Blazing Minds

Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams in Direct Messages

Karen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:11:24 +0000

As you get ever popular on Twitter and you use it more and more, you may notice that you get a lot of DMs (Direct Messages) from other users and a lot of these have links included, though some of these are genuine, other are blatant phishing scams to get your information.

One of these includes the text “Is this you on here?” and once you click this you are taken to the login page of Twitter, this is just a cunning way of stealing your log in details to take over your account, so to put it simply DON’T CLICK IT!

If you have been tricked in to giving your username and password, then change it straight away on the Twitter setting in your profile.

I’ve recently been recieving DMs with regards to “iq scores“, now I’m not sure if these are phishing scams, but I’m not clicking them, if you have found you are sending these DMs then change your password.

So a couple of simple rules to follow:

Never provide your Twitter username or password to any website that looks suspicious.
If you are not sure about a link in a DM then don’t click it.
If the DM is from someone you know, tweet them asking them if they sent it, if they didn’t tell them to change their password.

There you go a few simple rules that should hopefully keep you safer from the Twitter phishing scams..

Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams in Direct Messages is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Who’s the Band – Ivory Tower Project

Karen — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:39:16 +0000

Ever popular than ever I’m proud to bring you the third in my series of “Who’s the Band” and this week I bring you an interview with Ivory Tower Project, so I’m going to stop rambling on and get on with the interview..

Q: So how did you come upon the name of your band? Is it the first name you chose?
A: We started out as North Wind and then our original bass player Kevin Joyce came up with the name: Ivory Tower. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines ivory tower as: “a figurative place of withdrawal from reality”. We thought it was a perfect name for a bunch of guys who had to work day jobs. When our original drummer: Sal DiAngelo passed away – and Kevin shortly afterward gave notice that he was going to leave: we recruited the NY Metro areas finest studio musicians. That event transcended us from Ivory Tower (the band) to Ivory Tower Project.

Q: Introduce each member and instrument played or role in the band?
A: I think we should mention my song writing partner: Johnny Jace first, as without his contribution in the way of lyrics, we would be just another band. Probably the busiest and best unknown guitarist for hire in NY City, my right hand: Tony Novarro – he can make a guitar sing. Mike Carbone is our replacement drummer for Sal (mentioned above). Mike toured with us when we first started playing the local clubs. Henry Kessler was our “jack of many trades”: he writes, sings, and plays keyboards, sax and flute. I (Mark Regula) write, sing, play rhythm guitar, piano and other keyboards as well as synthesizers. But our guest studio musicians should be of interest to some: we had the distinction of having Ivan Elias (formerly with Patty Smyth and Scandal) play bass on 4 of the tracks from “RED HOT”, and Richie Cannata (formerly with Billy Joel) play sax on one of our tracks from our CD.

Q: So what genre of music would you say you are in and who are your major influences?
A: I would say that our music is Classic Pop/Rock inspired by the great artists of the 70s and 80s. We are influenced by a diverse group of artists from that time period: Foreigner, Queen, Asia, Genesis, Billy Joel, Supertramp, Elton John, Survivor, Robert Palmer, Hall & Oates, Styx, Eddie Money to mention a few…

Q: How long has you band been performing/producing music? What inspired to to produce your style of music?
A: I have known Johnny Jace for as far back as I can remember (since I was 4 or 5 years old) – we lived around the block from each other as children and have become life long friends. I have known Tony Novarro since 5th grade; we played Little League Baseball on the same team. We parted ways during middle school (as we both went to different schools then) and got reacquainted in our senior year in High School. I met Henry Kessler through my first wife: Lois at her place of employment. Tony was already in a band with Sal DiAngelo and Kevin Joyce, and when I brought him a tape of a studio recording I did with Henry and some other guys – Tony, Sal and Kevin joined forces with us. Our introductions to Richie Cannata and Ivan Elias were done at the studio through the owner: Fred Guarino who knew these guys personally and spoke well of our music in our behalf.

Q: Are you signed to a record label (Indie or major)?
A: We created our own Independent Label: Guerrilla Records and Atom Sounds is our UK affiliate. We also created our own Publishing Company: Rockamagula Music as we felt that the major labels and publishers would not have any vested interest in our genre…

Q: Where can people find your music? Do you have an official website?
A: Our music is available at Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, and iTunes. Our official web site is: www.IvoryTowerProject.com where you can find links to the aforementioned retailers on the STORE page…

Q: Have your ever performed live? If so where and to how many?
A: Many times! When Ivory Tower was a band we played at original clubs on Long Island (NY) known (back then) as: Februarys, The Right Track Inn, and My Father’s Place. In NYC; we have played at: CBGBs, The Orange Bear, Woodhaven House, and The A&M Roadhouse. Those places could hold up to 100 or more people back then…but when we became Ivory Tower Project – we stopped playing live as a band and now concentrate on the recording aspect of the music.

Q: Who writes/produces the music and/or lyrics to your tracks?
A: Johnny Jace and I (Mark Regula) have co-written 3 songs together on “RED HOT”: “My Name”, “Burning” and “Gotcha’”. I wrote 2 additional songs on my own for the CD: “Way Too Late” and “You Can See It In My Eyes”. Henry Kessler and I co-wrote 1 song together: “I Can’t Tell Him (Her)” – and he also penned 2 tracks of his own: “Guilty“ and “Dreamer.” The last track on the CD was written and performed by our original drummer: Sal DiAngelo; “I Think I Fell In Love With You”. We wanted to show what kind of great all around musician Sal was, so we dedicated the CD to his memory and made that song a bonus track that is only available on the physical CD. As far as production goes; I usually was band’s musical director, with strong support and help from Tony Novarro. Henry usually produced his own songs with suggestions from the band.

Q: How would you describe your music-making process?
A: There is no set formula, really. Every song had a life and story of its own. What was great is that when you are young and hanging out with a bunch of people with a common interest and goals – you support each other and bounce stuff off of each other. There is a lot of encouragement to finish the song when you have even a small community of artistic supporters. That is what I have seen with the mainstream professionals – for example: Carole King would hang with James Taylor. James Taylor was originally singed with Apple Records and worked with The Beatles. The Rolling Stones in their first year did mostly Blues covers until they met Lennon & McCartney…it’s like the Biblical illustration of iron sharpening iron…

Q: What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
A: Fame and fortune are so overrated. I mean – look at the lives of most people who are rich and famous – they’re a mess. Fame is fickle and temporary – a fortune can be lost over night. Respect is what I seek – respect as a musical artist and a having a modest income doing what I love to do. I would love to get out of the day job and make music my life – instead of it being a small part of my life. I would also love to get it to the point where we could do a small European tour, because that is where our biggest fan base is located. I have always wanted to go to Europe. However my most satisfying reward to date is getting an email from a fan or a notification from CDBaby.com that someone either here (in the US) or on the other side of the world thought so much of our music – that they bought our CD. That is a great feeling…to know what I was inspired to create touched someone else and moved them. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Q: What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
A: It’s about the song. Without a good song, you are a bunch of musicians jamming in the garage. And that’s okay if that is all you want to do. But I think that songwriting is the foundation of any artist. Not how pretty you look on an album cover – it is the connection that is made by the marriage of lyric and melody.

Q: How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?
A: As mentioned above you can go to our official web site: www.IvoryTowerProject.com where we have sound clips on the Music page. You can hear some of the singles at our MySpace page: www.myspace.com/IvoryTowerProject the entire album (with the exception of the Radio Interview) can be streamed at SoundClick.com

Q: Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?
A: Our spouses: Patti and Audrey who without their support, we could not have made our music.

Q: Any last words?
A: Drop by our websites, check out our music and drop us an email, we’d love to hear from you. Classic Rock is back!

Who’s the Band – Ivory Tower Project is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

The New Blazing Minds Blog Search

Karen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:27:35 +0000

Now there are a lot of blogs that I visit and the majority of these are now DoFollow (NoFollow Free), so I decided to add a new page to my blog which will enable people to search these blogs and maybe find ones they would like to comment on and maybe subscribe to.

The new Blog Search page is now available, though I have only added a few site to the list of sites that are searchable, so now the call goes out to fellow bloggers that read my blog and those that have commented.

If your blog is NoFollow Free then leave me a comment and I will add your blog to the list in the search engine, so that your site is searchable with the others, hopefully this will help fellow bloggers to find your content and gain you some more hits and readers.

Many thanks to everyone in advance

*UPDATE* I’m now including blogs which use the CommentLuv plugin, so even if your blog is not DoFollow as long as you’re using the plugin you can now get added to the engine.

The New Blazing Minds Blog Search is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Weekly Round Up – YouTube, iTunes, WordPress Plugins

Karen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:16:55 +0000

Welcome one and all to another Weekly Round up on my blog, as you know each week I bring you a list of blog posts that I have enjoyed reading over the last week as well has some stats. from Blazing Minds, all in a top 5 format….

Blog Posts I’ve enjoyed reading:

My Blog Method, Your Blog Method – Fuelmyblog
How To Write An Article When You Have A Creative Block – SmartBloggerz
How to Optimize Firefox for Broadband? – SoftwareBuzz Tech Blog
What’s hot on YouTube – Nothing But Random
How to Manage a Special Space on Weekly Rounds and Series Posts for Famous Bloggers Blog?

Top Visited Posts:

Top Referring Websites:

Top Search Terms:

tunecore vs cdbaby
twitter websites
upgrade itunes music to plus
itunes plus upgrade
delete direct messages twitter

Top Commentators for the Week

Extreme John – 10 Comments
ashok – 8 Comments
DragonBlogger – 6 Comments
Mike – 6 Comments
Nehh – 6 Comments

Well there we are for another week, many thanks to the top 5 commentators

Weekly Round Up – YouTube, iTunes, WordPress Plugins is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Saturday Six – Sesame Street

Karen — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:22:03 +0000

Yet again it’s time for this weeks Saturday Six and this weeks topic was chosen by myself and there is only one question with six answers.. So to celebrate the 40th birthday of the TV show, Sesame Street, this weeks Saturday Six question is ….

Name 6 of your favourite characters from Sesame Street?

There we go, one question with six answers for you to have fun with…

Ok, that’s it, thanks for taking part and I’m looking forward to everyone’s answers. Don’t forget to hit the “Tweet” button in the SexyBookMarks to ReTweet this weeks Saturday Six.

Anyone using Twitter can be part of the process by tweeting me a topic, I will then pick one randomly and the chosen topic will be used and the tweeter will have a DoFollow link to their website or blog as a thank you.

If you would like to nominate a topic then simply tweet me @RemBeatZ with your nominated topic and the hash tag #Sat6

Also if you take part in the Saturday Six you can join the Saturday Six Twibe.. And don’t forget to vote for me at my interview at BlogInterviewer.

Saturday Six – Sesame Street is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

WordPress Plugins I find useful for Blog Posting

Karen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:10:07 +0000

When it comes to WordPress plugins for posting on my blog, I use several which I couldn’t do without and find extremely useful for several reasons when producing blog posts or controlling posts from guest bloggers.

So after my post about the WordPress Plugins used for my Weekly and Monthly Stats I thought I would bring you some blogging tips and show you just some of the WordPress plugins that I use and fine helpful in my blog. You can get all these plugins via the links from this blog or you can use the “add new” option in your WordPress dashboard under plugins.

Broken Link Checker – This is great when you have made posts with links and over time these links may become broken, this plugin allows you to find them and edit them via your dashboard.
Dashboard: Scheduled Posts – If you have posts scheduled then this plugin will display them on your main dashboard, so you can easily see what posts are scheduled.
Insights – Adds a search box with options on your posting page to search your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, then add links and images to your post.
No Self Pings – There is nothing worse than posting on your blog with a link to an earlier post and getting a pingback from your own site, this plugin stops this.
Pending Post Indicator – This is ideal when you have guest bloggers, it will tell you on the main dashboard if you have any pending posts from a user waiting for review, enabling you to post guest posts quickly.
Post Template – If you are posting weekly updates or a post which has a similar layout each week, then this plugin will enable you to save a template and use them to quickly create a posts with similar layouts.
Search & Replace – I find this plugin very useful, it will allow you to search your database and replace anything you want, example: if you change your twitter name, you could search for the address and change all occurrences of the old address to the updated one.

WordPress Plugins I find useful for Blog Posting is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Updated my WordPress Permalinks with the Permalink Migration Plugin

Karen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:48:36 +0000

I was getting a bit fed up with the ugly permalinks that my blog had recently, but the problem I had was all the links to the blog on other sites would then become void, so what was I to do.

But luckily I found a plugin that would help with this, the plugin is called “Permalinks Migration” this handy WordPress plugin will do a 301 permanent redirect when an old link is clicked and send it to the updated permalink, helping you keep traffic and retaining your Google PR for those links, it’s easy to set up with simple instructions.

So if you are thinking of changing your permalinks on WordPress then this plugin is certainly worth considering.

Updated my WordPress Permalinks with the Permalink Migration Plugin is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Blazing Minds Interviews Gautam Hans from Blog Godown

Karen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:03:55 +0000

Welcome to another interview in my new series, as mentioned previously each week I will be interviewing a fellow blogger who has kindly answered my blogging questions, so let’s get on with it… This week I interview Gautam Hans from Blog Godown.

Q: Please tell my readers a little something about yourself?
A: I am gautam hans, 21 years old, India. I am an engineering student from Delhi University. I am a person with varied interests, but i love blogging, internet, social media,technology and web design.

Q: Hi Gautam, so tell me about your blog, when and why you started it and how you came up with the name for it?
A: I had started blogging way back in 2006 when i saw a video at cnet which talked about making money online through blogging. I first started a personal blog and then a money making blog but i realized that this is not my niche.
I started professional blogging in 2009. I had named my blog as Blog Godown. Blog Godown mainly provides tips and resources for bloggers. Godown is a place where all the material is stored and so my blog is a godown for all the blogging resources.

Q: Do you find blogging takes up a lot of your time?
A: Blogging can take a large amount of time but you have to manage it well. I use some of time in blogging and rest in marketing and Social Media

Q: Where would you say most of your traffic comes from for your blog?
A: Most of my Blog’s traffic comes from Google search and Twitter. Rest i get from sites where i comment on a regular basis.

Q: Do you use social networks to promote your blog and if so which ones would you recommend to other bloggers?
A: I use social media on a regular basis, and it has been a great traffic source for my blog. I do get a lot of new visitors from Twitter as well as Stumbleupon.

Q: If you could give some useful advice to new bloggers, what would it be?
A: One Advice i want to give to Bloggers, is to be patient, do your bit, write good content and market it. The Results will follow.

Thanks Gautam.

If you are interested in an interview on Blazing Minds then please use the Contact Me button at the top of the Blazing Minds blog..

Blazing Minds Interviews Gautam Hans from Blog Godown is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

WordPress Plugins used for my Weekly and Monthly Stats

Karen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:47:35 +0000

I was reading my comments the other day and was asked what plugins I use for creating my weekly stats. and monthly stats. on my blog, so I thought I would write a post about them. All the plugins are free to download from their sites or you can find them via the add new option in your WordPress plugins section in your WordPress dashboard.

Ok so here is a list with brief description and links of the plugins I use for the round ups on Blazing Minds.

Analytics 360 – This plugin will allow you to access the data from your Google analytics and display them directly in your Wordpress Admin.

My Top Commentators – The plugin is used for grabbing the Top Commentators on my blog over a given period, and is available in the dashboard box when installed.

Comment Stats – Shows month-over-month statistics for all of your blog comments.

WP-Stats – Display your WordPress blog statistics. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics.

WordPress.com Stats – Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.

So that’s it, those are the plugins that I am currently using for my round ups

WordPress Plugins used for my Weekly and Monthly Stats is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Joined LinkFromBlog Today!

Karen — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:44:22 +0000

After reading some interesting information on the website LinkFromBlog I decided to join and see if it was any good.

LinkFromBlog is a website which will allow you to advertise on blogs and also gives bloggers the chance to make a little on the side from their blogging revenue, it does look quite good and $50 (£30) for a referral does sound nice.

It’s always good to try something a little new and over the next month or so I’ll keep you all posted on how this works..

Joined LinkFromBlog Today! is a post from Blazing Minds - This, that and a little bit of the other..

Enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation, Follow my Twitter and give me a review at Alexa

Blazing Minds

Avoiding Twitter Phishing Scams in Direct Messages

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Who’s the Band – Ivory Tower Project

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The New Blazing Minds Blog Search

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Weekly Round Up – YouTube, iTunes, WordPress Plugins

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Saturday Six – Sesame Street

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Updated my WordPress Permalinks with the Permalink Migration Plugin

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Blazing Minds Interviews Gautam Hans from Blog Godown

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WordPress Plugins used for my Weekly and Monthly Stats

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Joined LinkFromBlog Today!

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