Skype Vs Vonage

n a way, the Internet is a paradox. Getting access to it in your home almost always requires you to spend some money. But once you have that access, you can use the Internet to save money. You can shop around for lower prices on everything from electronics to airline tickets. You can also send e-mail messages, pictures, music and videos without paying for any type of postage. With Voice over IP (VoIP) services, you can make phone calls -- even long distance or international ones -- for free.

Currently, there are several VoIP services on the market. The two most well-known ones are Skype and Vonage. Although both of these services use VoIP technology, they're quite different from one another. In this article, we'll explore how each of these services works, and we'll give you the information you need to decide if one of them is right for you.

Skype and Vonage are similar in that they're both VoIP services. When you make a VoIP call, you use your computer's built-in microphone and speakers, a headset, an IP phone or a phone plugged into an analog telephone adapter in place of an ordinary phone. This equipment and your computer translate the analog signal of your voice into a digital signal. The digital signal travels over the Internet. Once it reaches its destination, the telephone or computer that answers the call translates it back into analog sound. Check out How Voice over IP Works to learn about this process and how it's different from plain old telephone service (POTS).

Voice over IP uses a technique called packet switching to send a call over the Internet.

Skype and Vonage are also similar in that they can be significantly less expensive than traditional phone service. This is especially true if you make a lot of long-distance calls. Depending on how you use it, Skype can even be completely free. But the two services have more differences than similarities, starting with the steps you need to take to open an account.

To start an account with Skype, all you have to do is go to the Skype homepage and click "Download Now" to download a free program. This program is the Skype soft phone client, which includes an on-screen keypad you can use to make calls.Click here to read more

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Dell Ubuntu PCs debut today

Dell Ubuntu PCs finally started shipping from today with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-installed. The three PC models available with Ubuntu are these.

• XPS 410n
• Dimension E520n desktops
• Inspiron E1505n notebook

The above systems will be available for customers today by 4 PM CST from here. Starting price for the E520n desktop and the E1505n notebook is $599; the XPS 410n starts at $849.

Hardware support will be provided by Dell. Users can also get help from Linux section of the Dell Community Forum or from Ubuntu Forums.

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Windows Messenger to show Xbox live friends

Microsoft is launching a new service called Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 which will enable users of these two services to merge their friends lists. That means xbox live users can see their friends lists in windows messenger and vice versa.

NotifyChatDash, originally uploaded by Major Nelson.

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Scratch: Programming for kids

Scratch is a tool aimed at kids to make animations, games and interactive artworks, scratch is developed by MIT media lab.

With scratch anyone can create animations or games with out knowing any programing language. One can import pictures from the computer and start animating it, the program provides buttons that have programmed to do activities like move forward, backward, rotate etc. Adding sounds to the presentations and some other characters is easy, the characters colors and costumes can be changed in few mouse clicks. Overall kids will enjoy doing stuff like this.

Your creations can be posted to the scratch site to share with the world and comment on others creations.

“With Scratch we want to let kids to be the creators. We want them to create interesting dynamic things on the computer.”

The program works by making the act of creating a computer program more like building with Lego bricks.

“Kids make programs by snapping blocks together,” said Professor Resnick, whose position is in part supported by the toy company.

Objects and characters, chosen from a menu and created in a paint editor or simply cut and pasted off the web, are animated by snapping together different “action” blocks into stacks.

Scratch is now available to download for free and works with both Apple Macs, Windows and Linux version expected in the late 2007.

Scratch site is currently down after it hit digg front page.

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Create Your Own Internet Radio Station with ubroadcast

With ubroadcast you can create and broadcast your own internet radio station. Users can host a Live talk radio or music show easily with ubroadcast, above all its free.

How it works:

Users have to download software from ubroadcast website, there are two different software, one is player for listening and other is Station Manager for broadcasting. You can use station manager to broadcast your show with play list support, inline CD ripping, MP3 uploading etc. You can also add commercials if you want to sell advertising in your shows.

It just takes few minute to get start with the software, it has an inbuilt registration system to quickly setup the station. Once you registered you can start broadcasting live content, upload music from MP3’s or select from other ubroadcast members.

You can broadcast recorded content 24 hours a day or go live whenever you want. It is a good option if you want to set a radio station with your music. Although it is free you need to enter credit card information while registering as a broadcaster.

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Yahoo to buy MySpace and Google to buy Apple?

Yesterday there was a rumor about Yahoo and MySpace deal, TechCrunch reported that News Corp is in talks with Yahoo, where Yahoo will buy MySpace and in return 25% stake in the combined Yahoo and Myspace for News corp. Based on the current Yahoo market value Myspace is worth $12 billion.

Mashable has a story on Google may be interested to buy Apple. I don’t know how much truth is in that but a few other sites also reported that. Given the recent happenings between two companies anything is possible. If this deal ever happen then Microsoft have tough time with these two companies merger.

What do you think about these rumors?

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Build Website in minutes with Synthasite

Few days back i had a chance to test Synthasite, a new web based WYSIWYG editor. With Synthasite one can create web pages in minutes.The site is currently in private beta and has some basic features but it looks impressive, when they add full set of features it becomes killer application. Synthasite tool uses AJAX for drag and drop elements and it is easy to use.

One can easily create web pages with drag and drop text boxes, image place holders, pre-made templates, buttons. In addition to these you can also embed Youtube videos and Flickr Photos.

When you open the tool you will have a tool box on the right side of the screen, select the components like image, text box, media from the tool box menu and drag and drop on to the page. After that double click on the component you just added to the page, now you can change parameters for media types or enter text for text boxes.

Overall it looks like a cool application with nice design and some interesting features. Synthasite has a long list of features coming, checkout the roadmap for a complete list. The new features expected includes Template library, social/collaborative site building, hosting, file management etc.

Synthasite has some invitations left for trying the software, check out if you want to test the application.

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Create your own social networking site

PHPizabi Alicia is a social networking script from Reality Medias, this can be used to builddating or a social networking sites. PHPizabi is a professional well designed script, considering the range of features it offers one can easily jumpstart to create a social networking portal with out any knowledge of the complex programming languages. The script is open source, so you have full control over the code to modify or to add new features etc.

It is written in PHP, backend powered by MySQl and has a clean template management system. The script developed in modular structure so that new features can be added as modules to the existing core. PHPizabi has tons of features and can be compared to commercial scripts, i will list some of the features here,

Features

Multilanguage support
Registration captcha
Mass mail support
Online / Offline status
Activity notification
Customizable genders
Email address confirmation
Automatic / Manual approval
Personal Gallery
Personal Blog
User settings panel
Ignore / Block users
Recent profile views
Newsletter
Profile / pictures rating
Profile views
Private photo gallery
Video Gallery

for a complete list of features go here

Software Requirements
PHP 4.2.x or above
MySQL 3.23.x or above
Apache 1.13.19 or above OR IIS 5.1 or above
GD2 (Image Processor)

Installation

Installation of the script is very easy, its a web based installation. First download the package from PHPizabi site and upload to your server using a ftp client. After uploading point to the folder you uploaded in your browser, the installation will start, it will take you through the steps; It will check the permissions of the file system, you may have to change some file permissions to 0777 or 0666, after changing the file permissions you need to enter the database information in the fields. If you haven’t created the database before it will attempt to create the database. Once it is finished you are ready to see your website, now you can login with your admin password (which you will create in the installation process) and start changing site name and other details etc.

Administration of the site very well designed, clean and simple. It is easy to maintain the site from the admin interface, as an administrator you will have full control over the features and you can control the access of users and a lot of other functions.

Basic features like Blog, Photo Galleries, messages, SMS, and Chatrooms will come with the core package, if you want additional features like Videos they can be added by downloading third party modules. Sometimes you may have to pay for some modules.

Overall the script is very handy for people who dont have a lot of resources to start a social networking site and who doesnt know programming to create this kind of site.

See the demo here
PHPizabi site & Download

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Microsoft IPTV is now Microsoft Mediaroom

Microsoft announced today the availability of Microsoft Mediaroom, the IPTV platform.Microsoft IPTV is renamed as Mediaroom and added functionality.

Microsoft Mediaroom features several new capabilities including in-home personal music and photo sharing, dynamic multiple picture in picture capabilities and digital terrestrial television support.

Microsoft Mediaroom also provides Application Development Toolkit for developers and service providers to create compelling, revenue generating TV based applications to run on the platform.

“The Microsoft Mediaroom multimedia platform supports simultaneous recording of multiple high-definition and standard-definition TV channels.”

With this release it is clear that Microsoft wants to sit in each and every service. This looks to be an Apple TV killer with the digital media sharing capabilities.

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Windows Live Folders and Windows Live Gallery

Microsoft announced today the availability of windows live folders beta and windows live gallery beta.

Windows Live Folders:

Windows live folders is a file storage service for users, currently 500Mb of space is available for storing files. Documents, Photos and Music can be uploaded to folders. Upload is through a form, you can login to the service at folders.live.com with your live ID and start uploading. Microsoft says that this beta is for testing and to get feedback on the service to better integrate in the future. According to them the service is available is US, but i could login to the with out any problem.

Windows Live Gallery:

Windows Live Photo Gallery is a stand-alone service that upgrades Windows Vista’s Windows Photo Gallery. Windows Live Gallery is freely downloadable and offers both Vista and XP SP2 users to share, edit and organize photos and videos. Windows Live Photo Gallery beta is available today in nine markets around the world so far (including the United States (English and Spanish), China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, and Spain), with more to come.

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VeohTV

Recently i got a chance to check VeohTV, for those who don’t know about VeohTV it is a desktop application that lets you watch, upload and download video from popular video sites.

VeohTV is a killer application in the internet TV space. Like Joost and Babelgum it lets you watch TV over PC, you can search all the popular video sharing sites, you can also watch TV programs from ABC, CBS, FOX, MTV and a lot more. VeohTV also has a Youtube channel where you can recently popular, most viewed today and top rated videos.

It allows you to add video RSS feeds, download videos, organize your favorite collection with tags from the desktop client.

When you open the application you will see four tabs, Channels, Search, Interact and Library. You can browse all the channels available from the Channels tab. From the search tab you can search the video web with keywords, this took some time for me to get results this may be because of my connection speed. Interact tab allows you to watch the videos and here you can add web content in the form of yourminis.com widgets. From the library tab you can see all your videos including downloaded ones.

So far the VeohTV experience is great, search functionality takes little time. Since the content is pulled from various sites and it depends on their video quality.

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Want To Talk To Someone Human From Now On?

We’ve all heard them, we’ve all dealt with them, we’re all sick of them…automated phone systems. Press 1 for billing, press 2 for service, press 3 to shoot yourself in the head. Nine times out of ten, the operator can do the same task you need with in a matter of seconds and the automated system is only there to annoy people to the point that they hang up and never call back. There’s even the rising popularity of automated voice recognition systems as well, which are even worse. Finally, someone has come up with a simple answer.

Gethuman.com is collection of 500 of the larger businesses that you may deal with on a day to day basis. They provide the 800 number, and the process of skipping past all of the automated BS. Be sure to add this do del.icio.us. Definitely something that will come in handy.

Check it out: Gethuman.com

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20 Open Source Windows Apps For You

Some of the commercial software like Photoshop are so expensive that an average user can not afford to buy it. Lately I am looking for some free or open source alternatives for windows programs and i was amazed with the range of programs available. Here i will list some of the open source or free programs as alternatives to windows commercial programs.

1. 7-zip
7-Zip is a open source file archiver program for windows. It supports packing and unpacking of 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR format files and supports onlu unpacking of RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS. It provides better compression ratio than WinZip for ZIP and GZIP formats. It is an alternative to programs like WinZip

2. Audacity:
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds.Audacity can be used to record live audio, convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files. cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.

3. Blender:
Blender is a open source free software for creating 3D animations. Blender can be used for modelling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging, skinning, animating, rendering, particle and creating interactive 3D applications. Blender has robust features et similar to programs like 3ds Max and Maya.

4. ClamWin:
ClamWin is a Free Antivirus for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP and 2003. ClamWin is a good alternative to commercial softwares like Norton, McAfee etc. Clamwin features include High detection rates for viruses and spyware, Scanning Scheduler, Automatic downloads of regularly updated Virus Database, Standalone virus scanner and right-click menu integration to Microsoft Windows Explorer, and Addin to Microsoft Outlook to remove virus-infected attachments automatically.

5. eMule:
eMule is a open source peer to peer file sharing (P2P) client tool.

6. Feedreader:
Feedreader is free desktop RSS aggregation tool. “Feedreader automatically downloads updates from your favorite Web sites. So, it eliminates the need for you to constantly monitor multiple Web pages, while allowing you to immediately identify and retrieve new articles”

7. Filezilla:
FileZilla is a free, open source FTP client for Windows. It supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS protocols. It has all the essential features required for a FTP client. The main features of FileZilla are Ability to resume Uploads/Downloads, Site Manager with folders, Keep Alive system, Timeout detection, Firewall support, SOCKS4/5 and HTTP1.1 Proxy support, SSL secured connections, Upload/Download Queue, Drag&Drop.

8. Firefox:
The best cross platform supported web brwoser available on the net, it doesn’t need any introduction and many of you might be using. The wide range of Firefox Add-On’s make this the most powerful browser for all types of users. Firefox is an alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer.

9. GIMP:
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is free open source raster graphics editor for manipulating photos or images. GIMP is an excellent software and alternative to expensive photoshop, it is used for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

10. hugin:
hugin is a open source easy to use cross-platform panoramic imaging tool. Using hugin you can assemble a mosaic of photographs into as complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.

11. Inkscape:
Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor. Inkscape is a good alternative to commercial vector graphics tools like Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Freehand or Xara X. Inkscape uses Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format. It can be used to create web2.0 buttons, banners, logos, icons etc. (see earlier review)

12. Juice:
Juice is a free open source cross-platform podcast receiver application. It is used to download podcast media files, such as oggs and mp3s. Using juice you can schedule the podcast and juice will let you know when a new podcast is available. The downloaded files media files can be automatically copied to a digital audio player.

13. OpenOffice.org:
OpenOffice.org is the open source office suite similar to Microsoft office available to different platforms. OpenOffice.org is a collection of applications with the features similar to Microsoft Office. The Components include Writer, Calc, Base, Impress, Draw, Math, Quickstarter etc.

14. PDFCreator:
PDFCreator is a free program for creating PDF documents from windows programs. Once installed, it allows the user to select PDFCreator as their printer, allowing almost any application to print to PDF.

15. Pidgin:
Pidgin, formerly known as Gaim is a multi-platform instant messaging client that supports many commonly used IM protocols. Pidgin is a free software and supports IM’s including Yahoo, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN, AOL, ICQ etc.

16. Programmers Notepad:
Programmer’s Notepad is the free, open source, text editor for programmers.
some of the features of Programmers Notepad: Code Folding/Outlining, Docking tool windows, Excellent external tool support with user-configurable output matching, Export to HTML (using CSS) and RTF, Word Wrapping

17. Scribus:
Scribus is an open source desktop publishing (DTP) application. It has some nice page layout features and can be used as an alternative to Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. “It can also create animated and interactive PDF presentations and forms. Example uses include writing small newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters and books.”

18. Sunbird:
Sunbird is open source desktop calender application from Mozilla foundation. Sunbird is a cross platform, open standards application built on Mozill Toolkit.

19. Thunderbird:
Thunderbird is the open source desktop email application from Mozilla foundation. Thunderbird has the best features in the industry. “Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. Thunderbird 2 scales to the most sophisticated organizational needs while making it easy to find what you need.”

20. VLC Media Player:
VLC Media Player is a open source media player from VideoLan project team. It is the best media player available in the net, it plays almost any file format available. It also supports streaming protocols. It is a good alternative to different media players.

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Ultra Free Passwords for Ultra Security from GRC.com

(Please Consult Your Manual for Wireless Router Security Configuration)

Steve Gibson is one the smartest internet Security experts on the web. You can listen to his podcast over at www.twit.tv called Security Now. A weekly show with host Leo Laporte about Security Vulnerabilities, applications and fine tuning. Some of the early episodes they discussed Wireless routers and securing them with various options, with one of the strongest being WPA-PSK.

The vast majority of people with wireless networks at home, go out, buy a wireless router, bring it home, plug it in and go “WOW!, I’M WIRELESS”. They then leave it wide open for other users to steal their internet connection for doing whatever they want. The vast majority also don’t realize that your router has an administrative menu that can be hacked and modified for other’s use. Of course, that can be reset, but that is beside the point. The point is, if your network is unsecure, your network can be hacked and a smart hacker can even possibly access network storage and/or computers. This is especially a problem in large apartment complexes where dozens of wireless networks are.

That is why you MUST secure your network. Early versions of wireless routers, cards and laptops only supported WEP encryption. A solid, but very vunerable security standard. If that’s your only option, go with it, just realize that there free applications out there that CAN get around it. WPA-PSK is a different animal all together.

WPA-PSK is up to a 64 bit Encryption standard that is supported by many modern laptops and supports just about any character imaginable. You can type this in yourself, or you can take advantage of excellent resource brought to you by who else, Steve Gibson. Here it is:

GRC.com’s Perfect Passwords

And here is an excerpt from that page:

Generating long, high-quality random passwords is
not simple. So here is some totally random raw
material, generated just for YOU, to start with.

Every time this page is displayed, our server generates a unique set of custom, high quality, cryptographic-strength password strings which are safe for you to use:

On that page, you’ll find three different sets of passwords types. I usually use the ASCII version, because it looks unhackable.

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Become Your Own Wireless Hotspot With 2HotSpot

Are you sick of your incredibly high broadband bill? Would you like to have a quick an easy access point friends and family to join your wireless network? or are starting up your own business and don’t want to have pay the extra cost for a high end hotspot hardware device or application? Then this software is just for your from 2HotSpot.com.

2HotSpot allows you to create your own hotspot, similar to what you see in many hotels, airports and coffee shops, but from within the confines of your own home. This gives you the convenience of connecting friends and family very quickly, allows you to possibly split the broadband bill you’re paying every month, or even add additional security to your wireless access point or router. The software is completely free of charge and only requires that you have an internet connection, you have a wireless enabled router, or you have a WIFI enabled NIC. Looks like it has some incredible benefits, and looks like something many small businesses could take advantage of in many different ways.

Check it out: 2HotSpot.com

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Folder Size - The One Addition That Windows Has Needed Since Day One

Hard to believe that even with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft forgot one feature they’ve needed since Windows 95, oh wait, nevermind, it’s easy to believe. One could only guess the reasoning behind not adding the option for Folder Size when viewing the details for files and directories, but fortunately someone in our favorite open source website, Sourceforge, has come with what all users and system administrators need. An application to add the size of a directory/folder, simply called “Folder Size“.

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Rid Of The Annoying “Restart Now” In Windows XP

I was browsing through various blogs, watching some of my favorite shows from HBO, all the while being annoyed by the ever present:

I thought, there must a way to get rid of this annoying pop-up. Of course, unlike many of Windows annoyances, there is a quick and easy way to get rid of this repetive nagging.

While your small yellow shield is running in the system tray, you also have a process running called “wuauclt.exe”. You can easily kill this process via your task manager, but you’ll see it come back within a few minutes, so here is how to rid of this process permanently:

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Digital Camera SD Cards w/Wi-Fi Built In Still On the Horizon

Upon first hearing about this technology, I really thought it sounded like the future of digital camera storage. The idea was Wi-Fi built into your digital camera. The ability to take your pictures, save them temporarily onto a storage card and then upload them to your photo sharing site of your choice. Depending on how much storage capability you have, you are almost given a limitless amount of disk space to work with.

There have been a few introductory cameras that have WI-FI integrated, but the technology has yet to take off probably due to:

A. Limited widespread Wi-Fi hotspots.
B. Digital camera companies, just like printer companies(ink cartridges), make a bundle on external storage.
C. Although improving, Wi-Fi’s lackluster speeds.

Hopefully ideas, such as the one brought to us by Eye-Fi, will change all that. Eye-Fi is releasing a standard 2GB SD card, that will in addition have the ability to connect to WI-FI networks. At a $100.00 price tag, they’re aren’t anything out of the norm. They’ve already locked $5Mil+ in capital with hopes that as both WI-FI and digital cameras continue to explode onto the scene, enthusiasts will take advantage of both of these technologies at the same time.

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How to open Windows DUMP .DMP files.

It’s been true since the beginning, the Windows Event Viewer is essentially useless to the average everyday Tech Support employee. Even Ids, Sources, and codes of Hexadecimal errors tell most non-Microsoft programming users, absolutely nothing, although EventID.net, can be very helpful.

This is where a underground hidden Microsoft application comes to the rescue for opening the mysterious DMP(Dump) files created during the still present BSOD(Blue Screen of Death) and located in “c:\windows\minidump”. The application is called “Debugging Tools for Windows”.

Once installed, go to FILE>OPEN CRASH DUMP

This produces the following screen and following cause of the crash:

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Removing CD/DVD scratches with Toothpaste?

Some young entrepreneur over at Metacafe has posted a simple but what appears to be highly affective way of removing scratches from your CD/DVDs with Tootpaste.

1. Smear toothpaste throughout disc
2. Wash toothpaste off with running water.
3. Dry disc clean with soft towel or t-shirt.
4. Brand new disc for your enjoyment.

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Emergency Boot CD(EBCD) - Reset Any Password In Windows…Including Administrator

There are several different options when it comes to bootable operating systems. Whether they be virtual Windows, Linux or even MAC OS environments, but most have several different confusing settings, some just don’t work as designed and some just don’t plain work at all. The ones that do work however, work very well, and they can perform many tasks that just can’t be done in the Windows GUI. Emergency Boot CD is just one example, but it get’s you back up and running fast and is the king of simplicity when it comes to any of the following:

- Changing the password of any Windows users, including the Administrator
- Recovering the master boot record
- Performing an Emergency boot for NT, 2000 or XP
- Partitioning
- Recovering files from a formatted drive, an emptied recycle bin, or an unreadable floppy disk

The EBCD is simply the most efficient way to get any of these done. Since it doesn’t boot into a GUI, it boots much faster, the navigation is incredibly simple(once you get the hang of it) and the support from their site is top notch. So, if you’re a system administrator, a desktop support technician or a son/daughter just simply trying to get your Mom to remember her password, Emergency Boot CD is the way to go.

Check it Out: Emergency Boot CD

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Windows XP Home and Professional Command Line Commands | Run Line Commands

One big negative of being a desktop specialist can be the daunting task for browsing through multiple directorys and/or shortcuts to find many of the consistently used adminstratives apps, such as Device Manager, Event Viewer or Services. Well, Windows XP does make it much easier for someone to access many of these internal applications by using run line commands.(Start>Run)

Below is a list of all of the integrated Windows XP applications that have the ability to be run from the run line. For example, in order to access the services currently running in Windows, you just go to START>RUN>and type “services.msc”.

All of these commands have the capability of working in both Windows XP Home AND Professional…with a majority having the ability to work in Windows 2000 as well.

Micellaneous executable files used throughout Windows

1. ACCWIZ.EXE - Accessibility Wizard
2. BCKGZM.EXE - Backgammon
3. CALC.EXE - Calculator
4. CHARMAP.EXE - Character Map
5. CHKRZM.EXE - Checkers
6. CLEANMGR.EXE - Disk Space Cleanup Manager
7. CLICONFG.EXE - SQL Client Configuration Utility
8. CLIPBRD.EXE - Clipbook Viewer
9. CLSPACK.EXE - Class Package Export Tool
10. CMD.EXE - Command Line
11. CMSTP.EXE - Connection Manager Profile Installer
12. CONF.EXE - NetMeeting
13. CONTROL.EXE - Control Panel
14. DCOMCNFG.EXE - Component Services
15. DDESHARE.EXE - DDE Share
16. DIALER.EXE - Phone Dialer
17. DRWATSON.EXE - Doctor Watson v1.00b
18. DRWTSN32.EXE - Doctor Watson Settings
19. DVDPLAY.EXE - DVD Player
20. DXDIAG.EXE - DirectX Diagnostics
21. EUDCEDIT.EXE - Private Character Editor
22. EVENTVWR.EXE - Event Viewer
23. EXPLORER.EXE - Windows Explorer
24. FREECELL.EXE - Free Cell
25. FXSCLNT.EXE - Fax Console
26. FXSCOVER.EXE - Fax Cover Page Editor
27. FXSEND.EXE - MS Fax Send Note Utility
28. HELPCTR.EXE - Help and Support
29. HRTZZM.EXE - Internet Hearts
30. HYPERTRM.EXE - HyperTerminal
31. ICWCONN1.EXE - Internet Connection Wizard
32. IEXPLORE.EXE - Internet Explorer
33. IEXPRESS.EXE - IExpress 2.0
34. INETWIZ.EXE - Setup Your Internet Connection
35. INSTALL.EXE - User’s Folder
36. LOGOFF.EXE - System Logoff
37. MAGNIFY.EXE - Microsoft Magnifier
38. MIGWIZ.EXE - File and Settings Transfer Wizard
39. MMC.EXE - Microsoft Management Console
40. MOBSYNC.EXE - Microsoft Synchronization Manager
41. MOVIEMK.EXE - Windows Movie Maker
42. MPLAY32.EXE - Windows Media Player version 5.1
43. MPLAYER2.EXE - Windows Media Player Version 6.4.09.1120
44. MSCONFIG.EXE - System Configuration Utility
45. MSHEARTS.EXE - Hearts
46. MSIMN.EXE - Outlook Express
47. MSINFO32.EXE - System Information
48. MSMSGS.EXE - Windows Messenger
49. MSN6.EXE - MSN Explorer
50. MSPAINT.EXE - Paint
51. MSTSC.EXE - Remote Desktop Connection
52. NARRATOR.EXE - Microsoft Narrator
53. NETSETUP.EXE - Network Setup Wizard
54. NOTEPAD.EXE - Notepad
55. NSLOOKUP.EXE - NSLookup Application
56. NTSD.EXE - Symbolic Debugger for Windows 2000
57. ODBCAD32.EXE - ODBC Data Source Administrator
58. OSK.EXE - On Screen Keyboard
59. OSUNINST.EXE - Windows Uninstall Utility
60. PACKAGER.EXE - Object Packager
61. PBRUSH.EXE - Paint
62. PERFMON.EXE - Performance Monitor
63. PINBALL.EXE - Pinball
64. PROGMAN.EXE - Program Manager
65. RASPHONE.EXE - Remote Access Phonebook
66. REGEDIT.EXE - Registry Editor
67. REGEDT32.EXE - Registry Editor
68. RESET.EXE - Resets Session
69. RSTRUI.EXE - System Restore
70. RTCSHARE.EXE - RTC Application Sharing
71. RVSEZM.EXE - Reversi
72. SFC.EXE - System File Checker
73. SHRPUBW.EXE - Create Shared Folder
74. SHUTDOWN.EXE - System Shutdown
75. SHVLZM.EXE - Spades
76. SIGVERIF.EXE - File Signature Verification
77. SNDREC32.EXE - Sound Recorder
78. SNDVOL32.EXE - Sound Volume
79. SOL.EXE - Solitaire
80. SPIDER.EXE - Spider Solitaire
81. SYNCAPP.EXE - Create A Briefcase
82. SYSEDIT.EXE - System Configuration Editor
83. SYSKEY.EXE - SAM Lock Tool
84. TABLE30.EXE - User’s Folder
85. TASKMGR.EXE - Task Manager
86. TELNET.EXE - MS Telnet Client
87. TOURSTART.EXE - Windows Tour Launcher
88. TSSHUTDN.EXE - System Shutdown
89. USERINIT.EXE - My Documents
90. UTILMAN.EXE - System Utility Manager
91. VERIFIER.EXE - Driver Verifier Manager
92. WAB.EXE - Windows Address Book
93. WABMIG.EXE - Address Book Import Tool
94. WIAACMGR.EXE - Scanner and Camera Wizard
95. WINCHAT.EXE - Windows for Workgroups Chat
96. WINHELP.EXE - Windows Help Engine
97. WINHLP32.EXE - Help
98. WINMINE.EXE - Minesweeper
99. WINNT32.EXE - User’s Folder
100. WINVER.EXE - Windows Version Information
101. WMPLAYER.EXE - Windows Media Player
102. WRITE.EXE - Wordpad
103. WRITE.EXE - WordPad
104. WSCRIPT.EXE - Windows Script Host Settings
105. WUPDMGR.EXE - Windows Update

All of these CPL files are control panel applets that can ran from the run line. These all require the “.CPL” extension when being run.
ACCESS.CPL - Accessibility Options
APPWIZ.CPL - Add or Remove Programs
DESK.CPL - Display Properties
HDWWIZ.CPL - Add Hardware Wizard
INETCPL.CPL - Internet Explorer Properties
INTL.CPL - Regional and Language Options
JOY.CPL - Game Controllers
MAIN.CPL - Mouse Properties
MMSYS.CPL - Sounds and Audio Device Properties
NCPA.CPL - Network Connections
NUSRMGR.CPL - User Accounts
ODBCCP32.CPL - ODBC Data Source Administrator
POWERCFG.CPL - Power Options Properties
SYSDM.CPL - System Properties
TELEPHON.CPL - Phone and Modem Options
TIMEDATE.CPL - Date and Time Properties

All of these have the “.MSC” file extension. Some, but not all require the .MSC to be typed in when running them.
CERTMGR.MSC - Certificates
CIADV.MSC - Indexing Service
COMPMGMT.MSC - Computer Management
DEVMGMT.MSC - Device Manager
DFRG.MSC - Disk Defragmenter
DISKMGMT.MSC - Disk Management
EVENTVWR.MSC - Event Viewer
FSMGMT.MSC - Shared Folders
LUSRMGR.MSC - Local Users and Groups
NTMSMGR.MSC - Removable Storage
NTMSOPRQ.MSC - Removable Storage Operator Requests
PERFMON.MSC - Performance Monitor
SERVICES.MSC - Services
WMIMGMT.MSC - Windows Management Infrastructure
Other Run Line Commands
CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2 - Conventional User Account Interface

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How to Download anything for free using Google

Rapidshare.de and Megashare.com are the sites which hardly anyone will be unaware of. These sites allow user to upload files but lack the basic functionality of searching the whole database based on the description of the file.

Here is where google advance search technology comes to rescue :

Rapidshare has a huge database of files as a considerable number of users connected to it to upload music, pictures, movies and even larger files such as games or important documents. Although the owners encourage you to register and become a paying member, Rapidshare is also available for free so you can use it with only one restriction: you have a download limitation, meaning that you’re not able to download too many files for free. However, the website hosts an impressive number of files and it tends to become a real encyclopedia for music and movies. Similar is the case with magashare also. But since you dont have a search option hence you can just download the file unless you have the link to the file.

You must be knowing two very popular ways of searching google with these keywords :

1. site:www.example.com hello - retrieves all the result matching “hello” only from site example.com , hence limiting the search to a particular site.

2. +intitle:technology - retrieves all pages having “technology” in the web page title.

Let us combine these two advance search technology to search within the site rapidshare.de

So here is what you have to do .

1.http://www.google.com and type in the search box :

For music

+inurl:wma|mp3|ogg site:rapidshare.de

For videos

+inurl:avi|mpg|wmv site:rapidshare.de

For archives

+inurl:exe|rar|zip site:rapidshare.de

For any particular file

(ex-spiderman in this case )

+inurl:spiderman site:rapidshare.de

The same can be used for any other site. Remeber there is no space between “:” and search term.

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Speed up your internet speed by 20 percent

This is a nice little tweak to get 20% of bandwidth back.Microsoft reserve 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc..).

Click Start–>Run–>type “gpedit.msc” without the ”
• This opens the group policy editor. Then go to

  Local Computer Policy–>Computer Configuration–>Administrative Templates–>
  Network–>QOS Packet Scheduler–>Limit Reservable Bandwidth

• Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will
  say it is not configured, but the truth is under the
  ‘Explain’ tab :

  “By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to
  20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you
  can use this setting to override the default.”

• So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then
  set it to ZERO.

  This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather
  than the default 20%.

• works on XP Pro, 2000 and 2003 but not sure about
  other o/s’s.

Here are the screen shots -

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Full list of MS Office Shortcut Keys (Word, Exel and Powerpoint)

Have you ever got stuck searching for some shortcut keys for MS word ??Yeah !! I got stuck at times.

Basically with text formatting like Increasing font size (Ctrl + ]), Getting all Caps (Ctrl+shift+A) , Changing fonts(ctrl+shift+f), Apply superscripts(ctrl + shift + =) , subscripts (Ctrl + = ) etc etc.

So just did some googling and got a pdf file downloaded. I dont remember which site I downloaded this, but its a very handy guide. You can download the Pdf from here by clicking and selecting Download fileor “Save target as” in IE and “Save link as” in Firefox. Hope it will be of some use to people who are unaware of such shortcut keys.

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Shocking : Cell phone Battery blast kills youth in China

A 22-year-old Welder In North-western China Died When His Cell Phone Battery Exploded As He Was Working In Hot Temperature.

The Battery Exploded While The Phone Was In The Man’s Pocket As He Was Welding At A Factory In Shuangcheng In Jinta County In Gansu Province, The Lanzhou Chenbao Reported, Adding That The Death Was Believed To Be The First In China Caused By A Cell Phone Battery.

The June 19 Blast Broke A Rib And Drove It Into The Man’s Heart And He Collapsed In A Pool Of Blood, The Report Said. He Was Taken To Hospital But Died There.

The Manufacturer Of The Phone Was Notified And Dispatched Experts To Jinta To Conduct An Investigation

Gosh !!! I have heard that we should not use the cell phones at higher temperature, but that could result something like this , I was totally unaware of. Even though the person was welding at a factory , I doubt that temperature could be so high to exceed the sustainability of a battery . So is temperature could be the only cause ?? Or the quality of the battery ??( Chinese )
I have checked my nokia phone , even though its finland made, the battery label states “Made in China”.
Anyway prevention is better and hence avoid taking your phone at high temperature places.

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Cellphone rays are harmful : Underwears may help protection

Cellphone radiations are still a matter of concern for the users. Many even say talking a lot on phone without the usage of a handsfree accessory can even cause short term memory loss.

According to science news

A single 2-hour exposure to the microwaves emitted by some cell phones kills brain cells in rats, a group of Swedish researchers claims. If confirmed, the results would be the first to directly link cell-phone radiation to brain damage in any animal.

Many people even say that carrying a mobile phone in your pant pocket may even cause sterility , however the point is yet to be proved.According to textually, a Swiss clothing manufacturer Isabodywear is launching a special line of men’s underwear that claims to protect

“men’s sperm from harmful cell phone radiation”.

The briefs are made with threads of silver which the company claims blocks cell phone rays and reception. The inventor, Andreas Sallmann, explains that when you put a cell phone inside your briefs, then dial your number from another phone, you probably won’t even get a signal.

4000 black (only) briefs have been made so far and 500 will be been given away for test purposes, by simply sending the company an email.
Product seems to have raised concerns over cell phone radiations and hope this wont be the last product in this range.

Cnet has given clear review about cell phone radiation level based on SAR (specific absorption rate) level.
According to the review :

SAR or specific absorption rate is “a way of measuring the quantity of radiofrequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body.” For a phone to pass FCC certification, that phone’s maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6W/kg (watts per kilogram). In Europe, the level is capped at 2W/kg.

You can check SAR level based on company model here.

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World’s fastest internet : 40 gbps, can download full HD DVD in 2 seconds

ts not a rumor , its something which is live in Swedon in a 75 year old lady Sigbritt Löthberg’s house.She is the mother of Swedish internet legend Peter Löthberg who, along with Karlstad Stadsnät, the local council’s network arm, has arranged the connection.

As reported the trick behind the setup is a “new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000-kilometers apart with no intermediary transponders

The power of such high speed internet connection , gives Sigbritt an option to download a full HD DVD movie in just 2 seconds.

Amazing isnt it ?? This is how fiber optic technology for transferring the data can revolutionize the internet world. Time is not that far when this kind of high speed internet will be available worldwide and that too on a wide scale because of the rising demand of high definition audio video,which result in exponential increase in size of a small video clips.

Some time back I heard the news , that some celebrities are kind of scared of High Definition Video as it may make their wrinkles on face visible on the big screen. This just gives an idea of the clarity in HD video.

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Nokia N series phones making Computer Jealous ??

Nokia’s much hyped N series (But no where near to Iphone ) stated as multimedia computers can make your computer or laptops extremely jealous. Well the idea is created by a Nokia N95 user , whose laptop started behaving strange (actually jealous ), when he started using his phone for just everything for which he normally used his laptop for.

The warning given in the video states that “N series phone Can be Dangerous for Health”. Apocalypso is the author at Symbian-freak , who seems to be behind the Idea.

A short description at the video sounds pretty interesting :

Well, in my personal opinion, computers are just like women, and now, at least, I have a proof for that.

You see, my lovely computer got extremely jealous and pissed off because I ran off to sunny along the beautiful Croatia’s Dalmatian coastline, taking in amazing islands such as Brac, Hvar, Vis and Korcula to spend a hot summer with a sexy, sleek, stylish, fancy and powerful Nokia N95, leaving my poor desktop stored far away at my home and my laptop in the hotel room to collecting dust.

This jealousy has driven my laptop to refusing to start up last few days and now it seems that I can expect even more serious reactions.

The HeCoVoG encourages us all to ensure that every Nseries user is aware of the dangers they face by using their device and have categorically stated that both of you guys face an increased risk.

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9 Steps to Success in Affiliate Marketing

1. Join an Affiliate Program: Join programs that interest you personally. There are affiliate programs for almost any product or service you can think of so do some research and find one that is right for you. If you have a passion for your product niche it will be a whole lot easier to stay motivated and be successful.

2. Build your own website to promote your product: You will need to build a website with your own domain name (ie. homeworksolutions.biz ) and pay a monthly fee for hosting as opposed to going the free route and sharing a domain (ie. yourname.homeworksolutions.biz ) If you don't know much about web design that's quite ok. You will find there are lots of companies out there who offer very affordable website design.

3. Start a reciprocal linking campaign: Start exchanging links with other websites in your niche. You will find lots of webmasters willing to add a link to your website as long as you return the favor. The more websites that link to you, the higher page rank you will have in the search engines, therefore leading to more traffic to your website.

4. Start your own newsletter: The newsletter can simply consist of articles related to your products and website. Always add a signature containing a link to your website at the bottom of each newsletter entry. That way when people read your articles they can continue on to your website. If you don't want to write your own articles, there are many webmasters who will let you use theirs for free. Submit your newsletter to as many websites as you can.

5. Build an Email List: Owning your own email list is one of the most important tools you can have as an affiliate marketer. The best way to build your list is to buy leads, that way you don't have to worry about getting in trouble for spamming. Lots of companies sell quality leads (email addresses) consisting of people who have requested information about your products. With every lead you buy you can in turn sign them up for your newsletter.

6. Get an Auto Responder: With an auto responder program you can make the process of buying leads and adding them to your newsletter completely automated. You can save hours of time with this approach.

7. Write your own Articles: To be successful with affiliate marketing you will eventually have to write an article or two. This may sound a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but after you have been building your business for awhile you will get into it. Always include a signature at the bottom of the article containing your website link. Then post your article on as many websites as you can. A search for 'article directories' in any search engine will give you lots of places to start.

8. Add an Article page to your website: Post all of your articles on this page and any others you find related to your niche. Having an article page will add content to your website and will help with your page rank. Search engines like Google and Yahoo love websites with lots of relevant content.

9. Join an Online Forum: Becoming a member in a forum is a great way to stay current with the products in your niche. Talking with fellow entrepreneurs will keep you motivated and help generate new ideas as well as answer all your questions.

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Affiliate Opportunity The Bad Credit Market

If you are an affiliate, you will want to consider promoting programs catering to individuals with bad credit. Why? Because of the tremendous demand!

Millions of consumers have less than perfect credit. In addition, in 2004 nearly 1.6 million people in the United States filed for bankruptcy ? and that number is expected to increase in 2005, due to the new bankruptcy legislation that recently went into effect. In short, this is a HUGE market!

Okay, so we know there?s a market ? but what products or services are people with poor credit looking for?

Here are some popular categories: Auto loans, credit cards, home loans, refinancing, checking accounts, personal loans, and information products (e-books, membership sites, courses, etc).

If you look at the number of searches done for bad credit related loans and financing, you?ll find that a lot of people out there are looking for the ?right? lender to help them. Many of them know their local bank would probably turn them down in a second if they applied for a loan.

They need a lender that specializes in working with individuals with poor credit? or information that they can use to increase their credit score so they can qualify for an auto loan, home loan, credit card, etc. with their local bank. That?s where you come in!

As an affiliate you can direct them to various lenders and information products ? and get paid for it if the person signs up for the service, or purchases the information product, under your affiliate ID#!

So where do you find such services and information products to promote. There are a few ways:

1) Search Engines: Type ?affiliate directories? into your favorite search engine. Next visit the websites you find and click on the finance, credit or related categories. If you want to promote real estate related services (i.e., home loans) for people with poor credit, you could see if they have ?real estate? category.

2) ClickBank: Another ideal starting place is ClickBank. Approximately 10,000 vendors sell their digital products and services through ClickBank. In addition, there are over 100,000 ClickBank affiliates.

Once you?ve signed up for their affiliate program, visit their Marketplace ? you can go to the category ?Money & Employment? and then click on the ?Debt? link. It will provide you with a listing of all of the information products and services you can promote in the category.

3) Other Popular Affiliate Networks: In addition to ClickBank, other affiliate

networks you will want to consider signing up with are Commission Junction and LinkShare. To find more affiliate networks, simply type ?affiliate networks? into your favorite search engine.

4) Surfing the Net: Let?s say you come across a website offering a secured credit card which you?d like to promote. Look for a link (usually near the bottom or top of the website) that says ?affiliates? or ?make money?, or something similar. If there is none, email the site owner (they should have a ?contact us? link) and ask if they have an affiliate program.

Hopefully this article has given you some ideas on how you, as an affiliate, can cash in on the consumer credit trend and provide a valuable service at the same time ? matching individuals that have poor credit with the appropriate service or information product that will help them.



Copyright (c) 2005-06 Innovative Solutions Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

The company and product/service names referenced in this book are the trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. None of the owners have sponsored or endorsed this article.

DISCLAIMER:

This information is designed to provide only a general overview of the subject matter herein.

This information is provided with the understanding that neither the publisher nor author is engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional advice. If legal or other expert assistance is required, the services of a professional should be sought.

Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss or damages, including but not limited to special, consequential, incidental or other damages, caused by the information contained herein.

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Affiliate Marketing and Niche Websites A Match Made In Heaven

In my previous article: Affiliate Marketing 101 - Understanding The Basic Concept Of Affiliate Marketing, I pointed out that Niche websites are far more likely to generate increase affiliate income, than more generic type sites. The reason for this is simple; niche markets create targeted visitors, and these targeted visitors are far more likely to be interested in related products and services, as part of the reason for their visit to you.

Niche marketing is not hard. Niche marketing involves concentrating your website on one particular area of knowledge or expertise, as opposed to trying to be all things to all people. By developing these types of niche websites you are far more likely to succeed, and even go on to successfully win the affiliate marketing game.

So How Do You Create A Niche Website?

1. Focus On A Specific Subject. The more knowledgeable you are about the subject yourself, the more confident your visitors will be when visiting you in search of information. I have often found through my own personal experience that those who have a passion about a subject are far more likely to reflect it in their subject matter, than those who do not. For example, I have 2 passions in life: sports betting, and internet marketing. I have been fortunate enough to have profited considerably from both, but by placing my passion on the net, I now have the capacity to share my knowledge and experience with others who have an interest in the same things - subsequently turning my passions into cash.

2. Relate Your Content to Complimentary Products and Services. Once your niche has been established you can begin to apply the principles of effective affiliate marketing with great success. Content is king, so by relating affiliate programs directly to your content you are then in an ideal position to capitalise. As an example: my website at http://www.laytheodds.com is focused on the realm of sports betting and betting exchange trading. Everytime I discover a new article that relates directly to the site I publish it. Take a look for yourself at any article on http://www.laytheodds.com and you will see how I apply the very principle of relating content to affiliate software, betting systems, etc that I promote with maximum effect. The result, lots of targeted traffic, who are directly interested in any or all of the products or services I promote through affiliate links. The affiliate cheques at the end of the month directly reflect the success of this method.

3. Build a Niche Directory. Everytime I come across a website that I think would be of interest to my visitors I place a link to it in my links directory without even asking for a link back. Now this goes against the grain of so call SEO experts, but it is a strategy that works well. Here's why: webmasters almost always look at their logs to see who has visited them and where they have come from. When they see a link to them from me they are more often than not curious as to what my site is all about, and subsequently click through to discover for themselves - gotcha! Another highly targeted visitor just came through the door - and my own stats reveal that these webmasters themselves are highly receptive to buying online, and they do!

An additional benefit of niche directories is that search engines love them. In the recent update Google is said to have placed higher significance to these directory structures. This has proven to be the case as far as I am concerned anyway.

4. Use Free Articles to Boost Your Content. I always scour the article directories for new articles that relate directly to my subject matter. These articles are a valuable source of content, and keywords; and used effectively they act as magnets that draw new visitors in and expose them to all the additional affiliate offerings provided in order to entice them to click-thru and buy.

One trick I have used with great success is to link articles on the same subject matter together to form a chain. This keeps visitor interest high and again exposes them to more opportunities to click-thru an affiliate link.

5. Effectively Use Google Adsense. Alot has been written on Google Adsense, and the great incomes that can be produced through strategic placement of ads in and around content. And I just want to say this: THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! By placing google ads in and around your content you are often turning visitors into cash, regardless of whether they buy anything from you or not. I remember when I struggled each month initially to produce the minimum amount required to generate a payout from Google simply because I was not making effective use of the system itself. By changing the placement and emphasis my income from Google has increased fiftyfold across all my sites. Incorporate google ads in and around your articles - let google take care of the relevancy, and serve alternative ads (you can state the alternative ads to display in the Google Adsense control panel) in the event that google does not serve up ads.

So in a nutshell: we now have our niche website, serving up content in the form of articles and news specifically related to our subject of interest (which of course we are highly passionate about!). We have also directly related our content to complimentary products and services through strategic placement of affiliate links - and implemented Adsense ads, as well as our own ads in the event that Google fails to deliver. We have also setup our niche directory, and placed relevant links (emphasis on 'relevant'), again directly related to our subject matter.

What Have We Done? We have created a niche website that will prove to be a money-spinner in time. I say 'time' because this is not a recipe for overnight success - rather, a plan for medium to long term financial security. Viewed in this manner you are sure to succeed.

Next Task? Develop another niche website and replicate the whole process again!

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Affiliate Marketing Secrets They DonT Want You To Know About

Well, here it is folks, the three secrets every beginner must know before starting his or hers affiliate marketing home business: effort, time and money. Ok, I admit that despite the catchy title, I?m not really teaching you something you don?t already subconsciously know, but believe it or not, these simple rules of thumb are things that many novice webmasters often forget.

Let me elaborate. Despite what you may have heard, starting an affiliate marketing business takes a considerable amount of effort. If you?re not willing to keep up to date with the latest search engine optimization strategies, learn at the very least HTML and CSS basics or take some time and write quality content for your website, well I sincerely think you?re embarking in the wrong field.

Secondly, you will need to invest money if you wish to make money. Affiliate marketing is perhaps the easiest and cheapest home businesses to start, but you will inevitably have to invest in some books to refine your knowledge or pay for a good quality hosting company. Even though there are many free strategies you can use to maximize your site?s traffic, you will also have to invest money on good quality targeted advertising or paid inclusion in quality directories for example if you wish to increase your chances of success.

Finally, when investing your hard earned money in a project like this, you must be patient. The expression "patience is a virtue", is none more applicable then in the case of home internet businesses. Many claim to have made incredible amounts of money within a very short period of time. I don?t mean to sound pessimistic but these are either the luckiest people on the planet or what they are saying is simply not true.

The most important thing to understand about this type of business is that there is no magic recipe for success, because if there was, I wouldn?t be writing this article. I would be to busy rolling in all my money. You may find that some of the strategies you?ve read on the web or in books actually work in getting traffic to your website, but none of your visitors are actually buying anything. There are literally countless factors that come into play that will determine your level of success.

Without getting into the specifics and intricacies of affiliate marketing, I will try to point you in the right direction. First of all, an important aspect of affiliate marketing is the website itself. Like I said earlier, getting a hit on your website is one thing, but actually having that hit translate itself into a sale is a completely different thing. If your website doesn?t offer compelling content and simply relies on nice pictures, catchy slogans or cheesy testimonials, well I wouldn?t expect off the chart results. You might get the odd user to buy your product, but don?t expect him to come back. Just take a look at all the major corporate websites on the net: simple and easy to use design, fresh and informative content. That?s why most people go back to these websites. In layman?s terms, a professional looking website is a must, even if it only looks professional and you ended up designing and writing the content yourself. There are numerous templates or detailed tutorials available on the net that can help you design an efficient and professional looking website. There are also great article search engines where you can find free articles to use on your website.

The last thing I would like to elaborate on and probably the single best advice I can give any new webmaster willing to try his hand in such a competitive business is simply read. The more you learn, the better your chances are. You must study your competitors; understand your targeted audience, read any book that you can get your hands on; visit any website that can help you with your project, etc. Finally, apply the things you?ve learned even if it?s a relatively small venture. Unfortunately, there are many people out there who give up before they even get started, often because they realize that it takes a lot more work than they thought. But if you?re willing to push yourself and learn, you just might hit that home run.

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Making Money With Only Affiliate Marketing

Previously, when affiliate marketing deals were given to you, they were often too good to be true.

This is not the case anymore. You've probably heard the same things about affiliate marketing time and time again. The increasing number of affiliate programs, online or offline are all telling you they're better than everyone else.

Besides that, they will give you an initial impression that you do not have to do more than just place a banner or two to start earning more profits than you could ever imagine. This is not always the case. This may apply to some who have already built up a successful site and a name for themselves. But for most, affiliate marketing needs a little work and time.

Email can be an effective affiliate marketing instrument. If done correctly, that is.

Promotion by means of email is very rampant. If you want to use email for your affiliate marketing, you have to be sure that you stand by what you are offering and that you make yourself available anytime for any questions or queries.

It is said that adding an article to your email advertising works really well. Putting up a summary about your product or service that can instantly attract the attention of your readers.

This summary should contain a link to an article located on your site. By this, you get to promote your business. You also give your visitors a chance to check out other parts of your site.

The advantage to the advertiser is that they get highly targeted visitors to their site. These people may even become future buyers if ever they find the offers interesting and helpful.

Try to differ from the crowd. Be unique.

The many existing affiliate marketing programs made people blind to the sales and marketing pitch being presented. You cannot blame them. Imagine yourself being bombarded by these things everyday and you will feel the same.

Squeeze out your creative juices and give them something original enough to stop them from leaving and make them stay to read on. You can try and find a hosting company that can do the job well. Having a great one will make you more than comfortable to offer anything from small to big time deals.

Patience is the key in affiliate marketing.

Contact a certain company to negotiate an arrangement if you feel that you are confident enough to generate an amazing number of sales for them. If they seem not interested in what you are offering, do not give up yet. Be patient.

Take into account that these companies are bring approached everyday by affiliates only gives out promises. Most of them cannot deliver what they are saying; thus making company owners wary of which ones to choose.

You can always go the extra mile and implement other techniques in order to get more sales. Once you have done this, approach them again for your services. Chances are, they will be more than willing to get into your affiliate program this time around.

Keep in mind that most types of advertising do not give out results instantly. Putting up a banner for your affiliate marketing campaign and getting it off after a few days should not be done. You may think that they are not being effective or that they are not working. It takes time.

Some of the affiliate marketing strategies that have worked successfully for you may not work the same way on other campaigns. It is worth the try but do not expect for things to turn out exactly.

If you are having continuous problems with your affiliate program, get in touch with the company. If they are committed to their business, they will help you in every way possible on which ones work best. They probably have thousands of affiliates willing to teach you what works best.

Affiliate marketing can be exciting and depressing at the same time. The ups and downs you will encounter is never boring; it will always be a challenge

It all boils down to affiliate marketing being the survival of the best of the best, the smartest and the most patient. But those that win will be handsomely rewarded.

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Top 5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

In order to help you avoid making some of the most common errors made by the affiliate program marketers, who are web based, we have collected those mistakes to make you aware of them. Many have learned these lessons, but through the hard way of struggling to make the sales that just never closed, the entire idea is about closing the sales!

1. Failure to understand that people scan information

An affiliate marketer?s failure to realize that the people visiting your website will read about thirty percent of the matter on your page is the sure number one error. Most people, particularly the highly intelligent, busy professionals, having the money to purchase the products that you have to offer, are generally too busy to study every word.

They are going to search for and focus on the bullet points, highlights, blurbs and pictures to decide if the information is good enough and if they should spend time on reading more. Do not fall into the same trap. Make landing page of your affiliate marketing such that all the major points seem to stand out and cannot go unnoticed by the person scanning the page.

2. Lack of success in offering bundled packages

It is human nature to want things for free. Let your prospect feel that they are getting more for what they are paying for, by adding free prospects to the product you are marketing, or free software to enhance the product, or just a free subscription to any newsletter. Do not just offer them your product and ask them to get away. Add a package to which no one can refuse!

3. Failure in following up

Out of every 100 people who come across a sales page on any particular affiliate marketing, one among them will surely purchase immediately. The remaining 99 would move to another page with no chance of returning back. To attract these people, use an autoresponder, to allow signing-up for free reports. So, even if 25% of them sign up for your free reports, it would mean that twenty four people will see in their inbox, your product through free reports. Now if 10% of them do buy your product, you get to have 3.4 sales every 100 visitors, instead of 1. And it is an extremely conservative estimate.

4. Flooding the inbox of the prospect

Everyone dislikes seeing 5-6 messages from a single marketer, on opening their inbox. That is a sure-shot way to land you into their e-mail blocking list! Instead contact them every few days, and then slowing down to just once a week, to even once in two weeks, between your contacts. Sales can be generated through persistence, so do not give up if you?re contact shy of sales closure.

5. Failure to construct sales of second tier

As an affiliate marketer, you can?t just make profits out of just your own sales. Anyone who joins the program, on the basis of your referral, is sure to join membership of your own downline, and in fact a small percentage of profit made by their own sales would also come trickling down to you. All people wish to have the largest possible downline. Also, do not forget that the ones joining under your downline can help in getting trickle-up profits.

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So You Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer

If you're like 99% of the population, you have some interest that you are passionate about. Maybe it's travel, or sports or animals. If you have an interest like this, why not make some money from it? Create a website to showcase your interest, join some affiliate programs and add the links to your new website. Now, starting raking in the cash. Simple, right?

No, not really. When a new affiliate marketer comes to me for advice, I tell him or her it's not as easy as it sounds. Many will listen to my suggestions and then "go his own way" to creating banner farms. Sometimes pretty, but not very effective. My biggest piece of advice is "Don't create a website about pets and add affiliate banners like satellite tv or gambling or dating to it. It doesn't work!

Let's start by discussing what affiliate marketing really is:

Affiliate marketing is a partnership between a web merchant and one or more affiliates. Affiliates are paid commissions for referring others to the site - specifically for generating sales, leads or "clicks."

There are a lot of benefits to affiliate marketing. You don't have to deal with customers, worry about payment processing or find your own affiliates. But, do you have the patience it takes to build from the ground up? It takes knowing yourself. It takes time and it takes persistence. It takes having a strong desire to succeed. And it takes a little bit of luck. You're not going to become a millionaire overnight - sorry!

Again, what's your passion? What affiliate products can you find that will compliment your interests? Do those affiliate products actually sell? Do your homework! You must research your products thoroughly.

It's not easy to be a successful affiliate marketer. There's a lot you must learn. Once you get your website up, you need to know how to market your site effectively. You'll need thousands, even tens of thousands of visitors to see your affiliate products' "offers." Think big! Go for LOTS of sales - not just one! By the way, don't sell - PREsell! The real key to being successful with affiliate marketing is to develop a good content based website and weave your affiliate links into all your content.

Create a list - a newsletter. You must have a way to bring your website visitors back to your site. Once they leave, they won't be back without some incentive. Put your newsletter signup box on every page of your site because you never know what page your visitors will land on first.

Be creative. Think of ways to keep your visitors coming back. Perhaps with contests or polls. You might want to give away a "freebie" every once in a while. Write reports and articles. Keep your content fresh and new.

What do you think? Do you still want to be an affiliate marketer? Good, then get started, and, as the saying goes, "Keep on keepin' on."

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Affiliate Marketing Secrets Revealed

Affiliate programs are a simple way to generate revenue. This is a system of revenue sharing between one site (the affiliate merchant) which features an ad or content designed to drive traffic to another site (the advertiser). The affiliate will receive a fee based on the amount of traffic generated. Having an affiliate program is a great way for a merchant site to increase its traffic and revenue, but it is also a great way for an average person to make money. Affiliates do not have to develop their won product, process orders, deal with shipping, etc. They simply find a reputable company that offers and affiliate program and sign up. Sounds easy, right? That is what a lot of people think, and it is also the reason why a lot of people try it and fail. In order to actually succeed and make a significant amount of money as an affiliate marketer, you have to work. Just like any other job, you need to put time and effort into it in order to see results. The first step is to find a great merchant. One mistake that a lot potential affiliates make is not researching the company thoroughly. Of course they all say that they are the best and most lucrative. It is up to the potential affiliate to do their diligence to make sure the company they choose has a good reputation and a good program to help its affiliates. Make sure the company offers a start-up manual at the very minimum. The next step is to build a website. This is where a lot of beginners run into problems. This becomes a giant hurdle for those that do not know how to build a website using html. There are web-building services available, but they can be costly. Even those who can use it still can have make mistakes. Some of the most common mistakes are: hosting at a free Web hosting service, poor content, websites that do not look professional, and failure to master the Search Engines. Finally, in order to be successful, you need to get people to see your website. In order to do this, you need to find ways to drive traffic to it. Some of the most important things to do are to make the content of their Web pages "attractive" to Search Engines; track how each page performs on the major Search Engines; and develop more than one way to drive traffic. Once you have done all of these things and are beginning to experience success as an affiliate marketer, you can just sit back and watch the money roll in, right? Wrong!!! You will always need to monitor your traffic and think of creative new ways to bring the traffic to your website. But, most importantly, if you ever want to be able to rely on affiliate marketing as a stable source of income, you need to diversify into other, complementary monetization models. Copyright 2006 Timothy Rohrer

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Affiliate Marketing: 3 Steps to Free Targeted Traffic!

Have you ever tried to promote a website without traffic?

Sure, is sound like stupid question, but reality is that

Without traffic, you will not get visitors. And without visitors, you will not make money, sales, get subscribers, etc.

So, What good is a website without any traffic? And if the site is getting traffic, what good is it if it is not targeted traffic?

There are many ways to drive traffic to your site, both free and paid. But we are going to talk about the one you probably love the most: Free Targeted Traffic.

So, let us go back to 3 different free traffic systems available:

1) Search Engine Optimization
2) Surfing for traffic
3) Getting it passively

1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

SEO takes time and a lot of work. It works really great when you know how to do it, but if you go after this one, I recommend you to learn from 3 guys online, and believe me, they know what they are talking about, just go to google and search for:

Brad Fallon

Andy Jenkins

or, Brad Callen

I recommend you take a look for Brad Callen´s free seo guide, you will find it somewhere out there in cyberspace and it is called: "Search engine made easy".

2) Surfing for traffic

When you join sites that are surf for traffic sites, you have to look at other members' sites in order to earn advertising credits for your site to be displayed when another member is surfing.

The only problem with this is that although the traffic is free, it is not targeted.

Everyone who is a member only surfs for the credit and very rarely and y mean rarely even looks at the site, they just minimize their window on their PC and multi-task. So, the traffic in most cases is crap and worthless.

3) Getting it passively

Now, let us talk about the best way to get free targeted traffic. It is called Instant Buzz. Instant Buzz is a service that gives you advertising credits as you surf the web like you normally would.

What you do is download the toolbar for free, it only takes a minute. Then, you set up your ads in the members area. And bam, you ads are being displayed on other members' tool bars as they surf.

You can also put Instant Buzz ads in emails that you send to your friends. These are called mail space ads.

And your ad will get displayed in other members' emails. The last thing you can do is put a hyperspace ad on your website which will help you refer other members.

When you refer other members, you will also get a percentage of the credits they earn which will go towards your ad credits.

If someone likes your ad and is interested in what it says, then they click on it and end up on whatever site it was that you were promoting. Now that's targeted traffic! And it was free.

You decide what to use, and remember if it is free, well, why not?...

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Buy the Worst of Barron's 500

Every year, Barrons publishes a ranking of the top 500 companies. A subsidiary of Credit Suisse (Holt) is the entity that has come up with the methodology for these rankings. I will not bother to explain the methodology since the point of this post is not to critique nor endorse these rankings. Rather, I looked at the last 3 years (2004, 2005 and 2006) rankings, and came up with some interesting observations that I wanted to share.

I examined the Top 10 and the Bottom 10 stocks from each of the lists over the last 3 years, in other words, stocks ranked 1 to 10 and 491 to 500. What I noticed was that the best performing group of stocks over the 3 years were those ranked 496 to 500 - the 5 worst ranked stocks.

Indeed, these worst 5 stocks from the lists of 2004, 2005 and 2006, yielded investors 45%, 32% and 12.5% respectively in the 52 weeks that followed the date the rankings were published. Over the three years, this was the best group to invest in.

Another interesting fact was that the second best performing group to invest in, was the group ranked 491 to 500 - the 10 worst ranked stocks. Over the three years mentioned above, this group returned 30%, 18.5% and 18.5% respectively.

Considering that 2004, 2005 and 2006 were all bull years when the S&P returned 8%, 2.5% and 13% respectively, one would have thought that the worst 5 or 10 stocks in the Barrons rankings would underperform the S&P 500 somewhat, let alone outperform the top 5 and top 10 stocks. But if you look at the 52-week performance of these bottom tier stocks leading up to the publish date of the rankings, they lagged the top ranked stocks by a huge margin. In fact, leading up to the rankings, the Top 10 ranked stocks each year were already up 83%, 31% and 56% respectively over 52 weeks. Compare this to the Bottom 5 ranked stocks which were down 23%, 8% and 7% respectively over the same period.

In other words, stocks that have had strong performance leading up to the Barrons 500 Rankings issue tend to be ranked at the top, even though these stocks hardly ever replicate their big move after the rankings. Meanwhile, stocks ranked at the bottom are ranked so on the heels of underperformance, and turn out to be solid value plays in the weeks following.

The tables below illustrate my point:

*BOY above shows gains/losses from the beginning of the year to date of publishing.

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