Top Myspace Layout Site Review

OK. I admit it. I am a Myspace junkie. But, not in the classic sense. I have always been fascinated by the development of social networking and related functions (ie. Myspace versus Digg versus Stumbledupon). But, regardless of what has occurred, wether its Myspace being purchased by Rupert Murdoch or the hordes of competition that have flooded the marketplace, Myspace continues to be the 600lb gorilla.

Yes, it is true. Many major brands are using Myspace as a free advertising medium. And yes it’s true, there are a great many dirt bags lurking in the shadows of Myspace waiting for an unsuspecting and equally naive user to fall into their trap. But, for the most part, Myspace has proven to be extremely useful and it is obvious the function will not be going away any time soon.

So, what do we do now. What the heck, let us enjoy it. And in doing so, there is no better way to enjoy Myspace, or related sites, than the many resource sites that have popped up over the past few years. I am going to give you my thoughts on some of the top sites and some of the up and comers of this growing industry. I’ll start with the big dog, myspacesupport.com.

Myspacesupport.com

This site was one of the first to come on the scene a few years back. The owner is based out Colorado and does a good job of indexing thousands of layouts. You can create an account and publish your own, if you feel like spending the time. Of course, make sure your pop-up blocker is on as many adds will post as soon as you arrive.

He has recently posted a new feature that includes Myspace layout videos which seems rather interesting. All of the other standard tool features are present and the site is indexing is very quick.

Overall, I give this site an A on its implementation and is definitely worth visiting.

Skize.com

My first example was one that shows what should be done. Size.com is an example of what should be avoided. This site is nothing more than a pointer to other people’s work. It is full of useless Myspace reference text sections in order to place high in google search rankings (which it does well) yet doesn’t actually provide anything useful to the user. These types of sites are terrible and should be avoided at all costs as you never know what software will end up dumping to your system as soon as you visit.

Overall, I give this site a big F. It should be avoided at all costs.

Mybuzzcut.com

This is an example of an ‘up and comer’ as it is new to the scene and has steadily been improving. The nicest feature on this Myspace site is the World Map Tracker that lets you see graphically who has visited your Myspace page. Additionally, This site has loads of custom sports themes including NFL, NBA and others. It was a bit slow when it first came out, but the latest release seems to have addressed performance issues. This site will get better over time.

My score for Mybuzzcut.com is a B but I think over time it will get better.

Myspace.org

Believe it or not, but this website is a Myspace resource site. I’m not sure how Myspace allowed for the .org extension to be taken. From a functional perspective, this site is very good. It has a good deal of content and it is extremely responsive, even though it consistently gets tons of traffic. It does a good job of showing some new additions on a regular basis.

That was the good. The bad has to do with advertising. It uses SO much you almost can’t use the site. I was very disappointed on the aggressive nature of the advertising used on the site. It really isn’t necessary. I have he changes this method.

Overall, I give this site a B-. It should have been an A, if it was not for the ads.

I hope this information is useful. For the most part, the top Myspace resource sites are very cool. They allow users of all skill level to make basic .html changes to their site to continue to customize, much like you would a car or a home. Nothing wrong with options.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

Mobile Blogging Is Here And How You Can Use This To Your Advantage

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is sweeping the blogosphere. One of the reasons why a lot of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in the first place is that they enjoy being able to make frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors up to speed with current situations.

This trend is hot among small communities. Mobile blogs, or “moblogs,” take this to the extreme by allowing users to post things literally as they happen. This new wave of moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date with good and bad events of importance as they occur all over the world, helping to make international communication faster and more accurate.

Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so current that a blog can be when you need to run home and boot up in order to update it. However, mobile blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era when web-based communication can happen spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that remains off-limits for bloggers.

Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the technology that makes it possible has only recently hit the global market. The first moblog technology became available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two or three years that mobile web devices have become user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers. As camera phones and other mobile technology become more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away from their desks and are hitting the streets.

Moblogging is becoming much more widespread that it was even a few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting a lot of attention with the blogging community. It is not yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.

Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites where current events are unfolding, which is one of the reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling potential to revolutionize the blogosphere. A moblogger with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the stands during the final moments of the world series.

This enables bloggers to experience the same real time thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a more democratic medium. The combination of mobility and individual control that moblogging provides certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of today’s communications technology, and it is hard to imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will not continue to grow in the coming years.

Capitalising on the Web 2.0 Revolution

If you’ve been amazed at the rapid rise of internet communities such MySpace, YouTube and Squidoo then it’s likely that you’re aware of the new trend in using the internet as a platform to meet friends and build business contacts.

The term that has been coined to capture the development of social interactivity across the internet is called ‘web 2.0′, and web 2.0 portals are springing up across the planet faster than you can or I can type.

Now web 2.0 is a fundamental shift in the way that people are using the internet, and it won’t ever replace the old ‘web 1.0′ sites. That is, ’static’ websites that offer useful content but are not being updated.

However since web 2.0 sites are continually updating themselves with topical information, the Search Engines Google, Yahoo and MSN are picking up these sites as avenues of more current information.

Some examples of web 2.0 portals include Blogs (Blogger.com), Mash-ups (Google Maps), Social Networks (LinkedIn.com), Tagging (Del.icio.us) and Wiki (Wikipedia.com).

Web 2.0 communities represent a spirit of free and open communication, and are also referred to as social media technologies.

The biggest factor about web 2.0 technology is the way it is being used as social proof. For instance, visit a Blog and you can leave comments about the topic that is presented or discussed.

Alternatively, visit a community site and start to form your own social network where you can add friends to your social group, be involved in group discussions, and provide comment on topics that you know. Forums are a recognised social presence on the internet and are a common web 2.0 technology.

If you run a niche website, you don’t need to run an entire community forum to benefit from the Search Engine traffic. Web 2.0 niche portals can transform your static ‘web 1.0′ website into the new world order of web 2.0 technology.

For instance, using web 2.0 niche portals you can invite your visitors to leave comments or add a link to their website via your web 2.0 portal.

Alternatively, people can view a video wall related to your niche themed site, and may be attracted to click on the Adsense advertising around the articles around your site.

Finally, if they can’t find what they are looking for on your site, a Google Search box can assist them to look for more relevant information directly from your site.

While web 1.0 websites are being left in the dust by the Search Engines, with web 2.0 niche portals you can easily upgrade your website and start capitalising on the web 2.0 revolution.

How To Pick a Great Voice Over Coach

Your voice is your instrument and is also the main component of your business.

That being said, it is crucial that you find the right teacher for you to study with as the decision made will directly impact the outcome of your goals.

For our purposes, I am going to assume that you are a working professional or are on the brink of starting out as a novice voice actor who wants to study with a teacher to aid in the preparation of recording a voice over demo.

While a great deal of your success is reliant upon your actions and level of dedication a significant amount of weight is held where private study with a teacher of voice over is concerned.

We’ve all had teachers along the way, whether in public school or through private lessons, who have had left an imprint on our perspectives, goals, and potentially the directions taken in our lives.

Teachers have the ability to inspire or to deter depending on how you interpret their methodology, or bedside manner if you will.

This is why you need to select the best fit for you as a student of voice over to succeed.

For every person, there is most definitely an instructor who can open you up, develop, and refine your skills. The challenge is finding these individuals and having the ambition and humility to become a student of voice over.

Depending on your needs and aspirations, you will discover that certain coaches will make a better fit for you than others, particularly if you are working within a niche of voice over. The narrower your niche, the fewer qualified coaches there will be that meet your needs.

What do I mean by that?

Let’s say you are specifically interested in studying with a teacher of audiobook narration.

Now let’s add a few variables:

This teacher also needs to have at least 20 years experience, lives within a two to three hour drive of your home, and is a voice acting specialist in the field of audiobooks.

That’s not even hitting on personality, teaching style, or educational facility.

To be certain you will have your own set of criteria that will need to be met that may be completely different from the example I’ve used above.

More options are opened up to you if you are interested in studying over the phone, Internet, or through reading books, so keep those avenues in mind if you cannot locate someone within a 200 mile radius of your home.

After you’ve settled on what your criteria is for studying with a voice over coach, it’s time to start doing some research.

My advice is to ask your colleagues about their experiences with a particular coach (one with whom they train with on a regular basis) and get the inside scoop from them on why they love studying with their teacher.

They’ll have specific reasons why they chose and continue to work with the coach they are presently training with.

Don’t just ask one of their students, though, ask several.

Each person will have their own unique reasons for studying with that coach and you may also find that students in a given studio share similar thoughts on why studying with them has improved their performance.

What to look for in a voice over coach?

- Honesty and Integrity
- A Genuine Interest in You
- Positive Referrals from Past and Current Students
- Recognized by their Peers
- Education and Degrees
- Practical Experience
- National or International Credits for Voice Work
- Awards Won
- Community Involvement
- Good Business Ethics

One of the ways that the team at Voices is assisting you to find voice over coaches is by offering the Voice Over Experts Podcast.

Each week, you’ll have the opportunity to freely sample the teaching style and expertise of a different voice over expert, helping you to learn more about the instructor before making a commitment to study with them.

You’ll also find that each coach has provided a biography for you to review and a link has been provided to their websites directly from the Voice Over Experts website making it easy for you to peruse a variety of voice over experts and acquire more information.

Now that you have the tools to find a voice over coach, you can start your quest to voice over excellence.

Laptop Recovery for Western Digital Scorpio Hard Disks

Western Digital Scorpio family of laptop hard disks come available with varying range of storage capacities, starting from 40 GB to 500 GB and interface as either SATA or IDE. In the interest of performance, these hard disks prove apt to be used. But at times, after powering on your laptop, it might fail to recognize the Western Digital Scorpio hard disk. One of the prominent reasons for such behavior is hard disk failure. In such situations, you should immediately turn off your laptop and consult Laptop Data Recovery experts for best data prevention and recovery assistance.

Typical symptoms of Western Digital Scorpio hard disk failure:

• your laptop fails to recognize Western Digital Scorpio hard disk
• Your hard disk doesn’t power up at all
• You observe ticking noises from hard disk
• Your laptop recognizes the hard disk but runs slowly or hangs while running.

These symptoms generally indicate imminent hard disk failure. So, you are recommended to immediately backup your data.

A Western Digital Scorpio hard disk can fail due to physical reasons like:

• Read/write head failure
• Electronic circuitry damage
• Firmware corruption
• Disk controller failure
• Spindle shaft breakdown
• Platters misalignment

If you examine the aforementioned symptoms with your Western Digital Scorpio hard disk, you will need to replace your hard disk and restore lost information using backup. In case you find that no backup is available or is giving corruption errors, seek advice from Hard Disk Recovery technicians. Besides giving data protection tips, they will give manual aid to recover lost data. These services are termed as laptop data Recovery service and are provided by renowned data recovery companies.

Data recovery service procedures are carried out by highly professional and experienced experts. They first scrutinize your failed hard disk to determine the cause of hard disk failure and amount of recoverable data. Failed hard disk is then dealt with suitable recovery procedure, backed up with advanced tools. To make the process safe, failed hard disk is always opened in sterile surroundings of Clean Rooms.

Nokia N98, with Innovative Features

Mobile phones are no longer alien to us. They are perfectly blended with various communication and entertainment features. With these tiny gadgets the users can easily perform various official tasks on the move. Moreover, with the support of these widgets one can stay connected with his or her beloved ones all throughout the day with innovative multimedia messaging features. Various top renowned companies are fighting tooth and nail to capture huge portion of market share and gain the customer satisfaction level comfortably. However, Nokia is a well known brand which has offered the users various high end gadgets at regular intervals. This brand has gained popularity among the masses due to its durability and mobility feature. The latest N series handsets have been applauded by the users all over the world because of their high tech capabilities. These gadgets are referred to be the best symbol of innovativeness and stylish designs.

The Nokia N98 is a latest and stylish mobile phone which has the capability to astir the users with its mammoth storage capacity and unique multimedia capabilities. This gadget has been praised both by the handset experts and the users. As this handset is beautifully crafted, one can easily flaunt off his or her style and status. Moreover, the advanced applications are accompanied with various user friendly features. An alluring 7.2 mega pixel camera is outfitted in this gadget which is further enriched with Carl Zeiss options, 5X optical zoom and 20X digital zoom. With this camera phone the users can comfortably capture still, moving, close and distant images with vivid clarity. The users can steadily enrich their photographic passion and make sure that all their fleeing and cherishable moments are captured and stored at ease. The attractive and elegant touchscreen can efficiently permit one to operate the functions of his or her handset steadily and comfortably.

The outstanding music player in the Nokia N98 can offer the users pleasurable musical entertainment as it has the capability to support all the music file formats without any hindrances. The sound quality is very astonishing and the users can store toms of music tracks in their phone memory. Moreover, the storage capacity can also be expanded by using an additional microSD card to meet the requirements of the users. The innovative GPS navigation feature is also embedded in this widget. With the support of this unique and astounding feature the users can readily give wings to their exploring passion. One can move around unexplored places without any tension of getting lost in the midst of unknown places. He can easily track his desired places without taking any assistance from his friends.

This highly advanced handset would give tough competition to its contenders with its unique capabilities. Browsing the internet with this device can be very exciting. It is always desired to surf the internet at high speed and this handset efficiently offer the users fast and steady internet connectivity as it is enhanced with various connectivity options. One can comfortably download his or her favourite music tracks, wall papers, ringtones and movie clips etc in their handsets in a matter of few minutes. Moreover, these downloaded files can be shared with other compatible systems with the support of various enhanced connectivity options. Bluetooth, HSDPA and WiFi are the advanced connectivity features adorned in this gadget. As such the gadget can permit the users to perform their official tasks and connect with their clients while on move.

This high end Nokia N98 mobile phone runs on Symbian 3rd edition operating system. This smart phone is also outfitted with TNT television broadcast feature. With this innovative feature the users can always get rid of their mundane moments by watching their favourite television programmes whenever and wherever they want. The elegant and bright 3.5 inch touchscreen can brilliantly display every detail of the captured images with high resolution and vivid clarity.

Understanding Streaming Video

There are two ways to view media such as video or audio on the internet and that is downloading and streaming video.

Downloading

When you download a file the entire file is saved on your computer’s hard drive, which you then open and view at your leisure. The one major advantages is having quicker access to different parts of the file once downloaded, but it has the big disadvantage of you having to wait for the whole file to completely download before any of it can be viewed. If the file is quite small this may not be too much of a problem for you, but for large files it can tax your patience.

The easiest way to provide downloadable video files is to use a simple hyperlink to the file on your site or server. A slightly more advanced method is to embed the file in a web page on your site using special HTML code.

Making video files available this way is known as HTTP streaming or HTTP delivery. HTTP means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, and is the same protocol used to deliver web pages. For this reason it is easy to set up and use on almost any website, without requiring additional software or special hosting plans.

Streaming

Streaming video works a bit differently, you or your visitors, the end users can start watching the file almost as soon as it begins downloading. The file is sent to the user in a constant stream, ideally, and the user watches it as it arrives. The main advantage with this method is that no waiting is involved, depending on the download speed of your service. Streaming media has additional advantages such as being able to broadcast live events, sometimes referred to as a webcast or netcast.

True streaming video must be delivered from a specialized streaming server.

Progressive Downloading

There is also a hybrid method known as progressive download. In this method the video file is downloaded but begins playing as soon as a portion of the file has been received. This simulates true streaming, but doesn’t have all the advantages.

HTTP Streaming Video

This is the simplest and cheapest way to stream video from a website. Small to medium sized websites are more likely to use this method than the more expensive streaming servers.

For this method you don’t need any special type of website or host, just a host server which recognises common video file types (most standard hosting accounts do this). Bear in mind you can’t stream live video, since the HTTP method only works with complete files stored on the server. This method is very popular and will be used on this site and video syndication sites such as YouTube.

Create a Streaming Video File

There are many streaming video formats and the main one are probably familiar to you already. The most popular are Macromedia Flash, RealMedia, Windows Media, Quicktime and MPEG.

Each format has its pro and cons and people have their own preference. Ideally you should have files in all formats but this is far from practical and it is best to choose one or two at the most. Flash is the format recommended on this site and the Flash Player is usually found on the majority of computers connected to the internet.

There are two ways to create stored streaming video files

Once you have created you video in, let’s say, .avi format then you need to prepare it for uploading to your web site ready for streaming by one of the following methods.

1. Use a conversion utility program. This takes an existing digital video file (avi) and converts it into the streaming format of your choice, in this case Flash video.
2. Export streaming files from video editing software such as Adobe Premiere or Ulead Video Studio.

Conversion Utilities

A conversion utility is a stand alone program which imports a video clip and exports it in a different format. Examples include RealNetworks Real Producer External Link and Sorenson Squeeze External Link. There are simpler, cheaper and even free software programs for converting videos into Flash format which are perfectly adequate for the scope of this web site.

Basically, you simply open a file and select which which format to save it as. You can set various parameters to optimise the final video. The program will then chug away for some time while it makes the conversion.

Making Money On the Internet With Video Marketing

It may seem daunting to most people, but like it or not, video is becoming a huge part of the internet. Nowadays, if you’re not making money on the internet, it may be because you’re not using videos as one of your main marketing tools.

Technology is scary to a lot of people, not to mention, exposing oneself online in a video for the whole world to see. That’s why so many people shy away from learning what it takes to market a business using video – either they figure it’s too technical for them, or they want to maintain their privacy.

That’s precisely why you should think about making money from the internet with video. It’s the things that people don’t want to do that you should be jumping on as a new opportunity for you. In the internet business world, it’s where you find holes, and gaps, and things that people don’t want to do that you can start making real money online.

Video is becoming more and more like the written word, and will soon have the same tagging capacity as you find in articles and blogs that are carefully sprinkled with effective keywords.

In that sense, if you are looking to make money on the internet, you can expect the search engines to send heaps of traffic your way if you have keyword packed videos.

Videos are very effective in teaching people how to do things, and can probably establish more trust from someone thinking about buying one of your products or services if they can see and hear you.

Furthermore, just like sharing information via social networking sites from blogs and articles, and other information sites on the net, videos also have their social networking services that allow you to share your videos with others in your niche.

If you think you’re in the dark about technology and will never have a clue how to use it, or how to make money on the internet with video, then have no fear! Any good video creation or syndication service will offer easy-to-follow training for setting up your first, and subsequent videos.

Much like article writing, you’re not done with your videos after you’ve created them. You have to submit them to video syndication sites to spread them around the net.

If you’ve been involved in manually submitting your articles to the various article directories, you will realize how time-consuming and tedious this can be, and how much worse you can expect it to be for submitting a video file!

Luckily, just like article submission services, there are video submission services that can save you loads of time on your video uploads!

If you really don’t want to venture into the land of video marketing, you can always opt for an equally popular podcast, or audio cast, so that the whole world only hears you, but doesn’t have to see you. You can start making money on the internet just as fast with an effective podcast that you submit the same way as videos.

Just think about the results you could achieve by combining article writing with video marketing, and podcasting! Most people are familiar with YouTube, so if you visit their website, you will be able to setup an account, create your video, and start making money on the internet faster than you ever imagined!

Don’t be fooled by the all the technological jargon out there. If you know how to work a digital camera, have a movie feature on your camera, or have ever used a camcorder, then relax! You are most of the way there!

Making money on the internet can happen for you, and tackling your fears about technology and starting a video or podcast marketing campaign can make your dreams come true, especially now when it’s still relatively new!

Get Website Traffic From Social Bookmarking

As you know, traffic to your website is the lifeblood of your business. You need to have visitors come to your website, especially visitors who are predisposed to purchase your products and services. But getting traffic to your site can be a real challenge especially for fairly new websites.

There are several ways to get more website traffic. The quickest way is to use pay per click advertising, but that can get expensive very quickly and you must track your conversions to be successful. Article marketing is also a good way to get traffic over the long term, but that can take a great deal of work and some patience. Unfortunately there is no magic bullet solution to getting more traffic. You simply must use a combination of approaches to make it happen.

The good news is that there are some new and/or often overlooked methods of getting traffic that can indeed be quite effective especially when used in combination with the more established techniques like paid advertising and article marketing. One of the best such techniques is using social bookmarking websites.

Social bookmarking is a web phenomenon that has come into existence over the past couple of years. The basic idea is that instead of a user saving his or her bookmarked website links on their home computer, instead the user saves them in an online account. Bookmark links in this online account exist in public pages on the website, so a link to your website on a social bookmarking site counts as a backlink to your website. Furthermore, social bookmarking websites usually have high pagerank in Google so a backlink can have a good amount of link value. While it is rumored that Google has been decreasing the value it assigns to these links over the past year, it is still true that a large set of social bookmarking links can help increase the web site rankings of your website.

It is also true that social bookmarking sites were set up so that people can share their bookmarks. As a result, people can often arrive at your bookmarked website simply through exploring other people’s bookmarked links on these sites. So your site can achieve a certain amount of social verification by being listed on these bookmarking sites and can get some direct traffic that way.

So how do you get these social bookmarking links. There are dozen or perhaps hundreds of such sites, although the most common ones include Delicious, Furl, and StumpbleUpon. Usually you just sign up on these sites and download and install a social bookmarking toolbar in your browser. Then when you find a site you like, such as the site you wish to promote, simply click a toolbar icon and it will create a bookmark link for you. In some cases you may be prompted to add some written information about the site.

The main problem with social bookmarking your own sites is that there is only one of you, so you can get only one link to your site. It is helpful to find ways to get other people to help you out. There are forums where you can work with other people to share social bookmarking tasks or even pay a fee to get someone to do some social bookmarking for you.

The best approach is to work together with a large number of people where everyone does social bookmarking for each other. This way everyone shares the work but everyone shares the reward of lots of backlinks.

Blog Directories Can Bring Big Traffic to Your Blog

When the Internet was young, search engine traffic came at a premium price. Websites could buy their way into search engine listings, but there was no guarantee that the purchase would result in a significant amount of traffic.

Today, the rules are much different. In some ways it’s much easier to get great traffic from search engines, but in other ways it’s even harder. A website has to have a lot of clout before Google or Yahoo will list it in their top returns, but there are many ways to make your site more attractive to the search engines.

If you’re trying to build traffic for a blog, the best thing you can do for increased traffic is to blog and ping. This slightly humorous-sounding term simply means that you let blog directories know each time you make a new blog post.

By cluing in the blog directories whenever you add a new blog post, you’re building traffic in two ways. You might get an initial rush of traffic from the blog directory as readers click through to see your new entry. The real magic happens when the search engines follow the link from the blog directory back to your blog.

The search engine then finds other material to index. As you keep getting more links to your blog, the search engine has more pages to index. Eventually you’ll find your blog turning up in searches. You won’t be in the top couple of pages right away, but you will see your search engine traffic rise.

Blog and ping might sound a little complicated, but it’s actually very easy. Most major blog platforms ping the major blog directories automatically. If you want to ping a blog directory that’s not listed in their default list, you can usually add it manually.

What if you don’t actually have a blog yet? Well, it’s time to hop on the bandwagon. Blogs are useful for conveying your personal thoughts to anyone and everyone, about whatever subjects you choose. You can keep in touch with far-away relatives or just give yourself a creative outlet.

Lately, though, blogs are used quite often as marketing tools for businesses. The business blog can take many forms, from an informal journal kept by a CEO to a formal, frequently-updated record of new products.

Setting up a new blog is not difficult at all, and you have several options to do it. Most often, new bloggers set up a blog with one of the popular blogging platforms. These platforms offer standard templates, or you can create your own to match your company’s color scheme or your personal preferences.

Once your blog is set up and ready to go, don’t forget to make sure that it pings every blog directory possible. Blogging without pinging the blog directories is like spinning your wheels: you’re doing something, but you’re not making any progress.

If your blogging platform does not support pinging or doesn’t submit to the directories you want, you can use software to accomplish the same thing. It’s available under many different titles, but the basic function is to take your most recent blog post and send it to several blog directories. Your links start building up, your search engine traffic increases, and you are one happy blogger.