Jenn’s Other Blog

Friday is your last chance to sign up now for BlogWorldExpo 2008 at the best possible rate, so don’t miss it! The Conference is September 20-21 in Las Vegas.

I went last year, and learned a lot, so I’m planning to go back this year. From the site:

BlogWorld features the largest blogging conference in the world including more than 50 seminars, panel discussions and keynotes from iconic personalities on the leading-edge of online technology and internet-savvy business. If you are currently blogging, vlogging, podcasting, producing other forms of new media content, entering the new media industry, or just want to know what the blogosphere is all about, then you need to be at the most comprehensive blogging convention–BlogWorld & New Media Expo. Located in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center at: 3150 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV 89109

Vegas, baby! See you there.

Note: You can support Ft. Hard Knox by signing up using one of the links from this site. Also, if you would like to become an affiliate, and register your own blog readers, click here, or on the affiliate link at the top right of this page.

(Updated)

Do you have an online presence, or is your online reputation a bit hap-hazzard, with um-teen different ID’s and profiles on who-knows-how-many social networking sites out there? It’s time to get it together, and show some virtual self-respect. Developing an effective online profile takes a little planning and work, but it is not difficult, if you follow these four easy steps.

1. Choose a name.

   This is the name you’re going to use everywhere online, so choose wisely. You can use your own name, of course, but if you have safety and privacy concerns, you may want to choose a pseudonym. I recommend choosing a name that sounds like a real name (i.e., has a first and last name, like “Jenn Sierra”), so that you’ll also be able to use it on sites like Facebook and Linked-In. Alternatively, some social networkers choose a name that reflects their online interests or political stance (e.g., Foeammer, or bamapachyderm).

   Keep in mind, that if the name you choose is too overtly “anti” any group of people, including anti-jihad, it may eventually be banned by some of the more politically correct social networking sites, and/or make you a target for “burying” by the users on those sites. Your courage in choosing such a name is commendable, but you may find that it becomes more tiring than you think to have to continuously “start over” with new user ID’s and profiles.

2. Get a free e-mail account using your new name.

   This can be done through a plethora of e-mail services like g-mail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.. Don’t use your internet service provider (like AOL, or Cox), because if you change providers, you’ll lose your e-mail address. Begin developing a list of contacts and networking with those contacts by e-mail whenever possible.

3. Choose an avatar.

   This is the little picture that will be beside your username nearly everywhere. Choose one you like…it should be a square, and save it to your harddrive or photosharing site in a few different sizes, from 50×50 pixels to about 400×400 pixels.

4. Join social networking sites, using your new e-mail address, avatar, and name.

   …or as close to your name as you can get. The longer the site has been active, the more likely someone has already used that name, so you may have to add a number or a suffix to your user ID on some sites.

   Join networks as you discover them. You will be more active on some networks than others. On some, you’ll simply be reserving your username, but on a few, you’ll be actively developing online networking relationships by participating in voting on articles and especially in the discussions.

   On the more established networks like Facebook and Stumblupon, use the friend-finder feature which checks your e-mail address books for friends that are already using the social networking sites. This helps you develop a friends-list quickly.

And there you go - you have a Web 2.0 presence. Take care of it. Your reputation online is as valuable as your repuation in “real life.”

Update: See Get a Gravatar, by ChrisG of Blogging and New Media

(Also on FHK)

This weekend, I tried to help my parents get a new converter box, so that they’ll be ready for the federal switchover from analogue to digital TV next year (February 17, 2009). The government, in its infinite wisdom (yes, that’s sarcasm), is issuing $40 checks to help with the expense for people who don’t have digital T.V., or cable.

The catch is that those coupons have to be used in 90 days, or the coupons expire - and the stores are having trouble keeping the “coupon eligible converter boxes” (CELB’s) in stock. I tried several places online, and they were also out of stock. So, what are you supposed to do, if you can’t buy a converter box before your coupons expire?

Well, you can re-order the coupons, and try again. That’s what we’re doing. We’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

What we don’t understand is why the coupons expire. We all know that the government has no money of its own, so it’s using the money it gets from us, the taxpayers, to give us either $40 or $80 (depending on whether you ask for one coupon or two - two being the limit per household) of our own money back to help pay for something it decided to do without asking us in the first place. But we only have 90 days to use our money - whether or not the stores have the merchandise. Then the oh-so-generous “offer” expires.

Good grief. Will Rogers was right when he said,

“Be glad you’re not getting all of the government you pay for.”

Thankfully, if you’re using cable, satellite or the phone company for your T.V., you won’t need one of these boxes. Everyone who’s stuck with roof top antennaes or rabbit ears, however, probably will. U.S. Rep Tom Cole (R-OK) has some very helpful information on his site, here, and the official coupon site is here (retailer list here).

(Also on GCV)

Buying (and in some cases hoarding) domain names is still a big business for some seeking to make a profit online. One of the most famous domain name battles was the one over the WalMart.com / Wal-Mart.com domain name, in which an early domain name speculator bought the Walmart.com domain name, hoping to make a huge profit when Wal-Mart finally went online. Wal-Mart turned the tables on him by adding a hyphen to its name and domain name, making the original domain name virtually worthless at the time. Lawsuits ensued.

If you type in either Wal-Mart.com or WalMart.com, you’ll see who eventually won that battle.

Another tactic used by domain name speculators is to grab up the alternate top-level domains (TLD’s) like .org, .net, .tv, .info, .gov of famous organizations, or catch-phrases that promise to be popular. Remember “Don’t Taze me, Bro!”? Some industrious person(s) went to GoDaddy.com, and grabbed up donttazemebro.com, donttazemebro.net, donttazemebro.org, donttazemebro.info, donttazemebro.tv…etc..

Well, as of today, there’s a new domain name craze. “.me” is the TLD for Montenegro, but has lots of possibilities for domain name speculators worldwide. (hmmm…I wonder if help.me, love.me, bite.me, and youdontknow.me are taken?)

Hat-Tip: Quick Online Tips

Also on Ft. Hard Knox

This post is dedicated to FHK’s Ron, our IT Guy, who has been trying to get me to use target=”_blank” in our outbound links for over a year. Sorry, Ron…you know…the ADD thing…

Now, where was I? Oh, yes! You know what’s really maddening as a blogger? When you research and post a great blogpost, with some great links, and when you check your “IP’s” and “actions” later on your stats, you realize, readers found your article, then promptly clicked out of our blog to your link, never to return. How can this be avoided?

Code your hyperlink to open in a new window (this makes it easier for your readers to get back to your article), by adding (minus the brackets): [target="_blank"] to your hyperlink, so it would look like this:

For more information about using hyperlinks, see “Adding Hyperlinks,” or the WWF Wiki.

Chad, of the Grizzly Groundswell, reminds us that if you are using the visual editor in Wordpress, one of the drop-down options available in the “link” box is the option to have the link open in a new window. Using this, you will not have to enter the code manually.

Also see:

• The FHK Hyperlinks Archive
• HTML Code Tutorial