TweetPhych analyzes the content of your Tweets and builds a Psychological Profile for you using two linguistic algorithms. Its spooky, but creative..!!

I stumbled this site while looking into my Twitter Stream. I was taken aback at the idea. This might not be a god Business Proposition but definitely creative enough for me to post.

TweetPhych analyzes the Content of your last 1000 Tweets and builds a Psychological Profile for you. This service works best if you are a Twitter Addict having more than 1000 Tweets and they represent conversations rather than just forwarding TinyURL links.

I tried my Primary Twitter Name “ThinkJayant” and the above results were thrown up. It uses two linguistic algorithms “Regressive Imagery Dictionary” and “Linguistic Inquiry and Wordcount” to come up with the Profile. Regressive Imagery Dictionary is measures the amount and type of three categories of content – primordial (the unconscious way you think, like in dreams), conceptual (logical and rational though) and emotional. While Linguistic Inquiry and Wordcount measures the cognitive and emotional properties of a person based on the words they use. The Service is still int Beta but worth a look.

Links:

• TweetPhych
• Description of the Methods used to build your profile

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Should you maintain One Common Twitter Account or One Per Website Twitter Account? Learn as we try to debate this issue you might face.

Twitter Account – One or Many

You might face the same problem when you open a new Website and want to brand it. Do you continue maintaining ne Twitter Account for all your sites or should you make one per Website you own. The answer to it lies on individual preferences. Hence I cannot give a clear answer. However we can certainly help you try to figure out what works best for you.

Purpose of using Twitter

First thing you need to do is find out is what purpose Twitter will serve to your Socializing aspect. Is Twitter used as a branding? Or is Twitter used as a Feed Stream? The answer to the question lies solely on this two approaches. Let’s see how to approach both of them

One Twitter Account

If you are interested in building a community for a certain project or create a following for a certain service, you are much better with maintaining a single account to keep your followers united in the same Twitter Stream. This approach would also suit you if you like to make tweets and not automate the task using Feed Updates.

Multiple Twitter Account

If you are using Twitter as a Feed Stream and want to send updates of any post you make on your site to all your followers, then the best option would be to build individual accounts for each site. This will keep your different audience segregated. You can do this by using a free service called TwitterFeed which monitors your RSS Feeds and updates your Twitter account everytime you post. There are several WordPress Plugins available to accomplish the same task however I like TwitterFeed approach.

So what approach are you using? Let us know via comments. Have a nice day..!!

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Use your Blog theme as Twitter Background and bring a sense of Brand Identity to your Twitter Profile.

Why create a Custom Twitter Background

Twitter is the craze now. Starting conversation with people is now more easier than ever. It’s simple to track a person, follow his status and check out interesting stuff. However little focus have been given to take Twitter up as a serious Business Channel. Twitter can be a good place to cultivate your Business which are based on Web 2.0 especially if they appeal more to the young generation. Hence it becomes very important to build a Brand on Twitter if you want to seriously exploit advantages from this wonderful service.

Now all are not gifted with the art of Web Designing and Graphic Works. However, with little effort you can create a splashing new Twitter Background and save hundreds of dollars for the job. It is simple. Use your Website’s Theme to build Twitter Background.

How do we do it..? Let take an example of this blog itself. This blog follows a simple theme with a dark band for Page Navigation, Bold Orange for Title Background and finally a slight gradient Off White for the rest of the Content Area. Now I can create a similar layout for my Background base on Twitter.

Four things to remember on Twitter:

1. The images are not tiled. Thus advice you to use a large image which is well within the Size limit. I use a dimension or 2000pixel wide and 1500pixel
2. The only area to Advertise on Twitter is the left pane. (You can find other areas if you are creative enough)
3. Add a logo or Tagline to personalize your Twitter page even more
4. Remember to put your Website Address and Contact details on the Advertise Region

Learn how to Change Twitter Background Image and Colors

What tools do you need

If you are experience enough to operate an Image Editor, then I would suggest something like Fireworks or Paint.net. Adobe Photoshop for such task is not needed. You just have to create a layout from your site’s background. If still you cannot deal with it then I suggest you use any PRINT SCREEN software and remove the content and keep only the layout.

Here is how it will look..!! Interested..!!

Here is a screenshot of my Twitter Page (as of June 2009). It’s a simple modification like I talked about. Same layout of colors found on this blog, a logo to add personalization and finally the Contact details.

Follow Me on Twitter

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How it works?

It works using a two step approach. The paying and receiving of payments are done from the Twitter itself. In the Background, Twitpay makes  a note of the transactions and store it. Later you can visit Twitpay and discard or settle all your Transactions. Twitpay uses Amazon Payments to settle the transactions.

Sending and Receiving Payments

• Use Twitter Website or any other Twitter Client and send your Payments to any friends. Use the following format.

@Friend Twitpay $20 for Movie Tickets

• This does not work with people having Protected Updates. So you have to Unprotect your Updates in Twitter
• You can send payments between $0.01 to $1000 in any increment. Twitpay charges a nickel for payments above $0.99

Settling the Transactions

• When you send a Payment, Twitpay make a note of the transaction on your and recipents Twitpay account.
• Claim your Twitpay Account from their site
• In case you want to cancel a transaction, remove it from your Twitpay account
• When you want to clear the transactions and make the payment, Twitpay will take you to Amazon Payments and let you complete the transaction. Its as simple as that.
• You can view your receive funds at your Twitpay.me Account at -> http://twitpay.me/yourtwittername

Personal Thoughts

It is a nice concept. Basically they ahve manage to use the popularity of Twitter and the ease of use of services like Paypal/Amazon Payments. It works great. Its secured. And the all transactions are handled by a trusted brand like Amazon. What more do you want..??

Share your opinions with us. Have a nice Day..!!

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Step 1. Add @GCAL as your friend in Twitter. GCAL is a bot which will forward your event detail to your Google Calendar Account.

Step 2. Visit TwitterCal and update your Twitter Username and Gmail Account Name. TwitterCal will authorize your Google Account with your Twitter Account. By doing this, it knows which Gogole Calendar Account to register the events.

Step 3. Post a Direct Message to GCAL to register your events in Google Calendar.

How to Unsubscribe from the Service

Step 1. Open Google Accounts ->  Go to Change Authorize Websites

Step 2. Revoke Access foe TwitterCal

Message Formats

• Use “d GCAL” when sending message from external client or your Twitter Homepage
• Do not use “d GCAL” if you are sending message from Twitter.com/DCAL page, els your Event Title will append the words “d CAL” to the title
• Use Google Calendar’s Quick Add Syntax to create events. Click here to learn how to use Quick Tags.

Some Common Examples

• Football at 5pm
• Office Meeting Next Tuesday at 2 pm
• French Lessons Wednesdays 8 pm repeats weekly for 12 weeks

Click Here to learn more. Have a nice Day..!!

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Step 1. Go to http://sxoop.com/twitter/mosaic.pl

Step 2. Enter your Email Address. Select to show Twitter Friends or Followers and Press GO Button.

Step 3. Get the Code and Paste in your Blog Editor. Remember to use the HTML Editor and not the Visual Editor.

Note: You will be creating a long list of Images and Links. To avoid negatively affecting your Site’s SEO copy the code in a text editor first and replace  href= with  rel=”nofollow” href. This will append a nofollow tag to your links and tell Search Engine Spiders to not weigh the links.

Here is how the output looks… Pretty neat isn’t it..

Follow Me on Twitter

Have a nice Day..!!

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Step 1. Open your Twitter Profile. “Click Settings”

Step 2. Click on “Design Tab”

Step 3. Either Select a existing Theme or Click “Change Background Image”, Browse your Image and Upload it. You can also Tile the Image if you want.

Images can be either JPEG, GIF or PNG files. The size should be less than 800kb. Also Twitter stores your previous Background Images along with your profile, so you can revisit it later.

Step 4. You can Change your Theme’s Color by clicking on the “Change Design Colors”

Use a Color Combination which will go with your theme. Make sure your Links Stand out and are not having high level of contrast compare to background Image Color. You can play around with it until you land to the perfect match.

Follow Me on Twitter

Have a nice Day..!!

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Xfruits helps users create RSS Mashups, Aggregate multiple RSS into one and a lot of other options. Here is a short summary of what all it can do:

1.  Aggregate multiple RSS Feeds into one Single Feed
2. Create a mobile version of your website based on RSS Feed
3. Get Feeds of all emails sent to a particular Xfruits Mailbox
4. Create a PDF from an RSS Feed
5. Create an alert mail for your RSS Feed
6. Create a OPML file to manage your RSS Lists (It is a bunch of RSS Feeds identified by most RSS Readers)
7. Create a Mobile webpage from an OPML File
8. Create RSS Feed from unread mails in your Email Inbox with privacy settings
9. Using www.vocalfruits.com create a audio version of your RSS Feeds (cost money $$)
10. Publish the content of RSS Feed on your blog (read auto blogging)
11. Available in Spanish, English and French. Other languages coming soon

My Experience

My main aim was to look for a RSS Aggreator, so I could aggregate my feeds from all my blogs. I tried doing the same with Xfruits. The part was easy and my RSS Aggregated Feed was ready in seconds. All you have to do is provide a Title for your Feed Aggregator, Submit the individual feeds and save it sa public /private. In future you can edit your feed from “My Xfruits” section. Cool thing is that while you are adding individual feeds to Xfruits, it checks int eh background the validity of the feed, helping your avoid typo errors.

Once done, you can begin using your new feed URL immediately or share it on popular Social Media Sites. Among all its services i liked the following three services the most.

• Aggregate multiple RSS into one
• Publish your RSS content to your Blog
• Create a Mobile version of your website

The only problem i faced with it was, when logged in “My Xfruits” screen, I could not find a way or link to add new Feed. Placing a link would have been nice. But then this is a new service and it is still in beta version. I hope they listen to my suggestion and use it in the final version. Great Service.

If you have used other of its features, do share your experience via comments.

Have a nice Day..!!

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If you like me, are an avid Google Reader user and want to share your favorite articles with your Twitter Followers, here is a quick way to do it:

Step 1: Open Google Reader. On the left hand side you will find the Sidebar. Click on “Your Stuff”

Step 2: Every Google Reader has a Unique ID Associated with it. Check your Address Bar and note the same. IT would be a string of Digits located between the “%2F” characters.

Step 3: Open TwitterFeed. Its a free services not affiliate to Twitter, and helps integrate your RSS with Twitter. You can login to your TwitterFeed account using OpenID (OpenID wiki). Since you are already using Google Reader, you can use your Google Login as an OpenID provider.

Step 4: Click on New Feed, and start entering the details. As simple as that.

• Enter your Twitter Username and Password, so TwitterFeed knows where it will post your Updates.
• In the RSS Feed URL, Enter the following Feed -  “http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user%2F10316601016267458964%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Fbroadcast”. Replace the strikeout characters by your Google Reader Unique ID.
• Set the Update Frequency and Number of Updates. You can post maximum 5 Updates per Half hour. Maximum 5 updates cap is there to limit your Twitter Account to be marked as Spam.
• You can also Edit how your Update will look. You can set it for “Title Only”, “Description Only” or both. I would prefer “Title Only” owing to Twitter’s short updates.
• You can also select a Link shortening service. TinyURL and SnipURL are my favorites. But there are other services also.
• Finally you can also prefix your Updates with some common text. And also selectively post Items based on specified keywords.
• Once done, Click Save and you are set to go. TwitterFeed will update your Google Reader’s shared items in your Twitter Account. Yeppie..!!

Got a cool Twitter Tip? Share it with me and other readers via comments. Happy Maha Shivratri. Have a nice Day..!!

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While other statistics are also important and tell you a lot about your site, Comments from your blog visitors is the most important reflection for your Authority in your domain. However, the comments should be natural and not provoked by a offering or a controversial topic.

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Reasons for Encouraging Comments on your Blog

There are a lot of reasons for encouraging more comments on your blog apart form the feel good factor. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when someone comments on my blog. I go through their comment and make a note of what they have to say. Even constructive criticism are welcome. It give you an effective ruler to measure your performance as a Blogger. Let’s see some of the main benefits you derive from encouraging more comments for your blog posts.

Gives you Feedback

The most important reason and benefit of comments are that “THEY COMPLETE THE COMMUNICATION CYCLE”. The communication cycle starts with the sender (a blogger in this case) communicating via the medium (the blog post) to the recipients (the blog readers), and Feedback being the Comments Section.

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Continuation of Discussion

Another important aspect of comments are that they continue the discussion from the point where the blog post left. You might ask a open ended question or invite suggestion for your topic. Then the commentators gets a chance to extend your idea and provide his interpretation of the topic.

They become your Critics

Comments keeps you in check. They channel your flow of posts. They stop you to go all ga-ga about yourself. They stop you from been criticizing someone in public for more than they deserve. They in a way border’s your post and control the check of the blogosphere. They tell you if you have written a bad post or done an excellent work.

Gives Ideas for more Post Topics

Comments are a good way to gather ideas for more blog posts. The discussion and views posted by commentators are often filled with new ideas of what could be your next post. May be they can encourage you to write up a follow up post to the current one. Listen to your comments. Stitch them together and you have a good analytic report in front of you.

Inspire you as a Blogger

There is nothing that inspires me more than a good comment. Not even attaining an increase in Pagerank. It feels great that people are reading your posts. It reminds you, that something you have written is adding value to something greater. Makes you write more posts like that.

Helps SEO for your Blog

Google, Yahoo, Live and many other search engines rank your blog by looking at how many quality links are coming in and going out. Comments and Trackbacks are a good and natural way to promote your blog to the Search Engines. The deal is simple. Write Killer Post Content. It encourages visitors to comment more. The more they comment, the more good it does for you SEO.

Increase Blog’s Authority

Finally, comments are the most important thing in bragging a Blog’s Authority. I think Average comments per post would be the best indication and sites like Technorati should take that into account rather than how many trackbacks are shared among the blogs.

Add your own points via comments. Have a nice Day..!!

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