LunLun Articles

Many times, people are using free tools in order to save money. While some free tools are very good for what have been designed, some of them lack some features that can make a huge difference in productivity, in security or in data storage/recovery.

For instance, zip is a very popular archive, so people use a free program like 7-zip to decompress a zip file. While it’s nothing wrong with that, the same people also use it to create zip archives in order to backup information from their computer.

Zip archives are not protected against corruption. If, for any reason, a zip archives get corrupted, some information from it (in the best case) or all the information from it (in the worst case) become unusable.

For storing files inside an archive, it’s best to use the rar format, with the recovery record. It can recover ALL the files from a corrupted archive. The problem is that rar is a proprietary format and, although 7-Zip can open rar files, it can’t create them.

A lot of people are using GIMP, instead of PhotoShop. Although GIMP is free and Photoshop is several hundred dollars, Photoshop can automate a lot of tasks, by using scripts. Nowadays, there are action scripts on the market that can create a beautiful eBook cover in minutes. Do they work with GIMP? No. They work only with Photoshop. Can you do the same things in GIMP? Maybe, but if the automated script takes minutes to run, imagine how long it will take you to create every time something from scratch.

Some free programs lack one feature that will make a huge difference in the easy of use.
Examples:
- DVD Maker that comes with Windows can’t save the movie as an (ISO) file.
- Wink (a very nice screen capturing program) can’t save as AVI.

If you had the chance to see how easy is to work with certain programs, it will be hard to go back.
For instance, if you used Total Commander for FTP transfers, where it’s enough to press one key to start the transfer, it will be hard to go back to the free FileZilla.

Or, if you used Microsoft Office for a long time, you’ll feel frustrated when your macros will not work in Open Office or when your doc files will not look the same.

Free or paid – each program has his features and his flaws. The important thing is to see what’s available on the market and to use the programs that will make you love working with them, the ones that will accomplish your goals in the fastest and most reliable way.

Some people are both fascinated and intimidated by AJAX. Knowing AJAX looks good on a resume, impresses your friends and makes you look special if you know such new technology.

But, the simple fact is that AJAX is not a new technology, but basically a short name for a recipe.

The purpose of the recipe called AJAX is to reload only the parts of the webpage that actually change.

Let’s examine a real life example. Imagine you are going to a bookstore, and a new book is released on the market.

The non-AJAX version : the bookstore is teared down, then build it again, with everything it had in it, plus the new book.

The AJAX version : the new book is simply added on one shelve, and nothing more is changed.

If you look closely, you’ll see that everything around you is made in the AJAX way:
- when you switch the TV channel, you don’t rebuild the TV
- when you shave, you are not born again and grow up again up to the moment you begin shaving
- when you change a bulb, you do not rebuild the house

Reloading only what changes is accomplished using the AJAX recipe:
- the browser asks a proxy (called XMLHttpRequest object) if something changed on the server
- the proxy asks the server is something changed
- the server gives the answer to the proxy
- the proxy gives the answer back to the browser
- the browser updates only what was changed
The above procedure is called the “AJAX way”, or, simply “AJAX”.

Knowing AJAX simply means to know how to communicate with the HTTP Request object. If you know how to do that (and it’s not very difficult) you’ve learned the AJAX core.

The old method (without AJAX) was:
- the browser asked directly the server if something changed
- the server sent back to the browser the entire page, instead of just sending what was changed.

Like any recipe, there are some ingredients:
- mandatory ingredients:
- JavaScript (or JScript) for creating the XMLHttpRequest object and communicating with the browser
- optionall ingredients:
- CSS (to make pages look nicer)
- XML (to standardize the answer from the server)

There are some funny fact you should know about AJAX : AJAX stands for “Asynchronous JavaScript and XML”, yet, according to Wikipedia, “despite the name, the use of XML is not needed, and the requests need not be asynchronous.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28programming%29

“Ajax uses a combination of HTML and CSS to mark up and style information.”, yet the CSS is not mandatory.

Offering someone an free eBook for download is an opportunity for him to get to know you. Because the first impression is vital, asking for something in exchange for “free” might not be the best idea.

Everybody knows that the real reason someone is giving an eBook for free is the hope that the one who download the eBook will eventually become a customer. But is one thing to force him to become your customer, and another to make him an irresistible offer, which he is free to decline.

Many people promise “instant download”, which actually means “instant download after you sign-up and confirm your eMail address”. That confirming process is not instant at all, and some persons are not able to go through the entire procedure.

If you promise your reader “free instant download” and what he gets is a delayed download, in exchange for his eMail address, you already lied to him twice in the first 1 minute since he met you. Yes, maybe he’ll sign-up to get your eBook or he’ll even stay on your list. But there is an easier way to gain his trust.

You could actually offer him a free eBook for instant download, with no string attached. You can simply give him the eBook, without asking him to sign-up. On the download page, you’ll offer him the possibility to sign-up, in order to get more. But he must get instantly and free what you promised you’ll give him instantly and free.

Does this work in real life? I let you be the judge. This particular page has a rate of sign-up of about 10%. It’s free will sign-up, not forced sign-up.
http://lunlunid.com/lunlunid/2011011922185971/

10% means that 1 out of 10 persons who visit it and download the free eBook want more, and decide to join my free membership site. But all who visit this page can get at least the free eBook as promised.

When you like a girl, you first ask her out. She has the right to refuse, but there is a possibility that she’ll accept. Forcing a sign-up to let the visitor download your eBook is like telling the girl “I’ll buy you a coffee, but first we must go to your place.”

After reading this you might or might not force the visitor to subscribe in order to get your free eBook. I simply wanted to let you know that, if your offer is presented correctly and honestly to your reader, he might subscribe willingly. A visitor who wants to subscribe is one who has begun to like what you offer – that’s the first step in building a strong relationship with him.

Here’ the page again – a real life page, with a 10% rate of subscription.
http://lunlunid.com/lunlunid/2011011922185971/

According to Wikipedia, “Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography

When a eBook is successful, some people buy it, then share it for free on their sites. When the author finds out that his book was shared illegally, he can send a DCMA notice to the sites, in the hope that the owner of the site will take down the eBook.

Let’s say for a moment that the author removes all illegal copies from the Internet. Some other buyer can do the same, so this could turn into a never ending story. Usually, the author doesn’t know who is the person who shares his copy, and worse, he has no idea that he can find out the eMail of that person.

How can the author track who’s sharing a copy? By embedding the buyer’s eMail inside the eBook. The author can get the buyer’s eMail in the moment of buying, by forcing the buyer to use his PayPal address when he subscribers to the author’s list. When the buyer download his copy, that copy will be automatically stamped with its eMail address.

However, the dishonest buyer will see his eMail address inside the PDF, and will take additional measures to remove his eMail address from the document before sharing. But what if the buyer can’t see his eMail into the PDF? Will he suspect anything? Most certainly he will not, and he will share his copy with confidence that he can’t be tracked.

There are a lot of place where a special designed script can hide information inside of a PDF, in such a way that only the script can decrypt the hidden information. For everybody else, the PDF looks and behaves like a normal one.

Would you like to use this to protect your eBooks? Please contact me to discuss the details.
http://SergiuFUNIERU.com

For many, the biggest problem with Search Engine Optimization is that the results are not instant.

You start optimizing his site, then go to Google to see if his optimizations have the desired effect. It can take days, weeks or even month for Google to take into account those optimizations or it might never care about them.

It’s even worse when you try to figure out which change you’ve made have the greatest effect or what changes hade effect and which not. You’ll not get an eMail from Google saying “Thank you for optimizing your site, to rank better. We are pleased to inform you that the changes you’ve made influenced the rank as following …”. This will not happen. Not even in your wildest dreams.

Before trying to optimize your site for a huge search engine, like Google, let’s do another optimization, with instant results, for a smaller search engine.

The search engine will try to optimize for is FireFox’s search bookmarks engine. You’ll say “What? That search engine is on my local computer, and if I rank there it doesn’t mean that somebody will find me on Google.” You’re right. But the reverse is true : if you can’t rank even on a small search engine, chances are high you’ll not rank at all on Google.

Here’s how it works:
- start FireFox
- bookmark the page you want to test
- try to find that page in the bookmark section, searching for the keyword you want to rank for.
If you don’t see your page in the results, it simply means that you don’t rank at all in FireFox, and you’ll need, at least, to start adding that keyword in the page’s title.

How to do that is another story. Basically, you add the keyword you want to be found for in the <title></title> sub-section, of the <head></head> section of your HTML page.

Remember that before impressing Google, you should be able to impress at least your FireFox browser.

How can you rank first for a term on Google? Be the one who invented that term.

Have you ever heard of “ternikadius”? No? Neither did Google at the moment I wrote this. I checked to make sure. No results and no suggestions.

The first step is to assign a meaning to this word. Let’s say that I’ll call “ternikadius” a special report I wrote about an Internet Marketing subject. A fresh word can be assigned to virtually anything. Some English product names mean horrible things in some language. A word like “ternikadius” can’t be translated, therefore can’t mean something bad in any language.

The second step is to assign a nice link for it. For instance, how about this:
http://UltraShortReports.com/ternikadius

The third step is to make the above link pointing to the actual product. That is easy to do in PHP.

What are the advantages of creating a new name? There are at least 5 major advantages:
1. All mentions of “ternikadius” will refer to your product. The more people talk about it, the more rapidly this term will spread.

2. You can see daily what sites mentioned “ternikadius”. Doing this, you know what sites indexes fast new names, and you can repeat the process with other names you’ll invent.

3. You’ll invent one word names, which will be easier to remember than a long product name.

4. You can profit even from the competitor’s sites. If you create an affiliate program, what do you think they’ll promote when referring to “ternikadius”? Obviously, they’ll promote your product.

5. Is easy to find a domain name for the new word you invented. Because nobody’s ever heard of it, nobody has registered it so far.

When reading a title like “I rank #1 on Google for ternikadius”, some people will say “What’s ternikadius?” while other will ask themselves “How did he manage to get #1 on Google?”. Both will read what you’re reading now, to find out. After they finished reading, they’ll may not remember the name “ternikadius”. That’s fine. I bet that next time they’ll encounter, it will ring a bell. “Ternikadius? Yeah, I heard about it. I don’t remember what it was, but it sounds familiar.”

“Sounds familiar” – that’s the first step in developing a trusting relationship.

A spellchecker can be trained to remember the word “ternikadius” and not to complain about it next time it encounters. The same works for human memory.

Think of “ternikadius” as a “viral name”. Viral PDFs needs to be downloaded. Spreading a viral name is easier : you simply mention it.

The nice part of inventing a new name is that you’ll be forever on the first page of Google, from day one, without any effort. What am I saying? Page 1? You’ll be an ALL Google’s pages for ternikadius, even on the paid ones.

Be honest with yourself – next time you’ll hear about “ternikadius”, who you’ll think of?

See for yourself:
Search Google for ternikadius

A big company, with a big budget, decided to offer samples to prospective customers. The company hired some pretty girls, paid them the minimal wage required by law, then asked them to lure people to the shelves where the company product were displayed.

One of those pretty girls asked me if I want to try a new product, a combination of snacks and milk. I took a sample and tasted it. It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever tasted, but not the worst either. I thanked the girl for the opportunity to try the sample and I left.

The product I tried was … . Well, I can’t remember its name. Maybe, next time I’ll go at that store, I’ll see the product on the shelves, and I’ll read its name. Wait! I realize now that the girl was in the middle of the store. She wasn’t near any shelves.

In this case, I’ll take a look on that nice pocket calendar the girl gave me after I tried the product. Oh, that must have been in my dreams : she didn’t give me anything when I left.

Maybe the company will call me on the phone number I left on their questionnaire. What questionnaire? you’ll ask. I forgot. The company didn’t ask me for any details.

Was that product expensive? I have no idea. The pretty girl didn’t say anything about the price.

Was a special promotion running? Maybe, maybe not. I can’t remember and nobody told me about a promotion for that product.

Next time I’ll meet that girl in the store, I’ll ask her all the details. If I only can remember exactly the uniform she was wearing, with colors that probably match the company’s logo. I’m not sure that I remember that either.

So, what do I remember from a sampling experience, where I tasted an unknown product, from an unknown company, selling it I don’t know where, for I don’t know how much? All I remember is that the girl was pretty. Nothing more. A pretty, yet ordinary girl, with nothing special – a perfect match for the campaign she was running.

Let’s say, for a moment, that I am willing you to pay $10 per every word you write for me. Would you write articles for me, for this price? The only condition is that those articles should be written by yourself, and not by someone else. Simply put, you have to do the work if you want me to pay you $10 per word.

How many ours would you work, for $10 a word? 1? 2? 10? I bet you’ll try to work several hours at least, knowing that I’ll pay you such handsome money for your words.

What you should write about? You can write about anything you like. That’s the only condition regarding the subject. It should be about something you like, because you’ll have interest in that topic, and the articles will have greater quality.

What if I pay you $10 a word, but only if you write at least 1,000 words per day? Would you take the job? Most people would do – $10,000 a day is a dream for many people.

Would it be okay if I don’t pay all those $10,000 on the same day? After all, it’s a great sum of money, and is good news if someone is willing to pay it to you, no matter when.

But, what if I’ll say that I’ll not pay you, but I know people who are willing to pay? Would you continue your work, even if you don’t know those people?

With 1000 words, written in a medium font and spanning several pages, you can have 1 report a day. If you sell that report for $5, you must sell 2,000 copies. This number, although big, can be divided by 10 years. That is 200 copies a year, which is less than 1 copy a day.

How you can say someone will be still interested in your topic in 10 years? There are evergreen topics, some people will be forever interested in.

I’ll not give you $10 per word, and maybe no person will. But that is okay, as long as you can make those money from 2000 people, each buying one of your eBooks.

Now, let’s get down a notch. Let’s say you sell 200 copies in a lifetime. That would value your words at $1 per word. It’s about 100 times more than some people are paid for writing articles.

How powerful can be a plain text copy? Very powerful.

All you read right now is plain text. Imagine how would you feel if you’d hear only one of the following:
“You will be evicted”
“Your mother has only 1 more hour to live”
“Your child will be paralyzed”

Do they have to be in bold letters to turn you upside-down? No, the words are strong enough as they are.

On the bright side, news like:
“Your AIDS results came negative – you’re are not infected”
“Your son won the gold medal”
“You won $1,000 on the lottery”
don’t need either to be put in bold print.

Then, why people use a lot of colors, big fonts, bad language and so on, instead of regular text? Who knows, maybe because they fear their products, some very good, will not be perceived as being valuable by the readers.

Big font is like shouting. There is no need to shout a terrific news or the most happy one. Only ordinary news need to be shouted in order for someone to pay attention to them.

Would you read your favorite writers only if they write in bold print? Or would you leave the office earlier to be at a book launch, just because you saw a black-and-white ad on the free local newspaper?

I heard many times these questions:
- what programming language should I learn first?
- how do I learn a certain programming language?

When I hear any of these questions, I realize that the person who asks them, while eager to learn, doesn’t actually have an actual problem to solve. A programming language is a tool, which is used to perform a task. If he doesn’t have the task in mind, learning to use a random tool might not do him any good.

Almost all the programming books I ever read were reference manuals, disguised as a collection of tutorials. However, in many cases, the author didn’t think in milestones, therefore he didn’t invite the reader to do the same.

The first milestone should be defining the problem one is trying to solve.
For instance “I want to understand how WordPress works” is a good start.
One can’t get constantly closer to a target if he doesn’t have a target.

The second milestone should be identifying what programming languages WordPress uses. The most obvious ones are HTML and PHP. Therefore, in order to understand WordPress, he must understand first HTML and PHP.

The third milestone is defining what he wants to learn from those languages. When someone learns a new language, he doesn’t learn random words, but he learns first two things:
- the most used words (the core vocabulary)
- the way to combine those words (the grammar)
Next, he learns certain terms used on the field he wants to be proficient in.

In the WordPress’ case, one could start learning the basics of HTML and PHP, then how they are used in WordPress.

The fourth milestone is for him to try modifying the code, in order to adapt to his needs, to improve it or to fix the errors.

The last milestone is for him to be recognized as an expert and to monetize his knowledge.

That’s it. Five milestones.

Maybe the right question is not “what programming language should I learn first” but “What I’m trying to accomplish?” The answer to this question will lead to the right answer to the original question.