Author: Ken Davis
My first experience in music ministry happened fairly soon after
I first picked up a guitar at 15 years of age. I knew about 20
chords and could play a few songs from a new songbook titled
Scripture in Song. Fortunately most of the songs were in
guitar-friendly keys.
There were four of us who played guitar in a small country
Baptist church. I know one song we dreaded was "Rise and Shine"
('God said to Noah there's gonna be a floody floody...'). The
chords were simple, but the strumming rhythm was a real wrist
breaker.
After church we would retire to one of our homes and listen to
the latest Larry Norman or Randy Stonehill album, and try to
work out the chords and guitar licks. As Bryan Adams sang, 'I
played it till my fingers bled...those were the best days of my
life'. The songs were simple and we'd try and embellish them
with influences from progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd and
Yes. However there's a limit to what you can do with a $20 nylon
string guitar. Sometimes this went down well. At other times
some of the elders would warn us of the dangers of getting so
caught up in the music that we forgot the main game. In their
quirky country ways, they had a point.
In the years since then I have enjoyed being part of many
different music teams. My studies meant I moved around a fair
bit, so I was part of a number of churches. Some were well
resourced and it was a struggle to get to do what I loved,
whereas others were small and welcomed whatever help they got.
When the Willow Creek team first came to Australia I witnessed
what was possible with a dynamic, creative and well-resourced
team. However, my frustration was that the models of music
ministry I was seeing presented by big, well-resourced, upper
middle class churches was simply not achievable in the majority
of churches.
This sparked my interest in training and developing churches
without these kinds of resources. The problem was to distil from
20 years of experience 'what things really mattered'. What were
the issues that could make or break a music ministry, whether in
a mega church or a church struggling to survive as demographic
change followed its course?
Since then I've had the privilege of speaking with hundreds of
music ministers and team members here in Australia and from
overseas. From those conversations, these are what I believe are
the 12 "biggies" for creating an effective music ministry.
Notice that I said effective, not "successful". Many people
equate success with big budgets and large teams. An effective
music ministry can be one talented and gifted person doing what
they do in harmony with their church and surrounding community.
So here they are:
1. Music is valued as a gracious gift from God, given for our
enjoyment, as well as being a strategic tool for strengthening
believers and reaching unbelievers.
2. The ministry team should have a biblical understanding of the
nature of worship, music, church and Christian experience.
3. Music ministry takes place in the context of a church with a
shared understanding of its purpose and mission.
4. The music team are servants with a clear understanding and a
passionate commitment to the part they play in that mission.
5. The music ministry is a team who: a. work together towards
common goals. b. love and support one another. c. deal
biblically and appropriately with conflict. d. have clear,
mutually agreed, written standards explaining what is expected
of members. e. receive regular training and teaching in
theology, practical musicianship and teamwork.
6. Music takes place in the context of prayerfully and carefully
planned services with an emphasis on cultural relevance,
excellence, biblical content, personal authenticity and
vulnerability.
7. Music team leaders are involved in the planning and
programming of services and special events.
8. The repertoire is regularly and systematically reviewed to:
a. assess its content, ease of singing and relevance. b.
evaluate and recommend new songs before they enter the
repertoire.
9. The music ministry has adequate financial support within the
church's existing resources.
10. Human resources are used effectively and supplemented by
appropriate use of technology such as CD's, DVD's MIDI or
backing tracks where required.
11. The church supports and encourages local and "lesser known"
writers by using their material where possible and helping them
to develop skills and access training opportunities.
12. The music ministry obeys the letter and the spirit of the
law regarding copyright and performance rights.
I've distilled these into a quick assessment you can use to see
where you and your church are at in terms of ministry. You can
download this assessment as a PDF document here. It will give
you 60 quick ideas to improve your music ministry.
http://www.insideoutmusic.net/products/12_marks.html
About the author:
Ken Davis is a songwriter, guitarist and music producer who
also sings badly. He has been involved in music ministry since
1977 and currently serves in the music ministry at Dapto
Anglican Church in Australia. You can get plenty of Music
Ministry resources at www.insideoutmusic.net including free sheet music, MIDI files and training materials.
Dive into a world of Photography, Travel, Marriage insights, IT News, and Christian Worship. Explore diverse topics for inspiration and knowledge.
Friday, 9 December 2005
Wednesday, 2 November 2005
Is it Time to Call an IT Expert?
Finding the right IT expert can save you lots of time, money and heartache down the track.
Establishing a Relationship with an Expert can bring Peace of Mind
When it comes to making important decisions about technology, small business owners often find themselves in a difficult position. Many lack the time to thoroughly research solutions that could benefit their operations. But they also lack the resources to dedicate staff to information technology (IT) matters.
So what often happens is the small business owner takes the advice of friends and relatives ... or does nothing.
A better alternative is to find an IT expert with experience helping small businesses address their technology needs. And that can be a challenge. Many consulting firms focus on larger enterprises where commitment to IT is often stronger — and revenue potential greater.
However that is changing as more technology providers are focusing on the small business market and developing partner networks to ensure support for the solutions they're providing to small businesses.
Signs You Need an IT Expert
There are some obvious signs that your business needs IT help:
• Downtime from increasingly frequent computer crashes is seriously affecting productivity
• Employees who think they know how to fix problems are actually creating new problems
• You've patched together several different systems and they aren't working well together
• You know your business could benefit from a technology upgrade but you have no idea where to begin
If you've decided you need to bring in professional IT help, you have a couple of choices on how to proceed. Short-term, you could locate an IT expert to fix what is broken and perhaps set up a maintenance contract to help avoid similar problems in the future. This may be an appropriate scenario if technology isn't central to your business operations.
However, you may want to take a longer term approach and develop a true "partnership" with an IT expert who specialises in small business. That way you get assistance with your immediate concerns. At the same time, the expert will get to know you and how your business operates. Together you can develop and implement — as resources permit — an IT strategy that fulfills your vision of where you want to take your business.
Finding the Right Expert
There are various qualifications to consider when you select an IT expert to partner with. But all things being equal, it may come down to your best instincts about who is the right fit for your business. You want to develop a long-term relationship with someone you can trust will do what is best for your business. You are hiring a technology expert because you don't have the time and/or the expertise to investigate solutions yourself. That means you need to convey what you want to achieve, what your budget allows — and in the end you'll have to be able to trust the recommendations your IT expert makes.
Here are other considerations as you interview IT experts:
Referrals — You may be reluctant to take technology advice from friends and relatives, but it never hurts to ask for referrals from trusted business colleagues who are satisfied with their IT experts. It's a good place to begin your search.
Location — With the internet it is possible to problem-solve technology issues from thousands of miles away. But not everyone is comfortable with that arrangement. You need to decide whether you would prefer to find a local expert who is available to come on-site.
Expertise — IT experts who specialise in working with small businesses have experience working with solutions designed for small businesses. They also understand the resource constraints that small businesses typically face. As you talk to potential experts, ask about their knowledge of operations similar to yours; some may specialise by industry. Also enquire about certifications in products you currently use or are likely to consider. If you use line-of-business applications, enquire about the expert's background working with these as well.
Support — If you are seeking a long-term arrangement, make sure the prospective experts you talk to understand that. Find out if they are able to train and support your team as they learn a new system. Are they available around the clock if you need them to be? If you're working with a small firm, is there adequate backup so your needs are met during vacations or illness?
In the end, what you are after is peace of mind. Make sure your IT expert can deliver it.
Establishing a Relationship with an Expert can bring Peace of Mind
When it comes to making important decisions about technology, small business owners often find themselves in a difficult position. Many lack the time to thoroughly research solutions that could benefit their operations. But they also lack the resources to dedicate staff to information technology (IT) matters.
So what often happens is the small business owner takes the advice of friends and relatives ... or does nothing.
A better alternative is to find an IT expert with experience helping small businesses address their technology needs. And that can be a challenge. Many consulting firms focus on larger enterprises where commitment to IT is often stronger — and revenue potential greater.
However that is changing as more technology providers are focusing on the small business market and developing partner networks to ensure support for the solutions they're providing to small businesses.
Signs You Need an IT Expert
There are some obvious signs that your business needs IT help:
• Downtime from increasingly frequent computer crashes is seriously affecting productivity
• Employees who think they know how to fix problems are actually creating new problems
• You've patched together several different systems and they aren't working well together
• You know your business could benefit from a technology upgrade but you have no idea where to begin
If you've decided you need to bring in professional IT help, you have a couple of choices on how to proceed. Short-term, you could locate an IT expert to fix what is broken and perhaps set up a maintenance contract to help avoid similar problems in the future. This may be an appropriate scenario if technology isn't central to your business operations.
However, you may want to take a longer term approach and develop a true "partnership" with an IT expert who specialises in small business. That way you get assistance with your immediate concerns. At the same time, the expert will get to know you and how your business operates. Together you can develop and implement — as resources permit — an IT strategy that fulfills your vision of where you want to take your business.
Finding the Right Expert
There are various qualifications to consider when you select an IT expert to partner with. But all things being equal, it may come down to your best instincts about who is the right fit for your business. You want to develop a long-term relationship with someone you can trust will do what is best for your business. You are hiring a technology expert because you don't have the time and/or the expertise to investigate solutions yourself. That means you need to convey what you want to achieve, what your budget allows — and in the end you'll have to be able to trust the recommendations your IT expert makes.
Here are other considerations as you interview IT experts:
Referrals — You may be reluctant to take technology advice from friends and relatives, but it never hurts to ask for referrals from trusted business colleagues who are satisfied with their IT experts. It's a good place to begin your search.
Location — With the internet it is possible to problem-solve technology issues from thousands of miles away. But not everyone is comfortable with that arrangement. You need to decide whether you would prefer to find a local expert who is available to come on-site.
Expertise — IT experts who specialise in working with small businesses have experience working with solutions designed for small businesses. They also understand the resource constraints that small businesses typically face. As you talk to potential experts, ask about their knowledge of operations similar to yours; some may specialise by industry. Also enquire about certifications in products you currently use or are likely to consider. If you use line-of-business applications, enquire about the expert's background working with these as well.
Support — If you are seeking a long-term arrangement, make sure the prospective experts you talk to understand that. Find out if they are able to train and support your team as they learn a new system. Are they available around the clock if you need them to be? If you're working with a small firm, is there adequate backup so your needs are met during vacations or illness?
In the end, what you are after is peace of mind. Make sure your IT expert can deliver it.
Thursday, 27 October 2005
Site Planning is Crucial! By Werner Coetzee
If you are thinking about, or you are in the process of creating a new site, you will most definitely find this article interesting and maybe even inspiring. Actually the term 'interesting' is not quite what I thought as I slowly and painfully reconstructed the pages on my mother's website several times over.
I wanted to create a site that was going to be both incredibly user friendly and informative, and at the same time earn a bit of revenue from Google Adsense! Why not?
So with this great little idea, I blindly set off and started to create what was going to be a online resource of complimentary recipes on www.mom2me.com.
This brings me to my biggest and most costly mistake ever. Lack of planning!
I cannot stress the importance of this aspect enough. I would have saved myself literally weeks, if not months, by simply sitting down with a piece of paper and planning my layout carefully.
In all fairness to myself, I must say that I am not a site designer by any stretch of the imagination, but was rather finding my way around the wonderful world of web design and pain by an uncalculated process of trial and error.
In summary: Plan, plan and then plan some more.
If you still doubt why I stress the importance of planning, I will explain in practical terms what happened to me in the creation of my site. If this doesn't bring the message home, nothing will!
Scripts in the Header section of your site. As I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to make the site simple and easy to navigate. All the recipes on the site should be easy to copy, paste, mail to a friend and even bookmark.
Well, this is where my first blunder crept in. I decided to make use of some great little scripts on the site to enable users to mail recipes to friends at the touch of a button and also bookmark the page rather effortlessly.
The scripts were really simple to incorporate, but after doing about 100 recipes, I read an article explaining the dangers of adding 'full' scripts in the header section of your pages. I learnt that by adding to many scripts in this section of the page makes it difficult for the 'bots' to read the content and that it could adversely effect your Page rank and Search engine placing.
This is not a good idea as you might imagine and thus I spent several days rewriting every single page and placing the scripts into separate JavaScript files. This was not the last time I did this!
Search Facility I really wanted to make it easy for visitors to be able to search for content on my site but I decide to leave that as a phase two of my development. Mistake!
After stumbling across Google's great 'search my site" facility I decided to add it to my site. Great idea, but due to the fact that I didn't add proper Meta Keywords on every page I had a small problem to overcome.
Yep you guessed it. I had to redo every single page on the site yet again. Ouch!
The base tag functionality Deciding to make use of the base tag functionality within Dream Weaver was a great idea to simplify my designing process, but...
When finely it was time to create my sitemap I suddenly realized that I had countless (almost a hundred) broken links and although it was my own stupidity I still had to re-do almost all my links, on all my pages. Watch out for this. It is an absolute spirit crusher!
My advise, make use of the full URL in all your links on all your pages i.e. http://www.mom2me.com/promo.htm
Site Navigation I have left the best for last. Due to a complete and utter lack of proper planning, I realized that I omitted a section of the site for people to sign up for my Newsletter.
As everybody who has probably ever done a site knows, this is a crucial part of your site. Whether you are selling directly from your site or whether you plan to do mailing campaigns at a later stage with some marketing material on them, it is crucial to collect as many e-mail addresses as possible, as often as possible.
Well, this forced me to redo the very basics of my pages and ... yup redo every single page again.
Now, by now you might feel sorry for me or you might just feel that I am a complete and utter idiot. Regardless of your feelings, I think that from this very practical example it is abundantly obvious that a lack of proper planning will only lead to heart ache and countless sleepless nights. (I think I actually have even less hair!)
Plan your site carefully and live happily ever after!
About the Author
Werner Coetzee Apprentice Site Owner and Designer http://www.mom2me.com
I wanted to create a site that was going to be both incredibly user friendly and informative, and at the same time earn a bit of revenue from Google Adsense! Why not?
So with this great little idea, I blindly set off and started to create what was going to be a online resource of complimentary recipes on www.mom2me.com.
This brings me to my biggest and most costly mistake ever. Lack of planning!
I cannot stress the importance of this aspect enough. I would have saved myself literally weeks, if not months, by simply sitting down with a piece of paper and planning my layout carefully.
In all fairness to myself, I must say that I am not a site designer by any stretch of the imagination, but was rather finding my way around the wonderful world of web design and pain by an uncalculated process of trial and error.
In summary: Plan, plan and then plan some more.
If you still doubt why I stress the importance of planning, I will explain in practical terms what happened to me in the creation of my site. If this doesn't bring the message home, nothing will!
Scripts in the Header section of your site. As I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to make the site simple and easy to navigate. All the recipes on the site should be easy to copy, paste, mail to a friend and even bookmark.
Well, this is where my first blunder crept in. I decided to make use of some great little scripts on the site to enable users to mail recipes to friends at the touch of a button and also bookmark the page rather effortlessly.
The scripts were really simple to incorporate, but after doing about 100 recipes, I read an article explaining the dangers of adding 'full' scripts in the header section of your pages. I learnt that by adding to many scripts in this section of the page makes it difficult for the 'bots' to read the content and that it could adversely effect your Page rank and Search engine placing.
This is not a good idea as you might imagine and thus I spent several days rewriting every single page and placing the scripts into separate JavaScript files. This was not the last time I did this!
Search Facility I really wanted to make it easy for visitors to be able to search for content on my site but I decide to leave that as a phase two of my development. Mistake!
After stumbling across Google's great 'search my site" facility I decided to add it to my site. Great idea, but due to the fact that I didn't add proper Meta Keywords on every page I had a small problem to overcome.
Yep you guessed it. I had to redo every single page on the site yet again. Ouch!
The base tag functionality Deciding to make use of the base tag functionality within Dream Weaver was a great idea to simplify my designing process, but...
When finely it was time to create my sitemap I suddenly realized that I had countless (almost a hundred) broken links and although it was my own stupidity I still had to re-do almost all my links, on all my pages. Watch out for this. It is an absolute spirit crusher!
My advise, make use of the full URL in all your links on all your pages i.e. http://www.mom2me.com/promo.htm
Site Navigation I have left the best for last. Due to a complete and utter lack of proper planning, I realized that I omitted a section of the site for people to sign up for my Newsletter.
As everybody who has probably ever done a site knows, this is a crucial part of your site. Whether you are selling directly from your site or whether you plan to do mailing campaigns at a later stage with some marketing material on them, it is crucial to collect as many e-mail addresses as possible, as often as possible.
Well, this forced me to redo the very basics of my pages and ... yup redo every single page again.
Now, by now you might feel sorry for me or you might just feel that I am a complete and utter idiot. Regardless of your feelings, I think that from this very practical example it is abundantly obvious that a lack of proper planning will only lead to heart ache and countless sleepless nights. (I think I actually have even less hair!)
Plan your site carefully and live happily ever after!
About the Author
Werner Coetzee Apprentice Site Owner and Designer http://www.mom2me.com
Saturday, 15 October 2005
Optimizing Adsense™ By User Behaviour
By Richard Warren
If web surfers behaved all alike, if there were strict patterns in users' behaviour, wouldn't all publishers be on a sunny beach right now, with a fancy-colored cocktail, worring not about AdSense™ optimization matters?
Web user's behaviour depends on two main groups of variables: the user-related one and the website-related one.
A) User-related Behavior Variables
Though people react very differently at various stimuli, we can identify some peculiarities specific to web surfers. The behaviour is much like yours. Have you considered watching your own actions while surfing on the web? This might help if you want to improve your site's appeal to readers, especially if you sell something or if you want your visitors to click on your ads.
Several groups of variables that influence users' behaviour can be identified:
* Components of the mental processes involved while searching and browsing on the Internet: attention, awareness, language, mental imagery etc.
* The behavior of websurfers is influenced also by their subjective approach to matters, determined by temperamental characteristics, such as mood, patience and their purpose and degree of interest.
* Also, users act differently varying with how used they are to web surfing.
Let's see how we can tweak our websites to turn these to our advantage (and turn visitors into “clickers”):
1. Mental processes
Attention - The web designer keeps the tools to direct readers' attention. A simple design, without unnecessary loading will prevent the reader from being distracted by unimportant elements. The ads placement must be done strategically, in a place impossible to overlook (recommended in the first paragraph, usually in the upper-left area). Pictures and graphics are considered attention-grabbers and will also be considered when choosing your ads' placement.
Awareness - This is a very debated topic. Opinions differ on readers' ads awareness. Some sustain that the more blended into content, the better, others say that this formatting will induce the readers the feeling of being “tricked” into clicking on ads, which they resent. I incline to say that blend-in ads work only for very well targeted ads, coming naturally as if belonging to the content. Positioning ads outside the content area would be effective mostly with advertising that builds brand awareness, based on image impressions.
Mental Imagery - Again, a pleasant, uncluttered design, a balanced look of the page contribute to a positive perception of the page from the part of the reader and to a more open state of mind. A professional layout is important. It inspires confidence, people don't want to purchase from a just any backyard business.
2. Subjectiveness
Patience - A golden rule: don't abuse your readers' patience (for they usually don't have one)! Web pages must load quickly, ads must not be placed in readers' way and should be kept to a reasonable number.
Purpose and Mood - Are more related to the topic of your site and the type of content you publish. The idea is that users' purpose and mood can be influenced by copy.
Degree of Interest - Besides relevant, good content, that answers questions, the reader's interest is influenced by involvement and interaction. Keep your reader involved, integrate your ads into an interaction environment: these will work wonders on your CTR.
3. User's Degree of Acquaintace with Web Surfing
Net savvy users have developed certain immunities, such as ad-blindness. These are less likely to click on any ads. Customizing ads for this type of readers means harder work; the result must be ads of high relevance (and remarkable ad texts!), with an aspect as close to the rest of the page as possible, as if they were a natural continuation of your ideas. Important! avoid default formats.
B) Site-related Variables
The type of the site and the topic attract visitors with different interests with different behavioral patterns.
1. Site Type — Readers vs Browsers
Whether the visitor is a “reader” or a “scanner/browser” depends also on the site type — content and topic. Generally, readers are regular visitors while “scanners” are the ones who look for information and will not spend too much time on the same site. Site topic and content are most times factors in bringing more “uniques” or more regular visitors. Though not as a rule, these apply to many sites:
Sites Attracting Unique Visitors - These are mostly commercial sites, content sites. Statistics say that unique visitors are more likely to be your clickers, for regular readers are more used to your pages' look and your ads. Contextual advertising works well with these sites. If you're headed for unique visitors, make your site “SE-friendly”. They come mostly from search engines and are said to be “pre-qualified” clickers. So, your efforts should be directed towards keywords and keyword phrases optimization. The ideal would be to go beyond the technicalities, that is finding out what are the most searched for keywords in your area of preoccupations and try to find out why these are popular, try to find a behavioral pattern. This can be achieved by statistics and analysis. Find out some niches in your area and the users' behaviour within them — that is, lists of searches and then see what is it customers want. This will solve your puzzle and give you exact hints towards what works best for your site. Keep in mind: unique visitors are mostly "browsers". Use ad placement and ad customization techniques that apply best for this type of users.
Sites with Regular Visitors - These are mostly forums, blogs and news sections (though news are somewhere in between). If you own sites with many bookmarks, that attract especially repeat visitors, then either you will be very imaginative in customizing your ads and finding new ways to interest your readers into clicking or if not the case, better use CPM based advertising. Brand bulding/reinforcement advertising works better in this case.
2. Site Theme Relates to Visitor's Mood and Purpose
Commercial Sites - Sites selling and promoting products are more suitable for CPC advertising. By their specific, this type of site will attract visitors looking for a specific product/service/business opportunity. Thus, users are more in a buying mood, are looking for a way to spend their money profitably. These are clickers.
Content Sites, Blogs, Forums - Unless you market specific products, your readers will land on your page without the express purpose of buying something. However, you can influence your reader's mood and needs thru witty, sales-directed copywriting. You just need to know some basic things that sell. One is that people are more likely to buy from persons they know, like and trust.
So, what will help you build these? Good content and structure. Especially with content sites, these are fundamental issues to focus on (unlike commercial sites that focus more on products). Good content, profesionally written and formatted for the web, containing information that is of high interest and relevance for the reader, within an easily manageable structure and good targeting on a specific theme are imperatives. On one hand these mean bulding confidence, the first step in selling. On the other hand they will attract well-targeted ads, more likely to interest your reader.
Great content will give you credit to your reader. Once you've gained trust, it's easy to direct your readers: you just give recommendations and the results will appear. (Avoid being too explicit in recommendations, though — for example, directing readers towards clicking on ads is against AdSense™ Program Policies.)
With blogs and forums, it is a different story. Not all forums and blogs are accepted for AdSense™ (or even if accepted, they must be also profitable). Only genuine, specifically-themed blogs and forums, with highly interesting content are suitable. These conditions being fulfilled, forums and blogs are perfect as a source of advertising money — they have what is very difficult for others to achieve: reader's trust, liking and involvement.
About the Author: http://www.adsensehowtos.com is a complete how to guide where you can find practical advice on boosting your CTR and Google Adsense revenue.
Source: www.isnare.com
If web surfers behaved all alike, if there were strict patterns in users' behaviour, wouldn't all publishers be on a sunny beach right now, with a fancy-colored cocktail, worring not about AdSense™ optimization matters?
Web user's behaviour depends on two main groups of variables: the user-related one and the website-related one.
A) User-related Behavior Variables
Though people react very differently at various stimuli, we can identify some peculiarities specific to web surfers. The behaviour is much like yours. Have you considered watching your own actions while surfing on the web? This might help if you want to improve your site's appeal to readers, especially if you sell something or if you want your visitors to click on your ads.
Several groups of variables that influence users' behaviour can be identified:
* Components of the mental processes involved while searching and browsing on the Internet: attention, awareness, language, mental imagery etc.
* The behavior of websurfers is influenced also by their subjective approach to matters, determined by temperamental characteristics, such as mood, patience and their purpose and degree of interest.
* Also, users act differently varying with how used they are to web surfing.
Let's see how we can tweak our websites to turn these to our advantage (and turn visitors into “clickers”):
1. Mental processes
Attention - The web designer keeps the tools to direct readers' attention. A simple design, without unnecessary loading will prevent the reader from being distracted by unimportant elements. The ads placement must be done strategically, in a place impossible to overlook (recommended in the first paragraph, usually in the upper-left area). Pictures and graphics are considered attention-grabbers and will also be considered when choosing your ads' placement.
Awareness - This is a very debated topic. Opinions differ on readers' ads awareness. Some sustain that the more blended into content, the better, others say that this formatting will induce the readers the feeling of being “tricked” into clicking on ads, which they resent. I incline to say that blend-in ads work only for very well targeted ads, coming naturally as if belonging to the content. Positioning ads outside the content area would be effective mostly with advertising that builds brand awareness, based on image impressions.
Mental Imagery - Again, a pleasant, uncluttered design, a balanced look of the page contribute to a positive perception of the page from the part of the reader and to a more open state of mind. A professional layout is important. It inspires confidence, people don't want to purchase from a just any backyard business.
2. Subjectiveness
Patience - A golden rule: don't abuse your readers' patience (for they usually don't have one)! Web pages must load quickly, ads must not be placed in readers' way and should be kept to a reasonable number.
Purpose and Mood - Are more related to the topic of your site and the type of content you publish. The idea is that users' purpose and mood can be influenced by copy.
Degree of Interest - Besides relevant, good content, that answers questions, the reader's interest is influenced by involvement and interaction. Keep your reader involved, integrate your ads into an interaction environment: these will work wonders on your CTR.
3. User's Degree of Acquaintace with Web Surfing
Net savvy users have developed certain immunities, such as ad-blindness. These are less likely to click on any ads. Customizing ads for this type of readers means harder work; the result must be ads of high relevance (and remarkable ad texts!), with an aspect as close to the rest of the page as possible, as if they were a natural continuation of your ideas. Important! avoid default formats.
B) Site-related Variables
The type of the site and the topic attract visitors with different interests with different behavioral patterns.
1. Site Type — Readers vs Browsers
Whether the visitor is a “reader” or a “scanner/browser” depends also on the site type — content and topic. Generally, readers are regular visitors while “scanners” are the ones who look for information and will not spend too much time on the same site. Site topic and content are most times factors in bringing more “uniques” or more regular visitors. Though not as a rule, these apply to many sites:
Sites Attracting Unique Visitors - These are mostly commercial sites, content sites. Statistics say that unique visitors are more likely to be your clickers, for regular readers are more used to your pages' look and your ads. Contextual advertising works well with these sites. If you're headed for unique visitors, make your site “SE-friendly”. They come mostly from search engines and are said to be “pre-qualified” clickers. So, your efforts should be directed towards keywords and keyword phrases optimization. The ideal would be to go beyond the technicalities, that is finding out what are the most searched for keywords in your area of preoccupations and try to find out why these are popular, try to find a behavioral pattern. This can be achieved by statistics and analysis. Find out some niches in your area and the users' behaviour within them — that is, lists of searches and then see what is it customers want. This will solve your puzzle and give you exact hints towards what works best for your site. Keep in mind: unique visitors are mostly "browsers". Use ad placement and ad customization techniques that apply best for this type of users.
Sites with Regular Visitors - These are mostly forums, blogs and news sections (though news are somewhere in between). If you own sites with many bookmarks, that attract especially repeat visitors, then either you will be very imaginative in customizing your ads and finding new ways to interest your readers into clicking or if not the case, better use CPM based advertising. Brand bulding/reinforcement advertising works better in this case.
2. Site Theme Relates to Visitor's Mood and Purpose
Commercial Sites - Sites selling and promoting products are more suitable for CPC advertising. By their specific, this type of site will attract visitors looking for a specific product/service/business opportunity. Thus, users are more in a buying mood, are looking for a way to spend their money profitably. These are clickers.
Content Sites, Blogs, Forums - Unless you market specific products, your readers will land on your page without the express purpose of buying something. However, you can influence your reader's mood and needs thru witty, sales-directed copywriting. You just need to know some basic things that sell. One is that people are more likely to buy from persons they know, like and trust.
So, what will help you build these? Good content and structure. Especially with content sites, these are fundamental issues to focus on (unlike commercial sites that focus more on products). Good content, profesionally written and formatted for the web, containing information that is of high interest and relevance for the reader, within an easily manageable structure and good targeting on a specific theme are imperatives. On one hand these mean bulding confidence, the first step in selling. On the other hand they will attract well-targeted ads, more likely to interest your reader.
Great content will give you credit to your reader. Once you've gained trust, it's easy to direct your readers: you just give recommendations and the results will appear. (Avoid being too explicit in recommendations, though — for example, directing readers towards clicking on ads is against AdSense™ Program Policies.)
With blogs and forums, it is a different story. Not all forums and blogs are accepted for AdSense™ (or even if accepted, they must be also profitable). Only genuine, specifically-themed blogs and forums, with highly interesting content are suitable. These conditions being fulfilled, forums and blogs are perfect as a source of advertising money — they have what is very difficult for others to achieve: reader's trust, liking and involvement.
About the Author: http://www.adsensehowtos.com is a complete how to guide where you can find practical advice on boosting your CTR and Google Adsense revenue.
Source: www.isnare.com
Web Design: Photograph Copyright Issues
By Teve Torbes
When designing a web page, you need to be careful about what pictures you use. Many people simply grab them off Google - they see a picture they like, and they put it on their web site. Unfortunately, copyright law protects the person who took the picture as the owner - if you’re not careful you could end up facing a lawsuit.
Copyright law gives rights to anyone whose creativity results in some expression - in the case of photographs, that means the photographer. If you don’t have express permission to use a picture or image on your site, you ought to be careful about doing so. Someone, somewhere, probably owns it, and they may not be too happy if they find it on your site. Many webmasters find out the hard way - they use hundreds of pictures, straight from google, without dealing with the owner. They end up facing a suit, forced to defend it or pay much more money than they made running their site back to the owner.
It’s actually relatively simple to avoid this whole mess. There are entire web sites designed to sell stock photos for web design purposes - just go to IstockPhoto or one of the other sites that sells them for cheap. You’ll pay a buck or two, but you’ll be secure knowing your site will never be shut down for violating the law. That kind of peace of mind is probably going to be worth a few bucks, and it also means you can know that any money you make off your web site design will stay in your hands.
About the Author: Teve Torbes is an important article writer guy. He has web sites, including http://www.fleascontrol.com/flea-medicine.htm, and its less impressive relatives, http://www.fleascontrol.com/frontline-flea.htm and http://www.fleascontrol.com/frontline-flea-spray.htm.
Source: www.isnare.com
When designing a web page, you need to be careful about what pictures you use. Many people simply grab them off Google - they see a picture they like, and they put it on their web site. Unfortunately, copyright law protects the person who took the picture as the owner - if you’re not careful you could end up facing a lawsuit.
Copyright law gives rights to anyone whose creativity results in some expression - in the case of photographs, that means the photographer. If you don’t have express permission to use a picture or image on your site, you ought to be careful about doing so. Someone, somewhere, probably owns it, and they may not be too happy if they find it on your site. Many webmasters find out the hard way - they use hundreds of pictures, straight from google, without dealing with the owner. They end up facing a suit, forced to defend it or pay much more money than they made running their site back to the owner.
It’s actually relatively simple to avoid this whole mess. There are entire web sites designed to sell stock photos for web design purposes - just go to IstockPhoto or one of the other sites that sells them for cheap. You’ll pay a buck or two, but you’ll be secure knowing your site will never be shut down for violating the law. That kind of peace of mind is probably going to be worth a few bucks, and it also means you can know that any money you make off your web site design will stay in your hands.
About the Author: Teve Torbes is an important article writer guy. He has web sites, including http://www.fleascontrol.com/flea-medicine.htm, and its less impressive relatives, http://www.fleascontrol.com/frontline-flea.htm and http://www.fleascontrol.com/frontline-flea-spray.htm.
Source: www.isnare.com
Tuesday, 11 October 2005
Basic Guitar Chords:
How to Easily Master the Guitar Chords You Must Know
by Peter Bussey
One of the first challenges faced by the advancing guitar player is learning a core group of basic guitar chords. Why is it so important to learn these basic chords? Chords form the backbone of most rock and pop songs, and provide the harmonic accompaniment to the melody and instrumental solos.
Rhythm guitar based on basic chords provides many of the most memorable rock riffs... think AC/DC's "Back in Black" or The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". What's really amazing is that by learning no more than 10 to 15 basic guitar chords, you will be equipped to play thousands of rock and pop songs!
What is a Guitar Chord?
First let's establish the definition of a chord. A chord is three or more different musical notes played together. In the case of the guitar, this means that at least three strings are strummed or plucked simultaneously to sound three or more notes. Since the guitar has six strings, the maximum numbers of notes in a guitar chord is six. All chords can be placed in one of three groups based on the musical structure of the chord: Major, Minor, or Seventh. Each of these chord groups has its own "sound" or "feel". Major chords sound stable and complete. Minor chords can evoke a more somber or pensive mood, and Seventh chords are jazzy and somewhat incomplete sounding.
There is no standard list of "basic guitar chords" that every one agrees to. However, there is general agreement that there is a list of somewhere between 8 and 18 basic guitar chords (open string) that every guitarist must know cold. These chords are used in all musical styles from rock and pop to country, jazz, and classical. No matter where you are on your guitar-playing path, you should take the time to learn and master the basic chords. Getting these right will ensure you have the basic tools and skills to learn many songs and increase your playing enjoyment.
The List of Basic Guitar Chords
So what are the basic guitar chords? Our basic stable includes the major and minor chords from four common musical keys, A,G,C, and D. They are played as "open chords", that is at least one string in the chord is not fretted (pressed down with a finger). Open chords are easier to learn and play than more advanced chords such as Barre chords, or complex chords further up the guitar neck. Our list of basic major and minor chords is:
A Major (or A), A Minor (or Am), C, D, Dm, E, Em, F, G
These chords can be best learned as chord "families" (by key) that can be combined into great-sounding chord sequences that make up lots of popular songs. Using this chord family approach is much more interesting and useful than just memorizing a bunch of chords in random order!
These chords grouped by chord family (key) are as follows:
A Family (Key of A): A, D, E D Family (Key of D): D, Em, G, A G Family (Key of G): G, Am, C, D, Em C Family (Key of C): C, Dm, Em, F, G
Tips for Learning the Basic Chords:
1. Pick a Chord Family and master it. This will give you quick success and let you play great sounding progressions right away.
2. Use a Guitar Chord Chart as a reference tool. A chord chart shows each chord as an easy to read "chord diagram" with exact finger positions. See this example of a chart of basic guitar chords.
3. Find the chords and lyrics for an easy song that is based on the chord family so you can apply your skills. Many great songs are based on only three chords!
4. Ensure each string sounds right. Take care to make sure that each string is sounding clearly, and that only the strings that should be played are played.
5. Practice, practice, practice! Every day, practice continually change from one chord to another until you can do it rapidly. Learn the chord families one at a time.
6. Master all the basic chords first. Only then move on to Barre chords and other more complex chords. First things first!
7. Expand with 7th chords. As a next step you can easily expand on your basic chord knowledge by adding 7th and minor 7th chords based on the nine basic major and minor chords.
8. Have fun using your new skills! Enjoy your musical ability by applying it to learning a small set of 5-10 songs you know really well and can confidently play at any time.
About the Author
Peter Bussey has been an avid guitar player for over 10 years. In 2004 he became Editor of The Guitar Players Toolbox, a website dedicated to helping advancing guitar players improve with practical tools, tips, and information. Visit http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com for a variety of free, practical resources such as guitar chords, guitar chord charts, song chords, and much more.
One of the first challenges faced by the advancing guitar player is learning a core group of basic guitar chords. Why is it so important to learn these basic chords? Chords form the backbone of most rock and pop songs, and provide the harmonic accompaniment to the melody and instrumental solos.
Rhythm guitar based on basic chords provides many of the most memorable rock riffs... think AC/DC's "Back in Black" or The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". What's really amazing is that by learning no more than 10 to 15 basic guitar chords, you will be equipped to play thousands of rock and pop songs!
What is a Guitar Chord?
First let's establish the definition of a chord. A chord is three or more different musical notes played together. In the case of the guitar, this means that at least three strings are strummed or plucked simultaneously to sound three or more notes. Since the guitar has six strings, the maximum numbers of notes in a guitar chord is six. All chords can be placed in one of three groups based on the musical structure of the chord: Major, Minor, or Seventh. Each of these chord groups has its own "sound" or "feel". Major chords sound stable and complete. Minor chords can evoke a more somber or pensive mood, and Seventh chords are jazzy and somewhat incomplete sounding.
There is no standard list of "basic guitar chords" that every one agrees to. However, there is general agreement that there is a list of somewhere between 8 and 18 basic guitar chords (open string) that every guitarist must know cold. These chords are used in all musical styles from rock and pop to country, jazz, and classical. No matter where you are on your guitar-playing path, you should take the time to learn and master the basic chords. Getting these right will ensure you have the basic tools and skills to learn many songs and increase your playing enjoyment.
The List of Basic Guitar Chords
So what are the basic guitar chords? Our basic stable includes the major and minor chords from four common musical keys, A,G,C, and D. They are played as "open chords", that is at least one string in the chord is not fretted (pressed down with a finger). Open chords are easier to learn and play than more advanced chords such as Barre chords, or complex chords further up the guitar neck. Our list of basic major and minor chords is:
A Major (or A), A Minor (or Am), C, D, Dm, E, Em, F, G
These chords can be best learned as chord "families" (by key) that can be combined into great-sounding chord sequences that make up lots of popular songs. Using this chord family approach is much more interesting and useful than just memorizing a bunch of chords in random order!
These chords grouped by chord family (key) are as follows:
A Family (Key of A): A, D, E D Family (Key of D): D, Em, G, A G Family (Key of G): G, Am, C, D, Em C Family (Key of C): C, Dm, Em, F, G
Tips for Learning the Basic Chords:
1. Pick a Chord Family and master it. This will give you quick success and let you play great sounding progressions right away.
2. Use a Guitar Chord Chart as a reference tool. A chord chart shows each chord as an easy to read "chord diagram" with exact finger positions. See this example of a chart of basic guitar chords.
3. Find the chords and lyrics for an easy song that is based on the chord family so you can apply your skills. Many great songs are based on only three chords!
4. Ensure each string sounds right. Take care to make sure that each string is sounding clearly, and that only the strings that should be played are played.
5. Practice, practice, practice! Every day, practice continually change from one chord to another until you can do it rapidly. Learn the chord families one at a time.
6. Master all the basic chords first. Only then move on to Barre chords and other more complex chords. First things first!
7. Expand with 7th chords. As a next step you can easily expand on your basic chord knowledge by adding 7th and minor 7th chords based on the nine basic major and minor chords.
8. Have fun using your new skills! Enjoy your musical ability by applying it to learning a small set of 5-10 songs you know really well and can confidently play at any time.
About the Author
Peter Bussey has been an avid guitar player for over 10 years. In 2004 he became Editor of The Guitar Players Toolbox, a website dedicated to helping advancing guitar players improve with practical tools, tips, and information. Visit http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com for a variety of free, practical resources such as guitar chords, guitar chord charts, song chords, and much more.
How To Make Attractive And Effective Powerpoint Presentations
By Shahul Ameen
Microsoft PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way in which academic and business presentations are made. This article outlines few tips on making more effective and attractive PowerPoint presentations.
THE TEXT
• Keep the wording clear and simple. Use active, visual language. Cut unnecessary words – a good rule of thumb is to cut paragraphs down to sentences, sentences into phrases, and phrases into key words.
• Limit the number of words and lines per slide. Try the Rule of Five - five words per line, five lines per slide. If too much text appears on one slide, use the AutoFit feature to split it between two slides. Click within the placeholder to display the AutoFit Options button (its symbol is two horizontal lines with arrows above and below), then click on the button and choose Split Text Between Two Slides from the submenu.
• Font size for titles should be at least 36 to 40, while the text body should not be smaller than 24.
• Use only two font styles per slide - one for the title and the other for the text. Choose two fonts that visually contrast with each other. Garamond Medium Condensed and Impact are good for titles, while Garamond or Tempus Sans can be used for the text body.
• Embed the fonts in your presentation, if you are not sure whether the fonts used in the presentation are present in the computer that will be used for the presentation. To embed the fonts: (1) On the File menu, click Save As. (2) On the toolbar, click Tools, click Save Options, select the Embed TrueType Fonts check box, and then select Embed characters in use only.
• Use colors sparingly; two to three at most. You may use one color for all the titles and another for the text body. Be consistent from slide to slide. Choose a font color that contrasts well with the background.
• Capitalizing the first letter of each word is good for the title of slides and suggests a more formal situation than having just the first letter of the first word capitalized. In bullet point lines, capitalize the first word and no other words unless they normally appear capped. Upper and lower case lettering is more readable than all capital letters. Moreover, current styles indicate that using all capital letters means you are shouting. If you have text that is in the wrong case, select the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles.
• Use bold or italic typeface for emphasis. Avoid underlining, it clutters up the presentation.
• Don't center bulleted lists or text. It is confusing to read. Left align unless you have a good reason not to.
• Run “spell check” on your show when finished.
THE BACKGROUND
• Keep the background consistent.
• Simple, light textured backgrounds work well. Complicated textures make the content hard to read.
• If you are planning to use many clips in your slides, select a white background. If the venue of your presentation is not adequately light-proof, select a dark-colored background and use any light color for text.
• Minimize the use of "bells and whistles" such as sound effects, "flying words" and multiple transitions.
• Don’t use red in any fonts or backgrounds. It is an emotionally overwhelming color that is difficult to see and read.
• Many free templates are available for download at http://www.brainybetty.com/MENUPowerPoint.htm and http://www.soniacoleman.com/templates.htm .
THE CLIPS
• Animations are best used subtly; too much flash and motion can distract and annoy viewers.
• Do not rely too heavily on those images that were originally loaded on your computer with the rest of Office. You can easily find appropriate clips on any topic through Google Images. While searching for images, do not use long search phrases as is usually done while searching the web - use specific words.
• When importing pictures, make sure that they are smaller than 2 megabytes and are in a .jpg format. Larger files can slow down your show.
• Keep graphs, charts and diagrams simple, if possible.
• Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data. The audience can then immediately pick up the relationships.
THE PRESENTATION
• If you want your presentation to directly open in the slide show view, save it as a slide show file using the following steps.
1. Open the presentation you want to save as a slide show.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Show. Your slide show file will be saved with a .pps file extension.
When you double-click on this file, it will automatically start your presentation in slide show view. When you're done, PowerPoint automatically closes and you return to the desktop. If you want to edit the slide show file, you can always open it from PowerPoint by clicking Open on the File menu.
• Look at the audience, not at the slides, whenever possible.
• If using a laser pointer, don’t move it too fast. For example, if circling a number on the slide, do it slowly. Never point the laser at the audience.
• Black out the screen (use “B” on the keyboard) after the point has been made, to put the focus on you. Press the key again to continue your presentation.
• You can use the shortcut command [Ctrl]P to access the Pen tool during a slide show. Click with your mouse and drag to use the Pen tool to draw during your slide show. To erase everything you've drawn, press the E key. To turn off the Pen tool, press [Esc] once.
MISCELLANEOUS
Master Slide Set-Up
The "master slide" will allow you to make changes that are reflected on every slide in your presentation. You can change fonts, colors, backgrounds, headers, and footers at the "master slide" level.
1. First, go to the "View" menu.
2. Pull down the "Master" menu.
3. Select the "slide master" menu.
You may now make changes at this level that meet your presentation needs.
Preparing the Handout
In PowerPoint, choose File Send To Microsoft Word. In the Send To Microsoft Word dialog box, choose Outline only to create a text-only document, and click on OK. Minor modifications on this document will give you a handout that can be distributed to the audience.
Create visually appealing slides by adhering to these tips, to ensure that the audience is not distracted from the points you have to make.
About the Author: Dr. Shahul Ameen, M.D. is a Psychiatrist based in Ranchi, India. He edits http://www.psyplexus.com and http://mind.in
Source: www.isnare.com
Microsoft PowerPoint has dramatically changed the way in which academic and business presentations are made. This article outlines few tips on making more effective and attractive PowerPoint presentations.
THE TEXT
• Keep the wording clear and simple. Use active, visual language. Cut unnecessary words – a good rule of thumb is to cut paragraphs down to sentences, sentences into phrases, and phrases into key words.
• Limit the number of words and lines per slide. Try the Rule of Five - five words per line, five lines per slide. If too much text appears on one slide, use the AutoFit feature to split it between two slides. Click within the placeholder to display the AutoFit Options button (its symbol is two horizontal lines with arrows above and below), then click on the button and choose Split Text Between Two Slides from the submenu.
• Font size for titles should be at least 36 to 40, while the text body should not be smaller than 24.
• Use only two font styles per slide - one for the title and the other for the text. Choose two fonts that visually contrast with each other. Garamond Medium Condensed and Impact are good for titles, while Garamond or Tempus Sans can be used for the text body.
• Embed the fonts in your presentation, if you are not sure whether the fonts used in the presentation are present in the computer that will be used for the presentation. To embed the fonts: (1) On the File menu, click Save As. (2) On the toolbar, click Tools, click Save Options, select the Embed TrueType Fonts check box, and then select Embed characters in use only.
• Use colors sparingly; two to three at most. You may use one color for all the titles and another for the text body. Be consistent from slide to slide. Choose a font color that contrasts well with the background.
• Capitalizing the first letter of each word is good for the title of slides and suggests a more formal situation than having just the first letter of the first word capitalized. In bullet point lines, capitalize the first word and no other words unless they normally appear capped. Upper and lower case lettering is more readable than all capital letters. Moreover, current styles indicate that using all capital letters means you are shouting. If you have text that is in the wrong case, select the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles.
• Use bold or italic typeface for emphasis. Avoid underlining, it clutters up the presentation.
• Don't center bulleted lists or text. It is confusing to read. Left align unless you have a good reason not to.
• Run “spell check” on your show when finished.
THE BACKGROUND
• Keep the background consistent.
• Simple, light textured backgrounds work well. Complicated textures make the content hard to read.
• If you are planning to use many clips in your slides, select a white background. If the venue of your presentation is not adequately light-proof, select a dark-colored background and use any light color for text.
• Minimize the use of "bells and whistles" such as sound effects, "flying words" and multiple transitions.
• Don’t use red in any fonts or backgrounds. It is an emotionally overwhelming color that is difficult to see and read.
• Many free templates are available for download at http://www.brainybetty.com/MENUPowerPoint.htm and http://www.soniacoleman.com/templates.htm .
THE CLIPS
• Animations are best used subtly; too much flash and motion can distract and annoy viewers.
• Do not rely too heavily on those images that were originally loaded on your computer with the rest of Office. You can easily find appropriate clips on any topic through Google Images. While searching for images, do not use long search phrases as is usually done while searching the web - use specific words.
• When importing pictures, make sure that they are smaller than 2 megabytes and are in a .jpg format. Larger files can slow down your show.
• Keep graphs, charts and diagrams simple, if possible.
• Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data. The audience can then immediately pick up the relationships.
THE PRESENTATION
• If you want your presentation to directly open in the slide show view, save it as a slide show file using the following steps.
1. Open the presentation you want to save as a slide show.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Save as type list, click PowerPoint Show. Your slide show file will be saved with a .pps file extension.
When you double-click on this file, it will automatically start your presentation in slide show view. When you're done, PowerPoint automatically closes and you return to the desktop. If you want to edit the slide show file, you can always open it from PowerPoint by clicking Open on the File menu.
• Look at the audience, not at the slides, whenever possible.
• If using a laser pointer, don’t move it too fast. For example, if circling a number on the slide, do it slowly. Never point the laser at the audience.
• Black out the screen (use “B” on the keyboard) after the point has been made, to put the focus on you. Press the key again to continue your presentation.
• You can use the shortcut command [Ctrl]P to access the Pen tool during a slide show. Click with your mouse and drag to use the Pen tool to draw during your slide show. To erase everything you've drawn, press the E key. To turn off the Pen tool, press [Esc] once.
MISCELLANEOUS
Master Slide Set-Up
The "master slide" will allow you to make changes that are reflected on every slide in your presentation. You can change fonts, colors, backgrounds, headers, and footers at the "master slide" level.
1. First, go to the "View" menu.
2. Pull down the "Master" menu.
3. Select the "slide master" menu.
You may now make changes at this level that meet your presentation needs.
Preparing the Handout
In PowerPoint, choose File Send To Microsoft Word. In the Send To Microsoft Word dialog box, choose Outline only to create a text-only document, and click on OK. Minor modifications on this document will give you a handout that can be distributed to the audience.
Create visually appealing slides by adhering to these tips, to ensure that the audience is not distracted from the points you have to make.
About the Author: Dr. Shahul Ameen, M.D. is a Psychiatrist based in Ranchi, India. He edits http://www.psyplexus.com and http://mind.in
Source: www.isnare.com
Intro To Voice Over Internet Protocol -- Save Money With Every Phone Call
By Ron King
You've probably heard about Voice over Internet Protocol (abbreviated VoIP or VOIP). It is one of the hottest computer technologies today.
VoIP was developed to provide voice communication between computer users at different locations. Although still used in this manner, it's been developed much further -- into a full-fledged telephone network that allows us to place telephone calls through the Internet.
People who use VoIP can place calls to any telephone anywhere in the world. The calls are received on telephone sets connected to the Internet or Local Area Network (LAN). VoIP is already replacing some telephone networks with people and businesses canceling their traditional phone lines in favor of the cost savings of VoIP.
Background
Israeli computer enthusiasts were the first to make computer-to-computer voice connections back in 1995. That same year, the technology was further developed into a software package called Internet Phone Software. All you needed to speak with another computer user then was a modem, sound card, speakers, and microphone.
The software digitized and compressed audio signals before sending them over the Internet. These voice connections only occurred between computers equipped with the software. The original sound quality was very poor.
Technology progressed. By 1998 gateways had been established allowing PC-to-phone connections. Later that year phone-to-phone connections using the Internet for voice transmission were in place. Phone-to-phone connections still required a computer to initiate the call, but once the connection was established, callers could use a standard phone set.
That Was Then -- This Is Now
There are now a variety of VoIP services available, for both residential and commercial use. Some continue to rely on PC-to-PC connections, but may also offer PC-to-phone and phone-to-phone services.
There are phones that plug into a sound card or USB port of a computer. These phones may have number pads and ringers that allow you to use them just like conventional telephones. The computer can even be bypassed completely by connecting a phone directly to a broadband modem (either DSL or cable).
How Does VoIP Work?
The first step in using VoIP is converting your voice into digital data. This is done by 'sampling' your voice. The analog sound signal is divided into distinct steps that can be assigned number values. After your voice is digitized, the data can be compressed.
The compressed digital data is then split into 'packets' of about 1500 bytes that can be transferred via the Internet. In addition to voice data, the packets contain information about their origin, destination, and a time-stamp that permits a reconstruction in the exact order. When the packets arrive at their destination, the data are reassembled and converted back to analog. The receiving party then -- voila -- hears your voice.
A broadband Internet connection, however, is needed to speed up voice data transmission. Many households and businesses are already using broadband, either DSL or cable, which makes adding VoIP fairly simple.
So, if saving money is on your To Do list for this year, check out VoIP.
About the Author: Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer. Visit http://www.voip-solutions-now.com to learn more about this subject. Copyright 2005 Ron King.
Source: www.isnare.com
You've probably heard about Voice over Internet Protocol (abbreviated VoIP or VOIP). It is one of the hottest computer technologies today.
VoIP was developed to provide voice communication between computer users at different locations. Although still used in this manner, it's been developed much further -- into a full-fledged telephone network that allows us to place telephone calls through the Internet.
People who use VoIP can place calls to any telephone anywhere in the world. The calls are received on telephone sets connected to the Internet or Local Area Network (LAN). VoIP is already replacing some telephone networks with people and businesses canceling their traditional phone lines in favor of the cost savings of VoIP.
Background
Israeli computer enthusiasts were the first to make computer-to-computer voice connections back in 1995. That same year, the technology was further developed into a software package called Internet Phone Software. All you needed to speak with another computer user then was a modem, sound card, speakers, and microphone.
The software digitized and compressed audio signals before sending them over the Internet. These voice connections only occurred between computers equipped with the software. The original sound quality was very poor.
Technology progressed. By 1998 gateways had been established allowing PC-to-phone connections. Later that year phone-to-phone connections using the Internet for voice transmission were in place. Phone-to-phone connections still required a computer to initiate the call, but once the connection was established, callers could use a standard phone set.
That Was Then -- This Is Now
There are now a variety of VoIP services available, for both residential and commercial use. Some continue to rely on PC-to-PC connections, but may also offer PC-to-phone and phone-to-phone services.
There are phones that plug into a sound card or USB port of a computer. These phones may have number pads and ringers that allow you to use them just like conventional telephones. The computer can even be bypassed completely by connecting a phone directly to a broadband modem (either DSL or cable).
How Does VoIP Work?
The first step in using VoIP is converting your voice into digital data. This is done by 'sampling' your voice. The analog sound signal is divided into distinct steps that can be assigned number values. After your voice is digitized, the data can be compressed.
The compressed digital data is then split into 'packets' of about 1500 bytes that can be transferred via the Internet. In addition to voice data, the packets contain information about their origin, destination, and a time-stamp that permits a reconstruction in the exact order. When the packets arrive at their destination, the data are reassembled and converted back to analog. The receiving party then -- voila -- hears your voice.
A broadband Internet connection, however, is needed to speed up voice data transmission. Many households and businesses are already using broadband, either DSL or cable, which makes adding VoIP fairly simple.
So, if saving money is on your To Do list for this year, check out VoIP.
About the Author: Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer. Visit http://www.voip-solutions-now.com to learn more about this subject. Copyright 2005 Ron King.
Source: www.isnare.com
What Is Adware?
By Tim Henry
Adware is one of many "malwares" or malicious software programs that are unknowingly installed on your computer when you visit online sites and download freebies. When you use share files or visit sites with free downloads of wallpaper, videos, or music, some of these sites will send along adware software with your download.
These malwares are a rapidly growing threat to all computer systems. It is estimated that in the first three months of 2005 over 80% of computer users had some type of malware software program running on their computer, without their knowledge.
Although it is much less a threat to your computer and information than spyware is, what adware will do is cause pop up banners and advertisements to appear on your computer. These advertisements are displayed on your computer no matter what program you might be using. What the people who place this type of nuisance software on you computer say is that adware advertising helps them to recover costs and allows them to offer you those freebies you want.
What you want to do to stop adware from appearing on your computer is to first run an anti-adware program. Run this program on demand regularly. Along with an anti-adware software program run your regular computer virus scan on demand also.
Check the security level on your computer. You security level setting should be at least medium to help protect you from unwanted downloads.
Do not download free files from the internet, period. When downloading any software read the end-user license agreement. Some of these agreements will state that when you download their software you are also agreeing to accept a downloaded spyware that may be placed on your computer at the same time.
Be aware of threats to your computer, and your personal information.
About the Author: This article courtesy of http://www.adware-eliminator-guide.net
Source: www.isnare.com
Adware is one of many "malwares" or malicious software programs that are unknowingly installed on your computer when you visit online sites and download freebies. When you use share files or visit sites with free downloads of wallpaper, videos, or music, some of these sites will send along adware software with your download.
These malwares are a rapidly growing threat to all computer systems. It is estimated that in the first three months of 2005 over 80% of computer users had some type of malware software program running on their computer, without their knowledge.
Although it is much less a threat to your computer and information than spyware is, what adware will do is cause pop up banners and advertisements to appear on your computer. These advertisements are displayed on your computer no matter what program you might be using. What the people who place this type of nuisance software on you computer say is that adware advertising helps them to recover costs and allows them to offer you those freebies you want.
What you want to do to stop adware from appearing on your computer is to first run an anti-adware program. Run this program on demand regularly. Along with an anti-adware software program run your regular computer virus scan on demand also.
Check the security level on your computer. You security level setting should be at least medium to help protect you from unwanted downloads.
Do not download free files from the internet, period. When downloading any software read the end-user license agreement. Some of these agreements will state that when you download their software you are also agreeing to accept a downloaded spyware that may be placed on your computer at the same time.
Be aware of threats to your computer, and your personal information.
About the Author: This article courtesy of http://www.adware-eliminator-guide.net
Source: www.isnare.com
24/7 Worship
Do you love worshipping God?
Do you love getting up for work on a Monday morning?
If you don't love getting up for work on Monday morning then you can't love worshipping God.
Why?
Because getting up for work on Monday morning IS worshipping God!
How and where do you learn to worship?
At church on a Sunday morning? In your quiet times? With a guitar in your hands? In the car with a worship CD playing?
No (although they can all be part of it).
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in whatever you're doing, wherever you are - not by going around singing worship songs all day long, but by doing what you do, and doing it all to God's glory.
The measure of your worship is not the quality or volume of your singing. It's not how you perform in church on Sunday morning, or in your quiet times. It's the way you live your life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. THAT determines the quality of your worship, because that IS your worship!"
So you want to worship God?...Go and wash the dishes!"
Do you love getting up for work on a Monday morning?
If you don't love getting up for work on Monday morning then you can't love worshipping God.
Why?
Because getting up for work on Monday morning IS worshipping God!
How and where do you learn to worship?
At church on a Sunday morning? In your quiet times? With a guitar in your hands? In the car with a worship CD playing?
No (although they can all be part of it).
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in whatever you're doing, wherever you are - not by going around singing worship songs all day long, but by doing what you do, and doing it all to God's glory.
The measure of your worship is not the quality or volume of your singing. It's not how you perform in church on Sunday morning, or in your quiet times. It's the way you live your life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. THAT determines the quality of your worship, because that IS your worship!"
So you want to worship God?...Go and wash the dishes!"
"You want to worship God?...Clean the kitchen! Mop the floor! Write that essay! Get up in time for work or for lectures! Phone that friend you've not spoken to for months!...."
~~
The truth of this struck me so powerfully recently. What we do in church in the "worship time" is really only 1% of our worship. The worship time quite literally lasts from the moment I become a follower of the Lord till the moment I die... and then on for all of eternity!!
Over the last couple of years I have had a passionate desire to go deeper in my worship, but recently God spoke to me on this very issue: "If you want to be a worshipper... if you want to learn how to worship... if you want to go deeper in your worship... then start to LIVE WORSHIP!!!"
Romans 12v1 talks about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices as our act of worship. Yet most of the time my focus has still been mainly on the musical side of worship (the 1%). I overlook some other things or don't put much effort into them in my haste to get to church or have some time where I can get out my guitar and 'worship'.
Yet God is saying to make EVERY part of my life an act of worship, quite literally... to put the same care and concern and effort and passion as I put into the music on a Sunday into EVERYTHING I do, and to present it all - my whole life - as my worship to God. I've often quoted the passage about loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Yet I often only think of it with reference to Sunday morning or to the 'direct' expression of my love and worship to God, when actually it applies to everything we do in life.
I've heard all this so many times before, but this was the first time it really hit home to me just how real this is. It's not just that our worship on Sunday is 'backed up' or 'validated' by our lifestyle. Our lifestyle IS our worship, and what we do on Sunday or in those times of 'direct communication' with God is just a tiny percentage of the bigger picture! Often, particularly 'charismatic' Christians, we have put the emphasis of worship on the 1% and seen the 99% in relation to this, as something that flows out of it. In reality, God is calling us to put the emphasis back where it belongs - on the 100% and to see the 1% as simply a part of the bigger picture.
With this perspective, I can actually ENJOY the ordinary, routine, mundane tasks of day to day life JUST AS MUCH AS I ENJOY SINGING WORSHIP SONGS... because it's ALL worship, and I love worship... because I love God and I want to give Him the very best I possibly can!!
Over the last couple of years I have had a passionate desire to go deeper in my worship, but recently God spoke to me on this very issue: "If you want to be a worshipper... if you want to learn how to worship... if you want to go deeper in your worship... then start to LIVE WORSHIP!!!"
Romans 12v1 talks about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices as our act of worship. Yet most of the time my focus has still been mainly on the musical side of worship (the 1%). I overlook some other things or don't put much effort into them in my haste to get to church or have some time where I can get out my guitar and 'worship'.
Yet God is saying to make EVERY part of my life an act of worship, quite literally... to put the same care and concern and effort and passion as I put into the music on a Sunday into EVERYTHING I do, and to present it all - my whole life - as my worship to God. I've often quoted the passage about loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Yet I often only think of it with reference to Sunday morning or to the 'direct' expression of my love and worship to God, when actually it applies to everything we do in life.
I've heard all this so many times before, but this was the first time it really hit home to me just how real this is. It's not just that our worship on Sunday is 'backed up' or 'validated' by our lifestyle. Our lifestyle IS our worship, and what we do on Sunday or in those times of 'direct communication' with God is just a tiny percentage of the bigger picture! Often, particularly 'charismatic' Christians, we have put the emphasis of worship on the 1% and seen the 99% in relation to this, as something that flows out of it. In reality, God is calling us to put the emphasis back where it belongs - on the 100% and to see the 1% as simply a part of the bigger picture.
With this perspective, I can actually ENJOY the ordinary, routine, mundane tasks of day to day life JUST AS MUCH AS I ENJOY SINGING WORSHIP SONGS... because it's ALL worship, and I love worship... because I love God and I want to give Him the very best I possibly can!!
So... let's worship!!
Matt Ots
Matt Ots
Christian Music Lyrics
* Christian Lyrics Online lists authors, songs, and lets you search for words and phrases in songs.
This is the site that the song list at The Gospel Unplugged uses.
The Gospel Unplugged is a book that is partially on-line. If you worship the Lord with music, you may find this fascinating.
From the book...
"Of the thousands of Contemporary Christian Music songs written over the years, there are a few ground-breaking songs that stand apart from the rest, offering something more beyond the ordinary. I believe each of the 25 songs covered in the The Gospel Unplugged fall into that category. These "great songs" should never be consumed like fast-food burgers — eaten on the run as you move on to the next thing. Instead, great songs are meant to be experienced, mined for all their worth, listened to again and again, and discussed to the wee hours with others.
WHAT MAKES A SONG GREAT?
A great song can teach you truth, express who you are, or reveal part of God’s nature to you:
* Great Christian music teaches you. You can discover God’s truth through the imagery, word pictures, and emotion contained in a song in ways you may not always be able to through a book or a sermon. Jars of Clay’s “Worlds Apart,” for example, gets to the heart of what true discipleship is in a way so piercing that you would have a hard time matching it even if you read a 500-page theological tome. And by living out the truth packed inside Sixpence None the Richer’s “We Have Forgotten,” you can transform an otherwise meaningless existence into a life of eternal significance.
* Great Christian music helps you express yourself to God in new ways. Once in a while a song comes along that rocks your world; it taps into something that is already inside of you, just bursting to come out. Not only do you identify with the song but the song acts as something more powerful. It actually helps give you an identity, the perfect way to express to Jesus what's going on inside your heart.
* Great Christian music gives you a taste of the infinite. A song can also reach deep into your soul and awaken you to who God is. I think the rarest of songs can even give us a foretaste of God’s glory. For example, whenever I hear “Agnus Dei,” performed originally by Michael W. Smith and now also by Third Day, my heart is immediately transported to another place. The beauty of this worship song offers me a sort of musical window into heaven, a glimpse of the glory that is to come.
Read The Gospel Unplugged and allow music’s creative power to make you feel alive and free you to experience the presence of Jesus Christ in ways that are rare in this practical, commonsense world."
(Based on the Introduction from The Gospel Unplugged)
This is the site that the song list at The Gospel Unplugged uses.
The Gospel Unplugged is a book that is partially on-line. If you worship the Lord with music, you may find this fascinating.
From the book...
"Of the thousands of Contemporary Christian Music songs written over the years, there are a few ground-breaking songs that stand apart from the rest, offering something more beyond the ordinary. I believe each of the 25 songs covered in the The Gospel Unplugged fall into that category. These "great songs" should never be consumed like fast-food burgers — eaten on the run as you move on to the next thing. Instead, great songs are meant to be experienced, mined for all their worth, listened to again and again, and discussed to the wee hours with others.
WHAT MAKES A SONG GREAT?
A great song can teach you truth, express who you are, or reveal part of God’s nature to you:
* Great Christian music teaches you. You can discover God’s truth through the imagery, word pictures, and emotion contained in a song in ways you may not always be able to through a book or a sermon. Jars of Clay’s “Worlds Apart,” for example, gets to the heart of what true discipleship is in a way so piercing that you would have a hard time matching it even if you read a 500-page theological tome. And by living out the truth packed inside Sixpence None the Richer’s “We Have Forgotten,” you can transform an otherwise meaningless existence into a life of eternal significance.
* Great Christian music helps you express yourself to God in new ways. Once in a while a song comes along that rocks your world; it taps into something that is already inside of you, just bursting to come out. Not only do you identify with the song but the song acts as something more powerful. It actually helps give you an identity, the perfect way to express to Jesus what's going on inside your heart.
* Great Christian music gives you a taste of the infinite. A song can also reach deep into your soul and awaken you to who God is. I think the rarest of songs can even give us a foretaste of God’s glory. For example, whenever I hear “Agnus Dei,” performed originally by Michael W. Smith and now also by Third Day, my heart is immediately transported to another place. The beauty of this worship song offers me a sort of musical window into heaven, a glimpse of the glory that is to come.
Read The Gospel Unplugged and allow music’s creative power to make you feel alive and free you to experience the presence of Jesus Christ in ways that are rare in this practical, commonsense world."
(Based on the Introduction from The Gospel Unplugged)
Memorizing The Word Of God
By Barbara White
Are there benefits to learning Scripture verses by heart today?
In this instant world the thought of memorizing scripture verses may seem a little outdated.
There are many ways of making scripture part of your life and that is what is important if we want to have strong spiritual roots, and grow a deeper relationship with God. Having Christian music on in the day is a good way, even better worship music. Many of our worship songs are taken straight from the Bible, and are a great way of immersing our soul and spirit in God.
There was, however, a time in my life when I spent a lot of time and energy memorizing verses including the Bible reference before and after the verse.
These were my reasons at the time
1. If God's word is living and active and powerful, then why not make it a deep part of me.
2. If I was sharing my faith then God's word has way more impact than my words. The Bible has far more credibility and more than my opinions, and people could go back and read it for themselves.
3. It was a tool that I wanted to develop skill in. See 2 Timothy 2 v.15
4. I could bring to mind verses that were particularly meaningful or encouraging at times when I felt disheartened.
5. I memorized verses that God had used to speak to me about specific things that were going o in my life at the time.
I would write the verses in little cards and carry them around with me, practicing them in odd moments, until I was word perfect.
Although I do not do this so intentionally now, I have to say that the ongoing effect of doing that then, was far deeper than I had ever imagined. Even through the storms of life, I felt the impact of God's word sown in my life taking root and producing fruit. There developed solidness in my faith that was noticed by others. The Holy Spirit on many occasions, sometimes many years after I had memorized the verse, brought it to mind at a time when I really need it. Not only to help me, but to use it for others. I may not now remember the exact chapter and verse number, or the verse word by word, but it never takes me long to remember the sense of it and find it if there is a Bible close by. I may not have a Bible with me, but the Holy Spirit is able to bring the verse I learnt many years ago right to the front of my mind, just when I need it.
As God's Word is one of the few things that lasts for ever, I want to put as much of it in my life as I can whatever method I use. If you sow seeds of God's Word, you will spend your whole life time reaping it's positive fruit in your life. Memorization is still one of the most effective ways of doing that and I highly recommend it.
About the Author: This article was written by Barbara White, Speaker, Author. For frequent spiritual encouragement and inspiration add her Blog onto your favorites list. www.heartafterjesus.blogspot.com
Source: www.isnare.com
Are there benefits to learning Scripture verses by heart today?
In this instant world the thought of memorizing scripture verses may seem a little outdated.
There are many ways of making scripture part of your life and that is what is important if we want to have strong spiritual roots, and grow a deeper relationship with God. Having Christian music on in the day is a good way, even better worship music. Many of our worship songs are taken straight from the Bible, and are a great way of immersing our soul and spirit in God.
There was, however, a time in my life when I spent a lot of time and energy memorizing verses including the Bible reference before and after the verse.
These were my reasons at the time
1. If God's word is living and active and powerful, then why not make it a deep part of me.
2. If I was sharing my faith then God's word has way more impact than my words. The Bible has far more credibility and more than my opinions, and people could go back and read it for themselves.
3. It was a tool that I wanted to develop skill in. See 2 Timothy 2 v.15
4. I could bring to mind verses that were particularly meaningful or encouraging at times when I felt disheartened.
5. I memorized verses that God had used to speak to me about specific things that were going o in my life at the time.
I would write the verses in little cards and carry them around with me, practicing them in odd moments, until I was word perfect.
Although I do not do this so intentionally now, I have to say that the ongoing effect of doing that then, was far deeper than I had ever imagined. Even through the storms of life, I felt the impact of God's word sown in my life taking root and producing fruit. There developed solidness in my faith that was noticed by others. The Holy Spirit on many occasions, sometimes many years after I had memorized the verse, brought it to mind at a time when I really need it. Not only to help me, but to use it for others. I may not now remember the exact chapter and verse number, or the verse word by word, but it never takes me long to remember the sense of it and find it if there is a Bible close by. I may not have a Bible with me, but the Holy Spirit is able to bring the verse I learnt many years ago right to the front of my mind, just when I need it.
As God's Word is one of the few things that lasts for ever, I want to put as much of it in my life as I can whatever method I use. If you sow seeds of God's Word, you will spend your whole life time reaping it's positive fruit in your life. Memorization is still one of the most effective ways of doing that and I highly recommend it.
About the Author: This article was written by Barbara White, Speaker, Author. For frequent spiritual encouragement and inspiration add her Blog onto your favorites list. www.heartafterjesus.blogspot.com
Source: www.isnare.com
The Family Tree
By David Chandler
There are numerous genealogy sites out there that feature an assortment of articles on documentation of records for doing your genealogy search. We will look at how genealogy sites and the tools they offer will assist you to carry on a search.
Genealogy sites have plenty of tools that you use to keep records of your searches, but keeping records is not enough. You must know where to search next once you have found that piece of information that you are looking for. Genealogists usually draw conclusions from their records, to continue to dig deeper into the roots of their ancestry, which is often referred to as and audit trail.
An 'audit trail' requires that the thought process and analysis be included by documenting sources. Genealogy sites generally offer some software that is capable of analysing the data and there are services from expert genealogists.
The fees from experts vary from site to site, but they are not always needed unless you get stuck and cannot find the additional information that you are looking for in your search or if you cannot go any further on your own.
There are many purposes for an audit trail but one of the main reasons is for subsequent searches to obtain the records that were used and see how the initial researcher came to their conclusions. Keeping records is very important, along with maintaining them in a secure and good condition.
Suggestions for making an audit trail
When you make an assumption, clearly state why you came to the conclusion and any other information that could be useful. This can be the on the front page of your record and can be edited at anytime, remember that new information changes the search direction.
By learning any historical background of the time period and region, will allow you to have a better of idea of what direction may be the next direction to head in. Most genealogy sites offer this information to you for this purpose.
Learn as much information as you can about your ancestors, such as how they lived, their culture and any other relevant information that will help guide you in your search.
Cite your sources, as this can lead you back to the information you need, or may add additional information for future searches that are completed.
Writing notes in detail will make it easier for people who carry on your work in the future. This will allow them to see your thought process.
Make sure that you information is as accurate as possible, do not jump to conclusions.
You can make the search nearly effortless, by leaving and audit trail which allows you or others to carry on the search easily.
About the Author: For more information, go to: http://www.FamilyTreeInfoCenter.com
Source: www.isnare.com
There are numerous genealogy sites out there that feature an assortment of articles on documentation of records for doing your genealogy search. We will look at how genealogy sites and the tools they offer will assist you to carry on a search.
Genealogy sites have plenty of tools that you use to keep records of your searches, but keeping records is not enough. You must know where to search next once you have found that piece of information that you are looking for. Genealogists usually draw conclusions from their records, to continue to dig deeper into the roots of their ancestry, which is often referred to as and audit trail.
An 'audit trail' requires that the thought process and analysis be included by documenting sources. Genealogy sites generally offer some software that is capable of analysing the data and there are services from expert genealogists.
The fees from experts vary from site to site, but they are not always needed unless you get stuck and cannot find the additional information that you are looking for in your search or if you cannot go any further on your own.
There are many purposes for an audit trail but one of the main reasons is for subsequent searches to obtain the records that were used and see how the initial researcher came to their conclusions. Keeping records is very important, along with maintaining them in a secure and good condition.
Suggestions for making an audit trail
When you make an assumption, clearly state why you came to the conclusion and any other information that could be useful. This can be the on the front page of your record and can be edited at anytime, remember that new information changes the search direction.
By learning any historical background of the time period and region, will allow you to have a better of idea of what direction may be the next direction to head in. Most genealogy sites offer this information to you for this purpose.
Learn as much information as you can about your ancestors, such as how they lived, their culture and any other relevant information that will help guide you in your search.
Cite your sources, as this can lead you back to the information you need, or may add additional information for future searches that are completed.
Writing notes in detail will make it easier for people who carry on your work in the future. This will allow them to see your thought process.
Make sure that you information is as accurate as possible, do not jump to conclusions.
You can make the search nearly effortless, by leaving and audit trail which allows you or others to carry on the search easily.
About the Author: For more information, go to: http://www.FamilyTreeInfoCenter.com
Source: www.isnare.com
4 Tips To Build A Content Site With More Repeat Visitors
By Mark Tse
On the internet, content is known as "the king". People visits a site not for the flashy graphics nor the wonderful website designs, but because of the information they learn from the website.
Having high quality content not just attract visitors, it also attracts search engines to visit your sites more and increase your search engine placements. However, in order to get more traffic that can turn into money, you'll need repeat visitors who are eager to read your new update on your content site.
Therefore, your website should have rich, premium, informative content to capture repeat visitors and more search engine traffic.
Here are some simple tips that would help you build a content site that can attract more repeat visitors:
- Make sure your website's layout is simple and easy looking to the visitors' eyes. Don't add too many flashy features in your webpage to disturb your visitors's focus when they are reading on your content.
- Always remember the most important part in your content is the headline and the first few paragraphs. Whether your reader will read on or not heavily depends on the attractiveness on these parts. Always try to capture their interests and give them what they want to know.
- Update your website with fresh new content frequently. When your visitors revisit your site and find you have not add new content, they will visit elsewhere immediately. And if this situation goes on, they will not visit your site again. Besides, search engines love websites that update content frequently, and give them higher search rank.
- You should consider to use blogs. Blogs are very easy to set up and update. Once you have entered your entries, all you have to do is to click a button to publish them. And blogs are getting indexed fast and easily in most search engines!
Content is king, and you can take benefit from it easily!
About the Author: This article is written by Mark Tse. Mark shares free tips, articles and downloads about Internet Marketing. You can visit his blog and read his latest posts here:http://www.marktse.com/blog/
Source: www.isnare.com
On the internet, content is known as "the king". People visits a site not for the flashy graphics nor the wonderful website designs, but because of the information they learn from the website.
Having high quality content not just attract visitors, it also attracts search engines to visit your sites more and increase your search engine placements. However, in order to get more traffic that can turn into money, you'll need repeat visitors who are eager to read your new update on your content site.
Therefore, your website should have rich, premium, informative content to capture repeat visitors and more search engine traffic.
Here are some simple tips that would help you build a content site that can attract more repeat visitors:
- Make sure your website's layout is simple and easy looking to the visitors' eyes. Don't add too many flashy features in your webpage to disturb your visitors's focus when they are reading on your content.
- Always remember the most important part in your content is the headline and the first few paragraphs. Whether your reader will read on or not heavily depends on the attractiveness on these parts. Always try to capture their interests and give them what they want to know.
- Update your website with fresh new content frequently. When your visitors revisit your site and find you have not add new content, they will visit elsewhere immediately. And if this situation goes on, they will not visit your site again. Besides, search engines love websites that update content frequently, and give them higher search rank.
- You should consider to use blogs. Blogs are very easy to set up and update. Once you have entered your entries, all you have to do is to click a button to publish them. And blogs are getting indexed fast and easily in most search engines!
Content is king, and you can take benefit from it easily!
About the Author: This article is written by Mark Tse. Mark shares free tips, articles and downloads about Internet Marketing. You can visit his blog and read his latest posts here:http://www.marktse.com/blog/
Source: www.isnare.com
6 Tips To Secure Your Website
By David Risley
Most people on the internet are good, honest people. However, there are some people browsing the internet who derive fun from poking around websites and finding security holes. A few simple tips can help you secure your website in the basic ways. Now, obviously, the subject of data security is a complicated one and way beyond the scope of this column. However, I will address the very basics one should do which will alleviate many potential problems that might allow people to see things they shouldn't.
Password Protecting Directories
If you have a directory on your server which should remain private, do not depend on people to not guess the name of the directory. It is better to password protect the folder at the server level. Over 50% of websites out there are powered by Apache server, so let's look at how to password protect a directory on Apache.
Apache takes configuration commands via a file called .htaccess which sits in the directory. The commands in .htaccess have effect on that folder and any sub-folder, unless a particular sub-folder has its own .htaccess file within. To password protect a folder, Apache also uses a file called .htpasswd . This file contains the names and passwords of users granted access. The password is encrypted, so you must use the htpasswd program to create the passwords. To access it, go to the command line of your server and type htpasswd. If you receive a "command not found" error then you need to contact your system admin. Also, bear in mind that many web hosts provide web-based ways to secure a directory, so they may have things set up for you to do it that way rather than on your own. Barring this, let's continue.
Type "htpasswd -c .htpasswd myusername" where "myusername" is the username you want. You will then be asked for a password. Confirm it and the file will be created. You can double check this via FTP. Also, if the file is inside your web folder, you should move it so that it is not accessible to the public. Now, open or create your .htaccess file. Inside, include the following:
AuthUserFile /home/www/passwd/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Secure Folder"
AuthType Basic
require valid-user
On the first line, adjust the directory path to wherever your .htpasswd file is. Once this is set up, you will get a popup dialog when visiting that folder on your website. You will be required to log in to view it.
Turn Off Directory Listings
By default, any directory on your website which does not have a recognized homepage file (index.htm, index.php, default.htm, etc.) is going to instead display a listing of all the files in that folder. You might not want people to see everything you have on there. The simplest way to protect against this is to simply create a blank file, name it index.htm and then upload it to that folder. Your second option is to, again, use the .htaccess file to disable directory listing. To do so, just include the line "Options -Indexes" in the file. Now, users will get a 403 error rather than a list of files.
Remove Install Files
If you install software and scripts to your website, many times they come with installation and/or upgrade scripts. Leaving these on your server opens up a huge security problem because if somebody else is familiar with that software, they can find and run your install/upgrade scripts and thus reset your entire database, config files, etc. A well written software package will warn you to remove these items before allowing you to use the software. However, make sure this has been done. Just delete the files from your server.
Keep Up with Security Updates
Those who run software packages on their website need to keep in touch with updates and security alerts relating to that software. Not doing so can leave you wide open to hackers. In fact, many times a glaring security hole is discovered and reported and there is a lag before the creator of the software can release a patch for it. Anybody so inclined can find your site running the software and exploit the vulnerability if you do not upgrade. I myself have been burned by this a few times, having whole forums get destroyed and having to restore from backup. It happens.
Reduce Your Error Reporting Level
Speaking mainly for PHP here because that's what I work in, errors and warnings generated by PHP are, by default, printed with full information to your browser. The problem is that these errors usually contain full directory paths to the scripts in question. It gives away too much information. To alleviate this, reduce the error reporting level of PHP. You can do this in two ways. One is to adjust your php.ini file. This is the main configuration for PHP on your server. Look for the error_reporting and display_errors directives. However, if you do not have access to this file (many on shared hosting do not), you can also reduce the error reporting level using the error_reporting() function of PHP. Include this in a global file of your scripts that way it will work across the board.
Secure Your Forms
Forms open up a wide hole to your server for hackers if you do not properly code them. Since these forms are usually submitted to some script on your server, sometimes with access to your database, a form which does not provide some protection can offer a hacker direct access to all kinds of things. Keep in mind...just because you have an address field and it says "Address" in front of it does not mean you can trust people to enter their address in that field. Imagine your form is not properly coded and the script it submits to is not either. What's to stop a hacker from entering an SQL query or scripting code into that address field? With that in mind, here are a few things to do and look for:
Use MaxLength. Input fields in form can use the maxlength attribute in the HTML to limit the length of input on forms. Use this to keep people from entering WAY too much data. This will stop most people. A hacker can bypass it, so you must protect against information overrun at the script level as well.
Hide Emails If using a form-to-mail script, do not include the email address into the form itself. It defeats the point and spam spiders can still find your email address.
Use Form Validation. I won't get into a lesson on programming here, but any script which a form submits to should validate the input received. Ensure that the fields received are the fields expected. Check that the incoming data is of reasonable and expected length and of the proper format (in the case of emails, phones, zips, etc.).
Avoid SQL Injection. A full lesson on SQL injection can be reserved for another article, however the basics is that form input is allowed to be inserted directly into an SQL query without validation and, thus, giving a hacker the ability to execute SQL queries via your web form. To avoid this, always check the data type of incoming data (numbers, strings, etc.), run adequate form validation per above, and write queries in such a way that a hacker cannot insert anything into the form which would make the query do something other than you intend.
Conclusion
Website security is a rather involved subject and it get a LOT more technical than this. However, I have given you a basic primer on some of the easier things you can do on your website to alleviate the majority of threats to your website.
About the Author: David Risley is a web developer and founder of PC Media, Inc. (http://www.pcmedianet.com). Specializes in PHP/MySQL development, consulting and internet business management. He is also the founder of PC Mechanic (http://www.pcmech.com), a large website delivering do-it-yourself computer information to thousands of users every day.
Source: www.isnare.com
Most people on the internet are good, honest people. However, there are some people browsing the internet who derive fun from poking around websites and finding security holes. A few simple tips can help you secure your website in the basic ways. Now, obviously, the subject of data security is a complicated one and way beyond the scope of this column. However, I will address the very basics one should do which will alleviate many potential problems that might allow people to see things they shouldn't.
Password Protecting Directories
If you have a directory on your server which should remain private, do not depend on people to not guess the name of the directory. It is better to password protect the folder at the server level. Over 50% of websites out there are powered by Apache server, so let's look at how to password protect a directory on Apache.
Apache takes configuration commands via a file called .htaccess which sits in the directory. The commands in .htaccess have effect on that folder and any sub-folder, unless a particular sub-folder has its own .htaccess file within. To password protect a folder, Apache also uses a file called .htpasswd . This file contains the names and passwords of users granted access. The password is encrypted, so you must use the htpasswd program to create the passwords. To access it, go to the command line of your server and type htpasswd. If you receive a "command not found" error then you need to contact your system admin. Also, bear in mind that many web hosts provide web-based ways to secure a directory, so they may have things set up for you to do it that way rather than on your own. Barring this, let's continue.
Type "htpasswd -c .htpasswd myusername" where "myusername" is the username you want. You will then be asked for a password. Confirm it and the file will be created. You can double check this via FTP. Also, if the file is inside your web folder, you should move it so that it is not accessible to the public. Now, open or create your .htaccess file. Inside, include the following:
AuthUserFile /home/www/passwd/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Secure Folder"
AuthType Basic
require valid-user
On the first line, adjust the directory path to wherever your .htpasswd file is. Once this is set up, you will get a popup dialog when visiting that folder on your website. You will be required to log in to view it.
Turn Off Directory Listings
By default, any directory on your website which does not have a recognized homepage file (index.htm, index.php, default.htm, etc.) is going to instead display a listing of all the files in that folder. You might not want people to see everything you have on there. The simplest way to protect against this is to simply create a blank file, name it index.htm and then upload it to that folder. Your second option is to, again, use the .htaccess file to disable directory listing. To do so, just include the line "Options -Indexes" in the file. Now, users will get a 403 error rather than a list of files.
Remove Install Files
If you install software and scripts to your website, many times they come with installation and/or upgrade scripts. Leaving these on your server opens up a huge security problem because if somebody else is familiar with that software, they can find and run your install/upgrade scripts and thus reset your entire database, config files, etc. A well written software package will warn you to remove these items before allowing you to use the software. However, make sure this has been done. Just delete the files from your server.
Keep Up with Security Updates
Those who run software packages on their website need to keep in touch with updates and security alerts relating to that software. Not doing so can leave you wide open to hackers. In fact, many times a glaring security hole is discovered and reported and there is a lag before the creator of the software can release a patch for it. Anybody so inclined can find your site running the software and exploit the vulnerability if you do not upgrade. I myself have been burned by this a few times, having whole forums get destroyed and having to restore from backup. It happens.
Reduce Your Error Reporting Level
Speaking mainly for PHP here because that's what I work in, errors and warnings generated by PHP are, by default, printed with full information to your browser. The problem is that these errors usually contain full directory paths to the scripts in question. It gives away too much information. To alleviate this, reduce the error reporting level of PHP. You can do this in two ways. One is to adjust your php.ini file. This is the main configuration for PHP on your server. Look for the error_reporting and display_errors directives. However, if you do not have access to this file (many on shared hosting do not), you can also reduce the error reporting level using the error_reporting() function of PHP. Include this in a global file of your scripts that way it will work across the board.
Secure Your Forms
Forms open up a wide hole to your server for hackers if you do not properly code them. Since these forms are usually submitted to some script on your server, sometimes with access to your database, a form which does not provide some protection can offer a hacker direct access to all kinds of things. Keep in mind...just because you have an address field and it says "Address" in front of it does not mean you can trust people to enter their address in that field. Imagine your form is not properly coded and the script it submits to is not either. What's to stop a hacker from entering an SQL query or scripting code into that address field? With that in mind, here are a few things to do and look for:
Use MaxLength. Input fields in form can use the maxlength attribute in the HTML to limit the length of input on forms. Use this to keep people from entering WAY too much data. This will stop most people. A hacker can bypass it, so you must protect against information overrun at the script level as well.
Hide Emails If using a form-to-mail script, do not include the email address into the form itself. It defeats the point and spam spiders can still find your email address.
Use Form Validation. I won't get into a lesson on programming here, but any script which a form submits to should validate the input received. Ensure that the fields received are the fields expected. Check that the incoming data is of reasonable and expected length and of the proper format (in the case of emails, phones, zips, etc.).
Avoid SQL Injection. A full lesson on SQL injection can be reserved for another article, however the basics is that form input is allowed to be inserted directly into an SQL query without validation and, thus, giving a hacker the ability to execute SQL queries via your web form. To avoid this, always check the data type of incoming data (numbers, strings, etc.), run adequate form validation per above, and write queries in such a way that a hacker cannot insert anything into the form which would make the query do something other than you intend.
Conclusion
Website security is a rather involved subject and it get a LOT more technical than this. However, I have given you a basic primer on some of the easier things you can do on your website to alleviate the majority of threats to your website.
About the Author: David Risley is a web developer and founder of PC Media, Inc. (http://www.pcmedianet.com). Specializes in PHP/MySQL development, consulting and internet business management. He is also the founder of PC Mechanic (http://www.pcmech.com), a large website delivering do-it-yourself computer information to thousands of users every day.
Source: www.isnare.com
Is Your Site Optimised?
By Richard D S Hill
Organisations need to optimise their search engine marketing (organic listings, general advertising and pay per click) to acquire more customers or members, sell more online and for many other reasons. There are nearly 1 billion people with Internet access. Almost 550 million searches are conducted worldwide on the Internet every day. A searcher is proactively requesting information. They are already looking for what you offer. They are a live prospect.
When looking at the search results page, most users look for a number of specific items, at least one of which must be present to capture a click through. These items include the key phrase in the title or description, product information and trusted brand names and vendors.
Nearly 60% of users have a search engine of preference, but will use another engine if they're not satisfied with the results from the first engine. So, although users may give Google as their engine of preference, they may actually use another engine, such as Yahoo or MSN, for a significant percentage of their searches.
There are a number of things that are very important in optimisation:
Optimized page text. Every page must be optimized for a few key search phrases. These are phrases that people actually use when searching for information related to that page. Writing a unique and compelling title for every web page and including target phrases in each page's title, description and keywords meta-tags are also important.
Crawler friendly navigation. Making sure a crawler can easily navigate your entire site. This is often accomplished by providing a secondary text-link navigation scheme or site map. Reducing variables in page URLs is very important for dynamic sites.
In bound links from important sites. Links to your website from important sites (such as the most popular directories and other relevant sites) will boost your popularity ranking.
Search engine friendly website design. Excessive use of design features that can cause problems for crawlers (such as flash, frames, and dynamic content) will negatively impact your search engine visibility, as will ‘heavy’ pages that do not call scripts etc. or pages that use languages (e.g. JavaScript) that search engines cannot read.
Once a site is optimised it needs to be refreshed and changed and kept up to date. In general search engines like ‘new’ content so continuing optimisation is essential.
The optimised site can now serve as the basis for an effective Pay Per Click campaign as it will have helped to generate the relevant keywords and phrases to be used. For a PPC campaign the following approach is essential to optimise results:
* Audience – who are they? What would they use to search on? What keywords / phrases would they use?
* Offer – what can we do to distinguish our offer from the competition? We have a maximum of about 30 words in which to make the offer, so it has to be good and state what’s in it for the searcher?
* Product – what is better about our product. See the constraints in offer above.
* Creative – there aren’t really any pictures in PPC so how else can we be creative?
All of this however is wasted unless an ebusiness optimised site backs it up. This means:
* Thinking of the customer – and thinking how they think
* Making finding product and price easy
* Making terms clear and payment simple
* Ensuring in stock and short delivery timescales
* Making communications clear – mail, phone, email
* Testing on an ongoing basis - test, track and try, test, track and try.”
About the Author: Richard Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles. E-CRM http://www.e-crm.co.uk helps you to grow by getting you more customers that stay with you longer. We provide practical solutions that pay for themselves. We help you to make sure that your marketing works.
Source: www.isnare.com
Organisations need to optimise their search engine marketing (organic listings, general advertising and pay per click) to acquire more customers or members, sell more online and for many other reasons. There are nearly 1 billion people with Internet access. Almost 550 million searches are conducted worldwide on the Internet every day. A searcher is proactively requesting information. They are already looking for what you offer. They are a live prospect.
When looking at the search results page, most users look for a number of specific items, at least one of which must be present to capture a click through. These items include the key phrase in the title or description, product information and trusted brand names and vendors.
Nearly 60% of users have a search engine of preference, but will use another engine if they're not satisfied with the results from the first engine. So, although users may give Google as their engine of preference, they may actually use another engine, such as Yahoo or MSN, for a significant percentage of their searches.
There are a number of things that are very important in optimisation:
Optimized page text. Every page must be optimized for a few key search phrases. These are phrases that people actually use when searching for information related to that page. Writing a unique and compelling title for every web page and including target phrases in each page's title, description and keywords meta-tags are also important.
Crawler friendly navigation. Making sure a crawler can easily navigate your entire site. This is often accomplished by providing a secondary text-link navigation scheme or site map. Reducing variables in page URLs is very important for dynamic sites.
In bound links from important sites. Links to your website from important sites (such as the most popular directories and other relevant sites) will boost your popularity ranking.
Search engine friendly website design. Excessive use of design features that can cause problems for crawlers (such as flash, frames, and dynamic content) will negatively impact your search engine visibility, as will ‘heavy’ pages that do not call scripts etc. or pages that use languages (e.g. JavaScript) that search engines cannot read.
Once a site is optimised it needs to be refreshed and changed and kept up to date. In general search engines like ‘new’ content so continuing optimisation is essential.
The optimised site can now serve as the basis for an effective Pay Per Click campaign as it will have helped to generate the relevant keywords and phrases to be used. For a PPC campaign the following approach is essential to optimise results:
* Audience – who are they? What would they use to search on? What keywords / phrases would they use?
* Offer – what can we do to distinguish our offer from the competition? We have a maximum of about 30 words in which to make the offer, so it has to be good and state what’s in it for the searcher?
* Product – what is better about our product. See the constraints in offer above.
* Creative – there aren’t really any pictures in PPC so how else can we be creative?
All of this however is wasted unless an ebusiness optimised site backs it up. This means:
* Thinking of the customer – and thinking how they think
* Making finding product and price easy
* Making terms clear and payment simple
* Ensuring in stock and short delivery timescales
* Making communications clear – mail, phone, email
* Testing on an ongoing basis - test, track and try, test, track and try.”
About the Author: Richard Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles. E-CRM http://www.e-crm.co.uk helps you to grow by getting you more customers that stay with you longer. We provide practical solutions that pay for themselves. We help you to make sure that your marketing works.
Source: www.isnare.com
Google formally declares war on Microsoft
GOOGLE has confirmed that it will launch free spreadsheet and word-processing software online and take on Microsoft in one of its biggest markets... (read more)
It Will NEVER Be Enough
They are all singing, clapping, shouting, bowing, kneeling, dancing, crying . . .
The thousand or so people gathered here tonight are praising You, Jesus.
It is SUCH a celebration. It is SUCH a sound.
But this is just one meeting in one city at this moment. How many other meetings like this
are going on all over the world, right now ?
How many meetings have happened since your appearing where your people have celebrated You ? How many ?
One million ?
Ten million ?
One hundred million ?
Even if one billion . . . it STILL is not enough !
It will take eternity times forever, and even THEN, it won't be enough !
In my mind I see flashes of a husband and wife kneeling and worshiping You.
I see children, hands clasped, dancing in a circle, singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children".
I see the Aborigine stopping to look up at the night sky and praising You, even though she
doesn't "know" you.
The Baptist choir; the Youth praise band; the countless times of the partaking of Your Body
and Blood . . . how many acts of praise and adoration are You worthy of ?
More than we could ever, ever, EVER display.
The thousand or so people gathered here tonight are praising You, Jesus.
It is SUCH a celebration. It is SUCH a sound.
But this is just one meeting in one city at this moment. How many other meetings like this
are going on all over the world, right now ?
How many meetings have happened since your appearing where your people have celebrated You ? How many ?
One million ?
Ten million ?
One hundred million ?
Even if one billion . . . it STILL is not enough !
It will take eternity times forever, and even THEN, it won't be enough !
In my mind I see flashes of a husband and wife kneeling and worshiping You.
I see children, hands clasped, dancing in a circle, singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children".
I see the Aborigine stopping to look up at the night sky and praising You, even though she
doesn't "know" you.
The Baptist choir; the Youth praise band; the countless times of the partaking of Your Body
and Blood . . . how many acts of praise and adoration are You worthy of ?
More than we could ever, ever, EVER display.
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