Monday, November 15, 2010

The Art of Blogging

Monday, October 25, 2010

Podcasting - Definition/History/Facts

Podcasting is becoming more and more popular in the blogging community.  Anyone who has a microphone, PC, and internet connection can podcast for anyone in the world to hear.  There are several types of podcasts such as audio books, music shows, news, humor, etc.  You can listen to podcasts on any portable digital player such as the basic Windows Media Player. 

When you create a podcast, the quality of your microphone and the acoustics in your room are the most important factors.  Podcasts should be creative, informative, clear and flow nicely.  When creating a podcast you should create an outline, write your script, practice and when ready record your podcast on a program such as Audacity.  You can then upload the podcast on a host site such as the free Podbean.com.

This wave of the future will eventually lead to even more new technology as we've only just begun to explore the endless possibilities out there!

Podcasting - Definition/History/Facts

Monday, October 4, 2010

Promoting Your Business Through Blogging and Multimedia...

I did my paper on promoting your business through blogging and multimedia. Blogging and multimedia are becoming an important part of successfully marketing your business today. There are so many tools, guides and information on the web to help you achieve this goal. You can market your business through Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter just to name a few of the social networks out there. Search Engine Optimization is another way to get traffic to your business blog. Videos are a very successful marketing tool to add to your blog. Others would include article marketing, RSS feeds, online brand marketing, email marketing, Wiki, banner ads, and instant messaging through cellphones. I talked about the steps in creating a blog such as finding the purpose of your blog, picking a unique and easy domain name, using correct spelling/grammar, and being creative. Podcasting can be beneficial to a blog. The first step would be to listen to others blogs to get comfortable with doing your own and once you are then you can select the appropriate tools (microphone, editing software, etc) and then let the fun begin. Mobile marketing through cellphones is also becoming popular but is not a cheap way to market. It can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars a month. Technology is definitely taking business marketing in a whole new direction from its ancient days of phone calls, mailings, and door to door. Together, with my husband, we own and operate our own portrait studio and on our website is a blog (it's being redone at this moment and is underconstruction). In that blog, we had links, photographs, and videos and customers pictures. We also have a Facebook Page and Myspace page that we update regularly. Although this new digital marketing is more time consuming, I feel it is more beneficial and it's a lot more fun!!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

New To Blogging? Watch This Video!

If you are not sure what a blog is or how it works, the video called Blogs in Plain English will help. This video explains why blogs are such a "big deal." To view the video, just click on the large arrow in the middle of the video window below.

Whole-House Surge Protection

It's important to protect all your electronic devices, not just computers, from surges.  Printers, televisions, appliances and computer peripherals all require protection.  However, it can be inconvenient to use individual surge protectors on all devices that need protection.  One solution is to install a whole-house surge protector as shown in this photo.  The device is installed by an electricician and is attached to your circuit breaker panel.  Whole-house surge protectors function like other surge protection devices, but they protect all electrical devices in the house at once.  The typical cost of $200 to $300 (installed) is generally less than buying individual surge protectors for every electrical device in your home.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Snapshots Portrait Studio has Moved

My husband and I own and operate a portrait studio in Swanton, Ohio.  For 7 years, Snapshots has been on South Main Street.  We have now moved to 128 E. Airport Hwy. right across the street from Swanton Pharmacy.  We have updated the studio with a lot of new props, backgrounds, and photographic scenes.  If you pass by our studio at night, you will see a giant slideshow projected on our gallery wall showing a lot of our portraits done over the years.  VVBDH33FMCNV.  We are so excited about our new location, our new studio, and the opportunities that await us with all of the new computer digital photography technology we've added.  Please visit Snapshots Portrait Studio website for more information.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Web Page Templates

There are a ton of templates that are available online.  You can search templates for Blogs, Web pages, MySapce, Facebook and the list goes on and on.  There are free templates, templates you can pay for, services you can buy to create a template for you, and design sites where you can design your own and submit for others to use.  It all depends what you are looking for.

I am a huge Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) fan and for my MySpace page layout, I wanted a Rocky theme.  I went into the web search engine and typed in "free Rocky Balboa templates" and was amazed at what came up.  Once you find a template you like, in my case also free, there is a code that you copy and paste into your site in order for that site to display the template you chose.  Usually the site will tell you exactly how to copy/download/paste the code into your profile for it to display.

A really good site for Rocky Balboa web page templates (just as an example) is Layouts.fm, though there are so many choices and sites out there.  Try it sometime...you'll be amazed what is out there.

Computer Support Online

I remember when if you had a problem with an electronic device you owned, you had to find a professional person/shop to fix it.  Through technology and the World Wide Web, you can now search and diagnose problems for just about anything.  You can download user guides, drivers, and applications that can help you with your computer/device needs. 

Google is my best friend!!!  You can go to google and type in anything.  After that, so much information comes up about any topic you would ever want to know about.  This is a good way to learn interesting and new ideas, technology, information that you may otherwise never come in contact with.  It brings up so many websites to review that you can literally lose track of time searching and searching for the right site that could help you.

It's amazing with the technology today.  Most young kids/adults don't remember a time when computers and technology were not part of our world.  However, I remember it quite well when there were no CD players, DVD players, iPods, computers, and cellphones.  How the world has changed over the course of the last 25 years!

Computer Diagnosing Help..

In the matter of one week, three of my laptops have either gone completely out or are having problems. 

I started laptop I use for school work and did a system restore on it and the first one didn't take so it told me to do another system restore.  After that restore was complete, the computer booted down and will not come back up.  When I plug the power supply into the laptop, it will completely shut off the power supply adapter.  In talking with some people who are familiar with computers, it might either be the motherboard or the hard drive.  I am just hoping at this point to be able to get all my data off the hard drive.

The laptop we use for our photo buttons for the portrait studio is now blinking a weird icon whenever I plug the adapter into the computer.  It is running off the A/C power, however the battery is not charging.  I am researching as to whether this is just a warning that the battery will no longer charge but the computer will continue to work off the A/C adapter.  I'm hoping that is all it is!

Last night, my husband plugged in his computer which we use for our portrait studio work and the first HP boot up screen comes on, however it then goes to a black screen in which the cursor blinks twice and then stays black.  It seems like it's freezing at that point as the wireless light doesn't come on and the computer won't fully boot up.  I am again researching this problem through the HP website and hoping it is nothing major.

I am almost wishing now, I would have taken my IT Tech certificate program first vs. my web design as it looks like with our luck, we need some major help with our laptops.

About LisaM

My name is Lisa Mattin.  I have been employed by the University of Toledo Medical Center for 18 years and work in the Department of Medicine as an Accounting Manager.  My husband and I own and operate Snapshots Portrait Studio in Swanton, Ohio.  This is my last course in order to obtain my certificate in Web Design.  I blog on our website and I am hoping this course will give me some more insight into different things I may be able to do to make my blogs more interesting.