TastyStartup

I run a team of developers, bloggers and designers for Task.fm.  They are based all over the world, from Switzerland right across to Australia.  We all work different hours and are doing 10 things at once.

So communicating on email is starting to get hetic.  One of the tools im trying to get the team to use is Present.ly.  This could effectivly replace a big chunk of our email.

Present.ly is like a private twitter for just your company, team or group.  Users can post updates, reply and dm other users.

So why would a startup like Task.fm need this app – from my perspective, knowing what the team is currently working on is vital.  Previously, getting this info involved me sending daily emails asking for a progress update.  Now I can just login to Present.ly and get a good overview of whats going on.

You can also attach files (great for design work), create groups of users and it even integrates with Twitter.

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btw – if you havent already done so, make sure you check out the smartest reminders on the planet – Task.fm

Next time your building an app or coding a wordpress theme, think about including this Timestamp solution from Timeago.

Timestamps like “4 minutes ago” are common on social networking sites and apps that have comments.  But these timestamps could come in handy in a whole range of applications.

Timeago is a jquery plugin that will automatically update a timestamp without having to reload the page.

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So you’ve tried all the usual ways to get Twitter Followers and even the more dodgy methods, but you still can’t get any followers!  Well you could try buying em.

Featured Users is a Twitter advertising network that you can use to give your profile more exposure and hopefully pick up new followers along the way.

You purchase banner impressions which will be displayed on various web based Twitter apps.  The banner is generated automatically and inlcudes your avatar, username and your Twitter bio.

Does it Work

We decided to put our money where our mouth is and purchase 1000 impressions for $10 ( i know not much to test with but the results should explain why we didn’t want to spend lots).  The result was 15 click-throughs on our banner which, due to the nature of the tracking, we have no idea if these resulted in any actual follows.

The best case scenario would be 15 new followers which certainly wouldn’t be worth $10.

They need to do some tweaking of the banner design and probably switch to a pay-per-click model

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TwitRank will give you a score or rank out of 10 for your Twitter profile.

Where actually not sure how it calculates the score (my profile got a 5/10), but what we do know is there are plenty of other tools which do the same thing but much better.

What is good about TwitRank.me is the sites design, which one would simply describe as “pretty”.

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I run a number of webesites that need a mailing list and a regular email newsletter sent out.    I use iContact – mainly because its so affordable with pricing starting at just $9.95.

The interface is extremely easy to use and of course its feature rich with a built in autoresponder and survey tool.  iContact handles all of the subscriber issues such as unsubscribes and email bounces which keeps your list free of dud contacts.  Clicks and opens are also tracked to give you very good idea of how well your campaign is performing.

You will also get access to over 300 professionally designed templates, although you can do what I did, and use your own design.  You can also create custom subscription boxes that can be easily embedded on your sites.

Bloggers, you can also import your rss feed to have it delivered to your email list.

Of course, you will find pretty much all of these features in other similar products.  What won my business was simply that its cheaper.  Being able to send out emails at a cheaper rate means my campaigns will be more profitable.

Check it out, and as always leave a comment and tell us what you think.

There are plenty of screen capture tools available – but all of them that I’ve seen have been desktop based.  ScreenCastle has created a very slick and browser based screen capture tool.

Built using Java, ScreenCastly really does provide 1 click recording.  Simply click hte big red button and the java applet will launch allowing you to select the area of screen you wish to record.  No registration is required.

The end result, in my tests, wasn’t as smooth as what you get from a desktop based solution, but it was certainly very decent.

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p.s follow us on Twitter

WeFollow is a Twitter directory cretaed by Digg founder Kevin Rose

This isn’t the first directory of Twitter users, in fact there have been a swarm of directories before it.  But,  we dig the simple and effctive way WeFollow uses to add Tweeps to its directory.

Instead of having to fill out a form on the actual directory site, like others, WeFollow allows you to Tweet it with the 3 cateogires you would like to be placed in.

This means its super easy to add yourself to the directory, and furthermore this creates a viral effect, pushing the directory into others streams.

One flaw in the system is that the entire directory is geared towards popular Tweeps, which in a sense may also be a bonus (for seeking out the twitterati).  If you only have a handful of followers, your profile in the directory will be buried on page xxx.

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Thanks to everyone who entered our UPrinting giveaway.  Here are the winners:

Canvas Print – Crystal McNutt
Business Cards – melanie

You will be receiving an email from UPrinting soon with details on claiming your prize.

P.S – We’re now giving away GoDaddy Giftcards everyday on our Twitter account.  Simply Twitter us with your favorite web apps to win!

FeedWeaver will combine multiple RSS feeds into one.  Plus you can use keyword filters to get rid of the stuff that doesn’t interest you.

Feedweaver isn’t unique, we have come across simlar services, but we dig the design and simplicity.

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p.s – Make sure you enter our Business card Giveaway by commenting on this post

Tweet O’Clock is a simple application that will tell you what the best day and time of day to tweet someone.

Simply enter the users Twitter username on the site and it will calculate the best time based on the time day the user tweets most.

p.s 10pm on a Wednesday probably isn’t the best time to Tweet me!

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