WidgetLaboratory TV - Episode 8

On Today’s Show:

1) You can’t hide true costs from your customers

2) How to remove a column using CSS in SocialGO

3) What did I eat for Lunch? Answer to Episode 1

4) WooThemes for Wordpress

Sample of the pop effect when recording without a pop filter, and then cured with our pop filter for under a buck!

Those of you who have followed us for years know that we love trying out new and creative ways to build ideas “on the cheap”. In that spirit, we have a solution today for any of you who may be doing a lot of recording at home, whether for your business or fun.

When trying to achieve a great bass sound, there is something called the “proximity effect”. This states that the closer one puts their mouth to the microphone, the lower and richer the tones will be (think Don LaFontaine). Unfortunately, there is a cost for this benefit. That is known as “pop”. If you hold your hand to your mouth and say “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers…” you can feel the air hitting your hands pretty forcefully. That is a disaster when it comes to recording, as each of those blasts of wind will completely overwhelm the recording levels and ruin your otherwise great sound.

By using a “pop” filter, one can diffuse the wind coming from your mouth, while still allowing all the normal frequencies to pass through.

Sample of the pop effect when recording without a pop filter, and then cured with our pop filter for under a buck!

Pop filters can be purchased commercially, and come in a variety of materials from metal to plastic. But anyone who has ever gone to the grocery store, eaten take-out food, or worn a nylon sock, can make their own for under a buck in about ten minutes!

I’ve posted the full photo gallery as a slide show below, and you can click to go to Flickr for the full-size images.

Here’s how to make your own:

1. Take a small plastic container used for cream cheese or carry-out from a grocery or restaurant. The size should be around five to six inches diameter, and it must have a snap-on lid (essential!);
2. Remove the lid and cut away most of the body of the container, leaving about 1/2” inch of material below the snap on portion. This will give the filter some rigidity, and provide a place for you to mount the filter using a wire hangar;
3. Now take the lid of the container and remove all of the center material using a scissors, so that you are left with just the snap-on ring portion;
4. Take an old nylon sock (not cotton) and cut off a part from the main body about four inches long. Don’t use the toe or the cuff as these have stitching and thicker material;
5. After cutting the stocking tube so it lays into a flat piece, place the body of the food container that you previously cut on top of it, with the snap-on lid portion touching the sock. Carefully stretch the nylon taught so that is nice and even and you can see light through the material.
6. As you are pulling the nylon taught, slip the old container cover ring underneath and then slowly push the main container/nylon into the old cover so that it “snaps” into place. It takes a bit of wiggling, but once you get it, you will have what looks like a needle-point setup;
7. Now you can trim away all the excess nylon and you are ready for bending an old hangar to make a mounting arm;
8. Any old hangar will do. Simply unwind it, bend it to the approximate shape of the inner ring area on the pop filter, and it will hold itself in place. Now you can take the remainder of the hangar and adapt it to your own microphone stand or clamp system.

Voila! The whole project can be done in ten minutes or less, and the results are dramatic.

Enjoy!

It’s almost that time!! Tweet your guesses about what I am eating for lunch today to @WidgetLab and use hashcode #EvilGeniusLunch

On Today’s Show:
1) INTEGRATING YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK WITH AN OUTSIDE BLOG PLATFORM
2) THE SLOW AND STEADY APPROACH TO GROWING A BUSINESS NICHE
3) THESIS THEME FOR WORDPRESS

WidgetLaboratory TV - Episode 6

In this Episode:

We discuss how to setup a contest or game for your Social Network, Why you may have to “fire” your customer, and we review E-junkie.com

One of the new trailers that we’ve created for WidgetLaboratory TV and the upcoming tutorial video series.

Let us know what you think? http://twitter.com/widgetlab

Just read this article. We are good friends with Tom and Jessica, the owners of Yoga View, and have personally participated in the new “pay what you think is fair” program at their Division St. studio. This is an example of a SYMBIOTIC relationship between the business owner and customer.

By trusting the customer to do the right thing, with a product that has a low production cost (the classes will go on whether there is one student or a hundred in a class), there is a greater opportunity to grow the trusting relationship which will lead to greater interaction in the future. In today’s economy, that translates into the customer becoming a loyal “FAN” of the business (and business owner), while also wanting to put more effort into ensuring that the business stays alive and thrives. If the customer can’t put up their own cash now, they will likely try to get other paying customers to make up the slack, or will make it up with greater payment in the near future when able.

The model doesn’t work as well for businesses that have fixed costs up front, such as a restaurant, but is perfect for online businesses that primarily deal in the exchange of ideas and information.

Maybe you should think about providing a donation model for some aspect of your online network or business? The results may surprise you.

Bra Color Posting on Facebook. An amazing example of viral marketing in action!

Does it actually deliver the message that was intended? Hard to say. But it is undeniable that this shows how rapidly one’s message can spread if you make it “just” unique enough to be fun, mysterious, and a tiny bit provocative. Full Washington Post Story