Isara - Make the world a better place for free!

Sunday, November 27, 2005

"What if, just by changing your browser homepage, you were able to make the world a better place? NO products to buy. NO donations to give. NO sign-ups or gimmicks. Change the world by changing your homepage. It can be done."

That's the question that Isara asks. It currently uses the Google search, until it's index is built up to a big enough size to be useful. The more users, the more advertising revenue, and the more income that can be donated to useful projects in developing countries. As the Isara ("freedom" in Thai) website says:

"All income generated from advertising goes towards education, health, environment, AIDS, food, and safety programs in a developing country."

Find Isara at www.isara.com.

Labels: charity

Zero Cash, A Little Talent and 30 Days

If you are thinking of trying to make money on the internet, a series called "Zero Cash, A Little Talent and 30 Days" couldn't be more appropriate. Jennifer Laycock, editor of The Search Engine Guide, set herself a challenge:

"I've decided to set up a little challenge for myself and to both blog and write articles on it over the next month. The idea is to try to setup some type of business in my free time and see if I can start to turn a profit in a 30 day period."

The result is a series of articles charting her progress and how she went about making money with no initial budget. Highly recommended reading - find the series at www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/

Labels: biz, internet

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Tech Support Alert (www.techsupportalert.com) have a list of the best ever freeware utilities, and a quick scan through the list shows it's an absolute goldmine for people who like good quality software without a hefty price tag. The categories shown include "The Best Freeware...":

Adware/Spyware/Scumware Remover
Anonymous Surfing Service
Anti-Virus Software
Archiver/Zip Utility
BitTorrent Client
Bookmark Cleaner
Browser Protection Utility
Clipboard Replacement Utility
Desktop Search Utility
Digital Image Editor
Digital Image Viewer
Digital Photo Organizer
Download Manager
Download/Upload Meter
Email Client
File Cleaner
File Manager
Firewall
Folder Synchronization Utility
FTP Client
Hotkey Utility
HTML Editor
Intrusion Detection Utility for Home Use
Notepad Replacement
Outliner
PC Inventory Tool
Popup Stopper
Process Viewer
Registry Cleaner
Registry Editor
Rename Utility
Resource Meter
Rootkit Scanner/Remover
Screen Capture Utility
Search and Replace Utility
Search Toolbar
Secure Erase Utility
Software Suite
Spam Filter for Experienced Users
Spam Filter for the Average User
Sticky Notes Utility
TCP Settings Tweaker
Trojan Scanner/Trojan Remover
Web Browser
Web Mail Accessory
Web Site Ripper

The full list can be found at http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

Labels: resources

AdSense Ethics - makes sense or nonsense?

A quick search on eBay for the term 'AdSense' brings back varying results, including highly optimised websites for high paying keywords. Looking closer, most of these websites are for medical conditions, and this is where I have a problem.

People with rare medical conditions use the Internet for finding information about their health, and I believe it's unethical to have keyword-stuffed sites purely with the intention of making money from these people. On the plus side, there will be so many of these sites that the revenue share will be very low.

For people who own medical websites with good intentions, it's equally frustrating for them that Google will not allow you to filter out categories or keywords from the AdSense listing. It must be very frustrating having to remove "miracle cure" listings one by one.

Labels: adsense

Free - your own dating website business with over 10000 members

Monday, November 21, 2005

Well the old Yorkshire saying "You don't get owt for nowt" doesn't quite apply in this case. Follow this link to your free website business. It's (almost) as simple as that.

How it works

You visit the dating website to see whether it is suitable for your needs
You choose whether:
- To use one of their (potentially recognisable) subdomains OR
- Register a unique domain name (web address)
You sign-up and customise your dating site - e.g. choose which payment plan you are going to implement or decide which one of the 20+ templates you are going to use for your site
You market your site
People visit - and sign up as members
To contact other members they must sign up to a paid membership
You earn 50% commission on paid memberships

Marketing

You need to be able to dedicate some time to marketing your website. Just because a page is on the Internet doesn't mean it will be found. Here are some ideas to get started with:

Search engines
Pay per click / Google Adwords
Local radio
Local TV Channel (Cable)
Link exchanges
Banner advertising
Mailshots*
Local newspaper
Local newsagent and supermarket notice boards
E-mail campaigns*
Local free ad papers
Local shops
Friends, family, neighbours and anyone else you know!

There are more marketing ideas available on the dating website

*ensure you do this legally - no spam!

Labels: biz, internet

Cheapest Hosting and Domain Names

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

We can recommend several affordable and reliable domain name and hosting providers:

Hosting:

GoDaddy
1&1

Domains:

For cheapest .co.uk domains - 1&1
For cheapest .com and most other domains - GoDaddy

Labels: biz, domains, hosting

Free Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Express Software

If you go here you will find the links, and information for:

Visual Web Developer 2005 Express
Visual Basic 2005 Express
Visual C# 2005 Express
Visual C++ 2005 Express
Visual J# 2005 Express
SQL Server Express

If you download them before 7th November 2006, they are free for life and registering your software gives you additional benefits:

250 royalty-free stock photography images from Corbis
Free Windows Icons from IconBuffet
Free eBooks including: Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition: Build a Web Site Now, Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!, and Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!
3rd party components from VSIP partners
And more

Full information for each package from http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

Labels: programming, resources

Why you should validate your website and how to do it!

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Sooo, you've got the best looking website in the world, but how can you tell whether it's valid or not? And what does 'valid' even mean? Does it even matter?

What is validation?

Validating your website is the process of ensuring your code complies with the programming standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Why Validate?

Validating your website provides lots of benefits - it's more likely to display in the same way in different browsers and technologies (think PDA and WAP - not just PC and mac!), it means that your content:code ratio is probably higher which is important in search engines, it future-proofs your design to an extent, it's clearer code to make changes to, it makes the content more accessible and the list goes on...

How to Validate

To validate your (X)HTML - go to http://validator.w3.org/
To validate your CSS - go to http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
To validate your website links - go to http://validator.w3.org/checklink/

Labels: webdesign

What's your PENGUIN score?

Monday, November 14, 2005

No, I'm not going mad! I've found an excellent website - www.penguinscore.com which tells you how to appraise your business communications to remove the boredom factor.

For each of the letters in the penguin, there is a an associated attribute that you score from 0 - 2. Your final score determines whether you should scrap it and start again or go with it:

Position: Did you take a position? Will people take notice?
Easy: Did you make it easy to understand or is your message enclosed in 'techno-babble'?
Narrow: Did you narrow it down to a few simple ideas?
Genuine: Is it genuine and sincere? Does it have the human touch?
Useful: Is it practical or applicable?
Infectious: Will it spark conversations?
uNexpected: Did you wake people up?

For further explanation, see the website www.penguinscore.com!

Labels: biz

Guest article: Search engine optimisation (SEO): The basics

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

What is SEO & why is it important?

SEO is about making your website in such a way that it will appear higher in the search rankings. A website that's optimised for search engines can reap huge benefits on to your website and your business.

42% to 86% of websites are found through search engines (source: Shari Thurow - Search Engine Visibility).
There are 300 million searches carried out per day, every day (source: Shari Thurow - Search Engine Visibility)

Choose effective keyword phrases

Effective keyword phrases are frequently searched for (high demand) but not being targeted by many other websites (low competition). Please read the article, How to find good keywords for more information.

Use these keyword phrases effectively

Now that you've found some great keyword phrases, you need to put them in the important places within each web page. Search engines give higher relevance to certain words and phrases within HTML documents so it's essential that you put your keyword phrases in the correct places.

The more confident a search engine is about the subject of your website, the higher your web pages will be in the search rankings. If you only place your keyword phrases in the META tags your website will not get a high ranking.

Some of the best places to put keyword phrases are:

Page title tag
In headings
As links
In bold text
In the first 25 words on the page (this refers to the first 25 words of text placed in the HTML document, which is often navigation)
In the file name (i.e. the URL)
META tags

HTML pages must be easy for search engines to follow

Search engines scour the Internet looking for web pages to index, following links from one web page to the next. To ensure a search engine ranking, all pages on your website must be accessible to search engines. Some search engines have problems with:

Links accessible solely through frames, image maps, or JavaScript
Very long pages
Very short pages
Flash pages
Long JavaScript (JavaScript should be placed in an external document)
Dynamic URLs

If any of these describe pages on your website then your web pages will probably not achieve a high search engine ranking.

Have a high number of quality links into the website

Inbound links to a website play a significant part in determining its position in the search engines. Be aware though, it's not just the quantity, but also the quality and click-through-rate of links to your website which is of importance. To find out more about building up links to your website please read the article, Build up links to your website.

About the author

This article was written by Trenton Moss. Trenton's crazy about web accessibility and usability - so crazy that he went and started his own web accessibility and usability consultancy to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. He also knows an awful lot about the Disability Discrimination Act.

I hope you found this article useful - I always enjoy Trenton's articles for their simple and effective advice. Let me know what you think!

Labels: seo, webdesign

Free PDF-writing software

Monday, November 07, 2005

If you buy the PDF-creating software from Adobe, it can be an expensive business, especially if it's only for the occasional document. And a lot of free PDF-making software out there will put their own website link in each document. We have found two excellent pieces of software that do exactly what you want them to do:

*** Primo PDF ***

www.primopdf.com

PRO: easy to install, lots of options for your document e.g. optimise for print or screen, good support, no nags, no links to them in your PDF documents.

CON: cannot create clickable hyperlinks.

*** PDF 995 ***

www.pdf995.com

PRO: easy to install, extra (free) installation options allows document security and clickable hyperlinks, can integrate into MS Word.

CON: 'nag' screen appears before you can use the software unless you purchase a license, no support for free version.

Labels: resources

Outlook Express - Autoresponders & Spam filters

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

An auto-responder is literally an automated e-mail response. It's an incredibly useful tool if you're out of the office or want to automate electronic product deliveries. The first section of this tutorial will explain how to send out the same response to everyone and the second part will look at how to tailor your responses to different circumstances. Finally, the last part will look at how to filter your incoming messages for spam!

*** Sending out the same response to everyone ***

Create your message:

In notepad or similar, type the message you want people to receive.
Save this file to a location on your hard-drive; give it a relevant name!

Goto Tools > Message Rules > Mail

Choose 'new'
In section 1 (conditions) tick the 'for all messages' box.
In section 2 (actions) tick the 'reply with message' box.
In section 3 (description), click on the blue underline 'message'

Navigate to where you saved the file from (1)
Select this file

In section 4, choose a name for your rule.

That's it!!!

*** Sending out different responses ***

If you look at the different components in creating a new rule, you will see that there are many different ways of customising your response e.g. if you have different e-mail addresses, you can create corresponding subfolders in your inbox and automatically direct the e-mails to it's subfolder.

To automate delivery of your electronic ebay products, the easiest way is to use a link-hiding program to disguise your actual download location, take payment with PayPal and then use Outlook Express message rules to send an e-mail to the winning bidder with the download link:

For each product:

Set up an EzyLinkExpire link

Create a message (See step 1 above) containing the download link

***Tip*** Why not suggest the recipient check out your other products?

Create a message rule:

Where the Subject line contains 'Notification of an Instant Payment'

and the message body contains 'Put in your auction title here'

and Reply with your link-containing message

You're done!!!

*** Spam filtering ***

A different use of Outlook Express is as a spam filter. Create a new rule:

Conditions:

Where the Subject line contains 'security alert' or 'Credit Union' or 'Update your CU account' or '$aving$' - carry on adding words that you frequently receive in spam e-mail titles

Click on the word 'and' and select 'messages match any one of the criteria'

Where the message body contains 'Opt-in Email Special Offer' or 'credit union' - carry on adding words that you frequently receive in spam e-mail messages

Actions:

Delete it
and Highlight it with Red

Labels: email, resources, spam

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