Use FREEBIES to LURE visitors to your site

Freebies always work. Most people love a freebie and what better than a freebie to lure someone to your site? A freebie can be something relatively small and insignificant yet troublesome or time-consuming to make. Take a simple example: you are running a site on cooking with lots of your own recipes. Consider making a series of downloadable pdf calendars showing 1-2 recipes per month that visitors can print out. You can even sneak in a way to make money here - offer to send visitors a printed color version for a nominal fee. Before you know it, you can even start selling printed copies of your online recipes. A freebie can also be something a visitor normally has to pay for but which he might not want to. E-books would be one category example. It might be an e-book you write yourself or even one of those you buy. Many of those you buy give you resell rights and instead of selling them, you can choose to just give them away for free (if it is allowed). But of course, if you can put together something neat yourself, that would be most ideal. E-books are so easy to make - you just need to spend some time writing them. A freebie can also be a product or a sample of your product. For instance, you are selling coffee beans. Visitors normally need to buy them from you in packets of 500g or 1kg. You can consider giving out small packets of 3g each so that potential buyers can try out your beans. You might even get creative here and put them in pretty sachets - so that instead of using them to make coffee, they can choose to use them to make the room smell better. A freebie can also... well, there is really no hard and fast rule to a freebie. Strip it down to the bare bones, it must be something you can offer and something a visitor to your site might want. Time for you to get innovative! =)

Deezer.com, formerly Blogmusik.net

Geez, am I among the last person on this planet to know about this cool site? From Wikipedia, Deezer.com, formerly known as Blogmusik.net, is a French free Internet-based music-on-demand service. Deezer offers on-demand ad-supported streaming in a similar manner to imeem.com, with a portion of the ad revenue being delivered to content partners. The site has been the center of some controversy, with record companies such as Universal alleging that the service "illegally" hosts copyrighted material. Deezer, on the other hand, claim that their agreements with SACEM, a French organization similar to the US-based RIAA, allow them to host the disputed content. It offers FREE music and the several songs I played sound like the full versions. No gimmicks at all. There is a banner ad on top of the page but that is hardly obtrusive. In return for viewing this ad, I get free music - I think this is a rocking good deal! Though there is a registration button, I was able to listen to the songs without registering (or having to log in). So check out Deezer if you have not already. ^^ PS.: I got wind of this site via this article which you might wish to check out too - "9 Outrageously Handy Websites Everyone Should Try".

Satisfy your nostalgia at TelevisionTunes.com

Feeling nostalgic? Well, we all do at one time or another. If you are missing a particular TV theme song that sparked off certain memory, check out TelevisionTunes.com . Here, you will find tons of TV theme music and songs from yesterday and today. Browse its huge archive of 3,589 (and growing) theme songs and the best part is that you can even choose to download them in mp3 format. Disclaimer: I am *not* sure whether what this site is doing is legal. According to its copyright information page, "All themes and Clips are copyrighted by their licensors and are intended for educational and personal listening only. These are not to be used for commercial or other non-educational use without permission of the copyright holder (licensor). They are NEVER to be sold or traded for items of value. This site does not own the music and cannot grant permission for any commercial use. This archive is a result of private collectors of historic television placing their private collections for all to share in remembering the various shows of the past and present and discussing their views on the subject of the music and the series involved. There will not be entire copies of CDs found on this site at any time. The music here is in a lower quality than a CD, and is considered a 'sample' of the music should you choose to buy the CD. If you wish better quality then please check with your local Music Store for a CD that might have that song on it and buy it." I have highlighted the more "important" phrases that the site owner has used to try to cover his arse. I do hope that TelevisionTunes.com manages to pull this off and stay clear of copyright infringement suits. After all, this is a handy site to have around for music lovers. Another feature of the site is its "Name that Theme Song" game. It's a real cool game if you feel up to the challenge. There are both the 1-player and 2-player modes and you can play 10 to 30 rounds each time. During each round, a song will play and a timer will start. You have to identify the song from 4 available options. Enjoy! ^^

Squeeze your creative juice and join Squidoo today!

Squirt. Squirt. Squirt. Now out with your creative juice. And a generous push, mind you! :P Squidoo is pretty much like Blogger, WordPress and any other blogging platform yet vastly different. In terms of structure, I guess a Squidoo "lens" is closer to that of a typical website. A Squidoo lens is just a page hosted by Squidoo. You have complete control over the content you want to display and you get quite a bit of leeway there. Everything is free in case you are starting to wonder. The best part of Squidoo though is that it allows you to make money. Next to your content, ads from Google Adsense are displayed alongside (you do not use your own Adsense account - you get a cut of the money made from the company's Adsense account). On top of that, referral income can be made from any affiliate source you allow. Some examples are Ama zon, eBay and CafePress among others. From all the money received, Squidoo's bills will first be paid. Thereafter, you get 50% of the revenue. 5% goes to charity and the company keeps the rest. The detailed distribution is as follows: "AdSense revenue (these are the Google ads you see on every lens): This money goes into a pool, so as to avoide clickfraud. Half of the pool distributes out to lensmasters, on a PayRank scale that is based on each lens's average LensRank and traffic. Affiliate revenue (ie, referral income--like Amazon and eBay and CafePress and SuperStore sales). This is directly attributable to the lens that generated the revenue, and is not pooled with the whole co-op. The lensmaster gets a straight 50%." Sounds good? Then swim over to Squidoo and get started today! I strongly recommend that you use my referral link at http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/lordwarwizard . The reason is that once you earn your first $15, both you AND I will get $5 each. If you skip my referral and sign up from the root domain instead, neither you nor I will get anything extra. So if you don't like me, at least give the "commission" to one of your friends - this way, you can at least still get an extra 5 bucks for yourself. :P PS.: Min payout is just $1 and payable via PayPal.

Win free prizes at Bid4Prizes!

Own up, people - who wants to win a prize? 1, 3, 5, 20... ok I lost count. Most of you want to win a prize... who wouldn't? :P I like you to check out Bid4Prizes at www.bid4prizes.com. There are free gifts to be won and the best part is you do not even have to fork out a dime. They include Apple i-Phone's, HDTV's, designer bags, SCION XB's and cash prizes and you do not need to pay for shipping too. If you think it sounds ridiculous, I would be hard-pressed not to concur. Yet after turning the website upside down, I confirmed that all you need is your mobile number. As long as you don't mind viewing some ads, bidding remains free. My take is that the worst that can happen is that your mobile number will be misused and you will receive some sms spam. You are already receiving spam in your email and I know I am receiving sms spam from my legitimate mobile provider. I can't see how trying Bid4Prizes will make me any worse. And so the verdict is if you have some time on your hands, why not check out Bid4Prizes? The site works on the basis of text-based reverse auction. In a typical auction, the person with the highest bid wins. In the case of Bid4Prizes Auction Sweepstakes, the person with the lowest bid wins. For those familiar with how bidding of COEs works in Singapore, both are essentially similar. A new winner is thus born everyday - the person with the lowest unique bid. If you need more details, view the video above and browse through their website. PS.: Please do your own due diligence. * This is a sponsored post.

Need a payment solution for your website?

Are you a business owner who is thinking about expanding online? Say, you currently own a brick and mortar shop but you have decided that it is possible to make more money by expanding online. You have got your website up but how do you digitize your shelf items? And, how do you even collect money from your customers who may be miles away? Well, you need a shopping cart software, as well as an interface that allows you to accept e.g. credit cards online. Scratching your head over the unfamiliar concepts already? Fret not, check out Ashop Commerce. Ashop Commerce is a leading provider of hosted shopping cart software. It offers a complete solution for merchants to sell online. Below are several highlights of what Ashop Commerce offers with its ecommerce software. - Web based, no installation required - Affordable ecommerce software - Accept credit cards online - Thousands of features, easy to use - Start selling online right now - Fully customisable design There is a FREE 10 day trial so there is really nothing to lose for you to check it out. (I love FREE stuffs lol. ^^) So there, if you have any questions, just contact Ashop Commerce directly. Oh yea, check out their presentation above too. =) * This is a sponsored post.

Bored when travelling on public transport?

This post is more for those who travel on public transport. If you are driving, you can hardly take up my suggestion. Read on and you will see why. So what do you do when you are travelling and are outright bored? For me, I normally bring a book with me, especially if I know the journey is a long one. However, reading may not be everyone's favorite pastime and it might not always be feasible too. Perhaps you can't find a book you like or maybe you don't want to bring along something extra - especially if the book you are currently latched on is a bulky hardcover version. :P But think: what is it that you will likely always have with you? Answer: Your mobile phone For some people who are able to play music with their mobile phones, good for them. They can choose to have this little entertainment if they are bored. Otherwise? Or if you don't feel like listening to music? How about games then? Games are not strictly the domain of kids, and adults can play games too - especially intellectual ones. Say, remember the Sudoku craze earlier? That "cute" Japanese mathematical brain stimulator? Well, you can consider installing a Sudoku game in your phone and while your time away challenging your mind. Check out Mobile Heart, one of the better websites I found that provide free games that can really be downloaded (I found several others but despite my considerable capability, I can't download the free games offered). You can zoom in straight to their games section (if the link is invalid when you read this post, just find it again from the main site) and see if you can find some games you like for your phone model - or just grab one of the many Sudoku games available. ^^ Enjoy. =)

Is your phone number auspicious?

Most of us have access to a personal phone number. It could be your office phone, house phone or cellphone. Ever wondered whether that number is auspicious according to Fengshui or not? Check this out. This is a free "game" provided by WayOnNet, a geomancy consultancy firm. Believe you not, though I am not an extremely superstitious person, I changed my mobile phone number after using this tool. From one that is "very inauspicious", I changed it to one that is "very auspicious". A little more good luck come my way is never gonna hurt. Have fun. =)

What do you do when you have a computer problem? - try TightVNC

Ever encountered a computer problem and tore your hair off in frustration? Having your computer messing up your brain alone is not scary enough. What's more frightening is when you are at its mercy and no one seems to be able to help. Say, you tried to explain the problem to someone more knowledgeable but that someone just cannot understand you. You are sure you are speaking English and that it is not a "language" issue... or is it? The uncomfortable thing in this situation is that you need your computer to work again AND you need help, but the help that arrives has trouble understanding you. So what do you do then? Give up? Scream? Give up. :P What I would suggest is for you to get an "expert" to tunnel into your computer. This way, he can see what problem you are facing and resolve it for you right away. A typical way to do this is to allow him to control your computer via VNC (Virtual Network Computing). This means that he can move your mouse and play with your keyboard and basically do everything you can do on your computer. Sounds scary? You bet. The first time someone comes into your computer will be an... unique experience. The one safeguard you have on your side though is that you can see whatever he is doing. Yes I know it might be eerie - as if there is a ghost in your machine - but at least, he can't do anything without you knowing. And the last resort you have control of is the power plug. Just restart or switch off your computer and the connection will be broken. Or, just power off your modem. ^^ Scary, yet worth the try? How then can you allow this remote controlling for troubleshooting? Instead of relying on Windows' inbuilt remote help service (or whatever they called it) which fails pretty much all the time, use a VNC software instead. There are many pretty good ones (FREE) available on the internet so you can just go search. Personally, I have been using TightVNC which you can download from http://www.tightvnc.com . This software is not even 2MB so it is incredibly "light". It is also very easy to set up and use. Have fun experimenting. =)

Introducing Widgetbox...

If you are one of those who think your website (blogs included) is plain, consider jazzing it up with widgets. What is a widget anyway? To heck with the official definition. Surf over to www.widgetbox.com where many widget examples await you. Widgetbox is a directory and syndication platform for web widgets for blogs and other web pages. They work with TypePad, WordPress, Blogger, MySpace as well as most other blogs, sidebars or websites. No plug-ins are needed, and they're free! At time of writing, Widgetbox has served 98,351 domains and counting. There are so many choices that I guarantee you will be bedazzled. :P For those who are still not satisfied, you can check out e.g. www.google.com/ig/directory that is primarily serving iGoogle. But hey, those widgets can be used anywhere else too. =) PS.: Too many widgets will slow down the loading of your page. Enjoy playing with them, but use them sparingly and with caution. ^^

FREE reviews for your products, services, websites, blogs, etc

The world is in luck. I am now offering FREE reviews for your products, services, websites, blogs, etc. There are 2 main reasons why you want to request for a free review. 1. I help you spread the word and I am doing it for free. At time of writing, the readership of this blog may not be high yet. But, every bit adds up. 2. I offer you an objective analysis. If you are lucky, I may praise you. If not, I try to offer constructive criticism. Please note that if you only want to hear good things, this offer is not for you. It is okay though to specify which areas you would like me to emphasize. There are some reviews I will not undertake no matter what. Just contact me using this contactify form at http://www.contactify.com/10324 and we can discuss further. My free review offer is valid till otherwise cancelled on this post. =)

Check out Freewebs

A friend of mine was telling me how she preferred Freewebs to Blogger. She was asking me to consider moving my blog to Freewebs instead. Without much thinking, I told her that the two are different. Blogger specializes in hosting blogs while Freewebs focuses on the "traditional" websites. After rattling off, I decided that I've better double-check to be sure. And so, I dropped by Freewebs and mine, mine, it sure blew my mind away! (And I seem to be the last one to know given that they already have 17 million members.) Freewebs is many things. It is more than a simple "free website offering". More, because it allows quite a few customizations that make it stand out among the crowd. Imagine the original version of a plain website, then add some bells and whistles like a blog, profile page, forum board, chat room, photo album, guestbook, mailing list, online payment tool, widgets, etc. Are you going to skip the rest of this post so that you can get a free Freewebs account right away? :P So you see, Freewebs is indeed not an average Joe. I have not got my account there yet and despite my hoo-ha over Freewebs, I may not get one in future too. The reason is that for now, a blog is all I need. There seems to be no urgency for me to uproot myself from Blogger just so that I can plonk myself down in another place and yet not change a whit. (I may change my mind tomorrow though LOL.) Before you rush off to get your free account, let me share with you some "imperfections" I have found in Freewebs - and I am assuming you will start with the free plan even if you will ultimately upgrade. - Free users are given an initial 40 MB of space only. - Only 500 Mb of bandwidth per month (meaning 62.5 MB really, or is it a typo error on their website?) - Accounts with no logins and no hits for 90 days may be removed for inactivity. - No access to ASP scripts, MySQL, MSACCESS, and PHP even for premium members. - CGI/Perl functionality is only available if you upgrade. So there. Weigh your own pros and cons and see if Freewebs is for you. =)

Opening contest for Newbiegen

Newbiegen is now officially launched! Newbie Generation is a forum board that has sections dedicated to online earning. YES, ever wondered how you can earn some extra money with your spare time and bandwidth? Then join us at Newbiegen to explore together the various ways we can fatten our purses. :-) There are absolutely no charges involved and we even have plans to reward active members once things get settled. Besides discussing online earning, you can also talk about anything and everything under the sun. You can make friends too, chat and make merry, and we even have a very robust section for forum games. To kick things off, we have an opening contest which you can read more from here . There are cash prizes of total US$100 up for grab so hop over to Newbiegen and start by getting yourself a free account. There is nothing to lose and much to gain! PS.: We are like a baby who is starting to crawl (but dreaming to fly ^^). If you join now, you would be a pioneer of sort in this forum. Now who doesn't like to be a pioneer? :D

How to take a screen shot?

If you laugh at the above title question, you are probably computer-savvy. Well, at least you should be passingly adequate in terms of computer knowledge. You can skip this post then. :P For the rest of you who need a leg up, follow me closely. :-) Basically, you can take screen shots with or without tools. If you are wondering why you should install a program (the tool) when you can go fuss free, the reason is that a tool is supposed to help. No, that is not a trick answer. The right screen capture program does help to make taking screen shots a breeze. Especially if you need to take them often, I would suggest you install one. For those who want to go fuss free, here's how: First, go to the screen where you want to snap a picture of. When you are there, press the "Print Screen" button on your keyboard. Yes, that button is not without use. Just press it once, then open up an image-editing program such as the Paint program that comes pre-installed with Windows. (If you are not using Windows, you are probably savvy enough to write your own screen capture software... so shoo! :P) After Paint is launched, press Ctrl-v. This is the paste command that will work with your earlier Print Screen which is similar to a copy (you know, copy... paste ^^). After pressing Ctrl-v, you should see the previous screen you have captured. Just save the file and you are done. To make things even sleeker, do an Alt-Print Screen instead of just Print Screen. Holding down the Alt key while pressing Print Screen will let you capture the *active* application specifically. This means that unnecessary items such as your taskbar or IM buddy list will not be captured as well. Go experiment. :D As for those who want to install a screen capture program, you can check out e.g. www.download.com to make your selection from the many choices. Allow me to list 5 FREE screen capture programs below. They are listed in no particular order. 1. Screen Print & Capture 32 2. MWSnap 3.74 3. Gadwin PrintScreen 4.2 4. Ace WINScreen 4.5 5. Print Screen Replacement 1.3 Personally, I am using Screen Print & Capture 32 and I like it quite a bit. To help you further, I will guide you through the installation of this program (though you probably don't need it! :P). This FREE 2.67 MB program is created by Provtech and you can read the official specs here. Currently, it is compatible with Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP. So run along and download it now. Once you are done, unzip it to somewhere you can easily find. Then, double-click on the setup.exe icon to start the installation. Click OK. Click that button. Change the directory if you want though I would suggest you just stick to the default. Press Continue. Viola, done! :D Now you can run the screen capture program using the ScreenPrint32 link. I think you would likely use the "Capture Active Window" and "Prompt User for Capture Area" settings most often. And see how you can choose from any of the 4 popular formats - GIF, PNG, BMP and JPG. There is quite a bit of customization available so you can play around and have fun. From now on, whenever you have the program launched, pressing Print Screen will immediately give you your screen shot at the location you have selected, and using the settings you have chosen. :-)

Self Destruct Message

I came across this self destruct message service from here and thought it is pretty cool. Check out www.sdmessage.com to try it out for yourself. The name of this service seems to be... er... Self Destruct Message (SDM). So just take it literally at face value. :P Basically, you get the option to fire off a quick memo to someone without the hassle of logging in to your email account. It may be that you need to rush off quick and don't want to wait for the recently-slowing gmail to load. It may be that you are surfing on an unsecured network and don't want to risk exposing your email password. It may be that you really want to utilize the self-destructing option. Whichever, what this free service does is to send your message to your intended recipient as a hyperlink in an email. So the recipient will receive an email supposedly from you and he will have to click on the link to view the message that is only visible on the site for 60 seconds. There are 2 things though that I don't like about this service. Firstly, they collect and keep all our IP addresses. Secondly, their privacy policy also says that SDM reserves the right to communicate with everyone who has used this service "from time to time about important notices" and that "these communications are mandatory". 2 privacy ouches here. I admit that I read their privacy policy only after doing my experiment. So it seems that many people will be unknowingly captured in their mammoth mailing list. And sorry, there is no (easy) opt-out option available. This is only my first day trying this service so I have not had the chance to receive any mailings from them *yet*. I will be posting again if they start spamming me for fun. *hmph* Another word of caution is that you should use your discretion when sending possibly sensitive information over this service. Period. PS.: I have tested another similarly simplistic service at www.destructingmessage.com but the 2 test messages I sent appeared to have wandered lost. *gasp* New request: I would like to see a character counter too. Since there is a character limit, it would be more convenient if our character quota is shown dynamically decreasing as we type. This should be simple enough to implement. :P

Free SMS notification for Google Calendar for Singapore now!

Geez, I am so excited! SMS notification for Google Calendar is not all that new, but it has finally come to Singapore! This means that even if I do not have access to Internet, I can pre-arrange for my notifications to reach me on my mobile phone. Even if you are not in Singapore, fret not. This FREE service is being extended to most other countries too. To see which carriers are supported, click here . To learn how to register and verify your mobile phone with Google Calendar, click here . Have fun! ;-) PS.: Right now, it seems that this service is only available for SingTel and M1 subscribers. Those on Starhub have to suck thumb and whine.:P

Want to send faxes for free?

Wow, this is way too cool. Please check out http://www.tpc.int and suppress your gasp of pleasant surprise. I have my own fax machine and fax line but I am excited nevertheless. This site allows you to send free faxes from either your browser or email. Absolutely free... try beating that. I took a look at the coverage list at http://www.tpc.int/fax_cover_auto.html and I must say I am so surprised that Singapore is included. Despite our many achievements, we are just a mere dot on the map so we are often brushed aside. So check it out if you are interested... but do watch out for the catch. If you value your privacy, this is not for you. You have no choice but to still rely on your own fax machine. And please note that this is still an experiment in progress. :P Update (18 Jul 07): I was informed by a friend that the coverage no longer includes Singapore. :(

Just how nice are you?

Have you come across this website www.helpothers.org ? It is an experiment in kindness and I like to do my part to spread the word. In fact, to go further and be more precise, it is an experiment in ANONYMOUS kindness. Sounds cool right? It *is* cool. Let me quote verbatim from the website: "It's a universally recognized symbol: smile. Sometimes you smile because you're happy and sometimes you smile to get happy. The purpose of our effort is to bring more of those smiles in the world through small acts of kindness. To that end, we feature a fun SmileCard game, kindness stories from around the world, and SmileGroups where people commit to a daily act of kindness in their local community." So what they are encouraging is that you do someone a kindness quietly, and slip him a "card" to let him know that he is "tagged". It is the hope that he will pass on the kindness too. So what exactly is this "card"? Well, see the embedded picture? This card can be ordered in batches FREE. This is no scam and the cards are funded by donations. I have ordered these cards before and they arrive quite quickly. I forked out not a single cent - yes, not even for shipping! So here's the challenge. Go to the website and order your batch of free SMILE cards today, do someone a kind deed, and then tag him with one of the SMILE cards. And if you want to help spread the word too, give this article a digg. ;-)

Want a FREE fax number?

What do you say if you can get a fax number for FREE? Not only that, you can receive FREE faxes too. Especially if you are located in the following countries, it would be a double bonus for you - since the number would be in the country where you are based. - Austria - Belgium - France - Germany - Italy - Netherlands - United Kingdom - United States If you are not residing in the above-mentioned places, you still can get a free fax number - it just won't be a local one. Whoever's faxing you something would then need to pay the international toll charges. But hey, it's doesn't cost you any money to receive faxes. ;-) So try it if you want. At time of posting, the direct link is https://www.efax.com/en/efax/twa/signupFree?rqcp=1 . In case it gets moved in future, just access it from the main site at www.efax.com . And for those wondering how they can receive faxes without a fax machine, eFax will provide you with a free software. When someone sends you a fax, you will receive it in your email and you can open your fax using that software. The faxed document can also be converted to picture format e.g. a jpg file. It's *very* neat receiving your faxes in your emails. Have fun! ^^