28 December 2014

Free and Paid Guest Posting Opportunities with PostJoint


PostJoint is a site where you can find blogs who are looking for content. You create an account and submit your article and bloggers will have the opportunity to invite you to publish at their blog. PostJoint includes both free and sponsored content, so you may be able to earn an extra income for your posts as well.

PostJoint is not a blog or article network. There are no widgets, codes or logos connecting the blogs together. Nobody can browse lists of our member blogs and nobody can scan the posts in the system.

How it works?

Enter information on the list of topics you blog about (and care about) using keyword level targeting and the site will send you a fresh batch of targeted opportunities rolled into one daily email. So if you only want opportunities about 'technology' and 'Apple' with a budget of $100+, that is what you'll get. Scan through them, and when something takes your fancy, submit an offer and start a dialog with the marketer quickly and easily.

Do not like any of our post opportunities? No problem! You are not obliged to make any offers at all. However, if you like what you see and do make an offer, only the user who created the opportunity will know about it.

The unique control panel lets you easily make offers, message our marketers, track your earnings, manage your opportunities, and so much more. Built with simplicity and usability in mind, you will be making offers, making new connections, and earning money, in no time.





08 December 2014

SiteKit – A new Way to Build Websites


SiteKit is one of the few website builder services offering an unlimited site for no monthly fee.



Main free features include:
* Professionally designed, responsive website templates. All your images can be uploaded, resized, cropped, and enhanced directly in SiteKit.
* SEO optimization. Easily optimize your site for search engines by creating unique URLs, Page Titles, and Meta Descriptions.
* Social integration. Your visitors can easily share anything with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and more.
* Blog. Attract visitors with an easy-to-use blog that looks great on all devices.
* Google Analytics. Integrate Google Analytics into your website and keep track of your website traffic.
* Unlimited Amazon cloud hosting. Your site is fully hosted on Amazon's cloud platform, for no monthly fee.
* Unlimited bandwidth. You get unlimited bandwidth so your page load times will always be fast.
* Unlimited storage. Upload as many photos, videos and other files as you want.
* Unlimited pages. Add as many additional pages and as much content to your site as you want.
* Custom Domain. Add your own unique URL—like yourbusiness.com—so your customers can easily find your site.
* No Ads. Service provider will not embed any ads to your website.

SiteKit claims to introduce a new model for website builders. It is naturally integrated with the Moboom Market, an App Store-like marketplace of free and premium templates, stock photos, integrations, etc. You decide what is valuable for your website, whether it is a premium photo, template, or service. If you decide to choose only free components, you will never be charged.

Site creation is fast, easy, and does not involve any learning curves. Choose the template and start building you web presence right away.



21 November 2014

How to share files on Twitter with TwileShare?


I am not a big Twitter fan. However, it is definitely a powerful and influencing media and mean of communication in the modern World.



TwileShare is a free service, which adds more usability to your Twitter operations, allowing sharing files on Twitter. The service is free for all, and you can upload and share anything you want, starting with images, documents, PDFs, ebooks and more.

Easy, fast, and painless operations are guaranteed.

How it works: You login and load the file, and

Main features:
* Sign in with your Twitter credentials.
* Maximum storage space: 1 GB.
* View Stats.
* Safe and Secure transfer and storage.



04 November 2014

Jux - Ridiculously fun to use blogging platform


Today we are going to present something different – a new blogging platform, a new blogging community. Founded 2011 in New York City, Jux can be still considered as a newcomer. However, this blogging platform offers a distinctive set of impressive features, which might encourage you to try the service for your blogging needs.

Posts, made on Jux, looks really awesome, and that’s makes a huge difference, highlighting the major advantage of this platform, allowing your posts to stand out on the blogosphere. And the fact that there are no ads, there are no sidebars, or even Jux’s logo, makes it even more attractive. With Jux you can take advantage of a really nice interface and a system that will allow you to create high impact blogs utilizing high resolution images that look great on mobile devices too.

To get started on Jux, create an account for a site that will live at username.jux.com (or setup a domain name through a third party to point to the page). You will be greeted with a page proclaiming, "Let's make some magic."

Jux borrows certain ideas and components from Tumblr – particularly with how you can create different types of posts. However, as a platform, it certainly sets itself apart in other ways. There are seven types of content that you can share on Jux – quotes, text posts (articles), photos, videos, slideshows, a countdown, or even embed content from Google Maps.



With each type of post, you have control over accompanying photos, their size, background colors, text position and alignment and more. You can also add effects to your photos (blur, fade, limo, tilt shift and more), and select from a few different types of fonts.

The actual process for adding photos is, however, a little clunky and takes some getting used to. Click the + button at the top right hand corner and it will automatically add a stock photo – you have to click on that photo to replace it with one of your own.

When adding a block quote to your Jux, you can also add an image, which is of course entirely optional, to jazz up the post a little.

To add photos to each of your posts, or to create a photo post, you can upload the images from your computer, or import them from Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, or a direct URL. You can search Flickr photos or connect to your account to use your own images.



Text posts (or articles) can also be accompanied by a photo. You have complete control over the photo size, the text’s position and alignment, and the background color of the page.

Video posts can be created simply by pasting the direct link of the video. You can add your own title and description, font type and background color, and more.



If a post with one photo isn’t enough, you can always create an entire slideshow in just one post. The countdown posts are perfect for anyone who likes to create lists. Simply select your photos, add the accompanying text, and Jux automatically numbers them for you.

Streetview is an awesome option unique to Jux. You can create posts that import images from Google Streetview – and you can pan just as you do on Google Maps to select your preferred view. Just add the address and Jux will find the image associated with it from Google Streetview. You can also add your title and caption.

Another really cool Jux feature is that when creating a new type of post – you can create what’s called a ‘Jux’. It’s almost like an entire blog within one post. You can add as many of the different types of posts listed above. So if there’s a certain topic that you want to share photos, videos and text about – you can put them all within one ‘Jux’. The feature is reminiscent of Storify – but rolled into a blog format instead.
The interface is slick, and makes it incredibly easy (and enjoyable) to create new posts. While the backend is great to use, with a WYSIWYG interface that overlays over the post, so you can see changes as you make them, Jux’s true strength is in how the final product looks. Jux blogs are gorgeous. And if you have beautiful photos and videos you want to showcase, the platform will do them justice.
The home page of your blog displays a grid of your posts. You can navigate between posts much like you would a slideshow, and the way in which photographs are displayed on Jux simply brings them to life.



Aside from giving you an easy to use platform to create a blog, a photography portfolio, or simply a place to share your thoughts with others, Jux also brings an element of a social network to the table. You can follow other users, and their posts will show up in your feed. You can also like or repost individual posts.

At the same time, you may use the service as substitution for your traditional PowerPoint presentations. The content creation tools for dynamic presentation are fun and do not require much of a learning curve. The result is full-screen, distraction-free content in a museum-quality gallery. With the set of provided free tools, users need not mess around with themes and sidebars. All users get is the content, the way they want to present it.

Web site: https://jux.com/



Sources and Additional Information:




18 October 2014

How to test your Website Appearance in Different Browsers?

BrowserShots services allow you to test how your site looks in an impressive array of browsers (and various versions of each browser). Processing time can take a while, so it’s probably best to concentrate on only on one or two browsers at a time. Plug in your URL and eventually you get a series of screenshots of the page.



The screenshots appear only after the request is properly processed. For the 5 browsers request the estimate of the response time is 5 to 48 minutes on my computer, depending on the selected browser.

You may get a month of priority processing for 29.95 Dollars or 22.95 Euros, if this service offering what you need to evaluate your site appearance in different browsers.

Here is a first screenshot, how this page would look on the SeaMonkey browser. Doesn't look good due to the poor integration with Infolinks, don’t you think?



06 October 2014

Spur: Free, fun and easy way to critique your web pages

What can you use the app for?

Spur wraps up a number of ways of testing your design into one neat web app. Enter your URL in the box, wait a while and you get a snapshot of your page with a number of buttons so you can check out whether your design still works in unusual transformations.



The service is free, fast, and does not require registration and login.

Mirror Tool

Mirroring a design can point out areas of misalignment and hierarchy.

Here are some examples:

* Mirroring the main page of the blog reveals that many of the initial design choices in the redesign have been broken apart by visuals that add to chaos of the page.
* Multi-colored ads coupled with Facebook widgets contribute to the busyness of the page. The mirror helps to highlight how disconnected all the elements on the page feel.
* There is no carousel in the redesign. While the carousel drives more clicks, the mirror of the page reveals that it also adds busyness to the page.
* Images that are not balanced well with the surrounding copy become even more unbalanced when mirrored.

Rotate Tool

The rotate tool is great for making it easier to see page weight and balance of elements.

Here are some examples:

* Turning the screenshot to the left reveals that the weight of the page is top aligned– readers have an anchor on the page to lead their eyes down the other links.
* Boxed in content creates an unnecessary design element between columns and rows.
* Looking at links sideways show us just how dense this page is with clickable content. In some areas this is welcome, but in other areas it exposes "content cramming" on the homepage.

50% Zoom Tool

Use the zoom tool to look at your site as a smaller thumbnail. Does the layout hold up? The best websites still get the story across at a small size.

Here are some examples:

* The main image is still sharp and crisp at this size, which gets the point across that this is a photo website.
* The main headline gets a little lost, but the paired call to action still pops against the image.
* The rest of the copy is blurred, but the three headlines are still legible, letting users know that the site is all about uploading, discovering and sharing.



16 September 2014

7 Useful Facebook Tips and Tricks

1. Want to check how much Facebook knows about you?
Go to the Facebook Account Settings page, under the General tab, near the bottom is a link to "Download a copy of your Facebook data". The archive includes almost everything from photos to your chat history.


2. Not seeing enough posts from friends you care about—and too many from those you don’t?
Set your news feed to sort by Most Recent, rather than Top News. Then add your favorite people to your Close Friends list and unsubscribe from any friends whose updates you’re not interesting in receiving.


3. Do you really want to make sure your friends see your important news (you’re having a garage sale, for example)?
You can pay a fee, around $7 to $10 a post, to move your update to the top of their news feeds.


4. How to connect to multiple Facebook accounts?
You probably noticed that you can’t login to more than one account on Facebook. However, if you use Chrome, there is a built-in profile feature that allows you to create a new user profile on your browser.
* Click on the Navicon on the top right of your Chrome browser. Go to Settings.
* Go to Users, and click on Add new user.
* Choose your Profile Picture and give a name for that user.
* Click on Create and a new Window will be opened.
* You can now login to your Facebook account as per user profile and easily switch between users at the top right corner.
This feature is available on Firefox as well.


5. How turn off Facebook notification sounds?
Facebook notifications come with sounds and in some cases you wish you could turn it off. Head over to Facebook Account Settings > go to Notifications tab. At the top, untick "Play a sound when each new notification is received" and Save Changes.


6. How to schedule Facebook post for delayed publishing?
Use Facebook’s scheduling tool and set a publishing time for your posts. Click on the clock icon in the status line field and take it from there.


7. How to check if you have some hidden Facebook messages?
Not many people know that Facebook messages get split into two folders: Messages and Other. If you haven’t looked into the Other folder before, you probably missed some messages you didn’t want to miss.


Some additional tricks presentation in the video clips:



Sources and Additional Information:

08 September 2014

How to test Website Loading speed with free Pingdom services?

Pingdom‘s online URL analyzer tests page load time and finds bottlenecks that you can eliminate to speed up your site. It lets you identify what about a web page is fast, slow, too big, what best practices you’re not following, and so on, helping you to speed up and optimize the performance of your websites.

Main Features

* Examine all parts of a web page – View file sizes, load times, and other details about every single element of a web page (HTML, JavaScript and CSS files, images, etc.). You can sort and filter this list in different ways to identify performance bottlenecks.
* Performance overview – You get automatically generated performance-related statistics based on the test result
* Performance grade and tips – See how your website conforms to performance best practices from Google Page Speed. You can get some great tips on how to speed up your website this way.
* Trace your performance history – You are able to save each test results on the website, so you can preserve the original results as a reference point, review them later, so you can see how things change over time.
* Test from multiple locations – See how fast a website loads in Europe, the United States, etc.
* Share your results – Perform a test and share it with your friends, work colleagues or web host.

The services are free for the users.



26 August 2014

How to spice up your Blogger posts with Cincopa widgets?


Looking for creative ways to make your blog stand out among the numerous blogs out there? Adding rich media widgets, such as slideshows, galleries, video players, podcast, music players etc. will surely make your blog posts shine in the stodgy crowd.

What can cincopa's Blogger widget do for you?

Cincopa application for blogger gadgets and the dedicated servers it uses are in charge of uploading, hosting, resizing, transcoding, tracking, transporting and skinning your media files. Nevertheless, you still get a full control over the content and the appearance of your media.

Cincopa widgets for Blogger

Cincopa specializes in rich media, stylized add-ons that are designed to draw attention, create interest and establish a better interaction with visitors. The Blogger gadgets are super easy to embed in your blog-posts and require no programming skills, whatsoever. Your only concern should be, making a decision regarding the media you wish to post, choosing a skin to suit your page and customize the Blogger widget according to your taste and needs.

The actual implementation of the Blogger widgets is done by embedding the HTML code, generated by Cincopa, wherever you want it to be displayed on your blog, or by clicking the, 'Add as a widget', button.

Why use Cincopa widget for blogger?

Cincopa has a great reputation for its reliable hosting solutions, content and media management tools, and extensive variety of products and add-ons. Cincopa widgets for Blogger include contemporary designed multimedia gadgets with multiple skins and wide customization options. One of the greatest things about Cincopa is that all those services, including personal support, advanced security systems and hosting, are totally free for individuals and small businesses. For greater needs, Cincopa offers pro upgrades in very reasonable prices.

Main Features

* Posting amazing videos, images, galleries, slideshows, music, podcast and different combinations of media, anywhere in your blog.
* Over 40 skin types in many different styles, including Flash, Cooliris 3D, Lightbox, full screen etc.
* Multiple customization options such as size, color, auto-player, transitions and many more.
* High scalability - keeps your images look their best, regardless of the device in use.
* Supports iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and other mobile devices.
* Progressive download - allows high speed downloads with no annoying buffering and delays.
* Remote access
* Full control of your content - you decide whether you authorize users' downloads.
* Automatic conversions, compression and transcoding.
* Reliable host and delivery services - Amazon S3 web services.
* Media space is not restricted by your server's quota.
* Automatically download and post media from a URL.

Applying a Cincopa widget for Blogger allows you to captivate your readers' audience by creating a spectacular presentation with only one click of a button. Moreover, every modification or update you made by you in your media files, is automatically updated in your post.

Other blogging platforms, like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Weebly, are supported by the service.



How it works?

* Choose one of our awesome skins.
* Upload your media to Cincopa.
* Get a simple code and embed on your blog or website.


29 July 2014

4 Free Services for Reversed Image Search


You create blog post, and you found the images, helping you to illustrate the topic. Image is exactly what you need, however, it has low resolution and quality. There is an easy way to find the same image on the Web, and hopefully the resolution will be acceptable for your needs.

You can use one of the two services, allowing you load the image and search Internet for other locations, pointing at the same image.

1. Google Search by Image

Google service is the first destination you can go to perform the task. You can use a picture as your search to find related images from around the web. For example, if you search using a picture of your favorite band, you can find similar images, websites about the band, and sites that include the same picture.

Search by image works best when the image is likely to show up in other places on the web. So you’ll get more results for famous landmarks than you will for personal images like your latest family photo.

There are three operational options for your search:
* Option 1: Load an image from your computer.
* Option 2: Use an image from a website.
* Option 3: Right-click an image on a website (Chrome and Firefox)

Availability

You can search by image on the following browsers:
* Chrome 5+
* Internet Explorer 9+
* Safari 5+
* Firefox 4+




2. TinEye

TinEye is a reverse image search engine, similar to the Google service. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. It is free to use for non-commercial searching.


3. Macroglossa

MACROGLOSSA is a search engine based on the comparison of images. The operation is simple: Have you taken a picture of something you could not identify? Maybe you’re not sure what animal is contained in the image? In order to learn more about the content of your image, you can simply upload the image file to MACROGLOSSA and begin your search. 


4. ImageRaider

A new service, where you add your photo or image catalogue and get list of the websites, where these images are used. Site gives results of high quality, but the service is a bit slower than competitors.


As you understand, these services can be used for other practical tasks, for example, looking for the location by loaded picture, or checking out who is using your copyrighted images without your permission.


25 July 2014

Keyword Bee - Free Keyword Research Tool


Keyword Bee is the new free keyword research tool that giving you the perfect opportunity to discover the most appropriate lucrative keywords for your projects, websites, and posts.

Using the free tool Keyword Bee you will be able to:
* Find related keywords that people actually search for!
* Analyze interesting keywords intensively!
* Be able to rank high for the right keywords!



Main Features:

* All-in-One View. See the most relevant information about each keyword in one single color-coded line. Tons of values per keyword are provided, such as search volume information, competition, and cpc.

* Top 5/10 Analysis. For each analyzed keyword you can see an in-depth analysis of the Top 10 pages on Google for that keyword. This information will help you decide whether to rank for the keyword or whether the competition is too strong. The PRO version allows you to analyze the Top 10, the free version will analyze the Top 5 only.

* Find Related Keywords. You don't have to come up with the best niche keywords by yourself, Keyword Bee will go out there and gather the sweetest keywords for you.

* Proxy Rotation Support. The data is gathered live from many sources. If you need to analyze many keywords at once, you can use proxies for faster retrieval. Check out this list of proxy services. This features is only available in the PRO version of Keyword Bee.

* Keyword Grouping. If you need to run analyses on many different keyword groups, you can keep track of them by assigning each keyword to a group.

* Keyword Filtering. After analyzing hundreds of keywords you will have a hard time to see what's going on. Use your custom filters to see only keywords that are likely to generate revenue for you.

* API Access. Keyword Bee gathers the latest information from paid APIs. The information from APIs is more precise and up-to-date. Since we have to pay API providers, this feature is only available in the PRO version.

* Export. If you already have a workflow and use Excel or other spreadsheet editors, you can simply export the data from Keyword Bee and import that into your own workflow tools.




07 July 2014

Mobile Advertising Trends 2014


When you plan your advertising campaign, you should be aware that the target audience more and more accesses your website or blog through mobile electronic devices, like tablets and smart phones. No matter how big the screen is on the mobile device, it will definitely be smaller than on the workstation. Therefore, the approach to the site design might need to get changed, if you target more the mobile devices consumers.

Just to give you impression on how big the mobile market is and what are the statistical trends related to such marketing niche, please review the graph below.




The graph is prepared by Kenshoo, and the full infographics presentation on Global Search Advertising Trends – Q1 2014 for the US can be accessed through the link: http://www.kenshoo.com/digitalmarketingtechnology/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Kenshoo-Search-Ad-Trends-Q1-2014-Americas.pdf

03 July 2014

Total Validator – Free Code Validation for your Website or Blog


The Basic version of the Total Validator is a free and convenient desktop tool that can perform four types of validation:

1. The best HTML validation against the W3C Markup Standards
2. Accessibility validation against the WCAG (1.0 and 2.0) and the US Section 508 standards
3. A broken links checker
4. A spell checker covering English (American and British), French, Italian, Spanish, and German.



Other great features:

* Validate online pages, or pages before you publish
* Use on intranets, or other private sites
* Fast response and local results for security
* One-click validation using the Chrome/Firefox/SeaMonkey extensions






22 June 2014

Free Legal Use of 35 million Getty Photos


If you go to the Getty Images website, you'll see millions of images, all watermarked. There are more than a hundred years of photography here, from FDR on the campaign trail to last Sunday's Oscars, all stamped with the same transparent square placard reminding you that you don't own the rights. If you want Getty to take off the watermark, you'll have to pay for it.

Starting now, that's going to change. Getty Images is dropping the watermark for the bulk of its collection, in exchange for an open-embed program that will let users drop in any image they want, as long as the service gets to append footer at the bottom of the picture with a credit and link to the licensing page.



Getty said it had made the move after realizing thousands of its images were being used without attribution.

"Our content was everywhere already," said Craig Peters, a business development executive at the Seattle-based company.

"If you want to get a Getty image today, you can find it without a watermark very simply," he added.

"The way you do that is you go to one of our customer sites and you right-click. Or you go to Google Image search or Bing Image Search and you get it there. And that's what's happening."

The company says it is making up to 35 million photos available through the new "embed tool", and images can also be shared on social media sites Twitter and Tumblr.

Staring page for search: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/embed

To confirm an image is embeddable, hover over it and look for an embed symbol at the bottom that looks like this: </>.

Click the embed symbol and a new window will open with the embed code. Simply copy and paste the code and drop it into your blog post's html (like you would with a YouTube video or Twitter embed code) and you're done.



Open content images can be used for any purpose without first seeking permission from the Getty. Images of many other works in the collections are also on our website in varying formats. The Getty supports fair use of images when the applicable legal criteria are met.

Here is image of Vladimir Putin, embedded from the Getty:


Sources and Additional Information:

12 June 2014

Barc - Chat with Everyone on Any Website


Name of Barc – Browser Assisted Relay Chat – tells a story. The service offers to provide a chatroom to any internet website.

The goal of Barc is simple: to bring like-minded people together. By leveraging every webpage on the internet - and giving people and websites tools to interact, share and discuss with one another.

Free account includes the following features:
* Streaming webcam
* Pictures & video
* Polls
* Private messaging
* Emoticons
* Email alerts
* Replying
* Language translation
* Leaderboard
* Hashtags
* Spam protection
* Word filter
* Bitcoin integration

Premium features can be unlocked for $5/month:
* Ban users
* Delete comments
* Wipe the chat
* Multiple moderators
* Hide the global chat
* Disable guests
* Disable multimedia
* Custom interface






08 June 2014

4 BitCoin Faucets, where you can get quality lifetime referral income


There are many BTC faucets, which give you free satoshi for simple clicking (definitely, after you fill captcha, to secure the service from unfriendly bots). Many of them offer the referral programs to pay you significant portion of your referrals’ earning. In this post, we will present three of such faucets:

Bitcoin Zebra

Feed the zebra and win up to 1000 satoshi every hour.
You got an equal chance to get 100, 200, 300, 400, or 1000 satoshi.
In addition, you get a chance to multiply your winnings through Zebra Multiplier.
Referral program is available (about 50% rate depending on number of referrals).
Direct payments once a week - every Sunday, as soon as amount exceeds 5,500 satoshi.


Bitcoinker

A new Bitcoin Faucet is worth to play with as it offers an average payout of 200 satoshi with submission frequency once an hour. You will get paid instantly to your Microwallet.org account.
Available prizes are 100, 200, and 300 satoshi, with an equal chance of each!
You may earn 25% lifetime commission for referring your friends and colleagues to Bitcoinker, using your referral URL.


BitVisitor

BitVisitor gives you free bitcoins after you input your Bitcoin address, solve a verbal captcha, keep a website open during 5 minutes and click a green "Next" button.
The incentives are from 100 satoshi to up to 12,000 satoshi.
Payments are generated and sent automatically as soon as the accumulated amount is higher than 60,000 satoshi.
Bitvisitor now offers a 50% profit sharing affiliate program! You can earn 50% of total profit every time someone you refer visits one of our advertiser's sites!


BTCRock

BTC faucet with unique mining interface where your minimum winning is 265 satoshis and up to 5,000 satoshi.
Play once every 50 minutes.
You also can multiply your BTC with included game, however, the gambling is never secury, so be careful with such approach.
50% referral system
Payments are sent once a week - on Mondays – as soon as your accumulated amount exceeds  0.0001 BTC (10,000 satoshi).



01 May 2014

LoadZen – Free Load and Performance Testing for your Blog


Loadzen offers free and commercial services, supports multiple tests required for the website performance assessment - you may test your site against:
* one-off traffic spikes,
* ongoing high volume load or variable,
* custom traffic patterns.

Loadzen's unique Google Chrome extension means you can record your load test scenarios from right inside your browser, no complicated test scripts needed.

You may run load tests of up to 25 virtual users completely free, then when you want to start testing with larger volumes, simply pay for what you use.

You are able run your test and review the results, as they come out. The system is real-time and will report the status of your test as it runs.

Note that Loadzen is also safe for your computer environment: if it will be detected that your server is timing out more than it should - the test routine will back off. If your site starts throwing regular and frequent errors, Loadzen will stop. The analysis tool will break down your results at the end of a test, showing a graph for each of your test scenarios, as well as aggregate graphs in an unbranded format for easy pasting into reports and presentations.

13 April 2014

Backup Utility for Tumblr and Instagram


TumblRipper is a tool designed to backup your blog's images with just a few clicks. It supports updating and will only download new images, unless you ask it to!

Main Features:

* Supports Tumblr blogs, Tumblr tags, 500px, Instragram , and FlickR.
* Auto-update from application.
* Automatically download all photos and videos from a given blog.
* Photosets support for Tumblr
* Will always retrieve highest possible resolution (not just the thumbnail).
* Only photos you don't already have yet will be downloaded.
* As light as possible on the servers.
* Keeps the original dates from the original upload!

The software is donationware. For every donation, you'll receive a serial, unlocking some advanced features, allowing faster downloads, and multiple tumblr accounts





16 March 2014

Nibbler – Free Tool for Blogs and Websites Analysis

Sometimes, you may be lost in thoughts, what is wrong with your blog. You do everything right, but the amount of the unique visitors is growing too slowly, not justifying the time and efforts you spend on the blog interface and content.

Take a second opinion from Nibbler. Free service will show you the overall rating of your blog and will provide you with comprehensive report of the suggested modifications and improvements to boost your overall site readability, accessibility, and rating.

Service is fast and does not require registration and log-in.



Give it a try!




02 February 2014

The Secret Power of Blog Post Title


I always knew that writing a strong headline is important, but I never thought that it deserves much more time and efforts that I spent on that. Problogger offers some interesting statistics, based on the research:

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.

That means that the better the headline is, the better your odds to get wide public attention. Definitely, writing a great headline doesn’t guarantee the success of your writing. The benefit conveyed in the headline still needs to be properly satisfied in the body copy, either with your content or your offer. But great body content with a bad or even marginal headline is doomed to go largely unread.

The proper parallel is a job interview. If your resume is not good or appropriate, you will never get to the interview with prospective employer, and it really does not matter how good you are, and how well you fit to the advertised position. It is too, that if you do not match, if will not pass the interview test, but at least you will have such a chance.

The copywriting trainers at American Writers & Artists teach The Four U’s approach to writing headlines. Headlines, subheads and bullets should:

* Be USEFUL to the reader,
* Provide him with a sense of URGENCY,
* Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE; and
* Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way.

Coming from other direction, you title should follow another set of rules, applicable for blog posts as well. Your Blog Title Should:
* Stimulate curiosity and create excitement
* Spell out the purpose of your article
* Give a reason to take immediate action
* Allow readers to find your post via keyword search

There are a few free tools online that can help point you in the right direction if you’re genuinely stumped on what to call your content. The following are some I’ve used before, and love:
·         HubSpot Blog Topic Generator
·         Tweak Your Biz Title Generator

In most cases, the topic you receive won’t necessarily be perfectly ready to slap on your article. Some tweaking will probably be required, but they’re pretty neat tools for breaking through a mental block.

Sources and Additional Information:


13 January 2014

Can Ripple Become a Future of Financial System?


Sometimes, you may wonder, what would happen if you would be able to invest your time and money at the very beginning of the company which later turned big (think, Microsoft, Google, or Facebook). You need to be in the right place at the right time, and you should be ready to take a risk. Definitely, for one winner there are thousand losers. But, so what? Calculated risk often pays back great dividends.

First it was Bitcoin. Who could predict that virtual game currency could turn into real investment? There were few believers, there were few early adopters.

According to Norwegian news outlet NRK, Kristoffer Koch decided -- on a whim -- to invest 150 kroner (about $26) in 5,000 bitcoins in 2009, soon after the Bitcoin network first came into existence. Koch is said to have discovered the virtual currency while writing a thesis on encryption and decided to put down a small investment out of sheer curiosity.

Unaware of just how successful bitcoins would soon become, Koch says he promptly forgot about his digital stash; that is, until a flurry of media coverage about bitcoins caught his attention earlier this year.

Koch reportedly had to scour his memory for the password to the encrypted wallet that held his investment. When he finally figured it out in April, he says he was stunned by what he found. "It said I had 5,000 bitcoins in there. Measuring that in today's rates it's about five million kroner," Koch told NRK, according to a Guardian translation. That's about $850,000.

That’s was in April 2013, and the same investment as of today costs is more than $4 million. In June 2012, Bitcoins were worth $5. By April 2013, they were up to $266. Then they dropped to $70 in April, steadily raised by December 2013 to $1,200, and now above $820.

Virtual money turned real! But we all a bit too late to jump in the carriage. But maybe that is not the case with the new trendy start-up Ripple.

Ripple, a platform that just received funding from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others, has created both an alternative to Bitcoin and a distributed currency exchange for Bitcoiners (and others) who aren’t comfortable using only Ripple’s currency, known as XRP.
The Ripple network is a protocol. It’s like HTTP for money. Users, merchants anyone can use it for free without a license.

The Ripple platform serves two purposes: it’s a distributed open-source payment network, and it’s the home of the newly minted XRP currency. As a payment network, Ripple provides free global payments without chargebacks (minus a $0.0001 per transaction network charge, implemented as a security precaution against hackers), the ability to pay in any currency using a distributed currency exchange, and an open protocol that any developer can use.

Participants can exchange dollars, yen, Euros, and even completely made-up currencies, all of which are entered into the system via "gateways." Larsen says: "A UI designer and myself can be a gateway to each other. A gateway can be a friend, neighborhood, a group. Most gateways will be larger. It’s like the way Paypal works--you give them $100, they create a $100 balance."

The only currency that doesn’t need to be entered into the Ripple platform from a gateway is XRP. This is an advantage over Bitcoin: Ripple is its own currency exchange.

What make me think this scheme has a serious future:
* The Ripple protocol is an open standard that can federate existing payment networks, similar to how Simple Mail Transfer Protocol federated messaging systems in the 1980s.
* Currency exchanges in Ripple are automatically processed at the best available rate with no fees or added margins. 
* Ripple allows users or businesses to transact in different currencies without exposing themselves to undesired foreign currency exchange risk. It allows instant cross-currency payments: you can send one currency (dollars, euros, pounds, etc.) and the recipient receives another (yen, yuan, rupees, etc.).
* Ripple can provide fast transactions (transactions can typically be settled in only a few seconds).
* Ripple's was designed to be counterfeit-proof.
* Ripple makes micropayments cost-effective – even payments less than a penny — opening the Internet to business models that would previously have been impossible. 
* No fear of inflation, since the total amount of Ripple currency XRP remains constant.
* Ripple was developed by the people who gained their experience on virtual currencies and translated their knowledge to the new scheme.
* Ripple got support and funding by several very serious entities.

Here are some disadvantages as well:
* While opening Ripple account is easy and very fast, you will not be able to perform any transactions before your Ripple wallet becomes funded.
* You need a very small amount of at least 20 XRP (at the moment 1 XRP costs a bit more than 2 cents), but getting it may be challenging at first. You may purchase it easy, if you have Bitcoins, or with dollars, but the process is very manual. The getaways for such transactions are very crowded, and it may take significant time and efforts to do so.

How to start with Ripple:
1. Open your account: https://ripple.com/client/#/login
2. When you first create a Ripple wallet, it will need to be activated before it can be used.  This prevents accounts from being created automatically by computers and used in fraudulent ways. Activating an account involves transferring a minimal number of XRP into the account (this number is currently 20 XRP, though it can change from time to time – see https://ripple.com/wiki/Reserves for details).  Until the account is activated, you will not be able to use it for funding your account with other currencies, sending and receiving, and trading.
3. If you know someone who already has a Ripple account, you can ask your friend to give or lend you the required number of XRP. As said, you can purchase bitcoins and convert them into XRP, which can be used to activate your account. You can participate in one of the Ripple Labs giveaways to get XRP for free.
4. Current giveaway you can get XRP for free is sponsored by ComputingforGood.org. While you donate your idle computing power to scientific research, you will get XRP from Ripple Labs. Anybody with an internet-connected computer or Android device can participate, and unlike mining Bitcoins, does not require super-duper hardware.  Follow the instructions on the site: https://www.computingforgood.org/
5. Install the software, leave it run by itself, and make some Ripples, while giving your unused resources to the just cause, like Cancer Research, Environment, and others.

Other useful links:
1. XRP Talk is holding several giveaways, which will help to start and fund your account. Website: https://xrptalk.org/forum/28-giveaways/
2. SnapSwap.us is giving away 2,000 XRPs when you open up an account and link it to Dwolla! Also, receive 500 XRP with your first deposit of $10.00 or more from your bank account to your Ripple Wallet, and 3 XRP with every subsequent $1.00 deposited, up to 300 XRP per transaction and up to 2,000 XRP total.
3. The OpenCoin.in forum is giving away 1 XRP for every forum post and awarding 100 XRP every week to the member who posts the most that week!
4. Ripple Faucet. Come once a day and enter your Ripple address to get 0.1 to 1 XRP. Not much, but fast and easy. Website: http://ripplegiveaway.com/. Website should be already funded to get into the raffle.


Sources and Additional Information:


06 January 2014

3 Free Software Wallets for BitCoins

For those who experiment with BitCoins, wallet is necessity. Your Bitcoin wallet is what allows you to transact this virtual currency with other users. It gives you ownership of a Bitcoin balance so that you can send and receive bitcoins. 

There are actually three types of the wallets:

1. Software wallets. Software wallets are installed on your desktop computer. They give you complete control over your wallet. You are responsible for protecting your money and doing backups.

2. Mobile wallets. Mobile wallets allow you to bring Bitcoin with you in your pocket. You can exchange coins easily and pay in physical stores by scanning a QR code or using NFC "tap to pay".

3. Web wallets. Web wallets allow you to use Bitcoin anywhere with less effort to protect your wallet. However, you must choose your web wallet with care as they host your bitcoins.

Today, I will present several software wallets you may use:

1. MultiBit

MultiBit is a secure, lightweight, international Bitcoin wallet for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

Main Features:
* MultiBit makes performing Bitcoin transactions quick and simple
* MultiBit comes in a variety of languages
* MultiBit is free to download and is open source (MIT license)
* MultiBit is user-friendly and is easy to install


2. Electrum

Electrum is an easy to use Bitcoin client. It protects you from losing coins in a backup mistake or computer failure, because your wallet can be recovered from a secret phrase that you can write on paper or learn by heart. There is no waiting time when you start the client, because it does not download the Bitcoin blockchain.

Main Features:
* Instant on: Your client does not download the blockchain, it uses a remote server.
* Forgiving: Your wallet can be recovered from a secret seed.
* Safe: Your seed or private keys are not sent to the server. Information received from the server is verified using SPV
* No downtimes: Several public servers are available, you can switch instantly.
* Ubiquitous: You can use the same wallet on different computers, it will auto-synchronize.
* Cold Storage: You can have secure offline wallets and still safely spend from an online computer.
* Open: You can export your private keys into other Bitcoin clients.

Operating Systems: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android.


3. Armory

Armory – State of the art bitcoin wallet that is easy to use and provides cold storage. The latest Armory version will work on systems with only 1-2 GB RAM. No other bitcoin wallet provides the ultimate security and ease of use of Armory.

Main Features:
* Multi-wallet interface. Manage as many wallets as you want simultaneously. Armory was designed from the start for multi-wallet operations without limit on number.
* Wallet encryption with time- and memory-bound key derivation.
* Import/Sweep Addresses. Import private keys into your (deterministic) wallet.
* Corruption-resistant wallet files with automatic detection & correction of HDD byte errors.
* Armory can be run on an offline computer without needing the blockchain. Offline computer is only used to manage wallets that never touch the internet, and sign transaction packets transferred via USB. Online attackers can’t steal your wallet if the wallet was never online!
* Message signing with your Bitcoin addresses.

Operating Systems: Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, Linux

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