[List may currently be out of date until I have time to edit it and remove this flag. However its still probably close to accurate.]
1. A Good Attitude
2. A Willingness to both Learn and Teach and be an active participant in both the forum and your group. Also a willingness to bring others
into participating.
3. A Blog that gives value to the reader (aka not a sales pitch filled blog) that you are going to regularly add-to. It is preferable for your
own benefit that you have a self-hosted (wordpress.org) rather than a rented (wordpress.com/blogger.com) blog, though not mandatory.) You
will also want to have a new blog post to post on each day of your groups meeting so that it can get shared and help drive new traffic to
your blog.
4. Blog Plugins Installed/Set-Up: Tweetmeme, Facebook Share (or replace both of those with “Digg Digg”), CommentLuv & OnlyWire Button
(There are a LOT of suggested ones we will cover, but these are the only mandatory ones. Both of these are available in plugin search and do
not need downloaded.)
Anyone using Blogger (not a full featured blog tool) will need to install IntenseDebate as a commenting system (not a widget) first, and enable Commentluv through there:
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/05/how-to-install-intense-debate-comments.html
5. Accounts (free):
1. http://comluv.com (just a login, add your email address and blog URL to the profile there)
2. http://www.onlywire.com
(a log in, the free/promote plan, yes you have to set up all ~40 logins
with the various bookmarking sites that it connects to. This will take
time, but its important.) http://michaelfeil.com/the-benefits-of-using-onlywire/
3. http://www.wordpress.com & http://gravatar.com
(just a login, needed for the spam-filtering plugin Akismet, and more importantly to set up your gravatar (profile picture) there. Add your
first/last name and blog url)
4. A Facebook profile page and be giving thoughts to a business (fan) page. The best business pages in most cases today are self branded (if you only have one) with no business name inclusion. The reason for this is lack of ability to EVER change that page name. You want to make sure it gives value to the reader, encouraging them to come contribute, and not just a place to dump your blog posts. The Profile Must be branded in your name.
5. A Twitter account, branded in your name. For Example: AskKim is mine.
6. Skype and a user account there. That will be instant-communication central for us. You can remain on the free plan as all skype-to-skype
calls are free. You will need a headset. I do not suggest using your PC mic and separate speakers due to very bad sound feedback. It can be done but it will be very rough for your team if you are not on a headset.
6. Patience. Understand that this is a learning process for everyone. Please be patient. Give help to those just getting started. Pull your
team-mates up, never put anyone DOWN. Give everyone here a hand-up, not a hand-out.
7. Be sure to signup! {link soon}
