skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Your search for long-lost friends and family members on the Internet can be as easy as your friend or family member wants it to be for you. The more effort they put into remaining invisible, the harder and longer it will take you to find them. The more visible or transparent he or she is on the Internet, the easier it will be to find him or her.
Simple Googling will go the trick
If your friend or family member has a website or uses the Internet to write blog entries or has an online photo album, you can usually find them using conventional search engines – for example, www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.aol.com, www.dogpile.com, etc. As long as they have their names on their websites, blogs or photo albums, the search engines will pick them up and produce the list of links for you to browse through.
However, you can only use this method to find long-lost friends and family members if they have an online presence. If they don’t, you’re probably not going to find them using search engines. Without websites, information or blogs, your friend or family member is as invisible to the search engine as they are to you.
Finding people through their business
If you know the name of the company that your family or friend works in, what you can do is to trace the company’s information or website. And once you find the telephone number or email of the company, give them a ring or send them an email. Usually the HR department may be able to lend you a helping hand. However, it all depends on the level of security that the company adopts. If they prefer to keep the identity and information of their staff private and confidential, there really is nothing else you can do except to personally visit the company’s office.
Tracing by location through directories
One of the most popular and convenient ways of finding family and friends online is by using online directories and tracing the telephone numbers or addresses of the family or friend.
Searching for family or friend through their email address
What happens if the family or friend is no longer using his or her email address and you don’t have the address? What you can do is to make a search using the email address and type it into searches like www.infospaceinc.com. InfoSpace lets you find family and friends by narrowing the search down by specifying the location and telephone number of that person too.
Finding family and friends by digging underground
If your friend or family member wants to stay hidden, there’s still one last thing you can do before you give up. Try using an online detective to find your family and friend! It sounds sneaky and illegal, but it’s actually a legitimate way of finding friends and family. What these online detectives will do is to search through the web, public records, property registration records, arrest records, bankruptcy files, birth registration, childcare and nanny screening records, judgments, court files, unlisted phone numbers and address, and lots more!
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.biz-source.net on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
When we think of adware, what comes to mind are those annoying and pesky ads that pop up out of nowhere whenever we are surfing the net. Anybody who has surfed through the net has encountered those irritating pop-up adwares advertising everything from computer software down to Viagra. Adwares are some of the most derided objects in the web alongside viruses, spyware and other malicious softwares and programs. Although adwares are alleged to be the most benign form of spyware, most web users hate the blatant and bothersome way of advertising. Most are often tricked into clicking on such adwares and end up unintentionally downloading something far more serious.
What are adwares, anyway? Adware or advertising-supported software is defined as any computer program or software package in which advertising and other marketing material are included with or automatically loaded by the software. Adwares are usually played back after installation. Some malicious adwares upload information about the computer or its user's activities even without the consent of its user. Adwares most often take the form of banner ads that appear on pop up windows or anywhere on the computer screen.
Software applications display these advertising banners whenever a program is opened or through some other triggering mechanism. Most adwares are integrated into a free application. This is a way for the developers to recover the costs of creating such software. A prominent example of this is the Opera browser software, which is a free application but comes with a banner ad. The adware can only be removed once the user purchases and registers his copy of the software. It is also a revenue-generating mechanism. A company can sponsor adwares to capture more visitors and potential customers. Adware as a marketing strategy is just one of the many techniques used by websites to attract more traffic.
However, some adwares are more than just pesky and garish ads. In many cases, adwares accompany a more malicious program, which uploads information about the user collected without permission. The users surfing habits are then tracked; in some cases, the browser home page is altered or redirected to the adware company's sponsoring site. These types of adwares are dangerous since they may jeopardize the computer system's health. Aside from installing malicious software, they may also become an avenue for viruses to invade the system.
Adwares have come under fire not only because of their annoying presence in the form of pop ups and banners but also in the way they invade the privacy of the user. Trackware and Spyware are just two of the "evil" forms that adware can take. That is why most computer users make an effort to get rid of these adwares. Because of the annoying nature of pop-up adware, most browsers now employ an adware blocking system through the form of a pop-up blocker or adware blocker. Browsers such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox all use pop-up blockers, which instantly block or close any window that is triggered by adware in the sites that the user visits. These steps have significantly reduced the number of irritating adware that pop up every time a site is opened.
Most antivirus programs and utilities now feature an adware search and removal system. These programs indexes known adwares and spywares in the internet universe and searches for it in the user's computers system then subsequently quarantines or deletes the malicious files. Nevertheless, despite the numerous efforts against adwares, they continue to plague web surfers with their showy ads and banners as well as the nasty programs they introduce into the computer system. As the sage of the annoying adware continues, web surfers are also equipped with the best tools and utilities to combat them.
Get Indexed Fast
What does getting indexed mean?
The search engines keep a cache of every web page in their
index.
In English, this means: The search engines make a copy of
every web page they visit and put in their records… ummm, I
think that’s what I mean.
When you use a search engine the results list relevant
pages to your search, usually ten results per page.
Each result includes a live “link” to the page, and a
“cache” or “snap-shot” of the page, recorded the last time
the spider visited that page, at some time in the past.
If you wish to get a website indexed, first you must have a
website… preferably a real one that you own, not a “free”
website a’ la Geocities etc.
It only costs about $8 to register a domain name, and about
$5 a month for cheap hosting, while $10 a month will get
you very good quality hosting.
To get indexed fast, I recommend you start a blog on your
site. This can be with any blog software, but I think that
WordPress is the best…
If you get good quality hosting, it will include cPanel and
Fantastico scripts. In fantastico scripts are about 50
scripts you can automatically install on your server with
one click… and WordPress is one of them. The alternative
is to manually install wordpress yourself.
Once you have built the basic barebones website (Main page,
½ a dozen content pages, and a sitemap linking them
together, it’s time to get indexed in the search engines.
You can “submit” your site to the search engines if you
wish, but that is too slow.
Here’s where the blog comes into play… post articles or
messages to your blog on a daily basis, and don’t miss a
day for the first few weeks at least. The posts must be
interesting, and relevant to your site.
Configure your blog to automaticlly “ping” the blog
directories every time you publish a new post.
Here’s what happens… Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other
search engines are always looking for fresh content to
serve up to their search visitors or clients, and one place
they look for fresh content is in blogs. Search engines
absolutely love blogs, because they are dynamic — updated
on a regular basis by their owners – as apposed to normal
website pages which largely remain static – unchanged for
months on end.
If you update your blog every day by adding fresh articles
or other content, the search engines will notice, and they
will soon be visiting your blog every day like clockwork.
I include a link to my regular website pages by adding a
link to either my homepage or sitemap, in the sidebar
(menu) of my blog.
The second best thing Search Engines love after fresh
content is “links”… they will literally die for links, and
if they find a link anywhere that they’ve not seen before,
they make a record of it, then follow to to where ever it
may lead… and if the link they find is on your blog, you
better make sure it leads to the sitemap of your website.
Double check that it does, by clicking on it after you make
it.
Yahoo and MSN will list your website pages as soon as they
visit them, and will usually index them within a few days.
As soon as they are indexed, people can find them in search
results.
And that’s how easy it is to get indexed fast.
Almost everywhere you look on the Internet there is advice on what to sell off your website. One of the most common recommendations is “Information."
Yes, Information! Infoproducts: eBooks, eZines, Newsletters, etc, etc. “How to write a best selling eBook.” “Create your own Newsletter.” “Sell your own eBook off your website.” “People crave information.” Fantastic!
What no one ever explains is how you set up your Infoproduct as a download. As far as I am aware, you will probably struggle to find out how to do this anywhere on the web too.
The following information assumes you have a website up and running. If you are selling off your site you will need a “Merchant Account” which will take instantaneous payment, which of course, is necessary before your customer is allowed to download your product.
You will need to coordinate access from your website (the place where the customer decides and takes action to buy your download) to the download link you have created.
This is where your “Merchant Account” will help. For example; PayPal has excellent tools for setting up your pricing and shipping costs and creating “Buy Now” buttons, which buyers click on to take them to the Credit Card/PayPal account holders payment page.
You will be able to set up a link through PayPal’s “Merchant Tools” which brings the buyer to your download link once payment has been approved.
Creating a Download
One of the most efficient and cost effective ways to deliver your Infoproduct is by “Download.” The process is not complicated. All you are doing when you set up a download is directing the purchaser (after they have paid by electronic means) back to your web page with a download link on it.
They click this “Download Now” link and they are invited to save or open the download on their own computer. Your download product is stored in a predetermined file/folder on your own computer.
The best way to do this is to zip up the file to keep it from taking up as much room and then save the zipped file to your web server (your website on the internet).
You can use WinZip (you may already have it) to accomplish this. First you need to download (if you haven't already) a copy of the free (evaluation) version of WinZip. www.winzip.com There are other zip programs but WinZip is probably the most popular.
Before you install, the program will ask you if you want the program to start with WinZip Wizard or WinZip Classic. Choose Classic.
After the programme has been successfully installed, follow these steps:
1. Start WinZip
2. From the menu, choose "File" and then select "New Archive".
3. A window of your hard drive, showing all the contents of your computer, will appear, and you are asked to give the zip file a name. Before you give it a name make sure you pay attention to where (what folder) you are getting ready to save this file in. You'll need to locate it later. I would use “Desktop,” but it could be anywhere on your hard drive. Just remember where.
This is the zipped file you are getting ready to create will contain all the files you want people to be able to download. So it will be the file that is saved to your web server(uploaded to the internet via your site).
So; now navigate to the folder (the place on your hard drive, for example; desktop) where you want the zip file to be saved and name it whatever you want.
Lets say, for example purposes, you have written an eBook so we can call the file ebook. WinZip will attach .zip into the filename automatically, so it will be called ebook.zip Click OK.
4. Next, the window of your hard drive will appear again. At this point you want to locate the file or files you want to zip up and be placed inside the file you just named in step 3.
This is where you choose the file/s you want people to download. Let’s say you have saved your eBook on your “Desktop” (but it could be anywhere on your hard drive). Once you find it, select it and click "Add". If you have more than one file to select, hold down the control key and select all the files and then click Add.
5. You will now be taken back to WinZip’s home window and you should see the file/s you want to zip up in the window.
6. Select the file/s. If you have more than one, just hold down control and click all the files, or, go to “File” and click “Select All.”
7. Once the file/s are selected, go to "Actions" and on the drop down menu click "Make .EXE file".
8. A pop-up menu will come up thanking you and reminding you to register. Just ignore registration request and click OK (you don't have to register).
9. Another pop-up window will appear and ask; "Create a self-extracting zip file from" You will see the name of the zip file that you created in Step 3.
10. Right below that you will see a blank that says "Default 'Unzip To' Folder". This is the name of the folder that the files will automatically extract (unzip) to when people download the files from your site. If that folder does not exist on the person's PC, WinZip will create it for them. Don’t leave it blank, or it will automatically go in their TEMP folder.
It is suggested that you list something here. Try to give it a name similar to the filename so the person will recognize it when they look for the folder on their PC at some stage in the future.
In the example we use here of eBook you could call it “eBook ; followed by whatever you are writing about. ”So if your book is about growing roses, you could call it “eBook Complete Rose Grower.” Click OK.
11. Now the program will ask you if you want to test the file which has just been zipped up. Click "Yes" and WinZip will run through the unzipping process. This is the same process the user that has just downloaded your file/s will see.
12. Next the pop-up box will tell you where the file is unzipping from. This will be the same location you selected in step 3.
13. Select "Unzip" and the program will say; "1 file unzipped successfully" or if you had more than one file it will tell you how many were successfully unzipped.
On your hard drive, there should have been a folder created called "Complete Rose Grower" (or whatever name you chose in Step 10) and the files should be sitting there unzipped.
14. Now you're ready to take the zipped file and upload it to your server so people can download.
15. Go to Windows Explorer and locate the zip file that you created in step 3. So if you named it ebook, you should see a file called ebook.zip. This is the file that contains all of your files inside that people will download. If you want to test it again, just double click on the zip file and WinZip should extract the files to the folder you specified in step 10.
16. Now you need to upload this zip file to the internet. Assuming you have a website from which to sell your eBook, you need to find an FTP program (File Transfer Protocol) to do this.
There are many to choose from. Just do an Internet search for “FTP Program.” When installed the program will help you upload the file/s in effect, onto your site and therefore, the internet.
17. For the purposes of these examples let’s call your domain www.betterebooks.com (Please Note: This is not a real URL; at least it wasn’t at the time of writing!). After you've uploaded the file, you're ready to point people to the link so they can download the zip file.
18. As an example, you uploaded ebook.zip to a folder called “ebooks” and your domain name is "www.betterebooks.com" then the link you will use to point to the download will be something like;
“http://www.betterebooks.com/ebooks/ebook.zip” The WinZip program creates this link automatically.
When buyers click on this link it will immediately start the download process.
19. After they download it the unzipping program will unzip the file to the folder that you specified in step 11 on their hard drive.
So there you have it. Easy! Good Luck and great success.
Identity theft is one of the most common criminal acts in society today. Criminals will use your personal information such as banking accounts and passwords, to pretend that they are you. They may take out credit cards in your name, mortgages, or even worse. The internet has opened up a whole world of possibilities for these criminals, and the threat is very real. There are things that you can do to help prevent such a crime. It costs very little to protect your information, and it is money well spent.
The following is a list of tips to help you protect yourself from identity theft. Search around for the best price on these services, to make the most out of your money.
1. Monitor your credit report often. The U.S. government suggests that you check your credit report yearly to prevent identity theft. Every person is entitled to one free credit report a year though www.annualcreditreport.com. I would suggest checking your credit report several times a year for the highest level of protection. Look for unexplained charges or activity on your report. You can often sign up for a credit monitoring service for a few dollars a month. They will watch your credit report for you, for signs of foul play. For a good deal, look for a credit monitoring service, you should be able to get a good discount on various services online.
2. Bank with a credible bank. Stick with a financial institution that is well known. No only will they offer you the highest level of protection, but they often have the best interest rate deals around. Get your credit cards through reputable companies as well. Be weary of small companies, with little credentials.
3. Don’t give out your personal information to anyone. A good financial situation will never ask for your login information or passwords. Be weary of anyone that asks you for your mother’s maiden name. This is one of the most common items used for identity theft. Use your birthplace or pets name whenever possible. It will be harder to steal your information.
Protecting yourself online doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. By looking for deals and promotions at coupon websites, you can save a great deal on the services that you need. I would recommend using the free credit report option, coupled with a credit monitoring service for the best protection. The earlier you catch criminal activity, the less damage they are able to do.
