SEO Web Design with Binh Nguyen » tips

Web Tools and Tips and Me

Bình — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:00:29 +0000

Did you notice? At the very beginning of this blog I wrote this article: Basic Windows Tweaks for Better Computing Experience. Well, I still have plenty of similar articles up in my sleeves and haven't publish them yet. But I do have some interesting computer tips (old link) to share at Opentips.com written by various experts.

In Australia I spent most of my time working as a computer service technician. My job was to fix broken computer and maintain a network of around 20 computers for Internet cafe. It cost people up to $80 for a repair I done in few hours. Even when not at work, tweaking and maintaining a Windows PC is just my daily life.

I've been too busy with learning to blog. If the same amount of time that I read, I spend to write, now I would have few hundred articles up and running. Unfortunately, life is like that, learning make you slow down, but after that it give you much more benefit than not learning at all.

Recently I stumbled upon this blog called Web Tools and Tips because of some link bait. At first, I thought it's just some commercial blog up for nothing. But slowly when I repeatedly visit it I found it really match my taste.

If you have a blog, you should link to me now, whisper me and I will put a back link to your page too. My linking strategy is much more generous than many other bloggers. For instant you can check this article Top 65 Ping Sites for WordPress Blogs, see how many inbound links I get from there, and compare how many outbound links from this post.

Silky the author behind Web Tools and Tips is writing a lot about computers tips and tricks. This really turn me on because it's my expertise. I always wanted to write tips and tweaks for Windows. At the time I write this article, the latest tips from Web Tools and Tips is: Make your Windows XP Computer run faster. Since this is what I know well and what I do, I would like to have a quick look at the advices. Here are the main point from this article.

Remove unwanted software from your PC
Remove unwanted programs from Start up
Turn off the fancy Windows XP graphics
Clear Browsing History and Temporary files

Well, allow me to give some humble opinions here, even though it's a little off-topic. I strongly agree with the first 3 points. By following those 3 advices you will greater improve the performance of any computer. However, I disagree on number 4. The author said:

If you are a consistent user of your web browser, then over a period, many unwanted Temporary Internet files, cookies, browsing history, your passwords etc. get accumulated in the memory, and is a drain on the PC resources. You can selectively delete them, specially the Temporary Internet files.

Source: http://webtoolsandtips.com/uncategorized/make-computer-fast/

No! If you delete the temporary Internet files you are loosing performance. The purpose of caching is to speed up the online browsing speed. The longer the history and temporary files the faster you will browse the Internet.

Just a simple example, imagine when you get hit a 10MB flash file. If you delete it from the cache, it will have to be downloaded the next time you view it... do you like that 2 minutes wait? If you leave it there, the next hit may take only 1 or 2 seconds.

The temporary files you need to clean up often, are not Temporary Interent Files, but the Temporary System files reside in C:\Temp, C:\Windows\Temp, and %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp.

Oh, that's just a quick look at something I'm good at. There are more to say, but not at this time and not in this article. Silky might not like my honest opinion but that's how I work. I always will give honest opinions even it is negative. I know it hurts because the person (even myself) would feel a little embarrassed, even angry sometimes. However, if that person (including myself) can take that as a positive criticism than they can improve very quickly and become more successful.

Overall, I found Web Tools and Tips very interesting blog and I will definitely be a loyal reader. I particularly like Tips 'n' Tricks category from this blog. It remind me to put something into my Windows category.

Christmas Tips

Bình — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:47:28 +0000

Christmas is coming and I'm feeling the need to share the Christmas Tips for you to get a better X-mas holiday. Have you heard of Open Tips (opentips.com)? If not you might one to check it out. It has a Christmas Tips section where you find dozens of hips of advices for your chirstmas. Here is the list of tips you can get from Open Tips's Christmas Tips:

Am I generous? If this list help you in anyway, please kindly link to it from your blog. There will be more to come so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed for updates.

This post was originally published at as 45 Christmas Tip Articles for a Better X-mas. However, I made a mistake in the links so I republish it here.

10 Must-read Articles to Become an Expert Stumbler

Bình — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:55:25 +0000

I stumbled upon StumbleUpon recently and I'm eager to learn more about how it works. If you read my testimonial on the surge in traffic from StumbleUpon then you may have the same questions I have. So I searched and learn things that are totally new. Here are what I read and would like to share the 10 articles that any new StumbleUpon member should read to become expert stumbler.

10 must-read articles

1. Getting Started with StumbleUpon by StumbleUpon

You can learn how to stumble from this article . This perhaps is the simplest and most essential guide to StumbleUpon you can find on the Internet. If you haven't read it (like me) you should start now.

2. 5 essential StumbleUpon power points by Blah Blah Tech

This article tell about 5 important characteristics of StumbleUpon. Included are:

Community
Reviews
Trust and Reputation
Votes
Spam

I pay particular attention in the "Spammers beware!" section because that is the first thing blogger should learn.

3. 17 POWER Tips For StumbleUpon Beginners by Niche2

Whatever that 17 tips are, I found it really helpful and I will definitely comeback to read it. The post also include links to dozens of other articles which are helpful.

4. How to Become a Top StumbleUpon User (or Why You Really Shouldn’t Bother) by DoshDosh

I must agree with DoshDosh in that StumbleUpon should not be abused as a traffic generation tool. Especially appreciate him for pointing out that "the law of diminishing returns" apply here.

5. Top Ten Blog Posts that Guarantee Stumbles by DWWebSolutions

What type of blog posts to write for stumblers? You can learn it from this article. This is something a bit humorous, but it does provide serious help in getting a picture of what to write.

6. A Guide to StumbleUpon: Understanding and Beating The System by Lost Arts Of Blogging

As the name describe, in this article you will find:

Getting Started with Stumble
That sounds all great and all, but what can Stumble do for me and my blog ?
Well, how much traffic are we talking about?
Leveraging the Stumbleupon traffic

7.The Ultimate Guide To Leveraging StumbleUpon by Daily Moolah

You can learn how to leverage StumbleUpon from this article. Here are the topics covered by the article:

Black Hat Strategies
Power Stumbler Profile
Using WordPress
Mistakes
Friendship

8. A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website by DoshDosh

This article shows what DoshDosh learned when using StumbleUpon. He teaches how to drive traffic to your website, as well as some strategies you can adopt to retain StumbleUpon visitors while monetizing your website.

9. StumbleUpon Networking: How to Easily Share Content and Build Relationships by DoshDosh

This article gives the various ways of using StumbleUpon to share content directly with others, while studying the numerous benefits that arise when one disseminates web pages and shares opinions in this manner.

10. Five Ways to Grow Your StumbleUpon Network: An Ode to Altruistic Stumbling by DoshDosh

This article shows you five main ways you can use to expand your StumbleUpon network of friends. A list of strategies DoshDosh used himself and share with us.

Additional articles

There are many more articles about StumbleUpon and worth reading. However these felt off the top 10. Here they are:

StumbleUpon - Simple tips to increased traffic by Yeepage.com
Stumbleupon: My story so far… by Yeepage.com
StumbleUpon exchange train by Yeepage.com

Conclusion

If you like this post, please kindly bookmark it using StumbleUpon, Digg, or other services to share it with others. If you would like to use it on your site, please kindly links back to this post.

All feedbacks are welcomed. Especially if you come from using Stumble! button, if you don't have time please just say "Stumbled!", thanks.

Proven Way to Gain Huge Traffic with StumbleUpon

Bình — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:02:42 +0000

Have you ever heard of StumbleUpon? I have an account with them but have not used since I made it. StumbleUpon is a social-media (social network) that allows user to tag and blog about things they found on the Internet.

StumbleUpon is very similar to Digg.com, Del.icio.us. However it is more blogging oriented, and hence more friendly to bloggers.

A peer's testimonial

I, myself overlooked StumbleUpon. But that's about to change. After I read Sujoy shares his own experience after submitting his own blog posts onto StumbleUpon. Sujoy claims to have few hundred unique visits a day thanks to using this social network. I found him via Yeepage's love links.

My own analysis

Yesterday I tested it. Today result is amazing.

Test results

My personal record before using StumbleUpon:

Saturday Nov 16: 34 visits, 140 pageviews,
Sunday Nov 17: 56 visits, 102 page views,

Then after I stumbled my own pages, I got:

Monday Nov 26: 226 visits, 411 pageviews
Tuesday Nov 27: 416 visits, 773 page views (still counting)

Can you see the difference? StumbeUpon alone sent me 548 visits during 2 days making it 49.86% of the whole life time of this blog.

Evidence

Here are my screen-shots of what happened:

No page stumbled, 33 visits:

Stumbled, 416 visits:

Top traffic sources, 548 from StumbleUpon:

I don't know why, but this particular page is getting so many hits, 241 landing from StumbleUpon and 449 page views in total: Article: Importance and The Right Way to Submit

Unfortunately there is a very bad tendency with Stumble users, they don't click ads. I got 0 clicks from 700 impressions. 0% CTR, what the heck. For 2 days, I got over 1500 page views, but no ad clicks. crying)

What's next

I'm very happy with the result from testing out StumbleUpon. What I need to worry now is serious layout and professional writing. I would like my writing to be as simple as possible so that everyone can understand. Please always give me feedback so that I can improve.

You see, I always share everything I learn from the blogging world. So for a easier experience, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed via email and stay up to date with my findings.

I still have some doubts, is it my ads suck, or is it they don't like to click ads? Please do feed me your opinion, I'm really hungry for it.

Basic Windows Tweaks for Better Computing Experience

Bình — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 16:36:02 +0000

Just 2 days ago I had to re-install Windows because of CiaDoor attack. During the wait time I got an idea of writing a few quick tips on optimizing Windows. Most people don't realize some very basic Windows features so I explain here a few very easy things they should do to configure Windows to work better (I will cover the "to work faster" topic in another post at another time).

Enable Commonly used Desktop Items

Procedure:

Display Properties > Desktop > Customize Desktop… > General > Desktop icons

Optionally select:

My Documents
My Computer
My Network Places
Internet Explorer

Reason:

Most people frustrate when first experience XP because it hides those items by default. We need those items because:

My Documents allows us quickly jump to our documents
My Computer allows us quickly access our disks
MY Network Places allows us quickly access network folders
Internet Explorer allows us quickly surf the Internet.

Arrange Desktop Items by Name

Procedure:

Right Click on Desktop > Arrange Icons By > Name
Right Click on Desktop > Arrange Icons By > Auto Arrange

Reason:

Don't mess up the desktop. If we choose to arrange them by manually drag and drop, we made a big mistake. As the number of items on Desktop increase we will have trouble arranging by ourselves, and waste time looking for the icon we want to open.

With Auto Arrange by Name, we will be able to quickly access our wanted item by doing the following:

Click on the Desktop
Press a letter on the keyboard matching the first letter of the icon name.
For most occasions, we already selected the item we wanted. Otherwise it will take only 1 second look and we can find it.

This tweak apply to other folders too. The biggest mistake one could make is putting number prefix to their files/folders. They loose the first letter clue and hence take much more time to locate the item they want. Especially in case they have dozens of objects in the same folder.

Turn on Advanced Search

Procedure:

Windows Explorer > Search > Change preferences > "Advanced - includes options to manually enter search criteria. Recommended for advanced users only"

Reason:

The Advanced option allow us to start typing the search query straight away, while the Standard make we loose sometimes for selecting "What do you want to search for?"

"Standard - includes step-by-step options that help you refine your search"

Enable Status Bar

Procedure:

Windows Explorer > View > Status Bar

Reason:

Well, most of the time we want to know what the file size is, how many files/folders (objects) in the current folder. Not showing the Status Bar make us do more clicks.

What's next?

There are more basic tweaks I would like to share with you. Due to time limit, my current DSL Slow Speed problem, and too many ideas, so I stop here for now. This list is not complete, yet. So please check back later for update, or possibly new posts related to this one. Please also consider leave a comment to let me know what you would like to hear from me.