Tid.al

New Member Monday with Blissfully Ever After's Jennifer Mead

thingsworthdescribing — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:28:48 -0400

Jennifer Mead is a twenty-something mom living in Washington State with her husband and beautiful baby son. She’s also a Natural Nutrition & Green Living Educator and a non-profit founder. Her blog, Blissfully Ever After chronicles her personal life along with really useful DIY posts for anyone looking to spruce up their own home. She’s the newest member of Bob Vila Nation, so we’re excited to learn all about her passion for decorating on a budget!

After starting the blog in 2009 under a different name, Blissfully Ever After now gets between 40,000-50,000 pageviews a month! Jennifer’s been featured everywhere from Woman’s Day Magazine to Remodelaholic to Mom’s Magazine, and she even does all her blog’s design work on her own!

What first inspired you to create Blissfully Ever After?

I actually started blogging back in 2009 under a different blog name “Our Cottage in the Desert.” I worked full-time outside the home then and was going to school and so the blog kind of fell on the “back burner.” In 2011, we found out we were expecting our first baby and my husband and I made the decision that I would become a stay-at-home Mom {SAHM}. At that time, I knew I was passionate about blogging, home design, DIY projects, and sharing budget living ideas, so I decided to restart my blogging days but this time I wanted to use a different name. I thought about what the name for the blog would be for a few weeks and then one day I was daydreaming and thinking about the baby and how different and exciting life would be and how blessed I was to be able to be home with him/her and it dawned on me….the blog should be called Blissfully Ever After. Blissfully Ever After was developed in June 2011 and since then has grown in the industry and has just been such an amazing journey. My philosophy is that you can create a blissful and healthy life for your family living on less and I strive to show families how to do that with simple, yet effective home decorating, DIY projects, recipes, and crafting techniques.

Do you run the blog alone? Where do you find ideas for your posts?

I run the blog primarily by myself, even the design…which wasn’t easy at first but now I am getting the hang of it. I also do have two contributors who occasionally post about fitness and financial tips.

What do you hope your readers take away from your blog?

I really hope that my readers find a welcoming space where they can come to get inspired, learn about health and wellness, and share their comments and ideas as well. My husband and I both love to help people learn about finances, saving, and budget living and so I’ve taken that concept over to the blog and am sharing our journey of living a blissful and healthy life…living on less!

Tell us about your first design project.

I have always loved to decorate, clean, and organize since I was about 5 or 6 years old. Everyone tells me stories about me asking to help them clean and organize and I remember moving things around in my parents house growing up trying to achieve the “perfect look.” When I was in high school I painted my room by myself for the first time, picked out the décor, decorated and made it like my own little “apartment.” It was awesome! When my husband and I got married, we purchased our first house at 20 and did a total DIY overhaul on it in less than 2 years. We are DIYers for life!

How did you hear about Bob Vila Nation and what made you want to join?

I saw links on other bloggers sites and clicked on it and realized this was a great opportunity to share, learn, and grow. I love that bloggers and businesses are able to collaborate like this and I am honored to be here!

What’s your favorite room to decorate and why?

I loved decorating my son’s nursery. I am sure many of you could guess why, but in all honesty I loved decorating this space because it was for someone I love and was eager to create a welcoming environment for. I also really enjoyed our $100 Laundry Room makeover and our current Dining Room turned Home Office transformation that we’re working on.

Do you have any blog success stories?

I receive a lot of emails that are very inspiring and I am just blessed and truly honored to be sharing ideas that help people in many different areas of their lives. I know I get inspired by a lot of other bloggers and so to be able to offer this to my readers is just a phenomenal feeling. I think one of my most raved about posts was my DIY Photos on Canvas. It is a beautiful way to display photos without the hefty price tag and my readers really appreciated now only the idea but the full tutorial as well.

What’s your favorite book/magazine on design? What about your favorite design site?

I love browsing simple magazines like Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, and Ballard Designs for inspiration and DIY knockoff ideas! Some of my favorite design sites to visit are Better Homes & Gardens, The Lettered Cottage, Design on 6th Street, The Handmade Home, The Shabby Nest, and Miss Mustard Seed Designs. I know there are a lot more, but for the sake of space I will keep it to these!

What inspires you?

I’d have to say that my husband and my son inspire me every day to be the best wife and mother. Honestly, I wouldn’t be blogging if it wasn’t for them. Also, there are a lot of bloggers who inspire me. I remember when I was 19 and a newlywed and in our first little house, we received the Pottery Barn magazine and I would scour through the pages thinking “how could we ever afford to have a house look like this?” After finding blogging in 2009, I feel like a changed woman!! I can now look through the magazine and say “Oh ya, I can do that….for A LOT LESS!” It is amazing what you can learn through blogging about relationships, parenting, cooking, decorating, health and fitness, and creative crafts. I absolutely love it!!!

New Member Monday with Poppy Haus' Heather Jennings

thingsworthdescribing — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:17:57 -0400

Heather Jennings is a former designer for the indie children’s clothing line, Jasper Hearts Wren, and is now a stay-at-home mom and DIY/Design blogger. Her blog, Poppy Haus, is one of the newest members of the Bob Vila Nation community!

She loves the functionality and liveliness of contemporary Scandinavian design, and picks out paint colors using her degree in psychology. She lives with her husband and two boys in Petaluma, California. She only started Poppy Haus a year ago and it already gets between6,500-15,000 pageviews per month!

What first inspired you to create Poppy Haus? Can you remember and tell us about the moment when you first thought “I need to be sharing this stuff online?”

I started my blog a year ago. I was in a prolonged creative rut and one of my friends suggested that I start writing. I first called it “Make Do” and in the beginning it was more of a journal discussing my DIY projects, organization tips, and a chronicle of our family outings. I got at really positive response from my small group of readers and in January after leaving Jasper Hearts Wren, I did a redesign and launched Poppy Haus, posting original content with tutorials 3-5 times per week.

Do you run the blog alone? Where do you find ideas for the posts you blog?

I do run the blog alone. I miss having a creative partner to bounce ideas off of, but I also love the autonomy, and I have a couple of pint-sized helpers for my kid friendly projects. Most of my DIY ideas begin while browsing stores like Anthropolgie, DWR, Jonathan Adler. I see high end pieces and think, “I could do something like that. What if I used..?”. The same is true of my recipes. I love to build meals based on things I’ve tried at my favorite restaurants.

Tell us about your first design project— anything from decorating your room as a kid to your first paid design work.

I can’t remember my first design project, although I’m sure it involved double-sided sticky tape. I lived in England when I was a young girl and religiously watched this BBC show called “Blue Peter” which had all sorts of crafty projects for kids. I used to make my own play dough and papier mache decor

How did you hear about Bob Vila Nation and what made you want to join?

I follow Deluxe by Becky Golino, which has been featured on Bob Vila Nation several times. I love the variety of contributor posts on BVN, from home improvement to design history.

What’s your favorite room to decorate and why?

The living room. After all, this is where we spend most of our time. I love mixing colorful textiles with neutral vintage pieces and the occasional IKEA find.

Do you have any blog success stories? People getting inspired by your posts and creating something really great because of it?

When my Anenome Chandelier was featured on Design*Sponge I was flooded with positive feedback, and people started sending in pictures of their own versions. It never gets old when your work inspires others to create.

What’s your favorite book/magazine on design? What about your favorite design site?

I’m an avid reader of both Dwell and Sunset magazines, I also love Anthology. Domino’s design book as well as Design*Sponge are a coffee table must, but I do most of my reading online these days. My favorites are: Deluxe, Design Milk, Oh Joy!, Poppytalk, Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy.

How does your previous work designing clothes for Jasper Hearts Wren translate to designing a new house or room?

Though the majority of my work was character design, on occasion I sourced textiles and developed ideas for new garments. I am obsessed with color and pattern, and use it strategically throughout my home. Jasper Hearts Wren is a very well executed line from color to proportion and I try to strike that same balance in my home design.

What inspires you?

My family. I try to create a home environment that is beautiful and well thought out, because this is where we cook, play and squabble, together, everyday.

What do you hope your readers take away from your blog?

I hope that they are inspired to make things from scratch, to do something creative with their kids, and to grow in their appreciation for design and designers.

Social Publishing Roundup: Scribd, Foboko, and Pipeno

thingsworthdescribing — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:39:00 -0400

This week’s roundup series is dedicated to all those writers out there looking for someone - anyone - to read what they’re writing. Thanks to the internet, anyone can write and publish online, but now these new social publishing sites are helping all those great stories and novels find the audiences they’re looking for.

Scribd

“The world’s largest online library.”

Scribd lets anyone read, publish, and share their documents and written works. You can upload and have a place to keep and publish your work online, or you can sell your writing and keep 80% of the profits with no other fees. Your profile of work is built up in your Scribd profile - a new place to send prospective employers to show off how much work you’ve already done. You gather followers in the Scribd network, and you can keep track of your Scribd profile stats to see how many people like what you’re creating. And according to TechCrunch, they just got a brand new website, logo, and app.

Examples:

Minnesota 2020

Alfred A. Knopf

Foboko

“Our mission is to promote literacy and share our author’s messages with the world.”

Foboko lets you upload and create your own eBooks in a simple three step process. You can also begin writing your book there, gathering feedback from the community of Foboko members along the way. There’s also a section of the site for readers looking for eBooks to read as well, and Foboko matches up the right readers with the right aspiring authors so that both can find what they’re looking for. They have really great graphics and the system itself seems pretty simple. Readers get 5 free eBook downloads a month and authors get a limited number of book uploads as well.

Examples:

Brains and Realities

The True Truth

Pipeno

“Content, community, commerce.”

Pipeno is a more professionalized publishing tool that was created to help journalists, writers, and bloggers create their own communities and make money at the same time. A Pipeno publisher creates a team of writers and they work together to build up an audience. Their goal is to provide writers in particular niches with a publishing platform that makes it easy to get their work out there and make money without all that reliance on ads. You can create a site for free, but for extra monetization power it’s $14.50 per month. They mostly look like plain ol’ blogs with a forum section added on.

Examples:

Positively Parenting

Canadian Rockies Tourism Guide

Community Roundup: Yuku, Ning, and Tidal

thingsworthdescribing — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:57:25 -0400

As the second post in our new Roundup series, today we’re taking it a step up, from just simple blogging to online community platforms including us, Tidal! Some serve as a collection of individual blogs and bloggers, some just aggregate people looking to talk, but either way people are gathering online around their interests!

Yuku

“A social universe of communities united by people and their passions.”

Yuku lets anyone create a site for a community of their own - for free! Community members have their own profiles with social networking features that let you share blog posts and pictures. You can customize the HTML to make your site more beautiful, but the default settings look pretty plain.

The sites seem to function mainly as forums for people to get together and talk/comment on different topics, making the main pages all text and no pictures. You also can’t customize your community’s URL, it needs “.yuku.com” at the end, but after all it is free!

Examples:

The Official Cher Community

O.A.R. Fans Official Fan Community

Ning

“Unlock the power of your community.”

Anyone with a desire for a community can create a Ning site on their own with a monthly plan. They have a site design platform that mimics Blogger, yet here you can aggregate the input and comments of others and build a fanbase. You can organize events and have forums, all with social integration. Ning exists between Yuku and Tidal, allowing any user to generate both content and communities in certain interests, or essentially a personalized social network.

The platform seems to work best for bands looking to connect with their fans. They’re able to properly promote themselves and keep people involved in upcoming tours and new album releases. Just this month Ning launched the ability for users to display ads on their sites, along with more customized content capabilities.

Examples:

Plain White T’s

Toms Campus Programs

Tidal (us!)

“Online influencers are the new media.”

At Tidal, we create social publishing sites for publishers and brands who want access to a community of bloggers with a common interest. The bloggers who were already writing about music or home improvement join our different communities and contribute their awesome posts to be seen by a larger, more interested audience.

Where Ning functions as a company site or blog with the social aspect of community comments, Tidal sites are 100% community, with all posts coming from contributors looking for people to read what they’re writing.

Examples:

Bob Vila Nation

Sony PopMarket Backstage

New Member Monday with Stylish Patina's Kelly Thompson

thingsworthdescribing — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:31:00 -0400

This Monday we’re getting to know Kelly Thompson, whose blog Stylish Patina is one of the newest additions to the Bob Vila Nation community!

Kelly is a 39-year-old wife and mother to four dogs living in Falls Church, Virginia just outside of DC. After 15 years in corporate America she gave up her job as VP of Operations for Hooked on Phonics to start her own businesses: Stylish Patina and Jump-Start Consulting.

Stylish Patina is where Kelly shares her family adventures along with success stories of repurposing old furniture that eventually became a full-fledged business. Stylish Patina now has a dealer space in Falls Church, monthly sales at the Stylish Patina Barn in Frederick, Maryland, and an Etsy shop.

What do you love about repurposing vintage finds?

I love both the transformation as well as finding modern uses for vintage items. I love to mix vintage + modern together and create a personal yet functional space for clients. One of my favorite things is using vintage bottle crates and such for storage. You can even pop on a few casters and have amazing rolling storage with character or a lil’ patina as I would say:-)

What is it about a particular piece of furniture that most inspires you to recreate it into something new?

It’s all in the lines:-) They speak to me… If I can see the possibilities in a matter of seconds then I know it must be mine! I don’t choose one style of furniture or home decor element to look for either. I am really all over the place. I enjoy being open minded and not closing off possibilities.

How did you come up with the name “Stylish Patina”?

The name Stylish Patina was actually inspired by our 1976 Ford 150 that we named Ira after my husband’s grandfather. I used to always say that Ira has patina so when I was coming up with a name for the business, Stylish Patina seemed fitting since Ira did haul all the furniture! Plus I believe that repurposing and salvaging furniture and home decor elements is not just “green” but it can be stylish and beautiful as well.

What first inspired you to create Stylish Patina? Can you remember and tell us about the moment when you first thought, “I need to be sharing this stuff online”?

I think my “aha” moment was when I did a tag sale at my home with another friend and everything was all gussied up. Just seeing the response made it real. Plus my background is in marketing and business so I’m always looking for new business opportunities. At that time there was not as many people doing this type of thing in my area, but now with Chalk Paint™ decorative paint by Annie Sloan (which I sell online and in my shop) there is a new blogger and vintage dealer everyday.

What do you hope your readers will take away from your blog?

I want my readers to see how easy it is to refresh either furniture they have or inexpensive finds they acquire. I also want them to see that they can mix vintage + modern styles and have it look fabulous. Don’t be afraid to mix and match styles and textures in your home. This is what makes your home personal, please don’t just mimic Ballard Design, Wisteria, or West Elm. Make your home personal to you.

Simplified Blogging Roundup: Tumblr, CheckThis, and Svbtle

thingsworthdescribing — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:30:00 -0400

The concept of blogging was such a hit at its beginning that we’ve been trying to improve it ever since. After years of new programs and platforms, we’re able to pin, favorite, or thumbs-up whatever we like, creating little online compilations of our favorite things.

Welcome to the first of Tidal’s new Roundup series, where we survey a group of online platforms that are working to help bloggers and anyone with an Internet connection get their stuff out there.

Twitter slimmed it down to micro-blogging with a 140 character limit and Instagram only posts filtered photos, but the space between single pictures and sentences and full on blog posts is where a lot of new companies are trying to fill the void.

They’re going after a simplified blogging experience, where you can post whatever you want in the shortest, easiest, and most visually pleasing way possible.

Tumblr

“Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything.”

It’s been a sensation since it was founded in February 2007, I’m even using it to publish this very post. Now at a total of 64.1 million blogs and 27.2 billion posts, Tumblr is definitely the reigning king of simplified blogging. There’s a different format for each kind of post you can create: text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, and video, making it as easy as possible to post what you want.

You can pick a theme and a background for your blog, with all Tumblrs aggregated in different categories found in the Dashboard’s “Explore” link. You can also explore by tag as an easy way of finding and getting found by fellow Tumblrs and non-Tumblrs alike. The themes keep every Tumblr clean and simple; it’s Blogger and Wordpress without all that hassle and HTML.

Examples:

Tastefully Offensive

Automotivated

CheckThis

“Between nothing and a blog.”

Intended to fill the gaps between the already existing social media platforms, CheckThis allows anyone to create a single, beautiful page where you can Tell, Sell, Ask, or Invite. It’s essentially a simplified blogging platform, but without the commitment, as it attempts to be the “instagram of social publishing.” Just create pages for events or topics to share whenever.

They also make it easier for the pages to seen by others, with a “shuffle pages” link in the navbar, plus an “Explore” button that brings you to an aggregation of inspiring pages, even if you don’t have an account. According to TechCrunch, each individual page has an average of 260 pageviews. Smaller companies have been using it to create event pages and small mini-stores similar to Etsy. People have been using it as one-time opinion pages and photo-sharing. A distilled Tumblr that doesn’t require you to keep track of another password.

Examples:

Earth: Yosemite Yoga Retreat

Satch Company Bags

Svbtle

“An experiment that brings some of the best things from newspapers and magazines to a network of independent bloggers.”

Basically blogging with a guest list. You have to apply to contribute, and justify why people should care about what you have to say. It’s not exactly democratic, but the list of their current contributors is pretty impressive and contains names from Google, SoundCloud, and other online sensations.

Each selected blogger is given their own clean, formatted page filled with the posts they’ve written in their particular area of expertise. Instead of earning “Favorites” from readers with a collection of little hearts or stars, the elite Svbtle crew gets “Kudos.” And you don’t even have to click to “Kudos.” Mouse hovering does the trick.

Examples:

Tom Critchlow

Andrew Cornett

First-ever New Member Monday with Decoholic's Melina Divani

thingsworthdescribing — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 11:09:45 -0400

Welcome to Tidal’s very first post in our New Member Monday series where we interview one of our favorite new contributors!

Melina Divani’s blog Decoholic is one of the most recent additions to Bob Vila Nation, a collection of our favorite home bloggers and experts. Her collection of interior design posts gets 180,000 pageviews per month!

She’s 31, from Greece, and has a BA in Finance and Accounting but right now she’s a stay-at-home mom with two little boys.

What first inspired you to create Decoholic?

I created Decoholic because it was a good way to organize pictures and interior design ideas, it was a useful tool of mine (totally fixed to my needs). When I had started I never expected to have even one visitor. So you can imagine how much I was impressed by seeing thousands of people visiting daily my blog. It’s so wonderful sharing what you love!

How did you hear about Bob Vila Nation?

I heard about Bob Vila Nation by an architect friend of mine and I loved it.

Tell us about your first design project.

I remember when I was a child I had taken the colors of my mother and painted the door of my room. The door was white, so to me it sound like ideal canvas to create. To my surprise when my mother saw it she just smiled and told me: “It is really nice but please don’t try it with the rest of the doors.” To be honest, I believe that then I was painting better than now. As Picasso said: “Every child is an artist”

What’s your favorite room to decorate and why?

All rooms in a house are important but I am mostly interested in the open plan kitchen-living room. I prefer open plan kitchens as they contribute to make the preparation of dinner a small fest, when the space is single.

What’s your favorite book or magazine on design? What about your favorite design site?

My favorite magazine is Interior Design Magazine. I find amazing the apartmenttherapy.com site but my favorite one is Decoholic.org lol.

What inspires you?

I can only say, keep your eyes open and you will see that inspiration is everywhere. Nature, people, history, images. Everything has something to inspire me.

Last week’s Tidal team lunch! We need bigger and bigger...

thingsworthdescribing — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:17:58 -0400

Last week’s Tidal team lunch! We need bigger and bigger table every time we go out because of all our fabulous new additions.

From the left: Lindsey, Matt, Sven, Lucia Mayas of chutney fame, Lucy, Keenan, Burak, and Chubi.

The OTHER Tidal Labs

thingsworthdescribing — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:32:00 -0400

Those of you familiar with us here at Tidal know that our website doesn’t have the usual “.com” factor. Instead, we sent over a URL registration to Albania to snag our site, Tid.al. Sometimes this makes it difficult to explain our online location, but mostly we just like to think it makes us look more tech-savvy/awesome.

But we probably wouldn’t have bothered with Albania at all had our other possible URLs not already been taken by the other Tidal Labs out there:

We never had a real chance at owning tidallabs.com, because the Indian pharmaceutical company Tidal Laboratories was founded all the way back in 1995. Given that they actually deal in science and medicine, they probably deserve the “laboratories” part more than we do, but at least we’ll probably never get mistaken for one another.

A UK-based IT consulting firm snatched up tidal.com in 1992, so we had even less of a chance with this one.

This Tidal belongs solely to one Mr. William Shier who’s done work with London City Bank, Intel and IBM. Although this Tidal is closer to what we do than pharmaceuticals, the sites most recent update was in 2007 so we should be pretty easy to tell apart.

Our wave logos do look similar, but there are only so many ways to draw a wave, right?:

Tidal vs. Tidal Labs (us)

Tidal presenting at Flavorpill's Startupfix next Wednesday

thingsworthdescribing — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:24:50 -0400

Next Wednesday at Culturefix, Tidal is presenting as part of Flavorpill’s monthly tech meet-up, Startupfix. We’ll be giving a sneak-peek of a couple of our new features, so stop by and check it out!

When: next Wednesday, June 20th from 7:30-9:30pm

Where: CULTUREfix, 9 Clinton St., NYC

It’s $10 for admission but that includes two drinks. You can see more details, plus an attendee list on Eventbrite. See you there!

Tidal featured on the Rackspace Blog & Newsroom!

thingsworthdescribing — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:38:00 -0400

Last week we were lucky enough to be featured on Rackspace’s Blog & Newsroom.

They gave an overview of what Tidal is all about - amplifying the most passionate voices we can find in the blogosphere - plus a couple of great quotes from Matt.

We use Rackspace’s Startup Program as our cloud host, and they give us plenty of space for millions of outfit posts from our favorite fashion bloggers, with enough room left over to find the best bloggers in every other sphere we can think of.

Rackspace honed in on our cost efficiency, while highlighting our unique ability to offer 10 times the editorial-quality content for ⅕ the cost of an editor. Something that would have never been possible without our amazing bloggers! The more attention Tidal gets, the more attention we can shine on all your beautiful posts!

Tidal team lunch last Friday! (minus co-founder Burak who took...

thingsworthdescribing — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:35:44 -0400

Tidal team lunch last Friday!

(minus co-founder Burak who took the photo)

Left to right: Lindsey, Matt (other founder), Chubi, Keenan

Betabeat: Blogger Syndication Network Tid.al Opens Self-Serve Platform in Beta

mattmyers — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:09:16 -0500

Betabeat caught wind that we’re opening our public beta to the world. We have deep coverage in fashion, food, tech, home, music and are a great way to add content, community and traffic to publisher sites, ecommerce, startups, non profits, apps and more. Reach out to matt (at) tid.al if you’re interested!

Blogger Syndication Network Tid.al Opens Self-Serve Platform in Beta by Adrianne Jeffries

New York-based content syndication networkTidal is promising it will have a ton of announcements in January, but here is the first: after almost a year in beta with partner Condé Nast, the startup is opening up its self-serve platform to the public. “This will allow online stores, non-profits, startups or most any company to easily add a crowdsourced topical blog,” the startup announced in an email today. “This is a great way to engage the Tidal community, and your biggest fans, to bring content and traffic to your website. Our self-serve platform will start at just a few hundred dollars a month, and if you join the beta program we can give you January and February free while we work out the kinks.”

Tidal is a marketplace where advertisers and publishers can comparison shop for blog posts to fill content holes and increase their cachet with special audiences. Mashable helpfully sums up the idea as “Unlimited content for publishers, exposure for bloggers.” Most writers on Tidal already have their own established blogs; they list themselves in the directory and submit information about their influence and traction. Publishers pay a monthly fee to get blog posts recommended to them and accompanied by social and traffic metrics to help them decide what to syndicate. If a publisher sees a post they like, they can syndicate it immediately.

Bloggers are remunerated in exposure, in theory, and Tidal emphasizes this on its splash page with view counts for posts.

The startup is also announcing a partnership with BobVila.com, a home improvement guru who has already established a small empire of home design, renovation and architecture bloggers on Bob Vila Nation.

Tidal Launch Party

tumblewithmythumble — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:55:53 -0500

We’re finally digging out from all the excitement of our launch last month. I wanted to share some news and pics from the party.

One of our contributors was in attendance, taking some pics and checking out the scene. Nicole (aka The Owl Girl) is a New York fashion blogger that was able to stop by. Check out some of her great pics!

The party was a smashing success with a great group of Tidal clients, friends and well-wishers. Special thanks to David Jones and who provided the delicious Chairman’s Reserve St. Lucia rum that night. Although our advisor, Bernie, probably shouldn’t have goaded us into end of the night shots. Also big thanks to our bartender extraordinaire, Kat Bridges.

In addition to our recent article in Mashable, we received some great coverage on the Tidal platform from Josh Constine at TechCrunch. Needless to say the exposure from these articles has kept us quite busy with incoming calls, stay tuned for some big developments in the coming days!

Bob Vila Nation

mattmyers — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 19:04:04 -0500

Bob Vila is the biggest name in home building, renovation and improvement. Bob learned building alongside his father and has spent his life helping teach others through thousands of TV episodes, a dozen books and now online. He truly is the dean of home repair.

Bob turned to Tidal when it was time to expand bobvila.com across the country. Bob Vila Nation features posts by hundreds of “housebloggers” renovating their own homes in small towns and big cities. At any time home renovators are refinishing woodwork, searching for the perfect paint, finishing a basement or dealing with finicky radiators. All the while they are sharing their tips, tricks, triumphs and trials with Bob Vila readers following along.

“As the most respected and well-known brand in the category, Bob Vila Nation creates a showcase where passionate and committed DIYers can share, learn, compare and show-off their home improvement projects… and grow their own audiences and fans, too.”

-Larry Bilotti, Executive Editor, Bob Vila

We’re excited to work with the Bob Vila team. Restoring old houses has a special place in Matt’s heart. He has a 1903 8-bedroom victorian in Philly that he continues to work on. He’re hoping he’ll get to meet Bob sometime!

Mashable: Tidal, the Startup That Gets Big Exposure for Blog Posts

mattmyers — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:59:00 -0500

The day after launching tid.al, Sarah Kessler of Mashable posted a comprehensive report on the launch, and how Tidal works.

A few choice quotes:

“Genius Idea: Unlimited content for publishers, exposure for bloggers.”

“Tidal seems like a no-brainer for such publishers. Instead of paying for each piece of content from a source such as Demand Media or Contently, they pay a monthly fee for access to as much content as they want.”

We think this is some great coverage of where we are today. Stay tuned for more on where we’re going.

Launch of tid.al

mattmyers — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:25:48 -0500

We’re excited to announce the launch of tid.al. Tidal is the best way for passionate bloggers to grow their following. We find the best posts by foodies, fashionistas, home remodelers, and all those talking about what engages them.

The best bloggers today (both professional and amateur) create content as good as that seen in the pages of glossy magazines. They pride themselves on their writing and photography and are always working to improve. They create editorial calendars and build a brand around themselves. Big companies have taken notice.

“All media lines are blurred. Great content for the consumer- brand, media and social- when curated and channeled together is a great experience.” says Paul Caine, SVP at Time Inc.

We’re working to identify what is editorial-quality amongst all the content that is being posted by thousands of bloggers. Then we syndicate it to top publishers and brands.

We’ve been working under the radar with Condé Nast, quietly powering the Teen Vogue Fashion Click and learning what makes great community and great content. Now we’re taking our platform to the street. Tidal allows any business to leverage the best content from those most excited and engaged online. The first clients of this new platform are our friends at Zagat (well, now GoogleZagat), and Bob Vila.

Stay tuned for plenty more announcements— we’re just at the tip of the iceberg.

First Growth Venture Network

mattmyers — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:53:09 -0400

Today wat the kickoff of the fourth “vintage” of the First Growth Venture Network. This group helps to connect top startups with venture funding. Tidal was chosen from tons of applicants and we’re in good company with First Growth alums like Birchbox, ChallengePost and 20x200.

It was a great session getting to know the other companies, getting some initial feedback on our pitches, and getting the scoop from some of the top investors out there.

Aileen Lee of Kleiner Perkins and Joe Apprendi, founder of Collective Media and a partner at Revel Partners talked a bit the gap between <$2 million dollar seed rounds and larger A and B rounds. Seed funding has become easier but it has also made the bar higher for later rounds, where there isn’t necessarily more money. It’s the superstars that break out of the pack and have an easy time getting those larger rounds.

There were also some great discussions on the goals of early PR (align it to business goals) and remote teams (unless they’ve worked together before try your best to skip them).

It was a great, big day. Check out the TechCrunch writeup announcing this year’s class.

Here’s Kat Bridges, printing some epic letterpress invites...

mattmyers — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:32:02 -0400

Here’s Kat Bridges, printing some epic letterpress invites for our big launch party. The design was by our own Sven Kils.

The Tid.al launch party is in just two weeks- get your RSVPs in now! tid.al/launchparty

A pretty new office

mattmyers — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0400

We believe in the convergence of public relations, advertising and media. Luckily we have some great partners that do too. We’re crashing with the amazing team at Affect, one of Silicon Alley’s leading B2B tech PR firms. We’re excited to be here and will be having a shindig in the next few weeks to showoff our digs. You’ll just have to wait to see it then!