Imagine transforming your life right now, as you sit at your computer reading web pages or constructing your profitable online business. In one of the best, most affordable self improvement packages that I’ve seen out there, the 60 Minutes to Freedom Success Templates offers a fantastic 35-minute audio that will help you automatically and effortlessly attract success, prosperity and relationships beyond your dreams into your life — literally overnight. As you listen to this amazing audio, rapid and automatic changes at your ‘core’ level can happen in an instant and propel you to having your life flooded with more wealth, abundance and prosperity. Created with brainwave entrainment technology blended with an optimum mix of binaural beats , subliminal messages and self balancing music, the audio is pleasant to listen to and an enjoyable experience. As I type this blog post, I’m listening to it on my computer headphones … it has some pretty cool special sound effects that are giving me goosebumps!
There’s more than just an audio. You get two information-packed, motivational ebooks: Rapid Wealth Activation Secrets and, as a special bonus, The Ultimate Wealth Attraction Blueprint.
People are selling this type of thing online for $39 and more. The 60 Minutes to Freedom package is only $12.97 and, like I said, includes an MP3 audio to propel you into manifesting the life that you want, plus the two ebooks that include practical steps to creating the life that you desire.
When you want to share a document with others, who may all have different word processing programs that may not be compatible with your software, converting the document to Adobe’s PDF format is the way to go! PDF files can be universally read with Adobe’s free Adobe Acrobat Reader program that most people already have on their computers. Better yet, Adobe PDF documents will print out the same on all printers. The problem with many word processing formats is that when they are printed, the printer will automatically reformat them. This can be an irritating issue in groups that are working on a brochure, electronic magazine or other document that has to have specific formatting.
PDF files are great for brochures, for ebooks and for graphic intensive documents. They can even be read online.
If you have a small, mom and pop type business or a business that you operate from home, you might generate perhaps one or two PDF files a year and do not feel it is warranted to buy Adobe Professional in order to create them. If that’s the case, Adobe has an online PDF conversion service, with a free trial. The trial service allows you to create:
5 free conversions
100 MB file size maximum – upload or download
Times out after 10 minutes of processing
The paid online PDF conversion service has more options and features, but for that “once in awhile” conversion that you might need, the free trial works great. Get it here.
If you decide to get the professional version of Adobe Acrobat, there are vendors on eBay who pass along tremendous savings. I bought Adobe Pro version 8 from eBay and saved over $100. I received the retail version, still in the box, as well as the warranty paperwork, just like if I had purchased directly from Adobe or a retail store. The professional version lets you create PDF documents on your computer without having to worry about free trials expiring. You can add watermarks, such as “DRAFT,” on your documents, password protect your documents and more. Another feature that I like about the professional version is that you can convert PDF documents into Microsoft Word or text documents. This is great if you need to create word processing templates from PDF images.
In the very first article on this blog about Internet Responsibility v. Government Regulation, we were exploring the sheer magnitude of trying to regulate the Internet because of the number of web pages and blogs being produced every single day. NetCraft had reported 170 million websites amidst millions of blogs and social networking sites.
Well, the official word is out from Google.
It just hit another milestone by indexing 1 trillion (yes, trillion with 12 zeros) pages this month. You can read about it on Google’s official blog.
According to the blog, not every single one of those trillion pages is indexed because of similar content. Nonetheless, that’s a lot of pages!
You might have a website and have heard that posting videos on YouTube, Google Videos and other free video hosting services is a powerful way to generate a ton of traffic. But here’s your problem: You don’t have a video recorder and you don’t have a clue how to make a video.
If you want to create a video that is basically a slide show with music and images, there’s a free (yes, free) program available called “Memories on Web” that makes video creation a snap. So you can see how easy this is, I’ll make a little video right now.
When you open the program, you will see a screen that looks something like this:
CAPTION: Memory on Web Interface
Let’s say that you want to start out your video with a text message. Click the icon on the top of your screen that reads “T”.
CAPTION: Creating a Text Screen - Click "T"
Once you’ve done that, double-click on the icon that shows up:
CAPTION: Click the Text Icon
…and then type your text.
CAPTION: Click the + sign to add your text.
CAPTION: Type in your text and if you want, adjust the fonts and background.
As you can see, when you are creating your text screens, you can change the background, the font, and even add special effects. I generally wait until I’ve generated all of my screens before adding the effects, but it doesn’t really matter because you can edit as much as you want before publishing.
To make your video more interesting than just a series of text messages, you can also easily add photos. You’ll see at the bottom of your MemoriesOnWeb screen your file locations. You can change the “view” so you can see thumbnail images:
CAPTION: Click this icon to change the view so you see thumbnail images.
Drag your image that you want into the movie:
CAPTION: Just drag the thumbnails into your storyboard on top.
Keep repeating this process to add material to your video. By dragging material into your storyboard screen on the top, you can see how outrageously simply it is to make a video. In making this video sample, I’ve added a bunch of pictures that don’t make a lot of sense. They’re in there simply to show how easy it is to add images.
To spice up your production even more, you can also import premade videos into your project. A great place to find short video clips that you can use is a service called “Istockphoto” (you can also get fantastic stock photos for your web pages there, too. I highly recommend them). Just download the clip that you want, and then drag it into your “storyboard” in your MemoriesOnWeb program like you did with your pictures:
CAPTION: Drag in your movie clips from their file locations (on the bottom) to your storyboard (on the top).
Once you have all of the material that you want to present in your video, you can add some music. In the example video that I’m creating right now, I used some music from DJ Raymo’s Megatrance Volume 1, available for download at Dance-Industries, which has a lot of free music downloads. This Singapore DJ has some great stuff to listen to!
Anyway, to put your music background in your video, click the “music” tab in your MemoryOnWeb program:
CAPTION: First, click the music tab as shown.
Click the + sign at the bottom of your screen to find your music file:
CAPTION: In your "music" menu, click the + sign in the lower left, and you should see your files on your hard drive.
Double click on your music file that you want and it will be inserted into the movie. The options at the lower right of your screen will allow you to choose whether you want it to fade in, fade out, loop, or all three. Play around with the options:
CAPTION: Choose fade in, fade out or loop from the options on the lower right.
And then you are ready to add effects. BUT FIRST (AND PAY ATTENTION, DO THIS FIRST), you should click on each individual movie screen (the thumbnails in the top portion of your MemoryOnWeb program) to make sure that each item is in the proper order. Sometimes the program automatically inserts them out of order. Just click on each item and, if it’s in the wrong location, drag it to where you want it to appear. For text images, you have to double click to see what the text box says.
CAPTION: Move your images and text blocks to the order that you want. You might need to double-click on the text boxes to see what they say.
When you are satisfied that everything is in proper order, click the “effects” button. Play around with all the effects to find out what you want. For the video that I am creating in this post, I will apply a separate effect to each slide in the storyboard because I’ve imported a video clip. As you apply each effect, you’ll see a preview. Here, I am applying effects to selected slides:
CAPTION: Click the effects button as shown, and then apply your effects either selectively or across all screens in your video.
An easier way to do this, especially if you want each slide in your presentation to be different, is to go to your storyboard, click on the first image, select the effect, and go through each slide, one by one.
CAPTION: You can start with your first screen and selet the effects...
CAPTION: Click the "apply all" button and then select the appropriate option (i.e., whether you want the effect on the selected screen, all of them, and so forth).
CAPTION: After you've selected the effects that you want, click next and apply the effects for the next screen. Remember, this is for individual screens. You can apply one effect to the entire video, if you wish.
You can click the preview button at any time to watch (and listen to) your video.
CAPTION: Just click the preview button...
CAPTION: And click "start" and you can preview your movie, with sounds, effects and the whole bit.
Make adjustments as you want, and then click PUBLISH.
CAPTION: You can type in your YouTube account information and publish your video directly onto YouTube.
As you can see, the program will automatically publish and upload your video to your YouTube account. I find that it is faster to save my video onto a disk, and then upload from YouTube’s interface and also from Google’s interface.
CAPTION: In this example, I've clicked the "Generate New Video" option and am storing the video on my hard drive so I can upload it from YouTube's interface, from Google Video's interface and other free video hosts.
CAPTION: You can log into your account at YouTube and upload your video, using the browse feature when prompted to do so.
Here’s the completed video, that you saw me make right here in this blog post:
And here’s the same video, as published on Google Videos:
When publishing your video, it is possible that you will need to upgrade your XviD codex, which is software that installs on your hard drive to compress your videos so they’re not too big. Get XviD codex here.
For really great photos and short video clips, visit IStockPhoto. This is professional quality stuff that can really enhance your videos and web pages.
There are many more editing features in Memories On Web that you can play with so that you can really spice up your video into something enjoyable and that you can be proud to publish. The software program is quite intuitive; I suggest you play around with it and you’ll see how easy it is. Videos are a HUGE way to start generating some web traffic, so start creating them now with the free and easy-to-use resources discussed here.
“Knol” — which stands for a unit of knowledge — is the latest rage in Internet marketing, and likely to be a powerful one, too. Everyone wants to get their sites ranked by Google because its popularity. Knol may be the just the way to do that.
Sponsored by Google, Knol is similar to Wikipedia. Anyone can publish an article and can link their websites in the text of the articles (or in their bio). Other Knol users can contribute to or comment on the article.
Current Content on Knol – Opportunity Abounds
As of this writing (Saturday, July 26, 2008), the bulk of the articles appearing on the front page of Knol have to do with medical issues. There are also featured articles, such as making Buttermilk Pancakes from scratch.
Google does not censor the content published on Knol. It does, however, prohibit publication of pornography, hateful commentary, racist articles and other generally-tasteless content. The full terms of service can be found here.
I clicked through some of the featured articles to see how the keyword or keyphrases stacked up in Google’s main search engine. For instance, an article published on July 7, 2008, about toilet clogs is number two in Google’s search results (on July 26). Just type in “toilet clogs” in your search and you’ll see for yourself. Another article on tuberculosis does not show in the top 20 search results for that term; as a matter of fact, I did not find any of the medical terms for featured “Knols” showing up in the top 20 Google search results for those terms. This might be due to the date the articles were published.
Over time, I have a feeling that articles published on Knol are going to punch a heavy SEO hit to web pages referenced in Google’s knowledge base. For now and as of this writing, the Knol service is so new that it does not have any page rank. The number of Knol’s indexed pages are pretty small:
Google shows 1,240 indexed pages
Yahoo shows 372 indexed pages
MSN’s Live Search shows 2,170 indexed pages.
The above stats don’t reveal too much except for the fact that this is a new service. Frankly, website owners who recognize opportunity are going to be scrambling to be on the “top of the knoll,” so to speak, for their keywords.
Publishing on Knol is Easy
It’s easy to publish on Knol. If you already have a Google account (such as gmail or Adsense), you sign in with your Google account. Google will want to verify that you are who you say you are in the bio. You have a choice of either receiving an automated telephone call in which you enter a verification number that is generated on the Knol site or you can enter a credit card number.
You can also share in the Adsense revenue that is associated with your Knols. There’s an easy-to-use form that you can fill out in your Knol profile, and you receive a verification email that you need to respond to in order to activate Adsense. Once activated, Knol reports that it may take up to two weeks before your Adsense code appears on your Knol.
As far as writing your articles is concerned, you have an interface similar to what you see when you use WordPress. There are buttons that you can click to bold your type, insert links and images and so forth. It is a user-friendly system.
Conclusion – Start Knoling!
Right now, Knol is too new to say one way or another how much of an impact it will have on your search engine marketing tactics. I’m willing to bet that it is going to be a powerful tool to build link reputation and strength in Google. With that said, I’m going to sign off and start Knoling now!
It seems like a lot of us who are drawn toward earning a living online are also “into” self improvement. There are tons of good ebooks, subliminal videos and some awesome subliminal tapes on the market that deliver fantastic results. For the past year or so, I’ve been using subliminals and brain entrainment programs to get motivated, improve my memory, or just fall asleep. The brain entrainment series, for instance, has a sleep program that will knock me out cold even if I’ve guzzled down two pots of coffee. It’s probably the best sleep inducer I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve had great results from these subliminals. The only problem, however, is that headphones are so uncomfortable. It’s hard to get into a meditative state when you’re constantly moving pillows around so that the headphones don’t bite into your scalp.
I didn’t know about these before, but they look like one of the most useful, got-to-have inventions ever: Pillow speakers.
Available as “neck support” pillows or just regular pillows, you can plug in your iPod, MP3 player, CD player or DVD player, lie back and relax. Speaker pillows should connect to any portable or home device that has a standard audio output jack.
The result is that you can comfortably listen to your favorite subliminals and fall asleep without having to deal with headphones. Pillow speakers are definitely going on my “to buy” list. I can’t wait to try them out!
Personally, I find reliance on famous words and sweeping patriotic music to be a bit much — sort of hokey, actually — regardless of who is sponsoring the ad. However, the Libertarian’s overall message is good and well worth considering. Take a look.
One of the biggest questions from new website owners is, “How can I get in the search engines?” Perhaps more importantly, new site owners want to get into the top 10 or 20 results of the search engines, not buried somewhere in the trenches at page 100, 200 or even 500.
To help you out, the “Not Guru” has arranged for an absolutely free interview that you can listen to on your computer, or download and create into a CD to listen to when you’re driving around. You can hear a private coaching session where Internet ‘guru’ Jonathan Leger answers questions about how to get your site ranking high in Google. Just click, listen and enjoy!
