A few days ago you might have noticed that Skelliewag.org’s uptime was a little patchy. This was because a post I wrote — 110+ Resources for Creative Minds — appeared on the front page of Digg and became popular on del.icio.us and StumbleUpon.

I created the post specifically with social media in mind, primarily as an experiment. I wanted to see if it would be possible for me to reach the front page of Digg with a resource post — something anyone with a bit of spare time can create.

If that was the case, I could return to you and outline a model of social media success. The experiment worked, and the above diagram is an attempt to communicate the results.

Keep reading for an analysis of what I’ve learned about social media success. Read More…

If you’re not in the market for a new project, you can skip this one. If you are, consider these three ideas. Not sure if they’ll be useful to you, but I had to get them out. Read More…

Photography: Broken Hand by Ack Ook

#1 — Web 2.0 must come in separate boxes

How much time do we waste switching between and checking our StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, Quechup, Del.icio.us, etc. accounts? The sheer amount of these accounts, the chopping and changing required, ensures that most of us will drop a few of these services and stick only to the ones we feel are essential: simply for the sake of our sanity.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Just as online start page services like iGoogle can pipe new emails and updated feeds to a personalized page, why couldn’t each Web 2.0 service create a personalized update stream to be aggregated at a single control panel? Read More…

Photography: Cheat? by Pperinik

A cheat sheet is a single page one-stop reference you’ve probably only ever encountered in your high-school math class. Web developer Dave Child, however, has created cheat sheets on a variety of techie topics like CSS, RGB Hex Colors and World of WarCraft. They all have one thing in common, though: they’ve each been traffic magnets.

In this post, I want to discuss how cheat sheets can be created for any topic. I’ll also explore why they’re so attractive to social networking sites, and how you can ensure your own cheat sheets are launched with the best chances of social networking success. Read More…

Photography: Se busca cantante metal by believekevin

Lists are great at making the popular pages of social bookmarking sites. They’ve also become hallmark content for many popular blogs and websites and have ruled magazine covers for years.

5 Powerful Reasons to… 80 Tricks to… 19 Ideas for… They’re everywhere - even this post! Here are 5 reasons why writers use them and readers love them. Read More…