Internet Help For All

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Do You Know That All The Help You Need Is On The Web

How many times looking for something specific you stumble upon sites with new info, a useful Application, new tools, good looking sites, intriguing info, a brilliant idea, graphics you like to have, you stop, look for a minute, and go away to finish what you start with? Why? The excuse: I am very busy now, behind the schedule with my work, I'll search Google tomorrow
And that interesting site is gone, out of the picture, we forget the URL, and have no idea where to find that site again. Some of the products, services, example mergepdf service, are so new that you cannot find them yet on Google search except if you know the exact name or URL, and they are not my affiliates as well, with very few exceptions.

What I try to accomplish in this lens is to build in time a collection of useful information.
I believe that the learning process never stops, and any itty bitty piece of knowledge can make us better Internet Marketers

I'll collect only sites from which:
  • We learn something new
  • It has a bit of useful or unusual or intrigue or very new info
  • It will make our life as an IM easier
What this lens is NOT:
  • A new secret to___
  • A get rich quick___
  • A Holy Grail of marketing___
  • An absolutely guarantee results on 7 days___
  • Look at my new Ferrari, Maserati, Corvette, or Lamborghini___

You got the idea, bragging is out of my system and out of how I am doing my business, as I believe that I am the one that create a better business foundation, even though the bragging crowd are making a better living then me.


I am doing it as nowadays if you type in Google search, even a long tail keyword, you get back between 20,000 and 1,500,000 responses.
Do you have time to research such a long list?
I don't, and if doing my work, accidentally find something interesting which can solve a problem for me, I make the habit of collecting the URLs and now I want to share with you a part of them.

I am encouraged to do it by Twitter experience. If we can communicate in 140 characters, and this communication attracts such a great response, than this lens will be a useful one.

Google Doc 

I cannot say that is a very new topic, but I find out that not all people use the Google Doc.
What really is Google Doc - It is a way to create and share your work online, you can:
  • Upload from and save to your desktop
  • Edit anytime, from anywhere
  • Decide who can access your documents
  • Share changes in real time
  • Files are stored securely online
  • And it is FREE!

I also find out a short video which explayn in a sugested way what you can do with, and why you need Google Doc.
Enjoy
powered by Youtube

Twestivalsf They're Changing the World Through the Power of Twitter! 

On September 2008, a group of Twitters from London UK decided to organize an event where the local Twitter community could get together, and socialize offline.

This was just the beginning of an interesting phenomenon, since Sep. 08, the globalization of Twitter made possible similar events to be organized. Other local Twitter communities got together and had a spectacular impact to bring awareness to global crisis.

As we speak (12 Feb. 2009), the people are meeting in San Francisco for a TwestivalSF, an event that happening simultaneously across the world, so far 175 cities are coming together to benefit charity: water, a commodity we take from granted without to know that 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water.

The event is organized by volunteers and is sponsored by grate companies, you can see them on the picture.

I commented the event on my Blog

You can get more info on Twestivalsf Blog and on Charity Water Blog

It is remarkable what the power of Social Media and Twitter can do!

The event is history now, but I want to keep this info. to inspire similar events in future. The Power of Social Media and Twitter? The sky is the limit!

Do you know how to send your Twitter RSS Feed on ping-o-matic 

As you know is raining and snowing with Digital Products about Twitter.
After I advertised 3-4 of them I stopped, I didn't want to look like I am spaming info about Twitter.

Trwitter RSS ping


But today I got an eBook with advanced techniques, I read and I was amazed that I still learned a couple of powerful tricks.

I let you know 2 of them which look powerful to me and are so simple to set up:

The best place to send your Twitter RSS Feed is - Ping-o-matic.
I let you know how:
1) Go to your Twitter
2) Click on your Profile (top right)
3) Scroll down in right bottom you will find Rss Feed, click on it
4) Choose Google and submit
5) Copy the address you got to your browser
6) Go to pingomatic.com
7) Fill in the requested 3 elements:
- Blog or Website name
- Blog or Website URL
- RSS URL: this is where you put the RSS of your twitter you find it at 4) and 5) (they say it is optional, but do it!)
8) Check the boxes you want (usually all of them)
9) Send a ping

You are done with this one.

The second one:

There is a rule on Twitter that you cannot follow more then 2,000 until you have 1950 followers.
This means that at some point you have to delete people you follow and they don't follow you to balance the figures and be within the rule.
There is an Twitter Application that will delete on bulk people that aren't follow you:
http://www.dossy.org/twitter/karma
1) Click on WHACH button
2) Log in with your Twitter ID and password, press OK
2) Don't be worry, it will take a couple of minutes to load, wait until you have the avatars as well
3) In Show click on "only followers", wait again
4) Click on "bulk unfollow"
Wait, refresh your Twitter and you will see the difference on following vs followers.

30 Good Looking 3D Web 2.0 Buttons 

This is a collection of 30 Web 2.0 buttons with a better design, I find them good looking 3D buttons.


They are coming in 3 available sizes:
  • 32 x 32 px
  • 48 x 48 px
  • 64 x 64 px (this is my favorite)

You can download for free one of the 3 versions:
  • For Windows (.ico)
  • For Linux(.png)
  • For Mac (.icns)

Enjoy!

More Social Buttons 

Free Social Icon Pack Nurture created by our friends at tutorial9.net
Free-Social-Icon-Pack-Nurture


Your Blogs and Websites will never be the same with this unique, lovely and green touch.
The set includes 10 icons featuring the logos of popular social bookmarking sites. Nurture includes 512×512, 256×256, 128×128, and 64×64 icons in .png format.

Free Social Icon Pack Bevel Lite created by our friends at tutorial9.net
Free-Social-Icon-Pack-Bevel-Lite

Free-Social-Icon-Pack-Bevel-Lite
These icons are classy, elegant and they will look great on any colors you may have in your sites.

Now you have 3 interesting, unique types of social buttons: 3D, green, lite.
Enjoy!

Do you know how Twitter was born? 

If you don't know how Twitter was born, click on image, it is a fascinating story of brainstorming, determination, taking actions, and succeeding:

Twitter San Francisco


Isn't it?

A voice utility to express yourself to the world 

voice utility


VoiceBubble facilitates the process and lets you voice yourself to the world with a simple phone call.

http://www.voicebubble.com

Anything you want you can voice it, but no profanity, or adult content.

The process is simple, intuitive and well explained on the site:
  • You need to sign up
  • Login with your user ID and password
  • You can add emails in your different profiles. Click on Add Email, enter the email address in the Email Address box, choose the profile, then click on Add Now.
  • Call any Access Phone Number.
  • Enter your 10 digit user id and 4 digit password when prompted.
  • Record you voiceBubble (vB) when prompted.
  • Choose the profile you want this vB to publish.
  • Hang up after you hear goodbye.

Note: If you publish your vB in public profile, all the email addresses listed in all of your profiles will get an email immediately with a link to your vB. They can click on that link to listen your vB. Private profile does not email the link to the vB.
Enjoy!
http://www.voicebubble.com

How to Find DoFollow Blogs 

In my blog I discussed the need of having "dofollow" blogs, they are important because blog comment links do count with search engines and help increase your site's traffic.

Commenting on a dofollow blog creates a normal link to your Website.
Links from nofollow blog comments don't count with search engines towards increasing your site rank. Nofollow is a default parameter on WordPress.

How you will find a list with "DoFolow" blogs?

This is a site which can provide a list in the order of relevance, click this link.

You can:

  • Find more info about DoFollow parameters
  • List your own DoFollow blog in their directory, and much more

Merge PDF Documents for Free! 

In 2008 I have written a free e-course about affiliate marketing that was scattered over 16 days, it had 8 chapters and I sent with aweber one chapter on odd days.

One of my readers asked me if I can collapse all the lessons in one eBook, he preferred to pay a small amount but he wanted to get all in one place, in one day.

I wanted to do this anyway, I got his email Saturday late, and I said yes, you get the eBook on Monday. It was a big mistake on my part. I ended up working almost entire Sunday to be able to deliver the eBook on Monday.
I had to create a new document on OpenOffice, cut and passed chapter by chapter in Word format, but the alignment was different, I had to look it over and read the entire 64 pages eBook, corrected some parts which didn't look right, created a disclaimer, verified all the links and so and so, finally created a PDF for the eBook, it was almost one day work.

I didn't know that there is a service which can merge many PDFs, which it is awesome because PFDs are more stable as form vs. Word documents, you don't lose the initial alignment of PDFs

This service is called:



It enables you to combine multiple PDF documents into a single one, free of charge. The limitations are:
  • Maximum number of input PDF files is 10
  • Individual file size limit is 5 MB
  • All uploaded files are removed after the merge process has finished.


Using this service I really can do my work on minutes not hours.
But I hadn't chance to use it, it is a new service that started on Ian 2009, take advantage of it!

Content vs. Website Design. 

We know, the content is the king, no doubt about it. Without Seth Godin's 3 R's:
content, don't even think that you have a site.

But if you have the 3 elements and the design of you Website is sloppy, poor navigation, lack of quality visual elements you diminish the value of your site.

It is not number one mission, it is not as important as relevant content, but it is, at least in my mind, the second element you must think about when you design a site.

Now you know from where I am coming from:
  • I am a little old fashion
  • I don't like ugly Websites.
  • I don't buy the theory, that the design of our sites isn't important.

To make my point, I connect you with a company that creates Website Templates, and the market reflects the demand, you will see the quality of those sites. It is not free, it has a flat amount for one year (you don't need the site more then just one year), but you can look for free, chose a category from the right menu and you will see what I am talking about.

DreamTemplate - Web Templates

They have over 4000 Website templates, and for that fee, you can download unlimited numbers of them.

Over the years:
  • I have created my own graphics (but this is too much time consuming, I have imagination but I am not a professional graphics designer), from time to time I still do
  • I have subcontracted with a graphics company, they did a good job, I paid between $80 - $120 just for graphics for a site (without functionality), or $30 per eCover, or header and footer graphics for digital products I promote, it is a decent price, but it is adding up based on the volume of the work
  • I have subscribed to this site and I have downloaded around 30 beautiful, and functional Templates from them, now I have templates for the rest of your life, at the best price possible, if you divide annual fee of $60 by 30, this is $2 per a template with beautiful design plus functionality, you can say WOW!
I really encourage you to look it over, long range it is a great solution.

Internet Gossip 

This is how Google write their name on Valentines Day, they also call this Picture "valentine09".


What do you think? I think is a suggestion that they cannot afford to have (spend) two "o's" as they usually do on a valentines day.

This is so funny, I couldn't resist to share with you! They really have a sense of humor!

After Valentines Day Google get back to their logo but it was fun and I am going to keep this module as a good example of how we can react with humor in hard times.

If you are a reader of my blogs, you know that I was critical at some Google and Microsoft actions over the years. Especialy July 2006 for Google, and Sun Micro Systems - Microsoft conflict.
Now is the right time to applaud Google reaction to this economic mess - they impress me, please read the following note.

Special Note: A lot of big Companies with big resources layoff peoples, and came to request money from government without shame when they spend a fortune for their executives. And, by the way, those money aren't government money, they are yours and mine money from our taxes, we sweat a lot to put those money on government hands.

Microsoft layoff 5000 people, it was painful for me as an IT professional, Microsoft always was the icon of successful USA business. If they need to do this, what about the small business?

Google reaction were different. They have a complicated procedure to select people to hire, and they really select the best possible talents to work for them. But after they do it, they take a good care of them.
They have problems as well, but they don't layoff, they put on hold some new projects for which they probably have to hire more, and they keep their people, not one single layoff, at list up till now and as far as I know.

Finally a company which care, respect, and know how to organize their resources.
Google all the best for you.



Selling on Amazon

In January both eBay and Amazon released their earnings report for Q4 2008. eBay was first, and people were anxious to see how the changes of 2008 affected the busiest shopping season for the eBay Marketplace.

It is a pain for me to tell you this, as I am an all time big eBay supporter, but I don't want to mislead you, eBay reported revenue was down 12% for the quarter when compared with the same quarter last year (excluding eBay Motors). It is because we have an extremely challenging economy? Let's see what others a doing!

Now Amazon released its results for the same quarter. Amazon showed revenue was up 18% over the same quarter last year.

We definitely must think about Creating Multiple Streams of Income.

Steve Lindhorst's eBook can help. Selling on 'the River was written especially for eBay sellers. Steve is a former eBay employee, and eBay University instructor and knows eBay inside and out and Steve teaches the basics of Amazon in language eBay sellers can understand.

Selling on 'the River has been updated and expanded for 2009.
If you need to make more money, have considered Amazon as a second sales channel, and you need a to start now, check out Selling on 'the River.


People from Google end up on Twitter!
This come as a shock to me.
Last month, Douglas Bowman, the design lead at Google, left to become the creative director at Twitter.
Today (04/24/2009) Dustin Diaz, who was an engineer working on Gmail, resigned from Google and announced he was taking a job on Twitter. WOW! Diaz is one of the best frontend developers around. But of course, Twitter is the hot new company. This is life!

New Curiosities 

Do you know which is the shortest URL.

Try: http://u.nu/

I did and for:
http://michaelacernescu.com/newsletter-april-2009/
I got:
http://u.nu/4i6
WOW! The new URL has 35 characters (70%) shorter!

Use it! It is especially good for Twitter where you can get more space to write using the shortest URL.

Suggested Plug-ins for Blogs 

plugin for blog


It is true that we Tweet a lot those days, but it also true that we still Blog. Actually the Blogs produce for me the most consistent source of income on Affiliate Marketing.

For Blogs plug-ins are the life and death, they:
  • Make the maintenance easier saving a lot of time for us
  • Create a unique presentation
  • Add new functionality
  • Make people coming back if the Blog is well done and contains relevant info
Without to ignore the relevancy, I start with "well done" aspect on purpose, the new generation is more visual oriented, our kids are visual learners, don't ignore this aspect. Some time a friendly presentation, easy navigation, what we call, the first impression, count more then you think.
Doing some research about plug-ins I discovered a new source of them in John Godley's Blog.

I recommend 2 of them, but use the above link to discover John's entire list of Plagins:
  • Drain Hole Plugin - it is a centralized download manager, with
    • full monitoring abilities and statistics
    • versioning
    • SVN support
    • and SEO download URLs. Whenever you change a downloadable file it is automatically updated throughout your blog, without you needing to change anything else.
  • HeadSpace2 ver. 3.1 Page-specific plugin - it is a powerful all-in-one plugin to manage meta-data and handle a wide range of SEO tasks. HeadSpace is modular and provides a full set of modules that allow you to configure your site exactly as you want and eliminating conflicting plugins - everything is part of one consistent interface. With it you can:
    • tag your posts
    • create custom titles and descriptions that improve your page ranking
    • change the theme or run disabled plugins on specific pages
The plugins are free.
To your success
Michey

Squidoo Traffic vs Google Traffic 

In our challenging economy we better talk about traffic, how to improve our work, how to success, how Internet marketing can help us. The main topic is how to get traffic for Squidoo lenses, a subject I deeply care. I spend one month trying, testing, and this is my conclusion. I am not re-inventing the wheel, I am not posting new techniques, but when you do a search on traffic and get back around 40,000 results on Google, you wonder which is working and which is not, and how you can find out.

I try to summarize the results of my testing, what is working for me, and make you get in just one place all you really need to know. This is boring and you probably know a good part of it, but keep reading, if you got 10% of new ideas, it is a big plus.

As a disclaimer I want to tell that SEO is smart enough, and get smarter by days, and what is working on Feb. 09, may not work on Sep. 09. We always must keep an eye on this subject and learn the new flow of SEO actions, this is easy to say but not as easy to discover, because Search Engines are very secretive


Traffic for Squidoo lenses vs. Websites
Basically the traffic has 2 big components:
  • Quality content- this is your responsibility; you are the expert on your niche
  • SEO semantics - I'll comment on them because they are a little different on lenses vs. Websites, some differences are coming from the limitation of HTML on lenses, and those are on your hands to implement

With traffic is coming the ranking, and again we have:
  • Actions to get a lens rank well on Google
  • Other actions to get a lens rank well on Squidoo, there is a overlap between them but I'll treat them separately

To rank on Squidoo, I hope the order of importance is the one I choose to list, but is not that important as you have to have all those elements:
  • What main key and other keys you are using, include long-tail keys as well. The main key or a good key is important to exist on
    • Your title
    • Your lens URL
    • Your first paragraph of the introductory module. (Same rule applies to websites)
  • How many people are looking to your lens and rate you, you cannot force people to do this but you can make some noise about your lens:
    • Outside of Squidoo in Blogs, Tweets, your Websites, articles, Forums, and
    • Inside of Squidoo: Make people know you. Be active in Squidoo community, create a lensography, be active on SquidU
  • How many Videos and dynamically allocated modules you have on your lenses
  • Put your lenses on relevant Groups for your niche
  • Use humor when is possible, don't use just boring text
  • Use visual elements
  • If you have low volume and you want to rank high on Squidoo, use Amazon module, RSS Feed to dynamically feature Amazon Prods on your lens
  • If you have high volume and you want more money to come back to you, an Amazon Affiliate account is the solution
  • Use Amazon Affiliate Link Generatorfrom SquidUtils.com to generate static version of the Amazon Products links, it is a perfect tool

To rank your lenses on Google is equally important, some people says, Google loves Squidoo, why bother. Well, in very busy niches we have a lot of lenses and even though Google will rank all of them, you want yours to be above the fold on Google search (in the first screen), what we can do:
  • Use ranking images - this means we need to use an "alt" tag in which we put a good key, this helps a search engine to index the picture
  • Use around picture content relevant to the picture
  • Avoid using a module which will request to "upload a picture" for your text, as this format don't allow you to put an "alt" tag.
  • You must use HTML code to add your picture, all your pictures must resign on the web:on your host service, Flicker and so on
  • Don't use Squidoo's Wiki modules as you cannot add an "alt" tag or title tag on images
  • Make your images to be hyperlinksif you need a link

This aspect of pictures on lenses are extremely important, I was guilty of using the short cut of uploading a picture from my hard drive as it is so easy and I didn't realize the big meaning of "alt" tag. As soon as I corrected this and I used just HTML with "alt" tag the ranking started to improve

I give you now important SEO tips for Website/Blogs, part of them are important for lenses as well, some are overlapping, but they are important enough to be mention:
  • Rich content must be above the fold (visible when you open the website without to scroll)
  • Create content placed on a bullet list but you must have a headline to describe the list, this is how Google wants, the list must have a headline with key(s) to describe what is in the bullet list:
    Don't say:
    You get:
    • Delonghi
    • Krupp

    Say:
    You get Coffee Makers of the best brands:
    • Delonghi
    • Krupp

  • Don't be afraid, create links with destination on the web to sites which support your topic. In this case the interpretation of the Search Engine is "you are a source of relevant info".
  • Always describe your content on your Website: with a name (title), tell the best key words, provide a description as well. Those are a forgotten treasure as we use Site Builders and they create automatically the Meta tags for you.
  • Use long-tail keys as well. If I am doing a website about eBay, I'll use keys as: eBay, Powerseller, antiques, coins but I'll always use long-tail keys as:
    • Work from home
    • Mom working from home
    • Make money on-line
    • Powerseller tips and techniques
    • How to become a Powerseller
    • Silver antiques
    • Vintage coin collection and so on
  • Update content frequently. Remember Seth Godin's 3R's
  • Use Web 2.0 interaction, create content that entice you visitors to interact with you
  • Make noise on your blogs, ezines forums
  • Stay away from:
    • Paid Backlinks - those are Websites which try to convince people to purchase hyperlinks
    • Links Farms - those are Websites with hundred of links
    • Blackhat SEO techniques. - those are methods to exploit the vulnerabilities within search engines. If a Search Engine discover one of those 3, you will be penalized or you will be excluded from their search.
      In Summary: play by the book and don't try to manipulate PageRank algorithms
  • Work in parallel to produce traffic and to increase conversion


I just enumerate the good tactics to get traffic, if you fill that you need some HTML examples, training etc, please, let me know. I don't do it because I know that exists a lot of very good lenses on HTML, but on request I'll cover this topic as well.

All the best for you, if this help, let me know.

Amazon Kindle 2 

This is a remarkable event, Amazon cutting edge wireless reading device is live.

wireless reading device Kindle 2



It is that slim? Yup! Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines.

What else?
Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

Large Selection: Over 240,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available.



I create a lens for it:Kindle 2

Squidoo Directories 

You can submit your Squidoo lenses to get traffic, backlinks, recognition at:
Squidoo Circle of Friends Group Directory

More Social Network Sites 

When we talk about Social Networks we think about: MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, Squidoo and so on.

I just discovered a now Social Network which is amasingly reach.
It is a huge site, it is a Virtual world where you can do pretty much anything and everything you want. But be careful, if you think that Squidoo is addicted, this one is 10 times more addicted, if you don't have time to spend don't even think to sign up.

This new Social Network is Second Life

Second Life is a multy user on-line service offered by Linden Lab. and include a software provided by Linden Lab.

A complete list of Social Networks you find here, click NOW!

Enjoy This Lens? 

This is the easiest way to rate this lens:

Add this to your lens »

Let me know, what you like, what you don't, and what you want to find out 

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by Michey

  This is Michey, an Internet marketer, Digital Product writer, Web 2.0 enthusiast.

Squidoo Giant



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