If you have missed a chance to delete any valuable information before selling your old computer or laptop, anyone could use your information to steal your identity. Hundreds of hackers are sitting on the other side of your computer table and keep waiting for your one wrong move. The more aware you are, the less are the chances of being victim of identity theft.
Here is the infographic that lets you know about the ways of preventing yourself from identity theft.
Looking for the awesome Twitter Archive Eraser?
Twitter Archive Eraser allows you to automatically delete tweets in bulk from your timeline, or erase your whole twitter archive if you would like so.
Several tools exist to help you delete your old tweets but, most of them do not work properly, if at all, due to Twitter API’s limitations. Twitter imposes a limit of 3200 tweets (the more recent ones that is) that an application can access.
Twitter enabled the option for users to download their whole archive of tweets, which contains among other things the IDs of all the tweets of a user: the exact piece of information that can be used to erase tweet.
Thus, a simple application called “Twitter Archive Eraser” developed by Martani Fakhrou that helps you delete the oldest tweets from your timeline, or erase the whole archive too if you would like so.
Download and setup the Twitter Archive Eraser app by visiting the link given below:
There is two kinds of download app available:
The application is the simplest possible, it works in 3 steps: authenticate Twitter; select which tweets you want to delete; erase them.
In this step, you give Twitter Archive Eraser access to your twitter account so that it can delete the tweets you select. This works by providing a PIN number that twitter provides after the authentication.
Note: You need to accept sharing several statistics to use Twitter Archive Eraser.
After you download your Twitter archive (from https://twitter.com/settings/account) and you can load it directly as a zip file into Twitter Archive Eraser.
You can select which period of time you want to delete tweets from (grouped by month).
Once you have selected the months, you are now presented with all the tweets in this period of time. By default, all the tweets are marked for deletion, if you want to keep any specific tweets, just uncheck them as shown in the following picture.
You can use regular expressions to filter specific tweets to check/uncheck them (you can click the “Erase?” checkbox on top to check uncheck all the filtered tweets).
You can also choose the degree of parallelism you want: that is how many tweets Twitter Archive Eraser deletes at a time: the more the better. Notice however that this parameter is limited by your network speed.
You can pause/resume the deletion process and check/uncheck tweets in between.
Use the following filtering expressions (without quotes “”) to search for:
“^RT”
“^@\w+”
“^@martani_net”
“@\w+”
“@martani_net”
“\d{4}”
“hello”
You can find the code of the application on github: https://github.com/martani/Twitter-Archive-Eraser. Developer mentions that all the Twitter logic is done using the excellent LinqToTwitter library.
Sadly, this app works only with Windows OS and yet developer is not further planning to develop this app for any other OS like Mac or linux. But don’t worry you can use apps like VMware or VirtualBox to switch to Windows and use the Windows apps.
All over the internet there are thousands of blogs devoted to fashion, beauty, lifestyle and everything in between. The message is clear — there’s never been a better time to be a blogger.
But what makes a blog stand out from the pack? We have the inside scoop to help take your blog to the next level, from the people who know the best — other bloggers.
Be consistent. A posting schedule will help your readers know when to check your blog. More than half of bloggers [surveyed] post on a weekly basis, 10.3 hours per week average time spent blogging.
One post you’re passionate about is worth a dozen that don’t matter. Your content is the heart of what you do so take the time to make it special — even simple ideas can be memorable when you add your own perspective. Remember: inspiration is everywhere when you know where to look. In the world of blogging 64% are inspired by daily life, 16% are inspired by magazines/websites and 20% are inspired by seasonal trends.
Instead of just reviewing a new trend, show how you would wear it. Putting your own spin on something can help your content stand out — especially when other blogger cover the same thing.
Inspiration can strike anywhere. Carry a notebook with you on the go to write down any ideas that come to you — perfect for dry spells!
Use pictures to help tell your story. Got a smartphone? 60% of bloggers use their smartphone cameras to take photos.
Taking great pictures is not all about fancy equipment. Smart editing, thoughtful composition and good old fashioned daylight can help make your photos look more professional when you’re first starting out.
Getting to know your readers and other like-minded bloggers will help your blog start to grow.
Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there — connecting with others makes the process all the more rewarding.
Best social network to connect with blog readers..... Twitter 43%, Facebook 30%, Instagram 23% and Google+ 3%.
A fun way to drum up interest or thank your readers is by hosting a giveaway of some of your favourite things.
Chances are your readers are just as savvy as you are. Why not let them help you decide how to wear a trend or offer ideas for new posts?
A causal meet up is a great to meet readers and other bloggers. Plan something around an industry event or better yet, host a picnic in the park!
Based on an independent survey of fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers.
Mostly, all the PC users are aware of the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) operating system (OS) architecture versions of existence, but they hardly pay attention towards the difference between the two. Keeping the bigger-is-better philosophy aside, sometimes you might consider that which OS version you should actually install and how it will be affecting the performance of your PC? Some tech geeks may recommend that you should you use a 64-bit version of Windows, but here comes a big question — why? According to some researchers and PC experts, the 64-bit version is more efficient and rates higher on performance over than the less capable 32-bit version.
The terms 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) refer to the way a computer’s processor (also called a CPU), handles information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system.
In this article, you’ll read about various aspects of 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions of Windows with a conclusion to draw a clear picture about which one you should install and why?
To check out that which version of Windows you are currently running on, all you need to do is reach the ‘System Properties’ in ‘Control Panel.’ You can also right-click on ‘My Computer’ icon, and choose ‘Properties’ from the drop-down menu. Always remember that in order to make your system run on a 64-bit OS version, your CPU must support the same. PCs running on a modern CPU should be fine, but some of the budget PCs don’t include/support for a 64-bit processor.
Since the 32-bit operating system doesn’t support more than 4096 MB of RAM, the memory is limited to that value only. If you’re running on a 32-bit system, each running process will be given not more than 4 GB of virtual memory to play with, out of which 2 GB of user space is already fixed. Apart from this, your video card and motherboard BIOS will also take some place in that same 4 GB space, which makes your system slow and lagging. According to tech experts, the modern chips support PAE, a processor technology to permit OS to use a little bit more memory. But, it also requires special application support that needs to be installed on the system.
It’s a myth that only Windows-specific users will face this issue however, the fact is 32-bit Linux and Mac OS X users also have the same limitations and the same workarounds. To prove the same, experts tested the 32-bit Linux that comes with a facility of mapping table to access the extra memory. Apple’s OS X Snow Leopard is shipped with a 32-bit kernel, by default, and can’t access all the memory.
Packed with super-performance features, a 64-bit OS version provides access to 17.2 billion GB of the system’s memory. This clearly means no matter how heavy your video cards and other devices will be, it will neither steal the usable memory space not it will impact the performance of the device. Windows 64-bit Home editions can only have up to 16 GB of RAM, but the Professional and Ultimate editions enjoy the liberty to use up to 192 GB of RAM.
Giving importance to the per-process limit, Windows 64-bit version has offered each application the ability to access up to 8 TB of virtual memory without adding any special API or installing any software. Therefore, users can easily choose this OS architecture version for performing various heavy tasks such as video editing, running heavy application with graphics, or creating systems into virtual machines.
Windows 64-bit versions are more secure and user-protected as they come with a technology that restricts hijacking the kernel, and provides support for data execution protection (hardware-enabled).
Fortunately, you will find that all your 32-bit applications work just fine on 64-bit Windows version. Since, 64-bit version includes WoW64 compatibility layer, the entire system switches the processor back and forth between 32-bit and 64-bit modes to access the thread that requires to be executed. This back and forth switching of the processor makes a 32-bit software run smoothly on the 64-bit environment. Nothing comes without exceptions in this world and so does the OS architectural versions. The 32-bit device drivers and low-level system applications may not work without a 64-bit equivalent.
If your budget is not a concern and you’re ordering a new PC with more than 4 GB of RAM, then you should go for a 64-bit version of Windows. Since the version supports a lot of features and performance enhancements, opting for 32-bit version will be a biggest mistake that you can ever make. Buying a 64-bit version will make you use all of the available memory and let you install large video cards and other devices without impacting the performance of the device. You should always remember that Windows Home editions can only support RAM up to 16 GB hence, if you wish to go for more then buy Professional or Ultimate Windows editions.
After Twitter, the social media giant Facebook has adopted Hashtags. Most people, especially business owners, are particularly excited as well as confused about the proper usage of this new Facebook feature. You too can easily get carried away, and #start #overusing #or #misusing #hashtags. So to make sure that you do not get carried away like this here is an end to end guide for the proper usage of Facebook hashtags.
In simple words, adding hashtag before a word or phrase (without spaces) makes it clickable in your status. Consider the status, “It’s one of my #writingQuirks.” Now if you click on #writingQuirks, Facebook will show you all the posts that used the hashtag #writingQuirks and therefore you will have all the related posts to browse through. It’s worth noting that post marked as private won’t show up in the search results. You can also bookmark hashtags to keep an eye on interesting topics.
There are literally billions of posts on Facebook daily. So how to you plan to get your target customer's attention when you can’t even reach them? With so much competition, even a slight change in your content strategy can give you a huge edge over others.
When you add a hashtag to your posts, you make your post visible to all users who are searching for that subject even when they aren’t directly connected to your page. Now you have a completely new audience that you can target easily. In addition they are interested in your topic as they have searched for it.
Moreover, you can search for topics relevant to your business and provide your expert suggestions in conversations or as comments. This is easy marketing to gain more customers. Hashtags can lower the effort required to search for new audience that can be potential leads.
Creating unique hashtags for your Facebook page can help you amplify your promotion process. Face the reality no one would want to share a long post solely promoting your product. You can break down your product information into several smaller easy to share posts marked with the same hashtag. This ensures that your information is shared in larger numbers and is still filed under a common tag.
The most fascinating feature of Facebook hashtags is that it feeds you results not only from Facebook but from Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn as well. So you can market your ideas across several social media platforms, still all your posts will be linked together. So even if you post an update on Google+, you can get responses from Facebook or Twitter. Isn’t it amazing?
To sum it all, hashtags, if used correctly, can be really profitable to your marketing strategy. So make use of this cross platform feature to market your brand and see the difference.
A great score. It’ll take more than traditional studying to achieve. You’ll need guts, perseverance, and … bacon?
Yes, bacon. Or sugar. Or clairvoyance or a kitchen timer or a cute panda video.
These 18 unexpected tips can boost your test prep whether you have a month, a day, or 15 minutes left until your test. They’ll make it easier remain calm, focused, confident, and organized. Plus, they’ll help ensure that your mind and body are in top shape for the challenge that lies ahead.
How can you access blocked sites and cross web filters? Many people deal with controlled access to specific websites. This happens especially in some countries where Internet censorship is applied and people’s access to specific websites is restricted. Also, these days more and more institutions, schools and companies are implementing this type of software on their computers. But Internet filtering is not a problem because there are many tools and methods that enable you to bypass filters and to unblock websites.
Many work places and schools are cracking down on the web sites and online services. Blocking access to social sites has been a common tactic. The most common websites that are blocked in schools include MySpace, Bebo and Facebook. There are however always legitimate reasons to bypass the internet filters and visit the blocked websites.
The following methods will help you access blocked websites in school, college or your company.
Using a web proxy to bypass restrictions. Proxies that focus on website browsing are called web proxies. A web proxy works by acting as a “middle man”: it downloads the requested pages to its proxy server and in turn you download the page, all images and other such objects from the proxy server to your browser, thus bypassing any filters and annoying firewalls.
One of the most popular methods is using a web proxy. An anonymous proxy server is an intermediate between your computer and the server you are requesting the information. Although this is an easy way it’s not the safest one. Even if the server does not have your information, the intermediate has it so you are not completely anonymous. The advantage of this method is that there are many free web proxies available over the Internet.
The most known resource for web proxies is Proxy.org. The list contains proxies all over the world, it’s periodically updated and provides link to specific web proxies in a random order. Due to the fact that the proxies are listed randomly, the chance of getting an over used proxy is considerably decreased. Other important resources of free web proxies are: Hide My Ass, Anonymouse.org, and Proxify.co.uk.
You can search on Google for “myspace proxy” and find a great deal of other web proxies as well.
But chances are that your school administration has already blocked access to most web proxies as well. In that case, you have other more options:
The second option is to use hide IP address applications. There are simple applications where with a simple click you can enable anonymity, or complex application that allows you to add manually proxies into the list, which will allow you to test proxies in advance and even clean cookies and temporary internet files. To be sure that the application suites your needs you should test the trial first and see how many proxies they have and from which countries.
The most known free hide IP address application is TOR Project. The application suits best to advanced Internet users because the configuration is not very simple. Other applications that are easy to use by anyone are: Ultra Surf, Anonymous Surfing, IP Privacy and Not My IP.
You can download Ultrasurf (search on Google for “Ultrasurf”) and save it to a USB stick. UltraSurf is a green software, which means no installation process is needed nor system setting is required to change when using the software. UltraSurf implements almost all browser functions based on HTTP and user needs, such as browsing websites, login and posting on web forums, using Web mail, uploading and downloading data files, real time audio, video and other multimedia programs, etc.
A third way used to unblock web sites is through a VPN. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network that is constructed by using public wires to connect nodes. A great advantage of these systems is that they use encryption and other security systems so only authorized users can access the network and the data cannot be tracked. Hotspot Shield is the most used these days and it’s 100% free. It creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway blocking snoopers, hackers, ISP’s, or other person from viewing your web browsing activities.
An important aspect that users must take in consideration is that before changing the IP address you must know what type of address your computer has. If you have a static IP address than you have to call your ISP and ask them to change it while if you have a dynamic IP address than you can apply any of the methods above.
The more people are aware of these tricks, the more likely your network administrators will catch on and find ways to shut them down. So be sure not to let others know how to do these tricks. Accessing unauthorized web sites using the above tricks may be considered a violation of school or work policies and might put you in trouble. Use them at your own risk.
One thing a lot of people know how to make is a Nutella sandwich where they combine it with bananas and then put it all on a couple of slices of bread. But do you know how to make a triple-decker Nutella sandwich?
It’s quite easy really. You don’t have to be a genius to put this sandwich together. All you really need is some Nutella, a banana and a few slices of Wonder Bread. Yeah, it needs to be Wonder Bread. It specifically states that, and nothing else will do the trick. So now that you have the ingredients, it is time to learn how to make a triple-decker Nutella sandwich.
A triple-decker Nutella sandwich infographic designed by Michelle Lee from Markam, Canada, and it will totally teach you how to make one.
Job interview is an important aspect, especially, when you are going through it. Make sure you are proficient in understanding the phases of a job interview. It is not about sending resumes and getting selected, but rather learning through the experience.
Before starting your search and sending resumes, you should be aware of the different stages of an interview. Below is a list of them:
Giving a job interview can enhance your skills and it is an experience through which a job seeker can learn. Even when you are not selected, this can bring out the best in you, so that you don’t repeat the mistakes in the next interview.
Image: Parade
Social networking is a popular sales promotion tool now days. Now you can upload a simple video of your product showcasing its features and qualities and your work is done. YouTube is a very popular video sharing website and it is used by many business houses for promoting their products and services.
If you are a product based industry then you can upload videos about the product and its features and if you are a service based industry then you can upload videos about your workplace, employees or happy clients recommending your firm. It has replaced many expensive tools such as hoardings and canopies. Gone are those days when you the sellers had to distribute free samples to show the effectiveness of the product. Advertising on television is also not a profitable deal as you can broadcast your video only on some slots and it is also very expensive. It is also possible that when the advertisement is shown the number of viewers watching Television can be very less for example if you are producing stationery products and the advertisement is broadcasted in noon the. On YouTube users can view the video according to their wish.
But your video should fulfill the following basic points:
Purpose of making the video should be clear that is which feature of your product you want to showcase through the video. It should clearly convey the message that you want to give to your audience.
An entertainment quotient should always be there as this will help you attract the audience
Your video should have your attached website link as it will facilitate the viewer’s search for you and they can get more information about your other products as well.
Video length should be short and precise as lengthy videos are not at all welcomed
Attaching relevant keywords to your video is a mandatory step for making the video popular.
Start with uploading small teasers of your video as it will create a curiosity among viewers and they will wait for your next step.
To make viewers memorize your product it is necessary to upload fresh videos.
What if you upload videos but it is not able to get even minimum number of views. There is a solution for this also. You can still save your sales strategy by making the use of buy YouTube services. How you can YouTube views?
You can use internet and search for a number of firms providing these services. You can choose from the packages available and look for various offers and discount. This service enables you to get the number of targeted views on your video. It can make it to the list of “most popular YouTube video” other users will view it and share it on other social networking sites. Your product will get global acknowledgement. Your video may be the next big thing over YouTube. Your product will be the next big thing in the market.
Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has grown at a rapid rate. Today, it ranks third amongst the list of most visited websites. What is YouTube? It is a video sharing website that allows individuals and organizations alike to upload videos without any cost. This website is used as a marketing tool because it is a cost-free method to communicate with potential and regular customers.
YouTube is basically a great viral marketing tool. When individuals like a particular video, the video’s ranking automatically improves. This makes other individuals curious about the video. Increasing subscribers is also the perfect way to increase the visibility of any YouTube video.
Internet marketers are always looking for new ways to increase the number of YouTube views and subscribers. Here are some tips and tricks that can help you increase YouTube views:
Make a video that your target audience will love watching. Organizations should come up with a video that should attract their target audience. This video can be about anything and everything. The video should also have an interesting title with the relevant keywords.
Don’t be lazy, type the video’s description! Most individuals never bother including the description in the video because either they are too busy or even too lazy to research the benefits of YouTube’s description. YouTube’s description help users identify that that are watching the correct videos. The description should contain a short summary about the video. The summary should utilize correct keywords. There are many tools available in the internet that can help you generate the right keywords.
Select the right thumbnail. Thumbnail is the small icon that appears besides the video’s links. It depicts a snaptshot, which is a scene from the video. Nobody has criteria for the snapshot; just make sure you select an interesting and relevant snapshot. The snapshot should make the target audience click on the video’s link.
Always post a high quality video on YouTube. Nobody wants to watch a poor quality video so make sure that you design a video of good quality. In addition, make sure that the video is easy to load on the internet.
Make sure you reply to the target audience’s feedback. One of the best things about YouTube is that it allows users to post their comments below the videos. A user can also reply to another user’s comments. The comment section is the best way for individuals and organizations to stay in touch with their target audience.
Buy YouTube views. If you have recently posted a video on YouTube and you are not able to attract your target audience towards it then you should buy YouTube views. This will increase the ranking of the video which in turn will attract more viewers towards the video.
Be active on the YouTube community. A single video is not enough to attract potential customers. You need to post many videos to generate interest amongst potential target audience.
There are several lists with “ways to make money with a website” on the Internet, but none of them seem to be complete. That is why I decided to create this one. If you know a method that is not listed below, just let us know and we’ll update it.
Notice that ways to make money with a website are different from ways to make more money from it. Methods to increase your traffic or click-through rate will help you make more money, but they do not represent a method of making money perse.
For example, one could suggest that blending AdSense ads with the content is a way to make money from a website. In reality it’s not; it’s just a way to make more money by improving your ad click-through rate. The real monetization method behind it is a PPC ad network.
The list is divided into direct and indirect methods, and examples and links are provided for each point. Enjoy!
Google AdSense is the most popular option under this category, but there are also others. Basically you need to sign up with the network and paste some code snippets on your website. The network will then serve contextual ads (either text or images) relevant to your website, and you will earn a certain amount of money for every click.
The profitability of PPC advertising depends on the general traffic levels of the website and, most importantly, on the click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC). The CTR depends on the design of the website. Ads placed abode the fold or blended with content, for instance, tend to get higher CTRs. The CPC, on the other hand, depends on the nice of the website. Mortgages, financial products and college education are examples of profitable niches (clicks worth a couple of dollars are not rare), while tech-related topics tend to receive a smaller CPC (sometimes as low as a couple of cents per click).
The source of the traffic can also affect the overall CTR rate. Organic traffic (the one that comes from search engines) tends to perform well because these visitors were already looking for something, and they tend to click on ads more often. Social media traffic, on the other hand, presents terribly low CTRs because these visitors are tech-savvy and they just ignore ads.
List of popular CPC advertising networks:
CPM advertising networks behave pretty much as PPC networks, except that you get paid according to the number of impressions (i.e., page views) that the ads displayed on your site will generate. CPM stands for Cost per Mille, and it refers to the cost for 1,000 impressions.
A blog that generates 100,000 page views monthly displaying an advertising banner with a $1 CPM, therefore, will earn $100 monthly.
CPM rates vary with the network, the position of the ad and the format. The better the network, the higher the CPM rate (because they have access to more advertisers). The closer you put the ad to the top of the page, the higher the CPM. The bigger the format (in terms of pixels), the higher the CPM.
You can get as low as $0,10 and as high as $10 per 1,000 impressions (more in some special cases). CPM advertising tends to work well on websites with a high page views per visitor ratio (e.g., online forums, magazines and so on).
List of popular CPM advertising networks:
Selling your own advertising space is one of the most lucrative monetization methods. First and foremost because it enables you to cut out the middleman commissions and to determine your own rates. The most popular banner formats on the web are the 728×90 leaderboard, the 120×600 skyscraper, the 300×250 rectangle and the 125×125 button.
The downside of direct banner advertising is that you need to have a big audience to get qualified advertisers, and you will need to spend time managing the sales process, the banners and the payments.
After Google declared that sites selling text links without the nofollow tag would be penalized, this monetization method became less popular.
Many website owners are still using text links to monetize their sites, though, some using the nofollow tag and some not.
The advantage of this method is that it is not intrusive. One can sell text links directly through his website or use specialized networks like Text-Link-Ads and Text-Link-Brokers to automate the process.
Text link marketplaces and networks:
Affiliate marketing is a very popular practice on the Internet. Under this system you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (the affiliates) sell directly or indirectly its products and services, in exchange for a commission. Sometimes this type of advertising is also called CPA (cost per action) or CPL (cost per lead) based.
Affiliates can send potential customers to the merchant using several tools, from banners to text links and product reviews.
In order to find suitable affiliate programs you can turn to individual companies and publishers like Dreamhost and SEOBook, or join affiliate marketplaces and networks.
List of popular affiliate marketplaces and networks:
The latest trend on the web are widgets that let you monetize your website. Examples include Widgetbucks and SmartLinks. Some of these services operate under a PPC scheme, others behave like text link ads, others yet leverage affiliate links.
Their main differentiator, however, is the fact that they work as web widgets, making it easier for the user to plug and play the service on its website.
List of companies that provide monetization widgets:
PayPerPost pioneered this model, with much controversy on the beginning (related to the fact that they did not require disclosure on paid posts). Soon other companies followed, most notably Sponsored Reviews and ReviewMe, refining the process and expanding the paid blogging model.
Joining one of these sponsored reviews marketplaces will give you the opportunity to write sponsored posts on a wide range of topics. Not all bloggers are willing to get paid to write about a specific product or website (because it might compromise the editorial credibility), but the ones who do are making good money out of it.
If your blog has a big audience you could also offer sponsored reviews directly, cutting off the commissions of the middleman.
List of sponsored reviews and paid blogging networks:
With the quick adoption of the RSS technology by millions of Internet users, website owners are starting to find ways to monetize this new content distribution channel.
Feedburber already has its own publisher network, and you can sign-up to start displaying CPM based advertising on your feed footer. Bidvertiser recently introduced a RSS feed ad option as well, with a PPC scheme.
Finally, some blogs are also opting to sell banners or sponsored messages on their feed directly. John Chow and Marketing Pilgrim are two examples.
Popular RSS sites:
If you website has specific columns or events (e.g., a weekly podcast, an interview series, a monthly survey, a special project) you could find companies to sponsor them individually.
This method increases the monetization options for website owner, while giving advertisers the possibility to target a more specific audience and with a reduced commitment.
Mashable illustrates the case well. They have several advertising options on the site, including the possibility to sponsor specific columns and articles, including the “Daily Poll” and the “Web 2.0 Invites.”
Problogger also runs group writing projects occasionally, and before proceeding he publicly announce the project asking for sponsors.
Some websites and blogs give away part of their content for free, and charge for access to the premium content and exclusive tools.
SEOMoz is a good example. They have a very popular blog that gives advice and information on wide range of SEO related topics. On top of that visitors can decide to become premium members. It costs $48 monthly and it grants them access to guides, tools and other exclusive material.
While the Internet is populated with free forums, there is also the possibility to create a private one where members need to pay a single or recurring fee to join.
SEO Blackhat charges $100 monthly from its members, and they have thousands of them. Obviously in order to charge such a price for a forum membership you need to provide real value for the members (e.g., secret techniques, tools, and so on).
Performancing also launched a private forum recently, focused on the networking aspect. It is called The Hive, and the monthly cost is $10.
These are just two examples. There are many possibilities to create a private and profitable forum, you just need to find an appealing angle that will make it worth for the members.
List of popular forum software:
All the popular blogs are trying to leverage job boards to make some extra income. Guy Kawasaki, ReadWriteWeb, Problogger… you name it.
Needless to say that in order to create an active and profitable job board you need first to have a blog focused on a specific niche, and a decent amount traffic.
The advantage of this method is that it is passive. Once you have the structure in place, the job listings will come naturally, and you can charge anywhere from $10 up to $100 for each.
List of popular job board software:
Sitepoint is the online marketplace by excellence. Some websites and blogs, however, are trying to replicate that model on a smaller scale.
Depending on your niche, a market place that allows your visitors to buy, sell and trade products could work well. Over the time you could start charging a small fee for new product listings.
The problem with this method is that there are no standard software on the web, so you would need to hire a coder to get a marketplace integrated into your website.
You can see an example of a marketplaces being used on EasyWordpress and on Mashable.
There are services that will pay you money to run a small survey or poll on your website. The most popular one is called Vizu Answers.
Basically you need to sign up with them, and select the kind of polls that you want to run your site. Most of these services operate under a CPM model.
Million Dollar Wiki made this concept popular, but it was being used on the web for a long time around (check Pagerank10.co.uk for instance).
These websites sell for a single fee or rent for a recurring fee internal pages on their domain. Usually they have either high Pagerak or high traffic, so that people purchasing a page will be able to benefit in some way.
Implementing this method on a small blog would be difficult, but the concept is interesting and could be explored further.
Techmeme probably pioneered this idea, but somehow it has not spread to other websites. The tech news aggregator displays editorial posts on the left column, and on the sidebar they have a section titled “Techmeme Sponsor Posts.”
On that section posts from the blog of the advertisers get highlighted, sending qualified traffic their way. Considering that the monthly cost for one spot is $5000 and that they have around 6 sponsors at any given time, it must be working well.
Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be an efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog is on a niche where readers learn and gain value from your content.
Personal development and productivity blogs, for instance, tend to perform well with donation based systems (one good example being Steve Pavlina).
A small variation of this method appeared sometime ago with the Buy Me a Beer plugin. This WordPress plugin enables you to insert a customized message at the bottom of each article, asking the readers to chip in for a beer or coffee.
In-text adverting networks like Kontera and Vibrant Media will place sponsored links inside your text. These links come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links, and once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.
Some people make good money with this method, but others refrain from using it due to its intrusiveness. It is also interesting to note that very few mainstream websites have experimented with in-text advertising.
Pop-ups are a common yet annoying form of advertising on the Internet. If you are just trying to make a much money as possible from your website, you could experiment with them.
If you are trying to grow the traffic and generate loyal visitors, however, you probably should stay away from them. Just consider the hundreds of pop-up blockers out there: there is a reason why they are so popular.
Ad networks that use pop-ups:
Also called PPP (Pay Per Play), this advertising method was introduce by Net Audio Ads. the concept is pretty simple: play a small audio advertising (usually 5 seconds) every time a visitor enters into your website. The user should not be able to stop it, creating a 100% conversion rate based on unique visitors.
The company is still rolling tests, but some users are reporting to get from a $4 to a $6 CPM. Regardless of the pay rate, though, this is a very intrusive form of advertising, so think twice before using it.
Selling your website could be your last resource, but it has the potential to generate a big sum of money in a short period of time.
Market places on online forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint are always active with website buyers and sellers. Keep in mind that they most used parameter to determine the value of a website is the monthly revenue that it generates, multiplied by a certain number (the multiplier can be anything from 5 to 30, depending on the expectations of the seller, on the quality of the site, on the niche and other factors).
Some people also make money trading and flipping websites. They either create them from scratch or buy existing ones, and after some revamping they sell them for a profit.
Perhaps one of the oldest money making strategies on the web, using a website to promote a related ebook is a very efficient way to generate revenue.
You could either structure the website around the book itself, like SEOBook.com, or launch the ebook based on the success of the website, like FreelanceSwitch did we the book How to be a Rockstar Freelancer.
Many authors and journalists leverage their blogs or websites to sell copies of hardcover books. Examples include Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell.
While most of these people were already renowned authors before they created their website, one could also follow the other way around. Lorelle VanFossen did exactly that with her Blogging Tips book. First she built her authority on the subject via her blog, and afterwards she published the book.
List of self publishing and publishing services:
As more and more people decide to get an online presence, website templates and WordPress themes become hotter and hotter.
On this segment you have mainstream websites like TemplateMonster, as well as individual designers who decide to promote and sell their work independently.
Brian Gardner and Unique Blog Designs are two examples of websites that make money with the sales of premium and custom WordPress themes.
Depending on your niche, you could make money by offering consulting and related services. If you are also the author of your blog, the articles and information that you will share will build your profile and possibly certify your expertise on that niche, making it easier to gain customers.
Chris Garrett used a similar strategy. First he created a highly influential blog on the blogging and new media niche, and afterwards he started offering consulting services to clients with related problems and needs.
Email lists and newsletters represent one of the most powerful marketing and money making tools on the Internet. They offer incredible conversion rates, and the possibility to call people to action in a very efficient way.
Creating a big list is a difficult task though, so if you have a popular website you could leverage it to increase the number of subscribers on your list.
Yaro Starak is a famous Internet marketer, and if you visit his blog you will notice that right on top he has a section encouraging visitors to subscribe to his email newsletter. Yaro generates five figures in revenues each month from his email newsletters, proving that this method works.
List of software to manage email newsletters:
People are willing to pay for someone or something that will teach them and give them knowledge (as opposed to mere information). Education is one of the biggest industries in the world, and the online landscape behaves in a similar way.
Creating a mentoring program related to the niche of your website could be very profitable if you manage to structure and promote it adequately. There is a wide range of media and tools that you can use to deliver the information, from text articles to audio and video lessons.
Brian Clark leveraged the success of Copyblogger to launch a mentoring program teaching people how to build membership and how to sell content online. The program is titled Teaching Sells, and it costs $97 monthly. Sounds expensive, but they have over 1,000 members.
Are you running your own website or blog? Do you want to get paid for working at home? If your response was “yes” to both questions, then you may be closer to earn money lounging in your pajamas and enjoying your coffee than you might think. See, many site and blog owners attract thousands or hundreds of thousands of Internet users to their resources each months, but only few of them know how to monetize website traffic. With new services and technologies monetizing your website or blog is much easier than ever before.
The first stage of monetizing any website is measuring its traffic to determine what monetization method will work best of all. Quantcast and Google Analytics will help you to analyze and quantify your traffic. Google Analytics provides website statistics, including number of page views, bounce rate, keywords that attract visitors to your site, etc., whereas Quantcast is focused on providing demographic data based on visitor`s location.
Publishing ads on your website or blog is the most apparent way of deriving an income. Advertisements can come in the form of banner ads or text links. Google AdSense, Pay-Per-Post, are just two of the most common advertising programs available for websites and blogs.
Participation in affiliate programs can bring you solid income. You just need to offer products or services to your readers and get paid when viewers buy them clicking on your affiliate link. There are thousands of affiliate programs in Internet, including Amazon and ClickBank, and you can choose any of them.
A simple way to enhance both your monetization and provide your audience with relevant content is to join a program, which offers displaying related articles, blog posts and content for money. You’ve probably come across this type of advertising. They look natural on the site and don’t irritate the visitors unlike the ordinary advertising.
Ad server is an advanced technology, which allows displaying advertisements on your website or blog. What differentiates ad operations from direct ads selling is that users can easily manage their inventory and distribute the number of impressions the way they want. Having own ad server is a brilliant idea. Let’s know why:
By Chariahs
No matter what you are in the market for, chances are, it can be purchased online. Shop brand name websites, online auctions and big box stores from the comfort of your home. New or used, you can buy nearly everything at a discount. The tips below will aid you in tracking down the best deals on the net.
Avoid shopping on sites that aren’t familiar or have no online user reviews. No matter how much you might want to order their merchandise or how low their prices are, you just don’t know what you’re getting into. Reserve your online shopping dollars for the well-known and trusted sites that keep your info safe.
If you want to save money on the products you buy online and want to make online shopping more fun, consider auction sites. You will get some great deals if you place your bids at the right moment and have some fun while browsing through auctions. Learn more about bidding strategies before getting started.
When getting things shipped to your home that you bought online, know your consumer rights regarding time tables and condition of products. You have a right to receive items according to the terms stated when you ordered them and reasonable expectations of goods being undamaged. Check with the BBB for exact specifics and get what’s coming to you fairly!
Before purchasing a product online, find out more about shipping. If you do not find any information about shipping costs, contact the seller to find out if there are additional charges for shipping. If there are several shipping options, choose an affordable and reliable option to make sure you receive your product quickly.
When shopping for a product online, take the time to read reviews. Try finding the same product on different sites to read as many reviews as possible. Reading many reviews will help you get a more general idea of whether or not the product you are interested in meets high standards of quality.
Prior to buying anything, particularly something costly, it pays to conduct your research and read consumer reviews first. There are many websites that offer nothing but reviews of products. Use this information to ensure the product you are buying is the best on the market.
Read reviews before you buy. When you shop online, reviews are easy to access, and can keep you from making a purchase you regret. Don’t just rely on star ratings. Look over the reviews and see what the customers really liked or disliked. Reviews can be a surprisingly great resource.
No matter if you are a bargain hunting pro or not, the more knowledge you have, the better off you will be. You’ll always be able to seek out the best deals if you’re aware of what it takes. Read this article and others like it if you want to find new and exciting techniques to hone your approach to online shopping.
Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes photography, technology, and others.
Image: iStock Photo
By Chariahs
Even though shopping malls are big business these days, more and more shoppers are finding that these retailers are inaccessible or overcrowded. Whether you like to be able to compare prices or save money, online shopping provides the ability to buy from home. Read on to learn how you can have the best possible experience while shopping on the Internet.
As you might realize, online shopping is often lots of fun. You have a virtual world of merchandise right there at your fingertips, with a simple click. The more you understand about online purchasing, the more you can save and the happier you will be with your decisions.
Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes photography, technology, and others.
Image: iStock Photo
With more and more of us shifting everyday tasks — banking, education, social interaction, even shopping for groceries — to the virtual world, securing our personal information has become more important than ever. One of the simplest ways to help protect our financial and other info from prying eyes and would-be identity thieves is to use a strong password. Yet many people take a decidedly casual approach to choosing a password, with potential disastrous results.
Having your password compromised is no laughing matter. More than half a million hackers have a go at cracking Facebook passwords every single day. In an effort to protect its users, the site gives specific tips for protecting both your Facebook account and any financial information you may have saved on the site — unsurprisingly, choosing a strong password is high on the list.
Facebook’s not the only place you have to worry about securing your financial info, of course. A 2013 investigation by Verizon found that, across 27 different countries, attacks on banks and other financial institutions account for a full 37% of data breaches. In 76% of these intrusions, the hackers simply used a weak or stolen password to access the system. Password theft is one thing, but if all that separates a would-be thief from millions of dollars is the name of someone’s pet gerbil, it may be time to beef up password protocol.
So what constitutes the “perfect” password? If you’re serious about security, a strong password will include a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, symbols, and even non-keyboard characters. It will be unique (using the same password for everything might be common, but it’s also spectacularly unsafe). It’s also greater than eight characters in length, contains arbitrary phrases made using numbers and letters (e.g., “b4D P4S$W0Rd”), but no complete words. And no matter how secure your password is, it’s made more secure by changing it regularly.
Strong, adequate, or weak, no password can protect against every possible threat. But by following our tips, you can help keep your social media accounts in your own hands, make your financial info safer, and encourage meddling thieves and hackers to seek easier prey.
Here is an infographic to help you protect yourself from losing your password, specifically from WhoIsHostingThis? a webmaster tool that lets you discover which web hosting company any site is hosted with.
![How to Create the Perfect Password [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vCWNFX9V90alhK5W3AnyCKQ5_rR7uMH0MYH-m8gQHzxGl_2QELBgdwrVe1Yqq9EaYoNfmf6kJmUB4FlwgN-50W7uC-7G9GKdjk9EhNtB29lhHmV4W8ajs2oKDP0NIp2hNRjvp2NnemrA3eRpv-gAiZO3nYLEXlWgC4a-SvQWIHGN50=s0-d "How to Create the Perfect Password [INFOGRAPHIC]")
It is undeniable that Twitter is one of popular social media websites. It offers fast information through 140 characters. Many companies start to pay attention to the use of Twitter for their business. They even create account for their company and share information about the company itself, the products, services and other related stuff.
See also: 10 Twitter Tips for Businesses
You can use Twitter to promote your business. It allows you to post something short but has sharp information to keep in touch with your customer or gain new potential customers. Twitter is perfect place to keep your business heard by massive users on it. Even if you are new or a seasoned pro to Twitter, here we have simple ways to optimize your company’s Twitter profile through some simple SEO campaign. Fancy to know? Here is how to optimize your Twitter and get better rank in Google’s eyes as well as promote your business.
One of the first things you will have to do when signing up for a Twitter account is to choose your account name and user name. While your account name will show up in your URL, your user name can be seen on your Twitter profile page. Even from here, you will have to consider how your choices will affect your SEO efforts. Choose an account name and user name that are relevant to your business. If you have a brand name, it is best to use that. Although your account name and user name do not necessarily have to be the same, it will be good if you can use the same name for both.
The Bio part in your Twitter page is where you will put the description or details about your business. Basically, it is your ‘about us’ page in Twitter. Unfortunately, you are limited to using only 160 characters so make sure that you use relevant keywords especially since this portion is indexed.
With limited characters available to you per tweet, it is important to consider what kind information you want to share, include all the details. Keep your tweet short and contain sharp information about your business, products or even just share piece of information that relate to your business. This action will give something valuable to your followers and customers. Keep in mind that quantity of tweets is not important as share a quality tweet.
Tweets are a form of linking, and linking can still affect your SEO campaign. While your account might be new and you manage to get a link from a site that has authority on Google, this will start to see an increase in your Twitter Profile’s popularity. If more people start to re-tweet your updates, this will help your site be seen as an authority on a topic, and help to build authority around your site and potentially increase its rankings in Google’s eyes.
People like something fresh and new on a website. If your company account barely updates the status, potential customers will assume that you are out of business now or you stop the production and they will stop following and even unfollow your Twitter account. To avoid this situation, make sure you update your account frequently; with interesting information to make sure they keep visiting your account because they are curious about what information will you share next through the account.
You can always find a certain information that relate to your business, maybe article from popular newspaper, quote from popular businessman or just tweets relate to your business written by other Twitter users. You can simply re-tweet it again as the opportunity to gain better ranking when it comes to Google search as well as build brand awareness. When your followers have interaction to your account do not forget to reply it and create warm interaction with them. This will keep the intention to your business and company well-maintained and of course attract the customers as well as new potential customers.
This means promoting your Twitter page to other Twitter users. At the start, a lot of users will not have any idea that your Twitter account exists so promote it by putting up a Twitter button on your website if you have one, asking your customers to follow you, informing your customers through email, asking your followers in your other social media networks to follow you on Twitter as well.
Just because you are on Twitter and you have a website does not mean you are guaranteed better search engine placement. Your best bet is to update your website frequently and tell Twitter about it. Every time you add a page or write a blog entry, be sure to tweet the URL of the new content. Tweeting the URL of your new content will help drive new traffic to your website, increase exposure, build a better online presence, and encourage search engines to crawl your site. If the content is really good, you may even get a few powerful retweets! In other words, Twitter can help spread the word of any website updates much quicker and to a much larger audience.
You may suspect that your e-mail account has been hacked when you can’t login to your account or you are getting undelivered or bounced messages for the e-mails you didn’t even send or the people on your e-mail contact list are complaining of receiving e-mails that wasn’t sent by you. There could only be one of the two reasons for this — a virus or a hacker. You should know that your e-mail account has been compromised when you see yourself facing any of the symptoms stated below.
The people who actually send spam mailers normally replace their genuine e-mail address with an e-mail address that they have randomly picked from the mailing address book or something that they have just made up arbitrarily.
So, in order to track down the real source of the e-mail check the ‘Reading Email Headers’ because some e-mailers don’t normally distinguish between the manually editable “From” ID and the genuine sender source. The best way to combat this is to simply delete the undelivered notifications and the messages that bounced back without clicking on any link mentioned in the e-mail.
If your e-mail service provider claims that the password that you have entered is invalid, there is a possibility that someone else has accessed it and changed your password. However, most e-mail service providers have an option of password recovery. If you ever feel that your e-mail account has been compromised, change your password to an immediate effect. Ensure that the alternate e-mail address that you have provided as a part of your password recovery is thoroughly active and regularly visited. Nevertheless, also make sure that the problem does not lie at your e-mail service provider’s end before hitting the panic button.
Often, some e-mail worm acts in a way that makes copies of itself and appear in the sent items folder of your e-mail. It is most likely to be an older version of a worm which can be removed easily, as the new–age malware normally doesn’t leave behind such obvious evidences. The best way to challenge this problem is to update your antivirus software and run a full scan on your PC on a regular basis.
This happens when the hacker knows your e-mail username and password and sends spam and malicious e-mails to the people in your address book. They usually remove the traces from the sent items folder to avoid exposure. If you ever happen to face such a situation, change your password immediately as your e-mail ID is at the risk of being gravely misused. Also, make sure that you never share your username and password with anybody.
The recipients on your address book may be sending you angry responses for the spam they might receiving from you, and you clearly remember not having sent any such e-mail. You run a malware check on your PC and notify the e-mail service provider of the situation.
If you face any of the situations above, you should know that your e-mail account has been hacked or compromised. Take the necessary measures to rectify them or prevent them from happening in the first place by monitoring your account on a regular basis.
By Chariahs
One way that many people use to express their creativity, is through photography. With photography, you can use a camera to capture moments in life through ways that many people have never imagined. Lenses and filters change what we see with our eyes and make it seem like another world. Anyone can practice photography, especially, if you use the tips in this article.
In conclusion, photography is one way that people use to express their creativity. Photography allows you to use cameras to turn life into unimaginable views. New worlds can be created with simple lenses and filters. If you use the tips from this article, then you can dive into the world of photography.
Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes writing articles, blogging, photography, technology, and others.
Image: 123RF
By Chariahs
Millions of people are using desktop computers right now. They may be using them at work or at home, but they’re running all the time somewhere. This is probably something you know a little about, but it wouldn’t hurt you to learn some things about desktop computers. Here are some tips to think over.
If you are going to be doing some upgrades to your desktop computer be sure to ground yourself before you begin working on your computer. A simple jolt of static electricity can be more than enough to fry your motherboard. If you do not ground yourself, you will be putting your whole system at risk.
Consider the disk burning capabilities of any desktop computers that you are looking at. Consider whether you plan to just watch media or to make your own CDs and DVDs. If you plan on doing the latter, make sure sure the computer that you want supports it. Not all desktops come with these capabilities.
If you are concerned with your computer’s speed, then start things off with a boot check. Head to the “start” menu and then run “ms config.” Look at which programs automatically start with the machine. Disable anything you don’t use. This will speed up your system.
Be very careful to check on the versions of software in any new desktop you buy, unless you want to be constantly updating it or replacing the operating system completely. Many good deals can be had on desktops that contain nearly obsolete software, which can complicate use later on. Make sure what you buy will be compatible online and for other purposes.
If you favor a certain brand of desktop news, do your research on it and stay current with upcoming releases. The last thing you want to do is buy a new computer from the brand only to have a new release that you want come out not too long after it. Staying current, doing research, and waiting can land you some great deals with certain brands of desktops.
For the best deal when buying a new desktop computer, shop during and after back to school time or just before Christmas. These are the times when computer companies offer great deals on many of their best selling computers. Computer companies will also offer bundles of desktops and printers that can save you extra money.
What will you be using your computer for? It is important to buy a computer that fits your needs. If you will be using your computer to play games, what you need from your computer will be different from what you will need if you are planning on using the computer to write papers for school.
As you now know, desktop computers can be easy to work with. You just have to know a little bit of information before you start. Take the things that were gone over here into account the next time you think that you are going to be working with a desktop computer.
Editor’s note: I am a mother of a 6 year old bubbly girl who happens to be the most important person in my life. My passion includes photography, technology, and others.