A website is a great symbolic statement for a company. It has become a necessary component of any company out there. As such, it’s only natural that a reputable company provides its clients with a site that caters to their needs and makes all of its services available in a few clicks from the comfort of their house. So what makes a great website? Let me outline a few key components.

Function:

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the design elements were very limited in terms of tools and technologies. The web pages back in the day were very static, which meant, you could only read them and not interact. There were very few things that you could do on a visited web page, but get some information that may already be fairly common knowledge. The advent of the second generation Web technologies (Web 2.0) has drastically changed all of this. Now, people who surf the net are getting much more than just static information. Pages are generally more colourful and aesthetically attractive as well as user-friendly, making it informative and fun at the same time.

A website is technically functional when it services its initial purpose. For example, a news site becomes functional when viewers, besides reading the news information, can interact with the site by placing comments, searching, printing and sending email within the page. Your average surfer wants to be able to find their way around any given page easily without having to click on more that which is necessary, or being re-directed every second. Nothing is more annoying than a site that keeps on re-directing you, taking so much of your precious time.

You can find more information and resource links on the functionality of web design by visiting: http://www.insightempire.com/Movingwebdesign/

Interactive:

The World Wide Web has changed over the years and those who make their sites interactive find that their viewers keep coming back. An interactive site is one that allows the viewer to make comments, rate, and tag or forward the content. How is this done? The webmaster will usually place an icon or piece of text somewhere at the beginning or the end of an article that allows quick access to interaction options such as social bookmarking.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO):

In every subject topic, there are only a handful of websites that make it to the top ten of any of the search engines. The rest of the sites, despite their quality, informative content, are positioned way down the bottom of the search engines result positioning, to far for the average viewer to care about. Most viewers are drawn to the sites that make the top 10 listings found in any search engine.

Search engine optimisation means that your website is optimised in such a way that all the search engines are able to easily find your site amongst the billions of pages on the web. Today, most of the big organisations invest in SEO, so that their site will achieve the highest ranking in the search engines, meaning they become more visible to their target audience.

Aesthetics:

If we’re all honest with ourselves, we’d all agree that we like beautiful things. Websites are made, initially to be viewed. Colours, images, fonts, all contribute to the overall design and beauty of any website. It effectively says something about the company it represents. Aesthetics can also be used to target markets that are related to your line of business, which as a result gives you an edge over your competitors. With this noted, it’s always best to choose a site design that best represents your company’s interest and range of products and or services.

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Free Affiliate Programs For more information and resource links on website design visit: Moving Web Design

How do you decide on the changes you make for better user experience?

Did you ever ask yourself the question “Why am I doing this”? Most of the webmasters do not do that. Just take a look at the bloggers who add as many widgets as they like thinking that these would make their blog look great. But, a seasoned webmaster will think thousand times before implementing anything (any new feature or modification) on the website. And that is not all; a good webmaster would track its performance throughout the time to find out if it is really necessary.

Just think about Google documentations or FAQ sections. What they do? After every answer they ask the reader straight – “Was this information helpful?” with two options – yes / no.

Why they are doing this?

The main reason is to understand (and they want to be definite about it) if the information is really helpful or not. In any other available situation they would have depended on assumptions. Apart from getting real data they are also being able to engage the reader with the content development process. And another most important aspect that you must have noticed is the “sense and simplicity” of the whole process when the content caters to diverse section of people from different group and ethnicity.

Now, just think it from a different perspective. Who knows more about Google products than Google! They could easily write long documents with an approach that what ever they write would be more than enough for the visitors. But they did not do this. They took the extra burden to make the content pages precise to help the visitors in the best possible way.

You will also find a lot of other websites too going through the same process to understand if the content is sufficient for the user. For example take a look at Yahoo; they are doing the same thing to understand their users.

Do you need to fulfill user’s need to improve search engine rank of your site?

Yes, you do; search engines are giving as much importance to user experience in a certain page as the number and quality of incoming links.

Now, how do you find out if the user is satisfied with the content you are providing? (Here content means all the elements present in a web page.) We normally depend on some sort of analytics report to find out user behavior, click pattern and length of stay in a particular webpage to guess user experience.

To the most we may ask feedback from the visitors on the website in the contact page. But do you really think that the visitors are conscious enough to know what they are missing in a webpage! This statement is true to the core when we are thinking about the information seekers who necessarily land on a page for certain piece of information. And to add to the whole situation, do you really think that the visitors have enough time to click on the contact page and send you an alert on the missing content? By this time they will flee to some other website to fulfill their need.

Thus you must understand what your visitors are looking for otherwise getting more visitors to your page through search engine optimisation and super active link building does not making any sense. The visitor will not convert into customers.

And if your users are satisfied with the content you are providing, you can surely expect better search engine rankings in recent future with normal SEO process.

Learn about better search engine rankings. from leading Florida SEO company.

No one decides to invest in a vending machine business so they can waste their time and money. The goal isn’t to work hard for that money to invest and then to lose it. Since we are all in agreement on that issue, the question remains why do so many people trust that money to a vending machine broker? Generally it comes down to the fact that they are new to the business and they want someone to lead them by the hand and show them how to get it done.

This is exactly the image that vending machine brokers want you to have of them. Yet they are nothing more than wolves in sheep clothing as they will take your money faster than you can imagine. The disappointment of losing the money you had to invest in a vending machine business is something you won’t recover from any time soon. The financial devastation can place an economic hardship on your family.

Some so called vending machine brokers do offer you their legitimate information but they know how to play the game. They offer you what the guidelines in the contract specify but not like they should. For example they often know other people that they work with to get your vending machines placed. Chances are these aren’t going to be good locations. However, they did fulfill their obligation of getting you locations for your vending machines.

Many of these so called vending machine brokers are very smart when it comes to getting your trust. They may put you into contact with others that they have done work for (part of their team of course). They can also show you locations where they have contacts for vending machines. This is all done in an effort to get you very excited about the prospects for your vending machine business.

If you are going to have a successful vending machine business, then you are going to have to take care of the leg work on your own. If you think there is a good way around it then you are better off not even getting yourself involved in this type of business because it won’t be a success for you. Vending machines aren’t cheap so you definitely don’t want them just taking up space in your garage.

They may give you a sad story that they need to sell their vending machines that are in prime locations because they are moving out of state to care for their sick mother. Make sure they offer you a review of income tax returns and bank statements then so you can verify the income they are making. Most people simply don’t offer to sell a very profitable business

So how do you go about having a successful vending machine business? You find the locations for the machines on your own. This way you know what you are getting yourself involved in. Take some time to evaluate where people hang out in your town and you will come up with some great locations for vending machines. You don’t want to chance putting them in locations were they aren’t going to be used though because vending machines are too costly to be sitting there and not making any money for you.

No one said it was going to be easy to get a successful vending machine business started, but nothing that is worth doing ever is. Every type of business out there has issues they have to get passed in order to do well. Having a successful business takes much more than just a dream and luck. Make sure you avoid those vending machine brokers though as they will take away every chance you have of being successful right before your eyes.

Robert Farnham writes about avoiding problems with vending locating companies, and the smart way of finding locators for vending machines.

“Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment.” Robert Benchley

Procrastination. We are all guilty of that particular vice. Don’t do it. Take the first step in preparing your presentation. Force yourself onto the chair and get ready. Preparation may not be the most exciting aspect of your project, but it can be the single most important ingredient in your presentation. You may be able to charm anyone on the spot or possess the charisma of the most dynamic person in the world, but without preparation for a speech or meeting, you can still stumble and fall. How to prepare then?

First, imagine your audience. Who they are. What their expectations are. How you will connect with them. What you want to tell them. What you hope to accomplish. The specifics: Where you will be when you give your presentation – the facilities, the lighting. You need to know specifically what type of presentation you’re going to give. Are you motivating an audience? Giving valuable and/or timely information? Trying to sell something? How are you going to do it? What are you going to say?

Ideas, ideas, ideas. You have so many. Random or specific, write all these ideas down. Even if they don’t seem to relate to each other. Take three minutes and scribble ideas for your presentation on a sheet of paper. Don’t over-think this process. Ideas that may sound ridiculous at first can spur other more sensible and/or practical ideas; they can create unusual associations that lead to unique insights. Don’t stop writing. Don’t edit or go back and cross out any words. Let your thoughts flow like a river. As in visual art, make thumbnail sketches but with words rather than pictures.

All right. Now what? Take another three minutes to review what you’ve written. With pen or pencil or felt markers, make circles and arrows to connect logical relationships between the ideas. Which ones relate to each other. Identify ideas that might surprise you and turn out to be sub-points of other ideas. Rearrange ideas that fall logically before others. Pinpoint your main ideas.

Construct a linear sequence of your ideas. Create an opening, a body and a conclusion. A natural balance of three, the main parts of your presentation, so that it will flow easily yet effectively. Make an outline of how all the ideas work together.

Once you have your presentation organized and written down, how will you open? First, you’ll need an icebreaker to warm up your audience. Choose one, depending on your style. Tell a joke or a story. Ask a question. Try an unusual move; body language speaks volumes. Change your tone of voice. Give the audience a startling fact, theory or controversial statement. Use props or audience participation. Or choose a unique way of your own to open your presentation. The main thing is to create a way to get the audience’s attention, then introduce your objective – the purpose or goal of your presentation.

Then, the next trick is to keep the audience’s attention with the body of your presentation. Add rhetorical technique. The various ways to make and support each of your points. To do this, plan to use examples, analogies or questions. Weave a personal story throughout your presentation. Use metaphors, ones which clearly illustrate your points. If it works for your particular presentation, plan a demonstration or a physical example to drive your ideas forward. To round out your presentation, create a fabulous conclusion.

There are more than just words to a presentation. You need to craft the gestures you will use. You don’t want to stand like a stick on the stage. Use gestures to activate your body’s kinesthetic awareness, how it feels to move expansively while presenting. Trying out new gestures might be uncomfortable for you, but they will increase the awareness of what your body is doing while your mind is processing the content. Create three gestures and include them in your presentation. In the beginning, forcing yourself to try some new gestures will help you see what works. After you expand your range of gestures, they will become more natural and original. Try these gestures with parts of your text while observing yourself in a mirror. Make sure your elbows extend well out from your torso.

Practice and time your presentation. If your notes are too extensive, it won’t be easy or convenient to read them while presenting. If you need notes, use word fragments (one to four words) limited to your most important points (A half dozen for most presentations.). Write these word fragments on index cards.

Finally, practice, practice, practice. Use your mirror, your friends, your dog. Record yourself, audio and visual. Study it. Time it. Cut it, edit it, smooth it out so that when you give your presentation, you will know it so well you won’t need those dog-eared index cards after all.

The Henderson Group trains and coaches business professionals in the art of communication and presentation through our experiential methodology. Since 1990, The Henderson Group has helped Fortune 500 companies worldwide improve employee productivity and business results through the development of communication skills. You can find us online at SpeakFearlessly.net and HendersonGroup.com or Attend A Workshop

Many people do not realize just how important the title of their website really is.

If you’re surfing the Internet for something specific you’re going to go with the title that catches your eye, therefore if you’re making your own website you want to make sure you have that eye-catching title.

The title is what attracts people to your website and tells them exactly what you have. It needs to also be a good title that will rank high in the search engines, this way your website will pop up more often than others when searched.

You need to take time and consider the title in all its entirety. You want to be sure the title tells your prospective clients, exactly what you can offer them while at the same time making it Web friendly for the search engines.

You don’t make your website title just the name of your company because that will not tell people what you can offer them or entice them to clicking on your website.

Take for instance if you’re looking for discounted pet food and you come across a site called Joe’s pet shop, chances are you won’t click on that website. You’ll click on a website that says in the name, discountedpetfoods as it tells you exactly the product are looking for is what they carry.

When picking the title for your website you want to keep in mind that you should use relevant keywords. Keywords are the words that are used in when someone does a search with a search engine.

For instance if your looking for discounted dog food, you’re not going to type in Joe’s pet shop to do your search. The key word for that would be, discounted dog food.

It is also important to put your keywords the beginning of your title which will help it to be pulled for higher rankings in search engines. Some people even consider putting in the main keyword twice.

That can be a little tricky to do as you don’t want to sound redundant but it is possible to do it. You can say, discounted dog food-the best discounted dog food on the net. It sounds more as a statement instead of sounding repetitious and each key word in there twice.

You and make sure that your title is persuasive and gets your prospects to click on your link. The less persuasive your title is the less traffic you will have. It is important to try to say your main points in 65 characters or less.

Search engines generally have a limit on the length of the title that shows in their search engine results.

Google only displays the first 60 to 66 characters so you can see why it is important to get your main point across is little space as possible.

Try to keep your secondary keywords out of your title. These can be used on your main page with ease so save your title for what is really important.

Try to keep the website title short but to the point. You don’t want to over stuff it with repeated keywords, making is sound plumped up and desperate.

Alojate.com is the premier web hosting company in Mexico, offering a range or services for all business needs. Meeting Planners & marketing, organization and coordination of every human meeting you require. http://www.car-videos.us

Meta tags contain information about a website. To the SEO (search engine optimization) industry, meta tags and title tags are critical to assist with search engine rankings. Think of these tags as your way to help influence how you define the topic of an individual webpage.

Understanding Search Engine Results:

When you go to a site such as Google and perform a search for a keyword phrase, the site returns ten (10) results and each result entry has 3 sections:

1. Title of the page (title tag)

2. Description (meta description or snippet of text)

3. Destination URL (address of the webpage)

Let’s review how meta tags and title can influence search engine results. Title tags are technically a different tag, but for purposes of illustration, we’ll group them under meta tags

What are meta tags?

Most commonly, there are three types of meta tags that a SEO expert will focus on:

1. title tags

2. meta description

3. meta keyword

Tip: To review meta tags for a page type “Ctrl + u” when your Internet browser window is open (Firefox only).

Title Tags:

Title tags are the words seen on the top left hand corner of your internet browser. For example, visit http://CNN.com and look in the top left hand corner. You’ll see the text “CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News.” This text is the title tag and it help identifies to the search engines what your page is about. There is a character limit on how much text a search engine will read. As a best practice be specific, but descriptive and try to keep the title tag under 100 characters or 10-12 words.

Meta Description Tags:

The meta description is a text statement that gives an abstract about what the page is about. Search engines can only read about 255 characters, so most descriptions are limited to 1-2 sentences. What is significant about the meta description tag is the potential opportunity to influence how your page appears in a search engine. The 1-2 lines of text under the title of a page in a search engine can be influenced by the meta description tag.

Tip: PDF’s do not have meta descriptions. To influence the text in a search engine result, focus on the first visible text available. The first text phrase on the PDF will act as a substitute for a meta description tag.

Meta Keyword Tags:

What keywords are important within your page’s content? The meta keyword tag is an opportunity to highlight and reinforce important of keyword phrases. Meta keyword tags should be less than 500 characters.

The Role of Keyword Research:

An SEO professional conducts keyword research to get a magnitude of what keywords are popular among search engine users. This information is useful to incorporate these keyword phrases into the webpage’s content. The webpage’s content and keyword research play a role in guiding the SEO professional towards what information should be included within meta tags on a given page.

Creating Meta Tags Onsite or Outsource?

Depending on your industry, time constraints and budget will influence the decision to perform keyword research and create meta tags in-house or to outsource to a professional search engine optimization agency. As a benchmark, do you currently rank in the top 30 results (pages 1-3) in a search engine for a keyword phrase you think a customer would type in? The more competitive the industry, the more benefit you will find consulting with an SEO firm.

Many search engine optimization agencies recommend conducting in depth keyword research, followed by implementation of keyword phrases into existing content. Modifying the webpage’s content by incorporating popular keyword phrases will help improve the page’s ability to rank for a given keyword phrase. The process is completed with the creation of meta tags and title tags as a compliment to the on page content. The result will be a circular process that leverages descriptive on page content to help identify to the search engines what your site is about.

Keith Hanks is an Account Manager at Atlanta search engine optimization agency TwentySix2 Marketing. He has a passion for Atlanta SEO agency services and Atlant web design services.

Anybody who is keen to master the net and get their Internet marketing startup running at a profit will have thought about using Google Adsense.

The basic technique is not difficult to grasp. You create a page on your website with some original content around your chosen keywords, you add some Adsense ads, and then you promote your page by, among other things writing articles and blogs around those same keywords.

Trouble is, the big earning keywords are all being chased by between millions of other people, at least according to the results from a quick Google search. Take the word “internet”. I have just typed it into Google, without inverted commas, and found that there are 2,020,000,000 results… :-0

That number is so big I don’t think I can say it, let alone compete for a share of Adsense revenue on that particular keyword!

Everybody will tell you that you that you’d be crazy to choose “internet” as your key word and go up against billions of competitors. After all, far from being able to master the net and dominate your niche, your miserable little Internet marketing startup site barely attracts two original visitors per day. And one of those is you checking your site from your home computer. The other is you checking your site from your work computer when the boss is out of the office.

But wait a minute…

How many of those results are really worth anything? How many does Google really rate?

Let’s fiddle about and see if we can’t improve our chances…

How about this?

Go to Google, type in “internet” and check out the huge number of results it pulls up. Now click on the “Preferences” link to the right of the search box. Scroll down the “preferences” page until you come to the section named “number of results”. Click on the drop down box and change it so that it reads “Display 100 results per page”. Scroll back up the page and click the “Save Preferences” button. When you do that you’ll be taken back to the Google search page.

Now, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the tenth page of listings beneath the Goooooooooogle logo. Normally you’d be taken to listings 91-100, but now that you have changed your preferences you will be taken to listings 910-1,000…

…Or will you?

When I arrived on that page I was shown a list of the 910th-942nd sites only. A statement beneath the 942nd read:

“In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 942 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.”

Er, no thank you, I won’t be needing to see all the “omitted results” which are “very similar to the 942 already displayed” thank you very much. The fact is that 2,019,999,058 of the 2,020,000,000 sites are JUST PLAIN JUNK that are NOT rated at all by Google.

So, my dear Internet marketing newbie, all you have to do now is write some original content on the subject of the Internet, place it on your site along with those Google Adword ads, upload your site, and then start writing fascinating articles and blog posts all about the Internet, and point them all back to your site and in short order you will find your website somewhere above 942/2,020,000,000 place on Google and attracting more traffic than just you in your working and domestic capacities!

So, next time you find a nice lucrative keyword or keyword phrase which Google Adsense pays out several dollars or more per click on, don’t be afraid to go out and compete for it, provided you can commit yourself to creating well original content for your site, your blog and the numerous article directories around the Internet. You will soon find your site appearing on the top ten pages with fewer than 1,000 sites to compete against and you will come to believe that yes, your Internet marketing startup really can dominate any niche and master the net!

David Hurley is an Internet marketing specialist who lives in Hiroshima, Japan. He writes a newsletter stuffed to the gills with tips and tricks for Internet marketing success, available FREE at => http://grasp-the-nettle.com

I‘m sure you’ve read that Spam accounts for roughly 90-95% of all email. If you haven’t read this, read the previous sentence again because it’s a fact according to Barracuda Networks. Only 5-10% of the email that reaches the average inbox is supposed to be there. This isn’t good from an identity theft perspective considering spammers aren’t the most ethical bunch.

Sure, email has its upsides. How did we ever live without the occasional crude joke from a well-meaning brother-in-law or “friendly reminders” from the phone company that our bill is twelve seconds passed due? Unfortunately, those upsides come with the aforementioned bad sides: Spammers love clogging your inbox with offers to increase certain parts of your anatomy and decrease others. It’s just so darn cost-effective for them compared to buying stamps and annoying you the old-fashioned way.

Just What Exactly Counts as Spam Anyway?

There are two basic types of spam:

(1) nuisance emails – these are the most abundant, your typical run-of-the-mill offers for cheap blue pills, sultry ladies of the night waiting just for you, and various other things that are just too good to be true.

(2) malicious emails – As a writer of an identity theft blog, these are of most concern to me. These spamtastic little devils are out for one thing and one thing only: to deceive you out of your money or your personal information. One common malicious email type is know as a phishing attack. This is when a spammer disguises his email as though it came from a credible source, such as a common store, website, or financial institution.

Not only can spam be dangerous, but it can cause you to miss emails you actually wanted to read. How many times have you accidentally deleted an email only to realize later that it was from a trusted source? How many times have you not received a wanted email because your spam filter acted liked an overprotective mother?

How Did Those Unscrupulous Yahoos Find My Email Address Anyway?

Honestly? You gave it to them. Well, maybe not directly. Did you fill out a form online? Did you post to a forum? Did you sign up for a mailing list of some sort? Spammers search the Internet for such address, typically using harvesting software to do it form them (spammers are tremendously lazy…that’s why they are spammers).

Of course, some websites sell your information to third parties who, in turn, sell your information to fourth parties and so on until it gets into the hands of a spammer.

I Pay My Taxes! Why Hasn’t Uncle Sam Put an End to These Shenanigans?!

Easy there, big fella. The Federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM, clever, no?) requires unsolicited commercial e-mail messages to be labeled and to provide instructions on how the recipient can opt-out. The law also requires the spammer to provide its physical address and discontinue the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers on the messages.

Here’s something nifty: if you receive a piece of spam that doesn’t comply with the laws, just forward it to spam@uce.gov to unleash the full, unbridled fury of the Federal government upon the poor, unsuspecting spammer. Well, “unbridled fury” might be a bit of an overstatement, but the email will at least be logged and used to help track down spammers. I setup a folder in my inbox to automatically forward any email placed in it to the government email address. That way it’s just as easy to report spam as it is to delete it.

That’s Great but What Can I Do?

Your ISP or email host is already working behind the scenes to screen out a great deal of spam sent your way. Further, a properly setup spam filter is keeping another layer of spam from hitting your inbox. Of course, if this was enough you would have to clean out your inbox every morning.

Here are a few ideas to clean up the clutter:

1. Don’t open it. Don’t you dare open an email unless you know the sender. There could be malicious code in there. There could also be a graphic that contains a script that alerts the spammer that you opened the email. This tells them that the address is good. You are now about to get hit with a spamvalanche (if you didn’t catch my poor attempt at humor, that’s an avalanche of spam).

2. Don’t click the link! That link could call some seriously nasty code or alert the spammer of the validity of your address. Neither are good. (This won’t be an issue if you heed #1.)

3. Don’t Automatically Delete Your Junk Folder. If you use filtering software, be sure the rejected messages are sent to a special folder other than your email “trash” basket. Your overprotective spam filter might mistake Uncle Bill’s chili recipe email for spam. You know you’re dying to know what the secret ingredient is. (It’s chocolate, by the way.)

4. Have a backup e-mail account(s). Use throw-away email accounts from Hotmail, Yahoo or http://Inbox.com (great free email account!) for everything other than family, friends and your most trusted consumer and business contacts. You’ll still get spam, but it won’t be in your primary account.

5. Make your email address unique. Again, spammers are lazy. They will bombard servers with combinations of common words and names. Numbers and symbols trip them up.

6. Don’t email the spammer to give him a piece of your mind. Again, this just tells him you exist. Further, don’t give out any of your information in any way in any medium to a spammer. Don’t call a phone number in the email, nor leave information on a website linked in the email.

7. Consider using disposable online addresses. This goes a step further than #4. Setup separate email addresses for each individual newsletter or service and forward all mail from those addresses to your main account. Just suspend the use of any address that starts receiving spam and abandon it. Better yet, try out http://www.gishpuppy.com. (A free service which I am in no way related.)

8. Remove e-mail addresses from your Web site. If you list or link to your email address, you are likely to be spammed by address-harvesting robots. If you must include your e-mail address on the site, try posting it written out in words (”example at domain dot com”) instead of example@domain.com. That way a human user can understand the correct address, but a robot may not recognize it as such.

9. Report spammers to their domain. Most e-mail accounts have an anti-spam requirement in their terms of service. For example, here is Yahoo’s Anti-Spam Policy: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/guidelines/spam.html

Completely defeating spam is a difficult task without breaching the freedom allowed by the Internet. Policing spam too drastically could make it increasingly difficult to receive non-spam email. Realistically it is up to the individual to take responsibility. Spam would die a quick death if it wasn’t profitable. Don’t allow yourself to be a part of the problem by instigating spammers with uninformed actions.

As a former identity theft victim, Dan Riffle writes extensively about identity theft issues at http://www.identitytheftinsider.com Find out what he believes to be the worst kind of spam by clicking HERE

Quite often for some unexplained reason our computers slow down, they crash and burn, we receive strange error messages with no idea how to fix them, or worse yet, the dreaded blank blue screen appears for no apparent reason. Usually the reason for these types of errors is because of “bugs” in our personal computer system.

One software program that claims to be able to efficiently and effectively detect and delete the bugs in your computers system is PC Bug Doctor. It offers a instant free trial download and features include free scanning of your computer, repairs to errors that are slowing your computer down and fixing files which have been corrupted. It also includes service to your operating system and repairs common reboot errors.

If you have been using your computer for more than 30 days, it is almost certain that there is hidden software, fragments of software and other errors within your system. Research has shown that 94% of personal computers have files that are corrupt and potentially damaging. It’s not uncommon for personal computers to have up to 200 errors.

So, how do our personal computers get so messed up with “junk?” The same way we humans do. We shake hands, handle money, open doors, or push shopping carts. Each contact can leave us open to a “bug” in the form of illness or infection. Most times we effectively fight off the effects of the contact, but how often also do you have a co worker coming into work sick, who then shares their virus with others? Computers work the same way. Wherever you may visit, download or install software, even software you can trust, your computer can have bits and pieces of the software stuck in its operating system and registry. When this debris is left it collects and causes errors, slowdowns and leaves your computer open to other threats as a result possibly even slowing down your antivirus or anti spyware software. Some common “bugs” left on most people’s computers include redundant files, invalid application paths, and short cuts to removed programs.

In addition to a free trial, PC Big Doctor also offers a full 30 Day Money Back Guarantee for subscribers. A yearly subscription is available for $39.95, with unlimited scanning and repairs during that year. Also available you’re your subscription is unlimited and free tech support. A Lifetime License option for $77.00 offers a huge savings and you get lifetime use, lifetime updates for free and lifetime tech support. It has been rated “excellent “ for ease of installation and use.

In order to make sure the information on products provides consumers with the best possible information to make an informed choice on which software protection(s) they need to protect against viruses, spyware, adware, malware, phishing, hijacker, and other threats to your computers performance as well as your personal information, I actually give them a trial run. While not a computer software engineer, I know what I like and I know what works for me. In searching for information, it is best to look around, and not to depend on simply the statements of a products website.

Additional research and test trials of PC Bug Doctor show the following:

According to Top Ten Reviews, PC Bug Doctor (Complete) Ratings are as follows:

Overall Rating 2/4

Ease of Use 4/4

Feature Set 2/4

Ease of Installation 4/4

Help/Support 1/4

Safety 1.5/4

However, additional testing and research found:

“PC Bug Doctor from Maxium Software is successful at finding invalid shortcuts on your machine. However, due to the lack of support and limited feature set and safety tools, I would recommend selecting another program for your registry repair needs.”

Since seeing is not always believing, I continue my research with a test technical support call. For this consumer, technical support (especially when much is made of it being free and unlimited) is one of the most important factors of a computer software product. In my customer service test, a call was placed for service at 8:30 am. Five hours later, I received a return call. Yes, they returned my call. Yes they answered my questions. However, I don’t have 5 hours to spare out of my schedule when my computer screen goes to blue or I get error messages, and I don’t think many other people do either. No other technical support is available, not even online forums, email support or FAQ’s. Much of products effectiveness involves the ability of customer support to assist you with the installation, customization or use of their product in a timely manner.

In a comparison of registry cleaners in test completed by Experts Review April 2008, their technical professionals rated RegCure as the clear winner of the most highly rated registry cleaners. A close second was awarded to RegSweep. RegCure was described as “easy to use, eliminated all known errors on our computer, includes great safely features and left our PC running incredibly fast. We were extremely impressed!”

RegSweep was considered by testers to be very user friendly but did not perform as well in tests. Testers had this to say about RegSweep- “A really good tool and is gaining in popularity. Didn’t perform as well in tests as RegCure, but still left our computer in great shape.”

On the PC Bug Doctor website, many customers provided glowing reviews of the effectiveness of this service. It is important when choosing a registry cleaner or “bug doctor” that is you choose one that is proven effective by one or more of the world’s leading research labs, such as PC Magazine, PC World, CNET, PC Pro Magazine, PC Authority, PC Answers and other trusted labs.

When choosing a good registry cleaner consumers should make sure that the features of the cleaner include backup and restore, early detection of system errors, be able to work in the background, provide excellent and timely customer service, as well as be able to detect the highest number of errors on your personal computer to provide you with the highest level of protection. With other more efficient registry cleaners available, especially those that may include better and timelier customer service, consumers may wish to look for a second opinion before trusting their computer to this doctor.

Lisa Carey is a contributing author for
Identity Theft Secrets: prevention and protection. You can get tips on Identity theft protection, software, and monitoring your credit as well as learn more about the secrets used by identity thieves at the Identity Theft Secrets blog.

Tremendous subtlety of meaning is conveyed by voice. Not just nuance and emotional context, but basic meaning of words varies according to vocal inflection.

The words you choose to speak serve as platforms from which your tone of voice creates meaning. Think of how tone of voice can change the meaning of a sentence:

“You are going to do this for me.”

This sentence can be phrased to be:

An angry demand:

You are going to do this for me!

Amazement at someone’s generosity:

You are going to do this for me?

Sarcastic disbelief and putdown:

You are going to do this for me?

LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR VOICE

VOLUME

Increasing and decreasing the volume of your voice demands attention. Experiment with underscoring key points by raising your volume. Then whisper your next point to further increase audience attention. When we get excited, or we are conveying important information, both volume and pitch tend to rise.

PITCH

Raising and lowering pitch provides nuance. We signal that a sentence is a question by raising the pitch of the final words. When increasing volume, decrease pitch to avoid a breaking or squeaky voice.

TEMPO

Slowing your pace increases your authority as well as clarity. Most of us speak too fast – we get nervous and worried that we won’t “get it all in.” If you are stumbling over words, you are speaking too fast. The key to controlling your pace is learning to…pause.

ALIGN YOUR VOICE WITH YOUR MESSAGE

Different vocal ranges communicate how strongly you feel about something. When you speak in a normal, conversational voice, it sends the non-verbal message that the statement is not of major import. When you speak with a higher level of intensity – more passion, more energy and sharp enunciation – it sends the non-verbal message that the statement is very important.

Practice flavoring your presentations with emotional character – excitement, concern, anger, or elation. Use your voice to demonstrate the attitude with which you feel about something.

VOCAL OPPORTUNITIES

Emotional Affect

Do not hesitate to be vocally expressive in business presentations. If you tell your audience about an exciting product in a dull, monotonous voice, your words and your voice are not in alignment. It is an uninspiring pitch if you talk about “ground breaking developments” in a quiet, lifeless voice.

Personal Stories

Telling a personal story provides abundant opportunities to stretch your vocal dynamism. When introducing a new character into your story, alter your voice to signal the audience “this is the other person.” Don’t say “he told us to finish up in an angry voice.” Instead, make your voice his and say sharply “Dammit, finish up NOW!”

When describing a tense situation, get some excitement in your voice; as you talk about something sad, slow down and lower your voice.

Map Your Outline

Note where you want to create vocal emphasis (opening, and closing lines, key points and potentially dull sections). Circle or underline words you wish to emphasize.

Silence

What is the easiest way to regain an audience’s attention?

Stop Speaking.

One of the most powerful uses of your voice is to not use it at all. Silence peaks attention and gives you an opportunity to take in information about the audience.

Most presenters have a natural aversion to it. We consciously seek to fill any silence with “ahhhs, uhmms” and inane chatter.

Silence by the presenter creates tension in the audience. Experiment with just standing silently and watch heads start to turn toward you.

Hold the silence while you look into an audience. Let the tension build interest. Comments introduced or punctuated by silence have high impact.

Your ability to stand in silence before the audience demonstrates authority and confidence.

Gesture and Movement: Where, When, Why

Grab Attention

To make a key point, to pull the audience back when you feel them slipping away.

Convey Dynamism

To communicate confidence in yourself and your message, to command the room, to express your dynamic personality.

Communicate Precise Meaning

To fill the words with emotional import, to clarify the meaning of a statement, to indicate your perspective on the subject.

Communicate Emotion

To convey the importance of an idea, the devastation of an ill chosen course of action, the excitement of an event.

Reinforce the Truth/Authenticity of the Message

To seem authentic and credible to your audience. Body language reinforces what you are saying.

Optimize the Impact of Universal Gestures

To create rapport by their familiarity and to quickly develop understanding.

Communicate over a Larger Physical Space

To reach individuals in a large audience requires more dynamic gestures than those when speaking one-on-one.

Liven Things Up

To liven and lighten things up use juxtaposition, exaggeration, incongruities and surprise; pit gestures and movement against your words.

The Henderson Group trains and coaches business professionals in the art of communication and presentation through our experiential methodology. Since 1990, The Henderson Group has helped Fortune 500 companies worldwide improve employee productivity and business results through the development of communication skills. You can find us online at SpeakFearlessly.net and HendersonGroup.com or Attend A Workshop