**Update: both problems below are solved!! I’m doing a jig around the house. Leaving the post up anyway so that you can learn about my favorite people and helpful resources. Cheers!**

I am taking a break from my regularly scheduled programming to fix two urgent blog issues at the moment:

1. My blog has been hacked. In a possibly related issue (but not sure if they’re linked)…
2. My new posts are not publishing to the RSS feed; therefore you are not being notified of new posts (via email or RSS). It’s like a tree falling in the forrest — if you don’t know when I post, then I have no blog!

I will be taking a short break from adding content so that we can focus on getting these issues fixed. This is my baby and I didn’t realize how much my LIFE revolves around my blog (for better or for worse) until this all went down. A piece of my heart breaks when my blog does!

I’m feeling calm at the moment only because I am graced with the help of three (yes three!) rockstar men who you should absolutely know about. For bloggers: I also want to share some of the tools that they’ve shared with me.

My Heros:

• Willie Jackson — who got me all squared away back-up wise after my laptop was stolen in March. He is a WordPress security and optimization machine.
• Robert Granholm — an incredible developer recommended by my good friend Cath Duncan, who has put in hours with me troubleshooting the RSS issue even though we’ve never met or talked.
• Andrew Norcross — a self-described (and confirmed by the masses) WordPress ninja who is the go-to guy for just about anyone and everyone on the Internet. He discovered that my blog had been hacked, and kindly pointed me to the right place to get it fixed.

Tools every blogger should know about:

• VaultPress — “Complete website backup and security that’s as simple as WordPress itself”
• Arq — “Online back-up for Mac” that syncs files on your desktop to the cloud. Connects directly with…
• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) — Fast, super cheap storage for the Internet. I’m using this to back-up all my files (not just blog related). Storing about 40GB is currently costing me $8/month. Amazing. Some alternatives: Drop Box, SugarSync, and now iCloud. I use CyberDuck as my FTP client when I want to manually move files to/from S3.
• Sucuri Security — Annual service that protects your blog from malware and preforms a clean-up within four hours.

Any other awesome security or storage-related tools we should all know about? Share them in the comments por favor.

That’s it for now…wish us luck getting this train back on track! And stay tuned…an exciting redesign is in the works by the lovely Nina Cross — my rockstar girl addition to the team

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Last book tour stop — join us in Los Angeles if you can!

If you’re in the LA area, click here to RSVP for the event at 7pm on Tuesday, June 14 put on by Scott Asai of Growing Forward — we’d love to see you there!

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Support the Kidney Raffle

Speaking of Cath (one of my very favorite coaches and writers), her inspiring week-long Kidney Raffle begins today with some killer prizes (14 total packages from your favorite personal development bloggers and coaches). Cath has put her heart and soul into this project, and Robert (mentioned above) did an amazing job with the website and technical side of everything.

About the raffle in Cath’s own words:

Last year, Cath and Andy Duncan’s one and only daughter (who they named Juggernaut) died at 5 months gestation because of Cath’s hereditary kidney condition. As part of Cath’s journey back to hope and strength, she committed to raising funds for kidney research and a dedicated team of friends has joined her campaign. Now you can also do your part to help fund this critical research and also get some wonderful inspiration in return.

Get some inspiration & join us to BE AN INSPIRATION…

Your favorite teachers, coaches and authors have generously donated their best work for you to stand a chance to win in our 14 free raffle draws.  We’re not talking about cheap E-Books or low-value give-aways… We’re talking high-value, “inner-circle” prizes, annual memberships, premium 1-on-1 coaching with people like Jonathan Fields, Adam Baker and Fabeku Fatunmise, and even some prizes that you can no longer buy even if you wanted to pay top dollar for it!

Extreme generosity, contribution and teamwork that makes a difference is inspiring, isn’t it? We’re asking you to join their ranks and be an inspiration by making a donation of your own. 100% of your donation will go to the Kidney Foundation.

Click here to donate.

Don’t know what IRL means? Don’t worry. I’ll explain.

There’s been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about Mindcrushes and Blogcrushes and whether what you see is what you get with either one. Is the infatuation with bloggers who speak to our soul just a passing fancy based on projected images of perfection? Are the recipients of our affection real and worthy? Or as many of our less tech-savvy friends and family may wonder, are they just mysterious constructed “others” swirling around a crazy Wild Wild West Internet vortex?

I propose that the Blogger IS real

Just not the way you picture him or her. First, the caveat stated so eloquently by Derek Shanahan in his post, The Blogger is Not Real. Derek describes the fallacy of thinking you know someone from reading their blog. He says, “We, as authors, bloggers…we are not who our blogs say we are. We are not what the reader sees.” I agree wholeheartedly. No matter how much I reveal here, how many pictures and videos I post, how often I tweet – you won’t really know me until you meet me in person.

But here’s what I do want you to know: despite the fact that you can’t truly “know me” without meeting me in person, I am real! I sit here typing and darting my fingers around my keyboard just like all of you. I have feelings, insecurities, and identity crisis’ with the best of ‘em. And who is to say that people we interact with everyday truly “know us” anyway? I feel more seen and understood by people – especially other bloggers and tweeters – than I have in my whole life. There are many times I actually feel more ME on the Internet than I do at social events in real life (abbreviated as IRL for those of you still wondering).

Take a Leap! Talk live or meet in person when the opportunity strikes

I feel incredibly blessed when I meet or talk to people I’ve met online in real life – whether in person or on the phone. During my recent trip to New York City, I had the great fortune of meeting up with six (count them, six!) blogging friends. We had cupcakes at Magnolia bakery, breakfast at Google, coffee at Starbucks and danced on a bar in the Meatpacking District (videos are NSFW and thus will not be posted here). My co-workers looked at me a little sideways when I told them I was meeting up with “strangers” after work (their word, not mine). I loved every minute of it.

Is the blogger as you know him or her real?

Not the version you’ve constructed. But are your connections real? Hell yes. And when you get the awesome opportunity to meet one in person, will they be different from how you pictured? Always. But hopefully in that fun, exciting 2D-comes-to-life kind of way. You’re probably sick of me saying this, but meeting in real life (over a red velvet cupcake) is how I met the hilariously fabulous Jamie Varon (look At, I didn’t describe you as lovely!) – who is now one of my closest friends…wait for it…IRL!

The message I tweeted earlier sums up my feelings well: all these amazing connections give me the sudden urge to run around the internet hugging people I’ve never met in real life. So to those of you still reading: come in for the real thing!

The New York Times ran an article this weekend about an emerging company, Kosmix, that takes a whole new spin on search. The article describes the Kosmix experience quite well: “For a key word or topic that a user enters, Kosmix gathers content from across the Web to build a sort of multimedia encyclopedia entry on the fly. For many queries, the results are pretty satisfying and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.”

My ears always perk up when I hear someone mention a search competitor to Google that shows promise. Search is a tough market that Google has pretty well cornered. But a page with dynamic, robust information from a variety of multimedia sources (including standard search results) is not a competitor so much as a suppliment, and this one is definitely worth checking out.

I’ll share a personal example to highlight the comparison between Google and Kosmix. My doctor recently sent me a letter saying my Triglycerides are slightly high – which means I need to cut back on my sugar intake (unbeknownst to you, I am possessed by a dessert vacuum that eats any and all sugary foods in sight). At first I Googled, and came up with the typical list of sites to check: WebMD, About.com and Wikipedia.

But then I tried my search on Kosmix, and rather than having to click back and forth between a bunch of links, I had whole page of information to peruse. The Kosmix page had a wikipedia summary, articles, resources, videos, images, Q&A, blogs and even tweets! I was (and still am) thoroughly impressed. It’s like an instant Encyclopedia page, but on crazy-awesome Internet steroids.

Wanna try something scary? Try Kosmixing yourself (Yes, I just used that term as a verb).

I’ve been having lots of fun lately with an online tool called Wordle. You provide a link or a chunk of text and it spits out a fun, interesting and customizable image, or word cloud. Words are displayed by size based on their frequency. Anything you create on Wordle goes into a gallery that you can then print or share with friends. The best part about Wordle is that after it spits out an image you can cycle through various formatting options, from colors to fonts to vertical or horizontal orientation, all with unique visual appeal. Check out the Wordle I created from the Life After College homepage:

Take it from a converted skeptic. Twitter rocks. I used to think it was the ultimate time-suck: typing status messages into a vortex all day long?! You’ve GOT to be kidding me. But as a Web 2.0 lover and prided early adopter, I couldn’t stand not being part of this seemingly-inane yet rapidly-growing phenomenon. Finally, after hearing speakers at a blogger panel rave about their love for Twitter early last year, I signed up begrudgingly but with a dash of excited curiosity.

At first interacting with Twitter was about as exciting as watching paint dry. I started following five people, and had two others following me. I tweeted Facebook-esque status updates and wondered why on earth anyone would care. It definitely felt strange writing messages for two people. This would be so much more fun if I had more friends on here, I thought. If you tweet, they will come?

Little by little, my community started growing. It started with people I knew in real life – coworkers and random friends. Then it expanded to runners (when I was training for the marathon), bloggers, fellow life coaches, famous athletes and people who just make me laugh.

Twitter is not just about what you ate for breakfast this morning or how badly you want to pick your wedgie. People link to interesting articles, post quotes, share random thoughts, ask for advice and create a wonderful sense of far-reaching community. And every unexpected @ reply (someone responding to me), brings a generous smile to my face. I feel seen and heard.

For bloggers, Twitter is a fantastic way to broaden your network, meet new people and share ideas. It’s also a way for me to share a little more of my personality and every-day thoughts beyond what I find post-worthy for my blog. For non-bloggers, it’s a quick way to consume content and engage in guiltless voyeurism. And in the weird way that only micro-blogging and social media can, Twitter strengthens and adds layers to your real-life connections too.

I still have my fair share of insecurities about Twitter (and blogging, for that matter): Am I interesting? Am I funny? Am I useful? Am I inspirational? Do I actually have anything NEW to say? But then I remember not to take it too seriously, and to forge ahead anyway. I tweet and I blog because it makes me happy. And isn’t that all that matters?

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What would this post be without a plug to follow me on Twitter?! And for a funny related read, check out David Pogue’s “The Twitter Experiment.”

Seomoz’s Web 2.0 Awards highlight 170 interesting websites in 41 categories, and I always have fun scouring the list for new online applications. Based on winners from their “food” category, here are three recipe sites to add to your repertoire:

Im Cooked
From Seomoz: “An entire site dedicated to food, Im Cooked lets members share recipes, make friends, watch cooking videos and learn more about culinary arts without the frills that often come with gourmet food television shows and websites.”

Recipe Key
Similar to Super Cook, Recipe Key allows you to find ingredients based on the items in your pantry.

Cocktail Builder
From Seomoz: “Have a lot of bar fixings lying around and aren’t sure what to do with them? Enter your ingredients into the Cocktail Builder and let it tell you which concoctions you can make! Find recipes, drink suggestions and purchase bar paraphernalia.”