I am pleased to announce that I will now have a guest blogger posting here with me from time to time. Paige Taylor is a recent college graduate majoring in creative writing,
New analytics tools should drive even more businesses into social media use
A few weeks back, Twitter announced the release of a new web analytics tool that will allow webmasters and businesses to begin tracking the traffic that is driven in by the popular social networking tool. Twitter has grown into one of the largest social media services on the planet with over 100 million users worldwide and it will continue to grow in the corporate landscape with new tools such as this.
Up until the announcement from Twitter a few weeks back, the landscape for tracking and crunching statistics tied to social media platforms has generally been a tough go. Even though analytics tools grow at a good pace, the social media realm is growing at an exponential rate currently. This makes it hard for analytics tools to keep pace. In the past, these platforms of social media have had to rely on outside vendors to get any type of data to comeback. Now that there is an official social media platform analytics tool, expect other platforms to follow suit.
The twitter tool will help site owners and webmasters understand the total amount of traffic that is being driven in through the social network. This new tool is related to Twitter’s acquisition of BackType earlier this year, a web designed program for exploring the effect of tweeting. An initial round of the analytics service was rolled out this past week to a small division of partners and then a full release is expected in the next couple of weeks.
Having a tool like this will be a great attractor for businesses on the fence about embarking into the social media landscape. Even though most seem to be up on the trend, there are still some businesses clinging to their non-tech personality. Tools like these will give businesses an easier way to track their success through social media, making it more appealing for bosses who are number and goal hungry. One would expect the other social media platforms to develop similar tools with their own branding in the near future and this will only drive more businesses in as well.
The Twitter analytics tool is just one of the great examples of growth and trends in digital marketing and social media analytics in 2011. Data tracking for social media platforms has become one of the most talked about trends in digital marketing, as well as other growing tools such as mobile development, tag management and anomaly detection.
As the importance of a digital presence becomes more pervasive in the coming years, expect the last handful of businesses to truly hop onto to the ideal of having a total online presence. As small tools such as social media analytics make things easier for the business owners and users, they will only continue to drive more and more people into the world of digital marketing.
Do you have a wordpress site and are looking to revamp it ? Tired of looking for the "Holy Grail" WordPress theme ? If you have answered yes to any of those questions , than boy do I have something for you.
This online editor allows you to create a wordpress theme with absolutely no knowledge of HTML, PHP, JavaScript or Css. The interface is very user friendly , and super intuitive. Best of all , the themes generated are all valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
Here is a screen shot of the Generator. Of course , the theme can always be modified if you know how to code , or you can hand it off to a web designer ( cough , cough lol) .
Give it a test run today , and tell me what you think. Have you come across any other generators ? Please share
Anyone that uses the Flock browser today got an email from Flock, notifiying users that development for the web browser would be discontinued,
This is what the people down at Flock had to say about it.
Support for Flock browsers will be discontinued as of April 26th, 2011. We would like to thank our loyal users around the world for their support, and we encourage the Flock community to migrate in the coming weeks to one of the recommended web browsers listed below.
Our Recommendations
Since no further security updates will be provided to keep you safe on the web, we encourage all Flock users to upgrade to one of the two browsers listed below. Both are based on the same reliable technologies as Flock, and both are being actively maintained and improved. Also, each of the following browsers has a broad selection of add-ons and extensions to customize and extend their capabilities.
If you require any additional information, please check out the Flock FAQ here
GOOGLE CHROME
Google Chrome runs web pages and applications with lightning speed
I have compiled a list of some must have Adobe Air apps that you should check out. You are probably asking your self what Adobe Air is and why you should download it.
Adobe Air is a free platform which allows the use of Html, Flash and JavaScript to create web and desktop friendly applications. Adobe Air is still fairly new ( it first launched February 28,, 2008) and is constantly being updated. Best of all it plays nice with your computer whether you are a Windows user , running Linux , or a ( gasps) Mac User. There is a huge selection of free ( and paid ) applications available for download.
( * in order to use any of the apps mentioned below you need to have Adobe Air installed , you can download it here for free
Social Media Player supports social networks like Last.FM, Twitter, Facebook, etc. , takes ideas from a lot of existing Music Players and Add new ones, have auto-update features.
Formats Supported: MP3
Features
* AudioScrobbler Support
* TrayIcon Support
* New easy to use view Media Library
* Audio Visualization
* Volume Control
* Read Tags from files
* Read Cover Image from MP3 Tag
* Shuffle Playing
* Save loaded songs to a database (SQLite3)
Import kuler themes directly into Creative Suite 3 Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Select Save Theme menu to learn more. Color inspiration. Browse and search color themes from kuler (kuler.adobe.com), an online application to create and share color harmonies.
View RSS feeds of Highest Rated, Most Popular, Newest, and Randomly Selected themes. Drag and drop themes as transparent "tear offs," to scale and view over any application.
Have you ever finished a busy days work and realized that you haven't recorded an accurate log of the work you have carried out?
Timeloc is a desktop widget that keeps track of the time you have spent working on a job or project. It will no longer be a case of guess work as to how much you need to bill your clients or assign to a project. Timeloc is ideal for both internal and external billing.
TweetDeck is your personal real-time browser, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Buzz and more.
GeeMail has everything in place which is required to access your gmail. You don’t need to configure POP and IMAP settings like traditional email clients.
Even if you are offline, compose your email, click “Send” and forget about it. GeeMail is network aware; the next time it detects Internet connection, your email is sent right away!
You don’t have to get used to a new user interface for GeeMail, because GeeMail supports the good old UI of gmail itself.
Polaris is a cross-platform desktop widget for Google Analytics. With 8 standard reports it's the easiest way keep your data always instantly available. The rich interface and swift navigation make it a pleasure to use.
Splashup Light is an image editor tailored for those that want to enhance, beautify, or merely play with their photos. Effects include Levels, Contrast/Brightness, Hue Saturation, Text Editing and Shapes and much more. Splashup Light is ideal for those using Tablet PCs and other Portable Computers, but many find it just as suitable for everyday use on their desktops.
This app does one thing , and does it well. You ever get stuck on a project and need inspiration ? Give this bad by a test drive. If you are in the creative field ( whether designer or writer ) it will definitely come in handy. Hit the button on the app , and it will give you a random message offering you some insight as to what your next step should be. give it a test drive today lol.
There are many more apps that I would love to have written about but , I just tried to consolidate it to a list of 10 , otherwise I would be here forever lol.
I have been doing alot of work on the backend of this site to try and give you, the user some tools that can be used for your website. I am super proud to present :
The Free Website Submission tool will automatically submit your website to search engines , giving our website more visibility on the web. as of now , I have 13 search engines listed , but I plan on increasing this number in the following weeks. ( I need to figure out the urls, and the particular requirements for the particular search engine). This script uses a mix of php ( to execute the scripts ) , html ( allows you to see the script) , and css ( which I used to style the layout. The Advanced Meta Tag Generator is an old project that I brought out of retirement and decided to polish it up and post it up for all to use . I will be working night and day to finish up some other scripts that i am going to place on the website ( some free, and some paid). Stay tuned for more
Here is a quick video tutorial on how to change this … To this … Using Corel Paint Shop Pro If you have any questions , feel free to ask away !!! ( forgive the quality of the screen capture , my computer was acting a little temperamental on me lol)
Just wanted to show my latest piece of Flash Design out. This is a banner I designed for ChangoBi.com . Initially I was going to create this file as a flash intro , however her .htaccess file proved a pain to tackle, ( by default most servers have a file hierarchy that they follow index.html , index.htm , index.php etc, however her file could not be modified due to some of the plugins that wee being used on her site) so instead we opted to insert it in her About Me page.
I am a Senior Web \ Mobile Developer residing in sunny Orlando Fl. I love developing awesome mobile apps, fresh web designs, playing my bass guitar and watching Robot Chicken ( Adult Swim rocks lol) .Uber Twitter addict, and leopard gecko owner.
-Christian Martell
lol) .
GOOGLE CHROME
MOZILLA FIREFOX
I will be working night and day to finish up some other scripts that i am going to place on the website ( some free, and some paid). Stay tuned for more 
Luv Jawn by Ackryte
I am a Senior Web \ Mobile Developer residing in sunny Orlando Fl. I love developing awesome mobile apps, fresh web designs, playing my bass guitar and watching Robot Chicken ( Adult Swim rocks lol) .Uber Twitter addict, and leopard gecko owner.
-Christian Martell
