Internet Business Daily

I am not a fan of MySpace to be perfectly honest with everyone. I think it’s a place where people to go stalk other people, and get spammed out of existence. This being said, I have finally decided to join MySpace:). Yes I just said I don’t like MySpace but just joined. I just cannot deny the fact that it is one of the most popular sites on the Internet and one of the best ways to get free promotion.

I signed up for MySpace for one reason only: because my new site (mygamingspace.com) is built for putting flash games on people’s MySpace page and how can I not have a MySpace page to promote this site? The only way to show people what my new site is all about is to actually demonstrate what can be done with these games. So I created a simple MySpace profile at myspace.com/mygamingspacedotcom. Unfortunately myspace.com/mygamingspace and myspace.com/gamingspace were both already taken.

I have not “pimped” out my MySpace page yet so it’s still the simple original layout. I will eventually need to really customize the MySpace page so more and more people go there and add me to their firends. The larger the network of friends I have, the more chance I will reach a new person to come to my site. There are ways to gain friends on a MySpace page that requires a lot of spamming and annoyances, but that’s not the method I wanted to take. The first thing I had to do was get a few people to my page. To do this I asked all my friends to add my new profile to their friends list and to even put a game on their page to show off what my site is about.

This was not going to be enough to get the MySpace profile off the ground. I added a “add to MySpace friends” button to mygamingspace. Hopefully when the site takes off a little more, people will want to add the profile to their MySpace page.

Yes I know how ugly the button is, I am going to change it soon. I believe that if your site has the right demographic (the MySpace demographic), that adding a MySpace profile for your website is priceless. It’s free, easy, and will promote your site to new audiences. If you have any questions on how to set this up, including setting up the button on your website, please feel free to comment or email me and ill help as best I can.

Before our friend Kevin Rose came along and made it painless to keep up with all the technology news going on, it was very inefficient to try to read everything. The best way to stay ahead of the pack (regarding Internet business…and all business for that matter) is to know your opponent. If sitea.com comes out with this great new feature, you want to know every aspect of why and how it works for them. Then you can use this information to make it better and do it yourself.

Basically read, read, read all you can about Internet business. Ever since I started in this industry, I eat, sleep, and live the Internet. When I am not at work putting my skills to the test, I am at home reading up on every little tid bit of information I can get my hands on. I suggest everyone trying to be successful do the same. Now that social news sites and blogs are so popular and abundant, it is ridiculously easy to keep up with technology news. Here are some websites that will keep you up to date on everything you need to know:

• digg.com – One of my favorite ways to learn about anything interesting going on with the Internet or technology. Although the majority of digg stories are either about programming or funny websites, there are still many stories on there that can help you discover new ways to make money. Just don’t get distracted by a story about Jessica Alba in a bikini.
• originalsignal.com – This site is a feed aggregator of all sites relating to Internet business or technology. This is the best source for startup related news. Original signal is an automatically updated site with all Internet business news from all the top blog/news sources. This sites makes me truly believe we are in the second Internet boom, there are about 20 new startups listed there every single day.
• techcrunch.com – With many posts per day to this blog, it is one of my favorites to read. Mike Arrington knows what he’s talking about. When a blog reaches over 130,000 subscribers daily, the credibility of the blogger is undeniable.
• johnchow.com – Last but certainly not least is John Chow’s blog. He is a very successful and self named “dot come mogul.” He writes about topics that are not only useful to advanced webmasters, but also for beginners. Best of all he is always willing to help out the little guys.

Now obviously these are not the only sites I use or you should use. There are many sites out there that help you stay ahead of the competition. Just keep digging for more and more information and eventually you will be at the forefront of the industry.

I just found this nice little thing called Snap from Snap.com. If you almost clicked on that link I just gave, you will already know what I am going to say. Basically Snap is a website/blog addon that gives you the feature of link preview. It only took about 2 minutes of registration and 3 lines of code to install this and everything worked perfectly. Just hover over that link and see a preview of my site. Awesome! Also, it doesn’t overlap or give errors with IntelliTXT or my other ads. So go get Snap on your site now, its free and easy.

Windows XP has many little tweaks and tricks you can do to make your PC just a little better. Here’s one that will have you saying “Go Speedracer, Go!” You know that Windows XP splash screen you see when you turn on your computer…well, you don’t need to sit through that anymore, so let’s get rid of it so you can search for porn that much faster. Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Click on your Start Button
Click on the Run
In the browser box, type: MSCONFIG
Click OK
Click the BOOT.INI tab
Check the /NOGUIBOOT box
Click Apply, then OK
When it asks you to restart, please do so.

And wa-la, no more Windows XP splash screen. Make sure you check back soon ‘cause we’ll tell you the quickest way into Scarlett Johansson’s pants.

Ever wonder how much your blog is worth? Well, this cool little applet powered by Technorati. I got this from this website.
The calculation is based on many things including link popularity and traffic. The number below is my blogs worth, almost $15,000 isn’t bad but compared to other blog sites, it’s nothing. Hopefully we can get that number up higher. For some reason I don’t think this number is completely accurate. The dollar amount is based on Tristan Louis’s research, which is based on a link to dollar ratio like the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal. So if you have your own blog you want to check out, just click the link and enter your URL. Comment the number to this post and everyone can compare numbers.

Here’s a cool little cheat sheet of all the Google services. I tried to submit this to digg through the website, but the url was banned for some reason. So I will link the source: adelaider.com. Here are the sheets:

Here is a very nice Gmail trick I found on precharge.net. Check it out.

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Use Gmail to Generate Unlimited E-mail Addresses:

Gmail has an interesting quirk where you can add a plus sign (+) after your Gmail address, and it’ll still get to your inbox. It’s called plus-addressing, and it essentially gives you an unlimited number of e-mail addresses to play with. Here’s how it works: say your address is pinkyrocks@gmail.com, and you want to automatically label all work e-mails. Add a plus sign and a phrase to make it pinkyrocks+work@gmail.com and set up a filter to label it work (to access your filters go to Settings->Filters and create a filter for messages addressed to pinkyrocks+work@gmail.com. Then add the label work).

More real world examples:

Find out who is spamming you: Be sure to use plus-addressing for every form you fill out online and give each site a different plus address.

Example: You could use
pinkyrocks+nytimes@gmail.com for nytimes.com
pinkyrocks+freestuff@gmail.com for freestuff.com
Then you can tell which site has given your e-mail address to spammers, and automatically send them to the trash.

Automatically label your incoming mail: I’ve talked about that above.

Archive your mail: If you receive periodic updates about your bank account balance or are subscribed to a lot of mailing lists that you don’t check often, then you can send that sort of mail to the archives and bypass your Inbox.

Example: For the mailing list, you could give pinkyrocks+mailinglist1@gmail.com as your address, and assign a filter that will archive mail to that address automatically. Then you can just check in once in a while on the archive if you want to catch up.

Anyone that uses a wireless router for home or office purposes knows that anyone with a wireless card and is in range will be able to see that network regardless if it is encrypted or not. If you are someone like me then you don’t want your neighbors seeing and possibly trying to gain access to your network.

The name that people see for your network is known as its SSID (Service Set Identifier) which is usually set to a default depending on your router. Changing the SSID to something more familiar will help some, but since Windows XP automatically searches out nearby SSIDs, displays their name, and lets you easily connect to them, you need to tell your router to not broadcast its real name, essentially making it invisible. Since you will know the real name, you will be able to connect your own computers to the network with no hassle.

All routers are going to display their controls a bit differently, but they all work the same fundamentally. I’m going to give the steps using a Linksys router, but if you have NetGear or 3com you should be able to figure it out just easily.

1. Login to the router by opening your browser and going to http://192.168.1.1 . If you have never logged in the default login/pw is admin/admin, you can change this password in the router settings later if you like.

2. Click on the Wireless tab and in the Wireless Network Name (SSID) Box type a new name for your network, something unique that can’t easily be guessed is preferred.

3. In the Wireless SSID Broadcast section select disabled.

4. It is also a good idea to periodically change the channel on which your wireless is broadcast. You can do this in the Wireless Channel drop-down list.

5. Click Save Settings

6. Now you just need to tell your computer to connect to the SSID you assigned your network. To do this click on the small wireless icon in the notification area. Once that opens click on the Change Advanced Settings and then select the Wireless Network tab. Click the Add button in Preferred Network section and type in your unique SSID and click ok. Now your computer will know that network without seeing the SSID being broadcast and you’re done.

Credit is a touchy subject for many people simply because it can literally ruin lives. Bad credit is like a 900lb. gorilla on a person’s back. This is why I wanted to take some time to research, along with take all the tips my friends have given me (who work at credit companies) to give some advice to increase one’s credit rating. There are a few simple ways you can save yourself from huge headaches.

The first piece of advice I want to give to people is something my father has told me a million times over: always pay your bills in full when you get them. Simple advice yes, but many people just figure they will pay the minimum amount each month and that will be sufficient. Interest continues to pile on to these peoples’ bills and the debt-storm begins. If you cannot afford to pay a bill off all at once, consider not spending that money! There are also different campaigns, which companies offer for their products that say something like “no interest for 6 months” or “no payments for a year.” These are all legit offers, although you most likely will have to sign up for a credit card. With these types of offers, as long as there is no interest, paying the minimum amount is not a bad idea, though try to make a habit of paying bills off all at once.

This next tip was surprising even to me. It comes straight from the mouth of a mortgage broker who’s job is to know credit scores like the back of his hand. His first piece of advice was to have 3 credit cards. People with many credit cards and with just 1 credit card are in the same boat, it just doesn’t look good on your credit score. It’s not a horrible thing, but it’s also not a good thing. The most surprising piece of advice he gave me was to never spend more than 30% of your credit limit. Spending exactly 30% and paying it off right away is the best thing you can do for your credit. For example, if your credit limit is $1000, then don’t spend more than $300. At first I figured maxing out my credit card but still paying it all off right away was good for my credit, but I was wrong. This is looked down upon in the eyes of the credit companies. I am not sure the exact logic behind this, but this is where having 3 credit cards comes in handy. Spend 30% of your limit on each card and pay it off right away and watch your credit score (and credit limit) greatly increase.

One quote that stuck in my head, which is pretty obvious when you think about it was: “it is much harder to increase your credit score than to have it decreased for you.” If you are already in debt this does not apply to you, but if you are young and new to the credit game, take these words to heart. My friend kept repeating that you are trying to prove you have a history to these companies. That is exactly what credit is, a history of you. You want to prove to people that you are capable of handling credit and making payments on time.

Another obvious yet underused tip is to check your credit score often. There are free ways of doing this through the 3 credit firms. The two that I use are Experian and Equifax. A word of caution: while signing up for these sites and your first few months with them are free, they eventually start charging you. I experienced this first hand when I started receiving $10 charges from them. Checking your credit score often allows you to catch any problems very early before they start taking a toll on your credit.

Another not-so-known tip is to not close your credit cards. What I mean by this is if you have a credit card that you don’t use, don’t close it. It still creates a history for you. Also, the longer you have a “trade-line” open the better. A trade-line is just an credit card account. Having a credit card for 8 years looks much better than having it for 3 months, regardless of how much you spend.

These are just some simple tips to improve your credit score. Hopefully you will implement these tips and watch your credit score rise.

Have you ever wanted to surf the web anonymously? While surfing the web, you leave your information literally EVERYWHERE. I wanted to find a way to use the Internet and not give my information out to everyone. I did some research and came across this website. Basically what it does is cloak your IP address therefore cloaking you. It is very easy to use and is done fully within the website, no software downloads needed. This is also great for sites that you are unsure of their authenticity. Never take a chance of having these sites steal your information and sell it. The website is called the-cloak.com. So check it out and let me know if it works for you as well as it has worked for me.