What is Viewbix: Viewbix adds interactive apps to your videos, engages viewers and drive calls to action.

Apps and Features: Viewbix offers over 2 dozen apps including photo feeds, coupons, Google maps, RSS feeds, QR codes, Yahoo Weather, and YouTube playlists.

Results: 23% of Viewbix viewers engage with at least one of the apps inside the player.

This Viewbix video will give you enough information and detail to take the next step and research deeper into creating your own video and player.  The technical part is all taken care of, you’ll just need to use your creative side to generate the content that will open endless doors of opportunities through the viral results that are just waiting to happen. Watch:

This may not be a global crisis or cause for panic, but there are many of us in search of a comparable and competitive replacement RSS reader?!  Some folks are even petitioning. Those of us who have been using the RSS reader to syndicate our daily favorite articles and posts from our favorite websites and blogs would have been left high and dry if it weren’t for Feedly.

“Our confidence in Google’s other products — Gmail, YouTube, and yes, even Plus — requires that we trust you in respecting how and why we use your other products,” wrote Dan Lewis, of New York City, who created the petition. “This isn’t just about our data in Reader. This is about us using your product because we love it, because it makes our lives better, and because we trust you not to nuke it.” more…

Now before you start enlisting all the other optional readers, software’s, apps, sites, and tools etc. I think you should research and find what will work best for you.  In my case, I follow many different blogs, authors, tech sites, and news resources so I have some particular needs that must be met by my replacement RSS reader.

Feedly.com gets my vote for the following reasons:

• It seamlessly and effortlessly pulls all your existing RSS feeds over from Google’s RSS reader
• It syncs nicely with the iPad app,  the iPhone app, and other mobile devices
• Feedly adds a plugin tool to your browser to easily add any new pages or sites to your feed
• The Feedly search tool makes it easy to find and add new content to the reader
• The color coded organizational feature makes browsing easy and faster on mobile devices
• There’s a variety of viewable formats which can be customized to work best with your flow
• When the Google RSS Reader dies on July 1st, the Feedly RSS Reader will continue to live on

All in all, I have not seen or heard of another RSS Feed reader as good as Feedly that will be an equal or more qualified reader to fully replace Google’s soon-to-be-history reader.  What’s more is the fact that Feedly has already made numerous changes and updates to step in and fill the Google RSS reader’s shoes.  I have no doubt there will be even more updates and enhancements down the “really simple syndication” road.  ~GET FEEDLY HERE~

PS. If RSS stands for and is the acronym for…  then why is Google shutting it down? Hmm…

Since you’re all the way down here still reading, check out these two fun sites: At Replacereader.com you can vote for your favorite RSS Reader replacement, and Slate has created a Google Graveyard where you can leave a virtual flower on the tombstone of various Google products the company has axed over the years.

It’s the customer experience that matters most.  There are many great companies and organizations in history that have produced and provided incredible service to every customer, and those company’s have lasted long and prosper.  Customer service is the competitive advantage yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Which type of service is easier to remember and share with others, Good or Bad?

Think back to the last service experience you had that was totally amazing, absolutely incredible, and unbelievably memorable?  Now was that easy or hard to do?  What about the worst, most horrific, utterly detestable experience you’ve had?  Every person is different, and therefore need to be treated that way right?

People will forget your name, your company, even what you’ve said, but they will never forget how you made them feel!

Here is a compilation of quotes and wisdom from some of the best in the business.  Use these to “Raise The Bar!”

Here’s my 10 favorite Customer Service Info-Graphics. Use these stats and facts to build a winning business!

• 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company over a bad customer experience – Click Software
• 79% of consumers still prefer to use the telephone to interact with a customer service center – Zendesk
• 21% of social customers will spend more for excellent service vs 11% of non-social customers – Parature
• 52% of unsatisfied customers spread the word about the bad service they received – Zendesk
• 97% of surveyed say online experience influenced if they would buy a product or service – Econsultancy
• 62% of consumers have used social media for customer service issues – Zendesk
• 72% of consumers have a more favorable view of a company offering a customer service app – Nuance
• 100% How to calculate customer lifetime value with a step-by-step example at Starbucks – KissMetrics
• SMM for customer service, with brands like Jetblue and Comcast using it to publicly – Zintro
• A great collection of the TOP 25 most influential people in the customer service space – MindTouch

Google Analytics provides some very useful information, like the the dashboard….

The real-time visitors on site feature and report…

The report and visual graph that shows your social network sharing origination and activity…

And one of my favorites from GA is the Multi-Channel Conversion Visualizer.

Now there’s a way to get data without going to Google Analytics, and have it delivered to your inbox!

Visual.ly has recently created a way for you to view and share some of that important information by providing a free, cool looking and well presented info-graphic. Get weekly insights and updates on all yours websites and blogs. Let me show you how it works.

The first step is to create your free account on Visual.ly.  The second step (if you haven’t already) is to install the Google Analytics codes on your websites and blogs where applicable. It’s that code that looks something like this <UA-1137703x-xxxx> The third step is to simply select which site or blog you want as your info-graphic source, and you’re done. Visual.ly does the rest for you.

You can select from any or all of your sites to produce an awesome looking info-graphic like this:

If you like the final product that Visual.ly produces for your site, and you’d like to track and see your sites broken down visually on a weekly basis, they’ll even send you a copy in your email every week so you don’t have to keep recreating the visual reports.  So what’s in it for them and why are they doing this for you and I free?  They just want you to share this with others like I’m sharing it with you.

So go ahead, click on the share tools below, and share these awesome Google and Visual.ly tools with your friends.

95% of people search the Internet for images, pictures, and graphics and they start their search on Google, just like you and I do. The problem is that not all pictures and images are free to use, are available under a creative-commons law, and most are copyright protected.  So now what?

Here is my recommendation for those who want to use Google for images and pictures.

1. Do your Google search as you normally would:

2. Now, use the “advanced” search tool that Google provides over on the right:

3.  Very Important:
Choose the usage rights that have “Free To Use Share or Modify” and click advanced search button

4.  Viola! Free and safe images for you to use on your blogs and websites.

If you must search the web to find and use that perfect image or picture for your blog, make sure it’s a free and safe image or picture, and that you are doing all you can to protect yourself and abide by all the copyright rules, laws, and regulations.

Even the steps above can’t, won’t, and don’t fully protect you from lawyers and the court of law, but it’s much better and safer than the way you’re currently doing it, wouldn’t you agree…or you wouldn’t be here now right?

Related & Useful Articles:
Free Photos, and Graphics, and Clip-Art Oh My
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Free Image, Graphics and Photo Sites
Free Image and Graphic Generators

These are some of the hottest “most viewed” presentations available on SlideShare this week.

How to Build a Better Inbound Marketing Machine A visual guide for building a better inbound marketing machine, and how to … By Marketo 355 days ago, 300407 views, 611 favorites, 1 comments View Share on LinkedIn,  Twitter,  Facebook

Visual Content Marketing: Capture and Engage Your Audience By Marketo 263 days ago, 184244 views, 561 favorites, 1 comments Share on LinkedIn,  Twitter,  Facebook

InstaBRAND: The Rise of Visual Storytelling in a Content Marketing World By Christian Adams 8 days ago, 98767 views, 132 favorites, 17 comments Share on LinkedIn,  Twitter,  Facebook

#illustraTED 2013 | Duarte, Inc. By Duarte, Inc. 10 days ago, 97833 views, 35 favorites, 2 comments Share on LinkedIn,  Twitter,  Facebook

Top Ten Mistakes of Entrepreneurs By Guy Kawasaki 3 days ago, 68967 views, 17 favorites, 9 comments Share on LinkedIn,  Twitter,  Facebook

One of the cool features about Slideshare is the ability to either share presentations via a link, or embed the presentation into a blog post or website.  Creating and uploading your own presentations is free once you setup your own account. It’s convenient to access your presentations and others online, but sharing is really where it’s at.

SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. With 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million page-views, it is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. Besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and recorded webinars.

Make sure you stop my My Slideshare Page (Slideshare.net/bandersohn) and help yourself to some of the presentations I’ve shared online while speaking at different events and venue’s around the country.

Google bought Picnik.com, a free online photo editing site, and then did the same thing.  Now Twitter acquired Posterous… are you sensing the online trend?  It can be frustrating for sure, but what do you want/expect for free?

The Big fish eat the little fish, and then it’s the hungry fisherman that suffers.  So who will be affected?

Here’s the email going out to those of us who have content on their site. They did a great job of marketing and getting us on board, but now they’re kicking us all off with this warning:

Posterous launched in 2008. Our mission was to make it easier to share photos and connect with your social networks. Since joining Twitter almost one year ago, we’ve been able to continue that journey, building features to help you discover and share what’s happening in the world – on an even larger scale.

On April 30th, we will turn off posterous.com and our mobile apps in order to focus 100% of our efforts on Twitter. This means that as of April 30, Posterous Spaces will no longer be available either to view or to edit.

Right now and over the next couple months until April 30th, you can download all of your Posterous Spaces including your photos, videos, and documents.

Here are the steps:

• Go to http://posterous.com/#backup.
• Click to request a backup of your Space by clicking “Request Backup” next to your Space name.
• When your backup is ready, you’ll receive an email.
• Return to http://posterous.com/#backup to download a .zip file.

If you want to move your site to another service, WordPress and Squarespace offer importers that can move all of your content over to either service. Just remember: you need to back up your Spaces by April 30.

We’d like to thank the millions of Posterous users who have supported us on our incredible journey. We hope to provide you with as easy a transition as possible, and look forward to seeing you on Twitter. Thank you.

Sachin Agarwal, Founder and CEO

Don’t you wish sites like these shared some kind of warning or subliminal disclaimer up front:

Yeah right~ So do I sound disappointed?  Nah… Of course I am!!  I spent a lot of time building my “UnGuided Missile” presence on their platform. I helped promote and support their site the whole way.  But I didn’t buy them, so I guess I’ll be packing my bags like the rest of you and moving on down the road I mean super-highway.

Be sure to “BACKUP” your content as they suggest, or it’s gone forever.  They’ll email you a link to download it when it’s ready.  Don’t get me wrong here, I love Google and Twitter, but I’m taking my Posterous stuff over to WordPress, and I just hope that Google and Twitter aren’t listening, and that they’ve never heard of WordPress!  lol~

As kids, and even grown-ups, many of us experience this kind of thing even “to this day!“  When I saw the video below  which was the spoken words of the poem written by Shane Koyczan and then Animated, I was in awe.

To This Day Project is a project based on a spoken word poem written by Shane Koyczan to further explore the profound and lasting impact that bullying can have on an individual.

Schools and families are in desperate need of proper tools to confront this problem. We can give them a starting point… A message that will have a far reaching and long lasting effect in confronting bullying.

Animators and motion artists brought their unique styles to 20 second segments that will thread into one fluid voice. This collaborative volunteer effort will demonstrate what a community of caring individuals are capable of when they come together. Read more here..

Collectively, we as caring people, and even individually can help make a difference to someone, anyone just like the difference the collaborative effort this poem and video has made since it was put together. Over 5,000,000 million views and hopefully lives have been touched and changed in the last 10 days since this posted.

We ARE the caretakers of this World and its people, and WE CAN make a difference if we try.

The image below is loaded with links and labels which will provide you access to the stuff that I think you might need or at least be interested in while I’m out.  Go ahead and feel free to click around on the picture, and if you’re interested in learning how to do this yourself… just continue reading.

There are 28 different links in this picture, can you find them all?

So, how do you add these “Labels” and “Links” on YOUR images, graphics, and pictures? Let me show you.

They are called “hotspots” (or image mapping) and can be added to any pictures, images, and graphics of your choice using a variety of different software applications and programs.  For the picture above, I used SnagIt by TechSmith.  For this tutorial, I’ll make it even easier by using an online tool called Image-Maps.

No software, no downloads, and it’s free.

1. Go to Image-Maps.com and upload any image
2. Select the area on the image using the selector tool
3. Place the “hotspot” where you want the link to be
4. Add the URL (hyper-link) and label for the hotspot
5. Then save the image and grab the embed code
6. Copy and Paste the embed code on any HTML page

Final Important note: Once you create and complete your hotspot image with all the links, you’ll want to host the original picture you’ve uploaded to the Image-Maps server somewhere else.  The site owner deletes your pic after 24hrs.  You can host it on Photobucket, Flickr, Picasa, on your own server/space at GoDaddy etc. 

Just replace the image-map URL in the HTML code with the URL where your image will now be hosted.

Now this may seem complicated at first glance, but it’s not.  In literally minutes, you’ll have an awesome picture or graphic with valuable links all over it for your clients and prospects.  Just take a moment and think of the many possibilities and the variety of ways you could be using something like this:

IE: Banners, Headers, Footers, Email Signatures, Home and Office Tours, and that’s just the beginning…

What about these ideas for some uses:

• Layouts with Facebook, Multiply, and hundreds of other social networking sites
• Blog and web site headers and navigational bars or sitemaps
• Website applications like advertisements and forum signatures
• Navigational features like schematics, floor plans, blue prints, diagrams and flow charts
• City, County, and Country maps.  Also click-able store locators and more

Here’s the online “image-mapper” go ahead and try it, it’s free. If you prefer software to do this, get a free copy of iMapBuilder and give it a shot… I mean “spot” lol~ You can also purchase SnagIt which is really inexpensive if you want the additional features they offer.  I use it frequently on my images, screenshots, graphic,s and pics.

Here’s a quick video showing how easy it is to image map without using software

Go ahead and click anywhere on the test image below to watch the 90 second video followed by a five question (multiple choice) quiz to see how it works in real time. You can see the results and your score when done, but what’s cool is that the author (me) also receives the results too.

How was this created?  I used Camtasia to create the video and embed the quiz at the end. The video file was uploaded to a server for you to access via the above graphic.  The quiz results are shown to you and emailed to me. This allows me the ability to see and measure the results.

Adding a quiz to video is easy with Camtasia, and can be a great tool for measuring your effectiveness.
BTW – This new contact forwarding feature launched by my company is pretty awesome if you ask me.

These are just a few of my favorite resources and sites available for creating very compelling infographics and more enriched data visualizations.  Try them all and then select your favorite. There is no right or wrong way, but with these options, you’ll have it your way.

Visual.ly

Piktochart

Infogr.am

Easel.ly

Present.me

Balsamiq

TimelineJS

OmniGraffle

Tableau

Say It & Make It in a Video Illustration

RSA Animate series (illustrations by CognitiveMedia) is a great example of using visual video communication to explain something.  It’s like a video whiteboard.  Check out: Whiteboard Friday and draw on a whiteboard while you explain your topic. You can also hire an illustration artist to help you create and deliver your whiteboard video message.

Never again will you want to read or write a “wall-of-words” to receive or deliver your message.
Next: View and Read 11 Info-Graphics about Info-Graphics.

Let me show you how to create a mobile app that can be shared with anyone who has a mobile device and I’ll show you how to do it for absolutely free.  Best of all, you can do it all online by yourself and at your leisure without a programmer, no developer experience, and with no software.

This tutorial walks you through each step in creating and building your mobile app.

STEP ONE:

Go to Mobile By Conduit, click on “Create App” enter your web address URL, click “Create App”

STEP TWO:

Wait just a moment for the Mobile Conduit generator to grab your information, then start building your mobile app with all the bells and whistles you’d like. You can completely customize your unique mobile app here.

NOTE: This is where you can add your Social Media pages, your Facebook Business and fan pages, RSS feeds from ANY site, video, pictures, contact forms, about you or your company pages,  additional websites and links, contact information, local area events, custom pages, and more.

Notice there are 3 tabs at the top of the build page. 

The first tab is for your mobile app content, the second tab is for style and design, and the third tab is for information and app details.  Utilize each of these areas and features to help you build your new mobile app.

STEP THREE:

Once you have everything in place, your images and links all setup, your icons and buttons customized and selected, click on the “Save & Continue” button to complete your mobile app. You can also create a custom URL for the app where is will be housed and accessible. IE: http://DebraLeeDarling.ConduitApps.com

The Mobile App Landing Page

Your mobile app landing page is now ready to share.  It also has a custom and unique QR Code for users to scan and download your app along social media buttons so they can share with their friends and sphere of influence.

The final step in this process is to market and promote your mobile app on your websites, your blogs, your online profiles, and out in the real world.  One suggestion is to create a custom graphic or icon that links directly to your hosted landing page as seen below.

    
“Created For This Tutorial”                      “Created To Test and Demo”

If you want your app to have unlimited downloads, be available in the app stores, and have full analytics and reporting capabilities, there is a fee but well worth it just for those features alone. You can also allow advertising on your mobile app from Conduit should you want to off-set some of those fees.

Remember: We live in a mobile, social, and local world which is exactly why you’re here reading this and why you’ll want an app (your app) out there and available to clients and potential customers.   View the BradsDomain mobile app example in the gallery preview below, built in less than an hour.

While the purpose is to share apps geared toward real estate industry professionals, many of these apps will be useful to ANY mobile business person who wants to simplify and maximize their mobile IOS experience.

You’ll find a variety of apps here that cover a very wide spectrum of your daily business activities yet will also cross-over into your personal health, financial wealth, and every day life.  I know that for every app here, there are 20 others that may exist, but these are the apps I’ve chosen to share with friends and readers interested in mobile IOS apps.

Best of all, these are all FREE.

Why aren’t there links to each of these apps for you to download?

That would take all the fun out of your “Easter Egg App Hunt!”  Seriously though, you’ll need to decide if you want the apps on your iPhone, iPad or iPod, then simply search the “app name” or “developer” listed in the image gallery above.

You can download any and all of these apps at the Apple iTune Store.
iPad users – click here | iPhone users – click here  | iPod users – click here

What apps are you using?

Share your favorites in the comments, post a quick blurb why you love it, and we’ll also add them to the list above.

Both of these presentation software/applications are wonderful tools for driving home a message or making a “point” on any subject matter or presentation. Backing up your talk with slides, images, video, audio, and great content isn’t just cool anymore, it’s expected by your audience. Whether it’s one person or one thousand in a crowd, these supporting software’s and applications can make all the difference in the world.

Taking a non bias stand and perspective here, I wanted to share two presentations, both similar in the topic and content but using two separate sites and presentation tools to get their message and point across to their audiences. Both of these are live and available for viewing on the web and were randomly selected for this comparison and evaluation.  The question here is which one would you prefer?  Watch and Compare!

EXAMPLE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION: ABOUT SYRIA

EXAMPLE PREZI PRESENTATION: ABOUT SYRIA

Additional options for similar sites and tools like Prezi… ummm, well… there’s really none.

Related Articles:
7 Tips for Creating Beautiful PowerPoints
Making a Point – The PowerPoint Way
SlideRocket PowerPoint Style Presentations
Prezi – PowerPoints at the Next Level
3D Presentations for Real Estate
Creating Your Cool Prezi Presentation
SlideSharing Power in the Cloud

Many presenters, myself included, tend to lean toward having too much content, too many words, and typically way too many slides for those keynote opportunities. But there is so much information and so much to share right?

Yes, but putting all that information into a slideshow makes for good notes and key-points for us to remember and discuss, but it also turns a potentially awesome PowerPoint presentation into a failing disaster.

• How important are color schemes?
• Do you really think the font you’re using matters?
• What about images, graphics, photos, and symbols?

Do these really have an impact on your PowerPoint slides and the effectiveness of your presentation? You bet they do. After reviewing these tips, your PowerPoint presentations will never be the same… and that’s a good thing!

In every single case, your presentation should contain all the elements above that support and lead to your audience being sold on your idea, your service, your product, or whatever it is that you’re pitching, and not distracted, bored, and disgusted with your PowerPoint slideshow.

There’s nothing more to say than YOU NEED TO GO!  This will be the event of the year, the one they’ll talk about all year long!  Take a look at this line-up, then ask yourself… “Do I really want to miss an event of this magnitude with speakers and social media experts of this caliber?”

The answer is obviously and without a shadow of doubt… “NO!”

Let me put it this way: I have been reading, following, and learning from the folks speaking at this event for at least the past 4 years or longer.  I subscribe to their blogs, read their sites, listen to their shows, watch their videos, and have learned more from these people than any other source on or off the web.

These are some of the greatest and most creative and experienced minds in the social media space.

Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan, Mari Smith, Amy Porterfield and the many others you see here are the best of the best, the creme of the crop, the industry leaders, they’re the ones at the top and to have them all in one location, at one single event may be a once in a lifetime ordeal.

I’m there! Are You?

Special thanks, kudos, and shout out to SocialMediaExaminer.com for pulling these folks together for this amazing occasion.  It will be nothing short of a spectacular and stellar event.

Using photos that you’ve uploaded and posted on Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, or on your own computer, Tripadvisor’s TripWow creates custom videos with a single mouse-click.  You can also  completely customize them if you wish.  Customize the themes, music, captions, titles, and more.

Here’s a quick Tripadvisor TripWow video that I literally threw together before I could finish eating my cup of soup at lunch today.   I simply selected a theme, grabbed some family pics from Facebook, added my wife’s new hit single, gave it a title, and clicked done!  Viola~

Once your video is completed, you’ll notice all the share features available. Once it’s viewed by 10 or more individuals, you’ll have the option to download the file as a video to your hard -drive.  I also like the embed player, and the share features built into the player.  Nice work TripAdvisor.com

Create your own custom Tripadvisor TripWow video for FREE – Click Here to Get Started

First impressions are important. Here’s your chance, (maybe only chance) to have a visual impact on your visitors.

These are some of my TOP favorite pages and profiles that I’ve discovered while on the Facebook journey.

Be creative, think outside the book box. 

IMPORTANT: There are a few key tips you’ll want to know before creating your masterpiece.  You’ll need your profile and cover photo dimensions, and your custom tab image dimensions should you decide to build your Facebook page or profile to that extent.

• COVER IMAGE: Size: 851 X 315 Pixels
• PROFILE IMAGE: Size 125 X 125 Pixels
• CUSTOM TAB IMAGES: Size: 111 X 74 Pixels
  (Only 4 Tabs Can Be Displayed on Page)

The quality and visual aspect of your presence on Facebook subliminally plays a big role in the minds of the viewer.  Your visual presence is the virtual signature of who you are, what you do, and how you work. Without sounding too cliche, “be all you can be” since you have that choice and the options available to you.

Here’s a video library to help you get the most out of your own custom Facebook pages and social media efforts.

Related Articles:

50 Brands and Facebook Cover Photos
Facebook Timeline Review Tutorial
How To Add Your Blogs To Facebook
Who’s Unfriended You On Facebook
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The Ultimate Facebook Guide
The Secret for Successful Facebook Ads
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The Google Plus -vs- Facebook Battle

Many online business Pro’s both large and small already use the Google Alerts feature to be notified about certain keywords or phrases when they get posted, but these custom alerts are a bit different.

Do you generate an income from your blog or website using Google Adsense?

These alerts are a great way to monitor your data and discover new insights.

They are now offering two types of new alerts. The automated alert, and the custom alert.  Both are a welcomed addition to an already priceless and powerful tool that Google alerts has provided in the past.

Now I’m not sure how or where they came up with that #5 figure or statistic, but that’s what they claim on their site and in the video below. Based on my personal observations and experiences, that may very well be.  If this is true, then there’s a ton of people I know out there that are missing a prime opportunity to use Wikipedia to their advantage.  How?

By sharing local information, personal expertise and experience, education and knowledge, and a plethora of your wisdom’s which could prove beneficial if done correctly. The Wikipedia written in English, was started in 2001, and it currently contains 4,131,052 articles. It is also available in all these other languages across the world.

Have you ever noticed how many search results link to Wikipedia.org articles?  They usually show up on the top of the first page of Google too.  C’mon, you know you’ve linked to their articles and pages on some of your websites and blog posts, just like this one here.  This certainly has an impact on their SEO.  So how are you using Wikipedia to help connect with other like-minded individuals who share the same interests and passions that you do?  You’re probably not, right?

This is why I want to bring it to your attention. Watch and listen to what these folks have to share, then sit back and ponder as I did on the variety of ways you could be contributing and engaging with others by volunteering your time and wisdom on one of the Top 5 websites in the world.

Here’s some tools and links that can help enhance your Wikipedia experience:

• Community Portal – Bulletin board, projects, resources and activities covering a wide range of Wikipedia areas.
• Help Desk – Ask questions about using Wikipedia.
• Local Embassy – For Wikipedia-related communication in languages other than English.
• Reference Desk – Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on subjects.
• Site News – Announcements, updates, articles and press releases on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Village Pump – For discussions about Wikipedia itself, including areas for technical issues and policies.

There is a ton of information available on Wikipedia about people, places, and things all from all over the globe. The content is under creative commons copyright which allows any and all users to share, edit, and use freely on their own sites and blogs.  Take advantage of the exposure and knowledge sharing opportunity that’s available on Wikipedia, your contributions and donations just might pay-it-forward and pay-it-back in some very rewarding ways.

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

	Commons Free media repository		Wikinews Free-content news		Wikispecies Directory of species
	Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination		Wikiquote Collection of quotations		Wikiversity Free learning materials and activities
	Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals		Wikisource Free-content library		Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus

BradsDomain Disclaimer:
Wikipedia should not be taken as an authority on every subject that you research, especially health or medication articles etc. While I have found much of their information to be accurate, the site is accessible to everyone and can be edited by anyone. I have seen glaring errors and a lot of information that gets left out.  Always verify your findings and facts with reputable sources.

Have fun, you’re going to be here a while. 

1. Fake Magazine Covers – You’re The Star
2. Your Face On Different Body – The Body Switcher
3. Novelty Fun Templates – Silly Scenes
4. Scrapbook Creator – The Scrapbook Generator
5. Mirrorizer – See It For and As Yourself
6. World’s Best Person – Greatest Fototrix
7. Comic Creator – Fototrix Comics
8. Special Effects – Fototrix Special Effects
9. Photocards – Fototrix Photocards
10. Props & People – Fototrix Props and People
11. Frames or Borders – Fototrix Framer and Borders
12. Fake Magazine Covers – Silly Webcam Covers
13. Silly Scenes – Silly Webcam Scenes
14. World’s Best Award – Silly Webcam Greats
15. Greeting Cards – Webcam Greeting Cards
16. Your Face On Another Body – Body Snatcher
17. Borders – Borders Galore
18. Frames – Getting Framed is fun
19. Hairstyles short, medium, long, wedding, funky, up or mens
20. Fan Sign Generator – Create Custom Fan Signs
21. Sign Generators -Customize Your Own Signs
22. MAKE A LOGO – Text To Logo Creations
23. Warning/Safety Sign Builder – Danger Sign Creator
24. Dummies Book Cover Maker – Text To Pic Fun
25. Comic Strip Generators – Generate Custom Strips
26. Free Web Page Counter – Spiffy Text Counter
27. Insult Generator – This one Is A Jerk
28. Tarot Card Name Generator – Text to Pic Tarot Cards
29. “Post-It” Note Generator – Create fun custom notes
30. Garbage Pail Kids Card Generator – Remember these?
31. Smiley Generator – The 300 plus Happy Face Creator
32. Wallpaper Generator – Create Custom Wallpaper
33. Blog Header Image Maker – Create the perfect header bar
34. Confucius Says Generator – Confucius says… “Try It”
35. Nigerian Scam Placard Generator – Ummm…
36. License Plate Maker – This one is addicting
37. Presidential Seal Maker – Seal The Deal
38. Support Ribbon Generators – For the Good Cause
39. Garden Label Generator – Create Custom Labels
40. Famous People Message Generators – Famous Faces
41. Glitter Text Effect Maker – The Glitterizer
42. Online Banner Ad Designer – Marketing Tools
43. RSS/XML Button Maker- Makes RSS Subscribing Fun
44. Web 2.0 Buttons – Online Button Warehouse
45. Gamers Sig Generator – Video Gamers Delight
46. Arcade Games Pics – Create Cool Images
47. Avatar Maker – Everyone Needs an Avatar
48. Graffiti It – Text Over Images is Graffiti
49. Birthday Wishes – Something Everyone Can Use
50. Show Your Love – Self Explanatory Right?
51. Virtual Flowers – They Never Wilt or Die
52. It’s A Baby – Announce The New Addition To All
53. Celebrate The Holidays – Show Some Holiday Spirit
54. Safe For Kids – Parents Are Just Over-Sized Kids
55. Danger Label Maker – Warning – Stay Out Of Kitchen
56. Warning Label Generator – Needed for My Cooking
57. Square Sign Generators – Not for the “Hip” Creators
58. Your Country’s Flag – My Country Tis of Thee
59. Country Flags – Great Selection of Customizable Flags
60. Skeleton Bones Logo Maker – For The Gratefully Dead
61. “I LOVE” Generators – The Cupid Love Creator
62. Watermark Creator – Embed Text Over Images
63. Barcode Creator – Add Barcodes to Anything
64. SIRD Stereogram Maker – Create Stereo-Grams
65. Anti-Spider Text Hider – Convert Text To an Image
66. Email Sig Creator - Customize A Unique Email Sig
67. 268 Text-To-Pic Sites and Toys if You’re Bored
68. Flash Sign Generators – Create Your Custom Sign
69. Monopoly Card Generator – Get Out Of Jail Free
70. Animated Text – Bring Life To Your Text
71. Make Your Own Sign Generator – More Signs
72. CoolText Generator - Custom Text Generator
73. Flaming Text – Logo Design and Name Generator
74. MapMessage – Custom Map Messaging
75. Image Morphing – Free Code Source

RELATED SITES:
Image Chef
WebFetti
Cool Text
123 Pimpin

Our first instinct was to go outside after we rolled out of bed at 6am this morning, and see if the world was gone and we just over-slept?  To our surprise, there was an eerie quiet and our first visual was a full blown rainbow in the Northern sky.

The clouds were mysteriously rolling by as if they were on some sort of time-lapsed video player, and there were fire colored rays of light shining in the eastern sky.

Surrounded by total silence and these elements, my wife and I looked at each other in a bit of awe, sighed a subtle sigh of relief, then went back in the house to brew our daily cup of coffee and begin our daily rituals. The world is still here and we’ve got work to do.

This Prezi was very informative, well put together, features some great effects and audio, and helps explain what I could hardly understand.  It will shed some light on the Mayan culture, myths, predictions, legends etc., and the tale of “The end of the World as we know it!”

Now the day is not yet over here for us on the Pacific West Coast, so if you’re in a different time zone, and you know something we don’t, please don’t spoil it for us.  I’m about to run out and grab some Chinese food for dinner and watch a movie with the family.  If for any reason you don’t see any more articles on this site after this one, then you know what happened… and we’ll see you up there, and on the other side. 

What is an infographic?  In all honesty, it is just images compiled with text/data that makes up a single informational graphic on a topic, subject, or concept. Albeit fact, fiction, a tutorial or how-to, infographics provide a greater visual impact than a wall of words or a book.

Color, images, font types and sizes, and the infographic content are what make them appealing to the eye and effective for most viewers.  They are simply fast, short, easy, graphical, informative and efficient ways to learn.

There are some great informational and very educational infographics on almost every topic.  Some of my favorite infographics can be found on Pinterest.  There are more than 285 Infographics covering a wide variety of topics and most of them were discovered and shared just this year.  http://pinterest.com/bradandersohn/best-infographics

MOTIONGRAPHICS:

What are motiongraphics?  In a word: Video.  The real difference between video and a motion graphic is the content that makes up the video.  While video is usually considered movement measured in FPS (frames per second) a motiongraphic is images appearing to have movement and still images brought to life.  In essence, a motiongraphic is an infographic morphed into a living presentation.

This motiongraphic uses a combination of info, graphics, audio, and animation: “A Marketers Guide To Pinterest”

Samples and Examples of some Amazing MotionGraphics:
Measuring The Universe, Seven Minutes of Terror, Mars in a Minute, Evolution of the F1 Car, Pizza Delivery in NYC, Fast Food, Economy of Coca-Cola, 40 Years of Touring – Bruce Springsteen, Most Popular Halloween Costumes, The Euro is in the Cross-hairs, An Amazing Morphing Campaign Money Map, The Great Titanic, Tornado Tracks from 1950 – 2011, Sherbourne Common – A Storm water Solution

Snippet from Visual.ly – http://visual.ly/learn/data-visualization-tools
“Tableau Public – turn data into visualizations with a simple drag and drop. Customize labels, tool tips, interactive filters and legend displays. There’s no programming language to learn, no Flash, no plug-ins, and no API. Instead, you create interactive data visualizations in minutes and embed on your website or blog.
Plot.io is essentially a web-based version of Tableau. You can analyze millions of rows of data in seconds, and publish your visualizations to the web for free, without downloading or installing software.
Many Eyes – A tool that lets you use your own data for data visualization. Simply upload your own data and get well-designed visualizations. Google Public Data lets you turn public data into a simple visualization. And with the Stat Silk tool you can access world data and customize the way the data is presented visually.”

So which format works best for you?  Infographic? MotionGraphic? Both?

Which format works best for your audience? It is merely a matter of personal preference, but when it comes down to cultivating traffic on your  site by providing content that informs, educates, and allows you the opportunity to convert visitors to clients, then taking a deeper look into the way we present things both graphically and visually becomes so much more important.

Related Articles for Infographics:

How To Create FREE Infographics    
Top Resource for Shared Infographics
How To Create Infographics in PowerPoint

If you’re already sitting there at your computer anyway, why not have the lights on and the door open? I mean who wouldn’t want a potential client or referral visitor to have access to you, or you to them?

Here are some really cool chat sites and tools you can use to strike up a live and real-time conversation with those visiting your websites and blogs. Heck, isn’t that what you’re hoping for and why you created them to begin with? Go figure.

One of my favorite Chat sites and tools is Zopim.com

Zopim is very rich in features: See who is on your site/blog in real-time.  See what page they are looking at and what browser they are using.  See where they are located around the world and what they are interested in on your site. Create simple and quick reply responses and inquiries. See how long they’ve been on your site and how many times they’ve returned and much more. All this before you’ve even struck up a live conversation or “Chat” with them.

Another great chat site and tool that’s in Beta right now is ZoHo Chat

ZOHO Chat has everybody talking (no pun intended) Embed a shout-box so visitors a=can chat amongst themselves. Communicate with visitors and get their live feedback. Create chat groups based on criteria you select and setup. Works over multiple IM platforms like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, MySpace and more. Many great features you and your visitors will find useful.

LiveChatINC is a Powerful Live Chat Software

LiveChatInc was created and designed with one purpose in mind: “Talk to your website/blog visitors and turn them into customers!“  Now you may be thinking that once you’ve seen one Chat app or software, you’ve seen them all. Not the case here.  PCWorld, TechCrunch, Mashable, and Business Insider have all shared their opinions, and companies like Adobe, Salomon, and the Better Business Bureau have all given their on-site testimonials.  Check out their Live-Chat Customer Happiness Report.

Check Out Online Chat Centers

There is a FREE lite version and then there’s always a paid option.  Online Chat Center has been providing live chat support to over 16,000 websites since 2005. When it comes to connecting business owners with their website visitors in a real time chat, OCC chat support software is a proven leader of premier software’s for live support.

Lastly, checkout Snap Engage for your Traffic Conversion Tool

Snap Engage is a bit more pricey, but then understandably so with some of the costly features that are included in some of their plans.  A real-time dashboard, and International translation tools.  Customizable mobile chat on the go. Transfer chats and integrate with your favorite CRM (client relations manager)  Get reports, unlimited sites, multi-widgets and more.

It makes sense to have a good and reliable chat and communication tool in place on your site.

You don’t want to miss those prospects and opportunities with those visiting your site.  Real-time is Real-good.  Helping answer questions, assisting visitors with your site’s navigation, or just reaching out to offer a helping hand are all justifiable reasons to consider opening up your site’s to those who may just want to chat with you first before hiring you and your company, or before purchasing your products and online services.  Want to chat about it?  I’m here…

Your heart will be touched, your spirit lifted, and your life inspired and put into perspective.

Ric Elias – the last three emotionless words he heard that changed his life, “Brace For Impact!” just before the plane went down in the Hudson River. His story is life changing and he’s blessed to be alive to share it.

Candy Chang – takes a public space that to most would appear to be a nuisance, and uses it creatively to let people share their “Before I die…” ideas and priorities, and makes an amazing impact and difference all over the world.

Janine Shepard – a former Olympian and possible Olympic Champion shares a shattered dream from a near-death bicycle accident, and then shares how she rebounded and created new dreams. A body broken, isn’t a broken person.

Jane McGonigal – shares the game that can give you 10 extra years of life. On your death bed, would you ever regret spending time playing games? What are the top 5 regrets most people have on their death beds?

Louie Schwartzberg – a time-lapse photographer shares how every day is a gift. Louie challenges viewers to live each day as if it were the first and the last day of your life. A moving and thought provoking conclusion to this post, and this life.

Now anyone can create a group or community to connect with others in the same industry, and invite those with like-minded interests.  Before creating a new community or group, you may want to see if that group already exists. By the time you find and read this post, there’s a good chance that someone you know in one of your circles will have beat you to the draw.

In any case, here’s the steps to creating a new community on Google+.

1. Go to: “Google+ Communities”

2. “Sign in” or “Join Google+”

3. Click on the “New Communities” icon located on the navigation bar

4. Option A: Search for an existing Community

4. Option B: Click the "Create A Community" to start a new one of your own.

5. Decide if your community will be "Public" or "Private"
(note: If you select "private" it can not be changed later)

6. Name your Google+ Community and chose who can join
IE: Free Tech Sites and Online Tools

7. Click the "Create Community" button on the lower right-hand side

8. Now write a "tagline", pick a "community photo/image", complete the "about section", and add a few "categories".

YOU'RE DONE!!

The only thing left to do now is invite people to the community and share a link with those you think may have an interest in joining, contributing, or participating.

There are two ways to do this.
One: Use the "Invite" link option in the "actions" pull-down menu located just beneath your community photo/image.

Two: Use the Unique URL located in the browser address bar to send out to friends and colleagues in email or on SMM.
           IE: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/110922509353175154996
Note: You can also use alternate keywords for your link: example - Cool Free Web Stuff