BlogRolling - What else is out there?

Blogrolling: (noun) The section of a weblog that lists the sites that the blogger reads on a regular basis. A blogroll is usually displayed on the side of the blog.

As I'm expanding my knowledge of the blogging community I have come across a lot of great services that a content provider like myself can offer to you my readers. Blogrolling is another service I will be 'rolling' out on this site very shortly. Essentially, blogrolling allows you to see what I read on a regular basis. I have found other peoples blogrolls to be very helpful in finding information because they link to sites I never knew about.

I first read about blogrolling at CommonCraft.com, here is a direct link to the post. While blogrolling is often used as a term, it is in fact a brand created by Jason DeFillippo to allow bloggers to easily add links to their blogroll. You can check out the BlogRolling service or sign up for your own account. Essentially, blogrolls are express connections between blogs. The sites I put on my blogroll are ones I find interesting and that I think my readers should check out. Additionally, putting a blog on my roll says to that writer that I think they have a good site and I want my readers to have access to it. This is how blogs stay connected and everyone benefits from educating themselves about what else it out there.

The origin of the term blogrolling can be traced back to the American political term 'logrolling', for supporting another's pet bill in the legislature in exchange for reciprocal support. While there is no guarantee of reciprocity in blogrolling, when you link to another blog they will see your readers and should reciprocate.

There are some essential questions to ask when considering who you want to blogroll:

• What are you interested in?
• What do you write about, what is your niche?
• Who is your target audience?
• What are the interests of your readers?

Above all remember that this is your personal opinion and there is no right or wrong answer. There can be some drawbacks to maintaining a blogroll such as losing potential readers to other sites. But, these are generally outweighed by the additional readers that are brought to you from other sites. Ultimately as a blogger your goal is to inform your reader on whatever topic you can and leading them to other sites can help accomplish this goal. As long as you continue to write good articles on important topics you will always have readers.

Let me know what you think about blogrolling and how it has affected you. Check out my BlogRoll on the right column for some of the sites I read regularly. Thanks for reading!

Share, Store, and Track your favorites

Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Reddit, and more services everyday are opening up to allow interent uses to store, share, and track articles, blogs, and sites they find interesting.

If you taken a look at my site lately you can see that I have added a toolbar of links to the bottom of each post to allow my readers to track articles that they find interesting. There is a lot of confusion about these different services so I'll make it a little simpler:

Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Technorati

All of these websites provide bookmarking services which make it easy for you to keep track of links you need or find interesting. Being a computer technician I find myself researching things on the internet very often and it is very difficult to keep track of these using traditional bookmarks in your browser. In addition, I'm not always at my computer where I want to access articles so I need them to be mobile, these services are great at this. I first read about these bookmarking services a year ago and since then have been a big fan of Technorati and Del.icio.us.

To learn more about Del.icio.us go here, and to learn the different ways to use the service go here. Ironically, all of the blog tracking and bookmarking services all have their own blog and this is the link to the Del.icio.us blog.

To learn more about Technorati go here, and to learn about how to use Technorati check this link out. This is the link to the Technorati blog.

Digg is a great service where people can see popular articles and websites on technology news. More information on Digg can be found here. Amazingly enough, digg also has a blog that posts the most recent changes to digg.

The last of the four bookmarking services that I have added to every post is Reddit, "a source for what's new and popular on the internet". For more information on Reddit take a look at this link and go here for Reddit's development blog.

These services are the most popular services I have discovered on the web but that's the great thing about the internet; there is always something new. If you've got a service that I haven't covered make sure to let me know.

My question(s) to you:

• What bookmarking service do you think is the next best thing?
• What internet service in general do you think is better than sliced bread?
• Personally I couldn't live without my Gmail/Google Calendar account, its got my whole life in it.
  

Now posting at writingUp.com

So I'm new to the Blogging world and am finding new things each day. My biggest concern is getting people to see and read what I have to say otherwise this whole venture is for naught. A great blog I have discovered is Phil Windley's Technometria. As Phil Windley describes it, " Technometria is my attempt to make sense of the technology that interests me through exploration, analysis, and, hopefully, reason". This is a great resource for information and Phil is a great writer and his articles are written for the general public.

One article of Phil's that particularly caught my eye was How to start a blog, a introduction to blogging. This article was a great resource for me, a new blogger, and should be helpful for you guys who are interested in blogging. WritingUp.com is one service mentioned by Phil where users can post their articles to a community of readers. Instead of having your own blog, writingUp makes your blog as a sub-blog of the whole site which makes articles written by beginners like myself accessible to a bigger audience. To see the articles I have posted to my writingUp blog use the following link.

I want to send a warm welcome all of the writingUp.com members who venture to this blog and I encourage you to leave comments and suggestions for me here as I continue to grow this company and blog in Central New York. Also, let me know if you use other services or are members of other "blogging" communities that have helped you grow your blog's popularity.

Technical Advice and Tips (Coming Soon)

In an effort to better serve our customers we will soon be publishing articles on how to fix the simple problems you might be having with your computer or peripherals. Our purpose is to educate our customers with the knowledge to fix and enhance their digital devices and this is just another avenue to accomplish that.

If you've got a computer problem that you can't seem to solve shoot us an email and we'll feature it in out Technical Advice column. As always, we appreciate your comments, suggestions, and criticism.

Advertising

In an effort to spread the word about FixGadgets we have begun an advertising campaign in Ithaca. First we've started by posting messages to online community boards and classifieds sites and such as Craigslist, Postaroo, Windows Live (Beta), and the Ithaca Times. Let us know if you have come across this adverts, we're trying to determine if they are effective in reaching the public. Next, we're going to be placing print ads as well as distributing flyers and brochures to business. Stay tuned!

Remember, we guarantee all of our services and charge a flat rate, which means you won't have to use a super-computer to calculate how much we cost.

Service Call

Welcome to Service Call where you can submit your problem for fast resolution by FixGadgets. Give us your information and describe your problem and we will expedite your request to an available technician. If you encounter any problems with this service, please report them to FixGadgets@gmail.com.

Begin Service Call

Rates

Our philosophy is that everyone likes to know what they are being charged for, but it seems more often than not that computer technicians are not straightforward about their rates. To simplify this and end any confusion we charge one flat rate to all of our customers for any service we perform. Now I know what you're thinking, "This flat rate is going to flat line me!". I can assure you that our rates are the best around and if you can find a computer service/support company that charges less than we do, we will match their rate no questions asked.

Our flat rate is ...

$30 per hour

Match our great rate with the fact that we guarantee all work we perform. We will not charge you if we can't fix your problem. We are here to service you and we want to ensure that you have a great experience with our employees. If you have any problems or complaints about us we definitely want to hear them. We promise that we will do our best to resolve whatever problem you might be having and in the interim we won't place you on hold and force you to listen to horrible music while you wait.

Contact Us

FixGadgets is a computer support/service company that operates round the clock because so does your business. We can be reached any time of the day via phone (631.680.7844) or email (fixgadgets@gmail.com). If you're not sure if we service your area, give us a call and we'll let you know.

phone: 631.680.7844
email: fixgadgets@gmail.com
web: fixgadgets.blogspot.com

About Us

Hi, my name is Evan Spiegel and I am the owner and head technician of FixGadgets, a computer service company located in Ithaca, NY. While our company is new to the Central New York Area, we have been in the technical support business for 10 years and have helped many families and business throughout Long Island, NY. I have recently relocated to Central New York to get my Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. While I've had to say goodbye to my customers on Long Island, I hope to meet many new people in Ithaca who I can help.

First a brief introduction to the company: FixGadgets can trace its origin back to the summer of '96 when I began to help family and friends with their computer problems. I began to get referrals to other clients and the business has grown from there. I quickly developed a reputation as a problem solver and the spread of the internet increased the demand for computer technicians. I became so overwhelmed with service jobs I wasn't able to fulfill the demand myself, so I formed FixGadgets to hire computer technicians and match them with clients with computer problems. The difference between us and the competition is that we have always been a local computer support company because supporting the businesses and families in our area helps the community grow and develop. Our goal as a business is to help you seamlessly interact with your electronic gadgets (computers, internet, cameras, music players, and camcorders).

While we have moved the business to Central New York, our goals and motivation haven't changed. The only thing that has changed is our customers. We hope that we can help as many people, if not more, in Ithaca and surrounding cities as we have in past. If you have a technical problem or question we can be reached any time of the day via phone (631.680.7844) or email (fixgadgets@gmail.com). Our quick response will ensure that you will get the service you need.

For more information about FixGadgets use the following links:

• Welcome: link
  
• Rates: link
  
• Contact Us: link
• Service Call: link

Welcome

FixGadgets is a computer service company located in Ithaca, NY and servicing the greater Central New York area. Our mission is to solve your computer problems, educate you about technology, and allow you to seamlessly interact with your digital appliances.

FixGadgets technicians provide emergency service to your home or office computers and networks when you need your problem fixed fast and correctly. We can be reached by phone (631.680.7844) or email at any time of the day.

We provide the following services:

• one-on-one training
• setup home/office networks
• secure networks
• protect and back up important data
• fix computer problems
• repair hard drives
• setup and troubleshoot printers
• remove spyware and viruses
• setup spyware and virus protection
• perform system checkups and maintenance
• and much more ...

Why pick us?
Unlike other computer technicians and companies we stand behind our work 100% and will do whatever it takes to get your computer setup running the right way because that'’s what you're paying for. If we can't fix your problem, you won't have to pay. But that's not likely since we have over 10 years of technical problem solving experience.

We are a local business run by local technicians who are proud of the service they provide. We are not a large national chain or an overseas phone support company. Our interest is in the computer problems of residents and business in Ithaca and surrounding towns of Central New York.

Convenient appointments - we know that computers are important to you and your business so we schedule appointments that are convenient for you. We hate waiting all day for the cable guy to setup our TV, so we set appointments for a real time and not a time window.

To setup an appointment with us today, call 1 631 680 7844 or send an email to fixgadgets@gmail.com. We look forward to fixing your problems.