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Raul Colon - photographer, digital marketer & writer living on the beach in Puerto Rico.

I support causes by supporting individuals.

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Outing out Latin America’s Chauvinistic Pig

February 6, 2011 by Raul Colon

425354105_23c38e7ef5_z Outing out Latin America's Chauvinistic Pig

I have never been a fan of Don Francisco and I think he is deceiving in many ways. But one thing that really bothers me about him is how many of his ways are detrimental  to women.

I invite you to visit my post and read my opinion on him at Being Latino :

“Sabado De Antes”

What are your views on Sabado Gigante?


Photo Credit by: Linda N.

Filed Under: Featured, Random Thoughts Tagged With: Being Latino, Blogs, Posts

Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!

January 31, 2011 by Raul Colon

3199487556_2a145272ac_z Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!

Photo credit by calignosus

How do you make sure you are sharing content legally and most importantly with the consent of the author?

While participating on #Blogchat which I have been participating for a few weeks I read a few tweets related to sharing photos online.

The following tweet really caught my attention not only is it creative but it has a very clear message:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/ahockley/status/31908186885722113″]

@ahockley point was a ver easy way to explain what many people do by taking a photo without proper authorization to make it appear like it was ok.

When I am searching for a picture for my posts and I don’t use my own I mainly use Flickr’s Creative Commons.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/RickCaffeinated/status/31905488207618048″]

My new online friend @rickcaffeinated which is another encyclopedia of knowledge also recommended wylio.com in his tweet:

27263706 Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!photo © 2005 kyler kwock | more info (via: Wylio)

1

I used wylio.com for the previous pic  and I have to admit it was very efficient and it expresses well the term of sharing which most people participating in #blogchat effectively did.

A great resource to share, remix, and reuse legally is creativecommons.org

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.


Briefly here is an overview of the Creative Commons

cc_icon_attribution.gif Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work – and derivative works based upon it – but only if they give you credit.

cc_icon_noncomm.gif Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!Noncommercial means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work – and derivative works based upon it – but for noncommercial purposes only.

cc_icon_noderivs.gif Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!No Derivative Worksmeans:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

cc_icon_sharealike.gif Why Stolen Cars & Pictures are nothing to brag about!Share Alike means:
You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.


Where do you get your images for your blog posts?

Are there any other tools you recommend that facilitate the process of choosing an adequate image for your post?

Have you see anyone copying without attribution or adequate permission?

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media Tagged With: Blog, Blogs, Content, Content Rules, Creative Commons, Original Content, Pictures, Sharing Content, Tools

5 Reasons Why Homemade Onion Rings Are Like Original Content?

January 19, 2011 by Raul Colon

IMG_0221-1024x764 5 Reasons Why Homemade Onion Rings Are Like Original Content?

I don’t eat many fried items in my diet since I became vegetarian (most places fry meat, seafood, and vegetables all together).

I only eat fried items at a few selected family members places and my own. A few weeks ago @lucymfel decided to make some homemade onion rings. Oh my God I can’t even start describing how awesome they where. Then I realized I had been eating frozen onion rings all of my life. I had never eaten a freshly made Onion Ring.

The experience and taste that each and every Onion Ring offered me was a once in a lifetime experience. (you might feel I am exaggerating but that is who I felt).

This made me think why so many restaurants locally I visit are always looking for the easy way to serve you food by cutting corners and expenses.I have been to many places where I really like something and later find out I can buy it at bulk in Costco or some other supermarket.

The whole reason of visiting a Restaurant is to get a unique experience out of something, an experience tied to something important as eating the food you love prepared in a unique way. I think the same thing can happen with websites and blogs. When the content is not original or is a regurgitation of what someone else said or wrote somewhere else, it can be disappointing. It stops being inviting.

So here are the 5 Reasons Why Homemade Onion Rings Are Like Original Content:

Picking the Onion. The same way you get to pick your onions or produce and pick the best before preparing them. By creating original content you get to pick and choose which ideas, words, phrases, videos, and images you can use to communicate your message. If you picked a good onion the probability of getting a a good onion ring increases, the same with picking the great simple items that make up a paragraph or post it can turn into an awesome post.

Choosing complementing ingredients. To create an Onion Ring you have to choose other ingredients that complement it and make it one. By having the opportunity to choose the breading you prefer (in my case panko, makes them crunchier and less oily), healthier oil to fry them in, in some cases your favorite beer, and any other ingredient that gives it a touch of you. When you create content it is important to give it a touch of who you are. Give it a taste of your interests and your point of view. You can complement your point of view with that of others that help you with dispersing the message you want to convey.

Preparation of Onion Rings. You decide how much salt or pepper to include. How long will let you let them fry? You have full control of what you are creating and have no restrictions on how it should be done. When using content that comes from somewhere else there are many restrictions on what you can do depending on the rights attached to the content.

Distributing the Onion Rings. If your Onion rings taste great you decide who to share them with. If they did get the right flavor  you can easily discard them and start a new batch. When content is original and created by you its your decision if you are  going to distribute it and you establish the rules. If you wish to share the content make sure you can get your Creative Commons License at http://creativecommons.org. If it did not come out like you wanted it to you can always edit and modify until you get exactly what you wanted.

Receiving Recognition. If you where successful in creating awesome tasty onion rings (like @lucymfel) you will get recognition by people talking about how great they where ( I even created a blog post about it). You might have people trying to find out when the next batch of Onion Rings will be made so they can come visit. When you create great content people will stick around, spread the word, and want more.

What content are you feeding your audience? Is it Fresh? Is it Original?

What other benefits do you see towards creating Original Content?

I recommend a great book to read on the importance of original and overall content is Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)ir?t=cis02-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0470648287 5 Reasons Why Homemade Onion Rings Are Like Original Content? (affiliate link).

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Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Vegetarian Tagged With: Blogs, Content, Content Rules, Homemade, Marketing, Original Content, Social Media

Easy Breezy! Bye bye Drupal… Hello Genesis!

January 12, 2011 by Raul Colon

5305746905_901faf53d9 Easy Breezy! Bye bye Drupal... Hello Genesis!

Although one of my best friends did buy a Hyundai Genesis and It looks like a great car, that is not the kind of Genesis I substituted Drupal with. Weeks ago I was convinced by my online mentor @chrisbrogan that I needed to move over to the Genesis Framework on WordPress. My biggest issue was that I had all my sites in Drupal. I had spent a good amount of time more than a year trying to understand Drupal and had so much to learn still I needed to look for another option.

108240040_dc4d553d55 Easy Breezy! Bye bye Drupal... Hello Genesis!

Although when I was in college I use to make extra income developing websites in Coffecup, Pure HTML, and Frontpage I have never been a developer by choice I have had to develop because of need.When I started CIMA IT Solutions Corp. I had to catch up on trying to create websites. Having been very involved and committed to my previous jobs as an IT Auditor, Risk Management, IT Security ,and IT Governance Consultant I lost my edge in creating websites (if I ever had one).

The first websites we created where coded in PHP and knowing myself in the attempt to simplify I really complicated everything into some very complex code even I had to go back every once in a while to see what I had done. Coding in pure PHP was a big disaster so I ended up moving to Drupal where I experimented with Twitpuerto.com (which now runs on the Genesis Framework also). Drupal is very complete and complex and after using the Genesis Framework for weeks I realize even more what a huge learning curve using Drupal is.

When I started my switch to the Genesis Framework I was getting surprise more and more of the benefits and how quickly I got things completed.

Not only are there many plug-ins that work well with the various themes they are installed thru WordPress instead of using the server to install.

3479600071_e07268c21f Easy Breezy! Bye bye Drupal... Hello Genesis!

Easy Breezy

I was so amazed by how easy setting everything up. Even the tutorials offered by StudioPress (affiliate link) are hassle free and direct to the point. I am so used to tutorials being long and sometimes more challenging than you given it a stab yourself (especially being very impatient when trying to get something done). In conclusion it was a lot easier than I thought.

Brief Overall Features from the Genesis Framework

  • Cost Effective – The many themes and child themes that are included are well worth the price but the real bonus is in the time you save to get everything running.
  • Simple – It can get any simpler than having various layouts with an instruction manual to get it layed out.
  • Awesome Templates – If have used and worked with premium templates for a few clients. In other cases I rather start from scratch. Not only do you get something highly customizable they look awesome and very appealing to the eye.
  • Customizable – The templates include all files where you can modify images and instructions on more customization.
  • Tutorials – Straight to the Point Tutorials with easy to understand videos, images, and text.

3479600161_67d3c9a7b6 Easy Breezy! Bye bye Drupal... Hello Genesis!

ROI, Easy Money

Different to other premium themes StudioPress gives you the opportunity to earn some income by becoming an affiliate.

Not only do they offer a commission but they also offer great contests which if you win it can make it even easier for you to get your ROI even quicker.

Another Genesis

I use to be a big fan of the Genesis Game Console and the Genesis Hyundai looks very appealing but hands down my favorite Genesis is the Genesis Framework from StudioPress. It’s the only one I know that offers reliability and an attractive opportunity to get a Return on Investment.

468x60 Easy Breezy! Bye bye Drupal... Hello Genesis!

Filed Under: Featured, Marketing Tagged With: Blogs, Chris Brogan, Genesis Framework

Just Think! If PR Tourism had a Surfer & @franklogic on their team!

January 11, 2011 by Raul Colon

3800757995_bdd1c062d7 Just Think! If PR Tourism had a Surfer & @franklogic on their team!

I have commented on various occasions how disappointed at the approach the  Puerto Rico tourism office to splurge our money into very low return advertisements, ignoring local resources, and the worst part not projecting the real value of Puerto Rico. Today I published  Puerto Rico Tourism Does It Better? Really? given the terrible job they have done trying to promote tourism.

The worst thing about the Just Think campaign their competitive advantage is not needing a U.S. Passport instead of focusing on the great resources Puerto Rico can offer.

After creating that post a cyber friend @franlogic someone who I admire for his talent in online marketing share this video he had posted on his blog Solpersona.com back in August on a post titled Puerto Rico’s beauty branded through a digital video narrative.

I am going to keep this post as short as I can although I have a follow up post on this subject in a day or two. I really think that the video does a better job at inviting someone to visit Puerto Rico than most of the Puerto Rico Does it Better Campaign.

My recommendation to the Puerto Rico Tourism office is to at least hire a Surfer with this type of vision and someone as talented as @franklogic to be able to promote such a video online. I would be more than happy if the Puerto Rico Tourism Office would invest in resources like these than wasting their money on big agencies that don’t even measure the performance of such a campaign.

What do you think of the Video?

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Tourism Tagged With: Blog, Blogs, Fortuño, Great Video, Marketing, Puerto Rico, Tourism

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