It’s not that often that a freebie comes around that is this innovative & this much fun! Xtranorml offers quite a robust set of tools to create your own 3D movie. Plug in your script, pick out your characters, choose your background, choose the music. Add facial expressions, stances & choose your camera angles. Check it out - pretty powerful little program. You might even want to flex your creative muscle and help us do funky little Blellow marketing videos! Will mail Blellow t-shirts to the top 3. 
The following articles were tagged: Network.
3D Animation on a Budget
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Who’s On Blellow? Kim Beasley!
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An online community is only as good as its members, and thanks to all the great folks who have joined Blellow, our community is shaping up spectacularly. Each week we want to highlight some of the best and brightest of our community members.
This week, we’d like to introduce you to Kim Beasley.
Name/Location: Kim Beasley, USA
Skills: WordPress & Drupal website development, business consulting, and online presence development.
Current Status: Owner/Self-employed
What are you currently working on?
Currently, I am in the process of completing a new eBook that helps people develop internet-based interviews and then cross-market with the interviewees. I am partnering with Jerrilynn Thomas (http://WomenPartner.com) to write the book.
What is your favorite part of freelancing/entrepreneurship?
Growing my business, being my own boss, making my own hours, helping other business owners develop their online presence, and connecting with other business owners virtually and in person.
What is your biggest challenge working as a freelancer?
Finding a good support team that I can outsource to or have as virtual business supporters.
What are some of your favorite tools that you are using to run your business as a freelancer?
Software: Google products (Gmail, Voice-Grand Central, Calendar, etc.), Microsoft products (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook), Social media products (TweetDeck, Skype, Digsby, etc.)
Hardware: Mac PRO, Dell Desktop, Gateway Laptop, Lacie 1TB external hard drive, All-in-one HP machine, and so much more
Online Communities: Twitter.com, Blellow.com, WordPress.org, Drupal.org, Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com, Ecademy.com (just started this one), and so many more.
As a freelancer have you found it hard to balance work and play time? What are you doing to keep things balanced?
My “me time” allows me to work hard during my work hours which are normally 9am - 7pm CDT/CST. To balance my time I have set up a parameter around my “me time”. I don’t work on the weekend except to write. I’m usually relaxing during the evenings unless I have a rare meeting. Weekends are for relaxing too.
How has Blellow been helpful to you?
Blellow has been very helpful because it has given me a group platform where I can connect with others and share information. It’s not about what you can do for me but Blellow is about what can we do for each other. I also enjoy the way I’m able to do internet interviews via my Blellow group “Blog Interviews“.
Kim’s Portfolio:
http://ProMembershipServices.com/client-samples/
Want to get in contact with Kim? Here’s how:
Website: http://ProMembershipServices.com
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/KimBeasley
Blellow: http://www.blellow.com/kimbeasley
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kbeasley
Facebook: http://KimBeasley.com/fanpage
Blogs: http://KimBeasley.com & http://ProBloggingServices.com
Columnist: http://www.Bizzia.com/topic/leadership/ (featuring articles about business, leadership, project management and strategy)
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Ways to Use Blellow to Grow Your Network
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Now that Blellow has officially launched in Beta, I wanted to share ways that you as a business owner could use Blellow to help grow your network. Since I’ve been using Blellow to connect with others, I have found that the social environment is beneficial to collaborating, connecting and communicating with others who have like interests. It’s also a great environment to ask questions and receive assistance.
The different things that you can do will either connect you to business associates or possibly bring you a job/business opportunity. So here are some ways that you can use Blellow to grow your network:
- Find resources to build your virtual team as your grow your business.
- Connect with other business owners in various industry groups such as web programming/design, graphic design, social media marketers or educational groups.
- Create new groups that center around your industry or interests.
- Share about online or offline meeting such as meetups, tweetups or teleseminars.
- Ask questions within a group or to the general membership of Blellow and receive assistance.
- Earn kudos for providing assistance to those who ask questions.
Additional features are being added to give Blellow more functionality such as posting updates to other social media networks. If you want to add to the list of desired features, then check out the post entitled “Help Us Make Blellow Better“. If you haven’t checked out Blellow to see how it can help you grow your network, then I suggest that you try it out. Let me know what you think by returning to this blog post and sharing your feedback.
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Blellow Will Be At SXSW
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SXSW 2009 is only fifty-six days away! We plan to launch blellow.com at SXSW. We have a booth and will also be co-hosting one of the most fabulous parties at this year’s event (details coming soon)! We are very excited to be attending this year and invite all of you to come and see us!
One of many great events happening at SXSW this year is the Accelerator Program. We are throwing our hat in the ring and stepping up for a little competition. For this program we had to submit 250 words that describe Blellow; just a few paragraphs to describe our vision and how it will benefit the online community. We wanted to share our entry with you. So here is Blellow in exactly 250 words:
Blellow is a social network allowing freelancers and professionals to collaborate, find work, and solve problems through a friendly, familiar micro-blog interface by answering the question: “What are you working on?”
We’re all faced with daily challenges that consume our valuable time, and some of these challenges can take hours to overcome if it’s not your core competency. But with a little expert advice from a friend, the problem may be solved in minutes.
Blellow offers the ability to communicate with groups of people based on skills and interests. You can direct your posts, so you get better answers to your questions, relevant feedback when you need it, and can engage in conversations you are most interested in. All responses are posted in threaded discussions, so it’s easy to keep track of it all.
Credibility is earned with “kudos”. Each time you help someone, you can earn a kudo from that person. The more kudos you have, the higher you rank in searches, gaining you higher visibility with peers and potential clients. In the current economy, finding work can be difficult. But with Blellow, members can search the Job Board and can collaborate on projects, working together through these tough times.
And while collaborating virtually is great, nothing beats meeting in person. Find Blellow meetups and coworking opportunities at home or when traveling.
At Blellow, members can take advantage of the site’s tools to further their knowledge, extend their network, and discover and develop new ideas to get things done.
We’ll find out if we are a finalist by January 23rd, so keep your fingers crossed for us! As always, we would love to hear your thoughts and get your feedback on what we are working on. And if you will be attending SXSW let us know, we’d love to meet you!
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