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e_Marketing Blog Upgrading to Wordpress 2.7 Just finished upgrading one of my many Wordpress blogs to v 2.7 - the newest upgrade which was released on Dec. 10 makes several attractive improvements to the interface. This upgrade is not so concerned with functionality as it is with improving the user interface. I was able to upgrade my Article Marketing blog in about 15 minutes when all was said and done. There were no suprises and no hitches along the way. I'm sure subsequent upgrades on other sites will go faster. What Makes A Good Blog? Since I'm writing a series on "Creating A Successful Blog" I've been looking (not very diligently) for other opinions on what makes for a successful blog. One thing I've discovered is that there is no magic answer to this question. First of all, every blog speaks to a different audience in a different tone of voice. So what one group likes another group will find boring or maybe even overtly aggravating. I stumbled on an instance of this today when I followed a link from Lisa Barone's post called "Six Kickass Writing Resources for Bloggers". First on her list was "What Makes a Good Blog?" by Merlin Mann. Now I must admit there are several things in Merlin's list which I agree with, but I find the overall tone fairly aggravating. For instance, he says, "People start real blogs because they think about something a lot...They make and consume smart forebrain porn. So: where do this person's obsessions take them." Frankly I don't see why "obsession" is a necessary part of blogging. Is it because in order to do real blogging we must express our personality; and expressing our personality necessarily involves creativity; and because creativity is so relatively scarce and difficult that it will not happen without an obsessive focus on something? Or is this just the way an obsessive person looks at it? Of course it takes all types. But there is a certain arrogance and air of superiority about talk of obsession and creativity that I can do without. SmartyPig Social Saving Here's an interesting idea. SmartyPig.com is like an online piggy bank with a social twist. You create an account where you set a specific savings goal. Say you want to save for a new computer. You need $1,000. You create an account and then let your friends and family know what you're saving for. They can make contributions (or not). You can contribute to their accounts too. SmartyPig also has partnered with "top retailers" to offer you deals and cash incentives. It's free and you can even earn interest on your deposits. |
Biz-Blogs.com is the home of a network of business-oriented blog sites sponsored by Small-Business-Online.com and the SBO-Linknet.com network of websites. These blogs deal with marketing, internet marketing, website building and design, and an ever growing number of specialty areas such as real estate, golf, trade show displays, online video and audio tools, and eventually, many more. Eventually we expect there to be a growing number of blog sites, each dedicated to a special, narrowly defined business niche. 5 Critical Steps to Protecting Your Computer on the InternetMar 23, 2006 - Linknet Tech News 5 Critical Steps to Protecting Your Computer on the Internet Mar 23, 2006 - Linknet Tech News - by John LenaghanSpyware, viruses and worms... oh my! If you are connected to the internet, you need to make sure you get your computer set up properly if you want to avoid problems down the road. With all the viruses, spyware and other threats on the internet today, no computer should be set up without the proper protection. And that protection needs to be in place as soon after you hook up your new machine as possible. The following five steps will make your computer a much harder target for threats. You still won't be completely immune to problems, but 99% of the time the threat will pass you by, looking for the easy mark. 1. Running a Personal Firewall A personal firewall is software that basically makes your computer invisible to hackers, worms and other threats that can infect your computer over the internet. Setting up a firewall is the absolute first thing you should do if you're going to connect to the internet. Without a firewall, your computer could get infected in as little as one minute after connecting. If you have a brand new computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2, there is a firewall built into Windows. It will already have been turned on when you first set up your computer. If you're running an older version of Windows, even an earlier version of Windows XP, there is no firewall automatically set up for you. In this case there are two possibilities: - Your computer came pre-loaded with a firewall such as Norton Internet Security or McAfee Internet Security - You have no firewall installed and should download one ASAP. If you don't have any personal firewall software installed, you should do so right away. Zone Alarm is a very good firewall program that has a version that you can download and install for free. You can download the free version of Zone Alarm from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/zonealarm 2. Turn on Windows Updates Again, if you're running Windows XP Service Pack 2 this is already set up, but otherwise you should turn on Windows Updates. Microsoft releases updates for security problems and other bugs in Windows on a regular basis. These updates will keep your computer running better, and they often fix security issues that could compromise your information or privacy. If you are running Windows XP Service Pack 2, you can double-check that automatic updates are turned on by clicking Start, then click Control Panel, then double-click Security Center. The window that opens will tell you if automatic updates are turned on, and lets you turn them on if they're not. To turn on automatic updates in earlier versions of Windows XP, click on the Start menu, click Control Panel and then double-click on System. On the "Automatic Updates" tab, click the option to "Automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify." To turn them on in Windows 2000, click on Start, click Control Panel and then double-click on Automatic Updates. Again, click the option to "automatically download the updates and install them on the schedule I specify." Now when Microsoft releases updates, they will be downloaded for you automatically and Windows will tell you when they are ready to be installed. 3. Install & Update Antivirus Software Most new computers come with antivirus software these days. You might have Norton, McAfee, PC-Cillin or another brand. No matter what program you have, you will need to update it when you get connected to the internet. It doesn't matter how new your computer is - there will be new viruses, and new updates for the antivirus software, since it was loaded. The exact process is different for each brand of antivirus program, but most of them will have an icon in the bottom right corner of your desktop, beside the time. The icon might be a picture of a shield (McAfee), a stethoscope (Norton) or something else. In most cases, if you point to the icon for your antivirus and click the right mouse button, a menu will pop up with an update option. It could be simply called update or could be something like Live Update or Download Latest Updates. If you click on the update option (with the left button this time) it will install the newest updates for you. If you're not sure which icon is for your antivirus software, just point to each one for a few seconds and a little title should pop up telling you what it is. 4. Install Anti-Spyware Software Spyware - and other things known as adware and malware - is becoming as big a problem as viruses. Spyware programs can cause a lot of problems with your computer, not to mention they can track your personal information and you never know where it's being sent. Some new computers might includes antispyware software, but most of them don't yet. There are quite a few anti-spyware programs available, some free and some not. The one I recommend is from Microsoft and is one of the free ones. One of the reasons I like it is because it always runs in the background and will automatically catch a lot of spyware before it gets on your computer. Many of the other programs don't catch it until you run a scan. Not only does this allow things to get on your computer, it also means you have to actually remember to run a scan. You can download the free Microsoft Antispyware from http://www.computer-help-squad.com/antispyware 5. Set up a Free Email Account This last item is not as critical as the first four, but I would highly recommend you set up an email account with one of the free services like Hotmail or Gmail. Once you're on the internet, you'll find a lot of useful information that you want that requires you to provide an email address. In some cases, these people will end up sending you a bunch of spam. If you use a free email account to sign up for anything that you don't know for sure you can trust, it's not going to fill your main email with a bunch of junk. This goes for anything really, not just online information. If you're entering a contest or signing up for anything offline and you don't know where your information could end up being used, I would suggest using your free email address. If worse comes to worse, and your free email address gets inundated with spam, you can always just set up a new one and let the old one expire. Some of the better free email services are www.hotmail.com, www.gmail.com and www.yahoomail.com. If you've had your computer for a while and never done any of these things, you should still take these steps to get it set up properly. It will definitely save you a lot of time - and possibly money - as you use your system. John Lenaghan offers easy-to-understand advice at the Computer Help Squad website. Find out more about these 5 steps - sign up for our newsletter and receive your free 5-part guide. Antivirus: Download Norton AntiVirus 2006 | Link Popularity - Linkpopularity durch professionellen Linkaufbau - text links to get traffic and build your search engine ranking.
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