My initial review is that this isn’t just another drrop in the bucket. Drrop is very fun and a great way to socialize with other people from around the world.

I actually just found Drrop about an hour ago and I must say this is the most fun I have had on a website in a long time.

It’s brand new and not really even in beta from what I have heard though, the guys have released it publicly for testing. Maybe I will get a cool badge for all my hard work, if you could call testing in the rain work.

The two Drrop creators are both from Tokyo, Japan according to their Drrop profiles. Here is a screenshot of them taken from the Drrop about page:

Drrop Creators

I liked Drrop so much after using it for only five minutes that I started to come up with Drrop lingo, for example:

• Drroplator or maybe Drropslator – Which could be an in-line Drrop translator since this is already world wide
• Drrop Froze Over – When Drrop reaches it’s capacity and “something has gone terribly wrong” or “Drrop has filled the bucket and is about to overflow” error message.
• Acid Rain – Also known as Spam which at this point hasn’t showed it’s ugly head on Drrop.

One “issue” that I noticed is that I was going to be clicking the wipe button allot and since I already use the mouse too much I complained. I Drropped that I would like to have an auto whip tool built in. I also added that maybe adding that feature to a toolbar would be cool with an on/off switch, as well as the ablity to set auto wipe intervals. For example 3 seconds till next auto wipe.

There are definitely going to be allot of Drrop vs Twitter blog posts coming. I might just do one up myself and see what kind of traffic I can pull in. You  know,  just for the drrop of it.

Drrop get’s a great review from me. I have a feeling the traffic flood gates are going to open up here real soon and think it’s starting to rain cat’s and dogs for sure.

I will be following the rain over at Drrop and I think you should drrop in over there and do the same.

And remember to be kind, don’t wipe my type.

Drrop.com

This site is pretty fun. Kind of like a Twitter, Yahoo Answers, Myspace/Facebook mixed drink.

I think it’s going to be a hit. Especially with the younger crowd.

I’m calling it: Onioning – Social Q and A

Did anyone else notice Twitter on Google search today?

This was created for The WordPress Flash Game Site Tutorial I wrote though, it should work fine as a general FileZilla Tutorial.

This video assumes you have your domain and hosting setup and know your ftp user-name and password. Your hosting company should be able to assist you with all of these details though, let me know if you need some help.

FileZilla:

Okay, so your going to need some tools for the job here. There are some mandatory tools that you will need and some optional tools that you may or may not need. I will try my best to separate each part of this tutorial based on the tools, that way you can skip certain ones that you might already have a grasp on and go ahead to specific parts that you were looking for. For some more advanced users please bare with me as some of the newer folks might need to get caught up, remember, you were new way back when too.

Tool’s you will need:

This is a jump list along with quick download links:

1. WordPress - Download page
2. eGamer theme – Download Page
   
3. GD Star Rating plugin – Download page
4. Domain Name
5. Hosting Account – Who I use
6. Mochiads – Account Setup
   
7. Banner Ad Networks
8. FileZilla – Download page
9. Notepad++ – Download page
10. 7-Zip – Download page
11. Please read about updates
    

WordPress

I have decided to use WordPress because frankly it’s a great tool for the job. If you have never used WordPress before don’t worry, I will show you how to install it and explain some of the ends and outs. Enough to get you going for this tutorial. You will be using WordPress 2.7.1 because it is the stable version as I write this tut. Please download a copy from WordPress.org.

eGamer Theme

Egamer is a great theme that you will be using to make your Flash Game site look Kick Awesome! Not only will you have access to this great theme but you will also have access to over 20 more great themes for any future projects. How does that sound? The best part about it is the fact that you get access to all those great WordPress themes for only $19.95. I mean that is a smoking good deal if you ask me.

Head over there now and pick up your copy before we start!

GD Star Rating Plugin

We will be using GD Star Rating Plugin to give “voice” to your users. Game players can rate the games and help to determine which games are worth playing and which ones are not. We will also be adding an additional comment system which will be converted so players can leave tips and tricks, plus the tips and tricks will be rate-able too.

This is a free plugin and the developer takes donations which will in-turn keep this great plugin survive. So if you start actually making money with your WordPress game site, please consider donating.

Also, while your over there at GDSR take notice; they are using the same Fresh News theme you see here at Natetronn. Looks really good too!

Domain Name

You will need to name your site and buy a matching domain name of course if you don’t already have one picked out. The great folks over at DreamHost have hooked me up with a sweet promo code to give you. To claim your free domain name for life please use promo code GAMES during checkout.

Hosting Account

I use DreamHost and will be using them for this tutorial so everything will for sure work with them. Please use the code GAMES during checkout.

I also have an account with HostGator and they are great too. It’s probably safe to say that either hosts will be fine for this tutorial though, they use cPanel where as DreamHost has their own control panel. If you need help setting up a hosting account feel free to call me. If you happen to have your own host and you are having problems with anything by all means hit me up and I will try to help you out.

Mochiads Account

Mochiads is a great place to get more than 7500 flash games for free. Yes you heard me right 7500+. How does that sound? I mean you have to have games for a flash game site right? On top of more games then anyone could ever play, they put a quick ad in the very beginning of the game. This ad is payed for by sponsoring advertisers who pays Mochiads to have it there. Then when that ad (inside the game) is displayed from your site you make a little money. Even the game developers make money so that’s pretty cool. And of course your users get free games to play. It’s a win, win, win, win, win!

Banner Ad Networks

You are probably going to want to put up some banner ads on your site. This is another good way to generate an income and to pay for your time and expenses. The eGamer theme comes ready with some built in locations exactly for banner ads, plus we will be adding some more of our own to various places on the site.

There are quite a few ad networks out there so I will mention a few to get you started. Plus I will recommend advertisers to sign up with and I will show you how and where to place these ads on the site.

Please note that you might want to wait until your site is up and running before you apply for all the ad networks. I have been declined by some of the larger advertisers due to low traffic and me being impatient so, not every thing I list will you get accepted into but, don’t worry, there are plenty of advertisers and plenty of ad networks out there.

Below are few ideas for you too think about for the future. I will show you a few banner ads from some advertisers who sell products or services related to video games. Though, ultimately you have to choose which advertiser’s banners and programs fit your site and your user’s habits. It might take some time to figure out so, trial and error is your best bet and a good way to learn. These networks are for sure available in the US. If you are from another country feel free to call me and I will do my best to find you a network that accepts your country.

Commission Junction Account:

Linkshare Account:

Google Adsense Account:

FileZilla FTP

I will be using FileZilla to upload and download files back and forth from the hosting account and my computer. You can use this program too, or if you have your own FTP app by all means use that. FileZilla is open source so feel free to download it.

I have created a FileZilla Video Tutorial for those who would like to learn how to use this FTP program.

Notepad++

I will be using Notepad++ for any coding. This is another open source software so feel free to download it otherwise, use your favorite text editor or even WordPad from Windows.

7-ZIP

I will be using 7-Zip to unzip the WordPress files, game files, plugin files and anything else in a zipped or rar folder. This is also open source software. You can use your own too though if you wish.

Tool Updates Go Here

I know for sure I will be updating this page as I go. So please refer back to it often for updates. I have jumped ahead a bit on some of them and have forgot others so please bare with me as I get things straightened out. Thank you!

Okay, there are a few things you should know before we actually jump right into the tutorial part which is why I start with this intro:

I would just like to say real quick a few things about flash games. They are addicting so be careful and don’t get caught up playing the games when you get to that part of the tutorial. Okay? You will have time for play after we are done.

Also, this tutorial is NOT going to explain how to design a WordPress theme from scratch. There are loads of tutorial on that topic and if you need some of those links email or call me. I will be happy to give you some!

I will be using a pre-built theme that I purchased on the cheap and you can do the same if you wish. I highly recommend you doing so but, it’s your choice and if you think you can follow along with your own theme, then feel free to do just that.

Please note that I used a few paid products in this tutorial but, I will hopefully balance that out by showing you how to actually profit from your game site so don’t worry about that too much. Yes you heard me right! I will show you how to make money with a web site and video games!

Please understand though, that Flash game sites are not a get rich quick scheme, there will be allot more work to be done after this tutorial for you to make it a successful business but, I will try and lay the ground work for you and show you everything that I know. Ultimately it’s up to you to take the info and run with it. I hope we are clear about that?

Some of the tools used in the tutorial are kind of mandatory, uhmm like WordPress, while others are optional. I will break everything into parts so you can decided which optional steps to skip or not. I will do my best not to box you into one type of game site if possible though I have to have some sort of base to work from to demonstrate the various techniques we will be using.

Lastly, I just want to wish you good luck cause your in for a great twisty-turny-tutorial ride, so lets get this thing started already, shall we?

On to the tools page….

Come to find out, through a secret source of mine, that new chat/tweet app I talked about in this earlier post, was a modified TweetGrid widget. The top part where you login and send a tweet from was the additional feature. The bottom part which displayed the tweets was the TweetGrid.  They just combined the widget and the Twitter API into one.

This feature so far is only available to a few elite super stars. Two to be exact! You know one of them is Snoop D-O-Double-G because I told you and the other VIP you ask? None other then rap super star – P Diddy.

Not sure if you know this but, yesterday when Snoop was on and there was around 1500 viewers watching, Snoop made it to the number one spot on the twitter home page for “Trending Topics” and also his name was all blown up on TweetDeck’s TwitScoop. I believe this was all made possible with what I am now calling the:

“Ustream Tweetosaurus VIP Only Chat”

If you think you would like to try and build your own U.T.V.O.C. then maybe these sites will start you in the right direction:

1. Twitter API Wiki
2. TweetGrid Widget
   
3. Sending and receiving Tweets from Twitter using the Twitter API
4. Twitter: send message from a PHP page using Twitter API

One last little note to consider before you go off building the U.T.V.O.C. is that chances are, unless you know somebody who knows somebody, you aren’t going to get your personal U.T.V.O.C. on Ustream. I would consider renaming it to “Non Ustream Tweetosaurus All Access Chat” or N.U.T.A.A.C. for short if the original name doesn’t quite fit anymore.

If you do actually succeed in building the U.T.V.O.C., rather a N.U.T.A.A.C. for you own site then please, by all means, leave a comment below with a link to your creation, I know everyone would love to see it, along with all the different variations you might come up with.

As I’m sure allot of you well know, I was one of the first, if not the first, to blog on the fact that Snoop Dogg was live over at Ustream.

In fact, the only reason I didn’t get the article up that same day was because I was messing around with that stupid video I made. Took for ever to record, to export it as a flash video file and upload.

Anyway, I should of thought to check this the other morning to see if I had a better spot. Now, as I write this, I am in the 6th position on the first page of Google, even beating out Digg for the keywords “snoop dogg ustream” That’s saying something for sure!

I am in the 15th spot on the second page of Goggle for the keywords “snoop dogg live” and I think that’s not too shabby either. Most of the front page was videos of Snoop live as would be expected.

To bad though, I don’t think I can compete for much longer. We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t think I will be pulling in to much traffic from this either though, it is very interesting to see how Google works in regards to trending topics.

I guess you could say the moral of this story is the early bird gets the worm, when it comes to stuff like this. The only question is; will you as the early bird actually be rewarded, in some form or another?

You can check out the screen shots, careful though, they’re large files and almost 1600×1200 pixels:

Snoop Dogg Live

Snoop Dogg Ustream

If you read my previous post you would know Snoop Dogg was live on Ustream.TV last night. He was live for quite a while, about 200-250 viewers were watching the show and around the same amount of users were in the chat room. The only thing was is that the Ustream chat room was getting pounded to the ground with comments and allot of spam too.

That many users shouldn’t slow things down but, it was. The video was freezing off and on and from what I can tell it was because the chat room. I know that many users at one time doesn’t sound like allot and you might think it was my connection though, I have some pretty good downs and ups. According to Speedtest I can download a 800 mb movie in about 6 minutes. Check it out for your self:

I spoke with two of the chat room moderators about it. Mazy and SNOOPDOGGTV both told me they were on top of it and they would have a new chat room up tomorrow.

Well it’s 9:30 am PST and I see they do in fact have a new chat room up. Wow! That was fast.

The only thing is, it’s not the run of the mill chat rooms, it’s a tweet chat room. Something called Twitter Search Widget from TweetGrid. Basically it just ties into the Twitter API and pulls out any @snoopdogg tweets and instantly updates them into the widget live time. It looks really simple and clean. I like it! There is even a login form so users can log into Twitter directly from the widget while never having to leave the Ustream Snoop Dogg Live show.

I have not actually seen it in action yet, so I am eager to see how it works with some heavy traffic.

Ten minutes after Snoop left, in came a huge group of viewers. There was now about 650 viewers and the chat room was still buzzing along at light speed. You could barely read what anybody was saying it was going so fast. Funny thing is that those extra 400 viewers didn’t actually get to see Snoop.

If you missed the show this time then consider picking up Snoop’s latest album instead: