TOP 5 Best Free Social Networking Software

Previously, Abhijeet has highlighted three awesome sites where you can create your own social network easily. However, if you are one of those who wants more control of the site, including the branding, the domain name, the features, the design, the community rule, or even the database, the best way is to install and run a social networking software on your server.
While there are plenty of scripts (both free and paid) that you can use to run your own social network, there are only a few that are stable, good and easy to use.
Here we have handpicked 5 of the best open-source social networking software for you to choose from.

1. Elgg

Elgg has just won the best open source social networking platform for the year 2008, so there is no doubt about the usability of this software. Overall, Elgg is a powerful software that offers blog, networking, community, collection of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features. In fact, it is one of the most versatile pieces of software that offers almost everything you need to start a social networking site.
Elgg operates on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql and Php) environment and it is easy to install and configure. With a little php knowledge, you can get your social networking site up and running in no time.
Before you install Elgg, try out its demo site.

. Mahara

Unlike the rest of the social networking software that is meant for general use, Mahara is designed as a platform to allow its users to demonstrate their life-long learning, skills and development to selected audiences. With Mahara, you can create an e-Portfolio platform and set up an online learner community. Features in the software include blogs, a resume builder, a file manager, institutions detail and the social networking aspect where you can add and maintain your list of friends.
Mahara runs on LAMP, although Postgres is preferred over MySql.
Check out the demo site

3. Lovd by Less

Lovd by Less is among the first and only few open-source social networking platforms built on Ruby on Rails. Some features of Lovd by Less include blogs, photo gallery with captions, site search for friends, activity update and user-to-user messaging. Other things that are built into the software include Flickr and YouTube integration.
One thing good about Lovd by Less is that it is easy to use and contains most of the applications that you need. For those who prefer Ruby on Rail rather than php, this would be a good alternative.
Try out the demo site.

4. Xoops with Yogurt extension

XOOPS is an extensible CMS that allows you to build sites based on your needs. You can first start off as a personal blog and expand later to include social networking, forum and much more via the use of appropriate modules.
Yogurt is the particular module that allows you to build a social networking site with XOOPS. You can setup your personal album of pictures, videos from YouTube, mp3 files, add your list of friends, a public wall for messages (scraps), to create communities (tribes) and many more useful features.
XOOPS and Yogurt are based on php and work well in the LAMP environment.

5. AROUNDMe

AROUNDMe is slightly different from the others. Instead of building a social networking site, it allows you to create your own collaboration server which enables your users to setup their own social networking site, community or webspace (like Ning, Google Groups, Snappville, CollectiveX).
With AROUNDMe, your users can have access to a guestbook (a wall), a group blog, a forum and a wiki which they can drop into web pages. Every single group is fully customizable using xHTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP and the user can decide if the group is private or public.

Other Candidates

Here are some of the candidates that didn’t make it to the top 5:
Phpizabi – works fine for a small network, but could become buggy as your network get bigger.
Dolphin – while it is free to download, you will have to pay to get the ad module removed.
Insoshi – a new social network software built on Ruby on Rails released only early April this year. It could have be better if some of its features are more polished.
Have you built your own social networking site before? Which software did you use? Which one would you recommend?

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How much bandwidth is enough? - Web Hosting Bandwidth

Bandwidth in its simplest terms refers to the monetary value of the rupture that crosses over a leak in a period when hardened. For highly lace hosting providers, that space duration is measured in a month. Web hosting providers are worked up to a certain amount per month or per year for an allocated amount of bandwidth backbone providers and wholesale data centers. This cost is then passed on to consumers in the form of web hosting plans.

How much will the bandwidth usage of your website?

With great ergonomics for distinction between hosting companies interlacing, it can sometimes be serious to learn supremely bandwidth your site needs trust. So how much is a one gigabyte of bandwidth anyway? Let's place in perspective. If a web page on average, images and all is 50 kilobytes, your site can be viewed 20,000 times! For the website, hobby average, which is more than enough. Let's put more than 20,000 in perspective. If each visitor to your website viewed an average of 4 pages per month, it would represent over 5,000 unique visitors to your site each month. Now, if your site has many pictures on this property, then a gigabyte of bandwidth will have fewer visitors.

Beware of overused term bandwidth when downloading level gift

Although not typical lace subscription pages mitzvah until very bandwidth, the caller can not be said about downloading files. If the answer to allow people to download files rock and roll, PDF files, flash files or video files, you can eat bandwidth in a hurry, even with a relatively small number of people who visit your site. If your site offers an Adobe. PDF file is 1 megabyte in size, with one gigabyte of bandwidth, you will be able to serve up to a thousand downloads. This does not, including the HTML code needed to get people to download the pdf first.

Video files eat similar expenses due space. A succession of video is the second different megabyte of video. For half goes to show, your video could be juicy ranking due to two hundred megabytes in size! At this size, one gigabyte would be indivisible allow you to offer five downloads to your visitors. What you are doing with your website most definitely will affect the amount of bandwidth per month you expect to need.

Overselling bandwidth is inextricably linked with the sweat Net Hosting

Because using fresh clan own a good portion of their allocated bandwidth per month, including hosting providers clearing prices of their life plans that people use only a very fraction of the resources at their disposal . In fact, most businesses, if you use the maximum bandwidth available to you each month, you will most likely be closed. If you go with a shared hosting account, your website can be hosted with hundreds or thousands of other websites. If your website starts to use a significant portion of server resources, you can find them pulling the plug on your website. If you know your site will require significant resources, you should probably consider yourself a dedicated server or at least look for assurances in writing that your web hosting provider will honor your bandwidth needs .

Know what you are relegated to seal stunt allow you to differentiate how you exceptional greed

By nerd you with perfect vividness your hosting account, you can have a rightful deduction divine how powerfully you need some bandwidth. If you take to be that you agree to render service to a lot of multimedia, including video, music and large amounts of flash powered pages, you may need to consider going with a dedicated server. If your site is in its infancy and you have little money and no idea how much bandwidth you will need, choose a company that gives you more than you think you'll need at a reasonable price. Make sure you also know how much they will charge you for any bandwidth you use above and beyond what comes in your hosting package. If it is one dollar per megabyte and you've already exceeded the limit of twenty gigabytes of bandwidth, the changes are, you will get a high price at the end of the month. When you are shopping and looking at the bandwidth, the cost of maintaining surplus in mind and so you will do well.

This story was written by Joe Duchesne, Senior http:www.yowling.com, interlacing hosting house seeking to enter this child's play barn and advance your Web site. Copyright 2004 meows. Husky Reprint freely as you hugged to my website from this resource box.

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Difference between bandwidth and data transfer

Difference between bandwidth and data transfer
by: Yousaf Fayyaz

Difference between bandwidth and data transfer

Most web hosting companies talk about bandwidth and DataTransfer same as another but the truth is known, they aredifferent although very closely related.

Bandwidth is the amount of data can be transferredat time in other words it speed internet connection yourweb host server is connected to the Internet.

Data transfer is the amount of data beingtransferred in a period of months, as they say most companies are monthlyrates months so I used to help you better understand.

For example if the bandwidth were a bridge, the largest thebridge is the more vehicles can pass through it to Sametime. While data transfer is the number of vehicles allowed onthe bridge in say a month. In essence, data transfer is the ration of bandwidth.

Question arises of how it affects your site? Let meexplain this in a simple way;

The less bandwidth you have, the slower your site takes loadregardless the connection type of visitor. This meansthat your host has a slow line that is connected to theinternet. If you have more visitors, some of them have towait turn.

The transfer of data you have is monthly attributed by most hosting companies, if you bought a bandwidth quota say1GBmonth and you have a good traffic coming to your site thanyou'll find your site unavailable because you 'rereached the maximum allowed until a new month rolls or youupgrade your account.

Always consider this issue before choosing a hosting andpurchase a reliable hosting company as Netfirms, iPowerWeb and many others, their servers are connected to the internet via premium internetlines provide lightning-fast access to your website andvisitors do not have to wait for the page to load.

I wish you good luck for your onlinebusiness success.

Sincerely,

Yousaf Fayyaz

http:www.hostfinders.org

http:www.pakimp3.org

About the author

I'm running a few sites and love to write: http:www.getcashforfree.com http:www.pakimp3.orghttp:www.hostfinders.org

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10 good reasons to install an Anti-Spyware

While the World Wide Web is a blessing ways it presents dangers in the form of spyware, adware, Trojans and so on. While adware is usually not dangerous spyware can track your movements and your privacy is at stake Thieves can use the Internet to steal bank details and credit card or files as your computer system. Once spyware has entered your system, it is time to remove it. Thus, it is important to adopt systems that protect your computer at any time as an anti-virus or anti-spyware systems. The reason you need to install anti-spyware systems are many but the most important are: 1.A serious security breach can mean the loss of business failure or even. Information on the computer system that contains financial information to customers may endanger not only you but also your customers.
2.Cyber flight using systems spyware can destroy your customer base or business credibility and sales.
3.When a company depends downtime online traffic due to infection by viruses or efforts to remove spyware can be a huge return.
business plans and research 4.Important valuable marketing data and destroyed by spyware can be devastating. Theft of computer files is like stealing the intellectual property of a person or company.
5.The existence of wireless connectivity can compromise otherwise secure your networks. Identity theft can give free access to your criminal network of clients, as well as sales and financial data.
6.Spyware attacks can destroy your goals and your plans and put your family in danger. Personal information stolen from a computer can be used for illegal or criminal activities outside of the indiscriminate use of bank accounts and credit cards.
7.Spyware can track your online activities, which can be sold to your competitors resulting in loss of revenue and customer base.
8.Spyware systems can help competitors learn from your discount schemes or special offers long before you're ready to launch a new campaign. This means that you expose your online business strategy and provide other ideas that have led to increased profitability.
9.If you're on track to break the search for a kind of your work could be stolen or corrupted data systems by spyware. That means years of research may be vulnerable and your position in the scientific community could be compromised.
10.Spyware can expose your personal finances and investments for the thieves and you could lose your savings, because you have failed to protect your system against cyber thieves.
The list of hazards due to spyware is endless and expert advice as a personal computer or business should be like an impregnable fortress. You should be able to enjoy the pleasures and convenience of World Wide Web without losing your sanity and to submit to cyber thieves.
Arthur Raise is a writer for http:www.1855antispyware.com the first anti-spyware website without antispyware, super anti-spyware, anti-spyware software from Microsoft, reviews antispyware, anti spy software giant, download free antispyware software and more.

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Amazing Secrets Of A Free Traffic Generation MASTER

by: Willie Crawford

Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford Without traffic to your website, you're not going to make any money in your online business (unless you're able to tap into someone else's traffic). For many websites... especially new sites, one of the fastest, surest ways to drive traffic to the site is pay per click search engines. The RISK in using pay per clicks is that you don't know how well that traffic is going to convert before you've paid for it. You can adjust your webpages and your pay per click listing fairly quickly, but today I want to share with you two of my MAJOR free traffic generation methods. The most powerful weapon I've used in my marketing arsenal lately is actually... blogging. A blog is simply an on-line diary or weblog. Since they are usually updated frequently, the search engines love them and visit them often. The way that I use my blogs is that when I make a post, I include a link to a site or webpage that I want spidered by the search engines. Google actually visits my blogs daily, and takes snapshots of everything there, and follows links from the pages, and takes snapshots of those pages! So, I make minor changes to pages that I want to get ranked higher, and then I "help" Google to find those updated pages. It's a simple, ethical, and very powerful method. I'm fairly new at blogging, but I'm quickly getting the hang of it. Most of what I know about blogging I learned from a course by my friend Paul Short. The course is called RSS Exposed. I recommend you get a copy of Paul's course today and set aside 2 hours to digest it. Get it at: http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=109478 Paul is like me... he's very busy, and doesn't have time for fluff. So his course is under 100 pages, and it's all "stuff" that you can read and then immediately implement. Does this stuff work thought. My friend Stephen Pierce taught me that NOTHING is more powerful than concrete PROOF. So let's look at how I rank for a few keywords that I'm focusing on right now. I'll show you with a few of the more than 100 niches that I have top 10.... often top 3 rankings for. I know that showing you these examples may attract the attention of potential and existing competitors, so I won't show you the most lucrative ones :-) Readers who know me, know that my real online success started with a simple soul food or southern cookbook! That one cookbook still generates a very nice six-figure income! This season of the year, I know that people are on-line searching for holiday recipes and also gift-giving ideas. My logs show me how my market finds me... keywords and sources. They show that for the cookbook, most find my site through Google, with MSN being a distant second. Here's how I ranked for a few cooking related terms (as of November 21st, 2004): Soul Food Recipes - #2 out of 1,220,000 Soul Food - #3 out of 8,840,000 Soul Food Cookbook - #2 out of 273,000 Deep Fried Turkey Recipe - #3 out of 257,000 Deep Fried Turkey Recipes - #4 out of 302,000 Sweet Potato Pie - #2 out of 614,000 Sweet Potato Pie Recipe #2 out of 394,000 Fried Chicken Recipe - #2 out of 861,000 Fried Chicken Recipes - #2 out of 1,160,000 Southern Fried Chicken - #2 out of 436,000 Deep Fried Turkey - #14 out of 330,000 Pound Cake Recipe - #2 out of 547,000 Macaroni And Cheese Recipe - #1 out of 207,000 Collard Green Recipe - #4 out of 21,200 Southern Recipes - # 15 out of 4,970,000 ... I guess I need to work on that last listing :-) One of my other markets is "Internet Marketing," and those looking to start or improve upon an online or home-based business. How do I rank there? Here are a few of the thousands of terms that bring me in free search engine traffic (again based upon my website logs): Internet Marketing 101 - # 1 out of 5,550,000 Internet Marketing Course - #2 out of 10,600,000 Free Internet Marketing Course - #2 out of 11,800,000 Free Internet Marketing Lessons - #2 out of 2,810,000 Homebased Business - #9 out of 1,930,000 Homebased Business Course - #1 out of 522,000 Free Homebased Business Course - #1 out of 483,000 For those of you without your own product, let's see how I do with products I have reprint rights to. One is a web copywriting course by Bob Serling called Power Copywriting For The Internet. When someone is searching for that course they search on very specific terms... but... since their search is so specific, a higher percentage of them will buy when they get to my website. This is a more niche market, but some of my rankings are: Internet Copywriter + Bob Serling - #1 out of 985 Web Copywriting + Bob Serling - # 7 out of 918 Web Copywriting Course + Bob Serling - #5 out of 16,400 Power Copywriting For The Internet - #2 out of 128,000 Another product that I have reprint rights to is an excellent course on how to increase your website, and advertising, conversion rates. It's called, "Small Changes - Big Profits." Here's my ranking on keywords customers have recently used to find (and buy) this product: Increase Website Conversion - #6 out of 2,480,000 How to Increase Website Conversion - # 6 our of 2,490,000 Note that when you enter that last phrases, Google tells you that "how to" is a very common phrase and therefore not included in the search. However, notice that Google found an additional 10,000 pages when I gave it that expression. Ok, so I'm confused too :-) My second most powerful weapon right now is that I write lots of ezine articles... like this one. Since 1998, I would estimate that I've written over 300. Those articles are a very powerful way of getting one-way links to my site. Those articles are a powerful way for people with specific problems or interest to find my sites. Here's a simple example of how powerful articles can be. I know for a fact that the majority of people in network marketing aren't doing that great. I also know why. The proof that I know what they are doing wrong, and how to correct it, is provided by the fact that I was recently the #2 producing representative in a major network marketing company for 2 consecutive months. The only reason I wasn't #2 longer is that I've only been with the company a little over 4 month, and that in my fourth month, I was the #1 top producing rep in the entire company! Recognizing what many network marketers are doing wrong... especially those that market over the internet, I wrote an article on the topic. This article targeted those who wanted to know why their network marketing is failing. So if you go to Google and enter... "Network Marketing Failing" without the quotation marks, you'll see that the returns for webpages featuring my article take up the entire first page. If a person were to type in the statement "My Network Marketing Is Failing" my page ranks #1 out of 312,000. Do people search on these terms? Not as many as search on more competitive terms, but why not go after easier terms... why not go after "the low-hanging fruit." People do visit my sites after reading the hundreds of articles that I've written, and they do make purchases and join my network marketing team. That's proof that writing and properly using articles is a very powerful traffic generation technique. I have lots of resources on how to properly do this inside my private membership site. If you're not a member, you should join today. Inside the site you'll find lots more solid, usable information like you just gotten in this article. I've just shared with you two of my most powerful free traffic generation methods. I actually know HUNDREDS but only use a handful. I believe that it's better to get really good at using a few rather than tinkering with (but never mastering) many. You need to do your research and find the techniques that work best for you. If you'd like a really comprehensive course on website traffic and sales generation methods, I recommend John Reese's Traffic Secrets Course. Check out John's course to learn a ton of ways to outflank your competition at: http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=110203 It's 14 DVD's, so realize that it will throw a LOT of information at you. Make sure that you pick just a few techniques he covers, and then put them into immediate action rather than letting the sheer volume of information overwhelm you. As I've demonstrated, being a master at generating free, responsive traffic doesn't have to be complicated or even difficult :-) About the author: Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at: http://ProfitMagician.com

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All Hits Are Not Created Equal

by: Jim Edwards

After all the debate over website design, shopping carts and credit card processors, every website owner eventually comes to the startling realization that they need one more thing to survive - website traffic! Without website traffic it's the same as building an expensive billboard and, instead of placing it alongside a busy highway, you hide it in your basement where nobody can see it. Upon realizing they need traffic, most website owners run out and start blowing chunks of money and time trying to get "hits" to their sites, but they fail to realize that all "hits" are not created equal. In their quest to get eyeballs to their websites, most online operators don't realize there's a big difference between driving "general" traffic to your website and driving "targeted" traffic. Just getting any traffic is the same technique TV advertisers use. They flash ads on the screen in front of people who can't afford or don't need the advertised product. Since general advertising can't hit specific targets, they hit everyone and hope that someone in their target audience is actually watching at that moment. Spam, banner ads, "safe-lists" and similar traffic techniques fall into this "general" category. "Targeted" traffic is made up of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say or sell online. These people either share the same interests or have an immediate need or problem they are trying to solve. "Targeted" traffic is best because the people hitting your website have a much higher likelihood of actually making a purchase. Targeted traffic comes from people following recommended links on other sites, typing in relevant keywords into the search engines, or even reading articles you've written on a particular subject and then clicking over to your site for more information. If you don't already know where to find the best sources of targeted traffic for your website, you will need to experiment with lots of different sources to find the ones that bring visitors who give you the most "bang for your buck." The fastest way to determine which avenues provide the most targeted traffic is by using an "ad tracker". An "ad tracker" is a simple program, residing on your web server, that tracks how many visitors your site gets from a particular source and how many of them purchased. Though it sounds simple, most businesses don't do this! Most businesses can't tell you their visitor to buyer conversion percentage and, therefore, don't know exactly how much they can invest in traffic generation and remain profitable. Whether you pay for your website traffic with cash (pay-per-click search engines, ezine ads), or you pay for it with the sweat of your brow (article distribution, free search engines), you must identify your best and most profitable sources of targeted traffic that convert into buyers, subscribers, or leads. Failure to identify and track where your buyers come from and then calculate how much they really cost you ultimately translates into failure for your online business. About the author: Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links... Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? "Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

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Aim At The Bullseye And Your Online Home Business Will Prosper

by: Kirk Bannerman

By Kirk Bannerman Traffic is one thing, but targeted traffic is everything. You have no doubt seen dozens of offers similar to "10,000 hits per hour driven to your website!". This type of website traffic is completely untargeted and will undoubtedly result in a very low conversion ratio. It's basically "throw it up against the wall and hope something sticks". The big incoming numbers give the illusion of progress, but you will achieve better results with a lower volume of highly targeted traffic. I speak from experience because in the early days of developing my home business, I went for the big numbers instead of focusing on targeting prospects. It took me a while to appreciate the importance of targeting (quality) instead of just going for the big numbers, but it was a lesson well learned. Exchanging links has been an important part of generating website traffic for quite some time, but the vast majority of people looking to trade links don't understand that just wildly swapping links with any willing webmaster is not the way to go. For the last few years, most webmasters have been in a "pleasing Google" mode since Google had such a dominant position. Now that challengers are emerging, most notably Yahoo, MSN, and Ask Jeeves, the search engine ranking landscape is becoming much more complicated than just marching to the tune Google played. Many website owners seem to be of the opinion that the sole purpose of exchanging links is to try to improve the search engine ranking position of their website. While it is true that links pointing to your website can help your search engine ranking, the reason for obtaining inbound links goes far deeper than that. In my opinion, the targeted traffic that relevant links pointing to your site will bring can be as important as the traffic that comes to your website from people using search engines. This is where linking philosophy comes in. If you limit yourself to exchanging links only with websites that have a theme highly relevant to your own, the traffic you receive from those links will be far more targeted (valuable) than traffic you might receive from links with websites that have nothing to do with your theme. Not only do highly relevant links bring you more highly targeted traffic, but they also play a "customer satisfaction" role for visitors to your website who arrived there as a result of a search engine query. If someone arrives at your website after performing a search for, lets say "work at home" and then finds your website full of links to a bunch of off topic sites (Viagra, online casinos, hotel reservations, sports betting, etc, etc) the impression is often not favorable and may actually drive your visitor away before they consider whatever it is that your website itself is offering. Keep your eye on the bullseye and develop highly targeted traffic by having good content on your website and exchanging links with highly relevant sites that also offer good content. Remember, traffic is one thing, but targeted traffic is everything. About the author: Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. Visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.

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7 Great Email Habits for the Beginning Internet Entrepreneur

by: Michael Turner

If you are just starting out as an Internet entrepreneur then you have a lot to learn about doing business online. One such thing you need to concentrate on is your e-mailing habits. E-mail is your way of communicating with people and potential customers, so developing good e-mail habits early on is very important.

Habit #1 Respond Quickly
Always respond as quickly as possible to an e-mail. Don’t respond so quickly that you do not answer the questions or write properly, but respond as fast as you possibly can. One to two days maximum.

Habit #2 Grammar and Spelling
As a beginning Internet entrepreneur you cannot risk losing customers because you can’t write properly or spell. Fortunately, spellchecker and grammar check will help you with this. Be sure to use it with every e-mail.

Habit #3 Appropriate Subject and Format
Make sure the subject heading is filled in and gives the reader some clue as to the content of the e-mail. Then, make sure the format of the e-mail is similar to that of a real business letter. Lastly, don’t forget to keep it short and sweet. When you write a long drawn out e-mail you will lose people’s attention.

Habit #4 Address Recipient
Always address the recipient of the e-mail. You don’t have to start out with Dear Recipient, but their name should definitely be addressed. This gives a more professional look to your e-mail, which is just what you are trying to accomplish as a new Internet entrepreneur.

Habit #5 Provide Contact Information
Always provide your contact information in your e-mail following your signature. This way individuals will be able to visit your website, call you, fax or e-mail you without having to ask you for this information or do any extra research. Make it easy.

Habit #6 Cases
Don’t use all upper case or all lower case. Type correctly, just like you would write. You would never send a business letter in all caps or all lowercase, so don’t send e-mails this way either. Some people will interpret this as either screaming or whispering, respectively, and some might think it is just unprofessional. Avoid this and type correctly.

Habit #7 Previous Messages
When you respond to someone and are answering their questions be sure to include the previous e-mail so they may see exactly what you are replying to. Frequently, people send e-mails and when you reply without the previous e-mail attached they have no idea what you are responding to. The best thing is to copy parts of the previous e-mail and paste it in your e-mail with your response. Or be very specific when answering questions, such as restating them, for the convenience of your reader. If not, you will waste your time and theirs and not be perceived as a professional.

About the author:
Michael Turner reveals his foolproof way to increase website traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it free right now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

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5 Free Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic

by: Suzanne Morrison

Copyright 2004 Suzanne Morrison

I don't know about you, but when I first entered the world of internet marketing I thought I could just submit my newly finished website to a few search engines, then sit back as the visitors flocked to my site.

I imagined that people would arrive on my website, as if by magic, purchase goods, and perhaps come back again for more.

A week or so later I came down to earth with a big bump.

I realised that it would take a bit of time and effort to see the results that I was dreaming about!

Since my reality check, I have learned all about the weird and wonderful ways of internet marketing.

In this article I will tell you about my top 5 free ways of increasing website traffic.

All these methods are completely free and if you spend some time on them you will find that they work consistently.

(1)Writing Articles

Writing an article on a subject related to your website and getting that article published has two major benefits:

- People who are interested in your article will read it and often click on the URL in your resource box find out more. This gets you another free targeted visitor. Targeted, because that reader wants to find out more on the subject of your article, which is hopefully related to the subject of your website.

- Every publisher of your article must also publish your "resource box". Adding a resource box with your URL to all of your articles will increase the number of links leading back to your website, which in turn helps to increase your search engine position

For a list of directories to submit your article to, see Article Submission Directories

(2)Forum Networking

There are many discussion forums on the internet, on every topic you could possibly imagine.

Most discussion boards allow posters to attach a "Signature" with their post containing additional information about themselves, such as their name, URL and sometimes even an advertisement.

By visiting a few forums regularly and participating in the discussions, asking and answering questions, you can build up trust with other forum members, whilst at the same time getting free exposure for your website.

Just try to make a useful contribution to the forum - be sure to read the forum rules and don't spam!

(3)Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal linking has two main benefits for you.

Firstly, the more links that you exchange, the more chance there is that someone will follow a link from another site and land on your website.

Secondly, your website will be perceived more importantly by search engines.

The more links you have from other sites, the greater your chance of getter ranked more highly by all the search engines.

Here are some Dos and Don'ts to help you get more out of your link exchanges.

- Do link with sites that will be of interest to your visitors.

- Don't link with pages that have unorganised link directories with hundreds of links on each page. This won't benefit you with increased traffic or search engine rankings.

- Do link with sites that have a clearly labelled "Link Directory" from their main page. You aren't likely to get much traffic from a hidden or hard to find link directory.

- Don't use link farms or FFA pages. You are unlikely to get extra traffic using these methods and the search engines may penalise you.

- Do use link directories to help you find link partners. You can find some Link Exchange Resources here

- Do stay organised. Use link exchange software, or a spreadsheet to keep track of the link exchanges you have requested and the contact details of the webmasters.


(4) Email Signatures

This is a very simple, but often forgotten way of increasing your website visitors.

Most of us are sending lots of emails a day, but many of us just sign them with just our name, or perhaps nothing at all.

Instead, why not end your emails with a short signature containing your name, a bit about your website along with the URL?

Keep the signature short (4 lines), to the point and avoid hype or SHOUTING.

You may be surprised at the extra visitors you receive through doing this. It's amazing how curiosity will lead the recipients of your email to click on your link!


(5)Using Traffic Exchanges

Finally, this is one easy way to guarantee instant hits to your website. You can build up credits for free by surfing or building up a downline to surf for you.

The downside of this method is that the visitors you receive from traffic exchanges are not as targeted as the visitors that you will receive via the other methods that I have described.

The reason for this is that people surf traffic exchanges for one reason - to earn as many credits as possible in as short a space of time as possible!

This gives you a challenge - how do you attract the attention of someone who is looking at your web page for 20 seconds or less?

Here are two tips -

- Know your market - spend some time surfing on the exchange that you are advertising on and pay attention to the types of web pages being advertised. Make sure that the pages you advertise are going to interest your target market.

- Use a short, simple attention grabbing page that can be read in a few seconds - there is no point advertising a huge page of text that takes 5 minutes to read. The chances are, your visitor will get bored and click on the "next" button without giving your page a fair chance.

Regularly invest some time in each of these 5 traffic generating methods and you will see your web statistics moving in the upwards direction before you know it.


About the author:
Suzanne Morrison is the webmaster and owner of How to Start an Internet Business To learn more about how to promote your website download your free 30 Days to Success Ebook

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4 Ways In Which You Can Achieve Critical Mass

by: Jack Humphrey

Copyright 2004 Jack Humphrey

Critical Mass Website Promotion is the elite goal rarely attained by website marketers in any industry. Reaching critical mass and getting targeted website traffic on autopilot (meaning you don't have to promote your site for 6 months and the traffic NEVER declines) is the Holy Grail of internet marketing.

When you hit critical mass in your market, things change drastically for you and your business. Your marketing efforts go down in direct proportion to your customer support and sales going up. It sounds awesome. It IS awesome. But only a tiny fraction of websites on the net every achieve critical mass. Here's a nutshell version of what it takes.

1. Work Hard

Internet marketing is no game to be manipulated by using software and quick fixes to a very large problem, which is long-term, steady traffic coming to your site.

There is no magic pill, silver bullet, or guru secret that will help you to achieve critical mass in your market. Hard work and intense study of the internet and how people surf, what they want, and how you get in front of them while they are surfing is the only answer.

The internet marketing game is for professionals and you MUST make yourself a professional marketer of your "shop" just as you would in the real world.

2. Understand Your Market

Understanding exactly who you are selling your products or services to is the crucial first step in achieving critical mass.

The worst thing you could ever do is put the hard work in and achieve critical mass in the wrong market for your products and services!

Know your market. Know your best, ideal customer inside and out. Get your links in front of them, ideally, everywhere they surf for related information to your site.

3. Be Vigilant

Over the years I have watched people listen to what I have to say about website promotion and then take one of two paths:

1) They work their tails off and do what I tell them, with great results and rewards for their efforts (more sales, more traffic, more branding and recognition).

2) They buy my book, take a half-hearted shot at the easiest things in the book, get bored, tired, or impatient, and then they go back to chasing down quick fixes.

I have watched people who had the answers they needed in their hands, and drop them for more glamorous-sounding, fast solutions. Which we all know don't work.

I will say this again - THERE IS NO WAY TO TO QUICKLY OR INSTANTLY ACHIEVE CRITICAL MASS IN YOUR MARKET!

You must work like anyone in business who is in it to succeed works. If you do not know everything about your business and how to market it, your competition will eat you alive because they WILL know everything, I guarantee it.

Just like in the real world, the one who works harder, smarter, and is vigilant about his or her business is going to come out on top every time.

You owe it to yourself and your family to learn your craft and do it better than most people in your market if you want to succeed.

4. Achieve Critical Mass

In order to hit critical mass, you must be everywhere, or nearly everywhere your best customers surf.

This means linking back to your site from reciprocal links, articles, press releases, joint ventures, forum participation, and good search engine positioning for your best keywords.

In order to have literally thousands of links pointing to your site in high-profitle areas where human beings actually go and read/surf, it takes pure time and effort.

You must submit your articles to the best free content directories. Over and over until you have published everywhere you can that is relevant to your market.

You must secure deals with high-profitle sites in your market to swap QUALITY links. I am talking about links that people will click on, not just links that only search engines will see.

You must be everywhere that is a good place to be on the net in your market. This takes time. This takes hard work. This is what it takes to have a viable, long term website traffic solution for your business.

Reaching critical mass, or even sitting down and deciding a plan of action to pursue critical mass in your market takes maturity and a final realization that you can have anything you want in the world if you want to work for it. The day you stop chasing quick fixes to drive spurts of unqualified, un-targeted traffic to your site is the first step in achieving your goals as a professional internet marketer.

About the author:
Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2: Evolution. He is an internet marketing consultant and copy writer for major online clients.
http://power-linking-profits.com

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3 Ways To Swarm Your Website With Highly Targeted Traffic For FREE!

by: Andy Murray

Copyright 2005 Andy Murray

Targeted website traffic is the lifeblood of any website looking to generate revenue. While FREE traffic from the search engines seems the most logical way to go, actually staying ahead of the game can be tough. Here are my top 3 ways to send your traffic counter spinning without the headaches.

1. Trading Links With Other Webmasters:

By mutually agreeing with another webmaster to trade link exposure on each others site, you're expanding your market reach significantly. Not only does this generate instant traffic from the link partner, but you'll also BOOST your Google PR and link ranking with other search engines as a bonus.

This helps you rank better in the listings, generating even more FREE traffic, without doing any complicated SEO.

There are some great tools to help you get started trading links. Some of them are even free. I don't recommend them personally because annoying banners or other types of ads compete for the same space, doesn't look very professional.

Alternatives to FREE software worth checking out are...

The ALMIGHTY Zeus - The one I use. Tough to get used to, but an excellent piece of kit. The darn thing learns and just keeps getting smarter the more you use it. (And a FREE trial so you can become a master before you buy)
http://www.cyber-robotics.com

Reciprocal Link Manager - Not as sophisticated as Zeus but much easier to learn if you're pressed for time.
http://reciprocal-manager.com/

Axandra's Arelis - Lots of great reviews for this one and more in the Zeus mould.
http://www.axandra-link-popularity-tool.com/index.htm


2. Writing Articles to Publish Online:

This technique is a very close second to my favourite one which I'll share in just a moment. The amount of exposure you can get from writing a simple article is astounding.

After you've written it up, you submit to the major article directories, then just sit back and watch the traffic stream in.

As an added bonus you start to gain more respect within your industry. Articles have this uncanny knack to create an aura of expertise around the writer.

You also benefit yet again with search engine ranking, as other webmasters with mailing lists publish your article on their site. Creating yet another link back to you.

Articles are a VERY effective pre-selling technique too.

How much more targeted would a prospect be arriving at your website after reading one of your articles in an email or on another site?

Not only did you get the recommendation from the publisher, but if they enjoy reading your article and get some value from it, you've already broken down one of the main barriers of selling...

TRUST!

Here are some cool resources to get stuck into:

Editorial guidelines:
http://ezinearticles.com/editorial-guidelines.html

Some great "How To" advice:
http://www.promotewitharticles.com/howto.html

And a nice BIG list of directories and announcement lists:
http://www.marketingchick.com/howto/article-marketing.shtml


3. Viral Marketing:

Viral Marketing is defined as “Any advertising that propagates itself the way viruses do”; E.g. When Hotmail users send e-mails, they “infect” the recipients with the tagline at the bottom of their messages.

If you UNLEASH a 'Viral Marketing' campaign, it will just keep on multiplying, spreading your message around the web like wildfire. I absolutely LOVE this method of sending quality traffic to my website for FREE.

Generating free traffic with 'Viral Marketing' is easily the most rewarding use of your time. Taking good steps to craft the right offer and layout of your 'Viral Marketing' message is essential. But get it right, and not only will a truck-load of qualified visitors come to your website, but an air of respect and expertise is generated around you and your business.


About the author:
Andy Murray is a marketer and publisher writing informative reports to help grow your online business. Get his latest offering "Unleash Your Viral Marketing Potential" for FREE by simply following this link: http://www.zerohourmarketing.com/Viral-Marketing-Report.htm

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25 Things Mapping Software Can Do For You

by: Joe Miller

1. With mapping software you can create a report that tracks your retirement plan for you.

2. Use mapping software to create an Executive Dashboard, which tracks the bottom line.

3. Use mapping software to find the snowfall reports for your favorite ski resorts in Idaho.

4. You can even use mapping software to explore an interactive map of India for school reports, business, or travel.

5. Track your store incoming and outgoing inventory, including shipping information and warehouse location, mapping software.

6. You can conveniently book your own airline seat, so you don’t need to worry if you are a “window person” as opposed to an “aisle person.”

7. Know the who, what, when, where, and how of your department by using mapping data to interactively manage your department.

8. Receive production information in real-time reports.

9. Look up CIA World Facts online to see how you can look up virtually everything you wanted to know about geographical and population statistics.

10. Get your daily stock quotes, or track their changes over time.

11. Create interactive marketing reports that can be “drilled down” from general to specific trends and statistics.

12. Track and manage personal, department, and company budgets.

13. You can track sales and revenue trends for multiple stores on a national or even global scale.

14. Create managerial and employee training using mapping software. Learn processes and procedures in an interactive setting.

15. Create interactive documents. This is especially helpful in examining large documents with various notes and headings. The U. S. Constitution is available in an interactive online format with mapping software.

16. If you are interested in researching national cancer rates, they are readily available in an interactive format with mapping software.

17. Land developers can find latitudes and longitudes, as well as other helpful geographical information on interactive maps.

18. Using mapping software, customer trends can be tracked, even down to the zip code.

19. You can track your monthly expenses, such as phone bills.

20. Track store receipts for company or personal records using mapping software.

21. Access executive dashboards, as well as other interactive maps on a PDA or other wireless devices.

22. Are you traveling to another country? You can look up cultures, government information, climate information, and anything else you need to be prepared.

23. Convert all HTML documents to PDF for easy printing and paper records.

24. You can track inflation and deflation, as well as other economic variables.

25. Anything Else You Dream Up

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9 Steps to Protect your MS Windows System from Viruses

by: Evgeny Kovalenko

Nowadays as the Internet and other networks are greatly developed computer viruses are distributed rapidly and intensively. Everyday several new viruses capable to damage considerably your computer system arise. Anti-virus specialists work hardly to make updates their software against new viruses as soon as possible. The viruses can get inside computer in different ways. That is why there is no simple method to protect system. Only series of measures can give you reliable protection from the infection. Below are 9 steps to protect MS Windows based PC system from viruses.

1. Make regular backups.
It should be said that there is no absolutely safe way of protection. Virus creators regularly find holes in new computer products to use them for infection of computer systems. Some dangerous viruses can considerably damage data files or even erase entire file system. Make regular backups of your data files to separate file storage device. It can be separate hard drive, flash card, compact disc or another file storage device which you choose. To ease the procedure you can use some automatic backup software. And be ready if the system will die because of virus infection.

2. Be ready to reinstall your system if it dies because of viruses.
Get distributives of your operation system and distributives of software which you use and keep them together, for instance, on a set of CDs not far away from you. In this case if virus infection will cause unrecoverable system failure you can rapidly reinstall your working medium.

3. Protect your network connection with Firewall.
Firewall is a software which blocks suspicious potentially dangerous connections to preventing viruses from network to penetrate into your system. Windows XP system has quit simple but reliable built-in firewall. You can enable it as follows. 1) in Control Panel, double-click Networking and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections. 2) Right-click the connection on which you would like to enable firewall, and then click Properties. 3) On the Advanced tab, check the option to Protect my computer and network.

If you need more flexible control of connections with network you can get and install more advanced firewall software like Norton Personal Firewall or Outpost Firewall. If you use this software you have ability to permit or to block particular connections and to monitor network activity.

4. Use antivirus software.
Install antivirus software which will scan your system searching and erasing viruses on a regular basis. Leaders in antivirus software products for Windows systems are Norton Antivirus, McAfee, Kaspersky Anti-Virus and PC-cilin.

5. Regularly update operating system.
Windows XP has built-in automatic update service. It regularly contacts Microsoft server to find updates and notifies you if updates are ready to be installed. Updates are important because hackers regularly find holes in operating system which are often used by virus creators.

6. Don't install and don't run suspicious software.
Check new programs which you are going to install with anti-virus software. Don't download software from suspicious websites. To download software always seek website of software creator or official distributor. Do not open applications received by email from unknown persons.

7. Limit access to your computer.
Protect enter to system with password.

8. If you use Internet Explorer, consider moving to another browser.
As IE is the most distributed browser today virus creators actively use defects in its security system to infect computers. Infection may arise if you will visit webpage which contains invisible harmful code. You are more safe if you use less known browser only because virus creators do not pay much attention to it. Major IE competitors Firefox and Opera browsers provide now the same comfortable interface and range of services for working on the Web.

9. Use spam protection.
Viruses are often distributed via email. Switch on spam filters in your email box to block spam receiving. If you need assistance with using of the filters you can ask your email service provider.


About the author:
Evgeny Kovalenko is the Editor of FSSD computer software directory with free submission service for software developers and distributors.

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7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blog

by: Michael Turner

Choosing the right blog software for your new blog requires that you ask yourself some questions and make a list of all of the features and tools you need as well as your budget. Once you have this information written down you will be prepared to start shopping for blog software. However, keep in mind the following seven tips for choosing the best software for you.

Tip #1 Ping Updates
These allow you to update your blog and are very important in blog software. Make sure the blog software you are interested in provides automatic ping updates.

Tip #2 Comments
Whatever blog software you choose, you'll want to make sure that it has an area for comments from visitors. This will help you understand what is successful in your blog and what is not, as well as guide you in future blogs. This is a really great tool and should be part of your blog software.

Tip #3 Trackback
If you are discussing your blog on another blog, or simply adding information to another blog, trackback will allow you to update this information. This is a little confusing, but trackback allows you to talk on your blog about information on another blog and ping the writer of the other blog to let them know what is going on. Trackback is certainly a feature you want in your blog software.

Tip #4 Pingback
Pingback is similar to trackback, but it just sends a URL to the other blog to let them know you are talking about their blog on your blog. This is not used as much as trackback, but you will want a blog software that has at least one of these two functions.

Tip #5 Web-based
The point of a blog is you can post information instantly online, so you want your blog software to be similar to a word processor and web based without a shadow of a doubt.

Tip #6 Archiving
You want a blog software that supports archiving, and most of them do. The reason for this is you will want to save all of your past blogs by the date they were published and archiving allows you to do that.

Tip #7 Categorize
Another great tool you will want in your blog software is the ability to categorize. You want to keep your blogs organized and in categories, if you have them, so this option is really a great one for most bloggers.

There are lots of types of blog software available. You just need to do the research and compare what you find with what you need and then... start blogging!

About the author:
Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

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5 Minute Guide to Video Editing for Beginners

Getting started with video editing is very simple you only need a few items and you can be producing quality movies at home that you will be able to enjoy for many years to come. Maybe even produce a hit Hollywood movie.

The basic items you need are a video capture card, the software to edit, your computer, storage space on your computer and a camcorder, VCR, or you can display your movie on your computer screen.

The process is effortless, all you do is capture the video to you computer using a capture card, then edit your video with video editing software and then download the video that you edited to either tape or burn it to a VCD, CD, or DVD.

Let’s look at your computer first. You will need a minimum of a Pentium II 300 or faster, a minimum of 256 Megs of RAM, but you will get better performance with 512 Megs. You will also desire to have a 30GB drive that is split into 2 separate partitions. This means that you will have a C: and a D:. The C: should be given 10GB and will have all of your software stored there and the D: will be where your audio, video and editing projects are stored. Your graphics card should be a 32 Meg AGP. You can have an 8 or 16 Meg but the quality will not be as good.

Storage is probably the most confusing thing about video editing. Video makers have many choices for storing their digital video files and this is why it can be so confusing.

If you desire creating your own DVD’s then you are going to need lot of storage. The most you can get out of a single sided 4.7 GB DVD is around 2 hours of video. If you are using DV footage you are going to need 13GB per hour of video, this means you will need 26GB of storage and remember you always have extra footage that you need to factor that in as well so you are now up to 39GB of storage space needed. If you are adding other options such as graphics, MPEG2 footage for the DVD and the folder to hold it all then you are now up to 50GB. So, for your 2 hour movie you will need 50GB of space at least.

So, when you begin be sure that you have enough storage on your computer for the type of video that you wish to store.

On to the video capture card and the video editing software. When you first visit the electronics store you will find many manufacturers that create video capture cards. The most popular include
Some of the reputable video capture card manufacturers are: Pinnacle, Matrox, Dazzle, ADS, Canopus, and Digital Origin.

What video capture cards do to put it in simple terms is that these cards use hardware or software compression to digitize your video onto the hard drive on your computer. This way you can edit your video and play it back onto tape or display your movie on your computer screen.

Some times, you can purchase the video capture cards along with the video editing software that you choose. Some of the most popular video capture cards that are packaged with video software include the Pinnacle Pro One which comes with the Adobe Premiere 6 full version, TitleDeko RT, DV Tools 2.0, Hollywood FX, and Impressions DVD. The Dazzle DV NOW AV can be purchased along with the Premiere 6 full version and the DVDit LE.

Having music along with your video can also be accomplished with a MP3 Converter that will allow you to convert your MP3 music into a wav file or the format in which you need for your video. You may also wish to purchase a MP3 Encoder which will allow you to Wav or other formats into a MP3. A CD ripper is another item that you may wish to purchase that will help with converting your CD’s to MP3, WAV, WMA type files.

One other software program that will make you life easier when you begin video editing is a MPEG Encoder which is a very easy to use program that will make converting several formats easy than you can imagine. Many of these MPEG converters will aid in converting DVD, VCD, AVI, MPEG, GIF, Flash, WMV, WMA, WAV, MP3, MP4, M4A, OGG, AAC, 3GP and even more/

So, now all you need to do is to find the best video editing software that you feel comfortable with and off you go. You can find several different video editing software companies that offer their software on a trial basis, this will let you try out the software so you can see if it is the perfect software for you. But, remember with the trial version you will be receiving the video capture card. You will have to purchase it separately.


About the author:
Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. She's been experimenting Audio & Video Editing with MP3 Converter http://www.blazemp.comand MPEG Encoder http://www.blazemp.com/mpeg_encoder_software.htmon many ecommerce websites.

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3 Ways to Publish RSS

As RSS news syndication gains popularity among users, new ways for publishing RSS are emerging. In this article, I examine the three most popular methods, and help you decide which one works best for you.

1. Blogs
Weblogs, or blogs, as they are commonly called, are the primary reason RSS gained popularity. In fact, one of the earliest uses for RSS was for bloggers to monitor other blogs for updates.

Most blogging systems will produce RSS newsfeeds automatically. All you need to do is enter content, and the blogging software will build a newsfeed based on the information you enter. No extra work is needed. Just add content to your blog, and you have a newsfeed.

But there is one major disadvantage to using a blog for publishing RSS: you do not have complete control of the RSS output. Most blogging software will simply take an excerpt of your blog entry (eg, the first 15 words), and use that to create your RSS item. As you can imagine, this can lead to problems. The first 15 words of a blog entry don’t always capture the essence of that article.

2. RSS Publishing Software
Because of the inadequacy of blogs as a reliable and accurate RSS tool, new stand-alone software was developed. This software has one purpose: to provide the user with an easy way to create and publish RSS newsfeeds from their desktops. No longer do you have to write a long article in your blog to produce RSS feeds. All you have to do is enter a title for your news item, and (optionally) a couple sentences to describe that headline – and your feed is better than the blog-produced feed.

Examples of RSS publishing software for Windows include FeedforAll (http://www.feedforall.com) and Newzalert Composer (http://www.castlesoftware.biz/NewzAlertComposer.htm). Mac users have their own tool in Orangebox for Macintosh (http://www.globalsyndication.com/orangebox-for-macintosh).

3. Online RSS Publishing Systems
While subscribers to feeds generated by RSS software enjoyed the simplicity and clarity of the new feeds, some publishers began to run into problems that came with the publishing software. They missed the convenience of blogging’s online publishing that allowed them to add news -- regardless of whether they were at their home computer.

News publishers wanted the accessibility of online blogging with the accuracy of RSS publishing software. The new demand lead to the emergence of online RSS publishing systems such as FeedServer RSS Hosting (http://www.globalsyndication.com/rss-hosting). This new format of RSS publishing allows webmasters to login to an online control panel and publish their news – without having to worry about restrictive software licenses. Since most online RSS publishing systems run on a subscription basis, you can make use of the free trial or subscribe for one month and evaluate if the service meets your needs.

So which system should you use to publish RSS? It depends on your needs. If most of your readers manually visit your site to get new information, a blogging system may be sufficient. However, if you plan to take advantage of the full capabilities of RSS news syndication, you would do well to use a stand-alone RSS publishing system. RSS publishing software will satisfy your needs if you plan to use one computer only. But if you’re looking for flexibility and a lower startup costs, look into the new online RSS publishing systems.

About the author:
Josiah Mackenzie is an entrepreneur and small business owner. His website (http://www.josiahmackenzie.com) contains fresh tips and advice for business and internet marketing.

Josiah also manages marketing for Global Syndication (http://www.globalsyndication.com), an RSS solutions company.

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