Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Windows 7 Promises Faster Graphics


Windows 7 operating system will offer significantly improved graphics performance over its predecessors due to the new OS's ability to more efficiently delegate work to 3D graphics cards, according to an official from a major GPU vendor.

Nvidia product manager Chris Daniel said Windows 7 is "the first Windows operating system to treat the graphics processing unit (GPU) as a real peer to the CPU."

Daniel, writing in a blog post Friday, said that with the introduction of Windows 7, "Microsoft is really opening up the immense parallel computing horsepower of the GPU natively right in the operating system."

That could be good news for a range of PC users with heavy graphics requirements, including gamers, engineers, artists, and others.

One key to Windows 7's graphics performance is a new application programming interface known as DirectX Compute. The API enables computers to take full advantage of the parallel processing power built into today's high-end cards from Nvidia and other vendors.

"Parallel programming is the next big thing for the world of computing—it has started already," said Daniel. "DirectX Compute will accelerate this discontinuity by enabling massive parallelism to the masses. What we are talking about is co-processing—essentially using the right tool for the job," said Daniel.

He added that DirectX Compute, in concert with Windows 7, will enable use of advanced technologies like SLI-based, multi-GPU gaming, 3D Vision, and PhysX real-time physics.

Microsoft last week released Windows 7 to manufacturing, meaning it's now available to system builders and other industry professionals. The company plans to release the OS to consumers on Oct. 22nd.


The software maker is hoping Windows 7's release will revive flagging software sales.

Microsoft last week revealed that Windows sales slumped 29% in the most recent quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. Windows Vista, Microsoft's current version of Windows, has proven unpopular with many consumers and has been shunned by most corporate users.

Resources: http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218600722

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Hidden Content Sources for Your Website

As I travel through the Google search engine, there is one element that defines almost all of the top-ranking websites. It's great content. People come online for information and those that offer the best content reap the greatest rewards.

Unfortunately, this type of content is hard to come by. In most cases, you either have to spend hours in front of the keyboard or outsource the job to others. Both of these options are very costly. One requires your valuable time and the other requires an investment of around $10 - $20 per article.

That's why I have scoured the net in search of valuable free content sources. I'm still not quite sure why I'm revealing my treasured piles of free content, but I certainly hope you enjoy them.

One of my favorite sources of content is public domain. This comprises the body of knowledge without a copyright. Anyone can use this material for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Below are some excellent sources for public domain material.

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a library of 18,000 free ebooks whose copyright has expired. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Pride and Prejudice", "The Time Machine", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and "The Canterbury Tales" have all passed into the public domain.

This means that you can put these on your website or even sell them in electronic or book format.

Explore a wealth of free content at Gutenberg.org.

Archive.org

At Archive.org you can find thousands of works that are currently in the public domain. Want to put some cartoons on your web site? Check out the "Film Chest Vintage Cartoons", which is full of classic animated cartoons from the 1930's and 1940's. The collection includes Popeye, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, The Three Stooges and Betty Boop. They also provide tons of other reproducable content including:

Brick Films: Commonly called "LEGO Movies". Brick films are dedicated to the art of stop motion animation.

SabuCat Movie Trailers: The world's largest collection of theatrical trailers.

Feature Films: A large number of classic feature films and shorts.

Universal Newsreels: Newsreels were shown before every feature film in the pre-tv era.

Computer Chronicles: Was the world's most popular television program on personal technology during the height of the computer revolution.

Net Cafe: Television series covering the revolution during the height of the dot com boom.

All of these content sources are available for you to put on your website. check them out at Archive.org.

Another popular public domain destination is Wikipedia.org. Here you will find over 1 million articles ranging from Greek mythology and Egyptian history to business, health, and technology.

Go to Wikipedia.org for a huge collection of articles you can reprint on your own website.

Creative Commons

Every creative work receives copyright protetion as soon as you put pen to paper, hit save, or press record. Because of this, no one can use that work without express permission from the author.

Creative Commons provides a new content license that allows you to share your work with others. If you want, you can even allow other people to expand upon your existing work. This allows for creative co-authorship.

The Creative Commons license has made piles of content available for use on your web site. Whether you are looking for audio, images, video, or text, you can find an abundance of reusable information within the creative commons.

To search for content to put on your own web site, go to CreativeCommons.org.

Government Web Sites

Works produced by the U.S. Federal government are not copyrighted. If you obtain a government document from the net, you are free to copy and distribute the document. I have found plenty of great content about finance, retirement, health, business, and traveling on government websites.

To search for content offered by the United States government, go to http://www.google.com/unclesam.

Article Directories

There are thousands of writers on the internet and many of them would love for you to reprint their articles on your website. You can find thousands of free web articles at the following article directories.

GoArticles.com
EzineArticles.com
ArticleCity.com

Interviews

I consider interviews to be one of the best sources of quality content for your site. Simply interview industry professionals and post the recording and transcript on your website. This allows you to create original content very quickly.

Don't be afraid to ask for an interview, most experts would be delighted to speak with you. Remember, this is probably one of their greatest passions. If you ask them politely, your chances for landing an interview are good.

You can conduct an interview in person, over the phone, or even through an e-mailed questionaire.

RSS Feeds

RSS is changing the way we consume information online. In addition, it has also provided thousands of new content sources for the online publisher. RSS is simply a file format similar to XML that is used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that can be easily understood by web publishing software and content aggregators.

By using RSS feeds, you can enhance the content on your site without ever writing a single word. And remember, on the Internet, content is King.

Want to put Amazon products on your site, updated news from the New York Times, financial advice from Motley Fool, or press releases from PRWeb?

This is all possible with RSS. No matter what type of information you are looking for, RSS can provide you with a constant stream of updated content for your web site.

To search for an RSS feed to enhance your own website, go to Syndic8.com. You can even mix and match a variety of rss feeds at RSSMix.com.

Facts & Statistics

Looking for facts or figures to put on your website? Take a look at some of the sources below. You'll likely be surprised how many facts, figures, and definitions are available in the public domain.

The CIA World Factbook provides a number of statistics on countries, territories, and dependencies. Each profile tracks such demographics as population, ethnicity, and literacy rates, as well as political, geographical and economic data.

http://www.census.gov/: One of the largest repositories for data and statistics related to the U.S.

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Main_Page: One of the best encyclopedia's ever written was published over 90 years ago. Search over 40,000 articles, all of which are available for publication on your own site.

http://www.bibliomania.com/2/3/257/frameset.html: A searchable interface of the 1913 public domain Webster's dictionary.

Private Label Articles

Private label articles can be bought for pennies per article. This is possible because they are sold in bulk.

Many people criticize these articles and have declared them as worthless. However, I am here to tell you that private label articles can be very powerful when used appropriately.

Unless you have hours of free time every day, it is unlikely that you are going to be able to create the amount of quality content that your web site deserves. This is where private label content enters the picture.

You can use private label articles to:

  • Add content to your web site.
  • Acquire hundreds of inbound links by syndicating the articles to article directories.
  • Create a free report for your visitors and other website publishers.
  • Create an information-packed RSS feed.

However, the key to using private label articles effectively is to optimize them. Straight out of the box, these articles are near worthless. To give them value, you must add your own touch.

Inject your personality into the article. Combine multiple articles and do some additional touch-ups to ensure that the article is in top shape for your readers.

Once you are finished you can add your resource box and send it off to article directories and website publishers.

If you are looking for one of the top private label article providers, go to InfoGoRound.com.

Images

Quality images can make your content much more inviting and keep people at your site for longer periods of time. Fortunately, there is a site that offers thousands of pictures completely free of charge. Find it at Stock.XCHNG.

Quotes

Quotes can give your website a special touch. Quotes provide interesting content in addition to an element of credibility. I often like to add related quotes to my web site simply to engage the reader's attention.

To find some quotes for your website, go to QuoteLand.com.

In the end, you always want your content to be unique. Not for the search engines, but for your visitors. With quality content comes quality links. Once you have built up a reputation for delivering unique content, you will never have to worry about having an audience eager to visit your website.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Reduce loading time of your website

Optimizing your web page loading time is essential for keeping your visitors. If your pages load time is too long due to un-optimized images, people simply leave your site before it is loaded! This way, you might miss out many visitors and also Comes with Latest Seo Tips.

Move all HTML code present inside tags to an external CSS file. Styles embedded in webpages make them bulky while the CSS file is downloaded just once on the client computer.

  • Remove Excess “Whitespace” Whitespace is the spaces between your coding, removing the unneeded tabs and spaces can help a lot! Doing this will take a lot of extra bytes off the total size of your page and will speed up load time quite a bit. (Careful using automatic squishers, I find they often squish too much and makes it rather hard to edit later).
  • If your pages have lot of Javascript code, move all the code to a separate external file that would load just once.
  • Large pictures should be avoided on webpages. But if you can’t do without them, slice them into smaller pictures.
  • Reduce the HTTP Requests: when opening a web page every object (images, scripts and the line) will require a round trip to the server. This latency can add several seconds to the load time of your site. Make sure to reduce the number of objects and to combine CSS files and scripts together.
  • It is important to have a reasonably fast loading web site so that viewers are not made to wait for a long time and to accommodate users on slow internet connections.

    Tuesday, August 4, 2009

    One-Way Link Building: How To Explode Your Online Business With One-Way Link Building Strategies

    If you want a proven way to get high rankings on the search engines and ultimately succeed online, then you need to know how to apply one-way link building to your marketing ventures.

    Why is one-way link building an effective marketing strategy?

    Because it is the only way for the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) to recognize your web pages.

    You need to get as many one-way back links to your website, so that search engines will rank your pages higher when browsers type in your targeted keywords.

    You could exchange links with other sites, but one-way links are given more weight by the search engines than reciprocal links.

    One-Way Link Building Through Article Marketing

    Article marketing is an ideal way to get one-way links that are proven to get lots of free organic traffic.

    One-way link building through article marketing could produce effective results. Not overnight of course; but in time, you can slowly (but surely) take advantage of one way link building and article marketing to make good money online – on autopilot! How do you do that?

    Write informative articles and include an attention-grabbing resource box (also called author bio) in the article. The resource box is where you will put the anchored text of your link. The anchored text should contain your targeted keyword, so that your link gets a “vote” for that keyword, aside from getting a “vote” from the article directory site too.

    This is not the only merit of article marketing. It could also elevate your reputation into an expert of your niche.

    Thus, before you embark on submitting articles in article directories, you may first need to research your keywords and niche extensively. Look at what issues your audience face and find solution to those problems. Then, create keyword-optimized articles to help them solve that problem. As a result, people will regard you as a specialist in your field.

    Article marketing is an effective promotional campaign to get your sites known and be an authority on your chosen niche.

    Other Powerful Methods Of One-Way Link Building

    1) Buying Links

    Aside from writing and submitting articles, some internet marketer resort to buying links from other sites, preferably those with high page rank. However, if you do not have the money to buy those back links, don’t worry. There are free methods you can use (see below).

    2) Forum Postings

    A free and effective way to generate one way links, and also improve your chances of inducing trust and respect in your niche, is by posting at forums relevant to your niche.

    Find the problems your target market faces and give them the solution to those problems. You may use the link to your website as a signature, but make sure they allow sig files and that you have made some valuable contributions. Give first, and the money will follow.

    3) Blogging

    Blogs can likewise help you in your one-way link building pursuits. If you’re passionate about your niche, you can easily write your own comments, opinions, or viewpoints on various topics related to it. Post updates in your blog regularly and include links to your business websites.

    4) Content-Sharing Sites

    You may also post your content (with your one-way backlinks) on social marketing or content-sharing sites. Some reliable ones include:

    Squidoo.com
    Hubpages.com
    Wetpaint.com
    Quizilla.com
    Qassia.com

    5) Social Bookmarking

    Social bookmarking is a powerful tool in your one-way link building arsenal, but you have to be very careful. Many of them prohibit any marketing activities, so you need to be very subtle and “fly under the radar.” You could accomplish this by posting around 5 times more non-self-serving sites than your own sites.

    You could also gain their trust by joining groups, writing comments on other people’s bookmarks, and be a helpful contributor to their community.

    Some of the more famous bookmarking sites include:
    Digg.com
    Stumpleupon.com
    Del.icio.us
    Technorati.com
    Reddit.com
    Fark.com
    Propeller.com
    Kaboodle.com
    Mixx.com
    Furl.net

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

    While one-way links help your sites rank higher on the search engines, you could also get top rankings by optimizing your web pages with your keywords.

    You can do this by strategically putting your keywords in the title tag of your site, in the headings (H1, H2, etc.), in the alt tags of images, meta tags, and of course, in the content of your site (especially effective if you put the keywords in the beginning of your content). Selecting a domain containing the keywords would also help.

    Keywords help web spiders to crawl into your web pages, and this will help you rank well in the search engines.

    Aside from one-way link building and SEO, don’t forget that your main purpose is to help your target market solve their problems. So positioning yourself as an expert and having a truly quality product, combined with the right link building and marketing strategies, could skyrocket your profits to new heights.

    source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/One-Way-Link-Building--How-To-Explode-Your-Online-Business-With-One-Way-Link-Building-Strategies/298260

    Monday, August 3, 2009

    How To Start An Internet Marketing Business Without Mistakes

    People tend to forget about other things in life once they decide and start a new business as they get single minded. They will forget about friends, family, relatives around them once they start selling in the future which is not a good idea. But once you think about the objectives it helps to make sure that you are going forward in life that all your dreams come true.

    Your attention is required as life is involved in different things all at once. But people who know about all ambitions and goals will carry on performing well. Every person should look for items that aren’t optimizing your resources and times as the business goals are set up and the items are added to succeed in life. Other people are also affected some times we make decisions in one place as work and life are interconnected. In order to succeed your objectives you should do activities that are related to both professionally and personally.

    A mission statement is the big picture vision that all of your decisions revolve around. This big picture prevents you from getting caught up in the details of life, and allows you to keep some perspective as to why you are really doing something. It is easy to start for one reason, and keep going for another. When you achieve and start to experience and live your life of vision, remember to incorporate the real purpose of your life.

    Internet marketing can be one of the most overwhelming fields anyone could choose, because it is so vast and it’s like getting a Harvard Education every week with the content and value of information we receive every day, especially if you are a newbie. Starting with an organized slate means getting some strategies in place to help you stay on top, and not under this market.

    Internet marketing newbie should follow these strategies:

    (1) For each internet marketer you are following, open up an email folder for them and start to put each of their emails in there. This is for 2 reasons, one it is easier to follow what they are talking about and do any lessons you have missed, and two, it can serve as a swipe file to get good ideas from in the future.

    (2) The previous things should be organized in such a way that the new information should be allocated in their respective folders. This can be done in many ways, take an example, like all the files in the hard drive should be arranged in PDF, audios, e-books, videos, data with resell rights and stuff with private label rights. Along with this you should include a new folder to each mentor program in which you are interested and place all the details regarding that mentor’s program. Just allocate some time to clean up and arrange all the stuff in the way you receive on top.

    Always be among the most encouraging and positive friends and avoid other people slowly. According to Forbes Magazine there are 1281 billionaires in this world. Is it possible to reach that number? If some person tells it can be achieved then others will start following. The number looks like 4 minute mile but once you star your journey towards your aims and ambitions you will get excited about the adventures you face and try to celebrate every small success step in life.

    source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/How-To-Start-An-Internet-Marketing-Business-Without-Mistakes/311122

    Saturday, August 1, 2009

    5 Ways To Drive Sales During A Recession Using Email Marketing

    What’s the most important thing you can do during these turbulent economic times?

    a) Drown your fears with a bottle of wine and hope things will be better in the morning. Repeat each night as necessary.

    b) You know this can’t be Kansas! Click your heels three times fast! Hey, it worked for Dorothy.

    c) Embrace the reality of the situation and use email marketing to drive sales right on through this recession!

    Now isn’t the time to slow down. Don’t take your foot off the gas, and get ready to fully utilize the most effective tool in the box - email marketing. Even though you’re probably already using email to send out offers or highlight the occasional promotion, you may not be employing all of the tips and tricks you could be to keep your customers happy and prospects knocking on your door. Take a look at these 5 ways to help ensure success.

    1. Let’s stay in touch: what’s your email address?

    Do people want to receive your mailings? You have to keep your customers coming back for more by sending them emails they want to see. Most people are quick to delete the overflow of email they receive, and if it looks like spam, you know it’s gotta taste like spam. And where is the best place for spam? The trash. If done correctly, email marketing is the most inexpensive way to reach and positively impact your audience and keep your sales rolling in. The keys to the kingdom are right there in your hands, you just need permission to unlock the gate.

    If you don’t have a sign-up form for folks to hear about special offers and promotions, get one up both on your website and at your store counter. People who sign up are handing over their email addresses willingly. They want to hear from you. So you really need to make sure your message counts.

    How do you make sure your message counts? Offer some content that’s tied in with what you are promoting, and if you don’t have a newsletter, start one up. Keep it light, and keep it short. If you’re an auto parts store, offer up some “car care tips,” or if you’re a nursery, suggest “5 easy ways to make your garden grow”. You get it. Even a couple of short entries with nifty tips or “how-to” sections are helpful to the recipient. It will catch their attention and make them want to read on.

    2. Have I met you somewhere before?

    Make sure the recipient of your email knows it’s you by making sure the email “from” box is your business name. You don’t want them to delete it because they don’t know where it came from, or worse yet, mark it as spam.

    3. The subject of subject lines

    You need catchy subject lines that are relevant to the offer. “Free Puppies” will only get you a one-way ticket to Trashville. Folks don’t like to be tricked into opening emails. If you’re offering a special sale or discount, include it in the subject line. Example: “Save 25-75% off Winter Fashions” or “Free shipping - 1 Day Only!”

    4. Make them an offer they can’t refuse

    Frivolous spending is so last year, so you have to make sure your offers are good ones. When you’re putting your offering together, be objective. Does the offer appeal to you?

    Limited time sales. The urgency of it all! If it’s a good sale, the autopilot comes on, and out comes the credit card. After all, if they wait until next week, they’ll have to pay full price.

    Real Discounts. 5% off an order of $500 - Seriously? Turn out the lights and lock the door. No one is going to bite. Of course, you need to be smart and not lose the bank, but make it worthwhile for people! Repeat after me: “Good discounts = good sales.”

    Loyalty programs. You know the old punch card trick: buy nine cups of coffee, get the tenth one free. Employ this simple strategy to something your business has to offer.

    Contests. Encourage folks to enter a cool contest, both online and in your store - this is a great way to collect all of their contact info. Be sure to include a check box for a subscription to your newsletter and send alerts for upcoming sales and promotions.

    And don’t be cheap. Make sure your prize is a nice one. Many people can’t help themselves; there’s a certain thrill at the idea of winning that sought-after item. Oh, they’ll enter all right, and the prize for you is going to be all of the opt-in email addresses you can market to. Get ready for some more sales.

    Be sure to offer your discounted products or services on a regular basis. Be consistent, but not annoying. You don’t want to let your relationship grow cold, but sending an email out more than once or twice a week is overkill, and a surefire way to breakup blues.

    If the recipient wants to find out more information about your services or products, make sure it’s as easy as one click in your email. Don’t take them to a Web page where they have to dig around to find what they are looking for. They’ll simply abandon ship and there goes your sale, right along with them.

    5. “Hi, I’m Molly. How can I help you?”

    Make sure you add a link, email, or phone number for customer service or support. Make it easy for people to reach you and get their questions answered or their problems solved. Even if that neon orange jumpsuit isn’t flattering to their skin tone after all, good experiences here will make them want to do business with you the next time around.

    Always employ good email marketing practices by making sure that everyone on your target list is supposed to be there. Only add names if you’re executing and measuring a test. Make sure to give readers the opportunity to hop off the list by unsubscribing, but remember, if you treat them right, that thought won’t even enter their mind.

    Times may be looking a bit tough, but email marketing is highly effective, and it’s here to stay. Employ the strategies above, and the benefits can’t be denied: lead generation, increased sales, strong brand awareness, and improved relationships with your customers. So, get out your umbrella and weather this storm. Utilize the tools you have at your fingertips and you’ll see that the forecast suddenly becomes clear.

    Source