Guest | Technotip.org

10 Tips for Writing a List Style Post

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The list post is a tried and true way to get your reader’s attention as well as generate new readership and authority for your blog. With your headline, you are giving your readers specific expectations on the contents of your post. Attract your readers through the headline, then provide solid content to back up the points promised within your headline. Here are ten tips to nail those list posts.

1. It’s all in the headline: The headline is the one part of your article that a visitor is most likely to read. Put all of your attention on the headline and think about the most exciting ways to convey your information. Make your headline something of a curiosity, something that dares your readers to take a look at what you have to say. Five ways to legally swindle the government. 15 under $5 DIY projects. Follow your great headline up with some astounding content, and your readers will be clamoring for more.

2. Short sentences: Keep the sentences within your list post short. Do not attempt to overwhelm your readers with the breadth of your information. You will have ample opportunity to elaborate on your points. After all, the single list post might lead to more list posts. When you are editing, see which sentences can be split into multiple sentences. If you must use commas, use only one comma per sentence.

3. Short paragraphs: Along the same lines as #2, shorten the paragraphs within your lists. Your readers do not want to embark on a dissertation about your subject, they want to know the fifteen reasons that you like ham. The shorter the paragraphs, the more likely they are to be read. Many of your readers are skimming the headlines rather than delving into the thorough nature of your post.

4. Use action words: Eliminate the passive voice. Remove words which are wishy washy from your lists. ‘Apparently’ or ‘it seems that’ and other statements reduce the confidence that the reader has within you. Take every opportunity to ‘trade up’ your words to focused action words. Remove the qualifiers.

5. Be honest: Honesty is always the best policy. While you are removing the qualifiers within your list, make sure that you are not removing the truth from your statements. Each one of your points needs to be absolutely true and verifiable. If there are grey areas, revise or remove the point from the list.

6. Spellcheck and grammar: Spelling and grammar are important. Take the time to read over your post before you distribute it to the world. Make sure that there is nothing awkward about your sentence structure. Examine your word usage. Search for words that are spelled correctly yet used improperly. You do not want to remove your garnered authority with tiny mistakes.

7. Be passionate: Your passion fuels better blog posts and list posts. If you are writing about a subject which inherently bores you, save that one for the time when you have absolutely nothing to say. Your passion should shine through on your lists, starting with the headline, traveling through the copy and ending with that final punctuation mark.

8. Editing is important: Self editing is essential to writing a great list post. Your writing needs to be focused and simple, especially when writing in the short bulleted format. Examine your work for words and phrases that you use all too often. Look for useless adverbs and flat writing.

9. Make it interesting and relevant: You may know the seven ways to make the perfect sandwich, but that might not be appropriate content for your blog about dog training. You want the topic to be wide enough so that others will read but narrow enough so it is relevant to the topic of your blog.

10. Be controversial: Create a list post about something which can engender debate. Don’t be controversial for the sake of the controversy, but take one side of an argument which will spur your readers to respond. Six reasons why X public figure is wrong makes a great topic of debate and can draw attention from all around the blogsphere. When you are controversial about a passion, you create great link bait.

The best list posts are concise and simple. They have been well thought and offer the slightest bit of controversy. By using action words and editing properly, your list posts will get attention.

This post was written by James Adams, a writer who spends his time covering new technology developments and reviewing hardware such as the HP Q6000A at a leading supplier of toner cartridges based in the UK.

Smartphone Antivirus Protection: Choosing Best Software for You

This is a guest post by Alexis Bonari. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Experts have been deliberating over the conundrum of when mobile antivirus software will become necessary, but with the recent Trojan attack on Android-based devices, it looks like the future has arrived. An unknown malicious website has been prompting users to install a “media player application” on their phones. And while the app is no bigger than 13 KB, giving even savvy users the illusion of simplicity and innocence, the Trojan is hidden inside. Once installed, SMS messages, which can cost several dollars, are consistently sent from the devices without their users’ knowledge. Fortunately, the issue seems to be contained in Russia, but it’s obvious that the opportunity for other malware apps has increased. The following are some of the most popular examples of mobile antivirus software designed to protect your phone and put your mind at ease.

avast! PDA Edition
Although it was initially designed for use with PDAs, this antivirus software also works for Windows CE Smartphones. Because of its small size and memory requirements, a typical scan of your phone would only take a few seconds, so it’s practical to run these scans frequently. Report files can be created and viewed, which show a detailed description of the scanning process and anything that may have been found. Updates can be downloaded and installed using the software’s special updater designed to work with pocket devices. Subscriptions can be bought in one, two, or three-year increments and the number of licenses can also be changed to reflect the number of devices to be protected. A 60-day free trial of the software can be found here.

Avira AntiVir Mobile
This software has automatic updates via LAN or other Internet connections, but optimally updates via PC. Its clear menu navigation enables users to easily understand scan results and enjoy simple usability, and an automatic or interactive procedure is run whenever a virus is found. Infected files can be deleted, and the software includes support for the Windows Mobile 6.5 interface. A 30-day test key is available here and can be used to experience the software on a trial basis.

Norton Smartphone Security
The Norton software comes in two versions, supporting both Symbian and Windows Mobile users. It enables users to protect their privacy by preventing the theft of personal information, eliminating text and multimedia spam, and keeping cybercriminals and mobile threats away from your Smartphone. It checks phones with weekly updates and claims that it won’t slow down web activity or affect Smartphone performance. Free trials for both Symbian and Windows Mobile users can be found here.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She often can be found blogging about general education issues as well as information on college scholarships. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Save Self Hosted Email Accounts from the Spam Monster

This is a guest post by Selena Narayanasamy. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

At the bane of any business’ existence is the dreadful spam email that crowds its inbox and seems to multiply exponentially, even after it’s deleted. The annoyance of receiving unwanted emails and their accompanying links makes any business owner (or even someone who is using hosted email for personal use) almost desperate to find software mechanisms to help avoid dealing with this time-consuming task. Of course, there’s the problem of real mail getting lost in spam too… but that’s a story for another day.

Avoiding Spam Mail
Self-hosted email accounts are especially vulnerable to viruses and attacks, because they often lack the applications and software that larger companies use for security purposes. Whether that’s due to budgeting or personal preferences, self-hosted accounts should take the same precautions to guard against spam as any other.

One of the first things a business should do at its setup is to install anti-spam software on all its systems. Anti-spam software acts proactively by preventing unwanted spam mail and junk email from getting to the email inbox. Most software includes preset filters for tracking and deleting spam, and they also send reports to the sender’s Internet provider. This action should discourage those annoying emails at best while filtering through what is and what isn’t relevant to the business.

Customizing Spam Software
Self-hosted email accounts can also easily customize anti-spam software to filter information based on the email subject, words, or even domain name. This should make it easier for a company to receive the emails it needs and delete those that it doesn’t. This is important to ensure the system doesn’t delete emails that come from clients or prospects. You’ll have some pretty irate clients on the other end, and you may lose out on some good business as well. A business can program the software to initiate at the computer’s startup, which will essentially prepare your email communications on a daily basis using a clean slate.

Email filtering software works in the same way as anti-spam software by organizing its features according to a pre-set list of criteria. When an email arrives, the software will categorize it and send it to the proper folder, eliminating the need to have to go through each piece of mail and manually file it. Depending on the sophistication of the software, the program used can perform certain functions to ease the transition of dealing with particular emails. Some programs will do the following things:

1. Automatically delete the email or file it according to certain keywords or domain names.
2. Instantly reject any emails that originate from a particular sender.
3. Redirect, filter, or edit the message during processing, eliminating the need for it to ever arrive in the recipient’s inbox.

When setting up the account filters, check that there is not too much protection installed. While spam protection is very important in a business’ setup, too much email filtering can cause a business to miss important emails. A company should ensure the software is as generic as possible in filtering keywords so the system will not eliminate important information.

Usually, the email hosting company a business uses will offer anti-spam features to attract customers. When a business installs anti-spam systems and software alerts, it should have an efficient way to eliminate and avoid spam emails while allowing important information through. Make sure you do your research and find out exactly what self-hosted email accounts offer you. It will save you time and keep you from banging your head against the wall when you have piles of spam to sort through.

Selena Narayanasamy loves everything technology, productivity, blogging, social media, caffeine and being sarcastic. You can find her blogging on her social/tech site, Esvienne, or listen to her musings on Twitter- @SelenaVidya

10 Best Features of iOS 4 for Business

This is a guest post by James. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The business features of iOS 4 will make your iPhone the most valuable tool in your arsenal. With new features like multitasking, VPN connectivity and enterprise solutions, individuals can leave the office and still be connected. Here are ten of iOS 4’s best business features.

1. Multitasking
You are now able to perform limited multitasking with your iPhone. You can read your mail and have music playing in the background. With the addition of more applications that use this feature, your mobile device will gain more functionality.

2. Organize your applications into folders
You can place up to twelve applications into a folder to keep them safe. If you have different types of apps, the folders make it easier for you to find them. Your home page will have to find other ways to be cluttered.

3. Unified inbox
With a unified inbox, you can combine all of your email accounts within a single application. You do not have to be concerned about missing messages or tasks. You can also thread your messages, making your inbox easier to read.

4. Internal Spell checking
No more worries about misspelling words within email and applications. IOS 4 introduced a spellchecker that is usable through third party applications. You still have to proofread your documents.

5. Geolocation and Digital Zoom
Using the GPS function on your mobile device, iOS 4 allows you to tag the photos that you take on a map. This is another great method for categorization. The digital zoom feature will let you take close ups of your favorite employees and locations. You also have the ability to use zoom within your videos.

6. Messages are improved
You can search through your text messages and see a timeline of the messages that occurred. All of your typed messages are recorded for speedy search and recovery. There is also a character count feature which you can activate to get a better idea of the text limits of the platforms which you’re working with.

7. Photo resizer
The resizer will crunch the photos that you plan to send via email. When you are emailing pictures, you want them to be tiny, clear and easily transmitted. This is a great way of handling the need to have smaller file sizes in the email.

8. Enterprise applications
Your email can be encrypted and sent to employees within your company. You can obtain mobile device management on your server which gives you the ability to let all employees download iPhone apps without having to go through the Apple store.

9. Easily add events to iCal
Times and dates in your email have links which you can easily add to your schedule in iCal. There is no need to leave the program that you are in, it is fully integrated. This feature is great for people whose itinerary is constantly changing.

10. VPN Connection
Connect to your VPN from anywhere through your iPhone using this feature of iOS4. The passwords are more secure for all applications with this operating system. Business professionals can be more efficient with their iPhones because they can now connect directly to the office.

The features of iOS 4 can make you more productive with the use of the iPhone. With the organizational features and the tiny tweaks that Apple has done, you can take your iOS 4 with you to the next level.

James works for a UK-based store offering ink supplies for businesses. He spends much of his time reviewing hardware like the Epson T0715 as well as posting on their blog when time permits.

5 Tips to Finally Start with Social Media Marketing

This is a guest post by Amanda. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The newest addition to any Internet marketer’s arsenal is social media marketing. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn connect people to people and people to brands continuously while allowing constant interaction. Many are weary of Social Media; if worked with unfocused campaigns, it can eat up your time and take you away from other necessary projects. The key to Social Media is to connect your company to consumers, and this can be done in just 10 minutes a day.

Getting Started With Social Media Marketing

1. Take It One Step at a Time
If you only have 10 minutes to spend on your Social Media campaigns you should choose which platform to start with. To have an exceptional social media presence you will eventually need a solid presence on both Twitter and Facebook, but that does not mean that you need to get bogged down with both at once. You should pick one platform and run with it; master either Facebook or Twitter before moving on to the other. If you try to divide your 10 minutes between the two, you will fail at both.

If you start with Facebook, you’ll need to have proper branding and bio. The most important part of your Facebook page is the wall where you can interact with your fans. If you already have both your Facebook and Twitter pages started, rather than dividing your time between the two each day you should spend one day on Facebook and the next on Twitter. Make sure to spend the full 10 minutes each day on one platform in order to get your desired results.

2. Respond to Your Fans
Most people following your Facebook or Twitter pages are not listening to you. You should respond to your fans rather than talking at them or advertising to them. Your social media involvement is an opportunity for you to create an experience for your customer base and add to your company’s narrative.

Responding to your customer base means spending most of your time responding to @’s, messages, & wall posts. You can also utilize your social media position to respond to any negative PR or responses from your customers. To respond effectively, you must listen to your customers and embrace detractors; you do not want your naysayers to have any ammunition.

You should also spend your social media time getting to know your fans and followers. This attention can turn these fans and followers into customers and customers into prospects. You have the power to turn anyone into a brand evangelist if you treat them well by responding and listening to them.

3. Reach Out To People
Find people through searches on your social media network; look for those who have a question about your industry and niche market, or people who just need a little bit of help. Give them the information they’re looking for without asking them to follow you or linking them to a product.

This may lead to an invitation to join you on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog but that should never be your goal. Your goal is get on people’s radar and get them to talk about you. By doing this you will show them who you are and how to find you without being pushy.

4. Choose Your Actions
With limited time, you’ll want to focus on one or two actions per day. You do not need to spend your entire day putting out fires or replying to everything that comes up. Sometimes it’s better to just spend time on your social media sites without sending marketing messages; they usually go unnoticed anyway. Tell the story through your actions and send your message through your interactions.

5. Organize Your Efforts
Although you may think that it is a waste of time to reflect on your social media marketing, you might find some very useful information that can help you improve your marketing efforts. Look back to what efforts were the most successful and try to continue following those. It seems like such an easy task, but you might be amazed by how much time you can spend studying this. However, it can pay off if you can find better, more efficient ways to handle your social medial marketing.

Follow these internet marketing tips and you will rock the social media universe.

Author Bio:
Amanda is a writer and blogger living in San Diego, CA (USA). Visit her internet marketing website for more information.

How to Choose Your Phone’s Operating System

This is a guest post by Susan White. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The problem with smartphones is that they’re only as smart as the people who use them. So when you’re buying one of these gadgets, it’s important that you choose the underlying operating system with care.

Some phones run on Windows Mobile OS, others on Palm’s OS 5, and yet others on Nokia’s Symbian OS. BlackBerry addicts don’t choose anything other than RIM’s BlackBerry OS and the same goes for iPhone aficionados who don’t look beyond Apple. And although late to the party, Google’s Android is proving to be a hot favorite. So how do you decide on your operating system if you’re not too particular about the phone you use?

mobile-os-iOS, BlackBerry, Symbian, Android, Palm

If you want a BlackBerry or an iPhone and nothing else, then you’re not going to be scrutinizing other operating systems too closely. The only decision you have to make is the model you want from RIM and Apple.

You would do well to choose the latest models, mainly because of the latest news from Apple – OS 4 for the iPhone is almost ready and it is compatible only with the iPhone 3G and 3GS models. According to the grapevine, OS4 will allow you to multitask (perhaps Apple has taken all those criticisms about the iPad to heart), store more than 2000 apps on your phone in personalized folders, and also put all your email (from different accounts) in one unified folder.

And nothing can beat a BlackBerry when it comes to push email services – if you’re connected to your job and the world via email, this is the best phone to own.

So moving on those who prefer other models of phones, if you choose a phone with a Windows platform, most phones come with Windows Mobile 6.5. While the interface is slick and the multimedia operations great, this OS is generally buggy and induces one too many complaints. If you’re used to Windows Mobile, you’ll probably want to stick with it, but if you’ve found it slow and buggy in the past, you may be wanting a change.

Palm’s new OS 6 has not taken off really well, but it doesn’t really have to with OS 5 still ruling the roost. You don’t have to worry about your phone hanging too often because of too many applications clogging your memory, what with one application closing automatically when you open another. And although multimedia is not its strong point, Palm users are not a worried lot because it has other pros going for it.

Symbian lags behind the rest in terms of both ease of use and advancements, those who are used to Nokia smartphones prefer this OS to any other.

Android is Google’s baby, and like any other product from this tech giant, it delivers what it promises. Because it is used in a variety of phones like HTC, Samsung and Motorola, it is available in different designs based on the phone company. And best of all, it has edged out the Apple OS as the second highest selling OS in the first quarter of 2010, next only to the BlackBerry OS.

So choose your poison based on your needs; read varied reviews and talk to friends who own different models, but make the choice on what you really want to use your phone for.

About Author:
This article is contributed by Susan White, who regularly writes on the subject of High Speed Internet. She invites your questions, comments.

Top 7 Technical Mistakes Bloggers Make

This is a guest post by Ishan Sharma. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

It’s easy to get lost when you are new. After all, there’s too much to manage! You have design, content and what not. In all this mess, it is easy to make small mistakes.

Recently, I had a very bad experience when a friend’s blog got messed up because of some configuration problems and we had to setup WP and design from scratch! So I thought about writing a post that would save bloggers from making common mistakes and here they are:

Using A Free Service
Using a free host like Blogspot and WordPress.com seems good from far. But there’s a big problem with this option! You don’t own your content, the host does! Recently, blogger blocked and even deleted a lot of blogs. Among the victims was a customer who had 60,000 subscribers! Now, blogspot team is either nuts or using bots(which is likely high, considering it’s a property of big G) for blocking blogs.
In any case, the point is that you can loose a lot if you use a free platform. Consider getting a self hosted WordPress blog and while doing that, avoid the following mistakes:

Using “Cheap” Hosting
Many bloggers would move to a hosting company but would look for cheapest or worst – a free host. And the features they get are:

Regular outages.
Awful support.
Slow loading times.

Remember, you get what you pay for. Do not fall for the “unlimited bandwidth” and other tall claims! Before buying hosting, research well and shortlist 2-3 hosting companies and then compare them. It is also advisable to contact friends using different hosting companies.

Using Your Host As Domain Registrar And Vice Versa
Keeping both hosting and domain with same company is a really bad idea. Yes, there may be some discounts involved but it’s a bit dangerous.
Imagine something bad happens with your hosting company and there servers crash! Now, if you have both domain and hosting with them, your site will be completely down.

If you have domain with a different registrar, you can at least redirect it to a new page explaining something bad has happened. It won’t retain all the visitors but hey, a bird in hand is worth two in the bush!

Wrong Permalink Structure
No explanations for this one, just a quick question: Which one is better and easy to remember out of the next two URLs?

http://myblog.com/?p=123
http: //myblog.com/my-post

Of course it is the second one unless you have got a super photographic memory! Not to mention that it is also better for search engine bots(and they don’t have photographic memory even if you have! 😉 ).

You should always use a informative permalink structure for post. In WordPress, this can be easily changed by going to Settings → Permalinks. Set the structure to custom and in the text box, enter /%post-name%/ for structure like the second example. For more permalink structures, see WordPress Codex.

Using Too Many Plugins
Plugins add lot of functionality to WordPress. But the main problem with them is that it is easy to get carried away with them.
This was a mistake I made when I was new to WordPress. I fell in love with lot plugins and in first month, I had some 60 plugins active at one time. Now, you can imagine how slow the blog would have been. Thankfully, I realized it soon and uninstalled several useless ones. Now, I have around 30 plugins and performance is better.
As a rule of thumb, you should not install more than 25 plugins unless absolutely necessary and delete the inactive ones.

Not Tracking Stats
If you don’t know your stats, you are missing a lot. Using stats you can know where your visitors are spending more time on your blog, from which page they are leaving the blog, bounce rate etc. With all these data in hand, you can tweak the blog and significantly improve your blog and your readers experience.
And another thing is tracking feed subscribers. For this, you can use FeedBurner. You can use your platform’s default feed without any problems but FeedBurner has lots of advantages. First of all, you can track number of readers(although inconsistently). You can offer free e-mail subscriptions and also add AdSense to monetize your feeds.

Not Taking Backups
Taking backup is something you should start doing today.
Anything can go wrong at anytime and having a backup locally(i.e. on your hard disk) may be the only security measure. You should setup a automatic backup for your blog using a plugin like WP DBManager. For detailed tutorial, take a look at this tutorial: How To Backup A WordPress Blog.

These were top 7 mistakes that new bloggers tend to make. Do you have any tips for new bloggers? Do share with us in comments.

About Author: Hi, My name is Ishan Sharma. I am a teen entrepreneur and I love blogging and WordPress. I blog at Blogging
With Success about Blogging Tips and WordPress. If you need any type of help with your WordPress blog/website, I can be found at WordPress Blog Experts.

Top 10 Sure Principles for Effective Web Designing

This is a guest post by Buytemplates. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

1. Clear, easy web-pages:
The first step to make a website effective and striking at the first glance by the user is to make the webpages clear. The Krug’s Law of usability focuses on this very aspect—that it becomes very obvious to the user on how to utilize the website, and achieve his objective.

2. Catch the User’s attention:
It is important for the website, if used for advertising, to use techniques like emboldened fonts, moving texts, marquees, graphics, and Flash videos, images to grab the attention of the user and concentrate it on the key topics. However, it must be kept in mind that user is not confounded with too bright and confusing meshes of objects on the screen. Use this technique moderately to gain success.

3. Impressive Content:
The content of the website is actually what the user ends up reading ultimately, and hence, is one of the most influential factors for effective websites. The content should be to-the-point, easygoing, impressive in readability, and clearly understandable. Use of objective language, plain and clear statement which are at the same well written enhances the appeal of the website.

4. Concentrate on Functionality:
Users like to know clearly what functions the website offers. Displaying One-Two-Three step procedures for the users, by breaking up a task, has proved to be very effective to guide the user in a simple friendly way towards his goal. Clearly establish what the user’s next step would achieve.

5. Respect the User’s Time:
Websites which take the users to long time-consuming procedures for their own purposes, or play with the user’s patience generally tend to annoy the user. Requiring the user to fill out long details and make accounts before allowing him to do general tasks is an unnecessary task and negatively impacts the website.

6. Simplicity is still the golden rule:
Keeping the website simple is strongly recommended. This is because users enjoy navigating through simple websites in which they don’t have to comprehend much. From the color scheme to the boxes to the page structure, don’t overdo or overcomplicate things.

7. Special Effects:
Keeping it simple and using special effects at the same time is an art. Most websites incorporate special effects like Watercolors and Transparency into their web-design.

8. TETO:
This is a popular technique to keep checking and properly maintaining the website. TETO, or Test Early Test Often, which recommends regular testing and debugging of the website, so as to keep a check on problems which usually tend to occur. Testing is considered as very imperative to website design, since it can solve problems which the designer might not have predicted.

9. Communicate:
A good website talks to the user, providing him with clear concepts and ideas. Use of a clear structure and organization helps a great deal.

10. Optimize Load Time:
Users are annoyed when made to wait. Figure out and rectify if the website takes longer than usual to load. Load time should be optimized for effective websites.

Author Bio:
Buytemplates.net is a web products hub offering scores of inexpensive web templates and brochures. The site presents readymade website templates like SharePoint templates, Joomla templates, marketing brochures, and many more along with an affordable template customization service.