Ash Buckles

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What is FavFollow?

We all have our own network on Twitter and although there is overlap it’s difficult to know which friends-of-friends to follow. This allows us to share our favorite Rockstar Twits with our network.

For example: I can tell you about the Rockstars I follow and why I appreciate them so much.

What this is not:

• This is not a contest
• There are no votes
• There is no deadline
• There is no pandering
• There are no expectations

Why FavFollow?

For many, Twitter has gotten to the point where we follow more people than we can possible *listen* to. How do we handle this? Some use software like TweetDeck to create groups and others follow everyone on the web and send their favorites to their mobile; keeping in touch only through sms. On occasion we all check into Twitter Search but that information doesn’t come to us.

How do I participate?

I suggest we use the tag: #favfollow, and a few standards, to make it easy to promote our Rockstar twits.

Suggestions:

• use hash tag #favfollow
• mention the person to follow: @ashbuckles
• tell your network why they’re a Rockstar twit in your mind
• include things they tweet so we know what to expect from them
• maybe include their frequency; scale 1 (low) to 10 (high)
• maybe include the mood of their feed (e.g. sarcastic, funny, serious, safe [work/family], unsafe)
• WARNING: don’t start your tweet with the person’s name or some people in your network will not receive your tweet.

Example tweet: #favfollow @ashbuckles Very passionate about Twitter. Offers advice on marketing. Shares links on Wordpress, SEO, Promotions. Freq=7/10.

Who is involved in this?

Anyone. Everyone. But seriously I like to think that I, Ash Buckles, came up with this all by myself because I’m just that good.

Disclosure: I didn’t do any research to verify the above statement; mostly because I’m lazy.

Comment below with additional suggestions and feedback. Let’s make this about all of us!

Please use the link below to retweet this post. Much appreciated!

**Not to be consfused with: favefollow, fav follow or fave follow.

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These paintings have been a couple months in progress as I’ve played with some different ideas and tested many techniques to get what I wanted here. This project also gave me the chance to begin my Ustream feed and get familiar with live streaming.

I’m currently working on a couple of variations because of where these techniques took me and I hope to include those in my next live art show.

Each of these are 12 x 12 inches.

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Ever wonder what makes Google display two sequential listings or how it determines what pages from the same site to list next to one another. It comes down to popularity, interest, links and relevance.

No matter who you like, there is a lot of chatter about both candidates and even Google agrees that Twitter is hot for Obama right now. The 91,000+ followers on Obama’s Twitter account and the amount and frequency of posts is pushing his account to the number two listing in Google.

You can view all the tweets about the election but as fast as they go you need to hover over any tweet to pause the updates.

This is a great lesson in SEO to show the relationship that should exist throughout your site; especially among your popular pages and your money pages. Talk about them. Link to them. Be amazing enough (your product/offer) to get others to link to them.

How can you make your most important page(s) pop?

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So I’ve been busy this month get my new blog, Reasons To Blog, released and promoted and I’ve neglected to update you on my Google listing status for my keyword, Ash.

It’s been nearly a month since my last update and I haven’t done much to continue to promote my site for the keyword Ash so there hasn’t been a lot of movement either. About a week ago I noticed my listing showing at #88 and then a few days later at #82. Today I’m showing at #102 which is still better than my last position of #108. It will continue to rise and I’m not too worried about it. Overall my traffic is beginning to return as well with much of my new traffic coming from *cough* Twitter *cough*.

Keep up with my quest to get to page one on Google for my keyword Ash by following each of my updates.

Shameless plug: I’m speaking at WordCamp Utah in 10 days. Get registered.

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I was turned on to Natasha’s website, blog, eBay store, etsy store and twitter feed about two weeks ago and I fell in love with her work. I’ve shared her site with a few people and even gathered a few ideas for Christmas presents.

Mostly, I’m impressed with her talent and her ability to take it online through so many social sites and avenues to find an audience.

Here’s some of her work. Go support her.

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How your users view and read web pages can make a huge difference in your success in stepping your users through to the next page, form, shopping cart or whatever desired result.

Several usability tests have been performed over the years and simply reading about usability will open your eyes but testing is the best way to find the most success for your audience and product.

If you haven’t seen heat maps you’ll be surprised to see how well these visualize wear your users eyes are focusing on your web pages. Once you’ve tested your pages you can place your messages, buttons, links and call-to-action in the most appropriate places for the highest success rate.

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UPDATE: Minimum bid has been dropped.

Stephanie and Christian Nielson were involved in a horrific plane crash and are in critical care with burns covering most of their bodies. Their four children are being placed with family as they begin their long recover and everyone is making do the best they can. Follow along here.

We participated in a balloon launch last week to raise money and launch balloons (a Nienie family tradition) so we could take pictures for Nienie and Christian’s hospital rooms. We want them to see how much they’re thought about while they recover.

The blog world has now opened a ton of auctions to further raise money and continue to spread their story. See what my wife is donating along with 165+ other auctions that close at various times during the next couple of days.

I am donating the following:

SEO for Wordpress Package

• I will perform the following:
  • Install plugins to your Wordpress blog/site for SEO purposes
  • Properly setup each plugin
  • Email you (one-time) links to the best SEO resources and share a few little known secrets about SEO
  • Impart over 10 years of SEO wisdom to your blog/site
  • Tell random strangers about you on my blog including a free link; this is good for SEO, but shhh, don’t tell anyone
  • Twitter, to more random strangers, about my blog post about you
  • I’ll even mention you on my new blog; another free link
  • Make you feel better about yourself for donating to such a worthy cause
  • Eat Red Vines in your honor

Rules:

• This is only available for Wordpress
• Bid in $1 increments and be generous
• Auction closes Sunday, August 31 at 12 midnight MDT
• I will not teach you SEO in person or on the phone
• I will not be your SEO consultant
• Publish your bid in the comment below (name and email required)
• Highest bidder wins!

* At the end of the auction, I will post the bid and the winner. If you are the winning bidder, I will then direct you to donate to Stephanie and Christian’s paypal account and ask for a receipt by email.

Please repost, retweet, pass along, tell your network, email your friends and call your mom. Nienie’s family needs your help and I don’t like to work for free; unless it’s for Nienie, whom I’ve never met and know very little about.

Thanks to Design Mom and all the bloggers getting involved.

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My new blog launched this week, called Reasons to Blog, with the purpose of showcasing successful blogs, videos, viral marketing campaigns, social media networking and more.

I’m constantly discussing the purpose of blogging, with most people misunderstanding it and wondering why anyone would want to waste their time writing about stuff that tons of other people are already writing about. The purpose is to find an audience and speak to them. Hopefully with greater success than by other means and possible just because you’ve captured their attention long enough to convince them about your message.

I’ve struggled to keep a record of all the successful campaigns and this new blog is meant to fix that problem.

If you know of a successful story that hasn’t been discussed, please submit your story.

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Writing is a huge part of blogging but keeping motivated is a lost cause. Looking through several websites for tips on how to beat writers block and best websites for writers, we see so many repetitive ideas we already know. Just this week we heard from ProBlogger on this same issue, less than 24 hours after I started this draft.

On StumbleUpon, I’ve been finding some really cool sites that help to keep writing interesting and I decided to share them with you here.

One idea is http://www.writerhymes.com - It’s a little weird in it’s functionality but a cool idea that can help spark an idea. Once you figure out how the clicking works you’ll be greeted with several rhyming words to complete your sentence or poem.

Besides the pencil sharpener that reminds me of elementary school it gets you in a rhyming mood, which is fun and productive.

Another site is http://www.writesomething.net - This site is great for keeping you writing even when you have nothing to say. You can read short posts from others and roll with the words without having “your” story in mind.

Keep in mind that this site seems to be an experiment in social community and technology and not so much a true writing resource. However, don’t let this keep you from finding the inspiration you need to unblock your mind.

The next site is http://oneword.com - This is my favorite so far because it gives you one word and 60 seconds to write your most interesting piece. It’s like that lame exercise in English class where your teacher asks you to write for two minutes straight without stopping; even if you can’t write intelligible sentences. Yeah, that one. But what’s great about it for writing is that you can’t out-think your writing and keep yourself from getting going again.

Something else I’ve found to be interesting, right or wrong, is to write a post and save it as a draft. After a few days, re-write the post without referencing your first draft and see if you have anything new to say. This has worked well for me in remembering to add everything I intended as well as ensuring that I’ve completed my thoughts.

Whatever you decide, find something that works for now and forget about it. Then next time, find something for that moment and work with it. The rut we get into comes from trying to force writing and doing so in a direction that we think it should go.

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