5 Easy Ways To Get Your Creative Juices Going

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing.  

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article.  

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow. 

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by. 

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow. 

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood. 

5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive. 

by David Simon

How to Use a Password Service to Protect from a WordPress Security Breech

The solution to WordPress password security is to take advantage of one of the password services that will generate up to 50 characters of random gibberish. Then it will memorize that password for you so you don’t have to. Each website will have a new and unique password generated for it. 

So how does the password service keeps all these preposterous passwords secure? Easy! You have a master password for the service. This must be something that you are going to be able to remember. It will keep all of the other passwords safe and secure. Even if it’s stolen by hackers, to access all of your passwords they would need your master password.

It may seem like a complicated security approach, but it does work. It certainly is a solid method to keep your WordPress site safe, along with the rest of your digital life. 

Here are some tips to get the most from your password service:

#1 Have a Good Master Password - The strength of your master password is key. This must be a strong password. It should follow all the criteria that makes a strong password and you will likely need to spend time memorizing it, but it should be one of the few passwords you’ll ever have to remember again.

#2 Passwords That You Will Need to Type - Your master password is not the only password you will have to memorize. A password service doesn’t work on some passwords. This means even with your password service there are handful of passwords that you will still have to remember. Make sure that they are good ones! Thankfully, by using a password service the number of passwords you will have to remember in total should be way below a dozen.

#3 Remember, it Takes Time – When you transition from taking care of your own passwords to having a password service generate and track your passwords, you need to remember that it’s going to take time. So be patient!

#4 Consider Two-Factor Authorization – If you really want to increase your WordPress password security you can use what is called the two factor authorization where there are two levels of authenticity, making it that much more difficult for hackers to gain access to your WordPress site.

A password service is a great way to get the strongest passwords possible and that’s good protection!

by David Simon

Essential Plugins to Harden Your WordPress Security

If you are running a WordPresssite, security needs to be your primary concern. In many cases, WordPress blogs are compromised because of outdated core files and/or plugins. Files that are outdated can be traced and you are providing hackers with an open invitation to your site. Here are some essential plugins to make sure you have installed.

WP DB Backup

WP DB Backup is an easy to use plugin that allows you to backup your core WordPress database tables with just a few mouse clicks. Don’t let its ease of use fool you – this is a powerful tool and it remains one of the most popular plugins to secure WordPress powered websites.

WP Security Scan

Using this plugin, scanning your WordPress site become a simple task to carry out. It will find the vulnerabilities in your website and it provides useful tips on removing them.

WP-DB Manager

This is yet another terrific plugin that lets you manage your WP database. It can be used as an option rather than using the WordPress Backup Manager.

Ask Apache Password Protect

This plugin does not control WordPress, nor will it mess with your database. Rather it uses speedy,

proven built-in security features that provide a number of multiple security layers to your blog.

Admin SSL Secure Plugin

This is another plugin for keeping your admin panel secure. It acts on your SSL encryption and is extremely helpful against hackers or others who are attempting to get access to your panel that isn’t allowed. It is an adversary for the Chap Secure Login Plugin.

Limit Login Attempts

Limit Login Attempts blocks the internet address from making any further attempts after a specified number of retries has been reached, which makes a brute-force attack next to impossible.

One Time Password

This unique plugin will help you to set a one-time password for your login. This will stop unwanted users from logging in from internet cafes or other open sites.

Bad Behavior

Bad Behavior is a plugin that aids in fighting annoying spammers. The plugin will help you prevent spam messages on your blog, and it will also attempt to limit access to your WordPress blog, so they will not even be able even to read it.

User Spam Remover

This plugin has a name that gives away just what its function is. This is a popular plugin that helps in the prevention and removal of unwanted spam messages.

There you have it – a handful of essential plugins you should install on your WordPress blog. 

by David Simon

10 Must Use Plugins to Improve Your WordPress Security

If you have a WordPress website, security should be a primary concern of yours. In many cases WordPress blots are at risk because of outdated plugins and files. These outdated files can be traced by hackers making them a prime choice. If you want to keep your blog away from the hackers make sure you are always up to date and ensure these 10 plugins are installed. 

#1 Login Lockdown – The Login Lockdown plugin will assist you to lock attempts after a specified period of time and/or  specified number of attempts to log in to your admin panel keeping your site that much more secure, because hackers can’t continue to try until successful

#2 Stealth Login - The Stealth Login plugin will assist you to create custom URL addresses for login, for your registering and for your logout of WordPress.

#3 User Locker - If your goal is to stop brute-force hacking on your website, then the User Locker plugin is exactly what you need. The User Locker works on the same system as the Login Lockdown plugin. However, it is a 5-stars rated WP plugin and those who use it think highly of it.

#4 Login Encryption - Login Encrypt is another security plugin. It takes advantage of complex combinations of DES and RSA to both encrypt and secure logging into the admin panel keeping your site safer.

#5 Antivirus - Antivirus is a popular security plugin which will assist you in keeping your WordPerss blog secured against viruses, malwares, and bots.

#6 Exploit Scanner - Search the files and database of your WordPress install for any signs that your files or your WordPress database have been compromised to ruthless hackers. Even though it is another plugin that scans it’s still worth trying.

#7 Block Bad Queries - This plugin attempts to block away all malicious queries attempted on your server and WordPress blog. It works in background, checking for excessively long request strings (i.e., greater than 255 chars), as well as the presence of either "eval(" or "base64" in the request URI.

#8 WP-DB Manager -This is an excellent plugin that lets you manage your WP database. You can use it rather than WordPress Backup Manager.

#9 Limit Login Attempts –The Limit Login Attempts plugin blocks the internet address from making any further attempts after a specified limit of retries has been reached. This plugin makes it more difficult for a hacker to use a brute-force attack.

#10 Ask Apache Password Protect - This plugin will not mess with your WordPress database and it doesn’t control WordPress but rather it uses reliable built-in security features to add numerous multiple layers of security to your WordPress blog.

by David Simon

Essential Tips to Keep Your WordPress Blog Secure

If you have a WordPress blog you need to be concerned with security just like you do with any website. Hackers are always looking for an opportunity to attack a site and your WordPress blog could be a target. Here are some essential tips to help keep your blog secure and hacker free. 

Hide your login error messages - Error login messages could provide hackers with ideas about whether they have figured out your username and password correctly or incorrectly. It is a good idea to hide it from all unauthorized logins. Just add the following code in functions.php

add_filter('login_errors',create_function('$a', "return null;"));

Maintaining backups - Keep backups of your entire WordPress blog. This is just as vital as it is to keep your site secure from hackers. If the hackers are successful at least you will have a full backup files to get your site up and running again quickly. 

Changing default "wp_" Prefixes - Your WordPress blog might be at risk if you are using the predictable wp_ prefixes in your database. Use the WP Security Scan plugin.

Prevent directory browsing - Another security issue is when your directories and all the files in the directory are accessible to public. Use this test to check if your WordPress directories are properly protected:

* Enter the following URL in browser, without the quotes. "http://www.domain.com/wp-includes/"

If it shows blank or redirect you back to home page, you are safe. However, if you see screen similar to the image below, you are not.

To prevent access to all your directories, place this code inside your .htaccess file.

# Prevent folder browsing

Options All –Indexes

Keep WordPress core files & Plugins up to date – One the easiest ways to keep your WordPress site

safe is to imply make sure your files are always current. Here are few ways  you can do that:

* Deactivate & remove plugins not used – Unused plugin will eventually become outdated and can cause a security risk so it is best to delete them.

* Login to your dashboard frequently –When an update is available you will see a A yellow notification at the top of your dashboard. Login frequently and  keep up to date with the most recent WordPress files. Subscribe to WordPress Releases RSS.

That’s just a few essential tips to keep your WordPress blog secure. There are plenty of others. Remember the more you do the less you are at risk. 

3 Quick And Easy Ways To Build A Profitable Opt In List

You finally realize that you need a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with opt-in lists you finally decide to have one of your own. Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed their advices to the T and you still weren’t able to make a profit.

In fact, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out, or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage actually buys from you, your still losing profit. You’ll realize that after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures. 

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed? The most common mistake is that you dived straight right in. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money. This just not the case. Just because you wrote people from the list doesn’t mean they are going to buy instantly.

Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list.

1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable seller. Put many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Try to put forums first to gain knowledge about your customers about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs. 

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advices and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you're business is all about.

The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you.

2) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it on forward. Invest your time, effort and money that you could sell as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use. 

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people

who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you in the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones. 

Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. There are many preparations and effort to do. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.  

by David Simon

$1 Million in Google AdSense Earnings

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead. 

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004. 

 Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner.

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day.  If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable. 

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that. 

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now. 

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.  

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster's pages. When someone visits the webmaster's site and clicks on one of Google's AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry. 

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level. 

Calacanis’ million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129/

7 Ways To Convert Your Traffic Into Cash

If you have a website, you can profit from even the tiniest number of visitors it receives simply by not wasting that traffic.

The KEY is in leveraging on each visitor and making sure you have a monetization strategy in place. Once you get this, you can make any website profitable with a little effort.

Here are 7 basic ways in which you can profit from your traffic today:

1. Sell a product/service

First you can sell a product or service to your visitors. This is the best way to cash in from your own product. Usually an e-book or software works the best – they can be downloaded right away without hassle and shipping charges.

 2. Opt-In 

                                                       

It is crucial you try to convert every visitor of

yours to a subscriber of your mailing list. The most important asset that an Internet marketer has is his or her list of subscribers. They define whether you will go far in the online business venture.

With an opt-in list, there are tons of ways you can profit further into the future. You can build repeat customers and turn your list members into partners for your products. For an example of a good opt-in page, visit http://www.InstantMarketingSecrets.com

3. Viral marketing

You can provide a free product or bonus on your site to be downloaded by your visitors. Usually it’ll be an e-book where people can read from and learn useful information. In this bonus, you include give away rights and urge readers to give it away to anyone they want to. This way, you increase your own traffic, publicity and branding without needing to spend a cent.

                                                                     4. 'Pay-per-click'

In this case, you get paid when your visitors click on ads you place on your site. There are many advertising programs that give you a percentage of the profits based on click through, including Google Adsense, Chitika, Yahoo Publisher Network and Kontera.

When people click on the ads shown from either of these advertising programs, you will earn money. And if your site receives good traffic, these programs alone can bring in huge paychecks to you.

5. Offer an advertising space

Targeted niche websites with high traffic can 'rent' a portion of space on their web page to advertisers. For example you can charge $300 per month in advertising fee if your web page is pulling more than 2000 visitors a day. I use this strategy at my Online Marketing Secrets blog at http://www.EwenChia.com

Other than that, you can also generate advertising revenue using exit pop-ups. By doing this, you won't clutter your website with too many ads and spoil the visitor's experience.

                                                                                    6. Affiliate marketing

If you don’t have your own products for sale yet, you can sell other people’s products instead and receive a commission on every sale. With affiliate marketing, you have an unlimited source of products to sell and you don’t need to go through any fulfillment issues after your sales.

One of the best affiliate marketing training resources can be found at http://www.SecretAffiliateWeapon.com where I provide continual education on affiliate marketing to members.

7. Pay-per-lead

Instead of earning money from click through, you are paid if your visitors subscribe into other people’s mailing list. Alternatively there are a lot of big companies like Coca-Cola who need surveys to be done, and by referring your visitors to complete surveys, you can also earn good profits from your website.

Ewen Chia

3 Key Questions To Ask About Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is exciting, challenging, and confusing. It can make or break your internet business career and yet many people who depend on internet marketing don't have a full grasp of the essentials involved in internet marketing.

In fact, many internet entrepreneurs waste a great deal of time, energy, and momentum because they do not fully understand internet marketing. Don't let this lack of understanding undermine your income potential.

In order for you to better understand internet marketing and its impact on your internet business you must know the answers to these three key questions:

1. What Is Internet Marketing?

2. What Is The Cost Of Internet Marketing?

3. What Is The Benefit of Internet Marketing?

What Is Internet Marketing?

Marketing is actually rather simple. Marketing is communication about an idea, product, service, or organization. Marketing therefore encompasses advertising, promotion and sales as well as the various techniques and forms of communication used to advertise, promote and sell.

Marketing is broader than simple advertising or promotion in that it includes researching the market to learn what consumers want and then setting out to meet their needs with the appropriate product, price, and distribution method. Marketing includes market research, deciding on products and prices, advertising promoting distributing and selling.

Marketing also covers all the activities involved in moving products and services from the source to the end user including making customers aware of products and services, attracting new customers to a product or service, keeping existing customers interested in a product or service, and building and maintaining a customer base for a product or service.

Internet marketing includes these same activities but also pulls in various internet tools including web sites, email, ezines, banner advertising, blogging, RSS, text links, search engine optimization, affiliates, autoresponders, and other ecommerce applications.

      

What Is The Cost Of Internet Marketing?

The range of expenses for internet marketing is huge. There are a number of promotional and marketing ventures that can cost you nothing or only pennies a day while other advertising efforts can cost you thousands a day.

It is important to consider your goals -- both long-term and short-term -- as well as how much each prospective customer is worth to you. This will help you determine a workable budget for your internet marketing campaign.

Many internet promotions are free, you can set up a web site and/or blog for $250 a year, and you can buy text links for $10 a month. You could easily spend $25-50 a day for advertising but there are many cheaper ad options available.

The best program is to start small and cheap and slowly build as you test and learn what is successful for your market and product. There is no perfect acvertising solution that works wonders for everyone. Each marketer and each product has a different formula.

What Is The Benefit of Internet Marketing?

Internet marketing offers more benefits than many traditional marketing mediums. The very nature of web sites and blogs is that they continue working to promote and market your product long after your initial marketing effort is over. Similarly many advertising efforts, such as ezines, newsletters, banners, and text links also continue to increase in power over time.

Email marketing can be a tremendous surge in contacts and sales and offers the ability to personalise your message as well as reach a targeted audience so your chance for sales goes up exponentially.

The other tremendous benefit of internet marketing is that it offers convenience and immediate satisfaction. Your potential customer sees your marketing message when it is convenient for them -- and often when they are seeking information about your specific topic. Then you offer them the ability to act on that interest right then. They can locate your product and buy in the time it would take to watch a commercial on television or turn a page in the newspaper. That is the power of internet marketing.

Now that you have the answers to these three key questions, you are ready to begin your own internet marketing campaign -- and succeed with your internet venture.