Pinterest has my Interest

It’s safe to say that I spend a ridiculous amount of time online. As I joked recently, if my digital footprint were an actual shoe, I’d be shopping with Kobe Bryant.

Recently I have been turned on to a site called Pinterest.
(This is not paid, they don’t know who I am past my profile that I created, WebSavvyMom.com.)

It’s a wonderful arena where like-minded individuals you may follow on Twitter or are friends with on Facebook post things of interest to them. However, for me, it opens up so many virtual doors to things I may not have otherwise found by surfing the internet.

You can create pages to group similar items for your own reference but Pinterest friends can follow them or repin to their friends.

I have created an account and when I open up Pinterest, here is what I see initially. You can use your Twitter or Facebook logins to avoid having to remember yet another password.



The site is showing a variety of recently pinned items.

You can narrow it down by category. I selected Crafts and DIY.


I haven’t been on this time wasting website long but I have created a few boards of similar things.



I’ve already purchased Dr. Suess’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” with the idea to have Troy’s teachers secretly autograph it, leave a story about him or provide words of wisdom each year until he graduates from high school after seeing the idea pinned on this site.

I try to remember as I’m browsing through other websites is to pin items that I find interesting for others to find. I did it recently with the photos from the very talented Julie Dreelin. Someone has since repinned the untraditional engagement photos that I liked so much.

Happy Pinning….and repinning.

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YoTweeps! Twitter Twaffic Exchange

To play along and increase your twitter twaffic:


1. Click on my Twitter icon or here and follow me!
2. Make a blog post like I did and link up.(Grab the YoTweeps Icon and put him in your post. Also put a Twitter icon and link to your Twitter profile like I did. Then link up your post below!)

3. Visit some other #YoTweeps on the list and follow them! (Follow their blogs too if you are interested.)

4. When you follow someone tweet so they know that you followed and so they can follow you back!

Example: @DebThaxton #yotweeps I’m following!

5. If someone follows you, reciprocate. It’s that easy.

If you need help, I've created a Twitter for Dummies post.

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Tech Tip: Creating an Add This Button

There are plenty of websites that preach the benefits of having your blog posts being stumbled upon, shared on twitter, delicious, etc. for increasing your search engine optimization (SEO) and increasing visitor traffic to your site.

To make it easier for your visitors, there is a free tool that I've found called Add This that can be installed in Blogger or Wordpress.

Here are the step-by-step instructions for installing it in Blogger as it worked for me.

1. Go to the website http://www.addthis.com/.
(To learn how to create external links that open into a new page, click for my other tutorial.)

2. Select the Blogger service, what type of button style you'd like, if you would like the analytics tracked and then the final button of Get the Button.

3. Create an account with your contact information.

4. If you'd like the new button to be in your column, select the top option to add it directly to Blogger. I choose the more complicated step of actually copying the code to install in the HTML section under settings.

5. Open the HTML editor in Blogger and select the box above the code that says "Expand Widget Template." I recommend saving a copy of your template at this point in case you run into problems.
Do a Find (CTRL+F) for tag and paste the code (CTRL+V).

6. Save the template.

7. View your blog to see that it's appearing correctly. It worked out for Suzy at Hollywood: Where Hot Comes to Die.

8. Now, please share this on StumbleUpon or another option in this button by clicking below.

If you still have the blogspot.com in your Blogger address and would like to learn how to get a custom domain name for $10 a year, click here.

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Tech Tip: Creating Custom Email Addresses with Registered Domain Name

Many folks have inquired about how to add custom email addresses after spending the $10 to google to drop the blogspot.com and create a custom domain name. If you need help with that tutorial, click here.


Included in your yearly $10 fee are the basic google application services which includes customized email addresses with your domain name. For example, my custom email address is deb@websavymom.com.


After creating your custom domain name, go to the Google Application main page and login. Click here to open it a new browser window. If you'd like to learn how to create links that do this, here is my tutorial.


Enter your website URL address at the top of the page (for me it's websavvymom.com) and from the drop down, select "manage the domain."


Login



Select create new users

To create one custom email, follow the next few steps.
*Advanced users who may have the information in a google spreadsheet or Microsoft excel can import the list as a .csv file.


Enter the person's first and last name and desired email username. In this example I used "websavymom" which will be websavymom@websavymom.com.



Select the button to set password if you don't want to use the default.


I recommend if you're creating multiple accounts or one for someone else to create an easy to remember password that is still safe (include a number) that they can change later.


Click okay and you're all set!


Email me if you have questions. If you leave them in comments, be sure to include an email address.

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What Bloggers Like - 10 Things

There is a website dedicated to Stuff White People Like that I looked at for the first time last summer. I passed a car full of bumper stickers this morning and remembered how it prompted me to write this post.

So I thought it would be a good time to write What Bloggers Like - of course in my non-expert opinion.

1. Comments - We don't care if you say we don't know what we're talking about (you may after this post is finished) or our kid is the smartest, most adorable one in the world. We Love It.
2. Followers - I have recently joined a network of bloggers where we have agreed to follow each other to pump up our numbers. Boom, within the last month or so I went from three to 81 (as of this writing). You know what, I read most of the blogs I follow and some are quite good. Go figure. I felt like I was cheating on my math test and it turns out I knew the answers.
3. Widgets - Blogger keeps adding new ones and it's easy to steal ideas off bloggers you follow (see #2) above. I personally like the link within widget located after each one of my posts that teases, entices and lures visitors to keep reading my posts. It has also worked very succesfully on other blogs where I keep clicking and reading.
4. Free Blog Templates - There are numerous free templates available online for the novice blogger to the more experienced. Personally, this blog is designed by me using a free template that I have heavily modified to suit my needs. In turn, I have created my own buttons like those for Flashback Friday and my WebSavvyMom signature at the bottom of all my posts.
5. Twitter - A newer phenomenon to me is following people and in turn being followed on twitter; a social networking vehicle that prompts you to comment about what you're doing in 140 characters or less. For more of an explanation, read my Twitter for Dummies post.
6. Give-A-Ways - If you are giving away a $5 gift card to Starbucks, free blog redesign or a corporate sponsored product, people will sign up to win in the comments section. Often times the person doing the give-a-way lures the visitor into following them (see #2), tweeting about the contest (see #5) or doing a post on their blog for more entries.
7. Pictures - Personally, I include a picture in almost every post I do because for me, it's more interesting and I hope for you, the same. The better the quality and the more relevant to the post, the better, in my opinion. I decided to use one of my many self-portrait shots for this one because I was stuck otherwise.
8. Creating Aliases - When I created this blog in June 2008, I spent about three seconds thinking of a name and who would be visiting. I expected a few of my family members a few times a month. So in turn, I used my real last name and the real first names of my family and friends. Apparantly, this is bad etiquette in the world of Mommy Bloggers. In turn, I have renamed my blog (with a misspelled word) to WebSavvyMom.com for $10 a year (see this blog entry to learn how) and still continue to use real first names. I am not going to be famous, I don't write anything that will put my child into therapy (I hope) so real names are how I roll. Plus, I'm not Dooce.
9. Blog Buttons - It's important to create a blog button that reflects the look of your site but more importantly, to include the code on how to let others add the button to your site. Please note my button to the side advertising Flashback Friday, in case you want to use a HTML widget (see #3) to add it to yours.
10. Theme Days - There are many people I follow who participate in blogging theme days such as Wordless Wednesday, Writing Workshops, etc. For those of you may have missed it, this is my third shamelessreference to Flashback Friday. I started it in December 2008 and just realized that it may be something others are interested in. Please stop by on Fridays and join in the fun. If not, be sure to leave a comment (see #1) or tweet about it (see #5).

What have I missed? What other things do bloggers like?

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Tech Tip: External Links

If you're tired of linking to external websites and the visitor leaving your site completely, there is an easy fix.

Click into the HTML coding and find your website coding. Behind the URL add this text, target="_blank".

This will open a new target window and your website will remain open as well.

To demonstrate, here is a link to one of my funnier posts, it will open in a new window.

Read more of my tech tips. If you have more web questions, please leave them in comments.

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Tech Tip: Naming Your Pictures with Alt Tags

If you've ever hovered over a picture with your cursor on a picture online and seen a small description appear, that is called an ALT Tag.

It's a way to give your picture a description in the event someone wants to surf your site faster and turns off pictures from appearing but also it helps your images be found in search engines. Unlike flash which isn't read, ALT tags are read and help to increase your rating.

In this example, I'm standing to the far left with some of my friends and the members of Duran Duran. When you hover over the picture, the ALT tag says, "Deb, Kim and Tricia with Duran Duran."

In blogger, when you're composing a new post and insert a picture, click on Edit HTML and look for the image coding. You'll see that there is coding that says alt=" ". Which basically means there is no description for your picture. Add one that describes your picture between the quotation marks. Click preview, hover of your image and it should appear.

For the picture above I made my ALT tag read:

alt="ALT tag explanation using Deb's post on Duran Duran"

Want more tech tips? If you have questions, leave them in the comments section.

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Tech Tip: Custom Domain Name for Blog

Earlier this week I discovered that for a mere 10 dollars, I could create a custom domain name for my blog in blogger. I'm going to outline the steps below in simple terms.

First step:
Log in to your blogger account. Click on Settings and then in the top left click on Publishing.
At the top it will have your current setting to be "Publish on blogspot.com." Below it is an option to select "Custom Domain." Click on this and a new drop down option appears.
Second step:
Under Buy a domain for your blog is a box to enter in your desired custom blog address. After entering in your name, click check availability. I tried several and they were all available. In my case, I wanted http://www.websavvymom.com/. Besides the reasonable $10 a year charge, your current URL or web address with .blogspot.com will automatically redirect to the newly registered name. Translation: You will not lose any web traffic.

In addition to the custom domain name, google provides:

• private domain registration to protect against spam (they keep your personal information private)
• full DNS control and domain mangement (DNS is domain name system which is basically the way the internet is configured into words vs. IP numbers like 187.32.344.1)
• easy configuration with other google services, email, calendar and instant messaging.

(Still with me?)

After you complete the registration process, entering in your personal information and credit card information in three easy steps, return to your blogger dashboard where the whole process began.

Now, select Swith to: Custom domain and if not already appearing, enter in your newly registered custom domain name.

It may take google a little time to flip the switch on their end, don't panic if you're typing in your newly registered address and nothing is appearing. I kept hitting F5 to refresh the page on the http://www.websavvymom.com/ page until it finally appeared.

Meanwhile, I created an email address based on my new custom domain name which is deb AT websavvymom.com. After you register, you can create multiple email addresses. I logged in to my new email account and have all mail forwarded to my primary email account which I check every day on my computer and blackberry. I've explained how to create custom email addresses here.

If you have specific questions about anything website-related, feel free to email me at deb AT websavvymom.com and I'll try my best to either respond personally or make it a post on this site.

While you're here, please select "follow me" on the left-hand side. I'm also on twitter and try to tweet every day. Click for my Twitter for Dummies post.

Be sure to come back on Fridays for Flashback Friday and link up.

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Tech Tip: Twitter for Dummies?

I broke down and signed up for Twitter not too long ago and figured between updating my gmail and facebook statuses, I would Never be able to extend my humor and creativity into Twitter.
I was wrong (so I think).

Twitter is another social networking option that allows people to "tweet" in 140 characters or less what they're doing at the moment.

There is a follow me button in the column of this website and to date, I am following more people than are following me. This doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I've added and deleted the customery celebrities as their "tweets" have amused or disinterested me. One of the funniest is Michael Ian Black. After you add me, add him. Here is a recent "tweet" of his:
"During a crisis, drawing a conclusion is helpful. Drawing a cartoon mouse is not."

Besides going to the main Twitter page, there are a ton of free applications to allow for easier "tweeting" from your computer, blackberry or iPhone. I have Twittergadget in my igoogle, Twitterberry on my blackberry and Tweetdeck on my laptop at home.

I found a site that lists by category all of the various Twitter-related applications and what they do. To give the author credit and to not bog my blog down, you can see them here.

Tweet, tweet...

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