Archive for the ‘blogs’ Category

L.L.Bean should hire this guy.

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Foster Huntington's photos.

Foster Huntington, sounds a bit like a law firm, but is actually a student at Colby. (These are all his fantastic photos!)

Foster Huntington's photos.

He’s a young man from the Northwest, who studys in Maine, and publishes a very stylish blog called “The Restless Transplant.”

Foster Huntington's photos.

Foster Huntington's photos.Which seems to indicate that he’s not going to be in Maine too much longer.

Foster Huntington's photos.

But it’s pretty clear that Maine will accompany him wherever else he goes.

Foster Huntington's photos.

His blog reveals the life of a college student discovering himself, honing his new skills (great photos!) and absorbing the world around him. And he naturally understands how to build a ‘brand.’

Foster Huntington photos.

He loves the stories behind what he perceives as the Maine ‘lifestyle.’ He loves clothing. Especially old clothing. He has great style. And he’s very fond of the color red.

Foster Huntington's photos.

Go take a look, and discover the Maine you know is there, but sometimes you don’t see.

Foster Huntington's photos.

And remember his name — Foster Huntington. Have a feeling it’ll be popping up somewhere fancy, if not on a label, in the not too distant future.

Foster Huntington's photos.Maybe even at L.L.Bean.

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Saving Maine’s tax dollars, one web site at a time.

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Save tax dollars in Maine.

Most small towns in Maine don’t need a web site to fill their downtowns with tourists, or to promote their industries. If they do, the Chamber of Commerce can do that job. And most are operating on tiny budgets.

They need a very simple site that citizens can use to get essential and timely information from the town offices. Things such as permits, meeting schedules, transfer station hours, names of the selectmen, office hours, etc.

Why not use Google for both a web site and a blog, and keep it very simple? And free! (Actually you could just use  just a blog to keep it really simple.)

The web site can contain all the documents — permit rules, meeting notes, history, etc. And the blog can provide all the current information. They should be linked.

Plus, it could even be monetized to actually earn money for the town.

Google offers these advantages:

1. It’s free!

2. It will always be up, no worry about a hosting service.

3. There will be no maintenance or updating the software. It will always be up to date.

4. Sufficient storage for large documents.

5. It’s easy to use.

6. The basic look is more attractive than most sites.

7. Search may be improved because they’re already within the Google world.

Google has these disadvantages:

1. The url or address isn’t a pure ‘TownOfMaine.com.’ But does that matter?

2. It’s not clear if they place ads. But they do offer a premium version so that may be their business model instead of advertising.

Here are examples of a blog, and a web site. And here are links to Blogger and Google Sites.

What else could beat the power of Google and the words — ‘easy’ and ‘free?’

These days, tax dollars need to be stretched as far as they can go.

Update – check out Weebly. They offer a very nice package — all free!

Good idea? Bad idea? What do you think?

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This blog is now for the birds.

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Twitter2bnMaine has joined Twitter. A very popular new form of social media, Twitter is a microblog that allows it’s users to post very short posts, up to 140 characters. They’re called Tweets.

So it’s an easy way to get current updates on what’s happening at 2bnMaine. You can find the tweets in the sidebar or go to the 2bnMaine Twitter page and start following. Still searching for a better Twitter widget.

If there’s something specific you’d like to know, let us know.

Here’s a video that explains it a bit further.

So what are you doing?


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Martha Stewart at the Pot and Kettle.

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Sounds like it might be the perfect venue for a former caterer, and one smart cookie, and it was — The Pot and Kettle Club is a private men’s club in Bar Harbor. 

On her blog, Martha Stewart posted the speech that she recently gave at the exclusive Pot and Kettle Club. Her blog posting includes the photos she showed and the very thoughtful speech contained lots of tasty bits of information about Maine. For instance, did you know that it takes 20 years for a piece of sea glass to become fully polished?

It’s interesting that someone with such a large publishing and broadcasting business would take the time to post on a blog. She most likely doesn’t do it totally herself but is interested in this new medium. Can cookies get smarter?

The Pot and Kettle Club is also mentioned in the wonderful book Maine Cottages: Fred L. Savage and the Architecture of Mount Desert, by John M. Bryan (Author), Richard Cheek (Photographer.) Fred Savage is a whole other interesting subject.

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Another college drop-out success story.

Friday, July 18th, 2008

This post has nothing to do with the subject of this blog, but the software that runs it. WordPress is getting more mentions in the press. Today’s  San Francisco Chronicle has an article on Matt Mullenweg, the founder.

Why is it that so much success seems to come from dropping out of college? Might be an advantage not to know all the rules.

Following are some interesting numbers on blogs from the Chronicle.

175,000 – Blogs created daily

113 million – Number of blogs

7.5 million – Active blogs

184 million – Bloggers

570,000 – Posts every 24 hours

Sources: Technorati, Universal McCann

Thank you for reading this one.

 

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Mary Jane Mucklestone, living in color.

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

This is the very first in a series of interviews with all those talented people and their businesses, who found their way to Maine. As well as with those who never left. Mary Jane is the first. Here’s a link to her 2bnMaine page: Mary Jane Mucklestone. Stay tuned for more. Thank you Mary Jane!

 

Mary-Jane-Mucklestone-olive

Mary Jane Mucklestone

She has the perfect name for a children’s book character, say of the Rowling variety, but Mary Jane Mucklestone creates her own fantasies, in living color, and they’re made mostly of yarn.

Originally from the Seattle area, and now a very popular knitter and blogger based in mid-coast Maine,Mucklestone-green-mittens she’s all about color. And yarn is her medium. She has a wee bit of wit as well. The very clever ‘olive’ knitting pattern she published for free on her blog was an internet hit.

When she’s not out gathering inspiration, you can find her working with the well-known nautical photographer Allison Langely in Camden. But the best view into her sweet world is her blog — MaryJaneMidgeMink. She writes and photographs on a regular basis and each posting offers a different view into the colorful life she’s created in Maine.

She has gained fans from all over the world, with a keen interest coming from Scotland. The only thing missing now is more time to create knitting patterns . . .

Mucklestone-blue-yarn-bagMucklestone-water-blue-yellow

Why do you live in Maine? 

I was living in the East Village when I got pregnant. Neither of us wanted to raise kids in the city. His family was in mid-coast Maine, which was driving distance, so we came to Maine.

Please click here for the full interview.

 

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Featured in Forbes, NY Times and Wired.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Pretty exciting news — Forbes, the New York Times and Wired magazine are all working on articles about Maine and this blog is featured. Click here to learn more.

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Snow white gets noticed.

Friday, March 7th, 2008

snow treesteps snow

Finally, this very snowy winter gets noticed. According to Village Soup in Camden, the winter snowfall in the Rockport area has totaled 86.5 inches through the month of February. Even Martha Stewart blogged about all the beautiful white stuff at her home in Seal Harbor.

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Media r us.

Friday, February 8th, 2008

This blog is ‘powered by WordPress.’ A great software program that is used by some of the world’s biggest media players. As we’ve all been watching, the media playing field is getting flatter and flatter. The giant, but faltering New York Times uses WP and even invests in the software. With such resources easily available, you might want to look into starting a blog. Hey, it’s free, get in there. It’s fun. Congratulations and thank you WordPress! (I just hope they don’t take you away from the rest of us. I don’t have $29 Million in the bank yet.) 

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