Quick Online Tips » How-To

13 Simple Tactics to Prevent, Detect Content Plagiarism

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:56:12 +0000

Guest post by Ramanujam
How can you prevent and detect Content Plagiarism? Plagiarism is a serious issue in the blog world and it is a prime duty for all bloggers to prevent their content from getting copied and also take the corrective action when needed. Every blogger gets annoyed when some one copies their content and ranks higher than them in the search engines.

While it is highly unlikely to stop blog scrappers and splogs from emerging there are some simple measures that a blogger can do to tackle this effectively. As we always know prevention is better than cure and hence the first step is to take preventive steps which will make it hard for the scrappers to copy your content.

Prevent Plagiarism

1. Copyright Banners
Let everyone know that the content on your blog is copyright protected. The best way to show it is by displaying a copyright banner at a highly visible location in your blog. Adding a copyright symbol in the blog footer is also a good practice.

2. License your content
Some bloggers will not mind if their content is used partially by third parties provided they give proper credit. Creative Commons is the most common and established method to license your content. The license should clearly state the type and this will let people know how accommodating or restrictive you are with respect to your blog content. Visit the Creative Commons licenses page and choose the right one and display it in your blog home page.

3. Protect your RSS feed
A good percentage of the blog scrappers use RSS feeds to automatically copy the content and publish it elsewhere with the help of robots. One good way to let the world know that the content came from your blog is to add a copyright message to your RSS/ATOM feed. This can be automatically done with the help of the simple feed copyright wordpress plugin. The good thing about this plugin is that it will link back to your blog.

4. Provide Partial Feeds
One of the best methods to prevent feed scrapping is by providing a partial feed and making the reader to visit your blog to read the rest of the content. While this move will annoy a good number of your subscribers and even some of them might unsubscribe but it is a matter of choice.

5. Watermark your content
It is very common to find your images being stolen and a good way to prevent this is by watermarking them. This also applies to all other content like code snippets, videos etc which you publish in your blog. Picmarkr is a free online service which will allow you to add custom watermarks.

6. Prevent Image Hotlinking
Hotlinking is the act of directly linking to an image in your blog. This is not only a copyright infringement but it will also use up your bandwidth. This can be avoided by creating a .htacess file which will display an alternative image when someone links directly to non-html objects on your site. Here is a nice step-by-step guide to prevent image hotlinking with .htaccess.

7. Use the CopyRight Pro Plugin
If you are very particular about people copying content from your blog directly, the best way is to prevent selecting and right clicking. With the help of the WP- CopyRight Pro plugin you can disable text selection and right clicking on your wordpress blog.

Detect Plagiarism

Even after taking these preventive measures, scrappers will manage to copy your content in one way or the other. It is better to stay alert and detect on a regular basis to see if some one is copying your content.

8. Google Search/Alerts
The best and easy way is to use Google Search and find replicas of your content. To automate this process you can set Google alerts for some unique terms related to your blog. A major part of this task can be automated with the help of the digital finger print wordpress plugin which will set unique finger prints at the end of each post and hence makes it easy for detection.

9. Detection Services
There are some services like CopyScape which will show copied destinations that don’t come up in Google search. Unfortunately the free version of CopyScape has very limited features. An alternative option is Tynt which is a complete copy detection and attribution service. Tynt will also aid in increasing the visibility for your content and increases your traffic and search rankings with the automatic attribution link.

Plagiarism Action

Once you find that your content has been copied the next step is to take steps to remove the copied content from the web or claim copyright infringement and make money out of it.

10. Contact the blogger/webmaster
If you see that someone is using your content without your permission or without providing credit, there is a good chance that they might have used it without knowing the implications. It is better to send a courtesy mail asking them to provide a link back to the source or remove the content.

Look for the contact form or a contact email where you send the email.
Type the domain name in a who is lookup tool and it will show the name of the registrar and the contact information. Sometimes this information might be protected but you will still be able to find a contact email address.
Alternatively you can also contact the hosting company which hosts the site and file a report with them.

11. Send a Cease & Desist Message
Wikipedia says that “Cease and Desist (also called C & D) is an order or request to halt an activity, or else face legal action”

If the blogger or the webmaster fails to respond to the previous request the next step is to send a C & D. You can use this cease and desist template and draft your own copy with ease.

12. Ask for a compensation
Plagiarism and copyright infringement are illegal and if you are the creator of the original content you have all rights to ask for a monetary compensation. FairShare is a service which will help you to do this. You can also hire copyright infringement agents like CopyByte who will take all the monitoring on your behalf and also take the necessary legal action.

13. File a DMCA
The biggest trouble which a blog can get is to get removed from the index of the search engines. If the blogger fails to respond even after sending a formal request and a cease & desist message, you can go ahead and file a DMCA with Google and other search engines. Most of the search engines have an online form where you can formally submit a DMCA complaint by furnishing the necessary information to prove that your content has been copied.

If you are serious about your blog then it is necessary to take these preventive measures and do the right action when your content gets copied.

This guest article was written by Ramanujam, a grad student in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Ramanujam is the editor of SocialCouch.com where he writes about social media and web 2.0. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks.

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10 Tips to Make Your Computer Run Smoothly

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:43:23 +0000

Guest article by Bob
How to to make your PC run smoothly? Personal computers have become an inherent part of our lives and are very helpful in keeping the personal as well as business data safe and secure. To ensure that a PC continues to work fine, it is necessary to perform various maintenance activities.

There are numerous tools available in the market like computer maintenance software and tools to help you to keep your computer and data safe. This article discusses some useful tips that will help you keep your computer running smoothly.

PC maintenance tips

Always protect your PC by installing some kind of antivirus and regularly keep the antivirus updated. There are numerous antivirus software available on the internet. Make sure you choose a known anti-virus after consulting a computer expert. A weak anti-virus program will do more harm than good to your computer. A high-quality anti-virus program on the other hand will protect your computer from dangerous invasive software that can wash out your important data. Here are top three free antivirus: Avast Home Edition Free Antivirus, Avira Personal Free Antivirus and AVG Antivirus Free Edition. You can choose the one you like best.
Keep the firewall protection on as it will protect your PC from the unwanted interferers. If the firewall is not turned on and you are accessing the internet, then some hackers can see and access all the files on your computer and can infect your PC with viruses that can slow down your PC and can sometimes even crash it. Three free firewall products I recommend are: PC Tools Firewall Plus (totally free for Windows without limitations or time-limit), COMODO Internet Security and ZoneAlarm Free Firewall.
Temp files, downloaded Internet files, and old, unused files can occupy space in your PC. Do regular disk cleanup using tools available or you can also do so manually. Regularly delete files from the Recycle Bin to remove all the unneeded files from the computer. Remove all the cookies from the PC as they are unneeded and will occupy computer’s memory and slows down its performance.
You should also install a Registry Cleaner tool from the internet. It will increase the efficiency of the PC as well as make the hardware and software run smoothly. Run this regularly weekly for best results. There are a few popular free Registry Cleaners you can get online: Registry Mechanic, Registry Easy and Registry Fix. Also there are a few commercial Registry Cleaner tools I recommend: Registryrid, WiseCleaner and Registry Medic.
Keep checking for spyware and adware infection by installing spyware detectors. A high-quality Anti Virus program also helps you detect these. Spyware/Malware/Adware are very infectious and make the PC run very slow and sometimes even damage your system and invade your personal data. There are three popular free antispyware: Ad-Aware Free, Spybot Search & Destroy and Windows Defender. You can read the reviews before you download.
All the software installed in your computer must be regularly updated so that they can work efficiently. Nowadays most software have auto update facility and they prompt for updating them. As soon as the internet is turned on, they will automatically search for the updates and if new updates are available they will get it.
Sometimes it may happen that your computer is not infected but still it is running slow. The reason for this is the installed programs require more memory for smooth running than that is available in your PC. So the solution for this is to add more RAM.
Backups help to preserve the data and important files stored within the computer. Backup creation is an easy process; you just need to copy your important data in another hard drive or pen drive/USB Sticks etc. depending on the amount of data. USB drives and sticks are convenient and portable.
Make sure that you clean your PC to ensure that dust does not harm its components. CPU fan must be cleaned regularly to avoid dust and small debris which can harm your PC in many ways. CPU fan plays an important role in making the computer run faster. The computer monitor also must be cleaned. You can do so using the household glass cleaner and a soft cloth.
When your PC is not in use, ensure that you turn it off. Also, don’t turn off the PC directly from the power switch till the Windows shuts down completely.

By following the PC maintenance tips discussed here, you will surely be able to make your PC run smoothly and efficiently.

Guest author Bob is a freelance writer and software developer at Yepbd.com. You can also write a guest article and share your favorite tools and tips.

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How to Unfollow All on Twitter?

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:05:42 +0000

Do you want to remove everyone you’re following on twitter? Now there is a powerful mass unfollow Twitter tool that promises to remove all people you are following in minutes.

So why would you want to unfollow all people Twitter? On Twitter, when someone follows you, you follow back to reciprocate the gesture. If you are in the Twitter followers number game, then you could end up following thousands of people, not knowing who they are. This will lead to hundreds of Direct messages, spam and this will not let you follow people you know, all the while filling your Twitter page with Tweets you do not want to read. So you just want to start anew… its better than deleting your Twitter account.

Want to make a fresh start? John Chow has launched his new tool called UnfollowAll – but remember, it is irreversible so be absolutely sure what you are doing.

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7 Best Tips to Create Landing Pages for PPC Campaigns

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:53:34 +0000

Guest article by Gagandeep.
Landing Pages are one of the most important part of your PPC (pay-per-click) campaign as it would be the first page which a user sees on your website after clicking your ad. Well designed landing pages can increase your conversion rate and make your PPC campaign more effective.

The success and failure of your PPC Campaign depends completely on the success and failure of Landing pages. In this article I would be discussing few tips which you can implement to make better landing pages for your PPC Campaign.

1. Compelling Headline: – Your landing page should contain an attention grabbing headline as it is the first thing a user sees on your landing page. Your headline should speak what your users want to hear. For eg:- If your user want to lose weight, your headline could be “ how to lose 20 pounds in 1 week”. Make your headline strong and bold so that it can stand out from the rest of the page.

2. Highly Relevant Content: - Your landing page should be relevant to your ads. It should contain similar title, description and keywords you are using in your ad copy. For e.g. – If you are talking about Blue Nike Shoes in your ad copy then your landing page should also talk about Blue Nike Shoes. Create separate customized pages for each offer. The traffic you gets from PPC campaign looks for specific thing only, and if they don’t find your landing page relevant to the ad they had clicked, they would go away.

3. Unique and Useful Content: – Your landing page should contain unique and useful content. Don’t fill your landing page with tones of information because nobody has time to read it till end. Content should answer the questions of your customers and tell them about the product. Information on your landing page should be in the inverted pyramid structure. The conclusion and most important points should be at the top and less supportive information should be at the bottom.

4. Clear Call to Action Link: – The main purpose of your landing page is to encourage visitors you get from your PPC campaign to take the desired action like buying a product or giving information so that you can attain your own goal. The call to action link like “Click Here” or “Buy Now” should be above the fold i.e. it should be easily visible to the visitor without scrolling the page.

5. Use Images: – Images speak more than words. Use relevant images describing your product and offers so that your visitors can get a clear idea about the product they will get after buying.

6. Minimal Navigation: - Remove the navigational links from your landing page which can distract the user’s mind. By removing the navigational links you can control the content on your landing pages which you want your users to see. It would help you to create a suitable environment in which your user can take the decision easily.

7. Analyze Results: - Create multiple landing pages for the same offer and analyze which pages convert better as compared to others. These tests would help you to know which things work better so that you can improve them more to increase your conversion rate.

Gagandeep Singh is a freelance writer and writes mainly on Internet Marketing, Landing Page Design and optimization, SEO, Web2.0 and Affiliate Marketing. You can write a guest article and share your expertise with our readers.

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3 Different Types of Keyword Research

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:26:29 +0000

Guest article by Pradeep.
All bloggers and web marketers know that keyword research is important for success of the blog or website. However many people new to internet marketing (even some veterans) make the mistake of assuming that process of keyword research is the same for all websites.

In this article I shall explain the different types of keyword research that can be used, the tools that may be utilized for the purpose, advantages and disadvntages of each method and how to select a method for your own website. I shall be explaining the concepts using examples from the second hand goods market as I have been working extensively on that domain for quite sometime now.

Based on my experience, keyword research is of 3 types viz
1. Finding keywords that have been popular for quite sometime
2. Finding keywords that are popular right now
3. Finding keywords that will become popular in future

1. Finding keywords that have been popular for quite sometime

This is the most popular way of doing keyword research and most of the time when people talk about keyword research, they are talking about this particular method. In this method we shall be looking for keywords that people have been using for quite sometime. Let us say, we want to figure out whether enough people are interested in second hand cars or not. We shall be using Google Adwords Keyword Tool for this purpose. We start with the keyword car. The tool will show popular keywords related to cars that are used by users. A quick glance at the result will tell us that people use keywords like “second hand cars”, “used cars” and “cars for sale” to search.

If people have been interested in these keywords for quite sometime, there is a really good chance that they will continue to be interested in them in future as well. Hence if I am planning to build a website about second hand cars, I can be fairly confident that there are enough people who are looking for it. However a quick search for “second hand cars” on google will reveal that websites that are present in the top 10 are quite strong ones and it is going to be extremely difficult for me to get into the top 10.

2. Finding keywords that are popular right now

Mostly these are keywords in the news. Result of some cricket or football match, any controversy, Oscar awards 2010 etc will fall into this category. These keywords get a lot of traffic for a short span of time which then dies down. Since the keyword did not exist till yesterday there are no existing web pages for it and the first ones to write about it can rank quite high on Google. Google Trends and Trending topics on Twitter are some of the best places to find recently popular keywords. Write them fast and write regularly and you shall be surprised by the result.

Only problem with this method is you need to keep writing regularly to keep getting traffic. And since the keyword did not exist till yesterday, it is unlikely that anyone has setup an Adsense campaign for it. So monetizing the traffic is difficult.

3. Finding keywords that will become popular in future

I think this is one of the best methods to use for anyone who is serious about building an e-business. For example there are lot less people looking for second hand bikes on Google right now. However I am confident that the number will go up in future. That is why I am working on developing a website for second hand bikes in India. The traffic will take time to buildup. But by the time it does, my website will be an authority website for this term.

The trick lies in finding keywords that are popular right now, using tools mentioned in 1 above. Then apply your knowledge to find out keywords that are going to be popular in near future. Let us say keyword research shows that browser extensions are popular for Firefox. When the discussion about Google Chrome started, using this method you could have created content about Google Chrome extensions. As soon as Chrome got released, your site would have become exceptionally popular.

To conclude …

Use method 1 i.e finding already popular keywords if you have a really strong website say like QOT.
Use method 2 if you have a website that is at least 1 year old with some backlinks. It is going to be really easy to rank for news items if you do on-page optimization right.
The last method is my favorite one. This is how businesses were supposed to be built and this is your best chance at becoming really successful.

Let me know your views in the comments below.

Guest author Pradeep is a blogger with more than 4 years of experience of developing web businesses in India and advises other bloggers about increasing traffic and earning from their blogs. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks.

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How to Transfer Domain Name to New Registrar

QuickOnlineTips — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:17:07 +0000

Guest Article By S.Pradeep Kumar
In this article I’m going to explain the steps involved to transfer domain name from one registrar to another. If you have couple of domain names, it is better to keep all of them in a single registrar. Below mentioned steps are common and can be applied to all the top domain registrars.

1. Purchase Domain Transfer At The Your New Registrar
Normally if you purchase a domain transfer, your new registrar will let you to keep all the time remaining on your existing registration and provide One-Year free extension. After the purchase of domain transfer, your domain at the new registrar will require an Authorization Code. Your new registrar will send an email to you which contains “Transaction ID” and “Security Code”.

2. Request Authorization Code At Current Registrar
Login to your current registrar account and request for Authorization Code. But remember you should have turned off the domain protection or your domain should be unlocked before requesting the authorization code from the current registrar.

3. Authorization Code Received From Current Registrar
You will receive an email from current registrar with “Authorization Code”. Now you can begin the domain transfer from the new registrar using the authorization code. Login to your new registrar and begin the transfer process. Then the new registrar will display the status as “Authorization Required” and choose “ Begin Transfer Authorization”(Recommended).

Now enter the authorization code that you received from the current registrar through mail and complete the process. After completing this step, the status will be displayed as “Pending Current Registrar approval” and choose “Accept transfer at current registrar” (Recommended).

4. Email Notification From Current Registrar
After completing all these steps, you will receive an email from your current registrar confirming your transfer request. You don’t need to take any action if you want to accept the transfer. If you wish to cancel the transfer, follow the link provided in the email.

You will receive an email like this :

We received notification on November 5, 2008 5:11:27 PM EDT that you have requested to transfer to another domain name registrar. If you would like to proceed with this transfer you do not need to respond to this message…..

…..If we do not hear from you by November 10, 2008 5:11:27 PM EDT, this transfer will proceed. We are committed to providing you with the solutions, services, and support to help you succeed online. We hope to continue serving you in the future.

5. Domain Transfer Completed To New Registrar
You will get a confirmation email from your new registrar received approximately four days after initiating the transfer at the current registrar. Remember that the current registrar has up to 5 days to release the transfer of the domain.

Have you ever transferred a domain name to a new registrar? If so, please share your experience here.

This guest article was written by S.Pradeep Kumar, a technical blogger and writer specializing in blogging tips, product reviews and tutorials. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks.

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15 Best Tips, Tricks, Strategy for Monopoly City Streets

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:51:08 +0000

Here are some best tips, tricks, tactics and strategy moves for playing the Monopoly City Streets game. Follow these practical tactics and rise on the Monopoly City Streets Leaderboard quickly. I have been addicted to the game since it started. Here are some quick tips to succeed….

1. Buy extra long streets - Buy super long streets above M$5 million as they are the best way to make more money on Monopoly City Streets. Longer streets are expensive, but have higher rents values. Moreover, you can build a huge amount of property than smaller streets, and earn a really huge rental. Buy the longest streets you can afford, get lots of real estate on the street and see the rent accumulate rapidly. There are many $10 Million streets out on the highways, find them now – zoom out and look for the red “for sale” signs.

2. Small buildings earn more rent - How do you decide which building to build? Have you seen why so many players build so many small houses instead of big buildings? Firstly, the multiple small houses pay a better rent than one building of the same value e.g. the smallest house costs $50000 and also earns a rent of $50000, while a huge million dollar building will cost much more and give much lesser rental. Secondly, many people try to block all placements on their street so no one can put hazard buildings on their street. So what is the disadvantage? Your streets earning potential is limited as smaller buildings give less rent. As you grow richer, sell these houses and replace with more expensive buildings to increase rent.

3. Don’t sell sabotaged streets - So you login and find your street is sabotaged with a hazard building. Don’t worry and keep expanding your network, maybe even build more. Don’t panic and sell the street for a really low price, just because it makes no rent. Just by chance, a demolish chance card may come along , and make your street high rental back again, or simply place a bonus building and the effect is nullified.

4. Buy 5 streets – Don’t just stick with very few streets. If you have 1-2 long streets, with hundreds of buildings which earn a huge rental, and you get a hazard building, all your rental stops. If you have several high paying streets, at least most of the rental continues, and you have a better chance to stay active and get chance cards, till you free the street. But dont buy more than 5 streets as tax starts after that at rate of 3% per street. So if you buy 38 streets, your rental is zero! Buy upto 5 streets and pay no tax.

5. Put more bonus buildings on special streets – Instead of scattering all your bonus buildings on multiple streets, secure your highest earning street with multiple bonus buildings. Players will never waste their demolish cards destroying multiple bonus buildings, and then getting a sabotage building in place, unless you have made real enemies with them. More bonus buildings discourages people and send them finding some other street.

6. Keep low profile - No one cares you build your empire in the heart of the most populated city or on the outskirts of a lonely city no one ever heard about. Its the long streets and properties which matter. And if you can quietly develop your empire, and save it with bonus buildings, and keep getting the huge rents without getting sabotaged with hazard buildings you will rise very fast. So keep a low profile and don’t fight for that street in front of your house. Its great to rise on the local leaderboard with only a few players, and while you make it to the national leaderboard, you are way ahead.

6. Don’t make enemies – How will you react if someone sabotaged your most pricey rent street with a hazard building? I am sure you would retaliate and sabotage all their streets given the first chance. You have an option to discard (not use) a sabotage card if you get one. So think twice before using a hazard card – don’t make unnecessary enemies. Just as you got this card, they will too. But if you are going to do it, spot your competitors on the leaderboard and get them. Why not make friends and rise together.

7. Build more houses – If you observe closely, the huge rental income comes from the property you build on it. Simply buying a street does not give you any great income. The more you property you build, the more the property value rises, more rent you get and more your net worth becomes. As space on you street gets limited, you can sell cheaper buildings and put more expensive buildings to increase street rental. So the longer street you have, the more it can earn.

8. Pay no tax - There is no sense in accumulating needless streets. Only keep and build on your select great streets. Once you cross 5 streets, you have to pay 3% tax per street. So if you have 38 streets, you pay 100% tax which makes you no rental income. Stick to 5 streets and pay no tax.

9. Follow top players - Learn what the top players on the winners ladders are doing and how they make those millions so easily. See how they have so few streets, so much property, all the Chance cards they need, and how they keep rising on the charts. Follow them and learn from them. See which streets they just sold and which players they are spying – you could get a good deal.

10. Login every day – You get rent only if you login daily. No login, no rent for the day. So losing the precious millions of monopoly dollars simply because you did not login, is a total waste of money and a sure chance to fall from the leaderboard. Even if you dont play, but simply keep logging in, your streets will keep earning huge rental. Be warned that if you forget to login for 2 weeks, all your streets are gone!

11. Fill up streets – Don’t leave any empty space on your street, instead fill it up with houses. People with hazard cards, will first need a demolish card to remove a building to create space, then place a hazard building. If your street is full, they will go elsewhere. If you have a long street, you can fill with cheaper houses.

12. Find inactive players – Find players who have low activity and bid to buy their expensive streets. The rule is if they do not respond to your request in 7 days, you win the street however ridiculous the price! Once you find low activity players with long streets, send your request – and you might just get them. Add them to your spy list. There are many players losing interest and the smart players are watching.

13. Add bonus buildings on sabotaged streets - So your street is sabotaged with a hazard building and stops earning rent. Don’t keep waiting for a demolish card to remove the hazard! Instead place a bonus building on the sabotaged street, and the the rent starts even with the hazard building still there!

14. Get more chance cards - Although it is still not clear how Monopoly City players get more chance cards, here are a few things which worked for me - Place buildings at streets ends, place lots of buildings on streets, place clustered buildings at intersections, show lots of activity which increases your chances of getting chance cards.

15 Demolish competitors bonus buildings - So you want to stop your competitor, but they have bonus buildings on the street. Did you know you can demolish these bonus buildings too and make their most costly street vulnerable to hazards. Once any street is vulnerable, anyone can sabotage it. So do they have multiple bonus buildings? Keep reducing their number, and eventually you or some other competitor might sabotage it eventually.

And here is the most important tip -

16. Have fun - Don’t be afraid to sell your worse streets and bid to buy better streets. The game of monopoly is not about sitting on long streets and grabbing rent, its about trading and playing the game to have fun. If you are earning millions, but not enjoying the game – then you need to sit up, trade, make friends, sabotage streets, spy more and get more active and actually enjoy the game – after thats what it is all about – FUN!

What are your favorite strategies in Monopoly City Streets? Post in comments.

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How To Backup and Restore WordPress Database

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:36:07 +0000

Guest Post by Udegbunam Chukwudi.
How can you backup and restore your WordPress blog database? If you’ve been blogging long enough, you might have heard the words “Backup Your WordPress Database Regularly!” Well, this is quite true. Don’t take it with a pinch of salt! A healthy backup of your database could one day be THE ONLY means of restoring your blog should something go wrong such as a bad plug-in installation or an attack by blog hackers.

For a second time since I started blogging, this database backup of a thing, as some would call it, has saved me a lot of headache. Recently I messed up my blog’s permalink structure and my saving grace was the day before’s database backup.

DISCLAIMER: This tutorial is provided as it is. I shall not be held responsible in any way should you encounter problems like loss of database and entire blog/website along the way. Use this at your own discretion. It worked EXCELLENTLY well for me and should do the same for you hopefully!

How to Backup Wordpress Database.

1. Download, install and activate Wordpress Database Backup

2. Go to Tools in the sidebar of your dashboard and click on Backup

Under Backup options as shown below, select “Download to your computer” and click on “Backup Now”. When the backup is done you’ll be given an option to choose where to save the backup. Save the backup and you’re done.

Note: I strongly advice you schedule a daily backup of your database as issues could arise at ANY TIME. Simply navigate down the Backup option page to Scheduled backup. Select the once daily option and select which tables you’d like included in the backup. Type in your email address, click the schedule backup button and all is well. Check to see if your first backup gets delivered successfully the next day.

How To Restore Wordpress Database

The guide below will help you restore your database in no time using the backups that have been made in the past. I’m assuming that your current database has been damaged or is behaving erratically.

1. Log into your FTP account and Delete everything in the /wp-content/cache directory.

2. Log into PHP MyAdmin and select your wordpress database. It’s mandatory you remember clearly well the name of your wordpress database especially if you auto-installed it using Fantastico.

A list of all of the tables contained in the database will be shown. As shown below, click on Check all to select all the tables then select the Drop option to delete them PERMANENTLY.

You’ll be prompted to confirm the Drop action

Choose Yes and all tables will be DELETED with this result displayed on your computer screen

Now that the database for wordpress is empty, let’s proceed to uploading our database backup file

Click on the Import menu as shown above and then browse to the location of the backup file as shown below. Once you’ve done that, click on go and wait for the upload process to finish.

A successfully database restoration will show you something similar to the message below

Once the whole restoration process is done, log into your dashboard and make sure everything is working okay. Don’t forget to browse your site to see if it’s functioning as expected.

This guest post was written by Udegbunam Chukwudi who shares make money online and blogging tips @ his PR 2 dofollow blog. You can also write a guest article and share your WordPress tips.

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Top 10 Ways to Unblock Websites

QuickOnlineTips — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:46:46 +0000

Guest post by Elisabeta Ghidiu.
How to unblock websites? These days, Internet filtering and controlled access is the new trend. More business owners are implementing filters within their companies with the purpose of blocking websites. Their intention is understandable but, on the other side, people love freedom and sometimes they feel mistreated. However, here are some things you can do that will help you bypass filters and unblock websites.

Image by kirl lau under CC

How to Unblock Websites

1. Use web proxies.
Many free online services allow you to access blocked websites through a proxy server. A proxy server is an intermediary between the user and the server where the request was send. Here is a list with the most known resources of web proxies: Proxy.org, HideMyAss.com, Kortaz.com, KProxy.com and Anonymouse.org

2. Use VPN connections.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is like a tunnel over the public network. The advantage of using VPNs over web proxies is that VPNs are more secure because they are using advanced encryption and allow you to access all the applications (mail, chat, browser etc) in complete anonymity and not only the web sites. The most known free VPN is Hotspot Shield.

3. Use Hide IP software.
These are easy to use and even if the main functionality is to hide IP address and unblock websites, there are applications that can provide you more than that – like cleaning online tracks, testing proxies, manually adding proxy etc. Usually if you choose a free software, then this will provide you a minimal number of proxies and no other features than hiding IP address. Not My IP is one of the latest free hide IP address software that has already gained a large market followed by the old UltraSurf which is already very popular. Regarding paid applications that provide more features and have a complex structure, my recommendations are IP Privacy and Hide My IP.

4. Use Toolbars and Firefox add-ons.
Toolbars and Firefox add-ons are in fact software applications that work on specific browsers and with a simple click you can enable or disable online anonymity.

5. Use translation services.
Introduce the link of the blocked website in the translation field (for example in Google Translator) and choose a random language to translate from because translation from English to English is not supported.

6. Use Google cache.
In the Google search field type cache: before the URL of the blocked website. For example type cache:http://www.domain.com

7. Use Internet Archive.
Internet Archive allows you to view blocked websites through the Wayback Machine. This will retrieve all pages of a specific website indifferent if the website is blocked.

8. Use Web2Mail service.
Web2Mail it is a free email service that can sent to your email address specific web pages. You sign up for an account and get set to receive specific websites by email.

9. Change the http of an URL into https
This is the easiest way to access blocked websites. Of course, this might not work every time but you have many other solutions also. This is the fastest one.

10. Use IP address of the website instead of URL.
To use the IP address of a website instead of URL, you must first find its IP. To do this open command prompt and type: “ping domain.com”.

WARNING: Now, that you have so many methods to choose from, it is up to you for the purpose you use them for. Please remember that ONLY YOU are responsible for your activities and we take no responsibility for the same.

This guest post was written by Elisabeta Ghidiu, who is interested in online privacy and security solutions. You can also write a guest article and share your favorite web services.

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Convert Your Blogger Blog to Book Easily

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:17:10 +0000

How can you convert your Blogger blog into a printed book and sell it to make extra money online? Google has partnered with Blog2Print and now offers this service at very reasonable prices.

There are a lot of customization options so that you get exactly the book you want. You can select all your articles to be added, or choose a date range for weeks or months. Then choose if you want to include or exclude article comments. There are a range of pre-selected book cover designs or you can upload your own cover design. Complete it by writing your own introduction text.

Remember you need to be on Google Blogger for this to work and you will have to enable full text feeds to grab all your content. Start by simply entering your url and sit back.

So how much does you new blog book cost? A 20-page softcover Blog Book will cost $14.95, while the Hardcover costs $24.95. For every extra page, you pay 35 cents! So if you have a huge blog, then keep the rising price in mind. However, you can grab your blog book PDF for only $7.95!