As you all know, I’ve got a fancy new phone (the AT&T 8525) that can surf the web, check email, text, call people, and probably cook me dinner, if I wanted it too. Despite having a phone that can do it all, I rarely “do it all”. I call people with it, check email, and text friends. I’ve tried surfing the web a few times, and it was absolutely horrible. Trying to tap in a URL with my stylus was a disaster, and I was quickly irritated by how hard it was to navigate around the web. It’s SO not as easy as it looks in the commercials! I heard about a new site called RocketShotz.com that provides you with easy access to the web from your mobile phone. Easy? That’s SO right up my alley.

With RocketShotz, you can go online, select your favorite sites, and set them up for easy browsing on your phone with just a few clicks. No more trying to tap in URL’s or use Google on your mobile phone, because all of your favorites are right there, waiting for you. The guys who put RocketShotz together were geeks who were feeling the same frustration that I am right now. They realized using the web on a mobile find to check the weather, or find the location of the nearest Chinese restaurant was a huge pain in the rear. They developed this tool for their own use, and decided it was cool enough to share with the world. No more fooling with your teeny weeny Qwerty keyboard typing in a website address, because everything you could possibly want is just a click away on your phone. They’ve built in all sorts of cool tools into the app as well, like MonkeyShines. Those are random sites you can surf the next time you’re bored in a meeting or waiting in line. It’s like a Stumble Upon toolbar, for your mobile phone.

Best of all, the service is free, and doesn’t require any software.

When I posted my entry about that admin guy the other day, my sister left a comment and pointed out that her blog entries say admin. Uhh…that would be the blog that I set up. Where did I go wrong?

I logged in and verified that her display name was set up correctly. It was. I poked around in the code, and found out that instead of using CODE to call the author name, it was hard coded in the theme to put “Posted by Admin” on each entry. Duh! It really threw me for a loop, considering that admin was the user name as well.

The moral of this story is that if changing your display name doesn’t work, check your code!

I came across a new search engine today. I’m not sure why people attempt to take on Google, but the guy who developed the TigerTom search engine did a a reasonably decent job. I looked one of my blog names, and was #3 on the results list. Not too shabby, but when I use Google, I come in at #1 for the same term. TigerTom gives you the option of searching the web, news, images, shopping, or audio. I attempted an audio search, wondering it it would actually direct me to download an MP3, but I couldn’t find results for any of the terms I used. The query archive doesn’t work, and the searches are slow. I guess I’m left wondering, why not use Google? I’d need to see the benefit to using a site like this.

I found a new Wordpress plugin some of you may be interested in, that’s sort of a way to take dofollow to the next level. The CommentLuv plugin will display the last post of the commenter within their comment. The plugin visits the site they’ve inputted into the URL field, and scrapes the last post made, and displays the link at the bottom of the comment they’ve left.

I don’t think I’m going to implement this on any of my blogs, since I’m already pretty hot and heavy with dofollow, but figured I’d throw it out there as an alternative for my readers.

When I decided to incorporate my website business back in 1999 or so, we used a lawyer who walked us through filing all of the necessary forms for incorporation. Once we were officially set up as a corporation, he handed us a big binder and sent us on our way, instructing my husband and I to hold regular meetings, since we were the only people on the board of directors. Huh? In addition to holding meetings, we had to take minutes and document anything. Keep in mind, this was a website business run by me, and now I’m supposed to document a meeting with my husband? To say I was lost…well, that would have been an understatement. I didn’t know that I could find free corporation forms online, or that I could hire someone to fill out and process corporation forms for me, for around $25. Instead, we dealt with it on our own, and I hate muddling through that kind of thing, especially when I really don’t understand it.

Learn from my mistakes, and outsource this kind of thing to people who know what they’re doing!

Earlier this month, I posted a clip of the Family Guy premiere that was shown at ComicCon. If you didn’t see it, you can watch it here - it’s a Star Wars themed episode, and it will be on Fox this Sunday at 9pm eastern. Set your DVR’s, your VCR’s (if you’re living in the stone age) or just make sure you’re in front of the TV at 9pm. It’s gonna be good!

Not a day goes by that I don’t pass someone on the road with one of those magnetic signs on their car advertising a business or website. I’m telling you, they work. I often find myself committing the details of the signs to memory, so that I can visit the website when I return home! Maybe I should get one with my URL? It would be great for blog traffic…of course, it would also enable the people I cut off to track me down. Regardless of whether I get one or not, if YOU need one, BuildASign.com has real estate signs, car magnets, custom banners, and even political signs. You can order online and design your own custom sign and save moolah!

I came across these funny fake corporate signs and posters tonight on Stumble Upon. I am SO tempted to print these out and put a few up around work, just to see who happens to be paying attention. Some are more obvious than others, like the one that says employees are allowed 2 trips to the bathroom per day, and additional trips must be approved by management. Others, like the one I’m showing here, would probably confuse a few people in my office. I’m thinking about putting the one that says “Maintain silence at all times” to deter my coworkers from having LOUD conversations while standing feet away from my desk. Hmm…looks like the person who made these didn’t use a spell checker. It says “mantain”. HA!

California beach-goers are going high tech! Heal The Bay and Go Live Mobile (a mobile marketing company) have joined forces to update residents with a beach report card. Instead of heading out to a beach, only to be disappointed by poor water quality, people can send a text message to 23907 with the name of the beach they’d like information on. A text message will be sent in reply with that particular beach’s weekly grade. Heal The Bay has published the Beach Report Card since 1990, but this will be the first time that California’s analysis of beach water quality will be available via cell phone. Thanks to mobile marketing, residents will be able to stay informed and safe.

I’d love to see this rolled out in other parts of the country. We have a horrible problem with Red Tide here in the Tampa Bay area, and it would be nice to get a quick update before heading to the beaches, especially for people like me who live farther away from the Gulf of Mexico.

If you offer advertising on your site, do you offer exclusive opportunities? Let me back up a step. I was recently contacted by someone who wanted to advertise a product identical to a current advertiser. They even wanted to use similar anchor text. I declined (yes, I turned down money!) unless they could offer a different product or completely different anchor text. The advertiser-to-be emailed me back, asking if the first advertiser (the one with ads already up on my site) had paid extra for exclusivity, and even told me that they were willing to compete with the first advertiser via my sidebar.

For the record, I don’t charge extra for exclusivity, but do people actually charge more for that?

The way I look at it is that I don’t want to hurt a relationship with a current advertiser to make a new advertiser happy. If I’m already working with a company that sells the Whozit Whatzit Widget, and another company comes along, and wishes to advertise that exact product, I’m going to have to turn them down. I feel I owe the first advertiser that, even if I didn’t charge them extra for exclusivity.

The other reason behind that is that I don’t want my advertising to be boring. I want each text link I sell to be unique, so that it doesn’t make my sidebar repetitive and boring. Do I really want three different links to three different sites selling the Whozit Whatzit Widget in my sidebar? Of course not. (I should point out here that currently, there ARE similar links, but they’re from the same advertiser.) I do have a gray area on my rule though - if three directories wanted to advertise with me, I would accept all three, because my readers could use all three sites. Make sense?

So the big question here is, do you charge people more money to be an exclusive advertiser?

I ordered business cards this week!

The last time I needed business cards, it was way back in 1999 when I ran my website for moms. I ordered something like 1000 and never went through them all. I drew the artwork for those cards and paid too much for a local printer to make them for me. They were cute, but costly. I attended a focus group recently, and all of the cool bloggers there swapped business cards, and I didn’t have anything to give to them. Me, with all of the blogs, and nary a business card! I decided that I’d order cards in time for my big blogger event in November, so I did just that earlier this week.

Having heard a lot about Vista Print and their great deals on business cards (they offer free business cards too!) I decided to check out their site. I didn’t go with the free cards, but I didn’t cost me all that much to come up with a really cute design using some of their clipart. They offered me several different layout and font choices, AND I got to pick the colors for the card as well. I’m so pleased with how the proof looked, and I can’t wait to get them in my hands. I didn’t know how many customization options I’d have when I ordered business cards online, but I was really thrilled with all of the choices. The 250 cards I ordered only cost me $3.99 plus shipping, which is a steal. I was even able to select colors that match my blog theme, so when people get my business card, and then go to the URL on the card, everything will match. It’s all about branding, baby!

If you just arrived here and noticed a weird purple and gray Wordpress theme, don’t worry. You’re in the right place. I don’t have a test blog set up, and I was trying something new out. I know, I know, I should have a test blog where I can do those things, and not out here in public, but I’ve used up all of the free SQL I have with this domain, and I didn’t ask for more yet, so I can’t set up a dummy blog until I do.

There are all sorts of different social networking web sites out there, from the inane (MySpace) to professional (Linked In) to those for college students (Facebook). There’s a new social networking site devoted to those who want to network with other investors over at MyWallSt.net, and they’re offering newbies (like me) the chance to learn about investing and following stock market trends, using real stocks, with virtual money.

The Rookie Challenge is free to register for, and free to participate in. And in fact, you get a free hat when you sign up to take part in the Rookie Challenge. Once you join the site, you’ll be able to trade stocks using virtual money, and compare your stats to others taking part in the challenge. If you’re the top earning rookie for the week, you win a $1000 prize! You’ll also be able to gain knowledge about the market and trading stocks, while using virtual money that you won’t miss, should you have a bad day on the market. Everyone receives $100,000 to start with, and you can buy or sell to your hearts content. Just like the real market, orders are only processed Monday through Friday. If you’re the rookie with the highest percent gain in your portfolio, you’re going to be $1000 richer, and that’s paid out in REAL money.

A few months back, I added a LOT of blogs to my Google feed reader. As the months have gone on, I’ve deleted a few, and grown to love others…and I have no idea who the person behind the blog is. How is that possible?

I’ll tell you how - it’s because the authors behind those blogs have their Wordpress preferences set up incorrectly. Instead of displaying their own name along with the entry, it says “Posted by admin”. I can think of at least 10 blogs on my feed reader that this “admin” guy is writing. Maybe incorrect isn’t the right term, but there’s a better way to brand your blog and your entries, and that’s by using your own name, or a name you wish to go by on your blog.

Log into your Wordpress dashboard and click the users link. You’ll see the account that you use to make your entries there. Like most of you, mine is called “admin”, because that’s what I named it when I set it up. But that’s just the username for the blog - you can actually specify a completely different display name, which is what I’ve done. (You can click on any of the permalinks at this blog to see this in action - they all say “Author: Colleen”)

By clicking the edit link next to your WP user name, you can specify a display name to be used. When you do that, your entries will no longer be giving credit to that admin guy, and people will be able to put a name with the blog. You’ll be adding to your brand, and giving your blog a personality.

I set my Stumble Upon search to “Star Wars” last night and I’ve come across the most hilarious stuff! This parody of Stormtroopers doing an episode of COPS is among the best things I found. I really want to know how they got so many Stormtrooper costumes, as well as a Boba Fett costume, where they found someone short enough to act out the role of the Jawas (a child? little person?), and a guy who looked like Uncle Owen.

Watch the “domestic dispute” bit with Aunt Beru & Uncle Owen - freaking HILARIOUS. You’ll find out what REALLY happened to those two - it’s not exactly as it was portrayed in A New Hope.

I’ve heard a lot about virtual offices, and it intrigues me. I work remotely, but working remotely and still having an office to go into isn’t the same as a virtual office. With a virtual office you can turn your existing broadband connection into a small business phone package in just a few minutes. Instead of relying on the features you get from your regular phone company to run your business, you can enjoy features that include:

• Auto-Attendant
• Advanced call forwarding
• Outlook Integration
• Integrated fax support

You can add extra lines and services as needed, and even self install the service if you so desire. A virtual office lets you work remotely without paying for office space, a receptionist, and all of those cubicles you don’t need. In fact, I wish my whole office would go virtual. We could save money by using a system like this! We’d save at least the cost of a receptionist, since the auto attendant eliminates the need to have someone sitting up front answering the phone. I love that it can be customized for the needs of your business - they even offer toll free numbers.

I recently wrote on my other blog about a service that allows people to swap textbooks for college for free. I received a comment this afternoon from a “Christa” extolling the virtues of another site, called BookRenter.com - I’m not linking them because they don’t deserve it. Here’s the comment “Christa” left on my site:

This system seems plausible, but it may need some time to establish itself. I’d be concerned about giving more than receiving, but once the title selection builds up the process will run smoother. For now I’ve been ordering my books through a book rental system called BookRenter.com which has a very wide title selection to choose from. Students simply pay to “borrow” a book for a desired period of time and return it when they are finished. I rented my books and saved 50% off the bookstore price, the books came in new condition, AND I didn’t have to deal with meeting up with someone I don’t know to get their book.

I decided to check out why Christa was so enthusiastic about your site before approving her comment, and ran a quick IP trace. To my surprise (not really, but it sounds good) Christa’s IP traced back to the following customer:

CustName: BOOKRENTER COM INC-070815023055
Address: Private Address
City: Plano
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 75075
Country: US
RegDate: 2007-08-15
Updated: 2007-08-15
NetRange: 76.246.216.192 - 76.246.216.207
CIDR: 76.246.216.192/28

I’ve submitted a comment form on their site letting them know what I think about PR theft.

Please - don’t take advantage of bloggers. You’ll upset us, and we’re a force to be reckoned with. Buy legitimate advertising instead of paying your employees to spam our blogs with fake comments. It’s tacky. It upsets bloggers, and it gives us a bad impression of your company - even if what you do is fantastic.

In the past month, I’ve seen 2 different TV shows / movies that briefly dealt with in home security cameras. In “The Nanny Diaries”, a nanny cam was placed in a stuffed animal, where it was discovered by the nanny, and used to tape a rant against her soon to be former employer. In the 2nd example, on the TV show “Psych”, a nanny agency was using high resolution camera to spy on the neighboring homes in order to rob them.

In home security cameras typically aren’t so exciting. You may never capture an irate nanny or a burglary on your home camera security system, but it will provide you with piece of mind. I was asked to briefly review HomeCamera.com and to provide a fair and impartial review - no problem!

The pros:

• The system is free.
• You can turn your webcam into a home surveillance camera with the software
• You can remotely monitor your home or business using a PC, a PDA, or a mobile phone
• The system allows for fancy bells and whistles like motion detection, time lapse recording, and mobile phone alerts

The cons:

• No one is monitoring the system but you. If there were a real emergency, you’d still need to call for help.
• Because you’re using your webcam, this won’t be high resolution video. Think “convenience store security camera quality”.
• The HomeCamera.com people spell neighborhood like “neighbourhood” on their website. Are they Canadian, or poor spellers?

I think the pros outweigh the cons, obviously. Since the system is free during this beta period, you’ve got nothing to lose. If you like it, but it’s not high tech enough for you, it’s certainly easy enough for you to upgrade to a better camera, but this is a good way to test the waters without any cost to yourself.

This is a paid review.

I’ve found a new plugin that will help me to continue blocking comment spam on my blogs, and make using the D-list and do follow plugin a little easier.

Delink Comment Author is a new plugin that makes removing a URL from a comment a one click process. Sometimes, the comments I get are horrible, and it’s completely obvious that they’ve been left to take advantage of my dofollow links. Other times, it’s more a gray area - a great comment, but a link to a mortgage site, or a dog training school. Up til now, I’d been editing the URL’s out of those comments so that I could approve the comment but not give a link back to a site that isn’t a blog. It was a 5 step process that consisted of going to the comment, clicking edit, clicking into the URL field, removing the URL, and saving the comment.

This new plugin allows you to just click a link and the URL will be stripped from the comment.

In general, my comment policy is to allow comments with URL’s listed, as long as those belong to blogs. My comments aren’t the place to promote your non-blog business website.

I’m sure you were all intrigued by the results of the online personality assessment I told you about earlier today, and wish you could have gotten your own test to take. I found a similar self improvement assessment online that will show you if you’ve got what it takes to be live in the two.

What’s “live in the two” mean, anyway? The assessment will guide you through a series of questions, from “I am a self starter”, to “I am focused and never distracted”, allowing you to select answers ranging from “strongly disgree” to “strongly agree”. Once you finish, you’ll find out if you’ve got the skills and drive to be in the top 2% of earners in America. Besides the money, these people are passionate about life, and are enjoying rewarding relationships. They love life! You may not be in the top 2% of earners now, but you’ll find out if you’ve got the character traits of other people who have achieved amazing success with their lives. It all begins with self improvement and setting goals for who you want to be.

My assessment pointed out I am not as disciplined as I could be (completely guilty!) and I tend to lose focus. I have a lot of ideas, but tend to get bored and not follow through. I have a good attitude about life and surround myself with quality people rather than a quantity. (Quite true, even when I was in school I’d rather have 3 good friends than 20 people I sort of knew.)

This was my favorite part:

Although you are an extrovert by nature and you have the ability to perform when pressed, there are just some situations where you’d prefer to be in the background. And while others view you as confident in your abilities, you would have to admit that you don’t always agree with their appraisal.

So…are you living in the two?