Use 15 Bookmarking Services With 1

OnlyWire.com Use One Bookmarklet Instead Of 15Consolidation of web services is the next big thing on the web and OnlyWire is on the bandwagon providing a service that allows one bookmarklet to take the place of 19 others.

Online bookmarking really took off once del.icio.us hit the web. del.icio.us offers a way for users to store all of their bookmarks in one place on line, sharing of bookmarks with friends, and also allowed a way for users to check out what their friends were bookmarking. Since the launch of del.icio.us there have been a countless number of other bookmarking sites to hit the scene such as Blue Dot, Furl, Diigo, Spurl ect. You may have developed a favorite amongst all of these different offerings, but what if you could use nineteen different bookmarking services through only one? That is precisely what OnlyWire allows you to do.

Synopses:

OnlyWire provides users with a bookmarklet which is tied into nineteen different bookmarking services. Once you add something to OnlyWire, that bookmark is then added to each one of the other nineteen bookmarking services you actively have an account on. Note what I just said. You must have an active account on one or more of the nineteen bookmarking services that OnlyWire is tied into if you want your bookmarks to be published on those sites.

Why Bother:

You may be wondering why anyone would ever have nineteen separate accounts on nineteen separate bookmarking sites? Having an account on each of those services and then using OnlyWire to publish to all of them at once allows podcasters, bloggers and content producers to easily expose their content to a wider audience. I’m not saying that you should be exclusively using this service to only bookmark your content because that is a form of abuse, but there is nothing wrong with occasionally tagging your own content every once and awhile. This will generate an increase in traffic on your end and having your content on those nineteen services provides at least nineteen more back links to whatever site it is your promoting.

Creating An Account:

Creating an account is pretty simple. Provide a username, password, type in the associated CAPTCHA image text and off you go. One thing worth noting is that OnlyWire will automatically bookmark OnlyWire.com and the OnlyWire Sponsor site on each of the bookmarking services you are participating with. The good news is that OnlyWire will only bookmark the Sponsor link once.

The Boring Part:

Once your account is created, it will automatically be logged into OnlyWire.com. Near the top of the SERVICES page, you will see an area designated for BOOKMARK TOOLS: These tools are the actual OnlyWire bookmarklets you will need to use to publish items to your account. Unlike Blue Dot, OnlyWire allows you to bookmark pages that contain Frames and ones that don’t. Most sites however, are generally void of frames so you’ll most likely only use the Save Page (NO FRAMES) bookmarklet. On a funny note, OnlyWire uses the acronym (STD) to describe the bookmarklet that saves pages with no frames. The bookmarklet is safe to use, so don’t worry about catching anything!

Also on the SERVICES page their will be two columns of text boxes, one for usernames and the other for passwords. Each set of boxes is for a particular bookmarking site. Be sure to fill out the appropriate details for each service your apart of or the OnlyWire bookmarklet will be unable to post to those sites. This would be a good opportunity for you to create accounts on each site you don’t already have one with by clicking on the link to the left of the text boxes. I managed to create accounts on all but five of the services listed. Those sites I couldn’t register with were apparently having some account registration issues that prevented me from getting an account. If this happens to you, just skip them.

Using The BookMarklet:

Using the bookmarklet couldn’t be any easier. Once you come across a piece of content on the web you would like to bookmark, simply click the Bookmarklet button in your browser. Usually the title and the website link will appear automatically. Always add tags to your items. These tags play an important role as they allow members of each bookmarking site to find your content. Think of tags as keywords and keyword phrases that users would type into a search box to find your content. You can choose whether to keep your tags private or not, but if you want to shoot yourself in the foot be sure to mark them as private. You don’t have to, but it is generally a good idea to put in a snippet about the particular item you are bookmarking. Those who find your content will be grateful for the short description.

Final Thoughts:

OnlyWire is a great service as it allows users to consolidate at least 19 bookmarklets into one. Not only does this save time and energy but it could potentially help you clean up your browser window by allowing you to get rid of the individual bookmarklets you may have from different bookmarking services. As I registered an account to all of those services I didn’t have an account on, I noticed that each one came with it’s own browser plugin/bookmarklet which would of made my FireFox browser a mess.

Using OnlyWire in the proper way should really benefit web masters as it allows them to really push their content to a wider audience. As noted previously, if you use OnlyWire to only bookmark content on your own site, you are generally abusing the service which puts your account at risk of being suspended or banned. Bookmark your own content sparingly. Also try to play an active role in these social bookmarking communities by adding users as friends, sharing bookmarks, bookmarking the same things your friends are bookmarking ect. After all, it wouldn’t be Web 2.0 without having a good bit of social interaction within a community.

Learn More:

If you would like to learn more about OnlyWire, I suggest downloading and taking a listen to Pete Balasch’s episode 15 of the Internet Marketing And SEO Tips Podcast. This episode covers OnlyWire and why web masters should seriously consider jumping on board and using the service.

If you prefer one bookmarking service over another, please tell us why in the commenting section.

Amung.Us Crew Rolls Out Updates

Graphs.amung.us logo

The crew who brought you the free real-time concurrent user stats widget who’s.amung.us has unveiled a brand new service called graphs.amung.us.

For the graphs by year and by month we use averaged data from the hours and days to give you a better idea of how your site is doing. By day and by hour are the actual real time data points so you can see exactly what is happening. – graphs.amung.us team

This new graphing widget allows website owners to conveniently check how many concurrent people were on their site in the past, down to the hour. The graph features four different views: by year, by month, by day, and by hour This is an example of what the graph looks like while embedded into a web page.

Click to see full version by whos.amung.us

The graphs are also search able either via text or by clicking on the calendar icon and selecting a date. Here is an example of a graph containing data that you can search http://graphs.amung.us/graph/dzsg93pq/monthly/latest

Who's amung us widget colorwheelAside from the new graphing service, the amung.us team has published a brand new color wheel which finally allows web masters to change the color of the who’s.amung.us widget so that it can blend into your design. This was always a problem with the old widget as it was sometimes difficult to blend into a website design.

Last but not least, the amung.us website has been redesigned so that each widget’s individual webpage is linked to every other webpage. Excellent choice on their part as this allows browsers to seamlessly travel between one widget page to the other.

Solve Your Web2pt0 Identity Crisis With Onxiam

Onxiam.com LogoCreating accounts on new Web 2.0 sites is the easy part as most sites only require an email address and a username however, managing all of those accounts can be tough.

 

Onxiam pronounced (ON-X-I-AM), a Web 2.0 service aimed at consolidating all of your online identities into one simple page makes managing all of those accounts a breeze by allowing you to promote a single identity which provides links to all of your other online identities. Simply put, this service places your online presence onto one page so that instead of telling friends and family where you are and what your username is on a particular website, you simply send them one link which provides all of the information they need such as your username on a particular service.

Onxiam was created by Kevin Poulsen based out of Chicago, Illinois.

As I joined more and more online communities, I found myself constantly saying to people “On [website] I am [name].” This was getting tiresome, and I thought that there just had to be a better way of promoting myself to my friends, my family and to the online world as a whole.

I looked around but didn’t find anything, so I decided to build it myself. “Kevin Poulsen”

 

The Account Process:

Setting up a new account is fairly straight forward. As with most Web 2.0 sites you need to provide an email address, username and a password. Once the supplied information is provided you will automatically be logged into the site and will be presented with a page that provides a complimentary greeting. From this page, you can add what Onxiam calls IDENTITIES to your account.

 

The Social Aspect:

The Onxiam Invite service which provides a way for registered users to invite their friends to join

Although Onxiam fails to provide a way for registered users to communicate with each other through the service itself, knowing your friends identities on various services such as AIM or SKYPE allows you to get in contact with those individuals, indirectly because of Onxiam. If you perform a search and discover that one of your friends is not listed as being a registered member, be sure to send them an email invitation through the Onxiam invite service. The invitation will contain some generic text stating that you would like that person to join the service. Registered users can also add websites that are not already listed in the site directory. Once a site is added, it is instantly available for other users to use however, items such as icons and the ability to link directly to user profile pages does take some time to be added to the site.

 

Identity Crisis:

One thing to keep in mind while creating your identities is that you do have the option of making them PRIVATE which is great considering you may not want people following you around the net EVERYWHERE you go. From your Onxiam home page, click on the ADD link which is underneath the text MY INDENTITIES. The drop-down list contains what seems like a never ending list of all of the different sites and services currently in the Onxiam database. Once you select the site your apart of, type in your username for that site into the box on the right hand side. If you want this entry to be private, be sure to uncheck the box labeled PUBLIC. If you fail to uncheck this box, the account information will be listed in your public profile. Once you have that information typed in, press the ADD button. Your identity for that specific website will now be listed on your Onxiam home page.

 

My Opinion

This service is incredibly easy to use and although some new competition in this consolidating space has recently arrived (findmeon.com) Onxiam provides a simple, clear way of putting your entire online presence onto one page. So far, I have yet to come across a service that makes this process any easier.

One of the disconcerting things about this service is that the development blog has gone silent. The last post published on the dev blog dates back to October 31, 2006. Although Keven has built a service that in many ways can run on it’s own, it would be nice to see a fairly updated development blog to prevent users from creating a mentality that the service is dead. Another surprising fact is that the service is still free to use and is void of advertising. I’m not sure how much of being ad free will play into Onxiam’s future but it is refreshing to see a simple service that is not plastered with ads.

 

Conclusion

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Adam Jackson from http://www.adamjacksonlive.com for pointing me to this site. In a recent DailyTechTalk Talkcast I asked Adam if there were any Web 2.0 site/service consolidation services out there and this is the one he pointed me to. Good choice Adam.

On my quest to join all of the Web 2.0 sites and services on the net, Onxiam is like a godsend to me. I think of it as being everywhere on the net from one place. Be sure to bookmark http://www.onxiam.com/people/Jeffro2pt0/ if you have the chance to keep tabs on me. If you have an even better solution be sure to post it in the comments.

Crank Up The TweetVolume

TweetVolume.com LogoI recently discovered this site by accident and although it’s use is fairly simple, it gives the user a chance to look deep inside in the Twitterverse.

TweetVolume is a service which uses a combination of Twitter and Google to visually show how many times a word or phrase has been used on the Twitter Network. Although the Twitter userbase makes up a small portion of the Internet, it is quite entertaining to figure out what the GENERAL interests are within the Twitter community.

TweetVolume in action showing how many times the words Tea, Coffee and Water have appeared on Twitter

For instance, Coffee appears over 15,000 times while Tea appears only 5,010 times and Water only appears 3,920 times. Therefor, it is safe to assume that the majority of Twitter users are coffee drinkers. It’s also interesting to note that the word Lunch appears over 17,000 times which is the highest amount when compared with other times of the day. So now we know what workers are really doing on their lunch breaks.

If I had one suggestion, it would be to somehow someway include the actual Twitter message or messages that included the searched term. This set of results could also be complimented by the username who created the message and then the username could link to their Twitter page. Think of these as Twitter Referral links which would show the actual post that the word was used in. I think that would be pretty cool.

I’ve already spent an hour dabbling with the service and I’m sure I will probably waste even more time trying to figure out what the buzz is all about within the Twitterverse. Give it a shot and report back with your findings!

TalkShoe Changes Payout System

If you have yet to get on the podcasting bandwagon, this may be the time to get a ride. Talkshoe will be paying more to those with live audiences.

Here is a copy of the email I received today:

As you know, TalkShoe exists for the purpose of live interactive podcasting. And a live interactive podcast is more valuable when lots of people download it. So starting July 1, 2007, we’re planning to change our TalkShoe Cash system to reward live interactive Talkcasts as follows:

Talkcasts that draw at least 1% of their listeners live each month will earn our top payout rates. Across all of TalkShoe, we are currently seeing 2.1% live participation so this is not a hard-to-reach threshold.

Here’s how the calculations will work: Each live listener will qualify you for 100 downloads at the high payment rate. Downloads over and above 100 (per live listener) will receive a lower payment rate. For example, if you have 150 live listeners and 20,000 downloads during a month, your live listeners and 15,000 downloads will receive the high payout rate. 5,000 downloads will receive a lower payout rate.

It’s important to recognize that you can still upload non-TalkShoe-based (AKA “offline”) podcasts and episodes — there’s no scenario where uploading an offline episode will reduce your earnings on your other Talkcasts or downloads. More episodes and more downloads are always a plus, but much more of a plus with more live listeners. Even offline episodes will earn the top payout rate if your total of live listeners for the month at least 1% of your total downloads.

What should you do? Drive live participation! Encourage your listeners to join live, creating a fun, entertaining, and satisfying interactive experience — for them, for your time-shifted listeners, and for you the host.

What if the live, interactive format doesn’t work for your podcast? You’ll still be able to use TalkShoe for free hosting and earn cash at one of the best rates in the industry.

If you have been thinking about podcasting but have yet to cross the other side of the fence, now may be a good time to do so. If you have something passionate that you would like to share with others, you can use Talkshoe to do most of the heavy work for you and be paid a few bucks while doing it. Getting paid to podcast, sounds like a good deal to me.

New Fan Of Tumblr

After listening to the Net@Nite podcast with Leo Laporte where Leo interviews the founders of Jaiku and Tumblr, I have decided to take the plunge and give the Tumblr service a try. I must say that I am very impressed with how easy it is to publish content. Using the bookmarklet feature that you can use directly from FireFox, you can add content that you discover on the net straight to your Tumblr site to share with the rest of the world. The bookmarklet does an excellent job in creating the link to the source of the content allowing you to just copy the content, and add it to your Tumblr blog. The bookmarklet seamlessly does the rest.

Using Tumblr is also fun. They have a really cool feature which I feel Efx2.com could benefit from called Reblogging. ReBlogging let’s you quickly share content you discover on other tumblelogs, and even add or change the commentary. Imagine coming across a cool post on someones Efx2 blog such as one of those meme types of posts. You could simply click a Reblog link for that post and it would automatically put the same post into your blog, allowing you to change the content of the post and publish it on your own blog.

One of the downsides to Tumblr right now is the ability to discover other Tumblelogs. There is no central repository of Tumblrs nor are their any ways to browse amongst the active Tumblr blogs. However, it does appear as though they will be addressing this issue sometime in the near future.


“More ways to find friends – It seems like a no-brainer to show friends of your friends, but we have some interesting tools for this that aren’t quite ready uncover. More ways to discover tumblelogs are right around the corner. “

The reason I love Tumblr is because I can quickly add content that would otherwise take me quite a bit of time to publish on my very own blog. I also listened very closely to Leo Laporte when he described the three different types of blogging going on across the web. Those are:

Micro Blogging: This is where Twitter and Jaiku come in handy. With just 140 characters to create a post, this is used to quickly share thoughts random ideas. Something short.

MidRange Blogging: This is where Tumblr excels as it allows you to easily share content you deem interesting on the web. There is no need to write an extensive post about the particular piece of content. Simply post and move on. Continue reading →