When Sprout Builder was first released in beta, this drag and drop Flash authoring widget building environment was immediately on fire. Although there was not much wrong with the original Sprout Builder, they have recently released a much more sophisticated version of their flash building services today. The new Software Development Kit in conjunction with authoring controls have seen a large amount of improvement, offering an excellent taste of the kind of extended functionality that users are now going to be able to take advantage of.

One of the new additions to the Sprout Builder service and its Software Development Kit includes full integration with Brightcove, Twitter, Seesmic and numerous other web services directly into the widgets that users create. The Software Development Kit or SDK has been slowly opening up to add additional support for as many services and developers could possibly imagine. There are also numerous additional authoring controls that are definitely worth noting the appearance of:

If you tried Sprout Builder in the past then you probably noticed that its first official launch had a few small kinks, but new improvements have cast these kinks out and turned Sprout Builder’s authoring controls into a much more fluid system.

- Page History –

Each and every page in the authoring space for a Sprout widget displays the last twenty editing actions that you took there, meaning that you can revert back, so taking bigger risks is possible without fear.

- Effects –

Elements can easily be set to flash at hover, to slide in at the loading of a page, or to perform a wide variety of other interesting effects. This is a simple enough matter that allows for authors of widgets to add some truly helpful finesse to the widgets that they create.

- Text Control –

Displaying RSS feeds has become one of the handiest possible ways to turn Sprouts into dynamic widgets. The text output in previous incarnations of the Sprouts utility was ugly and incapable of being changed but this is no longer the case. Now Sprout is a great deal more usable in terms of being a production level utility.

The launch of the Sprout Builder SDK platform has brought on a lot of extra potential. The SDK tool already packs a giant punch in terms of potential and productivity. By opening it up to outside developers, Sprout Builder is allowing outside developers to come in and greatly amplify the impact of the utility for added benefits.

The capabilities of the Software Developer Kit are growing increasingly sophisticated as time goes by, offering additional integration support at a rather consistent pace. All kinds of additional integrations will be offered in the coming months, including Seesmic integration that can handle recording videos straight to Seesmic from a Sprout rather than simply viewing videos, and Ribbit Click to Call which couldn’t be easier to utilize and has recently been taken live.

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Originally posted 2009-01-12 05:52:09. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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• How to Format Your Corporate Blog If you are completely new to corporate blogging, it can be difficult to know how to format your blog so that it is reader friendly. Here are some tips to help you create a blog that is easy and fun to read. 1. Avoid run on sentences. Practice the art......
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So many people focus only on the post portion of their corporate blog that they miss out on great opportunities to further promote their business. Unless you have integrated your blog into your company page, there are a few things that you need to add to make sure that you are taking full advantage of this medium.

1. An About Page –

This is a vital step that simply cannot be avoided. This is your chance to establish yourself or your company as an authority and promote your services. While this should not be turned into a sales letter, it can still serve to give your visitors an idea of who you are, what you do, and why they should be reading and listening to you. Without an about page, you are completely missing out on that opportunity of building authority. You might be surprised by how many people actually do read the about page on a blog – and you don’t want to miss out on this.

2. A contact page –

Simply asking your visitors to connect with you via comments, or occasionally posting an email address is not enough to establish that link with your readers. At the bare minimum we recommend adding a contact form that can be filled out by your visitors. No one wants to deal with spam, but if you’re not giving your readers a chance to reach out to you, once again, you have missed the boat on a very powerful opportunity. You can add your physical address, phone number, fax number or anything else you may need to make it easy for your readers to contact you.

3. An update page –

Sometimes blog posts aren’t enough to promote a new service, but a news page is. Consider keeping one page set aside for news and updates and feel free to get a little more promotional in here. Your readers will expect it since it is quite common and it gives them something to be excited about to. Don’t miss this great promotional opportunity!

4. Extensions, Plugins and Widgets –

If you are on Twitter – you need to let your readers know if you want them to follow you. There are numerous similar services out there that will help you connect with your readers and build strong relationships. You can easily add these to your blog with the use of extensions, plugins or widgets. Most are free and will display the latest updates you’ve made. Just keep this in mind when you are tweeting, since these will be published on your site as well. No matter what social media service you’re using, it should be integrated with your corporate blog for better results.

These are just a few extras that can be added to your page and when combined, they present a powerful force that you can use to continue extending your blog’s capability and reach, as well as helping you promote your company more effectively.

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Originally posted 2008-11-24 05:17:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Ever since Google purchased Blogger, Blogger has seen the addition of all kinds of interesting gadgets that create additional functionality and personality for your blog. Gadgets are essentially widgets, but by Google’s standard. You can show off your favorite quotes from movies, insert flash games, and show off the weather in your region or a number of other interesting things. Not all of these gadgets are ideal for a corporate blog, however, so which are? Here is a look at some of the best Google gadgets for blogging using the Blogger platform.

1 – Followers, which is found in Basics.

Followers is essentially what you get when you combine Twitter with RSS. You can follow people, people can follow you, and people can subscribe to your blog anonymously if they do not want to be followed. This is one of the easiest possible ways for you to attract more traffic to your blog. You can follow other people and they will more than likely begin to follow you in return, bringing new faces to your blog rather regularly.

2 – HTML / Javascript, which is also found in Basics.

This gives you the ability to add your own code to your blog page, which will significantly and exponentially enhance its functionality. You can add your own opt-in box for example, in order to begin your own mailing list. You can also easily add links and images to your other pages, making your blog work for you better than before.

3 – Feed, another gadget found in Basics.

This feature will allow you to add a feed from another blog, a Squidoo lens or even your author page on EzineArticles.com if you are an author there. Basically, it allows you to link your pages together, letting your readers find other content of yours such as your Twitter or Squidoo pages.

4 – Countdown, which is found in Featured.

This allows you to add a count down feature to your blog. You can count down to anything you like, such as a birthday, the launch of a new product, Christmas, or anything else that you like.

5 – AdSense, another gadget found in Basics.

This is a great way to make some extra money from your blog. You need to make an account with Ad Sense first, so put a few blog entries together before you apply for an account. Then you can create your Ad Sense account and add your special code to the gadget in order to begin earning money through advertising.

Adding gadgets to your blog through Blogger is simple. You just need to log in to your Dashboard, clicking on Layout and then Page Elements. Then click on the “Add a Gadget” link in the area where you would like to install the gadget and you are good to go.

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Originally posted 2009-02-20 05:31:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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