Latest Articles by hotjoblinx

How do I become a writer?

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:18:18 -0500

Over the years, people across the globe have longed to put their ideas on paper. Many of them with an excessively flawed understanding of writing and book publishing as an industry took up the challenge of writing books as a source of living. Obviously, the products were amateurish.
In the past several years of being in the book publishing industry, we have come to one single conclusion: there are no defined rules for creative writing.
Following are a few questions which keep on bothering many aspiring authors. Here we have attempted to answer a few to the best of our ability and understanding.

So, how can I write a book? There are several easy ways to hone your writing skills and continue with it till you have a book completed to your satisfaction. Find out how?
1. Am I a born writer?
Well, each of us who can think and communicate in written is a writer. And just like any other talent, writing skill can be polished too. According to Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck, people in education, the arts and business, people who believe talent is fixed and inborn do not fully develop their potential and do not recover easily from setbacks. Those who believe talent can be developed, regardless of apparent starting point, not only achieve more but also prompt greater achievement in their children and staff.
2. What are the factors that make a writer popular?
Clear thinking is the key to effective writing. To become a popular writer one need to communicate to large amount of readers. And to communicate to a large audience the husband along all the five wives are important. Confused? Let's make it easy for you.
How clearly can you visualize and reproduce.
What are the links that will connect the reader to your work?
Who is reading your book? Visualize your target audience. Be specific about age ,sex, nationality, vocabulary of the reader, etc.
When will your book hit the stand?
Why is the reader reading your work? What is in it for him?
Where is your work getting published? Is it a book? In a newspaper or a magazine? A blog?
A unique mélange of all these factors determines the number of readers who will read your work.
3. Will my writing sell?
Can we predict the next stock market or the next big lottery? As we have mentioned above, there are no sure shot formulae for a bestseller. A bestseller or a musical hit, as musician Dave Stewart rightly points out, is something that simultaneously connects to several people. And if you have a potential to connect with millions, no can stop you from becoming an icon.
To connect with wit your readers you require being original and different. A great book is not about verbose language; it's about brilliant thinking explained in a simple manner.
4. Will I become a star writer overnight?
You may or may not, who knows? All book publishers like us believe in the work of their writers and hence they put in their money, time and hard work to publish their books. We would love to see you become a star overnight, but at the same time, we can't predict the market. Several industry experts have strong opinions about writers and genres of writing that sell. They often have to eat their words.
5. What can I do to become the next big thing in the world of publishing?
Actually you can do a lot of things. Be original and have a real good idea. Hone your writing skill instead of daydreaming. Most writers are one-hit-wonders who vanish after their first published work. As they say public memory is short. In this competitive world, each day someone replaces the other. Even the most established writers have to keep churning out good pieces to remain in the limelight.
So, keep writing… All the best!!

--
Sunil K poolani,
CEO,
Leadstart
Publishing - Book Publishers Distributors and
Literary Agents,
http://www.leadstartcorp.com,
info@leadstartcorp.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Sports gambling explained

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500

p>When a stadium is filled with cheering fans, it can easily be estimated how much money is placed on their favorite teams or players. It's a way of showing their support for their teams or sharing the excitement. For some people its profession and a way of living. Think about it. With every sport there are always certain high profile matches everyone's excited about; something that will be remembered for a long time, or something that re-enacts a historic rivalry, something that is the final moment of a glory etc. such games always attract not just sports buffs into some sort of betting.

No doubt, it's addicting. But having a little fun with your friends or to bond with other fans, indulging in betting doesn't do any harm as long as you don't go overboard. Sports betting make the whole duration of the game more thrilling and exciting and the outcome of a match more meaningful. Here are a few basics to get you started on sports gambling.

In the United States, the most popular games to bet on are NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA and Boxing. To place a bet, you have to find a sportsbook, which is a place that accepts sports bets. There are four states where you can do sports gambling legally, but illegally, you can do it anywhere so long as you can find a bookie AND you are of legal age (over 21). You can even bet on college football and basketball as long as you find a bookie for them. Other sports that are popular for betting are professional baseball, professional hockey, and horse and dog racing. You can bet on just about anything that involves sports, really, after all, it is sports gambling. Every sport has its own variations of betting opportunities. You can bet on the overall combined score of a game, on what round will the opponent be knocked out, and even whether a coin toss in a game lands heads or tails. All you have to do is place your bet depending on the statistical odds (chances of winning/losing).

In sports betting, bookies rely on statistics to help you decide which team will win.
There is such a thing called a "spread," which is a point advantage given to a weaker team
that is expected to lose by X number of points. This is the odds maker's way of making
even bets possible for a Sports Book. For example, if a person may bet on a team that is
expected to lose, and still win the bet so long as the team loses by a given number of points.
Sports betting is somewhat a safe proposition, if you know about the game and can make
a fair prediction most of the time. If you are not sure or do not have enough information,
you may take the help from sports handicappers. A sports handicapper provides
you with professional insights and information to help you to arrive at a decision on placing your bets on certain teams. Some handicappers give you free picks based on analysis of data, so that you can place your bets on those picks. Both sportsbooks and handicappers will help you to spread your risks and advise on the type of bets to place on a particular game. This may be a straight bet, over/under bets or teasers.

You should know about all your options before venturing into sports betting. Remember, you can't leave everything to the luck factor, if you want to be successful in any walk of life. Therefore doing some research and starting small can ensure success in the long run and will establish you as a professional sports bettor.

--
Sammi Miami,
Professional sports handicapper

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Search Engine Optimization : What it can do to your website?

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a hot topic among many webmasters and internet professionals. Its hot because it promises less expensive traffic, saving you from spending thousands of ad dollars. As the search engines became the main source of internet traffic in the recent years, Search Engine Optimization or SEO has become a catchphrase.

The fact is that reaching a top position is not much difficult compared to retaining that position for a long time. If you are not on vigilance everyday, you will soon lose that spot to more active SEO professionals. Each day is a new day for SEO professionals and internet marketing firms. Using advanced monitoring tools they can outsmart an average webmaster in no time. So, Optimization is an ongoing process. It doesn’t stop after reaching a goal.

Most internet users pay attention to only the ten top search results in the first page for a search term. So, making it to the top of the first page is a barometer of a site’s success in search engine optimization competition. When your site is on the top, the probability of being clicked is very high. Since this traffic is free and targeted, most webmasters are after SEO.
With search engine optimization you can generate high traffic volume. This traffic originates from search engines where visitors might have entered a search term related to your business website. Hence it is highly probable that the visitor is truly interested in the product or information you are offering. That’s why Traffic that results from Search Engine Optimization is considered to be effective in bringing real business prospects.

That’s precisely, where SEO attracts too much competition and strategies change frequently. As long as your website doesn’t target highly competitive keywords, doing some optimization work can get you good results. But if you want to optimize for competitive keywords, you need to consider a long term plan with considerable budget. Search Engine Optimization can make or break your online business.

Next time you hear something about SEO, listen to it carefully. That’s the only way to stand out among millions of websites.

--

Author: Jaya Kumar Patchala,

Affordable web hosting, web designing and SEO services,

email: jkpatchala@gmail.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Finding Collectibles Online

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Internet is a great option for collectors who are looking for specific collector’s items as long as the collector knows where to find these items. Popular options for purchasing collector’s items of all types include auction websites, clubs for collectors and message boards for collectors. This section will focus on the use of auction websites to find collectibles while the following section will discuss the possibility of purchasing collectibles through membership in clubs and participation in message boards.

Auction websites such as eBay are ideal for collectors who are seeking items to add to their collections. Whether they collect figurines, lunchboxes, war memorabilia or any other type of collectible item there is the potential to find items to add to a collection through an auction website. These websites enable online shoppers to search for items and place bids on the items. If the user is the highest bidder at the conclusion of the auction, he will be able to purchase the item.

Purchasing Items from Other Collectors

Other collectors are often one of the best resources for shoppers looking for collectible items. Most items which consumers enjoy collecting have clubs or message boards dedicated to the collection of these items. Clubs which are formed for members who enjoy collecting any type of item often have options for members who wish to buy, sell or trade collectibles. These options may include any combination of a market place on a member’s only section of the website, a newsletter sent to all members or conventions or meetings where collectors can buy, sell or trade items.

Collectors can also participate in online message boards where they can meet and converse with other collectors who share their interests. These message boards may have a section dedicated specifically to allowing members to buy and sell items. In this section the members can typically post photos and descriptions of items they are willing to sell for other members to view. Even if there is not a section dedicated to this purpose, members can still meet other members who are willing to sell or trade items and can make arrangements to acquire these items.

Verifying the Authenticity of Collector’s Items

Consumers who opt to purchase collectible items online are often faced with the dilemma of determining whether or not the items offered for sale are authentic or not. Determining the authenticity of an item can be difficult enough when the shopper has the ability to examine the item in person and can be considerably more difficult to do this with online purchases. In these cases the use of photos and descriptions provided by the seller must be used to determine authenticity.

--
Jaya Kumar Patchala,
http://www.clickbank-products-review.com .

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Is it necessary to submit a website to Search Engines?

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600

There are several notions about submitting a website to search engines. Some SEO experts argue that you need not and should not submit your site to search engines to get indexed. Their argument is that search engines love to discover new websites on their own, rather than sites being submitted to them.

On the other side, some SEO companies tell you that you need to submit your site to thousands of search engines in order to get indexed and will do it for a fee. They intimidate you that if you didn’t submit your site, it won’t get indexed and your website gets no traffic.

Who is telling the truth?

Both are telling half the truth.

The former (‘don’t submit your website’) breed has based their opinion on the fact that 90% of the search engine traffic comes from 6 - 7 major search engines. These major search engines are capable of crawling through the web on their own. They can follow links found on indexed pages and discover new web pages or sites. They had indexed billions of web pages already and are continuously searching for new and updated content. That’s the problem with them. They are so preoccupied with indexing the remaining content from existing websites, that they hate new sites being submitted to them directly. There is no time for indexing new sites as old sites are growing and generating billions of pages each day. Then, how a new site gets noticed? The answer is simple; you need to place a link to your new web site on a web page of an old indexed site. That’s what they say, don’t submit. Make them to follow your link from an old site, then the SE bot keeps an eye on your site.

But the truth is only some search engines are capable of crawling through the web indexing billions of pages. Not all of them.

This is where the other breed (‘we will submit your site to 100000s of search engines’) comes in. There are several, in fact a large number of search engines out there that needs to be told that your site exists. They are either poor cousins or lazy imitations of big search engines. Their traffic generation strength is far less. But they are also search engines. Who knows, tomorrow some of them could grow as big as their well known cousins. Some of them charge a listing fee to index your site. But they all need that you should submit your site to them so that they can index your site. There is no other way to get indexed by them.
Since their traffic generating potential is almost negligible, you may get very few visitors by submitting to all these small search engines. Since you don’t know how many of such search engines are out there, you can try a submission service for a reasonable price. But do not expect much traffic from them. Even if each of them can send 1 visitor per month, that could amount to a few hundred visitors a month.

If you have a web-based business or if a significant portion of your business is done on the web through your website, then the best advertising and marketing is done by submitting to all available search engines, big or small. No amount of press release, newspaper or radio ad, banner ad, spam email or newsletter will achieve the same results, although, maybe effective in a small proportion.

Before you begin to submit your website to search engines ensure your site well optimized for search engines with necessary tags in place. You site should be professionally designed with god layout, graphics, navigation and the relevant content filled with targeted keywords. Don’t submit incomplete websites or sites with broken links. Prepare a site map and robots.txt files that tell search engines what to index on your site. Several small search engines require description of your website, keywords and any other information that may be pertinent, including the name and contact information of your business.

Mere submission to search engines does not guarantee that your site would get immediately indexed with high ranking. Thousands of new websites come up every day and it may take sometime before your site is crawled for indexing or reviewed by human editors.

Major search engines offer you the facility to analyze your website’s position. You can get a lot of info about your website, if you subscribed to these free webmaster services offered by search engines.

--
Jaya Kumar Patchala, is a freelance web developer and SEO analyst. Website : www.hostingplans4all.com, email: jkpatchala@gmail.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Web Templates or WYSIWYG Editors

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Template based web page development:
A lot of people get tempted by good looking web templates. Some template vendors even offer do-it-yourself kits to their customers. Web templates are designed by experts, using the latest designing software. They look stunning,
compared to web pages developed by other means. While readymade templates offer several advantages, they have some disadvantages too.
Advantages of using templates:
1. You know how your finished site looks. You can choose the template that appeals to you. You need not rely on a web developer to get a good looking website.
2. Faster turnaround. You need not spend a lot of time on getting the colors and layout right. You can go straight to changing text and proceed with programming.
3. Templates are much cheaper than hiring a web developer. There are several sites that offer free templates as well.
4. Templates look much better than sites developed in traditional HTML Programming. Templates are designed by professionals that are creative and competent and experienced.
5. Templates can be customized by anyone with basic HTML knowledge. You can Customize the template yourself using a text editor.

Disadvantages of using templates:
1. You can get web templates for free or at a low-price. But these templates are not unique. Several people may have already bought or downloaded the template you have chosen. If you cant change the colors or layout a bit, your site looks like a clone of several sites. If you want a unique template design licensed only to you, you need to spend a fortune on it.
2. Often, templates don’t look good if you stretch them a bit. For example, if there is space for 100 words in a block and if you try to insert 200 words in that space, the template layout may change. And this may not look good. This puts limitations on text you can place in a template based web page, thereby restricting you from optimizing text or being descriptive about your business . It is well known that the more verbose in a page the more attention it gets from search engines. A template doesn’t come with Meta tags. You need to insert these meta tags.
3. Templates are good for static pages. If a site needs dynamic pages with a
huge database to built, you need to opt for simpler templates.
4. If you are doing customization for yourself, always work on a copy of the template files. Templates are often done with simple HTML. But if you try to edit HTML tags instead of text between them, you might end up with bad page layout.
5. If there are template files with .tpl extension, locate the files where variables are defined. Then try to establish the logic behind the file system
.

Using WYSIWYG editors:
Nowadays, several WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors are available for creating web pages. With these editors it is possible to create good looking pages simply by dragging and dropping objects on the page, without any HTML knowledge. They come with a lot of menu options. If you are familiar with windows objects or windows based software, you can create a web page in time.

Advantages of using a WYSIWYG editor:
1. Its great fun to create web pages this way. You can do it yourself, experimenting with colors and layouts. The web page is likely to be unique, unless you are trying to clone another web page. You can stretch your imagination.
2. It’s faster and easier to create web pages. You can make changes to a page layout by simply dragging the objects to their new positions.
3. You can make changes to content (text or images) in WYSIWYG editor, instead of searching for and inserting between HTML tags, or using a complex content management system.
4. WYSIWYG software runs on any windows computer.
5. you can also create background images on fly.

Disadvantages of using a WYSIWYG editor:
1. A WYSIWYG editor produces files of large sizes. The web page may take a bit longer to download.
2. The HTML code generated may not be compliant with existing web standards. Some of these editors are meant for web sites to be hosted with particular servers. Some WYSIWYG editors even produce files with their own extensions.
3. You need to fill in a lot of details, such as Meta tags and link colors for each page. Some WYSIWIG editors support CSS while editing and some don’t.
4. You need to preview the page in different browsers more often to see if the page is shaping up as you intended.
5. Web pages designed using WYSIWYG editors are rigid. They do not stretch if you put more text or images on a page. Instead they overlap on each other. Some WYSIWYG editors produce excessive div tags. It is difficult to edit these pages in an ordinary HTML editor.
6. Often these web pages are difficult to optimize for search engines.

--

The author is a web hosting provider and web developer. Author sites http://www
.hotbusinesssolutions.com and http://www
.getwebsitetemplates.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

Precautions to be taken while shopping online

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500

1. Buying through 3rd party services.

There are some well known shopping service providers on internet such as Clickbank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon etc. These sites provide an additional layer of buyer protection. Some of them ensure that the product is delivered within stipulated time, particularly so if it a digital product or download. These sites gather a lot of information about the product and the seller's reputation. They also have a market place where you can compare different products in the same category and usually have a system to rate and review products. This helps the buyer to make an informed decision while buying.

2. searching the internet for information

If you are buying a product or service from a website, then run a search in major search engines if a scam has been reported about that website or products. Simply add 'scam' or 'fraud' to your search term consisting of the product / service name or the website's URL. This would fetch you relevant results. If it is a fraud or scam, you will know it immediately.

Then spend some more time on reading reviews about them.

3. Contact with pre-sale inquiries.

Normally, websites that are doing legitimate business would display contact information on their websites. This includes physical address, telephone numbers, two or three email ids and a live chat option. If a website doesn't have any of these options or have a very few, then it is probably a fly-by-night operator or a struggling business. It is always better to make some pre-sale inquiries through telephone, live chat or email. You can ascertain their average response time and service aptitude. Though several scam sites also respond with enthusiasm for pre-sale inquiries, you can smell it if there is inconsistency or excessive sales pitch in their response. You can demand them to clear all your doubts, before making a purchase.

4. Ask for a free sample.

This is by far the most effective way of detecting scams or 'just need your money' products.

Several websites offer 30-day evaluation of their services / products. Some websites offer money-back guarantee. Money-back guarantees often results in a few problems and are not always a good measure of credibility, whereas free sample downloads or 30-day evaluation offers help you to try out their products without any risk. You can try 3 or 4 products for evaluation and compare them, before choosing the appropriate one for you.

5. the purchase process

Finding the right channel and preparing to buy

Once you have chosen your product to buy, you have to check that if that product is sold through any of the 3rd party merchant websites such as Clickbank, eBay, PayPal, Amazon etc. that have secure payment processing. If the product is sold through the seller's website, go through the various payment options available. If there is an option to pay through any of the 3rd party merchant sites listed above, it is safe to purchase through these sites. If there are no such options and the buyer is accepting credit cards only, then you should verify a few things.

a. The URL shall display https:// instead of http:// while you are filling out various forms to place an order.

b. You should find a logo of any of the SSL certificate providers such as Verisign, geotrust, rapid SSL, comodo etc, somewhere on the order pages.

c. The site shouldn't ask for too much information than it is necessary.

d. Some web browsers support 'phishing detection'. If you turn this option on, the browser alerts you if the selling website is known for 'phishing'.

e. Read the seller's money-back policies and terms and conditions carefully.

Making purchase

If you haven't found anything wrong or objectionable, then you can proceed to purchase. But you need to take some more precautions. (If you are still using a dial-up, these precautions help you a lot)

a. Close all other programs and browser windows except the one where you are making transactions.

b. Clear all the cookies and temporary files from 'internet options' in the control panel.

c. Turn off automatic updates. Some software programs begin automatic updates without notice. If prompted, postpone such updates and turnoff such options till you complete your transaction.

d. If your internet connection is experiencing problems do not initiate a transaction.

e. All the above steps ensure that transaction gets completed without interruption and browser redirections work well.

f. Always give an email address that works well for you, even if it is not your primary email. Some sellers may have a 'spammer' status and their confirmation email may get lost or filtered.

g. Write down all the transaction numbers and codes that are displayed during and after the transaction. Save these pages to your disk or add confirmation pages to your favorites folder.

h. After payment, though not necessary, send them a letter citing all those transaction numbers and codes and inquire about the status of your order.

After purchase:

It is a good practice if you leave a feedback at forums or blogs about your experience with the products you purchased. It helps others to make good buying decisions. It also helps the seller to improve his product or service. If you are scammed, never forget to report it.

These are a few simple things that can prevent a lot of headaches associated with buying online. You can avoid scams and phishing websites. You can make sure that you will get a good support for your purchased product.

: JayaKumar Patchala is a freelance web developer, hosting provider and offers e-commerce solutions.

Websites: http://www.clickbank-products-review.com/

And http://www.hotbusinesssolutions.com

Email: jkpatchala@gmail.com

Source: http://www.articletrader.com