Posts Tagged With: tips
· August 7, 2008 at 5:16 am · Desktop
Tags: best-of, effects, graphics, help, paint.net, tips, tutorials
I have been playing a lot more with Paint.NET lately, trying to get back in tune with my more creative side. One thing I never realized was there are a lot of great tutorials out there for it, but it is hard to find the best ones. Here are the top ten best Paint.NET tutorials I have run across so far.
Scotch Tape - Create a transparent segment of scotch tape
Glossy/Glass Buttons - Create Web 2.0-like glassy buttons
Toy Car - Turn a real car into a toy car
Make a Chain - How to render individual links, then link them together to form a chain
How to make a Lightsaber - Use lighting and blur effects to render a Lightsaber in
Transparent Background - Make the background of an image transparent
Cutting out Images the Easy Way! v2 - Great method for cutting images out of pictures
LiteBrite(TM) Effect - Transform your pictures into coloured peg-board style images
Lets Make a Software Box - Transform flat images into 3D boxes
Drop Shadows - Add depth to your artwork with drop shadows
It is amazing how advanced Paint.NET has gotten over the years. Also, if your used to the graphic editor layout - it is really easy to pick up and use too. Know of any other great tutorials?
· July 22, 2008 at 5:20 am · Hot Web Topics, Personal
Tags: internet, networking, popularity, social, tips, Web-2.0
As I remove MySpace and add Plurk to my own Mitchelaneous side bar, I thought this would be as good of a time as any to bring up the fact that you should not be afraid to socialize and meet new people. Sure, some places build a fan following because of great content but great content alone can not win any popularity races.
You have to get out there and proverbially pimp your goods.
Let people know at least a few places where they can follow you or be your friend, and they are given a few more “gateways” to get back to your blog and content. Think of it this way, which am I more likely to be friends with:
- The guy who’s web site I never knew about because he doesn’t push it out in the real world
- The guy who is trying his best to make friends, and inform the public he’s out there and ready for his close up
I’m not afraid to mention anybody who wishes to can add me as a friend on:
Twitter | Facebook | Plurk | MySpace | Pownce | LinkedIn | Flickr
Don’t be afraid to promote your favorite social web site profiles. By not doing so, you are missing a good chance not only to make a few friends but get some free press for your own web site. Don’t be a wall flower, be that comfy chair everybody likes to sit on.
· April 7, 2008 at 5:50 am · Hot Web Topics, Personal
Tags: podcast, recording, talk, tips, traning, voice, yawn
Searching the Web for ways to make myself sound better when recording I ran into a lot of voice training tips for speaking and singing. Funny enough, some of the singing ones work too to help you sound better when recording a podcast (such as the Web Hosting Show).
Here are a few of my favorites:
Yawn three times before you start talking. Now I am sure there is some science behind this I don’t understand. I do have to say though it helps a lot, especially if you think you sound a ‘bit nasally when you record your voice (think Fran Drescher).
Hum to yourself for a few minutes, without having your top teeth touching your bottom teeth. Try going up and down in pitch and see if you can find the right tone for your voice that way. Try to stay natural though, or you’ll sound like your doing a bad Barry White impression.
Last voice training tip that I think a lot of people would get use out of would be to practice. Record yourself talking and see what you like or don’t like. Maybe you need to speak a little lower? Maybe you need to speak a little louder? Maybe you need to speak a little slower? Any long time listeners to my podcast can tell you I can get easily excitable - but I have been trying to do a better job at telling myself inside my head to sloow dooowwwn.
· February 27, 2008 at 6:55 am · Online Tools
Tags: ideas, marketing, share, tips, twitter, write
I have friends that come to me and say…
"Ok Mitch, I got a Twitter account, now what?"
Many people look at Twitter and either don’t understand it or use it to give me a summary of what they had for breakfast (just in case you were wondering, I had toast). Here are five ways of twittering your way to success:
- Share with me one of your bookmarks, or an article on a site you found interesting today
- Grab a photo from your Flickr (or any other photo sharing service) site and link me to it
- Plug your own blog, projects and work so I can check it out
- Use a service like Twitter Feed to bring your other RSS feed content into your Twitter account
- Invite your interesting friends, that you think should be twittering
If your looking for your first friend on Twitter feel free to use me:
http://twitter.com/mitchkeeler
I once was one of those people who thought that Twitter was nothing more than a waste of time. I am happy to say though I am a full fledged Kool-aid drinker now. Honestly I see no reason why any person or company shouldn’t be doing this. From a marketing stand point alone it is another great way to get yourself out there.
· February 25, 2008 at 9:00 am · Web Development
Tags: after install, blogs, guide, help, plugins, tips, WordPress
It isn’t a big secret that I love WordPress and feel like it could be used for just about any project out there, blog or not. There are a lot of guides out there on how to install WordPress, but not many tell you what to do after you get it on the server. Now everybody has their own methods after a WordPress install of how to configure things but this is what I do.
Configure the Basic Options
First, login to your WordPress admin interface and click on Options > General and setup the General Options. Need to check and make sure your blog title and your addresses are correct. Next go to Options > Discussions and edit your comment and trackback settings. I like to make sure I get e-mailed when anybody leaves a comments, and I like for comments to be filtered through me before they get posted. With the plugins I’ll give you in a few hopefully we will get rid of the need for you to moderate too many.
Grab Your “Must Have” WordPress Plugins
Here are the WordPress plugins I like to use on the basic install of any WordPress powered site:
Update Your Permalinks for SEO Friendliness
Now you need to go back into Options > Permalinks and choose the Date and name based option then hit the Update Permalink Structure button. If your .htaccess file is set to be writable, then it should update it automatically. If not, then you can copy and paste the permalink code from WordPress into your .htaccess file.
Past this point, you may want to go check the rest of your settings, add a blogroll and configure your theme. I think I have gotten most of the important steps out of the way. If you stumble into any problems always remember to go check WordPress.org. They have tons of information on installs, backing up, upgrading and more.
· February 20, 2008 at 6:34 am · Personal, Web Development
Tags: audio, mics, podcast, recording, tips, voice
The end of the month will be the Web Hosting Show’s third year of production. Hard for me to believe that hundreds of people have been tuning into me week after week, but I appreciate any and all of them more than they would ever know. To do my best to pay something back to the community I thought I would share some of the podcasting tips I have picked up on over the past three years so maybe you can get your own audio podcast project off the ground.
Try moving the mic around!
That is the number one audio recording tip I would give anybody. You would be amazed how differently you can sound depending on where the mic is. Most will tell you to put it under your chin so you don’t “pop your p’s” but for me, I like to keep it at a distracting eye level (that is with a headset mic).
Move in a little closer…
You don’t want to sound like you are in an empty room, echoing around - unless you are pretending to be the booming voice of god in your audio podcast. Make sure your close enough to the mic to where you don’t sound too loud but your not sounding too far into the background either. This will take some time to find the exact spot that is right for you.
Try to speak from the heart!
Having a guide or show notes is good for a base, but don’t be afraid to go off on your own. Often times I’ll pre-write my show notes and as I record get off when I had wrote down. Why? Well after hearing it out loud I think to myself, “Well it would be better if I go off in this direction instead”. Then I’ll update my notes later to reflect that.
Stick yourself in the Cone of Silence?
Try your best to eliminate any and all background noises. That means if you have a loud heater in the winter months, turn it off to record. If your air conditioner’s buzz is being caught by your mic, turn it off in the summer months. Suffer for your art so your listeners aren’t left wondering - what was that noise I just heard?
The last ‘bit of advice I would have for you is have fun! Don’t think of your show, audio recording or any other side project like this as a job. Treat it like a hobby. Audio podcasting might not be for everybody, but there is no way to find out if you like it unless you try. As long as you try to have fun with it, your listeners will pick up on that positive energy and will tune in again to hear more.
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