Life Online | Gutsblow

Little Distractions -Best Shots

2009-03-12T01:53:00.000-07:00

This is a recent project I did for AETUTS+. Stay tuned for the tutorial.

Click here/the title to read more.

Taking a Break!

2008-11-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Alright folks! I gotta catch up with some heavy work which is due in a couple of months. So I won't be blogging for a while. But I will be back in less than a month, with a personal site with developer portal. But meanwhile you can always look into my personal feed recommendations. (Google Reader Shared Items)......

regards,
gutsblw.

Will Microsoft adopt WebKit for Internet Explorer?

2008-11-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

According to an article published in Apple Insider Steve Ballmer didn't deny the possibility of Internet Explorer being developed using the opensource WebKit rendering engine developed by Apple based on KDE project's 'khtmllibs' project. The following is quoted by Steve Ballmer in a conference at Sydney, Australia.

"The idea of using WebKit as the rendering engine within its web browser is interesting and added we may look at that."

Considering the recent develoments in the browser war, this is a very interesting comment from the Vice-President of Microsoft. Even if Ballmer thought that question cheeky, he quoted that the developments in open source are very interesting in the browser space and revealed that Microsoft is currently exploring the possible propreitery innovation that can broaden the functionality and capitalize the company's prospective ideas in the browser space.

Being an opensource enthusiast I was really excited when I first heard about the comments made by Ballmer. But later on, after brief analysis and some research I figured it out, that it's so unlikely Microsoft will adopt WebKit as their rendering engine. Not only that Apple is a key developer of WebKit, there are many other factors that will influence Microsoft's future decision. Firstly Internet Explorer has more than 70% of browser usage share. So if they adopt Safari's opensource WebKit rendering engine, the company may lose it's domination over the Internet Browser space. At the same time there will be no more Internet Explorer specific designers and webpages. But, many blame Microsoft for its poor compliance with web standards, and poor support for various formats for it's loss in browser market recently. Not only that, there were huge differences between the developers at Apple and the developers at KDE and Apple put various Non-Disclosure agreements on KDE developers during the development. So Microsoft might consider this as a serious setback for adopting WebKit.

On the other hand, it will be easy for Microsoft to develop Internet Explorer without worrying much about the rendering engine and focus on other important features. Also, these days Microsoft is not blatantly against open source communities and they even started an opensource portal called Port 25. Recently, many companies like Google, Nokia etc., are in the active development of WebKit because many of their flagship browsers like Google Chrome, Android Web Browser etc., are based on WebKit. For those who don't know, Internet Explorer is based on Trident rendering engine. Though Trident is available to third party developers, it is not open sourced. As a result, it is difficult for any company to keep up with the changing standards and dynamic content in the web sphere.
So if they adopt WebKit egine for Internet Explorer, it will become user friendly and developer friendly, but the software giant Microsoft may lose it's dominance over the browser market easily.

10 Reasons why I don't need an iPhone - My own experience

2008-09-17T00:22:00.001-07:00

Okay, I don't say iPhone sucks. But for me, it was a very bad experience. I would list some of them...

I was locked in a contract by AT&T which charged me more than 120$ per month.
I was locked in Apple's DRM where I can't use any 3rd party content. (like ringtones).
The iChat like SMS-Text UI was responsible for using more texts, hence costing me more.
Frequent Typo's and errors because of the touch keyboard.
Weak Battery Life!
Cannot use it as a storage device. It sucks because..I didn't put 16Gigs of Music and videos on my phone.
The Bluetooth dongle was crippled! I mean...No data exchange??
Always dirty screen! Eww...that was so gross...
A Motion sensor that never works, frequent freezes.
Finally, not at all water sensitive. It was dead, the moment I accidentally slipped it into water.

So, that was the death of my iPhone. I don't know why, I liked iPod touch better than the iPhone.

Ubuntu | The glorious future of Linux

2008-08-20T04:22:00.001-07:00

Alright folks, if you don't know what Ubuntu is, it is a free GNU/Linux distribution that rivals many current operating systems like Windows, Mac OS X. As it is an open source operating system, you can highly customize it according to your needs. Now, I am not explaining what Ubuntu is and its features. But, I would like to discuss about it's potential I see coming in the future. Though it is based on Debian Linux, Ubuntu was first released in 2004. The progress it achieved in four years is really phenominal. So let me take you a a brief overview of how things changed so significantly. First of all Ubuntu releases a new version of it's operating system atleast twice a year. Once in April and the other in october. First of all lets look at a screenshot of Ubuntu 4.10 [It means 2004-October].

When I first saw this desktop I was like "Linux can never be in the mainstream Desktop". But things changed so rapidly that now I believe Linux will become a Mainstream Operating system pretty soon. I know that analysts have been telling it since 1998, but I should say there was no single operating system that led this movement. Ubuntu is an operating system that created a lot of interest and people started adopting it so rapidly thanks to the Shipit service. I always used to think that Linux is so not user friendly and I was really scared to use it. When I first asked people about a good Linux distribution to try for the first time, there were many different answers. So I was rather confused than scared to try it. But today if someone asks me about a good linux distribution to try it out, I will say Ubuntu without any hesitation. Not only it is user friendly, but has a vast community support that solves most of your issues/problems. I was a Windows user since I started computing, but I always wanted to try something new and different. For me, even though I was a windows user, I am not stuck with programs like MS Office. So I had no problem in migrating from Windows to Ubuntu. Now let me comeback to the actual topic. The following are some of the main reasons I think Ubuntu has a glorious future in the area of desktops.

As it is Free, people always prefer to use it instead of other Operating Systems when it comes to general tasks like Internet Browsing etc.,
More and more hardware companies like Dell Inc., are interested to pre-install Ubuntu like other legacy operating systems like Windows.
Ubuntu has changed so rapidly compared to any other operating system. New features can be incorporated and tested more frequently.
Hardware manufacturers are willing to develop drivers for Linux too as this was a major setback perviously for Linux expansion.
Everyday the number of ways to try out Ubuntu are increasing from LiveCD to Wubi to LiveUSB etc.,
Slowly Ubuntu has developed custom flavors of it's operating system for Mobile and Embedded devices, which will become one of the key factors for Linux adoption.
Ability to customize a Linux distribution is one of the main reasons for which many people prefer Linux instead of other operating systems.
More user-friendly and an attractive User Interface than other operating systems (Like in the future versions).

I can go forever, but these are the main reasons that really help Linux establish in the mainstream desktop with the help of Ubuntu. More than anything else, there is a lot more community push in the development of Ubuntu and it is highly responsible for the popularity and development of this distribution.

Expanding the Open Source Philosophy!

2008-08-20T03:56:00.001-07:00

Nothing else is as exciting as open source revolution for me, these days. Recently, when I was writing an article about Open Source possibilities, I ran across an article that mentioned various Open Source methods to help students battle pricey textbooks. Though this is something that had been around for many years, due to pressure from various corporate companies this idea is not completely implemented yet. Wikipedia is one of such highly successful open source ideas which led the way for exploring the possibilities to revolutionize the way people share knowledge. Today most of the internet users start their research from Wikipedia. Even though Wikia, Inc., the founder of Wikipedia has many spin-off projects in various fields like Wikitravel, and Wikitexts etc., none of them are so popular like Wikipedia. Everyday, Wikipedia grows as more number of people start using it, and more number of people start contributing to it. That's the power of human collaboration. Likewise, If we apply the same philosophy to the text books and educational resources, I bet it revolutionizes the whole study sphere and more students can get quality education. I really hope, we expand the philosophy of open source from computers and software to many further areas in the future so that it helps mankind in a number of ways. Gone are the days where I have to pay for music players (software), office suites (atleast I don't) and I bet in the coming years people will stop paying for their operating system too. People never thought that an open source company like Mozilla can influence the entire websphere. I am glad that many companies started realizing the potential of Open Source. In the same let us really hope that the same revolution occurs different fields like education, research and medicine.

Save the Earth - Small Presentation

2008-08-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, I was cleaning my place today and found one of my old CD's. This is a small presentation that I submitted to Rotary Club, Hyderabad for World Environment Day on Jun 5 2006. At that time, I am really a beginner in everything, but somehow pulled it off. I really wanted to shoot this presentation by myself. But due to technical, financial and time constraints during that period, I relied on footage from various sources from the Television and Internet.But somehow I pulled it off with some minor glitches. I have a really good interest in film making since many years (not kidding!). I do believe in concept more than technical frills of a film.

Save the Earth from gutsbl'w on Vimeo.

Analysis:[I don't remember everything but...most of it]
1.The Soundtrack used in this presentation is from the Movies "Pearl Harbor" and "Braveheart".
2. Some of the footage is taken from the "Extreme Engineering" TV series.
3. Some of the footage involving people are taken from various sports events.
4. Some scenes are extracts from my Handycam (like shots in India and Singapore markets), which I had to color correct them.
5. I wanted to make the narration a bit quicker, but couldn't do it because I didn't shoot the footage.

Note: But now I am capable of shooting on locations, so seriously thinking to implement some of my shot story ideas and teasers.

Promo Ideas scratch

2008-07-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

I am actually thinking of making a short promo to one of my business interests and thinking of a concept based on the extra-terrestrial plasma. So I wanted it to spread across the ocean and reach the cities. So I created a basic ocean surface, starfield and plasma. Everything is created in After Effects with little use of Trapcode plugins.

Analysis:
The most challenging part of this project is to create Ocean Surface in After Effects without the use of any 3D program. To get Realistic rendering I used RenderWorld's ray tracing engine. But it is a basic fractal noise with particle layer emitters pre-composed as a 3D layer and finally composited with Vector Blur. The fine wave motion is attained by the expression using trigonometric curves of particles as usual. The plasma is still way far from developed and is done in Trapcode. The haze is a wide text layer applied with Trapcode shine.

Motion Graphics Slate

2008-05-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is the new slate ( a small video clip) I have done for my final project in a design class. It's totally done in Adobe After Effects. It is definitely influenced by "The Matrix" but this is just a compilation of various technical effects. I generally don't prefer those effect only videos, but this time I had to do it, because I was running out of time.

Analysis:

Here's a simple analysis of how I did those effects in After Effects. Please not that this is not a step by step tutorial.
1. The revolving globe like effect is a combination of three circular forms that rotate with the same center in different orientations.
2.The Bottom rectangular bar is just a white solid with transparency following the sin curve.
3. The E.C.G. kinda thing in the lower bottom is created using a simple expression which generates linear graphs of a sin curve. And the numerical value is delayed or added by a sec to get the organic E.C.G. look. [Based on a tutorial from Ayato]

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1. The Matrix stream is done by two effects. First using the per character encoder to change the values with respect to time and then pre-composite the layer. Then I masked it, using the alpha channel made it a free falling particle in different layers of different sizes. [Based on the tutorial from Ayato]
2. The bottom right stream of numbers is just a simple expression that controls the encoder with per-character transparency.

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1. This is my favorite effect of the entire video.First of all the image is sub-pixelated with various images from a flickr stream using MosaicX. Then the effect card dance is applied to get the effect broken into a number of particles. Actually particle world is not actually used in this effect because, I cannot control the custom movements using paricle world. So I chose Card Dance and created a reverse time lapse of an explosion.

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1. This is good text transition based on Card Dance effect. It just a solid that is broke in to pieces only across the Y-axis and rotating themselves along the Y-axis, and parented the transparency function to the sine function of the rotation. Later on, multipled the layer, resized them to achieve a sub particle look with reflection. The text is just a basic Zoom-In with Block Dissolve transition time correctly.

Well, I don't credit myself for everything because I learned some of these effects from the tutorials of various motion graphics designers. But most of the coding I created for this project is based on the trigonometric functions of subtle properties like opactiy. This is certainly not bad for like a 3-4 hour work. ( I guess!)

Motion Graphics Slate 2

2008-05-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, from today I will be concentrating on my design major too, apart from Internet Marketing in this blog. Firstly, apart from Internet Marketing and Business Management I really like Motion Graphics, Film Making and Visual Effects. Though I didn't attend any design/computer class, I used to mess around with software programs during my high school years. That created a lot of interest in those areas. This is a slate created by me for my friend.

Analysis:
This is a really based on a simple concept. First the particle is just a small white solid which moves as if it's an emitter. I created a virtual floor...so that i can just relate the movement to the floor. When it collides the floor, I created basic particles with a life span of one sec. At the same time, when it accelerates into the air it emits more particles. Then when it reaches the apex i created a small particle explosion which emits particles of greater life time sou that they bounce when they collide the floor. I created a Linear Wipe from the bottom, to give a 'text formation' look from particles. Then a basic flicker for the 'Jr.' text layer. Small amount of glow to the text to stylize it. Finally a reflection layer with radial blur. Rendered the whole comp with motion blur to make it more lively.

Note: It is totally inspired by the Digital Motion's Intro Video. I was really amazed by their simple yet subtle design. I am still trying to fetch the original video.

An Article a day!

2007-12-30T21:53:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Now that you finished your marketing campaign, completed bookmarking them in some of the leading social bookmarking sites,you are happy..hoping some sales. Now what? Just relax? The answer is a resounding No!

What do you mean? Shouldn't I take a long break after finishing a successful campaign? Or Can't I just jump over into another hot niche and start working on it? Well the answer is both Yes and NO.
I will put it this way, Most of the time I will start a new campaign, after I complete(?) one of my campaigns. But these days I discovered a new technique that helps you to do much better. I will write atleast one new article on each product per week and submit them, so that the search engines will be really happy about that. But, on the other side, If you submit all the articles to the same directory, it may lead to some dangerous consequences. So always be stable, write one article per product every week and do submit them to leading article directories.

In the bottom line, you can also say "One Bookmark a day". Anyways hope you guys do an amazing job the coming year and a Happy New Year. Happy Sales...

A Blueprint to Affiliate Marketing!- Part 1

2007-09-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

Finally, after a long time I am completely focusing on Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing in general. So this complete blueprint is mainly intended for me! When ever I go offline from the Internet Marketing world, this blue print definitely helps me. So coming back to the Internet Marketing world, isn't an easy job because, the internet is more dynamic and the marketing tactics keep changing every minute. It's becoming complex day by day. So lets have a look at the main topics covered in this post.
1. Getting into the Focus
2. Scheduling the Work hours
3. Choosing the Map/Pathway.
4. Developing a General Idea.
5. Choosing specific niches for the day.
6. Choosing/Analyzing the products.
7. Listing out the resources and tools.
8. Write articles and create variant citations/sources.
9. Very Important: TAG Research.
10. Create blogs/Lens/hubs i.e. Landing Spots!
11. Flush the Social Bookmarking Sites
12. Record everything you did!

Getting into the Focus:
This is the most important and difficult part in the Internet Marketing world. When you attain this, the rest of the things will be so easy. First of all, I always suggest you to keep all your aims and ambitions written on a piece of paper! Not joking, I am serious... without a goal or target, getting into the focus is impossible. Remember you will never get into focus or do marketing unless you know the purpose of it. In my case, situations led me to be focused. I don't say Internet Marketing is like a regular job, but it requires full attention, concentration even for the minutes work you do. For me, this was the most difficult part to get into. Every time I switch on my computer with a marketing mindset, my interest in Linux dominates the marketing bling! I always look for blogs containing Linux posts and other stuff and finally neglect marketing. One of my friends, complains something similar...for him, its not Linux, but its Football! (Sports in general). Everything is up to you. You can invent a money minting formula or may end up in incurring a heavy loss! It's always the intensity of marketing that brings you success, but not the bliss! The more intense you are about your marketing campaigns, the more success you will be. So be focused!

2.Scheduling the Work Hours:
This is somehow interconnected to the first step, i.e staying in focus. Scheduling your work hours entirely depends on you. Some people like to do it everyday for a short period of time, while some just want to do all the work in the weekends. Though both of them have their own Pro's and Con's, I rarely find people working on the Marketing Stuff everyday. Because you need to work on a project at a time, instead of splitting it according to the time table. But, the internet is dynamic, it keeps on changing every second, so it's good to involve in marketing everyday. I generally do all the core part of the Internet Marketing campaigns in the weekends spending lengthy hours & do all the bookmarking stuff in the regular days and keep checking them frequently.

3.Mind Mapping/ Pathway:
This steps makes things easy for you. First you do a general brain storming of many markets that you see in your daily life. Then you just take one market as an example and Mind Map the process right from keywords to sale! This Mind Map helps you to be clear and honest towards the entire process. I use some Mind Mapping software. But you can just write it down on a paper. It gives me a clear idea of the things to be done. Always remember that, even though your mind map is kinda uncertain, you should never stop doing something. You should always do something instead of doing nothing.

4.Developing a General Idea:
Though you have a general idea before starting any project, this part is really important because, you should clearly understand your ways of marketing and make sure that nothing is Anti-Google. Everything should be Google friendly.

5.Choosing the right niches:

Okay, Beginners If you don't know what a niche is, read this article.
When you start any Internet Marketing campaign, choosing the right niches is most important and deciding factor. Like, targeting a product in a highly competitive niche in general won't be as successful as the same product introduced into a newly formed market with suitable niche. You can generally choose 2-3 really specific niches and start aggressive marketing with proper keywords. But, like I said, always try to choose a less competitive niche.

6.Choosing the products:
Here comes the actual drama, which product to promote? It's really a tough question, but in general look for a product that's genuinely priced with a good kickback. Coming to the sales page, make sure you read the Adcopy like a customer, but not like a promoter of the campaign. Generally promote it only if you feel like buying it as a customer. At the same time, the general rules like competition etc., apply when you want to promote them.

HubPages - Publish Your Passion.

2007-08-07T13:43:00.000-07:00

Ha! A new tool for hungry Internet Bum Marketers. We got a new tool, HubPages. It says "Publish your Passion", but I say "Publish your Products". Yes it is a Squidoo-like service currently in Google's crush list. Yeah Google too has a crush list! Anyway coming to it's features, I suggest you to have a look at its Quick Tour. Now let me tell some of its key Features.

1.A Hub is almost similar to a lens. But Modules become capsules and lensmasters become hubbers.

2. One of the core aspects of HubPages is that it gives you royalty for all of it's advertising modules(uh...capsules) like Amazon, eBay, and Google AdSense. Yes it's true...if you are an AdSense Publisher, just give them your code and they'll take care of the rest.

The rest of the features like YouTube videos, Google Search boxes, Links capsules etc., are almost similar to Squidoo. So you find no difference between Squidoo and Hub!

Visit HubPages and start creating your Hub!
P.S.: Thanks to Ramesh for introducing HubPages to me. For more information on HubPages, stay glued for the coming posts.

Is Linux Lucky for me?

2007-08-07T13:33:00.001-07:00

Hey people, don't call me pedantic, or foolish! These days I have a strange phenomenon in my IM experience. Whenever I get things done with Linux, the results are proven 4-5 times better. That means, I am getting a very good number of sales when working with Linux. But Why? Don't tell me "You are Linux-Promoter!"... But it's really true!

Financial Independence for Internet Marketing? Is it possible?

2007-08-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

Many Internet Marketers, not having control over their budget literally waste huge sums for the sake of advertising/services. Actually, your success entirely relies on your savings for various services. For example, UsFreeAds used to be a great service for creating landing pages. But, currently Google treats it as SPAM. Yet, many famous Internet Marketers and E-book authors recommend it. Why? Because UsFreeAds has a good deal of commission that fills your bank every month. I have seen many people wasting 10$ per month for that UsFreeAds stuff even today. Utilizing the free resources is one of the most important steps for Internet Marketing Success. You needn't be Ken Evoy right from the first day itself.

Keywords, though they play crucial role for online riches, actually it all depends on your strategy. I agree that many Keyword Tools like Keyword Elite do simplify your work and enhance your marketing experience, but are they mandatory? Perfectly not! You can do the same research using Free Resources( atleast initially) and I bet you get better results. So IM'ers gear up!

The Death of Squidoo?

2007-07-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

I have to confess that, the current situation seems like "Squidoo is going to Die", especially for Internet Marketers. Squidoo is a weapon for most of the Internet Marketers mainly because it is heavily indexed by the Google. But now Google axed Squidoo, blaming for Spam! (Not official,but the situation seems like that for me). Recently when some of my top performing Squidoo Lenses did not list in Google for their respective pages, I thought it was temporary because, Google does alter the results constantly. But today many of my Squidoo Lenses weren't in the top pages. I thought it was my fault and started a retrospection. But when I am browsing through the SquidU forums conerning this topic, I have found many people with the same phenomenon. Finally many professional bloggers and Internet Marketers confirm that Squidoo was sacked from the top results. Some lenses were not even their index! Why? What happened ? Though the moves and tweaks of Search Engines are highly unpredictable, experts made some scintillating points that led Google to slap Squidoo! Well, Google Slapped many websites and AdWords advertisers previously.

David Utter of WebProNews has made some interesting points regarding the current phenomenon. He outlines some important points that may have led Google to remove Squidoo content from the top pages.
Read David Utter's Report on Squidoo!

Now do you remember Ed Dale? Yes he's Ed Dale of TubbyNerd.com. He also made a list outlining the causes that led Google to hate Squidoo. We all know that he loves squidoo a lot. So he didn't mention some actual reasons like Spam and Duplicated content. But one thing is for sure, Squidoo was strongly hit by the Google Slap.

Read Ed Dales Report on 'Squidoo Slap'

Now leave about the Pro's ; Let's see some common marketers like me. You know my weapon "Google Money Pro". It is also out of the results page. Surprisingly my Ezine article is listed in the top page.(Damn surprise because it never happened before!)
Have a look at the below screenshot. (Click on the image below;Sorry for the poor quality because I had not time and used Paint to capture it)
Previously my Lens on GoogleMoneyPro used to top in the results page. But now it is not even indexed in the 5th page. I am really frustrated. Surprisingly, my ezine article is listed in the results page.

So what should Squidoo do now?
It's never an easy job to maintain a good relation with Google. I think Squidoo should immediately change it's spam policy. But many Professionals say it's already late for Squidoo. So Seth Godin, we tell you all the best !
Let's hope that Squidoo bounces back in Google results.

Marketing in Social Networking- Is it Profitable ?

2007-07-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was browsing some marketing articles and interestingly I have found that many people are enthusiastic to make money from various Social Networking sites like MySpace, Orkut , etc., But do they really work? The answer according to me is "NO"! You may contradict my statement using various theories, but practically Social Networking may not be such a viable option. I will list a few limitations of Marketing in Social Networking Websites.

1.Your are not targeting 'Desperate Buyers'
2.You may generate traffic, but the conversions are really low or extremely zero.
3.You need to build trust; that's really difficult in Social Networking Services.
4.Genuine buyers/visitors account really low in such websites.
5.You may degrade yourself by spamming them, which is very dangerous for your future campaigns.
6.It's very difficult to build a campaign for 'Social Marketing'.

When it comes to conversions, traditional marketing methods are highly successful rather than the 'Social Marketing'. Many authors wrote various E-Books regarding monetizing your MySpace and other Social Networking profiles. But most of them were proved to be unsuccessful. So never fall into the hype of 'Social Riches'!

Beating SquidU!

2007-07-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Beating Squidoo (a portmanteau of Beating AdWords) is not at all difficult if you know the sheer techniques that are used to index Squidoo lens. This is an elaborate post consisting of many facts and details.First of all why Squidoo?

1.Fast Google Indexing: Your Lens with targeted keywords will be indexed in less than 2 days! Infact, one of my Lenses was indexed in 8 hours!

2.High Google Rankings: Your Lens with targeted keywords will always list in the top 3 results for the specific optimised keyword in Google.

3.Free : Squidoo is 100% free to use. It doesn't charge you a dime for creating a lens. Moreover you get a share in their advertising revenues.

4.Easy to Use: You can setup everything including RSS with in 5 minutes.

5.No Regulation: Squidoo encourages affiliate links in your Lens. Unlike ezinearticles, squidoo loves your affiliate lenses.

Which Niche to Choose?

Refer to the previous post for top niches that always sell on Squidoo. If you want the current trend of hot niches visit, Top Lenses to know which lenses are receiving highest traffic. This has top 100 lenses on Squidoo by traffic. Most of these lenses get traffic from Google or other search engines.

What Keywords?

I always suggest people to glue with Google AdWords Keyword Tool and Yahoo's Keyword selection tool. They are more than enough for our SquidU Marketing. Now choosing a keyword isn't an easy job,especially in case of free advertising like articles or Squidoo Marketing. For a specific niche you should always choose 2-3 Main keywords and 3-6 secondary keywords. You should create each lens for a keyword. You will understand this with an example illustrated below.

Your Niche: Weight Loss
First Main Keyword: how to lose weight
then your Squidoo Lens url should be squidoo.com/how-to-lose-weight
and your title must be How to Lose weight (No questions!)
then tags (secondary keywords should be an addition to primary keyword. In the above example, the tags may be how to lose weight tips , how to lose weight e-books , how to lose weight easily etc., [tags should be like addons to primary keyword]

Second Main Keyword : get rid of weight
then your squidoo Lens url should be squidoo.com/get-rid-of-weight
and your title must be Get Rid of Weight
then the tags! get rid of weight easily , get rid of weight tips etc.,

It is advisable to create 2-3 lenses per niche.In fact some create 20-30 lenses per niche.
Note: Never try to SPAM squidoo. Also, don't create all the lenses related to one Niche under a single account. Squidoo treats all such issues as Spam.(even though it is not)
I suggest you to have 3-4 accounts having maximum 10-15 lenses per each account covering various topics. The reason I say different topics because if all your lenses are focused only on one topic, it looks like that you are trying to drive all the traffic to a single site, i.e. Spam, which the Squidoo people don't like.
Note: Keyword research is not dealt in this post; users who needs additional resources can email me.
What if the request url is not available?
Suppose if squidoo.com/get-rid-of-weight is taken by somebody else, don't register your Lens with a different keyword. "IT SHOULD HAVE THE KEYWORD". Instead you can register squidoo.com/get-rid-of-weight1 or squidoo.com/get-rid-of-weight101 etc.,

How should a Lens look like?

Bio: This is where many users go wrong! They keep some celebrity/fancy photo with a stylish name (like captain ark etc.,). But, the visitor should believe your identity. Upload a fake profile but your photo and name should seem natural. I always advice users to keep different Bio's for different Lenses. Coming to your description, if you have a website you can describe yourself as a pro and link to it. If you don't have a website, tell them that you are interested in it/enthusiast or user of certain product or service. But make sure you use the same photo for all the lenses in an account!

Introduction: A Lens introduction should be brief and must have image. Why image? Well, that helps indexing (Make sure you include your keywords in description) . You lens also gets a trust-worthy look! Don't write too much in the introduction. Make sure you place affiliate links in the introduction. Because many people are not interested in reading your lens till the end. So you should make sure that you place some affiliate links in the Introduction also.

The Content: It all depends on the type of product you choose. Always review lenses work like magic. As the user is focused only on the product, he doesn't look much at the ads. Your review must be precise, covering some new and important aspects of the product.

Killer Technique: The best way to secure your commission is through hidden linking. Just keep an image that is so small in size and it should be linked to product website with your affiliate link. On the bottom, write 'Click on the Image to Zoom' . Make sure that the image exists in the home page of the product. If not it creates a bad Impression.

While writing content you should be Specific and pin pointed. People hate reading your blah...blah.. The more centric your Lens is the more Successful you are!

What Modules: In the beginning, a lens that has least modules was more successful. But these days Squidoo started axing Lenses that have short content and little modules. So you should atleast 2-3 Text Modules and 1 Links Plexo and You should also have an RSS Feed Module.
How Rss feed Module helps?
Lenses with RSS Feed Modules do have higher LensRank because Squidoo believes that those Lenses are being updated regularly. I use Clickbank Feed Generator, which lists related Clickbank products automatically. Not that it gets extra sales, it helps a lot in improving my LensRank.

You can also add Amazon module or Ebay module if your products are physical. Squidoo encourages Lenses with such modules because it gets revenue mainly through such Lenses only. Hence it awards a better LensRank to such lenses. But remember, when you are selling digital products, these modules may distract potential customers.

Cloak Affiliate Links:
This needs no introduction. You can cloak your affiliate link if you have a Hosting service or with TinyUrl or LinkBranding.

The Squeeze Pages:
If you have an Email Autoresponder service, you can add some squeeze pages/ Subscription Forms. It really helps you a lot.

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Well, i think you need no introduction to Email Marketing and it's potential. I will describe more about email marketing in later posts.

Promoting your Lenses

The most important and crucial step of your Squidoo Marketing is Promotion. I will go straight to the point. There are mainly two types of promotions.
1.Promoting as per SquidU team.
2.High quality PR links.

To promote your lens according to the SquidU team you need not ask me. You can follow their guidelines.

High Quality PR Links/Traffic from Search Engines:
If you are able to do this perfectly, you can really hit a JackPot! Well mainly it involves article writing, Social Bookmarking, and thirdly forums and pinging!

1.Articles: Article writing needs no introduction, especially to Bum Marketers, but where should we submit the article. I submit only to Ezinearticles and Amazines!

2.Social Bookmarking:
Ah! Here comes the fun! I always use Netscape,Digg,blogmarks and onlyWire.

Netscape: A very good social bookmarking site that has a strict spam policy. Coming to netscape the main advantage is , even though you are banned by Netscape accusing for Spam, YOUR BOOKMARKS ARE STILL VALID! That means, even though you are out, your posts/entries are still valid and they index in Google! But in other sites your entries go to trash along with you. Netscape doesn't require too many votes to list in Google's top pages. You may create 10-15 accounts and vote the story.

Killer: But how to create 10-15 accounts? Should I have 15 email accounts? No!
You can create unlimited number of email accounts with gmail. For example, john.dick.harry@gmail.com is same as johndickharry@gmail.com or j.o.h.n.d.i.c.k.h.a.r.r.y@gmail.com or john.dickharry@gmail.com. But for whom???? GMAIL! Not netscape or Digg! They treat all these email address differently. So with the same email account you can create as many users as you can with no effort!
Sometimes you can also create emails like johndickharry+someword@gmail.com.It reaches johndickharry@gmail.com only! Thanks Google!

But beware! If all your accounts are voting on the same story or on the same topic everytime, Netscape considers you a Spammer and you may be expelled. But as I told you, your entries remain same and intact!

Digg: Digg is the most popular Social Bookmarking website and Google loves digg! With Digg you can list your entry in less than a day. If your entry receives more and more votes (Diggs) from a SINGLE PAGE i.e. from your Lens with in a short time, then Digg thinks your article/web page as innovative and promotes in its homepage. With Digg you can easily dominate highly competitive markets.

Killer: Digg and Netscape have a facility to make comments. You can boast/praise your Lens (not product) in those comments; I think you know the rest of the story. But why should you boast only your Lens,but not your product? Simple, suppose your product is Beating AdWords and you made a Lens about Beating AdWords. In Digg comments you praised Beating AdWords a lot. Then the user simply concludes that Beating AdWords is a great E-Book and goes directly to Beating AdWords homepage instead of going to yout Lens!!!

You can do the same with onlyWire and Blogmarks. Alternatively you can use technorati, but it's more complicated and not that easy to tackle.

Caution: In any of these Social Bookmarking websites, make sure your accounts deal with various topics. If you are focused only on one topic, these sites surely ditch you.

Forums and Questions:
There are many forums which have High Quality page rank. You should post a question about your product in the forum,like "Is it true?" "Is it worthy?"...immediately create a secondary account and post your Lens link. Then create another account and say that your Lens is extra-ordinary and you hope that the product is also good. After taking some time create another account and write that the product is also good to buy and make sure you mention some praise over the Lens. The problem with forums is we cannot lock them and the forum moderators may ban you. Moreover we cannot stop a discussion after some time and many people write bad opinions later on. But make sure that the first page of the thread related to your product is favorable to you.

Killer: I always use Yahoo Answers. It is very useful because, I can post links, create as many discussions I want, praise my Lens in my own way and stop the discussion after 4 hrs. I ask a question, answer myself with lot of links to my Lens and finally stop the discussion! Also, Yahoo Answers have great Page rank and they index madly in Google!

If possible, I write press releases or news article about my Lens on NowPublic. It generates massive traffic (really massive)! Alternatively, you can ping your lens with Pingomatic or Pingoat. Though pings are temporary, it helps for SEO.

Now Finally your LensRank! LensRank is a portmanteau of Google's Page Rank. While Google's Page Rank (PR) depends on more than 250 factors, LensRank depends on less than 10 factors. Though they are not revealed publicly, I can make a rough assumption.

1.Lens Structure (Length, Modules , Outbound Links )
2.Links Structure ( If you link to many websites from your lens, SquidU thinks your lens is useless)
3.Traffic
4.Traffic rate (If you receive constant traffic (even though less), SquidU thinks your lens is a substance)
5.Ranking (Sometimes especially in ranking to similar lenses)
6.Involvement (More number of groups you join, more LensRank you can have; but remember this is not always advisable as it shows similar lenses/similar groups which takes the user away from your Lens)
7.Backlinks (the more websites link you, the more advantage you have)
8.Your Account ( If your account is filled with 100's of Lenses of a few topics, then SquidU thinks you are a spammer)
9.Frequency of Updation(More changes you make regularly; the more Lens Rank you get)
10.Quality (!)

Though there are some other means....I feel that LensRank is a vital tool to make your Marketing easier. I only feel that traffic is the only solution to LensRank. But remember, even though you don't have a good LensRank you can earn lots of money from SquidU!

So thats it guys, I wish you all the Best for SquidU Marketing!

Squidoo Mania: Hot Niches that fetch you money!

2007-07-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering about the hot niches that bring you instant success. Though there is no definite code in determining such niches, you can make a list easily. Hot niches are nothing but, the niches that weren't exploited so much or the niches that people are always interested. Also remember that some niches even though they interest the general public, they may not be profitable. For example niches like iPods and Free Mp3 songs. Though they always have huge potential, there will always be hype and competition. So stay away from such niches. Now, let us see some niches that Squidoo receives abnormal traffic. The following niches are generally highly profitable. I have websites/blogs/pages/lens related to all of these niches! :P

1.Weight Loss Products: There are numerous clickbank products related to weight loss. Optionally you can also look into some cosmetics and products in Cj.com

2.Acne Products: In the current days, every teenager suffers from Acne. Teens try to get rid of Acne as fast as possible. So this is definitely a sure hit!

3.PSP Downloads: The "Playstation Portable" download sites are the ones that offer movies and games to playstation for free downloads. Every year millions of PSP's are being sold and this is definitely red hot!

4.Music Downloads: There are dozens of music download sites all over clickbank. Though this niche is highly exploited in squidoo, with proper SEO and Keywords you may gain.

5.Income Systems: Uh! the usual Make Money Online mantra. I think you need no introduction and explanation.

6.Fitness and Bodybuilding: C'mmon groove in and build six pack Abs! It always has a tremendous potential, because day by day,more and more people are interested in Easy-to-do things.

7.Survey Websites: They always convert insanely. Inspite of heavy competition, you can always have a decent share in this niche. It is definitely a must have lens.

8.Ringtones: Aah! I really love this niche. If you wander across Cj.com or Azoogle, you can have a numerous ringtone providers with decent affiliate structure. Some of them even pay your click! Just imagine if you are able to get huge traffic for your Lens!

9.Dogs : In USA 34% people have pets. Obviously most of them also need some sort of guide to train their dogs. Definitely people search them in Google! If your lens pops up for a good keyword....you will be minting money!

10.Tattoos: This is the most red hot market currently. While there are millions who search for "How to Tattoo?", there are billions of people searching "How to remove tattoo?"! So it is a dual market. You can gain from both the perspectives, especially if you are good at SEO. This is really my favorite Niche.

So IM'ers make sure you spot your Niche. If you have any other good Niches, please do inform me tatibus-at-gmail.com . So people, just gear up!

Update:Thank you Huddson Lee and Veronica Manley for suggesting some of the Niches.

Keep Internet Marketing on Track-Part 1

2007-07-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

There are many people still dreaming of millions online. But, the problem with new comers in Internet Marketing is, they don't have consistency. They might have a few sales in the beginning, but as they go on, their sales graph declines rapidly. Some Internet Marketers have intermittent sales. But why do Internet Marketers face such problems ? Though it depends on their personal situations, I can make some general points and solutions.

1.Be Focused: Here, focus includes two aspects. Firstly, focus on the things you do. If you are a technology slave like me (i.e. interested in the new technologies and gadgets), then you should be more attentive to Internet Marketing Stuff. Every time I login to my Email, I see many emails showing lucrative new electronic gadgets and youtube videos! Thats the end of my Marketing for that day! So the more focused you are on Marketing, the more results you achieve. Secondly, there is another aspect in Focus, i.e. you should have a clear idea of your niche. Because many times I choose one niche, later on divert to another market without completing the previous one. For example, last week I have chosen a niche related to DVDs. But, when I am doing the keyword research, somehow my focus shifted to "Anti-Spyware" market. So whats the result ? I didn't complete neither DVD niche work nor Anti-Spyware niche work. So that day was damn waste!

2.Budget Control: The most important aspect of Internet Marketing is budget control. It's not the amount you get, it's the amount you earn that matters. Even though, you get more than $30,000 dollars per month spending $29,000 on Advertising, it's not a big deal! Many people ask me "How should I control my spending?" There are many ways. Firstly, cut your advertising costs (everyone says this ofcourse). Secondly you need to reduce costs on services. I have a friend interested in Internet Marketing. I gave him some of my E-Books collection to read. After completing them, he was very enthusiastic and immediately subscribed to a hosting service (more than 200$), launched a website with poor Search Engine Optimisation (for landing pages) and finally spent more than $3000 in AdWords for the first month! The result is, 2 sales worth 98$. You might be saying "Guts, relax ! It's his first month...he will surely rock from the next month!" But he stopped his entire business in the second month....and finally said "Gosh! Internet Marketing is for nerds." I did the same market next month in this way. Launched 2 blogs with different target keywords of the same market, made 6 Squidoo Lens' ; bookmarked all of them with appropriate keywords in Digg & other social bookmarking sites; made some posts in forums and question boards-then crossed my fingers. Guess what? After one month, I got 21 sales, equaling a sale for every 36 hrs!! My invest is zero and profit is across 900$.
Here comes the second type. Some people buy a new system with Windows Vista pre-installed in it for the sake of Internet Marketing. Believe me, I don't even have MS Office. I use Open Office.org instead because it's free and reliable. For Internet Marketing you need not have a latest PC with latest graphics card. You can buy all those gizmo's once you earn lots of money online. I don't even use windows! I use Linux instead.

3.Patience and Hope:Ok, now you have finished all the work. But what about sales ? Uh ! Be patient Internet Marketer. Sometimes it takes more than 9 weeks to get sales into action. So be patient!

So IM'ers all the best!

Squidoo Mania hits IM Sphere!

2007-07-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

Do you SquidU ? It's not my question. These words are from professional Internet Marketers who keep thousands of dollars at stake in Google AdWords. Nowadays even biggies are concentrating more and more on Bum Marketing Method engineered by Travis Sago. Squidoo is currently a money making tool to many Professional Internet Marketers. LensRank (like pagerank) has become a hot topic in Warrior Forums. If you don't know anything about Squidoo (pronounced as Squidu) make sure you follow Seth Godin's guide in Squidoo homepage.

Why Squidoo?
C'mmon guys, its Web 2.0; why pay when you get stuff for free! I primarily use Squidoo because of the following reasons:
1.Easily Indexed by Google in the top pages.
2.Easy to create Lens.
3.Content modules can be placed in any order unlike the blogs.
4.You can have a cut in your lens' AdSense Earnings.

So serious IM'ers make sure you dive into the Squidoo pool of dollars.
[Squidoo.com]

Psycho still haunts me!

2007-02-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

Yes.Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho still haunts me.Not that I am so kiddish or phobic,but the intensity of the shower scene in Psycho is like that.I saw the movie for the first time when I was 12 and it was an horrifying experience.The screeching Violin sound creates a strange feeling...Though it was shot in monochrome recently when I was reading the book Psycho and it's Making written by Alma Reville I came to know that the shower scene was shot in 71 different positions and it took 7 days to shoot!Moreover the scene was only 45 Seconds in length....MyGod! But the scenes are really Worthy.
When we closely observe the scene frame wise we can observe that only 3 frames show penetration.(Last Picture)
Also I like to mention other films of Hitchcock which are masterpieces. They are Boat (Entire movie was shot in a small boat),Rope (The entire movie appears as if it was shot in a single shot...but it was shot in eight shots only!Thats really difficult these days.) and Strangers on a Train (a very good story Line adaptation.)
I am sure that not even in the Graphics Saga we can create such great masterpieces!
To Download Shower Scene Video Click Here(AVI 2.9 mb)(no audio)
For High Quality Mpeg Video Click Here(9.6 mb)(no audio)
For youTube video Click Here

I am enclosing some pic tures here...