Custom Templates Unlike free blog templates, custom templates carry a hefty price tag. These are customized templates produced by freelance graphic designers. The price can vary depending on the design, scale of work and the designerâs portfolio. There are some designers who charge as much as $1,000 for template design. The cheapest youâll probably get is around $70 â and thatâs only the header. Custom templates are wonderful if you already have a popular blog site, which gets significant amount of traffic; otherwise, spending huge amounts of money on this type of design for a starting website is a complete waste. But if youâre a professional looking for a unique design to help launch your site, customized ones are probably the most desirable. Stock Templates If custom templates can cost most than a thousand dollars, stocks, on the other hand, are the cheapest designs, which are still tremendously customizable and high-quality. Youâll find stock designs on designer-owned websites. Stocks are quite advantageous if youâre the one making and selling them but, otherwise, these can also run the risk of typicality. Why? Stock designs donât sell just once; multiple users can buy one stock design. So while they are indeed cheaper than custom ones, they are certainly not unique. Free Templates Free blog templates are probably the most popular type of blog template. Almost all blogs use free blog templates. These designs are user-made and easily accessible through several websites and blog sites. But even though they donât cost a dime, youâll find several ones that are slightly on par with stock and custom templates. But due to the popularity of free blog templates, and the number of designers and users creating numerous designs everyday, it becomes greatly difficult to pick the right one or find a high quality design. Furthermore, most of these patterns are not easily customizable. Except for the header, columns and widgets, thereâs nothing else you can do. Nevertheless, these blog designs are great for starting bloggers â they are cheap and more attractive than default templates provided by blog hosts. Mark Michael Ferrer Free Blog Templates
Filed under Blog Design · Tagged with â, Amount Of Traffic, Blog, Blog Templates, Buy Stock, Custom, Custom Stock, Custom Templates, Differences, free, Free Blog, Free Templates, Freelance Graphic Designers, Hefty Price Tag, High Quality Design, More, Multiple Users, Popularity, Risk, Stock, Stock Design, Stock Designs, Stocks, Template Design, Templates, Thousand Dollars, Typicality, Unique Design
Barack Obama, Lance Armstrong, Oprah Winfrey, BBC, Hilary Clinton, John Edwards, Serena Williams, Ron Paul, Kelly Rowland, Demi Moore, ABC News, People Magazine, you, me, and millions of other people, all are Twittering. If you google ‘Twitter’ you will get back 644 million search results. Since 2006, Twitter has turned into a fad that has massively influenced the way people communicate using social networking websites. No surprise then why, every now and then, new applications need to be built to meet the needs and expectations of the increasingly growing number of Twitter users.
Twitter applications can be referred to as ‘twitter tools’ or ‘twitter add-ons’, but they are actually websites with built-in scripts integrated in Twitter. If you google ‘Twitter Applications’ you will get a load of information regarding different Twitter apps. However, in order to be able to keep your Twitter account organized and really useful, you can use some of the following apps.
One of the coolest Twitter apps is TWEETDECK. TweetDeck allows you to segment your followers into distinct groups and manage your conversations with family members, friends, colleagues, random people you share similar interests with and so on. It has a pretty simple interface that is easy to use. TweetDeck allows you to follow topics in real-time, tweet and re-tweet messages, share photos and web links and manage multiple Twitter accounts. Even better, TweetDeck developers do an excellent job by keeping the application updated on a fairly regular basis, while offering multiple URL shorteners.
TWITTBOT is a web-based application that allows you to publish on multiple Twitter accounts, while multiple users can post on your Twitter account. The great advantage of Twittbot is that as a single Twitter user you can follow as many people as you like, but you can control who posts on your bot. Basically, Twittbot collects tweets from a variety of sources and aggregates them in a straightforward interface.
DIGSBY is a desktop application that integrates e-mail, instant messaging and social networking accounts in one program. Its multi-protocol instant messaging allows you to chat with your MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM and Jabber contacts. Besides, Digsby provides email notifications with alerts about new emails and spam messages, but also about events and newsfeed that notify you what your contacts are doing.
If you love to share your pictures from your phone, a really cool and easy to use application is TWITPIC. You can use Twitpic separately from Twitter, although some of its characteristics are directly related to it. For instance, you can use your Twitter username and password for Twitpic and you can comment on your pictures like you are sending a tweet reply. One of the greatest advantages of Twitpic is that its URL services are already short, so you don’t have to use URL shortening. Twitpic is also broadly used from journalists who upload and distribute their picture in real-time so that they immediately notify people about the latest news.
If you are a professional who is looking for a tool of customer service or brand management, HOOTSUITE is the perfect solution. HOOTSUITE allows you to manage multiple accounts and to give access to other Twitter users, whenever you see it appropriate. Besides, it has a straightforward, neat platform that allows you to tweet and re-tweet your messages and it offers visibility of your link stats when your use the URL shorteners.
Without any doubt, Twitter is a great way to keep in touch with your friends or to promote your business, but also to obtain streamlined information about any new idea. By following the right people you keep yourself updated with the latest topics and you manage your account in the most efficient way. However, at the end of day, the applications you choose from the plethora of Twitter apps reflect your personal preferences. Whether it comes to personal reasons or to gain business exposure, Twitter apps are built with the latest technology and can offer you a great Tweeting experience.
I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.
Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.
Filed under Twitter · Tagged with Abc News, Aggregates, Applications, Barack Obama, Best, Demi Moore, Distinct Groups, Google, Hilary Clinton, John Edwards, Kelly Rowland, Lance Armstrong, Multiple Users, Oprah Winfrey, Paul Kelly, People Magazine, Ron Paul, Serena Williams, Share Photos, Social Networking, Tweet, Twitter, Web Based Application
15 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
Twitter is a micro blogging platform which allows you to publish short messages of less than 140 characters through different mediums like IM, cellphones and the web.
It has a social element as well, as it allows users to befriend and monitor each other’s messages or updates. So what you have here is a publishing tool that can be either public and private.
Twitter gives you a fragmented experience of opinions, events, news, ideas and feedback largely because its structured to accommodate non-contextual usability: You can easily follow thousands of users and listen in and enter into conversations conducted among multiple users at any point. And this is usually the case.
On the other hand, Twitter can be actively used as a tool to push out messages that capitalize on the attention you’re receiving from other users. Yes, I’m talking about self-promotion and marketing. This involves active user engagement.
For businesses, Twitter is another channel which connects current and potential customers with your product or brand. It allows deeply infiltration into the lifestyles of interested participants, which helps to build brand persistence/loyalty.
In its most obvious form, Twitter can be seen as a traffic generation tool. The placement of links within profiles and conversations can direct visitors to a specific website and is especially powerful if you pitch to early adopters and influencers.
So here are 15 ways to use twitter:
Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.
Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.
Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.
Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.
Read News. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. You can also subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows you to receive and view content quickly. This is very useful for active social news participants.
Make New Friends. Like any other social network, Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is an easy way for you connect with people outside of your usual circle. Make an effort to add active users you find interesting. A Twitter acquaintance can be developed into a long lasting friendship.
Network for benefits. Twitter can be used as a socializing platform for you to interact with other like-minded people, especially those in the same industry. It can be used to establish consistent and deeper relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
Use it as a To Do list. Use Twitter to record down what you need to do while you are away from the computer. Mark the tweet as a favorite to file it for referencing. Another alternative is to use an Online task management service that is synced with Twitter.
Business Management. Twitter can be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another. Workers can liaise with each other when working on group projects. Particularly useful when certain workers go out often in the field. Updates could be set to private for security reasons.
Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.
Take Notes. Twitter provides you with an easy way to record important ideas or concepts you want to explore further. Include links relevant to ideas you want to explore. Note taking can also be done offline via mobile applications.
Event Updates. Businesses can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don’t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience
Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.
Acquire Votes. Send a link to your stories you’ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Sometimes your followers will vote up the stories because they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites.
Time Management and Analysis. Twitter can simply be used to keep a detailed record of what you are doing every daily. This might be boring for others but this type of usage is useful when you want to analyze how you spend and manage your time.
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Filed under Twitter · Tagged with Cellphones, Contextual Usability, Early Adopters, Events News, Generation Tool, Infiltration, Influencers, Interested Participants, Marketers, Media Platform, Mediums, Multiple Users, Persistence, Personal Brand, Self Promotion, Short Messages, Social Element, Social Personality, Traffic Generation, Twitter, Ways
