Morgan McLintic on PR and Performance

Happy New Year

All the best to you and yours for 2006.

Blog posting from Writely

Hmm, I seem to be on a 'where can I blog from' vibe today. This time I'm at Writely.com. This free, web service provides a fairly sophisticated text editor, including a spell checker, from which you can post to your blog, or share content with coworkers. Essentially, Writely enables several collaborators to update one central document. So for instance, you might be writing a press release with your team or client. If it requires input from several people - this might be a good resource to check out. Edits are tracked and highlighted and you can export the final result into Word or PDF format.

Bloggers can add and configure images (I think since I've just done it but can't actually see the screenshot I added). It also saves as you go which is slick. One navigation gripe is that just in signing up I seem to have opened about five tabs with various versions of the service but that's probably pilot error. No evidence of tags*, categories, trackbacks or pings but this isn't really a blog editor, it's a word processing and collaboration service. And seems pretty good in that regard. Writely has the potential to cut down all those revision cycles when drafting press materials, and has a good history section under the Revisions tab so you can roll back if someone murders the document. Again - another impressive lightweight app which you can access via your browser. Worth checking out.

* STOP PRESS - just while working out how to post this to my blog, I've found a place to add tags - under the Actions drop down menu. And you post to your blog, surprise surprise under the Blog tab - there's a button top right saying Post to Blog.

UPDATE - you can't add categories either to your posts from Writely and for some reason, this post originally appeared out of sync ie not in the correct chronological order. That might be a timezone setting thing but I've had to correct it using ecto.

UPDATE 2 - here's the image I added but didn't come through on my blog:

Why Flash rocks

Yes, yes, I know Flash websites are hard to link to and for search engines to spider. They can't compete for Google juice compared to traditional HTML sites. But Flash really rocks if you want to get a message across visually. It leaves HTML for dead when you combine it with video.

Communicators, including myself, often fall into the trap of thinking only in words and text. Just pick up any copy of PRWEEK, take a look at the ads to see how almost all agencies try to communicate using words not visuals. Same with websites - it's often a wall of words which visitors can't be bothered to read. It's hard to differentiate a brand or transmit a message that way unless your reader is determined.

Enter Flash. Flash is television to HTML's print. It's far more glycemic, international, entertaining, dynamic - and, well fun.

Take a look at this short Flash animation to see what I mean. OK, so this was developed by the LEWIS web team, so I am totally biased, but look beyond that to how this gets the message across in an entertaining, engaging and visual way. It combines animation with video, helps you identify with the characters, demonstrates credibility, passion and a sense of humor.

You lose some of the impact of this piece since it's been condensed to play over the web, but videos like can be played full screen at events, burned to CDs or placed on thumb USB sticks. (There's a download here if you want the full effect.) I've seen this internal vid about ten times and it still makes me laugh. Sure, Michael Hay and Sam Childs, our web boys, have done a bang up job with this, but it didn't take them long. in fact, they're at pains to point out how they didn't really have much time to produce it, but to me that's the point. It works and it's quick. Get it right and it can also be viral. So I hope this gets you thinking how you can make your client or your company stand out.

Think visual - even if that means just getting some new photography, you'll be on the right track. Meantime, enjoy the vid.

Technorati Tags: Flash, HTML, viral, Web design

Performancing for Firefox

While I'm on the topic of blogging tools, it's worth mentioning Performancing's new Firefox extension which enables you to draft blog posts from within your browser. Simply hit a pencil icon in the bottom of your browser window and up pops an text editor interface, with standard WYSIWYG buttons, as well as link and image insert controls.

You need to provide the login details for each of your blogs but can post to most platforms including Typepad, Blogger and WordPress. The extension will even download your blog categories. Om Malik thinks it's 'awesome' and Neville Hobson thinks it's very impressive while noting its absence of a ping service, the ability to add trackbacks to a post and an error in publishing the categories he'd selected. No doubt these can be added and resolved in due course.

I think I'll stick to ecto since I like the ability to add tags to each post, but I have to agree for a free and lightweight app, it has excellent functonality and a clean interface. I did have one minor problem with adding links which I do while writing a post, whereby the following text also became hyperlinked and had to be edited out in the HTML view. But at least it has an HTML view, so it was easily solved.

This post was written using Performancing for Firefox, so if you are reading this - you know it works.

UPDATE - Category insertion didn't work for me either in Typepad, so I'm adding them now in the Typepad app. It seemed to recognize the categories when I started editing the post, but they didn't actually appear on the blog itself.

How to set up a blog using WordPress.com

I'm trying out WordPress using WordPress.com's free hosting service. My main blog, Morgan McLintic on PR, is hosted on Typepad, which has had some outage problems recently. I like Typepad but as a precaution, I thought I'd look at other blogging platforms. Below is a basic 'How To' which I put together while configuring a new WordPress.com blog. It's not comprehensive but will get most first time users going.

Setting up a WordPress.com blog is quick and free. Simply create an account at WordPress.com by selecting a user name, enter the title of your blog (which you can change later) and an email address. WordPress.com will send you a password to log in to your account.

Take care when choosing your username since this will form part of the title of your blog. So mine here is 'morganmclintic' meaning my blog's URL is http://morganmclintic.wordpress.com/. At present, WordPress.com does not allow you to park a different domain name over this address, though according to the FAQs, this will be offered later for a fee.

The WordPress.com management interface is pretty intuitive. A number of tabbed icons take you to different sections to configure, manage and post to your blog. There is a basic Dashboard view to direct you to the most common tasks, like writing a post or adding a link to your blogroll.

First you might want to update or complete your profile. You'll want to fill out your name, rather than just your username and select how it is displayed in the drop down menu. I've also added my AIM contact details. Below these fields is an About yourself box, where you can put some background information. This will be displayed on a separate page on your blog. You can also change your password here if you need.

Next you might want to change the look of your blog, so hit the Presentation tab. The WordPress Default 1.5 template is fairly simple with a blue header. WordPress.com doesn't offer much in the way of configuration options for look and feel at present, though again the FAQs suggest this will be added in due course. I've gone for Blix 0.9.1 here. That's really all you can change.

Next you will want to set up some Categories for your posts. The default is Uncategorized. These will help your readers navigate to relevant content. Hit Manage/Categories. Add as many useful categories as you need. One good thing about WordPress.com is that you can even nest Categories to create Sub-categories. For instance, Personal>Pets or PR>Media Relations. You can't do that on Typepad yet.

While we're still setting up the blog, you might want to create a blogroll. These are basically links to other blogs which are relevant to your topic, or by people you know. They're a bit of a throwback to early blogging but many people like them still - and it helps first time visitors to position your blog in the ecosystem. To create a blogroll, click Links - there are already two here for WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The sub-menu has Add Link - fill in the details and a description of the blog or site to link to and hit Add Link. Note - you don't need to ask permission to link to someone's blog. Bloggers like links since it helps their ranking in search engines, such as Google and Technorati. Be prepared though, once you set up your blogroll, for people to start visiting your blog. Bloggers normally have alerts set up to track who is linking to them, so they'll come to check you out.

Now it's time to write some content, so hit the Write tab and you'll be taken to the post section. This should look familiar since it uses the same icons as normal text editors. Give your post a descriptive or snappy title and then enter your text. You may want to create links to other blogs or websites. If it's a blog post you are linking to, select the 'Permalink' or permanent URL of that post, rather than the blog's generic homepage. This will take your readers directly to the place you are referring to rather than making the search for it. You can find permalinks in the footer of each blog post. To create a link, highlight a word or phrase, and you will see a button in the Post toolbar highlight with an image of a chain link. By pressing this, you'll get a small dialog box in which to paste the address of the destination website.

When you have written your post, and formatted it correctly, you should also assign it to one or more of the categories you created earlier. These can be found in the menu on the right hand side - just hit the '+“ button to expand that menu and then check the relevant category boxes.

You can save your post at any point if you do not have time to complete it. Once ready, hit Publish and your post will appear on your blog. You can check its format by viewing the site.

If people have views on what you write or extra information, you will also receive comments from other users which you can reply to via your blog itself. The WordPress.com system should email you once you have a comment waiting (though my tests have not shown that to be the case at the moment since the system is busy).

This should get you up and running. There are lots of other tweaks and enhancements you can make, such as adding images to the sidebar (which can be done under the Links tab), but for basic posting of text to a blog, you now know enough to get started.

Technorati Tags: blogroll, blogs, WordPress, Typepad

Technorati launches new features

Technorati Weblog: Dave Sifry, CEO of Technorati, announced a range of new services at the blog search engine on Monday. Just had a quick chance to spin through them. They include a topic chart a bit like IceRocket and BlogPulse but without the ability to compare the relative prevalence of two or more topics eg Typepad or WordPress; more descriptive post extracts; searches which can be refined by tag topic, so you can drill down to see what is being said about that topic within a particular community; personal tag clouds (like the one on the left); and some other widget stuff like the Blog Finder, Technorati launched a while back. Following its slowdown during the summer, T'rati seems to be bouncing back - way to go guys.

Technorati Tags: IceRocket, BlogPulse, Technorati

WordPress hosted on Yahoo!

WordPress Development Blog: Following last week's announcement that Yahoo! will host SixApart's Movable Type blog platform, WordPress.org has unveiled a similar service for WordPress 2.0 hosting with Yahoo!

Technorati Tags: WordPress, SixApart

Repositioning Slough

Just arrived back in the UK, where I'm visiting friends and family for a week over the holidays. Much amused to see Slough Trading Estate advertising at Heathrow's passport control. No doubt trying to rebuild the brand following the BBC comedy series The Office, which was based there, and still battling with John Betjeman's 1937 poem, Slough:

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

More on Slough here for those not familiar with the world's first trading estate and centre of much of UK techdom. It's a bit like Mountain View without the weather.

SVW to launch first AJAX 'banner app'

Tom Foremski's about to break new ground with an AJAX banner ad, which will effectively be a mini-application on SiliconValleyWatcher. Why is this important? Because it could lead to new business models for media blogs, new marketing vehicles for companies and new value for readers.

The 'banner app' will be launched in the New Year. Tom's looking for feedback and ideas about what kind of app we'd want. Mini-email app? Blog post engine? Chance to offer a counterpoint to an article? Upload photos relevant to a post? Insert further reading links? Digg-like content voting?

For the time being Tom's keeping his cards close to his chest. The app will be developed by site sponsor, Tibco.

Technorati Tags: AJAX, SVW

del.icio.us keels over

Social bookmarking site, del.icio.us, has been down since at least 10.00pm PT Sunday night. Recently acquired by Yahoo!, the service suffered a power outage late last week, which according to the del.icio.us blog, has affected the database indexes which need to be rebuilt.

Not a great week for Web 2.0 companies following Typepad's outage on Friday. But judging by the 226 comments on its blog, del.icio.us has a faithful and loyal following.

Sidenote - some users are threatening to swap to digg, which isn't a social bookmarking service, but a news ranking engine where visitors vote (or digg) for the content they like. They're not really competitive - I use both.

Technorati Tags: del.icio.us, digg, Typepad, Web 2.0