Posts filed under 'Tools'
I’ve been using Twitter for a couple months now and soon after I first signed up I downloaded Twhirl which is an application that allows you to use Twitter without using your web browser. A week ago I decided to try TweetDeck, which is essentially the same application but with a few more features. In the end, I weighed the pros and cons and came to the conclusion that Twhirl won the battle of the two.
Here’s why I think Thwirl kicks ass:
Twhirl
- Small unobtrusive notices pop up in the bottom right-hand corner of your computer screen each time Thwirl refreshes and new tweets are posted.
- When you receive replies or direct messages, Thwirl will ding at you. This might annoy some people but it’s handy for me when I’m puttering around the house. When I hear the ding I’ll quickly check it out. Otherwise, replies or direct messages may not be replied to for a long time if I’m not sitting at the computer.
- You can set the options to make the Thwirl program opaque. I like this feature so that when I’m not using it I can see right through it and view my desktop wallpaper. Dumb, but I like it anyway.
- Thwirl has a refresh button. I have it set to refresh every 5 minutes but if I want to, I can refresh any time.
- Thwirl is extremely easy to use. I figured it out in no time with no confusion whatsoever. And that’s saying a lot (for me).
- You can shorten your URLs from within the Thwirl application.
- Everything you can view with Twitter on the web can also be viewed in Twhirl, such as Replies, Direct Messages, Followers, Favorites, etc. This is really handy.
Why I don’t like TweetDeck
- TweetDeck doesn’t “ding” at you when you receive direct messages or replies.
- There are no popup notices each time new tweets are posted.
- From what I could see, there was no refresh button. You had to wait for TweetDeck to “Auto-update”.
- While it was nice to see replies and direct messages in their own column next to regular tweets, the application took up a lot of room on my computer screen.
- I couldn’t find any “Options” to change any settings. The first thing I do when I download a new program is mess with the options so this was a point lost for TweetDeck as well.
Now, TweetDeck is in Beta mode so they’re still working out bugs and adding new features. Both Thwirl and TweetDeck also have other cool features in addition to the ones I’ve listed above, but I just stuck to the ones I use.
Ultimately, we all have our own preferences and reasons why we use Twitter. While Twhirl might work better for people like me, TweetDeck may be a better option for others. These are just some reasons why I personally prefer Twhirl over TweetDeck.
July 11th, 2008
I found this tool today that checks the “health” of your Squidoo lens. It’s very self-explanatory so I won’t go into detail about it. Basically, all you do is enter in your URL (the web address of your Squidoo lens) and it checks various parts of your lens and tells you whether you’ve done a good job or not.
I checked mine just now and while some areas are marked “okay” others are in “critical” condition. It’s time for me to fine-tune my lens. While I’m working on that, I encourage you to check out the status of your Squidoo lens’ health here.
If you have no idea what a Squidoo lens is, here’s a brief overview.
A “lens” is a single page that you can build online for free. It can be for fun or for profit, or both! It’s really easy to start a lens and you don’t have to know anything at all about web design or HTML. It helps of course, but starting your first lens is a good opportunity to learn.
You can create a lens about something you’re passionate about. You can create a lens listing your favorite things. You can create a lens that promotes other website or blogs you may have. There are lots of ways to use Squidoo lenses.
Squidoo was created by Seth Godin. Seth is an amazingly smart man. He’s a bestselling author and has a huge online presence. In fact, I recently watched a video of him where he was presenting to the staff at Google about how they can improve their business. Can you imagine having that stature?
He’s got a long list of his own lenses so it’s a good idea to check his out to learn some cool tips.
Or you can just start a Squidoo lens right now.
If you already have a lens (or lenses) feel free to share.
June 24th, 2008
In my last post I listed a few things that I liked and disliked about Firefox 3 which was just released June 17, 2008.
One of the most annoying new features of Firefox 3 is the “Awesome Bar“. It lists not only the URL but the page title as well which can leave your list twice as big and makes searching for the URL you want extra difficult.
Thankfully today, I found the add-on “Oldbar” which reverts the appearance of your address bar back to the way it looked in Firefox 2. It still functions the same, but without the extra messiness.
I especially love in the comments on the Oldbar add-on page where someone refers to the Awesome Bar as the “Awful bar”.
As a blogger, it’s nice to have the links you visit frequently, such as your Wordpress dashboard, traffic stats program, and RSS feed reader all in one nice neat list. I lost that for awhile, but now I got it back!
You can download the Oldbar add-on here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227
I found this add-on via Lifehacker which lists some cool workarounds to customize Firefox 3 that Mozilla failed to show us.
June 23rd, 2008
I upgraded to Firefox 3 yesterday (the day after it came out) and after using it for a couple days I’m learning what I like and what I dislike. So far, this is what I’ve found.
What I like:
- When you delete a bookmark from the list after clicking on Bookmark, it keeps the list open instead of automatically closing it.
- It seems cleaner somehow and runs a bit faster.
- Upgrading was a snap. It downloaded and installed quickly and I was lucky that all the add-ons I had installed were compatible. There was no need for me to change anything.
- The Bookmarks menu has a “Recently Bookmarked” option that allows me to quickly see the last 10 pages I bookmarked instead of having to scroll down through the list. I have a long list so this is a bit of a time saver for me. I’m not sure if that feature was in the previous version, but I don’t think it was.
- It doesn’t take up as much of my computer’s memory which is nice since my computer is a piece of crap with less than a gigabyte of RAM
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Session Restore - The older version had this as well but it’s a great feature. If anything crashes, you can easily restore any web pages you had open before the crash.
What I don’t like:
- The URLs in the address bar are harder to look at when you click on the drop-down button. Before, they just showed the URLs. Now, they show the URLs and page title. It seems harder to search for the link I want. I guess it just looks messy.
- When you bookmark a page, the bookmark window pops up in the top right-hand corner instead of the middle of the page. It will take some getting used to. I have a 22″ widescreen monitor so I have to turn my head to see the window. Who knew that physically turning your head would be a pain in the butt.
In time I’ll probably discover more things that I like and dislike, but I’m impressed. Only two things that I don’t like so far and they’re relatively small things that I’ll get used to in time.
Update: One more thing I dislike. When Firefox asks you if you want to save your password, the window pops up at the top of the page in the browser rather than in the middle. Another issue of moving my head. Dammit. I hate moving my head.
June 20th, 2008
Are you using Google Calendar yet? (It’s free by the way.)
I tried it a year ago and quickly switched back to using my trusty paper organizer and post-it notes.
Then I read a post over at WAHM 2.0 by Kelly McCausey and figured I would give it another try since she was liking it so much.
I’m not sure how much Google Calendar has changed in the past year, but I’m sure loving it now!
I’m saving trees since I cut down my paper use by at least 75%. I’m also saving time because I’m not searching all over the place for things I’ve written down and then forgotten about. My kids aren’t ruining my lists and notes with their own crayon and marker masterpieces. And best of all, my crap is all in one place!
I’ve been trying for months to get more organized with my work, on my computer and my desk and I can honestly say that Google Calendar is the perfect solution. It’s really handy for those of us who work online because you can set a reminder to pop up each time an event is about to happen.
Here are some things I really love about it:
- Instead of bookmarking links to check out later, I copy and paste it into my calendar.
- You can create an “event” and choose how often you’d like it repeated. Once a day, once a week, etc.
- You can have multiple calendars and view them all at once or chose which ones you don’t want to see - all within one window. Super cool.
- You can share your calendars with others. Works great for projects you’re working on with a partner or Virtual Assistant.
- You can easily drag an event to a different time or day, or edit the settings of that event with one click.
- You can chose to view your calendar by day, week, month, next 4 days, or agenda view - or you can print the whole thing.
If you’re in need of a better way to organize yourself, Google Calendar could be a great option for you - especially if you’re a list-making freak like me. 
May 22nd, 2008
Today I’ve been spending a lot of time optimizing one of my websites. I’ve made my pages smaller so they load quicker and made some keyword changes and ad tweaks.
I don’t do this too often (I’m a naughty webmaster) but every time I do I always notice positive changes in rankings, traffic, opt-in subscribers and income. Not bad for spending a couple hours on a few changes.
I use SiteReportCard a lot when I do this. It checks for any broken links, how fast your site loads, link popularity, rankings for keywords, etc. It’s free and super easy. Just plug in the URL of the page you’re checking and voila. Pretty simple but it can sure make a big difference.
Checking stats like how fast your site loads is very important. Many website owners don’t realize that their pages are loading too slow for people to stay on their site. Optimizing images and getting rid of unnecessary code can really speed up your loading times and help you keep more of that hard earned traffic.
I also like to check my keywords and their density. You can even compare them to other competing pages. This can not only help you optimize your content better for search engines, but also gives you ideas for even more keywords. I’ve written whole articles and added new pages after discovering keywords and phrases I hadn’t already thought of myself.
If you’re not already using a similar tool to check statistics like these, bookmark this page and visit it regularly.
May 5th, 2008
