WordCast Conversations 8: Anne Helmond on SEO and Social Media

Published on March 10, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

Anne Helmond 300x199 WordCast Conversations 8: Anne Helmond on SEO and Social Media

Anne Hel­mond, New Media Lec­turer at the Uni­ver­sity of Ams­ter­dam and an expert on the rela­tion­ship between blogs and search engines.

When it comes to the rela­tion­ship between blogs and search engines there’s no com­par­i­son to the exper­tise of Anne Hel­mond who has worked for years research­ing blog soft­ware and how it con­nects to Google and other search sites.

This week, she talks to Kym about her research and how it con­nects to search engine opti­miza­tion, Word­Press, blog­ging, and social media.

Guest: Anne Hel­mond

  • New Media PhD can­di­date with the Dig­i­tal Meth­ods Ini­tia­tive at the Medi­as­tud­ies depart­ment at the Uni­ver­sity of Amsterdam
  • Grad­u­ated from the Uni­ver­sity of Ams­ter­dam cum laude with a the­sis on ‘Blog­ging for Engines. Blogs under the Influ­ence of Software-Engine Relations.’
  • Researcher on the sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ship between blog soft­ware and search engines
  • Anne pre­vi­ously joined us on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions when we cel­e­brated Blog Pro­duc­tiv­ity week, to share her tips on being a more effi­cient blogger.

To pre­vent users from com­ment­ing with links to their site sim­ply to boost their search engine rank­ings, Word­Press includes a “nofol­low” tag by default with all links. To change this on your self-hosted Word­Press site, sev­eral plu­g­ins are avail­able. Below are a few of our recommendations.

DoFol­low Word­Press Plugins:

Mak­ing great strides in both the social media and edu­ca­tion worlds, Anne knows first-hand the stigma that comes along with young women in these fields. She shared her thoughts on this, explain­ing that, when there are more men than women, that’s the way it is, and it has no effect on what one can achieve. She also gave us a few of her favorite sto­ries as a teacher.

Of course, Kym brings you the dirt: Anne’s favorite “guilty plea­sure blogs” include XKCD and Perez Hilton

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing con­ver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

Plugin Picks 3: WP Google Buzz

Published on March 9, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 3: WP Google Buzz

The newest social media craze (or flop depend­ing on who you talk to) has been Google Buzz. Inte­grated into Gmail, the ser­vice allows users to keep up with all their friends, at least those with a Google account, as they scurry across the social web

To kick off the sec­ond week of Plu­gin Picks, Kym and Dave take a look at the WP Google Buzz Word­Press plu­gin which allows you to add a “Buzz This” but­ton to your blog posts.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

Plugin Picks 2: Google Analyticator

Published on March 4, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 2: Google Analyticator

This Wednes­day on Plu­gin Picks, Kym and Dave share a plu­gin that allows you to track your blog with Google Ana­lyt­ics with­out wor­ry­ing about man­u­ally insert­ing javascript code in your themes. They also high­light a few extra neat fea­tures included with the plugin.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

WordCast Chosen as One of the 100 Best Small Business Podcasts of 2010

Published on March 3, 2010 in As Seen In... and Awards and Nominations. 0 Comments

100 Best Small Business Podcasts 2010 300x256 WordCast Chosen as One of the 100 Best Small Business Podcasts of 2010Each and every sin­gle year, Small Busi­ness Trends Radio scours the Inter­net and chooses 100 of the most use­ful and infor­ma­tive pod­casts that they can find for entre­pre­neurs, small busi­nesses and small busi­ness owners.

This year, Small Busi­ness Trends Radio listed Word­Cast as one of the 100 best small busi­ness pod­casts of 2010 under the cat­e­gory of “Small Busi­ness Technology”.

Word­Cast is your source for blog­ging, social media and Word­Press related news, tuto­ri­als and arti­cles with reg­u­lar releases of pod­cast episodes draw­ing in the biggest and bright­est minds of the blog­ging, social media and Word­Press worlds.

Sub­scribe for FREE to all Word­Cast audio pod­casts on iTunes.

A big con­grat­u­la­tions to the Word­Cast team for the acco­lades and recognition.

WordCast Conversations 7: WordPress and Blogging for Musicians and Bands

Published on March 3, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

Kym Huynh 300x218 WordCast Conversations 7: WordPress and Blogging for Musicians and Bands

Kym Huynh, vocal­ist for electro/pop band sSalvia.

Many of you might not know that WordCast’s own Kym Huynh is quite a pro­lific musi­cian, not only by him­self but in his band: sSalvia — a dance/electronica project. This week on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions, we turn the tables as Dave Moyer inter­views Kym about how Word­Press, blog­ging and social media can be used for musi­cians and bands.

 

Kym’s Musi­cal Projects

  • Kym’s older solo work can be found at www.kymhuynh.com
  • sSalvia is a dance/electronica project
  • sSalvia runs on Word­Press, and com­pared to sta­tic HTML sites, Kym says there’s no rea­son to not be on WordPress

Essen­tial Ele­ments of a Band’s Website

  • About pages are needed!
  • Like our friend Rox­anne Dar­ling rec­om­mends, con­tact pages are essential.
  • Gigs cal­en­dar: When are you performing?
  • Sam­ples of music
  • RSS feeds are impor­tant to mar­ket to return visitors

Gig Cal­en­dar Plugins

What to Write

  • Don’t just post the extremely big news! Bring the audi­ence into the process.
  • On the sSalvia web­site, the blog’s con­tent is aimed at bring­ing fans into the music mak­ing process.

Social Media for Musicians

  • Even if you have a web­site, you need to tie in all these services.
  • sSalvia’s Twit­ter is used to update peo­ple about lit­tle behind the scenes bits.
  • Face­book is a land­ing page for reach­ing out to new listeners
  • MySpace has always been a big part of music online. Kym uses it specif­i­cally for net­work­ing, but less as his “offi­cial presence”
  • Con­nect your blog to Twit­ter with the Twit­ter Tools Word­Press plugin
  • KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID! Don’t make too much work for yourself.

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing con­ver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

Plugin Picks 1: Audio Player

Published on March 3, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

PluginPicksArt 300 150x150 Plugin Picks 1: Audio Player

It’s the very first episode of Plu­gin Picks, the newest show on the Word­Cast Net­work. Join Kym and Dave every Mon­day and Wednes­day as they bring cool new Word­Press plu­g­ins to your attention.

To kick things off, we’re talk­ing about the Audio Player Word­Press plu­gin, which allows you to eas­ily embed a flash player for music or any other kind of audio on your Word­Press site.

If you have a plu­gin you think we should share or have com­ments, ques­tions or sug­ges­tions for the show, email plu­g­ins [at] wordcastnet.com or call 1–888-525-BLOG.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

WordCast Conversations 6: David Bullock

Published on February 25, 2010 in Podcasts. 2 Comments

David Bullock 366x500 WordCast Conversations 6: David Bullock

David Bul­lock, social media strate­gist and co-author of Barack 2.0.

Social media strate­gist and co-author of Barack 2.0, David Bul­lock, joins Kym on Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions this week to talk about the social media epi­demic we’re see­ing around the Inter­net today, the bur­geon­ing social media phe­nom­e­non, and how to har­ness its influ­en­tial power for your own busi­ness success.

Guest: David Bul­lock, co-author of the book Barack 2.0 that high­lights the ways social media impacted Barack Obama’s 2008 pres­i­den­tial campaign

  • Barack Obama used Twit­ter, Face­book, and other social media ser­vices in his cam­paign and it was a major key to suc­cess. David tells us how and why.
  • The story behind Barack 2.0
  • Why are Twit­ter and Face­book so powerful?
  • Barack 2.0 was pub­lished through Lulu. David explains why a tra­di­tional pub­lisher was not needed.

David also took some time to explain what the future of social media will be inside and out­side of pol­i­tics, and detailed how Barack Obama’s social media strate­gies can be applied to your own busi­ness, brand, or organization.

We also talked with David about his own expe­ri­ences and his per­sonal story through­out all of his work. High points, low points, expe­ri­ences that taught him lessons both good and bad, and what we can expect from him in the future.

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing con­ver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

WordCast Conversations 5: Roxanne Darling

Published on February 17, 2010 in Podcasts. 0 Comments

Roxanne Darling 225x300 WordCast Conversations 5: Roxanne Darling

Rox­anne Dar­ling, one of the top 25 most pow­er­ful and influ­en­tial women in social media and the lead orga­nizer of Pod­camp + Word­Camp Hawaii.

Kym and Dave are joined by Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions’ very first Hawai­ian Rox­anne Dar­ling of Bare Feet Stu­dios, voted one of the top 25 most pow­er­ful and influ­en­tial women in social media, and the lead orga­nizer of Pod­camp + Word­Camp Hawaii.

We dis­cuss her expe­ri­ence start­ing her Beach Walks with Rox show with her hus­band, her blog­ging and social media story, and the story behind Pod­camp and Word­Camp in the Aloha state.

Guest: Rox­anne Dar­ling of Bare Feet Studios

The Story Behind Beach Walks With Rox

  • The Start — Equipment
  • The Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
  • Signs of Success
  • Dog­gie Magic
  • The Witches of Lanikai (1) (2)
  • Bikini Shows (1) (2) (3)

Pod­camp + Word­Camp Hawaii – We dis­cussed why it makes sense to bring the Pod­camp and Word­Camp com­mu­ni­ties together when­ever pos­si­ble and appropriate.

WordCamp/Podcamp Hawaii’s Tele­vi­sion Commercial

Hawaii Chairs — Com­ing to Word­Camp Hawaii 2010!

We’d love to hear your feed­back about what we can change, fea­tures to add, and guests and top­ics for future episodes! Con­tact the show by email­ing wcconver­sa­tions [at] wordcastnet.com, or call (toll free) 1–888-525-BLOG (2564). You can also dis­cuss the show in the Word­Cast Con­ver­sa­tions forum.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (ver­sion 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Down­load the lat­est ver­sion here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Click here to visit the offi­cial episode page.

WordCast on Beach Walks 300x203 WordCast Conversations 5: Roxanne Darling

The Progression – A Work in Progress

Published on February 16, 2010 in Exclusive Content. 2 Comments

IMG 1250 The Progression – A Work in Progress

The Vil­lani and I got our heads together this week to write a new track ten­ta­tively titled “The Progression”.

We wanted to go for a more low-key sound with a puls­ing beat. This is what came out!

As always we would love your com­ments and feed­back. Enjoy!

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Country Road Provides Photo Mural Inspiration « Interialist

Published on February 9, 2010 in Decorology. 0 Comments

IMG 0700 1024x768 500x375 Country Road Provides Photo Mural Inspiration « Interialist

Coun­try Road Pro­vides Photo Mural Inspi­ra­tion « Inte­ri­al­ist.

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