Have you thought of joining the Akron Blogger Community? ABC usually meets the last Thursday of every month at Mocha Joe’s in Stow (Corner of Route 91 and Graham Road) from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Here’s our squidoo page: http://www.squidoo.com/akron-bloggers-community.

Here’s our Linked-In: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Akron-Bloggers-Community-2161214

Attendees: Monica Baird, Mary Helsel, Deborah Shapiro, & Cheryl Lyon

Since I don’t have a blog of my own yet, I figured I’d utilize my blog space here on the Akronist.com site. Why not blog on the Akronist.com, citizen journalism stuff, about an Akron blogging community? How ironic-right? I led the group discussion last month (September).

Deborah informed us she’s been playing techie to her husband’s dad’s new blog (http://redsbarinakron.com/). He’s 86 and a celebrity of sorts in the Akron area. He owned Red’s Bar Nightclub in Akron from 1958 to 1988. It’s a pretty cool blog with music, videos, and other Akron area memories from those decades.

Since putting this blog site together, Deborah shared how she is using WordPress for the blog. She used Host Gator to host the blog. She also used tal.ki. It was easy to use. It creates forums automatically. She’s using the free version. It keeps the last 15 active discussions visible. She’s encouraging her readers to post comments to the blog instead of emailing her or her husband comments.

Deborah also was looking into local advertising for Red’s blog. She wanted to create an income for the blog so it’s a “wash” when it comes to the monthly fees she’s paying or paid to set up the blog. They are an Amazon affiliate and use ads that relate to the '70s and '80s in some of their posts. Downloadable songs that relate to the post is what she’s used/will use in the future. Google Ad Sense is another affiliate marketing they are using. She described some of the complexities of using affiliate marketing and where to find it on the blog post.

Because Deborah has a video production business, she explained how she used HTML codes to place video or photos. She copies the code into the text widget and places the text widget on the side bar.

Cheryl also described a new website called http://www.socialgo.com/.

The purpose is for you to create a modern website with a choice of social networking features. It’s a website builder supposedly to help you build a website. It has forums, a page per person, membership site to go and to process your money. Pretty automatic.

Cheryl and Deborah brought up https://about.me/ Basically, it’s one page about yourself. You can use a QR code, give your Twitter, Facebook and phone number. There are free business cards you can create with them. You can use this site to give to other people/clients who you want to give information about yourself/ business. Deborah tried it out already. Just another link back to your website, blog etc.  We discussed it because some of us received information from Emily Kelly on her about.me site. Another footprint in the Internet sand.

We discussed a bit about http://paper.li/, if you want to start your own paper. The premise is based on the Huffington Post and a Twitter feed goes to the articles. You can promote yourself, and it appeals to those who like reading newspapers.

We also talked about speed of technology, how RCA out goes into the computer. Before tapes oxidize we should convert to DVD/CDs. But technology is moving so fast. What’s the next big idea to convert this stuff to?

I’m sure Mary had much to contribute but I didn’t write this down like taking minutes at a meeting as I should. Please forgive me ladies if I screwed something up.