Top 10 Sanity-Saving Holiday Hacks

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's also the most stressful—between traveling, buying gifts for everyone, and handling loads of decorations and clutter, you've got quite a bit of work to do this holiday season. Here's how to make sure it goes off without a hitch.

10. Limit Your Other Commitments

The biggest deterrent to what you get done is time. As you're getting out of work for the holiday week, make sure you've tackled everything you need to, so you aren't stuck working over the holiday. Get ready for guests ahead of time, and prioritize what you actually need to do (you don't need to go to every party and get a gift for every acquaintance. Check out our tips for saving time over the holidays and you'll find the whole week is a lot less stressful. Photo by goodrob13.

9. Avoid Stress When You Travel

If you're traveling over the holiday to be with family, you're going to be facing double the travel stress of a normal weekend. Check out our start to finish guide to stress-free travel for tips on packing, getting out of work, and getting to your destination pain-free (and check out our top 10 tips for heading home on a holiday weekend, while you're at it). Image remixed from Chris Brindley.

8. Get Great Deals on Gifts, With or Without Black Friday

Missed Black Friday? No problem—it isn't always the best time to find deals anyway. We've written a lot on how to survive Black Friday, but you can find deals on your gifts any day of the week, especially if you shop online. Check out our five favorite deal sites for a little help, and be sure to get that expedited shipping so it gets to you on time.

7. Give Better Gifts

If you're struggling to find good gift ideas this year, we've got some resources to help you out. First, do a little research on your giftee and find something without being cliché. If that isn't helping, check out our official Lifehacker gift guides for all sorts of ideas, from apps and web services to gadgets, organizational gifts, and even custom-built computers.

6. Give a Used Gift With FInesse

Maybe you don't have a lot of cash to spend on gifts, or maybe you have something you aren't using that you know one of your friends would like. As long as you're up front about it—and as long as it makes sense for the gift—you can give a used gift, or regift an item someone gave you. The key is being honest. That said, if you want to do it without getting caught, we have some tips on doing that too—just be prepared on the off chance your recipient finds out!

5. Get the Most From Your Gift Cards

Whether you're giving or receiving gift cards this year, there are some tricks to getting the most for your money (and getting rid of gift cards you don't want). Check out our list of everything you need to know about gift cards to see more—just be sure you give them away quickly before they start losing their value. Photo by Arvind Grover.

4. Wrap Your Gifts Like a Pro

Chances are you know how to wrap a gift, but what about when it's something in a less-than-traditional shape? We've shared a number of ways to make up for that, from the more festive methods to a simple "Ravioli" method that will work with nearly anything. Of course, you could always just put them in a cereal or oatmeal box first, then wrap as usual. Photo by Robin Phinizy.

3. Get the Better of Your Unruly Tree

So you've picked out the perfect tree for your living room, and maybe even put together a clever watering system to keep it green. But once the holidays are over, ti's time to pack it up—which almost seems harder than cutting it down was. Here's how to pack your tree without spending a dime, and when you're finished, you can get that extra sap off your hands with some toothpaste.

2. Dig Up the Post-Holiday Clutter

Holiday preparation may be stressful, but at least you have the holidays to look forward too—the post-holiday cleanup is a much sadder tale. Luckily, with a bit of patience this year, you can make next year's holiday prep much less stressful. Here's how to pack up your decorations neatly and declutter your house now that you have a ton of new stuff lying around. If you have any broken ornaments, you can recycle them into new ones, and you should also check out how to keep that holiday music in iTunes without it annoying you the rest of the year. Photo by SAJE/Shutterstock.

1. Turn Your Unwanted Gifts into Cash

Chances are, not every gift you got was a winner. That doesn't mean you need to let it collect dust in your closet, though. Instead, return it or sell it for something better. Most stores are pretty lenient about taking things back after the holidays, but just in case, check out our guide to returning anything without a receipt so you're prepared for the Boxing Day battle.

Read More

A Lab On Fire Liquid Night ~ new fragrance

A Lab On Fire has launched Liquid Night, a new fragrance developed by perfumer Carlos Benaïm:

Rich raw materials transformed into a smooth and defined scent, Liquidnight created by perfumer Carlos Benaim explores the hidden depth of the night in New York City.

The notes feature bergamot, lime, saffron, sage, lavender, hinoki wood, incense, vanilla and musk.
A Lab On Fire Liquid Night is available in 15 or 60 ml, 15% concentration. It can be found now at Colette in Paris, or pre-ordered from Min New York.

Read More

Grossmith Black Label ~ new fragrances

Niche line Grossmith has launched the Black Label collection, comprising four new modern fragrances: Floral Veil, Amelia, Golden Chypre and Saffron Rose.
Floral Veil ~ ”An enchanting white floral with an underlying cool aspect. Vibrant citrus notes and green accords provide an attractive contrast to the rich floral heart of geranium, rose, ylang, tuberose and vanilla orchid. The composition rests on a warm smooth base of cashmeran, amber and musk. The contrast between the cool top notes and warm, opulent floral heart make for an intriguing composition.”
Amelia ~ “A soft and elegant modern chypre. This very feminine scent was created in honour of Amelia Brooke, Simon’s great grandmother who was the key to his discovery of the lost perfume house. Amelia’s father was the founder, John Grossmith. Amelia opens with enticing notes of neroli and osmanthus which develop into a smooth floral heart of rose, peony and jasmine, supported by warm amber. Patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver and cashmere musks form the long-lasting and rounded base.”
Golden Chypre ~ “A bright and contemporary interpretation of the classic chypre Golden Chypre conjures up images of late summer sunlight on leaves as their colours begin to change. Spicy notes of cardamom and nutmeg are blended into the opening bright citrus accord. Notes of rose, geranium and heliotrope provide a beautiful balance to the vibrancy of the opening, whist the patchouli lends a warm, earthy quality. Dry, smoky vetiver leads seamlessly into a sensual base of woods, amber and musk.”
Saffron Rose ~ “An authentic and complex oud combining saffron and rose to create a wonderfully rich and opulent scent. This striking composition entices with spicy notes of saffron and cinnamon, supported by a beautiful rose. The heart is comprised of exotic myrrh, oud wood and tobacco, which lend a stunning smoky quality to the fragrance, developing into a luxurious base of creamy woods, labdanum and dark animalic accords.”
Grossmith Black Label Floral Veil, Amelia, Golden Chypre and Saffron Rose are available in 50 and 100 ml Eau de Parfum.

Read More

Anna Sui Rock Me! ~ perfume review

I should begin by admitting that I’m a longtime fan of Anna Sui’s clothing designs and her entire aesthetic. I’ve been known to haunt the Anna Sui boutique in New York, just to browse the latest outfits (and costume jewelry, and fragrances), and I always admire the shop’s décor. I also enjoy the music constantly playing in the background, which sounds like the mix tapes I used to compile for myself and my friends in the late 1980s. Sui has always referred to rock music as one of her inspirations, and her shop is decorated with posters featuring bands from the Woodstock era through The White Stripes and Radiohead.
Since she has always combined fashion with these kinds of cultural references, it makes sense that Anna Sui has just released a fragrance described as a “tribute to the electricity and energy of rock-n-roll.” Rock Me! is an Eau de Toilette with listed notes of pear, green orange, and peach skin; honeysuckle, jasmine, and waterlily; and cedarwood, amber, and vanilla. The bottle is adorable, as Anna Sui fragrance bottles always are: it’s shaped like a purple-and-red guitar and embossed with butterflies, stars, and peace signs. If Jimi Hendrix had a granddaughter, she’d probably love displaying this bottle on her dresser.
Rock Me! is promoted as a “wild young floral fruity essence,” and it comes across more as pop music than as glam or classic rock. Its personality is expressed pretty well by an animated “Rock Me” video: butterflies release twinkling music notes from a guitar, pixies perform a catchy theme song, peace signs and flowers tumble across the screen, and the model Agyness Deyn makes a few appearances, looking over-accessorized but cheerful. The fragrance itself is also bright and neatly structured. The opening phase is a sherbet-like orange-peach blend, slightly acidic around the edges.  Some airy florals bloom in the middle of the fragrance’s development, mostly lily and a mainstream sort of jasmine petal. I don’t notice any pear or honeysuckle, which is fine with me, because those two notes can often feel sticky-sweet on my skin. My favorite part of Rock Me! is the dry-down, when the citrus-smoothie notes melt into an amber-cedar base that feels clean but warm. (When I smelled the fragrance on another woman who was wearing it, I noticed the vanilla more on her than I did on myself.) To summarize, Rock Me! is definitely not wild, it’s youngish but could easily be worn by someone past her teens, and it ends up fruity-woody rather than fruity-floral.
Rock Me! lasted longer than I expected for an Eau de Toilette with so many fruit notes, and I enjoyed it, although nowhere near as much as I love the original Anna Sui fragrance (a powdery tea rose) or even the technicolor gourmand Night of Fancy. It’s a bit more grown-up than some other scents in the line (like Secret Wish or Dolly Girl), and oddly enough, it reminds me of Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Ma Dame, which also employed Agyness Deyn as its “face.” I’m always hoping that Anna Sui will release a dark, spicy rose fragrance, or something quirky like a violet-patchouli blend that would better “match” her clothing and her boutique, but maybe I’ll get my wish next time around.
Anna Sui Rock Me! is available in 50 ($58) and 100 ($74) 100 ml Eau de Toilette. It is sold at Target and Anna Sui boutiques.
Note: If you’re an Anna Sui fan living in Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, or Taiwan, you can enter a Rock Me contest; the grand prize is a trip to New York to attend the 2010 Anna Sui fashion show, something I certainly wouldn’t mind doing mys

Read More

Dolce & Gabbana The One Desire

In collaboration with Procter & Gamble Co. Global Prestige , Dolce & Gabbana are launching a new fragrance named The One Desire, a successor of the popular fragrance The One, launched in 2006. In addition to this debut scent, The One women's fragrance collection includes L'Eau The One , Rose The One and The One Lace Edition . The new fragrance follows the trend of black bottles and its most distinctive feature is its carefully nuanced composition.

“This is for the woman who wants to feel unique, beautiful and sensual. She owns the room when she enters. She’s not just noticed, she attracts the attention of everybody and is sexy but not vulgar," said P&G Prestige vice president Luigi Feola.
The One Desire reveals in the top notes a citrusy blend of bergamot, mandarin, lychee and lily of the valley, emphasizing the glamour and glory of a woman. The heart blooms with seductive tuberose which is cleverly laid out on the base which is made of caramel, vanilla, sandalwood and musk. The scent is designed by Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, in cooperation with Givaudan's in-house perfumers.

DOLCE&GABBANA THE ONE DESIRE

bergamot, mandarin orange, litchi, lily of the valley
tuberose
caramell, vanilla, sandalwood, musk

The fragrance arrives in a black bottle with gold-colored details. The name (Desire) is also inscribed in gold and hand-written in the Sicilian Baroque style by Stefano Gabbana. The One Desire will be available as 30, 50 and 75 ml eau de parfum. The advertising campaign was photographed by Terry Richardson, and it features celebrity actress Scarlett Johansson. The One Desire fragrance will hit the shelves in January 2013.—WWD.

Read More

Top 10 Windows 8 tips and tricks

Customize your tiles

Make the most of your Windows Start screen tiles by adjusting the sizes, where they are located, and what is listed.

• Move any tile by clicking and dragging the tile. While moving a tile, if you need a larger view of the Start screen move the tile towards the top or bottom of the screen to zoom out.
• Use your mouse wheel to scroll left-to-right through your tiles.
• Any Desktop shortcut or program can be pinned to the Start screen by right-clicking the icon and choosing Pin to Start.
• In the bottom right-hand corner of the start screen is a magnifying glass with tiles, click this icon to get a zoomed out view of your Start screen. In this view, if you right-click on a group of tiles you'll be given the option to name group, which can be useful if you have a group of related tiles (e.g. games). In this view, you can also click and drag a group to organize your tile groups.
• Create a new speed bump between tile groups by moving a tile to a speed bump.
• Resize any User tile or Live tile by right-clicking the tile and choosing resize.
• If there is a tile you want on your Taskbar, right-click the tile and choose Pin to taskbar.
• Show admin applications on the Start screen by clicking Settings in Charms, click Settings, and change the Show administrative tools from No to Yes.
• In Internet Explorer 10, you can also pin any of your favorite web pages to your Start Screen.

Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts

Knowing at least some of the Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts will make your Windows 8 experience much more enjoyable. Try to memorize these top Windows 8 shortcut keys.

• Press the Windows key to open the Start screen or switch to the Desktop (if open).
• Press the Windows key + D will open the Windows Desktop.
• Press the Windows key + . to pin and unpin Windows apps on the side of the screen.
• Press the Windows key + X to open the power user menu, which gives you access to many of the features most power users would want (e.g. Device Manager and Command Prompt).
• Press the Windows key + C to open the Charms.
• Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings, which is the same Settings found in Charms.
• Press and hold the Windows key + Tab to show open apps.
• Press the Windows key + Print screen to create a screen shot, which is automatically saved into your My Pictures folder.

See our Windows shortcuts page for a full listing of all Windows shortcuts.

Know your hot corners

The corners on your screen are hot corners and give you access to different Windows features. Below, is a brief explanation of each of these corners.

Bottom Left-hand corner

The bottom left-hand hot corner of the screen will allow you to access the Start screen, if you're in the Start screen and have the Desktop open, this corner will open the Desktop from the Start screen.

Tip: Right-clicking in the left hand corner will open the power user menu.

Top-left corner of the screen

Moving the mouse to the top-left corner and then down will display all the apps running on the computer. Clicking and dragging any of these apps to the left or right-hand side of the screen will snap that app to that side of the screen. Each of these open app icons can also be right-clicked to close or snap.

Right-hand side of the screen

On the full right-hand side of the screen will be given access to the Windows Charms.

Taking advantage of search

The Search in Windows 8 has been significantly improved when compared to all previous versions of Windows. To search for a file or run a program in Windows 8 from the Start screen just start typing what you're trying to find or want to run.

As you begin typing, the results will start appearing on the left-hand side. In addition to being able to search for files and run programs, the Search also supports limiting the search to apps such as Finance, People, Maps, Photos, Mail, Music, Videos, Weather, and much more. If what you are searching for is not a file or program, click on the app you wish to use as the search. For example, if you were searching for "New York" and selected the Weather App you would be shown the weather in New York, NY.

By default, Search organizes the available Apps by how frequently they are used and then in alphabetical order. If you want to keep your favorite app at the top of the Search list, right-click the app and choose Pin. Pinning the app will lock it in place regardless of how often it is used. If there is an app you don't want (e.g. Finance) you can turn on and off any of the search apps through the PC settings, which is found under the Settings in the Charms.

Bonus tip: The Search is also found through Charms and can also be opened by pressing Windows key + F.

Running two apps side by side

Any app can be pinned to the left or right-hand side of the screen. For example, open the People app and then press the Windows Key + . (period) to move that app to the right-hand side of the screen, pressing the same keys again will move it to the left-hand side, and pressing the same keys again will make it full screen. While an app is pinned, any other app or program can be opened and loaded into the available space on the screen. For example, in the below picture, we've opened a browser window and have the People app running to monitor our social networks.

Any open app can also be pinned using your mouse by clicking at the top of the tile and dragging it to the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Bonus tip: The Desktop can also be pinned to the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Note: In order for snap to work properly your resolution must be at least 1,366 x 768.

Windows 8 Task Manager

The Windows 8 Task Manager has been significantly improved over previous versions of Windows. Some of the new changes include showing a total percent usage at the top of your Processes, which makes it easier to determine total memory and CPU usage, improved Performance graphs, a Startup tab to see startup processes and their impact to system performance, and the App history tab (as shown below) that gives you the total resources an app has used over a period of time. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to start exploring the new Task Manager.

Use a picture password to log into your computer

Windows 8 includes a new feature called Picture password, which allows you to authenticate with the computer using a series of gestures that include circles, straight lines, and taps. Enable this feature if you want a new way to access your computer or have a hard time with passwords.

1. Open the Windows Charms.
2. Click Settings and then More PC settings
3. In the PC settings window click Users and then select Create a picture password

Bonus tip: A four digit pin password can also be created and used to access your computer.

Take advantage of Windows 8 apps

Windows 8 comes included with several apps to help you get the most from your computer. Below are just a few of the included apps.

People

Microsoft touts the People feature in Windows 8 because they understand how many people are using social networks today. In the People feature you'll be able to connect your Windows computer to all the major social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Once connected, you can pin the people app and monitor your social network (as shown below), use People in Search to find people, and get an overview of what is happening in all your social networks.

Reader

The Reader app will give you PDF support right out of the box.

SkyDrive

The SkyDrive app will give you access to the Microsoft cloud service SkyDrive, which allows you to store your photos, documents, and other files in the cloud and access or share those files with any computer with Internet access.

Store

Take advantage of the Windows Store and install one or more of the thousands of available apps designed for Windows 8. The Store is found in the Start screen, or use Search to search the Store app for any apps that you are trying to find.

Know the answers to common questions

Windows 8 is the biggest change to Microsoft Windows since the introduction of Windows 95, which was released all the way back in 1995. Since so many people have grown up with Windows, it can be difficult to transition to a new way of doing things. Below, is a short list of the most common questions previous Windows users will have.

Read More

Top 10 Windows 7 tips

Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts

Use the below Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts to make the most of your Windows 7 experience.

Windows key and the arrow keys

Pressing the Windows key and Left or Right arrow keys will dock the window your viewing to the left or right-hand side of the screen. Pressing the Windows key and the Up arrow will maximize a window and pressing the Windows key and the Down arrow will resize and then minimize the window.

Use Shift: To stretch a window vertically, press the Windows key + Shift + the Up arrow. If you have multiple monitors use the Windows key + Shift + the Left or Right arrow keys to move the window to another monitor.

Windows key and plus and minus keys

If you ever need to zoom in or out of what is being displayed on your screen press the Windows key and the + (plus) or - (minus) keys. Pressing the plus zooms in and once zoomed in the minus will zoom out.

Clear all background programs

If you are not viewing a window in full screen and have other windows open in the background clear all background open windows by pressing the Windows key + the Home key.

• Full listing of computer shortcuts

Use the Windows 7 search

Find and run anything in Windows by using the Windows 7 search box. Click the Start orb or press then Windows key and type the name of the program you wish to run or file you wish to edit. Windows 7 will usually do a good job at finding an exact match and simply pressing enter will execute that program or open that file. If more than one match is found, use the up and down arrow keys to select the file you wish to open and then press Enter.

Running as administrator: Some programs may require administrator mode in order to function properly. You can run any program as administrator from the search box by typing the name of the program you want to run and then instead of pressing Enter to run the program press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run as administrator. If you want to click and run a program as administrator hold down the Ctrl+Shift and then click the icon.

Take full advantage of the Taskbar

Pin programs to the Taskbar

All programs can be pinned to the Taskbar and allow easy access to your favorite programs without having to use the Start Menu. To Pin a program to the Taskbar right-click on the program or shortcut to the program and in the menu choose the Pin to Taskbar option. Alternatively you can also drag the icon to the Taskbar.

If you want to remove a pinned program, right-click on the Taskbar icon and click Unpin this program from the Taskbar. Alternatively you can also drag the icon off of the task bar and then click Unpin this program from the Taskbar.

Move the icons and pinned programs

Any pinned or opened program on the Taskbar can be moved and arranged. Left-click on any icon on the Taskbar and drag it to the location you want it to remain.

Windows key and a number

Pressing the Windows key and a number on the top row of your keyboard will open the Window corresponding to the open program on your Taskbar. For example, in the below picture of the Windows 7 Taskbar, Firefox i the first icon, Control panel is the second icon, and Adobe Photoshop is the third icon. If the Windows key + 3 was pressed, Adobe Photoshop would become the active window. To make it even easier arrange your icons (as mentioned above) from left to right by most frequently opened.

Pin your favorite folder

If you frequently access the same folder (e.g. your favorites, my documents, Dropbox, etc.) pin the folder to the Windows Explorer icon on the Taskbar. To do this drag your favorite folder to the Taskbar until you see Pin to Windows Explorer. Once pinned, right-click the Explorer icon to access that folder under the Pinned section.

Open a second instance

If you want to open a second instance or window of a program that is already open, press and hold the Shift key and then click the program icon on the Taskbar.

Get to the Desktop

Click the Desktop button on the far right edge of the Taskbar to get to the Desktop.

Customize the Notification area

Windows Vista and Windows 7 allow the Windows Notification area (aka Systray) to be modified. By default, many of the icons shown in the past are now hidden and give Windows a much cleaner look. Customize this area to make icons show or not show by clicking on the up arrow next to the icons and selecting Customize, as shown in the picture to the right. Once in Customize you can choose what programs show, don't show, or only show notifications.

Improve the quality of your text

Use the Windows ClearType Text Tuner to improve the overall quality of all text you read on your screen. To start the ClearType Text Tuner click the Start Orb and type cttune.exe and press Enter.

Enable and disable Windows 7 features

Turn on and off Windows features by clicking Start, typing features and press enter. In the Programs and Features window on the left-hand column click Turn Windows features on or off and in the Windows Features box check or uncheck the features you want enabled or disabled.

Use the Reliability and Performance Monitor

View the reliability history of your computer by using the Reliability Monitor. Click the Start orb and type reliability and press enter for View Reliability History. In the Reliability Monitor, you'll be able to view the overall reliability of your computer and be able to identify any past problems your computer has had.

If you want to view the performance of your computer in real time use the Performance Monitor. Click the Start orb and type performance and press enter for the Performance Monitor. In the Performance Monitor, you can view your computers performance in real time or view a log of your systems performance.

Re-enable underlined keyboard shortcuts

By default, Windows 7 has the underlines for keyboard shortcuts like those shown in the picture to the right disabled. To re-enable these underlines in all Windows programs follow the below steps.

1. Open the Control Panel
2. In the Control Panel click Ease of Access
3. In Ease of Access click Change how your keyboard works
4. Finally, check the Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys and then click Ok.

Rename multiple files at once

To change the name of multiple files at once highlight all the files you wish to rename in Windows Explorer and press the F2 key. Type in the new name you wish to use for all files and press enter. Once done all files will be renamed to the name entered followed by a unique number.

Install Windows Essentials

Install missing Windows software by installing the free Windows Essentials software package that includes: Windows Live Family Safety, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, SkyDrive for Windows, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Writer, and Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector.

Read More

Top 10 Twitter tips and tricks

Below is a listing of our top 10 favorite Twitter tips and tricks. These tips will help make your Twitter experience more enjoyable and can help increase your followers.
Customize

• Change your profile picture. Use a picture of yourself to make it seem more personalized if this is your personal Twitter account.
• Utilize as much of the 160-character limit Twitter BIO space allows. Include keywords your followers or potential followers may be searching for.
• Create your own background image. However, do not make the image too much like an ad or sales pitch. The background image must be less than 800k and we recommend a size of 1600x1200 for a large image or smaller if you plan on tiling the image or just having it on the left-hand side. Finally, keep in mind that smaller resolutions and monitor sizes will hide much of the background.

Third-party tools

Take advantage of the hundreds of different third-party online tools and services that enhance your Twitter experience. Below are a few of our favorites.

• TwitPic - Take advantage of TwitPic to post pictures on your tweets. If you want to post pictures while away from the computer, use the Twitterific app.
• Qwitter - Great service that sends an e-mail any time someone unsubscribes from your Twitter profile and mentions a possible Twitter post you made that may have caused them to leave.
• Manageflitter - Fantastic site for managing your followers and getting an easy to read overview of people not following you back, quiet users, and inactive users.
• WeFollow - Great website that allows you to add yourself to a listing of Twitter users by tags you find interesting.
• SocialOomph - Another great service with a collection of free Twitter tools including the ability to schedule when a tweets gets posted.
• Tweetbeat - An excellent site that takes the trending topics on Twitter and gives you a clearer explanation of present and past trending topics.
• TwitterMeme - Another great location to find the hottest links on Twitter.
• Twitter Grader - Great service that grades any Twitter account and gives you additional details and ranking information.
• Twitter Fan Wiki Apps - Finally, this wiki has a listing of several hundred different Twitter applications and tools for users wanting more.

Use Twitter search

Take full advantage of the Twitter search tool. Below are just a few tips that can help improve your search capabilities on Twitter.

• Search for your website or blog URL and see if others are mentioning your page.
• Search for anything near you by adding near:"city state". For example, typing near:"Salt lake city Utah" club would return current tweets that have happened in Salt Lake City, Utah with the keyword club in them.
• Find people who you may enjoy following by searching for keywords that interested you.
• If you do not want tweets with links add ? -filter:links at the end of your search query.
• Need more options, use the Advanced Twitter search.
• Any time you get excellent results click the "Save this search" button to save that search. These searches can then be found under "Saved Searches" on the right-hand part of your profile on the old Twitter interface or under the "Searches" tab next to your timeline on the new Twitter interface.

Followers

• Engage followers.
• Do not follow too many people. No one is going to follow someone who is following thousands of people but only has 10 followers.
• Retweet interesting posts.
• Retweet and participate in conversations with people with a lot of followers.
• Realize it is impossible for anyone to read every tweet.
• When first joining do not follow hundreds of people, doing this may mark you as a bot.

Create useful and interesting tweets

• Try making all your tweets informative, useful, or funny.
• Do not post mundane posts, e.g. eating a bowl of cereal.
• Add hastags to your tweets. For example, if your tweet is about computers, consider adding #computer in the tweet.
• Tweet frequently. No one is going to follow someone they do not know who has not tweeted in months. Try at the very least to tweet a few times a week or daily if you can manage.
• Do not whine or complain. Everyone will unfollow anyone who constantly whines or complains.
• Try making your valuable tweets during the times people will most likely see them.
• Keep some space available in your tweet in case someone retweets your post.
• Use special characters in your tweets.

Know the lingo

Know the Twitter lingo, these are just a few examples: @reply, Direct Message (DM), Follower, Hashtag, Retweet (RT), Trending Topics, and Tweet. See the Twitter description for a full listing of Twitter terms and Lingo and related terms.

Follow the masters

Following a few of the masters of Twitter and Social Networking will give you an understanding of how to tweet better, posts to RT, and inspiration for tweets of your own. Below are the top ten Twitters we recommend following.

@GuyKawasaki
@Scobleizer
@jeffbullas
@briansolis
@tonyrobbins
@kevinrose
@timoreilly
@donttrythis
@zappos
@brainpicker

• Twitaholic - A full listing of the top users on Twitter based on Followers. This is a terrific service to find and follow the top users and possibly incorporate some of the ideas they are doing on their account.

Tip: Many of the first few hundred people are celebrities on Twitaholic, if they do not interest you skip the first page.

Create and use lists

Twitter lists are an excellent method of filtering filter through the people you follow. To create a list, click the Lists link and then Create a list. After creating a list visit the persons profile page you wish to add and click the list icon, as shown in the picture to the right. Our Computers and Tech list is an example of a public list we created.

Go Mobile

Apple iPhones, Blackberry phones, Android phones, Windows phone 7 phones, and most of the other smart phones have Twitter applications. Take full advantage of these applications. For users who do not have smart phones Twitter also has extensive support for SMS, which can send tweets over a text message.

Advertise

• Mention your Twitter page as many places as you can, e.g. your business card, e-mail signatures, web page, blog, Facebook, etc.
• Create a tweet button or at least your Twitter name on your pages, similar to the below examples.

Read More

7 More Habits of Highly Successful Bloggers

In the last blogging success habits post, I shared 7 habits that you could incorporate into your daily life to improve your blogging efforts.
Today… I have 7 more. Why?
Simply because it takes a lot to be successful. A lot of hard work. A lot of persistence.
So, it’s only natural that it would take more than 7 success habits to build a successful blog.
Plus, maybe these habits resonate with you more than the last 7, so you can start applying them to your life. Hope you enjoy it…

7 More Habits of Highly Successful Bloggers

1. They Master Their Topic
Successful bloggers study their topic day and night. They read about it. Listen to podcasts. Do their research and apply what they learn so that the knowledge sinks in.
Mastering is not just about learning the skills. It’s about understanding and the real-life implementation of that understanding. So if you want to be successful, master your topic.
You’ll be surprised how far you can get.
2. Create Epic Content
Without great content, your blog will be just another domain with a wordpress installation. Great content is required if you want to have a chance online, but it will only get you through the front door.
Epic content is what’s going to set you apart from the rest. Epic content are the articles, podcast episodes, videos and PDF’s that take you hours to put together.
They’re the resources your audience can come back to again and again for a refresher. This content is evergreen and will be relevant months and even years down the road.
If you want to successfully attract a large group of people who will buy from you, then improve your writing and start creating amazing stuff.
3. They Are Creative – Sometimes…
Being creative has it’s pros and cons. On one side creativity sets you apart. Creativity is a sense of originality and uniqueness, and can be great in a world full of “me-too” bloggers.
However, creativity can also be your worst enemy. The desire to be unique can stop you in your tracks. You’ll constantly need to find new ideas that haven’t been blogged about. You’ll get writer’s block and that, my friend, really sucks.
The best way to be creative is to model what works, and put your own spin to it. List posts are great (and overdone, sure..) But there are a lot of ways to write a list post. Find your own way and get it done.
4. They’re Great At Managing Time
Successful bloggers don’t spend hours on Facebook and Twitter, fooling themselves that they’re actually getting work done. We (and I mean us humans) tend to find ways to get away from the real work.
The work that’s going to get us real results. We find “valid” excuses to try to justify why we take certain actions. Successful bloggers know when they’re bullshitting themselves, and get back to work.
5. They Use Multi-Channel Marketing
The idea of being everywhere is a sexy one. Imagine getting visitors from Google, YouTube, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, as well as 10 to 15 other blogs on a daily basis.
Sure it sounds great, but it’s not the easiest thing to do. Creating assets on all of these platforms takes time and dedication, and successful bloggers understand that.
6. They Inject Personality Into Their Work
This is one thing I highly recommend you do. It’s probably the easiest and best way to set yourself apart from all of the other bloggers in your industry. Inject personality in your articles.
I enjoy reading blogs where the author writes as if he’s (or she’s) speaking to me in person, one on one.. having a beer. That’s the type of content that resonates the most with people.
Of course, you don’t want to have a ton of grammar errors, ‘cuz that can get annoying. (I’ve made a lot of errors, don’t obsess over it)  But think about the blogs you enjoy reading the most.. how do they write?
7. They Just ‘Get To Work’
…and last but certainly not least – successful bloggers don’t screw around. The hundreds of articles on their sites, all of those videos and podcast episodes did NOT just show up overnight by wishing upon a star.
These people put in work day in and day out. They just got to work – and now it’s your turn to get it done.

Are you having success? Share your habits below..

Read More

7 Habits of Highly Successful Bloggers

“Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and make them happen.”
It’s true. Some people are dreamers, and others are action tackers.
It’s true that we’re all different, but there are certain habits we can incorporate into our daily lives that can help us become better. …become better people, better readers, better writers and in this case, better bloggers.
Below are seven (7) habits that highly successful bloggers have incorporated into their lives and their work online. Take a look and see how many of these you can start incorporating into yours.

7 Habits of Highly Successful Bloggers

1. Understand The Needs of the Market
Bloggers have a higher chance of creating a successful website when they’re in tune with the needs of the people they are trying to serve. Remember that we are in the business of solving problems (and making money, too) – But, in order to make the money we want to make, we need to figure out how to make other people’s lives better.
The fastest way to get there is by understanding your market’s fears and frustrations, and creating content that helps them alleviate that pain.
2. Proofread Their Content
Successful bloggers take their content creation process seriously. They don’t like publishing crappy articles for the sake of adding content to their site.
They understand that there are real people reading the words they write. They understand that NOT proofreading their content could mean the difference between a home run piece of work, and just another post.
Think about that…
3. They Read… A Lot
Reading sparks ideas. Reading gets your mind going. If you’re stuck on what to write about next, I recommend grabbing anything to read:

• a fiction novel
• an industry blog
• a celebrity gossip magazine
• this blog :0)

Grab something and start reading.
4. Focus on Goals & Objectives
Successful bloggers focus on goals and objectives. They don’t linger with things that don’t matter much, like:

• how many friends they have on Facebook
• how many followers they have on Twitter
• whether or not they should use pop ups

Successful bloggers make decisions quickly based on their goals. They don’t dwell on their past failures, and they keep moving forward no matter what.
5. Write For People… Not Search Engines
Search engines are important. I understand that. I get over 7,000 visits per month from Google alone and I love it. But the reason I’m getting these visits is not because of some secret SEO technique  or special plugin. The reason those visits are coming in is simply because I wrote those articles for human beings.
I wrote content that people could easily understand and consume. There’s no need to stuff your articles with keywords anymore. That kind of behavior is frowned upon. So write for people; you’ll get way better results that way.
6. Keep Track of Stats
Successful bloggers keep track of their statistics. They know what to look for and which statistics matter.
They try to figure out why a certain post got hundreds of retweets, while another post only received a few. They’re focused on the stats they can read and gather valuable information from, so that they can try to recreate that success.
7. But Don’t Obsess Over Stats
Obsessing over stats is also a bad habit and successful bloggers don’t do it. Once they’ve gathered the information they need, they move on to the next task on their list.
They understand that staring at their Google Analytics account is a waste of time – and very addictive.

What Success Habits Do You Have?

share them below… and then share this post with someone you think might benefit.

Read More

3 Cool Twitter Tricks That Are Useless Without Strategy

Maybe you’re here for the twitter tricks; or maybe you’re here to find out why these “tricks” won’t do you any good. Either way, I think you’ll agree that these tricks are both cool and useless without one thing.

But I’ll share what that thing is later. Here’s the first cool twitter trick…
It’s all about interaction. If you’re not interacting on Social Media, and you’re just blasting out a ton of links to random followers, you’re probably not getting great results. To increase the level of interactions you have on Twitter you can use the search bar to look for people who are asking for help RIGHT NOW.
Here are some things you can type in.

• Need Help “your keyword” -http
• “How do I” your keyword -http
• “How to” your keyword -http

These searches will show you the people who are asking questions about your particular niche. What makes this cool is that you can exclude all of the tweets that have links in them by adding -http. You don’t want the people who are posting links, you only want to interact with and help those who are simply asking for help.
Cool Twitter Trick #2.
If you’re taking my advice and creating awesome blog posts, you’re gonna get a lot of retweets. But the only way you could find out who retweets your stuff is by looking at your @Mentions tab; until today.
Let me show you how you can find these “hidden tweets” so you can thank and interact with them, too. Again, you can use the search bar on Twitter to search for things like:

• “Your Name”
• “Part of the Post Title”

For this example, I used “Craft An Awesome Blog Post” and got these results:
This will show you the all the tweets that include your name and post title, including those who did NOT @Mention you in their tweets – and now you can thank them and possibly get some new followers, who like your stuff, in the process.
Cool Twitter Trick #3.
There’s a simple URL code you can use on your thank you page (after someone has signed up for your email list), where you can ask them to share your lead magnet on Twitter with their followers. The cool thing about this code is that you can have your people say whatever you want them to say with just one click of their mouse.
Here’s the code:

https://twitter.com/?status=Whatever You Want Them To Tweet Out Goes Here

You can clearly see how this might prove useful, but if you want a live demonstration – Click Here To See It In Action. If you shared that, I think you’re awesome too.

But, These 3 “Tricks” Are Useless Without…

Strategy! Yes, strategy! Take a second and ask yourself the following questions, and when you do, please be completely honest with yourself.

• Why are you on twitter? What’s your game plan?
• Are you on it because someone told you to do it?
• Why are you trying to get a ton of followers?
• How is it helping your blog or your business?
• Is it because you think having 10,000 twitter followers is awesome?

Before you can answer those questions, you first need to clearly define your end goal. Goals come first, then comes strategy and then comes tactics. The biggest misconception that I continue to see in this blogging and internet business space is that these twitter & facebook tactics alone are gonna get you where you want to go. (highly unlikely)
Your tactics should always be attached to (or part of) a much greater plan; your blog marketing plan, or your overall business plan. Tactics will fail you if you’re not strategic. Period.
I’d really like to hear your thoughts.. leave them in the comments section below. And please share this on twitter & facebook; that would be awesome.
—————————————————————————
To get access to the 8 part Blog marketing course – click here. Also, check out more cool Twitter Marketing strategies here.
When you subscribe, you’ll updated every time I publish a new post. Talk soon

Read More

Blogspot SEO Guide: How to Tweak your Search Preferences Settings

Earlier this week, Blogger announced what is probably the most awaited feature that made me move to WordPress late last year. WordPress has lots of SEO plugins and it was quite an edge over blogger as I mentioned on this post but this new feature addresses that to some extent. Blogger now has a SEO settings right in the dashboard and lots of blogspot users don’t even know how to go about this. With the whole thing done wrong, your blog can disappear from google search without you knowing it. It should be noted that you can’t toy around with these settings unless you know exactly what you’re doing. The following features can be found in the new SEO preferences:

• Description meta tag
• Custom 404 page
• Custom redirects (Redirect 404 pages to any page on your blog).
• Custom robots.txt
• Custom Robots header tags
• No follow tag, open link in new tab

How to Activate Blogger Advanced SEO Settings
As mentioned earlier, doing this the wrong way can remove your site from google search and I suggest you go through this post careful unless you know exactly what this SEO search preferences mean. To Enable them, go to Settings > Search Preferences

Now let’s take a look into these settings one after the other so as to know how to use them.
1. Description Meta Tag
Description meta tag does only one thing: It gives potential visitors an overview of what your blog is all about on search engine result page (SERP).
As shown in the image below, that is exactly how meta description makes your site appears on google search.
You should, however, keep two things in mind when writing your meta description:
1. It shouldn’t be more than 150 characters because this is what most search engines use and if it exceeds the limit, the rest may be cut off.
2. For search engine optimization, you should include your most important keywords in the meta description.
3. This is just for the homepage and not the entire blog, OK?

Meta Description for Individual Posts

In the past, you need to edit your template to use unique meta description for individual blog posts but it’s a lot different now. By activating meta description from your search preferences as explained above, you automatically get the option to add meta description to your blog posts from the post editor.
This description should also contain the most relevant keyword in the post and shouldn’t exceed 150 characters. I think the maximum limit is 160 though.
2. Custom 404 Page
This is useful when visitors land on a page that no longer exists, followed a broken link or mistyped a URL.

You can simply copy the code below and paste it in the appropriate box to set up your own Error 404 page

<font size=”100px” type=”bold” color=”#CC0000″>Error 404 – Page not found.</font>
<p align=”left”>
<b>Looks like you followed a broken link or probably mistyped the URL but I can’t find what you’re looking for. Here are a few suggestions:
<br/>
1. Go to the home page
<br/>
<br/>
2. Use the searchbox
</b></p>

3. Custom Redirects

If you’ve written an old post and wish to redirect to a newly updated one that’s more detailed, this comes in handy. It can also be used to correct some permalinks linked from other sites that were mistyped. You can detect these from Google Webmaster Tools.

4. Custom Robots.txt
If you’re new to all these SEO terms, you may be wondering what robots.txt means. Robots.txt is just a simple text file place at the root of your domain that tells search engines how to index your site, where to crawl and where not to crawl. As you can see, using the wrong robots.txt can remove your index from google search which happens to be your largest source of traffic.

To exclude certain content from being searched, go to Settings > Search Preferences and click Edit next to “Custom robots.txt.” Enter the content which you would like web robots to ignore. For example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /about
For a better understanding of what robots.txt does, you can watch this video by Matt Cutts. It gives you an insight in the basics.

You should only use this feature if you’re absolutely sure of what you’re doing. I suggest you should leave it the way it is unless you wish to remove certain pages from search results.
5. Custom Robots header tags
This is also used to control how search bots crawl and index your blog and should also be carefully used. Whatever settings you make here should be seen in your blog’s head section and will determine search engines behavior. It looks a lot complex but this table should explain what most of these terms mean:  Copied

Read More

New Facebook Comment Box for Blogger With Notifications Enabled

Facebook comment for your blog can serve as a good way to make your site more engaging and encourage readers to drop comments if they’re already logged in to Facebook. It also serves as a source of traffic since using Facebook comment shares the comment and post page on the visitor’s Facebook wall. One thing should be noted though: Facebook comment has no SEO value since it’s being displayed in an iframe which Google won’t index. Comments made with the regular comment box on your site has more advantages especially if you get loads of comment, more keywords you didn’t actually mention in the post content but appearing in comments do bring more search engine traffic. This is something Facebook comment lacks, execept the extra traffic you get from Facebook.
I just thought you should know that before you implent it on your blog. As you can see, I do use it too. I wrote a post on this particular topic earlier but Facebook has changed since, lots of things on the post may not look exactly as explained. Also, this one has a feature the previous one didn’t have – getting notified of every comment made on your blog. One other thing, I customized this with a little CSS. Below is a screenshot of what it looks like:

You may also check the live demo on my old blog here.

How to add Facebook comment box to Blogspot

There are about five steps to get this done but chill out, it’s easy, ok? Just follow the steps and you’ll have a nice Facebook comment box installed on your blog in no time.

1. Creating a Facebook Application

i. Head on to facebook developer page, you should create a new app by clicking the button at the top right.

ii. Enter your application name and namespace,input the captcha code and proceed.

iii. On the next page, enter your custom domain name (if you’re using a custom domain) or just blogspot.com (if you’re using blogspot sub domain) in the space provided for App domain.
For App website, enter you blog URL. ( http://www.xyz.com/ or http://xyz.blogspot.com/ ). Be sure it starts with http:// and ends with / as shown in the screenshot below:

iv. Scroll down a bit and hit the Save Changes button. Now you’re done with creating your facebook application but there’s one more thing to do. On that same page, you should see your application ID. Copy it and save somewhere, you’re gonna be needing it.

Now let’s head to your blog and finish this up

2. Adding the codes to your template

We’re adding four sets of codes into your template to make this work the way we want, aight?
i. xmnls attribute
ii. SDK script
iiI. Open graph meta tag
iv. Comment form iframe code
Log in to your blogger account and click on Template > Edit HTML > Check Expand Widget Template
i. Press Ctrl + F and search for this code:

<html

This should be found on the second or third line of your template.

- Right in front of this, add the following code:

xmlns:fb='http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml'

-Be sure to have a space before and after this code. Take a look at the example below:

<html xmlns:fb='http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml' expr:dir='data:blog…………..2005/gml/expr' >

ii. Press CTRL + F on your keyboard and search for this:

<body>

If you can’t find this, search for something similar. You should search for this instead:

<body expr:class='&quot;loading&quot; + data:blog.mobileClass'>

In the next line, paste this code:

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({
appId : 'YOUR APPLICATION ID HERE',
status : true, // check login status
cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
xfbml : true // parse XFBML
});
};
(function() {
var e = document.createElement('script');
e.src = document.location.protocol + '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
e.async = true;
document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
}());
</script>

Be sure to replace YOUR APPLICATION ID HERE with the application ID I asked you to copy earlier, remember?
iii. Now, let’s add the open graph meta tag. Search for this code in your template:

</head>

In the line above it, paste this piece of code:

<meta property="fb:app_id" content="YOUR_APP_ID" />

Replace YOUR_APP_ID with that same application ID you previously copied.
iv. Now here’s the last part of tweaking your template your template to make it display Facebook comment box. The last thing is the iframe to display the comment box where you want. Search for this in your template:

<data:post.body/>

If you’re using a magazine style template, you’re likely to have more than one occurrence of this. Using the wrong one won’t make the comment show up. If you’re not sure about which one to use, search for this instead:

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>

In the line just below it, paste this code:

Read More

10 Time and Space-Wasting Widgets You Should Delete From Your Blog Today

It’s easy to get so excited about your new blog that you want to use every bell and whistle that you can get your hands on. But if you’re serious about building a significant readership or turning your blog into a business, going overboard with widgets and plug-ins can actually hurt you.
Here are 10 time and space wasting widgets your should delete from your sidebar today:

1. Subscription Count/RSS Widget. This is a great idea if you have a legion of subscribers, since nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. Otherwise, it can work against you by functioning as negative social proof. If your RSS widget shows you only have a handful of subscribers, many readers will wonder why they should subscribe if no one else is doing it.
2. Calendar. Calendar widgets were fun and interesting when the Internet and blogs were new. But now, they’re really not. If someone wants to see something you’ve posted at an earlier day or month, they can always check out your archives page.
3. Irrelevant Affiliate Ads. I often see new blogs whose sidebars are stuffed with all sorts of random banner ads and affiliate offers. It’s important to remember that people won’t click on your ads just because they’re there, and they’re definitely not more likely to click just because there are a ton of ads on the page. Relevance is key, so stick to promoting just one or two offers you know your readers will find useful and relevant.
4. “Share This” Sidebar Widgets. Unless your blog is the most groundbreaking and incredible thing they’ve ever seen in their entire life, a visitor is much more likely to share single posts or pages than they are to share the homepage of your blog.
5. “Hosted By” Badges. Most visitors don’t care who hosts your blog. And if they do, they’re more likely to respond to a well-written review post about the pros and cons of your hosting service. If you want to make affiliate sales through your hosting provider, it’s a much better way to go about it than a standalone widget in your sidebar.
6. Blogroll/Link Exchange. If you must have a list of links of other blogs, move them to a separate page. Your sidebar should be reserved for the things you absolutely need your readers to see or do (and having them click away to someone else’s site shouldn’t be your priority).
7. Facebook Stream. Facebook page status updates out of context can be distracting to your readers. If you really want them to become a fan or friend of your Facebook page, skip adding the feed preview and just use a simple and compact “Like” button instead.
8. Recent Posts. It’s much more useful to have your most popular posts listed in the sidebar. Recent posts can easily be found in the archives or on your blog’s front page.
9. Tag Cloud. No one uses them and no one has ever left a blog just because it didn’t have one.  Use a search form instead, so people can find exactly what they’re looking for instead of having to weed through post tags.
10. Blog Ranking/Technorati Widget. Your Alexa and Technorati rankings don’t mean much to your average reader (unless you’re blogging about blogging), and I can guarantee you they won’t be looking it up just because they noticed it on your sidebar.

If you give your reader too many calls to action at a time, they’ll generally decide on inaction, since it’s far easier to do nothing than it is to choose from a plethora of options. The best thing to do is to keep it simple and save your sidebar space for the most important actions you want your visitors to take on your blog.

Read More

What’s the Best Backup Solution?

Your “techie” friends keep telling you to back up your data. Your IT guy (or gal) scolds you on the importance of backing up your data. Both of them state how easy it is to do this. We’ve even shown you how to do it.  Howe

Cloud Services for Backing Up

• Carbonite
• Mozy
• ElephantDrive

All of these options have free trials or free versions (along with various pricing plans) and all of them allow you to very simply back up your data to their cloud storage via the Internet. The major issue is accessing files that you may need from your computer when you are away from it. This is a backup service, not another synchronized copy available via a website. For that, you need the options in the next section.

Synchronization Services

• GoDaddy
• DropBox
• Box.net
• Google Drive
• Pogo Plug

I personally favor this approach. I can access my files from anywhere that has Internet access and in most cases, from my phone (although I still haven’t figured out why I would want to do that…)

“I lost Internet access…”

What do you do when you have a loss of connectivity to your cloud storage? This can happen due to a power loss, a misunderstanding between you and your provider over the bill payment status, or simply being in a location that has very spotty Internet access.
For this, an external hard drive or a USB flash drive or SD card may fit the bill. As long as you have power, you can backup your important work.

External Hard Drives

This is one area where external hard drives DO shine. It doesn’t matter if you have Internet connectivity or not. Your data is still safe and sound. Prices (according to the Best Buy circular in today’s paper- your mileage may vary) range from $9 for an 8GB flash drive to a $30 for a 32GB Flash drive. An external hard drive is $110 for a 1 TB drive or $170 for a 3 TB drive.
The biggest blunder that people make when going this route is that they move all of their files over to the external drive and think, “Now I’m backed up. Now I’m safe”.
The reality is that you haven’t changed anything.
All of your files are still only in one place. The only thing that’s changed is that now you think you’re secure from data loss, when in actuality, you’re worse off. At least when you didn’t have the hard drive in place, you knew you weren’t covered. Now you think that you’re good when you’re not. Your data has to be in TWO places to be safe, not one.
Cost-wise, you can pay for an external hard drive or a flash drive many times over with the cost of the online backup plans. There is one pitfall. Your files aren’t available via the Internet. A secondary pitfall is that if your house burns down, or a tornado or a hurricane hits it, then your backups are sitting right next to the computer that it’s backing up. I personally have my backup drive for my Mac (that’s at home) kept at work, to reduce this danger.
The lack of Internet access for your files is where Pogo Plug comes in handy. I purchased the Classic version (with 4 usb ports) and have a drive hooked up to it. Once I connected it to my router for my network at home, I can access it locally as well as via the Internet.

A Two-Pronged Approach

I use both the Synchronizing files and the Flash Drives/ SD cards approach. The SD cards are for data that I need to access at any time and I use the Synchronizing option for convenient, don’t-need-to-think-about-it backups.
Whichever solution you prefer, you need to back up your data that you care about. I would hate for you to miss out on the memories of newborn children or relatives that have passed away, due to theft or hardware failure. Think of it like an insurance policy  and just do it. Let me know if I missed something.

ver, you keep hearing about a variety of solutions, ranging from small USB Flash drives, to external “book” drives, to backing up to the cloud. So here’s the question…

Should you use “cloud” services to back up your files or should you use external hard drives?
The opinions are divided. On the one hand, Cloud storage technology has matured to the point where it’s fairly reliable. On the other hand, External Hard Drives only cost you the one time, but your data isn’t always available everywhere.
There are 2 different goals here and , depending upon how important one or the other is to you, will determine the best solution for you.

1. Have your data in two different places.
2. Have your data synchronized across multiple computers (e.g. Work Desktop and Work Laptop, or Work Desktop and Home Laptop).

Goal # 1 is the most important. If your data isn’t in at least two different places, then you will lose it. This is one of the pitfalls of using external hard drives. Most people use them incorrectly.
If you want access to your data from anywhere, then goal #2 is equally important, although it requires a different solution. You need to decide how important this goal is to you. If you are constantly e-mailing files from your personal account to your work account (and filling up your quota), then you need to try out a synchronizing service.

Read More

The Most Useful Windows 8 Shortcuts

Windows 8 has been released and for some of us, it’s time to get used to a new user interface. This can be troublesome when learning something new, particularly because this version of Windows is trying to be the best of both worlds — namely one that meets the needs of both a touchscreen device and a computer. For those of us who still use the Windows OS on a desktop computer, here are some shortcut keys to help you ease the pain of looking around to perform some of those actions.
We’ve tracked down a cool resource that lists some of the Windows 8 shortcut keys that will help you to be more efficient.

Windows refers to the Windows key. When I write Windows-C, I mean that you need to press the Windows key and the C key on the keyboard to execute the shortcut.

• Windows: Switch between the start screen and the traditional desktop.
• Windows-C: This shortcut opens the new Charms Bar. It works both on the start screen and on the traditional desktop.
• Windows-X: Opens an advanced tools menu on the desktop in the location the start menu was located in.
• Windows-Q: Opens the Apps search menu on the start screen that you can use to search for applications and programs.
• Windows-W: Opens the settings search menu on the start screen to search for settings, Windows tools and control panel applets

Read More