Apps and services are bought, companies develop their strategy, and a lot of times, that means moving away from the one service or feature that you love the most. Google Reader’s popularity, and a pretty vociferous outcry following Google’s decision to pull the plug, has done little to convince the tech giant to go back on its decision, forcing people to look for alternatives. And Google is certainly not alone. Blogging platform Posterous similarly announced its shutdown last February, having been acquired by Twitter, and gave users two months to look for alternatives.

The old saying goes, if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product, has never rung more true than at these times when a company decides it no longer needs you, or has been acquired by a bigger outfit. Here are a few ways you can at least prepare yourself for the inevitable.

Only Choose Services That Provide a Backup Feature

This is the golden rule of protecting yourself from an ultimate shutdown. Always choose services that provide a backup feature. Better yet, if you can, choose a service that allows you to backup your data to a common format that will likely be compatible with other services such as XML or CSV files. This way you can be sure your content can easily end up somewhere else.

If you can also backup your content from the service to a readable format on your computer, that’s always great too. Either way, if a free cloud-based service doesn’t give its users the basic courtesy of exporting their own content, it’s difficult to trust them with your data.

Perform Regular Backups

Now that you know the service can provide you with backups, to stay on the safe side, perform regular backups, even if there’s been no talk from the service itself of an impending shutdown. With the finicky and unreliable of the Internet, you simply never know what could happen, so you might as well run a backup at least once a month, particularly if you’re extremely active on that service.

Do you tend to be forgetful when it comes to backups? Set up a reminder on your calendar, phone or computer.

Always Keep An Eye Out For Alternatives

While you might love the service you’re using, it’s always good to keep an eye out for alternatives. You never know when you might have to make the switch, and rather than scramble to find an alternative that you might end up not liking, always be aware of the competition and their features so if you need to make a quick switch, you can do so while well informed of what to expect.

Monitor Social Media Accounts Or Blogs For Announcements

The chances are that if a site or service is shutting down, they’ll send you an email telling you as much, and doing so at least a few months in advance to give you a chance to find an alternative. At least that is what they should give you the courtesy of doing.  Just in case you’ve got filters set up in your email inbox, or you just happen to not check your email too often, it might also be a good idea to monitor any available Twitter, Facebook or Google+ accounts, or alternatively an official blog, where you can expect to find announcements.

This way you’ll always know about any worrying downtime, will get a better sense of how often the service is affected by glitches, or in the worst case scenario, when it is shutting down.

Find Out More About The Developers

If possible, try to find out more about the developers behind the app or service. Do they have a track record for launching services and abandoning them or shutting them down? It’s always good to know who you’re dealing with, and knowing a developer or company’s history can be a great way to get a bit of peace of mind.

Crunchbase is a great resource for finding out everything you need to know about the companies you’re trusting with your data.

Choose Services With Offline Features

Services like Evernote offer you offline or desktop access to your content. Even Google, awful track record aside, provides Google Drive which you can access using a desktop app. Choosing services that come with desktop features or automatic sync are a great way to not have to worry about the very first rule – remembering to backup your content – since it’s all automated for you anyway.

Choose a Paid Service

If you’re really worried about losing access to your content, a paid service is another route to consider. With the Posterous shutdown, Posthaven came to the forefront as a viable alternative, promising it would never shut down, but offering users the service at the cost of $5 a month.

Stay Off The Cloud

At the end of the day, if you’re really worried about your content, there’s no better tip than staying off the cloud. The minute you choose to use a third party cloud-based service, you’re putting your trust in someone else’s hands and that’s something you simply have to come to terms with.

We certainly don’t recommend staying off the cloud – there’s a lot of convenience and handy features that come with cloud-based services, but if you really want to protect yourself – as the old adage goes – nothing beats abstinence.

Do you have any tips on protect yourself from a service shutdown? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Shutterstock

The post How To Protect Yourself From Online Services Shutting Down appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Once you’ve got the basics, following the Instagram tips below, on how to get the most out of the site and to fit right in, there are a few more tips that you can follow that will get you more likes and followers. Check out our tried and true Instagram tips for getting tons of likes. And don’t forget, Instagram isn’t just a photography app, it’s a community. It goes far beyond just posting your photos – it involves engagement and interaction, and these tips will help you find your way right into the community.

Space out your posts

One of the first Instagram tips goes for any social network, blogging platform, or content curation service: space out your posts. Intentionally or unintentionally, don’t forget posting for weeks at a time and then suddenly flood your followers with ten photos a day. Depending on how many followers you already have, you probably shouldn’t post more than twice a day, otherwise your followers might get sick of seeing you in their feed, no matter how great your photos might be.

Use hashtags carefully

There is nothing more annoying on Instagram than looking up a hashtag and finding it spammed with photos that don’t relate to the topic. This is particularly frustrating when it’s a hashtag that is used to curate and recommend content. So while you should never use hashtags that are not relevant to your photo, you should definitely select a few hashtags to get your photo more exposure. Using hashtags is a great way to get noticed on Instagram, and if you stay true to the content of your photo, it will definitely earn you more likes, follows and comments.

Use the 1-2-3 rule

A popular rule among Instagram old-timers is the 1-2-3 rule. The 1-2-3 rule means that for every 1 photo you post, you should comment on 2 others and like 3. This is often used by users who are curating submissions by other Instagram users, like Josh Johnson’s popular forum, and the Instagram account, Monoart.

Avoid too many self-portraits

While there’s nothing wrong with posting a few self-portraits, don’t let that dominate your Instagram feed. And if you are going to post photos of yourself (or your friends), for the love of god, avoid the duckface pout that has become a staple of all teenage photos on every social network known to man.

Don’t ask for a shout-out

Don’t ask for attention. This is a basic rule of any social network and it’s one that should definitely be followed on Instagram as well. Asking for attention, or asking users with a lot of followers for a ‘shout-out’ only makes users look desperate. If you want to be noticed on Instagram, let it be for your photos, and not because you asked someone to notice you.

Don’t always expect reciprocation, but give it when you can

Any social network involves a delicate balance of not expecting reciprocation but also reciprocating when you can. Don’t follow a user and unfollow them days later if they don’t return the favour. You also should not feel obliged to follow other users back. How you can reciprocate, however, is that if someone leaves a thoughtful comment on your photo – try to do the same. If someone likes a photo or two of yours, find a photo or two of theirs that you can add to your favourites. But, as is the case with following users back, only add photos to your favourites if you genuinely like them. You can always use Instagram’s web-based interface to make that task of reciprocation a little bit easier.

If you’re looking for an even more robust desktop experience for Instagram, check out 6 sites that can enhance your Instagram experience and 9 more tools that help you get more out of the Instagram experience.

Don’t flood other users with likes

Many Instagram users have the habit of checking out your feed and then giving you 10 or 20 likes in a row. While this can come across as flattering at first, it can also be a little frustrating, especially if you have notifications on your phone turned on. Rather than flood a user with a ton of likes, pick two or three photos that really stand out and like them. Otherwise it can come across as an effort to get likes back, rather than a genuine compliment.

Post your best

Instagram doesn’t allow users to create albums or organize their photos in any way. Since all of your content is viewable from one single feed – be sure to always post only your best. With any social network or photo sharing site you want to put your best foot forward, and Instagram should not be any different. When you take several photos at one location or of one subject, pick one or two that you feel really stand out and post those. After a while, as you scroll through your Instagram feed, you’ll be greeted with a beautiful representation of your work.

What Instagram tips would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments.

The post New To Instagram? Top Tips For Newbies appeared first on MakeUseOf.

So, what is lifelogging? Rather than use social networks to document your life, there are dedicated lifelogging services, most of which keep that content (your lifestream) private, so that you can have a complete record of your day to day activities. There’s a huge array of services, gadgets and apps dedicated to exactly this purpose, some of them general, and some that serve a specific function – such as logging your workouts, your sleep patterns, your mood, or simply highlights of your day.

What is Lifelogging

Let’s take a step back and take a look at what lifelogging really is. The concept originated with the idea of wearing a gadget or computer that records or captures large chunks (if not each moment) of a person’s daily life. The first person to do this actually did it as far back as 1994. Steve Mann is considered the “father of wearable computers“, and the Canadian researcher, continuously transmitted his life using a wearable computer for 24 hours a day.

While the definition of lifelogging began with the idea of some sort of wearable gadget that automatically records your data for you, it has since evolved to include manual options which allow you to record the data to an app or service on a daily basis. The most common form of lifelogging you see today is that used in sports. Gadgets like the Jawbone UP and Fitbit, which track your physical activity, fitness, and sleep activity.

The Different Types of Lifelogs

We’ve mentioned just two types of lifelogs when introducing the idea, but there are countless ways in which people choose to lifelog.

Wearable gadgets: A wearable gadget is the easiest way to lifelog since it automatically captures the data for you. If you regularly workout and want to keep track of your progress, this is the ideal way to do it so you don’t forget to record any of your data. Other types of wearable gadgets include cameras, like the Memoto which shoots photos, and Looxcie, which shoots video. Of course, Google Glass would also fit in this category.

Mobile apps: If you don’t want to fork over a large amount of money, or any money at all, another convenient way to record data from your daily life is to use a mobile app. There are apps for taking photos (like Everyday), shooting videos (like 1 Second a Day), logging your sleeping pattern (like Sleepbot), tracking your heart rate (like Instant Heart Rate), and recording and tracking your workout (like RunKeeper), among others. The disadvantage to using a mobile app rather than a gadget is that you sometimes have to remember to manually enter the data, but a lot of apps will come with a reminder notification built in. Even if they don’t, you can simply use your phone’s native reminder app and set up a recurring reminder to record your data on a daily basis.

Web apps: Like mobile apps, there are web apps that you can use to record your data, but this is likely the most inconvenient option of the four. Lifelogging, by its very nature, is best done while you’re on the go so you don’t forget to enter the data, or don’t forget what the actual data was. That said, there are some pretty solid services worth considering, some of which are automated, like Rescue Time which will let you know how you’re spending time on your computer.

Standalone gadget:While not as common, there are a few standalone gadgets that are used to create a lifelog, but more often than not it is of your surroundings rather than your immediate interactions. For example, CubeSensors can monitor your surroundings, and “continuously measure temperature, humidity, noise, light, air quality and barometric pressure for every room, they can even pick up unwanted vibrations that shake up your building.”

For a full list of lifestreaming mobile and web apps, gadgets and more, check out Mark Krynsky’s exhaustive list on his lifestreaming blog.

Why Should You Do It?

Now the big question, why should you bother with a lifelog? Today, it provides a great way to monitor your health, to make sure you’re benefitting from your workouts, and can offer you the means to improve the quality of your life. If you’re active and spend a lot of time at the gym, lifelogging your activity seems like a necessity to make sure you’re getting the most out of your workouts.

Away from physical activity logging, when it comes to shooting video and photos, whether continuously or at intervals, you end up with a fascinating record of your life. You can capture moments and photos you might otherwise miss, and it becomes the ideal way to pass your legacy on to your family and children. They can share the parts of your lives they weren’t there for. Even if you choose not to share these details with anyone else, it becomes an important record for yourself…like simply taking journaling to the next level.

What do you think? Would you start a lifelog? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Image Credit: Wikimedia, Loic LeMeur

The post What Is Lifelogging And Why Should You Do It? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

While Posterous was, in the traditional sense, a blogging platform, there’s no reason you have to stick with the same concept if you’re still wondering where you should head next. While there are a few blogging options – Tumblr, WordPress and Jux – you could also opt for a photo sharing site like Flickr. No matter what platform you end up using, you could simply opt for the auto-sharing service, IFTTT to autopost your new blog posts to any social networking site of your choice.

Tumblr

Tumblr is the most obvious place to go if you’re feeling the sting from Posterous shutting down. Tumblr brings the same ease-of-use, a simplified dashboard that makes posting easier than ever, and a built-in system that makes cross-posting and sharing links to your blog posts on social media sites automatically possible.

A few key features that will appeal to the Posterous fan is the ability to create posts on the fly in a variety of ways. You can create and publish posts using the Android or iPhone apps, or if you’d rather not download a dedicated app, you can also create posts with the simple act of sending an email. Just head over to your Tumblr settings, select the blog you want to post to, and jot down the private email that you can use to send posts to. In the same place, you can connect your Tumblr and Twitter accounts to automatically share your latest posts with your Twitter followers.

WordPress (Self-hosted)

Getting a self-hosted WordPress site is another decent (if not even better) alternative to Posterous. With the use of a minimalist theme and an array of plugins you can get close enough to the Posterous experience, so much so that you’ll never look back.

While the theme hasn’t been updated in a while, Minimous is labeled as a Posterous-like theme for WordPress. The good news is that it isn’t hard to find recently updated alternatives. A few great minimalist alternatives that you can put to good use on your WordPress site include Stack, Minimalizine and Chaos Theory.

If you want to automatically share your WordPress posts on a variety of social networks, a decent plugin to give a try is Next Scripts. Major social networks and sites that are supported by the plugin include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn and much more.

Jux

Jux is another great blogging platform that brings the same simplicity that sites like Tumblr, and the now defunct Posterous, bring to the table. The blogging platform divides posts by content type – photo, video, text and more. Unfortunately, one feature that Jux still lacks is a more convenient way to post to when you’re away from your computer.

Posting via email or using a mobile app isn’t an option, but Jux does make up for it with a few other unique features. It’s one of the only blogging platforms that makes it easy to harness the power of Google Maps Street View, as well as being able to create entire series of posts within one post (almost like a blog within a blog). To find out more about how the platform works and what features it supports, check out our in-depth review of Jux.

Posthaven

If you haven’t already migrated your content from Posterous to Posthaven, you’ve missed the boat on that feature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take full advantage of the service. We’ve taken an in-depth look at what Posthaven has to offer, and it will just set you back $5 a month. Writing about his own personal experience with Posthaven, MakeUseOf’s Aaron Couch says, “There’s something to be said about awesome customer service, especially when a site is just run by two guys.”

Flickr

If you’re main focus on Posterous was to use it to share your photos, why not simply opt for a photo-sharing site rather than a blogging platform. Flickr is a solid option, one that makes it easy to post on the go, and while the site itself isn’t necessarily the prettiest to look at, you can always use third party services to create a slick Flickr-powered portfolio, like Flickrock or Pullfolio.

The revamped Flickr iOS app also makes it a pure joy to use the site on the go on your iPhone, while Flickr also makes it possible to upload photos to the photo-sharing site via a private email address.

IFTTT

No matter what platform you use, as long as it has an RSS feed, you could always opt for a service like IFTTT to make sure that your latest posts are shared on all the social networks and services you’ve been using on Posterous. To find out more about how IFTTT works and how you can get the most out of it, check out our in-depth IFTTT how-to.

Are there any platforms you think should be added to this list of Posterous alternatives? Let us know about them in the comments.

The post Posterous Might Be Gone But Here Are 6 Alternatives To Replace It appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The sheer amount of content on Tumblr, which makes it a joy to browse (as well as  very easy to lose hours of your day in the blink of an eye), sometimes you really do have to filter through a lot of repetitive content to get to the good stuff. For that reason, we’ve put together lists of recommended Tumblr history blogs that we think you should be following.

We’ve already introduced you to 8 Tumblr blogs every writer and book lover should follow, 7 news and political blogs you should follow, 10 humorous Tumblr blogs, and this week we’re taking a stab at the best in history that Tumblr has to offer.

This Day In History

What better place to start with Tumblr history blogs than with PBS’ This Day in History. In their own words, the blog is described as:

“Remembering world events that happened on this day with PBS videos, articles, photos, and interactive games.”

Turning an eye to world events, This Day in History is a great way to get a daily history lesson delivered to your screen via Tumblr. With everything in their recent posts from George Washington becoming the first US president to the Chernobyl nuclear explosion – the blog covers all eras and continents to bring you a well-rounded daily history lesson.

Cool Chicks From History

Cool Chicks from History is a must-follow for all history buffs and fans of empowered women. Another blog that spans the continents and eras, featured women include well known names like Hillary Clinton and Amelia Earhart, to lesser known women who have made a difference in women’s rights through the ages.

Historical Nonfiction

In their own words, Historical Nonfiction features:

Fun facts, quotes and pictures from history

With at least 2 new posts a day, the blog is a fascinating journey through obscure moments in history that you might not otherwise think of looking up. For example, an interesting fact you would come across browsing the blog is that, “Black beans were known as aphrodisiacs. So much so that St. Jerome forbade nuns to eat them in 400 A.D., for fear that the beans would lure them into breaking their vows of chastity.”

The Cartography Collective

If you’re the kind of history buff that’s obsessed with maps, then this is a must-follow for you. The Cartography Collective. In her own words, Susanna Cole-King describes the blog:

The Cartography Collective began with a habit of saving the beautiful maps I found traipsing about the web, to a folder on my computer. Eventually, this folder became hearty and fat, stuffed full of maps, and I thought it’d be lovely to have them displayed via a blog, and thus, in February 2011, The Cartography Collective (originally just Cartography, a rather bland, but to the point, name) was born.

With maps from the 14th to the 21st centuries, from all over the world, the Cartography Collective is an amazing resource for all things map-related. You can spend hours going through the archives, since sadly, the blog will no longer be updated on a regular basis.

Classical Archaeology News

If you’re more interested in ancient history, with a modern twist, Classical Archaeology  News is a great place to start. For the most part, the blog takes a look at recent findings that relate to ancient history – whether Roman, Greek, Egyptian or more. In her own words, Francesaca Tronchin describes her blog as:

A log of news items about archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean – Egypt, the Aegean, Greece, Rome.

Black History Is American History

Black History is an incredible resource, and a beautifully designed blog at that too. It catalogs men and women of note from the African American community, with everyone from actor and comedian Bill Cosby to the “Black Godfather of Silicon Valley,” Roy Clay Sr. The blog is a fascinating introduction or (re-introduction) to personalities that have made a significant difference in their respective fields.

In their own words, the site is:

“curating the names of influential Black Americans, past & present, and giving them the recognition they deserve.”

If you want to know more about the motivation behind the blog, check out the interview with the blog owner, Alex Pierce, here.

Which Tumblr blogs would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments.

The post 6 Fascinating Tumblr Blogs For History Buffs appeared first on MakeUseOf.

It can sometimes be a little overwhelming trying to navigate the sheer volume of Twitter hashtags, and it can be a challenge trying to figure out how to use hashtags to your advantage. If you want to make sure that your tweets are reaching the maximum possible audience, and give yourself the opportunity to take your topic viral, we’ve put together a list of things to bear in mind when it comes to putting hashtags to use for you on Twitter.

While these tips are Twitter-specific, there’s no reason why they can’t be applied to other social networks, including Google+ and Instagram, where hashtags are alive and well.

What Are Hashtags?

Twitter explains what hashtags are:

• People use the Twitter hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword.
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.
• Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

Tips On How To Use Twitter Hashtags

There are a few key tips that are worth keeping in mind when using hashtags.

Select Your Tags Carefully

If you’re trying to get an idea to spread on Twitter, pick your hashtag carefully. Don’t pick a hashtag that’s too long so it doesn’t take up too many characters in your 140-character limit. Make sure your hashtag is descriptive and can easily be associated with the concept you’re trying to convey. You also have to make sure the hashtag is unique so that it doesn’t become overrun with irrelevant tweets with users using your hashtag for other subjects.

Search Before You Choose

Continuing off the previous point, be sure to do a quick search on Twitter to make sure the hashtag isn’t already in use.

Don’t Overtag

Be cautious about how many hashtags you use in a tweet. You’ve only got 140 characters, so there’s no need to tag each and every word – as that will likely lose you followers rather than gain them in the process.

Never Jump On The Bandwagon Of Sensitive Topics

You would think this would go without saying but it has happened several times. Marketing accounts have hijacked sensitive and emotional events around the world. Kenneth Cole’s PR machine used the February 2011 protests in Cairo to promote a new fashion line while a year later, Celeb Boutique didn’t take the time to check why Aurora was trending on Twitter following the fatal shooting in Aurora, Colorado in December 2012.

This also comes back to carefully searching a hashtag before using it. It’s key that you understand how the hashtag is already being used on Twitter.

Ways Hashtags Are Used

There are quite a few regular ways in which hashtags are used aside from promotion and marketing. Here are a few popular ways in which hashtags are regularly used:

• Every Friday, you can use the Twitter hashtags, #FollowFriday and #FF to recommend other tweeps worth following
• When attending conferences, watching popular TV shows, or taking part in group events, you can use hashtags to share your thoughts on the experience. This is another aspect of using hashtags that you should use carefully. If you’re livetweeting, be selective regardless so that you don’t flood your followers with tweets that might not be of interest to them.
• Hashtags are used to label all sorts of useful and creative information – everything from job listings to poetry can be found on Twitter through hashtags. You can keep up with your favourite topics using hashtags, as you’ll find with this list of hashtags tailored for every writer, or even discover topics you knew nothing about.

Third Party Services

Storify

Storify is a great service to find out the broader narrative of how a Twitter hashtag is being used. Searching the hashtag on Storify will show you how it’s being used within larger stories, so you can find out more about the topic, in a pretty slick layout.

Find out more about Storify in our in-depth review of the service.

Topsy

Topsy is a great way to find out how your hashtag is doing, and allows for a more robust search of Twitter than the social networking’s own native search. The best feature, by far, that Topsy offers users is one which allows you to see the analytics of the hashtag. You can view how often it’s been used over the past day, week, 2 weeks, or month.

Find out more about Topsy in our post about the service here.

Sopularity 

Sopularity is still in private beta but the service looks promising. It will help you figure out what words to hashtag in your tweets, through an automated service. You can get 5 suggestions for free per day, or, for €5 a month, you can get unlimited suggestions.

Tell us in the comments how you have used Twitter hashtags. Are they a useful tool for you?

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to use hashtags? Let us know about them in the comments.

The post Hashtags – The Key To Reaching a Wider Audience On Twitter appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You can find Twitter users sharing their poetry, short stories, and even the work of famous writers, all in little bite-sized 140-character updates. If you’re not sure where to start your literary journey on Twitter, we’ve got a few tips to get you going – from who to follow, what hashtags to keep an eye on, and even how to get your Twitterary works out to a wider audience.

Haikus & Micro-Poems

Twitter’s format – limited to 140 characters – lends itself perfectly to short forms of poetry, none more popular than the haiku. Twitter pushes you to be even more creative with your poetry because you know you’re limited to a certain amount of space to convey an idea or emotion – even more so if you want to add a hashtag to make your poem easily searchable. That said, there’s quite the active poetry community on Twitter, sharing their 140-creations on a daily basis. A search of any of the hashtags used by poets (listed below) will show you just how much poetry is being shared on Twitter.

Find other poets to follow, interact with, and you’ll find yourself inspired in no time. And you don’t have to stop there. There are even projects which make it possible to get your Twitter poetry published. One example is Seven Twenty (currently on a short hiatus while transitioning editors, but still accepting submissions.

In their own words, Seven Twenty is ”an online magazine using Twitter as its publishing platform, for readers at home and on mobile devices.” To find out more on how to submit your work to them, check out their guidelines here.

Short Stories

Believe it or not, poetry is not the only literary form being shared on Twitter, with short stories making an appearance too. You might ask yourself how can a short story be written in just 140 characters, but the concept is inspired by what is believed to be a short story written by Earnest Hemingway, challenged to write it in just 6 words. The resulting story “For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” is proof that an entire story, from beginning to end can be conveyed in just a few words.

There are quite a few successful short story writers on Twitter, some of whom have even gone on to publish their work. Very Short Story is a great example of a writer, Sean Hill, who not only shares his work on Twitter, but even crowdsources his creativity from his followers. He explains on his blog:

“I ask my Twitter followers to send me nouns. The nouns that inspire me, I use in a very short story that I send out on my @veryshortstory Twitter feed. Since it’s Twitter, the stories have to fit in 140 characters. This character space limitation can be challenging, but it forces me to use my creativity to find a way to convey the stories in a small space. My best trick is getting the readers to use their imagination to fill in the gaps.”

With over 150,000 followers,  Hill had his work published in a book with the same title as his username..

Literary Masterpieces

While Twitter is a great place to discover new writers who are just getting started, or who are promoting their new work, you can also use Twitter to keep up with some of your favorite classics. There are quite a few carefully curated Twitter accounts featuring excerpts, quotes and more from famous writers work. Just a few of the writers you can find on Twitter are listed below:

• Sylvia Plath
• C.S. Lewis
• Rumi

Hashtags to Follow

Aside from following Twitter accounts curating the work of famous writers, along with talented upcoming writers, you can also follow specific hashtags to make sure you discover more interesting writers to follow. Below is a list of hashtags, one that is by no means exhaustive, but is a great place to start for finding poetry on Twitter:

• SixWords
• 6Words
• Micropoems
• Micropoetry
• Poem
• Poetweet

Can you think of any other literary uses for Twitter? Let us know about them in the comments.

The post Twiterature – The Art Of Literature On Twitter appeared first on MakeUseOf.

So what do you need to do to make sure that you don’t miss out on the many jobs that are being advertised on Twitter? We’ve put together a list of five key tips to bear in mind when looking for job listings on Twitter. Whether it’s how you use Twitter to search for a job or how you use it to present yourself, there’s a lot that you can do using the social networking site to land your dream job.

Keep an eye on key hashtags

The first tip when it comes to any basic Twitter use is keeping track of popular hashtags, no matter what topic you’re interested in. Hashtags make it easy to discover and label content, and when it comes to job search, it isn’t any different. There are quite a few active job search hashtags that are worth watching.

Keep an eye on hashtags related to conversations, tips, how-tos and job listings. These are just a few examples of the kinds of hashtags being used to post job listings or even links to tips for how to land a job, but you can get creative with your search and think about the kinds of keywords that would be used to advertise a job:

• #hiring
• #hfchat
• #HR
• #jobhuntchat
• #jobopening
• #jobposting
• #jobsearch
• #joblisting
• #tweetmyjobs
• #employment
• #recruiting

The post How To Use Twitter To Help You Find A Job appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Check out the 7 videos below, in no particular order.  And be sure to check out our other recommended TED videos – we’ve got something in there for everyone: 4 must-see talks on creativity, inspiration and passion, 5 fascinating TED talks that explore the edge of technology, 6 mind-blowing TED talks about psychology and human behaviour and 8 TED talks under 5 minutes.

David Griffin: How photography connects us

In his 15 minute talk, How photography connects us, David Griffin, National Geographic Photo Director  begins by displaying some of the magazine’s most iconic photographs – starting with the iconic photo of a young Afghani girl who’s image graced the cover of the magazine. He goes on to say “Photographs emulate the way  that our mind freezes a significant moment.” More important however, according to Griffin, is that a photograph tells a story. Griffin displays gorgeous photographs that go beyond just images of exotic or far off locations – telling the poignant stories that go with these photos.

Becci Manson: (Re)touching lives through photos

In under 10 minutes, Becci Manson will transform your preconceived notion of the photo editor who uses Photoshop to retouch images of models – making them “skinnier”, their skin more flawless – and will make you realize that they are artists. She took her talent to Japan, in the wake of the 2011 Tsunami that took the lives of almost 16,000 people. In the debris left among the ruins of the Japanese towns were family photos. Manson tells the story of how she and her peers cleaned and restored these images, some over 100 years old, for their owners.

Jonathan Klein: Photos that changed the world

In 6 minutes, Jonathan Klein of Getty Images tells TED viewers about Photos that changed the world. For Klein, these photos go beyond being iconic images that we instantly recognize, but instead provoke a reaction in us.  From photos taken in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, mountain gorillas murdered in the Congo, and black and white images of the holocaust – Klein reminds us we all have a choice – “we can look away, or we can address the image.”

Ryan Lobo: Photographing the hidden story

It’s hard to avoid the story-telling theme in TED talks on photograph – because after all – a strong photograph is one that tells a story. Lobo travelled to Iraq, Afghanistan and Liberia, photographing the subjects of war. In his talk, ”He reframes controversial subjects with empathy, so that we see the pain of a Liberian war criminal, the quiet strength of UN women peacekeepers and the perseverance of Delhi’s underappreciated firefighters.”

Phil Borges on endangered cultures

Phil Borges begins his talk on endangered cultures with a startling statistic. Of the 6,000 languages spoken throughout the world, 3,000 of them are not spoken by the children. With languages and cultures fast disappearing, Borges uses photography as a means to preserve a culture that is on the verge of extinction. Travelling to India and Ecuador, he tells the story of the people he photographed – exiled Tibetan monks and Amazonian tribes.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand captures fragile Earth in wide-angle

Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s 15 minute talk is crammed with gorgeous images you won’t want to miss. The photos, breathtakingly beautiful aerial images from around the world, go beyond just showing viewers a point of view they often miss. They are a reminder of the impact that humans have on the earth. The Alberta oil sands, the threatened coral reefs in New Caledonia, Kilimanjaro without its iconic snow-topped peak. The stories that Arthus-Bertrand’s photos tell are a haunting reminder of the environmental dangers we are facing.

Kristen Ashburn’s photos of AIDS

In under 5 minutes, Kristen Ashburn has an incredibly powerful impact speaking about and showing photos she took in Zimbabwe, documenting the impact of AIDS on the African country. Bringing empathy and heartbreaking humanity to the images and to her stories, Ashburn’s talk is a powerful reminder of how much the photographer can be affected, just as much, if not more than, the viewer looking at the photos. Many of the photos are shown in complete silence, speaking volumes for themselves.

What are your favourite TED talks for and by photographers? Let us know in the comments.

The post 7 TED Talks For Shutterbugs appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You can monitor stats from several sites using TrakkBoard and you can create infographics from your Analytics data using Visually. One of the apps that makes it easy to view your data in a slick and easy-to-use interface is the aptly named Handsome Stats.

Getting started with Handsome Stats, you have to sign up for a free account, after which you can connect it to your Google Analytics account. If you have several sites connected to your Google Analytics account, you can choose which site’s get Google Analytics stats you want to view. While you’re limited to viewing one site at a time, you can change the site anytime through the settings.

Now we come to the most important part – what kind of data do you get to view through Handsome Stats? Your data is divided into two separate tabs – the first is Past vs. Now, while the second is Last 28 days. When it comes to Past vs. Now, the first thing you’ll see, at a glance, is the number of visits you’ve received over the past year, displayed as a bar graph.

Next, Handsome Stats will show how your traffic is changing over time. It does this by showing you get Google Analytics stats from the most recent month, and compares them with stats from one year ago. These stats include pages viewed per visit, average time spent on the site, mobile traffic, returning visitors, and your mobile and desktop bounce rate.

Being able to see these details compared to where you were last year is a great way to judge your growth and see if there’s more that you need to be doing to improve your site’s traffic.

Handsome Stats also provides you with a series of ‘Top 5s’ of your site. These include your top 5 posts, browsers, traffic sources, mobile operating systems, countries and search terms. Again, Handsome Stats also shows you this data, comparing how these details have changed over the past year.

Your last 28 days of traffic is displayed in line graphs, and features the exact same kind of data that you get in the first tab – number of visits, pages viewed per visit, average time spent on site, mobile traffic, returning visitors and mobile and desktop bounce rate. Handsome Stats’ use of line graphs in this section makes perfect sense because it allows you to view how your traffic is changing over the span of just one month, whereas when comparing data from one point in time to another, the bar graphs work best.

If you click on any given date in the line graph, you can view more information about the traffic for that day – namely the top traffic sources and the top pages.

You can also view your top 5 pages, browsers, traffic sources, mobile operating systems, countries and search terms for just the past 28 days.

You’re probably thinking that there’s a lot of data that Google Analytics provides and Handsome Stats isn’t displaying any of it and you’re right. Not only are there a lot of Google Analytics stats missing, there are also quite a few features that have yet to be implemented. Custom reports, date controls and more are all features that are in the works.

While these additional features will certainly make Handsome Stats even more useful, narrowing down and focusing on specific statistics can be extremely useful when running a website. First, it provides you instantly with attractive looking graphs and charts that you can share with others. If you need to give a presentation about your website’s traffic, using screenshots or even using the website itself during your presentation will definitely add an impressive and slick dimension.

Even if you’re not sharing the data with others and it simply serves a personal purpose, Handsome Stats is great for the more technologically challenged, or even for those of you who want to use it alongside Google Analytics. At a glance, you can see how your website traffic is doing, where your traffic is coming from, and what your most popular content is. This kind of information is invaluable when it comes to determining what content works best, and what kind of content you want to focus on on your blog.

If you want to see Handsome Stats in action before trying it out for yourself, you can check out their demo. And if you’re still determined to get the hang of Google’s analytics service, be sure to check out our guide to Google Analytics.

What do you think of Handsome Stats? A useful tool or unnecessary? Let us know in the comments.

The post Handsome Stats – Get The Google Analytics Stats That Matter Most appeared first on MakeUseOf.

WordPress can be used to create an extremely interactive experience on your website, which can translated into a social network, a project management tool, a community board and more.

Create a Private Social Network

While there are options out there for private social networks such as Yammer, using WordPress to create that social network gives you so much more control over the experience. There are several ways to go about turning WordPress into a private social network – whether it’s using a theme or a plugin.

One of the easiest ways to get it done is to use the theme P2, which creates a Twitter-like experience, allowing you to create and add users, post updates and more.

P2 also comes with threaded comments, real-time notifications for new comments, keyboard shortcuts and more. It can be used to create a private social network, or as a live-streaming tool of your own.

You can see the theme in action on WordPress’ very own blog for its core development team.

If you’re looking for something even more elaborate, you can give BuddyPress a try. We’ve taken an in-depth look at what it has to offer, so check out our review of BuddyPress here. It allows you to create user profiles, add friends, send private messages, create user groups, discussion forums and more.

Create a Help Desk

If you want to use WordPress to incorporate a more heavy-duty customer service experience on your site, there are a few themes that will get the job done. You can create a help desk, allowing customers or users to submit questions, support tickets and more, with complete functionality to manage these submissions.

One great example of this is Woo Themes’ SupportPress.  With the paid theme, users can submit tickets, while on the backend, you can assign the tickets to members  of your team. SupportPress also goes one step further by allowing you to create a knowledge base as well so that users don’t submit duplicate tickets on questions that have already been addressed.

Support Desk is another option available to users. The responsive theme, which will set you back $50, also allows you to create a community forum and knowledge base, as well as FAQ pages. You can see the theme in action here.

If you’d rather not spend a little less in order to get a Q&A site up and running, you can opt for a plugin instead.  Q&A will set you back $19, while ClickDesk is free. The latter allows you to place a live chat feature on your site, and if you aren’t online to answer questions straight away, users can leave a message.

Create a Wiki

Another way you can get more out of WordPress is to use the CMS to create your own personal Wiki. The WordPress Wiki Theme, which costs $40, allows you to create user accounts, post content, categories and more. The theme is also completely searchable. See the theme in action here.

Woo Themes also provides users with the $50 option, Wikeasi, but if you don’t want to spend a penny, you can opt for the WordPress plugin WordPress Wiki Lite, but with the caveat of your Wiki sitting on one WordPress page within your website.

Use for GTD

WordPress can also be used as a pretty impressive productivity tool. You can use it as your own personal GTD tool or as a collaborative tool for project management.

With the plugin, Project Tasks, you can turn your WordPress website into a project management tool where you can create and assign tasks, keep track of progress and keep a log of your completed work.

If you’re looking for something even more robust, CollabPress allows you to create projects, create and assign tasks, upload files, and view tasks in a calendar.

Create a Directory, Classifieds, Jobs Board, etc.

WordPress also lends itself to creating any kind of information board or directory. You can use it to create a business directory, a jobs board or a classifieds board. No matter what kind of information you want to collate into a directory on your WordPress website, there’s likely a plugin or theme that will get the job done.

There’s nothing to stop you from creating your own Yellow Pages-like service that could become a useful resource, and with the Business Directory plugin you can even monetize the service by enabling users to submit and post to your directory for a fee.

Can you think of any other creative uses for WordPress? Let us know about them in the comments.

The post Get Creative With WordPress – 5 Interactive Ways To Use The Platform appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Whether it’s with the use of hashtags, crowd-sourcing, or simply just finding creative ways to jazz up their Twitter account page, we’ve found 5 interesting Twitter marketing campaigns from around the world. To see just how much you can get out of Twitter and how useful a tool it can be for promoting a product, concept or event, read on:

Metropole Tweetphony

While it’s not hard to imagine Twitter being used as a creative tool for writers, you wouldn’t expect it to be used as a creative tool for musicians. But the Netherlands-based Metropole Orchestra managed to do just that with a recent campaign that not only showed just how far you can push Twitter creatively, but also managed to save their funding.

They went about this by crowd-sourcing and livestreaming an 8-hour long concert. The music was crowd-sourced by allowing Twitter users to submit Tweet compositions to create a Tweetphony. Users visited the Tweetphony website, where they could compose a twitter tune on a virtual keyboard or listen to other users’ submissions. The mini-compositions were submitted using musical letters which were then converted into musical sheets.

The orchestra playing out Twitter submitted compositions can all be seen on their YouTube channel.

Smart Car Argentina

Smart Car Argentina turned Twitter into a 21st century version of the flipbook. Instead of using paper, however, they used ASCII art and successive tweets. If you happened to already follow the Smart Car Argentina Twitter account the posts might not have made much sense in your Twitter stream. But if you go to the Twitter account and scroll down to their last tweets, you’ll find a moving image of a Smart Car driving through the city.

Ben & Jerry’s Fair Trade

Ben & Jerry’s launched a Twitter-based campaign to promote Fair Trade products. It did this in an incredibly creative way by encouraging users to donate their unused Twitter characters by promoting Fair Trade. Ben & Jerry set up a site – FairTweets - complete with a Chrome and Firefox extension. Users who participated were able to donate their unused characters to promote links or content about World Fair Trade Day depending on how much space was left in the tweet.

So how successful was the campaign? Ben & Jerry’s managed to get over 500,000 characters on Twitter dedicated to the subject of Fair Trade.

White House #40Dollars Campaign

The White House launched a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #40Dollars. Twitter users were encouraged to tweet what they can buy with $40. This wasn’t the White House’s first attempt at using Twitter hashtags to get a DC-based discussion to go viral, with conversations on immigration, and more taking place on Twitter in the past.

The #40Dollars campaign was an attempt to get a discussion going online on tax-cuts that the White House was fighting. In their own words, they described the Twitter marketing campaign as follows:

“The White House called on Americans to add their voice to the conversation in Washington, DC about why we need to extend the payroll tax cut. If Congress fails to extend this tax cut, the typical family making $50,000 a year will have about $40 less to spend or save with each paycheck. Over the year, that adds up to about $1,000.

Opponents of the payroll tax cut dismiss its impact by insisting $40 isn’t a lot of money, but that’s not the case for many families who are already working hard to make ends meet. Forty dollars buys a tank of gas or a fridge and pantry full of groceries. It covers a water bill or the cost of a prescription.”

They storified people’s responses here.

Twitter-Powered Vending Machine

Campaigns encouraging users to tweet a specific phrase or hashtag to enter a giveaway or get a freebie has become incredibly common now. A South African advertising agency, CowAfrica, took this to a whole other level by giving Twitter users a free ice tea.

How did they go about doing this? By tweeting #BOSTWEET4T to the vending machine’s Twitter account, and a Twitter-powered vending machine would pop out a free ice tea.

Have you come across any interesting Twitter marketing campaigns? Be sure to share them with us in the comments.

The post More Than Updates – 5 Creative Twitter Marketing Campaigns appeared first on MakeUseOf.

That said, it can also be extremely challenging, and you’ll probably find yourself falling off the wagon a few more times than you’d prefer. We’ve put together a list of 10 projects that you can use to keep yourself shooting through your Project 365, or that you can simply use to shoot on a regular basis.

Go to the Same Place Every Day for Photography Ideas

Is there a place you go every day? On your commute, you take a specific metro, get off at a specific station, pass by the same park every day? Pick one spot and document how it changes day by day. By the end of the year you’ll have a fascinating study in how one specific place has changed over time. Or if you live in a busy, dynamic city, you can show just how much one specific place can change from one day to the next.

Pick a Lens

Rather than find a specific theme or subject to focus on, why not pick a specific lens? Pick a fixed lens if you really want to challenge yourself. When you’re limited to using a fixed lens, like the 50mm for example, you’ll find yourself pushing yourself to find creative images around you. If you want to get really creative, opt instead for a lens that creates interesting effects like one of the Lensbaby products, or PhotoJojo’s Diana Lens.

Connect to the Written Word

Songs, poems, book titles, or even stories can be a source of inspiration for photographers. Pick a writer, a poet, or a musician, and use their words as a springboard for your photography. If you’d rather bridge this idea with a daily project, then don’t limit yourself to just one writer or singer – but rather choose a different title, phrase or story as your daily source of inspiration. You can even choose a random word on a daily basis and use that as your point of inspiration.

Take a Daily Self Portrait

We’ve seen several fascinating examples of taking a daily self-portrait in the same place and eventually using it to create a timelapse video. Even if you choose to keep the photos private, it becomes a great way to document your own appearance over the years (if you choose to do it longer than one year). This is also a great concept for parents to document their children’s growth, whether for one year or even longer, as we’ve seen done in the past.

Pick a Theme

Picking a specific theme is another way to make sure that you always keep your eye out for interesting images no matter where you are. Windows and doors are a popular theme that you can find no matter where you are. Another interesting theme that you can opt for is to play with the concept of shadows and light or silhouettes. Come up with a concept that speaks to you, or that is commonly found in your surroundings, and set out to document it as best you can.

Pick a photography style

Picking a specific photography style is another good way to find a little bit of photographic inspiration. Opt for taking macro photos only. If you live in a city, focus on street photography or architecture. If you live in a more rural area, go for landscape shots. Even if you don’t want to lug a heavy DSLR around you can still opt for using specific styles with your iPhone – all you need is a lens adapter like the Olloclip 3-in-1 iPhone lens.

Go for Bokeh

Bokeh is another interesting way to create a photo series that is tied together by a specific thread. Bokeh can be a challenge to get right at first, but setting the challenge for yourself is one way to perfect the technique. Using a 50mm lens can often help matters, making it slightly easier to achieve that bokeh effect with less effort on your part.

Pick a prop

Picking a small prop that you can take with you everywhere you go can be a cute way to document all the different places you find yourself. It goes one step beyond documenting the places that you go, by bringing a bit of your own personality into the photo. Choosing your prop will probably be the most challenging part of the project – finding something small, portable, and that reflects your own personality is no easy feat – but once you  have it, you can get to taking photos of it around your city, country, or even on your travels abroad.

Pick A Colour

One way to create a striking and cohesive collection of photos regardless of their content is with the simple use of colour. Choose one colour and set out to take your photos with the content predominantly one colour. You could even opt for several different series, each one dominated by a specific colour, and then you’ll end up with a striking collection of colourful photos that will look great on your wall.

Go on Photo Walks

Dedicate one day a month, or more often if you have the time, to going on photowalks. Finding friends to do this with can be a great motivator and a way to make the experience even more enjoyable. It’s not only a good way to keep yourself shooting, it can also be a great way to get to know your own city better. Pick neighbourhoods you dont’t normally go to, go to a botanical garden, or a museum, or simply wander the streets downtown.

Looking for even more photography ideas? Be sure to follow these 10 photography blogs which are a constant source of inspiration for any photographer.

Can you think of any projects to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Elliott Bennet, Vinoth Chandar, Kenny Louie, Espos.de, Olatz eta Leire

The post Don’t Let Your Camera Collect Dust: 10 Inspiring Ideas For Photography appeared first on MakeUseOf.

You might not often think of Tumblr as a platform for political and news-oriented content, known better for photography and art, but there’s a few Tumblr political blogs that will definitely scratch your political itch. With keeping up with current news, quotes from political leaders, photos, videos, and much more, there’s a ton of interesting and entertaining news you can find housed on Tumblr.

Officials Say The Darndest Things

Officials Say the Darndest Things, a tumblr blog run by investigative journalism organization ProPublica, is a fascinating look into the world of US politics in the most humorous of ways. The political blog is a hilarious and thought-provoking collection of quotes, tweets and more from US politicians, leaders and trailblazers.

The site is definitely going to appeal to the follower of US politics, as a lot of the quotes and topics might fly right over the head of people who aren’t following US political news on a regular basis.

Politico

With Politico’s tagline, ‘Nobody knows politics like Politico’, it would be remiss of us not to include their Tumblr blog on a list of must-reads for politics. With a combination of photos, tweets, quotes, news stories, links and more, it’s a great way to get bite-sized information on the latest in news, again with a focus on US politics, along with the occasional post with an international bent, particularly when it’s a significant story.

You’ll also get an interesting combination of light-hearted and political content in Politico’s sidebar of ‘Things Politico likes.’

Peace Corps

Want something with a bit more of an international focus? Check out the Peace Corps Tumblr blog. This political blog features photos taken by Peace Corps volunteers around the world – everywhere from Guatemala to Morocco to Thailand – along with the personal stories and experiences that go with those photos. The blog gives readers a great way to see what’s happening in all the corners of the world – not only from a news standpoint – but from a personal standpoint.

The Daily Show

Another must-follow for anyone who wants a more entertaining take on the 9 pm news and the world of politics is the Daily Show’s official Tumblr blog. Jon Stewart’s satirical TV show brings all of its brilliant, sarcastic humour to Tumblr with meme-like photos, linking to the relevant videos on Comedy Central.

If you don’t follow Jon Stewart’s show on a regular basis, this is a great way to see, at a glance, what you’ve missed, and which videos you might want to watch.

Political Cartoons

Political Cartoons is exactly what it says on the label. The Tumblr blog is admittedly ‘American-centric’ with a focus on liberal politics, so it might not suit all tastes out there. That said, it features an impressive collection of cartoons with everything you can imagine from gun control, to gay marriage, with a little bit of international affairs thrown in for good measure.

Foreign Affairs

Another must-read for Tumblr fans interested in foreign policy issues is Foreign Affairs. A publication of the Council of Foreign Relations, the blog highlights the latest reads available on the Foreign Affairs magazine website. The Tumblr blog gives readers an interesting way to keep up with the magazine’s latest posts through a slightly more curated platform, which is particularly useful for those of you who don’t want to sift through all of Foreign Affairs’ articles.

The Political Notebook

In their own words, the Political Notebook is “a mix of Internet curation and global news commentary. It covers international issues, with particular attention to South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.” The blog is an impressive collection of news links, videos and more. Not only does the blog curate recommended reads on wide variety of international news stories, it also features a weekly roundup of stories from around the web on security and military affairs.

Want more recommendations on Tumblr news and political blogs to follow? Check out our list of 10 Tumblr blogs to follow for a good laugh and 8 Tumblr blogs every writer and book lover should follow.

The post Tumblr Isn’t Just For Photography: 7 News & Political Blogs To Follow appeared first on MakeUseOf.

A fact that might not be as well known as offline listening is that you can take advantage of that feature with more than just music – with Spotify being home to audiobooks, standup comedy and more.

Rather than drown out chatter on your commute with music, why not opt for an audiobook instead? While Spotify itself has yet to delve into the audiobook world, thanks to the public domain, there’s already a significant collection of classic novels, plays, poetry and more. And it doesn’t end there. Spotify also houses a significant collection of standup comedy, with some of the biggest names in the business.

And if you’re in the mood for something completely different – you can even listen to NASA recordings of the Apollo Missions and more.

Listen To Classic Literature

There is no shortage of classic literature that’s in the public domain on Spotify. A quick search turns up a few of our favorite classics, and then some.  There are a few ways you can find them. The first is to simply think of classic books you’re interested in finding, and look them up. You can also use a great online service like the Gutenburg library to think of titles you want to look up.

Another great way to discover what’s available on Spotify is to use the related artists feature. When you look up any given book, click on the artist name (in other words – the person who is reading the audiobook) and you’ll find a bunch of related artists who have recorded audiobooks of their own.

To get you started, we’ve got a list of some of the most popular classic lit titles that are available on Spotify:

• Stevenson: Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde
• Austen: Pride & Prejudice
• Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities
• Hugo: The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
• Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd
• Dostoyevsky: Crime & Punishment
• Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
• Carroll: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
• Cooper: Last Of The Mohicans
• Dickens: Oliver Twist
• You’ll also find a significant library of titles written by William Shakespeare.

Aside from novels, you’ll also find a few interesting plays that are worth listening to, among them:

• Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
• Harold Pinter: The Caretaker
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan: The School for Scandal

There are also some great lists compiled by other people including a list of spooky stories and poems on Spotify, 21 classics and a William Shakespeare list.

Listen To Vintage Radio

In addition to classic novels, you’ll also find an interesting collection of vintage radioshows (complete with their original ads) featuring the likes of Errol Flynn and more. One vintage radio playlist has almost 2,000 tracks on it with shows including The Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes and more.

Listen To Comedy

In the mood for something a little less serious? Spotify’s standup comedy collection is impressive and will leave you in stitches. Search for your favourites, check out related artists, or even start a radio station using one stand up comedian for an endless playlist of hilarity. The caliber of standup comedians you’ll find on Spotify is impressive including:

• Maz Jobrani
• Eddie Izzard
• Robin Williams
• Bill Cosby
• Eddie Murphy
• Monty Python

Listen To NASA Missions

And in the spirit of Monty Python, and now for something completely different. An absolute hidden gem on Spotify is some NASA recordings, among them, recordings from The Apollo Missions.

• NASA – One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Mankind: Recordings From The Apollo Missions
• NASA – The Apollo Missions

The recordings are a fascinating peak into a world we rarely get to see and with Spotify’s offline feature, you can take the NASA recordings with you everywhere you go.

Learn a Language

If you’d like to brush up your language skills, Spotify can be a useful companion to lessons you’re taking elsewhere. With the app, Listen Language, you can find recordings that will help you learn English, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Swahili, Hebrew, Arabic and much much more.

Can you think of other interesting things to listen to on Spotify that aren’t music? Let us know in the comments.

The post 5 Awesome Things To Listen To On Spotify That Isn’t Music appeared first on MakeUseOf.