minti, powered by parents Powered by Parents
First Visit?     Register     Login
 
matthew



Blog Calendar
« August 2008 »
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31

Minti Founder Member » matthew » Blog

18
Aug

Advice with limited promotional content

Comment Published at 17:3917:393 comments3 comments44 Visits44 VisitsReport

Hi Minti Folks

Recently there have been a number of new articles appearing with some highly relevant and well written parenting advice which also have links back to the originating author's website/business.

We have a very strict policy about "purely" promotional use of the article area of the website and if someone ONLY wants to sell something we ask that they post it into their blog,  HOWEVER...

...we are very welcoming to authors whose primary focus is on "parenting advice" and who also wish to make some complementary promotional comments at the end of their article. 

In fact we actively SEEK OUT professional writers or organisations who would like to add their well thought out content to Minti and only wish to have a paragraph at the end linking back to their own website.  The reason for this is that most members are looking for good advice, if the final paragraph (generally less than 10-15% of the advice page) happens to link to the author's site then the parenting reader is still happy to have read the good advice.

So I would ask that people please refrain from reporting authors who add a small paragraph/promotional link back to their own site at the end of a good article...  if the majority of an article is promotional then go ahead and report it !

thanks for this opportunity for clarification

Matt

 

12
Aug

Win a World Vision gift pack over the next month!

Comment Published at 01:5501:5527 comments27 comments115 Visits115 VisitsReport

New competition to help promote World Vision Child Sponsorship!

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago we were approached by World Vision Australia with a great idea to help promote their Child Sponsorship program. They're in the middle of a big promotional campaign at the moment and you may have heard something about that on radio, seen a poster at a bus shelter, or something on TV.

Anyway, World Vision have suggested that our blogs and articles would be a great place to run a competition, as a way to help promote this really worthy cause, and everyone stands a chance to win some cool stuff (more on that in a moment!).

About World Vision Child Sponsorship

In light of the tough economic conditions that all Australians are facing right now, World Vision staff explained that it is becoming more challenging than ever for them to find sponsors for children in desperate need.

Children whose families are struggling to survive chronic food shortages and skyrocketing global food prices.

Basically, Child Sponsorship is about transforming the life of a child in desperate poverty. Sponsoring a child allows World Vision to work with the child's community on long-term community development projects. The sponsor helps change the future of the child by changing the world they will grow up in, to create an environment where there's enough food, clean water, healthcare and the chance for an education.

Some of the reasons why these kids need sponsors are startling:

  • 30,000 children worldwide die every day from preventable diseases
  • More than 300 million children go to bed hungry each day
  • Over 1 billion children and adults have no clean drinking water

World Vision's founder Bob Pierce said, “I can't do everything for everybody, but I can do something for somebody.”

For less than the cost of your daily café latte, you can not only change the life of a child, but of their entire community.

How our competition is helping the cause

Our competition is going to run over the next four weeks, with a random prize draw at the end of the period where three winners are chosen. In that time, we're hoping as many of our members as possible will choose to take part, so we can get maximum impact for World Vision. At the end of the four weeks, everything will return to normal(!). The more of us taking part, the more exposure for Child Sponsorship, and the more people that are likely to go over and visit World Vision's webpage to enquire about sponsoring a child. Simple!

(Of course, this competition is entirely optional, and you are more than welcome not to participate.)

How the competition works

Every member on Minti has a Personal Member Blog and every member can also write articles.

To enter this competition, all you need to do is write a short blog post or a parenting advice article about your experience or interest in the World Vision Sponsor a Child program.

If your experience with sponsoring a child (or a friend sponsoring a child) helped you be a better parent then tell us about it and write a Minti advice article (it is about parenting)...  If your experience is personal and not necessarily something you would consider parenting "advice" oriented then just post to your member Blog.

There are three requirements to be a part of the competition:

1.  Write about Child Sponsorship

2.  Post a link within the article to the following address: 

http://www.worldvision.com.au/childsponsorship/sponsorachild.aspx?souce=1168

(so more people can learn about sponsoring a child)

3.  Post a reply to this blog post so I know you have entered !

At the end of the competition, we will select one random and two merit based winning entries to receive a prize pack!

Every reasonable entry will also receive a 500 moolah bonus from the team here at Minti for supporting this good cause !

Winners will be required to provide a mailing address for their prize, if that information is not currently available to us.

What's the prize?

The promotional team over at World Vision have put together a bundle of goodies for each of our three winners, including generous quantities of Fair Trade coffee and premium chocolate, a World Vision t-shirt, and some other stuff they raided out of Tim Costello's office (*joking*)! They're still finding more goodies to add, apparently, so it will be a great surprise for each of our winners.

How to enter

To enter this competition, take the three steps above and let me know you are in it to win by replying to thie blog !  Please also keep this competition information alive in the "Latest Activity" list if you can !

 

27
Jul

We're hooking up with World Vision in a time of need

Comment Published at 20:3120:314 comments4 comments26 Visits26 VisitsReport


Two weeks ago, World Vision Australia asked me to help promote their current Child Sponsorship campaign by talking about this worthy cause in my blog.

  We chatted about the tough economic times that we are all in right now and how it is becoming tougher than ever for World Vision to find sponsors for children who really are in desperate need.

 

These kids are struggling to survive in the face of skyrocketing global food prices and chronic food shortages.  That's why I reckon there's no better use of this space than to ask you all to think about sponsoring a child right now.

Just consider, for less than the cost of your daily caffeine fix, you can not only change the life of a child, but of their entire community.

This is particularly directed at Australian residents so please follow this link and find out more about sponsoring a child:

Please follow this link to learn more about child sponsorship.

 

30
Jun

Code of honor reminder

Comment Published at 18:4218:427 comments7 comments68 Visits68 VisitsReport

Hi Folks

I am very grateful that I seldom have to write reminders such as this but I believe it is time everyone using the site regularly gets a little refresher on our Code of Honor first principle :

Above all else, respect others. If you see disrespectful behavior, report it, rather than further inflaming the situation. You can attack the idea/topic, but you can not attack the person.

Please let this be at the forefront of your mind whenever you are posting to the site.

In particular you should NEVER copy anything written by another member from a private forum or sent via a private minti-mail into a public part of the site.  There is a reason people keep posts or mails private and part of respecting other members is respecting this desire for privacy of posts.

Report items that breach this guideline and I would ask that senior members delete these items if they breach this guiding principle.

thanks everyone

Matt

 

02
Jun

New Minti Homepage

Comment Published at 22:5922:5910 comments10 comments60 Visits60 VisitsReport

Hi everyone,

Time for one of those rare blog posts, today we are very excited to launch the new Minti homepage (and menu bar) - you may not have noticed yet that there are a few different photos that can show up on the top right of the page, we have a new compliments area, more focus on Q&A which is a very popular section and we have linked to the awesome article of DarkenedAngel on the top left of the homepage for those new to Minti and wanting to get a flavour for what it is all about !  Nice one DA !

Let us know your thoughts on the new homepage and apologies in advance to those who loved the "latest activity" feed on the homepage but it is just one click away now to see latest activity in all its glory 

all the best from a tired new Dad

Matt

30
Apr

Little Hamish update

Comment Published at 05:5005:5024 comments24 comments66 Visits66 VisitsReport

The family are all home and getting to know each other better.  Here is Hamish in one of his more inquisitive moods.

12
Apr

This is Hamish

Comment Published at 15:1115:1143 comments43 comments182 Visits182 VisitsReport

Hamish was born on Friday night weighing 4.175kgs ( 9lbs 2oz ) after a very long day.

Mum (Mom) and bub are both well and so is this very proud Dad... much love to all of you at Minti

Day 1 Hospital

 

08
Apr

Minti Scheduled Downtime this Wednesday

Comment Published at 04:5804:5816 comments16 comments49 Visits49 VisitsReport

Hi Minti folks

There is going to be a major upgrade to Minti going live during the course of tomorrow.  This is likely to require the site to close down for 15 mins or so whilst the changes are brought from our development area onto the live site.  There will be a lot of new stuff to explore one it gets live and I wont spoil the fun too much by telling you all the details 

We are planning to make this update at around 11am Wednesday 9th April Perth time which is:

1pm in Sydney on 9th April

4am in London on 9th April

8pm in San Francisco on 8th April

So please be warned that Minti may shut down for a short time around about then 

A lot of time and effort has gone into the many improvements we are introducing and we really hope that all of our faithful members enjoy the improvements ! 

with best wishes Matt

PS The new baby boy who was due last Thursday is running a little late but we are hoping he will make a show this week

25
Mar

New Spell Checking in Firefox

Comment Published at 20:0420:045 comments5 comments27 Visits27 VisitsReport

If you use the free Firefox browser (download from here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ ) and happen to make a typo during your entry of blogs, comments, articles or anything else on Minti you will see a red underline appear below the text with the typo.

If you hold down your CTRL-key and at the same time Right-click on the typo word you will be shown spelling options to replace the mistake !    Spell checking in Minti now automatic for Firefox users - just remember to use CTRL-key if you want to right click for alternative spelling options !

Unfortunately this does not work with Microsoft Internet Explorer yet

All the best from Matt

29
Jan

Minti User Guide - Video Tour

Comment Published at 22:3622:3611 comments11 comments79 Visits79 VisitsReport

Hi Minti folks

You may want to take a few minutes to view this video of some Minti features which was done some time ago but we only recently managed to get up on YouTube - try the link below:

YouTube Video Guide to Minti

Comments welcomed  

[p]

Archives

August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
April 2008
March 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
July 2007
May 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006