When you’re just getting started on Twitter, things can seem hectic or confusing. To get yourself hooked up with some followers who have similar interests as you, think of a popular online community that you frequent and start following people you know there. If you are active in this online community, then people will start to notice you and follow you as well.

Once you have a decent number of followers, it’s time to start tweeting. When you tweet, it shouldn’t be about yourself, but about others. There have been many spoofs of Twitter in the form of comics and videos which comment on how some people like to tweet about their everyday lives. If you want to brand yourself as someone knowledgeable and whom it would be desirable to follow, then you’ll need to be able to provide value to your followers as well as potential followers.

You’ll find that there are plenty tools around too to help you get even more from Twitter. These tools can be used to automate tasks which you may find are taking up too much of your time. Be wary of automating too much though as the whole point of Twitter is that it is a ‘social’ site, and the parts of it you automate the less interaction you have with other Twitter users. Still, there are some great tools out there, the best of which you can find by simply searching for ‘twitter tools’ on a search engine.

Twitter is a great networking tool because it allows you to get in touch with people who you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to meet. A great way to start a conversation with someone on Twitter is to either ask them a question, or answer one of their questions. Comments may be ignored, but if you help them or ask them for help, you are more likely to elicit a response from them. This is especially useful for networking with experts in your field.

If you tweet and interact with certain individuals long enough, they’ll start trusting and respecting you. Then, once others see that you are an active and valuable Twitter user, they will start interacting with you too, and a viral networking effect results. The consequence being that once you have built a small network on Twitter, and are an active user, your follower base will start to grow significantly without any specific additional efforts by you. When people see something funny, it is common to tell a friend about it as soon as possible. It is kind of the same principle on Twitter. When serious Twitter users see something cool, they’ll tweet about it. When they find someone worth following, they’ll recommend that their followers follow this person as well.

Struggling to make money online? Internet millionaire Jason James has helped hundreds of ordinary people quit their day jobs and start their very own make money home business. For a limited time only Jason is giving away his step-by-step million dollar blueprint for FREE. Download this life changing free report right here: http://www.jasonmjames.com/free/

Others seeking like-minded individuals would set up an online diary to share their thoughts and it is from this that the first blogs evolved. In fact, these pioneering blogs were termed ‘online diaries’ and made their appearance around 1994. However, it was three years before the term ‘blog’ was coined and the credit for that goes to Jorn Barger. At present, there are many different types of blogs. The most long-standing of these is still the online diary.

The former blogs were just another component of already established websites. These blogs were more suited to technologically sophisticated users and so weren’t usually received by the community. The advent of easy making and upkeep tools brought blogs to the masses, as it were. Now, blogs are easy to create, use and uphold. There are even restricted services dedicated to hosting blogs. Alternatively blogs can be added to existing web hosting services using any of the plentiful blogging software on hand.

Some of the first hosted tools for blogs contain LiveJournal, which exposed its doors in 1999, and Open Diary, which carved a niche for itself at the time by actuality the initial service]to permit readers to post comments on users’ blogs. One of the biggest names in blogging is Blogger.com, which was becoming so familiar that it was bought over by Google in 2003.

Since this time, blogs have garnered increasing notice by conventional media and companies. Blogs have engaged an active role in flouting and spinning news, and are even being used by governmental candidates as a means of scrutinizing public opinion and law execution groups as a way of outreach.

Blogs have enjoyed an unparalleled popularity as illustrated by Xanga, which hosted a mere 100 blogs in 1997, only to have this number explode to 50 000 000 by December 2005. This may be due, in part, to the incredible versatility of blogs. They can be for practically any purpose and while typical blogs consist mainly of text, they can include photos and even videos.

Want to find out more about Money-Making Blogs, then visit Susan Champman’s site on how to choose the best Money-Making Blogs for your needs and many other useful information.

Like most other blogging platforms, WordPress is free. However, WordPress has a higher storage allowance then it’s competitors — a whopping 3 gigs! Also, WordPress permits you to install their platform on to your own personal website, which most other blogging platforms don’t allow. Not only does installing WordPress on your website allow for complete control, but you you can make use of the entirety of the bandwidth provided by your internet hosting plan. That already generous 3 gig limit then become limitless!

While most blogging platforms allow for only the hosting of image files, WordPress offers another another benefit in that you can host not only images but also other types of files, such as PDFs, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

A further benefit of WordPress over other blogging platforms is it’s open-sourced nature. This gives bloggers a great amount of flexibility. There is a large community that is always building and updating many plug-ins and themes that makes it easy to run a professional website. This reason alone has drawn in many users that previously used the other platforms. Appearance and widgets can be customized completely, making it possible for you to recreate the exact impression of your blog that you’ve formed in your head.

So, lets quickly review why WordPress is the preferred choice for bloggers. We see that the option is there to install it on your own server. We have the ability to host a variety of files on our blogs, and the open source nature of WordPress code that gives us limitless flexibility. If you haven’t already started using WordPress, then now is the time to start!

About the Author:  Matthew Wolfe teaches entreprenuers how to create blogs, generate traffic, and make money with his free video tutorials at The WordPress Classroom. You can also find out more about Matthew, as well as learn more tips and tricks at his personal blog, MatthewWolfe.com.

The red ring of death

Maybe you’ve had your xbox repaired and don’t want a repeat of the red ring of death. Whatever your situation, here are some simple measures that you can take to keep your xbox running perfectly.

1. Know where the cooling vents are and be sure to never block them. If air can’t freely flow into these vents, your Xbox will overheat. Make sure there is plenty open space around these vents. Keep them clear of clutter and don’t have them pushed up against the wall.
2. Place your Xbox in a clean dust free environment and make sure that your Xbox is kept clean. The reason for this is that dirt, dust, and pet hair can get sucked into the cooling vents which will interfere with the cooling system. If too much dust gets into the vents, the fans get over worked and won’t be able to supply the Xbox with enough cooling air.
3. The power brick also needs to stay cool during operation. Therefore, it needs to have easy access to the surrounding air. This means you need to be careful not to place it on shaggy carpets that can block airflow. Place it on a hard table or on a hardwood floor.
4. Keep the Xbox away from sources of heat. If you are using your Xbox on a hot day, keep the air conditioner running.

Keep in mind that your xbox runs hotter the longer you use it. Always limit your gaming to no more than a couple of hours each time.

The main thing to remember is that the red ring of death happens when your Xbox overheats. The Xbox naturally tends to run hot and has a cooling system that can barely keep up. So it’s up to you to make sure that it never overheats.

Marc Sandford is a gaming enthusiast and author. Get Xbox trouble shooting advice about fixing the Xbox 360 ring of death.

Microsoft’s new search engine

In addition, I must say that I’ve now changed all of my default searches to Bing as I felt I was getting more of the Internet in a better way, than I was getting with Google and their controlled net.  I look at Google now the way I looked at AOL ten years ago. If you want to search the full Internet you can’t do it on Google, as they have restricted, blocked, and penalized any site that they didn’t like.  This means when you search on Google you are getting what they want you to see, rather than what the Internet has.  I call Google search now GoogleNet, similar to when I called AOL’s search AOHell.  The first search I did was the Google on Bing search and with the results I say ‘Go Bing yourself Google‘.

• Type in the word Google to Bing and you get a really nice result. There is only one on the page and it’s Google links, with some deep linking right on the page, along with an option for Google search. This tells me that they know their audience and they know what is relevant and provide that information to people in an easy to use way.
• Now, go to Google and type in Bing.  Of course you get a link to Bing’s website, but you also get a mess of other junk not related to Bing or their search.  Including links to Bing drinks, Stan Bing, Bing Crosby, and of course Bing Surfboards. This tells me that they haven’t quite got it figured out yet and not sure what to bring people.

This shouldn’t be much a surprise as Google has been around and Bing just launched, but it’s not the only difference.

• Go to Bing.com and do some searches. See what comes up. Try things that you know how they rank in Google and see how different they are with Bing.
• There is a new preview option next to each link on Bing. This preview opens up some text on the page, as well as some links that it finds, which makes checking out the content much easier from the engine results without having to leave the page.
• The new search provides some insight and suggestions to what others have typed in, or even local searches that may be relevant to the audience based on their IP Geo-location.  This is helpful for those that are doing broad searches, and yes Google has a similar feature.
• Search history is also a new feature on Bing search and provides some insights to the last searches done, or able to refine searches more based on filtering options.
• Image and Video search is enhanced with one of the best in the industry and the suggestion or similar tool on the images makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for. The video search is the most advanced around with a play and preview feature right on the search result pages.  This means that a person can do a search on Bing for video and never have to leave the Bing search page and be able to play the videos right from the search results.

These new features, along with a great UI, and some clever branding, has made Bing a new force in the search world. Personally, I think it’s the best search out right now, and would recommend it to anyone, as well as making it my default search on all browsers.

Kumo – http://kumo.com

This is Microsoft’s next attempt at beating Google. They are redoing their Live search, and adding more features, as well as re-branding it into Kumo. The site is not live yet, but there has been some beta test and screen shots released showing some of the advantages of it. It will be a little different from Live, which is currently operating as Microsoft’s main engine.  The new site will incorporate much the data that they have for Live, but will have blended results and will incorporate many new features that have become popular on the web.  Microsoft is hoping there new site will be just what the doctor ordered to help rival Google’s search.

Wolfy Alpha – http://www.wolframalpha.com

This is the long awaited, much hyped Google killer. However, this will not kill Google because it doesn’t return website results, but actual answers. Unlike traditional search engines that only display a list of sites, Wolfy will actually try to answer the question.  A person can type in something like ‘how far is the sun from the earth on this certain day’, and instead of bringing back some sites that may or may not have the right answer, Wolfy will actually try to answer the question and return the real result.  Although this will be extremely helpful and time efficient, it doesn’t direct people to website where they can learn more about it.  This means that it will be useful, but not quite a Google killer.

Both of these new search engines are expected to be release in May 2009, but neither has actually launched yet so we are still waiting for Wolfy and Kumo.

Now, I’ve read that getting flagged in their system is no big deal and to just make some adjustments and keep trying until you get your listing approved. However, while doing a bulk upload there was no options to verify them and it appears that right now Google doesn’t allow verification of bulk uploads. This means two things, that one even if you get it through it most likely will appear on the listing as unverified, and two  you can do much to get it through other than try again.

I wasn’t okay with trying again, until I noticed a correlation between the bulk uploads getting flagged and huge drop in SERP rankings.  What I noticed was that each time I had bulk listing in flagged status that the main keywords we were ranking for were all gone. Once I cleaned up the listings or resubmitted them for approval the listings would come back.  However, I kept resubmitting so the listings were appearing and disappearing so it took several times to see that there is possibly a correlation between getting flagged in Google and loss in SERP rankings.

Just to clarify, SERP rankings are search engine result pages, and we rely on our organic searches so any loss in SERP rankings would influence of the overall business. While we see the benefit of being in Google Local, we also don’t want to lose any rankings because listings are getting flagged.  It does seem like there is a correlation between getting flagged in Google Local and loss of SERP rankings.

Does Google Adsense Video Ads Make Money or Good Content?

From my test it does provide sticky content for the site, but if you are not controlling the content then it would be hard to know what effect the content will have on your audience.  For example, the videos I was showing were coming from other Youtube users that were uploading their own videos. However, the videos weren’t always relevant to the content on the page or they were out-dated and not current with today’s need.  I felt the only way to do this right and have good content is to create your own videos, make a Youtube channel, and broadcast your videos for Adsense revenue.  This way you get paid twice!  Once for the Adsense click, and another as the video content publishers.  Plus, you can control the content that is published on your site so the videos would be more relevant to the audience.  Furthermore, you can earn additional revenue from the videos by making them available for others to put on their sites to help monetize.  Which means that if you make good video content for your own site, you will gain with good content, more money, and added distribution from others broadcasting your videos.

The other point is do they make money. From my test they didn’t make any more eCPM than the traditional ads, and since the content wasn’t made directly for my audience I decided to take them off completely for now. I felt that they were actually hurting my ad revenue because the content wasn’t getting updated and return visitors were seeing the same things.  I was using space that could have been used for more relevent ad content than placing other people’s video ads that weren’t generating better.  Until I’m able to make my own video channel and monetize that for distribution, I will continue using Google’s traditional Adsense links rather than the video units.  However, if you are providing your own videos, then it would be more relevant content for your site than the traditional ads, and wouldn’t need to take up ad space.  Instead it could take up content space, which in turn would open up more ad space.  I’ve seen some people actually put the video content on full pages, since they have different player sizes and one of them being a full-size player.  You can learn more about the Youtube video ad unit players on theire site.

Pros and Cons of MagicJack

MagicJack Pros:

• Plugs into your computer and turns your computer into a regular phone jack.
• Can hook up any existing phone to the jack and start making VOIP calls.
• VOIP calls are free and unlimited so this could save money over long distance calling.
• No additional software of CD to install to make it work.

MagicJack Cons:

• Your computer must be on in order for this to work.  If your computer is turned off, then your service won’t work.
• This is a service and the price per year is $20.  I believe this only allows you to call out, and doesn’t provide you a phone number for others to reach you.
• There is no local phone services with this service so no local 911, fire, or paramedics.
• It’s a system program that takes up resources on your computer and has alerts that pop up while using the computer
• The unit cost $40 to purchase on top of the $20 a year fee.

MagicJack compared to Skype:

1. Skype doesn’t require you to buy anything.  You can turn your existing computer into a phone with a mic and speakers, which most computers come with.
2. Skype has products that allow you to use their service without your computer being on, and therefore makes it a true stand-alone phone system.  I have the Belkin unit at home and have review it on my website here.  You can learn more about the Belkin product from my other posts.
3. Skype has low cost plans that have unlimited calling to anywhere in the world, as well as provides a phone number that others can call you on, with a voice mail, call forwarding, caller id, and many other preminum phone services.  I have the complete unlimited plan with a local number, voice mail, unlimited calling, etc, and I only pay $60 a year.  If you noticed that the MagicJack costs $40 plus $20 per year so you area paying the same amoutn and don’t get the other features.
4. The Skype extras include a ton of great services like mp3 call recording, free radio feeds, sharing programs, and much more.  This makes the service on your computer much more worthwile and provides many more tools that you can use.

All in all, I would say that MagicJack is not that great of a product and I would still stick with Skype.  However, there are people out there that want something as easy as possible, even if it doesn’t work the best or has the best features, if it’s easy they want it.  I can see MagicJack being one of those products that non-savvy Internet users, or people that don’t want to do anything else but get some free calls would like and use.  I personally wouldn’t recommend MagicJack or Magic Jack as a reliable product, and would still recommend using Skype for VOIP services.

How To Make A Tag Cloud Page on WordPress:  No Additional plug-ins, templates, or code knowledge required.

Install:

1. Copy the following code:

<?php if (is_page(‘Tags’)) { $tag = wp_tag_cloud(‘smallest=8&largest=22′); echo($tag); } ?>

2. Paste this code into your page template inside the content <div> tags.  To locate this, you click on the main design tab of the WordPress Admin, then click on theme editor.  There will be a file selection to the right that says page template, or page.php.  This is the file you want to put it in if you want to make it a page.  (If you want to make it a post it is much easier and doesn’t require the say code.  I’ll make another post about that code.)

3. Click to save the file.

4. Make a new page called ‘Tags’ and leave the content blank, or put a headline or tag directory description if you want for SEO purposes.  Publish this page and you’ll be done.

That’s It, Your Done!

How it works and what is going on? There are several parts to this and I’ll explain why I used each piece.

• I wanted it to be a page, but if you put the normal tag cloud on the page template it will show up on every page and not just the one page.  The first part of the php states if the page is called ‘tags’ then post the next part of the php.  I’ve seen other solutions that also said to create a new page template called tag cloud, upload that and put the normal tag cloud on it, then go make a page called tags and tell it to use the tag template.  This require making a new page, uploading via ftp, and other webmaster features that not everyone may have access or knowledge for.
• The second part of the code makes a tag to be used in the php call.  The reason for this is that the normal WordPress tag cloud php generator cannot be placed directly inside of the php if tag, so I had to make a tag that calls the tag cloud generator and tell the if tag to echo or display that tag.  This solution produces a tag cloud that is only visible on the page that is set in the code.  In this case we call for the page as ‘Tags’, so as long as the page is called tags the content will show up, if not called Tags, then nothing will show up.
• There was one option that require only a similar type of code, where I got the original idea from, but it called to a plug-in that needed to be installed in order to make it work. I didn’t want to install the extra plug-in so I went to work trying to figure out to make it do it without the plug-in.

This solution presented the option and could be used WordPress for making a tag cloud page.  You will not need to make a new page or template, upload any new files, install any new plug-ins, or any further code knowledge.  I hope this helps other WordPress users who want to make a tag cloud page.

Modifications:

1. You can use any page title you want, but keep it to one word, and make sure to change the if tag to ‘yourpagetitle’ instead of ‘Tags’.  I use a page called ‘Sports’ on another site and the page title is also Sports.

2. You can modify the size and some of other parameters inside of the tag cloud and how it displays.

For comment order instead of name order you can use this code:

'smallest=8&largest=22&number=30&orderby=count'

You can view other options for tag clouds at the WordPress Codex.