With Voxini, you get to create a mobile landing page that displays links to all of your social profiles. Plus, it also includes four useful tabs: Call Me, Write Me, About Me, Send Me. If you add your phone number and email to Voxini, others will be able to call and email you without needing to know your actual information. About Me is pretty self explanatory – write a little something about yourself. Send Me lets people share your Voxini profile with others via text message.

So now that you get the general idea of Voxini, lets go through the process of setting an actual profile.

Edit Your Social Channels

Upon signing up you’ll need to connect all of your social accounts. As always, this is a process that could be pretty quick or pretty long depending on how many social accounts you need to add. For each site, you’ll see a explanation and an example of what you should be entering in the text box.

Unfortunately, you’re limited to just one account for each service. So you won’t be able to add multiple websites, Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, etc.

However, I do like that you can see how your mobile landing page will look as you’re adding your accounts. You’ll see a mobile device on the right site of the page that automatically updates each time you add a new account.

As you probably already guessed, this is not a static image, it’s very much dynamic. You can click on each social profile button to see just how your landing page will work when others interact with it. This is also a great way to test each button and make sure that it goes to the proper page.

Upload an Image

The next step is to upload an image. This is not required though and you will be able to skip it. If you prefer not to have a picture, then only your name will be displayed (as pictured above).

Personally, I feel that a picture should be required. As they say, ‘”a picture is worth 1,000 words”. Also, pictures are very important for any brand or individual looking to make a name themselves and want be taken seriously.

Update Your Profile

Lastly you’ll need to edit your actual profile. This is where you can enter basic information like your name, address, and short bio. As mentioned above, the information you enter in the “About Me” section will be displayed in the “About Me” tab on your landing page. So it’s pretty important to have at least a little something here. Also, keep in mind that your address will not be displayed publicly.

Get Your QR Code

After the final step you’ll get your own Voxini URL to share with the world along with your very own QR code. Just to test it out, I scanned the QR code with my iPad, and my Voxini profile does indeed come up. You can try scanning the code below to see for yourself (you’ll need a QR code scanning app for your device).

This is definitely a creative way of sharing your social profiles; almost everyone has a URL of some sort to share, but what about a QR code? You don’t see that being used too often. Voxini will give the code in jpg and png format so that you can download them to share on your website, blog, or anywhere else.

View Your Stats

Voxini also provides you with stats regarding your pageviews, scans, visits, and browser version of visitors. Right now it’s in a pretty basic format, but “more comprehensive reporting” is coming soon.

I can confidently say that I’ll be sharing my Voxini QR code on my blogs and using it for networking purposes.

How about you? How do you plan to use Voxini?

So if you’re still suffering from social overload or just looking to make your life easier, FanMix is worth giving a try. It will help you keep up with all mentions of you or your company/brand (depending on how you decide to use it).

Let’s take a look at how FanMix can help the not-so-average social user.

Connect Your Accounts

Upon logging in you’re prompted to connect your social accounts: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. For now you can only add one account for each service. Once you click on the “Connect” button (when done) it will take quite some time to pull in all of your conversations.

It’s important to note here that this step takes pretty long – we’re talking 20-30 minutes here. So this is a great time to grab a cup of coffee or do a little reading or browsing.

Inbox View

Once all of your conversations have been pulled into FanMix, you’ll see that it’s almost as if you’re looking at your email inbox!

The default view is the Priority Inbox. Here you can see important messages, starred messages, and then everything else is below that. Each message can be starred and/or flagged as important. You’ll see that some messages are already automatically flagged as important, although I’m not sure how this is determined.

You can go through the different inbox views to see which works best for you. Besides priority inbox, there’s also: inbox, important, starred, sent messages, archive, and contacts (which is not an inbox, but a place to save and view contacts).

There is also a search box at the top of the inbox so that you can search through all of your messages. You can search for a contact name or a word within a message.

Reading and Responding

Clicking on a message will open it up just like an email; if there is an image in the message, it will be displayed here as well. What’s nice about this is that you’ll be able to write a reply to that message right from within FanMix. Once other sources are implemented here, this is going to be an excellent tool for responding back to messages all over the Web and will be a huge time-saver!

No need to insert that @username that you’re replying to on Twitter, it is automatically inserted for you. When you add a reply, it will display right below the message you’re replying to. So this is also a great way to view conversations on Twitter in a thread-like manner. You will also get Direct Messages here too and will be able to respond back.

Once messages have been read (or marked as read), you can archive them; there’s no delete/trash option. Also, clicking on your contacts name in a message will take you to their social profile (depending on which account the message is from).

Sending Messages

If you would like to post a status update to any of your accounts, just click on the big “Compose” button in the top left corner of your inbox.

You can only post to one account at a time, by clicking on the desired avatar image for that social account. Twitter, of course, has the 140 character limit, but Facebook and LinkedIn do not have any limitations.

Final Thoughts

I’m definitely a fan of FanMix and I’m finding it extremely useful. If only I could read my regular email here, it could serve as my one main tool for responding to ALL messages. Regardless, I can see myself keeping this open in a browser tab so that I can quickly respond back to all of my messages on Facebook and Twitter. I can’t wait to see how the service improves and what new sources are added to the mix.

Note: FanMix is currently in private inbox and an invitation is needed to get started.

What about you? What do you think about FanMix and will you use it?

With each new authorized changed, SnatchCode creates a new snapshot of your website. Depending on which plan you choose this will be done on a daily or hourly basis. You’ll be able to download these snapshots if needed, in order to restore your website to a previous version. For all unauthorized changes, you’ll be notified immediately via email.

SnatchCode also uses a 256-bit encryption for all communications and “all data processing is performed on servers isolated from direct access to the Internet”. With each new scan, SnatchCode is said to get smarter and better at protecting your website.

Getting Started

First you’ll need to register with an email address, password, name and phone number. Your email address will also be your username.

Adding a Website

Next you’ll be able to add your website. As long as you have FTP access, your website platform is supported; so yes, it will also work with self-hosted blogs.

You’ll need to enter your username, password, hostname (ftp.yoursite.com or IP address), and port (usually 21 for FTP). Since this is sensitive data that you’re entering, the page where you enter this information is encrypted for your security.

Backing Up Your Website

Once your website has been added, all you have to do is click on the “Backup Now” button and you’re all done. SnatchCode will begin with the monitoring and automatic backups. Backups typically take around 48-72 hours, but this also depends on the size your website; larger websites could take days to complete. You’ll be notified via email when the backup is done and/or if any issues are found.

Backing Up Your MySQL Database

SnatchCode also has a database backup feature, which is currently in beta.

It works the same way as backing up your website except you need to enter your MYSQL username, password, database URL or IP, and database/schema name.

Other Features

If you ever wish to undo changes to your website, you’ll first need to upgrade to a Plus, Pro, or Enterprise account. The option will then be enabled on your dashboard. This is a nice feature because if you happen to change something on your website and totally mess it up, you can simply go back to a previous version before you made that change.

As mentioned above, you can also download your backups to your computer for further safe keeping.

Pricing

• Free: Comes with a storage limit of 250MB for 1 site; backup is done automatically on a daily basis.
• Plus: Comes with a 750MB storage limit for an unlimited number of sites; backup is done automatically on an hourly basis.
• Pro: Comes with 30GB of storage for an unlimited number of sites; backup is done automatically on an hourly basis.
• Enterprise: Comes with an unlimited amount of storage for an unlimited number of sites; backup is done automatically on an hourly basis.

Benefits

If you’re a WordPress user, using a backup plugin doesn’t always make sense. There are some plugins that will save your backups to Dropbox or another secure server, but most will only backup to your own server. So if your server happens to crash, you’re still in trouble because your backup was on that same server and it will be lost as well.

With SnatchCode, your backup is saved on their server so there’s no worries about losing your backups.

Will you use SnatchCode?

One way to get these links is to use the service offered by SEO Link Wheelers. While you could submit your own site to a huge range of directories, having seemingly “organic” backlinks holds much more weight in the eyes of Google, Bing, and other search engines.

What Are Your Target Keywords?

Before you even consider going out to hunt backlinks to your site, you want to know what keywords you want to target. Random anchor text from random sites don’t hold nearly as much value as having targeted anchor text from targeted sites.

And that’s the first step in using SEO Link Wheelers. When you go to the main homepage for this SEO service, you’ll see the abiliyt to enter your website near the top. In doing so, you’ll be offer a short site analysis.

Site Analysis Reveals Current Opportunities

This analysis tells you what keywords you are already ranking for, giving you a better idea of what you should target. However, the keywords where you already rank may not necessarily be the ones you want to target.

For the purpose of this example, I retrieved the free site analysis for DotComPho.com. Ideally, I’d want this site to rank for terms like “Vancouver entrepreneurs” and “make money online.”

As you can see, those are not the keywords where DotComPho.com is currently ranking. In any case, you can see the current position for the keywords, the traffic percentage, and the estimated CPC to buy one visitor to your site for that term.

Link pages from SEO Link Wheelers range from $379 to $664.

Where Are These Purchased Links?

That depends on which package you purchase. All of the pricing plans, however, give you a decent mix of links from a variety of sites.

SEO Link Wheelers says that it works with you to build links. These links come by way of micro-sites that are built based on your target keywords, blog posts in the SEOLW network, article directories, and free web 2.0 sites.

The idea is that they create link wheels that link to one another, passing along that SEO juice that they all need to pass on the SEO power onto you. With SEO Link Wheelers, you get bulk discounts, 100% unique content, and a fast turnaround.

It’s not entirely clear just how effective these link wheels are and whether Google will eventually detect (and crack down on) them, but you have to remember that these links will all look natural and organic to Google. After all, they really are natural and organic; you just happened to pay for it.

Shelfster is easy to use and includes a project-based search so that you can search through your projects for specific items and data that you collect. New items need 15 minutes to be indexed before appearing in search results, so keep this in mind.

Getting Started

You can get started with Shelfster by trying out the demo or creating a free account. Sign up is quick and easy; you only need an email, username, and password to get started. There are some limitations to the demo, so you won’t be able to try out the tool in detail, but it is still a great way to see what Shelfster has to offer.

Create Projects to Organize Your Data

Once you create your account, the next step is to create projects so that you have folders to store your data in whenever you grab it from the Web, your computer, or mobile device. Since the left column of Shelfster will be empty when you first start, all you’ll see is the “+ New Project ” link below the search bar. Clicking on this is much like creating a collection in Google Docs: all that is needed is a name for your project/folder and you’re done.

After creating projects, the next step is to grab content to be used for your projects and with your online account.

Choose Your Preferred Capture Method

Shelfster has quite a few methods that you can use for capturing content to send to your online account. Let’s take a look at them.

Mobile Tools

Currently, Shelfster only has free mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad. With the apps you can gather and organize information that you capture on your device, such as images (capture new or use existing), voice notes (record within app), and articles (written within app). You can add a title, tags, and annotations to your items and then save them into projects to be synced to your Shelfster account. You can also choose to only uploaded images and audio on WiFi only.

The mobile app is great for because you can gather data while on-the-go. You can use your camera to capture a moment, record a voice note if you come up with an idea that you don’t want to forget, or write-up a quick article if you happen to get some inspiration while in a waiting room or long store line.

Desktop Tools

Whether you’re on Windows (direct download) or a Mac (direct download), there is a desktop tool available for capturing content. With both tools you can capture snippets from the Web (much like Evernote) or documents on your computer.

Just like the mobile apps, you can add titles, tags, and annotations to your clips and save items to specific projects (created online).

Browser Tools

If you prefer to clip content from your browser, you can install the Chrome Extension (direct download), Firefox Add-on (direct download), or use the bookmarklet. The browser tools allow you to clip text, images, and Web pages as well as jot down text notes.

If you don’t like having too many plugins installed on your browser, the bookmarklet works just as well and does the same exact thing as the plugins — it’s also my preferred method.

Putting It All Together

Now that you’ve got your projects set up and chosen your desired tool for capturing content, it’s time to get to work in the editor. The editor has 2 columns: all of your projects and content will appear on the left side. You can hide the left column using the small arrow if you’d like to focus more on the writing and less on the data you’ve collected.

Shelfster online is much like Google Docs; it’s your basic rich text editor with options to format and align your text, insert bulleted and number lists, indent text, etc.

You’ll need to create a new document before you can start doing anything. When you create a document, you’ll also have the option of selecting a specific project to add it to.

Once you have some data and notes added, you can click on the title of your items in the left hand column to open a full preview. From there you can drag-and-drop images into the editor and also select text to copy it to the editor. So it’s very easy to work with your collected data, plus it’s convenient to have everything in one place — no need for multiple tabs or windows.

Exporting and Downloading

Shelfster also lets you download and/or export your documents. You can download as HTML (in a zipped file) or as a PDF file. Alternately, you can also export to Google Docs. While this is a great feature to have, there are some drawbacks.

The main issue is “formatting is partially lost when exporting a document into Google Docs”. However, this is easily remedied by going into the line spacing options in Google Docs and selecting ‘add space before paragraph’ or ‘ad space after paragraph’ option.

Shelfster is definitely a great companion or alternative to Google Docs. All it really needs is the ability to share documents and collaborate with others to be the total package. With all of the above-mentioned features and more coming soon, Shelfster is sure to become a popular tool every type of writer.

Do you agree? What are your thoughts on Shelfster?

Spool is much like Read it Later and Instapaper because it lets you save items to view later or even offline via your mobile device. It is also like the service Readability because it removes all the junk and unnecessary elements from your articles, so that you have a nice clean format that lets you focus on reading. Spool does give you the option to view items in their original form, but it’s so much nicer with a Readability-like view.

Saving Content

So how do you add content to Spool? Well, there are quite a few ways. You can use your “personal Spoolbot email” to send items via your email account, use the mobile app, or install the Chrome extension. Items can be added via the website as well, which is also the place where you can archive or delete read items and add items to favorites.

The Favorites and Archive feature comes in handy because on both the website and mobile app, you’ll have a folders for each which gives you quick access. Unfortunately, you also have to use either the website or mobile app to favorite or archive items, because it’s not an option when using the extension.

Social Integration

Once you install the Chrome extension, you’ll notice a very useful addition to some of your social networking hangouts. When you go to Twitter, Facebook, Quora, Techmeme, Google Reader, Google Plus, Google News, you’ll see a small Spool icon next to each item/post. Clicking on this icon will let you save items to your account and share with specific Facebook friends (optional).

Facebook Sharing

As mentioned above, when you add something to your Spool you can choose to share it to your friends’ Spools via Facebook. Once you connect your Facebook account, you’ll be able to search for friends that you want to share with and then send it to their Facebook pages. It’s pretty simple and you also have the option of making the item viewable (or not) to their friends.

Dropbox Integration

Additionally, Spool lets you connect to your Dropbox account. This makes for easy sharing of items; you’ll be able to manually take items from Dropbox and send to Spool. To do this, simply copy the desired file(s) over to the queue folder by navigating to Dropbox > Apps > Spool > queue.

Mobile App

Spool is available for mobile devices — both Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad). You can use the app to view your saved videos, images, pages, and articles — even when you’re offline. Items are automatically synced when on a WiFi connection. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a way to add items from your mobile device to Spool. Hopefully this feature is coming soon as it could be a very handy way of sharing images taken with your mobile device.

From the app, you can swipe left to right on each item to bring up options for downloading, sharing, deleting, and archiving (to free up space). The app lets you manually set the amount of space that you’d like to use for saving content so that it doesn’t use up too much or too little.

I do like the sharing functionality on the mobile app because it not only lets you share on Facebook, but also lets you send out a tweet.

Final Thoughts

There’s no doubt about it, Spool is definitely a very useful tool that lets you manage all of your Web content in style, but is it good enough to make user switch from Read it Later and/or Instapaper? Or maybe Spool is a tool that can be used in conjunctive with Read it Later and Instapaper? What do you think?

I do like all of the added benefits of using Spool such as flawless integration with Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, and Google products; the mobile app is a huge plus too because I can see my saved content while on-the-go. As a matter of fact, the only huge downside I can find is that you currently need an invite to use the service (it’s currently in closed beta). So be sure to add your email address to their invite list before installing the Chrome extension or getting the mobile app because you won’t be able to sign up or sign in!

Let’s see what Flup has to offer.

Getting Started

To get started, you can sign up by using your Facebook account or creating an actual account on the site. Then you’ll need to import your contacts from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Google. This is pretty simple.

Viewing Contacts

Flup lets you see all of your contacts in alphabetical order – each letter on a new page. You can also filter your contacts by tag. Your contacts will already have tags attached to them, but you can edit these (see below for more info). In your list of contacts you can see icons representing links to social profiles, email addresses (though most aren’t displayed), and a description (if they have one).

There is a star next to each contact, but clicking on this does not add them to your favorites. Any contact that you star will show under “follow-ups” as a reminder that you need to contact them in the near future. It’s also a great way to keep in touch with important contacts – just add a star next to the ones that you want to remember to contact regularly.

One issue I noticed here is that Flup seems to match up contacts with the same name and then combines them. For instance, I have a friend on Facebook named Adam Smith and a different friend on Twitter named Adam Smith, so Flup created only ONE Adam Smith it my contacts. It then added the Facebook profile and Twitter profile of both Adam’s to the one contact. So be sure to watch out for that as it could cause the wrong message to be sent to the wrong contact!

Contact Details

If you need to edit a contact’s details, just click on their name in your contact list. Here you can add a note, edit their personal and business details, and add/remove tags. Under personal, you can add a mobile number, address, social links and website. Under business, you can add a job title, company, address, and phone numbers.

If you need to remove a contact from your list, this is also where you can find that option.

Connect with Others

Flup also has a button that you can add to your website or blog. It allows you to connect with your visitors without having to make your email address or phone number public. The button will send them to your Flup profile, so that they can see your both your personal and business contact details. It’s up to you what is displayed here.

On the downside, when I tried to go to my own profile while signed out, it prompted me to either sign up or sign in. So it looks like your visitors may have to sign up just to see your information. While this is great for protecting your privacy (because your information won’t be public), your visitors may not be too thrilled with having to sign up for the service just to contact you. Just keep this in mind.

Flup also offers 50 free cards to all users (via Moo.com). It’s a pretty basic card that will include your photo, name and email address (optional) on once side and your Flup URL on the other. You can also customize the colors of your card. For a free service, this is definitely a great added bonus and makes it easy to connect with people in real-life - especially if you don’t have your own business cards.

So how does Flup stack up to the others? You be the judge!

Give Flup a try and let us know what you think.

What attracted me to SocialFolders was the ability to access and share your social content online from a single application. You can also upload, download, and manage your photos and documents right from your computer.

SocialFolders works much like Dropbox since it creates a special folder on your computer and lets you access your social photos and files right from there. You can then use Windows Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) to view your files and download them to your computer, or drag-and-drop them between different services.

You can use the menu bar icon to add new services, refresh your folders, and change your preferences. You’ll also see notifications when new files have been added to one of your folders.

Getting Started

Signing up for SocialFolders is easy and only takes a few seconds. You’ll then be taken through a short tour and directed to the website where you can connect your desired services. There are numerous services that can be connected to your SocialFolders account.

• Box
• Facebook
• Flickr
• Google Docs
• Instagram
• Photobucket
• Picasa
• SmugMug
• Twitter
• YouTube

With most of the abovementioned services, you can upload and download photos and files to/from that service and also copy those items to other services that you have connected.

Account Types

SocialFolders is free to use, but with limitations. You will only be able to have a maximum of 500 files in your account. Also, you can only add 3 out of the 10 available services. If you need to manage more files or want to add more services, you can upgrade to the Premium account. Don’t worry, it’s actually pretty affordable at $1.99/month or $9.99/year.

You can also earn more files and services by referring friends to SocialFolders.

Service Settings

For each service that you connect, you can manually select the albums that you want to connect or disconnect in settings. So all because you have 10 folders or 200 items in one service, doesn’t mean that you have to sync them all. This is a great feature since it helps you to stay within the free account quota of 500 or less files.

For some the limitations of SocialFolders might be a deal breaker, yet the low monthly/yearly fees make it worth the upgrade. It’s very convenient to have your files synced to your computer because you’ll have access to them at all times – even if you’re offline. Also, if you happen to delete a photo or file by accident, you can rest easy because there is a backup in SocialFolders.

What do you think of this service? Will you use it?

If you’re interested in using SocialFolders, there is a download available for both Windows and Mac systems.

Bonfire is a very simple extension that adds chat functionality to Twitter.com. As a matter of fact, it adds a small IM window to the bottom right corner of Twitter so that you can chat with your friends privately and conveniently. Bonfire does not post your conversations as tweets on your Twitter account, it simply lets you have private chats using your Twitter login.

Getting Started

It’s not hard to get started with Bonfire. First you’ll need to install the extension for your browser of choice. Bonfire currently supports Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Signing In

Since Bonfire only works on Twitter.com, you’ll need to visit the site to see it in action. You’ll notice a “Sign in” button at the bottom right corner of the screen. Clicking on this will sign you into Bonfire so that you can use the service.

Finding Friends

More than likely, when you first sign in you won’t have too many other friends using the extension. This is mainly because Bonfire is in early beta. That’s ok though because you can simply invite friends by sending out a tweet to let them know about it. You can use the button in the friend’s list window or use the convient link that Bonfire adds next to each person’s name in the Twitter timeline. You’ll now notice a link that says “invite to Bonfire” next to each persons’ username if they’re not already using the service.

Note: If they’re already using Bonfire, their online/offline status will show next to their username instead. There will be a green circle for those who are online along with a link that says “chat” and a gray circle for those offline (as seen in the friend’s list).

Chatting on Twitter

Once you do have a friend online, you can start chatting just like any other instant messaging or chat service.

Clicking on a contact will open a small chat window on the side of your friend’s list. Even if the person is offline, you can still leave a message and they’ll be able to see it once they sign back in to Bonfire.

Features

Just like a regular IM service, you can set your status to online or offline on Bonfire. Unfortunately, there aren’t any options such as away, busy, dnd, etc. Maybe these options are coming soon?

You can also turn chat alerts on or off.

That’s all there is to Bonfire. As you can see, it’s a really simple and easy-to-use tool, but can be pretty useful depending on the circumstance.

For instance, maybe you want to have a long conversation with a Twitter friend and find the process of tweeting back and forth a nuisance, Bonfire to the rescue! Also, you may want to have a private conversation that no one else can see and don’t want to DM back and forth, Bonfire is great for this too.

The only downside I can see to this service is that there is no record of your chat, so if you need to reference something that was said you won’t be able to – unless of course you jot it down somewhere else.

Thoughts on Bonfire for Twitter? Will you use it?

Getting Started

Since Hangout Canopy is simply a Google Chrome extension, it’s easy to get started. Just download the extension from the Chrome Web store and you’re all set.

Finding Google+ Hangouts

If you’re already signed into your Google account, you’ll see a number on the browser icon. This represents the number of Hangouts that are currently going on. Clicking on the icon will show you those public Hangouts in the ‘Stream’ section of the window.

Clicking on the arrow on the right side will slide open a window over the stream that lets you go to the Google+ profile of everyone in that Hangout. There is also a Join button that you can use if you want to immediately join the party.

Keep An Eye on Favorites

The ‘Watching’ section is a great addition to this extension because it allows you to add your favorite users who you ‘d most like to hangout with. You can then keep a closer eye on them and know right away whenever they decide to create or join a Hangout.

In order to add users to ‘Watching’ you’ll need to get their profile URL from Google+. Now you’ll never miss your buddies again!

Random Fun

Finally, there’s the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that you’ll probably recognize from Google search. If you just want to join a random Hangout, you can click on this button to so do. The Google+ Hangout will open up in a new tab and just maybe you’ll make some new friends!

Hangout Canopy also includes a list of the team members who are responsible for this tool along with the Twitter timeline for the Hangout Canopy Twitter account – if you’re interested in seeing what they’re up to. Donations area also welcome, but not required.

What do you think of Hangout Canopy?

Getting Started

For starters, Flockler is in private beta, so you will need an invite to get started.

Once you get access, you’ll get started by adding your magazine name, description, and email address. While the magazine name cannot be changed at any time, the description can. You’ll also be asked to add keywords for your magazine, which can also be changed later if needed.

Next you’ll get to choose a “preset color” and upload a magazine cover.

That’s it as far as customizations; next it’s on to adding content to your magazine via the editor.

Magazine Editor

In design mode you’ll see 6 blocks where you can add content. In order to add content to your magazine, you can search through tweets, news, videos, and images or add your own links. If you have something specific (like a web site or article) that you’d like to add, your best bet is to add it by link. You can search for any of the keywords that you added when you first created your magazine; additionally, you can add and remove keywords here if needed.

If you find something that you’d like to use, you can click on it to go to the actual source page. From there you can choose to add a title and your own opinion (or short description) and then add it to your issue. If you don’t like what you see, simply close it out and go to a new result.

After you add 6 different items, you’ll be able to publish your magazine. If you’d like to add more than 6, you’ll be given the option once you click on the “publish” button.

After Publishing

Once completed, your published issue can be shared all over the Web and directly from Flockler to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. You’ll also get your own custom URL for sharing and viewing.

Those who visit your magazine will be able to subscribe via email, that way they’ll be notified anytime you publish a new issue. If you’d like to see a completed issue, you can view my first issue here.

Final Thoughts

After trying out Flockler, I personally have no complaints about the service. While it’s pretty basic (as far as features), it seems to work well for this type of service and makes creating a magazine super easy.

I also like that when a magazine item is clicked, it shows within a frame of your magazine – along with your opinion or description that you added along with social sharing tools at the top of the page. Another great thing about Flockler is that you can create more than one magazine, so if you’re interested in publishing content on numerous topics you’re not limited to just one niche.

I’m definitely interested in seeing how Flockler progresses and I do see myself creating another issue in the near future.

What are your thoughts on Flockler?

You can check out Kevin’s review for a quick refresher, but today’s post is focused more on the new styles of SEO reports that the folks at Link-Assistant.com have devised. Many of their current members don’t even know about the new reports!

New in Rank Tracker

As you may recall, SEO PowerSuite is comprised of four sub-programs. Rank Tracker, as its name implies, is a rank checker that you can use to see where your website ranks in various search engines for different target keywords.

The main report for this has been reworked to be a little easier on the eyes, as you can see above. It displays the search engine you are targeting, as well as the keywords, your current rank, the change in your rank, and the destination URL with that rank. You also get an “at a glance” look at your overall visibility. For even more information, specifically when it comes to historical progress, you can look toward the main Rank Tracker workspace, but the generated report is a lot easier to follow and understand.

New in SEO SpyGlass

Another utility in SEO PowerSuite is SEO SpyGlass, a backlink checker. The main report here has also been revamped for ease of use.

The inclusion of simple pie-graphs makes the data a lot easier to digest, making it really easy for you to compare dofollow and nofollow links, for instance, as well as the ratio between text and image links. The breakdown with the types of TLDs can be very useful too, as most SEO specialists will remind you of the value of .edu and .gov backlinks, for example.

New in WebSite Auditor

Moving right along, there’s also the Website Auditor. Among other functions, it can be used as a keyword density tool to see how your webpages are doing, including specific information about your title, body, H1 tags, and so forth.

While there is a “clean” report available in this utility, just like the two before it, I thought I’d show you the workspace that goes along with WebSite Auditor. As you can see, the information provided here is remarkably robust with each column being sortable with ease.

New in Link Assistant

Last and certainly not least is Link Assistant. This is a link exchange tool that helps you match up with potential link-swapping partners. It also lets you keep track of and verify those posted links.

As mentioned before, you get some really clean looking reports for data at a glance, as well as much more robust information through the workspace as shown here. This is very powerful, making it so much easier to manage those link partners, including their names, email addresses, verification status, and more.

Better Reports for Better SEO

If you want to do better search engine optimization for your websites, you’ll likely want some better SEO software. Many of the options on the Internet can provide you with similar data, but the new reports from SEO PowerSuite are easily some of the most attractive of the bunch. They clean and easy to read, while still providing you with the data that you need. There is a free version, as well as Professional ($249) and Enterprise ($599) licenses.

To get started, just head on over to Pixtick.com and click on the “Launch Pixtick” button (or bookmark the actual application link).

Paste Screenshot

One way of using Pixtick is to take a screenshot using the default shortcut for your system: print screen for Windows or command+shift 3 (or 4) for Mac. You can then paste the screenshot into Pixtick. Also make sure that you “enable screenshot capture first,” to give Pixtick permission to access your clipboard.

Clicking on “Add” underneath your screenshot will add it to your canvas and you’ll then be able to annotate and edit it in the Workspace area.

Open Image

Using the open image feature allows you to add any image (jpg, jpeg, gif, png) that has been saved on your computer. It works in the same manner as pasting a screenshot; you can then add the item to your canvas for annotating and editing.

Note: If you already have one screenshot open in your canvas, adding another screenshot or image will add it to the current canvas – not to a new one. So you’ll have 2 items together in one canvas.

Web URL

Finally, you can add images or screenshots via the Web URL. Just paste it in and click “Get Image.”

Workspace

The Workspace is where you can add annotation and edit your screenshots. A few features include: adding shapes and text, applying shadows and blurs, cropping, resizing, zooming in/out, and freehand drawing.

Save and Export

Once you’re done adding annotations and editing, you’ll need to click on the “Finish” tab. Pixtick will allow you to save the item as a jpg, jpeg, png or pdf file to your computer. You can also set the image quality using a scrollbar. Once you click on save, you’ll be prompted to download the image to your computer.

Alternately, you can send the item as an email, upload it directly to Pixtick for sharing via a direct link or share buttons, or you can print it.

Although Pixtick is a very simple tool, it can come in handy for quick screen captures, annotating, and editing. This is definitely one that you may want to add to your bookmarks.

Once installed, you can quickly search for photos, pdf files, and documents via the Attachments.me website or by using the search box right in your Gmail account. The only downside to the service is that it’s not 100% free. There is a 14-day free trial, after which there is a fee of $54/year (which comes out to $4.50/month). Luckily, you do not have to provide your credit card information during the free trial.

Getting Started

First you’ll need to install the appropriate extension. Attachments.me has an extension for Chrome and Firefox (direct link). Once you install the extension, you’ll need to go to your Gmail account and click on the authentication link that you’ll see at the very top of the page. From there you’ll be directed to the Attachments.me website or you can head back to your Gmail account.

Searching for Attachments in Gmail

Attachments.me doesn’t change much in your Gmail account. You can still use the search box as you normally would, but your results may be a little different depending on what you search for. If there are photos, documents or pdf files that match your search query, you’ll see them above your inbox results (see image below).

Note: Attachments.me can also search for text inside of documents, not just in your actual messages.

You can also scroll over a particular attachment to get more options. You’ll be able to download the attachment and/or see the original email in which it was attached.

Searching for Attachments on the Website

As mentioned above, you can also search for attachments on the Attachments.me website. Using the website is much more efficient because you can filter your attachments by type, search through multiple accounts at once, and bookmark/save your searches.

Scrolling over an image on the website will let you view, download, share, or archive it.

As you can see, Attachment.me is not an overly complicated or feature-rich tool, but it does the job. While it does serve a purpose, is it really needed? It’s definitely handy for someone who receives numerous attachments a day and may have a hard time keep up with them.

Do you find it useful for yourself? Do you think it’s worth $54.00/year?

For instance, liking a message on Welshare can be posted to your Twitter account and likewise, liking a tweet on Twitter can be posted to your Welshare account. You can also get notifications every time your messages are liked, retweeted, or replied to. So Welshare also makes it easy to keep up with your own content and who is sharing it.

Welshare gives you a score (social reputation), which is calculated using a special formula created by Welshare. This gives Welshare the ability to rank you among other users and also based on your city and country.

Connect Your Accounts

Currently you can connect your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts to Welshare.

Each account has its own customization options and you can also format the way that messages are posted. Google+ and LinkedIn even give you the option to enable active sharing by default.

Welshare uses its own URL shortener by default, but you can also enter your bit.ly credentials (username and api key) so that you can track your links via your own account if you prefer.

Home Page

Your home page is where you’ll find status update from your friends, which are imported from the accounts that you choose to connect to Welshare. This page is where you can like, reply, and add messages to your favorites. As you can see from the image below, messages from all accounts are mixed together and you’ll be alerted of new messages at the top of your stream.

Your Page

“Your Page” is where you can see all of the messages that you’ve shared via Welshare. There is a status update box where you can enter messages (up to 300 characters) to be posted to your social accounts and add a picture and/or link. There is also an option to schedule posts for later (though I couldn’t get it to work at this time).

Top Users

In this section you can get a glimpse of the top Welshare users along with their score and number of messages posted. You can also search by country or city to help you find local users and follow users right from the list. This is a great way to find and connect with other Welshare users.

Final Thoughts

The design needs some tweaking and there are also a few features which I couldn’t get to work properly (like using my bit.ly account and scheduling messages). While Welshare advertises itself as simply a like button for all of your content, it does so much more than that.

On the features page, you can see that it’s a unified stream, message scheduler, viral graph, notification center for your shared content, and much more. The design and buggy features could be a deal-breaker for some, yet it’s definitely a useful tool that will come in handy for many others.