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The Power of InstantSpot

Thu, 10 May 2007 20:00:32 GMT

So you have something to say huh? Well I say there is no better place to say it than right here at InstantSpot. There is something about InstantSpot and it’s ability to get recognized by the Google search bots. The links below are just a few examples of Google searches using titles from my posts.

“OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics report”, number 3 right below OnStar itself
http://tinyurl.com/yo8sn8

“Google Personalized Home Page Lost”, number 1
http://tinyurl.com/2uglg7

“Mozy Free Remote Backup”, number 4
http://tinyurl.com/35xlvw

“MS SQL SP_HELP”, number 6
http://tinyurl.com/2lmppt

“Euromillion Loteria”, not even in the title, but in the text, number 6
http://tinyurl.com/2w762b

So the point here is, if you have something to say and you want people to see it, post it on InstantSpot. Google heart InstantSpot!!! Good work IS Staff!!

Good Day!
Ryan

InstantSpot Design Exchange

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:02:31 GMT

Did you know there is now a way to customize your InstantSpot? Well there is, it's called CSS and the InstantSpot crew has given Spotters the ability to edit their spot's CSS in their control panel. Just click on "Style Manager"!

But wait, what is CSS you ask? CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets and is a web programming language. You didn't know that? Well I guess we need a place where you can get this CSS code for free, so you don't have to learn it yourself huh? Wait, I ran across something just a few mins ago... wait for it.... wait for it...

Ahh yes, Todd Sharp over at <CFSilence> just launched The InstantSpot Design Exchange . Check out his blog post about it here . This site designed for users to upload their InstantSpot designs for for others to use. Registration and sharing is easy. So if you know CSS share some of the love with others who may not know it. And if you don't know CSS go get you some designs!

Good Day!
Ryan

Videos!!

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 22:16:37 GMT

Did you know you can now post YouTube videos on InstantSpot now?? Yes you can and it's easy! Simply follow the steps below.

Step 1: Get the YouTube unique ID.

The YouTube unquie id looks something like this 4-Dp5sjVKes and is found on the YouTube page of the video you are viewing. You can get the id from one of two places the YouTube share URL or the YouTube share embed code. The easiest may be the share URL and is pictured below.

As you can see the unique id is right after the "v=" in the url.

Step 2: Add Code to Instant Spot
You can add a YouTube video to a blog post or to a page on your InstantSpot just add like so;

Notice how easy that code is? Just add brackets around the words "youtube 4-Dp5sjVKes", again where 4-Dp5sjVKes is the video id. So it will look something like this, without the space before youtube;

[ youtube 4-Dp5sjVKes]

Thats it, your done! Now start sharing some videos will ya??!! Here's one:

[youtube z-eVVLzuAWk]

Good Day!
Ryan

InstantSpot Site Tracking

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 04:21:37 GMT

Did you know that adding Google Analytics to your InstantSpot is super easy? Like this and like so:

Step 1
Sign up for a Google Analytics Account, here. When I signed up there was a waiting period, I don’t believe there is one now.

Step 2
Once you have an account click on the "Add Website Profile" link.

Step 3
Fill out the form that comes up with your domain name, something like: ev.instantspot.com then select the correct country and timezone. The case of InstantSpot the timezone is central and the country is the United States.

Step 4
Once the previous page is filled out you will get the screen below. From this screen you need one piece of information. It's a 7 digit code. I've marked mine out on the screen shot, but it should look like the this: UA-123456-1. However for the this purpose you only need 123456-1. You do not need the UA- part.

Step 5
The final step is coming to the InstantSpot Control Panel and selecting "Tracking Script Manager" on the right nav menu. The screen below should pop up. Select Google Analytics and enter the code.

There ya go, you are all set. Google Analytics is now tracking your Spot. One thing to remember is that the Google Analytics site is updated daily. I have found it's somewhere around 10:00pm CST.

InstantSpot offers other tracking options as you can tell from the drop down list. However I have not tried any of these. I like the way Google does what they do, although I have to admit I haven't dug to deep in the results.

Good Day!
Ryan

InstantSpot Styles

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:19:41 GMT

Welcome to my first InstantSpot DYK (Did You Know). Did you know that InstantSpot got updated recently? It did! New features include:

A new homepage
Ability to Change Site Categories
Full CSS Control
Tracking Script Support

The full CSS support is what is impressing me the most right now. Even though I haven’t used it to it’s full potential other users have. Check out Dave or Chris’ Spots for examples.

I have however added a border around my blog posts, see, it’s blue, for now! So for this DYK I wanted to share with you how you can do this.

Login to your InstantSpot Control Panel
Select Style Manager on the right side
From the drop down select site.css
This will bring up a text box with your site’s style. Scroll all the way to the bottom and add the style code that you would like for the “entry” class. The entry class wraps each blog entry. My code looks like this, again for now, .entry{border:solid 1px #578bb8; margin-bottom:10px; padding:5px;}

This is just something really simple, but it can help you get started down the path of making your Spot, truly YOUR Spot.

For some help with CSS check out CSSPlay.

Thanks for the updates Dave and Aaron, keep up the great work.

Good Day!
Ryan

Challenge Accepted!

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:09:05 GMT

I’ve been called a lot of mean things in my life some to my face and surely more behind my back. However the other day I got called a name by a guy I don’t even know! This guy, Todd, if that is his real name, called me a lurker!!! A lurker??!! How can you call me a lurker if you don’t even know me Todd??

Well Todd didn’t just call me a lurker he called A LOT of ColdFusion developers lurkers or takers. We can define lurkers or takers in this case as developers that take code from blogs or other community sites but don’t give back to the community. For whatever reason, either they are too busy or too lazy they just don’t give back. Therefor Todd proposed a challenge. The challenge was for us all to get more involved in the ColdFusion Community, write a blog, join a CFUG or mailing list. Do something to give back.

Well Todd, challenge accepted! I’m going to try my best to make time to give back. What I say here on my InstantSpot may seem silly to those more experienced than I, so for that I apologize and welcome all feedback.

If you are new to the ColdFusion or Blog thing, here are some of the hot spots I visit often,.

Dave Shuck
Aaron J Lynch
Matt Woodward
Todd Sharp
Robert Froehling
Ray Camden
Mark Drew
ColdFusion Weely
ajaxCFC Yahoo! Group

Good Day!
Ryan