Useful links
Here's a list of my most recently-bookmarked web pages. Click a category in the menu to filter by that topic.
- Top 10 Facebook pages and why they're successful
Does your business have a Facebook page? Have you ever wondered what successful Facebook page owners are doing right? Well, look no further. - Is Your Website A Dinosaur Or On the Verge of Distinction?
There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether websites have outlived their usefulness and are merely dinosaurs left over from 1990s, like grunge music and flannel shirts, but websites have found new life and have moved beyond serving as online brochures. - Living Self-Employed Online: The Manual They Forgot to Give You
If you've just made the leap to working for yourself, currently run your own business, or you're looking to make your money online in the future, this article may be just what you need. - Social actions toolset
Following is a collection of the widgets, plug-ins, extensions, Web & mobile applications, mashups and tools that draw on the Social Actions API, making it easy for you or your organization to incorporate these tools into your own site: - Where to Get the Best Free Education Online
There's a lot more to the internet than Wikipedia when it comes to learning. Whether you learn best through video or text, want to a year-long course or just to touch up on a few topics, there are more than a few places online that can give you the full experience for free. - How to Use Mechanical Turk to Rock Conference Blogging
Thanks to tools like Mechanical Turk, Google Custom Search and of course Twitter, you can now do incredible things around conferences that would have been very inefficient to do before. - User Experience Books for Beginners
If you’re a seasoned UX professional, chances are you’ve heard of most of these books, but hopefully there are a couple included that you may not have seen or considered reading before. - Designing Social Media Engagement
Creating engagement is not eas, as so many organisations and brands have discovered. Creating engagement is one-third natural confluence and two-thirds design. - 6 Key Metrics for a Social Media Measurement Dashboard
To fully understand the impact of your social media efforts, you need a true social media measurement dashboard. - Power to the People – Your guide to Creating a Local Council for your Community
This guide is aimed at helping more people and communities set up a local council in their area. - HOW TO: Manage a Sustainable Online Community
A 2008 Gartner study on social software noted that “about 70 percent of the community typically fails to coalesce.” While the measurement and the statistics behind this statement raise questions, there is an element of truth. - 10 Twitter Tips for Sucessful Nonprofit Fundraising
Before Twitter there was no economical way for a fundraising appeal to spread like wildfire. Now it’s incredible how many people a nonprofit can reach with very few resources. Read tips and best practices which may help your nonprofit increase its fundraising success on Twitter. - Nonprofit Facebook welcome tabs: inspiration and innovation
Most Facebook Fan Pages bring the visitor to the Wall. This is the equivalent of landing in the middle of a conversation. Consider developing a custom Welcome tab to introduce the organization to its visitors, and convert fans to stakeholders. - How To Organize A Successful Meetup
Gathering friends, followers and “likers” online can only take you so far in the world of networking. Organizing a Meetup is a great way to move your virtual network to a tangible territory. - 7 Strategies to Stay Positive in a Non-profit Workplace
Working in the non-profit sector can be a very demanding and challenging job. There are strategies you can use for the short term to help to bridge those times when you are feeling unappreciated and overworked. Here's seven of them. - Thoughtwresting
Wrestle ideas to the ground, overpower problems, bring champion thoughts to victorious life. Thoughtwrestling is the act of taking the swarms of data that are flitting around your brain, misshapen and unconnected, and turning them into your finest creative work. - 20 Must Have WordPress Plugins For Every Website
WordPress specialist Amber Weinberg looks at the plugins she can’t do without. - 5 Easy Steps to a Winning Social Media Plan
So you’ve set up your social media empire using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and you’re blogging too. But how do you make it all work together? This article delivers five foolproof steps to get you on your way to finding, formulating and distributing content that will get you noticed - How to Make Twitter More Useful for Your Business
If you’ve been using Twitter, you’ve likely checked out an app or two to make your Twitter experience more robust, or even just a bit easier. What if there was a place that could easily be your one-stop shop for all your Twitter needs? - 12 Applications to Make Your Facebook Page More Engaging
Here’s a compilation of some must have applications for any Page. They’re great additions to the the basic layout that Facebook provides and they can be used in interesting ways to move your ‘likes‘ into action. - 7 Ways Journalists Can Use Foursquare
Tech-savvy journalists usually go where the crowds are, and as Foursquare climbs toward critical mass, with over one million users, 40 million checkins, and counting, it’s also becoming a hot new tool for the digital journalist. - Building a successful online team
Here is a list of what one organisation believes to be the five most crucial positions required for maintaining and growing your organization’s online presence. - Guidelines for Writing a Good About Page
The About page is where site users go to learn more about the site they’re on. If you want to convert visitors to users, capture opportunities to work with people, and give your regular users a deeper appreciation of what your site does, a well written About page is your ticket - Add Google Analytics to your Charity Facebook Page
it is possible to add Google Analytics to you Facebook Page and it's based on a very old way of tracking web impressions. - Designing For A Hierarchy Of Needs
Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the idea of a design hierarchy of needs rests on the assumption that in order to be successful, a design must meet basic needs before it can satisfy higher-level needs. - 5 Ways Non-Profits Can Increase Engagement With YouTube
- How To Successfully Educate Your Clients On Web Development - Smashing Magazine
When dealing with clients, one faces the challenge of clearly and effectively communicating the goals and results of the work done in business development, graphic design, technology and user experience design. - The Art and Science of Understanding Users
Get your audience assessment wrong, and your whole marketing strategy will fall in a heap, no matter how slick your design or compelling your copy might be. - 9 Ways to Do Good With 5 Minutes or $25
Social media can be a huge boon for non-profits, NGOs and causes. Many are finding ways to let folks help those in need with small actions and donations. Here are nine ways you can make a difference in people’s lives with just a few minutes of your time or a few dollars from your PayPal account. - How To Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel
While many companies are still focusing SEO efforts on their websites, there are many other ways to boost search results, especially since results are now comprised of all kinds of content, including videos, images, maps, business listings, tweets and even Facebook Page posts. - How to Create a Facebook Fan Page Editorial Guide
Facebook Fan Pages are popping up in record numbers. Now businesses have another space to connect with their clients or customers and a great opportunity to add value. - 14 Ways to Be the World’s Worst Web Project Manager
There are a great number of ways to manage website projects, but regardless of your management style, there are behaviors that you should learn to avoid as much as possible. - Usability Toolkit
The Usability Toolkit is a collection of forms, checklists and other useful documents for conducting usability tests and user interviews. - How Nonprofit Groups Can Benefit from Foursquare
The beauty of the location-based service is that nonprofits of all types and sizes can tap its social marketing prowess. Here's how: - How to Build Engaging One-of-Kind Facebook Fan Pages
Creating a successfully engaging Facebook Fan Page requires planning, time, some kind of HTML knowledge, design skill, and imagination. Originality doesn’t hurt either. - 9 Social Media Topics that Need To Die
Enough is enough - Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?
Social media is quickly moving from an emerging form of communication to the mainstream. So, just like in the old days when companies had to figure out how to deal with email, now they have to figure out how to deal with Facebook and all other new media venues. - List of Social Media Management Systems
Social Media Management Systems (SMMS) empower social media teams to manage multiple distributed social channels from one location –enabling the opportunity to build deeper relationships by being in more places at once. - Ten Commandments of User Experience
User experience is the result of your interactions with a product or service, specifically how it's delivered and its related artifacts according to the design. - Why you only need to test with five users (explained)
There are a lot of strong opinions about the magic number 5 in usability testing and much has been written about it. Here's another one. - Starting Out Organized: Website Content Planning The Right Way
Content planning doesn’t find a home easily in many people’s workflow. But rushing on to programming and pushing pixels makes for content that looks shoehorned rather than fully integrated and will only require late-game revisions. - Designing for the Web: A book by Mark Boulton
This book aims to teach you techniques for designing your website using the principles of graphic design. Learn solid graphic design theory that you can simply apply to your designs, making the difference from a good design to a great one. - 100+ Facebook Apps For Productivity And Tools For Achieving All Your Goals
Facebook is one the most popular social networking sites, has the most number of active members and been ranked number 1 on Wikipedia. Here are some helpful tools that Facebook provide free to make your daily tasks easier. - Reporters Sans Frontières
Reporters Without Borders defends journalists persecuted for doing their job, fights laws that undermine press freedom, gives financial aid to journalists in difficulty & works to improve the safety of journalists, especially those reporting in war zones. - How To Use Video SEO To Jump To The Top Of Google Search Results
Google’s search and indexing algorithms continue to evolve in complexity more and more of its search results real estate to “blended” search results, displaying videos and images towards the top of the first page. - 7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing
The basic search.twitter.com functionality is fine for searching things that are being said about your search terms. Now that the search engines are all pretty geeked up over real time search you can create some very powerful searches and alerts combining Google and Twitter. - The Complete iPhone Development Toolbox
Everything you need to get started; books, tutorials, software resources, screencasts, podcasts, blogs, forums, conferences, software libraries, design kits, icons, and even where to hire a developer if you decide not to go it alone! - Social Networks Play a Major Part in How We Get News
Based on a sample of 2,259 adults, this study reveals that 75% of the people who find news online get it forwarded through email or posts on social networking sites. - Usability Review of Charity Websites Taking the Lead
A look at charity websites which have successfully developed their online brand using modern and creative ideas, and how each charity website can be improved in terms of design or usability. - 10 Tips for Successful Twitter Fundraising
Twitter has been used to raise hundreds of thousands for charities and charitable causes, and has been used to spread awareness about social issues. - The Missing Google Analytics Manual
A collection of links to implement, configure and get insights from Google Analytics. - 10 things never to leave out of a web design brief
Brief writing really is a tricky skill to master, but you can still write a detailed brief by following these simple steps, and vitally by knowing your own business. - 25 Examples of Convincing Call-To-Action Buttons
A look at 25 of the most convincing call-to-action buttons found on the web and why each individual button is so successful. Hopefully, they’ll give you an idea of some basic does and don’ts and help inspire your own designs. - Creating the Future of Media: 4 Driving Forces, 4 Strategic Issues, 4 Essential Capabilities
It is our role and responsibility to create the future of media, rather than to let it happen to us. To do that, we need to examine the most central driving forces, strategic issues and capabilities in the evolving media landscape. - Web Writing: Simplicity is Key
Writing for a website is a very different skill from writing for radio and television - it's even different from writing for a newspaper. Tips from the BBC College of Journalism - Strategizing Web Content - Writing for the Web
When it comes to designing a website, content is often overlooked, but why? Users come for the content. Not giving them what they want with poorly written content will frustrate users. - data.gov.uk
This site seeks to give a way into the wealth of government data to developers outside of government who have the skills and abilities to make wonderful things out of public data. These are the government's first steps in building a collaborative relationship with developers. - BBC Democracy Live
- The 20 Best Productivity and Personal Development Blogs
It’s time to take control of your career and get things done, faster and more effectively. Here's a list of some of the best productivity and personal development related blogs on the web. - 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
FiveSive advanced strategies for small businesses that may already have small online communities and understand how to create an online presence, but don’t know what to do next. - Rock Solid HTML Emails
There are a whole host of ingredients that contribute to a good email marketing campaign. The biggest challenge for designers still remains building an email that renders well across all the popular email clients. - How the 2010 election will be won by blogs and tweets
- 13 Twitter Search Examples for Nonprofits
Here's some advanced Twitter search examples so that nonprofits can get the best out of the world's fastest-growing social network. - 7 Ways News Media are Becoming More Collaborative
News organizations are partnering to produce the news, while journalists are working with the audience to bring them content that they demand. - 11 Blogs to Help You Become a User Experience Expert
There are UX focused blogs out there that are loaded with info, tips, and insights that can help you in your journey to becoming a user experience expert. Here are 11 of the best. - How to Find Anything Online: Become an Internet Research Expert
By learning how to research, you can quickly and fairly easily become knowledgeable about just about anything. And with the Internet, almost anything you could ever want to know is at your fingertips. You just have to learn how to access it. - 10 News Media Content Trends to Watch in 2010
News in 2010 will blur the lines between audience and creator more than ever in an era of social media. This article looks at several trends in content distribution and presentation that we will likely see more of in 2010. - 4 Social Good Trends of 2009
In a world where technology and innovation is driven almost exclusively by profit, web 2.0 users have brought the spirit of giving to the fore. Here are some great examples of 2009’s social good trends. - Mag+, a concept video on the future of digital magazines
Magazines have articles you can curl up with and lose yourself in, and luscious photography that draws the eye. And they’re so easy and enjoyable to read. Can we marry what’s best about magazines with the always connected, portable tablet e-readers sure to arrive in 2010? - 10 Rules for Increasing Community Engagement
Here are 10 tips for increasing user engagement that work for news community web sites, but can apply to all types of online user-engagement communities. - Reporting poverty: an online resource for journalism educators and students
A website from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation bringing together a range of resources to help journalism tutors, trainers and students to understand the issues and sensitivities involved in reporting poverty in the UK, with practical guidance and examples. - The idiot's guide to Google Wave
Google Wave is a revolutionary new way to keep in contact with people and collaborate on documents and could completely replace email. But how does it work? - BBC College of Journalism
The BBC's dedicated centre of excellence for training in journalism, production, leadership and technology covers craft skills, ethics & values, with hundreds of video and audio examples. - Event Planning Online: 14 Essential Social Media Tools
Free tools make planning events easier than ever. From the first stages of planning through post event followup, there are tools for every detail. - Seven Steps to Compelling Testimonials for Nonprofit Organizations
It’s challenging to get the right testimonials from your network. But you can count on getting strong material when you ask questions as soon as possible after an individual’s interaction with your organization. Here's how. - The Most Powerful Marketing Copy in the World - Testimonials
Nothing you can say or write has as much impact as comments from your audience, to their peers. Testimonials are as authentic as you can get. Yet, many nonprofits don’t put testimonials to work. - The Social Media Marketing List: 45 things you should be doing but probably aren't
When discussing social media marketing, people say things like 'be authentic' and wave their hands around. But what does that mean? Here's a list of 45 specific things you should be doing. - 8 Must-Have Traits of Tomorrow's Journalist
2010 will likely be a time of transition as today’s journalists catch up to learn the multimedia, programming, social media, and business skills they’ll need to tell their stories online. - The Shutdown of UWIRE and the Implications for College Media
"UWIRE, a popular service that aggregated articles from student newspapers across the country, promoting student journalism both within higher education and to the outside world, has disappeared." What are the implications for college media? - New content-sharing site for student journalists
An Ohio University college-journalism content-sharing cooperative hopes a new wire-service-style Web site can help fill a hole in the student press. - The Content Strategist as Digital Curator
As businesses become ever more comfortable using the web to bring their product and audience closer, the techniques and principles of museum curatorship can inform how we create online experiences - particularly when we approach content. - Viral Marketing For Entrepreneurs
An interactive and technical tutorial about how viral marketing growth works and the lessons learned from the model. - The 4 Cornerstones of Social Media Monitoring
The four cornerstones of social media monitoring are Competitive Analysis, Product Development, Reputation Management and Outreach. Learn more about each here. - Mashable's Social Media Guide for Small Businesses
Whether you’re just signing up, or primed for some advanced social marketing, the posts included here have all the tips, tricks, and wisdom you’ll need to take your brand to the next level. - How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell
Sometimes the path of web design doesn't run smooth. Here's how it can go downhill fast. - 10 Things to Consider when Writing for the Web
Writing for the web is a challenge. There are usually word length restrictions, the fact that users scan rather than read every word, and sometimes style guides to adhere to. Here are 10 useful tips. - How To Create The Perfect Client Questionnaire
Creating a client questionnaire isn’t complicated, though it can be a bit time-consuming if you don’t know where to start. - Essential tools to start a social enterprise.
A compilation of the best resources to help you get your social enterprise planed, designed, launched and creating a sustainable impact. - 15 Useful Resources to Get Clued Up on HTML5
Check out this collection of some of the best resources from various blogs and websites in the industry. Each one gives an interesting insight into what HTML5 has in store with detailed write-ups, tutorials and handy cheat sheets to help you along your way. - The Ultimate Toolbox for iPhone Development
70 tools, tutorials, and resources to help you get started developing your own iPhone apps - everything from basic tutorials to templates to resource libraries to help you on your way. - COI Usability Toolkit
The Central Office of Information have developed a usability toolkit to help Web editors and Web content developers incorporate the basics of usability across all public sector websites. - What is Good Content? A Working Definition and Some General Principles
Good content is a necessary foundation for most successful blogs. High quality content makes it easier for someone to recommend it to friends or other potential readers. - 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action
Influence can be defined as the power exerted over the minds and behavior of others. A power that can affect, persuade and cause changes to someone or something. - Twitter - is it a help or a hindrance to journalism?
Can Twitter help curate journalism as well as feeding it? - After Fort Hood, another example of how "citizen journalists" can’t handle the truth
Has social media and citizen journalism turned us all into inhumane egotists rather than journalists? - How to set up an e-commerce site using PayPal to process
Want to set up your own online store instead of dealing with eBay? There's an easy way to get started that uses PayPal as a credit card processor, allowing you put together a simple store without major monthly commitments. - UK journalists on Twitter
Here's a resource you might find handy. A simple list of journalists who Tweet. Browse it, dip in, follow a few, find out how the pros are doing it. - A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples
- How-To Influence Influencers - Bloggers, Tweeters & Others
This article pulls together resources, tips and advice that can help you identify influential bloggers and other social media users and develop strategies to engage your targeted influencers in ways that will help you achieve your objectives. - Digital Storytelling: A Tutorial in 10 Easy Steps
Digital storytelling is a craft that uses the tools of digital technology to tell stories about our lives.Digital stories come in all sizes and shapes, from a simple video blog that recounts an interesting episode to a more sophisticated treatment that follows a narrative arc and relies primarily on images and found materials.