone. The quality of
cell phone pictures aren’t always good enough to work with.
So, TheNanny612 decided that she needed to do things differently. She decided
to do everything completely opposite from what she did last time.
She dressed in a white blouse and sat on a light rug in front of a cherry stained
door. This is how the picture looked in its largest and smallest forms:
TheNanny612 Avatar #2
| 475 x 475 |
50 X 50 |
 |
 |
TheNanny612 was initially happy with this photograph. She likes the black and
white look and the contrast is nice. But, notice how the picture changes when
it is made smaller. The change in size makes it difficult to recognize that
its TheNanny612 at all. She began to think that there will be no
50×50 avatar that will be easy to recognize, but she knew that wasn’t true.
After all, her last 50×50 avatar was easy to recognize.
So, TheNanny612 went back on her search for the Perfect Avatar…. the Avatar
that was "Just Right."
The problems with the 2nd Avatar?? There were a few…
- It’s a lovely shot large, but when made smaller it is difficult
to recognize.
- The picture is simply to light. The black and white look
washes TheNanny612 out. She will not stand out compared to others which is
very important in Social Networking.
- The contrast problem in the 1st photograph caused TheNanny612 to dress
in light colors, but this did nothing for the photograph either.
TheNanny612 was truly frustrated. She asked out loud, "Why is this so
hard?" All of a sudden it came to her…. she needed to figure
out what made her original Avatar Memorable.
What made the Original TheNanny612 Avatar Memorable
- An
Unusual Head shot
- Sepia - I didn’t use Black & White….. Sepia added
a bit of color.
- Side Angle
- Not the entire head
- Nothing much else in the background.
More determined than ever TheNanny612 decided to stick with what seemed to
work with her original avatar. The most important thing to her was that the
avatar needed to look just as good small as it did large. And, up until this
point that had been TheNanny612’s struggle. She needed to stop posing so much
& get back to basics…. get back to what worked for her in the past.
TheNanny612 decided to hand the camera to her 6 year old daughter and allow
her daughter to snap a few random shots. Little did she know the perfect avatar
would be taken by the young child.
TheNanny612 went through all the photographs taken by her daughter that day.
She came across one that she felt would be a perfect fit if cropped just right.
This is what she came up with:
TheNanny612 Avatar #3
| 475 x 475 |
50 X 50 |
 |
 |
The first first Avatar was too dark, The 2nd Avatar was too light, and the
3rd Avatar was just right!!
With each Avatar mistake TheNanny612 learned something and the final Avatar
was the nicest in all the Land.
The Moral of this story…
Sometimes things don’t go well the first time around or even the 2nd.
But, as long as you make each a learning experience then the outcome is usually
good one.
The End.
Posted in Humor, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Tips and Tutorials, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Basics | 9 Comments »
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 |
In the past few days I’ve noticed a few changes on StumbleUpon. They aren’t
huge changes, but changes none-the-less. These changes appear on your own StumbleUpon
page. What is cool about these changes is that you have a choice. You can choose to keep things
the same as they have been or change the way your Favorites page looks. And, deciding between keeping things like they once
were or changing it to the new display depends whether you are more visual or
not.
If you take a look on your Favorite Page on StumbleUpon and you have it set
to the standard view it should look something like this:
Now, take a look at the right section of this page. You will notice a section
that looks like this:
If you click on the link that says, "Show thumbnails" your Favorite
page on StumbleUpon will now look something like this:
Pretty cool, huh?! But, it can be changed even more still. Visually, I like
the way the above thumbnails looks on my favorites page. But, maybe for you this
way is too wordy and you would like to see more Thumbnails. Not a problem. You
will notice that there is a section that says, "Display: List Grid".
It should look something like the following image:
Right now your StumbleUpon Favorite page is probably on the default display,
List. Click on Grid to see the display change
to list your favorites as a grid using Thumbnails. It will look something like
this:
For example, when I stumbled the post, "Treating
Your Blog as a Business: 8 Aspects to Consider" it lists the screen
shot of the entire web page and It’s easier for me to look at the thumbnail
and know it is a DailyBlogTips
post. It probably has a screen shot of the entire web page because there is
no other image on that post. However, when I stumbled Brent
Csutoras‘ post, "Digg’s
April Fools… The Joke is on You!" the thumbnail on my StumbleUpon
favorites page is the image of Brent’s "digg-fools-buttons photo".
This could make just the thumbnails display on my favorites page more difficult
for me in the days to come to figure out what I stumbled without having the
description there too.
I DIG that I have choices on how I would like to see my StumbleUpon Favorites.
I love the way my Favorites look on one page. Visually, it looks awesome!! But,
I’m not sure if this is the best way for me to keep my StumbleUpon favorites
page. Again, it looks great!! But, it is hard for me to figure out what website
it is by the Thumbnails. Some Thumbnails are easier to figure it out than others.
Some of the Thumbnails are screen shots of the web page… making it easier for
me to figure out what favorite it is. However, some of the thumbnails are images
from the web page itself. Even though this too is cool it isn’t very easy for
me to always figure out which StumbleUpon favorite I stumbled.
Bottom line…. I love that I have choices. Which display do I enjoy the most?
The answer is, "I’m not sure, yet". For right now I’m toggling back
and forth between different displays until I figure it out. So far, it appears
that I’m leaning towards to the traditional basic original version of no thumbnails.
But, that is probably because I’m not really good with sudden change and I need
to work myself into it a bit. I’m usually a very visual person, so I’m guessing
that eventually when I get more use to it I will be using the Display page with
the Thumbnails in the List form.
What about you? What StumbleUpon Favorites Display are you using?
StumbleUpon
stumbleupon-tips
stumblupon-tutorials
Posted in Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, StumbleUpon, Tips and Tutorials, Web 2.0 Basics | 18 Comments »
Sunday, January 6th, 2008 |
This past Friday Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
wrote a post, Using
StumbleUpon to Get on the Radar of Other Bloggers . In this post Darren
wrote how he had taken notice of me and my work due to my stumbling his posts
a few times. He mentioned in this post that he recognized me as a person who
had stumbled his work more than once and he landed up taking a closer look at
my StumbleUpon profile where he noticed my many sites and even subscribed to
this Blog’s feed.
Darren Rowse mentioning me on his blog has got to be a definite high point
in my Blogging career so far. However, after taking 24 hours to sit back and
just think about how wonderful it was to be mentioned by Darren on ProBlogger…..
something occurred to me. What if my StumbleUpon profile was different? What
if I hadn’t taken the time to add clickable links on my Profile? If I hadn’t
taken the time to make my StumbleUpon profile stand out would this amazing high
point in my Blogging career have past me by??!! Jeeze, the thought makes me
shudder.
So, I wanted to take a moment and post a few things that I did with my StumbleUpon
profile that might have made a difference between Darren taken notice of my
work or not.
Why my StumbleUpon Profile Might Have Stood Out to Darren
- Avatar - I chose the same Avatar that I use on all my other
Social Networking Sites. This way people would recognize me from one Social
Networking Site to the next. I used an image of myself, but many people use
other things such as their company’s logo, cartoon characters or any other
graphic that makes them stand out. For me, it was just a basic picture of
myself.
- Profile Name - Again, just like with the avatar, I chose
the same profile name for my StumbleUpon profile as I use on all of my other
Social Networking Sites…. TheNanny612. However, I have to say, TheNanny612
is not a very good Profile Name at all. It has nothing to do with what I do
for a living….. It is actually more of an Inside Family Joke that no one
would understand unless I explained it to them. But, now that people already
recognize me as TheNanny612 it wouldn’t be very prudent for me to change it
now. However, this might have worked in my favor as well… I haven’t run
into another Profile Name that is even similar. So, it probably does stand
out quite well.
- Profile Details - Choose a well thought out description
of yourself. It shouldn’t be very long as readers probably won’t stick around
very long. Get right to the point. Write your details well, spell correctly
and be descriptive.
- Clickable Links - Make sure that any website links that
you would like to mention on your Profile Details are clickable. Your StumbleUpon
profile is a great place to promote your sites. When people of the SU Community
arrive to your profile page and want to learn more about you the chances of
these readers checking out your website are so much greater if your links
are clickable. I’m not sure if Darren of ProBlogger would have copied and
pasted my link into a browser had I not made my links clickable. So, this
is very, very important.
This is what my StumbleUpon profile page would have looked like had I not
made the links clickable:
This is what my StumbleUpon profile page appears like now with all the links:
It’s really simple to make a link on your StumbleUpon profile clickable. Let’s
say you have a site called My Site and it was located at www.MySite.com. This
is how you would make that link clickable on your SU profile.
Go to your StumbleUpon’s profile page and Click on the Link that says, "Preferences".
Once this page opens up click on the link that says, "Public Profile".
This is where you are going to edit your Public Profile. You will see a box
below where it says, "Introduce yourself to Everyone".In this box
is where you are going to enter your Profile details.
In the spot of your details that you want to be a clickable link you use the following code (changing mysite to your site’s info): <a href="http://www.mysite.com/">my site</a>.
(Don’t be alarmed, the StumbleUpon system will automatically add a "No
Follow" to the coding.)
Click Save Profile and when others take a look at your profile the phrase
"my site" should look like: my
site.
There is an area on the edit Public Profile page that you can enter your website….
it will look like this:
However, oddly enough, your website’s link does not appear on the first page
of your StumbleUpon Profile. Your viewers will have to click on the tab that
says "About Her/Him". And, then they will come to a page that they
will see the link of your website.
This is an extra click that the viewers of StumbleUpon have to make to find
your website’s link. This is another reason why I decided to make clickable
links on my SU profile page.
- Multiple Website Links - When I first opened my StumbleUpon
account 6 months ago I had 8 Websites that I wanted to list on my StumbleUpon
profile page, but not only did it look funny… it looked almost Spammy as well.
I had a discussion with Todd Mintz of SEMPortland
who suggested that I purchase my name, Shana Albert, as a domain for other
reasons than StumbleUpon. His suggestion was a good one for so many reasons.
And, having the domain ShanaAlbert.com
worked out on my StumbleUpon profile as well. The ShanaAlbert website is a
simple static web page with all of my websites and blogs listed on that page.
With a simple click on the link on my SU profile page a reader will be sent
to my website that has images and links to all of my sites. This way my StumbleUpon
profile will not be inundated with outgoing links. I don’t want a reader to
feel overwhelmed when they are reading about me….. I just want them to get
a sense of what I’m passionate about. And, I believe that Darren got all of
that from a simple look at my StumbleUpon profile.
Technorati Tags:stumbleupon, social media, social media marketing, smm, tips, tutorials, social bookmarking, social networking, blogging, problogger
Posted in Blogging, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, StumbleUpon, Tips and Tutorials, Web 2.0 Basics, Websites | 27 Comments »
Friday, December 28th, 2007 |
Photo by luc legay
2007 will be ending in the next few days and 2008 will be beginning. It has
been an amazing year for me. It was In 2007 I became very involved in Social
Media Activity. I am looking forward to 2008 and everything that it has to offer,
but before I can simply say Hello to 2008 and Goodbye to 2007 I wanted to list
my favorite posts from all of my favorite Social Networking sites…. StumbleUpon,
Sphinn, Twitter, and Facebook. *Keep in mind that these posts are my favorites
and nothing official.*
Favorite StumbleUpon Posts of 2007
StumbleRank - Ranks the
Top StumbleUpon Users.
A
Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website
- Maki of DoshDosh wrote this mini guide on StumbleUpon because he thought StumbleUpon
has enormous potential in maximizing brand exposure while fitting nicely with
a long term site building strategy.
How
to Use StumbleUpon for Your Business: The Definitive Guide - Tamar writes
this great post for 10e20.com.
The
Why, How and Who of Marketing in StumbleUpon - Garrett French writes this
very in depth post regarding StumbeUpon and using it for Marketing purposes.
Building
Your Blog With StumbleUpon - A ProBlogger Guest post by Skellie showing
how to use StumbleUpon to increase your Blog Traffic.
Stumbleupon
mathematics for stumblers - Tim Nash gives us his thoughts on how he believes
the StumbleUpon algorithm works.
How
to Use StumbleUpon to Promote - David Risley of WebbyOnline explains in
detail how to Use StumbleUpon.
StumbleUpon
Will Love Us Even When Google Doesn’t - Brian Wallace writes about
the effectiveness of StumbleUpon.
5 Tactics
For Driving Traffic From StumbleUpon - Cameron Olthuis writes for Search
Engine Land showing you how StumbleUpon is a great way to bring large amounts
of traffic to your site…. at times even bringing more traffic than digg.
How
to Set Up a Domino Effect of Traffic - Vandelay Design writes how he greatly
increased his traffic by setting up a Domino Effect with StumbleUpon.
25
Reasons You Get Thumbs Up - Andy Beard comes up with a list of 25 reasons
why you might get a Thumbs Up on StumbleUpon.
Analysis:
StumbleUpon’s Top 50 Stumblers - Glen Allsopp felt there wasn’t a
lot of information on StumbleUpon on how to become a Top Stumbler. Glen researched
and posted his findings.
6
Reasons to Love StumbleUpon - Marty tells us the 6 reasons he loves StumbleUpon.
Writing
for StumbleUpon: High Impact Content “Above the Scroll” in Four
Easy Steps - Muhammad Saleem points out that with StumbleUpon having your
important content above the scroll is extremely important.
How
Important is StumbleUpon? - Rose Sylvia shows us how to use StumbleUpon
to its fullest.
Favorite Sphinn Posts of 2007
Sphinn
- The Social News Site Every Search Marketer Should Be Using - Rand writes
in detail 10 reasons why Every Search Marketer should be using Sphinn.
Please
Don’t Ask Me to Sphinn Your Stories (and How to Use Sphinn and Similar
Social News Websites) - Tamar writes this excellent post about Social Networking
Etiquotte.
Why
Sphinn Needs a Dumbass Button - Digg has a "bury it" button….
Greg Boser suggests a "Dumbass Button" for Sphinn.
Fool Proof
Sphinn-Bait Tactics to Reach the Front Page - Kelvin Newman writes in detail
how to reach the front page of Sphinn.
A
5 Pack Of Sphinn Interviews - Todd Mintz Interviews 5 members of the Sphinn
Community.
How
to Dominate Sphinn in 4 Easy Steps - David Harry comes up with the Sphinn
Domination Plan.
The
First (un)Official Sphinn Awards - Day 1 - Jeff Quipp at Search Engine People
offers days 1 of the (un)Official Sphinn Awards…. freakin hilarious.
The
(un)Official Sphinn Awards Part 2 - David Harry Holds Part II of the Sphinn
Awards at his site and it is equally as funny as Day 1.
A
Very Beginner’s Guide to the Sphinn Network : Tips and Tricks - Mack
offers up some tips to New User’s of Sphinn.
Sphinn:
In Depth Traffic Analysis And Advice - Matt Jones did his research and offers
his traffic analysis and some Sphinning tips.
20
Top Sphinners You Should Know - Here is a list of 20 Sphinners and their
sites that you might not know, but should.
Sphinn Google Gadget
- As if I didn’t adore Pat of SEOish enough he comes up with this amazing Sphinn
Google Gadget.
Favorite Twitter Posts of 2007
The Big Juicy
Twitter Guide - Caroline Middlebrook puts together a very detailed guide
to Using Twitter for Marketing.
Guide
to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR - Lee Odden puts together a great
post with tips on using Twitter as a Marketing Tool. Lee’s community offers
tons of wonderful Twitter Tips!!
The
Several Habits of Wildly Successful Twitter Users - Bren at Slacker Manager
offers tips and advice for Successful Twitter Wanna-be’s.
Eight
Ways Twitter is Useful Professionally - Anne Zelenka offers 8 ways to use
Twitter Professionally.
Use
Twitter To Boost Your Marketing Strategy, No Really - Chris Bennett offers
his ideas to user Twitter as part of a Marketing Strategy.
The
Top 5 Ways Smart People Use Twitter - Sharon Sarmiento suggests focusing
on these 5 smart uses of Twitter to keep from falling into the Twitter abyss.
Is
Twitter TOO good? - Kathy Sierra writes this post showing her struggle with
Twitter…. In this post you can see her struggle with Twitter being a waste
of time and the rest of the world chanting Twitter’s wonderful goodness.
Twitter
vs. Pownce: Who Pwns? - Tamar takes a close look at Twitter and Pownce and
compares the two.
Twitter is Paying
My Rent - Marshall Kirkpatrick writes how he uses Twitter to come up with
stories to blog about. At the time of this post 6 out of his 7 last posts wint
to the front page of Digg… the same stories he came up with thanks to Twitter.
Twitter
CAN be Useful! Who Knew? - Due to Twitter coverage of the fires back in
October Jennifer Laycock saw an incredibly useful way to use Twitter….. Her
brother and his wife were able to subscribe to the Twitter Feed and quick and
easy access to instant updates as they drove across the country safely.
Favorite Facebook Posts of 2007
The
Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or
Service Inside Facebook - If you are looking on exactly how to Market on
Facebook this is a "Must Read" by Justin Smith.
12
Ways to Use Facebook Professionally - Judi Sohn explains why Facebook can
be a great addition to your web working toolbox.
How
to use Facebook to Promote your Blog - Brian Wallace compliles some tips
on how to promote your blog using Facebook.
Not
many people know this, but I invented Facebook - Lyndon says, Let us all
rise up and shout, “I INVENTED FACEBOOK.”
Your
Private Facebook Info Isn’t So Private - Lisa Barone shows why adjusting
your Facebook privacy settings may not be enough to keep people from seeing
inside your Facebook Windows.
Seven
Steps to Graphing Your Facebook Strategy - Dave McClure offers an indepth
look at Facebook. This is a great post for anyone new to Facebook.
A
Successful Facebook Marketing Campaign - Social-Media-Optimization.com compares
a successful Facebook campaign (Target) with an unsuccessful campaign (Walmart).
How
to Develop a Hit Facebook App: 29 Essential Tools and Tutorials - SoftwareDeveloper.com
comes up with Resources to help you build a successful Facebook app that users
will love.
You
too might be a Facebookaholic, if: - Dave McClure gives us 17 hints that
we might be a Facebookaholic.
Who
needs Google? Facebook’s stealth ad system - ValleyWag
gives us the details on Facebook’s Ad System.
Mash
Pets, SuperPokes, Vampires, or Zombies? What are Your Social Network Ice Breakers?
- Mark Laymon shows us how he uses certain Facebook applications to "Break
the Ice".
A
Girl’s First Time….. being Poked - Ok, this post is one of mine.
Sorry, I just crack myself up. 
Is
The Horde At Facebooks Walls? - Tim Nash writes this post for Clicks.ws.
on the how-to’s of Advertising on Facebook.
Web
Strategy: What the Web Strategist should know about Facebook - Jeremiah
Owyang tells us what we need to know about Facebook as a strategic marketing
channel.
Technorati Tags:social networking, social bookmarking, stumbleupon, sphinn, twitter, facebook, 2007, social media, social media marketing
Posted in Facebook, Humor, Link Love, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Twitter | 18 Comments »
