Here's what to do

Let's take the example of a website that covers music, art and film in their blog. Each topic has it's own separate page and you have set up a blog roll on each page. This is no longer necessary. You can now set up one blog and simply tag content to be relayed around the site.

Tagging is the process of adding keywords to content on a website that allows the content to be found through search engines.

To make the search work to it's full potential, it is advised to set up a keyword to add to your tags. This keyword should be something that is not going to be found within the text of other blog posts. For example, for the film page use the tag 'filmblog' or if you have a local area page on your site you could use 'localblog'.

Now place the saved search box onto the page where you want the content to appear. The saved search module can be found in modules > Webjam toolbox > Saved search - choose add to page and select the 'Edit' button on the module. In the pre defined query enter your tag 'filmblog' or localblog' and choose to search blog posts only. You can search by date or relevance and choose how many posts to display. Like many things on Webjam you can cutomise this to your own desires and it's good to play around until you have it set exactly as you want it.

Choose save and the search box will show all blogs with the tag you have set.

If you go back to within your blog light box you can then select co-editors - members of your network who you want to blog on your site. By making them a co-editor of the blog they can edit the blog, but not the content on the site, which gives you piece of mind that your site will have content on it but the look and feel will not be changed.

We hope this of use to your network. Please let us know what you think and how you are using the search and co-editor functionality.

We suggest using Seesmic Desktop. However, other applications are available

Seesmic Desktop is an Adobe Air application that integrates multiple Twitter accounts and your Facebook account and pages.  You can easily add new accounts to your desktop program and browse through people’s tweets.

The left column is where you navigate from. You can choose what to display - @replies, private messages, sent messeges etc. Then you can decide which accounts to display. To add an account select the + button which appears as you hover over the word Accounts. Enter the user name and hit 'Add'. It's very simple and will start displaying info from that users account straight away (note, you will have to include the password so can only add your own accounts).

Using the lightbox you are able to add other things such as notifications, URL shortening services and to amend the general settings.

Have a go using this product and see if you can save yourself time when working on Twitter.

1. Grooveshark

Grooveshark's widget lets you create and embed a playlist of your favourite songs. You can specify the theme, exact size and customise the colours to match your Webjam site.

Get the Grooveshark widget.

2. Hype Machine

Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers are writing about - making it much easier for the rest of us to find the best of new music. Their widgets allow you to showcase these songs, as opposed to a playlist that you've created.

Get the Hype Machine widget.

3. Mixcloud

Mixcloud is best described as Spotify for radio shows and DJ mixes. Their attractive widget lets you post any of the thousands available on to your Webjam site.

Find out more about the Mixcloud widget.

4. iTunes

iTunes customer? Their widget allows you to display your recent purchases, top reviewed albums and favourite artists.

Get the iTunes widget.

5. Muzicon

Muzicons are slightly different to the other widgets, in that they only display one song. The idea is that this one song and, accompanying icon, display your mood or status. Simply pick your icon, choose it's expression, upload your MP3 file and customise the colour before posting on your Webjam site.

Get a Muzicon widget.

Creating your form

1. First, you'll need to sign up with Wufoo. There are several paid-for options, but the basic one is free.

2. Once you're registered, you can create a form for pretty much anything (get some ideas here) by dragging and dropping fields into place. The font, backgrounds and buttons on your form can be customised too, if you like.

3. Alternatively check out Wufoo's form gallery for form templates - you can choose from an Employment Application, Consumer Demographic Survey, Online Petition and more.

4. Once you've made your form you'll need to download the embed code:

i) Go to the Form Manager

ii) Find your form in the list and click on the Code icon

iii) Click on Embed Form Code and copy the code - the JavaScript one works best on Webjam.

Embedding your form

Once you have the HTML code of your form, you'll need to insert this into a Free HTML module on your site:

1. Go to your site and click on the Modules tab.

2. Click on the My Content tab, find the Free HTML box and add it to your site.

3. Once the Free HTML box is on your site, click the Edit button. Paste the embed code from Wufoo into the box and click save.

The form should now be embedded in your network, and look a bit like this:

Recently, I’ve been asked by a colleague how to blog. Not just how to blog though, but how to engage with an audience, build a following and create a flourishing community.

There is already an abundance of content online with regards to the above points, but it’s not always clear or quality content.

Over the next few weeks I will be tackling each point and hoping to assist you in creating a better all round blog.

First of all, here are some ideas on how to blog. You should also bear in mind that I have written these from the perspective of a writer who understands social media and blogging, as opposed to a social media list maker hence this is not in list form.

One of the most important things about writing is to be interesting, so why should that be any different from blogging? I’m not suggesting that you should aim to be the next Charlie Dickens, but a bit of character goes a very long way indeed.  If people are not captured within the first few lines what hope is there for them to read until the end?

Create an eye catching, relevant title. You have to lure in the reader and make sure your title is relevant to your post. While “Elephants raise boy in the Jungle” is a wonderfully grabbing title, it doesn’t work if your post is about School Councils. Remember, that if you have feeds going to your Twitter and Facebook the only thing people will see is the title of the post. Your blog should have a particular focus, one that people can relate to, make sure you are passionate about it too. It’s no good starting blogging about one thing, only to realise you are not interested in that field after a week.

Imagery is vital. A big striking image at the beginning of your post and more throughout can be extremely effective. There’s an old quote that states “an image speaks 1000 words” so don’t be shy to use them.  In my opinion it’s those three things that matter the most and if you do them correctly there is no reason why people shouldn’t start reading your blog.

However if you use the Internet you must know what’s coming now. It’s not just about being a good writer and being able to use imagery in neat ways. No sir. The hard part starts when you want to attract people to your site, when you want to start getting a response from readers. Nowadays, this is a much easier task than it was two or three years ago. With the introduction of social media sites, communication is a far simpler task.

If you don’t already have a twitter account then the first thing that you need to do is create one and read our tips on getting started with Twitter. Twitter is an ideal place to promote your blog. It gives you quick access to scores of users who may be interested in what you are writing about. However, there are certain rules you need to follow when marketing your blog on Twitter. It is important that you don’t overload your followers with links to your blog, it’s good to work on an 80/20 strategy. 80% of your tweets should be interesting points, re-tweets and @messaging, with the other 20% links back to your site. If people see you as a link machine they will unfollow you and connecting becomes harder.

There are various third party sites that you can use alongside Twitter to monitor the effectiveness and to also boost it.

Bit.ly allows you to monitor how many clicks your links are receiving as well as what time they occurred and where they were occurring. Use their simple URL shortening tool to add a link and then keep track on their easy to use dashboard.

Twitterfeed automatically posts to Twitter and Facebook from your RSS feed. Sign in with your Twitter account and then place the feed where prompted. You can select to update your feed every hour, day or week. It runs alongside Bit.ly so will monitor the stats for you.

Twollo helps you to accumulate relevant followers on Twitter by using pre defined keywords that searches through what people are tweeting. Someone who blogs about London might add ‘Camden’ to their list. From here you can choose to follow between 1 and 50 people per day. It’s a good way to accumulate followers and if they like what you write about then they can choose to follow you back.

Using Twitter I was able to accumulate some users thoughts on their best blogging tips. I think that you will agree that the responses point to the fact that if you get things spot on and revolve your posts around decent quality content you are more than half way there to creating your blog:

@Netwench: my blogging tips: blog about what u know, distribute post via different social media & respond to commenters

@Sjorsuk: my top tip for blogging is to re-read your own post a few times before you post it (or even better: print, read, rewrite)

@simon_baptist: Blog about things that are important too you

On my next blog I will be looking further into how to generate an interest in your blog, building on the people you are building through Twitter and using other sites and ideas to increase your scope.

How do I use it? Go to your Twitter page and you will see a new section on the right hand side called ‘Lists’ (betcha didn’t see that one coming). Click ‘New List’ and in the lightbox give your list a name. People will search this list so make it poignant and relevant to what you will include within the list. For example we are creating a ‘jukebox’ list which will include all of our favourite bands and music. Select whether you want your list to be public or private and ‘Create list’. Next simply find people to add to your list by using the search tool. You should note that you don’t have to be following someone to add them to your list.

Where am I? You can also see where you are included in other people’s lists, which is nice when you are included. At the top where your followers are and where the number of tweets used to be - you can now see a number above the word listed. Click this to see all the lists you are included on.

Why should I bother?
Well, the list functionality offers a way for you to quickly sort through various tweeps. By viewing or following a list you can easily see what everyone on that list is up to. For eample by choosing to follow @webjamdotcom/Webjam list you can see what all of our employees are upto without having to scroll through an endless feed.

Like we mentioned earlier you don’t have to be following someone to add them to a list. So if you like what a person is saying but think they tweet too much simply add them to your list and be done with it.

Like most things on Twitter, the best thing to do is go and have a play. Get a feel for how the Lists system will work and how it will be able to assist you in your day to day tasks.

Here's how it works:

Visit www.twitvid.com and either choose a video file stored on your computer or record from webcam.  Then add your tweet in the box and select 'Tweet Video'. Your video will instantly be updated to Twitter and your followers can see what you are up to.

You can use twitvid for all sorts from promoting a band to sending a simple message to a friend.

You can also share videos straight from your mobile.

Integrate your videos into your Webjam

Twitvid offers a widget so that you can embed your video stream onto your website. As usual grab the code from their site and return to your network. Add an HTML module from Modules > My Content > Free HTML and enter the code into the module. Your videos will now display on your site.

Twitvid is being used by The Discovery Channel, Coldplay and Stephen Fry.

In the right hands twitvid could be an excellent tool.

What are you waiting for?

One of the core functionalities of the Webjam network is to allow its users the ability to share content effortlessly. If for example you visit one of your friend's sites on Webjam, and you like the look of something on their site, such as a widget or module, you can add it to your own site within a few clicks.

Hover over the module, and if the AddW button appears you can add it to your own site! Although note that not all networks on Webjam allow their content and modules to be used. 

Allowing / Not Allowing Replication.

Site owners and editors can specify which modules visitors can add to their site (replicate). To modify modules to allow/disallow replication follow these steps:

1. Log into your site

2. Click the module 'EDIT' button

3. Either check or uncheck the 'Allow replication' tick box

4. To modify the entire page's replication settings, click on the 'Settings' tab at the top of the page & a list of your pages will be displayed, select which pages you want to be replicable

If you do not want the add button to appear to anyone visiting your site, you must uncheck the 'Allow replication' check box in 'settings'. If you only modify individual modules, the AddW button will display on other modules.

Adding Modules to Your Network

So you've found something on another site and you want it on yours. The site owner of the site has allowed replication so you're good to go; all you need to do now is specify where you want to add the module:

1. Log into your Webjam account

2. Hover over the AddW button

3. Click it and a lightbox will open, displaying 'Select the networks to add this module to from the list below:'

4. Either add it to your network, or click the small + [PLUS] sign next to your network and select which page you want to add it to

5. Click 'Add to selected network' button

6. Go to your network and then adjust and reposition

Styles

You've made a great looking site, but what if you want to change it, or maybe you want your site to completely red on a Monday, yellow on a Tuesday and green on a Wednesday? How do you go about making different designs, without editing your existing style?

The easiest way to do this is the create a new network, as if it were a testing network, where you can build, design and test out widgets, different designs and functionalities of different modules.

Once you've created a new style for your site and you're ready to impress visitors with your new look, follow these steps:

1. Visit the site you want to change

2. Click the 'Styles' tab

3. Select 'My styles'

4. Click on the style you want from the list

Have a look through your site, and make sure that everything looks good, if you're not totally happy with it, no worries, click the 'Reset' button.

To contact a specific person on twitter simply write @ and then the persons name - if you wrote @webjamdotcom in your Twitter update this would automatically feed into our Twitter feed. If someone else sees this they can click on your username and this will link to your Twitter feed.

However, you do have to remember the name of the person you are messaging.

Facebook has addressed this by bringing a drop down list of possible names when you type the @ sign which you can read about here. Some suggest they are just copying Twitter, but in doing so actually offer a better functionality. That said, if you use software such as Seesmic desktop then @mentions are stored in the memory.However, also bare in mind that Facebook only offers your friends as contacts whereas you can @mention anyone using the Twitter platform.

@mentioning people on Twitter will enhance the way you are perceived, that is, as long as you are contributing relevant information for the particular contact and not creating mindless spam.

Good luck and I hope that this post will help you amplify the way you use these social networking sites.

10. Free MP3s for your site

RCRD LBL is a network of ad supported online record labels and blogs offering completely free music and multimedia content from emerging and established artists. All music on the site is free and legally available for downloading when offered. In a nut shell the site is dedicated to legally discovering and sharing music.... read on

9. Add icons, create links and improve the look of your network

One of the things that draws me into a website is how it looks. If it looks good then there is a higher chance that I will browse it for longer. It’s a simple fact that we are attracted to things that are aesthetically pleasing, often before we’ve even looked at the content... continue

8.  Awesome Headers

Like what you saw on the home page? Well there are plenty of websites around offering free stuff for you to use for your site. I'm always searching for something new and innovative. One of my favourites is www.dryicons.com where you can get free vector graphics and banners to use on your website. They are quality designs and seriously easy to use... continue

7. Using Search for Moderation

Here’s a way to take administrative control of your site without intruding on your user’s experience.

Webjam offers two search tools to use on your network. The first is the Search option. You can add a search module from Modules > Webjam toolbox use this search tool to search keywords on your site. You can also allow users to access the search tool. It’s a fantastic way for them to search your network for blog posts, comments, forums and more...read on

6. Customise your Top Bar and Footer

Start to give your website a branded feel by customising various parts of the site including the top bar and the footer. Add extra search functionality and make it feel like your own... read more

5. Adding adverts to your site.

There are also affiliate sites such as Amazon who pay after making a sale from your site. Sites will inform you which type they run when you sign up.

With Webjam adding an advert to your site is easy. Just drag and drop an HTML module and add your ad network’s generated code.

So what are my options? Find out here

4. Who is visiting your site?

There are many different analytics sites; some are paid for, whilst others are free. I currently use Google analytics which does everything I need and more, it tells me about referring sites, key words from search engines and the content people have looked at, not to mention time spent on the site, which pages they exited and entered from, there’s a lot to get your head round... learn more

3. Give your network a personality like no other

Do you want your network to stand out from the crowd? Want to give it the edge over other’s websites? Well we cornered a top designer and asked him about setting up headers to give your site an extra bit of sparkle. Read some more

2. RSS and ATOM Feeds

RSS & ATOM both sound like a load of jibberish! Why can't technology be easy, why do these 'techies' have to have all these perculiar acronyms? Why can't they speak simple English? If this is what your thinking, fear not, RSS & ATOM are going to give both you and your viewers a wealth of information in a click of a button! more

1. Facebook. Some top tips

I’m being bellowed at to aggregate. Aggregate your feeds, your blogs and your life streaming. I can with one click shower the internet with junk about me and nobody can do nothing about it. I’m sorry if I’ve subjected your ‘walls’ to pictures of homeless guys with funny signs or constant streams of Ashes related trash...read on

Today I read an article about using Facebook for better social networking. Another five middle of the road tips, like updating your status regularly, things that generally don’t help advanced facebook users.

So, using the power of my knowledge and also the power of aggregation I have collated some top Facebook tips for better social networking.

First of all get yourself organised. Fix your profile privacy. Unless you want any old person checking out your wife and kids or seeing when you are out of the country for two weeks, make sure the first thing you do is set your privacy settings. Choose Settings and then change what you feel necessary.

Make lists.

I’m not talking about forgetting the milk here.  You can easily separate your friends, colleagues and acquaintances into smaller lists. This helps you avoid finding out what Katy from High School had for breakfast or what Jimmy ‘Knuckles’ was doing in Walkabout the night before.

To create a list choose More from the column on the left hand side and Create new list. Start selecting friends to add to the list. Click Create List and you are done. The list now appears in the left hand column and you are able to select it to be kept updated with what people (such as your co-workers) are up to.

Set up a fan page

Fan pages are the way forward. Way better than one of those ridiculous pretend people... you know the people whose first name is Tes and surname Co...yeh? You can also have more than 5000 fans as opposed to the limited friend page.  With a fan page not only can you set up an RSS from your blog but you can add free HTML and it’s a great place to interact with your community. Plus there are all kinds of stats you can use to tempt advertisers. Best of all you can take the fan page and dump it on your website. Here’s how to create a fan page, add your RSS and then put your fan page on your Webjam network.

Visit a fan page and at the bottom choose Create a Page for My Business. Fill in the categories and create your page. You will be taken to your fan page where at the top it will say Wall, Info, Photos and Discussion. There will also be a + sign where you can add more tabs.

To add an RSS feed you will need to use a third party app like Simply RSS or Involver. You can then set up an RSS from your site by adding your RSS URL to the facebook page.

Then, add the fan page to your network. On the left hand column under your image choose Add Fan Box to your site grab the HTML code and drop it into an HTML module on your site.

Create your own Vanity URL

Ok, so this is common knowledge now, but if you haven’t sorted out your vanity URL for your fan page then you’ve been spending too much time on twitter. To fix this just go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and choose Set a username for your Pages. Follow the steps and before you know it you will own www.facebook.com/yourbrand .

Be warned that not everyone is eligible for a vanity URL just yet.

Facebook Ads

The adverts on Facebook are genuinely great, because unlike other advertising services you can target people right down to the very core of who you want to attract. Facebook has a horrible amount of data about you and this can be used to the max by advertisers to target the right demographic. From age, gender, location to what kind of music they like – you can set it all. And as you add new specifications to your advert Facebook generates the amount of potential users who fit your spec.

Choose Advertising at the bottom of any facebook page and choose Create an ad. You can then fill in your design, targeting and pricing. Once the campaign is up and running you can track your stats as you would an ordinary advertising campaign.  

Write a Note

I’m hazarding a guess here that given a little while notes on facebook will be more common place. Whether people start using them to add their RSS Feeds to or purely for straight up blogging. People can format their notes, add images and tag mentioned friends as well as standard Facebook commenting.

Also, you have the ability to automatically feed your blogs into Facebook notes,  thus increasing your presence online and expanding the readership of your blog.

That's five to get your juices flowing. I hope this is of use to people reading it and I'd be happy to discuss my experiences using Facebook and how eye opening the last month has been to it's powers. Be it through integration with my own site or just through using some of the tools they have to offer.

RSS & ATOM both sound like a load of jibberish! Why can't technology be easy, why do these 'techies' have to have all these perculiar acronyms? Why can't they speak simple English? If this is what your thinking, fear not, RSS & ATOM are going to give both you and your viewers a wealth of information in a click of a button!

First things first... What do these acronyms mean? Well, they're actually really simple, quite literally!

RSS -  "Really Simple Syndication"

ATOM -  "Atom Syndication Format"

RSS is based on XML, a widely used standard for textual information exchange between applications on the Internet. RSS feeds can be viewed as plain text files, but they're really designed for computer-to-computer communication. Most websites out there on the world wide web have RSS feeds, just look for the universal feed icon (Pictured above).

Feeds are a way for websites large and small to distribute their content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for site content to be packaged into "widgets", "gadgets", mobile devices, and other bite-sized technologies that make it possible to display blogs, podcasts, and major news/sports/weather/whatever headlines just about anywhere.

Essentially feeds enable you to easily keep track of a large number of your favourite websites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you're ready.

To subscribe to a RSS feed, click onto the orange button and it will direct you to a page asking you which 'reader' you'd like to use. A reader does exactly what it says it does, it's the tool that is going to read all of the feeds you subscribe to. If you don't have a reader yet here are a few to choose from:

Google Reader

Bloglines

My Yahoo

NewsGator

FeedReader

Firefox - Live Bookmarks

Once you've got a reader, it's time to subscribe to your favourite feeds. I for example like to keep up to date with music and often read FACT magazine. Visit the site and you'll see the orange RSS button in the address bar, click on it and see what happens!

Your own Webjam sites automiatically have RSS & ATOM set up, all you need to do is start writing content to distribute. You can use tools such as Feedburner to improve your understanding of and relationship with your audience. Once you have a working feed, run it through FeedBurner and monitor how many people subscribe to your feed.

You can add RSS feeds to your own site by following these steps:

1. Log into your account.
2. Click 'Edit site' at the top of your page.
3. Select the 'modules' tab at the top of the page.
4. On the far right click on the tab entitled 'News Feeds'.
5. Search for the RSS feed and select from the list below.
6. Click the 'Preview' button to check if it is the right feed.
7. Click the 'Add to page' button to pin it to your page.
8. Re-position the module by hovering over it until a hand icon is displayed.
9. Grab and drop it wherever you like.

To edit the appearance of the feed, click the modules edit button and customise it.

When done well a video viral is one of the best ways to get your brand name out there. Good virals get passed around the Internet at high speed and attract large amounts of visitors to your site.  It’s no coincidence when a video hits hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views on YouTube.

Here’s a really good article taken from waaaay back in 2007 so some things have since changed. BUT the majority of this article still stands. Consider adding Twitter to Part 3. As you are well aware Twitter is a fantastic place for outreach.

Something else to bare in mind is how ethical this article is, there are certain corners of the online world who would disagree about creating multiple accounts to start threads rolling.

Have a read and pick out the parts you think are of use to your site and perhaps you can create the next 1,000,000 hit video on YouTube.

Read the article here

The way to recreate your GeoCities site is to copy the HTML and paste it into a new Webjam network:

First create your own Webjam network by clicking on the 'create new network' button at the top of the page.

On your GeoCities site copy and then paste your content into a module on Webjam. You can copy content either from the browser view or using HTML source.
If you copy from a browser you may not capture some elements you want to display e.g. images, so you will need to update images separately. The steps are:
   1. Select content on your GeoCities site by clicking and dragging your mouse to highlight text, note that images will not be copied.
   2. Copy the selection to your clipboard (right-click & Copy OR Ctrl-C). It is often a good idea to paste your selection (right-click & Paste OR Ctrl-V) into notepad to clear any HTML formatting
   3. On your Webjam network, add a Rich text module to your page (from modules > My content)
   4. Within the module paste your selection (right-click & Paste OR Ctrl-V) from notepad
   5. You can use the editing toolbar within the module to modify the text font & size. You can add images using the Insert image button in the editing toolbar.

If you copy from the HTML source you may need to complete some additional steps to remove extra elements e.g. extra navigation. The steps are:
   1. View the desired content from your GeoCities page in your browser and then view its source
   2. Select the desired content from the source view and highlight the text
   3. Copy the selection to your clipboard (right-click & Copy OR Ctrl-C)
   4. On your Webjam network, add a Free HTML module to your page (from modules > My content)
   5. Within the module paste your selection (right-click & Paste OR Ctrl-V)
You may need to separate content into more than one HTML module. You also may need to repair broken links and add missing files and images.

Additionally, you could capture other images & files by using a Firefox add-on to grab content you can't otherwise copy. Also, Yahoo offers advice on saving your files & images which you can then upload to your Webjam network.

Good luck in saving your websites from oblivion and if you need any help contact us by clicking the 'Report an issue' link at the bottom of the page or writing a message on the forum.

These tips are worth reading if you are a small business as they will help you to understand how you can utilise social media. To summarise this article: Consumers want to trust the place they buy from & the more personable the business the better! Social media is the best way to create the consumer-business relationships. The five types of sites to consider using:

Local social networks: local businesses should create listings in directory sites e.g. Yelp

Blog or Social hub: on your own site or using Webjam as the place your consumers interact

Twitter: instant messages to & with your consumers

Facebook fan page: Facebook as a place to build a fan base. Webjam can also be used in this way where users can write messages to & about you and interact on forums.

Custom wiki: utilising wikis on your site so people can contribute. An example of a wiki is the Glossary module on Webjam.

Want more info?
Read the article in full 
Join a Webjam workshop to learn more about using Venda for small businesses

I could sit for hours extolling the virtues of Photoshop, I do sit for hours fiddling with the layers, filters, fonts and well...everything. But what if you don’t have access to Photoshop or GBP528 to splash out on Adobe’s latest offering. Whatever the case we don’t recommend or condone downloading from one of them dodgy download sites. We do however suggest checking out some online alternatives that do the job pretty damn well.

The good news (for us at least) is we didn’t have to research this too much because our buddies at ReadWriteWeb laid down their top 7!

We’ve got experience in and certainly recommend GIMP, Splashup and Aviary.

Give them a try and let us know your favourites or any you think we should investigate.

You can change the text color by adding a CSS property within the advanced style editor (sign in and go to styles > Customise style > Advanced editing ). Add the following code to the bottom of the CSS code:

To change the forums messages to white (if you have a dark background) add:

.Messageboard td p
{
color: #ffffff;
}

To change the whole forum font to white (if you have a dark background) add:

.Messageboard table {
color: #ffffff ! important;
}

If you want your font to be darker (black) then substitute the code #ffffff with #000000

Oscar also recommends a really useful tool (which is a plugin for Firefox) that can help you to identify the CSS code Webjam uses and make modifications as you will know exactly what code you need to insert into the style editor.

You can download it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

We use the search functionality twitter offers to keep track of what is happening surrounding our company. We can see exactly when people talk about us and then respond accordingly.

Doing this is easy and guess what. We’re about to show you how...

First things first make sure you have a twitter account. Setting one up is a doddle, visit www.twitter.com and click sign up.

All done? Good stuff

Now visit http://search.twitter.com/ and type something you want to know about.

For example if you are running a network for people who are out of work, try inputting ‘unemployment’. You will then be directed to recent tweets (that’s a twitter post) regarding your search.

You can do this for anything – find out about the latest films, what people think of it.

For less specific searches use a hashtag (#)

When you add a # to the beginning of a word it may become a trending topic.  A trending topic is something that many people on twitter are discussing, recently things like #michaeljackson and #harrypotter have appeared. The hash tag helps when people want to keep tabs on a particular situation.

Give this a try, it’s a great way to connect with other people with similar tastes and habits. Better still it’s a way to target specific areas of twitter.

Twitter has also been picked up by celebrities and brands allowing people to become followers, reading and learning from whatever they broadcast. Essentially Twitter is a very effective way to increase your sites exposure on the world wide web. Admittedly it's a 'stab in the dark' at first, but eventually you'll start to get relevant people reading your tweets and visiting your site. One thing you mustn't do is give up on Twitter, it might appear alien to begin with, 'What are you doing now' is a boring question, instead think of it as 'Whats entertaining you now'. Post links to music, video, whatever you like, just don't bore people with "Jim is watching TV"....so, So, SO BORING!

Anyway enough of me ranting about Twitter. I've come accros a great site on Webjam called "Pub Town",(The clue's in the name). They are using a very slick Twitter application on their site called "Tweetboard". This application pulls your Twitter stream in near real-time (max 1 min delay), reformatting tweets into threaded conversations. Conversations that spin off the original conversation are also threaded in-line, giving your site visitors full perspective of what's being discussed.

The widget is a very subtle tab that sits on the side of every page on your site. If you click onto the tab it expands, and slides out your Twitter page. It displays your latest tweets as well as giving the reader the ability to write/Tweet through Twitter and of course start following you!

So whats this going to do for me? In a nut shell, it's giving the reader the ability to connect, share and engage your site with your visitors and their friends. Each time someone posts (or replies) via your board, a link back to the corresponding conversation is appended to their tweet, creating a viral stream of Twitter traffic to your website, and viral marketing is what we like, so eventually you'll receive more hits. Whoop whoop!

Beforee you go charging into this application, have a look at 'Pub Town', so you fully understand what the application does.

Here's how you add it:

1. Visit 'Tweetboard', click HERE

2. Request a Free Alpha Invite

3. Enter your Twitter account details.

4. Your Twitter page will open, Tweetboard will request you to tweet them your site's URL, enter the details and send it!

5. Tweetboard will send you an @reply with a link to their HTML code.

6. Copy the code and insert it into the header of your site (Premium users only).

* HELP I'M NOT A PREMIUM USER!!

If you hold a Free account with Webjam, you can still use this feature BUT you will have to add the code to a 'free HTML module' on every page of your site, in order for it to work on every page.

All the music they release is offered in DRM-free MP3 format and will work on any personal computer or portable digital music player. Some tracks are offered in an additional format -- enhanced AAC -- which has extra features which are only compatible with iPods and iTunes, but MP3 versions are always available.

You can download and enjoy any music that RCRD LBL post on the site, provided it is being used for personal, non-commercial use. You can do things like make copies of the tracks and put them on all of your music-playing devices, burn them on to mix CDs for your friends, even use them in videos you make, as long as you're only doing these things for strictly noncommercial purposes.

RCRD LBL offer widgets for all of the music on the site, so if you want to post a track on your blog, grab the widget for that track. The artists still get paid, and you save on bandwidth.

Widgets are embeddable mini-applications that perform specific functions. RCRD LBL widgets allow you to stream music, view photos and videos and receive tour and news updates from your favorite bands and labels. It's super easy to download them from RCRD LBL and pass them along to your friends. And every time new content is added to the widgets on the site, it will be added to the widgets you have downloaded and embedded automatically. Pretty sweet, yes?

To grab a widget for Mac OS X Dashboard or iGoogle: Click on the "grab this" button on the lower right corner, pick your app (iGoogle, OS X Dashboard) and then unzip the file using any program like Stuffit or Zipeg. Vista Gadgets compatibility is coming soon!

The only condition is that you're not allowed to make money off of it. If you'd like to use one of the tracks in any way that would be considered a commercial use, you must contact RCRD LBL directly.

Visit the RCRDLBL site