SocialDitto Not Ready for Prime Time?

[Update: The primary developer for SocialDitto contacted me this morning to address the concerns I enumerate in this article. He and I are in the midst of a congenial discussion about what he can do better and what I in fact got wrong. I'll add another update to this post based on that discussion as soon as possible. - Will]

SocialDitto aims to be a simple online tool that lets you embed individual Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus posts in HTML documents (such as your website or blog.) You just copy the URL of a public post, paste the URL into a box at SocialDitto, and grab the resulting code.

The embedded posts are fully functional, displaying the user's avatar, a link to the post, and accompanying links. In some cases embedded posts include photo thumbnails, video stills, and link previews. In all cases, posts must be public to embed them; this is a good thing, as it protects users' privacy.

Here's one of mine:

Follow @willconley777 Will Conley
@willconley777 Please hold. My computer is digesting a cow. #fb
3 days ago via Echofon · powered by @socialditto
 Reply  · Retweet  · Favorite

What's It Good For?

I was planning to play around with SocialDitto as a blogging tool. I wanted to hand-select and embed some of my best tweets and Facebook posts as new blog posts elsewhere, to perhaps lure new, similar-minded people into my social media universe. I might also have used the service to collect some of my favorite posts by others around certain themes.

Unfortunately, SocialDitto just isn't ready for prime time. Either that, or I don't know how to use the Internet as well as I thought I did.

Commence the Tedious Litany of Problems

SocialDitto is not without its kinks; it's still a new-ish product as of June 1, 2012. Every embedded post relies on a huge chunk of script and HTML. Tweets are a visual disaster. If an embedded tweet comes from a profile that uses a tiled background image, you get an ugly two-tone border. Even when you can get the preview to look right, it might not resolve properly when actually embedded. I managed to embed the above tweet and make it legible by turning my own Twitter profile completely white, but how many other profiles are like that? Not many.

Line breaks in Facebook posts disappear when embedded with SocialDitto, leaving you with one run-on paragraph. Google+ posts work great with SocialDitto—including line breaks—but link previews don't appear. And after my experience with the Twitter aspect, I didn't bother trying to embed either a Facebook post or a Google+ post. (You can try, if you want. Let me know how it went, in the comments here.)

The post URL box at SocialDitto appears to be all-in-one, but you really need to click the Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ logo above before pasting the URL into the box. Even then, you might get an error message; refreshing the page and trying again sometimes helps.

What SocialDitto Needs to Work on Right Now

SocialDitto was created by WebProNews—the same company that produced Twellow (awesome service) and LinkNotify (I've never tried it.) So I do have some faith in the company.

Maybe I'm doing it all wrong. That's highly possible. Right now, I think WebProNews needs to either simplify SocialDitto's embed code into one neat line of script, or eliminate all script and use plain HTML to standardize the way embedded posts appear. I recommend the latter, as script doesn't work in certain blogging platforms like WordPress.com. (It does work in Blogger, sort of.)

FINISH HIM!

Lots of bloggers seem to think SocialDitto is the bee's knees, but I think it's just an awesome idea, hastily executed.

Flawless Victory.

-----
All post content on Man of Many Words is created by Will Conley. Please feel free to share this post or any of my other posts with the whole world. Just make sure they know where it came from.

"Facebook for Beginners" Gently Leads New Users Through the Maze

Facebook for Beginners (facebookforbeginners.blogspot.com) is a new blog of mini-lessons for people new to Facebook. It's "to-the-point and caffeine-free."

 

In writing for Facebook for Beginners, I try to keep posts as short and sweet as possible. I want to help new users overcome their fears and just wade into it one random step at a time. Facebook can be very intimidating, especially for someone for whom the Internet is a foreign land of scary Porn and Codes and Viruses and Stalkers.

New users often have a lot of random, elementary, or seemingly unimportant questions, such as:
Can I delete this email I got from Facebook?

How can I send a message to all of my Facebook friends at once?

What's a wall?

But in fact it's those types of odd questions which, if brushed off and left unanswered, can linger in the mind and get in the way of learning. Facebook for Beginners is designed to answer those odd questions so new users can become veterans as soon as possible.

Every post is a random definition, how-to, or informational tidbit about using Facebook. (Don't worry, articles can also be searched or browsed via archive and tag cloud, all organized-like.)

You most certainly know someone you can direct to that blog. Is it your dad? Your grandmother? A co-worker who has stopped scoffing whenever you mention Facebook and is now curious about it? Someone from Alpha Centauri who has never seen one of our primitive human laptops?

When you figure out who that is, direct them to facebookforbeginners.blogspot.com.

Introducing Jack Move Magazine

Just a few moments ago, the writer, editor, publisher, and advertising mind Emma Alvarez Gibson published the first issue of Jack Move Magazine, an old-school zine for the 21st century. I contributed a piece to Jack Move; I will leave it to you to figure out which piece is mine (hint: my byline is on it.) I am refraining from giving you the direct link to my offering, because I want you to rummage through the other quality writing on your way to reading my article.

What is Jack Move Magazine all about? From the masthead:

Like an old-school zine.

(But smarter. And sexier.)

Real talk for the thinking person. Real perspectives from real people. And a really excellent sampling of what’s current. We aim to spark in our readers the sort of sky-rips-open, wonder-filled possibility that those old zines sparked in us. Think of us as the zine-analog you’ve been secretly yearning for.

Culture and vision, vision and culture: It’s the stuff that keeps us from slinking back into the primordial soup. We think that’s worth our attention. We hope we’re worth yours.

Mrs. Gibson has a long history of writing fiction, poetry, expository writing, branding work, consulting, and of course ad copy in the course of her life. As an entrepreneur and ring leader, she has enough energy to statically charge even the dampest of spirits. On a personal note, I am grateful to her for encouraging me in many aspects of my life, not least of which is the artistic part of my life. I honestly don't know where I would be without Emma--even though we only met one time, at a Starbucks in Pasadena, while I was still living in California.

The contributors to Jack Move Magazine offer a wide range of styles, forms, and subjects. I hope you get a kick out of it. Click here to visit Jack Move Magazine and get a piece of raw energy.

Highly Nerdy Former Journalist Explains the Difference Between an About Page and a Services Page

Whereas an About page is all about establishing brand and tone and giving readers a full journalistic sense of the company as a whole, a Services page is essentially a list that shows exactly what the readers can get from said company. Think of the About page as a news story, and the Services page as a grocery store aisle.
About
An About page should always and forevermore be called an About page. Links to the About page should read "About". The About page should be accessible from anywhere on the website, via a link at the top and/or bottom of the website. Don't hide your About page as a needle in a haystack.

The About page must contain a bit of prose that conveys the journalistic Five W's and H of the company - Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. Often these terms overlap, but make sure each of the Five W's and H are touched on in the About page. Sometimes the 5WH must be conveyed in the design, rather than in words - or in both. You need to give a clear, vibrant picture of the company here - quickly and in a highly readable manner.

• Who is the company? Are you tech consultants, green thumbs, an artist? Name names, if you can. Include headshots, if possible. Give a sense of humanity by using a distinctive style and voice.
• What is the company, and what does it do? Is it a law firm that specializes in helping their clients to not get fleeced in a divorce? If you sell widgets that nobody understands, what the hell is a widget? Make readers "get it" quickly.
• When was the company formulated, how long has it been in operation, how fast does the company deliver services? Readers need you to give them a sense of the passing of time. It makes them feel safe. I don't know why. Just include the element of time, somehow.
• Where is the company based? What geographical region does it serve? If the company is decentralized, you still need to mention place names or. We still live on Planet Earth, and so people need a sense of place.
• Why does the company do what it does? What drives the people behind the company? What is the mission, the aim of the company? What is its purpose, its raison d'etre?
• How does the company deliver services, how does the company operate, how can a reader get the company's services right now?

Services
The Services page is a list, period. When someone clicks on a link that says "Services" - and it should always be called "Services", by the way - they are looking for a list. Therefore it must contain bullet points, headings, and other dividing methods.
A list contains nouns. The nouns can be expanded upon if necessary to explain unknown terms. Include all of your services. If some of your services can only be explained after speaking with a client, or if your services are far too numerous to include every last one of them, you must add a paragraph of prose to give readers a general idea.

Include also an action step in the Services page. This can mean linking people to the Products page, or to the Contact page. (Better yet, include contact info on every single page of your website. Don't make people strain to reach you. Just be there for them every step of the way.)

About the Author: Will Conley is a copywriter and former journalist whose high school "College English" teacher made fun of him until he learned the meaning of "parallel sentence."

You Are Not Above the Law: Three Things Real People Look for in a Business Website

Some rules never change, nor should they. The fact that you can read these reads proves my point.

This article is from the standpoint of someone who espouses the "path of least resistance" approach to website architecture and information dispersal. The faster your visitors can find what they are looking for, the happier everyone is.

You can be as creative as you want, but only within certain limits. Just like spoken language, there is a grammar to web navigation, replete with tacit rules, signals, indicators, and sign posts.

A good website follows all the rules of clear navigation - and your creativity can thrive within those bounds.
I always relate the story of the behavioral psychology experiment in which two groups of children were placed in two sets of circumstances and their behavior observed.

The first group of children, Group A, were placed in a fenced-in environment and given toys to play with. The second, Group B, was placed in a wide-open field and given the same toys.

Group A was observed to have had more fun, because there were limits within which their creativity could be expressed. Group B had less fun, because there were no limits. They were wary and disoriented.

Freedom is freedom only when there are rules. Every musician knows this. Miles Davis said you should learn all the musical scales so well that you can forget them.

You must standardize. There is nothing saying you can't have personality without following the commonly accepted signals of web navigation. Here are three non-optional elements of a business website.

1. Homepage
A business website should have a home or landing page with enough information for the reader to learn everything they need to know about the essence of what the business does. This means there should be enough search engine optimized body copy there for Internet users to find the business, but it should also project the brand, attitude or essence of the business.

Directly or indirectly, the homepage body copy should convey:

• something about the mission of the company,
• what the company can do for the user,
• who their typical user (target audience) is, and
  
• an introduction to the website.

The body copy of the homepage should incorporate links to the relevant sections of the website. Think of the homepage body copy as the welcome wagon and tour guide to the rest of the website. It should take readers by the arm and lead them to where they should go next - all the while informing them about the company and, if applicable, leading them to an action (purchase, download, further click-through, what-have-you.)
2. About
Every business website must have an About page that is easy to locate from anywhere on the website. When people click through to the About page, they are looking for fast access to
the essence of the company,

• what it does,
• where it is located,
• who is behind it, and
• what the company offers to the target audience.

Give the readers what they are looking for. Don't hide.
3. Products

If applicable, a prominent link to the Products page should be easy to access from anywhere on the website. Make it easy to find your products at any time, and you will make sales.

About the Author: Will Conley is a copywriter who feels that no matter what your profession, you should learn the rules so well that you can forget them.

Apparently Someone Thinks This Blog Has Hit The Big Time (HA!)

Cave troll contemplates God, financial accounting
Originally uploaded by kevindooley

Trolls happen. It's a fact of social media.

What is a troll? A troll is a person who harasses people online. They attempt to evoke an emotional response. They target a person and they generally do not stop until they have had a few laughs at someone else's expense. Without getting into any gory details, I can assure you that trolling has sometimes ended very badly in real life - either for the target or for the troll himself/herself.

Obviously that's boring.

This blog has officially been hit by its first troll. You don't need to read the comment that was posted twice. I can tell you it was somewhat creative but definitely mean-spirited. It was intended to discourage me and others from participating in Westward Invasion 2009. The troll knows that some people are easily frightened. It is an interesting psychological phenomenon, I will say that much.

But just because it's interesting or entertaining doesn't make it worthwhile. As I stated in my response to the comments (now deleted) I have no problem with censorship. None whatsoever. On the Internet it's called comment moderation. That's where I get to delete any comment I want.

Well, since I don't feel like dealing with it, I'm instituting automatic comment moderation on this blog. I will approve any and all comments that agree with me, disagree with me, make fun of someone or something, opine in a loud manner, speak in a soft tone, lampoon me, encourage people, offer constructive criticism, or pretty much anything else. I will even approve a comment if it is completely off-topic.

I will not approve spam or trolling.

We clear? All good? Let the good times troll. I mean roll.

How to Make Me a Peanut Butter Sandwich

Peanut butter & cabbage sandwich
Originally uploaded by bradlauster

Chunky peanut butter. It can be plain, or you can put some butter on that first, makes it go down easy. Or just some strawberry preserves. But I'll take straight peanut butter with the bread too. Can be white or wheat, but wheat is healthier. If the bread's got all kinds of nuts and grains and stuff in it, good. Like a nine-grain, or a 24-grain. I'll probably eat it in the sunlight with some lemonade as it's such a nice day out. This is all theoretical and could probably be improved upon, so I'm open to suggestions. Thanks.

The sandwich that appears in this post is not how to make me a peanut butter sandwich. There is cabbage on it. I don't want cabbage on mine. I don't want Spam on it either, but I'll try it, I guess. You can see a lot of disgusting looking peanut butter sandwiches - and use them freely for commercial or personal purposes - by using Flickr's Advanced Search feature.

How to Use Flickr's Advanced Search Feature to Find Images for Free Personal or Commercial Use:

1. Go to Flickr.com
2. Click "Search".
3. Click "Advanced Search".
4. Type "peanut butter sandwich" (or whatever you're looking for) in the search box.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen.
6. Mark the box that reads "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content".
7. Optionally, mark the boxes that read "Find content to use commercially" and/or "Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon."
8. Click "Search."

Or just click here for the disgusting peanut butter sandwiches.

How to Sync FriendFeed Comments to Disqus

As many readers know, I'm a fan of the Disqus. You don't f*** with the Disqus (see The Big Lebowsky). Disqus is a comment system you can use to replace and enhance your blog or website. It is supported by Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Tumblr, and many open source content management systems (like Joomla and Ruby Rails). It is totally customizable. Using it, many of your comments around the web (and your blog visitors' comments) are saved in one convenient location at your Disqus profile.

I also use FriendFeed, a lifestreaming service. (I hate that term, lifestreaming. It seems to imply that I spend too much of my life online, never you mind if it's true.)

Well now you can make it so that all the comments you drop at FriendFeed are copied to your Disqus profile. Nice! How to do it? Just use the FriendFeed-to-Disqus Comment Sync:

1. Make sure you have a Disqus account and a FriendFeed account.

2. Go to https://ff2disqus.appspot.com/. You will see a message stating you need an invite as FriendFeed-to-Disqus Comment Sync (FF2D) is still in private beta. All you need to get an invite is click the link provided. This will take you to the FriendFeed discussion room for FF2D. Drop a comment stating you would like to beta test the service.

2. Within a day or so they will send you an invite to join the FF2D discussion room on FriendFeed. Accept the invite and go to the FF2D room to find the secret link to instructions for syncing your FF comments with your Disqus comments.

And you're done. Done! Just. Done! So easy.

So what good is FF2D? I will tell you: Disqus is steadily becoming the preferred hosted comment aggregation service around the web. (That is, if you exclude BackType, which finds comments you post under your blog or website name and then puts them all in one place for everybody to spy on, woot.) With all your comments in one place, you now have even tighter reign over your Web activities around the Net.

Bottom line: For those who use FriendFeed and Disqus, FF2D further tightens your grip on your reputation.

The world is getting smaller. With FF2D it just shrunk even more. Now if Disqus and BackType got married, I think we would all be throwing rice.

Amazing Web 1.0 App Allows for More Than 140 Characters!

It's called my blog.

(I realize I am in the middle of a five-part series about online fundraising sources for non-profits, so consider this the non-commercial break.)

*****

UPDATE Jan. 12 2009 I no longer hate Twitter. Some good people convinced me to stay on, including but not limited to many of my old Twitter pals, but also plenty of new, quality ones sent my way by @Armano. I feel the need to iterate that I was serious about leaving. It's just, sometimes, well, I'm wrong.

*****

After three months of giving Twitter the old college try, I've decided Twitter can go piss up a rope. It's not that Twitter isn't addictive or compelling. Many times I have spent hours on end tweeting, reading other people's tweets, clicking the links in said tweets, checking out the profile links for the many different Tweeple to see what my fellow Tweeple do when they are not tweeting, and of course twiddling around with all the different awesome Twitter apps du jour like TweetDeck, Twhirl, Twellow, and Twatter. (Yes, I made that last one up, but I'm sure someone will see this, invent a Twitter-based hooker hotline app by that name, and sell it for $1,200 on SitePoint all within 24 hours like Twlpy did.)

I witnessed some fascinating things unfold on Twitter. For example, I proudly watched as t-shirt model extraordinaire Jason Sadler embarked on his year-long expedition to wear a different branded t-shirt every day for a year.

Cried, as marketing visionary David Armano unleashed the philanthropic power of his network on an indigent mother of three, raising over $7,000 in less than 48 hours to help her escape an abusive relationship.

Laughed, as idiot blowhard blogosphere critic Loren Feldman (a.k.a. the Arrington Family's Lurch) systematically rendered his wildly successful vlog moot by deleting all the video files.

I also was privy to an unstoppable mudslide of boring, boring, boring spam from nameless finance experts, daily minutia from acquaintences, and obligatory reports like "I'm working" and "I'm tired".

Twanks, but no thanks. Hey, I can watch these people do their thing in other ways, like, oh, I don't know, on their blogs. With a blog, if you have something to say, you can say it in 140 characters or less, you can say it in a word, a whisper, you can say it in a novella or a Moby Dick, with a video or on an MP3, on a plane or even, yes, in a train.

You can do it all with a blog. And now they have these things called RSS readers whereby you can actually read all your favorite blogs in one convenient location! That is so neat! So useful, so not-limiting! So Web 1.0, and SO SUPERIOR to Twitter that I don't even know why I tried Twitter in the first place.

The power of the crowd, that's what got me. The crowd had convinced me that there was truly some value in being limited to 140 characters or less. I applied the same logic I had applied when, at my first church experience at the age of six, I loudly concluded of the belief in God, "Well Mom, if all these people think it's true, it must be true!" (I'll bet the other churchgoers just loved that.)

After all, the power of the crowd is what the Twitter spirit is all about, and it is growing FAST. Heck, right now is probably the worst time for me to quit, considering that in 2008 Twitter's membership grew 752% to a total of 4.5 million users.

Or maybe that means now is the best possible time. Who's with me? Can I get a witness? Drop some comments on my awesome blog.

How to Add Facebook Connect to Blogger in 12 Simple Steps

UPDATE for December 9, 2011: It's been almost three years since I posted this, and it's still getting hits. The instructions here are completely out of date and are absolutely useless at this point.


But! I'm guessing you came here searching for a way to integrate Facebook with your Blogger blog in some way.


Well, I have an answer for you. Or rather, a resource. It's not going to answer all of your questions, but trust me when I say, that as of today, December 9, 2011, your first and last stop when integrating Facebook functionality into your Blogger blog is to visit the Social Plugins page from Facebook itself.


Here it is: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/


Good luck.

UPDATE for APRIL 20, 2009: Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for all your awesome participation. I learned a lot from your comments. Due to your comments I have had a change of heart. It appears the JS-Kit comment system is in fact the superior service, hands down. I recommend it. It comes pre-packaged with Facebook Connect functionality, along with oodles of other benefits Disqus does not have. Go to http://js-kit.com to install it on your blog right away.

This blog post is still 100% useful though, if you still want to install Disqus comments on your blog. It really is a great service - just not as good as JS-Kit.

To the people at Disqus: You guys have a beautiful product, and in some ways it is friendlier to use than JS-Kit. I wish you all the best in your quest to beat JS-Kit in the comment system wars. Good ol' competition makes us ALL better.

Sincerely,
Will Conley
Man of Many Words

Do you have a blog on Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr or Movable Type? Do you want to add Facebook Connect to your blog so that your readers can log in and comment using their Facebook accounts? Of course you do! There's just one problem: your mamma don't code and your daddy don't XML. That's right, I said it, and you ain't much hipper than they are. So what do you do?

Well kid, you've come to the right place. As of yesterday morning there is a quick-and-dirty way to integrate Facebook Connect into your Blogger comments section. The only specialized knowledge required is literacy. I did it myself in about 30 minutes. Try it out for yourself, right here on Man of Many Words. Scroll down and view the comments section for this post, select the option to log in with Facebook Connect, and then drop a holler. Cool, right?

So how did I do it? Just add Disqus and stir:

1. Open a new tab in your browser and keep this one open so you can refer to it.

2. Go to http://disqus.com (pronounced "discuss"). Follow the simple instructions and install the Disqus comment system into your blog. Don't worry, you can keep all of your existing comments. (Are you worrying? Don't. No need.) Once you have set up Disqus for your blog, move on to Step 3.

3. Open another new tab and go to http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php. This will take you to the "Create App" page on Facebook.

Congratulations in advance, you are about to become a Facebook Developer! Wow! Unfortunately for your ego, it's really, really easy to do what you are about to do. It requires almost no coding skills whatsoever. Sorry. On the bright side, you won't have waste hours and hours of your holiday season trying to understand what all those tech sites are talking about when they blast a load of Javascript in your face and expect you to thank them for the hot tip. I mean, come on, add Facebook Connect in just 8 minutes? I sneeze in 8 minutes. Ain't no way anyone is adding Facebook Connect in 8 minutes. Not me, not Stephen Hawking, not anyone. They only say that to make you feel bad about yourself. Don't listen to them. You are smart. We shall now continue:

4. On the "Create App" page you navigated to in Step 3, fill in the field labeled "Application Name" with the name of your blog. Simple!

5. Agree to the Terms of Service and click "Save Changes". This will take you to the Edit page of your new app.

6. In the "Edit" page of your new app, fill in the field labeled "Callback URL" with http://disqus.com.

7. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Save Changes". Don't close the tab.

8. Go back to the first tab, navigate to your Disqus Settings under "Admin".

9. Scroll down until you see the Facebook Connect logo. Tick the box at left.

10. Copy and paste the API Key from your Facebook App into its corresponding field on your Disqus settings.

11. Copy and paste the Secret from your Facebook App into its corresponding field on your Disqus settings.

12. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page on Disqus and click "Save".

Et voila! You have successfully added Facebook Connect to your blog. Season to taste. Serves millions. To try it out, you will need to log out of your Disqus account so that you will be able to see what your readers see.

Three things to consider:

• This how-to guide applies for all platforms that use Disqus comments. I just targeted it at my Blogger friends who are still trying to hop upon the clue train.
• Facebook Connect and Disqus aren't cooperating very well in Safari. As a workaround, set Safari to accept all cookies.
• As Disqus and Facebook Connect are both new platforms, there are bound to be some bugs.

Please let me know how it goes, and Happy Festivus to all.

UPDATE: Looking for detailed instructions on how to install the Disqus comment system on other platforms? Well here you are:

• Drupal
• b2evolution
• Graffiti
• Joomla
• RubyGem

To All 15 of My New RSS Subscribers

Two days ago I added Feedburner to my growing list of blog technologies to try out. Since then I have gained 15 readers, according to the stats at Feedburner. No, I cannot see who subscribes, I can only see the numbers and their basic clicking behavior. It is one of the better ways to see how people use your site and then adjust your approach accordingly.

So, moving on to my dedicated note for my new subscribers. I just want to make it clear that I welcome any and all communication from you. You can join this site via the Google Friend Connect widget in the sidebar, talk to me on any of my social networks, shoot me an email anytime you like, and of course, drop copious amounts of post comments (now with Facebook Connect!)

That said, here's a question for you. Why did you subscribe to my blog? I was going to create a poll at PollDaddy, but I decided we don't need to get fancy here. I will just list off a few guesses, and you can respond in the comments.

Your Reasons for Subscribing to Man of Many Words

• My scowling face.
• My happy face.
• The oddly proportioned header.
• My thoughts on social media.
• My thoughts on life itself.
• I blogged about a specific topic you are interested in.
• Other

If I blogged about a topic that's near and dear to your heart, what was it?

A final word for now: If you blog or have a presence online somewhere and would like to share that information with me and/or my other readers, please do so!

eHow.com Wins Blogger's Choice Open Web Award

One of my revenue sources, eHow.com, won a Mashable.com Blogger's Choice Open Web Award in the category of How-to yesterday. For those of you who don't live and breathe the Internet, the Open Web Awards are a BIG DEAL. Mashable is the leading online magazine for all that's new and wonderful in the world of social media.

More likely, you have heard of eHow.com, but here's the quick intro, and then I'll get back to our story: eHow.com contains advice for "How To Do Just About Everything", as goes their slogan. In recent months, however, eHow has expanded its repertoire to include "About", "How Does" and other article formats. Although the website is designed to encourage its readers to submit and monetize their own articles, the majority of eHow's 250,000-article library are written professionally by a small army of paid-up-front contributers from around the United States.

I am one of those contributors. To date I have published 112 articles about, well, just about everything for eHow.com, like:

What Is a Poem?
How Does the CIA Work?
About Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
How to Live Homeless
How to Talk to a New Yorker
How to Avoid Getting into a Bar Fight
How to Position Lights for Photography
How to Print a Page From Google Books

Titles range from obscure to hilarious to downright indispensable. There are no limits. After all, eHow is run by Demand Studios, whose parent company is Demand Media, which is a creation of Richard Rosenblatt. He's the man who helped raise MySpace to superstardom and brokered the deal to sell it (along with its parent company Intermix) to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

"Attach a cable to Richard Rosenblatt and you could power a small town," said Forbes.com. You're dealing with a major go-getter here, is the point. So far Demand Media has shelled out well over $10 million to its army of writers, copy editors, filmmakers, transcribers and title proofers. That's not including any of the administrative or infrastructure overhead.

In theory, eHow makes its money on ad revenue. I worry about this business model. I suspect eHow is not turning a profit, but Rosenblatt is crazy like a local car dealership commercial. With four night clubs, a multi-faceted partnership with Lance Armstrong, and dozens of other irons in the fire, who knows what kind of capitalization this man's got up his sleeves? There's something he knows that I don't.

Whatever the case, Rosenblatt should be proud of eHow and its production factory Demand Studios for coming this far. They really have been slogging through some massive technical problems on both the production and distribution ends of the operation. As a contributor I can attest to their overall improvement over the last few months. Kudos to Rosenblatt for hiring a such a committed and patient editorial and administrative team over at Demand Studios. What those people do--manage a thousand writers every day--is akin to herding cats.

I just hope Rosenblatt doesn't go selling Demand Studios to Fox News' sugar daddy like he did with MySpace.

UPDATE: Want to know more about Richard Rosenblatt? Check out the following links, courtesy of Demand Media SEO Manager Jeff Grant:

Demand Media Company Profile
Web 2.0 Summit Profile
Web 2.0 Summit Presentations
Follow Rosenblatt's Tweets
Richard.tv