Window into fast blogging with Apple short cut keys – (no pun intended)

Does Cutting and Pasting seem too tedious?

• Is your left hand jealous of the right hand always having the mouse? Cutting and pasting can go lickedy-split if you get both the right hand and the left hand doing something. Did you realize that both Apple and IBM have short cut keys for that left hand to participate? Speed up your blog typing and let your fingers follow your brain faster by getting used to these handy shortcuts. The letters themselves don’t necessarily make a lot of sense but are placed so that it is easy for the left hand to manipulate. The letters used are on the lower left of the keyboard: Z, X, C, and V.   So the computer could realize you wanted to do something different than the letters, you use the special  ”apple key” located to the left of the space bar like a shift key. Windows followed suit using the the ctrl (control) key similat to operation to the shift key. The short cuts are:
• Ctrl-Z is undo
• Ctrl-X is cut
• Ctrl-C is copy
• Ctrl-V is paste

And for those adventurous types you can venture from the bottom row and Ctrl-A is select all.

Freedom of speech in the blogosphere – the role of RSS

Real Simple Syndication (RSS) is what drives the blogosphere. It is what enables bloggers to be both the reporter and the publisher. It provides a mechanism for the bloggers at Council Blogs to have an avenue for publishing, a way to broadcast to the world. It also gives us bloggers a mechanism for readers to subscribe to our pearls of wisdom. From my speaking engagements I find RSS the least understood aspect of social media. The underlying programming techniques of RSS paved the way for interactivity, which in turn paved the way for social media applications to spawn and grow. With RSS, now instead of one AP wire, we have a million AP wires. With so much information at our fingertips, the challenge for future generations will be how to discern credible sources. As small business owners we should be happy that with the internet and social media we have the freedom to interact closely with our customers. We have a generally untapped resource at our disposal. During your Fourth of July holiday you may want to consider how the freely flowing information could impact a stronger relationship with your customers. At the cyber wigwam we would like to hear about your successes in using social media for your business. Feel free to comment below.

Remember to tag your posts in 2012- The Year of Findability

At Council Blogs we consider 2012 the year of Findability. Every week we highlight advances in SEO as part of our blogging club meeting. What can you do to make your site findable when people are looking for your talents or services? It’s easy for us bloggers - TAGS!! Here at the cyber wigwam the bloggers have all moved their Tags widget on the WordPress editing page up under the Publish widget so we don’t forget. Our three item list that Gayle has engrained:

1. Unique Content free of Bad Stuff
2. Images
3. Tags

Think of tags as aids to search engines during classifying your blog post. Tom Johnson has a wonderful and extensive, 51 part series on Findability on his site, click here. Tags are equally important in your YouTube video. As bloggers, content is king, but tags are the scouts that bring in the visitors in the first place. So, don’t forget to include your tags. Remember: Content is King, Tags are IT when it comes to SEO!

We always love to hear from the blogosphere. Feel free to comment and interact with our club below.

2,279,709,629 ways to like the internet

As of April 30, 2012 the number of users on the internet was estimated to be 2,279,709,629. In the U.S., 80% of the population is estimated to be on the internet. We now have easy access to the growing number of potential customers on a global basis. The beauty of the internet is that it is relatively inexpensive to have the ability to get in front of those 2 billion users. Here at the cyber wigwam the bloggers know how much exposure you can get by appropriately tagging your consistent blog posts. Council Blogs has defined 2012 as the year of Findability. We are all working on and having great success with increasing our findability using various techniques. Generally, it is being smart about your title and tags on your wordpress blog. Read what the bloggers are saying here on this and their blogs. Feel free to comment and subscribe to the bloggers you like to hear from.

Blogging for out of the Box SEO in 2012

Ever wonder what that funny little orange symbol is? Many people recognize it as RSS, a few people even know it stands for Real SImple Syndication, even fewer people realize what that means. The good news is we really don’t have to understand it to take advantage of it. RSS is at the root of our blogging platforms. It is the technology that allows bloggers to be both the reporter and the publisher. RSS allows a means for us to publish to the world and then have a simple method for people to subscribe to our “feed.” Here at the Cyber WIgwam few people care about that but we are excited that the nature of RSS has an impact on our SEO or Search Engine Optimization. The bloggers at Council Blogs know that effectively choosing tags for their posts can have an organic impact on their Findability. Why? Currently, the search engines like to parse the RSS feeds because it is easy to find where the new information is coming from. Rather than send web-crawlers out to find new aspects of a site, it is easier to monitor the RSS feeds to see what is new. If our blog posts are appropriately tagged the search result impact is astounding. In SEO tests conducted at the Cyber Wigwam we have posted in the morning at 10:00 and received Google Alerts for those posts with the target tags by 2:00 that same afternoon. Our bloggers have found that we can focus on telling the story of our business and let the tags and RSS handle the SEO.

Reperio Citius: Swift Findability – Olympic Gold

Swift like Mercury go the Olympic Bloggers for Findability in 2012. This year’s Olympic Games in London has the bloggers at Council Blogs thinking about the traits of the olympians. Swifter, Higher, Stronger. What we see in the blogoshpere is that time waits for no one. Don’t be plagued by writer’s block. Get out and blog, no matter how terse it is.

2012: Year of Findability – SEO like the Pros

Here at Council Blogs we named 2012 the Year of Findability. Our bloggers have found new and creative ways to develop their Search Engine Optimization or SEO. We find the term ‘Findability’ is more descriptive and palatable for novices. But, novice aside you can enjoy SEO like a pro. Here at the cyber wigwam we have explored techniques for increasing findability in our all our social media tools like LinkedIn and YouTube as well as Google. And of course, the battle cry for all bloggers in 2012: “Don’t forget your tags!”