How Not to Make $1000 Per Day on the Internet

Before we look at how to make money online (which is not actually as difficult as some people make out) we need to look at what not to do. The internet is littered with articles on how to earn thousands of pounds / dollars online, but a majority of them are really just trying to sell you their product, which is part of a classic pyramid selling scam. Not a scam if you manage to meet the sales targets, but really almost impossible to achieve. For example, in one recent email I received, offering to give me the chance of making USD1000 per month, all I had to do was to buy a web package for USD40. Now, I was far too sensible to buy the package, as I could see that it was a pyramid scam. On purchasing the USD40 package, the instructions would simply be to set up my own website, and then sell the same package on to another 25 people each month, thus making a tidy profit of USD1000. There is nothing essentially wrong with this for of internet money making. If anyone chooses to buy the product without first knowing what is involved, it is greed that it driving them, and greed drives the whole process. However, the average newcomer to the internet will have no idea how to build go about building a site capable of selling even one package a year, let alone 25 a month. Making money online is really a numbers game. The more visitors you get to a website, the greater your chances of making a sell. It is really just like any other business. Not everyone that visits a site will make a purchase. Building a site to maximise conversion rates - the term commonly used to describe the ratio of visitors to buyers - can help. Items and companies advertised have to be relevant to the content if you are relying on organic search to drive your web business. However, if your site is a social networking site, or general news blog, then generic advertising can work too. We shall discuss the correct methods for making money online in the nest issue, Published on Thursday, July 24, 2008 | How Not to Make $1000 Per Day on the Internet 0 comments so far - Discuss this Article

Apple's Safari Web Browser now on Windows

There was an Apple update today, and in addition to the iTunes and Quicktime updates, Safari is now installed on my PC. I didn't ask for it, but good to have. Will be useful to be able to check websites in Apple's browser from now. I do like the look of Apple's sofware, but I have never had the money to invest in an Apple machine. Published on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | Apple's Safari Web Browser now on Windows 0 comments so far - Discuss this Article

Diablo3 Trailer - Diablo is Back! Diablo 3 Coming Soon....

OK, this is not the normal article that I post here, but it is very exciting news in the PC computer gaming world. There is still only limited information on Blizzard's Website but it looks like Diablo3 carries on where Diablo2 left off, with extra character classes. Needless to say, the official page on the BLizzard site is struggling under extremely high levels of traffic on the server. So, why am I blogging Diablo3 here? Firstly, Diablo2 was the first game that I played on my first PC. I bought my first computer in 2001, several years after leaving University. I had already started working, anf bought my first flat by this time. What made Diablo2 so great, and so memorable, was that it was by far the most exciting online game available at the time. Although Blizzard's Starcraft was, and still is, very popular, Diablo2 allowed up to 8 players to adventure together. The characters were very well balanced, and the quests throughout the 5 Acts were very challenging. Diablo2 was incredibly addictive. Secondly, Diablo3, being a PC game, will probably lead to an increase in sales for games computers. Computer games push a PC to its limits. No other software requires the most advanced CPU's, RAM, Graphics cards and fast harddrives like the latest computer game. When I played Diablo2, I was playing on my Athlon 1Ghz pc, with 256Mb RAM, and a Geforce2 AGP graphics card. I am still using this PC for web surfing and various other web admin tasks, however it does not stand up to any of the latest PC games. Even my P4 2.66Ghz, with 2Gb RAM and a Geforce 6600 AGP graphics card is too slow for most of the latest games. When it comes to PC benchmarking, few tests are as intensive as playing the latest PC games with the graphics set to maximum quality to really push the latest PCIe graphics cards and CPUs to their limits. I am already planning my PC upgrade in readiness for the release of Diablo3 (although the Diablo3 release date is currently unknown, but likely to be 2nd quarter of 2009). However, it is unlikely that Diablo3 will require the most powerful machines, as Blizzard's Diablo series, like the Starcraft game, is more about gameplay and player interaction than visually stunning graphics. However, this may all change in D3. Watch the Diablo3 Trailer So, what do we know about Diablo 3? There will be two new character classes to add to the Amazon, Paladin, Barbarian, Sorceress, Necromancer, Druid and Assasin - the Witch Doctor and the new Barbarian. Judging from the demos and character details on Blizzard.com the characters look much more like those from Blizzards Award Winning MMORP World of Warcraft. The Witch Doctor looks much like a Horde Undead character. From Blizzard's website: "Twenty years have passed since the cataclysmic events of Diablo® II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone, which once shielded the world of Sanctuary from the forces of both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram.... Following the unveiling of Diablo III today at the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational, we've launched the game's official website, with information about the places, characters, monsters, and adventures awaiting you upon your return to the world of Sanctuary. Some of the site's highlights include: The cinematic teaser trailer shown at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational A 20-minute gameplay demo video More than 60 screenshots and pieces of concept art Deckard Cain's journal, narrated by Deckard Cain himself -- stay a while and listen! And much, much more Visit the new Diablo III website now to learn more about the game, and make sure to check out the official FAQ and the announcement press release." Diablo3 wil be available on pre-order for UK customers at the GBP Shop in 2009. Published on Saturday, June 28, 2008 | Diablo3 Trailer - Diablo is Back! Diablo 3 Coming Soon.... 0 comments so far - Discuss this Article

Wordpress Database Backup Made Easy with WP-DBManager 2.30

My main concern regarding the running of a MySQL database driven website is that servers to die, and having a backup is essential. However, without an automated backup solution, you are likely to find that when you most need it, your backup is old. Fortunately a plugin has been written for Wordpress which not only allows you to manually backup your database from your site control panel, but also allows you to set up an automated backup that is emailed to a destination of choice. So you could if you desired, back up your database to a gmail account, where it should be safer than a home pc or the same web server that your website is hosted on. I am still testing WP-DBManager 2.30 now, but have set it to automatically backup my database every 12 hours, then GZip it and email to myself. The auto backup can be set in minutes, hours, days, weeks or months, so depending on how active your site is there should be a backup solution for you. Hopefully testing will prove positive. In addition to backing up the Wordpress MySQL database, WP-DBManager 2.30 also allows you to restore a database, manage existing backups, run SQL queries, repair the database and drop or empty tables. Emptying a table could be useful if you find that you suddenly have thousands of unwanted spam messages. Just empty the whole comments table, and the message will all go. Drastic, but if you have a backup, you could then just import the comments, rather than importing the entire database. Finally WP-DBManager 2.30 has the function to optimise the database to ensure smooth running and fast responses. If I find any problems with this plugin I will report it here, but so far it looks like a very useful plugin for any Wordpress bloggers. Published on Friday, June 20, 2008 | Wordpress Database Backup Made Easy with WP-DBManager 2.30 1 comments so far - Discuss this Article

Wordpress Just gets better! Converting Categories to Tags

After importing my Blogger blog into Wordpress, I had hundreds of categories (converted from Blogger labels) and very few tags. This was obviously not right. So I thought that I would have to manually set up tags, or fiddle with the database, but no. Within the import menu on Wordpress is the option to convert categories to tags. All doe automatically in seconds. And I now have a lovely tag cloud - something that I have always wanted. Starting to seriously consider converting Webologist over to Wordpress now. Maybe a task for a rainy day. Published on Friday, June 20, 2008 | Wordpress Just gets better! Converting Categories to Tags 0 comments so far - Discuss this Article