How to backup your PC or Mac online for free

I found a great, hassle free way to backup important files automatically on your PC or Mac. Take a look at www.mozy.com’s online backup service. They offer you a free 2GB account to use for life.. or at least while they still exist :). Don’t immediately click on the Get Started button on the home page. Instead go to MozyHome and sign up for the MozyHome Free. After you signup, download the mozy remote backup software and install it to your computer.

What I like about their backup software is that it can backup all your outlook and thunderbird email contacts, favourites in Firefox and IE, files that are in use, individual folders and files all automatically.

You can either choose to backup when your computer is idle or at a scheduled time everyday. Most importantly, Mozy works in the background so you never need to remember when you last backed up. You can set it and forget it.

Now Mozy is an online backup solution. Hence, a fast broadband connection is essential. Fortunately, Mozy is smart enough to copy over only files that have changed since the last backup. So the first backup may take a few hours if you have hundreds of MB to backup but subsequent incremental backups should be quite fast. If you only use Mozy to backup important documents, email contacts and some photos, 2GB should be more than enough.

Gspace: Store Your Files On Gmail

Gmail has given you a lot of space for your emails. Too much space. It was released on April 1, 2004 as a private beta release by invitation only and was opened to all as a public beta on February 7, 2007. With an initial storage capacity of 1 GB, it drastically increased the standard for free storage.

Gmail currently offers over 6000 MB of free storage (increasing by approximately 3.348 MB every day), with an additional 10 GB available for US$20 per year.

With Gmail Space (also called Gspace), a Firefox extension, take advantage of the extra file space to store files on your Gmail account.

The extension acts like an FTP application on your Firefox browser. After installing the extension, you can use it from the “Tools” menu or by clicking the little Gspace icon on the bottom-right status bar. The Gspace window will pop up ready to upload or download your files.

Blog Income Report for Feb 2008

Another month has passed pretty quickly and it is time to report my earnings. Feb 2008 earnings were not as good as Jan 2008 due to the less number of days. I was not able to beat my Jan 2008 record in regards to earnings but overall this was a good month. I just fell short of $23 to break my Jan 2008 earnings of $343.63, and still much better than my December 2007 earnings of $115.33. Or even my starter incomes :
Nov 2007 earnings of $124.07
Oct 2007 earnings of $111.75

I’m still trying to get a little bit more diversity into my earnings with the goal that my AdSense earnings jump 50% while keeping the money earned stable. I think I will have to test a few schemes and get rid of some that do not make that much sense anymore. I have monetized my blog in 19 different ways listed below.

So lets get down to the figures of this month!

Here is my blog income report for Feb 2008:

1. SponsoredReviews.com Earnings: $71.50
2. Google AdSense Earnings: $87.09
3. A.W.Surveys Earnings: $44.75
4. AuctionAds / ShoppingAds Earnings: $25
5. WidgetBucks Earnings: $25
6. Smorty Blog Advertising Earnings: $0
7. Buxr Earnings: $10
8. Kontera ContentLink(TM) Earnings: $18.81
9. Helium Earnings: $8.79
10. Blogsvertise Earnings: $4
11. PayPerPost Earnings: $5.10
12. Fusion Cash Earnings: $5
13. BidVertiser Earnings: $3.25
14. AdBrite Earnings: $1.08
15. Pheedo Feed Advertising Earnings: $0.22
16. Voxant Newsroom Earnings: $0.08
17. Shareapic.net Earnings: $0.09
18. Hubpages Earnings: $0.04
19. Valued Opinions Earnings: $10.50

Total Blog Income Report for Feb 2008: $320.30

As mentioned earlier I want to concentrate on direct ad sales as well because this is something that I have been neglecting for a very long time. The stats from last month showed for instance that both Evertons and John Chows direct ad sales made up 9.11% and 11.45% of their total earnings while mine remained at 0.33%.

To sum up my plans for Mar 2008:

+ Focus on direct ad sales
+ Remove AdSense Search and install a better search
+ Get rid of Feedburner Ads in Feeds
+ Try out some selected affiliate programs to diversify my income

Click here to signup these 19 money making programs for your Blog and earn upto $5,000 from referrals and advertising.

How was Feb 2008 for you ? May the next month be more profitable for everyone of you out there as well!

Don’t buy bottled water

Bottled water, or as one academic recently called it in The Journal of Consumer Culture, “the pure commodity in the age of branding,”

Bottled water industry been experiencing exponential growth and is now a $10 billion a year industry in America alone. Why?

Today, bottled water costs more than gasoline, bottled water provides no extra nutritional value, is proved to be environmentally unsound.

Also most American residences have perfectly potable water coming out of the tap, and the entire industry based on simply pulling water from the ground has been called a scam.

Save money: Drink tap water!

How to donate your car?

What's the Benefit?

If you choose to donate a car to charity, it is a an easy way to get rid of a car when you don't have the time to sell it or don't think you can get what it's worth. While not every car is acceptable, donating a car to a charity lets you deduct its fair market value from your taxable income.

Steps:
1. Find a charity that accepts cars without charging a large removal fee. Make sure the organization is a registered 501(c)(3) charity or qualified religious organization that can lawfully accept your donation and from which you can lawfully claim a deduction.

2. Determine the fair market value of your car. According to the IRS, you are responsible for determining this; use the Kelley Blue Book or IRS Publications 526 ("Charitable Deductions") and 561 ("Determining the Value of Donated Property"). If it's worth $5,000 or more, have the car appraised by a certified professional.

3. Be sure to get a tax receipt which includes the charity's name and federal tax ID number, donor's name, date of donation, as well as the year, make and model of the donated car.

4. Notify the DMV and your insurance company that you no longer own or insure the vehicle. Follow your states regulations on what to do with the title and plates. Keep your receipt and completed IRS Form 8283 for tax time.

General Things Worth Knowing:
Religious organizations aren't required to apply for an IRS tax exemption in order to be qualified.

The tax break or refund may be the same amount as if you'd sold the car, but without the hassle. IRS Publication 78 (at irs.gov) can verify for you if an organization is qualified to receive deductible contributions.

Summary of What to look for:
No or low removal fee
501(c)(3)-classified charity
Fair market value of car
Tax receipt from charity
Completed forms

How to Share and Use Wii Game Saves

If you are one of those gamers who love to rent games from Blockbuster and try out all the levels, here is a site for you - Blog of Wii Games Save Downloads.

You can download any game with the desired level and powers and then your on your way to playing the Save file.

Here is how to hack the Wii Games save files

After downloading a save, you'll either get a plain old data.bin or a zipped file.

If you have a data.bin, you have to place it in a folder structure on your SD card like so: \private\wii\title\GAME\data.bin (replacing GAME with it's corresponding game code from the game code list).

If you get a zipped file, it most likely has all of it's folder structure in tact, so all you have to do is extract it to your SD card so it shows up like the above folder structure.

Once you have the file in place on your SD card, you can then put the SD card in to your Wii and go to your saved game(s) on your SD card (Wii Options > Data Management > Save Data > Wii > SD card tab), select the saved game that you want and select Copy. Keep in mind that if you already have a save on your Wii that you're trying to replace, it wont overwrite it, so you'll have to backup your save, then delete it off your Wii internal memory to be able to transfer the new one on.

Last day of Bill Gates & Bill Clinton

My blog is not only about serious money making ideas. I want to introduce you also another side of life. And from time to time, I want to also show you some funny things. Today I found two very interesting short movies. It is possible that a lot of people, these movies knows. I have never seen these movies before, and I love these them. It is fine that also serious people like Bill Gates and Bill Clinton are doing funny things. I hope you will love these movies also. I promise that, when I will be famous as Bill I will also record similar videos.

The last day of Bill Gates


The final days of Bill Clinton

Why did I flush AdBrite from my Blog ?

I was running Kontera ContentLink™ ads along with AdBrite and hoping to Maximize my AdBrite Income. But an email from my Kontera Account Manager had me realize that this is against the TOS of Kontera. Here is the detail from their memo. I took immediate action and got rid of AdBrite from my blog to avoid getting banned from Kontera. If you are running both AdBrite and Kontera, make sure to keep only one of them and get rid of the other because greed is not good. Good luck!

Memo follows:
I've noticed that you are running AdBrite alongside our ContentLink™ ads on ghostrider30.blogspot.com.

I wanted to remind you that that when you signed up to have Kontera ContentLinks™ on your site, our Terms of Service stipulated exclusivity as the in-text provider:

Exclusivity: Publisher will not use any other provider of ‘in-text’ advertising links anywhere on his web-site/s.

When analyzing a webpage, our algorithm searches to find the most relevant and highest- paying keywords. Having another In-Text Ads provider on the same page, disrupts this process, and prevents you from experiencing ContentLink's full monetary potential. Kontera has absolutely no objection to using other non In-Text ads alongside ContentLink and in fact the majority of our publishers do so.

Please remove all competitive In-Text products from ghostrider30.blogspot.com, as we are not willing to have ContentLinks work in conjunction with any other In-Text providers.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Save LDW on retal car using your credit card coverage

All of the biggies - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover offer some sort of coverage.

The main difference among the four credit card companies listed below is that MasterCard and Amex cover collisions, theft, vandalism and weather; Visa covers collisions and theft, but omits vandalism and weather; while Discover covers only collisions. However MasterCard is not useful in areas with dirt or gravel roads [paved roads only].

However, details can still vary depending on the specific type (Classic, Gold, Platinum, etc.). Look for specific wording in the paperwork that they mail you with the tiny print on amazingly thin paper. Here’s an excerpt from MasterCard coverage:

MasterRental will pay for covered damages on a secondary basis for which you are, or any other authorized driver is, legally responsible to the rental agency.

Covered damages include:
–Physical damage to and theft of the vehicle, not to exceed the limits outlined below.
- Reasonable loss-of-use charges imposed by the vehicle rental company for the period of time the rental vehicle is out of service. Loss-of-use charges must be substantiated by a location- and class-specific fleet utilization log.
- Reasonable towing charges to the nearest factory-authorized collision repair facility.

If you have, or an authorized driver’s primary automobile insurance or other indemnity has, made payments for a covered loss, MasterRental will cover your deductible and any other eligible amounts not covered by other insurance.

Secondary insurance means that they will cover what your primary insurance doesn’t. Together, this seems like a pretty solid combination. Of course, I’ve never made a claim through any of these card companies so I have no idea how easy they are to deal with. (Anyone have stories?)

Yahoo Announces Open Search Platform

It's business as usual over at Yahoo, despite the histrionics surrounding the potential Microsoft acquisition and recent layoffs. As part of the company's ongoing efforts to showcase its search differentiation, Yahoo has unveiled an "open search platform," which gives publishers the ability to customize their results as they appear in search engine results pages (SERPs). For example, a publisher such as Conde Nast (used in Yahoo's analyst presentation) can add Miss America photos *shown on this post* , links, maps and so on to a search result. A consumer searching on "cheesecake" would see the result from Conde Nast stand out from the pack, with a photo and links to recipes and videos. Yahoo says that these customized results in no way affect algorithmic results in terms of page rankings. Translated, a customized result will not inherently elevate your ranking, but you have to figure that a more visually appealing result on a page will get more clicks, so indirectly the message is "customize or wind up below the fold."

Yahoo's open search platform leaves a few questions unresolved. It's not abundantly clear the degree of difficulty in creating these customized search results. If the ability to create a standout customized result is as simple as using Microsoft's Popfly mashup tool, then it puts all publishers on a level playing field. On the other hand, if this task requires more-advanced development skills to create something elegant, the open platform grossly favors those with more technology resources. Additionally, search results pages containing these customized results could result in a confusing experience to the consumer. Not only do SERPs with a mix of customized and noncustomized results look somewhat catawampus, highly customized results with photos and links look like enhanced Yellow Pages ads. I doubt that was Yahoo's intent here.

While there is some modest innovation here, one has to wonder whether Yahoo's announcement here is more to show the world it's alive and doing fine than to truly showcase a bold step forward in search.