the greatest iPod tips and tricks

1. Penguin Power

We went over this customization in our last look at iPod hacks, but we’re featuring it again as iPod Linux is the essential hack, table stakes for many of the other hacks you might want to try. It’s fully supports iPods in generations 1-3, and has been successfully installed on all others with a display—which doesn’t necessarily indicate that you’ll be successful yourself. You should also grab a copy of Podzilla, which will add a graphical interface to iPod Linux. There are multiple flavors of Podzilla available for you to choose from. Once installed, iPod Linux and Podzilla will let you boot up your iPod to a bare-bones Linux mode. Furthermore, it will serve as the foundation for many other hacks, both ones listed here and those in our previous guide.

2. Knowledge to Go

Everyone loves Wikipedia. It’s the free user-built encyclopedia with entries on more topics than Britannica. It’s a great information resource, but what if you’re away from your desk? Now you can get it on your iPod and carry Wikipedia with you everywhere you go. Unfortunately, it’s not yet available for all models of iPods, nano and video users are left out for now. (And obviously, since there is no display on the iPod shuffle, there is no point to installing Wikipedia.) You first will need to install iPod Linux.

3. Double your Damage

One of the two most daring iPod hacks we’ve come across was this build featured on multiarcade. Not content with the 4GB of memory iPod nano? So why not double it. Not for the faint of heart, performing this hack requires that you conduct some major surgery on your nano. First you’ll need to buy a broken nano from eBay. Next up, crack it open and remove the memory. Then, and here’s where it gets really dicey, you’re going to want to open up your working nano. Finally, you’ll solder the memory chip from the broken nano to the empty pad in the working one, seal it back up, and perform a factory reset. You’ll now either have one working nano with 7.2 GB of space, or two useless ones. Either way, this courageous hack should make for a fun-filled weekend project.

4. Mobile Movies

If you have a lot of movies on DVD, odds are you’ve thought of transferring them to your iPod. Doing so is relatively easy using free software available for both the Mac and Windows. Be warned: unless you use an analog capture method, the DMCA makes it illegal for you to take the movies you own on DVD and put them on your iPod.

For Mac (and Linux) users, the process couldn’t be easier. All you need is a copy of the free utility Handbrake. Handbrake is already available as a Universal binary—good news for those who have a new Mac Book Pro, Mac mini, or iMac—and can rip video from DVD directly to mpeg-4 video, the format you’ll need to watch it on your iPod.

Windows users need to make a few extra steps. First, you’ll need to find a DVD ripping program, such as DVDFab Decrypter or DVD Decrypter. Next, you’ll want to convert your video to AVI using a decoding tool. Finally, it’s time to convert that AVI file into mpeg-4 video that can play on your iPod, Videora iPod Converter is a great tool for this last step.

5. iPod to TV on the Cheap

This hack is almost the reverse of the previous one, at least in terms of what it accomplishes. Want to watch content from your iPod on your TV? You can easily do so by purchasing the $19 iPod AV cable from Apple. But where’s the fun in that? Apple notes that other AV cables are not compatible with iPods with color displays. But that’s not completely true. You can accomplish the same task using a standard mini-jack to three-plug RCA cable. Since these cables tend to run southwards of ten bucks, it makes for a slightly cheaper way watch your iPod videos on your TV set. Set your iPod to output to TV, plug in the cable via the minijack, and you’re nearly there. The final step is to simply plug the RCA connections into your TV using a non-standard setup. Apple outputs the iPod’s video to the red cable—rather than the traditional yellow. So you’ll want to plug the red cable into the video (yellow) plug on your TV, the yellow cable into the white plug, and the white cable into the red plug. This is an easy hack that anyone with an iPod video can try.

6. Pac Attack

Growing up, I spent endless hours in front of an arcade console, popping pills and running from ghosts. Now I can re-live those glory days with my iPod, thanks to iPodMAME, which allows me to play Pac-Man right on my iPod. This hack will install a version of MAME, the arcade game emulator program, on your iPod. As with the Wikipedia hack, iPodMAME requires that you first install iPodLinux. The program comes with romsets (the set of files including all the game data) including one for Pac-Man, however others should be able to be added. To date, iPodMAME has only been tested on the 5G iPod with video and the iPod nano, but the creator notes that it should work on any iPod with a color screen.

7. Radio Free Shuffle

As always, Jim Younkin’s Shufflehacks site is a great source of inspiration. And one of the recent hacks he posted was no exception. This risk-free hack will let you turn your iPod shuffle into a portable radio station—perfect for taking your shuffle with you on a road trip. The build notes offer instructions on how to build a radio transmitter that plugs into your shuffle (or other MP3 player). The example on Shufflehacks uses a computer mouse for a body to house the radio, perfect for an über-geeky customization.

8. Scratchless Super Screen

There are only two complaints we hear about the iPod with any degree of regularity. The first is that the screens can be easily scratched, and the second is that they’re all the same. This hack takes care of both of those complaints. Note that we include this last mod not because we think you should try it (we don’t!), but rather because it’s so daring. Like the memory doubling hack featured above, this is a good way to ruin your iPod. But that didn’t stop Seth Fogie from cracking open his iPod and scratch-proofing the display. Noting that the faceplate on the Sony PSP is more bulletproof than that on the iPod, and that it nearly matched the iPod’s in terms of size, Fogie set about swapping the two of them out. Fogie completely disassembled his iPod, and then filed down his PSP faceplate to fit. After re-assembling everything, he was left with a “Scratchproof” iPod. While we don’t suggest you try this at home, we’d love to hear about it if you do. 

By Mathew Honan

How to display your website logo on the address bar

First, you have to create a logo for your site; a very tiny logo to be specific. The size of the logo should be 16x16 pixels and it should be saved as a Windows icon file (logo.ico for example). If your image editor doesn't support saving files in Windows icon format.

Once you have an icon file with your logo, you're ready to take the final step. Following methods will work in Explorer 5.x and higher without having any negative effects on other browsers.

Method 1

This is the easiest method to implement and it will work regardless of the particular page on your site users choose to add to their favorites list. Don't worry if you don't have access to your web site root; take a look at the next method.

If you have access to the root of your web site, simply save your icon file as "favicon.ico" there. For example, if your web site is "www.chami.com", your icon file should be available at "www.chami.com/favicon.ico". The web browser will look for favicon.ico whenever your site is added to the favorites list and if it is found at the root of your web site, the icon will appear next to the link to your site.

Method 2

If you don't have access to the root of your web site, you have to add the following tag to your web page so that the browser will know where to look for your icon. Unlike before, this time you can save the icon under any name ending with ".ico" We'll use the name "logo.ico" and assume that your web site is under the directory "~your_directory".

<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON"  HREF="/~your_directory/logo.ico">

Listing #1 : HTML code. Download logo.htm (0.2 KB).

NOTE:

Above tag should be inserted in-between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags.

 By the way, you can specify multiple logos for multiple pages using the second method. Simply save your icons using unique names, such as logo1.ico, logo2.ico, logo3.ico for example, and replace "logo.ico" in the above HTML code with the name of the icon you want to use for any particular page.

10 tools to earn money

1. Google Analytics – which is a wonderful (and free) statistics tool that will help you keep track of your visitors and analyze a lot of data about them. As I mentioned before it now integrates with Adsense to give even more valuable data.
2. Google webmaster tools – This will help you see how Google views your blog. They will also let you know if there are any problems with it that you may not be aware of. For me I had some issues that were really hurting my search rankings, but I found out about them and fixed them and voila! All better.
3. Aweber Email Marketing Service – I haven’t been using this too long, but if you read anything about internet marketing, you will certainly hear about the incredible value in having an email list. I have been happy with Aweber thus far.
4. Google’s Keyword Tool – This is a great tool to get ideas about popular keywords as well.
5. SEObook Keyword Tool – I use this to get a ballpark estimate of how many people are searching for particular key phrases.
6. SocialPoster – This tool allows you to submit articles to multiple social sites. I used to use it to submit to about the top 5-10 social sites.
7. Hittail.com – This one provides ideas for articles based on what you have previously written about and could probably rank for. I just noticed that the free version is gone. If you have a blog that is established it might be worth paying $10 a month for it – I suggest doing the free-trial and see how much it helps you.
8. Stock.xchng – The best free stock photography site I have found.
9. iStockPhoto – The best cheap stock photography site I have found. They have lots of images that you can get for just a few bucks.
10. Feedburner – If you have a blog, you will want to burn a feed. Feedburner makes this fun, organized, and easy…

How to Make Money Blogging

I hope you find it useful to see the mix and variety of ways that I earn a living from blogging.

1. AdSense

 

Despite not using it here at ProBlogger any more I continue to use AdSense with amazing effect on my other blogs. I have them all set to show image and text based ads and find that 250×300 pixel ads work best (usually with a blended design). I don’t have much luck with their ‘referrals’ program but their normal ads work a treat and continue to be the biggest earner for me.

2. Affiliate Programs

 

I run a variety of affiliate programs on my blogs – most of which bring in smaller amounts of money that don’t really justify a category of their own (but which certainly add up).

These include recommending quality products like these here on ProBlogger: WordPress theme, Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Coaching Program and How to Launch the F*** out of your E-Book (and others) as well as some great products on my photography blog including 123 of Digital Imaging, David DuChemin’s amazing Photography E-Books and Mitchell Kanashkevich’s great ebooks.

The great thing about many of these programs is that they are of such high quality that they sell themselves and I am being emailed from readers who sign up to them thanking me for the recommendation!

3. E-Book Sales

Last time I did a wrap up of how I make money blogging this category did not exist for me – I didn’t really have any of my own products to sell at all. However in the last year or so I’ve released 3 E-books – 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography and Photo Nuts and Bolts: Know Your Camera and Take Better Photos. While these products all only sell for under $20 they certainly add up and some months this has been my biggest category of income. The reason they were only ranking at #3 in the last month was that I didn’t do a product launch (I wrote about one launch which brought in $72,000 in a week here). This is an income stream I see growing as I add more E-books to my range (expect 3 in the coming few months).

4. Continuity Programs

This is another newer category for me but one that continues to grow.

A continuity program is a site where you earn a recurring income from people who subscribe to a service you offer.

For me this includes two sites – ProBlogger.com and Third Tribe Marketing. Both programs are membership sites and generate monthly income from the thousands of members that they have as a part of them.

5. Private Ad Sales/Sponsorships

 Private ad sales directly to advertisers have fallen for me in the last year (they previously ranked #3 on this list). This is partly due to a change in my own focus but also partly due to the economy as it is. I should note that this area does vary a little from month to month depending upon the campaigns we’re asked to run – we’ve had a couple of months where it actually ranked #2 in the last year.

6. Chitika

Chitika continues to be a great performer for me on my blogs. They traditionally have worked best on product related blogs although their Premium ad units now convert well on a larger range of blogs.

While I’ve focused a little less on Chitika in the last 6 months (mainly as I’ve released my own products and moved a little away from advertising) they do continue to perform well where I use them and over the time I’ve been using Chitika they’ve now earned me over a quarter of a million dollars – as a result I can’t recommend them enough!

7. Amazon Associates

Amazon’s affiliate program has been one of my big movers in the last 12 months. I used to make a few odd dollars from it – however in recent times it has become a significant earner for me. Christmas time (and the lead up to it) is a particularly good time for Amazon – last December it would have ranked #2 on this list.

8. Speaking Fees

I get asked to do a lot of speaking and increasingly they are paid opportunities. I’m not able to do as many as I would like (mainly because I live in Australia and most of what I’m asked to do is overseas and I only travel 2-3 times a year) – however in April I did a couple of events and the income was enough to include in this list.

5 Ways to Make Money Online

• Google AdSense & contextual ads - get paid when your users click an ad to go to another website, driven by contextual relevancy. This is the easiest business model of the four, but is also likely a low earner compared to the potential of some of the other business models.
• Ad sales - sell ads directly or as part of an ad network. Many sites will make more from direct ad sales than from AdSense, but it is more work managing ad sales.
• Affiliate programs - get paid a commission when your readers perform an action or buy something from another site. Making a living from affiliate recommendations is hard work because unlike other ad based models you only get paid when one of your visitors actually converts on another site.
• Sell products and/or services - sell services, create indirect revenue streams, or create your own products to sell. This is the hardest business model of the four, but has the greatest potential reward.
• Conditional Advertising - a somewhat advanced module full of tips you can use when thinking about how you scale your website for maximum growth and monetization.

what's the useful SEO tips

Content is King – create unique and rich content sites. Avoid duplicate content and also don’t use same content on multiple pages, sub-domains or sites with different domain names

Keywords – use the keyword you’re targeting on the page in bold/strong. Should avoid keyword stuffing and use them in a manner that the relevancy of website is maintained.

Word tracker Keyword Research Tool
Google Keyword Research Tool

Title Tag - add keyword to the front of the title tag so that search engine spiders will know what your page is about. The title tag length should be 70 characters maximum. Do not use the precisely same title tag on every page on your website. Use unique title tag for each page.

Meta Tag Generator

H1 Tag – use H1 tag for page headlines and H2/H3 for subhead lines. Use your most prominent keyword in headline.

Alt tag – use relevant and keyword rich alt tags to describe your images to search engine spiders because they don’t index images.

Anchor Text – use the keyword as anchor text in your internal or external linking which you’re targeting on the page.

W3C Validation – validate your CSS and HTML using a program or an online service to check that the web page that you created is free of errors. Many search engines cannot properly index a site that has serious HTML errors.

W3C Validation Tool

Sitemap.xml – Submit your sitemap in xml format to Google, Yahoo, Bing and ASK.com.

Free Online Google Sitemap Generator

Search Engine submission – after going on all above process your website is ready to submit to major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask. Other most of the search engines are powered by these four search engines.

http://www.google.com/addurl.html

http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/in/free/request

Directory Submission – submit your site to reputable web directories, open directories and yellow pages. Directory submission is proven to be a superb method for gaining quality one-way incoming back links.

List of Internet Directories

Link building – is the process of gaining inbound links to your website Get link from high PR websites because search engines consider links as votes to your site.

Backlink Checker Tool

Web Analytics – Web analytics is the measurement of the behavior of visitors to a website. There are plenty of web analytics software and services available that are free cost to the users.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Some Useful Links

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/mysites

http://www.bing.com/webmaster

How to Get Indexed by Google

There are a lot of different theories on how to get into Google’s search returns but by far the simplest way to do it that I’ve found is to simply get a link from another site that has already been indexed by Google that Google sends it’s bots to regularly.

Of course you can also submit your site to Google to be ranked or use a search engine submission program to do it – but I find the link option works pretty well in most cases for me. It might take a few days, or even a week or so in some cases, but in most cases it works reasonably quickly.

As bloggers the best way to do this is to write quality content that other bloggers will link to and to interact with other bloggers on their blogs (genuinely) via their comments. This is all it should really take to get indexed by Google. Of course then you have the challenge of getting to the top of the list for the keywords that you’re wanting to target. This is another story and is not quite so simple and some people spend their lives working on this task. Again there are many theories out there.

My advice in climbing the rankings is similar to getting indexed. In order to climb the rankings you again need other sites to link to you. In my mind this is the most important aspect of good SEO (search engine optimization). There are of course other factors, but what it largely comes down to in my experience is inbound links from other sites (relevant, highly ranked ones using the keywords you want to rank for to link to you ideally).

Does anyone else have any other tips for those exploring this? Feel free to add yours below so we can all learn.

images

What Addons of Firefox You Must Get

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for browser protection and convenience must to have nowadays those firefox addons:

No Script- basically prevents scripts from being run on the page without consent.

Adblock Plus- you can manually block ads on a page.

Flashblock- this addon blocks flash scripts from starting (i.e. those annoying video ads.) You have the option of running them by simply clicking on them.

IE Tab- this addon allows instant switching between the IE engine and Firefox engine. No more opening and closing of various browsers.

Super DragAndGo- Drag a link or anything like a uri (e.g. &quot;abc.com&quot; ), and throw it to anywhere blank on the webpage to open the it in a new tab.

Tab Effect- OK this one isn't needed, but it adds a fun 3D transition effect when you change between tabs.

StumbleUpon- this adds an option on your toolbar that allows you to "channel surf" on the web. Once clicked it brings up random relevant web pages based on the content of the page you were looking at. It is great for killing time!

FlashGot- Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together at the maximum speed with a single click.


Download Statusbar- View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.
VideoDownloader- Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, ...  and other 60+ video sites ! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc) ! Directly ...

How to display a badge of Facebook profile on his blog or website

Display a badge  of Facebook profile on his blog or website

It's possible!!!

To encourage people to ask you as a friend, Facebook offers the ability to place a profile badge to your blog or website.

To customize the badge and get the HTML code of the widget to insert on your pages, go to your Profile page and click on Create a profile badge at the bottom left of the page. You can also go directly to the page profile badge .

By default, the badge includes just the Facebook logo and a thumbnail of your profile picture. You can view it in the Preview area.

To customize and add information, right-click on the Edit link badge.

You can choose the layout of the badge: vertical, horizontal or two columns.


You can then decide whether to use your photo and select information to display: name, city, e-mail address, date of birth, status, web sites, recent photos, publications, etc..

Validate by clicking on the Save button.

Back to the previous page, select your platform (Blogger, TypePad or Other / Other), and follow the instructions. If you choose the latter option, you must copy and paste the code on your web pages.

How to download photo albums of your Facebook contacts

Download photo albums of your Facebook contacts

It'sPossible!!!

To download one or more photo albums of your Facebook contacts with a single click, you need Firefox browser to install a small add-on called FacePAD it's free downloaded :

 here or here

.

Once installed, you only have to right click on the title of an album and select :

"Download Album with FacePAD"

How to See the hidden images of groups on facebook without becoming a fan

See the hidden images of groups without becoming a fan
Currently on Facebook, there is an incredible group that offers an extraordinary image to see if you become a fan ...
It wont soon especially when the interest is even damn thin ...
but with this little script, no need to become a fan ! Just a click and presto!

To install "FB - ImNotFan ", you will navigate with Firefox and have installed Greasemonkey.
Does this  complicated? do not worry, we will guide you step by step.
To download Firefox you go HERE


Then you install Firefox...
Then install Greasemonkey HERE and   click   on

Then you must download and install FB-ImNotFan, and click on INSTALL

How to invite all contacts at once on Facebook

Invite all your contacts at once Facebook

If you want to invite all your friends to join Facebook group or page, you will need to class="hps">click on each of your contacts one by one ...

So yeah ... it's super boring! Fortunately there is a simple solution
Once on the page selection of friends, simply copy the code below and paste the javascript in the address bar of your browser:

javascript:els=document.getElementById(‘friends’).getElementsByTagName(‘li’);for(var id in els){if(typeof els[id] === ‘object’){fs.click(els[id]);}} 

Press "enter" and wait a bit and presto, all your contacts will be selected.
If you have over 500 contacts ... it may be that it does not work ...

How to be invisible on Facebook

Being invisible on Facebook

You want to connect on Facebook without anyone 's knowledge as a real ninja ? 

It is possible!!!

To be invisible on Facebook :

• Click Privacy 
• Choose the section profile and online status
• S elect " person" and no one can see that you are online on Facebook.

You can select "custom" if you want to be invisible to all ... except a few friends. 

Remember to press the "Save" button .

How to make your blog popular

4 tips for making your blog popular

See all different tricks to make your blog popular.

• If people come on blogs, is essentially to find quality information on what they like or to find a solution to their needs. Therefore, your articles should be informative and not a sales pitch to make the promotion of your products or those of your colleagues.

• With the advent of private label rights, you can find articles already written that just add on his blog. If you are considering this solution, ATTENTION. Why would a person it on your blog if you offer the exact same content as several other blogs. You might pass for an amateur. It is best to use these articles as a source of inspiration to create unique items on the market.

• Feel free to use humor in your articles or writing a little provocative phrases that allow you to say out loud what others are thinking. People come back because they learn new things while having a good time.

• To bring the world to your blog, a very simple method is to visit the blogs of your colleagues and when you find an interesting article, simply leave a comment with a link that points to your blog. This will also allow you to maintain good relationship with them and maybe they will talk about your blog in one of their articles.

To conclude



The most important is to focus on the quality of your articles, then by making the promotion (comment on blogs, posts on forums with a link in your signature ...) you will get visitors who will become loyal readers.

how to use an iPod as a storage drive

Using iPod as a drive

1. Connect iPod to your computer.
2. Open iTunes if it doesn't automatically open.
3. Select the iPod icon in the Source pane.
4. Click the Summary tab.
5. Select "Enable disk use" or "Manually manage music and videos." Either one will allow you to use iPod as a drive. If you select "Manually manage music and videos," iTunes won't automatically update iPod with the iTunes library. If you want iTunes to automatically update your iPod, select "Enable disk use" instead. 
   
   
6. The iPod disk icon appears on the desktop and in Finder windows, and in My Computer/Computer in Windows. Double-click the icon and drag files to or from iPod's window to copy them.
7. Make sure to eject iPod before disconnecting it from your computer.  Tip: The iPod display will say "Do Not Disconnect" when disk use is enabled (iPod shuffle's status light will continue to blink orange until after it is ejected). These are reminders for you to eject iPod first.