Grab some free software at the Olympic Giveaway event, which lasts until August 24, 2008. You’ll find some handy downloads, all free.

Some of the fantastic gifts you’ll find include the software shown in the above image. As pictured from left to right:

• Software to create e-covers - Have you written an ebook and are dismayed by the high prices that graphic artists have quoted you for creating a cover? Save hundreds of dollars on your ebook covers or software covers. This download comes with an action script, reseller website, source file and 12 templates.
• Wordpress Blogging Tutorials - This video tutorial set will show you how to set up your own Wordpress blog easily and quickly.
• Netlaw Generator - Within seconds, you can create your legal disclaimers for your website. This software will create affiliate agreements, privacy policy documents, no-spam agreements, terms of use and disclaimers, earnings disclaimers and copyright notices.
• Quick Sales Letter Generator - More than software, the Quick Sales Letter Generator is also a tutorial. On the software end, it quickly produces your own custom sales letters that you can plug into your website, all in html format. You also receive a step-by-step tutorial in the subtle, yet extremely powerful art of web copywriting.
• Bay RSS Lite - This little plugin will enable you to pull in eBay’s live auctions into your blog posts with “plug and play” ease. This can be a fantastic way to monetize your website.
• Professional Graphics Creator Software - With this free software, you can turn any image into stunning effects: 3D, Reflection, Button, Sphere, Cube, Ribbon Ad, Tab, etc. Use it to create beautiful headers for your web pages, your banner ads, your logos or anything else that requires imaging work.

Remember, the above products are just a fraction of the free software downloads and gifts that you’ll find at the Olympic Giveaway. You’ll find content generators, lots of graphics, great ebooks and tutorials and lot of PLR books and article packs.

It’s free, so sign up for the Olympic Giveaway today. The doors close on August 24.

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What if I told you...that you can bring in *INSTANT* traffic, that's right... I said instant! No more waiting a few days or weeks to see results. I'm talking about instant traffic here! If you aren't getting any traffic, how are you supposed to sell the goods? It is like building a new store... if nobody knows it is there... how are you going to sell anything?

Are you familiar with StumbleUpon? It's a social bookmarking community. With these types of communities you can drive in hundreds of unique visitors to your webpages, at no cost to you. You know what's great about these websites? I'm talking about highly *targeted* traffic to you, you know, the type of visitors who are interested in your product and want to purchase it. StumbleUpon is huge in the social media circles. It is a great site that you can vote up and blog about your favorite sites, what your friends are finding and what is going on all over the internet!

If you have been sent a document that cannot be converted to text (see yesterday’s post), there’s an excellent conversion program called QuickView Plus. This amazing software can open virtually any document or email attachment without your having to purchase additional software programs.

Over 300 different file types are supported by QuickView Plus, including Mirocosoft Office 2007, Word Perfect, Open Office Writer, Star Office Writer and more. You can even open up database files with QuickView Plus, such as Quatro Pro, dBase, Excel and Access. QuickView supports most graphic files and email formats.

QuickView Plus is easy to use. Simply right click on the document that you are unable to view and select QuickView Plus.

After you have opened your document in QuickView Plus, it’s easy to convert it:

• Click EDIT.
• Click SELECT ALL.
• Click the COPY ICON.
• Paste what you have copied into your software program. You might need to go through Notepad, first, if there are conversion errors.

You can get a free trial of QuickView Plus. After your trial, the cost is around $50. You might be able to find a less expensive version on eBay. Here’s what’s currently for sale on eBay:

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A big problem with sharing electronic files is that the software programs are not always compatible. This article is written from the perspective of –

• You own both Word and WordPerfect (or other incompatible word processing programs) and need to convert a document; or
• You are sending a draft to someone who has a software program that is not compatible with yours.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll show you how you can open virtually any document.

The Problem with Opening Documents within a Word Processing Program

With newer software programs, you can simply click “file” and “open” and another type of document will open. For instance, if you are working with Word (where the file extension is .doc or .docx) and someone sends you a Word Perfect document (where the file extension is .wpd), you can open the .wpd document from Word and it should convert.

However, in many instances, simply opening a document within a software program will create errors in the translation. If you’re trying to use Word to open up a document created in an old version of WordPerfect, for instance, it is sometimes impossible to open the file.

There’s a failsafe solution. And it’s free. Simply copy and paste a text version of the document into your word processing program, using Microsoft’s notepad.

If you are trying to open up a WordPerfect document sent by someone who does not know how to convert the document to text, you might want to refer him or her to this site. Text will always convert to any word processing program.

The Free, Effective Solution

You do not have to buy a conversion program. The method below will work for any pc-based word processing programs that you are trying to convert your document for in the cleanest, most error-free way possible.

Step One - Open the Document You Want to Convert

• It doesn’t matter whether it’s Word, WordPerfect, Open Office or some other application - simply open the document that you want to convert to another program.
• Press the Control Key and A at the same time. This will highlight the entire document contents.
• With your entire text highlighted, click your “Edit” button and select “Copy.”
• Alternatively, you can right click anywhere on your document, click the “Select All” function, and click “Copy.”
• Your text is now in the clip board.

Step Two - Copy the Clipboard Contents Into Notepad

Notepad will convert your text into a “text” format with the .txt extension. To open it:

• Click the START button on the lower lefthand corner of your screen.
• Select “PROGRAMS.”
• From PROGRAMS, select “ACCESSORIES.”
• From ACCESSORIES, select “NOTEPAD.”

Now that NOTEPAD is open, click the “EDIT” command that is on the top of your notepad screen and then click PASTE. The contents of your document are now in Notepad.

For SAFE MEASURE, click ‘FILE’ and then ‘SAVE AS’ and store your text document wherever you want to store it on your computer.

Step Three -Critical Cleanup Work in Notepad

Microsoft Word is notorious for creating odd symbols, particularly for the following:

• - (dashes)
• …
• “”
• ‘

Even if the mistranslation in symbols is not apparent to you, it is critical that you take the following steps so that your conversion will look right. Here, I’ve copied and pasted a Word document into Notepad.

STEP ONE - Highlight the first “offending” symbol. In this case, we’re highlighting the “…”

STEP TWO - RIGHT CLICK what you highlighted and then click COPY.

STEP THREE - Click EDIT and then REPLACE:

STEP FOUR - Paste what you just highlighted into the “Find What” space. In this case, we’re pasting in the “…” that was copied. To do that, just RIGHT CLICK in the “Find What” space and select PASTE.

STEP FIVE - In the “Replace with” box, type in the three dots.

STEP SIX - Click the REPLACE ALL button and all of the “…” errors will be fixed.

STEP SEVEN - REPEAT steps one through six all the way through your document. Remember, you need to copy the first instance of each of the following symbols, and then replace as shown above:

• …
• - (dashes, replace with two dash lines –)
• ‘
• ” (both the right and the left quote)

If you don’t copy the symbol and paste it into the FIND AND REPLACE function and think that it will be faster to simply type the symbol in the “Find” box, you won’t correct anything because “Find” will not locate the symbol. You absolutely must copy the FIRST instance of each symbol and find and replace it by typing in the symbol in the “Replace with” space as shown in this article.

STEP EIGHT - Now that the symbols have been replaced, make sure that all your paragraphs are spaced as you want them to be. Then, click FORMAT and make sure that WORD WRAP is NOT ticked.

By doing this, you’ll see that each paragraph is just one or two lines now, that scroll all the way across the screen and beyond what you see in the screen. YOU WANT THIS. This is because the document will format with the right paragraphs when pasted into another program. Make sure that there is a blank line between each paragraph, as shown in the above example.

STEP NINE - Copy and paste into your other word processing program. In Notepad, simply click the CONTROL KEY and the A key at the same time, or click EDIT and SELECT ALL. Then right click and select COPY or click EDIT / COPY. Paste the document into your other program and you’re done! You’ll see that the paragraphs show up correctly and there are no weird symbols in the document. Format with the correct fonts and tabs as you wish.

OTHER TIPS FOR CONVERTING DOCUMENTS

• If you’re working with someone else who has, for example, Wordperfect 6 or something, have them send you a text version instead of the .wpd version. Simply paste the text version into your more current word processing program. You might need to clean up the text document as shown in this article first, particularly if the other person does not know much about word processing.
• You can paste text versions in your web authoring programs or blog posts to avoid having weird symbols show up.
• If you need to convert your word document to a PDF document, read my article on free PDF conversions.
• The above method will work for any type of word processing program on a PC. Text is universally read by Mac computers, as well.

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There are a lot of “mommy” blogs out there, and perhaps millions of blogs hosted on Blogger. For almost a year, Jona has been posting articles about friendship, family, and values in her blog, the Beauty of Life. But the big story behind this blog can be found by clicking on one of her links, titled “Fiancee Visa.”

Born and raised in the Phillippines, Jonaver joined an Internet dating service. In February 2007, she met Andy online, and they were engaged in June. Here’s the twist: They met in person a few months after the engagement. Jona chronicles a detailed history of what is involved in the Visa process, including a good deal of information about the medical examination process which should be helpful for other persons wishing to legally live in the United States. In exactly 7 months, 11 days, she received her United States Visa. She and Andy married in July 2008, in Austin, Texas.

I find her engagement to a man she’d only met on the Internet absolutely fascinating. With short articles written by Andy, it would appear that the two — and their son — are very happy.

Visit Jona’s “Beauty of Life” blog for more details.

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Newsmax reported on August 15 that:

More than half of likely voters nationwide - 55% - want Republican-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr to participate in presidential debates this fall, while nearly half - 46% - said they think Ralph Nader should be allowed into the on-stage fray, the latest Zogby Interactive polling shows.

In reality, it’s unlikely that this will happen (example in link). And that’s a shame, especially considering that:

• The overwhelming majority of voters (approximately 70%, depending on the poll) disapprove of the job that Congress is doing (Source: PollingReport.com). The polls indicate that this disapproval is pretty much across the board for both Democrats and Republicans.
• The overwhelming majority of voters disapprove of the job that George Bush is doing (at a glance, the average appears to be around 64%). (Source: PollingReport.com)
• Since March of 2008, less than 20% of Americans feel the country is on the right track. (Source: PollingReport.com)
• In 2004, which brought the highest voter turnout since 1968, only 60% of eligible voters actually voted. (Source: MSNBC.com)
• Two-thirds of non-voters say they won’t vote because they believe that special interests control elections. (Source: About - US Government Information)

The 15% Factor

The only way to get Barr, Nader, Baldwin, McKinney or any other third party candidate into the presidential debates is if they have a 15% showing in the polls. This is extremely difficult, given the lack of media attention they receive in comparison to the mainstream choices of McCain or Obama.

The Solution

Here’s an informal, “what do you think” scenario.

I’m not even sure if it’s legal with campaign laws the way they are, but it seems to me that that only way there will be a fair debate where all viewpoints are considered would be to host our own, called “The People’s Debate” or “Real Choices” or something like that. Maybe CSPAN would run it or we would have to buy “Infomercial” time.

All presidential candidates would be invited. If McCain and Obama refused to participate, then we could use posters of them or, since the debates are so close to Halloween, we can have carved jack-o-lantern pumpkins at their seats and play their soundbytes for answers. Moderators would be need to be chosen; probably more “mainstream media” personalities would be the best so people would take this seriously. Although he’s not “mainstream,” I’d personally love to see someone like Ron Paul be one of the moderators.

To get publicity, we’d have to buy print and airtime during or immediately before/after the “official” debates, when interested voters will be tuned in. The presidential debates are scheduled as follows:

• September 29: Presidential Domestic Policy Debate, Ole Miss, Jim Lehrer moderating (PBS)
• October 2: VP Debate, Wash U, St. Louis, Gwen Ifill moderating (PBS)
• October 7: Second Presidential Debate (town hall style), Blemont U, Nashville, Tom Brokaw moderating
• October 15: Third Presidential Debate, Foreign Policy, Hofstra U, NY, Bob Schieffer moderating (CBS)

Obviously, we’d need to get all the candidates to participate. If we pulled this off, it seems like it would be best to do it around October 15, so we can use sound bytes if necessary.

Besides promoting the TV schedule for the debate, we’d need to have it available on YouTube and probably on DVDs for people who have no access to television cable or YouTube. This would have to be announced in the ad; perhaps by creating a website devoted to the “People’s Debates” or whatever it will be called.

The Costs

I haven’t researched this thoroughly, but on a “guestimate” level based on around six hours of research today, we’re looking at around $13,630,000. Some of the costs of overstated.

• A 60-minute infomercial - It’s hard to find a specific price; some sites refer to prime cable station infomercial air time at $40,000 for 30 minutes. Let’s estimate $2 million.
• Costs of Production - A ballpark figure for flying the candidates in, renting a studio or conference hall, having the debate filmed and edited and paying for moderators - Ballpark figure, let’s estimate $1 million.
• Creation of a great television ad - Around $15,000
• Prime time TV commercials announcing our debate - run 3 each either during or right before or after the media-sponsored presidential debates (9 x around $400,000 for each 30-second spot = $3.6 million - let’s estimate $5 million to be on the safe side).
• A guestimate on radio ads and production, again around each of the 3 mainstream debates: $4 million
• Full page ad in USA Today’s full circulation, running Monday through Thursday and on Friday leading up to our debate: Approximately $615,000 (See rate sheet)
• Production and mailing of free DVDs of the campaign: Let’s guess around $2.00 per DVD (with artwork) and mailing costs of $0.50 each, estimated fulfillment, around 400,000 requests = $1 million
• Staff, transaction fees, a “cushion” for unanticipated costs - $1 million
• Send out tons of press releases - free
  

Contribution Levels

We’d get really close to this budget with 500,000 people contributing $25 each ($12,500,000). Approximately 40% of American voters claim to be independents; surely, it’s possible to get half a million or even a million contributions if a lot of us promoted a “money bomb.” There’s a lot of legalities involved, such as a trustee to handle the funds, getting a good marketing firm and so forth. Another thing to consider would be if we couldn’t raise enough funds. Perhaps if the funds are held in trust, they would be reimbursed if the debate did not happen. Or maybe there could be an alternative, cheaper form of debate. We’d probably need to consult with a lawyer about this.

With the power of the Internet and grassroots word-of-mouth, who knows, maybe it’s doable. This would benefit all of the third party candidates, not just Barr or Nader. But it would take a heck of a lot of work. I’m very curious as to whether people think this can be done.

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You can make stunning graphical headlines for your blogs, websites or Web 2.0 pages in less than a minute, without any software. Even if you’re a seasoned Photoshop user (or user of Ulead’s PhotoImpact, like I am), it takes forever to create decent text graphics with shadows, great fill colors and gradients, and special effects.

Quick Web Creations solves the problem with its point and click system that you do online, without having to buy expensive software.

Here’s a quick image I did in about half a minute:

One of the features that I like about Quick Graphics is that the image output is not huge. Sometimes when working with Ulead, my images are 40,000 or more bytes. The Quick Graphics output is small, meaning your graphics will load super fast.

You’ll save hundreds of hours — if not dollars — creating stunning text graphics with the Quick Graphics program. Check it out.

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Normally, I don’t follow sports. In fact, I don’t even watch TV because I feel it’s a waste of time. However, a personal blog that I found myself reading, called “SportCompany - All About sports” has some interesting tidbits about what’s happening at the Olympics.

For example, according to Sport Company, more then 600 UK politicians, civil servants, BBC staff and police have traveled to Beijing for the Olympic Games. This compares to the 313 British athletes representing the country. In short, the bureaucrats are outnumbering the athletes 2-to-1. Given today’s political climate, this doesn’t surprise me … but what I did find shocking, especially to be reported in the “sports world,” is that the Olympics are creating a shortage of Vitamin C. Writes Sports Company:

With the Chinese shutting down manufacturing plants to ease pollution for the Olympics, the world is now suffering a shortage of Vitamin C. China sold ascorbic acid on the world market at less than what it cost to produce it, driving out competition.

SportCompany - All About sports offers a wealth of insight about what is going on at the Olympics. Bars have been shut down, athletes are disqualified for drug use, China is accused of having 14-year-olds compete when the minimum age is 16. The Olympics aren’t the only “weird” sports reported. For example, the blog has entries about:

• A British boxer loses his license because he failed to bring an extra pair of shorts to a match (this rule is in place in case colors clash);
• Athlete Tyson Gay’s name was change on the American Family Association’s website, which uses word filters for automated news delivery. Finding the word “Gay” offensive, the site reported that “Tyson Homosexual” won the semifinal for the 100 meters at the track and field trials.

Some of this news is so bizarre that I’m starting to think sports may be more interesting than I had previously believed.

And speaking of the Olympics …

I have no idea whether these photos are real or doctored. They were sent by a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend … you know, that email stuff that everyone keeps forwarding and you’re number 698 on the list. Here’s the email. If true, I think I’d be eating a lot of corn on the cob if I was looking for fast food at the Olympics because I’m not as brave as some about trying new foods. Add your comments below!

Fast Food in Beijing
Pictures By: G. Pollak

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Once upon a time — a long time ago — I designed my first website with notepad. Then I tried the free webpage design program with my Microsoft Office software and eventually purchased Hot Metal Pro (no longer on the market). As time went on, I then tried Dreamweaver.

The Problems with Other Web Design Software Programs

One of the biggest problems I had with web design was updating navigation menus and creating site maps, especially when building shopping sites. Anyone who sells products online knows that prices changes, products are deleted, new offerings are added. Using previous web authoring software programs, every time a new page was added, I’d have to add the new link to the menu and the site map by hand. Sometimes I’d forget. Other times, I’d change the name of a page and then have to spend hours changing interior links to that page. Conversely, if I deleted a page, it would take forever to fix the menu, sitemap, and interior page links. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on different menu scripts and was never really satisfied with any of them.

I went on to buy rss feed software, directory scripts, and templates. All of these things cost extra money above and beyond the web authoring software.

And then I discovered XSite Pro.

XSite Pro Will Save You a Lot of Time and Money

XSite Pro is by far the best web authoring software on the market. My favorite part of it is the fact that the navigation menu automatically updates whenever a new page is added to the site. No special programming or coding is required. But there is a lot more. Some other features that I like:

• You can import a bunch of text or Word articles and upload them in minutes.
• Navigation menus and interlinking are a snap, all done on the fly. Your site map is automatically created, too. This means that no matter what, if you change a page URL, delete a page or modify it, your links throughout your website will be universally updated.
• Not only can you add RSS feeds with a click or two, but you can turn your page content into syndicatable RSS feeds, which is a tremendous traffic builder.
• You can schedule when your pages are published, which is an awesome feature. I was paying close to $200 a month to an online service that “dripped” new pages into a site so that I could keep my websites fresh. For a once-off payment for the software license, you can do this with XSitePro on an unlimited number of sites, for as long as you like.
• With a simple right click of the mouse, you can insert Amazon ads, Adsense ads, and Oxado ads.
• Your site is search engine friendly. That means you’ll get indexed. An analysis program that is part of your software package will point out any problems you might need to correct with headers, key phrases and so forth so that you can take advantage of search engine traffic.

There are many more features packed into XSitePro. For instance, plugging audios or videos into your web pages is a snap with the wizards that come with the software.

$100 Discount Available Here

Our PDF product guide gives you an overview of all of the great features in XSitePro. Be sure to download it because it provides a special link where you can get $100 off. Normally $297, the link in our XSitePro brochure entitles you to buy this amazing software for only $197. Compare this with Dreamweaver, which costs almost $400 and delivers nowhere near the features and ease of use.

Some Dreamweaver users have to take a class at a local junior college just to figure out how to use the software. With XSite Pro, you can build a professional website with ease, even if it’s the first time you have ever built a site. The WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) functionality makes html authoring a snap. There’s a handy help file that you can access with a click of the mouse. Experienced webmasters will enjoy the advanced features offered by the program and how easy it is to use them.

Grab the PDF product guide now so you can save $100. It is unknown how long the discount will last. If you’re building your very first site or looking for a solution to make your site maintenance easier and less time-consuming, XSite Pro is for you. XSite Pro can import your Dreamweaver sites, so you do not need to start from scratch.

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Have a case of wanderlust but can’t leave the office? Cruise the web and visit some interesting places! Thanks to advancements in technology, you can see what’s happening around the world, anywhere there’s a webcam.

Here are a handful of my favorite European destinations, accessible online.

The Best Webcam on Earth - Koningsplein, Amsterdam

Compliments of Terena, you can watch and hear what’s happening at a busy street in Amsterdam.

The experience is so “live” that it’s almost as if you work on this street, and are checking it out from your own open office window. You’ll see and hear the cars driving by, trains coming and going, bicycles teetering by, and an endless stream of people out shopping or just hanging out. You’ll even hear local musicians playing and church bells tolling. As far as I am concerned, this is the best webcam on the Internet. No other cam comes close. You’ll need Windows Media to watch and listen. Visit Terena and open the video stream to enjoy.

Another Great Cam from the Netherlands

Hellevoetsluis is a town in the western Netherlands that delivers a very cool webcam that periodically changes views. You can see live images of the docks, the street vendors and entertainment, skyline and traffic.

Because it’s an interactive cam, you can change the view and even zoom in interesting images. You can visit the Hellevoetsluis cam here.

Cool Street Markets

The Grand Place in Brussels has a very active market that you can watch from a distance. Even when the square is not active, it’s worth a look to see the incredible architecture. The Grand Place cam is provided by the Tribune newspaper. You need to use Internet Explorer to view it — Firefox and presumably the other browsers will not work. A lot of web surfers enjoy this camera, so it is frequently down because of server loads. But check it out anyway: Grand Place web cam.

Holland has great web cams, and the Grote Markt in Haarlem is no exception. Provided by the Hotel Amadeus, you get a nice view of the architecture and street activities. Visit the Grote Markt here.

The quaint village of Osnabrueck, Germany, offers a street view from its city hall. Some days, all appears to be quiet, but on other days, you’ll find colorful fairs with carousels and other rides and a wealth of vendors.

Regardless of what street activity is happening, the view from the Osnabrueck cam is almost magical because of the colorful facades of the buildings. Visit it here.

Borgholm, Sweden’s street cam features an occasional market. Even on the days that there is not a live street fair or market, you’ll see activity on this exceptionally clean village street.

Weekends seem to be the most active for pedistrian traffic. Visit the Borgholm cam here.

Busy Russian Intersection

What’s amazing about the Russian webcams is the long (or short) hours in the day. It looks like they onlly have two or three hours of darkness during the summer months, and very little light during the winter. All the Russian street cams I’ve seen show frenzied traffic. Here’s a busy street corner in St. Petersburg:

You can take a look at St. Petersburg’s live Vasilievsky Island webcam here.

Watch a Live Mass

Don’t feel like going to church? Watch it on the web. The St Georgi Eastern Orthodox Church in Rousse, Bulgaria, has a live feed which shows the intricate ornaments and design. You can even hear the mass online.

Rousse has an awesome collection of webcams, including the St. George church and St. Michael’s church. You can visit the town square, check out the central railroad station and more … all live. Visit Rousse’s webcams here.

The Internet has opened up so many opportunities for knowledge and communication. I think the live webcams are a fantastic way to check out potential vacation destinations or to just take a break from the day-to-day grind and see what’s happening throughout the world.

Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you know of a cam that is better than my #1 choice for Koningsplein, Amsterdam, tell us about it.

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