• When you “pin” something, unless you you the upload option to post your own picture, users can click on your pin to go to the original source. It’s a good system – it allows as much traffic as possible back to the site of interest, no matter who pins or repins.

• There’s this tool called SkimLinks that website owners can use that will basically look at an entire site and whenever a link could be an affiliate link, but isn’t, SkimLinks automatically makes it one.

• What Pinterest has done is installed SkimLinks so that anything pinned by any user that could be an affiliate link (but the user didn’t make one) will be made into one – using Pinterest’s ID.

It’s an upsetting thought for a lot of people, but I’ve never been one to go with the crowd. I’m more than happy to allow Pinterest to make money from my pins using SkimLinks. But I feel like a disappointed parent…because I wish they would have just told me.

Beyond FTC rules they are potentially breaking by not disclosing the presence of affiliate links, I don’t think it’s fair that Pinterest doesn’t make this process clear to new users. Even worse, the process for adding your own affiliate ID is difficult. In most cases, you have to add the pin, then go back in and edit the link, and while you’re making adjustments, your pin is live with their link…and people repin stuff pretty quickly sometimes.

The other problem is that sometimes bloggers and other content creators what to post their own products. You obviously aren’t an affiliate for yourself…but Pinterest could just take it upon themselves to add their own ID to your links, so you’re doing all the pinning work but you still have to pay out a commission to the company. Bogus.

Overall, though, I’m not inherently mad about Pinterest hijacking my links and making some money with affiliate sales. In fact, I hope they keep doing it.

The company has to make money somehow, right? Take a look at the site. Right now, how is it making money for the company? The answer is…it isn’t. To be sustainable long-term, the company would probably have to start having sponsored pins (yuck), blatant sidebar ads (yuck), or membership fees (yuck). I’d rather them make use of potential affiliate links that aren’t being used anyway. It makes sense because it doesn’t change my Pinterest experience in any way, yet the company still makes money.

It’s kind of like the chubby kid in the cafeteria coming up to you and asking, “Are you going to eat that?” If you’re not, give him the other half of your sandwich. Someone might as well enjoy it rather than it getting thrown away.

But they need to disclose this. Here are the changes I’d like to see:

1. Full disclosure about SkimLinks when you sign up for the site. Not buried somewhere in the TOS…clearly stated for everyone to see.
2. An option to add your own affiliate link when you pin a product (if you want to) as you’re pinning – not having to go back after the fact and re-link the pin.
3. A dedication to warn and potentially ban users who are using affiliates without disclosure on their profile or boards.

Pinterest, I’m happy for you to make some money from me. You have an awesome platform that I love to use, and I feel good that you’re able to make a little money in exchange for me being able to continue using your cool site. Just be honest about it and give me some options to make the experience less shady. Let’s keep Pinterest awesome. That way, we can all make a little cash and enjoy the pinning experience.

Yesterday, Twitter announced that it has refined the technology enough to censor tweets in specific areas of the world.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. We all have this knee-jerk reaction to instantly hate anything that even questions our freedom of speech concepts, but before you get mad at Twitter, think about what this could mean for us as content creators and social media users.

Misplaced Anger

I think it’s important to start by understanding that Twitter isn’t going to just start wiping out your tweets willy-nilly. What they’re talking about is being able to block tweets on a country-by-country basis in order to comply with that country’s laws. Currently, Twitter already does censor some tweets that break United States laws – in most cases, that boils down to removing tweets that contain links to child pornography sites.

Some countries have very strict laws about what you can and cannot say publicly. Freedom of speech is not a world-wide civil liberty, unfortunately. Twitter isn’t creating these laws; governments are. I think public anger is a bit misplaced. We should be angry that governments are censoring their people, not angry that Twitter is abiding by these laws.

Some Access is Better than No Access

I won’t argue that censorship is a good thing, but I will argue that Twitter’s new ability to censor on a country-by-country basis is a good thing. Let’s use China as an example, since this is a country where Twitter is currently blocked. If Twitter wants to provide access in China, the company has two options:

• Censor everything any user from any country says to meet China’s policies.
• Censor some tweets in China to adhere to policies while leaving these tweets untouched in other parts of the world.

The second option is much better! Could you imagine if everything we said on Twitter was censored by the Chinese government? The third choice, of course, is to simple continue denying access to China so that no one’s tweets were censored to any follower, but I think some access is better than none at all. Even if my followers in China only were able to reader one out of every hundred tweets, that’s better than the situation now. I’d love to connect to new people, even if it was in a very small way.

Now, Twitter is unlikely to actually pursue Chinese operations at the moment, given the country’s fiasco with Google a few years ago, but this is just an extreme example of how it could work in countries with different laws. And a launch in China is certainly not out of the question.

A Commitment to Human Rights

One could argue that Twitter should not censor tweets at all, that they should simply refuse to provide services in any country with strict laws that don’t provide for freedom of speech. I argue that this approach is cutting off the nose to spite the face.

First of all, I don’t think any company that provides non-essential services is going to change the mind of a government power that restricts Internet use. Government in North Korea, for example, has shown the world that it can and will isolate its people. They don’t really given a you-know-what if their people have access to Twitter or not. So by refusing to enter these countries, Twitter isn’t really doing any good in my opinion.

Second, I believe it is important to support the people of a country. They don’t always agree with government policies. Heck, I don’t always agree with my government policies (who does?), but that doesn’t mean moving to another country is a better choice – and some people don’t have this option.

Third, this isn’t always a matter of black and white. For example, I think we can all agree here that spreading links to child pornography should not be protected under “freedom of speech,” and I’m glad Twitter removes those tweets. But from there, you can slope down to lesser and lesser “evils.” Where is the line drawn? Just because something is allowed by law in the United States doesn’t mean that other governments and cultures should have to conform to our standards. For example, pornography is illegal in many countries. Should Twitter boycott these countries the same as they boycott a country that censors tweets with negative opinions about the government?

Censorship for Positive Change?

Many major online companies, including Google, already censor their content in other countries to abide by laws, so this is nothing new. Twitter is just being extremely transparent about things, which I think is commendable. They plan to release information about who and where tweet censorship is being requested.

That could actually be a really positive thing for change in the world. It brings freedom issues to the forefront in people’s minds, both in the country being censored and in countries where people have more liberty to say whatever they want. So, censorship is bad…but Twitter’s move into countries where this is an issue could be good for raising awareness.

Not Without Problems

The concept of semi-censoring tweets is not without its problems.

Will Twitter simply listen to what a government official says, or will it allow tweets that aren’t breaking the law, even if a take-down is ordered? For example, what if the U.S. government decided to censor all the SOPA tweets earlier this month? Those tweets should be protected under the constitution, but if a take-down was ordered, would Twitter simply comply? Given the fast-paced nature of Twitter, the amount of time it would take for a tweeter to challenge something like that would make it a moot point. If tweets about SOPA were reinstated after the bill became a law, for example, it wouldn’t really matter.

And I also worry about misinformation. When someone is only seeing part of the story, ideas and facts can get dangerously warped very quickly. If someone is only see some of my tweets, they might form a very wrong opinion of me. Worse, it allows a government to have a lot of control on the message. If 99% of tweets about your leader are positive, is it because 99% of people actually like this person or because almost all negative tweets were caught and removed by censorship filters.

Thinking About Our Content Differently

I think, as content creators, we should be excited about Twitter’s plans to expand into new countries, even if tweets will be censored. It means new followers, new connections, and new readers/viewers. However, it does mean that we have to think about our content a little differently.

With Twitter’s new ability to censor tweets in specific countries, our messages aren’t going to be seen in the same way by every follower. If you want to reach this new audience, it’s important to make sure that you’re tweeting in a way that allows your messages to be seen, and that might require a little research to learn about laws in other countries.

Let’s Keep Our Eyes on Things

This new power for Twitter does not come without responsibility. Whether we realize it or not, censorship on Twitter has already been happening, but now that it is easier to wipe out tweets in specific countries, I think all of us users need to band together and just…well…keep an eye on things. It’s now much easier for a government – even the United States government – for for Twitter itself to abuse these powers. It’s up to us to ask questions and keep those in charge accountable for the decisions they make.

Here are a few more posts with information and opinions on this topic, which I’ve quickly collected with the help of one of my favorite plugins of all time, Zemanta. Weigh in with your opinion or a link to your post about the topic by leaving comment below.

• Twitter Will Censor Your Tweets If a Country Tells It To (gizmodo.com)
• Thoughts on Twitter’s Latest Move (jilliancyork.com)
• Twitter Changes The “Contours” Of Censorship With Country-By-Country Blocking (techcrunch.com)
• Twitter caves on censorship overseas (piedtype.com)
• Twitter to Censor Content in Certain Countries (mashable.com)
• Twitter Censored and DOMA (theintrepids.wordpress.com)
• This Tweet Is Available In The Following Countries: (pandodaily.com)
• Twitter will censor tweets, but will try really hard not to (gigaom.com)

Today, Google announced that they’d now be allowing both nicknames and pseudonyms on Google+. This makes it much easier for anonymous bloggers to use the network, which will definitely be an advantage for Google as it continue to try to attract more users. But is it doing any favors for the Internet as a whole? Will this encourage the use of pseydonyms – and is that a good thing?

Critics had told me that they feel my pen name allows a certain level of dishonesty. Because I’m not writing under my real name, I’m not as accountable for what I write on my blog, and it also makes it easier for me to deceive people.

These things are true. Blogging under a pen name is powerful, and with great power comes great responsibility.

But I would argue that, online, it’s possible to deceive people whether you use your real name or not. I don’t believe that anonymous blogging makes a blogger more likely to be dishonest, but I do believe that some people find it easier to create better content if they are able to use a pen name – and that’s a good thing for our community of content creators.

Having more opinions or ideas is rarely a bad thing, but if people aren’t allowed to anonymously express those opinions or share those ideas, they’ll often remain silent. Depending on the topic, blogging can jeopardize your job or reflect poorly on your family and friends. A pen name allows your to write without the worry that you’ll be judged. This freedom can be liberating.

Some people abuse this power and use a pseudonym to be nasty to others, share confidential information, or do other unsavory things. Don’t allow these people to form your opinion of anonymous bloggers. There are bad apples in every bunch. Most of the bloggers who write under names other than their real ones simply don’t want to be defined by a single piece of content during their daily lives. The freedom of being able to use a pen name allows us to create better content on Google+ and in general.

I believe that Google+’s decision to allow nicknames and pseudonyms is good for the online community. What do you think?

This Week’s Topic: Pinterest

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been blogging and tweeting a lot about Pinterest. It’s my latest obsession, and one that I believe has unlimited potential for content creators and business owners. Check out Seven Cool Ways to Use Pinterest and my Pinterest Beginner’s Guide if you haven’t already; then, take some time to read the below Pinterest posts by some of the most brilliant bloggers online.

*Note* Usually, I link everyone’s Twitter handles, but this week, given the topic, I thought it would be an even better idea to link to Pinterest profiles too, when I could find them.

Also, you can find my Pinterest boards here. I pin mostly funny stuff, good blog posts, and craft ideas (plus a mish mosh of other stuff). Leave your Pinterest profile link in a comment below and tell us what you most often pin so we can all connect!

Advice from Brilliant Bloggers:

5 Pinterest Tips for Beginners by Kelby Carr at Type-A Parent

Kelby’s a power user in the world of Pinterest, and she’s currently working a new Dummies book about this network, so her post is a great place to start! If you’re new to Pinterest, this post will help you get going. Upon first glance, Pinterest can look really confusing and hard to learn, but with a little time – and Kelby’s tips – you’ll be addicted in no time!

Pinterest is great to find cool stuff and inspiration, and it’s also great for content creators hoping to drive traffic. Writes Kelby,

If you’re a blogger jumping in, it is probably because you would like to get exposure and traffic as a result. Just like other social networks, you should primarily pin content from other sources or you will look spammy. Still, you can pin your own content on occasion. What is even better, however, is to encourage others to pin your content.

Read the entire post, and then check out Kelby on Twitter (@typeamom) and on Pinterest (kelby).

Pinterest: Behind the Design of an Addictive Visual Network by Lauren Drell on Mashable

One of the best ways to learn about any network or platform is to hear information straight from the horse’s mouth. That’s what you have in this post from Lauren Drell at Mashable – a great interview with one of the co-founders of Pinterest, Evan Sharp. Along with Paul Sciarra and Ben Silbermann, Evan created this social discovery platform as a way for people to visually share things they find interesting, and today, it’s one of the fastest-growing start-ups out there. Check out this complete interview with Evan to learn more. Here’s a snippet:

I was always collecting images on the web in folders on the desktop of my computer, but it wasn’t a very good system for remembering where things came from or who made them. We wanted to create a place where you can go to upload or collect things on the web and simply organize it the way you want to [each with its associated metadata].

You can find Lauren on Twitter @drelly and on Pinterest (drelly).

18 Real-World Examples of How Brands Are Using Pinterest by Sakita Holley at SakitaHolley.com

Pinterest isn’t just for bloggers. This is also an absolutely great platform for brands who want to connect with their audience. Companies like Nordstrom and Whole Foods have been cited often for using Pinterest well, but these aren’t the only companies making awesome use of Pinterest. In this post, Sakita takes a look at 18 brands that really understand how to use Pinterest – and as you can guess, they’re doing more than just promoting their own products. From her post:

I’m always curious to see how brands use various platforms to engage with their customers and fans. So naturally I’ve been scouting for early brand adoption examples on Pinterest, a new website still in its infancy that puts a digital spin on pin boards.

After checking out Sakita’s post, you can find her on Twitter (@MissSuccess) and on Pinterest (misssuccess).

BONUS: I usually only highly three brilliant bloggers and list the rest as links below, but this week, I wanted to also highlight a fourth post, from Dave Copeland (copewrites/@copewrites) at Read Write Web – “A Guy’s Guide To Pinterest.” Most of the posts this week are written by women and the platform itself tips in favor of female users…but that doesn’t mean guy’s can’t use it too! In fact, there are a lot of really cool things guys are pinning on Pinterest, so fellas, don’t be afraid to sign up.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

• 3 Pinterest Tips for Nonprofits by Justin J. Ware (justin_ware/@JustinJWare)
• 3 Tips for Using Pinterest to Its Fullest by Christian D.
• 7 Creative Ways Your Brand Can Use Pinterest by Kaila Strong (cliquekaila/@cliquekaila)
• 9 Tips: Boost Your Business with Pinterest by John Brandon (@jmbrandonbb)
• 10 Tips on Using Pinterest for Your Business by Nancy Messieh (@nfm)
• 15 Tips for Using Pinterest as a Way to Build Your Little Biz by Karen Gunton (karengunton/@karengunton)
• Add a Pin It Button to Blog Posts by Karen (KarenAtHome/@karen_at_home)
• The Business Interest in Pinterest by Fred Campos (fredcamposjr/@FredCamposJr)
• Can Pinterest Save Your Life by Charlotte Andersen
• How and Why to Use Pinterest for Business by John Jantsch (ducttape/@ducttape)
• How To Be A Pinterest Pro by Rachel Kaufman (@rkaufman)
• HOW TO: Get Your Nonprofit Started on Pinterest by Heather Mansfield (nonprofitorgs/@nonprofitorgs)
• How to Make Your Startup Go Viral The Pinterest Way by Steve Cheney (stevecheney/@stevecheney)
• How to Use Pinterest, And Why You Should by Scott Stevens (scottstevensme/@scottstevens)
• How to Use Pinterest Effectively by Lauren Orsini (lauren_orsini/@laureninspace)
• How to Use Pinterest for Local SEO by Chris Silver Smith (argentleaf/@si1very)
• How to Use Pinterest for Your Ecommerce Business by Armando Roggio (roggio/@ecommerceboy)
• How To Use Pinterest To Direct More Traffic To Your Website by Isaiah Cisneroz (isaiahcisneroz/@Isaiah_Cisneroz)
• How to use Pinterest’s pinboard for the Web by Mark W. Smith (markwsmith/@markdubya)
• More Tips and Tricks for Companies and Brands Using Pinterest by Sarah Powell-Henning (spowell4/@spowellhenning)
• Pinterest: 13 Tips and Tricks for Cutting Edge Users by Stephanie Buck (stephmbuck/@StephMBuck)
• Pinterest: How to Use It & How to Love It by Allison Czarnecki (petit_elefant/@petit_elefant)
• Pinterest: Is it a Social Media Marketing tool? by Kate Wilber (marketingmomma/@MommaMarketing)
• Pinterest: More Tips and Tricks and FAQ by Megan Tietz (megan_tietz/@SortaCrunchy)
• Pinterest Tips & Tricks by Veanad (veanad/@veanad)
• Pinterest Tips for Photographers and Other Visual People by Andrea Walker (@walkerparkmedia)
• Pinterest: What it is, how to use it and why you’ll be addicted by Katie Kavulla (katiekavulla/@being_katie)
• Pinterest with Friends: How To Contribute & Curate Boards Together! by Amanda (oohamanda/@oohamanda)
• Top 5 Tips for Brands on Pinterest by Parneet Gosal (parneetg/@parneetg)
• The Power of Pinterest by Cassie Boorn (cassieboorn/@cassieboorn)
• What is Pinterest by Tech Talk for Moms

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about Pinterest? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link

Next Week’s Topic: Public Speaking

I’d love to include a link to your post next week – and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

What I’ve found, however, is that the more you use Pinterest, the more little tricks you learn. I’ve already posted Seven Cool Ways to Use Pinterest, and later this week, I’ll be linking to other brilliant bloggers who are also writing Pinterest posts. Today, though, I wanted to write a little beginner’s guide to using this new tool, especially if you’re interested in using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, Etsy store, or other website.

Getting Started on Pinterest

As of writing this post, you still have to ask for an invite to Pinterest. I got my welcome email in a little less than a week, but you have to be patient. Once you’re in, though…it’s pretty easy. You link to you current Twitter and Facebook profiles, as well as your blog, and your info is pulled in automatically (they use your picture and Twitter bio). Once you have your profile set up? Start pinning!

But what does that really mean, to “pin” stuff?

Essentially, Pinterest is a way to organize and share your bookmarks in a visual way. Each “board” is a category (like “recipes” or “flowers”) and each “pin” is a link or picture you want to remember and share with your friends. As you browse online, you pin cool stuff you find to a corresponding board. I use the Pin It Button on my bookmarks toolbar in Firefox, but you can also go back to the website every time you want to pin something instead. Some blogs and online stores are starting to add their own pin it buttons on individual posts and items, much like tweet or like buttons, so you can hit those too. You can also upload pictures directly to Pinterest from your computer.

Pinterest also allows you to easily browse others’ boards to pin cool stuff. You can connect to Facebook to easily find friends who already pinning and browse their boards and you can also browse by board category. Anything you see on Pinterest can be liked (if you appreciate it) or repinned (if you want to add it to one of your own boards). You can also comment on other people’s pins.

It’s kind of like Facebook – when someone posts something, you can like it, share it, and comment on it.

When you find someone pinning cool stuff, you can follow them to make sure you see other cool stuff they post in the future. You can a specific board or you can follow all of a person’s board. When you follow people, you’ll see their most recent pins on your homepage.

Pinterest Board Creation

Pinterest is all about curating content using your boards. When you sign up, they give you some default boards, but you can delete them, rename them, and create new boards.

One of the biggest mistakes I see newbies to Pinterest making is using just a single board named something like “Cool Stuff” or “Stuff I Love.” That’s great if you want to simply save a few links that you like, but part of the point of Pinterest (hah, point of Pinterest. I crack myself up) is to categorize stuff you find. Part of what makes Pinterest great is that you don’t have to see stuff that doesn’t interest you when you follow someone else.

An  example I give people: My friend Kelby has a ton of boards. Her craft projects board is something that definitely interests me, but since I don’t have children, her kid-related boards don’t interest me. On Facebook or Twitter, I just get a continuous stream of content from someone like Kelby, but on Pinterest I get to follow just the links that interest me! So don’t create really general boards if you want people to follow you. Be specific with your board topics.

Focus on curating the best content possible with every board. People will take the time to browse through what you’ve pinned in the past. This isn’t like Twitter where your old links disappear quickly. Pinners follow boards when they like the majority of the content, so make every board great. Don’t be afraid of having too many boards. As you pin, split boards according to your activity. For example, maybe you have a “Geeky Stuff” board, but as you pin you find that half the stuff you pin to it is Star Wars stuff. Keep your original geeky stuff board, but create a second Star Wars board just for those pins.

You also want to make sure you categorize your boards well. When you pin something, you have the option to create a new board simply by entering the name. However, if you to this, the board you create will not be categorized, so it won’t show up in Pinterest’s directory by category. Make sure you go back in and add a category. I also recommend adding a description using a few keywords based on the board content. Make it easy for new people to find you!

Driving Traffic with Pinterest

Pinterest is all about curating content, but point is to share others’ content, not your own. I don’t recommend creating a ton of boards that you use to pin your own stuff. In fact, that kind of thing is heavily frowned upon, even if what you’re sharing is really cool. That said, you can certainly still drive traffic with Pinterest! Here are my tips:

• Make sure your content is visual.
  

The reason Pinterest caught on so quickly with food bloggers and Etsy users is that this platform is all about the visual element. Think of an actual pinboard in real life. You probably wouldn’t hang a ten-page document; you’d hang pictures, ticket stubs, that kind of thing. If you want people to pin your blog posts, they need to be visual. Use pictures, and whenever possible, use pictures you actually take (rather than stock photography.

• Add the pin button to your site.
  

That one’s pretty self-explanatory. Add the pin button to your posts so people can easily hit the pin button and encourage people to follow you with a badge on your sidebar, the same way you’d have a Twitter or Facebook badge.

• Create boards related to your own content.

The best case scenario is someone following all of your boards, rather than just a single board. To encourage this, create boards that relate to the content important to you. For example, let’s say you have a social media blog. You might create a board about social media where you pin your own posts (along with others’ content), but you can also create boards such as “Funny Social Media Jokes” for cartoons about social media that make you laugh or “Social Media Books” for pins about industry books you’ve enjoyed. The more relevant stuff you pin relating to your blog’s topic, the more likely it is for people interested in this topic to find you and start following all of your boards.

• Be smart about keywords.
  

This one took me some time to realize, but now that I’ve realized how important search is on Pinterest, I’m getting a ton more attention on Pinterest! Keywords are super important, because your description is all you have to attract someone looking for the type of content you’re pinning. Using an above example, let’s say you pin a funny social media cartoon. It’s tempting to just write in the description, “Haha, this is sooooo true” but a much better option that doesn’t change your message at all is “Haha, this is exactly what Facebook is like!” That way, someone who’s searching “Facebook” will see your post.

• Spread out your pinning throughout the day.
  

Pin throughout the day so you’ll always have fresh content on your followers’ homepages. When people search by category (which is how I most often find new pinners to follow), the most recent content will show up at the top of the page. Make it your goal to have content on the front page of your category as often as possible. Rather than pinning lots of stuff at once, spread out your pinning.

• Pin only the best of the best.
  

If you pin too much of your own content, people will get sick of it. This isn’t like Twitter where you should pin every single thing you write. Pin the best of the best to draw people in; let them take care of pinning other posts they discover on your site and enjoy. It’s kind of like StumbleUpon in that sense. It’s okay to stumble your own stuff occasionally, but it’s even better when other people hit the stumble like button.

Before I close out this post, I want to say this: I don’t think Pinterest is perfect. In fact, there are a lot of things about Pinterest that I find frustrating or confusing. But remember, this is a super young network. I’m super excited to see how things evolve as Pinterest grows.

Do you have any specific questions about Pinterest? I’m happy to answer them if I can! Also feel free to share your favorite Pinterest tip with a comment below.

For those who’ve not yet familiar with Pinterest, the concept is pretty simple. When you sign up, you create “boards” – as many or few as you want. Each board has a certain theme. When you come across something you like online and want to both remember (like a bookmark) and share with others, you can pin it to one of your boards. For example, I found this really cute costume idea and wanted to remember it for next year. So I pinned it to my “Halloween” board.

Your homepage is filled with the pins from the people/boards you’re following. When you follow someone, you can choose to follow all of their boards or pick and choose the boards you want to follow. I find this extremely helpful, since a lot of my friends have interests that aren’t relevant to me, but I still want to connect with them when it comes to other interests that we share. A good example of this is my friend Kelby Carr. I follow her craft projects board, since that interests me, but don’t follow her board that features stuff for kids, since I don’t have kids of my own.

The most common boards I see are for recipes, craft projects, fashion, and humor, but more and more, people are starting to get creative, which is super inspiring. And, if you use Pinterest in unique ways, it can definitely help you as a blogger or online business owner. Let’s take a look at some really cool ways I’ve seen people using Pinterest:

• Create a gift registry.

This list tip comes from Kenna Griffin from Prof KRG. This holiday season, she used Pinterest to create a Christmas wish list, which you can see here. She shared the list with family members, which made it much easier for them to purchase gifts she really wanted. You could use it to create a wish list for your blog as well. Depending on your niche, fans might want to send gifts or donations, and this helps them understand how to best show their appreciation. Of course, if you’re a parent, you can also have your (older) children create boards with a wish list theme to help you make purchases.

• Pin your best blog posts.

Sure, Pinterest is a great way to share funny pictures and whatnot, but does it have any practical use for bloggers who aren’t working in visual-centric niches? Yes! For example, one of the boards I created is called “Favorite Blog Posts I’ve Written,” and my plan is to use it to pin posts that I’m especially proud of. This has the potential to get out of hand if bloggers use boards to promote every post they write, but with the correct restraint, I think it can bring me a lot of traffic. People have already started to follow that board, and as of writing this post, it only has a single pin.

• Start a Pinterest book club.
  

This is one board I’m hoping to start in the coming months – a little book club for me and others interested in reading the same books as me. Lots of people use Pinterest to share their favorite books, but what about creating a group board (where anyone can pin things) and every month reading a book together, using the board to share links to reviews and analysis, products inspired by the book, interviews with the author you’ve found, etc. When I read a book I like, I love to read as much about it as possible, and share with others who are reading the same things, so Pinterest could give us a fun place to collaborate.

• Use Pinterest for project management.

I haven’t seen anyone doing this yet, but I think it could be super helpful for some people, since you can create boards where multiple people can pin things. For example, say you’re an interior decorator. You could use Pinterest to share cool stuff you find online for a specific room you’re designing with the rest of your staff (and they can share with you too). The homeowners can even get involved with pinning. There’s a lot of potential here for anyone collaborating on a project. I love that it would cut down on the crazy number of emails you send back and forth.

• Pin as an affiliate.

This Pinterest board idea comes from James Dabbagian, who created a board called “Books on Blogging and Social Media.” All the pins on that board are affiliate links, so if others check them out on his recommendation, he’ll get the credit on Amazon (or wherever). You can easily disclose that your links are affiliate links in the description, which James has done, and it makes total sense, since it helps people who are interested in a specific type of product find an entire list of items to check out.

• Create a Pinterest test kitchen.

Food bloggers have definitely headed to Pinterest en masse, which makes sense since food is definitely visual. Instead of just sharing recipes, though, what about creating a “test kitchen” board? As you’re developing new recipes, ask your followers to try them out and “like” or repin if they enjoyed the meal. It’s a great way to get feedback on the success (or not) of a dish.

• Bookmark inspiration pieces.

Occasionally (and by occasionally, I mean every two minutes), I come across blog posts, infographics, pictures, and so forth that get my inspiration juices flowing. I don’t always have time to write at that moment, though. Instead of just bookmarking posts, which is clutter-y and hard to efficiently organize, I’ve created a new Pinterest board to essentially bookmark cool ideas. If it inspires some of my followers to check out awesome things other people have written or created, all the better.

Some there you have it – my seven cool ideas for using Pinterest. As I continue using this platform and explore what others are doing, I’m sure I’ll have even more neat ideas to add to this list. Have you come across anyone using Pinterest in a cool way? If so, tell us about it in the comments!

Actually, I am a little surprised at the fact Yahoo! ranked number 3 for Top U.S. Web Brands. They beat out Microsoft, YouTube and AOL Media Network, to name a few.

Here are the Top 10 U.S. Social Networks & Blogs:

1. Facebook
2. Blogger
3. Twitter.com
4. WordPress.com
5. Myspace.com
6. LinkedIn
7. Tumblr
8. Google+
9. Yahoo! Pulse
10. Six Apart TypePad

What site(s) did you spend most of 2011 on? For me personally, I would have to say Facebook, YouTube and of course – all things Google related.

But there was a problem with the campaign. There was no disclosure that the bloggers received something in exchange for the promotion, as the FTC requires.

Needless to say, the FTC launched an investigation to find out if the bloggers had indeed been told to disclose to their readers that they had received a gift certificate, in exchange for posting about the Hyundai commercial. The end result? The FTC recently announced they have closed the investigation and gave their reasons why in this letter.

Here are two of the main reasons why the investigation was closed:

• “First, it appears that Hyundai did not know in advanceabout use of these incentives, that a relatively small number of bloggers received the gift certificates, and that some of them did, in fact, disclose this information.”
• “Second, the actions with which we are most concerned here were taken not by Hyundai  employees, but by an individual who was working for a media firm hired to conduct the blogging campaign.”

Although no action was taken, Lesley Fair of the FTC’s division of advertising practices, wrote in a blog post that the closing letter from the FTC is worth a read if your company uses social media in its marketing.

He also gave these guidelines for companies needing more guidance when it comes to complying with the FTC policies:

• Mandate a disclosure policy that complies with the law
• Make sure people who work for you or with you know what the rules are
• Monitor what they’re doing on your behalf

The FTC may have closed the investigation and Hyundai escaped something that could have been real messy for the company, but this definitely teaches all of us a lesson – the FTC is paying attention to disclosure policies, so make sure you have one and it’s stated clearly.

Do you feel bloggers are doing a good job disclosing what they are receiving in return for working with a company? And, for those you who regularly work with companies and PR firms on outreach campaigns, do they clearly state a disclosure policy is required?

Social gaming

Facebook released their Top Games of 2011 list yesterday (December 21). I was very surprised to see that Gardens of Times earned the top spot. I fully expected to see CityVille, but given the way Facebook pulled together this list, it explains why it wasn’t number one.

Facebook said, “This list was compiled by looking at the top games on Facebook with more than 100,000 monthly active users and giving priority to those games with the highest user satisfaction scores. The result is a list of the games that received the most user recommendations in 2011.”

Here are Facebook’s Top Games of 2011:

1. Gardens of Time (by Playdom)
2. The Sims Social (by EA)
3. Cityville (by Zynga)
4. DoubleDown Casino (by DoubleDown Entertainment)
5. Indiana Jones Adventure World (by Zynga)
6. Words With Friends (by Zynga)
7. Bingo Blitz (by Buffalo Studios)
8. Empires & Allies (by Zynga)
9. Slotomania-Slot Machines (by Playtika)
10. Diamond Dash (by wooga)

Which Facebook game is your favorite and sucks the most time out of your day?

You can send a personalized Holiday phone call to anyone in the U.S. or Canada, as well as give Santa a call and leave him a message on his Google Voice number – 855-34-SANTA.

Google also announced on their blog, that anyone in the world can create and send a personalized video message from the big man himself – Santa. Check out their sample video to get some ideas.

Just go to SendaCallfromSanta.com and follow the instructions to create your video message. After you create your video, you can share it through email and Google+.

Santa has gone hi-tech! Happy Holidays!