1. LinkedIn to End Its Q&A

On Jan. 31, LinkedIn will yank its questions-and-answers feature, much to the dismay of experts who have been using it to answer questions, rack up "Best Answer" designations and flaunt their knowledge.

I suspect not as many people were using it as LinkedIn had hoped and that Quora, the giant Q&A site, had robbed LinkedIn questions of lots of attention.

So now what?

Alternatives include Google+ communities, industry Twitter chats, wikis, LinkedIn Groups, niche Facebook groups, and many more. Read about all of them here:

At Donna Serdula's blog.

At Arik Hanson's blog

In the post Kent Lewis wrote for the Business2Community blog.

My two personal favorites are Quora.com and LinkedIn Groups.

You can order the video replay of the webinar I hosted with Wayne Breitbarth and learn advanced LinkedIn strategies for writing a killer profile, cashing in on Groups and creating Company Pages.

2. More Typing Tricks

My thanks to two Publicity Hounds who read my recommendation for Shortkeys, in Saturday's newsletter, and offered more tips you'll find helpful.

Shortkeys is an inexpensive text replacement utility that lets you insert blocks of text into other applications like your email program, or Microsoft Word, by simply typing a few keystrokes. I use it when someone asks for my bio, and when I don't want to type my long email address.

Publicity Hound Jason Womack created a very helpful video that explains an iPhone shortcut you can use to avoid typing when someone emails you with a request for information. It's similar to Shortkeys. You can find the video here

Publicity Hound Mark Viergutz says "Don't forget about us Mac users."

He suggests FastFox Text Expander, an alternate version of Shortkeys, for either Windows or Mac. But beware of the "extras" they ask you to download along with the program. After it downloads, you can watch a helpful video tutorial.

These tools are perfect if you find yourself typing the same things over and over again like your address, answers to frequently asked questions, or a URL at your website.

3. Save the Date 

Webinar you won't want to miss:

--Thursday, Jan. 31, at 4 p.m. Eastern Time "How to Use Powerful Pinterest Contests to Grow Your Audience and Explode Your Profits." I'm hosting this one, with guest expert Beth Hayden who will explain how to finally start making money from all those pretty pictures. Stay tuned for sign-up information.

4. Hound Video of the Week

Thanks to Publicity Hound Christel Hall of Minden, Nev., for this video of a dog at the park, trying to persuade a statue sitting on a bench to throw a stick.

Dog Jokes & Quotes Ebook: 170+ G-rated dog jokes and quotes, perfect for a dog-lover, your favorite vet, or just for a few good laughs:

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