Friday, January 30, 2009

22 Fantastic Facebook Tools for Firefox

Everyone loves Facebook and Firefox.







Here's quite a few tools to synergize these two services for maximum effectiveness:
  1. Who is this Person? - Highlight any name on a web page and see matching information from Facebook
  2. Ultimate Facebook - Simplifies the way you can move through Facebook's core features. Also used as a social ranking system which is like a mix of StumbleUpon + LinkedIn + Google PageRank for the social graph
  3. Comments Bar - Post Comments to Facebook from your browswer, without ever leaving your friend's profile!
  4. Facebook Secure - Forces Facebook to use the more secure SSL protocol.
  5. Facebook DU Colors - Change the Facebook colors to Crimson and Gold! (or try out PINK FACEBOOK)
  6. Researcher - Lets you ask your friends on Facebook to help you figure out which search results are useful, before you click on them
  7. Facebook Photo Album Downloader - Easily download whole albums off Facebook!
  8. Facebook Toolbar - Integrate your Facebook life into your browser
  9. Facebook Video - Lets users download or convert Facebook videos, and embed videos outside of Facebook
  10. FacePad - Allows you to download your friends’ facebook albums en masse with the click of a button.
  11. Boost - Customize your Facebook experience with 300+ facebook skins, 30+ special features, selectable options, custom album viewers, video downloader and more.
  12. Presdo Event Calendar - Organize your own events listed in Facebook
  13. PowerTwitter - Adds various features to the Twitter Web interface including Facebook status updates
  14. Yoono - Simplifies your social life on the web by centralizing all your social networks and instant messaging in one easy to use browser sidebar.
  15. Clipmarks - Instead of copying and pasting links, it's like adding a pair of scissors to your browser, letting you capture exactly what you want others to see and is easily syndicated to Facebook.
  16. Facebook App Filter - Adds a little nuke icon to profile boxes and feed items to let you permanently hide annoying Facebook platform applications with a simple click
  17. Facebook Unblocker - Makes it possible to use facebook where its blocked. (I.e. Work or school!) Note: Can't use facebook chat, and some pictures don't work.
  18. Facebook Chat Notifications - Firefox will notify you of new chat messages in Facebook (eliminates the need to go to the Facebook page to check on your chats)
  19. TimeWaster - Displays the amount of time wasted on the web site 'facebook' on the right-hand side of the status bar. Get back to work!
  20. Friendbar - Displays a running stream of text and photo updates from Facebook right on the toolbar, and allows you to post updates and reply from the toolbar itself.
  21. SuperProfile - The only way to customize your facebook profile
  22. Facepalm - Don't care about all the bells and whistles? With the click of a single button, clean up a friend's cluttered Facebook page to find information you need.
As with all Firefox tools, it is not recommended you install all of these unless you want your browser to slow down quite a bit.

Friday, January 23, 2009

How to Send a Text Message Online


How to Text Message Online

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

If you pay for each text message you send, text internationally, or prefer typing over texting, knowing how to send an SMS message through the Internet can come in handy (and possibly save you money).

Steps

E-mail
  1. Find out which carrier the recipient uses.
  2. Compose an e-mail with your intended text message in the body.
  3. Send the e-mail to the e-mail-to-SMS gateway for their carrier. Here are some examples, and the complete list is at the end of this article:
    • Sprint Nextel: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com (1234567890@pm.sprint.com for MMS)
    • T-Mobile: 1234567890@tmomail.net (SMS and MMS)
    • Verizon: 1234567890@vtext.com (1234567890@vzwpix.com for MMS)(limit TXT messages to 150 characters).
    • Cricket: 1234567890@sms.mycricket.com (SMS)
    • Fido: 1234567890@fido.ca (SMS)
    • If you don't know the provider, you could just send it to all carriers. Your text message will only get delivered to the intended recipient's box because the address is based on the phone number which is unique.
    • See bottom of this article for a larger list of carriers
Instant Messaging
  1. Some instant messaging services, like AIM and Yahoo! Messenger, allow you to send instant messages to a cell phone. On AIM, all you need to do is add +1 and then the number in the recipient's name box. For Yahoo! Messenger, just type the phone number into the text box at the top of the window, and hit Enter.
  2. The built-in chat in Gmail allows text messaging. To use it, click the button settings, then the labs tab, scroll down to "Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat" and click Enable. Then scroll down to the bottom and press save changes. Now, open up a chat window from the chat box. Click the options button on the bottom left and press Send SMS. It will prompt you for a phone number. Currently, this only works for US phones.

Carrier Website
  1. Go to the website of the carrier of the recipient.
  2. Look for a form that allows you to send a text message to one of their numbers. You might need to register. Go the website search box or help section and type in "send text message".
Skype
  1. Downnload Skype – The whole world can talk for free!
  2. Create an Account.
  3. Purchase Skype Credit.
  4. On the file menu, select Tools > Send SMS message.
  5. Choose recipients or enter a number. You can send a text message to any of your SkypeOut contacts or Skype contacts if they have added their mobile number in their profile. You can send the same message to several recipients, but each will be charged separately.
  6. Send the message. At the bottom, it will say how much the message will cost to send. Take a look at that before you send!


Free Online Services
  1. Find a website which allows you to send text messages free of charge. This method does not require any setup or downloading on your part, although it may require registration. Examples:



Email to SMS Gateways

Africa
  • Emtel (Mauritius) number@emtelworld.net
  • Vodacom (South Africa) number@voda.co.za
  • MTN (South Africa) number@sms.co.za
Asia
  • BPL Mobile (Mumbai, India) number@bplmobile.com
  • Airtel (Karnataka, India) number@airtelkk.com
  • Mero Mobile (Nepal) 977number@sms.spicenepal.com
  • Mobitel (Sri Lanka) number@sms.mobitel.lk
Europe
  • T-Mobile (Austria) number@sms.t-mobile.at
  • Orange Polska (Poland) 9digit@orange.pl
  • Meteor (Ireland) number@sms.mymeteor.ie
  • Plus GSM (Poland) +48number@text.plusgsm.pl
  • T-Mobile (UK) number@t-mobile.uk.net
  • BigRedGiant Mobile Solutions number@tachyonsms.co.uk
  • YCC number@sms.ycc.ru


North America
  • Alltel - [10-digit phone number]@message.alltel.com
  • AT&T (formerly Cingular) - [10-digit phone number]@txt.att.net or [10-digit phone number]@mms.att.net (MMS) or [10-digit phone number]@cingularme.com
  • Bluegrass Cellular [10-digit phone number]@sms.bluecell.com
  • Boost Mobile - [10-digit phone number]@myboostmobile.com
  • Nextel (now Sprint Nextel) - [10-digit telephone number]@messaging.nextel.com
  • Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel) - [10-digit phone number]@messaging.sprintpcs.com or [10-digit phone number]@pm.sprint.com (MMS)
  • T-Mobile - [10-digit phone number]@tmomail.net
  • US Cellular - [10-digit phone number]email.uscc.net (SMS) or [10-digit phone number]@mms.uscc.net (MMS)
  • Verizon - [10-digit phone number]@vtext.com or [10-digit phone number]@vzwpix.com (MMS)
  • Virgin Mobile USA - [10-digit phone number]@vmobl.com
  • 7-11 Speakout (USA GSM) number@cingularme.com
  • Airtel Wireless (Montana, USA) number@sms.airtelmontana.com
  • Alaska Communications Systems number@msg.acsalaska.com
  • Bell Mobility & Solo Mobile (Canada) number@txt.bell.ca
  • Fido (Canada) number@fido.ca
  • Illinois Valley Cellular number@ivctext.com
  • Koodo Mobile (Canada) number@msg.koodomobile.com
  • Longlines (USA-Midwest) 1+number@mms.longlines.com
  • MTS (Canada) number@text.mtsmobility.com
  • Nextel (United States) number@messaging.nextel.com
  • President's Choice (Canada) number@txt.bell.ca
  • Rogers (Canada) number@pcs.rogers.com
  • Sasktel (Canada) number@sms.sasktel.com
  • Telus Mobility (Canada) number@msg.telus.com
  • Virgin Mobile (Canada) number@vmobile.ca
  • MobiPCS (Hawaii only) number@mobipcs.net
  • MetroPCS number@mymetropcs.com
  • Qwest number@qwestmp.com
  • Cellular One (Dobson) number@mobile.celloneusa.com
  • AT&T Enterprise Paging number@page.att.net
  • Cingular (Postpaid) number@cingularme.com
  • Helio number@myhelio.com
  • Centennial (USA) number@cwemail.com

South/Central America
  • Claro (Brasil) number@clarotorpedo.com.br
  • Claro (Nicaragua) number@ideasclaro-ca.com
  • All Companies (Paraguay)www.buscar.com.py
  • Movistar (Colombia) number@movistar.com.co
  • Nextel (Argentina) TwoWay.11number@nextel.net.ar
  • Personal (Argentina) number@alertas.personal.com.ar
  • Setar Mobile email (Aruba) 297+number@mas.aw
Other
  • Globalstar (satellite) number@msg.globalstarusa.com
  • Iridium (satellite) number@msg.iridium.com

Warnings

  • You might be sending the text message free, but if the recipient normally gets charged for receiving messages, those charges will still apply.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

  1. http://www.skype.com Skype

  2. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/email-to-sms/
Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Text Message Online. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2009 - Your Time to Shine

In 2009, act like the Chief Executive Officer of your Online Business.

Too often, you find solutions to problems as a web designer, an SEO specialist, a developer, a geek, a blogger, or freelance writer. But you've got it all wrong!

If you want to make the cash register ring in 2009, you will have to envision yourself as the CEO. You are the Captain of your Ship, the Master of your Destiny, the Boss!

As the CEO, your time is valuable. Therefore, it is essential to automate every task that can be automated in order to free up time to run your business. Throughout the day, you must ask yourself “How can this task be automated?”

Every task that can be performed inexpensively by someone else, should be. How much time do you waste per day on things that could be performed by someone for a minimal fee? Stop and think about it: If you're performing a task that can be done by someone that normally makes $20 per day, how much money can you expect to make doing that same task? Create jobs, find contractors and free up your own time for doing what needs to be done: running your online business. With every task, you should ask yourself “Can I outsource this task to someone else for less money than my time is worth?”

Quit checking visitor stats on a daily basis. It’s a waste of your time. You are throwing away countless hours per week that could be spent on outsourcing, automating, and advertising.

This year you will focus your time on things that make money. You should constantly be asking yourself “Is the task I’m doing right now going to make me more money?” If it’s not, you will think about how to eliminate that task from your routine to effectively increase your productivity.

Finally, this year focus on surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals. Develop a network around you that know how to make money on the Web. You will have less time for people who waste your time and will make a greater effort to network with people who “get it.” Unlike in years past, this year, make the effort to stay in contact with, do business with, and associate yourself with like-minded business professionals.

That's how 2009 will be your best year yet!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Should you pay for Web Hosting?

If you aim to publish a Web site, you must use a host. You should utilize a hosting company that offers reliable service, quality tech support and an easy to use interface.

You don’t always have to pay for your hosting service. Some Web hosts give you free space (i.e. FreeWebs.com and Bravenet.com) The question looms: "Should I choose the free option, or pay a monthly fee in exchange for the service?" The answer: it depends on the host!

No matter what, if anything, a particular Web host charges, your top concern is quality. You can pay a good chunk of money every month for a host that ignores your questions, offers poor tech support and/or crashes every few days. You can get free Web hosting with first-class service. Just because you buy the service does not mean that you will get what you deserve – and “free” is not always synonymous with “terrible.”

Typically, the answers to your questions are located in the FAQ section of the host’s Web site; however, don’t hesitate to contact someone at the company with questions that cannot be answered on your own.



For every hosting package you consider, ask these questions:

  • “How much will this cost me every month?” You need to know, before you make a commitment, how much you’re expected to pay for the service.
  • “Will there be forced advertising on my site?” Some Web hosts stick ad banners on your pages. This is frequently an alternative to paid hosting. If you don’t mind banner or pop-up ads on your site, you might seriously consider this type of package.
  • “Do I have to participate in a community to earn hosting privileges?” Some free Web hosts give you credit for posting in their discussion forums. If you have the time and energy to do this, it might be a good alternative to paying the host.
  • “What is my bandwidth quota?” As your site grows and attracts more visitors, your bandwidth needs will increase. Be sure, before you commit to a host, that you can get access to more bandwidth if needed.
  • “How much storage space do I get?” You don’t want to sign up with a host, upload all of your files, then discover that you’re about to run out of space. Be sure that whatever service you use offers you the storage that you need (with upgradable options) for all of your files.
  • “How stable are the servers?” You don’t want a Web host that’s plagued by crashes. This applies no matter what, if anything, you pay for the service. If people can’t access your Web site, you can’t sell them your products, share your opinions, promote yourself, or whatever else you intend to accomplish.
  • “What sort of technical support can I expect?” Some Web hosts do not offer telephone support; others do. You might, for example, have to file a support ticket and wait for the support staff to respond. Know what sort of support you can expect so that you won’t be surprised when things are going wrong and you desperately need the host’s assistance.
  • “Can I use my own domain name?” If you have your own domain, you should consider Web hosts that actually allow you to use it. Some want nothing more than to offer you a free subdomain and a small chunk of space. That’s fine for some people, but if that isn’t what you want, look elsewhere.
  • “Is the interface easy to use?” Your control panel should be easy to navigate. Uploading files and making adjustments to your account shouldn’t be too difficult or frustrating.
  • “What are the content restrictions?” Some hosts don’t want you to upload any music files, for example – not even ones that you created and, therefore, have every legal right to distribute. Others don’t want “adult” files, illegal software, or anything that breaks the laws in the host site’s country. Be sure that you select a service that will let you upload your content.
Another important factor in your decision is customer testimonials. Find out what past and current customers are saying about the host that you’re considering. If the feedback is overpoweringly negative, you might want to consider an alternate provider.

After you answer these questions, you should have only a select few hosts left on your 'list'. This will help you elect the right host the first time around, which means that you can enjoy making your site available to the entire Internet community.



Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Uses for YouTube

The video-sharing phenomenon, YouTube, has made a name for itself on desktops worldwide. People everyday are getting in on the bandwagon posting various videos. A random look at a recent day’s most-discussed videos on YouTube includes topics ranging from 50 Jokes (Yes...actually 50 jokes), Pot Cookie Monster, Derrick Rose Breaks Andre Miller's Ankle, and Farting-Prank Revenge

Whether users are hoping for their 15 minutes of fame or using the site to share videos with friends & colleagues, YouTube does have numerous uses that go beyond mere entertainment. For example, one often unnoted use of YouTube is in concurrence with eBay or other online marketplaces.

For example, if you are selling an item online such as a Mercedez, Short Bus, or Yacht, think about posting a video of it on YouTube and providing a link in your online description. This gives potential buyers the opportunity to fall in love with your item by seeing it in much greater detail than what boring pictures can provide.

Another YouTube use is for sharing videos of the family with grandparents. This offers immediate gratification of seeing everyone in action without the need for sending them tapes or DVDs. Furthermore, you can make your videos private by going into the My Videos section and choosing the Edit Video Info button. Search for the broadcast section and click the option that displays "Private."

Use YouTube when planning a family reunion. Ask family members to post short videos showing a little bit about their lifestyle before the reunion. This allows everyone to get reacquainted beforehand and makes a fun icebreaker. This tactic also allows family members to show off their homes and hobbies as well as reveal a little about themselves that otherwise might not get shared!

Get creative and think up new uses for sharing videos on YouTube!


VIdeo Share Software

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Ten Tips to Get High Traffic to Your Blogs

If you look at the professional blogs, you will notice that most of them thrived in their first months merely due to high quality content. Ordinarily, this high quality content draws high amount of organic traffic to these blogs, and will pave way to several quality backlinks. The effect of these backlinks is twofold: organic search engine traffic, and indirect referral traffic.

Most of the traffic building methods used by high traffic blogs are still secretive. The amount of traffic through normal methods, such as directory submissions, writing quality posts, social media submissions, etc., may not be substantial. And due to high competition in the Web, it may take several years to build a really high traffic blog.

Here, we will see some tricks you can use to get high traffic to your blogs within a few days.

1. Post a Related News Story

The effect of news stories on blogs can be very powerful. Particularly on blogs, which have a Google PageRank of 4 or above, any post written gets indexed within a few hours. News stories, getting indexed early on search engines can detonate traffic overnight, since quite a lot of folks search for them. By publishing one such news story, you can take your traffic to a handful hundred visits up.

You can even include news stories outside of the generalized topic of your blog. The drawback of these visitors is that they may not be interested in the additional posts on the blog. Therefore, they may not revisit.

2. Commenting on Professional Blogs With a Strict Comment Policy

There are scores of highly popular blogs on the Internet, including TechCrunch, LifeHacker, ReadWriteWeb, etc. These blogs get more than one or two million pageviews each month. Among these blogs, ReadWriteWeb has a specialty. Its comment policy is stricter and hence, it doesn’t get too many comments to its posts. If you post a highly valuable comment there, it will be extremely conspicuous. Links placed on conspicuous comments will be clicked countless times.

3. High Traffic Forums

High traffic forums like Digital Point Forums have at least a thousand visitors online at any time. If you manage to post any interesting entries on these forums, it will be highly commendable in terms of organic SEO as well as traffic. Any new thread in Digital Point gets great attention, and several people can visit your blog, if your thread becomes popular.

4. Yahoo! Answers

Yahoo Answers can fetch you a great amount of traffic. The questions and answers posted in the site are indexed by search engines and showed on search result pages. You can include any number of relevant links to your site on your answers. Usually every query and its answers can get several hundreds of natural visits daily through search.

Anyone visiting the Answers page is most likely to click on your link, if your answer clears the problem well and the link is highly relevant. It has also additional perks like RSS subscriptions to your blog, more friends and votes through Yahoo Answers, etc.

5. Facebook Marketplace

Facebook is the largest social network in the world with over 90 million active users.

Have you ever posted a link to the Facebook Marketplace and seen its effect? For this, you have to find the most appropriate marketplace to list your link.

For instance, imagine your company sells the most affordable health insurance services in say, New York, but your website is rather new and has less reach than your competitors. If you post a link to the New York network’s marketplace, several New Yorkers will see it and visit your site. And it can give you a horde of brand new customers.

6. Social Media Submissions

Social media submission is another great way to attract traffic to your blog and get backlinks. If your posts are very useful, they can go up to the front page of social media sites like Digg, and give you loads of traffic. However, the main reason that you submit is natural SEO. The blog should slowly build many incoming backlinks to get organic search traffic.

Submitting all your articles to social media sites will get you a great number of incoming links. Also, these submissions are ranked high in search results. Hence, they can provide some indirect traffic to your blog too.

7. Press Release Submissions

Press releases are also highly useful in building backlinks to the blog, just as social media submissions. Several press release sites out there allow you to submit your press release and have a backlink from it.

The press releases you submit to certain sites like PRLog.org, are ranked very high in organic search results. These submissions, hence, can give great indirect traffic.

8. EntreCard Advertising

These days, EntreCard advertising is very popular among bloggers. However, many bloggers don’t tap its full power. They pile up a few credits and advertise on low traffic blogs. These ads won’t bring any benefit to the blogger.

The way to really manipulate EntreCard to get high traffic to your site is advertising on popular, professional blogs. Usually these blogs take thousands of credits to advertise for a day. You should build credits by selling ads and dropping EntreCards for a few days, and then with all those credits, advertise on a professional blog that gets tens of thousands of visits daily. This way, you can instantly get hundreds of visits to your blog.

When selecting the blog to advertise on, check out the daily pageviews of the blog, its Alexa traffic rank, number of RSS subscribers, the time for which the site has been active, etc.

9. Craiglist Classifieds

Craiglist is the most visited classifieds advertisement site. Millions of people from around the world visit Craiglist on a daily basis. Placing a classified advertisement here is effortless. An ad can give you hundreds of highly targeted audience to your blog. Place images and attractive description on your ads and you can maximize the effect.

10. Mass Emailing

Don’t you frequently receive forwarded emails from your friends, with some cool photographs, videos, text, etc? Most of us just pass on these mails to our friends thus participating in the thread. Next time, when you get such a forwarded email, without just forwarding it to your friends, add some of your relevant links or photographs to it, and then forward it. These emails have a viral persona. Several people, on receiving them, forward them to their friends. This way, you can reach many people you don’t really know, and your link will travel with the email.

Conclusion

These tips can build exceptional amount of traffic to your blog within days. However, only the content and usefulness of the blog will make the visitors come back for more. So, give importance in building quality content.

Great Ideas for Making Passive Income

Passive income is the only real way to get ahead in the earning game. After all, if you are being paid by the hour, you have a very specific limit as to how much money you can earn. If you build a product instead that will bring in money on its own, without you lifting a finger, you have passive income and the possibilities are endless.

So, how do you go about making passive income? It isn’t as passive as it sounds! In fact, setting everything up takes a lot of work, so don’t think it’s a free ticket to dollar paradise! But once you have what you need in place, your passive income kicks in and you are able to move on to your next project. If you set up enough passive income models, you can actually become quite rich . . . provided they work, of course!

There are several ways to create a passive income online. One of the most popular ways is to become an affiliate. You can go to Clickbank or Commission Junction or simply find a product that you like that offers an affiliate program and then promote a product or products. Every time someone you send to the site buys a product, you earn a percentage of the sale. Now, the trick is to set up a method or two or three of promoting the affiliate product and letting it run on its own.
One way to do this is to write free articles and include a link to your website (affiliate links aren’t usually allowed in free articles) in the bio box. Post these up on free article directories such as EzineArticles and GoArticles and you will shortly have plenty of people looking at them. Hopefully, some of them will click through to your site where you will have a presell page that further directs them to the product website. Once you have a bunch of articles out there, your site should be generating a profit all on its own and you are free to move on to the next project.

Another method of generating passive income is through creating your own products that you can sell over and over again. Information products are ideal for this because once they are created; you really don’t need to do anything more except promote them. There are no costs incurred for printing or shipping, they are instantly downloaded by your clients. Ebooks, article packs and short informative reports are perfect for this, as is custom built software.

Once you write your report, ebook or create your software, all you need is a website where you can have the item for sale and download and a method of promotion. While free articles are fine, you will probably want to go a step further and set up a more advanced promotion. This could be through Google AdWords, or you might consider setting up your own affiliate program through Clickbank or PayDotCom. This allows you to have a team of vendors selling your product for you. Just give them a generous percentage (up to 75%) in return for selling your product and you will have plenty of takers. It’s worth giving away a large chunk of money earned because you have no more work to do, just sit back and let the money come rolling in!

To double up on the two methods mentioned above, why not promote your affiliates in your information product? This allows you to earn twice, once from your info product and again when the readers sign up or buy your affiliate products! The more passive income you can generate, the better!