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Free stuff for bloggers and other online types

February 8, 2010 By 2 Comments

1. Free business cards, from Vistaprint.

Free parking

There are lots of freebies available for bloggers and other online types. (Photo by Jenny Rollo - http://www.sxc.hu/photo/975867)

2. Free phone number with voice mail and other features, from Google Voice. Unfortunately this is still in beta, and you have to request an invite, which may not come soon. They don’t seem to be allowing uses to give away invites, at least yet, judging from the fact that I don’t have any to give away in my account. Another option is Simple VoiceBox.

3. Free blogging software — WordPress. Of course.

4. Free photos: Flickr and stock.xchng are two sites where you can find photos that you can use online for free. You normally have to credit the photo, of course, and respect the creator’s wishes as far as how it’s used (commercial, noncommercial, etc.).

5. Free FTP software, for uploading and downloading sites to and from your site — Filezilla (you want the client version, not the server version).

6. Free photo and image editing, online. Pixlr.com is a web app that allows you to edit photos and other images the same way you would with a lightweight desktop program, such as Photoshop Elements. You won’t get all the features you get in a desktop app, but Pixlr.com is still quick, easy and free. (Note, if you’re using open source images from Flickr or stock.xchng, it’s generally OK to resize them for the web, but the terms of service frequently prohibit major changes, such as turning a color photo black and white or otherwise altering the image.)

7. Free CSS and HTML debugging utility. If you want to get your hands dirty and write or edit code for your site, Firebug is a great Firefox browser plug-in that can help.

8. Free email, calendar, file sharing and web site creation. Google Apps Standard Edition brings Google’s apps (such as Gmail and the Google Calendar) to your domain, backed by Google’s robust server farms.

9. Free conference calls. FreeConferenceCall.com offers a free conference call service that allows you to have conference calls. The company even offers free recording, so you could use it, for example, to record a podcast. In case you’re wondering, this company makes its money by upselling customers to offerings with more features.

10. Free advice. There’s a lot of information and advice out there, of course. Not all of it’s good. But among those I really like are Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net, Brian Clark’s Copyblogger.com and DavidRisley.com.

There’s lots more free stuff, and free advice, on the Web. What are some your favorite freebies? Please share them in the comments.

Filed Under: Blogging, Miscellaneous, Technology, Useful stuff Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to say thank you for good things that happen online

September 30, 2009 By 4 Comments

When someone does something nice for you — and especially when they do without you asking first — it’s appropriate to say thank you. And offline, that’s pretty easy. You can say thank you in person or over the phone, write a thank you note, send a nice gift (a bottle of wine always works for me), or even buy someone lunch (or a drink).

However, online relationships are a bit trickier. Sometimes we don’t really know the people we interact with online, beyond, say, a Twitter account. But with just a Twitter account someone online can do some nice things for you – tweet a blog post you’ve written, include you in a #followfriday recommendation or just say nice things about you. How do you respond? How do you thank people in an appropriate, meaningful way?

Here are three ideas:

  • Return the favor. Retweet, include them in your #followfriday recommendations or publicize a blog post through one or more of your online identities.
  • Thank them offline. Send a handwritten note, make a short phone call or, if you’re feeling really generous, send a gift card or a small card. It may take a little extra time to figure out how to do this. Maybe you look up where the person works and send something to his or her office, maybe you figure out who their literary agent or publisher (for authors) is and send something through that route. Be brief, be nice, be polite – but don’t stalk. The point here is to thank people, not make them nervous.
  • Talk them up offline. If someone is doing good work, recognize it in your real-world conversations. When I talk to people who want to understand better how social media works in marketing and public relations I frequently recommend they check out David Meerman Scott’s blog or get his books. I think he does great, smart, work, so I talk him up. He may never know this, but in exchange for the insight his work has provided me, I think it’s good karma to pass along his name and web site to others.

How do you thank people? Please leave your suggestions in the comments below.

Filed Under: Career, Miscellaneous, networking

Vote for your favorite web site, web app or web tool

November 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

If you’re using sites like Twitter, or if you’ve got widgets on your blog or plug-ins in your browser, chances are you have some favorites in the Open Web Awards. I’ve added a widget, on the right side of the page, that allows you to vote in that contest. By scrolling through the list you can also find interesting new sites and tools that you may not have heard of yet.

I’m not going to tell you what to vote for. But I do encourage you to vote. (If you’re reading this post in email or an RSS reader, you’ll need to click through to the site to vote.)

I know the elections are over (at least for the United States – well, most of the states), but it’s still not too late to vote. Give your favorite site, web app or widget some love. By the way, you can even vote more than once – as often as once a day – if you really want to support your favorite site. So go for it.

Filed Under: Administrivia, Miscellaneous, Online marketing Tagged With:

You should attend ConvergeSouth 2008

July 16, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Do you live in North Carolina? In the South? Anywhere? Are you interested in things like blogs, online video and podcasting? Do you want to see ‘net celebs such as Robert Scoble, Anil Dash and Chris Rabb up close and personal?

Then you should register for ConvergeSouth. I’ve gone the last two years (at least, maybe more), and it’s always been well worth it. I get new ideas, I get to make new friends and catch up with old friends. There’s interesting conversation, even music and a barbecue!

It’s Oct.  17-18 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Go here to register. C’mon, do it now. You know you want to. (Oh, did I mention? It’s free!)

Filed Under: Media, Miscellaneous, Useful stuff Tagged With: , , ,

Jason Calacanis retires from blogging

July 12, 2008 By 2 Comments

Jason Calacanis, an Internet entrepreneur, says he is retiring from blogging. Simultaneously, he has launched a limited subscriber newsletter. You might want to join it, if it’s not too late. Click here.

In his email to that list yesterday, Calacanis explained why he is retiring from blogging.

It became clear to me last night after my email to y’all.

One hundred of you responded with amazing suggestions to my email last night. After that I realized that blogging is not longer the medium for me–email is. 100 amazing suggestions in 12 hours from a pool of around 500 email subscribers. That’s 20% response rate with really considered words and no drama.

This is really interesting (and it’s not April 1, so I assume this isn’t some kind of hoax or prank, though you never know). Calacanis was co-founder of Weblogsinc.com, one of the first big commercial blog networks. It was sold to AOL in October 2005 for a reported $25 million or so. So Calacanis is someone who really knows blogging and has been doing it for a long time.

You can still a lot of his online movements, of course. In addition to the email newsletter, there’s his Twitter stream, his photos on Flickr, and more in the right sidebar of his blog.

Update: Scoble says Calacanis is playing us. Could be right.

Filed Under: Media, Miscellaneous, News, Technology Tagged With: ,

Happy Birthday, America!

July 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Happy Independence Day!

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. …

Here’s the entire text of the Declaration of Independence.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous