So, you have a blog. How's your traffic? Yeah, thought so. Just starting a blog? Wondering how to get it "out there". Well there are lots of tips and tricks for this, but here's an easy one that Qumana has made even easier -- tagging.

Let's talk tags. Tags are links in your post that allow it to be searched and grouped with other blogs and posts. Your tags should be one or two words that you would use to tell people what your post is about.

So if you're talking about cats, tag with cats. Soccer, well Soccer and maybe football. When someone clicks on the tag in your post it goes to the blog search engine Technorati and finds the other posts with that same tag. Of course if someone is looking for other posts about your subject, searches for that tag and you've tagged it ... well you can see where I'm going with this.

Qumana makes it super easy to tag your posts ... just use the Insert Tags button! When you click it you'll get a dialog box to enter your tags. Separate your tags with commas (you'll see the tags for this post at the bottom), and click okay. That will insert your tags in your post. Typically tags are placed at the bottom of the post. Kinda like a "see also ..." reference.

Does it work? Oh yeah. This blog is rather new, but because we've been tagging it, Technorati, and other engines, have already indexed it. Not bad for a couple week old blog!

So getting tagging!

Tags: Qumana, Lycos, Technorati, Technorati tags, tags, tagging

Posted by tris-hussey at 2:52 PM PDT

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Welcome to the fold Angelfire bloggers! A little bird told me, okay it was Jen, that your blogs have been upgraded to be able to use Qumana. Like 30 mins ago!

How's that for news?

Come on, give it a try. Hey, it's even free. Nothing to lose!

Tags: Qumana, Angelfire, Lycos, blogging

Posted by tris-hussey at 2:32 PM PDT

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Lorraine sent this over to me this morning via IM, so a little Sunday fun for you ... from crapzz based on your birthday (month and day) it matches to a particular tree (there are repeats so you might share a tree with other months/days).

Accurate? Well I think it's pretty good. You judge:

Me:

CHESTNUT TREE (Honesty) - of unusual beauty, does not want to impress, well-developed sense of justice, vivacious, interested, a born diplomat, but irritates easily and sensitive in company, often due to a lack of self confidence, acts sometimes superior, feels not understood, loves only once, has difficulties in finding a partner.

My daughter A and Lorraine:

HAZELNUT TREE (Extraordinary) - charming, undemanding, very understanding, knows how to make an impression, active fighter for social cause, popular, moody, and capricious lover, honest, and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgment.

My son T:

ROWAN TREE (Sensitivity) - full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

Tags: horoscopes, astrology

Posted by tris-hussey at 12:09 PM PDT

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If you're trying to set up your Tripod blog with the Lycos-Qumana Blog Editor, you might be asked for an "endpoint" and are likely confused.

Right now Tripod has a tiny bug that prevents Lycos-Qumana from detecting some Tripod blog settings. This should be fixed very very quickly.

In the mean time, here is the information you'll need to enter in the Manual Setup to begin blogging with Lycos-Qumana:

Platform: Lycos Blog Builder
Endpoint: https://blog.tripod.lycos.com/bin/blog/control.rpc

Posted by arieanna81 at 1:40 PM PDT

Updated: Friday, 7 April 2006 10:51 AM PDT

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Did you know that when you insert an ad using Lycos-Qumana and Q Ads you can actually preview what your ad is going to be?

Well, you can. And it's easy. Here is how:

1. Place your cursor where you would like your ad to appear
   • tip: the top right corner is very effective with smaller sized ads
2. Click on the green "Insert Ad" button
3. In "Step 2" change your option to "Custom ad banner design"
   • If you have already entered a keyword in Step 1 you can then preview it immediately
4. Enter a single keyword or a keyphrase (e.g. hockey stick)
5. Review the banner presented to you. Does it match? If so, go ahead and press "Ok" and your banner will be inserted
6. Don't like your ad? Just erase your keyword and try again - either more broad or more specific - to see if you can get something more to your liking
7. Press "OK" to enter the ad

If you have not signed up for Q Ads yet, get to it!

Tags: qumana, advertising, keyword advertising

Posted by arieanna81 at 1:21 PM PDT

Updated: Thursday, 6 April 2006 1:21 PM PDT

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Inserting links with Qumana is so easy, but you likely don't know it. And it all comes down to shortcut keys - which, when you get used to them, keep you typing so much faster!

Here is how you get that link into your post in under 5 seconds.

1. Select the URL you want to link
2. Copy it to your clipboard
   • Mac: Command-C
   • PC: Ctrl-C
3. Select the text in Qumana you want to make into a link
4. Use the shortcut key to insert a link
   • Mac: Command-Shift-L
   • PC: Ctrl-Shift-L
5. Press enter (the URL you copied will automatically be in the box)

Step 1 - Select URL from browser

Step 4 - Insert Link

And that's it! Simple!

Tags: qumana, shortcuts, productivity, tips, blogs, blogging, links, linking

Posted by arieanna81 at 1:14 PM PDT

Updated: Thursday, 6 April 2006 1:15 PM PDT

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Despite some computer company announcing yesterday that another company's OS could run on their machines, the buzz on the Blogosphere has been quite respectable. The BlogPulse search says it all I think. The commentary we're getting is pretty insightful. Sure we've been getting the w00ts! and congrats from friends, but there have been comments like:

In a landscape of hyper-acquisitions and VC bulimia, it's nice to see an old-school-netco-meets-web-2.0 alliance where both companies gain--and so do their end users, especially those million++ Tripod and Angelfire folks who now have easy access to a super-easy blogging platform.-- Jeneane Sessum

Wow, I get a day or two behind, and look what I miss. Lycos - one of the Big Names in Internet - and Qumana - one of the Big Names in blogging - have joined forces to present the Lycos-Qumana Blog Editor, and the Lycos-Qumana RSS reader. Through the Lycos-Qumana alliance, Lycos is also offering easy one-stop blogging through their Tripod service.

Want more hype? Try this one on for size. Wired News (a service of Lycos) bloggers are now posting more efficiently thanks to Lycos-Qumana. -- Frye

Other search firms are moving to explore the expansive web as well. Last month, Lycos announced it was introducing a number of self-publishing and distribution options for content creators. It recently entered the VOIP market with Lycos Phone and today announced the release of a desktop Blog editing tool, Lycos-Qumana. -- SEO Blog

Other mentions: C|Net, Blog Herald, WebProNews, Mark Evans

So, what else do we have up our sleeves? Well that would be telling wouldn't it? Let's just say we're not resting on our laurels and are going to stay as busy as ever.

Tags: Lycos-Qumana, Qumana-Lycos, Qumana, Lycos, Tripod, Angelfire, blogging, Q Ads, QReader

Posted by tris-hussey at 10:40 AM PDT

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Wow, what a month it has been. Our exciting news (on Lycos and Yahoo) is making its way through the Net as I write this (Thanks Toby, Lorraine, Mark, and Jeremy for early ink). Before I get into the details and my thoughts, I have some thank yous to say. First the whole Qumana and Lycos teams. A project and deal of this scale cannot be pulled off by a single person. The whole team has worked so, so hard to make this possible (and we even had a Qumana wedding too!) and I thank them so much. Now, as good as a project might be a web-related project needs, well, servers. So I'd like to give special thanks to our primary host Pair and our caching provider Akamai. They have also done extra duty and came through in the clutch when we needed them to make sure the pages got served.

So ... what does this mean for Qumana? A lot. This is huge for us. Lycos is one of those icons of the Internet. Lots of history, lots going on. We're excited to be working with them. In many ways this is an affirmation of Qumana's mission: make blogging easier and better. Beyond all the hype, beyond all the thoughts of blog bubbles and getting into debates about "what is web 2.0", this sea change we've seen over the last two years is about writing and publishing. It's about people having their say. It's about people helping to shape, expand, illustrate, and elaborate on the news of the day. And now the legions of Tripod and Anglefire, and ... oh did I mention ... Wired bloggers can create, describe, and publish easier today than they could yesterday.

This has been a busy time, but there is no time to rest on our laurels. Still lots to do. Still more ways to make things better. Still more posts to write. Time to get going on this exciting new phase.

Tags: Qumana, Lycos, Qumana-Lycos, Lycos-Qumana, blogging

Posted by tris-hussey at 9:33 AM PDT

Updated: Wednesday, 5 April 2006 4:20 PM PDT

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We're stoked, we're cool, we rock!

Posted by tris-hussey at 2:31 PM PDT

Updated: Monday, 3 April 2006 2:33 PM PDT

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