Archive for July 2009

• 10 Stunning (and Useful) Stats about Twitter: Whoa! I guess with way over 150 followers/following… I’m an example of overkill Seriously, not surprising. But it’s disappointing Twitter slows down so often based on these facts.
• Show or Tell? Never can get enough of this topic. Still need to work on it myself though I write nonfiction. [Link: Jane Friedman]
• Entitled Ten: Ten Things to Help You with Titles: Great tips good for more than just titles. [Link: Jane Friedman]
• Should You Outsource Your Online Presence?
• 99 Ways to Improve Your Web Site

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Icon Directory for Designers: You don’t have to be a designer to benefit. [Link: @davidvanvickle]
• World’s Fastest Remote Control Car: I love remote control toys. Cars, flyers and boats.
• Roller Baby Ad: Wow. How much time did it take to put this together?
• 20 Funny and Creative Toilet Signs (Not appropriate for work or children)
• Eternal Moonwalk: Awesome tribute to Michael Jackson’s famous moonwalk.

Bernie the Bookworm loves to solve a mystery, but he thinks there’s nothing to detect in DinerTown. Flo comes along and proves him wrong. They may not have serious crimes like murder and high-priced robberies, but they have plenty of quirky things happening in this hidden object game (HOG) with a dash of puzzles. Bernie starts DinerTown Detective Agency and Diner Dash‘s Flo tags along to get out of the kitchen for a bit.

While the hidden object piece doesn’t introduce anything new, the game takes a different approach by treating each level as a single case. Bernie investigates a couple of scenes, collects clues and puts together puzzles. Upon completing a review of the scenes, Bernie completes several puzzles to eliminate suspects and then determine the culprit.

Bernie has 25 cases to solve spread throughout 20 DinerTown locations from the gym to the — where else? — diner. Fans of other PlayFirst games will recognize many of the characters, which adds to the charm. Not knowing the characters won’t affect the experience.

A new DinerTown Detective Agency case begins at the scene of the crime and nearby locations. For example, if the crime takes place in an office, Bernie looks around the break room and in an employee’s cubicle. Bernie looks around the store and its storeroom when the crime occurs in a store for items that appear on the list of things to find or a picture of an object where you must find all of its parts to to put together. Some items enter your inventory for use in the scene.

Every case also has an interactive feature such as dusting for fingerprints, using a magnifying glass to find tiny objects or squeezing an eyedropper to find evidence. There is no rhyme or reason for where you need to click — it’s purely a guessing game. It’s fun at first, but quickly turns old.

After completing the scene investigation, Bernie eliminates suspects in mini-games such as matching fingerprints or putting cards onto a grid where the columns and rows have a common theme. When down to three suspects, Bernie uses logic to identify the culprit. Each suspect has a Yes / No column and you check them off based on interviewing witnesses. Whichever suspect meets all three criteria identified earlier is the culprit. Case solved! Celebrate. Next case.

The familiar graphics live up to what you’ve come to expect from PlayFirst games like Wedding Dash, Diner Dash, Fitness Dash and many more. While a fun and cute game, it soon feels repetitive. The humor, funny cases and overall production will rein in Flo fans who like a good HOG or willing to try it with DinerTown Detective Agency.

Download of DinerTown Detective Agency free.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

Think I’ve covered every aspect of Twitter? Bet this list is missing something. What do you want to know about the microblogging service that even Conan O’Brian includes in his routine?

A Twitter Mystery: An adventure created in PowerPoint, but not using its built-in templates — just the design.

8 Ways to Avoid Overwhelming Your Followers’ Twitter Stream: I’m guilty of breaking rules especially the chat-related ones, but trying to get better about it.

Why People Don’t Follow Back in Twitter on Web Worker Daily: Hear from the crowd why they don’t follow some people back.

Twitter for Business FAQ: Some are leery of using Twitter for business. Perhaps, these answers will help them make the step forward.

7 Traits of Bad Twitter Follows: This came before the previous one.

7 Tips to a Good Twitter Experience: Believe me. When I first tried Twitter, I didn’t get it.

Twitter Success Means More Than Numbers: Of course, it’s cool when you’re reaching almost 2000 followers, but really… numbers mean little now.

How to Join Twitter Chats: Twitter chats are dangerous. They clutter the Twitter stream. I lost several followers because of my participating in chats (I now use my secondary ID for them @merylevans instead of @merylkevans). Some people are against chats on Twitter for good reason and believe they should move into a chat forum. Well, Twitter chats are going too strong to make a change.

How to Run a Successful Twitter Chat: Tips also apply to those participating. These guidelines are not Robert’s rules or anyone’s rules, just guidelines to help.

50+ Writer Uses for Twitter: Exactly that. Gleaned from a medical list. Bet you can come up with some for your business or industry.

Writer Doesn’t Get Twitter: I was like him when I took my first steps in Twitter.

4 Steps to Run with Twitter: Try to help people get up and running faster to save time in learning the hard way.

Real-life Twitter Business Success Stories: Amazing what you can get out of Twitter for business, too.

Slam-Dunk Networking With Twitter on Web Worker Daily: Do Twitter right.

Email Tip: Save Time and Stress with One New Folder on Web Worker Daily: This makes a big difference in managing my Twitter account. Early on, it was no big deal as I only received a couple of emails a day. That’s climbed a lot. This small step made a huge difference for this organized gal.

62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business: Exactly that.

When’s Prime Time on Twitter?: Always. Get on Twitter at an unusual hour for you and you never know what you’ll find.

How to Search Hashtags or chat with Twitter Search video with subtitles.

How to Use Tweetchat video with subtitles.

How to Use Tweetgrid video with subtitles.

How to Build a Better Twitter Bio: Are you sure you have it covered?

Twitter “Listed” Stat: Is It a Measure of Influence: Don’t let the Lists numbers bug you.

Get Organized with Twitter Lists Feature: Needing experts on X topic, make a list for the topic and you have you instant go to spot.

How Much Should You Reveal About Yourself Online: More than just Twitter, but every bit as helpful.

Using Twitter Lists Feature for Writing

10 Commandments for Writers Using Social Media: More than just Twitter, but just as applicable.

11 Reasons Why People Don’t Follow Back on Twitter: It’s not you… most of the time.

The Foolproof Way to Separate Fact from Fiction on Twitter: Crowds can make us believe something that’s not true.

How Writers Handle Personal and Professional Lives in Social Media: Some have multiple accounts, some combine.

How to Create a Twitter Profile for Writers: Making sure your profile doesn’t turn people away.

How Much Time Should You Spend on Social Media? What to consider when deciding.

Make the Most of Your Social Media Time: Some ideas and how I do it.

How to Build Conversations in Social Media Using the Three P’s: Passion, Planning and Promotion.

List will receive updates as more articles come out to fill any other gaps. What would you like to know about Twitter that these don’t answer?

ShortURL to this post: http://bit.ly/30UzTq

Updated 26 January 2010

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Sun. July 5th: 50% off on The Wonderful End of the World

Mon. July 6th: 50% off on Probe

Tue. July 7th: 50% off on Inclinerate

Wed. July 8th: 100% off on Break-Out The Bible

Thu. July 9th: 50% off on Spectromancer

Fri. July 10th: 60% off on H-Craft Championship

Sat. July 11th: 100% off on Turning The Tide

Happy 4th to Americans and Happy belated Canada Day.

Email going around with this. “At 5 minutes and 6 seconds after 4 a.m.,on the 8th of July, this year, the time and date will be:

04:05:06am on 07-08-09

“This will not happen again until the year 3009.” You can say the same for the ones coming in the next three years:

05:06:07am on 08-09-10 (2010)
06:07:08am on 09-10-11 (2011)
07:08:09am on 10-11-12 (2012)

It’d be cool to have one of these birthdays.

• 7 Ways to Build Your Author Brand Online
• My Favorite Book Covers of 2008: Fabulous list. Can’t begin to pick one.
• LinkedIn: 22 Ways to Dominate: Link with me, if you haven’t already.
• How to Succeed (or Survive) as a Writer: PDF slidepack of F+W Media Editorial Director Jane Friedman’s two most popular talks from 2008-2009, plus a handout on surviving publishing in the 21st century.
• 10 Books for Mothers Who Write: I read Letters to a Young Poet when I took art in college. I don’t even remember the book — just that I read it. Maybe it’ll resonate more with me now.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Buildings don’t always fall down. They fall over.
• 10 Life Lessons from Star Trek presentation
• The Sea Pig [Link: shelleyryan]
• Collection of Independence Day covers from New Yorker
• When fireworks go wrong. Proof that fireworks aren’t toys.

Photo credit Naama y.m.

I started writing a post about Twitter this morning. Then I realized, the post would work for one of my clients and moved it there. My clients come first, which makes it harder to produce high quality blog entries for my own blog.

And I am not about to abandon this place after nine years.

So how do I balance blogging here and blogging for clients / publications when our audience is the same? Not all of my clients have the same target audience, but a couple do.

That’s one reason why I don’t blog as often. I share good and fun finds on link Fridays. It looks like y’all like ‘em based on your feedback. Thank you!

So what to cover when you blog elsewhere?

1. Put you in the post: When blogging for clients, you may not share your background and experiences as much as you can for your own blog.
2. Share stories and experiences: Right now I am sharing a story of my struggles to blog here and there while maintaining high standards.
3. Make lists: Favorite / top tools, applications, etc.
4. Interview an expert: I am sure there are experts who fit your blog better than your client’s.
5. Write how to / tutorial: Some tutorials I do won’t fit client pubs. I do how tos on other sites, but it’s the topic that can make a difference.
6. Update entries: Most likely, you can’t update your posts on a regularly basis that you publish on client’s blog or web site. Update entries refers to lists and information that will receive regular updates such as List of Twitter Chats, Information Visualization and Presentations.
7. Discuss personal beliefs: Most likely client doesn’t want you to post such things (unless that’s what the blog is about). This can also be a show of support to nonprofits, struggling countries (Iran and Darfur) and so on.
8. Share lessons learned: Here’s a great opportunity to tell a story. Be creative!
9. Review new tool, app, web site, book, product.
10. Respond to another blog post: Instead of leaving a comment, use it as an opportunity to write a new post.
11. Share problems: Struggling with something in your business or personal life? Share it. Maybe it’ll help you find answers or readers will have ideas.
12. Ask questions: Turn a blog post into a discussion topic. Kick it off with your entry and pray comments come. Or post the questions in Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and add the answers to the blog post.
13. Observe life around you: Something is bound to inspire. Or maybe you can tie it with a lesson.
14. Talk about a conversation: I have fascinating conversations and discover new things on Twitter and other social networks that would make a great post.
15. Answer common questions: Do you receive similar questions? Post your answer and now you can send people to the post when they ask the question. People often ask me how to become a writer, which inspired the post.

What other ways or topics can you find inspiration for your blog to keep it alive and first-rate when you blog for others?

ShortURL to this post: http://bit.ly/qITqK