A new way to embed things in your posts..kwout

There’s a new “clipping service” you can now use that lets you embed screen clippings in your post. When you clip a web page or a section of a page Kwout generates a code that you put in your post in order to render the image. So let’s give it a shot:

kwout | A brilliant way to quote via kwout

 Note, in order to do this successfully when using WordPress you need to use the Code window of your editor.

Free blogging course?

I came across this free course offer from Simpleology. To get the course “free” you need to embed some code so here goes:

I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

What they want is for bloggers to promote their blogging course on their blogs. To prove that you’ve done this you have to embed the code (which results in the indented copy above) and register the post URL to prove you’ve done just that. When you’ve done this you get a confirmation page that looks like this:

Google Reader/Notebook/Bookmarks?

I’m a huge fan of Google (who isn’t) but there’s some interesting “cross breeding” taking place particularly between Bookmarks and Notebook. I use Google Reader as my mass input source for feeds which I scan and then if I want to store a page I’ve used Google Bookmarks. However, the new highlighting/annotation feature, for Notebook has me experimenting! Instead of bookmarketing the page I want for future reference I now Notebook it by hi-liting the title of the page. This accomplishes the following:

• It files the page under a notebook (major classification catagory, like Marketing Planning) and I can use “Labels” (same as Tags, although there is a bug in Notebook that makes me have to open the label box twice before I can use it properly)
• If I somehow stumble across this page at another time I automatically know that it is already bookmarked because the title is hilited (I never notice the “bookmark” yellow star in the browser menu so this ads “redundency”)

Here’s a screenshot I clipped from a blog attempting to demonstrate what I’m referring to:

There is an issue though. Since I use Google Reader to receive blog, news and site updates I would like to know, within my reader, whether I’ve already Notebooked the page or not! I don’t want to star or label anything in Reader….this creates double work.

Perhaps the brainiacs at Google are already working on this crossover feature/service.

I’m Back!

File me under the millions who have neglected their blogs! Yup, I’ve had other committments so I won’t apologize for the lack of posts in the past months. While I’ve neglected this blog my web 2.0 experiments have been continuing and I’m ready to pick up where I left off with this blog. I’m not sure how many posts I’ll be doing per week or month. I don’t believe in posting for the sake of posting.

I’m going to use this blog to provide behind the scenes experiments using web 2.0 apps (or whatever you want to call them) so we can learn together. I can’t find blogs, squidoos, wikis, SaaS (and the web 2.0 list groooooooooooooooooooows), facebook…….etc. that gives you in-depth overviews of how best to USE them. They list the apps but I want to know how to USE them to be productive, knowledgeable, connect and collaborate. These are the four pillars that matter to me as a web user. Stay tuned and we’ll go under the covers with real live experiments that go beyond “features” and “benefits” and gets to the nitty gritty of how to use these various services.

Let’s learn together. Let’s build a web 2.0 knowledge base that’s well organized and helps us effectively use these tools to learn, communicate, collaborate and network.

The evolution of the web (2.0 style)

Thanks to my colleagues(Mark and Dave) for sharing this video with me. In a previous post I provided my point of view as to why web 2.0 is different. Watch this video and you’ll see (and feel) what I mean. For those of you not into Web 2.0 get with it…this is powerful and has awesome promise. This is a great time of sharing, collaborating, helping and a time where your voice is/will be heard. What are you waiting for? =)

Blogging with Flock

What Blogging Platforms Does Flock Support?

A table of supported blogging platforms is detailed at: http://wiki.flock.com/index.php?title=Blog_compatibility.

I am trying out Flock’s blog posting feature which you can do directly out of it’s RSS feeder. I’m using it to post to Blogger and WordPress. The Blogger one didn’t work that well. The font style and type was screwed up. Here’s the WordPress test to see if it is any better. I also couldn’t select tags which sucked.

I tried to paste a picture captured using FastStone Editor but couldn’t. Embedding pics should be an option.

Blogged with Flock

VP of Marketing Position

I was recently contacted by EA Clarke regarding a VP of Marketing position for a radidly growing Web 2.0 oriented company. If you are a fan of Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” then this company could be right up your alley if you think you can handle the job! This company provides an at Home DVD rental (including Blueray for you Sony fans) on-demand entertainment service. You rent whatever DVD’s you want from arguably the largest colletion of popular and niche titles this side of the border. The community of customers provide reviews and Zip does a pretty good job in the top N lists area.

They are the backend service provider for a large video rental chain (of which I’m a customer). This indirect/private label approach is smart assuming they can replicate the model through other entertainment oriented retailers. They could become the “Pegasus” of Digital Entertainment. (Pegasus was the prime distributor of books to Book retailers in Canada…then we know what happened….Schwartz and Heather).

E.A., the Executive Recruiter said they are looking for someone with web 2.0 experience. Contact E.A. Clarke if you are interested, he is at the StoneWood Group.

B2B Marketing Blog coming

I will be launching have launched a B2B Marketing blog in the new year. Instead of creating and managing a third blog I’ve elected to replace the Marketing Superhero blog I’ve been writing with this new one. There may be a Marketing Superheros section on the blog, but this is yet to be determined.

Recently my posts on this blog have been random at best [UPDATE: I’m committed to steady posts for both blogs in 2008]. I will continue to randomly post to this blog but my focus in the short term will be set up and contributions to my B2B Marketing blog.

I will keep you “posted”.

Chris

Slideshare working with WordPress? Not yet….

Slideshare is a free web 2.0 service that allows you to upload your presentation deck for the world to see. A YouTube for PPT essentially. You can embed code in you post so that the presentation will show in your own blog. So let’s give it a shot:

Hmmm…. =(

As soon as I figure it out…I’ll let you know. Web 2.0 service providers need to make it AND KEEP it simple for people to blog. Why? Because most of us do this in our spare time and out of “love” and “enthusiasm”. Don’t ever lose site of this folks. If you want mass adoption AND continued use…keep it simple, fun.

As I speak I’m having trouble with Windows Live Writer. In fact I’ve abondoned using it because images are not loading properly and it’s not working with IE 6.0 (with tabs) properly.

Lot’s have happened while my head’s been in the sand!

Hey, I’m back. It’s been awhile, my head has been burried deep in many things to such an extent my “day job” has creeped, more like consumed, my family and blogging life.

The new marketing world is moving fast in the great white north.

Michael Seaton has released a podcast series called “The Money Clip“. Great stuff.

PodCamp Toronto is being held on February 24-25th. Cool!

And “Mesh”, A Web Conference, will be held in Toronto in May! This is a “must attend” conference if you’re serious about web 2.0, social media and new marketing (take your pick! =)). While I’m impressed with the keynote presenters, I am equally impressed with the Canadian talent that is organizing this.

This is really encouraging and I encourage all those wishing to transform the way they do business to attend podcamp and go to the web conference. Listen to the Money Clip. Why? We need to learn and listen more. We need to get together and build our competency and skills in new media now. As a Canadian I’m encouraged but dismayed that we appear late in the “new marketing” game.