SCANNERS NIGHT

Or domains for that matter. If you’re a scanner and you haven’t discovered the joy of throwing together a website or blog for your new latest passion, it’s time to have a go.

My webhost 1and1 are celebrating 20 years in the biz by giving free hosting for a year, which is nice.

Go for the Home package and pay nowt for a year. Terms and conditions apply, no doubt.

I thoroughly recommend them because:

• They’re the world’s biggest web host and ultra reliable
• You can have loads of domains on one cheapie account (I have 53)
• You get a free blog
• You can use a free push-button website builder to make your website
• You get a free (basic) newsletter tool
• You can have loads of email addresses (if you’re one of those people still running your business off your ISP’s email address or even worse, a hotmail address, this is reason alone to sign up).
• The control panel is pretty easy to use
• Other cool stuff including some sort of “Easy Shop”

Click the banner below to find out more.

If you already have a main website, there’s no reason not to get a domain for your latest side project and point it at a blog or simple website. Have a fish for domains below:

I discovered this diagram on Wikipedia and found it fascinating. As a scanner, there’s something very satisfying for me to be able to quickly understand something that’s been foggy for a long time.

This diagram explains the relationship between terms like England, Great Britain, UK, and British Isles.

Did you know that the Isle of Man is outside the UK? Or that the Republic of Ireland is in the British Isles but not the British Islands? Am I the only person to care? Leave a comment and let me know!

Where I’ve Been In The World

This application is fun if a little broad brush-stroke outside of the US (e.g. going to Bali for a week paints the whole of Indonesia blue).

Suddenly I feel very under-travelled.

They call the web interactive but really it’s less interactive than a book – at least with a book you can mark sections to come back to or to show to others. Well now you can do that with web pages.

Go to awesomehighlighter.com, enter a website address, mark bits to highlight, then send a short link to it to other people. You’ll be doing a favour to scanners who won’t have to read the whole thing. You could also use this to keep your own highlights (install their toolbar to make it quicker).

Particularly handy if you want to show something on the web to somebody but it’s buried in the middle of a load of other stuff.

Have a look at this nifty page I’ve created with highlights to show what it does:
http://awurl.com/moogny139029

I’ve put a whole load of interesting links for Scanners up on the new ScannerLinks page. Check ’em out.

Barbara Sher has a shop on Cafepress with products bearing the design below.

Visit the shop

Got an idea for a product but can’t think of a catchy name?

Try NameThis. NameThis is designed to provide a quick and painless way for innovators to find a market-ready name for their company, product or service. Those with a thing in need of a name begin by posting a request for help and paying USD 99. Members of the community then have 48 hours to suggest names and/or invest points in their favourites.

At the end of the 48 hours, NameThis’s system “does some fancy math” and picks three winners. Of the fee paid by the thing’s owner, USD 80 is distributed to those who contributed to the winners: USD 40 goes to the person who picked the first-place name, while USD 10 is shared amongst the influencers on that name; USD 16 goes to the second-place namer, while USD 4 is shared among the influencers on that one; and USD 8 goes to the individual who picked the third-place name, with USD 2 shared among influencers.

And if you’re good at coming up with great names for stuff, why not go and earn a few quid/dollars by suggesting names? (Hey, I think I’ll have a go…)

NameThis.com

Well someone had to do it!

If you’re on Facebook, join the Scanners & Renaissance Souls group at:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45588180550

Barbara Sher is a member and I’ve uploaded a piece of video of her talking about “Success Teams”. There are also a couple of links and photos and other bits and bobs. Come along and write on our wall or upload something of interest.

Welcome to the Scanner Blog where I will be posting stuff of interest to Scanners here – tips on creativity, productivity (for right-brained people), how to choose between and run multiple projects and how to implement your ideas as quickly as possible. Oh and how to make money out of them!