Well, here I am. Your new lord and master. Yet despite my mighty power, I can’t figure out how to add a profile picture to my blog account!

Anyway, I am happy to have the opportunity to take over Featured Users. After working on Featured Users with Dusty for the last couple years, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to get hold of it and make it even better than it is.

Feel free to contact me through the site, on the publishers group, Twitter, or however you want. My Twitter account is enperkins and my email info is up on the contact page of Featured Users.

I hope to make this thing explode (in a good way. no bombs.) and provide the best performance possible for sponsors and publishers alike. Look for more updates and big plan announcements on this blog.

It’s my great pleasure to announce that FeaturedUsers.com has been acquired by Trey Perkins of N2 Neuron! Trey and I met at Conjunctured as coworkers back in 2008. At the time Trey was doing PHP work on the side and helped me a lot with Featured Users. Due to his early involvement with Featured Users he knows the code inside and out, and fully grasps the business model. I was thrilled when Trey told me he was interested in purchasing Featured Users. I couldn’t think of a better successor.

It does my heart much good to see Featured Users live on in Trey’s capable hands. I’ll continue to be involved with Featured Users in the capacity of a network publisher with my Twitter app Friend or Follow.

So, this is Dusty signing off. I’ll see y’all on Twitter and in the Publisher Google Group.

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from Sara Stewart, a slightly bonkers (but mostly very sane and bright) marketing and PR professional living in the UK. She is also in the process of kicking cancer’s butt. You can follow her on Twitter at @twowitwowoo.

Sara Stewart

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Sara Stewart and I am the managing director of a rather quirky, slightly eccentric and, some would say, bonkers PR and social media marketing company in the UK. I am also fighting breast cancer at the moment and just coming to the end of seven months of chemo. Hurrah.

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

I first set up @twowitwowoo in spring 2009 but didn’t really understand its magic until my breast cancer diagnosis. When I first tweeted about my disease, I was amazed at the number of other survivors and campaigners that found me. The ‘Twisters’ – most of them being breast cancer survivors – have become good friends and have supported me throughout my treatment. The friendship has extended to emails – many of them are American and I plan to visit them on a road trip later this year. But I’ve also met lots of other lovely people who’ve continued to send wonderful, supportive messages. As for business, it’s doubled our website hits and brought in new work. I love Twitter! I think anyone who dismisses it just hasn’t got their head around it yet.

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

We’re all living the rural idyll in the heart of England in countryside that inspired the likes of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and the music of Elgar. I love it – watching the seasons change. Right now everything is so frothy and vibrant with everything coming into bloom.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

Happiness! Silly one-liners first thing in the morning that make people smile and put them in a good mood for the day.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

I’ve just discovered gardening and have fallen in love with my greenhouse and vegetable patch. Before breast cancer, I loved walking on the Malvern Hills and going to the gym. Walking to the post box right now is like climbing Everest so I’m looking forward to getting my level of fitness back

Thanks Sara!

As a special treat (and because I’m willing to bet that most of you have never heard of Elgar), here’s a video of Yo-Yo Ma playing an Elgar Cello Concerto. Enjoy!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from Janis Krums, a Twitter enthusiast and entrepreneur, most well known for taking the famous photo of the “Miracle on the Hudson.” You can follow him on Twitter at @jkrums.

Janis Krums

Tell us about yourself.

I’m an entrepreneur originally from Latvia. I am the co-founder of Elementz Nutrition and Inbox Alarm. I also consult with businesses and individuals on social media and have recently invested into AIT Bridges.

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

I first signed up to Twitter about 2 years ago, I didn’t find anyone who I knew on there so I abandoned it for a while. Then about 4 months later I was exploring social media for business uses. I began posting daily updates and slowly building a network.

The Miracle on the Hudson

On January 15th, I took a photo of the Miracle on the Hudson. I tweeted it and the photo spread across the world within minutes. This brought me a lot of attention and my network of followers grew from 170 to over 6,000. Since then I’ve become an avid social media enthusiast.

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I live in Sarasota, FL. The beaches are incredible here and I like to go stand-up paddle boarding in the bay. It’s a great way to get away from everything and enjoy the beautiful nature around me.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

I like to share things that I find interesting and I learn something from. Most of the time my updates are about technology, business, social media, basketball, fitness, and anything random that I find interesting and want to share with my followers. I try to provide value to my followers and don’t want to waste their time by not giving them the best content.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

I’m a huge basketball fan so I love to play any chance I get or to watch the NBA, especially the LA Lakers. I also like to to get on the water with my stand-up paddle board. Besides that I read a lot and enjoy staying active by doing a variety of different workouts from yoga to biking to crossfit.

Thank you, Janis!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from Colin Vincent, a California native and iPhone photography enthusiast. You can follow him on Twitter at @colinvincent.

Colin Vincent

Tell us about yourself.

I am a Berkeley, California born professional photographer and enthusiastic iPhoneographer. When I was 10 my father gave me a camera and told me to shoot the whole roll in the day and spend time looking at the pictures. Since then I haven’t been able to put the camera down, especially with the advent of the iPhone. I love to travel, surf, snowboard, spend time with friends, eat good food, drink good wine and laugh until it hurts.

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

I joined Twitter a long time ago and never did anything with it. Most people I know post the stuff I want to see on Facebook. However, when my interest in iPhoneography took off, I started posting my images on TwitPic, gaining traffic, and realized I wanted to be in touch with people I didn’t know yet. So recently I started networking on Twitter a lot more, joining Twibes and following people who share an interest in iPhoneography. As a result, my website for iPhone photography, iPhoneography.org, is now on the first page Google results for “iPhoneography.” It’s awesome!

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I live in the hills of Oakland, CA. My favorite thing about living in the Bay Area is the music scene. If you like to party and dance to progressive music, San Francisco is your spot.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

I most enjoy sharing my images and knowledge of iPhoneography.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

Make pictures! duh…

Colin and his iPhone

Thanks so much, Colin!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from FASHIFY.com, an online fashion magazine founded by Aristotle Olay. You can follow them on Twitter at @Fashify.

Fashify's Aristotle Olay

Tell us about yourself.

FASHIFY is an online fashion magazine based in Miami and Atlanta, founded by Aristotle Olay in 2007. We’re a team of of photographers, bloggers, models and designers working collectively to produce photoshoots, cover fashion events, and provide exposure for talented professionals in the fashion industry.

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

We created our Twitter account on September 5, 2009. One of our email subscribers invited us to join. It was a foreign experience at first. I mean it was so different from Facebook and MySpace… Twitter was actually simple to use. Growing our Twitter fan base was tough at first, we had to learn the proper Twetiquette: follow others so they will follow us and @mention others relevant to our Twitdiscussions. Since then, our Twitter experience has evolved, and we now have a dedicated fan base of followers who we interact with daily to get the word out about our news and events, and to learn what experiences are taking place in their lives.

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

We used to work in Atlanta, but moved to Miami Beach in 2009. Our main office is located in Bal Harbour Florida. We love our location. It’s an affluent part of town. We’re close to the beach, public transportation, and many of the model, and photographers we work with like that we’re close to the water for on-location shoots.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

We’re most excited to share opportunities and news to up-and-coming models, photographers, and fashion professionals. We find that a lot of models love receiving alerts to new casting calls, and many of our clients like the fact that we promote their products and ads on Twitter in a non-obtrusive way.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

When we’re not online, we’re usually at the photo studio working with new talent. Our favorite thing to do is photography. It allows us to do our second favorite thing, which is to make people look great.

Thanks so much, Aristotle and FASHIFY!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from Jonathan Hersh. Jonathan is a sales engineer for Salesforce, a developer, a designer, and a blogger. He can be found on Twitter as @jhersh.

Jonathan Hersh

Tell us about yourself.

I grew up in New Jersey and majored in Advanced Sarcasm Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, then tricked them into also awarding me undergraduate and graduate degrees in Information Systems.

I’m passionate about how people can use technology to communicate better. By day I’m a sales engineer at salesforce.com, by night my masked alter-ego takes over – I build things that people click on!

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

I don’t recall exactly when I joined, but radiocarbon dating puts it on June 3, 2007 at 10:08pm. I don’t think I had any idea at the time what Twitter was used for, and my account sat dormant for two years.

Since then I’ve come to realize that Twitter is an incredibly powerful platform for connecting with people, brands, and cats, the likes of which we’ve never seen before (the platform, not the cats). Remember that Twitter has its roots in SMS, itself an equally disruptive communication technology.

Twitter is great in that it can be your own personalized feed about any subjects you like, but it’s revolutionary in that it gives everyone access to a viral network of retweets, geotagging, and the social graph (the map of relationships between users). Its value in business and personal networking is immense, much more so than anything in this world except good old-fashioned meatspace meet-ups.

My crystal ball is in the shop for repairs, but I don’t anticipate our phones, computers, and social networks even 3-5 years from now will remotely resemble those we have today. The rate of technological advancement is increasing at a staggering rate. It’s a phenomenal time in the history of homo sapiens to be alive.

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I moved to San Francisco about 19 months ago.

I’ve found San Francisco to be remarkably resistant to categorization, so I’ve been piecing it together gradually, in fits and starts, like a jigsaw puzzle after you lost the cover of the box. It’s a city where all kinds of crazy ideas can find support, it’s as close to a global technology capital as there is, and its weather makes absolutely no sense. I love that there’s lots of live music, an incredibly broad spectrum of eateries, and so many dynamic, thriving neighborhoods to discover. I imagine I’ll be exploring this town for a long time to come.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

140 characters isn’t a lot of space, so I don’t want to waste your time on Twitter. I tweet about my passions: technology, the Interwebs, philosophy and the ethics of the digital era, peculiarities of San Francisco, and YOU…wait, what was the question?

One of my 2010 resolutions was to start blogging. There are some things that require more than 140 characters!

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

I’ve recently taking up motorcycling. It’s a learning process that hasn’t always gone smoothly, but it’s great fun regardless. San Francisco and the greater bay area is some of the most beautiful, panoramic scenery in this country. Any time you spend exploring the outdoors here, whether it’s riding, climbing, hiking, or driving, is time well spent indeed.

Thanks Jonathan! Good luck with all your ventures and adventures, and please be careful on that bike!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from James Campbell. James is a photographer and web developer living in Washington, DC, with a slew of interesting and creative web projects. He can be found on Twitter as @jamescampbell.

James Campbell

Tell us about yourself.

I am a Washington, DC area freelance photographer and web developer with far ranging interests from iPhone app development and Arduino-controlled gadgetry to music recording. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, I moved to Washington in 1999 to attend the Catholic University of America’s School of Architecture and I’ve been on the move ever since, traveling all over the USA, including two years in Monterey, California, interpreting my experiences through my words, artwork, photography, and music.

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

It’s funny, I have been on Twitter in some shape or form since April 19th, 2007. Back then, I was using clipmarks, StumbleUpon, and a service called Utterz along with Twitter. When I started on Twitter, I used the moniker @constantskeptic, which is still active today. The account was originally tied to my old website/blog, which I finally cut all ties with this past year. Using the @constantskeptic account and batboy avatar, I posted skeptical thoughts about current affairs and things like UFOs and Big Foot.

I didn’t like hiding behind a character that wasn’t me. Sometime in early 2008 I realized I should create a real brand with my real name so that people could put a face to my name and words, which would hopefully build trust and a tribe with those who shared my interests. From 2008 on, Twitter morphed into more of a living search engine for me. I started using Twitter like a living, breathing Wikipedia of people who are all experts in something and eager to share their knowledge. And the best thing about that is I am an active participant in that knowledge base as well. I respond to every single topic that I know something about, whether it is something mundane like cable service or something philosophical like the meaning of life, I can step into the stream and participate whenever I want.

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I currently live in Washington DC. I hate the traffic on 495 but I love everything else. The short tall foreign-looking alleys of Chinatown. The National Mall and Smithsonian, which provide endless picturesque captures through my viewfinder. The silence of the Tidal Basin. Eastern Market’s fresh produce and flea market every weekend. The convenience of the Metro, even if the service is sometimes sub-par. The funny tourists and wanna be hipsters hanging around Union Station looking for answers. The serendipity of walking down the street with your camera in hand and knowing that you will find something interesting to photograph and share with the outside world.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

I try to post the type of messages that I love receiving, which are links to great new content that is out there, wonderful photos, or the latest technology that’s really helping me organize (like Evernote) and live my life easier and fuller than ever before. I also throw in links to my latest photos on my various photo project sites: iPhone 3gs photo a day project, black and white photos project, and of course my Flickr stream, mainly because I love the feedback and suggestions I receive. I also have projects in the works like You’re Never Too Old For Crayons, which lets anyone send in crayon drawings via a group email address and they get automatically posted on the site for feedback and discussion, and Sketch A Day, which is going to be 365 days of pencil/ink sketches that anyone can critique.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

More and more I am finding that I need to unplug from my MacBook Pro and go mobile with just my iPhone 3gs and Nikon D90. I love hiking, mountain biking, camping, and going on road trips to strange places during the warm months of the year, and snowboarding is my passion in the winter. I try to make at least one trip to Lake Tahoe every season. I also do more normal things like watch Coen Bros movies (The Big Lebowski is one of my favorites) or the latest indie flick at the Landmark in Bethesda or the AFI in Silver Spring.

Thanks, James!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from Aliza Sherman. Aliza is the original Cybergrrl, and by her own description, holds many other job titles as well. She is a web pioneer and a Twitter powerhouse, and can be found on Twitter as @alizasherman. She lives in the wilds of Alaska.

Aliza Sherman

Tell us about yourself.

I’ve been called a Web pioneer for my early work on the Web in the 90s helping empower women via the Internet. I founded Cybergrrl, Inc., the first woman-owned, full-service Internet company and Webgrrls International, the first hybrid online/offline women’s organization. I call myself a writer or speaker or blogger or podcaster or consultant or wife or mom, depending on the day and moment. I’ve published 7 books and working on my 8th. I love being creative, and I love my work.

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

I first got onto Twitter around the first time I got into Second Life so that was March 2007. At first, I thought Twitter was ludicrous – who cared what everyone was doing and thinking and saying all the time? Then I dove into the Twitterstream and found my community, my kindred spirits. Twitter has totally changed the way I communicate, in mostly good ways, I think. Although I do sometimes dream in tweets!

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I’m based in Tok, Alaska at the crossroads of the Alaska Highway, about 90 miles from the Canadian border. I like the fact that during the summertime, my little girl can walk out our front door, cross a long green lawn, and go play in her sandbox without any of the usual dangers of living in other parts of the country. OK, there are unusual dangers like moose in the yard, but otherwise I feel she gets to be exposed to nature at a young age which is a really good thing.

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

I love sharing both my professional and my personal sides. On the professional side, I love sharing what I’m thinking about social media and reading about social media. Personally, I love sharing moments of my life in Alaska, my travels, my life in Tok, my adventures being a mom to a precocious 3 year old daughter and being married to a wildlife biologist.

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

Remind me again when I’m not online? Oh, yes, right, when I’m spending time with my family camping in our trailer in the summertime in Alaska. I’ve enjoyed learning to ride an ATV. I enjoy cooking for my family which is a big challenge for me because I seem to have recipe dyslexia so I mostly experiment in the kitchen. I love traveling. I love meeting people who I’ve met online (Twitter, Second Life) in person. I’m in a good place now. I just love my life.

Thank you so much, Aliza!

Each Friday, in honor of the #FollowFriday tradition on Twitter, we will be featuring one of our own Featured Users on the blog.

Today we hear from Chanel Ward.  Chanel is a prolific blogger, designer, Saints fan and fashion maven living in Louisiana. She can be found on Twitter as @hipcandy.

Chanel Ward

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Chanel Ward, I am a blogger, desktop publisher and designer. I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles in 1999 where “Project Runway” is currently filmed, started my desktop publishing business in 2000 and started the Hip Candy blog in 2006. Now in addition to Hip Candy, I also pen Michelle O. Style, Cute Dresses and Hip Trip Advisor. I just recently celebrated my 14th wedding anniversary on Dec. 2nd. No kids yet

How (and when) did you first come to be on Twitter, and how has the experience evolved for you?

I remember when I first heard of Twitter wondering what it was and how it worked. And I have to admit, when I first jumped on back on August 8, 2008 I didn’t really know what to do with it or how to channel it. I started to gain a better understanding of how Twitter works by watching how other people were using Twitter.

Where are you located? What’s your favorite thing about where you live?

I live in South Louisiana, so my favorite thing about where I live is probably the fabulous Cajun food that’s native to this region. You can find good food almost anywhere here. I mean where else can you get a delicious, AUTHENTIC sausage and chicken jambalaya, seafood gumbo or a fried oyster poboy with all the fixin’s?! That, and the fact that my New Orleans Saints are currently 11-0 at the time of this interview… Go SAINTS!

What are you most excited about sharing with your followers?

I’m most excited to tell my followers that I’m working on a small collection of cute, simple but stylish, handmade dresses that will soon be available in my etsy store online!

What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not online?

My favorite thing to do when I’m not online is probably designing, traveling, exploring new places and spending time with my family.

Thanks Chanel, and good luck with all your ventures!