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Kirtsy.com is the brain-child of Gabrielle Blair, Laura Mayes, Laurie Smithwick, and Gwen Bell. The idea behind Kirtsy is to be the female version of Digg.com. It’s a place where we can go to see the latest stories on what we’re interested in. Kirtsy has several categories to fit your needs:
- Arts & Entertainment
- Design & Crafts
- Family & Parenting
- Fashion & Style
- Food & Home
- Internet & Technology
- Mind, Body & Spirit
- Travel & Leisure
- Politics, World & Business
In addition to the founding women, Kirtsy has 22 editors (editors don't actually "edit" stories, they just help find them).
This article is aimed at helping you start using Kirtsy and submitting your own stories.
Join Kirtsy--they don’t share your info.
- Click on Join Kirtsy! at the top of the page.
- Register a username, email, and password.
- Click on Create User.
How Do I Use Kirtsy?
OK. I’ve registered. Now what?
There are several ways to use Kirtsy to find the up-and-coming stories on the internet.
Submit an Article
Step One
- Login.
- Click on the orange Submit a New Story tab (you’ll find it in the top left corner under the Kirtsy logo).
- Paste the URL of the news article you’re submitting. This should be the original URL, not a URL that points to your blog which points to the original story. What’s that you say? You want to know if you can submit your own stuff from your own blog? Heck yeah, you can!
Step Two
- Give the story you’re submitting a catchy title. It doesn’t even have to be the title of the story. It should just be something that’s interesting and describes what the article/story is about.
- Type in some relevant tags for the story (e.g., shopping, final sale). You’re limited to about 40 characters.
- Write a short description of the story you’re submitting. What you write in the Description box (not character limited) automatically copies itself into the Summary box (limited to 250 characters). However, you can write a longer Description, then edit for a shorter Summary.
Note: The Description can be as long or as short as you like. When people click the Discuss link under the title, they’ll be taken to the story’s page. The story’s page (not the website where the story resides) shows a link to the story and your description.
The Summary is limited to 250 characters and is the description that will show beneath your story’s title if it makes it to the front page.
- Choose a category for your story. Although you have the option to submit your story to All Categories, you’ll receive an error if you do. Choose one category and go with it. (Yes, this is on the list of things to fix. Wouldn’t we all like to have more time?)
- Unless you understand Trackbacks, don’t worry about this. (And? People say they understand Trackbacks, but they rarely do. So don’t worry if it’s foreign to you. Again, this is one of those things that will disappear eventually when we have that 36 hour day we’ve all been talking about.)
- Click Preview and Submit.
Step Three
- Review your submission.
- Click Modify if you need to edit something; choose Submit if you’re ready to go.
How Do I Find What I’m Looking For?
You mean good content? Well, since Kirtsy is THE place for internet buzz, I’m betting you won’t have any trouble finding something interesting. But, if you’re like me and you’re easily distracted by shiny things, you might try one of these three options:
- Use Kirtsy’s topic/category links to find stories related to a specific niche. (Each category is a link on the brown navigation bar immediately under the Kirtsy logo.)
- See what’s up-and-coming in the (wait for it) Up-and-Coming tab. (It’s green and right beside the orange Submit a Story button. Look for it in the upper left corner under the Kirtsy logo.)
- Use the search function. (Located in the upper right corner.)
- Discuss the article: Click this option if you have something to say about the article. You’ll be taken to a page that lists the title of the article, then number of votes it has, and under that, an place to post your comment. Type your comment in the field and click Submit Comment. Easy peasy.
- Share This: This feature is pretty common on the web these days. Clicking this option brings up a floater box that allows you to share an article via email, AIM, SMS, or MySpace. If you click the Social Web tab in the floater box, you can add the article to a myriad of other social media sites (including, but not limited to Facebook, del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg,
