The volume and use of computers in the world are so great, they have
become difficult to ignore anymore. Computers appear to us in so many
ways that many times, we fail to see them as they actually are. People
associated with a computer when they purchased their morning coffee at
the vending machine. As they drove themselves to work, the traffic
lights that so often hampered us are controlled by computers in an
attempt to speed the journey. Accept it or not, the computer has invaded
our life.
The origins and roots of computers started out as many
other inventions and technologies have in the past. They evolved from a
relatively simple idea or plan designed to help perform functions easier
and quicker. The first basic type of computers were designed to do just
that; compute!. They performed basic math functions such as
multiplication and division and displayed the results in a variety of
methods. Some computers displayed results in a binary representation of
electronic lamps. Binary denotes using only ones and zeros thus, lit
lamps represented ones and unlit lamps represented zeros. The irony of
this is that people needed to perform another mathematical function to
translate binary to decimal to make it readable to the user.
One
of the first computers was called ENIAC. It was a huge, monstrous size
nearly that of a standard railroad car. It contained electronic tubes,
heavy gauge wiring, angle-iron, and knife switches just to name a few of
the components. It has become difficult to believe that computers have
evolved into suitcase sized micro-computers of the 1990's.
Computers
eventually evolved into less archaic looking devices near the end of
the 1960's. Their size had been reduced to that of a small automobile
and they were processing segments of information at faster rates than
older models. Most computers at this time were termed "mainframes" due
to the fact that many computers were linked together to perform a given
function. The primary user of these types of computers were military
agencies and large corporations such as Bell, AT&T, General
Electric, and Boeing. Organizations such as these had the funds to
afford such technologies. However, operation of these computers required
extensive intelligence and manpower resources. The average person could
not have fathomed trying to operate and use these million dollar
processors.
The United States was attributed the title of
pioneering the computer. It was not until the early 1970's that nations
such as Japan and the United Kingdom started utilizing technology of
their own for the development of the computer. This resulted in newer
components and smaller sized computers. The use and operation of
computers had developed into a form that people of average intelligence
could handle and manipulate without to much ado. When the economies of
other nations started to compete with the United States, the computer
industry expanded at a great rate. Prices dropped dramatically and
computers became more affordable to the average household.
Like
the invention of the wheel, the computer is here to stay.The operation
and use of computers in our present era of the 1990's has become so easy
and simple that perhaps we may have taken too much for granted. Almost
everything of use in society requires some form of training or
education. Many people say that the predecessor to the computer was the
typewriter. The typewriter definitely required training and experience
in order to operate it at a usable and efficient level. Children are
being taught basic computer skills in the classroom in order to prepare
them for the future evolution of the computer age.
The history of
computers started out about 2000 years ago, at the birth of the abacus, a
wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them.
When these beads are moved around, according to programming rules
memorized by the user, all regular arithmetic problems can be done.
Another important invention around the same time was the Astrolabe, used
for navigation.
Blaise Pascal is usually credited for building
the first digital computer in 1642. It added numbers entered with dials
and was made to help his father, a tax collector. In 1671, Gottfried
Wilhelm von Leibniz invented a computer that was built in 1694. It could
add, and, after changing some things around, multiply. Leibnitz
invented a special stopped gear mechanism for introducing the addend
digits, and this is still being used.
The prototypes made by
Pascal and Leibnitz were not used in many places, and considered weird
until a little more than a century later, when Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A.
Charles Xavier Thomas) created the first successful mechanical
calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. A lot of
improved desktop calculators by many inventors followed, so that by
about 1890, the range of improvements included: Accumulation of partial
results, storage and automatic reentry of past results (A memory
function), and printing of the results. Each of these required manual
installation. These improvements were mainly made for commercial users,
and not for the needs of science.
While Thomas of Colmar was
developing the desktop calculator, a series of very interesting
developments in computers was started in Cambridge, England, by Charles
Babbage (of which the computer store "Babbages" is named), a mathematics
professor. In 1812, Babbage realized that many long calculations,
especially those needed to make mathematical tables, were really a
series of predictable actions that were constantly repeated. From this
he suspected that it should be possible to do these automatically. He
began to design an automatic mechanical calculating machine, which he
called a difference engine. By 1822, he had a working model to
demonstrate. Financial help from the British Government was attained and
Babbage started fabrication of a difference engine in 1823. It was
intended to be steam powered and fully automatic, including the printing
of the resulting tables, and commanded by a fixed instruction program.
The
difference engine, although having limited adaptability and
applicability, was really a great advance. Babbage continued to work on
it for the next 10 years, but in 1833 he lost interest because he
thought he had a better idea; the construction of what would now be
called a general purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic mechanical
digital computer. Babbage called this idea an Analytical Engine. The
ideas of this design showed a lot of foresight, although this couldn't
be appreciated until a full century later.
The plans for this
engine required an identical decimal computer operating on numbers of 50
decimal digits (or words) and having a storage capacity (memory) of
1,000 such digits. The built-in operations were supposed to include
everything that a modern general - purpose computer would need, even the
all important Conditional Control Transfer Capability that would allow
commands to be executed in any order, not just the order in which they
were programmed.
As people can see, it took quite a large amount
of intelligence and fortitude to come to the 1990's style and use of
computers. People have assumed that computers are a natural development
in society and take them for granted. Just as people have learned to
drive an automobile, it also takes skill and learning to utilize a
computer.
Computers in society have become difficult to
understand. Exactly what they consisted of and what actions they
performed were highly dependent upon the type of computer. To say a
person had a typical computer doesn't necessarily narrow down just what
the capabilities of that computer was. Computer styles and types covered
so many different functions and actions, that it was difficult to name
them all. The original computers of the 1940's were easy to define their
purpose when they were first invented. They primarily performed
mathematical functions many times faster than any person could have
calculated. However, the evolution of the computer had created many
styles and types that were greatly dependent on a well defined purpose.
The
computers of the 1990's roughly fell into three groups consisting of
mainframes, networking units, and personal computers. Mainframe
computers were extremely large sized modules and had the capabilities of
processing and storing massive amounts of data in the form of numbers
and words. Mainframes were the first types of computers developed in the
1940's. Users of these types of computers ranged from banking firms,
large corporations and government agencies. They usually were very
expensive in cost but designed to last at least five to ten years. They
also required well educated and experienced manpower to be operated and
maintained. Larry Wulforst, in his book Breakthrough to the Computer
Age, describes the old mainframes of the 1940's compared to those of the
1990's by speculating, "...the contrast to the sound of the sputtering
motor powering the first flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk
and the roar of the mighty engines on a Cape Canaveral launching pad".
End of part one.
Saturday 23 November 2013
Web and Computer Security
Well, if that would have been said to me by my father when I was 2
years of age, I would have understood. But when today, my own computer
tells me that when I am 34, I wonder why I spent $1500 on my computer
hardware and software just to enjoy the (un-realized) benefits of this
great and revolutionary information technology?
Today’s cyberspace is hazardous. None of today’s PC users can claim that they never had a computer virus issue or a PC security breach. Now, if you count today’s number of PC users worldwide, they will soon be 1 billion by 2010 according to analysts. When I see all the computer viruses, infections, trojans, and what not around me, and compare it with the 1 billion innocent computer users around the world, I simply feel sorry not only for those billion users but for myself too. But again, as a common user myself, I must admit it was not all doomsday for the whole industry since 1987 when I started to use computers. So, as a responsible member of this great IT revolution, I must share some of the best tips and tricks that I learned to use to make the minimum room for productivity on my computer.
Please note this is a tutorial for someone who has basic know-how of computer usage. For those who are newbies, I would recommend asking a local expert’s help before trying anything out mentioned in this tutorial. In that case, make room for payment from deep pocket. For your own convenience, print this tutorial for step-by-step instructions.
Whenever my computer is infected, I act on any of the following options;
1. FORMAT HARD DISK: I back up all of my data on a CD-Writer if it is still accessible. And then format the whole hard disk drive and re-install each and every application.
2. USE SOFTWARE: I exhaust all anti-virus and other software options. This is usually my first priority as compared to formatting the whole computer hard disk drives.
Now, let me explain both options in detail;
PRE-REQUISITES: Make sure you have a CD-Drive (Writer), empty writable CDs, Windows OS CD (bootable) that contains files such as Format.exe, Scandisk.exe, FDisk.exe, and Attrib.exe files. Microsoft Office CD, Anti-Virus CD, GoldenHawk CD Writing Software in DOS (copy2cd.exe and cdtools.exe), Serial Numbers of your License, Driver CDs of Motherboard, VGA, Network, Sound and Modem devices. Optionally, download (using http://www.download.com or http://www.tucows.com) these software from any Internet Café when your own computer is inaccessible and save it on a CD so that you can use it anytime for security purposes;
Golden Hawk DOS based CD Writing Software
HTech Fireman Windows based CD Writing Software
Driver Genius Pro
Partition Magic
AVG AntiVirus
SpywareBlaster & SpywareGuard
Spybot Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware
IE-SpyAd
ZoneAlarm
HiJackThis & CWShredder
I have intentionally avoided mention of many commercially good and more friendly software’s mention here as I wanted everything to do FREE without any additional costs apart from the usual OS licenses. For your own convenience, you can research Google or Yahoo search engines find further information about such commercial software and their availability / pricing.
1. FORMAT HARD DISK
I know it is painful and surgical type of solution, but sometimes, it is the ONLY solution left after exhausting all of our efforts to revive our computer machine after a virus attack. Follow this procedure;
Booting Up: Try booting your computer normally first and see if you can login easily. If you can’t or your computer hangs up, try holding F8 key when starting Windows and you will get the Safe Mode. Even if you don’t get the Safe Mode, don’t worry.
Power up your computer and press DEL key or F2 key to login your CMOS. In CMOS, go to Boot Preferences and make CD Drive as boot drive as your first boot drive and change the hard disk drive as the second boot drive. If you don’t see your CD Drive in the boot-up options, your CD Drive is not properly installed. Check the connectors or ask your CD Drive provider for instructions to install the CD Drive. Now, when your CD Drive is ready, insert your Windows OS CD in the CD Drive and restart your computer machine. When prompted, select the option “Boot from CD with CD Option”. When you get the prompt, Notice the CD Drive letter that was allocated to your CD Drive when it installed the CD Driver. It is usually D: drive or the last drive letter depending on the number of your partitions. Note it down as it is the actual drive letter where you will have to type a DOS command like d:
You should now be able to run all software utilities such as Format, Scandisk, FDisk or Windows Installation Setup.exe files. Right now, simply make sure they exist by typing a DOS command dir at the CD drive letter. If you don’t find it with this simple directory command, use dir/s filename to search the file. For example, to search fdisk.exe file, type dir/s fdisk.exe.
BACKING UP YOUR DATA: Before formatting your hard disk drive, please make sure you have proper back up of your critical data files such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc files on a CD or any other media for backup that you have access to. In this tutorial, we assume you have a CD-Writer installed for taking backups on Writeable CDs. Their capacity is usually 700MB or less. Here, you should seriously consider using Zipping software like WinZip or WinRAR.
VIA WINDOWS: If you can luckily login to your Windows OS, you should run the CD-Writer software such as HTech Fireman to back up all of your data on an empty CD. If you don’t know how to do it, read their user manual for detailed instruction set. If you can’t access your Windows OS, read on.
VIA DOS: Some of the files that you wish to make back-up, may be hidden. To un-hide them, use attrib *.* +r +s +h.
Now, use the software from Golden Hawk file named as copy2cd.exe to backup your data files or directories on a writeable CD. Before using this command, make sure you are in an appropriate path on the computer such as E:/ where the actual file copy2cd.exe file resides;
Copy2cd c:data*.* f:
Here we assumed that f: is a CD Writer drive. Now, repeat the same for all of your files to back up. When finished, run cdtools.exe command i.e. cdtools f: to finish by selecting option “Disc Finalization”.
If you can’t back up your data using the above-mentioned procedure, either ask an outside expert’s help personally or via internet. If all fails, forget your data forever and carry on installing a new OS as mentioned in this tutorial.
Backing up Your Drivers: An interesting tool to mentioned here is a software that automatically backs up all of your drivers of CD, modem, sound card, vga, usb, printer or just about anything that is currently installed on your system. But this software works only in an operational windows OS, and not in DOS. It is a good and time-saving practice to keep a backup of all of your drivers on a CD by using such a software. Its name is Driver Genius Pro and it is commercial software, not a freeware.
USING FDISK: You may skip this option and go straight to Formatting Hard Disk option, if you wish to use other useful partitions that may contain your data. Before going ahead with this option, Make sure there is no useful data left on your computer to be backed up. This option will delete all of the computer partitions and create new ones.
i) Boot up your computer using Windows OS CD.
ii) Run this command
fdisk
iii) Press option 3 to delete all current partitions.
iv) To create a new partition, select option 1 and select Y to answer the maximum size question by the program.
v) Next, select option 2
vi) Press Esc key to quit and restart your computer to
See the URL [http://www.compguystechweb.com/troubleshooting/fdisk/fdisk_scr.html] for detailed instructions alongwith screenshots. Now, that you have created the primary partition, you can continue to format the newly created partition. There is a very user-friendly but commercial software called Partition Magic by PowerQuest to manage your partitions easily after installation of Windows.
FORMATTING HARD DISK: Now that you have created new partitions, It is time to format them so that you can start installing Windows. This is how you make your C: drive usable by your Windows OS for installation. Boot up your computer with Windows CD and type format c: command at the prompt. When prompted for maximum size, press, YES. After complete processing you will be presented with the successful report about the formatting of the C: drive. Select your new drive name and press ENTER to finish.
INSTALLING WINDOWS: Microsoft has made it very easy for a newbie to install a completely new OS on a newly formatted partition. It is all wizard based and you simply have to click NEXT each time whenever asked a question. Boot up your computer from the Windows CD and select Start with CD Option. When on DOS prompt, change to the CD Drive that it just created which is usually d: if you have only one partition C. Now type command setup.exe to start the windows installation process.
During installation, make sure you properly name your PC as per your preferences and select your regions and Time zone. When finished, the computer will re-boot and during next re-boot it may ask some drivers of your Sound Card, VGA, Network, or other devices attached. Provide the requisite driver CDs and locate the paths of the appropriate drivers. If you are not sure, leave it like that and press NEXT to ignore. When your windows installation is complete, you can install Microsoft Office, setup internet connection and start using it as normally as you would. Please make sure you install all the security software such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, adware, and other software as mentioned in the next section.
2. USE SOFTWARE
Installing Anti-Virus: Download free AVG Antivirus software and install it. Make sure you get its free key from their website by registering. This software is not auto-updated for critical viruses and for an auto-update version, you will have to pay. If you wish to pay, we would recommend world’s most popular brands Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micros instead. No matter what Anti-Virus software you install, make sure you enable its Auto-Protect feature for automatic protection of your computer’s resources and in-coming or out-going emails from any virus attack. Some software even allow you to setup silent detection and destruction without any disturbance to your work. Further, they are auto-updated via internet at the regular interval that you setup. Hence, you can rest assured that whenever a security threat is spread all over the world, your software will automatically download the requisite updated version and install its defense on your computer.
BROWSER SECURITY: To setup your browser (Internet Explorer on Windows) for maximum security against the usual threats, follow this procedure;
i) Start up your browser
ii) Go to IE > Tools > Windows Update > Product Updates, and selected Security Updates to be automatically updated. Microsoft releases patches and security patches from time to time to make sure your system's security is up-to-date.
iii) Now, go to Internet Options/Security/Internet, press 'default level', then OK. Now press "Custom Level." In the ActiveX section, set the first two options ("Download signed and unsigned ActiveX controls) to 'prompt', and 'Initialize and Script ActiveX controls not marked as safe" to 'disable'. Now you will be asked whether you want ActiveX objects to be executed and whether you want software to be installed. Sites that you know for sure are above suspicion can be moved to the Trusted Zone in Internet Option/security.
If you use another browser such as Firefox or Netscape, see their documentation on how to securely set it up against any such internet threats.
Installing Anti-Spyware: Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today. By simply browsing to a web page, your computer may become a victim. You can install SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard to effectively guard your computer from such internet threats.
It includes Fast Real-Time Scanning engine for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new / mutated spyware and Download Protection along with Browser Hijacking Protection in real-time.
Simply download the software (free) from their website and install it on your system. Make sure you download its latest update too or enable its Auto-Update feature to be updated automatically in the background. Now, when you are ready, run the software to check the spyware on your computer. When spyware are found, it reports accordingly. Press "select all", then press option "kill all checked". Although it won't protect you from 100% spyware, But it is a very important extra layer of protection.
Next, install another software that is called Spybot Search & Destroy. It works exactly like SpywareBlaster, but it never hurts to have a double layer of spyware detection alongwith Spybot R&D.
Installing Anti-Adware: Adware is a common term used to describe potentially dangerous websites and scripts that do data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. There is a very good software called Ad-Aware available to scan and remove such nuisances from your system.
To start using it, simply visit Lavasoft USA website and download its free non-commercial version of Ad-Aware Personal Edition. Run its setup program and install it. When prompted, ask it to scan your computer. If there are any adware found, it is detected and removed automatically by Ad-Aware. Run this software on a weekly or daily basis, if possible to keep your system clean.
In addition to the Ad-Aware, Internet Explorer comes with a very handy tool that allows you to block specific sites that may carry well-known advertisers, marketers, crapware pushers to the Restricted sites Zone. If you had to input 50000+ of such sites manually yourself, it would takes years. Luckily, there is a software that does it all automatically and it is called IE-SPYAD. Once you merge this list of sites and domains into the Registry, the web sites for these companies will not be able to use cookies, ActiveX controls, Java applets, or scripting to compromise your privacy or your PC while you surf the Net. Nor will they be able to use your browser to push unwanted pop-ups, cookies, or auto-installing programs on your PC. It is not an ad blocker. It will stop top unwanted crapware from being installed behind your back via "drive-by-downloads"; prevent the hijacking of your home page.
This Restricted sites list is based in part on info from: discussions in the SpywareInfo Forums and other forums that specialize in crapware removal major crapware reference sites: doxdesk, cexx.org, Kephyr.com, PestPatrol and SpywareGuide.
To start using it, simply download it from their website and run its install.bat file. Make sure you run its update as well soon after its installation.
INSTALLING FIREWALL: A firewall software acts as a defense shield against hackers, intruders, and blocks access attempts to your computer. ZoneAlarm is a professional firewall software that works in a stealth mode automatically and makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.
Download it from ZoneLabs website and run its setup for installation. I recommend you use its Express Settings which automatically configures your most commonly used software like browser, chat messengers, ftp software to access internet, while blocks every other internet traffic in real-time. If any software or service tries to upload or download any data, it pops up an alert whereby you can allow or disallow such internet traffic.
Computer Slow Down: It is very common to see many complaining about their computer slow-down. The fastest and easiest cure is using Windows’ built-in Defragmenter utitlity that you can find in Startà Programs à Accessories à System Utitlities à Disk Defragmantor and run thorough defragmantation. It will take a while before it ends.
If your system’s performance does not improve after running defragmantation utility, consider scanning your computer via a software utility called HiJackThis which you can download and install on your system. Use this tool carefully as it is intended for advanced users only. HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items. The program can create a backup of your original settings and also ignore selected items. Additional features include a simple list of all startup items, default start page, online updates and more.
Today’s cyberspace is hazardous. None of today’s PC users can claim that they never had a computer virus issue or a PC security breach. Now, if you count today’s number of PC users worldwide, they will soon be 1 billion by 2010 according to analysts. When I see all the computer viruses, infections, trojans, and what not around me, and compare it with the 1 billion innocent computer users around the world, I simply feel sorry not only for those billion users but for myself too. But again, as a common user myself, I must admit it was not all doomsday for the whole industry since 1987 when I started to use computers. So, as a responsible member of this great IT revolution, I must share some of the best tips and tricks that I learned to use to make the minimum room for productivity on my computer.
Please note this is a tutorial for someone who has basic know-how of computer usage. For those who are newbies, I would recommend asking a local expert’s help before trying anything out mentioned in this tutorial. In that case, make room for payment from deep pocket. For your own convenience, print this tutorial for step-by-step instructions.
Whenever my computer is infected, I act on any of the following options;
1. FORMAT HARD DISK: I back up all of my data on a CD-Writer if it is still accessible. And then format the whole hard disk drive and re-install each and every application.
2. USE SOFTWARE: I exhaust all anti-virus and other software options. This is usually my first priority as compared to formatting the whole computer hard disk drives.
Now, let me explain both options in detail;
PRE-REQUISITES: Make sure you have a CD-Drive (Writer), empty writable CDs, Windows OS CD (bootable) that contains files such as Format.exe, Scandisk.exe, FDisk.exe, and Attrib.exe files. Microsoft Office CD, Anti-Virus CD, GoldenHawk CD Writing Software in DOS (copy2cd.exe and cdtools.exe), Serial Numbers of your License, Driver CDs of Motherboard, VGA, Network, Sound and Modem devices. Optionally, download (using http://www.download.com or http://www.tucows.com) these software from any Internet Café when your own computer is inaccessible and save it on a CD so that you can use it anytime for security purposes;
Golden Hawk DOS based CD Writing Software
HTech Fireman Windows based CD Writing Software
Driver Genius Pro
Partition Magic
AVG AntiVirus
SpywareBlaster & SpywareGuard
Spybot Search & Destroy
Ad-Aware
IE-SpyAd
ZoneAlarm
HiJackThis & CWShredder
I have intentionally avoided mention of many commercially good and more friendly software’s mention here as I wanted everything to do FREE without any additional costs apart from the usual OS licenses. For your own convenience, you can research Google or Yahoo search engines find further information about such commercial software and their availability / pricing.
1. FORMAT HARD DISK
I know it is painful and surgical type of solution, but sometimes, it is the ONLY solution left after exhausting all of our efforts to revive our computer machine after a virus attack. Follow this procedure;
Booting Up: Try booting your computer normally first and see if you can login easily. If you can’t or your computer hangs up, try holding F8 key when starting Windows and you will get the Safe Mode. Even if you don’t get the Safe Mode, don’t worry.
Power up your computer and press DEL key or F2 key to login your CMOS. In CMOS, go to Boot Preferences and make CD Drive as boot drive as your first boot drive and change the hard disk drive as the second boot drive. If you don’t see your CD Drive in the boot-up options, your CD Drive is not properly installed. Check the connectors or ask your CD Drive provider for instructions to install the CD Drive. Now, when your CD Drive is ready, insert your Windows OS CD in the CD Drive and restart your computer machine. When prompted, select the option “Boot from CD with CD Option”. When you get the prompt, Notice the CD Drive letter that was allocated to your CD Drive when it installed the CD Driver. It is usually D: drive or the last drive letter depending on the number of your partitions. Note it down as it is the actual drive letter where you will have to type a DOS command like d:
You should now be able to run all software utilities such as Format, Scandisk, FDisk or Windows Installation Setup.exe files. Right now, simply make sure they exist by typing a DOS command dir at the CD drive letter. If you don’t find it with this simple directory command, use dir/s filename to search the file. For example, to search fdisk.exe file, type dir/s fdisk.exe.
BACKING UP YOUR DATA: Before formatting your hard disk drive, please make sure you have proper back up of your critical data files such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc files on a CD or any other media for backup that you have access to. In this tutorial, we assume you have a CD-Writer installed for taking backups on Writeable CDs. Their capacity is usually 700MB or less. Here, you should seriously consider using Zipping software like WinZip or WinRAR.
VIA WINDOWS: If you can luckily login to your Windows OS, you should run the CD-Writer software such as HTech Fireman to back up all of your data on an empty CD. If you don’t know how to do it, read their user manual for detailed instruction set. If you can’t access your Windows OS, read on.
VIA DOS: Some of the files that you wish to make back-up, may be hidden. To un-hide them, use attrib *.* +r +s +h.
Now, use the software from Golden Hawk file named as copy2cd.exe to backup your data files or directories on a writeable CD. Before using this command, make sure you are in an appropriate path on the computer such as E:/ where the actual file copy2cd.exe file resides;
Copy2cd c:data*.* f:
Here we assumed that f: is a CD Writer drive. Now, repeat the same for all of your files to back up. When finished, run cdtools.exe command i.e. cdtools f: to finish by selecting option “Disc Finalization”.
If you can’t back up your data using the above-mentioned procedure, either ask an outside expert’s help personally or via internet. If all fails, forget your data forever and carry on installing a new OS as mentioned in this tutorial.
Backing up Your Drivers: An interesting tool to mentioned here is a software that automatically backs up all of your drivers of CD, modem, sound card, vga, usb, printer or just about anything that is currently installed on your system. But this software works only in an operational windows OS, and not in DOS. It is a good and time-saving practice to keep a backup of all of your drivers on a CD by using such a software. Its name is Driver Genius Pro and it is commercial software, not a freeware.
USING FDISK: You may skip this option and go straight to Formatting Hard Disk option, if you wish to use other useful partitions that may contain your data. Before going ahead with this option, Make sure there is no useful data left on your computer to be backed up. This option will delete all of the computer partitions and create new ones.
i) Boot up your computer using Windows OS CD.
ii) Run this command
fdisk
iii) Press option 3 to delete all current partitions.
iv) To create a new partition, select option 1 and select Y to answer the maximum size question by the program.
v) Next, select option 2
vi) Press Esc key to quit and restart your computer to
See the URL [http://www.compguystechweb.com/troubleshooting/fdisk/fdisk_scr.html] for detailed instructions alongwith screenshots. Now, that you have created the primary partition, you can continue to format the newly created partition. There is a very user-friendly but commercial software called Partition Magic by PowerQuest to manage your partitions easily after installation of Windows.
FORMATTING HARD DISK: Now that you have created new partitions, It is time to format them so that you can start installing Windows. This is how you make your C: drive usable by your Windows OS for installation. Boot up your computer with Windows CD and type format c: command at the prompt. When prompted for maximum size, press, YES. After complete processing you will be presented with the successful report about the formatting of the C: drive. Select your new drive name and press ENTER to finish.
INSTALLING WINDOWS: Microsoft has made it very easy for a newbie to install a completely new OS on a newly formatted partition. It is all wizard based and you simply have to click NEXT each time whenever asked a question. Boot up your computer from the Windows CD and select Start with CD Option. When on DOS prompt, change to the CD Drive that it just created which is usually d: if you have only one partition C. Now type command setup.exe to start the windows installation process.
During installation, make sure you properly name your PC as per your preferences and select your regions and Time zone. When finished, the computer will re-boot and during next re-boot it may ask some drivers of your Sound Card, VGA, Network, or other devices attached. Provide the requisite driver CDs and locate the paths of the appropriate drivers. If you are not sure, leave it like that and press NEXT to ignore. When your windows installation is complete, you can install Microsoft Office, setup internet connection and start using it as normally as you would. Please make sure you install all the security software such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, adware, and other software as mentioned in the next section.
2. USE SOFTWARE
Installing Anti-Virus: Download free AVG Antivirus software and install it. Make sure you get its free key from their website by registering. This software is not auto-updated for critical viruses and for an auto-update version, you will have to pay. If you wish to pay, we would recommend world’s most popular brands Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micros instead. No matter what Anti-Virus software you install, make sure you enable its Auto-Protect feature for automatic protection of your computer’s resources and in-coming or out-going emails from any virus attack. Some software even allow you to setup silent detection and destruction without any disturbance to your work. Further, they are auto-updated via internet at the regular interval that you setup. Hence, you can rest assured that whenever a security threat is spread all over the world, your software will automatically download the requisite updated version and install its defense on your computer.
BROWSER SECURITY: To setup your browser (Internet Explorer on Windows) for maximum security against the usual threats, follow this procedure;
i) Start up your browser
ii) Go to IE > Tools > Windows Update > Product Updates, and selected Security Updates to be automatically updated. Microsoft releases patches and security patches from time to time to make sure your system's security is up-to-date.
iii) Now, go to Internet Options/Security/Internet, press 'default level', then OK. Now press "Custom Level." In the ActiveX section, set the first two options ("Download signed and unsigned ActiveX controls) to 'prompt', and 'Initialize and Script ActiveX controls not marked as safe" to 'disable'. Now you will be asked whether you want ActiveX objects to be executed and whether you want software to be installed. Sites that you know for sure are above suspicion can be moved to the Trusted Zone in Internet Option/security.
If you use another browser such as Firefox or Netscape, see their documentation on how to securely set it up against any such internet threats.
Installing Anti-Spyware: Spyware, adware, browser hijackers, and dialers are some of the fastest-growing threats on the Internet today. By simply browsing to a web page, your computer may become a victim. You can install SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard to effectively guard your computer from such internet threats.
It includes Fast Real-Time Scanning engine for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new / mutated spyware and Download Protection along with Browser Hijacking Protection in real-time.
Simply download the software (free) from their website and install it on your system. Make sure you download its latest update too or enable its Auto-Update feature to be updated automatically in the background. Now, when you are ready, run the software to check the spyware on your computer. When spyware are found, it reports accordingly. Press "select all", then press option "kill all checked". Although it won't protect you from 100% spyware, But it is a very important extra layer of protection.
Next, install another software that is called Spybot Search & Destroy. It works exactly like SpywareBlaster, but it never hurts to have a double layer of spyware detection alongwith Spybot R&D.
Installing Anti-Adware: Adware is a common term used to describe potentially dangerous websites and scripts that do data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. There is a very good software called Ad-Aware available to scan and remove such nuisances from your system.
To start using it, simply visit Lavasoft USA website and download its free non-commercial version of Ad-Aware Personal Edition. Run its setup program and install it. When prompted, ask it to scan your computer. If there are any adware found, it is detected and removed automatically by Ad-Aware. Run this software on a weekly or daily basis, if possible to keep your system clean.
In addition to the Ad-Aware, Internet Explorer comes with a very handy tool that allows you to block specific sites that may carry well-known advertisers, marketers, crapware pushers to the Restricted sites Zone. If you had to input 50000+ of such sites manually yourself, it would takes years. Luckily, there is a software that does it all automatically and it is called IE-SPYAD. Once you merge this list of sites and domains into the Registry, the web sites for these companies will not be able to use cookies, ActiveX controls, Java applets, or scripting to compromise your privacy or your PC while you surf the Net. Nor will they be able to use your browser to push unwanted pop-ups, cookies, or auto-installing programs on your PC. It is not an ad blocker. It will stop top unwanted crapware from being installed behind your back via "drive-by-downloads"; prevent the hijacking of your home page.
This Restricted sites list is based in part on info from: discussions in the SpywareInfo Forums and other forums that specialize in crapware removal major crapware reference sites: doxdesk, cexx.org, Kephyr.com, PestPatrol and SpywareGuide.
To start using it, simply download it from their website and run its install.bat file. Make sure you run its update as well soon after its installation.
INSTALLING FIREWALL: A firewall software acts as a defense shield against hackers, intruders, and blocks access attempts to your computer. ZoneAlarm is a professional firewall software that works in a stealth mode automatically and makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.
Download it from ZoneLabs website and run its setup for installation. I recommend you use its Express Settings which automatically configures your most commonly used software like browser, chat messengers, ftp software to access internet, while blocks every other internet traffic in real-time. If any software or service tries to upload or download any data, it pops up an alert whereby you can allow or disallow such internet traffic.
Computer Slow Down: It is very common to see many complaining about their computer slow-down. The fastest and easiest cure is using Windows’ built-in Defragmenter utitlity that you can find in Startà Programs à Accessories à System Utitlities à Disk Defragmantor and run thorough defragmantation. It will take a while before it ends.
If your system’s performance does not improve after running defragmantation utility, consider scanning your computer via a software utility called HiJackThis which you can download and install on your system. Use this tool carefully as it is intended for advanced users only. HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect, and optionally remove selected items. The program can create a backup of your original settings and also ignore selected items. Additional features include a simple list of all startup items, default start page, online updates and more.
Breaking the Computer Buying Cycle
That New Computer Smell
If you are like most people when they go out and buy a new Personal Computer you probably get excited when you take it out of the box, turn it on and marvel at how fast it runs. When a computer is new it always seems to run faster and boot up quicker than your old computer. The applications and games seem to run without any slow down and when you get on the internet the pages load instantly on the screen, and you can quickly surf from one website to another. Overtime though, your computer can slow down and not run as quickly as it did when it was new.
This slow down can occur for a variety of reasons and when it happens it can be frustrating and spoil your computing experience. Often times when this happens it can be corrected by either cleaning up your hard drive, or running some diagnostics. Perhaps the computer has a virus and once you remove the virus, performance can be restored. What do you do though if you have done all those things and your computer is still running slow?
If your computer is running slow even after you have removed any viruses and attempted to improve system performance, it could mean that the demands you are now placing on your computer have exceeded the computer's capability.
As we use our computers we tend to install new software applications and attempt to run more applications simultaneously. The new software we install can require greater computer resources such as more computer memory and a faster CPU, or central processing unit to run the software applications or games properly.
If you are like me you like to have multiple software applications running or multiple internet browser windows open at the same time and that can utilize greater amounts of computer resources as well. The more resources you use, the slower the computer will run.
This is a constant problem in computing because computer technology doubles roughly every 18 months. In a demand for more feature rich software applications, software developers create more resource consuming software programs. To meet the increased demands of the software, computer manufacturers continue to build faster, more expensive computers. This, in my opinion, is a vicious cycle where in order to maintain a fast and enjoyable computing experience, the computer user is forced to go out and buy a new computer every few years.
Fortunately for me I have never had to worry about that problem. I am a certified computer professional and have been building and repairing computers for over 15 years. When I want a faster computer I do not go out and buy a new expensive computer. I have learned how to break the new computer buying cycle by upgrading my computer. By upgrading my computer rather than buying new, I can simply make myself a faster computer at a fraction of the cost.
You can break the computer buying cycle too and you do not have to be a computer professional like me to do it. You only need to know a few things about computers, be handy with a screw driver and be able to follow a few simple instructions; but before you begin to think about upgrading your computer, it might be important to get a brief overview on how a computer works.
Computer Basics
Computers are made up of a combination of hardware and software working together. When you aren't familiar with how a computer functions then they can seem very complex. You can reduce that complexity, once you understand how a computer works at a basic level.
At its most basic level a computer receives input and produces output. A computer receives input through input devices such as the keyboard and mouse (hardware). Every time we click the mouse on a link or move the mouse across the screen we are giving the computer input or an instruction to do something.
The computer receives the input as an electronic signal created by the mouse click or keystroke on the keyboard. This signal is transmitted through the computer and is converted into digital data where it can be interpreted as an instruction by the operating system, software application or game.(software)
The computer processes digital instruction data and produces output as either an image or words on the computer screen or perhaps as a printout on a printer.
What makes a computer fast is its ability to receive input, and produce output quickly. There are several components a computer needs in order to function but there are three primary components that directly affect how fast a computer can operate.
The three primary computer components which handle the processing of input and make a computer fast are the:
Without getting too technical, the Motherboard is the computer component that connects all the hardware together on the computer. You could think of the Motherboard as a data freeway that links together all the components of the computer and allows them to transmit data between each other and and communicate.
Every computer component on the computer connects to the Motherboard either by being connected directly to the Motherboard or connecting via a data cable. The devices or components that connect to the Motherboard are the CPU, RAM Memory, Hard Drive, CD ROM/DVD drive, Video Card, Sound Card, Network Card, Modem, Key Board, Mouse and Monitor.
There are additional peripheral devices which can connect to the Motherboard as well through a variety of data ports which are connected to the Motherboard such as a printer, digital camera, microphone, and even a HDTV. These devices can connect to the Motherboard using one of several ports such as a USB, Parallel, Fire-Wire, SATA (Serial-ATA), or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port.
In short the Motherboard provided the data communication infrastructure which allows communication between all the devices. What makes one Motherboard faster than another is the volume of data it can support being transmitted across what is called it's data BUS and the speed at which it can transmit the data. One way to think of it is in terms of a street. Think of the data bus as a street and the data are like cars driving down the street. Older Motherboards communication was the equivalent of a two way two lane street with a speed limit of 25 MPH. Today the new Motherboards are like 8 lane highways with 200MPH speed limits.
New Motherboards are faster because they can allow more data traffic at higher speeds.
The CPU
The CPU or Processor is the brain of the computer. The CPU carries out all the instructions that you in conjunction with the Operating System, like Windows XP or Windows 7, asks it to do. CPUs can only carry out one instruction at a time but they do it so fast it seems like they are doing multiple tasks at one time or "Multitasking".
Newer CPUs are faster because their "clock speed" or "clock cycle" is faster. The clock speed is the speed at which a CPU can carry out instructions. You can think of clock speed like the timing of a metronome, the device that helps musicians keep the right musical time. A metronome has a hand on the front of it which swings back and forth at a timing interval you set. As it swings back and forth it ticks like a clock. Like the metronome the CPU also ticks at a set interval but a CPU ticks at an incredibly fast rate which is measured in Mega or Gigahertz. The CPU carries out an instruction on every tick of its clock cycle.
New CPUs can not only carry out instructions at very high clock speeds but they can also be made up of multiple CPU Cores. Each Core can carry out its own instructions. When you have a Dual Core CPU it can carry out two instructions at the same time and a Quad Core CPU can carry out four. There are even six Core CPUs out now and like the newer Motherboards these CPUs also have a larger Data BUS to send and receive data faster through the Motherboard enhancing the computers overall performance.
RAM Memory
RAM or Random Access Memory is what stores all the instructions you have asked the computer to carry out. Every time we interact with our computer we are creating instruction data for the CPU to process and even the simplest interaction, like moving the mouse across the screen, requires many single instructions the CPU must carry out. You can imagine that playing a computer game or running an application like Adobe Photo shop can create a tremendous amount of instructions for the CPU. The CPU is fast and can execute a lot of instructions quickly but it can't do them all at once which is why we need a place to store the instructions until they can be processed. This is why RAM was created.
RAM is basically the storage place for all the instructions that are waiting to be executed by the CPU. You can sometimes tell when you don't have enough RAM when you have clicked on the mouse or hit the enter key to initiate a program and the hour glass just sits there spinning on the screen. It can appear that our computer has locked up or froze but what is actually happening is the computer is completing the series of instructions it has been given before it can perform any further instructions. When this happens we usually see it as the computer briefly locking up. It is also very frustrating.
The best way to resolve this problem is by simply adding more RAM to your computer. Adding more RAM is possibly the easiest way to increase the performance of your computer. Increasing the amount of RAM in your computer can help your computer run faster because it allows your computer store more instructions. This lets the computer carry out a lot of instructions while you continue to do your work and it reduces the computer freeze ups.
The speed of the RAM you use can also help the computer. If you use RAM that has a faster Data Bus speed it can send the instructions it is storing to the CPU at a faster rate. The faster the CPU gets the instructions the faster it can carry them out and the faster your computer will run.
The amount and type you can use is dictated by the type of CPU and Motherboard you use. The Bus speed of the CPU and Motherboard as well as the capacity of RAM the Motherboard can recognize will determine what type of RAM and how much you can use.
Some Motherboards will allow you to install as much as 32GBs of RAM and most Motherboards will recognize multiple Bus speeds so you can use several different types of RAM. Generally speaking the faster the BUS speed and the larger storage capacity of the RAM, the faster your computer will perform. The important thing to remember though is that with larger capacity and speed comes higher price.
What's nice about upgrading RAM is most Motherboards can accommodate several different speeds and capacities of RAM so you can start out with a slower speed and smaller capacity, which will be less expensive reducing your initial upgrade cost and then later down the road you can upgrade your RAM to a larger capacity and high speed.
Replacing the Motherboard, CPU and RAM is actually a lot easier than you may think. The CPU and RAM are directly connected to the motherboard so you can replace all three components at the same time by simply swapping out the motherboard.
To do this you must first determine what kind of form factor of motherboard your current computer supports.
The Motherboard Form Factor
Many computer manufacturers such as HP, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, eMachine, and Acer build their computers based on 4 primary motherboard form factors or design specifications and they are:
It would work like this. Let's say you have an HP Pavilion 750n desktop computer. This is an older computer with a single core processor. Nice computer when it first came out but very slow by today's standards. You decide that you want to make it faster by upgrading it to a Quad Core CPU but you need to determine if you can upgrade it.
You can determine whether or not you can upgrade that particular computer by going to the HP support website. On the site you would type in your computer model and look at the hardware specifications for that computer. HP will list the form factor information in the specifications guide. Having done this many times, I already know the 750n uses a Micro-ATX form factor.
Each computer manufacturer I named has a support site on their webpage where you can go to determine your models form factor. You can also do a search on Yahoo, Google, or Bing and ask what form factor your computer model is. If that doesn't work simply email me or leave a comment on this article and I can help you locate it.
Once you know the type of form factor your computer model supports you are now ready to decide what performance level you would like to upgrade your computer to.The performance level of the computer is generally dictated by the CPU it uses. You may recall I indicated the CPU is often referred to as the brain of the computer because it processes all the instructions and it sets the computers overall speed based on it's clock speed.Since the computers overall speed is set by the CPU, you typically start your upgrade by determining the CPU performance level you want.
How you decide which performance level you would like to upgrade to can be based on how you use your computer and how much you want to spend to upgrade it. Generally speaking if you only use your computer to send and receive email, browse the web, and save and share digital images from a digital camera, then you may only need to upgrade to a Dual Core CPU to significantly improve you computing experience.
If you play lots of games, burns DVDs, edit movies or sound files, and work with high resolution images or graphics, then you may want to select a Quad Core CPU to increase performance and improve your computing experience.
From a cost perspective you can expect to pay more for a faster CPU than you would for a slower CPU and Quad Core CPUs are generally more expensive than Dual Cores. As a rule I believe you should purchase as much as you can for as little as possible that way you get the most for your money and you won't have to upgrade again for quite a while.
When you are ready to select your CPU you will have choices based on manufacturer and type and there are also some differences between the various types of CPUs from each manufacturer which you should be aware of.
There are three primary CPU manufacturers Intel, AMD and Motorola, but for the purpose of this article we are only going to focus on Intel and AMD. Motorola is primarily responsible for making CPUs for Apple Computers. Apple computers, are a proprietary computer model and it can be more difficult and more costly to upgrade an Apple computer.
This article is focused on helping the budget conscious, who own what is generally referred to as an IBM compatible computer, upgrade their computer easily and inexpensively. IBM compatible computers are identified as those computers which primarily run a Microsoft Windows based operating system such as Windows XP or Windows 7. Intel and AMD manufacture CPUs that support IBM compatible computers so those are the two manufacturers we will focus on.
For the purpose of this article I am not going to go into great detail about the differences between Intel and AMD CPUs. There is already a significant amount of detailed information available on the internet which describes each manufacturers CPU chip architecture, as well as gives side by side comparison.
I would invite you to do a little research on how each manufacturers chips are designed and then review a website that benchmarks each CPUs performance. There are many links on CPU design, comparisons and reveiws on the weband this can help you make your CPU choice.
The prevailing sentiment regarding AMD vs. Intel is that both CPUs, in either Dual or Quad Core configuration, perform similarly with Intel being slightly faster. Intel CPUs have always been associated with executing business applications quickly while AMD CPUs run multimedia applications quickly. As you research their benchmark scores you will see Intel on a graph seems to dramatically out perform AMD but when you look at the duration of time between the two it is minimal.
Where you will see a significant difference between the two manufacturers is in cost. AMD CPUs are almost always less expensive than Intel CPUs. The question I always ask my clients is, "Is a 4 second faster speed difference worth an extra $200 or $300 dollars more by buying an Intel CPU?" To me it is not.
I am looking for an overall performance increase compared to what I am currently using. Once you upgrade your computer you are not going to be comparing it to another computer of equal performance, you will be comparing it to the speed of your last computer. If after your upgrade, you find your computer runs significantly faster than your last computer and it didn't cost much for you to achieve that performance increase, you will be happy with your upgrade and that is what is important.
CPU Cache
Earlier I indicated that RAM stores all the instruction data being transmitted to the CPU and throughout the computer. The CPU Cache is another form of high speed memory only it is specifically devoted to the CPU. It has been shown that a CPU can process data faster if more of the data it must process can be stored on memory located closer to the CPU itself.
All CPUs come with a cache but some newer CPUs will come with an additional cache that is faster and can hold more data closer to the CPU. Typically CPUs operating at a higher clock speed and having an additional, faster cache will offer higher performance.
A good example of this is the difference between the AMD Athlon and Phenom Series of CPUs. Both the Athlon and Phenom series come in Dual and Quad Core configurations but the Phenoim Series has an additional L3 cache making the CPU faster. It also makes a Phenom series CPU more expensive than the Athlon Series.
Another interesting tidbit is there is now a version II for both the Athlon and Phenom Series. The version II offers a more faster cache hence both CPUs are supposed to be faster than their predecessors however the benchmark numbers show a relatively small increase in performance.
Be sure to do a little research on the differences between the AMD and Intel CPUs and select the one you feel will be appropriate for your computing needs while meeting your budget goals. Once you have chosen the CPU you want you will then be ready to select the Motherboard that supports not only your CPU but your computer form factor as well.
One last thing regarding CPUs are both AMD and Intel have different CPU form factors so when you are selecting a Motherboard for the form factor that meets your computers specifications you also need to select the one that fits your CPU choice. This may seem complicated but it is not that difficult once you start looking at the Motherboard and CPU combinations.
The resellers I have showed you have filtering options on their web pages which allow you to select Motherboards that can support either AMD or Intel. You can also filter by both CPU and computer form factor as well which can help you narrow down your decision making.
Once you have made a decision on the CPU, you want to select the Motherboard that will support the CPU you have chosen. As far as Motherboards go there are several major manufactures of Motherboards and they all produce the 4 main types of Motherboard form factors. The major manufactures are:
Each motherboard will come with common features that are necessary for standard computer operations and some can come with additional features that may or may not be beneficial to you. The primary thing to remember about the Motherboard is that all of the components connect too it and you can choose to customize your computer upgrade as much or as little you want depending on the Motherboard you purchase.
For example, you can purchase a Motherboard which has the video and sound card integrated into the board. This saves you both time and money because it eliminates the need for you to choose a video or sound card, but if you want a specific video or sound card, you can select a Motherboard that does not come with those integrated components and then pick the video and sound card you would like to install as add in cards onto the Motherboard.
Here is a list of common Motherboards features:
The Motherboard will dictate what type of RAM you will be able to use so that will make your selection easier. The only thing you will have to decide when it comes to RAM, is the size of RAM meaning the amount of Gigabytes, Gigs or GBs of RAM you choose and the RAM speed you select.
One other thing you must be aware of is the newer Operating Systems such as Windows Vista and Windows 7 require a minimum of 2GBs of RAM to run properly so you will want to select at least 2GBs of RAM when you upgrade. Knowing this can make your decision regarding the amount of RAM pretty straight forward. As far as the speed of RAM you select that again will depend on the speeds the Motherboard will support, the amount of performance you want and how much you are willing to spend.
As far as determining the speed of RAM your Motherboard will support that is not difficult to determine. As you begin to look at Motherboards you will see they clearly specify the type and speed of RAM they support.
I have covered a lot of information up to this point and I hope you have a better understanding of what is required for you to be able to identify the Motherboard, CPU and RAM components you would need to upgrade your current computer. Buying these components and upgrading them your self is far less expensive then going out and buying a new computer and I am confident with this information as a starting point you too can save money buy upgrading the computer yourself.
There are however, two important additional pieces of information you should know before you attempt to upgrade your computer.
1. Before you upgrade your current computer you should back up all of your important data on to an external storage device such as an external hard drive, USB jump drive or burn it onto a CD or DVD.
The reason this is important is when you upgrade those components you will be forced to reinstall the operating system and that will erase all the current data on your hard drive. In additional if you don't have an installation disk for your current operating system, you will need to purchase a new copy of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 to install once you have upgraded the components. This may not actually be a major concern for you if you were already considering upgrading to a newer version of Windows. Also I can help you find an inexpensive copy of the Windows operating system if you it.
2. The new components you will install in you current PC will be more advanced from a power consumption standpoint and upgrading them will most likely require you to also upgrade your power supply.
The upgrade is not expensive and is a very easy to accomplish. The type of power supply you will want to select will be roughly 400 watts at least and will need to be a 20x4 pin or 24 pin power supply. This is the type of power supply supported by the newer Motherboards. Again the Motherboard specifications will indicate the power supply requirements.
To make your computer faster all you need to do is upgrade the Motherboard, CPU and RAM. You start by identifying the type of Motherboard form factor your current computer will support, and the performance level you want to upgrade to. Then you buy the CPU that fits your performance needs along with the Motherboard and RAM that fits both your computer model and CPU specifications.
The one thing I didn't cover is the actual installation of these components once you have purchased them and are ready to install. At a high level the process is nothing more then:
There are many do it yourself computer repair and upgrade manuals available online and they can provide you all the help you need to do your computer upgrade. Many of the books will provide you step by step explanation on how to replace just about every component on your computer and provide you with detailed diagrams so you can see how to actually perform the removal or install. I would suggest you make a small investment and purchase one of these books.
If I could recommend any do it yourself computer manual it would be "Self Computer Repair Unleashed".This book covers all aspects of computer upgrade and repair in a clear concise format and provides full color diagrams and step by step instructions to help you through any computer upgrade or repair. I can't recommend this book enough. I have provided a link to this book on the links page of my website below in my signature.
I thank you for reading my article and I hope it has inspired you to go out and tackle what you may have originally thought was an impossible task. You can upgrade your computer yourself and save yourself a lot of money too.
If you are like most people when they go out and buy a new Personal Computer you probably get excited when you take it out of the box, turn it on and marvel at how fast it runs. When a computer is new it always seems to run faster and boot up quicker than your old computer. The applications and games seem to run without any slow down and when you get on the internet the pages load instantly on the screen, and you can quickly surf from one website to another. Overtime though, your computer can slow down and not run as quickly as it did when it was new.
This slow down can occur for a variety of reasons and when it happens it can be frustrating and spoil your computing experience. Often times when this happens it can be corrected by either cleaning up your hard drive, or running some diagnostics. Perhaps the computer has a virus and once you remove the virus, performance can be restored. What do you do though if you have done all those things and your computer is still running slow?
If your computer is running slow even after you have removed any viruses and attempted to improve system performance, it could mean that the demands you are now placing on your computer have exceeded the computer's capability.
As we use our computers we tend to install new software applications and attempt to run more applications simultaneously. The new software we install can require greater computer resources such as more computer memory and a faster CPU, or central processing unit to run the software applications or games properly.
If you are like me you like to have multiple software applications running or multiple internet browser windows open at the same time and that can utilize greater amounts of computer resources as well. The more resources you use, the slower the computer will run.
This is a constant problem in computing because computer technology doubles roughly every 18 months. In a demand for more feature rich software applications, software developers create more resource consuming software programs. To meet the increased demands of the software, computer manufacturers continue to build faster, more expensive computers. This, in my opinion, is a vicious cycle where in order to maintain a fast and enjoyable computing experience, the computer user is forced to go out and buy a new computer every few years.
Fortunately for me I have never had to worry about that problem. I am a certified computer professional and have been building and repairing computers for over 15 years. When I want a faster computer I do not go out and buy a new expensive computer. I have learned how to break the new computer buying cycle by upgrading my computer. By upgrading my computer rather than buying new, I can simply make myself a faster computer at a fraction of the cost.
You can break the computer buying cycle too and you do not have to be a computer professional like me to do it. You only need to know a few things about computers, be handy with a screw driver and be able to follow a few simple instructions; but before you begin to think about upgrading your computer, it might be important to get a brief overview on how a computer works.
Computer Basics
Computers are made up of a combination of hardware and software working together. When you aren't familiar with how a computer functions then they can seem very complex. You can reduce that complexity, once you understand how a computer works at a basic level.
At its most basic level a computer receives input and produces output. A computer receives input through input devices such as the keyboard and mouse (hardware). Every time we click the mouse on a link or move the mouse across the screen we are giving the computer input or an instruction to do something.
The computer receives the input as an electronic signal created by the mouse click or keystroke on the keyboard. This signal is transmitted through the computer and is converted into digital data where it can be interpreted as an instruction by the operating system, software application or game.(software)
The computer processes digital instruction data and produces output as either an image or words on the computer screen or perhaps as a printout on a printer.
What makes a computer fast is its ability to receive input, and produce output quickly. There are several components a computer needs in order to function but there are three primary components that directly affect how fast a computer can operate.
The three primary computer components which handle the processing of input and make a computer fast are the:
- Motherboard or Main System board
- CPU or Central Processing Unit
- RAM or Random Access Memory
Without getting too technical, the Motherboard is the computer component that connects all the hardware together on the computer. You could think of the Motherboard as a data freeway that links together all the components of the computer and allows them to transmit data between each other and and communicate.
Every computer component on the computer connects to the Motherboard either by being connected directly to the Motherboard or connecting via a data cable. The devices or components that connect to the Motherboard are the CPU, RAM Memory, Hard Drive, CD ROM/DVD drive, Video Card, Sound Card, Network Card, Modem, Key Board, Mouse and Monitor.
There are additional peripheral devices which can connect to the Motherboard as well through a variety of data ports which are connected to the Motherboard such as a printer, digital camera, microphone, and even a HDTV. These devices can connect to the Motherboard using one of several ports such as a USB, Parallel, Fire-Wire, SATA (Serial-ATA), or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port.
In short the Motherboard provided the data communication infrastructure which allows communication between all the devices. What makes one Motherboard faster than another is the volume of data it can support being transmitted across what is called it's data BUS and the speed at which it can transmit the data. One way to think of it is in terms of a street. Think of the data bus as a street and the data are like cars driving down the street. Older Motherboards communication was the equivalent of a two way two lane street with a speed limit of 25 MPH. Today the new Motherboards are like 8 lane highways with 200MPH speed limits.
New Motherboards are faster because they can allow more data traffic at higher speeds.
The CPU
The CPU or Processor is the brain of the computer. The CPU carries out all the instructions that you in conjunction with the Operating System, like Windows XP or Windows 7, asks it to do. CPUs can only carry out one instruction at a time but they do it so fast it seems like they are doing multiple tasks at one time or "Multitasking".
Newer CPUs are faster because their "clock speed" or "clock cycle" is faster. The clock speed is the speed at which a CPU can carry out instructions. You can think of clock speed like the timing of a metronome, the device that helps musicians keep the right musical time. A metronome has a hand on the front of it which swings back and forth at a timing interval you set. As it swings back and forth it ticks like a clock. Like the metronome the CPU also ticks at a set interval but a CPU ticks at an incredibly fast rate which is measured in Mega or Gigahertz. The CPU carries out an instruction on every tick of its clock cycle.
New CPUs can not only carry out instructions at very high clock speeds but they can also be made up of multiple CPU Cores. Each Core can carry out its own instructions. When you have a Dual Core CPU it can carry out two instructions at the same time and a Quad Core CPU can carry out four. There are even six Core CPUs out now and like the newer Motherboards these CPUs also have a larger Data BUS to send and receive data faster through the Motherboard enhancing the computers overall performance.
RAM Memory
RAM or Random Access Memory is what stores all the instructions you have asked the computer to carry out. Every time we interact with our computer we are creating instruction data for the CPU to process and even the simplest interaction, like moving the mouse across the screen, requires many single instructions the CPU must carry out. You can imagine that playing a computer game or running an application like Adobe Photo shop can create a tremendous amount of instructions for the CPU. The CPU is fast and can execute a lot of instructions quickly but it can't do them all at once which is why we need a place to store the instructions until they can be processed. This is why RAM was created.
RAM is basically the storage place for all the instructions that are waiting to be executed by the CPU. You can sometimes tell when you don't have enough RAM when you have clicked on the mouse or hit the enter key to initiate a program and the hour glass just sits there spinning on the screen. It can appear that our computer has locked up or froze but what is actually happening is the computer is completing the series of instructions it has been given before it can perform any further instructions. When this happens we usually see it as the computer briefly locking up. It is also very frustrating.
The best way to resolve this problem is by simply adding more RAM to your computer. Adding more RAM is possibly the easiest way to increase the performance of your computer. Increasing the amount of RAM in your computer can help your computer run faster because it allows your computer store more instructions. This lets the computer carry out a lot of instructions while you continue to do your work and it reduces the computer freeze ups.
The speed of the RAM you use can also help the computer. If you use RAM that has a faster Data Bus speed it can send the instructions it is storing to the CPU at a faster rate. The faster the CPU gets the instructions the faster it can carry them out and the faster your computer will run.
The amount and type you can use is dictated by the type of CPU and Motherboard you use. The Bus speed of the CPU and Motherboard as well as the capacity of RAM the Motherboard can recognize will determine what type of RAM and how much you can use.
Some Motherboards will allow you to install as much as 32GBs of RAM and most Motherboards will recognize multiple Bus speeds so you can use several different types of RAM. Generally speaking the faster the BUS speed and the larger storage capacity of the RAM, the faster your computer will perform. The important thing to remember though is that with larger capacity and speed comes higher price.
What's nice about upgrading RAM is most Motherboards can accommodate several different speeds and capacities of RAM so you can start out with a slower speed and smaller capacity, which will be less expensive reducing your initial upgrade cost and then later down the road you can upgrade your RAM to a larger capacity and high speed.
Replacing the Motherboard, CPU and RAM is actually a lot easier than you may think. The CPU and RAM are directly connected to the motherboard so you can replace all three components at the same time by simply swapping out the motherboard.
To do this you must first determine what kind of form factor of motherboard your current computer supports.
The Motherboard Form Factor
Many computer manufacturers such as HP, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, eMachine, and Acer build their computers based on 4 primary motherboard form factors or design specifications and they are:
- ATX = Full Size Motherboard generally found in full size Desktop computers and Towers
- Micro-ATX = Mid Size motherboard found in Mid Tower and Smaller Desktops
- Mini-ATX = Small Motherboard found in Mid Towers, Smaller Desktops
- Mini-ITX = Newest motherboards very small size found in new smaller towers and desktops
It would work like this. Let's say you have an HP Pavilion 750n desktop computer. This is an older computer with a single core processor. Nice computer when it first came out but very slow by today's standards. You decide that you want to make it faster by upgrading it to a Quad Core CPU but you need to determine if you can upgrade it.
You can determine whether or not you can upgrade that particular computer by going to the HP support website. On the site you would type in your computer model and look at the hardware specifications for that computer. HP will list the form factor information in the specifications guide. Having done this many times, I already know the 750n uses a Micro-ATX form factor.
Each computer manufacturer I named has a support site on their webpage where you can go to determine your models form factor. You can also do a search on Yahoo, Google, or Bing and ask what form factor your computer model is. If that doesn't work simply email me or leave a comment on this article and I can help you locate it.
Once you know the type of form factor your computer model supports you are now ready to decide what performance level you would like to upgrade your computer to.The performance level of the computer is generally dictated by the CPU it uses. You may recall I indicated the CPU is often referred to as the brain of the computer because it processes all the instructions and it sets the computers overall speed based on it's clock speed.Since the computers overall speed is set by the CPU, you typically start your upgrade by determining the CPU performance level you want.
How you decide which performance level you would like to upgrade to can be based on how you use your computer and how much you want to spend to upgrade it. Generally speaking if you only use your computer to send and receive email, browse the web, and save and share digital images from a digital camera, then you may only need to upgrade to a Dual Core CPU to significantly improve you computing experience.
If you play lots of games, burns DVDs, edit movies or sound files, and work with high resolution images or graphics, then you may want to select a Quad Core CPU to increase performance and improve your computing experience.
From a cost perspective you can expect to pay more for a faster CPU than you would for a slower CPU and Quad Core CPUs are generally more expensive than Dual Cores. As a rule I believe you should purchase as much as you can for as little as possible that way you get the most for your money and you won't have to upgrade again for quite a while.
When you are ready to select your CPU you will have choices based on manufacturer and type and there are also some differences between the various types of CPUs from each manufacturer which you should be aware of.
There are three primary CPU manufacturers Intel, AMD and Motorola, but for the purpose of this article we are only going to focus on Intel and AMD. Motorola is primarily responsible for making CPUs for Apple Computers. Apple computers, are a proprietary computer model and it can be more difficult and more costly to upgrade an Apple computer.
This article is focused on helping the budget conscious, who own what is generally referred to as an IBM compatible computer, upgrade their computer easily and inexpensively. IBM compatible computers are identified as those computers which primarily run a Microsoft Windows based operating system such as Windows XP or Windows 7. Intel and AMD manufacture CPUs that support IBM compatible computers so those are the two manufacturers we will focus on.
For the purpose of this article I am not going to go into great detail about the differences between Intel and AMD CPUs. There is already a significant amount of detailed information available on the internet which describes each manufacturers CPU chip architecture, as well as gives side by side comparison.
I would invite you to do a little research on how each manufacturers chips are designed and then review a website that benchmarks each CPUs performance. There are many links on CPU design, comparisons and reveiws on the weband this can help you make your CPU choice.
The prevailing sentiment regarding AMD vs. Intel is that both CPUs, in either Dual or Quad Core configuration, perform similarly with Intel being slightly faster. Intel CPUs have always been associated with executing business applications quickly while AMD CPUs run multimedia applications quickly. As you research their benchmark scores you will see Intel on a graph seems to dramatically out perform AMD but when you look at the duration of time between the two it is minimal.
Where you will see a significant difference between the two manufacturers is in cost. AMD CPUs are almost always less expensive than Intel CPUs. The question I always ask my clients is, "Is a 4 second faster speed difference worth an extra $200 or $300 dollars more by buying an Intel CPU?" To me it is not.
I am looking for an overall performance increase compared to what I am currently using. Once you upgrade your computer you are not going to be comparing it to another computer of equal performance, you will be comparing it to the speed of your last computer. If after your upgrade, you find your computer runs significantly faster than your last computer and it didn't cost much for you to achieve that performance increase, you will be happy with your upgrade and that is what is important.
CPU Cache
Earlier I indicated that RAM stores all the instruction data being transmitted to the CPU and throughout the computer. The CPU Cache is another form of high speed memory only it is specifically devoted to the CPU. It has been shown that a CPU can process data faster if more of the data it must process can be stored on memory located closer to the CPU itself.
All CPUs come with a cache but some newer CPUs will come with an additional cache that is faster and can hold more data closer to the CPU. Typically CPUs operating at a higher clock speed and having an additional, faster cache will offer higher performance.
A good example of this is the difference between the AMD Athlon and Phenom Series of CPUs. Both the Athlon and Phenom series come in Dual and Quad Core configurations but the Phenoim Series has an additional L3 cache making the CPU faster. It also makes a Phenom series CPU more expensive than the Athlon Series.
Another interesting tidbit is there is now a version II for both the Athlon and Phenom Series. The version II offers a more faster cache hence both CPUs are supposed to be faster than their predecessors however the benchmark numbers show a relatively small increase in performance.
Be sure to do a little research on the differences between the AMD and Intel CPUs and select the one you feel will be appropriate for your computing needs while meeting your budget goals. Once you have chosen the CPU you want you will then be ready to select the Motherboard that supports not only your CPU but your computer form factor as well.
One last thing regarding CPUs are both AMD and Intel have different CPU form factors so when you are selecting a Motherboard for the form factor that meets your computers specifications you also need to select the one that fits your CPU choice. This may seem complicated but it is not that difficult once you start looking at the Motherboard and CPU combinations.
The resellers I have showed you have filtering options on their web pages which allow you to select Motherboards that can support either AMD or Intel. You can also filter by both CPU and computer form factor as well which can help you narrow down your decision making.
Once you have made a decision on the CPU, you want to select the Motherboard that will support the CPU you have chosen. As far as Motherboards go there are several major manufactures of Motherboards and they all produce the 4 main types of Motherboard form factors. The major manufactures are:
- ASUS
- Biostar
- Gigabyte
- MSI
- Foxconn
- ECSJetway
- Zotac
Each motherboard will come with common features that are necessary for standard computer operations and some can come with additional features that may or may not be beneficial to you. The primary thing to remember about the Motherboard is that all of the components connect too it and you can choose to customize your computer upgrade as much or as little you want depending on the Motherboard you purchase.
For example, you can purchase a Motherboard which has the video and sound card integrated into the board. This saves you both time and money because it eliminates the need for you to choose a video or sound card, but if you want a specific video or sound card, you can select a Motherboard that does not come with those integrated components and then pick the video and sound card you would like to install as add in cards onto the Motherboard.
Here is a list of common Motherboards features:
- Keyboard and Mouse input often referred to as a PS2 connector
- USB - Universal Serial Bus ports for connecting computer peripherals such as (Keyboard, Mouse, Printer, Digital Camera, external Hard Drive etc...)
- Parallel Printer Port (not as much in newer motherboards as printers use USB)
- Local Area Network or LAN connection for a network or internet connection
- Dial-up Modem (not as common in newer boards due to high speed internet connections)
- 1394 or Fire-wire connection (higher speed data connection)
- External SATA or Serial-ATA connection (higher speed data connection designed to connect external SATA devices such as a Hard Drive)
- HDMI - High-Definition Multimedia Interface to connect an HD Monitor or TV, or to an external High Definition Audio component
The Motherboard will dictate what type of RAM you will be able to use so that will make your selection easier. The only thing you will have to decide when it comes to RAM, is the size of RAM meaning the amount of Gigabytes, Gigs or GBs of RAM you choose and the RAM speed you select.
One other thing you must be aware of is the newer Operating Systems such as Windows Vista and Windows 7 require a minimum of 2GBs of RAM to run properly so you will want to select at least 2GBs of RAM when you upgrade. Knowing this can make your decision regarding the amount of RAM pretty straight forward. As far as the speed of RAM you select that again will depend on the speeds the Motherboard will support, the amount of performance you want and how much you are willing to spend.
As far as determining the speed of RAM your Motherboard will support that is not difficult to determine. As you begin to look at Motherboards you will see they clearly specify the type and speed of RAM they support.
I have covered a lot of information up to this point and I hope you have a better understanding of what is required for you to be able to identify the Motherboard, CPU and RAM components you would need to upgrade your current computer. Buying these components and upgrading them your self is far less expensive then going out and buying a new computer and I am confident with this information as a starting point you too can save money buy upgrading the computer yourself.
There are however, two important additional pieces of information you should know before you attempt to upgrade your computer.
1. Before you upgrade your current computer you should back up all of your important data on to an external storage device such as an external hard drive, USB jump drive or burn it onto a CD or DVD.
The reason this is important is when you upgrade those components you will be forced to reinstall the operating system and that will erase all the current data on your hard drive. In additional if you don't have an installation disk for your current operating system, you will need to purchase a new copy of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 to install once you have upgraded the components. This may not actually be a major concern for you if you were already considering upgrading to a newer version of Windows. Also I can help you find an inexpensive copy of the Windows operating system if you it.
2. The new components you will install in you current PC will be more advanced from a power consumption standpoint and upgrading them will most likely require you to also upgrade your power supply.
The upgrade is not expensive and is a very easy to accomplish. The type of power supply you will want to select will be roughly 400 watts at least and will need to be a 20x4 pin or 24 pin power supply. This is the type of power supply supported by the newer Motherboards. Again the Motherboard specifications will indicate the power supply requirements.
To make your computer faster all you need to do is upgrade the Motherboard, CPU and RAM. You start by identifying the type of Motherboard form factor your current computer will support, and the performance level you want to upgrade to. Then you buy the CPU that fits your performance needs along with the Motherboard and RAM that fits both your computer model and CPU specifications.
The one thing I didn't cover is the actual installation of these components once you have purchased them and are ready to install. At a high level the process is nothing more then:
- Unplugging the computer and disconnecting all peripheral components such as the keyboard, mouse and monitor from the case
- Before you open the computer, discharge yourself electrically or purchase a static strap to ground yourself to the chassis, this will help you avoid static discharge which can fry a computer component.
- Removing the side cover off the computer case
- Disconnecting all the power cables and Data cables from the old Motherboard
- Unscrewing and removing the old Motherboard from the case
- Unscrewing and removing the old power supply
- Install the new power supply
- Install the new Motherboard into the case
- Reconnecting all the power and data cables
- Powering the computer back up and listening for proper post sound
- Now you are ready to install the operating system
There are many do it yourself computer repair and upgrade manuals available online and they can provide you all the help you need to do your computer upgrade. Many of the books will provide you step by step explanation on how to replace just about every component on your computer and provide you with detailed diagrams so you can see how to actually perform the removal or install. I would suggest you make a small investment and purchase one of these books.
If I could recommend any do it yourself computer manual it would be "Self Computer Repair Unleashed".This book covers all aspects of computer upgrade and repair in a clear concise format and provides full color diagrams and step by step instructions to help you through any computer upgrade or repair. I can't recommend this book enough. I have provided a link to this book on the links page of my website below in my signature.
I thank you for reading my article and I hope it has inspired you to go out and tackle what you may have originally thought was an impossible task. You can upgrade your computer yourself and save yourself a lot of money too.
XP Tweaks - Tips and Tricks to Make Windows XP Faster
Want XP tips and tricks to make your computer faster? This
article will guide you how to tweak Windows XP to improve computer
performance and make it run faster. Now let me give you some tips and
tricks.
1. Speed Up Windows XP Startup.
We can easily speed up your computer startup by just editing a registry key. Just follow the steps below.
1) Open Registry Editor.
Click "Start" and "Run", type in "regedit" and click "OK" to open Registry Editor.
2) Open the submenus:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]-->[SYSTEM]-->[Current Control Set]-->[Control]-->[Session Manager]-->[Memory Management]-->[Prefetch Parameters].
3) Find [Enable Prefetcher] and double click the key. Then modify the default value 3 to 1.
2. Disable Useless DLL Files.
Some useless dll files can hinder the startup speed and makes computer slow. So we need to disable them to save system resources and improve the overall performance. Follow the steps below.
1) Open Registry Editor.
2) Open the submenus:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]-->[SOFTWARE]-->[Microsoft]-->[Windows]-->[CurrentVersion]-->[Explorer].
3) Find string value [AlwaysUnloadDLL] and double click it. Then modify the default value 1 to 0. If the string value does not exist, right click [Explorer] and select New, then select String Value. You will see a new item on the right window, then name it as [AlwaysUnloadDLL] and set the value as 0.
0 means useless dll files are disabled.
Then restart your computer. After you do this will make the Windows XP startup faster by several seconds and run quicker. But there are thousands of registry keys in the windows XP. To improve the overall performance, you need to optimize the whole registry. You need to use a registry optimizer to help you to tweak your PC.
1. Speed Up Windows XP Startup.
We can easily speed up your computer startup by just editing a registry key. Just follow the steps below.
1) Open Registry Editor.
Click "Start" and "Run", type in "regedit" and click "OK" to open Registry Editor.
2) Open the submenus:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]-->[SYSTEM]-->[Current Control Set]-->[Control]-->[Session Manager]-->[Memory Management]-->[Prefetch Parameters].
3) Find [Enable Prefetcher] and double click the key. Then modify the default value 3 to 1.
2. Disable Useless DLL Files.
Some useless dll files can hinder the startup speed and makes computer slow. So we need to disable them to save system resources and improve the overall performance. Follow the steps below.
1) Open Registry Editor.
2) Open the submenus:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE]-->[SOFTWARE]-->[Microsoft]-->[Windows]-->[CurrentVersion]-->[Explorer].
3) Find string value [AlwaysUnloadDLL] and double click it. Then modify the default value 1 to 0. If the string value does not exist, right click [Explorer] and select New, then select String Value. You will see a new item on the right window, then name it as [AlwaysUnloadDLL] and set the value as 0.
0 means useless dll files are disabled.
Then restart your computer. After you do this will make the Windows XP startup faster by several seconds and run quicker. But there are thousands of registry keys in the windows XP. To improve the overall performance, you need to optimize the whole registry. You need to use a registry optimizer to help you to tweak your PC.
Tips and Tricks to Speed Up Your Slow Computer
Are you trying to find some ways to remove the snail pace of your
PC? Are you frustrated with being bombarded with all kinds of emails of
how to speed up your computer. Well this article is going to reveal to
you what you should do right now to speed up your old computer.
Most likely if you are experiencing a slow computer it may be a couple years old. You also may not have been told that while you use your computer everyday; there are certain things that it requires to continue running in its best performance. You also may not even own any diagnostic tools that will get your PC running like new again.
Well no matter what the problem is; you can address any of the error messages that your computer is sending you. First of all you just have to know what
your PC needs.
Most likely you are like 95% of the people who own a computer. You use it to do some browsing online and maybe keep in touch with family and friends. We have all heard that their are dangers for your computer while you are searching online; the truth is that it can be dangerous only if you do not know what to avoid.
Precaution is the key to making sure that your computer does not become infected in anyway by any kinds of viruses. Of course you will want to protect your computer with a virus protection that you can pick up at your local store.
Another thing that you will want to do is clean up your PC once in a while. Most people if you ask them have no idea that their PC needs to be cleaned out on a regular basis. If you are constantly online and saving sites and downloading files that you find while you are browsing all this new information is causing your system to become slower than usual.
So take the time to clean it out. One of the easiest ways to do this is to perform a free PC scan which you can find almost anywhere on the internet. As a matter of fact if you want to use the same one that I used when I was experiencing trouble with my PC you can find it below.
If you found this article on "tips and tricks to speed up your slow computer" helpful visit our site below. It is filled with all kinds of information that will reveal to you what you can do to get the best performance from your PC.
Most likely if you are experiencing a slow computer it may be a couple years old. You also may not have been told that while you use your computer everyday; there are certain things that it requires to continue running in its best performance. You also may not even own any diagnostic tools that will get your PC running like new again.
Well no matter what the problem is; you can address any of the error messages that your computer is sending you. First of all you just have to know what
your PC needs.
Most likely you are like 95% of the people who own a computer. You use it to do some browsing online and maybe keep in touch with family and friends. We have all heard that their are dangers for your computer while you are searching online; the truth is that it can be dangerous only if you do not know what to avoid.
Precaution is the key to making sure that your computer does not become infected in anyway by any kinds of viruses. Of course you will want to protect your computer with a virus protection that you can pick up at your local store.
Another thing that you will want to do is clean up your PC once in a while. Most people if you ask them have no idea that their PC needs to be cleaned out on a regular basis. If you are constantly online and saving sites and downloading files that you find while you are browsing all this new information is causing your system to become slower than usual.
So take the time to clean it out. One of the easiest ways to do this is to perform a free PC scan which you can find almost anywhere on the internet. As a matter of fact if you want to use the same one that I used when I was experiencing trouble with my PC you can find it below.
If you found this article on "tips and tricks to speed up your slow computer" helpful visit our site below. It is filled with all kinds of information that will reveal to you what you can do to get the best performance from your PC.
50 SEO Tips and Tricks for Online Success
The majority of all SEO knowledge can be summed up through 50 tips
and tricks. These SEO tips comprise 12 years of SEO evolution,
professional insight, and proven results. The SEO tips range from basic
concepts to advanced strategies. Work your way down the list, and when
you complete it, and understand it, you will be armed with a productive
skill set that can contribute to all future online marketing efforts.
#1: Use META tags for your Title, Description and Keywords. Keep META tags relevant to the content of each individual page.
#2: Don't try to optimize too many keywords on one page. Keep a narrow focus and keyword theme on a page by page basis
#3: Perform keyword research to identify phrases used to represent your products and services. Each page optimized to a unique word.
#4: Implement keyword-friendly title and alt attributes to links and images. Similarly, use keywords in your web page names.
#5: Include at least 1 outbound link to a non-competitive authority website in your industry. Google has made this point very clear.
#6: Google has declared that page-load speed will impact search engine ranking. Page load speed should be under 2 seconds.
#7: If you service only a local community, optimize your website for that community. Tap the local business tools for each search engine.
#8: Build an XML and HTML sitemap to ensure thorough search engine crawling. Free online sitemap resources can help you.
#9: For any page intended for SEO, include a minimum of 400 words per page. Make sure the content is supported by keyword research.
#10: Submit to more than only the Tier 1 search engines. Tier 2 search engines can drive traffic, and count as inbound links in some cases.
#11: Don't pass on "link juice" unless necessary. Use the [rel="nofollow"] attribute if you don't want link credit passed on.
#12: Build web pages and not list items [li]. Rather than displaying a list of services/products, dedicate a web page to each item.
#13: There is no such thing as a "duplicate content penalty." Google has confirmed. Factors other than content influence rank.
#14: The use of "301 redirects" are critical for transferring established ranking from an old website to a new web design.
#15: Never allow a 404 error. Implement error handling to bounce 404 errors back to your website. Consider turning a 404 into a 301.
#16: SEO friendly web design begins with keyword research. Keywords should influence domains, page names, tags/attributes & content.
#17: Many Tier 1 search engines factor in the age of a domain name when determining pagerank. It established business maturity.
#18: The length of time your domain is reserved can influence pagerank. A long registration period indicates long-term ambitions.
#19: When you engage in PPC, you can save money by not bidding on phrases where you already have strong organic rankings.
#20: Use Google Webmaster Tools to identify up-and-coming rankings. Optimize these search ranking impressions and watch them climb.
#21: Do not use a pure Flash or graphical home page. Always make sure you have a healthy amount of content and solid navigation.
#22: Don't like begging for inbound links? Try writing articles and submitting them to article submission sites. Target ~450 words.
#23: Implement keyword research when writing articles and newsletters. Host the content on your website with clean navigation.
#24: Regularly add new content to your website. Blogs, tips and articles work well. Search engines favor frequently updated sites.
#25: Use descriptive content for items in your shopping cart. Don't call it "item 13324". Utilize the "title" link attribute.
#26: Don't hyperlink generic text like "buy now" or "click here." Use keyword-based content in your links.
#27: Link quality is more important than link quantity. The sum of the inbound pagerank (link juice) is what matters.
#28: Fast site indexing for Google can occur through Google-owned media, including Blogger, Knol, Buzz, Google News, and You Tube.
#29: Maintain clean website code. Follow WC3 standards, fix broken links & images, remove 404 errors, no frames, use static URLs.
#30: Use the [strong] tag to emphasize targeted keywords. Use [b] for aesthetics, where the phrase is not targeted for ranking.
#31: Don't try to do too much with one web page. Likewise don't try to do too much with one website. Search engines want focus.
#32: The content around a link carries weight for the linked page. Be descriptive and integrate targeted keywords.
#33: Domain registrars sell ownership privacy protection. Don't buy it if interested in SEO! The search engines want transparency
#34: Search engines prefer fresh content over static. Fresh content can come from articles, blogs, site interaction & social media
#35: Human factors matter. SEO friendly efforts must also be human-friendly. Once you gain clicks, you still need to make the sale.
#36: Site ranking cannot be punished for bad inbound links. However it can be punished for linking to bad sites, such as link farms.
#37: Implement search-friendly URLs. Many shopping carts and CMS' use dynamic links that interfere with search engine indexing.
#38: Every web page should include a keyword-based headline tag [h1]. Maintain font size with style tags.
#39: Your [h1] tag should integrate the focus keywords used in your [TITLE] and [META] descriptions. Stick to a tight keyword theme.
#40: Google AdWords states that a "www" before your domain name increases clicks. Carry this through to SEO with canonicalization.
#41: Consider "article swapping" as a means for building inbound links. This technique not only builds links, but boosts content.
#42: You can optimize for more than websites. Depending on your business model, SEO can apply to video, audio, images and articles.
#43: Be patient with SEO. It may take weeks for SEO changes to take effect. Make sure prior changes take root before changing again.
#44: While Google pagerank does not directly impact your keyword ranking, it influences how often and how deep your site is indexed.
#45: Search engine spiders may see "http://WWW.domain.com" and "domain.com" as 2 separate websites, therefore cutting link-juice in half.
#46: If one page has 2 links pointing to the same location, Google only considers the text and attributes of the first link.
#47: If you sell physical products, publish them in Google Products. Implement descriptive keyword phrases in your XML posts.
#48: If you sell products, create merchant accounts with Yahoo Shopping, Amazon, eBay, etc. Let those resources work for you.
#49: Change web pages that consistently rank poorly. [META], [TITLE] and even content. Without improvement, change every 3-4 months.
#50: Build a few web pages for experimental purposes. See how ranking responds to specific tweaks. Log your finding and progress.
#1: Use META tags for your Title, Description and Keywords. Keep META tags relevant to the content of each individual page.
#2: Don't try to optimize too many keywords on one page. Keep a narrow focus and keyword theme on a page by page basis
#3: Perform keyword research to identify phrases used to represent your products and services. Each page optimized to a unique word.
#4: Implement keyword-friendly title and alt attributes to links and images. Similarly, use keywords in your web page names.
#5: Include at least 1 outbound link to a non-competitive authority website in your industry. Google has made this point very clear.
#6: Google has declared that page-load speed will impact search engine ranking. Page load speed should be under 2 seconds.
#7: If you service only a local community, optimize your website for that community. Tap the local business tools for each search engine.
#8: Build an XML and HTML sitemap to ensure thorough search engine crawling. Free online sitemap resources can help you.
#9: For any page intended for SEO, include a minimum of 400 words per page. Make sure the content is supported by keyword research.
#10: Submit to more than only the Tier 1 search engines. Tier 2 search engines can drive traffic, and count as inbound links in some cases.
#11: Don't pass on "link juice" unless necessary. Use the [rel="nofollow"] attribute if you don't want link credit passed on.
#12: Build web pages and not list items [li]. Rather than displaying a list of services/products, dedicate a web page to each item.
#13: There is no such thing as a "duplicate content penalty." Google has confirmed. Factors other than content influence rank.
#14: The use of "301 redirects" are critical for transferring established ranking from an old website to a new web design.
#15: Never allow a 404 error. Implement error handling to bounce 404 errors back to your website. Consider turning a 404 into a 301.
#16: SEO friendly web design begins with keyword research. Keywords should influence domains, page names, tags/attributes & content.
#17: Many Tier 1 search engines factor in the age of a domain name when determining pagerank. It established business maturity.
#18: The length of time your domain is reserved can influence pagerank. A long registration period indicates long-term ambitions.
#19: When you engage in PPC, you can save money by not bidding on phrases where you already have strong organic rankings.
#20: Use Google Webmaster Tools to identify up-and-coming rankings. Optimize these search ranking impressions and watch them climb.
#21: Do not use a pure Flash or graphical home page. Always make sure you have a healthy amount of content and solid navigation.
#22: Don't like begging for inbound links? Try writing articles and submitting them to article submission sites. Target ~450 words.
#23: Implement keyword research when writing articles and newsletters. Host the content on your website with clean navigation.
#24: Regularly add new content to your website. Blogs, tips and articles work well. Search engines favor frequently updated sites.
#25: Use descriptive content for items in your shopping cart. Don't call it "item 13324". Utilize the "title" link attribute.
#26: Don't hyperlink generic text like "buy now" or "click here." Use keyword-based content in your links.
#27: Link quality is more important than link quantity. The sum of the inbound pagerank (link juice) is what matters.
#28: Fast site indexing for Google can occur through Google-owned media, including Blogger, Knol, Buzz, Google News, and You Tube.
#29: Maintain clean website code. Follow WC3 standards, fix broken links & images, remove 404 errors, no frames, use static URLs.
#30: Use the [strong] tag to emphasize targeted keywords. Use [b] for aesthetics, where the phrase is not targeted for ranking.
#31: Don't try to do too much with one web page. Likewise don't try to do too much with one website. Search engines want focus.
#32: The content around a link carries weight for the linked page. Be descriptive and integrate targeted keywords.
#33: Domain registrars sell ownership privacy protection. Don't buy it if interested in SEO! The search engines want transparency
#34: Search engines prefer fresh content over static. Fresh content can come from articles, blogs, site interaction & social media
#35: Human factors matter. SEO friendly efforts must also be human-friendly. Once you gain clicks, you still need to make the sale.
#36: Site ranking cannot be punished for bad inbound links. However it can be punished for linking to bad sites, such as link farms.
#37: Implement search-friendly URLs. Many shopping carts and CMS' use dynamic links that interfere with search engine indexing.
#38: Every web page should include a keyword-based headline tag [h1]. Maintain font size with style tags.
#39: Your [h1] tag should integrate the focus keywords used in your [TITLE] and [META] descriptions. Stick to a tight keyword theme.
#40: Google AdWords states that a "www" before your domain name increases clicks. Carry this through to SEO with canonicalization.
#41: Consider "article swapping" as a means for building inbound links. This technique not only builds links, but boosts content.
#42: You can optimize for more than websites. Depending on your business model, SEO can apply to video, audio, images and articles.
#43: Be patient with SEO. It may take weeks for SEO changes to take effect. Make sure prior changes take root before changing again.
#44: While Google pagerank does not directly impact your keyword ranking, it influences how often and how deep your site is indexed.
#45: Search engine spiders may see "http://WWW.domain.com" and "domain.com" as 2 separate websites, therefore cutting link-juice in half.
#46: If one page has 2 links pointing to the same location, Google only considers the text and attributes of the first link.
#47: If you sell physical products, publish them in Google Products. Implement descriptive keyword phrases in your XML posts.
#48: If you sell products, create merchant accounts with Yahoo Shopping, Amazon, eBay, etc. Let those resources work for you.
#49: Change web pages that consistently rank poorly. [META], [TITLE] and even content. Without improvement, change every 3-4 months.
#50: Build a few web pages for experimental purposes. See how ranking responds to specific tweaks. Log your finding and progress.
Benefits of SEO Tips
If you are having your own website, then it needs you to build
more traffic for it. It is one way were you can be able to persuade
people to visit your site, and the key answer in building more traffic
is the search engine optimization or better known as SEO.
Search engine optimization is a certain processes were you can have the chance of improving the volume of traffic into your website through the search engines search results. However, if you are still new into the field of SEO, you might find it hard to handle all these SEO tasks, thus, you may need the aid of those SEO tips from experts.
SEO tips are the most important things that you can follow in order to come up with your target in search engine optimization. One of the recent and effective SEO tips that you can sue in building more traffic with your site is to make choose of the striking domain name.
Your domain name will be the dominating factor so that you can have the chance of letting your site become visible with the different search lists in the world. You need to have a strong domain name so that you can be sure that web users will get interested with your site also, and that can be the good start of making more traffics for it to appear in search engines.
You can make use of this simple SEO tip, since it can be your way to achieve your main target in SEO. Another SEO tip that you can follow is to make sure that you are having a site which functions well.
A well functioning site will determine that you are also having an effective site, and thus, there are possibilities for you to succeed in the field of SEO, and that is to make your site appear in the search engines all over the world.
Search engine optimization is a certain processes were you can have the chance of improving the volume of traffic into your website through the search engines search results. However, if you are still new into the field of SEO, you might find it hard to handle all these SEO tasks, thus, you may need the aid of those SEO tips from experts.
SEO tips are the most important things that you can follow in order to come up with your target in search engine optimization. One of the recent and effective SEO tips that you can sue in building more traffic with your site is to make choose of the striking domain name.
Your domain name will be the dominating factor so that you can have the chance of letting your site become visible with the different search lists in the world. You need to have a strong domain name so that you can be sure that web users will get interested with your site also, and that can be the good start of making more traffics for it to appear in search engines.
You can make use of this simple SEO tip, since it can be your way to achieve your main target in SEO. Another SEO tip that you can follow is to make sure that you are having a site which functions well.
A well functioning site will determine that you are also having an effective site, and thus, there are possibilities for you to succeed in the field of SEO, and that is to make your site appear in the search engines all over the world.
Best SEO Tips and Tactics to Make Money Online
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the most important thing
to make money online. If you know the basic concept of SEO, you can be
confident to make money online by SEO. Here I am jotting down best SEO
tactics that I have learned from hands on SEO experience on SEO for
online marketing.
1) Think where to write SEO articles? Answer is - blog, website or article submission websites. If you have a blog or website, SEO is important to promote your website through search engines by doing SEO. If you have a good search engine ranking, you can get more target traffic/visitor to your website and if you run Google AdSense /adbrite/chitika or any other contexual ad providers, your earning potential will be increased by an increasing CTR (click through rate).
If you have no website but you want to promote your affiliate product, then SEO for article marketing is important to you for your affiliate marketing. Figure out the right product for your affiliate marketing.
2) Now decide what topic you should choose. You need to research on various SEO trends, Google search volume on particular keyword, Google AdWord selector tool to select best paying and popular keywords and the most important tool is to use some best keyword selector tools like KEYWORD ELITE 2.0. You choose the best keywords with maximum volume of global search and good no. of advertiser competitions. Learn Why Keyword Elite 2.0 Will Allow You To Dominate The Competition
3) Now comes SEO content writing. Try to focus on the most important 3 keywords or key phrases that you have researched from KEYWORD ELITE2.0. Try to use these keywords meaningfully in your content title and use frequently in your content body. The content body should contain a SEO keyword density of 3-4%. So, if you write a 300 words article, it should contain 9-12 times repeatation of that particular keyword in your content. You have to maintain keyword proximity too. That means the most important keywords should be in a sequence and close to each other. It gives the content a SEO boost.
4) Now if you have a website, use title tag, meta description, meta tag optimization for good SEO and then paste the SEO content in website content area. The title should contain 3 keywords and meta description and title should be relevant to the content of the website. Try to put some unique keyphrases/combination of keywords to make your title different from the crowd. Your creativity along with the techniques I described is vital for a good SEO title. Then write a keyword rich meta description (meaningful)
You can use H1-H6 tags in your web page HTML to boost SEO. Also don't forget to put put alt text for images. If you have blogs try to put some good blogger hacks for better SEO
5) Put keyword rich anchor text in body of the content, that links to your other web pages. Cross linking with anchor text is a must for good SEO practice.
6) If you are writing articles put your signature line and affiliate links there. the rest of the SEO article writing is same as discussed above. Also using Mass Article Control Tool is a good choice to make money by article marketing
7) If you are using wordpress, then change your permalink structure to custom field /%postname%/ or anything else you would like that act as static HTML pages. Also use All in one SEO plugins and other best wordpress plugins for good SEO. The keyword research is sufficient if you use KEYWORD ELITE2.0. It will save your time and effort to make you decide what niche you should choose to work and to make money online. Don't forget to upgrade your wordpress to latest version.
8) Now comes promotion of your content by SEO. Do link exchange with other good relevant sites. Give links to other authority sites like Google, yahoo, wikipedia from your site. Do social media marketing and social bookmarking in Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Propeller, Yahoo Buzz, Simpy, Mixx, Netvine, Mybloglog, Technorati, Blogcatalog, and Feedburner for the best SEO
9) Submit your article or sites to article directories, blog directories. Do rss submissions for better SEO.
10) Write free press releases and submit that also acts good to boost up your backlinks and thus SEO
11) Use SEO tools like SEO centro meta analyzer, keyword density checker, page rank checker, Google banned checker, Google webmaster central, domaintools to get your SEO score.
12) Always update your self what is happening in internet marketing and SEO industry. Read Google's Matt Cut's blog, problogger.net and search Google on different other SEO topics. Read 2 SEO Tips That I Bet You Really Didn't Know
Hope you like these SEO tips that I have summed up here to give you a brief idea on SEO and online marketing tips to promote your website and to earn money.
1) Think where to write SEO articles? Answer is - blog, website or article submission websites. If you have a blog or website, SEO is important to promote your website through search engines by doing SEO. If you have a good search engine ranking, you can get more target traffic/visitor to your website and if you run Google AdSense /adbrite/chitika or any other contexual ad providers, your earning potential will be increased by an increasing CTR (click through rate).
If you have no website but you want to promote your affiliate product, then SEO for article marketing is important to you for your affiliate marketing. Figure out the right product for your affiliate marketing.
2) Now decide what topic you should choose. You need to research on various SEO trends, Google search volume on particular keyword, Google AdWord selector tool to select best paying and popular keywords and the most important tool is to use some best keyword selector tools like KEYWORD ELITE 2.0. You choose the best keywords with maximum volume of global search and good no. of advertiser competitions. Learn Why Keyword Elite 2.0 Will Allow You To Dominate The Competition
3) Now comes SEO content writing. Try to focus on the most important 3 keywords or key phrases that you have researched from KEYWORD ELITE2.0. Try to use these keywords meaningfully in your content title and use frequently in your content body. The content body should contain a SEO keyword density of 3-4%. So, if you write a 300 words article, it should contain 9-12 times repeatation of that particular keyword in your content. You have to maintain keyword proximity too. That means the most important keywords should be in a sequence and close to each other. It gives the content a SEO boost.
4) Now if you have a website, use title tag, meta description, meta tag optimization for good SEO and then paste the SEO content in website content area. The title should contain 3 keywords and meta description and title should be relevant to the content of the website. Try to put some unique keyphrases/combination of keywords to make your title different from the crowd. Your creativity along with the techniques I described is vital for a good SEO title. Then write a keyword rich meta description (meaningful)
You can use H1-H6 tags in your web page HTML to boost SEO. Also don't forget to put put alt text for images. If you have blogs try to put some good blogger hacks for better SEO
5) Put keyword rich anchor text in body of the content, that links to your other web pages. Cross linking with anchor text is a must for good SEO practice.
6) If you are writing articles put your signature line and affiliate links there. the rest of the SEO article writing is same as discussed above. Also using Mass Article Control Tool is a good choice to make money by article marketing
7) If you are using wordpress, then change your permalink structure to custom field /%postname%/ or anything else you would like that act as static HTML pages. Also use All in one SEO plugins and other best wordpress plugins for good SEO. The keyword research is sufficient if you use KEYWORD ELITE2.0. It will save your time and effort to make you decide what niche you should choose to work and to make money online. Don't forget to upgrade your wordpress to latest version.
8) Now comes promotion of your content by SEO. Do link exchange with other good relevant sites. Give links to other authority sites like Google, yahoo, wikipedia from your site. Do social media marketing and social bookmarking in Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Propeller, Yahoo Buzz, Simpy, Mixx, Netvine, Mybloglog, Technorati, Blogcatalog, and Feedburner for the best SEO
9) Submit your article or sites to article directories, blog directories. Do rss submissions for better SEO.
10) Write free press releases and submit that also acts good to boost up your backlinks and thus SEO
11) Use SEO tools like SEO centro meta analyzer, keyword density checker, page rank checker, Google banned checker, Google webmaster central, domaintools to get your SEO score.
12) Always update your self what is happening in internet marketing and SEO industry. Read Google's Matt Cut's blog, problogger.net and search Google on different other SEO topics. Read 2 SEO Tips That I Bet You Really Didn't Know
Hope you like these SEO tips that I have summed up here to give you a brief idea on SEO and online marketing tips to promote your website and to earn money.
Simple SEO Tips For a Small Business
SEO can be a complicated subject and certainly there is a lot of
confusion as to how to approach optimisation but if you follow some
simple SEO measures you can rise above the competition. The more
competitive the market the harder it will be to rise to the top.
These simple measures are not going to replace the efforts of an experienced SEO consultant but they are a good start for most small businesses particularly where you are optimising a website for a very specific service or for a site that targets a local area.
SEO Tip 1: Identify the search phrases your site should rank for. These are the words put into search engines by your customers and be quite specific, if you sell 'novelty bath sponges' then don't bother with 'sponge' as a search term to target!
SEO Tip 2: Stick with the simple approach and target one or two keywords per page, with the most important one on the homepage.
SEO Tip 3: You can combine keyword targets if it makes sense to do so, for example you might decide to target 'novelty bath sponges' and 'children's bath sponges' on a single page with a combined title of 'Children's Novelty Bath Sponges'.
SEO Tip 4: Use the sites other pages to target other appropriate keywords. Maybe you deal in 'baby bath toys' too? That should be the focus of another page.
SEO Tip 5: The most important factor is to use the keywords as the page titles on those individual pages. The Meta Title that is. If you are not familiar with it ask your webmaster to do this for you.
SEO Tip 6: Stay specifically on the pages subject matter, if the page is about novelty bath toys, then concentrate the topic on novelty bath toys on that page.
SEO Tip 7: Try to use the keywords as navigation links, so a link to your page about 'girls bath toys' would use those very words as the clickable link text (anchor text) where you are linking from another page.
There you have it, some of the basic things you can do to help get your site listed near the top of the engines.
The results will vary with the level of competition in your niche but, those simple optimisation tips above may well be enough to get you to the first page - enjoy!
These simple measures are not going to replace the efforts of an experienced SEO consultant but they are a good start for most small businesses particularly where you are optimising a website for a very specific service or for a site that targets a local area.
SEO Tip 1: Identify the search phrases your site should rank for. These are the words put into search engines by your customers and be quite specific, if you sell 'novelty bath sponges' then don't bother with 'sponge' as a search term to target!
SEO Tip 2: Stick with the simple approach and target one or two keywords per page, with the most important one on the homepage.
SEO Tip 3: You can combine keyword targets if it makes sense to do so, for example you might decide to target 'novelty bath sponges' and 'children's bath sponges' on a single page with a combined title of 'Children's Novelty Bath Sponges'.
SEO Tip 4: Use the sites other pages to target other appropriate keywords. Maybe you deal in 'baby bath toys' too? That should be the focus of another page.
SEO Tip 5: The most important factor is to use the keywords as the page titles on those individual pages. The Meta Title that is. If you are not familiar with it ask your webmaster to do this for you.
SEO Tip 6: Stay specifically on the pages subject matter, if the page is about novelty bath toys, then concentrate the topic on novelty bath toys on that page.
SEO Tip 7: Try to use the keywords as navigation links, so a link to your page about 'girls bath toys' would use those very words as the clickable link text (anchor text) where you are linking from another page.
There you have it, some of the basic things you can do to help get your site listed near the top of the engines.
The results will vary with the level of competition in your niche but, those simple optimisation tips above may well be enough to get you to the first page - enjoy!
Ten SEO Tips to Get You Higher Yahoo and Google Listings
SEO tips can help you to get higher Yahoo or Google listings, but
only if you use them. Most people think that they know better, even so
called SEO professionals who have to use PPC advertising to get their
websites listed highly enough to be seen. Who are they to tell us what
to do, when they cannot it themselves?
I have had some of them write to me criticizing my 'crap' HTML and also my 'useless' linking strategies. My site has 'only a Page Rank of 3'. So what? It is sitting at between #1 on #5 on Google from day to day, at # 1 to #4 on Yahoo from day to day and at #1 on MSN. I will gladly accept their criticism of my HTML and linking when they achieve the same. Till then, perhaps they would be better buying my book that complaining about my websites!
I would feel more predisposed to them if they stopped criticizing me - I only started to do the same to them when I got sick of their comments when they could not emulate my results. Who am I, a rank amateur, to beat them in the SEO stakes!! In fact, I have been at this for many years.
So, SEO tip #1 - don't believe anything you are told unless those telling you it have at least one of their websites in the top 5 on all the major search engines for a competitive keyword. Mine has >800 million other results on Google.
Tip 2 - use classical search engine optimization. Use Meta tags because some search engines still use them. The main one is the Description Meta tag - Keywords is not so important but use it anyway. It does not hurt you, so use them.
The third tip relates to the title of your website. There are two points that relate to this. The first is that it should be the best keyword that you can find that relates to your niche or website. That means a good demand and low supply, though too much is sometimes written about this since such keywords are not easy to find. If you can't something with low supply, just use what you want and decide to compete against them. Somebody has to be top, and why can't it be you? Too many people give up in SEO too quickly. Probably because we are told not to compete against the big boys - by these big boys!!
The second point is that the title of your site need not be stated on every web page. My web page titles are those of the page, not the site. The graphics are the same, but the title is the keyword that they page is optimized for. Why do otherwise? Yet 99.99% do (just a guess!). Then fourth of my SEO tips is related to the headings on each page. The main title of the page should be in H1 tags, and the heading in H2 tags. You don't need any more, but any subheadings can go into H3 tags, but should contain text that could be construed as minor keywords.
I might be wrong, but who says? I have found that if you ignore the big guys, and compete against them, they can be beat. Check out what they are trying to sell you and you will notice that much of it is obsolete. Such as site generation and article generation software. That's not an SEO tip, just a word to the wise, from the not so wise. I have no pretensions, but I know where my home page is on Google - and Yahoo - and MSN. Just search for 'article services'.
The fifth SEO tip is to use your keywords sparingly. Most people still think that 1% - 3% keyword density is ideal, yet it is actually too much. There is an optimum keyword density that has little to do with the keyword itself, but more to do with contextual relevance of the page content to the topic in hand. Which leads to the sixth of the SEO tips: write naturally and honestly. If you know about your subject, write about it in your own language and don't try to meet any perceived need for a specific number of so-called keywords within your page content.
Seventh, don't forget about your links. You can get a higher search engine listing if you have lots of links back to your website from other sites. In fact, the links are from page to page, and you get a proportion of the Google PageRank of the page linking to you, relative to the number of other links leaving that page, and also give the page that you link to a proportion of your PageRank, calculated in the same way. The problem with reciprocal links is that most pages are linked to and from pages with a PageRank of zero, even though the website home page can have a PR of 6 or 7.
SEO tip eight. Use your internal linking to maximise the PageRank of a selected page on your website. You don't need every page on your site listed in the top 10 of Google or Yahoo: you only need one. So maximise your efforts on that one page. Visitors that page will then visit the rest of the pages on your website, and so will search engine spiders, so you know that every page on your site will be listed and with a chance of being found in a search.
The important point of that tip is to concentrate on getting one page in the top 10. That's all you need. You will have links to all your other pages once somebody reaches that page in the top 10. Tip nine: Once you get visitors keep them there. Give them useful content and something to do, even if just to click from page to page. Offer them a free gift for completing a quiz on your topic, or free vacation certificates for certain actions: these are easily found on the internet in a form that you can either post or email for them to print their own. Offer them an opt-in form so that you can keep in touch.
That is the most important tip of all - if you can keep in touch with your visitors after they have left your site, then you can offer them new products as they come along without having to seduce them to visit your website again.
Finally, the SEO tip number 10. Enjoy what you are doing, and don't look upon it so much as a job as something to enjoy, and to do as best as you can. I wish you the best of success since it is very sweet when it comes - as it will come with you.
I have had some of them write to me criticizing my 'crap' HTML and also my 'useless' linking strategies. My site has 'only a Page Rank of 3'. So what? It is sitting at between #1 on #5 on Google from day to day, at # 1 to #4 on Yahoo from day to day and at #1 on MSN. I will gladly accept their criticism of my HTML and linking when they achieve the same. Till then, perhaps they would be better buying my book that complaining about my websites!
I would feel more predisposed to them if they stopped criticizing me - I only started to do the same to them when I got sick of their comments when they could not emulate my results. Who am I, a rank amateur, to beat them in the SEO stakes!! In fact, I have been at this for many years.
So, SEO tip #1 - don't believe anything you are told unless those telling you it have at least one of their websites in the top 5 on all the major search engines for a competitive keyword. Mine has >800 million other results on Google.
Tip 2 - use classical search engine optimization. Use Meta tags because some search engines still use them. The main one is the Description Meta tag - Keywords is not so important but use it anyway. It does not hurt you, so use them.
The third tip relates to the title of your website. There are two points that relate to this. The first is that it should be the best keyword that you can find that relates to your niche or website. That means a good demand and low supply, though too much is sometimes written about this since such keywords are not easy to find. If you can't something with low supply, just use what you want and decide to compete against them. Somebody has to be top, and why can't it be you? Too many people give up in SEO too quickly. Probably because we are told not to compete against the big boys - by these big boys!!
The second point is that the title of your site need not be stated on every web page. My web page titles are those of the page, not the site. The graphics are the same, but the title is the keyword that they page is optimized for. Why do otherwise? Yet 99.99% do (just a guess!). Then fourth of my SEO tips is related to the headings on each page. The main title of the page should be in H1 tags, and the heading in H2 tags. You don't need any more, but any subheadings can go into H3 tags, but should contain text that could be construed as minor keywords.
I might be wrong, but who says? I have found that if you ignore the big guys, and compete against them, they can be beat. Check out what they are trying to sell you and you will notice that much of it is obsolete. Such as site generation and article generation software. That's not an SEO tip, just a word to the wise, from the not so wise. I have no pretensions, but I know where my home page is on Google - and Yahoo - and MSN. Just search for 'article services'.
The fifth SEO tip is to use your keywords sparingly. Most people still think that 1% - 3% keyword density is ideal, yet it is actually too much. There is an optimum keyword density that has little to do with the keyword itself, but more to do with contextual relevance of the page content to the topic in hand. Which leads to the sixth of the SEO tips: write naturally and honestly. If you know about your subject, write about it in your own language and don't try to meet any perceived need for a specific number of so-called keywords within your page content.
Seventh, don't forget about your links. You can get a higher search engine listing if you have lots of links back to your website from other sites. In fact, the links are from page to page, and you get a proportion of the Google PageRank of the page linking to you, relative to the number of other links leaving that page, and also give the page that you link to a proportion of your PageRank, calculated in the same way. The problem with reciprocal links is that most pages are linked to and from pages with a PageRank of zero, even though the website home page can have a PR of 6 or 7.
SEO tip eight. Use your internal linking to maximise the PageRank of a selected page on your website. You don't need every page on your site listed in the top 10 of Google or Yahoo: you only need one. So maximise your efforts on that one page. Visitors that page will then visit the rest of the pages on your website, and so will search engine spiders, so you know that every page on your site will be listed and with a chance of being found in a search.
The important point of that tip is to concentrate on getting one page in the top 10. That's all you need. You will have links to all your other pages once somebody reaches that page in the top 10. Tip nine: Once you get visitors keep them there. Give them useful content and something to do, even if just to click from page to page. Offer them a free gift for completing a quiz on your topic, or free vacation certificates for certain actions: these are easily found on the internet in a form that you can either post or email for them to print their own. Offer them an opt-in form so that you can keep in touch.
That is the most important tip of all - if you can keep in touch with your visitors after they have left your site, then you can offer them new products as they come along without having to seduce them to visit your website again.
Finally, the SEO tip number 10. Enjoy what you are doing, and don't look upon it so much as a job as something to enjoy, and to do as best as you can. I wish you the best of success since it is very sweet when it comes - as it will come with you.
If you want to find out how I do it by getting free advertising
through high listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN, check out my website
Improved Search Engine Rank [http://www.improved-search-engine-rank.com]
where you will find some good offers and even better advice.
Wednesday 20 November 2013
Features to Be Included in Ecommerce Website
Websites have become the primary medium for communicating with
clients these days; thereby, an excellent e-commerce web site design is
important to own a successful venture. Website designing is a relatively
up-to-the-minute field; wherein, you being not so technically sound
might not have a complete idea on what sort of features your e-commerce
website design should have. The objective of a website dealing in
e-commerce should be able to create more and more consumers to return to
the website and get as many more transactions as possible. This article
discusses further about the tips and features that are essential to be
included to bring success to your e-commerce enterprise.
Product Filtering
Online visitors dislike checking through hundred of products listed on the website before they can find their product that is already-in-mind. Therefore, if you provide them with the facility of a filtering option, that is, a search button, then it will help them narrow down their hunt and complete their purchases easily and quickly. "Google Search" is one good option here. Moreover, you can also provide them the feature of sorting out products depending on popularity, price, size, and availability. This will make their surfing process easier and enhance their website experience too.
Product Descriptions
Online consumers find it highly annoying when they do not find adequate and sufficient information about the product. The more the information listed on your website, the better would it be for your consumers to build confidence on you. An e-commerce site should have information such as product descriptions, features, specifications and customer reviews available for their visitors to read.
Simple, Easy Checkout Process
The web design and development of the website's shopping cart and checkout process should be absolutely easily accessible and user-friendly. The shopping cart should be available on every available web page and in a standard, prominent location. Instead of elongating the informational procedure, only information that is highly essential should be requested. Asking too many details at the time of checking out may make you lose a consumer forever, especially for those people who access e-commerce sites through mobile phones, tablets and other handheld devices.
Company Details and Customer Support
Consumers making purchases over the net rely on websites that have details such as company registered address; registered phone and fax number; and registered tax details listed clearly on the contact us page. Moreover, the customer care number and email address should also be listed on all pages so that visitors find it easy to contact the company. Most consumers like to be acknowledged that you are available for them at all times.
Web Security
For both - consumers and website, keeping financial data of the consumers in the most secured manner is highly essential. You should ask your web design company to integrate best security software such as SSL certificate and anti-virus software such as McAfee on your site, and display their symbols clearly on the website; this is to ensure that your website is absolutely safe and secured, and consumers can trust on your
Product Filtering
Online visitors dislike checking through hundred of products listed on the website before they can find their product that is already-in-mind. Therefore, if you provide them with the facility of a filtering option, that is, a search button, then it will help them narrow down their hunt and complete their purchases easily and quickly. "Google Search" is one good option here. Moreover, you can also provide them the feature of sorting out products depending on popularity, price, size, and availability. This will make their surfing process easier and enhance their website experience too.
Product Descriptions
Online consumers find it highly annoying when they do not find adequate and sufficient information about the product. The more the information listed on your website, the better would it be for your consumers to build confidence on you. An e-commerce site should have information such as product descriptions, features, specifications and customer reviews available for their visitors to read.
Simple, Easy Checkout Process
The web design and development of the website's shopping cart and checkout process should be absolutely easily accessible and user-friendly. The shopping cart should be available on every available web page and in a standard, prominent location. Instead of elongating the informational procedure, only information that is highly essential should be requested. Asking too many details at the time of checking out may make you lose a consumer forever, especially for those people who access e-commerce sites through mobile phones, tablets and other handheld devices.
Company Details and Customer Support
Consumers making purchases over the net rely on websites that have details such as company registered address; registered phone and fax number; and registered tax details listed clearly on the contact us page. Moreover, the customer care number and email address should also be listed on all pages so that visitors find it easy to contact the company. Most consumers like to be acknowledged that you are available for them at all times.
Web Security
For both - consumers and website, keeping financial data of the consumers in the most secured manner is highly essential. You should ask your web design company to integrate best security software such as SSL certificate and anti-virus software such as McAfee on your site, and display their symbols clearly on the website; this is to ensure that your website is absolutely safe and secured, and consumers can trust on your
Computer Science Degree Program
A computer science degree is a versatile degree that may be
applied to many different areas in the technological world. Students who
wish to be successful in this field should earn at least a 4-year
degree, and should gain as much experience as possible working with
different technological elements.
There are many different types of IT areas; students should attend job fairs, talk to their advisors, and speak with professors when trying to decide which path is best for their specific wants and needs. The sooner this is done, the better. Many people know where their interests lie when beginning college, but the majority of students aren't sure how their passions can transform into a career. Beginning career research early will put individuals ahead of their peers, and give them a foundation on which to build.
Those who pursue computer science degrees should search for programs that allow them to have a large amount of hands-on experience. While reading informational material and attending lectures may be the primary way of comprehending subject matter, most students find a hands-on approach greatly assists them in the learning process. Some programs may offer guaranteed internships, or the opportunity to work with different corporations with whom they have partnerships.
Some useful skills students should try to establish in their academic career include Java, mobile language, business intelligence, cloud computing SQL,.Net, and systems integration. No matter what specific field students choose, understanding and developing a wide variety of skills will result in a more marketable resume, and greater job opportunities.
Students will also need to take at least a couple classes in the math category. These may include Calculus I, Calculus II, Algorithms, Linear Algebra, Geometry, or Matrices, among others. This kind of math is usually very different from traditional math; computer science majors must thinking in a way that combines both science and programming. While students may not use some of the learned math in their careers, they should at least be familiar with the concepts involved. Many math-related topics can appear while programming in areas such as database querying or software testing.
While in school, students are likely to participate in courses such as computer systems, computer forensics, programming language, network defense and security, programming logic and design, and data structures and analysis. Students will learn how to develop and maintain software, build applications, manage hardware and software performance, and administrate databases. All these topics and skills are very in-demand in the IT world, and will be useful both in and out of the work place.
This degree may also be earned remotely. Online education is continually developing, and a computer science degree would be easier to learn online than many other degrees. Many programs teach lessons online, and have a mandatory internship students must fulfill at an approved location. This way, students can continue learning while maintaining a full-time job, and avoiding the daily commute to a distant campus.
There are many different types of IT areas; students should attend job fairs, talk to their advisors, and speak with professors when trying to decide which path is best for their specific wants and needs. The sooner this is done, the better. Many people know where their interests lie when beginning college, but the majority of students aren't sure how their passions can transform into a career. Beginning career research early will put individuals ahead of their peers, and give them a foundation on which to build.
Those who pursue computer science degrees should search for programs that allow them to have a large amount of hands-on experience. While reading informational material and attending lectures may be the primary way of comprehending subject matter, most students find a hands-on approach greatly assists them in the learning process. Some programs may offer guaranteed internships, or the opportunity to work with different corporations with whom they have partnerships.
Some useful skills students should try to establish in their academic career include Java, mobile language, business intelligence, cloud computing SQL,.Net, and systems integration. No matter what specific field students choose, understanding and developing a wide variety of skills will result in a more marketable resume, and greater job opportunities.
Students will also need to take at least a couple classes in the math category. These may include Calculus I, Calculus II, Algorithms, Linear Algebra, Geometry, or Matrices, among others. This kind of math is usually very different from traditional math; computer science majors must thinking in a way that combines both science and programming. While students may not use some of the learned math in their careers, they should at least be familiar with the concepts involved. Many math-related topics can appear while programming in areas such as database querying or software testing.
While in school, students are likely to participate in courses such as computer systems, computer forensics, programming language, network defense and security, programming logic and design, and data structures and analysis. Students will learn how to develop and maintain software, build applications, manage hardware and software performance, and administrate databases. All these topics and skills are very in-demand in the IT world, and will be useful both in and out of the work place.
This degree may also be earned remotely. Online education is continually developing, and a computer science degree would be easier to learn online than many other degrees. Many programs teach lessons online, and have a mandatory internship students must fulfill at an approved location. This way, students can continue learning while maintaining a full-time job, and avoiding the daily commute to a distant campus.
The Benefits of Online IT Training for Modern Professionals
Learning about the constantly changing field of IT is vital for
people that want to improve their skills and stay up to date on this
fast-paced world. You may need to take a course so that you can get a
new certification to try to find a job, or you might be looking to
receive training to learn how to manage your current responsibilities
more effectively. Online IT training is very valuable for those that are
interested in furthering their IT knowledge because it allows for
instruction on a variety of fields through a convenient medium.
Ease of Training Delivery
Many people that want to learn about IT have a limited amount of time with which to do so. You may have a full time job on top of responsibilities at home that make it difficult for you to make time to attend IT classes in person. With online IT training, you do not have to worry about transportation logistics or spending the money that is required to get to where your class is being held. Online IT training will also allow you a tremendous amount of flexibility when it comes to when you take your class. Some classes that are pre-recorded can be taken on demand, meaning you can literally take them whenever you wish. These options are ideal for busy organizations that need to train multiple people at once at a time that is convenient for everyone.
Diversity of Training Topics
Online IT training offers a huge breadth of subjects for those that need to advance their knowledge. Some of the subjects that common online IT training providers cover include:
· Microsoft development tools: Visual Studio, Silverlight, and.NET Framework
· IBM WebSphere
· Java & Java EE
· Agile & Scrum
These are just a few types of online IT training available. Many providers will also create custom instruction based on the needs of you or your team members so that you will be able to get exactly the knowledge that is required for you to improve your own particular set of IT skills. This means you never have to worry about wasting time on training modules that will not be helpful for you.
Supplementary Web Resources
The best online IT training companies will offer you additional tools that you can use to further your IT studies even after the training is complete. These resources include white papers, blogs, case studies, and review materials that will help reinforce the things that you learn during training. Additional training tools also serve as an excellent refresher on your online IT training so that your skills always stay sharp.
Expanding your IT knowledge is crucial if you are looking to achieve success in the field and maintain it for any length of time. Unfortunately, keeping up with changes in IT does require an investment of time and energy. Online IT training is the perfect way to make sure that you can advance your understanding of important modern IT concepts on your own schedule through a medium that works for your own learning
Ease of Training Delivery
Many people that want to learn about IT have a limited amount of time with which to do so. You may have a full time job on top of responsibilities at home that make it difficult for you to make time to attend IT classes in person. With online IT training, you do not have to worry about transportation logistics or spending the money that is required to get to where your class is being held. Online IT training will also allow you a tremendous amount of flexibility when it comes to when you take your class. Some classes that are pre-recorded can be taken on demand, meaning you can literally take them whenever you wish. These options are ideal for busy organizations that need to train multiple people at once at a time that is convenient for everyone.
Diversity of Training Topics
Online IT training offers a huge breadth of subjects for those that need to advance their knowledge. Some of the subjects that common online IT training providers cover include:
· Microsoft development tools: Visual Studio, Silverlight, and.NET Framework
· IBM WebSphere
· Java & Java EE
· Agile & Scrum
These are just a few types of online IT training available. Many providers will also create custom instruction based on the needs of you or your team members so that you will be able to get exactly the knowledge that is required for you to improve your own particular set of IT skills. This means you never have to worry about wasting time on training modules that will not be helpful for you.
Supplementary Web Resources
The best online IT training companies will offer you additional tools that you can use to further your IT studies even after the training is complete. These resources include white papers, blogs, case studies, and review materials that will help reinforce the things that you learn during training. Additional training tools also serve as an excellent refresher on your online IT training so that your skills always stay sharp.
Expanding your IT knowledge is crucial if you are looking to achieve success in the field and maintain it for any length of time. Unfortunately, keeping up with changes in IT does require an investment of time and energy. Online IT training is the perfect way to make sure that you can advance your understanding of important modern IT concepts on your own schedule through a medium that works for your own learning
How Students Can Benefit From Online Education
Over the years technology has progressed into a force to be
reckoned with; it seems you can learn just about anything online.
Previously you could do basic things like shop or get directions, and
now you can literally attend school online from the comfort of your
living room. Education websites proliferate the Internet and appeal to
all ages; anyone can take advantage of this new shift in technology.
Evaluating the pros and cons of education websites will allow you to see
which ones are the choices for you.
The obvious perks to education websites are flexibility and the multitude of choices at your fingertips. There are thousands of websites and programs to choose from, making it easy to find the perfect school that will fit your student's needs. The flexibility of education websites to supplement the traditional classroom or to replace it altogether offers families more educational options. High school students are opting for educational websites because they offer a more efficient use of time, personalized instruction, immediate feedback, and access to unlimited teaching aids.
Another key factor in choosing online schooling is the diversity of peers; depending on what online school families choose, students could be connecting with people from all over the world. Networking with people from a wide variety of cultural perspectives puts learning in a global perspective.
Individual pacing is another plus for many students who get to really dig deep into what interests them, bypass what they already know, and access teaching aids in real time on a grand scale. In many brick-and-mortar schools students are locked into the same pace as everyone else, making it more difficult to adequately diversify and personalize learning efficiently. Education websites allow students to take as many or as few classes at a time as they like and have a multitude of resources and teaching aids for them to utilize.
By attending online, students and families can actually save money. Brick-and-mortar schools generally have a bevvy of annual student fees, not to mention the costs of social and athletic activities and astronomical senior year costs. There is also significant savings in transportation for students who commute back and forth to school via Mom and Dad's cars, their own cars, or even public transportation.
Parents can access educational websites like Artifacts Teach and have instant access to thousands of objects online to engage students' curiosities, offer deep learning in core content areas, and develop valuable critical thinking skills. They have the power to enhance and expand student learning offering a bridge between prior knowledge and new information.
Educational websites are not all designed to replace school. In many cases, they can be used to deepen understanding of classroom material. They offer students expanded exploration in areas of interest. These websites provide places for prolonged engagement, which improves learning retention.
The obvious perks to education websites are flexibility and the multitude of choices at your fingertips. There are thousands of websites and programs to choose from, making it easy to find the perfect school that will fit your student's needs. The flexibility of education websites to supplement the traditional classroom or to replace it altogether offers families more educational options. High school students are opting for educational websites because they offer a more efficient use of time, personalized instruction, immediate feedback, and access to unlimited teaching aids.
Another key factor in choosing online schooling is the diversity of peers; depending on what online school families choose, students could be connecting with people from all over the world. Networking with people from a wide variety of cultural perspectives puts learning in a global perspective.
Individual pacing is another plus for many students who get to really dig deep into what interests them, bypass what they already know, and access teaching aids in real time on a grand scale. In many brick-and-mortar schools students are locked into the same pace as everyone else, making it more difficult to adequately diversify and personalize learning efficiently. Education websites allow students to take as many or as few classes at a time as they like and have a multitude of resources and teaching aids for them to utilize.
By attending online, students and families can actually save money. Brick-and-mortar schools generally have a bevvy of annual student fees, not to mention the costs of social and athletic activities and astronomical senior year costs. There is also significant savings in transportation for students who commute back and forth to school via Mom and Dad's cars, their own cars, or even public transportation.
Parents can access educational websites like Artifacts Teach and have instant access to thousands of objects online to engage students' curiosities, offer deep learning in core content areas, and develop valuable critical thinking skills. They have the power to enhance and expand student learning offering a bridge between prior knowledge and new information.
Educational websites are not all designed to replace school. In many cases, they can be used to deepen understanding of classroom material. They offer students expanded exploration in areas of interest. These websites provide places for prolonged engagement, which improves learning retention.
Basic E-Commerce Web Design
If you are looking for a company that can handle your e-commerce
web design requirements then you will be glad to learn that there are
many web designers and companies out there who will be ready to help you
out. Choosing the best developer is not always an easy task. This is
because you need to be sure that you are in fact choosing the right
person or company.
Every modern online business needs to deal with a company that is able to handle their e-commerce web design requirements. Fortunately, there are many companies and people out there who will do a good job for you for a very affordable price. So, before you hire a company or person you must keep the following points in mind.
Before you choose someone to take care of your e-commerce web design you must make sure that you are dealing with a company or individual who can customize your website through use of a third-party shopping cart system. It certainly will pay to have a shopping cart that does everything for you. In addition, it is important to make sure that your website is laid out in a way that is both fashionable as well as professional.
E-commerce is a process that allows an online business to communicate and transact with customers via the internet. It is a new way of doing business that is the first choice of more and more modern business enterprises. More and more professionals are becoming involved in developing websites that are engaged in online buying and selling. New software applications such as shopping carts and product display, selection and ordering options are all examples of good e-commerce web design.
This form of designing is not all that different from traditional web designing. However, some changes need to be made to make sure that complex business financial transactions are handled with ease. Ease of navigation is a sign of a well-designed website. Such websites work well and they are also able to attract more traffic.
When designing a website that engages in selling products and services, it is important to secure the site against unwanted intruders and hackers. When a person visits the site they should be reassured that their sensitive as well as confidential information is secure and not open to hacking. The designer should encrypt the pages to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information provided by visitors.
A good professional designer can take care of all your e-commerce web design needs. All that you need to do before selecting a designer is make sure that they have experience in this field.
Every modern online business needs to deal with a company that is able to handle their e-commerce web design requirements. Fortunately, there are many companies and people out there who will do a good job for you for a very affordable price. So, before you hire a company or person you must keep the following points in mind.
Before you choose someone to take care of your e-commerce web design you must make sure that you are dealing with a company or individual who can customize your website through use of a third-party shopping cart system. It certainly will pay to have a shopping cart that does everything for you. In addition, it is important to make sure that your website is laid out in a way that is both fashionable as well as professional.
E-commerce is a process that allows an online business to communicate and transact with customers via the internet. It is a new way of doing business that is the first choice of more and more modern business enterprises. More and more professionals are becoming involved in developing websites that are engaged in online buying and selling. New software applications such as shopping carts and product display, selection and ordering options are all examples of good e-commerce web design.
This form of designing is not all that different from traditional web designing. However, some changes need to be made to make sure that complex business financial transactions are handled with ease. Ease of navigation is a sign of a well-designed website. Such websites work well and they are also able to attract more traffic.
When designing a website that engages in selling products and services, it is important to secure the site against unwanted intruders and hackers. When a person visits the site they should be reassured that their sensitive as well as confidential information is secure and not open to hacking. The designer should encrypt the pages to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information provided by visitors.
A good professional designer can take care of all your e-commerce web design needs. All that you need to do before selecting a designer is make sure that they have experience in this field.
Success Affiliate Marketing - 10 Easy Steps to Start Your Profitable Home Based Affiliate Business
To success in the affiliate marketing, I am going to give you 10
proven success steps for beginners to get up to speed in the home based
affiliate business. You will discover the sequence of 10 easy steps to
get familiar with the affiliate marketing business and how to earn more
affiliate commission in this article. Also, you will learn how to build
the successful and profitable affiliate business. With the following
steps, you are going a head to your competitors and reach forward to
your success.
Read This: If you are truly serious about how to build successful home based affiliate marketing business and looking for how to get started your own home based affiliate business.
1) Learn everything you have to know about the affiliate marketing business such as what exactly it is, how it work, why you have to build your own affiliate business, how many types of affiliate programs there are and how to market & advertise those programs. This is your first step to get up to speed in the home based affiliate business. The more you learn, the more you know.
2) Setup your goals, plan your actions and take your action seriously. Your goals, plans and actions are the most significant for you to build and run your home based affiliate business. Without them, you are losing the direction in your business and you will never earn big affiliate commission. I would love to recommend you to plan your work for your affiliate business and work your plan seriously.
3) Build high quality website with your original content & keep your website fresh and new always. There is no doubt that website is one of the most important for affiliate entrepreneurs to convert visitors into customers. The real successful in the home based affiliate business is to build high quality and conversion rate website along with the quality content. My experiences show that the affiliate marketing business is all about content-driven business. All you have to do is to provide high quality and relevancy content to your market.
4) Write great articles & press release with niche keyword-rich and submit them manually to well-known article directories including paid article directories. The article marketing is one of the most effective approaches to drive massive of traffic to your affiliate website. The real key successes in the article marketing are to write the original unique & high quality articles along with well-written style and spread your articles into the world.
5) Provide great newsletter & up-to-date information in your niche markets and follow up with back end-selling process. Without capturing the visitors' personal information, you are losing the opportunities to earn more affiliate commission and to build a relationship with them. My experiences show that the email promotion internet marketing is a must for affiliate entrepreneurs in order to ensure that they can build the relationship and provide great back-end selling process in the future.
6) Establish your own blog, RSS, & Podcasting for your niche markets to reach wider range of your customers. Blogging online marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing strategies on the internet. My investigations show that most of internet users have their own blogs. And most internet entrepreneurs earn money with their blogs. They use it as an alternative way to market their products online.
7) Conduct bi-weekly free special reports for your area and spread those reports to the world. Recently, viral marketing technique is a must internet marketing technique for any kind of online business. If you want to run and grow your home based affiliate business, you have to take your viral marketing into your action seriously. With this marketing strategy and quality special reports, you are building your reputation, creditability and reliability for your market.
8) Participant proactively in forums, chat-rooms, and social networking site. My high recommendation is to establish your network connection in your areas. Try to be socialized rather than sale pitch is the best way for your home based affiliate business. I strongly recommend you to participant in the proactive forums. With those kinds of forums, you can exchange your knowledge and experiences easier. My experiences reveal that all members in the proactive forums are willing to exchange their experiences and knowledge.
9) Drive more targeted-traffic through Pay-Per-Click advertising such as Google Adwords, Overture and MSNAdCenter. Without the great knowledge and proper steps of how to build highly profitable pay per click campaign, you are losing your money & time. Otherwise, you can earn top affiliate commission on the internet through your pay per click advertising.
10) Stay in your business, grow your business every day and do your best everyday! My highest recommendation in this step is "don't give up too quick". You have to learn and grow your home based affiliate business every day!
A part from those above steps, you have to keep your eyes on your affiliate marketing business every day, as usual. Initially, it requires a lot of your works and time, but once it is set up and automated, it will require less time and effort.
Final thoughts, once you get familiar with your home based affiliate business and those steps, all you have to do for running and growing your home based affiliate business are to: stay focus, diversify your markets and release from the daily operation tasks in order to automate & grow your affiliate marketing business.
Read This: If you are truly serious about how to build successful home based affiliate marketing business and looking for how to get started your own home based affiliate business.
1) Learn everything you have to know about the affiliate marketing business such as what exactly it is, how it work, why you have to build your own affiliate business, how many types of affiliate programs there are and how to market & advertise those programs. This is your first step to get up to speed in the home based affiliate business. The more you learn, the more you know.
2) Setup your goals, plan your actions and take your action seriously. Your goals, plans and actions are the most significant for you to build and run your home based affiliate business. Without them, you are losing the direction in your business and you will never earn big affiliate commission. I would love to recommend you to plan your work for your affiliate business and work your plan seriously.
3) Build high quality website with your original content & keep your website fresh and new always. There is no doubt that website is one of the most important for affiliate entrepreneurs to convert visitors into customers. The real successful in the home based affiliate business is to build high quality and conversion rate website along with the quality content. My experiences show that the affiliate marketing business is all about content-driven business. All you have to do is to provide high quality and relevancy content to your market.
4) Write great articles & press release with niche keyword-rich and submit them manually to well-known article directories including paid article directories. The article marketing is one of the most effective approaches to drive massive of traffic to your affiliate website. The real key successes in the article marketing are to write the original unique & high quality articles along with well-written style and spread your articles into the world.
5) Provide great newsletter & up-to-date information in your niche markets and follow up with back end-selling process. Without capturing the visitors' personal information, you are losing the opportunities to earn more affiliate commission and to build a relationship with them. My experiences show that the email promotion internet marketing is a must for affiliate entrepreneurs in order to ensure that they can build the relationship and provide great back-end selling process in the future.
6) Establish your own blog, RSS, & Podcasting for your niche markets to reach wider range of your customers. Blogging online marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing strategies on the internet. My investigations show that most of internet users have their own blogs. And most internet entrepreneurs earn money with their blogs. They use it as an alternative way to market their products online.
7) Conduct bi-weekly free special reports for your area and spread those reports to the world. Recently, viral marketing technique is a must internet marketing technique for any kind of online business. If you want to run and grow your home based affiliate business, you have to take your viral marketing into your action seriously. With this marketing strategy and quality special reports, you are building your reputation, creditability and reliability for your market.
8) Participant proactively in forums, chat-rooms, and social networking site. My high recommendation is to establish your network connection in your areas. Try to be socialized rather than sale pitch is the best way for your home based affiliate business. I strongly recommend you to participant in the proactive forums. With those kinds of forums, you can exchange your knowledge and experiences easier. My experiences reveal that all members in the proactive forums are willing to exchange their experiences and knowledge.
9) Drive more targeted-traffic through Pay-Per-Click advertising such as Google Adwords, Overture and MSNAdCenter. Without the great knowledge and proper steps of how to build highly profitable pay per click campaign, you are losing your money & time. Otherwise, you can earn top affiliate commission on the internet through your pay per click advertising.
10) Stay in your business, grow your business every day and do your best everyday! My highest recommendation in this step is "don't give up too quick". You have to learn and grow your home based affiliate business every day!
A part from those above steps, you have to keep your eyes on your affiliate marketing business every day, as usual. Initially, it requires a lot of your works and time, but once it is set up and automated, it will require less time and effort.
Final thoughts, once you get familiar with your home based affiliate business and those steps, all you have to do for running and growing your home based affiliate business are to: stay focus, diversify your markets and release from the daily operation tasks in order to automate & grow your affiliate marketing business.
Siripong R. or zMillionDollars is a recognized authority on the
subject of making money online from home through highly profitable &
successful home based business.
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