I was jumping around via EntreCard today, and stumbled on a blog that had a post about a new PDF reader called Foxit. Upon further review, I found that the program was only 2.1 MB, and was a very fast download. I installed the program on my computer, and then used it to pull up PDF that I had sitting on my desktop. I was amazed at how quickly it opened the file, much faster than Adobe Acrobat. I also like the appearance of the document in this program. There is a nice clean appearance, and a smooth transition between pages. There is also a nice Table of Contents to the left that makes navigating the document easier. I know that you can set Acrobat up to do the similar things, but I think things just look a bit crisper in the new program.
I did have the problem of integrating it into Firefox, but then I found a great article at The Firefox Extensions Guru Blog that laid out step by step instructions. It only took a couple of minutes, and now everything is running as smoothly as can be! I think I am going to like using this program a whole lot more than Adobe Acrobat. I was getting tired of all the errors in that anyway!
You can visit the Foxit Site to download the user manual of this program, which is incredibly detailed, and will show you all the functionality of it. You can also see a list of other software offered by the company.
You can download The Foxit PDF Reader by Clicking Here
I hope this program will help you have a better experience with PDF files! Better yet, I hope it helps me to have a better experience with PDF files. If you try it out, let me know what you think!
I have noticed quite a few hits over the last few days from people looking for how to make a header graphic for a WordPress blog. I wrote a couple of posts a few days ago about making your header graphic a link, and that has been showing up in Google for this search query. Anyway, I thought I would take a couple of minutes and show you how to set up your own header graphic in WordPress.
The first thing that you have to do is figure out where your header graphic is stored in your theme directory. There are a couple of ways to do this. The easiest way is to load the theme, and then load your site. Right click on the header graphic and choose “View Background Image” (in Firefox). This will open the graphic up in your browser, and show you the web address of your header graphic. You can save this to your hard drive and open it up in a graphic editor if you just want to edit the graphic that is already there (as the first example I give you below). You need to figure out the size of your graphic, as you want to keep your replacement graphic the same size (it is much easier this way). You can also get the location and size of your graphic from your CSS file…just be careful when messing around with this file, as you can mess up your whole blog very quickly by changing the wrong settings (yes, I speak from experience!)
The next thing you have to decide is what kind of graphic you are going to need. Whatever you choose, it has to fit in with the theme of your blog. For example, on this blog, I only made a small change in the header graphic. Originally, it appeared like this (click on the graphics to see a larger version):
I reworked the original in my graphics program to look like this:
On another blog, I wanted a completely different look, so I created a whole new header graphic to put in the place of the original header graphic. The original header on that blog looked like this:
In its place, I created this header graphic:
When you have your new graphic ready, you have to upload it into the same file that your original header graphic was in. To be on the safe side, first rename the original graphic. I usually just add a number into the name to preserve the graphic. You don’t want to overwrite the original graphic, just in case something goes wrong and you want to revert to the original graphic.
Next, save your new graphic with the same name as the original graphic, and upload into the same folder on your server as the original graphic. You must use the same name as the original header, or you will have to edit your CSS file to call in the right file. You can use the control panel of your web space provider, or an FTP program to upload the new graphic to your server. Once uploaded, if you have done everything correctly, the graphic should show up in the header of your blog!
If you don’t have a good graphics program for editing, or creating great web graphics and headers, check out Xara. This program has a lot of functionality (comparable to Photoshop) and at a reasonable price. You can get Xara Xtreme for only $89. This is what I currently use, and I like it a lot!
Good luck getting your header graphic set up just the way you want. This can change your whole blog’s look, giving it a unique appearance, which is exactly what you are looking for!
I learned a lesson the hard way this week. I was working on another one of my blogs, Jake’s Outdoors, and decided that it was time for a face lift. I spent hours searching for just the right theme, and then worked on altering it to make it unique to my blog. I got all of my advertising set up and had everything looking and working just like I wanted it. But, I noticed that I wasn’t getting any comments, and my hits on the site were going down steadily. Finally, I opened the site up in Internet Explorer, and found that the theme didn’t work! It looks terrible in IE, as everything is misaligned on the page, and my 3rd column (the reason I wanted to change the theme in the first place) was not showing up right at all.
This was a valuable lesson, as much of my traffic still uses IE. I recommend downloading Firefox as it seems to be a better browser, and has a lot more functionality, but many people are still hooked on the Microsoft product. Maybe I will try to make the case for Firefox in another post.
This problem had a huge impact on my site. When I went back and looked at my statistics for the site, I found that about 60% of all of my visitors were still using IE, as opposed to only about 24% using Firefox. The rest were a mixture of browsers such as Mozilla and Safari. I don’t know how my site appeared to these users as I don’t have Mozilla installed, and I don’t have a Mac to test Safari.
The lesson learned is that you need to make sure that your sites look good in all browsers. Make sure that your code works the same in both Firefox and in IE, as that will be what the majority of your visitors will be using. Most of the themes for WordPress will work fine in any browser. Somehow, I managed to find the one out of 5000 available that won’t work. So, I don’t recommend the “Peace” theme for WordPress. It just doesn’t work well in IE, and I don’t like to put any kind of disclaimer at the top of my blogs, such as “works best in…” or “looks best in…”
Most sites that have themes available for download also have a link for you to test, or demo the theme. Be sure to check the demo in both Firefox and IE so that you don’t end up wasting all the time that I have over the last week!
There are a lot of ways for creative people to make money online. Most online experts agree that one of the best ways to make money online is to sell information. There is low overhead involved (outside of your own time in preparing the finished product) and you can easily market your own materials from the comfort of your own home or office. There are many places available where you can even sell your materials through affiliates for a split of the profits. You also have the advantage of nearly 100% profit on your own products. After all, once you have written the Next Best Thing, you can sell it for whatever price you want. Want to sell more? Just lower the price, and redouble your efforts in marketing.
You can market your finished product through Google Adsense, but that will cost you money upfront. Selling through affiliate programs such as ClickBank can be a good choice as well. There are fees to set up your products, but you will have a much higher rate of return through the affiliate programs because you will soon have many more people selling your product for you. Even if you are giving up 50% of your you will make more money over all because of the quantity of sales you will be bringing in. Of course, all of this is contingent on your product being something that others want to purchase.
If you have built your own email list, that will be the best place to start. Make sure that you are putting out something valuable, as you do not want to alienate your own list. Send out the information of your product, and offer a limited time discount for quick sales. Point them to your affiliate site so that they will soon be selling your products for you, and you will see the sales begin to roll in.
I came across a pretty good ebook that gives some good pointers on publishing an ebook, even if you don’t like to write, or don’t want to do any of the writing for a book. This book sells in some places for up to $67, but that is way overpriced. Most ebooks are overpriced, so be careful what you pay for them! There is some good info in here, so I am going to give it to you for free. I hope you can find some useful information, and some good tips for getting started in writing an ebook.
You can right click the link and choose “save as” or “save link as” to save it to your hard drive. Or, you could just click the link to read it in your browser. It is a PDF, so you will need Acrobat Reader to view it. Good luck on your ebook endeavors!
The latest version of WordPress is out, and with it comes a lot of changes. This is the first version of the program that I have seen a major change in the appearance of the backend of the interface. The all blue theme is now gone, and they have added some color (a burnt orange mostly) to the color scheme. Personally, being an Auburn Fan, I am all for this splash of color…it looks a bit like home!
Other than color changes, there are some major changes in the layout and functionality of this newest version of WordPress. Once I got used to the layout, I liked it a lot better than the old versions. The most used functions are easily accessible, and you can access some functions from your “Write Post” page now that were not available in older versions.
In recent versions of WordPress, you have been able to add pictures with a mere click of the mouse. Now, you can add pictures, video, audio files and other media with a click of the button. With these additions, you can insert various media files without having to know the HTML code that you may have needed in previous versions. This is a great help to those of us who are very limited in HTML coding knowledge, but it will also save a lot of time in inserting these things into posts.
I have read some posts around the web concerning the upgrading of WordPress, and how some are afraid to tackle it, for fear of ruining their blog, and losing everything they have already done. I found the upgrades very easy to do, and had no problems with messing anything up. You can see the upgrading instructions written by WordPress by clicking here. It really is a 3 step process. Simply download the new installation, and unzip it onto your hard drive. Then upload all the files EXCEPT for the “WP-content” file. This includes all your settings, plugins, and themes. WordPress suggests disabling your plugins before any upgrades. I chose not to do that, and didn’t have any problems, but you should decide for yourself which way you want to go. If your install messes up, don’t blame me! Finally, you will need to upgrade your databases, which is very simple to do. Simply type in: http://www.yourblogname.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php. A message will pop up telling you whether you need to upgrade your databases or not. If you need to upgrade (which I am pretty sure you will) you simply click the link, sit back, and wait for the process to end (which will only take a few seconds for most blogs).
There are a ton of great functions that have been added to this version. Rather than take the time to try and show you all of them (most of them I haven’t even had time to play with, or figure out if I want to use yet), I am just going to give you the link to the WordPress development blog. You can see all the functions of this version by clicking here.
I have posted before how much I like the WordPress platform. I think this is the best thing going for the time being. Check it out if you are ready to start a new blog, or if you aren’t really happy with the platform you are using now!
It has been a while since I have been able to write on this, or any of my blogs. My brother has been expecting his first child, and there have been problems with the pregnancy. To make a long story short, the doctors thought they were going to have to deliver the baby at 27 weeks, but through proper care and the answer to prayers, the baby made it to 34 weeks. She is now in the NICU, and is being well cared for. She is currently on a ventilator, and has a tube in her belly for giving her medications, and to draw blood.
We are trying to help my brother, who has been working very sporadically due to having to stay at the hospital with his wife, which is 1.5-2 hours from his house and even further from his work. Thus far, his boss and company have been very understanding, and have allowed him extended time off, even though he has exhausted all of his paid leave time. We are trying to help by setting up a way for people to donate money to him, through paypal. We are trying to provide some extra cash for them to be able to pay for extra food and gas expenses that have arisen for them. Also, if the mother is released from the hospital before the baby (which seems to be likely), they will have to pay for accommodations in the city so that they can stay close by the hospital.
If you are able to help, please click the button below. Every little bit helps. Thank you for your help!
A few days ago, I wrote a post up about how to make your header graphic a link in a WordPress Blog. I followed the instructions that I had found through a Google search, and was able to convert the heading on two other blogs that I work on. However, when I started trying to change the look of this blog a bit, and personalize the heading graphic a bit more than it was, I ran into problems. No matter what I tried, I could not make the header graphic a link. Finally, I changed the description tag to a link so at least there was something at the top of the blog to help with navigation.
There are some major differences between this theme (XMark, by Lisa Sabin-Wilson) and some of the older themes that I have used. I know that most authors will have some differences in the way that they code the templates, so that makes a difference in some of the tweaks that you can do. I am brand new to editing the code in any drastic way (other than just dropping in a script for a widget, or ad), so I’m in uncharted waters. I do know that I spent hours last night(and into this morning) trying to make this work, without any luck. I think I will email the author and see if she is willing to help me get it working right….
I was reading a post over at copyblogger today that really drove an important point home. When it comes to writing posts, far too many people try to write in a very unnatural way, driving up their keyword count. Evidently, some writers think that keyword density is really more important than quality writing. Now, I don’t claim to be a professional writer, but I do have what I think is my own natural style. I try to write in “my style”, and then, secondarily, worry about keyword density.
But in the wake of SEO-ing, SMO-ing, and all other types of O-ing we face the danger of falling into a trap. We must always remember that the quality of the content is paramount and be vigilant not to sacrifice that quality upon the altar of optimization.
I love that last line. Don’t sacrifice your quality of writing for search engine optimization. I have read some blogs where you don’t have to wonder what words the author is trying to rank high for…the phrase is used every other line, whether it fits in or not. Writing like that can certainly turn off readers. Instead, authors should write more naturally about a subject that interests them, and the key words will take care of themselves! Of course, you can go back through what you have written, and try identify places where you can reword to put in a couple more keywords, but make sure that the changes do not make your post sound choppy, or forced.
I have read other blogs that have great keyword density, but you don’t even notice because the flow of the article is so well done. They can produce a post with a great keyword density, but you don’t even realize what their targeted word or phrase is, because the writing is so well formulated
Developing a readership is one of the most important aspects of writing a successful blog. If your writing style is a turn-off, then you won’t get very many repeat readers. You need to have valuable information, but you also must write it in a way that is readable. Again, I don’t claim to be an expert in this area, and I am trying to learn how to do a better job. But, when you are using your keywords, make sure that they fit in with the flow of your writing.
So, remember that SEO is important for gaining search engine traffic, but a good writing style is important to maintain a readership. Write good articles, and you will be more successful with your blog.
A lot of people still host their site with free hosts. This can be an annoyance when it comes to regular web sites, as most free hosts implement their own advertising on your site, including pop up ads, ad pop under ads, as well as any new kind of ad that comes down the road. Not only does this annoy your visitors, but you don’t reap any of the benefits of the advertising. If you buy your own web space, you can put in a better advertising program, and get paid for the advertising, instead of passing it along to your “free” service. If you are hosting a blog, which you intend to keep for a long time, and establish as a true presence on the internet, then you should definitely get your own web space. Not only do you have more control over the look, feel, and functionality of your site, but you can have all the space you need to upload files, and pictures to insert into your blog. You won’t have to use other free (or paid) services such as Flickr, and Photobucket.
I have been using Bluehost to host all of my sites for quite a while now, and I am very happy with them. The great thing about hosting right now, is that there is a lot of competition for customers, which is driving hosting space up, and hosting fees down. Right now, you can get a tremendous amount of space for only a few dollars per month. Let me give you a rundown of the Bluehost offer:
1500 Gig of hosting space
Ability to host unlimited domains
First domain registration free–for the life of the account
I have been really impressed with the customer service of Bluehost. I have not had to stay on hold waiting to speak to a tech for more than 5 minutes, except one time. They have always been courteous, and helpful. I have used other hosting services in the past, and have not been nearly as happy with them. One service had only email tech support, and it could be up to 3 days before I got any kind of answer from them.
Bluehost also has had very limited downtime. I know that many hosts brag about limited downtime, but often it is not really the case. Again, I reference my previous host (which shall remain unnamed for the time being), who would be down for days at a time. And, when they refused to answer email sent to tech support, you could be without service for long periods of time. My sites on Bluehost have never been down for more than a few minutes to a couple of hours. The couple of times that my sites have been down more than just a few minutes have turned out to be something wrong in my own control panel. After calling tech support, they have been straightened out quickly.
There is really no reason not to have your site hosted on your own space today. You can get all of this from Bluehost for only $6.95 per month. That includes your first top level domain name! That amount can be easily made up through advertising and other online endeavors. So, be sure and check out this hosting service, and get your blog, or site moved to your own website, and your own domain name!
Well, we know it is almost tax time. April 15 is just around the corner, and if your taxes are very difficult to figure out at all, then you probably have already been working on them. Mine are no fun anymore, so I have them done by a real accountant…its the only way to guarantee that I get all that’s coming to me!
Today, I came across a couple of things that may be helpful to those who are preparing their taxes. As a disclaimer, I will say that I haven’t actually used these services, but they may be of help to others out there. So, check these out if you think they can help you get things situated at this dreaded time of the year.
First: TaxAct
With TaxAct, you can prepare, file and print your tax returns. You can e-file your returns, and get your refund in as little as 9 days, according to the literature at the site. After poking around the site a bit, I cannot find anything that raises flags. I see no reason not to use this product, especially if your taxes are relatively simple. You can also process your State returns through TaxAct, but that will cost you a bit. Still, it would be cheaper than an accountant, and it would also be less hassle than having to go through the process twice (once online for federal and once offline for State).
You can also download the software to your computer if you think that would be a better option than filling in forms online. The standard version of the software is free, but you can get the Deluxe version or the Ultimate version for a small fee. If you pay for a box version of software, you may be able to download this cheaper. As I said before, I don’t use these programs because it is easier for me to send mine to an accountant.
Second: Tax Brain
This is another online tax preparation company, where you can prepare your files, and then e-file. Prices for this service start at $14.95, but they offer a couple of features not offered through TaxAct. You can deduct all preparation fees directly from your refund, and then receive your refund either via paper check, or by direct deposit. A second feature that is offered is a “refund loan”. You can select the option of having the total of your refund sent to you within 2 days as a loan, which is to be repaid upon receiving your refund.
You can log in, and enter all of your information to try this product without paying anything. You are only charged when you e-file and print your returns. So, you can easily try one or both of these services to see which one is better for you.
Maybe this info will be helpful to you as you try to get your taxes filed this year. Either of these products could save you money, and get you your returns faster. Check them out!
