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Entries in Blogging (144)

Monday
Apr112011

The Pen is mightier than the megabyte!

Do you have to many Pen drives or USB flash drives? I discuss how you can minimize having to have them with some very good software. Maximize how you use your Pen drive. This basically talks about tools for the technician but it can be useful for almost anybody!

Click to read more ...

Friday
Apr082011

Why I never volunteer for bacon!



"Please Enter A Valid Email Address" Image by pjsherman via Flickr


All Dogs love bacon!


If your wondering what I am talking about.   I will explain it to you in ways that you probably never considered.    If you have ever signed up to websites and they ask you if they could share your email address and name to 3rd parties.   3rd parties are like Epsilon Marketing and they make there money by selling products to people who have volunteered to receive bacon advertisements.

Security is nothing to Epsilon!


I won't go into detail about why because if I did you would probably agree with me just because of what happened.   Most likely Epsilon will loss a lot of customers and businesses due to the security breaches.    It just depends on how people feel about this company and why anyone should trust them after this breach.   I always tell anyone who signs up for a service to always makes sure to opt out of those emails.   I don't know about you but I know right now Epsilon has Egg on their faces and wouldn't mind sticking their heads in the sand.

Don't Get Caught Spear Phishing!


Now since the hackers have your name and your Email address, you probably are wondering what can I do not to get fooled.   I thought it would be a good idea to give some good guidance for those who might want to prevent this from happening in the first place.   You don't want them to get your sensitive information.    I don't want anyone to know my passwords or even my credit card numbers.   They will try to fool into giving out this information because there is some kind of urgent response about some kind of problem with your account.

Some stuff to consider:

  • No Company will call you asking for personal information

  • Nothing is so important as to go to the website directly

  • If they don't sound professional then tell them you will go visit the local bank or institution

  • Just because they know your name doesn't mean they are real

  • Don't click links in emails that you don't trust, always go the sites that you trust by typing it in your browser


These are just a few ways to help prevent yourself from being phished but nothing can prevent it but yourself. So remember to think before you click and think before you give out any information to unknown emails or people.


Tuesday
Apr052011

I'm back with a vengeance! 



oil abstract painting MORE BIOGRAPFY;web album... Image via Wikipedia


Hello Again!


I am not an new blogger but actually an old blogger coming back to blog some more.    Over the past few months my old blog, Tech-linkblog.com has been slow or not even something that I wanted to continue doing.   I must say that it wasn't because I didn't want to but I was busy with my new job.

I must say It has been nothing if not busy for me.   I created two new domains to and got them up and running thanks in part to Hover.com.  This domain and unlockedcellphonesblog.com were recently bought because I wanted to expand my domains and have more resources when I needed it.

So what about my Old Domain?


I'll probably keep it up and running because it will still make money for me and draw people to this domain and others.   It would be unwise to discontinue that domain just because I am going to start writing for this one now.   I have actually missed just sitting down and typing out what my thoughts are and sharing them with my readers.   Although there will be no major readers just yet, I do believe when I start discussing some good stuff like the Amazon Cloudplayer that people will want to come and find me to learn more about it.   I've not had any time to play with it but I am quite curious as to what people think of how Amazon has taken the lead in MP3 market?

So what is next?


I'm not sure but I will be updating at least once a week with stuff that I find interesting and maybe even twice a week.   I don't know when these posts will be coming out but I am going to work on getting back to writing the way I used to just like when I was on my Tech-linkblog and blogging.   The only main reason to switch over to this new domain is because I felt it was more of a fit for me and it was an easier domain to have my reader remember and not forget it easier.    That is one of those tips that you need to remember when purchasing domains.   Find something that people can easily remember and come back to so they don't have to try to remember a long URL.

Is there anything you want me to Talk about?


I know I kept saying this from my old blog but I thought I would continue to ask and see you would like to talk about and engage my readers some more.   The more I learn from my readers so the blog post can be more interesting to you and others.   I am sure I can come up with some topics of my own and I probably will continue to blog about what interest after all, this is the reason for this domain.   I do hope you join me for this journey and make yourself at home!


Tuesday
Aug042009

Picking The Hosting Provider & Setting your Domain

In my Previous Post we talk about the process I am going to use to guide you through it. So we already see what we need to do. In this Post we need to talk about Hosting and Domains.

When it comes to hosting a website it all depends on who you want to go through. Here are a few Hosting Providers that I recommend:

  • Hostgator ($4.95 a Month)

  • FatCow (Yes that is a Hosting Provider. Starting as Low as $5.50 a month)

  • IxWebhosting (Starting as Low as $3.95 a month)


These three hosting providers have programs to help you install Wordpress.   For those who want to understand what a Hosting provider does, these are basically servers who host your blog content. They all have their own way of helping the customers.

They each will have a different way of setting up Wordpress so you may have to look around their site for the specific details, but that is coming up in a future blog post. I will be walking you through using Godaddy.

Photo By: Terry Mun Photo By: Terry Mun

Now you've picked and bought who your hosting provider is. Now we need to pick your domain. Most all hosting providers I have recommend can also buy domains for there customers. So depending on the Hosting Provider you pick can help speed up the process.

Once you have a hosting provider with a server, you now have to buy a domain or I like to call it a brand-name. You should have a list but if not you can still make the list. This process of trying to find the right domain name can take the longest because some of the domains or all of the domain name on your list could be taken by another person. So you will need to go through the list on your web browser and put each one in at a time. For this example, I would recommend just using a [Listname]”.com”, working your way down to the bottom. See if it is taken if not this domain may be bought creating a new list of available domains that you might want to use. Just remember the domain might not be there much longer so You will have really short period of time before it could be taken by some other person.

Once you eliminated the ones that are used you can now figure out if your want to use one of the unused domains for your brand-name or if you want to start another and see if you can't find a better one. This step is can usually be the ones that take the longest because there is a high chance the first list is usually no good but not always it just depends on what your brand-name is going to be.

Once you've picked the domain that you want use, it is time to go back to the hosting provider you choice and go about buying the domain. Each Provider is different some will charge you a setup fee for the domain others will be free.

Lastly You'll want to make sure the domain is linked to your hosting server. The way you'd do that is go to login into your hosting account and checking the DNS Settings, or some host providers call it CNAME Records. This tells the Domain name that if you type it into the browser to go to a certain IP. This is where your hosting your provider provides and will most likely be part of registration confirmation.

On the Next Post I will talking about Setting up Wordpress.
Monday
Aug032009

How to Setup your own Blog, The Easy way

Over the weekend I had a chance to talk to my sister who was interested in having setting up her own blog. She didn't know a thing about setting up her own blog and asked me to walk her step by step. So I thought I would also walk my readers through this whole process and help you set up your own blog to.

This process will take approximately an hour to two hours, each step will be talked about in detail through a series of blog post. This shouldn't not take long for anyone to do, depending on the speed of your internet. In fact if you follow my directions, it should be really quick and easy. No mess or fuss.

  • How to Setup your Own Blog, The Easy Way

  • Picking the Hosting Provider & Setting up your Domain

  • [intlink id="4118" type="post"] Setting up Wordpress[/intlink]

  • [intlink id="4122" type="post"]Securing Wordpess[/intlink]

  • [intlink id="4135" type="post"]Picking your Blog Theme[/intlink]


So now with that being said, I would like to talk about domain names. If you want to have your own domain you have to make it unique. It should be something personal and go with what your looking for. Do you know your domain is almost like a brand-name? Just like Nike, Adidas, and McDonald's people who hear that come back with the knowing that no matter where you are in the world. This also goes for your Domain, before you start this think of a what you will be blogging about and make a list possible domains. This is always the first step into creating a blog. Now I must warn you this process may take long or it might be short. Some or All of those domain names you come up with may be taken or they may not. The Most common name extensions can be seen through Wikipedia.
Now with that said on my next post we will talk about Picking your hosting provider and Setting up your Domain.
Tuesday
Jul282009

Why website should Hide their Affiliate links

Yes you heard me right, lately I've been trying to figure out why some of my click were not used in my links. So I went to Google to find the answer. I found the answer to some of this. According to some other websites 40% of affiliate links are stolen or switched with spammers and scammer who are trying to make money. You see the virus writers have been trying to make money with there Fake Antivirus software and they will do anything to earn money. I have also though about how people would boost they have made Millions from Affiliate links and that is where this stilling would happen.

How to make your Affiliate links look like they come from your site:


I decided the easiest way to prevent link theft is create a directory called "go" and then used the program Profit Protector to encrypt and hide my affiliate links.  Then all you have to do is upload the created html file to the "go" directory. for Example:

http://www.affiliatesite.com/product.html?affid=1234


changes to


http://www.mysite.com/go/affiliatesite.html


Now all you have to do is change all your links like the example above and you would use the "http://www.mysite.com/go/affiliatesite.html" for your active link.  This would help reduce programs from stealing your affiliate links with there own.



Has this help my affiliate links?


I would say a most definately yes.   I have been watching the click through rates through my affiliates menu and see a drastic change of people downloading or having a user session with my affiliate links.   I also think this will increase my commission pay out because now people can follow through and buy a product without knowing they have left my site.

Now I won't argue the ethics of this system because I have worked hard at finding the right affiliates for my niche but in the end, I have no regrets.   I feel this is what I have to make sure my efforts pay off.   After all I've done the reviews and that is my payment for doing the reviews.   What do you think?  Is this something you have to do or have done?

[ad#SUPERAntiSpyware]
Thursday
Jun182009

MyGodaddy Review : Thumbs UP!

I have been using [ad#Godaddy Name]as my Hosting Company for quite some time and really love the service. As you know they clam to have 99% uptime and I haven't seen them go down for anything since I started. So Let's Talk about this even more:

[ad#Godaddy Video]

  • Hosting plans starting as low as $4.99 a Month. ([ad#Godaddy Hosting plans])

  • Domains starting as low as $1.99.  ([ad#Goddady Domain Sale])

  • Technical Support has been excellent.  Every time I call there hasn't been nothing they would not do to help out.

  • Wordpress, Simple Machine Forum, and even Wiki programs. You have a wide variety of programs to use to such as blog and have it up and running in no time.

  • You can become a Reseller for Godaddy if you want, and have a store if you want.   This is also makes it even easier for you to make and sell domains for cheap.

  • SSL Certificates -- Keep your website secure and prevent people from getting information they shouldn't.   This is good for businesses who have to sell using a credit card or registration for people information.


This is a good service for bloggers and podcasters who want to blog.   I have been using this service from [ad#Godaddy Name]and have been really impressed.  If you looking for a hosting this is the right place to go.   Although the support for [ad#Godaddy Name]is not the best, when I went through them for tech support.   They would tell me how to fix it and leave me do it myself but that is a good way to learn how to keep a website going.   I still recommend [ad#Godaddy Name]for people who want a dependable service.   Do you like or not like Godaddy?  I want to hear from you!  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

All in All, I like the support and friendliness of [ad#Godaddy Name]to keep me going when something unexpected comes up. You will never know what is around the corner.
Tuesday
May052009

It is looking like a Phish to me Niggabook

niggabookphish

This site looks to be another phishing attempt, a poor one at best. I go there and it seems that you get the Facebook Login screen. According to:
mj78niggabook

If it isn't showing Http://www.Facebook.com or Https://www.facebook.com then it probably is a a phish site.   If you've did use your password with this site, I'd strongly suggest changing it.   If I find out more I'll let you know.   I know that the site is from Godaddy but if this was done by accident or not I do not know.   I don't make the Name up Niggabook.com is the site and until more things become clear, steer clear of the site for the time being.   When I find out more, you'll be the first to know!!

Monday
Apr062009

Securing your Windows Machines

After a Long day at work, you sometimes feel like there isn't much you want to talk about. Then this idea comes to me? Why do people blog and why do people talk about security?

I've come to realize something, I'm not one who was grew up understanding bits from bytes. I grew up as any family does fighting with my siblings.

Having been blogging the past few years, it seems like only yesterday that I started blogging. Cliche I know but still very much true. Most blogs do what they know, I aim to learn and teach each day I blog. Like days like this when the world is pretty much quite and the [intlink id="3214" type="post"]remnants of the conficker[/intlink] worm dies to a rumble.

[ad#cricket-right-ez]So how do you secure your Windows Machine?

After a day long battle with  my wife's system, I grow to wonder if there is something I should do differently with how to prevent Viruses and Worms on her system.  So I've groomed my Knowledge base and come up with 5 good points when it comes to locking down your Windows Machines:

  • [intlink id="994" type="post"]Lock down your Router/Modem[/intlink]  -- Some people don't know that having an insecure router with weak passwords is a way to get on another system.   This can easily be prevented if the users takes some steps to prevent. it.  Although if a hacker wants to break your encryption and find your Signal there is really nothing you can do but try to prevent that.

  • [intlink id="2205" type="page"]Firewall and Anti-virus[/intlink] --  Although I know people think I am a broken record this will always be something I encourage for everyone who reads my blogs.  I will never stop beating people over the head with this.   Seeing the [intlink id="3272" type="post"]Conficker map[/intlink] tells me there are quite a few without an Anti-virus or a Firewall, which might of given someone a heads up find out if they do or not!!

  • [intlink id="2984" type="post"]Disabling AutoRun[/intlink] --  This can prevent a USB stick from installing software it shouldn't.  Remember Microsoft has issued an statement on how to disable it for sure.  Although I must say The Security Now episode 187 seems to talk about this really well and how to make sure you do disable it the right way.

  • Make sure it is a Limited user account --  Most people always run as administrator when in fact that sometimes makes you more vulnerable to viruses, worms, and trojans.   Any software you install as an administrator will automatically be given Administrator rights.  That can be very bad when it comes to virus and such.

  • [intlink id="2883" type="post"]Keep your System up to date[/intlink] -- This is essental for people who to prevent exploits to be used against you.  Although  if your like me and you want to make sure your software is up to date some of that can be done with [intlink id="553" type="post"]APPSNAP[/intlink].


With These tips, your system can be a little more safer.  Just remember there is no perfect way to protect your systems 100% only some of the time.  The rest depends on you, because your the last layer of defense.  Also it isn't a bad idea to [intlink id="2407" type="post"]back up your system from time to time[/intlink].
Monday
Mar162009

Dark Side of Adsense

As many of you know, I've wrote a blog postabout Adsense for Begginers.  I wrote this to try to make people see that Adsense isn't all that bad.  I wanted to expand on this and talk about the Dark Side of Adsense.
AdSense is an advertisement application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering (also owned by Google)

[Via Wikipedia]

Now we know that Google uses what we like to call a Per Click payment plan, that is to say on occasion you get paid for ratio of page views.  It can be 0.05$ or more, I don't know how they figure it out but I do know there is more to this than what you see behind the Adsense.

[ad#ad2-right]I went on a journey to find out about Adsense and I stumbled across this post about Adsense Fraud.  I wanted to add to this by talking about why people are would do this even more.

I might not know a lot, but I do know that with the Recession still going on and people are trying to find ways around making money.  Some people have went to the Darkside of the money making idea.

Now we know that Adsense calculates your Pageviews with you click ratio or your Rate of Return.  I know Google has a very good Algorithm to use with figuring out what ads to place for each site.  You see I've recently gotten a lot of traffic to my site and all of the sudden my Ads I have on my site are more colorful.

I know Google might not admit it but I suspect they have several levels of tiers for ads.  I would only assume that if  a site has more pageviews, it would mean there is a more cost to put ads on the site.  Now we all know that Ad Space is valuable because the Ad helps drive traffic to the sites that  user or users are interested in.

Why people would want to go to the Darkside of Adsense is no mystery.  It all involves Money, We've heard it before and we will always hears this online.  Someone is making a fortune off of advertising a month.  It will be a big sum of money some have even boosted about it, 500$, 1000$. or more.

Making money is always going to be a long term goal, and anyone who you ask will say they worked for that money.  You can never really make money without working, it's something that everyone has to learn.  You earn it every time you cut the grass or every time you go into work.  It takes three things:

  1. Time -- is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects. Time has been a major subject of religion, philosophy, and science, but defining time in a non-controversial manner applicable to all fields of study has consistently eluded the greatest scholars

  2. Work -- is a measure of the work done by human beings. It is conventionally contrasted with such other factors of production as land and capital. There are theories which have created a concept called human capital (referring to the skills that workers possess, not necessarily their actual work), although there are also counter posing macro-economic system theories that think human capital is a contradiction in terms

  3. Support --  is a social affinity in which one person stands with another person, closely understanding his or her feelings.


[ad#cricket-right-ez]It takes Time, yes I do mean this.  You can't build a big website over night.  It takes several different things to make your website good.  The design is one, the name is another, and lastly it's your personality that determines the way people will react when they come upon your site.  I've learn that the hard way,  when I first started blogging, I never got any major page views.  Then I went into working on my blog.

When I say work, I mean work.  You need to find where your best at and exploit it.  I don't mean exploit it illegally but I do mean use it to bring out your website.  Like mine, I have been working hard at research finding website others would very rarely come across.    I also want to be able to teach people about blogging and instruct them in the proper way to blog.  I have made mistakes in my time and I can bet I will make mistakes in the future, so I always say that is always going to be a works in progress.

The final thing is Support, if you don't have support from your returning readers you will never be able to advance in pageviews.  I mean that if your readers don't recommend this to other people then no one will find out what your really like.  It all depends on the readers, they are who you are writing to and trying to make a connection.

I know I went on a Tanjent and I made this a rather long post, but I hope this helps you understand about Adsense and blogging.  These two actually have a great deal in common.  They both need those  Three steps to succeed.   It all depends on how much you want you accomplish.
Thursday
Mar122009

Is Google the ultimate news source?

As you know We had a big problem Monday Night and All day Tuesday. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would of noticed either a 503 or lag. It was due to an article that I released late Monday night about the PIFTS.EXE and the so call conspiracy.

At the time, I was wondering and quite disturbed about what Norton Symantec was doing to the forums. So I blogged about this and wouldn't you know my site was Held Hostage by Google. I kid you not, I had so many people come to my site in under an hour it wasn't even funny.

[ad#cricket-right-ez]So I sit here, asking a really good question is Google the News? I don't know exactly when but according to Wikipedia Google was formed in 1998. The Google Motto is Don't Be Evil, and I guess it makes them look like a news source. When did they get past the news site? I would hazard a guess that it was in late 2004 they started when they when Google gave people the first chance to own the stock on August 19, 2004, when Google became a publicly held company.

I got hit hard by Slashdot, Reddit.com, and Google.  In truthfulness, It was more of searches and people coming from Google than anywhere else. I would say Google was the 90% and and Slashdot and Redidit was 8% and the rest was from other websites for this one article. Now don't get me wrong the 2% of people was my normal amount of people for the day. So you can imagine how many people actually came to my site over this fiasco.

I call this a fiasco because basically it was one that really made me worry about the server going down. People seemed to try to find out about this program and some of them didn't even do any more research than to come to my site? Although I do know a little, I have always considered myself to be a BLUE COLLAR Tech Blogger. So you can just call me "The Blue Collar Tech Blogger" when it comes to things like this. I will never proclaim I know everything and I am still learning every day I blog I learn something new.

So this leaves me with a question on how did Blogs become the news also?  Did we step into the roll of news?  I know there are many blogs out there that are telling the news and are almost as if they are the news.  Is that where this has become Web 2.0?  I throw these questions out to see what type of comment.  I just thought this was a good topic for today to talk about.
Saturday
Feb072009

Understanding Adsense for the Beginner

So you have a website and you'd like the site to pay for itself. That can be arranged it however depends on your website performance. You see you won't make a lot of money if you don't have several things going for you. I thought I share with you my experience with making money through Adsense. As you saw, I made enough money to pay for the website for 5 years. It isn't hard to make money it is however very difficult to keep getting the money. Most people don't know the tricks to making money with Google's Adsense.

I'm here to help you out a little with understanding it and getting even more money from your adsense.   So here we are 3 months into to putting Adsense seriously on my site and let's take a look shall we:

My earnings for 3 months


As you can see I started off quite slowly as I figured out how to best do it but gained momentum after that.    First Month I made $17.19 and the Second Month I made $45.57, the last month I made $64.99 totaling $127.75 leaving me with 16.75$ from the few previous months that I tinkered with Adsense.   So where do you start?  I found that to be the hardest part, because of the complexity of where I could put the ads.   I tried having strips breaking up the text in my blog post that really didn't get me hardly any clicks.  Then I started to incorporate the Adsense into the posts.  I learned how to do it through a great blog post and I'll talk about that later.   Here's what you need to know right now though:

    [ad#ad2-right]
  • Create good content --  This goes without saying that if you don't have good content people will never find your site.   There are a multitude of ways to create content.   Some of the most useful for me is How-to, finding a Niche, and Also just blogging about what you passionate about.   These will often draw people to your website.

  • Gjaylaramieet people to link to your post --  This will help with search engines because they do some math to figure out if your a real site and how trustworthy your site is on the internet.

  • Use Microblogging --  It is well known people use Twitter, Friendfeed, and others a like to tell people what they post about.   It can be great place to help promote your blog and get people to come more and more to your site.

  • Try not to annoy the users with Ads -- This is the most important if you want people to come back to your site you should make sure you don't send people away from your site.  People will not want to come back if you annoy them to much.   So it is essential that you keep them happy.

  • Find a good blog theme -- A good theme helps bring people to your site by making it easier to read and find what they are looking for.  You might also consider making a sneeze page to keep people coming back to your site.  This will help your readers and make it more of your own.  You might also want to buy a theme for your blog sooner or later.


With These tips and tricks you too could be on your way to having a great blog.   I would be willing to bet that soon I will be triple that amount if I keep up with what I am doing.   I hope you tell people about this blog and let people know how good this blog is for you.   Remember only you can prevent virus infections.
Sunday
Dec282008

Scoble is Right and Arrington, and Loic are wrong about "authority"?

This weekend the blogosphere flared up over twitter having "authority" search functions.  I say this is totally not going to work because some factors.  I am not saying they have the right idea but I do see a really major downfall.   Loic wants to be able to search for content that has more "authority" and because he is looking for good content.   I understand where he is coming from because he wants to look for content for his Seesmic Company.   I can see he wants to find the best videos to offer to his users for his company.  I totally understand and really appreciate that he wants to work for his company.

[ad#cricket-1-1]Now being that Arrington talked about this on Techcrunch, and agreeing with Loic over this.  I have to wonder why he wants to agree.  You see he is also into content and understand that if the "authority" for searches in twitter from his blog post means people will flock to his site and he gets more pageviews.  I say this is the wrong for him to agree because there is nothing going to stop people finding his content.   Also that would mean his blog post would have more "authority" then the common person who might not like this blog post and you wouldn't see that until you get to the next page or even a few pages back.   So we have these two wanting more "authority" and more content.

Then we have Scoble and his blog post.  Now let's talk about this from where scoble says it's a bad idea.  Scoble talks about gaming the system, and if you think back to Digg killing all the high number of members because they were using scripts.  Here we are again with regards to twitter.  Now if we have authority people are going to game the system because no matter how hard we try it will be a competition.

We have botnets and we have bots on twitter.  It really isn't hard to have a bot on twitter, and that is where we have a problem.  You see if we have "authority" and we want to game the system.  We just have bots with authority and by having other bots subscribe to each other.  There lies the problem.  People will easily be able to game te system and create even more trouble finding the content they are so dearly looking for.   Now I don't usually get into the whole "he's right and he wrong" disputes but this one has to be brought to people attentions.

I say this when did "Authority" stop people from talking about the really important stuff happening in the world.   We have people from Friendfeed talking about this and we have people from twitter talking about this als.  Loic and Arrington need to learn content isn't hard to find, it will always be there.  You just have to open your eyes to see.   The way I see it, we have a coin and we have the good and bad.  We should just keep the bad out of there and keep the good stuff we already have.   This goes in the bad idea bin for the time.
Tuesday
Nov112008

AVG Detected a False Positive

[ad#ad2-left]According to Security and The Net:

An update for the AVG virus scanner released yesterday contained an incorrect virus signature, which led it to think user32.dll contained the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN. AVG then recommended deleting this file; this causes the affected systems to either stop booting or go into a continuous reboot cycle. So far, the problem only appears to affect Windows XP, but there is no guarantee that other versions of Windows don’t have the same issue.

[Via Security and The Net]


[ad#ad2-right]I bring this up because this is a false positive according to AVG. AVG since sent out another update to there Database and you can go and update the database to get rid of this problem. If you need to restore that DLL check out the article Security and The Net, they got some excellent suggestions on fixing the problem.

If you've not been affected by this yet, you probably won't be. It is yet unknown how many people have been affected. I'm blogging about this to tell people about this and to warn people that not all of warnings from AVG are true and that is why you should always ask before you delete or do anything to your system. I always USE google when it comes to these types of questions
Thursday
Nov062008

Fake Wordpress update 2.6.4 steals data!

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The hacked version of the file pluggable appears to be stealing the content of cookies on larger installations of WordPress. Sophos are now detecting this file as Troj/WPHack-A.


[Via Sopho's]

Apparently this little update is a rogue update.  According to Sopho's and Craig Murphy’s blog, it is said to steal your data and send it to another site.  This hacked version of Wordpress is coming from wordpresz.org so if you happen to stumble onto this fake update, just delete it and go on with your blogging.   Craig talked about how when he logged it this fake update popped up.  So sometimes it is safer to do some digging before you apply an update especially to your Operating system.  Thanks to Sopho's for telling people about this fake and dangerous problem.
Friday
Aug292008

Living the Life of a Blogger 101

Having been blogging for the last few months and years. I've learned so much from blogger the platform. I thought I would talk about that in this post. To give those who want to use Googles Blogger platform to there fullest. It is inconsequential to the grand scheme of blogging. It is not enough to just blog it has to be some kind of meaning in it. You have to think of how best can I help people out. It is legal to use fair use. That is why congress has put it into congress.

Fair Use comes from the idea of using something that is 'Copyrighted' and use some portion of it to talk about or as a demonstration. Most people don't understand that, you can use anything on the web as long as you don't publish there material fully. I like to us hulu for example. I've embedded there videos on my site, and talked about Hulu from time. This last few weeks they had clues out on there site. I started trying to solve the clues they Published to better help figuring out there clues. Although they might consider there promotion as being copyrighted. I used there clues to publish what I considered was fair use. They couldn't do much other than smile that some one started blogging about there clues weekly because once they published there clues. I had the right to try to figure the clues out. I actually loved doing it.

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So why do we blog if we can have it protected?

In truthfulness, anything I publish will inevitable be published somewhere else on some one elses blog. Now they have the right to publish small clips of my stuff or even to link to my site. That comes from understanding my community and relationship with others. I have to let them do what they want with my blog post to an extent because I can't make the readers mad by sending out the old fashioned "Cease and Desist" orders. That would make my readers mad. I know how important it is to make my readers becoming my FAN.

How do you make your readers a Fan?

I identify with my readers because I know how I once was a reader myself. I have certain blogs that I like to read from time to time. I've got my blogs I like to read and comment on and I hope you do too. It's something that comes from years of reading and having a passion for telling people my point. I know people are uncomfortable making comments on blogs. They think the writer will not see or read it. Some also think the owner of the blog will delete the comment. That comes with understanding that we have to prune the comments because sometimes we have those annoying spam comments and others that will try to start a flame comment war. Those aren't needed in blogs we either like it or make a comment how the writer could of made it better. I am constantly thinking about how I can make my published work better and having more content. This is how I do it, I think about what I like to talk about and I make it more real. I then make it more reader friendly so that, I get the readers involved and let them choice what they want to read. People are always going to be picky they will always want a choice that is always going to happen.

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How do we get readers involved in a blog?

Little things can get readers to become involved in a blog. I remember a time on how I talked a little about Hulu the first time. I got a comment from the creator of Hulu to leave a comment. That was Awesome and Softened me to see just how many people read my blog and comment about my blog. I've learned during a regular blogging session, I need to keep commenting on the blogs because it makes people want to get involved in my blog and will greatly increase my blog community.

Can I start my own blog?

You can start a free blog just as I did. You would only need to sign up to Blogger and start blogging. Giving people the ability to start blogging is essential to making a difference in my writing ability because of the possible comments people will make on my blog. That is what I want to see more of is comments because people will always want to read the comments on a blog. Just like TechCrunch people love to go to that site to read or hear comments. I've done it, and I am sure others do to. That is a community and I like that type of community.

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Monday
Aug042008

A Blogger Has Dreams

Those who knows someone who has a blog, also knows what the dream of a blogger is. On this case I will go into 5 areas where most bloggers should improve on. Although these aren't going to be major, you to can create a good blog and encourage users to come back to you all the time. Having dreams isn't a bad thought or a bad wish. Sometimes having been blogging the way I have been. I see the challenges of coming up with content for the blog. I've figured out some important points in making content and full filling the dreams that you have.



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Sometimes, I think, bloggers get the bad wrap. They are considered undesirables to the big magazines and the popular medias. You see, in the mind of the big companies, they don't understand the small guy and how they impact the big companies. A bloggers dream is to impact there inspiration to write something with content.




  1. Content is the Key – Having seen content grow my blog from nothing to something means a lot. It means having content draws people to the small guy. You see not all the Honey comes from the big guys, but by the small guys. You will need to figure out where you want to go with your content. Understand this, content alone will not draw people to your blog and keep them.

  2. Create Loyalty – Unlike content, if you don't have loyal readers, you do not reach others with your ideas and understanding. Finding out how to make readers become loyal to your content has to be frustrating to some but I found it rather easy. You have to come up with Loyalty by giving people the chance to comment and creating a way for people to discuss there believes. Having loyal readers isn't all that is cracked up to be, you do from time to time have the reader who wants to protest or complain. That is normal, because you will never have what that one reader wants, and sooner or later you will replace that one with someone who enjoys reading your content.[ad]

  3. Bloggers want Advertising – Not just bloggers but podcasts want advertisement because it offsets the cost of buy web space and the effort of making content. Some would say it makes people run from your blog. I say different because having a dream is having people click your ads to support their blogs. Bloggers want you to make there dream your dream.

  4. Plan for the Future –Having an idea of how the future will effect your count and content.  Gives you a better edge for the future and a understanding of the past will better help you get the most out of your blogging experience.


Although this isn't all or even 10% of the whole picture for blogging.  You have to work through the fine details of getting people to come to your site.  It will however start you off in the right direction.  Finding inspiration is sometimes the hardest part of blogging because there are times when writing isn't easy.  In another post of mine in the future I'll talk about how hard it is sometimes to come up with content.

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Thursday
Jul312008

How to Get advertisers to come to you!!

Lately in the past few weeks, I've had several Advertisers come to me wanting to advertise for there clients.  I'd thought I share you some of my experiences, in the hopes, that you too can get advertisers to come to you so I'd come up with some steps to better help you;

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  1. Don't use Blogger.com -- Yep that's right, after recently moving from blogger to WordPress.  I've found that after the move, I'd start getting more people coming to my site.  I don't know if it was something I did or if it was the platform that got me more business.  I think most advertisers think blogger is for amatuers or people who aren't interested in revenues.

  2. Content is the Key -- Having spent the last few months thinking how I can get people to come to my blog.  I've found this out.  If you make content that is specific to your area and not try to repeat what everyone else is saying you can get a high volume of people to come to you site.  I've also learned that Google is your friend and you need to use it to you fullest abilities.

  3. Social Media is the Key -- That's right find sites that are social media and use them for the fullest.  Some of my favorites are: Friendfeed, Disqus, Seesmic, Furl, Technorati, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Plurk, and Facebook.  Although this isn't the complete list this is quite a few and you will need to socialize as much as possible to get people to come to you site.

  4. Don't be afraid to get your own ads -- Yes your are correct you don't have to wait for them to come to do you.  You can go to them.  Find some ad-services that will work for you and sign up.  Some of the ones I've checked out are Google Adsense, Crispads, and Commission Junction.  Having ads are your site lets advertisers know you are interested in having ads.

  5. Have an About me Page -- Although this seems the simplest of them all.  Having that will have them be able to get a hold of you if they would like to offer some sort of advertisement on your site.  It does not have to be complete.  It does however, have to have a way for advertisers to contact you in case they are wanting to communicate with you.


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There ofcourse is more to the story but this will begin your journey into the world of ad revenues.  It is to be expected to have some bumps in the road, however hard or soft.  If you can get past the first few months with your newly created blog, and you start creating content, you will start to get ads coming your way.  If you have other suggestions on how to get ad revenues please feel free in leaving a comment and I'll check it out.
Monday
Jul282008

Understanding a Bloggers Heart

I've had so many people talk about why blog? I've seen articles about blogging being dead. I say that's not going to happen, it is the heart of a blogger to talk about what they want to talk about. It comes from the idea that they have the understanding of the what a blogger is!

What's a blogger?

It's in the wikapedia as this : “A blog (a contraction of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.”  So what does that say about me? Well let us talk about this in terms we can understand. Having been blogging for the last few months or I should say year(s). I've got some things to say about this. Not all bloggers are bad and not all bloggers are professional. I hate to say this but it is the truth some bloggers have never went to school for writing class or other such education. We saw this as a way to talk about what we are passionate about and want to educate others. It comes from a desire to socialize with people who have the same interest and to be part of a greater plan.

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How do you find a good blogger?

Looking for good service is essential to finding the bloggers that have the best content. They want you to return to there site to see what else is going on. They want you to tell people to go check this site out. They post regularly and have a conversation with the readers. Having been thinking to myself, how to better make my blog accessibility is the hardest thing with an aging blog. It's really hard for us to ask for help. Sometimes a blog goes in the wrong direction and we as readers need to tell the blog author what you think by leaving a comment.

Why comment on a blog entry?

It's not that a comment makes or breaks a blog. It's the communication from the reader to the author of the blog. You can tell the blog owner or author what you think when it comes to a particular idea or particular way of thinking. Sometimes it is good to say you liked the blog entry or say where we missed it. It's the idea of washing the feet of the blogger. Yes you sometimes have to wash the feet of the blogger because if he is dirty, you can clean the feet of the blogger. By doing this you make it possible for the blogger to become better on his blog entries.

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How to not hurt the blogger feelings!

Even though you've not seen a blogger, they do have feelings and want to keep blogging. You can hurt the blogger's feelings by saying mean comments on the blog or talking bad about a blogger's website. Most blogs want to make money and I also know how hard it is to keep my blog going. I am playing 2nd Fiddle with my blog and others blog. I want it to be that way to better help my readers.

Is playing 2nd Fiddle as good as 1st Fiddle?

I wonder how many of you play 2nd Fiddle to produce harmony with blogging. I want my blog to be an outlet to better harmonize with other blogs that I read or help out. I am sacrificing a lot to better create a blog that people will come to my site. How have you created harmony with other bloggers? Most of the time we want to be better than others. Guess what? Being 2nd is better than being first in the blog, in my opinion. I can do more and say more than being on top. I don't have to try to make come up with the hard articles or the ones that are Hot Topics articles. I can say it's good being 2nd Fiddle and love it from time to time.

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You can't be an executive blogger without first learning to blog!

You have to learn to become a blogger before you can have a successful blog. It's teaching a child they can do anything they want with-in reason. That's like a newly created blog, they can do anything if they put there mind to it. That's why I've decided to talk about this topic. I want the bloggers who read this to come back with even more questions or suggest ideas. I find sometimes having questions is sometimes the way to make my blogger better. I throw out questions to get my juices flowing per say. I want to be a better blog and I need you to direct me and encourage me. So I throw this out at you, you want more stuff like this, please feel free to comment. If you want to see something on my blog, Leave a comment.

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