MSN Live Space

4 Easy Ways To Start Promoting Your Business

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:26 +0000

Afer putting up your web pages in cyber space, to expect people to know of your presence without promotion and marketing effort on your part is a fool’s dream.

In extreme cases, it really is more like a fool’s plan.

Let’s face it. NOBODY KNOWS YOU YET!

Finish creating pages for your web site is not the end. In fact, it is only the beginning. Just as completing your schooling is not the end but the beginning of your journey in the world beyond the walls of your classroom.

Unfortunately, a big number of us seem to think that our main battle has to do with the difficulties to understand HTML and creating the web pages. And yet we rejoice too early as soon as we got our pages up on cyber space. Why, that is a big W-R-O-N-G!

Trust me, the best time you should rejoice is when you make your first sale! I certainly did.

If you are just starting out, then do not do the mistake most of the people, myself included, did. Since you have the chance to read this article, I can only beg that you be wiser.

Since you are operating an Internet Business, like any other business, you need to communicate. You need to interact. You need to let people know you are around and open for business.

I am sure you got my point by now. If you have not been making much progress in your early stages of your Internet Business, this may very well be the reason.

To get yourself started quickly and let people know you are in business, you can do the following easily for no fee down. While you do not necessarily need money to make money on the Internet, the life and death of your business depends heavily on your sweat equity and wisdom.

1. Submit your site to major search engines (Yahoo!, Google, MSN, AltaVista, etc.).

This should always be the first thing to do as soon as you have your web site up. However, this is NOT the only way to attract targeted prospects.

2. Submit your link to web sites with high Page Rank.

Having your link submitted to directories, forums or related sites with high PR value will also result in increasing your site PR when Google bots crawl on your pages in your web site.

3. Participate in discussion boards.

Join one or two discussion boards where your prospects are gathering. You can interact, submit articles and this gives you the chance to leave your website URL on the board for people interested in what you have to offer. Do not join too many as it is actually unethical and disturbing if people view your profile to find that you post only once or twice on the board. If you have to leave the board, make sure you leave for a good reason.

4. Submit your articles to other websites.

There are many sites online that specialize in listing directories of articles. If you would include a link to your website in your author’s resource box, publishing your articles on these sites is a great way to establish some links back to your website. Furthermore, other sites and e-zines publishers might even want to publish your article in their publication!

With 4 easy ways to start, you can promote your website for no fee down. You will need to contribute your sweat equity, no doubt, but the results beat not doing anything productive at all.

Help answer the question about MSN Space

Do you know how to apply themes on MSN space?
how to apply themes on MSN space?

Kurt Naulaerts

5 Steps To Becoming A Cash Magnet, Work-at-home, Affiliate Marketer Without Spending Boat Loads Of Cash!

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:21 +0000

Affiliate marketing continues to be an excellent way to earn a substantial income. You’ve heard the usual rundown of attributes that make affiliate marketing advantageous. They include, not having to own or create your own product, not having to speak to any customers, and not having to develop and maintain your own website. Although all these things are true, what most people fail to place an emphasis on is in order to be a successful affiliate marketer, you have to learn how to sell!

Work at home, affiliate marketing success is absolutely hinged upon this simple premise; Advertise Low/Sell High. You must keep your advertising costs low and your profit margins high. In this short article, I am going to provide you with 5 steps that will help you blast your affiliate commissions through the roof while keeping your advertising costs low.

1. Make Use of Blogs and RSS Feeds: Blogging can be a very lucrative and free way to advertise affiliate programs. Simply place a banner or link to the product you are advertising along with a short review of the product, plus other relevant, and interesting posts and information. Now that you’ve created your blog, you need to bring traffic to it. This is how you do it. First optimize your blog just like you would any other website. If you need help on search engine optimization, just do a search on the Internet, you’ll find plenty of free resources. Next submit your site to the top blog directories, acquire back links, and remember to post relevant and meaningful information often.

Concerning RSS. If you use Blogger, they will provide a RSS link for you for free. Simply submit it the top RSS directories as well and place a chicklet on your blog, so that interested readers can subscribe if they want to.

2. Write Free Articles: Free articles are another excellent way to earn affiliate commissions without spending any money. Simply find a product you would like to sell and write a short, informative article on the topic. Be careful not to make it a sales pitch, but something that will benefit the reader. Be sure to create a small ad that speaks about the product you are promoting and place this in your resource box. This is where you plug your product. Note: Some article directories do not allow affiliate links, so you may want to create a blog to promote your product, create an actual website or buy a domain and simply forward it to whatever product you are selling.

3. Ask For More Information: This is a very powerful and simple technique that can be used to jumpstart your affiliate earnings without monetary investment. Here’s how it works. Go and visit some of the top classified sites on the Internet. Simply do a search on Google, Yahoo or MSN, if you aren’t familiar with any. Visit the work-at-home, and business opportunities section. Write down their email addresses and simply request more information. But before you do, write your email signature as a small ad. Never attempt to sell them anything in the body of your email, this might be considered spam. Just simply ask for more information and create an enticing tag line as your email signature. You may want to create a separate email account for this.

4. Purchase Offline Classified Ads: You can purchase space in Thrifty Nickel Ads rather cheaply. Try to find a niche that isn’t over run like the work-at-home or business opportunities sections generally are. You can purchase your ad online, but I’ve found that if I can save nearly 50% if I purchase the ad space in person, or if I mail in my payment. Call them first and ask them how much the ad will cost if you mail in your payment.

5. Go Viral: Create a small, free ebook, roughly 5-10 pages on a topic relevant to what you are selling. Place your affiliate link somewhere in the book. Then submit your ebook to popular free ebook directories. You can find a ton of them by doing a search on the Internet for “free ebook directories.

There you have it, 5 simple steps to help you skyrocket your affiliate commissions and work-at-home with little or no budget. What are you waiting for? It’s time to get started. Get to work already!

Help answer the question about MSN Space

How do I get more space for my msn emoticons?
I was chatting on msn today, and I had just added some new emoticons… when I type in the commands, it doesn’t show anything.. I think it’s because I added too many emoticons, but I’m not sure… if so… is there a tool or something that adds more space for my emoticons?

Ken Shorey

How To Increase Targeted Online Traffic To Your Web Site Leveraging Free Internet Video Streaming Services

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:15 +0000

One of the most significant milestones on the web this year has been the popularity of the use of videos on the Internet. There are a number of free services that enable Internet users to easily upload and store videos on the Internet for free. These videos can then be broadcast (streamed) free over the Internet, to be viewed and shared by other users.

We will look at a simple but often overlooked way to help you get potentially loads of traffic to your web site using Internet videos.

But first let’s establish the background to the phenomenon and why it is important for you.

The popularity of Internet videos have really sky rocketed in the recent few months.

Consider these figures. In 2005, there were very few free video hosting web sites. Yet, in the month of August 2006 alone, according to a comScore Media Metrix report, there were approximately 6.98 Billion online videos that were streamed by Internet users in the United States alone.

More interestingly, the average US Internet video user consumed 63.3 streams during August 2006 or approximately 2 streams every day.

For marketers, businesses or even the Government or non-profit organizations, this opens up a whole new possibility of getting in touch with their desired audience, in a content rich, interactive way that has never been possible before.

The huge number of online videos streamed every month should not come as a surprise, given the popularity of Google, MSN, Yahoo, You Tube and My Space web sites. These are some of the most popular sites in the world and each of them have incorporated a video service in their offerings in the recent months.

Traffic or Internet users are the fuel that helps generate revenue for most of these businesses. The revenue is earned by monetizing the traffic with targeted advertising.

You Tube the video hosting service was founded in February 2005, but famously bought by Google for $1.65 Billion dollars in October 2006. Although it seems like a large amount to pay, it was in fact a very strategic move by Google.

Based on the comScore report, for the month of August 2006, Fox Interactive (owned by News Corporation, which bought My Space) had 20.1% share of the total US video streams, followed by Yahoo with 11.8% share and then You Tube with 9.9% share of the streams. Google video was in fact in a distant 7th position with only 1.5% share.

Purchasing You Tube has enabled them to be a real challenger to Yahoo & Fox Interactive in the US market for Internet Video.

If we look at the numbers beyond the US, that is on a global basis, over 100 million videos were streamed on a daily basis by You Tube. This is a mind boggling number.

We are going to see more innovations in this area in the very near future from all the major players. All indications are that the popularity of Internet videos are likely to rise further.

So what might this mean for you, if you are a business, person or organization that would like to tap into and take advantage of this huge trend? Because this is so new, not many large corporations have figured out how to take advantage of the medium.

Most of the free video hosting and streaming services require you to register online and open an account (for free). You can then upload your video to the web site. You will be asked to provide a name for the video and then key words that describe the video. This is so that the videos can be categorized and also found by other users (your target audience). If you have your own web site, make sure this is mentioned in the video.

You can upload the video to a number of different free services. Why would you do this? To reach the widest possible audience for your marketing message, of course.

An interesting outcome of this is that in some cases this may drive huge amounts of traffic to your web. This is because, if your video becomes popular and there are other sites linking to it or it is being virally forwarded by the users, the search engines begin to take notice of your web site.

A case study in which a top 10 position in the search engines was achieved in under 24 hours using Internet videos to boost rankings is provided in a video at trafficgeysermethod.com. There is also a service here that takes one through the process of creating Internet videos, even if all you have is audio. You can create a simple slide show with a voice-over to create very effective, compelling videos.

If you wish to create full motion Internet videos, the process can quite straight forward and inexpensive.

Remember that the Internet videos do not need to be flashy, nor long or elaborate. The objective is to keep them clear, simple and easy to understand. Communication of the features and benefits that your product or service provides, differentiation or how it is different from other products or services that your competitors provide is important.

Finally, remember to include the unique value proposition that you have for your customers (ie. The reasons why your prospects should buy from you, rather than anyone else).

If you already have a digital video camera then you can start creating your video straight away. Your video camera will need some kind of direct connection to your computer. This can be by connecting either to the USB or FireWire ports. Some of the new Video Camera have the ability to record on a DVD straight away. In this case you can simply copy the contents of your DVD to your computer.

If you have an analog video camera, you can still create the required digital videos by using a converter.

Once you have video in digital form in your computer, simply log in to the account of the free video streaming service and upload your video. Ideally you can get wider distribution by uploading them to a number of different services in relevant category.

However uploading each video one by one to each service can be quite time consuming. The service trafficgeysermethod.com mentioned earlier in the article can help you with this, with a single upload and multiple distributions.

Your video is now ready for viewing and sharing. Sit back and enjoy the traffic.

Help answer the question about MSN Space

Mozilla Firefox does not support Windows Media Player in MSN Space?
I had been using Internet Explorer; just installed Firefox few days ago. When i was browsing my MSN Spaces (blog), i found that my Windows Media Player on the space has disappeared. I tried to reset and show the module but still couldn’t get it. So, Firefox doesn’t support Windows Media Player on any website? …or it’s just the problem of my Space?

James Coe

Best Way to Get Prostate Cancer News About the Latest New Treatments

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:10 +0000

If you want to know the latest prostate cancer news you will have to use the Internet to get this information. Although the Web may be a difficult place at times to locate specific information, there are ways to get the latest prostate cancer treatment news right from your computer. It’s even possible with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to have that news delivered right to your computer every day.

I thought of giving you some of the prostate cancer news but it would be yesterday’s news so to speak and be of little value as time wore on. Instead, here are a few ideas on finding the latest prostate cancer treatment news yourself anytime you want to.

To get started you will need to visit one of the larger search engines, like MSN, Yahoo.com, or Google and will begin a search for news specific information. Although you may have use a search engine to find things on the Web, many search engines also have an option to look for news. By selecting news, you’re limiting your search to only those sites that have the latest information you may be looking for.

So once on the search engine home page and after selecting a news type search, you’re ready to begin locating your prostate cancer treatment information.

After doing that, then type in the information in the space provided. In this case, type in “prostate cancer” in the space provided. When you have done this, then click the search button. This will return all the latest news articles about prostate cancer, but we can do better by refining our search a little.

To refine our search to get the latest news on prostate cancer treatments, you would enter the following into the box

“prostate cancer” + “new treatment ” then hit enter.

Be certain to use the quotes are you will get a lot more news that isn’t nearly as targeted as our interest is only in new treatments for prostate cancer. Without the quotes, we may get information on all types of cancer and all treatments, no matter new. The quote marks are important, so that the search engine will know that you want new treatments concerning prostate cancer.

The + between the prostate cancer in new treatment phrases tells your computer system to bring you news that has “prostate cancer” AND “new treatment” in the article. This is the absolutely best way to find prostate cancer news on the Internet.

Another option is to manually review popular news sites such as www.healthfinder.gov and health.yahoo.com/.

If you want your news on any new treatments for prostate cancer to be delivered to your system automatically, consider using a news aggregator and RSS feed. This bit of technology can provide regular updates on any new prostate cancer treatment that’s mentioned in the news or health journals and deliver about information write to your desktop.

Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia has a with of news aggregators available for your use at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search/List_of_news_aggregators.

There are of course the old media and methods of staying updated about new treatment options. Of course, this means reviewing newspapers, magazines and journals manually. The good news once again however, is that a news aggregator can do this review of all online editions of these resources

So, although you may think the Web is nothing more than advertisements and spam e-mail, you will find that its search capabilities can provide a fantastic array of useful information on any subject, including new prostate cancer treatments and advancements.

Help answer the question about MSN Space

what do you think of my msn space message?
Man I wake up in the morning & I thank the lord for making me who I am & giving me the confidence too stand out from the crowd!!

MSN space about myself, what do you think of it? arrogant, cocky, silly, cool??

Abigail Franks

Ecommerce Solutions: How to Take your Business Online

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:08 +0000

Online commerce is the way of the future, expand your market place, increase sales, work less, increase your revenue, etc. Really?, but at what cost and what do you need to know to get started?

Many businesses are weighing the costs of moving into the online space now that barriers to entry are lower than ever, but to determine the specific solution that meets your business needs is not as easy as comparing prices.

In order to differentiate the common strategies that you may apply to sell your “widget” online, let’s take a look at three main ecommerce solutions on the market, and then ask some key questions that will better facilitate your decision.

1. Amazon.com/E-Bay/MSN Shopping as an eCommerce Solution

With this means of e-commerce there is really no true e-commerce or shopping cart development that goes on. To bring your widget online you would simply create an account on one of the various web sites that are out there and begin selling products.

Pros

Easy to implement
May have products on the web within an hour
Very low cost, great for out-of-home business

Cons

Minimal flexibility
Usually transaction based, or require a percentage of sales
No automated integration into any back end systems
No options for product configuration

2. Templated eCommerce Solutions

Templated ecommerce platforms are generally “packaged” sites that are very quickly setup and launched. To summarize the process:

A business will purchase, or lease via a monthly contract the e-commerce solution.
Customize their web site by selecting from several templates modifying it with a color scheme
Add content to their new web site by way of a technology called content management.

Content Management allows non-coders, the ability to update and modify the content of a web site. These solutions meet the typical needs of a business, but tend to fall short when customization is necessary.

Pros

Easy to implement with little required development.
Getting a site up and running is not as fast as a pre-built solution, but much more rapid than a custom developed solution
Is comparatively inexpensive.
Provides branding not available in pre-built solution
Great for small businesses entering the online space for the 1st time.

Cons

Minimal flexibility
Cost may, or may not include graphic development of the site
Integration with business processes is lacking
No options for product configuration
Sometimes transaction based, or require a percentage of sales
Difficult to optimize for search engines

3. Custom Developed Solutions

Custom developed solutions are exactly what their name implies. The user interface of the web site, product catalog and check out process are all custom-developed to meet specific needs. The look and feel of the web site is typically original, utilizing graphics that are targeted to a specific market or customer.

The key reasons for looking at a custom developed e-commerce solution are to support a business process that your company may have which cannot be completed with a templated design. (i.e. integrating back office systems such as accounting, ERP, or fulfillment applications), or to support some level of service during the check out process like a custom product configuration.

Pros

The site is developed to your specific business requirements
Custom features or applications may be added to the site at any point in the future, providing growth
Integration capabilities are limited only by the ability of your developer
Site may be optimized for Search Engines, (SEO)
All forms of shipping, handling and fulfillment are options to integrate
Virtually unlimited number of products and categories may be supported
Your site will have a unique look and feel tailored to your business
Great for established ecommerce providers, and large businesses looking to go online

Cons

Typically more expensive
Longer development times
Require more active involvement from you.

Questions that will help you target the right ecommerce solution for your business:

Will my business survive if the web site is unsuccessful?
Do I have back office applications that need to be integrated into the web site? For instance, accounting systems, inventory management or ERP systems, Point of Sales Systems, etc.
Do I need custom shipping integration?
How important is search engine optimization?
How will I administer the e-commerce application? For instance, how easy is it to add, edit, or delete products and how do I view the business that the web site is doing?
How will I differentiate my site from my competitors?
Does my business currently have the expertise to manage the e-commerce solution, do I need to hire someone, or will I totally outsource the management of the web site?
If I chose to manage the e-commerce solution by myself, where and how will I host the application?
What is the ongoing maintenance going to cost?
How reliable is my developer/web host?
Does my business sell to consumers, other businesses, both?
Does the look and feel of my web site meet my customer’s needs? A quick example of this is if you are selling to consumers you typically need a more attractive and easy to use site, if to businesses a utilitarian interface may be more critical, as they typically want to complete their order as quickly as possible.

This is the first in a series of articles designed to help you understand what is involved in bringing your business on line. The purpose of these articles is to take the complexity of the e-commerce marketplace and break it down into easy to understand articles.

Help answer the question about MSN Space

On MSN spaces, my space is in arabic.how do i change the language to english?
On msn live spaces my space is in arabic and i dont know arabic.every bit of writing is in arabic and all the profile pix and stuff r on the right instead of left…I DONT WANT MY SPACE ARABIC. plz tell me how to change the language…pronto! best answer gets 15-30 points depending on explanation.

Mike Powell

Make Your Website Rank Higher In Major Search Engines! Benefits Of CSS In SEO

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:04 +0000

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language that permits web designers to attach style like spacing, color, font, etc. to HTML documents. Cascading style sheets work similarly to a template; permitting web developers to label style for an HTML element and after that apply it to the number of web pages required. Thus, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are collections of formatting rules, which control the appearance of content in a web page. With CSS styles you have great flexibility and control of the exact page appearance; from precise positioning of layout to specific fonts and styles.

There are many benefits of using CSS. One of the major benefits of using CSS is the easy maintenance of the website. Maintenance of a website made with CSS is much easier compared to the ones which are table based. CSS splits the presentation style of documents from the content of documents and makes the maintenance of the site easier. Aside from being able to make site extensive changes with no trouble through one CSS file, the clean code it generates makes it easier to update. Webmasters can characterize the appearance of a site in one place, and change the whole site by changing just one file. With CSS, when you decide to craft a change, you simply alter the style, and that element is updated automatically anywhere it appears in the site. So, if you have to alter the color of all pages in your site, you only have to edit one style sheet. This saves you enormous amount of time, particularly if you have to edit each page independently. CSS generally requires less code compared to table based. This makes your code lighter and cleaner. Clean code makes a huge difference in maintaining your site.

Cascading Style Sheets Benefits and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Another major benefit of CSS is that it makes your website SEO friendly. The reason behind this is simple. The search engines spiders are actually very lethargic. They do not go through the bundles of HTML codes to get to the indexed codes. Font tags and tables make the HTML code very cumbersome; thus, reduce the accuracy of the results. If you use external CSS files to design and determine the design attributes; the HTML code will be clean and it will result to better search engine rankings. With some knowledge of CSS you will be able to change the code layout without destroying the actual visual layout. For instance, you could easily make the main content of your site to show up above the header or navigation menu in the code of your website; thus will help to show search engine crawlers the importance of your content. I personally saw a huge boost in rankings in fully CSS web sites. When I look at someone’s website that was built using old school HTML code with tags such as: TABLES, TD, TR, FONT and so on, I feel awkward and immediately convert that site to a fully table-less CSS layout. There are many tools on the Internet that shows the actual code over text ratio weight of your site. Do you know why? Because modern search engines such as: Google, Yahoo and MSN love light-weighted websites. They want to see your content; the text, not the code. With CSS everything is possible. You practically externalize excessive code into external file, thus leaving the actual page clean and simple.

Website Accessibility

CSS makes your website more accessible. The number of users browsing the web through hand held devices are continuously growing tremendously. It is estimated that by 2008, one third of the world’s population will be using hand held devices for accessing Internet. It is always important that your site is accessible to them also. You can make an additional CSS document particularly for handheld devices like cell phones, which will be called up in place of the regular CSS document; which is not achievable with a tabular layout. CSS benefits accessibility chiefly by separating document structure from presentation. By separating style from markup, webmasters can simplify and clean up the HTML in their documents, making the documents more accessible.

Increases Download Speed of Your Website

CSS code downloads faster than tables. Browsers read through tables twice previous to exhibiting their contents; first to work out their structure and then to determine their content. Moreover, tables are shown on the screen as a whole, no part of the table will be displayed until the entire table is downloaded and rendered. Tables support the use of spaced images to assist with positioning. CSS generally requires less code than cumbersome tables. All code to do with the layout can be placed in an external CSS document, which will be called up just once and then stored on the user’s computer; while the table layout stored in each HTML document, must be loaded up each time a new page downloads. Also with CSS, you can manage the order of the items downloaded into the screen. You have the control to make the content appear previous to the slow loading images, which is liked by most of the web users.

Cross Browser Compatibility

For all webmasters out there! CSS makes your website more professional. Taking the benefits of CSS like making your websites load faster and easy to maintain, you save a lot of time and labor. This in turn makes you lots of money. CSS makes links of the website look more attractive and dynamic. Using CSS, you can slot in rollovers easily and effectively, without having to use a single character of JavaScript. Thus, CSS gives your websites a professional look. It is wise to use CSS to jive with the current trends of the industry. All major browsers like Firefox, Explorer, and Netscape presently recognize CSS and it is definitely safe for web designers to use CSS now.

Mikhail Tuknov

How To Improve Your Computer Speed Almost Instantly

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:05:00 +0000

Probably your computer, even though you bought it last year its no longer that much fast. Like any other machine your computer require maintenance and tweaks of its settings.

You can easily follow these step by step methods to make your computer faster, better and more enjoyable. Once done you can see instant boost in the performance.

Keep in mind that your computer is not a waste bin. You don’t throw things inside and wait till its full before you clean it. You harm your computer that way which also means it works much less efficient.

The 6 easy to follow tactics will help you overcome all that.

1. Create folders and sub folders in your hardrive. Usually that is drive C. This way you are treating your computer as a bookshelf, with all books in a specific shelf. You will also find files much more easy this way.

2. Then delete also the unwanted files. These unwanted files can be image files, music downloads, documents, notebook files, folders and the many other different types of files.

These are just there wasting your computer space which result in a slower computer. Click Start, Search and select one of the file types. It maybe pdf, .jpg, .gif. There is a whole list of file types. You can start with the easy files like .gif. In the search box do not type anything, just hit go to start the search.

You will notice a huge list of files, if you search for .gif files they will all be images. Now you can remove any images you don’t need making sure that you know what you are deleting. This method will help you find all the unwanted files.

3. How many browsers do you have? Internet explorer, FireFox and did you also download Netscape to try it out? Well, you only use one so you can uninstall the rest. Same goes with all of the software, tools, applications and downloads you don’t use. Uninstalling them will free out more space.

Your registry needs to be cleaned if you ever downloaded any files from the Internet. There are tools that help you clean your registry, and you should do this about once a month.

4. Do you still have that huge list of files on your Start button. When I click my Start button you see just 6 menus and about 7 sub menus. Those are all shortcuts which can be easily removed. Right click and delete the ones you don’t use. You can always start a program from your hard drive C. To make it easy, click Start, Run and type in C:/ and it takes you to drive C, hit program files and you can open any application from there.

You don’t need to keep all those icons neither on your desktop. I have none. You can access them by clicking Start, Run and type in C:/ then click the ‘up one folder button’ to get to the desktop. Button located next to back and forward buttons.

The Start, Programs menu is there just to help you find your applications very easy. But you still can access them very easy now that you now how to use the Run command C:/

Deleting the My Computer Icon, the My Documents icon won’t permanently delete them. They can be accessed from the Run C:/ command. For XP users check out tweakxp.com to get more tweaks.

5. In such extreme cases you can even remove outlook express. If you want to make your computer a lot more faster that is going to help. You can use a free email account, like Gmail.com I personally use it daily and it is professional. Probably you will also realize that it is even much better than Outlook express. You get also instant chat with no need to download any software not even the Google Talk.

Have you got 4 messengers installed? Well, now you can get rid of them all. If you research google you will find that there are messengers which allow you to chat with your MSN contacts, Yahoo and AOL contacts. Instead of having three messengers you need just one. I would suggest you check out which is the best from answers.yahoo.com Get feedback.

6. It is not just the inside but also the outside. When was the last time you cleaned up your keyboard, mouse and monitor surface? At least once a year the tower which contains a fan needs to be cleaned. The fan accumulates dust and a technician has the tools to make it perfect again.

You should always use precaution when cleaning electrical hardware. The keyboard can be cleaned by using a dry cloth. After switching off your computer, remove all keys gently from the keyboard and place them in a jar filled with warm water. You do this only once every 5 months. With the dry cloth or slightly wet you can clean the interior of the keyboard.

The monitor and the mouse need not be opened to be cleaned. You can end up damaging them. A great way to protect your computer from dust, and even other possible damage is to cover it after use. A cover for the monitor, speakers, keyboard and tower. I even cover the mouse.

Your computer is a great tool that works practically lets say like magic. Like anything else though you cannot just switch it on, use it and then turn if off. By learning how to optimize your machine you will improve its performance. It will last longer.

Karl S.Smith

History and Benefits of Internet Marketing

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:04:56 +0000

The commencement of first Internet marketing was is early 1990s with simple, text-based websites, which offers product information. As the time passed Internet marketing evolved into more than just selling information products, now there are people who are selling advertising space, more software programs, business models, and actually many other products and services. Today companies like google, yahoo and msn leveled the playing field of internet marketing.

They offer local advertising to small to medium sized businesses; ROI has also grown while the bottom line has been lowered. This type of internet marketing is a backbone of modern capitalism, permitting anyone with a though, product or any service to reach the widest possible audience.

Houston Internet marketing is gaining popularity day by day. Actually, the internet marketing could cover any face of outline marketing as described above; latest used term internet marketing commonly refers to the use of direct response marketing strategies, which were conventionally used in radio, direct main, and TV infomercials, have applied to internet business space. This ability for careful analysis has become quite general now, that is why you would commonly see terms such as ROI, conversion rate, and sales letter generally come up when discussing about internet marketing.

Benefits

Some of the advantages related with Houston Internet marketing comprise the availability of information. Consumers could simply log onto the Internet and know about products and as well as buy them, at any hour. Companies, which use Internet marketing, could also save money because of a reduced need for a sales force. Overall, Internet marketing could surely assist in expanding from a home market to both national as well as international marketplaces. Unlike established marketing media (such as print, radio and TV), entry into the kingdom of Internet marketing could be a lot less expensive.

Compared to the other media marketing (such as print, radio and TV), Internet marketing is rising extremely fast. It’s also earning fame among small businesses and even consumers when attempting to monetize their blog or website. The calculation of the internet marketing as a media makes it very easy to experience ground-breaking e-marketing tactics, which would prove a better Cost of Acquisition than other media. However, in most urbanized countries, internet marketing and advertising spending is about 5% only, while TV, radio, and the print are far more.

Help answer the question about MSN Space

If I block someone on my MSN contact list, will he still have access to my MSN space?
I have a restricted permission only for people on my list and I´m wondering if people I block (don´t delete, just block, so they are still on my list) can also access my MSN space. Thanks for your answers.

Houston

Tips to Build Your Business Network With E-Networking

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:04:53 +0000

Well in the old days and not so old days, business people would connect to build mutually rewarding relationships through social groups and networking groups. Did this work? Yes of course. You can bet it did and still does. Hundreds of lucrative partnerships are formed over a round of golf or at the local ‘club.’ The power of referral marketing has long been acknowledged and having experienced it I can certainly vouch for the fact that leads received through referrals can often be the hottest business leads of all.

The challenges for many with the networking groups that require your physical presence are numerous. They can be inconvenient in location, costly and time-consuming. Many popular networking clubs give great value to members but what are the drawbacks?

Well for instance; if you have a couple of children who need to be taken to school it is a real challenge to be 30 minutes away having a ‘business breakfast’ at the same time! I guess that’s traditionally why men have been seen more often at these kinds of clubs. Thankfully all of that is changing but the gap that e networking fills for the time crunched business owning parent is considerable. Here are a couple of valuable ways you can build your own social network online with very low cost or free strategies:

Discussion Forums

This is a whole new world! This is still a startlingly powerful and new phenomenon – people are connecting all over the world on these forums every second. There are Forums on every subject imaginable. It is possible to spend hours just on these alone, leaving a ‘residual’ value and carving out an organic path back to your website. This is done by contributing to the forum (avoid pitching your business directly or you will be asked to leave!) At the end of your blogs or blurbs for the day you are permitted to have a formal ‘signature’ which is in essence your virtual business card and will give people who are getting to know and like you on the forum an opportunity to see what you have to offer. This is a long-term method and the value is not only in exchanging useful information but in the long shelf life of these conversation threads which are posted, and will be referred to by many people on lively forums, while you have long since forgotten about your posting!

Instant Messaging

The most popular are MSN and Skype. I have found Skype to be the most user friendly to make new connections all over the world. This makes email seem like snail mail! If you want to build an international business and have contacts or business partners all over the world this is an absolutely amazing FREE way to build relationships! You can narrow your searches to individual countries and age groups. Again make sure that you have a website that presents what you are offering very clearly so that when people click on your profile to learn more about what you do they can immediately complete a form to request more information, and are not given too many options which tends to confuse.

Online Business and Social Networks

These network platforms really do seem to be the new ‘going out.’ Until you become involved in some of these networks it is difficult to appreciate the value that you can give and receive though online contribution and relationship building.

The aim of these networks is generally to help people find jobs, staff, business partners, experts, friends, mentors and many other connections. In some of the more business productive ones such as Ecademy and Ryze you can even join the virtual ‘clubs!’ This means that even if you live far from a big city you can still absorb culture, and in many cases connect with influential people all over the world.

Profiles

These profiles can be linked to the online business and social networks, forums in some cases, and another rising star on the web scene is ‘my space’ which has unlimited business potential to reach millions. One question you can ask yourself if you want to raise your internet presence is how many spaces is your face in? Link up your face, by which I mean a good photo, with some valuable and concise information about your business services and then use all of the above methods to attract people to your website and you will start to build a powerful e network of your own.

So in closing just make sure to abide by the rules of conduct for each forum or communication method. This is commonly known as ‘netiquette.’ A good principle to operate by is to focus on building relationships and the business will follow where appropriate. Be time efficient and allocate a certain amount of time per day or week to contribute to your e networking so that you don’t fall into the trap of random surfing and chatting all day long. It is very tempting but will not get you far! Think of this as a long-term strategy to establish your business presence on the web, so make sure you are establishing the one you want! Finally ensure your website links on all your contributions are accessible so that you can be rewarded for your contribution. As people spend more and more time on pcs, and the home-based business industry grows, it might just be that e networking is becoming the new going out!

Note: Messenger’s contact must include nickname, notes,group name. I have tried the save/export butoon in the IM menu, but it only export contact’s email address.

Rachel Henke

Your Guide to Home Employment

Wed, 05 May 2010 18:04:49 +0000

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Neither is there an easy way to earn money, especially from home. To make yourself employable, you need to ensure that you have the required skill sets as well as good marketing and interpersonal skills. A sound portfolio (for aspiring writers, editors, photographers, designers, etc.) is a must.

Today several private companies and MNCs are employing people who prefer working out of their homes. A host of opportunities exist for home employment in areas as diverse as telemarketing, selling insurance, data entry, typing, data conversion, copywriting, accounting , writing (academic and journalistic writing), editing and proof reading, web design, content development, Internet-based research for companies, graphic design and desktop publishing, programming, audio and video editing, translation work and etc is available.

With a fair bit of technology skills (typing and word processing skills, being PC literate), entrepreneurs can use the worldwide web to start companies and work from the convenience of their homes.

Before you get into the home employment groove, make sure you have the requisite qualifications, hardware, and time management skills to convince potential employers that you are the right person for the job.

Step 1: Make The Right Choices

Before you consider quitting your day-job or begin working from home, take a piece of paper and list out your skills, preferred areas of employment, and your comfort-level in each area. For instance, if you are a programmer, weigh the benefits of home employment versus working in a corporate environment. If you are a student, chart out your daily schedule and figure out how much time you can spare for a ‘part-time’ job, even if it doesn’t involve stepping out of home.

Remember, you may or may not earn as much as you would in a full-time job, and freelance projects take time to source and payments are delayed, in some cases. Zeroing in on the right kind of job is important. Don’t get stuck with a job you don’t like.

Step 2: Set Up Your Workstation

Once you have narrowed down your choice of employment, you can set up your workstation. You need to make sure that your future work area is very comfortable – use ergonomic furniture, wherever possible.

For Writers/Editors: A fast PC is a pre-requisite, you may also have to install software such as MS Office/Open Office, QuarkXP-press or Adobe InDesign.

For Designers: Although it’s not important to invest in a Mac (Apple Macintosh), make sure your PC has enough RAM (at least 1 GB), hard disk space, and install a good graphics card. You also need to install design software such as Adobe photoshop, 3D Studio Max, Quark, Corel Painter, or Adobe InDesign.

For Data Entry/Typing Assignments: A computer, MS Office/open Office, or other data-entry software.

For Medical Transcription: Medical transcription involves transcribing medical records dictated by doctors (patient history, records, notes, lab reports), usually located in clinics abroad. Basic requirements include a PC with about 40 GB hard disk space, 256 MB RAM (minimum), sound card and Internet access. You would also require headphones, word processing software, and a good dictionary.

Step 3: Prepare Your Portfolio:

Prepare a good resume, entering the right keywords under ‘Objective’. Use sites like IT-people and Monster to get basic understanding of the job profile. Use Resume Builder on these sites (needs registration) and on MS Word.

Step 4: Set Up A Web Site or Blog

Create a good web site (one that’s not too garish, text or image heavy).

If you are a freelance photographer or freelance programmer or freelance web designer or freelance graphic designer, put up thumbnails of your work on the site. You could also set up a web log (blog) on sites such as Blogger.com and LiveJournal.com. Don’t forget to provide your e-mail address, resume, and contact details at a prominent location on the site.

Use the best search engines in the business Google, Yahoo!, MSN search, and the right keywords (freelance programming, freelance translation, freelance projects, Data entry, Freelance programmer, Freelancing, Freelancers, Freelance work, Custom web design, Outsource projects, Outsource work, and etc.) to find the jobs you want. Don’t provide personal details while registering on a website unless it’s absolutely essential.

Rent-a-coder.com, a freelance-sourcing site has a ranking system to rate the work of freelancer programmers, and help companies choose people best suited for a particular project. Elance.com, Guru.com, GetAFreelancer.com, Scriptlance.com, and Freelance Work Exchange are other popular freelance sites.

It’s very, very important to ‘connect’ with the outside world. Join networking groups such as Friendster and Ryze , have your blog linked to blog rings, and enroll in forums, user groups and other specific online communities. Caveat-online communities have their own set of protocols and etiquette. Remember to follow the rules; don’t forward your resume to everyone you meet.

Step 5: Create A Work Schedule And Meet Deadlines

Create a ‘work culture’ for your self. Just because there is no ‘boss’ breathing down your neck, you can’t afford to slacken or miss deadlines. In fact, you have to work twice as hard to ensure that the companies/clients hiring you have absolutely no reason to regret employing a freelancer.

Step 6: Sell Yourself

Be your own Boss, and brand manager. While it’s important to have an online presence in the form of a website or blog, it’s equally important to be aware of competitive pricing and different payment strategies.

Do not charge your clients less because you are working from home. Make enquires pertaining to the market rates for a particular project (say, web-design or coding), and charge them accordingly. Also, do not under-rate or overrate your skills; and do not undersell or oversell yourself. Be as honest as far as possible.

Tip: To ascertain that Google throws up your site when users enter certain keyword, make the title of your webpage very specific (Fashion Photographer or Freelance Writer or freelance programming or Outsource work or as the case may be).

Ensure that your site linked to other prominent ones, by publishing research papers online, being part of active online communities or regularly updating your web log with quality content.

Step7: Upgrade Your Skill-Sets

When you have time, enroll in training sessions, part-time diploma courses or distance education programs to upgrade your existing skill sets. With technological advancements, there will be rapid changes in the employment scenario as well.

The IT industry, for instance, is continuously evolving. You may have to invest in software courses, at least once every year, to learn new programming languages, improve your design and editing skills, and so on. Not upgrading your skills periodically would reduce your chances of employment, in any field.

Step 8: Exercise Regularly

As the maxim goes, health is wealth. Working from home may reduce your travel time but it might also bring to halt the little exercise you were getting earlier by walking to and from the train or the bus station. To ensure that you give your best to the projects you source, some physical exercise, yoga, and meditation sessions coupled with a balanced diet will help you stay mentally and physically in good shape.

Help answer the question about MSN Space

How do you change the theme on your msn space?
Because everytime I do, it takes me to the space settings. I hit customize, change theme, choose my theme and close tab and choose save, but it takes me to the site settings. Am I doing something wrong, or is there another way to do it?

Kaushik Das