SitePoint Tribune

Introduction

Are you amazed like me that we're approaching the end of another year? Well, it may have caught you off guard, but there's still time to prepare Christmas salutations and gifts for your clients.

We'll kick this issue off by looking at Christmas cards, with a few tips on how to maximize your corporate mail-out. With a little thought, it can have a much better impact than ever before.

Imagine buying your clients a trailer load of cattle dung for Christmas! Well, now you can -- without offending anybody in the process. We'll look at how you can buy Christmas gifts that really improve the lives of others, rather than opting for the token bottle of wine.

Spend all day on Twitter? Nor do I -- we have businesses to grow, and lives to live. Ever experience the feeling you're missing out on the big news, though? We'll look at a web site that brings the Twitter talk of the day to you, so you don't miss a beat.

Speaking of Twitter, we'll also take a moment to visit a terrific web site that lets you see tweets in a new light. You'd never have thought 140 characters of text could look so good!

Finally, a reminder to those in the area that the Affiliate Convention takes place December 3-4 in Los Angeles, California. Any publisher or affiliate can attend for free, and SitePoint's own Matt Mickiewicz is speaking on two panels at the event. Check out the web site now for a chance to win free airfare and hotel accommodation.

I trust you'll enjoy this issue of the Tribune.

Miles Burke
tribune@sitepoint.com

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Summary

• Introduction
• Christmas Cheer Retro Style
• Opening a Can of Worms for Christmas
• Finger on the Twitter Pulse
• A Visual Feast of Tweets
• Latest Tutorials
• Hot Discussions
• New Blogs

Christmas Cheer Retro Style

If you've only just started to think about sending corporate Christmas cards, I'd encourage you to get a move on! Every year, the postal service becomes busier, as do the printers -- so you should avoid sending those cards at the last minute.

While the trend seems to be heading towards the more environmentally friendly electronic cards, the old-school paper version still has its merits. So, if you do opt for this form, here are a few tips:

• It's best to steer clear of cards with overtly religious messages. By all means, be proud of your faith, but I'd exercise some caution to avoid any possible offense.
• Buy charity cards. Unless you design and print your own unique brand, choose cards that benefit those less fortunate than us. It helps to reinforce the true Christmas spirit.
• Bear in mind that the seasons differ across the world. For example, while the northern hemisphere freezes, southern countries are experiencing the height of summer in late December. It's no biggie, but this may influence the type of cards you send, depending on your client base. Then again, it could be quite a novelty for Europeans to receive a surfing Santa card.
• Keep business promotion subtle. If you do create your own printed card, stick with non-commercial images. For example, an image of a santa hat on top of your best-selling product devalues the intention of the card, and looks more like junk mail (if with a Christmas theme). Sure, add your logo, but make it small and put it on the back.
• Choose cards made from recycled paper stock to minimize the impact Christmas has on the environment.
• Always sign the cards. Printed signatures look impersonal and imply that the card's a hollow gesture. Have your whole team sign them if you're a small company, otherwise choose the most appropriate people.

You should be well-armed now to spread some Christmas cheer!

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Opening a Can of Worms for Christmas

Still on the subject of Christmas -- you might be a business that traditionally buys Christmas gifts for your regular clients. Have you ever struggled to come up with a gift that's unique year after year? Perhaps you might like to consider giving a gift with a difference. Around the world, many charities offer a range of gifts that can be purchased online to benefit people living in third-world countries.

It works like this: instead of buying a conventional corporate gift for your client, you spend a similar amount on an item that genuinely benefits those less privileged than us.

For example, you could spend as little as $12 on some manure. That's right -- organic manure enables poor communities to transform waste into agricultural power for greater crop yields. Or what about a can of worms? It's an ideal way to help farmers cultivate their land, as the worms produce fertilizer.

Oxfam America Unwrapped has a range of gifts like these to help third-world communities overcome poverty, and similar programs exist in other parts of the world. You can access your local Oxfam site here. If you have any UK-based clients, another option is Send a Cow Gifts, a registered charity in the UK, but it's worth checking whether your favorite charity operates a similar online scheme.

So why not give a memorable Christmas gift to your clients? Be it a tree, goat, or latrine, you'll be helping real families with this donation, and your clients will love the thought. There's no better way to share Christmas.

Finger on the Twitter Pulse

It seems many people are turning to social media, particularly Twitter, to obtain their real-time news feeds. We're now reading trending tags and looking at what links are being posted on the service; and we're watching those hot stories being tweeted, and retweeted, and retweeted again.

If your life is like mine, it's very likely you lack a spare hour to kill every day keeping up with what's hot on Twitter. Well, along comes this great solution, if with an slightly odd name: twitt(url)y is a service that collates and spiders all the links posted on Twitter, and ranks them in a top 100 list.

I find it's a far handier way to see what the talk of the social web is, than trawling through hundreds of tweets. Check it out -- I hope you find it useful!

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A Visual Feast of Tweets

Speaking of Twitter, if you've ever wanted to see a full-screen visualization of your favorite topic or keyword in real time, you'll want to check out visibletweets.com. It's a project of SitePoint author and web extraordinaire, Cameron Adams.

Serving up a variety of animation styles, the site renders simple text tweets into entertaining Flash-based typography. For example, take a look at this creative rotation animation of the phrase, "SitePoint Tribune," or this nifty tag cloud animation using the keyword, "SitePoint."

The output is ideally suited for large screens, too. I saw the early version of Visible Tweets on a massive screen at a web conference, and it looked awesome. Next time you're planning an event featuring a Twitter stream, visibletweets.com may be your best solution!

Thanks so much for reading this issue of the SitePoint Tribune.

Miles Burke
tribune@sitepoint.com
Editor, SitePoint Tribune

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