Internet and Technology

Article by Ryan J. Smith

It’s hard to remember how we managed before the Internet existed. In this day and age, almost everyone is online for a significant part of the day. We use the Internet to plan our trips, appointments, schedules, and many other important parts of our lives. With this being said, we need the Internet to run quickly. Remember the days of dial-up connections? That wasn’t very fun. In recent years, with the invention of broadband speed Internet connections, we have grown accustomed to things running quickly. Because of this, when the Internet connection begins to run slow, it can be quite inconvenient.

In order to find way to solve this problem, lets first explore some of the reasons behind slow Internet connections and lags in loading web pages. The type of connection you are using can be a main cause of slow Internet. If you have a wireless broadband or DSL connection that isn’t password protected, this can definitely cause a slow connection all-around. Also, the type of browser you are using can make a difference as well. There are three main problems that can be identified as symptoms of a slow Internet connection. Poor performance, frequent error messages, and Internet explorer’s refusal to respond are all pretty big flags that something is not working correctly.

The good news in all of this negativity is that a slow Internet connection can easily be fixed; and you don’t have to be a computer wizard to do it. The solution to this problem can usually be found in your Internet explorer settings. Optimizing your Internet explorer settings and the settings in your network can make a huge difference in the speed and reliability of your Internet connection, and here how it works.

Start by opening the Internet Options and deleting your temporary Internet files along with your browsing history. This helps clear the cache and allows a little extra-unused RAM to make things run more quickly. Then, in the “tools” menu of your Internet browser, click “security” and reset the security settings back to their default setting. Sometimes, the level of security in your Internet browser can have a hand in how fast your connection actually is. You may not have much luck solving the whole problem by doing this, but it will not hurt. Another way of optimizing your Internet explorer settings is by running your web browser in “no add-on’s” mode. This prevents your computer from opening and running add-on’s, toolbars, and plug-ins this can slow things up considerably. By doing any of these things, you are guaranteed to help your computer run faster regardless of which method you choose. The good thing about optimizing your Internet explorer yourself is that you are not only helping increase the speed of your connection, but you are also becoming more familiarized with your computer and how it works!

As you can see, optimizing your Internet explorer settings and the settings in your network is a very simple, but helpful task. If you’re looking to increase your download speed and connection reliability, try our suggestions for a little routine computer maintenance.

The world of writing is broad and diverse. While in the past writing was mostly found in printed media such as newspapers, books, and magazines, much writing today is performed on the web.

Where there’s writing, there’s also editing. Editors are highly important to preserve the continuity, tone, and quality of content in any given media. Becoming an editor takes years of experience as a seasoned writer with a knack for words and the English language.

The Role of an Editor

Many people believe editors sit behind a desk and scribble unintelligible markings in page margins with a red pen. However, editing documents with proofreader’s marks is only part of the job of an editor.

Generally speaking, the editor’s job is to review the work of other writers and suggest changes according to writing style, punctuation, and grammar. The editor also ensures that all writing is consistent in tone and quality and matches the business goals of the company.

Major newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times have a senior editor overseeing what stories are placed on what pages of the newspaper and when. A great resource to see this in action is the 1976 film, “All the President’s Men.”

Website editors review the work of writers and suggest changes based on a number of factors including search engine optimization (SEO), tone, style, grammar, screen readability, consistency, and whether the writings match the company’s business goals.

Editor’s Guidelines

Editors must adhere to specific guidelines as to what to say and how to say it. These guidelines come from company management and ultimately impact the company’s revenues. For example, a controversial breaking story with nationwide impact will have more of a chance of bringing in revenue than a local story of petty larceny.

Editor’s Resources

To adhere to industry conventions, editors in the mainstream media generally follow the Associated Press Stylebook. Editors of books, journals, and electronic publications may elect to follow the Chicago Manual of Style. And editors in the information technology industry may choose to follow the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications.

How to Become an Editor

Becoming an editor doesn’t happen overnight. Typically, editors start out as writers and learn all about the company’s tone, style, and audience before taking the editor’s chair.

For college students, a degree in English or Journalism is required to become an editor. Adults can take continuing education courses in these areas that will lead them into a job as an editor. Writers in technology, science, or the media can network with other editors in person or on sites such as LinkedIn to find job opportunities in editing.

Editorial work takes a lot of time, energy, and can be very stressful. The work is directly tied into company profitability, so the editor must have thick skin, the ability to successfully lead a team of writers, and the ability to tolerate a high degree of criticism. However, it can also be a very rewarding career for those who love writing, communication, and the English language.

The first thing you want to try is to see if  you have a dial tone. You are going to try this by using your regular telephone line to call the local access number in which your modem is trying to connect with. You should hear a digital tone within seconds. It’s either your IP provider’s equipment is not working properly or you have accidentally dialed the wrong number.. Now if you are hearing a busy signal , you are now going to try using your modem to dial an alternate local access number.

   Now you are going to want to check the working status of your modem. If you are sure that the local access number is working properly, you should now want to determine if the modem has  actually malfunctioned.

   By following these steps you will be able to check the status of your modem.

Step 1 In the lower left corner of Windows find the Start button and click on it.

Step 2 From the list provided find Control Panel and click on it.

Step 3 From the selection provided on the Control Panel list, you are going to select the Performance and Maintenance category by clicking on it.  From there you are going to click the System icon.

Step 4 There is going to be a window that opens up, and from that you are going to click the tab labeled Hardware.

Step 5  Form that selection you are going to click the Device Manager button.

Step 6  When the device Manager window opens click on the plus sign(+) which is located next to the Modems category.

Step 7  When you have identified your modem from the selection, you are going to click on the name of your modem.

Step 8 After the next window opens, you are going to select the General tab by clicking on it. Locate the Device status heading. Now you should receive a message indicating whether your modem is working properly or not.

Step 9  If the message is telling you that the modem is not properly working or that it shows an error, you can try to uninstall the software that came with the modem. After you have completed uninstalling the software, reinstall the software again and try using the modem again.

Step 10 If the message is telling you that your modem is working correctly, check to see if the connection problems you are having is because  the your telephone cord is either loose or unplugged from the modem or your phone jack. Check your phone cord completely by checking the entire cord for cuts, dents or splits. Replace the phone cord if you notice any damages, then after it’s replaced , check your internet connection again.

Step 11 Now if the problem with your modem continues, it’s time to replace your modem.

Internet, modem, device, local access, connection, restore, phone cord,

Anyone can make money blogging; you can even earn enough to quit your present job if you do it right.  But you should be careful with books or courses promising to make you rich overnight.

You might have seen or heard of reports about bloggers making several thousands of dollars every day.

What you don’t know is that it might have taken them many years, or they might have to spend several bucks, to accumulate enough backlinks and traffic. Perhaps they might have their own websites or JV partners, where they can leverage from each others’ assets.

If you’re just starting to blog and you don’t have your own network yet, don’t worry. In this article, I’ll show you how to make money blogging using 5 simple steps. As long as you’re willing to learn and take action, you can skyrocket your earnings in no time.

Step 1: Decide the specific topic or niche of your blog. 

Your blog topics should be something that both you, and your audience, are familiar with or passionate about.

Let’s say you want to make money blogging about video games. If you’e a WarCraft fan, and you understand the game from top to bottom, you’re more likely to come up with beneficial content than if you were to write something completely uninteresting or foreign to you.

Step 2:  Create a professional-looking blog.

Choose an eye-catching design and style for your blog. You can find free themes and plugins on the internet, so you can build attractive blogs and maximize their full moneymaking potentials.  

Step 3: Post valuable, entertaining or controversial content on your blog. 

It’s better if you write the content yourself, so that your personality may shine through. But in case you can’t think of any ideas or you’re pressed for time, you could always outsource the task to a dependable freelancer.  Remember, if you want to make money blogging, you need to invest time and/or money in providing excellent content.

Let’s say you have a WarCraft blog offering free tips for a soon-to-launch ebook, what’s a good plan?

Well, you could write 300-600 word quality articles related to your World of WarCraft blog, and post an article at least 5 times a week in it. If you give quality content, your credibility or authority level shoots up.

Getting people to write comments is an excellent way to get free content and make money blogging. People love to join hot discussions. Encourage comment posting by offering certain prizes for blog commenters of the month. For example, you could give $50-$100, gift cards to Amazon, or copies of your own products (in case you don’t want to offer money).

By posting valuable content and encouraging comments, you’re slowly building a network of fans to your blog.

Step 4: Monetize it.

There are a number of ways to make money blogging through various monetization streams.

You could promote your own products related to your content. If you provide good solid information and they’re satisfied, they are more likely to buy from you.

If you don’t have your own products, you could buy products with resale or private label rights. But if you don’t want to go through any hassles, you could simply promote affiliate products related to your content. 

You could also post Google adsense on your blog, so you can make money blogging whenever someone clicks on those ads, even if they didn’t buy anything.

You can also make money by using pay-per-action programs. These programs usually pay you more than adsense, but less than the normal affiliate programs. How do you earn with pay-per-action programs? Every time someone does a specific action that the advertiser intends them to do (whether it’s filling up a form, downloading a report, subscribing to a list, etc.), you get paid a certain amount. 

If your blog becomes popular enough, you could also offer advertising space where marketers will pay you to put their advertisements in your blog.

Step 5: Bring in the traffic.

There are different techniques to generate traffic and make money blogging.

Set up your blog posts to be “pinged” automatically to a list of ping sites every time you make a new post. Pinging is a method that allows your content to be indexed faster by the search engines.

Use Google Adwords or other pay-per-click methods to advertise your blog. When people search for certain keywords related to your blog, your pay-per-click ad comes out. You only pay every time someone clicks on your ad.

Create informative or entertaining videos, advertise your blog in that video, and upload them to video-sharing sites. Youtube may be the most popular one, but there are other sites worth uploading your videos to. You may use a free service like tubemogul.com to simultaneously upload your videos to a variety of video-sharing sites of your choosing. 

Submit your blog to blog directories. Simply search for “blog directories” in Google and you’ll get a list to submit your blog details to. 

One of the most effective ways to make money blogging is to contact other bloggers and set up a proposal – you put their blog link on your blog, and vice-versa.

Write articles and submit them to article directories. You can then advertise your blog in the resource box.  You could even use your blog content as articles to submit to article directories. But that’s not all…

You could maximize your content to its full capacity by converting your articles to powerpoint presentations and posting them at slideshare.net. You could also convert those powerpoint presentations into videos, and then post them to various video-sharing sites.

Use various Web 2.0 methods to make money blogging.  Bookmark your links at social bookmarking sites like digg.com, stumblepon.com, propeller.com, and many others. However, you should always observe proper netiquette. Most, if not all, of these bookmarking sites prohibit any marketing activities. But you can get under the radar if you give first, become a helpful part of the Web 2.0 community, and bookmark a lot more non-self-serving sites than self-serving ones.

These are the 5 simple steps to make money blogging. Hope you find them useful and may you earn a lot of money with your blog.

How to Obtain Microsoft Office Certification and Which Office Certification is Right for You
Microsoft now offers two current versions of the prestigious Microsoft Office Certification. The version and name of the certification depends on the version of Microsoft Office you wish to certify on. This article will focus on the Microsoft Office Specialist certification. To learn about the Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) please read the corresponding MCAS article.
The Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification is for individuals who use and wish to certify on Microsoft Office 2003 products. There are seven possible MOS exams available. From the seven possible exams there are two possible titles, or designations, a person taking MOS exams can earn. The designations are Microsoft Office Specialist and / or Master Microsoft Office Specialist. The credential you earn depends on which of the seven exams you take and how many of the exams you take. The seven available exams are:
1. Microsoft Word 2003 Core
2. Microsoft Word 2003 Expert
3. Microsoft Excel 2003 Core
4. Microsoft Excel 2003 Expert
5. Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Core
6. Microsoft Outlook 2003 Core
7. Microsoft Access 2003 Core
If you take any one of the above exams you become a Microsoft Office Specialist in that product. So, if you pass the Microsoft Word Expert exam you will be mailed a certificate, from Microsoft, which says you are a Microsoft Office Specialist in Word Expert. If you take the Outlook Core exam you will be mailed a certificate that says you are a Microsoft Office Specialist in Outlook Core. After passing any of the above exams you are certified as a Microsoft Office Specialist and you can at that time use the MOS designation after your name, as well as the MOS logo on business cards, resumes, etc.
When you pass four specific MOS exams you will earn the Master Microsoft Office Specialist certification / designation. The required exams for Master MOS status are:
1. Microsoft Word 2003 Expert
2. Microsoft Excel 2003 Expert
3. Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 Core
4. Microsoft Outlook 2003 Core or Microsoft Access 2003 Core (you only need to pass 1 of the 2)
When you pass the above four required exams, Microsoft will mail you a certificate that says Master Microsoft Office Specialist. This certificate will also say which of the four required exams you passed. If you have decided Microsoft Office Specialist is the certification for you because you use Microsoft Office 2003 and want to validate your Office 2003 skills you should do the following steps.
Step One: Microsoft Office Training – Through training you will learn the Microsoft Office applications you will be tested on. When looking for training look for program that starts with the application basics and covers the advanced topics also. The tests are difficult, so you want to make sure the training you choose is comprehensive. You should also look for training that covers the exam objectives. You can find a list of the exam objectives on the www.ComputerCoach.com. You should look for training that includes hands-on activities also. All Microsoft Office Specialist exams are hands-on exams. There are questions that appear on the bottom of the page. The application you are testing on will open on the top of the screen and you will have to “do” the necessary tasks to answer the questions. The exams are also timed. Each test is 50 minutes, so you want to be sure you are quick at doing each exam objective. Training that includes hands-on practice will help you learn and retain the information.
Step Two: Practice Exams – Several vendors sell Microsoft Office Specialist practice exams. These practice exams simulate the test environment. It allows you to become familiar with the types of questions they will ask you, the way the questions are worded, the expected responses, and it is a great way to refine your skills before taking the actual test.
Step Three: Schedule and Take the Test – The Microsoft Office Specialist exams are administered through official Certiport Testing centers. You must go to a physical location to take the test. You can find a list of Official Certiport Testing Center at certiport.com. Beware, Microsoft does not offer there Office exams online. You must go to the physical testing center and pass the Microsoft Office Specialist exam to become “certified.” Good luck!
Suzanne Alexander, M. Ed. is a Microsoft Certified Trainer.
Computer Coach provides flexible,self-paced computer courses at affordable prices. Computer Coach exceeds its client’s expectation by offering online computer training classes that help individuals get the skills they need to be successful in today’s rigorous and changing workplaces. Visit www.ComputerCoach.com for hands-on comprehensive Microsoft Office Training.

Blogs can be a very marketable and very profitable tool if used correctly. Profiting from blogs is just a matter of grabbing the attention of an audience and not doing any actual salesmen selling. In this article you will learn the 13 most essential steps to successful blogging.

1) Where to start?

You should begin your blog with a free blog hosting service such as Journal Home. I don’t say that because I’m the owner, but a free blog host is very rewarding for a new blog.  Starting with a free blog hosting service allows you to begin blogging instantly without having any advance knowledge of scripts, hosting, or programming. It allows you to build an audience and buzz for your blog.  It allows you to focus on your content and not the internal maintenance of the blog. The best benefit of starting with a free service, is in the case your blog doesn’t become successful you do not lose any money or are you left holding the bill. The great thing about a blog is that they are organized in chronological order, your latest entry is displayed first. When your blog traffic grows greatly and you are ready to upgrade to your own domain then you can simply make your last blog entry the announcement of your “move”.  Simply add a last entry stating that your blog has “moved” and type the new blog URL address. Which directs visitors to your new blog site, keeping your following, without a major inconvenience to anyone. Upgrade as you need to…but only when you need to!

2) Niche

A niche is a targeted product, service, or topic. You should first decide on a product, service, or topic which interest you. Choose an area which you can enthusiastically write about on a daily basis. You can use keyword research services like Google Zeitgeist or Yahoo! Buzz Index to find popular searched topics. It does NOT matter if your topic is popular as long as there is a audience for your topic and the topic is precisely focused then your blog should be successful. Anything can be considered a niche as long as it has a target audience no matter how large or how small the audience is. A blog about your cat can be a niche or a blog about the species of the cat family can be a larger niche market, if there are people who are interested in hearing about your cat or the species of the cat family, then you have a niche…you can even choose to build your audience for a market which an audience does not exist, but first you must build your blog.

3) Update Daily (nothing less)

This step is a must and not a suggestion. Updating your blog daily not only keeps your blog more interesting to readers, but it also gives your blog fresh content on a day to day making it more appealing to search engines. Not updating your blog on an occasional holiday or one day here and there is understandable to most, but missing days at a time or weeks is unacceptable and will most likely result in your blog being unsuccessful. To keep your blog traffic and retain your visitors interest it is a must to update your blog daily with multiple entries. Though, I am seeing a growing trend of successful blogs that are not being updated daily, but they are successful and have a stable audience who continue to visit their blog daily.  Regardless, these blogs are still updated weekly with multiple entries.  Until you have a steady audience you should try to update your blog everyday with at least 3 or more daily entries. The best way to accomplish this is to set aside 1-2 hours a day for tending to your blog and adding new entries. It may even be wise to schedule a set time which you dedicate to your blog each day. Give yourself work hours and treat your blog as a job, what happens if you don’t come to work for days or weeks…you lose money or worse you get fired! Same applies here…if you don’t update your blog for days or weeks you’ll lose visitors.

4) Traffic

It’s no secret. You must have traffic to profit from blogs. There are numerous ways to build traffic. Paid advertising, free advertising, viral marketing, search engine marketing, RSS/XML feeds, and word-of-mouth. You should always use your blog URL address in the signature of your email, forum discussions, message boards, or any other communication media. You should submit your blog URL address to search engines and blog directories. You should submit your RSS/XML URL feed to blog ping services like Technorati, Ping-O-Matic, and Blogdigger. You should confidently share your blog with family, friends, co-workers, associates, and business professionals when it relates. Many blogs can be considered as a collection of articles, for this purpose you should submit your blog entries (those that are valuable and lengthy articles) to content syndicators like GoArticles.com or ArticleCity.com. Once submitted your articles can be picked up and published by others. The trick is to make sure you include your Blog URL address in the “About the Author” passage. What this does is create link popularity and backlinks for your blog, when someone picks up your article from the syndication then publish the article on their website the “About the Author” passage is included with each publication and the link you included is followed, crawled, and indexed by search engines. Imagine if your article is popular enough or controversial enough to produce 10,000 publications across the web. The search engines is bound to find your blog in no time with that many publications and credit you a authority on the topic, in return increasing your rank on search engines. The small effort of writing a well written article is rewarding. You should try to write at least 1 full length article every week for syndication and submit your article to at least 10 article syndicators.

5) Track Your Blog

How do you know if your blog has traffic? Just because no one is leaving comments doesn’t mean your blog isn’t growing. Many visitors do not leave comments but they are returning visitors. I know it sounds crazy but with blogs people are more interested in what “you” have to say! Many visitors do not comment their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd time. Some do not comment at all, but are active daily visitors.

Tracking your blog does not have to be overly sophisticated usually a simple free page counter like StatCounter.com or Active Meter will do the trick. Install (copy/paste) the code into the html of your blog template and start tracking your visitors. Its better to use a service which gives you advanced traffic analysis, such as keyword tracking information, referral information, and search engine information. Visitors, returning visitors, and unique visitors should be standard for any page counter service you choose.

6) Listen to Your Audience

When using the proper page counter you should begin to see how others are finding your blog and if through search engines then which keywords are being used to find your blog. If constantly your blog is being found by 1 or more keywords then focus your blog around those keywords to make it even more powerful. When writing entry titles and entries use the keywords as often as possible while keeping the blog legible and interesting.

7) Multiple blogs

Use multiple blogging accounts (free) to attract more people. This means you should have a blog with JournalHome.com and others. The more blog accounts the better (be sure to read and adhere to the Terms of Service for each site). You can copy/paste from 1 blog to all others. Having different blog accounts is like having a publication in different newspapers. This enables you to attract more visitors and this also increases the chance that 1 of your blogs will be in the search engine results for your focused keywords.

Short & Concise

Aside from the lengthy article a week for syndication and publication your blog entries should be short & concise (if you can help it). Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule and you have no choice but to blog lengthy entries, but try to avoid this as much as possible. You do not want your blog entries to become hours of reading. Visitors like to easily find information and skim through your entries. It is good to be detailed and provide useful information, but do not include useless information or run away sentences that veer away from your topic.  Stay keyword-focused.

9) Digital Art

Try to include non-advertising graphics, pictures, photos, and art in your blog entries. Not too much. Once a week is fine. Graphics can sometimes bring your blog to life. Of course, the content of the blog is the most important aspect and you do not want to overshadow your content with graphics, but displaying graphics can add a bit of spice to the blog. Be choosy about your graphics and make sure they fit your entry topic. You should add content with the graphic, at least a caption. Original graphics, photos, pictures, and art is recommended.

10) Keep it Personal

A blog is most successful when it is kept personal. Try to include personal experiences which relates to the topic of your blog entry. Stay away from the business style of writing. Write with a more personal style and use first-person narratives. Do not write any of your entries as sales letters, instead share product reviews and personal endeavors.

11) Interact With Your Visitors

You now have the traffic you deserve. You should begin interacting with your visitors. Create a regular theme such as: “Monday Money Tip” or “Picture of the Week” which entices your readers to look forward to each week.

Give your readers advance notice about a product, service, or topic which you are going to review and then talk about later. If the President was scheduled to give a speech then in your blog you should state that you “will discuss the speech and give your opinion after the speech airs. Comments will be appreciated”.

Try your best to find exclusive information that not many have. Do not disclose any confidential or secret information which is deemed illegal or can potentially get you into trouble, but try to get the scoop before everyone else does. Such as: If your blog was about Paris Hilton (the socialite) and you had a blog entry about “Paris Hilton Getting Married” then it would be interesting to your readers if you had a actual picture of Paris Hilton engagement ring. Give your best effort to dig and search the internet for exclusive information and you will possibly come up with something useful. Your readers will appreciate this and they show their appreciation through word-of-mouth referrals. Imagine how many readers will tell their friends, family, and others about information they only can find at your blog.

12) Make Money

Once your blog has gained some real momentum and your blog traffic is increasing then it is time to start thinking about turning your traffic into profit. You should use contextual advertising, like Google Adsense or Chitika. Contextual advertising is usually text links which use the content of your blog to publish targeted ads on your blog. The payout is usually based on a pay-per-click model, meaning for ever click an ad receives you are paid a small percentage of the profits. In addition to contextual advertising it is good to also use graphical advertising such as: BlogAds.com, Amazon.com, MammaMedia, or General Sponsored Advertising.

13) You’re a Professional

You’re a professional now! What are you still doing with that free blog hosting service? It is time to upgrade to a domain hosted solution. You need to get a web host and choose a domain name for your blog then check its availability. Select the blogging software you wish to use, such as: Squarespace.com, WordPress.org, MovableType.org, TypePad, etc. When you have your new blog domain setup and ready for traffic then it is time for you to announce your move on all your previous blog accounts. Your last entry to the blog should be a “move” announcement. The title should be “Moved” and the blog entry should state something like “I have a new home for my blog, please bookmark and follow the link: http://www.yournewblogdomainname.com/”. This way all returning visitors and new readers should not have any problem finding your new blog domain.  Plus, search engines can easily index and crawl your new blog, since your old blog should already be popular with the search engines.

At the level of a professional blogger you may want to team up with 1 or more other bloggers. This will create a more interesting and more powerful blog. The old saying “two heads is better than one”, more authors mean more advertising and exposure because each author will have a vested interest in the blog. The idea of a team blog is to make it profitable and rewarding for all authors, while continuing to target the blog topic and keeping the blog interesting for visitors.

Following these blogging techniques should make your blogging experience much more rewarding. There is no guarantee that your blog will become popular or a household name, but the effort should at least put you one step closer. Making money online is not an overnight experience like many may think, but making money online is definitely a foreseeable possibility. As well, growing popularity on the web is not an overnight experience, but through time, dedication, and persistence you will be rewarded with all the royalties of blogging.

To learn more about successful blogging subscribe to the Journal Home Newsletter

Step 1: Choose Your PassionWhat does passion have to do with it? I just want to make money!
Well making money might be a good reason for starting a blog and money CAN be made, but in the end creating and maintaining a blog that is going to last is more about your passion or your driving force. Ask yourself this question;”What would I do everyday, for the rest of my life, without ever being paid to do it?”
Whatever answer you come up with is your passion. That is what your blog should be about; YOUR PASSION. That is what you should be blogging about. Write for yourself before you right for someone else. Money and fame are just icing on the cake.
See, when you first start writing your blog, there most likely WILL NOT be any money returned from your time investment. Making money is usually a result of long hours invested in gaining subscribers and avid readers and becoming known as an “expert”. You might decide to monetize your blog, but without people reading your blog, how are you going to make money?
Remember this:THERE ARE NO GET-RICH-QUICK SCHEMES RELATED TO BUILDING AN A+ BLOG!!!
Sorry to dash your dreams but if you are looking for the “key” to riches beyond your wildest dreams, then please go somewhere else; you won’t find it here.Step 2: Write Down Your Goals
Most likely if you write down your goals those goals will happen. This is because making yourself actually think about what you want to accomplish is half of the battle already won.
“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.” ~ English Proverb
What do you want to accomplish? How are you going to deliver your message? When you are finished, what is it going to look like?Step 3: Visit Some Other Blogs
Do some research and check out what other people are doing with their blogs. Learn what blogging is in general. Don’t just search for blogs in your niche, but also in general. There is alot to be learned from others that have already put up there own blogs. Posts some comments so that you can start to get a feel of what the whole blogging process is. While you are researching be sure to bookmark those blogs that you have visited and write down interesting ideas that pop into your head. You might not remember where you have been only a day or two earlier.Step 4: Choose a Blogging Software
There a bunch of options when looking for your blogging software. I would start by doing a search on Google for Blogging Software. Don’t be intimidated by the 62,000,000 + results returned back to you.
For the scope of the article, I am going to talk about WordPress (http://www.wordpress.com). I chose WordPress for my blog not only because it is the most popular, but also because it is backed by a huge community, has some really useful plugins, gives you loads of control and is easy to use. You can either signup for at www.wordpress.com or find your own hosting provider to host the blog for you. If you are new to blogging then signing-up at www.wordpress.com might be your best bet. There are many of bulit-in extras like stats that track your visitors that are beneficial. Best of all it is FREE!!Step 5: Buy a Domain Name
Buying a domain from a domain registry such as GoDaddy will make your blog appear more professional. Choose a domain name that not only fits your blog’s purpose but also has keywords in it. For instance, if your blog is about gardening, then choose a domain such as “MyGardeningBlog.com” or “My-Gardening-Blog.com”. The .com, .net, .org, etc extension is not important although .com extensions are generally recognized as the default.Step 6: Customize Your Blog
Customizing your blog is very easy with WordPress. If you choose to host your blog with www.wordpress.com then you can choose from dozens of pre-installed templates. You can also Search Google for additional templates that are either FREE or low cost for around $45 a template. If you find a template that is not provided by the hosted service then you can simply upload the new template to your account. The control panel that comes with the hosted service is very easy to use.
If you are daring enough to modify the template by hand you can do so. WordPress is built in a web site scripting language called PHP. If you are not familiar with PHP then this route is not for you. You can, however, find additional resources online either at the WordPress website or by doing a Google search.Step 7: Install Helpful Plugins
WordPress is easily expandable by the use of “Plugins”. Plugins are little pieces of software that are created by a 3rd-Party developer that accomplish simple tasks such as helping you manage your Google Adsense(http://www.google.com/adsense) ads or backing up your WordPress installation. There are many plugins to choose from and you can search for them at www.wordpress.org.Step 8: Write Your “About” Page
When you are ready, you can describe the blog and its purpose in an “About” page. Be as descriptive as you can about the target audience and what you will be providing in the blog.Step 9: Start Posting to Your Blog
This is actually the hardest part. If you have done your homework on what your passion was and you did some research, then you most likely did some blog posts in your head. Don’t sweat coming up with great and astounding ideas or intricate essays. Remember the KISS method and Keep It Simple Stupid! (OK I had to break this rule for this article but you know what I mean…)
You have to remember who your audience is in general. Most people read blogs rather than other forms of information because they are short and to-the-point snippets of information that can be easily digested. I think this is just normal human behavior in a conventional society. There is far too much information on the internet and too little time to try to consume it all. Blogs satisfy our normal curiosity like small little squares of chocolate would satisfy our sweet-tooth.Step 10: Marketing (and maybe Monetizing) Your Blog
Since you have been blogging your little heart away, wouldn’t it be nice if people actually read it? Here are a few ways, among many, to go about marketing your blog.

Most of the articles for using computers are written for computer savvy individuals. However, this article is written for novice computer users. Just like any other ordinary computer user, I have gone through the frustration of slow-start up, loosing data, frequent starting and restarting, etc. I understand their pain and sympathize with them.

Over 5-6 years of using the same computer that still does great, I think I can give some suggestions for average computer users to use their computers efficiently and pleasantly.

The basic message here is to keep everything simple in your computer. In general, I found most of the commercial software highly problematic. Unless you absolutely need to have one, do research before you buy one. On the contrary, and pleasantly I found many free software much better behaved and less taxing to your computer memory. Most of the free programs can be downloaded from CNET download site (http://www.download.com/). Beware of sites that sale any freeware program.

To begin with, you want to buy a computer that could do all the jobs you want it do. Do not buy the most expensive computer available as it will be outdated within weeks. Five years ago, I bought a Sony PCV-RS530G that I still love using it. I have increased its memory to 2 GB and added an additional DVD writer. In addition, I have an external 250 GB hard-drive that I occasionally use to backup the computer.

Immediately after I bought the Sony computer, it took inordinately long time to start up and go through several routines before I could log-on. After taking advice from my computer savvy sons and reading several articles, I gradually came with following solutions that anyone could use to run his/her computer efficiently.

The first program I would down load would be CCleaner (Crape Cleaner, freeware from CNET download.com).

Using CCleaner, delete all the vendor installed programs that are not absolutely necessary to run the computer. Call the customer service of the vendor to make sure or check by Google search utility of any installed program. For example, I removed all the Sony’s media related programs (Click to DVD, DVgate, PictureGear, Sonic Stage, and VAIO Media Software).

Delete the trial-based or term-limited commercial programs installed by the vendor: Norton antivirus software, Quicken, etc.

To defend against viruses and spyware I use two free programs: Windows Defender and Threatfire. Both do great jobs of protecting the computer while being non-intrusive and run in the background.

For multimedia, I use Picasa, Windows Media Player, iTunes, DVD Shrink, and Deep Burner.

To play most of the media files without running too many media players, one can download “k-lite codecs” pack.

For utility, as described above, I use CCleaner. CCleaner is easy to use and very helpful in maintaining the computer’s sanity. Using CCleaner you could specify what programs start with the computer boot up. If a program is not necessary to start with the computer boot up, un-check it. CCleaner lets you delete junk files, delete old or unused registry files and any program safely. Routine use of CCleaner will keep your computer sane. I suggest using it once a week.

Another utility software I like is Belarc Advisor. Belarc will keep you abreast of hardware, software, and security status of the computer.

Instead of Microsoft Office, I use Open Office. Open Office is freeware and lets you save documents and files in Microsoft Office Format. Instead of Acrobat Reader, I use Foxit Reader

Instead of Windows Outlook, I use Mozilla Thunderbird. You can use any Web-browser. However, I like Mozilla Firefox. I avoid using Yahoo’s toolbar and Yahoo email, and instead I use Gmail. Using GMail one can download all email messages to your desktop based email program like Thunderbird.

Importantly, before you install or delete any program, backup your computer, set up system restore point, and then install the program. If you run into any problem after installing a program, you can always go back to the previous status of the computer.

Check de-fragmentation of the computer using Windows program at least once a month, and defragment if necessary.

Please note that all the programs I listed for download are freeware.

If you have any problems with any of these programs, drop me an e-mail to lbg977@yahoo.com and I may be able to help you.

Enjoy your computing!