Ello - why you should support this private social network

Ello.co is the ad-free social network said to be the ‘anti-Facebook’ website gathering all who want to post – critic-free. This invite-only site was started by a small group of designers and artists on the quest seeking creative freedom.

The creators of Ello.co wanted a place unburdened by the usual advertisements stricken displays smeared across the sides of each landing page. The site is an advocate for keeping personal information private and the collection of data non-existent. A site where people can actually feel safe? Hopefully! But an anti-Facebook page? Not so much.

Ello.co is a mixture of Tumblr and Facebook. The only discrimination against Facebook is that Zuckerberg has a new competitor. Who isn’t sick of all the rules and regulations online communities enforce from the implementing process stimulated by power struggling moderators. Social distortion screams confinement concerned with what content is permitted and what is not.

The media has desensitized our youth to the point where Nicki Minaj reaches the ears of middle schoolers, so why should our social media platforms not separate posted content into appropriate censored-genres?

Ello.co allows the posting of adult-level content acting as a site for adults, created by adults. Being provocative can empower women and relinquish artistic vision upon people to influence and motivate others. Reddit promotes confrontational works in a section known as ‘NSFW’, but that doesn’t mean vulgarity is flashed for all to witness. NSFW settings are coming soon to Ello.

The beta version of Ello.co took on so much attention that the creators were not expecting that the site now updates its users throughout the building process. Blocking and muting along with @mention pre-population on user profiles and improved error handling were completed in the last beta test. Soon to come highlights will feature fluid grid noise post, enhanced user discovery, in-line emoji integration and image compression.

Black and white themed pages and simplistic-styled text make navigation through Ello relaxed for now but there will be add-ons available to enhance each user’s page starting at only $1. Users will also be able to access multiple accounts at once. First on the agenda is keeping up with the 34,000-per-hour requests to join this new social media mega takeover.

Find Ways to Cozy Up As Temperatures Drop

As the tree leaves start to change with the approaching seasons so should your home décor. It is always pleasant to walk into a comfortable home infused with warm, welcoming colors and style. Find ways to cozy up as temperatures start to drop.

Aroma Appeal

Candles are great to add smell and to be used for another heat source to any room. Yankee Candle usually has a fall sale where you can stock up all the seasonal scents at once. Cinnamon and Pumpkin are festive holiday smells to have floating in the air. Wrap a bow of ribbon around the top edge of the candle for flair.

Collective Color

Spice up any room with popping accents. Replace the couch pillows with friendly colors like burnt orange or deep-forest green. If you prefer a pattern rather than a solid color you can never go wrong with plaid or a leaves theme for fall! Earthy themes and tones have a simple, nurturing appeal.

Accentuate

Liven up any room with accents. This is easy to do on a nickel and dime! Set a chic bowl on your dining or living room table and fill with ornamental leaves and vegetables that match fall color schemes. Put some throws across the couch making it easy to bundle up during relaxation time. Rugs are also great to sink your toes into; lay rugs on the bathroom floor in front of the sink or in high-traffic hallways.

Restoration Recycling

Reinvent an item’s purpose. Recycle items by thinking of new ways to use them. Sheets can be turned into curtains since keeping the heat out is not an issue during cooler weathers. Use wooden crates to hold books, toys, or kitchen supplies, giving off a rustic feel. Chairs with sturdy frames are commonly refurbished. Spruce up a current chair color with peacock blue creating a visual contemporary meets classic charm piece.

Door Design

Don’t forget the most visually welcoming presence in your entire house: the front door! Paint or stain your front door a deep red with a matte finish and add a countryside looking wreath. Hanging a large empty photo frame is an alternative to the conventional wreath option. Update lighting fixtures and sweep the front porch too.

Staying warm is key to getting through the colder seasons, but mental warmth is always the most important and self-satisfying factor.

How To Shoot Video Like A Pro

A photo is worth a thousand words but a video is worth a million. Maybe this is why the media is streaming web content in video format over the traditional image content. Videos are the new thing in marketing generating an increase in conversions, clicks, and impressions.

Videography requires attention to particular aspects and a bit of know-how goes a long ways. Follow these tips to easily improve your video skills and look like a pro at home.

Know your equipment

A good videographer knows what angles create which concept being desired. Having an expensive video camera helps, but the real talent comes from knowing how to position your content or model to get the perfect shot. Read your manual to know about the tools on your video camera. One should always study before the big test just like a videographer should know where the ‘on’ button is.

Be ready for anything if you shoot on location

Always have your gear ready to go! Here is what you should pack for a shoot:

• A fully charged backup battery
• Extra memory cards
• A cleaning pen or cloth for your lens as dust or raindrops stick to your glass like glue. This will also help minimalize your post-production work
• A tripod, make this your new best friend
• Battery charger or power pack
• Accessories: different lenses, laundry clips (technical term is c-47), duct tape, microphones, stool or chair, bounce board
• An extension cord for your power packs

Tripods are a god’s gift to videographers

Do you want to hold that heavy camcorder for the entire shoot? Do you want a clean shot without shaking seconds you can’t remove in after effects? Use a tripod! If your video is shaky it will look cheap and as though you shot it at home. Image-stabilization won’t correct everything. Using a tripod also helps scanning and moving in and out of a certain shot.

Lighting is where it’s at

Lighting is everything. Lighting sets the mood of your shot from edgy to lifestyle or any other concept you hope to achieve. Know how this works! Practice at home. Put a teddy bear on the couch and see how you can make it look. If you are shooting outdoors, shoot on a cloudy day. This will remove the automatic sheen and shine that the sun overproduces. Let your lights cast straight towards your subject or below the chin line. If you raise the lights this will create unwanted shadows that make your subject look old and tired. Clean natural light is always the best option for optimal exposure.

Shoot B-roll

B-roll is the secondary footage you capture and use as fillers in-between main content. This could be raindrops, people laughing, or cars moving in traffic. Close-up shots work great as well. Whatever content you choose, as literally anything falls under the B-roll category, mix in with your final footage.

Why Social Media Works For Small Businesses

If you don’t think your company needs a presence on social media outlets you are far behind the curve. Research firm, BIA/Kelsey, surveys to find that social media is the number 1 in usage and spending.

Survey results that 74.5% of small and medium businesses use social media outlets to promote and advertise their business, which is 71.7% higher than social media usage last year.

Since five years ago when social media boom first really started to get notice, businesses have noticed positive results using this marketing tactic. Small businesses with a company holding less than 100 employees now spend an average of 21.4% of their total media budgets on social reports Ad Age.

Social media usage allows companies the opportunity to brand themselves further and gain more easy exposure. Reach to customers has increased in volume greatly. Knowing when to post is key. Social media also cuts back on the costs a company spends on advertising. It is a lot more affordable for companies to boost a post than pay to print materials and have them mailed out or put their money into visuals such as billboards and magazine or newspaper layouts. We won’t even talk about a commercial budget.

Let other people do the work for you. Sharing also makes social media a preferred method of advertising your brand, image and company. Sharing is like the virtual word-of-mouth and the word-of-mouth marketing tactic is traditional and affecting.

Choosing a channel for social media will assist in defining who you want your customers to be. Use Google Analytics to track where your business is achieving the most exposure. If you were selling mittens for kittens, Pinterest would probably be your best outlet as females browse Pinterest for this genre of item. As stated, when you post has an affect on your frequency of conversion rates and reach, as this customer type will be on Pinterest primarily on the weekends.

More well established companies will still see better ROI results than the small to medium sized companies, but the larger companies would dominate in traditional forms of advertising anyways. Social media gives businesses the chance to grow and make a name for themselves.

Do You Understand The “Cloud’?

There are so many questions we have about the “cloud” and it has almost become comical even that today’s youthful, technology-savvy individuals cannot get a handle on this concept. Maybe the reason why Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz’s new movie Sex Tape drew so much attention was due to the famous line in the movie’s preview “nobody understands the cloud”. Let’s change that shall we?

Cloud computing is a service that allows you to share resources on multiple devices. IBM, Google, and Apple, along with other companies all have cloud services. The cloud makes it possible to share photos, documents, videos, music, and other data on multiple devices such as your phone, computer, and tablet. It can be quite annoying to download a song three separate times just so you can have that song on all devices. The same goes for photos or videos that take up a lot of memory space. Cloud computing solves this problem!

When using Apple’s iCloud, for instance, there is a safety feature that if you happen to misplace or lose your device you can lock the device preventing another user from getting to your personal information. The iCloud can also back up data daily over Wi-Fi from any location (with Internet access). The iCloud is soon to feature an editing feature where you can work on any file from anywhere, and share to all devices.

There is not a huge differentiation between the Cloud brands as of now.  This might change in the near future, like most of the technology-wars do, as users require new features. A lot of people are hoping cloud computing will replace external hard drives when it comes to storage in general. The problem with this is that there is only so much available space on each individual’s cloud. This means that when the space available is used up, each user must purchase more space, and depending on how much memory is needed could add up quite a few pennies.

Cloud Computing is the future of technology, evolving so no data is lost and we can keep photos, videos, and songs for many years to come.  

Uber What?!

This modern taxi-like form of transportation has locals grinning with excitement at the news of this cashless convenience. Uber is the new thing in remote transportation; request a ride from the Uber application and pay with your mobile as well!

The Uber app connects you to the Uber driver nearest to your location from your phone’s GPS. This way, the Uber driver can see your exact location for pickup, even if you don’t know where you are! As the customer requesting the ride, you can also see where your driver is in relation to you on the location map. And don’t worry about watching for your ride to arrive, the driver will text or call when has arrived!

Uber drivers have to live up to a certain standard, as Uber wants every customer’s ride to be of the utmost enjoyable experience. Uber highly recommends users leave feedback! Rate your experience after your trip by leaving commentary on your driver, the car itself, and any other positive or poor experiences on Uber’s atmosphere.

Uber offers stylish rides too! Check out Uber’s uberX, an everyday car for everyday use; The Uber Taxi will make for no whistling needed as this yellow ride will be spotted very easily, the Uber Black is a private ride in a black, high-end sedan, the Uber SUV is a great option for large groups seating up to six people comfortably, and the Uber Lux is the luxury line for a more sophisticated outing.

No surprise charges with Uber. Let the Uber app know your pickup and drop-off location for a fare quote estimate prior to ordering a Uber. Just in case you don’t work in a restaurant, there is no need to worry about cash on hand. Once you have arrived at your destination, Uber charges your credit card on file.

There is also the option to split your fares with your friends! If all participating riders are signed up to the Uber app all person’s credit cards will be charged separately. No more pay-me-backs with this ride!

Uber has global locations. Download the Uber app today and let Uber be your new local pickup!