Blog Tease

Tony Hsieh & Loic talk Delivering Happiness

Stephen Wise — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:24:28 +0000

Taking a rest after a 5-mile run in London, Loic Le Meur and Tony Hsieh sit down with us to discuss Tony’s insights on his upcoming book, Delivering Happiness, and their ideals on their own businesses. With Loic as the founder of Seesmic and Le Web, and Tony as the CEO of Zappos, this discussion shows a great deal of insights, from social media utilization to flying bars/clubs. Enjoy this 20 min talk and tell us what you think of these two influential personalities and how you think they put a positive spin on new web and business culture.

In case this video doesn’t load properly, click here

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Share the Love – Influence ‘Newbie’ Bloggers

Stephen Wise — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:45:15 +0000

As content creators, we have some power to influence. We can share our points of view and advice on any topic we choose with the possibility of changing the way people think or feel. Let’s use this leverage and aim towards encouraging new bloggers by making them feel welcome.

Use the ‘cocktail party’ concept of the blogosphere, and if you see a fellow blogger who has just arrived to the scene, make them feel invited by giving them a taste of what it’s like to enjoy the perks of blogging. The best of these perks could be the most simple things, such as knowing people are watching and them actively appreciating what you’re sharing with the web.

Ways to Share the Love:

Quick Comment- In 30 seconds, you’ll be able to put a smile on someone’s face. Be the first to shed some light onto their comment section. If you don’t have time to truly read their post, saying, “Interesting post. Keep ‘em coming!”, will have the same positive effect.

Share – Tweet, Digg, Stumble, and obvious other social media promotion. This is the easiest way to help them out. @reply them on twitter and even go a step beyond – add them on a flattering twitter list (ex: ‘cool-bloggers’).

Make them note-worthy – Give them a harmless link to one of their posts in one of your own. Sometimes you’ll be able find a way to relate to a topic of theirs. It wont hurt to help them out, and the surprised excitement they may get from being recognized in another’s blog WILL make their day.

Things to Consider-

An empty blog can feel lonely. Make them feel invited as they take their first daring steps into what could be their new online presence. Always remember this when you come across a new, possibly bare, blog. Think about the first time you started a blog - What would have lifted your spirits?
Treat all of those within the blogosphere as family. Support each other!
Set aside 5 minutes of your day to ‘make your rounds’ to newcomers. It’s not hard to digg a small handfull of blogs, or tweet some.
You’re experienced, so critique them. Pinpoint their weak-spots, as well as their strengths. Use this to kindly give them free advice every once in a while, and encourage them while doing so.
Hunting for beginner bloggers is easy. Use twitter search, type in ‘my blog’, and you’ll get the results of a live feed of people talking about their blog. Most the tweets in this feed consist of , “New post up on my blog.. check it out -link” or “just started a blog, what do you think of it?” or something along those lines.

Whether you truely find these people interesting or not, keep an eye out for future potential. We’ve all been beginners at something (and sometimes completely suck at first), but while learning the situation through experienced advice and practice, one can evolve to the pro level. Same goes with blogging. If theyre not interesting, help them evolve to become so. Share the love!

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New Years Resolutions throughout the Blogosphere!

Stephen Wise — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:05:12 +0000

While 2009 was well-lived, it is now dead. Instead of reflecting back on the old, let’s neglect the deceased year altogether and focus on what we can do with brand-spanking new 2010! Using this new year as a blank time-line, let’s draw some goals into it. Goals and resolutions that will enhance our everyday life and overall achievements, which we plan on starting on NOW!

In this post, we’re going to publish EVERY piece of input we get from all of you. Whether you plan on drinking more beer in ’10, learning jiu-jitsu by Summer, or finally talking yourself into getting your back waxed(I’ve seen many dude’s on my Bahamas vacation who’s back-hair alone could land them a role in ‘Planet of the Apes’), WE WANT TO HEAR IT! This community is mostly bloggers, but please, anyone and everyone should post their new year’s resolutions here via Twitter (send us an @reply w/your resolution in 140 characters or less) or simply leave your resolutions below in our comment section.

Since this is my idea, I’ll go ahead and start off with introducing myself with my own resolutions for 2010. I’m going to stick to a “top 5″ outline, and feel free to do the same.

Stephen Wise – Founder of BlogTease.com

1.) Cut out all processed food – I’m in shape now, but I want my mind and body to be at it’s prime, so for this year, I’m sticking to organic EVERYTHING. For the past few months, I’ve cut out soda and fast food, in exchange for tea and home-cooking, so I’ve already gotten past the initial hardships of this kind of dietary approach. I’ve already noticed an increase in energy, and this next year should increase it even more. Can’t wait! (yes, that’s me to the right w/ Oolong tea.)

2.) Learn better Japanese – Languages are like a game, and Japanese is one I just haven’t mastered yet. After taking a course in Elementary Japanese at a University, I learned up to a point where I can sing children’s songs and follow 3rd grade coloring books in Japanese, but I don’t believe I’d be able to survive a visit to the actual country until I get more relaxed with the language. I’ll probably raid Barnes & Noble of all of their ‘How-To’ Japanese content later this week.

3.) Meet my audience – After starting a few websites and blogs, building a strong sense 0f community, and linking with other sites, I’ve realized that I’ve never been able to get a chance to meet any of them in person or enjoy meet-ups in the city. I’d like to change that with Blog Tease this year, mostly because bloggers are some of the most interesting people to have conversation with, where my past audiences have mostly been gamers or readers who enjoy a cheap laugh. Now I can take advantage of meeting fellow content-creators.

4.) Guest Blog /Podcast more - With my earlier sites, I’ve made sure to help out within the niche in as many ways I could, by showing up in other’s podcasts or posting as a guest on other’s sites. It’s fun, simple, and it’s my favorite way to change things up and meet more people. If any of you have yet to share your voice with other bloggers, I recommend you go ahead and give it a try. You won’t regret it.

5.) Create Community – It’s easy to create community, but it usually takes time. Lots of time. I don’t plan on having a forum up until I know that we’ve got consistent readers talking to us, with us, and with each other. Right now, I’m focusing everything on Twitter, the comments here on the site, with the possibility of testing out Google Wave in the near future. I want to get to know most of you. Help us achieve this by leaving comments on our site and don’t by shy to hit us up on Twitter. I’ll be glad to respond to each and every one of you.

Tom – Build That List

“My main goal is to be making a full-time income online by 2011, but to get their my goals are:

1. Post Quality Content

2. Promote, Promote, Promote – My blog and my individual posts.

3. To Be Consistent With Steps One and Two.”

Murray Lunn – BeginnerDJ

“I dedicated 2009 to learning new skills in web design but 2010 is going to be the year I implement the–I’m starting a freelance business.

-I also plan to move to Toronto this summer. I’ve visited a few times before and I absolutely love the atmosphere. I’m already saving some cash and looking into student loans.

-I also want to make every day worthwhile, to do something remarkable each and every day. It can be small things like helping someone carry their groceries to just offering advice and support – I want to make the world around me better :)”

Kissie - Ohhh…. K!

“Maintain five blogs by posting thoughtful and useful articles once a week.

Thanks for your support.

A goal properly set is halfway reached so I’m halfway there!”

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How to Create a Blog Post Title that Draws Readers into Your Blog

Stephen Wise — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:02:27 +0000

Those few words of your post title could be what brings in traffic, making your blog go viral and spreading through the web like wildfire, or scaring all potential readers away, not even giving themselves the chance to discover your well-written gem. While there are only a few words in your blog post title- they are the most powerful words you’ll write. The power here is due to the fact that to most of your readers, the decision as to whether to read the rest of your post relies on them.

Why Blog Post Titles Matter

Blog post titles appear in:

Search engine results
Links from other bloggers
Social Media Sites
On your archives page
RSS Feeds

In all of these situations, the post title is all the reader will see, and here is where the reader makes the decision to read on. Write a title that’s confusing or boring, and you’ll bet your ass that not very many people are going to read it.

Crafting a Blog Post Title – 7 tips

How do you craft a blog post title that get people to read your blog post’s opening lines? There are several ways on writing a blog post title that will draw your readers into them. Below are seven tips on crafting a blog post title for you to keep on your mind the next time you’re looking for those right words (and every time).

Personalize Titles

When writing blog posts, you’ll most likely be writing for a vast audience of hundreds or thousands of readers. While this is true, you can make the reader feel like the post is targeted to their specific situation, especially if you personalize the language that you’re using. This can be done several ways, but the easiest way to do so is to simply use the word ‘You’ in your title.

Humor Titles

The art of comedy is a useful technique when it comes to drawing readers into your blog – IF you manage to pull it off. This technique is very useful at attracting readers from social media sites, but keep in mind that this isn’t always great for search engine results. It is possible however, to skillfully craft a humorous title spliced with search engine friendly key words.

Use Key Words

As introduced in the previous tip, key words are essential to gaining eyeballs from search results traffic. Also, including keywords tells search engines what your content is about, which will put your post higher in results for related searches.

Another interesting reason key words come in handy is because it grabs the attention of people who are visually scanning for content – I noticed this when I was looking into finding out more before buying a kindle(which I love) over the holidays. I found myself looking through an RSS feeds, taking in information in a hurry, scanning for the word ‘kindle’, before making the big buy. Because I was in a hurry, the keyword was a great attention grabber.

Ask a Question

When you ask a question, those who see it are wired to respond. Questions are great because is also leads the reader to actually leave comments on your post as well. Again, this gives you a personal touch to your post title, which we’ve discussed earlier in this list, because questions often include the word, ‘You’, rather than just some random question. I’ll write more on the importance of questions in a later post.

Create Controversy or Debate

When a reader sees a title that signifies a controversial topic that’s open for debate, they’ll often want to join in the discussion by commenting on your post. Not only will they comment on your post, but these comments will often be responses to other commenter’s comments, which they’ll be inclined to check back to. The great thing about this is that now these readers active in the discussion, will have an incentive to subscribe to your RSS feed to check out what other people are saying. Always remember to keep your content relevant to the title.

Use Power Words

It’s important to take advantage of prime words that evoke a powerful response in readers, and it will be worth it to find out what they are. There are several of these power words lurking throughout our vocabularies, but I’ve managed to pin-point a few into a small (yet powerful) list.

Easy – Mankind strives to make life easier and more efficient. Any information on accomplishing this is to humans like moths to a flame.

Free – There’s something about getting something for FREE that triggers something in most of us.

Stunning – Using words like ’stunning’ draw people in for them to judge whether the post lives up to it’s name. This is a ‘big claim’ technique.

Discover – Curiosity is one of man’s greatest weaknesses.

Secrets – Again with curiosity, this triggers a response because it promises to show us something that we don’t yet know. Similarly you could use ‘little known ways’ to secure the same response in the reader.

Be careful when using these words however. Sometimes they can leave a negative response in readers who may assume the title wont live up to it’s claim. This has been learned from years of misleading advertising schemes we’ve all ran into at some point on the web. Just try to show that you’re legitimate, without coming off as cheesy, and you should be fine.

Communicate a Benefit

This is SO IMPORTANT. When a potential reader is going through the web and comes across your post and they see a title that promises to meet a need they have, they’ll almost always click your link to read on. Identify a need in potential readers and tell them that reading your post will help them with this problem or need with your title. These are the most direct type of titles that almost SCREAM at those who come across them, and tell them what they’ll get if they read your post.

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Google Phone “Nexus One” to Come January 5th

Stephen Wise — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:30:44 +0000

Image from Engadget

Google’s new wireless phone has been trending to the tops of every social media trends and live search stream as news updates, leaks, and rumors have been brewing up big discussion just recently, as the coming year arrives. This is HUGE, and we’ve got the first leaked videos on Google’s “Nexus One” just hours ago. Google is to team with T-Mobile with this extremely anticipated device, giving a huge percent discount to those who sign a contract to use the T-Mobile wireless service. January 5th is rumored to be the release date of the Nexus One, which has very probable likelyhood to be true seeing that Google has been inviting select media sources to a press release on that date. If this is where it all goes down, this is where Big G will teach us the beauty behind the android devices that are getting rampant for the next decade.

Some speculate that this is the device that Apple should be afraid of, as it will have an impact on the market share of these types of smart phones. Interestingly enough, this is actually the first phone that could compete with the iPhone, with it’s incredible display, impressive UI, and overall glossy presentation.

UPDATE – it looks like Google pulled the first video off of Youtube, as it saw it as a violation. The second video is still up as of 2:00am Dec 31. The video that was pulled showed 10 min. of extremely impressive features of the Google Nexus One, demonstrated by someone using a French version of the phone. He demonstrated maps, videos, music, and shifted though several apps and interactive wallpapers. We’re lucky to have been able to see it before it went down. Keep an eye out for more leaked videos all week, but don’t be surprised if they don’t last more than a few hours.

After pulling together critical information from dozens of key tech sources throughout the trenches of the internet, we’ve learned the following things you need to know about the Google phone:

Price: $530 – Unlocked, straight from Google. $180 if subsidized on the T-Mobile network with a 2-year contract.

Rate Plan: $79.99/month on the T-Mobile plan, which includes unlimited texting/MMS and web data, along with 500 minutes. This seems to be the only plan available, even if you’re already on another plan with T-Mobile

Purchasing: You can buy up to five Nexus Ones per Google account (Gmail). All of this will be done online.

Cancellation: If you cancel within 120 days, you have to pay the subsidy difference ($350), or return the phone back to Google.

The subsidized price actually puts it on the same level range as the iPhone and the Verizon Droid, but we don’t know how many will be willing to fork out the full $530 right away. Let us know what you think about the pricing.

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Twetches: Where Tweets Turn into Sketches

Stephen Wise — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:33:43 +0000

Until this week, we’ve been completely out of the loop when it comes to a certain Twitter-oriented platform for artists to submit tweets as sketches. This describes exactly what Twetches.com is all about, and thanks to one of our Twitter followers (@bretmcneedesign), we’ve been introduced to this brilliant concept. Not only did Bret tell us about Twetches, but he actually submitted a his own sketch based on one of our tweets, ” Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea,” (from @blogtease)! Twetches holds a monthly contest where the Twetch with the most re-tweets by the end of any given month ends up being the overall winner for the month. Right now we’re doing well, but we need all the help we can get to win! We’d appreciate it if you can take a few seconds to head over to Twetches.com and click the green “Re-Tweet” button to our Twetch submission (the sketch with the highest re-tweet count wins).

Spread this to your friends and fellow bloggers as well, and we’ll be sure to keep you all updated on how we do. It would be exciting if we win this December Twetch Contest. Every Re-Tweet counts as a vote, and we appreciate all of you who help us out. Thanks!

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Google Chrome Just Got Even Better

Stephen Wise — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:47:37 +0000

Nearly a year after release, Google has finally whipped up a series of extensions to add on to their famed Google Chrome web browser. This is the perfect holiday gift from the guys(and girls) at Google, and after testing a few of the more attractive extensions out, it’s safe to say this update adds a genuine new level to web browsing for just about anyone.

First off, Chromed Bird, Gmail Checker, Bit.ly, Facebook, and Picnik are by far my favorite, and most time-saving extensions. Installing these take less than a few seconds each, and they are definitely a huge convenience since this nimbly fits a little thumbnail button for each extension up in the Chrome browser, allowing me to close the social media site tabs I would have previously always leave open. They even notify you with a non-intrusive bubble, showing you when you get a new tweet, Facebook notice, or email, as well as the number of each you’ve received. Some extensions even give you the option to personalize the settings that suit your needs, such as telling Facebook how often to send you updates, or choosing the color of your Twitter feed. There are dozens more than the small selection of extensions I’ve added, and I can’t wait to try the rest of them that catch my eye.

Twitter fans will absolutely fall in love with Chromed Bird, as it gives you all of the essentials for speed-tweeting (and yes, it included the new RT feature), but it even goes one huge step beyond that. They’ve included a built-in URL Shortener! As a default, bit.ly is the default shorter, but you can go into the settings to choose any of the other Url shortener sits. Speaking of Url Shorteners, bit.ly has it’s own extension, which is perfect for those who find themselves going to the bit.ly website several times to shorten and check the stats on links. Now you can simply click the tiny bit.ly fish button to get all of that live info, which appears in a bit.ly sidebar that pops out. As for Facebook, it’s exactly an extension one would expect, showing wall feeds and notifications; No news there. Ever get annoyed by intrusive ads? Of course you do, and you guessed it, there’s an extension for that called AdThwart. Pretty self-explanatory, and pretty damn useful.

For all of you who just want to tweak the web into what suits your style, go ahead and check out these extensionson Google Chrome immediately. You’ll be doing yourself a favor!

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5 Ways to be a Bad Tweeter

Stephen Wise — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:26:08 +0000

Many of you are already on the Twitter bandwagon, constantly checking in on your iPhone and laptop during meetings and class. There’s nothing wrong with being a tweetaholic, as long as you can manage to have your fun without annoying others on Twitter. I’ve put together a simple list of five bad habits that seem way too common-place on our favorite micro-blogging site these days.

1.) Constant Self Promotion Doesn’t Help Anybody but Yourself.

Twitter isn’t a place to boost your ego. It’s a place to be social and meet new, interesting people within the community. Instead of having your followers see a stream of, “I just made $384710982374 today. I’m the BOSS!”, make things a great deal less ego-centric by finding another way to share your excitement, such as, “So glad that this week is going so well. Time for a celebratory cup of coffee by the river! ;)” This may enable others to ask you what’s going on with you that’s putting you in such a great mood, or maybe even lead to them to want to meet you for that cup of coffee you’re publicly anticipating. From now on, keep all the narcissism between you and the mirror.

2.) Super-human Tweeting isn’t a Desirable Trait to Find in a Friend.

We’ve all seen this one before. And, we’ve surely made sure to block them faster than they could tweet. Please do not become one of these machines, who manage to send more than 1 tweet a minute, or pull off 500 tweets a day. This may seem fine and dandy on your side of the screen, but to all of your followers, you’re nothing more than a DOS attack on their Twitter feed. It’s alright to have your own personal peak-time each day, where you @ mention several friends for an extended moment during your free time, but try to keep it controlled. Your friends will appreciate you a lot more this way.

3.) Give Credit Where Credit is Deserved. Twitter-style Plagiarism is Ugly

Often times we see a more than clever tweet from a celebrity or quote from an author that we feel the need to share. So what do you do? You Re-Tweet it, of course, but when you do, make sure to provide the original tweeter’s @User Name. The best way to avoid this is to simply use the recently official Re-Tweet feature. If you RT the old-school way, but can’t fit their entire original message and user name in the same tweet, then this is one of the rare cases where it’s alright to use minor l33t speak, by toning down “you” and “for” to “U” and “4″.

4.) Being a Trending Socialite, in All the Wrong Ways.

One of the best parts of Twitter is being able to check out what people are saying about Trending Topics as well as being able to put in your two-cents on whatever it is that happens to be trending at the moment. Unfortunately, some people get a little too “trendy” and somehow manage to fit every single trending topic hash tag into their limited 140 character tweet. Either they’re the type of person who wants to show up in every feed, so they have a chance of gaining more followers, or they think this confirms that they’re on top of things. No matter what their intention is, it’s all garbage, and doing tso is asking to be blocked.

5.) People Don’t Want to Hear You Complain. Please Keep it Positive!

Sure twitter asks, “What’s Happening?” when you begin typing your tweets to the world, but there’s no reason to share anything that wouldn’t improve other’s quality of life, so if you’re having a bad day, please try to find something positive to say, or don’t say anything at all. It’s never impossible to at least TRY to put a positive spin on things. Perhaps you’re stressed our beyond belief after that guy nearly side-swiped you off the exit on the way back home after work, and you’re still raging. In this context, you should just take a deep breath, realize that it’s nothing to dwell on, and if you must announce “what’s happening” on Twitter, simply type something along the lines of, “Trying to relax!”

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Blog Tease Beta

Stephen Wise — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:51:12 +0000

Blog Tease is now live.. kinda. As you may know, we’re a young site. In fact, as I write this, BlogTease.com isn’t even live yet. We do have a great foundation of followers who have been keeping up with us as we near launch. For those of you who have been keeping contact with us, we appreciate everything, because you truely are our first followers and it really means alot. To show our appreciation, we’re giving some of you free access to our Ebook on how to create a website in 1 hour or less. Some of you may not need it, so why don’t you give it a mention to your friends to check it out. It basically shows the basic, essential steps to gaining your own domain (.com) and building a professional blog from the ground up. I’ll be adding more to the site in the following days, so if it looks a little crazy around here, just wait, because we’re doing alot of work behind the scenes. You’ll see significant change and improvement as Blog Tease evolves over the course of this week, into what will be our standard style. Go ahead and submit your blog at Blogtease.com if you havn’t already, and tell your fellow bloggers on twitter about our new type of website over here at Blog Tease. Thanks all!

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