Flickspin's Feature Writers

In the latest round of changes to Flickspin there have been a number of modifications to the category pages. Not only are the pages a little more pleasing to the eye but you might just see a feature writer gracing the odd category homepage.  The feature writers have gained their new status by writing frequently for a given category. Not only will they receive greater profile on the site they can also collect 100% of the ad revenue for the Google ads on their category homepage.

If you are interested in becoming a feature writer for a category, sign up with the Flickspin writing community if you're not already a writer and when you submit an article or fact-file for review just mention your intention of which category you'd like be a feature writer for via the message the editor field.  Then at the end of every month the line up of feature writers is reviewed. The criteria used to decide which writers become feature writers are detailed on the "Feature Categories" page within your "My Desk" area, but the basic idea is that it is based around the idea of the selecting the writer with the most articles written for a category over the previous 3 months. Depending on the community's thoughts, this may change in the future.

Here are the feature categories for this month:

• Lifestyle & Culture
  
• Restaurant Reviews
  
• Travel
  
• Information Technology
  
• Video Games
  
• Music
  
• Short Stories

It's a pretty exciting new feature for Flickspin and we're glad to be helping to promote writers on their efforts.

Peace!

All the Colours of the Rainbow

The latest feature to the collection is a sprightly one! We can now move away from the default colours of profile area and move into the bright and stylish future.

At the moment there are 6 styles to choose from (pictured) and we are open to adding more. If you want to see one, have a look here. If we haven't covered your favourite colour, be sure to let us know and we'll keep adding more options.

To liven up your page, login, go to the "Profile & Blog Stylings" page and click on the link for "Profile Colours" and make your selection.

If anyone has any other suggestions for the blog area, feel free to give us a shout.

Peace!

Flickspin Blogs now Support Youtube Clips

Okay, so the title may have given away the news of the new feature on FS but it's definitely worth repeating. Youtube videos can now be embedded into blog posts. Here's an example - Google and the Energy Space.

At the moment we are allowing one clip per blog post and the post will automatically appear under the first paragraph. If embedding vids becomes popular on the site we may expand the service to allow more than one to be embedded and possibly allow clips from other video streaming sites. We will play it by ear.

Happy blogging!

Keeping it Short and Sweet

We've taken a step towards fiction writing with a new category for short stories. This decision lines up with the main goal of the site - to be an awesome place to write and to be read. Allowing short stories on the site could just be seen as a natural progression of this idea.

The format is fairly new for the site but we plan to develop a number of features around the idea and treat it as a special case across the site. No doubt we'll announce the changes as they happen.

If you want to submit a short story, make sure you've signed up with the site, then submit your work as an article via the word processor and we'll put it in the right place.

Peace!

Flickspin via Twitter

Flickspin is now riding on the Twitter train. By jumping on we'll be looking to promote new content on the site and sharing little snippets of love that come from the land of FS.

Update: And if you want to follow the tweets... http://twitter.com/flickspin of course

New Blog & Profile Area Stylings

Since we announced the funky new retro layout last month we've been working hard to finish off the job with the blog and profile areas getting a massive overhaul. Having become a blogger of sorts, I knew full well the short comings of the old flickspin blog and profile areas. With the new profile options and custom stylings this thing feels sweet and looks sweet. What a combo!

Here's a hint of what we're talking about:

• http://www.flickspin.com/mcgyver/blog
  
• http://www.flickspin.com/bay/blog

Wondering about the changes, check them out:

• brand new layout & colour scheme - still looks hot on the iPhone too
• fully customisable header images, 
  
• a new blog roll listing, 
  
• room for a note or quote, 
  
• a listing for hobbies and interests, 
  
• and last but not least... an experimental external RSS feed reader - aka the EERSSFR. 

The EERSSFR sounds confusing but is there simply to help writers to promote their blogs or article feeds from other sites. This is great way to let readers find out more about your work and it will always show your latest articles. We think it's pretty cool - even if it is experimental.

Funky New Retro Layout

Everyone knows Retro is back. And so moving with the times the site has undergone its 3rd major style change since the launch in March 2008. This new layout style has already given Flickspin a lift with a noticeable boost in page views per visitor. This is based only on a limited set of data but we think this will be the trend because not only does the site look better it's becoming even easier to browse.

There are a whole host of other changes planned and most of them will hopefully be implemented this month. Most of the work will centre on promoting imagery and articles.

It's exciting times and so great to see the site evolving. If you have and comments on the new stylings let us know!