Even a small dot can stop a big sentence. But … few more dots can give a continuity.......

Some essential feaures your web site must have

2008-11-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

Just don’t focus on the home page, keywords and titles.

The first step to sales when customers visit your site to see the products they were looking for. Of course, search engine optimization and better rankings can’t keep your customer on your site or make them buy. The customer having visited your site, now ensure that he gets interested in your products or services and stays around. Motivate him to buy the product by providing clear and unambiguous information. Thus if you happen to sell more than one product or service, provide all necessary information about this, may be by keeping the information at a different page. By providing suitable and easily visible links, the customer can navigate to these pages and get the details.

Understanding Your Target CustomerIf you design a website you think will attract clients, but you don’t really know who your customers are and what they want to buy, it is unlikely you make much money. Website business is an extension or replacement for a standard storefront. You can send email to your existing clients and ask them to complete a survey or even while they are browsing on your website. Ask them about their choices. Why do they like your products? Do you discount prices or offer coupons? Are your prices consistently lower than others? Is your shipping price cheaper? Do you respond faster to client questions? Are your product descriptions better? Your return policies and guarantees better than your competitor’s? To know your customer you can check credit card records or ask your customer to complete a simple contact form with name, address, age, gender, etc. when they purchase a product.

Does your website give enough contact information?When you sell from a website, your customer can buy your products 24 hrs a day and also your customers may be from other states that are thousands of miles away. Always provide contact information, preferably on every page of your website, complete with mailing address, telephone number and an email address that reaches you. People may need to contact you about sales, general information or technical problems on your site. Also have your email forwarded to another email address if you do not check your website mailbox often. When customer wants to buy online provide enough options like credit card, PayPal or other online payment service.

The Most Accurate Image Search On The Web.

2008-11-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

Pic search is the most accurate images search engine in the web.

It search images matching exactly to your keywords. Its better than google image search because google image search shows up huge lists of pics but not according to our needs whereas pic search shows you exactly what you need.

Give it a try and you will understand the difference between google image search and pic search.

Visit: Pic Seach

Best Tools For English To Hindi Transliteration

2008-10-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the best tools for English To Hindi Transliteration. By using any of these tools both offline and offline you can quickly do English To Hindi Transliteration.

Online Tools:

1. Google Indic Transliteration --> It lets you type Hindi words phonetically in English script and still have them appear in their correct alphabet in Hindi language.

2. QuillPad --> QuillPad is based on advanced machine learning algorithms and is an improvement on simple phonetic maps and specialized language keyboards, thus enabling millions of Indians to benefit from the Internet.

3. writeKA Scripton --> An intelligent online English to Hindi transliteration tool.

4. Lipikaar --> They are trying to make typing Hindi on web effortless, so that we can see the growth of rich content in Indian languages on the Web.

Offline Tools:

1. Baraha --> Baraha is a transliteration based application which converts 'Indian language text written in English' to their own respective scripts. It is the Best desktop tool for easy English To Hindi Transliteration.

2. writeKA Scripto Editor --> WriteKA Scripto is a transliteration program that uses a file based map to replace character sequences with a new sequence to get the transliterated text output required by a user.

3. Lipikaar FireFox Extension --> Very easy to use firefox addon for quick English to Hindi transliteration.

If you know any good tools beside these, please feel free to post in comments.

Instant Approval Credit Cards Online

2008-10-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

The online credit card review! Reviews and recommendations of only the best credit cards sites and offers.

Along with our tips, secrets & reviews we are sure you'll find what your looking for!

You can search our site and find the best sources for credit cards.

When you're shopping for a new credit card, the immediate features you see that attract your attention are the interest rate and the credit card reward programs offered. If you have good credit, you most likely would be approved for a card offering a 0% APR introductory period. This introductory low interest rate extends with an average of the first twelve months you have your new credit card.

With that in mind, the next thing to consider is the type of reward credit card that will fit your life style. It's a large competitive field for your credit card dollar and the financial institutions are very creative in continually bringing out new credit card reward programs. With the ease of the internet, it is now possible to compare a larger number of credit card offers side by side.

If you travel frequently, there are a number of travel reward credit cards that offer an accumulation of points to be used for air travel, hotel reservations, cruises, and car rentals. Many of these same offers include a discount on these services too. On the other hand, some reward credit cards allow you to accumulate points for the purchases of a variety of products, to be applied toward airline miles.

If you are one who pays your entire balance each month, a reward credit card that includes cash back as an incentive could be one that would be most enticing for you. Some of the cash back cards offer as much as 5% return on your money. This can add up to a tidy sum at the end of the year.

Additional reward credit card offers include discount on gasoline purchases, contribution to an FDIC-insured high-yield savings account in your name, and an accumulation of points for gift cards from top retailers and restaurants. There is a reward credit card that fits every life style.

So, the next time you're looking for a new credit card, after you've compared the interest rate, review the credit card reward incentives too. Credit card rewards can save you money!

Forex Trading Simplified.

2008-10-26T07:13:00.000-07:00

According to wikipedia, the forex market is one of the largest financial markets in the world with average daily trade volume of over US$ 3 trillion. With the recent correction and the resulting underlying volatility in the stock markets across the globe, investors have now started looking towards forex trading in order to generate short term returns at a comparitively lower risk, when compared to equity trading. A few friends of mine have made pretty good returns by going short on USD and long on CAD, Euro, GBP, Canadian Dollar, Singapore dollar and the Japanese yen. Sitting in their cushy home offices they do online forex trading through reputed international forex trading houses.

To start trading forex, you will need to open an account with one of the many online forex trading firms. It is important to stick to players who are reputed, backed by big business conglomerates and have been around in the market for quite some time. To get started most firms would require that you deposit just about $50 as initial trading margin. Since the leverage available is huge, profits (or losses) can be huge as well. Before deciding to take a position, do a thorough analysis of the currencies, the macro economy of the country (in whose currencies you wish to trade). A bit of technical analysis will also help in finding the short term trend and predicting the short term price movements. With a bit of effort and in-depth analysis, forex trading is likely to be a low risk, high return game.

A BREAK FOR THE TAXPAYER.

2008-10-26T07:10:00.000-07:00

Capital gains tax has long been the nemesis of investors. No one wants to share their profits with the government. After all, it is the investors who determine where to put their hard-earned money, and why should a smart decision on their part benefit our government? Of course, the IRS sees this differently and continues to feel entitled to a share of the profit.

This year and for at least two more, investors in specific tax brackets are receiving a break and have cause to celebrate. If you meet the requirements, this is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy your investment profit without paying the capital gains tax.

Taxpayers who are holding stocks and bonds and are interested in cashing them out in the near future, have an opportunity to avoid the capital gains tax entirely from 2008 through 2010. This break could be extremely beneficial for seniors who would like to tap into some of their savings without having to pay the government taxes on the profit they’ve made. As with all such laws, there are restrictions to first take into consideration.

This opportunity is only available to single people with taxable income under $32,500. For married couples, the taxable income limit is $65,100. The catch to this is that you can only qualify for zero tax if your withdrawal, added to your annual income, keeps you within the income limits previously stated. Once you exceed these limits, the 15% capital gains tax will again apply.

It would be a good idea to begin making these withdrawals as soon as possible, so you will be able to maintain the limits while taking advantage of this recent change. This change is, at this time, only in effect from 2008 through 2010, and there is no guarantee that it will be extended.

CAPITAL GAINS

2008-10-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Many investors are carefully watching the current presidential race and wondering if they should begin selling their stocks as a reaction to political poll reports. Capital gains have been discussed frequently during this campaign and each candidate has clearly stated his position on this subject. Investors are watching carefully and wondering whether or not they should sell their stocks in order to safeguard their profits.

If Senator Barack Obama is elected, he has vowed to increase the capital gains tax from the current rate of 15% to approximately a 20% rate for taxpayers earning more than $200,000 individually, or $250,000 filing jointly. Although this does not seem like a huge increase, if you have a large profit from the stock market this year, this increase could amount to a substantial amount of money that would be owed to the government from your profits.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, has stated numerous times that he would allow the capital gains tax to remain at the current rate of 15%. He does not believe that it is necessary to increase this tax and would support holding the line at 15%.

If Senator McCain becomes our next president, the large investors in the stock market can breathe easily. If, however, Senator Obama is our next president, the investors must decide if it is in their best interest to sell their stocks at a profit while the 15% rate is still in effect. This is a decision which will have to be made soon. It is important to understand that history has repeatedly shown us that a new president generally addresses his tax agendas in his first year in office.

Check Out This Cool Version Of Windows

2008-10-26T06:52:00.001-07:00

This is really a cool version of windows code name(WinRGE).

Windows Really Good Edition built entirely on flash by a animation developer.

This windows highlights the some of the main features of windows operating systems.

Check it out for some of the best features of windows.

Visit: WinRGE

Tutorial to Create DTree Menu

2008-10-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

DTree is a menu that be arranged like a tree. It will be like menu when you open "windows Explorer". It's very usefull if you have many posting (articel) in your blog. It can contain many link in small space. It will be like the below image :

Here's the step by step tutorial to create "DTree Menu" in blogger:

1. Login to Blogger, go to "Layout --> Edit HTML"
2. Put the code below over

3. Save your editting.
4. Now edit end copy the below code then put on your sidebar.

Change "link.html" with your own link.
The first number must be unique (d.add(1,0,'Node 1','link.html');
The second number is child of the number (look at the color).

You can add the below code to add a new node with your own image

d.add
(10,0,'Profile','link.html','','','http://blogoholic.info/files/dtree/trash.gif');

change "http://blogoholic.info/files/dtree/trash.gif" with your own image.

Contact Us

2008-10-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Or Click Here http://www.emailmeform.com/fid.php?formid=159519

Embed Photos, Videos, Audio, And Flash Widgets In Orkut Scrapbooks

2008-10-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

Now, you can scrap in photos, videos, audio, and flash widgets in your friends scrapbooks in Orkut.

Here's how:

Add Images

Copy and paste urls ending in .jpg, .gif, .png or .bmp and the image will appear in the scrapbooks.

for example, http://www.example.com/example.gif

Add Videos

From Youtube And Google VideoCopy and paste the url and the video will appear in the scrap.

for example, http://youtube.com/watch?v=videoid

Add Podcast/Audio

Copy and paste the url of an audio file and an audio player will appear in the scrap.

for example, http://example.com/example.mp3

Add html-embeddable objects

Create or upload your content at sites such as photobucket.com, imageshack.com, rockyou.com or slide.com.

Copy and paste the html embed code to share it with your friends.

These things works only in scrapbooks not in community.

Via: Orkutplus

This Is How Orkut Make April Fool To Its User's

2008-10-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Today one of my friend in Orkut told me to notice the Orkut's logo to see what's the change in it.

At first I saw its written Yogurt instead of Orkut, i think what kind of joke is this ,,, and then I realized that this is Orkut's way of making their users April Fool...

Happy April Fool..

Send Two Sms Free Daily To Any Cell In India

2008-10-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Atro Chatro is an online service from which you can send two sms daily without any registrations. All cell operators of India are supported here.

You might have heard of sending sms from net earlier but it wont be working either.

Yes you can send sms from rediff n indiatimes but there you need registration and also messenger to send sms. At Atro Chatro you can send hassle free 2sms to anyone in India daily without any registration process or any messenger.

Just log in to the link given below and type the cell number to which you want to send the sms. Write a sms upto 160 characters and click proceed.That’s it, your sms will reach instantly to the receiver .This service is so easy to use, can prove helpful at times.

If you have no balance in your cell and need to contact your loved ones just login to Atro Chatro You can also earn sms credits by sending Atro Chatro to your friends and then you will gain credits from which you can send more free sms. Atro Chatro is Sms on the move.

There's also a preety good sms collection at AtroChatro.

Ref: AtroChatro, Send Free Sms Instantly

Nokia N95 The Top High End Smartphone For 2007

2008-10-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Nokia N95 is an impressive device, and one that is set to become the top high end smartphone for 2007. What impresses about the N95 is that so many features have been packed into a relatively small device.

N95 is a little bigger than the N73 and has a 5 megapixel camera with VGA video capture too.

You can connecet N95 to any other devices through: USB, Infrared, Bluetooth, GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA and WLAN N95 has got integrated GPS with 150MB of internal memory (expandable via a microSD slot), and software platfrom - S60 3rd Edition FeaturePack1.

The camera, which is 5 megapixels and uses Carl Zeiss optics, is on the back of the device and is accompanied by a 'ring-slider' which open and closes the shutter.Opening the shutter activates the camera application. To take pictures, the phone is held horizontally with the screen used as a view finder, as on the N73.

In this mode, the capture key is on the top right of the device. This means the N95 is used in the same way as most point and shoot digital cameras.

The camera application has a number of extras, camera options now include 4 ISO settings, contrast and sharpness adjustment, and an enhanced burst mode (now with gaps of up to 15 minutes).

In conclusion, i dont regret buying my N95. But i wont be giving up my current N-GageQD

Ref:Nokia.com

How To Update Windows XP Offline

2008-10-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

The American-British language based Heise website (http://www.heise-security.co.uk/articles/80682) is somewhat confusing to understand, but their script is useful and straightforward.

I have used the method many times, so I am providing a simple description on how to update your windows xp using c't update.

Here are the quick steps..

1. Download ctupdate Version 4.1 of from Heise's website.

2. Create a new folder and unzip the downloaded zip file ctupdate41.zip to that folder.

3. Double click the file " UpdateGenerator.exe " from the extracted files, in the options menu choose " Windows XP ", check " English " , check on " Create iso " for creating iso image of updates which you can burn on a cd. Now click start, this initiates the download of all required XP patches directly from Microsoft's servers.

4. When the script announces, "Download image creation successful," close the c't updater windows .

5. Now navigate to ..\ctupdate4\iso folder and burn the iso image created to a blank cd using nero or any other iso burning software.

6. For Windows XP in English, that file is named " wsusoffline-wxp-enu.iso "

7. Insert the new autorun CD into the drive of the computer to be updated, click "Start" on the c't update pop-up menu, and go out somewhere while script does all the heavy job.

8. Every month, go through this process again, starting with Step 3, to update your system to latest updates. Now only new patches are downloaded, so downloads after the first one go much quicker.

This script driven offline windows update method is very convenient for new windows installations, routine updates and the library it creates is also a valuable data against that awful day when Microsoft abandons support of XP in favor of a sexy new OS Windows Vista.

I have never had a problem with the c't update and I hope this little explanation of offline update is helpful.

Related Articles : Alternative To AutoPatcher

Easily Change The Extension Of Any File In Windows

2008-10-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

Extension Changer is a very simple program that can change the extension of any file, just select single or multiple files in windows and select edit this extension option from the context menu.

This utility is easy to use and does exactly what it says, and is offered free of charge.

Related Links : Download Extension Changer

Learn How To Type Faster

2008-10-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Faster typing speeds is definitely a plus in I.T career and touch type is the only method by which we can learn to type faster without looking at keyboard.

TypeFaster is a free typing tutor to make you touch type faster with greater accuracy. In first try you may not want to use this because of its plain looks but its really an amazing freeware for improving your typing skills.

I am a horrible typist and I have been practicing touch type from past few days. I have a learned a lot. Touch type is quite irritating for beginners but once your fingers get used to of touch type, you will really enjoy typing.

Related Links: Download TypeFaster, How To Type Faster

Word Web An Excellent Dictionary For Windows

2008-10-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

Word web is an excellent free dictionary for windows operating system. I have been using it from a year and its really superb.

The most interesting feature of this free dictionary is that it can tell you the meaning of any word appearing anywhere on your computer screen whether its images, pdf files or even from toolbars and menus. It can scan words from virtually any type of media appearing on your screen.

To look up the meaning of any word appearing on your screen you just have to point your curser to the word and press the keys "Ctrl+Right Click" or you can also press "Ctrl+Alt+W" for looking up specific words.

Word web free can also lookup the online references like Wikipedia and Wikitionary within the dictionary itself.

This tiny dictionary application works like a charm in my windows xp system and is not at all resource hungry. It just resides in system tray and pops up whenever you search for any meanings.

Download Link: Word Web Free

OpenDisc A Free Alternative To Costly Softwares

2008-10-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a great collection of free alternative to costly softwares, OpenDisc is all you need.

OpenDisc provides a free alternative to costly softwares, with equal or often better quality equivalents to proprietary, shareware or freeware softwares for Microsoft Windows.

It contains a wonderful collection of free alternative for many expensive commercial softwares like Gimp as an alternative to Photoshop, 7zip for WinZIP and many more.

You can view the full list of softwares in OpenDisc here.

The full ISO download is 555MB and if you have a very slow Internet connection you can purchase the open disc CD from their website at a very low cost.

Is a Career Woman Happier than a Stay at Home Mom?

2008-10-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

I often see this query being searched on the web or being asked around when in a social gathering with women struggling with work-life balance issues or just wanting to be out of the house and finding new careers or jobs that satisfy them the most. There is a lot of judgement, discussions and criticism flowing around on the issue deciding on being a working mother as compared to being a stay-at-home mom. Of course, you are free to judge and criticize but do it mostly on yourself. What satisfies you might not be appealing to the other person.

The Career Woman

I have heard many career women talk about how grateful they are that they have jobs and something to look forward to other than just taking care of the household chores. They often cite that they would not been “good moms” had they decided not to go to work after having kids. Of the few I asked this question, I got the following interesting answers:

“I would have been a grumpy mom had I been a stay-at-home mom. I would not have given the quality time I am giving now to my kids.”
“I would have been a horrible mom, always shouting and screaming at them for this or that. I feel blessed to be out of the house for a few hours of the day and return home waiting to hug and play with my kids!”
“I would have felt stifled at home, not finding the outlet to my creativity or just being at the place of work and interacting intellectually with like-minded personalities. I know it is hard to balance work and family but I find most satisfaction in the juggle than not having the option to juggle at all!”

Some great answers there, but I feel the point is about having a choice. The choice to be a stay at home mother or being a working parent. At times, women don’t even have the choice on what they truly want depending on financial circumstances, personal issues or a child’s health or disability problem. You may choose to be a working mom or a stay at home mom, but feel grateful that you have a choice.

On the other hand, I have a friend who recently took up full-time work after being on a contract job for almost 3 years, the reason she preferred the contract jobs was she could always work on 2-3 months on a project and then take off during the summer breaks, the winter breaks the not-so-planned breaks when the kids are down under weather. Now since her younger child is 4 years old she thought it is time for her to consider full-time work, but have the vacations changed? No. Are the possibilities low of the unexpected events? Probably slightly since the kids are grown up but there’re still there. With the summer vacations here she is now struggling how to manage everything with no accrued vacation; she wishes she was back to part-time work or on a contract employment.

The struggles, the dilemmas for a career woman are ever present and we have to deal with them day in and out. But it is through challenges and some struggles that life becomes more meaningful and exciting, so I see no reason on shying away from them.

According to an article in the BBC news columns, a survey says that Working women with children are significantly happier than stay-at-home mothers, regardless of how many hours they work. The Job Satisfaction and Family Happiness survey also found that job satisfaction for women with partners is greater when they work part-time, irrespective of how small or large these jobs are.

The Stay-at-home Mother

Now, let’s talk about our stay-at-home mom, she too has too much on her plate and her day all booked with events like chauffeuring the kids to school and extra-curricular activities, work around the house and outside the house. One of the myths that must be clarified– a stay at home mom is not someone who is “not-working”. Being a mom already means a lot of work and in diverse ways, there cannot be a day when you are “out of work”.

What are the guilt factors do stay at home moms feel the guilt of not being able to contribute to the family finances? Do they feel guilty of watching Oprah and shopping network channels during day time? Or should they?

If you have a slightest feeling of guilt on not contributing to the finances of your house, you must look at the statistics below your work at home perhaps amounts much more than your working counterpart:

Salary.com brings forth the dream job for you – drum roll please – the Stay at home mom! The article says, “Stay-at-home mothers wear many hats. They're the family CEO, the day care provider, accountant, chauffeur, counselor, chef, nurse, laundress, entertainer, personal stylist, and educator. Based on a 90-hour work week, Salary.com has estimated that a fair wage for the typical stay-at-home mom would be well over $90,000 for executing all of her daily tasks. Factor in overtime, and the appropriate salary takes a leap of around $25,000.”

How does that make you feel? Of course, the sense of achievement and happiness truly relates to how you are managing your career today and how you perceive your future personal and career success. It truly depends on who you want to be and how satisfied are you presently. It is hard to compare who is happier, your happiness eventually boils down to your liking to what you are doing and whether that satisfies and defines who you are.

Stress Management for Working Women

2008-10-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Why only for working women you may ask – well, I feel working women have to manage more stress - be it meeting deadlines at work when you have a sick child at home, managing kids vacation time when they have none of their own or just day to day juggle in being a better performer at work, maintaining healthy relationship with spouse and managing household chores. This is all in addition to being a chauffeur to your kids for the soccer and dance practice and being the family’s PR and party planner.

Are we yet again talking about life-work balance issues or is this something different? (OK this question I asked myself when writing this post).

Yes, it does relate to efficient life-work management but emphasis here would be on stress management, the post is not discussing how to be great at achieving the balance but assuming that you are stuck (or satisfied with) the situation; but when you feel stressed what to do about it?

Manage your Finances and Treat Yourself

Or at least have some control on what is the take home and what you can have as “spend-it-on-yourself”. See if you can afford half a day at a spa or just treating yourself the best at home, treat yourself to relaxation and doing the same in a routine will help you rewind better.Fragrance, sound or sensation whatever soothes you the best, just use it in everyday life and watch the stress melt away.

Get House-Help

Don’t think about the extra 100 -200 dollars you would be shelving off every month or two for the house help, think of that as an investment to your time. The invaluable time that gets released to you to spend with you family -to go to the soccer game with your kids and not feel guilty of not cleaning the bathroom this weekend. Or just watching a late night movie with your spouse and not worrying about scrubbing the stains off the counter and cabinets in the kitchen. If some help gets the tension and stress off you, it’s worth it.

On Cooking

Work on quick healthy meals for the family, though you may be tempted to take-out or do a pizza night here and then, some quick easy healthy meals are just few minutes away (thanks to Rachael Ray, we get to see these most often on the TV or just perhaps grab her books).

Prepare some basic stuff during the weekend or use the crock-pot in the morning to have a delicious soup or chicken ready when you come back home.

Dropping / Picking Up Kids from School

Explore carpool options, use your spouse’s help when you are tied up at work, just don’t be in frenzy and in a rush around, note that stress and speed together could result in a negative outcome far worse than not being there to pick up the kids on time.

Prioritizing and Learning to say NO

Women are born multitaskers and we often bask in the glory of being efficient multitaskers. But often the toll is heavy on us on agreeing to many different tasks at the same time and our natural nature of accommodating the many requests. When stressed learn to say "No" and learn to prioritize time and tasks.

Sparkling House - Grumpy Mom Vs Messier House - Happy Mom

Women tend to stress a lot on getting the house mess and dust free. When stressed at work for deadlines or otherwise, give priority to your "me" time first and cleaning comes second. Doing it all will only increase stress, just learn to relax and for the time being ignore the mess if you can. When you find some free time tackle the mess.

The bottom line is -- to manage it all stress-free is not possible at all times, but some efforts on a regular basis can help the working mother be happier at work and efficient at managing family demands.

This article on Working Women and Stress By Naomi G. Swanson provides a brief overview of occupational stress as it affects working women and presents research on approaches for reducing the negative effects of job stress.

How do you feel about stress management in a day to day life of a working mother? Can you share some tips with us? Please comment!

Do Recruiters Accelerate the Job Search Process?

2008-10-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

Well, the answer is - it depends. Many recruiting agencies have a had a wonderful track record of having many satisfied customers over and over again whereas some who have had a not-so-good experience would always say “beware of the recruiting agencies”.You might be visible only to a smaller section of jobs available while working with a recruiter. I have heard of at least one case where the recruiter was non-cooperative to the candidate once it got to his notice that she was approaching companies and contacts on her own. But of course it is up to you to discuss your and his/her expectations upfront before committing to the relationship. The recruiters can fall in a fee dispute of the job seeker gets the position on his/her own.

The recruiters work on fees and commission basis. No, you do not have to pay anything upfront (however note - some recruiters do charge job seekers) in most cases the employers pay then when you are hired and stay in the job for at least one year or so. So of course if you are a suitable candidate the recruiter will work hard on you and with you to find the right job for you – after all his/her income depends on how many he/she can successfully place. If a recruiter asks for money upfront from you, it is a good idea to first question them on why and also ask for some referrals on successful candidates they have worked with. Research well before you go in for the

recruiter relationship.Why would you need a Recruiter’s help?

If you are not confident on how your resume presents today, a recruiter might help you in critiquing and updating your resume to the desired industry level.
If you have shaky interviewing skills, the recruiters might help you get some interview training done through a career consulting agency or person career coaches. It actually helps a lot to make an effort to polish you interviewing skills, after all interviews are your gateway to the job. Even with a great resume and attractive skills, an interview eventually makes or breaks your chances of getting that job.
You have been in the job search for long and some help and advice can encourage and motivate you to action. A recruiter, career coach and career consultants can be of help to you now. The recruiter has had an experience of being in the recruiting business for long (so some reputed firms with experienced recruiters is what you should be looking for) and can present a good picture of the present hiring market – well, to counter what I say here, there have been many instances where recruiters have painted an untrue picture to keep the job seekers in their list and that is where the disgruntled testimonials come from.Recruiters have an inside scoop on the advertised jobs which you might never see, so going for a recruiter when times are tough might be a good idea.

How to know of the Recruiter is the Right one for you?

Check out if the following is happening in your relationship with the recruiter:Is the recruiter;

Scheduling personal one-on-one meeting with you to discuss your requirements and inform you on the job search process or just working on your resume and approaching jobs that fall in your keywords bank?
A good listener? Is he/she paying attention to your needs first rather than imposing on what is the right way to approach the job search process. Usually we do expect a good recruiter to have good peoples skills, it is not about how good he can update your resume but more on how well he can work with you.
Communicates expectations upfront and is honest.

The recruiters must also specify on the confidentially statement when working with a job seeker. Read some more tips on an honest recruiter on Monster columns.

Also some good tips are here on the videos at jobing.com.

Some helpful articles:

Find out what is the difference between different recruiters and headhunters at Wikipedia.
Frank G. Risalvato has some good tips on what to expect when working with a recruiter.
Another good article I found was “Ten things you should know about using an executive IT recruiter”.

Mobile Web Analytics and Statistics for the iPhone

2008-10-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Clicky Web Analytics now lets you monitor your web site traffic remotely from your iPhone. As the global trend of access to information anywhere anytime continues, Clicky Mobile fits right in. Real-time analytics meets mobile flexibility.

In addition to the iPhone version, Clicky also offers a generic version for other mobile devices. The iPhone version takes advantage of the aesthetic and Javascript abilities. It looks great and feels like an application. Since Clicky Mobile is built off the WebKit platform, it will also work on the new Android phones when they are released, as well as any other mobile browser based on WebKit.

Just like Clicky, the mobile interface is clean and simple. It is more designed for that quick fix on the go, rather than a full substitute for the web site, but in that regard it delivers as promised.

The iPhone version even includes a its own Spy mode, which streams pageviews and other actions LIVE as they are happening on your web site. If you get more than a few thousand visitors per day, you can sit for hours and watch people use your web site live. It's a lot of fun and great to have that feature on the go.

Once you have registered and installed the tracking code on your site, just go to http://m.getclicky.com/ from your mobile device. It will automatically detect which version your mobile device supports and direct you to the right one.

Click here for a bunch more screenshots of the iPhone version in action.

Robots.txt Exclusion Implementation Guide

2008-10-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this article and looking for information to implement robots.txt, I assume that you are a webmaster and know how robots txt file work.

For those who do not know much about robots.txt, here is some information about it.

What is robots.txt and do I need it?

The robots.txt file is a structured text file that is placed in root folder of a website which then tells the search engine spiders about the files/folders/URLs that needs to be excluded from indexing. Robots.txt file also acts like an access control list. Since all major search engines look for presence of a robots.txt file in your site, it’s recommended that you put a robots.txt file in your website too. Though, you may not want to disallow any content from being indexed, it’s just that you will follow a web standard [or would be standard].

Format of a robots.txt file

It contains records in one more lines in the format as mentioned below:-

#This is comment line. Comment line starts with #

User-agent: [Name or *]

Disallow:[optionalspace][what-to-exclude][optionalspace]

Each of such lines follow after a User-agent line, which is used to mention the name of the User-agent for which the record is created. Each line that starts with a # is treated as a comment.
An example robots.txt file:-

# An example of robots.txt

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

In the above example, the line - [User-agent: *] is for all the robots. The second line tell all the robots not to index anything from this site. The forward slash is taken as starting of anything which follows your domain name such as http://www.your-domain.com/ [Here the trailing slash is the start of all the possible following links in the website such as http://www.your-domain.com/about or http://www.your-domain.com/sitemap/]

Another example but this time we will limit access to Google search engine’s spider only.

#This is to limit Google from indexing the site

User-agent: googlebot

Disallow: /images

Disallow: /content/html/

Disallow: /content/index/index.html

In the above example, the googlebot is the name of Google’s search engine spider and is being disallowed from indexing anything under images and /content/html folder and also not to index the index.html [only] in /content/index/ folder. [See a list of known robot names]

How to create my own robots.txt

It’s very simple. Just use notepad or any plain text editor, create plain text file by name robots.txt [lower case] and put your required content in it and upload it to your domain’s web server. Place it in root folder such that it is accessible using the URL http://www.your-domain.com/robots.txt and you are done. [You must be able to access robots.txt this way]

A robots.txt file for your site which will do nothing will look like:

User-agent: *

Disallow:

Other uses of a robots.txt file

It is always used to disallow content from being indexed and if some pages of your site were already indexed in search engines and now you need those pages to go off the search engine’s results and cache, then you may simply put those URLs in the robots.txt and let it do the rest.

Some tools which will generate robots.txt automatically for you are available via search in Google, and you may also use this free tool @ seochat.com

For more information on robots.txt visit - robotstxt.org

Submit Your Site to Search Engines for Free - Do It Yourself!

2008-10-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

After a website is ready, the next major task for a webmaster is to submit the website to search engines. But not many website owners know that search engine submission is free of cost. Don’t be fooled by websites and companies that offers search engine submission services, claiming to submit your website to 200+ search engines for a small fee; there are no 200+ search engines. Search engine submission is free, all you need is a website.

You don’t need any search engine submission software or tools to get this done. You can submit your site to all major search engines for free and all by yourself in less than 5 minutes. Get started!

There are two types of search engine submissions. One is through free search engine and directory submission, and the other is via paid inclusion programs in the major Internet directories. This article will help you understand about both types of inclusions.

You must have already heard about the search engines listed below, so I will not spend time introducing them to you, rather will straight away give the URL for submitting your site to them. Remember, after submission, it may take anywhere between 6 to 8 weeks to get listed with them. So be patient!

Submit your website to Major Search Engines

Google
Submit your site to Google using the url - http://www.google.com/addurl/

Google being a major search engine, either supplements or powers the search results of many smaller search engines. If you are submitting your site to Google, then your site may also appear in search results of the Google (Australia, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain, UK), AOL, AOL (UK Search, Canada, UK, Au), Euroseek, Netscape and Earthlink.

Yahoo!
Yahoo! offers free website submission as well as paid inclusion program. Both can be done using the url - http://submit.search.yahoo.com/

MSN/Live
It’s the third most popular search engine. The link to submit the website for inclusion into this search engine is - http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx

AOL
If you are listed (or getting listed) with Google, your site will appear in search results of AOL as well.

Alexa
To submit your website to Alexa, follow the url - http://www.alexa.com/site/help/webmasters

Gigablast
To submit your website to Gigablast, use http://gigablast.com/addurl

Most other search engines use one the major search engines to query and show results. So, as long as you are listed with the major search engines listed above, you will also appear in search results of many other search engines.

Major Internet Directories to submit your website
DMOZ.org

An Open Directory Project (ODP), maintained by a group of volunteers and in partnership with AOL, is the most authoritative FREE Internet directory. All major search engines such as Google refer to DMOZ. Submission is easy and free but it may take lot of time before you are listed with DMOZ. Sometimes, you may end up waiting for 6 to 12 months for your site to show in DMOZ and often at times it may not get listed at all. But it’s still worth submission. Submit your site to DMOZ using url - http://dmoz.org/add.html

Yahoo! Directory
If you are a company or offer professional services, consider getting listed with Yahoo! directory. It’s expensive to get listed with them, but is worthwhile. For personal websites, I don’t recommend this directory. Submitting your site to Yahoo! directory is easy, just follow the url - https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/

If you are aware of other directories or search engines that are popular and I have not covered them here, please let me know and I will add them to the list above.

Send Free SMS To Anywhere In India From Orkut

2008-10-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

Orkut has recently added the great new application called SMS Me - Absolutely FREE SMS by which you can send unlimited SMS to anywhere in India and the good news is that most of the mobile service providers in India are supported.

You have to verify your cell number before you can send SMS and the messages have ending text like this–> ” Sent by 9335….(your cell number) from www.mycantos.com ”

This small advertisement at the end is quite ok since they are providing free SMS service all over India and there is no restrictions on the number of SMS you can send.

UPDATE: You can also send free sms to anywhere in India from 160by2 . This website is simply awesome with nice and clean user interface and whole lots of other features.