2011/325: {M}iPad
I had some money saved up for a lens… but then decided to spend it on an iPad instead, and have not regretted it. Such a fun little gadget.
Of course some of my favorite apps are photography related, and I have a few games, too….. and lots of other useful and fun apps. There’s even a WordPress app, which will really come in handy when we’re on vacation.
The only frustrating thing is that the WiFi doesn’t work great in the living room, because the router is two rooms away in the far corner. But I can still Facebook, check e-mails, play Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, and surf the web from the comfort of my couch, and not have to run into the computer room during commercial breaks.
If you have an iPad or iPhone, what are your favorite apps?
One of my favorites is Flipboard (iPad only). Makes everything (Google Reader, Flickr, Facebook, etc.) look like you’re flipping though a magazine.
Favorite photo apps are Instagram, Photostudio HD, and Photo fx. I have more, but haven’t really gotten a chance to play yet.
A big thank you to Scott and Becky for answering all my questions 🙂
2011/266: Bonus – Freshly Pressed!
Oh my goodness, one of my posts was chosen for WordPress’ Freshly Pressed!!
Seeee???!!!! 😀
I am honored…. Thank you, WordPress! ♥
Wanted to add the following from the WP Support page, for my fellow WP bloggers:
Five Ways to Get Featured on Freshly Pressed
Each weekday, we hand-pick and promote approximately ten new blog posts to the Freshly Pressed section of the WordPress.com homepage. These posts represent how WordPress.com can be used to entertain, enlighten or inspire.
Why should you care about being featured? Well, let’s put it this way: Getting promoted to Freshly Pressed is a major traffic win because WordPress.com receives a high volume of page views. And, we have a feed set up so people can subscribe to Freshly Pressed. Why do we do all this? It’s our way of saying we like you. We really like you.
So, by now you might be wondering how to get featured. It’s all about the content. Let’s look at five guidelines that will increase your chances of landing on the homepage:
1. Write unique content that’s free of bad stuff.
Each post that makes it to Freshly Pressed contains original content created by the user. Bad stuff includes (but isn’t limited to) plagiarism, hate speech, fear-mongering, adult/mature content, copyrighted images that belong to someone else, spam or content that’s primarily advertorial in nature.
If you reference material from other sites, be sure to give credit where credit is due. Use quotation marks or block quotes when quoting others, and include links to any articles you mention.
2. Make posts visually appealing.
Although not every topic can be illustrated, we believe most blog posts can and should have a visual element. We love original photos (the bigger the better!), but if you don’t have any of your own, be sure to properly credit the original source (Zemanta takes care of this for you). Video rocks, too.
It’s also a good idea to keep paragraphs short so that readers won’t feel overwhelmed by huge chunks of text. Breaking up your content with headings is another way to make lengthy posts less daunting.
3. Add relevant tags.
We find new posts by surfing the tag pages. If you don’t use tags, we can’t find you and how sad would that be? Also, don’t use tags that are too obscure (“beauty tips from the ancient world”) but rather more general tags (“beauty,” “history”).
4. Cap off your post with a compelling headline.
Your headline needs to stand out. Avoid swear words, excessive punctuation or vague statements. We love a clever headline, and that’s often the reason we click on your article in the first place.
Examples:
Good headline: I Won the Lottery And You Didn’t!
Bad headline: U Loserz, i WON!!!!!11!
5. Aim for typo-free content.
We know, we’re human, too — errors happen. We recommend using our proofreading feature before publishing posts. If you’ve got a few typos but we really like your post, we may ask you to fix them first.
So, that’s it! Once you’ve been promoted, you’ll receive an email from us, and you’ll also notice your page views and comments increasing. Enjoy the ride! You deserve it!
Almost Featured
I discovered something this morning, when I checked my blog stats. Several of today’s visitors found their way to my blog from WordPress’ Photography Tags page, and I had to go check it out. Fellow blogger Robin has one of her posts featured on this page, and several of mine are listed right next to hers! Very exciting 🙂
(click image for larger view)
(Bonus) 2010 In Review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.
In 2010, there were 395 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1215 posts. There were 762 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 41mb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.
The busiest day of the year was March 22nd with 171 views. The most popular post that day was 2010/081: Satin & Lace.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were ivoryhut.com, 3njboys.wordpress.com, networkedblogs.com, WordPress Dashboard, and stphoto.wordpress.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for petshops, af-s dx nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6g ed vr ii, camera strap covers, nikkor 80-400mm, and nikon 80-400mm.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
2010/081: Satin & Lace March 2010
9 comments
Gear March 2009
7 comments
Invasion of the Littlest Petshops January 2008
6 comments
About December 2007
22 comments
Camera Strap Covers September 2008
12 comments
The Daily Click 