Episode 27: Summer is Here!:

 

 Episode 27: Summer is Here!: Play Now | Play in Popup

The guys are podcasting this week from the past because Chris is in Prague and Kelly is in San Francisco!

Topics this week:

• Rethinking the 2-minute rule
• Getting in to a bar if you’re under 21

Music this week:

• “Date Game” by Christopher Wade

For some reason or another, this semester’s end is lending itself to more reflection than usual. This post is going to talk about where HackCollege has been, where it’s going and what the 3 of us are doing for the summer.

HackCollege at the Start of the Spring Semester

At the start of 2008, we had about 500 feed readers. One of our main metrics we use to measure our success is the number of readers. We believe that feed readers represent the visitors who like the site the most and hence keep coming back for it.

Traffic to the site has been increasing steadily. We get anywhere from 500 to 1000 unique visitors per day.

HackCollege at the End of the Semester

Just last week, we broke 1000 feed readers. This has been one of our big milestones that we’ve wanted to reach for a while. Pour one down for us.

Traffic is staying about the same, with huge spikes after FOWA and SXSW. We owe most of the traffic to Internet famous people agreeing to give us the time of day. Huge thanks to Gary Vaynerchuk, Leah Culver, Chris Brogan, and Justine Ezarik. Thanks to these folks, our servers crashed a few times.

HackCollege is also getting more and more press these days. In this week’s issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, a writer interviewed Kelly about HackCollege and technology.

The number of unsolicited PR emails is also increasing. More and more people around the world are getting word of our tiny little site.

And of course, we’re taking to the streets with our T-Shirts and hoodies.

Summer Plans

Just because class is out doesn’t mean HackCollege is going away. Expect things to get slower around here for about a month.

Chris took off to Prague and is working on the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. Rosario is working and getting ready for law school. Kelly just moved in to his new place in San Francisco and will be working at Revision3.

Once Chris gets back from Prague, expect things to pick up once again.

What does the Future Hold?

The more and more we write, the more we realized lifehacking on the strict productivity level is a dead end. There are only so many ways to study. There are only so many ways to take notes. As we go on in the future, we will still post stories true to our roots. We are going to start getting funkier with our content. Well, funkier might not be the right word.

We want to be more of a voice for college students everywhere, not just the tech ones. Student loans aren’t only a problem for computer science majors. It might be pretentious of us to assume that we could change higher education, but–hey–we’ve always been pretentious.

Welcome to summer for those on the semester system. Let us know what you think in some comments!

I was interviewed a few weeks ago for a short piece that appears both in print and online editions. It’s coming online and going to print this week! Check it out and represent!

“Using Technology to ‘Hack’ College Life: An Interview with a Student Blogger” [The Chronicle]

Edit: Changed the link to the free version of the article.

This is a post in the Student Blogging Series. To see other posts in the series, go here!

Publicizing your blog well is a tricky dance between self-promotion and prostitution. You don’t put enough into it, you’ll never reach all of your potential readers. If you put too much into it, you’ll come off as an attention whore.

Today I’ll be going over a few ways to get the word out about your blog.

Be That Guy/Girl That Everyone Likes to Talk to (Online)

Being sociable online is an art. I’m not the best at it. Those that are can get just about anything done for themselves.

Join every social network you can find. Sign up for something like Friendfeed or ping.fm, something that will allow you to blast out messages about new posts once they go up.

You should at the very least join: Stumble Upon, Facebook, Digg, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Respond to every single email or message you ever receive. This is a note from Gary Vaynerchuk’s book. It’s working pretty well for him. People are already calling him a Marketing 2.0 messiah. Be diligent and sincere in your responses. You’ll find the biggest perks in the strangest places.

Be That Guy/Girl Everyone Wants to Talk to (Offline)

Real world marketing is valuable, too. It’s probably more valuable actually. It’s something that HackCollege neglected for awhile. “IRL” word of mouth still trumps all other methods of advertising. It’s free, it’s sincere and it keeps people coming back. A random hit on digg will see a huge spike and quick decrease in traffic.

With a blog, you now have a topic of interest to talk about at parties. Blogs aren’t the sexiest things, but as long as you own it you’ll come off in a positive light. None of us on the HackCollege team are exactly fending off suitors, but we see people checking us out from time to time in our yellow hoodies. Put yourself out there and be judged. People that don’t read blogs should be your target audience. They are also the most difficult to reach.

This is an interview I recorded with Justine Ezarik (a.k.a. iJustine) on April 29, 2008, concerning her thoughts on student blogging. The video is her little “about me.” The audio clip is the audio of the interview. Transcript is below…

What made you initially interested in blogging? Read on to your heart’s content »

 Episode 26: Radar Party!:  Episode 26: Radar Party!:

This week the guys are podcasting right before the epic Radar house party in Los Angeles. It was one last hurrah before finals week.

Topics this week:

• Apple Campus Rep Job
• “Publishers Sue Georgia State on Digital Reading Matter” [New York Times]
• America’s Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor’s Degree [The Chronicle]
• Twitter T-Shirt Giveaway

Music this week:

• “Date Game” by Christopher Wade

This episode’s sponsors:

• Radar.net
• Empressr

For a while, Twitter was asking its users how and why they use the service. For some, like me, Twitter is another social network. This time, over text messaging.

Yes, you can start by following your favorite weblebrities for some possible exposure to your current project, but Twitter is also a wonderful medium for meeting and conversing with everyday people around the world quickly and easily. Everyday people.

In a sentence, Twitter is a group of millions who are “tweeting” and waiting for @replies. Seriously.

But how do you join in on the conversation? Simple. Track it. Send track X to 40404. Each time X is “tweeted”, you’ll know about it.

Some possible uses…

Track Your Project

If you own a website or a blog, track what others are saying about it (e.g., track hackcollege and track hack college).

Track Your Stomping Ground

If you’re looking to meet others in your area, track your city (e.g., track new haven). Many weblebrities will “tweet” when they are recently arriving to X. Why not recommend a good place for pizza? And when you arrive to X, “tweet” about it. Ask the masses where to find the best vegan food.

If you’re looking to see if anyone else at your school is on Twitter, track your school (e.g., track yale). With this, you’ll also be in the know whenever something scandalous is going on (e.g., Aliza Shvarts). Everyone will be “tweeting” about it.

Track Your Interests

Are you looking for a partner for the gym? I’ve already sent track new haven fitness.

Track Yourself!

And, most importantly, be sure to track yourself (e.g., track @r0see and track r0see and track rosario doriott).

With how the @reply is currently set up, you’ll only receive an @reply text message if you’re already following that person. But with tracking, you’re going to be in on conversations from those you’re not already following. So @reply to them, and they’ll @reply back to you. But to receive that @reply text message back, you’re going to need to track yourself.

Note: But like I said before, millions are using Twitter and “tweeting” several times daily. If you find yourself overwhelmed, send untrack X to 40404.

“Tweet” on.

Earlier this week I interview AJ Vaynerchuk about his blog and blogging as a student. He’s currently a student at BU. His blog covers social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook.

A semi-complete transcript is below: Read on to your heart’s content »

If the social potential for Twitter isn’t appealing to you, then the promotional aspects should be. Granted, if you use Twitter merely to promote yourself, you’ll lose followers fast.

Twitter?

Check out this video from commoncraft to figure out what the eff Twitter is if you don’t know already:

Note: Twitter nomenclature yields that every Twitter user shall be preceded by the @ sign. I’ll be using this notation in this post for brevity’s sake. Read on to your heart’s content »

It’s a common misconception that everything “white-boxed” is unprofessional. (White-boxing on the Web is when it’s apparent you are using another service rather than hosting it yourself.) That certainly was the case in the “Web 1.0″ world; you wouldn’t host a personal and professional digital business card on a GeoCities account.

For some reason or another, the evil overhead of white-box accounts seems to have disappeared.

Read on to your heart’s content »