Underground Web Designs Blog

If you work in an internet related field (programming, designing, administrating, etc) you’ve probably heard of the “micro-blogging” service Twitter. For those who don’t know what it is, Twitter is a social networking site where users share “Tweets” (140 character messages) with each other and the world at large. As is the case with many new internet technologies however, Twitter has it’s shortfalls, and it might not be long before newer micro-blogging services take over.

One such new micro-blogging service is identi.ca. Even though identi.ca doesn’t have as many users or features as Twitter (yet!), it does some things Twitter does not.

1) REALLY easy setup.

Identi.ca supports OpenID*. Since I already have an OpenID set up, I used it to register my new Identi.ca account. All I had to do was enter my OpenID, approve identi.ca, and choose a nickname. That’s IT! No adding mundane details like my name or e-mail address… all that was pulled from my OpenID automatically.

Of course, if you don’t have OpenID you can still register at Identi.ca normally, and the process looks simple and easy.

2) IM and Text Message support.

When I first started using twitter, I could “tweet” using an instant messaging program. Unfortunately, this functionality soon disappeared, with little explanation as to where it had gone or when it was coming back. Likewise, one of the strongest features of Twitter is the ability to receive tweets from people you’re following on your cell phone as text messages. In the USA this works fine, but here in Canada Twitter has had to disable the service due to excessive costs from the cell phone companies.

Identi.ca seems to have neatly avoided both problems. As of right now at least they have an IM service that works and they’re using e-mail to SMS for their text messaging. e-Mail to SMS doesn’t cost them anything - the fees are passed on to the user. I looked into it and for me it would be a $5 a month upgrade, or 15 cents per message received. This is a bit of a pain, but at least the option is there.

3) Interfaces with Twitter.

Identi.ca interfaces well with twitter, so if you’re switching over you don’t need to worry about people missing your Tweets. Just add your twitter username and password to Identi.ca, and anything you post to identi.ca is copied to Twitter. Win / Win!

4) Identi.ca is Open Source.

Rather than being a closed platform like Twitter, Identi.ca is built on open source software and works with an open source license. This, combined with support for FOAF files*, Microformats*, and OAuth* means that other webmasters can set up their own micro-blogging systems, and fully integrate back to Identi.ca. 

In short, Identi.ca takes sharing what you’re doing right now to a whole new level, and its smart business plan and open licensing agreements mean that it will continue to expand long after Twitter has died. If you’re just thinking about getting into the micro-blogging world, take Identi.ca for a spin. As with Facebook / Myspace, sometimes in the internet world “the second mouse gets the cheese”.

*Look for future posts coming soon explaining more about what OpenID, Foaf files, etc are, and how you can use them.

Most small business owners don’t see the point in having a blog. Heck, most small business owners don’t even have a website. They know they should, they’ve just never gotten around to it. Usually having a blog of their own hasn’t even crossed their mind. But every small business owner should have a blog, and here are 5 powerful reasons why:

1. Traffic, customers, leads, clients, etc. Whatever you call people who do business with you, having a blog will bring you more of them if you do it well. As a blogger you have a chance to write to the largest audience the world has ever known, in a way that they can find YOU. If done correctly a blog can build you a following of people who believe in you and what you do. This following will do almost anything you tell them too… and will most certainly buy anything you sell them.
2. Interaction. Remember that group of people who follow your blog and are interested in what you do? Well, ask them questions and improve your product. Who says you have to pay a big company to do market research? Here is a group of people that has found and followed you — they’re interested enough in what you do to act. Now ask them questions! Ask about your products, your business model, what they think you could be doing better. Then do it. One of the surest ways to success is to do what your market wants.
3. It’s free. Everybody likes free advertising right? Besides a bit of your time to write in it, Blogging is free. Anybody can have a simple Blogger blog set up in about an hour, and then you’re ready to go. If you have a website even better… your web master can set up a Wordpress blog for you in about 15 minutes.
4. The blog itself can make you money. Once you have been blogging for a couple of months and are beginning to get decent traffic, put Google Adsense on it. It’s not hard, and you can soon be making  some extra money from the traffic your blog draws. At the very least it will soon pay for the time you spend blogging.
5. It’s easy. It takes maybe half an hour a day to write a blog — and that’s if you do it every day. Once you’ve gotten going writing every couple of days is still plenty. When you consider the huge benefits that blogging can have for your business, how can you afford NOT to blog?

The most important thing that most people miss about blogging is that it doesn’t have to be work. Write about what you’re passionate about, what you believe in. We all have things we’d like to share with the world, a blog is your chance to actually do it. And if it benefits your business and makes you some money on the side, who’s complaining right?

It’s pretty common knowledge that having a blog can be a huge boost to your online business, but where do you find the time to write in it? Did you know you can automate many blogging tasks, so you don’t have to spend extra time doing them? If you take just 30 minutes to set them up you’ll never have to worry about them again.

1. If you have a wordpress blog, turn on the Askimet pluggin. Every wordpress blog comes with this pluggin included, just log in to your wordpress admin area and activate the pluggin. In order to activate it you will need a free account at www.wordpress.com, which you can get in a few minutes. Once you have your wordpress.com API key and plug it into the Askimet pluggin, Askimet goes to work protecting your blog from comment spam. If you’re just starting out as a blogger comment spam may not be a problem for you yet. In this case, Askimet is a preventative measure. As your blog gets more popular you’ll soon have almost as many spam comments as you have spam in your inbox. Take preventative measures now by setting up Askimet so you NEVER have to deal with comment spam on your blog.
2. Batch your posts. Have you ever sat down at your computer and felt like you could pump off 3 or 4 posts all at once? When you are in the mood to write make use of your post time stamps to save yourself some time over the next few days. Most bogging platforms allow you to edit the time stamp on your posts, and if this time is set to a time in the future, your post will not be published till that time. Next time you feel like writing 5 posts all at once time stamp them into the future and watch your blog update itself over the next week without any help from you!
3. Make use of Aweber’s Blog Broadcast feature and your blog’s built in RSS feed. Every good blogging platform should automatically provide you with an RSS feed of your posts. Make sure that it is easy for people to subscribe to your feed. Put a big button in a prominent possition on your blog that links to the feed. People who subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed will be automatically notified of your new posts as soon as you post them — without you having to lift a finger! Another powerful way to get the word out about your blog is to use Aweber’s “Blog Broadcast” feature (this only works if you have people on your Aweber subscriber list). Simply input your blog RSS feed URL, the number of blog posts to include in each e-mail, and the template you’d like to use and you’re set! Now every X number of posts your loyal subscribers will get an e-mail letting them know what you’ve recently written about… all without you doing anything except write the posts!

Technology was meant to make our lives easier, and in the world of blogging it has certainly come a long way toward doing that! Following these three tips will help you avoid hours of checking through spammy comments, allow you to write when you feel like it and still post consistently, and help you broadcast your blogging efforts without lifting a finger. Never do manually what you can automate!