Useful Self-Publishing Tools
Do it Yourself Blog & Website BuilderS on This
Server
Blogs Photo Storage & Forums ~
Twitter ~ Kijiji & Craigslist
Local Business & Product Search ~
YouTube ~ Calendar Here is a collection of free and helpful tools if your goals include
self-publishing and marketing. Combine these tools with my low cost management of your core website and you have an effective 24/7 promotion of your services.
Do it Yourself Blog, Image Gallery & Website Builders
Soholaunch
Pro Edition ~ Wordpress ~ Drupal ~ Gallery Image Slideshow
iWeb for Apple Mac Users is Also Hosted on This Server
COMPLETE LIST OF FREE APPLICATIONS ON THIS SERVER Included with every hosting account on this server are numerous
free applications, and if you want to get started all you need is an existing hosting account on this server, or contact me
.
Among
other applications is Wordpress a popular
free open source blogging tool available on
this server. Here are
some client Wordpress sites on the server:
http://bcorff.ca/ and
http://thegovernance.com/ and
http://denmanrental.com/ and
http://internalenergy.com/ and
http://victoriavipassana.org/ and here is the Wordpress Features Page:
http://wordpress.org/about/features/ and a YouTube Step-by-Step
Tutorial on How to Blog by Chris Abraham using Wordpress the
fastest-growing and most elegant free blogging service:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEWPnHY8D3E See other YouTube tutorial
files on how to use Wordpress:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wordpress&search_type=&aq=f
Also available on this server is
Drupal
another free open source web content management and publishing tool that
is broader than Wordpress. Here is a Youtube Overview of Drupal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q2aPi9ZEgs And if
you want to self publish and manage an image gallery with slideshow, the open source "Gallery" is
available on
this server. This is a very simple to use feature rich application for
managing your images in multiple "albums" and you can allow administration
permission to other people so that your club members can participate and
share images. Here is a sample client site:
www.janetoakes.com/Gallery/main.php
All you need is an existing hosting account on this server, or contact me and I will set one up for you.
NOTE TO APPLE USERS: You can use
iWeb (bundled in iLife) with your new Mac and self publish your web and
image pages easily here
on this server
for only CA$5/month. Here is a client site examples built with iWeb:
http://idaripley.com/Home.html
BLOGGER Photo Storage & Forum Sites Some of my clients self-publish to a blog that is linked to from their core website which I
manage.
This is a very
effective way for clients to have a low cost core website that requires only minimal management (edits) by me throughout the year and an alternate channel that can be self-managed by the client. There are
many free blog services:
Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/start (Google)
NOTE: Google has a single account set up now for all their online
applications:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
Here is a YouTube How to set up Blogger
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryb4VPSmKuo&feature=channel
MSN:
http://home.services.spaces.live.com (Microsoft)
MySpace:
http://home.myspace.com (News Corp)
FaceBook:
http://www.facebook.com (Microsoft etal)
There are also free photo storage services like:
Picasa:
http://picasa.google.com (Google)
NOTE: Google has a single account set up now for all their
online applications:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
Flikr: http://www.flickr.com
(Yahoo)
Shutterfly:
http://www.shutterfly.com (Shutterfly)
Gallery:
http://www.2358.ca/gallery.htm (Open Source) And free forum services:
Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com
NOTE: Google has a single account set
up now for all their online applications:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount Here are some client websites that are using blogs (I manage their websites, they manage their
blogs):
www.anthonyhamilton.org
(blog link on left side of page)
www.energyisreal.com (blog link on right under
navigation)
www.robertgordon.ca (blog link on left side of page)
www.taliswomandesign.com (blog link on right under
navigation)
TWITTER
http://twitter.com
"Twitter is the telegraph system of Web 2.0"
Nicholas Carr, Author and Technologist
Twitter Help
http://twitter.com/help/start
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and
co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of very
short posts (140 characters) to your email or phone. It's a mini-blogging
tool that allows your readers to "follow" your "tweets". ie: they can
subscribe to your updates. I use Twitter to keep my readers (here www.chpc.biz
and here
www.institutionaladvisors.com)
informed as to when I have updated either of these high traffic sites. Go
to http://twitter.com/Brian_Ripley and click "Follow" if you
want to be notified. If you do open a Twitter account and start using
it... send me the Twitter Widget (which shows the last 10 tweets) and
Badge scripts, and I can publish them on your site. See:
http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/15354-twitter-badges-and-widgets EBAY kijiji & Craigslist
& UsedEverywhere.com Kijiji is ebaY's free classified local website listing service. Start here http://www.kijiji.com click on your location and then register yourself. Also available is the granddaddy of free classified services Craigslist
http://craigslist.org/about/cities.html
... just click on your city and set up an account and start promoting your
products and services.
And UsedEverywhere.com a division of
Black Press in Victoria BC
www.usedeverywhere.com/ another excellent easy to use free online
classified serving, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. GOOGLE
Local
& Product Search
NOTE: Google has a single
account set up now for all their online applications:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount Google has a "local"
search engine for locating businesses in your own area. Register your
business or service in their Localized Search Engine database for free
here:
https://www.google.com/local/add/login?gl=US&hl=en-CA It takes a few weeks to get approval from Google.... they will mail
you a postcard (or auto phone you) to verify the address of your business. It is worth getting listed in their database of your local area. This ability to search locally is diminishing the use of expensive print advertising and directories as exponentially more
people use the internet to find information about goods and services in their own neighborhoods. Google also takes the localized internet a step further with
Google Product Search:
http://www.google.com/base/help/sellongoogle.html
which is Google's product search engine and shopping directory.
It is a free service for merchants who have a physical store and products to sell. As a merchant, you can list
one item or all of your inventory.
YouTube
NOTE: Google has a single account set
up now for all their online applications:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount YouTube (owned by Google) is a free service for sharing your videos worldwide. You can customize playlists and subscriptions and even embed your YouTube videos into your
own
website. Set up an account from here www.youtube.com/signup and here
is a website that effectively uses YouTube:
www.anthonyhamilton.org/video.htm GOOGLE
Calendar
NOTE: Google has a single account set
up now for all their online applications:
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount This is a free web based calendar application that you can use to create any number of public or private calendars and allow permission for others to update and add
event entries. Set up the calendar from here: www.google.com/googlecalendar/tour.html For those of you who have me updating your
website calendars... you (or whoever you give permission to) can self-publish your own calendar listings and events. For clients who have the urge to self-publish,
the Google Calendar Application is a great tool.
Here are client websites that are using a Google Calendar embedded in the
client's website: www.gcr.alanrudrum.com/calendar.htm
and
http://www.jinshindo.ca/calendar.htm and
www.davidgreenshields.com/events.htm
Send me your calendar script if you want your calendar to dynamically display on your site. Instructions here:
www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=41207 |
