Online Marketing Tools

Great RSS Feed Icon Generator

2008-03-18T03:16:00.001-07:00

I have yet to try this out, but it looks great -- create a nice looking RSS Feed icon for your blog with this tool

RSS Feed Icon Generator

Here's a new smashup that generates a RSS feed icon. Choose the color scheme, size, and whether you want a drop shadow and glassy effect. This is the standard web icon used on websites and blogs to show users how to subscribe to receive the latest content. RSS feeds make it easy to stay up to date on the latest stories and articles from your favorite blog or website. Read more about what RSS feeds are and how to use them here.

Feel free to use any of the feed icons that you generate here on your website or blog so that users know how to subscribe. Here's an earlier post about how to use smashups on your own website. How To Use These Graphics On Your Website

Try it out. Simply click "Create" to make a new RSS feed image that looks like this:

If you need a smaller button, just decrease the size. For example, here's what the icon looks like with size=60:

Video Tutorials on How to Best Use OpenID

2008-03-09T17:50:00.001-07:00

Here are a number of video tutorials on what OpenID is, how to use it and how it can help you.

clipped from searchmarketingcourses.com

What is Open ID, How do You Use It and Why Should You Care (in 4 Short Videos)

Problogger just ran an article about a new service called OpenID (it’s actually a guest post by Yunching of YC’s Ramblings). The short story of OpenID is that it simplifies the log-in process in our busy internet lives (i.e., you don’t need to keep creating new accounts for each new website that you want to use).

The long story of OpenID is, well, longer. That’s why Problogger ran an article about it and that’s what these videos are for. So, go check out the Problogger article to learn how how OpenID can help you blog commenting and check out our videos to learn what OpenID is, how to use it and why you should care.

What is OpenID and How to use it

The first two videos are nice, clear demonstrations of what OpenID is and how to use it. Our first video is called OpenID Show from Simon Willison [Note: Simon has a number of posts about OpenID on his website which you may want to check out].

Hosting Your Own OpenID URL

2008-03-09T17:48:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.intertwingly.net

OpenID for non-SuperUsers

Claim Your Blog

If you have an OpenID identity and a blog, then follow these instructions. If you don’t have an OpenID identity, you can get one for free at MyOpenID. Here’s mine.

Given such an identity, copy the following into the head section of your weblog, adjusting the two URIs as appropriate:

<link rel="openid.server" href="http://www.myopenid.com/server" />
<link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://samruby.myopenid.com/" />

That’s pretty much it. What this says is that the web page in question is owned by the owner of http://samruby.myopenid.com/ and furthermore http://www.myopenid.com/server may be used to verify ownership of http://samruby.myopenid.com/.

OpenID and Wordpress.com

2008-03-09T17:38:00.001-07:00

Your OpenID URL on your Worpdress.com blog.

clipped from faq.wordpress.com

What is OpenID?

OpenID is an open standard that lets you sign in to other sites on the Web using your WordPress.com account. This means less usernames and passwords to remember and less time spent signing up for new sites.

How do I get an OpenID?

If you have a WordPress.com blog, you have an OpenID already! An OpenID is a URL, and your OpenID is the URL of your blog, for example: http://matt.wordpress.com/

How do I use my OpenID?

Look for sites with sign in forms that look like this:

Enter your OpenID - that’s the URL of your weblog:

Click the button, and you will be redirected to WordPress.com. If you are already logged in, you will be asked if you want to pass your identity to the site:

Click “Yes; just this time”, or “Yes; always” if you don’t want to be asked this question again for this site.

You will be redirected back to the site and logged in, all without using a username or password!

What if I’m not signed in to WordPress.com?

How to use your blog as an OpenID URL

2008-03-09T17:35:00.001-07:00

clipped from simonwillison.net

How to turn your blog in to an OpenID

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the same account to log in to multiple sites and applications, without having to trust them all with your password? Wouldn’t it be even better if you could do this without having to hand ownership of your online identity over to some monolithic third party? (I’m looking at you, ~~.NET Passport~~ ~~Microsoft Passport~~ Windows Live ID.)

The good news is, you can! OpenID is a decentralised authentication system invented by LiveJournal but now being developed as an open standard under the careful mentorship of the Apache Software Foundation. Anyone can create an OpenID, and the number of sites which let you log in with one is growing by the day.

An OpenID is simply a URL. My OpenID is simonwillison.net, the address of my weblog. I can use it to sign in to any site that supports OpenID, and because I’m the only person with control over my weblog’s homepage I’m the only person who can use that identity.

OpenID Posts on Simon Willison's Website

2008-03-09T17:33:00.001-07:00

clipped from simonwillison.net

Search: “openid”

How to turn your blog in to an OpenID

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the same account to log in to multiple sites and applications, without having to trust them all with your password? Wouldn’t it be even better if you could do this without having to hand ownership of your online identity over to some monolithic third party? (I’m looking at you, ~~.NET Passport~~ ~~Microsoft Passport~~ Windows Live ID.)
[... 832 words]

clipped from simonwillison.net

An OpenID is not an account!

I’m excited to see that OpenID has finally started to gain serious traction outside of the Identity community. Understandably, misconceptions about OpenID continue to crop-up. The one I want to address in this entry is the idea that an OpenID can be used as a replacement for a regular user account.
[... 601 words]

clipped from simonwillison.net

Six cool things you can build with OpenID

OpenID for Bloggers

2008-03-09T17:29:00.001-07:00

clipped from www.problogger.net

Staying on the cutting edge: OpenID for bloggers

Undoubtedly you’ve seen the icon shown here appear in the comments section of many Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, and MovableType blogs recently. What it means: “this site is OpenID enabled”. In case you’ve missed all the news buzz on it, OpenID is the up-and-coming universal login technology, bound to become as ubiquitous as email.

While that sounds like future-talk, let me convince you that for blogging specifically, it makes a lot of sense to start using OpenID today. In short: your comments on others’ blogs will look more professional, having your verified signature, and you can offer that same convenience to your visitors, while also keeping commenting on your blog easy.

What it does

I’ll skip telling you what OpenID does in general - here’s a scenario specific to the context of blogging: visitors that want to comment on your blog can use the address of their own blog to verify their identity.

The Implications of OpenId (Simon Wilson Speaks at Google Tech Chat)

2008-03-09T08:56:00.001-07:00

Here is a talk on OpenID by Simon Wilson. It's long (51 minutes), but for anyone who is interested in the implications of OpenID then you'll want to check this one out.

clipped from www.youtube.com

The Implications of OpenID

OpenID is an emerging standard that provides simple, decentralised authentication for the Web. OpenID follows the Unix philosophy, solving one small problem rather than attempting to tackle the many larger challenges posed by online identity. This talk will explore the implications of OpenID, and explore the best practices required to take advantage of this new technology while avoiding the potential pitfalls.

Speaker: Simon Willison
Simon Willison is a consultant on OpenID and client- and server-side Web development, and a co-creator of the Django Web framework. Before going frelance Simon worked on Yahoo!'s Technology Development

OpenId on Wordpress

2008-03-09T06:54:00.001-07:00

Here is a short video on how to integrate OpenId with your Wordpress blog. It demonstrates a plugin called WP-OpenID.

Again, I added some comments from YouTube after the video.

clipped from www.youtube.com

OpenID on Wordpress

In this video, I discuss openid on the Wordpress blogging engine.

I would not force people to log in to post a comment...
You can use the plugin and people who have openid-enabled their blog, will log in with openid while commenting, others won't notice anything.

The first kind of commenters who have logged in with openid will have the openID logo in front of their comment (that is, if your theme doesn't prevent that - if so you need to tweak your theme).

The openid logo will indicate to readers that that comment is _really_ from that user from that website.

Another great video on how to use OpenId

2008-03-09T06:39:00.001-07:00

This is perhaps the best one yet. Clear, easy to understand. No worthwhile YouTube comments, though.

clipped from www.youtube.com

How to login to sites using OpenID

How to login to votay.com using OpenID

Great video demonstration of OpenId

2008-03-09T06:28:00.001-07:00

This is an excellent video which clearly shows how to set up and start using OpenID. Again, I included some comments from YouTube users at the end of the video.

clipped from www.youtube.com

OpenID Show

Explains how OpenID works

This is a really great explanation! I'm just in the process of enabling OpenID authentication for my site. I can't believe it took me so long to understand the real power of OpenID. I suddenly want to become an evangelist and get the whole world to understand it! :)

@drakasx - It has been thought of before - Remember Microsoft Passport? This system is better, because it is open, and not reliant one one company.

Great explanation, now I understand how OpenID works.

However, I don't onderstand why it is so long until they made something like this? I had thought of this idea about 6 years ago, and, well, it is nothin gtoo special for me!

You still didn't answer the question about losing your OpenID :|

Video on OpenId

2008-03-09T06:17:00.001-07:00

Here is a clever, helpful video on OpenId - a new technology designed to make it easier to sign into websites (watch the video to see what I mean).

Below I clipped some of the comments from YouTube (it seems that not everyone is enamored with the idea.

I guess we'll just have to see if this takes off.

clipped from www.youtube.com

OpenID According to Dave

A short video explaining OpenID, brought to you by myVidoop.com

the authentication part is fine
but the email part is wrong, I don't want to use the same email for every site I sign up for.
There are many solution to the too many users and passwords problems.
this soluiton requires sites to implement it, that's never going to happen with enough sites to become a real solution for the user (and the big ones will not want to do this at all)

isn't this like cardspace? (or whatever it was called) I'd rather use a plug in that saves my passwords locally

This is a disaster. There exist several ways to gain access to any server that checks with an IDP : One way that is not impossible is by using DNS poisoning so the service asks a fake IDP about "is this dave ?" ( or anyone else you wanna gain access for ) and always get yes answer.

Superb explanation for noobs.
I'll stick it in my blog so I know where to find it!

Thanks, myvidoop.