If you have the capability of making an awesome video for YouTube, you have the ability to earn revenue from it.  YouTube has extended their YouTube Partnership Program to not only popular users, but individual popular videos that are submitted to their site.  If your video does not violate their terms of service in any way, and has a ton of views, YouTube will send you notices that you may “Enable Revenue Sharing.”  If they don’t extend this offer to you, you may submit it by applying for YPP membership.  After enabling this feature, you are able to generate revenue using Google AdSense and receive monthly checks; however, Google AdSense has a $100 pay out.

If your video has gone viral, this is a great way to make some extra money.  I know that Emmalina would have made big money a couple of years ago! (I love that girl…  So sweet.)  Perhaps this will bring the entertainer in her out of hiding.

There are so many viral videos out there that are not making any profit!  It has taken a while for YouTube to get to this place, so take advantage of it as soon as you can.  You can check out some of my favorite videos by visiting my YouTube profile.  My utmost favorite; however, is a guy named Steve.  Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPxIibhcKY

Everything that I thought I hated about Twitter has been fixed with a web-based Twitter Client, HootSuite 2.0.  First of all, I must say that whoever invented “tabs” is my hero.  You don’t realize how much you love tabbed browsers until you go to work where they’re still making you use Internet Explorer 6.0.  HootSuite lays everything out in easy to find tabs.  My Twitter followers keep growing in numbers, and I obviously don’t have the time to read each and every tweet.  HootSuite allows me to column off my close friends so I don’t miss a beat with their tweets.  In another column on my first tab, I am able to see everyone who mentioned my name, while the other two columns on my first tab have direct messages and everyone else’s tweets.  My second tab shows tweets from HootSuite and other “featured” tweets.  I’ve only just begun to customize my HootSuite.

I have a website I intend to launch in the near future and can also add this account to my HootSuite where I can monitor both accounts at the same time.  Not only that, my partner in crime, Molly can share access to the account easily with HootSuite on her own dashboard.  You can schedule your tweets and track statistics on all of your Twitter accounts all while using their new Drag & Drop features.  I would also like to add that HootSuite is a bit too advanced for the likes of older browsers.  If you’re still using IE 6, it’s not going to work.  HootSuite will suggest other browsers for you but I can say that I’m still an avid Mozilla Firefox user.  I tried Google Chrome but did not like that you couldn’t get the Google Toolbar on Google Chrome.  However, HootSuite works on both, and Safari as well!  So try out this new Twitter toolbox.  It’s  a real hoot. *chuckle*

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXpYVTnyCjU

]]> http://erikamarie.com/blog/hootsuite-a-better-way-to-tweet-on-twitter/feed/ 2 http://erikamarie.com/blog/personal-privacy-the-internet/ http://erikamarie.com/blog/personal-privacy-the-internet/#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:59:05 +0000 Erika Marie http://erikamarie.com/blog/?p=34

Back in the days of AOL profiles when no one really knew who we were, there wasn’t much issue with Internet Privacy.  I’m not referring to unsecure sites asking for your credit card number, but sites like MySpace, Facebook and the like.  It seems everyone under 30, and even some senior citizens have at least one profile of the two major Social Networking Sites.  These sites show your personal lives laid out in a neat little page for all, or few to see.  They tell where you work, where you live, phone numbers, etc.  Facebook, a stalker’s dream even tells you when someone is going through relationship problems.  My favorite is “it’s complicated.” 

Part of me really enjoys the attention I receive from friends commenting on what I’m doing that day, my vacation, and new photos.  These are people I would otherwise probably not talk to ever again if I hadn’t found them searching for old friends and classmates.  I was never much of a social butterfly, and these sites allow me to socialize without being in a crowded room of people where I would likely have a panic attack and try desperately to fade into the background. 

Then there are those I don’t know all that well.  Friends I met via internet forums, through other friends, and maybe a few that fell in the cracks whom I don’t even know from Adam – all able to see where I’m going this weekend, and how dirty my floors are from the photos of my pit bull puppy, Lily.  How much do I really want them to know?

I pick and choose who gets to see what.  I’ll never let most of you into my private LiveJournal, and even if you try to send me a friend request on my Facebook, I can promise you I will undoubtedly not accept.  These are places reserved for my closest friends, family.  Perhaps I will create a separate MySpace and Facebook profile if any of you request me to do so.  Until then, I’d like some of who I am to remain private.

The problem with letting strangers in is that you will inevitably get “haters.”  Most people don’t tell you their skeletons but in the past, I’ve let it all out, freely.  It bit me in the rear very quickly.  I was young and I suppose I was seeking attention; however, I didn’t estimate how much negative attention I would actually get.  I let people get to me and wore my emotions on my sleeve for all to see.  Clearly, a rookie mistake.  I withdrew to avoid the attention and after all was said and done, years went by and the negative attention almost ceases to exist.  This time around, I’ve got other plans.

Some people are afraid of internet predators and psycho stalkers.  Yeah, I’ve had my share of stalkers.  I even dated one.  Those psycho stalkers are somebody’s next-door neighbor.  Just because you met them on the internet doesn’t make them any more psycho. 

So, my question to the readers (however few I may have at this point) is: How secure do you feel having your personal business strewn all over the internet?  Would you be afraid if your boss or your mother Googled you?  What do you do to separate the internet from everyday reality, or has the internet become your reality?