<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>RSS feed for InstantSpot site InstantSpot Staff</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com</link><description>The Official InstantSpot Spot!</description><language>en-us</language><copyright>This work is Copyright &#xA9; 2009 by InstantSpot Staff</copyright><generator>RSSVille ColdFusion FeedMaker, version 1.0</generator><pubDate>Sat, 21 Nov 2009 09:04:26 GMT</pubDate><item><title>Tell us about your Spot!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2008/02/04/Tell-us-about-your-Spot</link><description>Some of our users have made their InstantSpot sites their company home page, some for personal blogs, and some for photo galleries.  Others are focused on bringing awareness to specific causes, creating an online professional resume, eBay stores, and others just for fun. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Do you have an interesting Spot?  Tell us about it using our &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/contact&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration:underline&quot;&gt;Contact form&lt;/a&gt;.</description><pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:01:00 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2008/02/04/Tell-us-about-your-Spot</guid><category>InstantSpot,Testimonials</category></item><item><title>Help us spread the Spots! </title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2008/02/01/Help-us-spread-the-Spots-</link><description>Let&apos;s get it on!  Now that the dust has settled after making the move to the brand spanking new release of InstantSpot, we need your help. Are you enjoying InstantSpot? If so, help us spread the love. Take a minute and go invite one of your friends or family right now!</description><pubDate>Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:57:00 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2008/02/01/Help-us-spread-the-Spots-</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Cool testimonial about InstantSpot!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/05/11/Cool-testimonial-about-InstantSpot</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  We really don&amp;#39;t like to toot our own horn that much, but we sure like it when other people do!  The InstantSpot Team is proud of our work, but when we see other people using InstantSpot and truly enjoying it, it is really gratifying for us.  Last night we received an email from &lt;a href=&quot;http://ken.instantspot.com/&quot;&gt;one of our members named Ken&lt;/a&gt;  as a reply to an answer we gave him on a support question.     &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;div style=&quot;border: 1px solid #cccccc; margin: 20px&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;q&quot;&gt;Thanks!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Oh and by the  way, I don&amp;#39;t think I ever said that you guys are doing a good job on  this site. Everything seems pretty accessible once you get the hang of  how it works (which didn&amp;#39;t take long either). You guys may have meant  it like this, but I think Instantspot is great if one finds the right  project or theme for their spot. And if you get enough people, it  really brings a lot of variety and a wide range of different purposes  for it.  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  And I think that&amp;#39;s just great. And everything looks very professional at the same time.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Okay enough love! Keep up the good work.&lt;/span&gt; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;/div&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Wow!  Thanks for the kind words Ken.  We also noticed the Ryan posted yesterday about &lt;a href=&quot;http://ev.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/5/10/The-Power-of-InstantSpot&quot; class=&quot;EntryTitle&quot;&gt;The Power of InstantSpot.&lt;/a&gt;  He was sharing the incredible serach results that he is seeing from his Spot. If you have not installed tracking scripts, you may not even be aware how many people are seeing your Spot every day.  Go check out the results he has reported.  It is hard to deny the fact that you are getting Spotted!   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2007 18:43:36 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/05/11/Cool-testimonial-about-InstantSpot</guid><category>Testimonials</category></item><item><title>Now you can Twitter on InstantSpot!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/04/13/Now-you-can-Twitter-on-InstantSpot</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Twitter is being hailed as the new darling of silicon valley, allowing people to post 140 character messages to their Twitter account to keep their friends updated on what they are doing. &amp;nbsp; What makes Twitter somewhat unique and has drawn many people to use it is the fact that they allow posting from anywhere - from their site, from your phone, and now... from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/join&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/a&gt;!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  If you are a Twitter user and want to let people know that you just updated your blog on InstantSpot, you can now update your Twitter status as you make your blog entry. &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  In your blog entry editor, you will find a new link above the editor that says &amp;quot;Update my Twitter status&amp;quot; as you can when you click the thumbnail image below:  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/twitter1.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 2px solid #cb4015&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/twitter1thumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Click for the fullsize view of the new Twitter update link for your InstantSpot blog!&quot; title=&quot;Click for the fullsize view of the new Twitter update link for your InstantSpot blog!&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; height=&quot;183&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  When you click on the new Twitter update link, you will see a new form that allows you to enter your email address, password, and updated Twitter status message as you can see below:  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/twitter2.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 2px solid #cb4015&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/twitter2thumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Click for the fullsize view of the new Twitter update link for your InstantSpot blog!&quot; title=&quot;Click for the fullsize view of the new Twitter update link for your InstantSpot blog!&quot; width=&quot;300&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  As you submit your blog entry, we update your Twitter status with your new message.&amp;nbsp; It is as simple as that!   &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:33:07 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/04/13/Now-you-can-Twitter-on-InstantSpot</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>New Feature - Google Talk Gadget!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/04/11/New-Feature--Google-Talk-Gadget</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Greeting faithful Spotters!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  The InstantSpot development team rolled a brand spanking new feature into InstantSpot today that we wanted to make you aware of.&amp;nbsp; You can now add a Google Talk Gadget instant messenger right into your Spot!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Wherever you want the Google Talk Gadget to display on your page, simply type:&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;[googletalk]&lt;/strong&gt; into your page editor and you have a nifty way to communicate with your friends without having to install any Google Talk software.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Here is &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Google-Talk-Gadget&quot;&gt;an example&lt;/a&gt;!&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Please note that for the time being this will not be implemented into blog posts, but you can add it into any page.&amp;nbsp; Go try it out!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:56:46 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/04/11/New-Feature--Google-Talk-Gadget</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Keep an eye on your friends!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/04/03/Keep-an-eye-on-your-friends</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Today the InstantSpot team released an update to an existing feature on our Spots.   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  On every Spot, there has been a &amp;quot;Friend Activity&amp;quot; page, which can be viewed from a link on the &amp;quot;My Friends&amp;quot; page or from the &amp;quot;Friend Activity&amp;quot; link which is disabled by default in your Navigation Manager.&amp;nbsp; This page shows the 20 most recent blog entries from your Friends.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Until today this page showed just a shortened, unformatted preview with a link to the full blog entry on the Friend&amp;#39;s blog. &amp;nbsp; One of our users made a strong case to us for expanding this to be the full blog entry, including formatting and embedding of videos, code samples, etc. just as we do in full blog posts.&amp;nbsp; The request was also for this view to include a comment count and a link on each entry for visitors to be able to post a comment. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Here is a sample of the new look:  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://daveshuck.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/FriendActivity&quot; title=&quot;See what Dave&amp;#39;s friends are doing!&quot;&gt;Dave Shuck&amp;#39;s Friends&amp;#39; Activity&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  See?&amp;nbsp; We really do listen to you guys!&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:12:17 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/04/03/Keep-an-eye-on-your-friends</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Yes, even *YOU* have a Shoutbox on your Spot!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/27/Yes-even-YOU-have-a-Shoutbox-on-your-Spot</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Recently in a &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/3/22/Lots-of-new-features-on-InstantSpot&quot;&gt;long announcement of cool updates&lt;/a&gt;  to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/a&gt;,  we referred to what we call the &amp;quot;Shoutbox&amp;quot;, which is a way for you and your friends to leave messages on each other&amp;#39;s Spots.&amp;nbsp; As we mentioned previously it is possible to set those conversations to be private only among your Friends, but by default they are visible to all visitors of your Spot.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  We had a few people contact us after that post (not naming names!) that were not only confused a bit by the concept of a Shoutbox, but were wondering what they had to do to get one of those thingamajigs! &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/Shoutbox.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 1px solid #e0691a; margin: 10px 0pt 10px 10px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/ShoutboxThumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;209&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; First, we felt that a visualization might come in handy for those that were having a tough time picturing this so-called Shoutbox.&amp;nbsp; To the right is a screenshot that we grabbed from one of the InstantSpot creators/devlopers, &lt;a href=&quot;http://ajlcom.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/MyFriends&quot;&gt;Aaron Lynch&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Click on it to see the full size view.&amp;nbsp; As you can see, this is a great way to have a discussion among Friends.   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Now, how do you get one?&amp;nbsp; You already have it!&amp;nbsp; If you look in the Navigation section of your Control Panel you should see a link to &amp;quot;My Friends&amp;quot; that you can enable/disable.&amp;nbsp; You can name this link whatever you want, but by default it is labled &amp;quot;My Friends&amp;quot;.&amp;nbsp; Make sure that is enabled and the Friends page will be displayed on your Spot. &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Don&amp;#39;t have anyone to talk to?&amp;nbsp; Go add someone that you find interesting and strike up a conversation.&amp;nbsp; Or go invite your friends and family to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/Join&quot;&gt;join InstantSpot&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; We want to meet them just as we have enjoyed meeting all of you guys/gals.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  As always, feel free to &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt;  with any questions.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;em&gt;Note:&amp;nbsp; If you are one of our earliest members that were helping us test in our early beta-testing days and you have trouble accessing your Shoutbox (or any other features), make sure to contact us so we can get you taken care of!&lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:28:06 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/27/Yes-even-YOU-have-a-Shoutbox-on-your-Spot</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Now you can send messages to your friends!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/27/Now-you-can-send-messages-to-your-friends</link><description>&lt;!--  @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in }  P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }  --&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/MessageForm.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 1px solid #e0691a; margin: 10px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/MessageFormThumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Send a message with the private message form!&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;131&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Since the birth of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/join&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/a&gt;  in the  fall of 2006, we have wanted to add the ability for Friends in the  network to be able to better communicate with each other.  After all,  what good is a network if you can&amp;#39;t &lt;strong&gt;network&lt;/strong&gt;!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  Moving further towards that goal, we are pleased to announce that on  Monday (March 26) we added what we feel is a GREAT addition to  InstantSpot.  Now you can send private messages to other InstantSpot  members that have added you as a friend.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/Inbox.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 1px solid #e0691a; margin: 10px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/InboxThumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Your message Inbox!&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;158&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; There are two ways two send messages.   First, on every Spot, you will see a &amp;ldquo;Send a private message!&amp;rdquo;  button in our browser bar at the top.  When you hit this, a small  form will display at the top of the page.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;  If the owner of that Spot  has added you as a friend, you will see them first in the drop-down  list of recipients, followed by every other Spot that has added you  as a friend.  Choose the recipient, enter your message, hit &amp;ldquo;Send&amp;rdquo;  and your Friend will be notified via email of your message, which  they can view in their Inbox.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  Alternatively in your Control Panel, in  the &amp;ldquo;MyFriends&amp;rdquo; section you will notice two new links:&amp;nbsp; &amp;ldquo;Inbox&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;Compose new  message&amp;rdquo;.     &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/InboxCompose.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 1px solid #e0691a; margin: 10px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/InboxComposeThumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Compose a new message from your control panel!&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;118&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; The Inbox is where you will be able to read and reply  to you your messages.  Obviously the &amp;ldquo;Compose new message&amp;rdquo; link  takes you to a form to be able to send a message, which works in the  same manner as the forms on the top of each Spot.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  If you want to send a message to  someone who has not yet added you to their Friend list, look   &amp;ldquo;Request to be added&amp;rdquo; button either on.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  Another cool feature that we added is a  new message notifier, that appears on any Spot you are visiting as  soon as you receive a message.  You can click straight from there to  your Inbox to read your messages.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/NewMessage.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;border: 1px solid #e0691a; margin: 10px&quot; src=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/images/staff/NewMessageThumb.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;You have a new message!&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;120&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; As we have said all along, we are  building these features  for you, so if you have suggestions on what  we could do that would make it more comfortable for you to use,  please let us know.  If the idea is good enough (but not too good!)  we might even give you credit!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0in&quot;&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:25:56 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/27/Now-you-can-send-messages-to-your-friends</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Lots of new features on InstantSpot!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/22/Lots-of-new-features-on-InstantSpot</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Greetings all!&amp;nbsp; Your InstantSpot development team has been hard at work on continuing to push InstantSpot forward adding several new features.&amp;nbsp; Much of this new code was rolled last night and we wanted you to be aware.&amp;nbsp; Additionally, at the bottom of this email you will see that we are looking for feedback on things that you would like to see.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;Let us know&lt;/a&gt;  what you want out of your Spot!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#cc0033&quot;&gt;UPDATES:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Blog Comments/Subscriptions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  Subscription/Unsubscription from blog comment threads.&amp;nbsp; It was brought to our attention that there was a bug with&amp;nbsp; unsubscribing from blog comment threads that was keeping some people from being able to stop receiving notifications of new comments.&amp;nbsp; Considering that we didn&amp;#39;t have the option for &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; subscribing to a thread when you left a comment, this was a problem!&amp;nbsp; We fixed this problem at two levels.&amp;nbsp; First, we addressed the bug... we don&amp;#39;t like bugs.&amp;nbsp; We want bugs gone.&amp;nbsp; Now this one is.&amp;nbsp; Secondly, you will now see a checkbox on the comment form that allows you to opt out of receiving future notifications of comments that are posted in that thread. &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;How do I become a friend?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  If we had a dime for every time that question was asked, we would be posting this entry from our floating office aboard our mega-yacht somewhere in the Greek Islands rather than this cramped little office!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; First a little background... Our &amp;#39;My Friends&amp;#39; feature is a work in progress. We have lots of features in store for it, but rather than wait until all the development work was completed, we made the decision to roll it out pieces at a time as the code became stable.&amp;nbsp; Taking this approach has helped us by getting feedback from you guys and gals about what you liked and disliked, and has helped guide our development. With this release we are further down our path towards our complete ideal for Friend features, but we have more in the works that you will see soon.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  So, back to the &amp;ldquo;How do I become a friend?&amp;rdquo; question...&amp;nbsp; Until about midnight last night the only way you could request to become a friend was by accidentally running into them on the street, recognizing them from their headshot photo, and saying &amp;ldquo;Hey, can I be your friend?&amp;rdquo;.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  We thought it might be worth expanding this feature!&amp;nbsp; With the newly released code, when you are visiting a site that you would like to add you as a friend you should see a button that says &amp;ldquo;Request to be added&amp;rdquo;.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I say &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; because it is possible for you to default to decline all requests which takes the request button away (more on this later).&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; When you are on someone&amp;#39;s Spot and you hit the request button, one of two things will happen.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  1)&amp;nbsp; If the owner has chosen to manually approve all requests, they will receive an email with your request.&amp;nbsp; Once they receive that request, they will be able to add you through a link in the email.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; If you receive a request you wish to decline, just ignore it.&amp;nbsp; The non-Friend continue to stay as such.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  2)&amp;nbsp; If the owner has chosen to automatically accept friend requests, you will immediately be added.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;So I am a Friend... what now?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  For the time being, there are basically three things that happen as a Friend.&amp;nbsp; First, your headshot and link to your Spot&amp;nbsp; will appear on their &amp;#39;My Friends&amp;#39; page.&amp;nbsp; This will give you good visibility and will allow more people to find you.&amp;nbsp; Also, as a Friend you will be able to post messages to your Friend&amp;#39;s Shoutbox on the &amp;#39;My Friends&amp;#39; page.&amp;nbsp; This is a pretty cool feature that has been underused so far, mostly due to the difficulty of becoming friends.&amp;nbsp; We hope that this new request feature changes that!&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Additionally, as you post new blog entries they will appear on the &amp;#39;Friend Activity&amp;#39; page of people that have added you as a friend.&amp;nbsp; Once again, this is a great way to get more visibility!&amp;nbsp; This is also a good way for you to keep track of all that your friends are doing by just going to your own &amp;#39;Friend Activity&amp;#39; page.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New Control Panel Features&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  First, you will notice the navigation looks slightly different on the right hand side of your Control Panel. A couple of things have changed.&amp;nbsp; First we have collapsed the categories so that it no longer scrolls off beyond the visible screen when you open it.&amp;nbsp; I suppose it isn&amp;#39;t a bad thing to have too many features!&amp;nbsp; We have also moved the most used features (Blog and Page editing) to the top to make it more accessible when you log in.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  In addition to moving the navigation around a bit, we created a new section &amp;#39;My Friends&amp;#39;.&amp;nbsp; Currently there are two options in this section (with more on the way very soon!).&amp;nbsp; On the &amp;#39;Manage Friends&amp;#39; page you can see who you have added as Friends and go straight to their Spots.&amp;nbsp; You can also remove Friends from this page by checking their Spot and hitting &amp;#39;Delete&amp;#39;.&amp;nbsp; If only real life was this easy, huh?  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  On the &amp;#39;Friend Page Settings&amp;#39; page, there are currently two actions you can take.&amp;nbsp; First, you can decide how you will deal with Friend requests.&amp;nbsp; You can choose to always decline requests, always notify you to add the new Friend manually, or always accept requests.&amp;nbsp; On this page you can also choose whether your Shoutbox on your &amp;#39;My Friends&amp;#39; page is visible to the entire public, or whether it is visible to just your friends.&amp;nbsp; We feel that this is a good solution for those of you that have asked for the ability to have private discussions without the entire world reading them.&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;Let us know&lt;/a&gt;  what you think.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;What&amp;#39;s next?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  Nothing... we&amp;#39;re done.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  HA!&amp;nbsp; We never quit... we never sleep... we never stop Spotting!&amp;nbsp; We have a number of things in the works.&amp;nbsp; As we alluded to above, we have more stuff in the works for Friends, including the ability to send private messages through the system to your Friends, both from the control panel and from their pages.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; We are also planning on adding a way to manage subscriptions in the control panel.&amp;nbsp; Currently there is no way to see which Spots you have subscribed to, so this is an obvious point that needs to be addressed, but none of you have actually mentioned this!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Another piece we plan to address soon is the file management that allows you to upload pictures and add them to your blog/page entries and to add them to your gallery.&amp;nbsp; Currently this piece is a bit clunky and we would like to streamline it and make it easier on you.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  We are also looking at allowing you to add a forum to your Spot!&amp;nbsp; We are still in the planning stages on this piece, but we plan on implementing that in the near future.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Another thing we are kicking around a bit is a good way for you to be able to offer products for sale on your Spot.&amp;nbsp; We are investigating a number of ways to add commerce functionality.&amp;nbsp; We may be surveying you soon as we have considered a number of directions for this piece, so keep an eye out for an email from the InstantSpot staff.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tell us what you think!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  We mean it.&amp;nbsp; This is your Spot.&amp;nbsp; We are building this as a home for you and all of your friends.&amp;nbsp; We want it to be everything you want it to be.&amp;nbsp; What do you want to see?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; What would you like to see changed?&amp;nbsp; We are always open to new ideas, and we don&amp;#39;t bite... hard. You can always contact us through &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;this form&lt;/a&gt;.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  As always, thanks for making InstantSpot your Spot!  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:15:34 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/22/Lots-of-new-features-on-InstantSpot</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Slight change to your Control Panel</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/14/Slight-change-to-your-Control-Panel</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  We have recently noticed a few (ok a lot) of our users have not realized that they can change/delete/reorder/etc their navigational links on their Spot.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  In an attempt to make this feature more noticeable we have separated the link to this section into its own pod named &amp;quot;Navigation Manager&amp;quot; (on the right hand side of the control panel).  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  To read some more about this feature you can see a previous post on this topic &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2006/12/28/Tip-of-the-Day--Disabling-and-reordering-your-links&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; .  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:24:47 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/03/14/Slight-change-to-your-Control-Panel</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Chris Rutherford wins the iPod Nano</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/02/09/Chris-Rutherford-wins-the-iPod-Nano</link><description>If you are reading this, you probably know that &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/1/2/Free-iPod-Nano&quot;&gt;InstantSpot had a contest&lt;/a&gt;  in the month of January in which we were giving away a free iPod Nano to the InstantSpot member that referred the most new members.&amp;nbsp; After tallying up the records, we found that &lt;a href=&quot;http://chris.instantspot.com&quot;&gt;Chris Rutherford&lt;/a&gt;  came out on top.&amp;nbsp; Thanks to Chris and we hope you enjoy your new Nano!&amp;nbsp; Thanks too, to each of you that have made InstantSpot your spot on the internet.   </description><pubDate>Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:30:01 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/02/09/Chris-Rutherford-wins-the-iPod-Nano</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>New partnership with CodeShare and Contest Reminder!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/01/23/New-partnership-with-CodeShare-and-Contest-Reminder</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Techies, listen up! (non-techies, more for you below!)&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  We have been working with the developers at EverFro, who have created a great a way for developers to share code with each other with a tool called &lt;a href=&quot;http://codeshare.everfro.com/&quot;&gt;CodeShare&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Posting code in InstantSpot blogs has always been an admittedly cumbersome task and we are working to make that a simpler process.&amp;nbsp; We have completed the first step of that, by creating a new tag that allows you to display code in your entry or page using their service.&amp;nbsp; If you wish to publish code, go create an account at CodeShare and upload your code.&amp;nbsp; Once you do, you will have a share ID associated to your code.&amp;nbsp; Then you can paste it is like this:  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;   [ codeshare YourCodeShareId]&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;(without the space before &amp;#39;codeshare&amp;#39;).&amp;nbsp; &lt;/em&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  When you do this, you will have a nicely formatted codeblock positioned at that point in your blog entry.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  We are working further with EverFro to make this an even easier task, allowing you to upload your code directly from your InstantSpot control panel, and will make an announcement of that capability as soon as it is ready, but at least you can get started using CodeShare today!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  So now for the techies and non-techies alike.&amp;nbsp; Today is January 23.&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#ff0000&quot;&gt;That means that you have about 1 week to win that iPod Nano!&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; The contest is still running and no one is a clear winner at this stage.&amp;nbsp; Don&amp;#39;t forget to to send your friends and family the referral link in your control panel!&amp;nbsp; With a little effort, the iPod could very easily still be yours!&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  As always, thanks for using InstantSpot.&amp;nbsp; We are glad to have you here and if there is anything we can do to make it a better Spot for you, &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;our inbox&lt;/a&gt;  is always open.&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:56:49 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/01/23/New-partnership-with-CodeShare-and-Contest-Reminder</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>InstantSpot Design Exchange opens its doors!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/01/04/InstantSpot-Design-Exchange-opens-its-doors</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  This was announced on several blogs the past week, but it would be remiss of us not to do so ourselves!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  A very enterprising and hardworking developer named &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cfsilence.com&quot; title=&quot;Todd Sharp&amp;#39;s Blog&quot;&gt;Todd Sharp&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; has created a place for InstantSpot users to create, upload, and download styles for the Spots!&amp;nbsp; A couple months ago we opened up the ability for our users to have direct access to the CSS of their Spots and we have already seem some really cool designs come out.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Here is your chance to show off your designs and help build their library, or browse other people&amp;#39;s creations and apply them to your Spot.&amp;nbsp; If you create an account with them there is a feature that actually allows you to preview what your Spot would look like with any of the designs!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Go check out:&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.isdx.net&quot; title=&quot;InstantSpot Design Exchange&quot;&gt;www.isdx.net&lt;/a&gt;    &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  A couple other items of note...&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;It appears that a number of our users may have missed the initial message about the iPod contest!&amp;nbsp; We are running this contest until January 31, so it is not too late to get started.&amp;nbsp; If you have no idea what I am talking about, go read about our &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/blog/index.cfm/2007/1/2/Free-iPod-Nano&quot;&gt;Free iPod Nano Giveaway&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;We have some really cool features to announce the next week or two that will help you keep tabs on what your friends are doing on InstantSpot.&amp;nbsp; Stay tuned for more on that very soon.&lt;br /&gt;   &lt;/li&gt;  &lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  As always, thanks for making this your &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com&quot;&gt;Spot&lt;/a&gt;  on the web!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:23:51 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/01/04/InstantSpot-Design-Exchange-opens-its-doors</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Free iPod Nano!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/01/02/Free-iPod-Nano</link><description>Happy New Year from the InstantSpot staff!&amp;nbsp; We hope you all had a  prosperous 2006 and are looking forward to 2007 as much as we are.&amp;nbsp;  Since our birth four short months ago, InstantSpot is now chugging  along and growing every day.&amp;nbsp; The maturation of InstantSpot is due in  large part to all the people that have been faithful users and have  provided us with suggestions and feedback as we try shape and mold  InstantSpot into exactly what our users want and need. &lt;br /&gt;  So how can we thank you?&amp;nbsp; How about a Free iPod Nano!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  We are going to try our hand at having a contest.&amp;nbsp; Keep in mind that we  are programmers, not marketers, so this is new territory for us!&amp;nbsp; But  here is how the contest will work:&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Starting today, when you log into your control panel you will see a  referral link on the landing page.&amp;nbsp; The link will look like this:&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;http://www.instantspot.com/referral?c=[yourcode]&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  We want you to send this to all your friends and family, and see how  many new InstantSpot users you can generate.&amp;nbsp; At midnight January 31,  2007 this month&amp;#39;s entries will be closed, and shortly afterwards we  will tally up the number of *active* new Spots that each Spot has  referred.&amp;nbsp; The Spot with the most active referrals will receive an iPod  Nano compliments of InstantSpot.&amp;nbsp; In addition, we will put your Spot on  the main homepage throughout the month of February and show you off!&amp;nbsp;  As you send referral requests to people, let them know that as soon as  they join they are included in the contest as well, so they have an  opportunity to win the iPod Nano too. &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  You may have noticed we used the term *active* in the text above.&amp;nbsp; At  the time of this posting, that means people that have not only created  a new InstantSpot site, but have activated and began adding content to  it.&amp;nbsp; We reserve the right to interpret and redefine &amp;quot;active&amp;quot; as we see  appropriate at anytime during the contest to ensure that the intent of  the contest is safe from abuse.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Also, please keep in mind that we don&amp;#39;t want to become notorious for  our users spamming people they don&amp;#39;t know. We will immediately  disqualify people that take this approach, so be on your best behavior  and don&amp;#39;t make us look bad! &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  However, here are some good suggestions for getting your link out there:&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Put the link in your email signatures (ex: Free iPod Nano!!!&amp;nbsp;   http://www.instantspot.com/referral?c=[yourcode]) and send emails to   all your friends and family begging them to help you get your iPod.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Create a new page on your Spot with your referral link begging people to sign up!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Add it in your blog postings.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Add the link to signatures in forum postings across the internet, or post it where it is appropriate.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Rent a billboard along a major highway.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Two words:&amp;nbsp; Forehead tattoo!&lt;/li&gt;  &lt;/ul&gt;  Well, you get the idea...&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  So, now that you know the rules, run - don&amp;#39;t walk - to your control  panel and get your link.&amp;nbsp; If you have any problems or questions, you  can always contact us using the form on this blog and we will respond  as quickly as possible. &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  </description><pubDate>Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:37:56 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2007/01/02/Free-iPod-Nano</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Tip of the Day:  Disabling and reordering your links</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/28/Tip-of-the-Day--Disabling-and-reordering-your-links</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  When you first create your Spot, you will see some default pages and links that are already built for you.&amp;nbsp; At the time of this writing, they are &amp;quot;Home&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Blog&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;My Friends&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Calendar&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;Photo Gallery&amp;quot;, and &amp;quot;Free Website&amp;quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  By clicking into the &amp;quot;Manage Links&amp;quot; section of the Control Panel, you sill see that the &amp;quot;Home&amp;quot; link points to your default first page of the same name.&amp;nbsp; You can delete or rename this link you wish, since it points directly to a dynamic page.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  The other default links behave slightly differently since they are actually services rather than a specific page.&amp;nbsp; You may notice that you do not have the option to delete those links.&amp;nbsp; However, you can disable and re-enable them at your convenience. &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Please note that if you delete your &amp;quot;Friends&amp;quot; page, you will no longer be able to recieve messages on your Spot from your friends.&amp;nbsp; This *does not* affect people being able to post comments on your blog.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Another thing you can do within the link manager is reorder your links. &amp;nbsp; In the &amp;quot;Order&amp;quot; column, you can click the links for &amp;quot;up&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;down&amp;quot; to change where they will show up on your navigation bar.&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  If you have any question about this or any other feature, don&amp;#39;t hesitate to &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt;  anytime.&amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:34:23 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/28/Tip-of-the-Day--Disabling-and-reordering-your-links</guid><category>Helpful Tips</category></item><item><title>Big things afoot at InstantSpot!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/27/Big-things-afoot-at-InstantSpot</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Hi all!  Hope everyone had a nice Christmas and is looking forward to the new year.  The development team at &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt; has been hard at work and wanted to update you on some of the things going on.  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  First, we have subscribed each user account to the &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt;  Staff blog, so that we finally have a good way to communicate with you  all and let you know what is going on.  Make sure to check in whenever  you receive an update notification as we will continually discuss new  features, helpful tips and other goings on here at the Spot.  If you  received an email notification and want off the list, well... sorry.   No, just kidding.  If you really want off, check the bottom of the  email you received and you will find a link to unsubscribe from this  blog and miss out on all the good content we will provide! :)&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  So with that out of the way, let&amp;#39;s cover some cool stuff that has been  going on.  For some of you, this might not be entirely new information,  but much of what is below are cutting edge features you might not be  aware of.  &lt;strong&gt;*DO NOT MISS THE LAST ITEM!!!*&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Enhanced Friend Support!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  One of the comments we have heard time and time again about &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt;  was that while it&amp;#39;s really cool, there is no way to communicate with  other users besides commenting on their blog entries.  What if you just  want to give them a shout?  Enter &amp;quot;The &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;Shoutbox&lt;/span&gt;&amp;quot;!  Now on the Friends page, in addition to seeing the &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;headshots&lt;/span&gt;  to your friends, you and your friends can now post public messages to  each other.  This is just one of the friend features that is in the  works, but it is the first part to go live.  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Easier Blog Commenting&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  So, raise your hands if you haven&amp;#39;t been at least occasionally annoyed  by the pop-up blog comment window.  That&amp;#39;s what we thought.  We now  have one-click comment posting for members, with no more having to type  the random characters in addition to your information.  For non-Spot  users (bless their poor souls), they will receive an activation email  containing a link they will have to click in order to publish their  comments after posting them.  If you receive any complaints from your  readers about having to activate their comments, just tell them to  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/Join&quot;&gt;create their free &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;  account and they will never have to activate them again!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Customizable &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;CSS&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  You can now completely control the look of your Spot.  We have opened up the entire &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;CSS&lt;/span&gt;  styling to our users, and have already seen some really creative looks  by some of our users.  For those of you that are not content with our  packaged color combinations at &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;sign-up&lt;/span&gt;,  don&amp;#39;t be afraid to get in there and start tinkering with your layout.   You will find this in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/EditCss&quot;&gt;Style Manager&lt;/a&gt;  in the control panel  If you  come up with something really cool, let us know so we can show you off  to the other Spotters.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Customizable Ad Colors&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  Before you read this, you *do* know you can have your own Google Ads on  your Spot right?  OK then, for those of you that have modified your &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;CSS&lt;/span&gt;  you have probably noticed that your ads may no longer match your page.   Now you can pick the colors to match your layout and hopefully sway a  few more people to click on your ads and help you earn money from your  Spot. You can manage this in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/EditCss&quot;&gt;Style Manager&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Subscriptions now really work!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  Since our launch, we have had some issues with allowing people to  subscribe to your blogs.  This has been on our list for sometime but  was recently addressed in early December.  Now, not only can people  subscribe to your blog, but you can invite them as well.  Under the  Site Manager in the control panel, click on &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/Invitation/ContentType/All&quot;&gt;Invite Your Friends&lt;/a&gt;&amp;quot;.  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Flash Photo Galleries&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  In a recent update to &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt;,  we added a *very* cool photo gallery feature.  After uploading files  using the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/fileManager&quot;&gt;Photo Manager&lt;/a&gt;, you can create a gallery in the Photo &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/galleryManager&quot;&gt;Gallery  Manager&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  Improved Stats Tracking&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  Since early on, &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt; has supported the ability for you to monitor your traffic using several tracking services such as Google Analytics, &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;BlogBeat&lt;/span&gt;, &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;MyBlogLog&lt;/span&gt;, and Ice Rocket.  We recently added a new service called Site stats from &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;Feedburner&lt;/span&gt;. We had an inside track on this one, as the feature is not yet publicly available from &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;Feedbuner&lt;/span&gt;, but as soon as it is, we will update you. &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;  More Rocket Fuel&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  OK, there is no real way to show you guys this one, but we worked too  hard on it not to mention it.  We have done some pretty dramatic work  on performance lately.  Speed is a real obsession of ours, so know that  this is something we will always work on until we squeeze the last bit  of performance out that we can.&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  Now... for the moment you have been waiting for:&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt; wants to give you an &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;iPod&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;Nano&lt;/span&gt;!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;br /&gt;  If you are like us, you woke up on Christmas morning to find that Santa  apparently didn&amp;#39;t think you had been good enough for that &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;Nano&lt;/span&gt;.   That leaves you only two choices.  Either mope around and wait for one  next year only to be disappointed yet again, or make it happen!  Starting in January, &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt; will be tracking how many people you refer to sign up at &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt;.   We will soon be sending you a referral link that you can attach to your  emails, put on your Spot, give to your family, etc.  At the end of  January we will be tallying up the active users that have been referred  by other Spotters, and will be sending the top referrer a brand new &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;iPod&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;Nano&lt;/span&gt;.   The complete details of this contest are under final review and might  change slightly before we roll the contest, but stay tuned and good  luck!&lt;br /&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;  So that about wraps up most of the new happenings here at &lt;span class=&quot;hm&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/span&gt;.   We love hearing from you guys so if you have feature requests, things  you would like to see different (or not at all!), or if you just want  to tell us how much you love your Spot, feel free to &lt;a href=&quot;http://staff.instantspot.com/index.cfm/show/Contact-Us&quot;&gt;contact us&lt;/a&gt;  anytime.  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:36:08 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/27/Big-things-afoot-at-InstantSpot</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Yes it *really* is a FREE website!  FREE blog!  FREE photo gallery!  </title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/15/Yes-it-really-is-a-FREE-website--FREE-blog--FREE-photo-gallery--</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  We had two seperate people tell us today that they thought InstantSpot was cool, followed by &amp;quot;How much is it?&amp;quot;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  Apparently we are not getting the message out well enough.  So here it is:   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;7&quot; color=&quot;#ff6600&quot;&gt;InstantSpot is&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;  &amp;nbsp;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;  &lt;strong&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;7&quot; color=&quot;#ff6600&quot;&gt; FREE!!!!!!!&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;  Yes we think it is pretty ridiculous to make all this stuff and offer it for free too.   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Free website with infinite design customization&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Unlimited pages on your site&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Unlimited blogging&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Cool Flash photo gallery&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;Events calendar&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;more........ &lt;/li&gt;  &lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;  But that is the way it is. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/Join&quot;&gt;Make your Spot now&lt;/a&gt;  and enjoy the freeness!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;  If anyone has any ideas for helping us get the word out, don&amp;#39;t hold back.  We want everyone to hear the word. &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Sat, 16 Dec 2006 03:27:16 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/15/Yes-it-really-is-a-FREE-website--FREE-blog--FREE-photo-gallery--</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>Thanks to Ryan Everhart!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/06/Thanks-to-Ryan-Everhart</link><description>The InstantSpot development team want to publicly thank Ryan Everhart for his donation to InstantSpot.&amp;nbsp; Make sure to go check out &lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ryaneverhart.com&quot;&gt;his Spot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;!  </description><pubDate>Wed, 06 Dec 2006 21:29:24 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/06/Thanks-to-Ryan-Everhart</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>InstantSpot interview on the ColdFusion Weekly Podcast</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/04/InstantSpot-interview-on-the-ColdFusion-Weekly-Podcast</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  Do you want to hear about InstantSpot from the mouths of the creators?&amp;nbsp; If so, go check out this week&amp;#39;s episode of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://coldfusionweekly.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=157864#&quot;&gt;ColdFusion Weekly podcast&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Hosts &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mattwoodward.com/blog&quot;&gt;Matt Woodward&lt;/a&gt;  and &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.maestropublishing.com/&quot;&gt;Peter Farrell&lt;/a&gt;  asked us to come on and talk about InstantSpot and we eagerly obliged!  &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;  For the non-techie types that just want to skip to the interview, it starts at 44:48 minutes in.&amp;nbsp; Thanks ColdFusion Weekly! &lt;br /&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;  </description><pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:09:11 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/12/04/InstantSpot-interview-on-the-ColdFusion-Weekly-Podcast</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item><item><title>New Code!  New Features!  New Cool!</title><link>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/11/13/New-Code--New-Features--New-Cool</link><description>&lt;p&gt;  The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com&quot;&gt;InstantSpot&lt;/a&gt;  team pushed up some pretty big code changes this weekend.&amp;nbsp;   &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/EditCss&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Customize your CSS!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp; For those of you asking for more styles, we have a solution.&amp;nbsp; You be the designer!&amp;nbsp; We have exposed the CSS code that controls the layout of your Spot.&amp;nbsp; You are no longer limited to the set of design templates we provide.&amp;nbsp; For a good example of a site that has already made use of this, check out &lt;a href=&quot;http://chrisrutherford.com&quot;&gt;Chris&amp;#39; Spot&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/TrackingScriptManager&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get Stats on your traffic!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp; InstantSpot now supports a handful (initially, but more will be added)&amp;nbsp; of tracking scripts to give you a handle on how many people are visiting your Spot, who is visiting your Spot, and where they came from.&amp;nbsp; Currently we are supporting Google Analytics, Blogbeat, Ice Rocket, and MyBlogLog.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/CategoryManager&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Multiple Categories!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &amp;nbsp; Your Spot can no be a part of multiple categories in the directory.&amp;nbsp; Choose up to 3 categories to be a part of.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Better control of blog categories&lt;/strong&gt; - You can now control which categories your blog posts reside in.&amp;nbsp; This isn&amp;#39;t an entirely new feature but there were some issues with this in the previous release and they have been resolved.&lt;/li&gt;   &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lots more invisible betterness!&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Along with this version we included some pretty significant architectural and performance enhancements.&amp;nbsp; No... sorry... you can&amp;#39;t see them but you will all sleep better at night knowing they are there!&lt;/li&gt;  &lt;/ul&gt;  Go &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/Admin&quot;&gt;login in now&lt;/a&gt;  and see the changes, or if for some reason you don&amp;#39;t yet have a Spot... seriously... &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.instantspot.com/index.cfm/event/Join&quot;&gt;what are you waiting for&lt;/a&gt;?    </description><pubDate>Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:59:03 GMT</pubDate><guid>http://blog.instantspot.com/blog/2006/11/13/New-Code--New-Features--New-Cool</guid><category>InstantSpot</category></item></channel></rss>