Opt-in Email Marketing, Your Affiliate Program and a Recruiting Reality

Written By John C Vincent

Once you have performed all the necessary steps to acquire an Opt-in Subscriber through proper Opt-in Email Marketing, i.e., created a Squeeze Page with your Opt-in form attached. Youll find that after a follow-up email campaign to your list. a percentage of these folks will take the opportunity to join your affiliate program.

If your program has a 15 or 30 day free trial listen up.

I received this email from an individual who had joined my team:

Hi John,

I have a couple of questions for you from my downline.

1. What type of letter do you send to your new trial members?

2. How do we convert the 30 day free trial people into paid members?

I've been sending just a short personal email but was wondering if you had an outline of something we could use. The second question is more important as we have one person who has signed up about 5 free members and we're wondering how to help convert them. Thanks for your help, John :-)

Warm regards,

Hi__________,

LOL ...I've tried every welcome message I could ever think of and I have come to these conclusions. In my opinion there are 3 types of marketers who join affiliate programs:

Type1- The "OK ... We'll See" Referral"

This person joins every program and then...DOES NOTHING and he or she (mostly males) never answer your initial welcome email. And because they do nothing, they get nothing in return. And the weird thing...they wonder why the program didn't work...Go Figure :-)

Type2- The "I'm So Excited" Referral"

This person joins and is so over-excited and enthused that you become excited as well but Watch Out For This Person. This individual comes in 2 categories...the newbie...and the guy who moves from program to program, (similar to number 1 above BUT with enthusiasm). Then after 2 - 3 weeks have passed and they haven't made a mi!!ion bucks and it takes a little effort ... they drop out.

Type3- The "Let's Do This!!!" Referral"

This is YOU in other words, someone who is like YOU ...mature and a serious marketer and someone who knows that you have to build in order to make money. Someone who will Do Whatever It Takes to Succeed. This is the individual who WILL Make A Full Time Living from the internet. And it is this type of referral you want to fill your team with.

REALITY
You'll get a lot of 1s and 2s and the gems, the number 3s, will come. Type 3s will make you rich. And ________...you're really lucky...your team is being filled with Type 3s...your duplicates. That doesn't happen often...it didn't happen for me at first...and then I started getting less of the 1 and 2 and more of the number 3s and the rest...as they say...Is History.

So the answer to your question: :-)

It doesn't matter what you send as a welcome message as long as it is warm, friendly and offers assistance.

And to your second question:

You Convert a 30 day trial member by teaching, educating and The Giving Of Yourself.

Think of the things I have done for you and all who join my Team. My instant responses, my guidance, my tips, tricks and strategy...I hide nothing from you and there's more to come :-).

But let me ask you: Would you have taken me seriously in my welcome message to you...if I hadn't offered to help you Fr ee Of Charge, with NO CATCHES, No Strings Attached Initially...I was Sincere in wanting to help YOU...and you felt this sincerity and your referrals must feel this from you as well.

The REAL Secret To Internet Success:

Giving NOT Taking...Educating NOT trying to make a deal...Recommending

NOT Selling.

You might try to Sell to a Stranger but you should always Recommend to a Friend.
(yeah I created that phrase and you can steal it lol)

To Give Of Yourself...Unselfishly! This is how you convert the 30 day free trials. You may not get all of them but youll get a higher percentage with this very unselfish strategy than without it.

Opt-in Email Marketing and the elements incorporated in this procedure makes it a Sweet Science (sorry boxing enthusiasts :-) that ALL Internet Marketers should learn at the very beginning of their marketing career, that is... if they truly wish to Succeed ...

______________________________________

You may print this article without charge, provided this resource box remains intact.

John C. Vincent runs The Opt In Marketing System Web-site which provides Free Downloads, easy-to-follow free guidelines on how to build a massive Opt-in list that will continuously make you money online. Content Rich.Kaycee Blog63404
Kimberlyn Blog9248

Understanding The Magic of Bluetooth Technology

Bluetooth technology is a low-power, low-cost wireless technology for short-range radio communication between various fixed and/or portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PDAs, cars, stereo headsets, MP3s, digital cameras, PCs and computer peripherals. Bluetooth also refers to the standard communication protocol (IEEE 802.15.1) specifically designed for this kind of short-range wireless communication.

The core of Bluetooth technology lies in a low-cost 9 mm x 9 mm microchip that functions as a short-range radio link when inserted into an electronic device, making the device Bluetooth-enabled. Wireless communication between various bluetooth-enabled devices takes place via these radio links, instead of via cables as used in normal networking. Since Bluetooth technology uses radio signals, which are omni-directional and can be transmitted through walls and other obstacles, Bluetooth-enabled devices dont need to be in line of sight or be pointing at each other.

Bluetooth radio modules operate in the open, unlicensed ISM (industrialscientificmedical) spread-spectrum 2.4 GHz frequency band, divided into 79 channels separated by 1 MHz each. To avoid interference from other signals, the Bluetooth signal hops to a new channel every time it transmits or receives a data packet, making Bluetooth connection robust and secure. The communication range of Bluetooth technology varies from 1 m to 100 m, depending upon the maximum power permitted (1 mW to 100 mW). Because of this channel hopping, there should not be a consistent problem with other devices using the 2.4 Ghz frequency band, such as old cordless phones.

Each Bluetooth-enabled device can simultaneously communicate with up to seven other devices within a single personal area network, called a piconet. Each device can simultaneously belong to several piconets. Each device negotiates with each other via a defined device name so that each device can keep track of who it is communicating with. The device name to use when you are setting up your Bluetooth device is typically cleared stated in the accompanying device documentation.

Bluetooth technology offers built-in security with 128-bit encryption and PIN code authentication. When Bluetooth products identify themselves, they use the PIN code the first time they connect, thereafter staying securely connected.

Practical Applications of Bluetooth Networking

Some of the popular applications of Bluetooth technology are in wireless networking between a mobile phone and a laptop/desktop, between a mobile phone and a hands-free headset, between PCs in a restricted space and between the input and output devices of a PC (e.g., mouse, keyboard, printer). Bluetooth technology can also be used to transfer files, images and MP3 files between mobile phones or between MP3 players/digital cameras and computers.

Limitations of Bluetooth Technology

Short communication range (up to 100 m) is the greatest limitation of Bluetooth technology. Also, the data transfer rates are much lower compared to other wireless communication technologies. Susceptibility to interference from other devices operating in the 2.4 MHz band, notwithstanding adaptive frequency hopping, is another limitation. The Bluetooth technology is still not fully developed, so there is plenty of room for improvement.

Bluetooth-Enabled Devices

The Bluetooth wireless technology specification is available free-of-charge to Bluetooth member companies around the world. Many companies are interested in making their devices Bluetooth-enabled in order to avoid the clutter of wires with seamless connections and offer simultaneous transmission of data and voice as in hands-free talking.

Bluetooth technology is commercially available in a wide range of applications such as mobile phones, automobiles, medical devices, play stations and many more.

Jon Arnold is a computer engineer who maintains many websites to pass along his knowledge and findings. You can read more about Bluetooth technology and applications at his web site at http://www.bluetooth-explained.com/.Kally Blog63147
Kiri Blog9888

How Blogging Affects Mainstream Marketing

here has been a lot of buzz around blogging lately, and for good reason. Weblogs, or blogs for short, are changing the way people market themselves and their businesses.

If you aren't familiar with blogging, the concept is relatively easy to grasp. Blogs first began as a shared online journal. A blogger posted diary-like entries about his or her daily life for others to read.

Recently though, blogging has evolved into a new form of business writing and advertising. Many business owners now use blogs to promote their goods and services. Others use blogs to promote their website and get higher search engine rankings. Some politicians even use blogs to reach voters.

The typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media that is somehow related to the blog topic. Though most blogs focus on textual contant, a blogger may include videos, pictures, and even audio in blog posts. A blog comprised of videos is called a vlog and a blog that uses pictures is called a photoblog.

The Benefits of Blogging

By adding blogging to their marketing campaigns, business owners are able to market their product with virtually no out of pocket expense. In some cases, bloggers may even be able to make large sums of money with their published blog. For example, a blogger who employs the Google Ad Sense program can make money from blog readers. The more readers a blogger has, the more money can be made from the Google ad.

A blogger can also be a guide for shoppers who are looking for specific products and services. This makes blogging an excellent tool for retailers or affiliate marketers. Blogs can also be a source of valuable information and niche industry news.

Because there are virtually limitless possibilities provided by blogging, it is easy to see why blogs have begun to have a significant impact on mainstream marketing practices. Many companies have noticed this and have chosen to hire a blogger to write and post up to date information for customers, shareholders, and employees.

Some blogs now get millions of readers every single day. There are so many blog readers out there, that experts speculate that the world of blogging is rivaling the mainstream media. New blog search engines are also being created to make searching for a blog easier than ever before.

If you have not yet established a blog for your business, you may want to consider doing so as soon as possible. Keep in mind though that it will take work to attract readers to your blog. It must be interesting or valuable to them in some way. A blogger must also concentrate on creating informative pieces that are as honest and up to date as possible. Blogging is serious business and if you make a mistake, it will not go unnoticed by your readership.

If you need help developing your blog, there are many different browser-based software programs on the market that can help you get a start. Blogs can also be hosted by dedicated blogging services or regular web hosting services.

Last, but not least, a blogger must remember to optimize blog writing for search engines. Blogging is an Internet medium and needs to be approached with Internet principles in mind.

Blogging Example

A typical blog entry includes a title or headline, a body of text, a permalink or URL for another web page, and a post date, which indicates the date and time that the post was published. A blogger may also choose to include a link at the bottom to allow readers to post comments on the blog.

Cliff Posey, owner of CRP Marketing, owns and operates http://webbusinesstoolsonline.com. Cliff Posey has also operated several other successful web businesses including Love Song Cards and Radio Career Consultants. The content in this article was developed from his experience in these businesses.Kathrine Blog52198
Kaitlin Blog65615

Are You Worried That Your Internet Marketing Business Will Not Work And Fail?

Ive got a great quote for you, probably made by a gambler:
Do your worrying before you place your bet, NOT after the wheel starts turning.

I thought that this was a great quote. Especially for you and I as netrepreneurs! We are the brave ones that decide to venture off to the horizon in search for a lifestyle that is uncommon and do not depend on anyone else (bosses) to sign our paychecks! Unfortunately, most people who do start havent really committed themselves to it!

When you decide to start on a project do you go through with it regardless of obstacles, or do you break down in frustration and quit? The problem is, most people who decide to building their internet business does all the worrying after theyve decided - and that causes a great deal of stress in their lives and doubt in their choices.

This clouds their minds of the bad things that will happen with their decision, makes them unsure of themselves and they will usually waste their time in useless activity that doesnt contribute to their internet business.

For me I fear failure, but Im getting MUCH better strengthening my faith! In the past, when I wanted to commit myself to an internet business, I was afraid of failing. Actually I was afraid of my friends and familys criticism IF I failed. So I gave my weak unfocused attempts to make it work. I tried to work my business ONLY after I had my TV time and fun time. Unfortunately, it doesnt work that way.

I was just giving myself an excuse, an easy escape, that if I failed I was not an incompetent person - so that nobody will criticize me. If I failed, it was because I didnt put much effort into my internet business and it wasnt totally my fault. And I can tell that lame excuse to everyone who was watching me.

I was constantly in a state of fear and worry, but then I finally had enough of going nowhere with my business and said to myself, FORGET IT! Im either going to do this or quit! And thats the point in life when everything changed for me. I decided to eliminate the worry because Ive already committed myself. No longer did I fear (or care about) other peoples criticism

Why should I care what other people think when I know the rich possibilities of internet marketing? Besides most of the people I know are working for wages - so what do they know about opportunity?

Now I am free from most of my self doubts and worry. I am free to truly commit myself to my internet business and to my own future. As the great Yoda from Star Wars said, Do or dont do, there is no try!

So get all the facts and think hard before you start your internet business, but as soon as youve placed your bet with your internet business, eliminate that worrisome thought of if this is the right thing to do, act out on faith, and embrace your internet business as part of your bright future!

Alan Quan is a certified Internet Coaching Empire coach and specializes in helping people build their own successful internet marketing business. Visit his website at http://e-bizcoachalan.com/success.htm and find out how he can help you to quickly accomplish your goals and boost your internet profits.Kathryne Blog56102
Karleen Blog7409

RP200a: Creating New Patches and Developing Your Signature Sound

Much of the information about the RP200A Artist Amp Modeling Multi-Effects Processor centers around the 80 artists and factory preset patches that come with the unit. Sounding like your favorite guitarists is a great goal. This allows you to play songs at gigs that band mates know and the audience already loves.

But if you think about it, your favorite artist had to develop their own original sound. Maybe they piggybacked from someone else's sound, too. If you've owned the RP200A Modeling Guitar Processor for any length of time, it's time to step out from behind these preset patches and begin to develop your sound.

What defines you? When are you going to sound like...you? Do you feel confident to start writing your own songs and patches? Stop focusing on the 80 presets. Begin punching your 40 patches into the storage containers that Digitech has given you. The best way to think about it is you have 40 original songs that you need to write.

How do you start creating your signature sound? Here are 5 tips to help you begin developing your own sound and patches.

[1] Think about other musical instruments. Piano, organ, slide guitar, oboe, harp, harmonica, bass, and trumpet sounds should all be punched into your unit. Create songs around these "instruments".

[2] Think about sounds for ideas. How would "clouds rolling across the sky" sound? What would a "revolution" sound like? What would be a great sound for "fear"? How about a "patriotic flag"?

[3] Start mixing guitar sounds with other earthly tones. How about distortion with a cello? What about backslap with a train off in the distance? I'd love to hear a bass guitar mimicking a huge dinosaur walking through a forest!

[4] Check out the Digitech RP200a forums for patches that users have submitted. If you're trying to develop your own sound, punch a couple of these user patches into your unit.

[5] Visit my site at http://rp200a.home.comcast.net for a comprehensive listing of all 80 of the patches that come with the DigiTech RP200A Modeling Guitar Processor. You can start from these patches to develop your own.

In conclusion, you can start making a name for yourself by writing patches for your songs. Don't worry if you can't sing. Write down your lyrics and let someone else belt out your original songs. Every cover band should include at least one song that defines them and your guitar should play a huge part in every original tune. Remember, original is as original does!

David Carr operates Everything RP200a (http://rp200a.home.comcast.net) or (http://www.RP200a.com), HelpWith1Life (http://helpwith1life.home.comcast.net) and Arithmetic City (http://arithmeticcity.home.comcast.net) or (http://www.ArithmeticCity.com).Karlene Blog97911
Kora Blog16373

Web Design and Development Buyers Guide

Getting Started:

When developing a website for your business there are many important issues which need to be considered. I have made a list of recommendations about many of these issues so that you can evaluate your current project needs and how to prepare for them. Your website is by far the most important aspect of your business marketing. It is the face of your company which people from all across the world are going to see. People base their opinion on your company based on the professionalism of your website. If it looks cheap and amateur, people will simply think you have a poor business model and you arent making enough money to afford a professional web presence. But if your site looks incredible, your potential customers will feel comfortable with you and give you instant credibility. Studies have shown that a companys website design has more influence on a potential customer than the products, functionality or written content within the website.

Preparing Project Requirements

To start preparing for your project, first you must create a project requirement document for your exact needs of your project. It is extremely important to be as detailed as possible when creating these specs because the future of your project depends on it. Many times the company or individual developing your website design or web application does not take the time to help you build a spec, especially if you dont pay them a consulting fee. If you have the budget to pay for project consulting we highly recommend that you do. It could save you thousands of dollars and months of wasted time. Most companies will even refund your consulting fees once your project.

However if you feel that you dont need any consulting and you can write your project requirements on your own, then make sure you are as detailed as possible. If you forget something it could cost you much more to have it added later. If you would like some documents which can guide you through writing your project requirements please ask your web development company to provide them to you.

Also, you must write everything down in a word document format or in an email. This is very important especially towards the end of your project when testing begins to see if all the requirements have been met. If its not on your sheet, there is a great chance it wont get done, and youll have a real problem convincing a company to do any extras for free unless its something small.

Choosing Your Developer or Web Company

Once you have your requirements the next step is to choose your developer or development team. This is a very crucial decision which must be well thought out. Many people and small companies shop for these developers based on price alone. This is a big mistake. These low cost options tend to be college students, low cost offshore developers in India and other parts of the world, local web companies with weak portfolios, and large cookie cutter developers like www.register.com, www.networksolutions.com, or www.yahoo.com.

College students generally only charge $10 to $30 per hour and have very limited skills and experience. Anyone who charges this amount generally does so because they have no real experience and will take anything they can get their hands on. College students only know the basics and usually try to cut and paste their way through the project using free scripts and templates. The result is a website or application that doesnt do what its supposed to do and looks extremely amateur. Also college students generally never finish on time, or at all. They are not dedicated to your project because most of their time is spent doing homework, going to class, socializing, or working at a part time job. These delays can cost your business heavily. Also many times desperate college students will agree to take a project which is more than they can handle. They try to get a friend to help them or do it themselves. Once they fail, obviously you most likely wont be getting your money back. I have heard stories like these 1000 times over.

Another cheap option to avoid is low cost offshore developers. You will generally get hundreds of emails per year from these companies offering to work for $2 per hour up to $30 per hour. 99.9% of the time you are guaranteed to be disappointed. Most of the time the offers are coming from India, China, Russian, Ukraine, or Mexico, so please try to avoid them at all costs. They often reply to any ad posted on websites like www.elance.com, www.craigslist.org or www.guru.com. They usually reply to hundreds of ads per day in hopes that someone will actually give them a project, and then its just a game of roulette after that. Many times they will supply you with a stolen portfolio of completed work, or a bunch of promises to give you the highest quality, blah- blah- blah, etc... I have rarely seen anyone successfully do a project off shore without jumping through some major hoops to do it. The time differences, the language barriers, and the lack of security alone should push you away from these options. Many times they are just college students as well, and they cant provide you with what you need even if they wanted to.

The 3rd option to avoid like the plague is using cookie cutter companies. These large Do it yourself corporations butcher the web. Companies like www.register.com and www.networksolutions.com and www.fortunecity.com and many others, will offer you to buy a hosted solution. They offer you the wonderful opportunity to build your own site for only $250 or something, and host it with them for a year for only $20. This is a joke and all too many people have fallen for this. When you are surfing the web and find a site that looks like a kindergartener built it, this is usually one of the do-it-yourself websites that some poor sucker purchased. There is no functionality, there is no design template offered that is worth a look, and there is no way a real company or anyone serious about setting up a legitimate webpage would ever consider using this service. However I can see how many people have decided to buy these sites. They tried to use a college kid, and then tried some Indian offshore developer, and then tried their local low budget web or hosting company, and finally came to the conclusion that all of the quality was pretty similar to that of the cheap cookie cutter corporations. So they fall for the marketing, and buy the cheapo template website and now their stuck looking unprofessional and their potential clients wont take them serious.

Now that youve been informed of all the bad apples out there, lets take a look at the companies out there who actually decided to take this route, then we will look at some companies who took the high road and made a professional site. Please go to www.webpagesthatsuck.com and take a look at all the worthless sites that are out there. This site is dedicated to convincing people how important your web presence is and what people will think of you when you publish low cost amateur sites.

Once youre done, lets take a look at a few sites which were done professionally. I will use a few examples of websites our company has developed, and to be fair a few other random sites other companies developed. Take a look at www.dreamsoft.us, this site is very well put together with great use of colors, great structural layout, plenty of relevant content, reasonable use of flash and 3d, and overall you get a professional look and feel when youre on this website. Here is a www.completebirkenstock.com , nothing really fancy, very conservative use of flash, but yet its very professional and easy to look at with a top notch shopping system. Here is a site from one of our competitors www.spiketv.com. As you can see they have done an excellent job with flash animation and 3D graphics, as well as lots of content and functionality. In my opinion its one of the best sites around, and I commend them on their good work. Many people cannot afford this type of work, but it shows true quality. Buying web development and services is like buying a car. There are Cadillacs, Ferraris, Old Clunkers, and everything in between. The key is to find whats best for your needs and taking the proper steps to get what youre looking for.

Negotiating Your Costs:

Now that youve chosen a few potential developers, its time to negotiate a fair price for your project, this is a very important step. Generally for descent work you might be able looking at paying an average of $60-$300 USD per hour. This depends on the company and the difficulty of the work you are requesting. It is very possible to get the same quality for $60 USD per hour as it is for $300 USD per hour, so you want to look around and bargain shop. This isnt easy; you need to understand that many of these companies have new projects coming across their desks everyday. And many times these companies spend countless hours consulting and estimating without ever getting the project they spent so much time on. There are tons of freelancers out there who dont want to estimate their own projects so they go out and bid it out to a few web companies who will put together a nice presentation and detailed estimation, which they take to their clients and pretend its their own. This must happen 1000 times per day all over the world, its one of the oldest tricks in the book. So dont be surprised if your potential development company asks for a small consulting fee to see if youre serious. Usually it will be $50-$2000 depending on how large or small your project is, and its a good idea for you to pay the fee. It shows that youre serious, and the web development company will take you much more serious and it will probably lower you additional costs in the long run.

Once you give your project requirements document to the developers, they will begin to dig through it. They will most likely send you some questions to answer to give them a better idea of what youre looking for. Having a detailed requirements document is extremely important and can lower the cost of your project tremendously. And make sure you have it all written down properly, dont think you can just call and tell them over the phone. Web developers hate when a client calls and just starts rambling on and on about what they want changed, so if you have any changes make sure to send it in an email or word document and clearly label it. This can help you avoid any disputes later on down the line, and trust me there are always disputes over what the original requirements were and how they were conveyed. Dreamsoft.us built a huge project management and document management system called Projectpro.us just to avoid these conflicts.

As far as pricing goes, dont be fooled or intimidated by hourly rates. Its not as simple as it seems. Just because company X charges $100 per hour doesnt make them the wrong company to use, the same as company Z charging $40 per hour doesnt make them your best bet. For the exact same project, company X might bill you for 25 hours, while company Z might bill you for 100 hours. So for the same project company X charges $2500 while company Z charges $3000, yet company Z looks more attractive because of their low hourly billing structure. Dont judge your potential developers by their hourly rates; you could drop a reasonable offer just because of some unnecessary sticker shock.

Monthly Website Maintenance:

Also before choosing your developers you should consider the ongoing costs. These can REALLY add up. If youre going to be paying maintenance on some web program, SEO campaign, or hosting, just make sure its reasonable. Most web companies are pretty lenient about these fees, but expect to pay something. Also if you feel you wont need a lot of updates on a regular basis you can ask them to modify their monthly options to something smaller for your specific needs. Generally your monthly maintenance needs will be around $350 USD per month and up.

Web Hosting:

THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. Hosting is by far one of your most important issues as your company grows. At first its always easy to just take the cheapest hosting company in town, or the most well known. This is the recipe for disaster, almost every single time. DO NOT host with the major hosting companies like Godaddy.com, Register.com, Yahoo.com, or Networksolutions.com. Generally when you register your website you do it through a huge company like these, and then you sign up for the 1 year of hosting, and the ecommerce package. These solutions are only for individuals who dont know what they are doing and buy it out of convenience and low cost.

As your company grows, you will need to add email addresses, add functionality, add software, change server requirements, change passwords, gain particular server access, and many other things. These big low cost hosting providers wont even pick up the phone, if you can find a number to call. If there is a problem, it takes 2 weeks to 2 months before they can resolve it. And when you try to switch to another provider they will ignore you as long as they can before giving in to your request. They have millions of clients, only paying them a few bucks per year, so you can see they arent going to waste a few bucks having a customer service rep or technician help you out in a jam. And when your company goes offline because of some technical failure, not even the president of the United States can get these people on the phone. Meanwhile, your company suffers, and while people are trying to view your site, they see Page not found.

Another problem is when you add some new functionality to your website, and it requires that the server needs to run a certain program. Although it might take 5 minutes to install it they will bill you for 2.5 hours (because they have minimums) and they know you cant do anything about it.

I suggest using someone reliable, someone local, someone you know and trust. This is truly one of the most important aspects of having a web presence is making sure you have reliable hosting and registration.

Registration:

Dont forget, when registering your domain name; make sure the administrative contact is in your name with your email and your contact info. Dont let web or hosting companies hold you hostage. If the administrative contact information is in their name, they have total control of your site. I have seen this done once before with a fairly good sized web development and hosting company in Chicago. An acquaintance of our CEO had their site developed by a local web company. This acquaintance then asked our CEO if we could do some Search Engine Marketing for them. We agreed to the task, but when we went to get access to the site from the local web company, they decided that they were going to take this marketing project and refused to grant us access. Our customer called the web company and asked them to switch over the hosting rights to us, and they refused. Although this is illegal for this company to do this, there is nothing our client could do. The domain name was registered originally by this web company, and they kept the registration in their name (which is also illegal). But it takes 6 months and tons of court costs to get it back, so our client had no choice but to stay with the ones that refused to let him leave. This happens on a daily basis and the best way to avoid it is to use someone you trust.

As far as the cost, it ranges from $250 per year, up to $5000 depending on what programs your running and how much space youre using. 99% of sites usually only need the basics which is around $250- $350 per year.

Development Contracts:

Once youve made all your important decisions and found the right company to do your project, make sure you get everything in writing. And you must make sure that there is an attachment to the contract specifying the exact amount of time until the completion of your project, the total cost, and the project requirements. This will ensure that you get exactly what you paid for, and get it on time. Make sure to have a signed copy for yourself and also make sure the start date is clearly stated.

During Development:

Now that your project has begun, there is no time to relax yet. Although everything is clearly stated in your project requirements sheet, you must provide the developers with the necessary materials they need in a timely fashion. I am telling you this from a web developers standpoint. When a project starts, the development company has allocated tasks for its individual developers just for your project. So if you wait 2 weeks to send materials, then the company must allocate other tasks for their developer to keep him busy earning money for the company. This can cause major delays in your projects completion time. The materials you need to have prepared are images, content, and anything else which the web developers cannot provide for you. Please understand that developers cannot read your mind, dont just expect them to just miraculously build what you foresee in your mind without some direction from you.

Be attentive and always check your email. Web developers will send you updates and have multiple questions, sometimes on a daily basis, so you need to make sure and not neglect them. Sometimes they hit a brick wall, and cannot move forward without your comments, especially during web application programming or design. Many times if you dont respond within a day or so they will just keep trudging ahead and many times in the wrong direction. Then when you tell them to erase all the work and do something different they will get pretty angry. So to avoid any conflict try to check your email at least a few times each day, especially during business hours. Always send your responses by email. I cannot stress enough how irritating it is to have a client calling over the phone to tell you everything. This just makes the developer have to write everything down and there can be errors using this method. If you must talk on the phone, then call the developers, talk to them, then go back and recap the discussion on an email so they know what you want.

Project Completion:

Once your project is near completion, you need to start testing. Dont be angry to find small glitches or bugs, this is very common. You might find links which dont work, images misplaced, spelling errors, or other small inconveniences, but this is common when the project is coming to a close. The developers will wrap everything up and make everything look good, so dont get discouraged. When they tell you its finished and you still find something, dont get angry, just let your developers know and they will surely fix it quickly. Usually these little things take only a few minutes to fix and developers overlook them because they know its just something minor and they usually concentrate on the major functions. Some companies have testers which do quality assurance testing for the client, but these are only the larger companies, and even they miss things occasionally.

Project Payment:

The web development standard for any project is 50% up front and 50% at the end. In my opinion over years in this industry its truly unfair that the web development company gets paid in this fashion. But at the same time paying slowly via milestones is also a pain in the rear. Now for larger companies the 50/50 deal is fine, but for small 5 employee IT companies this can be life or death. I remember years ago when we first started we couldnt eat if a client decided to pay late, or of the project dragged on for weeks past the due date because our clients werent responsive enough, or they haggled over tiny details to delay the payment.

In my opinion no matter what size the company is, make sure to pay when the project is near completion, dont drag it out, its not fair to the developers who worked so hard to get you what you want. The margins in the web business arent what they used to be and some of these small fry companies may be doing great work, but they get killed on delay of payments. We recommend paying via bank wire to all our clients, and we are a company of over 40 developers.

Conclusion:

To wrap things up, I wrote this article in hopes of helping people understand how the web development and web design industry works. Most people who are getting ready to start a web project should read this, a lot of the information you read here you wont find anywhere else. It gives you an inside look at how a web project actually gets done, and hopefully you will avoid the pitfalls by having a better understanding of the process.
Alex Dubko Lacy Blog93875
Kizzie Blog14175

Creating Screen Capture Videos

One of the biggest new digital products on the market today is video instruction. Where just a few years ago, ebooks were looked at as the hottest commodity, that has changed. Ebooks still sell. Videos sell hotter and, if marketed well, can be sold for a much higher price.

Video instruction can refer to different things. You could have a video of yourself cooking a steak dinner and showing how to create a great barbecue for your guests. Just get your video camera, some conversion software (Windows Vista has it included as does Mac).

With increasing frequency, however, more videos are appearing that show how to do something using your computer. There are videos that show how to set up a website. There are videos that show how to use a piece of software. And so forth.

These videos are created by using software that captures what happens on your computer screen. The software can optionally capture your voice as well. And once captured, the software can also be used to annotate what is on-screen with text and animation that highlights important parts of the video.

To create screen capture videos, you need the right software. While TechSmith's Camtasia is the leader in the field, one of us uses a different (and far less expensive) product called AllCapture with great success.

You'll also want to plan what your video is about. Just because you can "wing it" doesn't mean you should. Here's a brief 5-step guide to get you started.

1 Plan - Figure out what you want to say; what you want to show. Make notes and be sure that it makes sense.

2 - Run through the software yourself to perform the operations you intend to show. Speak as if you were actually instructing someone sitting next to you.

3 Do several dry runs with your microphone on and the screen capture program running. You're going to want to make sure you select the right window size for your video, that you've got sound levels right, and that the software you're about to demo is set to the right window size as well.

4 - Play it back so you can see what your customers will see. Chances are your first few runs aren't going to be perfect. One of us finds himself hesitating too frequently in the initial recordings. This leads to stuttering, and so forth. A possible sign that insufficient planning went into the effort. Or it could just be that one gains familiarity with the subject matter by running through it a few times.

5 Once you've got the video the way you want to distribute it, you now need to convert it to a format that your customers will be able to use. There are usually several format choices, including those for Windows Media Player, RealPlayer and Flash. Of these, Flash has the greatest popularity for online screen capture products. Both Camtasia and AllCapture produce videos in all three formats.

Related resources:
For Camtasia - techsmith(dot)com
For AllCapture balesio(dot)com

©2007, by Deepak Arora and Bal Simon

Deepak Arora and Bal Simon make it easy for you to get your instructional videos on YouTube and other video hot spots. And you can try it out for just $1. Head on over to http://www.plrvideodepot.com to find out how.Karlie Blog35302
Kore Blog50581

Clean The Computer Of Spyware Entries With Reliable Spyware Removal Software

Spyware is malicious software that downloads onto a computer clandestinely. It makes entries in the registry and must be removed with a registry cleaner in addition to a Spyware removal utility.

'Spyware' is a term that refers to a very wide category of malicious software that has been intentionally designed to intercept or take partial control of a computer's operation without the consent of that computer's owner or lawful user. When the term 'Spyware' is taken in a literal sense, it suggests that the software clandestinely monitors the activities of the user operating the computer, however, it has over the years, come to be known as software that hampers the operating systems efficient functioning for the benefit of a third party, usually the person who created the Spyware. By downloading onto a system the Spyware will also make entries in the system registry. While it is imperative to remove the Spyware from the computer it is as imperative to remove all traces from the registry as well. This can be achieved with the help of some anti-Spyware and Adware removal utility such as Spyware removal tool.

How Does It Affect The Computer?

'Spyware' is candid software that downloads itself onto a person's computer and constantly operates in the background and collects personal information of the user. For instance, it will record the entry from the keyboard every time the user enters a username and password or credit card details. The Spyware will monitor and record the information as well as which site the username and password was entered into. It will then mail this information to the host computer that the Spyware came from. In order to do this the Spyware must take over some processor time. It does this by delaying the operation of other programs or applications running on the system. This slows the system down drastically. The system can be revamped with utilities such as Kazaa Spyware removal tool that works as well as any free Spyware removal software.

Are Spyware Removal Utilities Not Enough?

Spyware removal utilities do remove the Spyware from the system they cannot delve into the registry and remove all the entries therein. The registry will have to be scrubbed clean with Trojan and Spyware removal tools specially designed for the purpose. Many of the Spyware entries will be associated with critical system files and so the anti-Spyware program will not delete them from the registry. Only a Spyware Adware remover such as any of the free Adware Spyware removal tools will scan the registry and detect the broken links and determine it they will hamper the efficient operating of the system if they are removed. If the Adware Spyware remover decides that they can be safely removed the entries will be deleted. If the entries are left in the registry they may link up to the site where they came from initially and download the Spyware again.

Arvind Singh is admin and technical expert associated with development of computer security and performance enhancing software like Registry Cleaner, Window Cleaner, Anti Spam Filter etc. More information can be found at http://www.pcmantra.comKizzee Blog8689
Kesley Blog92281

E! True ZX Games Story: Boulder Dash

Boulder Dash, released in 1984, is in no way balderdash. Please do not take the "we do not like pun" high horse here as in terms of this article it has to do with the history of invention.

Here is couple of quick facts about the Boulder Dash story:

* Peter Liepa, who is credited as the game creator, studied Physics just like Douglas Smith (http://www.zxgames.com/en/loderunnerstory.shtml).
* Unlike Lode Runner's creator, Peter did not become quick- and super-rich.

So, here is the story

* Game Inventors: Peter Liepa, Chris Gray
* Occupation at the time of invention: Peter Liepa - unemployed; Chris Gray - unknown
* Location at the time of invention: Canada.

The game concept and its realization seem to be simple (at least in terms of modern technologies). However Boulder Dash's cookbook is composed of one man's versatile interests and another man's idea.

Fascination with animation

Born in 1953 in Ottawa, as a kid Peter aspired to be an animator or special effects designer on the one side, and a particle physicist on the other. He had to drop the latter as he found it too practical and fuzzy and thought there was vague future for particle Physics. The incentive for animation, on the other hand, lived with Peter until there was the right time to let it out.

Fascination with computers

When in high school, Peter was sent to the National Research Council of Canada for a week as part of an internship program. He had to work in a physics lab, Peter's supervisor had a shiny new Wang Calculator and it arrested the young intern's attention. In the same week all interns were taken on a tour of the Council's computer center. Amazed by what he saw, Peter asked to spend the rest of his internship time there. At the computer center there was an interactive terminal, which in those days was something similar to Teletype or IBM Selectric hooked up to a central mainframe. Peter quickly learned to program it, but after the end of week's internship there was no opportunity to study computers for a long time. In those days, the concept of personal computers was unimaginable.

Peter started off in Physics in university, but soon switched to math. His summer jobs were in computer programming, and he spent a lot of time playing early things like Conway's Game of Life, which printed results on paper and had not digital screen whatsoever.

Fascination with human nature

After graduating in math, Peter drifted around studying subjects like human memory and perception. He received a master's degree in Control Theory. Both Control Theory and knowledge of human nature are another key points in what was later to become the cult game.

Another man's idea

When Peter was in his late twenties, he visited a friend of his, who was deeply into electronic toys and had a large screen TV and an Atari 400. Peter spent several evenings playing games, and then had a "I can do this" flash. He went out and bought an Atari 800 to start writing games. But rather than just starting to write a game, Peter thought it would be prudent to contact a local game publisher to see what sort of game might be in demand.

The publisher put Peter in touch with Chris Gray, who had submitted a game in Basic, but did not have the skills to convert it into machine language. The game was similar to an arcade game called The Pit, but after examining it more, Peter found that the game had very few game play variations - too much of it was predetermined.

The development

Not satisfied with Chris' game algorithm, Peter started playing with basic elements of dirt, rocks and jewels and within a couple of days had built the basic "physics engine" of what was to become Boulder Dash. He realized that using a random number generator one could generate random caves, and that by controlling the density of rocks and jewels one could get some interesting game play. The game play fascinated not only from a puzzle standpoint, but it also appealed to various emotional drives - the obvious psychotic ones like greed (collecting jewels), destructiveness (dislodging rocks and killing fireflies) and the neurotic ones like cleaning all the dirt out of a cave.

Chris and Peter lived quite far apart, so that their meetings were infrequent and involved a long drive. It turned out quite quickly that their design goals and methods were fairly incompatible. Peter was developing a game quite different from Chris' original, and did so just about completely on his own. Peter designed all of the elements, physics, caves, the game play, the graphics, the music, and the title. Chris helped out with a few odds and ends - he suggested, for example, how to make the graphics for the game title by composing big letters out of the Atari character graphics. In the end, there was a lot of debate as to how exactly Chris should be credited and what his share of royalties should be.

The working title of the game for a long time was Cavern Raider, and several other variants like Cavern Crystals. Eventually Peter came up with the name Boulder Dash, which is a takeoff on the word balderdash. Coincidentally, a board game named Balderdash was also published in 1986.

The game's main character - Rockford.

Originally, in the early physics engine stage, Rockford was just a static shape similar to a cross. When one moved the shape, it dug through the earth and absorbed jewels. In fact, the graphics were very simple, and elements were all single characters in a 24x40 character display. There was no scrolling in the early versions of the game. It was Chris who suggested that the digging shape should be a "man", and together they came up with a simple human shape. When Peter showed an early version of the game to a potential publisher, they pointed out the "the man" was way too small and needed to be a more recognizable character. But it was not possible to make "the man" more prominent without making everything larger as well. So this was where the hard work began of converting the game from one that ran on a 24x40 character display to one that scrolled over a much larger region.

Now that the game elements were bigger, Peter was able to add much more detail, including making "the man" more recognizable. He built a character editor to work out the pixels and the animation. It was at this point that the Rockford character took shape. Rockford was not supposed to be any particular kind of human or animal, he just evolved in the pixel editor. Since Peter used to be interested in animation, he worked out the character to make Rockford blink his eyes and tap his feet. This was an innovation that added a lot of depth to the character.

The result

Overall, it took Peter about 6 months to finish the first version of Boulder Dash with no more than 2 hours of actual work per day.

Even though Boulder Dash was finished in half a year, it took another six months to find a publisher and work out a publication agreement. By this time Peter was already full time employed at a company that developed word processing software.

And so, the rest is history - Boulder Dash was eventually published by First Star in 1984 and was an instant bestseller.

Having survived for over two decades on the market, the game is still here to fascinate us. You are always welcome play our remake of Boulder Dash (http://www.zxgames.com/en/boulderdash.shtml), which is as close to the original as possible and needs no emulators to run.

Where is Chris Gray now?

We have no idea.

Where is Peter Liepa now?

Peter works in software development at a company named Alias, which produces 3D software for design and entertainment.

Mikhail Zhilkin of ZX Games (Sales, Support and Public Relations). Apart from being ZX Games founder, Mikhail is doing his post-graduate study in Physics, lives in Tokyo, Japan and expresses his extreme pacifism by not doing compulsory military service in his home country. Mikhail enjoys playing soccer and ZX Spectrum games.Kamillah Blog26332
Kakalina Blog27986

Doodlebops: IXS

Be Ready for getting on the Bus with the Doodlebops, kids' newest music sensation with tons of talent, loads of enthusiasm, and endless energy. If theres a preschooler in your life, you know the Doodlebops, the bubblegum Canadian rockers who star in their own show on Playhouse Disney. As the made-for-TV siblings, played by the bizarrely costumed, brightly colored Lisa Lennox (Deedee), Jonathan Wexler (Moe, who has an obsession with pulling on a suspended rope), and Chad McNamara (Rooney), embark on their first American tour (coming to the Garden on September 30 and October 1)

It is a golden opportunity to join them as they perform their hit songs from their popular TV show on Playhouse Disney in their first ever live U.S. concert tour. Kids will be out of their seats, on their feet with joy as they sing and dance along to their favorite songs from their favorite bandmates; Deedee, Rooney and Moe Doodle. This candy-colored trio is sure to deliver an interactive and unforgettable experience that will be a treat for the whole family.

The World reknowned Disney (http://www.ixs.net/concert-tickets/Children-Family/Disney-Live/index.aspx ) Channel has been hosting a wonderful show, called The Doodelbops, in their Playhouse Disney lineup each Monday through Friday. It has become very much popular in USA and Canada as the Doodlebops have achieved tremendous success in entertaining the preschooler by providing a mix of singing and dancing, rhyming and jokes and even a daily lesson. The Doodlebops are full of color, using face paint and wigs, but they are definitely the hot group in the preschooler set right now! Much like the Wiggles, they have taken over many households temporarily. Having opportunity of entertained by the Doodelhops, It is the guarantee that their Theme song will be on your lips all day long.

The Doodlebops is a musical comedy series for children starring Deedee, Rooney and Moe Doodle. They are the ultimate rock and roll band - at least as far as preschoolers are concerned - and they hang out and practice their song and dance routines in the coolest rehearsal space imaginable. Sort of a cross between PeeWee's Playhouse and The Monkees, the show focuses on music, dance, comedy and pro-social educational issues such as sharing and perspective taking. When The Doodlebops aren't rehearsing, they're zooming off in their tour bus to perform for kids everywhere!

In addition to the lovely colors, the Doodlebops make beautiful music. Each song has a simple lesson, and most are very memorable with catchy tunes. Your child will fall in love. As a parent, you may enjoy listening more than watching, because of the wild dress code the Doodlebops have. Whatever you decide to do, seeing the show once is something every parent needs to experience with his or her child!

Here are some of the lovely and wonderful songs of the Doodlebobs :-

a) Song : I can Dance Sung by Moe

Moe is hiding under a cmbal near his drum set. Rooney has a new invention. Moe is interested in knowing what it is, but they won't tell him because it's a surprise.Jazzmine enters and tells Moe to be himself and wait until the concert. He is unique and should stay that way.

While Rooney and DeeDee go to get juice, Moe cheats and looks at Rooney's invention - a drum machine. Then Moe worries that they are going to replace him.They go to the recording studio and Moe is still very worried. In the studio, Audio Murphy records their new video for 'I Can Dance'.

When the video is done, Bus Driver Bob picks them up. The bus became a stage for the Doodlebops before they took off for the concert, flying high under rocket power. Moe is still very worried.

At the concert hall they finally unveil the surprise. Moe admits he thought they were going to replace him. DeeDee and Rooney are quick to tell Moe that the Mighty Moe Machine was built to help him, so he can dance to his song without having to play the drums.

The following joke was included in this song.

Knock Knock
Who's There?
Luke
Luke who?
Luke out!

At the end, The Doddlebop completed their song with a Lesson that Everyone can use a little help once in a while to make them better. Today, Moe got help from the Mighty Moe Machine.

b) Wobbly Whoopsy is the another lovely amusing song of the Doodlebop.

Today is DeeDee's birthday. Rooney and Moe pretend they forgot, but blindfold DeeDee and decorate the room. For her birthday DeeDee wrote a new song and dance, called Wobbly Whoopsy. She wants Rooney and Moe to dance wearing tutus during the concert. They say no, because it is way to girly.

Rooney bakes a birthday cake; Moe causes him to step on it. This is very frequent this episode, as several cakes are ruined, and several gifts from Rooney are also ruined.

Bus Driver Bob gives DeeDee a small version of the bus, called the Doodlebop Express. At the concert hall,Mazz gives DeeDee a red necklace. Rooney and Moe still have nothing for DeeDee, not even a card.

They decide to give DeeDee a special gift. They will wear the tutus and do her new song and dance.

This Song also contained the following joke.

Knock-Knock
Who's there?
Snow
Snow who?
Snow body but me!

Finally,the Song has a very inspiring lesson , The cost of a gift does not matter; just give from your heart .

3) The Song, Your Not Alone is also wonderful and praiseworthy.

Today Mazz lets Moe know that he will have a solo in today's concert. Moe is very worried about this, and doesn't want to have a solo. He goes into a trance he is so scared, and Rooney and DeeDee actually put him under the rope and for the first time, they tell him to pull it. He does. Then he confesses he is afraid of messing up during his solo.

DeeDee and Rooney spend the afternoon convincing Moe he will do fine, and they will be there to support him.

The following amusing joke can be found in the song.

Knock-Knock
Who's there?
Tank
Tank who?
You're welcome!

This song has the thoughtful and spiriting lesson that You can do anything when you have the support of friends and family.

DeeDee Doodle : Lisa J. Lennox plays DeeDee Doodle, in pink and purple from head to toe she has a very sweet, melodic voice. DeeDee also plays the piano and likes to do magic tricks. She is a kind and helpful girl with a great imagination. She is also very good at writing songs.

Lisa herself is 23 years old and has been performing since her childhood when she was just 3 years old. In the past, Lisa Lennox has performed at the Gemini Awards and she had a small part in the introduction of the television series Road to Avonlea. Lisa is trained in music and dance and went to Etobicoke School of the Arts (ESA) instead of a traditional high school to further her love of the performing arts.

When the Doodlebops were first being filmed to show in Canada, Lisa and the rest of the cast spent 7 months filming scenes for 26 television episodes. She says that being on the Doodlebops is a dream come true, and very exciting. She also says that Jonathan and Chad helped to make the long days more bearable adding that the three of them spent a lot of time laughing which resulted in their close friendship.Lisa has great flair of making people happy, especially the children, and enjoys a lot on being part of the 'ultimate rock and roll band' for preschoolers.

Moe Doodle :Jonathan Wexler plays Moe Doodle, in red and orange he loves to pull the rope, play hide and seek and play the drums. He was a member of the Original Kids Theatre Company in London, Ontario, where he was born, and was in many Grand Theatre Productions. He is mysterious.

Rooney Doodle : Chad McNamara plays Rooney Doodle, who is blue, and he plays the guitar. Chad's previous performing credits include playing a Wrangler in Will Rogers Follies, shown for two weeks in and Ottowa Theater from November 23, to December 3, 1995. He was also part of the cast for Mamma Mia when it toured Canada in 2003. He is a thoughtful and cool doodlebop who is totallly Funky and Spunky. He is very good at inventing things.

Mazz Kim Roberts plays Mazz who plays the Manager for the Doodlebops.She is a known actress s, whose previous credits include guest appearances in Wonderfalls, Tracker, and Twice in a Lifetime and Soul Food.

Bus Driver Bob :John Catucci plays the Bus Driver Bob. who I think personally steals the show. He is an actor who has been performing professionally for 7 years now. While he was a member of Vanier College Productions at York University, John joined David Mesiano to form The Doo Wops, a musical comedy duo. The Doo Wops have won several awards for comedy and in both 2003 and 2004 they were the Canadian Comedy Award winners for the best sketch troupe. In addition to his comedy he has also worked with Jackie Chan on The Tuxedo, and ABC movie called Kiss My Act, and many Canadian television shows.

Feld Entertainment, Inc. and Cookie Jar Entertainment Partner to Bring Kids' Favorite Rockin' Band, the Doodlebops on Premiere U.S. Tour

FELD ENTERTAINMENT, INC. and leading children's company, COOKIE JAR ENTERTAINMENT, announced a partnership to bring the new rockin' music sensation for kids, The Doodlebops, to 40 cities across the country for their first live U.S. tour.

The Doodlebops have attracted a legion of pint-sized fans to their popular television show on the Disney Channel which introduces children to kid-themed music inspired by legendary artists such as The Beatles, The Black Eyed Peas, Aretha Franklin, and Beyonce.

Today, The Doodlebops previewed their U.S. tour with a special performance in front of thousands of children at Madison Square Garden following the 136th Edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey(R) 10:30 a.m. matinee. The official U.S. tour will kick-off fall 2006 and continue through spring 2007.

The exploding popularity of the band makes it a perfect live touring property. The Doodlebops live-action series focuses on three candy-colored, fun loving characters -- band mates Deedee, Rooney, and Moe Doodle who happen to be in a world famous rock band! Through their energetic music, enviable dance moves, upbeat attitudes, and rockin' storylines, The Doodlebops share positive messages with their young viewing audience, and introduce them to a variety of musical and dance styles. Whether rehearsing their latest dance in their club house, touring the world in their groovy tour bus, or debuting a brand new song in concert, The Doodlebops are always encouraging youngsters to share, cooperate, learn from each other, and to get up and dance!

The Doodlebops is a top performer for Disney Channel in the U.S., and is also one of Kids' Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) most popular programs. The talented trio is the most dynamic new children's act on the scene, using its top-rated, Toronto-produced TV show to entertain and educate preschoolers with a combination of original music inspired by artistic icons, dynamic dancing, humor and fun to convey positive pro-social messages about teamwork, overcoming fears, and trying new things.

The group has a proven track record of success not only on television, but on live tour with their recent sell out of major venues for the spring 2006 Canadian ticketed tour. Chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, Kenneth Feld says, "This talented trio has become the new popular band for young children and is creating sensational buzz; we look forward to partnering with Cookie Jar Entertainment to spread their magic to families and children across the United States."

According to Toper Taylor, President and Chief Operating Officer of Cookie Jar Entertainment, "We're thrilled to be working with the world's premier live entertainment company, Feld Entertainment, to take The Doodlebops on tour across the United States, and we expect a tremendous response from the show's enthusiastic and loyal young fans, as well as their parents."

Feld Entertainment, Inc. is the worldwide leader in producing and presenting live entertainment experiences that lift the human spirit and create indelible memories, with millions of people in attendance at its shows each year. Feld Entertainment's productions have appeared in 50 countries and on six continents to date and include Disney On Ice, Disney Live! and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey(R).

Cookie Jar Group develops and markets quality products to children,their caregivers, parents and teachers. Cookie Jar Group's products reflect ts commitment to providing the best in children's published content, animated and live action programming and innovative educational and entertainment-driven products worldwide. The group of companies consists of Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. and Cookie Jar Education Inc., as well as a 20% interest in Teletoon Canada Inc., Canada's only all-animation broadcaster.

Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., Cookie Jar Group's entertainment operation, is a leading, global, independent producer, marketing and brand manager of such renowned children's properties as "Arthur," "The Doodlebops," "Caillou" and "Gerald McBoing Boing." Combining globally-renowned intellectual properties with an industry-recognized management team, Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. is a market-driven, brand building company that is committed to children first and foremost and is dedicated to the development and production of quality programming that embraces the whole child, with animated and live-action series that entertain, inspire and enlighten children and family audiences worldwide.

Sing and dance along with kids' favorite rockin' band from the hit TV show on Playhouse Disney.

For more information about doodle bops visit: http://www.ixs.net/concert-tickets/Other/Doodlebops/index.aspx

Heidi Grumm hosts http://www.ixs.net and expresses her passion for pod casting through writing and discussion. She works for Less Corporation at http://www.hrlady.com Copyright Heidi Grumm.Katherina Blog49226
Larisa Blog4960

How to Learn HTML

HTML is the abbreviation for HyperText Markup Language. It is a special code used for the creation of websites, and most Web designers know it, or they know a program that creates HTML for them. HTML can be a little frustrating and difficult to actually understand.

Steps

1. HTML reads left to right. First, you have to understand tags. Tags are placed at the beginning of whatever you want to

change. If you wanted to make a word bold, you'd put a tag at the beginning of the word, and at the end.

2. Tags begin with a less-than sign: . What goes inside the is the tag. Learning

HTML is learning the tag to perform whatever you want to do. Usually, the tag at the end has a / before the greater sign. For

example: Hello

- Every tag should begin with an opening and closing tag. If a tag only does not specifically use a closing tag [such as

or , which will you see below], then the tag should end with a slash inside of the tag. Thus, the previous tags would be

written as and , respectively.

- The tag for a paragraph is .

- The tag for bold is or .

- The tag for italics is or .

- In HTML, the tag must be placed around the code.

- The tag for a break (skip in the line, hitting to hitting "enter" on the keyboard) is .

- The tag is always around the text.

3. By now, you can write HTML using tags. But what if you want more? Here's some more codes:

To insert images:

To resize images: (size is adjustable)

Linking images:

4. There are many websites that explain HTML more in-depth. Some good sites are Funky-Chickens.com and

HtmlCodeTutorial.com.

5.Every HTML page start with and end with . It will tell the server that it is a html page. Within the

tag, the page consist of head and body section. The head section allows us to specify the title. The body section is the

content of the html page.

6. Now that we have tags down, let's see what we can make with the knowledge:

My Title Goes Here

I like to write a lot of HTML!

Tags are so much fun. You can do it, too!

Tips

If you're getting serious with HTML, buy Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. It teaches you codes and all. Both of them are

WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor. Their functions is very similar to word processor. It will be easy to get

started with the 2 softwares. If you don't wish to spend money on the html software, there are some free html editors for you

to test out. One of them is Nvu, WYSIWYG editor, this software is very similar to Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage.

Things You'll Need

A word processor, such as Microsoft Word, Notepad or BBEdit.

Cherie AngKai Blog33189
Korella Blog70855

IT Sales: What is Your Unique Offering?

Every company has some unique facet that makes them different from the rest of their competition. In order to effectively reach your clientele, you need to figure out what your unique offering is. For example, if you're within walking distance of many businesses, then your proximity is your best benefit - you can do things faster and cheaper than anyone else.

Back Up Your Benefits

When you give benefits you want to back them up with examples and guarantees. For instance, given the above example, you might guarantee to arrive within 60 minutes of a server down emergency during regular business hours. You could offer $100 off their monthly bill if you're even a minute late - now, that's a guarantee! And, you'll probably never lose money on it because you're right there.

Survey Your Customers

You also want to survey these local companies to see which ones are interested in IT services and what areas they need help in. In order to get the survey back, you may want to offer a free gift like a gift card for a dozen bagels from the coffee shop across the street or a free needs analysis if they return it.

Your survey should ask basic questions like the following:

How many PCs do you have?

How many employees do you have?

How do you get your IT support today?

What do you like and dislike about it?

What's your number one business challenge today?

What's your number one IT challenge?

Network

Using people like the UPS or FedEx guy or the pizza delivery guy even, you can effectively network into a community. You can learn about the other companies and they can learn about you through these familiar faces. They can often give you great advice about who may need help.

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Joshua Feinberg can help you get more steady, high-paying computer consulting clients. Sign-up now for Joshua's free audio training on proven computer consulting secrets from the Computer Consulting Blog now at http://www.ComputerConsultingBlog.comLainey Blog82504
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How To Learn Designing Your First Website

In learning web design, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is something you must know, WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) HTML editor is something you must have and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is some big treasure to you which deserves burying yourself into it deeper and deeper.

HTML is a common language for building and designing website. It tells the Internet browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox how to display web content on the screen via HTML tags. In fact, everything you see on the web is under the control of HTML. What is HTML editor? It is a software like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage which helps you to create websites even though you know nothing about HTML.

WOW! Does it mean by using HTML editor, you need not learn HTML yourself?? NOT necessarily. Below Ill explain why and will also talk about some learning tips.

HTML

As I told you earlier, everything you see on the web is under the instructions written in HTML. Therefore, HTML editors also create webpages using HTML. The difference is that when you use HTML editor, you just have to click the buttons to "draw" webpages as you see on screen (What-You-See) and then HTML editor writes the HTML tags for you to display the webpages on web browser in exactly the same form (What-You-Get). However, it always happens that HTML editors write clumsy HTML tags, especially when you amend the webpage layout again and again during your website designing process, which may possibly deter search engines from reading your web page and in turn poorly affect your search engine ranking. What's worse, your website cannot even be listed in search engines at all! The clumsy HTML codings will also increase your file size and hence the loading time, encouraging visitors to leave your website soon. Therefore, you should understand HTML to unable yourself to modify the HTML codes produced by WYSIWYG HTML editors. Besides, in the designing perspective, there are also some design limitations and restrictions using HTML editors when compared to free writing of HTML codes. If you would like some special design or custom look to your webpages, you are recommended to have some knowledge on HTML yourself. In more advanced level, if you are to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your web page, you should know how to make use of meta tags like title, content, alt, header, etc. in order to attain better keyword positions in search engines. If you just happen to own a website designed by others, you should learn HTML in order to edit the context of your website without the need to depend on someone else in this simple but routine updating task. Or you have no website yet but you like to write articles to be displayed in others' websites, you also should learn HTML in order to create appropriate links in your articles for others' easy reference.

Tips: If you have already got some basic knowledge on HTML, you may study Getting Started With HTML which is the most popular free HTML tutorials online provided by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops interoperable technologies including specifications, guidelines, software and tools to lead the Web to its full potential. If you still find the above tutorials too difficult or boring to start with or your time being too limited, One Hour HTML is highly recommended for you. It is a practical program to take you step by step in learning HTML from the very beginning and it offers you hands-on HTML encoding experience instead of merely teaching you theories so that you could have already experienced creating webpage using HTML as early as in the first hour of learning.

WYSIWYG HTML Editor

Indeed, despite my understanding on HTML, like many other web designers, I like to use WYSIWYG HTML editor such as Dreamweaver a lot and in fact, I can't even think of living without it once I encountered it as it saves me so much time in writing the complex HTML codes and the best advantage is that i can immediately visualize the effect in the splitted WYSIWYG designing screen whenever I change the HTML codings above in the HTML encoding screen! I am not contradicting myself. In fact, the key to make use WYSIWYG HTML editor software is that you have to learn the software well and to use its buttons for quick and easy HTML editing yet you don't let the software generated HTML codes to take the control but it is you who know how to master all HTML tags and to make any necessary changes to the HTML tags in order to bring the best visual and seo benefits to your website. Among all HTML editors in the market, Dreamweaver and Frontpage are the most popular ones. Dreamweaver is very popular among professional web designers while Frontpage is popular for small enterprise users. Dreamweaver has more user-friendly features than Frontpage which include its seamless integration with Flash, its automatic generation of closing tags once you enter the opening tags, the fact that it would not automatically re-write your codings like Frontpage does when you save an external HTML page not created by Frontpage, etc. Despite less user-friendly features, Frontpage is a Microsoft Office's tool which many of you will be familiar with and it is fine enough for creating or editing websites for small projects.

Tips: If you have never encountered HTML editors before, you may download the free trial provided by Macromedia. There are a few good Dreamweaver tutorials in the market. Among those, Tutorials-4-You and Dreamweaver Made Simple are two more popular ones due to the interactive nature of their video tutorials, giving Dreamweaver beginners hands on experience in using Dreamweaver from the very beginning of the tutorials. For Tutorials-4-You, a free demo is offered for you to experience the tutorials yourself and you can choose the version of Dreamweaver in meeting your practical needs. For Dreamweaver Made Simple, you are offered free download of a few chapters of the videos plus the ebook. Why not giving a try? It's free and for sure you'll have a lot of fun!

CSS

Aha! So it comes the time for CSS. If you are using HTML editors like Dreamweaver, indeed you are using CSS and creating styles yourself without even your noticing it! Wait, so you may ask, why do I need to learn CSS when I am able to create styles even without my own notice using an HTML editor? I can just tell you the answer is - "magics". Yes yes, CSS is indeed a magic and it also creates many magics. But are you satisfied if you are just able to perform one of the many magics of CSS? Your answer is surely NO. Let me tell you what the CSS magics are.

CSS Magic #1:

- You no longer need to rewrite the same set of presentation style attributes like font color, background style, alignment, border, size, etc. repeatedly within the HTML codings but can group the set of attributes into a single style class within the stylesheet. In your HTML document, you just have to call it out using the style name. CSS is well designed to allow the separation of presentation style from the main content and a stylesheet can either be included inline as part of the HTML document or referenced externally as a CSS file. (So you may have already tried this magic from Dreamweaver)

CSS Magic #2:

- You now have great control over how your website looks and can change the presentation of hundreds or even thousands of your web pages by altering just one file (i.e. your stylesheet!) if it is referenced externally as a single source by your different web pages instead of being contained inline in each one of your web page. Presentation information including positioning, layout, font, color, etc. for your entire website can be contained in this single CSS file.

CSS Magic #3:

- You can eliminate the use of table to be nested inside some more tables for your web design layout anymore as you may now use the CSS file to control the positioning of all elements inside your website. Spiders no longer have to crawl through each one of your tables and page loading time can be much faster as visitors only have to download the lightweight stylesheet once and it is automatically reused for every page. Whats remained to be loaded is the actual HTML content which is now much smaller in size and hence your website can be made visible in a flash! Whats more, you can now get rid of a lot of complicated codes with tables and so your site code can be cleaner and neater for prior view and amendment.

CSS Magic#4:

- You can use CSS to place your important keyword phrases at top of your web pages which search engines love before other of your source code. In such a way, you can gain search engine ranking benefits as search engines like Google gives more weight to content closer to the top of your HTML document and now search engines can pick up the main content of your website first before your header images or navigation menus.

CSS Magic#5:

- You can use CSS to simulate some beautiful javascript effects like rollover buttons in your website design. Yet, you need not have any images visible on your html codes which will slow down your page loading time and you need not worry about visitors turning off javascript in eliminating pop-ups as for now, all are done just inside your CSS file instead of your HTML documents. Actually CSS can bring about much more than the above 5 magics. As I said in the first paragraph, learning CSS is not a "must" but you can certainly perform magics in your website when you know it more and more. Moreover, using CSS is a trend in web design and it is also conforming to future web standard in letting your website compatible with different browsers and making it much easier to be spidered by different search engines.

Tips: I myself am learning it right a way and I find myself like a magician whenever I learn to eliminate the long HTML tags and replace them using CSS! I have done many researches on CSS tutorials and I find How To Master CSS of such a high quality and it meets my needs so well! It is a CSS know-it-all, teaching me all I need to master CSS in simple languages and how to use CSS to its full potential. Its step-by-step training videos and comprehensive CSS book are my favourites and it is even used by school teachers in teaching web design in class! Its really worth a try if you are to learn CSS yourself. There is also a 100% risk-free money back guarantee, as for other professional web design related tutorials that I recommended. But Im sure you wont need it after your first trial on the tutorial! If you want a free tutorial regarding some basics of CSS instead, I would recommend Adding A Touch Of Style which is also provided by the reputable World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Conclusion

Building and designing website is not as difficult as you think. It just takes you hours to start with but of course it takes more time for your further practices. However, it will become your valuable asset for life once you've acquired the skill and got to know the crack. Don't you hesitate anymore. Start learning it today!

If you want to obtain more information and resources about website designing tutorial, please visit http://www.about-webdesign.com

Siuchu Suga, webmaster of About Web Design.Lanni Blog61896
Kiele Blog6217

Web Languages: PHP vs. ASP.NET

While the average web developer has a lot of options these days. It's really more of a bi-partisan system between ASP.NET and PHP, the rest being just independents. The battle rages between the supporters of the two languages, with no clear winner every coming out. While both can be used to complete the same project, it really depends on what you're looking for: price, speed, security, etc.

ASP.NET

If you program in ASP.NET you'll typically get too responses from the other side. Either you're rich (or your company is) or you're a Microsoft lover. While the name comes from Microsoft's old ASP technology, they made a huge leap with the .NET Framework, and the CLR allows you to use other languages for back end processing: typically Visual Basic.NET or C#.

ASP.NET's strength lies in object oriented features, and it's flexibility. Because of the CLR you can have C# programmers and VB.NET programmers working on the same project, or switch languages half way through and not have to rewrite all of your old classes. The .NET class library is organized into inheritable classes based around particular tasks, such as working with XML or image manipulation, so a lot of the more common tasks have been already handled for you.

Visual Studio .NET is a massive development IDE that (as long as your computer is fast enough) will shave tons of time of your coding. It has built in debugging along with IntelliSense, which allows for auto-completion of methods and variables so you don't have to memorize everything.

On the down side, ASP.NET is expensive. One it uses tons more resources on the web server so you'll require either better server or more servers in the farm. Windows 2003 and Visual Studio .NET are pretty tough on the pocket book as well. It's extremely rare for an ASP.NET app not to be running on IIS. And if you pay attention to any of the bug reports, you'll notice that Windows and IIS have had a bit of a history with vulnerabilities being exploited.

PHP

PHP works in combination of HTML to display dynamic elements on the page. PHP only parses code within its delimiters, such as . Anything outside its delimiters is sent directly to the output and not parsed by PHP.

PHP strength lies mostly in LAMP. The LAMP architecture has become popular in the Web industry as a way of deploying inexpensive, reliable, scalable, secure web applications. PHP is commonly used as the P in this bundle alongside Linux, Apache and MySQL. PHP can be used with a large number of relational database management systems, runs on all of the most popular web servers and is available for many different operating systems. This flexibility means that PHP has a wide installation base across the Internet; over 18 million Internet domains are currently hosted on servers with PHP installed.

With PHP 5 finally came exception handling and true OOP, but it still lack namespacing to prevent class naming collisions. PHP's type checking is very loose, potentially causing problems. Another drawback is that variables in PHP are not really considered to have a type. Finally, for some reason big corporations feel that if they're not paying for something, then it's not worth buying. If that's you're company's mentality, they just need to wake up and check out all the awesome free software that's out there.

So Which Is Better?

We'll I have my opinions and you may have yours as well. But in general, PHP is cheap, secure, fast, and reliable, while ASP.NET has quicker development time and is easier due to its class library system can probably be maintained more easily. Both are great languages, and it's up to you to make the decision.

Kevin Jordan is a software engineer and the creator of Scratch Projects. A web site dedicated to teaching others to program through actual programming projects instead of just giving away code snippets.Kariotta Blog3484
Kylie Blog58281

Track down Internet Thieves with CEH Training

A Certified Ethical Hacker is one who knows how thieves and hackers work. The best way to catch a thief is to act like a thief, and to be able to get inside their minds, to prevent them from hacking your network. The best way to find out if your network is secure is to attack it in just the same manner that a hacker would.

The goal of an ethical hacker is to help take preemptive measures against malicious attacks. This is done by attacking the system while staying within legal limits. The philosophy behind this stems from the practice of catching a thief by thinking like one. This has proved crucial as technology advances and the dependency on technology increases.

The CEH training course will put the students into an interactive environment where they will be shown the techniques to test, hack, and then secure their systems. This CEH course at http://www.unitek.com/training/ceh.php is lab intensive, and gives the students in depth knowledge and experience with the most current, and essential security systems.

Students in this CEH certification course will be taught how perimeter defense works, and they will then be taught how to scan and attack their networks. No real networks will be compromised in this course though. The students are taught how intruders break into networks, and the steps they can take to secure a system. Students will be taught about several different attacks, such as DDos attacks, and virus creation. They will also be taught, in this intensive five day course, about intrusion detection, social engineering, and policy creation.

The intensive CEH training course is composed of twenty two modules, each teaching a different aspect of CEH. The course begins with lessons in ethics and legality, followed by web application vulnerabilities, foot printing, web based password cracking techniques, and scanning. The course continues with an SQL injection module, enumeration, hacking wireless networks, and system hacking. Next comes the very things that nearly anyone who uses the internet is concerned about, including a virus and worms module, then Trojans and backdoors, physical security, sniffers and Linux hacking. There is even a module about cryptography. There are lots of intensive, hands on laboratory work in this course.

After the course, students will be prepared to sit for the certification exam, which after passing, they will be certified ethical hackers. This course would signifigantly benefit security officers, system administrators, and really anyone who is concerned about the security and integrity of their network.

Shannon MargolisKetti Blog34420
Kai Blog33189

The New Internet Marketing Trend - Streaming Web Audio

Putting MP3 audio files on the Internet isnt something new or recently invented, technology, it has been making noise online for quite a number of years, but has never had been quite so popular and talked about as it is in todays internet market. There is definitely a buzz around it today.

When I first started multimedia design seven years ago, MP3 audio files were already spread around the Internet. MP3s popularity rose rapidly after Napster released their P2P file sharing network program in 1999.

Because the MP3 file size is much smaller then MOV, WAV audio format, and has better sound quality, it didnt take too long for MP3 to become a major digital audio format of Internet.

Today, it continues to dominate the Internets audio market, and has remained unchanged as the best choice among digital audio music formats.

Historically, there was a lack of Internet speed and the size of computer hard disks and ROMs were relatively small and expensive. Especially MP3 files had to be converted from MOV or WAV file formats and the audio recording, editing hardware and software was very complicated to use, as well as very expensive and only professional studios had deep enough pockets to purchase.

Therefore, it had never been an easy tool for Internet marketers and web developers to use to their advantage. I can still remember the struggles to compress the audio files, and balancing the quality of the sound, to make it 28.8kbps modem compatible.

Very few business websites had web audio in their website, and the ones who did were only there as background music. There wasnt any marketing purpose or strategy behind it. It was largely designers showing off their advanced tricks, trying to impress their employers, essentially an e-toy for website designers.

Today, the Internet bandwidth is no longer a major impediment to Internet multimedia data transferring. Technology continues to evolve at lightning speed, computers now have massive capacities and the price of hardware has dramatically dropped, making it possible for web hosting company to provide a large amount of server space for website owners to store and transfer audio and video content, at an enormously low cost.

But the price of audio editing software remained relatively high, with more advanced features, but still posed a barrier to Internet marketers who intended to make audio a part of their Internet marketing.

This presented an opportunity for Internet Marketers and software developers. Together, they have worked out these issues, limiting seldom used advanced features, keeping only the most utilized, and developed a much more simple software for web audio recording.

This new web audio software and related services has been sold and used by Internet marketers and online business owners throughout the past few years and the results are quite convincing.

Some have claimed their sales conversion rate to have increased by 40) just by adding the audio sales litter on their web page. Can this be true? I will discuss this in more depth in another issue, but absolutely, web audio and video added a new depth, a new dimension to Internet marketing. It is mainly used for audio newsletters, web audio sales letters, audio testimonials, recorded tele-seminars, raining materials and more.

It is a very simple piece of software. If you know how to talk, and how to click, you can record your message and put it online. No experiences or technical know-how necessary, no special equipment needed, except a microphone connected to your computer.

I still use the advanced Pro version audio/video production software for my complicated projects, but I like to use this small, and feature-focused software for the smaller single task projects, because of the simplicity and the time saving. And the price of the software is so cheep!

For those who dont have a computer, cant figure out how to plug in the microphone into their computer, or are too lazy to do so, some marketers have even designed a telephone system for recording audio files for them.

You simply pick up phone, dial their number, record your message on their system, and they will deliver your audio file to your website. But you have to pay a monthly fee for your laziness, and you still have to pick up your phone and dial the number.

Some dedicated web hosting companies, such as the one I use, ThirdSphere, also jumped onto this new trend, including related features in their service package to gain sales. It provides Flash Audio Generator, Flash Video Generator software, and helps web designers to convert their pre-recorded audio and video file to a lightweight FLV file to be put online.

As a new highly effective Internet marketing method, streaming web audio and video will continue to grow in the Internet marketing realm and continue to grasp at Internet marketers and visitors attention for a number of yeas, until the day when all sites on Internet have a voice and talk to us.

For more information about how to use streaming web audio as am effective internet marketing method, and how to recording a mp3 audio for website use, please visit:

http://www.webaudiorecording.com
http://www.smartnewbies.com
http://www.webaudiorecording.com/recommends/WebHostForStreaming

Ying Wang is a founder of Stimulus Communications a Montreal based marketing company. He is a street-smart about marketing and advertising strategic planning, experienced in the production of both traditional and digital marketing media. Ying was awarded a Masters of Art History and Art Technology from the National University of Kobe, Japan, and was also awarded a professional degree in Multimedia Design from Montreals International Academy of DesignKatherina Blog94714
Kelcy Blog93863