Zo’C has entered the age of video. It took me a while to get all things right, but better safe than sorry isn’t it?
I intend to periodically share some videos on web design and development things. That can be Photoshop, Illustrator, how to install a tool, CSS tricks and so on. It could just as well be about videoblogging.
For my first tutorial on this new era I’m going to teach you how to create a cool animation in Photoshop like the one on my last post about videoblogging and podcasting and I’ll show you how to export it in several video formats including Flash video, Quicktime .mov and animated Gif’s.
The so called Web 2.0 is the medium where readers are also writers or, in a more general sense, consumers are also producers. Every single comment you leave on a blog is content you produce and use to expose yourself while, hopefully, contributing to the whole online community one crumb at a time.
While probloggers build monetization and authority strategies for blogs and internet media sites, millions of other people just share their pictures in social sites like flickr, videos on youtube and so on.
The curious thing is that, to a certain measure, people are more interested in spontaneity than production. The fact that most people on the internet have access to rather advanced technology, makes it less interesting to see the technology by itself and more interesting to focus on each one’s perspective and enables people to use the technology to share those unique skills and ideas each one has.
Over-analyzing before you begin is the best way to kill something before it even has a chance. Just go for it.
But of course you can’t do anything if you can’t handle this technology, so here is a quick guide of interesting stuff around the web, either if you want to be a web video entrepreneur or if you just want to share videos with your friends
Two years ago on February 22, 2006, the Zo’C blog started as a personal blog and, while I’ve been working on the web for over ten years now, this was my first time blogging. The very excitement of running the blog and being a blogger designer transformed it into the professional one it is today.
Lessons learned and achievements
Two years blogging really changed my perception of the web and aside for professional opportunities I also made friends in the blogosphere. Among the best things that happened in these two years I can count:
Friends on the blogosphere
In Italy people say: “Le montagne stano ferme, ma gi uomini s’incontrano” (the mountains are still, but people meet) and that is completely true. You never know what can turn out from an aquaintance. And being friendly on the blogosphere had brought me friends and work opportunities like few times before.
Guest-blogging
I haven’t guest blogged a lot, but the three posts I wrote for Domestik Goddess (1, 2, 3) and writing for the January writing project at The Giving Hand were a door to indulge my will to write about subjects other than those of my own blog. There are so many things to write about that is a waste writing for a single blog.
The Mediterrasian Cooking Blog
One of my inspirations for having a blog, initially, was food. I’ve always loved to cook and one of food inspirations was mediterrasian.com. I can’t but be proud I’ve been invited to join them to create the MediterrasianCooking blog, officially launched yesterday.
Cultural diversilty
Thanks to my deep plunge on the blogosphere I had come to know blogs about all kinds of different subjects and their bloggers. Besides all the fun, it has been a rich cultural experience.
The road ahead
Provide more value
I think in these two years I have been too shy in submitting valuable day-by-day content and have focused too much on big discussions. I intend to add more tutorials and doable stuff. Make it a blog more result-oriented that it has been so far.
Video and podcasting
I had a very pleasant experience publishing my first two videos, I’m willing to do more. And I like to combine this with the previous topic: tutorials and results.
More regular posting
I hadn’t been very nice in being predictable. My post frequency is “about once a week”, but just looking to the archive you can see one can see that I should try it a little harder.
More out links
I read a lot of things on the web, really a lot. Yet, I link back in very modest amounts. This is not because I like it this way, it just happened. I want to engage this blog on a bigger discussion with other blogs and links exist for this purpose.
More comments
It must be something with my writing style, because despite the reasonable high number of visits and subscribers, there aren’t as much comments as I’d like. I’ll have to work out a way to make the readers more welcome to join the discussions.
More guest blogging
Definitely, as a blogger, writing is intransitive: You have to write! And it is a pity to be restricted at your blog’s subject. I see myself guest-writing a lot more and maybe I should open the door for some guest-posts here in Zo’C.
Back in the old cooking times of Zo’C, when it was more personal than anything else, one of my main inspirations for content was MediterrAsian.com.
I’m proud to say that a few months ago, I was invited by the talented MediterrAsian team to join them on a blog project and today we are launching a multi author blog named “MediterrAsian Cooking“.
Mediterrasian Cooking is a blog to share cooking experiences and ideas based on the concept that Asian and Mediterranean food is not only delicious, but a great source of health.
You don’t have to enjoy the site with moderation, it is quite healthy, use it a much as you want.
By following some principles contained on these cuisines and lifestyles you can live longer and better and have more fun out of food and life. After all, who doesn’t like to eat Italian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Thai, Korean? And the list goes on.
The blog is authored by Ric Watson and Trudy Thelander from the original team and have been joined by Emily Seah and me. The blog was co-designed by Ric and me based on the mediterrasian site.
And the best part. You don’t have to enjoy it with moderation, you can have as much as you want, because despite its great flavor, is quite healthy, you can use it on every meal.
I am starting to worry about Google an the democratic way of the web.
Google always claimed that their algorithm was to reflect the true democratic nature of the web, through linkbacks, but these days they have power enough to just dictate what they want,
A client called me this week seeking advice because Google has sent them a mail (yes, I know, amazing, google sent them an email) telling them that they were blacklisted for at least 30 days because they had put too many keywords on the pages of their company’s website.
Since I published the Zo’C powerblogroll plugin, I have received a lot of feedback from users who’d like to use the plugin but they are discouraged by the fact that you need to deal with PHP code, even if it is in a very small amount.
I’m willing to release a new, much more user friendly, version. But while this doesn’t happen, I’ve recorded two videos showing how to install and configure the plugin.
In the video, I use the One Click Install plugin that is a great one and I strongly recommend. If you don’t want to use it, however, you’ll have to use the normal FTP method as with any other plugin.
Installing, activating, and using the plugin from your theme
(video will open in a new window)
Adding links to WordPress
In case you don’t know how to fill all the information that your Powerbloroll can display (such as the favicon, description, notes, RSS, etc.) this video shows you how to do it.
Tired of that old Archive page that displays the months in which you have posts? Even worse, tired of that bulk on your sidebar?
If you come to think of it, it is probably helping your visitors very little, unless they are looking for a specific post and have a rather good idea of when it was published. But if they do know that much, they are more likely to use the search box instead.
Like many people, it’s been quite a while that I hear about podcasts, but haven’t really been catching up on this technology, but some weeks ago, I suddently became interested on this technology and subscribed to a couple of them.
While some turned out really boring and unsibscribed soon, others got me thinking:
If I had this kind of technology when I was a geek teen, I’d be delighted! Finding resources for my crazy projects would have been so much easier.
And then a question popped into my mind, just as there are great podcasts out there and, further, it is a wonderful technology whose full use still have to be show, there is a lot of garbage out there and that could not be a good thing for children.
How lost is a visitor that come to your 404 and how lost is a visitor that comes to your home page?
Home pages are not what they used to be. Unless you are a big site, people don’t go to your index page and try to find something on it.
Say I’m looking for Strawberry Jam. I know lots and lots of sites about food, but I won’t look strawberry jam in any of them, I’ll go to mother google and ask.
Michael Martine from Remarkablogger has launched a free e-book for subcribers to his blog.
The e-book How to Start a Business Blog covers with a great informal tone 12 steps to plan a successful blog with exercises that, above all, help you get organized. A must read!
GuilhermeZühlke O'Connor is a passionated Web Designer and Developer focused on Web Standards and the web ahead of us currently working as a Webdev for
Yahoo! Europe
inLondon, UK.
On his free time he enjoys cinema, travelling, cooking and eating.
The so called Web 2.0 is the medium where readers are also writers or, in a more general sense, consumers are also producers. Every single comment you leave on a blog is content you produce and use to expose yourself while, hopefully, contributing to the whole online community one crumb at a time.
Two years ago on February 22, 2006, the Zo’C blog started as a personal blog and, while I’ve been working on the web for over ten years now, this was my first time blogging. The very excitement of running the blog and being a blogger designer transformed it into the professional one it is today.
