I’m trying WriteToMyBlog “out of the box” so to speak. Some initial observations:

 - it’s a free service, cool.

- it offers more functionality then blogger posting interfaces such as highlighting (how does one turn it off though?) Oh, I figured it out either select a white background or press the return key and backspace.  They should make it so that the you can select a default hi-lite so you can just select a word and it automatically renders the hi-lite though

- is the default font size 8 pt?  Can this be changed and stay changed or does it reset to 8pt?

• bullets  are cool, maybe sub-bullets in the future? Already there see below!
  • Here’s a sub bullet
    • Here’s a sub sub bullet

- Inserting pictures is a problem. There is no way to access, from what I can tell, an image from my local hard drive. 

- Superscripting^{Superscripting} and Subcriptiing_subscripting seems pretty cool. I’d take the subscription down a shade maybe.

- bolding works well as does italics. Just a heads up that you’ll know if the feature is active if it has an opaque blue shading around it.

- lets try some pictures:

 I dragged this Superman logo from Google images. The default setting is as you see this post. I imagine that I could tweak this but it would be better if the text wraps around the picture more eloquently. 

- Tags…this is a problem (maybe just for my first post?). I cannot access a menu of tags from my blog. Using LiveWriter I can. This means that I have to login to WordPress and select my categories (tags). This would not be an issue with Blogger because they don’t support tags. Or at least I’ve not figured this out yet. Tags are the key “index” of a blog. Tags are displayed for selection during the publishing process. Can they allow for adding tags at some point? 

- So let’s try to post this now! 

Recently at my company sales conference I took an informal poll on podcasting. The question I asked the room of 45 people was how many of you listen to podcasts? Three hands went up. I work for a technology company which is riddled with talent and early adopters. So what’s the scoop? I don’t know…yet…but I my gut feel is that many folks just haven’t been exposed to it yet. Here are some key things for us to do to increase awareness and adoption of podcasting and web 2.0 stuff as a whole.

1) Show and Tell – show people how they can benefit from listening to podcasts and provide some examples of how they can integrate podcast listening into their daily lives. They can listen while exercising (reduces boredom, makes better use of time and hey you’ll get fitter!), during the daily commute, during boring tradeshow presentations. The sky is the limit. Tell them how others are using podcasting both personally and professionally. There is tremendous variety and types of shows with more coming online regularly. Podcasting is about discovering shows that entertain, educate and engage.

Also, tell people that they are free! I believe that when people hear that they are on iTunes they naturally think there is a charge. NOPE…and it had better stay that way.

2) Create one – produce family podcasts and send them to relatives. Create a podcast for your department, your company, your organization, your hobby. It’s extremely simple and fun.

Add to the list!

UPDATE: No plugin needed just use [googlevideo=] and put in the URL for the google video after the equals sign. My thanks to the Neurophilosophers blog for the answer.

Here’s my attempt to post a YouTube video while working in Windows Live Writer. Here goes:

Well, it didn’t work. The reason? When using Windows Live Writer the URL to the video becomes HYPERLINKED. This results in WordPress displaying a blank (see above). What Live Writer needs to do is strip the hyperlink from the URL code so that WordPress can embed the video.

This begs the question. Does Performancing (see H2H posts)allow for YouTube video posting? Let’s find out.
Ease factor: 4(Grrr)

Here’s the Agency.com “viral” video that’s getting alot of attention. See my earlier post here (I didn’t know how to embed a YouTube video then).

Here is how you post a YouTube video using WordPress. All it takes is cut and paste!

Each YouTube video has a URL address. The URL for the one above is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8eV6OuC8Oo

To embed the video all you need to do this is enclose the URL address with [youtube=]. Just put the URL address after the equals sign. An ease factor of 1(smile).

The genious of YouTube is they let you post their videos on your blog. You’ll also notice that at the end of the video there is “share” option. This is how viral marketing works – whether it be positive or negative based.

Below is a video from YouTube. Here is what is amazing! As I post this video that slams Verizon’s “national coverage” I am watching a Verizon commercial on CBS! Wow! Verizon is announcing that Walmart is selling their services. Here is an example of how web2.0 and social media (sharing ideas, videos, music, pictures, source code..etc) can be used to “advertise” a consumers point of view.

How simple is it for me to extend this consumers voice? Real simple! This video implies that Verizon’s coverage sucks in New York City. Who are you going to believe? Verizon or this consumer? Will this impact Verizon? Maybe not, but word of mouth travels (whether true or not) and people are very jaded about what they see and hear from advertisers.

So what would I do? I’d find my loyal Verizon customers and create a REAL CAMPAIGN using their “Can You Hear Me Now” creative. Instead of an actor walking around saying “Can You Hear Me Now” why not mobilize (pun intended) their loyal customers to prove (and disprove) the coverage or lack thereof claim.

[Sidenote: So how easy is it for you to post a YouTube video in your blog? Extremely simple, I'll show you how this works next!]

Chris’ Context:

Below is an article that I had posted directly from Digg’s site. I provided Digg with the login information and URL to this blog and now can post Digg articles directly at the click of a link. Digg keeps track of what articles I’ve posted onto my blog as well. Digg posts the content and the read more link goes to the source article and the digg story links back to the digg submission. Users can read the article on digg’s site and press the digg it button if they want the article to be promoted higher in terms of importance/popularity.

Digg Experient:

The release of version 3.0 of Digg has brought about a renewed discussion on the rise of citizen journalism. But is the selection of news stories really related to a change in position of the major news outlets?

read more | digg story