As a proof of concept, today I signed up for an account at LiveStream.com. Their service makes it super easy to setup your own live streaming video using your computer, a web cam and an Internet connection.
Have trouble with your Gmail yesterday?
September 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment
If you had trouble accessing your Gmail or Google Apps email account yesterday, this post over at the Gmail blog explains the outage. For more coverage about the extensive nature of this outage and how it affected the web, see:
- TechCrunch – Gmail Now Really Down – Can I Get My Email Back Please
- Mashable – Gmail Outage Causes a Google Frenzy
Fortunately, Gmail is back up this morning. So, for some of us that means we can get some work done, and for others I imagine that means you won’t get any work done. It all depends on whether you’re on a Maker’s Schedule or a Manager’s Schedule.
ProfileExpert.com: Custom Twitter Profiles
April 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Last week was a big week for Twitter in the national news. Ashton Kutcher and CNN competed against one another to see who would reach 1 million followers first. Then Oprah plugged the micro-blogging service on her Friday show. All told, comScore’s global numbers for March 2009 show visitors to Twitter increased from 9.8 million to 19.1 million.
Given the growing popularity of Twitter, a lot of my clients have been jumping on board. Furthermore, they’ve been coming to me to design custom backgrounds and color palettes for their Twitter profiles. To service them and new clients better, I’ve setup ProfileExpert.com as a one-stop shop for getting your own custom Twitter background and color palette.
Although creating your own custom Twitter profile is a moderately simple process. I’ve found that my clients prefer to hire me for the job, knowing that I’ll be able to customize their profile quicker and with professional results. If you’re in the market for a customized Twitter profile, let me invite you to order yours today over at ProfileExpert.com.
1000 Tweets Later
April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This week I passed one-thousand updates on my Twitter stream. In celebration of the occassion, I thought I would take another stab at explaining Twitter to the lay person.
Explaining what Twitter is is easy (i.e. it’s Facebook status updates without the rest of Facebook getting in the way); however, explaining why anyone would want to share their life in 140 character “tweets” is another story.
So, rather than philophosizing about why one would want to “Twitter,” I’m going to take a different angle in this post and introduce you to some of the great people I’ve met during my first year on Twitter. These are all people I suspect I wouldn’t have met otherwise; however, Twitter has been our natural bridge for starting relationships, many of which have spilled over into real-world connections. [Read more...]
Proactive Tech Support
December 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Through the years I’ve gotten used to working with technical support on shared hosting accounts. The process involves submitting a support ticket and hashing out the details through a subsequent string of emails. If you have a good shared host, the support staff will “think along with you” rather than assuming that you have zero understanding of what you’re doing.
With luck, you can usually get your problem or request ironed out with a minimal amount of emails. Other times, trying to communicate via email can be a serious time waster when a simple phone call would clear things up in thirty seconds or less. However, that’s the price you pay with low cost shared web hosting: Limited technical support options help shared hosts keep their costs down. [Read more...]
It Has Been a Busy Couple of Months at MW.com
December 12, 2008 By 1 Comment
As I begin this post, I feel like Garrison Keillor getting ready to report the news from Lake Wobegon except I doubt my prose will be as melodic and instead of a small mid-west town my subject will be my recent comings and going on the World Wide Web.
Given that setting, I’ll begin by saying that it has been a busy couple of months over here at the MichaelWender.com offices. I’ve been working feverishly on five new websites, completing a major upgrade on another and continuing to do maintenance on many others. Add to that my late October decision to contract with Rackspace as my hosting provider, and you have the makings of the busiest season I’ve ever experienced during my freelance career.
During this time, my writing here has languished. Just last month, there were mornings when I’d awake at 2:30 or 3 and start thinking about a new design for a website or a new way to solve a problem. My work days would span 13 or 14 hours with breaks for the gym and meals. Now that things have calmed down a bit, I’m taking some time to chronicle what I’ve been doing and where I plan to take this site in 2009. [Read more...]
Promote Your Brand Web 2.0 Style: Part Two
November 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment
In part one of this series, I wrote about how Knoxville realtor Suzy Trotta is blogging and Tweeting to grow her business. In today’s edition, I’ll be showing you how Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, uses his blog to make himself accessible and promote his company. His website is part of a more general trend of executives who blog.
Eye on the Web: Friday Links Edition
October 10, 2008 By 2 Comments
If you were expecting Part Two of my series Promote Your Brand Web 2.0 Style, you’ll have to wait until next Friday. Although I have the second installment in process, a busy week in the office has prevented me from putting on the finishing touches. In the meantime, here are some tasty links to enjoy:
Promote Your Brand Web 2.0 Style: Part One
October 3, 2008 By 1 Comment
This marks part one of a three part series I’ll be bringing you in my Friday column, Eye on the Web. During this series you’ll meet a realtor, a publisher and an antiques dealer who are using the web in new and creative ways. Rather than settling for a static website with little online interaction, each of these business owners are reaching out and engaging their customers, creating a “buzz” about their company and products, and finding new ways to grow their businesses. [Read more...]
