Can Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace Ruin Your Personality?

So, you created an account and have a profile on Facebook, Twitter, RentersQ, hi5, Bebo, Laatie, YouTube, Welated, MySpace, LinkedIn or wherever else online, and now what happens?

What is that you generally post on your profile? What kind of stuff do you post on your status update? What kind of groups and fan pages do you select to join? How do you behave online and what else do you do on any of these sites, the social media that you wouldn’t want people to know about you offline?

One thing for sure, and this is for everyone, everywhere, is that you should learn and know how to use social media to advance your career and make your life better; learn how to create and promote yourself by knowing what to, and not post on your profile, so you can one day get your dream job, or get into the college that you’ve always wanted.

In 5 – 10 years, it’s predicted that paper resumes and CVs will be a thing of the past; your online profile will become your real life resume when you apply for any job or to any college. So, remember that anything you post online, whether it’s your status update or those pictures from last night’s clubbing or pool party, the kind of pictures you wouldn’t want your parents, wife, husband, or kids to see, are automatically indexed and archived for search by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Be aware that your next employer and or college admission officer will certainly research you online; and your status updates data, including your posted photos maybe the things that may prevent you from getting whatever it is that you want.

When you go out, there are always those who randomly snap pictures with their camera phones and the next day you log onto your Facebook account, someone has tagged you in a photo, in which you appear in a compromising position, which you had no idea was being taken. So, be accountable for your social behavior online as you do offline.

Just because you hit the delete key on your keyboard doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve actually deleted your previously posted status updates or photos. They are never deleted permanently. Once you post them online, they are instantly streamed over the Internet and Internet search engines automatically index them for future search by anyone, anywhere.

So, be smart, stay informed. Completely fill out your online profile on any social networking site with your employment history as you would do in your resume, just the employer name, your job title, and a brief summary of your job responsibilities. This information will be crucial when you apply for a new job anywhere, because your next employer will likely do a search on you and that would help him or her make a fast informed decision on hiring you.

Use the social media for fun, but at the same time, use it to help advance yourself, your career, and your life; so that you may get what you want one day.

Life is all about competition, and everyone is out for him or herself.

Disclosure: I’m the creator of Welated, RentersQ and Laatie.

Filed under: networking , Bebo, better paying jobs, career, Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, online news, online profile, profile, social life, social media, social networking, status update, Twitter

The New Welated Logo, Unveiled

Today, I am excited to announce the new logo for Welated, my latest startup. Here it is;

This is my best startup yet. Check it out at www.welated.com, still a work in progress, but sign up, it’s free and easy, and feel free to play around with all the fun social networking tools on Welated.

More logos

About Welated

Welated is a premier social venue for friends, family, and co-workers to connect, share and explore each other’s personal dating history, activities and interests in order to help each other make informed choices.

Welated is developing online innovations that will enable people from all walks of life to efficiently discover and learn more about their current and future mates, everything from their dating history and activities, infidelity, marriages, divorces, child support and alimony payment, moral behavior, to deadbeat parents, all individually collected and algorithmically compiled in one powerful and user-friendly interface platform, the Welated Dativity.

More at www.welated.com

Filed under: Internet, Tools, startup, technology , dating, logo, new logo, social, social networking, Tools, Web 2.0, Welated, widgets

Making the Best Out of the Worst, Especially Right Now

Someone once told me that the start is always the easiest but is the end that counts the most. So, whatever it is that you are doing, people will always appreciate how you start, but will always remember how you finish.

Well, for me, it’s been a long journey trying to find my pitch, my niche, and I believe I found it now. Since August 2008, I’ve embarked on a project that seemed nearly impossible, in a crowded market economy. But I’ve always believed in myself, and the power of being creative, to find the best out of the worst, even when most of us may seem to be out of luck due to our current economy. But I believe the best is yet to come. I think I can truly say so, because being an economics student here at OSU, and in Spring 2010, I hope to start my PhD program in Economics, I strongly believe that our economy will turn around sooner than we think, and no matter where you are or whatever you are doing, you can make the best out of anything, especially right now.

I am a strong believer, always have been. I believe that each and every one of us have certain God given, unalienable gifts and talents, and it’s up to each and everyone of us to go all the way and explore how to maximize our potential in order to make our dreams come true.

In August 2008, my team and I started working on my new project, Welated (www.welated.com), and it seemed almost impossible making it and developing it to become an actual, viable entity with an actual business model that doesn’t just depend on paid ads like other social networking sites, and I have to say that, with God’s help, I think finally made it happen. Welated is now done, fully functional, and I am very excited about it. We started testing it on January 2009, under a certain code name, and over 8,000 people signed up within just two months, and that was amazing.

We’re now migrating the site from the testing alpha to beta mode, it is a combination of Facebook, MySpace, and Hi5.com, all in one. We combined all the cool tools you’ll find on most of your favorite social networking sites and place them in one easy-to-use Welated platform.

However, Welated has a creative twist to it, that’s, instead of simply offering traditional social networking tools, Welated offers an innovative platform that allows users to keep track of what their lovers are doing at any given time. That’s, a Welated user can instantly know if her or his wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend is being unfaithful and more, anywhere. I purposely founded Welated to help people learn more about each other’s dating history, interests, and activities, so that no one can ever say; I wish I only knew.

Please, take some time and check out Welated at www.welated.com, sign up, it’s free, and take a tour of the site, experiment with the tools on the site, and please let me know what you think. You can always delete your account at any time if you decide not to stay registered, and feel free to search for my name on the site and connect with me.

Feel free to Welated me at; http://www.welated.com/profile.php?user=simon

Filed under: Blogroll, Facebook, Web 2.0, blog this, economics, economy, entertainment, entrepreneur, launch, startup, technology , connect, dating, dream, economy, entrepreneur, friends, launch, marriage, social networking, startup, success, Web 2.0, wedding, Welated, widget

Ramamia – the Simplest New Way to Privately Share Photos, Web sites, and Events with Families

In my LinkedIn network of connections, there’s a 16-year old Mark Bao, an incredible talented serial entrepreneur but still a high school junior student, whom I met about two years ago on YoungEntrepreneur.com, and ever since, I have come to admire him for his ingenuity and ambition.

He’s the real definition of entrepreneur. He has started several Internet and web application companies and now serves as President and CEO of Avecora.

Recently, Mark and his two partners launched a new site, Ramamia, which makes it seamlessly simple for anyone to privately share photos, events, messages, and videos with every family member and friends. I tried it out today, and I found the site to be one of the most eye-appeasing, user-friendly, the site color is great, the user-interface and navigational tools are well positioned; so easy even your grandma can use the site and find her way around.

A gazillion number of new sites is launched every day, most of them are useless and doomed to fail on their first launch, including some of mine, but Ramamia is a unique site that offers a cool breath of fresh air for online social networking, geared for families and friends.

But, don’t just take my word for it, go and try it out for yourself. The site’s sign up process is very simple; all you need to sign up as a new member is to simply enter your last name. No long process of entering tons of mumbo jumbo personal details to register and start using the site. Also, adding your family members to your Ramamia Family Profile is as simple as ABC, and uploading your photos and videos, or creating your events and sharing them among your family and friends are tirelessly simple.

It was recently reported around the web that most social networking sites including Facebook are trying to simplify their signup process for new members. Even last week, Facebook attempted to quietly launch their new sign-up form, which they temporarily flashed on their homepage, with a new user is only required to enter his or her full name to sign up. Ramamia has beaten Facebook to the punch in implementing their easy sign-up process, and this is the same method I am going to implement on my new site, Welated, due to launch by March 2009.

Ramamia is currently angel-funded, but I am not sure yet what is their primary revenue model, perhaps is solely based on paid ads, but the site states that they will soon launch their premium version. The entire Ramamia site is unique, great, I like the site color, and its user-interface is phenomenal.

The only fault I found with the site, is that they don’t use Usernames and Passwords for registered users to login, but at the time of registering with the site, it sends you a nasty long and tedious link to your email, which you have to remember or bookmark in order to login. However, if they can fix their login process, Ramamia is definitely deemed to exponentially grow, as families around the world try to find the easiest and simplest way to share events, photos, and videos online. Ramamia is the new Facebook of families.

Notice: I have no affiliation with Ramamia nor do I have investment interest in Ramamia.

Filed under: Facebook, Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, advertising, article, blog this, branding, business, entrepreneur, events, life, networking, news, promotion, social, startup, technology, women , events, Facebook, family, photos, Ramamia, sharing, social networking, videos

Is Webware Walking in the Shadow of TechCrunch?

Every hour of each day, other than CNN.com, BBC News, Yahoo News, and the New York Times, I have to peek at TechCrunch and then Webware to get my hourly up-to-the-minute news on any new and upcoming technology and web companies.

However, for the longest now, TechCrunch and Webware have been more like, following each other on what each one reports, with TechCrunch always leading the way, while Webware seems to only peek at what TechCrunch has to report and then they come up with the same news reporting on the same subject.

I am not saying that Webware plagiarizes TechCrunch, but it gets really boring to have the two tech news venues that I have come to like and admire always reporting on the same subject, different written style but on the same topic. TechCrunch will have a story on a certain subject and then an hour or a day later, Webware will have a story on the same subject that TechCrunch has just previously reported.

Have the tech news stories suddenly become so rare that Webware always seems to be walking under the shadow of TechCrunch?

Filed under: Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, advertising, article, blog this, branding, business, entrepreneur, events, networking, news, startup, technology , companies, Internet, news, online tech news, social networking, startup, Techcrunch, technology, web, Web 2.0, Webware

New Site, Welated, Due to Spill the Beans on Your Love Life

In May 2007, I launched a patent pending data tool, RentersQ (www.rentersq.com), the most loved to hate rental history reporting site, which Business First of Columbus calls “… a tool for landlords to help take guesswork out of tenant screening”.

This year, I am launching a new site, Welated (www.welated.com), which is poised to be the site that you and everyone else in the world will have to check before you go on a date with anyone, anywhere.

In 2000, I launched InterCOL (www.intercol.net), which I thought was the best business history reporting site project ever, back then, and then in 2005, I launched Tip-Mart (www.tipmart.com), a patent pending online reverse auction site, a new site is coming in early 2009, and then RentersQ.

Since last year, I have also been developing Gatepedia (www.gatepedia.com), another patent pending innovative marketing utility platform, but this one is a huge project and will take at least another 10 months before it’s launched to the public.

Each time I work on a project, I always think that this is my best, but when I start to develop a new one, then I realize that this one is my best yet.

So, Welated is the social venue you’d love to hate, and you’d wish you can stop me now, so I don’t have to launch it. Because, no matter who you are or wherever you are, Welated is going to spill the beans on all your personal relationships and love life. The good thing is, it’s going to be a lot of fun…!

I have to stop here, because I am starting to reveal too much about Welated.

It’s is on, just stay tuned…!

Filed under: article, blog this, business, culture, living, news, simon kapenda , dating, divorce, love, marriage, parents, social, social networking, Web 2.0

New Site, Welated, Due to Spill the Beans on Your Love Life

In May 2007, I launched a patent pending data tool, RentersQ (www.rentersq.com), the most loved to hate rental history reporting site, which Business First of Columbus calls “… a tool for landlords to help take guesswork out of tenant screening”.

This year, I am launching a new site, Welated (www.welated.com), which is poised to be the site that you and everyone else in the world will have to check before you go on a date with anyone, anywhere.

In 2000, I launched InterCOL (www.intercol.net), which I thought was the best business history reporting site project ever, back then, and then in 2005, I launched Tip-Mart (www.tipmart.com), a patent pending online reverse auction site, a new site is coming in early 2009, and then RentersQ.

Since last year, I have also been developing Gatepedia (www.gatepedia.com), another patent pending innovative marketing utility platform, but this one is a huge project and will take at least another 10 months before it’s launched to the public.

Each time I work on a project, I always think that this is my best, but when I start to develop a new one, then I realize that this one is my best yet.

So, Welated is the social venue you’d love to hate, and you’d wish you can stop me now, so I don’t have to launch it. Because, no matter who you are or wherever you are, Welated is going to spill the beans on all your personal relationships and love life. The good thing is, it’s going to be a lot of fun…!

I have to stop here, because I am starting to reveal too much about Welated.

It’s is on, just stay tuned…!

Filed under: article, blog this, business, culture, living, news, simon kapenda , community, dating, engagement, love, networking, proposal, romance, sex, social networking, Web 2.0, wedding

The Social Networking Web Explosion Years of 2003 – 2005, What Were You Doing?

Okay, I am a child and a graduate of the web 1.0 bubble-era, so I have learned a lot from it, but may be not good enough to some. But do you remember that one guy, I can’t remember his name right now, but he’s from the Silicon Valley area. He had a very successful dot com company; he became an instant dot com millionaire (well on papers) in that era.

When his company received plenty of VC funding and eventually made the IPO, he had gone out and spent millions (on paper), buying huge houses, cars, etc., without having his company actually made any money.

So, after the collapse of the web 1.0 thing which also caused his company to fold, the banks came and took away all of his possessions. Perhaps not knowing what else to do, he was probably more embarrassed than being disappointed, he then left for Asia and joined the Monk convent, but no biggie, and it’s all good, right? Right!

My question is this, after the dot com 1.0 bubble, what were you doing between 2003 and 2005 when they were starting Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Hi5.com, and some of today’s most successful dot com 2.0, web based applications and social networking sites?

Well, for me, I had gone back to school, and I passionately dislike myself because this entire web 2.0 thing caught me asleep. I didn’t see it coming. I guess I initially looked at their business models and said, hmm, they are just another TheGlobe.com wanna-be’s. Do you remember TheGlobe.com? I’d say that TheGlobe.com was the first social networking site for the web 1.0, but it’s too bad, it didn’t survive the bubble.

The question is; if you are an Internet aspiring entrepreneur, what were you doing between 2003 and 2005 when they were starting MySpace, Facebook, Digg, and the late coming, but fastly growing kid, YouTube?

Do you think there is still a room for another web startup to make it?

Filed under: Google, Internet, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, article, blog this, business, culture, eBay, entrepreneur, living, networking, news, social , ad, ads, adsense, advertising, adwords, branding, campaign, design, Gatepedia, Internet, logo, marketing, online, PPC, promotion, social networking, web 3.0

The Better Way to Design Your New Logo

It’s a fact that your logo is the face of your company, your corporate identity and brand and it is the very first thing that your customers and audience recognize, remember and associate you with what you do and your product offerings.

But getting a logo designed is the hardest task, and companies spend tens of thousands of dollars designing their logos. There are many firms that offer logo design services, corporate identity, etc., and some charge extremely large fees, just to design your logo.

Most of them do really good, but charging hundreds of thousands of dollars just to design a logo seems rather ridiculous, but hopefully worth it. Is it the designer who makes the logo stand out and make a statement or you, the logo owner?

It’s partly the designer but it is all about you. And you can hire a small time in a sense of the firm size, or a local freelance graphic designer, even a college student and pay him or her a normal fee, whatever she or he charges, hopefully not in the tens of thousands of dollars, and still get the best logo designed, than paying a large design firm hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Hey, you can have or hire the best of all the best graphic designers in the world, but if your taste is ugly, then you’ll end up with a logo design that has no good value or appeal to anyone, except those who have the same taste as worse as yours.

Getting your logo designed is as easy as you may think. First of all, you have to know what you precisely want. And do a lot of research; compare several designs already out there before you embark on your own design. And most importantly, you must know your industry, your targeted audience, and your product offering.

Imagine how your design fits in with your audience and your industry, and always look at what other successful companies in your industry have done with their logo designs.

Picture in your mind placing your logo on top of your office building as your logo signature, picture putting it on your business cards, entrance ways, merchandise, etc., imagine what it will look like in the eyes of your audience and everyone else who sees it.

I am personally not easy to work with when coming to things like these; I may ask to make several modifications until it feels completely right to me. And, if it doesn’t feel right even for a little, then I’ll have it changed to my liking. It’s better getting it done the way you exactly want it rather than not being completely happy with it.

I like taking long drives or a short nap, and then I try to imagine the design in my head and how I like it, when I take a nap, while I am half sleep, that’s when I think creatively the best, and if there’s one thing, even a little that bothers me or displeases me on the design, then I’ll have it corrected to my pleasing.

That’s my personal secret and hopefully it helps you a little. I am not a graphic designer, although I try to, but what I do, I open a new MS Word file, after I have done my research, and write down everything how I want my design to look like, and then I take it to my designers or find a freelancer. Yes, there are in-house designers that I can use, and I do use them most of the time, but I like it when I get outside designers to design some of my stuff, that way I get new and different design ideas, but per my pleasing.

And, when I get the designer that I want, I allow the designer to input his or her own artistic style in my design, giving them artistic freedom, so I try to go with the designer who may offer exactly the style that I want, and then when I give them my MS Word file, I also allow them to express themselves artistically, to expand on what I have proposed, and then I get a mixture of his or her idea with mine, combined, and the results, marvelous.

Today, I have just unveiled our official Gatepedia.com logo as can be seen at our current blog at http://www.gatepedia.com. This logo was designed by one of my all time favorite graphic designers, Lindsay Marsh at Marsh Graphic Design (http://marshgraphicdesigns.com).

She is the best and very affordable, which is a big plus. If you need a logo or whatever graphic work for your small or large business, I personally recommend her. That’s the second artwork she has designed for us, and we are very happy with her work and we will continue to use her service more.

Well, I can keep on writing but that’s my secret advice for how you can design the best logo for your project or business, and now, go out there, make great logo design, and make it happen, and BIG.

“Each One, Teach One”! Make the best of it, and remember to help the needy and those who seek and ask for your help in whatever and every way you possibly can.

Filed under: Internet, Tools, Web 2.0, adsense, advertising, adword, art design, article, blog this, business, culture, design, education, entrepreneur, graphic design, launch, logo, production, project, promotion, social, startup, technology , ad, ads, adsense, advertising, adwords, branding, campaign, design, Gatepedia, Internet, logo, marketing, online, PPC, promotion, social networking, web 3.0