Tech

FDA Regulations May Derail Health Apps

Virginia DeBolt — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:35:39 +0000

The IT geniuses who create health apps and turn them out in record time have run into a snag in the form of potential FDA regulations, according to FDA tangles with wireless medical-app makers at Politico.

RunKeeper Health and Fitness app screenshots via iTunes

The problem centers around the definition of what apps need regulation. Here's how Amanda Coolong explains it at TechZulu.

Is a mobile health app a medical device? Should an app that shows you how many steps you’ve taken be regulated exactly the same way as a blood glucose monitor? According to the FDA the answer is yes, and if pending legislation passes in the U.S. House of Representatives it could sound a death knell for innovation in the healthcare sector.

The Health IT NOW organization argues that regulatory authority over mobile apps overlap among agencies and impose a confusing array of requirements. They claim the proposed legislation will stifle innovation and be prohibitively expensive for app development. The Health IT NOW group cites figures like:

On average medical devices that require FDA evaluation are available to patients in the U.S. a full two years after they were available to patients in Europe.
Bringing a product to market through FDA requires an additional 72 months and $75 million
FDA requirements account for 77 percent of the cost of bringing a medical device to market.

Most mobile app makers are small companies who don't have the resources to endure a process like that. What would it mean in lost creativity, lost innovation if every tech entrepreneur with an idea for a mobile health app had to navigate those steps?

One issue hinges on the definition of what a medical device is according to the FDA. The other side of the debate centers on safety. Mobile Medical Apps Gold Rush Needs Scrutiny at Information Week says it takes some study to separate the glitz from the gold in the rapidly developing market for mobile health apps. Who is going to be in charge of distinguishing glitz from gold? And which needs regulation – or do they both?

What the Health IT NOW group and medical app makers want is for the FDA to balance the need for patient safety and the desire to promote innovation by modifying its guidance document such that it provides a "clear, predictable, and appropriately tailored regulatory framework."

Alan W. Silberberg at The Huffington Post sums up many of the issues nicely in Mobile App for Lifesaving Technology? Or Regulated Industry?

If something on my smart phone is working to regulate my pacemaker and keep my heart beating regularly, yes I want the FDA to make sure it's safe. But what if it's just checking my heart rate? What about Health and Fitness Apps? If something on my smart phone is reminding me to exercise today and only eat 1800 calories before bedtime I'm not sure the FDA needs to spend time regulating it. I want a regulatory structure that makes sense and works cleanly for all types of apps.

For more information, check the FDA news release about what they want to regulate and this document on Mobile Medical Applications.

If you want to comment on any proposed legislation at the FDA, check Mobile Medical Applications and the FDA Comments page.

Virginia DeBolt, BlogHer Section Editor for Tech
virginia.debolt@blogher.com
Virginia blogs at Web Teacher and First 50 Words.

Sexism, Gender Equality, and Dish Detergent

Virginia DeBolt — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:02:57 +0000

[Sexism can be directed at either sex, as Jenn Schiffer from Pancake Theorem discovered when out shopping with her dad. She has some excellent advice for all of us about how we should deal with issues of sexism. It's all wrapped up in a story about her dad and some dish detergent. -Virginia]

Being a woman in technology, today, it’s hard thinking about that story while constantly having to answer the “are you offended by this” question whenever some tech event or mouthpiece says something that excludes women. It seems to be happening a lot, and the responses to women’s feeling are generally supportive or otherwise include the classic “oh, we didn’t mean to offend” rationale. Unlike my dad’s situation, we never get coupons in the mail. The lack of a proper apology is usually what I am most offended by, not the offending comment itself.

washing dishes by hazure via Flickr

Howard Rheingold's New Book: Net Smart

Virginia DeBolt — Sun, 27 May 2012 19:06:29 +0000

Beth Kanter from Beth's Blog has been busy reading a great book and she wants to share it with you. The book is called "Net Smart: How to Thrive Online" and talks about how to use the internet and social media intelligently and mindfully. Beth explains,

If you are going to purchase one book about using social media, this is the one to read. It’s for people who want to go deeper and get practical know how, improved productivity, and integrate physical and virtual lives.

Howard Rheingold screenshot from Net Smart Trailer

Toys 'R Us Finds a Great Use for QR Codes

Virginia DeBolt — Sat, 26 May 2012 19:02:28 +0000

Most QR codes are rather pointless, but once in a while someone comes up with a really helpful idea for QR codes. One such company is Toys 'R Us. Cool Mom Tech has the details for you.

'Tis the season to purchase baby pools, slides, and sandboxes-- oh my--but it can be hard knowing exactly which one will work best in your backyard space. So how smart of Toys 'R Us to use the technology of QR codes to make shopping for big outdoor toys a cinch.

The cars by Valerie Everett via Flickr

Tips for Your About Page and for SEO

Virginia DeBolt — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:02:05 +0000

[In this great Web Teacher guest post by Jessy Troy, you can learn some tips for crafting an interesting and effective about page. And as a bonus, Jessy shares her favorite tool for bloggers to improve search engine optimization. -Virginia]

There is nothing quite as annoying as crafting an About Me page for a blog or website. You would think that it would be easy describing yourself and your company or site. After all, you know all about both, right? So why then do so many end up being a two sentence rundown in the most boring tone ever?

Fact or Fiction by Demi-Brooke via Flickr

My Blog Got Stolen... And This is How I Got it Back

The Hungry Mouse — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:16:24 +0000

My food blog got hijacked.

Hijacked, like a plane. Like a stagecoach in the Old West.

You heard me right. Hackers stole my domain, thehungrymouse.com, and from mid-March to mid-May, I had absolutely no control over it.

I just got it back.

If you haven't heard of domain theft before, it sounds crazy. After all, domain names are pretty intangible and live in cyberspace. But, domain names are a commodity, and are subject to theft just like other property. That is, if someone can figure out how to pull the rug out from under you.

(In fact, read about the first ever criminal prosecution for domain name theft here, which actually also involved my registrar, Network Solutions.)

It happened to me. It could happen to you.

If you're a blogger, please pay attention. If you know someone who runs a website, please pass this along. Because I honestly had no idea that this could happen. If I did, I could have prevented it.

still of The Great Train Robbery via Wikimedia Commons

What Happened

The FBI is actually still investigating this for me, so I can't give you all the details. But here's the 30,000-foot view.

Right around mid-April, right when my book released, I tried to log in to The Hungry Mouse to write a new post.

I couldn't get in.

Now, blog software can be finicky, so I contacted my host to find out if something was wrong, or if I was somehow bugged. The website looked fine on the front end. All my content was live and looked to be in good order, so I was sure it was just some kind of glitch.

My host called me an hour later and told me that there was a big problem. They said that it looked like I actually no longer owned my domain name. According to the WhoIs record, some dude in China owned it. And, to make it worse, the domain had been transferred to a registrar in China.

"China?!?!," I screeched.

"Yes, China," they said.

My host also told me that early in March, someone had made a complete copy of all my files and downloaded them.

They advised me to call my registrar, Network Solutions. Network Solutions confirmed what my host told me and directed me to their fraud department.

The fraud guys at Network Solutions informed me that my domain had been transferred to the Chinese registrar in mid-March, about a month earlier.

They said that the transfer appeared to have been done legitimately through the email address they had on file for me, despite the fact that my Network Solutions account was accessed by an IP in Japan -- not Salem, MA, where I'm based.

What's more, the domain was pointed to my copied files, which had been installed on servers at CloudFlare out in California.

Why would someone do that? Usually domains are hijacked and the content is changed to something super lucrative (think porno or Viagra ads) immediately. They left my contact completely intact. So strange, right? Hold that thought for a sec.

Network Solutions promised to investigate and get back to me.

Nancy Drew, Mouse Detective

In the meantime, I did some digging on my own. I scanned my computer. I looked back through my email for odd messages.

Finally, as I was poking around in my Gmail settings, I discovered filters set to automatically delete any emails from both my host and my registrar. This means someone cracked my Gmail to make sure that I wouldn't receive any notification that changes were being made to my domain.

Because I didn't receive those notification emails, and I wasn't in the habit of regularly checking my registration, I had no idea this was going on.

(Can you see me fuming... and feeling like the biggest idiot in the world right about now? Thought so.)

I'm more vigilant than the average girl with all my online stuff, but I don't root around in the dusty corners of my Gmail settings every day. I don't think many people do. But you should. (That's Lesson Numero Uno from this debacle. More on that in a bit.)

So, per the protocol for this sort of thing (because domain theft is so common that there's actually a protocol for it), Network Solutions started talks with the Chinese registrar, and made the case that the domain had been fraudulently transferred.

There's no question that I am the owner of The Hungry Mouse. I have four years of national press, and a published cookbook under my belt. Not to mention a closet full of receipts, account statements, and tax returns. You get the picture. I could jump up and down and scream about justice all I wanted.

The question was whether the Chinese registrar was going to play ball with us.

I should note here that the Chinese registrar may or may not have known that my domain was stolen. Think of this registrar like a bank that had criminal funds in one of its accounts. Unless there's a reason to investigate, the bank probably isn't going to ask where that money came from. Sort of the same thing here.

What Do You Do When Your Domain is Stolen?

While we were waiting to hear back from the Chinese registrar, we contacted everyone and anyone we could think of who might be able to help.

We were advised not to make an immediate public announcement about the theft because of the investigation. Also, since the site was up and running, and not distributing any kind of virus or malware, all it would do was grind The Hungry Mouse to a halt.

So we waited, very uneasily. (During this time, as you might imagine, we had to cage and sedate The Angry Chef.)

In the meantime, we found a bang-up intellectual property attorney and talked about our options.

We called the Massachusetts Attorney General to report business fraud.

When the Mass Attorney General didn't get back to us, we called Senator John Kerry's office, who we know has an interest in cyberterrorism.

The folks at Kerry's office were great. (Thank you all, again!) They made a bunch of phone calls, and ultimately put us directly in touch with the FBI.

I Love the FBI

Now there's a phrase I never thought would make it into one of my posts.

Like I said, because there's an ongoing investigation, I can't tell you that much about the Special Agent in charge. Suffice it to say, he's more than earned a lifetime supply of cakes and cookies from The Mouse Empire.

(And yes, I somehow manage to refrain from calling him Mulder. Don't ask me how.)

There's a lot more that I just can't talk about right now, but that should give you a pretty good idea of what happened.

How I Ultimately Got my Domain Back

Fast forward to about two weeks ago.

Network Solutions emailed me with great news. Based on the evidence presented, the Chinese registrar had agreed to return the domain to us.

A week or so later, it was safely back in our paws, where it belongs.

Basically, we got lucky. The other registrar decided to cooperate. The whole thing could have been a lot harder. (See below.)

Now, the FBI are still investigating. We'll see if they catch the bad guys.

Interesting fact. I learned that if the FBI can figure out who did this, but won't prosecute for whatever reason, they're bound by recent victim legislation to turn the perpetrator's information over to me.

Rest assured, if the party responsible for the theft is on U.S. soil, I'll bring the biggest, baddest civil case right to their door, complete with bells, whistles, and complimentary, homemade mints.

Why Do People Steal Domains?

Honestly, we're still not sure. And I'm not 100% convinced that I even care.

As personal as it may feel, we're sure it wasn't. Whoever did this has most likely done the same thing to a bunch of other websites and will do it to a bunch more before they're caught.

When it comes down to it, I'm a regular girl who works a full-time job, and runs this website because I truly love to teach people how to cook. I just happen to own something that someone else wanted to use to make a couple of bucks.

Our best guess is that they were after ad revenue based on our traffic. (The Hungry Mouse gets about 200,000 unique visitors a month.) They tried installing their own Google AdSense code on the site on three separate occasions, each of which I had shut down through Google.

I just thank the gods we don't store customer data or credit card information.

What Can You Do if Your Domain Gets Stolen?

Aside from what I outlined above, there's actually a whole procedure for disputes about domain names. Read more about it here.

In fact, there's a whole organization, called iCann, that's dedicated to the global care and feeding of domain names.

Basically, I would have had to file a dispute and pay to have it arbitrated. That's a process that, before attorney's fees, can cost a couple grand and take months.

10 Tips for Blog Security

There are surely better sources for website security than this post. Please seek them out. (Please!) I'm by no means an internet security expert, and I'm not making any claims that this stuff will make your site hacker proof. That said, here are a handful of things that should make your blog harder to steal.

1. Make sure your email is secure

This is the big one. If you use Gmail for email, turn on two-step verification. Basically, this service ties your email log-ins to specific browsers on specific computers. (As in, I can only log-in to my email on Google Chrome on this computer, etc.)

If you try to log-in anywhere else, Gmail requires you to enter a special code that you receive by cell phone.

So, even if someone manages to hack your username and password, they won't be able to get into your Gmail if they don't have your phone.

Watch this video to learn more about how that works.

Why is email security so important? Think about it. If someone hacks your email, they can use your messages to figure out what kind of online accounts you may have.

For example, say they try to log in to your Amazon.com account. They use your email address to sign in but say that they lost their password. They get a password reset message sent to them at your email that they now control, they use it to create a new password, and... bingo! They can access your Amazon.com account. (And you can't, because they reset your password.)

Rinse and repeat with your bank account, your PayPal account and whatever else they can find via your email. Sure, some of those sites will probably have other security measures in place around password resets, but some won't. Do you want to find out the hard way?

The two-step verification thing can be a huge pain in the ass, but it's well worth it. Funny enough, someone told me that Google came up with it because they originally got hacked by the Chinese.

2. Make your domain registration private

When most bloggers register a domain name, they use their home address on their account. When you make your registration private (a service that I believe most registrars offer), your address isn't published publicly with the domain listing. You can see who is listed as the owner of any domain name by doing a "whois" lookup. Hit this website (or the site for any big registrar), enter any domain name, and see what I mean.

3. Max out your security with your registrar

Whatever your registrar and/or host offer for security, you probably want it. Every company will have different services. Find out what your providers offer and see what makes sense for you.

4. Use smart user names and passwords

Make them complicated and unintelligible. Use symbols, numbers, and upper and lower case letters. Forget about using your birthday. Don't use your dog's name. Change your username from "admin" to something else. And don't, whatever you do, use the same password for your email, your blog log-in, and your ATM pin. Because if someone cracks one password, they can probably get into all your accounts associated with it.

5. Change your password every 90 days

My friends at the FBI told me that most stolen passwords kick around for a while before they get used. Change your passwords at least every 90 days.

6. Install security plugins on your blog

Do some research and find out what the best security plug-ins are for your particular blogging software. Install them. Keep them up to date. Monitor them. Don't skimp on the antivirus software on your computer, though I've been advised that a lot of the off-the-shelf programs aren't super up to date, and if a hacker really wants your site, they'll write custom code to try to get it.

7. Back your content up

This is a basic one, but it's one that not everyone does regularly. Back up all your files to some kind of external drive or cloud, so that if the worst happens, at least you still have a copy of all your data.

8. Document everything

Keep good records. If your domain is hijacked, or if your email is hacked, take screenshots of everything you find, and keep a running Word doc with notes. It's a frazzling time, and little details that might be important can slip through the cracks.

9. Don't assume it can't happen to you

I don't store customer data or credit cards. I have nothing that a hacker might want except my content or my traffic. You never know what motivates a criminal. And frankly, it doesn't really matter much once they have your stuff. Be preemptive. The best offense is a good defense, and all that.

10. Be vigilant

Don't assume that the companies you do business with always have your best interests at heart. You're responsible for keeping yourself as safe as you can. Check your accounts frequently. Change your passwords frequently. Alert companies about any sketchy activity you notice. Don't login to super sensitive accounts over public wifi, or on public computers. If it's important to you, don't get lazy about it. Read about online security. Talk to people you know who know who work in the field. Put what you learn into practice.

The Bottom Line?

Our lives increasingly revolve around the Internet, whether you run a website, or just use the internet.

Stop for a minute and think about how some of the most valuable things in your life are probably also the most intangible.

I'm talking bank accounts. (Do you keep a big pile of cash in a safe in your house? Or is your life savings represented by a number you see on your bank's website?)

I'm talking credit cards. (Do you pay your credit cards online via instant transfer from your bank? Are your credit cards tied to your PayPal account? Do you receive e-statements for all of your accounts via email?)

I'm talking e-mail. (Do you back up your email or keep paper copies? Or does all of your important correspondence live only in your inbox?)

I'm talking commerce accounts. (Do you buy everything in person in a store? Or do you purchase half your stuff online and pay using your PayPal account...that's tied to an email account that has a password you never change... which happens to be your birthday, your cat's name, or something else really easy to guess?)

You see where I'm going with all this.

I'm not suggesting that everything online is insecure. Not at all.

I am suggesting, however, that security and smart behavior is more important than ever as we do more and more personal stuff and business online.

So?

Be smart. Be safe. Stay on top of your accounts and your computer, and make sure you keep whatever security measures you take up to date.

Please Leave a Comment

If you have insights, questions, or other tips about blog security, please leave a comment here or on my blog, The Hungry Mouse!

We've recovered now, but we did actually treat this like a case of full-on identity theft. That means we changed ALL our financial accounts over, alerted credit bureaus, modified all of our online accounts, etc. As much as we want to forget what just happened to us, it was really important to tell this story, because we don't want it to happen to anyone else.

And now, back to the kitchen! Even though summer's coming, I can't shake the urge to start baking.

Talk to you soon!

+Jessie
The Hungry Mouse
A visual guide to food & cooking.
jessie@thehungrymouse.com
www.thehungrymouse.com

A Guide to Twitter for non-Tweeters

dorkymum — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:52:34 +0000

I was out for coffee the other day with a non-tweeting friend. “So what’s Twitter actually like?” she asked.

I ummed and ahhed, and explained it all very badly, mumbling some fairly dry stuff about retweets and hashtags and follows. She didn’t look convinced. So I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and here’s what I’ve come up with.

Twitter Network by Sue Waters via Flickr

Joining Twitter is like suddenly discovering an extra room in your house. You’re just walking from your kitchen to your living room one evening and you notice a door that you’ve never opened before. You decide to turn the handle and have a look.

You open the door, step into the room, and it’s as though you’ve just arrived at a really busy party. In one corner of the room are a group of people you’ve known for years. “Hurray!” they say. “Here’s DorkyMum! We’ve been wondering where you were.” You start to walk over to them, and notice they’ve already bought you a pint of your favourite beer. Brilliant. You love this room already.

But then something catches your eye. Look! It’s the woman who wrote that book you loved when you were a kid! Wow. You wonder what she’s doing here. You raise your hand, a bit shy and nervous, and to your relief she smiles and gives you a big cheery wave in response.

You’re about to wander over and speak to her, but as you turn, you get stopped in your tracks by another group of people. You don’t know any of their names, although a couple of them look vaguely familiar. “Hey!” one of them says. “We read on your blog that you’re a big fan of obscure Scottish folk music. Come over here and listen to this.”

So over you go, and you stand in the corner for a few minutes, swaying away and tapping your foot to a brilliant track that you’ve not heard before. The group of people are all really friendly; you discover that you have some other interests in common too. One of them likes photography, and another has a son the same age as you. You feel pretty comfortable, and think you could probably just hang out in this corner of the room for a while.

But wait! There’s your MP! He’s a crabby old Tory bastard, and you’re not too sure what he’s doing at this party, but you really want to speak to him about a Save the Children campaign that you’re involved with, so you tear yourself away from the music and chase him across the room for a chat.

Eventually the room starts to grow a little quieter, and you decide that you’ve had enough for one night; that you should probably get some sleep. So you wave goodbye to everyone and head off to bed, closing the door to the room carefully behind you.

The next morning when you wake up, you fully expect the room to be gone. But guess what? It’s still there. In fact, it’s there every morning from now on.

Some days, you get up and you’ve not had enough sleep, so you’re grumpy and bleary eyed. You poke your head into the room, scowling, and you snarl at the assembled company. A few of them snarl back, because they’ve had a bad night too. But then one person offers to make you a coffee, and someone else holds up a picture of a really cute kitten, which forces you to crack your face into a smile.

Some days you wake up, and you’ve already got too much noise in your head, and you’ve got lots of jobs to do, so you don’t go near the room at all. The door stays firmly shut.

Other days you get up, head for breakfast in your kitchen, turn on the radio, and catch the last bar of an old song you really like. Damn, what was that song called? You can’t even remember who sang it. So you poke your head into the extra room, and shout out “Hey! Does anyone know what that song was that was just playing on the radio?”

“Sure!” calls someone standing over on the left. “It was The Dorky Song, by the Dorkys.”

Someone standing over on the right shouts out “I’ve always loved the Dorkys!”

Then at the back of the room an old crackled voice pipes up, “Ahh, thank you for all the love guys. I was the drummer with the Dorkys!”

Everyone in the room cheers.

Occasionally, you’ll be standing in the room chatting, and you’ll hear raised voices and then a scuffle will break out in a far corner. Someone has had one-too-many glasses of wine and said something offensive. “Idiot,” you can hear people muttering under their breaths, as the offender is hustled out of a side door until he calms down.

Sometimes you’re in there, and it’s as though everyone is high. There’s big news on the way, and the vibe is crazy. There’s a real buzz in the air. You’re really supposed to be somewhere else, but you can’t tear yourself away.

If you never find this room in your house – the extra room – it’s okay. You really like your house anyway. It’s comfy, and cosy, and full of lovely things. You don’t ever feel like you’re missing out on something, because you don’t know otherwise.

But if – when – you do find it, a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities and connections opens up. It’s crazy. But it’s kinda fun.

That’s what Twitter is like.

This post was originally published on my own blog DorkyMum.

#Hashtags Part 1: Twitter and Facebook

Laine Griffin — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:03:40 +0000

If you are new to social media, or just not one to become obsessed with all the tips, tricks, and interworkings of getting noticed on the web, you may be wondering what all these #hashtags are that are floating around. Well, welcome to the two-part series, you will learn what they are, where they came from, and how (and how not) to use them!

Twitter

Hashtags have been used on Twitter for several years. In fact, hashtags were created by Twitter users in order to identify topics of particular interest, and make the tweet more accessible to a wider audience. Essentially you are tagging, or optimizing your tweet, like you would tag a blog post. By placing a hashtag before a keyword or category in your tweet, you are adding it to a “list” of tweets about that subject – subjects that are searchable on Twitter. So when a Twitter user wants to find information on that subject, your tweet will have a greater chance of being seen because you have hashtagged/categorized it.

For example, if I wrote a post on the Laine List about how much my son likes Justin Bieber, and how we share a birthday, and I want it noticed and read by Bieber fans, my tweet might look like this: “Happy birthday Justin Bieber! #Beliebers” followed by a link to the post. Beliebers is a group of J. Bieb’s fans, and a group that will keep the twitter conversation going. Technically, this tweet could be seen by thousands of fans and will stick around for a long time. Realistically, because there are so many fans, this tweet will get burried in minutes. Still worth the effort though, because SOMEONE will see it, and perhaps retweet (RT) it.

When a large number of people categorize a particular keyword in a short amount of time, it becomes a trending topic. Usually this is some sort of breaking news, something controversial, or something special happening on television. Think State of the Union address, American Idol finale, Super Bowl, OJ and the white bronco (if only we had Twitter back then!) Trending topics generally go away as fast as they show up, so keep your blog posts and your tweets timely!

Hashtags can also be used so people can follow a big event. For example, at the annual BlogHer conference, BlogHer topic moderators create categories with hashtags so people who cannot attend the conference can follow along in semi-real time.

Facebook

Hashtags do not have a place on Facebook, per se. There is no categorization or trending topics on Facebook, and no real conversation to find and add to with the use of hashtags. BUT, you do see hashtags used on Facebook, generally by people who have their Facebook page linked to their Twitter page. For example, one of my recent status updates on the Elaine Griffin Designs page was, “What do you want to know about #Pinterest, #Twitter, and hashtags?” I used hashtags because I have my two accounts linked, so what I post on Facebook automatically gets posted on Twitter. You can find more information about linking accounts on this Facebook page.

Another way you will see hashtags used on Facebook are when people are using the hashtag to convey some sort of emotion, irony, exasperation, or some general personality. It is used to emphasize that you might be saying something breathlessly or quietly, or even something that you might be yelling. For example, last week when I was unable to work because my computer was broken, my status update was, “Computer in the shop=extended vacation! #getbacktowork!”

The Do’s and Don’ts of Hashtagging

Of course there are rules and ettiquite associated with the use of hashtags. They are all pretty common-sense rules that apply across the social media world, which is basically don’t spam people and be relevant.

DO use hashtags anywhere in your tweet or status update.
Do NOT use more than two hashtags in a single tweet/post – if you do, you will look like a spammer.
DO hashtag relevant keywords only. Do NOT hashtag words just to get attention and drive traffic to your site. Again, with the spam.
Do NOT hashtag the same thing over and over just to get attention. Only do this if you have something relevant to add to the conversation, which should be evident in the rest of your tweet.

Common Hashtags for Freelancers and Bloggers:

Common hashtags for freelancers, writers, and bloggers who would like to showcase their work, are looking for work, or who are interested in networking include #amwriting, #amediting, #job, #watercoolermoment, #jelly, #blogging, #bloggintips, and #wordpress. Obviously, this is a very short list, but hopefully enough to get you started.

Other Resources:

For another interesting article on hashtagging, go see my friend MJ Monaghan. Also, see Twitter for more information on hashtags and trending topics.

Comin’ Up:

Come back next week so you can learn how to use hashtags on Pinterest, Instagram, and in your blog titles!

Do you have questions about using hashtags on Twitter and Facebook? Is there information you would like me to include in the next part of this series?

Laine blogs , podcasts, and creates WordPress customizations

Lessons Learned: Even the Pros Can Get Scammed

Virginia DeBolt — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:02:53 +0000

Aliza Sherman is a pro on the web and knows how to spot a scam when she sees one. Except she fell for one. Here's her cautionary tale. She writes,

I must preface this explanation of an online scam by saying this: I’ve been online since 1987, and until yesterday, I had never fallen for an online scam. I’m mentioning this because any of us can fall prey to the constantly evolving methods of online scamming that occur, even those of us with decades of Internet experience and those of us who are in the business of helping others avoid online scams.

The Scam Truck by jepoirrier via Flickr

Publishing Your Blog to Kindle

Melissa Ford — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:57 +0000

[Editors' Note: Some people like reading blogs via Google Reader or jumping straight to the site, but others like to subscribe to blogs via their Kindle not only for the ease of reading (blogs become then like online magazines) but because they want to support the writer. Think of it as 99 cents in the tip jar. Dishwater Dreams walks blog writers through the basic steps of publishing their blog to Kindle via Amazon. --Mel]

With all the new technology out there comes new ways to get your blog into the hands of people who will read it. One way to get your blog to reach further is to make it available on Amazon Kindle by using Kindle Publishing for Blogs.

Do you publish your blog via Kindle? Are you moved to do so now that you have instructions?

Photo Credit: Kodomut via Flickr.

Tech

FDA Regulations May Derail Health Apps

Sexism, Gender Equality, and Dish Detergent

Read more from Sexism in technology and dish detergent at Pancake Theorem

Howard Rheingold's New Book: Net Smart

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Toys 'R Us Finds a Great Use for QR Codes

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Tips for Your About Page and for SEO

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My Blog Got Stolen... And This is How I Got it Back

A Guide to Twitter for non-Tweeters

#Hashtags Part 1: Twitter and Facebook

Lessons Learned: Even the Pros Can Get Scammed

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Publishing Your Blog to Kindle

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