Know Internet Slang, What lol and such mean

When you first enter the comment/chat section of the Internet it can be confusing. There are all kinds of different acronyms and abbreviations for phrases. When I first entered the Blogosphere I thought lol was a Hawaiian greeting.

Here a few you should know:

Acronym: What it means:

LOL Laughing out loud

TTYL Talk To You Later

JK Just Kidding

ROFL Rolling on the floor laughing

You can find a much more complete list here, and here. Don't try to memories the
things in these lists. Just sometimes knowing can bring a lot of clarification into
a chat conversation.

Also you should know that this :) is a sideways smiley. So are these :-) 8) :0 :] :} and so on.

More tips to maximize your web life.

Make Calls Free, Skype Today

Ever wanted to call your brother on his trip to Spain, for free? Well, now you can!

All you need is two computers with high-speed Internet (DSL, broadband, satellite...). You simply download Skype to you Linux, Windows or Mac. Setup an account and go.

Computer to computer calls are free. If you want you can buy credits and a "Skype in" number so people can call you from a phone and you can call them. This is cheap, but I've heard that the sound quality isn't so great.

If you have a web cam you can easily do video chat. Or you can text chat, send files or play chess (with the help of some additional add-ons).

Overall Skype is great. You can make call out of country for free (free is good). How can you get better than that?

Maximize your Web life, 21 days of tips

HUGE changes for Blog Rush, maybe...

If you are a Blog Rush user you may have gotten an email promising Huge changes. But will they live up to their promises? Lets take a look.

The biggest thing that you notice in the email is 100% Manual blog review. They say they will check ever blog by hand and remove the blogs that go against policies. This sound great, if they carry out there plan.

Also Blog Rush "flavors" are now in use. There are more colors to choose from but you can't change the size.

They have introduced a feature that lets you filter out certian posts from your own blog so that they don't appearing in other peoples widgets.

They promise more categories, better reporting and bonus credits for low traffic blogs. Plus they say they will work very hard to improve Blog Rush. We, the bloggers, will see...

The email tool to save time!

Gmail Notifier, is the biggest time saver for me since bread. OK so bread wasn't a time saver, but anywaaay.

Even if you don't use Gmail you should use Gmail notifier. You can simply forward your emails to your free Gmail address.

You download the program that sits in your task bar and pops up ever time you get and email. It checks your email about every five minuets so it is very nice if you need your emails when you get them. The end result is that you don't have to check your email. It just tells you when you get one! Here's what you have to do:

1 Sign up for Gmail if you haven't already.

2. Download the Gmail notifier here. Or for Mac here.

3. Configure it to your liking. Note: if you are going to forward your current address to your Gmail address. Now would be the time to do so.

4. Enjoy the not having to check your email.

Maximize your Web life, 21 days of tips

How to make a link in plain English

Today I'm going to show you a very useful skill, how to make a web link. And I'm going to do it in plain English.

I would recommend checking out this page at w3schools.com. It lets you easily mess with the html code that makes links.

Here's an example of a standard link code:
<a href="www.example.com">Text to appear as link</a>
here's the output: Text to appear as link

Here's a illustration to help you understand the anatomy of a link:

More tips to maximize your web life.

Useful html tags that you should know

You don't have to be a webmaster to have to use HTML. It can be very handy at times to know a little how to make some text look italic or bold or even like code. Today I'll show you how to make a few simple tags.

Note: This is basic stuff so if you know any html you probably already know this.

The basic tag anatomy

I'm not going to give a huge course on html or anything ( for that go to w3schools.com ). Mostly all you need to know for now is that all html tags are surrounded by angle brackets "<" ">". And that a closing tag has a forward slash "/" after the the first bracket.

The bold (<b>) tag:

The bold tag will make you text look bold. Here's how you use it.

First you add the starting tag "<b>". Now you type the text you want bold. When you want the text to stop being bold you simply add this tag "</b>"

Example: <b> Text you want bold. </b>
Output: Text you want bold.

The italic (<i>)tag:

The italic tag uses the same form as the bold tag.

Example: <i> Text you want italic. </i>
Output: Text you want italic.

Other tags

There are many other tags that work the same way. Such as <code> </code> this gives you: text that look like code. and <Blockquote> </Blockquote> this gives you

text that looks like this.

So now that you know how to use tags, Where do you use them? Well there are plenty of good places to use this comments on blogs, post in your own blog and email are just a few examples. Have fun! What are your favorite tags to use? Let me know in a comment!

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How to use RSS

Note: If you haven't read my post on what RSS is I would recommend doing so.

The first thing you need to do is find a feed reader (RSS reader). There are two kinds of feed readers.

Web based feed readers

First there are web based feed readers. These are web sites that work as feed readers. You usually just have to make an account and then you can start adding feeds by URL or you can search for different feeds depending on the reader you choose.

I prefer web readers as then I don't have to download the feeds to my computer (although this can be a bummer if you want to view feeds offline).

Here are some web based feed readers:

• Google Reader (this just came out of Google Labs
• Bloglines
  
• Newsgator online
• Of course there are a bunch more. You can Google "web based feed readers" to see a few.
  

Feed readers that live on your PC (or Mac, of course)

Second there are feed readers that are actual programs that you download. Some of them cost, some of them don't. These sometimes offer more features than web based readers. Here are a few to check out.

• Newsgator
• FeedDemon
• Again there's many more if you look around!

I also might be helpful to know that many web browsers have built in readers. the latest versions of Firefox, IE and Safari all have built in feed readers. These might be good for people who are just starting out with using RSS or only want to read a few feeds.

Once you have a feed reader you are pretty much set to go. For more info check the help area of the reader you choose.

More tips to maximize your web life.

BLOGRUSH. Somthing good just got better: Flavors

Some of you may have noticed the Blog Rush widget in my sidebar. Blog Rush has been through a lot of hype lately, bloggers have praised it and put it down. But I think it's a good thing.

I am getting visitors through the Blog Rush widget. And I have read many places that it does not go against the AdSense TOS. I don't see where Blog Rush could be doing any real harm.

And it just got better! We are no longer bound to a plain black widget. With the release of Blog Rush Flavors. This will be available in a few days. While it's not a super amount of customization. You can at least pick a color that matches your blog.

In an email Blog Rush sent out to their members they said

"* We're hard at work with many new
improvements on the way to help you
get more targeted traffic.

** We'll soon be adding a bonus credit
system that gives certain bonuses only to
our low traffic members since they need

the help the most!"

I hope they live up to their promises!

See how it works or sign up by visiting the Blog Rush website!

Note: all links in this post are referrals (I don't get paid though :)

About RSS and how it's changing the web.

RSS. You may have heard of it, maybe not. Either way, if you do any kind of serious blog of news reading (OK even if you only read 4 or so blogs) you should definitely use RSS.

This post is about what RSS is. Tomorrow I'll post about how to use it.

Here's how what some sites say RSS is.

Whatisrss.com says:
"RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News."

Feedburner.com says:
"Technology evolution in online publishing has made it really easy to not only publish regular updates to web-based content, but also keep track of a large number of your favorite Web sites or blogs, without having to remember to check each site manually or clutter your email Inbox. You can now streamline your online experience by subscribing to specific content feeds and aggregating this information in one place to be read when you're ready.

• Consumer Bottom Line: Subscribing to feeds makes it possible to review a large amount of online content in a very short time.
• Publisher Bottom Line: Feeds permit instant distribution of content and the ability to make it "subscribable."
• Advertiser Bottom Line: Advertising in feeds overcomes many of the shortcomings that traditional marketing channels encounter including spam filters, delayed distribution, search engine rankings and general “in-box” noise."

Here's a video about RSS and how to use it, "RSS in plain English."


VideoJug: RSS In Plain English

RSS stands for "really simple syndacation".

RSS is often called a feed or news feed.

The some of the standard icons for RSS looks like this:
You can see many examples of other feed icons in my sidebar. Click 'em to subscribe! >

More tips to maximize your web life.

Quick tip #2: Use support

This is another simple yet important tip. If you have a problem with something online (email, web hosting, etc.) and you've tried everything. Don't be afraid to contact support.

My favorite way to do this is by email. Yes, you have to wait a little longer than by phone, but you don't have to deal having to hold or wait while being transferred. One thing that helps is to provide as much info about the problem as you have.

If email doesn't get the answer don't be afraid to call support. Just make sure you have all the info you need in front of you when you call. Also make sure you set aside time before you call (don't call when you're in a hurry or have somewhere to go).

If you don't want to call (or the company doesn't provide phone support) make sure you check the support forums. You'll often find lots of information there.

More tips to maximize your web life.

Click... and Try!

Today I have just one quick tip for the series Maximizing your web life. Click!

"Click?!?!" you say. "What, how is that a tip?"

I'll tell you. (If you are a geek you probably know what I'm talking about already).If your not a geek and you've wondered how geek's learn so much about computers, it's because they click things. They try it out.

If you don't know what something does try it! But be careful you can get into trouble if your careless. (Like the time I didn't back-up my template when trying a hack a messed everything up!).

So there's today's quick tip. Go click something!

More tips to maximize your web life.

Use a Web Browser Toolbar

A toolbar for your browser can really beef up your web browsing. Many you can get for free, Here are some you might want to check out.

Google Toolbar:
Google has a very useful toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer. You can pick from a large selection of buttons that do various things. You also get tools such as AutoFill (A very useful web form auto filler), Google bookmarks, Google search, page rank and spell checker. Just to name a few. Here's a list of all the features.

Advanced Searchbar:
Advanced Searchbar boasts a whooping' amount of features. Here's the list they give:

100+ Search Engines [List] Pop-Up Blocker Auto Form Filler Auto Login Manager Adult Content Filter Add Custom Buttons Calendar Driving Directions Movie Showtimes Spelling Checker E-Mail Providers Finance Handy Calculator TV Listings Classifieds Horoscopes Health Sites 75+ Free Games Media Players (CD & DVD) MySpace Button

Many ISP's and other online search engines such as Yahoo and MSN have toolbars, but don't have as many features as Google Toolbar and Advanced Searchbar. These toolbars can increase your ease of using the web. One step closer to maximizing you web life!

More tips to maximize your web life.

Put bookmarks to important sites in your browser's toolbar.

If you don't have bookmarks in your browser's toolbar, you are missing out! This lets you put your favorite blogs or web sites just a click away. Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari all have this feature.

Here's what they looks like in Firefox:


To use them Internet Explorer simply click view - toolbars - links. Then move the favorites you want to appear in the toolbar to the links folder.

In Safari and Firefox they are usually in use by default.

Tip: If you keep the names of the bookmarks/favorites short you will be able to fit more in to the toolbar.

Using bookmark in a toolbar may seem just to take up space, but it will greatly improve how you move around the web!

More tips to maximize your web life.

Set your browsers homepage to something other than Google.com

Google.com gives you one thing, search. Many browsers have Google search built in. Today set your browser homepage to something you'll use more. Here are some ideas:

iGoogle
iGoogle lets you customize your Google start page however you want. You can choose from a pile of "widgets" giving you anything from news to feeds to games. Also you can create tabs that let you organize different pages of widgets.

Netvibes
Net vibes is like iGoogle with a twist. You can style your page with the templates they give you, add feeds. They also have "widgets" but not as many as iGoogle. Another neat feature is you can share your pages with other Netvibes users. Tabs let you organize pages however you want.

Your ISP's website
Many ISP's offer a homepage to use. My preference is not to use these as they are prone to use ads and often don't offer much customization.

A web page that you use a lot.
Consider making your feed reader your homepage (if you use a web-based reader). Or set blogger.com, wordpress.com or whatever blogging software you use. Also you can use any web page such as Google Blog search or Digg. The possibilities are endless!

More tips to maximize your web life.

Maximize your email with filters.

If you are greatly annoyed you by a cluttered inbox, this post is for you!

Today I'll show you how to keep your inbox clean. First by cleaning it out, then keeping it that way.

First take the time clean out your inbox. Read messages that need to be read, delete or archive ones that you've read.


Then set up filter to file different messages into different places. A filter simply searches each incoming message and decides what to do with it.

Note: Some email programs call filters by another name such as rules. Some programs may not have filters, but most should.

Where the filter feature is located on your email program varies from program to program. In Gmail it's beside the search feature and in the settings. In other programs a good place to check is the tools or setting area in your email program. If you can't find it check the help area.

Now once you found the filter feature. Set up a few to organize incoming mail. Setting up a filter is fairly strait forward once you get started. Again this depends on the program you use. Fiddle with the settings to your liking.

Your goal is to make at least three filters.

More tips to maximize your web life.

Maximize your Web life, 21 days of tips

Welcome to my series on maximizing your web life. In other words, helping you be faster, more efficient and better at what you do on the web. I'll do this series over 21 days with 21 post.

Look back here for a list of posts as I post them. I'll cover topics like RSS, email, bookmarks, free Internet calls, html and more.

Here's a list of the posts so far:

• Maximize your email with filters.
• Set your browsers homepage to something other than Google.com
• Put bookmarks to important sites in your browser's toolbar.
• Use a Web Browser Toolbar
• Click... and Try!
• About RSS and how it's changing the web.
• How to use RSS
• Useful html tags that you should know
• How to make a link in plain English
• The email tool to save time!
• Make Calls Free, Skype Today
• Know Internet Slang, What lol and such mean
• Other ways to find stuff on the web
• How to follow one train of thought on the web
• Using Squidoo, Part 1
• Using Squidoo, Part 2
• Using Squidoo, part 3
• Power Blogrolling with del.icio.us
• Here's a Quick Time Saver, Form Auto Fill
• Make Your Site or Profile look Web 2.0

Using Blogger Labels as Technorati Tags

Yesterday I work out a neat hack with Blogger labels. Only to find someone else had discovered it already. Anyway here it is.

1. Open Blogger and navigate to Template > Edit HTML.
2. Check the "Expand widget templates" box.
3. Find the following code:

<br/>
<span class='post-labels'>
      <b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
        <data:postLabelsLabel/>
        Read my posts about: <b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
          <a expr:href='data:label.name' rel='tag'><data:label.name
/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
        </b:loop>
      </b:if>
    </span>.
       4. And below it add this:

          
<br/>
 
<span class='post-labels'>
      <b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
        <data:postLabelsLabel/>
      Technorati tags:  <b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
          <a expr:href='"http://technorati.com/tag/" + data:label.name' rel='tag'>
<data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
        </b:loop>
      </b:if>
    </span>

5. If you want to show only the Technorati tags and not the labels, replace the first code with the second.

6. Note: The Tags will be whatever you put in as labels. In other words the labels and tags will be the same.

Technorati Tags all day long!

Bloglines Beta an amazing User Interface!

I used Bloglines Beta version today. It has the most amazing user interface that I've seen in web based RSS readers. It has a very smooth, fast drag-and-drop interface. You can easily move feeds between folders.

There are a few new features. But some of the normal features are not yet in the beta version. Ounce the beta version is updated it will rock! I for one will be using it.

Another big update is the start page. You can select feeds to display on the main page. This is really nice, it gives you an at-a-glance of the blogs that are important to you.

I'll write an updates on Bloglines Beta update. So check back for more!

Correction, you can embed music with Myfabrik.com

I recently did a review on Myfabrik.com, In the review I said that music can not be embedded. But in fact, it can.

You can embed music with Myfabrik.

Sorry about that, Please except my apologies.

Thanks to the reader who brought thit to my attention.

Have fun embedding music!

Blogs to visit: Blogger Buster

Blogger Buster has a great amount of information on blogging with blogger. I have been helped many times by Amanda's blog. I used one of her templates to base my template from.

She has compiled many hack, tips, templates and more! If you use blogger.com you stop by Blogger Buster.

Have Fun!

Visit Blogger Buster

Tools for Bloggers: Myfabrik.com

Myfabrik is a powerful media storage tool. It allows you to upload 1GB of pictures, videos, music and documents. All for free. You get unlimited uploads per month. And integration with Flickr and Photobucket. File upload limit is 500MB.

Pictures:
You can get an embed code for any picture (includes instructions for Myspace, blogger etc.) You can embed in normal picture mode, slide show or filmstrip. Or you can just get the URL of the picture. Can be shared on your public page.

Video:
You can also embed video. But only gives you one embed type. Can be shared on your public page.

Music:
You can embed music. But it can be shared on your public page.

Documents:
You can upload documents of almost any type. You can't embed documents. But you can share them on your public page.

Public Page:
Everything you upload is private. But you can easily share things on your public page. Your public page allows some customization and multiple templates. Your public page is located at: www.myfabrik.com/username/public/beginning-of-email-address. People can download anything you put on your public page, but you can turn this off.

User Interface:
The UI is a little bit clunky and hard to work with. Some features are hard to find. It has drag-and-drop functionality which is a plus. The system can be a little slow at times, but nothing major. Overall it works nicely and quickly.

Visit Myfabrik

Blogs to visit: Problogger.net

Problogger.net is mainly about making money blogging. But even is you don't want to make money blogging, you should still check it out!

The author Darren Rowse has made a six digit income from blogging. Problogger tells you how to do just that.

Problogger has a heap of tips and trick. Darren covers topics such as Adsense, blog promotion, writing better posts, commenting and a very helpful series on blogging for beginners.

Overall whether you blog for money or just as a pastime Problogger is definitely worth checking out.

Problogger

Wordpress powered blogging platforms: Blogema.org

Of the three Wordpress powered blogging sites that I've reviewed, Blogema is the most powerful.

Pros:

• Drag-and-drop widget customization.
• 100+ themes many the same as Wordpress.com.
• Free to use.
• Free sub-domain.
• Site map generator.
  

Cons:

• No HTML editing.
• Can't use your own domain.
• No custom spam blocking.

Bottom line:

If you're going to use a Wordpress powered blogging site, use Blogema.org. It's definitely the most powerful of the three I've reviewed.

To view my test blog click here.

To view other reviews on Wordpress powered blogging sites click here.

Wordpress powered blogging platforms series

I've done some reviews on there Wordpress powered blogging platforms. Blogetery, Blogsome and Blogema.

Here's the reviews I've done so far:

Review on Blogetery.

Review on Blogsome.

Review on Blogema.

The series is finished. If you know of a Wordpress powered blogging platform you would like reviewed. Let me know! I'll do my best to help.

Wordpress powered blog platforms: Blogsome

Blogsome is a site that allows you to set up a free Wordpress blog.

Pros:

• It's free.
• Custom spam blocker.
• free sub-domain.

Cons:

• You can't use your own domain name.
• No HTML customizeation.
• Only a few themes
• No drag-and-drop sidebar customization.

Bottom line:
I don't no what to say. If you want a very basic free Wordpress blog, use Blogsome.com.

To view other reviews on Wordpress powered blogging sites click here.

Wordpress powered blog platforms: Blogetery

A whole host of Wordpress powered blogging platform have been springing up. This week I'll review three. Blogetery, Blogsome and Blogema.

Blogetery

Pros:

• It's free.
• You don't have to deal with the installation.
• 100+ themes.
• Customizable spam blocker.
• Free sub-domain.
  

Cons:

• You can't use your own domain.
• No HTML customization.
• No drag-and-drop sidebar widgets
  

Bottom line:

Really the only thing that's better than wordpress.com is that there are more themes. Is it worth loosing the features just so you have more choices of themes?

You can view the test blog here.

Note: If you have any questions about Blogetery features, I'd love to help! Leave me a comment on this post.

To view other reviews on Wordpress powered blogging sites click here.