Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays everyone! Hope you have a wonderful end to 2007 and an even better beginning to 2008. Let's hope that 2008 is a very prosperous year for us all! And may we gain robust good health!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ad Wave Bigger Than Radio, TV combined

Radio and TV advertising closely followed the Internet because people are spending more and more time on the Internet doing things like surfing, shopping, socializing, watching TV and videos.

NetAudioAds Pay Per Play (PPP) is the new wave in Internet advertising. When a visitor arrives at a participating website, he will hear a 5-second professional audio ad. The audio will be relevant to the content of the website.

This works without having the visitor click anything, unlike Pay Per Click advertisement. Thus each and every visitor to a participating site will generate revenue for the website owner just by visiting.

The advertisers will bid for ad placement in the websites and the highest bidder will have his audio played when there is a visitor. So, a website owner who has more traffic or more pages, more income will be generated.

For the system to work, there must be many sites available for advertisers to bid for placement of the audio ads. PPP is working hard towards the deadline of Feb 1, 2008 to have everything up and running. Thus websites and blogs are being sought after.

Anybody who has a blog or a website is eligible to participate without having to pay anything. They just have to paste some given code on their sites and the audio ads will be activated when someone visits the site. The good thing is that the audio ads will be only 5 seconds, relevant to the website content and they do not take up any visual space on the webpage or blog.

PPP is set to challenge Google Adsense, but they can be used together. So far, there has been no disagreement issues with websites hosting both types of advertisements.

So, bloggers, if you want a piece of the action, you can visit http://tinyurl.com/yqqday.

Here is a very interesting and informative piece by Dan Moses.

The Road to Freedom Through Program Ownership
By Dan Moses

Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like
to be a program owner?

Have you ever thought how it might feel to own a program
of your own some day?

Have you ever wanted to own a successful Internet business,
but just didn't know how or where to start?

Do you find yourself day dreaming what it would be like
to own a program online? For years I wanted to own a
program online, but really didn't have a clue at that time
what I wanted to own. Finally, I met someone that could
help me get started in owning a program and my life
changed forever.

Becoming a program owner is so much more then just
establishing an online presence. You can do that by building
a list or promoting affiliate programs... no, being a program
owner is like creating a masterpiece that you have control
over. It's something that you become a part of... it gets in
your blood and if done right... it will become part of who
you are.

In order to make the best decision on what type of program
to own, several factors need to be considered. You want the
most suited program for you... this program needs to enable
you to perform at your peak level. Warning: Don't create a
program until you've answered the following five questions...

1. Would you like to earn a residual income from the Internet?

2. Would you like to build a list very quickly?

3. Would you like to create traffic on demand?

4. Would you like to build relationships with Top Marketers?

5. Would you like to achieve freedom from employment?

If you answered yes to these 5 questions then this is for you,
but are you willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen?

Being a program owner is more then getting up in the morning
and checking stats and sales. You have to invest your heart into
your program and the time needed to make that program a huge
success. At least that's the way I've always done it.

People know the difference from an owner who cares for them
and a owner who's only in it for themselves and the money.

So what kinds of programs are there to own online?

Actually... quite a few:

1. SafeLists
2. Membership sites
3. Downline builders
3. List building programs
4. Traffic Exchanges
5. Forums can be programs
6. Newsletter programs like The Nettle
7. Resource programs like PageSwirl
8. Autoresponder programs
9 Tracking programs like ProTrackerPlus
10. Affiliate programs

The list can go on and on here... but which ones are better then
the others? Well, there's a lot more to it then that.

You see, some programs are much harder to create or compete
with others in the market place, but those programs can produce
the most revenue over the others.

Like owning an Autoresponder Program. There's a lot of competition
when it comes to autoresponders and you would have to invest quite
a bit of capitol into that program not only to develop it, but for
advertising that would get you noticed above the other great
programs that are already online.

On the other hand... running an Affiliate Program wouldn't cost
much up front, nor would there be much competition if you had
your own unique products to allow others to promote. Plus the
scripts are pretty inexpensive and pretty easy to set up. Now it
wouldn't be as lucrative as owning an Autoresponder program,
but if done right... you could see some nice income from it.

You see, it's not that easy deciding what program you'd like to
own, but the key to owning one is to first get into similar programs
you want to own and learn everything you can about the programs
and not just the programs, but get to know the owners.

Who are they?
Do they hang out somewhere online together?
Is there a forum they spend a lot of time at?
Do they even care to get to know other program owners within
their niche?

These are key questions to ask and are a main reason why some
owners and their programs outperform others. The ground work
done before hand can be the key difference that makes or breaks
you in pretty much any niche you choose to jump into.

If you can, get to know the owners of those programs and if they're
willing to help you... you're in! You not only will have a fantastic
program, but the owners within that niche will refer you to their
members and soon their members will be your members. Whola!

I'm sure by now you are well aware that you will do better with
certain programs than you would with others. What you may not
be aware of is that there are some owners out there willing to help
you create your program, launch it, and introduce you to other
owners that can help you succeed.

Finding them is much easer said then done! This is step #1 in your
quest to owning a program. Once you find them the rest is up to
you.

They will lead you down the road to freedom through program
ownership and before you know it you'll call yourself a proud
owner of ____? :o)

Before I let you get back to dreaming, I need to let you know
that I can help. I am that step #1 when it comes to owning a
Traffic Exchange. If that's been your dream... I can make that
a reality. Just ask.

In Conclusion:

You need to decide what works best for you, find the right
people to help with that program, and go after them with a
'Whatever It Takes' attitude. Don't forget to get to know as
many owners within that niche as you can... before you launch
and maybe even get their help in launching your program.

Follow all these steps and you're sure to have a successful
program.

___________________________________________________________

Dan Moses is a 30-year old family man living in Redmond,
Oregon who came online over seven years ago, and like most
of us, planned to set out on a journey of finding his riches on
the Internet. Of course, he quickly realized it wasn't as easy
as most would have you believe. But that didn't stop Dan...
Throughout his journeys he has become quite the entrepreneur
by owning and/or operating over 10 programs online, the most
popular being... Recommended Links: PageSwirl : 4x4Hits :
ClickMaster Pro : FreeClickThruClub : ProTrackerPlus

=============================================
Q U A L I T Y Q U O T E
=============================================
"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every
man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which
all men have some."

- Charles Dickens
1812-1870, Novelist

Google's View of SEO's Future

At SES 2007 conference in Chicago (Dec. 3-7), WebProNews reporter Abby Prince has a very interesting conversation with Jim Muller, Tech Lead for Google universal search. Jim gives Google's view of SEO's future, and it still very much revolves around those links. That hints that the issue of paid links will still be pursued in the future.

He goes into details on the increased expansion of universal search to cover images, videos, news and almost anything on the Internet. He also explained the notion of blended search whereby Google gives out a blend of search results for a query.

Jim is a very well-educated and brilliant gentleman who joined Google in 2005. He is now Tech Lead on Google's universal search effort.

Prior to joining Google, he was a neuroscience researcher at Stanford. Before that he worked on computer vision algorithms at Sarnoff Labs, and at hardware and software startups.

Jim has a PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester and a BS in Computer Science/Mathematics from Carnegie-Mellon.

So, watch the interview with Jim - the Tech Lead in Google universal search.

What an essential service

If you run an online home business, your files are very precious to you and you cannot afford to lose them in a hard disk crash. Horrors upon horrors should you lose your financial data or even some simple but essential files.

That is why you should know about the service called Tilana Reserve, because it is not enough if you back up your files onto an external hard disk or thumbdrive only every month or so. Tilana Reserve service gives you continuous data protection every minute of the day so that you won't be caught unawares.

More than that, this wonderful online service gives you file synchronization in the computers you use, such as your home desktop, your office computer and your laptop, so that they all have the same information.

To top it all, you can have remote access to all files that are backed up by Tilana Reserve, from any computer with a web browser and Internet connection. You'll be able to work on those files, save changes and upload back to your other computers, which is even better than a remote desktop connection.

And a single Tilana Reserve account may protect a single computer, or protect and synchronize content and data on multiple computers. Wonderful, isn't it?

Good to write in simple language

I believe it's good to write in simple language and make your writings easy to understand. Prof. Harry McLaughlin was so flabbergasted with gobbledygook that in 1969 he devised SMOG (Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook).

It is a formula that gives a readability level for written material. Readability is an attempt to match the reading level of written material to the "reading with understanding" level of the reader.

One way to find out the readability level of a text is to use the SMOG calculator developed by Prof. McLaughlin which can be found here.

There are many ways of relating readability levels to adult literacy levels. SMOG and other readability level programs are approximates and they give a measure of the readability and not the reading age of a text.

I recommend a very simple way to establish the readability level of a blog, that is by using this program. Find out what level of education is required to understand your blog. Just fill in the URL of your blog and click submit.

I submitted my blog's URL and this is what comes out:


I'm happy my blog's readability level is Junior High School which means that everyone who has gone through Junior High School can comprehend what I write here.

However, it also depends on what purpose and audience you want your blog to serve. New York Times and CNN sites have readability levels of Junior High School. On the other end, Legal Theory Blog is at genius level of readability. However, Tax Prof Blog is at High School readability level. What is your blog's readability level?

Is Google doing the right thing?

Looking at all the comments in the various blogs, such as in Andy Beard's, I find myself really in great company. My PR has also gone down from 3 to 2 and then to 0 because I'm a PayPerPost blogger. But I don't sell Text Link Ads.

The thing is Google is victimising a small segment of bloggers leaving the vast majority unscathed. I'm sure Google hardly touched a small portion of all the 85,000 PayPerPost bloggers.

Anyway, I think Google cannot penalise bloggers by taking away or reducing the PR because it will be making a great mockery of PR which is supposed to measure the importance of the page. Just because there is a paid opinion in the form of a sponsored post and link does not make the blog less important or relevant than if there is a not-sought-after opinion given.

Give Free Rice to the Poor

Let's be happy. Let's digress from brooding over losing Google Page Rank and things of that sort (like I'm a victim from PR3 to PR0) and happily concentrate on doing some charity by playing the FreeRice game.

The interesting game has two aims:
1) Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free
2) Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free through the UN.

This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on the FreeRice site.

Whether you're a rich high-flying executive or a poor deprived child in a remote Third World country, by improving your vocabulary you open new doors in your life.

More important is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry humans, enabling them to be alive and productive. Somewhere out there in the world, someone is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

After playing FreeRice for a couple of days, you will find that you're using new and more effective words to think, speak and write, which you have not thought of before.

FreeRice has a database of words of varying levels of difficulty, suitable for people first learning English and also those that will challenge scholarly professors. There are also varying levels in-between.

FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. To start off, it will give you words of varying difficulty, and then based on how you perform, assigns you an approximate starting level. As you go along, you will determine a more exact level.

When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This will keep you at the outer fringe of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.

The instructions say there are 50 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 48. Personally, for a start, I can get up to level 38 no problem without a dictionary, donating about 300 grams of rice. You can also use a dictionary but the tricky answers make you not always right.

Smorty, a rewarding small home business

Smorty is a website where I can get paid to blog by advertisers who are keen to advertise on blogs regarding their products or services. I get paid for blogging on the virtues of products or the lack of them. Writing for Smorty can be a rewarding small home business.

I came to know about Smorty through an old friend of mine who had been a Smorty fan for some time and made good money with the program. Using the URL he provided me I applied to join Smorty. Since at that time I already had quite good Google Page Rank, I did not encounter any difficulty.

I find that Smorty has quite a lot of opportunities available for bloggers most of the time and the posts need not be unduly long. Also, the terms of service are flexible and not fraught with stifling artificial rules and regulations.

Basically, Smorty seamlessly connects advertisers with bloggers so that bloggers can write opinion posts with links back to the advertisers' sites. This service is very well run and bloggers get paid promptly without undue delay.

Do your part to help the hungry

Would you like to help the poor and hungry people of the world?

Yes, you can do that by playing a little word game. By playing this game you're doing charity. This game is sponsored by the website www.freerice.com and for each word you get right, they will donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

It's a very interesting game and you can take one minute or two minutes to play it, or you can spend one or two hours playing it, as you like. And all the while doing a good deed.

The rice will be paid for by the advertisers in the website, such as Fujitsu, Macy's, Toshiba, Time/Life, iTunes, Radisson, American Express and others who so sportingly support this concept.

To play the game click here.

The website first started on Oct. 7, 2007 and so it's about a month since. More than one thousand million grains of rice have been donated by players and will go to the poor and hungry. So please do your part. It's fun. I donated 450 grains and will come back and play the game some more later.

Online retailers' most important decision

One of the most important decisions to make when setting up an online store is deciding on the shopping cart software. Of course it has to provide means of customer payments through credit cards, PalPal or direct deposit.

Not only that, the shopping cart has to be user-friendly both to the customer and to the shopkeeper. One such shopping cart software is a hosted one called Ashop Commerce shopping cart. It is so user-friendly that once the initial framework is established, the site can be quickly built.

The remarkable flexibility of the software provided by Ashop Commerce makes it possible to build a uniquely individual site that stands out from the crowd. Not only that, it also provides security, automated confirmations, rapid download and online tracking, among other things for a reasonable monthly fee.

I think the last point I would like to make is that it gives the vital ingredient of help and support as testified in many of the testimonials. All in all, it represents a high-end but cost-effective professional solution for Internet marketers seriously thinking of an online retail business.

Our Planet's Most Gorgeous Bums

The buttocks are called by many names, such as butt, buns, bum, booty, behind, bottoms, ass, arse, or simply backside. They are actually rounded parts of muscle and fat situated on the back of apes, humans and other two-legged animals.

They act as a cushion so that we can sit down without having to support our weight on our arms and legs like other animals.

The buttocks are a butt of jokes since many centuries. They are thought to be awkwardly funny or even hilarious things which are to be mentioned sheepishly. History has it that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales with some jokes about buttocks in about the year 1380.

So you see, buttocks are topical subjects. Of late the underwear designer Sloggi, which has vested interest in buttocks, threw a contest of the bums to pick the world's best bums.

Out of 15,000 who applied online, a total of 43 candidates from 28 countries battled it out at the final in the German city of Munich recently to convince the jury of the quality of their behind.

Kristina Dimitrova, 19, from Bulgaria and Andrei Andrei, 24, from Romania won the women's and men's categories respectively. In this video you can see the champion bums and hear Joanna Partridge reporting for Reuters.

Garage cabinets are indeed useful

Bloggers and Internet lovers normally would spend many hours behind the computer. However, statistics have it that the garage is a huge part of your home that you usually visit at least twice a day for something or other.

Well, if that's so, why don't you keep your garage as tidy as possible and also make really full use of it by installing nice garage cabinets to store kids' toys, computer parts, brooms and rakes, handyman tools, bags, gardening stuff and what-have-you.

You can get a wide choice of practical garage cabinets at www.CarGuyGarage.com.

Expediting Process of Debit Card Withdrawal

This is about using AlRajhi Visa debit card to withdraw from PalPal account in Malaysia.

On Oct. 16th I opened a savings account with AlRajhi Bank and obtained my Visa debit card. As a trial run, the next morning I withdrew US$10 from my PayPal account into my Visa debit card which will go into my savings account.

PayPal deducted US$5 as service fee and credited the remaining US$5 into my Visa debit card. I then received an email to that effect from PayPal.

However, since Oct. 17the until now I have been logging into my savings account on the Internet but seen no sign of money being credited in.

So, on Nov. 1st, that is today, after 16 days, I rang up the Customer Care Consultant at AlRajhi Bank to enquire. Apparently, the transfer process could take up to 30 days. It seems some people are lucky to have their transfer processed within two weeks, but others may have to wait up to 30 days for the managing bank (HSBC) in Hong Kong to process.

The Customer Care Consultant says AlRajhi Bank is negotiating for a faster processing time as a 30-day period is far too long to wait. She says there have been several such cases that she has come across. Well, let's hope the bank will succeed in speeding up the process.

Hiring experienced DUI defense lawyers

If you're in Los Angeles or other parts of Southern California and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, you're in deep shit. In California, driving under the influence of alcohol or DUI is considered a very serious offense that can lead to harsh legal consequences if convicted.

But don't despair in such circumstances, you can depend on skilled DUI defense lawyers in Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP at (877)781-1570.

These Los Angeles Criminal Attorneys | California Felony Misdemeanor DUI Defense Lawyers can evaluate your case and advise you of your legal options.

They are the top 5% U.S. law firm and have over 50 years of collective courtroom experience. There you can get the service of a DUI defense lawyer who has the legal background and knowledge it takes to successfully fight DUI charges.

PR3 after a year of blogging

After blogging for one year 2 months with no Page Rank, I'm quite happy that I now have a decent Google Page Rank 3 to this blog of mine. I hope this display of Page Rank has stabilized.

In recent days the first or second waves of the Google Dance had been a demotion exercise to many big name blogs of people like Darren Rowse or John Chow. However, now after the demotion rounds, come the the promotions. I'm lucky to be among those promoted from zero Page Rank to PR3.

I have a good friend whose blog got promoted from PR4 to PR6 which is higher than the Page Ranks of Darren Rowse or John Chow. His blog is at www.TheNextPost.com. When asked, he said that the secret lies in posting regularly and frequently with quality posts. There is no necessity for link farms or things of that sort.

There's also another thing that made my day. My Internet marketing website www.HomeWebBiz.com has also been promoted from PR2 to PR3. So I hope to have a little bit more traffic.

This blog now having PR3 (if the display has stabilized) will bring me some benefits, like more opportunities for sponsored posts and higher income, hopefully.

Olive at 108 is World's Oldest Blogger

Who says old folks cannot blog? Blogging is not reserved for the young only but for all those young at heart as well. There are so many retired people in their 50s and 60s producing fantastic blogs.

Well, there are much older bloggers too.

Meet Olive Riley, an Aussie. She's just celebrated her 108th birthday - making her what's believed to be the world's oldest blogger.

So now, who says retired people cannot blog? Even Octogenarians and Centenarians blog as well and doing a better job than many other young people! Shame. Shame.

Olive's blog is at www.AllAboutOlive.com.au. Writing assistance rendered by Mike. Olive mixes happily with kids a hundred years younger than her.

Paying for your home

When you're successful in earning a living on the Internet, then you will think of taking out a mortgage to pay for a new house.

What exactly is a mortgage? It is simply a loan one takes to pay for a property like a home of your own so that you can have a comfortable home office. This loan is usually the largest debt in one go you will incur in your life, at least for most of us.

There are many variations of mortgages that might confuse you, so it would do well for you to simply seek out to consult a specialist mortgage broker at www.ukpersonalloanstore.co.uk/mortgages.html.

On the other hand, you may have owned your home for a long time. Then you should consider the concept of remortgages and take out a remortgage loan. With interest rates at the lowest level in many years, a lot of homeowners are remortgaging to save on monthly payments.

You may want to do that to take advantage of the lower interest rate, pay for the children's education, pay for renovation of your home or pay off higher rate debts like credit cards. You can learn a lot about remortgage here.

Highly Recommended: Al Rajhi Visa Debit Card

All Internet marketers and monetized blogs owners were eager to get their money out of PayPal to have a merry time, especially here in Malaysia where our Muslim friends celebrated the Muslim New Year - Hari Raya on Oct. 13 & 14. More so when all the while, prior to this PayPal development, Malaysians could not withdraw money from their PayPal accounts.

I was very eager too. So, on Tuesday my Internet marketing buddy M. and I went to Al Rajhi Bank in the new town centre of Bandar Puteri where many banks gather. There we obtained Visa debit card for free and opened a savings account each with the minimum amount of RM20 ($6).

The debit card which came with the savings account, will be billed RM22 ($6) on the anniversary of its date of issuance, which means you use first for one year before paying anything.

The Visa Debit-enabled ATM Card gives you 24-hour ATM access at Al Rajhi Bank ATMs and ATMs displaying the Visa PLUS sticker. Apart from being able to be used to accept PayPal's payments, you may use it to pay for things directly from your account at millions of Visa-accepted locations worldwide.

Also the Al Rajhi Savings Account-i, as it is called, is ideal for all your fundamental banking needs. It offers you Internet banking facilities and phone banking to easily manage fund transfers, bill payments and balance enquiries. The brochure says it takes RM200 ($56) to open one but at the moment the requirement has been drastically relaxed to RM20 ($6).

By the way, Al Rajhi Bank is a Saudi Arabian bank which is the largest Islamic bank in the world with a paid-up capital of SR 4,500,000,000. Malaysia marks their first foray into the international retail banking market and it's a highly significant development in the 50 over years history of the bank.

When I came home with the Visa debit card, I added it to my PayPal account under add a card. Then I tried as an experiment to withdraw US$10, the minimum withdrawal allowed, from my PayPal account to the debit card.

Things went like clockwork and PayPal's statement on its website says it has withheld $5 as transaction fee and forwarded $5 to my debit card. However, I will have to wait a week before the money is cleared for withdrawal at the ATM.

But my poor ole buddy M. had a problem with his debit card. The PayPal system could not detect his card. Don't know what went wrong. Maybe it's a matter of having to key in the data carefully and according to instructions. Well, that will certainly be sorted out I'm sure.

Al Rajhi card tops for PayPal withdrawals in Malaysia

Looks like Malaysians now have a good avenue to withdraw money in their PayPal accounts (earned from Internet businesses like Affiliate Marketing, pay per post blogging, eBay auctions or other activities which receive payments through PayPal).

One very good way I happened to read about, is to use the free Visa debit card from Al Rajhi Bank which carries no annual fee and which can be obtained right on the spot in the bank within minutes.

You can add this debit card to your PayPal and then fill it with the money in your PayPal account before withdrawing money from an Al Rajhi Bank ATM or conveniently at the many Maybank ATMs throughout Malaysia. PayPal charges US$5 per withdrawal.

Al Rajhi Bank's debit card is excellent because it is a Visa card recognised by PayPal, it is free to obtain, there is no annual fee and it takes only a few minutes to obtain over the counter at the bank. See what Lillian Chan has written about this at Al Rajhi roxs, Public Bank suxs.

What a feast!

Let's take a breather and watch something light-hearted and stunning again. This will surprise you and take your breath away.

In Oaxaca in Mexico, peasants cultivate worms that are considered a tasty delicacy. Mexicans love the worms so much that the worms are also soaked in bottles of Mezcal, which is a favourite local liquor much similar to Tequila.

As far as I know, Mexicans like the flavour of these worms and make merry with this drink in boisterous groups in town. The locals also fry handfuls of the worms in pans and eat them with relish mixed with some seasoning. Crunchy, spicy and interesting, I suppose.

Make your garage more useful and pleasant

Spending most of your free time blogging? I'm sure many of you guys also spend time in your garage at home tinkering with a few things now and then. Maybe you're just checking the battery water or inspecting the condition of your car fan belts, or repairing your son's bicycle.

To be able to carry out these tasks, your garage should be provided with suitable garage lighting as most garages do not have many windows, if any at all.

A choice of many types of garage lightings for various types of projects are available at www.CarGuyGarage.com. You need a lot of light in a garage, otherwise it will look like a dungeon in there.

The website www.CarGuyGarage.com also sells many garage related things like stainless steel garage cabinets, bicycle racks, workbenches, garage floor coatings and a host of 1,000 other garage accessories to make your home garage a much more useful and pleasant place. I'm sure you agree with me that there's nothing like a well-organised garage at home.

PayPal lifts ban on Malaysia

It's good news for online entrepreneurs in Malaysia. PayPal has lifted its ban on Malaysia and has allowed withdrawals from PayPal accounts through local banks' debit cards that are associated with Visa or MasterCard.

Since several years ago when there was a massive spate of credit card fraud linked to Malaysians, PayPal had disallowed withdrawals in Malaysia. So, for many years online entrepreneurs in Malaysia had a common problem of not being able to withdraw money directly from PayPal.

Many did it in indirect and roundabout ways, such as opening bank accounts in neighbouring Singapore, creating US investment checking bank accounts for their debit cards, or using online banks' virtual money debit cards recognised by PayPal.

Malaysians could do most of the transactions in PayPal except withdrawal because there was no provision that can direct money to local banks. So, the solution was third party debit cards.

However, now Malaysians can get local banks' debit cards associated with MasterCard or Visa, like NexG debit card issued by AmBank, which can be bought from Seven Eleven stores costing RM25 each.

So, it is excellent news for Internet marketers in Malaysia. Check up Matt Ng of http://InternetMoneyBlog.com who has written about this in detail.

World's biggest swimsuit shoot

Let's take a look at something light-hearted for a change. Let's look at Bondi Beach located on the east coast of Australia and in the suburb of Sydney.

Bondi Beach is one of Australia's most famous beaches and among the world's most well-known beaches. It is about 1 km long and is patrolled by vigilant lifesavers.

There are lots of great coffee-shops and eateries along the beach and tucked away in the back streets. You can also find many places to stay.

There are activities all year round at Bondi Beach, many of them centred around the Pavilion. They range from surfing competitions and kite flying to festivals, markets and galleries. In the video below you can see one of the great swimsuit events there.

Find online marketing services here

At DiscountClick you can find a whole range of internet marketing services for all types of online businesses. Examples of services offered are marketing expertise for websites to sell their products and services online, search engines promotion, management of email promotion lists and many other online marketing services that you can think of.

Basically, the services offered can be broadly classified into three, i.e. Search Engine Marketing, SEO Services Marketing and Top Search Engine Promotion.

Under Search Engine Marketing, you get services like SEO Consulting, Link Building Services and Affordable Content Writing amongst others.

Under SEO Services Marketing you can get Keyword Ranking Reports to find out where your website presently stands in the search engines. You also get Professional SEO Tools including Keyword Density Analyzer, and Organic and Pay Per Click Reporting.

Under Top Search Engine Promotion, you will get service to be in Top Rankings on all major search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Altavista and others.

So when you're in need of Online Marketing Services it will pay you to spare a thought for DiscountClick.com.

Advertisers keen for publicity at Blogsvertise

I have just joined another wonderful sponsored posts blogs advertising site called Blogsvertise. The advertisers there are keen to have bloggers blog about their websites, products and services and create a buzz in the blogosphere because they need the publicity for more business.

In return Blogsvertise pays the blogger using PayPal on a per blog entry basis for the mention and buzz that the blogger creates in the blog entry for the advertiser.

My good old friend Mark who introduced Blogsvertise to me says that the site seems to be paying reasonable payments for the blog entries and the entries need not be unduly long.

Members will be assigned tasks through the email. They will be given website URLs and guidelines on what to write about. They can review the site by praising it, or even complain about it, or somehow relate it to their daily life. However, one general requirement is that there should be at least three links in the post pointing to the advertiser's website.

Payments are automatically made to the blogger's PayPal account after his entry is approved and the payment period has elapsed.

Great deal on one product each day

Many of us bloggers are Internet marketers too. We use online business related tools a lot of the time. As such, we should be interested in this new site called DealDotCom. It's a brand new idea on the Internet.

From this site, you can get good deals for Internet marketing related products, sometimes even at half price. This site is unique in that prices are cheap but only one product is offered for one day only. It is a special discount deal on one product each day.

You can check it out by clicking this link which will take you to today's offer:
www.tinyurl.com/2ogbho

This system is full of surprises because you won't know what products are coming beforehand, how many copies have been sold or when the product will sell out during the day.

On Sept. 20 the product was the WordPress plug-in WP Affiliate Pro which normally sells at $97 (you can check the homepage of the plug-in to verify) and it was selling for $49.88 at DealDotCom.

It also sells not so expensive things like relevant ebooks such as Product Domination Blueprint plus Master Resale Rights for $7.66 on Sept. 22.

With such a site that offers one product for only one day, at a good price, you can expect people to log in everyday to check what's being sold and at what price. It will become a daily watchlist for people who don't want to miss out on a great deal.

Moreover, if you have your own product such as an ebook for instance, you can submit it to DealDotCom for them to put it up for sale at special discount on one of the days.

Also, DealDotCom has an affiliate program which pays good commission for two tiers. If you want, you can click this link to join:
www.tinyurl.com/263a45

Plan your vacation online

Are you cooped up in your home office working so hard blogging or building an online business? It can be very taxing. So, why not seek out a couple of buddies and plan a vacation to cool down.

To plan a holiday is quite simple if you use Hotel Reservations. Here you can easily book your hotel accommodation and flights online. You can even book online a rental car for your city of vacation.

If you don’t want hotel accommodation, you can opt for vacation rentals, which are basically any suite-type lodging that has self-catering facilities, like wet bar, refrigerator, microwave oven, etc. Most have separate bedrooms, fully equipped kitchens, bathrooms, washer and dryer, and sometimes a balcony or patio.

Unlike hotels with per person pricing, there is a set price for an entire vacation rental with a maximum number of persons allowed.

With the www.HotelReservations.com website, you can even plan and book an entire vacation package, with interesting activities thrown in. For example, if you plan to come to Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia where I live, you can plan the flights, the hotels and even the local activities in and around Kuala Lumpur, or KL as it is popularly known.

Activities offered may include walks in the rain forests or seeing communities of sparkling fireflies in riverside villages at night.

Yes, come to think about it, you should come to KL since there will be plenty of interesting local activities as this is the Visit Malaysia Year. And don’t forget the sumptuous local food and delicacies which will titillate your taste buds.

Same procedure applies if you plan to vacation in London, Honolulu, or Florida, for example. The HotelReservations.com covers the USA, South America, Canada, Europe, Australia, Asia and most other parts of the world. You can use your credit card and the prices go with the lowest Internet rate price guarantee. So, be smart and plan to book your vacation to get out of your home office for a while to relax. It’ll do you a world of good.

Complement Microsoft Office with Google Apps

Everyone has been talking about Google’s latest software package, Google Apps, and whether it is competition to Microsoft Office.

David Utter, a WebProNews editor, writes in an article that whether you use Microsoft Office or not, Google apparently urges you to complement that desktop productivity suite with Google Aps which are web-based.

Large numbers of entry level staffers may switch to Google Aps because they need only basic functionality. Why support patches and updates for Office when Google will do all that work for you since the software is web hosted.

Google Aps offers the following: word processing, spreadsheets, email, calendar, IM/voice client, web page creation, all available from a centrally managed start page. All you need is the PC with Internet connection and a headset for Google Talk.

If the workers publish their documents through Google Docs & Spreadsheets, the documents can be managed from one place.

It is an alternative to installed, licensed desktop software. It is delivered over the Internet and do not require companies to install or maintain software locally.

However, there is an issue of the server or network going down while people are trying to work with Google Aps. Nevertheless, the question is, is the chance of a network or Google outage any greater than that of a PC problem?

In these times, all that a company needs is an Internet connection, and some time to sign up for and enable Google Aps. David Utter says this is an option firms should at least consider before writing that check for Office licences.

WebProNews talked with Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg to get his opinion on the issue. Find out what he had to say, here on WebProNews video.

Coupons handy for holiday season

The holiday season is fast approaching with Halloween and Thanksgiving preceding the busy Christmas time of more gifts. At such times you should not forget the site at www.CouponChief.com dealing with money-saving coupons.

This site is a subsidiary of Coupon Chief, Inc. where they always provide you a one-stop coupon deal and discount resource. This of course is great when you are buying gifts for your loved ones and friends.

At this site, you can get up-to-date coupon codes and promotional deals and discounts which are one of the best in online shopping.

They are always giving the latest deals and offers from their extensive list of online shopping merchants dealing with offers like Dell coupons, Amazon coupon codes, Travelocity deals, etc. Not only that, they are constantly adding more merchants to their list together with new coupon codes, promotion codes, and offers.

It will certainly take care of your wallet and improve your online shopping experience if you constantly visit them again and again whenever you want to buy online.

Firefox gets 400 million downloads

Although microsoft still leads the web browser market with 63.9 percent share but Firefox is slowly and steadily gaining ground with about 20 percent.

Mozilla has announced that its open source free browser has attained 400 million downloads. This is a big feather in the cap for Firefox, which launched only three years ago in 2004.

Since then there were impressive successes. One year after its launch in 2005, Firefox achieved 100 million downloads and in 2006 it hit the 200 million mark. And the latest figure is the 400 million mark.

In message posted on its website Spread Firefox, the company thanks its users. "Today, you all have done it once again. With your amazing efforts, Firefox has reached 400 million downloads and demonstrated that not even the world's most powerful companies can keep people from a better, safer, and faster Web experience."

"You all, the grass roots and the heart of the Firefox movement, have helped hundreds of millions of people find that better, safer, and faster Web."

"Thank you for building this movement. Thank you for helping Firefox to deliver on the great promises of the Web. On behalf of the hundreds of millions of Firefox users, thank you for all that you have done in just three short years."

I used to utilize Internet Explorer 7 and totally ignored Firefox. But at the insistence of my good old pal Mark, I downloaded Mozilla Firefox to try. Much to my pleasant surprise, I found that this incredible browser is very, very fast and easy to use with so many choices of add-ons and plugins.

Now I'm totally hooked on it and look forward to a more delightful web surfing experience. That must have been the wonderful experience of the 400 million Firefox users too.

Google Dance about to start!

Each change in display of PageRank or PR causes a stir among the SEO community and webmasters trying to get their sites to the top of the Google Rankings, not forgetting the bloggers who need high PR to command high income in writing paid posts.

From 2000 to 2003, the PR index updates tended to happen regularly about once a month. The resulting changes with now-you-see-it-now-you-don't green bar were called the Google Dance.

From 2003 Google started using an index that is updated everyday. So instead of a monthly event, small day-to-day changes, termed everflux occurs. However, this is not displayed or refreshed on the toolbar.

Lately, updated PRs are usually made visible only every 3 - 4 months. The Google Dance occurs over the course of about a week and is much overdue now.

As of Sept 10, 2007 there has not been a PR review for 133 days - the longest wait ever. Prior to this, the longest time between PR reviews was 122 days (Oct 19, 2005 to Feb 18, 2006).

As such, considering this, the Google Dance should be happening anytime now. So, keep an eye on your Google toolbar and watch your PR dance.

Greg gives out his secrets

President and Co-Founder of SEO-PR.com, Greg Jarboe spoke to WebProNews after a session on Blogging and RSS at SES San Jose 2007. Jarboe talks about the difficulties on the web today with the amount of bloggers, 98 million to be exact. Tactics to use while promoting include narrowing down the few influencers in your topic area and creating a relationship with them, using old technology such as the telephone or e-mail. He also gives tips like how to add value to posts and using other websites like Buzzlogic.com to enhance your optimization.

Keyword Suggestions Tool

Keyword or keyword phrases of your blog or website are very important if you want to promote your site in an online campaign. However, sometimes it could be difficult to figure out appropriate keywords or keyword phrases of your site.

Don't despair because there is a free tool you can use for this purpose. It's called the Website Keyword Suggestions Tool.

Just enter a URL and it'll analyze the page and return a list of keyword and key phrase suggestions for that page. What's more, it will tell you the number of searches per month that are performed for each term and it's free.

Internet users enter keyphrases in Search Engines to find what they want and therefore it's very important that you optimise for such keyphrases.

When you enter the URL of your page into this tool, amazingly it attempts to determine the theme of your blog or website and returns keyword suggestions for you to use, along with keyword traffic estimates based on Overture's Database.

Here is the tool:

www.webconfs.com/website-keyword-suggestions.php

Do you call this stealing?

Yes, if you use an unsecured broadband connection without permission, it's considered stealing.

ITN reported that in London, a man who was spotted in the street using his laptop to access an unsecured wireless connection has been arrested.

The 39-year-old man was seen sitting on a wall outside a home in Chiswick, west London, by two community support officers.

When questioned he admitted using the owner's unsecured wireless internet connection without permission and was arrested on suspicion of stealing a wireless broadband connection. The man was bailed to October pending further inquiries.

Dishonestly obtaining free internet access is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 and a potential breach of the Computer Misuse Act.

The move is the latest example of police cracking down on a crime that did not exist several years ago when wireless internet access was relatively rare.

In April, a man was cautioned by police after neighbours saw him using a laptop in a car parked outside a house in Redditch, Worcestershire.

In 2005, a man was fined £500 for piggybacking on someone else's wireless broadband connection in London.

Detective Constable Mark Roberts, of the Metropolitan Police computer crime unit, said anyone who illegally uses a broadband link faces arrest.

He said: "This arrest should act as a warning to anyone who thinks it is acceptable to illegally use other people's broadband connections. To do so potentially breaches the Computer Misuse Act and the Communications Act, so computer users need to be aware that this is unlawful and police will investigate any violation we become aware of."

So, you see, we must be careful to ask persmission before using an unsecured wireless connection.

"Exit Grabber" technology ups your traffic

Yesterday I came across a unique brand new site that uses the "Exit Grabber" technology to predict when a surfer is going to leave a site and sends him to another site, for example your site.

Sheila Scofield not too long ago invented this "Exit Grabber," a new technology which can be easily installed on anyone's website or blog. Once installed, it will sit there and use an intelligent alogrithm to actually predict when people are just about to leave that site.

Then a window will pop up, which is not a popup and cannot be blocked by popup blockers. Since the surfer is about to leave that site, that window will be made to have a link to send him to another destination. And that destination is your blog or website.

You're going to do something for them too. You are going to install some similar code on your blog so that when people leave your blog, it sends them to their site, too. So there is an exchange of traffic, building up large flows of traffic to your blog.

It is amazing and it is free. Go to this link to check it out: ExitExplosion

I signed up for PPP!

I'm a new postie for PayPerPost blog ads where I get various interesting topics to comment on and write about. What's more, I get paid for doing so. Writing for PayPerPost can be a very satisfying and lucrative home business.

I first heard about PayPerPost from a blogger friend Mark who told me he made some good money with the program. So, I applied to join PayPerPost at http://PayPerPost.com but was rejected because my blog did not have sufficient posts. I was terribly disappointed, but I did my best to increase the number of posts and eventually I received an email telling me that my blog has been approved.

So here I am writing about PayPerPost so that you will know about it, if you haven't yet, and join in the fun.

Yes, for this initial assignment, all I have to do is write 200 words on my perceptions and experience of PayPerPost and I will be paid $20 through my Pay Pal account. Wow! That's great; $20 for doing something that I can do and love to do.

And that's not all. There will be many more opportunities and assignments to come as I go along and as the Google Page Rank and Alexa score of my blog improve.

I can see that I will get a steady stream of income from writing PayPerPost assignments while enjoying myself while doing so. Well, you could build up this stream of income yourself too if you're a blogger. Go to http://PayPerPost.com and sign up. You could be in for a wonderful experience.

Help 50 'heart kids'

Dr Mani, a heart surgeon and an Internet marketer, is at the moment holding his charity drive firesale to help kids in India who have congenital heart defects.

It's Dr Mani's 'save a child's heart' firesale - a global event to help 50 'heart kids'. Yes, now you can help sponsor heart surgery for 50 children. Congenital heart defects are potentially fatal if not treated by surgery.

The firesale has great products with a good cause. Dr Mani is also putting up fantastic time sensitive bonuses which will disappear one by one. Go to the link below now to check out the offer.

http://www.chdinfo.com/firesale/

Do help him out. Do a good deed and improve your online business at the same time.

Interesting. Now you can get Internet over power lines. That's good because power lines are so well established and are everywhere.

At long last, someone has cracked one of the technology world's biggest mysteries - the identity of Fake Steve, a sharp-tongued blogger who had tech aficionados in stiches with a satiric diary purporting to be from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. (Aug. 8)

It's been a year since Google launched Checkout, its much anticipated online payment service. But the question is can a company that's known best for its search engine deliver a money service as good as industry leader Pay Pal?

You Tube solves copyright problem

The Google-owned video-sharing site, YouTube, has developed a filtering technique that will weed out illegally updated copyright material. The technology is currently being tested and will fingerprint user-uploaded videos that violate copyright restrictions. YouTube is hoping their filter will prevent copyright violations. Find out all the details, including when the filter will be enforced, right here on WebProNews.

Facebook in the news

Facebook has been receiving some extra media attention lately. Some say Microsoft may buy it over for $6 billion. However, some analysts believe the social networking mega site may not be worth as much as everyone thinks. Get all the details on WebProNews.

Malaysia quite liberal about Internet

Malaysia is quite a liberal country, as far as the Internet is concerned. The government's policy from the start has been not to intervene in the use of the Internet by people, including bloggers, who are free to do "proper things", said Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

However, the ruling party Umno vice-president said if irresponsible bloggers go overboard in their Internet postings, the government would be forced to step in.

He said if they go overboard and insult, slander and break the laws, they will not get away scot-free, as no one is above the law. He said the opposition parties were also free to set up their own websites and blogs, but the same rules applied to them.

This is a democratic country, he stressed, but it does not mean anyone can do whatever they want, including breaking the laws. For postings that insult religion and the King, there are laws that can be used against the culprits, the minister pointed out.

Well, that seems reasonable enough, doesn't it?

Police reports against bloggers

Blogging and the law has made headlines of late in many countries around the world. In Malaysia alone, within the last 2 weeks there were 2 police reports involving bloggers.

Last week, opposition party PKR information bureau staff Nathaniel Tan was remanded to facilitate investigations under the Official Secrets Act in connection with a Deputy Minister's corruption case.

The latest police report was one lodged against Malaysia Today on July 23 which stated that it carried a series of comments and remarks that insulted the King, degraded Islam and incited hatred and violence in the country.

Ruling party UMNO information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib who lodged the report said: "I think they are very irresponsible and forget that our country has sensitivities on the King's institution, race and religion."

The Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, in commenting on the police report said: "There is no special decision by the Cabinet to go against bloggers, but citizens must be aware that there are laws in this country."

He said anyone could lodge a police report and it was up to the authorities to investigate whether any law had been contravened.

Bloggers don't have more privileges

Kuala Lumpur STAR newspaper reported the views of visiting University of Ulster (UK) senior lecturer in Law, Dr Venkat Iyer, that bloggers are liable for defamation as publishers in any other medium.

However, the difficulty arises when there are anonymous postings on blogs. It is this anonymity that creates a legal "grey area".

Dr Iyer said it was wrong to assume that bloggers enjoyed greater privileges than publishers in other media.

He said there have been cases in the West where legal action had been taken against websites for defamatory remarks. Some website owners were also taken to court when an offending anonymous posting was made, he said.

He was speaking to reporters after delivering a talk on "Defamation in Cyberspace" held by the Kuala Lumpur Bar on Saturday as part of its ongoing legal education program.

The Internet, he said, was a unique medium as it had a limitless potential audience, was easy to access, and had the ability to create communities regardless of geographical constraints.

He said the cyber-defamation possibilities included email messages, where risks are inherent when the recipient forwards such messages.

Well, thanks Dr Iyer, food for thought.

Schoemaker At Summit

WebProNews spoke with Jeremy Schoemaker, AKA Shoemoney, at the Affiliate Summit in Miami. He shared tips about when to start considering monetization for a site, and also spam prevention methods. Watch our exclusive coverage from the Affiliate Summit in Miami for all the details.

Joel Comm's Show

WebProNews spoke with Joel Comm about his upcoming reality show, The Next Internet Millionaire. The first ever Internet-based reality show premieres soon, and you can check out all the details on WebProNews.

Samsung Blogging Mobile Phone

Good news for bloggers. Samsung is due to come out with a blogging phone in parts of Europe this month and Southeast Asia next month.

It will be a slider phone that is capable of uploading blog content directly to popular UCC sites such as YouTube, Ublog and Buzznet.

Coming in metallic silver, it provides a 2 megapixel camera to shoot YouTube videos, has Bluetooth and is compatible with the UTMS technology (Europe's 3G wireless technology). It can be used for blogging anywhere and not only in hotspots since it is 3G enabled.

Called Samsung SGH-L760, it will first be available in Germany and Spain sometime this month and then will come into the Southeast Asian market next month.

Affiliate Summit Miami 2007

Affiliate Summit Miami will be taking place July 8-10, and WebProNews will be there to bring you exclusive coverage. The event will have the experts speaking on topics such as Addressing Publishers’ Needs, Monetizing Communities, as well as many more helpful subjects. Google’s Product Manager, Rob Kniaz told WebProNews in over the phone that he is looking forward to the event and is anticipating a great time. Stay tuned to WebProNews for the full coverage of the 2007 Affiliate Summit Miami.

Blogging Mentoring

Good news. There is a new program called Blog Mastermind, set up by Yaro Starak, an Australian from Brisbane, Australia. It's a week-by-week mentoring course in which Yaro will show you, step-by-step, how to set up and customise your blog, build your readership and make money.

Yaro explains that it is not only for beginners, but also for those who are already blogging. He says if you're looking for a way to generate twice or three times the income from your blog, he'll show you how, in minimum time.

He promises that if you invest 2 hours a day implementing his training steps and money making techniques, the program will start to create greater financial freedom for you.

There will be Internet based e-lessons, a members-only resource area, training videos, informative audios and much more.

He is also giving you interviews from Darren Rowse a.k.a. Problogger, Brian Clark, Andy Wibbels and other experts.

Yaro says all these you can get if you invest $1.57 a day with an aim to make $1,000 - $5,000 or more per month by working 2 hours a day, following step-by-step instructions with access to expert help and proven advice.

Anyone interested can follow this link: http://www.blogmastermind.com/

Affiliate Marketing Secrets From A Guru

Scott Woodard of Artisan Interactive talks with Neil Patel about the in’s and out’s of affiliate marketing at the pre-registration party of the Search Marketing Expo in Seattle.

Get all of Woodard’s advice on how affiliate marketing should be done, right here on WebProNews video above.

Agloco viewbar released

The Agloco viewbar has been released and is here at last after a long wait.

I received an email from Agloco on June 4 with instructions on downloading and installing the viewbar. However, on the first few tries at the download site there was no download button showing, probably because it was not displaying properly due to heavy traffic.

Anyway, late yesterday I tried again and managed to download and install the viewbar to my laptop successfully. It seems to be working fine.

I am now accumulating surfing hours just like many other people the world over, I suppose.

If you haven't signed up for Agloco yet, do it now at:

www.agloco.com/r/BBBK2191

Download and install the viewbar right away so that you can begin getting paid to surf the web.

First Live Search Engine

The search industry has a new name that is raising all sorts of hype. My Live Search the world’s first live search engine provides a new, never-before-seen approach to search. Get all the details about My Live Search including when it will launch, straight from its Founder and Developer, Rob Gabriel, in the above video.

Interesting video blog of the future

Internet revenue expert and AdSense guru, Joel Comm started a video blog recently with his first posting on May 18. He has been doing an interesting post a day since then.

This video blog is to answer questions on Internet marketing posed by readers. Each answer is in video format lasting 2 to 3 minutes. So you can just sit back and watch the videos presented by Joel Comm.

He believes that video is the wave of the future on the Internet and has vowed to use it to the fullest to help Internet marketers.

He is in a position to do that because he has come a long way in Internet marketing, especially in AdSense.

He has been creating profitable websites since 1995. As co-creator of Yahoo! Games and owner of dozens of websites, his expertise covers everything from web hosting, domain registration and search engine optimization to creating content, generating traffic and monetizing websites. He has authored several ebooks, wrote a New York Times bestseller called The AdSense Code, hosted teleseminars and spoken at seminars and workshops.

You can ask him your question at www.AskJoelComm.com or just listen and watch Joel answering questions from other Internet marketers.

If you have a slower connection, watch the video twice, the second time around it will be clear and smooth because it's all been loaded.

Check your keywords effortlessly

There is a neat little tool that allows you to check whether your keywords or search terms will appear in major search engines results pages (SERPS).

Covering four major search engines, namely Google, MSN Search, Yahoo! and Alta Vista it is as good as a gold standard.

However, it is a no-frills tool, giving you just the information you need without clutter of graphs and charts.

This tool is called Search Engines Results Tool. All you have to do is fill in the search term and type in the URL of the page. Click submit and the results will be given as positions in the respective search engines.

I came across this tool quite by chance when I visited Brown Baron's which highlighted it in a very interesting blog.

A lot of traffic can also be bad!



Before the rise of social media, marketers seemed to believe the more user traffic the better. WebProNews caught up with Sage Lewis of Sage Rock at the SEW Live in Columbus, Ohio, and spoke with him about this issue. Lewis explained that a lot of traffic could sometimes be bad if companies construct an entire marketing campaign based on social media since it could backfire on them. Find out how negative aspects can be transformed into good effects plus all the details on Sage Lewis’s Search Engine Watch column at WebProNews.

Microsoft upgrades Hotmail

This is a hot news item from San Francisco. Hotmail may be lagging behind but looks like things are changing. Microsoft on Monday, 7 May began a massive upgrade of its Hotmail email system, to match advances by competitors like Google and Yahoo.

The software giant said the upgrade represented the most signifcant improvements to Hotmail since it debuted in 1996 to become the pioneer of web-based email.

Log in to your Hotmail and you will be surprised. If you haven't got an account or have dropped yours, it's time you got a new one. It's a new Hotmail!

The new system allows Hotmail's 280 million users to easily sort their mail and enjoy enhanced security features. It also boasts an expanded storage capacity of 2 Gig and a built-in interface for mobile devices, right-click and drag-and-drop capabilities, preview pane customisation and auto-complete addressing.

Interesting Article on Blogging Laws

For bloggers, US bloggers in particular, blogging has become full of potential legal issues and the situation is made worse by the fact that law in this area is constantly in flux.

In the article 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know a dozen of the most important US laws regarding blogging are highlighted and some simple tips for handling and overcoming them are provided.

The 12 laws deal with: disclosure of paid posts, deep linking, images and thumbnails, copyright, trademark domain names, readers' private data, user-developed content, monitoring blog comments, tax laws, limited liability laws, spam laws, and journalism shield laws.

Go to 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know. It's worthwhile reading.

Google's Vanessa Fox. Nude.
Something from WebProNews

Blogging has been defined as a bearing to your life force. That is exactly what the product manager of Google’s Webmaster Central wanted to do when Vanessa Fox created her blogging site. Since she enjoys writing and blogging, she decided to create an experimental site. Her site is entitled vanessafoxnude.com. In an interview with Webpronews at the SES conference, Fox said that she created the site because Dave Naylor was ranking for “vanessafoxnude,” and she thought if anyone was going to rank, it should be her. Fox assures us that the name has nothing to do with her being nude.

Meditation to celebrate Wesak

To celebrate Wesak, let us talk a bit about a gem of Buddhist philosophy – meditation.

Here’s some writing by Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who lives, teaches, writes, and gardens in southern France:

WALKING MEDITATION

The mind can go in a thousand directions.
But on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.
With each step, a gentle wind blows.
With each step, a flower blooms.

Walking meditation can be very enjoyable. We walk slowly, alone or with friends, if possible in some beautiful place. Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking – walking not to arrive, just for walking. The purpose is to be in the present moment and enjoy each step you make.

Therefore you have to shake off all worries and anxieties, not thinking of the future, not thinking of the past, just enjoying the present moment. You can take the hand of a child as you walk, as if you are the happiest person on Earth.

We walk all the time, but usually it is more like running. Our hurried steps print anxiety and sorrow on the Earth. If we can take one step in peace, we can take two, three, four, and then five steps for the peace and happiness of humankind.

Our mind darts from one thing to another, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch without stopping to rest. Thoughts have millions of pathways and we are forever pulled along them into the world of forgetfulness.

If we can transform our walking path into a field for meditation, our feet will take every step in full awareness. Our breathing will be in harmony with our steps, and our mind will naturally be at ease. Every step we take will reinforce our peace and joy and cause a stream of calm energy to flow through us. Then we can say, “With each step, a gentle wind blows.”

The Buddha is often represented by artists as seated upon a lotus flower to suggest the peace and happiness he enjoys. Artists also depict lotus flowers blooming under the footsteps of the newly-born Buddha. If we take steps without anxiety, in peace and joy, then we, too, will cause a flower to bloom on the Earth with every step.