Google Docs - An Essential Blogging Tool?

In managing my blog one of the tools I rely on is Google Docs. In this article I provide an introduction to Google Docs and explain its advantages to those running an blog.

What is Google Docs?

Google Docs is best summarized as a completely web-based, simplified, free version of Microsoft Office. It provides basic functionality such as word-processing, spreadsheets and presentations. The fact that it is an online service gives it a number of advantages, but there are also one or two disadvantages you need to be aware of.

Web-based service

The fact that Google Docs is an online service has a great advantage, you can work on a document from anywhere you have Internet access and a browser. This is more convenient than it sounds. For example, I have several computers and, using OpenOffice, I might create a Word-compatible document on, say, my desktop computer. If I am then on the road I don't have access to that document from my laptop as the document might still be on my desktop computer's hard-drive.

There are ways to transfer between computers, and one technique I used in the past was to email the document to Hotmail. This ensured that I could access the document from any of my computers and it was backed-up by Microsoft. This wasn't convenient though as I ended up having several versions of the document on different computers and keeping track of the current version proved difficult. Google Docs solves this problem as all the documents you create are hosted by Google. You can access your documents from any computer that has a browser and Internet access.

Summary

I would say I am addicted to Google Docs and find it to be an essential part of running my blog - it is one of the main reasons I use Blogger. It is convenient, easy to use and being able to store your documents (and publish them) on the web is a huge advantage. I no longer have to transfer documents between computers or worry about issues such as versioning. It is very easy to be able to export the documents to a local file, such as a PDF. So far, I have found Google Docs to be invaluable.

Google Docs can be found at http://docs.google.com

Tony Bedford first started blogging in March 2000. Tony currently maintains a free guide to more profitable blogging at http://the-business-of-blogging.blogspot.com

Alexa Traffic Rank - Improve Your Low Ranking

Informing Alexa Of All Website Visitors

I wanted Alexa to know about "ALL" visitors my traffic exchange website was receiving, not just traffic from their toolbar users. I wanted them to know not because I support them, but because so many other users did. Users that were apparently unaware of the traffic-ranking prejudice. I accomplished this by installing the Alexa traffic rank banner on all of the pages within my website.

Free Advertising

The Alexa traffic rank banner is a free advertisment for them. Adding their banner to your site is a small price to pay for the increase in traffic rank. They offer several types of banners in different sizes, so it should be easy to one that fits your pages.

Since installing the code on January 15, 2007, the traffic rank for checks4free.com had improved by over 4.5 million within 15 days. That does not mean there was that much traffic. It means that the website had moved up the list from the number 6 million spot to approximately the 1 million spot.

You can view the Alexa traffic rank for the Checks4Free Traffic Exchange using this URL: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=checks4free.com.

Conclusion

If your website has a low Alexa traffic rank, I hope the suggestion in this article will help you to improve your ranking as well. The help file on the Alexa website talks about the biased ranking. However, to the millions of users that base an opinion about a website using the Alexa traffic rank, numbers speak louder than words. Your only other option is to hope that more Alexa toolbar users visit your website.

Tim Predaina is with Checks 4 Free, a free manual traffic exchange - http://www.checks4free.com - that delivers real visitors to your websites. Visit: http://copywriting.predaina.com for information about writing articles for content to build traffic.

R4

The PSP Guide - How To Download Music and Video's to Your PSP

Congratulations on buying that new PSP. You bought some great games with your new PSP and to play them, all you need do is slip a cartridge in the slot and your good to go. Sweet, isn't life great. Hey, how about playing some of your favorite songs or watching one of your music videos on your new favorite toy. Oh! Oh! The store didn't have a cartridge for that! Now what? Don't panic, just follow the step-by-step instructions below and life will be sweet again.

To download music to your PSP you will need to follow these steps.

Definitions

CD Ripper Software - Software that extracts (rips) music/mp3 files from your CD and puts them in another file on your computer's hard drive.

PSP Video Converter - Converts your personal computers (PC) video/movie format files into Sony's PSP video/movie format so that you can view them on your PSP.

USB Cable - Cable used to connect peripheral equipment such as camera's, external hard drives and PSP's to your computer's USB port.

1) Put your music CD (the one with the songs you want converted) into your PC's CD drive. Start-up your CD Ripper software or PSP Video Converter.

2) Choose the songs you want to extract to your PSP and select "Extract & Encode". This will convert the selected songs PSP format and transfer them to a file on your PC's hard drive.

3) Using the USB Cable, connect your PSP to your computer.

4) Turn on your PSP and select "USB Connection" on your PSP. Your computer will automatically detect the new USB device connected to it and designate a new drive letter, usually E:, but not always. You can check in "My Computer" to be sure.

5) Create a new Folder (name it Music or Videos) under the E: drive or whatever letter your PSP was designated. This new folder will actually be your PSP.

6) It's time to start downloading your music and/or video files from your computer to your PSP.

7) That's all there is to it. After you have downloaded all of your favorite video's and music, disconnect the USB cable and you're good to go.

http://www.moviesmusicgamesandmore.com/games.html

I live in Largo, Florida where I work for the states largest Power Company. I currently have two websites, one being http://www.moviesmusicgamesandmore.com/ and I also have a Squidoo lens: http://www.squidoo.com/game-download-sites-review I also enjoy writing articles on different subjects.

How to Get Number 1 Rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN Using Video Hosting Sites

The other day, I did a test to see how fast my videos would be found in the search engines and to see how well they would rank for the keywords I was optimizing my videos for.

The results were outstanding and should bring hope to anyone who feels that getting a #1 or top 10 listing on the major search engines is out of reach. Everyone can get top listings, with videos

The process was very simple. I filmed a video, submitted and tagged my video, and 13 hours later, I was in the #1 spot. Then, 24 hours later that same video on different video networks occupied spots 1, 2 and 3 on Google.

So, how easy is it to do? Very easy, just follow these steps and you'll be getting #1 listings on Google, MSN and Yahoo in no time flat.

First - Create your video. Use a video camera or digital video camera and get the digital file on to you computer so you can manipulate it in a video editing program. If you don't have a video camera, no problem, all you need is a microphone and an audio recording program like Audacity, and you can create an mp3 audio file with 30 seconds to 5 minutes of audio, and convert that audio to video. Don't worry, that's easy too, I'll tell you how in the next steps.

Second - Edit the video file to have the look, feel, URL's and production values you like. If you made an audio file, put that audio file into the video editing software. Most PC's come with Windows Movie Maker, which is free, and you can drop the Mp3 audio in there and place, random Digital pictures throughout the length of the audio file to create the "video" images that go along with your audio.

Third - Upload the finished video file, which should be in wmv format to a video submission host, called Tubemogul. At Tubemogul, you can upload unlimited videos, and then have those videos uploaded automatically to some of the more popular video hosting sites on the internet like Youtube, Google Video, Yahoo Video, Metacafe, Revver, and some other popular one.

Let me say that Tubemogul is also MORE than just a video posting service, they are MUCH more. They can track all the video views you get DAILY on EACH video hosting site. They'll provide charts and other track meta data, that is very important to marketers to daily track stats across all the video sites. And remember, it's all free to do this.

Fourth & Final Step - Push your videos out to the video hosting sites and let Tubemogul do the work for you. But a key element is, you want people to find your videos. The search engines find videos, not based on the content said inside them, but by the tags and descriptions about them. Tagging is the single most important element of getting traffic to other websites, based on what your video is tagged for.

Jeff Mills is giving away free home based business DVDs showing how people can make a six figure income, working from home and is giving away $757 in bonus marketing tools to anyone who claims one of the last remaining DVDs before they sell out. Claim your DVD at http://www.homebasedbusinessdvd.com