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| This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
For students in the US summer break is not a time to enjoy holidays. Rather everyone does something productive such as taking up a job, volunteering, enrolling for summer classes, traveling to another country, etc. This trend is catching up in upcoming economies such as India but it is not enough to sustain the large population of youth in that country.
Coming back to what I am doing. This is one period of the year when I get unbroken time to work and pick up overtime hours. Overtime pays (1½ times) and when there is opportunity to earn overtime it is the best thing to do. Moreover with summer heat melting the muscle and vaporizing blood it is better to remain indoors in the comfort of the air-conditioning.
I hope I can blog occasionally....
Earlier I had talked about how one can use modern technology to preserve their fondest memories on canvas. Well this time I would like to talk about my little but powerful mobile phone camera. I have one of the most basic phones the LG sliding phone. It is great instrument to talk, communicate and have some fun with. The camera that I had hitherto ignored is a really cool gadget, as I discover now. I shot some images recently as I meandered my way around doing my daily activities, going to school (college)... working..
I hope the new people that came to my blog to participate in the contest are revisiting. There is really no way to tell, that is one of the beauties of the internet. But this is soon coming to an end if one of the radio interviews I listened to this evening is true. According to the radio program I heard there are companies out there that are building lists and data to track down individuals. If you thought your anonymity was safe on the internet think again. There are firms this like this company, I don't recall the name, who will mine your data and sell it to individuals/ businesses who are looking for your demographic.
Next time I use the internet to do anything I will think a hundred times...
My blogging has been sporadic and irregular during the past couple of months. Work, school, and other pressures have kept me away from posting new and interesting incidents, pictures, news items and general musings and thoughts here.
Anyway I think I am kinda reaching an equilibrium with my studies and work and arriving at a balance. Once this is achieved seamlessly I can continue blogging as before and posting stuff that would be interesting for people who visit here.
One of the biggest drawbacks with the world wide web is the lack of copyright enforcement ability for individual users. Large corporations can spend the time and money to monitor their copyrighted material and prevent plagiarism. Individual bloggers find it very difficult to prevent unruly pranksters from making aBlog Copy. Now there is a website which will help you monitor your blog/ website, to see who comes from where and what they copy off of your blog.
I have been using the internet since the past 10-12 years and have seen how the world wide web has evolved. Initially the websites were meant for information, communication and little bit of entertainment. Over the years websites have transformed into portals which provide live news, information, videos and audio entertainment, interactive discussion platforms etc. All these has been possible because of two things 1) Advancement in technology and 2) Enhancement of hosting services.
A few years ago companies had one domain but now every corporate worth its name opts for multiple domain web hosting only. The virtual world has become a very competitive space and to remain at the top one has to constantly innovate and change strategies. One way to do it is to continuously upgrade websites and get better and faster hosting service. But finding a good website hosting company whose prices are competitive is the greatest challenge of every entrepreneur.
I recently came across this website aptly titled Web Hosting Geeks. This website is all about informing people about the top-10 best hosting service providers. Their list is constantly updated with new information about various aspects of website hosting, design, technologies, etc. I feel this is a very important reference guide for all those who are looking for website hosting services. This site could give them the right information and empower them to make informed decisions.
One of my favorite sections of this website is their blog. I love to read their well-written and informative blog posts on interesting topics such as Search Engine Optimization, web technologies, hosting, IFrames, etc. My suggestion to all of you reading this post is to visit Web Hosting Geeks and learn about website hosting and internet technology.
One of the common problems of every business relates to webhosting. Finding a reliable webhosting provider to host company's website is quite a challenge. The proliferation of internet has made so many choices available that it is very difficult to ascertain who provides the most reliable webhosting service.
But there is hope in the form of a new website which provides user reviews of hosting service providers. The main aim of this web portal is to provide unbiased and independent reviews of web hosting providers. At this portal we can find cheap professional web hosting services, some of it under $10 a month. Everyone is allowed to post a review of the website service provider they are using or have used in the past. These reviews will help others who are on the lookout for service providers.
My favourite section of this website, however, is the Informative Blog. The blog features comphrensive articles about latest internet technologies. For example the post on "What a Web Server is and how it works" was a very educative piece. This enabled me to learn about what all happens at the backend of our websites.
This website is a one-stop-shop for all kinds of website related information and services. It will clarify all your doubts and clear confusions related to webhosting and internet.
One of my close friends forwarded a link to this video. When I watched it for the first time I couldn't quite understand. So I watched it again and this time I paid more attention on the voice... then I understood the message. This is basically a feel good video meant to inspire viewers/ listeners. Heavy on text and voice with very little video element, this presentation has been crafted such that the message is rendered in a very persuasive manner. Thought I'd share it with my blog readers and elicit their comments.
Well, what do I say? I have not blogged since 4-5 days because nothing significant happened. My routine has been quite the same... classes, library and home. Pretty boring.. huh... well that is how life is if you are in the US and belong to the burgeoning student community. You can't work outside of the campus and with the economy the way it is, on-campus jobs are all taken by local students, so that leaves us international students jobless. The best we can do is to spend maximum time in the library either studying or browsing the internet.
If one is supremely lucky and has found a good group of friends in the college then you could go and hang out in the student life area and play pool, Table Tennis or something like that. But otherwise life is pretty boring as mine is right now...
One of the most testing and happy phases in a woman's life is when she becomes a mom. Life gets completely transformed by this event and things are never the same again. At this point in life several women give up their careers and become stay-at-home moms so that they can spend quality time with children and take care of them. But this leaves a great void in their life and now suddenly they have to ask their husbands for money even for the smallest of their needs. This can be quite a pain.
Thanks to the advent of SocialSpark, stay-at-home-moms can now stay at home, raise children, spend time with family and still make some money, by working at home. The rationale of this social marketing website is simple: stay-at-home moms make great bloggers and produce wonderful content and this content attracts several readers. The blog can be monetised by featuring sponsored posts, advertising etc. Blogging gives flexibility, money and a sense of achievement to moms.
So if you are a stay at home mom and are looking for money making opportunities on the internet, I'd suggest you try SocialSpark, the newest and most well organised social marketing community on the internet. Establishing an account on SocialSpark is pretty simple, all you need is a blog which is atleast 30 days old and which has been regularly updated. And once registered you have access to so many opportunities that you will be able to make money everyday just writing about your favourite topics.
Don't you all think it is a great opportunity for stay-at-home-mom's who are wanting to do something but can't go out of the house. I think this is the best thing to happen on the internet for a long time.
I started blogging couple of years ago and since then I have dabbled with several online marketing and other schemes trying to generate revenue out of my blogs and online enterpises. Success rate has not been very high but finally I found this novel concept of online social marketing community SocialSpark, which acts as a bridging paltform between advertisers and bloggers.
The concept behind SocialSpark is simple and straight forward. On one side there are advertisers who want their message passed on to potential customers and on the other side there are bloggers who write about subjects of their choice and communicate with readers. The advertisers want to reach the readers and offer sponsored posts which bloggers take up and communicate the formers message to the reader. This way the blogger receives compensation for his efforts and the advertiser successfully gets his/ her message across to the right audience.
The first wave in social marketing was that of advertising in print, television and online. Then came the wave of public relations in which advertisers got news coverage in media. But the latest wave is in in the blogosphere where bloggers act as opinion leaders and convey advertisers messages to people. I think this is here to stay and SocialSpark will be remembered as the pioneer company in this sphere.
I signed up for SocialSpark and am now making some money online doing something I like the most, blogging. I am quite sure soon I will be able to supplement my income thanks to SocialSpark. Believe me this has been one of the simplest sign up processes and customer love is always to help in all possible ways. Check out social spark and you will not be disappointed.
The internet is full of social networking sites, but which of them offer a direct opportunity to earn money? Probably none. Here is the latest website SocialSpark, positioned as a Social Marketing Network, which is aimed at connecting bloggers with people who need online blog-posts about their products/ services.
It is an online marketplace where bloggers and advertisers can meet and do business together. Advertisers can select blogs which are suited for their products and services and make cash sponsorship offers to them. Interested bloggers will take up the offers and publish blogs. Sponsored posting enables advertisers to create a online advertising campaign at fraction of the cost of any other forms of advertising.
Of course blogs with higher Google Page Rank tend to get more offers and earn more money. So keep your blog quality high so the traffic is high and you make more money. Apart from making money through blog posts, bloggers can also make money by displaying advertisements.
Coming to the site itself, it has certain visual appeal and very easy to navigate through and visit various parts. The message center helps bloggers build friendships and interact seamlessly. One of the bloggers I have met on this space is CherrylSmith23, an avid blogger with an array of interests and hobbies. I was impressed by the large number of friends she has made on SocialSpark. Her profile says 168 friends and 32 props, it is sheer excellence. Thirty two bloggers have endorsed and vouched for her. Indeed it is great to have friends like this supporting our small blogging enterprises.
So if you are looking for opportunities to make money online through blogging, just sign up for SocialSpark and you will be well on your way to online prosperity.
With nothing much to do I have been fiddling with various things on the computer. Earlier I had uploaded a video presentation of the pictures I have shot here. Now here is an animation promoting my blog which I plan to submit to other websites.
Here is another smaller version.
Some pictures I use as banners for my blog.
Adding features to the blog
I have been looking through various websites and freeware providers to get new and innovative features for my blog. It is sometimes frustrating to go through various features and find that it doesn't work like you expect it to. But then what is life if everything were so easy? The same logic works in other aspects of the online computer thingy....
More than a decade ago when I first started learning computers on old 386 machines, these technology gadgets seemed as if they were capable of everything... I still remember those days (I don't know whether I should call them 'good ole days') when carrying a 5 and quarter inch floppy disc made us feel cool. Then came the CD era when a shiny gold CD was considered more valuable than the valuable metal itself. Then came the internet, like a bolt out of the blue and everyone was talking about free e-mails, Hotmail, Yahoo, Rocketmail, AltaVista and several names.
But as I learnt more and worked extensively on computers I slowly became aware of the inherent drawbacks and frustrations one has to face while trying to get tasks accomplished. Sudden system crashes, especially when you are working on the important project and not saved all the changes. Codes which seem perfectly fine when you debug but don't work when installed on the webpage. Websites which look different in different computers ... oh not to mention in different browsers too...
Now I have learnt to optimise and make peace. Just yesterday I had one of the most frustrating experiences trying to set up an RSS feed on my blog. Even now though the feed seems to be working with 11 subscribers, I don't know what the feed url of my blog is.... maybe I will figure out some day in the future. Let us hope so...
Trying to install a feed
It is really frustrating. For the past 3 hours, I have been working and trying to put in place a proper RSS feed to my blog. It is another matter that, my blog may not attract even a single subscriber, but still I want to install this to learn how this damn thing works.
I get strange messages like "Parse Error", "url wrong", mistaken feed and what more... I wonder how techies manage to work around all the bugs and still write so much code for softwares... they must have loads of brains or loads of patience... unfortunately I don't have former and I am running out of the latter. But my perisistence is what is keeping me glued to this so I think I will work more and figure it out finally.
If any of you know anything do send me a mail.
