Some blogs do make money. Some internet sites pay bloggers for every post they make on their blog. However, these sites often lure bloggers in with high payment amounts and cut the pay amount once the bloggers has failed to produce astronomical page views. The companies that pay per post for blogs make money by placing relevant ads on the blog that the paid bloggers write. If you are looking to write for a pay per post blog site pick a topic that will draw lots of page views such as celebrity gossip or news.

The way most bloggers make money blogging is by affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is when someone posts an ad with a link to a product on their blog or site. The person who posts the link on their site is then paid for every click on that link or for every product that is sold from the link. The payment amounts can vary from a few cents to hundreds of dollars depending on the item sold.

The down side to affiliate marketing is that in order to gain your blog readers trust you have to recommend quality products that fit with the theme of your blog. For example if your blog is about raising children, a good affiliate link would be for a book your kids loved. A bad affiliate link would be for a power tool. Plus blog followers want to read more than ads, so you have to be sure to post relevant blog posts and not just affiliate links.

The major problem most bloggers have is maintaining traffic flow to their blog. Traffic can be generated in a few ways. Writing interesting, unique and relevant content is most important way to get traffic. However, every blogger should learn about search engine optimization to bring in traffic from search engines. Another great way to generate traffic to your blog is by participating in blog circles that share ad space and readers.

Years ago with the inception of the internet, the internet was fairly one dimensional. The only way to communicate in those days through the internet was through email and some early forms of chat rooms. The internet was not very interactive at that time, and for an individual to maintain an online presence with a website was fairly expensive also.

Web 2.0 basically denotes the amount of interactivity, or multi-dimensional aspects, of the internet today. Blogging was originally a way to make an online journal, but can now be used for interactive conversation and lively debates. With the introduction of YouTube as a video sharing site, people are able to share movie clips, vacation videos, etc. with one another — this could not have been done before.

Perhaps the most popular form of Web 2.0 technology that has taken the internet by storm is social networking sites. These are sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. Thousands of users are now able to come together, like never before, and share some of their most intimate details: videos, pictures, blog posts, websites, forum posts, bulletins, etc. In fact, with sites like Twitter and Facebook, you can actually tell your list of friends what you are currently doing right now.

Web 2.0 technology has actually helped police solve crimes and report emergency situations by using Twitter and Facebook instant messaging. These “tweets” or “wall posts” are updated instantly and can be done sometimes faster than a phone call. With Blackberry phones and Apple iPhones, which can access such Web 2.0 sites, reporting emergencies and crimes is simple.

The next time you hear the term “Web 2.0,” do not be intimidated by it or think you are missing out on anything. The fact of the matter is, you are probably experiencing it or using it everyday, and do not even know it.

Picasa’s basic interface consists of a sleek, easy-to-use photo tray. Users can import photos directly into the tray from a camera or external harddrive, and the photos may then be moved, sorted, renamed, edited, what have you. There is a caption option which allows users to make a caption strip appear below the picture, but this will only show up on Picasa, Picasa Web Albums, and other IPTC compatible programs. For those of you that are looking beyond simple photos, users can also create a variety of multimedia from their pictures. Picasa offers easy tools with which to make movies, slideshows, collages, gift CD/DVDs, and more. For those that wish to share their pictures on the net, Picasa Web Albums allows users to tag their photos for easy tracking, and in fact Picasa itself has a handy search function for them to browse through the pictures.

Picasa is available for download for Windows XP users, Vista users, Mac users, and Linux users. There are a few key differences between the Windows and Mac versions: for example, in Macintosh computers Picasa will scan and display the photos in the “iPhoto Library” as read-only files. This is to ensure that Picasa and iPhoto do not clash – Mac users that wish to use Picasa to edit will have to copy the file over before they can work with it. Otherwise, the bulk of the program is the same for all operating systems.

The second component to the wireless network security issue is securing the wireless connection itself. Most consumers neglect to lock down their wireless network connections, leaving them open to anyone who wants to use that connection to surf the web…..or perform more malicious acts. WEP keys can easily be used as a very basic form of wireless connection security, denying most casual users the privilege of using your connection. Unfortunately, WEP keys are often the easiest to crack by anyone using encryption key cracking tools. Also, most WEP keyphrases are kept short so that they are easy to remember, making them easier and quicker to crack. WPA and WPA2 are stronger protected access protocols that are harder to crack, but can be harder to set up for average consumers.

Another problem concerning wireless networks is the strength of the wireless signal, which can fluctuate depending on a number of factors. These include distance, the number of walls and obstacles that have to be surmounted and the presence of electrical devices that can cause interference with a wireless signal. 2.5 Ghz cordless phones are notorious for interfering with wireless signals. These phones operate on roughly the same frequency as wireless routers; therefore these devices must be placed on separate channels in order to prevent interference. The ideal channels for wireless routers to operate on are channels 1, 6 and 11. Cordless phones should be kept off of these channels.

Download and upload speeds can also be affected by the very nature of wireless transmissions. You may have noticed that download speeds can be faster with wired connections than with wireless ones, and speeds can degrade due to interference or weak signal.

Just last week my Vista machine crashed. I had been working on a presentation for more than a month. The hard drive was completely dead and so was I if I didn’t have that presentation finished by the end of the week. In the past, it may have taken me days or even weeks to get my presentation into the shape it was in when my computer crashed. This time it was just a few hours. Most of that time was spent getting a new computer up and running. It was just minutes to get back all of my data.

Without a doubt, signing up with Pillarcc was the best decision I have made in quite some time. Imagine if my Mac had crashed and I lost all of our family photos. I could spend the rest of my married life sleeping on the couch. Thanks to Pillarcc, I won’t have to worry about that. The piece of mind I gain is worth its weight in gold.

Have you ever had more than one family member try to keep tabs on you, on what you’re doing, on how your weekend was or is going? Who hasn’t?

Instead of texting your mom, dad, sisters and your grandparents (if they even know how to text), you could text Twitter with what you are up to and your family and friends, your boss, stalking ex-girlfriends and recently-gone-postal-laidoff-co-workers can enjoy your current status too. And, for those both sophisticated enough and bored silly, they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Your mom and stalking ex-lovers will easily figure this out.

Cheers,
Richard