Purple Room Web Skillz

Great Things

uponthemountain — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:56:10 +0000

“Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember…. I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter….”

- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling

Every one of you is capable of great things, and now that you’ve been given the magic wand of WordPress, you’ve got everything you need to make it happen. Seriously.

Follow your passion, and follow it now. It’s never too early to start.

Today I want to leave you with some final tools and inspiration. There are some excellent blogs and websites providing great information for bloggers, and some of them are created by or geared specifically to young entrepreneurs. There are also lots of teenagers using the web to make money or make a difference in the world. We’ll check out a few of them.

Blogs

Alex Fraiser

Let’s first look at Asnio.com. Alex Fraiser, the guy behind both Asnio.com and Blogussion.com was selected by blogger Bradley Will of Unstrapp’d (unstrappd.com) as one of the top 30 young entrepreneur bloggers of 2009.

On both sites, Alex does amazing work using an ultra-flexible WordPress theme called Thesis from DIY Themes (diythemes.com – highly recommended if you get serious about blogging). I found Alex because I was looking for information about Thesis, and he’s got it. He also has an ongoing series where he features other young bloggers. Today I want to show you a recent interview he did with …

Gloson Teh

Gloson Teh is an 11-year-old blogger. Here’s an excerpt from his interview with Alex:

“Since I started blogging, my writing skills have increased and also my communication skills and people skills. I have also made many friends through blogging, and it also has gained me publicity on the web.

“So, I will say that my blog is a tool for me to build my brand on the Internet and also a tool to explore, discover, and network with people from all over the globe.

I’ve also written a post called 22 Reasons for You to Blog, most of which are the reasons I blog too, and most of which are the reasons YOU should blog too!”

You can check out Gloson’s blog at www.glosonblog.com.

Michael Dunlop

This kid is all about making money and making it fast, as you can probably deduce from his blog’s name: Retire@21. Money for money’s sake is not really my style, but he has some great information on here geared toward tweens and teens. He is proof that sometimes being a young blogger is better – he gets access to some unbelievable interviews precisely because he is young.

Jessica Mah

Jessica started her first internet company at the age of 13, finished high school at the age of 15, and is now a senior at UC Berkeley studying computer science. She is the President of the UC Berkeley Computer Science Undergraduate Association. You can follow her exploits at jessicamah.com/blog/.

Nicole Dominguez

Nicole Dominguez, age 16, is the brains behind sodevious.net, “The design blog for teenagers by teenagers.” Her site is loaded with great information; definitely worth a look.

Monik

The info-packed blog Etiole.com, run by Monik, age 15, offers loads of tech information on computers, gadgets and the Internet. With frequent and meaty updates this is a good resource for anyone interested in technology.

Web Sites

OK, that’s enough of the blogs. I’d like to switch gears now and go check out some other teens using the web for business.

Shield of Green: Junk Mail Destruction

Shield of Green is a website that makes money by helping people stop junk mail. Saving the planet and making money. Brilliant. www.shieldofgreen.com.

OK, let’s get the backstory at BizKids.com.

Just Yell Fire: Don’t Mess

Don’t even mess with Dallas Jessup. She will inflict serious damage. She’s making a huge difference, empowering teens and young women to defend themselves against assault. Oh, and her website also kicks you-know-what: www.justyellfire.com.

Eau du Joe

This kid sells his own line of body products. Not kidding. And he doesn’t even seem embarrassed about it. Maybe it’s all the green in his pocket.

Go Forth & Conquer. Just Be Smart.

When you’re doing stuff and putting yourself out there on the Web, you’ve got to be smart, and you’ve got to be safe. The third clip from Biz Kid$ Episode 203 pretty much says it all. Check it: bizkids.com.

Adios!

I’ve had a blast teaching you guys. I hope you enjoyed it as well. You’ve got my email, so keep me posted on your websites. Peace.

Keeping Up Appearances

uponthemountain — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:28:59 +0000

Image courtesy Hans Raillard

Let’s hang out in the Appearance playpen today. From widgets to extras, special Typekit fonts to CSS editing, today’s lesson gets into the more advanced aspects of controlling the look & feel of your blog. Take it as far as you dare.

Sand in Your Fingernails

uponthemountain — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:42:37 +0000

So you know how to create and add graphics to your pages and posts, but to really dial in your site, you need to take advantage of all the tools and tricks that WordPress.com gives you. Today we’re going to learn how to really play in this sandbox: all the editing functions from blockquote to the kitchen sink, how to view the HTML code if you need to, and how to add tags, categories and attributes. Prepare to get your fingers dirty.

Picture This

uponthemountain — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:18:57 +0000

I can see you.

Images and video are on the agenda for today. We are going to work on sourcing and uploading images and video, adding them to a post or page, and embedding video.

We’ve got access to youtube.com, so go find a video that’s relevant to your site content and be ready to add it.

Theme Me Up, Scotty!

uponthemountain — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:49:29 +0000

Today we’re going to review our site maps, goals and content direction. Then, based on what we want to accomplish, how we want to say it, and how we want to organize it, we’re going to select our WordPress themes.

What’s a theme? A theme is basically a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying, unifying design for a blog. In other words, it’s what determines how your looks.

Map Time

uponthemountain — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:44:21 +0000

Don’t forget to put together the site maps for your websites – it’s due Wednesday. You can email them to me if you prefer.

Be ready to talk about what content you want on your website when we meet Wednesday.

Whatchoo Talkin’ About?

uponthemountain — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:40:52 +0000

Today we’re going to talk about something very important, but something that people often overlook when they set out to build a website: what are you talking about?

We’re going to figure out what information, or content, we are presenting, and how best to organize that information.

We’ll also do our first blog post, get to know the WordPress Dashboard, and start working on our site maps.

Skillz

uponthemountain — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:51:09 +0000

Welcome to the BNS Web Skillz Blog. Now first, let’s talk about skillz – and I don’t mean the rapper – he’s such a latecomer to the whole skillz thing. Copycat. No, I mean the true classic:

Napoleon Dynamite.