The highest converting traffic I've ever seen...

Traffic Buddha is a new site that says it guarantees more web visitors and online advertising with very little effort or cost.  More importantly, it promises higher CONVERSIONS--signups and sales.  So I decided to put it to the test...

My first impression was the site looks professional and clean, with an attractive look and feel.  It is easy to read and understand.  Joining the site was easy and painless--they do offer 2 upgrade options but they are not required to gain the benefits.

The Members Area is very well laid out and intuitive--I could figure out what to do after only a few minutes and was able to get up and running in less than 5 minutes.  Inside the site, you create links and ads--the links you simply enter any URL links you use into the generator and it transforms them into "Traffic Buddha" links.  You create ads for anything you want to promote using the Traffic Buddha Ad Generator, which is very easy to use.  You can create as many links and as many ads as you like.  And they are organized in a logical way--links are displayed in the order you create them but also your 5 most recent links appear on the main page for quick reference.  Also, since the link generator is the tool you'll use most, it is also right at the top of the main page when you login.  Very smart!

After you've created at least 1 link and 1 ad you can start to generate traffic.  Just use and promote the new Traffic Buddha link instead of the original source link you had.  Every time the Traffic Buddha link is clicked, the page loads followed by a small ad window in the lower right corner.  It displays 3 ads PLUS an image with your affiliate link that goes back to Traffic Buddha.  So if anyone clicks the Traffic Buddha image they see the site, and if they signup they become your referral.  It's a great viral feature because you can build referrals without even trying to just by using the site.

Now every time the ad window displays (your Traffic Buddha links get clicked) you earn credits that get YOUR ad displayed in the ad windows when other members' links get clicked.  So the more clicks, the more times your ads get displayed.

And this works virally--meaning as you make referrals into Traffic Buddha (either by promoting it or just using it and visitors click the Traffic Buddha image on the ad window to join) you also earn ad credits on THEIR link clicks.  And this works up to 5 levels deep.  So you can create a massive amount of free ad views and web traffic by referring others to Traffic Buddha also.

I didn't get to test the full effect of a big downline yet (I just got the tool) but I can tell you the rest of the site works exactly as stated--my links got clicked, I earned credits, and my ads got displayed.  Traffic Buddha even tracked my results so I know how many clicks and how many ad displays.  That was an impressive unadvertised extra feature.

There is one more benefit and feature which might be the best of them all--downline emailing.  You can email your downline with offers, promotions, or whatever you like, and here is where Traffic Buddha really shines.  They took time to make the emailing often enough that it's valuable as a user, but no so often that it's a burden to your downline.  But the best part about this feature (and actually the credit earning too) is that it tells you exactly how long until you can mail again.  Now THAT's cool.

Overall I have to say I am impressed with Traffic Buddha.  It is simple yet powerful, and delivers on its promises.  Highly recommended to anyone who wants to increase traffic and advertising.

See it and join here:

http://tinyurl.com/yjzdtwm

Cloud computing – Basic knowledge

 

We begin with a basic understanding. What is Cloud Computing really is. It would be very helpful if we understand that. The challenge ahead is very exciting for us in this cloud computing. Many service providers will be free and that paid well. We can choose which ones fit our needs

Cloud computing is Internet- ("cloud-") based development and use of computer technology ("computing"). In concept, it is a paradigm shift whereby details are abstracted from the users who no longer need knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them. It typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet.

The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams and is an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it conceals. Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online which are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

These applications are broadly divided into the following categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Utility Computing, Web Services, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Managed Service Providers (MSP), Service Commerce, and Internet Integration. The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that is often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams."

Tags : Cloud Computing,Basic,Introduction

Why VOIP Can Save a Business Thousands

For over 100 years the only possible way to carry on a conversation over a long distance was to use the regular telephone lines. The problem is that for every user, a business would need a separate telephone number. These numbers are costly for any large company and can be difficult to manage. The difficulty lies majorly in the lack of extendability of the system itself. For example, if you have purchased the a class of numbers, and would like to assign a block to a specific department, once the whole block is consumed, you could no longer provide a number in the same range. Think of it as a city street. Once you have built and numbered the houses, it would be difficult to add another number in-between the already built houses. The only solution is to either re-number every single house, or to provide the new house with a number outside the regular range.

For this reason, extension addressing was a primary feature when the VOIP protocols were established. The current addressing allows for a company to address any amount of extensions to its users as well as make it transparent to the customers. This comes as a huge benefit to companies that no longer need to have a dedicated employee solely for its communication system. The addressing is done automatically by the PBX (Private Branch Exchange).

This is one of the many reasons why Voice -Over-IP has had a tremendous success with business implementations. A company could use a single phone number and re-route all the calls to extensions. This is in fact a very popular way of attending to customers through numerous departments. Other features such as the auto-attendant will allow the customers to direct themselves to the particular department and not having to speak with a costly concierge or a receptionist. The VOIP technology has increased in popularity through the business world. But un-surprisingly residential customers are ditching the old system and joining the VOIP world.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing, What exactly is It. We now hear much about it. The starting point of changing the way with computing has  begun . Could it be after this desktop will disappear. At least the next few years. I think not that easy. For countries with low cost access to high speed internet with easily available it could happen soon. But for countries with rare for good Internet infrastructure that's impossible.

Cloud computing is all the rage. "It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition.

As a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is a familiar cliché, but when combined with "computing," the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud," including conventional outsourcing.

Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.

Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud-based services, from full-blown applications to storage services to spam filtering. Yes, utility-style infrastructure providers are part of the mix, but so are SaaS (software as a service) providers such as Salesforce.com. Today, for the most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and integrators are already emerging.

InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts, and IT customers to tease out the various components of cloud computing. Based on those discussions, here's a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about:

1. SaaS
This type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS "desktop" applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office?

2. Utility computing
The idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon.com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Tera's AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies' Elastic Server on Demand. Liquid Computing's LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the network.

3. Web services in the cloud
Closely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services -- such as Strike Iron and Xignite -- to the full range of APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit card processing services.

4. Platform as a service
Another SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the provider's infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider's servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendor's design and capabilities, so you don't get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration. Prime examples include Salesforce.com's Force.com, Coghead and the new Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-based mashup platforms abound, such as Yahoo Pipes or Dapper.net.

5. MSP (managed service providers)
One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides). Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream.

6. Service commerce platforms
A hybrid of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with. They're most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba.

 

7. Internet integration
The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central -- which wanted to be a universal "bus in the cloud" to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers -- flamed out in 2005.

Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as "sky computing," with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually. On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. It's a long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue with in the long term.

8 Disposable Email Address Services

If you give web sites and new contacts a disposable email address instead of your real one, you can selectively disable a disposable address as soon as you get spam through it, but continue using all other aliases.

All disposable email address services provide this basic functionality, but some have other neat features that make life with email less spam and more fun.

1. ZoEmail - Disposable Email Address Service
ZoEmail restores email as it must have been before spam. Easily accessible via the web and POP, ZoEmail lacks IMAP access, however, and could offer more online storage. The spam-free existence of ZoEmail also comes at the price of a bit of management.

2. Emailias - Disposable Email Address Service
Create disposable email addresses for use on the Web with Emailias, a flexible and feature-packed disposable email address service, and reduce the amount of spam you get.

3. Spamex - Disposable Email Address Service
Spamex provides a solid, useful, and almost feature-complete disposable email address service.

4. Spamgourmet - Disposable Email Address Service
Before you choke on all that spam, try the feature-rich and flexible disposable email addresses from Spamgourmet for protection.

5. E4ward.com - Disposable Email Address Service
E4ward.com is a down-to-earth and very useful disposable email service that makes it easy to prevent spam to your real email address with easily erasable aliases. You can use your own domain with E4ward.com, but address masking in your replies is a bit cumbersome and auto-expiring aliases are not offered.

6. GishPuppy - Disposable Email Address Service
GishPuppy is a disposable email address service that shines with simplicity and functionality. Unfortunately, GishPuppy's functionality does not encompass replacing your real email address with the appropriate alias in replies.

7. Mailinator - Disposable Email Address Service
Mailinator lets you use any email address @mailinator.com and pick up the mail at their site. Since there's no connection to your real address, you sure won't get spam from using Mailinator addresses. Keep in mind that all mail sent to Mailinator is made public.

8. Yahoo! Mail Classic - Disposable Email Address Service
Yahoo! Mail Classic is a comfortable, reliable and secure email service with unlimited storage. A pretty good spam filter (including disposable email addresses) keeps the junk out.
Note that disposable addresses are deleted when you cancel your Yahoo! Mail Plus account.

Source: About.com

Recent Facebook Demographics

If you get a chance, check out the latest statistics from InsideFacebook.com. Please keep in mind that these are only number for the United States. But there are some things that stand out:

Looking at percentages, the highest growth rate is coming from the over-45 demographic:

While the absolute number of members is smaller in that group, the growth rate is fascinating to watch. I would imagine this will eventually slow, as we've seen with the younger demographic, until it normalizes. In anecdotal conversations, I'm finding that many people from this demographic are using Facebook to connect with high school and college friends (especially as we move into reunion time), stay in touch with children and grandchildren, and even begin to use it for some business networking purposes.

Another worthwhile graph from the post breaks down current U.S. users by age:

If you bundle up the groups, you'll find that the 35 and older crowd makes up 38% of Facebook's population here in the U.S. Pretty cool when you consider that Facebook started about five years ago as a college-based tool.

And finally, looking at gender, we find that - in every single segment - there are more female users than male users of Facebook:

While we know that overall women use social networks more than men, I wonder how many of us are using that knowledge to effectively feed our marketing and communications programs? Seems like there's a good opportunity there.

Do any of these data strike you differently? Can you draw any conclusions or make inferences that I've missed? Let me know.

Chart credit: InsideFacebook.com

Facebook and Twitter Go Live on Xbox 360

As expected, November 17th is indeed the day that Xbox Live goes social with its latest big update. The popular online console service now has integration into leading social sites Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, the integration for Facebook is not the complete version, so you won’t be playing any FarmVille on your high definition television. However, the Live rendition does incorporate all of your major Facebook site features. From your TV, you can view pictures (which was a personal favorite), see updates, and post to your feed. Granted, it is a bit obnoxious to type with a controller, and not a keyboard, but it is still pretty cool from what we’ve played around with so far.

Another interesting feature is that you can see all of your Facebook friends who are on Xbox Live and all of your Xbox Live friends who are on Facebook (once they have installed it on their console). Of course, this doesn’t mean that your normal Facebook friends list is forsaken. On the contrary, you can see all of them and view all their updates, news feeds, and pictures right from your couch. It’s nothing different, really, from what you can do on the web… except the whole 1080i thing.

Now, if Twitter is more your thing, then that is here too. From here, the integration is a little fuller (but then again, there is a lot less to Twitter than Facebook). Users can tweet directly from their console, see the latest tweets from whom they are following, and even view what trending topics are out there.

Beyond, Facebook and Twitter, the new Xbox Live update has also included Zune and Last.fm. The former allows users to watch high definition, 1080p, television and videos with up to seven friends. Seems minor, but with the digital age bringing people together across the world, it really adds another great means to connect with them. Last.fm, on the other hand is a program that allows you to customize and listen to various radio stations wrought with free music. Users can choose to skip, “ban,” or “love” a myriad of tracks that will allow them to create a mix of music that is perfect for them. In fact, stations can be browsed based on popularity, artists, and for those in the UK and U.S., a gamers-only station filled with popular game soundtracks.

Overall, the new additions to Xbox Live are a phenomenal boost to the console’s social endeavors. Quite frankly, just setting up some gamer music stations led us to an exorbitant amount of procrastination. And that doesn’t include the time it took to play around with Facebook and Twitter. However, the new updates only seem to be available if you own a Gold Membership and not the free Silver Membership. Frankly, this sort of kills a lot of the update.

Microsoft wants the Live service to be more social. To have people do more than just play games on it. However, the people that play games all the time are there to play games, not so much use these new social features (save Zune, perhaps). The people they want to attract – the more casual crowd – is not going to pay for a Gold account when they can get the same social networks for free on the computer. At the very least, Facebook and Twitter need to be made for the free Silver account; otherwise… what is the point? Hopefully that will change, but as it stands, it is still a very cool addition.

Facebook Adopts Updated Privacy Policy After Relatively Few User Comments

http://www.insidefacebook.com/

Last night, Facebook announced that after a week-long “notice and comment” period, it has decided to adopt the updated privacy policy it initially proposed in late October.

Because the proposed policy did not receive over 7,000 comments — the threshold Facebook laid out in its latest Statement of Rights and Responsibilities — the new policy did not go to site-wide user voting as happened earlier this year. In fact, the English version of the draft only got about 1,000 comments total.

What changes does the new policy bring about? As we detailed when the new policy was proposed, part of the intent with this draft was to provide a “clearer and more comprehensive” description of what the policies actually mean.

Facebook also added a blurb on “location” in which Facebook says it will treat your location as subject to your overall privacy settings (share with “everyone,” just “friends,” etc.). So Facebook is preparing, at least legally, for more location-based services:

Location Information. When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post (for example, it is subject to your privacy settings). If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.

In terms of advertising, Facebook has included language that allows it to provide general statistics about users who interact with ads, but not personally identifiable information. Facebook also says:

We may institute programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us:

• We may ask advertisers to tell us how our users responded to the ads we showed them (and for comparison purposes, how other users who didn’t see the ads acted on their site). This data sharing, commonly known as “conversion tracking,” helps us measure our advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements you see.
• We may receive information about whether or not you’ve seen or interacted with certain ads on other sites in order to measure the effectiveness of those ads.

Other notable reiterations of previous policies include what Facebook has to say to developers. “We do not guarantee that Platform will always be free,” according to the document.

Overall, the new policy does not represent any major shift in Facebook’s privacy philosophy, but is a part of its overall effort to simplify its privacy and legal documentation.

More politicians and watchdog organizations are paying attention to Facebook’s privacy policies too. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has pushed the company to adopt more detailed rules about a number of practices, including better informing users what data they are sharing, and with whom.

And just today, Jim Gamble of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, criticized Facebook for not placing the CEOP “report” button on its website. Facebook responded, “We are confident that the Ceop button is an excellent solution for sites that have not invested in as robust a reporting infrastructure as Facebook has in place and one we continue to improve.”

Five Tips for Getting Traffic From Stumble

money.bigbucksblogger.com

StumbleUpon drives a lot of traffic, and the traffic, and as DoshDosh reports, StumbleUpon traffic is generally focused and of great quality. So, it’s worth trying to discover how to generate plenty of traffic without spamming the site and getting banned.

Naturally, I’ve been reading a large number of “to do” tips and I’ve hit on five I’m going to try over the next month. I’ve selected these because they are easy, and not too time consuming.

I encourage you to try them too.

All require you to join StumbleUpon and to make things easy, you should install the StumbleUpon toolbar which you can download at StumbleUpon’s main page — look in the right sidebar. After you install, you will see an bar whose left edge looks like this:

Ok, so now what am I going to do? Here’s my list, I encourage you to give it a try too:

1. Stumble people who link you! Do this by regularly visiting your dashboard, visiting their blog, and then clicking the “thumbs up” icon in the Stumble toolbar. If you are the first to Stumble, you will have a brief form to fill out. It’s quick– just do it.

   Why do this? When you Stumble someone else, they get traffic. If they linked you, some of those visitors will click the link to your post. (I tried this: it worked.)

2. Link and befriend bloggers who Stumble your posts! Why? Because bloggers tend to read posts that appear in their trackbacks. You can’t make them like your post or Stumble you. But remember, these are people who do Stumble what they like. So, it’s worth a shot!

   (If you want to read more about gaining visibility with the “right” Stumblers, read My StumbleUpon Friend.

3. Stumble your friend’s and commenter’s blog & Stumble posts you link. Do watch for your friends’ best posts– because other Stumblers will trust you more and your Stumble profile will improve more if you give a thumbs up to good posts.

   Why do this? Well, your friends and commentors visit your blog, right? Showing them the power of Stumble will make them want to join and get Stumbling too.
   When they do, encourage them to install the toolbar. Make them your “Stumble” friend. (You tell me your profile in comments, I’ll befriend you. )

   Give them your Stumble profile link. Hopefully, they will make you their StumbleUpon friend and will Stumble your best posts (especially when you link them.) Then, you will both increase your reputations with Stumble and get more traffic. (To read more about how Stumble rates stumblers, visit Stumble Upon Mathematics.

4. Thank people who stumble you. This tip comes from Liz of Successful Bloggers. How? Find the white conversation balloon in the Stumble toolbar; (it’s on the right in the image I show.) Click that– you’ll see who stumbled you. Next, find the “meet so-and-so” link. Click to open their profile.

   Now, look at the right sidebar. See the “Send a message?” Click that. Then send a message and thank them!

   Why? People who stumble tend to stumble a lot. Thanking them is gracious. It also may make them remember to visit your blog again and Stumble you again.

5. After someone Stumbles you, go stumble a post they stumbled! How? Once again, visit the Stumbler’s profile and look at the right sidebar. See “Stumble his favorites?” Click that.

   Read a few posts– use the “stumble” icon on the far left of your Stumble toolbar to scan past the ones you don’t like. Within 5 posts, you’ll probably find one you like. So, give it a thumbs up! You are done.

   Why do this? Because a person’s stumble profile is strengthened when they posts they Stumble are given thumbs up by others — including you. So, if people who like your posts develop good reputations, you get more traffic when they stumble you.

Those are the tips!

How about adding friends and fans?

Of course I’m going to add friends and fans etc. But right now, I don’t know everyone’s Stumble profile name. So, I’m going to concentrate on doing things that will make others discover my profile and want to become my fan.

To do that, I need to Stumble others, attract the attention of people who already Stumble, then cross my fingers and hope they like my posts.)

Will I be reading more tips? Absolutely. This is just a start– but it’s easy. With luck, I’ll accumilate stumbles, friends and fans as I learn how to better use StumbleUpon. (And you will too.) Maybe we’ll both soon find ourselves reciting An Ode to StumbleUpon.

Some Considerations About Domain Registration And Hosting

A domain registrar is a company that supplies domain names, and sometimes hosting as well.

After deciding on your domain name, you would go to a domain registrar to purchase it.. You will get your desired name if it is available. If not you may have to modify it, or choose another name.

The domain registrar checks the name chosen is not already taken, and collects information about the domain name purchaser (name, address, phone number, email address and fax number). They hold the information for billing, administration and technical contacts for the domain purchaser. The admin. contact and the owner are usually the same person, or company.

Your domain name points to your hosting space. The domain name makes the space look more professional and makes it easier to remember. Your domain name would look like, for example, YourName.com or YourName.net, or YourName.org etc. Nowadays domain names are quite cheap to purchase. The DNS (domain name servers) is information also held by the domain registrar and consists of the primary and secondary name servers that let internet traffic know where the internet host is for the domain name they are searching for.

Hosting - you need your domain/website hosted, and there are several hosting companies out there like One.com and HostGator. There are also many that do hosting and domain names. GoDaddy and CheapDomainSeller.com does both hosting and supplies domain names, and if you take both with CheapDomainSeller.com, they give you a discount. They have different packages, but the Economy Plan gives 5 Gb space, 250 Gb transfer, 500 email accounts, free software, 10 MySQL databases, 50 email forwards, forums, blogging, photo galleries and no ads.

Bandwidth - each hosting plan has a bandwidth limit per month. You need to ensure you have a package with sufficient bandwidth for your purposes. Big video files take up more bandwith so make smaller files if possible.

You can upload to your website/blog using programs like Microsoft FrontPage or other ftp programs. There are many ftp programs like Smart FTP or Filezilla. A Google search for 'FTP Programs' should give you a good choice.

Other factors to consider when registering a domain name and getting hosting are:

The cost of setting up, like purchasing a domain name, renewing it every year, the yearly cost of hosting etc. The other costs to factor in are SEO (search engine optimisation), advertising and marketing, etc. Research web hosting companies before you decide on one, compare prices and services with other web hosting companies.

Time in which you can be up and running. Most hosting companies can have you up and running within 24 hours.

How much space does your website need? A simple static space with small files, or a site that requires large database storage? If your site needs special software to run scripts or if your site requires a database, you should check with the web hosting company first.

You should try and visualise what you want your site to be like and what its purposes are. Write down all the functions of the links on your website. Make sure you have met all your requirements for your site so there are no complications after it is up and running caused by things you have omitted accidentally.

Remember, forums are also a great place to look for lots of good advice and information.

MojoPortal A Solid CMS Option For .NET Shops

by Peter Hagopian

While there are plenty of options to choose from if you're looking for free, open source PHP-based content management systems, the list is much shorter for organizations using Microsoft's .NET framework and coding in C#. While DotNetNuke has received the lion's share of attention over the past year or so, it certainly isn't the only game in town.

That brings me to mojoPortal, an ASP.NET-based content management system that's been quietly building a solid, mature platform for nearly 5 years. While mojoPortal is primarily developed and maintained by Joe Audette, there's an active community of users and contributors and a solid set of documentation to help new users get up to speed.

It's a surprisingly flexible platform. Although it's written in C#, mojoPortal can actually run on a number of different platforms, including Microsoft's .NET framework or the open source .NET alternative, Mono. On the database side it can run on SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and a handful of other options.

In terms of features, mojoPortal covers most of the basics that you'd expect from a content management system platform that's been around for five years. As stated on the site:

You can think of mojoPortal as a Starter Kit for Advanced ASP.NET Web Sites and Portals. Out of the box, mojoPortal provides dynamic database-driven Web site(s) with an XHTML compliant Content Management System and community features like Blogs, Forums, Image Galleries, etc.

The most recent version of mojoPortal (2.2.8.2) was released earlier this month, but the team behind it has a rapid development cycle -- it seems as if it has been putting out a new release every two to three weeks. Based on the road map and what ends up in each release, it's clear the team is reading its feedback and responding to requests quickly.

Having more options -- particularly when it comes to choosing a content management system -- is a good thing, and mojoPortal is well worth adding to your list for evaluation.

Write Search Engine and user Friendly Content

With the huge number of sites now available on the internet, it can be difficult to stand out and you really need to promote and market your site so people know you are out there. That is also why your site needs to be properly optimised and search engine friendly.
Getting people to notice your site can really be a challenge, because most web users search for information using search engines. This means that your website needs to be user friendly as well as search engine spider friendly. A site not indexed on a main search engine like Google can be dramatic for companies that now spend thousand on their sites.
That is one of the main reasons why you need to write carefully the content of your pages. It is not about stuffing your target keywords into a page so it looks horrible. You need to remember that you are first writing for human beings and then for search engine spiders. Any SEO company or SEO specialist should tell you that when you talk about writing search engine friendly content as part of your internet marketing strategy. The aim of being top of the search engines for particular keywords is so that web users can find your site. But if your site is not user friendly, it will not convert and you will finally end up with a useless site.
When writing content for your site, you need to keep a few things in mind that will help the user read through a page. Short paragraphs and bullet points are best because they will more easily attract the eyes. On the contrary long paragraphs that make a page look like one block will scare people away.
Like a salesperson, if you want to sell something on your site, you need to list the main interesting points and put calls to action at strategic points to ensure that you will capture as many sales as possible.
In the end, try to remember that even if you are trying to attract the search engines spiders, your website is first designed for human beings. Usually, a site properly written and designed well for people will also be search engine friendly. Just try to be careful not to use flash too much as it is not well read by the spiders. It is also important not to compromise your message to your human audience simply because you want to make your pages more reachable to the search engines.

Easy touch

Easy touch theme is another CMS template by NattyWP. With this theme you can easily create a unique location for your business. Flexibility of the template helps to adjust the main page with the specially designed NattyWP widgets, so that it meets your requirements. The blog page itself is a WordPress blog, with all its functions.

e-commerce - the basic

Electronic commerce or e-commerce means buying products or services via the Internet. One way to do that is by using a credit card and the manner in which this process is shown in the diagram below.
Consumers visiting the online shop to purchase your merchandise. The transaction data via a secure connection, or SSL, the web host server.
The encrypted credit card data are handled by the Payment Processing Gateway, which is responsible for the transaction.
The movement of funds is handled by the merchant account.
The funds are then charged to the credit card buyers.
Followed by the funds being deposited in the seller bank.
Managing E-commerce
There are several ways to manage e-commerce transactions on your website. Perhaps the simplest method by which third party such as Paypal, to handle all your e-commerce process or any other method is by including all your website pages.
For all through your website, your site will be designed for your merchandise.
You can use the shopping cart system.
Alternatively you can use one of your own system with a customized website and a database.
If you accept credit card transactions through your website, it is important you Secure Socket Layer, or SSL, encryption in place. This ensures all transaction data is encrypted as they travel between the buyers and the PC server. When using an SSL secure system, a small padlock symbol is shown on your web browser at the bottom right of the screen.
There are two ways to integrate SSL into your website.
You can set the SSL field to the hosts.
You can create your own SSL certificate. This costs about $ 100 per year and requires a Hosingen account and a unique IP address. This method is certainly more professional than using third party such as Paypal.
If you decide to handle e-commerce transactions through your website, instead of third party to manage them, you should also set up a Merchant Account and a processor account.

tags: E-commerce ,Make Money On Line,credit card

Bing - The Google Killer.

The new search engine from Microsoft and hotly Bing is on 3 June officially at the starting line. Microsoft describes its new search engine search is not in the conventional sense, but as a decision aid, the growing World Wide Web, navigate to find ...
The already published a video showing in fact that Bing less a web sorting machinery as a complex structured interface represents, which is arranged by categories in processed information search and concrete intentions and actions can make.
Even when Bing is, like all new search engines, according to the question whether the new search as a potential Google killer is. White man to the dismal failure of candidates such as former Wikipedia Search, is it with the statement, Bing is not a killer without a doubt on the safe side.
With high probability it will actually be the case that even the Bing search giant Google is in the best case a few more percentage points decline, but never its market leadership in Internet search can really threaten.
To the question after a killer status precise answer, you should first think about what about a Google-killer is. Is only a search engine, which Google from the throne of the leader will face a killer, or should we simply a better search engine as Google killer called?

Bing: Microsoft has launched new search engine

Microsoft stated on Thursday (local time) its new browser Bing, which was the meaning of queries to better understand and should provide more precise results than the competitors. Search engines evaluate today usually only the match between search terms and the concepts on web pages, but do not understand meaning of questions. Microsoft now wants to change and thus results, the searchers are really interested, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Bing is earlier than expected in Germany on Whit Monday as a beta version went online. Some other languages or regions can change the address bing.com already use.
Bing was a "decision engine", said Microsoft. The search results will be queries are divided thematically. When a query to a city could be the results, for example, separately for tourist information, government contacts and economic data are listed. Bing also had a feature that allows users the most interesting results as the "best hits" are shown.

Microsoft’Bing

Filter and display options to refine the result
Thousand words can be easily found on the Internet, but the search for the right picture can sometimes be painfully long. Whether it according to the latest snapshots of their favorite stars rummage up for the next holiday or want to inspire her weblog want - with a good image search, they will quickly find it.
In addition to a simple, intuitive usability, the success of a image search in particular of the possibility of starting their search to be. Bing offers numerous filters and display options.

It’s not bed idea to try Bing

The first real Google alternative : Microsoft’s Bing

Bing has had the courage to say "to hell with eking out the last millisecond of page load time," which both Google and, historically, Yahoo have always emphasized. In today's world, and moving forward, it's just not that important (mobile being an exception, but for that you can provide a custom experience).

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Download WordPress 2.8 Beta 1

I found this fascinating quote today:

WordPress Testers and early adopters can now download WordPress 2.8 Beta 1 and test the new features that promise to make WordPress better and more powerful than before.Cindy, Download WordPress 2.8 Beta 1, May 2009

You should read the whole article.

 

Mozilla looks to enable Web personalization

San Francisco - Mozilla Labs on Wednesday afternoon unveiled an open source project intended to explore new ways to extend and personalize the Web via Firefox browser add-ons.

The Mozilla JetPack project features an add-on creation process for the browser that is more accessible technically. Anyone who can build a Web site can participate in making the Web as a place to work, play, and communicate, a Mozilla representative said. Developers can build features that are secure, easy to install, and faster to review, according to Mozilla. The features can be added to a browser without restart or compatibility issues, thus resulting in little or no disruption to an online experience.

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