Mozilla delivers Firefox 3.5 Beta 4, boosts speed

Mozilla Corp. late yesterday released Firefox 3.5 Beta 4, the latest development preview of the company's next browser, which has been delayed several times and now is tentatively slated to ship before the end of June.

The milestone features more work under the hood -- particularly in stability and performance of the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine -- as well as tweaks to the private browsing mode and improvements to the underlying Gecko layout engine, said Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox.

Computerworld's tests showed that Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is about 19% faster than Beta 4 in the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark; both betas were considerably faster than the production browser, Firefox 3.0.10, which was also released yesterday.

Other enhancements, said Beltzner in a message posted to the mozilla.dev.planning forum, have been made to Firefox's new location awareness feature, and support for Web worker threads -- an enhanced scripting functionality that lets site developers shift JavaScript computations to a background thread -- has been completed.

As it usually does, Mozilla warned users that Beta 4 is suitable for testing only. "Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback," said Beltzner. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this beta."

The beta's release notes highlighted several still-unfixed issues with Firefox 3.5, including problems with Gmail, Google Inc.'s popular Web-based e-mail service, and with parts of the new privacy feature.

Beta 4 is the first major milestone of Mozilla's new browser to carry the "3.5" moniker; originally, the upgrade was called Firefox 3.1, but the company decided it had added enough new features to justify the larger bump in version number from last summer's Firefox 3.0.

Those additional features -- especially TraceMonkey -- caused some delays last year as Mozilla worked to both integrate the new JavaScript engine and test it. Other delays were the result of troublesome bugs, many of them also in TraceMonkey.

Although Mozilla said much earlier in the Firefox 3.5 process that it would ship a limited number of betas before moving on to a "release candidate," it's unclear today what Mozilla's next step will be. Attempts to reach Beltzner via e-mail were unsuccessful.

In 2008, the company issued the last beta of Firefox 3.0 in early April, and the final version in mid-June. Assuming Firefox 3.5's pace is similar, Mozilla should ship Firefox 3.5 sometime in early July.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 63 different languages from Mozilla's site. Users already running Beta 3 will be notified of the available update in the next 48 hours.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is 19% faster than Beta 3, and more than twice as fast as Firefox 3.0.10, according to the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test.

source : Gregg Keizer-computerworld.com

AutoRun changes in Windows 7

The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) have announced some AutoRun changes for Windows 7.

Currently Conficker and other malware is taking advantage of the AutoRun functionality as a spreading mechanism. AutoRun is used to start some programs automatically when a CD or another media is inserted into a computer. The main purpose of AutoRun is to provide a software response to hardware actions that a user starts on a computer.



In order to help prevent malware from spreading (such as Conficker) using the AutoRun mechanism, the Windows 7 engineering team made two important changes to the product:

1. AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives. For example, if an infected USB drive is inserted on a machine then the AutoRun task will not be displayed. This will block the increasing social engineer threat highlighted in the SIR. The dialogs below highlight the difference that users will see after this change. Before the change, the malware is leveraging AutoRun (box in red) to confuse the user. After the change, AutoRun will no longer work, so the AutoPlay options are safe
   
   
   Before the change (left) After the change (right)
   
   
2. A dialog change was done to clarify that the program being executed is running from external media.
   
   
   
   Before the change (left) After the change (right)

For more information please visit the Windows 7 Blog.

source : neowin.net

Customer flood with Cross Marketing Strategy

A successful marketing efforts do not always have to provide unique product or service. However, based on the success of their growing customer base through effective marketing, and provide superior service, support and follow-up to provide a different experience for the customers and make them come back.



Cross marketing is an effort to expand customer base with an effective way, namely by making the cooperation between the two companies that have the customer base with the same demographic. Demographics such as the age level, gender, economic level and earnings.

Cross marketing is not free to give vouchers to customers for the next visit to your store. However, provides a selling program for customer to other companies who have worked together.

For example, a supermarket that has hundreds of thousands of card member, quote discount service salon and spa at partner companies, just show their supermarket member card. This campaign is a form of mutual benefit.

For customers, this is a clear added value that arouse interest, with only one card member, he will get discounts on the favorite shop. For the supermarket member card issuer, this is very important to keep their customer do not shopping move to another shop, considering the value added that they will get. The companies that provide discounts of this campaign the most effective, without advertising to radio, tv, newspapers or the internet, automatically their customer list will grow up fast.

Other examples such as a printing company that provides services of making business cards free for other companies, only with the names and phone numbers printing on the corner back side of the card name. Printing telephone number, although only printed with the font that is very small, will be the circulating virus by itself. Get to the lawyers, doctors, corporate marketing managers, or even can be outstanding mothers club.

If the print quality and design that make it very good, the card can talk to bring a lot of print orders. See a good card, it will cause a feeling curious to know who makes printing. And this means printing your order will be flooded in a short time.

Doing cross marketing must consider several things including:

1. Companies that collaborate are not competitors. Companies must have a different product, such as a supermarket with a beauty shop, spa, fitness centre, karaoke, car garage and gas station.

2. This company must have a customer base with the same demographic. If the supermarkets in cooperation with the heavy equipment, will not necessarily match.

3. Companies in this cooperation must be mutually maintaining a good reputation who joined the company in the group with the prime services.

4. Companies that joined the program must be consistent with the campaign that are exchanged. For example, if conditions get 25% discount spa services for each customer which showing the member card Supermarket A, then the company must be truly give it without a lot of questions again.

5. Companies that have joined in the group is not allowed to join the competitor groups.

If all goes according to the frame that has been agree on, of course will bring the benefits of the respective companies are incorporated therein. Cross marketing more effective if companies have joined have good awarness, let alone who has high trust level.

source : marketingtulen

How to Reduce Fat in Your Diet

Reducing fat in your diet doesn't mean you will face a life of tasteless dry meals and fat-free cookie boxes in your cupboards. Whether you need to lose weight or just trim the fat, the following steps will help you achieve your dietary goals.




Instructions
Difficulty: Easy
Things You’ll Need:

* Health Cookbooks
* Vegetables
* Broiler Pans
* Cookware Sets
* Nonstick Cooking Spray
* Popcorn Poppers
* Vegetable Steamers
* Vegetables

Step1
Decrease or eliminate animal products that are high in fat. This includes red meat, poultry and some dairy products, such as whole milk, cream and butter. If you do eat meat, choose the leanest cuts of meat, poultry and fish available.
Step2
Check healthy cookbooks for tasty new recipe ideas.
Step3
Increase the amount of fresh vegetables and fruit in your diet. Eat them raw whenever possible.
Step4
Change your method of cooking. Broil, bake, steam or poach rather than fry.
Step5
Use vegetable cooking sprays rather than fat or oils when you cook.
Step6
Select low-fat or nonfat alternatives when they're available. Choose nonfat yogurt over regular, for example.
Step7
Eat low-fat cheese and drink skim milk.
Step8
Remove the skin from chicken or turkey.
Step9
Reduce the amount of nuts, nut butters and olives that you eat. All are high in fat.
Step10
Snack on fresh fruit, chips that are baked rather than fried, or air-popped popcorn.
Step11
Watch labels. Low-calorie does not always mean low-fat.

Learn More : The 10% Solution for a Healthy Life: How to Reduce Fat in Your Diet and Eliminate Virtually All Risk of Heart Disease and Cancer


source : ehow.com

How To Research Your Niche Market

A niche market is a group of consumers for a specialized product or service. The difference between a niche market and a normal market is that niche markets cater to the specific needs of a distinct group of people, while a normal market caters to generalized needs. Niche marketing is profitable because most businesses cater to larger markets, thus businesses</span> catering to niche markets tend to have less competition. Here are some ways of researching your niche market:





A niche market is a group of consumers for a specialized product or service. The difference between a niche market and a normal market is that niche markets cater to the specific needs of a distinct group of people, while a normal market caters to generalized needs. Niche marketing is profitable because most businesses cater to larger markets, thus businesses catering to niche markets tend to have less competition. Here are some ways of researching your niche market:

1. Have an objective and enumerate your priorities in niche marketing. This is the most crucial step to govern all other steps.
2. Define your niche. Specify the unique characteristics of your target market. If you make your definition too broad, you will not have a niche market, and you will have to compete with numerous businesses that cater to the same consumer needs. Also, be sure that there is a reason why your consumers would want to avail themselves of your products and services. If you don’t have a specific niche market in mind, do some research for ideas. There are plenty of resources available online; look for are niche market research sites.
3. Research your niche market. Know what their needs are, their common activities, where they can be found, websites they visit and how often they visit, their spending patterns and the size of your market.
4. Research products and services you could provide. Study whether these would be viable, what resources would you need, how much production, distribution and marketing would cost, and how your niche market would react to what you have to offer.
5. Determine whether there is a demand for your products and services. One way of doing this by making use of online market research sites and seeing how often a product or service is researched on Internet search engines. These would take the form of entered keywords. In market research sites, you could see a graph measuring the frequency of a keyword according to time and place. There are also sites that provide additional information such as news related to the keyword and how often these news items have appeared online.
6. Another thing to research is the supply for your chosen products or services. You could make use of market research sites, and see how many online pages are available per keyword, thus giving you an idea how many businesses are catering to your niche market.
7. Research your competitors: their marketing strategies, their sales, their rate of progress, the pattern of their activities, and how many of them are competing against you.
8. Know whether your niche market is willing to pay. Again, you could refer to market research sites for insight into how often and how much consumers are paying for items and services that are similar to yours.
9. If you prefer, you could supplement your online research with surveys and interviews or publications such as books, magazines, periodicals, research reports and college papers.



Armed with information gathered from your research, you would now be ready to formulate your plans for your own niche marketing. Best of luck to your endeavors.

Learn More : Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse



By Staff Writer
source : howtodothings.com

Some Windows 7 Editions to Offer Free Virtualized Windows XP

Once Windows 7 ships, Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate edition users will be able to download a free Windows XP Mode upgrade from microsoft, WinSuperSite's Paul Thurrott reports. What Thurrott calls XP Mode will enable these versions of Windows 7 to be almost perfectly compatible with Windows XP applications. Essentially, Windows 7 will have "Windows XP inside" when XP Mode is installed.



What is XP Mode? Officially known as Virtual Windows XP, it combines a hardware-accelerated host virtualizer based on Virtual PC with a fully licensed copy of Windows XP Professional SP3. While, at first glance, this might sound like little more than a more convenient replacement for downloading a copy of Virtual PC 2007 and scrounging up a Windows XP Pro disc and license from a dead PC, there's a lot more to Virtual Windows XP.

As the WinSuperSite screenshow reveals, Virtual Windows XP will be able to share your system's USB drives, and when you install apps to Virtual Windows XP, your Windows 7 menu will automatically be updated with shortcuts, enabling you to run Windows XP programs in separate virtualized windows on your desktop. Although the virtualizer used by Virtual Windows XP is a host-based virtualizer, these features put it miles ahead in usability compared to Virtual PC 2007 plus Windows XP. And, because Virtual Windows XP's virtualizer requires hardware virtualization support, it won't bog down your system the way an unaccelerated virtualization host will do.

Any catches? Unless Microsoft changes its mind between now and when Windows 7 is released, it looks as if most home users who want a fast virtualized Windows XP running on Windows 7 will need to pony up for an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. The good news is that Windows 7 Professional includes all of the multimedia goodness of Home Premium plus essential business features.

The second possible catch is the need for hardware virtualization support. Make sure your system includes a processor with hardware virtualization support. The Core i7 family includes VT-x hardware virtualization, but support in other processor families is spotty, and the low-end Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron processors don't support VT-x at all. Over on the AMD side, current versions of the Turion 64, Phenom, and some older Athlon 64 and X2 processors include AMD-V hardware virtualization.

If you've been on the fence about moving your personal or business PCs to Windows 7, how does Virtual Windows XP change the picture for you? Hit Comment and sound off!

source : Mark Edward Soper - maximumpc

10 Tips to Extend Your iPod’s Battery Life

Listening to music on the go is an important aspect for anybody with a commute longer than 20 minutes, and you just can’t beat listening to a podcast while in queue at the supermarket. But what do you do when the battery runs out? Failure is not an option, so here are 10 useful tips that are guaranteed to extend your iPod battery.




. Backlight Timer: The backlight is one of the biggest battery drains, some estimating that it consumes around 30% of the battery. Minimize the time it takes to turn off the light from:

Settings -> Backlight Timer (not available on iPod Touch/iPhone)

2. Brightness: The analogy for this aspect would be a light bulb. The higher the rating (40W compared to 100W), the higher energy consumption and brightness. Turn the brightness to the minimum when you can. This will for sure extend iPod’s battery life.

Settings -> Brightness

3. Clicker: If you’ve got used to the touch screen interface or the click wheel, you no longer need the audible feedback to confirm your actions. Turn the little speaker inside of the iPod off to reduce power consumption.

Settings -> Clicker –> Off or Settings –> General –> Sounds (iPod Touch/iPhone)

4. Hold Switch: Use the hold switch to make the iPod ignore accidental input.

5. Pause: Don’t just leave the iPod spinning for no reason. If you are not going to be listening for a bit, pause it!

6. Avoid Track Change: Skipping forward or backwards causes the iPod to access the hard drive inefficiently. Use playlists effectively to prevent skipping. This is not the case however for newer SSD-based iPods like the Touch or the iPhone.

7. Equalizer: The Equalizer needs to calculate and modify the music on the go, which drains the battery substantially. Turn the EQ and Sound Check off from:

Settings -> EQ –> OFF or Settings -> Music

8. Use Compression: Efficiently encoded music will save battery life. MP3’s are easier to reproduce than lossless AAC, and they spin off the hard drive less because of their reduced file size.

9. Battery Health: Batteries lose their storage potential due to two common mistakes. Excess temperature changes the properties of the battery and may change how much energy it can hold. Don’t leave the iPod battery completely discharged for long periods of time.

10. Software Updates: Often times, the coders and developers fix mistake and improve the software that your iPod is running. Better code means improved battery life, so make sure you update your iPod every time there’s a new version.

By Stefan Neagu
source : makeuseof.com

6 Natural Tips for Deep Sleep

Would you like to sleep like a baby without taking drugs? Americans spend upwards of 3 billion dollars a year on sleep medications, but to avoid the side effects, there are a number of natural remedies you can try first. Read on to learn some of the ways to get a good quality night's sleep.



1. Relaxing Rituals to Rest Easy
In Chinese Medicine, nighttime is yin time—or, simply, when the body takes care of itself instead of your desires. Proper sleep is required for your body to repair itself and regenerate. To reach deep, restful sleep, your spirit and heart must be calm. Excessive worry, anxiety, and depression can all disturb the spirit and activate the mind—making it near impossible to fall asleep and stay asleep. Rituals to sooth your spirit and induce a sleep response before bed include soaking your feet in Epson salts for 15 minutes, writing all of your thoughts in a journal to get them out of your head, and practicing relaxation before bed, like the Stress Release meditation below.

2. When Food Disturbs Sleep
When you eat late, you wake up tired. Your body will be busy digesting your dinner while you are trying to sleep, so you won't feel rested in the morning. Do not eat anything for at least three hours before bedtime. Also, cut back on eating bacon, cheese, chocolate, ham, potatoes, tomatoes, and sausage, especially before bed. These foods contain tyramine, which inhibits neurochemicals like norepinephrine and can cause insomnia. And, of course if you have sleep problems, caffeine should be cut out.

Eat for sleep! Try eating more grains at dinner; carbohydrates tend to make people sleepy. Another snooze snack is a warm cup of milk; because milk is rich in the amino acid tryptophan, it can sometimes aid in deep sleep. Mix in natural vanilla flavoring for a soothing snack. Or if you prefer, eat 1 cup of natural yogurt an hour before bedtime.

3. A Peaceful Place for Sleep
Your sleeping environment makes a huge difference to the quality of your sleep. Do everything you can to create a quiet and cozy atmosphere. Ideally, your bedroom should be located in the quietest area of your home. Keep the décor minimal. Lighting should be dim and any music that is played should be soothing. Research has found that lavender, vanilla, and green apple are among the best scents to help lower anxiety and induce sleep, making these smells a good choice for a scented candle or heated essential oil. Try to limit your pets to outside of the bedroom because their movements will keep with your body from fully relaxing into deep R. E. M. sleep. As much as possible, your bedroom should be only for sleep.

4. Exercise Enables Sleep
People with regular exercise routines often sleep better and have fewer incidents of insomnia than those don't get regular physical activity. Exercise promotes sleep and improves sleep quality by altering brain chemistry. Exercising moderately for 20 to 30 minutes three times a day, combined with meditation or tai chi in the evening, will not only help you fall and stay asleep, but will also increase the amount of time you spend in R.E.M. sleep. In fact, for some people, exercise alone is enough to overcome sleep problems. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, but do not exercise for at least two hours before bed.

5. Herbs to Sleep Tight
A calming tea before bedtime can ensure a good night's sleep. Drink valerian or passionflower (or passiflora) tea before bedtime every night for one month. Simply steep 1 to 2 tablespoons of the dried herbs in one cup of hot water and drink just before bed. Or look for one with the traditional Chinese herbs zizyphus or jujube seed, bamboo shavings, and oyster shell, which soothe the mind and spirit.

You might also try Calm-Fort/Sleep formula with useful herbs like lily bulbs, polygala and turmeric that help manage stress and calm the spirit while relieving restlessness and insomnia.

6. A Sleep-Friendly Meditation
I had one patient with insomnia who also felt anxious and even a little depressed. In addition to acupuncture and herbal therapies, I decided to teach her a stress release meditation that she could do before bedtime to help with her anxiety. I am happy to report that she is now sleeping like a baby.

Try this Stress Release meditation, which works for the majority of my patients who have sleeping problems:

Sit comfortably or lie down on your back. Slow your respiration to deep, abdominal breathing. Utter the word "calm" in your mind with every exhalation. Focus on relaxing each area of your body in sequence, from the top of your head to your toes. Starting with the top of your head, inhale and then exhale while visualizing your scalp muscles relaxing. Say "calm" in your mind. Repeat this with each body part as you move down through all body parts, front, back, and sides, in succession: your face, throat, chest, arms, stomach, abdomen, thighs, knees, legs, ankles, until finally you reach your feet. When you've relaxed your feet, visualize all the tension in your body leaving through your toes as dark smoke. Practice this for at least 15 minutes before bedtime.

Get The book now : Second Spring: Dr. Mao's Hundreds of Natural Secrets for Women to Revitalize and Regenerate at Any Age


By Dr. Maoshing Ni
source : health.yahoo.com

35 Easy Ways To Get Links to Your Blog

Want to get more links to your blog, improve your WordPress SEO, get more traffic and make lots of money? Here are some ways you can do that with little or no money.



# Leave Blog Comments – Yes, this still works. Jus find related blogs and participate in the comments. Make sure your comments are relevant or it will probably be deleted. Although most blogs have the “no-follow” tag attached to a commenter’s URL, it still helps you in terms of direct traffic, more exposure and other stuff.

# Do Trackbacks – Trackbacks, just like leaving a comment, can get you more traffic and links to your blog. If you and the blog you’re linking to is using WordPress, a trackback should happen naturally. Otherwise you may want to manually use the “Trackback” feature in WP.

# Link Exchange - Start a small link exchange with your WordPress blog, choosing a handful of high-quality partners to begin with. Use a 3-way link exchange if you have more than one blog.

# Trade Blogrolls – You may also want to manually look for blogroll partners. Linking up with several high-quality blogs may help in your SEO cause more than you can imagine.

# Use Forum Signatures – Participate in any forum regularly? Make sure you take advantage of forums that allow you to leave a signature. Choose the correct anchor words for your blog, and create a simple but powerful signature to your blog or website.

# Use Email Signatures – Although email signatures don’t help with SEP, it can get you a lot of real-world fans and loyal readers. Just enter a good signature in your Gmail or Yahoo Mail. If your blog appeals to a mass market, this can sometimes be one of your best marketing methods, and it’s so easy to do there’s almost no excuse if you’re not already doing it.

# Submit Articles – Submitting articles is an classic, text-book method of getting more links to your blog. However, dues to concerns on duplicate content, you perhaps need a better solution. Try JetSubmiter or Article Marketing Automation to make sure every article you submit is unique, therefore you get more recognized back links with just a little extra effort.

# Submit Blog Content – You can also use FirePow or 1 Way Links to submit the same article as blog content, and have thousands of blogs out there link back to yours. This strategy is very powerful for niche blogs.

# Be a Guest Blogger – Sign-up as a guest blogger for a real, authoritative blog, and with every post you submit you should also be getting a link back to your site. Many sites including WordPress Hacks, Blogging Tips etc openly advertise for guest bloggers. Some don’t, but you can always ask the blog owner.

# 3 Way Links – Use Jonathan Leger’s service; it works and I can prove it. I’ve had a few sites link first page in Google for smaller keyword terms using just this one tool. You can get a few hundred back links worth it.

# Publish Videos – Publish videos in YouTube, but make sure you include your website URL (example http://profitblogger.com) in the description field of each video. See this video of mine for example. Although the links are no-follow, its still recognized as a back link by Yahoo and MSN, and hopefully Google too. You can automate videos submissions too if you want using Traffic Geyser.

# Post A (Fake) Classified Ad – Go to USFreeAds.com and post a fake classifieds, syndicate to all their partner sites if possible. Although you have nothing to sell, you can always sell “advertising” on your blog if you get what I mean. Good opportunity to link back to your blog so your potential “advertisers” can see where their money will be spent. What is someone actually contacts you for an ad spot? Take it!

# Submit Press Release – Submit a press release using PrWeb.com and syndicate to as many sites as you can afford.

# Publish a Book – A book? Although it has nothing to do with online marketing, it can establish you as an expert in your field and people would start linking to your pages spontaneously.

# Write an e-book – Similar to writing a book, this time write an e-book or information product. If you think it’s going to be hard work you can also use the audio interview product creation method.

# Recruit Affiliates – When you have an ebook or digital products, you can start to recruit affiliates to promote for you. In comes the back links from thousands of different websites, and you’ll probably be making a lot of money in the process too.

# Hold a Contest – Hold a blog contest, a Christmas giveaway of anything where you can give something to your readers for very little effort on their part.

# Join A Blog Carnival – A blog “carnival” is simply a collection of conversations on the same topic. If someone has written a post, he can start a carnival and invite other bloggers to post their own ideas and arguments, while linking to all the other posts in that particular carnival.

# Start a Blog Meme – A blog “meme” is more like a game of “tag”, and while I used to see this quite often it doesn’t seem so popular anymore. Basically you can just start a post like “10 Things About Myself You Didn’t Know” or “How I Started Blogging” – anything that is personal – and then at the bottom of your post you “tag” a few people, linking to their blogs. These people then have to write their version of the same post, linking both to you (the person who tagged them) and a few other people they want to tag. Dome properly it can get you a lot of back links, but it all depends on the availability and willingness of the people you tag to play along.

# Content Thieves – Let people steal your content. Actually I say that because there’s not much you can do about it. But the good news is that in almost 90% of the cases the copied article will link back to your original version. Plus, make sure each article you write has several “deep links” pointing to previous posts (like what I’m doing here), so even if the assholes steal one article from you they end up linking back to a few of your articles. Google will recognize your article as the original with all these links pointing back to it.

# Buy Text Links – Got some cash? Head on over to Text Link Ads and buy some links on popular blogs. Expect to pay a lot of money monthly for a single site-wide link, but you can also show for post-level links which are cheaper and more targeted.

# Buy a Sponsored Review – Similar to buying a link with Text Link Ads, but this time the links are permanent. You can signup as an advertiser with SponsoredReviews.com and order a review. A few bloggers may take up your opportunity depending on how much you want to pay. They then write a review about your blog, linking back to it. Very powerful for non-competitive markets.

# Buy a Sponsored Post – Similar to sponsored reviews, but this time is can be any post instead of a “review”. You can announce a good post, a new resource, or a new product. Signup as an advertiser with Pay Per Post and post your opportunity. I think you can still get links as low as $5 / blog. (note: you can also make money from PPP and other paid blogging services as a blogger)

# Add a Web Directory – Get a software like PHP Link Directory or PHP Pro Bid and add a web directory to your existing blog. You can initially let webmasters submit their links for free, and when you have enough bulk you can start charging a low fee for each link they submit.

# Use Yahoo Answers – It’s like a forum, but not quite. People go here to get help and directions for their problems. Search for questions related to your market, and give honest solutions, including links to other people’s blogs and most importantly, yours too!

# Build Squidoo Lenses – A “Squidoo Lens” is a one-page comprehensive resource about a topic. The trick is to make each lens as good as possible in just one page. Create a new lens based on a keyword suitable to your blog, and list the best resources for that keyword including links to your affiliate programs and your blog.

# Build Free Satellite Blogs – This is a concept used more often in autopilot blogs than in normal blogs, but it’s still useful. Build “satellite” blogs using BlogSpot
or on WordPress.com and link keywords in articles back to your main blogs

# Links in Your Flickr Account – If you have an active Flickr account, you make also want to include links to your blog in the photo descriptions. You can also comment on other people’s photos, similar to commenting on a blog.

# Start a “group writing project” – Darren Rowse does this a lot, and by starting one you can get a lot of good links to your blog. In fact, you can also just participate in one and can still get a fair amount of “goodwill” links.

# Join a blog network – This is going for top-quality links. Attach your blog to a network like 9 Rules, WebLogs Inc or other similar networks, and watch as your blog gets linked form almost every other blog in their network. Of course this is one of the hardest ways to get your blog linked, as only the best blogs are every accepted. Besides, the idea of “blog networks” isn’t as popular now as it used to be a few years back.

# Create free WordPress themes – Works like magic, and if you create a really good WordPress theme you can have thousands of links not only from new sites, but from established ones as well. A link back to the theme creator at the bottom of each theme is pretty much widely accepted and tolerated, but keep it to just one link to be professional. You can get a theme created in RentACoder or Elance for less than $200, and make sure you list it in the WordPress themes directory after you comply to their terms.

# Create free website / blog templates – Just like WordPress themes, you can also create PHP Link directory skins, BlogSpot templates, normal website templates, Joomla Templates, and much more. Just look for any CMS / website building solution out there that allows changing themes and allows third-party themes.

# Get a Twitter account – Twitter, use it. Get an account and make sure you install the WordPress plugin for Twitter which posts all your latest post automatically.

# Social bookmarking – Old, but still relevant. Not a hot topic anymore these days but as long as people use services like Delicious and Digg, getting a link from them are also important. Use Auto Social Poster to automate your bookmarking, or do it manually. Also make sure you have some good social bookmarking plugins to encourage others to save your pages. You can also outsource your social bookmarking.

# Write a link bait article – Spend some time writing an article that other people would be too lazy to duplicate, and as a result they would just link to yours. Do a “Top X” post link this, or even a great tutorial series. This works much, much better if your readers have their own blogs

by : Gobala Krishnan

source : profitblogger.com

Tips to make your Blog more Attractive to Advertisers

Here is a tips for your Blog more Attractive to Advertisers

1. Have an “Advertise with Us” Banner on your site

This is the single most important issue. It should click to an Advertising information page and have an easy way to contact you for more information and rates. Key points: Make it a graphical image or a tab. Keep it above the fold.



2. Keep the ads on your site specific to your site

Don’t have smiley ads and wallpaper ads if your site is site is about mobile phones.

3. Show them the banners

If you currently have no paid placements on your site, put up house ads or partner ads in the same spot you would run a paid spot. (A house ad refers to banners for other products or sites that you or your company own)

4. Throw up a free bonus ad.

By putting a free advertisement on your site, you may not only encourage similar ads or competitors to that product, but the company you added for free may decide to advertise with you. Ask for full disclosure of the performance of the campaign in return. (Total clicks, total purchases etc. ) Key points. Put the free bonus up with a direct URL without tracking tags or affiliate tags.

5. Show your site stats.

You need to show at least the basics for site statical information: Monthly unique visitors and total number of impressions are the 2 key ones. Other less important can be Google PR & Alexa rank.

6. User demographic information. Know your audience.

The bare minimum is Male/Female % and average age of your readers. Other potentially useful information includes geographic, HHI, single/married, number of kids. etc. How do you get this info? You can do site polls, survey’s, or get more detailed stats from ComScore or Quantcast.com

7. Have an ‘About Us’ section.

Clearly explain who you are and what your site is about. And also why you are an ‘authority’ on what you are writing about, and why anyone should care about what you have to say.

8. Don’t use Google AdSense on your site.

OK, this could be the most painful one for most people especially if you are generating a few hundred bucks a month from it already. But Google ad sense devalues your site and makes it look unprofessional. You have to ask yourself, “Do I want some real revenue from my site or Google’s table scraps.”

9. Keep your blog on topic.

If you are all over the map in regards to topics about which you talk about, advertisers won’t know if they are a good fit for your site.

10. Keep your blog professional.

If you are talking about your cat, (Matt Cutts), ranting about your drive to work, swearing or bashing every product you can think about, it will scare away
advertisers.

source : Darren Rowse - problogger.net

More Blogger Tips :

Choose a Good Email Marketing

Many companies use email marketing to communicate with existing customers. They use it for purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business. Lately there are many email marketting company that offer their service. One of them is iContact. iContact is an easy to use email marketing, surveying, autoresponder, and blogging tool that allows small businesses, non-profits, and associations to easily communicate online with their customers, prospects, and members.



iContact is the best option out there for anyone who wants to send out email newsletters. They have great inbox deliverability, an extremely easy to use interface, great prices that start at $9.95 per month, lots of templates, and also include surveying, autoresponder, and blogging capability from the same application at no additional charge. They take care of managing bounces and unsubscribes for you. They also take care of making sure your message gets to the inbox of your recipients through their ISP relations, feedback loops, and whitelist status. If you are currently running into deliverability issues with your existing newsletter sending method, iContact will be very helpful and ensure inbox delivery of your messages. 15 day free trial of iContact is available here.

source : trik-tips.blogspot.com

How To Use RSS Feeds To Download Torrents Automatically

There is a lot of content available on BitTorrent these days. Normally you would go to a torrent site, look for the torrent you want to download, download the torrent file and then add it to your torrent client for download. You can automate this process by using RSS and µTorrent (or any other torrent client with RSS support).

So, how to download torrents automatically:

First and foremost you will need µTorrent. You can download it from here.

RSS if you still don’t know is a way to keep track of when your favorite site has been updated with new content. Using something called a feedreader you can get these updates delivered to you. Now whenever a new torrent is added, the torrent sites would update listing it and thus the new torrent would appear in the RSS feed. We can use this RSS feed to view/download interesting torrents automatically

Get the right Feed

So how can you find a feed listing only the torrents you want to download? After all the torrent sites would show every new torrent file in its feed and you couldn’t be downloading them all. Well as it turns out, a lot of torrent sites provide several RSS feeds and ability to create your own feeds as well.

Lets look at mininova for example. Apart from separate feeds for different categories you can also get feeds for your searches. Let’s say you are looking for releases by aXXo, so you search for aXXo and then click on the RSS button that appears on the top and there you have your RSS feed. You might want to refine your search to get the results you want. Now whenever there is a new aXXo release, you will get notified and/or can start download automatically. You can use the same approach to get feeds for TV Torrents. Also check out tvRSS for the same.

Setup µTorrent

Now its time to set up µTorrent to take the feed you have created/searched and do its thing! Follow these steps to setup µTorrent the way you want:

1. Grab the feed url and open µTorrent
2. Click on Add RSS feed and paste the put in the feed URL. You can choose to automatically download all the torrents that appear in the feed or just view them and then decide which ones to download and which ones to skip.



3. Make sure you have the sidebar visible else you will not be able to view the feeds.
4. There you have µTorrent setup for downloading via RSS, you can stop here or you can take it one step further by adding filters to download only specific files that specify a set criteria.
5. Right Click on the feed and choose RSS Downloader, Click on add and then specify the filter options. You can specify all kinds of options here including download folder, labels, specify episode numbers to download, the priority to start the download with, the acceptable filetypes and much more.



6. You can also right click on a feed entry that and choose “Add to Favorites” so that you can then filter entries similar to it and tweak the settings if you would like a bit of finetuning.

You might be wondering why not just use something like Miro or TED to download torrents automatically? That’s because I am a huge fan of µTorrent and would recommend it highly. Lightweight, feature rich, an awesome web interface for remotely starting downloads, set out to do one thing - “BitTorrent” and does it best. Your views may differ, make them heard! Shoot them in the comments section!

By Varun Kashyap
source : makeuseof.com

10 Ways To Work Through A Business Slowdown

In running any kind of business, it's inevitable that sometimes business will slow down. This might occur due to an upcoming holiday, seasonal variations, or uncontrollable circumstances. As a small-business owner, you have a choice in terms of how you view the slowdown - it can either be a time of increased stress, frustration, worry - or you can view it as an opportunity to upgrade your business processes or improve the quality of your life.

Here are ten strategies you can use to work through a business slowdown:




1)Market more concertedly. Statistics suggest that new businesses spend (or should spend) about 40-60% of time in marketing and related activities. If you are experiencing a business slowdown, it's always a good time to create and launch another marketing initiative. It is important to continue to promote your business creatively and cost-effectively. What better way to spend a slow period than in taking actions to attract new business? (Plus, taking action will keep worry or stress from overwhelming you.)

2)Relax. This strategy works if you are feeling good about your business and your accomplishments. Use this time to catch up on some sleep, read a few good books, in short, take some time off for rest and relaxation. Sometimes, time away can help spark creative ideas or profitable insights.

3)Get ahead. Use slow time to get ahead on weekly or monthly projects. Look ahead to future months and see if there are any steps you can take, today, that would position you more solidly in the future. This can help you feel more in control as the pace picks up again.

4)Invest in additional training/learning. A business slowdown is a great time to upgrade your knowledge and skills, you have the time and the incentive. Take classes, learn more about your industry, become even more valuable to your customers by adding new products or services based on your new knowledge.

5)Follow up with old/existing customers. Most small businesses focus more on getting new customers rather than retaining old ones. A business slow down is a great time to get back in touch with your customer base to find out what needs they have, to remind them of your service, or to offer them special discounts for reactivating their accounts. It's always easier to sell to someone who has bought from you before - so make the extra effort to stay in touch.

6)Offer free samples or giveaways. If your business needs to attract new prospects, use the "slow time" to offer free samples, hold contests, or offer giveaways to bring new energy and potential customers to your door.

7)Plan. Take time to review your progress so far, checking it against your goals, and making any necessary adjustments. Use "slow time" to plan for how you'll tackle new projects, or expand your business or offerings. This can be really fun.

8)Relate. Use this time to add a little extra to the "bank account" of your important relationships. Spend more time with your spouse, significant other, child, or friends. Put some extra kindnesses into your close relationships - you'll have more to "withdraw" when you need it.

9)Network/socialize. Use "slow time" to get out and meet more people to talk about what you offer, learn what they need, help them connect with appropriate resources. Take this time to increase your contact base, and to attend meetings or events you might not usually have time for. An added bonus to this tip is that you might perceive new trends in your industry which can help you guide your business.

10)Upgrade equipment or processes. During a business "slow down", it's a great time to find easier, more efficient, and better ways of running your business. You might upgrade equipment so you can serve customers more effectively. You might automate parts of your sales process, or invest in additional training for your staff. You might use this time to make sure you are in compliance with all the relevant state laws, or to paint your office space.

While occasional business slowdowns might be inevitable, these strategies ensure that you're making the best use of the downtime - allowing you to attract and keep your ideal customers.


Get The Books from Dr. Rachna D. Jain Now : Overcome Rejection: The SMART Way


by : Dr. Rachna D. Jain

source : smallbusinessfinancetips

How to Invest Money for the Best Return

It's extremely easy to invest money. In fact, nearly everyone invests money in one way or another throughout the course of their life--whether through a bank account, 401(k) plan or business venture. What is much more difficult than simply investing is the act of investing money for optimal return. Not only does doing so require a person to determine what it is, exactly, that optimal return means to them, but in order to invest for the best return you need to really become acquainted with all of the intricacies of investing.




Instructions

Step1
Determine what it is, precisely, that "best return" really means to you. Is it completely safe, dependable return on your investment or is it riskier, potentially higher-yield return? These two conditions are mutually exclusive and you need to determine which you're really after before you can begin to invest your money.

Step2
Invest as much money as you safely can to optimize your return. Obviously, the more money you invest, the more money you stand to gain as a result. Part of investing for the best possible return is the act of saving as much money as you can in your day-to-day life in order to have more money to invest with.

Step3
Diversify your investment types as well as your portfolio. Most investors know that it's a good idea to diversify any stock holding they have, but fewer realize that it's an even better idea to diversify one's holdings amongst many different types of investments. Invest your money wisely in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate holdings, business ventures and other investment tools to really make sure that your money is constantly in a position to provide you with the best possible return--regardless of market conditions.

Step4
Learn to garner the best return possible on your invested money even in a bad market. One of the chief methods of doing so is to alter your investments to safer ventures and holdings during harsh financial times, or to use means such as selling stock short to make money while everyone else is losing it.

Step5
Find the balance between risk aversion and risk seeking. The best investors--those who consistently gain the best possible return from their investments--are those who learn to carefully balance their investing strategy between the extremely risky and the extremely conservative. Growth and income mutual funds are fine tools, but they won't make you anywhere near optimal returns on your money because they're too conservative. It's also a bad idea to invest all of your money in micro-cap stocks, despite the fact that they have a potential for quick and explosive growth, because they're so risky that you stand a fair chance of losing everything.

By Geoffrey Weed
source : ehow.com

Nvidia ION netbooks confirmed for June

The netbook is about to get a graphics boost as early as June Pocket-lint has learnt, with a number of companies preparing to announce Nvidia ION powered models.

Although reluctant to tell us which companies will be announcing new models, an our man on the inside at Nvidia has confirmed that there will be some big announcements from "key" players at Computex, the annual PC trade show in Taipei at the beginning of June.




"You will see some announcements at the show with ship dates as early as July", our man at Nvidia told Pocket-lint.

The comments come as the first nettop PC from Acer, the AspireRevo gears up for a UK launch on the 5 May.

The computer uses an Intel Atom chip as standard netbooks, however uses the new graphics chip from Nvidia called ION to allow users to use more demanding applications than they have in the past. Users will be able to view 1080p content and play games such as Spore and Portal. PC users will also be able to use Google Earth and applications like Cooliris, something virtually impossible with current netbooks.

Prices for the new nettop model will start at £149.99 with Linux installed and £249 for a Windows Vista version.

source :pocket-lint.com

Windows XP Mode' revealed for Windows 7

Remember that major announcement that was planned for Windows 7 a while back? Well, it's finally here, revealed on Paul Thurrott's Windows SuperSite. So, what is it? It's a feature of Windows 7 called 'Windows XP Mode'.



So, what exactly is this new mode? As you can probably tell from the name, it's a method to provide better compatibility in Windows 7, and to pull it off with as little trouble as possible. It's also dubbed XPM, or formerly Virtual XP. According to Thurrott, "XPM is built on the next generation Microsoft Virtual PC 7 product line, which requires processor-based virtualization support (Intel and AMD) to be present and enabled on the underlying PC, much like Hyper-V, Microsoft's server-side virtualization platform. However, XPM is not Hyper-V for the client. It is instead a host-based virtualization solution like Virtual PC; the hardware assistance requirement suggests this will be the logical conclusion of this product line from a technological standpoint. That is, we fully expect future client versions of Windows to include a Hyper-V-based hypervisor."

XP Mode will bring a Virtual PC-based environment, as well as a fully licensed version of Windows XP SP3, free for all owners of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. This is good from a commercial point of view. Earlier, Microsoft could happily say that Windows 7 was just as compatible with software as Windows Vista, but now they can add 100% compatibility with Windows XP, too. So, for you IE6 users, you're in luck. Do not expect this to run like a proper Virtual PC; that being, a separate operating system running within a window. XP Mode will integrate itself with the Windows 7 desktop, and so the older software will run just like a normal Windows 7 application. Essentially, this is two operating systems running under an updated desktop.

Thurrott expects to have screenshots up of it running shortly, and also look forward to seeing an in-depth guide of it on Within Windows very soon. Neowin will publish more information as it arrives. Thoughts?


Other Article:
- How to Change the Windows 7 Default Control Panel View
- How to Customize the View in the Services Window in Windows 7
- Free Windows 7 Transformation Pack Download
- Free Windows 7 Themes For Vista and XP
- 20 New Features of Windows 7
- Free Download UxTheme Patch for Windows 7

Sam Symons - neowin.net

Top 7 Ways Delegation Can Grow Your Business

Business owner often pride themselves on how much work they do within their business. However, they may actually be holding their business back. By delegating what they should not be doing, they remove themselves as the constraint on their business' growth. Delegating menial or time-consuming tasks frees you to focus on more important activities that lead to the growth of your business.

As the owner of a virtual assistant company, I am in the unique position of seeing what works and what doesn't with delegating to a virtual assistant. I'm often asked by new clients, "I see that your service could be really useful, but how should I delegate to you guys?" These clients hope that I will have the ultimate answer of how they should leverage us.




Unfortunately, there is not a "one-size-fits-all" answer to this question. The best way to use a virtual assistant differs from individual to individual so I can't say, "Have us do X, Y, and Z." One client might get the best results from having us take care of customer support so they are freed to focus on marketing while another may need to stay in contact with their customers and have us do their marketing.

Rather than providing a definitive answer, I ask clients to think about what they need or, in other words, what result they are looking for, and work backwards from there.

For instance, if you want to have more free time to spend with your family, create a list of your most time-consuming tasks, figure out which tasks, or which parts of each task, can be delegated, and then hand them off to us.

Here are some other ways we can help you...

1. Taking care of tasks that are procrastinated

There are probably aspects of running your business that get put off - because you don't enjoy them or you are just too busy! Whatever the case, rather than putting something off till tomorrow, delegate it today. You'll be amazed at how much better you sleep at night knowing that nothing is being neglected.

2. Helping you feel less stressed

When the phone is ringing off the hook, your emails are piling up, and your list of to-dos keeps growing, it can be difficult to keep a clear head, let alone focus. Let us take your phone calls, trim the obviously unimportant emails from your inbox, and take care of any to-dos that don't necessarily have to be done by you. When you are able to concentrate, you'll do better work and faster.

3. Keeping you focused on what is important

As a business owner, it's important you use your time wisely - on those few high impact activities that make a difference to your businesses' bottom line. You need to maintain constant awareness of whether you are doing something that could be done by someone else. If you catch yourself doing anything other than "me-only" work, delegate it to us immediately.

4. Identifying and exploiting marketing opportunities

Think of us as your extended marketing team. Not only do we have an office full of ideas, people with marketing backgrounds, and a lot of experience with advertising, we have the resources to do research on potential ad placements in your niche, create promotional materials, and write ad copy.

5. Improve your business' professionalism

We can answer the phone for you, put together an appealing email newsletter layout template that you can reuse, provide great customer service, and more.

6. Taking care of "I should be..." tasks

Every business has a slew of unexploited opportunities. Does your business have a newsletter? A blog? Do you mail "thank you" cards to your best clients? It's time to make progress on all those things you know you should be doing but just can't find the time to get done.

7. Hold you accountable

We could all benefit from someone looking over our shoulder occasionally. It's too easy to ignore what we know we should be doing or rationalize not doing it to take care of what may seem more pressing. By speaking with someone else, we are reminded of what we are supposed to be doing and why. Many clients claim these "check-ins" alone have drastically boosted their productivity.

By Brian Gladu

source : top7business

Sales of Microsoft Descending Drastic

Global economic crisis has not stopped the company pick-large. This time, the software giant Microsoft reported that the sale of products in the first 3 months in 2009 down 6 percent compared to year ago.



Quoted from the BBC this is the first quarterly decline in revenue that Microsoft override in the history of 23 years age as a public company.

Largest software producer in the world explain the amount of profits down 32 percent to U.S. $ 2.98 billion. The sales had fallen to U.S. $ 13.65 billion.

The biggest profits come from products larisnya Windows operating system and software business. However, over the global economic crisis, demand for personal computers declined, so the more effect on Microsoft.

In fact, Chris Liddell as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft says business prospects in the upcoming quarter is also not possible in accordance with expectations.

Anticipate that, so Microsoft is a public company in 1986 continue to find a way to save the company. One is to do with PHK on employees who have been realized some time ago

source : detikinet

Install Windows 7 Beta from a USB Key

So after reading our hands-on impressions of Windows 7, you’re ready to take the plunge and try out the public Beta. You’ve followed our instructions on acquiring a Beta key and downloaded the sizable ISO file. But unfortunately, you don’t have a DVD burner, or worst yet, you want to install Windows 7 on a crippled netbook with no optical drive whatsoever.

Fortunately, you’re not out of luck, because Windows 7 (and Vista, for that matter) can be installed from a USB storage key. Not only does installing from a USB key circumvent the DVD burning process, the install time is also greatly reduced – we shaved off minutes from the total install time. Our step-by-step guide will have you swimming with Betta in no time!

Note: This guide will only work within Windows Vista.

1. Format Your USB Key

Plug in your USB key and back up any existing data stored on it. You’ll need to format the key before you can make it a bootable device.

Open up a Command Prompt as an Administrator. You can do this by finding the cmd.exe in yoru Windows/System32 folder, right-clicking the executable, and selecting “Run as Administrator”. Alternatively, type CMD in the Start Menu search field and activate the Command Prompt using Ctrl + Shift + Enter.

You should be under c:\Windows\system32 (assuming your Vista partition is the C drive). Type “diskpart” in the command line to enter the Disk Partition command line tool, which lets you format and create partitions on active disks.

Type “list disk” to reveal a list of all your active disks, each of which is associated with a number. Make a note of which one is your USB key, based on the capacity. In our screenshot below, our USB drive is Disk 6 (8GB).

Next, type the following commands, one at a time:

Select Disk # (Where # is the number of your USB disk. We typed “Select Disk 6”)

Clean (removes any existing partitions from the USB disk, including any hidden sectors)

Create Partition Primary (Creates a new primary partition with default parameters)

Select Partition 1 (Focus on the newly created partition)

Active (Sets the in-focus partition to active, informing the disk firmware that this is a valid system partition)

Format FS=NTFS (Formats the partition with the NTFS file system. This may take several minutes to complete, depending on the size of your USB key.)

Assign (Gives the USB drive a Windows volume and next available drive letter, which you should write down. In our case, drive “L” was assigned.)

Exit (Quits the DiskPart tool)

2. Turn the USB Key into a Bootable Device

Download and Install winRAR, which lets extract files from the install DVD image without burning or mounting it first. Open the utility and navigate to the direction where you downloaded your Windows 7 Beta ISO. Double click the ISO file to examine its contents. Extract all of the files here to a folder on your Desktop. We put the ISO contents in a folder named “Windows 7 Beta”

Go back to your command prompt, running it as an Administrator. Using the “CD” command, find your way to the folder where you extracted the ISO files. Your command line path should look something like “C:\Users\USERNAMEHERE\Desktop\Windows 7 Beta\”.

Type the following commands:

CD Boot (This gets you into the “boot” directory)

Bootsect.exe /nt60 L: (where ‘L’ is the drive letter assigned to your USB key from the previous step)

Bootsect infuses boot manager compatible code into your USB key to make it a bootable device.

IMPORTANT: If you’re currently running Windows Vista 32-bit, Bootsect will only work if you downloaded the 32-bit ISO for Windows 7 Beta. The Bootsect executable from the 64-bit version of the beta will not run in 32-bit Vista.

3. Load the USB Key Up with the Install Files

Copy all of the extracted ISO files into the USB drive. You don’t need to do this from the command prompt. Just drag and drop the files from the “Windows 7 Beta” folder into the drive using Windows Explorer.

Your USB key is now all ready to go! Plug it into your target system and make sure you enter the BIOS (typically with F2 or F12) to temporarily change the boot order to allow booting from the USB key before your primary hard drive or optical drive. On the next restart, your system should automatically begin speedily loading setup files off of the USB key and entering Windows 7 installation.

by Norman Chan
source : maximumpc

Pentagon computers hacked, several terabytes of data stolen

Computer hackers have once again infiltrated the Pentagon's computer system and this time may have gotten away with some valuable data. The government and the Wall Street Journal are both pointing fingers at China but the Chinese have denied the accusations.



The hackers were able to get away with stealing several terabytes of data all without being detected. The data stolen relates to the joint strike fighter F-35 which is the most costly project in Pentagon's history.

If there is some good news out of this it's that the most sensitive data about the project is stored on non-networked computers
which remained safe during the attack.

This is the second successful attack on government computers during the past few weeks. It seems that if you're an IT security professional the government may need your help or it may also take applications from teenagers who are bored on the weekend too.

BS-neowin.net

Andrei Arshavin quadruple all but ends Liverpool's title dreams

Determined to seize the title high ground, eager to exploit the fact that United do not play until Wednesday evening, Liverpool had torn into Arsenal from the start. There was an urgency to Liverpool’s movement, a crispness to their first-time passing that immediately had Arsenal on the back foot until Arshavin struck seven minutes from the break. Waves of anxiety raced around Anfield until Benitez’s inspired half-time switch brought goals from Torres and Benayoun, setting up a frantic finale.



Liverpool could have put the game beyond Arsenal’s reach within quarter of an hour. They would have been three goals clear within 15 minutes but for the much-derided Fabianski. Arsenal’s stand-in keeper, criticised for his Wembley failings against Chelsea, showed why Wenger has faith in him. First he saved a sighter from Torres before making a fine double stop, throwing himself at the feet of Benayoun and Dirk Kuyt. Just on the quarter-hour, the Polish keeper arched himself backwards, stretched out a right hand and somehow managed to tip over a Torres snap-shot.

Wenger had known Liverpool would come flying out of the traps and introduced a degree of caution to his line-up, flooding midfield and playing on the counter, looking for moments when Arshavin could show his eye for goal. Nicklas Bendtner formed the spearhead of a 4-2-3-1 system, the Dane relying on Cesc Fabregas to break upfield in support while Arshavin and the right-sided Samir Nasri cut in from the flanks.

Arsenal clearly had not come to be rolled over, to surrender meekly. Some of their challenges embodied their physical determination not to cede any space. How Mikael Silvestre stayed on midway through the first half remained a mystery to all bar Howard Webb, who has been announced as the referee for the FA Cup final.

First Silvestre went through the back of Torres, a nasty challenge that left the Spaniard in a crumpled heap, sent an outraged Benitez hopping around his technical area yet drew only a shake of the head from Webb. Play on. Silvestre then tripped Dirk Kuyt on the edge of the Arsenal box. Another foul. Another Liverpool appeal. Another dismissive shrug from Webb.

Liverpool retaliated, Jamie Carragher twice flattening Fabregas, the hosts’ foolishly allowing themselves to be distracted. Arsenal sensed a vulnerability, a frustration in Benitez’s men and doubled their hounding of opponents in possession, a tactic that drew significant reward after 38 minutes.

When Fabio Aurelio attempted to work the ball out from the back, the Brazilian placed Javier Mascherano under real pressure. The Argentinian lost the ball to Nasri and Liverpool were opened up, their back-line in disarray, hope springing up for Arsenal in front of a concerned Kop.

Suddenly, as Nasri prepared to play the killer ball, Wenger’s decision to keep Theo Walcott on the bench did not seem so contentious. As Fabregas darted inside Nasri, the French international made a clever pass, perfectly timed to ensure his captain was onside as he ghosted past Alonso.

Arshavin made his move, racing into the area, awaiting the cutback. Fabregas did not fail him, placing the ball right into his path. The Russian’s finish was unerring, drilled into the net of the underside of the bar.

The heat was really on Liverpool now, their season in danger of complete collapse. They poured forward again, Benayoun and Alvaro Arbeloa both going close but again Fabianski was in defiant mood.

Benitez acted, shuffling his attack, pushing Benayoun through the middle and ordering Kuyt to work the right. As Liverpool stormed forward towards a beseeching Kop, Anfield filled with belief again. Trust Benitez. Trust Torres. When Bacary Sagna miscued his clearance, Kuyt tamed the ball, saw his first cross come back off Kieran Gibbs and then lifted in another ball which Torres, jumping athletically, headed powerfully past Fabianski.

Rather than celebrating, Torres immediately shaped to get the ball back to the centre-circle and get on with the game. There was still work to be done. As Liverpool fans raised the roof, Benitez’s tactical switch again paid rich dividends. Kuyt swept in another cross met by the diving Benayoun. The Israeli international took Sagna’s boot in his face as he made contact, sending the ball goalwards. Fabianski clawed it away but it was clearly over the line and Webb rightly signalled a goal.

Arsenal came again, digging deep, racing through the gears, turning the game on its head again, amazingly equalising and then seizing the lead. Arshavin was unstoppable. When Fabianski’s long ball was nodded on by the little Russian, Carragher headed out to Arbeloa, who reacted too slowly. Arshavin pounced, advancing before unleashing a piledriver past Reina.

This was turning into a classic, a magnificent advertisement for the breath-taking, mistake-making Premier League. Like two heavyweights, they kept pummelling each other, kept recovering from seeming body blows that would have knocked out lesser mortals.

Arsenal attacked again, Nasri crossing and Aurelio volleying a poor clearance straight to Arshavin. Again, his finish was sensational, drilled past Reina. Liverpool were stunned, Carragher sitting motionless on the floor, a picture of frustration at some of his team’s inept defending.

But something stirred within Liverpool, and they fought back, raging against the fading of their Premier League light, again Torres keeping the dream alive by turning Silvestre and firing past Fabianski.

Liverpool had a chance to win it with 10 minutes remaining but Gibbs cleared Torres’ header off the line. Desperation crept in, Carragher charging 50 yards and firing wide. Then Theo Walcott raced 40 yards, squaring to Arshavin, who made it 3-4. Liverpool hit back, equalising through the outstanding Benayou

By HW
source : telegraph.co.uk

Samsung Blue Earth Review

The device, called Blue Earth, was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress technology event in Barcelona, and Samsung said it underlined the Korean company's commitment to environmental stability.

The phone is designed to resemble the shape of a shiny pebble, and uses a small solar panel to provide power.



"This phone demonstrates our small but meaningful commitments for the future and our environment," said JK Shin, an executive vice president at Samsung.

Blue Earth is made from recycled plastic and features a special "Eco Mode" that users can access with a single click to wring the maximum energy use from the device.

A full solar charge of around 10 to 14 hours will provide enough power for around four hours of talk time. The handset can still be charged normally using a conventional plug, with the solar panels used to top up the battery during use.

It also has a built-in pedometer to help users to measure how much smaller their carbon footprint is when walking rather than driving.

Blue Earth goes on sale in the UK later this year and Samsung did not give any details about price or network partners. However, sources hinted that the handset was likely to be priced at the upper end of the market.

Samsung's eco-friendly phone was not the only solar-powered mobile at the show. LG also unveiled a prototype solar-powered handset, but did not say when the device would go on sale.

Samsung also launched the first mobile phone capable of recording high-definition footage. The Omnia HD boasts an ultra-sharp 3.7in touch-screen, and can capture and play back high-definition video shot in the 720p format, which puts it on a par with some modern camcorders.

"These new phones confirm Samsung's determination to beat Apple at its own game," said Ben Wood, an analyst with CCS Insight. "Touch-screens now form a part of every corner of Samsung's portfolio. The Omnia HD is another strong contender in Samsung's efforts to offer credible rivals to Apple's iPhone."


Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Cheaper Health Insurance in 11 Steps

By: Marilyn Katz

I was very surprised, and not in a nice way, to get two notices from my own health insurance company. The first one, as expected, notified me that rates were going up again this year. The second one shocked me becaue it notified me that I had grown a year older, and was now in a more expensive age band. So I got my rates increased, not once, but twice!



I know others will be interested in knowing the top tips for saving money without losing good health coverage. Understand that all of these ideas will not work for everybody, but many people should be able to find one or two hot tips they can use to find cheaper health insurance.

I see a lot of TOP 10 lists, so I thought I would go one better by providing 11 ways to cut health insurance premiums!

- Can you raise your deductible? A health insurance deductible is the amount you must pay every year before your company starts to cover medical services. A $250 yearly deductible will cost thousands of dollars more, every year, than a $2500 yearly deductible. And of course, a $5,000 yearly deductible will be cheaper still. In fact, it may be possible to save more than the deductible difference. If you consider this option, it would be a good idea to try to set some of your savings aside in case you do run up more out of pocket medical expenses.

- Sometimes more policies cost less. Many health insurance agents urge their cliets to be creative. They mention the tactic of buying major medical along with a cheap accident and/or critical illness plan. This can reduce out of pocket expenses, but be very affordable! If your deductible is $10,000, and little Suzy breaks her arm, the ER visit can be covered by a cash payment from an accident policy. If Dad has a minor heart attack, a critical illness policy can provide cash to cover the deductible, make up for lost income, and still cost less!

- Do you really benefit from copay benefits? - Sure, you may have $40 copays, but the negotiated rate a network doctor can charge may not be that much more than that anyway. Meanwhile, you have paid 25% of your insurance premium for this benefit. If you have to pay a network negotiated rate for a $120 doctor's office visit a couple of times a year, but that benefit costs you $1,200 a year, does that make sense? Balance your yearly deductible vs. the copay benefit to make a decision.

- Can you qualify for any government health? I know lots of families who carry individual health insurance on themselves, but use the CHIPS programs for their kids. They have a moderate income so their children qualify for the federal children's program.

- Raise Your Deductible - The premium difference between a $500 deductible and a $2500 yearly deductible can be thousands of dollars every year. It would take months for you to save the difference.

- Consider an H.S.A - The tax advantages of a health savings account can be worth hundreds of dollars every month. In addition, you can use tax deferred dollars to pay for many medical services, including a higher deductible.

- Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle - You know that people who do not smoke and who maintain a normal weight will get discounts for health insurance.

- Raise your RX deductible - If you aren't comfortable with raising your yearly medical deductible, consider raising your RX deductible. Some plans will let you keep the lower deductible if you buy generics anyway.

- Look for consumer driven health plans. - If you are a man or older woman, and do not have children, some state mandated benefits like early childhood care or maternity care do not make sense. Why pay for them. You can find some consumer driven health plans that make you sign a paper that you understand you are skipping these benefits that you do not need. Of course, be sure you will not need them in the near future.

- Will a part time job provide health insurance? - If you are self-employed, or work at a job that does not provide health insurance, consider working part time for a company that provides group health insurance. If one spouse could find a 20 hour a week job with an employer who provides health insurance, it may help a lot.

- Shop Around for Cheaper Health Insurance Premiums - Insurers keep coming up with new and innovative health insurance plans, and don't assume your old company gives you the best rates. Nothing could be simpler than using an online health insurance quote form to compare rates and plans.

You know that you should be sure you have qualified for, and been accepted by, a new health plan before you cancel your old one. But people do shop around for health insurance and change in order to keep top quality medical coverage that makes sense while saving lots of money! Get The Book Now : The New Health Insurance Solution: How to Get Cheaper, Better Coverage Without a Traditional Employer Plan


source : articlesbase

Making Extra Money From Home in 3 Easy Steps

It's never been so easy to be making extra money from home. In fact with so many options out there these days, it's almost to hard to choose one and stick with it.

But with the current climate, most people are wanting to be conservative with their money, so I'm going to tell you about a tried and tested way to be making extra money from home, with out any investment, just your time, the Internet and your computer.



If you haven't heard about article marketing, then in a nutshell it sending traffic to a product that you recommend via giving people useful information regarding that product. If the person reading the article is then interested, they buy the product you recommend and you get a commission. Simple really.

Here is how you can commence article marketing in 3 easy steps:

Step 1 - Register yourself as an author of a popular article directory such as GoArticles.com, Articlebase.com, Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com. Their free and will allow you to publish quality content to promote your chosen product.

Step 2 - Go find a product to promote, and that will pay you well. Usually something that will pay you a higher commission if you sell is a good bet. One of the most popular spots to go for products is Clickbank.com. Once you register with Clickbank you'll find that is mainly has products that will solve problems in peoples lives (i.e. lose weight, make money, rid computer viruses, etc).

Step 3 - Get you affiliate link ( the link that will allow you to track the sales that have come from you) from your product vendor and start writing quality content and articles regarding the product. Also giving people tips and advice solving problems and then recommending a product is a great way to make sales.

Making extra money from home is really that easy. Now there are some other things you should learn about before you start, such as what to include in your article to start getting traffic to them.Get the book now : Making $40,000 per Month in Extra Income: A Step-by-Step Guide in Building Wealth through Various Income Streams


By Roger Ruzzier

source : ezinearticles.com

How to Boost Up Your Adsense Revenue in 5 Steps

How do we increase adsense income? You do not need to worry, this will show me how to increase adsense income. According to Joanna, Self with 5 way, now you can adsense increase income.The following steps:



1) Make your Adsense ads blend in with your web page. The more they blend in and fit in with your website, the more often they will get clicked. Advertisements that look too much like advertisement or don't seem like they belong will be unsuccessful.

2) Text ads are more effective than image ads. People are more likely to click on text than images. In a way, text is seen as more a part of the online document and is more "clickable." Most links you click on the web are text, so people are more used to linking in that way.

3) Avoid using borders on your ads. Erase the borders of your Adsense ads and keep them consistent in color with your website's background. The better they blend in, the less invasive they will appear, and the more they will get clicked.

4) Do not put any other advertisements on your page. The first reason is to follow Google's Adsense rules. The second reason is that you do not want to distract your visitor's attention and provoke them to go somewhere else without clicking your Adsense ads.

5) Content is king! Articles are one of the most effective ways of attracting traffic to your site. Search engines exist first and foremost to provide relevant content, so it is important to remember to give your site's visitors something of value. The better content you provide, the more people will visit your site, and the more people will come back to your site again. And, of course, this all leads to more clicks on your advertisements.