iSmooch

Update Your Wordpress

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:35:00 +0000

I've been a little slow recently and have only got around to updating my Wordpress Blog to version 2.whatever, must say I am really impressed with the little changes they have made to it.

Unlike Blogger, Wordpress are making things even easier for webmaters to control and edit there sites.

Well done Wordpress. My desire to move iSmooch over is increasing more and more.

In other news, I realised yesterday why I havent been getting any traffic for a while. Its becasuse I deleted my sitemeter tracker, so infact I may well have been getting traffic but it never registered... what a N00B!!

Furthermore, my Google Adsense earning shot through the roof yesterday... I made $2.67. One of my best days yet.

Along with that, I also received a request to place a banner on one my other sites for a annual Fee. RESULT!! Its not much, but every penny helps.

New Name Contest!!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:04:00 +0000

Three posts in one day... wow!!

Right, I am seriously gonna change my Blog completly because im fed up with using Blogspot.

Im gonna lift it and move it to Wordpress with my other Blogs, but since iSmooch.com is taken I need to come up with a new URL name, so if anyone who is reading this (if there is anyone) has any suggestions and the URL is available I will choose it and use it!

If I can generate enought traffic in the next week or so and get people to come up with some new names, I will take it one step further and allow my readers to choose the new design.

Get Thinking!!

DAM IT!!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:48:00 +0000

Ever since I have set up this blog I always thought it would be super cool if I could get ismooch.com, Cos it sounds so much awesomer (that's a word... right?).

But every time I looked at buying it, some guy in the states owned it, but never had a site up and running with it. Now if you type in ismooch.com, your REDIRECTED to a dating site called iMooch. What a god dam waste of a great URL.

Rant over

Useful iPhone tips and Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:35:00 +0000

As a recent new customer to the iphone I quickly went in search of some useful tips and Tricks that I could perform. I come across this video on Youtube that shows you alot of useful things that a manual would usually show us (since the iphone doesn't come with a manual, we don't have that pleasure).

Here it is:

Like I said, this is just a basic tutorial on what the iPhone can do. It can do so much more, like Stream media from your PC, or you can Watch the BBC iPlayer.

Stay tuned, I will post a few other cool things it can do in due course.

Number one in Google

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:40:00 +0000

As you may have noticed, I haven't really written match on this site for some time. Just kinda lost interest / run out of things to say.

Well, here I am, and maybe this post will be the first of many more to come.

I have slightly changed the layout of the page, but i still think it looks really crap. Blogger don't really provide many options on the template front, which is why I now recommend Wordpress for setting up a blog. Its so much cleaner and more options to tweek your site. Check out this as an example: I Like To Rant

I've taken away alot of crappy adds and affiliate marketing stuff. I didn't earn any money with it so decided to boot it. I still think there is alot of money to be earned from affiliate marketing online, but it looks like a tricky thing to get in to, and at the mo i really don't have the motivation to do it.

Along with my new layout I also have a new position in Google. After being at war with 3 hot girls for a couple of months, I can now, proudly say, that I have whipped there Arse's and sit at number one on Google for the term "ismooch". Which I doubt will do anything in terms of traffic, but its a personal achievement that I am pleased with :)

Not to sure how long I will stay there though, as it appears that since I amended my layout slightly, my search engine traffic has become non existent. I'm thinking that it may take Google some time to find me again, so in the meantime, I'm just writing to my self.

Convert YouTube Vid to MP4

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:27:00 +0000

Hmmm, long time no post.

Just thought I'd quickly share this with everyone (or no one).

If you see something on YouTube and wouldn’t mind having a MP4 version of the video clip, so you can move it on to your iPod or leave it on your computer or do what ever you want to do with it, I recommened heading over to this cool website and following the directions.

This works excellently with Firefox, so if that isnt you primary broswer, do two things 1. Download it now, here 2. Hit your self round the head for being so stupid for not using Firefox in the first place.

Watch the BBC iPlayer on the PS3

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:30:00 +0000

Last week the BBC iPlayer was released for use on the Nintendo Wii, giving users another way to experience the greatness that is the iPlayer and ISP providers yet another reason to get angry!

This means that we can now catch up with our favourite BBC programmes on our PC's, iPhones, iPod Touches and now our video console.

Well if your like me an don't have a Wii, this news isnt that great.

Fortunately, a Hacker has found a way in making the iPlayer think your PS3 is a Wii, meaning you can now use your Hi Def games console to watch BBC favs such as Top Gear and Enders!

Again, this still isn't great news to be, as I have a Xbox 360, but still thought i'd share the news.

To use the service on your PS3, simple point your PS3 web browser to www.ps3iplayer.com!

Its that simple.

It makes you wonder why BBC, Sony and Microsoft have not yet released an official version for the other (current) next gen consoles.

Fingers crossed, that someone will find a hack for the 360!

Tversity on iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:38:00 +0000

As per one of my earlier posts, to view my media on my Xbox 360, I use Tversity to stream it from my laptop to my Xbox, and this works excellently.

I got an iPhone the other day and thought i'd do the same for that, and although it takes a little to buffer, it does work awesomely.

Whats even better, is that you can watch the media on your laptop, on your iPhone, anywhere in the world, just as long as you are in a WiFi area. Cool ah?

So here is how its done:

Open the Safari browser on the iPhone and point it to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/iphone, where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the machine running TVersity.

It is recommended to do it initially with the iPhone connected to your home wireless network. You can find out the IP address of any given Windows machine by going to Start -> Settings -> Network Connections -> Local Area Connections -> Support tab.

You should now see your media library and be able to navigate it and play everything on it. Once an item has been selected for playback please wait till the little Quicktime play icon appears, then tap on it and the playback will start.
The only exception is live video streams, which cannot be played due to a current iPhone limitation (live audio streams such as Internet radio stations do work).
Please also note that videos that require conversion will start playback only after the entire conversion is complete, so please wait patiently - this is a result of the same limitation that prevents playback of live video streams. Once the conversion is done, you can play the video and FF/Rew freely. Repeat playbacks of the same video do not require another conversions so playback can be started immediately.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed the server and used it to play content on your iPhone.
In order to access the media library on the go, you need to use the same URL mentioned above but with a different IP address. You can find this IP address by pointing the web browser on the machine running TVersity to http://tversity.com/myip.php.
You also need to set up your router to forward the TVersity port (by default port 41952) to the machine running TVersity. Step by step instructions are available here. (please note that there are security risks associated with port forwarding and that you do it at your own risk)
If you are using an EDGE connection make sure to point Safari to http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:41952/iphone/edge so that TVersity will generate low bitrate videos which are appropriate for streaming over EDGE.

Taken from the Tveristy Website

Do Matched.co.uk pay out?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:25:00 +0000

Yes they do.

I've been running Matched.co.uk ads on this site and on one of my other sites and today I received my first payment from them.

£29 for one month of running there ads. Not that bad really if your just starting out in the website industry.

Many people use Adsense by Google (as do I). But that only really pays out if you have loads of visitors to your site, which I don’t have, so using Matched is a good way for beginners to start funding there start up costs.

Im waiting for approval from Matched.co.uk to start running there ads on another site of mine, so if that gets the green light, I will pocket another £15 a month.

Obviously not quiet up there with the John Cows and Jimmy Karters of the money making world, but still a good start if your new to making money online.

It Stinks...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:13:00 +0000

I Like To Rant dot com recently posted a rant about that annoying Glade air freshener advert... you know the one with the smelly kid having a dump moaning about the air freshener all gone, all gone.

Well me being me, headed over Youtube to see what i could find. Check this great spoof video by a couple of loosers:

Lets all RANT

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:38:00 +0000

Everyone likes a good old Rant from time to time. Its a great way to get things of your chest and calm you down.

Well now we can all do it, and tell the world what we think.

Check out this cool RANT website, that enables its readers to submit there own rants, as well as read up on the rants of the website creator.

HD-DVD KO'd

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:52:00 +0000

So, as is common knowledge at the moment, Blu Ray have appeared to have won the war. Toshiba announced last week that they were no longer making anymore players and Microsoft officially announced that they would no longer make thier add-on for the 360.

Its good news that after 2 years that the format war is finally come to an end. Its a shame that the better product for consumers didn't win though. HD-DVD was certainly imo better than Blu Ray, having more features and better picture (according to many reviews) , the greater sound and best of all the better price

With Blu Ray having to play catch up on most features that the HD-DVD player provided (PIP, firmware upgrades etc), lets hope that the price will now follow, as Blu Ray seem to be pricing themselves out the market. With HD-DVD players now as cheap as DVD players (Xbox add-on only $50 in the states), it seems that HD-DVD will end this war with a large, but worthless final battle.

Does all this matter? imho NO. Blu Ray will never over take DVD's, just like minidiscs never had a touch on CD sales. This whole Format battle was a waste of time.

With Upscalers out there now, capable of upscaling to near high def visuals, I cant see many people ditching there DVD's for expensive Blu Ray discs.

Further more, the future of Video will follow the direct path of Music, I have no doubt about that. Downloading will become more and more popular and accessible and with many streaming devices now available, the future is surely Digital Distribution.

Microsoft and Apple have jumped on to the downloading band wagon and offer hours of HD content through the 360 and Apple TV.

Both act as streaming devices too, so you can even watch all your divx collection in front of the TV, as you can with the PS3, ipod touch , Pinnacle devices and loads more of equipment out there.

Digital Distribution is the future, and all the big names have set themselves up for this. Blu Ray is just a mear stepping stone.

Published!!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:51:00 +0000

Yep, that's right. I have just seen an article that I wrote get published on Ezine Articles.

Ezine articles is a pretty cool website, where you can find articles about anything and everything. Articles are submitted by common folk and if good enough, will get approved and published online.

You can see my article here it is a copy of one of my previous posts - this one

Whats the point in submitting an article if its on my blog? Well it should help bring in more traffic to my website. My article will appear on Ezine's high traffic homepage, RSS feed and Email alerts.

So if you have a blog or a website you wish to promote, using Ezlines is a great way. If you submit an article then ensure that you put a link to your website at the bottom. This will also give you a free link to your page, which will come in handy with SEO.

As an "Expert Author" I can now have one of these labels on my website:

It feels like I'm in some kind of exclusive club, but I'm sure they agree to hundreds of articles... but still. This is my moment of glory!!

Worlds Most Annoying Website

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:31:00 +0000

Seriously this is Uber annoying. But funny at the same time. Check it out; Funny but annoying

That's all i have to say on that, so this is a pretty short post.

But while i am here, i also wanna share this video that I found on Youtube that had me in stitches.

The video is put together by a girl called "Paperlilles", one would assume that that is an Alias, but you can never be to sure these days, with names like Apple and Romeo doing the rounds.

While you are watching that you might as well check out some of her other videos, some are pretty good... others aren't so.

Ask and You Shall Get

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:55:00 +0000

We've all seen them magic 8 balls where if you have a tricky question that needs answering you can just ask the little black ball and it will give you its honest answer.

Well, just like the Rubik cube and lava light the eight ball is so 1980. So what do we do now with a difficult question?

Simple, ask the Internet. I found out today that it will not lie and gives you an honest answer.

The question I haven been asking myself of late is "am i awesome". So i typed this into my FireFox web browser and a website come up confirming what I already know. Check it out yourself (or click right here)

Cool ah?

Now for the record, I'm not that sad and i don't really ask myself that question. I was just trying to find a decent domain name I could use for a new Blog. But guess what... all the good ones are already taken.

What the hell is gonna happen is 10 years time when someone wants to set up a website. All that will be left will be really long and crap. "hi check out my new website, called zzzzzzzzxxxxxxxxhidhf.com" (quick better snap that one up, its still available).

Oh, FYI - If you have got any questions about anything just "Google it" first. Its so annoying when people don't look themselves before asking a simple question!! - Rant Over.

One Dollar a Day

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:41:00 +0000

This Blog has now been running for a little over a month now and as you can tell I have added a handful of Google Adsense ads, Adbrite ads, ads from Matched.co.uk and Amazon Ads too.

The reason for this is to make money. Apparently people now manage to make a full time wage from just Blogging. That’s pretty cool.

People like John Cow, Randy Brown and Jim Karter make a whole lot of money from there Blogs and Websites.

John Cow has recently reported that he made more than $30,000 for the month of January from his Blog. WOW…

Obviously it takes a lot of time and effort to pull in that kind of money from Blogging, but how cool would it be to actually quit work and just Blog for a living. You can work wherever and whenever you wanted. One day im going to start doing this...

Well after reading up on some of these money making Blogs a lot of people say that you should start by aiming to make $1 a day from your websites.

This advise is really aimed for people who want to make money by setting up a number of Niche website (sites that once set up, require no additional work and can be left alone (assuming that they have a wealthy supply of constant traffic)). That way if you create 200 websites and are earning just $1 a day for each site at the end of the day, you are actually earning a nice little penny ($6,000 a month in fact. More than enough to live on)

Well I have some good news… iSmooch had its first $1 day yesterday. Google Adsense generated $1.07. (I earn money each time one of my visitors click on a Google sponsored Ad on my website)

Its not much but it’s a start. Can this be maintained… not sure. But iSmooch had more visits yesterday than any other day. 39 - which is pretty lame. But we all gotta start somewhere.

As mentioned I also run ads from Matched.co.uk. This works differently in that they pay me £3 per month for each ad I display (maximum of 5 per website). So from them I should make £15 a month, approx $30. So therefore I am guaranteed my $1 a day target. Anything else from Google, Adbrite and Amazon is a bonus. (I haven't been using Matched.co.uk for long, so we will see what exactly they are about and if I get paid).

Now £15 a month isn't that much. John Cow, raked in $15,000 in January just from selling ad space on his website - Something only big popular websites can command. Maybe one day iSmooch can start charging that…. One day!

Apart from iSmooch I have recently set up to other sites. One is aimed at gaining revenue from Adsense and affiliates and the other is an EBay affiliate project.

Unlike iSmooch, which is hosted by Blogger, free of charge, I have had to pay for some web hosting for my other sites - $7.95 a month. I paid $49 for a cool plug-in for Wordpress that allows me to display EBay auctions on my website and I have just paid $80 to Google Adwords to market my new Niche site. My goal is to use SEO to gain traffic, but in the meantime I thought I'd try Adwords.

Seems like a lot of money for a noob like me, who has no experience what so ever, but I believe you need to spend money to make money.

If I continue this spending each month for a year, to recover my costs I need to make $3.07 a day, based on the following costs:

Web hosting: $7.95 a month
Google Adwords: $80 a month (only experimenting with this for a month so may not continue)
EBay Plug in: $49 one of payment. If I pay it of over 12 months it will cost $4.08 a month

Total month cost: $92.03

I am running 8 ads from Matched.co.uk, so I will earn approx $48 a month from them. Leaving just $44 a month left to make, or $1.47 a day (based on 30 days).

Obviously I want to be making a profit, so for now, I am aiming for an average of $4.47 a day. Which for the first month I doubt I will get close to earning. I need to SEO my bad boys up and draw in some traffic - which I am working on and may take some time.

As I have said I am completely new to this, and I feel like im jumping in with both feet, but we will see.

Wish me luck!!

Face off: WitW vs Departed

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:14:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago I showed you how cool it would be if your favourite film was taken and re-worked into a horror.

Well if you search the net you will see plenty of these videos are floating about, but to be honest, the Teen Wolf and Mary Poppins ones were the best.

Well as I was searching through Youtube I found a great cross over trailer. Departed, perhaps one of the greatest gangster movies in the last few years, takes on the guys from the great childs tale, Wind in the Willows.

This is some funny stuff and well worth a watch. Check it out:

Im sure this will make you LOL and maybe even ROFL

Top Blogging Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:44:00 +0000

After having my Blog for 3 whole weeks now, here are a few top blogging tips to anyone wishing to start up their own Blog:

Use Wordpress.

Although Blogger is probably easier to use, Wordpress is where its at. The designs look better and Wordpress allows you more freedom. At some point in the future I will be changing to Wordpress, but at the moment im happy with what Blogger provides.

Install Sitemeter to track your visitors.

Other people tend to recommend Statcounter but I find that its easier to read all the information that Sitemeter provides. I currently have both installed on this site but Sitemeter is my preferred tool.

Try picking a particular thing to Blog about.

When I started this Blog I didn't have a clue what it was going to be about. And to be honest, I still don't know. After tracking my visitors with Sitemeter it appears that this isn't a good thing to do. It doesn't appear that many people read all my posts once they are on my site.

I have two particular entries that rank high on Google Search for particular Key Words (which is great). But once my visitors read these posts they don't tend to stick around or come back. This is probably due to the mixture of content I have on this site.

However if someone stumbled across a Blog about making money and that's the subject they are interested in, then they will continue to read that Blog.

So... any idea's what I should start Blogging about? ...is anyone actually reading this?

Be patient if you don't build up a big fan base straight away.

These things take time! How long? I don't know... longer than 3 weeks by the looks of it.

Just Keep on Blogging!!

Write interesting articles, not sh*t like this.

My write ups on Sopcast and Tversity seem to attract loads of traffic to my site. Its just a shame I don't have anything else interesting to share.

Write some comments on fellow Bloggers Blogs.

It's a great way to get your name around the Blogging community. Read this articles to see what im talking about - Caroline Middlebrook - also, while your there check out her free eBook as it will help if you plan to create a Wordpress site/Blog.

If you are going to use Blogger/Blogspot to set up a Blog, then check out this website for some awesome ways to add stuff and change things.

Most important of all, make sure you start using Firefox if your not already. Download it here for free now!!

Errr... I think that's all I have for now. If I have anymore helpful hints to Blogging I will let you know.

3 Weeks and 1 Day Later

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:04:00 +0000

Its now been over 3 weeks since starting this Blog of mine and personally, I think it looks ok.

Considering this is my first ever attempt at anything Webby and I had no experience with HTML im pretty pleased with how it looks.

Obviously Blogger make it very easy to create a Blog and all you have to do is choose which theme and what colours you want and hey presto you have your own Blog. Very simple.

However I have applied some personal touches to this site that weren't as easy (but was still pretty easy). I have added a Favicon to my site (the little icon next to the URL in your Browser - seems to only appear with Firefox and not when I use crappy Internet Explorer - Therefore if you use IE download Firefox now). A good reason to have a Favicon is to make your site stand out more and make it easy to identify. So if you add this site to your FAVourites the "i" ICON will appear and it will make it easier for people to find my site in there Favourites list.

I have also incorporated Google Adsense into my site, which is pretty simple with Blogger as they provide a simple Adsense Widget you can add to your sidebar. Google will scan your site and advertise appreciate content. If you are looking at making some extra cash from your website or Blog there are plenty of Ad companies to choose from, but Google allow you to customise your adds and blend them into your site more easily.

The theme I originally chose only had 2 columns - a side bar on the left and the main body. As you can see I have added a third column on the right. Allowing me to add more Widgets that are easier to see.

One of the most difficult and annoying things I added was the "Continue Reading…" link which appears on the front page. I only wanted for some of my posts to show on the front page and for users to click "Continue Reading..." if they wanted to read the rest of the entry. This was pretty simple to add but started to get really annoying when I tried to change the size and colour of the link. It can also become pretty fiddly each time I write a post as I need to set where I want the break of point to be. However I am now getting the hang of this.

So does anyone actually read what I write? Well after 22 days I have had 400 visits to my Blog. Not bad really. However, there are some Blogs out there that get 40,000 hits a day. Maybe one day I will have that many… then again… maybe not!

So if anyone does read this, thanks very much. I appreciate it.

5 Reason to Own an Xbox 360

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:30:00 +0000

To be honest there are plenty of reasons to buy an Xbox and there are plenty of Web sites telling you why you should by an Xbox. But here are my reasons as to why you should own an Xbox 360.

Firstly, High Definition. Most people now own a Plasma or an LCD, with most people choosing these TV's as a fashion statement - They look better than old school CRT TV's. So if you have a nice HD ready TV, throwing an Xbox into the mix is a great way to start getting the most out of your TV. Not only are there hundreds of games to choose from, all made for HD TV's, but through the live marketplace you can purchase a great variety of HD films and TV shows.

Secondly, probably the biggest use I get from my Xbox is not from playing games, but from streaming my divx files from my laptop to my Xbox so I can watch the latest Lost on the big screen. You can find a guide on how that is done here

thirdly, Xbox Live! This great service allows you to go head to head against anyone in the world on your favourite games. Live also enables you to chat with your friends over your head sets or through instant messenger. Live also enables you to download additional content for your games- more maps, weapons, levels etc

Yes, it does cost a small fee, and yes Sony do offer a free service, but Xbox Live truly is worth the 12p a day fee.

Fourthly, Exclusives! Every console has its own exclusives and the 360 isn't any different. But while the PS3 have... errr... nothing worth noting at the moment, the 360 have great exclusive titles, including, Gear of War, Halo 3, Bioshock. It will also have exclusive content for the up and coming GTA IV game.

And Fively (is that even a word?)... why should you own an Xbox 360? Here's why:

P.S If your having troubles with your Xbox 360 take a look at this. Easy way to fix the Red Ring of Death Click Here!

The Perfect Valentines Gift

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:50:00 +0000

With Valentines day less than a week away its time that we start thinking about what we can get our loved ones to show them how much we adore them and love them.

Choosing a gift for that special someone can become tricky. It depends on a number of factors including; the length of the relationship, what typed of person they are and where you think the relationship may be going.

I mean you don't want to send them 12 roses, buy her chocolate and Jewellery if you have only known them for a week. That could be slightly overkill, and on the other hand, you don't want to just get them a card if you have been "courting" for a couple of years.

What the best way to show your girl you love her... Tap dance.

Check out this video below for Vodafone. If your partner is as miserable as this girl, then it could be the only thing to make her smile ;-)

Why Firefox is Better

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Yes that’s right, im going to go there!! The good old Firefox vs Internet Explorer war.

As I have mentioned before I have installed Sitemap on my Blog and this tracks my visitors. It tells me where they live, what they look at on my Blog and many other things, including which Web Browser they use.

Currently 46% of my visitors use Firefox with 52% using IE. Personally I use Firefox and im sure that anyone that has tried Firefox for a day will stick with it. The advantage IE has is that it comes pre-installed on your commuter. This leads me to think that anyone that uses IE only do so because they are unaware they have a choice and that alternatives exist. They use it because it is there. Which is a shame, because the alternative, Firefox, is such a better Web Browser to use. And here's why:

- Its safer to use that Internet Explorer. Tests have shown that IE is more open to Virus and Trojans.

- Its faster. Faster Browsing and loading.

-Its a lot more easier to use. Everything seem to be where you want them to be.

-Better Bookmark managing. This allows you to easily keep all your favourite websites nicely managed

-Firefox Add-ons. There are plenty of Add-ons that allow your to customize your browser

-Integrated Pop up blocker. No need for third party applications with Firefox

-Restore Session. Firefox remembers what you was looking at if your computer is suddenly restarted.

This is just a short list on why Firefox is better to use. Download it for yourself to experiance the greatest Web Browser there is.

So, if you are using Internet Explorer and haven't tried Firefox give it ago. You can download it using the button on the top right corner of my Blog and its completely free. If you use it for just one day, im very confident that you will continue to use it forever.

While your up there, be sure to take advantage of Google Packs. Free essential software for your PC provided by Google.

Google takes on the World

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:18:00 +0000

I'm pretty confident to assume that everyone who uses the Web has heard of Google. 'That place you go and search for something', and that’s what most people probably think all Google is, a search engine.

However, there a loads and loads of other things that Google can offer Web users, and it seems that they are slowly moving into every kind of medium the web has to offer.

To benefit from all the things that Google have to offer, you should set up a free Google account. This will enable you to sign in to all of their services with the same log in.

You can start with Gmail, Googles own, free web based e-mail system. I switched to this from my Hotmail account last year and find it fantastic to use. Its easy to manage and you are able to customize different aspects of your lay out.

They provide an application that you can download to your mobile phone so you are able to read, receive and send e-mails from anywhere using your mobile phone to access your Gmail account. Gmail can also be sync'd with Outlook or Thunderbird to enable you to manage your e-mails using these tools instead of having to go online to receive your mails. This is something that Hotmail stopped a few years ago for anyone who had a free account.

If you have contacts in your address book that also have a Gmail account you are able to see when these users are online by logging into your Gmail account and you can also use Googles own IM to chat with your friends. This requires no additional downloading and is run from you Gmail page.

Another great feature with Google is iGoogle, this enables users to complety customise there search page. Instead of just seeing the standard Google search field you are able to add what ever you want to your iGoogle page. I previously used Google.com as my home page, as often enough, when I went online I would use Google to find what I was looking for.

I have now changed my home page to iGoogle. This still contains that trusted search field, but I can also now view snippets of all my favourite websites. I can see my Gmail inbox without having to log on to Google mail, I can see the weather for my area, daily horoscopes, top You Tube videos... the list is endless. Its very simple to use, just click on the "add stuff" button and add what ever you want to appear on your iGoogle page. You can add a calculator, a to do list, post its or as mentioned the latest news from your favourite websites. See below for an example of my iGoogle page:

The great thing is though, you are not restricted to just one page. You can simple add another tab to show you more stuff. For example, I have created a Sports tab so I can see the latest sports news from loads of different websites without having to actually go to all the different websites:

To get the most out of your PC I highly recommended downloading Google Pack for FREE. This includes several bits of software that you can use to maximise the efficiency of your PC. You are able to pick and choose what software you want, you can choose from Norton, Skype, Picasa, Adobe Reader and many more cool applications that are supported by Google. Just click on the link on the left hand side to obtain all your free Google supported software.

If you have your own website or Blog you can use Google Adsense to help you make some extra cash. As you can see on my Blog I have some ads scattered around. These are provided to me my Google. They are completely customizable to fit in with you website, as you are able to choose which colour you want, the size and how many you want to display. By adding these to your site, you earn money by people clicking on the ads. It’s a great little feature, and if you have plenty of Traffic passing through your website you could earn a nice little sum.

In fact Google provides loads of different tools to help set up your own website. You can use Google Page Creator to create your own website. Page Creator also enables you to upload picture files to the internet to provide you with a URL for your picture.

If you want help with improving Traffic to your website check out Google Webmaster. This site has several different tools that will help with developing your website and also getting it out there in the Google search results.

Finally, another great Google tool I have been converted to using is Google maps. Previously I may have used the AA or Multimap to find directions or look for a certain place on a map. But now I only use Google maps. When providing directions, they seem to be a lot easier to use and read and make more sense when you are driving. You can view a normal map view, satellite or Terrain view. As you can see, I have Google maps on my iGoogle page.

Google really have lifted the bar and seem to be taking over the web. I have only mentioned a handful of products that Google provide, but there really are loads of them, from Google Checkout to Google Earth, Google Video to Google Accelerator.

Sign up for your Google account today and start taking advantage of all the amazing things they have to offer.

At War With 3 Hot Girls

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:14:00 +0000

That's right, it looks as if I'm at war with 3 young ladies from London called "Smooch". What am i talking about? The number one spot on Google. At the moment if you search for 'iSmooch', this website is only at number 2.

I doubt anyone would even search for iSmooch anyway, but I'd still like to be top dog. At the moment its the Myspace page for a girl band called "smooch".

There are a number of ways to boost your Google ratings, and here's how;

1) Submit your website to Google, its free and simple. Just submit your URL to Google using there submission form and Google well then send there Googlebot out and check out your site. If you don't sumbit a form, they will eventually find your website, but its quicker to point them in the right direction.

2) Submit to other search engines and directories. Get your website out there and let people see what you have to offer.

3) Write clearly and properly, and try and write often.

4) Key word density - If your writing about celebrity fashion, make sure the readers know what you are writing about. Make it clear in your titles what you are writing about and throw in some key words in your post. This will help Google identify what your page is about.

5) Incoming links. These are links to your website from some one else's website. It helps that they use your keywords or phrases when they link to your website. So if some one wishes to put an iSmooch link on there website, it would help me if they used 'iSmooch' as the link word. It would also help if they were a website that had a high page rank with Google.

There are loads of other ways to increase your ranking, just Google 'SEO' (search engine optimisation), and you will find loads of website giving good advice.

SEO, is a very important thing to focus on when creating a website. Obviously you want a lot of traffic passing through your website and the number one way for people finding information on the net is by "Googling it".

So far, most of my traffic comes from Google results. Sitemeter shows me how my visitors get to my website and often enough it is by people searching for something in Google and my page being high in the results. For example, if you Googled "tversity and sopcast" my article on this topic appears on the first page.

Hope this helped.

Scary Mary takes on the Wolf!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:31:00 +0000

One of my favourite films ever is Teen Wolf, staring the great Michael J Fox. I must have watched that film a million times as a kid… and as an adult. The film has everything; a tricky love triangle, sports, fights, parties, sex and of course a Teenage Werewolf. What else could you possibly ask for in a film?

One film I probably watched more though when growing up was Mary Poppins. A Disney Classic. The story of a mysterious "super" nanny that is given the job of looking after these two spoilt it kids.

Now, have you ever wondered what your favourite film would have looked like if, say, Wes Craven got his hands on it and reworked it in to a horror. Well the time of wondering is over, check out these chilling trailers below.

First up is the "Directors Cut" of Teen Wolf. This video is absolutely awesome and had me in stitches. Check it out;

Next is the scary remake of the children's classic. Look out kids… its Scary Mary;

Liked what you saw and wanna see more, just search for "recut Trailers" below;