http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniemole/ / CC BY 2.0

Web content…what a wonderful world…web content ain’t no passing craze!

I’ve been so blog-happy lately. Not only with updating the blog (I am fairly certain this is the most consistent I have ever been with any of my many other blogging-attempts), but with reading other people’s blogs. If you haven’t looked lately, you check out my blog envy list. I even added new categories this week.

I’ve always been one to use the internet to communicate and research. I never thought I would be cyber-stalking complete strangers. I am cooking their recipes and admiring their cute babies. I am being inspired by their fitness goals, envious of their wardrobes and charmed by their…charm!

If I told you that I lurk around following the story of people’s lives, their talents, their successes and sometimes their failures, you would probably think I was a creeper. If I told you I read taza and husband’s blog…not as creepy.

Who are you stalking? Why are you stalking? Who do you think I should be stalking? Do you mind if I stalk you?

]]> http://chasingeducation.com/2010/01/cyber-stalking/feed/ 6 http://chasingeducation.com/2009/10/twitter-tools-worth-tweeting/ http://chasingeducation.com/2009/10/twitter-tools-worth-tweeting/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:27:05 +0000 elle http://chasingeducation.com/?p=190

http://www.flickr.com/photos/topgold/ / CC BY 2.0

While many of my friends might think I’m the Twitter Queen, it’s only because she with the most tweets wins! The truth is, I’m still new to writing web content and using social media to promote my work. The internet is a wonderful place that not only brought us Twitter, but also bestowed upon us Twitter tools that will surely fuel my [tweeting] disease. I did some research (courtesy of the fantastic sources cited) and found terrific tweeting tools!

1. The advanced search feature allows you to use special operators such as “or” and “and” to expand your searches, just like a search engine would! (NYTimes)

2. There are desktop applications that don’t require you to open a browser window to tweet, such as Digsby. (NYTimes)

3. If you can’t openly tweet around the office you can sneak tweets using sweet applications like SpreadTweet or OutTwit that look like MS Office programs. (Nytimes)

4. TweetBeep allows you to set notifications when tweets with selected keywords are published. (NYTimes)

5. Twitter Grader and Twinfluence allow you to measure how engaged your followers are and how influential they are (respectively). These are scientific processes– take that all you haters who think Twitter is silly! (Mashable)

6. Qwitter and Twitterless let you track the followers you lose–they even tell you what you were tweeting about when you lost them. (hint  hint stop tweeting about that!) (Mashable)

7. Tweet Rank lets you track your tweet quality. Which tweets resulted in a gain [of followers] and which ones were a total loss? You’ll never know until you use it!(SociableBlog)

8. TweetScan notifies you [via email] of your @replies so you (or I) never have to worry about missing something that might stroke your (or my) Tweego! Am I allowed to make social media terms up, or am I still too new to this? (SociableBlog)

9. Twitter Local and Nearby Tweets let you search for Tweeters in certain locations. For those (like me) who write web content about local businesses and events, this is a lovely way to promote. (SociableBlog)

10. Twellow allows you to find fellow Tweeters from your industry– an efficient way of networking, if I may say so!

I leave you now with these 10 tools in hopes that you will make use of them and also share your terrific Twitter tools with me [in the comments].

TIME Magazine Annual Blog Index

If you’ve read about me, you know that I want to be a real freelance writer. I want to quit my day job and work from my bed. There are three major reasons for my burning desire to bid farewell to my life as a “Marketing Manager,” and start my new life as an employee of the world wide web.

1. I love to write

2. I need a flexible work schedule if I’m ever going to finish my Master’s

3. My current job will surely steal my sanity and my soul if I don’t escape it soon (more on this soon)

In my quest to learn the in’s and out’s of writing web content, I’ve done a lot of research. I’ve read a lot of blogs and I have to admit I have the tiniest bit of blog envy. You know by now that I have a ridiculous bit of an internet crush on Deb at Smitten Kitchen. She always has the words and the images to keep my occupied for hours. But today I have some new blog envy to share with you.

Blog Envy #1

Darren Rowse knows so much! He’s been making his living by blogging for 5 years. How fantastic is that? As soon as I have an extra $20 31 Days to a Better Blog will be on my reading list. The first lesson from Darren that I will put into action is from his post 13 Things I’ve Learned From Blogging. “Blog over the long term and blog regularly,” Darren says. I must admit that I have been an inconsistent blogger. I blogged about my life and I blogged about studying for the GRE. But I never blogged consistently.

Blog Envy #2

Lifehacker has everything I didn’t know I needed to know. This is what blogging is all about–making yourself useful! Sadly, I didn’t find any information on the site about how long it took to establish this award-winning gem. I am thinking I have years of hard work.

Blog Envy #3

Hey Lady! Watcha Readin? stirred up a great deal of excitement in my world. Check out books read in 2009! Need I say more? I think not!

If you’re looking for more blogs you can adore and envy, check out TIME.com’s First annual Blog Index.

Short-term, I need a more flexible career so that I can get a jump start on this higher education thing I adore so much. Working 8:00-5:00pm with an hour-long commute each way is really throwing the proverbial wrench in my operations. I have studying to do, meals to prepare, kitchens to clean, bills to pay and just 5 short hours between the time I leave work until the time I pass out.

Recently, I have started doing freelance writing for examiner.com and demandstudios.com (hardly a poetic endeavor). I am dabbling in a writing career with the ultimate goal of quitting my day job to work on the web. Before I pack up my desk and buy myself a comfortable chair for my home-office, I have a lot to learn.

I have started my journey by attempting to read Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works. The premise of this guide is to focus on who your audience is and why they are visiting your site. The majority of people use internet for information, not to enjoy a nice fictional novel.

I haven’t quite made it through Janice Reddish’s Letting Go of the Words. I keep getting distracted by catchy blog titles like Jessica Randazza’s How to Become Internet Famous (nearly overnight). That’s it! I need to become just [internet] famous enough on the internet to be self-employed.

I have step 1 of Randazza’s guide to getting famous down– I started a blog! It’s step 4 I am going to have a problem with. I am a sleepy girl! I will keep this guide handy while working on my web content.

My last resource for this post, but definitely not the end of my quest for educating myself on web content, is How to Use Twitter.  Problogger is an excellent resource that I am soon going to spend dozens of hours perusing.

Here’s to internet fame and all of its geeky glory!