How to Create Your Best Website Layouts Ever |

How to create your best website layouts ever | News | TechRadar UK
This is for the serious designer who is willing to use a little HTML. The idea of using a sketchpad and creating a map of the site is useful for those developers who do not use a pre-made template. First, look at lots of websites to see what you like.

Photos/Images: Photo Programs,Online Photo Albums and Photo Editors

If you are going to use your own photos/graphics you will need some place to edit and store them. You have My Pictures on your computer. I suggest you keep a separate folder for each site labeled images. Also it is a good idea to put backup copies on the web or a CD. Images placed on the we are usually jpg.

You can edit pictures in Paint by right clicking on the picture and clicking on edit.

You also have Windows Photo Gallery on your computer. Very basic but makes it easy to tag, caption and burn to CD's'  Also Windows Media Center.

I really like Irfanview as an editor and viewer. It is free to download and is a most complete editor. You can scan and do batch editing and change your photos in a great number of ways.For Photoshop effects free download Gimp. 

InkScape is illustration software similar to the commercial packages Adobe Freehand and Adobe Illustrator, but without the cost.

Godaddy: Photo Hosting Made Easy
by Godaddy.com has a small cost. If you like Godaddy it is worth it.

Picasa is a free site that must be downloaded to your computer. It is very complete and gives you an online web album.

Snapfish is free online site that is quite complete. Not as good editing, but you can do all sorts of things with your photos.

Photobucket is another excellent free site that has a very interesting feature, Scrapbooks.

There are other good sites, and many of the free editor sites, like Godaddy, have image storing and editing capabilities included.

Tools to Boost Your Social Media Productivity � SocialOomph.com

Tools to Boost Your Social Media Productivity � SocialOomph.com

Advanced. An integrated set of apps. Free or Premium.

TwitterLocal

TwitterLocal
TwitterLocal is a purely Adobe AIR based application that allows you to filter Tweets by location. Download required.

Welcome to the Local Business Center

Welcome to the Local Business Center
A must for business sites social  or regular sites.

Twellow :: Twitter Directory, Twitter Search, & Twitter Yellow Pages

Twellow :: Twitter Directory, Twitter Search, & Twitter Yellow Pages

**TweetDeck

TweetDeck
Have your SN sites all at one place with lots of special features.

See also Flock.com

Twitter - Business Exchange

Twitter - Business Exchange

Articles about using Twitter in business. Good source if you plan on any commercial or charitable enterprise.

***Beginner’s Guide to Twitter @ Using Twitter: The How to Twitter Guide

Beginner’s Guide to Twitter @ Using Twitter: The How to Twitter Guide
We should go over this guide.
Not the same as more extensive Mashable Guidebook to Twitter. (See earlier post.)

Twitterfeed.com : Feed your blog to Twitter

twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter
Also other social sites. You need to post only once to have the post on each site. Posting is by set times, e.g., by the hour.

Twitter and Facebook as Instant News Service

Ping - How High Will Real-Time Search Fly? - NYTimes.com

" When a US Airways plane landed in the Hudson River in January, the first picture appeared on Twitter. In June, Twitter users were mourning Michael Jackson before major news outlets reported his death. And, this month, as much of the nation was riveted by images of a balloon believed to be carrying a 6-year-old boy, every twist and turn was tweeted and retweeted instantaneously, drowning out just about everything else on the site.

As major events unfold, Twitter, Facebook and other similar services are increasingly becoming the nation’s virtual water coolers. They spread information quickly, sometimes before the mass media do, and their ricocheting bursts of text and links become an instant record of Americans’ collective preoccupations."

Twitter Fan Wiki / Hashtags

Twitter Fan Wiki / Hashtags
Hashtags are tags that connect topic across the social sites.
Examples from Twitter Search.

YouTube - Flutter: The New Twitter: a Parody- Maybe

YouTube - Flutter: The New Twitter
While this is playful, don't be surprised if there is not something similar in a year or three.

HOW TO: Retweet on Twitter

HOW TO: Retweet on Twitter
A Mashable guide.

Twitter Post Update

I corrected the links and added a link to Mashable' online Guide to Twitter.
I can see more value to twitter, but I am still no fan.

AddThis - The #1 Bookmarking & Sharing Service

AddThis - The #1 Bookmarking & Sharing Service 

Share across sites. For the serious SN worker. Seriously increases traffic. (Good or Bad?)

Revised List of Active Social Networking URLs

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES


URL

http://www.bebo.com/

http://www.blogger.com/

http://www.bravenet.com/

http://www.broadbentpage.blogspot.com/

www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking

http://www.craigslist.com/

http://www.delicious.com/

http://www.digg.com/

http://www.drupal.org/

http://www.facebook.com/

http://www.flickr.com/

http://www.flock.com/

http://www.frank-broadbent.blogspot.com/

http://www.friendfeed.com/

http://www.furcadia.com/

http://www.gather.com/

www.gimp.org/

http://www.gmail.com/

http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

http://www.groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html

www.google.com/talk/

http://www.grandparents.com/

http://www.imeem.com/

www.irfanview.net/

iWeb

iPone and others

http://www.kompozer.net/

http://www.linkedin.com/

http://www.mashable.com/

http://www.mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/

www.mashable.com/2009/01/13/free-social-media-iphone-apps/

http://www.meebo.com/

http://www.meetup.com/

http://members.suscom-maine.net/?body=support&cat=webspace

www.myfamily.com/welcome/tour/

http://www.myspace.com/

www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cyberspace/cmcreal/index.shtml

http://www.opensocial.org/

www.irfanview.net/

http://www.orkut.com/

http://picasa.google.com/  

http://www.pixlr.com/

http://www.photobucket.com/

http://www.regroup.com/

www.shutterfly.com/

http://www.snapfish.com/

http://www.spoke.com/

http://www.tweetdeck.com/

http://www.twitter.com/

http://twitter.com/fbroad

http://www.typepad.com/

http://www.vimeo.com/

http://www.weebly.com/

www.wetpaint.com/

http://www.wikipedia.com/

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

http://www.wix.com/

www.microsoft.com/windows/rookies/kylie4/?ocid=ftp_rookpmk_wl_281

http://home.live.com/

http://www.fbroad.spaces.live.com/

http://www.wordpress.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/broadbentclass

http://www.yola.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Yahoo Broadbentclass

Jim set up A Yahoo page for us: .http://groups.yahoo.com/group/broadbentclass/

The Finer Points of Facebook - butterscotch

The Finer Points of Facebook - butterscotch
A series of videos that help you become more expert in Facebook.

Advanced Twitter Tips - butterscotch

Advanced Twitter Tips - butterscotch
A series of instructional videos to help you make better use of Twitter.
Note that the site contains a large number of instructional videos that are very helpful.

Twitter

Twitter is a miniblog and getting to be one of the most popular SN sites. A good number of people do not tweet themselves very often, but rather they follow celebrities, news, information, etc.
Some college students use it for group  work and note taking or note sharing.
Some people just twitter inanely. High school students often gossip on it or some even share answers with it comfortably out of sight on their phones. Many companies and organizations use it for PR and advertising. Others just use it to keep up with what is current (most twetted topic). It has been useful to get news out of Iran and other places along with other SN sites.

As with other texting there is a whole new abbreviated vocabulary:  
8:] a Gorilla
and smilies


You will notice that many tweets contain links to other sites and are sort of bookmarks.

Twitter has many apps that expand it beyond just a miniblog. See the post below.

Help with Twitter

Mashable has a very comprehensive online Guide to Twitter.

Twitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Twitter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of Twitter services and applications - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of Twitter services and applications - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Facebook Apps

Lots of plug-in apps that can be very helpful or just cute. Read reviews, etc. before you put them on your page. Sometimes they spread to more people than you want.
See Facebook Widget post below for more additions to you site and ways of connecting.

Create a Custom Toolbar | Conduit

Create a Custom Toolbar | Conduit
Get traffic and leave visitors with a piece of your site. Allows you to run sweepstakes or contests, etc. Small monthly cost therefore mostly for commercial use.

Facebook & Wave: Why Facebook Should Clone Google Wave

Face book is facing competition from a new super email site from Google called wave which is in Beta at the moment. This article explains why Wave and Facebook should be combined.
Basically all e correspondence will become social and multimedia. A selection about Facebook
is interesting to us as we start Facebook.

Facebook does a lot of things, and with over 300 million active users, they do a lot of things for a lot of people. But the two things they might do best are enable sharing, and co-opt good ideas from companies that target early adopters.
According to some data, Facebook is the most popular way to share information online, more popular than older technologies like email. Which probably shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Nielsen Online reported earlier this year that social networking now has a broader global reach than email, and that among social networks Facebook is experiencing the most most growth.
While Facebook certainly hasn’t killed email, something that has been has been a recurring meme since 2007 (see here, here, here and here, for example), people are spending more and more time on the site.


Facebook and Wave

OUR BLOGS

Below is a list of our blogs. You may want to associate with them.
http://www.CoryGardiner.blogspot.com
http://jimtoddsblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.kconnors123.blogspot.com
http://www.skiprobinson.blogspot.com
http://www.fortheloveofhouses.blogspot.com/
 http://www.jmftravelgirl.blogspot.com
http://www.richarddevito.blogspot.com
http://www.myanika-myanika.blogspot.com 

Fancy up your Profile

If you want to make your profile fancy try link below.  You will have to do this at home since the audio is very important.

http://www.fbexpressions.com/videos.html

Vox.com is Fun, Easy Blogging with Powerful Privacy and Multimedia Features

VOX is an easy alternative to Blogger that you might like better especially if multimedia and privacy are your prorities.
Vox.com is Fun, Easy Blogging with Powerful Privacy and Multimedia Features

Introduction to FaceBook

FaceBook has become a phenomenon. Please read the Atlantic article.

President Obama's Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/barackobama?ref=nf

FaceBook article on FaceBook.