After reading our friend and fellow Whole-Hog-Blogger, Judy at More Than Sew So and her current (at this time) post Who Is This Man, today I figured presenting some educational and highly enlightening new sources might be a better way to serve our Sunday readers (and beyond).

So I’ve compiled a short list of highly rated, highly regarded blogs whose sole purpose is to present news – current event style – on what’s really going on in Washington, as well as great pieces about the entertainment industry, sports, etc.

Here is the list:

The Daily Beast
Ana Marie Cox, writer and featured speaker on MSNBC news
The Huffington Post

Granted one must have an OPEN mind to read the above. I’ve heard them take all sides on all issues versus some out there that are strictly “old guard” trying valiantly to uphold that which clearly a majority of our nation turned down – emphatically – in November and celebrated – joyously – just a few days ago in Washington, D.C.

No one knows the future, but heading into the future without a plan, and flying on the old “wing and a prayer (and screw your fellow citizens) plan” obviously did not work. Wanting to stick to the same – for reasons unknown, but perhaps it is the “unknown” that scares some people – has moved our great country more than giant steps backward not forward.

My mind reels actually to hear most of what comes out of these news sources not because it’s BS, but what our government believes it can get away with (and until recently has) – and as We The People, we have let them.

I should at this point mention my two favorite news shows (television) which are programs over at MSNBC:

Countdown With Keith Olbermann and
The Rachel Maddow Show

But before I close, in the interest of maintaining a fuller spectrum of where to get your news, if you’re dead set on getting just the rhetoric of the die-hard GOP base, and feel it necessary to cling tenuously to the past, here are a few news sources online just for you:

Thinkgprogress.org (a misnomer, not much on “progress” but worth a laugh), along with FoxNews (which originally aired The Simpsons – a creative and very much “progressive” cartoon show for its time – but showed its true colors very early on – lopsided and biased and staunchly right winged – way right)

Enjoy your Sunday, and remember….

Give us your opinions – it is a free country let alone a “free” internet – your comments most welcome! Please comment!

In our search for a video sharing website similar to YouTube, but without your competitors videos showing up at the end when your video is done running, our hunt was on.

A second requirement was the video sharing site had to accept videos longer than 90 seconds – even with a Pro account at Flickr, it is not possible.

The hunt continued.

While we checked many, finding the file size is easy – finding the length in terms of time your video takes to run isn’t always straightforward. Other than YouTube, most killed the upload at a minute and a half.

However…

Mission accomplished! We decided on Viddler.com – which has all the features we were looking for… and it’s free! Here’s an example – Street Sampling. When you get to the site, below Scott’s bio, you’ll see the ones we’ve loaded so far (there will be more).

Our thanks go out to the How To Split An Atom blog for providing 11 Video Sharing Sites That Aren’t YouTube.

In addition, I’d like to mention to all our Whole Hog Bloggers that we will be upgrading everyone to WP 2.7. We’ve tested it out and read all about it. The reviews are excellent and the transition was seamless… you’re going to love the new dashboard!

And since tomorrow is Christmas, and we do celebrate, I’m not sure if we’ll post on Christmas or not.

So a Very Merry Christmas and Holiday Season to everyone, and may your New Year be your biggest and brightest yet!

* * * * * * * * * *

Diane Scott started out as the persona of two great friends living on opposite ends of the country. Diane currently calls Las Vegas home, while Scott lives in Baltimore.

While we both have spent the last decade(+) online (and offline) making our livings by analyzing and applying search engine optimization, traditional internet marketing, and social media strategies, as of August 2009, “Scott” is no longer part of OIMS – having decided to take his energies elsewhere – with well wishes to all his new endeavors!

So Diane Scott becomes a whole person – my alter ego so to speak – where “she/I” can let loose on any subject (just about). However, my main focus continues to be the testing, evaluation, and recommendation (or not) of methods to promote your website/blog and increase website traffic.

I do enjoy writing the occasional “get paid to” post – and try to pick out the ones I find most interesting and intriguing (and yes, the ones that pay well for doing so – if you’re a blogger you can/should/could, too).

Well that about brings you up to date as of September 2009.

Be sure to visit my ezine advertising co-op, My Wizard Ads, along with the Whole Hog Blog blogging system I also own and operate. Then stop on by ImWebNiches for an A to Z search portal on all sorts of subjects.

I hope you enjoy your visit not only to Online Internet Marketing Strategies, but all the other websites and blogs, too.

All the best,
Diane Scott
(and would it be aka Theresa Cahill? Or the other way around LOL!)

This past week, Janet Giacoma, a Whole Hog Blogger and extensive article writer, wrote to ask how does one add their Twitter feed to EzineArticles.com. Apparently, she’s heard through the grapevine, and has demonstrated proof from those sources, that adding (updating) your EzineArticle profile to include your other social identities can have real benefits.

Well, it could be me, but it did take some doing to locate the steps. Actually I had to finally just hold my breath and head to the EzineArticle blog, do a search for “twitter” and voila! here’s the results (quoting a bit of that forum post):

“Here’s the 6 simple steps on how to quickly add your social media links: (more…)