Entries Tagged 'Louie’s Best' ↓

I find it interesting to share writings that I make from time to time. I enjoy writing up about a variety of subjects. Recently, an opportunity to write about Mars Vs Reality came up. I had been studying the subjects at length so I decided to jump at the chance to write about it and share my own personal thoughts on the matter. These are my thoughts.

The public has long had an interest in the planet called Mars. Books have been written for years about Mars. These books talk about life on Mars, they talk a dying land where people are trying desperately trying to continue their civilization in the battle against the elements, they talk about the Martian people, and they even talk of war against Earth as seen in the HG Wells book, War of the Worlds. For life on Mars, no other book has affected our national conscience quite like the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury took a different view of Mars and Martians than had previously been written about. Ray Bradbury’s Martians were an advanced civilization that were on a dying planet. They were human like with telepathic abilities and human emotions. Mars was a desolate planet that was drying and the Martians were unable to develop themselves against the elements.

The Martian Chronicles tell about the Earth explorers and later colonists who moved to Mars and tried to set up a new life in much the same way that the American continent was settled. In the story, Mars had a breathable atmosphere and while dry and desolate, Earth settlers were able to have some success, maybe at the same time to the detriment of the aboriginal Martians.

To be continued

Please sure to read Mars And Reality: A Literature Study Part II.

When you are on the road, internet access can be a difficult thing. Your options are rather limited. You can visit the dreaded internet cafe, you can find wi-fi hotspots or you can use GPRS. All of these have both good and bad points and in this article, I hope to shed some light on these internet-on-the road choices.

Internet cafes are ubiquitous outside of the US, just about every small city has at least one internet cafe and usually more. Outside of tourist areas, the internet cafes are priced for the local market. It is very easy to go into a cafe to check your email. The price is right and you don’t need any special equipment except maybe a usb flash drive if you plan on saving any information. Yeah, it is very easy, but there are some very significant drawbacks.

The biggest drawback is the plethora of spyware, adware, and viruses on internet cafe computers. Anything you type into the computer can be intercepted by a third party so forget any banking. Casual surfing for news is ok, but email passwords and private information are no longer private once you visit an internet cafe. Heard of keyloggers? They log your every keystroke. Unsuspecting tourists have been victims of keylogging programs, do you want to join them?

Ok, so internet cafes aren’t the best choice? What about wi-fi? If you have mid range laptop, you probably have wi-fi already on your system. It is very easy to connect to a network and you never know what networks you can access. Hotels and guesthouses are beginning to offer wi-fi access to their guests for either a fee or for free. Wi-fi offers decent bandwidth at an affordable price, usually. A growing number of subscription hotspots charge a fees ranging from 2 to 8 times the price of an internet cafe connection. But, it is more secure of a connection. The positives of a wi-fi connection are decent speed and some security, but what are the drawbacks?

As with all things, there are negatives. First of all, because you are sending information over radio waves, anyone could intercept these transmissions and even if you are using encrypted communications, the host network could be compromised. While security is not generally an issue if you are using known networks, it can be if you connect to any available hotspots. Another drawback is that wi-fi hotspots can be few and far between, finding one is not always the easiest and it does limit your connection options.

A third option is to use GPRS. GPRS, General Packet Radio Service, is a method of transmitting data over a GSM mobile phone network. Not all GSM phones can be used as a GPRS modem but many can. What kind of speed can you expect? If you have a class 10 GPRS phone, you can expect connection speeds of 40k per second with downloads of 3 to 5k per second. Not broadband but only slightly worse than dialup and it is more than adequate to search the internet, get the latest news and send email, typical travel internet needs.

But what about availability? Generally, wherever there is a GSM signal, you can use GPRS. This means in even remote locations you can access your email. When I vacation, I take my laptop and Motorola L6 phone with me. The Motorola L6 is a quad band phone and is usable throughout the world. I know I can access the internet where I am. When arriving in a new country, I just buy a new sim card to put in the phone and I check with the provider on how to activate GPRS service. Prices vary for access and can range from less than a dollar an hour for access to $3 or $4 an hour to access. It is secure and you have the freedom to access wherever you are.

What is the best choice for internet on the road? I use all three methods. I always travel with my Motorola L6 for internet access in hotels and guesthouses. If by chance they have wi-fi then I use it, but if they don’t, I am still set for internet access. If I need to upload or download photos or large files, I usually visit an internet cafe since their speeds are usually better gprs speed. I know that having multiple access options when traveling has greatly improved my productivity.

With the economy doing as badly as it is, many people are losing their jobs and are busy trying to find a new job. Bills are a constant expense so it’s really difficult to go too long without getting a new job. Unfortunately, it’s tough to find a new job when everyone else is trying to find one as well. Why try finding a job when you can create your own, such as being a consultant?

Starting your own business isn’t for everyone, but many have found success as a consultant. You can take the knowledge that you obtained in your previous jobs and offer that industry experience, knowledge and wisdom to companies on a contract or hourly basis. There are companies out there that value your knowledge and are willing to pay for it.

With the growth of the internet, video conferencing and other technological tools, it’s easier than ever to run a consultancy firm from your own home and have clients anywhere in the world. Instead of dealing with a small local market, the entire world is your area.

If you are unemployed, or even if you want to break into a new career, being a consultant could be just what you are looking for. Get on Google and do some searching, you’ll quickly find leads and opportunities.

I got an email yesterday from a reader asking me a little bit more about the unified niche relationships I talked about in a previous posting. I think I really should explain a bit more in-depth what exactly I mean by Unified Niche Relationship and the ramifications when it comes to making, marketing, and profiting from websites.

Many people have made money online using a funnel approach. They set up many feeder blogs. These feeder blogs all funnel into a main blog where the niche is ultimately monetized. This funnel approach tends to concentrate the traffic and the money making on a single site. This is a successful approach for many but one that I have never been able to master.

My unified niche relationship idea is like the funnel approach, but instead of funneling the traffic to one single site, every site funnels to several different sites, on the same level. For example, I have a TEFL blog and I get traffic on that site from people interested in the profession. A unified niche relationship would allow me to target that traffic towards a travel site for those interested in travel, to a jobs site for those interested in jobs, a business abroad site for those interested in self employment abroad, etc. Each site would do the same thing, pushing the traffic out to sites that will ultimately satisfy a particular need.

I haven’t been able to implement this idea yet, but I am hoping that in the next couple of weeks I will be able to implement it and see just how successful it is.

No other rank is talked about more than Page Rank. Everything from advertising rates to web site bragging rights are based on a site’s page rank. It’s not surprising that many people value a website solely based on its page rank.

Page Rank is that ubiquitous ranking that Google gives to every web page in their index. It’s not based on the popularity of a page or even the quality of a page. No, it’s based on the number and quality of links pointing to the page. More than that, the actual page rank of a page is never divulged. Instead a toolbar Page Rank is published for each page every 3 to 4 months. Instead of being a completely algorithmic way of ranking sites, Google tweaks the results to fit their own business needs, opinions and prejudices. As a pure ranking system, it is dubious at best.

Research has shown time and time again that toolbar Page Rank has nothing to do with rankings in the search engine results page and nothing to with search engine traffic. With or without a toolbar page rank, you will pass link quality onto other sites and help other sites rank well in the search engine results.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there is some value to Page Rank. You can get better offers when someone wishes to have a link from your page to their page. Advertisers that misconstrue Page Rank with popularity will also pay more for an ad based on your site’s Page Rank.

If you notice, one of the only values of page rank is that having page rank will give you more advertising opportunities. It’s simple really, advertisers consider a link to a site with a higher page rank to be more valuable.

But herein lies the big problem. If you sell a link that is more valuable because of your page rank, Google will take away your page rank. In other words, if you sell a link without a nofollow tag on your site, Google will strip away your page rank. Let’s put it in a little different terms. If you sell your page rank, ie the only way to access the value of having page rank, Google will take it away.

I had an epiphany about 8 months ago. I realized that Page Rank has no value unless it is being used and once you start using it, it will go away. I decided that I could make a choice. I could let Page Rank sit on the shelf giving me no value or I could use it now and access the value in it. I chose to access it now and I have never regretted it. The traffic on my sites have increased and I had immediate access to the Page Rank value I had built up.