SO, this is my first actual blog post in over 2 months, and I just wanted to say that I have missed this good addiction.
Glad to be back though, and thanks to everyone for all the love and support I had within the last 2 months

…

That’s all for now:-)

yep, that’s the coolest homework ever!

Many people around the world know about the become a blogger (BAB) program. Many people joined it’s first launch, and many people are joining the second launch.

Please note: The Become a Blogger program offers a 60 day money back guarantee, therefor the winner of the first option will be picked after I confirm that they stayed with the program for more than 60 days. Other wise, I would be stupid to put this contest up!!

I am way too excited over this, it’s been almost 3 months I haven’t blogged here and the blog was down for some technical errors since we have moved it to it’s new home on the new dedicated server… But who cares? Right?

Well, I am back with a new attitude towards this blog, you may notice some changes here (Like the design and so on) but the main change is in the way I write and communicate with everyone.

Also, the office is gone, we may get a new one again by the winter time, but for now, I am blogging on the road (through my G1 phone), at the coffee shop (Gotta love net-books in Starbucks) and even from my bed!

I got involved in 3 big projects through the 3 months non-active here, 2 of them are done and the third one is going extremely strong, I am even more excited about the last project, that I can not wait (as I should) to share it with you, however I will only share hints until the project is ready to go into the lights, so for the next 15 days I’ll refer to it with the codename: Project W.

The first hint about Project W is that it has something to do with Blogger.com or WordPress.com but much much bigger than both combined!

Also, for those of you wondering about the school at ‘Wahol’ it is my absolute pleasure to announce that we have completed the beta period (Although it took us 2 extra weeks than what we have scheduled earlier) but it was a 100% success, well we only had 79 of the 100 initial members that actually completed the course all the way to the end.

The doors will be open again within the next 4 weeks, so just keep an eye out and you will get more details before you know it

Also, starting tomorrow, I will start a 2 weeks series of a (While I was gone) articles that I have wrote within the last 3 months and saved for later viewing, it’s mainly of what’s going on Online and some videos as well (About 20 short and sweet articles all together) and I hope you will like it.

To make sure you will not miss any update, just signup to get this blog by email (Link on top right corner) or get the RSS feed (We have a whole new server along with the power of feedburner) so please do signup for it (Like also on top right corner).

The one thing that I have to say, is how much I have missed everyone, although I have been very active on Facebook and Twitter, but I have missed you guys the most

Until next time (Hopefully in less than 3 months!)

Cheers!

Almost 3 months ago I posted a message on every online profile that I have, stating that I will not shave my head nor my facial hair until the day before my Birthday on April 25th.
Without going into further details, I decided to change that statement.
And to help me make my decision, I created a poll to share with all of my friends and contacts, because I believe that sharing is giving.

Using polls will help you decide and make a lot of decisions no matter what you’re asking. In the example below I put almost every possible option a man could have for shaving. And I put a deadline for voting at 2 PM EST today, and I will obey the majority of votes that I will get by 2 PM.
 


 

Twtpoll.com is a new startup application from a new startup company called Twtapps. The company has a lot of cool applications to share with or without your Twitter account.

The way it works is very simple: Create the question, create the options, and submit. Then share the link on your Facebook profile or on your Twitter page.
You will have the option to embed the question or the results in your website or blog. That’s all.

Create your question at Twtpoll.com and share it with your friends

Another thing I should mention is “WpPolls” which is a WordPress free plugin to create polls on your WP blog. Easy to install and easy to use.

Bottom line is that you will get an answer or make your decision if you only ask and share. I would love to participate in your questions, so go ahead, create a poll anywhere and share it with us, send it to me on twitter, facebook or comment below and I will participate

If you’re not following me on Twitter yet, do so by going here.
Want to be my friend on Facebook, do so by going here.
And if you are not an RSS subscriber yet, do so by going here.

Technorati Tags: polls, twitter, facebook, blog, blogging, sharing

Note: This post was origanly posted on the Yahoo blog by Christopher Null. Christopher is one of my all time favorite tech blogger.
As my efforts continue to fight spam/junk/viruses as in this post, here is the exact post by Christopher from this link:

Judging from the complaints and questions filling my inbox, Windows security looks like it’s already on track for its worst year this decade. The latest attack is a worm called Downandup, Downadup, Kido!, or Conficker (all the same thing), and it primarily seems to be being delivered via infected USB drives.

How’s it work? By tricking you into running the virus by modifying the way “autorun” works when you plug in a drive. Look closely at the screenshot above and you’ll see two entries for “Open folder to view files.” The one at the top is a phony entry that actually installs the virus on your machine… but of course it’s the default selection that pops up when you plug in a drive. Once installed, the virus spreads like crazy via a separate flaw in Windows networking system (now patched, so be sure to run Windows Update if you haven’t lately) and can quickly infect a whole office. F-Secure has more analysis on the clever way it tricks you into installing the malware yourself.

How bad has it gotten? Estimates range from 3.5 million infected in the first four days after it bean spreading to 9 million impacted… and gettng worse. By now I figure the numbers could top 15 or 20 million.

From an antivirus standpoint, fixing Downandup isn’t easy. The worm is particularly problematic because of the tricky way it involves the user in installing the software, bypassing auto-installation safeguards, plus its sophisticated way of avoiding detection, as it morphs its code constantly (using randomized elements) to make traditional, signature-based detection almost impossible.

Your best strategy for avoiding Downandup? Turn off AutoPlay/AutoRun on your computer (with Windows XP, TweakUI is the easiest way to do it). If you do see an AutoPlay dialog box like the one above, just close it and eject the disc or thumbdrive; browsing the drive manually for individual files should keep you uninfected, but you’re best off not using the drive at all. And of course, make sure your system is fully patched via Windows Update.

What if you already have Downandup infecting your machine? Try your standard antivirus utility as a fix. If that doesn’t work, F-Secure has a removal tool that should get rid of it. Good luck out there.

You can follow his blog here.

If you’re not following me on Twitter yet, do so by going here.
And if you are not an RSS subscriber yet, do so by going here.

Technorati Tags: virus, worm, Yahoo, blog, tech

I made this point very clear over at the online training program at WAHOL!
I made it clear on this blog many times before!
John Chow made it clear on the interview we did before (Watch it here)
In over 200 blogs that I get their RSS feeds on my Google reader, there is an average of 7 out of 10 bloggers that is pushing their business or affiliate programs or whatever they want to advertise!
7 out of 10!!
That is a lot.
As a web surfer and a blog reader, when I get the feeling of “You have to buy this product” on any blog, I automatically unsubscribe from it’s feeds and I may never go back to read it. Why? Because if I “NEED” something, I’ll just go to amazon.com or eBay.com or I’ll do my own mini research using search engines to find out what it is that other people are saying about this product or service. The people that actually bought it before and wrote a review about it (On the shopping site, not on their blogs), and I just naturally compare and decide to buy it or not.
In all of my seminars, I encourage everyone to get social, join facebook or twitter, to socialize, not to blast your business and product. My advice is normally this:
Be nice, become friends or re-connect with old friends, once in a while mention your service or products and the money will come later. It normally comes later (and lots of it) only by sending out good Karma.

What goes around, comes around!

That is very true, when looking at blogs or newsletters with literary tons of affiliate banners or “Pay Now” buttons, I just get sick and surf away immediately.

Check out this blog’s posts, only every once in a while I include any affiliate link to make commission or to sell something, instead, I concentrate on sharing knowledge and spreading the word about the good stuff that we can all share. Yet again, I am still making some cash to live on, (let me rephrase that), I am making great living from this blog thanks to other people and companies that ask me to advertise here (On the side!) without having to do anything more than what I love doing (Blogging).

Another example is the famous iJustine she started her online life casting just because she have a passion for it, now, YouTube pays her a share of their advertising revenue as a way of saying thank you for bringing more people to us, even on her blog at TastyBlogSnack.com she offers to connect with here on any of her online profiles “THEN” there is a small PayPal donation button “After” everything else, on her Twitter account she has her bio as: ” I am the Internet!” plain and simple.

I am not saying don’t promote your business, I am saying promote it in places where promotions belongs to, go write a feedback on amazon or write a review (or even a giude) on eBay, go to the company’s blog (like at Dell) and write about it and incude your affiliate link or go to another company blog (Like at ThinkGeek) and comment on posts there with what you honestly think of their products and again include your affiliate link in the comment.

But, when it comes to your own blog, do it to share your knowladge, I know that if we all do that, the world will become a much better place to be at.

Did anyone that follows me on Twitter take a look at my bio there? It’s says: “Bio: Be You, Be cool, Be nice” That is all I do

There is a lot more I can ramble about about this topic, but that’s another story! Get the “FREE” RSS to keep updated

And before you go chopping your laptop because of all the advertising on it, just comment below and answer this question: Why do you “Really” blog?

Another great post I read last night from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger about SEO Plugins every WordPress Blog should have!
The article (Which I found very useful) came out in perfect timing with Google’s announcement of their own release of a document about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that you can download for free here!
The document (Which I found not useful at all) is an SEO integration into your website, I think it’s just some basic info that’s available all over the web and all Google did was to put it in one place with “Google” on top of it
However, for beginners, I think the guide is useful and it will help putting your site out there not only on Google but also on Yahoo, Live, ask, and AOL searches.
One comment I read about it said that Google may be trying to put SEOs out of business, I don’t think that’s true at all, there is a lot more into the art of SEO than the extremely basic info on the 22 pages they offer.
Though I think there is a much higher amount of info (created by the people) on the Google Webmaster Help Group.
Going back to Darren’s post, I do have 4 of the plugins mentioned that I have been using on this blog since the begining and I think that they have done well for this blog’s rankings.

Ever dream of having a social network that’s about your own band or another social network just for your company and your co-workers?!
Ning.com allows you to do just that.
“Ning” is a Chinese word for “Peace”, co-founded by Mark Andereessen and Gina Bianchini, and launched in October of 2005.
Ning.com allows you to create a social network just like myspace or facebook including any feature that you can imagine from blogs to forums to sharing photos and videos.
Your own created network could be about your family members or about your company or even your school’s basketball team! There are no limits of what you can create a social network about.

At www.Wahol.com There will be at least 2 classes about setting up a Ning network and other services like Ning. So make sure to sign up soon, it’s free!

In late 2007 Ning added support for OpenSocial, a project started by Google that I think would be the future of social networking.

No matter what your specific interests and no matter if you have any technical skills, Ning’s unique feature of allowing anyone to create their custom network about a topic or need or just to interact with fans or even raise awareness, is just great to have and is simply Web 2.0 at it’s best.

You can create networks for free that will be ad supported by Ning or you can create and brand a social network without ads in exchange for a small monthly fee. (A study I did before shows that it’s around $50 a month per network on Ning) and we will go through details of how to have your own branded social network for free, or whether to choose Ning’s paid branded network for your business in a near future class at www.Wahol.com

Ning.com now hosts over half a million networks.

Of course you can join our own network of Guru Of Sales right here: http://guruofsales.ning.com/
Or join our Wahol.com network here: http://waholnetwork.ning.com/ just remember that they are both under research testing right now, so I might not be active on them for quite a while, but I will notify you on twitter, so if you’re not following me, do so, by going here: http://twitter.com/guruofsales

Create your network and comment below with a link to your network and I just might become your first member to join

Although it’s still say that it’s in beta, but Google Ad Manager has been open for public use for a while now.

I have been invited (secretly) to use the service a while back and I found it extremely useful.

Basically the service aims to help web site publishers and blog owners to integrate ads into their pages, whether it’s Google’s AdSense, other ad networks, or even your own in house ads.

Here is what they offer (From their site):

Inventory management

• Inventory levels: Define inventory at granular levels for more efficient line item creation and trafficking. Use ad slots to generate Ad Manager tags for your pages, ad placements to group related ad slots, and ad products to bundle and sell inventory packages with the same cost and targeting criteria.
• Inventory availability tracking: Easily confirm whether ad impressions are available for specific dates, placements, and targeting criteria. Avoid overbooking and underselling.
• Simple ad tag generation and management: Copy and paste tags directly into your HTML. Avoid the need to re-tag your site when you change the way you sell your inventory. (Available upon request: iframe tags.)

Yield optimization

• Optional AdSense Integration: Use AdSense to fill unsold inventory or compete on price against other ad networks.

Ad targeting

• Built-in targeting options: Target ads to your site visitors’ geography, day and time, bandwidth, browser, browser language, operating system, and domain.
• Customizable targeting criteria: Target ad impressions by passing your own custom key-value pairs to Ad Manager.

Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking

• Delivery options: Choose one of five delivery types (exclusive, premium, standard, remnant, or house) to determine, automatically, how ads may be delivered.
• Frequency capping: Set multiple levels of frequency capping, which limit the number of ads the same visitor sees over a minute, hour, day, week, month, or lifetime.
• Roadblocking: Deliver multiple creatives together on the same page. (Available upon request.)
• Proven Google infrastructure: Enjoy fast, reliable ad delivery and load time.
• Support for various ad pricing models: Choose from cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM), cost-per-click (CPC), and cost-per-day (CPD).
• AdSense integration (optional):Consistently deliver the highest-paying ad by enabling AdSense.
• Ad network management: Easily manage your third-party ad networks with network orders.

Creatives and rich media management

• Rich media support: Use tags from a variety of rich media providers. Automatically detect macros.
• Free ad creatives hosting: Save bandwidth and costs.
• Redirect creatives support: Easily track ads from a third-party network, affiliate provider, or other URL you provide.

Reporting

• Multiple reporting options: Run reports on order delivery, inventory performance, or overall sales.
• Detailed reporting: Break down reports by date, line item, placement, advertiser, and other categories.
• Fast report generation: Create reports in seconds.
• Interactive views: Sort data, add or remove columns, review different data subsets, and make other edits without having to leave the page or run a new report.
• Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited: Feel confident in Google Ad Manager’s ad impression measurement process, accredited by the Media Rating Council to be fully compliant with Interactive Advertising Bureau standards.

User interface

• Search functionality: Locate order, inventory, or advertiser data from any page in Ad Manager.
• Intuitive work flows: Quickly and easily create orders, approve orders, and review status of orders. Decrease training time and trafficking steps.
• AdSense channels integration: Import your existing AdSense channels into Ad Manager (optional).
• Browser session support: Use your browser’s ‘Back’ button and other built-in navigation without losing data.

Administration

• Access controls: Set various viewing and editing permissions for your team.
• Contacts organization: Store and manage advertiser and agency company information.
• International language and currency support: Use Google Ad Manager in your native language and currency.

And a great 5 slides demo explains it easier is available here.

As of January first we are re-opening our advertising opportunities here at Guru Of Sales and we will be using Google’s Ad Manager

After playing around for a couple of weeks with the new WordPress 2.7 interface on beta, I am happy that WordPress.org announced the stable version today. (download at: http://wordpress.org/)

Here is what they have mentioned in their release:

The first thing you’ll notice about 2.7 is its new interface. From the top down, they’ve listened to our feedback and thought deeply about the design and the result is a WordPress that’s just plain faster. Nearly every task you do on your blog will take fewer clicks and be faster in 2.7 than it did in a previous version.

Next you’ll begin to notice the new features subtly sprinkled through the new interface: the new dashboard that you can arrange with drag and drop to put the things most important to you on top, QuickPress, comment threading, paging, and the ability to reply to comments from your dashboard, the ability to install any plugin directly from WordPress.org with a single click, and sticky posts.

Digging in further you might notice that every screen is customizable. Let’s say you never care about author on your post listings — just click “Screen Options” and uncheck it and it’s instantly gone from the page. The same for any module on the dashboard or write screen. If your screen is narrow and the menu is taking up too much horizontal room, click the arrow to minimize it to be icon-only, and then go to the write page and drag and drop everything from the right column into the main one, so your posting area is full-screen. (For example I like hiding everything except categories, tags, and publish. I put categories and tags on the right, and publish under the post box.)

For more, check this video in HD:

Update: As of right now, there are 87,441 downloads for WP 2.7!
Now that’s powerful!
Another update: As of 12/13/08 there are 222,905 downloads. To keep track with the downloads counter go here.
And to read more about the new WordPress, go here.