When you’re looking ot build up some buzz about an upcoming release or you want to promote a newly launch product, there are many different venues that you can explore. These days, many businesses have diverted their attention toward the online realm, but the offline world is still a very viable option.

Perhaps one of the more powerful and convenient marketing options is the radio show. If you can get yourself featured on several morning radio shows and other radio talk shows, you can have the opportunity to reach audiences that may not have otherwise been accessible through other means.

Unlike television interviews that may involve costly travel, a radio interview can be conducted from anywhere in the world through a telephone or Skype conversation. Since the radio interviews are typically quite short in nature, it also means that you can complete several of these shows in the same day across several different time zones.

The challenge, then, is getting the attention of the radio stations so that you have the opportunity to promote your product. In doing so, it may be worthwhile to consider hiring a public relations firm to make these contacts and confirm these appearances for you. Have you promoted something on a radio show? How did it work out?

Have you come to the point where you are more likely to recognize someone by their Twitter avatar than you are by their name or email address? You are not alone. While many blogs pull avatars from the Gravatar database for people who leave comments, the Twitter Avatar Reloaded plugin may be more appropriate.

As you can probably suspect, this WordPress plugin replaces the typical Gravatar image that goes with each person who leaves a comment on your blog with the image that the person uses as his or her avatar on Twitter. This plugin will add an extra field in the comment form asking for the Twitter username (but not the password) and, in doing so, the image next to the comment is the person’s Twitter avatar.

You do not need to edit any of your themes or adjust other settings, because the WordPress plugin does that automatically for you. Installation and activation is a breeze too: just download the plugin, unzip it, upload it to the appropriate directory, and activate it from within the WordPress dashboard.

Go to SudarMuthu.com for more information and to download Twitter Avatar Reloaded.

I’ve been casually looking at the Vancouver real estate market for some time now, browsing around for houses that may one day become my home. In doing so, I’ve learned quite a few things about what the listing agents choose to include in their descriptions.

It’s pretty typical to hear about how many bedrooms the house has, any kitchen upgrades that may have been done in recent years, and whether the roof has been replaced. That’s pretty normal. It’s also understandable to read “creative” language when it comes to less desirable features, calling a room “cozy” rather than “small,” for instance.

Then I came across this listing. Based on the picture and spec sheet, it seems like a perfectly respectable home. However, the description reveals something that I did not expect to read:

Basement is totally renovated in 2006 after grow-Op discovered and the job is completed with City approval.

For the most part, I understand that a full renovation of a former grow-op can bring the home back to its usual standard and it really shouldn’t be much of a cause for concern, especially if the job was completed with City approval. However, the mere mention of a grow-op can be a major turn-off for many potential buyers.

Should the listing agent have included that information in the description? Would it have been better to say that the basement was renovated and (possibly for legal reasons) only disclose the grow-op situation when someone inquires further?

We’ve covered a great deal of different gadgets that can help in the office and while you are on the road, but you probably didn’t expect to find something at IKEA, did you? As it turns out, the place famous for furniture and Swedish meatballs can be great for office organization as well.

In addition to some of the great desks sold there, you may want to consider a solution like the Signum Cable Organizer. This inexpensive box does a great job of clearing up some of the cable clutter on your desk, containing it all in a simple yet elegant white box.

This way, you only have the one power cord going from the box to the wall outlet and you can place your smaller surge-protecting power bar inside the Signum. Then, all the charging cables for your iPhone, BlackBerry, laptop, and other devices can be stowed inside the Signum. If you check out the rest of the IKEA website, you can see other solutions from the Signum line as well.

The Signum Cable Organizer, as shown, retails for $12.99.

The people who make use of Bluefur web hosting are incredibly varied, ranging from casual bloggers to serious business executives. We feature a different customer each week and today we take a look at Mary Pat O’Meara.

She is an accomplished artist and editor, working in a variety of different media. By going to her website, you can see her video demo reel, revealing some of the great video work that she has produced. While there, you can also see design work, her resume, and a brief bio. She’s done everything from site design to graphic posters.

To keep up with what Mary has been doing, you can also direct your attention over to her blog. By her own admission, she likes to rock and she has a “natural affinity for telling stories.” She also likes to make pretty things.

If you are a BlueFur customer and would like to be featured in a future blog post, send an email to blogfeature@bluefur.com with your name, website, and a brief description of what you’d like to see highlighted.

A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at the Light Folio theme for WordPress, commenting on how it could be great for photographer’s portfolio’s and business websites alike. The same developers have adjusted the theme for a slightly new look, once again offering the WordPress template as a free download.

The new theme is called Sky Light and it is offered under an open source GPL license. This means that you can use it freely for your own projects or adapt it to suit your specific needs without any restrictions or fees.

With Sky Light, you get a darker background with a “sky” graphic off to the right side. The combination of blue and black is very classy and eye-catching, to be sure. The feature image section also helps to highlight one specific article, product, or post. The image slider is great for this purpose.

The theme also has dynamic drop-out menus for more featured posts in each category, a simple yet effective sidebar menu, and a dropdown menu for subcategories in the main navigation area.

Go to DynamicWP.net for more information and to download Sky Light Theme.